Greetings Economists,
Ann Li writes to Ian, and Eric,
Ann,
So there will be Cyborgs with SAG cards... Not having yet seen A.I., I
suspect it's Shindler's PDA spreadsheet. As the econ geography literature
makes clear, the problem is not with displacement of celebrity cinematic
talent, but with an analysis of the entire analog/digital cinematic
apparatus. Anyway, the NYT piece used "Tron" as an example which is
misleading because the issue is less one of saving money on talent ( not
in the Tron case where the characters were real ones in digitally enhanced
suits), but perhaps in the subsequent "Last Starfighter" where millions
were saved on set/production design using a Cray computer. Tron actually
wasted quite a bit of money on its subcontracted digital production for
its time, which is now miniscule compared to more recent budgets. Much
more interesting will be the rising market in digitally simulated adult
entertainment which uses the same infrastructure as mainstream cinema and
more corrupt labor practices. Meat Puppets!
Doyle
Ann's point about using avatars in hardcore movies (I assume your reference
to adult entertainment is what you mean) is much more to the point about
what is at stake than Tom Hanks career concerns. Adult movies are more
downscale than is Hollywood. Sex movies more than anything derive their
power from showing how sharing attention works amongst people. Adult
movies thrive on the intensely felt emotional focus upon how two people
screw each other. Some anime is supposed to have replaced Japanese
adolescent males interests in real female pictures. What that suggests
is that if an image actually meets shared attention needs better than a
human visage we as human beings could use that tool in place of using our
own bodies in creating social networks . That 'social' realism is
not the major issue in anime (since anime is not conversational).
Photo-realism as a style of image is not the main element of why avatars are
important it is their potential function in joint or shared attention
processes. The crucial issue is shared attention and what is needed for
that to work right for human beings.
thanks,
Doyle Saylor
