Wittgenstein,

Seeing-As and
Film Theory

Objectives

To describe the basics of Wittgensteins concept of

Aspect Seeing or Seeing As

To describe the basics of Suture in Film Theory

To show how they might relate but also differ in

terms of concerns.

Helen Horgan

Ludwig Wittgenstein

What is Aspect Seeing?

Born in 1889 in Vienna to a

wealthy steel family.

Died in Cambridge in 1951.

One of the most influential

philosophers of Twentieth
Century.

Concerned with finding way

out of philosophical
confusions (what some would
call an anti-philosophy).

The dawning and

shifting of an aspect

What is Seeing-as?

What is Aspect Seeing?

(seeing ourselves seeing)

Seeing two perspectives

glass
cube

Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld (2009)

inverted
box

wire
frame

You could imagine the illustration appearing in several places in a book, a text-book for
instance. In the relevant text something different is in question every time: here a glass cube,
there an inverted open box, there a wire frame of that shape, there three boards forming a solid
angle. Each time the text supplies the interpretation of the illustration. But we can also see the
illustration now as one thing now as another. So we interpret it, and we see it as we interpret
it. Ludwig Wittgenstein The Philosophical Investigations (1958)

Seeing-as vs Seeing-that

What does it describe?

Wittgenstein explains that we perceive objects in two ways: Seeing-that (reporting what we
see) vs. Seeing-as (noticing an aspect of what we see as something). Seeing-as involves
recognising the relation between the object and another object or narrative/context

Aspect Seeing is a conceptual model that demonstrates the complex relationship

we have to pictures and visual thinking. It shows us;!
How vision is part conceptual.!
How our perceptions are influenced by prior knowledge, context and suggestion
How we are thinking/visualising something, e.g. it shows us our view.
(This also has ethical implications which we will return to later.)

What is Suture Theory?

The Lacanian model

What is Suture Theory?

The role of the subject in classical Representation

As children we develop a high level of visual

perception long before we can control our
own body movements or have an awareness
of our own body as a
separate entity to the world
These means our sense of a unitary self is
initially visual and of someone else (
Lacan uses this concept to illustrate how our
subjectivity is inherently divided. Our identity
is formed based on external relationships to
the world. The language we eventually learn
to communicate with pre-exists us, In effect
we have to adapt to it. Lacan says ideologies
use this lack to make us adopt other
perspectives as our own.

How painting is a discourse which

addresses an (absent) subject.

For Jean-Pierre Oudart Classical

Paintings mono-perspectival view
predetermines the viewers perspective
and therefore reading of the painting.

In Las Meninas we see that this

subject is not us - we are not in the
mirror.

Foucault calls this the representation

of classical representation, because
the spectator who is usually invisible-is
here inscribed into the painting itself
(the King and Queen of Spain) leaving
no room for our subjectivity to enter.

Las Meninas Velasquez (1656)

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Suture Theory

Seeing As and Suture

How the viewer

takes on the
perspective of
the film and
its subjects
by piecing
together
a narrative from
successive
images.

In Seeing Soldiers,
Seeing Persons
Burke Hilsabeck,
describes how
seeing as relates
to suture in
showing us our
view in an ironic
sense.
!

Burke Hilsabeck is a lecturer in

Cinema Studies in Oberlin
College (Ohio)

Top: Once Upon a Time in The West Sergio Leone (1968)

Above: The Lone Ranger Gore Verbinski (2013)

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References

Wittgenstein, Ludwig The Philosophical Investigations (1958)

Rosenthal, Amy Kraus Duck! Rabbit! (2014)

Branigan, Edward Projecting a Camera: Language Games in Film

Theory (2006)

Dayan, Daniel The Tutor-Code of Classical Cinema in Film Quarterly vol 28

Issue 1 p22-31 (1974)

Hilsabeck, Burke Seeing Soldiers, Seeing Persons in The Philosophy of War

Films ed David La Rocca (2014)

Online Resources

Branigan, Edward Wittgenstein, Language Games, Film Theory (2005)

http://www.filmandmedia.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/branigan/SCMStalkWitt05.pdf

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Conclusion

Suture Theory is predominantly a negative antiideological theory which shows us how the viewer
is trapped within the perspective of classical
narrative cinema. It promotes critical awareness.

Wittgensteins concept of Seeing As is more

concerned with showing us how we are inclined to
react so that we can learn from the experience. It
promotes critical and self awareness.

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