Critical Theory assignment Week 4,5 and 6

 

Assignment Week 4

This week i bought all the necessary materials, unfortunately though there was no A2 size board, so i had to make due with a massive A1, i measured it up and cut the board in half, and voila! A2 size black board. I also bought some high quality printing paper, and an A5 pocket book to store the photos in a more portable form.

 

I took time this week to prepare the necessary labels for all the different pieces of the project. Unfortunately i have not yet gotten a hold on my Scrapbook, so i haven’t been able to glue in any of the storyboards i drew

 

Assignment Week 5

This week i finally took all of my photographs, the line-up was a little different than before, but I’m perfectly happy with how they turned out. The shots are as follows:

• shot 1  -  Rioghain on her way into teaching practice (TP)
• shot 2 –  on her return home form TP she begins her study
• shot 3 - Rioghain heads out for Basketball practice 
• shot 4 –  she’ll often cook dinner for herself and anyone else present, before starting work
• shot 5 – Rioghain back studying late into the night
• shot 6 – and finally Rioghain going asleep at the end the day

all the shots can be seen at the end of this document.

Assignment Week 6

I took time this week to mount and glue all the entities of the project together into their finished form, i also began my descriptive essay about why i picked my topic, and you can read this here:

 

 

 

 

ProjectEssay

By

Manus o Lorcain

It took me some time to finally decide what topic i would choose for my project on cultural differences. At first i tried to think of cultural differences in the most obvious ways possible, ethnicity, but i quickly came to realise that in truth i don’t really know anyone who isn’t Irish; even my foreign friends are virtually first generation Irish at this point.

So instead i decided to look for someone i know who lives there life in an entirely different fashion to the way i live mine, with this in mind i quickly narrowed it down to my sister, someone who’s culture and in particular her work ethic are completely opposite to mine.

I wanted to highlight these differences through my photo story, but i guess i understand if it doesn’t come across, that’s why I’m writing about it to back it up.  My picture story is supposed to emphasize the amount of work my sister puts into each and every day, my photo story intends to show how long and tiring that day is, and how greatly that contrasts with my own daily life.

The first shot is my sister on her way to teaching practice or (TP) where she is studying to be a primary school teacher, i chose to take a close up shot of her in focus with the background out of focus, introducing her as the main theme of the photo story. I also associate train stations with stark dreary emotions, so i was trying to express that as well.

For the second shot i caught Rioghain in the middle of her daily study and work routine, i zoomed out a bit for this shot to emphasize the chaotic mess that surrounds her, i feel this captures well, how much work she must go through.

For the Third shot i pictured Rioghain ready to get up and go to her basketball practice, i purposely have her performing an action during this shot; in fact all of the shots; to create a spectator feel to the images.

The Fourth shot shows Rioghain preparing her dinner, another element of her daily routine; if anyone else is around she will offer to make them some dinner as well. For the shot i wanted another up close and personal look, as i feel it makes the image more interesting when the field of view is constrained.

The fifth shot depicts Rioghain stuck back into her work long after the suns gone down, i wanted to use this image to re iterate the level of dedication and the effort she puts into her work.

The final shot is the end to the day, thus the end to the story, i thought it fitting that a day in the life photo story end with the central character  going asleep.  I made sure to capture both Rioghain and her intended destination to make it clear what was happening in the scene.

I took over 50 images during the course of this project, it was hard to narrow it down to just six, but in the end i feel i picked the best qualified for expressing the message i was trying to convey.

Critical Theory Week 8

First off, I’ll discuss the group work and presentations we did then i’ll talk about the assignment we completed in class.

So Myself Brian, Mick and Dean grouped together to discuss Gender Identity. We managed to dig up quite a bit of info, we discussed A-sexual humans, Parents who hid the gender of their child, children who had gender identity disorder, the idea of Pan-gender humans (Humans who feel they cannot be classed by any specific gender or sexuality) and heterosexual queers (Humans who typify the opposite genders stereotypes whilst maintaining a heterosexual relationship, e.g a butch female who is hetero, or an effeminate man who is hetero)

We also considered the fact that when someone is Gay or transgender it is often the most striking thing about them, it is what we remember the most and what we comment on when describing this person to others  THis can easily be considered a slight form of racism. we question the fact that this development occurs throughout culture.

Now, I’ll discuss the assignment i did during class:

Cultural Identity

1.  Social Identity and its constructs

Social Identity is the concept of individuals labeling themselves as members of particular social groups.  These groups include but are not limited to; nationality, social class, subculture, ethnicity gender and employment.

TO me the most obvious form of social identity is that of the clique, popularized by TV, practiced by school children and adults alike in one form or another, the social Clique is a foundation of human culture.

·      Structuralist view

The structuralist view considers Identity a by product of society

·      Interactionist view

The interactionist view considers Identity in the Modern sense, i.e. something that can be shaped or changed by the individual, something to be reflected on, and perhaps improved upon by the individual.

It’s difficult to argue definitively one way or the other that one theory is more accurate than the other, or that one is entirely correct. To be honest I feel it differs form one person to the other; it depends on how aware or considerate of your own identity you are.

For example, let’s say wearing no clothes became popularized; you may decide to change aspects of your identity, in order to conform to that new social norm.  In which case you would both be Consciously choosing to change your identity but at the same time changing it because of  changes in society.

THUS, I strongly feel that the Structuralist, Interactionist view is a bit too black and white, and doesn’t cover all the bases.

2.  Web of identity

The Web of identity is a visual representation of the intersection between identity and society. It basically centers on the individual, and branches out beginning with their personal identify traits and branching out further into their place in society.

Web of identity heavily argues that the individual’s identity is greatly shaped by the individual’s society

·      Deconstruction

Deconstruction pulls apart processes and dislocates our belief in stable subjects such as gender, class ethnicity.  Deconstruction is heavily associated with the Post Modern school of thought; it argues for the dissolution of constricting standards, that everyone is free to shape their own identities.

Personally I find the idea of having no boundaries or categories to rationalize identity a bit simplistic. I think social structures exist as a result of human nature; one can ignore them and “deconstruct” them if they wish, but some are simply side effects of human nature.

Whilst I agree categories do not suit every individual, they do suit the majority, the vast majority in fact. Most people would have no problem being categorized as Straight, gay or bi sexual for instance, but de construction deems these terms

3. Examples – Web of identity

Web of identity can be considered how a person’s surroundings/society affects their identity, for example; how person’s ethnic background directly affects their beliefs, their faith, and their prejudices. For example a person born on Shan kill road will undoubtedly be affected by the areas history, and is much more likely to have an interest in the political, cultural and racial norms of their society.

·      Examples – Deconstruction

Deconstruction is simply the concept of disagreeing with a structured set of categories for defining an individual’s identity.  Deconstruction argues that each and every person is able to choose their own destiny and that these categories that people associate or label themselves constrict their path.

A deconstructionist might argue the validity of any number of labels, such as gender, sexuality, and race. However in my personal view, it is an unrealistic way of thinking.

Critical Theory Week 7

This week we talked about  Identity, the individual and society.

Identity of course is an interesting thing to discuss because it is a negotiable concept, and opinion, something which certainly cannot be proven one way or the other. with that in mind we looked at some of the more common viewpoints on identity.

Boom!

Traditional view of identity

Traditionally identity as viewed a s a fixed unchanging or pre-defined set of rules and practices that a person abides by or imposes on themselves, this is an incredibly one dimensional view of a persons motivations and morals however, and as such i deem it woefully inaccurate.

Modern view of identity

By contrast; Modern identity is considered unfixed and self reflexive. (a person can look upon themselves and criticize or change there own identity)

Modern identity is influenced by outside elements; peer pressure, popularity, the mass media, political ideals etc,  all these and more help define an individual.

Modern identity can be thought of as a project to be worked on by the individual.

Post-modern view of identity

By post modern standards Identity is unstable, a myth or illusion people use to hide behind or defend themselves with, identity is considered fragmented and contradictory as such it is lacking real depth and substance. Personally i feel identity is what you make of it, even if it is contradictory it doesn’t mean its entirely valueless, identity helps define an individual after all, it’s how the humans race categorizes each other.

How to Acquire an identity

The easiest way for someone to acquire an identity is through socialization, but certain choices related to your own identity are made for you before you’re given a choice, things like your physical features, your name and age dictate your first tastes as an individual, Arguably in school we learn how to socialize and religion  gives us values, but all these things happen when we are younger an unable to fully comprehend our own freedom of choice. Media is another great influence on ones identity. It’s certainly debatable  that most people’s identities are the way they are because of influences  that affected them during childhood.

How is identity constructed?

We construct our identity through deciding whether or not to conform to social norms. Like a robot! binary decisions!

Different planes of reality combine to form the structure of identity, these planes can be considered the Universal reality, Social Reality and Personal reality

Critical Theory (assignment Week 3/6)

So this week i planned out my photographs,  as is stated before i intend to capture my sister; Rioghain throughout her busy daily schedule,  and i need to convey the effort involved in her daily routine.

I was thinking of accompanying all my photos with the face of a digital alarm clock, detailing the time of the photograph and highlighting that everything is happening in one day.

My sister is currently studying in Marino to be a primary school teacher, She manages to balance her heavy workload with meeting her friends, studying, playing basketball, Cooking and more studying , she is often up all night printing out documents for college.

• shot 1  -  Rioghain on her way into teaching practice (TP)
• shot 2 –  on her return home form TP she often has friends over for a short while
• shot 3 -  she’ll often cook dinner for herself and anyone else present, before starting work
• shot 4 –  Rioghain hit’s the books
• shot 5 – Unsure yet (maybe Rioghain going out on a night out/Maybe Basketball practice
• shot 6 – Back studying again, whilst everyone is asleep

Critical Theory Assignment (Week 2/6)

Last Week i detailed Photographers whose work capturing different cultures inspired me, and i studied which perspectives help convey the right message.  This week i intend to outline my own idea for a photo journal project which highlights someone whose culture is different o that of my own.

I  decided to use my younger sister; Rioghain as the basis for my project,  to explore and highlight the differences between her culture and my own. whilst my sister and i share many things in common, i felt there was enough different between us to warrant  an interesting selection of photographs. I wish to convey  how diligent and dedicated she is, how social and motivated she is and how positive and tireless she is.

To do this i want capture a day in her life,  from start to finish, showing how she fits so much into a single day. Six photos will detail things my sister does throughout the day.

Whilst i understand this may seem unremarkable,  it truly is a different culture to that of my own, I’m a laid back  lackadaisical person who rarely puts himself under pressure of any kind, even now, yeah in fourth year, seriously, i could give a .. I’ve been told on numerous occasions i have a bad attitude, and am selfish. So all that in mind, i feel my sisters exceptional behavior acts as  a stark contrast to my own. That’s why i chose her as my subject for this project.

Critical Theory Week 6

Today we discussed the subject of Identity, Myself, Jack and Brian grouped together and sussed out  what it is that defines a persons identity. Here’s an extensive list, including the whole classes answers.

Q. What gives us identity?

1. friends and family
2. hobbies and interests
3. education
4. sense of humor
5. Wealth/class
6. personal experiences/history
7. awareness
8. Personality (tolerance/humility)
9. Religion
10. Age
11. Physical Appearance (hair colour)
12. Politics
13. Accent/language
14. Customs/tradition
15. Personal Taste (music,art,food)
16. Nationality
17. Gender
18. Morals/values/ideology
19. Community
20. Sexuality

Critical Theory Week 5 (assignment Week 1/6)

Okay! for this section of our overall assignment we need to take a selection of photographers whose work specifically depicts cultural differences, customs and practices etc.

I did a little research and found four photographers who piqued my interest. ALSO!! if ever anyone is interested in finding consistently brilliant photographs, look no further than our very own Sunday times magazine, Like a boss. This magazine is a treasure trove of excellent images, and i can’t recommend it highly enough.

i digress,

so, i found four photographers of interest:

1. Dorothea Lange
2. Russell Lee
3. Manuel Rivera Ortiz
4. Lewis Wickes Hine

Dorothea Lange

was an American Photojournalist during the Great Economic Depression. She spent her time capturing shots of the homeless and downtrodden communities of the time. Later in life she began specifically capturing images of rural poverty and migrant laborers.

Her most famous image is Called Migrant Mother:

another famous image of hers is this truck full of Immigrant workers ready to begin the day in the cotton fields:

Russel Lee

was a prolific photographer, who along with Dorothea Lange worked for the farm Security administration, in an effort to heighten awareness about rural american culture. Lee captured a  variety of images with differing themes, showing great versatility as a photographer,his themes ranged from daily farm life, poverty, Segregation, and more importantly; community.

Here’s a selection of his work:

Manuel Rivera Ortiz

is an internationally famous photographer, best known for his work in less developed countries, He has captured images in Bolivia, Cuba, Kenya, India, Thailand and Turkey depicting the difficulties and extreme poverty that exists in these countries. Ortiz has received many awards for his humanitarian work as a photographer, His work seeks to capture the reality of poverty  throughout the world.

..on a personal note, Clearly Ortiz is an excellent photographer… but his choice in web development is… vexing. His reliance on flash website make it very difficult to reference his work.  but here are some of the photos of his, that i found, and here are his websites:

http://mrofoundation.org/

http://www.rivera-ortiz.com/

Lewis Wickes Hine

was a photographer who, during the 1920′s in America captured iconic images of working class america, images that often depicted the thriving power of industry and the great building boom of America a the time. a few years Earlier, during world war one  Hine worked for the red cross capturing images of their relief efforts, his most famous images are most certianly from his photo documentary of the construction of the Empire state building. images like this:

BOOM!

yeah that’s a pretty famous photo, and so’s this one:

Critical Theory Week 4

Assignment

1. Identify writers you wish to research
2. Identify their key ideas in relation to critical theory
3. Determine if their ideas have been influential on the new media today

For this Assignment, Adnan and myself teamed up and decided to write about one writer each, Adnan chose Chomsky and I chose Saussure. So for my half of the assignment i am studying Ferdinand de Saussure; a Swiss Linguist, Writer and Theorist, also considered;  the father semiotics.

Saussures most famous development was his concept of the linguistic sign/signifier model which is the basis of semiotics. Saussure is also credited with moving language away from 19th century structure and towards modern linguistics, it can be argued that he laid the foundations of modern linguistics.

Saussures in depth study of signs led him to question why we named or perceived things the way we did. for example he questioned why we called dogs, dogs.when there is no sound or syllable in the word that relates to or indicates the features or description of a dog. Saussre studied the seemingly arbitrary reasons behind why we named things the way we did.

His most influential work was published  3 years after his death; Course in general Linguistics discussed all of Saussures findings, how he interpreted the cultural reasons behind  semiotics, and behind the structure of language itself.

Though Saussure’s work with linguistics was considered an  excellent resource up to the 1950′s in recent times it has become regarded as outdated in modern linguistics, one could argue that modern linguistics has been built on the foundations of Saussure’s work however. Saussure’s work with semiotics is still used today when describing the breakdown of signage, so in my view its still just as relevant now as it was then.

Critical Theory Week 3

Class Summary

This week we studied Ideology and discourse, i was about an hour late so that didn’t help, but from what i’ve read i determine that an ideology is a a structured set of ideals one chooses to live by and a discourse appears to mean  the specific trends, phrases, actions and language associated with a certain sub culture.

for example “surfer” culture is often associated with phrases like Whoa man, tubular, far out and radical! this i my understanding of discourse, it’s hard to decipher of course because the language used by experts to describe these terms is impossible to read, seriously, why do anthropologist write such disgusting, pretentious English, is it because they’re better than everyone else in the world, is that why one needs a thesaurus to read any given line of their work.. obviously these “intellectuals” have never heard of the radical idea of K.i.s.s.

take this sentence for example:

“Later theorists, responding to the struggles around identity, which focused partly on media representations of oppressed groups, have turned to a model of powerful and sub ordinated ideologies and identities, said to operate through lived cultures and powerful or marginialised discourses”

i mean that is just a disgusting use of English, it’s like these guys have never read a book, sentences that long, with that many twists and turns are impossible to read, a valid sentence should be perfectly understandable upon first glance, it should not have to be broken up and re read just to be understood.  This is my big problem with anthropology; it’s a great subject made completely inaccessible by the pretentious drivel that constitutes ” academic writing”.

 

anyway enough rage…

We had a look at several different aspects of ideology, looked at some of the ideas behind Marxism and socialism, and lovely capitalism. It’s my personal opinion, that whilst capitalism has devolved into an awful awful system, it currently is the only system that even comes close to working, for me communism relies too much on peoples honesty and morality, whereas capitalism is dog eat dog.

I think that no matter what rules people live by, there will always be a significant amount  of people who want more than their fair share, sadly my belief is that no one is incorruptible and that a persons corruption is almost parallel to their position of power. i don’t feel this is the result of any particular ideology, i just think it’s human nature, everyone is different, some people are happy with what they have, some want everything  they can possibly have… some are just plain jerks, its impossible to have a system that suits everyone at once.

 

 

Class Assignment

the assignment for this class was to look through any current form of media and identify any metaphors in use which are attributed to certain ideologies.

To me the most common use of metaphors with regard to a specific ideology are war time metaphors used in political discourse,

for example;

• The taoiseach was bombarded with questions from the press
• Fine Gael’s minister Attacked the new Health Bill
• The minister came under fire from the local papers

 

Phrases such as these are common place and don’t seem out of place, despite their origins as combat related terms.

Critical Theory Week 2

Class Summary

This week our attention was focus on myths legends, folklore, taboo and symbols. We learned how to differentiate between myths legends and folklore, which was pretty cool, because i love all that kind of stuff… i mean look at Norse gods, i’d take Odin over any god any day, he has all the wisdom in the world, a six legged horse and a magic spear, whats Jesus got? charity?

So we also discussed taboos from different cultures, how they have developed, and how they have evolved over the years, its funny how certain ancient taboos continue to exist long after outliving their original intention, for instance people taking their shoes off indoors because they come from agricultural background, in the past they would take their shoes off because they were mucky, but now even people living in the suburbs from the same background continue the ritual.

 

 

Class Assignment

This Week myself and Adnan teamed up to tackle a set of questions based around the topic we’d been covering in class; Myths and Folklore!

The questions were as follows:

1. describe and analyse a myth
2. give examples of some taboos from around the world
3. Draw a symbol that is meaningful to you

Myths

For our myth we chose The 12 labors of Hercules or Heracles, depending on what side of the Ionian sea your from, anyway, the twelve labors or Hercules is a tale about Pride, falling from grace, and above all redemption. It has all the typical drama of Greek myth; beginning when the mighty Hercules accidentally butchers his entire family, after being temporarily driven insane by his stepmother; Hera. Tough break.

So to make up for his crimes Hercules is sworn into the service of King Eurystheus, and given ten tasks to perform initially. Hercules accepts payment for one task and accepts aid for another, thus rendering their completion null and void, and So Hercules must complete two additional tasks to make up for this. and these are not minor tasks, these tasks are serious business, every task he’s given is  mini Illiad in itself, but this is Hercules and  this guy always  delivers.

So, straight from Wikipedia, here is the impressive list of tasks Hercules is charged with, and subsequently completes:

1. Slay the Nemean Lion.
2. Slay the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra.
3. Capture the Golden Hind of Artemis.
4. Capture the Erymanthian Boar.
5. Clean the Augean stables in a single day.
6. Slay the Stymphalian Birds.
7. Capture the Cretan Bull.
8. Steal the Mares of Diomedes.
9. Obtain the girdle of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons.
10. Obtain the cattle of the monster Geryon.
11. Steal the apples of the Hesperides
12. Capture and bring back Cerberus.

I Mean look at that last one, catch the Cerberus! that’s some serious stuff, what King Eurystheus would gain from owning a Cerberus is beyond me, but he picked the right man for the job.

This myth features some of the classic elements of modern story telling; in the Beginning Hercules is well known and loved by all, not a single tarnish on his record, He is a good man, but he is also a proud man, who thinks himself better than his fellow man.

After his incident with his family, his old life is gone, taken from him, tragically by his own hand. Hercules has to make it up to himself and to those around him, whilst he has lost his great reputation, he still retains his misplaced pride, and is angered by having to work for Eurystheus, who he views as a lesser man. this is indicative of Hercules’ approach of the tasks he completes half heatedly, accepting aid, or payment for them.   This story is as much about combating your own Pride as it is walking the road top redemption.

In the end Hercules is returned to glory and becomes a god… even Hera forgives him.. and gives him her daughter to marry…yup, his own half sister, that’s Greeks for you.

Taboos

We explored the Taboos of Bosnian and Japanese culture regarding footwear indoors. In Bosnia Shoes are never worn in the house, because Bosnian culture is heavily involved with agriculture, so typically when one comes homw after working the fields their shoes are filthy, this has evolved over the years to the point where shoes are removed as soon as one enters a house, regardless of how mucky the shoes are.

Japan has a similar taboo, only in this case the shoes are removed as a mark of respect for the homeowner.

In Ireland a common superstition /taboo is for someone passing a graveyard, church or Ambulance with its sirens blaring to bless themselves or say a short prayer, this is something that has developed over our years as a strict predominantly Catholic country… how a few years can change everything.. i don’t even know anyone who goes to church anymore

Symbols

So i decided to upload a symbol that used to mean something to me when i was in school, and had a fantastical  idea of how the world worked, its a symbol that when i was young and stupid i really believed in, but now it’s just something i like to draw because it looks cool.

So this is the symbol for anarchy, a wonderfully stupid theory about everyone living by their own rules… can’t see any problems there. but when i was younger i idealized the idea; people living for themselves and for each other, working together out of  mutual respect as opposed to being bound together with law… nowadays of course  its more associated with terrorism than anything else. But that’s human nature for you.