On the realist aesthetics of digital de-aging in contemporary Hollywood cinema

This essay examines digital de-aging—a process of making actors appear younger on-screen than they actually are that has taken a firm hold in contemporary Hollywood cinema—as a controversial filmmaking tool that raises fundamental questions about cinematic realism in the digital age. Since Hollywood’s visual effects are similar to the image manipulation that can be achieved with deepfake software, digital de-aging is framed as a complex creative process that supports the actors’ craft in order to distinguish it from the image manipulation and misinformation that has come to characterize the post-truth era. I will discuss the affordances and limitations of Hollywood’s “youthification” technology in terms of the shifting ontologies that characterize the transition from the photographic to the digital image, situate digital de-aging within larger debates about synthespians and the realistic portrayal of digitally created human beings, and argue that de-aging in films such as Gemini Man (Ang Lee, 2019) and The Irishman (Martin Scorsese, 2019) reconfigures linear temporalities and ultimately reshapes the concepts of time and memory by which we structure our life trajectories. © 2021 The Authors. Orbis Litterarum published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Interlitteraria : Tartu Ülikooli maailmakirjanduse õppetooli ja Eesti Võrdleva Kirjandusteaduse Assotsiatsiooni rahvusvaheline ajakiri = international refereed edition of the Chair of Comparative Literature of Tartu University and the Estonian Association of Comparative Literature

http://www.ester.ee/record=b1226153*es

Infusing Technology Skills into the Law School Curriculum

Legal education has never considered technological proficiency to be a key outcome. Law professors may debate the merits of audiovisual teaching tools: do they work when they should?; do they facilitate learning objectives or are they just toys?; whom should they call when something breaks?; and so on. Teachers use course management sites like TWEN and Blackboard to share information and manage basic course functions. Many fear that laptops and other devices distract students in class, and some institute outright bans. Among many law teachers, technology is warily accepted, but only for the purpose of achieving traditional educational objectives. What if educators viewed technology as a competency that students need to master in order to succeed in practice? This paper will identify gaps between the use of technology in practice and in our classrooms; suggest ways that we can change what we teach, and the way we teach, to address the disparity; consider the benefits/drawbacks of developing new courses, or infusing technology-related outcomes throughout the curriculum; and propose methods to encourage professors to teach with technology in ways that model the practices of successful attorneys

E.A.I. Anxiety: Technopanic and Post-Human Potential

Robots have been a part of the imagination of Western culture for centuries. The possibility for automation and artificial life has inspired the curiosity of thinkers like Leonardo Da Vinci who once designed a mechanical knight. It wasn\u27t until the 19th century that automated machinery has become realized. The confrontation between human and automation has inspired a fear, referred to as technopanic , that has been exacerbated in tandem with the evolution of technology. This thesis seeks to discover the historical precedence for these fears. I explore three modes of knowledge (Philosophy, Economics, and Film Theory) to examine the agendas behind the messages on the topic of Artificial Life, specifically Robots. I then advocate for an alternative philosophy called Post-Humanism. I argue that what is needed to alleviate the fears and anxieties of Western culture is a shift in how humanity views itself and its relation to the natural world. By structuring my thesis in this way, I identify the roots of Western humanity\u27s anthropocentric ontology first, explore the economic implications of automation second, analyze the cultural anticipations of artificial life in Western media third, and finally offer an alternative attitude and ethic as a way out of the pre-established judgments that do little to protect Western culture from E.A.I

\u27It\u27s you who are. What? / A hummingbird.\u27 and \u27No longer was he young and raw though the error remained young and raw\u27

The two poems belong to a lyric sequence that loosely tracks the emotive trajectory of Thomas Mann\u27s Death in Venice

The New Way of War: Is There A Duty to Use Drones?

Part I of this Article briefly describes the newest battlespace occupants. Robotic systems have been taking active part in combat. They now inhabit the air, the land, and the sea. They carry out missions ranging from surveillance and bomb disposal to “destroy and disable.” Part II examines the relevant principles of LOAC. It argues that drones are not, per se, unlawful under LOAC. Rather, the critical question is the same for drones as for other types of weapons, i.e., whether the specific use of the weapon complies with LOAC. In this context, the weapon must be deployed in accordance with LOAC’s fundamental principles of humanity, proportionality, distinction, taking precautions, and military necessity. Even if a specific type of weapon is not unlawful per se (or has not been specifically prohibited by particular treaties), it may not be used improperly, e.g., in a manner that would run afoul of these principles. Part III applies the principles of LOAC to drones. First, it analyzes the general trajectories of the development of new weapons throughout human history, which has involved trading off between three main considerations, namely distance, accuracy, and lethality. Second, it examines the rise of precision-guided munitions as an attempt to balance these three considerations, increasing military efficiency while minimizing harm to civilians and civilian objects. Part IV discusses the ability of drones to combine both remote exercise of force and high accuracy to reduce lethality. Part IV also closely examines both the promised benefits that the use of drones may bring to battlespace and the challenges to their deployment. Part V returns to the question of whether states and their military commanders have an obligation to use drones in the context of an armed conflict. It argues that although there are no treaties that deal specifically with the use of drones in armed conflict and no customary norms obligating the use of drones, such a duty may be derived from the cardinal principles of the law of armed conflict. It suggests that such an interpretation is merited if we accept that drones offer the possibility of a more humane war by combining remote and accurate use of force to reduce lethality among both friendly forces and innocent civilians. Part V concludes by setting out further challenges that ought to receive careful attention in developing and elaborating on the obligation to use drones in the battlefield

Trust in neoliberal times: A genealogy

There is a crisis of trust in the neoliberal world. Is trust ending, or have we learned to trust in new ways? This thesis conducts an historical genealogy of trust practices across the early modern era, classical liberalism, the welfare state, and neoliberalism. This genealogy reveals that neoliberal trust practices are neither natural nor determined, and that we can inform how we trust in light of our past. This investigation finds that the neoliberal self has little capacity for trust beyond the present moment. Neoliberal trust practices, including auditing, skill learning, risk management, and emotional reasoning, are placed on the market, an unpredictable and erratic force that compels individuals to seek stability and security in isolation from others rather than with others. These attempts to gain security, however, tend to slide towards suspicion, distrust, and alienation. Three ethical implications are discussed regarding the impact of neoliberal trust practices on the therapeutic relationship

Transgression, Disruption and Fragmentation in the Work of Chuck Palahniuk and Victor Pelevin

Marija Pavlović's dissertation, Cold War Kids in Neoliberal Dystopia: Transgression, Disruption, and Fragmentation in the Work of Chuck Palahniuk and Victor Pelevin, examines the evolution of transgression, disruption, and fragmentation in literature from postmodernism to contemporary forms. Introducing hypertrashrealism, she articulates this new literary movement as both a response to and a development beyond postmodern tendencies. The study significantly draws on Ihab Hassan's theory of postmodernism, providing a comparative framework that underscores key shifts in narrative and thematic approaches in the works of Palahniuk and Pelevin. This analysis emphasizes the critical transformation in literary styles and themes, reflecting contemporary societal and cultural dynamics, aiming to define a contemporary narrative alternative to the exhausted term "postmodernism" and the cumbersome "post-postmodernism.

Minority models: Masochism, masculinity, and the machine in Asian American cultural politics

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--University of California, Berkeley, 2017.As W.E.B. DuBois asked African Americans in The Souls of Black Folk, “How does it feel to be the problem?”, Vijay Prashad asked Asian Americans in The Karma of Brown Folk, “How does it feel to be the solution?” That is, what are the affective and ethical repercussions of being positioned as “model minority” in the U.S. racial system? In response, this dissertation aims to develop a queer theory of Asian American masochism, gesturing to a cultural politics intertwined with this racial position, negotiated through a masochistic attachment to the figure of the machine. My dissertation, Minority Models: Masochism, Masculinity, and the Machine in Asian American Cultural Politics, analyzes the masochistic performance of masculine Asian American cultural production in the co-constitution of Asianness and machineness in Asian American identity from 1982 to the present day. Through the study of Asian American literature and theater, the political histories of Asian American critique, as well as new media forms like video games and comics, I argue that masculine Asian American cultural production places Asian American masculinity and mechanization into a symbiotic relationship in its articulations of Asian American identity. My work asks: what are the affective and ethical repercussions of being positioned as “model minority” in the U.S. racial system? One answer, this text suggests, lies in masochistic pleasure, wherein reception of pain and penetrability become sources of both pleasure and moral legitimacy. Building upon prior scholarship that models Asian American subject formation within a rubric of melancholic lack—such as Anne Cheng’s Melancholy of Race and David Eng’s Racial Castration—I gesture towards revising such models in favor of the pleasures of masochism. I argue that Asian American cultural production generates affective and ethical meaning from masochism as a moral economy, source of pleasure, and avenue for imagining racial form beyond human boundaries