Where is the Mind of the Media Editor?

The common conception of conscious experience is that it originates from and is contained within the individual's brain or body. However, some would argue that now, as new media technologies claim cognitive territories previously identified by humans as human, it becomes increasingly difficult to locate where the human mind stops and the rest of the world begins (Clark & Chalmers 1998). The experience of editors occupies a key position with respect to this enquiry, one that is situated between the body and machine, actual and virtual, self and other, and this makes the practice of editing particularly interesting for the study of the boundaries between mind and world. The processes of editing, and the technology that enables it, are central to our understanding of how mind and media relate. Surprisingly, even within cognitive film theory there are ”very few detailed explanations of cognition and film editing’ editing” (Smith 2006). Throughout film history and media theory, cinema has been conceived of variously as an analogue to mental processes (Munsterberg 1916, Baudry 1968, Metz 1975); a mechanical mind (Vertov 1984); thought’s mediator (Gilbert-Lecomte 1991); or as an extension of the psyche (McLuhan 1962, Perkins 1972). However the difficulty with many of these theories is that they tend to say more about the functionality of cinema than about the human mind (Carroll 1988).

In this paper I will discuss how the editors experience might confirm or contradict the competing claims made by cognitive scientists and philosophers as to the location of mind. Recalling the debates concerning celluloid and digital editing strategies, but with an eye to the future, I will look to address this question by focusing on the next wave of editing software, ranging from designs for live performance to automated workflows driven by meta-data. Consequently as editors are being challenged to rethink - in relation to new media technologies - new techniques that expand the language of cinematic expression and exhibition, their experiences will also contribute to an interdisciplinary debate over the boundaries of human cognition.