Chapter 49 & 50

Chapter 49:

In this chapter, Debord talks about modern industrialized societies and how life has changed.  He says that life has changed from experiencing it directly to experiencing it through representations.  Debord believes that images have just begun to take over our lives.  I do not agree. I believe images have always dominated our lives.

Chapter 50:

In this chapter, Stuart Hall talks about "difference". He talks about difference because that is how peope have been able to define themselves.  " Things don't have essential meanings but relational ones." Everything is defined by differences, instead of being defined by similarities.

The reality show that I watch the most is The Hills. I like it because they live a more glamorous life than I do and I like to admire all of the nice things they have (except for the large amounts of drama included of course).

Chapters 47 & 48

Chapter 47:

This chapter talks about the question "What is art?" which has been asked over and over again for centuries.  It talks about what all is included in art and then it talks about Gowans four functions of art. 

1.) The four functions of art are substitute imagery: works such as photos, painting and so on that capture reality; illustration: works that tell stories or help tell stories; conviction and persuasion:works that show beliefs, sell products; beautification: works that please the eye or gratify the mind

3.) All of the connections make sense between the functions of art and the theories of art. Substitute imagery is mimetic since it is taking place of an image.  Illustration is objective because its telling a story with the object. 

4.) Illustration and beautification dominate the media because our society is all about having narratives and making things beautiful.  Nobody wants to see and advertisement that isn't pleasing to the eye.

5.) An artist can create reality by using substitute imagery.

Chapter 48

In this chapter they talk about the creation behind art. They bring up the latent and manifest function again relating to art. They also talk about how creativity and art doesn't just come from a mindless state. It comes from experience and what you have viewed. So they talk about how film students study art history and old films in order to have creative ideas.

1.) She says the old style is insistent but respectful and modern style excavates and while it excavates it destroys.

2.) She calls Freud the manifest content and Marx the latent content. And she says that they only seem to be intelligible.

3.) She says that because however someone wrote something doesn't mean that the reader is going to interpret it that way. Everyone is going to interpret things in their own way. 

4.) I don't believe we can be exposed to a text without interpreting it. Everyone has their own ideas about what they read.

5.) I think they would say that everyone is going to interpret things they're own way but none of their ideas are going to be original because everything has been thought of before.