Culture of the Copy
... place where he can see these original works, simply because the only place he can go to see what’s closest to originality, is a museum. So in an odd and maybe ironic way, museums offer these near original works, but just by being in a museum in the first place, says that the only place originality happens, is in a museum. This is because the word ‘museum’ has connotations of the ‘old’ and maybe the ‘old, which needs to be preserved.’ This is sort of like saying that this originality happened already, and if you want to see it, come to a museum. Especially in our age, where everything gets more and more commercialized, Natural history museums have to be made fit for any age, and made to entertain any age. So while the originals are still there, some of the original feelings they used to convey are lost in their new context. An extreme, and actually quite humorous, example of this is at that Lascaux cave paintings. These caves have been “...rerouted since 1983 to nearby Lascaux II, ‘five hundred tons of modeled concrete reproducing every little bump and hollow of the original, with a precision of a few centimeters.’” (Schwartz, 249). This is quite ridiculous. Now, the idea of wanting to save the original from pesky tourists who want to take pictures and get up close and potentially touch the paintings is noble, but this reproduction of such an ancient artifact is quite ridiculous. And in the tourist’s point of view, seeing this reproduction is quite unsatisfying, even if it does look so much like the real. Yet another example of this reproduction of timelessness is given by this excerpt: “A frame that van Gogh did specify for a painting of how new at the Getty was found to be too simple... and a more elaborate frame was substituted.” (Schwartz, 249). Here, even a master painter Van Gogh is overridden by these people who are so overwhelmed with reproduction and the ‘culture of the copy.’ The ‘Culture of the Copy’ theory is presented in other ways as well, if one knows where to look. The movie screen, for example, is a place where the ‘Culture of the Copy’ has thrived, from modern blockbusters like “The Matrix,” to classics like “Metropolis” and “Frankenstein.” But nowhere has it turned up more boldly and bluntly as in the 2001 movie “Vanilla Sky.” Ironically enough, Vanilla sky itself is a reproduction of the 1997 Spanish Film “Abre Los Ojos.” (Open Your Eyes). In the movie, Tom Cruise plays a millionaire heir, David Aames, who falls in love with the charming Sofia Serrano, played by Penelope Cruz. However, David’s bitter ex-girlfriend, Julie Gianni, played by Cameron Diaz, drives a car, with she and David inside, off of an overpass, shattering Aames’s face, and his life. Now the once big shot millionaire lives in seclusion, afraid of showing this face. He then finds a company online called “Life Extension,” who he contacts and signs a deal with. Life Extension is capable of freezing people in a suspended state of hibernation, and putting them into a dream all their own. A new life. A new life, created by their own mind and subconscious. A complete reproduction of an entire life. Vanilla sky explores other aspects of this idea of unoriginality in life of as well. David is never really sure if he’s dreaming or not. Several times he makes reference to this, “and what’s worse... I can’t wake up.” “I don’t know what’s real.” “My dreams were a cruel joke. They taught me. Even in my dreams, I’m idiot who knows he’s about to wake up to reality.” He never knows if something is real or not. If something is a dream or not. If something is an original, or just a reproduction. In the first scene of the movie, David wakes up to his normal life, but an empty New York City and an empty Times Square. Then he wakes up again. Later on in the movie, David’s friend shouts out in the middle of a party “People will read again!” This could be a reference to modern society- full of movies, video games, and the internet. Books are just out style in this fast paced world, where everything is reproduced so quickly and efficiently. Books just take too long nowadays. Later on, there is a reference to the painters Joni Mitchell and Monet. David Aames has originals of their works in his own house- of course they were handed down to him by his mother. Monet painted these “vanilla skies” and they were his mother’s favorite. This could be a reference to many things. One of which could be that originals of things do exist in this world- but if you’re not rich, you’re not going to have them. Another might be that even originals are lost in the millions of reproductions, since David sets his own work, a snow board with a sky painted on it, next to Monet’s painting. Something else that arises out of a question of our culture is the question of what we think originality is. “The more adept the West has become at the making of copies, the more we have exalted uniqueness. It is with in an exuberant world of copies that we arrive at our experience of originality.” (Schwartz, 212). This brings up the “sweet and sour speech” from Vanilla Sky, repeated three times throughout the movie: “without the bit...