Filmological Fallacies. EEG-Research and the Sleeping Beauty

My contribution emphasizes the need for an archaeological approach to the history of media theories. It does this through an emblematic case study of classic filmological research, focusing specifically on the use, in 1960, of electroencephalographic research (EEG research) in the study of film experience. It is my contention that in the late Fifties EEG research developed into a major filmological tool. This marked a crucial phase of transformation. It led to the move of the Institute de Filmologie from Paris to Milan and eventually to the decline of the research movement itself. My paper will explore these changes, positioning the beginnings of EEG research and its theoretical consequences within their institutional context. Today, this historical case study can demonstrate not just historical change within filmology but illustrates the pitfalls that accompany deterministic uses of technological devices and experimental data in contemporary research on film and media.