Cinema, Computers, and War

CINEMA, COMPUTERS, AND WAR By BRENDAN PATRICK RILEY A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2004 Copyright 2004 By Brendan Patrick Riley ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I thank my family and friends for their support during my years in Florida. In particular, my mother’s support has meant a lot to me. Deep thanks go to Gregory Ulmer for his wise mentorship; I shall seek what the masters sought. Robert Ray also provided excellent guidance; his thinking and advice have proven invaluable to me. I thank Nora Alter and Roger Beebe, who provided insightful comments that helped shape this project and my plans for its future. John Sabin was a great boss; I thank him for both my time in his employ and his work on my committee. C Bradley Dilger deserves thanks for his friendship and advice in things both technical and academic. Finally, I thank Jenny for her love and support in everything. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………iii LIST OF TABLES………………...……………………………………………………... vi LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………………vii ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………ix CHAPTER 1 FILM STUDIES IN THE AGE OF ELECTRACY………………………………. 1 A Crossroads in Film Studies……………………………………………………...1 Grammatology……………………………………………………………………..5 Electrate Method from Electrate Technology…………………………………….. 7 Cinema, Computers, and War…………………………………………………… 11 Technological Innovations and Electracy……………………………………….. 21 2 MODULARITY AND MONSTERS FROM THE DEEP……………………….24 Modularity in Programming……………………………………………………...24 Creature from the Black Lagoon (1)…………………………………………….. 25 Ford/Taylor……………………………………………………………………… 29 Creature from the Black Lagoon (2)…………………………………………….. 30 Jaws (1)………………………………………………………………………….. 33 Sergei Eisenstein………………………………………………………………… 35 Jaws (2)………………………………………………………………………….. 37 Epigraphs………………………………………………………………………... 40 Sound……………………………………………………………………………. 40 Jaws (3)………………………………………………………………………….. 42 Blockbusters……………………………………………………………………... 45 Notes…………………………………………………………………………….. 47 3 CYBERNETICS AND SINKING SHIPS………………………………………. 48 One………………………………………………………………………………. 48 Two……………………………………………………………………………… 61 Notes…………………………………………………………………………….. 74 iv 4 THE A.I. “FRAME PROBLEM”………………………………………………...76 Framing………………………………………………………………………….. 77 Games…………………………………………………………………………… 81 Artificial Life……………………………………………………………………. 88 FsBoids………………………………………………………………………….. 92 5 SECRET AGENTS AND CRYPTOGRAPHY………………………………... 108 Cryptography and Cryptanalysis……………………………………………….. 109 Secret Agents…………………………………………………………………... 115 Agent Technology……………………………………………………………… 118 Steganographic Agents………………………………………………………… 122 From Russia With Love and The Ipcress File………………………………….. 125 Notes…………………………………………………………………………… 136 6 PARALLEL DISTRIBUTED PROCESSING, THE “AND, AND, AND”…… 137 Parallel Distributed Processing………………………………………………… 137 The “And, And, And”………………………………………………………….. 142 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………... 160 Notes…………………………………………………………………………… 164 REFERENCE LIST……………………………………………………………………. 165 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH…………………………………………………………... 174 v LIST OF TABLES Table page 2-1 Character comparisons between Jaws and Creature from the Black Lagoon…….. 34 3-1 Academia as a cybernetic system…………………………………………………. 54 3-2 Ground rules for writing cybernetically…………………………………………… 60 3-3 Corporate mind decodes Titanic movies…………………………………………... 64 3-4 Elements in Titanic (1997)…………………………………………………………69 5-1 Analogy of cryptanalysis and film analysis……………………………………… 114 6-1 The Commitments as a parallel distributed processing system…………………... 144 6-2 The Open Source model and pandemonium……………………………………... 151 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 2-1 The creature is drawn from hiding when he sees Kay swimming…..…………….. 27 2-2 Two shots of the creature’s hand………………………………………………….. 31 2-3 Mark and David both take multiple shots with harpoons………..……………….. 32 2-4 Chrissie swims overhead just as Kay did………………………………………….. 38 2-5 Chrissie treads water just as Kay did……………………..……………………….. 38 2-6 The crew looks grim when they realize the equipment is broken…………………. 39 4-1 The circular light over the dinner table and in Dr. Hobby’s office………………... 92 4-2 “Gentlemen, you can’t fight here! This is the War Room!”………………….…... 93 4-3 Joe the Gigolo walks down a street reminiscent of Deckard’s L.A……………….. 94 4-4 Waves crashing in the opening sequence of AI………………………………….... 96 4-5 David plays with his helicopter toy …………………………………………….… 97 4-6 David watches from underwater as Martin is revived…...………………………... 99 4-7 A weeping lion and an outraged one………………………………………..……. 101 4-8 The Rouge City skyline and mouth-shaped entrance “tunnel”…………………... 102 4-9 The milk bar’s female body-machines and Eyes Wide Shut’s poster…….……… 103 4-10 Monica’s car and the Flesh Fair “hounds” mirror Tron’s visual style…………… 104 4-11 David looks through the empty mask, lit by blue light…………………………... 106 5-1 Kerim Bey and James Bond……………………………………………………… 125 5-2 Jean examines Harry’s gun………………………………………………………. 126 vii 5-3 Bond stabs Grant with his hidden knife……….…………………………………. 128 5-4 Harry catches someone tailing him………………………………………………. 129 5-5 Harry and Bluejay at the library...…………………….………………………….. 131 5-6 Kerim Bey and Bond look at the unconscious Russian agent……….…………... 132 5-7 Harry makes dinner………………………………………………………………. 133 5-8 Superimposed map and train station……………………………………………... 135 viii Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy CINEMA, COMPUTERS, AND WAR By Brendan Patrick Riley May 2004 Chair: Gregory Ulmer Major Department: English This project suggests an experimental method for media scholars in the age of digital communication. Starting from grammatology, the study of changes in culture that accompanied the emergence of literacy, this project suggests that new communication technologies coincide with shifts in culture. It explores the new ways of thinking, new methods for action, and new perspectives of the world embodied in electric (or, to use Gregory Ulmer's neologism, electrate) ways of thinking. The move away from literacy's linear, “rational” thinking ranks among the most important of these shifts; if print enabled “rational” thinking and hermeneutics, then electrate technologies embody an entirely different way of thinking. At the same time, just as speech continued after print, so we can expect electracy to retain writing. Thus, the experiments conducted here should be seen as supplements to literate hermeneutics. This project invents its method using three key technological bodies of the twentieth century: cinema, computers, and war. The historical relationships among these ix technologies make them essential to electracy. Supposing that new technologies and new media allow us to think in new ways, each chapter explores a technology associated with electrate culture: modularity, cybernetics, artificial intelligence, cryptography, and parallel distributed processing. The chapters proceed to use technology to find new, non- hermeneutic methods for research in film studies. For example, chapter 4, “The Frame Problem,” compares artificial intelligence research with research in the humanities. It suggests that recent advances in the field of artificial life, which study emergent behavior, provide a set of rules for scholars to write about film in a different way. The last chapter of the project combines the experimental aspects of the previous chapters with a more linear argument. It suggests that parallel distributed processing provides a model for pedagogy and research, applicable to both classroom and scholarly work. Cinema, Computers, and War explores the relationship between criticism, technology, and modern digital culture. It uses these technologies to invent new methods for film scholarship—not to define film studies in the age of electracy, but to make room for it. x CHAPTER 1 FILM STUDIES IN THE AGE OF ELECTRACY The convergence of electronic digital media brings with it substantial changes in the way people make, encounter, and consume texts. As a film scholar, such changes are of crucial importance to me; changes in the way we consume media alter what those media mean to us, and how they do so. Walter Benjamin suggested that photography changed the auras of art objects by circulating their images more widely. Marshall McLuhan expanded that idea, noting that the content of media influences us less signifi- cantly than its form—hence, “the medium is the message.” More recently, Paul Wille- men has observed that the emergence of digital photography brings all indices into ques- tion. These scholars address media in terms of its form and its role in culture. This project engages with cinema in a similar way. At the same time, this dissertation also thinks about media technology within the larger scope of the history of media and writing. That frame, called grammatology, suggests that changes in cinema reflect broad changes in media culture as a whole. As such, Cinema, Computers, and War explores film studies in light of the emerging digital age, asking how scholars can integrate the lessons of the digital in thinking about cinema. A Crossroads in Film Studies One might describe the ongoing debate between Robert Ray and David Bordwell as a duel. They argue over the future of film studies itself—an important

Load more