Part 6 - The Internet and my production

Like many others, my life changed with the advent of the Internet with allowing me to not only be a consumer of texts on the World Wide Web, but also a producer. Marshal McLuhan theorized that new technologies are essentially extensions of mankind, and in the case of the Internet he surely would have acknowledged that the technology extended the eyes, the mouth, and the hands as well through its visual representation of the world and global reach. In fact, the Internet liberated many individuals from being limited in sharing their texts in their immediate community and hoping to build a wider audience down the line. The Internet has also allowed for new debate to occur between individuals on international levels, for new collaborations of artists to emerge in virtually any medium, and in turn for a new digitally mediated international culture to materialize, much to the “global village” forecasted by McLuhan.

Though I have been an active participant in wikis and forum-based communities for a long time, which have also embedded themselves into popular culture, and am now experimenting with blogging. By sharing my ideas and experiences I hope that some readers may find my information insightful or identify with it, or that at least it will offer some insight for future generations into the ethos of my time and who we were in a society on an individual level. That is why I decided to feature my media autobiography in the form of a blog.

Furthermore, studying media and culture at University of Toronto has also given me the opportunity to create my own texts, and the Internet has allowed me to share some of them with the world community. In the past few years I have produced several short films, but more importantly I have been able to focus on my passion of animation.

'music' a poem I wrote and animated in After Effects

'The Gift' a short animation documenting my
experience of a first day in a Canadian school

Though my characters often vary, I feel I have been influenced by both cultures that have acted upon me through the various media I have consumed. The media I produce is non-violent, and I hope enlightening, whether it is based on a true story, or an animated interpretation of my poems. I hope that maybe one day, a person will acknowledge that one of my texts has influenced them in a positive way.

Part 5 - Revalation

It wasn’t until returning to the Czech Republic as an adult and watching films from my childhood, and inadvertently comparing them to the Saturday morning cartoons and films I watched in the West, that I realized the differences between these texts and the cultures that produced them. In the example of the folk tale films, which regularly included comedy, romance, action, and songs, it was clear that the studio intended for these texts to be consumed by the entire family. Furthermore, the Czech culture is typically not violent. Event the transition from communism to capitalism in 1989 happened relatively amicably in comparison to other formerly communist countries and thus was dubbed the “Velvet Revolution”.

Therefore, even though most stories included a battle of some kind, the producers were careful not to depict the event in an overly graphic way. Graphic bloodshed or depicting the mythical antagonist too realistically would have surely caused the film to be rejected by most viewers, therefore most scenes would solely hint at the event or omit the scene completely and portray the antagonist “beasts” in a less than realistic way. The portrayal of violence was the major difference I found between these films and similar genre productions in the West like Lord of the Rings. This discovery made me realize that not only does producing these texts impact culture, but that culture also influences the production through either acceptance or rejection of consumption.

Golem from Lord of the Rings

My experience of viewing Czech folk tales again inspired me to even revisit my favorite cartoon of Maya The Honey Bee online, only to be disappointed that I no longer felt ‘interpolated' (Žižek) by its texts and thus could no longer invest myself into the cartoon. On the other hand, I was surprised at how much I still enjoyed the folk tale films from my youth. Perhaps more importantly I was astounded at how much of a popular cultural phenomenon they were in the Czech Republic. Virtually everyone in the country watched these films to the point of them being a hegemonic cultural force. Knowing their texts is a large part of ‘belonging’ to that culture.

Paradoxialy these same films would likely be viewed as a predominantly a young female genre under the Western ideology and would render a miniscule following. In the Czech Republic however, they were consumed equally by both sexes belonging to practically any age group. Furthermore, I was amazed to find that despite most of these films were produced between the 1950’s and 1980’s, they were especially popular with individuals in their mid teens to late twenties. It was not unusual for members of this age group to have a song or a sound clip from a film as a ring tone on their mobile phone or to hear an individual quote a popular line in a social gathering or jokingly as a pick up line at a bar. This appropriation seemed to make them an even stronger cultural artifact. Or was it more a process of ‘bricolage’ (Hebdige) under the Gramsci’s hegemony theory that used these traditional romantic texts and mocked them as archaic in modern times? I believe it was more of homage to the texts.


Another interesting discovery was the absence of G.I. Joe style animated series on Czech television. This was not due to a difference in broadcasting standards, Czech standards are in fact much more liberal than Western standards, especially with sexually oriented material, rather this was due to a lack of demand from the viewership. If one views the television network as a vessel of a hegemonic commercial force in distributing media, we could say that in this case the network exercised what Gramsci describes ‘a compromise equilibrium’ (Gramsci). Though the network technically could air these cartoons, they chose otherwise largely because airing them would fail to build viewership due to a different ideology and outlook toward violence than in the West, which would in turn negatively impact their ratings, and finally their sales of advertising space. Ironically, individuals in Czech Republic have lesser of an issue with their children viewing sexually charged material than they do with viewing violence.

Through my experience, I was surprised to find that my preferences for genre consumption were often in line with people my age and gender in the Czech Republic, despite the fact that I spent much of my later development years in Canada. Now in my adult years, I find myself consuming certain cultural texts less for the desire to belong and more for my own pleasure.

Part 4 - From Mexico to Canada

After living in the Czech Republic for five years, our family moved to Mexico City, where we remained for two years before moving to Canada. Mexico served as my introduction to the Western culture, and once again television was the main medium in doing so. Yet again cartoons and TV programs, many dubbed in to Spanish, were integral in teaching myself the language and the culture.

I found the cartoons in the West, like He-Man, Superman, and The Hulk, had too many pointless explosions and unnecessarily frightening characters like Skeletor.

Not being able to identify with the images, I generally found myself watching animated programs only if there was no better programming on TV. I much more preferred programs like Knight Rider and the Dukes of Hazard.


What changed at this age was my preference and mode of consumption. Eleven years old now, and a fan of Formula 1 racing, I found myself watching programs like The Dukes of Hazard or Knight Rider over animated cartoons like He Man, largely because of to the car chases (a new Western culture phenomenon for me) and the main characters associated with them. Characters like Luke and Bo Duke and mainly Michael Knight soon became my new idols and were my introduction to the Western definition of a male role model. This new definition was to some extent conflicted with the Eastern European ideal. While it was perfectly acceptable for a man to be romantic, in love, or emotional in much of Czech programming, the Western role models rarely showed emotion or desired romance, but were often muscular and well dressed. Idealizing them for their toughness, I often acted out the roles as my new idols in my role-playing with toy cars alone and with my friends.


Arriving to Canada changed my consumption preferences once again after my newfound friends introduced me to the culture of the Saturday morning cartoon and WWF wrestling. Learning that Canada will be our permanent home, in my desire to fit in, I found myself watching many of the cartoons I rejected earlier in Mexico. These cartoons now included G.I. Joe and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, cartoons that most of my friends were obsessed with and frantically collected their action figures (another new Western culture phenomenon at that time for me). In playing with these G.I. Joe action figures, I felt awkward pretending to shoot and explode other characters, building, and cars, and secretly disliked acting out pretend WWF matches. Perhaps Althusser would call it a clash of ideologies, but Wrestling was a popular culture item that completely escaped me. I found the stories of wrestling fake and shallow and could never understand why my friends questioned their reality. Although they had a muscular physique and acting macho, these half naked characters in tight pants failed to represent any sort of role model for me. Fearing rejection however, I performed along with these actions anyway.

Submissively consuming media texts with violence or violent undertones continued through my teens and into early adulthood when belonging to a peer group mattered to me the most. In the form of a TV series or film, the texts like The Terminator or Rambo were an integral part of popular culture for my age group, and consumption of these was virtually an expected practice for a Western male. A role I immersed myself in for a long period of time to the point of virtual cultural amnesia of my early childhood.

Part 3 - Czech Folk Tales

The texts of Tatli Jadi overlapped with the next influential cultural text that I was introduced to in my early childhood of Czech folk tales. Parallel to other eastern European countries, folk tales in any medium have been an integral part of the Czech cultural fabric for centuries. These tales were often available in a variety of media, and most could be found as a book, animation, and a film simultaneously.

These stories generally feature a hero, whether a common folk or a knight, who stumbles upon a situation that sends him on a quest that often involves saving a princess. In traditional Czech tales, the male hero is often forced to battle mythical creatures like dragons, giants, or devils. In the end, the hero typically slays the beast, and in his triumph wins the princess’s heart, the king’s accolade, rescues the land from its tyrant, and in turn wins the adoration of the people. The hero is principally a good-natured and courageous young male, with a good sense of humour, devoted to his land. If this pattern sounds familiar minus the nationalist undertone, it is because many Walt Disney films the likes of Cinderella and Snow White utilized this paradigm extensively, and thus popularized these old tales that were verbally passed on for generations in various parts of Europe.


The way I was introduced to these texts was through audiotapes. Partially to maintain our cultural identity in a foreign land, but more importantly to hold on to their sanity by keeping my sister and I entertained on long drives (it would take two days to drive from Istanbul to Prague), our parents would play an assortment of these folk tale audiotapes in the car. Time after time we would get absorbed in these stories despite the fact that we have all heard them many times before. I recall my favorite folk tale growing up was “Princ Bajaja”.

After moving back to the Czech Republic from Turkey, I often watched a variety of these stories regularly on Saturday morning television from when I was seven years old, until the age or eleven. Over time however, my consumption of these texts changed. I came to distinguish fantasy from reality not only because of my development but also because my grandmother, an actress in the Czech Republic, at times invited her actor friends to our house, and my sister and I watched these films in which they starred next to them. Furthermore, I began to participate as an extra in several productions and also in voiceover dubbing, and thus became aware of these films being produced texts at an early age.


Despite my enlightenment to the trickery of the ‘culture industry’ (Adorno) and the fact that I no longer role-played as on of the hero characters (Instead, my hero became Niki Lauda, an Austrian Formula 1 racer I followed on TV), many of the moral values taught by these texts still influenced me. What I was unaware of is how much these stories were a vessel for the cultural values of the society that produced them. Frequently they celebrated male chivalry, humility, courage, and loyalty throughout their story lines, values that the interaction with others in that society further reinforced. Along with the cultural values, in their depiction of noble heroes and fair princesses, the folk stories introduced me to the concept of gender roles. As per Judith Butler’s theory of ‘peformativity’ (Butler), In many ways, the way gender was performed in these stories taught mw what it meant to be a male in that society, and in turn, how men were expected to treat women. According to these texts, men were to be brave protectors of women, and to treat them with kindness and respect. In line with Butler’s theory failing to perform in parallel with these mediated societal roles rendered one rude and cowardly in the public’s eye.


In turn, I accepted this definition and performed along with it as a growing male. Even though I have lived in Canada for most of my life and learned these lessons at a very young age, I believe this is why I feel compelled to open doors for women, help with dropped items, and feel awkward if a woman requests to pay for a meal in my adult years. Now, I don’t believe I perform these acts because these texts taught me that women are a lesser sex, on the contrary I was raised in a family where both parents are equals. Rather, I act out the roles I was taught through these cultural texts to respect women.

Part 2 - Tatli Jady

Turkey

I am a product of a nomadic childhood. Now, my family didn’t belong to a sect or religion that prevented us from setting roots in any particular place for an extended period of time. Rather, my father worked for an international company that would send our family to different parts of the world for years at a time until we finally settled in Canada. I am a child of what Randolph Bourne coined in the early 20th century as transnationalism. In fact, thinking back to my childhood, by the age of eleven, I lived in four different countries, on two different continents, surrounded by four distinct cultures with by two different religions, and spoke five different languages. Out of this assortment I believe two main ideologies stand out as dominant influences; the Eastern European culture ideology and the Western North American culture ideology. I suppose I am what Adorno would call a by-pseudo-individual.

Tatli Jady

I was born in Prague. However, when I turned six months old our family was transferred to Turkey, and for the next six years we lived at the Czech consulate in Istanbul. On the weekends we often traveled around the country, and during the week, my sister and I attended kinder garden and school respectively at the Russian embassy.

For a great part of the day at school, I took in Russian stories read to us by our teachers that due to the Cold War were often infused with communist propaganda and revolved around the triumph of the poor working class hero over the bourgeois elite. In the afternoons however, I looked forward to watching my favorite cartoon on television, Tatli Jady (Maya The Honey Bee), a popular animated series out of Japan dubbed into Turkish.

Maya was a cute, inquisitive, and adventurous bee that through her friendly demeanor made friends everywhere she went. The moral of her stories taught to respect others, and that if one treats others with kindness, everyone will like and respect them in return. Much like many children my age I soaked in each episode and idealized Maya. Living in a foreign country, where it was often unsafe for non-Turkish kids to play outside for the fear of being kidnapped, I wanted to be free like her, to venture outside and have friends like she did. At one point I insisted that my mother made me a set of black wings out of construction paper, and proudly paraded with them around the consulate taking on the Maya role.



At this stage I consumed the show for strictly my own pleasure and without questioning its message or validity. The fact that the bee was a female character and I was a male did not affect the mimicking of my idol, nor did the fact that she was an animated bee matter to me. The half-hour long animated adventures taught me many positive things such as empathy for others, benevolence, and curiosity that I believe stayed with me well into my adult years.

What allowed these texts to penetrate deeply into my psyche was what Patricia Morrison and Howard Gardner call an “unclear fantasy-reality distinction” (Morrison and Gardner) in children, where for preschoolers and young elementary school children, there is an unclear demarcation between fantasy and reality. “Virtually anything is possible in the imagination of a child in this age range; a sponge can become a rock, bears can talk, and the wind can pick the child up and take him or her away.” (Morrison and Gardner) It is what allows children immerse themselves into media such as cartoons, and to accept their texts at face value.

Aside from the moral values, the cartoon also inadvertently taught me two other important lessons that I utilized throughout my lifetime. The first was the power of the medium of television to teach, as before long I began to speak Turkish. Learning the language allowed me to interact with kids from adjacent buildings. I began to make friends, and under the supervision of the consulate security personal was allowed to play with them behind our building. The second lesson involved culture, and I learned how these media texts are often the glue that binds individuals in a society. Perhaps a positive aspect of standardization and ‘cultural homogeneity’ (Adorno and Horkheimer), as believed by Adorno, was that it helped build bridges across cultures. Being a popular cartoon for my age group at the time, Tatli Jady was often the topic of discussion during play and thus a common ground that existed between me and my newly found friends from a vary different culture. The standardization and syndication of its plot made this union possible. It is maybe this positive association to the medium of television and cartoons that has transpired into my love of animation in my adult years.

Part 1 - Media Autobiography - Why AM I a wus?

Introduction

From my teenage years until my early adulthood, I felt that I was a bit different from my friends. Though from my early teens I listened to the same music as they did, participated in the same sports, and read the same magazines, I secretly preferred watching Scooby Do to G.I. Joe, and later films like There Is Something About Mary to Rambo. I favored playing racing games like Gran Turismo to slash-‘em-up’ games like Resident Evil. To my confusion at the time, violence and gore didn’t thrill me like it did my male friends, and I often wished it did.

I eventually made peace with the question by concluding that my preferences were nestled in my nature. Last year however, I got to live for two months in the Czech Republic, the country in which I was born and lived in for five years in my early childhood. During my stay I revisited many films and cartoons from my youth, and interacted with other people my age. To my surprise I found many commonalities between them and myself despite that I lived in Canada most of my life.

Embracing both my backgrounds rewarded me with cultural bifocalism that in the end helped me understand many things about myself. Consequently I began to consider the possibility that my preferences stem from the cultural differences instilled in me in my early childhood. I hope to utilize this view in my analysis throughout the following paragraphs. I don’t seek to start a nature versus nurture debate. Rather, through my media autobiography I would like to investigate how the media texts I consumed in my childhood helped shape the person I am as an adult and the cultural texts I produce today.