Blog read around assignment

I enjoyed reading everyone's blogs and I was impressed with how creative some people were with their posts. I liked how Katrina gave examples of things she was experiencing around her, such as the trip to the museum and the Mall of America, and relating these things back to the class readings.
I found Joe's blog to be insightful as well since his comments and perceptions on the readings helped me to understand the concepts a little better.
I thought Lisa P's blog was really creative with the references to artists and examples of photographs. I haven't really explored art since I took a humanities course but I see the connection between art and visual rhetoric so I'd like to learn a little more about art when I find the time.
I'm really glad we did this assignment because I learned even more from reading about my peers' experiences and I enjoyed seeing how creative they were.

Anti-brand activism

The following link is for an anti-drinking ad. It's a chalk outline of a vodka bottle to represent a body outline from an accident. While Absolut commercials use popular culture to show "the absolute man" or "the absolute welcome," the anti-drinking adds uses parody to show "the absolute end." Absolut likes to sell an image of partying and being hip and this anti-brand ad shows the truth about what the results of drinking can be.


http://lifestyle.indiainfo.com/2009/05/02/images/drinking_01.jpg

Postmodernism Continued

While postmodernism is full of pastiche, parody and remakes, the movement has also brought about indie media and postmodern approaches to marketing. Artists have found inventive ways to market their work without relying on the large film and music production companies. Some successful artists have taken advantage of the benefits of technolgy to do their marketing online and offer downloads, which consumers can easily access.

Postmodernism is seen in architecture as well, with the combination of different design styles. Pastiche is seen in the architecture formis "free-floating and detached from the original historical or functional context." Elements of playing with functionality are seen in the way designers create mock hallways or Greek and Gothic designs. Sturken and Cartwright give the example of the Beaubourg building in Paris, in which the fuctional elements of the building, such as stairways and plumbing fixtures are placed on the outside of the building.

Postmodernism

According to Sturken and Cartwright, postmodernism began in the 1980s as a way of understanding the relationship of humans in a globalized society, as well as the effects of postindustrialization, computerization and communication technologies. I would argue that our popular culture still adheres to this belief that nothing is new and that reinterpretation is a new art form. Visual culture is full of "remakes" from movies and TV shows to art and fashion.


The postmodern subject has moved away from the human to the animated or robotic replication of the human. Computer games and popular media reinvent real life by using animated characters and giving them human qualities so that we can identify with the technologically capable subjects.


In postmodernism transformation and shape shifting are ways to describe the body. Sturken and Cartwright give the example of the artist Nikki S. Lee who changes her appearance to fit in with a particular group and then photographs herself. This demonstrates the postmodern idea that "identity is produced through performance."

Modernity Continued

Foucault argued that discourse is made up of a body of knowledge about a particular subject and the rules or practices that regulate what can be spoken about the subject during a specific time period. As our knowledge about the subject changes, so does our discourse and the rules that regulate what we say. Foucault's idea of discourse helps us talk about visual culture because our rhetoric is made up of the knowledge we have (past, present or future).

Foucault's concept of the panopticon is that we self-regulate as a response to surveillance, real or implied. Foucault gave the example of the panopticon prison structure which gave prisoners the feeling that they were constantly under the watch of a guard and in turn made them afraid to act out. Foucault believed that society is structured on this relationship between the power of the spectator and the knowledge of the subject. This relates to visual rhetoric and culture because we are all aware of the surveillance cameras around us and this implied gaze keeps us under control.

Sturken and Cartwright give several examples of how subjects subvert their relationship with the gaze which indicates a transformation in traditional gender roles. The artist Ana Mendieta photographed several outlines of her body in different settings which removed herself from the gaze, leaving behind only an imprint. The example of the film, Thelma & Louise shows the subjects photographing themselves, again giving the subject the control. They also hold the role of spectator as they gaze at a hitchhiker. Where men once almost exclusively held the role of spectator in relation to popular culture, women now have an equal role.

Modernity

The PL talks about looking as being multisensory because while we are viewing an object we are still responding to our surroundings through the other four senses. These stimuli may effect how we perceive the subject.


Modernity in visual arts and culture is seen as a product resulting from the "transition from old to new". According to Jurgen Habermas, modernity models itself on a past era that is seen as classical or timeless and embodies those same principles.

The Enlightenment period was a time of focus on "achieving moral and social betterment through scientific progress." Science was reflected in the culture and the arts and the movement concentrated on the future rather than the past. This is different from the modern movement when the population was relocating from the rural to the cities and the belief was in change for the better and hope for a more advanced future.