#culturalism

[theuncannyprofessoro]

Reading Notes 1: Marx and Engels to Althusser to Benjamin

In “The Ruling Class and The Ruling Ideas,” “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses,” and “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Louis Althusser, and Walter Benjamin, respectively, provide insight on our introduction to ideology and culturalism.

What is the division of mental and material labour and how does it manifest in society?

What is the relationship between the state apparatus and the ideological state apparatuses?

How have the processes of reproducing works of art changed over time, and how have changes in reproduction altered the relationship between a piece of art and its “original” object?

@theuncannyprofessoro

[lstine919]

Levi Stine - Ideology and Culturalism II

“Bitch Better Have My Money”

Rihanna’s Bitch Better Have My Money, first and foremost, puts money at the center of human motivation. The entire concept of the video’s narrative is for Rihanna’s protagonist to obtain the money owed to her. Observing this work through the eyes of Horkheimer and Adorno, it is clear that this perpetuates the idolization of money in the culture industry. “Their ideology is business”,(1) and the ideology of this video drives the business of both the music industry and the culture industry. Horkheimer and Adorno claim that “the only escape from the work process is adaptation to it in leisure time.”(2) Viewers of this video consume a barrage of capitalistic ideals, most poignantly the way in which the kidnappers live in luxury because of their dirty, violent work. Much of the video takes place on their yacht (2:48-3:28), a testament to their wealth. The culture industry also seems to be represented by Rihanna herself. She is an unstoppable force that has come to take what’s hers, parallel to the irresistibility of the culture industry and how no one can survive without being roped into it.(3) Horkheimer and Adorno also claim that the media of the culture industry creates an illusion that is believed to still be connected to the real world,(4) and the normalization of such violence in the video can have a negative effect on viewers. Rihanna and her team of kidnappers perpetuate Horkheimer and Adorno’s notion of the all-consuming culture industry, an industry that worships money and the hard labor falsely-cited as required in order to obtain it. 

Signs are in effect all throughout Bitch Better Have My Money, and are often subverted throughout the narrative. Stuart Hall states how denotation is controlled by the sign sender, while connotation, the reception of the message by the individual, is subject to numerous external factors. (5) The video opens (0:08-0:20) with a woman's legs sticking out of a wooden chest. Then, a woman is introduced in a lavish home with a formal dress and shiny earrings (0:21-0:31), denoting wealth while connoting, within the context of the story, money that has been immorally-obtained. As the narrative of the story progresses and the rich woman remains held hostage, the viewer assumes that she is the one who will end up in the chest, that she is the “bitch” who “better have my money.” The video twists this on its head with the introduction of Mads Mikkelsen’s “The Accountant” (5:21), as well as the backstory of the situation, switching the connotation of Rihanna’s actions from seeming like senseless torture to being perceived as a powerful resistance against an evil man who wronged her. Hall claims that the process of encoding and decoding requires a means and a relation for social production, (6) a context for the sign to be put in. BBHMM, a hit song by a woman in an industry historically dominated by men, mirrors the female empowerment that the video displays in the climax of the narrative. The final shot of the video reveals Rihanna herself as the woman in the chest (6:02-6:37). She’s naked, smoking a cigarette, and covered in money and blood. The visual denotes the mutilation of The Accountant and a rightful repossession of funds. More intuitively, the phallic imagery of the cigarette in her mouth and her nudity, as well as the nudity present throughout the video, connotes a sort of sexual power and domination to the narrative. When the topless hostage signified vulnerability, while the final shot provides Rihanna with an upfront strength and badassery.

Discussion Questions:

How do you think the culture industry’s perspective on money would change if creation within the industry itself wasn’t so lucrative?

In what ways would Rihanna change the signs in her video if she wanted to portray herself as the antagonist, and the hostages as the protagonists?

“Radio Ga Ga”

Queen’s music video for their 1984 hit “Radio Ga Ga” details the inner workings of the culture industry in true dystopian fashion, exaggerating the role of technology in our lives in order to reflect on how we use it. Horkheimer and Adorno believe that “culture today is infecting everything with sameness.” (7) Queen exemplifies this fear in a sequence that occurs during the first and second chorus (2:12-2:38 and 3:37-4:01), in which the four band members, dressed in red, rally a mass of people, dressed all in white. Queen extends a salute and the crowd echoes it. This sequence represents a society ruled by radio (“All we hear is/Radio ga ga”), conforming and oppressive. This is a scenario in which “ideology becomes the emphatic and systematic proclamation of what is,” (8) causing nothing new or creative to emerge from this fictional modern-day society. The video puts radio at the root of the future’s problems, but at the same time, radio is praised for having been so simple. The concept of a music video being nostalgic about a time in which only radio existed is a contradictory example of Horkheimer’s and Adorno’s belief that within the culture industry, the message of a work emerges from the same school of thought as the lens through which people receive it. (9) Music lovers will watch this video and further praise a technology that innovated music listening (this connection only strengthens as time goes on and nostalgia for the music video itself increases).

The “Radio Gaga” music video effectively uses visual signs to convey their anti-dystopian message. Hall cites Barthes’ notion that the connotation of the signifiers given to audiences is closely linked to the audience’s culture. (10) In the 1980s, music videos were incredibly popular, and they were an example of the many technological advancements brought on by the decade. The futurism of this video’s world, at the time of the video’s release, may have been met with celebration and excitement, while in the “postmodern” age we live in now, the video is understood to be a warning against technological domination. This video may now serve as an example of how the connotation of an encoded message can be changed over time. Further details within the video act as signs, outlining their process and function in digital media. As previously mentioned, the image of the band in red rallying and controlling the masses in white (2:12-2:38 and 3:37-4:01) connotes government/state control, as those colors are reminiscent of many harsh dictatorships throughout history. The use of clips from the german film Metropolis (1927) in the beginning of the video (0:00-0:31) shows a parallel between this video’s message and the fear of technological dystopia that is present in other important forms of media in other countries. As someone previously familiar with the film, I assumed what Hall defines as a “negotiated code” when I viewed the video, in that I understood what had been “dominantly defined” because the video presented situations and events which were “in dominance”, that I understood. (11)

Discussion Questions:

What are some other ways in which technological advancement has increased the scope of the culture industry?

How do you think that the globalization of information has contributed to the reception of media through “negotiated code”? What sort of dystopia would Queen be fearing if they created this video today?

1 Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception,” in Dialectic of Enlightenment (California: Stanford University press, 2002), 109

2 Horkheimer and Adorno, The Culture Industry, 109

3 Horkheimer and Adorno, The Culture Industry, 104

4 Horkheimer and Adorno, The Culture Industry, 99

5 Stuart Hall, “Encoding, Decoding,” in The Cultural Studies Reader (London: Routledge, 1993), 513

6 Hall, Encoding, Decoding, 508

7 Horkheimer and Adorno, The Culture Industry, 94

8 Horkheimer and Adorno, The Culture Industry, 118

9 Horkheimer and Adorno, The Culture Industry, 102

10 Hall, Encoding, Decoding, 513

11 Hall, Encoding, Decoding, 516

@theuncannyprofessoro

[lwrighttheelectrolyte]

Reading Notes 1: Marx and Engels, Althusser, Benjamin

When we think of division of labor, we are typically thinking of the division of material labor specifically. The notion that there’s a proletariat or working class who work for the bourgeoisie and earn from wages, while the bourgeoisie or ruling class controls, and earns from the control, of the means of production. Marx and Engels argue that this division of material labor also lends itself to the division of mental labor. The ruling class creates the ideologies that govern society as a whole. It’s important to note that these ideologies don’t exist independently and are specifically designed to keep the working class docile and legitimize the current ruling class. This often comes subtly in the form of everyday media. Specifically right now in the United States I think of the general values of self-determination or the “grind”, often suggesting that people who aren’t successful simply aren’t working hard enough. 

Althusser claims that the State Apparatus is more accurately a Repressive State Apparatus that functions by violence and repression. This includes things like the government, army, police, courts, and prisons, all of which are public, and ultimately form a single entity. Alongside the RSA are the Ideological State Apparatuses, including the religious, educational, political, communications, and cultural ISAs. When we say educational ideological state apparatus for example, we refer to both public and private education systems. The cultural ISA would refer to everything literature, art, sports, etc. In contrast with the RSA, ISAs are often private, and most importantly, function by ideology as opposed to violence. Althusser notes that beyond all ruling by ideology, ISA’s are more specifically united in that their ideologies all ultimately fall under the ruling ideology. Thus, despite their differences, both the Repressive State Apparatus and Ideological State Apparatuses ultimately work together to achieve the same end of maintaining the status quo and reproducing the same class inequalities. 

For most of our history, art has been replicable, but only in the sense that an artist could try their best to imitate an original work, like an apprentice learning from their teacher. There were bound to be differences. Much of what gives a work of art its value is its singularity. Being from one specific artist from one specific time and place, and with only one existing. However, through various technological innovations, we have gotten to the point where we can reproduce nearly any piece of art. Benjamin names things like lithography to printing to photographs, films, and recordings. For lack of a better phrase, this near identical reproduction simply makes many works of art not very valuable anymore. Furthermore, it makes art less traditionally or culturally significant - when, where, and how a piece of art was used or perceived is no longer an important part of its history, as now there are tons of identical pieces in an exponentially different amount contexts. This “[denies] any social function of art” leaving it to be used instead for politics.

[negativepeanuthoarder]

"love is what makes us human" actually it's 'select all images with boat' but go off I guess

[vilea777]

sorry i cant hang out i forgot how to mimic human like behaviour

[puppyeared]

filipina miku!! my mom helped me with her outfit ^_^

[bumblingbabooshka]

Vulcan teen on Vulcan [tiktok] saying "I have just lost track of my father in the grocery store." The camera turns to show the viewers the grocery store in which almost every single older middle-aged man has a bowlcut and long robes. Camera turns back to show the teen's face which is expressionless and yet communicates all it needs to.

[windwenn]

*jazz hands* welsh miku

[nerdy-arty]

Venezuelan Miku!!

[bluebeesknees]

18th 19th century german noble’s dress but it’s Hatsune Miku

[theuncannyprofessoro]

Reading Notes 2: Horkheimer and Adorno to Hall

Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno in “The Culture Industry as Mass Deception” and Stuart Hall in “Encoding, Decoding” continue our exploration of ideology and culturalism.

What makes the culture industry an industry, and how does the technology of the culture industry become a rationality of domination?

What is encoding, what is decoding, and what is the distinction between discourse and language?

@theuncannyprofessoro

[etherealspacejelly]

i think we should all start using arabic words and phrases more often because its a beautiful language and also theres not really. english equivalents that have the same vibes

theres also the comedy potential of it. you guys dont know the joy of having your muslim friend text you "hopefully the racists in our city will all get sick and cant go to the protest" and you, as a pasty white guy, responding with "inshallah they get covid"

its a one hit KO every time. its fucking hilarious. theres no english word that has the same effect.

he also once texted me that he got over a mysterious illness he came down with (i think? i cant remember the exact context) and i responded with "subhanallah he is cured"

again, one hit KO. he lost his shit.

what im saying is we gotta normalise arabic. its just a language like any other, and it has some great words. its just like saying "thank god" or whatever, but theres so much variety and nuance. its beautiful

[ravenkings]

[jdragsky]

i find it so interesting how people act like "critically examining a piece of media" is the opposite of "enjoying that piece of media." rip to you but i actually find it really enjoyable and compelling to dissect and think through the art i engage with

[anthropologist-on-the-loose]

I'm as grateful for cellphones as the next person, but sometimes I think about how everyone having a phone on them at all times really did cause us to loose some things as a society. I mean - for example, kids these days will never experience their car breaking down and needing to find the nearest place with a phone they can use. They're never going to have the opportunity to tentatively approach a house only to discover that it's full of queer people having a party hosted by a transvestite to celebrate his creation of a sex homunculus, stay the night, and loose their virginity while unintentionally partaking in cannibalism. It's tragic, that kind of gay sexual awakening just doesn't happen these days because of cellphones.