Blog #9

The article Ecological Realism by Andre Gorz focuses on the relationship of mankind with the environment. Gorz takes a very negative view on societies current outlook on the world, pointing out that industrial growth has had very noticeable and devastating changes on the environment around us. He points out that even with no industrial growth we are still using up finite resources, and in our present state of very rapid growth, we will begin to run out of resources perhaps within the lifetimes of our children. Gorz is very adamant in making his points seem very dire, that the extinction of the human race is only a matter of years away. He is a firm believer in reduction of resources, and a lessening of our co dependence on finite materials. Ecological realism, he states is exactly how it sounds, the reality that we are running out of the things that make our societies work, and furthermore are polluting our planet to the point that extinction is becoming more and more of an inevitability should we fail to change our ways.

While I agree with the core of Gorz argument, I believe he may have been somewhat harsh. Reading his article I was struck with what I perceived as a touch of fear mongering, this I take point against. As much as I believe that we as a species need to change in order to create a better planet, I don't believe the way to change people is through fear. We know that terrorism is bad, but wasn't the U.S. governments policy of spreading fear to scare the American people into war wrong as well? I believe what people need is not another fear campaign but a rational, reasonable, and possibly most importantly, unbiased explanation of how things are and what we need to do to change. I think that this is the best way to get any point across, if you believe in something, it only causes a panic to get people to see things your way through fear. Instead, inform them as an equal and explain the state that we are in and tell them what their options are, any sane minded individual would see the importance of preserving our planet in order to not only preserve our survival, but also our the survival of our children.

Blog #8

The Persuaders is a documentary about the recent history and the current state of the advertising industry. It chronicles the methods and realities of advertising in America, it looks out where it came from and where it is now. Much of the film is concerned in following a new start up company called Song, a new age sort of airline. It follows the companies thoughts on their image and shows the steps that they take to get their brand known. The film also takes a look at the current state advertising in the U.S. It views how the trends have changed in the time when advertisements were just that, simple practical advertisements. It eventually transitions into the present day, the film looks at the people who are in advertising, people who would probably much rather have a job in art, and how they use their advertisements as a sort of artistic expression. This of course transitions into the rise of emotion driven advertising, creating a strong emotional bond with their brand. Many of the worlds top advertising companies view people as very emotion driven, one advertising "guru" saw people as 75% emotion and only 25% intellectual, believing that the difference between success was merely a specific choice of words. The film delved into a psychologist turned advertising guru who believed that there was a "code" to tap into what consumers really wanted, incidentally he was the main driving force behind hummer's decision to make bigger vehicles, and even a cheese manufacturers choice of packaging in the states. He believed that certain words held certain memories and associations for everyone and the key to good advertising was to tap into that. It looked at the way advertising looked to trigger key responses in consumers own feelings. It showed another advertising analyst believing the best way to advertise was to look at cults in order to see what makes people so fanatic about certain ideas. The view was that people become passionate about things they love, music, or religion, and use those very same methods to draw people to their product. It looked at Saturn own "Saturn-day" which is an enormous outdoor event that brings people from all over the country. People came to Saturn-day looking for a community with which to bond, they made their product a cultural icon, effectively creating a large "cult" following, a community drawn together by their product. The video looked at agencies who compile peoples personal information and sell it to ad agencies for consumer information, just to know how to create personalized ads for specific people.

My own impression of the film was one of great interest, how one person causes another person to think a certain way, or just to persuade them to purchase a product. It is so deeply rooted in the psychology behind a group of people, an in depth look at the personality and the mannerisms of potential consumers. The end of the film even seemed to nod to this sort of "personalized" advertising as a great positive thing that put power in the hands of the consumer. I'm afraid that I strongly disagree, the fact that people privacy is being so easily cast aside to make them spend money on products that they in all likely hood don't need. This so called power is turning people more and more into lifeless wallets pouring money out on extravagant items that they have no business purchasing. I do find it fascinating how it is that we work as a society, but I'm also constantly unnerved by the views taken by this advertising, that people are essentially emotional idiots. The idea that creating a cult around your product is a good idea is something very alien to me. In my own experience capitalism is a necessary evil, a way of life with great potential for good that caters to peoples true nature while refusing to believe in fanciful ideals. Its a system where the individual has a large amount of power, where they can sculpt their own lives, but its also one prone to predatory attitudes, where one individual can simply step across others heads in order to make a few more dollars. I think that the idea of invading someone's privacy to make money is fundamentally wrong.

Blog #7

This weeks topic focuses on New Media Art, a book authored by Mark Tribe. It is an in depth look at the history of what is known as new media, which is an umbrella term under which all digital art, computer graphics, and computer animation fall into. The book outlines the history and early definition of the art form from how it was developed to how it exists today. The beginnings of New Media art begin almost as long as the computer has been in the hands of the public, but the ideas had been forming for decades before that. In the book Marcel Duchamp's Fountain is cited as an important precursor to the movement. Indeed New Media arts were truly formed out of an in the wake of the contemporary art movement of the twentieth century. The close ties between the two are seen even today predominantly in the field of graphic arts, the use of montage and text were really established and realized long before computers were a part of them. Any time an artist uses digital media to create a piece of art it falls into the category of new media, but new media arts are their own discipline independent but still branching from the contemporary art movement, the book discusses this bond as well as citing important pieces and going into the very beginning of the new media arts movement as it is today, that is, the use of computers to produce digital media.

The book is a rather fascinating look at not only the history of new media, but an intriguing look at the state of the movement today. The formation and independence of the movement are all interesting stories in an of themselves. It is very important to know the back story of ones chosen profession and the establishment of that profession is almost as interesting as the state that its in today. It is important to have a strong background in the history of new media in order to advance the state its in presently, otherwise one has no bearing on their own work or the work around them.

Blog #6

This weeks topic is on the subject of the Kuleshov Effect. A form of montage in film making that uses juxtaposed images to suggest emotion onto an otherwise emotionless actors face. The effect was developed by early 20th century Russian film maker Lev Kuleshov. The idea behind the effect is to show an actor or actress close up in front of the camera with a completely emotionless expression on their face. The camera then cuts to things like a bowl of soup or a dead body, due to the "mash up" of these images the human brain then fills in the gaps, the bowl of soup makes one believe the actor must be hungry, or the dead body must mean the actor is experiencing great sorrow. In fact when shown to audiences they actually felt the actor was displaying a different face and emotion for every different image shown. The effect plays on the basic human need to make sense of sensory input, this natural correlation plays directly into the technique. The short film explaining the effect seems indeed to be poking fun at the nature of human psychology, using a sort of humor to outline their points. The actress watching the actor and seeing it cut to a number of images causes her to humorously fall in love with the actor, possibly satirizing some contemporary films use of superficial metaphors to convey a "deep" message. In the end they even refer to her love for him as a love of montage itself.

I think the technique is an interesting innovation of early film making, a play on human psychology that can be used to convey a point or message. It seems that it is an easily over used or indeed improperly used technique that can seem contrived and pointless, but used wisely and responsibly can be a powerful film making device. The nature of the human brain is really what allows Hollywood to exist, the conveyance of a message with images is something that people have been doing for much longer than there has been film, and indeed the invention of the film camera has been a huge leap in man's potential to convey those images, and if done responsibly can further the artistic creativity and narrative abilities of any individual film.