MachineMachine /stream - tagged with james-cameron http://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sweetcron therourke@gmail.com Avatar and the Flight from Reality http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/avatar-and-the-flight-from-reality In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Artist of the Beautiful” (1844), a prototypical nerd with few social graces and no head for business turns a watchmaker’s shop into an artist’s studio where, ultimately, he creates a clockwork butterfly in every way indistinguishable from a real butterfly except in its being even more beautiful. Although most of the story is about how misunderstood this nerdy clockmaker is, Hawthorne’s deeper concern is the fundamental mistake of supposing that the idea of artistic creation is not just to create something that is like reality but rather something that amounts to a new reality,… ]]> Sun, 21 Mar 2010 12:55:00 -0700 http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/avatar-and-the-flight-from-reality Avatar: We're Not in Kansas Anymore! http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2010/02/avatar-were-not-in-kansas-anymore.html

by Daniel Rourke

3D! According to the film industry, to director James 'billions at the box-office' Cameron, Avatar is the first 'true' 3D movie. It takes the experience of cinema to the next (natural?) level, and it does it in a way that makes the movie industry gasp. According to the industry, Avatar is the 3D film that other film makers will be watching for years to come; Avatar is the Citizen Kane of 3D cinema.

It is at this point that I could repudiate this position,…

]]> Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:25:00 -0700 http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2010/02/avatar-were-not-in-kansas-anymore.html When Will White People Stop Making Movies Like "Avatar"? http://io9.com/5422666/when-will-white-people-stop-making-movies-like-avatar Critics have called alien epic Avatar a version of Dances With Wolves because it's about a white guy going native and becoming a great leader. But Avatar is just the latest scifi rehash of an old white guilt fantasy. Spoilers... Whether Avatar is racist is a matter for debate. Regardless of where you come down on that question, it's undeniable that the film - like alien apartheid flick District 9, released earlier this year - is emphatically a fantasy about race. Specifically, it's a fantasy about race told from the point of view of white people. Avatar and scifi films… ]]> Wed, 23 Dec 2009 03:24:00 -0700 http://io9.com/5422666/when-will-white-people-stop-making-movies-like-avatar