Author: ivycarterr

KEY THEORIST’S & IDEAS

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BLOG POST 2

When thinking of what type of Popular Culture I consume I instantly think of cartoons. Growing up I was always very fond of cartoons, starting from the innocent ‘The Land Before Time’ to the more today’s cartoons of Family Guy – watching seasons and movies on repeat, was and still is a very big habit of mine. 

But let’s back it up a little, what exactly IS popular culture?

Popular culture is a very vast term. An approach for any attempt to describe popular culture is to say

“popular culture is simply a culture that is widely favoured or well-liked by many people.” (Storey, 2015)

Popular culture allows for the collective identity of vast diverse groups of individuals. It plays an important role in society as it unites the public on standards of appropriate norms of behaviour. Along with forging a sense of belonging that connects individuals to a wider community. Perhaps popular culture tends to attract to us because it creates opportunities for both personal satisfaction and social bonding.

So fast forward a couple years and I’m still the same girl who LOVES cartoons. At the moment for the 4th time, I’m re-watching the SpongeBob SquarePants series and I’m loving it.

For those of you who aren’t too familiar with this popular culture…

SpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated comedy television series produced for Nickelodeon by the late marine science educator and animator, Stephen Hillenburg. The series chronicles the adventures and activities of the title character and his aquatic mates in the fictitious underwater town of Bikini Bottom.

Moreover, with references to theories such as Globalisation, the understanding of SpongeBob as a popular culture becomes more obvious. The series interpretation on pop. Culture is corroborated through its key characteristics of globalisation –

“instantaneity, interdependency and interconnectedness” (O’Shaughnessy, 2012).

Through discussing globalisation, we can further expand on the concept of interconnectedness.

The series is popular all around the world mostly because of its cultural proximity. Cultural proximity is a multidimensional term that is most commonly used to describe audience preferences across national boundaries. It’s an important philosophical process for explaining the actions of the audience. The products and audiences in the “culturally linguistic” and “geolinguistic” domain, has to be the same for the SpongeBob content to best align with the cultural personalities of viewers. Meaning that – English as a universal language – the majority of the viewers would rather watch material such as SpongeBob SquarePants which was created in the United States over content that was created elsewhere due to language barriers.

Furthermore, vocabulary is no longer a barrier to the animated series since it has been aired in over 200 countries and translated in 50 languages, which helps it to erase limitations and become a world-wide familiar text that attracts audience attention who aren’t too familiar with the English language or any cultural context.

In summary, SpongeBob is fabulous in English OR in a choice of 50 other languages.

Storey, J., 2015. Cultural Theory And Popular Culture. [online] Google Books. Available at: <https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=jgav8surlTIC&oi=fnd&pg=PR10&dq=cultural+theory+and+popular+culture&ots=nXkh0qY2L_&sig=WLBFhhfjfLXAlVd3qRRg7QluWLo#v=onepage&q=cultural%20theory%20and%20popular%20culture&f=false&gt; [Accessed 5 September 2020].

The World from PRX. 2018. Spongebob’S Global Popularity. [online] Available at: <https://www.pri.org/file/2018-11-28/spongebob-s-global-popularity&gt; [Accessed 5 September 2020].

Taylor & Francis. 2017. Cultural Proximity And Audience Behavior: The Role Of Language In Patterns Of Polarization And Multicultural Fluency. [online] Available at: <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08838150802205876&gt; [Accessed 5 September 2020].

✨ Its Instagram for me ✨

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BLOG POST 4

The use of social media offers an opportunity to change organisational knowledge sharing around the workplace/classroom via an occasional, structured organizational learning mechanism to a continuous online conversation with strangers and friends, unexpected interactions and a growing, dynamic sense of self-development. Explained by Jones and Hafner, Authors of the book ‘Understanding digital literacies: a practical introduction’, users of 

“different technologies have affordances and constraints in terms of what kind of people that we can be – that is the kinds of social identities that we can adopt – when we are using them” (Jones and Hafner, 2012)

Helping us grasp the understanding that some self-expressed identities can be curated and selective and some are more authentic. 

The social media platform that I use most to present a sense of my-self is Instagram. Instagram is a social media platform that provides a wide variety of multimodal capabilities that users can use when posting, such as image, video and text. With all the available functions throughout Instagram ranging from, stories and posts of myself, my friends and my family, to commenting, liking and saving pictures that just look pretty, I find that Instagram can successfully capture and portray ✨me✨. I would say my Instagram is authentic and true to who I am as a person, while also apprehending my actions and interest as I journey through the life-long process of personal growth and development. 

Regarding Instagram’s multimodality, users – such as myself – can use both imagery and commentary/text while interacting with the platform. Expressed by Jones and Hafner, 

“If the textual and visual information is in concurrence that means that the essential messages are the same and reinforce each other.”(Jones and Hafner, 2012),

Demonstrating how by using both textual and visual principles, a story is created which enhances the originality and uniqueness of your OWN, personal blog.

Instagram can express one’s self without intimidation or ridicule, not so much like Facebook. Facebook still has the power to show part of your profile to anyone who may be searching, even if you’re not directly friends. Reinforcing the fact that privacy isn’t a big team player when it comes to Facebook. 

  Contrastingly, Instagram can be completely intimate and private if it’s instructed to be, with just as little as a profile picture showing, your account is completely personal for you and whoever you would like. 

I personally don’t have a private account, as I enjoy displaying my rollercoaster ride through life to people who happens to stumble across my page – and if it’s a really big problem, I know where the block button is (lol).  In saying that, I don’t think I have an intended audience apart from my friends and family, although the ratio of my friends/family followers is greatly overtaken by just everyday people. 

Having a public account comes with the advantage of insights and follower information concerning my account. The people that would find my social media platform readily accessible are majority Australian users, although internationally, Americans have interacted with my social media presence aswell.

Instagram indeed enhances

“the production and distribution of images as a central to shaping both internal identity and external image” (McNely, 2012)

Creating your own story that is specifically tailored to you, which is very important when expressing your authentic sense of self.  

Jones, R. and Hafner, C., 2012. Understanding Digital Literacies. [online] Google Books. Available at: <https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=SfsCEzxDF8wC&oi=fnd&pg=PP2&dq=Jones,+R.+H.+and+Hafner,+C.+A.+(2012)+Understanding+digital+literacies:+a+practical+introduction.+London:+Routledge.&ots=OSd35j9j1H&sig=gMLjBAbTboKPXg37Se0JSlQWe3w#v=onepage&q=affordance&f=false&gt; [Accessed 2 September 2020].

McNely, B., 2012. [online] Williamwolff.org. Available at: <http://williamwolff.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/McNely-IEEE-PCS-2012-1.pdf&gt; [Accessed 2 September 2020].

CITIZEN JOURNALISM

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BLOG POST 3 – BCM111

In a time where technology has revolutionized the world, and we have become our own purveyors of information, we sometimes need to evaluate the credibility of our sources on which we find through the internet. Thanks to the exponential growth of technology, it is not uncommon for the public to read news via social media, a radical change away from the traditional means of newspapers and television broadcasts. The rise of social media allows us to send information to each other outside the limits of the mainstream press, often raising awareness of issues and actualities that the news does not capture or takes reason to speak about.

This introduced the public to

With our shifting and ever-growing world, our media sphere is drastically changing from day-to-day. Through the launch of the ‘Web 2.0’, the transition from conventional passive users to the growth of engaged viewers took place. As claimed by Ivaylo Yoshkov “The audience was no longer a passive consumer of the information, it became an information creator.” (Yoshkov, 2016) 

Citizen journalism is entering and influencing today’s world news ecosystem through its interconnected reporting, conventional and independent news sources, new social news sharing and user-generated content – it attracts a lot of public attention. 

Many people tend to collect information from blogs and podcasts, posted by ordinary people, not professional journalists, and they believe these sources to be far more transparent, objective and accurate than mainstream media. While some hold the opposite perspective and argue that public media does not meet the standards of rationality and integrity.

As a person who collects the majority of the world-wide news form their social media timelines, I personally believe that citizen journalism obtains both positive and negative aspects. Citizen journalism has the power to “live report” through eg. Live-tweeting or recording to warn other members of the public when there is danger, harm etc.

Contrastingly, citizen journalism submitted by users “are not edited, fact-checked or screened before they post” (Allan and Thorsen, 2009) and what they are posting is captured within the streets, meaning that it doesn’t contain the same type of support and reliability as professional journalists. Therefore, it doesn’t take away the possibility that the public could be reporting on something that could be misconstruing as the public doesn’t obtain all the relevant information. 

Citizen Journalism in terms of the rest of the world?

The influence of citizen journalism on mainstream journalism and community involvement is often addressed in Western democratic societies. We know very little about Citizen Journalism and its social and political effects in non-democratic societies like China. “A country where mainstream media are still under tight control while social conflicts are intensifying, and nationalistic sentiments are exacerbating” (Xin, 2010), as China ranks 177th / 180th on the World Press Freedom Index. 

The impact of Citizen journalism on Chinese mass media and culture is very multifaceted. There is evidence that Citizen journalism is used by mainstream journalism as a news outlet as well as an unofficial platform for the dissemination of politically sensitive material.

It can also be argued that Citizen journalism will cooperate successfully with Mainstream journalism to make it more difficult for the Party to monitor online information flows within the region, even though Citizen journalism alone is unlikely to be a driving force in fostering social change in China. 

In the meantime, Chinese citizen journalism is also developing itself as a forum for voicing nationalism.

Yoshkov, I., 2016. CULTURE, IDENTITY AND CITIZEN JOURNALISM IN BULGARIAN ONLINE MEDIA. [ebook] Bulgaria, p.113. Available at: <https://www.academia.edu/43423762/CULTURE_IDENTITY_AND_CITIZEN_JOURNALISM_IN_BULGARIAN_ONLINE_MEDIA&gt; [Accessed 1 September 2020].

Allan, S. and Thorsen, E., 2009. Citizen Journalism; Global Perspectives. 1st ed. [ebook] New York: Peter Lang. Available at: <https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=MFh_D-eGQWsC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=citizen+journalism&ots=WcAAcsEvA-&sig=wi9IaB9IWFysWTeGtOWbfrzSEPk&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false&gt; [Accessed 1 September 2020].

Xin, X., 2010. THE IMPACT OF “CITIZEN JOURNALISM” ON CHINESE MEDIA AND SOCIETY. [online] Taylor & Francis. Available at: <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17512781003642931?scroll=top&needAccess=true&gt; [Accessed 2 September 2020].

Digital artefact pitch – BCM114

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Hey guys!

Welcome to my pitch for my digital artefact for BCM114

After many weeks of thought and conversing with my fellow BCM fam, ‘if.looks.could.kill’ was born. My plan for my Instagram page is to share with my fellow viewers horror, true crime and history stories while engaging in beauty trends such as doing my makeup, waxing my eyebrows etc etc.

I intend to create fun and interesting videos that steer away from your everyday makeup videos and boring history lessons that we are exposed to now a day. In doing so, I believe that both ideas of my DA will blissfully compliment each other and help guide my digital artefact into becoming a fun yet interesting piece.

I am super excited for what the future has to hold for my DA!

Have a look at me pitching my DA in the YouTube video below.

Exploiting the boundaries of Consumer Law: misleading and deceptive advertisements – The Fyre Festival

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Have you or someone you know ever told a personal story that included misleading or false statements for the sole purpose of making the story more appealing for the intended audience? I can assure you that you’re not alone. Stretching the truth for the idea of engaging your audience is more common than you may think. It just may be overlooked by the chosen audience. Leaving the protagonist with an impressive story about how they obtained designer ‘Beats’ headphones for a modest price, despite his underlying knowledge that they were fake. Though this is nothing shy of egocentric, it isn’t illegal. Nevertheless, matters would be conflicting if a business was advertising and engaging in conduct that misleads or deceives their consumers or other businesses. As a consequence, a company has a potential penalty of $10 million. 

In a time where technology has revolutionized the world, and people as consumers are influenced by what they read and learn from their mediated public sphere, some frameworks on the internet can be misleading and therefore illegal. Although certain deceptive and misleading conducts advertised online may or may not be intentional, this is where the Australian Consumer Laws takes legal measures to resolve these issues.  

What is the Australian Consumer Law?

The Australian consumer law (ACL) establishes Australia with a single, national consumer legislation. The ACL covers both laws and regulations aimed at providing a more equal environment for buyers and preventing dishonest tactics from being used by advertisers in the marketplace. These laws refer to all corporations and are applied throughout Australia. 

‘Consumers’ are classified as the people or economic entities that purchase and/or hire products and services, assigning them as the end-users in the distribution chain of goods. Though we use the terms, consumer and customer, interchangeably, they often may not have the same meaning – a customer is not always a consumer. 

The Australian Consumer Law (ACL) is inclusive of:

  • a national unfair contract terms law covering standard form consumer and small business contracts;
  • a national law guaranteeing consumer rights when buying goods and services;
  • a national product safety law and enforcement system;
  • a national law for unsolicited consumer agreements covering door-to-door sales and telephone sales;
  • simple national rules for lay-by agreements; an
  • penalties, enforcement powers and consumer redress options. [1]

In 2010 a comprehensive legislation was passed by the Parliament of Australia to unify and rationalise previously incoherent and ineffective state regulations relating to consumers. The new law reduced the compliance burden for businesses and creates a national harmonised system of consumer protection and product safety.

Who is liable?

While catching out a misleading or false statement from a fellow peer can be a humbling experience but an awkward lesson for them. Enforcing rules regarding deception and lying may be a bit extreme for a fellow peer to follow, however, this concept is exactly what needs to be brought to the table when running a business. The Australian Consumer Law is essentially one law enforced by several regulators.

“The ACL is imposed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the state and territory fair trading agencies (e.g NSW Fair Trading) and, where it applies to financial services, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)” [2]. 

Thus, creating a strong network of governors. 

Deceptive and misleading advertisements in the media 

Businesses using social networking services such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are responsible for ensuring that the information on their platforms is correct, regardless of who puts it online. There are no specific or different consumer laws or regulations in place for social media. Consumer protection rules have existed in effect for decades and prohibit companies from creating fraudulent, misleading or dishonest statements about their goods or services. Such rules extend in the same manner to social media as on any other advertisement or distribution tool. 

The use of deceptive and misleading advertisements and statements affect the media through the idea of disinformation that is believed by consumers to create more business for said corporation. This sort of conduct can result in heavy fines and imprisonment. 

The Fyre festival – what went wrong

The Fyre Festival was vowed to be the 2017 ‘it’ event in America, as organisers Billy McFarland a wealthy entrepreneur and rapper Ja Rule guaranteed a VIP luxury experience in the Bahamas. McFarland planned to construct luxury tents, beach houses, and villas for attendees and VIP guests. As a result of the claim, the event sold out in 48 hours with ticket prices ranging from $500 US dollars to $12,000. 

After gross mismanagement and empty financial promises, the festival failed miserably and therefore became evident that the promotional images they’d seen all over social media were part of a false advertising scam into which fans poured thousands of dollars. The festival had a marketing strategy that focused on 

“selling a dream, selling a vacation, selling a concept,” as one staff member noted.

Ja Rule has been withdrawn from the $100 million lawsuit with McFarland being found guilty of Wire fraud – false advertisement to obtain money – in 2017. He was released on $300,000 bail in July. 

Though this scandal is not Australian, it still showcases how tightly connected misleading and deceptive conduct and the modern, digital age are around the world. The ACL states

“It is unlawful for a trader to make false or misleading representations about goods or services when supplying, offering to supply or promoting goods or services. It is also unlawful to make or use false or misleading testimonials”[3]. 

Highlighting, that if the said festival was produced in Australia and under Australian Consumer Law, McFarland could have received a maximum imprisonment of 10 years and a $500,000 fine, as he obtained benefit by deception. This scandal caused problems with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for both the organisers and the influencers, as they had failed to advertise properly. 

The Fyre Festival’s aspersion encourages consumers to consider the need for proof of safe transactions with guaranteed outcomes, despite how clear-cut it is to make online purchases. Hence, the fraudulent behaviour showcases the simplicity of which social media can be exploited in our new technological era to spread false perceptions and breach the Consumer Laws that are implemented. 

The methods deployed by Billy McFarland, left vulnerable consumers believing these false advertisements and misleading and deceptive strategies, with the understanding they were paying for what was promoted. As a result of these fraudulent advertisements, the Fyre Festival suffered huge legal consequences which in turn conveyed the importance of implementing a strong legal system, in this case, as a correlation to Consumer Law.  


 
Carter, L., 2018. Fyre Festival Expectation Vs Reality. Available at: <http://yakkaview.com/a-look-back-on-the-disaster-which-was-fyre-festival/&gt; [Accessed 3 May 2020].

Advice  

The ACCC provides advice for you, the consumer, to follow when purchasing off the internet and outlines what rights you have  when you shop online with an Australian business. Such rights may apply if you purchase from an overseas online company, but maintenance, replacement or refund could be complicated, as the company is not based in Australia.

These tips suggested by the ACCC will help protect you when shopping online:

  1. Only consider buying from online sellers in Australia or overseas that; have a good reputation, display clear processes for solving problems and giving replacements and refunds, display clear systems for protecting the security and privacy of your personal and financial details, display their business registration number, phone and fax numbers and physical address.
  2. Before buying, check terms and conditions carefully so you know what you’re paying for and that there are no hidden costs or restrictions.
  3. Before you start, ensure your computer, tablet or phone is secure by installing or updating security and anti-virus software [4]


The Australian consumer law helps to protect consumers from misleading and fraudulent conduct in trade and commerce businesses, and minimise consumer detriment. Nevertheless, the Fyre festival shows the impact of deceptive false advertisements can have on consumers. The Fyre Festival creates a national example about following regulations to creating a fair business-to-consumer environment. 

Works Cited:

  1. Consumerlaw.gov.au. 2020. Home | Consumer Law. [online] Available at: <https://consumerlaw.gov.au/&gt; [Accessed 29 April 2020].
  2. 2020. Hot Topics – Legal Issues In Plain Language. [ebook] Sydney: LIAC, pp.1-5. Available at: <https://www.correctiveservices.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/Related%20Links/libra&gt; [Accessed 1 May 2020].
  3. Scamnet.wa.gov.au. n.d. Scamnet. [online] Available at: <https://www.scamnet.wa.gov.au/scamnet/Scam_prevention-Your_legal_rights_under_the_ACL.htm#False_or_misleading_representations&gt; [Accessed 31 April 2020].
  4. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. n.d. Shopping Online. [online] Available at: <https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/online-shopping/shopping-online&gt; [Accessed 2 May 2020].

References:

  1. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. 2020. Advertising & Promoting Your Business. [online] Available at: <https://www.accc.gov.au/business/advertising-promoting-your-business&gt; [Accessed 26 April 2020].
  2. Treasury.gov.au. 2009. An Introduction To The Australian Consumer Law | Treasury.Gov.Au. [online] Available at: <https://treasury.gov.au/speech/an-introduction-to-the-australian-consumer-law&gt; [Accessed 26 April 2020].
  3. Findlaw. 2016. What Is Consumer Law? – Findlaw. [online] Available at: <https://hirealawyer.findlaw.com/choosing-the-right-lawyer/consumer-law.html&gt; [Accessed 26 April 2020].
  4. Market Business News. 2020. Consumers – Definition And Meaning – Market Business News. [online] Available at: <https://marketbusinessnews.com/financial-glossary/consumers-definition-meaning/&gt; [Accessed 30 April 2020].
  5. Marquet, D., 2018. ACCC Gets A Bigger Stick: Maximum Penalty For Breaching The Australian Consumer Law Substantially Increases – Corrs Chambers Westgarth. [online] Corrs Chambers Westgarth. Available at: <https://corrs.com.au/insights/accc-gets-a-bigger-stick-maximum-penalty-for-breaching-the-australian-consumer-law-substantially-increases&gt; [Accessed 1 May 2020].

BLOWING ON YOUR FOOD OR JUST BLOWING YOUR FOOD?…

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“Sex sells”. This is a phrase that many in the advertising businesses inclusive of magazines, online, television and fashion industries have used to sell and promote products, with the outcomes differing from conventional to controversial. The use of sex can be very transparent, extremely overt and at a certain level subliminal in advertising, allowing the use of double-meanings and underlying messages to be demonstrated to the target audience. 

This advertisement is surprisingly loaded with sexual metaphor for an image which, at its core, is a person and a sandwich. In producing this advertisement, ‘Burger King’ promotes the reference that food and sex are in conjunction with each other through the use of this metaphorical connection. Nevertheless, the ad is recognised literally as a popular franchise ad trying to promote their food, although the underlying message coded throughout is extremely controversial.

Though this can be interpreted light-heartedly and funny, the denotation and connotations of Singapore’s ‘Burger King’ 2009 limited edition “BK super seven incher” – which can be understood as a sexualised allusion – contradicts numerous present-day ideologies on the representation of women. Whilst the commercial highlights the latest scale and “mind-blowing” taste of the burger in food promotion, the idiomatic expressions of the blonde women portray females in a degrading and sexist manner. This came into particular awareness as 2009 was the year of the Chris Brown and Rihanna domestic violence occurrence.

Fox News states that the model “was not aware that her image was used in the campaign until recently.” After her receiving information that her photo has been used for promotive practices without her consent she questions

“Is this an ad for blow jobs, or fast food?”

Followed by a logical statement “You’d think that for a scenario like this the company would want to make sure the model is aware of how her image is being used”. 

This advertisement was targeting a particular audience. Males. The explicit act followed by the term “Blow” understandably speaks for itself. The advertisements distinct arrangement of language and visuals illustrates that one may obtain the same level of pleasure from consuming a burger as they might form experiencing the sexual act that the commercial alludes too. “Sex makes up a large portion of the advertisement that we consume”. This technique has been so influential that is beginning to emerge in entirely different areas of the business, such as burger shops. 

Subsequently, the power of interpretation comes from our understanding of the science of semiotics. This is the notion that you perhaps already have gathered knowledge about subliminally, before being familiar with the concept. Semiotics is conclusively the study of signs and images and the usage or perceptions of them. Hence, it is obvious that people interpret signs differently as we are aware that an active audience read in different ways. This is highlighted through the concept of their ideologies which are dependent on their social constructs, their religion, and their frameworks for their understanding of the world.

Works Cited

Newsactivist.com. 2016. Burger King’S Mind-Blowing Ad | Newsactivist. [online] Available at: <http://www.newsactivist.com/en/articles/gendered-world-views-section-10-winter-2016/burger-kings-mind-blowing-ad&gt; [Accessed 17 April 2020].

Scholes, R., 1982. Semiotics And Interpretation. Vail-Ballou Press.

Fox News. 2014. Model Calls For A Burger King Boycott After She Was Featured In A Sexually Suggestive Ad. [online] Available at: <https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/model-calls-for-a-burger-king-boycott-after-she-was-featured-in-a-sexually-suggestive-ad&gt; [Accessed 17 April 2020].

Smith, L., 2015. Rihanna Speaks Out About Chris Brown And Domestic Violence In Vanity Fair Interview. [online] Grazia. Available at: <https://graziadaily.co.uk/celebrity/news/rihanna-chris-brown-break-relationship-news-rumours-vanity-fair-cover/&gt; [Accessed 13 April 2020].

THE MEDIA TOOLBOX THEORY & MY PUBLIC SPHERE

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The public sphere is a social space in which different opinions are expressed, problems of general concern are discussed, and collective solutions are developed. Ultimately, leading to people debating and discussing ideas and the news of the day.

Traditionally the public sphere was the idea of people coming together at a public place and speaking one on one, to debate and deliberate issues. This was Jurgen Habermas’ comprehensive idea and what he defined as ‘the public sphere’. However, due to the growth of technology and social media would imply the modern reincarnation of the public sphere with a network that would deliver unrestricted and unregulated discussion beyond local limits. Thus,

The creation of the ‘public sphere 2.0’.

Today the public sphere is heavily mediated, meaning the media often provoke debates about issues and people use the media to debate these issues as it is a space where voices can be expressed due to the low barrier of entry. Though creating concern as the lines between professional media coverage and general citizen coverage have been blurred.

My public sphere would ultimately be described as my close circle of friends, my family and my social media accounts. My mediated public sphere would function much the same as anyone else’s – I would obtain my information from my social media accounts and tv programmes to learn about the issues and current situations that are occurring around me. This allows me to dispute current situations and ideas with my friends and family, conclusively leading to personal opinions.

POV: Me to anyone who tries to argue a point that goes against mine

Issues that would arise in my public sphere would consist from current situations such as the Coronavirus pandemic to the latest tik tok trend – we’re so diverse lol – which in summary helps create a variety of opinions to be expressed about differing ideas/ topics. In the book, ‘Habermas and the Public sphere’ discusses the concept of who was included in Habermas’s idea of the public sphere. “The early bourgeois (middle – class) public sphere was composed of a narrow segment of the European population, mainly educated, propertied men, And they conducted a discourse not only exclusive of others but prejudicial to the interests of those excluded.” – which was basically anyone who wasn’t a white, wealthy male.

Social media provides new opportunities for political participation as the mediated public sphere has been enhanced by the emergence of different publics and different spaces. The Internet impacts today’s public sphere in many ways, as a result of social media being recognised as a virtual public sphere where people can come to discuss the issues of the day even if they’re not in the same physical place. However, social media has perhaps a lack of seriousness in political communication, producing a typical warning around the risks of accessing unreliable sources and data.

Calhoun, C., 1999. Habermas And The Public Sphere. [ebook] Massachusetts. Available at: <https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=5F8qjMkoxZ0C&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=habermas+and+the+public+sphere&ots=muFoKTRQfd&sig=HhtHk4cnEyt4VR1LIZeo7rA-OC0#v=onepage&q=habermas%20and%20the%20public%20sphere&f=false&gt; [Accessed 20 April 2020].

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The constructivist period.

Constructivism had its beginnings in Russia in 1913 by Vladimir Tatlin as an artistic and architectural ideology. The movement endorsed art as a social practice, emphasizing building and science rather than artistic expression. Constructivism art focused on industrial production. Constructivist art used stripped down, abstract forms and respectful materials to express their visual language. This consisted of structures that they could draw with practical instruments like compasses and rulers.

Képarchitektúra – Lajos Kassak

Lajos Kassak’s famous constructivist artwork ‘Képarchitektúra’ which is translated from Hungarian to ‘architecture picture’, helps provide the understanding of how sparse generic forms were used by constructivists to help generate paintings.

Kassask’s artwork consists of a minimal color palette with the use of tone as a visibly distinctive feature. This is represented with contrasting colours as the opposing shades of yellow, orange and grey sit within the deep reds and blacks, forming depth and tension within the artwork. This is shown to be standard to alternative artworks that were produced during the Constructivism period. Evidently, when appropriate, Kassak utilized bold colours to influence the attention of the audience, thus creating vectors.

 Kassask’s use of geometric forms in his artwork ‘Képarchitektúra’ reiterate his idea of visual language through shapes and structures. Kassak’s constructivism piece involves form relationships in the manner of clustering his shapes to establish a sense of connection as though they belong together. Thus, also initiating a purpose of negative space as it creates a sense of disconnection and oppression around the focal point of the piece. The ‘Képarchitektúra’ artwork also incorporates the relationship of overlapping and layering, constructing an illusion of a foreground and background whilst enhancing the sense of a three-dimensional shape.  Furthermore, highlighting the purpose of constructivist art as an artform that should reflect the industrial world.

A picture containing table, sitting, chair, black Description automatically generated

The Pop art movement.

Pop Art is a movement in art which arose in the 1950s and prospered in America and Britain in the 1960s, drawing influence from sources in mainstream and commercial culture. Pop art began as a protest against the dominant and traditional approaches to fine art by allowing artists to produce a form of abstract expressionism and comic styles. This is ultimately a result from the exposure to western popular culture, that is derived from advertisements, mass production, road signs, comic strips and iconography.

Still Life#35 – Tom Wesselmann

Tom Wesselmann is regarded as a major artist of New York Pop Art, whose sophistication and originality place him at the centre of the pop art movement that came to characterise contemporary art. In an attempt to resist abstract expressionism, Wesselmann created collages and accumulations that coupled common objects and media ephemera. While Wesselmann opposed the Pop art label, his piece ‘Still Life #35’ is a symbolic work of the 1960s that fits well into the movement.

The predominant colour pallet used by Tom Wesselmann throughout ‘Still Life #35’ include primary pigments of yellow, red and blue creating reference to popular culture and ultimately composed vivid imagery. Wesselmann composed his work, painting the flat, saturated colors with fine precision and carefully balancing the objects, colors and textures. The composition of form through the use of overlapping generates a sensation of connectivity and hierarchy to create an appearance of depth on a flat surface. Tom Wesselmann’s use of clustering within the central part of the piece establishes a point of focus, achieving vector lines guiding the audiences view. Nearly all the items in view are affordable, standardised, manufactured and packaged with distinct and well-known branding and logos that reflected consumerism and leisure and commercialization of popular culture.

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SWEAT SESSION

| ivycarterr

Festival season… what a time to be alive.

Something about the mutual experience of strangers coming together to watch and appreciate the same event induces a feeling of belonging and connectivity. This derives from the idea of being part of an audience as we subconsciously fabricate a collective memory.

To kick off my new year of 2019, I and a group of friends attended the music festival ‘Field Day’. This was a memorable time that I was part of an audience as I shared the main stage floor with hundreds of different people, coming together for the same ultimate experience of creating memories. What was interesting about this experience is that despite the 30+ degree heat, the slipping and sliding of sweat-drenched limbs and the rubbing of overheating bodies, as an audience we pushed this uncomfortable encounter aside for our overall entertainment.

Although sharing and creating this experience as an audience with other people does generate comprehensive enjoyment, there’s always some sort of catch when standing in an enclosed space with sweaty and aggravated teens… and indeed there was. Negatives that arise while you’re in the pit of sweat are inclusive of selfish pushing which unfortunately I had the first-class seat in and the people who dared to go on others shoulders right in the middle of the mosh, creating havoc and chaos as other members of the audience push and shove to create mayhem.

Being part of an audience does come with the attachment of unspoken rules. As much as there is little to no personal space while in a mosh pit and your constantly rubbing shoulder to shoulder with people you probably haven’t seen before or will see again anytime soon, there is generally a level of respect that is kept, especially for those who fall over or get injured. This is inclusive of creating space for those in that sort of circumstance to make sure everyone is safe.

Connecting this experience to the ideas that were introduced in week 2’s lecture involves that as an audience we are all sharing a similar collective affair through experiencing the same festival together. Individually you can grow and find belonging Whilst engaging as a collective audience as you feel a sort of acceptance through the idea of celebrating the same event as a bunch of strangers. Packer, J. & Ballantyne, J. (2011) did a study incorporating the idea that music can contribute to the development of a sense of belonging (Duffy, 2005), help people participate actively in social activities (Davis, 1992), feel accepted, valued and needed (Kahn, 1999).

So I guess me trying to learn Irish off an Ireland backpacker whilst listening to Peggy Gou in the background, is just me trying to find my sense of acceptance through shared experience with the rest of the audience and not me being a weirdo.

Works cited

Parker, J. and Ballantyne, J., 2011. The Impact Of Music Festival Attendance On Young People’S Psychological And Social Well-Being. [online] Escape Library. Available at: <https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/UQ_221685/UQ221685_postprint.pdf?Expires=1587616679&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJKNBJ4MJBJNC6NLQ&Signature=ECUL7xjfCLU8zLmrWzs-8EICLsCFd-qJmrBaE8o3lVF31PUVx1Qn9aoZ7dAL4samQ4RC-I7BIuHhxFzYJryMhJpV-2hWXhBHmn1wqa~e9MMj~OG~k7iTWvQT5Scs3AV0-ZR~TWKm0knuKWFZZZbKfuuiB2XZ9HeNsb4-CRo7P9VzwlGf0BfyzIBOyc0afMAeEi7ZSKFIOd4-Kjbi09s61u0d0mk-y54Au23HNM2I0hY3KoJk7cnRfIP1Oo~vDxT~NqiM6RmRx1i10OJrok2KEFaiBF~xenD-rqCX8hB3mwlEA~A8QtP1x7EDPjJ5h2uxx6ojXSbWCbg8LobY5ZVu9w__&gt; [Accessed 20 March 2020].