Creating a New Meaning

      Since everyone views images from a different time, place, and with different tastes, the meanings each person can derive from a piece of visual media can be very different. The ideas of cultural appropriation and re-appropriation reflect the constant fluidity of values in society. Appropriation, refers to the process through which a person or group who represent the oppositional reading of an image or symbol impose their own values on that image. For example, my friend Gabi tattooed the Hebrew symbol for "life" on her hip.  That symbol, which is used in Jewish culture to literally mean the state of being alive, took on different meanings for Gabi. When I asked her, it said it reminded her of her heritage, her faith, and her desire to become a mother one day. I assume when she looks at it, inspires feelings of empowerment, independence, and reminiscence to her 18th birthday when she painted it under her skin. She appropriated those feelings and values into the symbol, and when it is read through the medium of her skin, it is easy to understand her point of view. 

     Re-appropriation is the process through which the hegemonic culture reclaims certain symbols or icons that are used against the dominant ideologies by rebellious subcultures. Unlike the example of Gabi's tattoo, many times appropriation results in interpretations that deprecate their subjects. For example,  I have spent a lot of time this summer and fall conducting voter registration. For students in my age demographic, the push to register to vote is in style. Normally, teenagers who have an interest in politics are tagged as political science or international relations majors. However, since receiving mass media coverage, the connotations that voting and politics reflect the values of an older, activist demographic have been re-appropriated into popular culture. The political process, covered by gossip sources like MTV and Perez Hilton, has taken on a celebrity like persona.  As our nation's election is absorbed into the mainstream entertainment culture through skits on SNL, and pictures of the candidates and their families are seen in the tabloids, more demographics are persuaded to join in the movement.  The re-appropriation of the political process into mass culture increases voter turn out by appealing to a wider audience on a variety of cultural levels. 

Dead Media

We are living in a time of rapid technological innovation. It seems that new media are constantly being invented and integrated into society. However, this means that some media must be phased out. The Dead Media Project serves as a space where extinct media can be preserved so that progress can be tracked. After reviewing the examples of technologies from the past, I started to come to realize that there are two reasons why new inventions can become out of style. The first is that, even if they have exciting features, if they do not serve an effective additive purpose, it is possible that consumers will continue to rely on very primitave technologies. The second reason is that new inventions make the old ones obsolete.

For example, the Refrigerator mounted-Talking Note Pad was a reminder system that enabled users to record a twenty second message that could be replayed at any time. A red indicator light would blink if there were messages waiting to be listened too. However, this invention was no better than the normal pen and paper note taking system for a couple of reasons. First, in order to access the note, one had to actively engage in listening to it. Paper notes can be posted in eye sight and will remind the person even when they are not thinking about the task at hand. Secondly, the twenty second message was limiting, because you could only record one message at a time as opposed to paper methods that could accomodate as much information as neccessary. Although the talking note pad was a new innovation, media must serve a function as well as have an advancement of capabilities.

Even if an invention increases effectivity and the capabilities of other technologies in the same market, society is always innovating new ones that can take their place.  That is why technologies such as the teatrophone have become extinct, the market has become replaced by that of the radio and the television. The teatrophone enabled audiences interested in theatre and orchestra who didn't live in the city centers to hear the performances of the premier groups of the time. However, since the theatrophone only worked by fixed lines, they had to go to a specific storefront location equipped with teatrophone capabilities in order to experience this new media. With the invention of the radio and the television much later, audiences did not have to leave their homes to enjoy the same entertainment. 

Three Winters in the Sun: Einstein in California

The biggest decisions are the hardest to make. I know when I am stuck between two positions that have vastly different outcomes, the process of decision making is rarely organized. It is very rare that we come to choose between the right and wrong decision in a linear and progressive manner. So for Einstein, who had to chose weather or not to advocate his discovery of nuclear theory to Roosevelt during WWII, the process of discovery was most likely a scattered and influenced by many different factors

In the DVD series, Three Winters in the Sun: Einstein in California, each aspect of decision making is depicted in one of six rays of light that constitute different facets of Einstein's life.  His experiences as an emigrant, as a Jew, in the home, with the FBI, with Hollywood, and of science all intermix in order to help guide Einstein's actions as a man of political influence and scientific prestige. It may be more confusing for the reader to navigate through the chaotic and fluid light fields, however it is a more accurate depiction of the complexity of Einstein's thinking. The DVD claims that as an immigrant, Einstein was isolated from many groups because he had no true identity with any of them. However, because he could look at each of them with a more objective opinion, he was able to influence a wider spectrum of interest groups.  Einstein identified with pacifists, activists, socialites, those in catastrophic situations, Socialists and Capitalists and many more groups who both respected and feared his intelligence. 

As I navigated through the fields, I became more and more unaware of my position regarding Einstein's decision to advocate the Manhattan Project. However, one theme remained the same: militant pacifism, or the willingness to fight for peace. From an early age, Einstein was aware of the evils of the German Nazi empire he was raised in. He refused to join a power who could persuade the masses so easily to commit such crimes of atrocity.  Later, as he saw this regime threaten to control the globe, I believe he realized the necessity to fight against it. Although, because of FBI regulations, he was not able to participate in the American development of a nuclear weapon, his urging of Roosevelt to manifest his most controversial  invention had worldly consequences. 

However, although he knew the magnitude of the decision he was making, Einstein had an unwavering faith in the persistence of progress. As a physicist, he was constantly trying to advance science, and he knew that the world would not stop the movement once it had begun. By urging the Roosevelt administration to create the atomic bomb, he was putting the first power in the hands of who he thought was right. Capitalism, the United States would harness the greatest power the world had ever seen. Under the wrong supervision, his invention might have had much more catastrophic outcomes. 

The DVD does a fine job of representing the natural progression of thought and interconnectedness of life experiences. It leaves the audience to come up with their own conclusions rather than guiding them through a linear text to an end position. Einstein himself had no end position. Later he would say that sending that letter to Roosevelt was the biggest mistake he had ever made. However, when talking about his removal of support for his Quantum Mechanics theory because it relied on probability, he said, "God doesn't play dice with the universe." We must take into account Einstein's faith when deciding the morality of his decision. I believe that colossal outcomes would have occurred regardless of Einstein's support for one side, so we must take on faith that the catastrophic decisions of one man were the right ones.