Cronenberg: Cinema and Technology

eXistenZ

Is it just me, or does Cronenberg look alot like Bill Gates???

I LOVE Cronenberg films. I never forgot the first time I saw “The Fly.” I was so disturbed by it. Cronenberg is fascinated by what I believe is termed post-humanity; that is, by the impact of technology on the human body. This film forms part of the group of mixing intellectual and artistic practices. He forces us to rethink the human body and habit and question the effects of rapid advancement in genetic engineering and robotics.

To Summarize, "Existenz" shows a time imagined in the not too distant future when technology has made game-playing far more elaborate than the video games we know today.There are references to a "MetaFlesh Game-Pod" which is attached by an "umbrycord" plugged into a "bioport" located at the base of the player's spine.(Actually..I read in the New York Times recently that something along the same lines has been created in Japan for a live TV game show!) The player's own energy supplies the power, and more than one player is connected to the same game; the game changes every time it's played, and the players have difficulty deciding what's real and what isn't.

Generally though, The concepts revealed as problematic in the film scenario conceived are those of "nature" and "reality" and, in a sense, new forms of communication which also precipitate us into a distinction between "natural" communication practices and “new” communication practices.With this in mind, I am grateful that New Communication Technology doesn’t require us to learn how to attach a MetaFlesh Game-Pod as a task.