Critical Studies Lecture Two.

Critical positions on the media and popular culture.

• WHAT IS CULTURE?
  -One of the most complicated words in the English language.
  -General process of intellectual, spiritual, and aesthetic development of a particular society at a particular time.
  -A particular way of life.
  -Works of intellectual and especially artistic significance.
• Marx’s concept of base/superstructure:BASE
  Forces of production- materials, tools, workers, skills etc.
  Relations of production- employer, employee, class, master and slave. SUPERSTRUCTURE
  Social institutions- legal, political, cultural.
  Forms of consciousness- ideology.
• Determines content and form of
  Base Superstructure
  Reflects form and legitimises.
• If you can change the base, you change the way people see the world.
• Easy to determine a shift in the base but not in the superstructure.
• IDEOLOGY
  -A system of ideas and beliefs.
  -Masking, distortion or selection of ideas, to reinforce power relations through creation of ‘false consciousness’.
• At the top you have the state that ‘rule’ us.
  Instruments of the state- ideological and physical coercion.
  The bourgeoisie
  at the bottom is the proletariat who work for everybody.
• Raymond Williams 1983 ‘Keywords”
  There are four definitions of the term ‘popular’
  1. Well liked by many.
  2. Inferior kinds of work.
  3. Work deliberately setting out to win, favour with the people.
  4. Culture actually made by the people themselves.
• Inferior or residual culture. - Popular press vs. quality press.
  - Popular cinema vs. art cinema.
  Both are aimed at different classes.
• Graffiticulture developed by the people for the people. Banksy piece taken from the street and exhibited in a gallery in Covent Garden is this then considered to be popular culture?
• EP Thompson 1963 ‘The making of the English working class’The working class and the bourgeois are separated both physically, i.e. where they live, obviously the bourgeois are not going to live in the slums with the working class. But also by where they go, go out for dinner etc, and lastly separated by how they are educated.
• Matthew Arnold 1867 ‘Culture and Anarchy’

Culture is:-‘The best that has been thought and said in the world’
-The study of perfection
-Attained through disinterested reading, writing and thinking.
-The pursuit of culture.

• Anarchy is really what Arnold sees as ‘popular culture’ talks about the working classes as being “Raw and half developed” this could be due to the fact that the working classes were not privileged enough to have an education.
• The upper class were considered to be cultured, whereas the working class were uncultured, should not set their own culture but should strive to b more like the bourgeoisie. That culture Arnold considered being the only culture, the right culture for everyone.
• Leavisism. F.R Leavis and Q.D Leavis. -“Mass civilisation and minority culture fiction and the reading public”
  -“Culture and Environment”
• Collapse of the ‘traditional’ culture. Authority comes at the same time as mass democracy (anarchy)
• Hollywood films, popular novels etc represent the re movement of function. Offers a distraction away from the traditional culture. The refusal to face up to reality.
• 1950’s- Frankfurt school- critical theory.
  1923-1933- Institute of social research.
  1933-1947- University of New York Columbia.
  1949- University of Frankfurt.
• When the Frankfurt school moved to NY they were initially shocked by the fact that this mass/popular culture was everywhere, they were not used to this.
• Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer. Both of these thinkers were critical of this mass culture they believed that by it being called a mass culture connotes that it is something that is mass produced, mechanically produced therefore it is all the same. Reinterpreted Marx era of the late capitalism. All of mass culture is identical rise of the TV etc. they defined the ‘culture industry’ two main products homogeneity and predictability, mass culture produces conformity as supposed to anarchy which is just as bad they would argue.
• For example gives us an example of modern films, as soon as the film begins you know how it will end, this stops you having to think about the film at all.
• Herbert MarcusePopular culture or affirmative culture locks you into the status quo and maintains structure that illusion of a one-dimensional thought makes us not want to change the world. Affirms the dominant system when we should be rising against it, we become too comfortable where we are and there is nothing pushing us to change it.
• For example the che Guevara t-shirts, by having so many of them around now a days de sensitises what he actually did, by wearing one of the t-shirts does not mean anything anymore, it does not mean that you are independent it just means that you are exactly the same as everyone else who owns one of those t-shirts.
• The x factor too connotes that the only way to succeed in life and become something in this culture/society is to enter on a game show.
• Authentic culture vs. Mass CultureQualities of authentic culture
  -Real -Active Consumption -European
  -Individual Creation. -Multi Dimensional -Imagination
  -Negation -Autonomous (Against Marx)
• A culture that is independent of the structure or system that it was born into.
• Adorno ‘On popular music’-Standardisation -Social Cement
  -Produces passivity through ‘rhythmic’ and emotional ‘adjustment’.
• The working class should leave culture to those who understand it i.e. the bourgeoisie. By them trying to be cultural threatens the culture itself.
• Walter Benjamin ‘The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction’ 1936. Benjamin took a more positive approach towards the popular or mass culture. The idea of new technologies was a good thing, shows that society is progressing toward the future. Opening up new possibilities, possibility of working against social repression.
• AuraMona Lisa, challenges cultural authority. The mono Lisa can now be seen on t-shirts, plates, place mats, and posters almost anywhere. By having these everywhere makes the painting itself, the original, less important. Mechanical reproduction changes the reaction of art towards the masses toward art; art is becoming more important than it actually is.
• Conclusion- Somehow culture is civilising. They attack mass culture because it threatens cultural standards.
  - Frankfurt school attacks popular culture also depoliticises the working class thus maintaining social authority.
  - Popular culture is ideology.
  
  

Critical Studies Lecture One.

Panopticism, surveillance and society.

THE PANOCTICON:

• Designed by Jeremy Bentham in 1791- metaphore for hierarchy structures in contemporary society.
• Michael Foucault ‘Madness and civilisation and discipline.’
• The great confinement (late 1600’s) houses of correction to curb unemployment and idleness, it was considered a social requirement to work, give something back to society, have a purpose. People that were held in these houses were vagabonds, pregnant single women, insane people, tramps, drunks, lazy people anyone who was not considered an asset to society, had no use to us so was locked away.
• Within this confinement the people were made to work, teaching them how to be ‘normal’ and made use of them in general.
• This was a form of repressing the deviant, hiding them away so that no one saw them makes society as a whole look better.
• The problem with this process was that the insane people started to corrupt the sane who were also in confinement. Because of this the asylum was brought in.
• People inside the asylum were treated very different to how they had been in the confinement, here people were given rewards instead of being beaten.
• An asylum was still technically a prison but was disguised as not, the people were treated different and it physically did not look as threatening.
• Criminals were put into a pillory, so that they could be judged by society publicly, in order to demonstrate others exactly what happens if you are a criminal, it was a kind of warning to the society.
• Disciplinary society, discipline is a technology used not only to discipline but also control society and make people learn.
• When bentham designed the panopticon in 1791, each cell was set out individually in a large circle with a tower in the centre which could see every single cell.
• This design was the complete opposite of the design of the dungeon, instead of the prisoners being hid away out of site, everyone can always be seen, they are constantly being observed.
• This internalises in the individual the conscious state that he or she is always being watched, after a while the guards were not even needed as the fear of being watched was still there. Also known as the automatic function of power.
• This was thought to have been a form of psychological torture, the prisoners had no idea that they were being psychologically manipulated.
• Panoptical prisons are no longer made as it is now considered to be inhumane. 
  
  
  
  
  
• • Reforms prisoners and treats patients, the building was created or used in order to help make society better.
  • Foucault is describing a new form of social control, open plan offices today work in the same way. There is no where to hide away you are constantly being watched and visible to everyone.
  • Pubs too are also more open plan than they used to be, before pubs had small corners or snugs for people to hide away in whereas now, most of the tables can be seen by the bar. Encourages less deviant behaviour. Easier to control people, people begin to self regulate.
  • How we can be surveyed alters how we act in society, the idea that we are constantly being surveyed within society changes the way we act and appear to others.
  • For example within our own college, there are cameras everywhere to deter people from mis behavining, also the college can access our own desktop at any time in order to see what websites we have been viewing etc. Because we are aware of this we alter the sites we would look at normally as they might not be considered acceptable. 

    
    

    • There is also a strong relationship between power and the body. Power relations have an immediate hold upon the body.
    • We change the way we look, move (body language), and even talk.
    • This can change disciplinary societies as it can produce docile bodies. This refers to bodies that are easily controlled and that behave in the way that the society wants them to behave.
    • Danaher, schirato and Webb 2000.
    • Health warnings et in order to keep society going, if we are healthy we can work more and keep society moving forward. Which is a similar idea to what the Nazis believed, if the population is 100% healthy then it therefore is unstoppable in a way.
    • The TV is too a tool of social control, we are becoming passive, we are not outside being active or making things we are sitting inside in front of the television. It is a distraction away from real life.
    • Power is not a thing or capacity people have but a relation between individuals, which only exists when it is being exercised.
    • The exercise of power relies on there being the capacity for power to be resisted.
    • The way your face book page looks is also a form of social control; we edit our profile, as we know that people are going to be looking at it, and judging it.
    • Bruce Nauman- thinks how you act inside a gallery. ‘Video corridor pieces’ 1960’s
    • Chris Burden Samson 1985 you could be the one who brings down the entire gallery, and why would you not want to? Because we are made to believe that a gallery is a very important part of society.

     
    
   
  

 

Format Festival.

Edward Swinden.

  Edward Swinden is a Manchester born photographer who has worked all over the north of England. Photography is a passion for Edward and alongside completing portraits of celebrities he is constantly travelling the world in search of new angels within photography in documenting the modern world for his publications and exhibitions. Swinden's work mainly deals with the issues of society, conformity and regeneration; he works both with documentary as well as fine art. Swinden is also an award- winning journalist working for such institutions as Manchester Evening News, Metro News and the BBC; Edward does not do much writing anymore and sticks to photo books instead. He has published a range of books and journals of his work as well as exhibiting his work in galleries around the world.    For the FORMAT international photography festival in Derby Swinden has been concentrating particularly on street photography, taking candid images of passers by addressing such subjects as service and dehumanization. Dehumanization is the issue in which I feel Swinden’s work links directly to the critical thinking for my essay in which I explored how women are represented within advertisements. Dehumanization, dismemberment and objectification being the main themes discussed within my essay. The images Swinden has exhibited within this particular exhibition are part of a wider project on going entitled ‘Inside the Hive’ in which Swinden invites us to consider whether life should just be about self fulfillment and individuality or there should be more concentration on serving the greater good. 

 

   The image above is one of the images included within the FORMAT festival exhibition and deals with the issues of dehumanization within society.

Dehumanisation is defined as making someone less human by taking away their individuality, any creative and interesting aspects of their personality and their compassion towards others. Swinden’s work is a lot to do with society and how the public should concentrate more on servicing society as a whole rather than just looking after themselves. I believe that Swinden is raising the issue that people today are more concerned with themselves; people are less worried about any kind of community anymore just as long as they are ok and doing well. I think that this causes the people of today to become more dehumanized, there is less compassion in the world for others and more and more people are becoming the same, all looking after number one with little or no concern for others.

This is a very striking image, there are a lot of strong shapes and blocks of colour within the frame, and this causes the image to be broken up into sections and makes it harder for the viewer to view the image as a whole. The lighting here is the main cause for this divide within the image; it has caused these strong shadows to be cast across the image and hide some of the detail from us. There is only a small section in the image that has much light which is just off centre towards the right hand side, I really like the shape this light has created and this really draws your eyes into the photograph, your eyes follow the light from the bottom of the image all the way to the top from left to right, almost how you would read a book. I think it is really effective how the person within this image is not the main point of focus, this relates directly to the theme of dehumanization. The woman has become a shape within the image and is not really seen as a human any more, there are no signs of what this woman is like, what her personality is like or even really how she looks. I believe that this image comments of the theme of dehumanization within society, it is demonstrating how people can become lost within the large modern society and how everyone can start to look and act the same as everyone else. There is absolutely no way we could pick this woman out from a crowd, she is just a passing shape within the fast paced society of today.



John Berger and Judith Williamson.

   John Berger in ‘Ways of Seeing’ analyses adverts and talks about how and why we as consumers become so attracted to them and end up buying products we may not normally purchase. Berger says:

‘It proposes to each of us that we transform ourselves, or our lives, by buying something more. This more, it proposes, will make us in some way richer- even though we will be poorer by having spent our money.’ 

   What Berger is talking about here is how adverts make us believe that their product will better our lives, and if we do not buy it we will be worse off for it. The people used in adverts are always attractive and seem well off, this adds to the idea that if you buy this product you will definitely have a better life. One example within today’s society is the lynx advert, they use usually geeky looking guys who once put on their deodorant are surrounded by attractive women, this connotes to the audience that by using lynx you are guaranteed to get with an attractive woman. This will obviously appeal to the young male audience who will be more likely now to go out and buy the product, this technique is used within all kinds of adverts, they will choose very carefully what sort of people and scenarios are used in order to make you envious of the people within the adverts and thus attract you to go out and buy the product.

‘The publicity image steals her love for herself as she is, and offers it back to her at the price of the product’ 

   Williamson says that adverts communicate to us through a level of meaning, with both denotation and connotation. The advert starts with the ‘truth’; this is integral to our understanding due to constant reproduction of ideas known in our society. The ‘Referent system’ meaning entities forming an integrated whole, is the system in which we perceive and understand the method of an advert which Williamson sees as a circular process. The advert in context denotes the product in which it intends to sell, by connoting the idea of the product through our already existing knowledge due to our culture and how we are brought up within our society. What is then connoted to us is what is made to denote the product. This is the relationship that the advert undertakes in order to communicate its message.

Artist Statement

   Sofia’s photography practice falls into two genres, portraiture and documentary, exploring into people exactly as they are and documenting it through photography. Capturing people at their most vulnerable, capturing the truth.

   For the ‘getting Modern’ exhibition Sofia wanted to create portraits that said more than just documenting the likeness of someone. With the historical portrait style Coombs offers us a modern version of the classic portrait. Walter Benjamin described the difference between a painter and a photographer as the painter maintains a natural distance from reality, whereas the camera man penetrates deep into its web. A painted portrait will only give you a representation of what the painter saw, whereas a photograph offers a more realistic representation of the subject, no disguise at all. Coombs’ portraits were captured on a large format camera to ensure each detail of the subjects face was visible. The portraits create an almost uncomfortable connection between the subject and viewer, an invasion of personal space one in which most people are unfamiliar with viewing. The images almost mimic those of mug shots or passport photographs, the subjects are expressionless giving the viewer and chance to see what that person looks like 100% natural.

   Coombs’ work is similar to that of Thomas Ruff who also took portraits in a similar style, asking his own friends and family to pose for him too. Both Coombs’ and Ruff’s work are quite unsettling in a way, you as the viewer are staring at the subject and they too are staring back, you would never be this up close and personal with a stranger in the street and this is what makes the photographs so interesting and intriguing. The images bring out a lot of questions, who is this person? Where are they from? What do they do? It is in our nature to be curious and to want to know what is happening but with Coombs’ photographs you are given no answers and are left to make up the rest of your own.  

Lesson Six Notes.

Critical Studies Lesson Six: Globalisation.

What is historically unique about contemporary cultural environments is there composition from architectural structures, objects, images and people who did not originate within that locality and may have arrived within it from far flung places. A town centre will now comprise a collage of different places represented in images articulated through foreign objects and shown by the ethnic diversity of those people in it. Event or thing depends on everything else around it to take place.

Globalisation can be associated with multiplicity and diversity but also paradoxically with uniformity and homogeneity. Term first used to describe political and economic changes in the 80’s but later has gone on to accrue social and cultural associations as well term first derived from Marshall McLuhan.

1970’s globalisation replaced internationalism, first world countries loaned millions to third world countries. Structural adjustment loans introduced which forced these countries to deregulate their markets and allows international free trade. Allowed multi national companies to trade without considering individual states.

Documenta 11, production of art, cultural drive of globalisation today.

Fredrick Jameson if everywhere is connected how you can be given a space individual can’t conceptualise the given space you live in.

Andreas Gursky Large scale images distinctive for their incisive and critical look at the effect of capitalism and globalisation on contemporary life. Often depicts people as tiny protagonists caught in vast landscapes. Since 1990’s concentrated on sites of tourism etc, chooses to take images of places that are un represent able (too big) so uses many smaller images to create a representation of that space.

Simon Starling investigated the historical processes by which objects and situations are created, often focuses upon how we transform raw materials into usable objects.

Lesson Five Notes.

Critical Studies Lesson Five: Repititions.

Dialog between representations and the real, hyper reality; everything is constructed as a code, a simulation is everything reduced to text or language?

John Berger painting and reproduction. Drawing upon Benjamin’s analysis of photographic reproduction Berger considers how the status of paintings is transformed by mechanical reproduction. The original is transformed by its reproduction, it is no longer valued for what it shows but for its rarity which is confirmed by the price. Work enters into a relationship with reproductions of it, defined by how it is contrasted with them. Inflated prices of the original.

The Counterfeit: The industrial simulacrum, the structural code. A simulacrum is a representation that is not necessarily tied to an object in the world. Used by Plato to describe the copy of a copy that is cut off from the object it represents threatens the relationship of reference between sign and object. The counterfeit emerges through the breakdown of feudal society and the emergence of bourgeoisie society. Free production brings a proliferation of signs which also only appear to be referential.

The industrial simulacrum: Industry transforms natural world, signs are produced simultaneous on a giant scale. They originate through mechanical production. They function as commodities in an economy. The law of equivalence (monetary value) permits the obliteration of reference Benjamin shows that the reproduction absorbs the process of production.

The Code: Industrial production anticipates models from which proceed all forms according to variation between their parts. Modulation super side’s economic equivalence. Object and operations of a code that served as a vehicle for exchanges of meaning and value. Reality collapses into hyper reality the code permeates all aspects of life.

Bernd and Hilla Becher Objective matter of fact images, showing what the towers are, they are after a UN coded image; you look at them as a mass. One level it’s all about the code, other all about the object/image.

Dan Graham deskilled photography, removed all traces of manual process or subjective decision making from the photographic process. Took himself out of the frame by using instant cameras, limits the choice he has, limited decisions on lighting and settings.

Ed Ruscha 26 gas stations, all the buildings along sun set strip, repetitive structures of his books.

Thomas Demand dealing with a world of simulacrum. The images tell a dark story, creating tension between the fabricated and the real, he begins with a pre-existing photograph of actual locations culled from the mass media and wants to represent a certain distance between us and the event that happened which is true to life during this media consumed society.