Mark Terry’s Responses to Maddison’s Questions for Today’s Class
Hi Everyone!
Since I can’t be with you in person today, I’m “mailing in” my responses to the reading by way of answering Maddison’s posted questions:
1. Murray seems to focus his analysis on visual arts. Can Murray’s thesis also be applied to other art forms such as music or even dance?
I believe they can. In particular, the infinite nature of the fold can be seen in the various ways music gets appropriated into other music (sampling), film (soundtracks) even social places (supermarkets, elevators). The same can be said for dance, but not so much for a particular performance which is often a singular experience for both performer and audience, but more in the sense of a style of dance (break-dancing, the jitterbug, the Charleston, etc.). These seem to transcend both time and artistic media as we see them re-surface in various arts, media and even social places (discos, clubs).
2. Can linear narratives also evoke the “fold”? Does traditional or mainstream cinema also have the ability to challenge spectators understanding of time?
I’m not sure about certain linear narratives. I’m sure there are examples, but none that spring to mind. But certain technical approaches to mainstream cinema and storytelling devices can be. I’m thinking of camera moves, editing techniques and storytelling practices that define and challenge the viewers’ understanding of time: the quick, blurred pan, the wavy transition and the calendar pages that fly off month by month, respectively. While these techniques define our understanding of time within the story, they also serve to be timeless methods of defining time for the viewers, especially in mainstream cinema, and to a less extent, television.
3. Referring back to one of Murray’s key questions, do you think the Baroque function is a marker of the death of cinema in the twenty-first century?
Not at all, to me, it seems like the Baroque function is simply another – currently popular – way of expressing cinematic story-telling. The fact that it transcends all form of cinema (art film, documentary, etc.) is testament to its popularity not only among artists and filmmakers, but also to the audiences for whom these films are
produced.
4. Do we have to know that we’re interacting with contemporary art in order for the fold to be enacted?
I don’t believe so. the fold exists – when it does – whether or not the audience is aware of it. Being aware of it makes the experience more interesting in the end, I think.