Annette Michelson and the Future of the Cognitive Theory of Avant-Garde Film

In the 1960s, the critic Annette Michelson played a major role in effecting the shift in North American avant-garde filmmaking from a concern with the expression of human psychology and subjective emotion that had, putatively, characterized the period of the 1940s and 1950s toward a more analytical, anti-illusionist framework. She did so by proposing what philosophers call a cognitive theory of art, according to which art can deliver knowledge. Given the influence of Michelson’s cognitive theory on the shifting avant-garde film culture of the late 1960s, it warrants careful analysis. In this paper, I first review Michelson’s cognitive theory of avant-garde film, showing how it was distinctive because it extended beyond the reflexive investigation of the nature of film to include the philosophical analysis of perception and consciousness. I then explore how Michelson’s cognitive theory, originally proposed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, came into tension with her turn to psychoanalytical theory in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Finally, I seek to build on Michelson’s theory by addressing its consequences for the future of the cognitive theory of avant-garde film, showing how Michelson’s work offers an aesthetic solution to well-known problems faced by the cognitive theory of art.