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.