Table Of ContentSpectacular Posthumanism
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Spectacular Posthumanism
The Digital Vernacular of Visual Effects
Drew Ayers
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
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First published in the United States of America 2019
Copyright © Drew Ayers, 2019
For legal purposes the Acknowledgments on p. ix constitute an
extension of this copyright page.
Cover image: Film, Trois cents 300 (2007),
Collection Christophel/ArenaPAL
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To Henry and Margaret
For reminding me there’s more to life
vi
Contents
List of Figures viii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Vernacular Posthumanism and VFX 1
Part One Hybrid Bodies 37
1 Cronenberg’s New Flesh 41
2 Performance Capture’s Spectacle of Self 65
Part Two Digital Bodies and Authenticity 85
3 The Body’s Digital (Dis)Honesty 87
4 Digital Space’s Spectacle of Embodiment 119
Part Three Machinic and Digital Spectacle 149
5 Kubrick’s Machine Vision 151
6 Planet Earth’s Spectacular HDTV 173
Conclusion: A Drone Future 203
Notes 212
Bibliography 225
Index 240
Figures
I.1 Clyde Beatty 25
I.2 Miss Brayton’s Scarecrows 31
1.1 Interchangeability and synchronization in Dead Ringers 52
1.2 The enfolding of the Mantle twins 54
1.3 The Fly’s human-animal-machine hybrid 58
2.1 Full da Vinci Si HD Surgical System—Dual Console.
©2017 Intuitive Surgical, Inc 67
2.2 Performance capture in L.A. Noire. Image from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL9wsEFohTw 70
2.3 da Vinci Hand Instrument Articulation. ©2017 Intuitive
Surgical, Inc 74
3.1 Lena Headey/Rebecca Van Cleave composite body 88
3.2 Four generations of Schwarzenegger. Top L to R: 1973, 1984
(recreation from the first film). Bottom L to R: 1984
(older T-800), 2017 106
3.3 Reanimating Paul Walker 114
3.4 Jason Clarke as T-3000, human-machine hybrid 117
4.1 300’s synthetic blood 120
4.2 Bodies and simulated space 130
4.3 Leonidas and simulated architecture 131
4.4 Hugo’s composite imagery 135
4.5 Zombie swarms in World War Z 140
5.1 Individual and network in Barry Lyndon 154
5.2 2001’s ouroboros of machine vision 162
5.3 Violations of the axis of action in Eyes Wide Shut 167
6.1 Great white shark, “Shallow Seas” 174
6.2 Caribou migration, “Pole to Pole” 191
6.3 Seabird colony, “Shallow Seas” 191
6.4 Sunflower starfish and brittle stars, “Shallow Seas” 199
Acknowledgments
Just as the objects in this book become innervated with their own lives, so too
this book itself has taken on a life of its own. Spectacular Posthumanism has been
gestating since my work in the Moving Image Studies program at Georgia State
University (GSU). Since that time, it has added new appendages, swapped out
some organs, and transformed itself through innumerable mutations. The core
question that drives the book—“how do images become lively objects, endowed
with the ability to modify our senses and teach us how to perceive the world?”—
derives from my time at GSU and the conversations I had there with faculty and
colleagues. Alessandra Raengo, my mentor and close friend, deserves particular
recognition for her nurturing of this project from its early stages, her constant
availability and willingness to share her theoretical acumen, and her tolerance
and encouragement of my emerging identity as a scholar. Alessandra has always
treated me as a peer and friend, and her influence on both my professional
career and personal life cannot be adequately expressed within the confines of
these acknowledgments.
The Moving Image Studies faculty at GSU influenced many of the ideas that
appear in this book. More than that, though, they taught me what it means to be
a responsible member of the scholarly community. Special thanks go to Jennifer
Barker, whose mentorship and advice taught me to ask different questions of
my objects; Angelo Restivo, who intimidates me with his brilliance but also
moves me with his sensitivity; Ted Friedman, who reminded me to keep ethical
concerns at the forefront of my academic inquiries; and Alisa Perren, who, while
working in an adjacent field, nevertheless volunteered her time, energy, and
thoughtfulness to helping me achieve my professional goals.
My cohort at GSU also deserves special recognition. Ideas are never truly one’s
own, so much of what appears in this book has its foundations in my interactions
and conversations with my colleagues. Karen Petruska, Kris Cannon, Steven
Pustay, and Michele Beverly are, in a sense, the co-writers of this book, and I
will forever value their friendship and intellect. (So much so that I ended up
marrying one of them.)
