Mobius Engine : The art of infinite design; a machine for the creation of original thought. Come and explore the territory of the experimental design, music and philosophy held in the mind of Curtis McFee. Composer, Artist, Designer.
20100818
The Crying Policeman and the Bieber-meme
There was a recently flurry of interest in the soundcloud of Shamantis ( follow him on twitter! he always does random projects like this alongside his actual music: @Shamantis ) who took the song "U Smile" by popular song imp Justin Beiber and slowed it down by 800% in Paul Stretch, a freeware piece of musical gadgetry. The premise picked up was that it became a fantastic ambient piece in the mode of Sigur Ros. And fair play, it did. It was a lovely time-stretch experiment and very reminiscent of Gavin Bryars track "The Sinking of the Titanic" in its execution and basic idea.
Then I was thinking anything could be slowed by 800% and sound like a lovely ambient track. This meant that I had to now prove my point. I downloaded Paul Stretch and went to work with the most ludicrous track I could think of.
Original work: The Laughing Policeman by Charles Penrose.
Not sure I would call it beautiful. Sometimes like a wailing, plaintive cry of despair. I still like it though, I imagine it would require another 800% or a few octaves pitch shift before it becomes beautiful.
Clearly this post is going to give away the ending.
After finally seeing Inception, dodging many a spoiler and great hyperbole, I feel compelled to write my take on it. Good or bad, it is certainly one of those films, where discussion and contemplation of it must take place. I also like a film with the opportunity for deeper and wider concepts, that extend past the story into a larger setting.
Diagram - a nice graphic, but it wasn't *that* difficult to follow.
Music - a love this idea but wished that more was done. The use of time dilation as a motif is inspired, but little else is done with it beyond this one hook. Unless, of course, I am missing the deeper nuances of the score. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVkQ0C4qDvM
COBOL - A prequel, spoiler free comic. Not enough pre-release viral work was done. Where is my video game?
For my personal take I found myself enjoying it all immensely, completely caught up in the world and the story line. I watched it with my lovely wife whom did not share this kind of experience. I was captivated where she described it as boring, a disappointment and Matrix re-written by accountants, yet I still found I agree with her on many levels. There were a lot of aspects where they missed the mark, where an opportunity for greatness was overlooked or a choice that underwhelmed but all in all, it was amongst the more enjoyable films I have seen. I think my dual thinking on the film comes about because the 'dream' concept speaks to me quite clearly.
Although there was a lot of exposition and explanation woven into the story, the full mechanics were never explained to the point where one could fully understand the nature of the 'inception/extraction' process. The general idea was simple enough but the audience is left hanging about the finer details of who dreams, what they can achieve and why.
When one lucid dreams, thus becoming aware yet remaining in the dream, there is an assumption of control. Surely there is an element of manipulating the dream to ones desires. This manifested with the sudden arrival of Eaves grenade launcher, "you have to dream bigger" he said, but did any of them ever really dream big?
When one explores the nature of the subconscious in art, fiction, poetry, film or music it is rife with the absurd, the surreal and the bizarre, but here the dream is only very loosely textured with the odd, most of which comes about due to interactions between levels of dreams and the rest comes from Cobb and his fixations. Granted, they had a job to do and were controlling the experience for a specific reason, Fischer would still have woken up and thought, "I just had John Grisham's dream!".
The subconsious of Cobb bleeding in due to his personal problems were barely touched on but could have had more impact. They were a crucial aspect, not only of the larger narrative but of the real conflict and the nature of dreaming, where deeper problems are resolved. Cobb uses a memory house rather than allowing himself to dream naturally or spontaneously, there was another idea untouched or explored.
Comparisons to the Matrix are probably a little unfair and unfounded. If the film had opted for kung-fu and big guns, exotic locations and full on mindbendery, it would have passed by as a very poor Matrix clone, so I can understand the setting, ambience and pace. Then again, haven't we had enough tailored, sixties suits and slick hair?
Open your mind, Cobb!
There are a lot of narratives that traverse this territory, beyond Matrix. Matrix didn't even have a sub-reality ( unless you accept the Matrix Evolutions Theory ). The closest real similarity comes from Vurt, in my opinion. Chasing after a missing loved ones by going into dreams within dreams, it's all there.
Here are some others that go along this path. One thing that is abundant in a lot of these films is their use of the surreal. It immediately talks of the subconscious. In Inception the dream was there but the subconscious was missing.
All good films and together would make for a great weekend.
This is not my beautiful wife, how did I get here?
There seems to be a lot of net discussion concerning whether Cobb is still dreaming at the end of the film, whether he was ever awake or if he managed to find a happy ending ( see Never Wake Up). Having seen it a second time I think the story is quite clear on this matter.
The key plot point revolves around the totem continuing to spin if he is dreaming. He does this a few times with great seriousness - it is his ritual and security. When it topples, he is awake. For this idea to have any meaning we have to accept that we can trust the totem as well, so that when it falls early on we know we are also awake and his story is valid and matters. If the top does not fall at the end of the film, gasps go up in the theatres but I think that a point is missed here.
The fundamental focal point of the film comes when Cobb confronts Mal, admits his guilt and states that he accepts she is just a projection, that he can never come close to replicating her perfections and imperfections. Just as he was the one to reject the limbo state he found himself in with her, he knows deep down that a dream is just a reflection of himself and that the Mal who begs him to stay is 'just not good enough'. When we come to that last scene of Cobb at home, he spins the top to go through with the ritual but it is the faces of his children that he sees. It is their 'beautiful faces' that show him he is awake - he cannot replicate them in dreams and looking at them makes the top irrelevant. Cobb had already accepted and rejected the prejection of his wife, so he wouldnt then accept a projection of his children. The last shot is just to allow for doubt on an existential level, the same doubt Cobb had experienced, the passing of the idea to you the audience but no longer Cobb's doubt - he knows he's awake.
