A Simple Thought Experiment

I want to play a game. Well, more specifically, a thought game. Hell, let’s just call it a thought experiment.

You are about to watch a movie you have never seen before. You are only allowed to use either your vision or your hearing to experience the movie. You are allowed to keep all your other senses because cinema is, obviously, an audio-visually driven medium. Which do you choose and why?

Personally, I choose to keep my hearing. I find that my focus in a film is often in semantic and causal listening and, from the sounds, I can assign greater importance or meaning to the vision of the film. Even without seeing the film, I can get an idea of what is happening on the screen. It is hard to get an idea of the plot when all you can do is see the screen.

Keeping my hearing would be my choice in general. It is obvious that I might change my choice, or you might, based on what genre of film you are watching. Something like an action movie is very visually driven with less focus on dialogue or plot. On the other hand, something like a drama film is probably very auditory driven. It focuses great on the development of plot through conversation.

So, anyone care to respond to my thought experiment?