Question for Director Chen
Songs are often appears in the film, like the karaoke, explaining the music mv, singing while crying. Why did you choose singing as a medium for the protagonist Leda to express her emotions instead of other mediums?
Category: Architecture, Film + The Modern City
Reading Response: Zhang Zhen
By reading the resources, I start to have a clearer understanding of the start trend of cinema and film culture in China, specifically in the place Shanghai. According to the second passage, at that time period, with limited resources and ways to entertain, the teahouse is the ideal venue for large groups of people to congregate, people in China used to see the shadow play there. This is where “hybridity” was introduced when western film culture, devices, and technology were brought to Shanghai. From then, they began showing films in their teahouse that portrayed modernism in the development of Chinese
Reading Response Barthes R. AND Benjamin W.
Throughout different architectural style, we might perceive a different feeling or ambiance in a film. For example, we can feel more privacy in a house stairs, while exposed to public in school stairs. With people walking around the stairs, we can also feel the progressing or movement in time, which all of this is a matter of scale. From the first reading, cinematography hypnosis was introduced. It is stated that in a movie theatre, the audience can feel very attentive to the movie because of some important elements, such as, darkness, in which low light, silence, and undistracted environment create
Reading Response: Barthes
In Barthes’s reading, he acclaimed the wonderful experience of being fully immersed in the movie world, away from reality ‘as if he had two bodies at the same time’, thanks to the irreplaceable and unique spatial factors found only in theatre. I found his stances particularly relatable, especially in the age of streaming platforms gaining immense popularity. Gone are the days that people had to visit cinemas to see movies, yet viewing in cinema is hard to replicate, from the technology and scale of the facilities like screen, speakers, to the ambiance like the darkness, serenity. These elements not only
Reading Response: Roland Barthes AND Walter Benjamin
Although Roland and Walter tried to convey different messages in their essays, they are tied to a common theme: transformation. At the time of writing, Walter and his fellow art critics were experiencing a new series of shockwaves created by cameras: filmmaking. Like Man with a Movie Camera (1928), films fused the gap between reality, forcing artists to contemplate their roles: Should they depict reality? Express their imagination? Or accept the new art form? Under this historical background, Walter aimed to clarify the peripheries between art and technology. Roland also focused on roles but in particular those of filmmakers and
Continue readingReading Response: Roland Barthes AND Walter Benjamin
Reading Response: Roland Barthes
After reading this article, I believe that watch movies in the theater is classic and wise.When people appreciate these pieces of arts, they can have a better experience in the cinema rather than somewhere else. The main reasons must be the atmosphere, light and sound in the cinema as mentioned by Roland Barthes. The key word of the environment in the cinema must be darkness, it can give people a helping hand to focus on the movie and relax away from the bustle of the city. Also, more authentic sound will put people personally in the scene, and with the
Reading Response: Walter Benjamin
The main point I focus on is Benjamin’s proof that reproduction works lack authenticity, which is an important characteristic of the artwork. Benjamin reasoned that the reproduction work is independent of original work and hold characteristics different from original artwork. I think it’s fully conceivable since the song sung by a chorus could be originally only available in open space like church, but now could be recorded and be enjoyed in a private room. This really makes a big difference in the aesthetic perspective of the song. This opinion also suits the quintessence ranging from physical duration and historical testimony
Reading Response : Walter Benjamin
Walter Benjamin explored the rapid production of artwork and argued that technology has changed the perception of people on how art is viewed and experienced under different circumstances. Originally, artwork was associated with traditions, heritage, and aura. However, mechanically reproduced artwork changed these views and is mostly characterized by repeatability. Artwork was used for ritual practices by the Greeks to represent their cult and as a means to reach God, something they couldn’t physically touch. In the modern days, due to mass reproduction of artwork, the social use of artwork have changed to political practices, losing not only its aura
[READING RESPONSE] WALTER BENJAMIN
A heart-stricken fact revealed by the author which impressed me a lot is that these days the upheaval in technological reproducibility is eroding the eternity of art works, as well as the eternal values accompanying them, shattering the ground of some common virtues that cherished by people for thousands of years. In antiquity, art existed in fusion with ritual functions, accentuating their cult value, their existence as an approach to the divine, a justification of the world, the nature, and ourselves. Together with the low reproducibility, many artworks, particularly sculptures, are made uniquely for eternal use, to worship forever, whose
Reading Response: Roland Barthes
Barthes has made an interesting description of movie theatres and how these theatres of movie images caught audiences’ attention. He named out a number of elements that have basically transformed a plain black box a place that made everyone in their seats concentrate their eyes onto the screen or even evoke emotions from the characters’ point of view. The element of “darkness” was one of my favourite descriptions, as my understanding to his “darkness” is more than being optically dark but also how the such a dark area changes one’s emotional state when watching a movie, or even more, digging