New American TV Series

The essay Philosophy and New American TV Series by Paola Marrati and Martin Shuster claims that new American TV series “claim the right to be taken seriously as legitimate objects of philosophical teaching and research” (7). This statement suggests that the new TV series are in some way more profound and philosophically as well as intellectually acceptable and of interest than old series. Trying to prove their statements they mention some TV series which got popular during the last years (8), yet they do not give any examples of older series which would not adhere to these ‘newly found’ public and philosophical interests. 

In my opinion, most of these new American TV series only serve an entertainment-purpose rather than making the viewer think and philosophize about the different problems. Video games are actually a much better approach to analyze morality, since in many games the player has to make decisions and thus really gets to think about morality, even if it’s only fictional. Too bad, video games are publicly still avoided by most self-proclaimed intellectual philosophers.

Marrati, Paula; Shuster, Martin. MLN. "Philosophy and New American TV Series." The John Hopkins UP, 2013. p. vii-ix.

Reflection: The Illusion of ‘Reality’ in Movies

Questioning the importance of ‘reality’ in media in terms of whether a movie depicts events in a realistic way to make the viewer feel and think about what happened or rather to simply entertain people, I think, we have to clearly distinct between different kinds of movies. A series like Homeland, for example, which is set in the real world and based on real and traumatic events, most likely uses the realistic depictions of brutal interrogations and murder to make the viewer put himself in the victim’s position rather than seeing it as mere entertainment with nothing more to it.

Since I haven’t seen Homeland yet, I can’t really say much about it, but the example which stuck in my head during the whole session was a scene from the HBO-series Band of Brothers, where a group of American soldiers enters a death camp after just freeing it from the Nazis. The viewer is confronted with a terrifyingly realistic depiction of barely alive and even dead Jews. Having visited two concentration camps, seeing this scene was definitely more than mere ‘entertainment’ to me and I think it is really important that, if such real events are presented in movies, the viewers realize that this is much more than just a realistic presentation of something – that this, in fact, tries to represent reality in a way.

Philosophy and New American TV Series

As the title of the essay “Philosophy and New American TV Series”, written by Paola Marrati and Martin Shuster, says, this text focuses on popular American TV series of the 21^st-century saying that all, or almost all, American series are following a new trend: the trend of including philosophical topics (viii). I, however, do hardly disagree on this statement. Modern TV series, be it American series or others, do not deal with philosophical topics on purpose or to say it in other ways, it is not the producers’ main goal. They are more aiming on entertaining the audience by interesting stories, appealing characters and impressive locations. Of course, there is always at least one philosophical topic  covered in a TV series. In the comedy series New Girl it is the question of personal identity as well as in Gilmore Girls. Thinking about all the CSI series there is the topic of morality constantly, but depending on the episodes and the characters one will find a number of philosophical topics as well. In my opinion, the essay is misleading and gives the impression that only the TV series of the 21^st-century are dealing with philosophy and that the individual stories are created around specific moral questions. I say, however, that one can find philosophical topics in any literary piece, movie, video game, songs and TV series. Even in our seminar we are talking about series and video games, and I am sure that we will find philosophical topics in all of them.

Marrati, Paula; Shuster, Martin. MLN. "Philosophy and New American TV Series." The John Hopkins U P, 2013. p. vii-ix. Print.

Is the question of reality important?

I would partly agree on the opinion that it is important.  The series Homeland uses typical American stereotypes the majority of the audience can identify with. If we are able to indemnify ourselves with one or more character we tend to believe that this is true. When I watch a movie where a traditional German is represented, I think “Yes, that’s exactly the way we are!”. Combining this with real stories or common topics/fears a series like Homeland becomes partly realistic. As I read some months ago, even Barack Obama is a huge fan of this series and I do not think that this is for its entertainment. He as the President of the United States is aware of the real situation and I do not think that he would like Homeland if its content is fictional or too far from reality. So, not only character based but also content based it can be said that the audience can rely on the presented content as real or trustworthy but only partly. Nevertheless, I think it is quite obvious that non TV series or movie is fully reliable as well as deals with only the truth. In order to entertain a broad audience it is not possible to produce a successful series without adding some fiction.

Mediating real vs. unreal in Homeland

Having been an avid viewer of Homeland since it began, it's interesting to analyze how it mediates real vs. unreal. Based around events that were very much real, that of the aftermath of 9/11 and the ongoing war/conflict in Afghanistan, the show deals with the subject of terrorism in a visceral way, with depictions of brutal interrogations and torture, as well as 'realistic' depictions of murder or killings.

As a normal citizen, we cannot be sure how real any of these depictions are, but as Zero Dark Thirty (2012) also shows, it is likely that for the viewer it is less traumatic to view the images as performed  (Smelik 312), than it is to see real images such as from Abu Ghraib and so forth. That said, if as Smelik notes "a paradoxical effect of frequent repetitions is that they actually make the image unreal and present it as performed" (309) then those images from Abu Ghraib are just as unreal to us as those we see in Homeland. I find the use of real audio from the past quite interesting in this context (seen at the introduction of the show), as do we find it as real or unreal due to repetition, or do we lend more credence to its authenticity as it is not a visual image but rather sound?

Smelik, Anneke. "Mediating Memories: The Ethics of Post-9/11 Spectatorship." Arcadia 45.2 (2010): 307-312. Web. 20 May 2013.

The Meaning of the Mirror

As I noted during the discussion in class, the mirror in both The Matrix (1999) and Inception (2010) is a symbol. It is a symbol of reflection, be it the actual reflection of an image of an object or a person, or the reflection of something more abstract, such as representing a characters thoughts or feelings, the mood of the film, something real while they are in a dream state etc.

Bouncing the light waves of our environment, our reality, back to us so we can perceive it from different angles or view, the mirror in these movies is a tool to comprehend the imagined reality that the characters find themselves in, be it a computer construct or a dream reality. For Neo, it is used to understand that the world he believes is real, is in fact a construct, as the mirror envelops his body, something he can't believe is happening. Even though the mirror's themselves are not real, as they are just creations in an imagined reality, they are still symbols of reflection, endowed with the same power as a 'real' mirror by way of one's mind or the 'matrix', and serve as a powerful storytelling tool.

Philosophy and New American TV Series

The text Philosophy and American TV Series written by Paola Marrati and Martin Shuster deals with American TV Series and their influence on society. It is said that "TV series claim the right to be taken seriously as legitimate objects of philosophical teaching and research" (Marrati, Shuster vii). I have experienced that a text passage from The Big Bang Theory has been used to explain a theory in the field of cognitive linguistics. It was a nice distraction, but I doubt that other TV series could be of high value for teaching. I cannot imagine that True Blood or The Vampire Diaries could have something valuable to teach. Breaking Bad, however, could be used to scare young people due to the effects of drug use.

Marrati, Paula; Shuster, Martin. MLN. "Philosophy and New American TV Series." The John Hopkins University Press, 2013. p. vii-ix.

The Meaning of a Mirror in the Movies Inception and The Matrix

The previously mentioned movies, Inception and The Matrix, use new media to appear "futuristic". However, there is one old-fashioned object that is used - in an quite unusual manner - appearing in both movies: the mirror. Nevertheless, the mirror is applied in different ways. The movie Inception which was produced by Christopher Nolan, uses the mirror as a symbol to depict the "borders of ones mind". Whereas Leonardo Di Caprio is able to see himself multiple times, the student Ariadne only sees one reflection of herself.
The movie The Matrix is using the mirror in an allegorical way, because it seems to be the border between the matrix and the real world.

What Inception tells us about our experience of reality

While reading Ian Alan Paul’s attempt to interpret Inception, I have to say that I strongly disagree with his interpretation of the ending. Paul claims that the top “acts to test whether the world he is in is actually reality or is just another dream”. Not the top itself serves as the reality-test, but the fact that someone has chosen it as his or her personal totem. This top is the totem of another character in the movie and there is no reason to assume that the main character Cobb has chosen the exact same item as his totem.

Nevertheless, this movie makes you think about the reality the characters are living in. Some video games use the exact same method to make the player think about the plot and feel with the character. A great example is the game Alan Wake which, mainly in the first episodes, makes you question the reality of Wake’s experiences.

Paul, Ian Alan. “Desiring-Machines in American Cinema: What Inception tells us about our experience of reality and film.” senses of cinema 56 (2010): n. pag. Web. 13 May 2013.

Group Work on Remediation as Reform

The text “Remediation - Understanding New Media” written by Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin is dealing with remediation which can be described as the process of refashioning something already existing. This could mean, for example, that every new medium is an improvement of another, older medium which could not fulfill its expectations. New media are the result of lacks or faults their predecessors had  (Bolter and Grusin 60). It is a reform which improves or refashions existing media making it more interactive in order to include its users (59). This text will deal with the question in how far Jay D. Bolter and Richard Grusin define remediation as “reform”. 

As remediation was defined before, reform can be explained by the cinema, for example, which is a reformation of the theatre. Furthermore, reform is responsible for technology to improve, so that “technology reforms itself” (61). Bolter and Grusin realize that “remediation is reform in the sense that media reform reality itself”. Moreover it is claimed that media hybrids, which are also defined as affiliations of technical artifacts, are as present as objects of science (61). To corroborate their statement, Bolter and Grusin explain that media enhances reality by telling that virtual reality is also reforming reality, because it shows us an “alternative visual world” which can be seen as a place of “presence” and “meaning” for people (61). Nowadays, people crave after new media that is reformed and remediated because it seems to have a huge value for them to always have the newest technology.

As both authors note "No medium, it seems, can now function independently and establish its own separate and purified space of cultural meaning" (55). The interconnected nature of media does indeed shade and blur the lines between each medium, as the technology we now possess and commonly use allows us to access and utilize different media sources with ease. Be it a QR code on a printed ad, a number for voting with your smartphone for “The Voice”, or a viral video for an upcoming film, the success of various forms of media are now interlinked, and the web that links them continues to evolve as society accepts each new technology or remediated medium.

It is intriguing that Bolter and Grusin note the possible impact of the digital and interactive media on politics, and suggest that "even beyond claims for political reform [...] that the web and computer applications are creating a digital culture that will revolutionize commerce, education and social relationships" (60). Said at a time before Youtube, Facebook, Near Field Communication/RFID forms of payment, Khan Academy, Online Learning Platforms and the success of Obama's online campaign in reaching young voters, it can be said that the impact of our ever remediating ways have indeed drastically impacted our social relationships, education and commerce, and will continue to do so as our never-ending cycle of remediation continues.

Another focus in our seminar is on the remediation of old media. In their text, Bolter and Grusin mention that probably all mediation is remediation in one way or another; yet at the same time they admit that this might not be entirely true while all of their current media do at least serve as “remediators” (55). It is important to notice that this text has been published in 1999 and thus is outdated in terms of media. What they considered current media is old media for us now in 2013. A good example are the video games Myst and Riven, both mentioned in the text, which were considered highly authentic for their photorealistic graphics (55). That might have been true in the Nineties, when they were released, but today they are far below standard graphics. The evolution of graphics in video games might not be considered remediation as such, since it only enhances rather than becoming a different and new medium but currently we are also facing a whole new level of graphics in video games and movies, namely the illusion of seeing these graphics three dimensionally on our screens. These new graphics might be considered as “new” new media in terms of remediation.

Bolter, Jay D. and Richard Grusin. "Mediation and Remediation." Remediation: Understanding New Media.Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2000. 52-62. Print.

Desiring-Machines in American Cinema

In the article “Desiring-Machines in American Cinema“ the author Jan Alan Paul focuses on the film Inception in order to explain the theme change in 21^st-century films. The audience is not only interested in movies dealing with the question of reality and its possible manipulation, but also personally affected by these topics.

In the author’s opinion, people are fascinated by the content of films like Inception because they question reality and induce the audience to think in new dimensions and broaden their horizons. This is an interesting idea which can be transferred to other kinds of new media as well. Video games can foster this theme too and might affect the user on an even more personal level. If a person becomes a character like in Inception, he/she will experience a new reality.

Reflection on “Image and Event” Session

Talking about the effect of photographs of traumatic events on us as the viewers was very interesting. I liked the focus on 9/11 because in 2001 all of us have been old enough to actually understand what was happening and so we could talk about the impact this event had on every single one of us, especially since we’re not only Germans in this class.

The group presentation made us think about photographs and the possibility of manipulation. I would have preferred going a little bit deeper into the topic of manipulating images since this is a New Media class and especially when it comes to something visual – be it simple photographs or even videos –  I think manipulation is a very important point to investigate nowadays.

May the fourth be with you.

Revision on New Media Session 3

Unfortunately, I could not attend the last New Media session on Tuesday. However, I would like to comment on the text we were supposed to read and prepare for that day.To be honest I found the text quite hart to read as well as understand because Berry’s argumentation includes a lot of information and specific terms or phrases which I had to look up again and again. Especially the very first pages deals with interesting examples like 9/11 and explains the relations between visual, trauma and documentary studies giving an idea on how complex this topic is.
“Post-Structural critique of representation” (Berry 70) is a term I have never heard of before and as my group member Isabella I am not sure whether or not Post-Structural critique of representation will come up again in our symposium. However, we should keep it in mind and try to take it into account while searching for and collecting information for our presentation.

Berry, Peter. Beginning Theory an Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory."Post-structuralism and deconstruction." Second Edition. Manchester University Press. Manchester, New York. Ch. 3, p.61-63; 70-73.