Commodifying a Cult

In Chan’s article, she talks about how the Peruvian government praised the Chulucanas ceramic artistry  and launched a project to promote the use of an “IP title” (aka Intellectual Property title), which is another fancy way of saying copyrights and patents. No it’s not for Internet Protocol in reference to IP address which I got confused at first since the article never defined the acronym, but took me like 4 pages in to go back to the beginning in a state of confusion and just read the title of the article saying “Enterprise Village: Intellectual Property and Rural Optimization”.

Moving forward with the article, it goes on to talk about how this project that was launched promised economic and cultural growth. These three things in particular were mentioned that were promised to the Chulucanas.

1) It would serve a branding function for consumers internationally that would distinguish Chulucanas ceramics in the global market. –> Essentially now they can brand these ceramics as Chulucana ceramics to the world and commodifying a culture to stereotype and centralize its culture and traditions and art into a physical marketable objects.

2) It would establish a set of “modern” market-oriented standards and regulations that ceramicists would have to adhere to in order to qualify their products. –> In my eyes it’s making this formula of what qualifies as Chulucanas art and setting an international standard not to just other ceramicists, but an international expectation of what they should be and anything that deviates from this new standard can’t be considered marketable or even considered a part of their culture. Thinking about it, it’s kinda funny that the expectations that outsiders have will be the judge of whats appropriate of their culture whether they have any knowledge or experience in the given culture. This establishment is saying “A+B+C= Chulucanas ceramics” to other ceramicists and ultimately that’s what will become the international standard.

3) It would recognize and protect the ancestral traditions of ceramics making inherited from the Vicus and Tallan peoples dating back to 500 B.C.–> The ideal is to protect and to continue this tradition of what they are known for, but in contrast to this, we can say that it’s also restricting the creativity of Chulucanas culture.

The reason why I’ve taken each part of these “economic and cultural” growths with a massive lump of salt is because I parallel this “IP title” with the issue that has been faced with Native Americans.

If we think about what is considered Native American art, we would respond saying that it includes these elements “A, B, C” (weaving, ceramics, painting; all including what the outside market as native american symbols).
To put that in simple terms:
“Native American Art” –> According to outside market and other competitors.
Formula –> Native American Art = A + B + C
A = Weaving (with native symbols)
B = Ceramics (with native symbols)
C = Painting (with native symbols)

Thus in turn, other competing artists in the culture accept this to be the way things are and must create art according to these perimeters in order to be marketable to the outside world, such as peruvian art to the world (relating to #1&2)

With Peruvian art being standardized in how it should look, feel, and function, this limits what they can do with their art and anything that deviates from this standard isn’t considered art. If an outsider saw a native american dress in blue jeans and a t shirt, they wouldn’t think they were native american unless they fit OUR standard of what they should wear. Chulucana ceramics will be not protect it, but cage the traditions and stunt further growth. (relating to #3)

I digress, the whole Native American Art history class has kinda made me cynical to this whole topic of branding and commodifying a culture.

Cyborgs and the Future

The concept of a cyborg is often seen as this futuristic creature; part man, part machine. The organic meeting the inorganic. We associate this (what seems to be) mythical creature with this the post modern era in which we do not live in where flying cars, and robotics serve a more automated purpose in our life. But maybe we’ve weaved this definition of the cyborg so closely that we don’t realize that perhaps we’ve achieved this “post modern era” where cyborgs walk the earth.

Mythically speaking we can think about stories that involve these cyborgs that have super human powers from the inorganic part of them that allows them to do the impossible. That or they are a part of this post apocalyptic world where the cyborgs identify with their mechanical side and are part of an uprising of the machine vs man. But what is the definition of a cyborg?

Talking to my boyfriend, he talked about being a cyborg it’s half human half machine. The ratio and unit measurement of half is varied and doesn’t physically have to be half. Ratio is important, but it’s not set in stone. He points to that having a robotic finger wouldn’t be cybernetic, but having four fingers would be closer. He believed that the mechanical part of the cyborg must enhance the human beyond human capabilities. He didn’t consider that having a prosthetic arm or pace maker be qualifications to be classified as a cyborg because they don’t go beyond the functions of a human organ. For example, ten years ago the pace maker didn’t enhance or even equal the function of a regular heart because once they were put in, people didn’t live more than 5-10 years after it. It was a detriment to the human body.

Objects such as Night Vision Goggles or cell phones, in my opinion, wouldn’t be qualifications to be called a cyborg because they are not a physical part of the human body. Yes they enhance what humans can’t do on their own, but it would be considered an extension of the human body. They are not infused in the body being half machine and half human. It is all human with the capabilities of manipulating a separate object. Being a cyborg means the fusion of human and machine are intertwined together in which both cannot be separated, which we also discussed. The fact that these dualisms exist because they are intertwined and cannot exist separately without the other.
Ex: Can’t have a whole, if there aren’t any parts and can’t have a part if there is no whole.
In this case: Can’t have a cyborg with machine without the human and can’t have the human without the machine.

The Noble Savage

After reading this, it was nice to find a familiar topic since last semester I took a class on Native American Art History. In the class and this reading many concepts overlap about the Indian identity. If we think about what is defined as Native American, we’ll most likely come across with the stereotypical image of a dark skinned person dressed in traditional regalia and participating in cultural staples such as pottery, basket weaving, or other arts that focus on the history and mythology of native americans.

This was a photograph by Edward E. Curtis. Compare the two. See the difference? What do you notice?

Left: Original vs Right: Final
– The final one is set in this sepia muted tone often used to reference the past or something old in tradition. Most photography is often taken with images of the native american in this filter that displays them in the past.
– The CLOCK is removed in the final cut because it is a reference to modern day culture and time which would conflict with the identity of the Noble Savage society has built up.

The media has a very strong sway in how we have continue to perpetuate this stereotype of the Native American. Regarding the arts, any artists that don’t associate with traditional native pottery making, symbols, or basketweaving the term Native American is not commonly used to identify these artists.

This was a music video by Cher that touched on the mixture and stereotypes of the identity of the native american. Is this a form of perpetuating the stereotype or challenging it? Is it changing it?

For modern native americans that are born as second generation to their parents that have been raised in the culture and traditions, where do mixedblood indians stand? Can they identify as Indian if they didn’t grow up in the culture? Are they limited to just art that is associated with exclusively native american history or can they create something completely unrelated and still be recognized as native american.

Would this image be considered culturally insensitive? This was during a Victoria Secret Show which the company made a public formal apology for the use of native american images. Does the media continue to perpetuate this identity of the Native American?

See article here: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2012/11/victorias-secret-apologizes-to-native-americans/

After our discussion about identity and these perpetuations of culture in media shown in examples of native american regalia, we can make some connections. Regalia is explained as an extension of the who we are. Its a form of representation of ourself and reflects our being. In this example, this is considered a costume not reflecting on the person, but used to commodify a culture and perpetuate a stereotype to further another parties profit.

Here is another example of commodifying and using another culture and using them at another’s expense: http://gawker.com/5982466/kappa-sigma-suspends-duke-chapter-over-racist-asian-themed-party

The Dark Side of the Internet

As a kid,  I was completely blind to what the internet held. We had a computer and had dial up, but I never really used it often for things until I got into middle school and I didn’t explore that much other than an online community called “Gaiaonline.com” which I did for my friend. At the time MySpace was extremely popular, but I didn’t do anything with it because my focus was on the video games at the time. I’m a pretty blissful person that lives in ignorance. Happily in ignorance.

Internet 101:
1) Don’t click on random links you don’t know the context to
2) Don’t talk to strangers and give away information

I remember I used AIM (Aol Instant Messanger) a lot to talk to my two best friends which was the cell phones prehistoric version of instant messaging since none of us had cell phones and if we did talk on the phone, we had three way calls on a line talking for hours upon hours until I had to switch phones because the battery would die on the phones. (Cordless) I was talking to a stranger and when my dad confronted me the next day about it, I denied it of course because I was too ashamed and he said he had tracked the time the internet was in use and could find our conversation log. I was ashamed and didn’t do it again.

The anonymous identity people have shows a very sick sick side to themselves because they believe nothing can trace back to them or that usage of free speech became this warped empowerment. What’s worse the fact that there are twisted people like this out in the world that enjoy torture and all these very cruel violent acts of stimulation or the fact that someone, somewhere out there shares this sick twisted fantasy which motivates the other to continue and accelerate this behavior to prove they’re not alone and share an identity.

The idea of cleaning up because of the Grandma Problem seems like an impossible task because of how much stuff is uploaded and even though there are moderators that work around the clock sifting through the offensive imagery to take it down, there is still so much that goes unchecked. I mean that’s how I found the image that scarred me forever.

Censorship when it comes to social networking seems to be brought up in this ideal light where a uptopia of connections and networking is done, when there is a dark side of these spaces that goes unchecked.

People always tell you not to click on random links without knowing the context and I know why. Like the lady had mentioned in the article about the one graphic video that has haunted her and stayed with her even though she is out of the business of moderation.

My horrible experience that has destroyed my eyes
I was on facebook looking at a video posted by IGN on Dragon Age and I was scrolling through the comments and clicked a random imagur link that someone posted and….
—> I don’t want to go into a lot of detail, but essentially it was Necrophilia Pornography.
It popped up so fast, but the image is burned into retinas and will forever scar me because it makes you really wonder that the hell are people thinking and doing with THEIR time? It doesn’t take much to find this type of content even when you’re not looking for it.

The PTSD that people must experience from having to sift through the content they do and battling a war that they can’t even hope to keep up with is extremely terrifying. I think about all these horror movies I’ve seen and feel like the “last standing survivor” that endures all the traumatic graphic violence physically or psychologically would need COPIOUS amounts of therapy and drugs to stay sane after seeing what they’ve seen (or what they did).

Makes me nervous about the Internet taking full advantage of the act of free speech which warps into this perverse society that lives in the cyber space. Such as craiglist adult categories or the B columns of 4chan.

When the 3DS came out, one of the applications that came with the game system was SwapNote, which allowed the gamer to connect with other people to send pictures and notes to others. The idea was great; execution wasn’t there. SwapNote was disabled because people would send dick pics and other things, which became a problem since company couldn’t stop the exchanges and since the company caters to many gamer age groups. Swapnote was taken down and disabled, but they recently re-released it.

Article: http://kotaku.com/child-predators-were-using-nintendos-swapnote-service-1459304126

As I was discussing this with a friend, he told me about a time when 4Chan banned images of My Little Pony for a period of time in the past. So the saying became “Mods are asleep. Post Ponies” which quickly became popular and a growing trend.
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/mods-are-asleep