Territory & Objectives: My project investigates the way in which we impose received value systems upon the world around us, and how those standards are also mapped upon the individual body as carrier of those principles of the dominant societal mode thus affecting our relationships with one another. It shows that living within the context of capitalism shapes the criteria of these docile evaluations, and demonstrates how this system of evaluation self-referentially recourses to fortify the capitalist social system through flux and change. Discussion will move on to consider in detail how locally received examples of information disseminated by globally operating media cartels act to coerce individuals’ lifestyle investment in the authority of the system. This will be orientated by the appraisal of lifestyle magazines, exploring how the discourses of desire within the grand schema of capitalism set standards of normative criteria which are employed in a self-policing system of adherence to what it means to be a good consumer. These various lifestyle aspects by various publications persuade the individual, critically disengaged, to regard themselves as the aspiring capitalist critically engaged in the labour of consumption and therefore active in the formation of their lives and their relationships with other people. Rather than promoting multi-cultural, inter-disciplinary engagement in the process of being, the imperative to consume, saturated throughout commercial repertoires, in fact causes and substantiates rival economies and inequalities between individuals, between factions and at the level of global market forces. Further, the effect of tying consumption, through advertising, to normative standards set, makes it almost impossible to recognise the specificity of an individual. Rather, we evaluate ourselves and others against normative standards which discourage empathy for our fellow man, a state of affairs which may have dire consequences. Finally then, this paper will suggest what possibilities remain for communication between us with a view to the reformation of a networked community in response to the alienation and apathy of the individual in high capitalism. Change: The way in which advertising has tied consumption to normative values which are themselves set with the imperative to consume in mind. The overall effect is to diminish greatly one’s scope for specificity, and to create conflicts of interest. Sources: Foucault, M., The History of Sexuality I: The Will to Knowledge, Penguin, 1998; Foucault, M., The Archaeology of Knowledge, Routledge 1994, Bristol; Foucault, M., Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977, ed. Gordon, C., Pantheon Books 1989, New York; Blanchot, M., Literature and the Right to Death, The Station Hill Blanchot Reader, Station Hill Press 1999, Barrytown; Marx, K., Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx: Selected Writings, Ed. McLellan, D., Oxford University Press 1977
Category: Abstracts
Using the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari I will discuss the revolutionary potential of music. I will so do with reference to the Black movement in America. My main aim is to show how, through the music of blues and jazz, Blacks constructed a culture of resistance; giving rise to their freedom and subsequent status as citizen in America. I will look at … the deterritorialising power of music: how traditional blues and jazz improvisation deviate from formal musical structures to produce new forms of expression, and how the oppressive routine, and identity of the slave may have been ruptured by the singular effects of such music. … how blues and jazz incorporates both African and Western references to form an intensification of multiple heterogeneous and non-heterogeneous relations that are productive of different modes of thought and experience. … how Blacks found a distinct voice through their music, and how this led to their becoming other than slave, and to their emancipation.
A production by Gemma Madden featuring: – an exploration into the rise of marxism – a study into theatre from the greeks to Marx – Brecht’s new theatre and its aim to change the world – the decline of political theatre today ‘a view into the rise and fall of political theatre’
“Using the BBC sitcom the office as a stereotype; a philosophical analysis of the changing conditions power and resistance embrace in the corporate workplace.” Key Concepts/ Words: – Power, ethics, morality, will, resistance, autonomy, freedom, motivation, existence, capitalism, fordism, post-fordism, hybridisation, bureaucracy, red-tape, bio-power, hierarchy, top-down, bottom up, modernity, postmodernity, globalisation. Objectives: – Using the office as a model, I intend to investigate some of the pivotal questions of power, resistance and autonomy which arise when humans interface in the corporate environment. Sources: – Sourcing from books, library journals and internet journals. Original and secondary writings of Nietzsche, Foucault, Heidegger and Machiavelli. – the office first and second series, also related internet sites. – Background reading of business ethics and the condition of postmodernity. Change: – The paradigm shifts between modernity and postmodernity, Fordism and flexible accumulation. How factors such as technological advance, globalization and the drive for ‘the American dream’ affect human behaviour in the business environment. The gap between humans and things: – Man and technology. – The gap between man and the material world. – Man and globalization.
TITLE- Outline and consider how the philosophical concepts of power within institutions, according to Foucault, may be useful in assisting us to understand the change in power struggles between modern football clubs (as institutions) and their players (as individuals) compared with clubs first formed. Evaluate how this balance of power has shifted from the intuitions to the individual in the last hundred years and argue to what extent this relationship is also evident between the Football Association and Premier League. AIMS/OBJECTIVES- To show how Michel Foucault’s characterization of power in his works Power/Knowledge, The History of Sexuality and The Birth of the Clinic can be used a basis to explain the power struggles that exist between football clubs and their players. Show the factors/changes in rules of game that led to the balance of power shifting from club to players as a result of specific legal milestones such as the Eastham case or Bosman case which arguably laid the foundations for players to contest the supreme power of clubs. How this change has come about and to what extent The Football Association, as an oppressive institution, is to blame. In Foucault’s essay The Subject and Power, he outlines what he calls anti-authority struggles that will always develop between individuals and institutions and can be explained in terms of power struggles when the individuals reject the way in which certain institutions. Consequently, can power struggles in football, therefore, be explained in terms of this anti-authority struggle postulated by Foucault. Outline the changes in philosophical concept of power and how the definition has been adapted for to explain relations of power within institutions. Power promotes a delusion of one’s self-importance in the world, and this egotism leads to the illusion of the social effectiveness of power as an instrument that is used to control others. I will use the notion of change to show how change is fundamental when philosophically explaining the concept of power struggles within football institutions, because power is defined as the control of change and accordingly power is greater when there is control over change. CHANGE-In the 1880s football clubs had overall power (oppressive power as Foucault puts it) over players but today players (as individuals resisting to this power) now have power over clubs. Not only this, but the Football Association previously exercised similar power over the Premier League but now the Premier League has also become more powerful. FIELD OF EXPLORATION- How Foucault’s notion of power within institutions, as portrayed in his works power/knowledge, The History of Sexuality and The Birth of the Clinic, is relevant to the power relationship between the Football Association and the Premier League and between football clubs and players.
Territory: Prague Objective: To suck out one’s innermost self in order to take on solid form Method: Through the unquestioning belief that the golem exists, a psychic explosion occurs which ‘whips our dream-consciousness out into the daylight, creating a ghost whose countenance, gait and gestures inevitably reveal the symbol of the collective soul to each and every one of us…’ For More Information: consult Gustav Meyrink Reward For Capture: 2000 Kĉ
At the end of the nineteenth century Nietzsche was already pointing to dynamic becomings and complexity in the ontology of the human being. For him we are not entities with a transcendent being but an immanent field of forces that are always bound up in different processes. In the past century, advances in computing, mathematics and science have made it possible to study complex and dynamic systems that were dismissed as anomalies under linear models. Bodies are no longer studied in isolation but in dynamic systems that can alter their states, sometimes creating new and surprising features. We move away from singular objects to the study of quasi-objects and folds that can only be considered within their given system. The CApitalist system resembles this state of constant flux and change. There is a constant flow of abstract value and the persistence deterritorialization and reterritorialization of labour power. Within capitalism nothing exists outside of the system and decodings are brought back within a capitalist axiom. Philosophers such as Deleuze and Guattari, Serres, Simondon and DeLanda have taken theories of catastrophe, chaos and folds and reterritorialized them on to the social to explore human activity and phenomena. What emerges is biotechnics; the human is bound up in what DeLanda calls”nonorganic life”. I wish to examine Nietzsche’s process of becoming alongside recent theories of flux, chaos and complexity in the context of our state of “self” within capitalist structures to explore the processes that contribute to our stabilising of the “self” and to determine whether, on an ontological and immanent level, we are continually becoming a different self.
Objectives • To consider what ‘I’ means: what it consists of and what we want/hope it to mean (e.g. consisting of a soul etc.). • To consider what I myself am as an individual and what I believe I ought to be. • To consider what kind of world I am living in and what kind of world I feel I ought to be living in. • To try and distinguish between what I believe I ought to be and the influence society has on this. How Done • I will look at Plato’s view of what a human being is made up of. • Also the way everyday people see the human person and the reasons for this. • I will assess myself: who I am, and from this discover what I have to change or enhance in order to become what I ought to be. What Achieved • By doing this I will be able to attempt to move from the place I am in now to the place I want or ought to be in. • This ‘place’ being not just existent inside myself, but also being in the physical world as a real place. • However, this real place as the world would not be changed only physically, but also in its ideals.
The Invention, Solidification and Reproduction of “Cultural Identity”. – The accumulation of my cultural experiences versus the fresher cultural politic – WHo put the “Rose” in Singleton? Paradigm imitating geographies. For whom the Bell Tolls – Cage Fight: Nostalgia versus Memory versus Myth versus Empiricism. “Cockney” or “Mockney”? – Shared cultural knowledge: THe amalgamation of Nostalgia, Memory, Myth and Empiricism – Normalisation and Determinism – The cultural “other” and oppositional relations. The Capital of Culture – The “Culture Industry” – Fetish Parties – Following the white rabbit: How deep is the hole?
I will be examining the concept of genius loci – the spirit of a place. This concept has been neglected in Western thought due to the notion that place is merely a portion in space; a position or mere location. Based on Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire, I shall argue that a place has intrinsic qualities that shape its particular character. Today, we see a multiplication of non-places which lack such unique qualities, such as airports and supermarkets chains. Our capacity to experience place has been diminished but I will suggest a possible return to place by way of the phenomenological approach and Heidegger’s notion of dwelling.
When a human being contracts AIDS, their DNA is replaced, and their very existence becomes deficient. In a cold light, it is a murderous disease but the reality is that the negation of viral infection only delays evolution. Nietzsche argued with and against Darwin on the nature of natural selection, and made the will to power applicable to more than just the human being. Highlighting the development of AIDS since the 1980s, I will show how diseases are able to shape society and evolve beings in a network of complexity theory created by the “self-organised behaviours of complex genetic regulatory systems”.
Place: Advertising, or more specifically, questioning the assumption that the ‘success of advertising relies upon the ability to appeal to negative human emotion’. Aims and Objectives of My Project: • To initially establish where this assumption came from. • To briefly explain ‘why’ advertising was created in the first instance and ‘how’ it developed into the institution it has become today. • To identify the negative human emotions that advertising deals with. It is imperative to also demonstrate that playing on such emotions is the very intent of advertising, both on a theoretical and practical level. I will prove that from a personal point of view, and with reference to relevant case studies that advertising does work (on the grounds suggested). I will also address the possibility that the proof of successful advertising comes when an appeal to consumer ends is absent. • To acknowledge that there are incidents in, which negative human emotions actually cause advertising to fail. I must also consider the fact that advertising, in a sociological context, has subsided to consumerism in the twenty-first century. • To consider other possible reasons ‘why’ advertising is not quite as successful as the title of my project initially implies. • To attempt to align the thoughts of certain prominent philosophers with the existence of advertising i.e. to assess how the philosophers would respond to the fundamental workings of the industry as a whole. My focus here will particularly fall upon Plato, Aristotle, Hegel, Montaigne, Epicurus, Locke and Husserl.
Territory: Helene Cixous, simultaneous writer of fiction, philosophy, and fact, develops the idea of l’ecriture feminine, ‘feminine writing.’ Against the hierarchical duality of binary oppositions (action/passion, head/heart, activity/passivity), the feminine is the position of non-duality, characterised by openess to Other. Subtler than political feminism based only on gender and power, the feminine is opposed to the masculine, not the male. Cixous’s notion of the feminine is not restricted to woman, although woman’s feminine libidinal ecomomy does provide a propensity for the feminine. (A woman’s writing can be, and indeed usually is, phallocentric; Cixous urges women to throw off this masculine paradigm and write their body). (Clarice Lispector’s (left) is a supreme example, for Cixous, of a truly feminine writing). Being/becoming: Supple, moving, chaotic-poetic, feminine writing is characterised by immediacy, it is a writing of being. Its propinquity, its earthy, erotic immanence, can equally be interpreted as becoming, always moving. Feminine writing is fully present in the moment (being), and open to the temporal flux of existence (becoming). By addressing the neglected area of feminine being (becoming?), we discover a writing characterised by giving, openness, simultaneously homogeneous and heterogeneous. Application: My dissertation in part addresses Cixous’s writing (along with biblical character Salome and turn of the century socialite Alma Mahler). I argue that Cixous’s feminine writing (The Book of Promethea) embodies the Nietzschien ideal of the will to power and his notion of the eternal return. In other essays, I have read Lispector from a Cixousian perspective, and looked at what Cixous’s notion of feminine writing means for philosophy.
My Place and The Transition: My Mother’s Arms. It is my intention to depict the differing views through history regarding the body and mind, and how they are synonymous with the changing view towards the mother’s arms with maturity – from infancy to childhood to adulthood – through the acquisition of intelligence, thought, and independence. With the development of a child, comes a certain independence from its mother – a certain autonomy – as a mother’s arms become more a place of comfort, and not such a place of necessity. Objective: – A study of the views regarding the body, mind, and consciousness. – Development of free will, emotional self, intellect, imagination. – The differing roles of males and females. Sources: Aristotle Descartes, Rene, Meditations On First Philosophy Vesey, V N A., Body And Mind
Aims & Objectives: • To examine the way that people on the Autism Spectrum fit into the norms of society and the way that this has affected their identity. • To identify the changing attitudes that have arisen in respect to Autism and the way they have affected inclusion of people with the disorder over time. Structure: I will begin by introducing the notions of self and identity; looking at the structure of society and how a persons identity is developed in response to the prevailing structures. I will then progress to looking at the changing attitudes towards madness from the middle Ages to Modernity. This work will be the foundation for my genealogy of Autism, which will then be the basis on which to examine Autism and its identity in relation to society; the changes that have occurred and the way that these changes have affected the ability of someone with Autism to be part of the society in which they live. The final section of this work will be a case study examining one particular child with Autism; how his identity fluctuates, how he is perceived by those around him, and how this affects his being in respect to the society that he is a part of. Territory: The territory for this work will be the Autism Spectrum and ‘society’. Sources: The main source for this work in respect to society and its perceptions of people with a mental illness will be Michel Foucault’s Madness & Civilization. Wendy Lawson will be one of my most important sources in regards Autism. However, many others from the fields of philosophy, sociology and psychology will be used to support, and elaborate on my ideas.
It was Marcel Duchamp who invented the notion ‘art can be anything.’ By looking at the influences through a time shift starting from the Renaissance through to contemporary times examine exactly how true this revolutionary statement is or whether it is a matter of shock value that the Artist of today wants to put across, whereby the skill in drawing and painting has undoubtedly been lost. My aim is to explore the notion ‘art can be anything’ through three different time periods Renaissance, Baroque and Contemporary. The first will be the Renaissance (the early fifteenth century) which focuses on the issues of function and purpose of art. A major criticism with the youth of contemporary art today is the lack of knowledge towards the primitive foundations of art. This knowledge has been replaced with abstract ideas and theories about what art should and should not be. I used various influential names in my introduction to sketch an overall outline to the subject of art. Plato emphasises the ‘capacity of art to perfect nature, to correct in the mind of man the deficiencies of nature.’1 Wollheim and Panofsky said that only humans make art whereas Sir Philip Sidney said ‘The artist often creates things such as never were in nature.’ As a result, given the differing attitudes towards this particular subject the point is made that art is a matter of personal opinion. Using the theory of Utilitarianism I tried to use a system where the individual could categorise high and low art. It was Mill who said that a higher pleasure was one that stimulated the mind. Was it then possible to use this Utilitarian system within art? The higher pleasures of the mind are without doubt more desirable and valuable than those of lower pleasure of the body. Taking this approach the appearance or aesthetic value of a modern piece of art becomes worthless and what becomes important are the effects on the viewer. Utilitarianism is a teleological theory where the consequences are important. In some cases within modern art i.e. conceptualism, the effect can be sublime. Looking at the intention of the artist using Kant’s system of ‘means ends reasoning’ I wanted to look at what makes the moral motive a ‘pure’ motive. This is a disinterested one and it is solely based on the fact that we are motivated to act on the moral law by the moral law itself and not by some self-interested end. The idea of universality is used by Kant to support a theory of moral reasoning. Thus, we are to ask whether our maxim is one we can expect all rational agents to adopt in relatively similar circumstances. Using this Kantian system, the intentions of modern day artists like David Blaine and Damien Hurst were closely examined. I stated that it was the intention of Damien Hurst to shock his audience rather than to please. Consequently, Hurst’s works like the ‘shark’ was viewed as aesthetically poor but led to fame and fortune due to him gaining recognition by the public eye. However, is unlike Caravaggio (from the Baroque era) who had similar intentions in depicting truth within reality and whose skill and technique is certainly not limited. The key difference between the two artists (Caravaggio and Hirst) is not the obvious answer of ‘time’. Instead, it is how Hirst seems to have a good sense of the media and understands how that mindset works, which results in his intention being primarily concerned with a self-interested end. I argued that due to the influence of time and the drastic changes in fashion and philosophical thinking that have taken place since the early 15th century, it is time that dictates what art is considered acceptable and where art is going. The shock value of some artists today has lead to skill being undermined because they are reacting to a demand from society. Consequently, I believe that art can be anything, but that it has become a response to commodification and the need to make money as opposed to conveying personal expression. I feel that Kant’s philosophy of morality is key to my argument because it deals with the reasoning of the validity of art and the intentions of artists in order to determine whether their motivation is pure.
Explain what modernism is and how philosophers have described modernism and the way it produced post modernism. 2. A conclusion as to what I conclude postmodernism to be after reading and exploring philosopher’s notes. 3. How does modernism and post modernism affect the architecture? 4. Choose examples in and around Newcastle and Gateshead that I can compare and explore as to whether they have been affected by modernism and postmodernism. 5. Visit the few places of interest and explore their history. 6. Conclude as to whether modernism and post modernism has actually affected those areas that I have chosen to explore. SOURCES: Books: The theatres royal in Newcastle upon Tyne – Oswald Capitalism and Modernity – Goody The post modern and the post industrial – M.A Rose Post modernity – Barry Smart Max Weber and Post-modern theory – N.Gane Social and Cultural Forms of Modernity – B. Bocock And K.Thompson Visits: Gateshead Visitor Centre – The Sage, Gulbenkian Theatre, Theatre Royal – Grey Street
A Philosophical Enquiry into the Existential Condition of Love based on a Literary Analysis of Flaubert’s ‘Madame Bovary’. Key Concepts: being, existence, reality, individuality, subjectivity, freedom, will, authenticity Aims: in short, to combine love, literature and philosophy. This project will investigate the notion of love as philosophical concept. In taking the notion that the discipline of philosophy is essentially a quest for knowledge and truth, I feel that love is perhaps neglected within the subject. The concept (i.e. love) is of such breadth (as well as depth) that I have specified it to the Existential period. The tool I am using is literature, as it seems to be the most accessible for the topic in hand. The novel has a feeling of timelessness about it at the same time as holding the quintessence of a certain philosophical epoch, i.e. Existentialism. Structure: The first part of my project is an introduction into love as philosophical notion with regards to epistemology, ontology etc. The second part of my project will be entitled simply ‘Existentialism’ and will explore the definition and nature of it, which instead of being a simple definition will contain key themes which are indicative of it. This will be followed by studies of philosophers such as Kierkegaard, Sartre, Nietzsche and Heidegger. The third part of my essay will draw upon Flaubert’s Madame Bovary in relation to the previous two sections. i.e. existentialism and love. Primary Sources: Flaubert: Madame Bovary, Sartre: Being and Nothingness & Existentialism is a Humanism, Kierkegaard: The Works of Love, Heidegger: Being and Time
A study of the book:- its history, form, market, authors and its changing place in and of society. For centuries people have recorded important events and thoughts for their own personal reasons or for posterity. The format and availability of books have helped to shape the way knowledge has been received and perceived. However, in recent times the place of the written word as the primary source of information has been challenged as a consequence of technological advances. The role of the author has changed through time, from a position of anonymity, to one where the presence of the author had a significant impact on the work and so on to now where the reader is a significant impetus for what is produced Books afford a certain status, particularly hardbacks, despite the fact that technology has meant that books can be produced as quickly as carefully prepared magazine articles. Technology has also resulted in a rise in Internet sources and an increasing numbers of television channels needing information to transmit. We are bombarded with information and this makes it gradually more difficult to discern which facts are important or even true. Territory The changing modern society: – increasingly consumer driven, mediated by technology or the media, confusions of reality, the loss of meaning and the increasing sense of transience. Looking at current book sales and bestseller statistics in the UK, including the BBC big read winner’s list. Objectives To offer some insights into the future of books and their place and influence in society Sources Internet sources e.g. www.bookmarketing.co.uk, www.publishers.org.uk. The works of Michel Foucault and Jean Baudrillard.
Objectives: To investigate antithetical theories of objects and examine the ways in which human knowledge and experience are shaped and determined by the things it apprehends. Key concepts: Thing-hood; appearance and properties; contradiction and conceivability; concept; perspective; skepsis; the atom; arkhē; metaphor, grammar, and word. Achievement of the work: The subjection of Kantian metaphysics to the rigorous philosophical methods of Nietzsche, and a radical re-evaluation of both the ‘thing-in-itself’ and the scientist’s need for the fundamental material object, the atom, as the building block of reality.