Aims
• To introduce a critical definition of ideology
• To introduce some of the basic principles of Marxist philosophy
• To explain the extent to which the media constitutes us as subjects
• To introduce ‘culture jamming’ and the idea of design activism
Ideology - How it works , how it effects us and our lives and how we live our lives.
A quote from Marx inscribed on his gravestone is often misinterpreted. A synthesis between 'thought and action' 'praxis'
Marxism is :
- a political manifesto (1848), leading to socialism, communism and the twentieth century conflicts between capital and labour
- a philosophical approach to the social sciences, which focuses on the role of society in determining human behaviour, based on concept of dialectical materialism
The manifesto outlined a better way of organising society- still not achieved. It describes how workers and managers will always be in perpetual conflict. Society, human behaviour and the world. The perfect praxis a philosophy realised.
The ideology from Marxism led to in some form in Soviet union, China, Vietnam, Cuba
What is Capitalism? The Western society we live in
• Control of the means of production in private hands
• A market where labour power is bought and sold
• Production of commodities for sale
• Use of money as a means of exchange
• Competition / meritocracy - Drummed in at school' High achievers' are encouraged
The ability to make a profit is held by a few individuals -Revolves around a market, commodities bought and sold including human labour, commodities. Money signifies dead labour and is a system which makes us compete. The best 'succeed'. Not human nature
….Communist Evolution - Marx how society develops
1. Primitive Communism: as seen in cooperative, sharing tribal societies.
2. Slave Society: develops when the tribe becomes a
city-state. Birth of aristocracy.
3. Feudalism: aristocracy becomes the ruling class. Merchants develop into capitalists.
4. Capitalism: capitalists are the ruling class, who create and employ the real working classes.
5. Socialism: (“Dictatorship of Proletariat"): workers gain class consciousness, overthrow the capitalists and take control over the state.
6. Communism: a classless and stateless society. - Never materialised
Systems create greed, accidental hierarchies emerged - power, haves and have not, aristocracy.
Marx's Concept of Base / Superstructure
A materialist conception of society
Everything is a result of the forces of production and relations of production
Base Society has a certain level of knowledge, technology, skills
The forces of production - materials, tools, workers, skills, etc.
relations of production - employer/employee, class, master /slave, accidently female/male etc
Superstructure
social institutions - legal, political, cultural, education
forms of consciousness - ideology *
‘The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles’
(Marx, Communist Manifesto)
The base produces the superstructure
A dialectical/cyclical process - one thing produces the other eg education.
The base determines content and form of the superstructure. The superstructure reflects form and legitimises the base.
Eg Education systems - The teacher 'the boss' training to take instruction so when the student become a worker accepts a manager's instructions
‘In the social production of their life men enter into definite, necessary relations, that are indispensable and independent of their will, relations of production which correspond to a definite stage of development of their material productive forces. The sum total of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation on which rises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the social, political and intellectual life process in general. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but on the contrary it is their social being that determines their consciousness.
At a certain stage in their development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production ...
…From forms of development of the productive forces, these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social revolution.
With the change in economic foundation the whole immense superstructure is more or less rapidly transformed. In considering such transformations it is always necessary to distinguish between the material transformation of the economic conditions of production, which can be determined with the precision of natural science, and the legal, political, religious, artistic or philosophic, in short, ideological forms in which men become conscious of this conflict and fight it out.’
Marx, (1857) ‘Contribution to the critique of Political Economy’
- Link to the famous Marxist aphorism that men make history, but not under circumstances of their own choosing. We are subject to social conditions first.
- Economic basis of society of society which gives birth to superstructure (dialectically) which in turn conditions consciousness.
- Intellectual life, Cultural life and world view are all reflexes of the economic relations of Capitalism in general. MATERIALISM
- Material productive forces - this is both the working class +industry +tendency to overproduction inherent in Capitalism. This equals conflict and ultimately crisis
- Shift in economic foundations = shift in consciousness - perhaps link to Williamson later. Also late capitalism /commodity culture / Relational Aesthetics vs. early capitalism / taylorism / heartfield
-Depends where your born
-Forced into situations which we don't have control of
If you change the base i.e. capitalism you change our attitudes to each other.
Pyramid of the capitalist system 1917
The State (Politicians, aristocracy, army etc) ‘…but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie’ (Marx & Engels (1848) ‘Communist Manifesto)
Instruments of the State
Ideological & Physical Coercion
The Bourgeoisie
The Proletariat
The Aristocracy and politicians are just a committee to manage the capitalist leaders. What the state does in managing on behalf of bourgeoisie is to keep the workers in line. Either through influence how they think or through coercion.
Religion is ideological. A Marxist reading of religion ' If we are good, honourable, moral, work hard we die then you are rewarded in heaven. 'The ultimate worker trap' mental control
‘Religion is the opiate of the masses’
Karl Marx, 1843
Ideology - Double meaning
1 system of ideas or beliefs (eg beliefs of a political party)
2 Masking, distortion, or selection of ideas, to reinforce power relations, through creation of 'false consciousness'
'[ The ruling class has ] to represent its interest as the common interest of all the members of society, ... to give its ideas the form of universality, and represent them as the only rational, universally valid ones.'
Karl Marx, (1846) The German Ideology
All sorts of ideological mechanisms operating around us. The exploited start to believe this is their view.
Art as ideology
Idea that free expression does truly exist is false. Historically rich educated people made art (only men). Who buys art? so dictate what they want. Aristocracy dictates what is painted. how did this reflect the interests of modern man?
Even Communism used art to condition a certain methodology - Stalin
Roses for Stalin 'Benevolent nice guy!!'
The Gorilla Girls
Art history books claim not porn to make studies of the perfect form. Many pictures and sculptures of naked women throughout art history.
SOCIETY =ECONOMIC, POLITICAL & IDEOLOGICAL
Ideology is a practise through which men and women ‘live’ their relations to real conditions of existence.
Ideology offers false, but seemingly true resolutions to social imbalance.
Althusser, (1970) ‘Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses'
The Media As Ideological State Apparatus
• A means of production
• Disseminates the views of the ruling class (dominant hegemonic)
• Media creates a false consciousness
• The individual is produced by nature; the subject by culture. (Fiske, 1992)
– The constitution of the subject
– Interpellation (Althusser)
Offers reasons why we are in this situation - Male artists paint nude woman. This feeds into our social relations and attitudes. Being women oggled by men often accept this as a compliment because of ideology. The Education system, ideolgical, training you to exist. ie Enterprise so can make money for society
The most successful apparatus is the media
-All owned by the super rich
-Powerful way of determining how we think and feel
Rupert Murdoch - The Sun claims has controlled elections through what he prints in his papers. Was Tory but Blair cut a deal to relax the monopoly commission rules so they started backing the Labour party. Politics is about principles but voting is not. Media effects thoughts and consciousness of men.
Looking at newspapers
Broadsheets are marketed at the upper classes - written in a certain way, time new roman, sophisticated story lines quality,certain language and national heritage. Myths -quality, authority.
The star is aimed at the working classes,the content is about TV, football, celebrity . Educated Journalists write dumbed down as making ideological assumptions about working classes. Self fulfilling prophecy, a way of life, recognised as culture.
Working class women fed certain ideological images. They act as judges e.g. student protestors - headlines are summary ideologocal judgements, hooligans, brainless,
J Bignall ' Media Semiotics 2007
TV ideology - how the BBC cut up and manipulated footage of an interview with an educated black man, Marcus Dow on the reason for the recent riots. Treats the 'other'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzDQCT0AJcw
Wonderbra ads reflect a certain patriarchal ideology- As long as you have got a Wonderbra you can still be successful without an education.
2 masking, distortion, or selection of ideas, to reinforce power relations, through creation of 'false consciousness'
[ The ruling class is ] compelled ... to represent its interests as the common interest of all members of society ... to give its ideas the form of universality, and represent them as the only rational, universally valid ones.
Karl Marx, The German Ideology, 1846
‘Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most of the relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves’
Berger, Ways of Seeing, 1972
Women think how man would like them to think
Advertisements are selling us something else besides consumer goods; in providing us with a structure in which we, and those goods are interchangeable, they are selling us ourselves.
And we need those selves […]
Althusser's problematic self perpetuating circle - Used to understand ideology
1950's view
Double ideology - Wife & slut
'[…]in our society, where the real distinctions between people are created by their role in the process of production, as workers, it is the products of their own work that are used, in the false categories invoked by advertising, to obscure the real structure of society by replacing class with the distinctions made by the consumption of goods.
Thus, instead of being identified by what they produce, people are made to identify themselves by what they consume. From this arises the false assumption that workers ‘with two cars and a colour TV’ are not part of the working class. We are made to feel that we can rise or fall in society through what we are able to buy, and this obscures the actual class basis which still underlies social position.
The fundamental differences in our society are class differences, but the use of manufactured goods as means of creating classes or groups forms an overlay on them.
The need for relationship and human meaning appropriated by advertising is one that, if only it was diverted, could radically change the society we live in'
Williamson (1978) ‘Decoding Advertisements’
These are some ways that media images can function ideologically to protect the interests of the ruling class.
This is even more apparent in advertising
By attaching human needs / desires to commodities Capitalism keeps us spending
Also add Marcuse quote - why should the overthrow of Capitalism be of primary importance to someone who can have two cars / colour TV’s etc.This is an ideological trap! By consuming we are sucessful we make ourselves poorer and we make the capitalists richer.
This is what Marx calls:
Commodity Fetishism (Marx, Capital Vol.1)
'A commodity is therefore a mysterious thing, simply because in it the social character of men’s labour appears to them as an objective character stamped upon the product of that labour; because the relation of the producers to the sum total of their own labour is presented to them as a social relation, existing not between themselves, but between the products of their labour. This is the reason why the products of labour become commodities, social things whose qualities are at the same time perceptible and imperceptible.'
Marx, ‘Capital Vol. 1’
Something that is used as a substitute for something else.EG Nike trainers = cool therefore a pair of trainers takes the place of 'me' the consumer being cool.
Can now almost brand/commodify anything. Eg Garbage of New York.
The world is unfair
The assets of the worlds top three billionaires are greater than those of the poorest 600 million on the planet
More than a third of the worlds population (2.8 billion)live on less than two dollars a day
1.2 billion live on less than one dollar a day
In 2002 34.6 million Americans lived below the official poverty line (8.5 million of those had jobs!) Black American Poverty double that of whites
Per capita income in sub-Saharan Africa =$490
Per capita subsidy for European cows = $913
Why do we not do anything about this?
BURGIN - link also between posession (capital) posession (partner)- commodification of human relationships.(Williamson)
The perversity of Capitalism can be summed up simply by statistics. Sourced from D’Amato ‘Meaning Of Marxism p.9
Poverty is horrible, but is obscene when one realises that enough income is generated to wipe out global poverty completely
F. Fukuyama (1992)‘The End Of History’ This society is the best, no other social organisation
JJ Charlesworth (2002)‘Twin Towers: The Spectacular dissappearance of Art & Politics’
1989 the Berlin wall came down continue at 13 mins
BROADLY SPEAKING HISTORICAL CHANGE HAS BEEN FOUGHT OUT BETWEEN THOSE WHO ACTIVELY SEEK AND DESIRE SOCIAL CHANGE & THOSE WHO SEEK TO PROTECT THE STATUS QUO.
However, we are now in this peculiar age of No Alternatives.
Vacuum caused by the collapse of the soviet bloc. Lack of ideological opponents - Fukuyama - History has ended and neoliberal capitalism is the only sensible world system.
paradoxical lack of ideological agency for Neoliberal Capitalism. Perhaps explains increase in military intevention under humanitarian banners
March 2003 massive march against the iraq war. Police estimate numbers 750,00 - organisers estimate 2,000,000
However, Judean peoples Front vs. Peoples front of judea. This left is totally atomised and unbonded - only united through a feeling of general disgruntlement.
“A meme (rhymes with dream) is a unit of information (a catchphrase, a concept, a tune, a belief) that leaps from brain to brain to brain. Memes compete with one another for replication, and are passed down through a population much the same way genes pass through a species. Potent memes can change minds, alter behavior, catalyze collective mindshifts, and transform cultures. Which is why meme warfare has become the geopolitical battle of our information age. Whoever has the memes has the power.”
VICTOR PAPANEK
‘Most things are designed not for the needs of the people but for the needs of manufacturers to sell to people’ (Papanek, 1983:46)
The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point however is to change it
Marx, K. (1845) ‘Theses On Feuerbach
Conclusion
Our society is grossly unfair, something needs to change this situations
Quotes Handout
‘Marxism & Design Activism’
‘In the social production of their life men enter into definite, necessary relations, that are indispensable and independent of their will, relations of production which correspond to a definite stage of development of their material productive forces. The sum total of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation on which rises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the social, political and intellectual life process in general. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but on the contrary it is their social being that determines their consciousness. At a certain stage in their development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production ...
…From forms of development of the productive forces, these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social revolution.
With the change in economic foundation the whole immense superstructure is more or less rapidly transformed. In considering such transformations it is always necessary to distinguish between the material transformation of the economic conditions of production, which can be determined with the precision of natural science, and the legal, political, religious, artistic or philosophic, in short, ideological forms in which men become conscious of this conflict and fight it out.’
Marx, (1857) ‘Contribution to the critique of Political Economy’
‘[ The ruling class has ] to represent its interest as the common interest of all the members of society, ... to give its ideas the form of universality, and represent them as the only rational, universally valid ones.
Karl Marx, (1846) The German Ideology,
Key terms to investigate further
Fordism / Taylorism / Capitalism / Late Capitalism / Neo-Liberalism / Exchange Value / Use Value / Alienation / Reification / Atomisation / Commodity Fetish / Dialectics / Materialism / False Consciousness / incorporation / Culture Industry
Selected Bibliography
Berger, J (1972) ‘Ways Of Seeing’
Bourriaud, N (2002) ‘Relational Aesthetics’
Barthes, R (1972) ‘Mythologies’
Charlesworth, J.J ‘Twin Towers: The Spectacular Disappearance of Art and Politics’, Third Text, vol. 16, issue 4, 2002, pp. 357-366
D'Amato, P. (2006) The Meaning Of Marxism, Chicago, Haymarket Books.
Documenta XII Catalogue & Reader
Hardt, M & Negri, A. (2000) ‘The Sociology of Immaterial Labor’ in Empire (2000) at: http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/it/negri.htm
Harris , J. (1984) Photo Essay at
http://www.coldtype.net/Assets.07/Essays/0507.MinersFinal.pdf
Lasn, K (2000) ‘Culture Jam’, US, William Morrow Paperbacks
Marx Internet archive available on http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/index.htm
Works to particularly look at-
Introduction to Critique of Philosophy of Right (1844)
Economic & Philosophic Manuscripts (1844)
Theses On Feuerbach (1845)
German Ideology (1845)
Communist Manifesto (1848)
Preface to Contribution To A Critique Of Political Economy (1859)
Study Guide for Capital: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/guide/index.htm You might find this a useful aid.
McClellan, D. (ed.) (2000) Karl Marx: selected writings, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
McNally, D. Socialism from Below (1997), available at http://www.marxsite.com/socialism_from_below_by_david_mc.htm#table. McNally’s pamphlet provides a concise overview of the history of struggles for emancipation, and may help you frame contemporary debates
Papanek, V (1971) ‘Design For The real World’ Human Ecology and Social Change, New York, Pantheon Books
Sekula, A (1995) ‘Fish Story’ (study Sekula’s text and photos)
Strinati, J. (2nd edition 2004) ‘An Introduction To Theories Of Popular Culture’, London, Routledge pp. 115-153, JK 306.2
Storey, J. (4th edition 2006) ‘Cultural Theory and Popular Culture’, Harlow, Prentice Hall, pp.47-70.
Williamson, J (1978) ‘Decoding Advertisements’
Richard Miles, 2011
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