6.Digital Ontology and Strategies of Realism: Notes
Questioning definitions of reality
■Addressing the relationship between reality and realism
■Introducing key theories and perspectives on realism to use as strategies to incorporate realism in media practice
What is reality?
Ontology = philosophical study of being
Epistemology = philosophical study of knowing
In philosophy Realism: The view that there is an independent material reality.
If reality is independent from us then it can be known in an objective manner
Reality and visual media - In media traditions
Representation
Simulation
Reality and visual media - Today
Representation - Cinema
Simulation - Games
Do you make a claim to realism in your practice?
Does your work involve representation/simulation?
The rape of Proserpina -Bernini (1621-1622) art piece
More realistic ?
Waltz with Bashir (2008) Animated Documentary
Hacksaw Ridge (2016) Live Action Film
John Constable - Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds 1825
Is one looking less realistic like Adventure Time or the Screaming Man painting less valid
Nikolay Chernyshevsky (1828-89)‘
The first purpose of artis to reproduce reality.’
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955),
‘Realism is a corruption of reality.’
André Bazin (1918 - 1958) - ‘the highpriest of realism’
■Film critic and film theorist
■Co-founded Cahiers du Cinéma (1951)
■Focused on the ontology of the photographic (and cinematic) image
“At the heart of Bazin’s strictures oncinematic realism lies the conviction that themovie camera, by the simple act ofphotographing the world, testifies to themiracle of God’s creation. It is sanctioned todo so precisely because it is an invention ofscience”.Matthews, P. (2018)
“Divining the real: the leaps of faith in André Bazin’s film criticism”. BFI,
https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/andre-bazin-divining-real-film-criticism-overview
Photographic images as objective representations of reality, rather than the product of human craft and agency.-> photographic images have a responsibility towards reality that paintings don’t have
Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (1895)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEQeIRLxaM4
“Those directors who put their faith in the image and those who put their faith in reality.” Bazin quoted in Matthews, P. (2018)
“Divining the real: the leaps of faith in André Bazin’s film criticism”.
BFI, https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/andre-bazin-divining-real-film-criticism-overview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAtpxqajFak
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919)
Documentary = Realism?
Nanook of the North (1921)
6 Modes of Documentaries - Bill Nichols
The Poetic Mode reassembling fragments of the world', a transformation of historical material into a more abstract, lyrical form, usually associated with 1920s and modernist ideas
The Expository Mode 'direct address', social issues assembled into an argumentative frame, mediated by a voice-of-God narration, associated with 1920s-1930s, and some of the rhetoric and polemic surrounding World War TwoThe
Observational Mode as technology advanced by the 1960s and cameras became smaller and lighter, able to document life in a less intrusive manner, there is less control required over lighting etc, leaving the social actors free to act and the documentarists free to record without interacting with each other.
The Participatory Mode the encounter between film-maker and subject is recorded, as the film-maker actively engages with the situation they are documenting, asking questions of their subjects, sharing experiences with them. Heavily reliant on the honesty of witnesses
The Reflexive Mode demonstrates consciousness of the process of reading documentary, and engages actively with the issues of realism and representation, acknowledging the presence of the viewer and the modality judgements they arrive at. Corresponds to critical theory of the 1980s
The Performative Mode acknowledges the emotional and subjective aspects of documentary, and presents ideas as part of a context, having different meanings for different people, often autobiographical in nature”
Bill Nichols (2001) Introduction to Documentary Indiana University Press
Social realism
■fiction films
■closely linked to thedocumentary
■attempt to portray,communicate and revealreal conditions of life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wjl8uFYrbhA
Believability E.g. Hollywood make-believe, Photoshop and 3D modelling Rather than reducing technical intervention to mirror reality, a deliberate intervention are used to make viewers ‘believe
’A variety of shots are employed to make spatial, temporal and emotional sense to audiences Bazin compared classical film to a photographed play where events seem to exist objectively and cameras only give us the best view A variety of shots are employed to make spatial, temporal and emotional sense to audiences Bazin compared classical film to a photographed play where events seem to exist objectively and cameras only give us the best view
https://vimeo.com/35046779
Animation as realism
■It’s obvious to the audience that themedium is there
■No attempt is made to hide its ownconstructedness
■It can address social issues in uniqueand powerful ways
Erlich, N. (2011) “Animated Documentaries as Maskin”. Animation Studies.6. https://journal.animationstudies.org/nea-ehrlich-animated-documentaries-as-masking/
Waltz with Bashir 2008
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J9uoLMhMhs
“in discussions of this issue with Israeli ex-soldiers I havebeen told that it was in fact the animation that made thesedepictions so accurate and realistic as there was really noway to present the bizarre and unreal sensations of theexperiences of war. Consequently, although these animatedimages may not be visually realistic and/or physicallyindexical, they are undoubtedly informative and possess atruth value that legitimises them and should prevent viewersfrom automatically disregarding them as fictional” (Erlich2011)Erlich, N. (2011) “Animated Documentaries as Maskin”. Animation Studies. 6. https://journal.animationstudies.org/nea-ehrlich-animated-documentaries-as-masking/
“animation “penetrates” into areas which cannot be conceptualized and illustrated in other forms” (Wells 2002: 59) Wells, P., (2002) Animation – Genre and Authorship
The Lion King 3D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UQV89DQTWo
Reducing intervention Reducing the amount of technology being used Minimal use of post-production E.g. "Dogme 95 Manifesto" and the "Vows of Chastity" by Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGAa8WF0vxo
Immediacy (Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin - Remediation 1999)The dream of media is to erase itself...Immediacy: ‘without mediation’ when the medium vanishes, e.g. ‘getting lost in a book or a game
‘a style of visual representation whose goal is to make the viewer forget the presence of the medium (canvas, photographic film, cinema, and so on) and believe that he is in the presence of the objects of representation’(Bolter and Grusin, 1999: 272-273).
‘the desire for immediacy is the desire to get beyond the medium...’ (Bolter and Grusin, 1999: 83).
‘a style of visual representation whose goal is to make the viewer forget the presence of the medium (canvas, photographic film, cinema, and so on) and believe that he is in the presence of the objects of representation’(Bolter and Grusin, 1999: 272-273).‘the desire for immediacy is the desire to get beyond the medium...’ (Bolter and Grusin, 1999: 83)
Remediation ‘Photography was supposedly more immediate than painting, film than photography, television than film, and now virtual reality fulfils the promise of immediacy and supposedly ends the progression.’(Bolter and Grusin, 1999: 60)
VR: the quest for transparent immediacy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBpFx-ixBiM
Hypermediacy Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin - Remediation 1999)Elements of the medium make it impossible for us to forget about it. Hypermediacy: the medium draws attention to itself, e.g. noticeable editing, text superimposed on screen, special effects
Realism as a full experience ‘digital hypermedia seek the real by multiplying mediation so as to create a feeling of fullness, a satiety of experience...’ (Bolter and Grusin, 1999: 53).
Diego Velázquez, Las Meninas, 1656
Experience and Sensory Immersion
■Choice, point of view, first-person perspective, realistically negotiable immersive world? Thegreatest realism?
■Experiential realism
Virtual reality: Extreme realism or absence of realism?
From reality to hyperreality
“The generation by models of a real without origins or reality: the hyperreal” (Baudrillard 1988: 166).
In hyperreality, simulation can feel even more real that the real itself. Baudrillard, J. (1988) Selected Writings. Stanford; Stanford University Press.
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