User:Eleanorg/1.2/RWR/Lecture notes 22 Feb

22 Feb 2012 Reading, Writing, Research

Charlie Brooker on Twitter

Rebecca Black bullying campaign on Twitter
After posting a shit pop video, it was the Twitter hate campaign that made her famous

Oliver Laric

Versions

http://oliverlaric.com/versions.htm

Missile pictures
Variations between 'cam' pirated films from cinemas; condemnation echoes monotheistic veto on 'idolatry' - ie, remixes or copies.
Multiple simulation in porn where a celebrity face is pasted over the original actresses' face. Also simulation of 'gonzo' angle where the male actor is replaced by the male viewer.
Remix culture realizes 'parralel worlds' theory from quantum physics, where multiple possibilities from the same starting conditions are realized, coexisting with each other.

Vvversions

http://oliverlaric.com/vvversions.htm

Describing reformation desecration of religious imagery, where original meanings were effaced, and images were disposed of or 'remixed' (eg virgin mary statue where christ baby is replaced with scales of justice).
"We are always somehow re-reading a classic" because we've already encountered it in other ways - eg, knowing of its cultural impact or having seen the film.
'Just about everything has been photographed' - Sontag. 'Just about everything has been photoshopped'.
Photographs allow us to see the real object more clearly than the naked eye
Interpretation - 'there is more work in interpreting interpretations than in interpreting things, and more books about books than about any other subject'.
A sculpture cannot only be copied, but re-staged and performed, like music.
"Same, same, but different". The multiverse of remixed images.
Perversity of the preference for the image over the real thing it represents. "I like things which appear, then one can be sure. Whether they ARE or not is subordinate..."

Discussion

Where does authorship lie in this 'multiverse'?
Benjamin - the arcades project. A collection of writings on the emergence of shopping arcades in paris; early example of creating a 'collage' which ends up being a critique. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcades_Project
Benjamin - 'the dialectical image' - the critical function of juxtaposing two images; a critique immediately emerges.
Dave - the remixing of images is an accidental physical thing too; image looks different depending upon angle of laptop screen.
Juxtaposition of 'origianl' against 'copies' is a modern phenomenon - there is no 'original' of a folk song, or medieval icon.
What do we do with the disappointment we feel when we see the original after knowing the copies?
...or the disappointment of discovering that our 'genuis' original idea has already been done by someone else?

Steve's notes

Thesis: authenticity is decided by the viewers, through the function of search results - the image performs. ('multiple realities', different meanings for different people.) No 'original' authenticity, as even the first time (with a classic text) is always the second time - we've encountered it indirectly before.

1) The

economy of the image. I find Laric’s approach refreshing because it addresses how we experience images in everyday life. They are produced – reproduced- mass produced- infinitely reproducible – and infinitely modifiable by almost anyone . This economy of the image invites an emphasis on how we experience images and how images perform. If images are ‘the performance of an idea that allows for the presentation of multiple realities’, what does that mean, and what are the implications of that?

2) The

coded image Although Laric’s pieces are very clear that ‘memes’ have always been with us – back in the olden days we had lots of Roman guys looking very like other Roman guys – he is also clear that the conditions of the production, distribution and circulation of images have changed. The majority of the images we experience are composed of and are mediated by code. This allows for the comprehensive manipulation and repurposing of images. On the basis of this one could invite an understanding of how we experience code and how code performs in relation to images.

3) The

image within the performing archive The images Laric describes are part an immanent archive. The contemporary archive is in a state of perpetual performance and perpetual renewal. Again, this is something given to everyday experience, because the images we produce and distribute are in constant conversation with other images. On the basis of this one could ask how we perform the archive and the degree to which the archive performs us.

4) The

black box All these things are interrelated, of course, but one could invite an understanding of the image is always already a form of mediated information. The black box also necessarily sets us in a new relation to various interfaces. It also (along with the other issues above) makes us think differently about issues like ‘photography’s claim on the real’ &c.

Objectivity - shift from 'truth to nature' (human eye 'corrects' flaws to draw ideal types) to the 'blind sight' of the camera (authority of the human eye is toppled). Then shift to 'trained judgement'; where camera images are interpreted by trained specialists - eg, illustrations of DNA constructed from messy microscopic photos.

research interests, thoughts

Aspirational archive means archive is no longer closed, elite system but porous; vulnerable, subject to change
Authorship is thus also rendered porous and vulnerable. Memes rely on ppl not giving a shit about the original author, they become submerged under the mass of remixes.
See Borges on the infinite library in 'the library of babel', also Name of the Rose. What is it that is so seductive about this immersion in a great labyrinth of data? Loss of self? 'bodiless exultation?' - yet the fantasy is always profoundly architectural. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Library_of_Babel
annotate Versions film/s
annotate neuromancer & cyber reader texts on the body? - similar thing happens to bodies as texts, disintegration, boundaries of the self are porous too.

how does it relate to the call centre? Surveillance/control; interaction of the body with the system. Interface dictating physical movements. (But actually its the power structure which has done this, and written software to implement it.)

Steve recommends:

studies in governmenality
Lecture series - the birth of biopolitics