week six

While helping a friend make a collage for a class, I came across this picture. The caption (not seen here) reads "Uniformed workers spend 10hr days polishing diamonds at the Blue Star plant in Surat....Indian diamond workers have perfected the art of cutting tiny stones. Bought for $90, more than a hundred of these gems - each with 58 facets - can barely frost a strawberry."

The picture is from a National Geographic magazine, under the article "Diamonds; the Real Story." The article talked about the wars in Africa, the trade markets in India and the companies that will by these 'conflict' diamonds (the ones that are sold and bought to fund war).

These small stones have torn countries apart, but the demand keeps growing. However diamonds are not rare, they are just made up to be so the price will go up. I thought his picture was interesting. The colors are bright, it's simple, and features shiny objects. (I guess it was the article that made the pictures interesting, but I only could find a small portion of it).

Reaction Essay 3

The Corporation

Corporations in this film were viewed or compared to family, a telephone system (reaching everywhere), eagles (soaring and competitive), a monster (devouring profits), a whale (large), Dr. Frankenstein’s Creation (overwhelming the world) and a person. One said it was like a small democratic country. What a corporation really is; is a group of people working to make money legally (some illegally). But without them, life would not be what it is today.

The film showed corporations in a negative light; gaining power by any means possible, causing various amounts of harm to both people and the environment; layoffs, unions, unsafe conditions, sweatshops, pollution, toxic waste, etc. The film also said they have low morals by allowing these things to happen. Most of this is true. They use the cheapest labor possible, pollute the air and water, are penalized for unlawful actions, and are patenting things that should not be (such as biological research). They have been accused of helping the Anix forces (Germany, Japan, and Italy) during World War II, making money off wars and conflicts and now targeting children (but as in Merchants of Cool, this proves very effective).

If it wasn’t for corporations, there wouldn’t be a need for this class because there would be absolutely no media. News stations, and television shows are run by corporations. Books and magazines have publishing companies that are defined as corporations. Music is distributed under various label companies also known as corporations. All house hold appliances come from several different corporations. Clothing also has its corporations. Basically everything you own comes from a corporation or can at least be linked back to one.

Now just because a corporation owns everything in daily lives, does not mean it owns the in-material. Blogs for instance are still free from copyright laws. The ideas or content that people post are not copyrighted (however the blog’s server is). The same goes with small, private or family owned businesses. They are small enough not to need a corporation, but they still advertise, and make money. And this is what (according to the film) corporations fear; privatizing. To privatize a company is to have ownership by a non-government company and the stock of such company is owned by a small number of holders who cannot trade it in the stock market. The private companies are making money, but corporations are losing out.

So because we have corporations and private companies, we have advertisements. Any company’s goal is to make money, and in order to do so, they must sell their product; wither it be a television show down to a car and all the way down to your socks. And these corporations are very tricky; they weave such an intricate web of who owns what that it is virtually impossible to (entirely) boycott any certain corporation. To not rely on any corporation for things in daily life would be to literally go back to the stone ages (or at least back before the 1700’s and the Industrial Revolution). Is it safe to say your material life is owned by corporations?

Reaction Essay 2

Merchants of Cool

The media (in a roundabout way) is basically run by teens. They’re the ones with the money the corporations want. In 2001, teens alone spent over 32 billion dollars with an additional 50 billion by manipulating parents. Money has become the number one priority among teens; the more money, the more stuff, the happier you will be.

Marketers have caught on to this and have found ways to ‘Sell Cool.’ They look for the trendsetters (and former trendsetters to help) and use them to figure out what the majority are into. These findings are manipulated and exploited by marketers. Sprite has been the most successful company to do so. They are then able to adapt to what teens want and succeed in selling it back to them. They called it the Feed Back Loop; the teens see it on television or in ads, they pick it up, make it into a trend, and sell it back to the marketers. This has become so big, that real life and TV life are starting to blend together.

The thirteen year old girl, trying to become a model is a prime (but sad!) example. She accepted what society wanted and worked to achieve it. At the party for the modeling convention, she was dancing like those she saw in the music videos and shows (especially on MTV). She was selling what she saw back to the marketers.
Marketers and corporations have development ‘Mook’ and ‘Midriff’ to sort of embody males and female teens. Mook is the personification of the male; he is loud, crude and in-your-face. Midriff is the female character with her sexiness and premature adolescents. Marketers use these characters or traits of these characters in everything they produce; and the ratings are high.

Of course there are those who reject mainstream media. Teen rebellion has become a product of MTV; they take a band that only a few people or a certain subculture know, and ‘discover’ them. But even these cases are not safe for long. A corporation will see the potential profit then offer the group or person a deal and inject them into the mainstream; this takes away the originality form a group of teens. They want something is theirs but everything today is commercialized and sold back to them.

Teens today no longer ask “Why?” they just accept it because it is popular. It is almost sad that a thirteen year old girl is going to modeling conventions because she is told so much and so often that she has to be beautiful, or that the reason to buy Sprite is because they throw crazy parties and endorse the Hip-Hop culture.

week five

Boys and Video games :)

I was in Albuquerque over the weekend, and was able to watch Marcus, Devon, Jake, and Jory battle it out in Halo 3 (I was watching the first two.)
FUNNIEST THING IN THE WORLD!!!!!
There was two in one room and two in the other, talking to each other on a head set.
The hours passed (I don't think they even noticed how long) with massive amounts of screaming, yelling, cussing, name calling (and not nice at all). One even ran from the room in celebration (over a video game?).

I was working on homework in a notebook from last semester (because I'm cheap like that). It was from Semantics. The boys playing video games reminded me of the class; how the gaming culture can be defined as its own subculture. It has its own language (either you know it or you don't), vocabulary, actions, habits/rituals, rules, all which show membership. Those who don't know any of these things (like me) are excluded. However in today's society, the are are just a few who still are.

Gaming has reached many generations, with the Nintendo (remember the duck hunting game, and the original Mario?) to today's where you can play against people around the world. What I find odd is people can sit and play for hours on end, and waste away a whole day doing so.

Consumption Log

February 12, 2009 (Thursday)

1. 10:00am
   Woke up
   Texted suite mate
   Read “Those Who Save Us”
2. 11:00am
   Lunch at the CUB
   § Wall of advertisements
   § News paper on table ‘The Durango Herald’
   § Table for registration
   Shower/got ready
   Suite mate is watching ‘Scrubs”
3. 12:00pm
   Laundry
   Read “Those Who Save Us”
4. 1:00pm
   Changed laundry
   Read
   Phone call – debated the legalization of drugs
5. 1:00pm
   Finished laundry
   Continued debate
   Internet
   Checked FLC E-mail
   Started Homework
   Reaction essay
   History lesson plan
6. 3:00pm
   Internet
   Facebook
   Myspace
   MSN email
   Music next door
   Drumming and guitar upstairs
   Re-read article ‘Simulacra and Simulations’
7. 4:00pm
   Meeting of Enrichment course
   Continued reading article
   Researched parts
8. 5:00pm – 6:00pm
   Dinner at CUB
   Went to Burger King
   Drove by businesses, restaurants…
   Listened to Hairspray (four other people in car)
   Stopped to get gas
   Stopped at Grandmas
9. 7:00pm
   Back at dorm
   Looked through movies
   Continued with article
10. 8:00pm-11:00
    Dance practice till 9:30
    Read text book for History
    History assignment on Word
    Opened Internet again
    FLC Moodle
    Up-loaded History assignment
11. 11:00pm
    Worked on Reaction Essay in Word
    Looked at class blogs
12. 12:00am
    Finished book
    Went to bed

I received 80 text messages and sent 90 in one day. I also got two phone calls; one from my mom and the other from my boyfriend in Albuquerque.

For most of the day (since I don't have any classes) I'm my room. Like any other living space, it if filled with brand names.

• HP computer and printer
• Ipod and Ihome
• LG phone
• stack of text books for classes
• stack of novels
• closet full of food (drink mixes and tea mostly)
• microwave and fridge
• cosmetics (make up, hair products,etc.)
• visible brands on coats, shoes, clothing, etc.

I believe you have control on what has an effect on you; don't let something bother you or control you unless you want it to; like with the media. Society influences the media and the media turns around and influences society; it's a never ending cycle. Like with Facebook and Myspace (for me at least) it was my friends who influenced me to set them up (although they set them up for me.) But with everything else I do, or buy is influenced by those I know.

For example, my aunt was the one who told me about the book I read during this observation period. We are constantly exchanging book titles and feedback with each other on what we like and dislike (it helps that we both loves books as well).

As for the better part of my day, I did homework. The text books and articles are dedicated to me by the professor/teacher of that class. As well as the assignments that were due by the end of that day.

Food for the day was dictated by connivance. The CUB is a few minutes from the dorm, and 'free.' For dinner, after we decided we couldn't eat what they served, the decision on where to go came from the majority who decided on Burger King as well as the music we listened to on the way. Since we took my car (because it was the only one big enough), I had to make a few stops; one because the gas meter told me to and the other because I had to pick a package up.

Not watching any television is dictated by the fact that I do not own one. The music and shows that I heard were coming from the room next to me. However this assignment did show me I have a problem with texting (I was shocked at the numbers, but can recall times when they have been higher). The texts were to three different people; two friends and my boyfriend. The same with the phone calls; one to my mom and the other to my boyfriend (who debated the drug issue with me).

So for the most part, (only in a round-a-bout way) does the media have an influence on me. Its the people in my life who do though.

Reaction Essay 1

I found this to be a difficult article to follow and a bit dramatic. ‘Simulacra and Simulations’ was originally written in French then translated into English (possible adding to its complexity). Using philosophical ideas about power, images, and society Baudrillard makes a few valid points. The author’s ideas are like those of Socrates (the ideas of power that is) and how nothing in society is any longer a reality; that society has gotten good at creating the hyperreal.

The hyperreal is not reality – it is what society has created through mass producing images (You no longer have to go to Egypt to see the pyramids, but look at pictures and watch shows on them). Baudrillard gives the most credit to Disney for creating the hyperreal; a magical land, where all dreams come true. Where in real life there is no such place.

The hyperreal is set up in a simulacrum is not based off the truth rather the other way around. Truth is based on the simulacrum because that is all society knows to be true. The way we do things is the way we were shown or told rather than finding out for ourselves (why re-invent the wheel?). The author gave an example of holding up a bank; the idea of doing so might be unique to a person, but the way they do it (style) might be influenced by what they have seen before.

Most of the article is talking about the simulacrum of power; who has it, where does it originate from and why society allows it. The author makes the point that genuine power no longer exits. Power has become an ideology; Monarchy vs. Democracy vs. Socialism (etc.). Power belongs to one, or to the majority, or to the workers. The scenario of power is why these systems were created, and why they are still around. The article also points out that capitalism is a simulation that feeds off producing the supply and demand for the forms of power (society needs a structure to follow, so one is set up for them; there is no such thing as a Utopia).

Baudrillard goes on to point of that power is like the soul, it can only be separated from the body in death. This point is proven with the example of Nixon and Kennedy. Nixon stepped down from power thus letting it go; whereas Kennedy died with power thus keeping it. Basically humans hold on to what they are losing; especially power. Death of a person’s power is usually the death of that person.

The whole point of this article was to prove Media is a simulacrum. Society thinks it reflects reality, when in fact, it is not reality. The media has such an influence that many human desires come from the simulacrum it sets up; no one desires reality anymore. An example is ‘Reality TV’. Everyone knows shows in this category are scripted, but some still perceive them as what is real; how life really is. Society has been disconnected this way from reality; from nature.

I do not really agree with this some of the ideas in this article; not everyone is disconnected from reality. Certain events (even in everyday lives) bring us back to reality. Death shows us that we are not invincible, birth shows us there is a beginning, war shows that we are not all in agreement, peace shows us we can work together, love shows us we have a weakness, and hate shows us we are not perfect. None of these are simulated or a simulacrum; maybe the way we are exposed to them is, but it is still a reality.

week four

This weeks subject was introduced to me by one of my suite mates. (It seemed like a good thing to write about). Its shot using one of my favorite kind of filming techniques; moving pictures (like the Nightmare Before Christmas!). The colors (mostly black and white) are simple, but add to the chicness of the film; keeping it simple. There are about 3225 still photos in this three min film, using a stationary camera hanging from the ceiling; and took only two days to create. The singer (Oren Lavie) and producers for this film are all from Israel. (little side fact, I found interesting, and on Myspace).

week three

Its hard to write these blogs with no TV. The last time I watched TV was Monday night at my aunts house. My cousin and I are both into history so we watched the History Channel. They were airing a program called 'Cities of the Underworld: Gods of War.' The host was at various Ancient World sites in Turkey, going through the tunnels built during the rise of the Roman Empire. It gave light to the past, and showed they were smarter than we give them credit for. My aunt who is a librarian at Nedam, kept saying "How did they do that, with the resources they had? Its amazing!" (it reminded me why I once wanted to be a archaeologist.)
Because its part of the new season, it is not up on the sight yet.
But here is the link to Season One episodes. (He did one on Hitler?)

http://www.history.com/cities-of-the-underworld