Lily's media blog

 postmodernism and hyper-reality   hyper-reality- beyond reality  the luxor hotel, las vegas simulate being round the woeld in one plae Instagram- what is reality, construction of beauty, but we are supposed to perceive this as reality   signs, signifiers and signified anytging can hace meaning the thing that creates meaning  rthe meaning that is created posmodernism- jean Baudillard  in postmodernism culture the biundaries between the 'real' world and the wolrd of the media have colla[psed and thta it is no longer possible to distinguish between what is reality and what is simulatio. in fact, it really doesnt matter which is which  therefore, in postmodern age of simulacra, audience -breakfast, the breakfast spread presenyed in humans by anita was niot realistic and creates an ideal setting but is contrucyed in american tv  postmodernism hyperreality- a representation of nothing. a representatiuon of something  rejection of high culture intertextuality- postmodern texts often

 according to Claude levis-strauss, texts convey their meanings through a system of binary oppositions. evaluate this structuralist theory. refer to the set episode of humans in your response.  one of the fundamental ways we make sense of is through binary opposition or 2 diametrically opposed concepts that end up dining each other  Levi Strauss created the theory of binary opposites  -the majority of narratives in  media  forms contain opposing main characters. These  binary opposites  help to thicken the plot and further the narrative; and introduce contrast. they also create meaning withoit one we cannot understand the other.  man v machine   - their roles within the world and when do they over lap and machine start to take over (singularity) Anita v Laura  - Anita is a threat to her role in the family  humans are seen as a superior being and yet their creation provides a threat the the human construction of family. anita is portrayed as a domestic help through simple tascs such as

 diametric opposition  levi-strauss one of the fundamental ways we make sense of is through binary opposition or 2 diametrically opposed concepts that end up dining each other  e.g. day/night  man v machine Anita v Laura - Anita is a threat to her role in the family  captivity v freedom  progress v regression - progress of conscious, its own entity not machine  family v institution -  male v women - gender role  old v young - conflict between daughter and parents   metropolis (Lang, 1927) - sexualised, making this sexualised to make them more relatable  blade runner (Scott, 1982) - binary oppoation of feminity between the character and barbie  Sorayama Hajime - sexy robot  Hannah Hoch: Das Schone Madchen / the beautiful girl (1919-20) cyborg- cybernetic  Anita is not seen as a machine even without consciousness a she takes on the roles of humans so is treated as such- people want to hurt her, have sex with her. they reflect their own abilities onto her and feel threatened buy her abili

 the representation of women and cyborg representation- a re presentation, re presenting something or re constructing it  representation impacts audiences and influence their ideologies. stereotypical representation can negatively influence and reinforce or challenge ideologies.  roles of women in humans mother maid sex worker / prostitute  nurse caregiver  butler friend slave rebel Madonna/ whore Freud developed theory to explain men's anxiety towards women's sexuality, suggesting men define women into one of two categories: Madonna (women he admires and respects) and whore (women he is attracted to and disrespects)  Madonna is typically virtuous, nurturing, saintly, and sexually repressed the whore is sensual, sexualised and desirable without purity  van zoonen women belong to the family and domestic life and men to the social world of politics and work; that femininity is about care, nurturing and compassion and masculinity is about efficiency, rationality and individuality 

 sci fi genre  Allegory - underlying hidden meaning (metaphor) e.g. sex work, allegoral notions through the story (constructed narrative) -a metaphor that makes a broad comment on society Zeitgeist - feeling at the moment, reflect what's happening in the world  -the 'spirit of the time' producers can encode ideological perspectives that may not appear to all audiences  e.g. -Godzilla could be a reference to nuclear way on japan  -invasion of the saucer-men, reference to communism, alien ideology stealing their way of life -independence day, 1996, golf war in middle east  allegorical aspects in humans  -sexualisation- Anita immediately sexualised  -unpaid labour- synths unpaid  -the negotiation of exoticism- Anita is out east Asian reinforces exoticism only person of that ethnicity in the text.  -sexual exploitation -modern slavery -commodity fetishism- Anita is a computer but is fetishized  -commodification -full automation -the rights of workers -late period capitalism v

Humans - Initial thoughts Mise-en-scene? Themes? slavers,  sex work,  human relationships  representation? class system,  women- mother want to be needed, nurturing  nuclear family stereotypical roles for each in the family- more relatable to the audience makes it more meaningful  broken marriage  cinematography?  sound? tech noise used to anchor meaning that they are machine  sci-fi genre conventions?  synthetics mad scientist 'singularity'- one days computers take over people