Cinematic analysis has often supported the notion that cinema can be understood by drawing parallels with language. Peter Wyeth contends that this analytical framework often fails to consider the fundamental fact of cinema's visual nature. In The Matter of Vision , Wyeth seeks to redress this oversight by grounding his analysis in neuroscience and evolutionary biology, finding herein the potential for a qualitatively superior understanding of the cinematic medium. "The book has (an) important overlap with what some of the brightest people in computational neuroscience are saying - that there is a 'third way' for brains to work that is not connectionist or language symbol manipulation but something more pictorial that we should all have known about but has been missed. (Wyeth may have to be) content that just a few people may find it rather exciting, (but) what I particularly like about the book is that it points us in a direction with huge scope.April 2015"― Journal of Consciousness Studies Peter Wyeth is a filmmaker with over 40 years of experience and is recognized internationally for his documentaries. The Matter of Vision Affective Neurobiology & Cinema By Peter Wyeth John Libbey Publishing Ltd. Copyright © 2015 John Libbey Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-86196-712-4 Contents Foreword War of the Word, 1, The Matter of Vision, 8, Chapter 1 The Matter of Vision, 9, LCR v VAE, 12, Affective Neurobiology (ANB), 20, Vision, Emotion, Cinema: A Summary, 30, The Matter of Vision: A Summary, 34, Chapter 2 The Matter of Vision: Aphorisms, 37, Propositions, 37, Extensions, 49, Cinema, 59, Chapter 3 Commentaries, 69, Life/Change/Movement/Cinema, 69, Movement and the Eye, 69, Survival and the Brain, 71, Emotion and the Brain, 72, Genetic to Cultural evolution, 76, Emotion & Survival, 77, Emotion and Reason, 78, Language, Consciousness and Reason, 79, Language, the Word and Logocentrism, 85, Thought takes place only in Vision, 88, Logocentrism, 89, Consciousness, 91, Consciousness and the Unconscious, 99, Automatic/Unconscious, 102, Reason, 112, Vision, 114, In the service of Vision, 116, The quality ofVision, 118, Left brain/Right brain, 124, The Logic of Nature, 126, Art & Science : Aesthetics & Brain Function, 127, Art & Science: Emotion, 130, Plasticity of the brain, 132, Emotion and the Automatic, 133, Chapter 4 Cinema, 135, Cinema: a revaluation, 135, Neurobiology and Cinema: A New Theory of Cinema, 142, The Classic Hollywood Cinema: a pinnacle of the medium, 164, Classicism & Genius, 164, Evolution and Classical Form, 176, The Genius of the System, 206, The Affective: Making Emotion Visible, 207, ANB & Cinema: The Campaign for Real Science, 209, Affective Neurobiology & Cinema: Summary, 211, A Theory of Cinema: 10 points:, 213, Chapter 5 On method, 215, Epistemology, 215, A lesson from film-making, 216, Essays, 219, Formal v Informal knowledge, 220, A Return to Nature, 221, A Lesson for Kant, 224, Expansive Materialism, 226, The limits of materialism & metaphysics, 229, A Practice of Film Theory, 230, Confessions of a Convert, 234, Left/Right brain - Science & Philosophy, 235, Endnote, 236, Bibliography & Filmography, 239, Acknowledgements, 241, Index, 243, CHAPTER 1 The Matter of Vision Modern society has been the prisoner of three stern gaolers, Language, Consciousness and Reason. Each member of the troika has succeeded in imposing an image of its hegemony upon the mind of modern culture. The result has been the incarceration and repression of their opposite number, the target of this relentless campaign; Vision, the Automatic and Emotion. The task of those images is to boost the prestige of their masters at the expense of their opposite numbers, and in that they have been remarkably successful. Jealously painting-out the real role of their opponents, they have consistently sought to reduce their status. Language, Consciousness and Reason (LCR) are seen here in terms of their status as cultural artefacts, that is not things themselves, but the 'ideology' attached to each of them that reifies them above their real status. The question is not of their real relationship to their opposite numbers but the ideological ones that have developed around them. This project suggests that Language, Consciousness and Reason, in contrast to their image in the public mind, are not quite the peaks of being human that have been promulgated, but more limited in their achievements and reach than their 'ideologies' would claim. Those ideologies also have an aggressive attitude towards their opposite numbers and have set out to demote and 'denigrate' Vision, the Automatic, and Emotion (VAE). The aim of this project is to restore Vision to its real status as the noblest and wisest facility of man, and to turn the tables on the vulgar upstart Language. Likewise, to promote the massive role of the Automatic compared to th