Thursday, January 17th

Chapter 2 Notes from Reading
-meanings of images are produced through a complex social relationship that involves: 1) how viewers interpret or experience the image and 2) the context in which an image is seen.
-Just as viewers create meaning from images, images also construct audiences.

~Producers Intended Meanings~
-most images have a meaning that is preferred by their producers, but this is not always how images are actually interpreted.
-meanings are created in part when, where, and by whom images are consumed, and not only when, where, and by whom they are produced.

*Text-a term extended by French theorist Roland Barthes to include visual media such as photography, film, television, or painting, to suggest that they are constructed on the basis of codes in the same way that language forms a text. Texts can be broken down into their component parts through work of analysis.

-meanings are affected by the social orientation of the viewer and by the context to viewing. Thus, meanings are not inherent in images. Rather, meanings are the product of a complex social interaction among image, viewers, and context.

~Aesthetics and Taste~
-All viewer interpretations involve two fundamental concepts of value- aesthetics and taste.
*Aesthetics- a branch of philosophy that is concerned with beliefs and theories about the value, meaning, and interpretations of art. The aesthetic traditionally referred to concepts of the beautiful, but today refers to what is valid and valuable in the arts.
-The quality of beauty is dependent on individual interpretation.
*Taste- In cultural theory, taste refers to the share aesthetic and cultural values of a particular social community or individual.
-Taste is informed by experiences relating to one’s class, cultural background, education, and other aspects of identity.
-Taste in our culture can be a marker of education and an awareness of elite cultural values.

*Connoisseur- A person who is particularly skilled at discerning quality in a particular art.

-taste is learned
-Pierre Bourdieu (French sociologist who studied taste in the 1970s) He discovered that taste is not inherent in people, but is learned through exposure to social and cultural institutions that promote certain class-based assumptions about correct taste.
*habitus- a term popularized by Bourdieu to describe the unconscious dispositions, strategies of classification, and tendencies that are part of an individual’s sense of taste and preferences for cultural consumption.

*high/low culture- terms that have traditionally been used to make distinctions about different kinds of culture. High culture distinguishes culture that only an elite can appreciate, such as classical art, music, and literature, as opposed to commercially produced mass culture presumed to be accessible to lower classes.
-The distinction between high and low culture is becoming blurred and is sometimes now viewed as upper-class snobbery.

*Pop Art- an art movement in the late 1950s and 1960s that used the images and materials of popular or “low” culture for art. Artists took objects of popular culture, such as t.v., and reworked them as art objects.
*Postmodernism- used to describe particular styles in art, literature, architecture, and popular culture, to define particular aspects of contemporary theory, and to designate a particular way of viewing the world. Often seen as a time period in the late 20th century, following modernism.
*Kitsch- art or literature judged to have little or no aesthetic value, yet which has value precisely because of its status in evoking the class standards of bad taste.

~Reading images as ideological subjects~
Karl Marx- much of the way ideology is conceived today originates with its formulation in his theories.
*Capitalism- an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth are held primarily by individuals and corporations, as opposed to cooperative or state-owned means of wealth.
-Marx felt that those who own the means of production are also in control of the ideas and viewpoints produced and circulated in a society’s media venues.
*Subjects- a term that defines those aspects of human individuals that individuals are not in control of and that are actually shared among humans.
-Marx thought of ideology as a kind of false consciousness spread by dominant powers where those who are oppressed by a particular economic system are encouraged to believe in it anyway.
*False Consciousness- the process by which the real economic imbalances of the dominant social system get hidden and ordinary citizens come to believe in the perfection of the system that oppresses them.

-There have been two major challenges to the Marxist definition of ideology
Firstly, Louis Althusser (French Marxist theorist in 1960s) argued that ideology represents the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence.
To him, ideology is the necessary representational means through which we come to experience and make sense of reality.
*Psychoanalytic theory- a theory of how the mind works derived originally from Freud that emphasizes the role of the unconscious and desire in shaping a subject’s actions, feelings, and motives.
*Unconscious- A central concept in psychoanalytic theory that indicates the phenomena that is not within consciousness at any given moment.
*Spectators- a term derived from psychoanalytic theory that refers to the viewer of visual arts such as cinema.
*Interpellation- a term coined by Althusser to describe the process by which ideological systems call out or “hail” social subjects and tell them their place in the system.
-To Althusser, ideologies speak to us and we are always defined as subjects.

*Agency- The quality of having the power to act or to make meaning.

Another challenge came from Antonio Gramsci (Italian Marxist who lived and wrote primarily during the 1920s and 30s)
*hegemony- a term associated with Gramsci that rethought traditional Marxist theories of ideology away from ideas about false consciousness and passive social subjects. There are two central aspects to his definition of hegemony: that dominant ideologies are often presented as “common sense” and that dominant ideologies are in tension with other forces and constantly in flux.
-No one group ultimately has power, but rather power is a relationship within which classes struggle. (relationships are constantly changing)
*Counter-hegemonic-the forces in a given society that work against dominant meaning and power systems, and keeping in constant tension and flux those dominant meanings. (arise to question status-quo)
-Within visual studies, his concept of hegemony has been useful among critics who want to emphasize the role of image consumers in influencing the meanings and uses of popular culture in ways that do not benefit the interests of producers and the media industry.

-IMAGE- Barbara Kruger’s 1981 photo of the atomic bomb that reads, “Your manias become Science” (functions as a counter-hegemonic statement about the dominant ideology of science)

~Encoding and Decoding~
-All images are encoded and decoded.
*encoded- the production of meaning in cultural products.
Stuart Hall has written that there are 3 positions that viewers can take as decoders of cultural images and artifacts:
1.Dominant-hegemonic reading: They can identify with the hegemonic position and receive the dominant message of an image or text in an unquestioning manner. (the least common)
2. Negotiated reading: They can negotiate an interpretation from the image and its dominant meaning.
3. Oppositional reading: Finally, they can take an oppositional position, either by completely disagreeing with the ideological position embodied in an image or rejecting it altogether (for example, by ignoring it).

~Appropriation and Oppositional Readings~
*Appropriation- the act of borrowing, stealing, or taking over others’ meanings to one’s own ends. Cultural appropriation is the process of “borrowing” and changing the meaning of cultural products, slogans, images, or elements of fashion.
-IMAGE- Gran Fury’s “Read my lips” 1988/ is an example of appropriation as it changes the meaning of Bush’s slogan.
-Artists often use this technique as is seen with the “last supper” paintings.
-Viewers also appropriate images and texts to alter their meanings to suit our purposes.

*gender-bending- bending the traditional codes of gender roles and sexual norms.
*trans-coding- the practice of taking terms and meanings and re-appropriating them to create new meanings.
For example, the term queer which was once derogatory has now been embraced.
*Bricolage- “making do” or piecing together one’s culture with whatever is at hand. As a cultural practice, it refers to the activity of taking consumer products and commodities and making them one’s own by giving them new meaning.
*Subcultures- distinct social groups within wider cultural formations that define themselves in opposition to mainstream culture.
-Often done with clothing for youth subcultures.
-Also, low rider cars change the meaning of cars so that they function as a cultural and political statement.
*Textual poaching- defined by Michel de Certeau (cultural theorist). Viewers of popular culture can inhabit that text by negotiating meanings through it and creating new cultural products in response to it, making it their own.
-de Certeau saw the relationship of readers/writers and producers/viewers as an ongoing struggle for possession of the text- a struggle over its meaning and potential meanings.
*Strategies-defined by de Certeau as the means through which institutions exercise power and set up well-ordered systems that consumers must negotiate.
*Tactics- defined by de Certeau as the “hit and run” acts of random engagement by viewers/consumers to usurp these systems, which might include everything from using a remote to change the “text” of tv to creating a web site that analyzes a particular film or t.v. show.
-Fan cultures are an example of textual poaching

*Counter-bricolage-the practice used by advertisers and marketers of manufacturing and selling as commodities aspects of bricolage style.

READING IMAGES
-A systematic approaches to reading images assumes the following skills:
Examine - to see and distinguish the composing parts that build the imageDescribe - describe the composing parts, without giving a meaning to themDesignate - give a proper name to the elements and the whole of the pictureCriticize - connect a judgment to the preceding activitiesDetermine - the place that is given to the image in history and education

To help read an image systematically, asking the five following questions can help: What do I see? What do I describe? What do I think? What do I think about it? What do I know?
Key Terms:
*Aesthetics- a branch of philosophy that is concerned with beliefs and theories about the value, meaning, and interpretations of art. The aesthetic traditionally referred to concepts of the beautiful, but today refers to what is valid and valuable in the arts.
*Appropriation- the act of borrowing, stealing, or taking over others’ meanings to one’s own ends. Cultural appropriation is the process of “borrowing” and changing the meaning of cultural products, slogans, images, or elements of fashion.
*Bricolage- “making do” or piecing together one’s culture with whatever is at hand. As a cultural practice, it refers to the activity of taking consumer products and commodities and making them one’s own by giving them new meaning.
*Form- In its widest sense, total structure; a synthesis of all the visible aspects of that structure and of the manner in which they are united to create its distinctive character. The form of a work is what enables us to perceive it.
*Semiotics-a theory of signs, sometimes called semiology, concerned with the ways in which things (words, images, and objects) are vehicles for meaning. It is a tool for analyzing the signs of a particular culture and how meaning is produced within a particular cultural context.
*Sign- A semiotic term that defines the relationship between a vehicle of meaning such as a word, image, or object and its specific meaning in a particular context. In technical terms, it means the bringing together of a signified and signifier to make meaning.
*Structure- Something made up of a number of components that are put together in a particular way.
*Symbol- A form, image or subject representing a meaning other than the one with which it is usually associated.
*Johannes Vermeer- was a Dutch Baroque painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of ordinary life. He lived in the mid 1600s. One of his most famous works is “The Girl with a Pearl Earring”.
*Edouard Manet- was a French painter who lived between 1832 and 1883. He was a pivotal figure in the transition from realism to impressionism. One of his works is “Olympia”.
*Herb Ritts- Lived from 1952 to 2002. He was a famous American fashion photographer who focused on black and white photography and portraits in the style of classical Greek sculpture. As a result, many of his subjects are nude.

Reaction to Reading
Firstly, I must say that I have already greatly expanded my vocabulary because I was not familiar with several words from this chapter! I definitely agree with the notion that each viewer takes away a different meaning and that it is greatly dependent upon a viewer’s characteristics (social, etc.). The information on ideology was somewhat confusing, but I found it interesting. I also found the information about textual-poaching interesting as I had never really thought about how viewers really do “make it their own”.


Reaction to Images
*Girl With a Pearl Earring- When I first looked at the painting, I was immediately drawn to her eyes because they are so realistic. It appears almost as if she is looking into the viewer’s eyes. I’m not sure of the significance of the painting, although it is very beautiful. I read several of the interpretations and they mostly just confused me.
*Olympia- Undoubtedly, this painting created controversy because it is of a nude woman. However, I think that it is a realistic view of the human body and is a clear example of an artist pushing the norm.
*Images by Herb Ritts- I am fascinated by all of his photos. Each photo displays a great deal of emotion. It is amazing how he can turn a body into a piece of art! Although the subjects are sometimes nude, it is extremely tasteful.