a blog to trace the pathway of students in his/iar552 at the university of north carolina at greensboro

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Claire's Cutlural Analysis

The “Baily Bungalow” – Infill Affordable House in the South park Historic District in Raleigh, NC – Designed by David Maurer

Through my investigation of this home, I want to gain an understanding of how the subcultures of historic preservation and affordable housing influenced the design and construction. I plan to assess this house in terms of the user, maker, and image. Maurer is the user of this image because he designed this home without a specific end user in mind; therefore, Maurer uses himself as a theoretical user of this space. I will use the floor plan to assess the meanings of the user. The builder who chooses this plan to build at a particular location and which materials to use is the maker of this image, and the material and location of the home will be used to understand the meanings of the maker. The image of the house is reminiscent of a craftsman bungalow, and the form, fenestration, and relationship to the bungalow will be used to assess the meanings of the image.

see image in earlier post: http://materialmediaculture.blogspot.com/2010/02/merging-of-subcultures-affordable.html

Mar. 4 discussion questions

“Technological Systems and Some Implications with Regard to Continuity and Change” by W.David Kingery

Kingery’s article discusses technologies in terms of classification and in the study of artifacts. One thing he said that intrigued me was, “Aesthetics are particularly important in understanding the invention and acceptance of new technologies.” Is this true? Is our acceptance of new technology based so much on how this technology looks? Why?

“Globalization as Hybridization” by Jan Nederveen Pieterse

Pieterse discusses the concept of globalization as a result of the hybridization of cultures rather than from a westernization perspective (in which the Western world has influenced the cultures of non-western societies). He says basically that parts of various cultures have mixed with parts of other cultures to create these hybridized cultures. How does Pieterse’s perspective relate to Hebdige’s view of cultures and subcultures?

Friday, February 26, 2010

Feb 25 summary

It was Postmodern week! In class we worked in our reading groups to breakdown our readings according to three areas: body, technology, and empire. My group's readings were as follows:
--Werbel's essay about the Foley Food Mill focused on how the food mill represented women's social and cultural role as nurturers. The body was represented by a mother's role in nurturing her children's bodies. Technology appeared through scientific studies on nutrition, and the social concept of women as nurturers served as empire.
--Leone and Little's essay about the Maryland State House and Peale's images of the Natural History Museum placed the individual in the role of empire, with the job of watching the state. The individual was also important to the body in that the positioning of the state house required individuals to view the house from many different roads. The state building and the use of excavation techniques by Peale served as examples of technology.
--Poster's article placed identity as a central concept. The virtual world (virtual reality and the Internet) serves in the role of empire due to the power it has over individual identities. As new technologies form (i.e., the Internet) we create new identities (think Facebook). Technology also affects the body by creating interfaces, opportunities to communicate face-to-face without sharing the same space.

3.4 Questions

In Appadurai's work, he talks about the Globalization and Americanization that has taken place. He states in the example of the Filipinos, that their present is our past, and our present is their future, yet our past is a modality of our present. This is saying that America's past is simply another countries present, if they are following the Americanization process. Yet, he also points out that the US is no longer the main driving force of globalization. The media has become a new landscape bringing the world within our grasp. So, is it true that globalization and westernization/Americanization are the same thing? Or was it once true, but now media has taken the place of westernization? With the technology that has started to drive our lives has this also put the globalization into hyper drive? The Filipinos are emulating our musical culture as Appadurai states, yet is this the westernization taking place or an effect of the media culture that is so readily available with the explosion of technology?

In Soutter's work, she discusses a family heirloom that she received, and progresses to tell about the different meanings that the material and photograph could/did mean. She discusses the mourning jewelry, and the different fashions that the necklace may have gone through. In the end of her essay, she states that it connects her to her ancestors and all of their achievements. This article is a good one to get you started on thinking about your project for this class, it got me to thinking, as she is describing the number of generations this item had passed, what about my yearbook? Don't we all have objects that we hold on to for their sentimental value? The yearbook for me connects me to the past of Salem College and the women who had gone through the same traditions I had experienced. But what do we really know about the history of our objects and heirlooms? Can we really ever understand the context that they have passed through? What about the heirlooms we will pass on, will those be understood and appreciated for what they were meant to be?

Thursday, February 25, 2010

reading assignments for 04mar10

last week of "big" readings....

all : durham+kellner 579-583

annie/suzanne : durham+kellner 584-603, prown+haltman 213-228
kaytee/micah : durham+kellner 604-625, prown+haltman 109-128
sam/erin : durham+kellner 626-657, prown+haltman 93-108
claire/serena : durham+kellner 658-680, lubar+kingery 215-230
melanie/michelle : durham+kellner 681-702, luber+kingery 182-196
sarah/emmanuel : durham+kellner 703-725, xxi-xxxviii

everyone should post one prompt/question for each reading by wednesday, 03 mar 10 at 5pm.

reporters from today = one per group, group choice

bring with you to class = one three-dimensional object that represents globalization in our every day world


The project will be focusing on an antique flycatcher. The flycatcher is located in the antebellum mansion of Blandwood in the dining room. Within the paper I will examine health concerns that developed in antebellum America, the aesthetic of the fly catcher and the creation of the device itself. The paper will also focus on the placement of the dinning room in comparison with the rest of the house. The project will also examine other methods in which antebellum America prevented flys and other bugs from bothering the household.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Formal Place Setting

I plan to investigate the evolution of the place setting, as defined by the Emily Post Institute, to the Formal Place Setting. I want to know what led to the practice of multiple courses, the role of each necessary piece, and the etiquette associated with the practice, as told by the place setting. I will not conisder a paticular pattern to remain compltly objective of each piece and their generic relationship to the practice.

Feb. 25 Durham/ Kellner

Poster defines vurtual reality as a multiplicity of form making virtual reality "irresistible" in comparion to our everyday lives.
Can you see how our "profile" selves are a multiple form of our real selves?
The lines begin to blur as Bardillard makes the argument that simulater acts are treated as actual acts.
Similarly, do we instead treat our "profile" selves as simulations of our real selves?

Feb. 25 Prown/ Haltman, Lubar/ Kingery

Foley Food Mill:
This artifact was descibed in a deconstructive way breaking down its construction and its blemishes. The mill, a seive that "purees" food while maintaining nutrients. While the product suggests a certain population (thos in need of care) it also represents a certain user (a care giver). Once again this is linked to the role of women as nurturers. Patented in 1933, the practice of "fear- ridden" child- rearing was only a few number of years prior. This was the propoganda of companies who made food products, mainly for yound children. Company advertisments would convince women that they're daily food preperation was endangering their children's health. The introduction of the mill was the reintriduction of women's role as a caring, nurtering care giver.
This essay brings up the manipulation of the audience again. In this case, women and mothers. What makes women of this time such an easy target?
Do men's role in child-rearing of the time play a role in this manipulation?

Artifacts as Expressions:
Using the exhibitions of Peale and the State House as examples of the time, the authers' first suggestion of the muti-sided state house serves as a watchful eye and a reminder of self discipline sets the tone of modeling humanities tendencies. Concerning Peal, the long hall drawing suggests orderliness and a need to measure. This was used to model naturla principles. Peale was the first to scientifically excavate a major fossil and his paintings of Revolutionalry War heroes represent personal attributes.
Has Peale's practice in exhibition informed our order of appropraitness or artifacts? Of personal attributes?
While this presenation of evolution gives us a place in nature and in the union, it has happened at the cost of Native American pride. In what ways as the modern wast been demoralized like the Native Americans through historical study... if at all?

Feb 25 Questions and Artifact for project

kellner 447-452ellner 482-519, 549-575; prown 191-212

Foot Bridge

What does the industrial design of the footbridges reveal about the cretors vision of the "natural world" in which the bridge is fixed? Is our since of nature a spectacle of the industrial/post-industrial world?

Jameson

Which reading of Van Gogh's Peasant Shoes is more attuned to the postmodernist view?

Jenkins

How does StarWars represent a third space?

-----------------------------------------------------

The item I am analyzing for the final project is an antique German pocket knife and its leather sheath. The front of the knife has a picture of the German war hero and president Paul Von Hindenburg. The other side has German text which translates to "In memory of the great time 1914-1917."

Questions or maybe thoughts

Poster: Obviously dated (mid-90s) as we read it now there was something that most struck me about this article and that was pretty early on. He says "In the recent past the only technology that imitates the telephone's democratic structure is the Internet...." (p. 535) Noting that more and more people were using the internet by the mid-90s than earlier forms of the more limited access Internet. However, keeping in mind his vague idea that the Internet would continue to be revolutionized, I wonder to whom is Internet access "democratic" in the early 21st century? Evidence points to broadband access being problematic in two major ways. A: Limited access to providers in rural areas. B: Cost.

Baudrillard: The author asserts that there are realities and perceptions of it from what I could understand of these sentences with too many prepositional phrases for my taste. However, my background in historic preservation/museum studies was alerted then I read his commentary on repatriation of artifacts. He considered it a activity where people act "as if nothing had happened and" indulge "in retrospective hallucination (p. 460)." I am reminded of the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act (1990) in which cultural institutions were forced to review their collection and see what objects in it were related to American natives and inform the nearest surviving tribe (or to exhaust themselves in the possibility of finding a tribe in light of the practices in dealing with American natives). Do you believe the government and museum compliance with such is really them acting as if nothing happened? How can museums without these artifacts still (if relevant to their mission anyway) be honest about poor collections management and overt racist ideology in the past? Is this necessary?

Haltman: Did anyone else feel the human characteristics of the candlestick phone were stretched? I don't know, it just didn't resonate with me. One question that is outside of the candlestick phone's era is if people hid candlestick phones in cabinets and under hollow dolls (which to me made the phone thing more phallic in design) then to what degree was this unnecessary with the French phone? Were increasing numbers of people more comfortable with the phone?

Discussion Questions

Foley Food Mill by Amy B. Werbel (Prown/Haltman pg 229-242)

In this article, Werbel compares the role of women to the role of the food mill, saying “…the woman’s role can be seen as a mill of sorts, processing the world and making it digestible for those around here.” (pg. 240). Do you agree with this analogy that women are conditioned by society to “smooth things out” for the people around them? Does geography play a role in this?

Postmodern Virtualities by Mark Poster (Durham/Kellner pg. 533-548)

Poster argues that “virtual reality” is a dangerous term because it suggests that reality can be multiple and take many forms (pg. 538). He later states “Visual representations of the unconscious…are irresistible compared to everyday realiy…” (pg. 546). Do you find this to be true? Are “virtual realities” such as the Internet and films more appealing than actual reality? Why do you think this is?

Artifacts as Expressions of Society and Culture: Subversive Genealogy and the Value of History by Mark P. Leone and Barbara J. Little (Lubar/Kingery pg. 160-181)

Based on a 1971 article by Shklar, Leone and Little argue that “Questioning the origins of social relations and authority is subversive and dangerous because it calls into question the status quo” (pg. 173). They use this point to argue that one of the problems with the place of history in our society is the focus on accuracy and completeness found in the museum world. This focus causes the work of museum professionals and local historians to lean on and be embedded in the status quo. Do you think that we as a society are afraid of questioning the status quo? Why or why not?

Project topic

I will be analyzing a piece of 1920s sheet music. Since I don't have it as yet, I have not been able to determine how I will use it. I purchased it from ebay (yay, technology!) and is different from what I originally planned on using. The piece is described as "Our Gang Comedy Sheet Music 1920s". The title is "Stay in Your Own Back Yard." It looks like an interesting piece and I hope to be able to use it to study the portrayal of and realities of children's lives in the 20s. or as a focus on race relations among children during that period. I really don't know yet. I'm apparently techno-stupid and can't figure out how to get the image onto this post from ebay.

Feb. 25 Discussion Questions

Prown/Haltman—“The Foley Food Mill” by Amy B. Werbel

While the main focus of analysis is a 1930s food mill, Werbel turns to the discussion of women's roles and perceptions as nurturers during the 30s, tying those conceptions into the design and use of the food mill. How does the structure of this essay support Werbel’s purpose/thesis?

Lubar/Kingery—“Artifacts as Expressions” by Mark P. Leone and Barbara J. Little

Leone and Little use the term genealogy “as the version of history that suggests the inevitability of the present social order” (173). How do they present the Maryland State House and the Peale artifacts as genealogical sources?

Durham/Keller—“Postmodern Virtualities” by Mark Poster

Poster says that “modern society” created and nurtured “an individual who is rational, autonomous, centered and stable (the ‘reasonable man’ of the law, the educated citizen of representative democracy,…[etc.]” (534). Poster (writing in 1995) focuses on the developments of the Internet and virtual reality as creating changes in culture, particularly “in the way identities are structured” (533). Do you agree that the Internet helped “foster” identities that are “different from, even opposite to those of modernity?” (534)

Jeep

From Where To Where?


My 2006 Jeep Laredo is my object of analysis. I plan to explore the physical dimensions of the Jeep, why they came to be how they are - the history behind the components, specific intentions, etc.. I also plan to explore what is happening on the inside in relation to what is happening on the outside, how the human body relates and works with the object, and how technological improvements, cultural changes, the buyer and the seller changed the Jeep.

Questions for February 25

Jameson: Overall Jameson states we are infatuated with the present and have lost our connection with history. Because of the loss of the relationship with history we are now experiencing the present as a schizophrenic subject – euphoric, high and hallucinogenic intensity. But when do we draw the line at “not having a relationship with the past” and “taking what we know from the past and building upon it”?


Jenkins: Media is a spectacle. The film Star Wars was a spectacle on its own. It was a new idea and the fan base behind Star Wars was incredible. Our culture is a participatory culture. The spoofs and indy films bouncing off Star Wars have given us our own opportunity to produce a spectacle. We seem so involved in the production; facebook updates, twitter, youtube responses (and responses to responses). After reading this article and thinking about today’s society, is there a distinct variation between embracing the intensity of participatory culture and merely being an everyday participant and living “regularly” in our present culture?


Rotella: I think the footbridge can conjure up such emotion is because it is a place where two worlds come together – industry and nature. But it also brings together other ideas: stillness and motion, strength and effortlessness, and physically connects one shore to the other. Personally, I find instances where I have to combine two different elements such as; ergonomics and beauty, straight and curved, old and new, and then I get to intimately experience the relationship.

Rottella states that everyone experiences the space intimately, but don’t all the intimate feelings stem from the same place; noticing two different elements converging, then relating it to personal ideas or circumstances? Or does it always stem from a more personal level to start with?

Questions From The Readings

Poster’s article written in the mid 1990’s was before the creation of websites such as Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. Has society undergone a new ‘virtual’ cycle, or is it simply a continuation from the mid-20th century?
Does society today use material culture as further evidence to create a collective memory of history? Should Peale’s paintings be analyzed solely as primary source documentation of museums in the early 19th century or should it be examined as an example of the mythos associated with the early Republic? Should it be analyzed as both?
The use of propaganda contributed greatly to the use of prepared food for infants. Numerous articles appeared in magazines geared towards women such as Ladies Home Journal and Women’s Home Companion. Would the propaganda campaign would have been as effective if the advertisements appeared in “gender natural” periodicals such as Life and the Saturday Evening Post?

Contested Boundaries and Mediated Space in a 1979 Star Trek lunchbox





Hopefully the final title will be a little more fun than that, but that's where I am with it right now.

This 1979 Star Trek lunchbox will be the object of my analysis. I’m particularly interested in how it is mediating a very specific notion of science fiction culture/the Star Trek franchise in commodity form. I want to think about the logic behind both what images its exterior does display and what aspects of its referent (the first Star Trek film) remain absent. I’m also curious to see how the design of the images fit within a larger history of popular lunchbox motifs (i.e. Star Trek was not the first or only sci-fi narrative to be represented via lunchbox, and science fiction not the only genre of narrative popular for lunchbox adornment). The other aspect of my interest in the object concerns its function – how is its intended and practical usage related to the external presentation? I want to think about how the object is mediating different kinds of space, with its formal gestures toward both the contained/mundane/domestic and the exotic/boundless/imaginary.

?s for this week

Poster- As the chapter introduction notes, Poster doesn’t give much credence to the idea that virtual media space is both a platform for the marketing of commodities and a commodity itself. He suggests that “the use of the Internet to simulate communities far outstrips its functional as retail store or reference work” (541). Given that we have fifteen more years of Internet history to draw on than Poster did when he wrote this article, how can we see the kinds of cyber spaces he discusses participating in or being complicit with profit-oriented agendas? Do we see the community spaces he discusses as discrete from commodity endeavors, or are there instances of overlap between them?

Baudrillard--This article implies that both discourses of ideology and discourse on ideology ultimately assume and try to disseminate some notion of truth, a process which Baudrillard suggests undercuts the revolutionary potential that can be found in embracing simulation. What do we think the revolutionary (or maybe just political) applications of Baudrillard’s understanding of simulation would look like?

Haltman- I found the presentation of the visual elements of this argument particularly effective. I think we might be able to look at how Haltman’s essay places visual evidence as a way of discussing strategies for incorporating visual elements into the work that we will be presenting later in the semester.

Annie's Questions 2/25

Prown:
Haltman discusses the candlestick phone and the impact it had on the privacy of the home, yet he also states that this phone though it was an intruder had a calming effect on the individual who used it because of its design. Is this true? If this design was a calming effect, why was it discontinued as the French Phone model became more prevalent after its introduction in the late 1920s?

Durham:
Baudrillard discusses in his article the simulacrum, which he says is manifested in Disneyland and Watergate. He states that Disneyland is down to the characters a simulated America, its purpose is to hide the real America. He goes on to talk about the rest of LA and the reality that is lost. This got me to thinking about Hollywood and the celebrities, is this a cause of the lost reality or an outcome of the lost reality?
He then talks about Watergate which is the political version of Disneyland, that it hides the reality of the situation. Did this start with Watergate or did it just come to light with this political scandal?


Poster discusses the virtual reality of the internet and the identity that people structure and project. When thinking about the identities that we create, I think of MySpace and Facebook. We all edit the pictures we post and write our updates in ways that we want to project ourselves to our peers. Does this editing of ourselves on our pages edit us the same way in real life? What about internet dating? One can easily structure your profile to attract a person, but is that who you are in reality or is just an invention? Since Poster is writing before the explosion of MySpace, Facebook and Internet Dating, what would he say about the narratives we post daily on these pages?

The Merging of Two Cultures: Education and Women



I have chosen to look at one Salem College yearbook, called 'Sights and Insights' from 1928. This yearbook represents an anomaly, women generally did not go to college in the 1920s. This higher eduction was reserved for wealthy white males. Yet that year Salem had a freshman class of over 100. What does this say about the merging of education and women? What also does it say about the culture of the time of publication, right before the stock market crash? The elaborateness and excessiveness of the theme gives the reader an insight into the culture that these women enjoyed. Also, how is this yearbook read and appreciated in todays culture? Does it stand for something different for some one who did not attend Salem? Who has owned this book and why did it end up in an antique book collection at a antique mall? Why would someone rip out the first page? All of these questions are a starting point of looking at and evaluating this yearbook as a cultural object and a way to look at the past through the educated female gender. Although there is a lot to be said about a yearbook as a cultural and material object, I will be primarily focusing on the above questions. The title is very, very rough and will most likely change as the questions are answered.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Claire's Questions for 2/25

Haltman’s analysis of a 1923 candlestick telephone suggests that the phone’s resemblance to the human form was “the first self-conscious telephone design, one based in large part on its makers’ psychological and emotional institutions” (83). Haltman provides brief descriptions and photos of telephones preceding and following the candlestick telephone; the wall phone only crudely resembles the human form which the French Phone eliminated “all suggestion of vertically or human form” (87). He suggests that the design of the candlestick phone calmed anxieties and softened the effects of the technology, but this assessment had me wondering why only this particular phone, which was the popular model for less than a decade before being replaced by the French Phone, was seemingly the only one designed with the human form in mind. Was it that our anxieties about technology and the phone deceased? Maybe practicality won over style?


Honestly, Baudrillard left me confused and feeling as though my personal ‘realities’ may merely be simulations. He provides several examples of simulations, which, in my opinion, seemed to get harder to gasp as he continues – Disneyland as a simulation of American reality makes sense to me, but he starts to loose me after Watergate. In one of his explanations, he suggested that a simulated hold up would be treated as a real hold up. This explanation had me wondering, if it is treated as a real hold up, does that not make it a real holdup – if it is perceived as real, is it not real?


Poster also discusses reality, but his discussion of reality takes use into the virtual world of the Internet. He suggests that “‘Virtual reality’ is a more dangerous term since it suggests that reality may be multiple or take many forms, ” and “the terms ‘virtual reality’ and ‘real time’ attest to the force of the second media age in constituting a simulational culture” (538). He explains that culture is simulational because the media alters the originals it discusses or displays. This discussion had me wondering if “virtual reality” is in fact reality for many people today. Poster wrote in 1995, and from what I can tell, much of what he suspected would happen in the future has in fact happened. Within “virtual reality” people create “virtual identities” (from what I can tell and based on Poster’s discussion of the fluidity of identity). How have our Internet selves influenced our “real” selves (if we are in fact real and not simulations of our virtual identities - my head hurts), maybe I should say who we are in our daily lives?

Melanie's Questions for Feb. 25th Readings

Questions for Material Culture Readings due on February 25, 2010

Industry, Nature, and Identity in an Iron Footbridge

-What structure relating to modern transportation of today could evoke the same feelings as this iron footbridge? Do highways blend in as well with natural surroundings? What do highways say about where we are in our industrial development, and do they encourage a relationship between individual and road?

Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism

-Since this is a material culture class, and we are allowed to analyze things according to how they speak to us, my question for this reading goes out to the author. “Dear Mr. Fredric Jameson, Hello. My name is Melanie Verges, and I come from a design background. I am not from the world of traditional academia, and so I would like to suggest something to you. While I implore your success and ability to write in such a scholastic way, I would like to challenge you to write in a way that would invite non-academia people to be more excited about your writings. The challenge would be to write in a more relatable way, like writer Henry Jenkins. I suppose it is less a question for this reading, and more of a invitation. I feel as though young students could be more excited and understand better if you were to use vocabulary and writing styles that spoke to everyone. Most sincerely, Melanie.”

Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars?

How would YouTube influence or change a younger grassroots movement of Star Wars fan spoofs? And I would challenge that Harry Potter, Avatar and Twilight will influence younger and future generations the same way that Star Wars did; but I also have to wonder if its influence will remain as strong with the invention of more futuristic movies and ideas?

Melanie

Monday, February 22, 2010

Melanie's Idea for Cultural Analysis Project

For my Cultural Analysis paper, I will be looking at my Blackberry Curve cell phone and its relationship to pop culture and material culture. I am interested in finding out more about how a handheld device has so greatly changed the way we interact (or don't interact) with those around us, how we process news and media, and how our dependance on instant connections has impacted social and personal relationships.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Patriarchy in Practice at UNCG: Traditionally, a college for women. Pragmatically, controlled by men.

We interpret patriarchy here as a hegemonic system that privileges a male ruling class by naturalizing the social hierarchies of gender roles. The structures of the university reflect and contain patriarchal power structures that promote subordinate positions for females while supporting the consolidation of institutional power in the hands of a few white men.

Charles Duncan McIver was one of the greatest proponents of women's education and the principal founder and first President of the Normal School in Greensboro, which would later become the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. This statue of McIver, located on campus in front of the Jackson Library, stands as a tribute to McIver and his leadership of the school. It highlights the fact that, although the university was founded to educate women, men historically held the positions of administrative authority. In fact, it was not until 1994, over 100 years after the school’s founding, that the university had its first female chancellor. One of the plaques on the base of the statue is inscribed with the quote “People – not rocks and rivers and imaginary boundary lines – make a state: and the state is great just in proportion as its people are educated.” This quote emphasizes the importance of education, in this case the education of women, in strengthening the state. However, in 1911, the year that the statue was erected, women did not have the right to vote. Political power was considered largely the purview of men, and so even educated women remained second class citizens. In this case, the monument indicates that not only is the school itself rooted in patriarchal rule, but also that it has been a part of a larger patriarchal government system.

At first glance, the statue of the Roman goddess Minerva seems to represent women embodying wisdom and power, alluding to the school’s history as a women’s college. Yet within sight of this statue stands that of Charles McIver, a real historical male authority figure. Minerva, on the other hand, is an ancient mythological figure who represents no concrete power or authority in the contemporary world. As a fictitious character, she is less threatening and more comforting than a statue memorializing the achievement of a real woman would be -- her abstraction raises no embarrassing questions about the history of the school’s inequitable balance of power along gendered and racial lines.Ultimately, in terms of this institution’s monumental representations of gender, women still remain beyond the realm of pragmatic political power and influence.

The Margaret C. Moore Building was constructed in 1969 to house the School of Nursing, founded in 1967. The architecture of the building suggests that at the time of its construction, the school was moving away from its earlier, more classically influenced style of architecture to a more progressive style. Also in 1963, just a few years before the building’s construction, the school was made coeducational, another sign of progress. However, the school was still governed by a patriarchal system with a male chancellor and male authority. Though a female dean controlled the School of Nursing at the time of the building’s construction and it was later named for a notable alumna and former dean, the building still contains a discipline which has been historically female and leads to a career considered “acceptable” for females. The all female nursing school class of 1983 pictured here suggests that the discipline segregated a portion of the female population from the coeducational environment of the school. Although the school had integrated the genders, it still excelled in and emphasized disciplines, such as nursing, that were considered appropriate for females to pursue. This representation of the students of 1983 also suggests that the nursing school was segregated along racial lines; the apparent predominance of white students further implicates the institution in the maintenance of social hierarchies that politically stratify access to resources and power through racial and gender divisions.

Friday, February 19, 2010

the merging of subcultures: affordable housing and historic preservation






















“You appear to choose your social type in some measure, whereas you are condemned to a stereotype.” Richard Dyer, page 355.

We feel as though the above images of hats were created to be purchased by individuals looking to further their personal identity and thereby sometimes falling into a stereotype. Dyer talks about in his article that a person can choose the image and personality that he may want to portray, but by doing so he may be further associated with that stereotype. The students identity is going to impact which hat he chooses to buy and wear and is going to cause that stereotype to be further embodied by the individual. Grouping these photos together, we display our own social biases towards to type of consumer who would purchase the above pictured hats.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

hybridization [of tate street]











































According to Canclini, "today all cultures are border cultures," and the multiple hybridization that can be found on Tate St. represent the diverse atmosphere of UNC Greensboro and its surrounding community (442). "At every border there are rigid wires and fallen wires," and on Tate St. multiple cultures merge across boundaries (442). Although those boundaries are evident, they do not constrict the Tate Street environment. These borders define different cultures but also compose the entirety of the Tate Street culture. As Canclini suggests, "[the] public insecurity, the incomprehensibility of the city, leads us to search for selective forms of sociability in domestic intimacy and in trusting encounters," and Tate Street offers a wide range of safe havens and entertainment spaces in which students, faculty, and the community can find both intimacy and refuge (423). These images present both borders and crossroads of multiple cultures: commercial, academic, domestic, and within these spheres multiple cultures reside.

Nationality







Through symbology and architecture, Americans have tried to create a national identity, but through everyday, modern consumption we become dependant on international objects and idiology.



The Spaces Between





Intimate spaces like bathrooms are separated into male and female spaces.

Physical spaces like clothing stores separate men's and women's clothes while they share the same space.

Theoretical spaces like traditionally gendered occupations are now inclusive of all genders.

Society and manufacturers forced these gendered separations such as the bathroom, yet as society moves forward we see lines being crossed as clothing now occupies the same space and women move into male dominated occupations.

18 february 2010 : representin' + reconoiterin'


today in class, students took photographs as representations of key ideas around identity, hybridity, nationality, patriarchy, feminism, and the other. while they were in the field, patrick hypothesized an ordering system for material + media worlds for consideration. students listed their projects as follows:

serena = 1920s sheet music
sam = flycatcher
sarah = textile mill
kaytee = jeep
erin = star trek lunch box
claire = house
melanie = blackberry
micah = pocket knife
suzanne = china pattern setting
annie = 1928 salem college yearbook

emmanuel + michelle are making decisions this weekend.



following a captioning and positioning exercise for their photographs, we discussed patrick's organizational scheme. after that, we talked about structure of the three prown/haltman essays.

The Other

"Exploring how desire for the Other is expressed, manipulated, and transformed by encounters with difference and the different is a critical terrain that can indicate whether these potentially revolutionary longings are ever fulfilled"

The Other is a collective term representing the racial minorities as compared to the dominant white culture. These images represent various day to day ways of experiencing the Other from the simple act of eating to the more complex use of commodifying race.


This representation shows a basic example of how the majority race experiences "the Other". This is a white girl stepping into the Thai Garden restaurant to "get a taste of" a different culture. This is a popular and non-confrontational way to enmesh oneself into a subculture.

These are two white men who find "the Other", represented by an African American woman, desirable. Does this situation portray the genuine desire for racial integration or is it a prime example of white male power?

The commodification of "the Other" uses sex as a way to lure the dominant race to experience whatever they are trying to advertise while exploiting sterotypes in the process.