The brain in contemporary cinema

Abstract

In western culture, the brain appears as a fundamental figure, often referred to as the exclusive place of origin of the mind. Such scenario shapes a visibility regime that has been classified as a neural turn. With that said, this text aims to analyze how media images - especially cinematographic ones - have incorporated this neurocentric perspective. Based on Patricia Pisters’ (2012a) concept of neuro-image and in the light of Deleuzian philosophy, we take as an example the film eXistenZ (1999), by David Cronenberg, in order to show that cinema paradoxically embodies this ideology of the “cerebral subject” (VIDAL; ORTEGA, 2019).

Keywords neuro-image; cerebral subject; cinema; eXistenZ ; Cronenberg