Visual Culture Final Exam 2Nd Set

Front 1

1. Discuss the rise and decline of mass culture. What are the specific technological advances that caused the shift?

Back 1

o urbanization caused ppl move to urban centres,
o rise of large, faceless corps that owned over local/small businesses,
o lost sense of community/family
• the broadcast media that had been used to spread info or propaganda from war was used to advertise goods that would serve as therapeutic ethos an replace religion as a form of fulfillment (ppl needed therapy from lost sense of fam)
• mass audience would absorb the messages (blind, passive audience) and conform to any ideology imparted on them- become hungrier consumers


• post mod
• Tech- guerrilla television-video cams, cell cameras, digital photog, internet (social media web)
• Allowed for ppl to make guerilla tv and create an alternative from the broadcast media, upload signif events from div POVs to social media websites
• enlighten what was once the masses and spread awareness through critique of modernity/status quo
• giving rise to post modernity and globalization

Front 2

2. In what ways in Habermas’ idea of an ideal public sphere unattainable?

Back 2

• Everyone called into question that there is a unified public space for discourse
• Public Cannot be separated and distinct from the rising consumer culture from the 19th and 20th centuries
• Also cannot be separated from the private realm- private and domestic issues
• In 19th cent the domestic realm was female area, and public realm (he says) is male area
• genered divisions of a ‘democratic practice’- questioned by feminist movement
• counter discourse/counter spheres formed to criticize this theory of idealized public exchange
• excludes women, minorities and members of the lower classes from partaking in pub discussion
• bourgeous men of influence were the ppl that would take part in discussions
• newer definitions are far more inclusive and hold the working class in a much higher regard

Front 3

3. Is the World Wide Web a private or public space? Discuss.

Back 3

• Web is democratic space- multiple publics w shared interests can come together to exchange discourse
• Virtual public sphere? –habbermass’
• Accepts challenges and public strides associated w mass culture
• Access is universal? Tech isn’t free (not entirely democratic)
• File sharing, selling of good on kijiji, youtube- anyone is a star- warhol’s 15 minutes of fame is now 15s
• Measure of success is determined by views/likes and ‘passive viewer” is now active participant in choosing the way they participate in 2-way media
• News and current events- blogs, political blogs, online tech in pol discourse-egypt- circulation of information

Front 4

4. Describe the situationist notion of spectacle

Back 4

• Generally, spectacle refers to something that is striking, shocking or impressive in its visual display
• The Situationists (a group of French theorists from the 1960s) interpret the spectacle as a metaphor for society, in how people live in an ongoing and constant spectacle.
• Describes how reps dominate contemp culture and how all social relations are mediated by/thru images
• increase in technology has created a world in which people believe and live by the influence of images (influence of media in society)
• society’s media and tings have advanced role in capitalist society
• Shows fake reality in order to mask degredation of human life
• Instrument of unification and world vision that forges special social relationship w images and practices of gazing
• Spectacle- spectical thought to be media event that takes over our daily existence (traditional def)
• Debord saw it as sinister, pervasive, incideous

Front 5

What was the Frankfurt School and what were some of their criticisms of the “culture industry”?

Back 5

• Cultural theorists gathering in 1930s in pre nazi period w rise of socialism
• Became criticalof mass media and pop culture that was emerging in US at the time
• Most were Marxist and saw the clichés, mass production and formulaic face of culture
• Feared the effect that it would have on the arts
• Applied Marxist theory on post war theory and cultural production
o analyzed the false consciousness created by the capitalist society with regard to consumerist culture
• rejected Enlightenment philosophy
• saw the culture industry as generating mass culture as a form of commodity fetishism that functions as propaganda for industrial capitalism
• saw mass culture as dictated by formula and repetition, encouraging conformity, promoting passivity, cheating its consumers

Front 6

6. How is consumer culture tied to capitalism?

Back 6

• ad and branding strategies have emerged out of modernity and the emergence of capitalism
• based on accumulation of profit for individuals thru acquisition of goods and their productn
• to do so, capitalism promoted urbanization/industrialization that caused
o lost sense of community/family
• the broadcast media advertised goods that would serve as therapeutic ethos an replace religion as a form of fulfillment and belonging (ppl needed therapy from lost sense of fam)
•
• goods that are made for low prices, but sold for much more
o criteria thru the process of commodity fetishism
o replacing exchange value for use value and removing production value (in most cases)
o thus the Commodity Self is born- Self is edited and constructed thru the things we consume

Front 7

7. In what ways did the shopping experience change with the rise of consumer culture?

Back 7

shopping became form of fulfillment to construct a pseudoindividuality or commodity self to cope with the troubling changes after the war and due to industrialism/urbanization
- The rise of consumerism created new kinds of spatial relationships for citizens in relation to their environments.
- The experience also became a form of entertainment, which was manifested in the rise of the department store.
- The department store was now looked at as a site of both commerce and leisure
- Window shopping and browsing gained a currency with this new consumer environment as mobility emerged as a key aspect of modern life.
• shopping arcades- presented viewer w opportunity to see everything that is available in the consumer market
• walter Benjamin labeled them as the epitomy of modernity-
o emerging consumer culture
o mass produced goods (industrialization)
o foreign goods are made available?
• One-stop shopping
-19th and 20th cent industrialism/mod/post mod
-capitalism

Front 8

8. How do advertisements reference Lacanian lack and the therapeutic ethos?

Back 8

o advertising, references the past, never deals w present, and is based on the future
o provides a “promise” to the viewer of the way that the product could alter their commodity self
o draws on insecurities and fears ppl about their lives/relationships to others
o psychoanalyst by Jacques Lacan
o we are always trying to fill a void/sense of innadiquacy to address the desire and lack (Can never be satified)
o Crucial aspect of human psyche, thr4 exploited by capitalism
o Ads create fantasies that project ego ideals completed by the purchasing of these products
o pushed concept of gratification, peace of mind, fulfillment thru gratification of commodities
o shows ppl what they don’t have

Front 9

10. Describe an example of simulacra not used in the text or class. Discuss.

Back 9

• Van Gough counterfeit
• VVG had many unsigned works that weren’t sold during his life
o There is mysticism and confusion over some paintings said to be his- mysterious provenance
• imitations were made by pros who used typical characteristics of his work to make it look like a VVG
• imitations are simulacrum
o not copies of real paintings…totally made up
o some of them looked more like VVG than real VVG works
o ‘too’ typical- exceeded the thing it simulates and gives more of an experience of it
o possesses more ‘aura’ than real VVG work

Front 10

11. What is the Clinical Gaze? Why is it problematic?

Back 10

Came about with the birth of the medical clinic
Here, the doctor becomes empowered/authorit by their ability to:
• Godlike figure in metanarrative- knowledge/power to understand images
• Separate the patient’s body from the patient’s identity (when analyzing them)
• Assume a role that places them above religion
• Look at the patient and examine them through use of X-rays, MRI

problemo
• This seperation is Invasive /dehumanizing for the patient
• The doctor’s gaze is privelaged over what patient feels
o Dismissal of symptoms to submit to doctor
• With the imaging developments (i.e. Xrays) are feared at first b/c seeing inside is associated w death (ppl were dissected at first)
- imagery and power can be taken advantage of to address agenda- ex. Anti-drug campaign shows altered images

Front 11

13. Describe the way Marshall McLuhan’s theories relate to the idea of the cyborg. (Pg:380)

Back 11

relationship of the organic life and technology
Cyborg has been theorized as a bond of human subjects to technology and the subjectivity of late capitalism, biomedicine, and computer technology.

o Marshall McLuhan once predicted technologies are often sold to us with promise that they will function as extensions of our bodies
o Post mod/tech societies can be understood as cyborgs because we all depend on and have an essential relationship with technologies
o we use cell phones as a means of visual and alfactory communication
o For example, our interaction with our computers/laptops, iPods, and cell phones mean that we experience technologies as inseparable from our bodies.
o we become reliant on our tech as engagements w the environment

Front 12

14. Why is the notion of cultural imperialism no longer an adequate model to describe cultural exchange in the era of Globalization?

Back 12

Cultural imperialism refers to how an ideology, a politics, or a way of life is distributed into other territories through the export of culture products
• Value of imperialist domination has been counter production
• Imperialism has created resentment in 3rd world economies
• Source of anti-western terrorism
• in past, brought corporate and financial benefits, and emerging economies no longer see west as best
• ppl are much more critical and selective and resent assumption that western is better
• move towards exchange, equal sharing of cultures/ideologies
• must embrace diversity- can learn, build on/improve by embracing cultural context- recognition, acknowledgement and respect

Front 13

15. How has globalization fostered local media production? Provide an example of programming produced by and/or targeted to diasporic communities.

Back 13

• accelerated the movement of people and images around the world- comm tech, cultural exchange, ideology sharing
• with the migration of people, come their culture and as communities are formed, new demographics are created
• these demographics want
o media that applies to them
o to preserve their culture
o (like rest of ppltn) an alternative to the popular broadcast media
• - globalization promotes post-mod ideals/thinking
o - freedom of expression and critique of modern world (capitalism, industrialism)
• ppl want to share their critique with rest of world

Front 14

12. How does the modern science of genetics reflect the 19th century philosophy of positivism?

Back 14

o sir francis galton’s eugenics
o science of controlling reproduction as means of improving the entire human race
o in galton’s view (and later nazi germany), not allraces are deemed worthy of reproducing
o doesn’t only apply to races, but also to traits (prostitutes, alcoholics, illiterate ppl)
o uses experimentation and objective methods of documentation (photog)
o optimistic faith in progress
o tries to use reason/scientific rationalism
philosophical position that is scientific in inspiration and assumes that meanings exist out in the world, independent of our feelings, attitudes and beliefs
• Assumes that the factual nature of things can be established by experimentation and that facts are free from the influence of language and representational systems.

Front 15

9. Give an example of a metanarrative and describe its postmodern critique.

Back 15

-Religion
-Lyotard’s critique of metanarratives
-In current times it is difficult to interpret and narrate the world under the measure of an objective truth, with so many ideas and theories that counteract.
-Religion has become strutinized by several institutions, and has sparked new ways of thinking that challenge the set beliefs and religions that have been around for decades; scientology, atheism, agnostic