Media in Mind

by Daniel Reynolds

Overview

Where do you end, and where do media begin? In Media in Mind, author Daniel Reynolds draws upon naturalist philosophies of the mind from John Dewey through contemporary theories of embodied and extended cognition to make the case that the lines separating media from the minds of their users are not blurry or variable so much as they never existed to begin with. Through analyses of films and video games from 1900 to the present, Media in Mind shows how media forms and technologies challenge dominant models of perception and mental representation, and how they complicate theoretical understanding of concepts like the platform and the interface. In order to do justice to the profound and literally mind-changing power of media, Reynolds argues, we need to think not so much about the relationship between media and the mind as about the roles that media play in our minds. Through this crucial distinction, Media in Mind surveys more than a century of media theory to illustrate the ways that scholars of film and digital media have situated and reconsidered a series of divisions between media, user, and world, and how these conceptual divisions have reflected and inflected their ways of understanding the mind.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190872540
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	11/30/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Daniel Reynolds is Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies and Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Humanistic Inquiry at Emory University. He holds a BA in Linguistics from the University of Oregon, an MFA in Film Studies from Boston University, and a PhD in Film Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Discontinuities 1. Transactionism: A Theory of Media in Mind 2. Feeling Through the World: Skilled Perception in a Changing Environment 3. Media and Radical Embodiment: Where is Representation? 4. Platforms as Emergence 5. Encounters at the Intraface 6. Designing a Game Boy Conclusion: The Continuity Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

"Media in Mind is a stimulating and mostly philosophical exploration of mind-body dualism in the context of films and video games, using John Dewey's concept of transactionism as an analytic thread." — Rob van der Bliek, York University, Journal of Cinema and Media Studies

"I believe Media in Mind has something to contribute to these discussions because it offers new ways of thinking about our own intimate connections with the media that pervade our lives and connect us to one another in profound and complex ways." — Christopher Goetz, University of Iowa, Projections

"With Media in Mind, Reynolds addresses longstanding philosophical hurdles in spectatorship theory while also forging a compelling naturalist model for understanding film, video games, and other media as part of the enworlded human mind. This book takes on the lofty challenge of reevaluating the Cartesian dualism undergirding most dominant theories of media with all of the wit and rigor that such a project requires." — Caetlin Benson-Allott, author of Killer Tapes and Shattered Screens: Video Spectatorship from VHS to File Sharing

"Reynolds sets out a clear and elegant alternative to dualist and representationalist models of media spectatorship and video gameplay. In contrast to media theories premised on interaction between mind and media, he draws on the philosophy of John Dewey to propose a model of transactionism. The argument is lively, accessible, and profound, fueled by his close attention to a diverse array of media experiences, from Tetris to Tsai Ming-liang. His deft analyses are insightful, compelling, and fun to read." — Jennifer M. Barker, Associate Professor of Moving Image Studies in the School of Film, Media & Theater at Georgia State University

From the Publisher