Object, Place, Event. The Internet and the World Wide Web of Interactive Global Networking. A Mechanism of Change. A new medium is claiming to absorb almost all older forms of media and literature which is very different from previous mediums. The Internet is a super integrative medium which moves one step further and claims to leave behind the physical ground of older media, transforming these into non-corporeal electronic data that can be stored and accessed beyond the constraints of space, thus making time the decisive criterion by which we should judge the new media age and the future of language and literature. This current media change is negating not only the physical nature of prose, but the individual as we know him or her, be it the author or the political individual rooted in a local community. This claims to change the self into a non corporeal being and thus can be considered in many ways to end 2,500 years of Western Metaphysics. The interactive global is not primarily a storage device, but rather a communication tool that attempts to build a free intellectual and emotional virtual community. In order to participate in this virtual community, one is forced to necessarily negate the physical conditions of human existence and to invent a virtual personality with an easily changeable identity. The Negation of the ‘Natural’. Has the internet destroyed the singular work of literature, of art, in such a way as to engender not only a loss of its aura or its affect, but its former context as transposed by the bourgeoisie to a secular ritual of the work of literature or art?
Category: Stage 3
Introduction. The Rhizome and the arborescent model. The powerful tree trunk, here representing a hierarchy of opinion against the horizontal, discontinuous and free flight of the rhizome. The trunk is filiation. The rhizome on the other hand represents multiplicities. It has no beginning or end, just a middle (a milieu). It is a subterranean shoot, it spreads horizontally, and at certain junctures plateaus arise. A rhizome is about connectivity. It does not run opposed to the arborescent (or state) but it is a line of escape/flight, a different way. No one language in a rhizome, multiplicity. Arborescent might seek a universal language. Nomad thought verses state space. The overall aim is to investigate the music press and the changes that have occurred due to advances in communication and technology and to look at the potential future of the music press plus industry and the implication for the consumer, artist and the record labels. Plateaus. What are the new plateaus that have arisen due to advances in technology and communication? New web sites, the advent of file sharing. The consumer ideally jumps from one to another (metacritic.com) and makes informed decisions on what to listen to or buy. The eventuality of the rhizome might be becoming ‘a self facilitating media node,’ (Nathan Barley, Channel 4). What about those who can’t reach these plateaus? Is the arborescent structure still in existence? The event. ‘The best of all worlds is not the one that reproduces the eternal, but the one in which new creations are produced, the one endowed with a capacity for innovation or creativity: a teleological conversion of philosophy,’ (p79, The Fold, Deleuze). Deleuze’s theory of the event and the growing sense that music is becoming more about the event. The live sphere is the only one that doesn’t represent an absence. Can the press ever influence us more than the first hand experience? Examples, Polyphonic Spree, Arctic Monkeys. War Machines. The war machine is a kind of movement which is separate to the state, and it causes concern to, or somehow disturbs the sedentary cultures within the state. For the purpose of this discussion the arborescent root within the music industry could be equated with the state. Independent labels and bands as war machines. They try to mix the state apparatus up. Runs away from as well as struggle against the state. Eventually become recoded by capital, example Creation records. Reterritorialization and deterritorialization, capitalism and the attempt by the state to limit desires. Do the new plateaus mean a creation of desires. Hell is For Heroes and Captains of industry case studies Interview with an independent label and band. The band have been signed to a major, and independent, and a have released an album on their own label. Captains of Industry is run as a collective, skills which can be used are used. There is no management structure and yet they have been relatively successful. How much can a small label and a rock band do? The culmination of war machines to strangle the arborescent root. Bands that have been directly affected by the changes in technology- Arctic Monkeys, Wilco etc. Are there pitfalls to file sharing? Conclusion. Is the music mainstream music press losing its influence? How much did it have in the first place? Is there a cycle going on- the arborescent, the struggle to topple it then the creation of another? If we are bored of trees, why do we keep planting them?
Central Questions: ▫ How and why do we want to capture our memories in media such as photographs, film and literature? ▫ What can we learn from this need to preserve our experiences? In particular this will relate to Robert Antelme’s The Human Race. ▫ How does our need to preserve memory relate to our struggle with the other? Exploration of the Territory and Central Concepts: ▫ Look at current ways of memory capture such as web archiving, and see how these relate to a need to capture experience as comprehensively as possible. ▫ Look closely at The Human Race and more generally at the ways in which we strive to preserve the memory of the holocaust. I also intend to separate individual and collective memory. ▫ Look at Heidegger’s work on the other in Being and Time. ▫ Look at Derrida’s notion of the other in relation to identity. I want to link identity to memory and see how we assert our individual and group identities through memory capture.
Can subjective experience ever be explained? There is an inner dimension to our lives, which constitutes our entire awareness of ourselves and our world. Whether one is a reductionist, functionalist or qualia freak, subjective experiences are unique experiences, which others can never know; proprioception is our own. How does the brain process the information it receives through the senses? Where are memories stored? How are they even created? Objects must exist in the world in order to be perceived, however, this world in which we perceive objects, is not the real world. We do not experience the world as such, merely; we process the effect it has on us. The objects in the outside world are signaling their qualities inwardly, which means the object must be a thing inside our head. Seeing produces the thing that is seen. The object is before our eyes, yet the image of this object is behind our eyes; a copy. We experience the qualities of an object, its representation is in our minds; the world is forever on the outside. To what conclusions did Thomas Nagel (1937- ) come with ‘What is it Like to be a Bat?’ Do animals and plants experience qualia? How do people with illnesses such as dementia, schizophrenia, nervous disorders, autism or colour blindness perceive the world? How is one affected if their sense of smell, or sight should fail? The brain serves as the organ of the mind; if it is affected in any way, the entire body is affected and can change dramatically. The mind is what the brain does. This is evident when people develop an illness of the brain; their entire self becomes altered because the brain is no longer in a state of normality, the body expressing this change. When certain areas of the brain become, even slightly, damaged, such as the any cortex, the hippocampus or the amygdala, the individual will cease to be able to recognize things, forget certain elements of speech or not be able to link certain features together in order to create a face, for example. Remaining senses are heightened and much more sensitive is one should be taken away, altering perception greatly. Henry Huxley (1825-1895) suggested animals are conscious automa, devoid of mental states. What makes us afraid? What shapes our mind to view things in a certain manner? What goes on in a new born baby’s mind? The way an individual is brought up, affects their perception of the world dramatically; depending on one’s parents’ beliefs, or religion, family customs et cetera one’s perception of the world will be very different to another individual’s with different upbringing. Despite a baby’s lack of communication skills, it is unlikely that one will be able to make a baby co-operate so that its brain activity can be measured. Babies do not have a sense of co-operation, or a sense of anything much, their minds are impressionable and ready to be moulded, this is an individual experience and chance to teach another being the correct morals of life. Why did the ‘Hard Problem’ bother John Locke (1632-1704) so extensively? Does it seem logical that a piece of live, visual cortex in a Petri dish might be producing the same experience as a brain producing a yellow perceptual experience? Are you the only rational person alive, whilst everyone else is a zombie? These hard questions are addressed in the hard problem, whether one is a believer or not, it stands in the laws of biology and the progress of modern medicine to determine the truth.
Place: The Suit, as an image, as an androgynous construct Aim: My intention is not to assess the concept of promiscuity from a moral standpoint but more to suggest that it has been illustrative of the move away from what is essentially feminine to a world where women themselves in terms of what is masculine and how this gendering is representative of our move away from nature towards into an age of complexification Masculine and feminine: towards an age of androgyny? What is masculine? What is feminine? Indoctrinated definitions of gender through the ages from Plato to present day, the implication of gender classification on social constructs Promiscuity I will initially focus on the idea of promiscuous behaviour, how and why there has been an increase in women partaking in this behaviour (if this is the case) and the social ramifications of this. The issue is the promise of sex totally free of reproductive consequences, a myth that has served men not women. Our sexual culture which promotes pleasure over responsibility has ignored the reproductive capability of women’s bodies. Pose the question do, and if so why do women replicate men, instances of masculine behaviour, women at work etc why is success viewed in male terms, i.e. mothering undervalued, all the traditional female roles considered irreverent in modern society Masculinization. From Greek thought there has been a separation of culture and nature into male and female categories. Since the mechanical age we have become first mechanized and then manufactured, our bodies are commodities Promiscuity could be predicted as the result of a complex system, a particular way of handling material objects, everything has to be consumable. Promiscuous behaviour ultimately an expression that has been mechanized and commodified until it has become transparent. It is because we have become separated from nature that women have become masculinized, progression away from nature.
Objectives • I want to look at how much of yourself you have to sacrifice in order to become what you want to be: how much you have to sacrifice your talents for the record company, the fans and even the other band members. • I want to explore how far commercialism has embedded itself in the music industry. • Is it possible to create and release music with any real amount of integrity? • What does it mean to ‘sell-out’? • How can a band keep ‘it’ about ‘the music’? • What does ‘the music’ entail? How Done • I will look at and compare the record contracts of a major label and an indie label. • I will look at Marx’s views on commercialism and capitalism and how they affect culture. • I will assess how much control bands have over their music and what they could do to keep it about ‘the music’ so that they do not ‘sell-out’. What Achieved • By doing this I will have more of an understanding of what kind of balance there needs to be with the band and the record company in order for the music to be heard by enough people without it loosing its integrity.
ADVERTISING. • Mass media intended to raise public political action. • Rise of capitalism lead to the increased importance of advertising revenue. • Mass-media serves market ends not public ends. This means public service programming suffers and entertainment increases. • Adorno and Horkheimer. The loss of public sphere and the rise of intellectualised entertainment. • Ideologies of consumerism define contemporary society. • Consumerism also defines and standardises values and morality. • Baudrillard. Advertising has altered the conditions of reality. • Advertising devalues the natural and exalts the consumption of commodity signs. NEWS AND PROPAGANDA. • Local newspapers eliminated in favour of national press. A national consciousness and fair representation. • Lack of alternative sources means that the news is a powerfully influential medium. • Controlled by government and commercial interests. • Causes biased reporting. Worthy and unworthy victims. • Knowledge is the greatest power in society. A manipulative tool. • BBC important for returning power to the masses. CHILDREN AND MORAL PANICS. • Children’s educational programming suffered due to lack of revenue like public service programming. • Children continually targeted. Programming reduced to merchandising. • Predominantly violent. How does this affect children’s developing morals? • Moral panics and scapegoats. Violence and James Bulger. • Exclusion of youth and Subcultures. • Can subcultures exist in such a powerfully regulated society. TECHNOLOGY. • Technology has altered understanding of human condition and reproduction. • Body is dematerialised. A sign of ideologies. • Life is advertised. Life is a commodity. • Beck. These fears develop in a risk society. • What does the advertising and purchasing of life mean for society and class segregation?
TERRITORY: An arcade. An area of great energy, albeit, completely spiritually empty. A place of total objectivity, total simulacra, total inauthenticity. Repeating themes of both Heidegger and early Buddhist teachings, Nishitani claims that the central failure of philosophy in our time is that it has not provided an adequate response to nihilism. The alienation in human consciousness caused by modern science objectifying humans and denaturalizing nature, is the nihil that cuts through human existence. STANDPOINT OF EMPTINESS (Shunyata) & ABSOLUTE NOTHINGNESS (Zettai-Mu) For Nishitani, the key to overcoming the nihilism that continues to loom over humanity, is the ‘Standpoint of Emptiness’, or ‘Absolute Nothingness’. As epitomized in Western existentialism, nothingness as nihility is still seen as a reference point of subjectivity or as something to which existence relates; it functions as representational correlate of existence. By contrast, nothingness in the sense of sunyata means emptiness of a kind that empties itself even of the standpoint that represents it as some ‘thing’ that is emptiness, or to which existence merely relates. Fundamentally, Buddhist sunyata does not denote nihilism or nihility in the sense of a simple negation of, or antithesis to, being; instead, it intimates the nothingness of being or the emptiness harbored by being itself. “When we become a question to ourselves and when the problem of why we exist arises, this means that nihility has emerged from the ground of existence and that our very existence has turned into a question mark.” (Nishitani) This doubt becomes the Great Doubt, as one is led further into the core of one’s being, there to meet the Great Death. This Great Death is the dissolution of the small self, from which emerges a total openness and freedom, wherein the self is no longer separate from, but realizes its oneness with, all the myriad things of the universe. This is the arrival at the Standpoint of Emptiness, where everything is seen in its ‘suchness’. It is a standpoint that cuts through boundaries of space and time and yet is firmly rooted in the present…a recovery of the fullness of the present moment that is open to eternity.
CHAPTER ONE: Introduction to Study, Background to Study CHAPTER TWO: Paris: A History, The Medieval History, Renaissance and Baroque, Enlightenment, Napoleon to the Revolution and Restoration, Romantic City and Haussmann, Republican Age, Paris and Art Nouveau with World War II Modernity, Modern Paris, Purism, Cubism, Industrialisation and High Tec CHAPTER THREE: Love and Romance CHAPTER FOUR: Specific Investigation of Individual Structures, Notre Dame, The Louvre, The Eiffel Tower CHAPTER FIVE: Conclusion Sources: Romantic Paris Thirza Vallois 2003, Napoleon III and the Rebuilding of Paris David Pinkney 1938, Paris Robert Cole 2002, The Emerging City Leon Bernard 1970, Architect’s Guide to Paris Salvadori Renzo 1990, Visits: Paris: The Louvre, Notre Dame, The Eiffel Tower, Trip down the River Seine
Using Hegel’s Phenomenology, I examine the movements of self-consciousness apparent in a selection of socio-political incidents in contemporary Europe. Hegel’s work is not a rulebook for action or for history. But we can derive meaning in life only from the conceptual understanding of our experiences. Do all social acts have historical meaning? What part does morality have to play between consciousness and the other? Does true freedom mean the freedom to be righteous in all things?
We all want a fairy tale ending, everlasting happiness, in fact there is no more one important question within philosophy than that of the concept of happiness. It is the defining question of ethics. The crucial question that Socrates asked that of, how should I live? This question has been at the forefront of philosophical inquiry for the subsequent 2400 years, however despite this, constant deliberation has thus far produced no definitive answers. How should one live one’s life to maximise happiness? Throughout this project I wish to delve into some of the major theories of happiness to see if I can adopt any of them to make my life the happiest it can be. The mayor theorists I shall be tackling are: Aristotle – Believed happiness was achieved through fulfilment of the 3 parts of the soul. Socrates – Believed happiness is entwined with virtue. Plato – Believed happiness is achieved through acquiring the virtues and contemplation of the world of forms and the form of the good Epicurus – Believed happiness is achieved through moderate satisfaction, avoidance of pain and pleasure being the highest good Kant – one should always obey the moral law however living a virtuous life does not necessarily lead to happiness. Nietzsche – Happiness is achieved through going for what one truly desires. Pain is a necessary part of life – one cannot experience true happiness if one has not suffered. As well as looking at these philosophers I also wish to try to answer the following questions: What is Happiness? Why is it so important? How has happiness changed in the modern age? Is there one universal happiness that we all strive for? Finally I will look at an investigation into the youth of today and see what ultimately their philosophy behind happiness is.
OBJECTIVES: • to consider the different fundraising methods • find out how these are linked to meta-design and mediated experience • decide whether meta-design and mediated experience are beneficial to fundraising and life in general META DESIGN Meta-Design characterizes activities, processes, and objectives to create new media and environments that allow users to act as designers and be creative An important aspect of meta-design is to design not just an artifact, but a life-cycle that anticipates changes that may occur over a long period of time. MEDIATED EXPERIENCE Mediated Experience refers to the idea that there are systems and networks between a person and their natural experience. Something is put into a system, changed, and we then see the output that has been altered in the system.
Introduction: For over 2000 years, it would seem that man has developed and evolved without ever fully coming to grips with one of the most basic commands in Greek philosophy. Western culture today places a great emphasis on replacing religious belief with scientific knowledge, today we are surrounded by knowledge and technology, yet we know very little about ourselves. My dissertation will be focussed on the ‘self’. In my work, I will be drawing reference upon the work of Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens, two of the most prominent social theorists of the modern world, both of whom have dedicated much of their time to the concept of the self. I will be examining separately their theories on the narrative biography, modern reflexivity, the fragmented self and the effects of modern society on the individual. I will also be exploring how the concept of the self has developed over time, along with the status of the individual in society. I aim to discuss the ways in which Western society has changed dramatically over time, for example the way in which during the industrial ages science began to replace tradition and religion. I will be looking at the impact of industrialisation on the concepts of time, space and place in modernity and the influence of society itself on the individual. I will also be devoting some time to studying the effect of modern conditions such as globalisation on society and our current status as a ‘risk society’. I aim to determine the media’s influence in the creation of this risk society, and the resulting impact of the risk society on the development of the modern individual. I will also be exploring the role of the media in the formation of modern identity, and whether the media and other knowledge systems subconsciously feeds the human mind a set of values and ideals that they in turn begin to live by, whilst still believing that they maintain an independent, individual status. Finally, I aim to have some insight into the future of the ‘self’ in our society in the postmodern world.
The past few decades have witnessed the rise of the application of international human rights law as well as the extension of a wider public discourse on human rights to the extent that they could be regarded as being one of the most globalized political values of our time. Following the death of grand political narratives, it could be said that in the postmodern era, human rights represent the last remaining utopian ideal; the last remain shard of enlightenment emancipatory values. However, if the twentieth century is said to be the epoch of universal human rights then its triumph is paradoxical since this period has witnessed so many violations. Furthermore, civilians have been killed by those purporting to defend human rights as illustrated by the Kosovo ‘humanitarian’ bombings. Thus whilst the discourse of human rights purports the intrinsic rights of all people based on nothing more than an appeal to humanity, there appears to be a great deal of dissonance between self-satisfied rhetoric and social reality. As we step into the globalized era, rights are transported all over the world and transmitted straight into the homes of people, the problematic nature of universalising rights becomes apparent. Is there such a thing as rights? Can they and should they be universalised? Can rights be squared with the deconstruction of subjectivity? If not, can a non-essentialist theory of rights be developed? These are the questions I intend to answer.
Aim: To discover why certain types of heroes are popular in films, animation and graphic novels, and why we are attracted to such qualities. Method: Analysing some of the more interesting and obscure characters to ascertain why people are attracted to more nihilistic, free-thinking traits. To do this I will look at ideas such as nihilism, escapism and boredom, and correlate them with research into transcendence, innocence, naivety, and rebelliousness. Characters explored will include Roman Dirge’s Lenore, Jhonen Vasquez’s Johnny The Homicidal Maniac (pictured above), the residents of Sobriety Straight in Dame Darcy’s Meat Cake, and the Norse God Loki who features in The Mask. Sources: The Modern Stranger – Lesley D. Harman, Comic Book Nation – Wright, Dame Darcy’s Meat Cake Compilation – Dame Darcy, JTHM – Jhonen Vasquez, Lenore: Noogies – Roman Dirge.
The transformation in our conception of art, time and identity has, according to Lyotard, represented a postmodern break from unity and identity; an opposition to totality. We now reject totalising theories, and seek localised theories that explain the difference of life. Grand theories uniting all disciplines are then impossible. Whereas modernism was concerned with what we could determine, Bergson and Deleuze are concerned with the indeterminacy, the contingency, of Life. To what extent do we trust our preconceived notions of the world? How might this obscure the true nature of time and space, and therefore life? If life does not run along a single line of time, but consists of durations that differ for every being, then how should we try to live life? How can the cinematic affect open our eyes to the true ‘multiplicity’ of the world? Gilles Deleuze questions the grand narratives and conventions of life more radically than many, calling perhaps for a ‘rethinking of philosophy’ in light of the most important artistic development of the century; the cinema. In Chapter 1, I wish to look at the main artistic movements in Cinema, from German expressionism and Soviet montage of the 20’s through to the New Wave in cinema following 1968. I will then explore the capabilities of the cinema to produce new and diverse styles of thought through the movement image that allow us to see time directly, not as we experience it through the ‘human eye’ that is interested and organises. In chapter 2, I wish to look at the writings of Bergson and his philosophy of dynamism and change based on the continuous experience of nature that is falsified with the imposed divisions we divide life with as a means of understanding some underlying reality. The image is instead a simulacra with no foundation in reality. Deleuze believes that, rather than reality being actuality, or based on an ideal model, it is a constant interaction between these two; the actual and the virtual, and this is how difference is created. The impossibility of founding knowledge on structures allows us ‘the opportunity to invent, create and experiment’ with life and its possibilities.
The Transhuman. For Deleuze we should understand reality as an acentered system of forces. Becoming has no fidelity to distinctions of species or genus, but should be understood as the complex movement of non-linear flows. To think in this way is to pass beyond the human to the transhuman. The Return of Human Nature. DNA boosted Darwinian theory by enabling it to explain the process of heredity.The study of populations using statistics enabled us to posit species-typical behaviour. Biotechnology and the Transhuman. The new human sciences which underpin our understanding of human nature also allow us to change that nature. But are we not already Transhuman? How might we understand our emerging ‘pharmacological society’? Therapy or ‘enhancement’? The genotype determines the phenotype? How far does the phenotype extend? What about our social, cultural and technological relations? ‘The coils of the serpent are even more complex than the burrows of a mole hill’ How did we become neurochemical selves? How did we come to understand our sadness as a chemical imbalance in the brain, able to be corrected by psychopharmacalogical products? What is ‘natural’ for us must also be manufactured We posit what is natural once we are able to manufacture it.
Aim: To explore how archaic traditions have been resurrected to suit contemporary circumstances with respect to the concept of ‘shell institutions,’ looking specifically at the Japanese Samurai caste and the code of the Bushido. Areas to be explored: -The history and practises of the Samurai -Bushido- the philosophy and codes of conduct of the Samurai, as well as the sources from which Bushido blossomed. -The development of Bushido, and its leading thinkers. – Parallels with Western philosophy. -The demise of the Samurai caste and its subsequent revitalisation.
OBJECTIVES – To look at what is thought to be the Italian Mafia in Twenty First Century Southern Italy in the light of philosophical theories. – Take specific aspects of the Mafia thought such as the attitudes towards death, silence and their own identity in an attempt to understanding the conditions that must be upheld by a Mafioso. SOURCES -G.W.F Hegel’s Lordship and Bondage that features in The Phenomenology of Spirit. -Karl Marx and Frederick Engel’s Communist Manifesto -Thoughts presented in these texts in reference to the Mafia through the eyes of Bataille, Deleuze and Nietzsche. -Secondary reading in both Marx and Hegel. -Contemporary Italian and British Newspaper articles. -Contemporary BBC Internet Website news articles. -True Life Crime books written on the Mafia. TERRITORY -Exploration into the Sicilian Mafia; Cosa Nostra, through the means of contemporary documentation of the events involving the Cosa Nostra as a whole and more specifically particular Mafiosi . TRANSITION OF CHANGE Section 1- How the birth of the Cosa Nostra in Sicily which was born out to a class struggle to which the theories of Marxism can be applied has, over the years moved towards being an organisation which incorporates notions that can be more aptly applied to Hegelian thought. Section 2 – The transition of change of the self consciousness of a Mafioso who desires to become a Capomafia in reference to Hegel’s Lordship and Bondage.
Objective: My objective in my project is to look at the way our perception of animals has developed through the ages in England, right up to the “Hunting Act” in 2004. I will attempt to understand why some people have different views then others, for instance to see if there is a direct correlation in opinion between those from a rural community and those that live in the countryside. I will address issues such as experimenting on animals, eating animals and using animals for sport (fox hunting). The philosopher that I will mainly focus on will be Peter Singer, who focused a lot of his work on arguing that animals should be treated as an equal to humans. I will look at his explanation of why animals should be given equal “consideration” as humans receive when deciding on how to act. Sources: As I have already mentioned the philosopher that I will mainly focus on is Peter Singer, so I will use his books, such as “Animal Liberation” and “Ethics”. Along with Singer, I will also look at philosopher such as Deleuze and theories such as Utilitarianism. I will also base a lot of my work on Roger Scruton’s book “Town and Country”, as he addresses the conflicting views of rural and urban communities. I will also look into the progress of the Animal Liberation movement, which can be found in publications such as “Horse and Hound”. Achievements: Having looked at the evolution of animal rights, a major reason for the change appears to be the reduction in contact with animals that those in urban communities now have. Where as previously animals were spread out all over the country, with the agricultural and industrial revolutions animals no longer occupied the cities. Therefore the majority of contact that those people who lived in cities had with animals was with their pets. They therefore looked upon wild animals in the same way they do their pets, as individuals. This is in contrast to those in the countryside whose ‘livestock’ have a ‘working’ purpose. Due to the urban understanding of animals their conservation attitudes often cause more harm to the species they are attempting to save then good. For instance, by making badgers protected species it has caused an outbreak of TB amongst badgers which is being spread to cattle.