The films ‘Pierot le Fou’ and ‘La Chinoise’, directed by Jean-Luc Godard, can be said to demonstrate ideas and principles associated with the situationists. These include the society of the spectacle, commodification, and an overall idea of spontaneity. The society of the spectacle is an idea that was developed by Guy Debord, the leader of the situationist movement. It means that our modern society (post-Second World War) governs the lives of its constituents. One can no longer live freely and directly, but is lived through by the mass media. This ties in with the idea of commodification, whereby everything we know has a monetary value set upon it. We cannot help but view everything in this way, and we constantly desire these commodities. The ideas of Guy Debord have origins in the ideas of Hegel and Marx. Firstly, Hegel’s idea of Mind had a particular impact on Debord, as it did on Marx. Hegel claimed our individual minds are connected to the universal Mind. His ‘Phenomenology of Mind’ traces the Mind from a state of consciousness (but unaware of its universal nature) to self-consciousness, or self-awareness. Similarly, when we come into the world, we have consciousness but not self-consciousness. We are given ideality for our consciousness to find meaning; we must “realise this ideality” in order to reach self consciousness (Hegel 1979).
Marx, and other Young Hegelians, converted Hegel’s universal and transcendental Mind to ‘Universal Mind’, meaning the collective of all human minds. Now the story of Mind becomes “path to human liberation” (Singer 1980). Marx also used Hegel’s critique of religion as alienation. The ideas of Feuerbach and his grounding of Hegel’s ideas also intrigued Marx. Feuerbach inverted Hegel’s philosophy, making the finite world the origin of philosophy, but keeping the idea of religion as a cause of alienation. Marx then applied the same inversion to Hegel’s political philosophy. In his publication ‘On the Jewish Question’ he states that it is not the fault of the Jews if they covet money, but of society. Society should be changed in order to eradicate such suffering. We now see the shift from religion to society and money as the chief causes of alienation. This had great impact on Debord and his idea of commodification. He claimed that only by living authentically, by taking one’s life back from the spectacle can one break the fetters of commodification and the alienation caused by money. These ideas are portrayed in Godard’s films, particularly Pierot le Fou, as Pierot and Marianne reject all material possessions such as clothing, cars and money, all things the spectacle seems to tell us we need on a regular basis. There is also spontaneity in the films, as the script does not flow as it would in a typically modern film, but changes between subjects and contexts, often making little sense at all. This is to awaken the audience to the idea that they do not have to adhere to conventions. By contrast, modern films such as ‘American Beauty’, directed by Sam Mendes, does adhere to such conventions, as it is a film that attempts to portray situationist ideas, but fails. It seems the ideas themselves have been made fashionable and swallowed by the spectacle.
Category: Abstracts
For my stage three project I have decided to explore the industrialisation of death in our current society. My examination begins with a look at the gradual change in the perception of death, from the classical age to the modern day. By taking a genealogical approach to this historical change I am able to identify the specific reasons for these changes and reflect upon what significance these changes have on the perceived meaning of death. Beginning with the role in which death played in the Classical Age, I examined how death was once understood as a harsh reality of life to which everyone was made aware through events such as the bubonic plague and the limitations in medical knowledge. After which I explored the gradual development of anatomical pathology in the modern age and the effect that demography, pathology and sociology had and currently have on how death is now approached. In particular I looked at the importance that has been placed on defining death in terms of its physiological cause and the implication that this definition has on each of the specific areas of study I have mentioned. By understanding the changes that have occurred between these two points of history, I highlight the key issues that are involved in the industrialisation of death and what exactly this means in relation to our individual approach to death and our common understanding.
Following this I introduced the philosophical theory of Martin Heidegger and his explanation of death in relation to his phenomenological task to uncover true meaning in ‘Being and Time’. By setting out a brief explanation of how Heidegger attempts to understand the meaning of being in general through human experience, I examine the significance that death has in making possible the discovery of true meaning. From this I moved onto Heidegger’s later work, ‘The Question Concerning Technology’ and his thought on the role of technology in the pursuit of understanding being and the distinction he makes between authentic and inauthentic perception. It is at this point where I applied the issues I raised, in the study of my concept, to Heideggerian theory and translate what effect the industrialisation of death has had on the authenticity of understanding the true meaning of death in the modern day. In conclusion I offered a personal insight to my opinion on the impact that contemporary society has had on our perceived meaning of death and what significance this has to our eventual confrontation with death.
Object – Popular music. • I shall study Schopenhauer in order to establish how ideas concerning music have changed over time. • For Schopenhauer music is a good, an end in itself. • Music is set aside from all the other art forms, it does not simply manifest the ideas of the will but is a direct expression of the will. • Music is the key to suspending will for a moment through an aesthetic break from everyday pain. Adorno. • Popular music is an instrument for another good instead of an end in itself. • The function of the culture industry is ultimately to organise leisure time in the same way as industrialisation has organised work time. • Customers of musical entertainment are themselves objects of the same mechanisms which determine the production of popular music. Their spare time serves only to reproduce their working capacity. • Work leads to mass culture and mass culture leads back to work. Popular music is standardized, and in order to conceal this standardization, the music industry engages in pseudo individualisation. Thus listeners are kept inline by making them forget that what they listen to is already pre digested. Problems with Adorno. Popular music has changed a lot since Adorno who was writing in 1941. Is it still as monolithic as he would have us believe? Does pseudo individualisation really explain things like the advent of rock and roll in 1956, the emergence of The Beatles in 1962 or punk rock in 1976? Popular music from Adorno onwards. Rock and roll as religion – a good in itself. Robert Pielke suggests that rock and roll is most properly understood as a religion that has created a transformation in culture. He compares the 6 characteristics of a religious experience presented by Rudolf Otto with feelings generated from listening to rock and roll or attending a concert. Charles Pressler and Derrida’s outline of ‘The Colossal’ The awe-inspiring concept that rock and roll presents is ‘the colossal’. The presentation of ‘the colossal’ is like an enabling energy that allows a new set of values to be taken onboard by the rock and roll audience.
My key point is to look into the fashion trends of Vivienne Westwood, I shall concentrate on the era of ‘Punk’ where Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren played a vital role. I shall compare this with the Philosophy of Georges Bataille who had an obsession with obscene things such as Human Sacrifice. Concentrating mainly on his Base Materialism and his writing’s Eroticism and Story of the Eye. Punk……. • Punk first emerged in the mid 1970s in London as an anarchic and aggressive movement. About 200 young people defined themselves as an anti-fashion urban youth street culture. Vivienne Westwood is often cited as punk’s creator, but the complex genesis of punk is also found in England’s depressed economic and socio-political conditions of the mid-1970s. Punk was as much a youthful reaction against older generations, considered oppressive and outdated, as a product of the newly recognized and influential youth culture. Creative and entrepreneurial people, such as Westwood, often contribute to an aesthetic that brings a sub cultural style to the forefront of fashion. Bataille…. This image of a torture victim from Taiwan fascinated Georges Bataille. He thought that “the expression on the man’s face is the ecstasy of sexual pleasure”. Georges Bataille believed, as Hegel did, that ‘history is dead’ that we need to come up with new and exciting ways to take society forward to a new way of living because as it is now it is boring. He believed that the key to this was through art, shocking people into change.
Territory: I chose to consider the use of nanotechnology and drugs when applied to living organisms, more specifically humans, to increase the average life time and explore the ethical implications that may be associated with it. Aim: I intend to explore the socio‐economic effects of a society in which all individuals or a select group have an extended life span, from anything between an additional 50 years of life up to, theoretically, several hundred or even thousands! At the end of my study I intend to consider if such technology can be applied, if it should be applied and in what capacity. Concepts: I shall be considering the philosophical dilemmas presented by specialist scholars in the field of my study as well as deliberating issues I have considered myself. To help me consider these issues I shall apply the philosophies of Mill’s Utilitarianism and Nietzschean thought to see if either, both or neither can agree on specific aspects of the study.
This project began with Bill Drummond’s poster, Notice. For Drummond, the digitization and instant access to music through the internet has rendered recorded music a dead art form. To try and understand Drummond’s perception, I have chosen to examine three moments where technology had altered musical production and dissemination: – (1) The birth of notation. (2) The advent of file-sharing software such as Napster. (3) The rise of house music and ecstasy culture where DJs perform using recorded music. Throughout, I have used Deleuze and Guatarri’s A Thousand Plateaus as a conceptual tool-kit. Drawing on their notion of the rhizome, faciality, the refrain, becoming-imperceptible and micro-politics I have attempted to understand both these three movements and develop an approach to music itself. In order to cast some light on Drummond’s perception of recorded music as a single, irrelevant genre, I have turned to Adorno’s conception of the culture industry. Through Derrida’s Dissemination, I have attempted to show that the dichotomy between recording and performance cannot be sustained and that the musical experience returns the listener to the play of differance.
Object: I chose to examine the concept of war and terror and if it is really possible to fight in order to restore peace. The main focus of my project lay in the idea that war will only spawn more hatred, and so creating a war with the objective of bringing peace to a society is an impossibility. In conjunction with this I attempted to look at the reasons why people agree to war, and the freedom of British citizens when they agree to join the Army. Territory: When I originally decided upon a territory I chose the ‘War on Terror’, namely the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Upon further investigation it became clear to me that these were two separate wars with different focuses and motivations, and so I shifted the focus of my project solely to the war in Iraq, and the reasons for and against this war. I also looked at the concept of the British Army and the reasons behind why soldiers are deployed to fight in what was not a British fight to begin with. The Philosophy behind my project: Gadamer and Death: One of the concepts that became most clear to me was that of the idea of the repression of death. Gadamer notes that society’s perception of death had changed, and I examined if this affected the decision of those joining the Army. Kant, Freedom and Duty: I also looked at the idea of whether the innate sense of duty that we possess, according to Kant, affects the decisions we make in everyday life, such as joining the Army. I also discussed how much freedom we actually have, when, if you join the Army, you have to sign up for a minimum period of time, and you can be forcibly deployed to fight in wars you might not believe in.
Do we still live in a society that is dominated by issues of class? • If so why do certain sectors of society refuse to discuss it and others believe that it no longer exists? • Why do we force social issues, in the desperate hope not to show a class divide? Aim: These were some of the questions I wanted to try and tackle this year. With the ever increasing topic of class being raised, I decided to question Newcastle students on their perspectives. Whether they felt that Universities were a key part of society’s social engineering, or whether they believed that there was a social divide at the University. Philosophers: Focusing on the work of Karl Marx and Theodor Adorno to illustrate the concept of capitalism, and whether we still live in a bourgeoisie and proletariat state.
My project is an investigation into responsibility. In modern times more and more people are getting reduced prison sentences due to diminished responsibility. This inspired me to look into the autonomy of the Subject. This investigation charts its way through the history of the subject, starting with the wholly autonomous subject as proposed in John Rawls theory of justice, justice as fairness. This theory relies on respect for others, freedom and equality and most importantly an autonomous self. The first person to challenge this idea concerning the self was Sigmund Freud when he proposes that the mind was in fact split in three parts, the id, ego and the super‐ego, which all have different effects on our actions and choices. With this theory in mind I look into scientific evidence to back up Freud and show how illness such as schizophrenia and narcissistic personality disorder affect the mind and the Subject. Finally I look at the theories of Keith Ansell Pearson in his book Viroid Life in which he questions the autonomy of the Subject altogether. He produces a theory of the cyborg and the hybrid self and proposes that the rapid rise in technology has created a more deterministic reality and halted the autonomy of man.
Territory: My project this year is a follow on from my project last year and so my territory has remained the same. My territory is society itself, but particularly the problems of society and the two possible futures for society those being either; the civilised state of nature where everyone is out to get everyone in order to increase their standing in society, this is seen in things such as the culture of legal action. The other scenario is a totalitarian state where the government take absolute control to prevent a collapse in the civilised state of nature or full anarchy, but it can also be seen happening through such things as political correctness and the nanny culture. Aim: My aim for my project is to find a way to prevent these two scenarios from occurring but also to find a way to tackle some of today’s societies problems. I plan to do this by looking for the root of the problem and then tackle the problem from the root up. I believe that the root is society’s obsession with liberty and equality with liberty being the more problematic of the two. To tackle the problem I shall be using theories from Social Contract thinkers such as Hobbes and Hegel to thinkers such as Levinas and their view on meaning. Overall I want to try and make a system where there is liberty and equality, but it is not an obsession rather a balance between liberty, equality, order and meaning to ensure a society where we can grow as moral human beings with the most pleasant life possible without having to resort to extremes to do so.
Overall aim- to prove that humans do have a distinct nature which sets us apart as individuals and that we are more than living organisms that respond to social needs. • To prove this I am using my experience of America – to study how I adapted to a new culture to see whether I totally adapted or whether there is part of me that remained the same. • We cannot deny our want and need to adapt to environments and cultures but humans still have an innate nature that defines us as individuals and remains the same all our life. • Our human nature is responsible for HOW we respond to cultures and our upbringing. We are not born a blank slate. PHILOSOPHY. • I liken my ideas to Descartes and his idea of dualism where the mind and body are distinct from each other. • Mencius believed that there are 4 positions of human nature that we are born with but develop throughout our life, o 1. Mind of commiseration o 2. Mind of shame o 3. Mind of respect o 4. Mind of right/wrong • Lao Tzu believed that we should strive to be an ‘uncarved block.’ So we should go back to the basis of our human nature and we should not be affected by anything external to ourselves. • I am using these two philosophers to suggest unlike them I do not believe we are wholly independent from society and I think that Lao Tzu’s ‘uncarved block’ is unrealistic. We could never deny the influences that our society/upbringing has on us. • But like them I believe we have an innate human nature which is responsible for how we respond to our surroundings and is individual to each person.
When we fall in love, we fall first for the physical appearance and then for the beauty that the other embodies. We fall in love with the ‘who’ that radiates through a face and a body. In that gaze we unite the flesh and spirit of the loved one and reveal them as an unrepeatable existence. Lovers perceive their fragility in the world, and so they entrust each other to corporeal language, and by exposing themselves to each other, seek an unrepeatable, whole and necessary existence (Cavarero: 2000). The amorous game creates a scene for the unification of body and mind, a place where the content of being can be released. In this unification you can feel as though you are part of the world soul, fragile in the external yet consumed by the fleeting power to appreciate ulterior forms; to know love and to know what it is to exist
Outline: I aim to explore the concept of anxiety, loss of meaning and absurdity of life as presented within “Existentialist” narrative. In evoking these ideas from specific novels I will analyse them more precisely with relation to Martin Heidegger’s concept of anxiety. Territory: In particular I will be studying Jean-Paul Sartre’s Nausea, Albert Camus’ The Outsider, Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground, and Leo Tolstoy’s A Confession. In examining these texts I hope to explore how the idea of loss of meaning is presented and focus particularly upon the individual’s coming to terms with the absurdity of life. Philosophical Material: The philosopher that I have chosen to focus on is Martin Heidegger and particularly his concept of anxiety within his work What is Metaphysics? Here Heidegger produces an account which indicates how the individual is able to think about and question their own existence and how, through the state of anxiety, they are able to reflect upon “the nothing” that appears on their horizon of thought. As well as analysing What is Metaphysics? I shall also use Heidegger’s Being and Time, On the Essence of Truth and The Origin of the Work of Art to indicate the significant role that this concept of anxiety plays within his greater philosophy. Where Heidegger builds upon a philosophy considering the individual I shall also look at the work of Emmanuel Levinas, who concentrates on a more social philosophy, in order to bring contrast to Heidegger’s thought. In his struggle to come to terms with a finite existence Leo Tolstoy was torn between suicide and religion. The struggle of the individual’s existence is the concept that lies at the heart of my project.
-Are the ideas of institutions such as museums and libraries relevant any longer in postmodern society? – People are increasingly becoming very distanced from their past and their heritage. Within postmodernity, the past seems to have been separated from our everyday lives. It is frequently looked at as something that is no longer relevant. We sometimes seem so focused on progress that we ignore how we came to be where we are in the first place – Can development exist without any reference to the past? – In modernity we look at the past because we can see the ways in which it has affected and created the present, and will do also, for the future, therefore, we cannot fully separate the idea of development from a narrative of history. I am looking at the ways in which institutions such as museums and libraries contribute to growing knowledge and inventiveness, by enabling us to have access to the knowledge, discoveries and great works of the past.Table2[@Title]
TERRITORY: The American Dream. CONCEPTS: The Individual Vs Society, Equality Happiness and Fulfilment, Freedom. PHILOSOPHICAL THINKERS/TEXTS: Rousseau: and his theory of the social contract- The individual vs Society & Equality. John Locke: The 2 Treatises of Government. The natural rights of men and Government- Equality and the individual and society. Mill & Bentham: The theory of Utilitarianism and what it means to be happy for society and the individual. Problems? Is the American dream just a myth? Can society and individual peacefully co-exist? Are all people truly equal in their attempt to obtain their American dream?
I will explore the life and work of Philip K. Dick, best known for writing Science Fiction, by closely examining a number of his novels, as well as a selection of his non-fictional, philosophical, theological and literary writings, coupled with information obtained from biographies and interviews with the man himself. The main themes permeating his life and work which I will explore are the nature of reality, the psyche and humanity, especially in relation to contemporary capitalist society. Of particular interest will be his exploration of the concepts of sanity, considering his views on schizophrenia and paranoia, and his treatment of ideas about selfhood, identity and subjectivity. I will explore these areas in terms of the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, both alone and in collaboration with Felix Guattari. I will pay particular attention to the concepts of schizoanalysis, rhizomatics, territorialization, lines of flight, nomadology, becomings, machines and difference. My aim, rather than to reach a definitive conclusion, is simply to explore the vast and complex works of both men, using each to shed light on the other, and to pose questions, rather than propose answers, which will have a profound effect on the way we view the world.
This project will look at the Sorrows of Young Werther in Conjunction with an example of emotionally hardcore internet blogging in order to establish the significance of emotional intensity seen today in youth groups. The sorrows of young Werther depicts a fictional 18th century character that holds many similarities to the type of life many modern youths aspire too. Primarily this project is concerned with exploring the emotionally hardcore movement that is taking place, and how this will affect future social change. Werther channelled his emotional intensity through art and literature, using it as a way of expressing his anguish. The emotionally hardcore individual uses art and music as a form of expression, and literature as a way to ‘blog’ this way of life, through means of fictional and factual storytelling, and also poetry. Using concepts of alienation, aesthetics, romanticism and existentialism, this project will analysis the emotionally hardcore individual, society’s objections and the emotionally hardcore movement as a whole. In historical format this project will look at how the sorrows of young Werther symbolises an apparent social theme of alienation from the masses. Secondary to the above, the thoughts of Schiller will be examined with reference to romanticism as a whole. This hopefully will shed light on the importance of emotion, passion and Romance within. Hopefully this project will look at the emotionally hardcore movement in a way that has never been undertaken before, therefore examining a section of social progression that is personal and individual to me.
This project is an investigation into the discourse of advertising in our contemporary late capitalist society. This study shall attempt to assess the role advertising plays in manipulation of the masses and its relation to mass media in capitalist society. My aim is to assess whether advertising is a central tool of deception in the commodity driven culture of capitalism Advertising has changed dramatically since the time of the industrial revolution. The division of labour and the beginning of mass production due to the industrialisation that has created far more of a ‘need’ to advertise and stay one step ahead of competitors. This I would stipulate is due to the onslaught of late capitalism, globalisation and commodity infatuation of the consumer. Ongoing advancement in technology has created an environment in modern society by which there are more and more means of mass broadcasting. The industrial revolution was the catalyst for this. The use of advertising has metamorphosed from a simple presentation of information on a product to the public in a manner to inform of use and content of a product; to an ambience creating, aesthetic tool merged with mass media creating a barrage on the senses. Branding and heritage of brand has outplayed use, image out mustering purpose The end product of Advertising’s growth through the mass media is its immanence in society, and its ability to shape the ideas and behaviour, as well as formation of self of the individual.
The nature of this discussion does not lend itself to a specific object on which to focus, the subject is simply too vast. However, the central topic of this discussion is the question concerning the possibility of existence or extinction of authenticity in a highly consumerist culture. The topic led me to discuss many subsequent questions: Heidegger’s temple, in which ‘world’ becomes manifest. Can this relate to contemporary song? Can life affirming, world reflecting, active truth be found in a contemporary song? Is it possible to be both a ‘mainstream’ and an authentic artist? Can art and artist ever really validate or justify their influence on social change and politics, does it exist at all or, does surrealism and artistic social/political/philosophical commentary fall inevitably back into consumerism? If we conclude that ‘symbolic authenticity’ (the representation in art of underlying popular, time and culture specific ‘feeling’ and opinion) is compromised by capitalism and consumerism, are the feelings and opinions themselves compromised? The main areas of focus as outlined above are discussed with reference to Martin Heidegger, Theodor Adorno, Sigmund Freud and Andre Breton.
I wish to show through this project how it is in imagination, that we discover the truth about reality. This process of discovery happens in the earliest stages of childhood through a child’s awareness of the physical objects around them and what these mean. This awareness of reality later develops to a state of ‘play’. It is in the free state of play that a child first explores their ability for creation. The link between imagination and reality shifts from childhood to adulthood. What I wish to explore is the nature of this link and ask whether it ceases in childhood or whether it continues by later revealing itself in other forms of creative arts. I will explore whether creation in any art form can reveal truth about our own reality and further still even shape it? Can creative play in childhood reveal truth about our being in the world?