Michaelangelo Antonioni's "The Passanger" is a film that follows David Locke, a reporter, who takes on the life of David Robertson when he unexpectidly dies. They met in Africa when staying in the same hotel and formed a of friendship. After assuming this new identity Locke walks in the footsteps of this other man without knowing what he is getting himself into, Robertson was a gunrunner for African rebels. Along the way he meets "girl" who is a wanderer herself.
The most striking thing to me about this movie was that it was as if the camera was an observer itself, following this man through his life. The movie begins slowly, with few lines, and the audience is just watching. The camera would shift views and look off into the desert, or watch a camel walking, or a wire on the wall, and then go back to watching Locke. The focus was never entirely on the main character or what he was doing. Something would be happening, and then as if the camera's attention got caught by something on the side it would change views, then "remember" what was going on main stage and go back to the main story line
As opposed to distracting me from the film, I actually felt that it enhanced it. Because of the slower pace of the movie, it had the potential to get boring, as many films of these kinds do. I was more intuned to the film because of these changes in direction of the camera. It made me feel more "there" in the movie because I was seeing these tiny details, these random images that are always present in movies but always bypassed. They gave more visual texture to the film that I really liked.
Another thing that I feel that the director did well was the way he did the memory sequences. After Robertson dies, Locke remembers moments with him, listens to recordings of their conversations, as he begins his transformation into Robertson. The change from present time to memory time is subtle and flows. In one part of the room it will be a memory, and then the camera will pan across the building and look in through a window and it's the present.
Over all I enjoyed the film and was suprised that Jack Nicholson was in it, it seemed a different kind of movie than his others.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
PFA Michelangelo Antonioni – The Passenger
Michelangelo Antonioni – The Passenger
Jack Nicholson in Michelangelo Antonioni’s “The Passenger,” stars as David Locke, a British journalist covering the civil war in instable parts of Africa. When an acquaintance, David Robertson, suddenly dies of a questionable heart attack, Locke spontaneously swaps identities, perhaps to leave his lost burnt out life. While assuming the mysterious Robertson’s life, Locke follows Robertson’s appointment book only to discover his new identity is a gunrunner for the African rebels. Locke makes one last visit to his previous life before he escapes and embarks on Robertson’s life. Upon his travels, he meets a young mysterious woman who seems like a wanderer with no direction. She accompanies him on his journey, urging him to continue Robertson’s fight with the rebels against tyrannical rule. However, unsure of his actions, Locke continually runs from both his past life, as his cheating wife and producer search for him, and pursuing African agents, unbeknownst to Locke. As the pursuers catch up to Locke, he also meets his untimely fate.
“The Passenger” starts out with almost no dialogue and often times eerily silences filled with little background sounds. I have never seen a film in which the director continually zooms or pans out from the characters to focus on the surrounding setting or landscape. In many scenes, Antonioni pulls out to situate the viewer in the desolate African deserts, the winding turns and hills of Spain, the bustling cityscape, or focusing on settings outside windows and impending events unknown to Locke. In addition, Antonioni portrays past events in an interesting manner. Rather than cutting or using a flashback blur, he leaves the present characters in the same scene as the past events. In an earlier part of the film, Locke recalls a conversation he had with Robertson occurring as he is sitting at his desk. The camera then pans left toward a balcony in which both Locke and Robertson were conversing with each other. As the camera pans back to Locke at his desk, we discover the conversation occurring was from a recorder. In another scene, Antonioni shows Locke’s wife looking out a window, witnessing Locke crazily burning a pile of branches. As the camera cuts to down to Locke’s level of perception, his wife remains in the upstairs window and another woman worryingly runs out screaming at Locke. We later realize that the worried woman was Locke’s wife and the events occurring took place in the past. His wife in the window is in the present realm reminiscing about the fiasco.
I enjoyed the film’s long drawn out scenic shots. However, sometimes I found the movie too slow and not very stimulating. At times, I felt as if I was wandering along with the characters, confused about which direction to be heading in their journey. Overall, I still enjoyed the film.
-Benjamin Louie
Jack Nicholson in Michelangelo Antonioni’s “The Passenger,” stars as David Locke, a British journalist covering the civil war in instable parts of Africa. When an acquaintance, David Robertson, suddenly dies of a questionable heart attack, Locke spontaneously swaps identities, perhaps to leave his lost burnt out life. While assuming the mysterious Robertson’s life, Locke follows Robertson’s appointment book only to discover his new identity is a gunrunner for the African rebels. Locke makes one last visit to his previous life before he escapes and embarks on Robertson’s life. Upon his travels, he meets a young mysterious woman who seems like a wanderer with no direction. She accompanies him on his journey, urging him to continue Robertson’s fight with the rebels against tyrannical rule. However, unsure of his actions, Locke continually runs from both his past life, as his cheating wife and producer search for him, and pursuing African agents, unbeknownst to Locke. As the pursuers catch up to Locke, he also meets his untimely fate.
“The Passenger” starts out with almost no dialogue and often times eerily silences filled with little background sounds. I have never seen a film in which the director continually zooms or pans out from the characters to focus on the surrounding setting or landscape. In many scenes, Antonioni pulls out to situate the viewer in the desolate African deserts, the winding turns and hills of Spain, the bustling cityscape, or focusing on settings outside windows and impending events unknown to Locke. In addition, Antonioni portrays past events in an interesting manner. Rather than cutting or using a flashback blur, he leaves the present characters in the same scene as the past events. In an earlier part of the film, Locke recalls a conversation he had with Robertson occurring as he is sitting at his desk. The camera then pans left toward a balcony in which both Locke and Robertson were conversing with each other. As the camera pans back to Locke at his desk, we discover the conversation occurring was from a recorder. In another scene, Antonioni shows Locke’s wife looking out a window, witnessing Locke crazily burning a pile of branches. As the camera cuts to down to Locke’s level of perception, his wife remains in the upstairs window and another woman worryingly runs out screaming at Locke. We later realize that the worried woman was Locke’s wife and the events occurring took place in the past. His wife in the window is in the present realm reminiscing about the fiasco.
I enjoyed the film’s long drawn out scenic shots. However, sometimes I found the movie too slow and not very stimulating. At times, I felt as if I was wandering along with the characters, confused about which direction to be heading in their journey. Overall, I still enjoyed the film.
-Benjamin Louie
Friday, April 13, 2007
Week of April 16 and 18
For Monday read the following chapters from the second reader:
From Writing Analytically: Writing the Researched Paper AND Finding and Citing Sources
From A Short Guide to Writing About Film: Researching the Movies
Monday we'll talk mostly about writing the final paper.
Monday night there will be a screening.
Wednesday we'll talk about the screening and the following article.
***You have to find it yourself as part of the assignment***(hint- it's indexed on JSTOR):
"Seeing With the Body: The Digital Image in Postphotography" by Mark Hansen, (originally published in Diacritics in 2001)
Your paper topics look great!
A little help for people going into things we have not read much about...
For people writing on games or online words these two books are helpful:
The Video Game Theory Reader by Mark J. P. Wolf
First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game by Noah Wardrip-Fruin
For the person writing on Camille Utterback here is a chapter on her from a recent book: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=10720&mode=toc
From Writing Analytically: Writing the Researched Paper AND Finding and Citing Sources
From A Short Guide to Writing About Film: Researching the Movies
Monday we'll talk mostly about writing the final paper.
Monday night there will be a screening.
Wednesday we'll talk about the screening and the following article.
***You have to find it yourself as part of the assignment***(hint- it's indexed on JSTOR):
"Seeing With the Body: The Digital Image in Postphotography" by Mark Hansen, (originally published in Diacritics in 2001)
Your paper topics look great!
A little help for people going into things we have not read much about...
For people writing on games or online words these two books are helpful:
The Video Game Theory Reader by Mark J. P. Wolf
First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game by Noah Wardrip-Fruin
For the person writing on Camille Utterback here is a chapter on her from a recent book: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=10720&mode=toc
Butterfly Effect
Butterfly Effect by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber released in 2004. I'm really intrigued by the way this movie represents this theory of chaos. Butterfly effect is the theory that a small occurrence turns into a huge effect. The main character has holes in his memory that are filled in by what he does in the present. At first he uses his journals to access his past. But in the end when his journals are gone he uses a home video. It's interesting that for the course of the film he traveled back through his own thought process, but the video was an outside objective point of view but provided the same result. I'd like to tie this in with Virilio's Open Sky with the "ghostly double" as Ashton Kutcher travels back basically into a memory and directs his memory-self to do something. I'd like to consider more also the way Kutcher's character experiences pain and nose-bleed as he rushes back to the present, as if this is the toll on his weighted body to speed through the journey of time to the present, yet he always maintains the same consciousness throughout the film.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Final Paper - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
For my final paper, I would like to analyze the last installment of the Star Wars saga, released in 2005 and directed by George Lucas. I am a fan of the series and find the concept of space travel and “the force” intriguing. I would narrow the focus on the technologies of the holographic images and the ability for space crafts to travel at the speed of light. I may choose to go into specifics of “the force” such as foreseeing the future. The main relation to the course will be through the technology that is possibly dissolving space and time.
STARGATE
My final paper will be about the movie Stargate by Roland Emmerich, released in 1994. I want to write about Stargate because I am a fan of the movie and find it very interesting and I dont find it hard to relate Virilio's open sky and Optics on a grand scale. In the movie there is one specific scene where they are trying to place 7runes in a correct order to open a time portal with no control over how far they are traveling when they open it and go through they are in a dark pyramid. (more to it but will become relevant in the essay) This can be applied to teleconfrencing due to the hole in space and a hole in time. A concern I have is how many times im going to have to watch it to understand it enough to relate it to virilio.
Final Film Paper- Mara
For my final paper I am going to analyze the film "Enigma" (2001) directed by Michael Apted, screenplay by Tom Stoppard. This film is about breaking the Nazi Shark Enigma code in WWII that led to one of the greatest breakthroughs in the war. This movie relates to the changing of technology through time and how humans adapted and integrated it into their lives. New forms of communication, ways of conducting war and espionage caused a shift in thinking. Technology made everything close and became a battle between man and machine. I will use Virilio's "optics on a grand scale" which discusses the loss of journey and the ever present now. I will also incorporate Sobchack's ideas on expressive technology that "Chan[ge] not only our expression of the world and ourselves, these perceptive technologies also change our sense of ourselves in radical ways that have now become naturalized and transparent". Jericho is the main character who lives codes and has a close relationship with the new technology that is a part of him because of his ability to be on par with the machine. The machine becomes the eyes of the Allies in the war. Also, time becomes irrelevant as space becomes smaller.
There is also an aspect of memory that can be gleened from the film as well. Throughout the film Jericho experiences poignant memories by physically being in places that evoke memories. With the growing of instant communication, there will be less need to have a physical presence and when that happens, what will create our memories if we do not experience people in the flesh.
There is also an aspect of memory that can be gleened from the film as well. Throughout the film Jericho experiences poignant memories by physically being in places that evoke memories. With the growing of instant communication, there will be less need to have a physical presence and when that happens, what will create our memories if we do not experience people in the flesh.
Final Paper-Memento
In my final paper I will examine a film produced in 2001, titled Memento, which was written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Nolan separates this video into a number of sequences, and jumbles each of these sequences around to create a unique effect of temporality within the film. The film is about a young man who is no longer capable of producing short-term memories. In order to keep his life organized he uses Polaroid pictures to identify different people and places as well as their characteristics. In Vivian Sobchack’s article, she refers to family albums as a, “memory bank” saying that photographs has an increasing value, which “materializes and authenticates experience, others, and oneself as empirically real” (Sobchack 143). This completely pertains to Leonard, the main character of the film, and his use of photographs for memory. I will examine other sources, possibly Mary Ann Doane’s book, The Emergence of Cinematic Time, as well as articles from the Cinema Journal and Film Quarterly to aid in my analysis of the photography within the film.
Camille Utterback
I plan on writing my final paper on Camille Utterback's External Measures (2003) and Untitled 5 (2004) series of interactive art. I heard about this style of art, which uses the viewer's movements in molding the art work itself, last semester. I am very interested in using this style of digital artwork because it incorporates many of the authors we have discussed in class. I plan on relating Utterback’s work to Virilio’s analysis of the digital as well as Bragaglia’s section on the ability of art to give sensation through movement. Because this type of digital art depends on the viewer, I am narrowing my focus to how interactive art transforms the viewer into both a piece of are as well as the artist.
Final Paper Topic
For my final paper I will focus on Virilio’s Open Sky, and the film, “Click” starring Adam Sandler and directed by Frank Coraci.
Specifically from Open Sky I will consider Virilio’s ideas on “dromospheric pollution”, the loss of the journey, and the consequence of telecommunications and live-coverage.
From the film “Click”, I will compare the remote that Adam Sandler uses to control his life to “dromospheric pollution” and telecommunications. At the end of the movie Adam Sandler has great regret that he has missed experiencing the journey.
“Click” seems like a representation of Virilio’s grim forecasts coming true and the horrible consequences “dromospheric pollution” will have on the journey of life.
Leesha
Specifically from Open Sky I will consider Virilio’s ideas on “dromospheric pollution”, the loss of the journey, and the consequence of telecommunications and live-coverage.
From the film “Click”, I will compare the remote that Adam Sandler uses to control his life to “dromospheric pollution” and telecommunications. At the end of the movie Adam Sandler has great regret that he has missed experiencing the journey.
“Click” seems like a representation of Virilio’s grim forecasts coming true and the horrible consequences “dromospheric pollution” will have on the journey of life.
Leesha
Final Paper Proposal ~ Kirsten Nicholls
Run Lola Run, directed by Tom Tykwer, 1998
I will be writing about this film, Run Lola Run, because I have known about this film since high school and have been a big fan since first viewing it some six or seven years prior. I will relate this film to our studies in this course by looking at the concept of real time as discussed by Virilio in his article “Perspective of Real Time, Optics on a Grand Scale” and also by Deleuze. I will narrow my scope by focusing on the use of opsign and sonsign throughout the movie. For outside sources, so far I have found the following: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski: Variations on Destiny and Chance by Marek Haltof and Vertigo: The making of a Hitchcok Classic by Dan Auiler. This movie is very complex in the amount of cinematic techniques that are used. I would like to discuss these different techniques, but I am concerned that they will either detract from the paper itself. I am also concerned about how I should write in these cinematic techniques and still have a small, stream-line paper in the end.
I will be writing about this film, Run Lola Run, because I have known about this film since high school and have been a big fan since first viewing it some six or seven years prior. I will relate this film to our studies in this course by looking at the concept of real time as discussed by Virilio in his article “Perspective of Real Time, Optics on a Grand Scale” and also by Deleuze. I will narrow my scope by focusing on the use of opsign and sonsign throughout the movie. For outside sources, so far I have found the following: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski: Variations on Destiny and Chance by Marek Haltof and Vertigo: The making of a Hitchcok Classic by Dan Auiler. This movie is very complex in the amount of cinematic techniques that are used. I would like to discuss these different techniques, but I am concerned that they will either detract from the paper itself. I am also concerned about how I should write in these cinematic techniques and still have a small, stream-line paper in the end.
Doom, 2005, id Software (game) Andrzej Bartkowiak (film director)
I am going to be analyzing and comparing the video game Doom 3 with the film, Doom. I will be referencing some ideas from Deluze to show how the video game Doom is an action image and how the movie failed to do so in some aspects. This will tie in to some of Sobchack's ideas about our moral ethics. Although she may think that video games fail at creating personal responsibility but films succeed, Doom is quite the opposite. The movie was horrible and a complete disgrace to the video game series, which is a "landmark title" in first person shooters (FPS). Interacting with a video game incorporates mental and some minor physical interaction that can make the event more "real" than a film. I will focus the paper on the scene in the movie which switches from third person to first person.
In addition to using Deluze and Sobchack, I'm going to look into two recommended books: "First Person" and "Rules of the Game". I'm also going to reference some academic reviews. My only concerns are that I cannot focus this topic enough and that perhaps I will have a hard time finding real "academic" sources.
In addition to using Deluze and Sobchack, I'm going to look into two recommended books: "First Person" and "Rules of the Game". I'm also going to reference some academic reviews. My only concerns are that I cannot focus this topic enough and that perhaps I will have a hard time finding real "academic" sources.
Love Actually
I am analyzing the movie “Love Actually” for my final project. This movie was written and directed by Richard Curtis. It was released in the USA in 2003. It has a “running time” of 135 minutes.
This movie consists of multiple spaces or locations. The story goes back and forth between characters and areas. This builds anticipation about how the scenes will be connected and why they are all being shown. The scene in which all of these spaces and characters assemble, or the meeting point, is the scene about which I will write. This convergence or juxtaposition occurs at the little kids holiday play.
Each individual spaces or location has its own plot and characters. The thing they all have in common (throughout) is the time during which the actions are taking place (i.e. some of the scenes are not flashbacks for others; it is “present day” in each, and this present day is the same date for each).
Each space had to be shot/ filmed in different locations at different times; but this particular scene (at the little kids play) is where they all come together. It shows the viewer how they all “fit” into the main story line.
I will also try to incorporate the idea of love being considered “timeless.”
This movie consists of multiple spaces or locations. The story goes back and forth between characters and areas. This builds anticipation about how the scenes will be connected and why they are all being shown. The scene in which all of these spaces and characters assemble, or the meeting point, is the scene about which I will write. This convergence or juxtaposition occurs at the little kids holiday play.
Each individual spaces or location has its own plot and characters. The thing they all have in common (throughout) is the time during which the actions are taking place (i.e. some of the scenes are not flashbacks for others; it is “present day” in each, and this present day is the same date for each).
Each space had to be shot/ filmed in different locations at different times; but this particular scene (at the little kids play) is where they all come together. It shows the viewer how they all “fit” into the main story line.
I will also try to incorporate the idea of love being considered “timeless.”
Jean Vigo - Zero for Conduct
The PFA combined a showing of Jean Vigo’s shorts “Taris” and “Zero for Conduct” with an accompaniment of live music played. This live music accompaniment was an experiment in which the UC Ambassadorial Jazz Ensemble improvised music and sound effects to the short film about the French champion swimmer Jean Taris in “Taris.” In this short film, Vigo films Taris as he swims and demonstrates the basic forms and movements of each swimming style. As he swims, Vigo utilizes slow motion and close-ups of Taris as he swims, while the Jazz band accompanied with lyrical and comical sound effects. Vigo also manipulates time and motion as he repeatedly shows Taris diving into the pool and in reverse, leaving the water feat first. The flutist highlights this repeated action by playing the same arpeggio forward and backwards. Vigo then ends the film by showing Taris diving in reverse and a quick obstruction or cut shows Taris in clothes, followed by walking on water as he exits into darkness.
The second film, “Zero for Conduct” began just as the student DJ initiated a countdown on his track. Drawing from events of his own life, Vigo honors his anarchist father in this short film in which boarding school children rebel and take over the school. The film follows the comical events of three children opposing the school master and cronies, culminating in the triumphal and memorable pillow fight scene. In this scene, Vigo utilizes an oblique angle shot to create a sense impending chaos and anarchy. Preceding the pillow fight, the children gather in the center of the sleeping hall, raise their skull and cross-bone flag and proceed to march. When told to return to their beds, they disperse and begin the pillow fight, causing mass chaos. The most notable scene shows the children lifting one of the leaders of the rebellion and march down the hall. Vigo utilizes an angled slow motion shot to capture the parading children as feathers fall like confetti in a victory march. His use of slow motion adds to the triumphal march.
Throughout the film, each DJ brought his own unique style and sound. A few DJs provided tracks in sync with the action and sequences of the film, while others provided more background music. DJs transitioned seamlessly in sync with the changing scenes of the film. The live music added an interesting element to the film. The electronic music seemed like it would be an inappropriate accompaniment, but I thought it worked quite well.
-Benjamin Louie
The second film, “Zero for Conduct” began just as the student DJ initiated a countdown on his track. Drawing from events of his own life, Vigo honors his anarchist father in this short film in which boarding school children rebel and take over the school. The film follows the comical events of three children opposing the school master and cronies, culminating in the triumphal and memorable pillow fight scene. In this scene, Vigo utilizes an oblique angle shot to create a sense impending chaos and anarchy. Preceding the pillow fight, the children gather in the center of the sleeping hall, raise their skull and cross-bone flag and proceed to march. When told to return to their beds, they disperse and begin the pillow fight, causing mass chaos. The most notable scene shows the children lifting one of the leaders of the rebellion and march down the hall. Vigo utilizes an angled slow motion shot to capture the parading children as feathers fall like confetti in a victory march. His use of slow motion adds to the triumphal march.
Throughout the film, each DJ brought his own unique style and sound. A few DJs provided tracks in sync with the action and sequences of the film, while others provided more background music. DJs transitioned seamlessly in sync with the changing scenes of the film. The live music added an interesting element to the film. The electronic music seemed like it would be an inappropriate accompaniment, but I thought it worked quite well.
-Benjamin Louie
Monday, April 9, 2007
Final Paper
FINAL PAPER PROPOSAL
due on Blog (as comment to this post) by Thursday, 5pm
1 paragraph, approx 100 words.
Title, artist/director, and date of the object you will write about.
Why you want to write about this, how you will relate it to the course.
How you’ll focus and narrow the scope.
Initial ideas about sources.
Initial concerns or questions.
Your final paper will be 8-10 pages. You will need to use one of the theorists from the second half of our course (Deleuze, Virilio, Sobchack). You will also need to find at least TWO other sources. At least one must directly relate to your chosen object, and at least one must provide historical or theoretical context. The sources should be academic, the kinds of things we might have used in class if we had studied that object; so for instance you could use a review published in Film Quarterly but not a review published in USA Today.
Sites for Finding Media Art, Digital Art:
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/search/keyword:cinema
http://www.rhizome.org/
http://artport.whitney.org/
some examples:
http://artport.whitney.org/commissions/battleofalgiers/BattleofAlgiers.shtml
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/themes/art_and_cinematography/douglas/
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/24-hour-psycho/
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/illuminated-average/
at BAM in Measure of Time: Ken Goldberg piece, Shirley Shor piece
Partial List of Potential Films:
Rashoman
Run Lola Run
Sliding Doors
Bourne Identity
Mission Impossible 3
The Day After Tomorrow
Pulp Fiction
Sex Lies and Videotape
Crash
Memento
EXistenZ
I-Robot
AI
Premonition
12 Monkeys (is based on La Jetee)
TVSeries: Daybreak, 24
Irreversible
Chunking Express
2046
(films from) The Decalogue
La Femme Nikita
Hiroshima Mon Amour
Places to find Sources:
Project Muse: muse.jhu.edu/
JStor: www.jstor.org/
Berkeley library: http://sunsite5.berkeley.edu:8000/
PFA Library: http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/pfalibrary/
Berkeley Media Resources: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/
due on Blog (as comment to this post) by Thursday, 5pm
1 paragraph, approx 100 words.
Title, artist/director, and date of the object you will write about.
Why you want to write about this, how you will relate it to the course.
How you’ll focus and narrow the scope.
Initial ideas about sources.
Initial concerns or questions.
Your final paper will be 8-10 pages. You will need to use one of the theorists from the second half of our course (Deleuze, Virilio, Sobchack). You will also need to find at least TWO other sources. At least one must directly relate to your chosen object, and at least one must provide historical or theoretical context. The sources should be academic, the kinds of things we might have used in class if we had studied that object; so for instance you could use a review published in Film Quarterly but not a review published in USA Today.
Sites for Finding Media Art, Digital Art:
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/search/keyword:cinema
http://www.rhizome.org/
http://artport.whitney.org/
some examples:
http://artport.whitney.org/commissions/battleofalgiers/BattleofAlgiers.shtml
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/themes/art_and_cinematography/douglas/
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/24-hour-psycho/
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/illuminated-average/
at BAM in Measure of Time: Ken Goldberg piece, Shirley Shor piece
Partial List of Potential Films:
Rashoman
Run Lola Run
Sliding Doors
Bourne Identity
Mission Impossible 3
The Day After Tomorrow
Pulp Fiction
Sex Lies and Videotape
Crash
Memento
EXistenZ
I-Robot
AI
Premonition
12 Monkeys (is based on La Jetee)
TVSeries: Daybreak, 24
Irreversible
Chunking Express
2046
(films from) The Decalogue
La Femme Nikita
Hiroshima Mon Amour
Places to find Sources:
Project Muse: muse.jhu.edu/
JStor: www.jstor.org/
Berkeley library: http://sunsite5.berkeley.edu:8000/
PFA Library: http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/pfalibrary/
Berkeley Media Resources: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/
Sunday, April 8, 2007
1. Throughout this excerpt, Sobchack refers to a sense of duty, "ethical responsibility" (136) or "ethical investment" (140). She argues that each technological advance -photography, cinema, and electronic- changes the "norms of ... ethical investment" (140). She says that "As our aesthetic forms and representation s of 'reality' become externally realized and then unsettled first by photography, then cinema, and now electronic media, our values and evaluative criteria of what counts in our lives are also unsettled and transformed" (136). In other words, as technology advances, representations of reality externalize our perceptions of it more and more and this breaks down our sense of ethics. Military training seems to be a good example of this. First, there were shooting ranges where you shoot a picture of someone, not a real person. Technology has advanced to the point where soldiers are being trained to shoot using video-games like Doom or virtual simulations that simulate them dropping a bomb over a building. But in these technological mediums, there seem to be no real consequences except you use up your life points, "game over," or "mission accomplished." They do not see real blood or the families that grieve over a lost relative. It seems that as these technological intermediates overlap more and more representations of reality, the connection between a person and reality and its consequences become weaker and so does his/her sense of ethics. Perhaps this correlation is not a coincidence but rather reveals that in the real world there is an unchangeable moral standard or "ethical responsibility" which exists like the body but through cultural values and technology, its representation is different but this representation is not reality.
2. Sobchack refers to Chris Marker's film La Jetee and uses it to demonstrate the difference between photographs -"moment" (144)- and cinema -"lived momentum" (145). In the film, still photographs of a woman are shown and Sobchack describes it as seeming to only see a figure in memory: "frozen and re-membered moments that mark her loss as much as her presence" (145). From this paragraph it seems to imply that this woman is no longer with the hero, that in reality she is not there but her presence remains through the photograph, keeping her from completely vanishing. But then she "suddenly blinks" as the "increasingly rapid cinematic succession of stilled and dissolving photographic images of her" (145) approach motion and subtly achieve it and "the image becomes 'fleshed out,' and the woman turns from a posed odalisque into someone who is not merely an immortalized lost object of desire but also -and more so- a mortal and desiring subject" (146). Isn't this "increasingly rapid cinematic succession of stilled and dissolving" the same as the increasing reduction of the interval? At this point where the intervals are so small we perceive the representation of movement and the woman appears to regain a degree of substance or "flesh" as "we and the image are reoriented in relation to each other. the space between the camera's (and the spectators) gaze and the woman becomes suddenly inhabitable" (146). It appears that the woman may have vanished completely had it not been for the photograph that preserves the memory of her, making the photograph the point between her presence and her nonexistence, like a vanishing point where something of substance passes out of existence. But by rapidly succeeding these photographs or vanishing points, we bridge the space inbetween and seem to have a direct experience with her. It's interesting that traditionally a body must move towards a vanishing (along a z-axis) watching the image in the distance get closer and closer before being able to stand in direct relationship with it in the real world, but this film seems to propose that rapidly succeeding representations of vanishing points bring it from a removed distance to an involved, relational and intimate experience perhaps like the way reading brings an experience to a reader. Each word has a presence as it has a definition and purpose (verb or adjective), but alone it does not mean much; it simply exists like the woman in the photograph. But place a word after it and a word after that, each word its own vanishing point, and eventually a sentence forms and with it meaning and experience for the reader. As shrinking spaces between words to a critical size lets readers cross the time and distance separating the reader from the author, so does shrinking the interval between successive still photographs let viewers cross the time and distance (the z-axis) which is the removal of the third dimension that separates the viewer from the person using the camera.
3. I noticed that Sobchack spells "remembered" with a hyphen as "re-membered" (145). It seems appropriate to spell it this way emphasizing the "re" as if to imply the revers of "dismembered," suggesting that through the photograph she loses substance because she's dismembered of her body but can be "re-membered" in photograph, although not to the real her. In the same way electronics like a television might "atomize" (155) or dismember information of a whole, like an image, into pieces like electrons or pixels, and disperse it
across a system like the television screen to re-member it into a 2-D image. As electronics today accomplish this process with abstract things like image and information the negative consequences we may encounter are a noisy image or mistranslation. What consequences might occur if electronics atomize a living body to the effect of, in reality, accomplishing the "suddenly inhabitable"? The Fly is a movie in which such a scenario is presented. Jeff Goldblum is a scientist working on teleporting objects. The machine he invented essentially takes the object or material, analyzes it, atomizes it, passes it to the destination pod, and then "re-members" it there. for things like metal and paper the process works successfully, but when he put a baboon in it, the baboon came out the destination pod inside out. Later he realizes this occurs because the machine is interpreting the object's makeup insufficiently and demonstrates this by putting in a steak and observing that the steak after teleportation is artificial. It seems that to "re-member" something is to produce something like the original but actually a fake representation that falls short of the original. Then he understands this mistake occurred because he didn't teach the machine to recognize living tissue. So the machine's ability to re-member the steak was limited because it could only re-member the steak based on what it knows which is controlled by the scientist. Later Goldblum himself goes into the pod but there is a fly in the pod also so that when he comes out the other pod, his and the fly's bodily molecules are mixed and several problems arise. It follows that electronic capabilities are subject to what humans teach them to do. Therefore, it appears logical that since humans are often incapable of remembering things objectively and accurately, that electronic should be incapable also, resulting in the diminishing of reality.
2. Sobchack refers to Chris Marker's film La Jetee and uses it to demonstrate the difference between photographs -"moment" (144)- and cinema -"lived momentum" (145). In the film, still photographs of a woman are shown and Sobchack describes it as seeming to only see a figure in memory: "frozen and re-membered moments that mark her loss as much as her presence" (145). From this paragraph it seems to imply that this woman is no longer with the hero, that in reality she is not there but her presence remains through the photograph, keeping her from completely vanishing. But then she "suddenly blinks" as the "increasingly rapid cinematic succession of stilled and dissolving photographic images of her" (145) approach motion and subtly achieve it and "the image becomes 'fleshed out,' and the woman turns from a posed odalisque into someone who is not merely an immortalized lost object of desire but also -and more so- a mortal and desiring subject" (146). Isn't this "increasingly rapid cinematic succession of stilled and dissolving" the same as the increasing reduction of the interval? At this point where the intervals are so small we perceive the representation of movement and the woman appears to regain a degree of substance or "flesh" as "we and the image are reoriented in relation to each other. the space between the camera's (and the spectators) gaze and the woman becomes suddenly inhabitable" (146). It appears that the woman may have vanished completely had it not been for the photograph that preserves the memory of her, making the photograph the point between her presence and her nonexistence, like a vanishing point where something of substance passes out of existence. But by rapidly succeeding these photographs or vanishing points, we bridge the space inbetween and seem to have a direct experience with her. It's interesting that traditionally a body must move towards a vanishing (along a z-axis) watching the image in the distance get closer and closer before being able to stand in direct relationship with it in the real world, but this film seems to propose that rapidly succeeding representations of vanishing points bring it from a removed distance to an involved, relational and intimate experience perhaps like the way reading brings an experience to a reader. Each word has a presence as it has a definition and purpose (verb or adjective), but alone it does not mean much; it simply exists like the woman in the photograph. But place a word after it and a word after that, each word its own vanishing point, and eventually a sentence forms and with it meaning and experience for the reader. As shrinking spaces between words to a critical size lets readers cross the time and distance separating the reader from the author, so does shrinking the interval between successive still photographs let viewers cross the time and distance (the z-axis) which is the removal of the third dimension that separates the viewer from the person using the camera.
3. I noticed that Sobchack spells "remembered" with a hyphen as "re-membered" (145). It seems appropriate to spell it this way emphasizing the "re" as if to imply the revers of "dismembered," suggesting that through the photograph she loses substance because she's dismembered of her body but can be "re-membered" in photograph, although not to the real her. In the same way electronics like a television might "atomize" (155) or dismember information of a whole, like an image, into pieces like electrons or pixels, and disperse it
across a system like the television screen to re-member it into a 2-D image. As electronics today accomplish this process with abstract things like image and information the negative consequences we may encounter are a noisy image or mistranslation. What consequences might occur if electronics atomize a living body to the effect of, in reality, accomplishing the "suddenly inhabitable"? The Fly is a movie in which such a scenario is presented. Jeff Goldblum is a scientist working on teleporting objects. The machine he invented essentially takes the object or material, analyzes it, atomizes it, passes it to the destination pod, and then "re-members" it there. for things like metal and paper the process works successfully, but when he put a baboon in it, the baboon came out the destination pod inside out. Later he realizes this occurs because the machine is interpreting the object's makeup insufficiently and demonstrates this by putting in a steak and observing that the steak after teleportation is artificial. It seems that to "re-member" something is to produce something like the original but actually a fake representation that falls short of the original. Then he understands this mistake occurred because he didn't teach the machine to recognize living tissue. So the machine's ability to re-member the steak was limited because it could only re-member the steak based on what it knows which is controlled by the scientist. Later Goldblum himself goes into the pod but there is a fly in the pod also so that when he comes out the other pod, his and the fly's bodily molecules are mixed and several problems arise. It follows that electronic capabilities are subject to what humans teach them to do. Therefore, it appears logical that since humans are often incapable of remembering things objectively and accurately, that electronic should be incapable also, resulting in the diminishing of reality.
Am I Making Art?
I don’t really know how to characterize the films I have viewed at the PFA besides saying they are “interesting.” The film I will be discussing this time is “Am I Making Art.” It consisted of four different sections.
The first segment was of a “salt and pepper” screen (black and white dots, like one with no signal) with the image of a mouth emerging at different intervals of time throughout. I think it is ironic (if not intended) or symbolic (if planned) that the piece is about communication barriers (according to Cha Hakkyung, the artist) since the screen appears to have no signal which represents no communication. I also found it interesting that most of the sounds were of nature rather than words. These are “signs” which people of all areas would recognize as opposed to particular languages which only a specific group in a particular space and in a particular time would understand.
The next scene appeared analogous to a photo shoot where a model moves a little bit (to give the photographer a different angle or shot) and then holds the pose, repeating this process until the shoot is complete. It was of a scruffy looking older man posing in front of what I assumed was a monitor (where he was looking at the replication of his image while he was “making art”). He was within a confined space, but was moving within this area. He was contorting his body into different positions and would then hold the pose and say, “I am making art.” The transitions between the different poses were not dramatic; in fact, it probably took him less than a second to go between positions. It appeared as though he was using a distinct appendage during each transition. For example, he moved his arm from his side to his shoulder and repeated the phrase then moved his leg from the floor to a 90 degree angle and repeated the phrase. It looked like he tried to isolate each one in his motions by hesitating and “striking a pose” in this fashion. The motions themselves were done quickly and then held for a comparable amount of time or a little longer (so that the phrase was said while he was “motionless”). It reminded me of people like Muybridge and how he tried to brake up movements into still figures to try to understand motion.
Another scene was of a man lying facing the camera. He was very close to the screen (or he at least appeared to be while we were watching, it could have been zoomed in on him). He was smoking, humming, singing, listening to music, and apparently seducing the audience. More likely, however (since this is a “piece of art”), he was trying to prove that the viewer is not within the same space or in the same time as the area and time where the art is being created, yet the individuals watching feel connected to or involved with the story plot and actors. This is similar to the point in one of the scenes from Video Drone (I think it was called) where the guy makes out with the television (literally making the spaces and times exist as one in the same). Until virtual reality, however (and maybe not even then), we will not be able to be in two times or places at once.
All in all I thought the points these scenes were trying to discuss were interesting, however, I wouldn’t like to watch the film again.
The first segment was of a “salt and pepper” screen (black and white dots, like one with no signal) with the image of a mouth emerging at different intervals of time throughout. I think it is ironic (if not intended) or symbolic (if planned) that the piece is about communication barriers (according to Cha Hakkyung, the artist) since the screen appears to have no signal which represents no communication. I also found it interesting that most of the sounds were of nature rather than words. These are “signs” which people of all areas would recognize as opposed to particular languages which only a specific group in a particular space and in a particular time would understand.
The next scene appeared analogous to a photo shoot where a model moves a little bit (to give the photographer a different angle or shot) and then holds the pose, repeating this process until the shoot is complete. It was of a scruffy looking older man posing in front of what I assumed was a monitor (where he was looking at the replication of his image while he was “making art”). He was within a confined space, but was moving within this area. He was contorting his body into different positions and would then hold the pose and say, “I am making art.” The transitions between the different poses were not dramatic; in fact, it probably took him less than a second to go between positions. It appeared as though he was using a distinct appendage during each transition. For example, he moved his arm from his side to his shoulder and repeated the phrase then moved his leg from the floor to a 90 degree angle and repeated the phrase. It looked like he tried to isolate each one in his motions by hesitating and “striking a pose” in this fashion. The motions themselves were done quickly and then held for a comparable amount of time or a little longer (so that the phrase was said while he was “motionless”). It reminded me of people like Muybridge and how he tried to brake up movements into still figures to try to understand motion.
Another scene was of a man lying facing the camera. He was very close to the screen (or he at least appeared to be while we were watching, it could have been zoomed in on him). He was smoking, humming, singing, listening to music, and apparently seducing the audience. More likely, however (since this is a “piece of art”), he was trying to prove that the viewer is not within the same space or in the same time as the area and time where the art is being created, yet the individuals watching feel connected to or involved with the story plot and actors. This is similar to the point in one of the scenes from Video Drone (I think it was called) where the guy makes out with the television (literally making the spaces and times exist as one in the same). Until virtual reality, however (and maybe not even then), we will not be able to be in two times or places at once.
All in all I thought the points these scenes were trying to discuss were interesting, however, I wouldn’t like to watch the film again.
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