Ghost in the Shell: Identity in Space

Ghost in the Shell: Identity in Space

 I Watch the video taken from the animated film ‘Ghost in the Shell’. What does this short video sequence show? What emotions and feeling does it cause in you? Describe what you see. Get ready to discuss your ideas in the classroom.

II Study the active vocabulary and focus on Ukrainian equivalents of English words.

sci-fi науково-фантастичний

qualify визначати як

exquisitely вишукано

shot кадр

tempt спокушати

dissect  розібрати

aspect ракурс

transition перехід

art and craft художнє ремесло

panel панель (окремий малюнок на сторінці комікса)

goal-oriented цілеспрямований

character персонаж

virtually практично

abandon відмовитися

exploration дослідження

space простір

evoke викликати

 maze-like подібний до лабіринта

cyclical циклічний

interlude проміжний епізод

frame кадр

sequential послідовний

irrelevant який не стосується справи

perception сприйняття

plug into підключити до

metropolis мегаполіс

shell оболонка

ghost привид

cyborg кіборг

incorporeal нематеріальний

AI штучний інтелект

merge зливатись

artificial штучний

false несправжній

take advantage of скористатись

state-government державний уряд

identity індивідуальність

in this respect у цьому відношенні

layered багатошаровий

hand back повертати

vital життєво важливий

fade зникати

subjugation підкорення

impose нав'язувати

redefine переоцінювати

effort зусилля

dystopia антиутопія

succumb поступатися

drive something home щось доводити

loop цикл

virtuous доброчесний

vicious порочний

 III Vocabulary focus. Study the words and  word combinations, check flashcards, practise translation, spelling. Take a  test. Play matching vocabulary game (match words to their translations to make cards disappear)  and save the planet from asteroids by typing in correct translation of the words.

IV Watch the video and fill in the gaps with the words from the list. There are some words you don’t need to use.

graphic novel; atmospheric; themes; characters; sequence; accomplishes; shot; characteristic; comics; goal-oriented; qualify; middle; describes; meddle; majority; derives; thriller; minute; nation; video; author; apparatus; time; derived; emphasis; modelled; rarely; accurate; animation; accomplices; imagination; bling;  sci-fi; space; transitions; cyclical; gorgeous; mute; irrelevant; timed; city; impossible; sequential; preacher; thing; mood; featured;

    There’s a three 1)______ and 20ish second long scene in the 2)______ of the animated 3)______ action thriller ‘Ghost in the Shell’ that doesn’t really 4)______ as sci-fi action or 5)______. It’s a sequence of 34 6)______ exquisitely detailed 7)______ shots of a future 8)______ in Japan that’s 9)______ after Hong Kong. And I’m tempted to make an hour-long 10)______ dissecting each 11)______ individually, but I really want to look at what this interlude 12)______ as a whole, by itself, and in the context of the film and its 13)______.

The first 14)______ to note is that this montage is full of what Scott McCloud has called aspect-to-aspect 15)______. McCloud is the 16)______ of an absolutely essential 17)______ on the art and craft of 18)______. And in it he 19)______ the kind of panel-to-panel transitions that have become popular in different parts of the world. In American comics, for example, the 20)______ of transitions are action-to-action, fitting for a 21)______ culture interested in telling stories about goal-oriented 22)______. Japanese comics, on the other hand, have long 23)______ a kind of transition that is really very 24)______ seen in the West, the aspect-to-aspect transition in which 25)______ is virtually abandoned for the exploration of 26)______. These kinds of transitions evoke a 27)______, they activate the senses and 28)______, and they have a rich tradition in Japan’s use of maze-like and often 29)______ works of art. The 30)______ is on being there instead of getting there. And it’s that emphasis at play in this interlude from ‘Ghost in the Shell’. Though this is 31)______ and not comics, the aspect-aspect categorization is, I think, pretty 32)______. I mean, people and things move in these frames, but it’s 33)______ to tell if the shots are meant to be read as temporally 34)______. And I think it’s pretty obvious that that question is really just 35)______.

V Watch the video again and choose the correct option to complete the sentences.

 What protector/director/producer Mamoru Oshii accomplishes here, is to expand/expansion/depend and draw attention to the audience’s conception/perception/percept of space in the film. And what mind/kindness/kind of space is it? It’s the space of a chaotic/chaos/ethos multicultural future city, determined/dominant/dominated by the intersections of and new features/structures/structured, connected by roads, canals, and apology/theology/technology. Humans move about like electricity/electric/ethnicity along these avenues, bugged/plugged/pug into the body of the Acropolis/metropolis/police. The relationship between body and mindful/mind/tide, shell and ghost, is, of course, a central rhyme/thematic/theme of the film, which tells the story of a female cyborg/cyclic/cyber police officer who with her team hunts down a notoriety/notorious/authority hacker. Only to discover that he’s an incorporeal AE/AI/II who wants to merge with her and create a new liar/higher/pier life form. Since most bodies in this feature/future/futuristic world are at least partly artificial, people locate their identities in their ghosts or their minds. But with the troubling knowledgeable/knowing/knowledge that these also can be hacked, memory, identity, and humanity are all called into question/mention/quest.

“All your m_ _ _ _ _ _s about your wife and daughter are f_ _ _ _. They’re like a dream. Someone’s taken a_ _ _ _ _ _ _e of you…”

So how can a m_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  on space _ _l_m_ _ _ _ the problem and theme of identity in ‘G_ _ _t in the Shell’? Well, maybe the first thing we should say is that _p_ _ _ s, like identities, are c_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _d. Though space often feels _e_ _ _ _ _ or given, like we could move anywhere w_ _ _ _ _ it, our movements, our _ct_ _ i_ies, our life is always limited by the way space is p_o_u_e_. In most places, but _s_ _ _ _ _ _ly in big cities, that production is controlled not by the people, but by _i_ _ _ _ _c money interests, state-_o_e_ _ _e_ _ _ or both. And the same is true for identity. Spaces and identities are constructed, and not always by _u_ _e_ _es. In this _e_ _ect Hong Kong was the perfect city to _o_e_ for this film.  It’s a city _a_e_e_ with histories and c_lt_r_l memory.

VI Watch the video and fill in the gaps in the text.

 1)_______ it or not, when ‘Ghost in the Shell’ came out in 1995, it was still a 2)_______ or territory of the United 3)_______. It had two years left on a 99-year lease 4)_______ in 1898 which was interrupted during the Second World War by a four year 5)_______ by Japan. Now it was about to be 6)_____   __ to Communist China with which it had little relation in both 7)_______ and economy. So who were the Hong Kong people 8)_______ to be then? Indeed, how to define 9)_______ was a vital question in the post-colonial 10)_______. As the old 11)_______ faded, but left their centuries of subjugation and 12)_______ in the very streets and minds of 13)_______ cities like Hong Kong and its 14)_______. You don’t want to maintain the often 15)_______ identities imposed on you by the colonizers. But you really can’t go 16)_______ to what you were before either.

“You’re talking about redefining my 17)_______. I want to guarantee that I can still be 18)_______.”

“There isn’t one. Why would you wish to? All things 19)_______ in a dynamic environment. Your effort to remain what you are is what 20)_______ you.”

 Look closely at the 21)_______, and you can see these dilemmas played out in 22)_______. Cyberpunk has always 23)_______ these uneasy composites of multiple 24)_______. These are not 25)_______, but they don’t have to be imagined as dystopias either. The philosopher Michel Foucault called spaces like this ‘heterotopias’, places that exists in a 26)_______ state of layered and changing meanings. Heterotopias don’t succumb to those 27)_______ that try to make everything the same. They are marginal spaces for the 28)_______ to construct identities for themselves. Cyberpunk’s great radical 29)_______ was that the blending of man and 30)_______ would have the same effect on 31)_______ identity that multicultural 32)_______ like Hong Kong would have on collective identity. It would break down the constructs of 33)_______ and race, and class that had defined us for so long without our 34)_______. You can see that hope in the main 35)_______ of ‘Ghost in the Shell’. The three-minute aspect-to-aspect interlude in the 36)_______ of this film by its strong break from the 37)_______ of the plot forces us to consider the 38)_______ between city and body, 39)_______ and ghost. To drive this home, the rest of the film is 40)_______ with characters set against the city they live in. Yes, spaces are made by 41)_______. But humanity is made by its spaces too. It’s a feedback loop, a 42)_______ made virtuous or vicious based on the 43)_______ we make together. ‘Ghost in the Shell’ wants to show us that the 44)_______ of ourselves and our spaces are one and the 45)_______.

VII Watch the video and read the texts above. Say if the statements below are true or false. Correct the false statements.

1)  The video describes the first scene in the animated film ‘Ghost in the Shell’.

2) ‘Ghost in the Shell’ is a TV series.

3) The video explores the role of identity in the space of the city.

4) A scene in the middle of ‘Ghost in the Shell’ shows the city that looks like Hong Kong.

5) ‘Ghost in the Shell’ uses Western principle of action-to-action transition typical for comics.

6) Japanese comics use aspect-to-aspect transition, action is not very important for the story there.

7) ‘Ghost in the Shell’ focuses on the relations between people and the government.

8) The city of Hong Kong is part of China now.

9) In ‘Ghost in the Shell’ some characters lose their memories or their memories are changed.

10) ‘Ghost in the Shell’ is the story of a  cyborg.

11) The animated film stresses the idea that people change space and cities they live in, but space and cities also influence people.

 VIII Look at the quotations from the video. What did the speaker mean? Use your own words to paraphrase the message.

1 “These kinds of transitions evoke a mood, they activate the senses and imagination, and they have a rich tradition in Japan’s use of maze-like and often cyclical works of art.”

2 “The emphasis is on being there instead of getting there.”

  

3 “All things change in a dynamic environment. Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you.”

4 “Yes, spaces are made by humanity. But humanity is made by its spaces too. It’s a feedback loop, a cycle made virtuous or vicious based on the choices we make together.”

5.  “Since most bodies in this future world are at least partly artificial, people locate their identities in their ghosts or their minds. But with the troubling knowledge that these also can be hacked, memory, identity, and humanity are all called into question.”

IX Watch all parts of the video and answer the questions.

1)    What genre is the animated film discusses in the video (comedy, horror)?

2)    What relation between people and the city is discussed in the video?

3)  Why was Hong Kong used as an example of the multicultural city? What important events in the city’s history are mentioned?

4)    What are the characters of ‘Ghost in the Shell’?

5)    What is the difference between Japanese and Western structure of comics?

6)    What is the most important component of the story in Western comics? Is it space or is it action?

7)    What modal of framing does ‘Ghost in the Shell’ use: Japanese or Western one?

8)    How is the decline of empires and colonial powers connected to human identity?

9)    What is identity and how can it be defined?

10) What is the relation between people and the spaces they live in?

11) According to the animated film can human memories be lost or hacked or changed ?

X Match the parts of the collocations used in the video. Use 5 collocations in your sentences.

1.	in the middle	A.	tradition
2.	model	B.	hand
3.	the art	C.	of somebody
4.	on the other	D.	to forces
5.	evoke a	E.	city
6.	activate the senses	F.	or vicious
7.	have a rich	G.	histories and cultural memory
8.	temporally	H.	into
9.	multicultural	I.	back
10.	plug	J.	of
11.	hunt	K.	in space
12.	take advantage	L.	loop
13.	layered with	M.	and craft
14.	hand	N.	down
15.	play out	O.	mood
16.	multiple	P.	sequential
17.	succumb	Q.	identity
18.	collective	R.	after
19.	feedback	S.	cultures
20.	cycle made virtuous	T.	and imagination

XI Restore the order of the words in the sentences.

1. Space, / history / in / argues, / time. / a / closely / Foucault / Western / bound / culture, / it’s / always / has / our / of / and / experience / to
2. / of / the / mentions / museum / heterotopia / time. / Foucault / as
3. erosion. / to / enclose / times / brings / It / time’s / – / attempts / totality / disparate / that / protected / from / that / the / together / a / totality / a / time / is / different / in / space / from / of / objects / single
4. complexity / its / The / means / of / coordinate / nobody / systems, / logic / each / can / autonomous / with / city’s / the / various / that / own / everything.
5. was / / plan / no / a / or / this / of / chief / planner. / a / master / longer / a / for / was / place / master / there / The / that / consequence

XII  OVER TO YOU.  Research the concept of Foucault’s heterotopia. What is a heterotopia in the context of a modern city? Get ready to share your findings with the group. Choose a city in an English-speaking country (not London, Oxford, Liverpool, Newcastle or Edinburgh since they were extensively discussed in study materials) and get ready to speak for 5 minutes about the way the city of your choice shapes the identity of its inhabitants. Think about the example of Hong Kong in the video as the multicultural city projecting the complex identity of the inhabitants. Think about the way the city of your choice can be called a heterotopia. You can accompany your talk with a PowerPoint presentation (no more than 10 slides). In your talk focus on the connection between a person and a city, do not merely list the sites and attractions of the place or recount the history of its construction.

Study the passage below to find inspiration and start thinking about the connection between cities and identities.

“The built environment can help generate certain types of behaviour, in particular when it comes to the use of public space. Places that are inviting, well configured and programmatically activated can attract a lot of people, as experiments in the revitalization of central Copenhagen have shown. Second, built environment can also produce important social effects. “The only indispensable material factor in the generation of power”, claimed Hannah Arendt, “is the living together of people. Only where men live so close together that the potentialities of action are always present can power remain with them, and the foundation of cities, which as city-states have remained paradigmatic for all Western political organizations, is therefore indeed the most important material prerequisite for power.” (Arendt 1958)

The social forces that emerge when men and women come together behind a common cause in cities are among the greatest social forces we know. They have produced a series of important social changes in the 20 th century – the Civil rights Movement, the fall of communist regimes in the former USSR, and most recently the social movements we have seen in the Arab Spring. It would be inconceivable for these movements to have occurred without the congregations of people that cities form. Sometimes the causes of these movements themselves originate from the spatial characteristics of cities. Cities benefit economic activities with at least three important attributes. They offer the benefit of size, which increases the volume of opportunities for their inhabitants and economies of scale for their enterprises. Size increases the number and variety of destinations available to a citizen, and provides market area for specialized companies who couldn’t survive in a small town. Second, cities generate density, which reduces transportation costs and increases the likelihood for interaction. A concentration of people and firms within close proximity allows us to get more done with less time.”

Sevtsuk, A. “”How we shape our cities, and then they shape us”, MAJA: the Estonian Architectural Review, 2-2012 (72), pp. 10-15, 2012