The movie "Memento" is an interesting one. The movie follows an unusual plot: the whole movie follows a backward chronological order, using flashback all the time, until finally it reaches the reasons and causes for all the events. It began with the murder, and then followed by all the flashbacks, which was meant to explain the whole story, thus, keeping the audience in suspence. It requires the audience to play a more active role by forming hypothesis of the incidences.
However, towards the end of the movie, I felt that there seems to be too many repetitive flashbacks, which might make the stories a little confusing in its attempt to make the scenario clearer. The denouement of the movie seems to left the conclusion to the audiences, which may seems to give a choice to the audience to choose their preferred conclusion. Different viewers perceived the conclusion differently. Some may perceive that Leonard is Sammy Jankins whereas some may think that Sammy Jankins is real. Is the murderer of Leonard's wife Leonard's imaginary creation? From my point of view, I feel that an ending should be more definite, thus, giving a clearer picture of the whole story. If not, what is the point of watching the whole story, and yet, unsure of the ending.
As for Lev Manovich's proposal of 5 principles of new media, they provides explanations and the concepts of new media. There seems to be much similarities between new media and interactive media. The differences might lie in the degree of interactivity. The five principles open up the dimensions as well as providing a general guidelines for narrative and play within interactive media.Within a boundary, the automation, variability, and transcoding opens up the possibilities of a multitude forms of narrative and play.
As for Crawford's conversational definition of interactivity, I feel that it is very restrictive, but not too restrictive. But in this case, it's good to be restrictive as it illuminates the definition of 'interactivity', which has become a buzz word with a vague definition. Setting restrictions on the use of the word will provide the foundation to explore the word and its accompanying issues further. If not, we will always be stuck in the vague definition and further porgress to explore and discuss the word cannot be made.
However, there is also a danger in doing this. Setting restrictions might impose a new definition to the word, thus raising the possibility of a new meaning which might differ from its original intention.
Although I don't really find the movie finale good enough, however, I really enjoyed the movie on the whole. I would say it's worthy of watching.
Regards,
Pooi Yean
2 comments:
Interesting that you say there seem to be much similarity between new and interactive media. Do you think something interactive must be new media, or can there be an "old" media form of interactivity?
I also find your point about "an ending should be more definite" intriguing - keep this in mind as we talk about narrative this coming week. :)
Yes, I think "old" media can be interactive. For example, the forum theatre is a kind of old media that allows interactivity.
Chris Crawford defined interaction as "a cyclic process in which two actors alternately listen, think, and speak." It involves the process of input, coding, and then output. In this case, old media as well as new media can be interactive as long as they satisfy this conditions above. Perhaps, they differs in the level and type of interactivity.
New media is defined as "new cultural forms which depend on computers for presentation and distribution." New media, which uses the state of the art technology, seems to be more prevalent and accesible. Besides that, the technology enables many different forms of interactivity. But it does not mean that every new media is interactive.
There seems to be a vague boundary between new media and old media base on the definition. If a narrative in an old media form makes use of computer, then, it becomes a new media form. It differs only in the device it uses. Perhaps the categorisation is meant to signify the era of use of technology.
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