Solaris, Syracuse and simulacra
Looking at the new essay questions, number 16 is appealing:
‘Real’ can be opposed to (or set in contrast with) ‘fake’ or ‘illusion’. How has the development of cyberspace [CS] (or other recent technological innovations) made us rethink the oppositions between real/ fake and real/ illusory? (You might also consider the question: to what extent has CS made us rethink the distinction between 'original' and 'copy.') I think I'll probably attempt that one or the earlier question about cultural icons.
I just caught the second half of Solaris, Stephen Soderbergh's American remake of the Russian film of the 70s. It was pretty intriguing, I'd like to see the original, and read the Stanislaw Lem book that inspired it. I was interested in the film's exploration of ideas about reality: the reality of the world and people around us, and of ourselves; the part our memories play in defining and historically preserving reality and the form of our lives. It's not a theme that could have been well explored in a sensational, typically 'Hollywood' film; the effect would have been crass and not a little superficial.
It follows a psychologist sent to investigate astronauts' odd visions aboard a space station orbiting the oceanic planet of the film's title; their dead loved ones appear to them, seemingly real and sentient. In turn, his dead wife (suicide) turns up and they resume their relationship, faced with numerous dilemmas: that not only he, but she also, knows she's not real, but a facsimile of his wife, yet she feels and experiences like a human . . . that she is not a complete person, but constructed only from what he remembers - and what if he remembers her wrong? (this plays into notions of simulacra, that if his memories are inaccurate, he's in love with an illusion that bears no relations to the woman who informed her existence) . . . that he remembers her as suicidal, and thus she still is, and tries to kill herself but, being a phenomena rather than a human, is resurrected and forced to continue her unintentional existence . . . and that he cannot bring her back to Earth, yet can live no kind of decent life on the space station.
The pace of Solaris - what I saw of it, at least - lets one think about the ideas present while the film slowly unfolds. A line towards the end particularly intrigued me: "I performed all the millions of gestures that constitute life on Earth. But I was haunted by the idea that I remembered her wrong... that I was wrong about everything."
Took some reading on holiday; am now halfway through Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation; his writing style made it very difficult to get into, but it seems to get easier as you progress with it. Some interesting points about the circular nature of simulation; how, once you dispose of meaning, and are left only with signifiers, they consume and refer to each other endlessly rather than leading to any kind of outcome (e.g. the repetitious & increasingly meaningless process of communication, without any meaning actually being communicated, also documented by Richard Sennett regarding high-risk office-based workplaces - ad agencies etc - in his analysis of the modern employment culture, The Corrosion Of Character.) He also makes interesting points about consumer culture, and the illusory "needs" that are produced for us to pursue.
Also read Susan Sontag's Regarding The Pain Of Others. A key quote from it - "The problem is not that people remember the photographs, but that they remember only the photographs" - quite an accurate summation of one of the key problems with news coverage [say for instance 9/11; we think of two images that were hammered home - the slomo, shaky-video destruction of the WTC, and Osama Bin Laden's face - and other aspects fade into obscurity, like the other plane that was supposedly shot down near Washington, or the events involving the Middle East and Osama Bin Laden that preceded the terrorism, etc.]
On holiday, I found something else, quite different, that felt quite relevant. I visited an archeological park in Syracuse, which houses Roman and Greek stone outdoor theatres. I took some photos, a couple are below. The stone seats of the Greek theatre, having corroded in places, are being replaced with wooden boarded seats, painted grey to match the stone. The effect is peculiar to say the least.... the preservation of the theatre, and of the experience of the theatre - sitting on the seats, looking down into the semi-circular stage area - being preserved by thoroughly incongruous wooden seats.
That said, they are a temporary amendment, not the same as filling in the seats with fresh stone and contaminating its historical relevance and accuracy - but this whole debate, over the preservation of history, is one that the likes of Baudrillard have discussed, in relation to simulation.
Elsewhere, fallen pillars from the Roman amphitheatre were arranged prettily to line a path at the fee-paying entrance. The effect was rather trite; the pillars were no longer authentic evidence of an ancient culture, left where they fell to be observed in later centuries, but Roman-themed ephemera that made up the modern aesthetic structure of this museum piece, clambered over by tourists.
‘Real’ can be opposed to (or set in contrast with) ‘fake’ or ‘illusion’. How has the development of cyberspace [CS] (or other recent technological innovations) made us rethink the oppositions between real/ fake and real/ illusory? (You might also consider the question: to what extent has CS made us rethink the distinction between 'original' and 'copy.') I think I'll probably attempt that one or the earlier question about cultural icons.
I just caught the second half of Solaris, Stephen Soderbergh's American remake of the Russian film of the 70s. It was pretty intriguing, I'd like to see the original, and read the Stanislaw Lem book that inspired it. I was interested in the film's exploration of ideas about reality: the reality of the world and people around us, and of ourselves; the part our memories play in defining and historically preserving reality and the form of our lives. It's not a theme that could have been well explored in a sensational, typically 'Hollywood' film; the effect would have been crass and not a little superficial.
It follows a psychologist sent to investigate astronauts' odd visions aboard a space station orbiting the oceanic planet of the film's title; their dead loved ones appear to them, seemingly real and sentient. In turn, his dead wife (suicide) turns up and they resume their relationship, faced with numerous dilemmas: that not only he, but she also, knows she's not real, but a facsimile of his wife, yet she feels and experiences like a human . . . that she is not a complete person, but constructed only from what he remembers - and what if he remembers her wrong? (this plays into notions of simulacra, that if his memories are inaccurate, he's in love with an illusion that bears no relations to the woman who informed her existence) . . . that he remembers her as suicidal, and thus she still is, and tries to kill herself but, being a phenomena rather than a human, is resurrected and forced to continue her unintentional existence . . . and that he cannot bring her back to Earth, yet can live no kind of decent life on the space station.
The pace of Solaris - what I saw of it, at least - lets one think about the ideas present while the film slowly unfolds. A line towards the end particularly intrigued me: "I performed all the millions of gestures that constitute life on Earth. But I was haunted by the idea that I remembered her wrong... that I was wrong about everything."
Took some reading on holiday; am now halfway through Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation; his writing style made it very difficult to get into, but it seems to get easier as you progress with it. Some interesting points about the circular nature of simulation; how, once you dispose of meaning, and are left only with signifiers, they consume and refer to each other endlessly rather than leading to any kind of outcome (e.g. the repetitious & increasingly meaningless process of communication, without any meaning actually being communicated, also documented by Richard Sennett regarding high-risk office-based workplaces - ad agencies etc - in his analysis of the modern employment culture, The Corrosion Of Character.) He also makes interesting points about consumer culture, and the illusory "needs" that are produced for us to pursue.
Also read Susan Sontag's Regarding The Pain Of Others. A key quote from it - "The problem is not that people remember the photographs, but that they remember only the photographs" - quite an accurate summation of one of the key problems with news coverage [say for instance 9/11; we think of two images that were hammered home - the slomo, shaky-video destruction of the WTC, and Osama Bin Laden's face - and other aspects fade into obscurity, like the other plane that was supposedly shot down near Washington, or the events involving the Middle East and Osama Bin Laden that preceded the terrorism, etc.]
On holiday, I found something else, quite different, that felt quite relevant. I visited an archeological park in Syracuse, which houses Roman and Greek stone outdoor theatres. I took some photos, a couple are below. The stone seats of the Greek theatre, having corroded in places, are being replaced with wooden boarded seats, painted grey to match the stone. The effect is peculiar to say the least.... the preservation of the theatre, and of the experience of the theatre - sitting on the seats, looking down into the semi-circular stage area - being preserved by thoroughly incongruous wooden seats.
That said, they are a temporary amendment, not the same as filling in the seats with fresh stone and contaminating its historical relevance and accuracy - but this whole debate, over the preservation of history, is one that the likes of Baudrillard have discussed, in relation to simulation.
Elsewhere, fallen pillars from the Roman amphitheatre were arranged prettily to line a path at the fee-paying entrance. The effect was rather trite; the pillars were no longer authentic evidence of an ancient culture, left where they fell to be observed in later centuries, but Roman-themed ephemera that made up the modern aesthetic structure of this museum piece, clambered over by tourists.
posted by Gen Williams at 5:30 PM
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