Beneath Its Wings

The Aesthetics of Fail Videos

Now so more than ever moments are caught on glass retinas, recorded, uploaded, observed. The culmination of this technology are short films in which people are injured then edited together into a ten minute compilation video titled 'Fails of the week'. Like 19th century optograms, the sight and sound of people losing control of their bodies is watched after the fact by hundreds of thousands of people, cheering and laughing in the near future. I find them to be of cultural value, the aesthetics of each video has a certain quality that is so far removed from reality and cinema it lends itself more to a dream.

Each snapshot is captured from the point of view of an observer, although occasionally the victim is holding the camera. The accidents vary in violence and banality, although most feature an urban setting, often involving human powered vehicles, such as roller skates, falling afoul of architecture and Newton's laws of motion. There is often a cosiness about the background, they are the places people go to have fun. American streets, ski-resorts, boats, sport days, the family home, out in nature. Each serve as the scene of a potentially lethal accident, through the lack of foresight in an individual or insane luck. The accidents themselves have a painlessness about them, even though the footage is caught in eye bleeding high definition the video cuts off soon after. We don't get to see the consequences of the acts. They are bloodless, there is little emotional response to the accident besides shock. We don't see the interior of hospitals where mothers sit in empty rooms drinking coffee, looking at the setting sun with faces dried by tears. Whilst watching this malarky we are jet around the world as it is today. The fashion technology people could be the same as the one's standing outside your door (waiting for you), although we are taken to such exotic locations as Russia or America. This is a version of the world away from news channels, as polished television drama, as documentary footage and so on. It is a window into a world that is normal to those in it, yet becomes increasingly alien as time goes on.

The viewers of these videos dub themselves 'The Fail Army', who scour the digital globe for the juiciest accidents and attacks for splicing. These vulgar nerds respond to accusations of sadism that what they are doing is slapstick and light-hearted, suggesting that for the video to be uploaded in the first place that there was an element of consent, an acknowledgement of survival. Not only is it amusing, it is inspiring how the human body reacts to falling down a flight of stairs or being hit by a tree whilst riding a motorbike. We are a durable species, it reminds us that the world isn't necessarily safe, yet that in itself can be overcome. Yet there is still an antiseptic nature to the videos. Though the event happened, the viewer is watching it remotely from the safety of a chair. The end result is still the simulation of violence rather than being in any actual risk. There is a sub-sect of 'The Fail Army' who call themselves 'The Pain Lords'. This group has a much more misanthropic view of the world. They spend hours collecting the screams of pain and making them into bizarre soundscapes they listen to in their sleep. They hang around accident black spots with night vision cameras, giggling to themselves as they wait for the next car containing a family to wrap itself round a tree. They watch snuff films on their phones as they ride public transport, not caring that the people around them are torn between curiosity and disgust. 'The Fail Army' is trying to distance itself from these sociopaths, yet they do have the best taste when it comes to selecting footage for the annual 'Fails of the Year' videos.

It is empathy that makes the videos worth watching. Is it more valuable to place yourself as the cameraman at a distance, or as the victim of the accident, imagining your vision spinning as your head tumbles over a fluctuating centre of gravity? To imagine the smack of concrete against an elbow or having a metal fence rammed between your legs brings out a more satisfying enjoyment of the videos. That way when the day comes in which you suffer a horrible accident, you will have already felt it a thousand times before. And maybe somebody will be filming you as it is happening.

Goodbye Thoughts

Some portraits done by students aged between 70-125 years old. Whilst drawing we can't help but subconsciously inserting some part of ourselves onto the paper. It is through placing ourselves inside the drawing that we can better understand the artist.

Underlying Theorem

The theory of everything is a theory of ideas. Matter and energy are unimportant, as are time and space. Mathematics are a way of understanding physics, yet what are mathematics without a mathematician? The universe was made believed to have existed whilst running parallel to every moment in time, carved over the aeons from future understandings of reality. It is only by through being believed in that a thing exists. For years scientists searched for the Higgs Boson, spending billions of euros to find the God particle. Is this any different from the fact that when Christians die that they go Christian heaven? Or that Buddhists are reincarnated as lobsters after not paying their taxes? In the centre of a black hole, where the forces of nature are so extreme they cease to make sense, is this an admittance that logical conclusions will eventually become illogical? What if you wore a hat with a brim so large it covered an entire city. If machines that can adapt were left on a planet long enough would evolve intelligence and ponder their existence~ would a video tape left playing long enough become sentient. If mankind ever was to reach the edge of the universe, could he begin to create new galaxies outside of everything? Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from nature.

Due to the saggy fabric of reality, all it takes for something to be true is for enough people to believe true. Science take place across the cosmos and involve the belief of aliens, so the rules remain simple. More locally the believed fictions tend to be more true. Werewolves once existed, so did Zeus. There is simply no other explanation. Why do we need science to explain things like telepathy when you and me know that it exists? We live in a fictional world striving for realism and falling to pieces when every million to one long-shot comes true. The weaknesses in order, the striving for chaos, the ringing from a bell tower that is yet to be built, lifting a stone to see the insects belief and dropping it down upon seeing them, the gradual realisation of your own aging, the squashy eyed moments of orgasm, two hammers pounding together, crystalline parallax, obnoxious rhododendron, that dreams are real and the real is a dream, time lapsed implosions of snails, the absurdity of being alive, the morning sun in summer, the continuum of ennui and staring off into the distance distracted by thoughts about the death of your partner. All of these fold like origami into a kind of lattice pork pie shape that's the time paradox revolution, if you extract the firmament using a simple Van Bolonvandervarian equation you can unlock the secrets of life. If not, you are rendered illegible for public recognition and dandelion seeds will be spread in your garden for six and six years.

Film Review: Elysium

The film opens up with a shot of a futuristic space world called Elysium. This is where half of the action takes place and contrasts the smelly trash world below; our plan et. This science fiction extravaganza is set in the future where medicine doesn't exist and questions the technicalities of obamacare, the one percent manoeuvre and robot cops. Directed by Stannis Beklev, director of the famous 'District 9' series, this second romp into the future weighs less on facts and more on wow factor. Matt Damon plays an idiot who works in a factory who one day gets microwaved along with a robot suit, the 2 fuse together to create a super soldier of the future. Jodie Foster meanwhile plays mild-mannered Elysium-class scientist and president Sarah Mildew, co-creator of Space Lab and the one in charge of the orbiting space platform. Matt Damon then races against time to get into space to fight her for ruining his life and hopefully crashing Elysium into the world, forever finishing money. I won't give away the end but I was shocked by the twist in the last few minutes, make sure to keep your eyes peeled as what you might think happen? It doesn't happen. And what actually does happen is so distant from the usual Hollywood tra-la-la that I'm going to give this movie 5 stars.



Now for the critical analysis. Lurking in the bowels of this film is a sophisticated argument against robots. In the future everyone who is good at anything is a robot. The police, the doctors and even the gardeners are all robots. As Matt Damon is transformed into a half and half, he undergoes a significant character arc that will be mirrored by the future; What exactly are we giving up when we're giving up our humanity? I think only a pragmatist would argue that old age is a good thing, everyone else would insist that everyone can live forever in robot bodies that grant us super intelligence and super strength, maybe other super abilities, but in this film especially the vague contraption that Matt Damon wears enhances him morally. At the start of the film he's nothing more than a lowly yokel working at a factory for free. He even robs a kid in the first few minutes of the film so he can get himself a future sludge butty. But as soon as his robot suit is enabled, he can run faster than a car and shoot his bullets even quicker with bigger explosions. The entire movie is like, one big videogame! In fact, heh, sometimes I felt like I could have been sat in the cinema with an x-box controller in my hand! And I'd lick the sweat off it to chase some kind of pubescent hormone buzz, all the while training my brain to use a computer to affect what was happening in front of me. Hello? We're all cyborgs now. Put that as your guardian headline for some clicks dawg.



Another important aspect of the film is medical care. In the future we will invent beds that will pour glitter on us whilst giving us full body MRI scans. This is the cure for everything, from bad teeth all the way up to blood cancer. For some reason Sarah Mildew, the president of Elysium, doesn't want anyone on Earth to have a billion dollar smile and keeps all of the medical pods in space to herself and her robot pals. In the vacuum of space we see similarities to the ocean, where Americans often flee to England for our free healthcare. Unlike us, the Elysium class bourgeoise blast them with rocket launchers. I felt as if the movie was putting across the message that this was okay and after thinking about it, I agree. What is the best way to cure sickness than death? A lot of thought is also given to the economic status of the Elysites versus the Earthlings. In one hand there is an entire planet of people, on the other there is a space station full of nob heads. Why don't the Earthlings simply pull themselves up by their bootstraps and become a little more self sufficient, rather that relying on constantly falling billionaires for...something? Jobs? They may as well just go colonize the moon for all I care.



Now onto a hot button topic; the special effects extravaganza! H. R. Giger was roped in to doing the designs for the robots, whilst Gary Gygax designed the actual Elysium space station. I have seen the model in real life and I don't think I'm giving any industry secrets away when I say the model isn't in space. All of the scenes that involved the Elysium space station was actually filmed in Gygax's garage. Half of the frame would be covered and the space station footage was filmed, they rewound the camera and then filmed the Earth in the other half of the frame. What you end up with is one slick piece of visual effects that will leave your eyes watering for weeks!




I like to think that Elysium is probably one of my most favourite films, at least recent films, the action is gorgeous, Matt Damon absolutely kills it with his half-silent hero and the blossoming romance that happens on screen will keep the broads awake in between the spectacular shots of people being literally ripped apart by bullets and explosions and their faces being reconstructed in magic machines only to be mashed into burger meat moments later! There is also a good moral message to the film; make sure you get rich now so your kids don't have to live in a third world hell-hole by the time they've lost their milk teeth. If you enjoyed this movie I would also recommend Real Steel because it is also about robots but in that film the robots just fight each other, only a few people die. Aslo check out the movie 'Rocket Dad'.