Critical Studies - Journal

CRITICAL STUDIES JOURNAL

WEEK 1

(beginning 16/09/19)

N/A – No key reading

WEEK 2

(beginning 23/09/19)

This weeks required reading was an excerpt from Guy Debord’s ‘Society of the Spectacle’. I definitely struggled to read this piece, perhaps because I hadn’t close read anything in years, or perhaps just because of the way it was written. Upon doing further research of it, I understand that the piece is Debord’s theory on capitalist culture and how the world we live in and people in it all strive for a false reality which is fed to us by the ‘system’ through advertisements and subtle suggestions in film and media. This ‘system’ is completely bought into by the general public, and it is actually grown by everyday people working for these capitalist companies, making the rich richer whilst continuing to be stuck in a rat race of wanting or ‘needing’ the next big thing such as an iPhone to show off their success, wealth or progress. I felt that the text was almost pointless. Guy Debord, never having a job never really needed to worry too much about his standing in the capitalist regime. The way the piece is written also comes across like he is trying to get in before anyone else to say “Look I was right all along” even though there is no desire to change anything, despite the generally negative tone of the piece. It is very unclear who this piece is actually meant to help, or who it is for. It would be nice to think that Debord is trying to make lower and working class people aware of the system they are part of, but given the language used, it is difficult to believe that this piece is written for any other reason than to show off to peers equally as well off as the author himself.

WEEK 3

(beginning 30/09/19)

The key reading for week three was an excerpt from ‘Noise Water Meat’ by Douglas Khan. Although I was unable to read this in time for the week’s seminar, I read it in my own time later in the week. This piece was a very informative look into the Dada and Futurist movements and more specifically the goings on at Cabaret Voltaire – a predominantly male club for the arts in Zurich, Switzerland at the turn of the first world war. This piece gave examples of certain individuals who were part of these movements and would perform at the club, sometimes to the detriment of women and in one case Black African people. There were a few occasions in the text that Khan expressed his opinion on these artists, slightly looking down not on the movement or the art itself, but the way they secluded women and the authenticity of their material. I did however find this to be quite a difficult read, with Khan constantly name dropping and quoting people, texts and events meaning that there wasn’t a very good flow to the book. It almost felt like I was being interrupted every time I began to get into a flow of reading. It was interesting to hear other students input on this book, with a lot of people agreeing with the points raised about the general flow of the book, but agreeing with the overall tone of the piece. I did however thoroughly enjoy learning about the Dada movement and its influence on comedians I admire today such as Vic Reeves, Bob Mortimer and shows such as Monty Python and The Mighty Boosh.

WEEK 4

(beginning 07/10/19)

Week 4’s required reading was Mark Joyce’ The Soviet Montage Cinema of the 1920’s’. Although I did find this very interesting and informative, I found it difficult to have any sort of opinion on it. This excerpt was a lot easier to read than any of the other key readings and it’s full of information about the Montage cinema, the techniques used and what effect this had on the Soviet population. It was very interesting and helpful however, to discuss this in class in groups. I found this to be a good opportunity to talk openly with classmates about the similarities and the differences between Soviet Cinema and Classic Hollywood Cinema. At first it was unexpected that there would be any similarities but after discussing this for a while, we realised that there were a few. However, we did come up with a long list of the differences between these two fields.

WEEK 5

(beginning 14/10/19)

Again, I found the key readings this week to be quite difficult to base an opinion on, as the text read as very matter of fact. However, I did find the subject matter interesting, as Film Noir isn’t something I know very much about. One of my favourite films is Fargo, and I found it compelling to discuss this in this weeks seminar. I have personally never considered this to be a Noir film, but the more I have read about Noir, it is definitely more open to interpretation than just ‘This film is dimly lit, so it must be a noir’ or vice versa. I also found the clip from Studio Ghibli’s ‘Grave of the Fireflies’ to be a really effective and emotional way to portray post war landscape and soundscape through film. Somehow, I have only just discovered Studio Ghibli recently, and this film is definitely next on my list to watch. The other thing I really enjoyed in this class, was looking at different war films such as ‘Saving Private Ryan‘ and ‘Come and See’, and discussing the huge differences in sound design, and how creative you can really be to express emotion through sound.

WEEK 6

(beginning 21/10/19)

I had a doctor’s appointment this week, therefore I was unable to make it into class. Instead, I accessed Jessica’s recording of the lecture and PowerPoint presentation so that I could catch up on key notes from the class. I found it very interesting to learn about the link between Sci-fi, atomic cinema and propaganda. In hindsight, it is actually rather obvious sometimes to see the messages presented in cinema such as Godzilla representing nuclear weapons and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Another example I found interesting was the portrayal of ‘fear’ that humans have regarding their relationship with technology in Terminator. This is something that is very real right now as the population is so attached to their phones, social media and other technology.

WEEK 7

(beginning 28/10/19)

This week we learnt about Colonialism and Cultural Stereotyping. Although I was not present, I read the key reading: Film, a critical introduction. As well as this, I was able to access Jessica’s voice notes to catch up on the class. It’s quite shocking to realise how much racial ideology is present in Hollywood films. For me, as a straight white male, I have never faced any negative stereotypes or oppression, but to learn more about the number of negative stereotypes and connotations in cinema is quite sickening. Especially films that I have seen and have enjoyed, and just been ignorant to the messages present. I thought this quote from the reading was particularly potent – “Most classical Hollywood films revolve exclusively around the concerns of white characters because their struggles are presumed to be both appealing and universally accessible to all audiences”. This shows that there has always been a blatant disregard and ignorance in terms of race in Hollywood cinema.

WEEK 8

(beginning 04/11/19)

In this week’s class we learnt about Post-Modernism and Counter Cinema. I found it quite difficult to wrap my head around the concept of Post-Modernism (How can something be ‘after just now’ if it is happening in the moment?!). When I left school in 2010, I studied an HNC in Contemporary Art Practice. On this course I learnt a bit about Post-modernism and concept driven pieces of art such as Marcel Duchamp ‘Fountain’ piece from 1917 so it was great to have a more in depth look at the movement. Part of me is very sceptical about pieces of art like this and the ‘anything goes’ nature of a concept. However, part of me understands that art is whatever the artists intention is, and as long as there is an idea, a curiosity or a sense of adventure behind it, there is nothing wrong with calling it art. This class is definitely allowing me to be a bit more open minded in this sense. One thing in this class that really excited me was the fluid use of Diegetic and Non-Diegetic use of music in TV and films such as Twin Peaks and Wild at Heart. This stands out as something I would love to try when creating films in the future.

WEEK 9

(beginning 11/11/19)

I found this week’s class to be the most interesting so far. Discussing feminism and the representation of women in the film industry was particularly interesting to me. It was good to hear from a few female members of the class sharing anecdotes and opinions of their experiences being a woman in the creative industries. It was also crazy to see such blatant objectification in films such as ‘Some Like it Hot’ and “Kiss Me deadly’ using camera angles as well as sound design. Having learnt more about this area I have decided to pursue it as the subject of my Critical Annotated Bibliography. A lot of what I have learnt in this class has been completely new to me. However, a few years ago I looked in depth into the Black Panther movement so it was refreshing to see the classic photo of Tommie Smith and John Carlos doing the black power salute at the Olympics in 1968 and learn even more about the context surrounding this event. As I get older, time goes by so quickly so it is incredible to me to learn about everything that happened just in the year 1968.

WEEK 10

(beginning 18/11/19)

Independent Study Week – No Key Reading

WEEK 11

(beginning 25/11/19)

Peer Review Session – No Key Reading

WEEK 12

(beginning 02/11/19)

I was not present in class this week but accessed Jessica’s PowerPoint slides to gain a greater understanding of cybernetics, mass migration and terrorism in art and cinema and how we are entering a new realm of imagining the future. It’s very concerning to me to consider just how sucked in everyone is by the advancement of technology. The sentiments in the first part of this class reminded me of why I love to go to the cinema to watch a film. I tend to have quite a short attention span when I watch things in the house and will play with my phone regularly, but when I visit the cinema, I am completely engrossed in what I can see, hear and feel. I think this experience is unparalleled in experiencing imagery and media and it is very important that it continues. I have however seen ‘Bandersnatch’ and I am very intrigued by this new way of consuming media and creating your own narrative. It was disturbing to me how the story played out in a negative way no matter what narrative you picked.

WEEK 13 (FINAL WEEK)

(beginning 09/11/19)

Critical Studies – Annotated Bibliography Submission Week – No Key Reading

WEEK 14-18

(Winter Break)

WEEK 19

(beginning 20/01/19)

This was the first week of our new Tuesday class - Critical Theory and Immersive Context. I must admit that throughout the Critical Studies class in Semester 1 I sometimes failed to grasp what the class was about and where it was leading me. But having finished semester 1 and after handing in my Critically Annotated Bibliography, I feel so much better going forward with this class. This week’s topic ‘Ecstatic Sounds and the Sublime’ was very interesting for various different reasons. I enjoyed learning about the concept of infinity. How vast, enormous and endless the universe is and Jessica’s example of how getting lost in this thought can feel cleansing. I also very much enjoyed the clip of The Infinite Monkey Cage episode, talking about culturally learned behaviours and patterns such as the western world associating the Major key with happiness and the minor key with sadness. I also loved learning more about the rave movement and looking deeper into why it came about - an escape from realism in a very bleak political climate. And interestingly artists loophole reactions to the criminal justice and public order act.

WEEK 20

(beginning 27/01/19)

In Critical Theory and Immersive Context this week we were looking into History, Science and Poetic Documentaries. I found it interesting in this class to learn about the rejection of the obvious ‘see a car, hear a car’ AV mentality and the creative processes behind doing something different. A couple of the examples that we looked at in class were a bit far-fetched for me however there were a few that I really liked. ‘Snow’, the soundtrack by Daphne Oram to Geoffrey John’s documentary for the British Transport was particularly interesting to me. I love the way in which Oram has managed to manipulate a rock song through the use of EQ’s, time stretching and other tools to mimic the industrial noise of trains and workmen working on the rails. I especially like the section towards the end where the visual edits are quicker and more intense, something that is reinforced by Oram’s quick cutting and intense rhythmic sound. This is completely genius to me and I definitely plan to look into more of Oram’s and John’s work. I also liked the introduction to Susan Philipsz’ work, especially ‘Lowlands’. I really like the idea that sound can become a completely new and unique entity when it is performed or played back in a specific location, given the acoustic properties and history of the space. This suddenly turns something very simple into a fleeting piece of art that needs to be performed to be digested by an audience. I feel that the past two weeks have been a lot more interesting to me than a lot of the first semester. I can’t wait to learn more over the coming weeks.

WEEK 21

(beginning 03/02/19)

Unfortunately, this week I was feeling a bit under the weather so I couldn’t make it into the class. However, having Wednesday’s as personal study days in Semester two have allowed me to do a bit more extra-curricular work during the week. I spent this Wednesday looking into this week’s topic – Immersion and Interacting with sounds. I found this lecture to be valuable as it seems that VR and 360 are the way that things are heading, so it was great to learn more. This very much reminded me of ‘Ready Player One’, a movie I watched a few months ago about a VR gaming world. Looking at the challenges, it certainly looks like there is a huge amount to consider when going down this route. However, there is no experience like VR, and detail in sound design, foley, vision and images is everything in creating a believable faux-reality. I like looking into the idea that sound can be manipulated to create not just a stereo field, but to trick the participant into believing the sound is coming from above them, or behind them. I also enjoyed learning more about 5.1 and Dolby atmos. This is also something that is becoming more commonplace, and despite learning a bit about 5.1 in college, I don’t remember much. This class has inspired me to look more into 5.1, it’s uses and how it actually works from an engineering point of view.

WEEK 23

(beginning 17/02/20)

The required reading this week was chapter 3 ‘Bilinda Butcher’ from Steven Shaviro’s ‘Doom Patrols’. Being a fan of My Bloody Valentine I was taken with the subject matter of this piece straight away. Sometimes I can find the subject matter in some of these readings to be quite hard going as they are all new to me but I dived right into this one. I found the text to be enlightening but also quite strangely written. Shaviro seems to have an infatuation with the band that goes way beyond being a casual listener. To be completely honest I actually found some of the text quite off-putting, and I can imagine for someone who didn’t know anything about My Bloody Valentine, the deeply personal and sexual way in which Shaviro describes his feelings towards the band could put them off ever listening to the band. I can however understand how the band could be linked with Catharsis, given the sheer volume and texture to their music and live performances. Although it’s not necessarily aggressive, the sonic indulgence to me suggests that these musicians can get completely lost in a wall of noise for an extended period of time in a cathartic way, perhaps escaping the real world in doing so. I also agreed with the notion in class that there is catharsis in crying. I certainly feel better in circumstances where I have cried. It is a massive release of tension and intense emotion. I plan to look further into Ben Brown’s Barshasketh documentary as, although I’m not a huge fan of metal music, I am intrigued to see the film within the context of catharsis.

WEEK 24

(beginning 24/02/20)

I felt that this week’s class could be linked quite a lot with last week’s topic of catharsis. The general feeling, I have about Tragedy in film is that it does help us in everyday life, as we deal with Tragedy, sadness and other negative emotions. It could be said as a blanket statement that film, tv, games and music serve only as entertainment. Though, throughout this class I am learning so much more about how these various disciplines can be used to help people as well as entertain people. I liked seeing the excerpt from the 90’s remake of Romeo and Juliet. This is a film that for some reason I have always written off and never had the interest in watching. However, seeing the clip in class has made me very intrigued to watch it and find out more, particularly about the jump cut editing that I appreciate in Darren Aronofsky’s work.

WEEK 25

(beginning 02/03/20)

This week was our peer review session in which members of the class all presented their primary ideas for the next Critical Theory essay. I have decided to analyse the sonic and visual content of Spike Jonze’ film ‘Her’ in the context of apathy, despondency, and synthesized emotion in the digital age. I feel that my presentation of ideas was very loose and misguided, but as always, the peer review session helped me massively understand what my focus could be. Jessica also helped with pointing out a couple of sources I could use to discuss the ‘Posthuman’ aspects of the film. My classmate Angus also pointed out that Black Mirror episode ‘Nosedive’ would be worth looking into as this deals with similar issues. At first, I was a bit worried about presenting my idea as I knew that it was quite vague, but upon leaving the class I had a much clearer understanding about how I could articulate the points I want to discuss. I spent the following day re-watching ‘Her’ as well as ‘Nosedive’, taking notes along the way that I can reference when I start the essay. I really enjoyed hearing everyone else’s ideas, especially given that most people planned to discuss a different type of emotion.

WEEK 26

(beginning 09/03/20)

This week’s topic was Engineering Horror Film and Games, and eliciting fear in doing so. As someone who hasn’t watched a huge amount of horror films, I found this very interesting. I feel particularly that as a lot of my classmates are very into horror films, I can learn a lot from them in this area. I liked the quote from R. Murray Schafer – “We cannot close our ears. We have no ear lids”. This sums up very well how huge an impact audio has on film as well as games as sound can be very invasive and can change depending on where it is being heard. The notion that in playing a horror game such as Silent Hill alone at home, we are opening ourselves up to the interpretation that sounds from the game are actually sounds from our houses is absolutely terrifying, which it is supposed to be! I plan on looking further into the Black Mirror ‘Playtest’. Especially after watching the ‘Nosedive’ episode last week, I am intrigued to see how this episode uses sound and visual cues to pick up on our fears and can make them even more intense throughout the episode. Something else I hadn't ever considered is that it is actually the lack of visuals and dependency on sound design that enhances the fear aspect of films such as The Blair Witch Project.