Initial essay outline and introduction
Inviting in the beast?
Stages of coercion:
- Fear
- Curiosity
- Wonder
- Acceptance
Introduction
In the opening act of Stanley Kubrick’ science fiction masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey, the unsuspecting troop of primates wake up one morning to find a monolith amidst their camp. At first, the sleek iPhone looking stone scares the primates, who snarl and beat the floor un-controllably. But as the scene progresses, the seemingly inanimate monolith alters the primates response from fear to curiosity. One by one the apes tentatively approach the object, some even daring to touch it before scampering back to safety. Yet as suspected the apes lose all sense of fear and are overcome by the third stage of coercion ; wonder.
Interestingly, the transition from fear to wonder is cleverly masked by the non-diegetic, extremely harrowing vocal score that accompanies the monolith (Gyorgy Ligeti’s Requiem, composed 1963-65). Therefore by masking the diegetic sound, Kubrick suggests to the audience that the monolith gives off an energy or maybe it produces extremely low frequencies that alter the mind or it could even be music? Whatever it is the apes are ‘cohered’ by the monoliths magnificence unknowingly through sound and accept the knowledge/benefits it provides, in the apes case, evolution.
With the monoliths backseat guidance, the apes discover how to use old bones as weapons and defend their camp by killing an invading ape. The final shot from the Dawn of Man, shows a single ape destroying the bones of an animal with its new weapon, the symbolism is obvious, out with the old and in with the new. The apes have now entered the final stage of cohesion; acceptance.
By beginning with 2001’ Dawn of Man, It is my intention to draw parallels between the real and fictional world, focusing on coercion and control through sound.
INSERT ADAM CURTIS ‘QUOTE’
Looking at how governments and mega companies have adapted surveillance to fit the needs of the modern person, by producing lucrative products, promoting the need to defend ones family and more subtly, using sound to anaesthetise us. I will be looking firstly at Amazon products such as Alexa and the Ring Doorbell and how the handover of surveillance from government to public has been generated, secondly the regeneration and evolution of Muzak and finally an amalgamation of the previous two, why Spotify owner Daniel Ek has invested £100million into a upstart AI Military Defence company.