My research for this project began with an analysis of my own practices and uses of television, tying in with observations about the self-referential nature of screen culture. In order to further explore this I watched and made notes on other explicitly pop-culture influenced works, such as the work of director Edgar Wright or Mike Judge, as well as TV shows like Community which commentate on the influences and production methods of modern creators.
I also looked to explore a potential addictive element to viewing as a pleasurable exercise. Laury Mulvey expands on Freud to explore both the libido-driven Scopophilic and ego orientated identification with characters and narrative. Both aspects are a crucial part of the way she believes we derive pleasure from looking, particularly in cinema. Norman K Denzin offers a far more diverse picture of the voyeuristic nature of film. In addition like Denzin my hypothesis is that screen media, contrary to offering a scientific eye through which reality may be clearly captured and examined instead is only understandable through textual constructions, by reducing the images to familiar forms and ways of looking. By using this constructed way of looking we derive pleasure which is why we return again and again spending hours each day watching similar material. There is no fundamental difference between what we absorb and what the creators do and as a result what we are fed has no better connection with reality, instead the result is what Baudrillard referred to as Hyperreality. I plan to further explore this idea as well as the implications of voyeurism to improve my project.
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