1.12.11
30.11.11
Digital Culture
Modern Marginalia
Marginalia is a space where the Medieval conception of nature is turned upside down: rabbits hunt dogs and women defeat men at manly activities. Hybrid creatures, composed of human, animal, and plant parts inhabit often-overlooked margins. Hybrids serve as a form of comic relief and/or contemplative motivation.
There is also a lot of symbolism going on in the margins. Some images which we would read as highly sexualized are in fact an allusion to something in the text which the images surround: eg a man's erection = Christ's resurrection. The reverse is also true, such as the rabbit referencing female genitals.
Marginalized identities could live here in a contemporary version of this topsy-turvy space: lifestyle presentations which oppose the modern construction of what is natural. I also think it would be interesting to explore reappropriating some of these strange Medieval images, altering their significance with a contemporary lens.
There is also a lot of symbolism going on in the margins. Some images which we would read as highly sexualized are in fact an allusion to something in the text which the images surround: eg a man's erection = Christ's resurrection. The reverse is also true, such as the rabbit referencing female genitals.
Marginalized identities could live here in a contemporary version of this topsy-turvy space: lifestyle presentations which oppose the modern construction of what is natural. I also think it would be interesting to explore reappropriating some of these strange Medieval images, altering their significance with a contemporary lens.
23.11.11
9.11.11
8.11.11
Six Degrees of Separation
This exercise for my Theory & Criticism course took me from defining culture, to monkeys, to gender studies:
"On Collecting Art and Culture," by James Clifford
My starting point was this essay, assigned for Theory & Criticism
1. "Human Culture: What is Culture?"
If you define culture as a series of learned behaviors, it can apply to animals, who learn from their elders how to do certain things
2. "Hot Tub Monkeys Offer Eye on Nonhuman Culture", by Bijal P. Trivedi
Monkeys with leisure time (from handouts) create cultural activities: bathing in hot springs, playing with stones like building blocks, washing vegetables
3. "The Rembrandt Code", by Bijal P. Trivedi
Coniosseur vs. computer: digital tech is used to authenticate art; esp helpful with Rembrandt, who had many pupils.
4. "The Ideal Man", featuring Nadine Orenstein
Ideal bodies as proportions, ideas embodied, masculine virtues. Ideals change with time. Different cultures have different ideas about the ideal.
5. "How To Be A Man", Tom Chiarella
Esquire defines the ideal man with a lot of gender constructions, like to drink whiskey and never wine.
6. Equal Couples blog, by Dr. Anne Mahoney and Dr. Carmen Knudson-Martin
A blog about achieving gender equality in relationships
"On Collecting Art and Culture," by James Clifford
My starting point was this essay, assigned for Theory & Criticism
1. "Human Culture: What is Culture?"
If you define culture as a series of learned behaviors, it can apply to animals, who learn from their elders how to do certain things
2. "Hot Tub Monkeys Offer Eye on Nonhuman Culture", by Bijal P. Trivedi
Monkeys with leisure time (from handouts) create cultural activities: bathing in hot springs, playing with stones like building blocks, washing vegetables
3. "The Rembrandt Code", by Bijal P. Trivedi
Coniosseur vs. computer: digital tech is used to authenticate art; esp helpful with Rembrandt, who had many pupils.
4. "The Ideal Man", featuring Nadine Orenstein
Ideal bodies as proportions, ideas embodied, masculine virtues. Ideals change with time. Different cultures have different ideas about the ideal.
5. "How To Be A Man", Tom Chiarella
Esquire defines the ideal man with a lot of gender constructions, like to drink whiskey and never wine.
6. Equal Couples blog, by Dr. Anne Mahoney and Dr. Carmen Knudson-Martin
A blog about achieving gender equality in relationships
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