‘Videodrome’ (David Cronenburg 1982)
First it controlled her mind, then it destroyed her body... Long live the new flesh!
Whilst in seminars one of the areas we focused on was the “Real & the Virtual”, this was another that stood out for me as the core themes were centred around David Cronenburgs 1982 film called “Videodrome” and also the work of “Negroponte”, focusing mainly on ideas of Digital technology, Media Saturation and Realism.
Whilst looking at “Negroponte” we discussed ideas from his book “Being Digital” (1995). Within this book he draws upon ideas of how in the future society will develop into a movement of organised information rather than atoms. In essence “Negroponte” is offering his views that the future will become a digital era in which machines will be able to respond directly to our emotional states and requirements. It is feasible to distinguish that his predictions were highly valid when looking at society today. As we live in a communication era which has allowed technology and new media forms to develop into mechanisms that are actually respondent to our needs. We need look no further than the internet, as all one must do is type in a search engine the information they are looking for and nearly 1000 different related topics will appear with links. Essentially “Negroponte” believes that as time goes on of that society will transcend into a digital liberation that will become incorporated into all elements of our existence. Similarly “Cronenberg” looks at the consequences in which interaction with technology can have upon the human state of mind and self, within his film “Videodrome”
In “Videodrome” the storyline follows the character “Max Ren” president of CIVIC-TV, a UHF television station who is constantly on the search for new material to enthral his viewers and take them to a new level. The pirate dish picks up transmission clips from a show called “Videodrome” which depicts torture and murder in a bright orange room. Max becomes obsessed to get a hold of the programme to put on his station and sets out on a mission to find out who is in charge of it. Unfortunately Max gets more than he bargained for when he soon learns that 'Videodrome' is an experiment that uses regular TV transmissions to permanently alter the viewer’s perceptions by giving them brain damage. Max soon gets caught up in the forces that created Videodrome and the people who control it, and his body turns into a weapon to fight against the global conspiracy. The film suggests to the audience that at times it is hard to determine between the real and virtual reality, in ‘Cronenbergs’ case between the real world and “Videodrome”.
It is in my view that what “Cronenberg” is making reference to is the ways in which we sometimes merge fiction with real life, as sometimes fictional narratives of TV programmes run parallel with real life. A clear example of this could be when in the TV soap “Brookside” saw a scandal of the “Jordash” family involving wrong imprisonment. This storyline had such an effect on the audience and the national public that they started “Free Beth Jordash campaigns all around the country”. What I suppose I am trying to suggest is that sometimes it can be very confusing for some people to differentiate between the fictional and non fictional events, when people become super engulfed in the new media cultures that we are somewhat involuntary exposed to on a daily basis.
Perhaps one may speculate further and suggest sometimes new media forms especially that centred round virtual reality or cyberspace, can often leave people feeling deluded by unrealistic ideas. With regards to “Videodrome” it takes on some of the ideas of “Jean Baudrillard” and the view that our lives are now nothing other than parodies of what we seen on the screens around us, as we begin to compare ourselves to the idealistic portrayals of characters on screen ore even celebrity lifestyles. “Baudrillard” often suggests that all that remains is the image, I strongly agree with this notion, because if we take for example the celebrity lifestyle and look at the representation of it within current media cultures. We are instantly subjected to a series of images that display a lifestyle of luxury, beauty and wealth, all of which are highly fictionalised. Nothing is ever as it appears in my view and new media cultures can often mislead a person into seeing something that isn’t actually real, but instead a fabricated lifestyle enhanced by the media who generate ideas which we then believe to be true. It is almost as if the clutter of reality is removed in order to make things s more appealing to audiences and take us into a more virtual understanding of life. Thus we are in danger of becoming parodies of ourselves, especially with social networking sites online such as Myspace and Facebook.
After researching closer into the social networking services online I soon began to realise that they give the opportunity to create extended personalities of ourselves where we can be whatever we want or desire. As I inspected closer to these online sites it became apparent that pages and profiles of people who had died were still free to view. It creates the illusion that we can live on and that immortality is available online, and it made me think and question weather we have slowly slipped into becoming part of a mediated cyber world.
In conclusion to the Real and the Virtual and after close inspection into the
Works of “Cronenberg” and “Negropontes” it seems to be the case that their ideas have some element of truth as they ultimately insinuate that contemporary society is becoming less and less engaged in the real and instead more consumed with forms of mediated entertainment. There is somewhat of an appealing attraction of the virtual world and it becomes abiding fantasy for many, as it can offer them hope. Although “Videodrome” arguably explores the fetishism of violence with politics via hardcore reality, where both the virtual and the real become indistinguishable. Much similar to the two worlds of replicants and humans in Blade Runner. Ultimately it is the idea of oblivion no longer needing to exist as technology has been able to capture the essence of it.
