Week 3

The Visual Culture Theory Trajectory: Benjamin, Debord, Barthes, Baudrillard

Required Reading:

• Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. [Another copy.] (1936)
  • Focus on sections Pref., I-VI, XII
• Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle (1967) [Another copy.]
  • Focus on sections 1-6, 10-11, 17-18, 24-30
• Jean Baudrillard, "Simulacra and Simulations." From Simulations, 1981; English trans., 1988.

Useful Theory Readings and Contemporary Visual Culture

• Douglas Kellner, "Media Culture and the Triumph of the Spectacle." (PDF) (UCLA)
• Marie-Laure Ryan, "From The Truman Show to Survivor: Narrative versus Reality in Fake and Real Reality TV," Intensities: Journal of Cult Media, 2, 2001.
• Jim Rovira, "Subverting the Mechanisms of Control: Baudrillard and The Matrix Trilogy," Drew University.

Student Presentations

Using ideas from the theory above, chose a recent movie, television genre, artist or group of art works to consider.

How can we extend the ideas of "spectacle," "simulacra," and "hyperreality" to recent visual culture in movies, video, and television?

• Are TV reality shows an example of these cultural forces?
• What about the "post-photographic" aspects of movies that present a cinema or photographic "look" but are hybrids of digital and film or have been created entirely without a camera? (recent example: The Polar Express, a movie with actors and no camera: view trailer)
• Representations of pop stars and celebrities?

Possible Films to Discuss

Film and Cinema in the Era of Simulation and Post-Photography

• Ridley Scott, Blade Runner
• Peter Greenaway, The Pillow Book
• Larry and Andy Wachowski, The Matrix and Matrix Reloaded
• Japanese Anime: Ghost in the Shell, Akira