ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 is a case study of how Danny Yount’s title sequence for Blade Runner 2049 (2017) employs the ‘material function’ of digital glitches (technical failures) to create an indexical claim comparable to the ontological connection familiar from Bazin’s realist theories. Indexicality is equally an issue of naturalistic denotation, a product of the framework of medium-specific aesthetics, and an emergent result of the technical elements normally hidden in the operation of the system itself becoming visible. Perceived intentionality mediates between the immanent “signal” and the invisible “noise”—technical failures corrupt the ‘transparency’ of cinematic articulation by denying the categorical separation of empirical reality (ontology) from cultural constructs (realism), creating a paradox for the interpretation of both analogue and digital glitches.
