On my daily bus commute, I am usually guaranteed to sit near or next to a middle-aged uncle watching some kind of video at full volume without earphones. This is irritating, and although we are all far too awkward to comment, I am sure it irritates everyone else in the bus. We do not all want to hear the YouTube church sermon his niece has sent him via WhatsApp.

But why exactly does this form of audiovisual interaction seem off to us?

I argue that this is a prime example of the post-cinematic media ecology we now inhabit, and exemplifies how the relations between heterogenous components in an “assemblage” (Casetti, 2015, p.69) are not always smooth.

This man is constructing, perhaps subconsciously, a “bubble” (Casetti, 2015, p.71) for his own comfortable consumption of audio-visual content. However the walls of this bubble are permeable and in contrast to the example given by Casetti, he does so by impeding on other passenger’s “bubbles”, the spaces we create as commuters to (usually) privately consume cinematic content, using for instance earphones and mobile devices. If we think of the bus as a microcosm of society’s “social discourses and practices” (Casetti, 2015, p.77), then this man is severing the understood social practices of consuming video content: no one else in the bus has consented to consuming this content too, so this creates a rupture in the fabric of the assemblage (in this case we conceptualize wider society’s accepted behaviours and practices relating to video consumption, as the assemblage itself).

However, whereas this unwelcome imposition from a fellow passenger may break a more rigid “apparatus” (Casetti, 2015, p.69), an assemblage has the potential to adapt even if a relationship within it is ruptured. Indeed, as assemblage is a more fluid, organic entity, components within it can resist each other and negotiate (Casetti, 2015, p.83) a different viewing experience- for example, other passengers may move seats, or increase the volume on their own devices to drown out the sound of the man’s phone.

Casetti states that “It is as if the cinematic “machine” has broken down.” (2015, p.68) Let’s hope the bus doesn’t also break down or we will have to do some more negotiating.

Author: Cerys Jones, student ID: 33695258

References:

Casetti, F. (2015) The Lumière galaxy : seven key words for the cinema to come. New York: Columbia University Press.

Lioncat, O. (2021). Photograph of London bus. [Image] Image from webpage. Available at: https://www.pexels.com/photo/modern-bus-driving-along-river-against-bridge-7245319/ [Accessed 28 Nov. 2024].