The Panopticon, Identity Politics, et al.

In class today we stumbled around Zizi Papacharissi's interpretation of Alberto Melucci's notions of identity politics. Through the lens of Melucci, Papacharissi contends that in regards to social conflicts, "collective action can no longer be measured, but is still present in the creative proclamation of cultural codes." This creative proclamation is manifested through "cultural challenges to the dominant language." The question of significance was raised in class and we danced around it and did our best to explain what was going on.

I had to refer back to my memory of last week's class to explain the above. Last week we studied Foucault's idea of the Panopticon as well as Bourdieu's notions of "Reproduction." Foucault describes a system of punishment run by a prison built of glass with a tower in the middle for surveillance. He argues that the idea of isolation coupled with unpredictable and total surveillance creates a normative internal sense of fear in the populace and helps maintain the current power structure in the world. Any behavior deviating from the norm is potentially see-able and potentially punishable. For this post, the salient point from Bourdieu is that the carceral state (prisons, schools, etc.) are set up in such a way that the "deviants" of society are lead to define themselves as failures, thus freeing the system from any culpability.

Phew. So in terms of this week's conundrum, I found that the carceral state uses the "dominant language" of the system to force errant individuals to define themselves as failures or deviants. Thus a challenge to the dominant language with the creation of "cultural codes" constitutes a way for an individual to take ownership of his or her own identity. This requires a certain cultural literacy of sorts, otherwise the individual can make the mistake of using the dominant language of society to negatively identify his or herself, in accordance to the machinations of the carceral state.

I like the idea of the above image. It is called "The False Mirror" and I think it allows many reads in terms of the above discussion. Make of it what you will...

Active Cultures

In our readings several authors look to nature to provide metaphors for social dynamics. For example in Fear of Small Numbers the organization of networks is referred to as being cellular in nature. A lot of these natural metaphors ascribe a seemingly living quality to social phenomena. I have been thinking of the word "culture" in a similar way. When I refer to culture I like to bear in mind these definitions (from Oxford Dictionary):

culture
• noun
1 the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively.
2 a refined understanding or appreciation of this.
3 the customs, institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or group.
4 the cultivation of plants, breeding of animals, or production of cells or tissues.
5 a preparation of cells grown in an artificial medium containing nutrients.

• verb maintain (tissue cells, bacteria, etc.) in conditions suitable for growth.

— ORIGIN Latin cultura ‘growing, cultivation’, from colere ‘cultivate’.

In considering the problems of the Public as posed by Dewey, I think it is helpful to consider these connotative implications of "culture." It is true that a culture needs "cultivation," as well as "conditions suitable for growth." I also like to think of culture as being a bit funky or kind of icky and active; the creation of culture is not a clean enterprise.

Creative Destruction

In some of our readings a reference is made to the capitalist phenomenon of "creative destruction." It is an initially paradoxical term like "accumulation by dispossession." These terms first appear paradoxical because the words in the phrases kind of jingle with opposite connotations. Cai Guo Qiang's art takes great advantage of these tensions in his current exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum called I Want to Believe. His installations depict dynamic moments seemingly frozen in time, often with strong political undercurrents, like the one shown above. He also plays with real explosives creating "Explosion Events." His "sketches" for these events are hanging up in the museum and are clever ways of creating a pseudo-traditional art-object as a counterpart to his more ethereal art-events. His work is rather overwhelming and I am not sure how I feel about that... Could it be too much bombast? Regardless, he makes a very clever use of materials and captures dynamic processes in inventive and intelligent ways.

Mythologies Unlimited

About a week ago I went to Epcot with my family. I was led to wonder why I am wasting my money on an education at Columbia when I could have had it handed to me on my plate, pre-digested at the funnest place on earth. As a matter of fact, Epcot has a ride called Spaceship Earth that deals with exactly what we're investigating in my Theories/History of Communications class. Check the link if you're curious!

Roland Barthes writes about the way mythologies are created, using signs and signifiers to rob objects (pictures, words, etc) of their history and/or reconstruct their meaning. This is a lot of what goes on in Epcot. They have an attraction called "The American Adventure" that uses animatronics, video, and song to interpret our country's history-- all in less than a half hour. Disney's animatronic displays are excitingly apropos to Benjamin's ideas considering the liquidation of essence (which I touched on in my entry about the Satanic Verses). I may write more on this later, it was an exciting trip.

Dewey would be Proud

A few weeks ago I played guitar at a Burlesque benefit to save Coney Island (that's me in the background of the picture). Dewey said the public has a hard time getting together, but it from the looks of this benefit the public had no problem due to the entertainment involved. A sold out crowd including Marty Markowitz (the Brooklyn Borough President) came to see me play guitar... Yeah right, they were all there to see the ladies take their clothes off! We'll see what happens to Coney Island, but that night it was heartening to see so many different people ("freaks," as Marty lovingly addressed them) getting together to work for a common cause and raise money to help support Coney Island's civic groups.