The name is absent

spectacle is (un)reality, its potential transformation and our fears related to
this phenomenon.

The continuous play with the (un)reality of the images and the
consequent belief/disbelief in the spectator denotes a cinema in which ‘being
tricked’ is its final aim. Signification does not run very deep and ‘being fooled
is enormous fun, and although we are not sure precisely how it was done, we
are amazed at the cleverness of it all’ (Darley, 2000: 55). As discussed in the
previous chapter, today the irony of the computer generated image and
visual-technological special effects is that even being conscious that we are
being deceived we can still submit to the illusory effect generated by them.
New technologies will provide us with the tools necessary, not only to
reproduce the reality that we know but to communicate new forms of reality
or new realities. In this sense, special effects are a way to ‘represent a mode
of visual display that privileges aesthetic novelty over realism’ (Pierson,
2002: 156).

We are thus living in a society where our perceptions are divided and
confused between reality and the representations of reality. The latter
gradually constitute a larger proportion of our perceptions and consequently
the vision that we have configured of the world is closer to the simulacrum
than to what it actually represents. In particular, SF films such as The Matrix,
eXistenZ and Total Recall are very useful cultural tools to analyze the
creation of alternative/simulacral (un)realities, their cultural and social
significance, and how individuals react to such technological confusion.

3.4. Science Fiction

Because real life, true life, will never be enough to
overwhelm human desires. And because without the vital
dissatisfaction that the lies of fiction appease, we would
never have real progress. The fantasy we have is a demonic
gift. It continuously opens an abyss between what we are
and what we want to be, between what we have and what
we wish. But imagination has conceived an astute and subtle
palliative for that inevitable divorce between our reality and
our excessive appetite: the fiction. Thanks to it we are more
and we are others being the same persons. (Vargas Llosa
1990: 19).

- 93 -

<<   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   >>

More intriguing information