A Beautiful Mind is an article about Mulholland Drive - not the Russell Crowe film. And then there's this article about MD and his style of things at salon.com - and i'm just trying to locate a printer-friendly page - because it's pretty long (and i just really want to be un-digitally literate at present) it's not loading....hang on
David Lynch - People it's three pages long and rather like a re-cap of his life, if you haven't read 'Lynch on Lynch'. Grandma's baked a cake - so i've got to go!

Entertainment Weekly - Jan. 11, 2002: nice pictures - and a 'walk through' by david lynch apparently.

BW Online | October 16, 2001 | David Lynch's Weird, Wired World: and here's an article in the businessweek mag, by Thane Peterson . (and i'm really sorry but that name sounds like it's from Ferris Bueller or Pretty in Pink - sorry). it tells how Lynch does what he does, and praises his work.... lynch did do the animation himself, by hand! whoa.

New Architect: Inside DavidLynch.com is an article for the latest edition of new.architect magazine... it is quite technically based - but has an interesting read as to how Lynch's site came about. Writes Asaravala: "With visions of publishing his work in an unedited and unrestricted environment, Lynch began talking with designer Eric Bassett about using the web". The article also write about the structure & content of the site, and that's kind of interesting too: "...using the browser's back button isn't possible on every page...the irregularity is confusing and makes it difficult to jump around the site". apparently, these idiosyncrasies may come across as part of Lynch's personal style. the best confirmation for me is "Nothing goes up on that site without him (Lynch) seeing it." - yay. that's what's necessary!

My sections:

Hypertext evolution (a brief history)

Hypertext with Pictures?

David Lynch – Golly Gosh

Graphic Narratives….


Throughout these chapters I’d like to thread together & build a developing argument through my thesis….

Through Lynch’s work I’m asking ‘what does this picture do and why?’. How do these pictures perform in cinema, and how do they perform on the web? What could be the difference (if any)? Why are they important?

What is the potential of pictures (in cinema and the web)…?

And where is my other thesis notebook?

The storytelling and shelf appeal - common in comics' - is also evident in cinema - throughout the mainstream production of film - the storytelling is pretty obvious, and storytelling genre is pretty straightforward in Hollywood (think of 'Sleepless in Seattle' & 'You've got Mail' - or all the teen/college party romances) but cinema is more than just storytelling... whilst shelf appeal in cinema is the big-bucks-films, right? Spiderman, (funnily enough - just as shelf-appeal in comic form) etc. What I have found here, with David Lynch's cinema - there's not really any shelf appeal - mulholland dr. was vamped up by universal (i think? better check again) as the modern noir mystery (whatever) and i think that it definetely appealed to some portion of film goers - but it also baffled everybody as well....and a lot of people i've recently spoken to are angry with lynch about it... (maybe this isn't relevant) but in terms of storytelling - and back to m.d - people are always asking me what the plot was about... what was the point, etc....

But, i don't know the answer, because i don't think there is one... and enter (again) the reader response theory - here's where the 'interactivity' is at work with audiences - how people interpret lynch work is up the individual. the story isn't important, for me, parts of the film are stronger, or even just a few images and movement create meaning for me... people i talk with are very concerned that they are missing the point, or the plot - and not 'getting' it - but i'm not sure that's what lynch does - his images, music, dialogue and overall picture - make film do something different...

Reinventing Comics - Scott McCloud (2000) HarpersCollins: NY, NY

p39 "In considering comics creaters' relationships with their audience, though, it's worth noting that those bonds are far different from tho ones forged in cinema and prose. The partnership between creator and reader in comics is far more intimate and active than cinema, while conic's symbolic static images may cut straight to the heart without the continual mediation of proses' authorial voice."
Is this genuine, does it concern me - cinema isn't interactive, sure, but neither is comics. What's this about? I think it's got to do with some reader response theory, and interpretive interaction... audience response - that's as far as 'interactive' the two things go...

p39 - McCloud refers to "or the strange narrative splicing in Richard Macquire's time hopping short subject 'Here'." This is one frame shown with many different times - the same lounge room, depicting a family's occupation in the same house over many years - all in the one scene...

(Must remember to photocopy relevant pages of McCloud's work - because I want to Appendix them - to indicate how you write about theory of something (comics) and practice it (produce in comic form).

p42 "The split between comics as literature and comics, as 'high' art may seem to reflect comics' own split between words and pictures...(especially if you read too much into my choice of symbols!) But in fact, the literature of comics is a subset of the much larger issues surrounding comics and art. And the split between these two aspirations has less to do with words and pictures - and more to do with content and form. Now, as always, it's important to note that the line between content and form is a blurry one."
McCloud often talks about the words (writer) and pictures (illustrator) and re-reading his work, from my notes, I find that i'm trying to recall what the pictures were, that were in the frame too.... what's all this about content and form? the interesting thing about the split with words and pictures being a continuous one... how does film or online graphic narratives use this split - is there a split at all.... Lynch's Fire Walk With Me has a nightclub scene where the music is so loud and bass-ish and pounding - (this is leading up to Laura Palmer's death too) and people talk to each other, and there are subtitles on the screen, because the music is too loud. this has also been done in trainspotting ("What are you boys talking about?" "Football!") and i'm sure elsewhere... what does this do for the film, words and pictures - are these scenes like comics? they are 'Sequential art' or even 'juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence' (as McCloud talks about in Understanding Comics - when trying to define comics.

p46 "The life of any one human being could be seen as one immense series of actions and actions-within-actions from birth to death." p49 "And event the most trivial of actions will have an element of art...from the way we sign our names - to the distinctive way we raise a glass." Actions-within-actions? Am i just recollecting Deleuze's action-image here - for fun? or is there some connection, somehow?

p53 "The literature of comics has so far displayed only the tiniest fraction of it's potential. Comics' ability to handle layers of meaning remains so often neglected that any demonstration of it is an event."
p53 "Artists have only begun to consider new physical forms for sequential art. The design and composition of comics is still rarely seen for its own aesthetic value; usually relegated to storytelling or shelf appeal alone. And comics' ability to raise the kind of fundamental questions of form so central to art in this century has yest to be seriously tested. Finally, we have yet to fully confront the nature of works so seamlessly conceived and executed - as to defy classification as 'literature' or 'art' even as they rise to the level of comics' highest achievements."

what i'm going to do:
read through my notes, my recent library books & scan web references this week - to see what kind of stuff I'm more interested than other stuff, and write these notes into blog. You'll get a work out here - filmtheorystuff - you rock on. i'll collect stuff throughout the week, and then add them in soon.
I'm very focused on keeping my ideas central. I am looking at what these pictures do, and not what they mean. I thought i was using theories of hypertext and pictures to make sense of lynch's work - but lately, that doesn't seem relevent, because to make sense of his work is to ask 'what does this mean'?. I'd like to think that Lynch's work, in pictures, helps me make sense of theories in hypertext & pictures. So this the basic bits. the short idea. and by next week, i'd like to have a broader perspective on what i can do with this.

Short Cuts is a piece by David Balcam - i'd like to read it ! yeah ! and i'll have to see Robert Altman's Short Cuts too

Ulmer, Greg. "Grammatology Hypermedia." Postmodern Culture. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/postmodern_culture/v001/1.2ulmer.html. 1991.(May 24, 1998).

i want to access this sometime ----

just checking if the template is working here:
meeting with adrian next monday (29th?) july at 1pm - yeah - i want to post a few musings here before the meeting and then email him to read my blog.....

These are initial notes, I hope to elaborate further as I progress...
Understanding Comics: the invisible art by Scott McCloud
(Initial notes)
p69 "Participation is a powerful force in any medium. Filmmakers long ago realised the importance of allowing viewers to use their imagination. . .But while film makes use of audience's imaginations for occassional effects, comics must use it far more often."

p80 "In examining several Japanese Artists, we find similar proportions to Tezuka's, including a high incidence of the fifth type (aspect to aspect). Why? Length may be one of the factors at work here. Most Japanese comics first appear in enormous anthology titles where the pressure isn't as great on any one installment to show a lot 'happening'. When individual features are collected, they may run for thousands of pages.
As such, dozens of panels can be devoted to portraying slow cinematic movement or to setting a mood.
But I don't think longer stories are the only factor, or even the most important one. I believe there's something a bit more fundamental to this particular east/west split."

p81 "Traditional Western art and literature don't wander much. On the whole, we're a pretty goal-orientated culture. But, in the east, there's a rich tradition of cyclical and labyrinthine works of art.
Japanese comics may be heirs to this tradition, in the way they so often emphasize being there over getting there. Through these and other storytelling techniques, the Japanese offer a vision of comics very different from our own. For in Japan more than anywhere else, comics is an art..." The point he makes here about 'being there' - existing - over the getting there, to the end, to the goal. striving for closure, and creating achievment through endism. i'm not sure if that's all real, but if i'm looking at pictures and hypertext, it seems relevent - for the pictures exist - they are there. the plot, narrative or whatever are ongoing facters here. the pictures and the 'being there' parts here are quite interesting. more on this later.

(continues over to p82) "...of intervals. The idea that elements omitted from a work of art are as much a part of that work as those included has been a speciality of the east for centuries."

p92 "The comics creator asks us to join in a silent dance of the seen and the unseen. The visible and the invisible.
This dance is unique to comics. No other artform gives so much to its audience while asking so much from them as well.
This is why I think it's a mistake to see comics as a mere hybrid of the graphic arts and prose fiction. What happens between these panels is a kind of magic only comics can create."

p93 "Here in this studio, I've tried to control that process and use it to make my case. But I can only point the way. I can't take you anywhere you don't want to go.
All I can do is make assumptions about you and hope that they're correct...
...Just as we all assume, every day, that there's more to life than meets the eye. All I ask of you is a little faith...and a world of imagination."

oh, and someone (amy alexander?) mentioned the pillow book circa 1990s? stars ewan macgreggor - & has text, image overplaying...? not sure will have to find out.

and then i saw the misfits @ the astor.
i was really upset by this film, and didn't realise until the end. there were a few reasons: i couldn't believe that marilyn monroe's character was treated the way she was. i hated the old cowboy, and the rest of them.
and then i got thinking about the black&white (although there was colour by then) and how very beautiful everything was, it's a road movie with no where to go. they only go up to the hills for the wild horses ( to kill them, & then let them go eventually) they are just wandering misfits... and it's uncomfortable to see that (esp. since i've seen SomeLikeitHot, and How to Marry a Millionaire - very different films. why do i love musicals so much? it doesn't spell reality, it spells it in a glorious way - it's a different way/process to reality?)

ok, my catch up - i watched timecode (figgis) and although the sound gives you a sense on which image to focus on, i still think a viewer can control the narrative... it would have been better to see in the cinema (so i'll have to look out for it) because the figures were so much smaller (seemed smaller). i was impressed that the four cameras/shots were continuous and simultaneously playing, i wonder if there were more cameras, and they narrowed/selected the shots to these four? it was amazing at time that the cameras didn't spy each other. i think i'll watch it again (at mum & dad's) their tv is bigger.

yay, the derrida documentary is on the 1st of August at 5pm, The Forum Theatre! the filmmakers will be there! i'm going to book tickets soon i think! Oh Vincent said i can use his tax deductible mini pass to get in! but i have to book! whoa! i just did a bunch of typing before and my head was looking down and then i think i did some ctrl thingie and the whole text disappeared - blasted fingernails - i'm cutting them off as soon as i get off this computer.
i haven't mentioned my new hair colour (blind grandma says strawberry blonde - although i do feel like laura palmer occasionally) nor my ability to knit scarves for cold necks - adrian ? what are your favourite two colours? knitting is quite fabulous, because (unlike sewing) you can do many things at the same time. watch movies/tv and read books/newspapers/comics. you can knit at work (only at khokolat bar on the weekends - extra $) and you cannot, i repeat cannot, knit in the car - i haven't tried because although i'd absolutely love to, i'd have an accident.
so! i have a relaxing passtime. in terms of researching, i'm only pottering around at this stage. scott mcloud to follow.

I've found Genette, goodness sakes, spelling is sooooo important in a search!

I had an error 503 - just publishing again!

i've been looking into the narratology stuff - and whilst i've gotten lost - i've found these:

Shlomith Rimmon-Kennan "Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics" 1983
&
Genette "Narrative Discourse"

But, i can't seem to find the books anywhere - what to do? what to do? i've not got any money - otherwise i'd be shopping on the online books site.... grrrrr.

i've got a lot to write about - but i'm in a hurry at the moment ( i think i'll come back tonight ).
I'm in sale (surprised?) and i want to write about chronicle of a death foretold (novel), night (novel), timecode (film - haven't got around to it yet), understanding comics (comic theory & notes on comic theory) & the misfits (film @ the astor sunday night). i also will write up what i've been up to - and then! hopefully change my template - sick to death of it. see you later aligator.

ok, a rundown for me to date: i feel very busy, but i'm trying to see what i've been busy about, and i've not a lot to prove.....

Ok! i'm in sale once again, and got down here about six o'clock. i went throught the glossary links, and changed them to google search results for the word and mark amerika, very funny. it seemed to work ok, although, just realised i only check a few of them....
i've been think about changing the template for my blog, and creating one myself. i like beige back ground, or softer grey with brown or burgandy writing or dark charcoal writing respectively. um.... whatever! i just don't think i can deal with these little boxes-cum-post-it notes anylonger.

we had our presentation yesterday for v.o.t and it seemed to go really well. i like soooooooo much of the project (in completion) there were a few manageable things that needed to be changed (adrian's suggs.) and that all seemed reasonable too!!!
in terms of thesis stuff - i'll start collecting a lot of research here in this blog and then grimace and gripe in my honours blog where most of the admin stuff will be.... BUT! hence the change of template, for i'd like to use this blog with the hope that what i write here will become thesis stuff... like some guide for it.... and i just can't think/read the post it's clearly...! yeah!
anyways, what i'm doing at the moment is reading scott mccloud again, and i've also got his newish book to read..... i'm also reading 'chronicle of a death foretold' by some dude (of course i'll write it down!) which is a very interesting story, but the narrative is told in an interesting way, and when i told claire (bestie) that i needed to look into narratology for my thesis, she handed me a few notes from her writing classes - and a couple of books. i like it so far. i don't think we ever find out who the narrator is, although he talks about 'me', and 'my sister said this' and so on, he's never mentioned, and his connection is not so obvious with the overall narrative so far. it doesn't seem that first person, second person (whatever) applies. but i haven't finished yet!!! i'll see if it's worthwhile making notes then. but i do need to find the narratologists...... maybe this weekend i'll get a hold of the books!!!
now, i was just thinking throughout that typing effort (although i'm a fast typer, the brain patterns/thoughts are still toooooo fast) anyways, i was thinking about ( and )'s and then i thought about adrian because he uses * when putting italics or a bold on a word, like "amelia is *way* cool" and then i thought maybe that's because eight is a really easy number to hit, and it's the same key to hit, itstead of ( and ) which are on different keys, and then i thought 'oh my god, six is my favourite number and i never even use it's friend the ^!!!!" and why would one use the ^ icon, what is this for (i've been thinking about icons, and what they are, thanks to scott mc, but also in trying to work out what kind of icons are in d.lynch or film or animation - for they are so identifyable in comics) oh, 66666666666666^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ i love you guys 66666666666666666^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


ok, see you later, i'll write more when i'm smarter, and i don't have to go to bed right now. it's so early - but that's what happens to a working abc breakfast woman..... you have to go to bed at 9.30pm.