From Attention to Notice

Why do we watch movies at all? To escape harsh reality and briefly immerse ourselves in parallel worlds? Sometimes we sit in front of a screen to step away from life, while other times we do so to understand it. Without unduly romanticizing the impulses of the viewer, it is certain that today we watch films in countless different ways.

When reflecting on the role of cinema, it is useful to try to understand the ways in which it offers viewers a specific experience—namely, the filmic experience. Taking into account that the concept of experience refers both to an “exposure to reality” that surprises and captivates us (for the first time) and to the ”acquisition of knowledge and competence” which enables an individual to face reality and create meaning from it, theorist Francesco Casetti defines the filmic experience as “that moment when images (and sounds) on the screen engage all our senses, as well as the moment when they provoke an understanding of what we are watching and an awareness of the fact that we are watching it.” In a sense, our attention stretches and expands as we confront moving images that “strike” us, while simultaneously recognizing “how to watch something” and becoming aware “that we are watching something.”

The experience that began to take shape on December 28, 1895, with the Lumière brothers’ screenings at the Salon Indien in Paris, and evolved over decades thanks to modern technologies, is today facing a thorough transformation. Changes that began in the 1980s and 1990s with the advent of multiplexes and VHS are becoming even more pronounced with today’s swarming of streaming platforms. Long ago we mastered the ability to record, fast-forward, and slow down images in our living rooms, while new forms of accessing the filmic experience, and the new environments in which that experience unfolds, are proliferating at every turn. The experience itself is becoming increasingly private and (de)personalized. At the same time, the viewer ceases to merely consume and begins to intervene in the act of watching.

The question of attention has long been a central theme in discussions connecting film, art, and theories of culture and reception. At the same time, in an era of ubiquitous screens and diverse digital interfaces, questions regarding the consequences of disrupted attention regimes have become increasingly urgent, and we frequently encounter concepts such as scattered or dispersed attention. How do we watch films when our experience increasingly unfolds across a mix of cinema, laptops, mobile phones, and simultaneous screens? What happens to the viewing experience when attention is constantly interrupted, redirected, or scattered?

Undoubtedly, the contemporary viewer’s attention is fragmented —even compromised. Yet, it is precisely non-narrative and experimental film that, through their associative, selective, and discontinuous methods, transform this very dispersion of attention into an integral part of the filmic experience. Perhaps it is this liberated attention — freed from the constraints of narrative continuity—that makes experimental film so compelling: its potential to open new realms of perception, cognition, and feeling.

Nika Petković
25 FPS