imagery of semiotics

Today we had what I found to be one of the most diverse days of the course so far. The morning consisted of familiarising ourselves with a program to sort out our referencing, different methods of referencing, and,  last but most certainly not last...what is referencing...incredible life-changing stuff, but the second had, due to Liz Wells, was an engaging, insightful and slightly inspiring period of time which I took great value from...perhaps not direct importance to my thesis, but personal importance, which is becoming more and more apparent on this course. I will try and portray its importance

take a moment and look at the image above...what can we draw from it...starting with the obvious this is an image of young boys and girls, one adult, fairly structured in lines and relatively calm, they have obviously been told to sit in their given spots and remain still, it's safe to assume that it is probably of a school class, outside their school. Short dark hair perhaps gives a European rooting, and the visible poverty and detectable undernourishment hints at a 'less well-off' area. But their faces have been taken from them...this erasement was not coincidental, there is an animosity where someone has taken the time and meticulously and surgically gone through each individual face...individual...a persons face is their most apparent physical carnation of their identity, by scratching out their face, they are scratching out their identity, viewing them as a group of anonymous beings...

This is the key photo of a piece of Irish photographer Antony Haughey's piece 'Class of '73'. The story goes that while Haughey was in Kosovo during the troubles collecting images and artefacts on the conflict, he was given this photo by a soldier who had rescued it from the rubble of the Albanian Vaso Pache Primary School in the city of Pec, the school was used by para-military groups as a base before being hit with NATO bombs and vacated. This means the photo was found by a soldier, who then took it upon himself to alter the photo in the fashion he saw fit...to cleanse it of their personalities, their identities...ethnic cleansing. There is a mesh of layers of meanings and provocations this brings up, and it is a highly emotional and effective image with limitless connotations and interpretations. It taught me that photo's may have a visual structure or framework, but hung on that framework there is a patchwork of meanings, each meaning different yet the same to everyone and no-one.

Skipping heaps and heaps of other information and presented ideas, I'm going to use an image of my own and destruct it in a similar way. In fact, I will be taking it upon myself to view all of the images I have taken and that are presented to me in a manner that looks past the composition.

Above is an image of my own. It is in no way as powerful or evocative as 'The Class of 73', but for my study it has a submerged layer of importance probably not of interest to most. 

We see an elderly man and woman, probably a couple, sitting on a wooden bench in the shade of what looks like a thatched cottage or 'vernacular' building, with some 'breath-taking' views to the right. Yet the couple don't seem overly bothered, the male seems to be looking to the right out of our shot at a tour group maybe? The woman, tired, her crossed legs and relaxed demeanour suggest impartiality. Both are holding digital cameras and are sporting fashionable 'hiking/outdoor' clothing and 'day-bags'. Tourists it seems.

This is an image I took while on my trip to Machu Pichu of an elderly couple taking a rest from their tour group after a short buss journey up steep terrain to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, and wonder of the world*. They are sitting under the eaves of a reconstruction of an Incan dwelling at the world renown site of spiritual awakening. It is known worldwide as a stunning destination, and 'somewhere to go before you die'...in this very statement lies my point. Tourism, and I would argue the majority of aspects of modern life, has evolved into a complex relationship of modernity. We think we are going to the place because of the place, to view the place, to be in the place, that we are the spectators and the place is the spectacle...not true, the very act of going and 'gazing' on the apparent 'spectacle' is in fact the honest spectacle. We do not travel the thousands of miles to be in awe of the view and mysticism, we travel all that way to 'gaze' upon ourselves in the act, we collect the image, and god forbid if the place doesn't equal or better the preconception we had of the place, then we know not to let slip "this isn't that good!", that would be social suicide, instead we fall back on that preconception of the place in our imagination instead of the actual image.

I am currently fighting with ideas in my head, and the above is what makes up one half of the conflict, the second half is my idea of the 'all-place'. Marc Augé put forward the idea of the 'non-place' in 1995, the idea that places of transience and anonymity such as airports, chain-hotels, motorways and so on are all 'non-place's, places that have no real identity or culture, places that are abstract and could be relocated anywhere in the world. However, over the last 15 years I think quite a bit has changed, including the attitude to these 'non-places', this is where my idea of 'all-place's comes into play. People are obviously travelling more than ever before, and the existence of identity-less spaces such as airports and chain-cafes are being encountered increasingly in every-day life..."space is practised place"...or something along those lines, I cant remember the exact quote for de Certeau, but basically, through the increased interaction and inhabitation of these identity-less places we are form bonds, shallow roots or identities within them. We feel comfortable in airports, and take reassurance of the appearance of a starbucks, we are turning these widely available non-places and forming an ever-more apparent 'heimat' relationship with them. Our identity is increasingly being constructed by homogenous 'all-places'.

(This piece is unapologetically NOT referenced, i've had enough referencing for a fortnight after this morning)

representational me

Bless me father, its been a couple of weeks since my last confession...I'm starting to see a trends developing in these posts, which I have observed of other blogs I have worked on, which may have something to do with the Fibonacci series or the Golden ratio...My first few posts will be in quick, enthusiastic succession, but as time passes in its linear form, the longer it takes me to update this with relevant details...in fact, I'm starting to wonder what is relevant to this anymore!

I can't quite remember where I left the last post, butI don't think I covered Kathrine's second seminar, which proved to be just as interesting and a little more insightful then her first. I definitely took away a different form of perspective on certain subjects. Looking at myself and my views on new media, I think its pretty safe to say that I might be a little old fashioned in my attitude...lets say a little more Jeremy Gould than Adam!! I still have a little of the belief that some forms of media are in fact halving spaces, and contributing to the demise of a considerable amount of 'places', and the texts I read from Katherine's prescribed list seemed to re-enforce my ideas. However I did highlight the case of a housemate of mine to the group. It is quite pretentious of me to judge, but I think/thought his lifestyle was suffering massively due to online gaming. His diet, social life and physical health all seem to take a back seat in comparison to his gaming habits. After a few over enthusiastic chats about his favourite games and a few conventions he had been too, I realised that I felt a little bit sorry for the guy...saying it does make me feel slightly 'up myself' so to speak. 

But I started to realise that he was playing the majority of time with his father...The game they were playing is an online game where you have to very careful with your trust, if you trust another player than they could rob your spaceship and all of your money, so they only trusted each other. I slowly began to realise that this was probably the only way of communicating with his dad who lives in a different country. I still can't help myself feel a little sorry for the guy, but if this is the only form of contact that they have then so be it. Maybe without this new media space in which he spends hours with his father, he wouldn't have regular contact with him at all, and it was only when Kathrine mentioned this did the reality of it hit me.

I still feel like his physical health is suffering due to his affiliation without the game, but I'm starting to see that possibly these new media spaces have a lot more benefits then I first liked to believe. Moderation is a word that I believe we don't hear enough, everything in moderation. Gaming in moderation, alcohol in moderation, exercise in moderation, food in moderation...too much of one thing and its effects are detrimental. This new media is an extremely positive thing, but in moderation. 

“Sometimes, I go without lunch so I could use my allowance to buy a pre-paid call card for my cell phone,” says Tammy Reyes, a 17-year old college student. “If I don’t receive a text when I wake up or I receive only a few messages during the day, I feel as though nobody loves me enough to remember me during the day.” (Rheingold, Smart Mobs, Cambridge, MA: Basic Books, 2002, p. 21).

This for me is exemplary of the modern day youth in many societies, if they don't receive a certain amount of texts, or a text at a certain time of day, then they don't feel loved, because to receive a text is to know that someone is thinking about you. It doesn't matter if the text says 'Hi', 'I'm bored' or '...', its the thought of someone else thinking of you that counts. I hope that the current trend of attachment to these messages doesn't persist in their emotional meaning for users, or we could be approaching a series of detrimental outcomes for not receiving the vibrating or beeping that highlights the fact that someone loves us.

Last week we had Doreen talk to us about Representation, and this was the first seminar which honestly had little to do with my interests. It was an interesting talk, and Doreen obviously is an expert in her field, but it only proved to reenforce my depressive attitude toward the current industry of architecture and its attachment to images. I don't think I can sit at the same desk, every day for a year, while my fingers grow every-more comfortable without the quick-keys of AutoCAD. The career I end up in is still in the misty horizon, and I change my mind every fortnight...Doctorate, Architectural journalist, humanitarian architect, drug smuggler......who knows...

Unfortunately, and I really do mean that, I missed both Dans's lecture which was sure to be the most interesting for me and Doreen second seminar....I am NOT happy with myself over that, but man flu and a few other ailments I don't care to share restricted me from attending, I'm still a little worse for wear, but I've found a haven in the silent study area on the second floor of the library..

In a moment, I'm hoping to make a start on my project proposal...should be fun, seen as I have no idea what my project is going to be, or even if I plan on finishing it in this academic year...I thick it's about time to get decisive.....maybe....