Art, Anxiety and Alliteration.

  1) How are ideas of armour, skin and 'suiting up' that are present across the Mecha genre related to the politics of representation in the media?

2) Bolton mentions the image of the hybridized human and machine (Mecha) as having a heroic status or being expected to provide a solution to the ills of a futuristic, over-technologized society. How is this attitude already present in our visual culture today? Provide a couple of examples.

  1.

In this article Bolt is talking about the dual nature of watching something through a screen as opposed to actually being there in reality. In the Mecha, our senses are cut off from the outside world except through the technology of the Mecha, making the user (pilot) less "human" because decisions are made using the technology. The Blind spot is the fact that technology may amplify some things but the sensors are not human. When a human is inside a Mecha they are cut -off from the outside world, numbing the traits that are distinctly human i.e. sight, tough, sounds and smell. Our experiences filter through what the Mecha can perceive and then is relayed back to the pilot. We experience a dimmer effect of this distorted reality in present day when we look into the effects of how mass media distorts our perception. We are not solely objective, what we perceive becomes our reality even if that reality is distorted from the actuality of the situation.

Patlabor 2 was released after WWII and the Gulf War. Bolt brings up the idea about “video game war” which may occur while being in the Mecha and desensitize the combatant from actually experience the horrific realities of war and instead sees it as a videogame. In Patlabor 2 it draws a connection between the labor pilots watching the battles on their monitors and the Japanese nation insulated from the realities of the proxy wars it prosecutes.' (Bolt, 487)  Japan became conscience that being destroyed was a real possibility after the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of WWII. I believe Bolt is trying to illustrate the metaphor of screens in the Mecha as being distance even though they are on the front lines giving the false expression of safety because the fighting is done ‘over there’ on the screen while they are safely enclosed inside a Mecha; which could in reality could be making us more violent. Perhaps because we feel that there is no direct danger.

2.

In the Mecha genre there are two main types of Mecha: the Super Robot and Real Robot. The real Robot is the one typical seen as military weaponry. They are seen as another form of weaponry, looking like a giant metal humanoid looking technology. Usually mass produced and pictured alongside other more traditional armour. The other type being focused on in this article is the Super Robot designed for simple use and usually falling into the hands of a high school aged adolescent. These Mecha move much more human like and is almost liken to an outer shell. The Mecha are run by the hero’s desire rather than a pre-set of cock-pit type controls. Thus, enabling the hero to win the day by putting in that extra bit of physical force coming from a strong emotional response.

1)      In pop culture cyborg is often represented as part man and part machine. There is a history of merging Male domination, and militarization, the cyborg is very much feared and respected. While in Haraway’s concept, the cyborg is more of a blending between organisms and machine, and the blurring of the lines between them till perhaps we become a bit of both.  In general she see cyborgs as a next way, a new chance to start something, something that has no history no identity no gender and perhaps with some new opportunities. The cyborg being Non- denominational and non-sexual truly represents the other. It transcends the normal dualities of the western mythos. She argues that the cyborg is not something to be feared, rather something to embrace, in many ways we are becoming post- humanoid and in many senses we are already the cyborg. 

  2)      What I understand from Haraway’s is saying that an integrated circuit is the mixing of external and internal boundaries. Those women are coming into the work force as an equal member. Not just in jobs that were thought of at a time to be “women’s work”.  She wanted women to integrate themselves into the system so they will become an integral member. There used to be a distortion between; home life and public life, work and home, home and the market, home and church. While before these all functioned as different identities. With new technologies like social media tools, and an ever diversifying population now more than ever we are giving bits of our self away, fracturing our identities. A tweet here, a picture there, liking a photo. Now ‘you’ are on the world stage in fragmented bits of information. Even rearranging what our identities are and what could they mean? Blurring if not almost erasing the lines between what is considered ‘us’ and what is considered public or private. This is still a huge question to this day.

Montage is the filming, cutting and editing of multiple scenes into a new arrangement. In this sense the montage visualizes the disruption and altering of reality to suit ones needs.  The cyborg is also a disruption of reality, by taking reality and rearranging it into a new order determined by the cyborg. In this process, information can be distorted, lost or omitted. Through modern day texting information can be distorted, lost or misinterpreted from the original meaning that would not have happened if this took place in reality. Information may be distorted due to the software and the processing through the cyborg system. Within this framework of software restrictions only allow a certain amount of information to pass through, within the parameters set up ahead of time by the cyborg. This leaves any information which falls outside of this framework to be lost or removed causing and altering the original meaning and sometimes changing the whole context altogether. In software there is always a framework with a set of constraints and boundaries that are laid out by the programmer. When one human interacts through cyborg technology, information is clearly lost. The facial cues, eye contact, and emotion are lost simplifying the original message. Montage was the first instance of a modified reality; currently the cyborg is present in our daily existence permeating almost every aspect of our lives. Perhaps giving a new and different meaning to modern day life altogether. 

Me: tumblr

Dan: is that like a site where you repost pictures and get famous off my genius?

Dan: ...

Dan: wait stop fucking telling people about my dinosaur idea

Me: Dan Jurassic Park did it in the 90's it's not new

Dan: yeah but I wouldn't throw them in a park I'd exploit them for money and

Dan: oh

Dan: oh wait

Dan: that's what they did didn't they

Me: *nods*

Dan: and then the raptors killed everyone right?

Me: *nods*

Dan: hmm.