The Spirit of Utopia and the Birth of the Cinematic Machine
In the first chapter of the book, Rutsky pays attention to the emergence of the cinematic machine, designed to convey a utopian view of the world. Before proceeding to a more detailed analysis of the chapter, it is worth saying that its methodological basis is a comprehensive culturological approach to the phenomenon of ambiutopicity in cinema. It includes such special methods as art criticism, historical-cultural and historical-typological (Rutsky, 1999). This point of view of the author is connected with the fact that Rutsky considers the process of the emergence and primary development of cinema from the point of view of psychology.
The author mentions the views of Jung and Freud, popular then, and notes the public craving for utopia, which results in the desire to create an image of an ideal society in the realized form of cinema. Currently, this genre has actually turned into historicism, at least in the original sense, retaining the disparaging designation of an unattainable project or inappropriate fantasies, fantastic, but ghostly worlds (Rutsky, 1999). However, at the initial stages of the creation of cinema from the perspective of a modernist approach, there were attempts to create a pure authentic utopia genre.
The Mediation of Technology and Gender
Nowadays, when society is being transformed and the world is becoming one, the living conditions and needs of society are changing, and the person himself is changing. Therefore, an important aspect of this chapter is how changes taking place in society lead to a change in the system of values and personal meanings of a person, which in turn leads to a change in the standards of femininity and masculinity (Rutsky, 1999). Rutsky traces the development of philosophical schools’ ideas about femininity, masculinity from antiquity to modern days.
The author emphasizes that the philosophers of antiquity and the Middle Ages considered a woman as a deviation from a man, from nature. However, modern technologies, according to Rutsky, are built on more progressive views. Among the views listed by the author is Freud’s scientific understanding of gender, as well as the proclamation of the need for women’s equality (Rutsky, 1999). In addition, the author considers an important aspect of the Mediation of technology and gender to be the coming to power of the German Nazis, who introduced their own standards of what is feminine and what is masculine.
The Avant-Garde Techne and the Myth of Functional Form
Rutsky claims that at the center of the European avant-garde is a Great Machine in its various guises. Unlike the Modernist era, where a real interest in science, its technical capabilities and machines has not yet been formed. The Western European avant-garde accepted the machine as a kind of new, higher Reality that replaced the old one – the reality of Nature (Rutsky, 1999). The author writes that the Machine that displaces the natural is the expected, dehumanized new Nature. He claims that revolution is the process of creating a new mega-machine (Rutsky, 1999). According to the author, it could not have become possible if it had not possessed such a machine capable of destroying the former political system.
Within the Space of High Tech
In this chapter, one of the most interesting aspects noted by the scientist is the consideration of the perception of high tech from the point of view of psychology. Throughout the article, Rutsky refers to the theories of Gibson, who believed that one of the most persistent misconceptions in the history of psychology is the belief that a mesh image is something designed to be looked at (Rutsky, 1999). Rutsky pays a lot of attention to criticizing the concept of the inner image. Gibson proposed to expand the former eye-to-brain system, which absorbed the attention of many researchers.
Rutsky agrees with the statement, and writes that the perception of the movement of an objective action therefore no longer leads to a spatial, but a semantic image. It is these movements that make various and complex changes in the surrounding reality. It is only in the movements of the objective action that a distinct asymmetry of the right and left appears — a phenomenon bearing a deep socio-cultural stamp, noted by Rutsky repeatedly (Rutsky, 1999). The special semantic character of the structure of movements of this type comes out in the first place, which is revealed as expediency, focus, intention, and projectivity. That is an active process, as the visual system is a hierarchy of organs and functions.
Technological Fetishism & the Techno-Cultural Unconscious
In this chapter, Rutsky analyzes the trend of increasing nihilism in the techno-cultural sphere of the XIX-XX centuries and the trend of mass culture based on the ideas of F. Nietzsche, M. Heidegger, M. Scheler, H. Ortega y Gasset, and E. Fromm (Rutsky, 1999). The scientist also shows the inferiority of narrow specialization, one-sided and straightforward pragmatism and utilitarianism within the framework of technological fetishism, which form a one-dimensional person and lead to spiritual degradation of the individual (Rutsky, 1999). The author substantiates the idea that in modern culture there is an urgent need to protect a person from the influence of mass culture and create conditions for his spiritual development on the basis of philosophical and scientific techno-cultural unconscious.
Reference
Rutsky, R. L. (1999). High techne. University of Minnesota Press.