Vladmaster-y : Seeing Like A Kid Again

Aha.... a ViewMaster, who knew that they could be used so creatively? Vladimir really showed us all something new like we have never seen before. This show is incredibly interesting at some points, and also very perplexing at others. A couple of her stories were a little bit much abstract, especially the one titled, "Fear & Trembling," which discarded the use of a narrative. However, in the other stories such as, "Lucifugia Thigmotaxis," and "The Public Life of Jeremiah Barnes," she uses the narration as one of the stronger tools of telling the story. In, "Lucifugia Thigmotaxis," we explore the world through the view of a cock roach that gets into some trouble we encounters a human in the world that exists beyond the back of the refrigerator. As weird as it sounds to tell a story from that perspective, it actually was very interesting and humorous in an odd way. I personally felt an attachment to this little cockroach by the end of this triumphant story.

I feel the greatest use of the ViewMaster was explored in the story, "Actaeon at Home." In this story, we examine the life of a man who is in the midst of writing a letter to his brother. Actaeon tells his brother a story about a nightmare that he has about a train that is coming at him in his dream, and he is stuck on the tracks. Vladimir utilizes the photos found on one disc several times, repeating the series of pictures in a rhythm that exposes the ever-threatening train. Faster and faster, the train seems to be coming at you as you quickly click through the series of pictures.

Throughout the program, the ViewMaster became a stunning example of a tool utilized to tell a story. Due to the nature of the device, the people looking through them seem to get a more personalized experience. When peering through the lenses, you see large black walls that surround a very vivid and bright photograph, causing the reality of the world around to shrink, soon you become the actual character of the story, seeing through their eyes and living the story as they would. Watching the shutter go up and down reminded me of what I feel like when I am extremely tired and still trying to watch TV: staring at an image on the screen, then my eyelids getting so heavy that they close momentarily and reopen to reveal a completely new aspect and image of the story that was being told. It was incredible how the ViewMaster was able to take the audience and put them inside the head of the main character of the story. Much applause to Vladimir, as the intense hours of work it took to create this program were well worth it, providing the world an entirely new way to experience a story.