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]]>Note: I posted my actual questions and rubric a couple of posts down, but I thought it might be useful to also provide the examples I drew from to form my questions, so here are my responses to the various steps of the question-and-answer making process:
5 key concepts or ways of thinking about something that you learned either from faculty or fromyour peers:
1) The importance of cutting things up and reorganizing them to create a different perspective or reveal creative, unexpected ideas like Julia did in “The Paper Suit.”
2) The importance of “the blind spots, or the space-off” DeLauretis mentions on page 25. While going through my notes from Julia’s “Mugshots and Screentests” lecture I also found a quote from Julia that reminded me of this idea of DeLauretis’. In regards to Greta Garbo’s 1949 screentest Julia said, “Backgrounds are important to get a sense of what’s not there.”
3) From Elizabeth, the way the body’s behavior reflects the hierarchical position of a space. For instance, a person with their hands in their pockets, walking single-file is evident of a demand for order in a highly regarded space, whereas outdoor markets with no walls or carpeting are lower in the hierarchy and one does not have to adhere to the same bodily performance demands that are expected in a “high space.”
]]>Note: I posted my actual questions and rubric a couple of posts down, but I thought it might be useful to also provide the examples I drew from to form my questions, so here are my responses to the various steps of the question-and-answer making process:
5 key concepts or ways of thinking about something that you learned either from faculty or fromyour peers:
1) The importance of cutting things up and reorganizing them to create a different perspective or reveal creative, unexpected ideas like Julia did in “The Paper Suit.”
2) The importance of “the blind spots, or the space-off” DeLauretis mentions on page 25. While going through my notes from Julia’s “Mugshots and Screentests” lecture I also found a quote from Julia that reminded me of this idea of DeLauretis’. In regards to Greta Garbo’s 1949 screentest Julia said, “Backgrounds are important to get a sense of what’s not there.”
3) From Elizabeth, the way the body’s behavior reflects the hierarchical position of a space. For instance, a person with their hands in their pockets, walking single-file is evident of a demand for order in a highly regarded space, whereas outdoor markets with no walls or carpeting are lower in the hierarchy and one does not have to adhere to the same bodily performance demands that are expected in a “high space.”
4) From the Beauty Parlor presentation on the Olympia capitol building, how a building or location can represent a body, with an internal structure and definite presence depending on its design and setting.
5) The concept brought up by Scott Turner Schofield that perhaps people constantly have to keep coming out to stay in the sexuality that has chosen them; this notion that maybe in order to secure your sexuality you have to be relentlessly performing your life.
10 QUOTATIONS YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY SMITTEN WITH:
1) From Dyer’s "The White Man’s Muscles:" “The built white body is not the body that white men are born with; it is the body made possible by their natural mental superiority. The point after all is that it is built, a product of the application of thought and planning, an achievement" (Dyer 164).
2) From “The Body You Want” Interview: “To the extent that gender is a kind of psychic norm and cultural practice, it will always elude a fixed definition" (86).
3) From DeLauretis’ “The Technology of Gender”: “The sex-gender system, in short, is both a sociocultural construct and a semiotic apparatus, a system of representation which assigns meaning (identity, value, prestige, location in kinship, status in the social hierarchy, etc.) to individuals within the society” (DeLauretis 5).
4) From Roaring Girl, page 281 in my book: “He that can take me for a male musician, I cannot choose but make him my instrument, And play upon him.”
5) From The History of Sexuality, “Governments perceived that they were not dealing simply with subjects, or even a ‘people,’ but with a ‘population,’ with its specific phenomena and its peculiar variables: birth and death rates, life expectancy, fertility, state of health, frequency of illnesses, patterns of diet and habitation.” 25
6) From Sexing the Body, pages 28-29: “It seems hard to avoid the view that our very real, scientific understandings of hormones, brain development, and sexual behavior are, nevertheless, constructed in and bear the marks of specific historical and social contexts.”
7) From Mary Douglas, pg. 79: “Consequently I now advance the hypothesis that bodily control is an expression of social control – abandonment of bodily control in ritual responds to the requirements of a social experience which is being expressed.”
8) Brecht on Theater page 110: “In the theatre reality can be represented in a factual or a fantastic form. The actors can do without (or with the minimum of) makeup, appearing ‘natural’, and the whole thing can be a fake; they can wear grotesque masks and represent the truth.”
9) From Marcel Mauss page 73: “There is always a moment when, the science of certain facts not being yet reduced into concepts, the facts not even being organically grouped together, these masses of facts receive that posting of ignorance: ‘Miscellaneous.’ This is where we have to penetrate.”
10) From Tomorrow’s Eve, page 93: “Hadaly’s birds are nothing but winged condensers. I thought fit to give them human voices and human laughter instead of the old-fashioned, meaningless song of the normal bird – it seemed to me more in harmony with the Spirit of Progress.”
5 indispensable vocabulary terms that have helped to shape your approach to thinking about the body:
1) PHYSIOGNOMY: The science of forming supposedly accurate connections between peoples’ body parts and mental capabilities.
2) DOMAIN OF CULTURAL INTELLIGIBILITY – The extent to which one can fit oneself into the designated boxes on forms.
3) COMPORTMENT – Stability, bodily carriage; the manner in which one carries oneself.
4) GESTUS - A gesture that embodies one’s character while also pointing beyond to make a commentary on the social environment.
5) PANOPTICON: An area in which everything is visible from a central surveillance section.
Put your notes aside and, in your own words, come up with 3 themes or subtopics thatrepresent something you’ve learned about the body in the last 7 weeks. Each question should address one of the three sections of the syllabus: citizen, subject, self.
CITIZEN:The body’s capability of representing power personified.
1) From Dyer’s The White Man’s Muscles: “The built white body is not the body that white men are born with; it is the body made possible by their natural mental superiority. The point after all is that it is built, a product of the application of thought and planning, an achievement" (Dyer 164).
PHYSIOGNOMY: The science of forming supposedly accurate connections between peoples’ body parts and mental capabilities.
SUBJECT: The body as a constant performance piece, whose audience is society and whose stage is the places the body frequents. The concept brought up by Scott Turner Schofield that perhaps people constantly have to keep coming out to stay in the sexuality that has chosen them; this notion that maybe in order to secure your sexuality you have to be relentlessly performing your gender.
COMPORTMENT – Stability, bodily carriage; the manner in which one carries oneself.
GESTUS - A gesture that embodies one’s character while also pointing beyond to make a commentary on the social environment.
2) From “The Body You Want” Interview: “To the extent that gender is a kind of psychic norm and cultural practice, it will always elude a fixed definition" (86).
3) From DeLauretis’ “The Technology of Gender”: “The sex-gender system, in short, is both a sociocultural construct and a semiotic apparatus, a system of representation which assigns meaning (identity, value, prestige, location in kinship, status in the social hierarchy, etc.) to individuals within the society” (5).
6) From Sexing the Body, pages 28-29: “It seems hard to avoid the view that our very real, scientific understandings of hormones, brain development, and sexual behavior are, nevertheless, constructed in and bear the marks of specific historical and social contexts.”
8) Brecht on Theater page 110: “In the theatre reality can be represented in a factual or a fantastic form. The actors can do without (or with the minimum of) makeup, appearing ‘natural’, and the whole thing can be a fake; they can wear grotesque masks and represent the truth.”
SELF: Bodies as machines that follow their commands “just as we [humans] obey all of our impulses" (I'Isle-Adam 83).
]]>Statement to Translate:
"In an era where colonial power had made epidermalizing into a dominant principle of poltical power, Dr. Fanon used the idea of indexing the estrangement from authentic human being in the body and being in the world that colonial social relations had wrought. Epidermalized power violated the human body in its symmetrical, intersubjective, social humanity, in its species being, in its fragile relationship to other fragile bodies and in its connection to the redemptive potential inherent in its own wholesome or perhaps its suffering corporeality, our being towards death."
-Paul Gilroy, "Race Ends Here" page 255.
Definitions of Unfamiliar Words from the Oxford English Dictionary:
epidermal - Adj. Of or pertaining to the epidermis, whether in animals or plants.
epidermis - Noun. Anatomy term. The outer (non-vascular) layer of the skin of animals; the cuticle or scarf-skin.
non-vascular - Adj. Of fibers, tissue, etc.
intersubjective: Philosophical term meaning existing between conscious minds.
corporeality: Noun. The quality or state of being corporeal; bodily form or nature; materiality.
corporeal: Adj. Of the nature of the animal body as opposed to the spirit. Of the nature of matter; material. Physical; bodily; mortal.
My Translation of Gilroy's Quote:
In a period of history in which exploitative dictatorship assigned importance to the color of one's skin, Dr. Frantz Fanon pointed out the alienation people felt toward the way they were perceived in the colonial environment and the way they perceived themselves - which was as genuine human beings regardless of the shade of their skin. The process of applying significance to skin color was damaging to the human body because of the limitations, uniformity, and predictability the concept demanded from delicate, sensitive people living amongst other delicate, sensitive people. The idea that skin color alluded to something meaningful also threatened the human body's connection to the redeeming capabilities it possessed, which are fixed in its own health-preserving or possibly enduring physical form for which death is inevitable anyhow.
]]>Statement to Translate:
"In an era where colonial power had made epidermalizing into a dominant principle of poltical power, Dr. Fanon used the idea of indexing the estrangement from authentic human being in the body and being in the world that colonial social relations had wrought. Epidermalized power violated the human body in its symmetrical, intersubjective, social humanity, in its species being, in its fragile relationship to other fragile bodies and in its connection to the redemptive potential inherent in its own wholesome or perhaps its suffering corporeality, our being towards death."
-Paul Gilroy, "Race Ends Here" page 255.
Definitions of Unfamiliar Words from the Oxford English Dictionary:
epidermal - Adj. Of or pertaining to the epidermis, whether in animals or plants.
epidermis - Noun. Anatomy term. The outer (non-vascular) layer of the skin of animals; the cuticle or scarf-skin.
non-vascular - Adj. Of fibers, tissue, etc.
intersubjective: Philosophical term meaning existing between conscious minds.
corporeality: Noun. The quality or state of being corporeal; bodily form or nature; materiality.
corporeal: Adj. Of the nature of the animal body as opposed to the spirit. Of the nature of matter; material. Physical; bodily; mortal.
My Translation of Gilroy's Quote:
In a period of history in which exploitative dictatorship assigned importance to the color of one's skin, Dr. Frantz Fanon pointed out the alienation people felt toward the way they were perceived in the colonial environment and the way they perceived themselves - which was as genuine human beings regardless of the shade of their skin. The process of applying significance to skin color was damaging to the human body because of the limitations, uniformity, and predictability the concept demanded from delicate, sensitive people living amongst other delicate, sensitive people. The idea that skin color alluded to something meaningful also threatened the human body's connection to the redeeming capabilities it possessed, which are fixed in its own health-preserving or possibly enduring physical form for which death is inevitable anyhow.
Example:
The idea of epidermalization relates to any form of segregation, but the one that emerged in my mind was slavery. The fact that people were split up and auctioned off by white people illustrates the technique of epidermalization at work. The respectability people working as slaves could have felt was replaced by a sense of isolation due to the actions and designations imposed on them by affluent white people.
]]>One of the things I observed about the 1970s feminist film selections were that they each provoked a different reaction from me. The first one, by Joan Jonas, was the most difficult for me to watch because it was hard for me to tell what images some of the footage contained. I could see some of the images clearly enough, like the ring on the hand and her bare legs, but others were too blurry for me to decipher. The constant loud banging sounds had an interesting effect on the piece, like they were sort of hammering in the idea that women are constantly being subjected and viewed as objects. I enjoyed the ending of the film, when an androgynous face came into full view and the slides kept vertically flipping past in the background.
The second film, by Lynda Benglis, gave me the same sort of “I-am-imposing-on-someone’s-private-life” feeling that watching Southern Comfort did. The two women kissing were zoomed in on so far that their faces did not fully fit in the frame. Watching the kissing and licking made me feel like I was intruding, and the radio clips made me a little uncomfortable due to their sexist content like, “Go ahead and cry if it will take any weight off you” in regards to some sort of weight loss program. It was interesting when the male radio announcer called one of the female callers “Honey” and the two women just kept rapturously making their private moments so public by filming them. During the Q&A session, Bridget Irish and Colleen Dixon explained that the original screening formats of these films varied, and that it was unlikely to have expected large-scale screenings for some of the pieces. I’m not sure if “Female Sensibility” was one of these, but the fact that it was shown on a large display made me feel like its effectiveness at alienating the audience was intensified.
]]>One of the things I observed about the 1970s feminist film selections were that they each provoked a different reaction from me. The first one, by Joan Jonas, was the most difficult for me to watch because it was hard for me to tell what images some of the footage contained. I could see some of the images clearly enough, like the ring on the hand and her bare legs, but others were too blurry for me to decipher. The constant loud banging sounds had an interesting effect on the piece, like they were sort of hammering in the idea that women are constantly being subjected and viewed as objects. I enjoyed the ending of the film, when an androgynous face came into full view and the slides kept vertically flipping past in the background.
The second film, by Lynda Benglis, gave me the same sort of “I-am-imposing-on-someone’s-private-life” feeling that watching Southern Comfort did. The two women kissing were zoomed in on so far that their faces did not fully fit in the frame. Watching the kissing and licking made me feel like I was intruding, and the radio clips made me a little uncomfortable due to their sexist content like, “Go ahead and cry if it will take any weight off you” in regards to some sort of weight loss program. It was interesting when the male radio announcer called one of the female callers “Honey” and the two women just kept rapturously making their private moments so public by filming them. During the Q&A session, Bridget Irish and Colleen Dixon explained that the original screening formats of these films varied, and that it was unlikely to have expected large-scale screenings for some of the pieces. I’m not sure if “Female Sensibility” was one of these, but the fact that it was shown on a large display made me feel like its effectiveness at alienating the audience was intensified.
I was not quite sure what to think of the third piece, “Through the Large Glass,” with the woman slowly stripping off her clothes. She seemed to be mocking so-called feminine behavior by exaggeratedly putting her hand over her mouth when she removed a piece of clothing. There was a lot of head turning and looking to the left and then to the right, lots of tilting her hat and making odd poses as if to make the audience anticipate what she would do next. The second version seemed the same but more blurry and with more close-up shots; the third part, titled “1+2” seemed to just be a combination of scenes from both the first and second versions.
I found the next film, “The East is Red, the West is Bending” to be the most enjoyable of the films screened. It was humorous to listen to a woman with a New York accent reciting from an instructional manual and sarcastically demonstrating the manual’s orders. It was a refreshing twist on the “woman in the kitchen” realm of television that I normally associate with bubbly, fresh-faced females like Rachael Ray.
The final short film, “Technology/ Transformation: Wonder Woman” was highly entertaining. I loved watching the repeated switches of Wonder Woman going from her business casual attire to her tiny, revealing superwoman suit. The disco song with its “Shake your wonder maker” lyric just sort of cemented the entire Wonder Woman character as a ridiculous and stereotypical seductress. I could only laugh and try to think of more positive female role models that are on television today.
]]>The imagery in this film was very pertinent to today, despite the fact that it was made 80 years ago. I recently read a quote from Studs
Terkel about how machines have replaced natural sounds and become the norm; birdsongs are now exotic, while mechanical sounds and hums from appliances and technology have become constant and static. This quote reminds me a lot of the garden scene in Metropolis, which made me think about how nature has been sort of ushered out and overtaken by cities and technological projects or devices.
I also thought it was interesting to think about how Metropolis the city was like a body itself; the skyline and lights were its lovely
exterior, while the machines were beneath the "skin"/ground of the city, almost like its skeleton. There were these machines holding the city up and keeping it functioning; "The Heart Machine" especially kept the city pulsing. Even the water during the flood reminded me a bit of blood, and the people always in motion made me envision them as the joints flexing the city and making it stronger as long as these people stayed in order and command of the machines.
]]>The imagery in this film was very pertinent to today, despite the fact that it was made 80 years ago. I recently read a quote from Studs
Terkel about how machines have replaced natural sounds and become the norm; birdsongs are now exotic, while mechanical sounds and hums from appliances and technology have become constant and static. This quote reminds me a lot of the garden scene in Metropolis, which made me think about how nature has been sort of ushered out and overtaken by cities and technological projects or devices.
I also thought it was interesting to think about how Metropolis the city was like a body itself; the skyline and lights were its lovely
exterior, while the machines were beneath the "skin"/ground of the city, almost like its skeleton. There were these machines holding the city up and keeping it functioning; "The Heart Machine" especially kept the city pulsing. Even the water during the flood reminded me a bit of blood, and the people always in motion made me envision them as the joints flexing the city and making it stronger as long as these people stayed in order and command of the machines.
ANSWERS TO DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
I think the robot in Metropolis is gendered feminine because, as Huyssen says in his essay, "After all, the world of technology has
always been the world of men while woman has been considered to be outside of technology, a part of nature as it were" (Huyssen 224). It was more radical and shocking to have a feminine gendered robot than a masculine one because it went against the norm. What marks the robot as feminine are her breasts, crotch, her delicate looking eyes and plump lips, and her wide thighs which seem to create hips and curves.
The spaces, objects, and patterns bodies assume while doing work range from The Depths, where masculine workers in dark clothing are constantly in motion, to the garden with the fountain and birds and flowery, pretty atmosphere. The garden represents a utopia while the depths are like hell and the tops of the towering buildings, as well as The Son's Club, are the peak of the hierarchy.
The workers do manual labor; there is a lot of gears to keep turning and clock-like meters to supervise and control. The people and
machines seem co-dependent; the machines cannot operate without the people, but the people of the city cannot live without the machines always in operation.
The shapes and patterns bodies assume while working consist of clocks, triangles (which symbolize a hierarchy), and continuous streams of people like ants in an ant farm. The huge, exaggerated doors also seem to shrink the bodies down and make them seem insignificant since the people appear so tiny when stepping through the looming doors.
Objects or architecture of the building also greatly shape and order these bodies; at the beginning of the film when the bodies are moving through the tunnel, all of the workers have to walk at the same pace to fit and pass through in an organized manner. As mentioned previously, the large doors give the illusion that the bodies are very small. The tall crosses in the catacombs where Maria comforts the workers make her appear angelic and small as well.
The work of the owners and inventors is varied; while Joh controls people and is a boss/overseer of Metropolis, Rotwang creates people (robotic people, that is) and invents machines. Freder, meanwhile, seems to entertain the women in the garden and roams the various sections of the underground even though his father does not want him to.
The shapes and forms Joh, Rotwang, and Freder assume while working are very different as well. Joh is rigid, like a pillar; he often has his hands in his pockets or sometimes on his chest to create a sense of linearity. Rotwang is hunched over like a question-mark, which makes sense, because his actions and ideas are questionable and mysterious. Freder appears the most abstract, with his oddly shaped pants and loose movements when working in The Depths.
The objects and architecture shape and order Joh, Rotwang, and Freder's bodies in various ways. Joh has his huge bright office that
seems quite minimal and expansive, showing what space he has at his disposal while everything underground is cluttered and tight.
Rotwang's house is as maze-like as his mind, and is dark and weird like one would imagine the setting of a scientist. Freder just explores the city and is not tied to a specific part of Metropolis.
Metropolis is visualized as being huge, epic, and glittering. The people are small compared to the huge, impressive structures and
skyline. The inhabitants of the city are like an extension of the city itself in the sense that the people keep the city going
economically, but at the same time, the machines that make the city function are the prosthesis of the people; again, there is a
co-dependent relationship between them wherein the people must depend on the machines and the machines must be controlled and managed by the people.
The worker's underground is a cavernous, dank place, with tunnels and catacombs and elaborate machines. It has a ghostly sort of atmosphere and is very dark and crowded. As mentioned before, the workers are like an extension of the city itself in the sense that they keep the city going, but at the same time, the machines that make the city function are the prosthesis of the people; again, there is a co-dependent relationship between them wherein the people must depend on the machines and the machines must be controlled and managed by the people.
The differences between Tomorrow's Eve and Metropolis are notable. For one thing, Hadaly embodies more than one woman, while the robot takes on the likeness of Maria only. Plus, while Edison wants to use Hadaly as a way to repay Lord Ewald for saving his life, Rotwang is using his robot creation as a way to get revenge on Joh and Freder. Additionally, Hadaly’s construction is much more detailed than Maria’s; Rotwang’s robot takes on Maria’s face, but Hadaly takes on Alicia’s characteristics like her accent, voice, gestures, teeth, tongue, and “the very pallor of the living woman” Alicia (Villiers 216). For Metropolis, technology is a tool in the sense that Rotwang uses it against Lord Ewald, and the technological machinery that keeps the city pumping is a tool used by the workers. It is complex, however, because the workers are also tools of the machines; both the machines and people rely on each other and use each other as tools. In Tomorrow’s Eve, technology is a tool when Edison decides to use his android’s capabilities to his advantage; he is able to manipulate technology by giving Hadaly the features that Alicia supposedly abused; “In her [Alicia] all these qualities were dead, deceptive, degraded, because enslaved to vulgar, selfish reason, beneath their veil now lurks a feminine being who is, and perhaps always was, the true and rightful possessor of this extraordinary beauty, since she has always shown herself worthy of it” (Villiers 216).
Social structures and patterns that are reflected in the imaginary worlds of both Tomorrow’s Eve and Metropolis include the idea that, rather than God, science can be used to create people and technologies that can work in place of people, as well as the idea that humans are basically machines themselves, always in motion and contributing to the apparatus of life by laboring in attempts to make money and ascend to a higher level in the societal hierarchy.
I am not exactly fearful of this sort of video communication technology taking over, but I am reluctant for it to be used in place of face-to-face communication.
At the Suheir Hammad presentation I was so far in the back of the lecture hall that I didn't feel as though I was under a magnifying glass or surveillance. I did feel a need to remain well-mannered though, considering the respect a performer deserves from the audience and the fact that I was at school rather than at home on the couch.
]]>I am not exactly fearful of this sort of video communication technology taking over, but I am reluctant for it to be used in place of face-to-face communication.
At the Suheir Hammad presentation I was so far in the back of the lecture hall that I didn't feel as though I was under a magnifying glass or surveillance. I did feel a need to remain well-mannered though, considering the respect a performer deserves from the audience and the fact that I was at school rather than at home on the couch.
]]>I am Barbie Soundbox! I was born in 2001 in China. I'm not quite sure how I ended up all the way in Olympia, Washington. Even though I am only six years old, I have been through a lot. My arms broke off, so now I can no longer stylishly hang from someone's jeans or shirt pocket. I still have a lot of energy though! I like to exclaim motivating messages like "Yeah!" and "Get up and dance!"
I have four eyes that are my favorite shade of purple. Their names are SFX, Rhythms, Songs, and Speech. Underneath my eyes I have a voice box called "Echo" that lets me amplify what people say to me through a microphone. At least, that's how it used to work. I haven't seen my friend Microphone in ages. We used to be so attached, literally. I also have a big pink mouth that lets me communicate my messages nice and loudly. The years have aged me a bit though, so I have trouble speaking sometimes.
As you can see by looking at my outfit, I love bright colors and flowers. I have always been proud of my portability and unique, cute shape. Even though my arms are gone and I am a bit scratched up by my left ear, Mic 1, I still seem to allure many people of all ages. I love to make people dance and smile with my catchy sounds and happening tunes. We're groovin' now!
I am Barbie Soundbox! I was born in 2001 in China. I'm not quite sure how I ended up all the way in Olympia, Washington. Even though I am only six years old, I have been through a lot. My arms broke off, so now I can no longer stylishly hang from someone's jeans or shirt pocket. I still have a lot of energy though! I like to exclaim motivating messages like "Yeah!" and "Get up and dance!"
I have four eyes that are my favorite shade of purple. Their names are SFX, Rhythms, Songs, and Speech. Underneath my eyes I have a voice box called "Echo" that lets me amplify what people say to me through a microphone. At least, that's how it used to work. I haven't seen my friend Microphone in ages. We used to be so attached, literally. I also have a big pink mouth that lets me communicate my messages nice and loudly. The years have aged me a bit though, so I have trouble speaking sometimes.
As you can see by looking at my outfit, I love bright colors and flowers. I have always been proud of my portability and unique, cute shape. Even though my arms are gone and I am a bit scratched up by my left ear, Mic 1, I still seem to allure many people of all ages. I love to make people dance and smile with my catchy sounds and happening tunes. We're groovin' now!
Over the summer, I began seeing movies instead. I traveled as well, and took classes on campus. Once fall rolled around, however, I was like a moth to a flame. My computer took me back and I fell in love all over again. We see each other several times each day and there is no end in sight to our happy times together.
]]>Over the summer, I began seeing movies instead. I traveled as well, and took classes on campus. Once fall rolled around, however, I was like a moth to a flame. My computer took me back and I fell in love all over again. We see each other several times each day and there is no end in sight to our happy times together.
]]>The first thing that caught my eye about the Hannah Höch collage was the big fluffy brown hair. I was surprised that this grabbed my attention before anything else in the image because usually my vision is directed toward the centered or brightest object, which in this case would be the light bulb. Next my eyes traveled to the tire, and then to the BMW decals. The car theme seems related to the way men covet both cars and women. This is, after all, a depiction of a woman; there is such evidence as curvy hips and a parasol, and the title translates to "The Beautiful Girl." She has her left elbow extended upward, as if she is in the process of primping.
I was also struck by the more masculine hand reaching out with the timepiece, making me think of Edison's statement on page 31 of Tomorrow's Eve, in which he says "..almost all women - while they are beautiful, which isn't for long..." suggesting a temporariness of attractiveness in females.
Similarly, it could be said that cars do not stay beautiful for long either, unless maintenance is impeccable. Cars need motor oil, tune-ups, tire changes, air pressure checks. Women get injections of Botox, make overs, anti-wrinkle creams, face lifts. Both cars and women are seen as commodities, things to boast about and flaunt like trophies because they do demand routine alterations and polishes in order to persist in such an ideal fashion. Women, through Hannah Höch's collage, can be seen as a metaphor for automobiles in terms of upkeep and the possession of objects that make one feel pride. It is also interesting to think about how cars are typically gendered as female too, like when men say "She's a beaut" or "She's my pride and joy" but they are talking about a candy-apple red Camaro rather than their wife or girlfriend.
]]>The first thing that caught my eye about the Hannah Höch collage was the big fluffy brown hair. I was surprised that this grabbed my attention before anything else in the image because usually my vision is directed toward the centered or brightest object, which in this case would be the light bulb. Next my eyes traveled to the tire, and then to the BMW decals. The car theme seems related to the way men covet both cars and women. This is, after all, a depiction of a woman; there is such evidence as curvy hips and a parasol, and the title translates to "The Beautiful Girl." She has her left elbow extended upward, as if she is in the process of primping.
I was also struck by the more masculine hand reaching out with the timepiece, making me think of Edison's statement on page 31 of Tomorrow's Eve, in which he says "..almost all women - while they are beautiful, which isn't for long..." suggesting a temporariness of attractiveness in females.
Similarly, it could be said that cars do not stay beautiful for long either, unless maintenance is impeccable. Cars need motor oil, tune-ups, tire changes, air pressure checks. Women get injections of Botox, make overs, anti-wrinkle creams, face lifts. Both cars and women are seen as commodities, things to boast about and flaunt like trophies because they do demand routine alterations and polishes in order to persist in such an ideal fashion. Women, through Hannah Höch's collage, can be seen as a metaphor for automobiles in terms of upkeep and the possession of objects that make one feel pride. It is also interesting to think about how cars are typically gendered as female too, like when men say "She's a beaut" or "She's my pride and joy" but they are talking about a candy-apple red Camaro rather than their wife or girlfriend.
]]>Toward the end of the film, the overlapping of many Carpenters songs coupled with choppy footage of bathroom tiles and laxative boxes draw the viewer into a sense of delirium. The caption about rationing being over by this period in time, replaced for an emphasis on consumption and storage of products -- especially food products - makes the viewer question excessive American cultural behavior. Overall the film develops a hypnoticism, through the mesmerizing imagery, especially that of a shifting composer's hand and the shifting meter on the scale that displays Karen's shrinking weights throughout the film.
]]>Toward the end of the film, the overlapping of many Carpenters songs coupled with choppy footage of bathroom tiles and laxative boxes draw the viewer into a sense of delirium. The caption about rationing being over by this period in time, replaced for an emphasis on consumption and storage of products -- especially food products - makes the viewer question excessive American cultural behavior. Overall the film develops a hypnoticism, through the mesmerizing imagery, especially that of a shifting composer's hand and the shifting meter on the scale that displays Karen's shrinking weights throughout the film.
]]>At the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City, there hangs behind a sheet of glass a black leather jacket autographed by The Ramones. I recall the jacket being draped over the frame of an anonymous, headless mannequin in a display case that serves as an open casket for this dead object. This jacket very well might have once appeared on album covers, club stages, in promotional photographs. In its rather fleeting lifetime, it may have traveled the world, been engulfed in clouds of cigarette smoke, and witnessed screaming Ramones fans. Now it hangs lifelessly in this tomb of musical artifacts, among Beatles suits and Bo Diddley's guitar.
When The Ramones dissolved and lost their original, legendary line-up, the leather jacket was donated to the Hard Rock Cafe. As it was set up inside its glass box, the life and luster drained out of its thick black material and zippers. It was a slow and seemingly painful death, but the jacket showed no signs of struggle or protest. Although the jacket hangs to be seen by all, it no longer sweeps across stages on the shoulders of an influential musician or slips into the shadowy back room of Max's Kansas City. Out of the people that once saw this jacket on a regular basis - the other Ramones - the founding members are all deceased. Even the places this jacket once frequented are no longer in their place of origin. Max's Kansas City closed its doors decades ago and CBGB was gutted, its contents intended to be transplanted to Las Vegas.
The jacket will remain in the New York City Hard Rock Cafe indefinitely. Donations can be made out to the Hard Rock Cafe. To leave flowers or messages for the jacket, please consult the Hard Rock Cafe staff before doing so.
At the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City, there hangs behind a sheet of glass a black leather jacket autographed by The Ramones. I recall the jacket being draped over the frame of an anonymous, headless mannequin in a display case that serves as an open casket for this dead object. This jacket very well might have once appeared on album covers, club stages, in promotional photographs. In its rather fleeting lifetime, it may have traveled the world, been engulfed in clouds of cigarette smoke, and witnessed screaming Ramones fans. Now it hangs lifelessly in this tomb of musical artifacts, among Beatles suits and Bo Diddley's guitar.
When The Ramones dissolved and lost their original, legendary line-up, the leather jacket was donated to the Hard Rock Cafe. As it was set up inside its glass box, the life and luster drained out of its thick black material and zippers. It was a slow and seemingly painful death, but the jacket showed no signs of struggle or protest. Although the jacket hangs to be seen by all, it no longer sweeps across stages on the shoulders of an influential musician or slips into the shadowy back room of Max's Kansas City. Out of the people that once saw this jacket on a regular basis - the other Ramones - the founding members are all deceased. Even the places this jacket once frequented are no longer in their place of origin. Max's Kansas City closed its doors decades ago and CBGB was gutted, its contents intended to be transplanted to Las Vegas.
The jacket will remain in the New York City Hard Rock Cafe indefinitely. Donations can be made out to the Hard Rock Cafe. To leave flowers or messages for the jacket, please consult the Hard Rock Cafe staff before doing so.