The 3-D aesthetic: Avatar and hyperhaptic visuality

Abstract

As 3-D films increased in popularity throughout the beginning of the twenty-first century, various predictions were made concerning their likely domination of the theatrical market or their future demise. Although Avatar (James Cameron, 2009) was heralded for its sophisticated use of stereoscopic technology, other films such as Alice in Wonderland (Tim Burton, 2010) and Clash of the Titans (Louis Leterrier, 2010) were criticized for using cheap post-production conversion. During critical debates, much time was spent on the technological and industrial factors involved in twenty-first-century 3-D but less attention was paid to stereoscopic moving images' aesthetic constitution, particularly their ability to produce new relationships between audiences and screen content. Significantly, 3-D films' stereoscopic affect moves the haptic quality found in many 2-D moving images into a realm of hyperhaptic visuality. Avatar offers a useful example for analysis of the 3-D aesthetic, the spectatorial relations that it produces and the way in which hyperhaptic modes are constructed. Through the use of extensive depth planes and negative parallax (the pop-out effect), audiences are brought towards an immersive screen space. At the same time, knowledge of the optical illusion inherent in the 3-D images means that complex relations between audiences and images are maintained. The film's theme of displacement, introduced by the central characters' entry into alien avatar bodies, brings into play many issues concerning spectatorial positioning and embodied sensation yet much of the affect on offer can be applied to other stereoscopic films.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 84 citations exist upstream.