Meta Narrative #2

The second idea I thought of as a possible Meta Narrative for my piece was the progressive stages of grief. There are five commonly accepted stages to grief which are as follows:

1. Denial and Isolation.
   At first, we tend to deny the loss has taken place, and may withdraw from our usual social contacts. This stage may last a few moments, or longer.
2. Anger.
   The grieving person may then be furious at the person who inflicted the hurt (even if she's dead), or at the world, for letting it happen. He may be angry with himself for letting the event take place, even if, realistically, nothing could have stopped it.
3. Bargaining.
   Now the grieving person may make bargains with God, asking, "If I do this, will you take away the loss?"
4. Depression.
   The person feels numb, although anger and sadness may remain underneath.
5. Acceptance.
   This is when the anger, sadness and mourning have tapered off. The person simply accepts the reality of the loss.

(Cited from THIS site)

The connotations of death and it's effects are easily applicable to my project. As such, technology is the death of human expertise in some respects. Knowledgable people are now those who have the fastest access to the internet (see my previous post on this, with particular reference to the elderly). Technology has meant the death of human effort, but is this something that we can survive without? Technology has certainly killed off many undesirable things (diseases, ingorance (!) etc.) but has it also thrown the baby out with the bath water by simultaneously killing our (possible) need to strive. This may not be a strong enough abstraction at the moment but I think there is a lot more in this idea than first meets the eye.

Perhaps these 5 stages could be those felt by man as he laments the reality of technology's grip on his life?

Meta Narrative

Following last weeks review I have been further developing the idea of incorporating a meta or grand narrative into my piece. A meta narrative is defined as 'a master story, a plot that governs all other plots, an archetypal plot referred to by "lesser" specifically situated narratives.' The 'lesser' in mycase being the advance of technology. So what's my Grand Narrative going to be???
I began to think of other processes of change which move in stages. The first idea that came to mind was the progression of cancer throght the body. This is an unfortunately well known progression for many of us who have been affected by it in some way so I want to be careful in how I portray/use it.

The 5 stages of cancer (according to Wikipedia) are as follows:

• Stage 0 carcinoma in situ. (dormant)
  
• Stage I cancers are localized to one part of the body.
• Stage II cancers are locally advanced.
• Stage III cancers are also locally advanced. Whether a cancer is designated as Stage II or Stage III can depend on the specific type of cancer; for example, in Hodgkin's Disease, Stage II indicates affected lymph nodes on only one side of the diaphragm, whereas Stage III indicates affected lymph nodes above and below the diaphragm. The specific criteria for Stages II and III therefore differ according to diagnosis.
• Stage IV cancers have often metastasized, or spread to other organs or throughout the body.

Drawing tenable links between cancer and the spread of technology isn't the most abstract of tasks. However I was surprised to see that evena quick search online didn't find anything along these lines. This is certainly seomthing that is worth looking into a little bit morea s a possible meta narrative for my piece. As I said before though, I want to be careful in how I deal with such a personal topic. Cancer is not come abstract and distant disease for most of us as it affects 1 in every 3 people.

Notes from Class on 26th

Here are some notes from my meeting with Trevor today:

• Don't let the setup of the room (in my case B131) limit how I envisage my installation. there are 18 monitors in B131 but this shouldn't limit me. They don't have to be on the desks. Think about different ways that the monitors could be setup.
• Experiment with using another narrative alongside the piece in order to bring out more meaning and interest. The stations of the Cross were suggested.
• Still shots can be used as video provided they incorporate the 4th dimension of TIME i.e. they aren't just static images on a screen.
  

Specifying and Clarifying

I have decided to stick with computer technology alone as my representative of technology in general. Technology is all around us from door handles to kettles however I have decided to focus on computer technology in order to convey the theme of the project. My reasoning behind this is that the range of technology is so vast that it may well confuse the audience by not being specific enough. People link computers with technology and so I think that by using computers My message will be conveyed with greater clarity.

Computer Technology Overview Chart

Here is a link to a chart which tracks the progress of computer technology over the last century or so. This chart is a great visual indicator of the pace of technological change. It is a great reference point for my project as it shows the changes over the years.

Clarifying the theme/aim

As I move onto developing the setup and style of my video installation I realise that I need to clarify my definition of the theme once again. I am sure of the theme - the pace of change of technology - but I need to clarify exactly which aspect of this theme I want to approach. As I have been researching the overall theme I found myself increasingly playing around with the idea of technolgy mutiny. The idea that the technology around us has become embittered to us and that it has a will of its own which is rebelious and independent from us is one that I think is a worthwhile idea to develop to show how the pace of technological change could be ultimately destructive.

Another interesting Blog Post...

Another interesting Blog Post...

"Technology creates change, and the change forces new technology"