Yesterday evening Ben and co. left for LA. Hopefully we'll get some shooting done this coming week. The crane arrived and Erik is trying to see if he can get us a prop pickup truck. I'm wondering whether we'll see any of the smoke from the Yucca Valley fires in the desert?
Took Sean to the zoo yesterday. The guinea pig and koi habitats in the new children's section were interesting. The guinea pigs roam around within an indoor and an outdoor cage. There is a tunnel in which a kid can "play guinea" pig and pop up within the guinea pig's habitat in a smaller cage. The koi pond is similar. There is a tunnel that takes you to an "island" within the pond. Both of these projects seem to be built on the idea of immersion; zoos for the video game generation.
And yet I wonder if these exhibits are less about immersion and more about objective representation. These exhibits break down the picture window of the ordinary zoo display. But the sensation of moving within the animal spaces only functions because we can see the animals from a variety of points of view. We see them faraway and then get closer, our view constantly changing. These displays are like Google maps in which we zoom in and out, with terrain objectified before us. Here we see objectivity masquerading as immersion; the animals become specimens to be inspected from all angles. What makes the exhibit novel is an evolution from objectivity-as-picture-window to objectivity-as-interaction. The security cam representation of objectivity is replaced by the probing of an objective camera repositioned at will.
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