Perspectives | Key Words #4

• Avant-garde - original, experimental ,radical, innovatory, introducing or exploring new forms or subject matter.
• Nostalgia - the desire of returning back to a former time in one’s life or a sentimental longing for a period in the past.
  
• Appropriation - to appropriate something for example censorship in media.
• Pastiche - is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, or music that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. (reusing an existing concept or idea)
• Parody - humorous imitation of an existing serious piece of artwork.
  
• Irony - expressing one’s meaning by saying the opposite for (mostly) comedy effect.
• Idealogy - a set of opinions or beliefs of a group that they are living after.
  
• Genre - a category in which the artwork is produced according to a particular model or style.

•  Sherrie Levine -  is an American photographer, painter, and conceptual artist. She is best known for her reproductions of notable male artists' works through photography. Most of all, Levine's reproductions focus upon idolized male artists, such as: Walker Evans, Constantin Brancusi, Vincent van Gogh, and Edgar Degas, ect. In order to critique limiting ideas of talented male artists in which Art History has traditionally undervalued the role of female artists. The artist has said: “Every word, every image, is leased and mortgaged. We know what a picture is but a space in which a variety of images, none of them original, blend and clash.” While Levine sees her work as more of a collaboration with previous artists, in copying and replicating the work of male artists Levine also levels a feminist critique in art history and society. Movements which influenced artist: conceptual art, pop art, surrealism, moden photography, feminist art.

Life drawings #4

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Character Design Class #2

Perspectives | Why Is "Mulholland Drive" Postmodern

"Mulholland Drive" Poster

Mulholland Drive is a 2001 neo-noir mystery film written and directed by David Lynch. The film starrs Naomi Watts as a Betty Elms. Betty newly arrived in Los Angeles, who meets and befriends an amnesiac woman hiding in an apartment which belongs to Betty's aunt. The story includes several other seemingly unrelated vignettes that eventually interlock, as well as some surreal and darkly comic scenes and images that relate to the cryptic narrative. However, why this film is postmodern?

1. Hyper-reality - The film sets itself directed to reality, but the longer the film goes, the further away it strives away from reality.  The start of the film is seen as cheesy, romantic comedy, where Betty arrives to Hollywood, to become an popular actress. But accidently meets the amnesiac woman (Diane) in her aunts house. The story itself developes into romance but as it unreveals the shadowy mist around it, audience is struck by Bettys mental state. The surrealist hallucinations accure, nevertheless, the film's reality is broken and its shown that the film the audience has watched is not a film, just backward memory flashes which aren't revelant to reality.

2. Unreliable Narrator -  During the entire film an unreliable narrator is telling the story not truthfully and the audience is forced to question the shown scenes. In the final scenes of the film, it cannot be followed as reality  nor dreams/flash back .

3. Non-linear story telling - Through out the movie, the audience follows Bettys story line, but as Betty wakes up from her dream, she is Diane. The story which was once followed is discontinued in another one. It stops following chonological time line and ends up in mystery story.

4. Fragmented - The film "Mulholland Drive" is splint into 3 fragments which follows different story lines with different characters in them. This postmodernistic tactic is used in films to provide the audience an insight to an internal reality through the eyes of a certain individual whose point of view is altered by mental illness or substances (drugs, alcohol, etc.). 

5. Pastiche - The postmodern movie Mulholland Drive uses pastiche, referencing different aspects of Hollywood culture and its history. For example Rita, also known as Camilla, references the actress Rita Hayworth a successful movie star in the 1940s. Another reference used by Lynch is a film of the 1950s, Sunset Boulevard, one of Lynch’s favorites.

Myth & Storytelling |"Matrix" (1999)

Fig. 1 "Matrix" Poster

Written and directed by „The Wachowski Brothers“ the science fiction action film „The Matrix“ tells a story about a dystopian future of the human world in which the reality perceived by most of its inhabitants is actually a simulated reality called “The Matrix”. One day the protagonist Thomas Anderson, a hacker named “Neo”, learns about the truth of “the matrix” with the help of Morpheus. Neo who uncovers the lies about the world he was living in which he thought was the true reality decides to help the humanity to unchain itself from the slavery created by the machines controlling the simulation.

Just like many other blockbuster movies “The Matrix” pursues the concept of the so called “Hero’s Journey”. The first man who discovered the similarities between the many stories and analyzed them was the scholar Joseph Campbell in 1949. He called it a “monomyth” or simply as we know it today “Hero’s Journey”. In his book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” he outlines the 17 stages of a mythological hero’s journey which is condensed about half a century later by Christopher Vogler into only 12 stages. In the movie “The Matrix” most of those stages occur and therefore can be analyzed.

Fig. 2 Hero's Journey

The film starts off with our main protagonist Thomas Anderson in his ordinary world who works as a programmer for the software company MetaCortex. At night he becomes the computer hacker for hire known as “Neo”. One day he receives a strange message telling him to follow the white rabbit on his computer. After tracking it down he meets “Trinity” an infamous hacker who tells him that she knows the answer to his question about the cryptic phrase “the matrix” – his Call to Adventure. One day morning Neo receives a mysterious call from Morpheus who becomes his ally later on telling him to escape as “they” are coming for him. Neo follows Morpheus’ step by step instructions to escape the ones who want to capture him. Finally standing at the ledge of a skyscraper he hesitates to jump as Morpheus has told him therefore refused his request to escape – refuse of the call. He tells himself: “I can’t do this” and lets himself captured. After being released he receives another call from Morpheus who offers him a meeting at his place. Neo agrees and meets Morpheus who offers him two choices: a blue pill that returns him to his former life or the red pill which will reveal the truth about the matrix. Neo decides to swallow the red pill, his first step into the unknown, and so Morpheus becomes his mentor. With his super natural aid Neo will soon learn about the world’s truth.

Awakening from the simulation Neo finds himself in a cryopod filled with a strange liquid. He finally arrives in the real world – the belly of the whale. Morpheus shows him the truth, but at first Neo is in denial and even wants to go back to the simulation. Morpheus starts to train Neo in the simulation world and teaches him the lack of rules in it since it is not real and how to manipulate it. Neo encounters many new challenges and concepts he has never encountered before and tries his best to overcome them – the road of the trials. Neo makes many allies in the real world as he is training. One of them is Trinity the woman who introduced him to Morpheus and the one who reassured him when he was unsure. Clearly Trinity and Neo loved each and therefore she is Neo’s Goddess which becomes clearer later on when she revives Neo after he gets killed by Agent Smith with a kiss.

During the meeting with the oracle she tells Neo that he is not “the one” everyone is talking about and warns him that soon enough he has to choose between his life and Morpheus’. After the meeting in the matrix the crew decides to return to the real world. However, they did not know that Cypher, a crew member, has sided with the agents and has told them their exact location. The crew is attacked and two members die and in order for Neo and the remaining crew to escape Morpheus sacrifices himself and gets captured which can be seen as the death of the mentor stage. Neo decides to dive into the simulation again to rescue Morpheus, at that point he believes in a way that he really is “The One” Morpheus was assuming – atonement with the father. During the action packed fighting scenes with the agents and after the resurrection (the crossing of the return threshold) from the kiss of the Goddess (rescue from without) Neo realizes that he can manipulate the matrix at his own will without any effort since he can see the matrix’ coding through his eyes and has gained a large amount of self-confidence – Ultimate boon/Apotheosis. After defeating the agent and saving his allies Neo return to the real world with the acquired knowledge and strength. From that point on Neo will try to stop the machine and tell the humans in the simulation the truth about the world. He became the master of two worlds by becoming “The One” who will save the earth and the one who can freely manipulate the matrix. The final scene shows Neo in a phone cell telling someone maybe the machine that he will show their prisoners what they don’t want them to see and a world without the machines and hangs up – freedom to live.  
All in all, this movie is top of blockbusters, which sets new standards in the film making industry. As Roger Eberts writes in his review: ""The Matrix" is a visually dazzling cyberadventure, full of kinetic excitement" (Ebert, 1999).

Bibliography: 
 Ebert , R. (1999) "Matrix" At: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-matrix-1999 (Accessed on 09/10/2017)

Illustration List:
Fig. 1 "Matrix" Poster At: https://i.pinimg.com/736x/01/b2/95/01b2953ef273ae55ff65acd8eac844eb--sci-fi-films-cult-movies.jpg (Accessed on 09/10/2017)
Fig. 2 Hero's Journey. (Taken screenshot from Heroe's Journey lectures slide) (Accessed on 09/10/2017)

Maya | 5 Expression Poses

Perspectives | Why Is "Inception" Postmodern

"Inception" Poster

Inception is a 2010 science fiction film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, and co-produced by Emma Thomas. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a professional thief who steals information by infiltrating the subconscious, and is offered a chance to have his criminal history erased as payment for a seemingly impossible task: "inception", the implantation of another person's idea into a target's subconscious. But how come this film is postmodern?

1. Hyper-reality - During the movie „Inception” the mind is opened into another reality which could be seen as more desirable than the actual real-life reality. This aspect of the film convinces the audience that it is an authentic world, a world which is presented as a new, better and a more sought-after one.

2. Intertextuality - One of the most famous paradox “The Penrose staircases” is referenced during the film “Inception”. In order to demonstrate to Ariadne, the new dream architect, the importance of mazes and paradoxical architecture to create a convincing dream space Arthur created the Penrose stairs. Furthermore, the stairs indicate that anything is possible with the architect’s creativity.

3. Non-linear story telling -  The story telling style of the film “Inception” is “non-linear” which means that the story is not told in the chronological order. For example, at the start of the movie the main character Cobb is stranded at the beach and is carried to an old man sitting at a table. This scene is shown once more at the ending of the movie explaining how he got there.

4. Unreliable Narrator - During the entire movie an unreliable narrator accompanies the audience. He is, by definition, telling the story not truthfully and the audience is forced to question the shown scene or the conclusions he made. The viewer is left with only parts of the whole true story. The final scene of the movie makes the audience question whether the protagonist is still in the “hyper-reality” world or in the real world.

5. Time bending -  The movie “Inception” has an interesting “what if” style which makes the audience question what the world would be like if we could alter/manipulate someone else’s mental state. Additionally, it asks the audience whether it is right to invade a person’s thoughts. As stated before the film lets the viewer to decide if he/she prefers the “hyper-real” world or the reality.