Images of the unimaginable: Imaginary Media and Digital Technology in Cinema
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5433/1678-2054.2023vol43n1p67Keywords:
Cinema, Imaginary Media, Digital technologyAbstract
Throughout its history, cinema has constantly incorporated images of of itself as a medium and of other media, either those that precede it (such as painting and photography) or those that are contemporaneous with it (video or TV). After a revision of how those images are articulated starting from what Huhtamo has called “media tropes”, this essay explores how several films feature images of imaginary media that are characterized by their immediacy (in Bolter & Grusin’s sense), by their dangerous effects on users’ consciousness and by the way in which they blur the limits between media, body, and subjectivity. The films that will be analyzed are Douglas Trumbull’s Project Brainstorm, Wim Wenders’ Until the End of the World, Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days, David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ, and Lisa Joy’s Reminiscence. These fictions are read as attempts to articulate in visual terms the impact of digital media on subjectivity, culture, and other media absorbed by it, such as cinema.
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References
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Filmografía (ordem cronológica)
Tron, dirigido por Steven Lisberger, 1982.
Brainstorm, dirigido por Douglas Trumbull, 1983.
Until the End of the World, dirigido por Wim Wenders, 1991.
Strange Days, dirigido por Kathryn Bigelow, 1995.
eXistenZ, dirigido por David Cronenberg, 1999.
Matrix, dirigido por Lana Wachowsky & Lily Wachowski, 1999.
Reminiscence, dirigido por Lisa Joy, 2021.
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