Lecture: Digital Production and Distribution (OUAN401)

This lecture covered the digital revolution and how it's affected the production and distribution of media. We got on to a topic that's very near and dear to my heart, mechanisation and the impending robot uprising that will overthrow our way of life. This quote was particularly interesting to me:

"We shape our tools, and then our tools shape us"

 - Marshall Macluhan, a philosopher who lived from 1911 to 1980. What interested me most about this quote was not only the fact that this man died before computers were even invented so he has, like, crazy future knowing skills, but also how relevant it was to the fact that I too have become a slave to technology and it's something I think about often. Adobe has shaped how animation and effects work, for instance, and now because I either have to invent my own technology or be a slave to another guy's. I have to pay twelve quid a month for the full Adobe suite or be shunned by the animation community. THANKS ADOBE.

We were taught about how digital culture makes some jobs obsolete, like how robot butlers have replaced regular butlers, but also brings about perks that benefit humankind and creates jobs that would otherwise have not existed, like Apple tech support. I think that's cool, but the amount of jobs created by machine and digital work do not counteract the amount of jobs that it takes. The high profile jobs remain intact (FOR NOW), like ones in science or creative industries or politics, but mechanisation has seen the destruction of millions of menial jobs that used to keep the middle class afloat.

Robotics has always played a key role in many depictions of dystopian futures, where humans have become irrelevant and after a while all jobs in even the creative industries and politics have been sucked away and we are all in poverty. There are other, more utopian depictions of robotics in the future, like where since computers can do everything for us, we can exist purely for leisure and become a super race of artists and creators, living on a higher cultural plain while computers do the menial work and everyone gets paid a living wage. I dunno which will happen. Maybe both. Probably neither.

Digitalisation has certainly changed animation for the better, though. Some would argue that it pushes classic methods of animated filmmaking aside, but I disagree. Stop-motion is still very much beloved, as is C.G animation. All this allows for is a broader variety of art styles to exist, which is always great! It can be argued, though, that since C.G has become generally the norm for animated movies, we have become more jaded towards styles that don’t look quite as flashy or fluid, like stop motion, to the extent that stop motion films have to use so much green screen and added effects in post-production that they might as well be C.G anyway to appeal to a broad audience. I dunno.