Emotion and the Seduction of the Senses, Baroque to Neo-Baroque

Emotion and the Seduction of the Senses, Baroque to Neo-Baroque examines the relationship between the cultural productions of the baroque in the seventeenth century and the neo-baroque in our contemporary world. It asks the question: Is the baroque a recurring phenomenon that has returned in aspects of contemporary global culture, or is it something specific to the early modern period? It argues one of the common and central features of both styles is their appeal to emotion. This volume illuminates how, rather than providing rationally ordered visual realms, both the baroque and the neo-baroque construct complex performative spaces whose spectacle seeks to embrace, immerse, and seduce the senses and solicit the emotions of the beholder.https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/mip_smemc/1006/thumbnail.jp

Lost, Fan Culture and the Neo-Baroque

A partir de un análisis de Lost, un show de televisión, y The «Lost» Experience, un reality game que se desarrolló a partir de aquel show, el trabajo presente expone que la forma seriada del entretenimiento contemporáneo crea una experiencia que aplica la acción narrativa al ámbito social. El sentido del texto se hace dependiente de un público capaz de percibir múltiples medias para extraer mensajes más complejos por la experiencia de los shows de la televisión. Sirviéndose del marketing viral y de nuevas formas de narración basadas en lugares del social networking —YouTube, Facebook,Twitter etc.—, esos shows han transformado el paisaje urbano en un paisaje teatral. El trabajo presente demuestra cómo Lost y su mundo ficcional extendido han producido un espacio neobarroco performativo para el público, un espacio tan barroco como el Barroco histórico. // Through an analysis of the television show Lost and The «Lost» Experience alternative reality game that developed from it, this article argues that the serial form that drives contemporary entertainment is creating an experience that spills the narrative action beyond the screen and into the social sphere. Meaning and coherence of the text becomes reliant on an audience that is capable of embracing multiple-media in order to extract more complex layers of meaning from the experience of the television series. Embracing the era of viral marketing and a new form of storytelling that relies heavily on social networking sites likeYouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, the series also transformed the cityscape itself into a theatrical space.This article explores how Lost and its extended fictional world produced a neo-baroque performative space for the audience just as baroque in nature as the historical Baroque

The frenzy of the visible: spectacle and motion in the era of the digital

Deposited with permission of Senses of CinemaDuring my first viewing of The Matrix (Wachowski Brothers, 1999) I found my vision bombarded by imagery and sensations more akin to theme park rides like the Spiderman attraction at Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure in Florida. My visual and aural faculties were plunged into a state of disorientation that constituted a physical assault on my senses. Not only was an array of framing effects and camera movements employed - from high velocity pans, tracks and fast paced edits, to 360° camera somersaults - but there was motion and there was lots of it! Bodies, cameras, sound and visual effects - everything moved and it moved fast, even when 'bullet-time' speed was visualised through slow motion techniques. Here's a film that's dictated above all by the speed of the image: within the filmic space (with its economically ordered narrative and fast paced action); within the production space (with its special effects and high velocity stylistic techniques); and within the audience's space (in the capacity the film has in affecting us on a highly charged sensory level)

De digitale verdeners (vid)under

I tidens blockbusterfilm spiller digitale special effects en stadig større rolle. Fra at have været et ‘usynligt’ redskab, der muliggjorde impone- rende stunts som bussen, der flyver over et hul i motorvejen i Speed, har digitale effekter erobret hovedrollen. Siden den morfende termi- nator i Terminator 2: Judgment Day og de realistiske dinosaurer i Jurassic Park har digitale elementer opnået en stjernestatus, der ofte overgår skuespillernes. Således er den digitale Gollum i Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers mere troværdig end de øvrige ‘fysiske’ stjer- ner. De amerikanske blockbusterfilm, der anvender en iøjnefaldende brug af digital æstetik, er ofte science fiction- og fantasy-film, der af den kritiske teori har været anset for “usundt slik for øjet.” Forfatteren viser, hvordan filmens digitale undere kan sættes i relation til Rene Descartes’ tanker om underet/det vidunderlige, der hensætter tilsku- eren i en æstetisk undren, der fører til en intellektuel trang til forståelse (som første gang stjernesystemet lod sig se i en kikkert). Samme und- ren bliver hos Blaise Pascal en ’afgrund’ (une abîme), der indgiver ære- frygt og fører os til det religiøse og mystiske, til overvejelser over natu- rens undere og Guds natur. Det digitale liv er ikke blot æstetik; det får sit eget, uforudsigelige liv - som de digitale figurer i The Two Towers der er programmeret til at slås, men foretrækker at flygte, og derfor må re- programmeres. Det digitale liv udfordrer os med intet mindre end over- vejelser over naturens orden, menneskets natur, teknologiens rolle, livet, døden og fremtiden

‘Hail to the King!' - The return of Doom

‘HAIL TO THE KING!’ –THE RETURN OF DOO

The rules of the game: Evil dead II . . . meet thy doom

Deposited with permission of Duke University PressInterdimensional doorways finally make possible space travel between the two moons of Mars: Phobos and Deimos. The Union Aerospace Corporation's research into interdimensional travel is a success. Or is it? In a climactic series of events, things start to go terribly wrong. Some people sent through the gateways disappear. Others return from Mars's moons as zombies. Then the moon Deimos vanishes without a trace. Enter the hero-leader of a specialized team of space marines. He sends his troops ahead of him through the interdimensional gateway; armed with a Space Marine Corporation gun, he follows them through, but once on Phobos his worldview changes. The space marines have vanished. Instead, dark surroundings envelop him, and eerie, atmospheric music accentuates the suspense-filled moments. The marine leader begins to scour the corporate installation in search of any living human being ... but it's not the living who come to greet him. Seemingly out of nowhere, an array of bizarre creatures charge down dim-lit corridors and through automatic doors: zombified humans, demons, imps, minotaur-like forms, evil spirits. And so it begins. He must explore the installation to find out what happened, then get the hell out of there at any cost! Picking up weapons along the way, he attacks the monsters like a man gone berserk-with fists, chainsaw, gun, rifle, and missile launcher. His body takes a beating, but his victims also pay the price. Hundreds of those demonic bodies audibly erupt, explode, and splatter before him-and he revels in every gory detail. A sequel to Aliens: Aliens Meets the Demons of Hell? Or perhaps Evil Dead II in outer space? This is no film space. The horror of this story belongs to the cult computer game released by id Software in 1993: Doom: Evil Unleashed

Style, spectacle, excess and The bold and the beautiful

Deposited with permission of the Australian Film Institute. Images originally appearing in this chapter have been removed.Much of the writing on daytime soap opera has focused on the genre's melodramatic form with particular emphasis being placed on the idea of excess: the excess of emotion, narrative form and style. John Fiske, among others, has argued that the hyperbolic excess that dominates the genre has the potential for opening up numerous and complex interpretative positions that reject the 'singular' meanings favoured by the classic realist text that has dominated Hollywood cinema. Among the American soap operas currently broadcast on Australian daytime television , 'The Bold and the Beautiful' epitomises the genre's capacity for producing a form that tests the boundaries, not only of the classical narrative, but of the soap form itself

Architectures of the senses: neo-baroque entertainment spectacles

Reproduced with the kind permission of The MIT PressIt was sometime in November 2000. I was walking along an Arabian street, taking in the rhythms of the arabesque decorations and the spectacular, multi-colored buildings; being entertained by the exotic street musicians; and occasionally being lured into various bazaars that offered the temptations of products ranging from Persian rugs and glassware, to Versace gowns and DKNY accessories. At one point, I found myself at a pier. I looked up at the sky and, while soft, fluffy clouds punctured its blue (yet somewhat solid) surface, it seemed like it was going to be a beautiful day. But what do I know? No sooner had I thought this than the rumbling sounds of thunder vibrated through the air and flashes of lightning lit up the now-transformed dark and ominous clouds. And the rain came pouring down, creating restless ripples in the previously still waters near the pier. So I left Arabia and walked across the road to Lake Como, where I took in the sights of the palazzo Bellagio as it stood majestically in the background. Initially, the enormous lake reflected the palazzo in its tranquil waters, then thousands of small tubes began to puncture its surface, and the first bars of music suddenly filled this vast space. I recognized the tune Frank Sinatra's "Lady Luck" - and it was, indeed, a toe-tapper. As hundreds flocked around balconies overlooking the lake, the lake's water began to magically take on a life of its own: spurts of water swayed left and right, back and forth in perfect unison with the rhythms of Sinatra's crooning. And the audience continued to look on, mesmerized by the spectacle they witnessed, astounded by the rhythmic motions of water, which included stretches of up to fifty meters erupting to heights that exceeded one hundred meters

Muscle, excess and rupture: female bodybuilding and gender construction

This is an electronic, pre-publication version of an article first published in Media International Australia. Reproduced with permission of the publisher.In recent years bodybuilding culture has provided the backdrop to a series of debates centering around issues surrounding representations of gender and in particular the potential inherent in bodybuilding bodies to rupture preconceived notions regarding 'norms' of masculinity and femininity; for the meticulously controlled, predetermined construction and definition of mass and muscle on the bodybuilding figure has shifted the body from an arena dominated by assumptions centering around the natural to a sphere which exposes the body itself - and with it the power structures that impose meaning onto it - as informed by culture. The bodybuilding physique reveals the body as a socially determined construct, or to cite Kuhn, with the willed construction of bodies in bodybuilding, 'nature becomes culture'. (Kuhn 1988, 5) The question of marketability has, over the years, emerged as a key concern in bodybuilding. Of all sports, due to its tendency towards things excessive, bodybuilding tends to stand outside the mainstream appealing primarily to a select, cult following. There have been some exceptions of bodybuilders who successfully escaped the margins and entered mainstream culture, the most successful being Arnold Schwarzenegger (seven time Mr. Olympia) who opened the doors to big-time muscle in action cinema. More recently, female muscle has also started to make itself felt in the popular sphere, with Cory Everson (six time winner of the Ms. Olympia) appearing in films such as Double Impact alongside Jean Claude van Damme, and professional bodybuilders Raye Hollitt, Shelley Beattie and Tonya Knight starring in the successful U.S. television show American Gladiators. Despite breaking through to mainstream culture, however, these bodybuilders have served as examples of 'freaks' in a world of 'norms'; they signal a moment of excess allowed to seep through into the dominant, but these moments are always about controlled forms of excess - they, in a sense, constitute an orderly disruption