February 2013 - Jessica Marquis

1:12 PM

Week 7 - Experimentation

Experimentation, or Modernism, is the act of trying out new things. Modern artists and filmmakers try to leave conventions behind and explore the new. Often this results in abstract works. Children are the perfect audience for experimental media, because children are experimenters themselves. Children don't have expectations of what they think something should be. They have no understanding of the "rules," and therefore will not reject a piece of experimental media.

One main characteristic of Modernism is the exploration of the medium. Mark Rothko made several paintings that just consisted of flat planes of color. He was exploring things that are specific to painting, like the flatness of canvas. He wasn't interested in trying to create something that looks like it occupies a 3D space, because a canvas is 2D.

Rothko

This use of aspects that are specific to the medium was, and is, popular in more than just painting. We watched "Begone Dull Care" in class, which explored the possibilities with the medium of film. It explored the passage of time, the ability to join picture with sound, and the actual use of the film itself. Experimental music, films, and the like demonstrate this interest in leaving behind traditional conventions and thinking out of the box.

Additionally, experimental media often is conscious of itself. We read the book "The Stinky Cheese Man" which completely left the rules of traditional fairytales and children's books behind. This book acknowledged itself as a book. There were instances when characters were talking to the narrator, and the table of contents came crashing down on the characters which ended the story. We also watched "Duck Amuck" which was self-reflective. The cartoon is about the fact that it is a cartoon, and that an illustrator is creating the work. I think this self-reflective principle can serve as a way to break away from the mainstream, and also to be funny. I consider the tv show 30 Rock to be an experimental show. This was one of the first sitcoms I ever saw that acknowledged itself as a show. 30 Rock is a tv show about the making of a tv show, which is experimental in itself. Also, the characters are often breaking the fourth wall, they interact with traditional tv graphics, etc. They use the medium of television to their advantage in getting laughs.

We watched Sherlock Jr., a film directed by and starring Buster Keaton. Buster Keaton was important in the history of films, because he did things that no one else had tried to do before in film. In the film, Buster is running the projector at a movie theatre. He falls asleep, and as he dreams he is able to enter the actual movie that is playing and interact. He was aware that special effects are possible in a film, and he wasn't afraid to try them out. The scene where he is on the movie screen and the background is constantly changing was really fun to watch, and it is an example of the fact that he knew what film was capable of. Buster Keaton was really great at stunts as well. The film is mostly made up of daring and wacky stunts he was able to pull off. I feel that this was experimental, because it was a breakaway from earlier films that weren't as daring.

I think it should be acknowledged that many films these days will only experiment if there is a place for it in the story. In Sherlock Jr., Buster Keaton was dreaming, which made it possible for experiments to occur. Likewise, in the Pink Elephants clip from Dumbo, the characters are in a drunken stupor, which presented an opportunity to animate an experimental sequence that would seem like hallucinations. I recently watched Hitchcock's Vertigo, which has an experimental scene in it to portray the character's bad dream, but the rest of the film was all realistic.

Vertigo dream sequence

It seems that experimental media has taken a bit of a backseat in the past few years. I think that "A Chairy Tale" is absolutely wonderful, but was made mainly because it was funded by the Film Board of Canada, and the maker wasn't interested in trying to make a profit. Commercial films aren't usually experimental, because that just isn't what the mainstream audience is looking for. I think this is a little unfortunate, because E=experimentation is a celebration of media, and it also can have great meaning. Other criticisms of experimentation say that maybe it doesn't actually count as art because anyone could do it, even children. I think that is part of the beauty of it. Everything children do is experimental, and everything they see is experimental in their eyes. It is up to the audience to decide what the art means to them, and they can choose to leave it, or take it and benefit from it.

4:40 PM

Week 6 - Imagination

During the week of documentation, we discussed the impact that material circumstances, social environment, and human labor have on an individual. Imagination contrasts that by emphasizing the mind of the individual, rather than external circumstances. Freud concluded that conflict begins in the mind, and we are human because we have these internal structures. The content in people’s minds differ, but the structures of the mind are universal. By taking a scientific approach to study mental processes, we can understand more fully the world around us.

“And to Think that I Saw It on Mulberry Street” by Dr. Seuss is a story about a boy with a vivid imagination, but is discouraged from using his imagination by his father. Often imagination is encouraged in children, but then societal pressures dictate the opposite. Often it causes people to keep their imaginations to themselves, because there is no real-world application. Destino, the Disney/Dali short, contradicts that point. It shows that imagination can also be used productively. Disney and Dali both were known for their imaginations and creativity. This collaboration tells a story of a woman who falls in love, but is in a battle against time. Each scene is very reminiscent of Dali’s surreal landscapes. This piece is very emotional and dream-like, and not realistic-looking at all. It shows how our emotional state and perception do, in fact, have an impact on our reality. They were able to utilize surrealism and imagination to tell a striking story. It is through fiction like this that we learn to understand our own minds and how we are perceiving things.

The clips from both Bridge to Terabithia and Pan’s Labyrinth we viewed in class illustrate how imagination can be a means of coping with real life. Another example of this is the book, and now the film, Life of Pi. Pi Patel is stranded on a life boat in the Pacific ocean with a Bengal tiger for several months. As the ship is sinking, a zebra, an orangutan, and a hyena are on the lifeboat with Pi and the tiger. Eventually, the animals kill each other off, until only the tiger and Pi are left. Pi then learns how to co-exist with the tiger while trying to survive. At the end of the book, after Pi has landed in Mexico, some reporters ask Pi for his story. He tells him the fantastical story, but they are unwilling to believe it. They ask for the “real” story. Pi then tells them a different version. He tells them that he was actually on board with a sailor, a cook, and his mother, instead of the animals. He tells the exact same story of how they all died, but the reporters believe this time because it’s about real people. It is also concluded that the tiger is Pi. My favorite thing about this book is that it is up to the reader to decide how to believe. Many clues lead to the idea that Pi is the tiger. For example, Pi is vegetarian, but he is able to justify eating fish meat to survive, because it’s what the tiger needs to eat. Also, when he washes up in Mexico, the tiger leaves Pi forever, because Pi doesn’t need that part of himself anymore. I think that Pi’s imagination was his means of coping with reality. It is a really intriguing book, and it fits along well in the context of our discussion of imagination.

The Spirit of the Beehive was like Life of Pi, and Pan’s Labyrinth, in that Ana’s imagination is how she is able to handle real life. The film takes place in post-civil war Spain, when Spain was under Fascist rule. This left society and families split, and it was a time of general fear and silence. This is reflected in the distance and separation within Ana’s family. All of the characters in the family are kind of living in their own minds. Ana’s father is constantly concerned with his beekeeping, which seems to be a metaphor for society at the time. Her mother is constantly writing a man (and possible lover) she knew from before the war. Her sister Isabel is constantly toying with the morbid. Ana, who is fascinated by the film Frankenstein, is determined to find a “spirit.” When a deserter of the war (or someone similar) takes up residence in the abandoned house Ana visits, Ana brings him food and clothes. He seems to be representative of Frankenstein’s monster from the film Ana watches. Ana’s world crosses from real into the surreal at this point. Later, the soldier is killed by government officials, so obviously he was opposed to Fascism. Later in the film, when Ana has run away and is wandering at night, she sees Frankenstein’s monster. She also sees the monster's reflection in the water. Just as she identified with the anti-fascist soldier, she is identifying with Frankenstein's monster, which shows her alienation from the realities of life in this post-war society. In the last scene of the film, Ana is still trying to talk to the spirit and repeatedly says “It’s me, Ana.” Her imagination was her means for understanding what was happening in her life. The story is allegorical, and is a great illustration of the use of the structures of the mind to handle realities.

6:12 PM

Week 5 - Documentation

Just as Romanticism was a response to The Enlightenment Era, Realism was a response to Romanticism. Courbet, the leader of the realist movement in art, had a famous statement about the principles of realism. He stated, “I have never seen an angel. Show me an angel, and I’ll paint one.” We don’t necessarily need a return to nature and the metaphysical. We don’t need to return to the past, but we can face the present and future. We should engage with our material surroundings, and through human labor we can better our lives. Documentation is the recording of real life.

Romantic Era (The Nightmare by Fuseli) vs. Realism (The Stone Breakers by Courbet)

Inquiry attempts to present information objectively, while documentation encourages subjectivity, and an understanding of human conditions. Romanticism explores human emotions, but not on a material level as documentation does. Both documentary and fiction can enshrine everyday labors and show real human conditions. We watched a Lumiere film called “Baby’s Lunch.” This film is representative of bourgeois realism, which is the documentation of everyday endeavors of the middle class. This was purely a documentation of parents feeding their baby, but I think it promotes understanding. It shows a human labor that is universal, no matter the culture or time period.

Realism shows the good times, as well as the bad times. Some realism shows the gritty realities, and how social circumstances can be binding and oppressive. People are often defined by their heredity and environment. This type of realism is more pessimistic, but shows that there is still hope, even in hard conditions. We watched the short “Aruba,” which dealt with showing bitter realities of living in a low-income, inner-city environment. The main character is in very hard situations, but engages with his means in order to better his life. The film Killer of Sheep (1979) is another example of this type of realism. It is about the lives of black people living in the ghetto. It shows their labors, successes, and disappointments. There are long shots wherein the action plays out and it almost feels like a documentary film rather than fiction.

Because this subset of realism is so heavy, and often nihilistic, I don’t think it is usually considered “children’s media.” It depicts children and their circumstances, but I don’t know that I’d want my own children to watch things like Aruba or Killer of Sheep until they are old enough to realize that there is hope and understanding to be gained from it.

The third type of documentation is magical realism. This creates a connection between the mundane aspects of everyday life, and the metaphysical. It shows that the human routines don’t have to be oppressive, but can be means for adventure. I think a good example of this is The Sandlot (1993). This shows the very real lives of a group of boys. It shows their daily labors, both the good and the bad. When their prized Babe Ruth baseball gets hit into a neighbors yard, they have to go on adventure to retrieve the ball from “the beast,” a normal dog that has been exaggerated into a horrible monster by their imaginations. The whole movie is made up of instances of average kid life, but it is made to seem more adventurous and less “mundane.”

We watched the film Little Fugitive (1953) in class. This film showed the real material conditions of this little boy, Joey, and his brother. It was a documentation of his day at Coney Island. The film took its time showing us the processes he goes through. He was on an "adventure" but he used his own means and his own labor to survive the day. This film was groundbreaking for the time. It was filmed in real locations, and the stars were non actors. The style of filming was also very documentary-like, which wasn't seen very much in fiction. I thought this film was a great example of engaging with our social and material environment in order to see our potential as humans. Not only is this film about a child, but I think children would enjoy watching it. They would be able to relate to what Joey experiences, and everything he does would make sense to them.

Documentation is very effective in teaching understanding, and confronting our material circumstances. We shouldn’t feel the need to “escape” from our everyday lives. We should learn to find joy in the journey. Additionally, when we participate in realism in media, we come to understand the material. We can learn that through trials and labor, we can find hope, and ultimately realize our humanity.

Week 7 - Experimentation

Week 6 - Imagination

Week 5 - Documentation

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