From Mess to Down: The Subjective Construction in Haptic Image Narrative

Distinct from traditional film theories that are based on textual and semantic interpretation, a phenomenological approach of haptic-image theory has become an important turn in contemporary film theory. Its background is Merleau-Ponty􀆳s perceptual phenomenology and Deleuze􀆳s haptic theory, further developed by Laura Marks and others. The theory of haptic-image focuses on the perceptual and embodied experience of film-watching, which seems to be an opposition to the narrative function that has always been expected in film. This paper will will be based on the inspiration of the theory of haptic image, returning to the relationship between vision and touch in the history of philosophy, explaining this false binary opposition, and analyzing the narrative dimensions that haptic image theory may possess based on films including “Antichrist” and video game “Disco Elysium. ” Through the trait of “mess” in haptic-image narratives, a post-human subjectivity is distilled. This is a desire to break free from the mess or chaos of material and digital ruins, yet due to the collapse and rupture of internality, it encounters the gap in life and moves towards the state of “down. ” causing life to linger in negation. However, it is only from the “down” state that a “reboot” is possible, that is, experiencing real action.