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[dominicmacjack]

Week 16 Rumination

This week we learned about the global flows of visual culture. The basis of this chapter deals with ways humans have impacted the Earth and the visuality of these impacts. The terminology used to describe this is called “Anthropocene”, which basically means the current geologic age in which humans have irreversibly altered the global environment. With this being said, the Anthropocene is one product of modernity’s global development. The visuality of the anthropocene is imagined in art and visual culture and is created through technologies and impacts involving visual technologies. Another concept we touched on was the history of global image reproduction. Today’s image circulation bears legacies of circulation of analog images prior to the internet era, up until the 15th century, most images were originals, on display or used for worship. Another topic we touched in this chapter was globalization. Some pieces of this concept that mostly contribute to the scale of globalization are global financial/ trade markets and trade liberalization and the emergence of multinational corporations. Another major concept of globalization is cultural imperialism which is how one nation extends its influence through soft power. The cold war is a great example of this since Soviet Russia’s invasion of western Europe sent their political ideology via cultural texts across the borders of Russia and into half of western Europe.

One thing that really piqued my interest in this chapter was how Donald Duck was used to promote imperialist ideology. Especially in the image that was used in the chapter slides. You can clearly see Donald Ducks being replaced with both North America and South America as he is depositing coins into a “National Bank” box. This clearly states that it is in the United States great interest to pursue rule of the land south of the United States.

[dominicmacjack]

Week 14 rumination

Throughout this week's lectures, we talked about numerous concepts such as scientific looking and the medical gaze and anatomical and surgical theater. We looked at visual pieces such as the “boeing man” and how it was one of the earliest computer renderings of dimensional human figures. These pieces that we looked at were pieces of art and media that ultimately dealt with science at a particular historical moment. According to Foucault, looking inside the body became a privileged form of medical knowledge during the enlightenment making these visual pieces an essential part of science. Because of this, the science of anatomy became integral to Renaissance art. Because of this fascination with human anatomy in art in the recent centuries, modern images have an increased detailed knowledge of the body, making the process of looking at these pieces far more confusing and complex. Anatomy theaters were also used as spectacles where these anatomists in early times educated and entertained audiences on human anatomy. We also learned how photography was used as a mechanical instrument that enhances our access to the empirical truths of human anatomy, eliminating human error and subjective impressions. These images were ultimately used to document and aid diagnosis and study.

Human anatomy is something that has always piqued my interest so there were a variety of things that I found interesting while reading this chapter. I found it was quite interesting how the anatomy theaters showed a dense fascination with the dead human body. I was not sure how this would be a pleasing spectacle but it seemed that since there was an association with morbidity with crime in the showing of these remains is what made these spectacles entertaining. It is also pretty interesting to see how this influences anatomical art in recent times, especially with the model of the cut out of the human body by von Hagen.

[dominicmacjack]

Week 11 rumination

This week we talked about brand culture. We learned exactly what a brand is and the different characteristics that some brands share. Brands such as lifestyle brands adopt a set of values and stand for activities in accordance with those values. For example, the Dove commercial we watched had a major emphasis on being comfortable in your own skin, they used this value as a marketing technique. Overall, It was very interesting to see how brand culture has developed into what it is today. Brand culture is a big piece of a capitalist society today, it all really began with the beginning of Mass production and the assembly lines that sprouted during the Industrial revolution. This then created a great urge for advertising these products that were being mass produced. Brand culture has developed to a point where there is a great attachment between them and their consumers. It has created almost a fan culture between consumers and is used as a modern way of self expression, especially with clothing nowadays. This mass consumerism that has come about with brand culture can be considered as a way of exercising our citizenship. We also talked about commodity fetishism which is basically the inevitable result of brand culture and mass production. It has ultimately changed consumers' minds of things such as empowerment, beauty and sexiness with the consumption of these products. With brand culture constantly expanding, advertising has taken on new forms in the shape of communicative capitalism, these consist of guerilla marketing, viral marketing, astroturfing, and influencer marketing, all of these are ways of “knowing the consumer”. This chapter really expanded my mind of the reality of our capitalist society. It is really easy to reflect on this and compare it to my social life. Growing up, there was always a stigma about what brands were cool to wear and how kids in school were competing to have the coolest and hypest pair of sneakers money could buy. I remember vividly getting made fun of by one kid because I wore the same pair of sneakers every day in middle school. This was ultimately the result of brand culture and commodity fetishism that was making an impact on our young minds.

[dominicmacjack]

Week 10 Rumination

This week we discussed mass media and how it mediates our everyday lives and practices. The chapter describes to us how media has developed into what it is today and gives us a vivid description of how the media was in past times. For example, during post WWII United States, only patriotic or celebratory media products were allowed, these mainly took the form of newspapers and posters that were displayed in urban areas. I think this is a good representation of how far the media has come since this time. At this point mass media was mainly shown through the radio, newspapers, and mass visual spectacles such as public speaking. Our media in the current age has taken numerous forms, such as the internet, TV, radio, social media, and many others. Our world has been connected by these forms of media and they are so deeply integrated into our daily lives. Because its deep integration, the audiences of these media forms are on a much larger scale than ever before, especially with the news on television, one news story can reach millions of people in a very short amount of time.

One concept that really interests me is how television acts as a unifying force in this day in age. With major events constantly going on it is easy to see the shear amount of power the television still has on our population. A good example of this is the Black Lives Matter protests, a sequence of injustices by police officers that were televised were able to spark outrage all over the country. This was a moment of intense unification for many people in the United States. Other moments that unify us on television are events such as major sporting events, such as big college football games or even the college football national championship and even the super bowl.