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PHYSICAL PRESENCE
Videodrome
and eXistenZ both revise concepts of physical presence in relation
to media technology. Both films depict media as extensions of the body,
creating the sense that technology is indeed part of us. Cronenberg expresses
this concept literally in the films by meshing the body and technology
together, focusing intensely on the form that the body is translated into
when interacting with media. In Videodrome and eXistenZ the
body is technologized, and technology is humanised. Therefore Cronenberg
breaks down the traditional binary oppositions between man and machine,
creating a "new flesh" from the transmutation of the body.7
This is clearly evident
in eXistenZ during the bio-port installation sequence. When Allegra
finds out that Ted Pikul, her fugitive companion and novice bodyguard,
lacks a bio-port, a comical scene unfolds in which Cronenberg subverts
traditional concepts of the body. Ted's body must be penetrated by the
bio-port in order to link him to the game pod. It is through the union
of the human body and the technological device that the virtual-reality
of eXistenZ is activated, enabling the extension of human consciousness.
But Ted is a game-virgin as he has a deep fear of bodily penetration. His
phobia of the Bio-port, and thus the merging of body and technology, resembles
a kind of homosexual panic, as the port must be implanted at the base of
the spine; a site recalling the anal orifice. Ted's fears increase when
he sees the bio-port gun Gas is wielding, which resembles an extremely
phallic object. Ted's body is thus unwillingly homosexualized in relation
to game technology, likening the repression of radical technology to sexual
repression. A tension between the traditional concept of the natural
body, and the cyborg exists in eXistenZ, as the body has become
a site of alterations in order to enable the extension of man.
Cronenberg also plays
with traditional concepts of technology, portraying technology as organic,
lifelike matter. In Videodrome a television transforms into sensuous
matter, pulsing like flesh that is sensitive when touched. Similarly, in
eXistenZ
the Bio-pods are a fusion of organic and inorganic matter. Media in both
films are indeed a literal extension of the body, being sensuous and interactive
with the human body. If, as McLuhan proposed, human experience is translated
into forms of media, then perhaps Cronenberg's films show how media are
very much a part of our present sense-lives, so much so that we have humanised
our relationship with media technology.
POWER IN MEDIA
Cronenberg expands
upon McLuhan by considering the possible uses of power in media. The virtual
reality that media offers has become the site of political power struggles
in both eXistenZ and Videodrome. If virtual reality is the
extension of human consciousness, then it is also the new field of ideological
stakes; perhaps it is to be viewed more realistically than the optimism
that McLuhan approaches it with. In Videodrome, the video becomes
the medium that is manipulated by Convex; a right-wing organisation dedicated
to the eradication of sexual depravity, represented by the likes of Max
Ren. In eXistenZ, the stakes are higher: it is the concept of reality
that is the site of ideological struggles. By introducing an ideological
aspect into the function of media, Cronenberg questions the use, abuse
and possible regulation of such powerful media.
McLuhan's identification
of the formal elements of media, and subsequent effects, illuminates
the way media function as patterns of organisation in society. His emphasis
on the human involvement and interaction with media illustrates how
media organise patterns of social practice and perception. Media disseminates
information by converting data into forms of sensory stimulation, and
the age of electronic media has created a social climate of increased
media stimulation. Cronenberg depicts this relation between human beings
and media technology as being an inevitable factor in the shaping of
our consciousness. Media technology is indeed viewed as being a direct
extension of man, which creates new and diverse experiences within the
network of communication, therefore altering the terms of human experience.
In the diegetic worlds of Cronenberg's films human existence is situated
within a structure of media technology that is indeed a part of our
consciousness, and corporal everyday existence.
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[bibliography]
7
Shaviro, Steven, "Bodies of Fear" in The Cinematic Body, Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1993, pp. 130.
Bibliography
Kauffman, Linda,
"Visceral Cinema" in Bad Girls and Sick Boys: fantasies in contemporary
art and culture, 1998. Berkeley and London: University of California
Press. pp. 605-630
McLuhan, Marshall,
Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, 1994. Cambridge: MIT
Press. pp. 371-474
Shaviro, Steven,
"Bodies of Fear" in The Cinematic Body, Minneapolis: University
of Minnesota Press, 1993, pp. 127-156
Roth, Marty, "Videodrome
and the Revenge of Representation" in CineAction! n.43. July 1997.
pp. 58-61
Rodley, Chris, "Game
Boy" in Sight and Sound. V.9. i.4. April 1999. pp.8-10
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