Comments on: The Politics of Authenticity http://madisonian.net/2007/09/14/the-politics-of-authenticity/ a blog about law, tech, culture, and related things Sat, 11 Feb 2012 02:59:42 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Frank Pasquale http://madisonian.net/2007/09/14/the-politics-of-authenticity/comment-page-1/#comment-224161 Frank Pasquale Sat, 22 Sep 2007 20:00:25 +0000 http://madisonian.net/archives/2007/09/14/the-politics-of-authenticity/#comment-224161 I love the varieties of authenticity listed by de Zengotita here: http://www.en.utexas.edu/Classes/Bremen/e316k/316kprivate/scans/numbing.html Real real: You fall down the stairs. Stuff in your life that's so familiar you've forgotten the statement it makes. • Observed real: You drive by a car wreck. Stuff in your life in which the image-statement is as salient as the function. • Between real real and observed real: Stuff that oscillates between the first two categories. Like you're wearing something you usually take for granted but then you meet someone attractive. • Edited real real: Shtick you have down so pat you don't know it's shtick anymore, but you definitely only use it in certain situations. Documentaries and videos in which people are unaware of the camera, though that's not easy to detect, actually. Candid photographs. •Edited observed real: Other people's down-pat shtick. Shtick you are still working on. Documentaries in which people are accommodating the camera, which is actually a lot of the time, probably. • Staged real: Formal events like weddings. Retail-clerk patter. •Edited staged real: Pictures of the above. • Staged observed real unique: Al kisses Tipper. Survivor. • Staged observed real repeated: Al kisses Tipper again and again. Anchor-desk and talk- show intros and segues. Weather Channel behavior. (In the interests of time, we can skip the subtler middle range of distinctions and go to the other end of the spectrum:) • Staged realistic: The English Patient and NYPD Blue. • Staged hyperreal: Oliver Stone movies and Malcolm in the Middle. • Overtly unreal realistic: S.U.V.'s climbing buildings. Digitized special effects in general, except when they are more or less undetectable. • Covertly unreal realistic: Hair in shampoo ads. More or less undetectable digital effects, of which there are more every day. • Between overtly and covertly unreal realistic: John Wayne in a beer ad (you have to know he's dead to know he isn't "really" in the ad). • Real unreal: Robo-pets. • Unreal real: Strawberries that won't freeze because they have fish genes in them. I love the varieties of authenticity listed by de Zengotita here:

http://www.en.utexas.edu/Classes/Bremen/e316k/316kprivate/scans/numbing.html

Real real: You fall down the stairs. Stuff in your life that’s so familiar you’ve forgotten the statement it makes.

• Observed real: You drive by a car wreck. Stuff in your life in which the image-statement is as salient as the function.

• Between real real and observed real: Stuff that oscillates between the first two categories. Like you’re wearing something you usually take for granted but then you meet someone attractive.

• Edited real real: Shtick you have down so pat you don’t know it’s shtick anymore, but you definitely only use it in certain situations. Documentaries and videos in which people are unaware of the camera, though that’s not easy to detect, actually. Candid photographs.

•Edited observed real: Other people’s down-pat shtick. Shtick you are still working on. Documentaries in which people are accommodating the camera, which is actually a lot of the time, probably.

• Staged real: Formal events like weddings. Retail-clerk patter.

•Edited staged real: Pictures of the above.

• Staged observed real unique: Al kisses Tipper. Survivor.

• Staged observed real repeated: Al kisses Tipper again and again. Anchor-desk and talk- show intros and segues. Weather Channel behavior.

(In the interests of time, we can skip the subtler middle range of distinctions and go to the other end of the spectrum:)

• Staged realistic: The English Patient and NYPD Blue.

• Staged hyperreal: Oliver Stone movies and Malcolm in the Middle.

• Overtly unreal realistic: S.U.V.’s climbing buildings. Digitized special effects in general, except when they are more or less undetectable.

• Covertly unreal realistic: Hair in shampoo ads. More or less undetectable digital effects, of which there are more every day.

• Between overtly and covertly unreal realistic: John Wayne in a beer ad (you have to know he’s dead to know he isn’t “really” in the ad).

• Real unreal: Robo-pets.

• Unreal real: Strawberries that won’t freeze because they have fish genes in them.

]]>