Monday, April 18, 2011

SRL Fantasy Lecture Paper

The Fantasy of Survival Research Laboratories

    Survival Research Laboratories fulfill a fantasy of destruction and mayhem. A world without rules and borders, a very natural and instinctive way of life. A more raw way of survival in an acceptable environment.
    Some of the same kind of mainstream events that articulate the same kinds of fantasies in our society are action/ sci-fi movies. They both can show things getting destroyed and blown up and existing in an environment that habituates that specific kind of world.  Both have lots of bright lights and loud booms. A major element that is different would be the safety  factor of the audience, and the vibrancy and realness of the explosions.
    The criticism “Yanks with tanks” I believe to be a very crude uneducated comment and an understatement to the meaning behind what they do at Survival Research Laboratories. These machines that they create require a great mechanical mind. Though their resourcefulness is a bit on the questionable side they are intending to make a statement with everything they do. I would have to say that their work both promotes and critiques the mechanized violence depending on the viewer’s perspective. For me at first it is just a live action movie with machines, then it became about the dangers of battling machines.
    Survival Research Laboratories’ audience is the people, the everyday average person. I believe that with the type of society that Amsterdam tends to attract they can easily bring in viewers to watch a fight and hop that maybe some leave with more than when they came.

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