[...]tating in meaning and significance
2. they cross aesthetic borders and are not confinable to a particular domain (image = aesthetic + political + social)
3. they act on all domains recursively --impossible--> how the aesthetic life of images affects the political life of images }--Mitchell--> *image as species* (co-evolutionary entities, quasi life-form depend on a host organism) ==>
◦something not fully under human control
◦spread through the host organicism
◦some die some become pandemic


aesthetic --affect--> politic --affect--> aesthetic --affect--> politic


#workshop make an ad for apass


advertising trend
1. information: (from) traditional forms of print & television --to--> intensification and hybridization in oblique ways + through new media (adver-gaming, twitter-piccing, virtual-worlding, Corridor Crew's product placement)
2. persuasion: [as a rhetorical force] (from) information-heavy selling --to--> dramatic persuasion
3. entertainment: communication through entertainment =/= information, persuasion
•(from) staging products in films --to--> embedding of brands so deeply into the fabric of the film's narrative as object-actors that propel the plot
(Corridor Crew's unobtrusive embedding of branded goods and services in storytelling, hybrid both staging and embedding)

brand --> creativity of consumers to create artistic output in the form of art (Star Wars world, Marina Abramovic) --advertising--> rhetorical purpose: *entertain* =/= inform (announcement), persuade, *warn*[old original function of advertising]

*to warn = to inform* [<-- 15th century advertising ==> journalism]


ever growing impetus of advertising to reproduce itself in new forms ==> different account of the evolution of new media : advertising creates new media to propagate itself (*two globally pervasive and path-changing forms of media that would not exist without advertising revenue:)
•search engine
•social networking site

(McLuhan's “medium = message” --> that we should look at the structural nature of media rather than what it contains =/=) *message = medium* (in 20th century)--> [*]advertising: species that create media in order to allow it to replicate =/= a thing that we humans create and put in media as an incidental extra to an originary agent of meaning [<-- hylomorphic understanding of advertising]


[in 20th century (task of)] advertising: to render the invisible [qualities, such as: complexity, network, information,,,] into compelling visualities (--into--> public imagination)
•(in organizational discourse) complexity: (--articulate-->) unpredictable, multi-layered, decentered, emergent, globalized (world of Homeland TV series, of apass, of ERG's website: technological + adaptable + multi-layered)
*success <== visualize the complexity of their products* [in the case of ERG: student's knowledge and the institution of university]

(Goldman's landscape of Capital -->) corporate advertising:
•visually depicts the phenomenon of globalization
•affect the cultural imaginary
•shape political sensibilities (with respect to life in high-tech globalism)

amorphous phenomena (that require high-stakes visualization):
•counter-terrorism
•climate change
•


[*]advertising: an institution that organizes meaning, a visual sign system (as powerful as other systems that organize meaning: medicine, law, education,,,) [~/= apass]
--> *a form of literacy* = can be learned + lexicon + grammer (that can be fruitfully investigated)
*advertising = capitalism + aesthetic* ==Campbell==> research in advertising one of the most important research priorities in any discipline today (@apass)

...................................

***marketing = the ultimate social practice of postmodernity***

marketing practices
promotional campaigns
consumption culture

postmodernity: a phenomena specific to the cultural history of western europe and north america --impact--> globe
--Lyotard--> incredulity toward *metanarratives: unified idea systems
--Jameson--> consumer society (marked by:)
◦pastiche: an attitude of a certain detachment (on the part of the individual) where all stylistic expressions of parody, nostalgia, and other illustrated feeling lack emotional depth and commitment
◦schizophrenia: disjointedness and discontinuity of the individual's personal identity and experience in life
--Angus--> infinite delay of *modernity: improving human lives by controlling nature
--Wilson--> expression of incoherence of contemporary urban life

postmodernity =/= authority, unity, continuity, purpose, commitment
= “modernity: era of scientific ideology ==> disillusionment, disintegration, anxiety”
--> hedonism
--> tolerance (recognition) of difference
--> metanarrative = story (that people construct to tell themselves) =Foucault= regimes of truth
=/= conformity

examples of modern metanarratives:
•bourgeois (capitalist) ideology
•marxism

}--✕--> *market = new metanarrative in postmodernity*


postmodern condition:

1- [*]hyperreality: becoming real of what initially was/is a simulation/hype: simulation of imagined potential or imagined past (signifiers arbitrary linked to their original referent)

marketing: a practice that resignifies (a brand name)

tendency and willingness of the customers to prefer the simulation (for example the theme areas in city centers of an imagined pasts) =/= “real”

postmodernism is a cultural critique (=/= economic, social critique) of modernity

postmodern critique tends to rely on experiential or sensible judgement (--valued--> trusting intuition and sensing of what is practical/pragmatic based on cultural experience) =/= analysis of material evidence

****post world war II politics --> youth movement culminated in the 1960s --> institutionalization of the generational rebellion --> postmodernism*** ==>
•postmodern cultural critique rely on intuition + experiential sensibilities (in seeking a better world)
•postmodern consumer feels more justified in playful enjoyment of the simulation (=/= constantly seeking the somber reminders of “reality”)

hyperreality ==> “loss of history” : historical phenomena = collage with visual excitement = journalism
*voyeuristic exposure to the spectacle = cultural pastiche of the contemporary world*
--> #integration of the hollywood films (nested: music brand names become sub-spectacle within the spectacle of the film) --> (we are immersed in) an era of *metamarketing: marketing itself is marketed (becomes a prominent spectacle ---> go to Devil wears prada movie)

blurring of genres in news programs (Vox news), soap operas (), games ()

decontextualization + spectacle

the duality of ‘appearance =/= essence’ is dead in postmodernity --> cereal strategic decision-making in marketing : ****image = positioning****

-consumer always seeks an essence (in adopting a product)
-consumer of postmodern culture play the game of “surface” (they increasingly acquire the skills of recognizing the images and the positions these images offer)

[*]marketing: institution of simulation, imaginary, hype
(forms of) persuasive communication : transformational propositions ==> simulating potential experiences (=/= true or false discourse)


2- [*]fragmentation: the consumer engages in a series of independent, separate, unconnected acts --each--> require a different product
+ fleeting moments of exciting scenes and images

(postmodern) transcendence of the (modernist) necessity to *understand connections*

***artists of all kinds are increasingly assuming the role of marketing institutions***

the consumers (of postmodernity) are encouraged to play the game of *image-switching* (caring mother, efficient manager, elegant partner, gourmet homemaker --each--> require a different style {labeled as consumer liberation}) =/= central character
[---> go to Deleuze and Guattari's schizophrenia of late capitalism]

disconnected from authentic self ==> (enormous potential for) creativity in manufactured representations
~~--> market becomes a pastiche

postsuburban transformation
complex interaction of high-technology production + socio-spatial configuration + spectacular shopping environment = ubiquitous shopping malls (--acquired--> postmodern theatrical character, fragmented experience of all cultures)

unrestricted ability to use signifiers [?pushed back by some emerging sensibilities of cultural appropriation, political correctness, gender policing, religious, etc.]
--> marketing competition rests on the creation of images (meanings) removed from any history, context, origin =/= excellence and sophistication in form and technique
[---> go to contemporary artists anti-excellence attitude and the celebration of failure and failing]
--> **each instance of communication becomes a spectacle**

purposefully decontextualized + rendered free floating ==> marketable product
(surrealist artists made use of this --now--> shop window designer)
Duchamp, Rauschenberg, Warhol (ready-made)

***themes of postmodern culture:
irreverence
nonconformity
noncommitment
detachment
difference
fragmentation

(paradoxically) what seems to be difference at the level of symbolic culture stems from an underlying uniformity <-- ***heterogeneity has its origins in homogeneity*** : cultures where market and marketing are less developed exhibit greater variance in both the quality and kinds of life patterns

literacy:
•in modernity --> to read + discover connections among seemingly unrelated objects ==> understanding
•in postmodernity --> watching : recognizing images (exposing oneself to innumerable images and recognize what they stand for ~ attach meaning to them) <-- this is what i did in my telegram bestiary text!

literacy in consumption culture ~/=? established nortons of education


3- [*]reversal of production & consumption
•modernist: value is created in production (meaningful) and destroyed in consumption (profane)
•postmodern: production continues during the moment of consumption, value is created during consumption: a process through which individuals define themselves, status, image (=/= common) --> a social act, symbolic meaning ==> an individual with certain tastes, mentality, values (a type of humanity)

production & consumption prove to be different moments of the same cycle

•during production: producers are human beings, products are commodities
•during consumption: producers are images, products are human beings


4- [*]decentering subject
•modernist: the subject is in the pursuit of its goals, constituted in the separation of body and mind, to graduate from the *state of being* (existential) to the *state of knowing* (cognitive) : distance oneself from a pure existence of being (its context and condition) in order to develop a cognitive understanding
•postmodern: the subject is not in control, role of the human is to allow products perform their functions

marketing orientation
•positioning of the products (in the market)
•positioning of the consumer (in the social market)

(today's) body culture: self-objectification (==> to be consumed)
distancing of one's own gaze from one's own body to view one's self and scrutinize one's own images
--> ***fashion becomes the metaphor for culture***


5- [*]juxtaposition of anything with anything (its name?)
•opposing emotions: love & hate, contempt & annotation
•opposing cognitions: belief & doubt, reverence & ridicule
--> in advertisement a product is simultaneously made fun of and prompted, or making credibility by discrediting advertising
*high art and mundane consumption*
}<== growing acceptance of *doublethink* (~=? double bond) : the metagame of playing along as if the rules are what they seem on the surface while having the knowledge the rules of the game played are quite different from what that appear to be
•in advertisement: the consumer thinks while other people are persuaded, they themselves are not
•in politics: the consumers (voters) listen as if the politicians are espousing genuinely personal views
•in media: stating the role of the polls + reflecting the politicians view with utmost seriousness
•ethnic restaurants --> delicious life styles of which food is just a manifestation --> **simulated adventure in a theatrical society**
•
}--> the postmodern consumer does not judge the experience from a foundational perspective
*it recognizes only difference*, only fragments (=/= inequality, conflict)

anything is at once acceptable and suspect ( مجاز majaz)

*juxtaposition of opposites ==> total irony + ambiguity --> pastiche*

marketing --> *incorporation: pulling the contradictory (country cultural) movements into market economy : emptying expressions (music, fashion) of rebellion (for example punk) of their content ==> commodities them

society historical process is affairs through politics and social relations --✕--> market mediates social conflicts (for example the content and the looks of news program in VOX news)

*marketization (of politics): the possibility of representing them through electronically manipulated images (for example USA's 1991 gulf war was run more as a marketing campaign)
~=> *management of consent*

“authentic” traditional cultures in order to survive have to become marketable --> touristic attractions

•marketing taking the center stage in most western institutions
•market = locus (dominant mediator) of legitimation


marketing: a cultural process representing the post-


transnational (corporation) : postmodern cultural change agent


in traditional world of commerce ‘commercial space & time =/= programming space & time’

modernist vacuum created by obsolete notions of what is good or bad (sacred or profane) --> filled by marketing (enters --into--> culture)


fragmentation ==require==> use of many different styles and forms

(ideas and movements which already have made) sensational impact --> spectacle --> commodities


(marketing helped in entrenching) artist selebrity setting new trends and values <-- a postmodern phenomena with its roots in 1960s “anti-” movements
•not challenging or endorsing or committing to any one style, but rebelling by doing “one's own thing” (Madonna's rebellion 1991 --> she will continue to find large audiences as long as she represents and combines the postmodern aspects of critique of the metanarrative and the marketable commercial sensationalism of the fragmented spectacle)

paradoxical nature of postmodern culture <-- fragmentation and discontinuity of their experience
not owning a TV (conscious rejection) + driving a car (integrated into mainstream)


merging of education and marketing
*televisual generation*
(in north america and western europe) the education is taking place mostly outside of three classroom

(modern) institutionalized education --> (postmodern) marketing system : the individual of the postmodern encounters the institutionalized education as obligation, drudgery, and the means to achieve positions

(from) a process of reading issues and questions for exploration --to--> a process of persuasively communicating the necessities of knowing (and following efficient ways of doing things) --> literacy: being able to manipulate and construct (recognize and grasp multi-layered multi-faceted multi-media images --> to impress upon all senses) }<-- marketing is best situated to educate this
[-can a true critical deconstruction of postmodernism start from literacy? ---> go to telegram bestiary text]


***the consumer is also a signifier***
(constructed in the images that are culturally signified, for example the female)
(even metaphorically) putting somebody on the pedestal (stage) ==> exposure to voyeuristic gaze ==> objectification ~=> commodification }--Baudrillard-->
•a liberation (the subject is the object which has the powers of seduction as the focus of desire --> in control)
•a loss of freedom (the subject is culturally signified and constructed for fonctions determined outside its own power --> a property of the other)

*decoupling of culturally signified categories (of gender, etc.)* --marketing--> (postmodern stance and trend:) male model/actors who represent emotional, nurturing, and sensitive + female model/actors who repres[...]