Emotion as Movement.

I would just like to be honest and say that the first four or five films we viewed last week were horribly boring, and I had to fight harder to stay awake than I was willing to in order to attempt to understand them. That being said, in retrospect I suppose I can (kind of) respect the films for what they were attempting to do intellectually. I found the concepts behind those short abstract films a lot more interesting than the films themselves. I am still trying to wrap my head around the idea that the movement of abstract, objective forms is, allegedly, enough to begin the “complex” process of feeling.

I also am unsure about whether or not I buy that theory. If the movement of squares and triangles is supposed to make me feel something (other than complete and utter boredom) then why didn’t I? Perhaps assuming that this hypothesis is correct and that we, the subjects of the experiment, are flawed is a bit backwards. If movement is supposed to elicit feeling, then it should elicit feeling, regardless of how many commercial films someone has seen. It seems to be to be a bit like saying the earth is flat, despite evidence to the contrary. And as for the idea that all aspects of emotions are essentially complex movements, I think that’s too much of a stretch for my tastes. I suppose that falling in love requires a series of movements, but I think that the imagery and the stimulation that we obtain through contact with the person we’re in love with has more to do with the feeling than their movements.