In the section “Spring” Lasn provides an alternative to “living in the mediacy,” showing that there is a revolutionary legacy from which contemporary culture jammers, Situationalists, Meme Warriors, and other dissident groups have drawn both strength and example. The driving force to live as not the “object but as the subject of the story” may seem counteractive, ridiculous, and even hypocritical to some of you. To others these spontaneous acts of defiance represent courageous, righteous, and necessary mentality.
1) Present me with two examples of these authentic acts: one that you agree with, support, or could even imagine taking part in; another that you oppose, that doesn’t seem worth it to you, or are even offended by. Present each of these, referencing the page or section that discusses it, and give a thorough explanation of your choices. Support your arguments (your feelings) with evidence, (past examples from Lasn, or any other material from lecture, Diamond, Leopold, discussion, or your own lives).
2) Is there an authentic act you could imagine taking part of? What context/ issue/ conditions would you agree to and, more importantly, what outcome would you be aiming for?
3) Finally discuss briefly the need (if any) for defiant/ revolutionary/ protesting forces in society (whether or not it is you personally rebelling). What does these whistle blowers accomplish? Do we think more critically because of them? Do they contribute to our ‘education’? (Informing people of the ecological footprint of their consumer habits). Do they achieve justice? (uncovering or bringing to justice wrongs of the government, corporations, or other powerful entities)?
Friday, November 13, 2009
Jenny's World Changing Responses 1 - 5
1 - “Questioning Consumption”
This is a great way to open up this book. The writers put it on the line that our consumption is causing many of the other problems that our environment faces. As I began calculating how much “stuff” I have for the Stuff project, this is incredibly relevant to my life. We have so many things that we forget about. Even here at school, where I have taken an abbreviated amount of ‘stuff’ from what I have at home, there are still things I forget I have, or don’t use. Finding these things brings up the main point of this chapter. All of the extra stuff we have, and don’t use, causes clutter in our lives. We’ll save money, and energy, by being more conscious of what we have. Relating to this is ecological footprints. Everyone should calculate how much energy and natural resources they use, just to put their lives into perspective. Everyone forgets that we are the world… we are directly responsible for the help or harm that our world receives. What is a reasonable ‘footprint’? The average is 2.2 hectares per person. I do the best I can to keep up with the environment, especially after learning more through this class. I just think that everyone needs to consider the amount of stuff they are using and have. And when they go out to purchase more stuff, to consider “choice fatigue”. Too many choices, makes us think we need more stuff, because there are so many options. Maybe, if our society was a little more levelheaded, and conscious of their purchases, we could slowly make a big difference. I’m not sure. It is worth a try though.
2 - “Creating Healthy Homes”
The items that we are taught to rely on to clean our homes aren’t clean themselves. How can that be? The toxins in our cleaners, that we think are removing the grime and germs in our homes, are actually spreading, and getting back into our water and sewers. The cycle continues. Non-toxic items are available, but just may break the bank when it comes down to purchasing them. When will we make it affordable to live in a clean and safe home? Products like laundry detergent are awful for us. The additives seep into skin that can lead to cell damage. Hydrochloric acid from bathroom cleaners can burn the skin and eyes, and cause stomach issues and burning of the skin. People are not aware of this. If they were, they may take the other route and buy non-toxins to clean with. Maybe that would help stimulate our economy? It doesn’t seem like the worst idea. Paper products also. Though they are c convenient, they are extremely wasteful. Reusable material is the way to go. It’s a shame that people don’t know about these things. If people were more aware of this, they’d change. Even though it would take a while, I think they would. This book, World Changing, is making me much more aware of so many things. I think it is important people learn, so they don’t harm themselves and those they love. They need to know.
3 - “Art meets Technology”
Technology can be a huge asset to the arts. We (artists) can use the new mechanisms and ideas to strengthen our artistic outreach. Though this technology can be put to very good use, and create innovations that are beneficial to our world, it can also easily be taken advantage of, and misused. For example, the “Hug Shirt” is a shirt that creates the sensation of a hug when your body temperature and heartbeat permit it to. Have we come to the point where we have to synthesize emotion? This seems a bit ridiculous to me. Though an intriguing idea that technology can be used to do this, I feel that we could be putting it to much better use than creating shirts that are taking the place of human affection. On the other side of this, the “sonic city” headphones record information about the environment and map urban sounds to create a track of your experience. This use of technology is very intriguing, and can help us approach our environmental problems for a different standpoint. All in all, I believe that our technology can be used in positive ways, and negative ways. We just have to keep trying to point them in the positive direction so we don’t misuse our research.
4 - “Producer Responsibility”
When reading about this I thought it was extremely intriguing. Germany takes an innovative approach to keeping our world a little greener. Instead of leaving it to the car owner to dispose or give back their old cars, who’s materials are usually put to waste, the car company take responsibility for what happens to the car after it is done with its use. The “end-of-Life vehicle directive” was adopted by Europe after Germany’s approach, because in the long run it was saving money, and re using materials. Though difficult, these companies try to recover metals in products designed for utility. This encouraged companies to create vehicles that would fit this bill, and would cooperate when it came time to reuse the materials. This has inspired a wave of technology in which we don’t only think about its usage, but what happens after usage as well. An example being pop-apart cell phones that are quick to dissemble and just as efficient as cell phones. This is a great idea. This will encourage people to think about the after effects of everything that they do. Well, probably not everything, but it will at least help inspire a change. If we change, and think more about what happens after we waste, or what happens after we purchase a new big item, it may get us to think more about which item we are going to buy, and which items we are throwing to waste.
5 - “Green Homes”
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
kristin adamczyk's automastic exercise
The relationship between my four squares is best realized when evaluating each separately. Given the boundary lines and ‘blank canvas’ feel, each drawing adds a new texture to the page, each drawing adds a new way of fitting into it’s space. How do you respond to solid black lines that act as a wall, keeping your drawing captured in a space? Each do a good job of balancing white space with our drawn responses. Each is a cluster of similar thoughts, a continuous stream of conciousness. Also, more than one square includes scratched out drawings or lines, as to suggest the person responding to the opt thought certain ideas weren’t accomplishing what they were trying to get across. So you have this aspect of unfinished thought that also plays a part, we weren’t given unlimited time to respond to each opt. And it becomes a response of limited material, we all just had scratchy pens and pencils. It brings a nice grayscale value to the overall composition of the activity. The different quality in pensmanship, between the two boxes with words, is very interesting. One feels rushed, or even as if the person was searching their mind for the best words to incorporate, while the other feels more organized, or thought out. The pill bottle full of candy is humorous in my opinion, but I can’t think of a way to symbolize it, I think the opt was “How many perscriptions do you take a day”, it’s just ironic if my fellow classmate was thinking “I eat those pills like candy!”
One of the most important things to notice about the overall composition of my response activity is the abstract difference in the right and left side: one captures quick gestural characteristics, while the other balances words, how they are used, and even the quality in their stroke.
The only part of this activity that really makes me think about Lasn’s ideas of consumerism, is the pill bottle, the general idea of consuming many thoughts and collecting a lot of junk also pops into my mind. Each box is like a messy room, some of the contents more important than the others. But when you’re rushing how can you make well thought out decisions on what is important, you are just trying to invoke a certain feeling or idea in the strongest way possible.
7 and 8
At a glance the four squares I received appear separated down the middle, drawings on the left, text on the right. If read like a book the words would describe the pictures. Top left: A crown floating in a space. The box next to it read, “When my heart broke and I couldn’t fix it.” No obvious relation. The text about the broken heart reveals a time when there person who wrote this experienced pain. What does a crown have to do with pain? A crown is a symbol of power. Monarchs use it as a sign literally above their heads. Gangs use it in their graffiti to mark their territory. Along with power usually comes pain. Corporations are very powerful and have the potential to inflict pain. Lasn would argue that corporations inflict pain with every commercial they produce since they are manipulating us conform.
Below the picture of the crown is a drawing on a large pill, an unmarked bottle, four little pills, a safety pin, and a spoon with a liquid in it. This box comes across as an add for a drug store. Next to this box is a list of words: Magnet, Pineapple, Toothbrush, Darts, and clover. I have a hard time relating these five things to each other, let alone the whole exercise. Where can you buy these items. If its the right time of year, say around St. Patrick's Day, these five things could be found at a CVS or Walgreens. Coincidentally all the drugs and medicines in the panel over can be bought there too.
Medication is a weird thing. Its something that people often keep to themselves. Yet when watching TV, numerous amounts of medication commercials come on the screen. These ads are produced by giant corporations that own the drugs. Something that is meant to heal is trying to manipulate us into buying their products.
All of these squares can be related back to consumerism, as done above. The only concrete image of production/ consumption is the spoon in the drug scene. The medicine is ready to go, ready to be consumed.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Chris’s automatist exercise
Yu-Jen(Chris),Tsai
ADP III
Discussion Sec 005
When we were first explained what and how the exercise was going to be, the idea of “draw or write out the first thing that pops from your head” had me expected that some of the squares would definitely be filled by interesting shapes. There are two ways of expression in this experiment; ones through words and the other one is images. And usually if a person is use to one of those two mediums would found one to be abundantly clear and easier for he or she as a tool. However, by observing the befuddled look from the person on my left, I could tell that no one felt better about either one of those two mediums than the other. Sometimes when an individual was told to express himself or herself in an instant matter, the reaction time differs depending on the theme of the subject and its relationship with the individual; if the theme or the particular word clicked with the “thinker”, the person with the pen and a sheet of paper, something extremely expressive would appear. On the other hand, if I had no any type of connection with the theme or subject, I had absolutely nothing; as a result, some crazy nonsense images would probably appear since I was forced to at least write or draw anything. And so I found it interesting that I was able to guess and sort of figure what was going on in the person’s mind just by analyzing the illustrations and texts in the cubes.
When we start to think of Lasn’s idea of that we, as humans, have been in a “cult” for decades, we realize that it was us who did this to ourselves. What inputted to our minds was all the information that ultimately turned into beliefs, and that information are delivered through mainly televisions and newspapers. This links up with the MEDIA VIRUS chapter in Culture Jam where Kalle emphasizes children and adults nowadays are so abundantly exposed to televisions and advertisings that it seems like we are brainwashed somehow by the media without noticing. We buy what most people want to buy, eat what we think we should eat and think how the books and articles wanted us to think. Whatever appeared on the four cubes didn’t seem random to me at all while I think of Lasn’s interpretation of the word “cult” that is formed by us, the brainwashed consumers.
Levester's Automatist Exercise
Levester Williams
Reed Esslinger-Payet
ADP III
Automatist Exercise
All boxes contain constituents specifically alluding to deep connection to consumerism, whether it is conspicuous or not by the drawings and writings. The rectilinear and curvilinear lines found in the upper left box show unconscious representations of what our minds configure everyday as we process our daily lives. As one notices, there are more rectilinear lines than curvilinear; thus, it seems the processing of the world is mostly derived from “living in a natural world to living in a manufactured world” (Lasn 4). These shapes in these boxes seem to convey the bare elements of consumerism with its labeling—as seen in the squares—and the array of lines—mostly depicting lives of a barcodes. Due to its ambiguous forms, the curvilinear shapes seem to be indistinguishable figures of the natural world being slowly integrated into the world of technological. The natural world no longer exists by itself but with the invasive technological environment caused by consumerism.
Next, the box in the upper right corner contains words that simulate a time and space of a person and its environment. The words have hardly any grammatical structure: it conveys fragments of memory being submerged into the technological components of the person’s life. With words such as plastic, train, and car, the viewer quickly connects with the material aspect of our environment. Plastic reminds the viewer of the plastic bottles consumed and tossed aside. Train and car enable the viewer to envision a time of mobility and the recollection of the various prices of the tickets and gas. Moreover, these inventions pronounce the ability to move across the material environment freely. It and me suggest the relationship the person has with its material environment. Since the word it comes first, it suggests that the person must situate products at high priority to have a sense of time and place in the space.
Then, the box in the lower right corner contains shapes of various medicines. Each shape represents a name-brand medicine. Even if the shapes themselves do not do justice to the actual forms of these products, the inclusions of the name do. The identities of the products lie within the brand. The shapes become the background for the brand name. The most interesting element in this box is the phrase “and so on.” Medicine is consumed so much in our daily lives that the list runs continuously. The name brands only agglomerate into a mass of unconscious addiction. If one feels sick, find a name brand of a medicine that will provide a relief to the situation.
In the lower left square, names of various objects are found. As seen in the first square mentioned, there is a mixture of elements that pertain to consumerism while one element at least suggests the natural world. Horseshoe, Zelda, and bull’s eye all pertain to entertainment while aurora borealis exemplifies a natural phenomenon that stimulates our emotions. Yet, we are now stimulated by entertainment from the media, depriving us from our enjoyment of nature.
When considering the squares as whole, aspects of consumerism are embedded in each one. Through the narrative of these squares, the viewers sense strange connection to these abstract drawings. He senses that he is an emulator that “[looks[ for products that make [him] feel like somebody else—someone more important” (Lasn 102). For example, each square pertains particularly to the blind devotion of a consumer. The plethora of medicines he consume continuously—knowing the brand name but not the ingredients within them—the stimulation of media entertainment depriving him from his natural sense, and his awareness of time and space being congruent with the presence of technological world. The concrete evidence of consumerism is particularly found in the lower right square.
The immanent consumption of products such as medicines are due to the “first commandment of a cult: Thou shalt not think” (Lasn 54). We indulge ourselves into purchasing brand name items without questioning it. The Savage in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World has a choice to submit himself into the self-indulging elements of his utopian society, or to question and revolt it. He asked this question to the “individuals [of his society] devoted to the pursuit of happiness” (Huxley ix): “But do you like being slaves…do you like being babies” (Huxley 144)? The Dadaism supports such questioning the order of how societies work. They reject reason and logic and express irrationality and chaos to enable people to question their society, particularly consumerism in this case (“Dada”. This question needs to an urge of wanting the truth.
Works Cited
"Dada." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 09 Nov. 2009.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper & Row, 1969. Print.
Lasn, Kalle. Culture Jam: The Uncooling of America. New York: Eagle Brook, 1999. Print.
Maras Automatist Exercise
Observations—At a quick glance, all four squares show and speak to completely different ideas and societal issues. In square one, symbols that one commonly sees on the side of a road, in a store, or in a panoramic view are depicted. In square two, words that describe an incident without actually telling a story are written. In square three, small pictures that resemble toiletries or daily staples are shown, while the words in the last square all relate to tangible objects.
When I combined all of the boxes, I came up with a narrative in my head. Since the images in the first box look like tools and items used to build, I started the scene on a construction site. Judging by the words in the second box, an accident happened on this site that caused the person working to be rushed to the hospital. Where there, they received potions and other elements to help with their injury, and the words in the last box where the items that this character had in his/her hospital room.
I wouldn’t necessarily characterize the boxes as speaking to a general theme—but I do think that it speaks to the daily routine and way that our society functions that I could take four unrelated boxes and create a narrative that makes sense almost instantly. To me, this represents our nations tendency to live life based off of a schedule, and follow a certain set of rules that dictate how we should function on a daily basis. These four people, who were completely unrelated before they contributed to this sketch, managed to emphasize and contribute to the idea of our collective habit.
This further relates to Lasn’s idea that we’re “in a cult.” While this exercise strayed away from Lasn’s claim that we don’t think but do what we’re told because each square was unique to the artist, we proved Lasn’s theory that our unaware choices are manipulated in that these supposed unrelated squares were used to prove that we, as a society, function on routine. Generally speaking, these squares have to speak to consumerism in that they directly depict and speak to products manufactures in the world. There are hammers, bottles, and words such as horeshoe, torch, blanket, and candy that are trinkets to symbolize the world of goods in which we live in. From an artistic standpoint, this exercise made me realize how much these trinkets are relevant in society because I was able to draw images of goods without looking or even thinking really of what they looked like—their images were embedded in my brain and came as a form of second nature (must like the nature I use to get to my classes everyday, dress myself with clothes from different drawers, etc.)
While this exercise was supposed to remove us from our “media-polluted brain,” the only way that I was able to draw these images was referring to that part of my brain that contained the knowledge of the media and modern society.
Tashas Automatist Exercise
Looking at these four squares, I don’t see really any correlation between them. The first square has small, neat shapes in a line. The second box has a large OUCH inside a pointy bubble. This square was a response to a time when we felt great pain. The large OUCH makes it really easy to understand what that square was about. The third box has a list of things that don’t really seem to be linked with each other at all. The words are “horse”, “ocean”, “hammer”, “checkers” and “rattlesnake.” Hammer and rattlesnake make me automatically think of pain, while with the other words, pain could be apart of them but its not necessarily the first thing I think of. The last square is just a picture of the world with stars. At first I don’t remember what the fourth box was supposed to have in it. This picture of the world did not really tell me anything. Then, I remember that we were supposed to have all the medicine we’ve had in that box.
When I first saw my sheet of four squares I looked and saw that the first one was very similar to what I had written. That made me think about how there is a standard image that comes to most peoples minds when hearing a certain word. To me these four squares don’t really make a story unless I really force one, and even then the story doesn’t make sense. Instead I saw them telling a story separately. The title of this exercise is “Get out of your media-polluted brain exercise.” This title makes me sad because though we want to say we aren’t polluted by the media, subconsciously we really are. The fact that the first square on this sheet is so similar to mine, to me, really emphasizes Lasn’s point of a Consumer society. We drew these shapes as a response to something and some peoples responses were very similar. The 4th square, which I know was a response to all the medicine we’ve had in our life, could either go against or for Lasn’s point. If the person who drew it had the intention of it mean they’ve had every medicine in the world, it shows how we don’t with for our bodies to heal naturally, but we rely on medication that relieves pain quickly so we can go about our consumer filled days. If they didn’t, what did they mean by the world being their medicine. Do they mean what is natural in the world or do they mean what they buy to make them feel better?
When I first saw that Lasn used the word cult to describe American culture I thought he was pushing it a bit to far, but I am beginning to see where he is getting this idea. I see cults as dangerous and full of brainwashing and killing. When thinking of the American culture as an actual cult I begin to see similarities. There are many killings over power and greed because many people are told to strive for the top and will do anything. I see how people are subconsciously brainwashed just by the 1st box of this exercise. Me and another person had the same responses because of the connections the media has made and forced into our minds. By replaying adds over and over on TV, in magazines, on billboards, etc we automatically begin to make the same relationships between ideas just because it is always in our face. We might not know we are being “brainwashed” but that’s where the harm is coming from. Its hard to resist when we don’t know its happening in the first place.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Sarah's automatist exercise
Many of the drawings on the 4 squares are simple and straight to the point. It is easy to understand what each square is trying to represent weather through words or images. The content is all connected through the simplicity and amount of detail used to express the images. Also I found little connections through the placement of the squares, for example, the injury square is right above the medication square which plays off of each other. Also, on the next side, I felt as though some of the descriptive words could just as well express what is drawn in the square above it. The theme of my particular sheet is very medicinal because of the hospital scenario, the medicine, some of the words, and images of stitches and unpleasant markings. The whole idea of having 4 different contributors was very effective because it added a sense of variety. However I am remembering what I had drawn for every category and my drawings were almost exactly the same as the ones I am looking at now. I feel as though the squares are flowing into one another and nothing seems out of place except for the word “soft” and “lucky charms.” I get a very sad feeling from the images.
In discussion last Tuesday we talked about our interpretation of the word “cult.” I feel as though it is somewhat negative just because one definition says that it means having excessive admiration for something in an unhealthy way. I don’t think this exercise was related to a cult in any sort of way. I do, however think it has to do with our society. We were asked to do a simple task, and all of our papers look very similar to one another. I found it odd that we are all creative people, yet we came up with these minuscule drawings without much detail or expression. Also, we were told to do it very quickly; the first thing that popped into our heads. I think if we had more time, and were able to think for a while about how to really express what we were asked to draw, the images we would have came up with (and words) would be more thoughtful and interesting. This exercise also shows how most of us think alike when it has to do with objects and how to get a point across or express something In a simple way. This reminds me of symbols you might see on a bus to represent handicap seating, or a symbol on a wet floor sign. Sometimes simple is good. Another observation I had was that most of the objects people had drawn weren’t natural things, but items like bowling pins, medicine, ice cream, a chair, and a clock. On my particular sheet there was only one natural drawing of flowers. It was interesting how we can relate more to consumer items than we can to nature or things that are a necessity to us. To a certain extent, I think Lasn is right when he says we are unaware of our actions/ choices and are being manipulated. This is true when it comes to consumerism and how we live our lives today. We listen to advertisements and other forms of persuasion and give into them. I don’t think this connects to the exercise we completed though because we were not giving into anything, we were simply writing down the first thing that came to mind. I think it would have been more effective to have us write down the things we each need/ use the most. I guarantee that there would be more consumer items on the paper than anything else.
Lily's Automatist Exercise
From the exercise “Get out of your media-polluted brain”, each square on my sheet seems very different and random at first. In the top left square, there is an arrow symbol, starting very broad at the bottom, and rising to the top of the square. Rays seem to be emulating from it, which are enclosed in a circle that is cut off by the top of the square.
The second square reads “parents house, trampoline”.
“Horseshoe”, “Chinese”, “lemmings”, “topography”, and “gingerbread man” are written in the third square.
The fourth square contains representations of pills and a marijuana leaf spread throughout the composition.
The second square is how someone felt pain. The fourth square is how someone heals (or reacts to) his pain. The first and third squares are someone’s automatic reactions to something seen or heard. Each square has to do with what we consume; from our sight, from listening, from society.
The overall effect from this exercise seems to be that society throws so much at us. We have so much random unnecessary stuff that we consume in our head and our bodies. The one that sticks out the most to be is square number four. We try and try to make everything feel better by consuming more and more. Which is just falling deeper into the pit of consumerism, because they want you to take more pills and buy their medications.
I feel as though each of these squares is influenced by the broad reaches of consumerism. We are overwhelmed with symbols in our cities and towns. Just walk down State street and try to notice all of the visual symbols around you: road signs, logos, graffiti, etc. I highly doubt that if someone doing this exercise in the pre-consumerism era would’ve drawn the symbol of an arrow in one of these boxes.
The second square mentions a trampoline. Those were the “cool” thing to have as a kid growing up in our culture… or so says society. But apparently for this person, it represents a painful experience. We consume things that are dangerous, as long as it follows the rules of fitting in.
The main thing that represents our consumerist society in square three is “lemmings”. That was a popular video game in the 1990s. Most people know about it, and have played it (in our American society). It shows, again, the conformity towards consumerism and the idea that “if it is popular, I have to have it”.
Square four makes a concrete reference to consumption. These are portrayals of what he literally consumes in order to feel better, whether it is for a headache, stress, relaxation, or recreation. This represents the idea ingrained in us that buying more stuff will make us feel better, which is absolutely false. It will only make us want more.
Throughout this exercise, the Lasn’s ideas of consumerism are represented. It reflects his notion of the negative effects the media and society have on us and our individuality. Although each of our responses to the prompts of the exercise was different, I’m sure many were similar. Lasn says “Perhaps there’s no such thing as an authentic self” (Lasn 45). This scary idea suggests that the consumerist society brainwashes us into agreeing with their ideas. It is important to look at each aspect, positive or negative of these consumerism issues, we have to be careful what we consume, and if it is detrimental to our self to avoid it.
Lasn, Kalle. Culture Jam: How to Reverse America's Suicidal
Consumer Binge--and Why We Must. New York, NY:
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