eXistenZ & HyperrealityDavid Cronenberg

Human Elements & Technology

• The director uses disgust and human elements to replace technology within the hyperreality of eXistenZ

• Guns are made up of teeth & bones• The shape of the pod resembles parts of the

human body• The pod itself is treated as if it were a living

creature & it is connected directly to a human via what looks like an umbilical cord

Human Elements & Technology

• When the pod is opened, the pod looks like an animal. “It is basically an animal” & it has DNA inside of it.

• Although disgust is a recurring theme in Cronenberg’s work, it’s interesting to note that humans tend to feel disgusted by common natural things such as blood, dirt, hair, flesh.

• Machines are the exact opposite of this and have none of these characteristics.

• There is also a constant visual reference to technology physically penetrating the human body. “Infiltrating” within our personal environment and bodies, like an intruder, to then become one with us.

Fear

• The director attacks the fear that humans have that one day technology will take over and replace us.

• We will no longer need to do anything outside what is hyperreal

• “Nobody actually physically skiis anymore”

Anti-digital

• Although eXistenZ was released in the same time as The Matrix, they both tackle hyperreality in very different ways.

• Matrix uses a very digital aesthetic, eXistenZ does the opposite.

Hyperreality: a second chance

• Hyperreality gives life meaning when the person does not have an interesting life.

• ‘Gas’ is given another chance in Hyperreality when he plays God – the artist and the mechanic.

• His hyper-self then seems to be reflected in his real self when he takes control – he becomes God and he wants to take Allegra’s life.

• In the end it seems he would prefer to get money to sort out his “real” life rather than his hyperreal life.

Hyperreality: a second chance

• Pikul is never at ease when playing eXistenZ.• It is interesting that the director picks up on the

fact that the human mind always wants to know where it stands. We always want to be safe. We want to survive since it is in our nature.

• No matter how far we are immersed in a hyperreality, we always worry for our real body.

Space and Time

• In the end, one of the characters who were playing eXistenZ mentions that if one were to play eXistenZ for a long time it would feel like they were alive for three hundred years.

• This is a similar feeling to when one is dreaming. What feels like hours, is sometimes minutes, and the other way round.

• This is a subject that you can look into when taking your photographs for Task 2, it could be quite interesting.

How can this inspire you?• eXistenZ is an essentially a world that is made up; it

doesn’t exist.• You do not have to work with real items and elements.• You can make things up (although do have a motive for

doing so)• If you make people believe it is real, then it will be

real.• This is essentially the same as presenting an idea to

someone in a way that they can visualise it in real life.

A virtual reality

• There are several made-up words throughout the film that do not make sense, such as when Allegra accuses Pikul of having “neural surged”.

• Athough this doesn’t make sense in real life, within the context of the film it does.

• Like in dreams, and in a drug experience, things that do not usually make sense, start to become meaningful.

A virtual reality

• Managing to make an audience believe things that do not exist is extremely interesting because they link this to a dream-like environment.

• Dreams are usually a strange and unsure place for humans to be, so it is surely to get your audience to experience your work in new ways.

Transition between space and time

• In the film there are various unusual transitions, such as when Pikul pauses eXistenZ and is transported back to the bedroom.

• Here the director captures a very creative shot where we see the bed replacing the table in the Chinese restaurant with Pikul’s head drowning in the fabric.

Reality VS Hyperreality

• The film has a constant theme of the resistance against hyperreality.

• In eXistenz in fact, the main characters meet up with several other players who are either for or against reality.

• “The Victory of Realism”• “Death to Realism”• “The Realist Underground”• “Effective Deforming of Reality” in the final scene.

The confusion

• The spectator is never really sure what is real and what isn’t, more so at the end of the film.

• In the beginning Allegra calls people by their label & when she does this again within eXistenZ the audience is invited to wonder whether Allegra was a ‘game’ character.

Gaming• The film was released during the peak of gaming in the

nineties. • There are various elements that are taken from games;

mainly NPCs (non-playable character) that are in fact NOT NPCs, but we come to realise this later in the film. The way they loop & repeat, until they are given correct commands.

• No matter how realistic hyperreality feels, the director reminds us that everything is pure data, and we are first introduced to this through the NPCs

• These are reminiscent of RPGs of the time (Role playing games)

Gaming

• The film is in fact, all about the subject of gaming.

• One of the main characters Allegra is the game designer, although it is revealed later that she is in fact not the actual designer.

Gaming

• The idea of a game within a game ( a dream within a dream( is a very popular topic amongst contemporary modular films about space & time; most notably Inception, Memento, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Science of Sleep, Donnie Darko etc…

• In eXistenZ the director introduces this when the characters start to bioport themselves even when they are in another reality.

The addiction of Hyperreality

• Even in hyperreality, we get bored, and we want yet another reality.

• You could link this to a drug addiction; always wanting more and never wanting to go back to reality.

• Humans are constantly looking for something new & we get used to everything.

• Think about how limitless the Internet is but how quickly you get bored sitting at your laptop / desktop.