Study of Poster Design
Tom Ekersley
Experiments with spacing and positioning in with different rules:
Research Into Promotional Posters
Pablo Valle and Don McCullen Books
ME & GEORGE'S REMAKE:
The Monolith
From my watching of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and I'm sure in anyone else’s, I would argue that The Monolith quickly establishes itself as something sinister, powerful and mysterious. This sense of mystery is preserved much more by Kubrick's film than A.C Clarke’s novel for example. The novel explains how the Monolith (miscellaneous statue) was built by the Monoliths (alien race). Three of them are found by humans and there are believed to be thousands more in the universe. The Monoliths built it to help the human race progress though intelligence. Both the book and film suggest that, in the prehistoric scene, that the monolith was instrumental in the early humanoids ‘decision to use tools’. However the sudden awakening of intelligence and tools to survive leave us no more civilised or mature. The monkey uses the tools to beat another for food. In my view this establishes a rather clear motif of the film (and book), the way that technological progress doesn’t run perpendicular to the path of general human progress, and that we should be wary of technology.
In the back-story to Clarke’s book it is also said that the monolith can be used to observe species all over the galaxy. This presents an interesting comparison to the technology of today. Apple can track you without your permission using your Iphones, Google Chrome reads your emails to tailor and sells the information for advertising. Things such as these make me consider the how we can often forget that possessions which are supposedly meant to help us and make our lives easier are provided with very different intentions, intentions specific to them. They make our lives easier usually by relieving us of our responsibilities. However, In inheriting our responsibilities they can also simultaneously gain a chilling amount of power over us, the kind of power you wouldn’t want someone to have over you if they didn’t have your best interests in mind. These gadgets are useful because we share a common gain from having them with the people that sell them to us, they receive money and we receive their products, but what if this wasn’t so? What if they made more money from making our lives harder in some way, cutting corners or selling our personal privacy for example? I feel this question is, maybe not even deliberately explored in the case of the HAL 9000 unit aboard their spaceship.
From my watching of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and I'm sure in anyone else’s, I would argue that The Monolith quickly establishes itself as something sinister, powerful and mysterious. This sense of mystery is preserved much more by Kubrick's film than A.C Clarke’s novel for example. The novel explains how the Monolith (miscellaneous statue) was built by the Monoliths (alien race). Three of them are found by humans and there are believed to be thousands more in the universe. The Monoliths built it to help the human race progress though intelligence. Both the book and film suggest that, in the prehistoric scene, that the monolith was instrumental in the early humanoids ‘decision to use tools’. However the sudden awakening of intelligence and tools to survive leave us no more civilised or mature. The monkey uses the tools to beat another for food. In my view this establishes a rather clear motif of the film (and book), the way that technological progress doesn’t run perpendicular to the path of general human progress, and that we should be wary of technology.
In the back-story to Clarke’s book it is also said that the monolith can be used to observe species all over the galaxy. This presents an interesting comparison to the technology of today. Apple can track you without your permission using your Iphones, Google Chrome reads your emails to tailor and sells the information for advertising. Things such as these make me consider the how we can often forget that possessions which are supposedly meant to help us and make our lives easier are provided with very different intentions, intentions specific to them. They make our lives easier usually by relieving us of our responsibilities. However, In inheriting our responsibilities they can also simultaneously gain a chilling amount of power over us, the kind of power you wouldn’t want someone to have over you if they didn’t have your best interests in mind. These gadgets are useful because we share a common gain from having them with the people that sell them to us, they receive money and we receive their products, but what if this wasn’t so? What if they made more money from making our lives harder in some way, cutting corners or selling our personal privacy for example? I feel this question is, maybe not even deliberately explored in the case of the HAL 9000 unit aboard their spaceship.