02:17

Globalisation with a 'Z'

Posted by Cameron McEwan |

"MC Milkshake" by Ron English
Globalisation is a term often used pejoratively, normally in reference to corporations, but is it such a bad thing? To paraphrase the television show South Park: if globalisation means that I can get a good cup of coffee at a decent price, then I'm all for it. Glib, perhaps, yet it does highlight a valid point, competition is not necessarily a bad thing. You can find some articles and essays in the picture below.
Within the context of this course, Panoptic Digital Visual Culture, the notion of globalisation rears its worldwide head in films like Koyaanisqatsi (Reggio, 1982) where we witness the symbolic birth of urbanisation and Playtime (Tati, 1964) in which Tati created a glass hetereotopia before the world started to look the same.

"American Depress" by Ron English

Ridley Scott lent his opinion to the look of the future city in his 1982 film, Blade Runner. In his vision of 2019 Los Angeles disparate and anachronistic architecture exists in a society of differing races whose language has been amalgamated to form a new one. A world where global brands such as Budweiser and Atari still exist.
As the internet continues its worldwide domination it's interesting to note how globalization affects the digital realm. It is indeed a 'single society' and in a podcast Stephen Fry recently referred to the internet as a 'city' where both good and bad things happen but where all are welcome. Ironically this podcast was recorded in an Apple Store, an 'individual' brand that wants everyone in the world to have an iPod and use iTunes. The notion of a 'unified' world can be seen in social networking sites such as Twitter, FaceBook and MySpace but also, from a more financial sense, in the online behemoth, Amazon.



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