MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

While mind-game film and related topics such as complex narratives, database logic, and puzzle films have prompted much scholarly discussion, speculation as to why such narratives have become more prevalent has been relatively limited. Frequently, the diagnosis lies in the digital turn, and can often wade into the waters of technophobia. The purpose of this presentation is to interrogate the generic origins of the mind-game film and the motivations of the phenomenon, namely tech anxiety and neuromania (the cultural obsession with neuroscience, or perhaps, the neuroscientific turn). I will do this first by first situating mind-game as a phenomenon ripe for particular genres, namely film noir and science fiction. I will assemble diagrams with reference to specific films such as Strange Days (1995), Donnie Darko (2001), and The Final Cut (2004) to assist in demonstrating the generic tendencies of mind-game, thereby positing an alternative, visual approach to assessing the mind-game mode and its canon. This will lead to a discussion of what the mind-game mode owes to larger cultural predicaments, particularly that of tech anxiety and neuromania. Some of the questions I will be exploring in this section are as follows: Can the proposed parasitic nature of the mind-game mode be undermined by the generic tendencies as demonstrated by my diagrammatic research? Is the mind-game film simply a medium through which the digital turn in film studies is negotiated, or, on a larger scale, through which technophobia is engaged? And finally, to what extent can the neuro-image, as theorized by Patricia Pisters, be mapped onto the mind-game mode? My research will be geared towards the theoretical underpinnings of the mind-game mode. Through its generic origins, the digital turn, and the neuroscientific turn, I will address the relatively unexplored and potentially mis-diagnosed explanations for the prevalence of the mind-game mode today.