“nostalgia for digital object” seminar summary March 2nd
Summary
The Main Theme
QT movies are similar to Joseph Cornell’s boxes in that they both present a miniature world consisting of temporally fragmented and spatially condensed elements, and in this way they deal with private and collective memories and often evoke a nostalgia feeling from the viewers.
The Major Points
1. QT movies struggle against the standards of cinema, or more specifically “the myth of total cinema”. QT has its own miniature spatial forms and temporal lacunae (or in other words, gaps). As a result, it has a unique way to deal with memories. It’d better be called “memory boxes”, which also refer to the (technological) basis of QT: the computer.
2. QT and Cornell boxes’ nature is opposite to the orderly and hierarchical logic of the file cabinet. Human memory doesn’t compute neatly. Memory boxes are associative, dynamic and contingent. The objects in these boxes, as fragments of personal experiences, also suggest a vast, hidden or forgotten world that exists in other time and space.
3. the tension between two different logics (one represented by the hierarchical and rational organization, the other the associational organization) is both framing and framed. Framing, in the sense that these boxes exist with an orderly and logic backdrop (museum for Cornell boxes, or computer desktop for QT). It is also framed, because within these boxes there exists the geometrical organization.
4. the miniature nature of the memory boxes (QT is also called “little movies” by Manovic) makes value become condensed and enriched.
5. These memory boxes tend toward a “mnemonic aesthetic” (in the author’s words) that is in order to preserve the fleeting memory, they often use repetition and rhythm and quote artifacts of cultural memory.
6. Temporally, the miniature nature of QT determines that it does not intend to mimic everyday life, it tends toward tableau rather than narrative. The objects in QT memory boxes are also fragmented in motion. The intermittent motion of the QT memory boxes tends to break the illusionist cinematic continuity.
Assessment
The author examines various aspects of memory boxes and clearly outlines what QT movies and Cornell boxes have in common in dealing with memory and how poetic power is originated in them. However, the author seems to see the differences between QT and Cornell boxes not as significant as their similarities. In fact, the different material and forms that they use may affect the way they are experienced by the viewers. Also, the author seems to consider certain features of QT, for instance, its intermittent motion, as intentional aesthetic choices as the ones Cornell made while making his boxes or films.
Questions
1. what are the differences and relations between QT movies and database cinema?
2. what are the differences between QT movies and Cornell boxes? How do they work differently in terms of dealing with memory and evoking (nostalgia) feelings?
3. Surrealism was one of Cornell’s main influences, and Cornell boxes are often understood in the context of the surrealist movement. Do QT movies also suggest interpretations in relation to Surrealism?
4. Is there any QT movie still being made today? Is it possible to use today’s more advanced technology to make something as digital equivalent of Cornell boxes?