DNA Sequencing: Unlocking the Code

Biotechnology is an important part of living in the twenty-first century. In relation to the medical field, it has allowed for more levels of truth and reality to be exposed through such advances as x-rays, MRIs, and even sonograms. In fact, sonograms completely revolutionized the process of pregnancy, at least in America. Now through the sonogram people have their first look at their child and their baby's first little picture.  Biotechnology seems to have an impact everywhere.

There were seven different projects on the Critical Art Ensemble website. The website for the project called Society for Reproductive Anachronisms starts with the Manifesto section by showing a picture of a naked female and a naked male, who is holding a naked baby, with the words written across the image "No Genetic Alternations Necessary." These are powerful words. Biotechnology is all about advancing science to learn and see more. However, the Society for Reproductive Anachronisms is against the use of technology in any manner when it comes to the aspect of sexual reproduction. Much research has been done on the manipulation of DNA with animals, but it seems that the point of view of this project is that it should not be done, or at least taken seriously. Without the assistance of biotechnology, there are enough anomalies in this field of human reproduction which science can't explain. This is discussed in the Procession of the Damned section on the project's website. In the Fertility Aids section, other non-biotechnological methods are discussed. It seems that only natural methods should be utilized, from special herbs and unique recipes to help with reproductive disorders, to fertility rituals that have been practiced for centuries. 

This particular project on the Critical Art Ensemble website appears to have negative emotions towards biotechnology, or at least its involvement with these issues. This project feels that the input of science in this matter is very bad. In class, we discussed how the scientific visual culture has been responsible for changes in our environment. Biotechnology would like to experiment with modifying DNA to create people who look a specific way and to hopefully be able to predict what people would look like before they are even born. However, the Society for Reproductive Anachronisms is against this practice and its interested in bringing this issue to the attention of the masses.

"An Inconvenient Truth"

I found Al Gore's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, to be a very interesting straightforward presentation of global warming in relation to the world today. In last week's short film that I watched by Eric Faden, Tracking Theory, the message was difficult to interpret at first. I was actually forced to watch the movie a couple of times to fully comprehend the message he was trying to convey to the viewer. This was not the case with An Inconvenient Truth. After watching it once, I felt that I had a nice grasp on the topic of global warming and understanding of its many implications.

I had never seen An Inconvenient Truth before, so I had no idea what to expect, other than Al Gore talking about the issue of global warming, which I already knew was very important to him. As the documentary began, I was relieved to discover that the whole movie was not just Gore standing at a podium showing slides of images and facts relating to global warming. To me, that would have been extremely boring. Instead, the documentary was able to draw in the audience by showing Gore outside of the public speaking environment. It did show Gore delivering his infamous global warming slideshow presentation to large groups of people around the world, but that was not the whole movie. There were many scenes with Gore away from the crowds of people discussing this issue in a manner that created a more intimate environment, where the audience could feel like he was talking directly to them. This style of presentation was not present in Eric Faden's Tracking Theory. There was not that same sense of intimacy with the narrator or insight into the narrator's commitment to the message in this movie as there was in An Inconvenient Truth. In Tracking Theory, it seemed as if the film was trying to trick the viewer the entire time, whereas in An Inconvenient Truth, the movie revolved around uncovering and discussing the hard facts of global warming. Tracking Theory was done very artistically, while An Inconvenient Truth was one hundred percent committed to explaining the facts of global warming to the world in a way that would inspire people to change. Although the styles used in the making of these two documentaries were clearly different, they were both successful in the presentation of their arguments. Both of these films caused their viewers to continue thinking after the film stopped rolling.

Eric Faden: "Tracking Theory"

I thought that the stylistic methods employed in Eric Faden's video essay, Tracking Theory, helped to present his argument in a way which was engaging and visually entertaining to its viewers. In the behind the scenes section of the film, the statement is made that, "The film explores how the railroad and cinema changed human perception in the late 19th century." At the end of this short visual essay, I felt that Faden's argument and original ideas had been successfully expressed.

The presentation of the actual events that were taking place in the movie were so convincing that I was unsure of how it was created until reading about the process in the behind the scenes section. The notion of showing the audience what an early film essay might have looked like, instead of just describing it, was brilliant. I truly felt like I had been transported to the earliest days of cinema. At first I was not sure if this black and white footage was original. It was only at the end of the video essay, when the black and white footage transformed into color, that I realized the truth. The sound of the film projector and the crackling pops on the film added another layer of realism to his argument. The attention to detail in this area I found to be absolutely incredible. I believed it was actually vintage film. The soundtrack also seemed to serve as a vessel that transported its captivated audience to another time in the history of cinema. I thought it was very important that every point Faden addressed in his film was supported with relevant images, which I found to be rather engaging. The text that flashed on the screen, enclosed in decorative boxes, also reminded me of a throw-back to early cinema. All of Faden's artistic decisions were clearly deliberate, with the intention of supporting his argument constantly in mind.

In the end, I found the argument of Faden's visual essay to be completely compelling. His facts were presented in an engaging manner, one that allowed the audience to see exactly what he was talking about. The narration of the film was very informative, but it did not overpower the messages that were being presented through the images. Every aspect of the stylistic methods employed by Faden worked together to create a powerful visual argument.