Children of the Screen

Photograph by Hannah Baylon


Read Children of the Screen, reproduced on e-learning with permission of the author Hannah Baylon. The article is accompanied by a provocative photographic portrait, also by Ms. Baylon.
2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, famous for his influential theory on evolutionary biology and for his landmark book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. Author Baylon refers to Darwin’s theory in her opening sentence.
Write a short essay responding to the ideas the author eloquently puts forth in her essay. Are we indeed children of the screen? Have you adapted to a screen-based environment? If not, what has prevented you from being absorbed by the dominant popular culture perpetrated so successfully by television, movies, monitors, by the ubiquitous screen image? Do we face a loss of our true natures if we adapt to the modern world of television’s screen reality? Is there an upside to our screen age reality? What do you see as a benefit or as a detriment? Write a short essay, of around 500 words (or more), of your response, ideas, and thoughts on the theme(s) of the essay and/or the startling portrait that accompanies the text.
On Wednesday, I will present a slide show and lecture on Annie Leibovitz, a photographer best known for her celebrity portraits. This Wednesday’s lecture, on a celebrity photographer, and the Baylon essay about our screen-age-culture zeitgeist are intentionally counterpoised.

The Film: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Albright's painting of Dorian Gray, from the 1945 film
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/93798

Albert Lewin wrote the screen play and directed the film The Picture of Dorian Gray based on Oscar Wilde’s once controversial Victorian novel of the same name. The American film, released in 1945, won a number of film awards including an Academy Award for its black and white cinematography and a Hugo Award for dramatic presentation. As we begin our semester analyzing and considering portraiture through questions relating to character and determinism, the story that this film tells seems to be a worst case scenario. The film’s horrific painting of the debauched Dorian Gray is certainly a worst case likeness of a man’s soul.
Watch the film. The dialogue is marvelous and fascinating. The characters are intriguing and well realized. In this morality tale, the message seems clear. In your own words, what is the films message? Summarize the story. This is a film that tells the story of... In your own words, write a short synopsis of the story and its message.
Select a scene that you like. Describe this scene so the rest of us will know which passage you have chosen. Does your scene take place in the beginning, the middle or the end? What did you find meretricious or interesting about this film passage that you have selected. Was there a visual aspect that you found particularly noteworthy? Describe some of the dialogue. Which characters are involved in the part you chose. How does your selected scene relate to the overall message of the Picture of Dorian Gray? How does your chosen segment fit into the larger story, a particular character’s fate, or the overall message of the film?
Here is a list of the film’s main characters to help you with the correct spelling as you write: Dorian Gray (acted by Hurd Hatfield), Basil Hallward (played by actor Lowell Gilmore), Lord Henry Wotton (George Sanders), Sybil Vane (Angela Lansbury), Hallward’s niece Gladys (Donna Reed), and Glady’s friend David Stone (Peter Lawford).

Who is that Person? An Exercise in Close Observation and Speculative Interpretation

The entire assignment, and the 23 untitled portraits that you will choose from, are on blackboard, or e-learning as I am wont to call it. Tomorrow we will spend our time together with the illustrious and charming Jayme Jacobson. With J. Jacobson’s able instruction, you will each start your own UH280 blogs. You will send me your URL (by Jan 14 at 8 pm), I will link you to the class blog, and into the semester we will leap. Once again, I am hoping that this internet conversation will spawn and inspire fruitful classroom conversation.
Post your own response to your chosen portrait Jan 15 by 8 pm. Remember to cite the number designation for the image you write about. Read five of your classmates' responses to this exercise and come prepared for us to have a discussion on Jan 16. Write down the name of the people whose blogs you read. Come prepared to comment, question, and discuss your and others' interpretations of the group of untitled portraits.

In brief, for any outside (of the class) readers, here is the nub of our exercise:
Select one portrait. Speculate and write about the subject: who is that person, or in the case of the portraits with more than one figure, who are these people? Scrutinize and study the images carefully, jotting down (by hand) any ideas to our question: who is this person? Begin by brainstorming ideas, without censoring your notions. Carefully observe the visual cues, the visual information that the artist has decided to include in his or her image. After or as you observe, use your imagination! I am purposely not providing information about the artist or title. Instead, I am asking you study the image and creatively speculate on what the image tells you. What is this person’s personality? How do you read their character? What kind of life does the subject lead? If I provided titles and artist names, many of you would have the natural tendency to search the internet for information. With this first assignment, I would like to focus on imaginative speculation based on careful observation.