We live in a postmodern age where technology play a huge role in our daily lives and influences the way we look at and experience the world. The more computer technology grows the more we question our world and what is ‘real’ and what is not? Is something a ‘reality’ or a simulacrum? Is the background image on your computer or laptop a photograph of a landscape that exists or is it created and constructed with the use of different photographs and photo editing software.
When does an image or an object have cult value and when does it have exhibition value? According to Benjamin (1955:797) cult value and exhibition value are binary opposites. Cult value refers to the magical and spiritual power people attach to an object, which is used in
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Postmodern society finds it difficult to distinguish between these terms due to the existence of simulacrum. According to Kando (1996:5) “reality and fantasy merge” and people try to imitate what they see in the media, like the TV and the Internet, in real life rather than the media imitating real life. Kando (1996:5) makes use of a good example where “police officers model their behaviour after TV shows like Cops”. Thus, the police officers believe that the way the officers act in Cops is how an officer must act or behave in real life, which makes the TV show a simulacrum, it is people acting.
Post-modernity plays a huge role in terms of how we experience reality and life in itself (2004:48). As stated by Hart (2004:48), the postmodern society’s experiences are different from modern society’s experiences. According to Hart (2004:48) postmodern society does not just experience different experiences in comparison to modern society, but the experience itself is different form modern
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Benjamin (1955:795) defines the term ‘aura’ “as the unique appearance of distance, however close it may be”. This distance is the distance in terms of time and space (Benjamin1955: 795). It relates to the effect time has on a work of art, for example if one sees the brush strokes of the Monaliza and the effect of the elements and time on it, it takes one back in time. The ‘aura’ is the way one experience the history attached to the original work of art through its physical attributes. According to Benjamin (1955:793) the ‘aura’ of a work of art cannot be captured when one reproduce it. Thus, one does not experience the ‘aura’ of something displayed on a screen. Hart (2004: 58) also states that screens distant people more from the object and therefore it does not affect them in the way it is meant to affect them, because one is not in actual danger when one watches an action movie for example. These reproductions may let it seem if the original is close, though the original is still in another place and the reproduction just represents the original (Benjamin 1955:795).Thus, one is not experiencing the original and therefore it does not have the same effect on the viewer. Hart (2004:61) uses the example of the Gulf War, many people belief that it did not happen because they only experienced it in terms of a news bulletin on a TV screen, meaning that they do not know if it really happened or if it
“This shows more recognizable scenes, that are noticeable and less symbolic.” (doc A) Therefore, by creating more detailed and recognizable art, one way the Renaissance has changed man's view of the world truly is art. New religious ideas changed the view
One way paintings demonstrate this is the difference between the Mona Lisa and Madonna Enthroned Between Two Angels. The older painting, Madonna Enthroned Between Two Angles, is unrealistic and has rather depressing dark colors. While the Renaissance painting, the Mona Lisa, is not only much more realistic, but also a lot more cheerful, brighter feel, and became a true masterpiece (Doc A). In the paintings, the fact the Renaissance painting is brighter, more realistic and a famous masterpiece, shows that the Renaissance changed the art style into a unique, amazing representation that changed the entire future of art. The paintings from the Renaissance showed that people saw each other differently than before( Doc A).
The transformation of art from the middle ages to the Renaissance is jarring. The art
Cult films are defined by the existence of a small continued “cult” fanbase around a film with lesser commercial success. These fanbases often have traditions for audience participation during the film1, extending from call-out responses to lines in the film to throwing things towards the screen at specific moments. These viewing traditions can have some variations in different areas, but many exist across the fanbase. Viewing traditions are also very much so a social thing- one would not engage with the film in this way outside of a group setting. Perhaps the most well-known cult film is The Rocky Horror Picture Show, whose cult-like fanbase has graduated into popular culture.
New Consumer Lifestyle The rise of the economy America in the 1920s resulted to American Consumerism. This is because it was in era that a lot of discoveries are found and inventions are made which led to the thriving businesses in the United States (Business and Economy, 2012). This period is also known as the Roaring Twenties. Because of the many discoveries and inventions, there has been a massive use of automobiles, telephones, motion pictures and electricity which contributed to the increased demand of the consumer. This later on resulted to deliberate changes in lifestyle and culture in the U.S.
Notably, a philosopher named Walter Benjamin wrote an essay called “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” he explained that the works of art are possessed of an aura that makes them legitimate. Jason’s claim to aura is “truth”. How does the film treat this claim? Before discussing DOTD it’s important to understand what aura is. Benjamin describes aura as mystifying a process, “We define the aura of the later as the unique phenomenon of a distance, however close it may be.
Whether it is Postman’s text on the truth of our society engaging the written word or The Wire’s statement of causality and identification, there are multiple personal connections from the material that are relatable to one another. In Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, readers learn that the written word is being replaced and even ignored. Print word was the media metaphor at the time, influencing discourse and classifying inferences in our history. Though, as explained by Postman, typography and exposition are replaced by show business and entertainment (Postman 63); this statement is truly relevant in our culture and can be seen in The Wire.
Chapter 10 of Marita Strunken’s Practices of Looking dealt primarily with how visual culture is circulated throughout the world. Chapter 10 was really interesting because it weighs the positives and negatives of mainstream visual culture due to the globalization of certain technologies. The thesis of this chapter is that the global distribution of images is mainly done through satellite or web technologies. These technologies have increased the magnitude, readability and distance of global circulation of visual culture. One thing that I found interesting was how the chapter began by returning to the very beginning of image reproduction.
Benjamin did not see technology as harmful to art as he believed that “a work of art has always been reproducible” (Benjamin 218). Since Benjamin saw that art was inherently reproducible, no matter the age, the presence of technology only ameliorated art as a whole. Despite Benjamin’s acceptance of the mechanical presence in art, his counterpart Adorno did not welcome the decaying presence of the aura as readily. Adorno’s essay, written two years later, was both a response and a critique of Benjamin’s piece.
Differences are the state in which factors between two or more objects are dissimilar. Differences within societies are examined in the following categories of dissimilarity: the individual’s social environment, social status and systems, change and continuity within society, and of gender, ethnicity and race. From examining the stories of individuals living in City Road, differences occur from these factors and the individual experiences of these differences both have a positive and negative view. In the accounts of the men at the Municipal club and the young woman at the pool hall who originally resides in Nottingham, both express the differences they experience from the change of the place and time they were accustomed to (Open University
They are so entertained by illusions they see on a screen but forget they could see some of these things in real life. “If he closed his eyes and stood very still, frozen, he could imagine himself upon the center of a plain, a wintry, windless Arizona desert with no house in
In a world where the boundaries between real and un-real are often blurred we find that our realities often imitates the un-real more than the real. We are faced with a society where we are more in tune with the hyper real world. Hyper reality is defined as an inability off our consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulated reality, (Oxford dictionary, 2014) The concept of Hyperreality was defined by French sociologist Jean Baudrillard in his work Simulacra and Simulation, where he explored the relationship between Reality, Symbols and Society. Baudrillard states in his work that society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs and that human experience is a simulation of reality.
Struggles in a Modern Society What is modern? That is a question many people don’t know. Modern can be a hip new style of art, or fashion attire, or it can be relating to the present or recent time as opposed to the remote past. No matter what emerges into our complex minds when we hear the word modern, everyone can agree it is what makes our current society. It can be in great technology around the world for air and ground travel or new smart-phones egressing from the mobile phone stores into their pockets.
Perspective is considered one of the most important aspects of Renaissance art. Artists such as Masaccio, Leonardo Da Vinci and Raphael made the use of this device in many of their work. Thanks to Filippo Brunelleschi, who ‘invented’ and developed this technique called one point linear perspective. The intention of perspective in Renaissance art is to depict reality, reality being the ‘truth’. By simulating the three dimensional space on a flat surface, we in fact incorporate this element of realism into it.
The story of an event is then portrayed as if it is happening on the actual because television has with it the ideology of vivacity and exuberance (Smith, 2005). This kind of set up is a part of the role of television and such happening could not be only recognized as a product of technology. The shows in the television vary from one interest to another. However, every show uses the most important factor that contributes to a television’s ideological liveliness—the use of sound. This is because the sound employed in any movie or show appeals to the sense of hearing on the part of the audience compared to the cinematic gaze it brings.