PressPausePlay

The form of art, film and music is ever changing, as time progresses the expectations of the industry changes

to fit the new form of incoming artists.  In the past, it was common only for those in the 'elite' group - those who had time and money to spend, could go and visit great works of art that were considered in that time to be a rare sighting. Nowadays it is more common for a individual to see a piece of art that had previously considered to be in limited access. Anyone today who has a source such as a computer, phone, or even a souvenir can see these types of art without having to see the real thing. Today's generation has more access than ever before and with it comes a new source of profiling artistry. A term known as 'democratization' describes this process - everyone having equal access to media and technology. The documentary 'PressPausePlay' delves into this discussion, questioning what the process of democratization has of value, and if these values are helpful or harmful to the budding cultural changes. Some are opposed to this new change, and want things to stay 'elitist' where only a chosen few are cut out for the business with the right  talent. And others embrace this as a means of putting themselves out there, they want to show the world that what they can do, that they have something to offer.  "With a lot more people making music, and music is definitely democratized now, to where anyone can make an album. Any single person with the most minimal software can make a record, put the record on the internet, and let the entire world know they exist, the problem is everyone's doing that" (Christopher Weingarten - Music Journalist, presspauseplay). This quote may be referencing to the idea  of democratization where when everyone has access - and anyone can make something an put it up on the internet it almost ruins the idea of people having a society built up on talent and fame, but now with everyone doing it, it makes it much harder for other competing artists to survive in this kind of society. If everyone thinks that they have the greatest idea that only they can offer, and if everything they are making is mediocre, then the concept of real talent is taken away. "Anybody can go out and make a movie, anybody who has fifteen hundred dollars can buy a camera, even if you don't, there's so many ways to make a movie, to distribute your film on the internet, there's a million different platforms, and that's all really good for people who want to express themselves, but it makes it harder to break through all of the noise" (Lena Dunham - Film Director, presspauseplay). Quite like the quote suggests, the idea of democratization, and the distribution and making of art is good for those who want to try their hand at something such as photography, but for someone else who might be trying to possibly make a living off of that same scaffolding, it bemes difficult to separate through all of the music and art being made. For someone to make a serious career, they would have to depend on critiques, and sponsors to sift through everything and find them. With everyone doing the same thing it makes the competition to be seen much more difficult and strenuous.          

        More and more opportunities present themselves today for new generations to find ways of communicating, processing, constructing and spreading forms of art. The uprising of a digital revolution has created a new turn for the ways in which people listen to, explore and view media. The spis that everyone believes that reading epidemic of using the internet for recognition and fame, though has essentially killed music stores, monopolized musicians, and sales in marketing for the music industry. People can illegally download music, or simply create their own. In a world where it is easy to make a piece of art and put it up onto of one the many sites that pervade internet where everyone follows the same ideals of making their own art form, where everyone is the artist - there becomes an atmosphere of self preservation.hen everyone is the artist - there is no audience.  "What happens with the media now is that, you go to a concert, there's ten thousand people there, the difference is; that everyone believes that they are the artist, and everyone else is the audience. The problem with that of course, is everyone else thinks the same" (David Girhammer - pop magazine, presspauseplay). This quote explains the problem with everyone trying to exercise their creativity; is that everyone is the artist - there begins a breakup of community; while no one is left to enjoy other types of music (again with the idea of sifting through and finding the 'talent' that resides in a sea of ordinary types of art).

When a performer gets on stage to perform - they have an audience, and then everyone else has an audience too when they film, or take a recording and throw it up on the internet for everyone to see. the point of going out to see the performance is then broken down - as then anyone can just easily look up a video on YouTube and in such a way, are denying themselves the experience of seeing the art, or performance in person. Another issue with the democratization of art, some people argue, is that the expectations for artists these days has dropped, and lowered. From a standpoint of some; technology can just easily be used to 'fix' what is wrong with the problem (i.e auto-tune). "Younger musicians, and some older ones are guilty of this to, where they rely to much on the technology. They give a substandard, they give a sub par performance, and they expect the technology to compensate for it. You have a tool that does that, You can tune that, you can edit this to death. You can adjust this, you can adjust that" (Nick Sansano - Music Producer, presspauseplay). Now with technology aspiring artists and the like can just simply adjust what they don't like, rather than work on correcting the problem. The rapid use of technology has provided the opportunity for many to create their own art, but at the price of breaking down the ideals of what is art, and who is seen as the artist, or who is good enough to be the artist. Democratization can have a few different points in viewing that affect the artist industry - as new artists are using the technology at their advantage. It is good for some, and troubling for others. The 'elite' who think more towards the ideals of  art being only for those who are deserving and not for those who can just make something on a laptop at home, are more open to the idea of art being a private setting - only there for those chosen for it. But as the movie entails, it shows how the process of democratization can be beneficial, and yet how it can lower the standards for the industry, or what is left of it.  

Ceremony + Smoke Signals Reflection

Both Ceremony, written by Leslie Marmon Silko and Smoke Signals directed by Chris Eyre (screenplay by Sherman Alexie) are both examples of how native culture is presented - through literature and film. Smoke Signals tells the story of Thomas - who is considered a nerd on his reservation. His parents were killed in a fire and he was saved by his friends father (Arnold). When Victor (Thomas's friend) hears his dad dies - after he left 10 years ago he and Thomas go on a journey to find out what happened to him. After they leave the Coeur d'Alene reservation land, they take the bus to get to where Victor's father was last seen. Along the way Thomas constantly tells stories to appease Victor's mind about his father - and the idea of his father that Victor keeps. While they are on the bus they meet a gymnast - who was supposedly in the Olympics - and Victor tells her off saying she can't complain.  Also along the way Victor teaches Thomas how to act like 'a real Native' (the strong stoic stereotype), and he reinforces this idea by having Thomas act the part. "Thomas, don't you even know how to be a real Indian? How many times have you seen 'Dances with Wolves' anyways? 100..200 times? Oh Jesus Thomas, you have seen it that many times?" (Alexie, 'Smoke Signals').  In the movie 'Smoke Signals' both Thomas and Victor could be interpreted as being the stereotype characters seen in many other films about the native tribes. (Victor - the strong, stoic one, and Thomas - the peaceful, in tune with nature type). But as the movie shows that is not all they can represent - when the film shows many other aspects of their personalities - perhaps even mirroring each other. Many theme's are similar as seen in Ceremony as well as in Smoke Signals such as: racism, alcoholism, stereotypes, communication, and healing through story telling. (As shown in Ceremony - with Tayo and his friends using alcohol to numb pain, does Victor's dad, and how Thomas help Victor heal with stories about the good in his father, as Tayo received and heard stories from Betonie, Josiah and others. They both use the idea of healing through story telling as a form of  communication as well - in both stories both main characters (Tayo / Victor and Thomas) use stories to communicate and understand other people and the past / history with better clearance. "I will tell you something about stories..They aren't just entertainment . Don't be fooled. They are all we have, you see, to fight off illness and death" (Silko). The representation of native cultures through the use of literature and film show the differences and similarities and ties in how stories are told.

Ceremony reflection

Tayo's expedition to unearth his true self through the Ceremony and his pilgrimage  across the land - measures from the war to the plains where the cattle were found. Tayo's journey is introduced to the reader as he awakens from a terrible nightmare of the war mixed with the melody of the song 'Y volvere' - a remembrance of his mother. The novel leads the readers through Tayo's life - seen from his point of view, with memories blurring and melding together with the present time. Constantly Tayo's memories are in upheaval as he struggles with both comforting and disquieting thoughts that seem to blend and cause a disarray in Tayo's mind, further condemning him to look back in a reflection of his life in a sort of equilibrium between his memories. As he returns from the war - after having lost his cousin Rocky, he is treated with contempt from the people whose respect vanished with the absence of his uniform, to his own family - the ones who took him in after his mother left him.  From then on even after leaving the hospital people around him insist that he see a healer - while not quite discounting the amount of respect in the community it will cost them. After meeting with the medicine man, Tayo gains some help for his plight, but is not healed of the destruction that rages in him. In a further search to heal the recurring past that invades his thoughts - Tayo looks for the cattle - and in doing so he becomes at peace with Josiah - his death, and the flashbacks to the war that centered around his uncle. From the cattle Tayo finds Ts'eh - who resembles the figure of earth much like Night Swan does with Spring. Both symbolize Tayo's concern for getting in touch with nature - a part of his healing and acceptance. Soon to follow in the steps of the destroyers plans - Emo and his crowd of friends convince others already bred by hate that Tayo is dangerous and is a threat to the peace of the town / reservation. They try to lure him into completing the dark ways of the destroyers through use of witchery but Tayo resists and the plan is disassembled. The account of the destroyers finishes and the old tales are merged with the new. "Whirling darkness started its journey with its witchery and its witchery has returned upon it... it is dead for now" (Silko 242-243). The darkness recedes and makes way for a time of change. As the story of the destroyers comes to an end, so in turn does Tayo's, and he finally comes into completion of the ceremony in the search for the cure that will bring him back to his true self.

Ceremony Discussion (#6)

Tayo's journey to discover himself in 'Ceremony' continues as he travels across the land in search of Josiah's cattle. But before he finds them he meets a woman named Ts'eh - who directs him to where he might find the cattle. Eventually he discovers them (on land now owned by a white man). He finds a good place in the fence to cut a hole through for the cattle. And although Tayo finds the cattle they soon disappear from sight. He later is then captured by the man who owns the land and wants to put Tayo in jail for trespassing, but decides its to much trouble. Just before Tayo is trying to free the cattle he presumes are Josiah's  he has a kind of revelation about the the land and the people who now harvested it. "The loggers shot the bears and the mountain lions for sport. And it was then the Laguna people understood that the land had been taken, because they couldn't stop these white people from coming to destroy the animals and the land" (Silko 172). In this passage it is shown that the beautiful landscape that Tayo is witnessing has a sense of obsolescence - it was used by the white people to hunt for differing reasons and the land starts to die. The land has been taken away from the Laguna people and they see the affects it has had on the land - the new owners are destructive and bring about discord to the terrain. (again back to the idea that the white people are not as connected with the land as the tribes were and now that has taken its toll on the area). Later on Tayo returns to Ts'eh's house where he finds her again. When he speaks to her the second time she also disappears and Tayo leaves and goes back home. But he still dreams of her and he is almost surrounded by her presence even when she is not near him. "He was dreaming of her arms around him strong, when the rain on the tin roof woke him up. The wet earth smell came in from the window that Robert propped open with an old shoes the night before. He was overwhelmed by the love he felt for her; tears filled his eyes, and the ache in his throat ran deep into his chest" (silko 202). It is evident to see that Tayo associates 'Earth' with Ts'eh much like he does with Night Swan - who is 'Spring'. Both of them stand for an element of nature - and both help to along with Tayo's healing process. By learning from them  ideals and insight Tao starts to recognize the path ahead - as he gets closer to finding out who he is.