I thought that this essay was interesting positioned in terms of nihilism and separation fro the real world, because documentary has had to renegotiate its presentation of reality as the understanding of reality changes.

I was thinking about the ideas about mapping and how it's discussed in
there's always tomorrowland, and I decided that I find the tension
inherent in mapping -- imposing a unifying structure on some
information that, of course, doesn't make sense on its own so that you
can understand and use it -- is interesting in how we use it, even now
(especially now, maybe) that 'reality' seems less and less tangible,
less and less supportive of any structure we use to understand it. I
liked that the project worked as a recentering device, whether
intentionally or not, for us, as students, when we read the information
in the essays -- whether or not, of course, the ideas in the essays can
be structured.

This is a pretty interesting exhibition that deals with the technological aspects of communication between each other and the poblem / issue of real vs tele space, as Bukatman and Baudrillard discussed in their essays. I also like that the discussion in the exhibition seems to be along the same lines as the Bukatman discussion: finding a possibility for re-assertion of self in "the telematic  embrace".

I think found magazine creates a really awesome tension between the 'new obscenity' of having your life splayed out before everybody's eyes, and the 'old obscenity' of sex (130), because it's got both -- and I think, like the dirtier secrets on postsecret, what's more embarassing or obscene is indeed that these are real (so far as we know) scraps from people's real lives.

There's also the realm of reality TV, where, far beyond simply watching a family, we've even got highly sexually charged reality tv shows (like Paradise Hotel), and we'll even watch you lose weight. However, Baurillard asserts that this is, and the ecstasy of communication on the whole, isn't alienating (130), which I don't think is necessarily true. Now our crowd is maybe farther away, and sometimes (as I feel when I read found magazine or postsecret) they become imaginary people in your head, there are so many people that it feels like you can never know any of them.

I love this section of 2001 -- well, I like watching it when I can
control how fast it goes. There are two pertinent things which I think
it does an interesting job of visualizing. And anyway, the monolith in
that movie is so kind of nihilistic and threatening to yourself  just
being there.

One thing that it potentially (though not
explicitly) visualizes is a possible 'telematic space' which is so kind
of computerized and outside of Dave's control. Dave / the viewer are
just watching, while the monolith processes away. This reminds me of
the cyberpunk visualizations of computer-space, and it also
(tellingly?) reminds me of the 'terror of perspective' that Bryson
discusses in The Gaze in the Expanded Field (this is mostly the
case in the sections where you do get a sense of perspective), because
the visuals are dizzying depths into which the viewer is endlessly
plummeting; the complete opposite of yourself taking all focus away
from you like a black hole.