Approaches To Narrative Theory
"An Archetypal Character is a character who appears over and over in legends far and wide, even in cultures that have shut themselves off from the world. The blood drinking risen dead are an Archetype as almost every culture has come up with, their own legends independent of each other. Angel is an archetype: the tragic hero trying to overcome the evils of his past. Coyote is an archetype. Xena is an archetype. Any of these may be disguised as a Space Alien.
Some lit-theories classify archetypes by the role/purpose the character inhabits for the story. These classes are: Protagonist, Antagonist, Reason, Emotion, Sidekick, Skeptic, Guardian, and Contagonist.
A related concept is the 'ectype', a distorted or flawed version of the archetype. For example, Batman is archetypical. He's a rich man who dedicates himself to anonymously fighting crime (protecting society) with a variety of gadgets. Many of the characters in Watchmen are ectypes based on this archetype."
(tvtropes.org)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Thomas Allen: pulp fiction remixes
"[Thomas] Allen's photographs are inspired by his childhood experiences with pop-up books and View-Masters. He begins his process by cutting figures and images out of illustrated pages of old books and vintage fiction novels. Allen then cleverly rearranges and juxtaposes the forms to create three-dimensional scenes. Next, he carefully lights his subjects and photographs the scenes.
When separated from their original stories, the figures take on fresh roles in entirely new situations. Yet they retain their intended purpose of storytelling. Characters and objects originally created as two-dimensional illustrations are raised from their pages and given new life in three-dimensional space. The figures return back to two-dimensional objects, this time in the form of a photograph."
(Joseph Bellows Gallery)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
ReBirth RB-338: legendary electronic music emulator discontinued
"Propellerhead Software's ReBirth RB-338 pioneered a new era of music instrumentation that merged the principles of 'virtual reality' with historic synthesizers and drum machines. This concept seemed impossible at the time, but has since become a common trend in music software.
Since its introduction in 1997, ReBirth has influenced numerous companies to take advantage of contemporary technology by incorporating computer simulation into the latest generation of products.
The world has come to embrace the sound of electronic music, thanks to a long tradition starting in the 1960s with the popularization of Moog Synthesizers. It deepened in the 70's and 80's, and the sound of drum machines was introduced in music as electronic instruments adopted microprocessor technology.
As technologies continued to evolve in the 90's, the subsequent role of computers in music ushered in a digital age of composition and recording. Early in the decade, trends in electronic music and their significant effect on popular culture converged with the rich heritage of synthesizers, drum machines, and computers in the software application known as ReBirth. ...
While there have been plans to resurrect the 338, far too much time has passed, and realistically, the economics of software development prompted the decision to terminate ReBirth. Even after a decade of operation, Propellerhead Software is a relatively small company, and must focus their efforts on future technologies. The company contemplated outsourcing ReBirth, but quickly determined that those plans would consume valuable time and energy best spent on priority projects. Finally, ReBirth was discontinued with the parting gesture of making it publicly available. Ernst Nathorst-Böös stated the following:
'We think we serve the community better by concentrating the small development efforts we have on creating new exciting stuff than keeping what we feel is essentially a stale concept alive. ReBirth was a great achievement in its day and we're very proud of it.'"
(Propellerhead Software)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Western Genre Archetypes
"The classical Western [...] was the dominant form from 1930 to 1955. The classical plot is the one in which a stranger rides into town, resists society (and is resisted by them), but eventually ends up saving the good townsfolk from some villainous threat - and subsequently accepts (and is accepted by) the society he has saved. Wright identifies variations on this theme as well. More significantly, however, he identifies a shift to an appreciably different form of the genre, which was dominant from 1958 to 1970. Wright calls this second form the Professional plot: it is the Western in which a group of heroes - or anti-heroes - (rather than an individual) who fight for money (rather than for justice or some other ideal), exemplified by films such as The Wild Bunch, The Professionals, and Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid."
(Matt McDowall)
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The Constellations ProjectSHARE
Shane: Mythological Community (American) Archetype
The film Shane presents an archetypal view of the development of American society. Through its depiction of the struggles of a capitalist agenda: the sod-busters struggling to make a living tending the land; to the Riker family representing corporate enterprise.
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The Constellations ProjectSHARE
