The literature discussed this week, including the Autumnal section of Culture Jam and "It's Gotta Be The Cheese", have one overarching theme. That is to see the present climate of American culture as it really is. Neither of these pieces does much to call us into action but rather serves to lift the veil that corporations and the recent societal trends have laid over our eyes. While the chapter entitled "Media Virus" informs us that the noise created by the machines which have cluttered our daily landscape has become a backdrop to normal life, it does not specifically give any instruction as to how we can avoid this or fix the problem. I expect to see much more of this in the later chapters of Culture Jam after the author has established the basis of problems in our consumer driven culture. A poem I read recently doesn't exactly relate to the literature at face value, but it does however relate to living in a way that is best for the collective entity that we are as a society. I think that is what this book is truly about in it's most simple ideas.
The objectives of the movement known as culture jamming or guerrilla semiotics must find themselves in a catch 22 in creating support for their ideals. One main point made is not to be swayed by the media and advertising, but do they not need to use the same tactics in order to change people's opinion? The symbol of a person/child with a T.V. for a head or for an eye has become somewhat of an icon for the culture jamming. It is supposed to evoke emotions of retaliation for the lifestyle in which we live (and to change that lifestyle to one which the people of this movement believe is better) and is therefore essentially an advertisement for culture jamming. While I agree with the ideals of the movement and feel their philosophies should be adopted I think it is a hard battle to fight in a society in which advertising is the way to get your voice heard.
As a side note, I was thinking this weekend about certain aspects of background noise in my everyday life. In my hometown we have a Naval Air Base and subsequently a lot of planes flying overhead. When I spend time in the woods there is always that bit of noise from a plane flying overhead. When I spend time on the Appalachian trail out here it is exceptionally apparent to me that there are no planes overhead. While I enjoy this more it's interesting that the absence of that noise comes to my attention rather than the existence of the noise. Maybe this is what we need to do with other aspects of noise too; make some sort of effort to eliminate noise you are used to.
Excellent connection to the poem!
ReplyDeleteI have to agree that I hope that Lasn throws out solutions to the problems that he is bringing to light. He is throwing a lot of stones, hopefully he can help with some solutions.
ReplyDeleteBrian, I never thought of that, that he doesn't give us any instructions on how to fix the problems he talks about or maybe he just hasn't given them yet. Missy I totally agree I too hope he gives solutions and would love to hear the authors opinion on what we can do to as he says "evict them."
ReplyDeleteI'm sure after reading my blog you understand why i disagree with most of what you have said. However, i find it interesting in your side note paragraph, that you mention the absence of noise being somewhat disturbing. My roommates are all leaving this coming weekend and i was talking to my friend about how "weird" it will be for my apartment to be completely quiet (minus the buzz of the fridge and the crazy people who live below me). It's sort of scary to think that something so small has such a large effect on us mentally.
ReplyDeleteYes I'm wondering where are the solutions to all these problems. I think its funny how the author of this book can say so many negative things with no solutions how we can fix the problems. As far as noise. Me personally I hate being somewhere where its absolutely no noise. It scares me sometimes to the point I have to turn on the TV or music.
ReplyDeleteI was really hoping that later into the book Lasn would state solutions to these problems but I was unable to interpret any form of a solution. I think the statements he makes definitely have some truth but I would much rather hear of ways of solving these problems rather than hear about them throughout the book repetitively.
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