Prodigy – Out of Space
What can a video for lyrics “i’ll take your brain to another dimension” be? Well, Prodigy thought that having guys dancing and color correction is enough to get the point across.I think the best part about this video is coordination of video to music. The song on it’s own sounds like an original/techno/dance remix on bob marly. The video brings idea of freedom to the song- you are free to dance, drive on top of cars, explore universe and space travel. as the song mixes styles and music samples, the video mixes people, emu and space. it’s a fun concussion of creativity.
on Burning Chrome
Cyberpunk is a different kind of futurist writing, and William Gibson is the champion of it. I think it’s main idea is the accent on super high technology and it’s contrast to low quality of life for people. Such view might have come from fear of growth of technology…. or not satisfaction with the way people are handling/ abusing technology…
I also think main difference between present and future that Gibson is describing is the cyberspace- a visual representation of code… as i saw in 3d softwares on Siggraph 2007, it’s not too far off, the 3d softwares are starting to create code “blocks” that you just arrange in order and get a high level simulation, such as fire…. where before it took a programmer to write, now takes creativity to arrange…. well, not quite yet, but in near future.
Gibson’s style of writing is very interesting to me…. he seems to be “surfing” the story, switching from one story to another, i think more for enjoyment of writing it, rather then for story’s sake….
The part about Russian program humored me quite a lot… “i felt like a punk who went out to buy a switch blade and come home with a small neutron bomb”… obvious present stereotype, but done in a great way…. it’s kind of funny that in Neuromancer he says that the world is mostly ruled by companies, while here, apparently Russia still has government military…
Anyhow, i think there are obvious parallels between present and the future that Gibson is describing, whether it’s reaction to resent explosion of technology or obvious stereotypes… Not only that, but Gibson touches on many issues of humanity in a science fiction way, such as new eyes and other body modifications are just a way to make yourself look good….
On Davis Assay
In 1940s Walter Benjamin was faced with development of reproduction and distribution of art. He organized art into two categories comparing traditional art forms, such as painting, to new arts available through technology, such as advertising and car production. In his opinion traditional artwork still has it’s “aura” and authenticity, while new form can evolve the society itself.
In 1990s Douglas Davis wrote his thoughts on the same topic using Walter Benjamin as a reference of outdated point of view. In his time technologies already became acceptable by the society and even creation of such technologies became art itself, such as Quicktime “movie” as a tool to empower imagination. The moment of creation of relationship between the art piece and the viewer is what counts for Davis.
This article reminded me of Larry Lessig and his speech about content. He said that in 1930s radio was considered to take away an ability of speech from masses into a Read Only culture – sort of speak, while now, the internet gives back the ability to Read and Write.
I think the difference between Benjamin and Douglas lays not in their point of view, or absurdity of ideas of aura and authenticity, but in the culture and time that they wrote in. There is a huge change in outlook on technology and life values in this 50 years.
