The Audience and the Myth of Entertainment

Gene Youngblood:

“Expanded Cinema”

Part 1: The Audience and the Myth of Entertainment

The textbook opens with a quote that reinforces a notion regarding our children being the future. In a future where “nature” encompasses the entire solar system and “reality” exists as an invisible environment of messages. The section starts with these ideas and opens with the author’s hypersensitivity of vision. Vision, scientifically and spiritually, is the foremost important sensory humankind possesses. Hidden in the Indo-European languages are further illustrations of the importance of vision as a sensory tool: I see, ya vizhu, je vois. Vision is therefore equated to understanding. As stated in the text, “it is estimated that seventy-five percent of information entering the brain is from the eyes.”

As the importance of vision expands within the first few paragraphs of the text, art and its relationship to knowledge and experience develop. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (philosopher, geologist, paleontologist, and Jesuit) coined the term “hominization” – the process by which the original protohuman stock becomes increasingly more human, realizing more of its possibilities. With this term in mind, Youngblood looks down upon commercial cinema or television implying that it does not expand upon existing consciousness; rather it confirms the current.  He concludes the opening idea by stating that art is the essential instrument in the development of the aforementioned consciousness. Youngblood is implying that commercial entertainment is not art.

Physicist P. W. Bridgman once said, “the true meaning of a term is found by observing what man does with it, not what he says about it”. I interpret this not just for what it is saying but also in reference to time as I read further into this section. Youngblood quotes Alvin Toffler (American writer and futurist known for his works discussing digital revolution) saying no reasonable man should plan his life more than ten years early, and even that is risky. Similarly, parents that project their infant son or daughter to become a lawyer are deceiving themselves. In reference to P.W. Bridgman’s reference of the true meaning of a term and Toffler’s reference to time, I gather from the reading that a term can also be time sensitive. Permanence does not allow one to relate to the present situation. This comes full circle if we think about popular art such as the commercial entertainment. It is fixed in time to appeal to an audience living in that moment. As some of these concepts arise, Youngblood offers that everything must be redefined to understand the circumstances:

What is “intelligence” when computers are a virtual extension of the brain?

What is “morality” when scientists are about to unravel the secrets of DNA?

What is “man” when our neighbor of the future is a cyborg?

What is “environment” when videos bring reality of the solar system?

What is “creativity” when a computer asks itself an original question?

            Youngblood insists that we are conditioned by cinema and television more than nature, and by that observation the content becomes of serious importance. “We have seen the need for new concepts regarding the nature of existence; and in a world where change is the only constant, it’s obvious we can’t afford to rely on traditional cinematic language” (Youngblood). Now more than ever, as we as a society move into the “Cybernetic Age”, it is becoming important that man learns that in order to control his environment, he must cooperate with it. Regarding new concepts, excessive amounts of television holds the potential to cut free the umbilical of the cinema world by forcing the movies to expand on more complex areas of language and experience.

            As Youngblood dives more aggressively into the concept of commercial entertainment versus art, he discredits entertainment by stating that it works against art. This is because it exploits the alienation and boredom of the public; entertainment destroys the audience’s ability to appreciate and participate in the creative process. Commercial entertainment, says Youngblood, is not creative. The commercial entertainer is a master of the predisposed stimuli that the audience reacts to. Drama, as an example, is a commonly executed stimulus of commercial entertainment. Therefore the commercial entertainment viewer does not want to work, he does not want to be an object or acted upon, but simply stimulated. “Entertainment gives us what we want. Art gives us what we don’t know we want” (Youngblood).

            As a result to the accessibility of entertainment over art, a great majority don’t know anything about art or what they like for that matter. Commercial entertainment, as a result of this is a closed system, says Youngblood. To satisfy, the commercial entertainer must give the audience what they want, and what they want is what it has been getting, and it’s a vicious circle onward. Again the idea of drama, being conflict and conflict meaning suspense; suspense is what the audience wants. It follows a strict path and everything is fed to you without a creative input.

            Youngblood challenges the notion of experimental art, stating that all art is experimental in the same way that entertainment is a game or conflict. The artist, as a result is a revolutionary, whereas the entertainment is following the beaten path. Once the differentiation between the two is eliminated,  we shall find that our community is no longer a community, because originality will have been restored – and if everyone is original, you’ve lost the definition of community, thus understanding radical evolution.

END.

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MrDoob: 

My first impression of this website is its capability to be a really interesting pre show for a concert of any kind. While I couldn't view them all because of the video card, I think the interactive ones would be really beautiful if the person manipulating them was doing so to the beat and tempo of the music played in the house. Likewise, I noticed one that you could type on, which would be a really awesome way to interact with audience members in between pieces or at intermission. First thought about that: It would be hilarious to (in between pieces or scenes) type a message to that person (there's always at least one) who's using their phone and single them out. Endless possibilities.

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I googled free .OBJ files and the ones I downloaded did not like Maya or vise versa. So any other options would be appreciated.