Hey again! Currently my Archive project seems to be headed somewhere. While I am not signed of just yet I feel I have a more understandable research question. My Goal is to understand how Science Fiction film uses dream like sequences in order to discuss philosophical views on reality and perception. Some things I have to clarify beforehand is the differences within simulation, dreaming and how they relate. My research will eventually show that in Sci-Fi film there are examples of characters who suffer from a limited perception of reality due to simulation and dreaming.
The five featured films that will serve as my primary source will be “Avatar”, “The Matrix”, “Inception”, ”The Lathe of Heaven” and “Terminator 2 Judgment Day”. These films all show examples of dream sequences and dream like sequences involving simulation. The first part of this research project will involve a lot of research of my secondary sources, primarily “Dream, Vision or Fantasy?” and “Dreams on Film: The Cinematic Struggle between Art and Science. Jefferson”. While studying I hope to further my understanding on how these films use visual and sound elements to juxtapose different parts of the film. I plan on researching the undertones and metaphorical use of these specific scenes in order to better understand what is being conveyed.
The second part of my film involves using all of my research in order to better understand many terms like vision, dreams, simulation, reality, and images and begin understanding why humans suffer from having a limited perception of reality. I will connect my finding to my featured primary sources in order to understand how they connect to the many philosophical questions on what it means to be alive, simulated whether its false or real. After this part of my project I and any viewer should have an understanding on how science fiction features the many philosophical issues of reality perception.
Work Cited
Avatar. Dir. James Cameron. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2010.
Inception. Dir. Christopher Nolan. Warner Home Video, 2010. Film.
Matrix. Dir. Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski. Warner Home Video, 1999. Film.
Terminator 2 Judgment Day. Dir. James Cameron. 1991. Film.
The Lathe of Heaven. Prod. Fred Barzyk and David R. Loxton. PBS, 1980.
These will all be my primary sources for when looking into what I want to research specifically. They are all Science Fiction films, and hold many scenes with dream sequences.
Rabin, Staton. “Dream, Vision, or Fantasy?” Script Magazine. Scriptmag.com, 7 March 2012. Web.
This is an article from script magazine. the writer Staton Rabin has allot of experience working for Warner brothers and other big producing companys, she also has a good understanding on how dream sequences work in scripts.
She closely analyzes the tropes of Dreams, Visions and fantasy, which helps me find the distinction between those two. My project looks at allot of dream sequences, but not every example shown is an actual dream, therefore I must first begin understanding the different types of dreams in films. Staton also explain the roles many of these dreams have in order to look at how they affect a films narrative.
Baudrillard, Jean, and Arthur B. Evans. “Simulacra and Science Fiction (Simulacres Et Science-fiction).” JSTOR.org. N.p., Nov. 1991. Web.
In this article found it informs us on the many definitions involved with Simulacra and or simulation. The article makes the connections to dreaming, simulation and Cyber perception.
This article can further my understanding on how science fiction explores perception of reality. But instead of only focusing on the dreamer, it takes a more philosophical role explaining the perspective of just being alive, and the purposes of simulation.
Bukatman, Scott. Terminal Identity: The Virtual Subject in Postmodern Science Fiction. Durham: Duke UP, 1993. Print.
This book explores many concepts of science fiction, it goes into different movies, settings and characteristics. There is an emphasis in the book describing the perspective of cyborgs, robots and cyberspace.
This book can help me broaden my horizon in perspective so that I’m not focusing entirely on the dreaming aspect, but also how dreaming is a form of living and experiencing.
Schneider, Susan. Science Fiction and Philosophy: From Time Travel to Superintelligence. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Print.
This book here goes into the many details of philosophical connections on understanding reality through science fiction. While reading the table of content you see that the author has made many connections to Cartesian theory and the metaphysics.
This book can further strengthen my arguments when I try to understand how sci-fi is a modern day retelling of many philosophical ideas.
Grimshaw, Mark. The Oxford Handbook of Virtuality. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2014. Print.
This book takes on the approach of trying to decipher what it means to live inside of another realty. It touches upon philosophical views while making its own claims, for example in some paragraphs it argues how living in a virtual reality can be viewed as the same as living outside in a normal realm.
This book here will help me further my argument of having a limited perception of reality and how characters in sci-fi cope with it.
Halpern, Leslie. Dreams on Film: The Cinematic Struggle between Art and Science. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2003. Print
This book makes many claims on a variety of Science fiction films, showing interesting points in the narrative and characterization of various films.
This book will allow me to observe various films and how they are analyzed allowing me to do more precise research, also some of my primary sources are briefly mentioned giving me more insight.
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