Endgame

This project really has sped by! As I upload it to StudyNet now, I'm thinking about the many ideas and thought processes I've had as a result of the lectures and content covered.
I feel this really has prepared me for my essay and certainly enticed me, perhaps, to keep a general personal blog!

P.S. Don't forget to take a look at the Bibliography and Dictionary at the top!

FINAL THOUGHT: Nicole Kidman.

Reversing into automatic death...

We covered a lot in this lecture, but I was certainly given a lot to think about. We spoke a lot about that bloke Marshall McLuhan. Ivan basically said that we'd either find his 'theories' really interesting or think they are a load of rubbish. I have to say I did agree with much of what McLuhan suggested. There were some exaggerations on his part, but on the whole I do agree.
Of the many things we spoke about, I particularly enjoyed the second half of the lecture/seminar. We discussed Hot and Cool media, and spoke about McLuhan's thoughts on where our mediums should go (i.e. Television, Film, Newspapers, etc) and then critiqued them.
I feel that while Radio used to be hot media, where you could be described as a 'spectator', not requiring much interaction, this is no longer valid. Radio in our modern culture is highly interactive, with people calling in, texting in, etc. For this reason I feel as though it should be classed as cool media.

We finished by talking about the 'Law of Media Tetrads'. Essentially, ANYTHING can be put into this 'law'.

 Fig 1.1: BMW 1 Series (Source: bmwblog.com, 2009)

THIS is a BMW 1 Series. When I'm an app developer and I make the next Angry Birds of the future, sailing around the internet aboard the HTML7, I'm going to have one of these. Maybe a more up to date version. I DIGRESS.

The BMW 1 Series is a car.

Cars:

1. Extend our legs.

2. Retrieves the notion of 'the knight' in the 'olden days', questing, being adventurous, etc.

3. Reverses into gridlock & pollution.

4. Obsolesces horses (as a method of transport).

We looked at this example in class, and then did our own. A classmate and I decided to attempt to put the Internet into one of these tetrads, however it was quite difficult. Cars are used for one purpose, to travel. However, the internet has many applications. A method of communication, ways of gathering information, ways to cause harm to others (through hacking, etc), etc. So, we chose to focus on a specific application - Internet for ways of gathering information.

1. Extends knowledge/intelligence

2. Retrieves the Godlike notion of omniscience.

3. Reverses into lack of independence, lack of self-adventure/discovery.

4. Obsolesces non-fiction books.

I liked a lot of McLuhan's ideas and I think I'll be looking more into his work over the next 3 years.
Also, Nicole Kidman.

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It's been a busy week with other projects, but I've finally found time to be able to sit down and continue this here blog.

Since the last lecture on intertextuality, we spoke about structuralism and binary opposition.
Structuralism, essentially, shows how we make sense of the world.
I'm glad we covered this because I've always been interested in how we're all different and how we all see the world. I've always been able to have an opinion and question other peoples opinions in a discussion without getting defensive or angry, and I find it fascinating how primally angry people get to defend their opinions.

We'll always be more fascinated with what we don't know as opposed to what we do. That's why horror films where the 'monster' is hardly ever shown for the whole film is so effective. The idea, anticipation and our imagination of the 'monster' and the unknown will always be more terrifying than the monster itself. While it may sound like I'm going off on a tangent, this is what I thought of when we were discussing the anomalous zone/the zone of indeterminancy.
We then discussed the anomalous zone in more detail, and how films that 'play with' the mixture between binary oppositions (i.e. good/bad, life/death, etc) are generally more effective. Having a superhero film where the superhero may have done/may have to do something bad is much better than a superhero being 100% good.
This made me think of other ways binary opposition could be used in film for effectiveness, and the first film that sprang into my head was The Others. Now, I know there is a recurring Nicole Kidman theme here, BUT I promise I'll try not to bring her up again unless I need to.
The Others is a film where the character of Nicole Kidman lives in a big scary house with her children. The house is haunted by ghosts who make their everyday lives a misery.

Now, before I continue I'd like to apologise to anyone marking this blog who hasn't seen The Others, because I'm about to drop a bomb and post a spoiler. I wouldn't do it if it wasn't necessary to make my point!
At the end of the film, you find that actually, the mother and her children have been going through the whole film thinking they are haunted by ghosts, praying for something to be done about it, when actually they are the ones who are dead, and are haunting the people who are alive.
Rather than them being 'in the middle' of alive and dead, they are 'alive' for the entire film, and flip straight over to the other end of the spectrum in just a few seconds. But, it's more effective than someone just being shot (alive -> dead) because the idea that they are ghosts doesn't quite put them right at the end of the spectrum. Part of them is still alive.