Ex Machina

Ex Machina

Budget - $15 million

Box office/gross – £36 million

Filming – 15^th July – September 2013

Director: Alex Garland

Writer:            Alex Garland (28 Days Later)

Actors:            Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, Alicia Vikander

Producer: Scott Rudin (executive)

Ex Machina was released in the United Kingdom on 21 January 2015 through Universal Pictures. The film screened on 14 March 2015 at the South by Southwest festival prior to a theatrical release in the United States on 10 April 2015 by A24 Films.

Ex Machina tells the story of a programmer who is invited by his employer to administer the Turing test to an android with artificial intelligence. Nathan has built a humanoid robot named Ava with artificial intelligence. To program her behaviour, he harvested personal information from billions of Bluebook users, using their search queries as indicators of human thought, and hacked billions of cell phones for recordings of human expressions and body language. He wants Caleb to administer the Turing test to Ava, a test designed to measure an AI's ability to persuade the tester it is human. Caleb points out that this is not a fair test, as he already knows Ava is an AI; Nathan responds that Caleb must judge whether he can relate to Ava despite knowing she is artificial.

6 weeks to film, but post production took 6 months, no green screen.

Meanings:

Deus Ex Machina – “God from the machine"

1. (in ancient Greek and Roman drama) a god introduced into a play to resolve the entanglements of the plot.

2. Any artificial or improbable device resolving the difficulties of a plot.

Postmodernity:

Artificial Intelligence -  ‘The sad thing about artificial intelligence is that it lacks artifice and therefore intelligence.’ – Jean Baudrillard. Ava’s suit/whole concept of film.

Uses Baudrillard’s idea of hyper reality, simulacra, illusion of what is real.

Very small cast, all set in one place/location that is very modern, colour scheme, chromes/monochrome and red.

Intertextuality, similarities between Nathan (Oscar Isaac) and ‘Apocalypse now’ colonel walter e. Kurtz. Both isolated themselves geographically and psychologically, both see themselves as a kind of ‘God’. Blade Runner, testing consciousness, self aware AI, contrasts aware of Ava’s AI and Unawareness of Rachael’s AI.  

Protagonist is questioned, argued it could be Caleb but it shifts throughout.

Asks questions beyond the basic questions about AI, such as: Where does gender reside? Is gender something that’s in consciousness or is it a physical thing? Or is it something that’s conferred on you by other people?

Postmodernism Essay 1

Most would suggest that society are currently in the postmodern era as we have transitioned from the enlightenment period of modernism, despite this, no one ever truly understands if we are in the postmodern era or not as such a concept cannot be defined. Modernism is a style or movement within the arts that departs from traditional forms. It is concerned with assigning value to things such as art and using modern ideas to modify traditional beliefs. It takes a more active role with regards to ‘me’, meaning that it focuses on one’s self. On the contrary there is postmodernism, which literally means ‘after modernism’ as it was a reaction to hyper rationalism of the theory. There is no set definition for it as it is just a social construct that is completely objective with no absolute truth. It is a way of analysing frameworks or text and is an epistemological issue, in other words, how do we understand what we understand, as well as an ontological issue, which means what it means to be human. However, the theory itself is very contradictory, as it is a theory of everything that states it is a fallacy to have a theory of everything. Nothing is ever fixed due to a constant collapse of metanarratives, it reacts against earlier modernist principles, as by reintroducing traditional or classic elements of style. This transition from modernism into the postmodernism shapes a vast majority of what and how we perceive art, architecture and text today.

Postmodernity is evident in many artistic creations from art, to films to music videos and many more. The music video for ‘Knights of Cydonia’ by Muse (Joseph Kahn, 2006) is an extremely postmodern video that is flooded with intertextual references, irony, parody and consumerism, whilst also completely disregarding the need for verisimilitude. The video is a cinematic, cattle punk western video with narratives, characters and even credits, which purposely use clichéd western fonts to constantly push the over stylised theme. In terms of postmodern aspects, it is clear that the film directly intertextually references Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977) with sci-fi bars, robots and lasers in deserts. As Star Wars is so widely recognised, including the conglomerate is strategic because most will understand the direct link to what the video is parodying, which is entertaining for the viewer. Intertextuality is a very common feature of postmodernity as it can either be a parody or pastiche of a particular genre or art, the video can be explained as a parody rather than pastiche in the way it includes its intertextual references. Jameson states that a parody has an ulterior motive to mock its reference, whereas pastiche is a ‘blank parody’ it is simply referring to something without the intent to mock it. A perfect example of parody, evident in contemporary text, is Blink 182’s ‘All the Small Things’ (Marcos Siega, 1999) as the video mocks artists such as N-sync and Backstreet Boys, as well as videos from Brittney Spears and Christina Aguilera. The material references created a flattening of effect, whilst focusing solely on style over substance. Jameson would highlight that the use of parody is contributing to a crisis in history, as this jumble of different styles no longer links to historical content, which to himself is very negative. This video parodies all of its references as the video itself is sarcastic, it mocks stereotypical kung-fu films as the beginning shows the protagonist practising generic moves, labelled ‘the circle of death’, moreover, the sarcastic big fight scene is a hand kung-fu battle that defeats the protagonist in a humorous way.

Additionally, the juxtaposition between spaghetti western iconography and the futuristic elements to the video, is very postmodern, as these merging of contrasting styles would not be a thing of the past, but instead a more present day idea and acceptable in today’s society. Furthermore, the video over sexualises the only female character in the story, she is shown on a unicorn in a bikini and this overtly sexual gender representation conforms to the hegemonic norms of females being inferior. Although, it could be argued that the video actually represents female empowerment, as the female then essentially saves the day and the male protagonist, which in a sense, defies hegmonic norms that males are the heroic ones. This concept is supported by Camille Paglia, who explores the idea that women should be proud of themselves and portraying women as powerful and sexy is a part of feminist empowerment. Throughout the video there is blatant and ironic use of consumerism, the video revolves around Muse’s CD being the saviour weapon, the exaggerated self-awareness is a key feature of postmodernity as it is very ironic and obvious, although, it also plays off the modernism idea that texts take a large role in the association of ‘me’. Consumerism and self-referential is a concept that Baudrillard heavily developed, he explains that one way an object can obtain value is with the symbolic value, which Muse’s video does as it assigns value to an object (the object being the CD) in relation to another subject (selling the CD/saving the day).

It is important, however, to look at older examples to truly see how this transition came to be. Films like Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994) are perfect examples of strong postmodernism, whilst this only came out in the mid 1990s it highlights the evolution of art into postmodernism. The lack of metanarratives in the film, such as when Vincent and Jules discuss hamburgers with the same tone and seriousness as killing people, supports the declining Meta narratives over time that Lyotard explains are an essential feature of modernity. Moreover, the film fractures time as the scenes are not shot chronologically, yet everything is explained at the end of the film. Hyper reality is a concept that Baurdillard developed, and it is somewhat present in this film and its fracturing of time. It is the idea that reality is replaced by the simulacra, meaning something has lost its relation to reality and becomes nothing more than a simulation, and the division between reality and simulation collapses. This idea is particularly evident in the Matrix Trilogy (Lana/Andy Wachowski, 1999) (particularly the first one), as what is reality and what is the simulated machines starts to blur and the illusion becomes our reality.

Overall, the transition from modernism to postmodernism has been quite significant and most prominent in types of art. Society has shifted from a more traditional set of beliefs revolving around the self, to a more abstract epistemology, that aims to analysis more unconventional frameworks. It is difficult to predict how music videos can become more postmodern in the future, as many argue society is at the peak of postmodernity, however, I would suggest that videos will only get more postmodern. By this I mean that they will evolve to defy even more hegemonic norms, the boundary between what is acceptable and what is not will become even more blurred. I further argue that postmodernity is everywhere and that music videos will continue to be advertisements from helping audiences understand artist through simulacra.

Pulp Fiction

Makes constant reference to earlier films and a key feature of postmodernity is intertextuality. The dance reminds the audience of ‘Saturday night fever’.

Lack of meta-narratives, the irreverent tone such as when they discuss hamburgers with the same seriousness as discussing killing people. This creation of hyper reality is something Baudrillard felt strongly about, arguing it was a prominent aspect of postmodern media.

Assumes both of Jameson’s postmodern characteristics in its visual aesthetic and its worldview. It’s a pastiche of various cinematic modes—film noir, B-movies, samurai films, Blaxploitation.

Tarantino follows Vincent as he slowly surveys the cornucopia of iconography in one long take. To the tune of Ricky Nelson’s “Waitin’ in School,” sung by a Ricky Nelson impersonator, we see what Vincent sees: waiters and waitresses dressed as ’50s icons—Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Donna Reed—the walls covered with posters of era-specific B-movies—Attack of the 50-ft Woman, High School Confidential, Rock All Night—and finally, the perfect touch that would make Jameson smile with recognition and wince at the same time, a wall of televisions that resemble windows playing old street scenes on a loop, literally forcing the purveyors to look “in” rather than “out.”

The first example of postmodernism in the cult film is Tarantino's disregard for a chronological narrative. Instead he split the film into three stories, "VincentVega and Marcellus Wallace's Wife", "The Gold Watch" and "The Bonnie Situation." This fits in with Lyotard's theory of the declining meta narratives over time, along with the increase of "mini-narratives". This fracturing of time is very postmodern as it throws the audience off slightly, but then the film cleverly ties everything together as the film nears the end, so the audience can understand how everything fits together and it gives them a sense of satisfaction.

1.     The Diner part I

2.     Prelude to “Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace’s Wife”

3.     “Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace’s Wife”

4.     Prelude to “The Gold Watch”

5.     “The Gold Watch”

6.     “The Bonnie Situation”

7.     The Diner part II

But, chronologically, the scenes would be in this order: 2, 6, 1, 7, 3, 4, 5.

Although the film has some comical elements and situations, its humour isn’t derived from the references to the past therefore it isn’t parody. It is so thick with pastiche though, that it is difficult to place the era in which the film is set. A few examples of pastiche evident in the film: When Marcellus Wallace walks out in front of Butch's car at the traffic lights and turns to face him, this is like the scene in Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock when Marion's boss crosses the street in front of her car.

Ex Machina

A young coder at the world's largest internet company, wins a competition to spend a week at a private retreat belonging to the reclusive CEO of the company. One arrival he learns that he must participate in a bizarre experiment which involves interacting with the world's first true artificial intelligence, which comes in the form of a beautiful female robot.

January 21, 2015

Alex Garland

What makes it postmodern:

Artificial Intelligence – very postmodern idea, of robots or technologically advanced machines that can ‘take over’.

Location – shot all in one location only using 3 characters. Film focuses on character development and tricking the audience so they are as confused as the characters and the only thing that knows everything in the film is Eva, yet she is an AI.

Intertextuality – references many other sci-fi/AI films and ideas.

Good vs evil – tries to break this down by confusing people with who is good and who is evil, tries to make man the enemy and machine the good one. Challenges binary opposites of life and what it means to be human (eg the testing like the Turing test).

Futuristic – it is not set in the future, but the location props and AI suggest advancements that are incomprehensible for humans and imply a futuristic for-knowledge.