There are certain ways to find things; other ways do not work. The coverpop for finding items on Amazon is one of the ways that doesn’t. For browsing photos or just for browsing randomly, it is a valid search tool. If one was trying to find something specific, it would be maddening if that was the only way possible.
On the other hand, this method of finding images would be valuable were someone to do a collage of some sort. The colrpickr version would also be valuable for a mosaic type of thing also.
(like this)
http://www.aolej.com/mosaic/gallery/colo.jpg
Mostly, I found the coverpop page aggravating and useless because I would never search for something in that manner and when I was trying to see different books, it would continue to show the same cover. Perhaps this was just because the collage repeated books in order to make a better rainbow. The colrpickr was more appealing to me because there seemed to be more of a method to finding the photos. Not only could you decide what color scheme you were looking for the pictures in, but you could narrow it down into categories. Changing the categories was also available in coverpop, but it was still more frustrating for me to navigate.
Of the first four websites given, my favorite was the flickr map search tool. This is mostly because I found it interesting to see what regions of the world were taking pictures of what. The fact that you could see the exact location of where the picture was coming from intrigued me also. (I actually wasn’t sure whether the given location was where the photo was taken or where the photographer was from…)
Of the last three websites, I was able to navigate the first and the last, but not the “don’t shoot the puppy” site. There were only two objects that you were able to click: one didn’t do anything and the other made a screen come up saying “You lost.” I still don’t know how you’re supposed to win. All the websites seem to play with the concept of doing something you’re not supposed to. With the red dot, there is nothing else to click, so the viewer is certainly going to click it. I’m not sure how someone would have found that site if they didn’t have it shown to them, though. No one would search for something like that. The website, dontclick.it was a strange concept. I hadn’t ever questioned having a mouse or the other ways that could be used to navigate the computer. Because I have had my mouse and keyboard broken several times, I have found other ways to execute the same functions.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Blog 12: Museum of Jurassic Technology
The organization of the Museum of Jurassic Technology seemed rather like a maze to me, winding from one room to the next. I sometimes got lost due to the lack of apparent progression between the exhibits. Perhaps if I had read up on the museum before coming, I would have been less confused. I visited the museum’s website and read its page of introduction and realized that it had explained that in one of its exhibits closest to the entrance. But again, because it was not anymore prominently displayed than the photo of Noah’s arc on the other side of the entrance to the main museum, I did not pay the introduction video that much attention. The website eliminates the museum’s purpose:
My favorite part of the museum was the exhibit on the pieces of art made of the scales of butterfly wings (see photo above). Henry Dalton, who lived from 1829-1911, created the pieces of art. Being the son of a physician, his skill with microscopes is not that surprising. After designing a slide, he would collect butterfly wings from all over the world, sort the scales by size, shape and color and then create his works of art. Some of Dalton’s micromosaics would require as many as one thousand individual butterfly scales.
I chose the butterfly wing scale pictures because they demonstrate technology’s ability to make seemingly useless pieces of the world into beautiful, if not useful commodities. While the creation of art from butterfly scales seems a rather useless pastime, the fact that it was possible as early as the mid-19th century is notable. It makes one think about how technology has advanced our society to the point where we have the spare time to muse over butterfly wing art.
“Like a coat of two colors, the Museum serves dual functions. On the one hand the Museum provides the academic community with a specialized repository of relics and artifacts from the Lower Jurassic, with an emphasis on those that demonstrate unusual or curious technological qualities. On the other hand the Museum serves the general public by providing the visitor a hands-on experience of "life in the Jurassic"....I’m still not completely sure how statues made small enough to fit inside the heads of needles are related to medieval paintings of religious figures, other than by allowing a man’s mind to attain a mood of aloofness. Perhaps the reason why it is so hard for me to grasp the concept of the museum is because I was raised in an era where methods of amusing ourselves are increasingly mindless – videogames, movies, television. The concept of the museum seems to be to make one think. Though, I don’t classify myself as one of the mindless followers of the era, the fact that I am more used to those methods of entertainment than museums of seemingly random displays is possibly the explanation for my confusion.
...The public museum as understood today, is a collection of specimens and other objects of interest to the scholar, the man of science as well as the more casual visitor, arranged and displayed in accordance with the scientific method. In its original sense, the term "museum" meant a spot dedicated to the muses - "a place where man's mind could attain a mood of aloofness above everyday affairs."
My favorite part of the museum was the exhibit on the pieces of art made of the scales of butterfly wings (see photo above). Henry Dalton, who lived from 1829-1911, created the pieces of art. Being the son of a physician, his skill with microscopes is not that surprising. After designing a slide, he would collect butterfly wings from all over the world, sort the scales by size, shape and color and then create his works of art. Some of Dalton’s micromosaics would require as many as one thousand individual butterfly scales.
I chose the butterfly wing scale pictures because they demonstrate technology’s ability to make seemingly useless pieces of the world into beautiful, if not useful commodities. While the creation of art from butterfly scales seems a rather useless pastime, the fact that it was possible as early as the mid-19th century is notable. It makes one think about how technology has advanced our society to the point where we have the spare time to muse over butterfly wing art.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Blog 11: Small World
I enjoyed exploring the interactive film, Small World, by Florian Thalhofer, but I have to admit, I was slightly confused by it. I realize what it has to do with the narrative structures we have been talking about, but I can only guess what its relationship to space and postmodernism could be. At first it was difficult to enjoy the abstractness of the photos that were brought up, but after a few of them, I started appreciating them and recognizing their connection to the bits of story being told.
The narrative structure is obvious: once the scene is finished, squares pop up that you are allowed to click on. It seemed to me that the choices narrowed as you progress through the film. The little red box at the top right seemed to keep track of how many slides you had gone through. The narrative wasn’t continuous, because when I had gone through all the scenes, it told me it was “the end.” So rather than being a continuous story, it had one specific ending; how you got to the end was your own choice, though. The links to different pages related to each other. Even though they were on several different pages, I could tell that each grouping followed one another.
The relationship to space might refer to the placement of the boxes that you clicked on once the scene was finished. Something interesting that I noticed was that all of the music, except for one song, was from Americans bands. The one song that wasn’t from an American band was by Belle & Sebastian, a Scottish pop band, who also sings in English. This seemed a little different considering that the main version of the film is in German. When I went back to the site and watched the version in German, the songs were not played for as long as they were in the English version. Perhaps this was a way to make the English speakers feel more connected to the foreign origin of the film?
The narrative structure is obvious: once the scene is finished, squares pop up that you are allowed to click on. It seemed to me that the choices narrowed as you progress through the film. The little red box at the top right seemed to keep track of how many slides you had gone through. The narrative wasn’t continuous, because when I had gone through all the scenes, it told me it was “the end.” So rather than being a continuous story, it had one specific ending; how you got to the end was your own choice, though. The links to different pages related to each other. Even though they were on several different pages, I could tell that each grouping followed one another.
The relationship to space might refer to the placement of the boxes that you clicked on once the scene was finished. Something interesting that I noticed was that all of the music, except for one song, was from Americans bands. The one song that wasn’t from an American band was by Belle & Sebastian, a Scottish pop band, who also sings in English. This seemed a little different considering that the main version of the film is in German. When I went back to the site and watched the version in German, the songs were not played for as long as they were in the English version. Perhaps this was a way to make the English speakers feel more connected to the foreign origin of the film?
Monday, November 10, 2008
Blog 10: Videodrome
Normally, I look forward analyzing videos or text for IML 101, but after seeing Videodrome, I was dreading it. Videodrome could perhaps be viewed as a form of “art,” but to me, it is an unnecessary focus on the perverted underworld of violence and sex. Never in my life would I have chosen to watch something like that. There are many other movies that could have applied to Marshall MacLuhan’s theories. Never will I willingly watch something like that again.
I was disturbed and upset by the film.
Since watching the movie, it has not seemed as bad as I thought at first, simply because my brain has tried to rationalize it. This horrifies me because I do not want to normalize any sort of behavior relating to the sadomasochistic smut that we watched. I have tried to block the movie from my mind.
I hate having to recall the movie, but since my grade depend upon it, I will now relate Cronenberg’s Videodrome to Marshall McLuhan’s theories:
McLuhan’s concept of a global village can be seen in Videodrome in the way that the main character is able to pick up channels being distributed from around the world.
McLuhan’s text states, “all media work us over completely.” This is also apparent in Videodrome in the way that the main character becomes so completely involved with his work that it becomes a part of his life away from work. He is apparently extra-receptive to the hallucinations because of his exposure to violence and sex in the media.
“We are enveloped by sound… We can’t shut out sound automatically.” – McLuhan. A reader can choose to look away from reading a book if it becomes distasteful. A listener cannot choose to close their “earlids” when they hear something they do not like. When the main character is watching Dr. Oblivion’s videos and hallucinating, looking away will not stop him from experiencing the sounds of the recording. He could have shut the TV off (but perhaps the hallucination’s grasp on him were too strong), but otherwise, he was plagued by the sound coming from the television.
“In television, the images are projected at you. You are the screen. The images wrap around you. You are the vanishing point.” – McLuhan. The first part of the quote is relevant to the movie because the main character’s job depends on sampling media for his television channel’s audience. The second part of the quote is relevant in a whole different level because the screen stimulates the hallucinations and they take hold of the audience.
I was disturbed and upset by the film.
Since watching the movie, it has not seemed as bad as I thought at first, simply because my brain has tried to rationalize it. This horrifies me because I do not want to normalize any sort of behavior relating to the sadomasochistic smut that we watched. I have tried to block the movie from my mind.
I hate having to recall the movie, but since my grade depend upon it, I will now relate Cronenberg’s Videodrome to Marshall McLuhan’s theories:
McLuhan’s concept of a global village can be seen in Videodrome in the way that the main character is able to pick up channels being distributed from around the world.
McLuhan’s text states, “all media work us over completely.” This is also apparent in Videodrome in the way that the main character becomes so completely involved with his work that it becomes a part of his life away from work. He is apparently extra-receptive to the hallucinations because of his exposure to violence and sex in the media.
“We are enveloped by sound… We can’t shut out sound automatically.” – McLuhan. A reader can choose to look away from reading a book if it becomes distasteful. A listener cannot choose to close their “earlids” when they hear something they do not like. When the main character is watching Dr. Oblivion’s videos and hallucinating, looking away will not stop him from experiencing the sounds of the recording. He could have shut the TV off (but perhaps the hallucination’s grasp on him were too strong), but otherwise, he was plagued by the sound coming from the television.
“In television, the images are projected at you. You are the screen. The images wrap around you. You are the vanishing point.” – McLuhan. The first part of the quote is relevant to the movie because the main character’s job depends on sampling media for his television channel’s audience. The second part of the quote is relevant in a whole different level because the screen stimulates the hallucinations and they take hold of the audience.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Blog 9: The Postmodern Flâneur
"Flâneur" is a word understood intuitively by the French to mean "stroller, idler, walker." He has been portrayed in the past as a well-dressed man, strolling leisurely through the Parisian arcades of the nineteenth century--a shopper with no intention to buy, an intellectual parasite of the arcade. Traditionally the traits that mark the flâneur are wealth, education, and idleness. He strolls to pass the time that his wealth affords him, treating the people who pass and the objects he sees as texts for his own pleasure.
- http://www.thelemming.com/lemming/dissertation-web/home/flaneur.html
As an extension of this definition, a postmodern flâneur could be defined as the online world – browsing the Internet for information or goods. After going through the online world of Second Life, it is obvious that it can be defined as a “postmodern flâneur” as well.
Once my account was set up, and I had downloaded the program, it took me to a part of the Second Life world for a tutorial. It walked me through the steps of how to control my character’s movements and how to change the looks of my character, or avatar as they were calling it. The funny thing about “avatars” is that in most other cases that I’ve known of or had avatars, they were still, small, square image; not moving, interacting characters. As I was walking and flying around (because in Second Life, that is possible), another character came up to me and started talking. Normally, in a video game, it is only a computer-generated character you are interacting with; in Second Life, you are interacting with any human who has internet capabilities. There are so many warnings out there now about not talking to strangers in the online world, much the same as warning about strangers in the real world. A key difference, though, is that online strangers have the capabilities to hack into your computer, which stores tons of personal information that you might not have in any other location. So, I decided not to “talk with” the person who came up to me.
After walking around for a while, I decided to try and leave this learning stage of the Second Life world. It took me a while to figure out, but I finally “teleported” to another location. There was a lot I wanted to try and do, but because I lacked the knowledge of how to do things, I felt limited. I also didn’t want to get involved in a role-play sort of thing or sent on a mission anywhere. This seems to make it similar to a window-shopping experience in that you do not have to get involved. A user in Second Life can merely be a passive player in the game. It seems like a lot of time has to be invested if you want to accomplish anything in the game.
While the world is quite extensive, there are still glitches in the graphics. When I was trying to get into a place that seemed like a mall, I tried flying in, but then the walls closed in front of me and wouldn’t let me through. And when I was changing the looks of my character, it wouldn’t always do it correctly. I changed the type of shoe my character was wearing and it ended up looking like she had huge holes in her shoes because her feet were sticking out. These sort of things wouldn’t happen in the real world.
One of the major differences between walking though a fake world and through the real one is that there are no smells in the fake world. I remember reading something in a psychology class junior year that our sense of smell is the only one that goes directly to the cortex of the brain, bypassing the thalamus. This allows us to link smells more directly with memories and emotions. Just yesterday as I was walking to the football game, I thought of camping because it smelled like rain and fires. My friends experienced a similar sensation. In the world of Real Life, there aren’t any smells to trigger memories.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Blog 8: Multimedia Genre - Narrative
First of all: when I saw The Way Things Go video, I was immediately reminded of the Honda Accord Commercial that I saw from an email. The text of the email is as follows:
Here’s the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyN9y0BEMqc
I have seen various other movies before in which inanimate objects independently affect each other in order to create another response that repeatedly triggers action, as seen in the Honda Accord commercial and in The Way Things Go. Perhaps it is because I do not know the maker’s intent in The Way Things Go, but the Honda commercial seems to have a greater purpose and limitations that the engineers overcame, making me more in awe of the footage. Perhaps it’s also because I know the other background facts about the Honda commercial (606 takes, 6 million dollars to film, etc). It seems like there is greater creativity in the Honda commercial, because they were limited to using the car they were promoting (similar to the film style in Leth and von Trier’s film, The Five Obstructions). The narrative seemed self-explanatory; the objects were acting upon each other to prompt the motion of the next.
While I didn’t fully understand the narrative in The Way Things Go, Soft Cinema seemed to have more of a point behind it. Practically all cultures have symbols and colors that have specific meanings. Colors, for example, indicate seasons, teams, and even emotions. The combination of colors, images, text, and sound form what seems to be a more realistic representation of how our brains recall memories. Humans don’t have a perfect memory; details are often left out in exchange for emotions. Soft Cinema was confusing to watch at first, but made more sense as I adjusted to watching it. It’s one thing to think of one’s brain processing and recording memories in the manner Soft Cinema does, but it’s another to watch it on a screen. Watching the video seemed to almost require a passive viewer who didn’t concentrate too hard on the separate pieces of the movie, rather digested it as a whole.
If you thought that the people who set up a room full of dominoes to have them knocked over later was amazing, you haven't seen anything yet. There are no computer graphics or digital tricks in these images. Everything that you see happened in real time exactly as you see it.
The recording required 606 takes and in the first 605 takes there always was something, usually of minor importance, that didn't work. It was necessary for the recording team to install the set-up time after time and it took several weeks working day and night to achieve this effect. The recording cost 6 million dollars and it took 3 months to finish,
including the engineering design of the sequence. The duration of the video is only 2 minutes, but every time that Honda shows the commercial on British television, they make enough money to support any of us for the rest of our lives. However, this commercial has turned out to be the most displayed in the history of the Internet. Honda execs think that it will pay for itself simply because of the free showings (Honda is not paying one cent for you to see it) When Honda senior execs viewed it, they immediately approved it without hesitation-including costs.
There are only six Honda Accords built by hand in the whole world, and to the horror of Honda engineers, the recording team disassembled two of them for the recording. Everything you see in the sequence (besides the walls, floor, ramp and untouched Honda Accord) is part of those two automobiles. The voice is that of Garrison Keiller. The commercial was so well received by Honda execs when they saw it, that their first comment was how amazing the computer graphics were. They almost fell out of their chairs when told that the recording was real without any graphics manipulation
By the way, about the wind shield wipers in the new Honda Accords, they are sensitive to water and designed to start working as soon as they get wet.
Here’s the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyN9y0BEMqc
I have seen various other movies before in which inanimate objects independently affect each other in order to create another response that repeatedly triggers action, as seen in the Honda Accord commercial and in The Way Things Go. Perhaps it is because I do not know the maker’s intent in The Way Things Go, but the Honda commercial seems to have a greater purpose and limitations that the engineers overcame, making me more in awe of the footage. Perhaps it’s also because I know the other background facts about the Honda commercial (606 takes, 6 million dollars to film, etc). It seems like there is greater creativity in the Honda commercial, because they were limited to using the car they were promoting (similar to the film style in Leth and von Trier’s film, The Five Obstructions). The narrative seemed self-explanatory; the objects were acting upon each other to prompt the motion of the next.
While I didn’t fully understand the narrative in The Way Things Go, Soft Cinema seemed to have more of a point behind it. Practically all cultures have symbols and colors that have specific meanings. Colors, for example, indicate seasons, teams, and even emotions. The combination of colors, images, text, and sound form what seems to be a more realistic representation of how our brains recall memories. Humans don’t have a perfect memory; details are often left out in exchange for emotions. Soft Cinema was confusing to watch at first, but made more sense as I adjusted to watching it. It’s one thing to think of one’s brain processing and recording memories in the manner Soft Cinema does, but it’s another to watch it on a screen. Watching the video seemed to almost require a passive viewer who didn’t concentrate too hard on the separate pieces of the movie, rather digested it as a whole.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Blog 7: Scientific Visual Culture
The goal of each of the “artists” from the Critical Art Ensemble website seems be to generate dialogue about the subject they are discussing. Some of the artists go so far as to create a “cult” as the “Cult of the New Eve” does. They “worship” the New Eve by parodying text from the Bible, using the same font and graphics as medieval versions of the Bible did, etc. They even manipulate actual pictures from the Renaissance and other art periods in order to insert people with their cult’s garb (red cloaks and dark glasses) as seen in this picture:
Flesh Projet by BioCom seems to support biotechnology as it discusses biotechnology as a means to grow new organs and tissues. It also talks about discovering the secrets of the code that programs the DNA – the proteins A, C, T, and G. “This recombinant DNA is essential for the redesign of the body for specific, goal-oriented tasks that better complement its interface with technology within the real space of production. Human characteristics must also be rationally designed and engineered in order to eliminate body functions and psychological characteristics that refuse ideological inscription.” (http://www.critical-art.net/biotech/biocom/biocomWeb/dnatest.html)
While most of the projects seem to have a definite opinion on whether biotechnology is ethical or whether it should be pursued, it seems like that message matters less than the result of getting people to discuss whether it is or not. They just want to bring it into public attention.
Biotechnology and deciphering the human DNA relates to scientific visual culture as we discussed in class because by discovering which parts of the DNA modify our phenotypic traits. These traits include eye color, height, skin color, or the shape of your nose. By completely understanding DNA and genetics, scientists will also be able to decide whether people are defined by “nature” or “nurture.” With this technology, it will also allow us to project what future generations will look like as cultures become more connected and overlapping. In other words, as the world becomes more of a monoculture and interbreeds, scientists will be able to forecast what affects it will have on humans. If scientists know exactly how the DNA correlates to all aspects of the body, they will be able to predict whether an unborn baby will have learning disabilities or exceptional athletic ability. Scientists will be able to catalogue traits before they have been developed as opposed to after they were developed as Eadweard Muybridge found with his Motion Studies in the 1880s.
Flesh Projet by BioCom seems to support biotechnology as it discusses biotechnology as a means to grow new organs and tissues. It also talks about discovering the secrets of the code that programs the DNA – the proteins A, C, T, and G. “This recombinant DNA is essential for the redesign of the body for specific, goal-oriented tasks that better complement its interface with technology within the real space of production. Human characteristics must also be rationally designed and engineered in order to eliminate body functions and psychological characteristics that refuse ideological inscription.” (http://www.critical-art.net/biotech/biocom/biocomWeb/dnatest.html)
While most of the projects seem to have a definite opinion on whether biotechnology is ethical or whether it should be pursued, it seems like that message matters less than the result of getting people to discuss whether it is or not. They just want to bring it into public attention.
Biotechnology and deciphering the human DNA relates to scientific visual culture as we discussed in class because by discovering which parts of the DNA modify our phenotypic traits. These traits include eye color, height, skin color, or the shape of your nose. By completely understanding DNA and genetics, scientists will also be able to decide whether people are defined by “nature” or “nurture.” With this technology, it will also allow us to project what future generations will look like as cultures become more connected and overlapping. In other words, as the world becomes more of a monoculture and interbreeds, scientists will be able to forecast what affects it will have on humans. If scientists know exactly how the DNA correlates to all aspects of the body, they will be able to predict whether an unborn baby will have learning disabilities or exceptional athletic ability. Scientists will be able to catalogue traits before they have been developed as opposed to after they were developed as Eadweard Muybridge found with his Motion Studies in the 1880s.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Blog 6: An Inconvenient Truth
The message trying to be argued in Davis Guggenheim’s film, An Inconvenient Truth, is that global warming is occurring and that the general populous needs to change their consumption and conservation habits.
Al Gore traveled the world giving a power point presentation reflecting this message and the movie shows his presentation, follows some of his travels while he narrates the whole thing. Most laypeople would have been extremely bored had they just chosen to record his presentation. Instead, the moviemakers decided to put Al Gore’s personal (and sometimes only vaguely relevant) anecdotes in amongst the footage of the presentation. Another key tactic they use to keep viewers engaged is making references to popular culture or at least by using metaphors. For example, toward the beginning of the film, they show a short, dumbed-down version of global warming presented by an newscaster in Simpson’s style cartooning. They also relate the Earth and its atmosphere to a globe with a coat of varnish. I think it’s also critical when analyzing how the stance is developed to notice that most of the “current” pictures shown of the environment all have red, smoky backgrounds. The color red also has the connotation of having to do with violence, blood, and forbidden or negative things, which affects subconscious readings of the pictures.
Mr. Gore and Mr. Guggenheim are trying to portray their film as presenting the truth by referencing “scientists” all the time. They also seem to want to show Mr. Gore as a scholarly, reliable common-man type. They paint his childhood as atypical, but he still supposedly kept his roots by living 4 months of the year on a farm. When Mr. Gore isn’t shown giving a presentation in the movie, he is on his laptop. It seems impossible that he would be making changes to the presentation every spare moment he had; even while other people on the plane are sleeping, he is vigilantly working on his laptop. An Inconvenient Truth seems to have a personal aspect to it, like Brzeski’s film, but it seems more scientific and factual, like Faden’s film (despite the fact that Faden’s film ends up being a fake old movie). Both Brzeski’s film and Guggenheim’s employ the use of metaphors, though in different manners, in order to give more substance to their argument.
Gore and Guggenheim want the audience to realize that global warming is occurring at a rate that must be slowed down as soon as possible. In the movie, Gore asks questions that seem to prompt action, “Future generations may well have occasion to ask themselves, "What were our parents thinking? Why didn't they wake up when they had a chance?" We have to hear that question from them, now.”
As a side note:
I have to admit, I am slightly biased against this movie due to previous articles I have read:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/house.asp
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/feb/28/film.usa2
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=64734
http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/sendler.asp
http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/checker.aspx?v=Q4prVr4z
Those are a few. I also had heard about his “carbon credits” and found these articles on that:
http://riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2007/03/al_gores_inconv.html
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54528
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-08-09-gore-green_x.htm
The last paragraph of the last article asks a question that I find pertinent to the matter:
“The issue here is not simply Gore's hypocrisy; it's a question of credibility. If he genuinely believes the apocalyptic vision he has put forth and calls for radical changes in the way other people live, why hasn't he made any radical change in his life?”
Al Gore traveled the world giving a power point presentation reflecting this message and the movie shows his presentation, follows some of his travels while he narrates the whole thing. Most laypeople would have been extremely bored had they just chosen to record his presentation. Instead, the moviemakers decided to put Al Gore’s personal (and sometimes only vaguely relevant) anecdotes in amongst the footage of the presentation. Another key tactic they use to keep viewers engaged is making references to popular culture or at least by using metaphors. For example, toward the beginning of the film, they show a short, dumbed-down version of global warming presented by an newscaster in Simpson’s style cartooning. They also relate the Earth and its atmosphere to a globe with a coat of varnish. I think it’s also critical when analyzing how the stance is developed to notice that most of the “current” pictures shown of the environment all have red, smoky backgrounds. The color red also has the connotation of having to do with violence, blood, and forbidden or negative things, which affects subconscious readings of the pictures.
Mr. Gore and Mr. Guggenheim are trying to portray their film as presenting the truth by referencing “scientists” all the time. They also seem to want to show Mr. Gore as a scholarly, reliable common-man type. They paint his childhood as atypical, but he still supposedly kept his roots by living 4 months of the year on a farm. When Mr. Gore isn’t shown giving a presentation in the movie, he is on his laptop. It seems impossible that he would be making changes to the presentation every spare moment he had; even while other people on the plane are sleeping, he is vigilantly working on his laptop. An Inconvenient Truth seems to have a personal aspect to it, like Brzeski’s film, but it seems more scientific and factual, like Faden’s film (despite the fact that Faden’s film ends up being a fake old movie). Both Brzeski’s film and Guggenheim’s employ the use of metaphors, though in different manners, in order to give more substance to their argument.
Gore and Guggenheim want the audience to realize that global warming is occurring at a rate that must be slowed down as soon as possible. In the movie, Gore asks questions that seem to prompt action, “Future generations may well have occasion to ask themselves, "What were our parents thinking? Why didn't they wake up when they had a chance?" We have to hear that question from them, now.”
As a side note:
I have to admit, I am slightly biased against this movie due to previous articles I have read:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/house.asp
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/feb/28/film.usa2
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=64734
http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/sendler.asp
http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/checker.aspx?v=Q4prVr4z
Those are a few. I also had heard about his “carbon credits” and found these articles on that:
http://riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2007/03/al_gores_inconv.html
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54528
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-08-09-gore-green_x.htm
The last paragraph of the last article asks a question that I find pertinent to the matter:
“The issue here is not simply Gore's hypocrisy; it's a question of credibility. If he genuinely believes the apocalyptic vision he has put forth and calls for radical changes in the way other people live, why hasn't he made any radical change in his life?”
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Blog 5: Brzeski & Faden
“Certain subjects… may be termed ‘cinematic’ because they seem to exert a peculiar attraction on the medium. It is as if the medium were predestined (and eager) to exhibit them.” – Sigfried Kracauer, Theory of FilmThis quote prefaces Tracking Theory: The Synthetic Philosophy of The Glance, By Eric S. Faden. In both his movie and Eva Ilona Brzeski’s film, This Unfamiliar Place, they introduce their main plot by using a story or an anecdote to capture the readers’ attention. Brzeski’s story of being “intrigued by disaster” as a little girl seems to flow easier into the main story about her father. Faden’s whole film covers a much broader topic; he sets up his film by showing the three movies that inspired him, Wong Kar Wai's 2046, Lars Von Trier's Europa, and Gustavo Mosquera's Moebius, describing their themes, and his interpretation of them.
Brzeski’s film seems to be a personal exploration of her family. The narrator seems to be speaking from Brzeski’s point of view and the whole film has a dreamlike quality about it. The footage is mostly smooth and slow with audio playing on top of the images. Usually during an interview or the narration, there is music or whistling or nature sounds. Even the happy clip of her parents dancing at the end is slowed down. The visual imagery of that clip, though, is contrasted with the father’s words being spoken over it: “some of those things I don’t even think about. You know, I don’t even want to remember.” His life now seems to be a dream after the nightmare of Nazi occupation. There are a few clips of “destruction” – literal interpretations of the narrator’s words at the beginning—but even these seem to be slowed down and have music or narration over them, making them not seem quite as scary. They seem more to be a memory than an actual event taking place.
In my micro-seminar I took during Welcome Week with Michael Renov, we read two chapters of the book Collecting Visible Evidence. (I just found out that he was a co-editor of this book.) One of the strategies we discussed was that of “coimplication,” which was defined as “a kind of supplementary autobiographical practice; it functions as a vehicle of self-examination, a means through which to construct self-knowledge through recourse to the familial other.” This idea is visible in Brzeski’s film; she learns more about herself through exploring her father’s past. At one point in the film, you can tell that he is speaking directly to his daughter who is filming him. He says, “I would like to talk about other things if I have a choice, do I?” This part refers to Renov’s theory of “textual authority,” in which the “filial obligation outpaces directorial control.” She probably wasn’t expecting her father to turn around the interview and ask her questions. This exchange wouldn’t be possible if he was someone she didn’t know very well, but because he is her father, that usurpation of power is possible.
Faden begins his story with a different sort of personal anecdote. It definitely doesn’t feel as intimate as the story from Brzeski’s childhood, but his film isn’t as personal as hers seems to be. The whole introduction seemed a collage of words, video and audio clips. While the narrator was speaking, you could also hear other clips of audio as well as see words float across the screen. This modern compilation of media segued into an old time looking movie. At first, I was convinced I was looking at an authentic old piece of film, especially because the narrator had said, “By coincidence, when doing archival research last year, I stumbled upon the very movie that I had dreamed.” But after I heard one of the people in the film speak, I was pretty sure it wasn’t; I don’t think they had the technology to produce sound with the visuals when that type of filming was being done. I thought it was interesting how the narration preceding the old movie exactly described it.
“I thought about a long ago time when movies did more than just tell stories. A time when exhibitors edited fragments together and lecturers supplemented the visual spectacle with details and knowledge.”I also really liked the ending, where it jolts the viewer back to the present with a SUV driving across the screen and going from black and white, grainy film to colored, smooth-looking, modern film.
Both movies had references to trains, although Faden’s examples of them were much more direct. In Brzeski’s film, a train is shown when she is talking about her trip as a twelve year old to the alps while her father wrote his memoirs. Both movies use film clips as metaphors to further the meaning of their words. In Faden’s film, he uses abstract images along with the narration. They don’t necessarily seem to be metaphors as much of the time as literal representation of what he is saying. He shows people working with the footage while discussing finding the archival footage and clips of old movies while talking about them. One instance where it does seem to be a metaphor is when he says he “stumbled upon the very movie” and the clip being shown is of two trains crashing into each other. It makes it seem like he has “crashed” head-on to the conclusion he is making about film. Brzeski uses clips of rain and the sound of rain, which seems to be a sign of renewal. Her father’s life is new and the old parts are washed away; he has forgotten about his old life because he’s so involved with his life now. There is also a clip of empty carnival rides that has the audio over it saying she was “anticipating a reaction that never came.” I think using the visual clips in addition to the narration is an extremely effective way to saturate the viewer with the desired meaning.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Blog 4: Appropriation/Reappropriation
The artist, Banksy has used his art as a commentary about several topical issues including war, poverty, government and capitalism. It could almost be said that he is a sort of political cartoonist, except instead of being published in magazines, his images are displayed on public property. He not only paints graffiti, he also sneaks altered pictures into museums and paints/draws pictures that he puts on his website, www.banksy.co.uk/. One of his key techniques is altering known images to give them a different meaning. He does this much along the same lines as Barbara Kruger, except he doesn’t always use an ambiguous phrase; often he just adds an extra detail to the picture. Like Andy Warhol, he took famous works of art (like Monet’s water lilies) and altered them to produce different interpretations of the original work of art. Here are a few examples: (The original work is on the left and Banksy's work is on the right.)
Banksy’s artwork, which originally started as a rebellious act, is becoming reappropriated. Though his personal identity is still unknown, his popularity as an artist has grown immensely. “His refusal to be interviewed in person or even to reveal his real name has added to his mystique over the years.” (http://weburbanist.com/2008/07/15/who-is-banksy-about-banksy/) I recently recognized Banksy art in Children of Men, a movie by Alfonso Cuarón. The movie is set in 2027 on Earth, where humans have somehow lost the ability to procreate. The whole world seems to be coming to an end, and while the majority of the population is desperate and poor, there are a few who are disgustingly rich. One of the wealthy people has taken to collecting the great works of art to stop them from being destroyed during this chaotic time. Cuarón decided that Banksy’s work was among those valuable pieces. This piece of work is shown on part of a wall in the movie: 
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Robert Frank: Visual Interpretation Strategies
For my Studium/Punctum piece, I ended up using two of Robert Frank’s photos and combining them. In the picture of the couple on the motorcycle, the couple seemed to be distinctly looking down and I expanded on that by placing another picture “underneath” them. I was thinking of it metaphorically as them not only visually looking down upon the people in the bottom picture, but as them disliking them and finding them not as worthy as themselves. In the bottom picture, the people are predominantly Caucasians and the couple on the motorcycle are African American, as are most of the people in the background of their picture. The story that I created in my mind was that the black couple was either resentful for segregation and racism or they felt some pity on the ignorant white people who force themselves above blacks. I think with the hard looks on their faces, though, that the former seems more fitting.
Another detail I added was a sense of more depth by changing the darkness/brightness of the different pictures. I see that as metaphorical in a sense, also, because it’s showing that racism isn’t a simply one-dimensional issue. There are many layers of truths and different reasons for people acting the way they do (not that I’m justifying prejudice in any way, shape or form). The overall idea is that the picture invokes thoughts about racism and its meaning.
Another detail I added was a sense of more depth by changing the darkness/brightness of the different pictures. I see that as metaphorical in a sense, also, because it’s showing that racism isn’t a simply one-dimensional issue. There are many layers of truths and different reasons for people acting the way they do (not that I’m justifying prejudice in any way, shape or form). The overall idea is that the picture invokes thoughts about racism and its meaning.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Dead Media Project: Phonograph Doll and Beyond
The phonograph had its first origins in 1877 when Thomas Edison was “experimenting with a machine that could reproduce the message given by a voice on the telephone.” Not long after (1878), Edison patented the phonograph doll in an attempt to make childrens’ toys seem more realistic. Edison’s first dolls recited nursery rhymes through a little needle tracing grooves on a wax covered disc. French took the phonograph doll a step further by allowing a wider variety of phrases to be said by one doll by creating multiple cylinders. They even made them in three different languages: French, Spanish and English. Companies in America and in Europe stole ideas from each other, especially around the time of the first World War.
As a little girl, I remember having a teddy bear with a music box inside of it as well as several dolls that had several phrases they could say when their hand was squeezed or a button was pushed. While the music box bear was an older technology (available in the late 18th century), the speaking dolls that I owned as a little girl were much more advanced than the originals from the early 1900s. My dolls ran on battery power and had a microchip that recorded what they were supposed to say.
It seems that the goal of toy manufacturers is to make children’s toys increasingly more realistic; when I was about 8, I remember the Furby toy was released. I never owned one, but I heard from my friends that when you first buy a Furby, they speak only their language, “Furbish.” But as you have them their knowledge of English grows and they speak less Furbish and more English. “The more English they learn, the more they "grow", thus placing them under the autonomous robot category.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furby) After reading http://www.kidsturncentral.com/topics/toys/tn080205.htm, I learned that the Furby was re-released in 2005. “The new FURBY now has an off switch so the chatterbox toy won’t break into song or story-telling mode during the middle of the night!” (http://www.kidsturncentral.com/topics/toys/tn080205.htm) This was one of the main complaints I had from my friends; they would be awakened in the middle of the night to a creepy voice saying “Fuuuuurby looooooooove yooouuu.” I would have been frightened too. During a UN Plaza event, Furbies were used to allow children who spoken different language to communicate using Furbish. The technology of Furby indicates the possibilities for its expansion, like new ways to teach children to acquire languages or even simply as educational electronic playmates. Especially because so many cultures value the education of their children, interactive playtime technology will only expand from Edison’s phonograph doll to become more advanced as time goes on.
As a little girl, I remember having a teddy bear with a music box inside of it as well as several dolls that had several phrases they could say when their hand was squeezed or a button was pushed. While the music box bear was an older technology (available in the late 18th century), the speaking dolls that I owned as a little girl were much more advanced than the originals from the early 1900s. My dolls ran on battery power and had a microchip that recorded what they were supposed to say.
It seems that the goal of toy manufacturers is to make children’s toys increasingly more realistic; when I was about 8, I remember the Furby toy was released. I never owned one, but I heard from my friends that when you first buy a Furby, they speak only their language, “Furbish.” But as you have them their knowledge of English grows and they speak less Furbish and more English. “The more English they learn, the more they "grow", thus placing them under the autonomous robot category.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furby) After reading http://www.kidsturncentral.com/topics/toys/tn080205.htm, I learned that the Furby was re-released in 2005. “The new FURBY now has an off switch so the chatterbox toy won’t break into song or story-telling mode during the middle of the night!” (http://www.kidsturncentral.com/topics/toys/tn080205.htm) This was one of the main complaints I had from my friends; they would be awakened in the middle of the night to a creepy voice saying “Fuuuuurby looooooooove yooouuu.” I would have been frightened too. During a UN Plaza event, Furbies were used to allow children who spoken different language to communicate using Furbish. The technology of Furby indicates the possibilities for its expansion, like new ways to teach children to acquire languages or even simply as educational electronic playmates. Especially because so many cultures value the education of their children, interactive playtime technology will only expand from Edison’s phonograph doll to become more advanced as time goes on.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Einstein in California: 3 Winters in the Sun
The way the content is represented in Einstein in California: Three Winters in the Sun more realistically portrays Einstein’s life than a regular biography. Because there isn’t a specific flow to exploring the particle streams of the interactive video, there isn’t a directed way to learn about his life. Multiple categories of his life were happening at once (political activism while hobnobbing with celebrities while conducting scientific research) this interactive method allowed a better understanding to be established about his multifaceted life. At first, the strange sounds in the background made me feel as if I were in an alternate reality while learning about his life, but as I got used to it, I started likening it to more of a reflective world. I also began paying attention to the fact that a lot of the strange sounds were coming from string instruments, which reminded me of Einstein’s love of playing the violin in his free time.
Personally, I agree with Einstein’s actions concerning the atomic bomb. He knew that the Germans were pursuing the technology of the atomic bomb and felt it was pressing that the US have the technology before the “bad guys” did. I never realized how much guilt he must have felt concerning the use of such a destructive technology. I liked this quote that summed up his feelings on the subject:
Personally, I agree with Einstein’s actions concerning the atomic bomb. He knew that the Germans were pursuing the technology of the atomic bomb and felt it was pressing that the US have the technology before the “bad guys” did. I never realized how much guilt he must have felt concerning the use of such a destructive technology. I liked this quote that summed up his feelings on the subject:
“We scientists, whose tragic destiny it has been to help make the methods of annihilation ever more gruesome and more effective, must consider it our solemn and transcendent duty to do all in our power to prevent those weapons from being used for the brutal purpose for which they were invented.”Though it must have been hard living with the knowledge of the possibilities of the atomic bomb, I think he made the correct decision in encouraging Roosevelt to develop the bomb. With the catastrophic events that were happening during the holocaust, the idea of the Nazis having such a devastating power in their arsenal gives me chills. As we discussed in our last class, I think that new inventions will always be created if there is the knowledge of how to do so. The scary part about it all is wondering what kind of people will be the holders of that technology. Cloning, for example, can be used to clone and entire being, which brings up ethical questions like whether or not that cloned person should have the same rights as the original being and if it’s even right for humans to be playing the part of God. On the other hand, though, cloning body parts might allow thousands to live when no other organs are available for an emergency transplant. So although the atomic bomb had devastating effects on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, I think the possibility of allowing the Nazis to have that technology would have been far worse.
-Albert Einstein, 1948
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Response to "The Five Obstructions"
In the film, Five Obstructions, Lars von Trier poses a series of obstacles to fellow filmmaker Jørgen Leth. His obstructions drive him crazy at first; he even refers to them as diabolical. Though it seems like these obstructions would be an inhibitor for Leth, he instead uses them as a way to think outside of the box. They prevent him from continuing to film in the same way. After the film made in Cuba, von Trier begins to realize that “The trouble is (Leth is) so clever that whatever I say inspires (him).” Von Trier also claims several times throughout the film that he doesn’t care if Leth’s film (with von Trier’s obstructions) is “crap,” but he seems to realize that no matter what he says, Leth will be able to do so successfully.
Von Trier wanted to remove Leth from his comfort zone. The ideal man and woman in his original movie were shot in a pristine environment without distractions. One of the original obstructions of “no set” was probably one of the hardest for Leth due to the fact that it meant that many elements were beyond his control. His movie filmed in Bombay didn’t have the obstruction of not using a set, but there was a whole crowd of people in the background who could have hindered the making of the film. It also seemed ironic for von Trier to send Leth to a “miserable place” when he was trying to portray the “perfect man.” One would think in order to have a perfect man, it’d be necessary to have him living in the ideal location.
“When I have something to work against, it liberates my imagination”From the movie, it seemed like von Trier was a huge fan of Leth’s. Because I didn’t know his background, I also assumed that Leth was the more accomplished and more famous filmmaker of the two. Perhaps that was merely because of the age difference. In many cultures, the younger generation is taught to revere their elders, though this is more the case in East Asian cultures than in Western cultures. I’m not sure why I was thinking that, especially when von Trier was in the position of authority – designating the obstructions posed for Leth. Despite this, there seems to be a mutual respect between the two. Von Trier isn’t obligated to be creating the impediments for Leth just as Leth does not need to be listening to von Trier’s suggestions.
– Jørgen Leth, from an interview with indiewire.com.
One creative obstruction that comes to mind is when artists are challenged in a contest to create something using only recycled materials. The ingenuity that springs from that limitation is sure to spur other ideas as well. For example, I recently purchased a bag online that was made from recycled shipping materials. Another invention that might have been produced from the idea of only using recycled materials is Patagonia’s recycling clothes program. They break down used Patagonia clothes in order to make new ones.
Lars von Trier has written, acted, produced, or directed over one hundred films. He suffers from aerophobia, fear of flying, so most all his films’ locations are in Denmark or Sweden, even though they might be set in the U.S. or other foreign countries. While he was a student at the Danish Film School, he made two films, Nocture (1980) and Image of Liberation (1982). Both movies won Best Film awards at the Munich film Festival. In his post film school years, he began a series of post-apocalyptic films: the Europe trilogy. Key creative aspects of the movies included sticking to a certain color scheme (as he did in “Element of Crime” when he stuck to sepia tone and used occasional streaks of light blue)and changing film types (between 16mm and 35mm in “Epidemic”). Quite a few of his earlier pieces contain both horror and comedy within the same movie. He demonstrates his breadth of involvement in the industry with his musical, “Dancer in the Dark” (2000), as well as with his production company, “Zentropa, that he co-founded in 1992.
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