Narratives of Database and Chance
How chance and a database aesthetic challenge classical narratives in contemporary film, allowing space for the unexpected
By Moira Zahra
moirazahra@gmail.com / m.zahra1@camberwell.arts.ac.uk
MA Digital Arts (Visual Arts)
University of the Arts London, Camberwell College
29th November 2011
Abstract
When chance is introduced to plots and aesthetics of film narratives, intention is bound to take a step back to make space for the unexpected. Almost certainly, the author will have to give up a certain amount of control and leave it in the hands of natural or mechanical processes. Whether in pre-production, production or post-production, chance seems to be at the heart of contemporary disjunctured film narratives, which are often said to inhabit a database aesthetic. The exponential popularisation of such films led me to examine the relevance of both chance and database in today’s media culture.
I have carried out this investigation by first studying the conflicts between cinema and computer, based on an analysis of Lev Manovich’s theories. This was followed by a revisit of the classical narrative structure, through the ideologies of Artistotle, Bordwell and Metz. Subsequently, both chance and the database aesthetic have been closely analysed. Chance was introduced through its role in Dada, Surrealism, and the works of Duchamp, and later discussed in relation to John Cage’s viewpoints and David Lynch’s chance approaches. Database narratives were examined on the basis of Allan Cameron’s principles of modular narratives, which investigate the narratives’ ties with contemporary perceptions of space and time.
Lastly, through Jesse Schell’s Design Outside the Box presentation, and Terrence Malick’s 2011 Film, The Tree of Life, I have projected both database and chance onto the present-day conflicting ideas of technology and nature, and explained how this connection could just be what stabilises chance and database principles in the film industry.
Keywords: Chance, Database, Narratives, Film, Reality
Table of Contents
Abstract........................................................................................................................ 2
Introduction.............................................................................................................. 4
From Order to Chance............................................................................................. 5
The Classical Narrative........................................................................................... 5
Coexistence of Dissimilars.................................................................................... 6
Database Narratives.................................................................................................. 9
Tales About Time.................................................................................................... 9
Database and Chance: from technology to reality............................................ 11
Conclusion................................................................................................................. 13
Bibliography.............................................................................................................. 14
Appendix.................................................................................................................... 17
Introduction
“…Cinema exits the stage. Enters the computer.”
Lev Manovich(1996, para.9)
I’m sure that most of us often find ourselves wondering, what did we do before the Internet? How did we spend our days without this revolutionary tool? What we know for certain is that the web has drastically changed our ways of communication, but what about our visual perceptions? According to Manovich(1999), since the Internet, we perceive the world as an unstructured collection of data. It is therefore natural for us to model this data into a database with its own poetics, aesthetics and ethics. Furthermore, in The rise of database narratives, Anderson(2004) tells us that it is this spread of database systems that has brought obsessions with repetitions and dislocations in narrative structures. Manovich(1999) takes the argument further by investigating the role of database in the dispute of cinema against the computer, where he comes to the conclusion that the computer is in fact today’s winning medium. For Manovich(1996, para.9), cinema has served its purpose of preparing us for the shock of living in a digital culture, teaching us about new ways to distinguish time and space, and therefore it is natural that it should now be replaced by digital media; ‘the numeric, the computable, the simulated.’
In Digital storytelling, Handler Miller (2004) presents some alarming figures from the Children, Families and the Internet 2000 report, compiled by Grunwald Associations. The report notes a tremendous growth in Internet usage and a rise in the spending on video games. Additionally, it states that both Internet usage and leisure time spent on video games have greatly affected TV and the cinema going culture. This study was carried out in the year 2000; today with consoles such as the Nintendo Wii(Nintendo, 2006), PlayStation 3(Sony, 2006) and Xbox 360(Microsoft, 2005) further embracing sensor technology, therefore delving deeper into the world of virtual reality, we could say that both cinema and TV are facing new challenges.
Virtual reality’s potential lies in the way it offers a more personal involvement with the spectator through interactivity, consequently turning the viewer into a user. Perhaps, however we shouldn’t give up on cinema just yet, keeping in mind its technological breakthroughs throughout the years, and its prospective progress towards virtual reality, starting with the introduction of 3D film. However, considering the distorted perception of temporality that our digitally-charged culture has introduced, it should not be the case that the vast majority of mainstream film releases are still heavily based on the classical narrative structure (Cameron, 2008). This can only mean that using experimental techniques such as database and chance-based narratives in film still poses a high risk. If classical narratives are so out of synch with today’s digital culture why are they still here? What do classical cinema and film offer to the viewer that is so difficult to completely replace with contemporary media?
From Order to Chance
The Classical Narrative
“Are we forever condemned to Aristotle’s moral presuppositions, no matter how poorly they fit modern characters or situations?” (Chatman, 1978, p.89)
The structuralists taxonomised it into story and discourse, whilst the Russian formalists preferred the terms fable and plot. Aristotle is known for pioneering the classical structure of the beginning, where anything is possible, a middle when things become probable, and an ending where everything is necessary (Goodman, 1954 cited in Chatman, 1978), in other words, the ‘complication’ from the beginning to the climatic middle, and the ‘denouement’ from the middle until the end (Tierno, 2002, p.7). This is the basis of the notorious two thousand year old narrative formula that classic Hollywood has been using for over a century.
Classical narrative is designed to keep the viewer involved with the story that isn’t simply linear, but also ‘causative’ and ‘hermeneutic’ (Chatman, 1978, pp.45-48). Moreover classical narrative in film proceeds to put together a sequential structure and the fabrication of emotion with the aim to provide pleasure. According to Bordwell, a classical Hollywood story structure rests on the idea of personal or psychological loss, followed by a construction of consequence, psychological motivation, obstacles and goals. Bordwell finds that this method always works because it fulfills the audience (Keating, 2006). This is a theory that Bordwell shares with Emerson and Loos, who also emphasise that the audience needs to feel satisfied and that the director should not leave certain things to the imagination (Keating, 2006).
The ‘psychonalayst of film theorists’ Christian Metz paints Hollywood as a manufacturer of dreams, encouraging escapist fantasies and fulfillments through a process of alienation (Stam, 2000, p.167). In Film theory, Stam(2000) tells us that although screen theory points out the manipulative side of film as a representation of dream, it is important to recognise what draws the spectators to the theatre. He points out that dreams are actually an important part of our well-being, and quotes the Surrealists who referred to dreams as ‘a sanctuary for desire.’
Metz splits cinema into two forms that work parallel to one another. The first one being the cinema as an industry; based on making profit, the other is the ‘mental machine’, which provides the spectator with pleasure (Stam, 2000). Hollywood cinema in fact, practices what Maltby(1995 cited in Keating, 2006, p.5) calls a ‘commercial aesthetic’ where films are designed to attract the widest possible audience. This allows big-budget films to attract the masses, and invest their profit into more big-budget films. It is therefore evident that traditional narrative structures, by combining both a structure that the audience can easily follow, as well as a means of escaping reality through a safe experience of emotions and desires, are difficult to supersede. Nevertheless, the conflicting arguments of traditional narrative with new media structures could leave the film medium with no choice but to embrace unorthodox narrative structures.
Coexistence of Dissimilars
Opposite formulas and order we find chance. The foundations of chance in art and filmmaking can be traced throughout the dada and surrealism movements, where chaos and disorder challenged the need for intention. Dadaists questioned traditional ways of communicating a message in the art world, and set their priorities on provoking the viewers through participation. Through his Rotoreliefs(Marcel Duchamp, 2011) Duchamp introduced one of the earliest forms of tangible interactive art, which was a new approach towards art as experience that shed more light onto the spectator. In The creative act Duchamp(1959) expressed that the social value of the artwork and posterity of the artist are to be decided by the spectator. The aim of Duchamp and Dadaists was to challenge the conventional notions of beauty by taking control away from the creator, therefore altering the decision making process, resulting in organically unexpected works of art (Gale, 1997, S.M. Willette, 2011).
In the world of film, Surrealists such as Louis Buñuel and Salvador Dali stunned audiences with works such as Un Chien Andalou(1929), an experimental film that presented continuously offbeat shots within a disjointed plot. Both Dadaists and surrealists were fluent in practicing the art of the unexpected, with surrealism delving into the world of dreams, the unconscious, and automatic writings, and Dada shattering rules to bring back ‘natural, unreasonable order’ and ‘illogical nonsense’(Brecht, 1957, p.38). George Brecht quotes Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia in Chance Imagery, who states that Dada is in fact without meaning, just like nature (Brecht, 1957).
“Through chance operations, I didn’t want to express my feelings.
I wanted the sounds to change me.” (John Cage in Odeon, 1972)
The relationship between chance and nature is quite a popular one amongst chance practitioners. We can find a clear representation of this in the works of John Cage; a prominent practitioner of chance who aimed to diminish the distance between art and life (Iversen, 2010). Shultis(1998) explains that John Cage’s views are focused in the nondual universe, uniting both humanity with nature, and replacing control with coexistence. Expectedly, Cage disagreed with philosophical idealism and believed that control could be eliminated through chance. Cage’s interest in Zen Buddhism, along with his heavy influence from ‘Duchampian chance procedures’, allowed him to ‘open the mind to more intense awareness of the world and nature.’ (Iversen, 2010, p.15)
In his Book Catching the Big Fish, director David Lynch, whose use of chance is perhaps more controlled than Cage’s, often mentions Zen and transcendental meditation as a key factor in his work. David Lynch, an independent filmmaker whose films display an intriguing interrelation between Hollywoodian aesthetic and experimental structures, makes use of the database aesthetic in most of his films, which typically develop from what appears to be a classical linear story, but then drive off into obscurity.
Lynch advocates transcendental meditation as the ultimate way to open one’s mind and reach a unified field, which is a state of pure consciousness. He explains that it is through this state of mind, that he can allow a degree of chance in his films, knowing that they will somehow unite at the end (Lynch, 2007). An example of this was the process of his feature film, Inland Empire (2006, fig.1), which was shot without a script. Inland Empire started from a fourteen-page monologue with actress Laura Dern, and developed into a series of unrelated shots without any particular narrative direction. (Lynch, 2007)
Fig. 1. One of the many surreal shots from Inland Empire (2006).
Lynch, and other artists who favour the use chance, are likely to have a greater element of freedom in their work, however this must be counteracted with certain restrictions. Iversen(2010, p.19) states that chance can only happen within a set of boundaries. She compares this process with a deck of cards or a pair of dice, and says that ‘within those constraints, a process is set in motion that has unpredictable results.’ In my online message exchange with Antoine Beuger, a composer who traces the roots of his music to John Cage, and runs the avant-garde Wandelweiser music Group (Warburton, 2001) Beuger expressed that even the most ‘open’ and ‘indeterminate’ pieces of John Cage ‘have a specific character, have their own atmosphere’ and are ‘immediately reconizable’. (A. Beuger, pers. comm., 22 Nov., 2011)
“The basic question is: is it possible to find a small set of fundamental decisions that can be generative of a strong/deep/subtle etc. work of art, allowing it to emerge all by itself, without letting irrelevant intentional choices interfere.”
(A. Beuger, pers. comm., 22 Nov., 2011)
(A. Beuger, pers. comm., 22 Nov., 2011)
I therefore feel that it is this question of having a balance between the initial decision making process and chance, as Beuger states, that database structures should be looking into challenging in classical narratives. Chance events in narratives have the potential to offer organic outcomes and a wider space for emotional and psychological exploration, which need not be frustrating for the viewer, but rather exhilarating.
Database Narratives
Tales About Time
Although since the 1990s, the line between mainstream and independent cinema has become heavily blurred (King, 2009), we can say that both database and chance-based narratives have always had a special place in the world of experimental and art film, but not so much in mainstream cinema. Movements such as the Italian Neorealism and French New Wave often portrayed disjointed sequences through the use of jump cuts, and improvised dialogue to emphasise the idea of realism. According to Levy (1999, p. 53) the aforementioned movements were not afraid to criticise ‘old paradigms and adopt new aesthetic values.’
We can see a similar revolt reflected in some of today’s contemporary filmmakers who have an inclination for both realism and a database aesthetic. One such filmmaker is Michel Gondry, who is heavily influenced by French New Wave figures. In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004, fig.2), which is a classical example of database aesthetic in popular film, Gondry requested that the cinematographers sit in a wheelchair whilst using the hand-held camera, a technique often used by Jean-Luc Godard (Pavlus, 2004). According to Ellen Kuras, the director of photography for Eternal Sunshine, Gondry wanted the film to look as real as possible, preferring to shoot with available light. He believed that this would make for a more natural imitation of the blend between memories and reality (Pavlus, 2004). Kuras also expressed that Gondry’s usual style of ‘morphing of time and space’ was a perfect way to illustrate ‘the boundless realm of its protagonist’s memories.’ (Pavlus, 2004, para.3)
Fig. 2. One of the methods used to create on-set illusions in Eternal Sunshine
(American Cinematographer, 2004).
The ‘database aesthetic’ is just one of the many terms used to describe narratives that make use of incoherent editing, in an effort to portray a different view on temporality. Cameron refers to the description ‘database aesthetic’ when defining the visual style of what he prefers to call ‘modular narratives’, a term inspired by Lev Manovich which reflects the narratives’ conflicting perceptions of order and chaos (Cameron, 2008, p.26). In popular film, narratives that display a database aesthetic, work on disorienting the viewer through a disjunctured structure. Cameron (2008) in fact, compares Hollywood’s modular film to art cinema, in their way of associating elements originating from traditional narrative with experimentation. He continues to say that the value of modular films lies is their suggested questioning of how non-linearity can reposition linear narratives through an influence of technology. Still the central factor of database film structures is usually their analytical perspective of time and space. As quoted by Cameron (2008, p.184) Paul Ricoeur refers to these narratives as being not just ‘tales in time’, but also ‘tales about time’. The relentless changes in the perception of temporality brought with globalization, digital technology and constant surveillance is what Cameron(2008) believes these narratives are representing through coexisting spaces and various narrative threads.
Manovich(1999), on the other hand, feels that database and narrative are separate entities, but that database can in fact support narrative. He states that Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera (1929) an early experimental film, is possibly the best example of database aesthetic in art and media because it uses a particular database method to build an argument, hence merging structure with narrative into a new form. Nonetheless, Manovich(2005, para.5) himself used the term ’database narratives’ in his Soft Cinema project, where rather than starting with a script and then creating the visual elements, he started with a database, which was used to construct an ‘unlimited number of different short films.’ Consequently, an element of chance is also present in the project.
As for the use of chance and database narratives in popular cinema, a common question is whether they simply form a part of a temporary experimentation phase. Cameron (2008) feels that it is possible that this is a cycle that might be reaching its end. Of course mainstream cinema is often a result of a watered-down version of its independent counterpart, however the positive reception of films that lie in between mainstream and independent, as well as the fact that actors are more eager to work with new filmmakers (King, 2009), is perhaps an indication that experimental narratives are beginning to have a higher degree of acceptance in film. In Cinema of Outsiders, Emanuel Levy(1999) examines the role of American independent film in mainstream cinema, calling Hollywood films ‘profitable but forgettable fodder’ (Levy, 1999, p.21). Levy explains that independent filmmakers are currently being encouraged by both critics and receptive audiences. Moreover he tells us that ‘expecting the unexpected’ has resulted in a range of free-spirited films, for directors who are ‘repelled’ by the formulaic (Levy, 1999, p.23). It is therefore, this inclination towards the unexpected that combines so fittingly database with chance in film.
“Witness the ease and pleasure with which contemporary movie audiences traverse the disruptive temporality of a Memento or Kill Bill, to say nothing of the spatial disruptions and reverberant visual structure of music videos by Chris Cunningham or Michel Gondry” Anderson (2004)
Database and Chance: from technology to reality
Throughout this essay I have explained various reasons of why database is relevant in today’s film industry. We know that the database aesthetic could be a reflection of the impact of the Internet and digital technology in the arts and life in general. However, why is now the time for the amalgamation of database and chance? In his presentation Design Outside the Box Prof. Jesse Schell(2010) examines the result of a society that has become overwhelmed by digital technology, to the point where we are starting to feel that we are living in a fake environment. By investigating James H. Gilmore’s and B. Joseph Pine II’s book, Authenticity, Schell(2010) tells us that we are looking to reconnect to what is real, natural and “authentic” through the very medium that has created a distance between us and nature; technology.
Schell(2010) points to the obsession with reality television, reality-based games such as Farmville(2009) and Guitar Hero(2005), and even the rise of organic and natural food, and explains that these are all tied to our desire to go back to realism. He expresses that people no longer want to escape from reality through fantasy, but instead long for the ‘authenticity’ of the real. Of course this is not the first time that this cycle has happened in time; the disparity in historical art and film movements is perhaps a mirror of how our culture can change drastically over a period of time, causing us to yearn for the exact opposite of what we experience. Yet we have never really been so immersed into the digital world and virtual reality as we are now, which is why our urge to get back in touch with nature might be even stronger.
Schell(2010) sees this reflection in the film Avatar (2009), in the way it questions the penetration into reality through technology. I would say that the more recent The Tree of Life (2011, fig.3) is a clearer representation of a return to nature, through a technology-influenced editing style. Malick’s use of a database aesthetic, new wave inspired jump-cuts infused with nature-science footage and chance based captures are very much in tune with contemporary culture. In an interview with Sight and Sound Magazine, Emmanuel Lubezki(2011) describes how the subject of continuity was never brought up whilst filming The Tree of Life, and that the focus was for the cinematographers to try and get the ‘Real’ accidental shots, which meant that that everyone on set had to be constantly alert.
“Terry blocks a scene – and then he destroys it and creates as much chaos as he can. We create chaos, and within that chaos, things that feel natural – feel real – start to happen. Those are the moments we are trying to grasp. Whether it’s a moment of joy or the first step of a kid, they are not things you can set up. You can only find them.” (Lubezki, 2011, p.22)
Fig. 3. A unification of nature and contemporary culture in The Tree 0f Life (2011).Conclusion
Perhaps the split response to the first screening of The Tree of Life in the Cannes Film Festival, consisting of simultaneous booing and applause from the audience (Breznikan, 2011), is a fitting reflection of the present society’s ambiguous impression of the evolving media culture. If we are indeed living in a digital culture running parallel to a reality-consumed culture, and if database reflects digital aesthetics and chance techniques are so close to nature and reality, we can say that narratives that exploit these techniques are definitely challenging traditional conventions by providing an unexpected outcome that is more open to interpretation. This phenomenon can also possibly explain why Duchamp’s and John Cage’s ideas as well as early cinematic experiments, are even more applicable to the media of today, and why so many contemporary experimental artists are influenced by both database and chance.
Through the ubiquity of interactivity in social media, film has the potential to become more spatial and accustomed to virtual reality. Traditional filmmaking techniques are therefore not as adequate to deal with this development as database and chance narratives, since they offer a much more rigid and linear approach towards the medium. This is what a database aesthetic combined with an element of chance in narratives can offer that traditional cannot; an evolution of a medium both as an art form and as an industry that is a more accurate representation of our changing mind frames; a presentation of a story or an idea in a fragmented space that can inspire limitless possibilities.
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Appendix
Message via Facebook © 2011 to Antoine Beuger, 22.November, 2011.
Author:
Do you think that John Cage's theories on chance and coexistence are relevant in the context of contemporary media (sound & video)? Whether yes or no, I'd appreciate a reason for your answer.
Antoine Beuger:
“hi moira,
just a few thoughts.
cage didn't really have a theory, neither on chance, nor on coexistence. as to coexistence, he of course often referred to certain buddhist ideas, that inspired him.
chance, as i see it, was for cage a pragmatic, not a fundamental aesthetic issue: he found (many) ways to use chance operations to make decisions, that he didn't want to be based on some form of intention. for example, very often he used chance operations to determine which pitch comes next, not wanting pitch to be a subject of intentional activity.
instead, in writing a piece, he would focus on a a few basic, fundamental decisions, that would make the piece to "this" piece, with its own specific "character", its own specific compositional "core". these decisions, intentionally made, make the piece specific.
contrary to what many people think, i feel, that even the most "open", "indeterminate" pieces by cage have a specific character, have their own atmosphere, if you like, and are immediately recognizable, even to the point, that makes it possible to recognize a good performance (realizing what the piece really is about) from a bad one (not realizing the core of the piece).
this way of working is, of course, applicable to other medial (as cage himself has done: painting, drawing, film, poetry, theatre).
the basic question is:
is it possible to find a small set of fundamental decisions that can be generative of a strong/deep/subtle etc. work of art, allowing it to emerge all by itself, without letting irrelevant intentional choices interfere.
yours,
Antoine”
just a few thoughts.
cage didn't really have a theory, neither on chance, nor on coexistence. as to coexistence, he of course often referred to certain buddhist ideas, that inspired him.
chance, as i see it, was for cage a pragmatic, not a fundamental aesthetic issue: he found (many) ways to use chance operations to make decisions, that he didn't want to be based on some form of intention. for example, very often he used chance operations to determine which pitch comes next, not wanting pitch to be a subject of intentional activity.
instead, in writing a piece, he would focus on a a few basic, fundamental decisions, that would make the piece to "this" piece, with its own specific "character", its own specific compositional "core". these decisions, intentionally made, make the piece specific.
contrary to what many people think, i feel, that even the most "open", "indeterminate" pieces by cage have a specific character, have their own atmosphere, if you like, and are immediately recognizable, even to the point, that makes it possible to recognize a good performance (realizing what the piece really is about) from a bad one (not realizing the core of the piece).
this way of working is, of course, applicable to other medial (as cage himself has done: painting, drawing, film, poetry, theatre).
the basic question is:
is it possible to find a small set of fundamental decisions that can be generative of a strong/deep/subtle etc. work of art, allowing it to emerge all by itself, without letting irrelevant intentional choices interfere.
yours,
Antoine”
