Daniel Shea's photograph says a ton about todays society in my opinion. The photograph Plume is worth many words. When thought of the way things and people are today this picture really makes sense. It is clear that this house is segregated from others, not to mention the fact that it's huge and intimidating as well. It is intimidating to others because it's a very large and beautiful and also on it's own. The fact that this house is on its own has an influence on a social aspect. The people who live within this house have no neighbors, therefore it's very hard for them to socialize and learn to enjoy the company of others. Another reason why the social aspect of this situation is gone is because they have so much property therefore, their children could play in their yard as appose to going to the local park and interact with other children. Today it is obvious that society is becoming very anti-social, as well as into themselves.
Johnny Rotten speaking the truth and being a symbol of culture jamming is just a little hilarious to me. I have thought about the Sex Pistols in the context of culture jamming before but I never pegged them to be the bright minds behind the ideals of culture jamming. History books normally pick out men in sweater vests smoking a pipe and thick glasses. The contrast is humorous in a way and can really show how different culture jamming is to the actual culture of life. (I see history as a part of culture that could be jammed at times.) I’m just glad that Sid Vicious wasn’t deemed the gleaming face of culture jamming.
“If you’re living a full life, why would you want to “get away” from it?” Truth is, if you want to succeed some how in life, you have to do things that are boring and tedious. Such example I can point out is school. School can be spun to look new and exciting but in the end I still have to sit in my house and read countless numbers of books while I watch the outdoors through my window. And the must have 16 credits to graduate with in four years is a little excessive. It’s a little hypocritical to praise sitting in your house all weekend and do nothing but school work to achieve A’s in each one of your summed up 16 credits classes then preach about the importance of being laid back and appreciating nature. Eventually all that will drive me to need a vacation. This is why I did not want to go to college when I graduated high school and instead moved to England for a year.
Be more spontaneous. Take a hold of life. Do something different from what you normally do and shock yourself.
Memes = 4chan (/b/) and reddit?
What is it that I believe in and can take a stand for? If I find something bad in the world and revolt against it, will I always be able to take the blow dealt right back at me? Lasn declairs that we must stand up for something that we believe in and I agree; however, there are moments that it is best we keep our mouths shut. I learned that the hard way. This is extremely true when you are a minimum wage worker working for someone who takes complete and total advantage of their workers. I myself have tried to stand up to a store owner who was blatently taking advantage of the economic situation by making people work for minimum wage while doing the job of at least three people.
The message behind Daniel Shea’s photography has to do with global awareness and sustainability. He is promoting an awareness for one's surroundings and not just specifically the enviroment but with many other varying aspects of life. Through his photography a very powerful message is being portrayed through the extensive care and thought provoking imagery and composition in his photograph's set up. There is so much thought that goes into each individual image and at the same time even with the intensive thought put into one image there is so continuity between all the images he has in his portfolio of works. The reason his photography reaches out to so many people are his photos are so effective is because the technique in his images are so amazing. The images are beautiful which, catches the original attention from the viewer and to further that once the viewer;s attention is captured they can then further focus on the painting until they look at it and interpret it long enough so that then they can find a message in it. It is an extrodinarily effective method of having a work of art have deeper meaning because it makes a knowledge-giving subject something else to it. There is so much to be taken from his photos and in his captured moment of time; so much can be said about time. -brynn kurlan
Daniel Shea’s photographs are very beautiful yet are very ironic and are meant to provoke the viewer to question the society we live in. He photographs what we might see as everyday occurrences or scenes and, through his composition, style, and saturation, he forces the viewer to look at the image more critically and analyze the contrast between the man made, industrial subjects and surrounding natural environment. Looking through his photos, I really start to think about how humans affect our natural resources. It is sad to think about how much we have assimilated into such a technologically based, industrial society and we sometimes do not notice with it destroys our natural habitat.
In this weeks section of Culture Jam Kalle Lasn said that the word cool used to be used for people with unique style that most don’t have. But now a days it is the people who dress differently that aren’t cool. Its more cool to fit in with every one else. A good example of this in today’s society is the Ugg Boot and Northface craze. Last year one of my friends from Boston made a bet with me that more people would walk past him in an hour wearing Northfaces, Ugg boots, and black leggings at his college then here at Michigan. I sat in the Diag on the phone with him for 20 minutes and got up to 45 girls wearing that exact outfit. After about 30 minutes I completely lost count. The person on the other side of the phone, had around the same amount of people in the same outfit. I knew that a lot of people wore the same clothing to stay warm but the fact that every one chose the same brand says something about the way we buy things in our culture. Not only do Americans as a group try to look alike in one area, we wear the same clothing all over the U.S.A. Even my roommates in Savannah Georgia my freshman year had Uggs and and thinner Northfaces were all the rage. I couldn’t understand why you would need Uggs in Savannah? It never even snows in Savannah, actually it never got colder than about 45 degrees. So it was a bit unnecessary to be wearing Uggs, but to “fit in” people will do just about anything.
Its hard to hide from trends. Even if you were to try to avoid magazines, TV and computers. You would still see everyone wearing the latest trends. Subconsciously you want what you see other people wearing. Tons of people get lost in fashion, wanting to buy the latest thing. I honestly wonder if its possible to avoid be tricked into buy something because you see someone else wearing it. You might have to hide in a hole just to avoid unconsciously wanting what you see other people wearing.
I also found Lasn's section on being "cool" to be quite interesting. What used to be defined as 'cool,' having your own style, vision, or way of doing things, is now thought of as simply being 'different,' and not celebrated, but instead sometimes looked down upon. Nowadays, being 'cool' means buying whatever product markets itself with the 'cool' label. These products are usually the most expensive ones, causing a socioeconomic divide between the 'cool' and the 'uncool.'
I also found Lasn's connection between pollutants and chemicals people in society are exposed to over the course of their lives and their academic (as well as non-academic) behaviors. The fact that the children of today's society are considered "behind" those of other countries is alarming. And I truly do believe that most of the reason for this difference stems from the fact that children of American societies are repeatedly exposed to too much media. TV shows, video games, movies, magazines, comic books; so many alternatives exist to studying the academics.
This week's Culture Jam reading seemed a little repetitive. But it did get me thinking- with so many writers and social critics out there writing about this topic, why isn't anything changing? And I think the problem is that society is too comfortable where it is so do anything about it. Not only that, but consumerism has evolved into a system that makes it nearly impossible for anything novel or original to ever remain that way. Lasn's discussion of the Situationists made the situation look a little more hopeful, however. It was encouraging to consider culture jamming as a creative process that is more for the self and for the better of society, rather than as an act of defiance that creates in reaction to the stifling effects of society.
I found the photograph Plume to not be as strong a photograph until I read the analysis and thoughts behind it. When I first looked at the photo all I saw was a house. It wasn’t until I took a second look that I even noticed there was some sort of energy plant behind it. Once I started to read the article I was shocked to know that in this part of Ohio there are 4 different power planets in a 15 mile radius. It made me a little sad that Daniel Shea said that this town was made up of layers, both natural and manmade. I did not like that nature and a power plant were both part of the makeup of this town. The nature around the plant started to become a secondary component to the town and it seems as if now everything in the community is about these power plants. Shea says, “I want the viewer to scan the horizon line, looking for the visual cue that connects subject to place, and ultimately to narrative.” I think that I did have to take a second look at the horizon and I guess because I wasn’t aware of the amount of power plants in Ohio I had an urge to further explore.
I thought that this section of Culture Jam, by Kalle Lasn, was especially pretentious. It was the part about not being cool which really struck my attention. Lasn asserts that “cool” does not even hold the same value anymore because it has been taken over by consumer culture to mean not unique, and not spontaneous. So he starts off seemingly trying to downplay the inherent interest in “culture jammers” just for rebellion’s sake but then concludes with the fact that what’s thought to be cool is actually for suckers, and he and his group would never be bundled into that category. I find Lasn to be extremely self-righteous in this portion of the book because he offers nothing constructive, just puts down those unlike himself that cannot see past America’s capitalist tricks and are instead suckered into its ploys. Lasn writes, Where the self is by proxy, it is not. This may also explain why one of the juiciest consumer target groups is the man or woman known as the “emulator”. Emulators look for products that make them feel like somebody else—someone more important… (102) and also, Greil Marcus calls this the “democracy of false desire.” The spectacle is an instrument of social control, offering the illusion of unlimited choice, but in fact reducing the field of play to a choice of preselected experiences. (104-105) He makes such a distinction between the “us” and “them” when it comes to who can withstand the natural tendency toward consumerism and his tone is extremely condescending, as though following trends, even the modern ones that benefit us all, makes us bad people.
Kalle Lasn happened to touch on one a topic that I hold a great interest in this week. Memes are incredibly interesting to me. The relatively new concept created by Richard Dawkins helps give us an interesting way to view the growth of our culture and how it’s formed. This is somewhat of an odd thing to think about really. Most memes we come into contact with don’t seem that big. How does the line “frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn,” translate into the growth of culture? How can it be that lolcats help become a brick in the tall tower of our ideas and thoughts? It’s very odd. We realize that the memes float around but we never really understand how they can change the world. Most of the memes we think we know are just some random jokes on the internet right? It’s just some quote or character like the “old spice guy” or “the world’s most interesting man” selling us alcohol right? Oh…isn’t that interesting. It seems that Lasn is right. There is a mental battle for your mind and memes are a shockingly good way to sell it to you. Does anyone remember “Snakes on a plane”? fun little movie. Kind of a high polished b movie. That was a film that made its money off of memes. Everyone went and saw that movie because of a certain line of dialog took root within popular culture. A meme was born and a film made money. Now think about certain quotes from our history. No taxation without representation? Still rolls right off the tongue even after so much time. Its powerful stuff and I can see why Kalle wants to use it to change the world. But… well… memes are weird. They don’t usually take flight like we want or expect. Trying to force a new saying is good and all but it is all very fickle. You can continue to “skull” images Kalle. But unless your single action touches whatever part deep within us to spread the idea for the ideas sake. Well.. that’s all folks!
This week’s reading concludes the Spring season where (as Lasn) said previously, was to highlight what we can do as culture jammers to make a difference. I had a hard time ‘swallowing’ both the content and the suggestions he gave the readers because it was so far away from what I do in my everyday life. The beginning of this reading was almost offensive to me because he highlighted everything that I perceive as acceptable. For example he talked about how “We are not Academics.” In this section he talked about how academics constantly rambles and not do anything about it. His examples were about how watching over four hours of television and sleeping too much were connected, and how global warming is happening. In his writing, academics warns us about these happenings but must “study it further” to ensure such information is correct. Lasn’s message was very similar to our very first ADP reading (Jensen article) which was essentially saying “Don’t just sit there, do something about it!” The next big topic was about meme which is essentially an idea that others can understand and agree with and therefore create a movement. An example he gave us was the tobacco industry where he talked about a commercial that ensures the public connects the image of a tobacco as death. He then started talking to his readers to be that ‘un-cool’ person and make online petitions, make commercials to throw down the fashion and fast food companies. To me as a student, it sounded so far off from what I perceive as an acceptable behavior that I find myself almost disregarding what he had said. But then it came to me that I am so used to seeing ads from Chanel, Gucci, Prada, Nike, and perceiving them as good things that I really do not want to hear that my world is completely wrong, or that I was brainwashed by the media. However, that being said, I understood what Lasn was trying to say about starting an idea that can help the environment and hopefully plant it in other people’s mind. I just think that because society is just so fixed in the AmericaTM lifestyle that perhaps easing people in with the right facts day by day will not create this ‘dismissal of information’ to others who also perceive his comments and suggestions as insults to our already accepted lifestyles.
In this section of Culture Jam, Lasn talks a great deal about the Situationists. One quote of the Situationists that he mentions really stood out to me: “If you’re living a full life, why would you want to ‘get away’ from it?” This statement made me think about how people spend so much time working to get where they want to be (or just plain working), and spend less time enjoying where they are. Why don’t they just put themselves where they want to be, or quit the job they hate and pick up one they fall in love with? I know that in today’s society, people tend to grasp onto whatever they can get, whether they like it or not. It’s the money that matters to them. Money is the main cause of all the zombies in this world; all the people that drag themselves out of bed in the morning, instead of excitedly get up and get ready for the day. Money is the reason so many people stay stuck in the same routine day after day and cannot wait for a “break,” when really they should be living life to the fullest with a job that satisfies just that. Going off of this, Lasn also suggests that people become stuck in these “stupefyingly comfortable patterns” and are afraid of change. Any change would come as a shock to them, but Lasn expresses that the difference is entirely worth the shock. He describes a story where he meditates for two days straight. At first it was unbearable; his back was hurting him to sit in the same position for so long. However, after some time he found the meditating to be desirable in the end. It was a shock to be doing something out of the ordinary for him, but it was worth it to him for a change in his everyday pattern. Another point I found interesting in this reading comes for a direct quote by Lasn, “We just talk. We don’t actually do anything.” This statement reminded me exactly of what the author of Beyond Hope was trying to explain. In Beyond Hope, the author was upset about how people “hope” for things to happen, and never actually go and do anything about it, as if they can sit there and hope and someone else will do the work. In Culture Jam, Lasn expresses the same thing. He explains that we, Americans, talk and talk and talk about how things need to change. Yet, out of all the people who are talking, only so few of us physically get up and do something about it.
Daniel Shea’s picture directly shows the idea that big industry and advertisement is ruining the American dream. Depicted in this shot is a standard brick house embedded in the woods, which represents the classic portrayal of the American dream. Everyone wants to aspire to be able to have a house of their own, but in this picture, just off in the distance, one can make out a couple of smoke stacks, that we assume are attached to a factory. These stacks are polluting the air, and the environment surrounding the house, making the viewer believe that big industry is ruining this particular scene of the American dream. This fits in directly with the message of Culture Jam, which is to say that all large industries and advertisements are brainwashing our people, and ruining the environment. Although I agree to some extent that factories such as the one depicted in the picture are causing pollution in the environment, I realize that these factories are necessary, so that we can produce the goods that we require as a population, and so that we can make sure that our people stay employed. As it is, we get many of the items that we use on a day to day basis from foreign countries, so we must maintain the small amount of manufacturing that does go on in the United States. Although there is some validity to the points of Shea and Culture Jam, I believe that they are definitely biased, since they seem to be so skewed toward liberal points of view. I believe that if a person wants to create a work, which will truly inspire change, or at least thought on a given topic, then they must take a non- biased approach, and allow that viewer to connect the dots themselves.
Daniel Shea's photograph says a ton about todays society in my opinion. The photograph Plume is worth many words. When thought of the way things and people are today this picture really makes sense. It is clear that this house is segregated from others, not to mention the fact that it's huge and intimidating as well. It is intimidating to others because it's a very large and beautiful and also on it's own. The fact that this house is on its own has an influence on a social aspect. The people who live within this house have no neighbors, therefore it's very hard for them to socialize and learn to enjoy the company of others. Another reason why the social aspect of this situation is gone is because they have so much property therefore, their children could play in their yard as appose to going to the local park and interact with other children. Today it is obvious that society is becoming very anti-social, as well as into themselves.
ReplyDeleteJohnny Rotten speaking the truth and being a symbol of culture jamming is just a little hilarious to me. I have thought about the Sex Pistols in the context of culture jamming before but I never pegged them to be the bright minds behind the ideals of culture jamming. History books normally pick out men in sweater vests smoking a pipe and thick glasses. The contrast is humorous in a way and can really show how different culture jamming is to the actual culture of life. (I see history as a part of culture that could be jammed at times.) I’m just glad that Sid Vicious wasn’t deemed the gleaming face of culture jamming.
ReplyDelete“If you’re living a full life, why would you want to “get away” from it?” Truth is, if you want to succeed some how in life, you have to do things that are boring and tedious. Such example I can point out is school. School can be spun to look new and exciting but in the end I still have to sit in my house and read countless numbers of books while I watch the outdoors through my window. And the must have 16 credits to graduate with in four years is a little excessive. It’s a little hypocritical to praise sitting in your house all weekend and do nothing but school work to achieve A’s in each one of your summed up 16 credits classes then preach about the importance of being laid back and appreciating nature. Eventually all that will drive me to need a vacation. This is why I did not want to go to college when I graduated high school and instead moved to England for a year.
Be more spontaneous. Take a hold of life. Do something different from what you normally do and shock yourself.
Memes = 4chan (/b/) and reddit?
What is it that I believe in and can take a stand for? If I find something bad in the world and revolt against it, will I always be able to take the blow dealt right back at me? Lasn declairs that we must stand up for something that we believe in and I agree; however, there are moments that it is best we keep our mouths shut. I learned that the hard way. This is extremely true when you are a minimum wage worker working for someone who takes complete and total advantage of their workers. I myself have tried to stand up to a store owner who was blatently taking advantage of the economic situation by making people work for minimum wage while doing the job of at least three people.
The message behind Daniel Shea’s photography has to do with global awareness and sustainability. He is promoting an awareness for one's surroundings and not just specifically the enviroment but with many other varying aspects of life. Through his photography a very powerful message is being portrayed through the extensive care and thought provoking imagery and composition in his photograph's set up. There is so much thought that goes into each individual image and at the same time even with the intensive thought put into one image there is so continuity between all the images he has in his portfolio of works. The reason his photography reaches out to so many people are his photos are so effective is because the technique in his images are so amazing.
ReplyDeleteThe images are beautiful which, catches the original attention from the viewer and to further that once the viewer;s attention is captured they can then further focus on the painting until they look at it and interpret it long enough so that then they can find a message in it. It is an extrodinarily effective method of having a work of art have deeper meaning because it makes a knowledge-giving subject something else to it. There is so much to be taken from his photos and in his captured moment of time; so much can be said about time. -brynn kurlan
Daniel Shea’s photographs are very beautiful yet are very ironic and are meant to provoke the viewer to question the society we live in. He photographs what we might see as everyday occurrences or scenes and, through his composition, style, and saturation, he forces the viewer to look at the image more critically and analyze the contrast between the man made, industrial subjects and surrounding natural environment. Looking through his photos, I really start to think about how humans affect our natural resources. It is sad to think about how much we have assimilated into such a technologically based, industrial society and we sometimes do not notice with it destroys our natural habitat.
ReplyDeleteIn this weeks section of Culture Jam Kalle Lasn said that the word cool used to be used for people with unique style that most don’t have. But now a days it is the people who dress differently that aren’t cool. Its more cool to fit in with every one else. A good example of this in today’s society is the Ugg Boot and Northface craze. Last year one of my friends from Boston made a bet with me that more people would walk past him in an hour wearing Northfaces, Ugg boots, and black leggings at his college then here at Michigan. I sat in the Diag on the phone with him for 20 minutes and got up to 45 girls wearing that exact outfit. After about 30 minutes I completely lost count. The person on the other side of the phone, had around the same amount of people in the same outfit. I knew that a lot of people wore the same clothing to stay warm but the fact that every one chose the same brand says something about the way we buy things in our culture. Not only do Americans as a group try to look alike in one area, we wear the same clothing all over the U.S.A. Even my roommates in Savannah Georgia my freshman year had Uggs and and thinner Northfaces were all the rage. I couldn’t understand why you would need Uggs in Savannah? It never even snows in Savannah, actually it never got colder than about 45 degrees. So it was a bit unnecessary to be wearing Uggs, but to “fit in” people will do just about anything.
ReplyDeleteIts hard to hide from trends. Even if you were to try to avoid magazines, TV and computers. You would still see everyone wearing the latest trends. Subconsciously you want what you see other people wearing. Tons of people get lost in fashion, wanting to buy the latest thing. I honestly wonder if its possible to avoid be tricked into buy something because you see someone else wearing it. You might have to hide in a hole just to avoid unconsciously wanting what you see other people wearing.
I also found Lasn's section on being "cool" to be quite interesting. What used to be defined as 'cool,' having your own style, vision, or way of doing things, is now thought of as simply being 'different,' and not celebrated, but instead sometimes looked down upon. Nowadays, being 'cool' means buying whatever product markets itself with the 'cool' label. These products are usually the most expensive ones, causing a socioeconomic divide between the 'cool' and the 'uncool.'
ReplyDeleteI also found Lasn's connection between pollutants and chemicals people in society are exposed to over the course of their lives and their academic (as well as non-academic) behaviors. The fact that the children of today's society are considered "behind" those of other countries is alarming. And I truly do believe that most of the reason for this difference stems from the fact that children of American societies are repeatedly exposed to too much media. TV shows, video games, movies, magazines, comic books; so many alternatives exist to studying the academics.
This week's Culture Jam reading seemed a little repetitive. But it did get me thinking- with so many writers and social critics out there writing about this topic, why isn't anything changing? And I think the problem is that society is too comfortable where it is so do anything about it. Not only that, but consumerism has evolved into a system that makes it nearly impossible for anything novel or original to ever remain that way. Lasn's discussion of the Situationists made the situation look a little more hopeful, however. It was encouraging to consider culture jamming as a creative process that is more for the self and for the better of society, rather than as an act of defiance that creates in reaction to the stifling effects of society.
ReplyDeleteI found the photograph Plume to not be as strong a photograph until I read the analysis and thoughts behind it. When I first looked at the photo all I saw was a house. It wasn’t until I took a second look that I even noticed there was some sort of energy plant behind it. Once I started to read the article I was shocked to know that in this part of Ohio there are 4 different power planets in a 15 mile radius. It made me a little sad that Daniel Shea said that this town was made up of layers, both natural and manmade. I did not like that nature and a power plant were both part of the makeup of this town. The nature around the plant started to become a secondary component to the town and it seems as if now everything in the community is about these power plants. Shea says, “I want the viewer to scan the horizon line, looking for the visual cue that connects subject to place, and ultimately to narrative.” I think that I did have to take a second look at the horizon and I guess because I wasn’t aware of the amount of power plants in Ohio I had an urge to further explore.
ReplyDeleteI thought that this section of Culture Jam, by Kalle Lasn, was especially pretentious. It was the part about not being cool which really struck my attention. Lasn asserts that “cool” does not even hold the same value anymore because it has been taken over by consumer culture to mean not unique, and not spontaneous. So he starts off seemingly trying to downplay the inherent interest in “culture jammers” just for rebellion’s sake but then concludes with the fact that what’s thought to be cool is actually for suckers, and he and his group would never be bundled into that category.
ReplyDeleteI find Lasn to be extremely self-righteous in this portion of the book because he offers nothing constructive, just puts down those unlike himself that cannot see past America’s capitalist tricks and are instead suckered into its ploys. Lasn writes,
Where the self is by proxy, it is not. This may also explain why one of the juiciest consumer target groups is the man or woman known as the “emulator”. Emulators look for products that make them feel like somebody else—someone more important… (102)
and also,
Greil Marcus calls this the “democracy of false desire.” The spectacle is an instrument of social control, offering the illusion of unlimited choice, but in fact reducing the field of play to a choice of preselected experiences. (104-105)
He makes such a distinction between the “us” and “them” when it comes to who can withstand the natural tendency toward consumerism and his tone is extremely condescending, as though following trends, even the modern ones that benefit us all, makes us bad people.
Kalle Lasn happened to touch on one a topic that I hold a great interest in this week. Memes are incredibly interesting to me. The relatively new concept created by Richard Dawkins helps give us an interesting way to view the growth of our culture and how it’s formed. This is somewhat of an odd thing to think about really. Most memes we come into contact with don’t seem that big. How does the line “frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn,” translate into the growth of culture? How can it be that lolcats help become a brick in the tall tower of our ideas and thoughts? It’s very odd. We realize that the memes float around but we never really understand how they can change the world. Most of the memes we think we know are just some random jokes on the internet right? It’s just some quote or character like the “old spice guy” or “the world’s most interesting man” selling us alcohol right? Oh…isn’t that interesting. It seems that Lasn is right. There is a mental battle for your mind and memes are a shockingly good way to sell it to you. Does anyone remember “Snakes on a plane”? fun little movie. Kind of a high polished b movie. That was a film that made its money off of memes. Everyone went and saw that movie because of a certain line of dialog took root within popular culture. A meme was born and a film made money. Now think about certain quotes from our history. No taxation without representation? Still rolls right off the tongue even after so much time. Its powerful stuff and I can see why Kalle wants to use it to change the world. But… well… memes are weird. They don’t usually take flight like we want or expect. Trying to force a new saying is good and all but it is all very fickle. You can continue to “skull” images Kalle. But unless your single action touches whatever part deep within us to spread the idea for the ideas sake. Well.. that’s all folks!
ReplyDeleteThis week’s reading concludes the Spring season where (as Lasn) said previously, was to highlight what we can do as culture jammers to make a difference. I had a hard time ‘swallowing’ both the content and the suggestions he gave the readers because it was so far away from what I do in my everyday life. The beginning of this reading was almost offensive to me because he highlighted everything that I perceive as acceptable. For example he talked about how “We are not Academics.” In this section he talked about how academics constantly rambles and not do anything about it. His examples were about how watching over four hours of television and sleeping too much were connected, and how global warming is happening. In his writing, academics warns us about these happenings but must “study it further” to ensure such information is correct. Lasn’s message was very similar to our very first ADP reading (Jensen article) which was essentially saying “Don’t just sit there, do something about it!”
ReplyDeleteThe next big topic was about meme which is essentially an idea that others can understand and agree with and therefore create a movement. An example he gave us was the tobacco industry where he talked about a commercial that ensures the public connects the image of a tobacco as death. He then started talking to his readers to be that ‘un-cool’ person and make online petitions, make commercials to throw down the fashion and fast food companies. To me as a student, it sounded so far off from what I perceive as an acceptable behavior that I find myself almost disregarding what he had said. But then it came to me that I am so used to seeing ads from Chanel, Gucci, Prada, Nike, and perceiving them as good things that I really do not want to hear that my world is completely wrong, or that I was brainwashed by the media. However, that being said, I understood what Lasn was trying to say about starting an idea that can help the environment and hopefully plant it in other people’s mind. I just think that because society is just so fixed in the AmericaTM lifestyle that perhaps easing people in with the right facts day by day will not create this ‘dismissal of information’ to others who also perceive his comments and suggestions as insults to our already accepted lifestyles.
In this section of Culture Jam, Lasn talks a great deal about the Situationists. One quote of the Situationists that he mentions really stood out to me: “If you’re living a full life, why would you want to ‘get away’ from it?” This statement made me think about how people spend so much time working to get where they want to be (or just plain working), and spend less time enjoying where they are. Why don’t they just put themselves where they want to be, or quit the job they hate and pick up one they fall in love with? I know that in today’s society, people tend to grasp onto whatever they can get, whether they like it or not. It’s the money that matters to them. Money is the main cause of all the zombies in this world; all the people that drag themselves out of bed in the morning, instead of excitedly get up and get ready for the day. Money is the reason so many people stay stuck in the same routine day after day and cannot wait for a “break,” when really they should be living life to the fullest with a job that satisfies just that.
ReplyDeleteGoing off of this, Lasn also suggests that people become stuck in these “stupefyingly comfortable patterns” and are afraid of change. Any change would come as a shock to them, but Lasn expresses that the difference is entirely worth the shock. He describes a story where he meditates for two days straight. At first it was unbearable; his back was hurting him to sit in the same position for so long. However, after some time he found the meditating to be desirable in the end. It was a shock to be doing something out of the ordinary for him, but it was worth it to him for a change in his everyday pattern.
Another point I found interesting in this reading comes for a direct quote by Lasn, “We just talk. We don’t actually do anything.” This statement reminded me exactly of what the author of Beyond Hope was trying to explain. In Beyond Hope, the author was upset about how people “hope” for things to happen, and never actually go and do anything about it, as if they can sit there and hope and someone else will do the work. In Culture Jam, Lasn expresses the same thing. He explains that we, Americans, talk and talk and talk about how things need to change. Yet, out of all the people who are talking, only so few of us physically get up and do something about it.
Daniel Shea’s picture directly shows the idea that big industry and advertisement is ruining the American dream. Depicted in this shot is a standard brick house embedded in the woods, which represents the classic portrayal of the American dream. Everyone wants to aspire to be able to have a house of their own, but in this picture, just off in the distance, one can make out a couple of smoke stacks, that we assume are attached to a factory. These stacks are polluting the air, and the environment surrounding the house, making the viewer believe that big industry is ruining this particular scene of the American dream. This fits in directly with the message of Culture Jam, which is to say that all large industries and advertisements are brainwashing our people, and ruining the environment. Although I agree to some extent that factories such as the one depicted in the picture are causing pollution in the environment, I realize that these factories are necessary, so that we can produce the goods that we require as a population, and so that we can make sure that our people stay employed. As it is, we get many of the items that we use on a day to day basis from foreign countries, so we must maintain the small amount of manufacturing that does go on in the United States. Although there is some validity to the points of Shea and Culture Jam, I believe that they are definitely biased, since they seem to be so skewed toward liberal points of view. I believe that if a person wants to create a work, which will truly inspire change, or at least thought on a given topic, then they must take a non- biased approach, and allow that viewer to connect the dots themselves.
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