Culture’s Course through Discourse

The eccentric, intriguing nature of the word culture and what it is believed to embody perhaps was what led to the emergence of Cultural Studies as an academic discipline. The human pre-occupation (often obsession) with the elusive, the mystifying is what triggers and sustains every intellectual discourse in this arena. It’s a zone that has been created to meddle with insecurities and engage in the uncertain. Every question that the world shuns as idiosyncratic is brought up for dissection and scrutiny here. Is this done just to pacify/satisfy the need/greed of the intellect? Does it have a very strong sense of purpose before it launches into a discourse or does it aim to acquire/find its purpose through the discourse? Usually there arise no clear answers but instead more questions that are instrumental in causing one to live the answers of yesterday’s questions, though one may not realize it.

Cultural discourse is not so much about culture as it is about the agents that carry it. Culture always takes on the form of the agent hence understanding the agent is imperative in order to understand the cultural content and the mechanism of the relationship between carrier and content. For instance, Cinema gives a certain personality/dimension to culture which significantly differs from the culture that Drama carries. The individuals involved in these specific agencies, both, take on and give a characteristic to this specific culture…. The dynamics of this mutual exchange give this culture an identity that shapes up in a manner that is very similar to the way a human identity is built and as mysterious too. It carries the influence of so many other agents within itself but attempts to create for itself something beyond these influences.

Interestingly, the human identity is a micro-unit of the cultural identity thus always carrying the potential to alter it, even revolutionize it. All vehicles of culture like Drama, Literature, Music and the Arts consist of a network of people functioning in a particular/peculiar manner. This manner determines the route the agent takes/adopts to chart out for itself a niche within the larger framework of Culture.

A historical study of Culture reveals how this region acts as a buffer to the confining/conforming nature of the political/economic framework of which it is indeed an integral part. It’s a place of exploration, of indulgence, a place where there is no room for plastic formalities. It’s a region that welcomes, that allows. It’s a place that aims to give room for growth. Ironically it is also a place of excuse and a place where ignorance is excused. Culture is that place where the private is welcomed (not exposed) into the public.

What then makes culture different from Art? Art too is a place/space that accepts and includes much more than it rejects. Perhaps culture is the creation of a few master artists who chose to be the medium rather than use a medium to initiate a process of creation. Artists of culture always attempt to know the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end. Cultural artists create while curating.

The role of language in culture is too integral to ignore. The language is not only the tool of communication but an entity that carries the very essence of the culture. It is the thread that always linked and continues to link the intentionally/unintentionally fragmented units of time and space. The nuances of the language reveal the beliefs, fears, assumptions of that culture. The tone always reveals more the words themselves. The tone is the body language of the culture.

The almost hilarious ability of culture to both unify and diversify makes it indispensable. The popular saying, “familiarity breeds contempt” is probably what makes culture work so well. Due to the diversity it can withhold within itself, it appeals even to the most uninitiated. Culture always comes as a package that commands attention.

Culture was initially outward looking. Over the course of time it has come to embody such a vastness that it’s look has now shifted inward. What is within its premise is now demanding more attention than what lies outside of its boundary (if there is one). It now looks at itself as a vehicle where different kinds of passengers walk in and out leaving behind something and carrying away something with them as they move on.

Cultures need each other in order to survive. They keep a check on each other and sort of prune and refine each other. For instance the culture of the media checks the culture of the cinema and vice versa. Yesterday’s culture cannot survive today. It has to be repeatedly interrupted in order to be sustainable. Culture has shifted from minding other businesses to minding its own business.

Earlier culture used to deal with what could be understood and therefore known. Now it has come to realize that there is far too much that it does not know and needs to deal with this issue. The times of today demand this and culture carries a responsibility to deliver the answer. Having chosen/fallen to embody what it does today, it cannot afford to escape these demands. With the kind of knowledge and power being generated outside its premise, there is a dire need to break through into the next level of function. It cannot afford to lose its relevance within the larger framework of society. It has a choice to either rise to the occasion or move into oblivion….. perhaps forever.

The multidisciplinary aspect of culture is now interdisciplinary or both. Culture now has to challenge itself in order to survive the onslaught of the next decisive moment. A time and space where it needs to give an account of its responsibility as a realm of expertise involving numerous occupants and functions. We need to know what culture is doing here at such a time as this.

The section of society most affected by cultural studies is the one that affects cultural studies. The intellectuals carry a certain kind of responsibility in their realm of influence. Keeping tract of the alternating expansion and contraction of this realm is part of this responsibility. There are intense and desperate needs that need to be addressed. There are political needs, economic needs, social needs, individual needs that have been neglected for so long that ignoring them has become a thinking pattern, a mindset. It then comes to a point of having to address thinking patterns that need to be bent and renovated. Its too painful, almost impossible to discard the insensitivity that has been harbored or/and hardened through time and experiences .We need to deal with what we have lost while gaining so much, what we have compromised through what we have appropriated. Much of this realm of erasure has been contemplated if not addressed by writers like Foucault and Derrida. Post-modernism has basically been in the business of breaking down mindsets yet escaping the responsibility of replacing this vacancy that it has brought about. Is it the calling of some other –ism or enterprise to give us an appropriate thing to believe in, something to lean on?

Culture like all other enterprises has a mandate to fulfill. Recognizing and charting out the details of this agenda or updating what already exists has been long due. Culture has been a region where excuse richly dwells. But excuse enters this realm expecting to be dealt with and not entertained. It is a space where refreshing/revival is expected. Culture though always prevalent, was never understood the way it is now. With the evolution of its understanding, hidden demands have been unveiled though not necessarily recognized. Culture’s methodologies and motives need to fall into alignment with each other. The non-convergence of the two diffuse the focus and disrupt the functional process. Though culture is an enterprise in itself, it is also a part of every other existing enterprise. Every decision taken here has a ripple effect, thus affecting every other section under its mantle. It’s a domain that covers numerous sites and these sites have given it the authority to make crucial decisions regarding themselves and how they ought to function.

Cultural dialogue in constantly determined by the prejudices and desires of the agents involved. Yet because of the diverse sources that generate and sustain the dialogue, the course it takes is most often very unpredictable and hence enlightening. The content may be clichéd but the direction the dialogue takes may be highly innovative thus reorganizing the content into something more sensible and relevant to today. The purpose of dialogue has always been to generate new ideas that are practical and that work. There are very real and grave factors influencing dialogue which cannot be totally grasped during dialogue since the focus is mainly on the content rather than the intent. However, trained minds constantly seek and attempt to decipher the intent as they know that that is the core issue. The content becomes merely a means to know the intent. Knowing the intent sums up to nothing unless there is a way to alter these intentions so as to fit a purpose and plan that deeply convinces the minds at work. Unless there is a way not only to think but also to communicate and present this plan effectively to bring about persuasion, conviction and performance of the highest degree, dialogues can be excruciatingly frustrating.

It is established thinking patterns that are the real target of dialogue. Flawed mindsets have limited our perceptions, experience and the quality of our life. Depraved minds have persisted in society for too long leading and misleading too many individuals who trusted in the experienced. Thinking that they know better we have fallen prey to a system that is far more destructive than we could ever imagine since our imaginations too are subject to this system. Often, some of our most disturbing experiences bring about a breakthrough in this system of thinking. When the revelation dawns that our understanding can fail us, a door opens for a new thinking pattern to enter. Both the patterns are then tested to see what really works not just mentally but practically as well. If the new one comes through then the old one dies forever in that mind. There is no turning back from then on, unless one deliberately chooses to stick on to the old even after experiencing its failure. It is not surprising that many make this choice as it is easier to live a lie than risk the new. It takes immense courage to take this leap. There is always a price to pay for something of worth.

Culture lies in performance, even the performance of theorizing culture. The culture of cultural studies is like a camera that from a bird’s eye view captures, edits and sometimes even manipulates the recordings it has taped. To know whether the position it holds was obtained or ordained needs some intense study.

Since culture is the behavioral manifestation of beliefs, fears, assumptions and suppositions, a single approach to understanding it would not suffice. Every aspect of its composition needs to be approached individually yet contextually to produce an understanding of what it really means. Every aspect of culture is supported by a certain world-view. It is these big-picture/big-brother views that really hold the roots of culture. Unless we view culture within this larger context we are invariably falling short of a sustainable understanding of culture and its domain and methods of influence.

Culture can also be viewed as the consequence of a number of decisive actions. Could it be an unpredicted/undesirable by-product of certain uncalculated decisions? Is it an unwanted outgrowth that has occurred due to a dysfunction in the existing system? Perhaps certain ancient boundaries were transgressed…. carelessly. Is culture a necessity then? Can we live(not just survive) without it? Has it always existed or is its history shorter than we think it to be? Is culture capable of answering these questions or will they be answered by some other enterprise that’s already carrying the answers?

17/11/08
Diploma in Cultural Studies
CSCS, Bangalore
Assignment 1

Default Screen

Introduction:

The visual always comes without warning. How do you reject the visual before it parades before you? Why should you reject it? It’s not worthy of attention unless it produces a vision higher than the one that produced it. The whole history of philosophy is a tale of the above sentence. The visual most often runs the show except when the vision supersedes the visual. Infact the visual are productions of visions. They are tangible manifestations of visions made available to our senses, intellect and emotions.

The visuals on display here are meant to produce visions. Quite obviously they are only tools to discover who you are, where you stand and what matters to you and is it really worthy a matter to think about? But then, are you what your opinions are? The visuals are prompts to assist in shifting one’s focus from the everyday to the power of a day.

It is not what you see in the image that really matters, but how strongly it affects the direction of your life and the duration of this shift. Every curatorial work has an agenda to affect either History or the Economy or both, but the success of it is measured by the range and duration of its influence and how well it has managed not be influenced.

Concept:

The visuals are a metaphorical comment on the DNA of cyber- culture. The frames are an imitation of the monitors in business settings. Expect here all the frozen screens reflect the freezing of culture brought about by the internet where the cyber-space is the only culture (though it ought to be called space) that experiences development, like a tornado that consumes all that’s in its way in order to move ahead. This is just one side of the Janus faced screen. What it screens is the pockets of world where time is frozen due to the lack of the web there.

It is the wireless that’s wired here. In a network every image is available in every system. The fact that one can glance at all of them at once that too full screen sizes suggests an advantage over the single screened computer. This aspect hints at the underestimated power that lies outside of the network. Though this power appears to be beyond the human ability to grasp as the eye cannot take in all the images at once, perhaps it is just a flaw in the way of seeing.

As the word suggests, the screen conceals aspects of the network of which it is a product. If we think we have seen something on the screen, a re-evaluation is necessary as it suggests that we have only just touched the border. Only in getting past the border can there be any real experience of the other and hence the potential for exponential growth in a direction that surpasses the borders of human imagination. The beguiling nature of the Janus face often makes it appear like the other when in fact it is always masking it from human perception and imagination. The sensationalism, sensuality, attractions of the screen is meant to distract, to disturb, to ensnare in order to protect what it conceals. That’s what it’s meant for. That’s who it really is!

There always are internal and external warning signals at the border. Borders are regions of conflict, turmoil and inevitably…. death. As it is true historically, even today victory lies in crossing the border. Contrary to most misconceptions, the endeavour here is not to break statutes but to innovatively breakthrough the border in collaboration with the rules. It’s about tact and skill in warfare. The only way to the other size is through the zone of terror.

Nevertheless (or rather hence), the surest way to know what really lies within this space is to look beyond its boundary. A show put up in an institute where the policies, the availability of space, the training or lack of it, the limits and the liberties prevailing determine the production of curatorial work. A show in a city that has no dearth of galleries and studios but where these spaces follow an economic and/or political strategy which excludes what springs up beyond the borders of its criteria, thus aiding in the institutionalization of site specific work. A show in a country that is still coming to terms with the enormous popularity its contemporary artists have gained beyond rather than within its geographic boundary, a space where the nature of art has changed too drastically for native digestion and assimilation.

Note on the Artist:

The Artist’s inclinations towards structures containing well-defined shapes contrasts with the otherwise captured emptiness of the skyscapes, revealing the human tendency to be extremists. The uncertainty that lies within the region of balance causes the artist to oscillate between the edges of the see-saw of situational crisis. The risk factor of the borderline where equilibrium exists is perhaps unconsciously avoided.

The photographer’s rejection of color and affinity for black and white images re-iterates the avoidance of the intensity that exists at the gravitational point where diversity converges. He personifies the general and widespread rebellion of the ideals of The University.

The two homes of the artist, the ancestral and the current are juxtaposed to counteract the diasporic effect of migration. Here is a display of the everyday as against the pilgrimage.

A place of birth and a place of growth entangled in a screened array! (pun intended)

Curatorial Work 1
Neha Jiandani
7th Semester
Art History Dept.
College of Fine Arts, CKP.

17/10/08

Commercial Advertisements and their Visual Langauge

It is not unknown that advertisements are customized to create needs where they do not exist. They are tailored to make viewers feel incomplete without that product. Yet (and therefore) the best adds are those that deceive consumers onto believing that these implied 'needs' are real and genuine.
After industrialization , consumerism was bound to be the result. In between these two phenomenon are the commercial advertisements that control the interaction (and traffic) between the industry and the consumer. They play the role of traffic lights and policemen (with the more corrupt ones exercising more power), who are noticed yet not scrutinized. These street signals are metaphors of ads that determine the direction and density of traffic to a certain destination (the product).
The visual language in designed to target the vulnerable points of male and female sexuality in most cases. They target "the lust of the flesh" and "the lust of the eyes" , manipulating consumers into believing that the products and services being portrayed will satisfy these "needs". The fact is 'desire' is not the same as 'need'. The products probably satisfy desires, not necessarily needs.
The challenge for ads today is to fool the consumer into believing that he is not being fooled. The ads are forced to pretend that they are revealing more than they conceal. The visual language is the vehicle of these internal dynamics,but like a vehicle it does not reveal the mechanism. Only the end product of the attractive visual ad is shown (except for those who take the trouble to find out the process).
The visual language of ads serve either as:
a) A tool to know OR
b) An excuse for ignorance
Consumers are thrown (always) into a realm (the media) where either they control the influence of the perceived visual on them of it controls them. This interaction is not always a partnership. Often it is a subtle warfare that is constantly 'on'. At this junction, I am reminded of a client who asked his web-designer to create an interface whose concept would be derived from a book titled "Art Of War" that appropriates East- Asian strategies of martial arts to business management.I realized that this book has not only succeeded in advertising itself but has managed to enter the method of ads as well.
The challenge for consumers is to find out the mechanism of control in the information systems from within, as being 'in' the media is not a matter of choice anymore.

What has this world done to us?

You know you are pretending
And I know that too.
But we pretend to be genuine
Or maybe we are trying to

When is the mask going to come off?
You don’t want to remove yours
Neither I mine
But haven’t we ever wondered why?

Perhaps you are afraid
Of being betrayed
Of again going through
The pain that you just got over

The pain is still there
But now in your mind
Warning you to defend yourself
With your mask as your shield.

I see it, I know it,
I too have experienced it
But I don’t tell you a word,
Neither do I ask you a thing.

We both walk our ways
Knowing yet pretending not to.