Re: suggestions? : sensory overload

From: Myron Ort (email suppressed)
Date: Mon Jan 18 2010 - 22:36:27 PST


I agree. I don't and didn't think the term had or has any use in
aesthetic realms. But your point is well taken about wasting time
"interpreting" as a form of surreptitious socratic didacticism.

mo

> Please stop!
>
> This is not a sensible topic.
>
> "Overload" originates in 1) electronics and 2) mechanics or law,
> and the usages
> in these two areas already contradict one another. An electrical
> circuit can be
> said to include a "load", and if it's "overloaded" it draws too
> much power and
> burns up. But senses can't meaningfully be "overloaded" in this
> way, since there
> is no power drain associated with the viewer and the film is
> certainly not going
> to burn up.
>
> A mechanical system may on the other hand be overloaded if the
> strain on it is
> too great and the system snaps. Also, in legal terms a vehicle, for
> instance, may
> be over loaded with people or personal possessions: a condition
> defined by its
> potential for an accident (arising directly or indirectly from the
> condition),
> which is prevented by the police.
>
> "Sensory overload" is a metaphorical invocation of the viewer's
> sensory pathways
> as circuits (not as mechanical systems or pickup trucks), but the
> metaphor only
> works if the term is also understood as implying some kind of
> excessive strain
> toward a breaking limit, or as tempting accidental and incidental
> damage -- with
> an implicit sense of illegality.
>
> This sort of stew -- a confusion of semi-contradictory but in each
> sense somehow
> vivid metaphorical relationships -- is what makes trashy criticism
> exciting. But
> don't try to extract a coherent critical category out of this mess.
> If you do,
> the latent contradictions rapidly infect your discourse, and we get
> what has
> happened here: an "overloaded" discussion of a term that is itself
> "overloaded,"
> where "sensory" overload has turned to "sense" overload.
>
> --------t0ny
>
>
>
> On Mon 01/18/10 5:45 PM , Myron Ort email suppressed sent:
>> In 1968, the era of psychedelic light shows at concerts, the
>> popularity of underground cinemas showing all kinds of unusual
>> experimental films , concerts by John Cage et al, "happenings"
>> etc , given that context "Cut Ups" doesn't seem that far out to
>> me in
>> the "overload" sense, however, it is a very good film, perhaps even
>> a pioneering film, and one that I certainly would have been excited
>> about in 1968 (as I am now), since some us were clamoring for that
>> kind of thing back then. So I take it, we are maybe searching for a
>> "term" which might describe such a narratively "non
>> linear" approach and this is what you (and others?) are
>> designating "sensory
>> overload"? Would there not be several other alternatives terms?
>> "Overload" has this "I can't take it --too much man! my
>> head will explode!" connotation which, I guess, Is what I am
>> objecting to. Cut
>> Ups, through an approach to montage (collage) breaks up (disjoints)
>> otherwise "figurative/narrative/continuous" type recognizable
>> shots and reassembles them with a type of "musicality" instead.
>> Its a
>> musical! An experimental film "musical". Is that the term we
>> are looking for? ha ha ha. smiley face, etc.
>>
>> Myron Ort
>>
>>
>> On Jan 18, 2010, at 1:11 PM, Jack Sargeant wrote:
>>
>>> I'm pretty sure Cut-Ups is on Ubuweb or
>> Youtube.>
>>> OK, by sensory overload in this instance I mean
>> that the film uses > image and sound in such a way as to break any
>> notion of coherence, > so that, watching it, the audience are
>> compelled
>> to experience the > film rather than just understand it or follow
>> it. It resists the > normal sensory satisfactions associated with
>> film, both the > experiences of hearing and watching are
>> transformed, the > combination of linguistic permutations in the
>> narration and the (on > first viewing) apparently random images
>> means
>> that the audience > have to 'go with the film' and experience
>> something utterly > unfamiliar.
>>>
>>> As I said the notion of overload would be
>> personal, I have no > problem with Cut-Ups but grew up in an MTV
>> riddled world, however > for somebody watching the film in '68 the
>> experience was probably > utterly different.
>>>
>>> Jack
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 19 Jan 2010, at 07:17, Myron Ort
>> wrote:>
>>>> I was hoping for a "theoretical"
>> definition of "sensory overload" >> rather than another example
>> of a film or
>> whatever that I cannot >> easily access. Even watching 77
>> minutes of
>> Sistiaga's handpainted >> @ sound speed with overloud live punk
>> music, I wasn't really >> thinking "sensory overload", just
>> "unpleasant experience". Even >> multiple screen performances
>> don't seem like
>> "sensory overload" to >> me, but just what they are supposed to be.
>> I was hoping for a >> definition of "sensory overload"
>> that wouldn't need to include >> "handpainted" films almost by
>> definition. In other words, once I >> accepted the hand painted
>> film, or films
>> where every frame is >> really (or really really) different it seems
>> there can no longer >> be anything called "sensory
>> overload". By "handpainted" I mean >> the one's where there is
>> not so much
>> figurative continuous action >> between frames like animation or
>> clearly
>> comprehensible >> anthropomorphic dancing blobs etc. As
>> someone who digs >> "experimental filmmaking" and
>> phenomena of nature, (pre and post >> psychedelic) I am not sure
>> there is such a
>> thing as "sensory >> overload".
>>>>
>>>> Myron Ort
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Jan 17, 2010, at 4:14 PM, Jack Sargeant
>> wrote:>>
>>>>> Although outside the period of the
>> original question perhaps >>> Balch & Burroughs' The Cut Ups could
>> be considered an example of >>> sensory overload.
>>>>> But, of course the very notion of
>> overload would be a personal >>> experience.
>>>>>
>>>>> Jack
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 5 Dec 2009, at 04:04, Myron Ort
>> wrote:>>>
>>>>>> Now that I think of it, I don't
>> think I have ever experienced >>>> anything I would call "sensory
>> overload" as pertaining to a film >>>> experience. Could someone
>> define
>> this genre for me. What are >>>> the characteristics?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Myron Ort
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Dec 3, 2009, at 4:05 PM, Mark
>> Toscano wrote:>>>>
>>>>>>> Howdy all -
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I've been working out a possible
>> program (or two) of films that >>>>> demonstrate the idea of
>> "sensory overload", and although I have >>>>> a bunch of titles
>> in mind
>> already, I'd love to get more >>>>> suggestions, especially of work
>> from the past 10-15 years or >>>>> so. Shorts are preferable, as
>> it's meant to be a diverse, >>>>> mixed program of numerous
>> artists from different eras.>>>>>
>>>>>>> thanks much for any suggestions
>> ->>>>>
>>>>>>> Mark T
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>> __________________________________________________________________>>>
>> >> For
> info on FrameWorks, contact
>> Pip Chodorov at om>.>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>> __________________________________________________________________>>>
>> > For info
> on FrameWorks, contact Pip
>> Chodorov at om>.>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>> __________________________________________________________________>>>
>> For info
> on FrameWorks, contact Pip
>> Chodorov at om>.>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>> __________________________________________________________________>>
>> For info
> on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov
>> at om>.>
>>>
>>>
>> __________________________________________________________________> F
>> or info on
> FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at
>> om>.>
>>
>>
>> __________________________________________________________________
>> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at om>.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>

__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.