PART I.

AUTHORS

MODULE TITLE AUTHOR

Module 2 Ways of Seeing John Berger

Module 3 Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Marita Sturken & Lisa

Culture | Introduction & Images, Power, Politics Cartwright

Module 4 Semiotics & Iconography Theo van Leeuwen

Camera Lucida Roland Barthes

Module 5 The gaze as constituent and annihilator Mats Carlsson

Module 6 YouTube As Archive: Who Will Curate this Digital Robert Gehl
Wunderkammer?

The Cinematic Mode of Production: Towards a Jonathan Beller

Political Economy of the Postmodern

Module 7 Introduction to Imagined Communities Benedict Anderson

The post-colonial studies reader Bill Ashcroft, Gareth

Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin***

Module 8 In defense of the poor image Hito Steyerl

Loving a disappearing image Laura Marks

Module 9 Go Above Your Nerve: Notes on High Chair 12 Conchitina Cruz

Can Poetry Console a Grieving Public? Mark Doty

PART III. SYNTHESIS OF POINTS

MODULE 2

● Overview: The prominent and ever-present reproductions in our modern society has
drastically altered the meanings of original images, and has asked us to question the
true meanings of images, particularly those of the original, the reproduction, and the
meanings that are enclosed in those.
● Images immortalize a particular moment in time for a subject, creating a tunnel to which
us from the present can connect to it in the past, locking it in a particular present perfect
tense that negates its supposed quality of timelessness.
● Reproductions are (1) able to quickly spread an image all over the world through
various contexts while (2) carrying over the meanings of their originals, but they are
now easily changed thanks to the context and surrounding text that a reproduction
may find themselves in.
 ● Capitalism Strikes Again: (1) The ruling class is able to manipulate the meaning of
reproductions to their own benefit, (2) alongside propping up the originals as an object
of bogus religiosity by continuing to behold some sort of importance to the originals
because of its unique quality, (3) all the while promoting mystification through using the
formalist approach while discrediting direct interpretations of texts.
● Thesis: Berger asks us to be vigilant of the use of our images in society because they
can help us by creating a tunnel for us to connect to the past, but the ruling class
desperately wants to sever this connection and maintain the status quo.

MODULE 2 - JOHN BERGER - WAYS OF SEEING

Sunday; September 18, 2022
● We know we each have a particular way of perceiving the world, and that we know we
can be seen. Seeing is a particular relation we put onto the world and back.
● Images are reproduced sights, taken from a specific sight out of millions and preserved
now for eternity. The image-taker’s perspective is always reflected in the image, noting
how the object in the image is how the image-taker perceived it.
● Images can be art, but we have many assumptions put onto art, mystifying it that
inadvertently puts distance between us in the present and the past, which is unhelpful
since we can learn from the past.
○ When we look at art, we look at perspective, and mystifying it by denying people
access is not helpful. These are often perpetuated by the ruling classes for their
benefit.
● Meaning and critique can be inferred by viewers (the details of a painting) from
discerning some perspective from the image-taker (the painter and their relation to the
subjects). We think we know things from what the image-takers “tell” us through their
work.
○ The Regents and Regentesses stare at poor Hal as he paints them, and this
interaction itself while making the painting might tell us much about the painter’s
perspective. Trying to attach meaning to certain details might be the
mystification referred here.
● “If we can see the present clearly enough, we shall ask the right questions of the past.”
● The camera was an overall game-changer.
○ People thought before the singular perspective was themselves and the
image-taker, but the camera smashes that perspective fully.
○ Images were thought to be timeless before (amassing time from a great period of
painting), now they’re just collecting a particular perspective in time.
○ The camera also changed the uniqueness of paintings through reproduction.
● Paintings have lost meaning through reproduction using cameras. They now instead
have meaning as the “original” of reproductions.
○ Mystification occurs again using this to gain back what was lost, treated as holy
relics of high spiritual value, referring to bogus religiosity. The history of the
particular object (a.k.a. authenticity of the art) is now used to deem its value,
since the uniqueness cannot come from the art itself now with reproduction.
○ “It is authentic and therefore it is beautiful.” The final empty claim.
 ○ These relics are treated as rare commodities, limited to the hands of the rich and
powerful.
● Reproduction is a powerful tool that breathes many meanings to art, losing the original
meaning the artist put onto them.
○ Reproduction can happen to only specific parts of art to highlight them.
○ Reproduction can also combine many art pieces to tell a new story.
○ Reproduction can even be also joined with words to have a brand new context.
● The originals are not entirely useless anymore, as they are capable of bringing us closer
to the past, learning firsthand the particular qualities of the artwork that affected the
meaning of the work, and putting us closer to the past.
● Art of the past is inherently political, because Berger argues the notion that art can truly
tell us something about our past that can aid us in today.
○ The radical destruction of the value of the original art with its limitless productions
is seen by Berger as a worthy cause for celebration, though he understands why
most people take this for granted.
○ Art was always often in a preserve, often only in control of a minority. But now, it
is in the hands of everyone capable of obtaining a reproduction. And there is
great power to be recognized in that progress.

MODULE 3

● Overview: A deeper dive is asked of us in understanding the world of images and

photographs: (1) with how personal and political they can be in affecting the
representations present in our supposedly objective photographs, (2) and with how
visual and visuality affects those in the visible and the invisible.
● Personal photographs are always deeply affected by the underlying political decisions
that affect our human-influenced camera photographs, since their mechanical objectivity
is a myth from their scientific origins, and that the representations in photos can be seen
(a) abstractly, or (b) mimetically.
● Visual is our sight and what we see, while visuality is the underlying social and political
contexts that color our perspective, which is made even more poignant by the power
dynamics that affect what is visible and invisible.
● Capitalism Strikes Again: For something to be visible, there must be something
invisible, and the ruling class takes advantage of their position within the visible by
further marginalization and trapping into the invisible, though the absence can still be a
chance to further send a message.
● Thesis: Vigilance is asked of us given that the photographs and images of our modern
world (alongside their underlying elements) are steeped in the power dynamics that
permeate our status quo.

MODULE 4A

● Overview: Two frameworks have been established in trying to decipher the underlying
and overlying meanings in messages.
 A. Semiotics
a. Denotation - There is no technical deciphering as we are trying to understand
the literal message of the text, often through the use of categorization to create
a level of generalization, either through typification, dichotomy of group/individual,
camera distance, or surrounding text.
b. Connotation - It calls upon outside cultural meanings, akin to Roland Barthes
myths, which seem natural but really are not.
B. Iconography
a. Representational Meaning - Like denotation, we’re trying to get at the literal
meaning of the text, but it adds understanding regarding the quirks of the medium
used affecting meaning; this can often be observed with (a) title/captions, (b)
personal experience, (c) background research, (d) referential quality, or (e) verbal
descriptions.
b. Iconographical Symbolism - This refers to object signs that have particular
ideas or concepts attached to them like in abstract (e.g. cross as holy), or
figurative (e.g. nature and associated meanings) symbols.
c. Iconological Symbolism - This tries to understand the underlying ideas as to
why particular symbols were chosen, like interpreting the use of the conventional
meanings present from a sociological and political perspective.
● Capitalism Strikes Again: The ruling class is able and capable of utilizing our
naturalized connotations or myths in order to reinforce the status quo.
● Thesis: Semiotics and Iconography are two frameworks in which we can identify the
elements and meanings posited in images, from the former’s denotation and
connotation, to the latter’s (a) representational meaning, (b) iconographical symbolism,
and (c) iconographical meaning.

MODULE 4B

● Overview: Another systematic form of understanding images takes a more personal

stance through the punctum and studium, as it wants to focus on what comes out of the
spectator’s perspective on the image.
● The studium is the formalist approach on observing an image, as it wants to presume
on what the photographer wants to emphasize, which is an element of the image widely
unconcerning to the spectator.
● The punctum is instead the ‘pricking” element of the image that sparks an emotional
quality and resonates with the spectators, which is often influenced by the tense of the
camera.
● Thesis: The studium and punctum is an alternate perspective that observes the image
through the interests of the spectator, the former tackling formalist qualities, and the
latter tackling truly resonant qualities.
MODULE 5

● Overview: The gaze is a generally misunderstood concept that seeks further deep dives,
especially in regards to Lacanian concepts, the mirror stage, the trauma of the Real, and
our innate voyeuristic desires and why we like watching films.
● [Lacanian Psychoanalysis] The Lacanian Model is composed of three aspects:
○ a. The Real - This is where our complete self lies and starts in as we are born,
forever ruptured as we make our entrance into language.
○ b. The Imaginary Order - This is the mirror stage of demanding an idol or ideal
self to look up to, creating a fantasy image of the self and nursing a narcissistic
relationship with the self.
○ c. The Symbolic Order - This is where language appears and solidifies our
incomplete self, creating a vulnerable and powerless self with the incompleteness
that separates us from the world.
● The gaze is often misunderstood as the spectators observing onto an unsuspecting
object, fulfilling our voyeuristic desires that seem innate (likely due to the sense of
power), when in actuality it is the understanding that the object knows that they’re
being watched and desired upon by the spectator.
● Aside from said voyeuristic desires, there is an intrinsic appeal to cinema as we
misrecognize our ideal selves in them as well as relate to them, creating a pleasure
that we want to experience to which cinema provides, echoing the mirror stage.
● Observing the Real is traumatic because we realize that they have a life outside of us (,
especially so when looking at the mirror that creates an uncanny valley reflection of us
that is both ourselves and not ourselves.
● Capitalism Strikes Again: Hollywood exploits our love of cinema and desire for pleasure
through voyeuristic intentions.
● Overall: The gaze is a much more complicated concept that implicates the spectator in
the relationship, being a desire waiting to be fulfilled while also being a possibility for
traumatic situations as they realize the totality of the dynamic and lose their power.

MODULE 6 (A: YouTube as Archive; B: The Cinematic Mode of Production)

● Overview A: YouTube as a medium actually poses a lot of interesting paradoxical

implications waiting to be explored, wherein it is able to be both a democratizing platform
that maintains the status due to aspects of its archival non-curator nature.
● YouTube operates as an archive, a free disorganized marketplace where any artifact
within it is free to rise above and gain attention, though this allows the capacity for any
curator (especially those of power) to just jump in and easily dictate what is important.
● The curator role is very important in such archives, especially as to the level of their
power/influence, because they have many jobs like: (a) acceptance of object, (b) proper
storage of object, (c) categorization of object, (d) display of objects, and (e) legal
disposal of objects
● Capitalism Strikes Again A: There is a paradoxical phenomenon of democracy
occurring within YouTube, because the archival freedom lends itself to be exploited by
the current status quo of the ruling class that we already have.
 ● Overview B: Much can be tackled from the culture of cinema, their use as a tool to
strengthen the status quo and the commodity of attention as valuable in this capitalistic
market.
● Spectatorship entails unpaid labor, because a commodifiable value is provided
through attention which is valuable in our modern world, building up on our innate desire
of voyeurism.
● Capitalism Strikes Again B: Cinema becomes an effective mode of production because
this mechanism powers a very profitable system in this scopic regime (proliferation of
images to which we are designed to consume them) that can expand capital, which can
also be seen with YouTube.
● Thesis: YouTube and cinema because the premier examples of how capitalism is
embedded within systems that seem mundane and unrelated, as the manner of
spectatorship has been able to create a particular value for the ruling class.

MODULE 7

● Overview: The concept of nation and nationality come to a head as there is more to be
discussed when we really think about why we feel kinship to location/identity/etc.
● The concept of a nation is important because it provides a sense of identity,
belongingness, and worth, which is validated by allowing people to be recognized as
themselves.
● The nation is imagined because we are thinking of a community that we cannot and will
not fully know each member that is a part of it, while the nation is limited because it is
built on a principle of inclusion and exclusion which seems to seek companionship and
separation from favorable and unfavorable people, respectively.
● National identity has always been embedded in history, literature, and or print-languages
due to its nature of reconstructing unity and national consciousness among people
who share culture and traditions that have been reimagined to fit the current modern
society.
● A common enemy is helpful in mobilizing the community into a shared
● Capitalism Strikes Again: The concept of a nation is hegemonic, since the ruling class
can use this ideology to further their own agendas or even take them into power with the
cycle of oppression, revolution, and control of power.
● Thesis: The concept of a nation is imagined, and nevertheless valuable to understand
and deconstruct, because it serves as a tool to galvanize a community while also
reinforcing the harsh status quo.

MODULE 8

● Overview: Poor images and rich images have a lot more to be discussed in regards to
the aura it affects and provides on both the spectator and the cinema, as well as the
aspects of degradation and dispersion creating melancholia and a subversion to the ego.
● The poor image is a natural byproduct of our visual media world as a low-quality
reproduction of an originally rich image, where the former acts as the accessible variant
that promotes the latter which only helps perpetuate the system.
 ● The poor image contains a particular aura that is not present in the rich image:
authenticity and truth instead of the rich image’s fiction, like comparing the CCTV
footage of a bank robbery comparing it to the big budget Hollywood adaptation of the
heist.
● Degradation is the natural perpetual state of cinema, both in its actors and the film itself,
while dispersion is the effect created by it in that it destroys the original meaning of an
image while supplanted by melancholic ideas due to the notion of the image as
destroyed by the often observed male-dominated ego of our world.
● Capitalism Strikes Again: Poor images are accessible but serve to reinforce its indexical
rich image by using its appealing visual aura, which also reinforces the capitalist system
through its place in the hierarchy.
● Thesis: The poor image and the rich image are concepts that are able to affect the
meanings and reception of an image, all which seem to reinforce the status quo.

MODULE 9

● Overview: There is a fine line between the use of grief and atrocity in art as to whether it
champions the suffering or serves as righteous and self-aggrandizing.
● Absence on the screen is important when portraying grief and atrocity, because
sometimes a depiction cannot be enough to fully represent the pain, making it a more
ethical solution.
● For the two authors: Doty tends to universalize and think that people can relate to each
other, likely due to his background being part of the tragedies he’s talking about (9/11,
AIDS), while Cruz prefers distance for she is skeptical of the role of an artist due to
doubts being a witness though being adamant about needing to uphold its obligations in
tragedy.
● Poets should strive to be accountable as witnesses aiming to raise their voices for
causing a social revolution and not on clout.
● Thesis: As an artist making works on current tragedies, be vigilant that you’re not trying
to absolve yourself of guilt, but rather that you actually want to help through your art
instead of sympathies which are false accomplishments.