Response to Portrayal of Voyeuristic Gaze in Hitchock's Vertigo - Week 4

Alfred Hitchock's Vertigo is an excellent demonstration of the voyeuristic gaze in cinema. This makes sense in this particular narrative, as the plot comprises of a detective following a woman, but it is also a good example of how women can be seen through a male gaze in other cinema.

The opening scene viewed is set in a bar/restaurant. The dark red decor of the walls and dark suits surrounding the woman contrast with her pale skin and green dress to ensure she clearly stands out. She is placed at in the centre of the scene. The man is filmed from face on, directly looking, and the close up shot makes a focus of his eyes, showing that he is looking for something, that he is watching the woman. When the camera cuts from the man, the room is viewed from his perspective, as if through his eyes, commanding the viewer also looks at the woman through his eyes too. These angles are continued throughout the next few scenes as it emphasises the watcher and the watched.

When the woman gets up, she looks around the room but not directly at the camera, or at the detective. She does not confront his gaze or the viewer's gaze, portraying her as something to be watched, rather than to watch. As she walks away and throughout the following scenes, she is filmed from behind. This is because the view of her is through the man's eyes as he watches and also lets the viewer see her entire figure, objectifying her further, whereas the detective is mostly framed closely round the face. The dress is revealing at the back and the gaze lingers on this, and in the next scene she wears a tight fitting suit, emphasising her figure again. When not being viewed from behind, she is in profile, again not allowing her to meet the gaze of the man. Barbara Krueger's Untitled (Your Gaze Hits the Side of My Face) 1981-3, is an example of how this objectifies women by not allowing them to meet the male gaze. She uses a statue to demonstrate this, literally an object, and this is similar to the use of statues in a later scene.

The lighting throughout the sequence differentiates between the watcher and the watched as the man is portrayed in the shadows, whereas the woman is shown in the light. As he follows her into dark doorways, it is as though he is penetrating her space. The music reflects the difference between them as when the woman appears on screen it becomes soft and romantic.

The woman is objectified by the mis-en-scene of the locations she unknowingly takes the man to. The first place, a flower shop, depicts her surrounded by flowers. Flowers are typically solely decorative objects without other purpose, and by placing the woman among these, Hitchcock is objectifying her as a shallow decoration. She is in soft focus and surrounded by feminine, pastel shapes and colours, contrasting with the shadowy, dark location and close up shot of the man, where he is almost portrayed as a peeping tom. The second place she takes him to, the graveyard, has flowers again, but also decorative statues. Hitchcock cuts between the man observing the statues a few times before showing the woman. She, like the statues, is portrayed in profile and in a similar pose. The grey suit she is wearing adds to the similarity, thereby emphasising this further. The third location is the art gallery. The traditional looking, framed portraits on the walls are placed there to be observed, and placing her alongside these in a gallery objectifies her again. Sitting alone in the middle, she could almost be a sculpture. She even has the same hairstyle and flowers as features in the painting of the woman. These factors lead the viewer to see the woman as an object to be gazed upon. This contrasts with the way in which the detective is portrayed, as he is given an obvious professional purpose, which is demonstrated clearly in his busy manner of importance but also the objects he is surrounded by, such as his pen and paper and his car. She walks slowly, allowing the gaze to fall upon her figure, but the man seems to be mostly in a rush between places, indicating more purpose.

When the characters change location, the woman is seen entering from behind and although she may have been inside a particular location for a while, the first view the viewer has of the scene is when the man follows, and through his eyes. A prime example of this is the gravestone - she has been watching it throughout the entire scene, but we only see it when the man briefly glimpses it as she leaves. This teases the viewer, creating intrigue about what is being witheld. She is the object, which is appearing, and he is the subject, which is acting.

The art gallery scene shows the man focusing up close on aspects of the woman for the first time - her hair, and the flowers she has been carrying. Although these objects are relevant to the plot, they also have symbolism. If we use psychoanalysis to interpret these meanings, the decorative flowers and the swirl in the hair could relate to female genitalia, fetishising her, and the circular shapes also relate to the theme of Vertigo. The gallery depicts the viewer watching the man, man watching the woman, woman watching the painting and painting gazing back at the woman, making her the most watched subject. The only time a female gaze is reflected back at the detective is when he looks at the painting, and he seems to find this unsettling and disruptive of his voyeuristic undertaking.

The last technique I noticed was the use of reflections and images of the woman within the scene. When the woman is leaving the room in the first scene of the sequence, she is reflected in the mirror, creating an image of her - and obviously, images are there to be observed. There is a split screen during the flower shop scene which features both the watcher and the watched, and towards the end she is reflected in the painting of her ancestor on the gallery wall.

In conclusion, Hitchcock's Vertigo demonstrates the male gaze through camera angles, points of view, composition, light, sound, reflections, positioning of the subjects, mis-en-scene and symbolism.

Te Tuhi Exhibition - Unpacking My Library - Week 3

Unpacking My Library is an exhibition about collections. It refers to disorder and rearrangement which may occur within a collection when it is unpacked or disrupted, and suggests different ways of ordering collections at the mercy of the collector or artist, rather than society's conventional orders. The viewer is invited to form an idea of the artist's character through the demonstrated collections, as well as to consider the process of collecting.

A key piece in the exhibition is Elizabeth McAlpine's Found Time Big Ben. This ongoing project features a collection of postcards of Big Ben, gathered and organised in rows to represent every minute of a 12 hour day, with the missing minutes left blank. She has organised this collection in an unusual fashion. Upon first attempting to find order, a viewer assumes there may be a chronological pattern over years, seasons, perhaps, or colour, composition etc, as the piece demonstrates Big Ben from many different angles and decades, and uses images from both day and night. The actual order may not be obvious to a viewer until explained. The artist is examining the way we unconsciously establish order in collections and how we automatically perceive certain orders. As a Londoner, I found the relationship between time, the landmark and tourism intersting - every time the clock chimes in London, there are large groups of tourists waiting underneath in order to hear the famous tune, and this strong relationship between the landmark, the time and the tourism is reflected in the postcards.


Found Time (Big Ben) is typical of McAlpine. It echoes her work Fiction Map (pictured). This ongoing work takes the viewer on a geographical journey through the states, from the East coast to the West coast, using text about landmarks and places from American fiction. The artist uses text to create her own map format. She is taking authors' creations and remaking them into a new piece of art. This collecting and rearranging of text in her own order of words ensures a new meaning is conveyed. Again, we have a disruption and rearrangement of order to create a collection. The use of text instead of shapes depicting areas in a map format echoes the fact that text and image can be seen as one and the same, visual code. In her work The Film Footage Missed By A Viewer Through Blinking While Watching The Feature Film "Don't Look Now", McAlpine has collected all the frames from a film which a viewer missed while blinking, grouped them sequentially together, and created a 7 minute 15 second long film. Here, she is keeping the order of time but concentrating on what the viewer was unable to see when he/she was blinking. TILT (In 6 Parts) encompasses 6 projectors in a row, projecting a sequence of frames from one reel of film. All the frames are white, except for one a group of red frames, appearing every sixth of the way through the film reel. This piece examines the order of time and space within film, highlighting film's temporal and surface qualities.

McAlpine rearranges collections to examine our perception of space and time, and how the viewer sees and interpretes order. She is interested in recycling collections to create new meanings, as well as emphasise what is already in existance, in a new light.

I found the sculptures by artist Dan Arps interesting. Some examples include little characters made of objects, objects on shelving, a chest of drawers covered in stickers, and other sculptures. They are a demonstration of arte povera, a movement signified by an exploration of a wide range of materials beyond the traditional, without restraints. Theoretical basis was rejected in favour of experimentation and openess towards materials and processes. This is evident in these pieces. The artist has appropriated existing objects, and the works are about the journey of the objects themselves, and their uses in the past and present. There is also a light hearted humour in some of the work, such as the cheeky looking characters he has created. I struggled to find deeper meanings in most of the pieces, but this makes sense within the arte povera movement, and they are all open to interpretation.

A piece I was particularly drawn and responded strongly personally to is shown in the image. It seems to me to be about pollution of the seas. The oceans contain a large amount of plastics and human refuse, and this piece reflects this directly back to the canvas in the use of such unnatural materials, literally creating an ocean of human waste. Objects are utilized which society may use and discard without thinking about, such as cleaning cloths, of course used with chemicals, which go down the drains. Chemical waste could also be demonstrated in the foamy, white-grey appearance of the majority of the piece. To me, it strongly highlights environmental issues with a black humour in the smiles of the stickers of dolphins and whales. Perhaps these innocent smiles also reflect the ignorance of a society which can cause so much pollution without realising/caring. The use of space is interesting also - it seems to be erupting from one end of the canvas, the empty space at the other end could indicate the problem spreading further, and the edge of the frame, the fact that we do not have unlimited natural resources. The impact of our collection of waste is considered here with a collection of found objects by the artist.

The exhibition showcased collections of very different themes and genres, and they conveyed individual messages in a variety of styles and media. Everyday objects can take on new meaning when collected together, recycled or displayed out of usual context, perhaps even become something else. Rearranging objects can entirely alter a viewer's perception of something, due to liberation from perception as per society's order which is imposed opon us.

Justin Paton's 'Ten Good Reasons' - Personal Top 10 - Week 2

In response to reading Justin Paton's Ten Good Reasons, I will now summarise the most important pieces of art to me personally at this moment.

Man Ray's Le Violon d'Ingres (Ingres's Violin). I could have included several of Man Ray's images because, to me, he is one of the most important photographers of all time. Through tireless experimentation, he invented different and creative techniques of manipulating photograhic images before digital technology was available. Together with Lee Miller, they invented solarization. Another creation of his was the 'Rayograph,' or photogram, which removed the camera altogether from the process.

I have included this Dadist photograph as Man Ray is credited for taking the Dada movement to the United States. One of his earlier works, it a visual pun, comparing a woman's body to that of a violin. He created the f-holes by painting them onto the print and rephotographing it, altering a classical nude. This piece also reflects a painting by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingress, whose hobbies were playing the violin and painting nudes, in the style and attire of the model. In this way, Man Ray has created a second, more high brow pun. The title is a french idiom for 'hobby', suggesting Man Ray's hobby is playing with the model. There is a humour in this simple transformation from woman to violin but the lack of arms adds an unsettling element. Man Ray's work was ahead of his time. He is ridiculing the photograph as a direct representation of reality at a time when photography was considered to be this, echoing the digital revolution of more recent years.

Lee Miller is an inpirational photographer and has had an outstanding career, particularly in a time when women were not as equal to men in society as they are today. As I mentioned, she participated in creating solarization with Man Ray and among her achievements has been a model, muse, documentary photographer, Surrealist photographer and worked for Vogue.

This photograph depicting a severed breast on a plate is perhaps an unusual choice to represent her work, as it is less known than many of her more famous pieces. It is fairly self explanatory. She was having an affair with a surgeon, and managed to obtain the breast from a mastectomy he had performed. The photograph was captured in the Vogue studio, making a strong statement about objectification of women and the portrayal of the female form, particularly in fashion. This is especially interesting coming from Miller, a famous model, whose own breasts had inspired the design of a champagne glass. It challenges the viewer, projecting a message along the lines of 'if you think it's so good then eat it!'. The image has a humour which I like.

James May does not call himself an artist, but his Plasticine Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show 2009 became one of the most talked about gardens in the show. He received permission to submit a garden made entirely of plasticine (although it was "touch and go" as to whether this would be granted), and there was not one real blade of grass or plant. This caused controversy, although there is no rule which specified that the plants in the show must be real. May is a television presenter with hardly any gardening experience. He enlisted help from the public, aiming to encourage children to put down games consoles. School children made daffodils and Chelsea pensioners made poppies. Other participants included a Teletubbies designer and a Wallace & Gromit modeller. His garden was slated by critics. One gardening expert commented "If it's not going to have plants in it, then it shouldn't be called a garden. How can the RHS judge it on the same basis as other show gardens if there are no plants?" May challenged the gardening community and argued that they were plants. The public defended his work. He was outraged that his work was so condemned but eventually awarded a special award made from plasticine. This work pushed boundaries, caused controversy, and triggered public protest and participation at a major event.

The faked photograph of the Loch Ness Monster 1933 is one of the most famous 'monster' photographs in the world. The images were captured and sold to the Daily Mail. Many declared it a fake from that time and over the consequent years, but it was still examined by NASA in 1972, who enhanced it on their computers to find evidence of whiskers, thus giving it more credibility. Among popular theories were that it was a plesiosaur, although sceptics claimed it to be an otter, or perhaps just rotting vegetation. It was not until 60 years later, in 1993, that the creators admitted to faking the photograph and constructing the 'monster'. This image caused controversy and debate over its reality for six decades. I have included it because it is an excellent demonstration of how the camera can lie. Society often assumes that it must be real because it's a photograph (perhaps less so now, with digital manipulation being widespread) but here we have a fine example of how an old, fake photograph can trick people and stand the test of time.

A friend of mine has been tagged in in album entitled A Photo A Day For Year! on the social networking site Facebook. The idea of this particular album is that the creator will take one photograph every day for a year and upload it. Vernacular photography has become so widespread and available, especially since the digital revolution, that I feel it demands a mention when considering art today. People are free to portray themselves in any way they choose, and can easily share and display this imagery with others. Vernacular photography has evolved tremendously even since we switched from film to digital - people are free to pose, delete, re photograh, etc., as many times as they wish, and alter these images once captured. Facebook provides an interesting backdrop for this, as nearly everyone in our society uses it, and it is revolutionizing the way we socialize in itself. I have been on a bus journey in England for a duration of an hour and a half, listening to the click of a shutter and re-application of make up ever few seconds as a pair of teenage girls attempt to capture they 'perfect Facebook photo'. This is not uncommon. It almost seems to me as though one has not participated in an activity unless one has taken a photograph and uploaded it for everyone to see. A Photo Every Day For A Year! caught my attention as it attempts to approach vernacular photography from a different angle. The photographer is attempting to document a more 'real' representation of her every day life (for example, yesterday's entry portrays her doing the washing). This has a certain irony, as she still has infinite options as to which photograph could be captured and chosen to represent each day, and, of course, could take hundreds of pictures every day. In a way, this is doing the exact same thing as everyone else, but in a chosen time frame. She is using a different context, but may still draw attention to any aspect of herself she chooses. However, it provides an interesting alternative and an insight into how the availability of such technology provides society with tools to portray themselves. Previously, it was upper class society who could afford to have their portraits painted or photographed, but the digital revolution provides nearly everyone in our society with the means of documenting any aspect of their life they choose, making some interesting history.

I have included the H20 series by Adam V. Albrec as he works in such a creative and experimental way with underwater photography in contrived environments. It is as though he is utilizing photographic tecnhology available today to create innovative ways to paint surreal portraits. In a world where most photographers are retouching and using digital manipulation, Albrec creates these strange and unusual effects with light and water in the capturing of the image, not necessarily the editing.

Miss Lala at the Cirque Fernando by Edgar Degas. This image portrays Miss Lala suspended from the rafters, holding on only by a rope clenched between gritted teeth. The artist typically sought out modern subjects in arresting poses. Degas was creating art at a time when cameras were becoming available and he used photographic equipment to help him capture poses for other works. This work, however, was created from pastel sketches recorded over successive nights in the audience. I have included this as it portrays a moment in time which would not otherwise have been recorded. I also think it is a masterpiece which always lures me into the National Gallery for a peek when I am in London.

Light Fields by Nadav Kander, an Israeli born photographer, who is currently based in London. This series refers to the art movement which emerged in the 1950s after abstract expressionism, characterised by large canvases primarily painted with solid blocks of colour, as seen in the works of Rothko (although this series was not inspired by Rothko). The series portrays eerie looking landscapes illuminated by found, artificial light sources, almost a study of light pollution. Kander is interested in human impact on landscape, such as, for example, a footprint in a desert, and he is inviting the viewer in this series to consider that without the found light source, the image would just be an entire block of black. He falsifies the world in a studio contrived looking fashion and the pools of light drop suddenly into the abyss. This reflects the human condition - only seeing what is around our feet, as we stand in a dark ocean of the unknown. Kander was trained in the 80s, narrowly prior to the time digital re touching became popular. This series made my top ten as it is aesthetically strong and interesting and communicates important issues about the world today.

I would like to mention a friend of mine, Alana Yee, and her Dance Bombing performances. She is an Auckland based dancer/performance artist currently performing in works created by other artists in the Living Room Festival and the Triennial. She has experimented with social situations in the context of clubbing and nightlife. Bouncers would often refuse her entry to nightclubs due to her non mainstream, artistic appearance and attire, informing her it did not fit with the dress code. In response to this, Yee would dress in bright leotards with a fashionable disguise over the top and enter the clubs, before removing her disguise, jumping on any stage or surface in her bright spandex, and make her statement performing improvised dance routines, which the audience reacted to positively. She has shunned people's attempts to prevent her from expressing herself. Her work is important as it challenges social rules and boundaries and imposes art upon the public, rather than bringing the public to art.

For me, Leonardo Da Vinci is a necessity in any top ten because he was perhaps one of the greatest minds of all time, and his combination of art and science furthered both fields greatly. As an anatomist, he was permitted to disect bodies in order to carry out studies, and here is a demonstration of how sight works. It is far ahead of its time, and an example of one of the many ways in which he furthered knowledge. He was also the first to discover that the heart has four chambers, not just two. This particular drawing is to demonstrate how sight works.

Summary of Lecture - Semiotics & Language - Week 3

This lecture concentrated on looking at text as art, or as a component of art, rather than a separate communication, particularly within conceptual art.

Using text within artwork can transform meaning by adding context. This is evident, for example in Magritte's painting entitled 'the Treason of Images'. He examines the relationship between the viewer, the signified and the signifier within the image, reminding the viewer that the signified is not real. He questions our perceptions and interpretations by reminding the viewer through text that the pipe is not a real pipe; it is an image of a pipe which he has created and we have interpreted as knowing to represent a pipe. This knowledge has been imposed upon the viewer by society and a viewer who had never seen a pipe before would not necessarily know this to be a representation of a pipe - it could mean nothing, or something different entirely. The image is not a real pipe in the same way that the text is not a pipe & in this way the text is the same as the image - man made markings on a page. Text and image are illustrated here as one and the same - visual encoding.

Magritte is emphasizing the use of painting as a visual language and asking us to question what we understand by what we see. This image creates a visual message which we recognize in a similar way that written language does this. Conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth examines this in his work 'Five Words in White Neon.' This piece is under no fancy illusion & poses the question - what is art when not a signifier?

Text, like image, is a visual language which society has created & we have been trained to recognize. An unknown language would be unconprehensible to a viewer (unless they had a key to unlock the code, such as with the Rosetta Stone.) Reading language is so thoroughly ingrained into us that we take it for granted and decode this visual language unconsciously, as we would a image. David Abram commented that language is "a form of animism that we take for granted, but it is animism nonetheless - as mysterious as a talking stone." When a reading, words & sounds leap out at the viewer in a way that we are so used to that we expect this.

The phonetic alphabet is not based on image & is a creation of shapes comprising a code. We take for granted the definitions of words, but these are just combinations of the phonetic alphabet - any single word could just as easily have been defined as something else entirely. Marcel Broodthaers examines this in his work 'Farm Animals', 1974. He disrupts the relationship between signified & signifier by naming different car manufacturers underneath the cows rather than breeds of cow. This piece refers to capitalism & branding. Brands change; cows were branded and previously a form of wealth, now cars represent this.

Aestheticly pleasing artistic methods have also developed through text, such as demonstrated in the inlay of the Taj Mahal - the creation of images was forbidden so artists expressed themselves through ornate text. This demonstrates a combination of traditionally aesthetically pleasing art and a purposeful visual code which is not based on an image. On this note, it is interesting how text can be differently perceived according to how it is directly presented - different fonts, handwriting, etc, would give a reader some knowledge of the creator of the text and its purpose.

In conclusion, text & image can be seen as one and the same - created visual communications which we use our knowledge of society & our surroundings to decode, often without even realising.

Richard Linklater's 'Fast Food Nation' - Week 1

Select one character and examine the personal choices they made throughout the movie.

Don's opening scene shows him in a business meeting. The viewer knows he has made a choice to pursue a career in the fast food industry, already implicating him to be money driven and perhaps loose moralled. We also see that he has chosen to have a high achieving career and a comfortable life.

The first choice we see Don make is with regard to the flavours he is smelling. He is evidently in his comfort zone but a not quite real world is already portrayed. He discusses the flavours as if they are real food, and he is tasting it rather than smelling, commenting "tastes like it's right off the grill!" Already, he is deceiving people by creating something which is unnatural and unreal. His confidence in this situation to make the choice contrasts with later on when he is in reality and out of this bubble at headquarters. This is emphasised when he finds simple tasks such as opening a gate on a ranch or climbing a fence an awkward struggle - the real world is not one where he feels at ease. He has chosen not to visit a ranch since he was a child!

When Don pays a visit to his boss's office, his boss thanks him for "stopping by". This casual, polite, formality gives the implication that Don is respected and he had a choice to visit his boss, when in fact it was his job to. This questions how much power Don has with his choices within the company and how much of what is done is sugarcoated and beyond his control. It also highlights the choice he makes of involving himself with producing fast food with faecal matter in, casting his morals under scrutiny.

At home, Don is reading his children a bedtime story and decides it is time for them to go to sleep. They protest, but he is insistant. He uses his authority to deny them more of his time that evening, although he did choose to spend time with them in the first place, suggesting good intentions and fulfilling his parenting role. However, a notable choice he makes in this scene is chosing to partake in a business trip and disappoint his son by missing his history exhibition. Don sees the faecal problem with the burgers as a "marketing issue" and prioritises this over supporting his son, again calling into question his morals and priorities. Seeing the problem as a marketing issue also implies he is either naive or deciding to turn a blind eye to the morbid reality of the burgers. Later on in the movie, he is on the phone to his wife. When one of his sons interupts the conversation, Don angrily orders his wife to make the child wait, as his matter is important. Again, we have a demonstration of his selfish priorities.

Several times throughout the movie, Don is pictured in a hotel room either watching pornography or with his laptop open. This signifies his choice to experience loneliness and surround himself with technology and work rather than his family, and to surround himself in his own reality.

During the process of investigating the faecal matter in the meat, Don is pictured several times consuming Big One burgers. In continuing to do this, he demonstrates denial/lack of care that he is in fact probably eating faeces. As he continues to research the factory, his continual consumption of the meat also shows his lack of care for the welfare of the workers, the fact that there are untrained workers on the killing floor and the gut table, the quality of the meat, and the welface of the cattle. He chooses to stay on the side of the fence where everything is clean, fake, and tasty, rather than the actual reality of the filthy meat and suffering. He does not have to deal with the harsh side of reality, so he blocks it out. Don represents this corrupt product with a smile and pride, announcing his position to Amber as vice president of marketing at Mickeys.

When Don visits the UMP Plant, he seems comfortable in this world of mass production and branding. After his visit, he comments that it is "spotless", "clean" and "white." This conflicts with some other characters' opinions, such as Coco, who commented "I never want to set foot in that place again." When he discovers he was not shown the killing area and is reliably informed that is is not clean and spotless but rather quite grotesque and dirty, he still chooses to lie, represent the factory and portray it in a good light. The fakeness and mass producion combined with facts such as the forty degrees below zero which all the burgers go through again emphasise the fake world he is investing in. As the movie continues, he is less and less ill informed, but continues to stand by his choices.

Don's choice to work for Mickey's contrasts with some other characters' choice to work there due to his reasoning. Coco, for example, chooses not to enter into employment at the factory until her husband suffers an accident and she is desperate enough to have no choice. Prior to this, she chooses to earn less money than the UMP Plant would pay, and work as a chambermaid. Don's choice to work there could perhaps be based on reasons such as financial greed, an easy option or a selfish desire to further his career, as he is clearly not in a position where he has been forced into the role.

Perhaps the most important decision Don makes in the movie is to support Harry when reporting to Jack, and deny any illegal activty at the plant. He potentially had the power to change aspects of the production of the burgers but his weakness prevailed. He chose to continue allowing people to lose limbs, animals to suffer, faecal matter in the meat, and general corruption and contamination. When he leaves the hotel at the end of the movie and walks out of the door, he is turning his back on the problem, choosing to leave it behind and return to his comfortable life. However, his uneasiness at the meeting at the end demonstrates how he will now have to live with the knowledge of the choices he has made.

The relationship between good and evil seems to be paralleled with the relationship between reality and denial throughout the movie. The screen is often divided by light and darkness, with the characters entering the dark as they take a step towards the fast food industry. This is most evident when Don decides to stand by the factory, and his face slowly backs into the dark from the light, highlighting his bad decision. It is also demonstrated in a scene where the door into the factory is dark and the other side light, and in the beginning when the Mexicans attend a meeting, they enter into a dark doorway from a dimly lit alley.

Overall, the movie highlights issues of morality, ignorance, reality and this fake fast food world, the choices we make and their effects. A strong metaphor for me was when Amber and her friends made a hole in the fence and attempted to free the cows. Whether or not the cows knew the hole was there, their ignorance in the dark, maybe habit, maybe fear of the unknown, prevented them from chosing freedom, or from having the choice. Perhaps this is a metaphor for society being in the dark and making bad choices, and maybe it reflects Don's decision to keep the world in the dark even though he has been guided in the right direction and provided knowledge with which he could do good if he so chose.