[PEN-L] Death of actors

[Doyle Saylor]

Greetings Economists,
The New York Times runs one of their long lived tropes about cartoons replacing actors.

http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2006/10/15/arts/index.html?8dpc

Doyle;
What is the work being done?

Written by Sharon Waxman of NY Times, in an article called "Cyberface: New Technology that captures the soul"? 10-15-06;
<x-tad-bigger>"And it’s more than a little bit creepy."

Doyle;
Creeeeppeeee, huh? Hmmm, the word is the asocial description of disgust. In other words the writers is putting a wall of emotional taboo around the subject, but I suppose we must say that's the point. Make the subject, dull technology, interesting. The trope is that cartoons will replace the actor. What is the work being done?

Sharon Waxman writes;
“I like to call it soul transference,” said Andy Wood, the chairman of Image Metrics, who is not shy about proclaiming his company’s potential. “The model has the actress’s soul. It shows through.”

Doyle;
I see bullshit being thrown, I see hippo shit being slathered on, I smell cat shit. But that means I'm getting in the same acting shower scene with Sharon's trope. Can I use an asocial emotion to understand? No I can't, but this point goes to the heart of the trope, understanding reproduction of emotions in communications.

Sharon Waxman waxes upon the subject;
Its creators say it goes way beyond standard hand-drawn computer graphics, which require staggering amounts of time and money. It even goes beyond “motion capture,” the technique that animated </x-tad-bigger><x-tad-bigger>Tom Hanks</x-tad-bigger><x-tad-bigger>’s 2004 film </x-tad-bigger><x-tad-bigger>“The Polar Express,”</x-tad-bigger><x-tad-bigger> which is strong on body movement but not on eyes, the inner part of the lips and the tongue, some of the most important messengers of human emotion.

Doyle;
The industry currently is suffering a bit of a glut of cartoons on the market. So the next wave is being offered in the trope. Replace the human knowledge work with cartoons bolstered by making it a silly crossing of taboo emotions. Oops I let slip, it's 'knowledge' work.

Sharon Waxman writes;
Asked what he might do with the new technology, </x-tad-bigger><x-tad-bigger>Taylor Hackford</x-tad-bigger><x-tad-bigger>, the director of </x-tad-bigger><x-tad-bigger>“Ray”</x-tad-bigger><x-tad-bigger> and a dozen other movies, was at first dismissive. “It’s phenomenal, but its uses are in the area of commercials,” he said. (Image Metrics made a commercial last winter that revived Fred and Ethel Mertz of “I Love Lucy” discussing the merits of a Medicare package.) But after a moment’s reflection, he shifted his view. “If you’re working on ‘The Misfits,’ and </x-tad-bigger><x-tad-bigger>Clark Gable</x-tad-bigger><x-tad-bigger> died before the end of the film, you could have used it in that instance,” he reflected.

Doyle;
What they are eliding is the movement toward reproduction of emotions in graphics. I'm going to write an essay about knowledge production via face based technology and the development of social and cultural ramifications of face based communications. Where face based communications pre-supposes that emotion structure is being adequately reproduced in a capitalist economy.
thanks,
Doyle Saylor</x-tad-bigger>