Douglas Trumbull, "Slit Scan" effect for 2001: A Space OdysseyAccording to Scott Bukatman ("Zooming Out: The End of Offscreen Space"), how did the development of new visual and immersive entertainments such as the kaleidoscope, panorama, large-scale landscapes, and diorama during the nineteenth century help acclimate the body to new urban environments and transportation technologies? Why is science fiction considered a significant genre from the mid-19th century to the present? How do special effects impact human perception? What is the “end of off-screen space”? For Bukatman, what are the implications of new virtual technologies on embodied experience?
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The development of new visual and immersive entertainments helped acclimate the body to new urban environments and transportation technologies. Some of these included the kaleidoscope, panorama, large-scale landscapes, and the diorama. They helped by presenting or showing people visual spectacles, and as they became more frequent the less spectacular they were; meaning that people became more used to them. This translated into other technologies, and in turn caused our society to make a more gradual change to new technologies and environments.
Science fiction is considered a significant genre from the mid 19th century to now, because many of the spectacles in the stories, turned into real technologies in our society. With use of special effects, which made the story seem even more alive, the perception of the human was changed in that, all things are seemingly possible; or at least they can appear that way.
-Ryan Bender
New visual and immersive entertainments helped to adapt and adjust the body to new urban environments and transportation technologies in the nineteenth century by putting vision into motion. Movement became linked to the advancement of humans and their knowledge through multisensory spectacular displays and direct address themes. They became “participatory events” which eased people into an understanding of the new technologies.
SF is a significant genre from the mid-19th century to the present because it is “an essential part of technological culture.” It creates distance, causing the viewer to challenge their most fundamental structures. SF creates a posthuman subject that can interface with global data circulation. This leaves the body with two, possible opposing, factions: traditional self and a new self-defined construct.
“Through special effects… science fiction film participates in a presentational, participatory mode of address.” With special effects, SF film “mediates between human vision and the wide and growing range of technological enhancements.” They rework technology to be “space that could be perceived by the human sensorium.”
This “end of off-screen space” is caused by many things including larger screens, return to cinema of attractions, the decline of narrative, and simulations. Real space is increasing penetrated by filmic realities in forms such as websites and merchandising. For Bukatman, this causes a reflexive, possible personal, experience because they acknowledge his presence, allowing immersion into the experience. Bukatman suggests SF isn’t successful. It hasn’t reached its potential or intentions because it doesn’t liberate the body, and is more playful than poetic.
Desten Johnson
In Scott Bukatman’s, “The End of Offscreen Space”, he discusses new visual and entertainment technologies saying that there is more emphasis on objects and movement. The example is given of the horse and cart being replaced by the train. Viewers are taken into a more visually engaging experience with new technology and effects that can be produced. The importance of the Sci-fi genre is also discussed. This genre has been a way for us to analyze our world and ourselves as humans, by creating fictitious worlds and beings and comparing them. We receive insight into what makes us human opposed to what we find to be alien and we can ask ourselves what our purpose is and who are we? Bukatman talks about the “end of offscreen space”, referring mainly to the emphasis on effects that are now used in film rather than the narrative. This extends to marketing, which includes merchandise and even theme parks based on the effects of a movie. Two prime examples would be Batman and Pirates of the Caribbean; both have over the top special effects and were marketed like crazy, not to mention they both have theme park rides supposedly letting viewers experience the movie in an offscreen fashion. It becomes evident in Bukatman’s essay that the advancement of new virtual technology will increase the viewer’s experience. The film almost acknowledges the viewer’s presence and wants their experience to be the most thrilling and exciting 2 hours of their life. We may experience a sensory overload but will we not want substance in our films anymore?
According to Scott Bukatman's "Zooming Out: The End of Offscreen Space" the development of new visual and immersive entertainment help adapt the body to new urban environments and transportation technologies because this form of entertainment offers a truly sensory experience that is hard to ignore. The new entertainment had a similar effect as the the new speeding train. Buktman says "vision was put into motion" and travelers was transfored into spectators. This adventurous ride is recreated in the science fiction film. The genre of science fiction is considered significant from the mid-19th century to the present because it really took advantage and incorporated the change that was occurring in "real life". The Machine Age changed the way people viewed things and in my opinion made daily activity much easier and faster with the many items that were invented. Such things as microscopes and telecsopes furthered vision and these kinds of inventions also gave people a hope for the that there could be "endless possibilities for human advancement". Special effects impact human perception because it takes completely surrounds the human viewer and brings the viewer into the show or film. The viewer is immeresed in the visual aspects of the large screens, panoramas and elevated perspectives. The new lighting, sound and temperature effects also helped to create an environement for the viewer. The audience is now incorporated into the film through the new technology. According to Bukatman the "end of off-screen space" is essentially the rise of the "effect-centered films, the decline of the narrative, return of cinema attractions, the sequels and simulations and spectators". Bukatman says that virtual technologies creates anxiety for the spectator because the shift of technology from the Industrial Age with its highly visible machines to the invisible technologies of the Information Age has created "a crisis for ssience fiction". It is with this shift that Bukatman impies that there are major contradictions regarding the "intertwined status of technology and the definition of the human." Essentialy the definition of how the human changes with the Information Age and to this day it continues to change us whether we awknowldege it or not.
-Monica Salazar
Tony Lopez
Sci Fi Blog #9
“Science Fiction has been an essential part of technological culture for more than a century.” Immersive mediums such as the kaleidoscope, panorama, large-scale landscapes assisted the body in acclimating itself to new urban environments and transportation technologies. According to Scott Bukatman “Urban disorientation at the turn of the twentieth century led to entertainments that permitted a cognitive and corporeal mapping of the individual into an inhuman and overwhelming space.” The Science Fiction genre is continually showing how we as a race are progressing. Science Fiction narratives entails “posting a world that behaves differently, whether physically or socially from our world, ours is denaturalized.” Bukatman says cinema is a “reflexive product of industrial culture.” Since Science Fiction is a type of media then Science Fiction is making its audience aware of the Science Fiction aspect of industrial culture by showing us technologies that have yet to be invented or installed to the assembly line, as we know it.
The correlation between how we as a human race evolve is almost parallel to what we see on screen. However, sometimes what we see on screen is Science Fiction films are not real. It is becoming more common that directors will decide to express an action through special effects. This can either help develop the story line or as others would argue “plot is replaced by audience envelopment.” Immersing the audience in this diagetic world that the director creates audience envelopment and consumes the viewer into the film causing a sensory overload that some say distract the viewer from the storyline.
Scott Bukatman discusses the development of visual and immersive entertainments such as the kaleidoscope as entertainments of movement. He goes on to talk about the train, and how it engages its passengers into a sort of entertainment and visual display. This also correlates to Sci-Fi films. Films like Star Wars allows the viewer to feel a special type of motion through time, rather than being stuck in the 1980's. This perception allows the human being to rethink the actions that they may chose down the road. A view into the future allows the human race to know what might be instore or something to look out for. This means that not only do the viewers get a sense of embodiment from the film, but also from everyday life.
Special effects are a newer version of that of the early 19th century, such as kaleidoscopes, panoramas, dioramas, and the "cinema of attractions." Panoramas and dioramas incorporated lighting, sound, and temperature effects. These can be essential to films.
The genre has become significant because of the importance of change. It has and still does show the change and differences in the world over time. It predicts or interprets the future as well. The changes are due to the advancement in technologies: panoramas to special effects films, horse drawn carriages to speeding trains.
The "end of offscreen space" has everything to due with the rise of special effects films. The onscreen space has expanded greatly while real space is penetrated by "filmic realities" such as merchandise, web sites, fan conferences (blogs, message boards), and theme parks.
In his essay, Bukatman describes how new visual and immersive styles of entertainment facilitate a type of journey for audiences that go beyond a simple narrative. He describes a sort of timeline in the 19th century that allowed a transition to new urban environments through technology that was shaping the way the world was viewed. For example, Bukatman mentions railway travel as transforming travelers into spectators. He writes, “Attention shifted from proximate objects to distant panoramas. Commodification was as important as speed; goods and citizens both circulated through the city, displayed and objectified” (Bukatman, 251). Other examples like telescopes and microscopes allow a new understanding of the world. With the example of the kaleidoscope, Bukatman writes about the diminishing “fixed perspective” and the beginning of “new points of view” (Bukatman, 256). Bukatman seems to be arguing that the old adage ‘seeing is believing’ holds some weight here; more importantly, these new perspectives via technology act as milestones in human achievement and progress.
Science Fiction as a genre has remained relevant since the 19th century because it is “…a vehicle for satire, social criticism, and aesthetic estrangement” (Bukatman, 252). Other recreations that offered this estrangement worked as a means of escape. Technology itself is always rapidly increasing, and the Sci-Fi genre is able to respond to this by creating a “…world that behaves differently – whether physically or socially – from this world, ours is denaturalized” (Bukatman, 253).
Special effects in films can impact human perception by allowing the viewer to become a participant in the film. Bukatman cites the stargate in 2001 as an example. He writes that the lights are directed right at the viewer rather than having a character act as a guide. The result is an emphasis on “sensation, immersion, and spectacle” (Bukatman, 254). He goes on to describe the end of offscreen space as different simulations available when viewing films today. This “offscreen space” spills out into merchandising that is now a large consideration with today’s films. Bukatman concludes that the environments created are not a “substitute for either rationalism or liberation” (Bukatman, 268).
-Joseph Belknap
The development of new visual entertainments such as the Kaleidoscope, panorama, and large-scale landscapes helped the body discover new urban environments and transportation technologies by allowing the spectator to travel to unforeseen places through technology. The same can be said about today's modern world and the science fiction genre. With the emergence of the science fiction genre viewers were thrust into unknown worlds with characters and ideas they never thought were possible. Science fiction films like large scale landscapes and panorama showed the viewer not only strange worlds but also took them away from their everyday normal lives and made them feel if only for a second that they were truly in a unusual world. Special effects could also be thrown into that category of transportation with its growth over the years. With out special effects in my opinion science fictions would not only be boring and meaningless, they would cease to exist. What I mean is in today's fast paced movie industry it has more of a what have you done for me lately approach to film making. No ones going to want to see the same old idea of what an alien looks like and what it's capable of doing. For example, it would be pretty boring if every alien came from a pod from somewhere in outer space. So in closing with the rise of technological devices the science fiction genre and even the idea of traveling to an unimaginable place will continue to survive and grow.
Scott Bukatman talks about the rise of the science fiction film due to the advancements in visual technology. After the highly popular film Star Wars, there was a rise in the science fiction film. Visionary experts were interested in creating new, creative environments that could in the past only be imagined. In Stanley Kubrick’s film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, the illusion of factual outer space was shown though visual effects. Because of the high level of technology and the knowledge of outer space from experts, Kubrick was able to create the illusion of the travel to planets such as Mars. Without this modern technology this illusion would not have come of as real and would have thrown off the illusion of the film. It has always amazed me that 2001: A Space Odyssey was released a year before a man had even traveled to the moon. In science fiction films during this modern era filmmakers can create an illusion, which is so very lifelike that is hard for the viewer to think otherwise. Modern films create off-screen space with a large amount of advertising along with theme parks such as Universal Studios where people feel involved with the films. A film is no longer just a sequence of events presented on a screen but now an experience.
-Logan Lovett
Technology is constantly changing to new improvements. The most major advancements have happened in the last century. These new technologies also include subjects like film. The kaleidoscope, panorama, large landscapes, and diorama were all advanced technologies that helped to aid in the advancement of imagination. The advancement of technology impacted the human race in a way that with it people could expand on their imaginations and bring it into a digital world where virtually anything is possible.
Science fiction is considered to be a major genre from the 1900’s to the present. One reason for this is because the new ideas that never were thought to be possible that were presented in science fiction were eventually accomplished. Science fiction is credited to this because it would be considered the inventor of the idea that later spawned the reality. People also enjoy special affects in science fiction. When the special affect gets old and people are used to it is not such an exciting thing to see. New technologies are constantly being made that have not been presented before which can satisfy the wants of many people that are looking to see something new and interesting.
Robin Christiansen
Scott Bukatman is really getting at something when he talks about the significants of Science Fiction film. Good Sci-Fi films take the human race to where it can go in the future. Bukatman says that "sci-fi is an essential part of technological culture". Science Fiction is a great way for engineers to expand their ideas and see where we can take technology. Ideas such as self navigating cars are becoming a possibility now, but were once just sci-fi ideas. Sci-Fi's acceptance has also come because it entices the viewer. This comes primarily through the special effects in the film and is used to take people away from their lives. Special effects, when done right, can relax a viewer and lull them into a fantasy that they could not perceive themselves. It's "a sense of wonder" as Tom Gunning says about The Cinema Of Attraction, which could arguably be called the start of sci-fi film. It's a heightened excitement level that comes because of special effects. 4 of the top ten all time box office movies are in the sci-fi genre. All of them included a monumental amount of special effects.
According to "Zooming Out: The End of Offscreen Space," development of new visual and immersive entertainments (such as the kaleidoscope and diorama) helped acclimate the body to new urban environments and transportation technologies in the 19th century. This was done by visually immersing the viewer.
Science fiction considered a significant genre from the mid-19th century to the present because it put our own environments in perspective compared to what was being viewed. The use of special effects gave a more "realistic" depth to films. Special effects immerse the viewer, just as kaleidoscopes and dioramas. The purpose of special effects is to give a more realistic look and feel to the film being viewed, as seen in most of the films viewed this semester (Blade Runner, The Matrix.)
The “end of off-screen space” is the decline of the narrative, return of cinema attractions, the sequels and simulations and spectators.
New virtual technologies open up the potential for a true experience to the viewer. More than merely watching a film, but feeling it as well. The total immersion that the viewer deserves. It takes a "movie" and makes it a "film."
-Brandon Savage
In his essay, Bukatman describes how objects and movement have become a necessity for people to interact with new urban environments and technology. Like a moving train, obviously more efficient than a horse and buggy, people are moved into the future when they see these effects and new worlds. People become engaged in the technology, like CGI, the newer and more fantastic these effects are. However, as people watch and get used to these effects, they are somewhat desensitized by them. They’re constantly looking for the new and upcoming effect and aren’t necessarily amazed by them. Sci Fi does provide new worlds and new people for an audience to connect with. Bukatman feels like he immersed into these characters and feels more a part of them. However, where do the effects over shine the narrative? Is there something as too many special effects? In the “end of off-screen space” there is less seriousness, and Bukatman sees it as not really freeing the body. The “off-screen” is infiltrated by the merchandise and theme parks which lends the question, “Does this merchandise deny the substance of the films?” The merchandise and theme parks rely on the effect of the film, rarely their narrative. This is possibly why the substance of the narrative is lost, and therefore, Bukatman feels the body can never really be liberated.
-Julianna Pierandozzi
The development of new visual effects, panoramas, dioramas, kaleidoscopes, etc. incorporates new lighting, sound and visual temperature effects. The effects of the early 19th century were simply used to showcase technology – without much thought into the presentation of the effects. The newer special effects in films have added much more dramatic additions to the movies.
The science fiction genre has become more significant as a result of the special effects being used now. Especially with the introduction of 3D computer graphics, science fiction has become a much more renowned genre. The evolution of science fiction as a genre further shows the differences in the world over time. Just as the presentation of the technology used to show the technological advances, the use of the genre showcases the cultural changes happening of that time.
The “end of offscreen space” has to do with the change happening with special effects and science fiction. On screen space can now be represented a lot differently with entirely new worlds created through visual effects – and there is no more assumed to happen in the off screen space of the older movies. Fantasy and unreal are now expected in science fiction to be shown, and the audience often drives on seeing new and exciting visual effects. These new visual effects are translated into the modern world with theme parks, and rides, online communities, and video games so that the viewer of the fantasy worlds can participate in the fantasy.
Bukatman says in "Zooming Out: The End of Offscreen Space" that the development of new types of visual entertainment was key to science fiction movies because it allowed for the human to be able to see the new environments and transportations in a manner in which they could understand and feel the effect of actually immersing oneself into the environment. Sci-Fi is a significant genre in history because it takes a viewer to a world of the spectacular, and makes the unreal appear to be real. Special Effects impact human perception because it allows for the viewer to become more immersed into the viewing and allows for ones mind to establish itself in the world that the director is trying to visualize. Bukatman believes that because new virtual technologies are being accomplished and utilized as time passes, he thinks that there is a potential for sci-fi that it has not reached yet.
Cameron Sproul
Unless I passed by it, I noticed Scott Bukatman never directly addressed the attention span of film viewers. When speaking of technology and eye-catching special effects in films and the attempt to wow and coerce the minions to shell out their cash I would assume the natural hunger for 'more' would be a hot topic. Starting with one of the more well-known earlier science fiction films, Bukatman speaks on Star Wars' opening scene that seemed to identify this hunger for 'more' as the movie opens with space, an endless void that suddenly becomes overtaken by the immensity of the Imperial space ship. At a certain point the viewer realizes that the ship is still growing and that there must be no end to it. This "end of offscreen space" seems reminiscent of urban life; the sprawl that becomes known as existence and seems to have no end in sight.
When speaking of the kaleidoscope, the consistent bombardment of colors and shapes reminds me of a telescopic shot down a busy street or highway at night; endless whites and reds or the cars and street lamps, and scattered amongst them are emergency vehicles and billboard signs. It gets even better when rain is involved. The initial wonderment of the kaleidoscope upon introduction easily waned away as urban sprawls grew in complexity and color.
Some would argue that the progression of film technology currently moves at a rapid pace, but as long back as the early films of the Lumiere Brothers (or earlier) the attempt at taking film beyond the restrictions of the machines it was created on seemed to be a mutual goal. Just as Henry Ford designed the car to be built faster and more efficient, so did Hollywood studios. Granted, since the introduction of the computer into cinema has no other technology moved faster, but we're now over a century and counting in regards to crowd experimentation. Darryl Zanuck desired to bring "participatory events" to the viewers. Initially they haven't stayed popular, but once again with new and emerging technology said participatory events such as 3D are making their way back into the theater. Science fiction as a significant genre in regards to film making enables film makers to take their craft to extreme. To get certain shots (such as computer controlled cameras in Star Wars or Bullet Time in The Matrix) it's typically a science fiction film that will contain them. There's no reason for a romantic comedy to have the heroine dodging Cupid's arrows as Neo. Bukatman wrote about more conservative narratives don't have the necessity to contain groundbreaking effects, thus the ability for science fiction films to do so.
As one smells the simplistic coffee beans just before diving into the complexity of the perfume, I find myself needing a breather prior to a science fiction viewing else I'm exhausted.
Bukatman says that these new entertainment technologies helped the body acclimate to the Machine Age and particularly train travel. Bodies were now in motion much fast to distant places and these forms of entertainment helped them get used to it. Science Fiction is considered a significant genre since the mid 19th century because it was at the end of the Age of Reason and the Industrial Revolution that authors began to write science fiction novels and it just continued from there through the Machine Age and on. Bukatman talks about special effect scenes as "perform(ing) a process of revelation through sustained kinetic exploration" and that "science fiction films are "toys" to distort and remake human perception." What I think he's saying is that they always keep the spectacle alive because they aren't based on real physics.
This “end of off-screen space” is caused by many things. The rise of the mass produced, large screen cinemas and how there is a great decline in narrative and an increase in spectacle and simulation. The implications of new virtual technologies on embodied experience is that there will be an "overemphasis on visibility and immersion..." What I believe that he means by this is that through the new technologies we are only going deeper into science fiction by trying to make the dream more real.
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