Presence - brought to you by...

In "The Reception," the Berkeley Dance Project dancers touched a bit on presence. They mentioned it in speech and expressed interpretation through movement. In the discussion afterwards, they defined presence as action in an environment. The use of a TV on wheels was interesting because the lady showed on the screen was trying to be present with the man wheeling the TV with him. Her request to take her with him was of some success for a few seconds until the extension cord was unplugged and she was no longer. This presence was dependent on technology. But even with the technological advances providing some opportunity to be present with someone at a different location in the same real time, there is still an absense of a sort. I felt it most when the dancers were hugging "someone", but to the third party it looked as if they were embracing air. I could vaguely see the shape of the vacuum but the actual person was not there. I'm not too sure what each act in the show was trying to convey but it was interesting to watch and definitely provoked thought about presence.

Machines are taking over

Manovich, in "The New Temporality: The Loop as a Narrative Engine," refers to the use of the loop in media products seen today (ex: games, media players). The need for the loop in functioning movies, computer games, and internet sites due to the limited storage, according to history he says, will never go away.
What intrigued me was Manovich relating the loop to the "notion of human existence as a linear progression through numerous unique events." The loop allows machine to take over control instead of having someone do the work at each incident and in turn run society more efficiently at the demanding pace. He points to a scene from "Man with the Movie Camera," which we viewed earlier this semester, where the man is cranking the handle of his camera. This loop is no longer done by cameramen but now relied upon the camera itself, the machine's programming to do the repetition. This leaves wondering not 'what will they think of next' but rather 'how much longer until they execute it' as we continue looping through time with our machines.

Men are From Mars, Women are from Venus…

…Or in this case, man is from the present and woman is from the future. On his first night after meeting the Elois, he ponders about how these creatures are so alike in dress, speech, reaction to life, and how they could have evolved in this manner. Though his initial thoughts on the Elois were that of a society which does not require reasoning, he soon discovers that they live in what he thinks is a perfect society with no machines (something that we in the present age can only imagine due to our dependency of machinery and technology). This different world is one that he cannot relate to.

One of the women he gets acquainted with is Weena. Upon rescuing her from drowning, the Time Traveler builds a relationship with her and is taught more about the society that he has stumbled into. Her devotedness to the Time Traveler is one of great gratitude, perhaps a result of not receiving such kindness from the society she is from. Another difference to point out, this Eloi friend is afraid of the dark. Later he finds out that it is because of the hungry Morlocks.

In this novel, Wells depicts class struggles that occur even lightyears ahead of our time. If the Elois represent those who Have and the Morlocks the Have-Nots, it makes sense that the Time Traveler can relate more with the Elois. His friendship with Weena shows this point. Though his interaction with her proves that he can mingle with them, it is not to say that he belongs with them according to the structure of this society. I found it interesting that in the end Weena is left to burn in the forest (by the fire that was started with the match that the Time Traveler was using to scare off the Morlocks) while the Time Traveler is “tricked” back into his time machine and survives the disaster. Weena and the Time Traveler are from different worlds and are in the end separated when they try to merge the two together.