The challenge of moving images

Moving pictures on the big and small screens have probably weaned most of us from appreciating paintings, cartoons and drawings. The art of moving images has caught up with the Digital Age in such a way that we think that all the other arts are subordinate to it. We find that the moving image has everything we want: literature, music, acting, dance and beauty of nature caught brilliantly by sophisticated cameras.

After experimenting with silent films for a long period, we moved to monochrome or black and white films. But the human mind appears to be insatiable. People wanted to see moving pictures in colours. So came colour films, teledramas and documentaries. Today we are satisfied with the fair use of light and colour in them.

Human ingenuity knows no bounds. Not being satisfied with moving colour images, man experimented with three dimensional pictures. Then came 3-D films and to see them we had to wear special glasses. Now there are 3-D television. After this what will come can be anybody’s guess.

Message

Marshall Mcluhan, an authority on Mass Communication, said that the medium is the message. Today the medium of the moving image is the real message. Everybody seems to understand the message unmistakeably. People who lived in the distant past understood the meaning of cave paintings. Those who live in the Digital Age understand the moving image. In the past people flocked to temples and churches to see frozen images on the walls. Today we go to cinemas to see and enjoy moving colour images. Even at home we watch such images on television.

Marshall Mcluhan: Medium is the message

The computer has superseded cinema halls and television in showing moving images. most of us are glued to the small screen. Most children have become computer addicts. Parents and children sometimes sit in front of the idiot box and watch moving images hours on end. As a result, reading has taken a back seat.

Sometimes, art critics wonder whether moving images on the screen consist of real art. The people in ancient Athens in Greece were entranced by Greek plays. So did people in England who watched Shakespeare’s plays with great enthusiasm. However, in addition to entertainment people learnt something new from each play.

Violence

The question arises whether we can learn anything from the crop of modern teledramas and films depicting violence and cheap romance.

To lead a meaningful life we need a vision. For instance, Michaelangelo’s ‘David’ stood at the centre of Florence. It embodied the people’s vision that tyranny must be thrown out. The great painter knew that art and entertainment should go together. If a work of art does not speak to us, it fails in its duty. Most of the modern day moving images desensitise us and we have nothing to learn from them.

Quite a few moving images, however, have had their vision in tact. Great films such as Dr Zhivago and Benhur moved and entertained the people with their vision. Instead of such classics today we are inundated with savagery, violence, crude sex and cheap romance.

Ancient Greeks invented myths for a lofty purpose. They knew that only myths offered relief for the people who were looking for the meaning or purpose of their existence. Unknown to modern man myths help us to examine our place in the universe. Many myths help us to ward off feelings of isolation and anxiety.

Some fantasies such as Superman and the Incredible Hulk stimulate the child’s fantasy about being strong and vulnerable. Although they have some value they fail to provide material leading to higher integration as myths do. Therefore, let us hope that the art of moving images will meet the challenge of becoming truly the great art of the Digital Age.