18.10.06

Mediation and Space

Mitt forløpig noe ufullstendige bidrag til årets medieforskerkonferanse har fått tittelen "Mediation and Space: locative and plateatic" (en innledende oversikt over problemfeltet er fremdeles PowerPoint-fri sone. Selve paperet er ikke i publiserbar stand ennå). Her sloss jeg med begreper som rom, sted, locus og platea, forløpig uten å komme helt frem til et fullgodt begrepsapparat.

Oppdatering 20.10.06:
Presentasjoner i arbeidsgrupper har absolutt mye for seg. Jeg fikk en svært nyttig gjennomgang av ideene som ligger bak artikkel-skissen, samt noen konkrete tips på veien videre. Det beste tipset så langt er imidlertid denne artikkelen av Wim Wenders som tar for seg betydningen av nettopp sted i film. Jeg tillater meg et langt sitat, men dette bør absolutt leses i sin helhet:

Places in American movies are mostly exchangeable. There is very little local color in them, so to speak. Most stories could take place somewhere else just as well. (No wonder their favorite set these days is the blue screen, anyway... ) Cities and landscapes are "background," "locations," that are found by the "location manager." They are no longer heroes, like Monument Valley was in John Ford's Westerns. Of course, there are a few glorious examples that prove the opposite, but there are no rules without their exceptions.

As far as I'm concerned, the loss of place is a lost quality in movies. It comes with a loss of reality, a loss of identity. Maybe it is a European distinction to have more of a sense of place. Of course, there are more borders, more languages, more national identities.

So you will often find films with a very strong local atmosphere, local touch, local slang. Films that are very "specific" by lack of a better word. Very few American films are that specific, or better, have an interest in specifics. They almost avoid it as if they were afraid that it might turn people off. As if too much "reality" and "local truth" would interfere with "The Story." Stories appear clearer, and dominate clearer, if they are center stage. Stories want to have first billings.

Again, I'm not here to criticize, I'm here to talk about a different approach.

Se også Situated Technologies and PlaceME (Place, Mediated discourse and Embodied interaction). Sistnevnte er et nordisk nettverk for forskere med interesser knyttet til media og posisjonering. Skulle visst om dette før ettersom den første workshopen er allerede om en drøy uke.