Blog #5: G-Force

I’m a little nervous about this blog assignment. As Julie so plainly pointed out, Nakamura makes several important arguments about race and the networked interfaces. This might sound like a rather lame excuse, but it’s been a LONG time since I’ve had the chance to sit down and watch a movie. However, most recently I have had the enormous pleasure of watching mostly children’s movies with my 3 year old. The movie I decided to use as a basis for comparison for this assignment is called G-Force, a kids flick.

Okay, I am already afraid of what you’re thinking. Believe me I think I’m stretching a bit here, but I’m going to give it my best shot. Nakamura writes about random access and the iPod advertisement campaign (pages 111-113). It is posited (ha ha Nakamura!) that the iPod’s random-access technology (ie “shuffle” feature lets the machine “randomly” choose what to play) and a visual ad campaign produces “racialized bodies that correspond to specific typed genres of music,” and, “The notion that one can click through musical genres using software like Apple’s iTunes and download music to correspond to the omnipresent racialzed bodies in the ad links together the volitional mobility of the interfaced music shop with that of the consumer of the hipness and coolness of black expressive culture itself.” (p112) She points out that, as in The Matrix trilogy, the dancing silhouettes are a paradox “full of racialized color” and are/have signifiers of “Afros” in the phenol/stereo/typical ways you and I have come to recognize. This Afro-futuristic style (as in The Matrix) is a signifier of “cool.” She gives examples from Claudia Springer and Donnell Alexander illustrating how black characters and/or black people in general set the standard for cool. Both agree that black “cool” represents style and flair. By using this black “cool” theme in their ads, Apple has unwittingly separated blackness from other identities and races. “While digital music may operate under the logic of ‘random access,’ users create paths and narratives through exercising their desires that are far from random but rather produce predictable configurations of bodies, types, and images.” (pg 113)

Alrighty then. G-Force. Again, this is a stretch. I am not so much honing in on the “random access” bit as I am the black “cool” bit. "Armed with the latest in high-tech spy equipment, and with the F.B.I. on their tails, the fur flies as they race against the clock to save the world.” The main characters in this film are Darwin, Blaster, Juarez, and Hurley. Darwin (Sam Rockwell, a “white” guy) is our hero, saving the day and keeping his team together. Blaster (Tracy Morgan) is our “cool” black character; a “need for speed” action junkie and weapons expert with hip-hop flair and the hots for Juarez (Penelope Cruz). Juarez is the token female, so to speak; she’s the sophisticated kick ass martial arts diva playing hard to get. Hurley (Jon Favreau) is the dopey pet shop escapee turned side kick to Darwin who sorta helps save the day…well, they all help, but you know what I mean.

I think this movie represents everything stereotypical in relation to race, identity, and elitist genres. Blaster and Juarez are clearly the token ethinic representation needed for showing kids acceptance and diversification of "color." As with most stereotypical movies, Darwin is the team leader; the "white" guy and represents the glue that holds it all together while his back-up (always playing second) are the ethnic characters. Although all characters are highly trained and techies of every state-of-the-art digital media, it is Darwin who ends up being the hostess with the mostess: computer savvy and hi-tech inventor. This ties in with another one of the Nakamuras's many arguments about marginal black figures being in the background of white interface users. "Marginal blackness works to make whiteness even whiter by contrast: a necessary act in the contest of globalization, where transculturation threatens to fatally blur racial lines." (pg 108) Blaster and Juarez both kinda represent the "metaphor of the black servant to white interface users..." (pg 108) Blaster specifically is our link to the black "cool" (duh.)but more than that, he also represents the black servant; smart, strong, sassy, but second to Darwin.

Okay. That's the best I got today. I know it could be a stronger argument and comparison, but seeing how I've been working on this for blog all day and I'm late submitting it, I'll just stop here and hope for the best. Nakamura had a lot to say in this chapter and I was happy to read it. I learned a lot and wish I had a better example to use for this blog entry. I guess I should try to get out more...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vny3o6gLa8