Joel Thompson
PhD
Screen Studies
Joel is a PhD candidate in Screen Studies at the University of Melbourne. He is co-coordinator of the Screening Ideas program at the University, which hosts a diverse range of film screenings that are accompanied by lectures, talks and panel discussions.
His current writing is examining how a focus on film ambience and atmosphere can re-contextualise the subjective viewing experience. Previously, his work has studied the concept of ghosts in cinematic landscapes, utilising the notion of hauntology as a method to approach such a topic.
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Thesis
Ambient Filmscapes: The Aestheticisation and Amplification of Cinematic Space
This research examines and extrapolates a style of filmmaking that reflects what I refer to as ambient filmscapes: an audiovisual form which subverts audience expectations by drawing their attention away from cinematic action and towards a film's surrounding environment. By forcing the audience to consider the spatial quality of a film, these ambient affordances put an emphasis on unseen and predominantly unacknowledged aspects of screen studies, with space transforming the metaphorical and temporal boundaries of a text. Developing from theories on mood and atmosphere, and approaching it with a phenomenological grounding, this research will consequently investigate how a focus on cinematic ambience impacts the spectator's embodiment of a film's space, time, and sound, while delivering ethical and political considerations.
Research interests
- Film theory
- Aesthetics
- Phenomenology
- Cultural Studies