Hollywood and the Integral Tipping Point

Mark, after just watching an internet interview with James Cameron, I am in a different state about the larger creative and production process and am feeling some chagrin for my expressed shadow in the prior post. This type and size of endeavor is beyond my knowledge and understanding and as you are suggesting, extraordinarily influential.

 I like your analysis of this, and I plan on commenting further, but I just wanted to point out one thing:

"...and the pending release of James Cameron’s Avatar, which appears to be attempting to cross the integral media threshold by offering content immersion (IMAX 3D), platform convergence (Theatrical/Game simultaneous release), and a foray into virtual aperspectivalism (Character-to-Avatar perspective shifts)."

Technically, the Wachowski Brothers already did this in 2003 with the massive release of The Matrix: Reloaded.  It was in IMAX (though not 3D), had a simultaneously released video game called Enter the Matrix that told an entirely different story within the film's universe (they actually filmed entirely new footage specifically for the game, and they used earlier versions of the tech Cameron is using in Avatar to capture actor's performances to map to in-game characters), and its virtual aperspectivalism was rather thorough, as every new sequence of the film essentially offered an entirely new way to interpret the entire fictional universe.

Hi Mark,

I have enjoyed your blogs. I am wondering what sort of things you are looking at when you say the Artist/Aesthetic (AA) line is shifting from level 6 to 7.

Of course we would have to look at a lot of different lines within AA, such as acting, writing, cinematography, casting, directing, etc. A complicated business.  :) Especially when we consider how one facet of the business might be affecting another.

I've been wondering myself about the differences between premodern writing, modern writing, postmodern writing, integral writing. What do you think?

Best,

David

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Hi Mark,

I am very appreciative of this analysis. I just watched Avatar in 3D IMAX and came away with the sense that something significant is shifting in cinema and its industry.

So thank you. Your posting has taught me ta ton -- and prompted deepening reflection.

And in this latter regard I have a number of queries.

 The first is the stated claim that you are analyzing a social holon. As I understand it, social holons do not possess consciousness. I am therefore not clear how you obtain your scale in analogy to the integral view of altitude, which is proper to an individual holon (human) who possesses consciousness, and where altitude in this sense is technically proper to the UL (and even more so, to zone 2, the outside view of the interior) and not to the arising of the four quadrants, unless by analogy (or from a kind of “centering” in the UL)?

My second query goes to the question of the Communications/Media line and how it differs from an Art/Aesthetics line?

All artworks are media specific. We can address the integral being in the world of maker(s) and viewer(s) -- or look to the artifact itself. This is the divide between internal and external approaches to the artwork, not often kept in mind when we engage artworks (the latest Integral Life Art Gallery on this site lays out this distinction along with practice pages: http://integrallife.com/node/60575).

Is your distinction between media and aesthetics along similar lines? Or if not, then I ask what do you mean by “communication”?

Besides thesequestions, a few quick words with reference to Avatar.

I can imagine that the people creating this film, from a technical perspective, might be operating (and in tandem) from a teal altitude. This however seems to me to be an empirical question, at least in part, and I am not sure what evidence you are mounting for your analysis about these human beings and their interactions. From what you have taught me from you rich and brief posting, I get this sense strongly, but what more can attest to this claim?

Also, from an expressive-aesthetic view of the film itself, and like David Marshall in his post, I see many dimensions to Avatar. For in addition to his list, which as I read his post is pointing back to the consciousness of the creators of this or that facet of the film (an external approach), I am thinking of the film as a work of art on its own terms (an internal view, calling for an integral semiotics of the film), where the film itself is the primary evidence.  

From the side of filmic form/structure, I am unaware of any study that clearly lays out the analogs between aspects of film form and altitude as such (whereas some of this groundwork exists for painting, and with regard to music my colleague, Clay Shotwell, is pioneering  an integral way to analyze music form as it encodes stages and states). And this gets especially tricky as film involves (1) visuals, (2) various modes of sound, all of  which is so often mobilized through (3) narrative structures. Do you know of anyone who has developed this from an integral angle – if so, I would be thrilled to get a chance to see it!!

That said, given the novelty of the 3D IMAX version of Avatar, where the 3D and IMAX facets are no longer add-ons or just spectacular thrills, but in my opinion are integrated into the aesthetic whole, I wonder if we even have yet a set of adequate analytic concepts to speak about this shift in the medium of cinema (where such shifts do not immediately imply a growth in the encoding of altitude). Gilles Deleuze’s two volume study of Cinema is the deepest analysis of visual filmic form of which I am aware, and Deleuze himself said that his study of cinema required his creation of new concepts. I wonder if we are at that kind of threshold with the advent of a film like Avatar in 3D IMAX.

On the content side, I agree with Aaron Johnson’s post: “From my immediate impressions of Avatar, immersion and convergence definitely seem to be happening, but a subjective aperspectivalism does not, at least not if we're talking about a Teal sensibility in cognition and/or values.  It's pretty much the classic ‘Noble Savage’ story with all the stereotyping and cultural insensitivity this includes.  I would say it's a well-meaning Orange narrative that doesn't hold up well to Green academic criticism.”

So, from the form/structure side of the film, I do not know how to assess Avatar, both because I am unaware of any clear study demonstrating how filmic form encodes stages/states (and wonder if the film is so novel in this respect that we do not yet have clear analytic categories to account for the new aesthetic mode proper to 3D-IMAX); and from the content side there are magenta to green elements, depending on what we focus upon (the magenta of the stated tribal beliefs of respective characters, the red of the company commander's "will to kick ass," etc.) – with little or no second tier content that I can detect; including no teal perspective on these different altitudes in the film.

I have probed at length because the issues you raise, in citing Avatar, seem to me to be of pressing interest – right on edge of culture and its industries, which is amazing indeed since that you have tackled the emergent head on! Really, awesome!!

Or, to say it otherwise: I lack much clarity on these matters... such that discussing becomes the way...

With warmth and in appreciation, Michael

Wow Mark great analysis.  Its great to see you made it to the front page.  

I love your framing.  I have been watching very closely developments in the software industry and am seeing similar patterns.

Mark, all I can say is "Bravo!"  This is exactly the type of analysis I envisioned when I first picked up a copy of Wilber's Integral Psychology a few years ago (it was the first of his books I read, and even though I have a philosophy background, it was challenging, to say the least.  I would have been completely lost if I hadn't been familiar with the "Great Chain of Being" concept!).  And, of course, Integral Spirituality really set the stage. 

The only thing I would like to add is in reference to the slump in DVD sales and the business/markets line being at stage 5.  It seems to me that the advancement of technology has created this problem by enabling the nearly instant duplication and transmission of information, including entertainment.  Basically, people are buying "bootleg" DVD's and using file-sharing applications, just like what happened with CD sales.  As an example of the interconnectivity of all lines, this phenomenon could not happen if every consumer was at (default) moral altitude 7.  But people live in the real world, and economics plays a role in moral decision making.  So, if a problem cannot be resolved at the same level that caused it, the answer to this dilemma must arise from a stage 6 (or possibly higher) business distribution model.  The technology already exists in the form of the internet.  So media (C/M) and distribution (B/A) companies must form partnerships in order to "wire up" the rest of the country with high-speed internet capability (of course, it could be wireless, lol) so their customer base has a delivery system ready to take advantage of the latest entertainment technology.  In other words, increase the revenue streams and ensure future growth by giving something away and charging for a new service (or new advertising online, etc.).

On an interesting side note, this complete "wiring of America" will allow for easier transfer of resources from the "haves" to the "have nots" in many senses (and lines!).  I am sure that file sharing has already influenced many to advance to their next stage of inclusiveness (consciousness).  Remember, "He who controls the Spice [information, in this case], controls the world."  (Frank Herbert, Dune)