TERRITORY: Lost In Translation. Sofia Coppola’s beautifully written and emotively shot film Lost in Translation contains many themes that are very pertinent to philosophical discussion. The isolation of the leads Charlotte and Bob (Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray) is palpable, enhanced to moments of hystericization in the mise-en-scene. The film follows the tentative growth of the protagonist Charlotte and the unhappily married film star Bob. CONCEPTS: Deleuzian film theory Sartrean theory of the imagination Deleuze’s analysis of film views it as a consciousness. I aim to attempt to analyse my territory in such a way. I will also attempt to analyse Acts of Faith a film for the Short Film Society in this manner. I hope that this will lead to a more profound understanding of the philosophy of film. A new way of broaching the territory without recourse to classical analysis. PRIMARY SOURCES: Deleuze, Gilles, Cinema One, 1986; Deleuze, Gilles, Cinema Two, 1989; Sartre, Jean-Paul, The Psychology of Imagination, 1972
Category: Stage 2
Field of Exploration: I have chosen to examine the experience of boredom in myself and my closest friends. I will look at the way our level of interest I will look at the way our level of interest has changed from our school days to the present day.
Aims and objectives: To discover what causes boredom at different stages of our lives from school years to adult life. To examine the philosophical implications on the life of an individual. To discover ways to prevent and overcome boredom in onself and others.
Abstract: Boredom is something that affects everybody at some point in their lives. For some it is a force that motivates them to change, for others it is a curse that drains them of their motivation.
Heidegger provides an in-dept analysis of boredom and he suggests using boredom to attune to Dasein.This investigation takes Heidegger’s work as a starting point and myself as its subject matter in an attempt to discover the true essence of boredom and perhaps find ways to combat it.
Sources: Heidegger – The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics, Nietzsche -Human, All too human: Beyond Good and Evil, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – Beyond Boredom and Anxiety, Blanchot – The Infinite Conversation, Kierkegaard – Either/Or
The Side-effects. The objective of my project is to look at the mediums of mass communication and mass media on the world today. I am exploring the effects they have on us and ultimately how it has created a world in which we no longer interact with the world per se; there is no conversation, but one way communication. Mass media and technological advances have lead to a world in which individual thought has been displaced, and taken over by externally programmed thought. I am looking at the views of the following people primarily: Marshall Mcluhan, Jean Baudrillard. The main concepts that I will be covering are as follows • Global Village – I will be exploring the concept that the world in which we live is that of a village again. Today’s instant communications have all but erased time and space and rendered national boundaries meaningless • Hyper-reality – The concept of hyper-reality refers to the idea that it is no-longer possible, in a media-saturated world, to distinguish between what is real and what is not (what is, in essence, a simulation of “reality”). Hyper-reality, therefore, is a situation in which nothing and everything is “real”; it is a situation in which we have lost the ability to distinguish reality and fiction. • Television – I will explore the side effects of this medium including how it provides an outlet for hyper-reality, how advertising effects the world and how it has lead to a desire for instant gratification, an emphasis on personal experience and a de-emphasis on acceptance of responsibilities Sources: Marshall Mcluhan and Bruce Powers: The global village, Jerry Mander: Four arguments for the elimination of television, Jean Baudrillard, System of objects, Marshall Mcluhan and Questin Fiore: The medium is the message, Adorno: The culture industry, Jean Baudrillard: The ecstasy of communication, Jean Baudrillard: Simulaca and simulation, Jean Baudrillard: Simulations, Paul Virilio: Open Sky, Marshall Mcluhan: Understanding Media: the extension of Man, John Fiske: Power play power works, Jean Baubrillard: Seduction, Douglas Kellner: Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Post Modernism and Beyond, Marshall Mcluhan: Mechanical Bride Daniel Joseph, Boorstin: The Republic of Technology: Reflections on Our Future Community, Jerry Mander: In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations, Nick Stevenson: Understanding media cultures : social theory and mass communication
OBJECTIVES: • TO EXAMINE THE ORIGINS OF MONEY • TO EXPLORE WHAT MONEY REPRESENTS • TO SEE HOW MONEY AFFECTS CLASS • TO EXPLORE A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MONEY AND NATURE. Money is thought to have originated in about 800BC and has continued to develop ever since. Coins or metal money were the predominant form of money until banks were introduced. Paper money was then introduced, offering a promise of payment in metal. Since then we have become more distant from actual metal money as we use debit cards, credit cards and internet banking. Fraud and Forgery emerged almost as soon as money was invented. This led me to ask what money represented to make it so desirable. I came to the conclusion that money represented power, status within society, privilege, respect and an easy way of life. I looked at class and how boundaries have changed as views towards money have changed. Class is now much harder to define as money is more available and therefore new classifications have to be introduced and these vary from person to person. The human-nature divide is linked to the way we look at money. For example, the first banks emerged at the beginning of the enlightenment, when science was beginning to distance man from nature. We now live in an increasingly computerised world and think of ourselves as further away from nature. This is happening as we are becoming further removed from the value of money.
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.
The aim of my project: • To examine the influence of the media on society and it’s potential to alter society’s perception of reality • How big a role does the media play in shaping our views of the world? • Does the media affect some groups more than others, who is more susceptible? • How do media effects occur? Resources: • Robinson Library • The Internet • Questionnaires Conclusions: Due to the mass media, the world in which we live has become a ‘global village’, we are constantly surrounded by the media in our daily lives. It is the biggest supplier of information on places we have never seen, and people we have never encountered. Through the media we can receive information on anything or anyone we wish to learn about, but sometimes this information is biased, or wrong, and our perception of reality can become distorted yet we do not even realise it. The media is a hugely powerful phenomenon in the modern world, enabling us to gain in knowledge in a variety of topics, and shaping our perception of the world. However not all media effects are positive, the negative aspects- the communication of unreality are not only wrong but potentially dangerous.
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.
Objectives – To show how and why society still needs myths and magic in the ages of science and enlightenment. Method – Define the language of myth, and why we read significance into events and objects; Define the function of myths and magic in relation to the human psyche and psychoanalysis; Sources – Barthes’ Mythologies, Rollo May’s The Cry For Myth, Adorno and Horkheimer’s Dialectic Of Enlightenment.
Objectives 1. To explore how styles of dance have progressed from rudimentary stamping and clapping to intricate and complex steps considering the evolution of the language of dance and the crossing of boundaries between styles and moves, and a progression from freestyle, expressive dance to more formal, conceptual dance such as Ballet, then the application of forms to again, more freestyle, expressive dance. 2.How dance’s role in expressing religious, ethnic, and aesthetic paradigms throughout the history of our civilisation has evolved, and how the development of technology and communication has allowed a new level of interaction and sharing of knowledge, enabling avante garde dance forms to spread beyond their cultural boundaries through the sharing of abstract knowledge. 3. To explore dance as a cathartic and expressive means and the relation humans have to visual expression throughout the ages, breakdown of dualistic mentality allows bridge between mind and matter to be crossed, where both abstract ideas and subjective emotions can be expressed in movement. Look secondarily at physical comedians, mime-artists, free-running, how objects can be implied and their very nature changed by miming a door or turning a city into your playground. The meaning of expression and movement in the arts. 4. To explore the places associated with the dance: theatres, clubs, music videos, streets, studios and all-important practice spots, exploring the connections these places have to the dancer and the origins of the dance, i.e. Ballet in the theatre, Breaking in the streets. To create a video with philosophical commentary juxtaposing different styles and areas. Field / territory Contemporary Dance forms, performance and practice locations. Key Concepts To what extent conditions and paradigms mould the form of a dance, the age of expression, how popular dance forms are an expression of the times, the commercialisation of dance forms Sources Expression and Movement in the Arts, David Best, America Dancing, John Martin; The Male Dancer, Bodies, Spectacles, Sexualities, Ramsay Burt, Understanding Dance, Graham Mcfee, A Short History of Classical Theatrical Dancing, Lincoln Kirstein, Web based articles and downloadable clips, Videos, Style Wars DVD, The Freshest Kids DVD, Interviews of dancers, choreographers and spectators, BBC1 Documentary.
Part One – Knowledge of the Unconscious In what way is the unconscious knowable, an object available to knowledge? A look at the analogies Freud uses to describe psychoanalysis as a method capable of producing knowledge, and analysis as cure through knowledge. In what ways does the notion of the unconscious make ideas about a monogamous knowledge of (and authority on) itself problematical? Do I know, or am I paranoid? (Sources: Freud, Kant) Part Two – Lyotard, Knowledge, and Paralogy Drawing on the work of Lyotard we can sketch out an account of the unconscious as an effect of phrases. The human as a node, or knot, in a complex of relations that pre-exist her – as embedded. What is the place of the affect in the work of Lyotard, and where does he place it? The move to psychoanalysis as flirtation – the promiscuous movement among beds. (Sources: The Postmodern Condition, The Differend, The Inhuman) Part Three – Practise in Paralogy, Paralogy in Practise Using the findings of part two we can offer an account of why Adam Phillips writes the way he writes that turns around the work of Lyotard. Is Phillips the last psychoanalytic writer (is he a psychoanalytic writer?)? Has promiscuity brought about the end of the psychoanalytic relationship? The replacement of psychoanalysis as epistemology by psychoanalysis as ethos. (Sources: Lyotard, Adam Phillips, Jacqueline Rose, D.W.Winnicott)
Aim: To explore Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s arguments on Capitalism as an axiomatic and socially repressive system, in the book ‘Anti-Oedipus.’ Concepts to be explored: -An analysis of the concepts ‘schizophrenia’ and ‘paranoia’ as two opposing poles of the dynamics of capital. -A reference to the criticism of psychoanalysis and Freud’s Oedipus complex. -An investigation of the ‘three syntheses’ and the ‘five paralogisms.’ -An exploration and history of ‘social production’s’ repression of ‘desiring production.’
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’
Objective: My objective in my project is to study the various methods that country’s have of detaining young offenders. I will look at the conditions that they are detained in and the treatment they receive from the authorities. The countries that I will focus most of my essay on are: Brazil, Turkey, USA, and England. Having studied the state of the juvenile prisons, I will hopefully have come to a conclusion as to which country has successfully reformed the most children, so that they are able to lead constructive lives when they are released. The philosopher who I will mainly focus on in Foucault, and in particular his book “Discipline and Punish”. I will look at his writings on how the penal system has developed over the years, his views about torture, his writings on Jeremy Bentham’s “Panopticon”, his belief that the authorities are diminishing the human spirit, and his beliefs in why prisons continue to be used when they appear to be unsuccessful at reducing crime. Sources: As I have already said the philosopher who I will focus on is Foucault so I will use his books. The information I will use when writing about the prison system will largely come from reports made by groups such as the Human Rights Watch, who have been over to these countries and have interviewed the prisoners, government officials, lawyers, and social workers. Achievements: Having studied the various juvenile prisons around the world I have come to the conclusion that out of the four countries that I have focused on the USA and surprisingly Turkey have the lowest number of children re-offending when they are released. Although both prisons appear to have very contrasting methods of treating the children (USA like a military camp, and Turkey like a boarding school), they do have many similarities. Both prisons have a very specific structure to the day that the children must obey. Both are also concerned with integrating the children back into society, Turkey while the children are in prison and the USA when the children have left (which they refer to as “after care”)
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
I wanted to explore why we (Western Society) have the belief that it is right for humans to have authority over the rest of the environment and to dominate it, utilising it however is deemed fit. My outlook within this project is to clarify differing perceptions of nature and how they are influential. My aim is to establish how society has got the perception of nature that it has. Intro: the underlying question is why do humans believe that they have the right to dominate the environment? I intend to clarify differing attitudes towards, and beliefs about nature. Discuss the different focuses of the discussion. What is nature? Different Viewpoints on Nature. Environmental ethics: anthropocentrism, speciesism, eco-feminism, humanism, idealism, deep ecology, animal rights, vegetarianism and veganism etc. What do they say about the relationship between humans and nature? How past perceptions of nature have changed e.g. Romanticism, and why has it got more controversial? Religious Concepts of Nature. Why I am looking at religious examples. Different time spans and areas. Primitive v Modern. Religion communicates social norms. Totemism. The religion, the relationship with totems. Different teachings and sacraments. What does this say about the relationship with nature? Paganism. Mother nature, link with eco-feminism. Different beliefs. Relationship with nature. Judeo-Christian beliefs. Patriarchal, anthropocentric, institutionalised. What does this say about the relationship with nature? Religious Conclusion. What do these contrasting religions communicate about man and nature? Comparison of Christianity and Paganism-Mother v Lord. Look at respect for nature in Totemism and compare this to modern Christianity. Is Christianity fundamentally anthropocentric? Dualism, Patriarchy. Ecological effort. Psychological Relationship. Importance of psychology, what can it tell us about our preconceptions of nature? Jung’s Collective Conscious. What is it? Is it plausible that our collective conscious can dictate our relationship to nature? Discussion General psychological opinion. Nativists v empiricists. Psychological Conclusion. What do these arguments infer about humanity’s attitude towards nature? Philosophical Relationship. What can philosophy tell us? Different Arguments. Kant, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, Plato. Dualism v Monism. Descartes. Spinoza. What a world view’s impact on the relationship between humanity and nature is. Conclusion. Religion, Psychology, Philosophy and Sociological ⇒ what they infer? Which has the most impact? Why do we have the relationship with nature that we do?
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.
Prague is my chosen place for the study of my project and the development of architecture in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The architecture is a mix of all time periods and have al been preserved, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque are just some of the styles that can be seen. I am focusing on the Renaissance to Baroque period and the reason for the architectural transition. Along with this transition and the reasons behind it there is the main theme of individuality and power and how these characteristics may have helped the process of Renaissance to Baroque. The individuals that could have the kind of power needed to influence a change in style are emperors, religious leaders, architects and the aristocracy. But how do these individuals use their power to influence others? Can style really be changed through the will of one person? These questions lead to an investigation of individualism and its impact and influence on others. The main buildings I am exploring are the Renaissance Beldevere, a summerhouse, built for Queen Ann, the Baroque Wallenstein Palace, the Baroque St. Nicholas Church and the cathedral of St. Vitus. These buildings are interesting to compare and contrast so as to get a real feel for the different periods and stages of development. The Belvedere- 1535-63, Renaissance Summerhouse built for Queen Anne. The idea of an individual being responsible for the development in architecture is possible but unlikely so there must be other reasons. These are blunted sensibility, advancement of architectural tools and abilities, the need for new art to admire and the natural development of style. All these have to be discussed in order to find which is most likely to have had the most influence. Religion is also a key factor in the development as the transition may be connected to the Thirty Years War and this would mean limitations or requirements were needed to be seen on buildings in order to promote or demote certain religious beliefs. Sources The Architecture of Prague and Bohemia- Brain Knox, Renaissance and Baroque – Heinrich Wolfflin, The Thirty Years War- Stephen Lee, Space, Time and Architecture- Sigfried Giedion, Rudolf II and Prague: the court and the city- Eliska Fucov, Also a study of the buildings themselves in Prague.
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
Aim To investigate the relationship between human consciousness and text and images. Territory The ‘handwriting on the wall’. Objectives 1. To explore the key concepts of postmodernism, post-structuralism, interpretation, hermeneutics and deconstruction amongst others, as introduced by postmodernists such as Barthes, Derrida, Foucault and Gadamer. 2. To trace some of the patterns in graffiti and explore its explosion since the late 1960’s. To establish if postmodernism has effected the way we view, read and interpret graffiti. To understand how graffiti has changed so much in a relatively small period of time and the world events and cultural variations that have influenced it. To study graffiti’s increased universalism and the proliferation of styles. 3. To make a distinction between humans and the outside events that influence and determine their lives. Does graffiti bridge any gaps? Method Close reading of postmodernist texts such as Derrida’s ‘Of Grammatology’ and Gadamer’s ‘Truth and Method’ as well as analysis of examples of graffiti from ancient Rome to modern contemporary artists such as Banksy.
A Study into the decline of the Christian Religion in Northern Europe transposed against the rise of religion in North America. Objectives To investigate the cultural differences between the new and old world, to see the appeal of religion between the two worlds and investigate the reasons for a decline in Europe Concepts The shifting role of religion in western society Territory Religious belief in the U.K. and U.S.A. throughout the 19th and 20th centuries The way we see the world around us defines us as spiritual beings, our whole religious outlook is affected by the way in which our national identity is formed. The U.K. lacks the drive and ambition to discover more about ourselves and so we are left behind