Response to Gene Youngblood’s Expanded Cinema Part One: The Audience and The Myth of Entertainment

In Part One of Gene Youngblood’s book, Expanded Cinema, explores the relationship between the viewer and traditional cinematic and television media to express his idea that a new form of cinema, an expanded cinema, is the way art can help to craft the intellect and metaphysics of audience in preparation for the “new age”. Youngblood talks about the world being a crossroads in history where society is in the state of permanent “radical evolution” in which nothing is certain but the fact of change itself. In a world of uncertainty, Youngblood finds the form of traditional cinema and television, mired in their catering to out limited senses, are not adequate to help Man form a new perspective about the world around him in order to acclimate to this environment of “radical evolution”. Chief amongst these forms is Entertainment, which according to Youngblood, “not only isn't creative, it actually destroys the audience's ability to appreciate and participate in the creative process.”(59) Entertainment perpetuates the training of audiences to act to the cues of commonly learned societal patterns and tropes, and thereby actually makes the individual think less. This is what Youngblood fears humanity must avoid at all costs.

So what does Youngblood propose as a solution to humanity’s need for redefinition of its metaphysical basis. Youngblood proposes that Man use a powerful culture for me nature of traditional cinema to what, he dubs, expanded cinema. He talks about the idea of humanization, which is the collective knowledge of generations being available to use more readily at birth than ever. Such a proliferation of accumulated knowledge would shape a much more aware society, as well as intellectual society which would require a mode of expression artistically, which he says is the role of expanded cinema. The two major examples he explores is the rise in the interconnected nature of the world due to the advent of the modern communication. He talks about the idea of the Noosphere where the culture of the world freely proliferates between countries, and pop culture and news is no longer just a local affair. This is facilitated by intermedia, which is the sharing of media over connected lines of communication that he say will shape the future of media. Youngblood points out the Man of tomorrow will no longer be an isolated consumer, but a producer of media tied into the world stage. In this way expanded cinema, with these elements, will serve as the ultimate mirror for humanity to discover as much as is possible of itself in artistic expression.

My personal opinion of Youngblood’s work is that he was a very forward thinker given that this work was written in the 1970s. Much of what he says will change media and the way we interact with it has happened. His notions of intermedia came true in the form that we now know as the World Wide Web, and the idea of the noosphere has only increased in its proliferation of cross culture interactions. Nevertheless, though I do believe that Youngblood’s aversion to commercial entertainment might be too extreme, I do agree that commercial entertainment, with its proliferation of “working models” over inventive and new undertakings for the profit are hurting society by stifling art. On a much brighter note, more and more consumers these days are becoming involved in the production of media as well, a fact that I think Youngblood would rejoice over and a trend very much predicted by the man himself. Indeed, Youngblood’s work has much to offer as well as show us how art and creativity may be shaped by the changing world and technologies around us.

-Nathan D.

PART FIVE: Television As A Creative Medium

Gene Youngblood gives a brief history of television and how it has impacted society in the creation of a new medium. Television that has expanded exponentially since its creation in the 1930s. Television has become the main source for ingesting media for decades. With all the frequencies and channels (VHF and UHF) provide an limitless amounts of varied programming for society to interpret in their own way. Some programming being artistic, others informational.

In this piece, Youngblood references television as a medium that not only produces an image of you but also looks deeper "inside" of you. Television as a creative medium has led to an extension to the man's central nervous system. This is also referred to as the "video sphere." He also dives into the aspects of video synthesizing as well as keying, chroma-keying, feedback, mixing, editing etc. Everything having to do with today's new and shows. They all use similar types of creative video synthesizing techniques. Editing being the most important for overall visual appeal. Editing for television has helped its audience to understand atmosphere behind the camera as well as creatively expressing video indifferently to the one-shot films created do document life in the early 1900s by Lumiere.




Today we see greenscreens in film, television and in most newscasts; whether it be imposing graphics, placing people or objects in fantasy or as simple as your local weather forecast. In terms of video synthesizing, television has become the canvas for visual artists. Even the simplest of news can be considered "creative" depending on camera angles, superimposition or chroma effects. Production values have been decreasingly dropping for some films because the use of a greenscreen and is more cost effective than other methods.




All in all, Youngblood has given us a perspective to see the expansion of television as a creative medium and how much television has evolved since the early days pre-synthesizing years. Much more audience appeal has resulted from the evolution of television. As a filmmaker, I watch television for its artistry and creativity.

THE AUDIENCE AND THE MYTH OF ENTERTAINMENT

THE AUDIENCE AND THE MYTH OF ENTERTAINMENT

The audience and the Myth of entertainment, is the first chapter in Expanded Cinema. Buckminster Fuller discusses that as a society we often relate seeing as understanding. As technology runs our society today we face changes that are inevitable. We now have a “Radical Evolution” or an “involuntary revolution” that we can stop. Our environment conditions us, and our environment is always evolving.

Scientific evidence has shown us that information is processed though our eyes before it even entering the brain. Up to 75% of information entering the brain is processed through the eyes. With the advancement in media technology, such as, the television, Internet, and other visual means, we now process information not as a reality but as a visual stimulation. For example, when you see a play or a concert, it live in front of you, it is reality, but when you watch a movie or a TV show it is a perception of a simulated reality.

As Fuller states entering into the twenty first century we have a radical evolution. Technology and new forms of media drives us forward, there is no way we can stay static. He describes this as “involuntary revolution”. By this he mean there is no stopping the changes we face, it’s not by choice, like the revolution the world has faced in the past. We are now driven forward and there is no stopping the change. We are dependent on technology, but that same technology is destroying the longevity of the market place. Products and job available now maybe obsolete in the near future. John McHale believes that with radical evolution there will be a total new worldview, everything will be looked at different. For example, he states “what happens to creativity when a computer asks itself an original question without being programmed to do so. Fuller states, “The cinema isn’t just something inside our environment” by this, he means new forms of media have become our environment. Television, Internet, and other form of cinema control the way we perceive things.

In this new environment, man-made environment, we are being commercialized and prioritized to react accordingly to certain stimuli. The commercial entertainer encourages us not to think for ourselves, but tries to exploit us into thinking what they want us think. Which in my opinion enables us to be victimized by big business and corporation to think a certain way, for the benefit of a profit. On the other end of the spectrum, we have art, which gives us the freedom to think our own, to interrupt things on our own. Because there is no set plot, each person sees it on a personal level.

In conclusion, we are in an involuntary revolution, which we cannot stop, or change. Technology has changed the way we perceive things, and as a result, it has vastly changed our environment. These changes have brought about positive and negatives factors. We must be able to see the true art and not just the commercial entertainment.

Gene Youngblood: Holographic Cinema, A New World

In this chapter, Youngblood describes the history, present (at the time of publication), and possible future of holographic 3D cinema. Understanding holography as what Reggie cited out of the text below, I could see that the nature of capturing the intersection of the different projections to make the 3D image would result in the necessity of projecting only in a small space, but even I didn't think it was originally so small that it would be only comfortably viewable by like two people at a time. It's quite a difference from what we have today:

In a way though, I was reminded of something I saw when I traveled to Croatia to visit family. There's a historical tourist attraction in the city of Dubrovnik that had an interesting method of holographic projection. I can't track any pictures down of the actual performance (since I assume that flash photography would ruin the performance by it's very nature), but the way it worked was that small hoses in the ceiling constantly ran water falling in vertical streams into a pool in the floor. As the water fell, light was projected onto the streams creating shimmering images. While this was happening, the hoses could be moved forward and backward in relation to the audience to move where the light was captured and create interesting 3d movement.

Youngblood's most interesting claim in this chapter, though in my opinion hardest to understand, is his concept of "technoanarchy." He first claims that human nature is defined by it's ability to conceptualize, create, and control technology. The quickening development of technology in the 20th century, he thought, was foreshadowing something of a climactic apocalypse of technology. He defines anarchy, in a way, to mean that it rejects artificial order and instead seeks natural order. The frantic development of technology in this day and age he considers "technoanarchy" because it is left at the mercy of our human nature. Can't say I entirely disagree; The Onion has a good take on it:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-device-desirable-old-device-undesirable,2862/

PART SEVEN: HOLOGRAPHIC CINEMA: A NEW WORLD

Through the reading of Chapter 7, I come to know more about the holography gradually. I think among all the digital techniques today, the Holography is the coolest stuff which can lead a pioneer trend in the future.

Before I start to write about the feedback of part 7, I list a video here for audiences to have a preliminary understanding about the Holographic Cinema.

This is a Burberry fashion show held in Beijing that uses the holographic tech.

In the video, the audiences can clearly see the continuous trace of the models. One can hardly find the source of the light. The models with fashionable suits just show up and disappear magically. This is the fantastic work integrates arts and computer science.

This chapter mainly introduces the invention, development and the future of Holography. The earliest holographic motion pictures really impressed the people. In 1969, Youngblood, who is the author of the article, witnessed the Catholic Monastery, Sierra Retreat showing up at a Research Laboratory. Everyone will be curious about how it was made.

• What is Holography?

Holography is a technique which enables a light field, which is generally the product of a light source scattering off objects, to be recorded and later reconstructed when the original light field is no longer present (due to the absence of the original objects).

The enigma that people concerned about firstly was that there is no optical image formed. Early techniques named wave-front construction created the lensless photography through multi-time experiments. The technology gradually turned to mature and there came out the holographic movie of tropical fish in aquarium, under the effort of scholars from different research labs. That is the first real-time film in the world.

Through hundreds of times experiments, the holography technology today is more complicated and reliable. The computer-generated holographic movies come to rule the markets. Every holographic will be produced and even recorded. People are able to record the holographic of the nature and make it to a movie frame. Movie frame is that you can get your face up so close that the frame disappears and all you're seeing is the illusionistic world on the other side. You're in it.

Schematic diagram of Hughes holographic movie system. Laser is indicated as "pumping cavity."

And this is the contemporary techs, Optical arrangement for reconstructing a hologram.

At last, Gene Youngblood introduces the limitation of Holographic Cinema during the process it developed. To create the perfect holography can one spend a lot of budgets.

I love the way holographic cinema expresses. This tech is really cool and easily accepted accompanied with the beautiful images and music. It can be widely applied to many fields such as commercials, theaters or products Launch. "Someday you'll be able to go to a party and be the only one there." As a whole new world to the audiences, it remains mysterious because it's still not spread to the world. People will definitely get to know it more and more. Holography is the future of projection.

PART 4: Cybernetic Cinema and Computer Films

Gene Youngblood begins this chapter with a very interesting quote by Marshall McLuhan that goes like this-- "The computer is the LSD of the business world. It absolutely guarantees the
elimination of all the business it is now being brought to serve."

This quote in itself seems to capture a lot of what this last decade has sought to pursue. The rise of technology is reducing the need for manual labor. However, this phenomenon is not just taking place in the worlds of business and science, but it is beginning to flourish in the worlds of art and music-- rather, it is conjoining the two together. In chapter 4, Youngblood uses a term called the technosphere-- referring to the symbiosis between man and machine. Youngblood describes technology not as a replacement of man but as protection-- a fail-safe. To some extent, I do agree with this statement but I cannot argue the fact that increasing technology has been a steady source of unemployment over the last few decades. I dare not say it is a bad thing, however. We are simply undergoing a change in times. As Youngblood describes it, we are learning to live all over again in this new day and age.

As seen in the picture above, Youngblood seeks to compare computer processing to human neural processing. Using this analogy, logic and intelligence are the brain's software. Thus, later on he goes to say that computer software will become more important than hardware in the future as "super-computers" are currently being developed. Speaking of which, this reminds me of the semi-recent Jeopardy match with Ken Jennings (legenday Jeopardy winner) and IBM's supercomputer, "Watson." Here is a link to the video in case you all haven't seen it:

It is almost scary to think how smart computers can get and where technology will take us possibly 10-20 years from now. It's like every year something new and almost revolutionary is being released. I remember the whole iPod craze back in the early 2000s and now we've got a new craze-- big iPods called iPads that do everything. What's gonna happen next? Gene Youngblood's vision of the future is the Aesthetic Machine-- "Aesthetic application of technology is the only means of achieving new consciousness to match our environment." This is certainly true as in today's modern culture, aesthetics and appearances have become something of a fad. We have to have the smallest MP3 players, the thinnest TVs, the simplest-looking laptop. Youngblood points out that creativity will be shared between Man and machine. He points to the links between computer art and Conceptualism, and the growing theoretical basis of art.

Later on in the chapter, he delves into Cybernetic Cinema and gives early accounts of attempts using computers to draw and make films. Back then, creating real-time images was not possible, but it seems like it has become possible in this new age. Thus, we are seeing the emergence of a new art form with the combination of art, music, and technology, and it all seems to be headed in a positive direction. Whether it becomes mainstream or not is the real question.
At the end of this chapter, Youngblood highlights key film-makers using computers such as John Whitney, James Whitney, Michael Whitney, John Stehura, Stan VanDerBeek and Peter Kamnitzer. In response to all this change, I welcome it. From my experience with Signs of Life and taking projection design, I find this growing field fascinating, new, and refreshing. The potential of this field could be breath-taking and needless to say, entertaining. The expanded cinema is coming and it could be coming to a theater near you!