Exercise 8

Exercise 8

Konik, I. 2007. “Thematising the ugly side of sublime technological development in Sonzero’s Pulse (2006) as an inadvertent critique of the ‘technocentricism’ of postmodernity”. South African Journal of Art History 22(3).

Before I go about giving my view on what Konik is saying about the Sonzero’s movie Pulse (2006), let’s look into what the movie is about. Sonzero’s Pulse (2006) is an English remake of the Japanese 2001 film also called Pulse, or otherwise known as Kairo in Japanese, directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, which is also based on his novel of the same title.

Both movies plots follow the idea ghosts invading the world of the living via the Internet or computer server and this spreads around the world as a virus thus creating an apocalyptic world to which people need to escape from technology. It is stated that the Japanese film is “a philosophical exploration into the alienation and loneliness of modern existence due to technology,” whereas the English film shows people having to abandon technological devices i.e. cellphones; computers; internet connection; etc., to be freed form these ghosts.

[ For further reading on the both of these movies see:
•    www.imdb.com/title/tt0454919/
•    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_(2006_film)
•    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kairo_(film) ]

Now, moving on to Konik’s statement on Sonzero’s Pulse (2006). Konik is saying that the themes that follow in Pulse (2006) of showing how technology takes over people’s lives and how it becomes autonomous almost taking away the human element with how people interact with technology, i.e. technocentricism.

The theories on technocentricism come from Lyotard and Kristeva, who argue that the effect technology can have a negative impact on people to the point that the “human” aspect is no longer needed or serves no purpose in the technological process as it is now automated. This is especially so as technology is highly capitalised almost to the point that we as people cannot live without them.
Such themes are shown in the movie by the thing creating autonomy (the ghosts) invading through the computers and cellphones, the only solution to escape these ghosts (as aforementioned) is to abandon all technology in order to be freed from such a fate.