Julian Hanich

Towards a Psychological Construct of Being Moved

The emotional state of being moved, though frequently referred to in both classical rhetoric and current language use, is far from established as a well-defined psychological construct. In a series of three studies, we investigated eliciting scenarios, emotional ingredients, appraisal patterns, feeling qualities, and the affective signature of being moved and related emotional states. The great majority of the eliciting scenarios can be assigned to significant relationship and critical life events (especially death, birth, marriage, separation, and reunion). Sadness and joy turned out to be the two preeminent emotions involved in episodes of being moved. Both the sad and the joyful variants of being moved showed a coactivation of positive and negative affect and can thus be ranked among the mixed emotions. Moreover, being moved, while featuring only low-to-mid arousal levels, was experienced as an emotional state of high intensity; this applied to responses to fictional artworks no less than to own-life and other real, but media-represented, events. The most distinctive findings regarding cognitive appraisal dimensions were very low ratings for causation of the event by oneself and for having the power to change its outcome, along with very high ratings for appraisals of compatibility with social norms and self-ideals. Putting together the characteristics identified and discussed throughout the three studies, the paper ends with a sketch of a psychological construct of being moved.

The Distancing-Embracing model of the enjoyment of negative emotions in art reception

Why are negative emotions so central in art reception far beyond tragedy? Revisiting classical aesthetics in the light of recent psychological research, we present a novel model to explain this much discussed (apparent) paradox. We argue that negative emotions are an important resource for the arts in general, rather than a special license for exceptional art forms only. The underlying rationale is that negative emotions have been shown to be particularly powerful in securing attention, intense emotional involvement, and high memorability, and hence is precisely what artworks strive for. Two groups of processing mechanisms are identified that conjointly adopt the particular powers of negative emotions for arts purposes. The first group consists of psychological distancing mechanisms that are activated along with the cognitive schemata of art, representation, and fiction. These schemata imply personal safety and control over continuing or discontinuing exposure to artworks, thereby preventing negative emotions from becoming outright incompatible with expectations of enjoyment. This distancing sets the stage for a second group of processing components that allow art recipients to positively embrace the experiencing of negative emotions, thereby rendering art reception more intense, more interesting, more emotionally moving, more profound, and occasionally even more beautiful. These components include compositional interplays of positive and negative emotions, the effects of aesthetic virtues of using the media of (re)presentation (musical sound, words/language, color, shapes) on emotion perception, and meaning-making efforts. Moreover, our Distancing-Embracing model proposes that concomitant mixed emotions often help integrate negative emotions into altogether pleasurable trajectories.

Dis/liking disgust: the revulsion experience at the movies

Disgust is a frequent and often powerful part of the cinematic experience – from horror movies and teenage comedies to fantasy films and art-house pictures. This paper aims in three directions: (a) it sheds light on the structure of the cinematic disgust experience; (b) it points out aesthetic strategies that provoke disgust effectively; (c) it tries to identify what aesthetic functions disgust might have. In the first part I argue that the revulsion experience implies the obtrusive closeness of a disgusting filmic object (or act) and a peculiar constriction of the viewers lived body. Both characteristics can lead to aversive reactions like looking away or moaning, which in turn have a relieving quality since they enable a more appropriate aesthetic distance and an expansion of the lived body. Looking at Pasolinis Salò and the teenage comedy National Lampoons Van Wilder, I subsequently show how disgust can be produced and intensified aesthetically: through the choice of potent disgusting objects, the use of close-ups as well as the involvement with characters via somatic empathy and sympathy. The paper ends with a discussion of the main functions of disgust: pleasure and provocation.

Negative emotions in art reception: Refining theoretical assumptions and adding variables to the Distancing-Embracing model

While covering all commentaries, our response specifically focuses on the following issues: How can the hypothesis of emotional distancing (qua art framing) be compatible with stipulating high levels of felt negative emotions in art reception? Which concept of altogether pleasurable mixed emotions does our model involve? Can mechanisms of predictive coding, social sharing, and immersion enhance the power of our model?

Laughter and collective awareness: The cinema auditorium as public space

This article looks at how the collective experience of laughter in the movie theater is related to the idea of the cinema as a public space. Through the non-verbal expression of laughter the audience ‘constructs’ a public space the viewers may not have been aware of to the same degree prior to the collective public expression. Moreover, the public space created through laughter allows for an expedient type of monitoring: inappropriate laughter may be exposed in front of others. With viewers who laugh approvingly about racist violence or misogynist jokes, we can easily lay bare the ethical implications.

Reflecting on Reflections : Cinema's Complex Mirror Shots

This article investigates the effects mirrors in films can have on the composition of a filmic image, the staging of a scene and the viewing activities of the spectators. It discusses four such effects: (1) So-called ‘complex mirror shots’ can modify how spectators look onto the picture as a flat composition by way of a quasi-transformation of the screen shape. (2) They can function as a magnetizing frame-within-the-frame that channels the viewer’s look into the anterior depth of the mirror. (3) By referring spectators to off-screen space and thus making them look beyond the image into its lateral and posterior depth, some specific examples also allow for an intricately layered experience of perception and imagination, challenging and complicating efforts to “read” the image. (4) Finally, mirrors may be a source of spatial complication and can even lead to a full-blown disorientation regarding the status of the image, thus transforming the way viewers understand, problematise and look at the filmic image as such.

Kino als kollektiver Erfahrungsraum : Die Öffentlichkeit des Kinos

Dieser Artikel stellt einige der zentralen Theoriepositionen vor, die sich mit dem Kino (a) als Raum kollektiver Erfahrung und (b) als Ort der Offentlichkeit auseinandergesetzt haben. Einen Bogen von der fruhen zur zeitgenossischen Filmtheorie schlagend, unterscheidet der Beitrag dabei eine im weitesten Sinne phanomenologische Perspektive mit Blick auf die konkrete kollektive Erfahrung des Publikums von einem eher soziologisch-politischen Blickwinkel, der auf den Begriff der Offentlichkeit abzielt.

Geschichte der Bildmedien

Das Kultbild ist eine der altesten religiosen Instanzierungen mit dem Ziel, eine Beziehung zwischen Gott und Mensch im weltlichen Bereich zu etablieren. Seine religiose Bedeutung kann zwischen Prasenz und Absenz, Zeichen und Substitut, Durchlassigkeit und Asthetisierung schwanken (Scholz 2000, 632–634; Lanczkowski 1980, 515–517). In der religiosen Praxis ist das Kultbild jedoch immer zentraler Teil religioser Handlungen, die den Kontakt mit dem Gottlichen stiften: Als solches wird das Kultbild nicht nur angebetet (s. Kap. III.2), sondern ihm wird auch geopfert, es wird be- und entkleidet, gefuttert, gewaschen, ausgefahren, herumgetragen, geschlagen und gekusst (griech. proskinesis, fur ›Kuss auf etwas zu‹). Diese rituellen Handlungen sind bezuglich des Kultbildes immer auch offentliche Handlungen; im Unterschied zum privaten Andachts- oder Devotionsbild (Gladigow 1998, 9 f.).