Edward Scissorhands and the Realities of Suburbia for an Extraordinary Body

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Spatial perception is the process of receiving information from stimuli and transforming it into meaningful experiences of the built environment. The interaction of the sensing body and the perceived thing plays an important role in this process. The body leads to the mechanisms of the mind as the subjective side of the process, whereas the physical and sensory objects of the outer world form the spatial part of the interaction. This study aims to express a rereading of the extraordinary perceptual realities of suburbia in Edward Scissorhands in which the protagonist is struggling with extraordinary built and social environmental clusters. The director Tim Burton successfully reflects the hidden perceptual realities of suburbia within its apparent characteristic physical features in an uneasy manner, which is raised by the survival of an extraordinary individual who fell into a suburbia seeming normal at first sight. During the study, first, the structure and story of the film are presented, then some conceptual perspectives such as body space perception are explained, and then some rereading of the film towards these perspectives is reflected. A subtle figuration of psycho-social conflicts is pictured successfully in the movie using the physical environment within its contrast and emphasis. It can be concluded that the dramatic loneliness of Edward is emphasized by the Gothic and dark house at the end of the street, whereas the superficial and apparent purity of the suburban society is represented by the basic forms and soft colors of the architectural and urban environment.