cinema technology presentweb

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A Lancaster – Cardiff collaboration Kate O’Riordan

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The support of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is gratefully acknowledged. The work forms part of the programme of the ESRC Research Centre for Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics.

Figurations of 'genomic' science in contemporary film: Institutions and Individuals: 

Figurations of 'genomic' science in contemporary film: Institutions and Individuals This paper was presented at the ‘Cinema and Technology Conference’ at Lancaster University, 6-9 April 2005

Introduction: 

Introduction This presentation aims to compare stories about individual scientists and spectacular technoscience on the one hand, with stories where technoscience provides a diffuse structural context on the other . The presentation uses the films Godsend and Code 46 to compare different types of filmic representations of genomics.

Godsend and Code 46: 

Godsend and Code 46 Both films, have genomics as a main theme and saw theatrical release in 2004: Godsend, a horror film directed by Nick Hamm Code 46, a science fiction film directed by Michael Winterbottom.

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Genre and Theme: 

Genre and Theme Horror: Individual Agency Science Fiction: Structural Governmentality

Horror: Godsend: 

Horror: Godsend Multiple conventions: cloning-as-horror, possession and the supernatural, child horror, serial killer, monster in the shed/cellar/woods. The clone as an embodiment of evil. The problem with (geneticised) life is that it exceeds (…) is diffuse, abject, unrecognisable, anxiety-provoking (Kember,2003: 147).

Horror: Godsend: 

Horror: Godsend The ‘abject’ or ‘monstrous’ body of the cloned child is the vehicle for mobilising a supernatural horror plot. The maternal body is elided through the process of cloning which becomes a narrative of ‘unnatural’ paternity between the doctor, the father and the child.

Horror and Agency: Godsend: 

Horror and Agency: Godsend Individual characters are an integral part of narrative across all story-telling forms, used to mobilise plots and to explore different meanings The use of individual characters to embody and ‘cause’ science in film means that, scientists, can be read as a set of individuated single, agential actors who ‘cause it’

Horror and Agency: Godsend: 

Horror and Agency: Godsend The film explores the interiority of the characters: feelings, emotion, psyche. Evokes the sovereign subject and causal agent. Science is linked to the body and the psyche. The interiority of the spectator is also called upon through the address.

Science Fiction: Code 46: 

Science Fiction: Code 46 Science fiction: described by a reviewer as one of the most ‘perfect cyberpunk’ films ever made (Savlov, 2004). The subjective experiences of the characters through space and time are the vehicles for exploring the representation of possible future/present subject positions within technoscience.

Science Fiction: Code 46: 

Science Fiction: Code 46 The tropes of cyberpunk such as bioengineering, cyberspace, surveillance systems and artificial intelligence are already in place; assumed as part of the cultural disposition of the mis-en-scene, rather than reproduced as spectacular processes of discovery or disaster

Science Fiction and Governmentality: Code 46: 

Science Fiction and Governmentality: Code 46 Genomics is one ‘mode of power concerned with the maintenance and control of bodies and persons’ (Butler 2004: pg 52)

Science Fictions: Genomic Governmentality : 

Science Fictions: Genomic Governmentality ‘Nature becomes biology becomes genetics, through which life itself becomes reprogrammable information. This sequence proceeds along a path of increasing instrumentalism, driven by commerce, legitimated in the name of public health, and regulated by the nation state’. (Franklin 2000:190) Code 46 is primarily concerned with the multiple, diffuse and invisible mechanisms of power that regulate bodies.

Generic Specificity and Codes (from Grant: 1999): 

Generic Specificity and Codes (from Grant: 1999) Horror Emotional Corporeal Contained Moral/natural order Vision down/in Science Fiction Cognitive Mind Open Social order Vision up/out

Mechanisms of Science: Institutions and Individuals: 

Mechanisms of Science: Institutions and Individuals In Godsend the conventions of horror are used to produce a causal narrative about bodies, morality and genomic science in which Dr Wells appears as the responsible agent. Through the conventions of science fiction Code 46 produces genomic science as an aspect of governmentality within the horizons of technoscience.

Conclusions: 

Conclusions Genomic science is represented, to different effect, within existing frameworks of generic convention (Hills, 2004). In the context of horror the use of the figure of the isolated/disturbed scientist leaves the institutions of science unquestioned, producing Dr Wells as a scapegoat. In the context of science fiction genomics disappears within the horizons of technoscience, reproducing it as omnipotent. The films leave broader questions about genomic science ultimately undisturbed.

References: 

References Butler, Judith. (2004) Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence. London: Verso. Franklin, Sarah. (2000). ‘Life Itself. Global Nature and the Genetic Imaginary’. in Sarah Franklin, Celia Lury and Jackie Stacey (eds) Global Nature, Global Culture. London, Sage. Grant, Barry Keith (1999) ‘Sensuous Elaboration: Reason and the Visible in the Science Fiction Film’ in Annette Kuhn (ed) Alien Zone II. London: Verso. Hills, Matt (2004) The Genetic Engineering of Monstrosity: Appropriation of Genetics in 1990s 'species level biohorror'. Conference paper at MeCCSA, University of Sussex, December 2004. Kember, Sarah. (2003). Cyberfeminism and Artificial Life. London and New York, Routledge.

Acknowledgements: 

Acknowledgements Many grateful acknowledgements to Professor Maureen McNeil and Dr Matt Hills for their input