Dr. Robert Belton professor of Art History and Visual Culture in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies recently published a book entitled, Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo and the Hermeneutic Spiral.

We met with Dr. Belton to find out what his book was about, and why he is fascinated with Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo.

What is the book about? Why the Fascination with Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo?

RB: Hitchcock’s Vertigo is sometimes ranked as the best movie ever made, but some of the things written about it actually contradict each other. I always wondered why. I remembered a friend of many years ago who was convinced that Superman, the 1978 Richard Donner film starring Christopher Reeves, was a sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). He thought that because Superman began with the story of an alien infant arriving on Earth, the fact that 2001 ended with a Star Child orbiting Earth meant that the films were logically connected. When he thought about the movies he emphasized the details that supported his notion and ignored the ones that didn’t. I concluded that this common mental phenomenon, confirmation bias, was why critical opinions differed so much about Vertigo.

Can you explain for non-academics what the title means, what is the Hermeneutic Spiral? 

RB: “Hermeneutic” means “interpretation.” One’s interpretation of a whole movie is formed by interpretations of its parts, just as one’s interpretations of the parts are always being reshaped by the whole. This creates a seemingly circular pattern, but it’s actually more of a spiral because one can always notice new details.

What is the significance of your research — what are the implications to your field or learning outcomes for students? 

RB: A current theory of interpretation has it that the true meaning of a text can never be fully or finally determined. I agree with this, but I think the phenomenon has never been adequately explained in terms of cognitive biases and differences in experience. That is, I want to explain postmodernist indeterminacy squarely in terms of different life experiences and heuristics, or thinking shortcuts.

What do you tell students who may ask why they should study art history? 

RB: A good reason to study visual culture is fascination, but much art was never meant to be “enjoyed.” Some art asks you to question your philosophical, ideological, aesthetic, political and moral expectations. Having an understanding of visual culture is thus essential to a fully-rounded liberal education. Moreover, a Georgetown University study of the economic value of university majors found that art history and criticism, on average, offered a better return on investment than any humanities field other than American history.

Tell us about your other recent publications and articles…

RB: Three works have pulled together some themes that have intrigued me for about two decades. Most importantly, an archival research project unearthed the source of a sequence in Man Ray’s surrealist film L’étoile de mer (1928), which has been misinterpreted for over twenty years. A psychoanalytical reading of the cinematic installation art of Wyn Geleynse recently appeared in the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies. Lastly, an exhibition catalogue essay for McMaster Museum of Art drew a comparison between expressionist art and the field of paralinguistics.

What most excites you about your area of research?

Dr. Belton reenacting the famous staircase scene from Vertigo

RB: Writers commenting on Hitchcock’s Vertigo were convinced that a particular scene made one character subordinate by showing another character looming over him. I have shown that this is a misinterpretation because the allegedly subordinate character actually does most if not all of the “looming” in the scene. This shows that critics are constantly convincing themselves that their wrong conclusions are actually right—a clear example of what psychologists call the “backfire effect.” If we all learned to avoid this kind of thing as part of a general education, maybe we would be less prone to errors in critical judgement.

Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo and the Hermeneutic Spiral.

Link to publication: www.palgrave.com/de/book/9783319551876

Sovereign Sun (series) 2015 photo emulsion on paper and Indigenous land absorbing the sun and promising a future of self-determination collaboration by artists’ of BUSH gallery.

What: Arts roundtable considers the landscape
Who: Artist and curator Tania Willard and writer Harold Rhenisch
When: Tuesday, December 5, 6pm
Where: Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art, 421 Cawston Ave

Artist and curator Tania Willard and writer Harold Rhenisch will be hosting a roundtable discussion exploring the poetics and politics embedded in the landscape at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art on December 5 at 6pm. Willard and Rhenisch will each present a 40 minute slideshow of their work before opening up the discussion to questions from the audience. This event is free of charge.

Tania Willard is currently an MFA student at UBC Okanagan and is from the Secwepemc Nation. She will discuss the specificity of place embodied in her collaborative BUSH gallery project, a conceptual space for land-based art and action led by Indigenous artists on reserve. Willard’s curatorial work includes co-curating Beat Nation: Art Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture, a national touring exhibition first presented at Vancouver Art Gallery in 2011 and Unceded Territories: Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun at the Museum of Anthropology with Karen Duffek.

Harold Rhenisch, who writes the blog Okanagan-Okanogan: one country without borders will introduce a series of concepts built on the foundation of self-as-space, lavishly illustrated with photographs from his journeys through the Okanagan, the Pacific Northwest and Iceland. Rhenisch has written thirty books from the Southern Interior since 1974. He won the George Ryga Prize in 2008 for The Wolves at Evelyn. His other grasslands books are the Cariboo meditation Tom Thompson’s Shack (1999) and the orchard memoir, Out of the Interior.

This discussion is generously supported by the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, the Arts Council of the Central Okanagan and the City of Kelowna, and produced in partnership with the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art.

The Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art is an artist-run centre located in Kelowna, BC at the Rotary Centre for the Arts, 421 Cawston Avenue. The Alternator is a registered non-profit charitable organization dedicated to the development of the creative community. Since 1989 the Alternator has shown the work of emerging Canadian artists and focused on innovative and non-traditional mediums engaged in social and cultural issues.

Spoken word open mic hosted by MFA Creative Writing students from UBCO.

What: The Many Faces of Words
Who: MFA Creative Writing students…and you!
When: Wednesday, November 29, 6:00 pm
Where: Bumbershoot Theatre, 1295 Cannery Ln #125, Kelowna

Join MFA of Creative Writing students for a free Open Mic event November 29 at the Bumbershoot Theatre (1295 Cannery Ln #125) downtown!

The show will be MC’d by the brilliantly hilarious Erin Scott, and will feature three incredible guest poets: Fionncara MacEoin, Erin Hiebert, and Melissa Weiss. Local musician Victoria Miller will be playing ukulele throughout the night.

Those who wish to perform at this event are welcome to sign up for the Open Mic at this time—and sign-ups are open all throughout the night.

Always wanted to sign up but never been to an open mic? You are welcome to perform in a variety of ways: read poetry, fiction, sing a song, or surprise us with your creativity. If you are interested in performing but haven’t done it before—don’t fear! The creative writing students are happy to help you out. Just come early, sign up, and they will walk you through the process. If you are not up for performing, simply come down for a great show. Sit back and relax for a fun night with engaging literary performances, live music, and refreshments!

This event is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, so bring your family and friends! Hope to see you there.

For more information, please see our Facebook event page.

The exhibition Social Engine presents the work of current first and second year MFA VISA students.

With video installation, performance, sculpture and painting, the exhibition gives an overview of the MFA graduate students research interest, demonstrating a variety of voices and a rich diversity of creative approaches.

The exhibition will be on display in the FINA gallery from November 20 to 24, and includes work by the following MFA students in FCCS:

• Jessica Dennis
• Nina Fazio
• Jow Fowler
• Jennifer Furlong
• Crystal Przybille
• Steven Thomas Davies
• Tania Willard
• Meg Yamamoto

The FINA gallery, located in the foyer of the Creative and Critical Studies Building, hosts exhibitions throughout the year—some by visiting arts, some by faculty members, and many by BFA and MFA students.