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Body, mechanism, laughter: examples from Digital Media In this part I will briefly explain what mechanisms digital media works are based on, sometimes elaborating on more details about specific works. I will start with the very famous examples and go to more specific ones. Sometimes I will show the “reversed” examples, ones where comedy builds up on humans trying to imitate the machine. All mentioned works and links will be listed at the end of the article.
1. Rube Goldberg machine — laughter as a reversal There is a certain mechanism that corresponds to the reversal nature of the humour. A witty joke with its sting scrapes the surface of the area that is responsible for laughter and activates the entire “human machine”. The person giggles, and sometimes the giggle develops into laughter and even growling, eyes fill with tears, abdominal muscles ache. The joke unfolds itself in the organism, triggering one part after another. This reversal quality reminds of the domino effect: domino, triggered by finger, tilt, fall, and affect the next dominoes.
The domino effect is widely used in digital media, people are interested in watching how the whole mechanism unfolds, and its parts affect each other.
“Rube Goldberg machine is a chain reaction-type machine or contraption intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and overly complicated way” (Wikipedia, 2021).
Professor Butts and the Self-Operating Napkin (1931).
Rube Goldberg machine has many incarnations, it even appears in Tom and Jerry episode. One of the very well-known works using these mechanics is The Way Things Go by Peter Fischli and David Weiss. This artwork became so well known and influential that Honda even made an homage to this work an advertisement for their cars.
2. Slapsticks & shambles— relief theory Relief theory suggest that laughter is a “homeostatic (internal) mechanism by which psychological tension is reduced” (Wikipedia, 2021). This thesis resembles one of the examples mentioned by Bergson: jack-in-the-box or, as was suggested above, untied balloon. The trope of relief is a basis of many anecdotes: sometimes to build up suspense the narrator deliberately tells the story very slowly and in detail; the listener can't wait to hear the denouement, and the more long-awaited, the funnier it becomes.
A good, literal materialisation to this theory are works of Jan Hakon Erichsen, mostly known as a Visual Artist Pops Balloons In Oddly Satisfying Ways (quote from YouTube). Videos of Erichsen popping balloons, crushing chips, breaking spaghetti in the oddest ways, provoke a wide spectrum of emotions: from satisfaction to bewilderment and laughter.
Another, more digital, large-scaled, and exterior-based example is the works of Roman Signer. This artist explodes, detonates, forcefully moves and overall interacts with objects of everyday life. In the work “Punkt”, for example, the tension of the artist trying to draw something explodes with the detonation of petard. Or in the work “Tisch” the tension of the river breaks out from a sudden place and levitates the table.
Slapstick is the whole genre of comedy based on relief. It is one of the earliest genres of comedy as well as the earliest special effect (Wikipedia, 2021). The name of the genre originates from a literal mechanism, a slap stick that imitates the sound of a punch. The assistant slaps the slap stick at the same moment when the imitation of the slap occurs on the screen. In hierarchy suggested in this paper slapstick stands in between relief theory and juxtaposition, since the viewer is aware of the substitution, however sometimes seeing genuine non-theatrical slaps can be very entertaining, such as a very famous video of George Bush almost getting hit by a shoe.
In digital media the slapstick substitution works in differently: we know that the slapstick actor cannot feel the pain, but since its behaviour and habits remind us of humans, we still find it funny. Like a Roomba that screams when it bumps into obstacles (by Michael Reeves), or a robot that slides over a banana.
3. Function substitution — incongruous juxtaposition theory Perhaps one of the most diverse ways of creating comic is to slightly change one property of the existing, well-working phenomenon to create a small glitch in the perception. As mentioned before, if the difference is so slight that it cannot be perceived as intentional, this method can be also used to create an uncanny/scary effect.
Juxtaposition theory considers laughter to be “a response to the perception of incongruity” (Berger, 1997: 22). The best mechanic metaphor for it will be a jack (the mechanism also mentioned by Bergson). Just like a jack shifts a wheel, Incongruities shift the perception of an object. Incongruities can be achieved in different ways, as will be shown in some examples.
3.1 Incongruities of meaning: the machine exists, it is working, but its purpose is either shifted, or not obvious, or doesn’t exist. Examples: Bicycle Wheel, a ready-made by Marcel Duchamp; Jelly Wobbler, a machine by Nik Ramage, Otamatone by Maywa Denki, The Ultimate Machine by David Moises.
Maywa Denki, Otamatone
Nik Ramage, Jelly Wobbler
3.2 Incongruities of implementation: the aim is clear, but the way the object is built creates the comic effect. Either the object is built too sloppy, this phenomenon has many names: "Gambiarra", “Jury rigging", "Quick Fix", "Alternative Engineering”. This effect was originally achieved unintentionally, but nowadays is used by digital media artists, who reassemble the old mechanisms and materials (circuit bending).
Gijs Gieskes — Cappuccino Synths.
The opposite of quick fixing is creating a perfect but pointless mechanism, also known as Chindogu. Chindogu can either be perceived as ridiculous or witty and life-hacking.
Chindogu examples: portable tissues, baby mop, shoes umbrellas, noodles fan, butter stick type, eye drop funnels
Chindogu critique
Chindogu critique
Artists Simone Giertz and Marina Fujiwara are specialising in creating meaningless (or weirdly meaningful) machines as well as in testing bulky designs.
3.3 Incongruities of context: the aim and implementation do not cause questions, the comic is caused by the unusual context.
Dominic Wilcox in the “Variations on Normal” blog speculates and perceives the surroundings from a more naive view, not blinkered/constrained by bureaucracy. In 2012 he developed No Place Like Home — shoes with GPS and LED lights. The work description says:
“The progress bar starts with one red light at the beginning of the journey and ends on the green light when you arrive. The correct direction to walk is shown by the illumination of one of the LED's on the circle.”
4. The absurd — snowball Snowball mechanism was mentioned by Bergson to characterise laughter. He writes:
“The snowball mechanism is laughable even when rectilinear, it is much more so on becoming circular and when every effort the player makes, by a fatal interaction of cause and effect, merely results in bringing it back to the same spot” (Bergson, 1921: 83).
Snowball depicts the reversible nature of laughter, the ability of one little joke to grow and become absurd.
The absurd has been used to describe what is arguably the very first documented confrontation between a human and an “almost digital media” object — the battle between Don Quixote and the windmills.
The paradox of self-destructive machines lies in their name. Machines do not have free will but yet they can embody the biggest human attribute — the ability to go against their ”nature” and die. In the mind of the spectator, this attribute creates a big paradox and causes laughter. Self-destructive washing machines keep on gracefully destroy themselves and watching this can cause a wide spectrum of emotions: from existential sadness to amusement and laughter. Another example of absurdity is a Zoom Deleter, a “killer program” made to find and delete any presence of Zoom app on one’s computer.
“Compared editing between Segundo de Chomón’s “Pickpock ne craint pas les entraves” (1909) for Pathé Frères and early arcade videogames like Pacman, Bubble Bobble, Donkey Kong, Excitebike and Paperboy.”
The next step from resembling the mechanism is to become the mechanism itself, as John Edmark did in 2011 in the work “Four Legged Chair”.
Another example is the Annoying shop assistant sketch made by Brian Limond, or Limmy. In this sketch, the hesitance of the shop assistant being asked for advice turns him into a musical instrument or a robot. Been given three options to choose from he makes a certain unsure sound about each of them. At the end of the sketch, a customer quickly moves his hand above all three variants, and the shop assistant changes the sound as quickly as if he is a thereminvox.