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MSA322, smile, leamirella - Teknolust Observation

MSA322's picture
Submitted by MSA322 on Wed, 04/13/2011 - 3:26pm

1. Colors are used to differentiate between reality and virtual. We talked about breaking the binaries (Haraway), but the movie fortifies that binary through the gate between the virtual and real world. This barrier separates them. When Ruby enters the real world, it is still apparent that she doesn’t get completely involved in it (her costume and her bright green car thing), yet she still tries to brake that binary through her sexuality. Ruby attempted to make her sexual life as humane as possible. She also had the power to “integrate” with the human life. Even the “cuddling” after she has sex, humans crave touch shows this desire to integrate.


2. Remaking ourselves: she was under the impression of remaking herself through her SRA’s. Also when she goes to the salon and asks to look like Bjork but still looks the same - what does this say about physical appearance and ugliness?


 3. Who is controlling technology? The SRAs start refusing the orders of the “authority figure” - this is scary! LINKS TO CHOROST-the internet is a collective thing created by so many different people. It is like a brain (it can even forget!) No individual has a lot of power anymore. What are the implications of this?

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Julie-MIT's picture

RE: Remaking Ourselves

Submitted by Julie-MIT (guest) on Tue, 04/26/2011 - 12:50am.

I found it very interesting to contrast the remaking of Rosetta as herself to the remaking of Olive and Marinne. When Rosetta asked to be someone she was not, she remained herself--she could only long to be somebody else. However, Olive and Marinne asked to look like themselves, and the hairdresser interpreted their hair as an extension of their personalities. It almost seemed as if Rosetta could not achieve her makeover and what she wanted until she realized that she had to find herself--beyond external appearances and SRAs. She mentioned earlier that she created the SRAs to have more time and so they could do menial labor, but they also seemed to serve as a side of her repressed behavior as a scientist and a woman. Rosetta even tried to fake being Ruby to save her SRAs by implying that she had desires to be someone she wasn't. It almost seemed that Teknolust portrayed the tragedy of a female's existence--she can never be herself, even when she has the opportunity to have multiple personalities through clones.

MITKami's picture

Breaking the Binary

Submitted by MITKami (guest) on Mon, 04/25/2011 - 7:35pm.

The use of colors to differentiate reality from the virtual was quite powerful and allowed the viewer to have a constant sense of place in context to the SRA's. I also found it interesting that Rosetta would tell Ruby to act more robotic on the portal because without putting i a conscious effort to do this she was appearing too real. Because the clones are supposed to be cyborgs they are expected to act a certain way, which we expect from robots, but as living beings they break the model and Rosetta is concerned about the magnitude of her creation and the implications of others finding out her breakthrough.

Additionally I found it interesting that by creating the three copies of herself, Rosetta was attempting to make her job easier, lighten her load a bit, but she ends up with more work than ever as a result. I drew a parallel between her an Dr. Frankenstein where neither creator truly understood the full implications of their creations until after they were completed. On that same topic, the idea of utilizing technology as a method of creating less work brought to mind the household technologies we studied early in the term which actually didn't help women spend less time on household chores although it intended to.

MSA322's picture

Interpretation: Theoretically

Submitted by MSA322 on Wed, 04/13/2011 - 3:46pm.

Interpretation:

Theoretically, they are better humans than us, because they have taken the better parts of us. Humans have power, the humane part of the SRA’s took over by the end, when they all became “real” and had a “real” life (Rosetta gets married, Ruby gets pregnant) - very idealized to say that humanity is better than technology.

What if this movie was made today, would it still have the same ending? Would humanity still win over technology?

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