The video clips we watched in our last discussion were quiet fascinating to me because I kept wondering how people could ever want to live the way the clips were demonstrating. Living in the woods and relying on their selves for basic needs seemed to me unnecessarily difficult. The families looked very harmonies and close, but a bit behind in our modern world. I could not help but keep thinking that I could never live like that. Even the objects inside the houses seemed out of date or very basic, nothing high-tech, but instead basic tools that helped in the basic living needs, such as cooking. The newer technologies some of the families used, like the solar energy panels for their cabins, looked really cool and captured both their goals and live styles very well. Keliy Anderson-Staley’s work is very friendly and inviting to the living styles people have with a deeper connection to nature. The ways the houses were built and the material used to make them are in a way art that depicts self-expression about their living styles. The images feature these man made houses that fit into their surroundings hormonally, the snow and trees just look beautiful. You don’t see trash or the hustle of busy people, but instead a relaxed collaboration of humans and nature. I still wouldn’t be so fond of living the way these people have chosen to, but I have come to understand why they have do it. One of the women mentioned that there are not enough woods for everyone to live on in the way they have chosen to and that she was one of the few to do so, as if it were a huge honor. That really got my attention, she looked at it as making a choice of improving her life while I at first saw it as a huge down grade. It all comes down to what people have come to value in their lives and why. As for Jason Salavon’s work, I love his uniqueness and modern style. I have seen one of his pieces somewhere before. I especially enjoyed his mandalas! In CFC last semester and especially this semester, I have drawn and sewn my own mandalas. He mentions his inspirations were Buddhist and shopping for the mandalas, the shopping part is very interesting to me. For my mandalas I looked at Buddhist, Navajo Indians, Tibetan, Aztec, and Carl Jung’s mandals, never did it occur to me to look at shopping. The colors and complexity works so well, jumping out at the viewer in an expressive way. His mandalas hold that centernesscand wholeness that mandalas consist of. The mandalas continue off the page and don’t have that circle border most mandalas have, which I think was a good choice he made in presenting them because they show more movement that way. The color choice of each mandala depicts happiness and celebration in a unique way by not overusing symbolism or repetition.
This week, I read through the selected readings by Mr. Trumpey. One particular essay jutted out, Price’s description of the Nature Company. This past summer, I had the opportunity to attend an advertising convention in Washington DC. While, there, I forgot all of my dress shirts back home. Rather than borrow my friend’s shirts, I ventured into a mall in the outskirts of DC. There, I passed by one of these Nature Company stores (I’m almost certain that it was this company and not a competitor). I too walked in briefly to find myself surrounded by what nature “means” to most of us. I spent no more than five minutes in the store but can relate to Price’s reaction. In the beginning of the article, he articulates his find with a simple “wow.” The readers are not informed as to the reason behind his amazement until the very end where he discloses his frustration with the company. In a nutshell, the Nature Company sells items such as stuffed animals with built in bird calls, shirts featuring an array of wild animals, plastic dinosaurs and all of the accouterments one would identify nature with. Because of this, they merely expand on nature as a commercial product. Part of the irony behind this store is that most store locations exist only in malls. Malls are considered a place where one goes to buy items that are not necessary. For instance, you would be hard-pressed to find a useful hygiene product on any shelves within the mall. Instead, people wander the busy isles with no exists and consume everything within reach. This completely defeats the purpose of nature where a person normally spends time reflecting on their experience with Mother Earth. It is slightly sickening how we commercialize even nature itself. Sometimes, I feel as if people try to justify themselves for spending 80% of their time indoors by succumbing to these items. Obviously, I’m not against an honest capitalistic system and advertisement mediated to sell a superfluous product, however, this store signifies a steady decline in our appreciation of nature. We should be spending time outdoors instead being stocked away in a store that only represents “nature” in the most blunt of ways.
I think that Culture Jam has been the most relevant reading that Trumpy has assigned us so far. I believe that one of the key things that lead us to destructing out environment is the fact that we consume so much. Why do we buy so many things? I think it is because business through advertising have convinced us that we have to have all these things in order to be happy. In Culture Jam I like his analogy of the mass media being like a drug in that it promises belonging. Yet, I don’t believe you can get belonging from buying things. I think that belonging is something that can only be gotten through interactions with other people. I think that as humans we like to think that everything we do we do because we want to and that we aren’t influenced by other things especially something so simple as an ad. I believe that we are whether we want to admit to it our not. We are even influenced by the things we try to ignore. We are continually bombarded with messages coming to us in all-different forms. Another great point I think that is made in the book is that as Americans we seem to be really unsatisfied with our lives even though we seem to have more then we need and a lot of what we want. “We embrace the value of more because our lives that seem, somehow less.” Yet, when did having more stuff make us have any long-term happiness? I believe that things really only have momentary happiness like when you first get something new you feel great. But often when you are having a bad day none of those things can really make you feel better. When you lose someone you would often trade all your material things to have them back. I believe that the only material things that have true value are those that have meaning to us beyond there use. Things like art whether it is a drawing, a novel or a piece of music.
When I first started to read “Culture Jam” I was very bored. I guess I was just not in the mood to be scolded for my consumerist lifestyle anymore. I care about making a change in the world, and I believe that collectively this may be possible, but it is something that I personally, for some reason unknown to even me, cannot relate to at this point in my life. I have more trivial and personal concerns at the moment than the overall scheme of things. But as I kept reading, I really started to relate. One topic that really grabbed a hold of my attention was in the very beginning of “Autumn-Mood Disorders”. Lasn recognizes the lack of life and passion we, as Americans suffer from. He uses as an example, the average family venturing into the woods to try and connect with each other via old school camping. I think it is sad how lost they are without their televisions, Internet, radio, magazines, etc. It made me realize that that is what I have become. It was not always that way. I remember going camping all the time when I was younger. My brothers and I absolutely loved it. We had no electricity, no running water, and no one around for miles, and we couldn’t have been happier. We were not like those kids Lasn talks about, to whom nature is dead. But now, I’m afraid I have become way too dependent on my technology and I know camping will have lost it’s magic for me. This is something I would like to remedy, especially if I ever have a family of my own. Another topic that really intrigued me was the influence of sound and noise in our modern society. I never really thought about it before, but sound is extremely prevalent in our lives today. And not just good/pleasant sounds like music, but obnoxious sounds that we have sadly allowed to become commonplace. What is scary is that the noises we hear everyday may actually be affecting our subconscious, causing mood swings or annoyance we don’t even realize is there. I now hear phantom sounds, like my cell phone ringing or beeping, because these noises are so embedded into my everyday thoughts. After reading this portion of the book, I realized that I am also very dependent on electronic or manmade sound as a source of comfort. If I am home alone, I turn on the television or music. Even as I was reading I was listening to music. We are so overexposed to such a multitude of sounds that it becomes a background of white noise that is necessary for us to function. I actually get uncomfortable in complete silence. All of this got me thinking, and I have decided to open my window tonight, as I do every night, but this time I want to actually distinguish the separate sounds that have become white noise to me and, most importantly, let nature’s soundtrack take over the electronic mess of sound I have subjected myself to all day. I feel like this is healthier for the mind. On a completely different note, I happened to stumble across a photographer, named Lu Guang, who does amazing documentation of pollution in China. His images really make you think and consider how bad things really are in some parts of the world-how bad we have made them. I found the photos both painful and inspiring to look at. This is the site: http://www.chinahush.com/2009/10/21/amazing-pictures-pollution-in-china/
The new book is a really great follow up to A Sand County Almanac. You have one side, which we were just exposed to in Leopold’s book that is a highly descriptive book about nature and how we have to be aware of nature and live in it to conserve it. The book was written a considerably long time ago, seeing as how fast our world is changing now, so it’s nice to have a book that pertains more to our lives today. Culture Jam is also calling for humans to get back to nature, but doing it in a completely different way. He is focusing on the actual health risks and side effects of living the way that we do today. I personally believe that although he cannot prove some of his facts, that they seem likely that our over stimulated lives are causing us to develop health problems. For example, when he used the example of taking kids camping and how they literally become depressed and have withdrawal from TV and Internet I completely understood what he was talking about. I have to sadly admit that although I enjoy camping and love being outside, that I do crave coming back to civilization to check my stupid facebook. I was also shocked when he was writing about the ad agency and the Dr. Camron story. How Dr. Camron’s patients had serious mental health issues and yet the same thing that advertising agencies are doing no one cares or speaks up about it. There is also the issue that these things are literally inescapable. There is no way to avoid advertisements or sound pollution in today’s world. Especially if people are talking about placing a giant billboard out into space so that people can see ads when they look out into space. It’s clear that TV and ad agencies don’t care about our mental health and only want to benefit themselves.
Transitioning from the gentle, tranquility of Sand County Almanac to the in-your-face style of Culture Jam is a bit of a “culture shock”. There is nothing apathetic about Lasn’s tone. My older sister sent me a collection of old Adbusters magazines as a late birthday present and I’ve begun reading several articles recently. Due largely to the fact that Lasn founded Adbusters, it is much like reading Culture Jam in magazine form. I agree with many of the issue’s addressed in both the book and articles I’ve read but it is sometimes hard for me to digest all of the information it feels as though I’m being yelled at. One article titled, “Rewilding the cultural environment,” caught my attention in particular. In essence it explains the importance of fighting against the corporate domination over what is cool. We have all been brain washed to some degree because we trust that the information provided for us by the media corporations is always correct and it isn’t. Through out our lives advertisements tell us what is in style and most of the time we obey blindly playing along with the corporate mind games. Whether we like it or not, we are a product of our surroundings. When I read about the influence of sound in Culture Jam, I found same underlying theme to be true. Because there is such an overabundance of aural input at all times, we learn to tune out. But tuning out doesn’t make the sound go away it just slips from impacting our conscious to our subconscious much the way visual stimuli does. My mom used to tell me not to listen to music while I did my homework because she thought it distracted me when it actually helped me ignore the surrounding little noises. Because of the increase in the speed of communication and the advancements in technology, my generation’s ability to multitask is very different from my parent’s. I went on a wilderness camping trip in late fall and spent one night in a very secluded section of the woods by myself with only a tarp, a sleeping bag and a water bottle. Strangely enough what I remember most was the silence. It was so quiet that I couldn’t sleep because the only noise I heard was a the ringing in my ears. This leads me to the video clips we watched last class. It is hard to abandon the notion that living without electricity isn’t old fashioned, and the interesting paradox is that it may be the most progressive way to live. The videos inspired me to consider that an off-the-grid lifestyle is an actual possibility. Of course it requires tremendous effort but it can be done. And lastly, I really enjoy Salavon’s work. The way he combines the concept and structure of a Buddhist mandala, a method to create a sacred space and form of meditation, and such culturally iconic and simplistic images to design complex patterns is breathtaking.
I went home this past weekend. My parents had been digging through all our old things and when I went upstairs one of the first things I found was a puzzle by the Nature Company. Knowing my mother had most likely had bought this, Price’s article suddenly seemed extremely relevant. My mother would be just the person to purchase something from the Nature Company. She used to be a woman of the wild (she used to go camping a lot) but since the birth of my brother and I she has more become a woman of the pink flamingo (she has one tattooed on her ankle, if that is relevant at all). She fits the type of person Price thinks would buy from the Nature Company. In ADP 2 I wrote a paper on the culture of souvenirs. I found a lot of similarities to things I came across in research and this article by Price. What souvenirs and the Nature Company are trying to sell is the essence of an idea. Not a fully realized one, but just enough that people will keep with it an association of a grander scheme. No matter how realistic a penguin toy is it really represents a greater blend of nature and commerce. Him assessing the idea of a Nature Company in the mall is very interesting to me. The people who would buy from them in a mall definitely want to be a step removed from what they are purchasing. They do not want to be reminded that the inflatable penguin uses the same amount of plastic as a flamingo lawn ornament. They just want to know that they are doing something for the nature that they do not explore. This provides them a sense of comfort, and this is what keeps them coming back.
The beginning of this book kind of annoyed me. I guess I always get defensive when broad generalizations are made about a country and it’s people. However, I agree with the fact that there is too much stimulation in today’s society. Like in the example with the family going camping, where they are out in this beautiful landscape but they don’t know what to do with themselves because they are so used to constant stimuli. It’s like they don’t know how to just be themselves. All they know is how to interact with technology, which allows them to shut down and not have to deal with the fact that their lives are meaningless. I go camping quite a lot, and anytime I’m camping at a campground instead of in the backcountry, I always see those kinds of families. The ones that can’t even spend one night away from their physical and mental comforts. They bring stoves, chairs, a stereo, and even a portable fully equipped house. The only difference is that their “backyard” looks a little different and their “house” and a bit smaller. It’s no wonder the average American family has little depth other than their eight layers of fat. I also liked what Lasn had to say about our country’s rampant mental disorders. When you are out in nature surviving and really living, these kinds of things don’t matter. When you stop to really realize the beauty and sheer magnitude of the earth, everything else seems less important. And yet it is important. Every leaf, stone, and frog is special and amazing and it isn’t coming at you at 40 “jolts” per minute. Many people are so used to that constant barrage of entertainment that they get to a park or a lake, look at it for a few moments, and then move on. It’s become something we have little control over. Before I started writing this response, I succumbed to these learned instincts as well. I surfed the internet at a break neck pace, searching for some kind of stimuli to fuel my procrastination. Then I stopped. I stopped and I thought. And I think this is what every needs to learn to do more of; just stop and think. And then stop thinking.
I'm going to be honest, I laughed when I saw that Culture Jam was divided by seasons (Since Sand County was divided by months I thought it would be similar) but was happy to find that Lasn wrote with his audience in mind. According to him, I am in need of constant jolts and stimuli and he provides this by directing my attention to blatant ironies in our culture and shocking information. Like the ad of a stick thin model next to a bus of starving people, or that flight attendants sometimes use Diet coke to unclog sinks on commercial jets. Of course there are some things I don't think he explains well at all, for instance he says that cultural jamming or revolutions are not new and have been around for ages. Maybe, but viewing human behavior as a whole, I think revolutions are a relatively new "hot commodity" that corporations are feeding us to remind us of not only our countries origins but our youth. Revolutions are not glamorous or cool, they are dangerous and confusing but we have this intoxication conception of what revolution is. Just look at the new levi ads, they never once mention jeans, instead they quote revolutionary speeches, poetry and reference the 60s. And that's how they're selling jeans. Because we look at that ad and say wow that speech was cool, I'll have great ideas too if I wear those jeans and run around with flowers and banners. What I'm trying to say is, Lasn is trying to inspire a revolution against corporations but corporations are the ones saying revolution is inspiring. I'm not implying he doesn't realize he's doing this, he founded Adbusters after all he knows how this works. He did bring up some things that I thought were interesting, like how I'll watch sitcoms and say it was funny but I never laughed once. Or how uncomfortable we are with silence. I know some people mentioned it before and I think its because it is so strange for us now. If you haven't had the chance go watch 2001 a space odyssey. I got really irritated during it and I didn't know why until I realized that for a lot of it, it's just silent. There's no music just the sound of breathing. And I couldn't handle it. So, basically I think this book is really interesting so far but I think Lasn also needs to chill out a bit and examine why he's saying what he is and maybe he'll see the irony in it as well.
I haven’t really read that much of this book (about 25 pages), but what I have read, I agree with for the most part. I will say that the preachy tone of this book kind of irritates me. On one hand, I really have a problem the manipulative nature of the media, advertizing in particular. On the other hand, part of me thinks that the advertisement isn’t doing anything wrong. If people are dumb enough to buy into the b.s. that the add is presenting then isn’t it their own fault? Then again, if we recognize that we are being sold a bunch of bullshit, don’t we have a responsibility to call them out on it? Every time I see a stupid commercial that is obviously being targeted to my demographic I feel like someone is insulting my intelligence. Two ads come to mind that make me feel this way. The first is a commercial for Miracle Whip where a bunch of young hipster types are dancing on an apartment rooftop that could easily be in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They are apparently very excited that they have a jar of Miracle Whip. The other commercial is for Levi’s. It features some more young people running around the woods, some half naked, a few wielding flaming branches and doing a number of things that most would only do if they were really drunk or on some psychedelic drug. This is all being shown to us with the audio of some old radio announcement saying something about the youth being pioneers. It bothers me that the announcer is delivering this message in a tone of great urgency and importance when the actual message is basically telling us to buy Levis jeans.
Good morning Vietnam! Sorry, just thought I would start out with some entertainment. This week we began Culture Jam and finally moved on from Sand County Almanac. I couldn’t be more pleased because I can actually focus and remember what I am reading. Culture Jam seems to explore a look at our culture, as opposed to Sand County, which totally looked away from our culture and focused on nature entirely. In essence though, it just takes the argument that we have all heard before and kind of ups it just a little, but not enough to make a huge difference in my opinion. The beginning of Culture Jam begins with the introduction telling us that it is a book that will actually make us change how America works and functions. Not to be your average, groveling pessimist, but I’ll believe it when I see it. The book continues on to tell us about how AmericaTM is a giant corporation and we are just eating it up; but lo and behold we have a chance to change it and turn it back into something that the book doesn’t really describe. Again, not to rain on anyone’s parade, but one trend I have noticed is that people like when they catch on to something that no one else has found or discovered. Hence, we have indie brands and media. So, if we beat the big corporations, we have everyone becoming indie fans of a million different brands instead a select couple hundred. This machine in my mind is like three faucets trying to be covered by two hands: if you can even manage to cover all three, then something will explode eventually. After the introduction, the book moves on to explaining fact after fact after fact of what is wrong with American society, using statistics and numbers and examples to shock us. Well, I have seen the numbers and values and shocking things about our culture before and it doesn’t really phase me too much. It gets to the point that you adapt to the culture you’re in and just deal with it. Sure, we are on happy pills and we’re fat and we love sex, but lets look at other civilizations and find their vices. There will be just as many and they’ll have been screwed up in different ways. I myself believe that vices and quirks are what makes us unique and gives us something to talk about and identify with.
When I went to go pick up Culture Jam, I was a little leery. Honestly, I am a bit sick of being told that I am an unfeeling, commercial-driven robot. Much to every liberal, media-hating, anti-capitalist, environmental activist’s disbelief, I do have opinions, I do have thoughts, and I do have feelings. I started reading and, as I suspected, Lasn began by telling me just how awful and mind numbing the consumer-driven culture of this country is. While I cannot disagree, I’d like to think that I have some power in that matter. Yes, I am constantly bombarded with advertisements and media stories, but I do have the ability to turn away from that and choose for myself. I kept a tight grip on this mentality as I read, angrily contradicting every point made in my mind with how I do not fit into that cookie-cutter view of America. For instance, Lasn discussed America’s Funniset Homes Videos and how we often find ourselves laughing at that show without realizing it. I, in fact, hate that show. I have never found it funny, nor will I ever. This made me upset. Until I kept reading and realized how much I agreed with everything Lasn had to say. Many of his points enraged and appalled me. I have to say, the bit that really unnerved me dealt with airtime on media networks. Lasn discusses how networks like ABC and NBC refused to sell him airtime for his AdBusters commercials encouraging people to see life outside the consumer box. He had the money to pay for those ads, but still they would only sell advertising spots to their “legitimate business interests.” The response from the networks that really irked me came from CBS Boston public affairs manager Donald Lowery: “We don’t sell airtime for issue ads because that would allow the people with financial resources to control public policy. “ This is just so irritating! What are corporations but the “the people with financial resources” influencing everything we do, ever decision we make! Today’s public policy is commercialism. What happened to freedom of speech? How is any one person like myself supposed to open up eyes and make a difference when huge conglomerates have total domination over main media outlets? Ultimately, I recognize that this country has its problems. After reading the first portion of Culture Jam, I now have a few more of those problems to frustrate me. I also know that my personal lifestyle has its problems and is very often blatantly ignorant of its own negative impact on the world. I want to stop this madness. However, I just often feel powerless to change this very real, very distressing situation. If I want to change the world, it seems to me that I have to give up everything in order to devote my whole being to that cause through some rash, over-the-top act of revolution. Unfortunately for the world, I am just too selfish to do that. That are certain things that I love about my life that I am just not wiling to give up. My education, for one. I want to finish out this degree, and that being said, I cannot afford to ignore my work to go protest some issue here or fight for another there. Hell, I can barely finish my homework for all my classes without making myself physically sick from lack of sleep. Thus, until the day where I learn to be a little less selfish, or a little more giving, the world’s just going to have to listen to my hypocritical opinion as I sit back and knowingly rot in my purposeful path of apathy.
I really enjoy Culture Jam and the thoughts and questions proposed. As I sit here writing a response I realize while I began with the first few words incredibly focused, in reality noise surrounds me. I didn’t here it at first but I can now make out voices in the distance, and someone who believes they are a drummer pounding. There is shuffling and echoes to all of this sound. It is true how easy it is to become involved with the ways of the commercialized world were everyone is constantly bombarded with stimulation. I have lived in a house ON Michigan Ave that was across the street from a firehouse, and next to a repair shop. There was always a constant rumble. The window pains were nonstop rattling in the old Victorian home. I now live in a place where I need complete silence to fall asleep. I feel I have made my way back to nature for the most part in knowing how to accept peace after being raised amongst hearing engines rumbling and walls creaking after a large Mack truck passes by and sends shock waves through the environment. The being said, I was a little irritated by the whole “you will be able to change the world after reading this” proposal. Sure, I get we all have an impact but I am tired of being told how terrible things are and then being given instructions to fix it. Why was this not done before me, I feel like I am stuck in the Lorax story. Is it too much to ask for a book to spell out all of the wonderful things that are happening, that are taking place, and how I can help to that initiative. Lasn talks about how we are overloaded with information and I agree. I feel like his book is just a lot of information and a bit on the overloading side. I like to learn but I like a “glass half-full” perspective. I also feel we need to give consumers a little more credit. While it is human nature to act off cues, it is also human nature to question. I don’t laugh just because other people laugh, unless I find something funny. I enjoy the insights that Lasn shares, but I question them.
Marian Perez
ReplyDeleteADP III
10/23/09
The video clips we watched in our last discussion were quiet fascinating to me because I kept wondering how people could ever want to live the way the clips were demonstrating. Living in the woods and relying on their selves for basic needs seemed to me unnecessarily difficult. The families looked very harmonies and close, but a bit behind in our modern world. I could not help but keep thinking that I could never live like that. Even the objects inside the houses seemed out of date or very basic, nothing high-tech, but instead basic tools that helped in the basic living needs, such as cooking. The newer technologies some of the families used, like the solar energy panels for their cabins, looked really cool and captured both their goals and live styles very well.
Keliy Anderson-Staley’s work is very friendly and inviting to the living styles people have with a deeper connection to nature. The ways the houses were built and the material used to make them are in a way art that depicts self-expression about their living styles. The images feature these man made houses that fit into their surroundings hormonally, the snow and trees just look beautiful. You don’t see trash or the hustle of busy people, but instead a relaxed collaboration of humans and nature. I still wouldn’t be so fond of living the way these people have chosen to, but I have come to understand why they have do it. One of the women mentioned that there are not enough woods for everyone to live on in the way they have chosen to and that she was one of the few to do so, as if it were a huge honor. That really got my attention, she looked at it as making a choice of improving her life while I at first saw it as a huge down grade. It all comes down to what people have come to value in their lives and why.
As for Jason Salavon’s work, I love his uniqueness and modern style. I have seen one of his pieces somewhere before. I especially enjoyed his mandalas! In CFC last semester and especially this semester, I have drawn and sewn my own mandalas. He mentions his inspirations were Buddhist and shopping for the mandalas, the shopping part is very interesting to me. For my mandalas I looked at Buddhist, Navajo Indians, Tibetan, Aztec, and Carl Jung’s mandals, never did it occur to me to look at shopping. The colors and complexity works so well, jumping out at the viewer in an expressive way. His mandalas hold that centernesscand wholeness that mandalas consist of. The mandalas continue off the page and don’t have that circle border most mandalas have, which I think was a good choice he made in presenting them because they show more movement that way. The color choice of each mandala depicts happiness and celebration in a unique way by not overusing symbolism or repetition.
This week, I read through the selected readings by Mr. Trumpey. One particular essay jutted out, Price’s description of the Nature Company. This past summer, I had the opportunity to attend an advertising convention in Washington DC. While, there, I forgot all of my dress shirts back home. Rather than borrow my friend’s shirts, I ventured into a mall in the outskirts of DC. There, I passed by one of these Nature Company stores (I’m almost certain that it was this company and not a competitor). I too walked in briefly to find myself surrounded by what nature “means” to most of us.
ReplyDeleteI spent no more than five minutes in the store but can relate to Price’s reaction. In the beginning of the article, he articulates his find with a simple “wow.” The readers are not informed as to the reason behind his amazement until the very end where he discloses his frustration with the company. In a nutshell, the Nature Company sells items such as stuffed animals with built in bird calls, shirts featuring an array of wild animals, plastic dinosaurs and all of the accouterments one would identify nature with. Because of this, they merely expand on nature as a commercial product.
Part of the irony behind this store is that most store locations exist only in malls. Malls are considered a place where one goes to buy items that are not necessary. For instance, you would be hard-pressed to find a useful hygiene product on any shelves within the mall. Instead, people wander the busy isles with no exists and consume everything within reach. This completely defeats the purpose of nature where a person normally spends time reflecting on their experience with Mother Earth.
It is slightly sickening how we commercialize even nature itself. Sometimes, I feel as if people try to justify themselves for spending 80% of their time indoors by succumbing to these items. Obviously, I’m not against an honest capitalistic system and advertisement mediated to sell a superfluous product, however, this store signifies a steady decline in our appreciation of nature. We should be spending time outdoors instead being stocked away in a store that only represents “nature” in the most blunt of ways.
I think that Culture Jam has been the most relevant reading that Trumpy has assigned us so far. I believe that one of the key things that lead us to destructing out environment is the fact that we consume so much. Why do we buy so many things? I think it is because business through advertising have convinced us that we have to have all these things in order to be happy. In Culture Jam I like his analogy of the mass media being like a drug in that it promises belonging. Yet, I don’t believe you can get belonging from buying things. I think that belonging is something that can only be gotten through interactions with other people.
ReplyDeleteI think that as humans we like to think that everything we do we do because we want to and that we aren’t influenced by other things especially something so simple as an ad. I believe that we are whether we want to admit to it our not. We are even influenced by the things we try to ignore. We are continually bombarded with messages coming to us in all-different forms.
Another great point I think that is made in the book is that as Americans we seem to be really unsatisfied with our lives even though we seem to have more then we need and a lot of what we want. “We embrace the value of more because our lives that seem, somehow less.” Yet, when did having more stuff make us have any long-term happiness? I believe that things really only have momentary happiness like when you first get something new you feel great. But often when you are having a bad day none of those things can really make you feel better. When you lose someone you would often trade all your material things to have them back.
I believe that the only material things that have true value are those that have meaning to us beyond there use. Things like art whether it is a drawing, a novel or a piece of music.
Brijit Spencer
ReplyDeleteADP III
10.24.09
When I first started to read “Culture Jam” I was very bored. I guess I was just not in the mood to be scolded for my consumerist lifestyle anymore. I care about making a change in the world, and I believe that collectively this may be possible, but it is something that I personally, for some reason unknown to even me, cannot relate to at this point in my life. I have more trivial and personal concerns at the moment than the overall scheme of things. But as I kept reading, I really started to relate. One topic that really grabbed a hold of my attention was in the very beginning of “Autumn-Mood Disorders”. Lasn recognizes the lack of life and passion we, as Americans suffer from. He uses as an example, the average family venturing into the woods to try and connect with each other via old school camping. I think it is sad how lost they are without their televisions, Internet, radio, magazines, etc. It made me realize that that is what I have become. It was not always that way. I remember going camping all the time when I was younger. My brothers and I absolutely loved it. We had no electricity, no running water, and no one around for miles, and we couldn’t have been happier. We were not like those kids Lasn talks about, to whom nature is dead. But now, I’m afraid I have become way too dependent on my technology and I know camping will have lost it’s magic for me. This is something I would like to remedy, especially if I ever have a family of my own.
Another topic that really intrigued me was the influence of sound and noise in our modern society. I never really thought about it before, but sound is extremely prevalent in our lives today. And not just good/pleasant sounds like music, but obnoxious sounds that we have sadly allowed to become commonplace. What is scary is that the noises we hear everyday may actually be affecting our subconscious, causing mood swings or annoyance we don’t even realize is there. I now hear phantom sounds, like my cell phone ringing or beeping, because these noises are so embedded into my everyday thoughts. After reading this portion of the book, I realized that I am also very dependent on electronic or manmade sound as a source of comfort. If I am home alone, I turn on the television or music. Even as I was reading I was listening to music. We are so overexposed to such a multitude of sounds that it becomes a background of white noise that is necessary for us to function. I actually get uncomfortable in complete silence. All of this got me thinking, and I have decided to open my window tonight, as I do every night, but this time I want to actually distinguish the separate sounds that have become white noise to me and, most importantly, let nature’s soundtrack take over the electronic mess of sound I have subjected myself to all day. I feel like this is healthier for the mind.
On a completely different note, I happened to stumble across a photographer, named Lu Guang, who does amazing documentation of pollution in China. His images really make you think and consider how bad things really are in some parts of the world-how bad we have made them. I found the photos both painful and inspiring to look at. This is the site: http://www.chinahush.com/2009/10/21/amazing-pictures-pollution-in-china/
The new book is a really great follow up to A Sand County Almanac. You have one side, which we were just exposed to in Leopold’s book that is a highly descriptive book about nature and how we have to be aware of nature and live in it to conserve it. The book was written a considerably long time ago, seeing as how fast our world is changing now, so it’s nice to have a book that pertains more to our lives today. Culture Jam is also calling for humans to get back to nature, but doing it in a completely different way. He is focusing on the actual health risks and side effects of living the way that we do today. I personally believe that although he cannot prove some of his facts, that they seem likely that our over stimulated lives are causing us to develop health problems. For example, when he used the example of taking kids camping and how they literally become depressed and have withdrawal from TV and Internet I completely understood what he was talking about. I have to sadly admit that although I enjoy camping and love being outside, that I do crave coming back to civilization to check my stupid facebook.
ReplyDeleteI was also shocked when he was writing about the ad agency and the Dr. Camron story. How Dr. Camron’s patients had serious mental health issues and yet the same thing that advertising agencies are doing no one cares or speaks up about it. There is also the issue that these things are literally inescapable. There is no way to avoid advertisements or sound pollution in today’s world. Especially if people are talking about placing a giant billboard out into space so that people can see ads when they look out into space. It’s clear that TV and ad agencies don’t care about our mental health and only want to benefit themselves.
Transitioning from the gentle, tranquility of Sand County Almanac to the in-your-face style of Culture Jam is a bit of a “culture shock”. There is nothing apathetic about Lasn’s tone. My older sister sent me a collection of old Adbusters magazines as a late birthday present and I’ve begun reading several articles recently. Due largely to the fact that Lasn founded Adbusters, it is much like reading Culture Jam in magazine form. I agree with many of the issue’s addressed in both the book and articles I’ve read but it is sometimes hard for me to digest all of the information it feels as though I’m being yelled at. One article titled, “Rewilding the cultural environment,” caught my attention in particular. In essence it explains the importance of fighting against the corporate domination over what is cool. We have all been brain washed to some degree because we trust that the information provided for us by the media corporations is always correct and it isn’t. Through out our lives advertisements tell us what is in style and most of the time we obey blindly playing along with the corporate mind games. Whether we like it or not, we are a product of our surroundings. When I read about the influence of sound in Culture Jam, I found same underlying theme to be true. Because there is such an overabundance of aural input at all times, we learn to tune out. But tuning out doesn’t make the sound go away it just slips from impacting our conscious to our subconscious much the way visual stimuli does. My mom used to tell me not to listen to music while I did my homework because she thought it distracted me when it actually helped me ignore the surrounding little noises. Because of the increase in the speed of communication and the advancements in technology, my generation’s ability to multitask is very different from my parent’s. I went on a wilderness camping trip in late fall and spent one night in a very secluded section of the woods by myself with only a tarp, a sleeping bag and a water bottle. Strangely enough what I remember most was the silence. It was so quiet that I couldn’t sleep because the only noise I heard was a the ringing in my ears. This leads me to the video clips we watched last class. It is hard to abandon the notion that living without electricity isn’t old fashioned, and the interesting paradox is that it may be the most progressive way to live. The videos inspired me to consider that an off-the-grid lifestyle is an actual possibility. Of course it requires tremendous effort but it can be done. And lastly, I really enjoy Salavon’s work. The way he combines the concept and structure of a Buddhist mandala, a method to create a sacred space and form of meditation, and such culturally iconic and simplistic images to design complex patterns is breathtaking.
ReplyDeleteDana Pierfelice
ReplyDeleteResponse 5
I went home this past weekend. My parents had been digging through all our old things and when I went upstairs one of the first things I found was a puzzle by the Nature Company. Knowing my mother had most likely had bought this, Price’s article suddenly seemed extremely relevant. My mother would be just the person to purchase something from the Nature Company. She used to be a woman of the wild (she used to go camping a lot) but since the birth of my brother and I she has more become a woman of the pink flamingo (she has one tattooed on her ankle, if that is relevant at all). She fits the type of person Price thinks would buy from the Nature Company.
In ADP 2 I wrote a paper on the culture of souvenirs. I found a lot of similarities to things I came across in research and this article by Price. What souvenirs and the Nature Company are trying to sell is the essence of an idea. Not a fully realized one, but just enough that people will keep with it an association of a grander scheme. No matter how realistic a penguin toy is it really represents a greater blend of nature and commerce.
Him assessing the idea of a Nature Company in the mall is very interesting to me. The people who would buy from them in a mall definitely want to be a step removed from what they are purchasing. They do not want to be reminded that the inflatable penguin uses the same amount of plastic as a flamingo lawn ornament. They just want to know that they are doing something for the nature that they do not explore. This provides them a sense of comfort, and this is what keeps them coming back.
Shelby Roback
ReplyDeleteThe beginning of this book kind of annoyed me. I guess I always get defensive when broad generalizations are made about a country and it’s people. However, I agree with the fact that there is too much stimulation in today’s society. Like in the example with the family going camping, where they are out in this beautiful landscape but they don’t know what to do with themselves because they are so used to constant stimuli. It’s like they don’t know how to just be themselves. All they know is how to interact with technology, which allows them to shut down and not have to deal with the fact that their lives are meaningless. I go camping quite a lot, and anytime I’m camping at a campground instead of in the backcountry, I always see those kinds of families. The ones that can’t even spend one night away from their physical and mental comforts. They bring stoves, chairs, a stereo, and even a portable fully equipped house. The only difference is that their “backyard” looks a little different and their “house” and a bit smaller. It’s no wonder the average American family has little depth other than their eight layers of fat.
I also liked what Lasn had to say about our country’s rampant mental disorders. When you are out in nature surviving and really living, these kinds of things don’t matter. When you stop to really realize the beauty and sheer magnitude of the earth, everything else seems less important. And yet it is important. Every leaf, stone, and frog is special and amazing and it isn’t coming at you at 40 “jolts” per minute. Many people are so used to that constant barrage of entertainment that they get to a park or a lake, look at it for a few moments, and then move on. It’s become something we have little control over. Before I started writing this response, I succumbed to these learned instincts as well. I surfed the internet at a break neck pace, searching for some kind of stimuli to fuel my procrastination. Then I stopped. I stopped and I thought. And I think this is what every needs to learn to do more of; just stop and think. And then stop thinking.
I'm going to be honest, I laughed when I saw that Culture Jam was divided by seasons (Since Sand County was divided by months I thought it would be similar) but was happy to find that Lasn wrote with his audience in mind. According to him, I am in need of constant jolts and stimuli and he provides this by directing my attention to blatant ironies in our culture and shocking information. Like the ad of a stick thin model next to a bus of starving people, or that flight attendants sometimes use Diet coke to unclog sinks on commercial jets. Of course there are some things I don't think he explains well at all, for instance he says that cultural jamming or revolutions are not new and have been around for ages. Maybe, but viewing human behavior as a whole, I think revolutions are a relatively new "hot commodity" that corporations are feeding us to remind us of not only our countries origins but our youth. Revolutions are not glamorous or cool, they are dangerous and confusing but we have this intoxication conception of what revolution is. Just look at the new levi ads, they never once mention jeans, instead they quote revolutionary speeches, poetry and reference the 60s. And that's how they're selling jeans. Because we look at that ad and say wow that speech was cool, I'll have great ideas too if I wear those jeans and run around with flowers and banners. What I'm trying to say is, Lasn is trying to inspire a revolution against corporations but corporations are the ones saying revolution is inspiring. I'm not implying he doesn't realize he's doing this, he founded Adbusters after all he knows how this works.
ReplyDeleteHe did bring up some things that I thought were interesting, like how I'll watch sitcoms and say it was funny but I never laughed once. Or how uncomfortable we are with silence. I know some people mentioned it before and I think its because it is so strange for us now. If you haven't had the chance go watch 2001 a space odyssey. I got really irritated during it and I didn't know why until I realized that for a lot of it, it's just silent. There's no music just the sound of breathing. And I couldn't handle it. So, basically I think this book is really interesting so far but I think Lasn also needs to chill out a bit and examine why he's saying what he is and maybe he'll see the irony in it as well.
Matthew Acomb
ReplyDeleteI haven’t really read that much of this book (about 25 pages), but what I have read, I agree with for the most part. I will say that the preachy tone of this book kind of irritates me.
On one hand, I really have a problem the manipulative nature of the media, advertizing in particular. On the other hand, part of me thinks that the advertisement isn’t doing anything wrong. If people are dumb enough to buy into the b.s. that the add is presenting then isn’t it their own fault? Then again, if we recognize that we are being sold a bunch of bullshit, don’t we have a responsibility to call them out on it?
Every time I see a stupid commercial that is obviously being targeted to my demographic I feel like someone is insulting my intelligence. Two ads come to mind that make me feel this way. The first is a commercial for Miracle Whip where a bunch of young hipster types are dancing on an apartment rooftop that could easily be in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They are apparently very excited that they have a jar of Miracle Whip.
The other commercial is for Levi’s. It features some more young people running around the woods, some half naked, a few wielding flaming branches and doing a number of things that most would only do if they were really drunk or on some psychedelic drug. This is all being shown to us with the audio of some old radio announcement saying something about the youth being pioneers. It bothers me that the announcer is delivering this message in a tone of great urgency and importance when the actual message is basically telling us to buy Levis jeans.
Andrew Hainen
ReplyDeleteADP III :: James Rotz
Weekly Statement :: Tuesday October 27th, 2009
Good morning Vietnam! Sorry, just thought I would start out with some entertainment. This week we began Culture Jam and finally moved on from Sand County Almanac. I couldn’t be more pleased because I can actually focus and remember what I am reading. Culture Jam seems to explore a look at our culture, as opposed to Sand County, which totally looked away from our culture and focused on nature entirely. In essence though, it just takes the argument that we have all heard before and kind of ups it just a little, but not enough to make a huge difference in my opinion.
The beginning of Culture Jam begins with the introduction telling us that it is a book that will actually make us change how America works and functions. Not to be your average, groveling pessimist, but I’ll believe it when I see it. The book continues on to tell us about how AmericaTM is a giant corporation and we are just eating it up; but lo and behold we have a chance to change it and turn it back into something that the book doesn’t really describe. Again, not to rain on anyone’s parade, but one trend I have noticed is that people like when they catch on to something that no one else has found or discovered. Hence, we have indie brands and media. So, if we beat the big corporations, we have everyone becoming indie fans of a million different brands instead a select couple hundred. This machine in my mind is like three faucets trying to be covered by two hands: if you can even manage to cover all three, then something will explode eventually.
After the introduction, the book moves on to explaining fact after fact after fact of what is wrong with American society, using statistics and numbers and examples to shock us. Well, I have seen the numbers and values and shocking things about our culture before and it doesn’t really phase me too much. It gets to the point that you adapt to the culture you’re in and just deal with it. Sure, we are on happy pills and we’re fat and we love sex, but lets look at other civilizations and find their vices. There will be just as many and they’ll have been screwed up in different ways. I myself believe that vices and quirks are what makes us unique and gives us something to talk about and identify with.
Trisha Previte
ReplyDeleteADP III: James Rotz
When I went to go pick up Culture Jam, I was a little leery. Honestly, I am a bit sick of being told that I am an unfeeling, commercial-driven robot. Much to every liberal, media-hating, anti-capitalist, environmental activist’s disbelief, I do have opinions, I do have thoughts, and I do have feelings. I started reading and, as I suspected, Lasn began by telling me just how awful and mind numbing the consumer-driven culture of this country is. While I cannot disagree, I’d like to think that I have some power in that matter. Yes, I am constantly bombarded with advertisements and media stories, but I do have the ability to turn away from that and choose for myself. I kept a tight grip on this mentality as I read, angrily contradicting every point made in my mind with how I do not fit into that cookie-cutter view of America. For instance, Lasn discussed America’s Funniset Homes Videos and how we often find ourselves laughing at that show without realizing it. I, in fact, hate that show. I have never found it funny, nor will I ever. This made me upset.
Until I kept reading and realized how much I agreed with everything Lasn had to say.
Many of his points enraged and appalled me. I have to say, the bit that really unnerved me dealt with airtime on media networks. Lasn discusses how networks like ABC and NBC refused to sell him airtime for his AdBusters commercials encouraging people to see life outside the consumer box. He had the money to pay for those ads, but still they would only sell advertising spots to their “legitimate business interests.” The response from the networks that really irked me came from CBS Boston public affairs manager Donald Lowery: “We don’t sell airtime for issue ads because that would allow the people with financial resources to control public policy. “ This is just so irritating! What are corporations but the “the people with financial resources” influencing everything we do, ever decision we make! Today’s public policy is commercialism. What happened to freedom of speech? How is any one person like myself supposed to open up eyes and make a difference when huge conglomerates have total domination over main media outlets?
Ultimately, I recognize that this country has its problems. After reading the first portion of Culture Jam, I now have a few more of those problems to frustrate me. I also know that my personal lifestyle has its problems and is very often blatantly ignorant of its own negative impact on the world. I want to stop this madness. However, I just often feel powerless to change this very real, very distressing situation. If I want to change the world, it seems to me that I have to give up everything in order to devote my whole being to that cause through some rash, over-the-top act of revolution. Unfortunately for the world, I am just too selfish to do that. That are certain things that I love about my life that I am just not wiling to give up. My education, for one. I want to finish out this degree, and that being said, I cannot afford to ignore my work to go protest some issue here or fight for another there. Hell, I can barely finish my homework for all my classes without making myself physically sick from lack of sleep. Thus, until the day where I learn to be a little less selfish, or a little more giving, the world’s just going to have to listen to my hypocritical opinion as I sit back and knowingly rot in my purposeful path of apathy.
Amber Harrison
ReplyDeleteCFC III
10/27/2009
I really enjoy Culture Jam and the thoughts and questions proposed. As I sit here writing a response I realize while I began with the first few words incredibly focused, in reality noise surrounds me. I didn’t here it at first but I can now make out voices in the distance, and someone who believes they are a drummer pounding. There is shuffling and echoes to all of this sound. It is true how easy it is to become involved with the ways of the commercialized world were everyone is constantly bombarded with stimulation. I have lived in a house ON Michigan Ave that was across the street from a firehouse, and next to a repair shop. There was always a constant rumble. The window pains were nonstop rattling in the old Victorian home. I now live in a place where I need complete silence to fall asleep. I feel I have made my way back to nature for the most part in knowing how to accept peace after being raised amongst hearing engines rumbling and walls creaking after a large Mack truck passes by and sends shock waves through the environment.
The being said, I was a little irritated by the whole “you will be able to change the world after reading this” proposal. Sure, I get we all have an impact but I am tired of being told how terrible things are and then being given instructions to fix it. Why was this not done before me, I feel like I am stuck in the Lorax story. Is it too much to ask for a book to spell out all of the wonderful things that are happening, that are taking place, and how I can help to that initiative. Lasn talks about how we are overloaded with information and I agree. I feel like his book is just a lot of information and a bit on the overloading side. I like to learn but I like a “glass half-full” perspective. I also feel we need to give consumers a little more credit. While it is human nature to act off cues, it is also human nature to question. I don’t laugh just because other people laugh, unless I find something funny. I enjoy the insights that Lasn shares, but I question them.