Author: ritovar

Being More Considerate of Death – Reflective Blog Post

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Throughout the course, we had discussed various ways that death is integrated into our daily lives. Some of those forms are through photography, video games, films, social media, and just purely digital media. In some of the mediums, death was an integral part in which it held high value in tradition or was the main idea. I’ve become more conscious in how digital media has had a closer connection to death than I expected, and how I have become more open to the idea of death in which I do not hold a pessimistic view towards it.

My initial post for the class was about the “A Head Full of Ghost” and how the supernatural take action when nobody is witnessing. Specifically, I stated that “it is not until the TV crew comes where we witness a change in character” when discussing Marjorie and how she is possessed. I had commented on how the supernatural tend to stray away from surveillance cameras based on my background on supernatural films and documentaries. However, reflecting on this perception of the supernatural, I have found that the demonic entities that embody humans can be present in disguise. We can see this in other forms of entertainment in films like The Conjuring in where the wife was possessed but showed her demonic side even when the ghost hunters came to her home. Therefore, Marjorie’s actions in front of digital mediums seem more reasonable because it had allowed the demonic entity to further manifest itself in Marjorie.

However, for other posts, I found that I was also being a bit critical in how death was glorified. In the post, “Why Dead Photography” I criticized how Victorians that took photographs of dead family members was irrational. I had viewed the act of taking a photograph of a human body that had no soul similar to taking a photograph of nothing. I did understand the concept of taking photographs of dead people as a form of mourning. However, becoming more familiarized with the mourning processes that are seen on social media, I discovered that mourning can take various forms that seem odd to the typical ones seen at funerals. Plus, I had to reflect on my own culture’s form of mourning in which people celebrate dead family members once every year with gifts. Dead suddenly becomes a topic that we unconsciously accept despite not having more conversations about it.

Since my critical post, I had found that my blog post began to shift towards a positive light about death. I found myself advocating why death in video games is essential and how dead celebrities should be celebrated. As I remained to stay on topics about dead individuals and demonic entities, I discussed how putting these characters in games was crucial in allowing society to be comfortable about death. I advocated for video games that involved detailed deaths to allow people to find careers out of gameplay. Even after rereading my post, I reflected how these games could be an outlet for certain people who are not as comfortable with death for these games simulate those situations. If we are even to think more extreme about these games, they can function as preparation if an apocalypse might occur. Regardless, the games function as a form of conversation for people to become more comfortable with deadly situations.

Overall, I find that death has become more of a comfortable topic that I can discuss. Not only for the death of technological objects or mediums but also for individuals. Also, I am more conscious of how death is related to many of the mediums I use in my daily life. For instance, I was never aware of the memorial pages that exist on Facebook or the cultures of Victorians that photograph dead family members. Although I will most likely not participate in many of these traditions, I will be more understanding of the different ways people discuss the topic of death regardless of the method.

Videogames & The Afterlife

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One of the main issues that Raiford highlights in his reading is about the physical waste humans produce and where they end up in society. Specifically, in his article, he explained that Atari’s brand took a large hit when they released a video game version of E.T. The game was predicted to make large sales because the movie had been so successful. However, the gameplay did not match the hype that was built around the game. With so many titles of the game not being sold, the company had no solution but to bury the games near an atomic bomb site near New Mexico.

Not only does the disposal of the game seem unreasonable but the location in which the company decided to get rid of the games adds to the mystery of the game. The game has been framed as a place of secrecy in where a company that was so technologically advanced had failed to create a product that would satisfy the interest of their consumers. How could a company that had been so talented in creating games fail to so terribly to produce a game? The mystery is real in which many people today still scavenge the location to see these multiple copies of E.T. in person to confirm the stories about Atari’s disposal. However, there is also a sense of nostalgia that arises from visiting the location. Many people visit the site who lust this physical reminder that Atari had taken a large toll on many gamers who were expecting to play a game that resembled the worth of Atari’s reputation. The location is literally an e-waste zone but to others has been a treasure waiting to be unveiled. A treasure that holds truths about Atari’s empire as a video game company and how that could be related to other companies today.

E-waste today is problematic in which companies are continuously producing products without considering the amount of space that is available to get rid of those products. For instance, Colombia University explains that 70 percent of e-waste is being transported to China and that has affected the health of many people in that country. People have been experiencing mutations from toxic chemicals that come from e-waste and the e-waste has been invasive as it makes its way into communities. These are some of the issues that are overlooked as a regular consumer that buys new products to replace those that are no longer functioning. Rather than recycling our products or finding ways to fix those products ourselves, we quickly seek new products.

As we continue to live in a world where technology is necessary for our lives, we need to find ways where we can minimize our production of products. If we continue to be naïve like Atari’s plan of producing a video game version of E.T., we can face larger problems that will lead to invasive e-waste. Technology can soon become more of an issue rather than a benefit to our lives.

Sources:
Raiford Guins, “Landfill Legend” from Game After: A Cultural Study of Video Game Afterlife”.

Cho, Renee. “What Can We Do About the Growing E-waste Problem?”. Earth Institute. Colombia University. https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2018/08/27/growing-e-waste-problem/

Why Death as a Marketing Tool Is Not So Bad

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Recently, one of hip-hop’s major icons, Nipsey Hussle, had recently been murdered outside his co-owned shop last Sunday. His positive impact on the music industry and his activism to help the poor socioeconomic communities in Los Angeles had made him a popular artist among many. However, the news of his death created a wave of people to immediately use his death as a form of advertisement. Many people have milked the use of his music in their YouTube videos or used his name in titles to gain a surge of audiences. In the matter of fact, his active Instagram has just gained an estimated seven hundred thousand followers along with his music gaining more streams. Although we see this with many celebrities after their death, some individuals have used the names of such artist to milk out as much coverage for their benefit and profit out of those margins.

Despite the benefit of using an artist’s death as a form of further exposure, artists that continue to live past their deaths can be beneficial to future generations. I find that many artists today are influenced by other artists who have passed away but continue to live in current society because their work is still used and distributed. For instance, young rap artists XXXTentacion who was murdered is still producing music and artwork under his name. Although much of the work that is being distributed is being profited by his family, his unique form of screaming rap has influenced other artist to borrow from his style.

If we take a break from music and look into films, Stan Lee, the creator of many superheroes including Spiderman, holds an essential role in Marvel films. There is this tradition where he appears in many films as an easter egg for many fanatics. In the most recent Marvel film, Captain Marvel, Stan Lee had made an appearance even after his death. However, the fact that his name was never used as a marketing technique for the film itself, many fans were curious in how the company would be incorporated and maintained the tradition of Lee appearing in the films. Therefore, this continuous act not only interest fanatics in how the film will incorporate Lee into the film but also highlights the importance of tradition with Marvel films.

Although there are benefits to the use of celebrities names after their death, the question remains of where the line is drawn to respect those individuals and when should celebrities stop being used for profit.

Holograms Are Associative Memories

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As we become technologically advanced, we are inclined to channel our emotions through digital platforms. Whether it be uploading photos of a lost one or ranting on a situation online, these posts that we upload to the web become eternal. Our power to take back anything that goes on the internet cannot be done. One of the main elements of uploading things online is that it allows many people to live beyond their deaths. Specifically, one of the many forms that individuals have become eternal is through the use of social media in which their loved ones create memorials to remember their lives. However, social media had always this culture of following trends and seeking the new. Therefore, I find that such memorial pages to be less impactful today compared when they were heavily used on Facebook. Although some platforms still remain to use the network as a way to mourn death, the fact that technology is revolutionizing quickly creates this urge to create endless possibilities of connecting the digital to the physical space. In other words, technology can improve the ways in which we mourn on social media by creating platforms that push the boundaries of the physical by going beyond a touch on a glass screen.

To begin with, I will review the context of online memorials and why using social media to mourn is essential to my haunted media project. In Connor Graham’s journal, “Gravesites and Websites: A Comparison of Memorialisation,” he explains that the significance of the World Wide Web is to have online sites that can be used for commemoration and different kinds of support: emotional, informational and instrumental(Graham, 39). The power of the internet allows people to compose pages where the lives of people who have passed away can be shared with friends and create a community that pays respect to those individuals. These memorial pages not only inform the public on lives that have been lost but as well as express the positivity that those individuals had spread (). The positive aspect is that much of the focus lies when mourning is done online. Rarely do you find individuals post information that puts those in that have died in a negative light. For instance, in Whitney Phillips’s journal, “LOLing at tragedy: Facebook trolls, memorial pages and resistance to grief online,” she explains that the tragedy of an American model named Chelsea King had a Facebook memorial in which individuals had posted their condolences and sympathetic comments on the page. Some of those posts had a similar tone of positivity in where Chelsea had left the world creating a positive impact. Some of those statements were like “heaven is lucky to have you, look out for your family, send my best. (Phillips, 1).” With this example, it demonstrates that memorials have the ability to create this emotional support. It creates a community where the internet allows people to connect through the death of an individual because they both have the same feelings towards death.

Knowing that these memorials connect individuals, I used an online social media platform known as Instagram to present the lives of firefighters who had lost their lives saving people from the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. The reason why I decided to use the platform of Instagram rather than other platforms such as Facebook is that Instagram focuses on the image of individual experience. Therefore, using Instagram, I am able to create a physical connection to those posts and prevent further distractions such as other people posting on the page. Although Instagram makes my memorial page interaction limited in which people are only able to comment underneath each individual post, the focus remains on the image. The reason why having distractions on the memorial page was something that I was attempting to avoid is because trolling of memorial pages has become an epidemic on social media. The trolling of memorial pages have been viewed as a form of commentary about the way people have shifted the way they mourn and perceive death. Phillips explains that people that are trolling online force their “victims to confront precisely those things that motivate the popularity of memorial pages — fear of helplessness, fear of losing a loved one, fear of human parts” (Phillips, 6). The aggressive approach to death has been popularized by these individuals to shift the way of thinking about death to a darker comedic way. It is an attempt to make fun of death to a point where it can be made accepted through humor in order to ignore feelings of grief. However, the haunted media project that I have composed prevents such trolling memes to arise and limits people to post. It becomes more of a gallery memorial.

This effect of a gallery memorial further strengthens my goal of creating a space to ponder on the images of firefighters who have lost lives. Specifically, part of the haunted media project involves holograms. Combining the digital space to the physical extends the boundaries of thinking about memories. Michael Talbot explains that holograms are just 3-D photographic images that are created through lasers (Talbot, 1). For my haunted media project, I created an illusion of a hologram by creating an acrylic plastic pyramid that uses the reflection of images coming from the screen. Although these images are not true holograms, the illusion still represents a 3-D image that is not accessible in regular social media. The reason why I decided to use holograms as a supplement to the memorial Instagram page was to allow viewers of the page to engage with the images of individuals who have passed away rather than think consciously about what they will post as a comment on each post. In social media, individuals have a tendency of reflecting what they upload to the network because that information forever gets stored in the cloud of information (Abbe et. al, 2). Therefore, individuals perfect a post in order to not only be respectful to the related family members of the individual of the memorial page but also allow others to see what they have stated. However, using a hologram keeps a viewer engaged with a 3-D model of the individual and plus adds this effect of the eerie in which the image becomes an associate memory in what the person actually looked like in a 3-D aspect.

Additionally, another element to the haunted media project was the theme of firefighters that had lost their lives during the terrorist attack. The reason why I decided to use such individuals for the project was that these firefighters can continue to live to remind people that their service to the country does not go unrecognized as we get a new generation of people who were not alive during the incident. According to Susan Sontag’s article, “On Photography,” she states that photographs may be more memorable than moving images because they are a neat slice of time, not a flow (Sontag, 17). Therefore, these images of firefighters came to be an engraved image that reminds these individuals that these people voluntarily placed themselves in situations that other individuals would not do. It adds an element of remembering these individuals as people rather than just a statistic of lost lives. Furthermore, the firefighters that had lost their lives during the terrorist attack do have a physical memorial in New York, yet many lack photographs of what they looked like. Part of death and funerals is perceiving death as aesthetically pleasing. In a BBC article that looked at Victorian culture demonstrated that these individuals were so accustomed to the death of a family member that they decided to take photographs of dead family members in order to remember their existence in the world. Although the photographs of the dead were a practice of mourning and memory, these individuals had made death beautiful by dressing up the dead individuals in fine clothing and jewelry. Today, we continue to take some of that culture by dressing up the dead in their coffin before their burials. Similarly, in my haunted media project, I found that the holograms would imitate this idea of glorifying death and perceiving it as beautiful. The images become the center of attention because it is transferred from this structuralized social media platform with options to interact with the photo to only looking at a 3-D image.

In the end, I found this haunted media project to be a foundation to the start of a new way or mourning. Often times people who have lost lives tend to reflect on the moments of dead individuals through photographs, videos, notes, etc. However, implementing technology such as a hologram would take this practice of mourning to a new level in which the 2-D space on your social media becomes 3-D. The idea of recreating those pictures and images and putting them in a 3-D presentation in the physical space would create a form in which people continue to interact with those individuals who have passed away in front of their eyes and space. Despite the holograms being more presentative of a ghost of those individuals, these images really allow individuals to engage with a physical representation.

Link to Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/9.11graveyard/

References:
Abbe E. Forman, Rebecca Kern, and Gisela Gil-Egu. “Death and mourning as sources of community participation in online social networks: R.I.P.pages in Facebook.” Volume 17, Number 9 – 3 September 2012
https://ojphi.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3935/3288
doi:10.5210/fm.v0i0.3935

Graham, Connor, et al. “Gravesites and Websites: A Comparison of Memorialisation.” Visual Studies, vol. 30, no. 1, Mar. 2015, pp. 37–53. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/1472586X.2015.996395.

Jessa Lingel (2013) The Digital Remains: Social Media and Practices of Online Grief, The Information Society, 29:3,190-195, DOI: 10.1080/01972243.2013.777311

Phillips, Whitney. “LOLing at tragedy: Facebook trolls, memorial pages and resistance to grief online.”First Monday, Volume 16, Number 12 – 5 December 2011 https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3168/3115

Sontag, Susan. “On Photography”. Published by Penguin Books. 1971.

Talbot, Michael. “The Holographic Universe: Does Objective Reality Exist?.” (1991): 1988-2008.

Why Dead Photography?

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After reading “Plato’s Cave” from On Photography, I could not help but think about the ways in which photography has revolutionized the way people interact with media today. With technology developing at a quick pace, society has become more dependent on the media in which some people live through the use of media. For instance, people have been able to create careers and full-time jobs using media such as posting simple posts on Instagram or having plain instructional videos on YouTube. Regardless of the media, all of them have a heavy reliance on photography.

One of the main elements that photography is able to do is that it “furnishes evidence (pg.5).” People engage with photographs and publicize them to gain some satisfaction that you are able to show proof of your life adventures. It is as if you need to have photographic evidence to make yourself a more credible individual. Plus, people can use these images to add to their status online by boasting about how “fit” or “fortunate” their lives are. This is one of the many ways how photography has changed the media. It enforces this online culture of rising above one to another in which you gain this elite status. Therefore, you find many individuals investing their time when taking a photo ensuring they have the perfect lighting, pose, colors, contrast, and etc. The culture of photography has become less about capturing moments but rather capturing quality.

However, not all individuals care about the quality, others just care about content. In the article, “Taken From Life: The Unsettling Art of Death Photography” by BBC News, the idea of taking photographs of the dead seems a bit odd. The Victorians were concerned about getting photographs of their lost ones in order to respect the dead. However, the mourning method does seem unusual in which they preserve the bad part about life which is death. Although in contemporary society we mimic a similar style of mourning by dressing up those who have passed away in their coffin, the idea of preserving a photograph of a lost one when they were not alive seems unnecessary. Why not take a photo of the individual when they were alive and preserving moments of happiness?

It does make sense that this is so odd to me because, in those times, death was a natural reoccurring event that happened in their homes. Therefore, my separation and uneasiness of death allow me to feel this way. However, that does not convince me that taking photographs of the dead is still reasonable. You could say that all the photographs of the dead are just another photograph of something that is absent. Nevertheless, if I were to find myself taking photos of the dead, I would probably be concerned with much of the many things that photography has turned into such as lighting, scenery, etc. I would be concerned with getting quality to create a story from the photograph.

Let Your Kids Play Video Games!

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When I was a young boy, I remember being limited to the time I could play video games. It was not as fun as you would expect. Every time I wanted to play, I had to ask my parents for  permission. It was ridiculous, in my opinion, to know that my parents bought me a video game console to just sit there and build dust overtime. Despite not being able to play as much as I wanted, there was always this feeling that my parents did not approve of my satisfaction of getting killstreaks on the latest Call of Duty at the time. Today, it can be said that same perspectives remain with parents. Video games, specifically violent ones that include killing, have gained a bad reputation due to all the school shootings over the past years. However, what many parents overlook is that these games actually maintain this border between reality by modifying the game and demonstrated productivity to mental health, academics, and socialization.

In Carly Kocurek’s article, “Who hearkens to the monster’s scream? Death, violence and the veil of the monstrous in video games” she argues that the form in which many video games have been able to get away with killings in games is because the creators of the game have been able to shift the perspective of killings. The creators have indicated that the players are not killing humans but rather evil villains that monsters. Though this might be true for some games, for other games like Call of Duty, it did not apply. However, creator of the games were able to make sense of human killing games because of the modified blood or because the people being killed were just plain evil. I agree with Kocurek’s claim because it does help understand why violent video games have been able to sorrow in the industry. Therefore, the idea that violent video games are “bad” is thrown out the window. Plus, many of the people who play these games are also focused on different objectives than just merely killing.

One of the most popular games of today with people of all ages, especially children, is Fortnite. One of the main characteristics of the game is this style of Battle Royal where you have to be the last standing individual in a combat setting. The game has been able to be take off as one of the most successful game franchises of all time because it is not only free but all ages are able to play. The thing about this game is that it has been able to open opportunities for a lot of players to gain income and scholarships. This is one of the many reasons why Fortnite and other games like Call of Duty have been able to help those gamers stay on their consoles all day and night because they are reaching the goal of becoming the best to get recognized by certain scholarships and brands. Along with this, the games have served ways in which large communities of players create networks to employment opportunities based on their in-game communication and style of play. These games have become such an importance to many gamers that there are professional competitions that are streamed through large networks such as ESPN.

In addition to the opportunity for income, scholarships, and professional employments, the games have also served ways in which individuals can benefit physically and mentally. In a YouTube video by Alltime10s explains 10 ways that games are good for your health. Some of those benefits are that many films, games, and visual media that demonstrate violent and horror games actually lead to weight loss. Although it is minor, it can help those gamers who need to increase their metabolism. Plus, the games help certain hospital procedures become less painful as patients are focused on playing video games and that especially works if your goal is to kill a monster that is running away or to you. There are many more benefits to playing video games and if YouTube is not credible enough for you, the Huffington Post news website has given nine more ways video games are good for humans that come from multiple studies. Nevertheless, the goal of killing in games is much less of a problem when it is benefiting the player to a better health and opens opportunities to further excel in life with skills that they can actually apply in their jobs. So the next time you are playing a video game that is violent or not and someone tells you that you are wasting your time, direct them to these links and it might change their mind.

Links:
Alltime10s. “10 Ways Video Games Are Good For Your Health.” YouTube, YouTube, 11 Nov. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQtMwgVT1mo.

Guarini, Drew. “9 Ways Video Games Can Actually Be Good For You.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 7 Dec. 2017, www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/07/video-games-good-for-us_n_4164723.html.

Bad Things Happen When Everyone is Watching

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In chapter 17 of  “A Head Full of Ghost,” Tremblay introduces the concept of the Hawthorne effect in where the boundaries of possession and psychosis are blurred even further. If you are not aware of what the effect entails, it consists of a reaction from an individual that changes their behavior due to their awareness of being observed. We witness this through the introduction of reality TV and how it becomes a factor in how the family changes their ways of living.

Initially, the family’s life description can be stated as chaotic and catastrophic. The family was going through a crisis that really looked like there was no hope in resolving Marjorie’s issue. The mother was put into withdraw in neglecting the idea that her daughter was experiencing some form of possession while the father was reluctant in adopting new ideas other than religion. Merry’s naïve character just furthered issues by letting Marjorie tattoo sinister stories into her mind. Most importantly, Marjorie’s mental illness or possession continuing to break down the family. However, it is not until the TV crew comes where we witness a change in character in all characters. Specifically, Marjorie which comes as a surprise.

Throughout the novel, we expect and are gullible to the idea the Marjorie is truly possessed based on her actions, yet when Merry interacts with her at the basement, the “truth” is that she is not actually possessed. I find it very interesting how not only Marjorie but everyone else in the family experiences the Hawthorne effect when they suddenly are aware that their being watched by cameramen. Suddenly, the number of possessed acts that we were being fed in the beginning has come to a stop. There was little to no stories that were being told about Marjorie from Merry about her being abnormal. The majority of the possessed-like events come from the writers from the reality TV and Merry’s willingness to give into the TV’s hunger for content to make things up. Plus, the idea that we find that most possessed tropes to be willing to show their true selves is what makes this idea more confusing.

When we saw The Exorcist by William Friedkin, the main protagonist Regan was possessed by Pazuzu’s demon in which the demon was willing to show their true identity regardless of an audience. Plus, in other films involving the supernatural, the main trope is that the demon continuously attempts to show their identity to those who live in the home. Therefore, I question why Marjorie has not shown more of her possessed character if a demon would want to establish their identity to scare those who are involved and feed off their negative energy. Despite the common tropes, it is still unsolved whether Majorie is truly possessed and as we continue through the story, it becomes less probable that she is truly possessed but rather experiencing a mental illness that is causing her to have a personality identity issue.