Theoretical and critical inspirations

The notion of surveillance:

Furthering on from my previous blog, I started to think and develop my 'telling stories' idea and investigated the theory of the 'notion of surveillance'. In a society so transfixed with the idea of the 'big brother' theory I felt it was an appropriate and up to date critical theory to look at. 

The birth of 'the big brother theory stems from a fictional character in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, named 'Big Brother'. He is the enigmatic dictator of Oceania, a totalitarian state taken to its utmost logical consequence – where the ruling Party wields total power for its own sake over the inhabitants. In the society that Orwell describes, everyone is under complete surveillance by the authorities, mainly by tv screens. The people are constantly reminded of this by the phrase "Big Brother is watching you", which is the core "truth" of the propaganda system in this state. Since the publication of Nineteen Eighty-Four, the term "Big Brother" has entered the lexicon as a synonym for abuse of government power, particularly in respect to civil liberties, often specifically related to mass surveillance.

Mark Dice expanded the idea of 1984 and wrote a book titled Big Brother: The Orwellian Nightmare Come True published earlier this year. Within the book, Dice details actual high-tech spy gadgets, mind-reading machines, emerging artificial intelligence systems, and government projects used within today's society that have a direct correlation to the details of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.  First published in 1949, Orwell's famous book tells the story of a nightmarish future where citizens have lost all privacy and are continuously monitored by the omniscient Big Brother surveillance system. These fictional characters are manipulated and kept obedient to a totalitarian government. In Big Brother, Mark Dice illustrates how what was once considered fiction has now become reality due to societies obsessiveness and reliance of digital technology. Marketing tools through facebook, smart phones and other social media/ networking sites are highlighted and convey to the reader the sickening amount of personal information that is leaked and in the hands of large media business's and organisations.  Dice shows you the scary documentation that Big Brother is watching you, and is more powerful than you could imagine.

Telling Details:

As documented previously, I was keen to look further and delve deeper into the idea of 'telling details' and how certain details, words, pictures could summarise and paint a whole picture. I came across Ernest Hemingway's short story; 'A Clean, Well-Lighted Place'. Hemingway is known as a master of short fiction and his attention to detail and beautiful language used to describe an object is quite prefect. In the story, there was one description that stuck out to me as a 'telling detail'. 

"A girl and a soldier went by in the street. The street light shone on the brass numbers on his collar".

The description of such a simple and often unnoticed detail of the brass numbers is brought to life my Hemingway and in doing so instantly paints a picture of a soldier in my in my mind, in full suit with brass numbers, badges and medallions glistening in the street light. This is a prime example of the effect and influence of the 'telling details' that I want to pull out and include within my animation.