Mamoru Oshii: Post-Modern Surrealism in Japanese Anime - Essay Example

? Mamoru Oshii: Post-Modern Surrealism in Japanese Anime Submitted by: 05/08 Expressionism and Surrealism In looking for surrealism in contemporary art and popular media, it is important to understand the difference between the appropriation of surrealist symbolism for shock value within the stream of media images that comprises everyday mass-media communications and what the surrealists themselves sought to express. In searching for a historical definition, “The Surrealist Manifesto” written by Andre Breton in 1924 states: “SURREALISM, n. Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express -- verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner -- the actual functioning of thought. Dictated by the thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern.”1 Through this interpretation, the surrealist use of automatic drawing, dream symbolism, and irrationality was an expression of the larger reality of mind and awareness than represented in the narrow frequencies of ego consciousness. Thus, in looking for examples of surrealism in contemporary popular culture, it is difficult to find many artists, directors, or producers who are really attempting to express “the actual functioning of thought” in their work either visually or methodologically. To do so is to approach the visual arts as an expression of philosophy, as Marcel Duchamp did in early Cubism and dada, or as Salvador Dali, Man Ray, and Andre Breton approached painting, photography, and literature in the Surrealism movement. Some of the most interesting examples of Surrealism in post-modern art that simultaneously attempts to view visual arts and narrative as a larger expression of mind consistent with its own logic are the animation films of Mamoru Oshii. Oshii is a Japanese anime producer, director, artist, and writer whose most famous works are “The Ghost in the Shell – I/II,” ‘Patlabor 1&2,” “Avalon,” and other animation films in both English and Japanese.2 This essay will focus on his most influential series, the “Ghost in the Shell” animated films which include three releases: Ghost in the Shell (1995) – The first anime in the series draws upon a “Blade Runner” theme of cyborg life becoming sentient, and can be seen as one of the first attempts to represent the visual and conceptual philosophy of “cyberspace” as William Gibson had outlined it in his novels. The question of “artificial life” develops on themes related to Philip K. Dick and schizophrenia, which Mamoru Oshii re-contextualizes through the use of surrealism in the film to reflect Salvador Dali’s “critical paranoia” in methodology. This anime was reportedly the influence for the Matrix films.3 Ghost in the Shell 2 - Innocence (2004) – The follow up film in the series continues the experimentation with subjectivity in the film, making the surrealist influence clear as “special officers of Public Security Section 9 are investigating a cyborg corporation called LOCUS SOLUS (a name taken) from the novel of the same name by French author Raymond Roussel...”4 The entire anime is presented as a series of distorted perceptions or hallucinations that evolve on a schizophrenic basis as an analogy for artificial intelligence but also as an example of post-modern theory as expressed in the writings of Deleuze, Guattari, Harraway, Baudrillard, Foucault, Jameson, and others. Ghost in the Shell 2.0 (2008) – This release involved the use of the latest 3D-CGI technology to “remix” the original anime, and it also included new voices and music. In continuing the theme of the “Ghost in the Shell” movies representing a larger stream of consciousness and fragmentation of personality into the characters, this release also highlights automatic aspects of digital art that is consistent with the original view of Breton of Surrealism in being symbolically representative of the unconscious. Salvador Dali reformed the early automatist oriented aspects of Surrealism by following de Chirico in creating “dream worlds” operating on the logic of the sub-conscious and unconscious processes and presenting paradoxes to the ego. Mamoru Oshii’s “Ghost in the Shell” films continue upon this tradition, and specifically develop the methodology of “critical paranoia” as advanced by Dali in his work. As the Dali Gallery explains, “The Paranoiac Critical method was a sensibility, or way of perceiving reality that was developed by Salvador Dali. It was defined by Dali himself as ‘irrational knowledge’ based on a ‘delirium of interpretation’. More simply put, it was a process by which the artist found new and unique ways to view the world around him. It is the ability of the artist or the viewer to perceive multiple images within the same configuration.”5 This methodology goes on to become a fundamental aspect of the post-modern subjectivity in the “Ghost in the Shell” films, and these animations of Mamoru Oshii are like a fugue of interpretation that occurs in sentience in the processing of experience into moral awareness. The hallucinatory aspects of the “Ghost in the Shell” trilogy are represented from the first anime in a fusion of method that includes cell animation, digital graphics technology, video, and CGI all interwoven to create a visual painting that is an expression of the mind in the purest intent of surrealism. Following Dali, and also the work of Philip K. Dick, the “Ghost in the Shell” series follow the artificial intelligence as it evolves in various cyborgs seeking full sentience - feeling, emotion, and consciousness. The analogy of “Ghost in the Shell” is to the individual’s own quest for the soul and experience of life, existentially through suffering, doubt, fragmentation, and disintegration in the post-modern age. This is contrasted with the cyber-world of futurism and science fiction, where the imagination uses the broad spectrum of scientific imagery to weave the dream dimensions of the narrative. The “Ghost in the Shell” movies are non-linear in revolving around themes that go nowhere and plot lines that develop into enigmas rather than clear conclusions. Michael Betancourt writes in “Paranoiac-criticism, Salvador Dali, Archibald and Superposition in Interpreting Double Images” (2005) “Ades’ recognition of the parallels between Surrealism, psychology, and quantum physics suggests that in the 1920s and 30s, a general paradigm shift was underway toward an understanding of reality as explicitly different from what our senses present as being... This paper proposes a theoretical model for understanding certain perceptual phenomena called ‘multiple images’, drawing upon both Dali’s paranoiac-critical method and David Bohm’s later theorization in quantum physics... ‘Multiple images’ are a particular type of optical illusion where the contents of the image are ambiguous, allowing a series of discrete, unique visual interpretations of what the image displays.”6 The use of “double images” and a “paranoiac critical” methodology in the “Ghost in the Shell” trilogy represents the full influence of Surrealism in Mamoru Oshii’s work. "Ghost in the Shell 2.0 image comparisons show digitized brains..." Brad Rice, Japanator, 06/12/2008 The images above comparing “Ghost in the Shell 2.0” to the original version illustrate the degree to which Mamoru Oshii’s animation is actually an inquiry into the nature of consciousness itself, and an exploration of advanced theory related to quantum mechanics, cybernetics, systems theory, information technology, robotics, genetic modification, and other aspects of society that radically transform the nature of being in post-modernism. The use of surrealist methodologies such as “critical paranoia” is seen in the dream-like, hallucinatory nature of the film which reflects the quantum vision of reality. Yet, “Ghost in the Shell” embraces subjectivity and interpretation in animation as a critical analysis of the materialist frameworks of consciousness related to neuroscience and psychology. In asking where in humanity or in artificial life the mind can be found, Mamoru Oshii employs surrealistic methodologies to show how the mind creates all of reality as in a dream. The collage nature of the animation is “3-D” and as such represents a liquid-narrative painting in the surrealist tradition. In “Ghost in the Shell,” the entire animation proceeds as a dream and the collage elements represent the interweaving and overlapping interpretations of knowledge systems joining together and creating reality. In this manner, the animation itself is a dream within a dream within a dream, and these cycles also interweave symbolically throughout the films according to unconscious logic patterns. The intellectual complexity is contrasted with moral introspection in a manner that is characteristic of existentialism. The entire sequence or progress of the “Ghost in the Shell” films expresses a “stream of consciousness” awareness that like surrealist film, functions on the logic of dreams where the mind synthetically generates its own environment to explore and evolve within. A typical dialogue of “Innocence” (2004) includes: "Confucius said something like this, ‘There are few people who understand Death...’ Most people keep unconscious, they are used to a stupid life... People don't even have purposes for dying. Their lives fade away while waiting for death. So Kim chose to change himself into a full cyborg... And then? They had been special force, or electronic disturbance specialist... Secret arm sale, and other achievements... All will be ended at the tomb... A characteristic man... It is impossible for a robot to change into a horse after a field trip... Let's go... Batou!"7 In this manner, and in the way Andre Breton discussed in the “Manifesto of Surrealism,” Mamoru Oshii’s poetry or narrative dialog, as it mixes with sound in the overall dreamscape, the script of “Ghost in the Shell” can also be experienced as surrealist literature. Another aspect to Mamoru Oshii’s view is the mixture of indigenous Japanese animism with post-modern technological devices, and then projecting those relationships into the evolution of artificial life species. He states, “Everything has a spirit, and we Japanese sense it, whether it is in a mountain, a doll or a kitchen knife. Therefore, we usually give names to our tools; we treat them as partners. Once they are broken, we make elaborate ceremonies to thank them for their service and hard work.”8 In this manner, “Ghost in the Shell” represents the spirit in the machine in this traditional Japanese animist framework, within a wider evolutionary dream or alternative reality related to quantum probabilities. The assumption of surrealistic methodologies such as critical paranoia, dream logic, subjective interpretation, and magical becomings give the “Ghost in the Shell” anime series by Mamoru Oshii their distinctive character and tone. Sources Cited: Betancourt, Michael. Paranoiac-criticism, Salvador Dali, Archibald and Superposition in Interpreting Double Images. Consciousness, Literature and the Arts, Volume 6 Number 3, December 2005. http://blackboard.lincoln.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/users/dmeyerdinkgrafe/archive/betancourt.html. Breton, Andre. Manifesto of Surrealism. Paris, 1924. http://www.tcf.ua.edu/Classes/Jbutler/T340/SurManifesto/ManifestoOfSurrealism.htm. Dali Gallery. The Paranoid Critical Transformation Method: An Introduction. The Dali Gallery, December 2011. http://www.dali-gallery.com/html/method.htm. Gu, Paul. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence Anime-Wiki.org, 2011. http://en.anime-wiki.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell_2:_Innocence. Kawaguchi, Judit. Words to Live By - Mamoru Oshii. The Japan Times, March 13, 2007. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/member/member.html?mode=getarticle&file=fl20070313jk.html. IMDb. Ghost in the Shell (1995). IMDb, 2011. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113568/. IMDb. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004/I). IMDb, 2011. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0347246/synopsis. IMDb. Mamoru Oshii. IMDb, 2011. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0651900/. Oshii, Mamoru. Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence Script - Dialogue Transcript. Script-O-Rama, 2011. http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/g/ghost-in-the-shell-2-innocence-script.html. Rice, Brad. Ghost in the Shell 2.0 image comparisons show digitized brains, disappointing zombified fanbase. Japanator, 06/12/2008. http://www.japanator.com/ghost-in-the-shell-2-0-image-comparisons-show-digitized-brains-disappointing-zombified-fanbase-8082.phtml. Read More