The Artistic Expression And Aesthetic Presentation Of Sensory Ethnographic Film:A Case Study Of "Leviathan"

The Sensory Ethnography Lab was founded by Lucian Castaing-Taylor at Harvard University in 2005.The directors(anthropologists)of the laboratory had taken a different approach to explore human practice and emotional structure by using the film medium and the sensory ethnographic films created in the laboratory had immediately aroused wide attention in the world.This is an interdisciplinary documentary model which was not similar with the previous documentary films.Most directors had knowledge of anthropology,and they pursued sensory stimulation or take human sensory system as the research object and they combined the theories of psychology,sociology,phenomenology and psychoanalysis.This paper takes the members and works of the Sensory Ethnography Laboratory of Harvard University as the research subject,and the representative work ‘Leviathan' of the laboratory as the main analysis object.This paper makes a deep analysis and summarizes its unique value to sensory ethnographic films from its aesthetic characteristics,creative practice and sensory experience knowledge representation.Sensory ethnography film is a new creation mode of documentary in recent years.Its emphasis on body feeling is not only a new field of Humanities research,but also an important direction of art research.This paper takes Leviathan as an example to study the aesthetic characteristics of sensory ethnographic films.Firstly,the article combs the development history of ethnographic films vertically.From the ethnographic films under the early science paradigm to that represented by Robert Gardner from 1960 s to 1990 s,which pursue the balance between art and science,until the sensory ethnographic films influenced by avant-garde art appeared after the 1990 s.Over the past century,these emerging new paradigms of ethnographic films,from the initial experiment to the embryonic development,have not replaced each other in mutual criticism,but have presented a scene of all flowers bloom together.Subsequently,the formation and definition of the concept of sensory ethnography film,the Harvard University Sensory Ethnography Laboratory and its founder,Lucian Taylor,as well as the research object of the text,Leviathan,are introduced in detail,expounds the representativeness and important position of Leviathan.In the second chapter,starting from the creative practice of Leviathan,this paper explores the method of expressing the sensory experience between people and objects through the audio-visual art of Leviathan from three aspects: picture,lens and sound.In the third chapter,the author analyses the unique mode of production knowledge in Leviathan,mainly from the presentation of director's subjective experience,the construction of audience's sensory in the viewing process,and the inter-subjectivity after the intervention of camera and directors.The author summarizes the aesthetic effect of color language,experimental aesthetics experience and sensory authenticity in Leviathan,as well as the sensory aesthetic features of it,and explores the unique value of it.In the last chapter of the paper,the author summarizes the creative significance embodied in Leviathan.The unique charm of sensory ethnographic films lies in the persistence to sensory experience and the experiential watching mechanism in leviathan.The author hopes that through this study,more and more writers can pay attention to human emotions and strength,and Whether artistic creation or life can return to the concern of people themselves.