2.+Subjectivity

=SUBJECTIVITY= =Basics:=
 * A concept that is based on experience, the intersection between personal identity, lived experience and the influence of the surrounding world. How does one view reality? Through what lens or perspective do we attain and disseminate knowledge? How do we know what we know?**

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 * __The Body form the Inside Out: Understanding Saint Orlan__**

====Saint Orlan ( [] ), French performance artist takes an extremist approach to creating and rerouting her physical reality through invasive medical procedures. From liposuction, to what would seem to be abnormal injections, Saint Orlan uses a variety of method to generate art. However, her works in Carnal Art ==== ====( [] ) uses graphic self-reconstruction past the body's //natural// form. Criticized at pornographic and praised as anti-conformity, Saint Orlan's work shows creation of new physical reality past exterior norms toward self-constructed deconstruction challenging categories of self and reality beyond nature and beside medical technologies. ====

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-Posted by Sarah

Plato's Allegory of the Cave:
__The idea of not recognizing true reality could be conveyed with the popular movie The Matrix, in which "reality" is really a computer-generated fiction (like the shadows in the cave) created by aliens that enslave humans.__

The Matrix as a Modern Day version of the cave. Morpheus says to Neo, "You are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind.”

media type="youtube" key="UM5yepZ21pI" height="315" width="560"

__A similar concept appears in the movie Dark City. Both give versions of people resisting facing the light of true reality, and trying to convince others of it.__ media type="youtube" key="jSpowoKqSzc" height="315" width="560" __Both also presume a similar ontology and epistemology to Plato in that it is assumed that there is an objective reality and, although difficult, it can be known directly.__ __-- Posted by Trav__

__**Plato's Allegory of the Cave & Modern day North Korea**__


Depiction of Plato's The Cave

===North Korea is a country/space that has a reality that is "subjective/contested", do to the ruling regime that enforces an artificial reality that remains elusive (No one knows the extent of the actual realities for it's citizens, just fragmentations) from the rest of the world due to strict borders and regulations/enforcement of those who reside/visit it.Plato states that " the world revealed by our senses is not the real world, but only a poor copy of it". In N. Korea their society is a world in of itself that has be constructed to fit a philosophy of "Juche" or self reliance, which is false as it's citizen's must rely on the instructions/orders of it's dictator and the ruling party. Plato also states "that a good society must be one in which the truly wise are the rulers". One can argue that the rulers of N. Korea are not wise to enforce such harsh false realities on their people, however their views of their wisdom is also "subjective".===



media type="youtube" key="J3RwqT8d1pk" width="560" height="315" ===In the 2015 documentary, "The Propaganda Game" by Alvaro Longoria, shows glimpses into the "reality" of North Korean life. How much is "real" is subjective as what he was allowed to film/shown was under the direction of N. Korean authorities. What makes this documentary interesting is that at times it displays N. Korea in a more sympathetic light that differs from the United nations perspectives, and allows a more well rounded dialogue about what N. Korea is "really like".===

Modern day media as a version of the cave. Do we really see reality or are we chained and imprisoned by the information fed to us by the government, society, and the media industry? Meagan, Megan, and Tierney

__Merleau-Ponty, "Eye & Mind"__
This phenomenologist talks about subjectivity in terms of painting, processes of vision, and representation of the world as seen. He mentions lots of painters and painting but without an art history degree, they may not be meaningful. I made a slideshow in PhotoSnack of art he references. Unfortunately it doesn't let me caption that, a weakness of this tool in teaching I discovered too late. I also added a Rothko painting to go with the discussion of the emotional power of color, and some Muybridge images of a racing horse -- although MP doesn't go into detail, these were one of the steps in the invention of motion pictures. I used a 3D cube transition format to foreground the idea of perspective and representing space, and a hot violet color to reinforce the ideas about color's communicativity. -- Posted by Trav media type="custom" key="12187344" http://www.photosnack.com/AveryAllen92/artissubjective.html Inspired by this author's work and the wheel of photos, here is another example of artistic subjectivity. Click through and enjoy!

○ The concept of having two personalities, or two ways of evaluating one’s self is the definition of double consciousness.
===Double consciousness & Batman: According to Naficy (2008), Identity involving double consciousness is not just about who you are but rather who you are is plural. You are a version of you to different people. Also the context you are in makes you a different person to different people. According to W.E.B.Du Boise (1903), "one is always looking at oneself through the eyes of others". As in the case with Bruce Wayne and his superhero alter ego Batman, his identity is dependent on the context as well as other individuals. To his business peers, he is a philanthropist, Billionaire playboy. A pristine Gothamnite who is looked up to. To his villains he is a shadowy, violent, yet intelligent figure who is persistent in thwarting their plans to control or disrupt Gotham’s society. Bruce Wayne/Batman is these things yet he is different things to different people which depends on the context where he is situated. He embodies two souls, two thoughts, warring ideals, and unreconciled strivings (W.E.B. Du Bois)He displays different characteristics and versions of himself depending on his audience and tries to match their expectations of the version of himself.===

It is when an individual has an identity that is split into several facets. For DuBois, this concept not only explained the situation of Blacks within American society, but also other psychosocial divisions based on perceptions. --Megan S.
 * People can have troubling defining themselves and their identity based on factors such as race, gender, culture, sexuality, etc.
 * A double consciousness of identity can especially occur when these factors conflict with one another

** Marji’s Veil: Double Consciousness and Internal Restrictions in //Persepolis// **
// (Tierney Gallagher & Roth Smith) // This image comes from Persepolis, an autobiographical graphic novel by artist and writer Marjane Satrapi. In the book, she illustrates her experience growing up in Iran during and after the Islamic Revolution from her childhood perspective. This frame appears very early in the book in the first section. In this section, “Marji” introduces her view of the Islamic Revolution in the early 1980s. Based on an opposition to capitalism, the Revolution shut down certain schools, segregated genders, and forced women to wear veils. This frame is a selection from the comic, and illustrates Marji’s struggle with the veil and its meaning. She is torn between the fact that she is very religious, but that she and her family are also very modern and avant-garde.

To provide some background, the Islamic Revolution overthrew Iran's monarchy and established an Islamic Republic. The Revolution changed a variety of aspects of life in Iran, including incorporating Islamic laws into society and establishing new ruling leaders. These changes made society more traditional and conservative in contrast to the previous trends toward modernization. This frame and the story of Persepolis, then, relate to several topics we have looked at in class.

Marji’s internal struggle between her two sides relates to the concept of the veil and Double Consciousness from W.E.B. Du Bois that we discussed regarding the Enlightenment and liberal humanism. In the illustration, we can see a clear distinction between the modern and traditional side of Marji, with an inherent line drawn down middle of the frame. Marji is confused about who she is because her identity is divided between these two facets. Her view of the world and other economic, political, and social factors is influenced by both of these sides throughout the book, and her perspective is very different from someone who doesn't suffer from this double consciousness. Her connection to both sides illustrates the divisions existing in Iranian society at that time.

This also relates to some of the ideas we covered in our global discussion. Such drastic societal changes relate to the ideas Kymlicka discusses in his piece on multicultural citizenship. In the section on individual rights and collective rights, Kymlicka draws a distinction between external protections and internal restrictions. The first promote equality among groups and are used to uphold liberal rights and democratic institutions. The latter are more oppressive and are used to restrict rights in the name of cultural traditions or religious orthodoxy (NSTR, p.276). Furthermore, he explains the division between individual versus collective rights. Individual rights seek to preserve personal liberties and see the individual as the priority in society. Collective rights promote a community’s self-preservation and see society’s interests as reducible to the members who compose it (NSTR, p. 278). I see the story of Persepolis relating very strongly to these concepts. The changes imposed by the Islamic Revolution seem to be related to internal restrictions and collective rights. By requiring citizens to wear veils and abide by other Islamic laws, people’s personal liberties and rights were being restricted by enforcing cultural traditions and religious orthodoxy in order to preserve the traditional Islamic culture as a whole.

Satrapi, M. (2003). Persepolis: The story of a childhood. (First American ed, ed.). New York: Pantheon Books. Seidman, S. & Alexander, J.C. (Eds.). (2008) The new social theory reader (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge. Image: []

__**[|Subjectivitea🍵]**__ Peruse the tumblr that makes light of some of the issues of subjectivity. Memes galore! It is in keeping with the running theme of what is truth and what is art. Feel free to comment with more you would like to see on the page. They are all over the internet 😩.

Internet memes are ubiquitous now days. One such type of meme is a "true" meme, that stems from an "emotional foundation" (usually from hurt feelings) tries to convey a truth about a certain type of person, group, or knowledge. However truth is subjective and these memes under closer inspection have the purpose of trying to have their "truth (emotions) validated by the number of shares", which is just a measure of shared opinion not of actual validity (truth). Harding and Pribram (2004), state that feelings that on the one hand make people feel isolated can be transformed when they interact with others who share their feelings. This can in turn lead to subcultural groups being formed. This in turn gives these individuals a sense of power that they did not have from an emotional connection with one another.