Reading and the projects
I recall wondering a few months ago when looking ahead what Chapter 5 was about. How does it relate to anything I have done so far in OCA? How, indeed, is a project entitled "Illusion only is sacred, truth profane" or "Ecclesiastes misquoted" relevant to visual culture? Never mind Schrödinger's cat.
The chapter title, The concept of reality, suggested that psychology would feature significantly, although the first project took us back a couple of stages to consider advertising again. Because of its openly manipulative raison d'être, advertising is a rich source of material for visual culture analysis. Preceding that was a reread of Debord's Separation Perfected; gained much from a second read. The project was interesting, especially finding adverts for products past and present; I incorporated the current Guinness More Than campaign.
Reading around the project, I was struck again by the contrast between academic visual culture approach to advertising, and articles from those within the advertising industry. No apologies for 'leading the reader' or 'manipulating the message' from them; this is what they do. It is straight to the point as to how you get the viewer to absorb your message, from subtleties like colour or positioning of objects within images, to the textual message. The photographer for the Barclays ad proudly announces on his website how he set up the image to promote the required lifestyle of the ad agency. It reminds one of the quote from Scott Clifford, the author of the Top 20 Sexiest Female Athletes of 2014 that was included in Assignment 4: after musing over the inherent sexist nature of what he does, Clifford concludes: "....I really need to get paid so enough with the words and such." Barthes would doubtless say this is symptomatic of accepting the existing as the natural order of things, and maybe it is, but Clifford does need to be paid, and the advertising industry does need clients.
The intriguingly entitled Ecclesiastes Misquoted required reading of Baudrillard and his misquote from the Old Testament. The article is absent from the third edition of the course reader, requiring some reading around (unusually could not find an online copy). Baudrillard seemed prescient; the idea that reality however described is basically a single construct was timed very well when digital technologies were beginning a period of rapid development, and formed the basis for the second part of the Assignment.
Alongside, Blade Runner and The Matrix were good viewing. I had not seen them in the cinema when released. The academic significance of both is perhaps overstated - like Scott Clifford, the film studios have to make money and there is more to be made from the entertainment value of violence and special effects of which there is plenty in both movies - but there is also congruence with the Baudrillard's view of reality. A few images from Dr. Who in other projects have been used in a similar vein in other projects.
I had difficulty finding Lacan's What is a Picture? as it is not included in third edition of the course reader. One advantage of having an open blog (>2,500 visitors to date) is that, after posting that I had given up looking for it, a helpful reader pointed out in a comment where I could find the article online. It is not an easy article to read (more of this in the final post) but I referred to the concept of the image screen in the Assignment.
Perhaps the most bizarre project of the whole course was to read about Schrödinger's cat, but does highlight (and provide some theoretical credence) that one observer can face two realities. The concept of dual reality is used a lot in sci-fi (I referred to Dr. Who but it is equally relevant to the two movies above). Was pleased to find six images demonstrating Lacanian gaze for the associated project as at first sight could not fathom what to do. As with many other projects, not quite sure whether I hit the right notes, but it was a challenging project, and, incidentally, emphasised what a brilliant work Holbein's The Ambassadors is.
I was not a Buffy fan. Viewing Restless scarcely convinced me that there is a gaping hole in my cultural existence as a result. The dreams lend themselves to some psychological analysis, notably Willow's discomfort at being exposed in front of class and in a situation where she does not know her lines for the imminent performance of a play, or where Xander confronts his dysfunctional father. I was rather less convinced about the significance of Giles' and Buffy's dreams, but then may have missed something. Joyce has the best line: in response to Willow's announcement that the spirit of the first slayer had tried to kill them all in their dreams, she offers hot chocolate, the panacea of all ills.
The Assignment
I aimed to present two rather different examples of how the virtual and real boundaries merge in contemporary culture: one with a relatively narrow focus, based on personal experience, and very much 'visual'; another, wider, example considering how current technological advances impact us socially and culturally.
Throughout the course, I have attempted to use photography as examples when discussing ideas and concepts as it is the course I am following. The course notes actually mention digital manipulation as an example one might use in the Assignment. Considering the virtual nature of photographic manipulation provided an opportunity to step back for moment and think about the why rather then the what and how. Howells and Negreiros discuss manipulation in their book Visual Culture, and this provided an opportunity to address their conclusion.
I recall wondering a few months ago when looking ahead what Chapter 5 was about. How does it relate to anything I have done so far in OCA? How, indeed, is a project entitled "Illusion only is sacred, truth profane" or "Ecclesiastes misquoted" relevant to visual culture? Never mind Schrödinger's cat.
The chapter title, The concept of reality, suggested that psychology would feature significantly, although the first project took us back a couple of stages to consider advertising again. Because of its openly manipulative raison d'être, advertising is a rich source of material for visual culture analysis. Preceding that was a reread of Debord's Separation Perfected; gained much from a second read. The project was interesting, especially finding adverts for products past and present; I incorporated the current Guinness More Than campaign.
Reading around the project, I was struck again by the contrast between academic visual culture approach to advertising, and articles from those within the advertising industry. No apologies for 'leading the reader' or 'manipulating the message' from them; this is what they do. It is straight to the point as to how you get the viewer to absorb your message, from subtleties like colour or positioning of objects within images, to the textual message. The photographer for the Barclays ad proudly announces on his website how he set up the image to promote the required lifestyle of the ad agency. It reminds one of the quote from Scott Clifford, the author of the Top 20 Sexiest Female Athletes of 2014 that was included in Assignment 4: after musing over the inherent sexist nature of what he does, Clifford concludes: "....I really need to get paid so enough with the words and such." Barthes would doubtless say this is symptomatic of accepting the existing as the natural order of things, and maybe it is, but Clifford does need to be paid, and the advertising industry does need clients.
The intriguingly entitled Ecclesiastes Misquoted required reading of Baudrillard and his misquote from the Old Testament. The article is absent from the third edition of the course reader, requiring some reading around (unusually could not find an online copy). Baudrillard seemed prescient; the idea that reality however described is basically a single construct was timed very well when digital technologies were beginning a period of rapid development, and formed the basis for the second part of the Assignment.
Alongside, Blade Runner and The Matrix were good viewing. I had not seen them in the cinema when released. The academic significance of both is perhaps overstated - like Scott Clifford, the film studios have to make money and there is more to be made from the entertainment value of violence and special effects of which there is plenty in both movies - but there is also congruence with the Baudrillard's view of reality. A few images from Dr. Who in other projects have been used in a similar vein in other projects.
I had difficulty finding Lacan's What is a Picture? as it is not included in third edition of the course reader. One advantage of having an open blog (>2,500 visitors to date) is that, after posting that I had given up looking for it, a helpful reader pointed out in a comment where I could find the article online. It is not an easy article to read (more of this in the final post) but I referred to the concept of the image screen in the Assignment.
Perhaps the most bizarre project of the whole course was to read about Schrödinger's cat, but does highlight (and provide some theoretical credence) that one observer can face two realities. The concept of dual reality is used a lot in sci-fi (I referred to Dr. Who but it is equally relevant to the two movies above). Was pleased to find six images demonstrating Lacanian gaze for the associated project as at first sight could not fathom what to do. As with many other projects, not quite sure whether I hit the right notes, but it was a challenging project, and, incidentally, emphasised what a brilliant work Holbein's The Ambassadors is.
I was not a Buffy fan. Viewing Restless scarcely convinced me that there is a gaping hole in my cultural existence as a result. The dreams lend themselves to some psychological analysis, notably Willow's discomfort at being exposed in front of class and in a situation where she does not know her lines for the imminent performance of a play, or where Xander confronts his dysfunctional father. I was rather less convinced about the significance of Giles' and Buffy's dreams, but then may have missed something. Joyce has the best line: in response to Willow's announcement that the spirit of the first slayer had tried to kill them all in their dreams, she offers hot chocolate, the panacea of all ills.
The Assignment
I aimed to present two rather different examples of how the virtual and real boundaries merge in contemporary culture: one with a relatively narrow focus, based on personal experience, and very much 'visual'; another, wider, example considering how current technological advances impact us socially and culturally.
Throughout the course, I have attempted to use photography as examples when discussing ideas and concepts as it is the course I am following. The course notes actually mention digital manipulation as an example one might use in the Assignment. Considering the virtual nature of photographic manipulation provided an opportunity to step back for moment and think about the why rather then the what and how. Howells and Negreiros discuss manipulation in their book Visual Culture, and this provided an opportunity to address their conclusion.
One of the paradoxes of this course has been the lack of contemporary material in what is a very dynamic and rapidly changing digital world. The impact of technology and in particular how the Law of Unintended Consequences raises its head in so many developments. Technological advances have seldom if ever come without some negative baggage attached; only this week, Sue Perkins considered the impact of damming the Mekong in the third episode of her BBC2 series. It is a classic case of the dilemma between the big economic argument - the generation of more electricity than Laos can use with the added benefit of using no fossil fuels - against the inevitable impact on the livelihood of millions downstream. Perkins ends confused, not least because she acknowledges her privileged Western view that risks being patronizing whatever she concludes.
Yet the iPhone has come on to the market as result of a masterpiece of design by Apple - and rapidly 'copied' (or at least as close as the lawyers can argue about to not being a copy) by a plethora of hardware that use the Android operating system - with very little consideration of the unintended consequences for society as a whole, and users individually. We are already on iPhone 6, only seven years after the 1st generation; just hours before writing this entry, Apple's market capitalization hit $700bn for the first time (it was already the world's largest company by market cap, not much more than a decade after it was in the doldrums). It is valued at more than Switzerland's GDP. 10m iPhone 6s were sold in the opening weekend; 71.5m are due to be shipped in Q4 2014, (source: Time business), an archetypal example of commodity fetishism. It is always tempting to assert a phenomenon as a 'revolution' in order to emphasises the importance of the point one makes but I think the smartphone (and of course, its partner, WiFi) mark at the very least a sea change in which the real and the virtual interact; the clue is in the point Sherry Turkle makes in the interview embedded in the Assignment: if you act out your virtual self seated at a computer, you get up at the end and resume 'normal life'. It is maybe not quite as clear cut as that, but the point is well made. The smartphone (with WiFi) is qualitatively different because of its transportability, and the consequence of us being 'always on' with respect to the virtual world. It is a hook.
The aim of this part of the assignment was to address this implications of this. I commenced by the now familiar routine of searching for relevant material. I read substantial part of Nusselder's Interface Fantasy: a Lacanian Cyborg Ontology (Kindle version), which helped put cyberspace into a psychological framework. Nusselder refers to the work of Sherry Turkle in several places; I searched for her work and read much of Alone Together. Her messages chimed exactly with what I was seeking; she has the ability to make serious points in a way that is comprehensible to the ordinary viewer/reader, as she demonstrates in the interview. She emphasises the superficiality of the cyber existence - "moments of more, lives of less" - with some examples. We vote online on many issues nowadays by checking a box but we tend not to go meetings to engage with others on these issues or to act on them.
Interestingly in the context of OCA, she talks about online learning. There are advantages - I could scarcely engage in a Photography course around a busy life without it, as a very proximate example - but, as she says, there are also disadvantages: the inability to engage with others doing the same course, or with tutors, on a regular face to face basis. For many, she argues, 'it is better than nothing', but, she emphasises, there is a risk that it becomes the delivery mechanism with inherent unintended consequences: "better than nothing becomes better than anything."
Space precluded detailed discussion on other technological advances. I would have liked to include more on artificial intelligence (AI) and the likely impact of robots on our lives. On the premise that virtual sex was very likely to be a feature of AI, I searched for articles/books on the subject and found Daniel Levy's interesting book. Turkle covers AI in her book, but Levy's slant was more positive, and added a specific dimension.
Lastly, my online research uncovered the I-Seeing project, a virtual reality experiment that was timed to perfection for this Assignment as it is ongoing as this is written. The project may be seen as the apotheosis of the merging of virtual and reality: the complete mirroring of another's existence.
Conclusion
This was a fascinating section. Probably the most significant learning outcome is a volte face regarding the psychological approach to the subject. Having previously shed doubt on the applicability of Freud in particular to visual culture, I reconsidered in previous blog entry. The reading of Lacan and, especially, the reading above re the Assignment, have led to a Damascean conversion. If we wish to understand the underlying processes to visual culture, then psychologists provide the theoretical framework, albeit that the authors considered in this course could explain their points more succinctly and clearly, as will be discussed in final post.
I have found all the Assignments to be the best part of each chapter, and this was no exception. Although the subject-matter is prescribed, there is a great deal of latitude to explore it in ways that are relevant to you. I had a rough idea of what to write about, but thoroughly enjoyed, and felt enriched by, reading the sources located for the essay.
Yet the iPhone has come on to the market as result of a masterpiece of design by Apple - and rapidly 'copied' (or at least as close as the lawyers can argue about to not being a copy) by a plethora of hardware that use the Android operating system - with very little consideration of the unintended consequences for society as a whole, and users individually. We are already on iPhone 6, only seven years after the 1st generation; just hours before writing this entry, Apple's market capitalization hit $700bn for the first time (it was already the world's largest company by market cap, not much more than a decade after it was in the doldrums). It is valued at more than Switzerland's GDP. 10m iPhone 6s were sold in the opening weekend; 71.5m are due to be shipped in Q4 2014, (source: Time business), an archetypal example of commodity fetishism. It is always tempting to assert a phenomenon as a 'revolution' in order to emphasises the importance of the point one makes but I think the smartphone (and of course, its partner, WiFi) mark at the very least a sea change in which the real and the virtual interact; the clue is in the point Sherry Turkle makes in the interview embedded in the Assignment: if you act out your virtual self seated at a computer, you get up at the end and resume 'normal life'. It is maybe not quite as clear cut as that, but the point is well made. The smartphone (with WiFi) is qualitatively different because of its transportability, and the consequence of us being 'always on' with respect to the virtual world. It is a hook.
The aim of this part of the assignment was to address this implications of this. I commenced by the now familiar routine of searching for relevant material. I read substantial part of Nusselder's Interface Fantasy: a Lacanian Cyborg Ontology (Kindle version), which helped put cyberspace into a psychological framework. Nusselder refers to the work of Sherry Turkle in several places; I searched for her work and read much of Alone Together. Her messages chimed exactly with what I was seeking; she has the ability to make serious points in a way that is comprehensible to the ordinary viewer/reader, as she demonstrates in the interview. She emphasises the superficiality of the cyber existence - "moments of more, lives of less" - with some examples. We vote online on many issues nowadays by checking a box but we tend not to go meetings to engage with others on these issues or to act on them.
Interestingly in the context of OCA, she talks about online learning. There are advantages - I could scarcely engage in a Photography course around a busy life without it, as a very proximate example - but, as she says, there are also disadvantages: the inability to engage with others doing the same course, or with tutors, on a regular face to face basis. For many, she argues, 'it is better than nothing', but, she emphasises, there is a risk that it becomes the delivery mechanism with inherent unintended consequences: "better than nothing becomes better than anything."
Space precluded detailed discussion on other technological advances. I would have liked to include more on artificial intelligence (AI) and the likely impact of robots on our lives. On the premise that virtual sex was very likely to be a feature of AI, I searched for articles/books on the subject and found Daniel Levy's interesting book. Turkle covers AI in her book, but Levy's slant was more positive, and added a specific dimension.
Lastly, my online research uncovered the I-Seeing project, a virtual reality experiment that was timed to perfection for this Assignment as it is ongoing as this is written. The project may be seen as the apotheosis of the merging of virtual and reality: the complete mirroring of another's existence.
Conclusion
This was a fascinating section. Probably the most significant learning outcome is a volte face regarding the psychological approach to the subject. Having previously shed doubt on the applicability of Freud in particular to visual culture, I reconsidered in previous blog entry. The reading of Lacan and, especially, the reading above re the Assignment, have led to a Damascean conversion. If we wish to understand the underlying processes to visual culture, then psychologists provide the theoretical framework, albeit that the authors considered in this course could explain their points more succinctly and clearly, as will be discussed in final post.
I have found all the Assignments to be the best part of each chapter, and this was no exception. Although the subject-matter is prescribed, there is a great deal of latitude to explore it in ways that are relevant to you. I had a rough idea of what to write about, but thoroughly enjoyed, and felt enriched by, reading the sources located for the essay.
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