Practicing theory: mnemophrenia – a film-essay on the future of cinema and artificial memories

ABSTRACT

The foundation of my film Mnemophrenia was about practising theory instead of theorizing the practice. My project begins with theory, which then leads to the science fiction film Mnemophrenia that constitutes the practical aspect of it. My film demonstrates how theory and practice can be joined and creates a fruitful union, each one feeding the other. My original theoretical hypothesis is founded on the much-discussed subject of the close relationship between film and memory and more specifically the possible creation of ‘artificial’ memories. Mnemophrenia showcases how film can be a memory system itself, consequently affecting memory and creating artificial memories for the viewers. In Mnemophrenia reality and fiction are integrated, mutually negating each other, since the established reality depicted in the film is proven to be ‘artificial’, based fully on different Virtual Reality films. Ultimately the film and this thesis aim to explore the future of cinema that leads to the blurring of real and artificial memories. Together they attempt to demonstrate the dissolution of these boundaries, to display the two-way relationship of reality and fiction and to showcase how theory fuels practice and practice enlivens theory.

KEYWORDS:

• Science fiction
• memory
• Virtual Reality
• postmodernism
• research-led practice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Eirini Konstantinidou is a Lecturer in Film Production at University of Essex. She is currently working into her first feature film Mnemophrenia, a self-reflexive film exploring artificial memories and their close relation to the medium of film. Mnemophrenia is a multi-generation-spanning anthology asking “what-if” about the impact of advanced virtual reality on human identity and society. Prior to this, she has directed and written four short films, two of which are award-winning and all of which have played in various international film festivals. She has also developed and running a film-based Professional Development Course for teachers and academics.

Notes

1. Science fiction, however, not only comments on and questions our technologized world, influencing and stimulating sociocultural discussions but as Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska argue it might even lead to the development of ‘real’ science. ‘Popular interest in virtual reality technologies has been fuelled by films such as The Lawnmower Man (1992), Strange Days (1995), eXistenZ (1999) and The Matrix (1999).’ (King and Krzywinska 2000, 7). This important part that science fiction plays in shaping the ways technology impacts on our lives is echoed in Telotte’s writing where he prophesies that the capacity for a computer-generated photorealism, probably combined in the not-too-distant future with virtual-reality technology, could well eventuate in the ultimate science fiction machine: a ‘cinema’ – and here we must begin to use the word quite loosely – in which we can easily move into another time and place, a realm substantially like the very stories we typically tell in the genre. In fact, our films are already anticipating this move with the wave of films about virtual-reality experiences that have appeared in the 1990s, works like The Lawnmower Man (1992), Virtuosity (1995), Strange Days (1995), Dark City, and The Matrix (1999) (Telotte 2001, 28).

2. Some examples are: Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven 1990) and The Truman Show (Peter Weir 1998).

3. Such as Blade Runner (Ridley Scott 1982) or The Thirteenth Floor (Josef Rusnak 1999).