Just run into the latter movie and immediately thought of one of my favorite movies, George’s THX 1138. George wins here big time because he doesn’t try too hard, you don’t have to try too hard when you are inventing a genre. Movies today do not hold back as they have the genre worked out already for them and all they have to do is fit the script with an appropriate visual.
Here is the original trailer and clips from George’s movie which i find superior in every respect:
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A new attempt at the same themes – the movie is Equals (2015), with bigger smart screens but much less subtlety. A trailer ( can’t stand trailers to be honest but whatever ) and a clip:
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Which reminds me to share with you my favorite sci-fi movie of recent –
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Even if you are not fond of their grandiose schemes – you must admit the Wachowskis are a visual institution, the Matrix started the 21st century culturally and put whatever was in their minds – in the minds of millions of people. The blue and red pills, the streaky hallways, the bullet time – these grandmasters made the geeky weird mainstream. If you have ever sat in front of a computer 16+ hours you must know that feeling – my setup at Lucasfilm consisted of 3 computer screens and 3 televisions, 3 consoles, 2 computers and several other devices, including a Wacom tablet and various controllers. When I get off at the end heading to Chestnut street – I would see polygons and wireframe triangles everywhere, my brain would process and dismember all into visual components and put it back together in the next frame.
Steve Jobs once said that the computer is going to be like a bicycle for the mind, Joseph Campbell called the inside of a PC a hierarchy of angels.
This is an insight into the meaning of tools and technology in our lives from an Indian teacher. He says machines are Yantras, deities that enhance what we already are, we are an enhanced beings:
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So what is the problem with technology? People often complain and the media propagates this spiritless image of humans mindlessly staring down into phones and devices. We are bored already after a playlist or two, and surely fatigued with pictures of french fries stacked against stadiums..
But can you imagine Steve Jobs (rip) or Elon Musk scratching themselves on the back of their heads with their phones, bored out of their minds? That is what it means to be a creator, to use technology to be in control. You are only in the driver’s seat when you create, when you generate output. It is a one-way street, it is a drainpipe with one-way flow – you are either on the intake or you produce.
I had the privilege of teaching very little and very bright kids recently, and when kids are super bright there’s no hiding, all is reduced to a string of truths. I tell them that no matter what software they learn or what sort of science they master – they need to be aware of the fact that the only true power in the world is the power to create. When you are a creator – you are in control.
When you are mere consumer you are at the mercy of what has been generated for you. When you are the creator, whether you create objects of the mind or make cakes – you are in charge of the content and the process. You can use your faculties to get better at either. Software is just a tool, the computer is just a tool, once you have learned how to use couple of different software products – you get clarity on the principle and you can quickly grasp any other.
To be a creator requires a lot of mental and physical energy, it is a lifestyle and it can’t be done just a little bit. I remember Lessig’s AMA on Reddit where he said he wanted to be a part-time president… Can you imagine being 50 percent in control 50 percent of the time of the most powerful nation? How about being 50 percent in control 50 percent of the time of the most powerful intelligence on earth?
Recently had to put together a little awning for the top floor of my house, the old one was reduced to rags by strong winds, and had to find something quickly as guests were coming to stay in a few days. I have a great Brother machine back in the States and have only used it to make some canvas pieces and wearables for my installations. Sewing is otherwise boring and repetitive and I can’t stay with it for longer than the quick completion of a project.
At the house there is this absolutely incredible piece of German engineering – my grandma’s 1904 Singer sewing machine. Naturally, the machine manual was online and someone had already figured out how to thread it on youtube. I found a large piece of fabric and also some lost stretches of ethernet cable laying around.. It took 10 minutes of youtubing and 50 minutes of trial and error and these magical devices came together on my green drawing table to help me make a little wobbly but otherwise perfectly reasonable awning.
Yeah, it was a lot more fun than shopping, it was probably more time consuming as it took me awhile to put together the awning with lots of bobbin winding and battles with seas of fabric late at night. I affirmed the usefulness of a forgotten tool which later served me for more projects around the house, I saved tons of cash, I learned german engineers from 110 years ago knew more about ergonomics than I would have thought. This incredible piece of technology that is grandma’s Singer worked out of the box without a hitch.. knowing that no one had probably touched it in 20 years. High five to the creator who perfected it!
One of my teachers says we spend too much time worrying about other planets ( I am not a buddhist of any kind and caution against purchasing into any programs and seminars with big promises.. but sometimes people speak and out comes something that is worth a listen ). What NASA does for me is to ground me into the largeness of the world. I wanna be grounded into a reality with possibility, with ambition beyond lunch, dinner, shopping and my own DNA.
It is important to remind ourselves that we are specs, on a spec in a vast ocean of specs.. and our only chance to outgrow our physical smallness is to use our minds.. responsibly.
Swiss researches said there are 21,647 characters in the Star Wars Universe Spanning over 36 000 years of history. But the reason I liked Star Wars and loved working on it is because it is breathtakingly beautiful. I would go into the Paris and Pandora databases at ILM to look at concept art for fantastical worlds.. for hours on end. A lot of concept pieces never made it to film but the quality of the art George always demanded was world class.
The desire for the beautiful is encoded in our DNA, we seek it and we want it. We try to untangle its secrets and repeat its effects. We like how it makes us feel. Otherwise we wouldn’t have beautiful glass panes on our windows so we can see the world outside, we would still be on wooden sticks and huts. But something pushes us to better our surroundings, to create things more beautiful and perfect. That’s what movies give us – a never ending perfection that we can gratify ourselves with over and over. It’s a manufactured bliss.
I continue to love Jar Jar and the Phantom Menace and would fight to the death George’s critics on this. Do you remember what computers looked like in 1999 ( actually more like 1997-8 ) ? That’s when George did the Menace. At the time he was running Lucasfilm ( hey it is a big business ), he was inventing computer graphics, visual FX and visual FX software, the hardware that will run it, CG characters and sets no one has ever attempted before.. and making a movie. Give him a break.
19th Century Firefighters Were Darth Vader and C3PO Before Darth Vader and C3PO Were Cool
