It
is a very interesting venue which Hayles chooses to set the preface in. The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles is
exactly what is says on the tin, a Shrine.
It
was of course a venue for the Academy of Motion Picture annual knees up what we
know as the Academy awards. It lies dormant in the middle of a post-industrial
Los Angles landscape.
The
venue itself plays host to Siggraph's Electronic Theatre, each time the city
hosts the conference. Opening night of the Electronic Theatre, like it's former
employ, is where the glitterati of the digital visualization industry ply their
wares and unleash their newest concept on their awaiting disciples, remediation
at it's finest.
Where
a peasant can catch a smile from Denis Murren or a grin from Jim Blinn, geek
central. Back in the days I used to pilgrimage there, digital Mecca, as good as
it gets. It is important to note that this book in question was written in
2001.
While
the scene described in the preface is typical for the event in question since
then the original effect houses of the 1990 have now been gobbled up by the
major Hollywood studio in an attempt to catch up on the commercial success of
Lucas' Industrial and Magic, and Job's Pixar. We are all well across the Digital Rubicon today.
Hayles
takes this opportunity to exorcise half a millennia of assumptions as we begin
to map medial ecology byte by byte. Attention must be given to each individual
facet by the exponents of
media specific analysis, as they are all combined to take the writers concept to the finished article.
Ha!!
As suspected, the message of the writer exudes the fact that ALL must be
considered when one absorbs media, be it electronic media or otherwise. This
becomes apparent when one of her text
is
physically on hand. While not the Codex Leicester, no small amount of
effort has gone into its production relative to it's €14.72 price tag.
Its production costs is much higher than contemporaries of its ilk.
From
the quality binding to the neat typographic title tricks engaged. If one studies the
"fish-eyed" emphasis employed one can see that it is not typeset as
such but photo-manipulated. I
am going out on a limb but I suspect that consumption to this particular text
via a photocopied handout would be anathema to Ms Hayles. (Noted is the fact
that furnishing the entire class with individual copies wouldn't be financially
viable I shall return this copy upon arrival of mine own).
It
is my opinion that the writer's love of words, learnt in the
Missouri heartland and honed in the Ivy league, conveys
that she herself is very excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for
media. In turn she proposes various terms to critique in the future. Conscious of the fact that the former
critics, the high priests of Literature, had scant regard for the entire
nuances of the message.
Historically
there has always been fiction at the interface of
technologies.
No doubt somewhere in time, some Neolithic man looked at his neighbour's
struggle to perfect a wheel and said to himself, "Where's he going with
that idea?" Societies are
made up of Luddites, with those who resist innovation and the Early Adapter who
welcomes it, literature is no different.
The
future path taken by the academics need to be sensitive to all of the options
taken by the writers, in order to create an environment where the former
traditional medias can co-habit with their burgeoning counterparts.
Very good. Engaging and quite readable. Writing style is quite casual for what is, in essence, a piece of literary criticism, and that does not always work. Perhaps another redraft to knock the hard edges from it.
ReplyDeleteWhere you do critique the meat of the text you are on quite firm ground. Analysis displays good insight and real interest in the proceedings.