Student Reviews: Remediation (Blog 8)

     Over the duration of this course, we have explored many topics related to the interplay between media and its audiences. The cultural implications of remediation, the socio-political perception with which we percieve Graffiti, are but a few of the interesting topics which we have covered. Anthropology students, Rachel Roy and Chelsea Ousey wrote effective blogs commenting on Mazarella’s article, Culture, Globalization, Mediation. Each offered their own unique perspective on this issue, which are supported by the conclusions of Hong and Chiu in their article, Toward a Paradigm Shift: From Cross-Cultural Differences in Social Cognition to Social-Cognitive Mediation of Cultural Difference.

     Rachel Roy’s blog entry examined Facebook within the context of the author’s work. She highlighted an interesting example of how Facebook, as an internet community was able to unite people under one cause. She exemplified her personal experience during the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver in Flashmob, as well as an even more contemporary example in Egypt’s recent revolution. Roy discusses how the flexibility of Facebook’s nature as a global social medium is what makes it have distance and intimacy simultaneously. This seems reasonable to conclude because of the level of personalization of the medium which allows the user to create a personal outlet which reflects them individually with pictures, posts and a friend network. The vastness of this medium and its ability to transform depending on the individual is what also creates distance which pertains to its global and individually stylistic aspects. Roy later illustrates how the alternate reality and one’s ability to create and manipulate one’s virtual reality is an important aspect to consider. The global nature of Facebook, allows for a venue of cultural exchange whereby individuals are able to appropriate cultural attributes from one another and thus re-create themselves over time. This cultural appropriation may remain solely online, but it also may transition off of the screen and into one’s real life in the form of knowledge at the very least.

     Chelsea Ousey examined Mazarella’s article in application to an ethnographic film on the indigenous people Kayapo. Ousey describes how this ethnographic film was self-mediated by the Kayapo, the result of which enabled them to control their mediated representation. As such, the Kayapo were again as Mazarella claims, able to become self-aware of themselves and percieve their interaction through its mediation. Ousey calls into question the effect of globalization on culture, as indigenous groups like Kayapo are in contact with the film crew who initially filmed them, or the effect of this culture being shown to audiences around the world. Ousey concludes that culture is re-constituted by its interaction with foreign cultures. The process Ousey describes is one in which culture is not percieved as a static element, but an evolving, progressive entity which thrives with new stimuli from foreign contact.

     This argument is supported by two researchers in Hong Kong,  who together examined the effect of media on cultures. Hong and Chiu claim that “cultures as dynamic open systems that spread across geographical boundaries and evolve through time” (Hong, 1). They endorse the dynamic constructivist approach as a framework with which to investigate and perceive culture. They claim that rather than Globalization to be viewed as a threat to cultures, the fusion of cultures can be a benefit in which “multicultural individuals can spontaneously change the cultural lenses that are available to them through multicultural learning” (Hong and Chiu, 14). Therefore mediation of culture is a benefit to both the audience and its subjects.

     Both students drew intriguing insight to Mazarella’s article. The Hong and Chiu study supported their common ideas surrounding the benefits of mediation and cultural fusion. Interestingly enough, I wonder how the students will reflect on their own works, as it has been received and remediated through my blog.

Sources:

Hong and Chiu. (2001). Toward a Paradigm Shift: From Cross-Cultural Differences in Social Cognition to Social-Cognitive Mediation of Cultural Difference. Social Cognition, Vol. 19, No. 3, 2001, pp. 181-196

Let the Right One In: Psychoanalysis (Blog 7)

     Scandinavian films are well known for their psychological thrillers. Their film making style is not characterized by special effects, fast pace, or action aesthetics. Instead, Scandinavian films involve complex plots, characters and play on our Freudian psychological commonalities which act to draw the audience in. The characters and the problems which they face are very relatable and the audience is able to identify with the film. Identity is one aspect that British feminist film theorist, Laura Mulvey, considers of great importance in her study of cinematic gratification. Mulvey describes how audiences identify with characters in films which enable the viewer to project “one’s self into that character” (Gray, 59).

     The Swedish film, Låt den Rätte Komma In, also known as Let the Right One In to English speaking audiences, has characters which are very well developed and share experiences with peers and family members which many can relate to. Yet amongst this familiar setting is a thrilling film about a boy whose first love turns out to be a vampire. The film’s characters deal with power and group dynamics which provide great material for psychoanalysis. The two lead characters, Oscar, the boy and Eli, the little girl vampire, are opposites in nature. Eli is an aggressor, while Oscar is a victim of school bullying. Oscar reacts to his bullying by re-enacting the torment of the day and altering the ending to one in which he retaliates verbally and then stabs a tree with a jackknife. At school, the bullies taunt and whip him until he is bruised. Oscar desperately wants to stand up for himself however, he is out-numbered at a three-to-one ratio of bullies and is paralysed with fear when they approach him. Therein lies a power dynamic within the bully group. The leader scolds the others and demands that they whip Oscar. Although they follow the leader’s commands, one boy cries while whipping him out of guilt and shame and yet he continues, thus demonstrating the hold of the power dynamic. When Oskar meets Eli, and their friendship blossoms, so too does his self-esteem. One day, Oskar retaliates to the bully’s astonishment. Oskar stands tall and proud looking upon the bleeding wound he inflicted on the crying bully. He has a sense of accomplishment and a feeling of relief that overcomes him and alleviates the sore memories of bullying.

       Lancan’s theory on Psychoanalysis describes the awareness of self as a separate entity from the mother which lends to a sense of incompleteness and the “child seeks to overcome that lack and regain completeness” (Gray, 58). Lancan’s theory dictates that one seeks substitutes for this sense of “lack”, in the form of vices or love, in order to feel complete once more. In this film we see that Oscar feels alone, isolated. He is disconnected from his peers and has intimate discussions with no one, including his parents. When Oskar meets Eli, he is seeking partnership to alleviate that lack and this feeling of completeness helps to strengthen him against the school bullies. The companionship which he has with Eli counterbalances his weakness and ‘completes’ him in that sense. Their antithesis of one another is the basis for their attraction for one another and the fruit born of their relationship is their appropriation of her strength and his gentile nature. When Oskar retaliates against the bullies, the appropriation of her strength is evident, and Oskar’s confidence grows. Eli’s character starts off as a dominating figure who manipulates a grown man to murder people and drain their blood for her consumption. She yells at the man and bullies him, yet when she meets Oskar, she appropriates his innocence and kindness. Eli becomes more child-like and vulnerable throughout the film.

     Let the Right One In is a film rich in characters for psychoanalysis. Characters Oskar and Eli demonstrate qualities which both Lancan and Mulvey discuss in their literature on psychoanalysis of cinema. When Eli is forced to leave, their co-dependency is revealed. Oskar attempts to move on but is again confronted by the bullies. As the bullies try to drown Oskar, he is saved by Eli who massacres and dismembers all of the bullies. Eli and Oskar run away together, realizing their co-dependency for completeness. The two characters have many relatable personalities and problems which create grounds for the viewer to identify with them and thus enjoy a greater cinematic experience as Mulvey claims. Oskar and Eli also demonstrate the feeling of “lack” and loneliness which they cure in one another with their relationship as predicted by Lucan’s theory.

Sources

Gray, Gordon. (2010). Cinema: A Visual Anthropology. New York, USA: Berg Publishers.

Radio: Interactive Media and the Cycle of Influence (Blog 6)

     Radio programming has a different effect of mediation than that of film. Without the visual aids, radio communication is forced to put all of their focus on the verbal materials which they wish to communicate whether it is entertainment or non-fiction information sharing. This medium requires the listener to use their imagination to visualise and conceptualise the topics of conversation. This invokes more participation and draws a more active audience than that of film which provides the visual and audio and requires nothing of a passive audience. Radio’s tendency to require and provoke audience participation in the materials lays the grounds for reciprocation of influence between the radio programming and its listeners.

     PhD student in Anthropology, Tal Nitsan described the value of women’s radio programming in Guatemala, in a lecture at the University of British Columbia. Nitsan illustrated the effect of radio on its audiences and how that effect comes full circle back to radio, thus creating a self-perpetuating cycle that nourishes both the audience and the radio programming. Nitsan detailed an account of a woman who happened upon the women’s radio program in Guatemala and became a faithful listener. This woman eventually attended the radio’s community workshops on education such as those pertaining to women’s rights. This woman was empowered by this knowledge and applied it to save the life of her daughter-in-law who was being beaten nearly to death by her son. The knowledge passed on by the radio programming had a real effect on the community in which it served. As Nitsan declared, it indirectly saved the life of a woman.

     This woman also became an employee of the radio program, which was mutually beneficial for both parties. She was able to share this story and be an advocate for the radio show, while also benefiting from her involvement from the empowering information and support she received. This demonstrates reciprocity and cycle of influence which radio programs and their listeners can be privy to.

     Franz Fanon describes the influence of media in his article, This Is the Voice of Algeria In A Dying Colonialism. Fanon discusses the role of the radio in Algeria during France’s colonial occupation of Algeria. The radio was a tool which affirmed the French colonial presence to both oppressors and the oppressed who did not own radios and were thereby left out, separated from high society. The French listeners were in part, inspiration for the colonial programming and the radio helped their listeners connect with one another and French culture, society in order to make Algeria feel more homely. The radio gave French listeners “the feeling that colonial society is a living and palpitating reality, with its festivities, its traditions eager to establish themselves” (Fanon, 71).

     The radio then played an equally important role in the reversion of this ideology that normalized and affirmed the French presence. The use of the radio during the Algerian revolution against their colonial masters was in its ability to educate and rally mass amounts of people who were un-involved due to their illiteracy. Radio was able to transcend class because many Algerian natives were unable to read and therefore did not become politically engaged due to the inaccessibility of information to them. Radio reported on the revolution in progress and was involved in creating movement within that revolution.

     In the case of the French colonialist, the oppressed Algerians as well as the women educating one another about their rights, all have this dynamic of radio influencing their audience and the radio itself being a product of that interaction in a cyclical, reciprocal manner. The radio’s strength is in its interactive quality which is influenced by and contributes to the community on which it reports and communicates to.

Sources

Fanon, Frantz. (1965). A Dying Colonialism. New York, USA: Grove Press, Inc.

Nitsan, Tal. (2011). Class Lecture. University of British Columbia. Vancouver, Canada.

Importance of Context in Remediation and Cultural Appropriation (Blog 5)

     David Novak’s article Cosmopolitanism, Remediation, and the Ghost World of Bollywood, illustrates the significance of context in the process of remediation. He contrasts the usage of the song-and-dance number from the film Jaan Pehechaan Ho, in the film Ghost World, with its remediation by the music band Heavenly Ten Stems. In the film Ghost World, the placement of the song-and-dance number lends an alternative edge to the character. Her appreciation of the obscure film contrasts her “constant scorn for…popular media” (Novak, 44). Conversely, Novak recalls the night in which the Heavenly Ten Stems played their version of Jaan Pehechaan Ho, only to be called racist for their rendition. Novak draws an interesting comparison which calls into question of what context constitutes remediation as trendy, alternative appreciation, versus, racist appropriation. Upon interviewing one of the protesters of the Heavenly Ten Stems concert, the author discovers that the perceived racism is due to the social power dynamics which the interviewer felt was present in society. There was another difference which separated the two remediations, the band dressed up in Asian clothing and accessories, in Ghost World the character merely danced to the music. The protester felt that dressing up in Asian clothing appeared like costuming and made a farce of the culture the band intended to make dedication to.

      A similar example of cultural appropriation is the recent adoption of the ‘n-word’. This word has an awful root in social Darwinist groups, whose Eurocentric perception reduced African decent peoples to a derogatory slang word. This word has now been popularized in the media, especially in rap and hip-hop music videos. However, the ‘n-word’, usage is designated exclusively to African peoples in reference to one another. The word, when used by an African person, denotes an iteration of brethren, solidarity. When the ‘n-word’ is used by a non-African person, is perceived as derogatory as the cultural semiotic reverts to its original meaning.

     Stand-up comic Michael Richards, former actor on the famous sitcom Seinfeld, discovered the limitation of the term after he was called a racist for using the n-word in a skit at comedy club, Laugh Factory in 2006. The backlash against the comedian was enough to severely damage his career. The audience was outraged that a Caucasian man used the ‘n-word’ because of the socially accepted double-standard of the term. Richards apologized for using the term, thus enforcing this cultural dichotomy. Some argue that the ‘n-word’ should be used by no one, due to its connection to bigotry and racial oppression. In the US, the term recalls a time of African slavery and segregation, which took place less than a century ago. The derogatory term revives cultural tensions and racial awareness. However, for those who use the term, its usage by Africans extinguishes the term. So by using the term, African people diffuse the term and express solidarity for those who would have been subjected to the term in a formerly racist society.  

      This example illustrates the importance of context in appropriation, whether it is media or linguistics. In Novak’s article, he demonstrates to the reader how remediation of the same material can be perceived very differently. The difference which produced this result was the manner in which it was delivered to its audience. Ghost World presented Jaan Pehechaan Ho, as material used to substantiate an alternative persona of the character. By contrast, Heavenly Ten Stems went further and attempted to personify being Asian and resulted in a performance which was not trendy or alternative, but tacky and absurd. Whether it is the appropriation of the ‘n-word’, or remediation through performance or film, context is the most important factor in the acceptance or rejection of items reused.

Works Cited

Novak, David. (2010). Cosmopolitanism, Remediation, and the Ghost World of Bollywood. Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 25, Issue 1, pp. 40-72.