Week 2 Response - CS

The Eternal Frame by Ant Farm and T.R. Uthco sets out to recreate the Kennedy assassination, more specifically the Zapruder Film, and even more specifically the frame of that film that captured the fatal shot. The purpose of this recreation is contested and questioned throughout the film. The actor portraying Kennedy is asked if what he was doing was “art,” but the people on the street felt it had historical value and was entertaining although it may be in “bad taste.” One woman wished she would have brought her still camera to take photos of the recreation to share with others, as though the recreation (over a decade later) had a shared historical significance as the actual event. The people behind the recreation seemed to have less of a serious tone while rehearsing and preparing for Dealey Plaza. They did not seem concerned about getting every detail spot on (for example: Jackie was portrayed by a man and Governor Connally was Asian), but rather concerned with making a statement about the mass media’s portrayal of Kennedy’s death that engulfed late 1963. At that time every American was exposed to the images captured by Zapruder. The assassination was reported on in newspapers, magazines, and on television and Americans tuned in to learn more.  However, media has advertising so someone is becoming rich because of a tragedy. This was not excusive to news reports either. “The Sound of Silence” by Simon & Garfunkel was about the assassination and it became a number one hit. Columbia Records sold a lot of singles and Simon & Garfunkel both had music careers as a result. The spectacle of a tragedy and how people benefit because of it was partially what The Eternal Frame was about.

Man Bites Dog is also about observing a gruesome spectacle. This time it is portrayed though the lens of a faux-documentary (a style commandeered by sitcom television in the next decade.) Benoit is the subject of his own movie which records him carrying out terrible murders to steal the valuables of the dead. He treats it just as another way to make a living and the film leads you to believe the same. Benoit acts nonchalant, it is like the world he inhabits has many murderers competing for money and fame (through their own personal films.) There is an interesting shift that happens when the film crew moves from strictly observing Benoit’s actions, to assisting him, to participating in his nefarious deeds. This reflects current culture in a way. We could once only observe the media but now we interact with it, voting for reality show contestants, participating in twitter polls, and watching it on-demand. The audience has become essential to the production of some shows as the film crew was essential to Benoit carrying on

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“White Bear” from Black Mirror is again about observing a gruesome spectacle, but this time there is some reasoning. Victoria video recorded her fiancé murdering a young girl and was sentenced to awake everyday with a wiped memory and try to survive being murdered what people observe her through cell phone video. It is a punishment similar to the crime but it is televised for the entertainment of society. These people watch every day as the criminal is psychologically punished. They’re using the spectacle as a form of justice.  Guy Debord writes “The spectacle manifests itself as an enormous positivity, out of reach and beyond dispute.” The people who punish Victoria in this way think they are using the spectacle for the good, turning her suffering into advertising revenue. This can be viewed as a parallel of our modern prisons-for-profit system and it causes us to review how to take in media.