01.DIGINEMA

I don't think Manovich says anything mindblowing in this piece. He merely rehashes a point several times, and imagines there is a major ongoing change. The steps between animation, to "live cinema" and back to animation are illusionary. It was animation all along or it was live all along, depending how one wishes to define the words usage. He tries to break this point by stating that film can only show what exists, somewhere, but can never "create the 'never was'" that animation creates. He goes on to talk about special effects and their link to his 'animation' but misses the point, which ironically enough, is the same point Vertov missed. The fact that the artist controls the picture means it's existence in reality stops being 'real', it's an interpretation. That interpretation is in turn translated by the audience into something meaningful. The small shots of the world shown in film do not exist in real life, superficially they may 'happen' and be recorded, but the meaning and value are not added until run at those 24 frames per second, until someone views it. A 'behind the scenes' camera of a movie production is hardly as moving, yet it is capturing the same scene.

The idea of 'storytelling' being the over reaching 'repression' of cinema, but it's difficult to find anything in art which doesn't speak some sort of story, whether it be one word, or many. Even abstract pieces are weaved into stories by its audiences. The 'meta-genre' isn't one of story telling, it's one of being a human who remembers, fits things into logical sequences, and moves through time.

00.INFLUENCZA

1) THE SURREALISTS

2) Steampunk/Dieselpunk, and the Monster/Human Existance.
H.P. Lovecraft and Verne/Verne-esque works have been a fascination of mine for quite some time. Using the classic 'Adventure Story' ideals against the strange or abnormal, while using antiquated yet advanced methods and tools always struck a chord. The use of the 'monster' or 'grotesque' (a sympathetic, yet monstrous character: Frankenstein's Monster) as a parallel for the average human mind, it's heights and it's lows, why we do what we do, has shown up in many of my works. Another usage, most modern, is that in "American Psycho", detailing the depraved depths of the natural human mind. Essentially, I find the complexity of our minds, and our social groupings, to be most exciting.

3) Akira Yamaoka and the Silent Hill game series.
Akira Yamaoka composes some of the darkest, beautiful rock/post-rock pieces around. My musical style has been heavily influenced by him. He writes music for the Silent Hill series, which is a surrealist horror game. The player is not just taken through a game, but through a story, and at many times a visual work of art. The symbolism, darkness, and it's references to human psyche have always interested in me and it's borrowed uses of surrealist art have always been a good reference tool.