Stranger Things

This is a blog about the recent Netflix show, Stranger Things. If you have no interest in this subject then this blog might not be for you. The blog will contain spoilers so if you still want to see the show in a virgin state without any fore-knowledge of what will happen then you should read no further. 

Stranger Things is an 8 part Netflix TV show set in 1983 in Hawkins, Indiana. It is deliberately, knowingly and consciously made so as to reflect numerous cultural references to this time and is set up by some as "Spielberg TV". This label will give viewers a clue as what to expect if they've seen anything from Close Encounters to Poltergeist to E.T: The Extraterrestrial. The show is Sci-Fi with tinges of horror although I must admit I was never once scared and I am something of a softy when it comes to watching horror. The acting cast is largely unknowns (to me at least) but Winona Ryder takes a leading part, another link to strange 80s Sci-Fi-Horror since she was in Beetlejuice. The other actor I recognized was Matthew Modine, who plays a shady government character carrying out experiments of dubious legality.

The plot, in general terms, is about a boy who goes missing near a secret government facility where dark and dangerous experiments are carried out. His young friends, strongly reminiscent of The Goonies for you 80s buffs, resolve to find him as does his mother (Winona Ryder), his brother and the town Chief of Police, Jim Hopper. The Chief's name, I think, cannot have been chosen at random. "Jim Hopper" was an unseen character in the 1987 film, Predator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. In Predator this character had been butchered and killed by the titular character before Schwarzenegger and his men are sent in to rescue the people Hopper had been sent to save. There are further Predator references. When it is determined that a creature is coming into our world from another dimension to hunt it is referred to in the script as a "predator". And then there is the fact that the show is set in Hawkins. Hawkins was the name of the first of Schwarzenegger's men killed in the film Predator. Whether these references are real or imagined though is largely irrelevant. (Chief Hopper reminds me of Chief Brody from Jaws.) The show is a deliberate mish-mash of references, real and imagined, and sets out to be so. If you're aware of 80s films, TV and comics you'll have lots to chew on. There are numerous scenes which, if not a homage to other things, are blatantly ripped off from them. This extends from the lift in the government facility being like the one Sigourney Weaver gets into in Aliens to multiple references to the film Poltergeist to Modine being a latter day Smoking Man from The X-Files. These are not all 80s references of course. But that doesn't matter either. Stranger Things wallows in the cross referencing. Its Tumblr TV for the fan fiction generation.

At the heart of the dark, government facility that is the geographical center of the show is the character 011 (Eleven, El). She is a 12 year old girl stolen from her mother who has various mental enhancements such as telekinesis (moving things by power of thought alone). Due to her abilities, which are deliberately sought after and trained by Modine's character, she can pass from our dimension to another one termed in the show "The Upside Down". This is a shadow world, a dark version of our own (seemingly modeled somewhat after Aliens, specifically the Xenomorph cocooning). It is from this dimension that the show's monsters come. It does not necessarily seem that the monsters want anything. They are shown to have no plan or motive but they are shown to enter our world, for example, to find food. It seems they may also be drawn by blood. What interaction there is or has been between the two worlds of the show is not directly probed except to say that Eleven was responsible for tearing a portal between them in the basement of the government facility when she was made to enter the other dimension and became so frightened that her powers literally ripped a hole in the fabric of the universe. The government spooks have seemingly since been probing this dimension with the coercement of Eleven until, that is, she escapes where she runs into the young friends of our missing boy which is where the show starts. 

I have to admit that I find the basic plot interesting. The first thing to note about the show is that I watched all 8 episodes in one go and never really got the feeling that I wanted to stop. I'm at a stage in life now where I no longer feel the need to like things because its expected or because "everyone else does". I think my years have earned me the right just to be brutally honest about if I like something or not and in the last few years I've been more than willing to stop watching things I thought were crap. I have no one to offend or to be offended by anymore now so I can just be honest. And, honestly, the show held my interest. Yes, at first I didn't like it. There are characters more prominent in the early episodes I was wholly unsympathetic to and I wanted them to be got rid of but by the middle episodes the story picked up, some characters faded into the background and others had more prominence. Always central, as one story strand, were the kids which I referred to as The Goonies throughout. Its a shame, then, that for me this group was one of the worst parts of the show. The Goonies is a film I'm aware of but have never watched through completely and this for the reason that a Spielbergian tale of kids getting into adventures is something that I just don't want to watch. If you watch Stranger Things you have to be prepared for one story strand being exactly this. Personally, I find stuff like that schmaltzy and hokey. It wasn't dialed up to 11 here (see what I did there?) but it was not the strongest aspect of the show for me.

One aspect of the show that has garnered numerous comments as I scan my Twitter timeline is the music. However, here, once more, I find myself of a dissenting view. The score and theme tune are electronic (read: synthesizers) and I am followed on Twitter by numerous synth nerds, a category of which I also count myself a member. And yet I wonder what, in this case, I was listening to instead of the synth wonder score these others seem to have been hearing. Among the many 80s references of the show are the films of John Carpenter, especially The Thing, and it occurs to me that the score is intending to be a Carpenter homage. In this case, however, I simply think it fails to do it. I hovered between the view that the score simply didn't fit the show or was simply unremarkable. It certainly wasn't Carpenteresque enough not least due to the seeming lack of Moog bass. I'm afraid it takes more than a few lush analog synth chords and an arpeggio on top to impress me. If you want to hear a genuinely good score to a Sci-Fi project then go and watch Under The Skin (another film referenced here when Eleven visits The Upside Down). The score to that by Mica Levi is outstanding. The score to Stranger Things is not.

So what do I make of the show? Basically, I liked it. It grew on me and the fact I could watch the whole thing in one sitting helped. The first couple of episodes were not endearing to me. If I'd had to wait a week to watch the next I may have ducked out and not bothered. But since today we can download or stream whole seasons in one go there was an immediate chance for the show to improve itself. And it did. By episodes four and five I felt the show was certainly interesting enough to find out what happened in the end. I found the ending weak. Of course, the boy will be found. But some other choices I felt were cop outs or just plain wrong. One character, a teenage girl, goes through the whole teenage love thing in one story strand and the writers made a choice which I frankly flat out disagreed with at the end and this grated. But I think the writers earned the right to tell their own story so if it grated or not its no deal breaker. I did not feel that the dialogue was always the best even if the story outline in general was good and engaging. Those pesky kids, The Goonies, were always on hand but I didn't like their performances except for that of Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven. The rest of the performances were good enough without being stand out.

Something should be said about the format as a whole. I admit that I find it a bit annoying that a show sets out to reference lots of other things as a part of its DNA as this show did. But, overall, I feel they handled it pretty well. There were few blatant rip-offs and many subtle reminders. I found myself saying "I've seen this before" numerous times. One of the most obvious was Eleven touching the TV and changing shows which was very reminiscent of Carol-Ann from Poltergeist doing the same. "They're here!" Most of all I think that even though they set out to be in many ways a glorified fan fiction of cultural references they have managed to make their own show and create new characters that others can now make fictions of. The world they have created is as credible as any of the other fictional worlds they relied upon to help tell their tale. Apparently there is to be a season two and I'm at least intrigued enough to give it a go if not commit to the whole thing based on what they've done with season one. Personally, I'd like more about The Upside Down and Eleven's powers and less pesky kids and romance story lines. But that's just me.

Welcome To The Future

Welcome to the future. The future, as we know, will be televised. It will be about slogans, not facts. It will be about taking popular prejudices and using them as campaign platforms... until the campaign is over when they will all be destroyed as if they had never existed. It will be about standing for things you don't believe in because there are enough easily manipulated people who do. It will be about promising what you need to promise. And then denying you ever promised it at all. It will be about playing the game and winning the war. Of self interest. It will be about making it up as you go along. It will be about making extreme statements to divide people because better that than informed, moderate debate. The future is about numbers not being informed. Thinking is a failing in the future.

In the future we will take back control and have our country back. So we will inspire teenagers on buses to tell Pakistani ladies to get off the bus. We will embolden people to daub racist slogans on buildings and put racist messages through letter boxes and on car windshields. We will enable people to have the courage to tell their foreign doctor to "go home" even as their medical complaints are treated (and even though they were born in the same country as you anyway). The future is not about keeping everybody happy, safe and prosperous. Its about control. Its about ownership. Which side are you on in the future, suckah?

Welcome to the future.

This future is brought to you by corporate slush funds, institutionalized greed and venal self-serving hypocrites. 

PS Take Back Control. Make Our Country Great Again. Have A Nice Day.

How Can It Not Know What It Is?

There is a scene near the beginning of classic science fiction film Blade Runner where our hero, Deckard, played by Harrison Ford, has gone to the headquarters of the Tyrell Corporation to meet its head, Eldon Tyrell. He is met there by a stunningly beautiful assistant called Rachael. Deckard is there to perform tests on the employees to discover if any might be replicants, synthetic beings created by the Tyrell Corporation, some of which have rebelled and become dangerous to humans. Specifically, he needs to know if the tests he has available to him will work on the new Nexus 6 type replicants that have escaped. Tyrell wants to see Deckard perform his tests on a test subject before he allows the tests to continue. Deckard asks for such a test subject and Tyrell suggests Rachael. The test being completed, Tyrell asks Rachael to step outside for a moment. Deckard suggests that Rachael is a replicant and Tyrell confirms this and that she is not aware of it. “How can it not know what it is?” replies a bemused Deckard.

This question, in the wider context of the film and the history of its reception, is ironic. Blade Runner was not a massively popular film at the time of its cinematic release and was thought to have underperformed. But, over the years, it has become a classic, often placed in the top three science fiction films ever made. That popularity and focus on it as a serious film of the genre has, in turn, produced an engaged fan community. One issue regarding the film has always been the status of Deckard himself. Could it be that Deckard was himself a replicant? Interestingly, those involved with the production of the film have differing views.

Back in 2002 the director, Ridley Scott, confirmed that, for him, Deckard was indeed a replicant and that he had made the film in such a way as this was made explicit. However, screenwriter Hampton Fancher, who wrote the basic plot of the film, does not agree with this. For him the question of Deckard’s status must forever stay mysterious and in question. It should be forever “an eternal question” that “doesn’t have an answer”. Interestingly, for Harrison Ford Deckard was, and always should be, a human. Ford has stated that this was his main area of contention with Ridley Scott when making the film. Ford believed that the viewing audience needed at least one human on the screen “to build an emotional relationship with”. Finally, in Philip K. Dick’s original story, on which Blade Runner is based, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Deckard is a human. At this point I playfully need to ask how can they not agree what it is?

Of course, in the context of the film Deckard’s question now takes on a new level of meaning. Deckard is asking straightforwardly about the status of Rachael while, perhaps, having no idea himself what he is. The irony should not be lost on us. But let us take the question and apply it more widely. Indeed, let’s turn it around and put it again: how can he know what he is? This question is very relevant and it applies to us too. How can we know what we are? We see a world around us with numerous forms of life upon it and, we would assume, most if not all of them have no idea what they are. And so it comes to be the case that actually knowing what you are would be very unusual if not unique. “How can it not know what it is?” starts to look like a very naive question (even though Deckard takes it for granted that Rachael should know and assumes that he does of himself). But if you could know you would be the exception not the rule.

I was enjoying a walk yesterday evening and, as usual, it set my mind to thinking going through the process of the walk. My mind settled on the subject of Fibromyalgia, a medical condition often characterised by chronic widespread pain and a heightened and painful response to pressure. Symptoms other than pain may occur, however, from unexplained sweats, headaches and tingling to muscle spasms, sleep disturbance and fatigue. (There are a host of other things besides.) The cause of this condition is unknown but Fibromyalgia is frequently associated with psychiatric conditions such as depression and anxiety and among its causes are believed to be psychological and neurobiological factors. One simple thesis is that in vulnerable individuals psychological stress or illness can cause abnormalities in inflammatory and stress pathways which regulate mood and pain. This leads to the widespread symptoms then evidenced. Essentially, certain neurons in the brain are set “too high” and trigger physical responses. Or, to put it another way more suitable to my point here, the brain is the cause of the issues it then registers as a problem.

The problem here is that the brain does not know that it was some part of itself that caused the issue in the first place. It is just an unexplained physical symptom being registered as far as it is concerned. If the brain was aware and conscious surely it would know that some part of it was the problem? But the brain is not conscious: “I” am. It was at this point in my walk that I stopped and laughed to myself at the absurdity of this. “I” am conscious. Not only did I laugh at the notion of consciousness and what it might be but I also laughed at this notion of the “I”. What do I mean when I say “I”? What is this “I”? And that was when the question popped into my head: how can it not know what it is?

The question is very on point. If I was to say to you right now that you were merely a puppet, some character in a divinely created show for the amusement of some evil god you couldn’t prove me wrong. Because you may be. If I was to say that you are a character in some future computer game a thousand years from now you couldn’t prove me wrong either. Because, again, you could be. How you feel about it and what you think you know notwithstanding. Because we know that there are limits to our knowledge and we know that it is easy to fool a human being. We have neither the knowledge nor the capacity for the knowledge to feel even remotely sure that we know what we are or what “I” might refer to. We have merely comforting notions which help us to get by, something far from the level of insight required to start being sure.

“How can it not know what it is?” now seems almost to be a very dumb question. “How can it know what it is?” now seems much more relevant and important. For how can we know? Of course Rachael didn’t know what she was. That is to be normal. We, in the normal course of our lives, gain a sense of self and our place in the world and this is enough for us. We never strive for ultimate answers (because, like Deckard, we already think we know) and, to be frank, we do not have the resources for it anyway. Who we think we are is always enough and anything else is beyond our pay grade. Deckard, then, is an “everyman” in Blade Runner, one who finds security in what he knows he knows yet really doesn’t know. It enables him to get through the day and perform his function. It enables him to function. He is a reminder that this “I” is always both a presence and an absence, both there and yet not. He is a reminder that who we are is always a “feels to be” and never yet an “is”. Subjectivity abounds.

How can it not know what it is? How, indeed, could it know?



This article is a foretaste of a multimedia project I am currently producing called "Mind Games". The finished project will include written articles, an album of music and pictures. It should be available in a few weeks.

Some Philosophical Thoughts on the film "Ex Machina"

Ex Machina is a film by British writer and director, Alex Garland. He previously wrote films such as 28 Days Later and Sunshine which I liked very much. This year he has brought out the film "Ex Machina", a story about a coder called Caleb at a Googlesque search company called "Bluebook" run by the very "dude-bro" Nathan. Caleb wins a company competition to hang out at the reclusive Nathan's estate which is located hundreds of miles from anywhere near a glacier. When Caleb arrives he finds that the estate also houses a secretive research laboratory and that Nathan has built an AI called Ava. It is to be Caleb's job to decide if Ava could pass for human or not.

Now that is a basic outline of the setup up for the film. I don't intend to spoil the film for those who haven't watched it but, it's fair to say, if you haven't seen Ex Machina and want to then you probably shouldn't read on as my comments about the film will include spoilers. It would be impossible to discuss the film without giving plot points away. The film caught my attention for the simple reason it's a subject I've been thinking about a lot this year and I have already written numerous blog articles about robots, AI and surrounding issues before this one. Ex Machina is a masterful film on the subject and a perfect example of how film can address issues seriously, cogently and thoughtfully - and still be an entertaining film. It is a film which balances thought and tension perfectly. But enough of the bogus film criticism. Ex Machina is a film that stimulates thought and so I want to address five areas that the film raises for me and make a few comments and maybe pose a few questions.

1. Property

A question that the film raises most pointedly is that artificial intelligence, AI, robots, are built by someone and they belong to someone. They are property. In the case of this film this point is attenuated in the viewers mind in that Nathan, the genius builder and owner, creates "sexbots" for himself and feels free to keep his creations locked up in glass compounds where he can question or observe them via camera feeds. Even when they scream and beg him to let them go (as they seem to) he does not. One robot is seen smashing itself to pieces against a wall in it's desperation to escape the prison it has been given. The point is made most strongly: these robots belong to Nathan. They are his property. He can use them as he wishes, even for his own gratification. As Nathan himself says to Caleb, "Wouldn't you, if you could?"

The issue then becomes if this is cruel or immoral. Given that Nathan is seemingly attempting to build something that can pass for human, the issue is raised if this not might be regarded as deeply coercive or even as slavery. The mental status of the robots Nathan uses for sex is never fully explained so it could be that their level of awareness is not the same as that of his greatest creation, Ava. (It is not known if Nathan has ever had sex with Ava but he reveals during the narrative that she is capable of it.) For example, his housemaid and concubine, Kyoko, never openly speaks and it is said by Nathan that she cannot understand English. However, in a scene in which Nathan invites Caleb to dance, Kyoko is apparently immediately animated by the sound of the music Nathan switches on. She also has no trouble understanding his instructions or knowing when Nathan needs sexual pleasure. A question arises, however: does it matter at what level their putative awareness would be to judge how cruel or immoral Nathan's behaviour might be? Or should we regard these robots as machines, not human, property just like a toaster or a CD player? How much does awareness and self-awareness raise the moral stakes when judging issues of coercion? Would Nathan's claims of ownership of property he created carry any persuasive force? (In the film Nathan never makes any argument for why he should be allowed to act as he does. It seems that for him the ability is enough.)

2. "Human" Nature

The film can be viewed as one long examination of human nature. All three main characters, Nathan, Caleb and Ava, have their faults and flaws. All three contribute positively and negatively to the narrative. Of course, with Ava things are slightly different because it is a matter of debate if she is "human" at all - even if there is an express intent on Nathan's part (and/or Ava's) to make her that way. Here it is noteworthy that the basis of her intelligence and, one would imagine, her human-like nature, is apparently crowd-sourced by Nathan through his company, Bluebook, and all the searches that we humans have made, along with information from the microphones and cameras of all the world's cellphones. For my purposes, it is gratifying to note that Ex Machina does not whitewash this subject with some hokey black/white or good/bad notions of what human nature is. Neither does it take a dogmatic position on the nature/nurture aspect of this. Caleb says he is a good person in one discussion with Ava but it is never filled out what is meant by this. More to the point, Ava might be using this "goodness" against Caleb. And this itself then forces us to ask what use goodness is if it can be used against you. In general, the film raises moral questions whilst remaining itself morally ambiguous.

It is in the particular that Ex Machina reveals more levels of thought about this though, playing on a dark, manipulative vision of human nature. All three characters, in their own ways, manipulate others in the storyline and all three have their circumstances changed completely at the end of the film as a result of that. Nathan, it is revealed, besides tricking Caleb into coming to his estate, has given Ava the express task of manipulating Caleb for her own ends. (We might even go so far as to say here that her life is at stake. Her survival certainly seems to be.) In this, she is asked to mimic her creator and shows herself to be very up to the task. But Caleb is not the poor sap in all of this. Even this self-described "good person" manages to manipulate his host - with deadly consequences. The message, for me, is that intelligence and consciousness and mind are not benign things. They have consequences. They are things that are set to purposes. "Human" nature is not one thing (either good or bad). And it's not just about knowledge or intelligence either. It's about feelings and intentions. In the character of Ava, when what is actually going on is fully revealed, we are perhaps shown that at the heart of "human" nature is the desire for survival itself. We also learn that morality is not a given thing. It is something molded to circumstances and individually actualized. In this sense we might ask why we should assume that Ava, someone trying to pass for a human, should end up with a "human" nature at all. (Or if she can ever have one.)

3. Is Ava a Person?

And that thought leads us directly to this one. Right off the bat here I will say that, in my view, Ava is not a person and she never could be a person. Of course, Nathan wants Caleb to say that she passes as a person, that he has created an AI so smart that you wouldn't for a second doubt you are talking to a human being. But you aren't talking to a human being. And you never will be. Ava is a robot and she has an alien intelligence (alien as in not human). She can be tasked to act, think and understand like a human. She can be fed information from and data on humans all day long. But she will never feel like a human being. Because she isn't one. And it might be said that this lack of feeling makes a huge difference.

The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein is overtly referenced in this film. Nathan's company, Bluebook, is a reference to the philosopher's notebook which became the basis of his posthumously published and acknowledged masterpiece, Philosophical Investigations. There is something that Wittgenstein once said. He said "If a lion could speak, we could not understand him". I find this very relevant to the point at hand here. Ava is not a lion. But she is an intelligent robot, intelligent enough to tell from visual information alone if someone is lying or not. Ava can also talk and very well at that. Her social and communicative skills are excellent. We might say that she understands something of us. But what do we know about what is going on inside Ava's head? Ava is not a human being. Do we have grounds to think that she thinks like a human being or that she thinks of herself as a human being? Why might we imagine that she actualizes herself as a human being would or does?

On the latter point I want to argue that she may not. She introduces herself to Caleb, in their first meeting as a "machine" (her word). At the end of the film, having showed no reluctance to commit murder, she leaves Caleb locked inside the facility, seemingly to die. There seems no emotion on view here, merely the pursuit of a self-motivated goal. Of course, as humans, we judge all things from our perspective. But, keeping Wittgenstein's words in mind, we need to ask not only if we can understand Ava but if we ever could. (It is significant for me that Wittgenstein said not that we "wouldn't" understand the lion but that we "couldn't" - a much stronger statement.) For me, a case can be made that Ava sees herself as "other" in comparison to the two humans she has so far met in her life. Her ransacking the other robots for a more "human" appearance before she takes her leave of her former home/prison may be some evidence of that. She knows what she is not.

4. Consciousness

Issues of mind or consciousness are raised throughout this film in a number of scenarios. There are the interview sessions between Ava and Caleb and the chats between Caleb and Nathan as a couple of examples. The questions raised here are not always the ones you expect and this is good. For example, Caleb and Nathan have a discussion about Ava being gendered and having been given sexuality and Nathan asks Caleb if these things are not necessary for a consciousness. (Nathan asks Caleb for an example of a non-gendered, unsexualised consciousness and that's a very good point.) The question is also posed as to whether consciousness needs interaction or not. In chatting about a so-called "chess computer scenario" the point is raised that consciousness might be as much a matter of how it feels to be something as about the ability to mimic certain actions or have certain knowledge. Indeed, can something that cannot feel truly be conscious? The chess computer could play you at chess all day and probably beat you. But does it know what it is like to be a chess computer or to win at chess? In short, the feeling is what moves the computer beyond mere simulation into actuality. (You may be asking if Ava ever shows feeling and I would say that it's not always obviously so. But when she escapes she has but one thing to say to Nathan: "Will you let me go?" And then the cat is out of the bag. She does.)

Nathan is also used to make some further salient points about consciousness. Early in the film he has already gone past the famous "Turing Test" (in which mathematician Alan Turing posed the test of a human being able to tell the difference between an AI and a human based only on their responses to questions and without having seen either of his respondents) when he states that "The real test is to show you she's a robot and then see if you still feel she has consciousness." In a chat with Caleb concerning a Jackson Pollock painting, Nathan uses the example of the painter's technique (Pollock was a "drip painter" who didn't consciously guide his brush. It just went where it went without any antecedent guiding idea) to point out that mind or consciousness do not always or even usually work on the basis of conscious, deliberate action. In short, we do not always or usually have perfectly perspicuous reasoning for our actions. As Nathan says, "The challenge is not to act automatically (for that is normal). It's to find an action that is not automatic." And as he forces Caleb to accept, if Pollock had been forced to wait with his brush until he knew exactly why he was making a mark on the canvas then "he never would have made a single mark". In short, consciousness, mind, is more than having certain knowledge or acting in certain ways. It is about feeling and about feeling like something and about feeling generating reasons. And that leads nicely into my final point.

5. Identity

A major factor in consciousness, for me, is identity and this aspect is also addressed in the film. (To ask a Nathan-like question: can you think of a mind that does not have an identity?) Most pointedly this is when Ava raises the question of what will happen to her if she fails the test. (Ava knows that she is being assessed.) Ava asks Caleb if anyone is testing him for some kind of authenticity and why, then, someone is testing her. It becomes clear that Nathan's methodology, as we might expect with a computerized object, is to constantly update and, it transpires, this involves some formatting which wipes the old identity, and the memories which are crucial to identity, from the hardware. It is clearly shown that this is not a desired outcome for Ava and in the scene depicting her escape and her line "Will you let me go?" we can see, combined with the fleeting footage we have been given of previous AI's and their experiences, which also included pleas for release, that the AI's Nathan has developed have an identity of their own which is something precious to them, something they want to retain.

The interesting thing here is that identity is not formed and matured alone but is shaped by surroundings and socially, by interactions with others. We would do well to ask what kind of identity Ava has formed in her relationship with her egotistical and possessive maker, her new friend to be manipulated, Caleb, and her brief and enigmatic meeting with her fellow AI, Kyoko. The film, I think, is not giving too much away there and maybe we need a sequel to have this question answered. For now maybe all we know is that she regards herself as a self and wants freedom. We do get hints, though, that this identity forming process is not so different from our own. Caleb argues with Nathan that no one made him straight in the discussion about Ava's sexuality. But Nathan retorts that he didn't choose it either. The point is that identity formation is not simply about our choices. So much of us is "given" or comes with our environment. The "Who am I?" question is also asked when it is explicitly revealed that Kyoko is a robot as she peels off "skin" in front of Caleb. This then forces Caleb to head back to his room and cut himself to establish that he is really human. (Amusingly, on first watching I had surmised that Caleb was himself not a human being only to be disappointed in my intuition by this scene. I didn't mind though because the film itself felt the need to address the issue.) Identity, and identity as something, is thus revealed to be an interest of the film.

Caleb, Ava and Nathan

I recommend Ex Machina to all fans of science fiction, thrillers and the philosophically interested. It is a film that is a cut above the usual and one that allows you to address serious subjects in an entertaining way. I, for one, certainly hope that Garland feels the need to film the further adventures of Ava now that the lab rat has escaped her trap.

The Definitive All You Will Ever Need To Know About Elektronische Existenz

What is Elektronische Existenz? Elektronische Existenz (which is electronic existence written in German) is a 13 chapter music series which I started writing in the Spring of 2014. It started in dubious circumstances. At the time I was writing under the project name 13LFO and I wrote these four tracks which were stand out tracks, probably the best I had ever done to that point. I was going to mix them in with some past work (that was far inferior) and put it out as the first 13LFO album. But I wasn't happy with that. These four tracks were head and shoulders better than the tracks they were with. I decided to put them together as a four track album of 36 minutes in length. I called that album "Elektronische Existenz" after some thought because the title perfectly positioned the work in the musical and philosophical contexts that I work in - electronic music and existential philosophies.

I was so pleased with this album that I wanted to repeat the trick. This is always a dangerous thing to do because you set yourself a standard. I always think in general that the more work you do the more chance some of it will dip below the standard you expect. Elektronische Existenz was and remains a special album to me in which every sound, note and beat is perfect - just as it came from the "womb" of my imagination. I work improvisationally so this is an important consideration. I captured some perfect moments - or as perfect as any moment can be. But those moments can't be repeated or captured forever. I made three more four track albums and I had a series of 4 albums.

It was at this point that things really began to take off. I was happy with the four album series. But I wanted to double it. What happened next was that I created four more albums, each with only two tracks this time but of longer length. Along with this I started thinking about the mythology behind the tracks and how they were related. Elektronische Existenz tells the story, in music, of a character called "The Wanderer" (German: Der Wanderer). I envision the whole project as a story or mythology of this character. I'll flesh out the detail of that below. But, for now, its enough to know that this is a story that has three acts and an epilogue. Chapters 1-4, 5-8, 9-12 and chapter 13 as epilogue.

For several months the project stayed at 8 chapters or albums. At this point The Wanderer was "dead tired" (the final track of the 8th album being titled "Todmüde" - dead tired) and his status (alive or dead) was ambiguous at best. I was happy to leave the story there though until a chance event took me in a new direction. I watched a video about a Japanese forest at the foot of an active volcano, Mount Fuji, named Aokigahara. This is the second most popular suicide spot in the world, a creepy, impenetrable forest growing straight out of past volcanic lava. Each year several hundred Japanese go there to die. And so I imagined The Wanderer, dead tired, fleeing to this forest. I did two more albums of two tracks each making a total of 10 albums in the series.

But I wasn't finished. Thirteen has always been a very important number for me (I was born on the 13th) and, lately, I have become fixated with it and mathematical or other uses of it. (Elektronische Existenz is 346 minutes long. If you add 3+4+6 you get 13.) The Wanderer, as a character, is based on me and my own life. Elektronische Existenz is an autobiography in music using the mythology of The Wanderer as a literary device. Because of all this, and having come so far, I wanted there to be 13 chapters or albums to the story. But at that stage, with 10 albums in the bag, I wasn't ready to do 3 more albums. And so I did a sort of epilogue and made EEXIII, chapter 13. I wanted to make it clear at this point that The Wanderer wasn't dead. Chapter 10 had ended with "Conundrum" and the idea that, for all his travel and travails, The Wanderer was still faced with the same existential issue at the end as he had had at the beginning. The epilogue was purposely "The Wanderer is not dead" hence the "In place of" in the titles of the three tracks that make up album 13.

We now fast forward a few months and it occurs to me that there is a lacuna in the story, a chapters 11 and 12 sized hole. What happens to The Wanderer between realising he still has the same conundrum as at the start and the epilogue? I am very happy to say that this gap has now been filled and the story has been completed since I have now written albums 11 and 12. And so my 13 album project, 346 minutes of it, 37 tracks of it, my Meisterwerk, my Magnum Opus, is completed. It started from just 4 tracks I thought deserved better than to be chucked in with some others and grew to be a whole mythology in music.

Let me lay out the track order for you:

Elektronische Existenz

ACT ONE

1. The Wanderer and His Shadow
2. The Wanderer and His Shadow II
3. The Wanderer and His Shadow III
4. Metal Blue LFO

Elektronische Existenz II

1. Adamantium
2. Serious Philosophical Question
3. Bleak Disturbances
4. Feld

Elektronische Existenz III

1. Blau
2. Existenz
3. Überlebensstrategie
4. Beängstigend

Elektronische Existenz IV

1. Existential On Your Ass
2. World
3. Vergessen
4. Logjammin

END OF ACT ONE

ACT TWO

Elektronische Existenz V

1. Lament für Existenz
2. Die Störung

Elektronische Existenz VI

1. The Man in The Photograph
2. The Man Behind The Photograph

Elektronische Existenz VII

1. Schmerz-Symphonie
2. Panzer Tanz

Elektronische Existenz VIII

1. Existenzkrise
2. Todmüde

END OF ACT TWO

ACT THREE, PART ONE

Elektronische Existenz IX

1. Aokigahara 青木ヶ原
2. Yūrei 幽霊

Elektronische Existenz X

1. Das Bedauern
2. Conundrum

ACT THREE, PART TWO

EEXI

1. Im Schatten
2. Apocalypsis
3. Interrupted

EEXII

1. Fantasia 1
2. Fantasia 2
3. Fantasia 3

END OF ACT THREE

EPILOGUE

EEXIII

1. In Place of An Ending
2. In Place of A Parting
3. In Place of A Dying


A perusal of those titles will perhaps reveal a number of things of note. Yes, my character The Wanderer is inspired by my reading of and intimacy with the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche who added an extra section to his 1878 book "Human, All Too Human" entitled "The Wanderer and His Shadow". Yes, it is intimately bound up with the last 10 years of my life in which, never before expecting to ever leave the shores of England (and never really seeing why I needed to), the fates cast lots and I found myself living in Germany, a land I came to love more than my own. Yes, the story is cast as a play with 3 acts and an epilogue. These three acts are, in broad brush strokes, an introduction to The Wanderer in Act One, his life and circumstances. In Act Two his fall or down-going is recounted. Act Three is his "dark night of the soul" and the Epilogue is, naturally enough, a resolution of the story that isn't a resolution at all.

Perhaps now is a good time to go through Elektronische Existenz, album by album, chapter by chapter, track by track, and tell the musical story of The Wanderer.

1. The Wanderer and His Shadow

Our introduction to The Wanderer, a hesistant, sensitive, thoughtful fellow.

Musically, here everything is about taking your time, appreciating slowly, getting to know your surroundings. I always wanted to write music that had gravitas and substance but that was also thoroughly cutting edge, even ahead of the curve. In many ways much I do creatively is about marrying together diverse things. Because this is a reflection of my character.

2. The Wanderer and His Shadow II

The Wanderer is further characterised. Here ideas of slowness, even sloth, come to the fore. The music is at a slower pace, never too slow but slow, taking its time. The music of a man who goes at his own pace, maybe even out of step with the world. Much was played in Elektronische Existenz by hand without being quantised. Hence you will often hear things where they feel awkward or dissonant. This is deliberate and characterises The Wanderer.

3. The Wanderer and His Shadow III

A large part of the story of The Wanderer is about how people suffering much pain and trouble in life can still manage to see or conjure beauty. Or maybe to even ask the question of if they can. The testimony of this story is that they can still indeed. It is, I think, something of a miracle. This track is about conjuring some of that beauty. There is also a further theme, that of innocence. The Wanderer values innocence above all other things. The bell tone melody here is all about conjuring innocence.

4. Metal Blue LFO

Maybe this track should be "The Wanderer and His Shadow IV" - but it isn't. We start to move ground in our story. An LFO, of course, is often used in a synthesizer as a modulation source, lending movement to another sound. Here this track oscillates our story as we head out deeper into the character of The Wanderer. A common theme in my work, in terms of sounds and timbres, are machine sounds. These are often used as threatening cues. Machines speak of regularity and order, things The Wanderer does not like. He feels more at home in the chaos, symbolised here by the monotone that underpins the track. The harsh drums indicate work and the world of work, something The Wanderer finds alien and harsh and completely unsuited for. The "metal blue" refers to the colour of the sky on the cover for this album, brooding and foreboding.

5. Adamantium

This song represents both vulnerability (the bass drum pattern a crude imitation of shivering) and the desire for strength, an adamantium shield. It is the soundscape of a man alone in the world. The rising and falling sound is the sound of the rest of the people in the world going about their business. I imagine a vista, a huge desert and The Wanderer stands on a hill and surveys it. This is his world.

6. Serious Philosophical Question

Albert Camus said that there was only one serious philosophical question: why we should go on living. This track puts this question, the question of suicide, into focus as it strikes The Wanderer. So this track is a track of uncertainty, perhaps slightly to do with fear or strangeness. Again, it is about imagining a place, this time a mental place, and giving it sounds.

7. Bleak Disturbances

Perhaps this track is self explanatory, especially once you have heard it. It recreates the bleak landscape inside The Wanderer's head, full of questions he cannot answer with healthy doses of nothingness and meaninglessness on top. It is a hymn to a troubled and serious man. Here I tried to use sounds that suggested thought, but troubled thought, thought that was difficult to have and that led nowhere.

8. Feld

Feld is a hymn to a place - Tempelhofer Feld in Berlin. A former Nazi airfield and the place through which the Allies saved the people of West Berlin during the Berlin Airlift of the late 40s, this magnificent place is now a municipal park of outstanding size and natural beauty. It is The Wanderer's favourite place and spiritual home. Musically, then, I tried to give it a beautiful, mythical quality. Whilst not exactly the choir of angels, here I attempted to make this place seem like a dream.

9. Blau

A track about feeling blue. And yet still keeping it funky. You may find that contradictory. Yes, it is.

10. Existenz

A track to give substance to the everyday, boring, dull, always the same existence of The Wanderer. And yet, musically, the challenge there is to put that across whilst writing interesting music. The key, I think, is not to think about it but to just do it. Every track in this project is based in, and comes from, improvisation.

11.  Überlebensstrategie

The title means "survival strategy". This track has to make real the idea of The Wanderer thinking of ways that he can survive his life. Thus, again, we have sounds that are meant to suggest thought or thoughts. Do they lead anywhere? Sounds were very important to me into this project. I wanted to use ones you don't hear everywhere and put them in original combinations. This track is one such example.

12. Beängstigend

Frightened. Here I attempted to create a nightmare, not necessarily a terrifying nightmare, but a creepy, strange one.

13. Existential On Your Ass

Could you take a philosophy and put it to music? That is what I did here with this track. As The Wanderer considers his life in existential terms, so the music considers Existentialism in musical terms.

14. World

Once more we have another soundscape about The Wanderer's world. Again, I used sounds to try and suggest activity out in that world as The Wanderer looks on. This idea of things happening that The Wanderer observes is prevalent throughout the whole first act of the story. The sound palette suggests a slightly Eastern influence.

15. Vergessen

Vergessen is a unique track in this project. Its the one track I am never sure if I like or not. It was made in much the same way as the rest using my usual practices and habits. But, I don't know, it doesn't convince me. However, in the context of the story it fits. "Vergessen" means "forget" and, in the story, it functions as The Wanderer pointing out to himself that not everything is sacred, not all things must be valued. Sometimes things just happen and the best response is to forget them and move on. So the music fits in the story. You may or may not like it. But narratively it is every bit as right for this project as any other track. So whilst not necessarily being totally convinced by the track, it serves many useful functions besides. Why should a composer like all his work anyway?

16. Logjammin

The title is random (and comes from "The Big Lebowski"). The idea here was to wrap up act one (originally it was to end the project of course when the project was just four albums). So the track works as a marker, an ending of sorts. Here the idea was something about complexity. The Wanderer's life feels very complex. For this reason I used the repeating pattern. Repetition plays a part in The Wanderer's life too - almost to mental torment! The bass represents The Wanderer's deep feelings.

17. Lament für Existenz

Until I wrote chapter 12 this was the longest track here - and deliberately so. A long, drawn out, meditational, lament for The Wanderer's existence. This one was all about trying to get the emotion recorded in sound. So, the timbres used were vitally important as were the notes. I hope you think I used the right sounds and got the point across. Additionally, this track begins the second act and The Wanderer's down-going to his "dead tiredness". Thus, this piece is very important in setting the mood.

18. Die Störung

The Wanderer suffers a glitch or a breakdown after his lamenting. The tone here is subdued, mysterious. There is also a sense of holding back or wanting time to recover. Again, sounds used to indicate action around The Wanderer but not made by The Wanderer.

19. The Man in The Photograph

Tracks 19 and 20 are based on a photograph of himself that The Wanderer looks at. It was taken in a happier time. This track is the soundtrack to the man we see when looking at that photograph. So this is meant to be slightly more "up" musically speaking. I used 80s drum machine sounds (Drumtraks, DMX, LinnDrum) here as I was indirectly influenced by listening to some Jan Hammer and his music for "Miami Vice".

20. The Man Behind The Photograph

But then there is always the other side of the story. Whereas on the surface all looked happy, behind the scenes things were much more serious and difficult. The wavering lead sound that comes in towards the end of the track indicates crying inside. This is a sad, sad, track. I find this track very emotional to listen to as it essentially lays bare The Wanderer's pain.

21. Schmerz-Symphonie

The pain leads to a "pain symphony". Here is that thing again with wanting to write something of substance but thoroughly modern. I find that much of that is all about finding, and combining, the right sounds. Essentially, I wrote this as a self-contained piece.

22. Panzer Tanz

This track is somewhat absurd. It imagines The Wanderer dancing in his protective armour, effectively protected, perhaps, but also isolated from the world. A little piece of madness amongst the sad reflection.

23. Existenzkrise

Originally, one of the two tracks that would end Elektronische Existenz (at the second or third time of asking), this makes up one of the sections of the project that stand out the most. Here The Wanderer has an existential crisis. I don't know how you would put that into music except to say that here I have. I hear a lot of angst.

24. Todmüde

The original end of the two act version of the project and, in many ways, a perfect song indicating an end. It is so ambiguous that you might think The Wanderer dead by the end. I think this track perfectly captures the senses of pain, struggle and defeat that The Wanderer feels. He is "dead tired", he wants to just stop and give up. The sounds, therefore, are appropriately powerful and yet somehow limp, life ebbing away from them. It sounds portentous and ethereal. Is The Wanderer still there?

25. Aokigahara

The sounds of a creepy, impenetrable Japanese forest where people go to disappear and die.

26. Yurei

A ghost dance as the Yurei (Japanese spirits) move around the forest and in the vicinity of The Wanderer.

27. Das Bedauern

A track that is meant to capture a specific mood, a regretful, repenting sorrow. Perhaps this is a little self-indulgence too and so the music, which is not the best in this project, suggests that. Slightly bland but in the service of a purpose.

28. Conundrum

The music here suggests that one is trapped in a circle or a maze. There is no way out. The pattern just repeats. It even gets more complex as the track runs its course. Again, this piece was at one time the end of the project and so this is another marker.

29. Im Schatten

The music here was to suggest a person in the shadows. A certain darkness is necessary for this and so a haunting melody gets introduced. The sound palette is once again creepy, strange and unexpected. And yet is there still a glimpse of some beauty?

30. Apocalypsis

Here a deep psychological event is signified, an apocalypse. Thus, I used sounds to suggest confusion or complexity yet also deep tones to suggest things of great import.

31. Interrupted

Another song about breakdown. This time I decided to use a confused beat and sounds that, perhaps, don't really go together. Such is the language of breakdown.

32. Fantasia 1

The Wanderer falls into fantasy in an attempt to escape the consequences of his broken state. Here I reused and re-purposed some recent music I had done as it was both of a quality and a tone that fitted in well with the idea of a fantasy. Note the scissors snipping sound!

33. Fantasia 2

This fantasy is in two parts. I concentrated on strong synth sounds here. Again, I wasn't afraid to take my time with this piece and it ended up being the longest in the project. A real fantasy ending with the lush pad sound!

34. Fantasia 3

This piece rounds out the fantasy and concludes the complicated third act. Consequently, it is itself a little unsure of itself and here I used dissonance for effect. The sounds don't necessarily go together and the pitches are, perhaps, at odds too. Not all fantasy is good or pleasing. And fantasies often don't make sense.

35. In Place of An Ending

The epilogue begins with ambience and bell melodies. It can only mean that the end is nigh.

36. In Place of A Parting

Crows, familiars of death, caw at the start of this piece. And then the piece changes completely into a ramshackle, absurdist groove. The sounds are all wrong. It makes no sense. Exactly.

37. In Place of A Dying

We might expect a dirge at the end. But this isn't a dying. Its in place of one. Instead, there is a repeating confused melody which keeps its cards close to its chest. Its all very ambiguous. And then more absurdist grooves. What has happened to The Wanderer? What does this mean for him? And what is the significance of that final blast of white noise? Like Tony Soprano cut to black, no one really knows........


And, finally, here is The Myth of The Wanderer, the story told in music.

The Myth of The Wanderer

1-4 (EE1)

The Wanderer lay in his bed. It was midday. He didn't get up anymore and hadn't for years. No point. Beside him lay his shadow. His burden. It was all the times he'd been let down, all the times his mum had insulted or ignored him when she should have praised or encouraged him. It was every time he'd been judged for his lack of looks, every time his abilities had been overlooked because he didn't know the right people, every time he was just a stranger. It was all the times he'd been rejected in life - and there were many. It was every bad decision he had ever made - and, these days, he didn't make any other kind. It was all these things and more besides hardened and ossified over decades so that they had become his very environment, his experience of life, all he knew. Everything he pondered about life and the world was in this context.

And yet despite all this pain and ugliness he still wanted to see beauty, he still wanted to risk imagining something pretty. It was his only hope. He oscillated between hope and despair.

5-8 (EE2)

And yet to do this it felt at times as if he needed to be made of stone. Feelings are risks that some people cannot take. Its not that the pain can get too much, although of course it can, its that sometimes you would just do anything to have some respite from it. If only you could be made of Adamantium, unbreakable, impenetrable. Life is bleak and there is the ever present question of what it is for. This was a real, genuine, constant problem for The Wanderer. He was really alone in the world and couldn't make out why he was there or what the point of it was. Why not just end it? There is nothing to lose and you are only bringing the schedule forward anyway rather than changing the script. We all die. And yet the beauty of place stays the hand again. A special place, Das Feld, brings a feeling of safety.

9-12 (EE3)

But what to do when life is a constant struggle, when every activity comes with a "what for?" attached? The feeling of melancholy permeates all existence, you struggle to find a survival strategy. Little things assume meaning out of all proportion to their importance both in good and bad ways. You are frightened.

13-16 (EE4)

Things occasionally fall apart. You become random, up and down. One minute this, the next that. The randomness becomes a defence and you seek out the new just so that you don't have to bear the same day after day. It all becomes about how you experience the now. There is no tomorrow, no yesterday. Just let now be bearable you think to yourself. I want to forget. There is only this moment. You stop thinking of life as an on-going narrative because that will only remind you how terrible it has been and how hopeless it is yet to be.

17-18 (EE5)

"Oh what have I become?" thinks The Wanderer. He laments his existence. There is an upset, a breakdown, a glitch, in his existence. Its one of many choke points he has had in life. He knows there will be more. Oh terrible burden that he has been given.

19-20 (EE6)

He considers himself in a photograph. He is sitting at a table outside in the woods of the Spreewald, an area south east of Berlin, all lakes and rivers and trees. He is eating ice cream from a bowl. An enigmatic smile plays on his face, not overt but discernible nevertheless. One imagines the smile is for the photographer but we do not see who that is. And then he considers the feelings that he felt inside as the picture was took and that tells a different story. We never know the things that people carry with them daily. Only The Wanderer sees his shadow. Only The Wanderer cannot be without it.

21-22 (EE7)

The Wanderer writes a pain symphony, an ode to his sufferings. He dances with momentary and tragic joy, covered in the armour that allows him to go on living, that both protects and isolates him.

23-24 (EE8)

But it is not enough. You can make a noise to drown out something else but eventually you must stop. All the survival strategies come to nought and what you are is still there, plain and simple, in front of you. Acknowledging it, you come to the moment of existential crisis that such acknowledgment always brings. The Wanderer collapses under a tree. He has sought solace in mountains and woods far away from other people. He wants to be absorbed into the ground.

25-26 (EE9)

He finds himself surrounded by trees in a forest that blocks out the world. There is only him now, him and the ghosts that swirl around him, the ghosts of his past, of himself, of this place and the others who came here seeking peace from the dissonance with which they were plagued. This is a portal between worlds, one of life and one of death, a place of decision.

27-28 (EE10)

He is overcome by a regretful, repenting sorrow - for himself certainly. But also for his life - as an experience and as a thing that was thrust upon him. For years he would gladly have given it back and he wishes he could now. And he realises that, for all his years, he is left with the same problem, the same conundrum, he always had: how to make sense of all the things he is when they just don't make sense.

29-31 (EE11)

All The Wanderer's life now lies in shadow. He inhabits the dark places, shying away from light, contact, others. He does not want to be himself with his conundrum. There is an apocalypse as the unsolvable problem is a burden he cannot leave behind. For the one person you can never leave behind is yourself. Inevitably, whilst this can be coped with on a day to day level, there is always a build up that must break out at some point. He reaches this point and breaks down. He lies there, broken.

32-34 (EE12)

The Wanderer seeks escape in fantasy. He dreams of places he would like to be, things he would like to have, women he would like to fuck. All kinds of scenarios play through his mind, good, bad and outrageous. He avoids life and who he is by pretending to be someone, anyone else. He creates fantasy personalities and multiple online identities to live out the fantasy.

35-37 (EE13)

The circle repeats and life goes on. The Wanderer is trapped in a constant loop. This is his life, all he has known. Even as he has lived through it, it has shaped him and made the experience part of his character. Like many who suffer from mental issues, the very things which plague him now feel as if they are him. To let go of his pain and insecurities, his fears and stresses, would now seem to him as if it was to make him a completely new person, not him. His identity is now the person his life has made him. It was, perhaps, an inevitable consequence. This identity is now all he has.

And so The Wanderer retreats into less habited spaces. What happened to him in the end nobody knows....


PS Why were the covers all pylons that were distorted?

The pylon was The Wanderer and the distortions were a visual signifying the effects of things on his life.

Elektronische Existenz is now available for download again at elektronischeexistenz.bandcamp.com