“ Media. What is the nature of meaning? How do we decode the “meanings” of photographs, advertisements, music videos? Are we controlling the message, or is the message controlling us? And what on earth are David Lynch’s films actaully about? “Archimedes once said, ‘Give me a place to stand and I will move the world’,” wrote Marshall McLuhan. “Today he would have pointed to our electric media and said, ‘I will stand on your eyes, your ears, your nerves and your brain, and the world will move in any tempo or pattern I choose.’ We have leased these ‘places to stand’ to private corporations.” McLuhan did not say whether Archimedes was in the bath at the time. Nor is it clear whether Barthes was in the bath. Essential to remember the narrative is unreliable; “discourse” is a better word than “talk”; Rainer Werner Fassbinder is a German film director, not a 70s prog-rock band; popcorn will probably not be available at the frequent showings of Humphrey Jennings documentaries; and there are worryingly few jobs in the film industry.
Terry Cook
2 years ago
