What is it about images that we have become so desensitized to? Shredded bodies, corpses hung, flesh from bone is what Campbell talks of in his portrayal of devastating life from the captured media. When movies so easily reproduce such horrific events and unimaginable stories following the slaughtering of us, us humans, we see such things as a removed version of our self. Where we could still squeal at such thought of cutting off our own foot in blockbusters like SAW, it is the repeated imagery, the repeated number of movies revolving around the same intense pictures of the unimaginable not to mention the seven series of SAW that will appear in theatres next year.
Campbell's 'disappearing bodies' talks of the removal of figures from bodies from images, leaving a mark only symbolizing the horrific events that have happened, but in few cases the violent images showing the true events do surface- but as an act as to what should not be happening as opposed to the pro-event. - The Byrd case. In such cases, it seems horrific events are only to be portrayed in light of good. Instead of images we are given words, describing the situation in gruel detail rather than an off-putting image whilst we eat our breakfast. Words can become more hurtful by association than pictures can- and by extension, mind over pictures.
Sitting, circling, the world is within my own
I sit here thinking of you, grueling pain as you revolve around my head
The more I think of you, a monster you become.
As we can get 'trapped in our own thoughts', it is the idea of the actual event that becomes much more than the event itself. Slavoj Zizek's 'Welcome to the Desert of the Real' the examples 9/11 attacks on the world trade centre, the event is in imaginable, something of such grand scale in filled with terror to a scale incomprehensible to the brain itself- seeing the events on screen becomes much more than the event itself. The repetition and circling thoughts
David Campbell, "Horrific Blindness: Images of Death in Contemporary Media", Journal for Cultural Research, Vol.8, No.1, Routledge, 2004.
Zizek, Slavoj. "Welcome to the Desert of the Real". Re:constructions. 2001. MIT Comparative Media Studies. 9 September 2009
It seems to me that there is too much power projected into the 'possible' rather than what actually happens. And as you have said, movies like SAW show this insane 'possibility', and through this, fear is inserted. It hasn't happened, there is no way to prove or even suggest it will happen, and yet we are scared shitless of it happening.
ReplyDeleteLike you said, it is no longer about the event itself, it is about more than that, the possibility.
But where does this lead us? Into a world of false fears and impossible solutions. It is easy to see how the Western World can fluctuate in and out of an overly conservative government and society.
So where are we headed now then?