Paper short abstract:

Using experimental video work, this paper will articulate the ways in which the acts of filming, of montage, and of watching film play a critical role in the re-image-ining and reinvestigation of notions of ritual in light of possibilities inherent in new technology and video art.

Paper long abstract:

Motivated by the current crisis in visual and ritual anthropology that necessitates a rethinking and re-image-ining of available conceptual and practical frameworks, I will articulate the ways in which the acts of filming, of montage, and of "watching" film play a critical role in the reinvestigation of traditional notions of ritual in light of the possibilities inherent in new technology and video art. Using experimental film work, an ontology of "filming/filmed ritual" will be proposed to articulate the ways in which "video work" can be used to articulate the simultaneity of multiple worlds and notions of the invisible, the liminal, and the virtual. Parallels will be drawn between Deleuze's time-image/movement-image and altered consciousness as lived in states of "possession" and the ways in which these states can be communicated filmically while suggesting how the non-visible and other sensual dimensions of ritual practice can be made visible through filmically articulated absence.