Welcome


Welcome to the Performance in a Mediatised Culture blog, 2009. This is a space for you to share images, ideas and experiences throughout the course.

IMPORTANT!! CLASS EXCURSION WEEK 6:
Contrary to what your course outline says, please meet at 9.30am in the usual classroom for the week 6 excursion. We will go from there.

ALSO: AVAILABLE RESOURCES
Selected works that we have watched are now with Iain Murray at the Level 3 Webster desk and are available for you to borrow and watch on campus. You can use these for your essay preparation:

Level 3 desk:
- ‘Cesena’ and ‘Brussels’ in Tragedia Endogonidia by Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio
- Chunky Move Mortal Engine or Glow
- Blast Theory Uncle Roy All Around You and Can You See Me Now?
- The Wooster Group Route 1 & 9 (The Last Act)
- Granular Synthesis Modell 5

unsw LIBRARY:
- Einstein on the beach[videorecording] :the changing image of opera /
- The Builders Association [videorecording] : Show excerpts and trailers, 1994-2007

Bill Viola documentaries (COFA):
- I do not know what it is that I am like[videorecording] /
- The passing[videorecording]
- Selected works[videorecording] /

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Technology=Modern Day Vampires and Zombies?

As the vibrating heads unnerved me while watching Granular Synthesis' Modell 5 I couldn't help but try to dissect why I was so disturbed by the images on screen.

Her movements were unnatural, her face became distorted, things were out of place on her face. Bryoni mentioned how control and manipulation were also at play here, how the face was being manipulated, the images were controlled by the technology. The effects manipulated us as audience members. And I realized that there was a striking similarity between the images and concepts to vampires and zombies.

Her face was scary like a zombie. Zombies are often distorted creatures. Vampires often move in unnatural ways, they also have the ability to manipulate and control their victims (as in Dracula with Lucy). What also scares us about Zombies and Vampires is how much more powerful they are than us--we can't really kill them. They are the "undead."

Similarly, technology is the "unalive." It can control and manipulate us. It is not natural. Is technology our modern day Vampire or Zombie? Vampires and Zombies used to be people's biggest fear--Is technology now our biggest fear? Are we absolutely mortified of the power it has over us?


1 comment:

  1. Nice correlation between the undead and the unalive. Aren't we also afraid of zombies because they are just like us but not quite? While a zombie is in the liminal death-life state, something like a robot (especially a really good robot) is maybe more between animate and inanimate...? So are we also afraid of objects that pretend to have life, but that don't? Hmm....

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