Disjuncture and Difference in the global Culture
By Arjun appadurai
This article begins by asking, “Does globalization mean that local cultures are becoming more homogeneous?
I think that globalization has actually made people more nationalistic because they are searching to define themselves and their culture against the global economy.
I agree that we have to let go of these definitions that are based on opposites, and therefore always create an edge or limit with clear boundaries. We don’t exist in a culture or world with clear boundaries anymore. If “space-time compression” means that we can actually “be” in more than one place at the same time, Internet, travel, networks, blogs, then there are many different associations that define our identity. We are no longer “global/local,” “north/south,” or “black/white.” Instead Arjun Appadurai suggests we must look and think in terms of flows or “scapes” that move through the globe carrying capital, information, images, people, ideas, and technologies.
By changing the terms of reference, or the language we use, we are able to open up a new dimension for looking at our understanding of identity and difference.
He suggests that these “scapes” can be categorized into ethnoscape, mediascape, technoscape, finascape and ideoscape. These “scapes” seem to dynamically organize and move themselves with in a framework of the individual (actor). This could mean that our identity is constructed based on what we do, what we think, where we live and more that actually existing in a constant state of flux.
Issues of deterritorialization in relation to money, commodities, film and people begin to construct a fractured reality. The problem with this new feature of global “scapes” is when two “scapes” fight for power or dominant ideologies. This then creates a disjuncture, evident in nation-state relations. Examples include Quebec separatism, bush invading Iraq, and national and international boarders.
Globalization is not the same as homogenization however it uses a variety of instruments of homogenization. These instruments include armaments, advertising techniques, language, clothing style etc, which are repackaged as national sovereignty, free enterprise, fundamentalism etc. This fight between sameness and difference between these global “flows” and uncertain forms or boundaries of the “scapes” creates a really uncertain placement for individuals and countries. Arjun Appadurai is saying that this is a result of the global cultural process.
Is this is good state to be in? We have acknowledged that globalization does not me homogenization, but does this fluctuating state of the unknown “scapes” with their uncertainties and disjunctures provide us with a stable framework to identify ourselves with? Or will we live in a perpetual state of conflict?
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Jordy: Notes and Responses: Rorty
Globalization, the politics of identity and social hope
Richard Rorty
- Does not think that “revival of long –repressed hatreds embedded in ethnic, religious and national identities” is surprising
- Does not see that terms like “politics of identity” point to anything interesting or different
- Does not think that the fragility of universal conceptions or postmodern skepticism plays a role….
- Loss of faith in universal notions and cosmopolitan…
Concludes:
- Things couldn’t get much better than they are right now!
- We will never have a classless global society!
o When ideal stood… there was little interest in the minority or marginal cultures
o If a global monoculture was prospect, than it was worth the loss of cultural inheritances
2 scenarios:
1. Marxist proletariat followed by the loss of entrepreneurialism
2. Peace and technology would progress to virtually unlimited economic prosperity
Fear: United States is a danger of developing an over class to the misery of everyone else
- The middle class of the US and Brazil have more in common then with the poor of their own country
- Concerned with the loss of the two egalitarian utopias, therefore concerned about globalization
- Appropriate intellectual background to political deliberation is historical narrative
Past:
- Philosophers formulated their taxonomies of social phenomena, and designed the conceptual tools they need to criticize existing institutions, by referring to a story about what happened and what we might reasonably hope could happen in the future
Present:
- Taking starting point from psychoanalysis, language, “identity”, and “self” and “subject”
- Turn away from narration and utopia dreams towards philosophy seems to gesture of despair… IMPOSSIBILITY
Central Question: those about the relations between rich and poor
Globalization: the economic situation of the citizens of a nation-state has passed beyond the control of the laws of that state.
“…The absence of the global polity means that the super-rich can operate without any thought of any interests saves their own...”
US was a world leader for its egalitarian roles… it has lost that role….
The role of United Nations... In the past several decades we have seen the United Nations falter on many occasions. Its relevance has been questioned for in terms of having any control of what is occurring on a global scale. I think that the relevancy of such an institution is symptomatic of its failing state. However, I think the United Nations needs to be reformed, repackaged, and restructured.
I think the majority of its problems stem from its oppressive structure that allows a few select states be in control over a larger group of smaller countries. I do not think that countries should have “veto power”. The role of the oppressive countries in the United Nations is a reflection of what is occurring in a broader global context.
A global authority is necessary in this complex and high-speed political world. However there are some hard questions to ask about the extent of such an authority. What authority should it have? To what extent should there authority be? Who should be in charge? How much power should each country have? Should it only be countries? Many corporation have more land / wealth / workers than some smaller countries… should they have a role in a global authority?
Should global authorities only be a political agenda? Should the other scapes have a global authority? Do we need regulating zones for media, technologies, cultures, and ideas?
What about moral questions? When would a global authority have a right to intervene? Does it have a right to intervene? What role does a global body have? Is it even possible for it to keep relevance in this high speed and complex world?
Identity:
- No such thing as “intrinsic” or “essential” attributes
- Preservation of cultural identity
o Native tribes
o Oppressed groups
o “Politics of identity”
o Distinct from the struggle of rich against poor
- Become aware of humiliations (i.e. colonialism)
- Counteract by having a voice
- Reveal blind spots:
o Correctable: attention called to the harm we have been doing without noticing that we are doing it.
o Open to pluralism: individual variation
Blind spots?
It is funny how we can create blind spots towards certain ideas, actions, or beliefs. It is possible to act in a horrendously immoral and insensitive way without even knowing what you are doing. One of the most striking examples would be exposed with the Holocaust. Hannah Arendt has done amazing work in showing how banal evil can be with her text called Eichmann in Jerusalem. In the text, she demonstrates how the bureaucratic actions of one man caused the death of millions of innocent people, while he felt no remorse or acknowledgment of his actions.
These blind spots occur on everyday scale as well. How often do you turn away from a homeless person? Or disregard a famine that is occurring half a world away? How much responsibility to you feel for those occurrences? How much should you feel for these occurrences?
I understand blind spots from my experience of schoolyard bullying. When a child is unfairly bullied or picked on and the classmates, teachers, parents ignore the bullying, it is a prime example of blind spots. We are ignoring that an unfair action is happening to an innocent person, which could be stopped. What is requires is the acknowledgment of all parties of what is occurring. We do not necessarily need consensus, but the issue needs to be addressed. If we as a society still let children were bullied how can be ever address larger issues of abuse? I feel that any possible chance for an egalitarian society exists in the school yard and by educating others…
Richard Rorty
- Does not think that “revival of long –repressed hatreds embedded in ethnic, religious and national identities” is surprising
- Does not see that terms like “politics of identity” point to anything interesting or different
- Does not think that the fragility of universal conceptions or postmodern skepticism plays a role….
- Loss of faith in universal notions and cosmopolitan…
Concludes:
- Things couldn’t get much better than they are right now!
- We will never have a classless global society!
o When ideal stood… there was little interest in the minority or marginal cultures
o If a global monoculture was prospect, than it was worth the loss of cultural inheritances
2 scenarios:
1. Marxist proletariat followed by the loss of entrepreneurialism
2. Peace and technology would progress to virtually unlimited economic prosperity
Fear: United States is a danger of developing an over class to the misery of everyone else
- The middle class of the US and Brazil have more in common then with the poor of their own country
- Concerned with the loss of the two egalitarian utopias, therefore concerned about globalization
- Appropriate intellectual background to political deliberation is historical narrative
Past:
- Philosophers formulated their taxonomies of social phenomena, and designed the conceptual tools they need to criticize existing institutions, by referring to a story about what happened and what we might reasonably hope could happen in the future
Present:
- Taking starting point from psychoanalysis, language, “identity”, and “self” and “subject”
- Turn away from narration and utopia dreams towards philosophy seems to gesture of despair… IMPOSSIBILITY
Central Question: those about the relations between rich and poor
Globalization: the economic situation of the citizens of a nation-state has passed beyond the control of the laws of that state.
“…The absence of the global polity means that the super-rich can operate without any thought of any interests saves their own...”
US was a world leader for its egalitarian roles… it has lost that role….
The role of United Nations... In the past several decades we have seen the United Nations falter on many occasions. Its relevance has been questioned for in terms of having any control of what is occurring on a global scale. I think that the relevancy of such an institution is symptomatic of its failing state. However, I think the United Nations needs to be reformed, repackaged, and restructured.
I think the majority of its problems stem from its oppressive structure that allows a few select states be in control over a larger group of smaller countries. I do not think that countries should have “veto power”. The role of the oppressive countries in the United Nations is a reflection of what is occurring in a broader global context.
A global authority is necessary in this complex and high-speed political world. However there are some hard questions to ask about the extent of such an authority. What authority should it have? To what extent should there authority be? Who should be in charge? How much power should each country have? Should it only be countries? Many corporation have more land / wealth / workers than some smaller countries… should they have a role in a global authority?
Should global authorities only be a political agenda? Should the other scapes have a global authority? Do we need regulating zones for media, technologies, cultures, and ideas?
What about moral questions? When would a global authority have a right to intervene? Does it have a right to intervene? What role does a global body have? Is it even possible for it to keep relevance in this high speed and complex world?
Identity:
- No such thing as “intrinsic” or “essential” attributes
- Preservation of cultural identity
o Native tribes
o Oppressed groups
o “Politics of identity”
o Distinct from the struggle of rich against poor
- Become aware of humiliations (i.e. colonialism)
- Counteract by having a voice
- Reveal blind spots:
o Correctable: attention called to the harm we have been doing without noticing that we are doing it.
o Open to pluralism: individual variation
Blind spots?
It is funny how we can create blind spots towards certain ideas, actions, or beliefs. It is possible to act in a horrendously immoral and insensitive way without even knowing what you are doing. One of the most striking examples would be exposed with the Holocaust. Hannah Arendt has done amazing work in showing how banal evil can be with her text called Eichmann in Jerusalem. In the text, she demonstrates how the bureaucratic actions of one man caused the death of millions of innocent people, while he felt no remorse or acknowledgment of his actions.
These blind spots occur on everyday scale as well. How often do you turn away from a homeless person? Or disregard a famine that is occurring half a world away? How much responsibility to you feel for those occurrences? How much should you feel for these occurrences?
I understand blind spots from my experience of schoolyard bullying. When a child is unfairly bullied or picked on and the classmates, teachers, parents ignore the bullying, it is a prime example of blind spots. We are ignoring that an unfair action is happening to an innocent person, which could be stopped. What is requires is the acknowledgment of all parties of what is occurring. We do not necessarily need consensus, but the issue needs to be addressed. If we as a society still let children were bullied how can be ever address larger issues of abuse? I feel that any possible chance for an egalitarian society exists in the school yard and by educating others…
Jordy: Notes and Responses: Disjuncture
Disjuncture and difference in the global cultural economy
Arjun Appadurai
Does the globalization mean that local cultures are becoming more homogeneous? NO
Is it really possible to become homogeneous? By the other cultures coming into contact with one another does that necessarily entail copying and assimilation? Is it a negative thing that cultural influences are flowing across boundaries? Is this a new phenomenon or just an old story that has a new technological and high-speed twist?
It is true that when cultures meet / combine / interact / engage that there is a potential for abuse and oppression. You don’t have to look any farther than the Native Americans encounter with the Europeans for a classic example and there are examples of colonialism still occurring in various parts of the world. However, I do not think that I necessarily result in homogenization. It would be very hard to argue that Native Americans are some how homogenized into European culture. Obviously, there culture has been transformable / obliterated / oppressed, but they still resiliently hold their own identity and culture. I think greater challenged for Native American culture in Winnipeg is not only the holding onto their identities, but also determining their place in a larger global context. The question that remains is how to place yourself in a larger context of media and cultural belief? How do you change opinion? Do you go with the flow and risk losing identity and control? Or do taking part and using media to counteract and exist in the context retain cultural identity?
Disjuncture? It is these disjuncture and differences that so often drive us apart, which are what is required in a global context. What causes some disjuncture to be negatively received? What was the disjuncture between in Rwanda? Why was that disjuncture explosive and violent? What is the difference between that type of disjuncture and one that can peacefully coexist? If these disjuncture exist within these “scapes” how can they be used to make our differences a good thing, rather what drives us apart?
Contradicts:
- Globalization,
- Postmodernism
- Post colonialism
- Oppositions “global/local” and “north/South”
Suggestion:
- Flows / scapes of information, technology, images, people, ideas, capital…
- Mutation of flows
- Relationships are antagonistic and distant
- Pass through national boundaries
- Greater possibilities of colonies centres, and nations to states (favors globalize)
Other question: Who is losing out in the globalization?
Problem with global interactions is the tension b/w cultural homogenization and heterogenization
i.e. Homogenization: Americanization… Contradiction to argument: indigenization
- Music, housing, science and terrorism
New economy is understood as complex, overlapping, disjunctive order…
Cannot be understood in terms of old periphery or push pull migratory models
Exploring disjuncture: five dimensions:
1. Mediascape
2. Ethnoscapes
3. Technospaces
4. Finanscapes
5. Ideoscapes
Scapes:
- Perspective constructs
- Different actors
- Historical, linguistically and political
*** Individual actor is the least locus of the perspective set of landscapes
- “Imagined” worlds
- Multiple worlds
- Contest and subvert
- Characterize international capital as they do fashion styles…
“Global flows occur in and through the growing disjuncture (disconnected, separated, incoherence) between ethnoscapes, technospaces, finanscapes, mediascape, and ideoscapes’
“The sheer speed, scale and volume of each of the flows is now so great that the disjuncture have become central to the politics of global culture”
“Deterritorialization” i.e laboring classes into wealthy areas;
My visit to Princeton: It was an odd experience when you visit one of the most prestigious and elite schools in North America. It is renown to be for the rich and the future rich. What amazed me was the realization that a mostly Mexican labor force supported the entire school campus. There was a stark contrast of the mostly Caucasian students and the mostly Mexican workers. Thus, it seems that the barriers of distance, wealth, and culture had collapsed into an odd world of inequalities.
Invented Homelands:
What does it mean to from a place? Do you have to be born there? Is it a question of genealogy? Inheritance? How do you determine where you are from and when does it become part of a group? How do you take ownership of place?
For instance, when will I feel that I am from Canada? When will my Canadian citizenship become my predominant culture identity and not my cultural heritage? Or is the reverse the underlying condition? Maybe Canada’s identity crisis is a demonstration of what the global culture is becoming. Such as an ethnoscapes in which you can live in one place, but identify with multiple places and cultures. Perhaps Canada’s identity is a mixed, varied, unsure, and plural state?
The role of the nation state in the disjunctive global economy of culture:
Nations in search of states:
- Imagined groups which seek to create states of their own or carve pieces out of existing states i.e. Quebec
States in search of communities:
- Museumizing and representing all groups as uniform through out the world
*** states and nations are at each others throats (imaginative and roaming nationhoods)
Primordia have become globalize;
- Locality has been turned into staging ground for identity
- Localities stay connected by sophisticated technologies
- Become a global force slipping b/w the cracks of borders..
i.e. Palestinian and Israel conflict
Uncertain / fluid interplay b/w production and consumption
- Fetishism of the commodity
o Production fetishism
o Fetishism of the consumer
Production fetishism:
- Illusion created by contemporary transnational production loci, which masks translocal capital…
- Free trade zones as the model
- Not masking social relations, but production relations
- The locality (factory, site of production, nation state) becomes a fetish which disguises the globally dispersed forces that actually drive the production processes
Consumerism fetish:
- Consumer has been transformed (through commodity flows , mediascape) into sign
- “ These images of agency are increasingly distortions f a world of merchandising so subtle that the consumer is consistently helped to believe that he or she is an actor, where in fact they are at best a chooser”
“the globalization is not the same as its homogenization, but globalization involves the use of a variety of instruments of homogenizations (armaments, advertising techniques, language hegemonies, clothing styles…). Which are absorbed into local political and cultural economies, only to be repatriated as heterogeneous dialogues of national sovereignty, free enterprise, fundamentalism, in which the state plays an increasingly delicate role”
i.e Chinese revolt
Thus, triumphantly universal and resiliently particular
Arjun Appadurai
Does the globalization mean that local cultures are becoming more homogeneous? NO
Is it really possible to become homogeneous? By the other cultures coming into contact with one another does that necessarily entail copying and assimilation? Is it a negative thing that cultural influences are flowing across boundaries? Is this a new phenomenon or just an old story that has a new technological and high-speed twist?
It is true that when cultures meet / combine / interact / engage that there is a potential for abuse and oppression. You don’t have to look any farther than the Native Americans encounter with the Europeans for a classic example and there are examples of colonialism still occurring in various parts of the world. However, I do not think that I necessarily result in homogenization. It would be very hard to argue that Native Americans are some how homogenized into European culture. Obviously, there culture has been transformable / obliterated / oppressed, but they still resiliently hold their own identity and culture. I think greater challenged for Native American culture in Winnipeg is not only the holding onto their identities, but also determining their place in a larger global context. The question that remains is how to place yourself in a larger context of media and cultural belief? How do you change opinion? Do you go with the flow and risk losing identity and control? Or do taking part and using media to counteract and exist in the context retain cultural identity?
Disjuncture? It is these disjuncture and differences that so often drive us apart, which are what is required in a global context. What causes some disjuncture to be negatively received? What was the disjuncture between in Rwanda? Why was that disjuncture explosive and violent? What is the difference between that type of disjuncture and one that can peacefully coexist? If these disjuncture exist within these “scapes” how can they be used to make our differences a good thing, rather what drives us apart?
Contradicts:
- Globalization,
- Postmodernism
- Post colonialism
- Oppositions “global/local” and “north/South”
Suggestion:
- Flows / scapes of information, technology, images, people, ideas, capital…
- Mutation of flows
- Relationships are antagonistic and distant
- Pass through national boundaries
- Greater possibilities of colonies centres, and nations to states (favors globalize)
Other question: Who is losing out in the globalization?
Problem with global interactions is the tension b/w cultural homogenization and heterogenization
i.e. Homogenization: Americanization… Contradiction to argument: indigenization
- Music, housing, science and terrorism
New economy is understood as complex, overlapping, disjunctive order…
Cannot be understood in terms of old periphery or push pull migratory models
Exploring disjuncture: five dimensions:
1. Mediascape
2. Ethnoscapes
3. Technospaces
4. Finanscapes
5. Ideoscapes
Scapes:
- Perspective constructs
- Different actors
- Historical, linguistically and political
*** Individual actor is the least locus of the perspective set of landscapes
- “Imagined” worlds
- Multiple worlds
- Contest and subvert
- Characterize international capital as they do fashion styles…
“Global flows occur in and through the growing disjuncture (disconnected, separated, incoherence) between ethnoscapes, technospaces, finanscapes, mediascape, and ideoscapes’
“The sheer speed, scale and volume of each of the flows is now so great that the disjuncture have become central to the politics of global culture”
“Deterritorialization” i.e laboring classes into wealthy areas;
My visit to Princeton: It was an odd experience when you visit one of the most prestigious and elite schools in North America. It is renown to be for the rich and the future rich. What amazed me was the realization that a mostly Mexican labor force supported the entire school campus. There was a stark contrast of the mostly Caucasian students and the mostly Mexican workers. Thus, it seems that the barriers of distance, wealth, and culture had collapsed into an odd world of inequalities.
Invented Homelands:
What does it mean to from a place? Do you have to be born there? Is it a question of genealogy? Inheritance? How do you determine where you are from and when does it become part of a group? How do you take ownership of place?
For instance, when will I feel that I am from Canada? When will my Canadian citizenship become my predominant culture identity and not my cultural heritage? Or is the reverse the underlying condition? Maybe Canada’s identity crisis is a demonstration of what the global culture is becoming. Such as an ethnoscapes in which you can live in one place, but identify with multiple places and cultures. Perhaps Canada’s identity is a mixed, varied, unsure, and plural state?
The role of the nation state in the disjunctive global economy of culture:
Nations in search of states:
- Imagined groups which seek to create states of their own or carve pieces out of existing states i.e. Quebec
States in search of communities:
- Museumizing and representing all groups as uniform through out the world
*** states and nations are at each others throats (imaginative and roaming nationhoods)
Primordia have become globalize;
- Locality has been turned into staging ground for identity
- Localities stay connected by sophisticated technologies
- Become a global force slipping b/w the cracks of borders..
i.e. Palestinian and Israel conflict
Uncertain / fluid interplay b/w production and consumption
- Fetishism of the commodity
o Production fetishism
o Fetishism of the consumer
Production fetishism:
- Illusion created by contemporary transnational production loci, which masks translocal capital…
- Free trade zones as the model
- Not masking social relations, but production relations
- The locality (factory, site of production, nation state) becomes a fetish which disguises the globally dispersed forces that actually drive the production processes
Consumerism fetish:
- Consumer has been transformed (through commodity flows , mediascape) into sign
- “ These images of agency are increasingly distortions f a world of merchandising so subtle that the consumer is consistently helped to believe that he or she is an actor, where in fact they are at best a chooser”
“the globalization is not the same as its homogenization, but globalization involves the use of a variety of instruments of homogenizations (armaments, advertising techniques, language hegemonies, clothing styles…). Which are absorbed into local political and cultural economies, only to be repatriated as heterogeneous dialogues of national sovereignty, free enterprise, fundamentalism, in which the state plays an increasingly delicate role”
i.e Chinese revolt
Thus, triumphantly universal and resiliently particular
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Bizar question of the Global Political spectrum
Artist David Cerny created a sculpture of Saddam Hussein before the sentencing of the trial. Taking inspiration from Damien Hurst's pickled tiger shark. This work was banned as public work for its prevocacy and obscenity. Read the article at the url below.
This asks questions about the effect of global politics, also a question about communication in public space. Something like this could be banned in physical space, but becomes common place in the constructed space of the internet.
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/75583
Canadian Artist Penny Cousineau-Levine
Regarding identity
After years of examining Canadian art photography, she went back to the critics, including Northrop Frye, John Ralston Saul and Linda Hutcheon, and found that the themes they identified in Canadian literature and political life— of disconnection, of looking out to another world — are also present in the work of many Canadian artists working with the camera.
In the book, she noted such preoccupations as the entrapment of animals, the inability of individuals to feel at home, recurring images of windows, “symbolic codes,” parallel “zones of reality,” and especially, “a fascination with the phenomenon of death that goes far beyond that of any other group.”
http://ctr.concordia.ca/2003-04/sept_25/08-cousineau/index.shtmlMaya The Politics of Identity
Globalization: The Politics of Identity and Social Hope
Richard Rorty
Does globalization and homogenization really begin to effect our identity? Do we feel lost in a a sea of brand names?
After world war II there were hopes of constructing a classless society. It is a utopian idealistic dream that everyone is equal, but that has not been realized. I was watching the news and they were saying that the gap between rich and poor is the largest it has ever been in the last 30 years.
Regarding globalization and its central question about the relationship between the rich and the poor. The problem now is that there is a global over class making all the economic decisions independent of government. There is not apparent solution. He suggested that Government would not do anything about it either because it would be “economically inefficient.”
Does individualization mean defining who we are based on deciding what we are not? If everyone was the same and equal, then I am sure that we would still find a way to judge one another. This reminds me of a similar question raised in art and architecture about determining what is good. It is difficult to decide what is ultimately good, instead there are just varying degrees of comparison over which is better than the other. Post modernism seemed to recognize the individual and an individuals thoughts; acknowledging that these thoughts don’t need to belong to a general ideology.
The theories of Marx’s as well as Hobbes’ and Locke’s based their analysis, critique and proposed solutions from the historical narrative. It is interesting to see that this referential system really depends on our cultures collective memory and places limitation of any possible solution within the framework of our collective history. Even though I think this grounds our culture and makes it easier for the collective to understand it suggests “history is doomed to repeat itself,” simple because things are based upon what we already know.
The alternative suggested take their starting points from philosophy of language, psychoanalysis or from traditional philosophical questions of identity, difference, self, subject, truth and reason. Rorty suggests that by using these reference points we are degrading our historical narrative and any possibility of progress. I disagree. By allowing for new reference points we are possibly able to rewrite our historical narrative and open up new possibilities for interpretation free of historical association.
These statements about “identity and difference” help to support my questions and reasoning behind our ability to self defines who we are.
Nietzche-Heidegger-Derrida criticism that there is no natural or intrinsic attribute to anything. “There is nothing vital to the self-identity of a being, independent of the descriptions we give of it.”
2. There is a question regarding the “preservation of cultural identity.”
If we are able to create a new framework or point of reference, or as Foucault says linguistic communication, identity issues regarding marginalized societies can be reframed within new boundaries.
There is less to be said about Identity and Difference. In order to address identity and difference you need to look at and reveal the flaws in the communication, economic or social framework that we work with in to construct our environments.
Richard Rorty
Does globalization and homogenization really begin to effect our identity? Do we feel lost in a a sea of brand names?
After world war II there were hopes of constructing a classless society. It is a utopian idealistic dream that everyone is equal, but that has not been realized. I was watching the news and they were saying that the gap between rich and poor is the largest it has ever been in the last 30 years.
Regarding globalization and its central question about the relationship between the rich and the poor. The problem now is that there is a global over class making all the economic decisions independent of government. There is not apparent solution. He suggested that Government would not do anything about it either because it would be “economically inefficient.”
Does individualization mean defining who we are based on deciding what we are not? If everyone was the same and equal, then I am sure that we would still find a way to judge one another. This reminds me of a similar question raised in art and architecture about determining what is good. It is difficult to decide what is ultimately good, instead there are just varying degrees of comparison over which is better than the other. Post modernism seemed to recognize the individual and an individuals thoughts; acknowledging that these thoughts don’t need to belong to a general ideology.
The theories of Marx’s as well as Hobbes’ and Locke’s based their analysis, critique and proposed solutions from the historical narrative. It is interesting to see that this referential system really depends on our cultures collective memory and places limitation of any possible solution within the framework of our collective history. Even though I think this grounds our culture and makes it easier for the collective to understand it suggests “history is doomed to repeat itself,” simple because things are based upon what we already know.
The alternative suggested take their starting points from philosophy of language, psychoanalysis or from traditional philosophical questions of identity, difference, self, subject, truth and reason. Rorty suggests that by using these reference points we are degrading our historical narrative and any possibility of progress. I disagree. By allowing for new reference points we are possibly able to rewrite our historical narrative and open up new possibilities for interpretation free of historical association.
These statements about “identity and difference” help to support my questions and reasoning behind our ability to self defines who we are.
Nietzche-Heidegger-Derrida criticism that there is no natural or intrinsic attribute to anything. “There is nothing vital to the self-identity of a being, independent of the descriptions we give of it.”
2. There is a question regarding the “preservation of cultural identity.”
If we are able to create a new framework or point of reference, or as Foucault says linguistic communication, identity issues regarding marginalized societies can be reframed within new boundaries.
There is less to be said about Identity and Difference. In order to address identity and difference you need to look at and reveal the flaws in the communication, economic or social framework that we work with in to construct our environments.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Gorretti: Lecture Notes and Thoughts
Encoding Decoding:
Forms and levels of communication.
- Is communication instinctual or is it learned? Is there such thing as primal communication?
Language and emotion – do you need to understand the emotion that is encoded in the language in order to decode the message?
Are we differentiating between body language and verbal language? What kind of language are we addressing if there are in fact categories of language?
There is a complexity to communication including:
Senses
Perceptions
Time
How does this apply to architecture?
All of our intentions must be encoded into the work… typically this is constructed into the work. It is manifested/staged through ritual and landscape perceptions. THIS IS THE NORM – why?
Cook, eisenmen – all wrote for years before building. They were building their “language” so people could decode their architecture.
If there is something called primal communication than…
We have to access the cultured memory, when we do that the fashioning is no longer important
Our human scale is more important than our cultural fabrication. Therefore there is no difference between US born (modern) child than Ethiopia born (villager) child because the greater issue is that we’re of the human culture.
Hot and cold media:
Hot media is something that doesn’t leave anything to the imagination and cold media is engaging.
Mediation and intermediary:
Intermediary – is complete transparency – medium is non existent
Mediation –
CNN packaging their news broadcast (their production) – this package is the recoding of the message (i.e. war on Iraq)
Flow and stoppage is integral to each other – they act as edges to each other.
Ecstasy of Communication:
Society is changing from cash owed to cash flow
In the past it was about owning a car but in contemporary time its more important how you drive the car.
Comment:
The ownership is placed on the skill over the mechanism – the virtual gamer, google, wikipedia – it’s about owning the machine through the skill.
Idea:
Time based architecture -?????
Surface/boundary
Private/public
Wedding ring –
Ring is nothing but the ceremony surrounding the ring is by far more significant (event overriding object)
Obect is the value
historical value is more important that then object (double check)
pure event
rings are everywhere – potentiality of ring is letent in the world
but the right given to you from a friend is more valuable
value constructed
If we want to create value (in arch) you have to activate eventful eventful engagement.
screen and mirror – its about how we engage it that determines which on eit is
what is obscenity in architecture? what is obscenity?
jerry springer, jackass, howard stern and reality shows questions what is public and what is private? – the more secretive the more successful
amsterdam – drunkeness and prostitution are public which drops the value
economic theory – when scarity is present then value goes up and vis versa
public ownership – does it exist?
its not what you own that determines if its public or private, its how you claim certain things.
its situational logic not transendental logic –
public space – “non private space” does “true” public space exist – did they ever exist?
malls are NOT public they are private – my opinion
Jae – does ownership matter?
MTA – performers are not allowed to set up shop in the tunnels - they have to audition and get a permit to do so – as well as street vendors. all these actions take place in the public realm therefore does this governing rule take away the “public”? elaborate
true sense of private is disconnection
Over Exposed City:
Boundary and surface becomes machine – the mechanism. It is the active negotiator of private/public
Surface is the first contact point between two agencies.
Arabic embassy (France)
Interior façade is composed out of camera lenses – opens and closes with the sun path. These lenses become the negotiator.
Boundary = a means of control (i.e. room) – LOOS – room vs. round (the room condition)
Obscenity – trivialize the subject in order to (de-value)?
Airport objective – maintain the flow
Lag time? – Time that exists between flights – the architecture that we build for airports supports lag time
Water, rail, road – real life interception
Air – the virtual
Maya: where are we going?
In the Place of the Public:
Notion of travel becomes very twisted
Hockey game
You know more about the hockey game if you watch it on TV than if you were in the arena. – Because of views, replays etc.
Therefore you’re more there than the people that have been there.
The Internet becomes a tool for this idea – you’re more there than those who have been there.
Is a depression in the classical sense? Distance (old) modern (contemporary)
The notion of here and there may have been invalidated. Its about why and how we’re here or there.
Experience in rapid secession – compare to slow movement (not to be discussed in black or white)
Slow movement – you get the “whole” experience/adventure
Forms and levels of communication.
- Is communication instinctual or is it learned? Is there such thing as primal communication?
Language and emotion – do you need to understand the emotion that is encoded in the language in order to decode the message?
Are we differentiating between body language and verbal language? What kind of language are we addressing if there are in fact categories of language?
There is a complexity to communication including:
Senses
Perceptions
Time
How does this apply to architecture?
All of our intentions must be encoded into the work… typically this is constructed into the work. It is manifested/staged through ritual and landscape perceptions. THIS IS THE NORM – why?
Cook, eisenmen – all wrote for years before building. They were building their “language” so people could decode their architecture.
If there is something called primal communication than…
We have to access the cultured memory, when we do that the fashioning is no longer important
Our human scale is more important than our cultural fabrication. Therefore there is no difference between US born (modern) child than Ethiopia born (villager) child because the greater issue is that we’re of the human culture.
Hot and cold media:
Hot media is something that doesn’t leave anything to the imagination and cold media is engaging.
Mediation and intermediary:
Intermediary – is complete transparency – medium is non existent
Mediation –
CNN packaging their news broadcast (their production) – this package is the recoding of the message (i.e. war on Iraq)
Flow and stoppage is integral to each other – they act as edges to each other.
Ecstasy of Communication:
Society is changing from cash owed to cash flow
In the past it was about owning a car but in contemporary time its more important how you drive the car.
Comment:
The ownership is placed on the skill over the mechanism – the virtual gamer, google, wikipedia – it’s about owning the machine through the skill.
Idea:
Time based architecture -?????
Surface/boundary
Private/public
Wedding ring –
Ring is nothing but the ceremony surrounding the ring is by far more significant (event overriding object)
Obect is the value
historical value is more important that then object (double check)
pure event
rings are everywhere – potentiality of ring is letent in the world
but the right given to you from a friend is more valuable
value constructed
If we want to create value (in arch) you have to activate eventful eventful engagement.
screen and mirror – its about how we engage it that determines which on eit is
what is obscenity in architecture? what is obscenity?
jerry springer, jackass, howard stern and reality shows questions what is public and what is private? – the more secretive the more successful
amsterdam – drunkeness and prostitution are public which drops the value
economic theory – when scarity is present then value goes up and vis versa
public ownership – does it exist?
its not what you own that determines if its public or private, its how you claim certain things.
its situational logic not transendental logic –
public space – “non private space” does “true” public space exist – did they ever exist?
malls are NOT public they are private – my opinion
Jae – does ownership matter?
MTA – performers are not allowed to set up shop in the tunnels - they have to audition and get a permit to do so – as well as street vendors. all these actions take place in the public realm therefore does this governing rule take away the “public”? elaborate
true sense of private is disconnection
Over Exposed City:
Boundary and surface becomes machine – the mechanism. It is the active negotiator of private/public
Surface is the first contact point between two agencies.
Arabic embassy (France)
Interior façade is composed out of camera lenses – opens and closes with the sun path. These lenses become the negotiator.
Boundary = a means of control (i.e. room) – LOOS – room vs. round (the room condition)
Obscenity – trivialize the subject in order to (de-value)?
Airport objective – maintain the flow
Lag time? – Time that exists between flights – the architecture that we build for airports supports lag time
Water, rail, road – real life interception
Air – the virtual
Maya: where are we going?
In the Place of the Public:
Notion of travel becomes very twisted
Hockey game
You know more about the hockey game if you watch it on TV than if you were in the arena. – Because of views, replays etc.
Therefore you’re more there than the people that have been there.
The Internet becomes a tool for this idea – you’re more there than those who have been there.
Is a depression in the classical sense? Distance (old) modern (contemporary)
The notion of here and there may have been invalidated. Its about why and how we’re here or there.
Experience in rapid secession – compare to slow movement (not to be discussed in black or white)
Slow movement – you get the “whole” experience/adventure
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