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[elena-villegas]

In chapter 9, the focus is on scientific looking and explores the discourses of science through time. The use of images and looking to explore the body along with improving medical treatment. Throughout history the sense that one can better understand the body by cutting it open. This concept has remained strong in the field of science. Before Xray, CT scans, and MRIs the way to examine the living body was through the study of cadavers. During this chapter, the topic of anatomy was brought to the spectator in a theater setting. The interesting aspect of these theaters is they were solely for medical and scientific audiences. The anatomy theater was also open to privileged members as a source of entertainment. During the spectacle, autopsies were performed, specifically on the bodies of criminals. I find it very intriguing that people found this as a source of entertainment. Personally, I couldn’t sit through that spectacle. I do believe these spectacles were important to the understanding of the body during this time in history. I find it unusual, yet it was a way to obtain a better understanding of the body. The information found in these spectacles were the foundation of science. It’s crazy how now we have X-rays and CT scans that within minutes we have images of the inside of our body. From the beginning of time, there has been a fascination with dead bodies, and we continue to see this fascination. One example of this fascination is seen in the Body Worlds exhibition. People attend this exhibition, where real human bodies are seen on display. I think the human body is fascinating given its complexity. While I don’t personally gravitate to visiting this exhibition, I think it would be interesting. All in all, this chapter was quite interesting, to say the least.

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This week we focused on the commodification of Obama Hope. Specifically, the history of the Obama Hope poster is quite intriguing. The way Shepard Fairey took the original photo and created a remix in a day is impressive. He created something into a commodity. As a creator of something, you hope to reach your designated audience and be successful. I believe Fairey was able to reach his designated audience and achieve success. What is impressive about his work is the reach and impact of the actual poster. The face of the Obama Hope poster was blasted everywhere and everything. From accessories, and stickers, and even reaching the fashion industry onto the runway. He created something that had instant success and it only took a day to make. That’s impressive. Some people spend days, months, or even years creating something and don’t achieve success. I think about the writers who spend months writing a book and once they publish it doesn’t get the attention it should. Fairey did it all in a day. Although, I would say he was smart about the choice of choosing a political image. Why? Political images tend to grab people's attention, whether good or bad. To tie in the Attribution theory, which is the theory that assumes that people try to determine why people do what they do. This theory is the interpretation of behaviors by human beings. The behaviors are attributed to internal and external reasons. Internal reasons can be personality, attitude, mood, motives, or abilities. While, external reasons can be situational, social, or environmental reasons. Applying the attribution theory to Shepard Fairey, I would say his behavior was attributed to internal and external reasons. He used his abilities (internal reason) to create/ remix an image during the 2008 election campaign. (external reason/situational reason)

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I decided to pick the film, The Minority Report, because of the irony of police utilizing psychic technology to arrest and convict people before they commit a crime. I took different clips from the film where the Precogs, who have the ability to see crimes before they happen. I believe this a problematic idea because of the accuracy of these predictions and also given that we can’t actually predict the future. The remix has suspenseful music and a question to grasp the audience. The question and the answer in the remix contradict the film. In the film, it shows we can predict the future.

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For this assignment, I chose to culture jam Walmart, specifically its slogan. The traditional slogan is "Save money. Live better.", which I changed to what it says now. I decided to use Adobe to remake the image by crossing out the original slogan and inserting my take. This works as a culture jam because it displays what Walmart really does. Consumers go to Walmart to spend money and essentially live day by day for some consumers. Some consumers spend their earnings not knowing if they will have enough. In a recent controversy, Walmart shoppers claim they are overcharging people.

Walmart Shopper Claims the Store Is "Ripping You Off" by Doing This

In a viral TikTok, one shopper has alleged that Walmart is overcharging people after sharing her own experience at her local store.

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Media is present in almost every aspect of our lives. Many of us use our phones, social media, the internet, television, and news every day. Newspaper, magazine publishing, and television news are changing more and more as a result of the widespread adoption of mobile phones and people's increased reliance on electronic news sources. Media can be described through the plural form or singular noun. Media is the plural form of medium, which describes the means or technology used for storing and communicating Information. While the singular forms of media can be used to describe different such as the news, television, and mobile phones. The interesting aspect of media is its ties to mass culture. More specifically, the term mass media has been used to define the media used to reach large audiences. Some media critics claim that radio and television dominate the flow of information by limiting the authors of that information to those who have access to the tools of media production. This claim is backed by the Big 6. The Big 6 are six media companies, which most of the media we consume is owned by one of them. The Big 6 media companies right now are Comcast, Walt Disney, AT&T, Paramount Global Sony, and Fox. These media conglomerates/monopolies strive through policies that facilitate their control over the markets. After the activity this week, confirms our favorite media texts are typically owned by one of the Big 6. Honestly, this was kind of shocking to me as we tend to break up monopiles. I would think we would work on breaking these monopolies up to avoid them having too much power. Although, I think we are a little too late because these companies already hold too much power. All in all, media will continue to be in every aspect of our lives but will progressively get more sophisticated and advanced.

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In the modern world, we have changed the way we view things. The world is now shaped by technologies. Technologies have transformed what and how things can be seen. For example, the railroad system allowed passengers to see the world from a different perspective. As passengers look out the window they take in geography and change. The change created by an industrialized world. From the factories to the power lines, geography constantly changes. Body cameras and multiple other technologies hold power. This is because we can go back and replay images and videos. What was said? What was done? Who was it? All these questions can be answered by simply looking at a body camera or surveillance. Technologies that have changed our vision include photography, cinema, television, video games, and digital media. One last one is social media. I believe this one has been the game changer. Why? Social media has changed the vision of how we view people and ourselves. We constantly view the “perfect” side of people because that’s what they post. You rarely see the “raw” side of people. What I mean by this is people only post what they want people to see and create this picture/vision of who they are. Social media has also created certain standards of how we should look and start to question how we look. This all goes back to the power and change technologies have created. Lastly, I want to talk about reproduction. Digital reproduction has allowed for image manipulation and mass circulation. You are able to take an image and manipulate it and circulate it within minutes or even seconds.

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I have chosen an image that represents irony and shines the light on the inhumane treatment at the border. It plays with the concept of "kids in cages." I created this image protesting the inhumane treatment of immigrant children and it reads "human beings" to emphasize they are human. The irony is that the United States Constitution states "all men are created equal" but that's not the reality of things. If all men are created equal, why are children locked up in cages? In the image, I added "human beings" because they are being treated as though they aren't human. But they are and I wanted to create emphasis on that. The political function of reproduction is there have been different widely circulated images to expose the treatment of these children at the border.

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What is real and what is fake? The question that can no longer be answered by the visible eye. As we learned in the lesson this week the importance of the context behind an image because human vision has no limits. As we look at an image, we start to question why was it taken? What was the purpose of taking the picture? Who was the intended audience? There are so many questions that come into your head when analyzing an image. Along with is it real or fake? We live in a modern world where manipulating images is so easy because of all of the technology available to us including photoshop. In the past, I would like to say when I saw an image, I used to think it was real. Everything I saw I thought was realistic but as we learned it’s not always real. Our human vision can only see color and shapes but not the context behind an image. A camera is used to capture an image that will last forever. This is why I find images so interesting. They freeze time. As a viewer, you see a slit second of what’s happening in the image. What happened before and after the image was taken? Furthermore, the naturalistic enthymeme suggests a camera captures a realistic view of what a viewer would see. And argues that premises do not need to be stated because the viewer inserts their own knowledge and experience. I believe this is very true. The image of the “Skull Controversy” is the perfect example of naturalistic enthymeme. This skull during a drought had a huge impact on the way that images specifically the ones in nature are perceived. People claimed that the photo of the skull was fake and that it was altered. Finnegan believes photos (the ones in nature) are assumed to be real until proven otherwise. (which can be called out for manipulation, “fake” as the “Skull Controversy”)

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The naturalistic enthymeme suggests a camera captures a realistic and natural view of what they would see. I decided to use the image of a flower bouquet and insert a bee manually. I wanted to play with the concept of knowledge and experience. As we know bees have a tendency to be near flowers because they feed on their nectar and pollen. When you see this image you think it can be realistic because not it's out of the ordinary to see a bee near flowers. As a viewer, you are able to fill in the blank with your knowledge and experience with bees and flowers. Although the picture seems realistic, it's not because I inserted the bee.

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Through this assignment, photographic realism is often deceiving. As you see in both images an illusion is created by using different angles. In the image on top, it appears I’m standing on her shoulder. While the image at the bottom, it appears someone is going to be stepped on. It is as simple as changing an angle of a camera to be deceived. Forced perspective makes images appear smaller or bigger than they are. This adds to the fact a photo can have multiple meanings based on a change in perspective.

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Chapter 2: Viewers Make Meaning

The meaning of an image depends on how the viewers interpret or experience it. Along with the context the image is viewed in. As a viewer, we create meaning from images and in turn construct audiences. Every individual takes a different meaning from an image and usually never the same. A producer of an image creates it with an intended meaning. However, people don’t often see an image how the producer intended it to be seen. You begin to think that the viewer wrongfully interprets images, or the images are ineffective. In reality, the intended meaning depends when, where, and by who it Is seen and produced. The producer is not in control of the meaning that is seen. To interpret and give value to images depends on the emotional response, whether an image is pleasing, shocking, etc. Viewers interpret the value an image through aesthetics and taste. Aesthetics refers to the perception of beauty and ugliness, while taste is acquired by one’s class, cultural background, and other aspects. This chapter made me think about art critics. Art critics tend to interpret meaning and make critical judgment about works of art. Although, I stop to think about how they interpret the meaning of the art piece.  As I mentioned, the producer creates an image with an intended meaning, but how do art critics determine the intended meaning? It’s a difficult concept. The intended meaning can only be expressed by the producer. In some cases, art critics can’t go directly to the producer because they dead or anonymous. This is why the intended meaning of an image is so difficult to determine. All in all, images hold different value and context to every viewer. The closer you look at an image the more you find. The selection of certain colors or the position of an image can hold meaning.

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P2P Activity #3

After reading chapter 2, I chose to create a meme in relation to low and high culture. This meme shows the distinction between low and high culture. Understanding culture is difficult. There are many elements that go into culture and understanding the difference between low and high culture is important. High culture can be described as forms of fine art, classical music, opera, and ballet. While low culture can be described as comic strips and television. I decided to use image of the Spider Man double and create my own meme. In the meme, you see one Spider Man labeled “low culture” and the other “high culture.” I did that to create distinction between the low and high culture. The speech bubbles add to the meme to establish the difference between the two. The words, “stay classy not trashy” refers classical aspect of high culture. In contrast, the word “stay relevant not outdated” refers to how low culture takes a modern take and more relevant.

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Chapter One: Images, Power, & Politics

Every day we practice the act of looking to make sense of the world. There is a difference between seeing and looking. To see is to observe and recognize what’s around us, while to look is to make meaning.  When looking at an image, every individual takes a different approach. The image can mean different things based off the content of the image and serve a different purpose. Representation is the use of language and images to give meaning. Although there are rules and conventions about how to interpret/ give meaning. We learn these rules vary within a given culture. One of the interesting topics I found in this chapter was the Myth of Photographic Truth. This myth describes the creation of an image through a camera lens. This creation is a subjective choice. For centuries, photography has been regarded as more objective than painting. Although now, photography is a combination of subjective and objective. All images can be viewed by two levels, the denotative (literal meaning) and connotative meaning (cultural and historic context). Images are produced with social power and ideologies. Ideologies are produced through social institutions in a society. Images are also used evidence, regulation, identification, and more. The way we give images meaning is by interpreting the different elements seen. Some of these elements are shade, color, or contrast. The process of interpretation is given from semiotics. Semiotics is a theory of signs that hold meaning. We live in a world filled with signs and it’s our interpretation that give meaning to those signs. A sign is broken into two, the signifier (sound, word, image) and the signified (meaning). Lastly, the value of images is given by a particular social context, whether monetary, social, or political. I never saw the world around me through the way the book explains. Everything around us has so much meaning, yet sometimes we fail to see that. I personally do because I forget.

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