'Representation has a frustrated relationship with reality'.
Focus Key:
Relevance
Problems
Questions
Text One: Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices
Chapter 1 - The work of representation.
Hall, S. (1997) Representation : cultural representations and signifying practices / edited by Stuart Hall. London: Sage in association with the Open University and the introduction
(S, Hall, 1997, diagram showing the circuit of culture)
'Contemporary studies in the field of education cannot afford to neglect the ever present interrelationships between power and politics, economics and consumption, representation and identity. In studying a recent cultural phenomenon in government schools, it became clear that a methodological tool that made sense of these interlinked processes was required. The Circuit of Culture (the Circuit) was refined as a tool of cultural analysis by British cultural theorists in the late 1990s.' - (Leve, A. 2012. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED544487.pdf)
Notes
- [Definition of Language added to Glossary.]
- Language is able to do this because it operates as a representational system. In Language, we use signs and symbols — whether they are sounds, written words, electronically produced images, musical notes, even objects - to stand for or represent to other people our concepts, ideas and feelings. (1)
- Culture is said to embody the 'best that has been thought and said in a society'. The sum of great ideas reflected in the high culture of that age. The lives of 'ordinary people' is commonly reflected in the popular culture of the time. - For a long time, the way of framing the debate of culture, was to show popular culture in opposition to high culture.
- An anthropological definition of culture, however, would define it as whatever is distinctive about the "way of life" of a people, community, nation or social group.(2)
- Cultural meanings inform, organise and regulate social practice and influence our conduct.
- The circuit of culture as illustrated above suggests that, in fact, meanings are produced at several different sites and circulated through several different processes or practices (the cultural circuit). (3).
Three accounts - Reflective, Intentional and constructivist approach. Representaiton is the intersection of culture and language. - Constructivist is commonly used in schools
Understanding the clear difference between constructivist, reflective and intentional?
Reflective Approach - meaning is produced by people through ideology, and experience which is reflected by reality or culture in a society.
Constructivist Approach - meaning is constructed by the individual users of lan- guage. Things do not mean; we construct meaning using representational signs
Intentional Approach - meaning is imposed by the speaker or the author on the world through ianguage. Words mean what the author intends they should mean.
Text Two
Chapter 1 of Kidd, J. (2015). Representation. Routledge, New York, 3rd ed.
Author Bio: Jenny Kidd is Lecturer in the School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University. Her research interests include digital media, museums and participation. She is the author of Museums in the New Mediascape (2014) and co-editor of Challenging History in the Museum (2014) and Performing Heritage (2011).
Notes: Introduction:
Under-representation: - 'To this day many groups, communities and individuals consider themselves to be vastly under-represented... (and) dangerously misrepresented.'
Stereotypes as 'funny' but crass, limiting, persistent and poisonous. (toxic).
Hypodermic Syringe: - We have come a long way in media theory since this was propagated, however it is still important to acknowledge the effect that persistent representation can have an effect on our culture and how harmful stereotypes can be when they become an accepted part of a culture. - Orientalism is such an example of how we see otherness as foreign, reflected in how it is positioned in our media.
Re-marginalisation - Branston and Stafford suggest that the term Representation could be understood as 're-presenting' whereby the same marginalisation strategies are presented over and over again, until their marginalisation becomes accepted and natural.
Media which represents these minorities in ways that we are not used to, challenge our understandings and can be seem as unfamiliar or even threatening. (2010). (8)
(Skateistan Volunteer Erika ollies in front of the destroyed Buddhas of Bamiyan, which were built in the 6th century but blown up by the Taliban in 2001. Image courtesy of Skateistan)
- Contd. Seeing images of Afghani women skateboarding disrupts the norms of their traditional media representation in the west, making the image even more remarkable. (9).
This raises the question about who has the power to control the representations that become familiar? - This reveals how all of these things are tied up in the circuit of culture as discussed in relation to S. Hall.
Understanding Hunter's model (2014) - We may need to shift from a model of seeing representation within media created 'to' and 'for' people, but instead as representation 'with' and 'by' them. (10).
Representation in the public field - 'Once a representation becomes public, its career takes it even further from its maker's intentions. Its symbolism can be re-presented (presented again) with completely different meanings.'
Hartley (2012) - (re-presented in reference to Branston and Stafford, 2010).
This discussion is continued in Hartley's further writings, as he describes how representation interacts regularly with parody and is 'promiscuous' across media.(11).
Encoding and Decoding - Some audiences are active agents equipped with this ability to constantly decode the constructed and encoded meanings presented within media (Hall, S. Encoding/decoding model of Audience Reception, 1973). However it is still important to analyse representation in media as not all audiences interpret all media through this active mode. Audiences will either accept the preferred reading, negotiate with some of the message or enter a purely oppositional stance towards the media.
Chapter One:
The chapter is split into five discussions, each building on those preceding it: Representation and reality; representation and myth; representation and visual culture; representation as persuasion; and representation and identity politics.
"We live immersed in representation: it is how we understand our environments and each other. It is also how we both are, and how we understand ourselves; representation is implicated in the process of me becoming me."
(Webb, 2009)
Section One, Representation and Reality:
Semiotics (or Semiology) - (Jonathan Bignell and Daniel Chandler) - Semiotics is often employed in the analysis of texts (Chandler, 2014). Broadly speaking, Chandler defines a text as 'Any assemblage of signs (such as words, images, sounds and/or gestures) constructed (and interpreted) with reference to the conversations associated with... a particular medium of communication.' (2014).
Semiotics is based on the foundational ideas of Ferdinand de Saussure (1959) and Charles Sanders Peirce (1894), and it helps us understand the operation of language. language creates our concepts of reality, providing a conceptual framework with which to navigate, understand an describe reality.
Charles Sanders Peirce said ‘we think only in signs’ (1894: 10) – in words, images, smells, sounds, flavours, objects – but these things have no meaning until we assign such to them.
Semiotics (the symbols and signs through which we structure our experience of the world) attaches meanings to reality.
According to Marcel Danesi, representation can be characterised as the process of attaching conceptual meaning to a constructed form. (2008). Because whoever has constructed the representation has the intent of doing so, they also have a historical and social context, an agenda etc, complex factors which should be considered when attempting to deduce meaning.
Saussurean semiotics - According to Saussure, 'every sign acquires its value 'by virtue of its difference' - in relation to all other signs in that system/language. Saussurean semiotics posits that concepts are defined not positively, in their likeness to one another, but negatively, in contrast (1959).
Codes - Signs are grouped together into codes which construct meaning, and this is of great interest to those interested in culture.
An example of a code system can be identified in the practice of tattooing. Cultural identity, military experience, gang affiliations, past convictions and even music tastes can all be inscribed on the skin through particular motifs and symbols that can be – that are designed to be – incredibly complicated for ‘outsiders’ to interpret. Such bodily modification is culturally and socially encoded and practised, and its undoing, through tattoo removal, is a practice of identity re-appraisal and recuperation. What matters in all of this is the separation of form and content. (The conceptual meaning, from the constructed form.)
If the message of a text and it's connotations, can be separated from the form, then the choices that are made in its construction, become loaded. None are incidental or accidental.
The constructivist approach - Representation is a very different notion to that of reflection because it implies ‘the active work of selecting and presenting, of structuring and shaping ... the more active labour of making things mean’ (1982)
Section Two, Representation and Myth
Barthes on Truth and Myth - Roland Barthes drew attention to the value of the tools of semiotics for the study of media and popular culture. He was interested in the relation- ship between what is seen, and what is understood at the level of myth.
Myth was what he called the 'denotations' and 'connotations' within a text.
Distinguishing between denotation and connotation - The Apple logo.: Denotative level - It might be said to be solely a representation of an apple, nothing more.
Connotative level - The associations of the brand - elegance in design, desirability.
However this connotative level also gives rise to myths - associations with stereotypes through a text - That its customers are posers, or unimaginative followers of the latest hardware trends.
These connotations come from our various social and cultural experiences and knowledges, and are, in part of course, informed by and reflected in the media and advertising. Barthes called this phenomenon, the bringing together of signs and their connotations, the making of ‘myth’ (1957).
The power of myth - These myths are not always easy to spot, and so often go unchallenged, seeming to be intuitive, natural, common-sensical; therein lies their power. (24).
Mythology in media - The study of mythology involves trying to locate and identify signs, showing how they are built into codes, and analyzing how these structures work to communicate certain messages over others – other messages which are silently excluded (Bignell 1997).
[As discussed previously, this text raises orientalism as a prominent example.]
Orientalism - Orientalism is a term coined by Edward Said in 1978 to give name to the processes by which Western media outlets manufacture representations of the Middle East and East Asia.
[I will not yet add this as a definition to my glossary as i believe the broad field that this term encapsulates deserves a more refined definition.]
Orientalism is, according to Said ‘a Western discourse about the orient that is biased, condescending, mis- representative and interpreted solely through the eyes, words and media of non-native onlookers’ (2003) (26)
Section Three, Representation and Visual Communication.
Unspoken value of images - Visual communication can be understood as more ambiguous, suggestive, and open to multiple interpretations than other forms of communication, not least because the codes that are utilized remain unspoken, are not pinned down in language, and are non- textual. According to Jostein Gripsrud, ‘images are composed of elements that are not as clearly distinguished as the word-signs of verbal language. The meanings of images are therefore often unclear, fleeting or plural’ (Gripsrud, J. 2006).
Context is everything, (Lester 2010) -
Presentational context - How does the text appear? A portrait, for example, means something very different depending on where it is found or mounted. An image’s potential readings are dictated, in part, by their mode of presentation.
Productional context - how is it physically produced and under what circumstances?
Historical context - An image can mean a different thing depending on when we look at it, and how we understand the historical moment within which it was produced.
Pluralistic context (my wording for: an image in the context of other images) - Is it one amongst many? Images are rarely consumed in isolation.
Reception-al context - Our reading of a text may differ depending on other factors, such as our location or who we are accompanied by.
Aura - Walter Benjamin - A quote and text I know very well from my Master's study: In The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Benjamin said ‘Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be’ (Benjamin 1955).
Paradox of misrepresentation - Jen Webb proposes: ‘How can we say something is a misrepresentation if its obverse, perfect representation, does not exist?’ (Webb, J. 2009)
[Personally, I find it quite simple to say that a cow is not a banana, without defining what exactly a banana is. This action of pointing out incorrectness becomes a part of the formulation of the definition of a banana even if minutely and subtractively.] (30).
Section Four, Representation as Persuasion
Presence of advertising - Advertisement is 'everywhere but nowhere' (Cook, G. 2001). It occupies the liminal transitional spaces in constant effort to capture our attention and persuade us to relinquish to their sellers. - Ads are Peripheral creation.
Relationship with reality - Adverts do of course have an even more fractured relationship with ‘the real’ than many of the other texts we work with in media and cultural studies. (33).
Medium as message - Marshall McLuhan (1964). - The medium is the message - important as it tells us much about the context for reception.
Will it be seen at a passing glance or by a captive audience? What you do to catch somebody’s eye will of course vary in different for- mats. We might list the signs that are present. Are they iconic? Are they symbolic? We should think about their juxtaposition; how they have been positioned in relation to one another. What is the story being told here? We might ask what cultural codes and assumptions are being drawn on? How familiar will they be to people? etc... (35)
All of these questions can help us begin to expose how an advert works as a specific representational text with intent.
Section Five, Representation and Identity politics
'Representation has a frustrated relationship with reality'.
'Social order is not a given or natural state; it is constructed practically and represented symbolically, and media representations of the ‘order’ of social life help enact and perform that order.' (Couldry, N. 2014).
Dynamism of reception - Looking at how reception to representsations change over time demonstrates that what is acceptable in one time- frame might cease to be acceptable in another. Representations are unstable, moving and open to re-negotiation.
The consequences and power of representations are profound.
Text Three:
Proposed guide for navigating the line between cultural appreciation and appropriation.
https://kluge-ruhe.org/cultural-appropriation-101/ (Accessed October 5)
Definitions of Cultural Appropriation:
This text defines it as: 'When a dominant group uses an element of a marginalised group’s heritage without their permission.'
However, i find this lacking, as: what would constitute permission? - How 'of-the-culture' does a person have to be to grant that permission? - Who decides that? - What constitutes heritage? are less dominant groups permitted to use cultural appropriation?
I myself am 1/16 Australian, can I give the whole world permission to use australian art freely? If not, why not? Why do you get to decide? Perhaps, because you have more power than I do? because I am marginalised within your culture? who gets to decide what a culture is and isn't?
Am I allowed to create my own aboriginal artworks to explore the cultural history of my identity? is this cultural appropriation?
If permission cannot be defined, how can it be proved?
How long does something have to be in the culture for the culture to claim it?
Dreadlocks are often contentious as people with African heritage might say that people with white skin should not 'appropriate' this style of hair, while dreadlocks could be a part of indian culture (Shiva) or Norse culture (Vikings).
This article proposes two issues at play, which may help us answer these questions: The two main issues involved are power and permission:
Power:
"When the British invaded Australia, they enacted numerous policies that stole land, livelihood, identity and culture from Indigenous Australians. This created a systemic power imbalance between the dominant group (the British) and the marginalised group (Indigenous Australians). In spite of this imbalance, Indigenous Australians continue to strategically use their artwork to assert their identity, raise awareness about social inequalities and communicate the value of their culture to others."
Permission:
While receiving permission from an entire group is impossible, permission given by an individual representative from a group can sometimes be achieved. For example, Djambawa Marawili AM, an esteemed Yolngu leader, artist and custodian, has visited Kluge-Ruhe on several occasions. While here, he led an art-making activity in which museum visitors practiced painting with handmade hair brushes and natural ochres. He gave Kluge-Ruhe permission to educate American visitors on this technique as a way of learning about his art and Yolngu culture. In this case, permission involved:
- The artist’s presence, guidance and consent,
- An environment explicitly dedicated to learning and appreciation,
- Context that explained the sacred nature of the patterns and symbols, and
- The allowance for visitors to practice the technique of art-making, but prohibited the borrowing of - - Patterns and symbols.
Sacrilege:
Cultural appropriation is sacrilege when the sacred meaning of cultural elements or objects is disregarded.
Are you copying directly or using something as inspiration? Representing one’s own story, using one’s own symbols and iconography, and trying, exploring or learning about the art-making techniques of another culture is a way of appreciating that culture. Copying symbols or copying the entire composition of an artist’s work is considered cultural appropriation and potentially breaches copyright law.
This article does, rightfully in my opinion, acknowledge that to take inspiration from a culture and celebrate it, is an excellent practice that leads us towards a harmonious multicultural society.
But because appreciation and appropriation essentially are synonymous, this leaves it up to the interpreter as to whether they are offended or not by the appreciation.
Reflections on cultural appropriations: My view:
It seems to be an ongoing conversation on international and intercultural 'copyright' laws, whereby the value is defined in sentimentality rather than money.
The United Kingdom, by definition and history is the melting pot of a lot o different cultures, our language is formed from brewing together lots of cultures; our 'culture' is very multicultural: the pubs we are proud of sell german beer, our cultural dishes include chinese, turkish and indian takeaway, etc. I think that in a world of meanings, its right to acknowledge the importance of symbols and traditions to others, especially so as not to disrespect the cultures they come from, but that it should be the goal of a multi-cultural society to celebrate all cultures without reinforcing the divides between us.
I think, the question one should ask themselves when they 'purposefully' imitate something from another culture is 'Does this show appreciation to the culture?'. I believe that it is the intention of the individual that matters most.
Applying this conversation to teaching, it comes down not to cultural appropriation, but bad and good teaching. The importance of contextualisation and 'teaching' sensitivity and appreciation.
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