tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/blurring-of-art-forms-28600/articles
blurring of art forms – The Conversation
2016-03-02T17:40:49Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/55415
2016-03-02T17:40:49Z
2016-03-02T17:40:49Z
Power plants needn’t be ugly – let’s make them green and beautiful
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113615/original/image-20160302-25902-7fcaqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tidal Lagoon, Swansea Bay, as envisaged by LDA Design.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">http://www.lda-design.co.uk</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Energy suppliers often refer to their industry as being caught in a “trilemma”, as people demand electricity that is both secure and cheap, while also being clean.</p>
<p>But maybe it’s time to add a fourth consideration to the list – beauty.</p>
<p>Just as we marvel at Roman aqueducts or Victorian railways, so we could design power plants, solar panels, turbines and other infrastructure to be beautiful additions to the landscape. As we move away from ugly coal and gas, we have a great chance to celebrate low carbon energy with imaginative new designs.</p>
<p>UK energy minister <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/beautiful-nuclear-power-stations-can-win-over-sceptics-says-energy-secretary-amber-rudd-10301365.html">Amber Rudd</a> seems to agree. Speaking last year about nuclear energy, she stated: “I think it is a reasonable ambition to make sure that these big projects have aesthetic appeal as well [as being functional] to help win the public over.”</p>
<p>Yet there are two problems to look out for. First, it is unreasonable to merely mask controversial or potentially environmentally damaging developments with a veneer of “attractiveness”. Managing public opinion with pretty designs does not supplant other valid concerns such as the choice of location or huge construction costs. </p>
<p>Second, even where “beautiful” design is sought as part of an environmentally responsible scheme, how individuals define and perceive “beauty” will certainly be a highly variable affair. One person’s majestic wind turbine is another person’s imposing eyesore. Like any type of architecture, judgements about beauty will depend on highly personal preferences, and how the new design relates to its existing context.</p>
<h2>Big infrastructure demands bold designs</h2>
<p>The quest to find an appropriate aesthetic when designing novel infrastructure is not new. When the Victorians built the UK’s railway system a century and a half ago, the scale of this new technology and the visual and environmental changes it brought to urban and rural landscapes alike were immense – and <a href="https://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/ind_rev/rs/denault.htm">hotly debated</a>. </p>
<p>Engineers and architects designed large viaducts and impressive stations to be beautiful as well as functional. Though their alien structures were decried by some as ugly impositions, with time those same buildings have come to be part of the cherished character of British landscapes. </p>
<p>In the 1950s, nuclear power once again called for unprecedentedly large and unusual buildings. At <a href="https://magnoxsites.com/site/trawsfynydd">Trawsfynydd</a> in Wales, the leading designers of their time took up the challenge. Architect Sir Basil Spence and landscape architect Dame Sylvia Crowe designed a nuclear power station in a bold modernist style. </p>
<p>Although decades have passed and the plant has been decommissioned, opinions about its aesthetic value continue to be divided; some praise the architecture as “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/dec/21/snowdonia-nuclear-power-station-wales-architecture">optimistic, triumphant [and] pioneering</a>” while others would be happy to see the building completely disappear.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113547/original/image-20160302-25902-mc7n41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113547/original/image-20160302-25902-mc7n41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113547/original/image-20160302-25902-mc7n41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113547/original/image-20160302-25902-mc7n41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113547/original/image-20160302-25902-mc7n41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113547/original/image-20160302-25902-mc7n41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113547/original/image-20160302-25902-mc7n41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113547/original/image-20160302-25902-mc7n41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Modernist masterpiece or concrete calamity?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimkillock/4890702572/">Jim Killock</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<h2>Good design can add to the landscape</h2>
<p>We need innovative and sensitive design ideas for new energy systems, not just to “win over” the public but to actually improve the environment. Recent examples of well considered and multifunctional energy landscapes do exist. </p>
<p>At <a href="http://www.iba-hamburg.de/en/projects/energieberg-georgswerder/projekt/energy-hill-georgswerder.html">Georgswerder Energy Hill</a> in the German city of Hamburg, large wind turbines stand proudly atop an artificial mountain of landfill in a post-industrial area. Purified groundwater onsite is captured and used for energy, and the sunny side of the mountain is graced by solar panels. Visitors learn about renewable energy at a visitor centre before walking up to an elegant public “horizon line” walkway that encircles the mountain and gives expansive views of the city beyond. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113548/original/image-20160302-25879-1uc7khs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113548/original/image-20160302-25879-1uc7khs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113548/original/image-20160302-25879-1uc7khs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113548/original/image-20160302-25879-1uc7khs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113548/original/image-20160302-25879-1uc7khs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113548/original/image-20160302-25879-1uc7khs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113548/original/image-20160302-25879-1uc7khs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113548/original/image-20160302-25879-1uc7khs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">View from the hill.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/svensson/14340538339/">Alexander Svensson</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>In Norway, the <a href="http://qz.com/395064/this-norwegian-power-station-isnt-just-green-its-beautiful/">Øvre Forsland hydroelectric power station</a> similarly aims to be educative, to reflect the local context, and to unapologetically attract attention.</p>
<p>One interesting example on the drawing board is the proposed <a href="http://www.tidallagoonswanseabay.com/">Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay</a>. The power station consists of a large artificial lagoon formed by a sea wall, with water allowed in and out through underwater electricity turbines. Electricity is harvested from the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-artificial-lagoons-can-be-used-to-harvest-energy-from-the-tides-38403">difference between low and high tides</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113552/original/image-20160302-25869-16tssib.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113552/original/image-20160302-25869-16tssib.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113552/original/image-20160302-25869-16tssib.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113552/original/image-20160302-25869-16tssib.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113552/original/image-20160302-25869-16tssib.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113552/original/image-20160302-25869-16tssib.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113552/original/image-20160302-25869-16tssib.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113552/original/image-20160302-25869-16tssib.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Don’t book your holiday just yet – building work hasn’t started.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.tidallagoonswanseabay.com/about-us/image-gallery/116/">Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The plans include space for walkers and cyclists along the top of the sea walls, and an iconic, ark-shaped offshore visitor centre <a href="http://juicearchitects.com/4A_15_Iceberg.htm">(pictured above, by Juice Architects)</a> on the far side of the lagoon. Landscape architects LDA have already received the highest accolade in their field – <a href="http://www.landscapeinstitute.org/casestudies/casestudy.php?id=405">the Presidents’ Medal</a> – for creatively developing a scheme which “puts place-making at its heart and seeks to integrate a major renewable energy project into the lives of local people”. </p>
<h2>Celebrate change through design</h2>
<p>Given the grim consequences of climate change and the political stakes associated with generating energy, the question of aesthetics may seem trivial. Investments in renewables obviously need to be based on more than just appearances.</p>
<p>However, as society quickly transitions to better sources of energy, <a href="http://architizer.com/blog/power-plant-architecture/">designers are embracing</a> the opportunity to reflect and celebrate the change. Seeing how big power plants, as well as hugely important small-scale <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-more-big-power-plants-civic-energy-could-provide-half-our-electricity-by-2050-38183">community initiatives</a>, can fit within the landscapes that people use and enjoy is a real challenge. </p>
<p>There will probably never be a power plant or solar panel that everyone deems beautiful. But debating beauty and design alongside function is vital to achieve better renewable energy developments.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55415/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Porter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Celebrate the shift to renewable energy with bold designs that add to the landscape.
Nicole Porter, Assistant Professor, Architecture & Built Environment, University of Nottingham
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/54111
2016-02-03T19:05:03Z
2016-02-03T19:05:03Z
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: it’s the Jane Austen horror show
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110082/original/image-20160203-28538-1va2y6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jane Austen horror has burgeoned into a distinctive subgenre of adaptations.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kevin Harber</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is a truth universally acknowledged that a bestselling monster mash-up must be in want of a movie. Perhaps this explains why <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1374989/">Pride and Prejudice and Zombies</a> (2016) – beset by myriad casting woes, money worries, and directorial setbacks since the project was announced – will finally arrive in cinemas tomorrow. </p>
<p>The film – starring Lily James, Sam Riley and Jack Huston – is based on the <a href="http://www.quirkbooks.com/book/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies">bestselling book</a> of the same name by by Seth Grahame-Smith.</p>
<p>Fans – and the weirdly fascinated – can rest assured. England’s green and pleasant land will be beset by a plague of the living dead. Corpses will dig their way out of graves. Crypt doors will burst open. Armies of Satan’s soldiers – shambling, soulless, brain-devouring monsters – will upturn coaches, invade the houses of the rich, and generally terrorise the good citizens of Austen’s Hertfordshire.</p>
<p>But it is unlikely that this will be accompanied by any cries of indignation from <a href="http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12760768.The_Jane_Gang/">the Janeites</a>, howls of outrage from Austen bibliophiles and scholars, or publicity-generating accusations that the barbarians of Hollywood have finally set “our dear Jane” spinning in her grave.</p>
<p>The reality is a lot more interesting.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FzowFJTApfY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, book trailer.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Websites frequented by the Janeites are more likely to be sponsoring book giveaways and free movie passes. And the movie is more likely to get a genial nod from popular culture and Austen scholars, not to mention neo-Marxist scholars of the apocalyptic school who have a deep appreciation for the way in which Seth Grahame-Smith has tethered the paradigmatic exponent of western middle-class mores with the zombie monster – the ultimate proletarian monster, which was, at the time of the book’s 2009 release, <a href="http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1890384,00.html">declared by Time magazine</a> to be the cultural mascot of the GFC.</p>
<p>In fact, Jane Austen horror has burgeoned into a distinctive subgenre of Austen adaptations. Joining Seth-Grahame Smith’s interpretation of Elizabeth Bennet as a katana-weilding zombie slayer, is Michael Thomas Ford’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6570140-jane-bites-back">Jane Bites Back</a> (2009), featuring Jane Austen as the undead 233-year-old author and owner of an upstate New York book store.</p>
<p>There is also Amanda Grange’s, <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6691280-mr-darcy-vampyre">Mr Darcy, Vampyre</a> (2009), in which Elizabeth Bennet wakes up to the worrying truth that she is married to a “vampyre”; and Carrie Bebris’ <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13105035-pride-and-pyramids">Pride and Prescience</a> (2012), and subsequent books, which cast Elizabeth Bennet as one half of a dynamic detective duo investigating supernatural mysteries.</p>
<p>Even the latest BBC Masterpiece sequel to Pride and Prejudice, based on PD James’ <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-25262352">Death Comes to Pemberley</a>, features a plotline transformed by the conventions of the neo-gothic thriller.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/foGraEVNI0s?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, film trailer.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These works of Austen horror – styled as fan fictions, spoofs, satires or comedies – are oddly interesting for the way in which they blend the aesthetics of British heritage drama with chic lit, 20th-century soap opera, and the genre of monster tales, which, for many scholars, signals widespread fears and anxieties about the monstrous dislocations at the heart of contemporary life.</p>
<p>Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a curious case in point.</p>
<p>The film may be set in the past, with lavish hair-dos, costumes and make-up, but there is of course nothing historical in the film. The mysterious plague that the plot envisions has far less to do with the violence of Austen’s world, and more to do with the violence of the Anglophone world today. This makes it one of the more interesting examples of what David McNally <a href="http://www.haymarketbooks.org/pb/Monsters-of-the-Market">has evocatively called</a> the “capitalist grotesque”.</p>
<h2>The capitalist grotesque</h2>
<p>In Haitian folklore, the zombie represents the historical memory of slavery – the idea of one human enslaved by the will of another. Appropriated by US directors such as George A. Romero, the zombie expressed a range of domestic threats, from civil rights to violence arising from the war in Vietnam, or as critiques of consumerism and the military industrial complex.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110083/original/image-20160203-28566-2z6rb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110083/original/image-20160203-28566-2z6rb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110083/original/image-20160203-28566-2z6rb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110083/original/image-20160203-28566-2z6rb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110083/original/image-20160203-28566-2z6rb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110083/original/image-20160203-28566-2z6rb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1167&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110083/original/image-20160203-28566-2z6rb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1167&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110083/original/image-20160203-28566-2z6rb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1167&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons/ Quirk Books, Philadelphia</span></span>
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<p>In the wake of the global financial crisis activists and scholars <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9702.html">appropriated the zombie image</a> as a metaphor for a newly globalised proletariat – modernity’s outcasts, disenfranchised social classes, the “superfluous” populations evoked by <a href="http://au.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0745631649.html">sociologists such as Zygmunt Bauman</a>, depleted of their affective and intellectual energies by a cultural and economic system dedicated to the production of “human waste”.</p>
<p>In short, the zombie usurped Frankenstein’s position as the proletariat monster of choice – a symptomatic representation of a cultural and economic system rotting away from within and without.</p>
<p>Austen is an apt target for such anxious envisioning not only because of her centrality in the western cultural canon, but also because she is fundamentally an uncompromising moralist. </p>
<p>Her ethical system is every bit as complex as Kant’s, and her ethical values – including such allegedly quaint-sounding notions as “amiability”, “civility”, “propriety” and “dignity” – are, as <a href="https://philosophynow.org/issues/94/Reading_Jane_Austen_as_a_Moral_Philosopher">Thomas Rodham has argued</a>, fundamentally about middle-class existence.</p>
<p>Indeed, the middle-class myopia of Austen has long been a point of critical attack. As Raymond Williams famously pointed out in his book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/184043.The_Country_and_the_City">The Country and the City</a> (1973):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>where only one class is seen, no classes are seen. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>These critical concerns also attach themselves to anxieties about the imperial “unconsciousness” of Austen.</p>
<p>In the novels of Britain’s imperial age, “money from elsewhere” in the guise of profits from the East India Company, or exotic sugar plantations, provided the means for many a plot resolution, as Edward Said famously argued in <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22135.Culture_and_Imperialism">Culture and Imperialism</a> (1993) with respect to the sugar plantation that sustains the Bertram’s family estate in Austen’s novel <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45032.Mansfield_Park?from_search=true&search_version=service">Mansfield Park</a> (1814).</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110085/original/image-20160203-28559-1wtog47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110085/original/image-20160203-28559-1wtog47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110085/original/image-20160203-28559-1wtog47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110085/original/image-20160203-28559-1wtog47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110085/original/image-20160203-28559-1wtog47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110085/original/image-20160203-28559-1wtog47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1108&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110085/original/image-20160203-28559-1wtog47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1108&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110085/original/image-20160203-28559-1wtog47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1108&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Pride and Prejudice and Zombies cover, by Doogie Horner, is a ‘zombification’ of a painting of Marcia Fox by William Beechey.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hence, in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – a putative democratisation of Austen – the upper classes also go to the “Orient” not to acquire wealth, but to acquire the “deadly arts” that will allow them to impose order on society in a more direct and violent way.</p>
<p>But despite these apparently democratic renovations, the “Orient” still functions within this monster franchise as a site of exploitation, just as the disaffected zombies still function as an outcast social order to be vanquished.</p>
<p>Moreover, the novel somewhat blunts the force of its critique by breaking the conventions of the zombie narrative – one of the few mainstream genres to adhere to the convention of the nihilistic ending – by featuring a happy ending. Indeed the other two books in the trilogy – <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7090785-pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies">Dawn of the Dreadfuls</a> (2010) and <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8718281-pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies">Dreadfully Ever After</a> (2011), by Steve Hockensmith – do the same, giving us three happy endings in a row.</p>
<p>But there is also something in this monster movie for the Janeites.</p>
<p>Jane Austen was no revolutionary. But had she seen the state of our world – the way in which we appear to have failed so completely at “amiability”, “civility”, “propriety” and “dignity” – then, perhaps she might even have agreed that, as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ original fanboy trailer put it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Maybe You Need Some Zombies.
<br>
<br></p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p><br></p>
<p><em><strong>Further reading</strong>: <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264240675_Jane_Austen_Now_with_Ultraviolent_Zombie_Mayhem">Jane Austen … Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem</a>, by Camilla Nelson</em>.</p>
<p><em>Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is released in cinemas tomorrow.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54111/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Camilla Nelson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
England’s green and pleasant land will be beset by a plague of the living dead, corpses will dig their way out of graves … Jane Austen horror is now a distinctive subgenre of Austen adaptations.
Camilla Nelson, Senior Lecturer in Writing, University of Notre Dame Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/50034
2015-12-01T10:39:24Z
2015-12-01T10:39:24Z
Secret, immersive cinema is likely to change the future of film
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103733/original/image-20151130-10246-s5iv52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back at Secret Cinema.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Mike Massaro</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The soon-to-be-released <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/could-star-wars-open-at-789889">Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens</a> is tipped to be the box office success of 2015. Hardly surprising given that fans have been waiting ten years since the last installment. </p>
<p>A lot has changed in how films are produced and promoted in the intervening decade. Last summer, for example, there was a huge Secret Cinema Star Wars event. Their immersive The Empire Strikes Back experience sold a staggering <a href="http://www.secretcinema.org/tickets">100,000 tickets</a>, generating over <a href="http://www.screendaily.com/news/secret-cinema-audience-tops-100000-as-empire-strikes-back-event-wraps/5094687.article">£6 million</a> at the box office.</p>
<p>Running over four months, the event brought to the fore a new form of immersive cinematic entertainment which exploded in the UK over the summer of 2015. In addition to Secret Cinema’s event, the largest season of <a href="http://www.thelunacinema.com">Open Air Cinema</a> concluded its 125 outdoor screening run. In fact, a dizzying number of organisations now turn cinema into events: in the UK these include <a href="http://sneakyexperience.co.uk/">Sneaky Experience</a>, <a href="http://floatingcinema.info/">Floating Cinema</a>, <a href="http://www.singalonga.net/">Sing-alonga</a>, <a href="http://www.rooftopfilmclub.com/">Rooftop Film Club</a> and <a href="http://www.whereisthenomad.com/">Nomad Cinema</a>.</p>
<p>There is a growing trend toward cinema-as-event – where film screenings are augmented by synchronous live performance, site-specific locations, technological interventions, social media engagement, and all manner of simultaneous interaction including singing, dancing, eating, drinking, even smelling.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103706/original/image-20151130-10288-icihp4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103706/original/image-20151130-10288-icihp4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103706/original/image-20151130-10288-icihp4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103706/original/image-20151130-10288-icihp4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103706/original/image-20151130-10288-icihp4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103706/original/image-20151130-10288-icihp4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103706/original/image-20151130-10288-icihp4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wizarding Weekend Sneaky Experience.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This summer also saw the UK tour of a <a href="http://thequietus.com/articles/18127-asian-dub-foundation-thx1138-score">live re-scoring</a> of George Lucas’s 1971 film <a href="http://lucasfilm.com/thx-1138">THX 1138</a> by Asian Dub Foundation. A unique score was composed by the band and played live alongside the film’s screening, interwoven with the film’s original soundtrack. This is one of the first times this has been done in this way: re-scorings are usually performed to silent and foreign language films (where it isn’t crucial for an English-speaking audience to hear the original soundtrack due to subtitles).</p>
<p>The last performance of the tour was attended by sound designer <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004555/">Walter Murch</a>, who said afterwards: “It’s like being the author of a 19th century novel who then sees that novel being turned into an opera.”</p>
<p>Walter’s presence at the event signalled that live cinema has passed a landmark moment. These events have become mainstream, achieving significant box office success and commercial gain. They have also been accepted by the film industry as a normalised part of the distribution and development of a film. As a matter of course, decisions in Hollywood as to whether there will be a live distribution strategy are made from the outset.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103734/original/image-20151130-10288-1oxucip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103734/original/image-20151130-10288-1oxucip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103734/original/image-20151130-10288-1oxucip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103734/original/image-20151130-10288-1oxucip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103734/original/image-20151130-10288-1oxucip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103734/original/image-20151130-10288-1oxucip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103734/original/image-20151130-10288-1oxucip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Secret Cinema’s Star Wars event.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Paul Cochrane</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Shifting grounds</h2>
<p>So why are we seeing such a sudden change in the way that film is consumed?</p>
<p>Technologically, the industry has burgeoned as a result of the rapid advancement of “pop-up” screen technology (such as inflatable screens and directional audio). This enables screenings to take place in locations that have previously been inaccessible, such as Hampton Court Palace, Kew Gardens or an obscure warehouse rooftop.</p>
<p>In commercial terms, we might compare the film industry’s need to branch out to that of the music industry. Both are facing threats to traditional forms of revenue generation due to the easy access offered by the internet. So both have turned their attention to the attraction of live events as an alternative. The film industry has also expanded in response to the public’s love for nostalgia and the power of fan engagement – many events tend to revolve around “old” and well-loved film releases; Secret Cinema’s <a href="http://www.gamejournal.it/atkinson_kennedy/#.VjMY-0tlpPI">Back to the Future</a> was one such example last year. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103746/original/image-20151130-10251-1k6lko7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103746/original/image-20151130-10251-1k6lko7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103746/original/image-20151130-10251-1k6lko7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103746/original/image-20151130-10251-1k6lko7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103746/original/image-20151130-10251-1k6lko7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103746/original/image-20151130-10251-1k6lko7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103746/original/image-20151130-10251-1k6lko7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Secret Cinema do Back to the Future.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Al Overdrive</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The rise in events also dovetails with the rise in social media. Individuals have a growing need to populate their social media streams with novel and exciting experiences.</p>
<p>Artistically, this new form also offers audiences a deeper emotional engagement with films. Murch recalled a moment of anticipating these latent possibilities during the 1971 scoring session for THX 1138: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was electrifying to see a film energised by 80 musicians recording that music, and I thought at the time, and this was 45 years ago, wouldn’t it be great to allow ordinary people to experience this.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The future of film</h2>
<p>Live cinema events are not just new ways of experiencing film. The trend is also likely to direct the development of film itself. Early cinema history shows that new forms of exhibition and audience engagement drove the evolution of new film genres and techniques.</p>
<p>For example, the 1908 explosion of Nickelodeon movie theatres in the USA led to the creation of the fiction film and film studio in order to provide a constant flow of viewing fodder for the masses cheaply and efficiently. Likewise, the 1950s rise of drive-in cinema culture spawned the teen-movie genre in order to fill the double and triple bills that the audiences demanded.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103731/original/image-20151130-10243-1h68jme.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103731/original/image-20151130-10243-1h68jme.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103731/original/image-20151130-10243-1h68jme.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103731/original/image-20151130-10243-1h68jme.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103731/original/image-20151130-10243-1h68jme.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103731/original/image-20151130-10243-1h68jme.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103731/original/image-20151130-10243-1h68jme.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A more recent drive-in, Brussels.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Drive-In_Brussels.JPG">Christian Kremer</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The current growth of live cinema exhibition and distribution will surely have the same impact today. Certain films are chosen and promoted because of characteristics which make them suitable for this kind of exhibition. </p>
<p>THX 1138 worked because of its sparse dialogue, meaning that the live music could be woven in effectively, still enabling the audiences to hear the dialogue and original sound score. The Empire Strikes Back screening and pre-event build-up was infused with the theme of rebellion and secrecy, which was germane to the film’s original narrative, ensuring the audience’s willingness to engage in the experience, purchasing costumes from the pop-up and online shops, and bringing along props as instructed.</p>
<p>In the future, genre conventions and production practices and processes will respond directly to the “live” model in the development and production phases. Film aesthetics, style and process will evolve as a result, and we are likely to see films being made specifically for live exhibition –- which will take increasingly spectacular forms.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50034/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research project referenced in the article is funded by Arts Council England Grants for the Arts.</span></em></p>
Cinema is evolving into a multi-sensory spectacular.
Sarah Atkinson, Senior Lecturer in Digital Cultures, King's College London
Helen W. Kennedy, Deputy Head: Art, Design and Media, University of Brighton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.