Friday 9 September 2016

Theme 2: Critical Media Studies first post

Dialectic of Enlightenment

1. What is "Enlightenment"?
Enlightenment literally means the movement of the late 17 and 18 centuries stressing reason and
individualism. Instead of putting emphasis on the tradition, the Enlightenment was an intellectual
movement about an insight or awakening of the true nature and reality. 

2. What is "Dialectic"?
Dialectic is the art of of investigating the truth of opinions which is also an enquiry to metaphysical contradictions. To put it easily, the dialectic is a discussion between two people seeking the solutions.

3. What is "Nominalism" and why is it an important concept in the text?
The Nominalism is the doctrine explaining that universals are merely names without any existence. Only particular numbers, properties and objects exist around the universal. Having no independent existence, the nominalism argues that objects exist only by names.

4. What is the meaning and function of "myth" in Adorno and Horkheimer's argument?
According the context, Max Horkheimer and Theodore W. Adorno depict that "myth is already enlightenment, and enlightenment reverts to mythology." The historical progression of the enlightenment has converted its original purposes of nature. 


The Work of Art in the Age of Technical Reproductivity

1. In the beginning of the essay, Benjamin talks about the relation between "superstructure" and "substructure" in the capitalist order of production. What does the concepts "superstructure" and "substructure" mean in this context and what is the point of analyzing cultural production from a Marxist perspective?

Superstructure and substructure are two different concepts in the readings. On the one hand, substructure, in other words, is the foundation. On the other hand, superstructure is the transformation of the substructure. Benjamin made a great distinction between the substructure and superstructure. According to Marx, the superstructure governs the substructure which is impossible to change and also unites all the production of the substructure.

2. Culture has revolutionary potentials based on the reading. Some people argue that the viewpoint of culture differs from every points of view while others mention that culture can determine how we see thing by ourself. Benjamin had sought the political transformation of the arts to bring about social changes on cultural revolution.

3. Perception can be both naturally and historically determined. Benjamin mentioned that a change in perception and its effects in the wake of the film and photography and also described how the sense change through human being's entire mode of existence. The way we perceive the visual work of art has its difference and consequences leaves to be determined.  

4. The concept of Aura determines how Benjamin sees things in his viewpoint. Based on the context, Benjamin mentions that "aura" is a 'strange web of space and time" or "a distance as close as it can be." From the context, the aura represents the originality and authenticity of a work itself. Benjamin mentioned the phenomenon of loss of the aura through mechanical production. For instance, a photograph is merely an image while a painting remains the original aura. 

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