The movie, The Way things Go by Peter Fischli and David Weiss followed a series of events that passed energy through a variety of forms. From different camera angles, I found myself focusing on separate angles of the action. If the camera was looking from in front of the spark or falling board, I looked at the cause of the action. If the camera was positioned behind the bubbling foam or rolling ball, I would focus on the effect. The movie talked about narrative because depending on the perspective and angle of the camera, the chain of random causes and effects took on a whole different meaning. When an author creates a story, he or she must take care of the perspective. Any change in camera angle draws attention to a new set of images with their own connotative meanings. 

The Soft Cinema Project by Andres Kratky and Lev Manovich draws attention to the complex connotative connections that occur whenever we recall memory. For an author, many inspirations and experiences go into the creation of a narrative. When a viewer watches the narrative, he or she fills in the gaps and makes assumptions about what is going on based on what they already understand. The Soft Cinema project asks how much structure an audience needs to understand a narrative. It combines text, video, audio and color schemes to trigger emotional responses so the audience can create an opinion about the piece. Regardless of the meaning an author conveys within the artwork, a viewer will take what he or she wants from it. Narrative creates the structure for a piece, however the true meaning is determined by the observer. 

Fuzzy Biological Sabotage

The Critical Art Ensemble has created a website in which different groups and organizations can have a space to advertise their position on new biotechnology techniques and theories. They justify their mission by saying that it is "Fuzzy Biological Sabotage," meaning that they take up a position on the boarder line between two polar positions, and rely on the reactions of the public to decide which way the movement will continue. In other words, they have evenly presented the websites of groups with different opinions about biotechnology, and hope that visitors to the site will be inspired to start a dialogue with their peers about their own thoughts. CAE seems to be bipartisan on the subject, stating that they only want to "slow the current molecular invasion."  

The CAE also is experimenting with the line between science and art. They gave the associated organizations similar virtual spaces through which to share their opinions. The reactions of visitors to the  site will draw conclusions as to which advertising techniques are most effective in today's society. Some of the groups, such as Marching Plague, use alternative forms of expression, such as video and a museum installation to make their point about fear and bioterrorism. Other websites rely on strong emotional appeals to connect to their viewers. The Society for Reproductive Anachronisms uses a jarring sketch of a couple engaging in sexual intercourse to grab the attention of the audience. Uses of emotional visual stimuli in this arena are very effective because they serve to alert people of their true feelings on a subject. When people are shown a strong source image, they are forced to take a stance. The CAE welcomes this use of controversial imagery  in order to get people talking. 

Each of the organizations chosen by the CAE represents a different point of view. I believe that the CAE chose organizations that were not perfect, and had obvious flaws regardless of how which position you look at it from. The imperfection of the site leads to more discussion, and more emotion regarding the issue, which is the purpose of the site as a whole. 

Reproduction and Visual Technologies

This week for our blog prompt, we were asked to watch and analyze how the style of two short films, The Synthetic Philosophy of the Glance by Eric Faden, and  This Unfamiliar Place by Eva Ilona Brzeski functions to prove the point each is trying to convey.  Each author uses the the form of their short film to highlight their main point. 

In the first film, Eric Faden tries to draw a connection between visual cinema, railroads, and their ability to transport people to a different place or see things from a different perspective. He begins by giving three examples of movies that place the railroad at the center of the character's ability to see and process the world around them. Not only are they transported to a different location, but they are also able to view the world in a new and unique manner by their experience with the railroad. Movies too, not only enable us to see the world through a different perspective, but also comment on our position within that world. Faden uses the recreation of a classical movie style to illustrate the perspective of a young girl experiencing one of the first movies, and shows how the use of the railroad ties into the creation of a motion picture. He guides us through a girl's adventure by railroad, into the city, where she watches a documentary about the correlation between cinema and trains in what seems to be an old movie titled "The Day Trip." During the movie, he says that the creation of the railroad, made possible the acceptance of visual cinema by the masses, because just as video "the steam engine, that powerful stage manager throws the switches...and then shifts the view point every moment," - Benjamin Gastineau, and requires a new understanding of perspective. He punctuates his point at the end of the video, by revealing that the depiction of an old film was just that. Faden had transported his audience into a new time and space to make the audience more able to understand the connection between the genesis of cinema with the cultural impact of the railroad. 

The second film, This Unfamiliar Place, similarly parallels its form with function. The author is trying to make sense of, and investigate the details of her father's dark past in the concentration camp in Warsaw, Poland during WWII. The film takes the form of a documentary, that attempts to find the answers to her questions regarding her father's mysterious past. However, although this film is factual, drawing from her own perception and her father's words to draw conclusions, the audience is left just as confused about the man's experience in the concentration camp. She uses short and sporadic visual clips that are hard to interpret, and left me unclear about their connection to the discovery of meaning for the author. She tries to draw parallels between her own life, and the unknown story of her father, but nothing seems to satisfy the questions that linger in her brain and the minds of the audience.