COMM333: Analyzing Sliver

From it's intentionally low-fi video presentation (a novel idea in 1993) to the embracement of childlike consumerism, Nirvana's Sliver music video is something of a peculiarity. In 1991, Nirvana's Nevermind album knocked Micheal Jackson's Dangerous off the #1 spot in the charts. Yet two years later, here was Nirvana, the biggest band in the world, making a video that looked like a garage band.

Here's a song by a "big rich rock band" (as Kurt Cobain described his band on MTV Unplugged) that's lyrically about an upset child, yet the images of childhood are joyful, and the video looks like it was shot on the world's cheapest camcorder. Kurt Cobain's sweater is ripped. Krist Novoselic, generally the band's most charismatic member, is barely shown as more than a shadow. This is a video that hearkens back to the band Nirvana used to be during their time at Sub-Pop.

The video is interesting, then, because of the presence of Dave Grohl behind the drums. When Sliver was recorded in 1990, Interim drummer Dan Peters was the man behind the drums. The band used the audio from the Dan Peters version, but Dave Grohl is the one pantomiming in the video. The reasoning behind this is pretty obvious, being that Dave Grohl was the only drummer most Nirvana fans knew, and even Bleach/Sub-Pop era devotees would only recall Chad Channing's time with the band, but the idea gets fuzzy when one considers that, when Nirvana first recorded In Bloom, it was with Chad Channing, and he was in the original music video. When Grohl joined the band, they rerecorded the song and did a new, totally different music video. Why they would go to the trouble for one song and not the other is curious, but it speaks to a deeper meaning in Cobain's head.

Sliver was the video to promote Incesticide, a corporate cash-in album of unreleased tracks from the early days that Cobain only approved on condition that he was allowed to design the album art. If Kurt's gonna be forced to make an album just as quick buck for the label, he's sure as hell going to promote it in the most anti-commercial way he can. Of course, Incesticide turned out to be an awesome album, but Kurt's greatest influence on it was to make sure only the diehard fans would buy it. Making a music video that looked raw helped to insure that Nirvana wouldn't be only known as the band that beat MJ.

COMM 344: Doom and The ESRB.

Recently, Night Trap made the news. From having 203 copies traded into a game store, to how Kickstarter almost brought us an HD remaster. Night Trap is a strange game. For all it's innovation in full motion video, for the star power of Dana Plato of Diff'rent Strokes, for all the half-naked teenagers and PG-13 level violence, no one seems to care about Night Trap. Maybe it's because the game is generally considered terrible, or how full motion video in games didn't take off, but it begins to feel like Night Trap would be forgotten completely in a different world.

But that world is one where Senator Joe Lieberman never saw the violence and sexuality of Night Trap, The spine-ripping of Mortal Kombat, and the demon-killing bloody good times of Doom. That is a world where congressional hearings never lead to the creation of the ESRB.

Night Trap doesn't get much more sexual than this. (Digital Pictures/SEGA via Wikipedia)

At the time, Mortal Kombat and Doom had the most realistic visuals of any game on the market, and Night Trap was little more than an interactive movie. Games were experiencing a frightening amount of visual realism, which, when mixed with blood and breasts, creates a bit of a controversy stew.

Night Trap on it's own couldn't have this. The game wasn't particularly violent, nor was it particularly sexual. Worse things happen on TV every week. Mortal Kombat couldn't have done this on it's own. It was primarily an arcade game, and home versions were typically censored.

But Doom? Doom was it's own controversy. It didn't need the rare Sega CD that Night Trap needed. It didn't need a pocket full of quarters at a local mall like Mortal Kombat. Doom came on two floppy discs, and the first third of the game was free. All you needed was a DOS computer with an IBM 386 processor and 4 MB of ram. This was a lot more common than the Sega CD, and free is certainly cheaper than 25 cents every time you die. Confounding the problem was that id Software, the developers of Doom, encouraged people to share their shareware copy with friends.

Doom difficulty select. (id Software via GiantBomb)

Other games could argue that they weren't ulta-violent.  Doom couldn't. Hard mode on Doom was titled "Ultra-Violence".

It was great that the ESRB came along from this. No longer did gaming have to fear the stigma of being an industry for children. The ratings that the three games responsible received? M for Mature. In the modern day, the most revered games share that rating, and mature content isn't all shotguns, demons, and nightgowns. Games like Bioshock and The Last Of Us are mature for reasons beyond their violence, and without the path to violence that Doom helped to pave, they may never have happened.

And of course, Doom's modding community, which I'll cover in my next post, means that Doom can continue to get even more brutal.

COMM344: The Art and Influence of Doom.

It's older brother, Wolfenstein 3D, was the first ever first person shooter. It was the first game in it's genre to use varying floor heights, textured floors and ceilings, and varying ammo types. It single handedly created the massive game modding culture that is now one of PC gaming's most celebrated features. It was, along with Night Trap and Mortal Kombat, one of the reasons for the creation of the ESRB. It's nine free shareware levels, known collectively as "Knee Deep In The Dead" were some of the most iconic level designs in gaming history. 

The game was Doom, and it's influence was obvious. From the fact that a game from 1993 is now considered a must-have on every new console (and every console has it, from the Atari Jaguar and SNES to the PS3 and Xbox 360), to the plethora of derivative titles (Doom bore Heretic, which bore the Elder Scrolls franchise, Doom bore most shooters, but particularly Space Marine shooters like Halo, Gears Of War, Killzone, and Crysis) Doom was a massive success. This is a game that I have personally purchased on Xbox 360, Steam, Boxed PC Copy, and Game Boy Advance. Perhaps the only game I've purchased more times is Tetris, and that's not the same experience or worse on every system.

The important thing about Doom, besides it's incredible replay value, huge influence on the industry, and great art design, is the way it's perhaps the most charmingly violent game I've ever played. Plenty of games are violent, but Doom has a way of making violence make you smile. Mods and addons like Batman Doom and Brutal Doom (not to mention the massive conversion of Doom into Sonic Robo Blast 2) have extended the life of a 21 year old game into infinity. Everything about Doom makes me nostalgic, and I didn't even first play it until it and myself were 13 years old.

COMM406: Cult Branding and Technology.

Gaming has always been a beneficiary of cult branding. From the days of Atari vs Intellivison, to the days where you couldn't pick up a gaming magazine without hearing about how SEGA does what Nintendon't. In the modern day, this is often taken to an extreme in the console war, with the joke that goes as follows:

"Why do they call it an Xbox 360?"
"Why?"
"Because when you see it, you do a 360 degree turn and walk away."
"360 degrees means you would be walking towards it still."
"Shut up."

However, despite the vicious cult-like attitudes of console gamers, PC gamers are even more devoted. A quick peek into the /r/pcmasterrace subreddit shows a world where PC gamers are the "master race" and console gamers are "peasants". To a degree, this is done in jest, but the reaction that many PC gamers have to a Steam sale (i.e. compulsively spending money until they go broke) is reason enough to suspect something a little more extreme than simple brand devotion that goes even further into the Linux vs Windows (and never Mac) , AMD vs Nvidia, and Steam vs GOG vs Origin vs Uplay divides.

But PC gaming is still only a minor blip in the cult-branded market compared to the glory that is cryptocurrency.

Official Logo of Dogecoin

Bitcoin is, by nature, a political movement. It attracts libertarian politics and people interested in fiscal anarchy. Bitcoin is the spokesrebel of a generation of unenthused Batman villains.  More dangerous is the advertising methodology of Dogecoin. Dogecoin creator Jackson Palmer left the community this summer after deciding that dogecoin was "cult-like". How is Dogecoin a cult?

- Dogecoin is spread via two methods: Giving away free money and relying on a well established cultural icon (the doge meme).
- Dogecoin's subreddit disallows negative statements about the coin, thereby keeping those who get into the culture from hearing things that would make them want to leave.
- Dogecoin's developers actively discourage suggestions that would improve the quality/value of the coin (such as limiting supply).

This has worked exceedingly well for Dogecoin. The official dogecoin subreddit has gone from 84 users in December of last year to 87,000 users today. If ever user had an equal amount of the 100 billion dogecoins that will exist at the end of September, it would amount to 187 dollars each.Of course, this is not the way things are. There are, as in any economy, the haves and the have-nots. But even those who only hold a couple hundred doge (the 467 doge I still hold is worth about 6 cents) are happy just to be a part of the group, a group that is ultimately a money-making brand.

COMM 403 - Feminism: Ladies Of Gotham

Women are frequently objectified in media by being depicted as thin, large breasted, and almost nude. In the Batman franchise, this is apparent in nearly every female character.  Let us look at Harley Quinn, the series' main female villain.

The original depiction of Harley Quinn from Batman: The Animated Series is certainly wearing skin tight clothing. She certainly has an unrealistic body shape. She is not, however, any definition of nude. At this stage of the character's design, her body type is more a product of  exaggerated art style than objectification.

Harley's next depiction, in Batman : Harley Quinn, takes the same design a step further into sexual objectification. She's still covered, but she is much more bent at the waist than before, and Joker's mere touch seems to have put her in the throes of orgasm.

By Batman: Arkham Asylum, Harley has gone from surprisingly clothed to surprisingly not a hooker. The intended realism of the Arkham series makes a woman who was once a doctor of psychiatry into a strange amalgamation of a prostitute and a nurse. 

It's sequel, Arkham City, doesn't make her outfits any more modest.

At a certain point in the game, she is found tied up by one of Joker's henchmen. Throughout the game, henchmen make reference to wanting to rape Harley. Although these two concepts are not presented at the same time, it's hard not to link them in your head. The worst of it is that Harley being tied up is presented as a positive for Batman without any regard for what it means for her. Harley is a villain, villains aren't people, so it's okay to imply the rape of a villain (or so we are told) - except she's not evil. She's a medical professional who does evil things and dresses in tight, provocative clothing in order to avoid the wrath of her abusive, mentally ill boyfriend. 

Harley isn't even the only Batman character objectified for being a woman. Poison Ivy is actually nude for much of the Arkham series, wearing only a button-up shirt that is only buttoned enough to hide her nipples. Due to her part-plant DNA, Ivy's genitals are even in full view at all times, taking the role of a leaf that is the spitting image of a human labia. The other leaves are grown on her body in such a way that suggests panties, but that does not change their status as a part of her body, even a best case scenario presents them as her pubic hair.

Catwoman, who is supposed to be a master of stealth, has decided that massive cleavage doesn't defeat the practical thievery purpose of an all-black bodysuit.

What about the women of Batman who are not half naked? 

Which one? Oracle, the one stuck in a wheelchair and treated as a secretary? The former Batgirl who was shot in the spine by the Joker, thus going from a great example of non-objectified woman to a 1940's stereotype of woman's role?

Or maybe you mean Nora Fries, the cryogenically frozen wife of Mr. Freeze? She's a highly sexualized block of ice that's stolen and traded in the same way one might do to a statue. 

Certainly the woman who was actually turned into an object hasn't been objectified.

COMM 403: Ways Of Seeing: Context

Ways Of Seeing made me very curious as to the impact of context on media. Berger's focus on the context in which we perceive media led to a very interesting trail of thought in my mind.  Berger's work on context with paintings can be extended onto any form of media in fascinating ways. 

A great example of this is the popular television show Arrested Development. It's known for running jokes, inside information, and constant celebrity cameos. The continuity of the program is perhaps the most vital aspect of enjoyment. In it's original run on Fox, it didn't do well for good reason – the common person couldn't keep up with the brilliance of the show at only one episode a week, and god forbid someone missed an episode. When the show was released on DVD, it suddenly had a surge in popularity, and why? The context changed. It was no longer a story that needed a season's commitment,  it became a trilogy of seven hour films. This was much more digestible for the common person. When the fourth season premiered on Netflix, it used it's new medium as a reason to become even more reliant on viewer memory and continuity.

Another media problem solved by new contexts is the historical enviroment of the viewer. Jim Henson's Cube was underappriciated as a primetime film in the late sixties, but when it became a fifty minute YouTube video, it suddenly was seen through the eyes of a generation that understood it's messages about reality and perception. Cube was once seen as a stoner film, and now appears to be a narrative tackling of communications theories on perception. 

COMM 403: Media Studies and Continental Philosophy

Production is a convention that defies art. Typically the arts are about the personal expression of ideas or emotions. Artists work towards self-fulfillment. Production, on the other hand, is differentiated by it's focus not being on the creator, but on the audience. An artist is someone who creates for themselves before audience. A producer is someone who creates for themselves within the confines of audience pleasure. These ideas, however, are not inherent in the definition of the words. By definition, an artist and a producer are one in the same. The difference comes from a cultural prejudice toward these words. A producer is an artist whose work is promoted by thoughtful use of communicative models and media studies, rather than solely by name and imagery.

Continental Philosophy dictates that we cannot define things only in scientific terms (Though perhaps using the word "dictates" is somewhat paradoxical here). A particular stress is thus placed upon history and human condition, and the capacity of people to create change.

In the media, this is manifest in both factual and fictional senses to create meaning. Newscasters clearly have an excellent understanding of this idea. Edward R Murrrow used the historical context of literal witch hunts to chastise Joesph McCarthy and The House Un-American Activities Subcommittee. Murrow's work left both a historical and human consequence on the mind of his viewers. Glenn Beck is notorious for his constant comparisons of Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler. Many laymen interpret this as a sign of Beck's ignorance, when, in reality, it is a sign of his incredible mastery of the workings of media. Comparing Obama to Hitler is a quick and easy way to promote a historical image of the President as both capable and willing to commit atrocities.

In fiction, the efficacy of historical context stressed by Continental Philosophy is easily seen in the work of Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing and The Newsroom. In The Newsroom, Sorkin made the decision to not only depict real world events, but to depict them at a time when they were out of date. The current episodes depict the days leading up to the 2012 election. Why? Sorkin himself says this is so this is so that "the audience knows more than the characters do". The impact of this is that the audience automatically understands the weight and importance of what the show is tackling. The historical context is both fresh and effective.