#critical studies

[thetendertongue]

critical geography — a way of understanding space as political; not just where something is, but how it’s organized by power. who gets to belong where? whose labor built this map? how does geography become an instrument of control or liberation?

[anniekoh]

radical studying for another world

This interview is great. Eli Meyerhoff, as mentioned in the interview, is part of the collective of scholars creating abolitionist university studies which builds on “Critical University Studies” but also differs from it by  a. NOT romanticizing the post-WWII university as a “Golden Era” for higher education. The period of relatively robust government funding for higher education also needs to account for “racialized and gendered exclusions as well as how universities served to absorb surplus populations, suburbanize land, and produce research for military and imperial purposes” and b. AND decentering critique, “framing it as just one mode of organizing practice among many other modes, which might be equally, less, or more important, depending on the situation. We ask: what ecology of organizing practices would be most effective, on the one hand, for doing as much damage as possible to racial-colonial capitalism and, on the other, for enabling alternative world-making projects to flourish?”

A Detrimental Education: Zaina Alsous talks with Eli Meyerhoff about his book Beyond Education: Radical Studying for Another World. by Zaina Alsous (April 16, 2020 The New Inquiry

Universities have always been terrains of struggle. The earliest university, the University of Bologna, arose in 1088 from mutual aid societies of students who pooled their resources to hire scholars to teach them. The students engaged in collective bargaining with both the city and the professors, using the threat of a student strike to enforce their demands about the content and cost of courses. The university, called a Studium, was known as a place of studying. The term “education” arose in European languages at least four hundred years after the founding of the early universities. The term was first spread in English in the 1530s by King Henry VIII’s advisors, proclaiming themselves as “educated” as a narrative tool to defend themselves against threats from peasant rebels who had thrown the regime into crisis by questioning the advisors’ legitimacy. 

...

The distinction between education and other modes of study allows us break away from the dominant narratives about the university that portray it as “in crisis.” I see “crisis” narratives as one way of responding to the impasse that we face when we try to grapple with all of the complex controversies raised by universities’ many intersecting struggles, which include student and faculty movements that have organized against increased tuition, debt, corporatization and adjunctification, staff labor organizing, anti-racist, feminist, and anti-colonial movements on campuses, and movements for universities to divest from fossil fuels, among others.

...

If we think of how the higher education industry has accumulated capital through putting students into financial debt in exchange for credits, we can consider how movements of resistance in universities are organizing different kinds of counter-accumulation of unpayable debts, what Harney and Moten call “bad debt.” We can see such counter-accumulations in the potentials for a student debt strike that is simultaneously a refusal to pay individualized financial debts and an affirmation of our collective, mutual obligations (such as seen in Strike Debt’s double-edged call, “you are not a loan”). We can ask how movement-embedded modes of study could connect organizing around student debt with the unpayable debts involved in other struggles, such as for abolition and decolonization, as in movements for slavery reparations and for re-matriation of Indigenous peoples’ lands.

[justananimationstudent-blog]

INSPIRATIONAL WORKS

Marco Bjorman

‘Operator’ – Sam Barnett

‘Silent Hill’ concept art

Jacob’s Ladder

PT - ‘Silent Hills’

‘Anthem’ – Ayn Rand

Prometheus

‘Frankenstein’ Mary Shelly

‘1984’ – George Orwell

Citizen Kane

Film Noir lighting

[alchemisoul]

This is the final product and application of critical thinking your empty-headed children will ask of you to go into, or take on themselves ,in the high 5 to 6 figures in debt for a degree in a nonsense studies related field in Western universities.

[thenamelessreader]

Poetic Prosthetics: Drama and Language in Contemporary Veteran Writing, by Ron Ben-Tovim

It would be an understatement to say that I had not expected to read this book; for a while I have felt that academic writing may simply be not for me, and it quickly became a comforting area for me to dwell in - reciting in my head that I am either "too dumb" for such books or "not there yet" (that is, in comparison to my academic studies as of now) was, in fact, a way for my insecurities to hold me in my place.

However, Ron generously landed me his own copy of the book, which allowed me to both get a chance of reading my first critical studies book and spare my wallet.

The book beautifully discusses the functionality of poetry and language as a protheses for veterans - as language becomes a tool to harness the difference between those who return from war ("I") and those who never have ("they") (or, in the case of some female soldiers facing the fear of MST - "us") - art turns into a different kind of protheses, an extension of the self through the loses of war used as a new manner of communication, in order to replace ordinary speech that cannot commune these traumatic experiences any longer.

Later on, the disillusionment of war is explored through veteran poetry - war is not 'glorious', the dead are rotten meat. However, there are critics who prefer poetry written after the war instead of during it, because the raw emotions are, according to W. B. Yeats, a tad "too" real - unrefined, not artistic enough. As a former arts student (a non-academic one), I was immediately thrown back to the shift from the Classical period to the Hellenistic period in ancient Greece - the cultural need to move from glorified, almost perfect art to 'true' and realistic art, to depict the raw emotions of the people. It happened through history numerous times, as it does once more and wonderfully shown in Ben-Tovim's book.

Generally speaking, veteran writing is a fascinating genre, and I recommend anyone who shares an interest of diving into sensitive, yet meaningful topics, to pick up this book and get familiar with the vast world of veteran poetry, that is beautifully introduced in Ron's book. I will definitely read the rest of the critical military studies books.

ʙ ᴏ ᴏ ᴋ _ ʀ ᴀ ᴛ ɪ ɴ ɢ : ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

[free-jstor]

[GUIDE] The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction - Walter Benjamin (1969)

First off, if you are ever going to cite this article in a social setting with other people who may or may not be familiar with his work (ie. an art event), you need to know this: Benjamin is pronounced ben-yah-MEEN, not BEN-juh-min. (Don't ask me how I know T_T)

If you're an artist and a commie, this might be an interesting read for you! It talks about authenticity, aura, and thoughts on replication.

You can find the reading in the Dropbox link below. It is located under “critical theory texts.zip” > “Durham and Kellner - Keyworks”.

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It's important to note that the term is "mechanical reproduction", not "digital reproduction". Mechanical reproduction refers to actual, handmade, produced replicas of the original (ie. an imitation painting of the Mona Lisa by a different artist, not a picture of the Mona Lisa). However, we will also talk about the implications of digital reproduction!

The term authenticity here refers to an artwork's precise existence in time and space. An original artwork is authentic because there is no way to ever replicate the exact conditions (time, space, environment, technique, etc.) that the artwork is created in. It occupies a unique place in the world, as does every other artwork.

If you are still confused, here's an analogy: you are authentic because there is no other you, nobody with the same exact genes, you are born at X time at Y hospital under Z conditions.

Reproductions will never be authentic to the original because it cannot replicate the conditions of the original artwork, in the same way that a clone of you can never really be you. (or can it....)

There is a bit of a paradox here: it can be argued that by reproducing a work of art, we can also call the original's authenticity into question. By reproducing it, we have undermined the authenticity of the original. But at the same time, each subsequent copy of an original artwork has its own authenticity, its own unique place in the world, and new meanings can be created from those replicas.

But there is one thing that is missing from replicas that only the original artwork possesses. This unique quality of authenticity is what Benjamin calls aura.

Here what that reminded me of:

(this meme i made is cracking me UP LOOOOL)

Anyways, aura cannot be replicated by mechanical reproduction.

Now, in an increasingly digitized world, we can't just forget that photography is now a part of the equation. Historically, photography used to be used to document, prove, and survey more than it was used as an expressive art form. Then, it became an art form, and changed the practice of art in itself.

Photography and film have their own authenticity - a photograph of a painting serves a much different purpose than a real painting. In addition, photography was the first medium to raise objects from ritual. Instead, photography began to be produced for exhibition value.

Here's what Benjamin says about that:

"... the instance the criterion of authenticity ceases to be applicable to artistic production, the total function of art is reversed. Instead of being based on ritual, it begins to be based on another practice- politics".

By ritual, he's referencing how art used to be based on ritualistic practices rather than artistic expression (like, paintings were for the church, etc.). By politics, he is referencing society.

In other words, photography did well to bring the production of art away from ritualistic intentions, but also created a new set of problems re: modernity's demand for reproducibility.

"Visual reproducibility is one of the imperatives of modernity". This is true- we always look for things that we think we know, things that seem familiar, things that are perfect and safe for us to engage with. By increasing reproduction of original artworks, we make them more common. By making them more common, we make them more familiar.

In addition, the "greatly increased mass of participants has produced a change in the mode of participation". What once used to be viewed by a few, in a limited space, now can be viewed by many in a large space (movies) or by multiple people simultaneously in many different spaces (press). Before mechanical reproduction became so prevalent in modern society, viewership was more personal.

Benjamin then concludes with the argument that mechanical reproduction leads to a distracted audience. Visual reproduction combined with the convenience of mass partnership creates people who do not think for themselves, but rather, are distracted by the temptation of continuous consumption.

Can you guess how that works to suppress social revolution?

[free-jstor]

[GUIDE] (i) History of the Subaltern Classes; (ii) The Concept of “Ideology”; (iii) Cultural Themes: Ideological Material - Gramsci (1930)

Hello everyone! This article covers some of Gramsci's work on ideology. If you don't want to read the article, that's fine! I read it for you! (Although I strongly recommend you read literature if you have the ability to, I think it's fine if you don't as long as you're familiar with the concept.) Anyways, enjoy this guide!

You can find the reading in the Dropbox link below. It is located under “critical theory texts.zip” > “Durham and Kellner - Keyworks”.

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(i) History of Subaltern Classes

ruling class: dominating class holding capital and state power

subaltern class: civil society, working class, proletariat

Due to the complexity of the formation of subaltern classes and diversity of subaltern subjects, it becomes very difficult for subaltern classes to unite and rise against the ruling class.

In other words, there is too much infighting between groups of the working class that it becomes difficult for social uprising and revolution to occur. (There are several reasons for this but more on that later, with Adorno & Horkheimer's writing.)

hegemony: supremacy

A hegemonic group means a group that is in power. White people are a hegemonic group, as are men, cisgender people, and able people.

Hegemony of a social group manifests itself in two ways:

via domination (ie. militarization)

via intellectual and moral leadership

(ii) The Concept of Ideology

In Marxist philosophy, praxis represents a distinct advance and is in opposition to ideology. Ideology has historically had a very negative value/connotation. The Marxist definition of ideology is that it is distorted knowledge - a misrepresentation of actual conditions that produce inequality, used to obscure the truth, to give people a false picture of how the world works in order to manipulate and control them.

An example of this would be the American Dream, or the notion that everybody has an equal chance of success in this world. This ideology then shapes the way we think about those who don't succeed: lazy, didn't work hard enough, needs to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps", etc. Ideology at work!

Gramsci, however, puts a positive spin on ideology by claiming that ideology is important in understanding the methodological approach to subaltern class struggle. They both agree that ideology = bad, but Gramsci is more optimistic about it existing.

Basically what happens is... Marx (& subsequent authors): Ideology is meant to brainwash us and cause class struggle, so it's bad. Gramsci: But ackchually, we wouldn't have social change if not for ideology brainwashing us and causing class struggle. (Yeah bro no shit -_-)

(iii) Cultural Themes: Ideological Material

The ruling class imposes ideologies on us by influencing the superstructure through the base. When we examine the ways the ideologies of the dominant class is organized, maintained, and encouraged, the largest method is the press. But all institutions reflect and are influenced by ruling class values. These include, but are not limited to: libraries, schools, organizations, courts, churches, “even architecture, and the layout and names of streets”.

Everything in the superstructure imposes hegemonic values upon us. It can be argued that culture itself is just another product of the structure, designed to impose ideology upon us. (Please free us from the shackles of capitalism omfg)

How is a socially constructed CULTURE a commodity of capitalism? Coming soon, with Adorno & Horkheimer and "the culture industry"!

[free-jstor]

[GUIDE] The Ruling Class and Ruling Ideas - Marx & Engels, 1845-6

Yay for me taking a critical cultural studies class this semester and finally getting around to address some anti-capitalism! This is my freaking bread and butter, y'all. Here's some Marx & Engels on ideology. All of these articles on ideology will connect to one another, so for the best experience, read all of them! (Bonus: Your brain will feel big asf) Anyways, enjoy!

You can find the reading in the Dropbox link below. It is located under "critical theory texts.zip" > "Durham and Kellner - Keyworks".

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The idea that "ideas and values within a society exist separately from political or economic leadership" is wrong.

Prevailing ideas of a society are formed by the ruling class to express or justify their position. The class in control of material production (the ruling class) also controls mental production. They are the "thinkers", as they create ideologies for us and disseminate them through society using their influence over the economy.

In Marxist theory, the economy is the "base". This refers to the means and relations of production: machines, factories, land, resources, capital, commodities, labour, etc. Everything else that we know in society is the "superstructure". This includes art, culture, religion, science, politics, education, family, etc.

According to Marx, the base determines the superstructure, and the superstructure influences the base in return. (This is what we call a dialectical relationship.) He argues that it is not the dominant ideas of a time or culture that determines the social system, but rather, economic production that shapes the prevailing ideas. These ideas then reinforce the system and give it meaning.

As economy develops, the superstructure must be adjusted. Thus, social revolution happens when the economic base changes. The base and the superstructure are not perfectly aligned- that slim misalignment is where opportunities for resistance exist.

The work of critical studies is to identify these misalignments by exposing the gaps, exploiting the gaps, and replacing the existing system with new alternatives.