Conglomerates and reality TV as a hybrid: Big Brother is not just a TV show, but a website with extra footage, a voting system, etc.
Why do we like reality TV so much? Adrian suggested because “we live and die by our constraints“. Reality TV certainly plays on constraints and expectations: the constraints of living in a house with 14 others and the expectation to do dishes or compete in games and tasks for example. These constraints and expectations mirror the modern world, eg the “Nanny state” which constrains us.
Public and private spheres: how have they changed? We now hear half a phone conversation instead of our conversations being held in a private phone booth or within the home.
Making mischief – why not talk into someone’s phone? It’s not a private conversation after all!
So what are the boundaries between inside/outside, safe/dangerous, legal/illegal?
TV has an insatiable need to see –> the desire to see is much more important than the camera quality. Content is more important that an HD image.
Jasmine mentioned that the individualised nature of our devices has changed the public and private spheres. iPad, iPhone, iPod: these are named for the individual.
Adrian questioned if the internet allows us to build walls further around us or whether it allows us to open our minds. The internet is capable of doing both, it depends on what the individual wants to use it for.
It was asked whether new technology/phones ruin TV/film making, and I immediately thought of the recent iPhone 5 film starring Scarlett Johansson:
Adrian proposed that the more tools the better off you are, which I tend to agree with. But this idea does avoid our need for constraints and the creative liberation found in putting constraints on our work.
Our language can’t even keep up with the rate of technology change: it’s not ‘film’ and it’s not a ‘video’ for instance.
This week’s reading Digital video and Alexandre Astruc’s camera-stylo by Bjørn Sørenssen begins with asking whether “expanded access to digital production means and distribution channels of audiovisual media also imply an enhancement of the democratic potential of these media“. These changes in media production and distribution certainly change the way we think about film: as discussed in the first lecture, film isn’t scarce anymore and this has many implications. We can record on our phones to brainstorm and think through ideas, not necessarily making polished pieces as we may once have considered the use of film. Similarly, a writer can brainstorm on the back of an envelope.
Sørenssen makes an compelling point that it is “always interesting to review old utopian visions, as they remind us of our part in fulfilling or failing to fulfill the expectations of earlier generations“. I found this an amusing sidenote to consider how we have stacked up to Plato’s Republic or whether we will measure up to Star Trek.
Utopia – sourced from michaelromkey.typepad.com
Sørenssen notes Astruc’s thinking that Descartes’ philosophy “would today be of such a kind that only the cinema could express it satisfactorily“. Are there ideas that can only be expressed through certain mediums? Undoubtedly there are times when I am lost for words trying to explain something, maybe it could be better expressed through film. What about the combination of words and image – does film in that way lend itself to better understanding simply due to the combination of factors?
Similarly, how does expression through art come into play? Image sourced aestheticamagazine.com
Sørenssen mentions the personal computer and its importance on how we view content; similarly the mobile phone. What does this mean for content creators and how is it different to imagining creating for a big cinema screen? More personal = more intimacy?
Habermas is quoted within the article lamenting that the “use of the Internet has both broadened and fragmented the contexts of communication”. The Internet recently celebrated 25 years of the web, and in a commemorative article on the Irish Times Davin O’Dwyer notes the Internet ” has revolutionised communication to the point where most people can publish and disseminate information within seconds. This unhindered ability to communicate and disseminate information has also led to powerful citizen-driven movements, such as the Arab Spring in 2010″.
We no longer have to go into an office to work or go to the library to find information. What impact is this having on our culture? And what about implications surrounding our privacy?
Astruc’s “vision of the future author who writes using a camera instead of a pen” certainly opens up new possibilities for expression through audio-visual mediums, however I have to edit this vision for myself as I can’t see a future without written memoirs: that authors write using a camera and a pen.
What is your canvas for expression? Image sourced from guestonplanet.blogspot.com.au
