Techno-Scopophilia: The Semiotics of Technological Pleasure in Film
2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 26; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/15295030802684026
ISSN1529-5036
Autores Tópico(s)Digital Games and Media
ResumoAbstract In this essay, I argue that several trends (stemming from the discursive systems of film and advertising), have converged to foster a strange and troubling semiotic convention in contemporary cinema—what I call techno-scopophilia. The visual sign system of techno-scopophilia emerges from the mythologies of gender and science/technology, particularly as commodities in advertising. These trends have produced a new voyeuristic gaze in many feature films, but in addition to the sexualized body, technology is also an object of fantasy and pleasure. In a series of successful films over the last decade (Tomb Raider, Terminator 3, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, The Italian Job, Entrapment, etc.), the body is inscribed with technology; technology is inscribed with sexuality. The mythic/ideological implications of these semiotic codes involve the representation of sexualized, machine-like women and the fetishizing of commodities in film. By semiotically merging technological commodities with human characteristics, these films eroticize/glamorize militaristic technology and further complicate the contradictory terrain of gender, desire, and technology in a postindustrial society. Keywords: Techno-ScopophiliaSemioticsTechnologyPleasureFilm Acknowledgements The author thanks Christina Foust, CSMC editor Eric King Watts, and the anonymous reviewers for their contributions to the article. Notes 1. Intertextually, the techno-scopophilic codes discussed in this project extend well-beyond movies and advertising into video games, the World Wide Web and many other media forms. For instance, the sexualized, scopic gaze prominent in video game conventions have influenced filmic codes (and vice versa) in a complexly intertextual relationship. 2. Virtually all films prominently featuring techno-scopophilia can be described with various terms like "blockbusters" or "popcorn movies." These movies are generally released in the summer or around holidays. While certainly seeking a wide audience, the films are heavily marketed to young men who turn out in droves for opening weekends. Paramount Studios film producer Lynda Obst referred to Hollywood's marketing of big-budget films as a "singular addiction to teenage boys" (Obst, 2006 Obst , L. ( 2006 ). We lost it at the movies; how Hollywood freaked out over vanishing audiences who've now magically reappeared and why teenage boys are a studio's worst habit . New York Magazine ( online edition). Retrieved May 6, 2007, from http://nymag.com/news/media/westcoastoffice/16770/ [Google Scholar]). 3. In addition, as the "exchange value" of the celebrity decreases, so does their value as a fetishized object. For instance, Tom Cruise's recent highly publicized rants about Scientology and his relationship to Katie Holmes have severely diminished his value as a filmic commodity. 4. Concurrent with these images of techno-scopophilia, over the last decade, a series of films such as Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down, feature characters that are relatively helpless to the power of technology, dodging random, unpredictable bullets, missiles, tanks, etc. These filmic texts (which are marketed as more "art house" and "award wining" films than "blockbuster" movies) could be read as a response to techno-scopophilia. These films also voyeuristically portray the power of technology, but, it is an unwieldy and uncontrollable technological power. Additional informationNotes on contributorsCharles SoukupCharles Soukup is an associate professor at the University of Northern Colorado
Referência(s)