The Ethics of Perception in Wunschkonzert

Abstract

In Chapter 3 I argued that the intermedial de construction of realist montage conventions in two pieces by Station House Opera had the potential to induce a state of reflexivity and engage the audience with a ‘politics of perception’. There are many factors at play during an experience of cinema and art in general, all of which have a part in influencing and, potentially, guiding our perceptions. Politics can be broadly understood as the management of people’s resources. But it also concerns the management of people’s freedoms and this is where the ethical considerations come in. These can concern freedom of identity and freedom of thought but also freedom of interpretation and perception of reality. Hence this chapter will concern ethical sentiments which condition our perceptual choices. Much as was the case with aesthetic pleasure in the experience of mainstream cinema, the structures that elicit ethical sentiments may be concealed from spectators; detached as they are from the place of production of images, these structures are not necessarily brought to the forefront of the spectators’ attention. There is a sense of detachment in realist cinema that can work to limit perceptual possibilities as well as the possibilities of a more active ethical engagement, and that may induce a comparatively passive and mono-perspectivist mode of spectatorship.