Territory: Experiments with the movement and the language of attraction have been conducted in real social situations and in virtual situations. I have taken as my territory the streets, shops, bars and clubs of Newcastle as well as setting up a myspace account in which to test theories and discover laws. Objectives: This project is entitled ‘A Philosophy…’ because it is not the philosophy of attraction. I have looked at the topic from within my immediate, personal experience. My objective is to discover how attraction works for an average male, like myself, and from here to perhaps discover certain general rules or overarching systems. Sources: David DeAngelo: ‘Attraction is not a Choice’ and other works. Neil Strauss: ‘The Game’ and related ‘Mystery Method’ materials. Kierkegaard: ‘Either/Or’ especially the Seducer’s Diary. Hegel: ‘Phenomenology of Spirit’. Levinas: ‘Totality and Infinity – An Essay On Exteriority’.
Category: Stage 3
In this project I hope to explore our contemporary urban experience and the postmodern condition, with regards to its arguably revolutionary potential. Is ours truly a time when ‘other worlds’ and ‘other voices’ are able to find expression within society? Has postmodernity witnessed the end of meta-narratives as Lyotard would have us believe, making way for a multiplicity of truths, or is postmodernity the grandest narrative of all? I will be tackling such questions by reflecting upon the Tate Modern Art Gallery, which I believe in many respects is representative of postmodernity and by striking up some kind of dialogue between itself and those world views which have lead to its arrival. I have named it ‘A View from the Bridge’ after the Arthur Miller play, for I appreciate that what I will be attempting to argue is merely expressive of one perspective. There are various ways in which one could understand postmodernity and its consequences and mine is merely one, although I will at intervals offer other options for perception, other ‘views’ so to speak. My thesis will thus unfold as though it were literally my journey to the Tate Modern. For I begin at St. Paul’s Cathedral, which is arguably representative of the Christian world view of the Middle Ages, I then proceed to the Millennium Bridge which functions as the Enlightenment did, ‘bridging the divide’ so to speak between antiquity and Modernity, or Postmodernity even, and then I reach the gallery, which is the embodiment of our contemporary social experience.
Objective: My main objective in researching and writing this project is to understand as far as I can how the fluid thing which we can generalise by terming ‘self-identity’ is shaped by the idea of impending death. My objective is not to make the claim that death, or our awareness of its implications to our ‘being’ is the only factor or even the most important factor in shaping our identity; but rather to explore what parts of our identity are affected by this impending doom and in what way. Further, I mean to do this by means of an example, that being my territory which is the site where the twin towers once stood: Ground zero. I aim to use this territory as almost a platform from which to show mortality’s affects. What I mean in saying this, is that our understanding of what Ground zero represents because of its links with the concept of terrorism and thus with the concept of death, through our exposure to the events surrounding it in the media, has had an affect upon the way in which many people relate to the world around us; thus altering, or shaping to a certain extent the manner in which we form our identities. Concepts: The concepts which hold the most importance for this investigation are the concepts of a) Death, b) self-identity and c) human awareness. In looking at the concept of death we must somehow determine what death actually is. What does death really mean for a living entity, does it have boundaries as a term, and to what extent is it truly definable within the limits of language? In looking at self-identity we are looking at the essence of what makes a person who they are, how it is that they identify with themselves and with their surroundings by a method of differentiation and association. In examining this concept we must also note that identity is not as might be misconstrued, a fixed thing, but rather a fluid process of becoming or being. My third main concept is that of human awareness which is implicitly linked with the fluid concept of self-identity. I must undertake an examination of the idea of awareness in order to understand where the connection between death and identity takes place. This is the faculty, if you will, which allows the conception of impending death to affect the continuing process of forming self-identity. Sources: For this project I shall be using diverse sources which spread through a range of different Disciplines i.e. Social-anthropology, evolutionary-biology, sociology and of course Philosophy. I shall refer to older philosophical ideas of death and its effects, however the texts which are most central to my investigation are: Heidegger: Being and Time, and Blanchot: The Death Sentence
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.
An exploration into punk, its roots, its philosophy and where it is now.
Is someone who finds a tribal scarring ceremony beautiful wrong or justified to believe whatever they choose? This includes an exploration of the concept of beauty and its dimensions. Beauty will be mainly discussed in terms of the female; it is aimed towards beauty as a concept in modern times, regarding appearance rather than the aesthetics of art. The overall thesis of this discussion is that beauty, controversial as it can be, is in the eye of the beholder and therefore different cultures, times and context all have varying priorities and values regarding beauty. Chapter 1 What is beauty? The philosophical arguments regarding beauty. Different philosophical theories ranging from Plato to Kant and Santayana, concluding that the modern perspective is that beauty is subjective. However, is beauty the actual object or the feeling connected with beauty? Kirwin argues that the sensation of beauty is universal and therefore while the object is subjective the sensation is not. The biological argument, initiated by Darwin, that people perceive beauty in humans with regard to biological advantage is also discussed- does this make human beauty universal, what about homosexuals? Chapter 2 Case study-Warie Dirie, a description of infibulation and the cultural arguments surrounding it within a specific case. Debate on the justification of female circumcision, what are the concepts of beauty within this tradition? Chapter 3 Cosmetic surgery, its massive growth throughout the last ten years-why is it so popular-what are the aims, the problematization of age-what does this imply about beauty. Chapter 4 Feminist arguments about beauty, is beauty a ‘beauty myth’? Are women subordinated by the pressure to conform to an ideal? The aims and art of Orlan-challenging beauty through cosmetic surgery. Chapter 5 Different practices within cultures that are either beautifying or mutilating. A look at the rise in body modification through tattoos, piercings and scarification, what are the aims of these modifiers-to challenge cultural norms? Is it cultural imperialism to class something alien to us as mutilation? A discussion of whether or not one can impose a view upon another culture without being imperialist, a comparison of foot binding with female circumcision. Is beauty ideology? A glimpse at power through the eyes of Foucault, Lenin, Lukes and Marx. Conclusion-what does this all imply about beauty. A parallel between beauty and deformation with Calabrese’s notion of the neo-baroque and replicants, a homogenising of society. Harvey’s postmodern consumerist world. The Dove Report, what do Western women really feel about beauty. Philosophical implications of the differing viewpoints regarding beauty and perfection. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder??
Objectives: How much is our present day society increasingly reliant on simulations for its reality? What affect does this have with regards to the individual and society as a whole? Method: I will look at how far society is controlled by mediations with regard to the television for example, as our main source of gaining knowledge about the world, and how this leads to the notion of risk society and the current climate of obsessive individualisation. My main aims are to explore the outcomes of simulations in postmodernity with regard to the importance of the image and the increasing occurrence of territorialisation, particularly in everyday activities such as the foods that we eat and the goods which we consume. Sources: Ulrich Beck, Risk Society, Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulations, David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, George Ritzer, The McDonaldization Thesis, Don Delillo, White Noise.
My territory of investigation is the military and its members, including regular soldiers, regiment officers and commanding officers. The concept is morality and freedom of will within the military society. The ethical and moral basis that the military lives by is all very well in order to justify the actions taken by the military but can a soldier just ignore his own morals and values and live in a system where morals are dictated? The soldier loses his freedom of morality in a strict society where unquestioning obedience is a requirement and all decisions are made for the individual. The army operates on a system of discipline, loyalty and mutual trust. These combined make the military an efficient and organised system but are the requirements for soldier’s realistic? A main source I have been using is the Military Covenant, which shows the moral component of the army and the inner qualities needed to be a soldier, such as selfless commitment, courage, discipline, integrity and loyalty. These qualities are brought out by and taught by the leaders but how much responsibility do they have? Are they just the pawns of the people above them in the hierarchy? These questions all lead back to the notion of freedom of morals. I have used Hegelian philosophy through out this study to help answer the above questions. The Philosophy of Right is used in order to highlight the importance of freedom as only belonging to a social being who partakes in ethical life, only in this sense is the individual truly a person. Therefore taking away this freedom, like in the military, the person loses what makes them human. According to Hegel the will is essentially free. This distinguishes us from animals, having purposes and striving deliberately to achieve them. The society that we live in plays a large part in forming our wants and desires and Hegel never loses sight of this. His theory of abstract freedom shows how we do as we please in a state of freedom that is pushed to and fro by the social and historical forces of our times. This is an important point in relation to the freedom of will in the military as it supports the idea that soldiers do choose to limit free will but in doing so open themselves up to a different society where individual choice is limited but it is maybe just an extreme version of the society that we all live in where our choices are shaped by our society. A key change that highlights freedom of choice and morality is the difference between an autocratic society, such as Germany under the rule of Hitler in the 1930’s and 1940’s, and the democratic society of Britain today. There is a huge difference in the military styles; Hitler ruled his military with a dictatorship that called for ‘blind obedience’ whereas any democratic society portrays freedom of choice and initiative. My objective is to discover if these two military systems are really that different in how a soldier is expected to obey orders based on military morals and believe in them fully. Is it possible for a human being to give up their values and morals in order to commit themselves fully to a strict military society? Are our morals really that flexible?
Traditional Objections to Suicide which I Intend to Challenge: 1. Human life is sanctified, therefore it is wrong to commit suicide. 2. Suicide is wrong because it is selfish. 3. Man is made in the image of God, therefore it is wrong to take your own life. 4. When we die is God’s decision, not ours, therefore suicide is wrong. 5. Suicide is wrong because it deprives society of an otherwise useful citizen. 6. Suicide is wrong because it is ‘unnatural’. 7. Suicide is wrong because it is a form of murder. 8. ‘Life is a gift from God’, therefore suicide is wrong. Why is Suicide Still Stigmatised? 1. The role of the media: Isn’t the media guilty of undermining the seriousness of suicide by expounding sensationalist story-lines, e.g. ‘Tony Blair committed political suicide today’? Isn’t the media also guilty of reinforcing our negative feelings towards suicide to dramatise a situation e.g. using the term ‘suicide bombers’, instead of ‘martyrs’? Doesn’t the media fail to clarify our own confusions about ‘who’ is to blame when a suicidal act occurs? 2. The semiotics of suicide: Doesn’t the language we use as regards to suicide prejudice our understanding of the term suicide, e.g. the verb ‘to commit’ reminds us of the notion of crime (reiterated by the fact that suicide was only made legal in 1961 in England) and the fact that someone who attempts suicide is considered to be a “victim” is a difficult notion to comprehend given that a victim is someone who usually has something wrongful done to them – not someone who inflicts a wrongful action onto themselves. 3. Is the solution more immoral than the problem?: Whilst we are forced to acknowledge that suicide is a problem that has to be dealt with, given our extensive research of the subject, the problem comes with trying to implement a solution. One commentator has suggested the notion of pre-emptive incarceration based upon statistical analysis of suicides? Yet, how problematic would this be? Are the statistics too broad? Or are they too specific? Is it ethical to incarcerate someone because they are a potential suicide? Does the notion of incarceration revert back to the idea that suicide is a crime? What about the financial aspects of such a scheme? Can such a scheme make any real difference given that the existing methods of dealing with suicides (e.g. telephone services) are largely ineffective? Does the solution lie in a re-structuring of society, as Durkheim suggests? What are the consequences of such a re-structuring? 4. “God is Dead” (Nietzsche), and “Life is Absurd” (Camus) but suicide remains stigmatised: When “God died”, we may have expected the traditional rejection of suicide based upon religious (in particular, Christian) arguments to die with him. Yet, this did not happen. This suggests that Christianity did not install within us a sense that “killing is wrong”; what it does suggest, however, is that this sense of repulsion towards murder (in this case, self-murder) is innate within us – Christianity merely provided the vehicle by which to expound this view. Thus, when “God dies”, our prohibitions remained.
Aim To discover the importance of contemporary television broadcasting to the nature of our society and culture. Objectives 1. To explore the key concept of ideology as interpreted by poststructuralists such as Foucault and Althusser as well as the Gramscian notion of hegemony. 2. To investigate the way that we are unconsciously manipulated into receiving cultural values and class position by the world around us. To show that existing within the context of a society dominated by the influence of a capitalist media engine shapes the normative conditions of these evaluations, and illustrate how constant change allows modern capitalist society to revamp and perpetuate itself through self-referential discourse. 3. To trace some of the patterns and phenomena in our modern media. To establish what might have caused the proliferation and success of ‘reality television’ and the cult of celebrity. To understand how television invades our homes and turns us into consumers in our own front room, transforming unique individuals into aspiring capitalists engaged in the systematic labour of production and consumption. Method Close reading of texts such as Foucault’s ‘The Archaeology of Knowledge’ and ‘Power/Knowledge’ and Gramsci’s ‘Selections from the Prison Notebooks’ as well as an examination of recent trends in television and the effects of modern celebrity on individuality.
A look into the shifted ideals of religion, human spirituality and the replacement of conventional religion with new spiritualities. Objectives To investigate what has happened to religious belief since the enlightenment. How conventional religion has slowly throughout the last two hundred years become fragmented and changed along with its effect on human spirituality. The damage that the enlightenment did to major religions. The effect lack and subsequent regaining of faith In new and different ways. Our attitude to religion has changed so far, that although we now believe ourselves to be free of its grasp, we are more under its thrall. Concepts: Replacement of Religion, shifting role of religion and human frailty of will. Territory: Religion throughout Europe since the Enlightenment
There is currently a spectre haunting the modern world, whose presence demands the attention of socioeconomic, political and intellectual institutions to which it is opposed. It has claimed thousands of lives, initiated wars, undermined international law and called into question modernity’s ideological foundations; and yet, discourse on terror has failed to confront its true origins. Knee-jerk condemnation and bureaucratic rationality continue to dominate responses, manufacturing consent while excluding any form of self-reflexivity or discussion. In situating terrorism in the dialectic of modernity, this project aims to assert the absolute necessity of such a re-evaluation in finding a solution. Key themes • Problems of the inherited language: Towards redefinition of ‘Terrorism’ • The legacy of the Enlightenment and the task of Philosophy. • Power bases and the assertion of legitimacy. Fundamentalism vs. Liberty. • Towards a resolution: forums of discussion and devolution and hospitality
Fear has always been with us. Fear has always been used in politics, as a means to control, both for the good and for the bad. Hobbes: The fear of the state of nature, led the people to accept a sovereign. Montesquieu: The fear of the tyrannical despot means people are bound to democracy. Tocqueville: Fears of the consequences of being ostracised by society mean people have conformed to the tyrannical majority. 9/11 has brought about a new kind of fear in the people of the U.S.A. It caused paranoia about a devastating attack from an anonymous face to spread through society. The people in their abject fear have turned to the government to protect them. The style of government they have chosen that they feel will protect them best is a new brand of conservatism, one that is even further right on the political spectrum; this government is Neoconservatism. What of this regime that is here to save us? It again marks a change in society. For centuries in western societies we have moved towards progressively freer societies. The implementation of a Neoconservative government, has changed this, we are seeing the abolition of civil liberties, no trial by jury, the detainees of suspects in prison for years without charge. This is not peculiar to the U.S buts its influence as the one true super power is immense, and it has sparked similar policy changes elsewhere. The political thinker Leo Strauss has heavily influenced neoconservatives. In particular his doctrine on natural right. We must try and understand the work of Leo Strauss, if we are to understand what the people find so attractive about this style of government. The Neoconservatives are particularly influential in the areas of defence and foreign policy, the two key areas for the protection of the U.S.A from the “axis of evil”. Again we must turn to Strauss to understand how his philosophy has influenced the policies that affect us all today.
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.