Context of Practice: Final Piece

Below is my final piece for the context of practice unit that we started a few weeks ago. It has been very insightful into the history of such a well known franchise and I truly believe that I have been able to successfully demonstrate that I can take the history of something, in this case medium for the masses, and make a presentation/video out of it in the end, with the only regrets of it being that I couldn't add any video footage into it as I didn't have time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWuwso2xfnQ&feature=youtu.be

Background Research: Other Games

The Lord of the Rings franchise has also seen the release of other games which are adaptations of the original and some are good and some are excellent to play, especially the newer ones and the ones with a multiplayer feature as this gives it a lot more capabilities as a game to improve further with more add ons and mods. Some of the other games include Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring which is a nice little strategy game based around battles and building up an empire either on the side of the fellowship or the side of Sauron. There are also playable characters that are included from the films on either side, although not all the main characters, but in my opinion it could have been designed better and does lack some amount of effort in places.

The next game which is quite interesting is Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth, which again like the War of the Rings is a real time strategy game. This game as well is like the games based off the films, as it also uses short film clips within game play and also has actor voice over which is a nice touch to the game. This game uses the same concepts of The War of the Ring in terms of the different factions you can play as but as this game was made later on it has been improved further and you can play in this game as either the Horse-Lords of Rohan or Gondor on the side of the Free-peoples of Middle Earth or you can choose the side of Darkness and choose Mordor with it's Orc's and Troll's or Isengard as the Uruk-Hai.

The next game I want to mention is Lord of the Rings: Conquest. This is the different game out of the two already mentioned as this is not a strategy game but an action one. This game is a lot like Star Wars: Battlefront in the way that you can be either side playing in round where you fight either good or evil, depending on which side you are, in a battle to try and win. This was not the best of gaming examples from the franchise as it isn't as exacting as the main games and it has limitations in terms of what you can actually do.

The last game that I am going to mention is probably the most exciting one, and it has been free to play as it is Lord of the Rings: Online. This is an online download of basically Middle Earth that has been modeled into an open world experience. This game is a lot like World of Warcraft, and is right up my street as it includes both storyline and combat at the same time, making it an exciting gaming experience. There have been 4 expansion packs for this game now which can be downloaded, the fastest method being through Steam, and the graphics are excellent as well; providing you have a graphics card that is fast enough to process everything as when running in HD the game does look stunning. 

Background History: The Return of the King Video Game

Then last but not least came the third installment of the video games based directly on the films. This of course was based on the last film and came out in 2003 just after the last film was released. Again their is a considerable amount of different in the graphics from the first one especially and it makes a much better playing experience as there is better control with the characters and it is definitely more exciting as this is the film in which the most battles take place as well allowing more combat within the game.

Again like the second one, you are thrown head first into a battle, first starting with a moving Cate Blanchett performance from the film, but almost identically to the second one it starts you off in a cut scene from the film and then mid way through, like in the second game, it will suddenly change into a slightly bad looking version of the film in game form, although much improved graphics from the first games, where you play through Helms Deep to begin with. This again did annoy me slightly when playing the game, only because this is actually part of the second film, but due to the fact they needed to open the game with an unexpected bang where you don't actually know your going to be playing so you die within the first minute.

Background History: The Two Towers Video Game

Again following in order the books the next game to be made was The Two Towers, again following the same concept as before in which you are Frodo and you continue on your adventure across Middle Earth. Although this game came out in the same year as the first one(2002), it has considerately better graphics and follows the films more than the books, unlike the first game, due to the change in company going from Vivendi Universal Games to the more popular and well known Electronic Arts. 

This was actually quite a strange film, even though it had the title The Two Towers, it was actually a playthrough of some of the first game as well as the second. It had a rather strange mix of the first game, starting at Mount Doom you played as, I think, Isildor and start in the battle, but after about 15 minutes your already up to the Mines of Moria, as you only play as the men, elves and dwarves in this game, not Frodo or the other Hobbits. The only other thing that bugged me about this game, and scared me in places is when it cuts from the movie scenes, as this is an Electronic Arts game who usually used movie footage in their games around this time, to the scenes where you play; due to the graphics being quite poor and sometimes scary in places.

Background History: The Fellowship of the Ring Video Game

^{The very first one that is worth mentioning is the game and is based on the actions of the first book following mainly Frodo as he journey's through Middle Earth and later on playing as Aragon and Gandalf briefly. This may not be the most exciting games due to the limited graphics and the slightly strange character movement and lack of objects in the game environment, but it is definitely one of the best early games which was created.} 

Despite the bad game graphics, especially for an early 2000s game, it is actually a lot of fun to play as there is a sense of freedom as you can walk into different houses, even though some appear to be much larger on the inside than look on the outside and do not contain a vast amount of furniture, and there are also lots of levels to play through and explore in some detail.

Backgorund Research: The Films

^{After the books where produced nearly half a century later along came Peter Jackson and he was able to create a masterpiece that is The Lord of the Rings franchise that we all know and love. Sure there have been other films in between this one and the newest one but none of them compare to how good and ingenious these particular films where, and this is the reason why I have chosen to look at them in this way for my brief. I did want to look further into the background and the other films though before starting my artefact, because as a child I did in fact watch an older version of Lord of the Rings which is probably the reason I had to see the others.} 

^{The first Lord of the Rings film was a 1978 American fantasy film directed by Ralph Bakshi. This was a direct adaptation of the trilogy and is actually very accurate which was surprising to me at first. When looking at the character then and comparing them to the actors that play them now, you can see that there are so many similarities between them, and when looking at an image of the Fellowship from this earlier film, after you have seem the new adaptations of course, you can easily tell who is who due to how they dress and how we now imagine them to look (Well except for the hobbits as they all look the same in this film.)}

^{After this film Rankin/Bass then brought out another film, entitled The Return of the King in 1980, which was obviously an adaptation from Tolkien's third book, but again followed the same animation musical influence from their version of The Hobbit. This again was a special air and ran at 98 minutes long but the feedback from the film wasn't that positive, and just by looking at the theatrical poster you can see why it might not have been a huge success.}

Background History: The Books

Once the Hobbit had been released it became an instant hit with the fans across the country, and later on world wide when printing had become more advanced. The trilogy when it was first published was released in 6 different book, each trilogy being split into 2 separate books themselves. Due to the fact the The Hobbit was originally a children's fantasy book set in Middle Earth Tolkien moved these books on a step making them for a wider audience so that older generations could enjoy them more as there was a more complex story to it and it introduced so many more characters into the picture; each with there own confusingly spelt name that you don't ever have a chance of being able to say. The books were written in stages, during the war, between 1937 and 1949 until it was finally published for the first time from 1954-55.

^{Influences:
Throughout the books development, Tolkien too inspiration from a number of sources. He personally had great interests in philology, religion (particularly Roman Catholicism), fairy tales, Norse and general Germanic mythology, and also Celtic, Slavic, Persian and Finnish mythology. Some locations that where featured in the books where also considered to be inspired by Tolkien's childhood in Birmingham and there are also hints to the Black Country. It is also said that The Shire and its surrounding were based on the countryside in and around Lancaster.}

Background History: The Hobbit

To begin, I started to look into the background and history of how the idea of Lord of the Rings first came about and started right at the beginning in 1954 when J.R.R Tolkien released the first copy of his trilogy, and the mass media for this subject began.

(Lord of the Rings, covers designed by J.R.R. Tolkien)

Before their was Lord of the Rings, Tolkien also wrote and published a book in 1937 entitled 'The Hobbit' which followed Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey on their adventures around Middle Earth accompanied by 13 dwarves, Thorin, Balin, Dwalin, Kili, Fili, Bombar, Ori, Nori, Dori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur and Bofur. This book being the prequel to Lord of the Rings makes it very important to the history of it as it is were the story began and is also an introduction to some of the main characters, like Bilbo and Gandalf and when watching back Lord of the Rings after you have read this book you realise just how many references there actually are to The Hobbit, such as Bilbo's journey to the Misty Mountains and to Rivendell, and even learning about Gollum's hatred for hobbits in the first place.

75 years later, and The Hobbit was remade into the masterpiece that is shown below in a simple picture of the 13 dwarves of Dale and The Lonely Mountain. Even though there have been films in between of the Hobbit including the 1977 animated musical television version which was produced by Rankin/Bass, which by looking at the image of the theatrical poster looks like a very interesting film to see (insert sarcasm). Then the other film that was brought out in 1985 looks even more strange, especially the image of Bilbo sitting next to a person who is meant to be Gollum, and after watching Peter Jackson's version of the films, who just doesn't seem right. Rather than this film being the story Tolkien wrote, this is a Russian adaptation entitled 'The Fabulous Journey of Mr. Bilbo Baggins the Hobbit', which in my opinion is a rather lengthy title that does not need to be that long.

Context of Practice: Quick Artefact

Over the last few weeks we have been working towards creating a quick minute or so long practical artefact to go along side our essays (which will be published shortly). For this we had to create either an animation, presentation or a short film to go with our essay based on one of our lectures or seminars that we attended throughout the course of the year. After finishing our lectures for the year I then decided which one I enjoyed the most and came to the decision of A Medium for the Masses. this lecture was about different media, film for example, maybe not at its best but certainly the most popular and big hitters with the audience. A few to name would be the Harry Potter franchise and Star Wars, but the one I decided to base my mini project on was The Lord of the Rings due to the fact that it is not only my favourite film but also one of the most popular films to date and was a massive hit in the box office.

For this brief in particular I had to be able to contextualise some of the historical and theoretical aspects of film, games and animation, and due to the subject I have chosen, Media for the Masses, this was clear that I needed to go into further research into the history and background of how the idea was brought to light in the first place and how it was then developed in the way it was. 

Context of Practice: Williams Vs Mcluhan

Mcluhan, M. Selected Material from Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, in Giddings, S. and Lister, M. (eds.) (2011) The New Media and Technocultures Reade, London and New York, Routledge, Pages 82-91

Williams, R. The Technology and the Society, in Giddings, S. and Lister, M. (eds.) (2011) The New Media and Technocultures Reade, London and New York, Routledge, Pages 92-104

When comparing the two texts it is clear that there are definite similarities and differences between the two writers concerning the media, technology and society and how they all link together and influence each other. It is also apparent that each have different views upon the matter and have reasons behind them which need to be explored further to reach a conclusion as to whom is correct and incorrect or simply which makes more logical sense. 

To begin with, Mcluhan’s text sets off the pace when talking about technology and how the media has become affect by it or affected it itself. Mcluhan argues that ‘the relationships between technology, culture and society are seen as dismissive of other economic, historical and social determines.’[i] When looking more closely at his text we can see that he is trying to argue that there is no relationship between technology, culture and society in terms of economic, historical and social discussions, with which he then goes on to say that ‘media technologies should be understood as ‘extensions of man’.’[ii] ‘These have been extensions of the body senses: the eye, the skin, the hand, and the foot.’[iii] Therefore he believes that ‘the nature of the medium through which people communicate which shapes a given society and not the particular message it carries’.[iv] For example, in an extreme case if someone close to you had passed away you would prefer to hear it in person and not over the phone or on the news from the television. 

Differentially, when then looking at William’s text in comparison it becomes apparent that he has a very different outlook on the matter when it comes to looking at technology and how it has been either influenced or not. ‘Williams argues whatever form any particular developing media technology may take, there is for him nothing in the technology to make this inevitable’. [v] Throughout the first section of the text it becomes difficult to see what he is trying to argue as Williams states that there is nothing in technology to make this inevitable but it is yet clear as to what this inevitability is until further on. Later on in the text Williams makes a point of saying that ‘technological devices or systems are not the inevitable result of either clear consumer demand or their own inherent logic’. [vi] Following this quote it starts to become clearer what he is trying to argue; whether it is down to the consumer (or media’s) fault that we have technology the way it is today, which is a valid argument that has a number of plausible answers. A good example of what he is trying to explain here is this quote that he uses himself as an example to back up what he means: ‘The television did not supersede cinema because it improved picture quality, but rather because it chimed with a broad economic and cultural move.’[vii]

 

Now Williams settles into his argument bringing in valid point about technology, and more specifically the television. As the television was invented it was inevitable that change was going to happen but what Williams is trying to argue is that if the television had not been invented we would not live the way we do, but he then goes on to question himself, wondering if we are the way we are because of the technology or if we have made the technology this way because of the way we are in the first place. He states some ideas down looking at whether the television was down to the result of scientific and technological research or whether there were possibilities of research after it was here. 

When comparing them both together it is clear that they both serve good arguments into their particular field of knowledge but the one that makes the most sense in all is Williams argument due to the fact that there is an obvious link between society and technology and the media, and it is also possible how his argument would come into play in the real world. There is also a clear argument in his text where he speaks about the different ways technology has affected them, (Page 94, Line 1-31). The first half (points 1-5) argues that ‘beyond the development of technology there is no reason why any particular invention should have come about’[viii], which implies that ‘if television had not been invented, this argument would run, certain definite social and cultural events would not have occurred.’[ix] Whereas then he moves on to say about the second half (points 6-9) ‘if television had not been invented, this argument runs, we would still be manipulated or mindlessly entertained, but in some other way and perhaps less powerfully.’[x] So to finish off the two views can go either way ‘it is either a self-acting force which creates new way of life, or it is a self-acting force, which provides materials for new ways of life’[xi] but in the end what they both have in common is that ‘television has altered our world.’[xii]

---

[i] Page 82, Line 1

[ii] Page 82, Line 11

[iii] Page 82, Line 12

[iv] Page 82, Line 20

[v] Page 92, Line 4

[vi] Page 92, Line 10

[vii] Page 92, Line 12

[viii] Page 94, Line 36

[ix] Page 94, Line 39

[x] Page 94, Line 43

[xi] Page 95, Line 28

[xii] Page 95, Line 1

Context of Practice: At the Edge of Art Text

Blais, J. And Ippolito, J. (2006), At the Edge of Art, London, Thames and Hudson, Introduction, pages 7-13

In this particular case, the work of Joe Davies is not alone other ‘artists’ have now started to carry out similar experiments to the ones he has been performing to be able to find out if art has become ‘embedded in a bacterial genome’[i]Joe Davies in particular wanted to start carrying out experiments to uncover similarities and different in works and how they be used to an advantage as well. It is stated that ‘one reason is a shift interest from traditional forms to new-media tools and technologies’[ii] which would imply that artists and poets have become this way due to new advances in technologies and they are almost trying to keep up with the forever quickening pace of new discoveries. 

Recently, again due to advancements in technology the art world has gone more viral and more websites are appearing connected to art; meaning that those ‘who would never set foot in a gallery stumble across works of art’[iii] by the off chance. Although this may seem like the end of galleries and museums due to these websites but it could still be argued that you do not get to truly appreciate that art anymore. When looking at an online image of artwork it may be easier to access due to the Web being at our fingertips but the true feelings for the artistry no longer; as brush strokes aren’t clear and it no longer becomes a one off piece that can be valued and treasured. 

In the text Art as Antibody there is speculation into how much we actually need art in our lives. According to the text, we do need it to survive. ‘Art may be temporally out of place, but society needs to make place for it because society needs art to survive’[iv] is an extract taken from the text and rather dramatically states that without art we wouldn’t be able to cope. This is a unique argument due to the fact that the society is ever changing and sometimes there is no room for art to be a part of it; due to technology taking its place in some instances. But whether or not to call art an antibody or liken it to an antibody could be taking it a step too far in some cases and as stated in the text: ‘portraying art as a virus may describe some of it proclivities but is misleading.’[v]

On the other hand, ‘a better example of a cultural phenomenon that acts like a virus might be technology.’[vi] We now bring a new argument to the table from the text Technology is a Virus. It states that ‘No artwork has ever brought us to the brink of extinction’[vii] which is a powerful statement to argue just how much of a killer technology can be while artwork may cause controversy and spark debate amongst scholars and the general public, it doesn’t have the physical capability to destroy mankind. Differentially, what this text is trying to convey is how much damage technology can actually cause as we have the power to press a ‘few buttons to pound the worlds cities into radioactive rubble’[viii] as the text has so crudely put. 

‘The only way for art to keep up with the energetic pace of technology in the Internet age is to adopt many of its functions.’[ix] The technology age that we are currently in means that art is being phased out unless it uses some of the techniques technology has to offer. The age of art needs to be redesigned and adapted so that it can successfully move forward and find a place in the new world. In terms of whether or not we need art as part of our community is another question and art needs to move onwards and upwards with the times to have ‘lasting social impact.’[x]

‘So, what makes an antibody different from a virus – and art different from mere technological innovation?’[xi] In the short run there is not a lot of difference between the two. Both arguments are pretty clear in a way that an antibody will do its best to protect the body from the infection and if need be take on aspects of the virus to be able to keep up with it. This is the same with the art vs. technology discussion. In order to preserve itself art has had to use aspects of technology to make it thrive in the ever advancing world – even if it means taking on aspects of it to improve itself further.

---

[i] Page 7, Line 3

[ii] Page 7, Line 27

[iii] Page 8, Line 26

[iv] Page 8, Line 4

[v] Page 9, Line 27

[vi] Page 9, Line 30

[vii] Page 9, Line 37

[viii] Page 9, Line 37

[ix] Page 10, Line 40

[x] Page 11, Line 6

[xi] Page 11, Line 44