Q&A Final Presentation

My Argument

Technology can provide the body with many pleasures and be a convenience in everyday life.  Technology can also be a key part of enhancing the capabilities of the body.  Technology is not however immune to human error and has the potential to be dangerous if misused, abused, taken to a point beyond moderation, or misunderstood.

Prompt 12

I believe that violence is used in movies just like any other topic that fascinates viewers.  Most movies contain the same elements.  These elements are bad language, sex, and violence.  Just about every rated R video contains all three of these.  People watch movies because things like sex and violence are fascinating.  Average people don't get to experience raw violence on a day to day basis.  When people are involved in or get to witness a fight or murder or something they experience a feeling that is unmatched by other emotions.  On the same theme, people don't get to casually watch other people have sex on a day to day basis.  Movies allow viewers to watch these two things easily and experience something they don't usually have access to.

As uncommon as viewing sex or violence on a day to day basis is, viewing the two simultaneously is even more uncommon.  Mixing the two seems to hold a level of intrigue that nothing else can touch.  This isn't a common theme of movies.  When a movie contains these two it must do so in a way that consists of studying these actions.  In other words it's not acceptable for a movie to just show violence and sex without viewing it from a distance.  A movie must contain another movie within it to show these types of things.  It's not socially acceptable to really do so in any other manner.  

I believe it's this aspect of being socially unacceptable that makes Croenberg use it as a portal for videodrome penetration.  The concept of a video being able to take over someone's mind is very strange.  It's only appropriate for an equally bizarre event like sex and violence to be the essential event for this phenomenon to occur.  I don't think this idea complicates the argument of the body and technology at all.  I believe it just brings more logic to the crazy idea of technology having such an influence on the body by giving a reason why.  Since we can't really fathom some of the ideas of technology and its powers because they sound illogical, it's easy for movies to support this concept with an answer they we equally don't understand.

Prompt 11

The Lawnmower Man explores the relationship between the body and technology in many different ways by using many different characters.  The main characters in this movie are a scientist and a gardener.  The scientist has just recently suffered a blow to his business career because of the death of a chimp that he is experimenting on.  The scientist decides to try his experiments on a gardener who is not very smart.  The scientist hopes to make the gardener more intelligent with these experiments.  Throughout the movie the scientist's personal life begins to deteriorate because of his obsession with his job and technology advances.  The scientist uses technology in a way that he hopes will enhance the mind of the gardener.  This presents a completely different argument than the gardener does.

The gardener undergoes these experiments by the scientist and becomes smarter and smarter.  By the end of the movie the gardener is extremely talented and is capable of things like mind-reading and telekinesis.  Once the gardener becomes intelligent and capable of powerful things he also becomes increasingly angry due to effects of the experiments.  The experiments conducted rely heavily on virtual reality.  The gardener and the scientist both use this virtual reality world to escape the real world.  The scientist does it for fun and exploration and searches it for ways to seek benefits for the human mind.  The gardener becomes more and more into the virtual reality world and feels he is limited by the physical world.  He begins conducting experiments on himself so that he may make the total transformation into the virtual reality world and leave his humanly body behind.  This contrasts the scientist tremendously.  The scientist wishes to use the virtual reality as a means of helping the body and the gardener sees it as a means of leaving the body and its limits behind.  

The gardener becomes too powerful and angry towards the end of the movie and begins killing people.  This breakdown and the overall deterioration of the people's lives involved with this technology gives an overall argument about how harmful technology can be to humans too concerned with it.

Prompt 10

There were many topics within Neuromancer that I found interesting. By interesting I mean confusing of course. The one I found most interesting was probably death. Death is viewed in Neuromancer much differently than it is in anything I've ever seen, read, or heard.

Dixie Flatline is the most obvious example of death in the novel. Dixie is a ROM is some kind of disc with a recording on it. Once someone jacks into this recording, Dixie is present as a dead person or some sort of ghost. Dixie was a human at one time who was recorded onto this ROM and now is stuck in there. When the ROM is not being used Dixie does not exist. Dixie has characteristics like his laugh that are disturbing to humans. This adds an extra scary factor to death itself. Dixie is dead but has desires which I find strange. Dixie longs for nothing more than to be erased so he doesn't have to exist in this state anymore. I'm confused by this because if he is erased I wonder if he goes into a different state of death or just doesn't exist as a dead person anymore. If he's dead but wants to be erased to a different state of dead does the next or other stage of dead present better circumstances?

I find the story of when Case dies to be much more interesting however. Case dies and goes to a sight on the beach that involves Linda Lee and Neuromancer. Linda Lee seems to be content and happy in this weird state of death. She doesn't seem to be bothered by it like Case is. In all the relations to death the state of cold is present. This seems to bother Case the most. The ever present cold bothers him. Linda Lee is content in the place but Case wishes to leave it. This makes me wonder if the state of death creates a different mindset for everyone. The other things about death that bother Case are that he is on a beach with wind and dirt. I find this interesting because these are things that a lot of people enjoy. In this futuristic world of technology these are cast as bad things. I would be in a happy state if I were on a secluded beach with my lady friend and no school or work to worry about. I'm just saying.

Prompt 7

The trend of body modification for a more desireable look is as evident today as it ever has been in American society. The desired look has become harder to achieve than ever but is still highly sought after. The normative body modifications applied to achieve this look include everything from exercise to plastic surgery. People wish to achieve a better looking body by doing anything from eating differently to taking diet pills. At first these acts would seem very different from the more radical forms of body modification that try to speak out against society's norms but they are not entirely. The difference is easily spotted and lies with the goals of each group. The normative body modification group wishes to fit into society's standards. The radical body modification group on the other hand wishes to act in defiance of these standards. The people within these groups can view their actions in different ways. Someone can see their action as being part of a group or as being an individual. They can see it as something that exists within a society or as something removed from society and belonging only to the person. However any view point held or any body modification received for whatever reason only further adds to the political viewing of bodies in general. Those who receive mainstream body modifications are viewed by others as if they support the ideas behind mainstream body modifications. For instance is someone took diet pills to become smaller they will be viewed as someone who believes people should be thin. On the other hand if someone receives a radical form of body modification they are viewed as supporting the ideas behind radical body modification. For instance is someone got a tattoo on their face they they are viewed as someone wishing to stress a point or speak out against the ways of society in disagreement.

prompt 5

The two links to National Geographic and Marketplace were very different in their approach to body modifications especially tattoos. National Geographic took a cultural approach to these things. The link I looked at consisted of several photographs of different people in different cultures with tattoos and various other body modifications. The body modifications themselves were the main focal point of the photographs for the most part. National Geographic then tied these modifications into a cultural context. The different people pictured were from all sorts of different cultures from Brazil to Samoa. National Geographic then explained the meanings the people in the picture and the culture or country they were located in gave to these modifications. These different meanings varied from senses of pride to modern primitivism to mafia involvement. The process by which the people had been tattooed was different in these pictures as well. National Geographic made available pictures of body modifications in different cultures and tied the meanings of those tattoos into the cultural context.

The Marketplace approach was much different towards body modificaitons taht National Geographic. National Geographic pictured these people in a manner that suggested they were outside of the norm that Americans such as myself are accustomed to. It was attempting to show and describe things unfamiliar to people such as myself. Marketplace on the other hand attempts to describe how these modifications are becoming a normal part of everyday American life. Marketplace interviews a mortgage broker who is by his own means successful today in the business world. He also has many tattoos all over his body that people are aware of. The argument that Marketplace attempts to make with this is that most people believe that tattoos are becoming more and more common in the business place and eventually will not be such a factor in the inability to acquire jobs or make business deals. The belief here is that the people who are becoming less and less judged by their body modifications today will eventually hold some of the positions that place the judgement. Basically, it's becoming more and more normal to see body modifications on people every day and with that the norms of moderation are shifting.

I don't believe that body modifications are still something exotic. Living in Austin I see a new type of body modification once a week it seems like. I have a tattoo and I view myself as quite normal. I don't see anything about myself as exotic. I agree completely with the view of the guy interviewed in the Marketplace about how body modifications are becoming less strange. I believe this pattern will continue to occur until tattoos aren't involved in considering something exotic.

Post 4

For this post I'll be looking at the "Onslaught" video and the "oversized or outstanding" print advertisements that Dove ran.  Dove ran these videos in a campaign called "Real Beauty."  

In the print advertisement, Dove features a woman who is built thicker than the typical magazine model.  She is standing in a sassy pose with her hair blowing back out of her face.  Beside her face on either side is the word oversized or outstanding.  Beside each word is a question mark and a check box.  In this advertisement Dove is asking the viewer to select whether they feel the model is one of the two word choices or the other.  Dove is trying to create a good feeling for the brand by putting an oversized model in an ad and giving the viewer the choice to select that the model is not overweight but is outstanding in her own way.  They show the model in a happy confident manner that makes the viewer believe that she is proud of the way she looks.  Dove expects the viewer to chose that the model is outstanding and with doing so attains the perception that the company is promoting a viewing of women for their positive aspects as opposed to the negative ones.  If the viewer picks that the model is oversized then it is a reflection of the viewer and not of Dove.  If the viewer plays into Dove's strategy then Dove gets the good credit, but if the viewer does not then the negative light is cast on the viewer.  To create this contrast of viewpoints the viewer has to be aware that the model is indeed overweight.  Dove doesn't want to directly point out that the model is overweight so they do it in a sly manner.  By showing an overweight model next to the word oversized they achieve this.  By presenting the other option of outstanding, they get credited as this being their opinion and don't have to take credit for achieving the other opinion for it to be contrasted with.

In the video Dove shows young girls going to school in the midst of many shots of horrific images associated with models, size, surgery, and the harshness of maintaining a beautiful image.  These images of the thin models is what Dove is saying is the "beautiful" body by the world's definition.  Dove shows the little girl to relate that they believe the little girl is already beautiful to them and doesn't need all the harshness involved in trying to look like the models they see everyday.  Dove has to show that the little girl is not the beautiful that people consider these models to be.  Dove does not, however, want to say that the little girl is not beautiful.  To do this they create the video in a way that makes it look as if the little girl is the one seeing these models as beautiful instead of herself that way.  Dove gets credit as seeing the little girl as beautiful and trying to help her realize this.

With this campaign, I do not feel that Dove has too much consideration in helping little girls throughout the world feel more beautiful for who they are.  I also do not believe that Dove did much to radically change many people's image of beauty.  All I feel that is accomplished through this campaign is that Dove was able to sell products to people who felt down about their looks or something dealing with the harshness of society in general by giving them a warm and fuzzy feeling inside by buying the product.  At the moment the items were purchased some purchases felt good about themselves for just a short amount of time or like they were making a difference.