Guattari and the serial
Autopoiesis also has a very strong tie to the world of the idea of serial.
The notion of autopoiesis isn't strictly limited to soap operas. The current longest-running primetime drama series in history, Law & Order, has an actual tabulated character structure: six characters divided into two 'teams', the police and the attorneys. The hierarchical structure of these teams is the single element of the show that has never changed in its 18 season run (to date). The characters, however, change and 're-generate' themselves frequently, barely ever retaining the same line-up for more than a few seasons.
These programs tend to be produced like films, produced on high budgets (such as HBO/BBC’s Rome) experimenting with film and narrative techniques. The Sopranos has on more than one occasion been compared to Scorsese’s contemporary gangster classic, Goodfellas (1990).
One of the many detailed sets recreating Ancient Rome in Rome.
However, there is again a new ambiguity with network television catching up in terms of the quality of program. NBC, FOX and ABC now host a range of serials increasingly epic, cinematic and rich in production value (24, Lost (ABC, 2004- ), The West Wing).
This is a simply a response to the ever-evolving and mutating nature of the serial itself. Very much analogous to the complications that exist within the universe of a serial, these complications can be seen as the chaos and mutations that give the machinic assemblage of the phylogenetic notion of a television series or serial momentum to flow and exist.
capital
We can see the highly heterogeneous nature of the serial. This can be compared to serials in that the universe of a serial can in fact take on multiple forms throughout its life. For example, Buffy began as a film, peaked as a television series, and is now proliferation in other forms of fiction as well as forever existing in the medium of home video. This is not to mention the countless forms of merchandise in which it exists.
And so, we have the so-called Buffyverse.
Free-to-air television is based on keeping the viewer engaged and they will keep watching, and passively see the advertisements which again goes back to the idea of capitalism. Timeslots with most viewership (primetime, as opposed to daytime or late night) are exchanged for higher values.
The capitalistic machine is somewhat determinant of this manipulation of time, as shown in the chronology of Rome, where despite being based on real events, each hour-long episode varies dramatically in its time frame of the episode’s events, focusing on events that involve conflict and tragedy. The finale of the first season employs the whole “cliffhanger” cliché (the assassination of Caesar), by structuring the events of the season in a way as to end on a climax, segueing into the next season.
Why is it then that cable networks, funded largely by subscriptions rather than advertisements, are still susceptible to clichéd serial plot devices, "the safe, the predictably popular, the tried-and-tested" in order to keep the audience engaged?
Autopoiesis also has a very strong tie to the world of the idea of serial.
“Autopoietic machines undertake an incessant process of the replacement of their components as they must continually compensate for the external perturbations to which they are exposed.” (Guattari, 1995:39)The soap opera, due to its long-running nature and narrowly targeted audience, is constrained to a strict, formulaic means of sustaining its existence. The characters, settings and interactions all travel through this 'machine' built around a rigid story structure consisting of elements such as relationships, births, marriages and the like, all in ephemeral dosages. At the expiration of any of these components, the 'machine' so to speak regenerates or replenishes itself in the form of new characters, settings and interactions all bound by the same rules and a cycle emerges.
The notion of autopoiesis isn't strictly limited to soap operas. The current longest-running primetime drama series in history, Law & Order, has an actual tabulated character structure: six characters divided into two 'teams', the police and the attorneys. The hierarchical structure of these teams is the single element of the show that has never changed in its 18 season run (to date). The characters, however, change and 're-generate' themselves frequently, barely ever retaining the same line-up for more than a few seasons.
"Structure implies feedback loops, it puts into play a concept of totalisation that it itself masters. It is occupied by inputs and outputs whose purpose is to make the structure function according to a principle of eternal return. It is haunted by a desire for eternity. The machine, on the contrary, is shaped by a desire for abolition. Its emergence is doubled with breakdown, catastrophe - the menace of death. It possess a supplement: a dimension of alterity which it develops in different forms." (Guattari, 1995:37)The autopoietic nature of this show, in a literal sense, is the reason it is managed to sustain its existence, but we neglect the whole other dimension of viewer interest. This is where the genres begin to blend and infect one another in synergetic ways to sustain the notion of serial. It is a form of evolution.
“Each new mutation either alters the destiny of the assemblage, or it disappears into silence. Each component of the assemblage can only be understood as a part of the whole, or its specific, living intensity is killed.” (Chaffey, April 2008)Then you have serials like what’s aired on cable networks, which Canby (cited in Creeber, 2004:10) describes as ‘megamovies’. Because they are usually broadcast on cable television, ‘megamovies’ are therefore bound by the conventions of advertiser-sponsored free-to-air television. This allows it to exploit both an uninterrupted, single episode airing, reinforcing the flowing nature of the televisual image (Williams, 1974:86-96), and ability to be liberal with its content and explore more adult themes—opening a whole realm of new possibilities in the idea of serial.
These programs tend to be produced like films, produced on high budgets (such as HBO/BBC’s Rome) experimenting with film and narrative techniques. The Sopranos has on more than one occasion been compared to Scorsese’s contemporary gangster classic, Goodfellas (1990).
One of the many detailed sets recreating Ancient Rome in Rome.
However, there is again a new ambiguity with network television catching up in terms of the quality of program. NBC, FOX and ABC now host a range of serials increasingly epic, cinematic and rich in production value (24, Lost (ABC, 2004- ), The West Wing).
This is a simply a response to the ever-evolving and mutating nature of the serial itself. Very much analogous to the complications that exist within the universe of a serial, these complications can be seen as the chaos and mutations that give the machinic assemblage of the phylogenetic notion of a television series or serial momentum to flow and exist.
capital
We can see the highly heterogeneous nature of the serial. This can be compared to serials in that the universe of a serial can in fact take on multiple forms throughout its life. For example, Buffy began as a film, peaked as a television series, and is now proliferation in other forms of fiction as well as forever existing in the medium of home video. This is not to mention the countless forms of merchandise in which it exists.
And so, we have the so-called Buffyverse.
“How does this machinic heterogenesis, which differentiates being… end up being reduced to the capitalistic homogenesis of generalised equivalence, which leads to all values being valued by the same thing, all appropriate territories being related to the same economic instrument of power, and all existential riches succumbing to the clutches of exchange value?” (Guattari, 1995:55)The motivation for the existence of the multiple dimensions of a television serial, such as the Buffyverse, can be reduced to one word: capital. Capitalism is something that you can "never overthrow" (Chaffey, April 2008).
Free-to-air television is based on keeping the viewer engaged and they will keep watching, and passively see the advertisements which again goes back to the idea of capitalism. Timeslots with most viewership (primetime, as opposed to daytime or late night) are exchanged for higher values.
“And exactly because they are expected, indeed conceived to collect these high ratings, there is always the pressure on them to opt for the safe, the predictably popular, the tried-and-tested.” (Gardner and Wyver, 1983:118)The framework of the serial is also a machine in itself, able to transform or translate this universe into hour-long morsels. Whereas a film is only ephemeral, the perpetuity of television and its place in the household turns it into something we live with, and forms part of our lives whether it be on a daily or weekly basis.
The capitalistic machine is somewhat determinant of this manipulation of time, as shown in the chronology of Rome, where despite being based on real events, each hour-long episode varies dramatically in its time frame of the episode’s events, focusing on events that involve conflict and tragedy. The finale of the first season employs the whole “cliffhanger” cliché (the assassination of Caesar), by structuring the events of the season in a way as to end on a climax, segueing into the next season.
Why is it then that cable networks, funded largely by subscriptions rather than advertisements, are still susceptible to clichéd serial plot devices, "the safe, the predictably popular, the tried-and-tested" in order to keep the audience engaged?
"Capitalistic value... generally subsumes the ensemble of these machinic surplus values, proceeds with a reterritorialising attack, based on the primacy of economic and monetary semiotics, and corresponds to a sort of general implosions of all existential Territories." (Guattari, 1995:55)It is ultimately the overwhelming power of capitalism.
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