64 research outputs found
The ontological plurality of digital voice: a schizoanalysis of Rate My Professors and Rate My Teachers
Cinematic and aesthetic cartographies of subjective mutation
This article exmaines the use of cinema as a mapping of subjective mutation in the work of Deleuze, Gauttari and Berardi. Drawing on Deleuze's distinciton between the reduction of the art-work to the symptom and the idea of art as symptomatology, the article focuses on Berardi's use of cinematic examples, posing the quesiton in each case of to what extent they function as symptomatologies or mere symptoms of cultural and subjective mutations in examples ranging from Bergman's Persona to Van Sant's Elephant to finish on speculations about Fincher's The Social Network as a cirtical engagement with subjective mutation in the 21st Century
Lady Gaga as (dis)simulacrum of monstrosity
Lady Gagaâs celebrity DNA revolves around the notion of monstrosity, an extensively
researched concept in postmodern cultural studies. The analysis that is offered in this
paper is largely informed by Deleuze and Guattariâs notion of monstrosity, as well as
by their approach to the study of sign-systems that was deployed in A Thousand
Plateaus. By drawing on biographical and archival visual data, with a focus on the
relatively underexplored live show, an elucidation is afforded of what is really monstrous
about Lady Gaga. The main argument put forward is that monstrosity as sign
seeks to appropriate the horizon of unlimited semiosis as radical alterity and openness
to signifying possibilities. In this context it is held that Gaga effectively delimits her
unique semioscape; however, any claims to monstrosity are undercut by the inherent
limits of a representationalist approach in sufficiently engulfing this concept. Gaga is
monstrous for her community insofar as she demands of her fans to project their
semiosic horizon onto her as a simulacrum of infinite semiosis. However, this simulacrum
may only be evinced in a feigned manner as a (dis)simulacrum. The analysis of
imagery from seminal live shows during 2011â2012 shows that Gagaâs presumed
monstrosity is more akin to hyperdifferentiation as simultaneous employment of
heterogeneous and potentially dissonant inter pares cultural representations. The article
concludes with a problematisation of audience effects in the light of Gagaâs adoption of
a schematic and post-representationalist strategy in the event of her strategyâs emulation
by competitive artists
âMedia eventsâ reconsidered: from ritual theory to simulation and performativity
This paper re-examines the long-established notion of âmedia eventsâ by contrasting and critically appraising three distinct approaches to the question of media events. These are: ritual theory associated with Daniel Dayan and Elihu Katz, secondly, Jean Baudrillardâs approach rooted in his notions of simulation and ânon-eventsâ and, finally, the more recent performative approaches to media and mediation. I take Sarah Kember and Joanna Zylinskaâs reading of media events presented in Life After New Media (2012) as exemplary of the performative approach. An argument is made that the accounts of media events offered by performative approaches add very little, and, indeed, lack the critical insightfulness of the earlier approaches. Both ritual theory and Baudrillardâs thought are briefly reappraised and, against Nick Couldry, I try to show that these accounts are not characterised by binary and reductive thinking. The major misunderstandings concern the nature of the sacred and profane dualism and the further dualisms developed in Baudrillardâs thought, particularly the figures of implosion and reversibility. Finally, Baudrillardâs position on technology is addressed and the paper concludes with the suggestion that his account is not solely negative, since technological developments are not only at the mercy of ironic reversals they may also enable new rituals of disappearance
The surveillance of teachers and the simulation of teaching
Just as surveillance in general has become more sophisticated, penetrative and ubiquitous, so has the surveillance of teachers. Enacted through an assemblage of strategies such as learning walks, parental networks, student voice and management information systems, the surveillance of teachers has proliferated as a means of managing the risks of school life, driven forward by neoliberal notions of quality and competition. However, where once the surveillance of teachers was panoptic, a means of detecting the truth of teaching behind fabrications, this article argues that surveillance within schools has become a simulation in Baudrillardâs terms, using models and codes such as the Teachersâ Standards and the Schools Inspection Handbook as predictors of future outcomes, simulating practice as a means of managing risk. And if surveillance in schools has become a simulation then so perhaps has teaching itself, moving beyond a preoccupation with an essentialist truth of teaching to the hyperreality of normalised visibility and the simulation of teaching. This article argues that surveillance â including external agencies such as Ofsted â no longer exists to find the truth of teaching, the surveillance of teachers exists only to test the accuracy of the models and codes upon which the simulation is based
Afterword : Zhibo, existential territory, inter-media-mundia
In undertaking transversal research into the problems of contemporary Japanese urban life, we shall critically examine the production of subjectivities pertaining to live streaming. This is undertaken to conceptualize the changing nature of subjectivity and social relations in contemporary transnational and transcultural capitalism. We shall look to FĂ©lix Guattariâs semiotic theory to interpret the era of Integrated World Capitalism (IWC). For Guattari, the production of subjectivity is pivotal to explaining the functioning of contemporary capitalism. As he claimed in his lifetime, subjectivity has become the number one objective of contemporary, capitalist society. Contra the trend to exploit subjectivity for monetary gain, Guattariâs goal is to identify mutant nuclei of subjectiïŹcation which may engender a change in the order of things. His work is applied to new communication technologies like live streaming (Zhibo) to account for the existential breakdowns and breakthroughs which may ensue for individuals who use these technologies. Bradley has designated this as the Zerrissenheit or torn-to-pieces-hood of subjectivity (Bradley in Tamkang Review, 44(2): 37â 62, 2014)
Livestreaming the âwretched of the Earthâ: The Christchurch massacre and the âdeath-bound subjectâ
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