Doctoral Seminar Series

As part of the inaugural year of the ‘Doctorat en Etudes Cinematographique’ at Universite de Montreal, the faculty have put together a doctoral seminar series. Theoretically designed to be ’round table discussions’, today’s was more a meeting and debate of the minds with a group of interested spectators. I have to say, that as someone who is not yet immersed in film theory, I was blown away by the dialogue and dynamics of the two speakers we had today; Francesco Casetti and Martin Lefebvre.

They tackled questions and debated over the claim that ‘cinema is dead’, the purpose of theory in film studies, the question of experience and ‘encounters’ with the object of study in terms of methodology, the question and process of ‘truth’… I only wish that I could have sat there and listened to the two great minds talk about the movement towards a new paradigm of film theory, where scholars share their ideas, work them out and develop them together … a paradigm where not everyone agrees, but can respect and work with each other’s ideas.

All in all, it was a great experience – even if I was tired from sitting in two 3 hour seminars earlier that day.

Thinking About Space

I am reading Edward Casey’s Giving a Face to Place in the Present: Bachelard, Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari, Irigaray (from The Fate of Place: A Philosophical History) and so far, I am impressed with a few of the ideas he sews together – something I wish I had read before I wrote my MA thesis, but I have to let go of that someday 😉

There are a few ideas (so far – I am not finished reading the chapter) that have me thinking. Firstly, the idea (from Bachelard) that space trumps place in terms of memory. This is my interpretation of pages 288-9. If we think about it, when we search in our memory, we can reconstruct the place and space of events, but often, time becomes distorted and loses its hierarchical dominance on the flow of events, situating memory (and one’s inner self) in the concreteness of space/place. This has me thinking about memories of a virtual/digital nature. On page 288 Casey writes: “he (Bachelard) is holding that there is a valid sense of place for nonsensible items; place can be nonphysical and yet still count fully as place“. For me, this is an important sentence if I am trying to situate the “reality” of mmorpg experiences and memories. No grand results at the moment though, simply something that made me go “hmm”.

Secondly,  there is a great talk about home and house, dwelling and memory in terms of place. In describing memory of space and geometry of one’s home, he quotes Bachelard to express memory as iterated by habit: “We are the diagram of the functions inhabiting that particular house” (p. 291). As a functionalist at heart (shhhh!) I really like the idea of this. Our memories are created through a collection of functional patterns that define our physical space, and I would venture our digital spaces as well. When I think of my online activity (and I have blogged this before – will dig it up later) the patterns of my website visiting creates a map of activity and memory that could be physically sketched out to create what I consider to be my personal ‘home’ online.

Casey goes on to discuss Bachelard’s ‘concrete topoanalysis’ by outlining four concrete traits when discussing the “in” of inhabitation  The one that has me going “hmm” again is the concept of  “in” in relation to its pairing with “out” Casey writes that it “cannot be reduced to the ‘here/there'”( P, 293). It is not a simple dichotomous relationship in/out – here/there – but rather a fluid relationship of space and being. The little “hmm” inside my head is pointing me towards random ideas of immersion, hybridity of digital space – inhabiting a virtual world while simulatenously physically existing in ‘meatspace’. Again, I have nothing more at the moment than random thoughts, light bulb moments and ponderous hmmms.

Augmented & Mixed Reality

The second doctoral seminar that I am taking this semester is called “Mobile Cinema” (and it is cross listed as Art Actuel [french] I believe). I took this course thinking it would focus on the line of thinking that the cinematic experience is altered through mobile technologies (before I saw the course description below). Fragmented viewing impacting elements such as narrative, flow and even aesthetic (since the peripheral view is no longer a darkened cinema) as the movement one experiences during, say, viewing a movie on your ipod on the bus alters the overall aesthetic experience.

But instead, I was pleasantly surprised after the first seminar to find out that the course is actually more about the impact of technologies on perceptions of reality; creating what is often called ‘augmented reality ‘ and/or ‘mixed reality’. From the course outline and introductory seminar, we are going to look at how technologies alter the perceptions of space and time and immersion (among other themes such as mapping, and interactivity). Although I have read alot of material surrounding these themes from a communications and sociology bend, it will be interesting to learn more about this from various perspectives.  Since the course is cross listed with the Art History department, we will be reading works on technologies and developments of perspective as well as the use of space in various art forms (sculpture, site-specific art etc.).

I am excited, as I already have my final project topic planned!

Here is the course description (in french) from the seminar schedule:

“Approche spécifique d’une recherche : le cinéma mobile
Le séminaire sera l’occasion de revenir sur l’histoire et la théorie des dispositifs de présentation de l’image, depuis le trompe-l’œil et le kinétoscope jusqu’aux « pervasive games ».”

Lord of the Rings Online – First Impressions

I downloaded the game client a week or two ago – waiting for the time when I would be able to dedicate a few solid days of gameplay, since I am playing on a 10-day free trial offered up by a good friend. Realizing that I would probably wait for ever with that standard, I decided to at least load up the game and create my first avatar.  My first impressions – in terms of avatar creation – were not overly enthusiastic. For the most current mmo of the day, I was hoping for more customization in terms of aesthetic and diversity (I couldnt give my elf black hair … dark dark brown – but not black). I wouldn’t have expected The Godfather to have more customization elements! That and the fact that I could not choose to play a female dwarf made me question how they managed to sustain their people!

My first impressions of the in-game world were a bit better. Graphics were on par with what I expected – keeping in mind that I am running it on an old Nvidia graphics card, surely with the newest technology the images would be smoother – but I am not sure where else mmo’s can go in terms of aesthetics. The images, artwork, lighting and shadowing all appear … normal … along current mmo standards.

I didn’t play beyond the first introduction quest – having me follow some guy to the gates and whatnot – and I was playing on a laptop with no mouse – so my avatar looked like she couldnt decide whether to run to the left or the right. But I will reserve my gameplay commentary (in terms of mechanics and intuitive design) until I play on my desktop and make a few levels.

My questions going into this are really quite simply. Cutting my teeth on EverQuest in 1999 (oh the  nostalgia!), then playing Dark Age of Camelot from release to its first expansion, Horizons (wonderful tradeskills – lonely world), (following my partner playing Star Wars Galaxies), LineageII beta, a short stint in Guild Wars and World of Warcraft (am I still paying for that account!?), I am looking for signs of innovative gameplay, unique design, interesting game element (tradeskills, craftsmanship, PvP, PvE, etc) that seperates LoTRO from the herd. For all the enthusiasm of my above mentioned friend, I wonder how far LoTRO goes to take that next step towards being the first game in a new generation of mmo’s.

Cinema as “social imagination”

My first text that I have to read for the Doctoral Seminar is La Theorie du Cinema: Enfin en crise – which is a volume from the journal CiNeMAS. I have to read the opening chapter by Roger Odin. As a film theory virgin, I had no (real) idea about what film theory was about. I have known several people who have studied cinema, and often their focus was analytical; looking at construction, narrative and other interesting things like anachronisms in film, or looking at a particular genre. Coming from Sociology, I was a bit nervous – not knowing what to expect. I am happy to report that my first reading is a welcome one, where Odin talks about several issues in contemporary film theory.

Firstly, he talks about how film as an academic field has been accused of ‘teaching taste’, which is an interesting idea from a pedagogical and sociological position. If a professor has a strong liking towards one genre, film or what have you, chances are it will be privileged in their seminars. This is not unlike any other field I would imagine – I remember a fellow student complaining that a particular professor thought that post-modernism was a joke, therefore chose to blaze through it with little concern for actually ‘teaching’ it objectively… or my amazement that contemporary sociology (at least in our department) wasn’t fond of the structural functionalists (which happens to be one of my favorite theoretical perspectives). Anyways, so the idea of “teaching taste” in cinema is interesting in terms of thinking about the reproduction of knowledge.

Secondly, I was quite happy to read that, according to Metz (I am struggling to find the exact reference within the text as there are many dates and pages after almost every sentence in this section) cinema is essentially the result of “social imagination”, something that my MA advisor is interested in through the gamecode project. Sociologically speaking, to think of cinema (and specifically fiction) as a cumulative representation of social issues – hopes, dreams, fears etc – is almost elementary (in a good way). I haven’t finished reading the chapter – so perhaps they take it in a different direction, but to think of film as cultural artifacts makes me alot more comfortable than I expected to be in my new disciplinary home – film studies.  

First Day of School

I haven’t had butterflies like this on a first day of school since … well – for quite some time!

Will come back with a full report. Until then, here is an interesting CFP for anyone playing LOTR MMO.

Call for Papers

Ring Bearers: The Lord of the Rings Online as Intertextual Narrative.  Edited by Tanya Krzywinska, Esther MacCallum-Stewart and Justin Parsler.

We invite you to submit an abstract focused on MMoRPG The Lord of the Rings Online in one of the following areas:

I. Transmediality and Adaptation
            II. Gameplay Aesthetic

III. Sociality

Final essays can be between 3,000 and 7,000 words.TIMESCALES
1st November 2007 – submission of abstracts (please send to tankrzy@aol.com or neveah@gmail.com)
By 1st December – notification of acceptance
March 2008 – workshop at Brunel University, UK

August 1st 2008 – first draft due in
By October 31st 2008– drafts returned for provisional editing and changes

Picking up where I left off

As I head into my PhD, I have been put to task to re-read my MA thesis, and take note of any ideas I had that did not get the chance to be fully developed (due to time, space and depth of my theoretical understanding at the time it was written). I am nervous to head back to my thesis; I am nervous to read ideas that perhaps seemed perfectly clear in my head only to find out that I hadn’t quite articulated my ideas. Yet on the other hand, I am looking forward to reading my thesis as a text outside of the stress and deadlines that enveloped its conception. As a piece of work seperate from myself as author.

The direction for my PhD is a little different than that of my MA. Moving from Sociology to Cinema, I am hoping that my love of social theory will compliment questions surrounding aesthetic and design, and how these things translate or transform into play, social and personal identity formation (of both player and character).

Classes start next week – and I have to say, I am looking forward to being in a new environment, with a new group of students, new theoretical cannons to explore and new perspectives to view my work and ideas through.

One foot out the door

The other one still in the room. 

I have been home for a week now and I have done little, except playing some really addictive (and geriatric) solitaire games I downloaded many eons ago. I met with my new advisor and talked about the upcoming year, projects and people. The meeting was energizing, finally getting to see what my schedule will look like this fall. So far so good – with the obligational Doctoral seminar, I am also hoping to take a class on mobile cinema (hopefully will get to look into mobile gaming as an offshoot). Seeing as cinema is not my field, I am taking a first year undergrad introductory course on cinema theory, should be fun.

Recycling Woes

After barely a week at home, I send out my first batch of recycling to be picked up this morning only to have one of the dedicated recycling bags thrown back into my walkway -rejected. I was confused and a little bit angry about it. Guess I have to get used to the city’s idea of ‘recyclable’ as compared to ‘dry’ recycling, which is what I have been doing all summer at my sister’s. At least there, their “dry” list is clearly printed out and laminated with tons of items or item types on it, so I can figure out what goes in the blue bag or the black bag (sesame street recycling!). The list I was given by the city of montreal has three categories, a few hand drawn pictures and basically states “paper, glass & plastics”.

The rejected bag this morning contained packing styrofoam (from a table), which has a recyclable symbol all over it. It is accepted as “dry” recyclables in New Brunswick, and was once accepted here. I am frustrated as to what I can put in the clear bag and what not. The list I did read seems so random. And now I have to rebag it into a black bag, as the garbage men will not pick up clear recycling bags.

Enough whining I suppose, and back to work.