In “Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars,” Henry Jenkins looks closely at how the Star Wars phenomenon has influenced thousands of fans to create their own music videos, movies, spoofs, and other forms of altering the original films. The well-known spoofs showed that these recreations were not restricted to the fans, but became ingrained into popular culture. Jenkins considers these fans not as people who have too much time on their hands, but as “participants within the current media revolution and their cultural products as an important aspect of the digital cinema movement.” Star Wars was key in bringing about these amateur works, which represented media convergence through a participatory culture.
Media convergence refers to the technological integration of various forms of media into an ownership of only one or a few conglomerates. This works for media democratization because it enables more accessible information, and allows studios to focus more on audience interests. By foregoing a director’s salary for a claim on merchandising profits, George Lucas became the prime example of media convergence, since taking money from the latter has allowed him to build his own empire. Participatory culture allows consumers to interact more with the media in question, and through technology like computers, not only alters the ways that media are produced and consumed, but also bring it into the market.
The most obvious example of participatory culture is fandom, which allows anyone to take an original story and use its characters, locations, themes, etc. to tell their own. Fans “explore and question the ideologies of mass culture,” and reject the idea that there can only be one version of a product. Whether it’s written fan fiction that continues the stories of the Star Wars characters or the video “Troops,” fans can participate in the Star Wars phenomenon that they hold so dear. It seems to go right back to aura – fans can change anything about Star Wars they want and give it new meaning, such as this Photoshop contest that puts notable public figures’ faces onto Star Wars characters: http://www.worth1000.com/cache/contest/contestcache.asp?contest_id=17338&display=photoshop
Looking at these two terms and their examples, I do see increased democratization in popular culture. Fans can do almost anything they want, and no matter what Lucasfilm shuts down over copyright issues, fans will always be able to make those pictures and write those stories, or insert references into movies like Clerks. Fans even use things that originated from the movies themselves in their creation, such as costumes and music. In this case, Lucasfilm and the studios are the elite that Varnelis refers to in “Architecture After Couture.” They can have the final say in how Star Wars is used, but fans can mostly without trouble mold it into their own creation for the enjoyment of themselves and others.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Alex Shakar – The Savage Girl
Alex Shakar’s “The Savage Girl” gave us a narrative to read rather than having an article or thesis essay to examine. One particular aspect of the story I noticed was that it seemed to incorporate many of the themes we have been reading about over the course of the semester. This is seen mainly through two of the characters, Javier and Ursula, as they go about trendspotting new clothes, looks, etc. to market to younger people. Eventually, there came to be so many philosophic discussions on life, behavior, etc., it started to become overwhelming! Through their many conversations and observations of the world around them, it was easy to point out at least some of the ideas we have read about so far.
One of the first themes I noticed in the story was from Dick Hebdige’s “Subculture: The Meaning of Style.” To foreshadow the use of the theme, Javier says at first that he saw a sorority girl reading a book (the same one perhaps?) called “Subcultures.” In looking for a new style to market, Ursula shows her boss her observations of the “savage girl,” to which he asks if it is some sort of “punk hippie.” Just by observing one chosen person, Ursula is trying to market a new subculture to anyone it might appeal to. In a sense, the savage girl’s aura will be lost if her look is made available to the public. Javier expands on this later when he tells her about how “niche marketing” can allow anyone to learn about anything and use it to shape their identities – every life experience can be customized by choosing “everything that makes us who we are from a vast array of choices” (Shakar 24).
He later states that using beauty in marketing inspires people to be better, and that it is the “PR campaign of the human soul” in which beauty will ultimately bring love. This reminded me of the seventh essay in “Ways of Seeing,” where advertising and publicity seem to give people the “choice” to better themselves and be loved by buying a product. Mulvey came to mind when Ursula mentions a patient of her plastic surgeon mother who wanted to look exactly like Betty Boop. She was so obsessed with her image that she wanted to become what the story calls her “Boopleganger” (much like the appeal of Superman in the presentation Laura and I gave). More of Mulvey’s analysis of visual pleasure was reminiscent in the supermarket scene, when the ever-observant Javier looks at the way a female shopper’s choice of long salami becomes her “dream phallus,” sustaining her with the long-term security it gives by lasting for many meals. Further innuendo comes in the form of ice cream and malt shop discussions as well.
Bordieu’s “Distinctions” comes to mind in discussions about consumption in the way “muzak” encourages people to keep shopping. Also, our discussions of national culture seemed to come up with Chas’s (Ursula’s boss) observations on Soviet advertising vs. America’s, where anything Soviet was seen as propaganda, while American marketing was meant to be a good thing.
As for the story itself, Shakar has thought up some unique ideas. One fascinating idea was “paradessence,” which allows two opposing desires to simultaneously satisfy. Examples of this include air travel (sanitized adventure & exoticism and familiarity) and fine dining (animal needs are divine). Positrony seems to refer to the ways people create an artificial life for themselves, and choose to live in a bubble, ignoring the rest of the world. Essentially, Chas says, positrony is schizophrenia. This is part of Chas’s new campaign, “The Lite Age,” designed to allow people to create their own identities through consumerism. This reminded me of our discussions on collections from the Clifford reading. I did find this story very entertaining and thoughtful, and I’ll be curious to see what other themes from the semester highlighted in the story that I might have missed.
One of the first themes I noticed in the story was from Dick Hebdige’s “Subculture: The Meaning of Style.” To foreshadow the use of the theme, Javier says at first that he saw a sorority girl reading a book (the same one perhaps?) called “Subcultures.” In looking for a new style to market, Ursula shows her boss her observations of the “savage girl,” to which he asks if it is some sort of “punk hippie.” Just by observing one chosen person, Ursula is trying to market a new subculture to anyone it might appeal to. In a sense, the savage girl’s aura will be lost if her look is made available to the public. Javier expands on this later when he tells her about how “niche marketing” can allow anyone to learn about anything and use it to shape their identities – every life experience can be customized by choosing “everything that makes us who we are from a vast array of choices” (Shakar 24).
He later states that using beauty in marketing inspires people to be better, and that it is the “PR campaign of the human soul” in which beauty will ultimately bring love. This reminded me of the seventh essay in “Ways of Seeing,” where advertising and publicity seem to give people the “choice” to better themselves and be loved by buying a product. Mulvey came to mind when Ursula mentions a patient of her plastic surgeon mother who wanted to look exactly like Betty Boop. She was so obsessed with her image that she wanted to become what the story calls her “Boopleganger” (much like the appeal of Superman in the presentation Laura and I gave). More of Mulvey’s analysis of visual pleasure was reminiscent in the supermarket scene, when the ever-observant Javier looks at the way a female shopper’s choice of long salami becomes her “dream phallus,” sustaining her with the long-term security it gives by lasting for many meals. Further innuendo comes in the form of ice cream and malt shop discussions as well.
Bordieu’s “Distinctions” comes to mind in discussions about consumption in the way “muzak” encourages people to keep shopping. Also, our discussions of national culture seemed to come up with Chas’s (Ursula’s boss) observations on Soviet advertising vs. America’s, where anything Soviet was seen as propaganda, while American marketing was meant to be a good thing.
As for the story itself, Shakar has thought up some unique ideas. One fascinating idea was “paradessence,” which allows two opposing desires to simultaneously satisfy. Examples of this include air travel (sanitized adventure & exoticism and familiarity) and fine dining (animal needs are divine). Positrony seems to refer to the ways people create an artificial life for themselves, and choose to live in a bubble, ignoring the rest of the world. Essentially, Chas says, positrony is schizophrenia. This is part of Chas’s new campaign, “The Lite Age,” designed to allow people to create their own identities through consumerism. This reminded me of our discussions on collections from the Clifford reading. I did find this story very entertaining and thoughtful, and I’ll be curious to see what other themes from the semester highlighted in the story that I might have missed.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Response to James Clifford's "On Collecting Art and Culture"
I found the most interesting parts of James Clifford’s “On Collecting Art and Culture” to be the ideas concerning how culture and art becomes, in one way or another, something to be collected, possessed, and even obsessed over by groups or individuals. Western cultures are singled out most for having a seemingly infinite amount of collections from every culture on the globe. Possessions from a culture, be it the mask belonging to a tribal chief or a bowl that villagers used to wash their faces, are taken out of their original context and given value and meaning as they become cherished and preserved pieces of property in a collection. The motivations behind these collections are given much thought and consideration. An entire country or tribe cannot become an exhibit, so what is preserved, valued, and exchanged becomes the central issue in deciding what is most worthy of being shown. A few small artifacts often must represent an entire culture’s legacy, and these objects have been chosen because someone has deemed them valuable, beautiful, or based on any number of adjectives that makes their display worth the time of the observing public.
One way of culture collecting is referred to as “ethnography,” which highlights the ways diverse elements of a culture are chosen and taken from their original location and given an increased value by being placed in another, such as a museum or gallery. Clifford views these chosen objects as what the collectors deem as deserving to be remembered and treasured. Where Geertz sees “Art" as being tied to the artist’s social class, aesthetics, and ideas about taste, and “art” as a skilled work, craft, or technology, Clifford has his own system for the way culture was seen in the eighteenth century. “Culture” refers to a tendency to the natural growth of living things, while “culture” came to mean what was most valued in a society.
Going into an exhibit or gallery, it is easy to allow a few objects to sum up the heritage of a culture that one knows little about. Ideas about a society’s culture, practices, and beliefs can be summed up without the details, so looking at one’s own private collection might provide better insight into the motivations behind why we collect what we collect. What is it about certain objects that attract us more than others? All kinds of reasoning can be brought to our collections, whether the objects entertain us (music, movies, books), aesthetically please us (art, photographs), help us make a political or moral statement (t-shirts, bumper stickers), or whose value could bring the owner untold riches some day (old comic books and action figures). Personally, I have to an extent collected items for each of these reasons. A collection seen in a museum or gallery is meant to represent an entire people, but our personal collections show who we are as individuals. Walking into someone else’s room is like walking into a small museum where a person’s identity is preserved in its original context.
One way of culture collecting is referred to as “ethnography,” which highlights the ways diverse elements of a culture are chosen and taken from their original location and given an increased value by being placed in another, such as a museum or gallery. Clifford views these chosen objects as what the collectors deem as deserving to be remembered and treasured. Where Geertz sees “Art" as being tied to the artist’s social class, aesthetics, and ideas about taste, and “art” as a skilled work, craft, or technology, Clifford has his own system for the way culture was seen in the eighteenth century. “Culture” refers to a tendency to the natural growth of living things, while “culture” came to mean what was most valued in a society.
Going into an exhibit or gallery, it is easy to allow a few objects to sum up the heritage of a culture that one knows little about. Ideas about a society’s culture, practices, and beliefs can be summed up without the details, so looking at one’s own private collection might provide better insight into the motivations behind why we collect what we collect. What is it about certain objects that attract us more than others? All kinds of reasoning can be brought to our collections, whether the objects entertain us (music, movies, books), aesthetically please us (art, photographs), help us make a political or moral statement (t-shirts, bumper stickers), or whose value could bring the owner untold riches some day (old comic books and action figures). Personally, I have to an extent collected items for each of these reasons. A collection seen in a museum or gallery is meant to represent an entire people, but our personal collections show who we are as individuals. Walking into someone else’s room is like walking into a small museum where a person’s identity is preserved in its original context.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Blogger Groups
BLOGGING GROUPS
Group 1
NIKKI CESARE http://nikkicesare.blogspot.com/
EVELYN CHIN http://msa-musician.livejournal.com/
JAMES DIER http://cubbiestar.blogspot.com/
NATALIE EILBERT http://swan-turtle.livejournal.com/
JULIANA VANDERLEE cult-youre-in.livejournal.com/
CONOR WENK http://conorwenk.blogspot.com
Group 2
1)MICHELLE TOMMASO http://lady-of-firle.livejournal.com/
2)EVA SAAVEDRA xholykisses.livejournal.com
3)SAM ROSEN http://blogsjustwanttohavefun.blogspot.com/
4)JULIE KILLIAN http://juliejuliepie.blogspot.com/
5)ANTHONY WASHINGTON http://www.xanga.com/A_Washington
6)ALEKSANDR MOROSHKO http://aleksmoroshko.blogspot.com
GROUP 3
1)JAMIE MURPHY http://msa-raindrops.livejournal.com/
2)LINDSEY MISCIA http://msapizzabagel.blogspot.com
3)MAYA CHAYOT http://msaohmy.blogspot.com/
4)KELLEY GARRITY http://msartgrl.blogspot.com/
5)SIMONE MYERS http://cettepersonne.livejournal.com/
6)AVIV COHN http://sandmilk.blogspot.com
GROUP 4
1)DANIEL HAIRSTON http://musikaddikt.livejournal.com/
2)BRIAN SCHWARTZ http://msasr.blogspot.com/
3)KATE PRICE klp817.livejournal.com
4)LAURA KAZDAN http://cats-dance.blogspot.com/
5)CARLOS SALCEDO http://www.carlitoway149.blogspot.com/
6)PATRICIA ORELLANA pattypudge.blogspot.com/
GROUP 5
1)CYNTHIA JAQUEZ http://cjaquez09.blogspot.com
2)CHRISTINE ALAIMO http://www.xanga.com/AlaChristine
3)KATIE HUGHTO http://www.xanga.com/keh3287
4)ALEX PATRICK http://captdumpie.blogspot.com/
5)BEN MILLER http://msa2011.blogspot.com/
6)MICHELLE FETKY simplicity-of-u.blogspot.com
GROUP 6
SHAMECCA MANUEL http://shameccablogs.blogspot.com/
ALLIE SKALAMERA http://soybeann.livejournal.com/
KATHERINE BRIGANTI http://kroe3.blogspot.com/
JAMES NELSON http://jn11.livejournal.com/profile
JUSTIN MAHR http://justinmahr.blogspot.com/
IAN MICHNA
RAMONA ADAIR http://ramonaadair.blogspot.com/
Group 1
NIKKI CESARE http://nikkicesare.blogspot.com/
EVELYN CHIN http://msa-musician.livejournal.com/
JAMES DIER http://cubbiestar.blogspot.com/
NATALIE EILBERT http://swan-turtle.livejournal.com/
JULIANA VANDERLEE cult-youre-in.livejournal.com/
CONOR WENK http://conorwenk.blogspot.com
Group 2
1)MICHELLE TOMMASO http://lady-of-firle.livejournal.com/
2)EVA SAAVEDRA xholykisses.livejournal.com
3)SAM ROSEN http://blogsjustwanttohavefun.blogspot.com/
4)JULIE KILLIAN http://juliejuliepie.blogspot.com/
5)ANTHONY WASHINGTON http://www.xanga.com/A_Washington
6)ALEKSANDR MOROSHKO http://aleksmoroshko.blogspot.com
GROUP 3
1)JAMIE MURPHY http://msa-raindrops.livejournal.com/
2)LINDSEY MISCIA http://msapizzabagel.blogspot.com
3)MAYA CHAYOT http://msaohmy.blogspot.com/
4)KELLEY GARRITY http://msartgrl.blogspot.com/
5)SIMONE MYERS http://cettepersonne.livejournal.com/
6)AVIV COHN http://sandmilk.blogspot.com
GROUP 4
1)DANIEL HAIRSTON http://musikaddikt.livejournal.com/
2)BRIAN SCHWARTZ http://msasr.blogspot.com/
3)KATE PRICE klp817.livejournal.com
4)LAURA KAZDAN http://cats-dance.blogspot.com/
5)CARLOS SALCEDO http://www.carlitoway149.blogspot.com/
6)PATRICIA ORELLANA pattypudge.blogspot.com/
GROUP 5
1)CYNTHIA JAQUEZ http://cjaquez09.blogspot.com
2)CHRISTINE ALAIMO http://www.xanga.com/AlaChristine
3)KATIE HUGHTO http://www.xanga.com/keh3287
4)ALEX PATRICK http://captdumpie.blogspot.com/
5)BEN MILLER http://msa2011.blogspot.com/
6)MICHELLE FETKY simplicity-of-u.blogspot.com
GROUP 6
SHAMECCA MANUEL http://shameccablogs.blogspot.com/
ALLIE SKALAMERA http://soybeann.livejournal.com/
KATHERINE BRIGANTI http://kroe3.blogspot.com/
JAMES NELSON http://jn11.livejournal.com/profile
JUSTIN MAHR http://justinmahr.blogspot.com/
IAN MICHNA
RAMONA ADAIR http://ramonaadair.blogspot.com/
Sunday, September 9, 2007
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