Annotated Bibliography Assignment

By Matt Billings, Borges: An Exploration in Modeling

1.Semantic Light. "WordsEye." WordsEye. 2007. Semantic Light, Inc. 14 Feb. 2008 <http://www.wordseye.com/>.

The WordsEye program found within the Wiki’s Toy Chest is an interesting tool that could potentially help translate the Borges story my team is focusing on into film. Allowing the user to type in a simple sentence of sort, it thereafter analyzes the text and attempts to render images based on what the sentence is describing. For example, a demonstration sentences given to illustrate the sentence structure one should adhere to is: “Santa Clause is on the white mountain range.” To the right of the simulation are instructions that describe a few limitations to the text entry – no verbs or poses and avoid object parts (ie. hood of the car). Upon entering short excerpts of text from the Borges work "On Exactitude in Science," it becomes apparent that the program has much difficulty translating complex ideas to its three dimensional renders. Entering the text, “Sheltering an occasional Beast or beggar,” WordsEye simply depicts an ape standing next to a much smaller cube containing a beggar. My team’s goal in translating Borges to film is an attempt to analyze the diction that he chooses through the translation of each word to a shot that has camera movements and angles along with items in the foreground and background of each shot that represent the tone that Borges’ word choice contains. WordsEye’s faults may be avoided through plugging in only single words in order to get a better idea of how to translate them. Also, simplifying a word to its most basic form returns better results. In order to utilize WordsEye, we will have to be creative, however the results will most likely greatly assist in the creation of our film.

2. Baudrillard, Jean. “Simulations and Simulacra.”

Jean Baudrillard opens his essay by arguing that a simulacrum is not a replication of the real, but has, in today’s society, instead become the truth. Society has replaced the initial conception of the world with replications of itself through symbols and signs, and therefore, the reality in which we live in is instead a hyperreal state. Baudrillard’s hyperreal is composed of simulations that exist without origin or reality. Baudrillard relates these notions to Borges’ story, “On Exactitude in Science.” A map of a territory, in the hyperreal, precedes the territory, and therefore, the disintegration of the map precedes the destruction of the territory. In relation to present society, Baudrillard claims that miniaturizations of objects found in the real world precede the creation of the objects themselves – the simulation precedes the reality. Additionally, simulation confuses our notion of fact and fiction. When dissimulation occurs, one is attempting to illustrate the lack of possession of what IS possessed. Therefore, there is always a clear understanding of reality. However, in simulation, one is attempting to fake possession of something that he or she in truth, does not have. However, the simulation results in certain symptoms of the real, and therefore the traits of the real and the simulation overlap. Through Baudrillard’s study of both Borges’ work and the relationship between the notion of simulation and modern society, one can understand film and its role in simulating within composed shots of reality.

3. Benjamin, Walter. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction."

Walter Benjamin’s essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” discusses the impossibility of genuine reproduction. A replication of an original work of art lacks the elements of time and space, thus making a reproduction that entirely reflects the original impossible. The original has what Benjamin defines as an “aura,” which inflicts a sense of awe upon its viewers. Present society’s technology capabilities and the ability to mass reproduce have destroyed the presence of aura because there is rarely an original piece of work that successfully remains un-reproduced. Benjamin continues to explain that in prehistoric times, art had a magical effect because it had yet to be defined as art. Today, people are conscious of artistic intention, and therefore there is a focus on what Benjamin calls exhibition value as opposed to prehistoric cult value. Benjamin’s analysis of the supposedly decaying value of art instigates a discussion of reality versus fiction. The Borges story, “On Exactitude in Science” concerns the blurring of the simulation and the real once the simulation is created. The two depend on each other to exist and the destruction of the simulation in turn destroys the real. Benjamin’s article develops this theory and provides a greater understanding of the story as well as commenting on the ability to translate the original to an adaptation in another medium (in this case film).

4. Chandler, Daniel. “Semiotics for Beginners.”

Daniel Chandler discusses the concept of semiotics in this essay. He analyzes language and the relationship between a signifier and the signified. Because a signifier requires familiarity with personal experience, the signified is unique to each individual. Every person has associations with certain objects and words, therefore a universal reaction and interpretation of a signifier is impossible. For example, if the word cat is the signifier, one individual may immediately think of a specific breed of cat, while another person may initially think of a cat’s meow. Chandler moves on to describe semiotics role in constituting a perceptual code. When viewing art, humans, by necessity, separate a dominant shape in a visual image from a definable background. In relation to film, people separate certain objects from each other in order to create meaning out of the on-screen images. The relationship that these objects have and their position on the screen (in terms of proximity and general location) affect this meaning. In terms of literature, certain text size or word length and the structuring of sentences instigate different reactions in each individual and therefore form unique meanings.

5. Borges, Jorge Luis. Collected Fictions. New York, NY: Penguin Group Inc., 1998.

 This collection comprises the entirety of Borges’ short stories. The work my team is analyzing and translating, “On Exactitude in Science” is a quick glimpse at the relationship between the fake and the real. In the story, a map with a scale of one to one is laid upon the world. As a result, the map envelops everything, therefore becoming the land in which society resides. Once the map is destroyed, the land beneath it is destroyed as well because the difference between the simulation and the real has disintegrated. The story relates to this course because it comments on the notion of modeling in a fictional setting as well as the effect of said modeling on the world. In addition, my team’s intent to adapt it to a film helps provide a greater understanding of simulating the real, while simultaneously pushing the text into a more three-dimensional medium. By reviewing Collected Fictions as a whole, Borges’ intent in creating these stories becomes more apparent. Within the collection, multiple stories address the idea of modeling. For example, “The Circular Ruins” follows a wizard attempting to create a model of a human being from his own dreams. After an initial failure and many years of sleep in order to create his, he convinces the god Fire to bring his model to life. Once the creation is completed, the wizard overhears that fire has no effect on the model. When the wizard is in proximity of fire himself, he realizes that his skin does not burn either, and he is therefore a creation of another person’s dream. Through the analysis of this story side by side with “On Exactitude in Science,” one can greater understand Borges’ interest in modeling and its application in literature and society.