Postmoderism

One of the factors that characterize postmodernism is French philosopher, Jean Baudrillard who believed that simulation was a part of the postmodern era. The Beijiing's World Park is a good representation of this. Postmodernism has been characterized as a response to the conditions of the late modernity linked to the late stages of capitalism. Fredric Jameson, a cultural critic thought that postmodernism emphasize on economic and political conditions, including postwar globalization. With the advances of technology within travel,information, and health care this also contribute to the postmodern world. The term postmodern has been used to describe fashions and even politicians who produce themselves through media images and texts.

Postmodern doesn't necessary intersect modern. It does intersect late modern with the advancement of media, computerization, post industrialization, communication, and globalization.

"Postmodern is different from modernity because postmodern is characterize by the questioning of the supposed universality of structural knowledge, as well as a skepticism about the modern belief in the universality of progress". "Modern thought was characterized by a sense of knowing that was forward looking and positive and the belief that one could know what was objectively true and real by discerning the structural relations that underpin social formations and natural phenomena."

A simulacra is a simulation of something that is actually real. For example, when I went too Las Vegas in 2007 I seen the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower. These monument figures original existence is in New York City and Paris, France respectively.
Reflexivity is a way of making viewers aware of the means of cultural production. It undermines the illusion aspect of narration. It also encourages the viewer to think critical about the ideologies that is being spoken by the individual who is narrating.

Commodity Fetishism

The term commodity fetishism means that the production of the product is being emptied instead of it's abstract meaning. A good example of this is a well-known fashion company name Guess. Guess is a high end company that deals with fashion and accessories. The commodity would be the fashion(clothes,hats, and shoes) and the accessories(wallet,belts,and purses). The emptied meaning of this production would be how the fashion and accessories were made, was it made in a safe work environment, and how the products was shipped and packaged? The filling of this meaning would be the name Guess itself. Due to the popularity and prestige of this company people have a huge tendency to not even think about the empty meaning of these products.

The relationship of branding had change dramatically over the years. The start of the eighteenth and nineteenth century focus more on naming the products that they sold so it could appeal to consumers more. In 1886, the painter name John Everett made the connection with art and advertisement by painting a child blowing bubbles in a Pear Soap's ad. That ad help generate the product popularity and consumer interest. In today's advertisement market they focus more musicians,photographers, and illustrators in order to promote their product. Branding of today is a combination of naming,marketing,and cultural circulation. These are key factors to increase consumer interest in that particular product.

Metacommunication is when the ad speaks to the viewer about the processing of viewing the add. This type of advertisement allows advertisers to address consumers in a new way. There has been trend of "green" marketing going on these past few years. Advertisers take advantage of this trend by marketing the word "green" on many products. You also have to be aware of commodity fetishism dealing with "green" products. Some products that are advertise might not have any environmental benefits with the "green" movement.

Commodity Culture

Capitalism has similar relations to Commodity Culture. Capitalism depends on production and consumption of large amount of goods that has a tendency to be a overload to a consumer. Capitalism also relies on the desire and need for those specific goods in order for consumers to keep coming back. What a Commodity Culture does is when something is changed or adjusted amongst a social society, it adapts to that change. A good example of this was in the mini lecture called "Urbanization, Industrialization, and Commodity Culture". When men and women started to work more together in the workforce the commodity culture took advantage of this and started to market different gender products. I believe the similarities of the two is that they both is trying to market a product and relying on the consumer to purchased that product.

In consumer societies, there is a constant demand for new products and old products are being revamped to look new again to appeal to the consumer. In this society consumers must be able to afford the goods as well as possess leisure time to purchase these goods. At one point consumer societies relied on larger sectors of population living to get their goods out. Now with the rise of online commerce everyone has access to these goods.

Visual pleasure was a great concept for department stores. The idea to display goods in the window translated to consumer curiosity and increased attention to the store. Flaneur is a figure who moves through the city with a certain type of fashion and enjoys the activity of looking. The similarities between the two was to expose fashion to the public eye. The mobility affected this concept in a positive way. The gazing and visual pleasure of portraits and fashion increased in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with patrons.

In my own words, the presumption of relevance means when you are advertising and emphasizing the importance of that product. A good example is when you see commericials about getting hard rock abs in ten minutes. We all know it takes hard work and dedication to be in good shape, but the image of the man or woman with a "six pack" or "eight pack" on there stomach distorts that reality to consumers.

The statement "Advertising asks us not to consume products but to consume the signs in the semiotic meaning of the term" generally means that when a product is being advertise don't focus so much on the product at hand, but focus on the connotative meaning of the message that is being presented with the product.

Realism and Perspective

There are a few ways that approaches and appreciation of realism of art had on politics. On page 146 it explained how social realism was embraced in the Soviet Union in 1932. Soviet leader, Josef Stalin mandated that all paintings must be a form of pictorial realism. It was dangerous to produce any type of abstract art at that time. Some artist was even exiled to Siberian camps if they were found producing such art. The reason why Stalin enforced this policy was to promote nationalism among the people that was unfamiliar with this style.

The term avant-garde means to describe movements at the forefront of artistic experimentation and leading the way toward major changes. In 1917, the Soviet Constructivist Realist Manifesto propose a geometric abstraction and objective form icons, rather then the pictorial styles. The Manifesto believe that by changing styles this will represent the new ways of the arts and modernize the Soviet Union. Another example of avant-garde was when artist Claude Monet's painting Impression, Sunrise came out in 1872. The term impressionism was introduced at this time. Impressionism is a artistic style that the artist emphasizes on light and color. With each painting made by Monet the lighting and colors of his portrait would look different depending on the weather and time of day.

During the Renaissance period artists actively pursued the development of techniques for specific drawings and paintings for the average spectator. The artists during this era realize and learned that they needed to develop a different perspective of their art for different spectators to identify with. We have to realize that every period of history has a different episteme.

Cubism is a style that purposely challenge the dominant model of perspective. The painters Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque introduced cubism by developing new ways of depicting space and objects. These paintings had spectators gazing in multiple ways. With these paintings you had to really view it in order to grasp the understanding and the meaning of what the artist is trying to get across. Realism can be tied into cubism because realism represents a style of art that is understood in a particular historic moment and to interpret people, events, and objects . Cubism is a representation of a style of art as well and it also express different ways to view space and objects.

Gazing

On page 119, I could only find one traditional convention I interpret from the reading. The image convention was the woman posing nude with a gorilla mask on her face. This was a great attempt to get peoples attention for woman artists rights. Especially male spectators. The gaze in this image was clearly the naked woman, but the image also got it's point across also with the caption below explaining the percentages of female artists in the Metro Museum of Art.

When John Berger wrote "men act,woman appear" he was trying to explain the nudity in the paintings which was predominately based on naked woman and male viewers. The image of women as whole sells and grasp the spectators attention. A good example of this is on page 125 with the Ralph Lauren ad. You have a man on top of a beautiful woman that is gazing at spectators. I would definitely say this catches quite a few viewers attention.

I believe I have a dominant-hegemonic approach towards the whole reading. I totally except the images that's been presented and understand there translation towards the spectators. I also like how the book used the movie Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock on the example of gazing. The character in the movie named Jeffries had a broken leg and was confined to the wheelchair in his apartment. He ends up spending most of his time staring at the window of his apartment at various of people that walk the street, but the people on the street can't see him. This is a good interpretation of gazing and we as humans perform this act unconsciously at times.

Modernity and Modern

The difference between modernity and modern is that modernity is a term that scholars used in the eighteenth-century. They used that term when they was talking about certain historical,cultural, and political conditions relating to the Enlightenment. Modernity is also associated with industrialization, human intervention in nature, and mass democracy. The term modern means present or recent times. A German scholar Jurgen Habermas explained that modern is when a culture is at it's present existence and it starts to see itself as a product. A product that transitions from a old era to a new era.

One of the topics Foucault's study for discourse was the concept of madness. In the nineteenth century psychiatry science was improved and medical definitions of madness was formed. The mentally ill also was consider to be influence by "folly". This term means a benign way of thinking. Foucault defined madness through the discourses of medicine,law, and education.

On page 101 and 102 they talk about the relationship of Gaze and Spectatorship. These terms are a natural instinct in the human element. Any type of art we look at or film we see, were engaging in these practices. Page 102 explain some of the concept practices that we might experience through spectatorship and gaze. The name of these concepts as follows, the roles of the unconscious and desire in viewing practices, looking in the formation of the human subject as such, and looking is always a relational activity and not simply a mental activity engaged by someone. By looking at these concept practices we can have a better understanding of what happens in the process of looking.

Decoding Televison

There are several shows that are based on small claims court. You have abundance of these shows from Judge Joe Brown, Judge Alex, and Judge Judy just to name a few. Personally, one of my favorites to watch is Judge Mathis. He seems geniune and he's there to help people in need. When I watch his show I believe I take a hegemonic position. When I view Judge Mathis I get entertainment and plus a sense that someone cares about individuals.

On page 85, I admired Copper Greene cleverness by using a well-known iPod poster and used it as a campaign for the Iraqi people that were mistreated in Abu Ghraib prison. On the poster there is a man with a hood standing on a box with electrical wires attach to his hands. In the upper left corner it says iRaq instead of the slogan iPod.

Meaning of Interpellation,Taste and Kitsch

The role of interpellation with advertisements is to address their consumers and recruit them in a particular ideological position. The images that we see on television and magazines speaks to us and grabs our attention. An example of interpellation is the EAS commericals that I see on television. They have well-known athletes advertising powder drinks and eating protein candy bars. When you see these images you might think to yourself, "That's all I have to do is take these products and I can look and feel like this athlete on television." Personally, I know this is not possible, but when some people look at these commericals they think this can really happen just by taking the product that is advertise.

Taste is based on experiences to one class, cultural background, education, and other aspects of identity. Taste is also refer to one's middle class or upper-class background. High/low culture is also asscoiated with this concept. For example, high culture might be link to 60 mintues show and low culture can link to music videos. Kitsch is associated with objects that are often cheap. An example of this is the lava lamp.

Images and Ideology

I believe the image icon is connected to ideology by the strength and siginfanance of the image that is portrayed. Ideologies represents systems of beliefs that exist with in all cultures. Images helps generate belief and confidence towards a specific ideology.

I also found a few interesting paragraphs on page 24 and 25. They talked about portrait images and how they're used for personal indentification purposes. When you think about it passports, driver licenses, credit cards are just a few examples on how our government tracks us. The surveillance cameras are installed in public places such as banks, stores, and even at street corners. I understand that we have to keep our citizens safe, but our privacy is at risk at well.

Page 25 the book mentioned the O.J. Simpson 1994 arrest for the alleged murder. Simpson's image as a public figure has always been viewed as positive until this incident. He was in sports media, advertising, and celebrity news as well. Once that arrest happen and his mugshot photo was on Time magazine as well as other magazines covers, people opinions changed instantly. This goes to show you how much a image can persuade people judgements and opinions towards a individual. Even with a iconic figure such as O.J. Simpson.

Myth Of Photographic Truth

Roland Barthes made a valid point about the myth of photographic truth. "A photograph, unlike a drawing,offers a unprecedented conjunction between what is here now and what was there then". You have to wonder if the image you are looking at is actually the image it's suppose to be? With all the digital editing software and programs that exist it raises many questions.

Barthes Thoughts On Myth

Roland Barthes used the term "myth" in a variety of ways. He believes "myth is a hidden set of rules, which has meanings and are specific to certain groups. Myth also allows a connotative meaning or image to appear denotative. In one example,Barthes disagreed with the French advertisement for Italian sauce and pasta. They advertise the product by using concepts such as "Italianicity". Barthes believe this was a connoted message. This product wasn't for the Italians, it was specifically for the French audience.

Barthes and Mythologies

In one of Roland Barthes example in his book of Mythologies he describes the concept of "RedWine" and its mirage. In holy communion, the concept of red wine is look like the blood of Jesus but with unlimited consumption of the wine it can cause harmful effects.With that approach I can see why the "Red Wine" can be viewed as a myth.