Television..Society’s Achilles Heel
Posted on October 26, 2005 at 9:14 pm by pmiller4The first thing I noticed when I started to read The Color of Television were the symbols within the text and the side comments. I decided to follow the symbol which is the same for BioHazardous Material because I was hoping it would take me somewhere more interesting than what would appear at the surface to be a routine life between Harry and Lorraine. Another reason I chose this icon was because at first the story reminded me of Space Odyssey 2001 back in the 1950’s and 1960’s. The biohazard symbol brought to my head the voice of the robot repeating "Danger Will Robinson." Another reason I was brought back to this show is because it describes and there is an illustration of the old tubes that used to go into Televisions before cable and satellites. As a result a wierd sense of nostalgia emerged. It is also ironic, because Space Odyssey 2001 looks into the future while The Color of Television looks back in the past at technology before super computers and references to Stalingrad.
Eventually I got to a scene where Saul (I assume the son perhaps?) strips a woman. He strips her down to her bare bones. Saul is insane and acts more like a beast than a man. Just as a beast would tear off the muscles from the bones. It is also mentioned that he eats a cockroach. In combination with the judgement statements that are made in the margins of each page and Saul’s behavior towards a woman coming on to him in a shop, I drew the following interpetation: Saul is a representation of the modern reclusive male. Men today, including young men, have become infatuated with the internet, chat rooms, online dating services, and XXX sites. As a result, many men become frustrated in "real life" situations, such as courtship or other social relationships, because they don’t know how to act because technology including television and mostly computers have isolated them.
Ultimately the color of television, just like the 18 varities of eyes that can be purchased, is just an illusion of reality.
October 26th, 2005 at 11:50 PM
I took a look at the Pax site at first for a second and then took a quick look at the Television site. The Television sight didn’t peek my interest in it’s first screen or two. So, I went back to the Pax site. The animation peeked my interest. This was probably because I’ve become a Flash animation geek. I am doing a multimedia independent study where Flash animations are being used as ligting for a piece of choreography of mine. I initially just read the names of Pax that were being spelled as the bodies flew past on the screen.
I didn’t realize I could grab hold of the bodies for a while. I just let them fly by. I initially tried to see if I could control the bodies with the scroll triangles. Eventually I found I could grab them. A part of the torso and the head would of a person I grabbed would pop up on the screen if clicked. I was able to interact with some of them. If I moved my cursor right or left, the eyes woudl move the direction of the cursor in front of them. One or two face’s eye’s went the opposite direction I would move the cursor.
If I selected / clicked a person to examine, text would appear on the right. As text built up I could scroll up and down it. As I was playing with Pax, I was trying to figure out what was used to make it. Initially, I was thinking maybe Flash. However, the animations had 3D in them and Flash can’t really do 3D. You can do what I heard one animator calls like “2 1/2 D” in it. I think maybe some of it could have been done with Java or an animation program called Maya.
Various of the names that came up were created in the flying area of Pax. I think some of them were like “high,” “fyling,” which fitted with the idea of the flying figures. However, not all of the words were easy find what they meant. One idea that came to mind was “Are any of these words or phrases contantly being spelled and changed continuosly found in the words displayed in the right colum by clicking people?” The answer in my quick investigation on this hunch was no. I think the content listed on the right text column may vary depending upon who and when you click you click.
Some text that popped up in my right column had a religious theme. Some of this text includes “holy war,” “the dead,” and most overwhelming reason to believe the Almighty has the comic sophistication ” I must have run out of space for the number of times I could click bodies. The last thing in the right column was “LIMITS EXCEEDED.” To the left was a person figure standing in front of a light. If I go from the religious / Christian view point, one might view it as like the the ethereal light one sees for heaven . It also reminds me of someone who is being praised or look like something you see in a sci-fi. Maybe it represents a worm hole. It also looks like a academy award somewhat hehe.