Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Readings
Within the three readings I found an underlying connection in the idea of a guarded American ideology that is bleeding internally. In Zizek's Welcome the Desert of the Real, the symbolic function the WTC tragedy plays in the American psyche is that of materializing a controlled internal paranoia. He refers to it as a "return to the Real" which is interesting to me because I think that even today, six years later, America is still resistant towards accepting a patriot soil that is and can be tainted with political and religious aggression from the outside. I don't think we have moved to "A thing like this should not happen ANYWHERE!" and I don't see it happening anytime soon. With Sontag, I think the idea of the American "Sphere," as Zizek calls it, can also be attributed to our nation's infantile obsession with deflecting responsibility for its actions. Again, this untainted, unequivocally pure Christian nation can't see it's own "evil doings," as Mr. Bush so lovingly phrases, and it's not that they won't see but that they can't, which is perfectly summed up by Sontag when she wrote, "The administration's initial response was to say that the president was shocked and disgusted by the photographs -- as if the fault or horror lay in the images, not in what they depict." This deflection of responsibility is parallel with the deflection to evidence of violence in 9/11. I feel that people have a compulsion to document every aspect of their lives, the use of Myspace, blogs and the countless digital snapshots of everyday life, are evidence. Richard Drew's photograph is evidence people couldn't see, because it was a personalization of tragedy. It validated the fantastical act of outside aggression on American soil. I believe that the The Falling Man image was one of the many ridges on the blade that struck America's ideology, a protected sphere that was not ripped open but slowly will bleed out one day.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Response to articles
While reading Regarding the Torture of Others by Susan Sontag, Welcome to the Desert of the Real" by Slavoj Zizek, and The Falling Man by Tom Junod, I kept thinking about both de-individuation and the desensitization of Americans. In Susan Sontag's article, she discusses the horrors shown in the images of Abu Ghraib, while describing the smiling faces of American military, proud and unashamed of the images they were taking part in. Torture is something that is all too common in wars, where military personal are told that they must defeat the "enemy". The "enemy" or "other" is then de-individuated, and is labeled as evil. The hooding of prisoners has been condemned by the UN for good reason. Theories of de-individuation show that when a person becomes less aware of their own or other's identity, they begin to act in ways that are not usually characteristic of them, and also in ways that are socially unacceptable. President Bush's choice of vocabulary, and refusal to use the word "torture" when discussing Abu Ghraib, de-individuates the act by trying to force the public to see it in different terms. By using tactics of fear, the government has taken away any human characteristics of these prisoners, and our "enemies" by labeling them as evil-doers or terrorists. How can one person be, "ruthlessly self-sacrificing AND cowards, cunningly intelligent AND primitive barbarians" as Savoj Zizek sums up our governments description of the other? Rather than trying to fight terrorists, we should be asking ourselves why are people acting out in this way? What has our country done to push someone to these extremes?
Tom Junod discusses the falling man photo taken by Richard Drew during 9/11 of an unknown man falling from the twin towers. The image is initially described as a man who is not afraid of death, and someone who can be seen as a hero. This description seems to change when a reporter was given the job of finding out the falling man's identity. Once the reality set in, and witnesses of the 9/11 media aftermath began to realize that each falling person (who were once described to a child as possibly birds flying) actually had an identity, the perception of these images seemed to drastically change. Knowing the identity of a person jumping from one of the towers distorts thoughts and hopes of a loved one's last minutes on earth. It raises questions that we discussed in class: Is it ethically acceptable to show a person's last moments before death? What one person may see as a monument to an individual's life may seem like an insult to another. Photography allows for actual depictions of a person that can later be identified, contrasting the resemblances that can only be questioned when found in drawing, painting and sculpture.
Much how a cartoon desensitizes a child to violence, Hollywood can hamper an adults ability to recognize violence as something that is real. As Zizek mentions, the US finally received a taste of what the rest of the world has been experiencing for a long time. Until the attack was acted out on our own soil, it was difficult for many Americans to understand the real impact of violence and war.
When looking at actual images of torture, death, and war, it is important to remember that these photographs represent reality. The people in the images are real people, not cartoon or Hollywood characters who have been created to be destroyed by "the good side". This task can be difficult when living in a country that uses media to de-individuate the other and desensitize the audience. As a viewer, we must recognize the similarities between "us" and the "other", and try to find the connection of the two in order to realize that actually we are all a part of 'us".
Tom Junod discusses the falling man photo taken by Richard Drew during 9/11 of an unknown man falling from the twin towers. The image is initially described as a man who is not afraid of death, and someone who can be seen as a hero. This description seems to change when a reporter was given the job of finding out the falling man's identity. Once the reality set in, and witnesses of the 9/11 media aftermath began to realize that each falling person (who were once described to a child as possibly birds flying) actually had an identity, the perception of these images seemed to drastically change. Knowing the identity of a person jumping from one of the towers distorts thoughts and hopes of a loved one's last minutes on earth. It raises questions that we discussed in class: Is it ethically acceptable to show a person's last moments before death? What one person may see as a monument to an individual's life may seem like an insult to another. Photography allows for actual depictions of a person that can later be identified, contrasting the resemblances that can only be questioned when found in drawing, painting and sculpture.
Much how a cartoon desensitizes a child to violence, Hollywood can hamper an adults ability to recognize violence as something that is real. As Zizek mentions, the US finally received a taste of what the rest of the world has been experiencing for a long time. Until the attack was acted out on our own soil, it was difficult for many Americans to understand the real impact of violence and war.
When looking at actual images of torture, death, and war, it is important to remember that these photographs represent reality. The people in the images are real people, not cartoon or Hollywood characters who have been created to be destroyed by "the good side". This task can be difficult when living in a country that uses media to de-individuate the other and desensitize the audience. As a viewer, we must recognize the similarities between "us" and the "other", and try to find the connection of the two in order to realize that actually we are all a part of 'us".
article summaries
Regarding the Torture of Others by Susan Sontag
Sontag’s article is dealing with imagery of the war. She rests solely on the power of words in the world, where "our culture of spectatorship neutralizes the moral force of photographs of atrocities". The article shows the demeanor on how the photographs reveal numerous political issues that are about both their degenerative nature as well as their possible benefit in creating a demand for social change.
The Falling Man by Tom Junod
What stuck out in my mind most when reading this article is the quote that reads “they exploited a man's death, stripped him of his dignity, invaded his privacy, turned tragedy into leering pornography. Most letters of complaint stated the obvious: that someone seeing the picture had to know who it was.” I don’t think that is what this photograph is. The identity of the man is not what comes to mind first when reading this article, but how he is a representation of what happened on 9/11. Something else that caught my attention most when reading this is how this photograph is deceiving. The falling man looks as if he is falling gracefully, straight down, when in reality, he is plummeting, out of control.
Welcome to the Desert of the Real by Slavoj Zizek
In this essay, Zizek provides his interpretation on the cultural and ideological insinuations of the terrorist attacks on the United States that took place on September 11, 2001. He compares what the American fantasy would be to different films like The Matrix, or The Truman Show, because these are movies about people living in a world they think is real but truly is not. He explains that “desert of the real” is the awareness that we live in a bubble-like reproduction of the world that creates the idea that an evil force is “threatening us all the time with total destruction”.
Sontag’s article is dealing with imagery of the war. She rests solely on the power of words in the world, where "our culture of spectatorship neutralizes the moral force of photographs of atrocities". The article shows the demeanor on how the photographs reveal numerous political issues that are about both their degenerative nature as well as their possible benefit in creating a demand for social change.
The Falling Man by Tom Junod
What stuck out in my mind most when reading this article is the quote that reads “they exploited a man's death, stripped him of his dignity, invaded his privacy, turned tragedy into leering pornography. Most letters of complaint stated the obvious: that someone seeing the picture had to know who it was.” I don’t think that is what this photograph is. The identity of the man is not what comes to mind first when reading this article, but how he is a representation of what happened on 9/11. Something else that caught my attention most when reading this is how this photograph is deceiving. The falling man looks as if he is falling gracefully, straight down, when in reality, he is plummeting, out of control.
Welcome to the Desert of the Real by Slavoj Zizek
In this essay, Zizek provides his interpretation on the cultural and ideological insinuations of the terrorist attacks on the United States that took place on September 11, 2001. He compares what the American fantasy would be to different films like The Matrix, or The Truman Show, because these are movies about people living in a world they think is real but truly is not. He explains that “desert of the real” is the awareness that we live in a bubble-like reproduction of the world that creates the idea that an evil force is “threatening us all the time with total destruction”.
summaries
The Sontag article was about the photographs that had emerged from the prison in Abu Ghraib. She discussed how our politicians would dance around terms like “torture” and not address the actual issues that were present behind the photos and were only “outraged” by the photos themselves. She makes comparisons to lynchings, Rwanda, and other places where torture has taken place. She also talks about what kind of place America really is and that we basically get off on torturing others like in video games and frat hazings, etc., and how it seems to be incorporated into our everyday lives. In other times like the Holocaust the torturers were rarely photographed next to those being tortured (unlike the Abu Ghraib photos). Also, she talks about how digital photography makes these images so much more accessible, and that every soldier has a digital camera, and how editing has a lot to do with what we think is really happening. (Like cropping and how many images the press released cropped out how many soldiers were actually present during these times.) Digital cameras also mean that these images wont stop and are being constantly taken and will continue to leak out of the war.
Zizek’s piece was about the attacks on 9-11 and the repercussions they had on American mentality. Americans seemed to be in a state of mind that was “unreal”, and he compares this state of mind to the movie The Matrix, or The Truman Show. But after 9-11, American’s suddenly woke up to the notion that this really could happen to them, and now have experienced what people around the world have experienced every day for all of history (and continue to today.) He compares this to other Hollywood films, and that 9-11 just seemed to affirm American’s destructive fantasies. He also points out that things like this do happen in the US every day in the forms of crime against other Americans, but we don’t tend to see it that way or notice it.
The Junod article was about the “Falling Man” picture taken on 9-11. It went over all the mass media surrounding the image: where it was printed, how it outraged people, the debate whether it should be shown, as well as other art being made around 9-11 and the controversy around it too. I couldn’t help but think about the other two articles and their implications about Americans and their voyeurism when it comes to violence. But this one seemed to be much more of a “train wreck” scenario: we know we shouldn’t look but we can’t help it—as opposed to the other articles where we just get off on it. The article also goes over the search for the identification of the person in the photograph, and how many people who’s son/father/brother/friend it may be are curious as to whether it is but none of them want to identify him or even want him to be the man in the photo. Junod debates whether this image is ethical or not and basically recaps all the debate around whether it is or not and whether the man should even be identified.
Zizek’s piece was about the attacks on 9-11 and the repercussions they had on American mentality. Americans seemed to be in a state of mind that was “unreal”, and he compares this state of mind to the movie The Matrix, or The Truman Show. But after 9-11, American’s suddenly woke up to the notion that this really could happen to them, and now have experienced what people around the world have experienced every day for all of history (and continue to today.) He compares this to other Hollywood films, and that 9-11 just seemed to affirm American’s destructive fantasies. He also points out that things like this do happen in the US every day in the forms of crime against other Americans, but we don’t tend to see it that way or notice it.
The Junod article was about the “Falling Man” picture taken on 9-11. It went over all the mass media surrounding the image: where it was printed, how it outraged people, the debate whether it should be shown, as well as other art being made around 9-11 and the controversy around it too. I couldn’t help but think about the other two articles and their implications about Americans and their voyeurism when it comes to violence. But this one seemed to be much more of a “train wreck” scenario: we know we shouldn’t look but we can’t help it—as opposed to the other articles where we just get off on it. The article also goes over the search for the identification of the person in the photograph, and how many people who’s son/father/brother/friend it may be are curious as to whether it is but none of them want to identify him or even want him to be the man in the photo. Junod debates whether this image is ethical or not and basically recaps all the debate around whether it is or not and whether the man should even be identified.
Comments on the three texts
The text about the Falling Man is an incredibly powerful story. It's hard to stay focused and think critically while reading it. A couple of things comes to mind right away though. One, no we really don't need to know who the man is. It's like the Tomb of the Unknown soldier. He represents all the people that died that day, not only from jumping, and he reminds us about the horror that affects us still. Secondly, as I'm reading the examples of other people in history who've been shown to the public in horrible condition, such as Robert Kennedy or the Vietnamese girl after the napalm attack, it occurs to me that maybe people reacted so horrified about these pictures, or the sculpture of the tumbling woman, because it was too close to us. If you lived in NY then, as I did, you knew people who were affected. Even if you lived elsewhere. 9/11 killed common people and at least I felt it could have been me. I assume that wasn't the case with Robert Kennedy or the girl in Vietnam.
Here we're talking about censor from officials, not from the public, because the photographs are deemed to have a negative impact on the war in general. How can you argue with what Susan Sontag says. Of course the problem is not in the pictures. The problem is what allowed the situation to evolve to a point where these pictures could be taken.
The text by Slavoj Zizek obviously has a direct connection to Susan Sontag's text on torture as he's pointing out that reality also exist outside the U.S. and what happens here is a direct derivative on what happens elsewhere. The Iraq would by any account have increased rather than decreased the chance that we will see something similar to 9/11 happening on U.S. soil.
It also goes back to the pictures that from 9/11 and why it's deemed unacceptable to publish pictures of the jumpers. The picture of the Falling Man makes it too real to bear.
Here we're talking about censor from officials, not from the public, because the photographs are deemed to have a negative impact on the war in general. How can you argue with what Susan Sontag says. Of course the problem is not in the pictures. The problem is what allowed the situation to evolve to a point where these pictures could be taken.
The text by Slavoj Zizek obviously has a direct connection to Susan Sontag's text on torture as he's pointing out that reality also exist outside the U.S. and what happens here is a direct derivative on what happens elsewhere. The Iraq would by any account have increased rather than decreased the chance that we will see something similar to 9/11 happening on U.S. soil.
It also goes back to the pictures that from 9/11 and why it's deemed unacceptable to publish pictures of the jumpers. The picture of the Falling Man makes it too real to bear.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
helpless gaze and beauty
Helpless gaze
"Bud Fields and Family" by Walker Evans
Beauty
"Sandra Bennett, Twelve Year Old, Rocky Fort, Colorado, 8/23/80" by Richard Avedon
"Bud Fields and Family" by Walker Evans
Beauty
"Sandra Bennett, Twelve Year Old, Rocky Fort, Colorado, 8/23/80" by Richard Avedon
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