Month: August 2015

Conclusions on Ghost in the Shell.

Following my two previous posts on Ghost in the Shell and Anime overall, i wanted to elaborate on my points and bring up some conclusions on how the film has effected my perspective on anime.

Firstly, Ghost in the Shell’s themes and anime as a medium for children. Ghost in the Shell is a dark film, it challenges adult themes and events. This seems to be the case for a lot of anime that i watch, its aimed almost exclusively at young men, but not children. Ghost in the Shell for me is a perfect example of what anime can be, what it can offer older audiences and how it is not just children’s cartoons. This made me think about my first exposure to “anime”, in the form of Pokemon on morning TV. I suppose that Pokemon left an impression on me that all animation was for children, as i…

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Expanding the Horizons: Ghost in the Shell

Jyotsna Singh

This week I continued my autoethnographic reflection on Ghost in the Shell. Last week I examined the representation of Motoko as a female cyborg character in the film. This week, I did examined further literary analysis in this area.

As I mentioned last week, I was surprised by the portrayal of the protagonist by a female character. Due to cultural gender stereotypes, it is usually rare to depict and perceive a female character as a hero. Yet the film clearly challenged my assumptions as it appeared to subvert the power dynamics inherent in dominant structures of gender and sexual difference. Such representations seem to step from the genre of Cyberpunk fiction. As Nicole Atkings (2015, p.1) writes ‘it has been known to herald itself as a genre that obliterates traditional stereoptypes and gender roles’, thereby liberating female characters. Thus it seems by creating a cyborg that is a strong and…

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Godzilla Audio Summary

A Blog's Life

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Rope weaving across Asia

elysium design utopia

Despite the exploration of the red string of fate, I was still drawn back to the materiality of the rope. To me, the materiality of the rope re-creates the use of it into something more. It is no longer just an exhibition about those whose personal experiences she does not understand, but a new story which has been infused with her time. I chose to look for images of people from around Asia weaving rope in order to understand the process further.

Raw Jute (before rope) – Bangladesh

Weaving the rope – Bangladesh

Combing the tangles from the jute fibres before weaving into rope – India

Tying the rope fibres to a hook before weaving begins – India

Loading woven rope on carts to be distributed – India

Sitting next to the days work – Sri Lanka

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Godzilla – Summary

A Blog's Life

The Godzilla film experience has been an interesting and thought provoking topic for our auto-ethnographic study. The whole idea of analysing cultural experience through film opened a different line of view for me as well as simply enjoying it for the film as it is. Like I said earlier, I had my doubts on watching a film over 60 years old but it’s hard not to be enthralled by the film’s powerful message.

One of the reasons why I think Godzilla has been a significant icon in Japanese culture is because of it’s representation. The film captured a period in time, the cultural setting of nuclear warfare and violence. The film is still so great today because it aims to evoke emotions out of you as a viewer.

I thought about what the audience is most likely to engage with this in the film and I found that most people…

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Godzilla – Further Analysis

A Blog's Life

This was the where week we critically analysed our initial blog posts as a group and were able to bounce ideas off each other. It was clear that we each had different interests and wrote about what stood out most to us. Some of us wrote about the certain film techniques used whilst some wrote about the subtitle/language connection and it was an interesting process of comparing our views of the film that sparked ideas for further research.

Personally music is often a point of interest, but for this film I was really drawn towards the nuclear warfare setting and how they represented Godzilla as a symbol of nuclear destruction. I thought about how events of the second world war period may have influenced the film. The impressions I had made me think about what attitudes the Japanese public may have had towards the H-bomb, and whether or not they resented the U.S. military for…

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Autoethnographic investigation of Godzilla: The Summary

Look mum I made a blog...

A summary of week 2, 3 & 4 blog posts and what I have understood of autoethnographic research through the investigation of Godzilla.

References

Ellis, C., Adams, T.E., and Bochner, A.P. (2011) ‘Autoethnography: An Overview‘, Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 12:1. http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1589/3095

Jacobson, M, 2014, ‘What Does Godzilla Mean? The Evolution of a Monster Metaphor’, Vulture, May 16, viewed 20 August, http://www.vulture.com/2014/05/godzilla-meaning-monster-metaphors.html

The Japan Times Editorial, 2014, ‘Godzilla’s message still relevant’, The Japan Times, 20 July, viewed 25 August 2015, http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2014/07/20/editorials/godzillas-message-still-relevant/#.VeAvNiWqqkr

Walter, D G, 2015, How Hollywood the Political Message of Godzilla, Damien Walter, wordpress blog, 25 January, viewed 23 August 2015, http://damiengwalter.com/2015/01/25/how-hollywood-deleted-the-political-message-of-godzilla/

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Ghost in the Shell | Conclusions | An Autoethnographic Study

Ghost in the Shell | Research & Analysis | An Autoethnographic Study

Gojira: The Summary

naomidoesablog

This revitalising examination into a genre unique to its own culture has allowed me to identify the distance I couldn’t place between Gojira and Japan. I’ve identified the my original thoughts and assumptions of Gojira and closed that unknown distance I couldn’t identify. Looking at Dai Kaiju Eiga has allowed Japan to take their rightful ownership on Gojira, and embody it in their culture. It was easy to watch Gojira and remember the moments in my life where I recognised Gojira, from American films and TV series, where Gojira had a contextual segment. However the engagement of Gojira in a greater cultural context and recognising the inapt distance between Gojira and Japan has allowed me redefine my auto ethnographic experience.