Friday, 8 January 2010

Task 2, Adorno on Popular Music (1941)

Adorno's article sets to highlight the difference between what he describes as 'popular' and 'serious' music. Adorno himself was a sociologist and philosopher, with marxist influences, however generally rejected by many of the Marxist philosophers of the age.


He describes the standardisation that exists within popular music, wherein every song conforms to the same structure, "best known is the rule that the chorus consists of thirty two bars and the range is limited to one octave and one note". What I find particularly interesting is, considering the time period, Adorno's 'popular music' is in fact what we would consider to be the roots of all that is good in our music industry today, the beginnings of Jazz, big band and swing. It seems that Adorno has described the problem of our music industry long before his time, with our current array of repetitive dance anthems and the clones churned out by X-factor. Adorno argues that this kind of standardisation promotes 'standard reactions' - 'wholly antagonistic to the ideal of individuality in a free, liberal society'. 


I believe if Adorno has a case here, it can be applied more correctly to contemporary music than the music of his day. His ideas of pseudo individualisation, i.e. the falsity of our seemly free choices, can be applied more correctly to our current situation, where everything is watched, monitored, and laid out for us like a 'multiple choice questionnaire', more so that it was 70 years ago. Adorno also touches on the idea of belonging, feeling a connection with a group of people through the same music, instead of striving to be more intellectual and selective in our choices.


"obedience to this rhythm by overcoming the responding individuals leads them to conceive of themselves as agglutinised with the untold millions of the meek who must be similarly overcome. Thus do the obedient inherit the earth."


This particularly negative view on what must have been quite an experimental and fun time for music, is where I feel  the worth in this article fails. With regard to the current musical happenings, there is now so much variety out there, some of which is standardised and conforms, some of which doesn't - yet both with equal worth - that if you don't like the record, you're more free now than you ever were to put something else on. I agree this does nothing for the 'millions of meek' who still buy 'Now That's What I Call Music', but at least this multiple choice questionnaire now has more choices.




Task 1, Panopticism in Contemporary Culture

Panopticism is a theory developed by the french philosopher Michel Foucault. His theory is based upon the panopticon, a type of prison designed in the 1700's allowing all the prisoners to be watched at any given time, though Foucault's theory expands on this as he applies panopticism to past events, such as the plague.


Panopticism can be applied to many modern situations, the most obvious of which being our current state of affairs regarding CCTV observation. The argument being that CCTV cameras are there for our own safety and protection, but to what extent? Foucault argues that after a length of time being observed by an 'unknown power' we being to self regulate even when the panoptic gaze has been removed. We are no longer free to do what we please in a world where someone might be watching, and this is enough to make us 'docile' and 'malleable'.


 "All mechanisms of power, which, even today, are disposed around the abnormal individual, to brand him and to alter him."


...To make him self regulate and fit in with society. The CCTV operation is exactly this, we are a surveillance society constantly being 'trained and corrected' by our constant observation.






All quotes taken from Discipline and Punish, Michel Foucault (1975)

Thursday, 7 January 2010

Lecture 6, Globalisation, Sustainability and The Media - notes

Socialist - unify the world, collective, cultural
Capitalist - expand territories
Cultural globalisation - homogenised, standard, unified 


'Mcdonaldisation' - George Ritzer 'society takes on the characteristics of the fast food restaurant.'


Marshall Mcluhan
  • Idea of the 'global villiage
  • Technology shrinks the world
  • Technology is an extension of our senses 
    • like radio is an extension of our ears etc.
Global Village Thesis
'more in touch with the world, more responsible' - slightly naive viewpoint, utopian.


Iraq front line - brought to our front rooms
Media - an extension of our minds?


Jihad vs Mcworld. - book based on a 1992 article.
 - war between the east and west, religion vs. secular state
- centripetal / centrifugal forceaction-reaction force pair associated with circular motion


Problems of globalisation
   - removes state individuality, thus our identities
   - accountability
   - cultural imperialism and dominance, instead of a 'cultural rainbow' 


KEY THINKERS
  • Schiller
  • Chomsky 
    • Imperialism through ways of thinking rather than physical strength.
Oligopolies (4/5 of these are in the USA)
Time Warner owns hundered of smaller outlets
 - media outlets owned by the same company will not have individual views.
- 'marketing importance'


.....................................................................................................................................................................


  • Flow of American culture through out the world
    •  can almost map this on physical imperialism of old.
  • looking to America as our cultural leader...
  • Schiller - 'social dominance through the spreading of Americanisation to countries that cannot afford it.'
Big Brother example...
Skin Lightening example...


 - the world seeks to be the same. but to an American model.


Manufacturing Consent - Herman & Chomsky 1988 
- Mass propaganda, seeking to turn the world into the same American model.
- Propaganda Model


Oligops - media for profit, news in particular - capitalist.


Sourcing - news reports are in the interest of the west.. as thats where the news reporters are?


FLAK
- negative responses to news stories
- pay offs
- bribes
- falsely manufactured science! (GCC Example, covered up)


Anti Ideologies  Anti-ideologies exploit public fear and hatred of groups that pose a potential threat, either real, exaggerated, or imagined.
e.g. - the environmental protestors attacked and labeled 'eco-terrorists' 


Al Gore's - An Inconvenient Truth... sensationalist.
- current argument as to wether or not this film should be shown in the U.S as part of their national curriculum. 


Gordon Brown - "Flat Earthers"
  • Jim Inhofe
  • Nigel Lawson - "wouldn't be too bad if the world warmed up"
Flak Video - counter sustainability attack.
nuclear power? a green solution?
- money as an exchange for pollution... buying air space from less privileged countries.


Sustainability - buzzword since 1987
Sustainability under capitalism
example..
  • Biofuels...
    • renewable
    • clean
    • more expensive
    • morally unsound...
  • BIOX
    • Hamilton ghetto
    • built in a designated green space
    • tremors destroyed houses
    • chemical releases 
Capitalist project to 'solve the worlds problems' , but cause more problems than then solve.


GREENWASHING.
- A company who presents an eco-friendly image, though doesn't necessarily back this up. 


Mcdonalds green logo example
Ford 'Eco-boost' example
Kimberly Clark 'natural nappies' example


Environmentalism
 - Al Gore - reforming...
 - a solution within capitalism


Ecologism 
- Almost a communist view
- belief in a new system..


Victor Papanek - ‘Most things are designed not for the needs of the people but for the needs of manufacturers to sell to people’ (Papanek, 1983:46) Design for the Real Word




Shepard Fairey  - manifesto - http://obeygiant.com/about








Lecture 5, Hyperreality - notes

Jean Baudrillard 

  • controversial, outspoken
  • didn't like these labels placed on him
  • structuralism + post structuralism 
  • Key theorist of post modernism 
Precursors 
  • Karl Marx
    • Labour theory of value 
  • Ferdinand Saussure 
    • Swiss linguist - Theory of linguistic value
    • Theory of the sign
  • Guy Debord
    • Society of the spectacle (image culture)
  • Marshall McCluhan
    • Simulation (media is the message)
  • Georges Bataille
    • Ritual + sacrifice 
    • Theory of the general economy
  • Marcel Mauss
    • The gift - an economic principle
Jean Baudrillard 
Simulacra and Simulation (1975) - most famous work
Symbolic Exchange and Death
The Illusion of the End

Context...
  • Vietnam war + media representation of this
  • 60's counter culture
  • Situationism 1968
  • Consumerism + mass media
  • End of colonialism 
  • The cold war
  • Watergate Scandal 
Collapse of modern utopia 
     - social housing complexes
     - ideas of progression and development 

Koyaanisqatsi - 1982 cult film, part of the quatsi series. Koyaanisqatsi means 'crazy life, life in turmoil, life out of balance, life disintegrating, a state of life that calls for another way of living'

- Rise of post modernism
   - disorientating modern spaces - beginning of hyperreality..?
"The map becomes it's territory"

Plato's Allegory of the cave

  • Pseudo reality, imitation of reality
  • theory also rejects art as this is also a representation of the world, making it as false as the cave shadows.
Simulacra = a lack of reality?
- sacraments 
- manifestants 
- sorcery

                          - examples
ouija boards 
- a representation of another reality? or a mask that hides the fact that there is none?

Disneyfication
castle example
Which is real? the original cartoon of the actual castle in florida?
Neither, they are both copies as there is no original!

Reality Tv
Big brother example
debunks Foucault's theory of panopticism 
Big Brother reverses the theory of observation and control, we are now watching them.

Matrix "welcome to the desert of the real"

Blade Runner
- representation of a modern industrial city
- orientalist, a representation of a 'post modern age'
- a post modern pastiche (a mish-mash)

                        .....................................................................
The Gulf war did not take place -Baudrillard (1993)
 - Media representation of the war, we have no real concept of what happened

End of History?
Berlin wall example
- representation of the west culture winning over the east
- paves the way for globalisation
- Baudrillard would be quick sceptical of this.

Slavoj Zizek 'welcome to the desert of the real'
- This guy likes to stir controversy

Escape from New York
paragliding into the WTC's - a bird's eye view of the catastrophe to follow..






Wednesday, 6 January 2010

Lecture 4, Communication theory - notes

Laswells maxim

  • who - the communicator
  • what - the tools of communication
  • to who - the recipient 

communication is either transmissional or constitutive (with limitations)
Shannon + weaver bell example
   - a model designed for telephone, but can be applied elsewhere..

chap17_a.gif
The 'noise' is something that effects communication e.g., if I were an agency with an advertising billboard communicating my message to my audience, and someone graffiti's over it, this would be considered noise.



 7 TYPES OF COMMUNICATION

Cybernetic 
                -Spawned from a book by Weiner 1948
  • semiotics - study of 'signs'
  • semantics - what a thing means
  • syntactics  - how one sign relates to another
  • pragmatics - how these signs effect change
This theory is a language (like medicine has it's own language)
It is useful when analysing anything visual


BARTHES
Semiotic pasta example
- red, white and green to show authenticity, even though it was produced in France. etc..

Road signs example
- taught what these mean, not instinctive. 
- they are meaningless without cultural structures to give them meaning.

Phenomenological 
                      -phenomenon - appearance of an object in someone's perception
  • Actual lived experience as a basis for future opinions and thoughts
  • Father/daughter relationship?
  • Hermeneutic circle
    • experience interpretation cycle...
Rhetoric 
              -persuasion tactics
  • exaggeration - convinces us by making the situation seem more extreme
  • use of linguistic 'cleverness'...
  • personification - helps us relate by making it personally relevant
  • Propaganda

                 cons - not complex enough
                           - forgets the 'receiver'
  • Needs to be used in conjunction with something else
  • Rhetoric can be applied to an image
Metaphor
                -remembering by making associations 
Trash can example ( power point slide fairly self explanatory)

Sociopsychology
                      - science, physical factors
  • cognitive - processing
  • biological 
  • behavioural - how people react in certain situations
Image and text are interpretted totally differently

Sociocultural
                   - how the world shapes us
  • how social context effects communication
    • student, asian, etc...
Critical theory
              - unpicking the power structure.
 


Lecture 3, psychoanalysis & 'the gaze' - notes

Not psychology, but related to it.
A form of reading



  • EGO - consciousness - 'the side that we show the world'
  • SUPER EGO - what lies beneath the surface
    • morals etc
    • our conscience, formed through childhood.
  • ID - desire, basic and fundamental
    • inhibited by the super ego.
'A precarious situation of desiring something but having to repress it'


(simpsons example) - when your super ego fails you, that is a trauma, and the ID bubbles to the surface.




(left lecture for print session - continuing with notes from catch up seminar.)


THE GAZE
'men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at’ John Berger.
              - men objectifying women etc..


Female nudes..
Examples used that do not appear in lecture presentation...
1st painting - woman with a child's face, obedient.
2nd painting - Manet - Olympia? prostitute. different gaze, woman is more powerful, challenging the male viewer - independence + power.


Victoria Beckham example. (narcissistic damage - .Coward)
  • panoptic male gaze
  • self regulates as she is constantly aware of being watched
            •   (potential dissertation)
What is girl power then?
Do women that dress like men (power dressing) just support male superiority? 


MAY WEST - "Is that a gun in your pocket? Or are you just pleased to see me?"
  • similar to Olympia, a 'whore' but feminine and powerful. A 'man eater'.
WOMENS MAGAZINES
       - the problem is accentuated by women themselves!
  • Magazines promote anxiety and unconfidence
  • Examples show the magazines are geared towards mens needs?
  • Portrayed as female empowerment, but they are not.
    • sex and the city..
To what extent are men objectified?
      -are they still projected with a male gaze on sexuality? 




Bob Hope quote "Pretty girls..." ?
     - stereotypical feminist... - plain, fat, can't get a man etc..




Sarah Lucas - visual gags - two fried eggs and a kebab 
  • The language of our culture
  • Sarah uses that language and exposes it as idiotic. 

Lecture 2, Media Ideology - notes

(missed lecture, notes from catch up seminar)


main aims of lecture

  • sociological approaches of art + design
  • marxist philosophy
    • 'politics, a philosophy of action'
    • 'ideas of the many'
  • marxist approach to art and design
  • marxist approach to mass media


IDEOLOGY - a system of ideas or beliefs that can often distort or give false consciousness.
  • i.e. - RELIGION
    • 'The kings position as appointed by God'
  • supports the ruling class, and tricks the lower class into thinking the interests of the upper class is 'the interest of the many'
  • Differences between men and women 
    • conditioned behaviour


Types of ideology,
  • Law
  • Advertising - capitalism
  • Newspaper - supports ruling classes
  • Religion - justifies Iraq war
  • Education - the institution for the indoctrination of ideologies!
      •  = Maintain the status quo
'Meritocratic'
             - work hard, get a job, marriage, kids, nice house in the suburbs = happy life


Althusser (1970)  'ideology and ideologic state apparatus'
Physical control                                                    Psychological control
Repressive (army, police etc)                                   Ideologic (religion, education etc)




MARX base / superstructure.


Base 
forces of production           -         materials, tools, workers, skills, etc.  
relations of production     -         employer/employee, class, master/slave, etc
     
Superstructure

social institutions              -           legal, political, cultural

forms of consciousness    -          ideology 

  • dynamic relationship between base and superstructure
  • all ideologies emerge as a response to the base
  • this is materialism
  • superstructure emerges from the base and in turn supports it
(gets quite complex here... additional discussion to the lecture)
  • Thesis - social force
  • antithesis - exact opposite
  • works like a spiral - synthesis 
eg - cold war, communism dead since 1989 - synthesis = capitalism since then
eg - punk music scene - synthesis = absorbed into normal society