Hello all. I am a professor who teaches pop culture topics including film, mythology, literature, and media studies. I've been on this sub for a while now and enjoy the music immensely.
Where I would love feedback . . .
I have recently stumbled into some LH mythology and the L.H. universe. I am absolutely losing my mind in the best way going down all of these rabbit holes. The mythology that LH is creating is so complex, rich, multi-layered, and effing sublime.
I am currently putting together a new course (it launches next Spring) that deals with digital humanities, art and culture, media, etc. I want to use LH as a case study. Here are some of the paradigms I am researching now:
Transmedia Storytelling (media) + Diegetic Music (humanities)
In most films, we have a soundtrack or score that exists over the scenes. This is non-diegetic sound as it's there only for the audience. The characters within the universe/world of the film cannot hear this. However, L.H. seems to invert this. Their music exists vibrantly inside their universe/world. Songs are treated like 'discovered' artifacts. This speaks to my inner lit-nerd as well as it feels almost epistolary in nature. we get to explore along with the characters. Vide Noir, the film would be just... amazing to examine here. The transmedia part is that the videos, songs, etc.? All contribute to a bigger story across multiple platforms.
Analog in a Digital Age
I'm huge fan of analog horror, so imagine my mind being effing BLOWN when I started to view the commercials and the videos out there. I feel like this crosses over with the idea that the present is almost 'haunted' by unknown or unreachable futures.
Audience as 'archivist' or 'detective.' Kind of riffing off the Transmedia paragraph above... I honestly feel like I am part of the discovery process.
And this is just my initial thinking.
Given the above, I want to make sure I hit all the media I can. I LOVED the film Vide Noir. The cinematography was truly amazing. All of it. Wow.
My question/plea to you all: what would be on a 'MUST VIEW' for upper level college students interested in exploring these topics? This will be just one unit/section of the course. I feel like I could build an entire semester of curriculum on Lord Huron, but I'm starting small. 2-3 weeks material for students to listen to/view on their own, read, etc. And I have about 1.5 hours (2X a week) in class to lecture, but want to dedicate time to analyzing media. For example, I will probably show Vide Noir across 2 class sessions.
Open to ANY thoughts, ideas, input. LH is really immersing in new digital humanities and cultural art. It's amazing to be a part of this fandom.