Mediated Associations Cinematic Dimensions of Social Theory

Mediated Associations builds upon current debates over the relationship between society and the cinema, and extends the critical dialogue that has been emerging between cinematic concepts and methods of social analysis. Drawing from a broad range of philosophical, sociological, cultural, media, and cinema theorists, Daniel O'Connor develops a unique conception of the power of cinematic apparatuses. He expands our understanding of how cinema effectively resonates with its viewers and draws our attention to the constitution and control of aesthetic-cinematic communities. Rather than focusing on the abstract and individualizing character of cinema, Mediated Associations elucidates the collective character of cinematic objects. O'Connor argues that social theory must come to terms with the new mobilities and speed of cinema, and the various ways in which the affect - as a virtual moment of collective experience - is inserted into the flow of movement and structures cinematic events. In considering the primacy of the affect to cinematic forms of power, he examines the way in which cinema controls our associations, reconstituting our manners and habits of sociality and sociability in subtle and complex ways.