Not Just Ensemble Films: Six Degrees, Webs, Multiplexity and the Rise of Network Narratives

In a scene from Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's 2006 film Babel, one afternoon a deaf-mute Japanese girl, Chieko, gossips in sign language with a school friend via her mobile phone's web cam. The scene's linguistically estranged nature encapsulates how language in itself is a technology...

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Autor principal:	Vivien Silvey
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	University of Edinburgh 2009
Materias:	Fine Arts N Language and Literature P
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/e52bf3b149e648f08b9e6c8b6db657e3
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:e52bf3b149e648f08b9e6c8b6db657e32021-11-23T09:46:00ZNot Just Ensemble Films: Six Degrees, Webs, Multiplexity and the Rise of Network Narratives1749-9771https://doaj.org/article/e52bf3b149e648f08b9e6c8b6db657e32009-06-01T00:00:00Zhttp://www.forumjournal.org/article/view/621https://doaj.org/toc/1749-9771In a scene from Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's 2006 film Babel, one afternoon a deaf-mute Japanese girl, Chieko, gossips in sign language with a school friend via her mobile phone's web cam. The scene's linguistically estranged nature encapsulates how language in itself is a technology, a system which reaches across borders of silence to allow understanding. We are only able to interpret language through shared knowledge of its systems and, in many cases, through the aid of devices which collapse the barriers of proximity in time, space, and in this case, vision. It is indicative of the contemporary paradigm of network society that this scene occurs within a film which explores worldwide repercussions of (mis)communication, and that Babel belongs within a genre which in recent years has frequently thematised systems of interconnection, exploiting digital narrative technologies and in effect practicing Fredric Jameson's concept "cognitive mapping" (Jameson 54). However, while they may appear to value difference and diversity, in many cases these films use cognitive mapping as a tool for totalisation, divulging narratives of smoothed-out differences and equalised circumstances. Within this emergent paradigm of interconnectedness continues the problem of how to relay the postmodern promise of endless complexity, without subordinating difference to a simplified reduction of totality.Vivien SilveyUniversity of EdinburgharticleFine ArtsNLanguage and LiteraturePENForum, Iss 08 (2009)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Fine Arts N Language and Literature P
spellingShingle	Fine Arts N Language and Literature P Vivien Silvey Not Just Ensemble Films: Six Degrees, Webs, Multiplexity and the Rise of Network Narratives
description	In a scene from Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's 2006 film Babel, one afternoon a deaf-mute Japanese girl, Chieko, gossips in sign language with a school friend via her mobile phone's web cam. The scene's linguistically estranged nature encapsulates how language in itself is a technology, a system which reaches across borders of silence to allow understanding. We are only able to interpret language through shared knowledge of its systems and, in many cases, through the aid of devices which collapse the barriers of proximity in time, space, and in this case, vision. It is indicative of the contemporary paradigm of network society that this scene occurs within a film which explores worldwide repercussions of (mis)communication, and that Babel belongs within a genre which in recent years has frequently thematised systems of interconnection, exploiting digital narrative technologies and in effect practicing Fredric Jameson's concept "cognitive mapping" (Jameson 54). However, while they may appear to value difference and diversity, in many cases these films use cognitive mapping as a tool for totalisation, divulging narratives of smoothed-out differences and equalised circumstances. Within this emergent paradigm of interconnectedness continues the problem of how to relay the postmodern promise of endless complexity, without subordinating difference to a simplified reduction of totality.
format	article
author	Vivien Silvey
author_facet	Vivien Silvey
author_sort	Vivien Silvey
title	Not Just Ensemble Films: Six Degrees, Webs, Multiplexity and the Rise of Network Narratives
title_short	Not Just Ensemble Films: Six Degrees, Webs, Multiplexity and the Rise of Network Narratives
title_full	Not Just Ensemble Films: Six Degrees, Webs, Multiplexity and the Rise of Network Narratives
title_fullStr	Not Just Ensemble Films: Six Degrees, Webs, Multiplexity and the Rise of Network Narratives
title_full_unstemmed	Not Just Ensemble Films: Six Degrees, Webs, Multiplexity and the Rise of Network Narratives
title_sort	not just ensemble films: six degrees, webs, multiplexity and the rise of network narratives
publisher	University of Edinburgh
publishDate	2009
url	https://doaj.org/article/e52bf3b149e648f08b9e6c8b6db657e3
work_keys_str_mv	AT viviensilvey notjustensemblefilmssixdegreeswebsmultiplexityandtheriseofnetworknarratives
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Not Just Ensemble Films: Six Degrees, Webs, Multiplexity and the Rise of Network Narratives

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