Appadurai Robby Riehle

I don’t know if it’s because the semesters coming to an end or what but I certainly didn’t not enjoy reading Appadurai’s article. I found it to be possibility the most difficult to follow and his process of thinking to be confusing. However, he does refer to a couple of other theorist that I do understand and that helped me a lot. As a matter of fact after reading to article I realized the only way I got though it was by referring back to other theorists concepts in my head. For example he talks a good deal about reproduction and mechanical art directly refers to refer Benjamin. Appadurai’s gives the example, “Dragnet is back nineties’ drag, and so is Adam-12, not to speak of Batman and Mission Impossible, all dressed up technologically but remarkably faithful to there original” (513). Benjamin says, “Everybody who witnesses the films accomplishments is somewhat of an expert… at any moment the reader is ready to turn into the writer”. Here essentially we can see that people who saw the originals became the reproducers and recreated the charters in a new age. Furthermore the technological aspect of reproduction makes it easy to construct them “faithful to the original.” However, Benjamin also says that “by making many reproductions it substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence.” Leaving its aura weakened. Appadurai’s also states “An important fact that the world we live in today is that many persons on the globe live in such imagined worlds and thus are able to contest and sometimes even subvert the imagined world of the official mind and of the entrepreneurial mentality that surrounds them”(514). This quote immediately reminded me of Baudrillard’s notion of simulacra. In which our simulated world encompass our actual ones. 

Pre Class Appadurai- Messer

"As far as the United States is concerned, one might suggest that the issue is no longer one of nostalgia but of a social imaginaire built largely around reruns." (Appadurai 512)

The quote describes American culture as one built upon the idea of nostalgia, yet there's a gap between the nostalgia and memories. Thanks to mechanical reproduction, previously analyzed by Walter Benjamin, there's a capability for "print capitalism" to reach out to other corners of the world, creating a power of mass literacy. Americanization can be closely bound to commodification, a term discussed by Jameson, creating blurred lines between reality and fiction.

Arjun talks about the distance from metropolitan areas and their correlating lack of reality to media images. I found this to be an interesting concept because it's an idea I found relatable to my personal knowledge. Think of the locations in America, away from all big cities or with smaller populations, and the way they perceive the modern world. On a much smaller scale, I've had friends who had never been to New York City and the way they would talk about it would be so far fetched from it's reality, in the sense that I have visit numerous times and know the city pretty well at this point. To go even further, there's the separation between countries, bringing back Hooks discussion of the Other and people's desire to come in contact with it.

http://thechive.com/2010/08/04/asians-in-american-t-shirts-made-me-lol-more-than-i-should-24-photos/

The shirt, pictured at top of page, is from China where they wear clothing with English as fashion statements and yet the wording tends to make no sense. I thought this exemplified, in a humorous light, the gap between two cultures.

Pre Class Appadurai

Arjun Appadurai

I found this essay by Arjun Appadurai to be a great way to end the semester, because there are so many connections that can be made, both in terms of theory and concepts in “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy,” in relation to many of the readings that we have done throughout the semester.  One of the key quotes that struck me by Appadurai was when he states, “…I call mediascapes and ideoscapes, which are closely related to landscapes of images.  Mediascapes refer both to the distribution of the electronic capabilities to produce and disseminate information…which are now available to a growing number of private and public interests throughout the world…” (515).  I found this quote to be important, because it directly connected to Walter Benjamin’s idea that at this moment in time, society is now able to produce and reproduce at a rapid pace, allowing for anyone and everyone to be a viewer.  What is ironic is that Arjun Appadurai ends his essay with a section titles “The Work of Reproduction in an Age of Mechanical Art, and states, “I have inverted the key terms of the title of Walter Benjamin’s famous essay (1969) to return to this rather high-flying discussion to a more manageable level” (520).  The connection that I made to Benjamin, was clearly one that Appadurai wanted the reader to make, given that he incorporated Benjamin’s essay into his own.  But, I think that says a lot, given how important the reproduction of media has become in our society.  Nowadays, like Baudrillard one famously states, there are copies of originals, and works without originals at all, and this is all possible through means of reproduction, just as Benjamin and Appadurai state.

My media example for this week is a picture of a billboard with the caption “Buy Something!” and relates to Appadurai’s idea that “…Many audiences around the world experience the media themselves as a complicated and interconnected repertoire of print, celluloid, electronic screens, and billboards” (515).  With this in mind, the “Buy Something!” billboard is an example of a direct message to audiences, and a direct correlation to the idea that viewers are bombarded with messages through different mediums.     Billboard

Pre Class Blog 11/28

“Between travelers and merchants, pilgrims and conquerors, the world has seen much long-distance (and long-term) cultural traffic. This much seems self evident” (511). The beginning of Appadurai’ work he discusses this idea of how the world is almost cluttered. There is expansion and capitalism, which are a vast majority. He then discusses different examples of history and how they have been influenced.

He then starts to discuss the Reproduction end of Mechanical Art, which ties into Walter Benjamins essay. Appaduri says, “First, the sort of trans generational stability of knowledge that was presupposed in the most theories of enculturation (or, in slightly broader terms, of socialization) can no longer be assumed” (520). This is the notion of people leaving home and growing up, or families moving new places, and you just sort of make assumptions about what it is like before really ever going there or knowing the truth about what it is like.

The confusing parts of this essay for me are looking at it at a small perspective which he often points too, but then looking at in a much more global context on a bigger scale. 

Pre- Clas: Cixous (Make-Up Post)

Cixous essay analyzes the topic of sex and gender in her feminist influenced piece, Sorties. She began by opening up the reader to the idea of binary oppositions, she notes that pairs (nature/mind & father/son for example) are couples. The moment one aims to make sense of them, they are destroyed. The one that stuck in my mind while reading this essay was the oppositions with activity and passivity. This is due to their links to females and males. "Either the woman is passive; or she doesn't exist. What is left is unthinkable, unthought of" (160) Woman remains a male-dominated space "always virginal, matter subjected to the desire that he wishes to imprint" One point that I really drew form the reading wish to talk more about is the notion of bisexuality. This postructuralist idea sets up a definition of bisexuality which is not about the combination of sexuality (androgyny) but the displacement of the terms "masculinity" and "femininity." Bisexuality here goes beyond dualism to imagine a multiple subject. Cixous points out that women are privileged by achieving this bisexuality because historically and culturally women are more open or accustomed to accepting different forms of subjectivity. One person who I feel fits this definition well is in the form of the actress, Angelina Jolie. Cixous notes "Bisexuality as a fantasy of a complete being, which replaces the fear of castration and veils sexual difference..a fantasy of unity. Two within one, and not even two wholes."(159). Jolie is one of my favorite actress' in the fact that she pushes the boundaries of masculinity in a great deal of her roles, whilst holding her femininity close to her. She poses a very masculine aura about her, it is originally and one that she has played very well throughout her career. Yet in binary apposition she is always in FHM's annual "100 sexist women" edition. She has never sacrificed her femininity. "Masculine profit is almost always mixed up with a success that is socially define" (161) In our Western culture, masculinity and femininity are seen as attributes that reside outside of our own selves and which can only be attained through hard work (dress, hair, body and style). People have this notion of being successful or not successful as being correctly masculine or feminine and spend a great deal of effort attaining it. She is a lone icon for women in the action films for this reason, finding a unique balance of the two.

Pre-Class Blog: Hooks 11/14/12

In another one of my classes "Sociology of Gender" we have been discussing the objectification of women in media texts, therefore as soon as I read through this essay there were definitely a few advertisement that came to mind. We live in a culture where many that have white privileged assume a great deal of racism is dead, though Hooks would point out that that is far from true. Although this racism may not be as outwardly aggressive or public anymore, there are still elements in mass media where it holds true of ones stereotype or past time. Hooks points out that "The acknowledged Other must assume recognizable forms. Hence, it is not African American culture formed in resistance to contemporary situations that surfaces, but nostalgic evocation of a 'glorious' past" (311) We may notice that even in media texts, or advertisements there has been a shift and like Hooks points out the contemporary vision that blondes have the most fun has been outdated. There is this notion of the Other, then, that Hooks talks about. We notice personally that black women either assume white roles in ads, or very stereo typically black roles. He points out the sexual desire he had noticed young men talking about "I found that it was commonly accepted that one 'shopped' for sexual partners in the same way one 'shopped' for courses at Yale" (309) This point in particular was interesting to me and definitely was one that tied back to this Moschino ad. In this advertisement the African American women presented is the epitome of what most would idolize the dark skin Other. This advertisement, though, is interesting because it is like the view is shopping for all the stereotypes that they may assume from this female. She is tied down, but not too much that she can be totally controlled and one may even assume that she is wild, in a sense. The use of animal print clothing is also interesting, it is like her "race and ethnicity have become com modified" (309) There is so much that can be read through this visual text of the other, from her natural hair to the microphone which can be misinterpreted as a whip, even as fair as the tagline "cheap and Chic" which may imply something nostalgic. Utters of slavery and the price one may pay. All in all,it is clear that minorities are underrepresented and done so incorrectly in the media and advertisements. But there is still something that allows advertisements to run like this without question. Hooks points out that this is "Mutual recognition of racism" (312).

Post Class Monday 11/12

In class on Monday we discussed Derrida’s reading “Differance” and Foucault’s “The Panopticon” I liked Derrida’s take on “minding the gap” but re stating a bigger broader picture. Don’t just mind the gaps inside but also outside. “Everything Begins with a gap” this is interesting but it kind of expresses notions of skepticism or being a very active reader and thinker. Like taking more pleasure in the text going back to Jouissance. Also a big concept was Difference. “Everything in our language is defined by difference.” This is very true when you combine this quote and “There never has been and never will be a unique word, a master name.” Together it suggests how unstable language is. The forever fluctuating meanings are bound to culture, as culture changes so does language I believe this is where Derrida gets his thoughts of language being a deferring of meaning.  Foucault’s views on surveillance were pretty interesting as well. “The Gaze is alert everywhere” I have read a lot about surveillance and big brother for other classes, in CMC 350 I worked with the GPFF to create a marketing campaign about surveillance. It is always interesting to question how long big brother’s arm extends (Here is the trailer for[Official Trailer: The After Party (The Last Party 3)])