Abstract

The research is exploring the liminal space of aporía within the experience of film. How can film be a poetic experience and inviting philosophical thinking? Motivated by the works of filmmaker Chantal Akerman, I have come to investigate the gap within the filmic narrative of character creation. With the obligation to create an ethical relationship to my audience, I take a closer look into the aesthetics of mimesis in storytelling. Proposing that there is a shared created gap of nothingness, which works as a portal of reflection between audience and art where the aporía take place, I am influenced by the philosopher Merleau-Ponty´s phenomenological image of the chiasm. The research is accordingly discussing the actor as the embodied surface of this interplace. The liminal space is the journey of the pre-reflective mind working with the unknowable. My thesis tries to show how the image of the thinking actor can hold a space for one shared experience. Departing from a background of actor and writer, the use of writing art throughout the research is a description of different ways of expressing my artistic language; as in writing, filming, directing or acting. The research is situated within the artistic research and the material of focus is art film, ethical philosphical thinking and my own practice with an essay film of 12 minutes, [Her]barium. The locus of the discussion is my own embodied conciousness, as a spectator and in the position of filmmaker.