20091219
20091218
Final Take-Home
Identities
As human beings, when we see a person of a different race, of an opposing look, a person who carries an obvious divergent cultural background, we have a natural tendency to think stereotypically. We take the little that we know, or think we know about their cultivation and their race’s common practices, and we make that their identity. The fallacy with this natural tendency, besides the fact that it’s simply ignorant, is that in a lot of cases people can have a completely different life than that of their naturally-known compatriots. In Y. Dubalin’s “A City in a Building: Paris Subversions” and Multiplicity’s “House Factories: Elche Disseminations,” this common misconception is illustrated through the proof of two separate groups of people, retaining unique identities.
Dubalin’s short essay, “A town in a city: Paris subversions” illustrates a wonderful representation of where this has ensued. In 1970 Paris, what was once large residential complex holding urban middle class occupants, is today hosting a metaphoric city, ran completely by Chinease and Asian immigrants. This “city” is only metaphoric because it doesn’t have the commonly known geographical characteristics of a city; by looking at this building from the outside, one could not have any possible idea of what the inside really looks like. However, it is in fact a city in the way it runs, and the way it’s inhabitants live; from the inside of the building, every characteristic of a city can be seen. “A fluid and agile residential culture has changed the identity of this large building.” (Dubalin 81) Furthermore, not only has the building’s identity been transformed, this completely alters the identity of the building’s (city’s) Asian inhabitants. Whatever one’s cultural background is, living in this building, they hold that identity, but also gain a new identity simultaneously; These people then have a multiplicity of identities.
In Multiplicity’s “House Factories: Elche Disseminations,” a town in Elche, Spain has perpetually been known for a containing a significant portion of the shoe industry. Though recently, the town’s last 15 years have undergone a massive and drastic expansion. The town of Elche has 200,000 occupants, almost all of which work long hours daily from their homes, specifically for the shoe industry. People can work from their houses because white vans are always traveling throughout the whole town, picking up assembled parts from every house. Globalization has taken this town, 200 kilometers north of Valencia, and mutated it into a giant factory, and it is now a “network of production points” that embraces itself; a series of production points in that various parts of products are assembled throughout the entire landmark. But, as awful and discerning as this sounds, some of the people that live here feel that they benefit from this industry, and are actually grateful that they can work and be “home” at the same time. For example, one women with a new-born child says, “With one foot I moved the cradle and with the other foot i sewed.” (Multiplicity 156) She could only do this because she worked at home. However on the other hand, some of the inhabitants complain and say “they use us” or they’re being employed illegally, which correlates with less than legal pay. In Elche, this shoe industry creates a completely new hybrid identity for it’s occupants. These people live for work; they’re hybrid, only in that they make it possible for the selfish “other” classes around the globe to benefit.
As humans we do have this natural tendency to think stereotypically. For most of us, if we saw someone from either of these places randomly put into a room, we would think about what we have learned about their “race”, from our experiences. We have no idea, the identities some of the people on this earth really hold, where they really work, or even where they really live. Physical landscapes and landmarks mutating can add on to and transform an identity. Both of these essays illustrate perfectly the fallacies of our ignorant instincts. Thinking “essentially”, and seeing that people have a multiplicity of identities, may be the only way that we can overcome this.
20091210
jessica KNAP
My Case study focused on the African American modern installation artist Fred Wilson. Wilson creates and explores with humorous and ironic metaphors of excavation of forgotten ideas in museum archives. Taking artifacts, archeological findings, and other items given to him he uses the history behind these items to create a new form of special art. A common theme consists of his expressing feelings of being left out due to his skin color and his acknowledgement of black artists exhibitions not being prevalent in galleries and museums. Wilson describes his inspiration and art, “I get everything that satisfies my soul from bringing objects that are in the world and manipulating them, working with special arrangements, and then having things produced the way I want to see them.”
Group Blog Post: Amistad
ryan BINGHAM
My case study was the 1997 Steven Spielberg movie: Amistad. A period drama centered on the true story of a mutiny aboard a slave ship and the trial that followed. This film touches on the power of cultural interaction through globalization and its indelible effect on humanity. It demonstrates the negative aspects of globalization: empiricism and prejudice—bred by fear of difference, as well as the positive aspects: individual growth created by open-minded exposure to external ideas, beliefs, and culture. At the heart of this film is cultural hybridity, the slaves and the lawyers defending them each grow and learn from each other.
20091207
Group Blog Post: The New World
adam WYNNE
We can grasp this theory of globalization through many contexts: multimedia, multicontextuality, communications being just a few examples in which we can find it. In the film,The New World, (Terrence Malick, 20 January 2006, United States of America/United Kingdom) the main character, Pocahontas, goes through a dramatic life-changing experience as an aftermath of her father extraditing her from her tribe. From the beginnning to the end, we see Pocahontas go from a Native American women who only knew her tribe all her life, to an almost full-on english women who speaks perfect english and dresses and acts as if she has lived and known the life of the english her whole life; she gains a new identity, and she then lives in a brand-new world. Her experience is a flawless example of our world starting to globalize, and specifically practicing cultural hybridity.
Adam Wynne--The New World
20091030
Mid-term. Adam Wynne Film 301
The international “Idol” franchise is game show with a little reality show in it. The franchise started with a British television series from 2001 called, “Pop Idol.” The franchise is basically a series of contests in different countries, all with different names, and they’re in the form of a long talent show. The basic idea behind the show is a country trying to find the best new singer, in the country of which the show is taking place. The winners are chosen by viewer voting, and participation. The mega-popular “American Idol” is an example of this franchise that is probably the most popular. Premiering in 2002, (the year after Pop Idol premiered) America’s Fox Network quickly broadcasted what is now perhaps the most watched television show in America, with a growing rate of 29 million average viewers.
There is an “Idol” in pretty much every major country on the planet; Specifically, in America there is American Idol, in Australia there is Australian Idol, and in Germany there is Deutschland sucht den Superstar, which means, “Germany searches for a superstar.” Regardless of the name, all of these television shows are exactly the same and they all copied each other, with the exception of the original “Pop Idol’, made in the United Kingdom. This is totally, completely, and exactly the definition, and a perfect example of media homogenization. All of these channels that broadcast these television shows are delivering the same thing to their viewers, the only difference is the people in the shows. They’re all set up the same way, and economically, more and more shows will keep being created, until the people reveal that they have gotten sick of it, by not watching anymore.
In Television’s New Engines, written by Michael Keane, and Albert Moran, the idea that television’s new engines are controlling our networks, is quite plausible. The new engines being the reality t.v. in general, the sophomoric outlook of many humans that is based on appearance, and coolness, that certain people are better than others, the gladiatorial element, etc.. Internationalization is key to the success of television shows of this era, and so therefore it forces homogenization upon our media. These “Idol” franchises use popular techniques like voting off, and leaving everyone on the show except for the “weakest link” every week, in order to keep up with what the people want to see. Using this process of elimination, there is one winner at the end, and with less and less people left on the show each week, it’s not uncommon to see that the top players are very good-looking, and always cool.
In each country’s “Idol”, most of the judges have the specific heritage of the country’s identity, and the show is broadcasted clearly for the country in which of which’s name is in the title. In watching clips from Deutschland sucht den Superstar , for example, you can see that the people are participating because they have a dream to become a popular singer in Germany. If they wanted to become a popular singer in Mexico, then they would try-out for “Latin Idol.” In reality, the people who win Deutschland sucht den Superstar are going to be famous in Germany but no one in Mexico, or anywhere else outside Europe will know about them. However, people partaking in Deutschland sucht den Superstar, and Australian Idol, and even American Idol are all of different heritage's, colors, and different backgrounds. But, most of them still have the same culture; like a German culture, because most of their participants have grown up in Germany. This creates a cultural unity for Germany, so that when German people watch it they can feel like it’s their show; not anyone else's.
I believe that this “Idol” franchise brings our world closer together, in that it promotes perfect media homogenization; so well that it almost advertises it, in a way. In fact, this whole franchise wouldn’t be possible without the process of globalization, which is bringing our world closer together on it’s own.
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