Never Give Up

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin Walter Benjamin is a German Marxist literacy critic. Walter Benjamin's importance as a philosopher and critical theorist can be gauged by the diversity of his intellectual influence and the continuing productivity of his thought (Osborne & Charles, 2015). In Benjamin's essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", He discusses a shift in perception and its affects in the wake of the advent of film and photography in the twentieth century (Ginal, 2008). This essays attempts to describe the changed experience of art in the modern world and sees the rise of Fascism and mass society as the culmination of a process of debasement, whereby art ceases to be a means of instruction and becomes instead a mere gratification, a matter of taste alone (Marxists. org, n.d). Mechanical reproduction of a work of art, however, represents something new.  In Benjamin's essay "T...

Figure 1: Ghost in the Shell Poster Transhumanism has been defined as "the intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally improving the human condition through applied reason, especially by using technology to eliminate aging and greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities" (Bostrom, 1999). A posthuman would no longer be a human being, having been so significantly altered as to no longer represent the human species. Underlying this worldview is a core belief that the human species in its current form does not represent the end of our development, but rather its beginning (Bostrom, 1999).  An example can be apply in this movie, human had been transformed to a posthuman which means that human and technologies merge together. Major is a true blending of a human brain with a completely mechanical body. She is a new construct of a replaceable part robotic soldier with no memories and no ph...

Figure: Garden by the bay, Singapore. I travelled to Singapore last week for one day trip. I went there by flight. In my point of view, Singapore is a nice country but need high expenses. I went there to find my sister and relative. I reached Singapore in the morning. My sister picks me up in the Changi Airport. She gave me an "Ezlink" card with SGD30 for my transportation fee in Singapore. My sister work as a server at gold class department in Golden Village Cinema. She took one day leave to accompany me and bring me around. We went to a popular Chinese hot pot restaurant (Hai Di Lao Hot Pot) to have our dinner. The food is delicious and the service is really excellent. I will go there again in future. After our dinner, we went to Garden by the Bay and Marina Bay to take pictures. I look the view of Singapore and suddenly I think of the closure element in gestalt theory. According to Dr. C. George Boeree, gestalt psychology is based on the observation that we often ex...

Figure 1: Romancing in Thin Air This movie is a 2012 Hong Kong-Chinese contemporary romantic drama film directed by Johnnie To.  The  theory that applied in "Romancing in Thin Air" is cognitive film theory. This film theory is focuses on the viewer’s perception of visual and sound information. It is also focuses on the ways that viewers organize and categorize these perceptions in order to derive meaning from a film. According to Bordwell, Cognitive holds that people's perceptions, feelings, and action result in significant part from processes which go beyond the input to the senses.   Figure 2: Romancing in Thin Air scene Audiences can understand this movie directly with the the film begins very slowly, allowing its audience time to adjust from the media frenzy of Michael's (Louis Koo) public humiliation to the quiet serenity of Shangri-La. Besides that, using numerous lengthy wide angle shots to take in the beautiful surroundings, at the same time...

Figure 1: Mulan Feminist model is applied in this movie. Feminist film theory describes a distinctively female perspective on filmmaking and the ways in which female viewers found uniquely pleasurable in cinema. That’s a great element like image of woman in this movie. What makes Mulan such a great character? She is a strong, independent, stubborn, and very intelligent female. She did not ever give up, even when she has been told that she is a failure at war, when she is found out as a woman and abandoned in the mountains. She had a strong sense of justice and is devoted to her family – so much that she risked her own life, so that her elderly father does not have to go to war. The way she concerned for her family manifested in this movie is a very best part for audiences – usually, family is seen as a feminine concern, while men are off doing the bread-winning and the fighting. However, Mulan managed to combine both of these values. For example, Mulan cooked medicine for her fat...

(Source: Art in Nature Photography website) The origin of this photography is taken by Floris van Breugel in the Southwestern United States, near Springdale, Utah. This image showed the sensually carved curves in the “Subway” of Utah’s Zion National Park and it is illuminated by the reflected light in the late afternoon (Breugel, n.d.). The reason I used “The bright in the dark” as the title is because this photography is giving me a hope when I am in the situation that is not really good. This photography gives a feel like do not lose the hope when doing a thing, dreams will come true if you believe and put effort on it. I chose this image is because this image is a real photography that was taken by someone in real life but not a graphic that was drawn by someone although it is look like a drawing image. This photography shows that how beautiful and awesome of the nature in the earth. Gestalt Theory           The Gestalt psychologist Kurt Koffka made...

Jack Neo Jack Neo Chee Keong, a famous director born in Singapore. He is an actor, emcee and filmmaker. He was awarded the Cultural Medallion in 2005 for his achievements in filmmaking. One of his early film, Money Not Enough (1998) remains the highest grossing Singapore film with total box office takings of S$5.8million. Auteur Theory is when director creates a film that breaks the codes and conversations seen regularly in movies of the same genre. Andrew Sarris, an American who introduced auteur theory. There are three categories in the notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962. There are Technician, Stylist and Auteur. Technician is the  Technician ( technical competence of a director as a criterion of value)      > Linear editing         - Story line is easy to understand.         - Cut out the boring part.         - Keep good scene.         - Clear to see the mes...

Passenger's movie scene.      I see that the woman in this image is more active than the male. It is showing a male fantasy element. The man in this image will feel that he is wanted by this woman. According to the Mulvey’s theory, skopophilia can be applied in this image because both of them are looking each other as an erotic object, seen both of them arouse sexual desire. In other way, in the modern day, women are more active than the men. Not only that, exhibitionism in Mulvey’s theory also can be applied in this image, this is because the woman is crawling and exposing herself to the man and her action also showing that she wants something from the man. Besides, the man’s action is also showing that let the woman take the initiative to him. It is also showing that the male gaze and female gaze is different in this image, this is because the man in this image is doing the looking, he is only looking at the woman and waiting for the woman to go to his side. I thi...