scholarly journals “THE SEAMY SIDE OF THE CITY”: MARGINAL LANDSCAPES AND CONTEMPORARY VISUAL CULTURE

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-117
Author(s):  
OLGA A. LAVRENOVA ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
Homeless People ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
Modern Mass

The topic of people thrown to the sidelines of life is considered in a double frame—in the context of the way the urban space is arranged and in the context of modern visual culture (feature films, video and photo blogs, videos on popular YouTube channels). The most hyped-up type of marginal landscape in modern media is slums. The otherness of such spaces has always been a subject of interest and curiosity, for “gazing”—interpretation, perception and entertainment. In modern mass culture, the “location” of the global south slums is especially trendy. In such exterior, hyper-popular feature films such as Slumdog Millionaire have been shot, causing a new cultural phenomenon—mass slum tourism. This phenomenon seems to be ambiguous from an ethical point of view; but from the point of view of visual culture, it is voyeurism brought to the level of an art and everyday life practice. The second type of marginal urban landscapes is local “invasion” into the decent and institutionalized city space. This art form serves as a “location” for a psychological drama of superfluous people. Features of national identity are most clearly manifested on its seamy side rather than anywhere else. Japanese townships of the homeless, incorporated into central and well-to-do areas, are no strangers to order and aesthetics; while Russian realities—chaos, departure from norms and underground—are completely opposite. Classic films devoted to this issue—Dodes’ka-den by Akira Kurasawa, Promised Heaven by Eldar Ryazanov, The Lady in the Van by Nicholas Hytner—model these seamy spaces and their peculiarities inherent in national culture. Very popular now are YouTube channels about the life of homeless people, which show real characters in their real habitats, introducing marginal spaces into the rank of a hot-topic visual culture. This type of visualization provokes another cultural phenomenon— the perception of marginal loci and their inhabitants as an interactive performance. Interactivity can vary from attacking to fraternization, from preaching to charity. Odd as it may seem, hyper-visualization and aestheticization of social ulcers contributes to their social invisibility. It is a problem, which no one is going to solve anymore; it has become a part of modern culture with its own philosophical and aesthetic arguments—and in a certain sense they act as its justification.

scholarly journals “THE SEAMY SIDE OF THE CITY”: MARGINAL LANDSCAPES AND CONTEMPORARY VISUAL CULTURE

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-87
Author(s):  
OLGA A. LAVRENOVA ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
Homeless People ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
Modern Mass

The topic of people thrown to the sidelines of life is considered in a double frame—in the context of the way the urban space is arranged and in the context of modern visual culture (feature films, video and photo blogs, videos on popular YouTube channels). The most hyped-up type of marginal landscape in modern media is slums. The otherness of such spaces has always been a subject of interest and curiosity, for “gazing”—interpretation, perception and entertainment. In modern mass culture, the “location” of the global south slums is especially trendy. In such exterior, hyper-popular feature films such as Slumdog Millionaire have been shot, causing a new cultural phenomenon—mass slum tourism. This phenomenon seems to be ambiguous from an ethical point of view; but from the point of view of visual culture, it is voyeurism brought to the level of an art and everyday life practice. The second type of marginal urban landscapes is local “invasion” into the decent and institutionalized city space. This art form serves as a “location” for a psychological drama of superfluous people. Features of national identity are most clearly manifested on its seamy side rather than anywhere else. Japanese townships of the homeless, incorporated into central and well-to-do areas, are no strangers to order and aesthetics; while Russian realities—chaos, departure from norms and underground—are completely opposite. Classic films devoted to this issue—Dodes’ka-den by Akira Kurasawa, Promised Heaven by Eldar Ryazanov, The Lady in the Van by Nicholas Hytner—model these seamy spaces and their peculiarities inherent in national culture. Very popular now are YouTube channels about the life of homeless people, which show real characters in their real habitats, introducing marginal spaces into the rank of a hot-topic visual culture. This type of visualization provokes another cultural phenomenon— the perception of marginal loci and their inhabitants as an interactive performance. Interactivity can vary from attacking to fraternization, from preaching to charity. Odd as it may seem, hyper-visualization and aestheticization of social ulcers contributes to their social invisibility. It is a problem, which no one is going to solve anymore; it has become a part of modern culture with its own philosophical and aesthetic arguments—and in a certain sense they act as its justification.

scholarly journals Влияние масс-медиа на сознание человека в пьесах Александра Марданя

2018 ◽  
pp. 153-164
Author(s):  
Maria Sibirnaya
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
The Mass Media ◽  
Music Information ◽  
Modern Mass

Nowadays the influence comprehension of the mass media as one of the most significant factors affecting contemporary culture, acquires the special significance. All kinds of new information receiving by media channels obtain the stereotyped, frequently repeatedly cultural and axiological orientations, which become fixed in people's consciousness. Skillful manipulation of information makes the power of suggestion from mass media practically unlimited. Therefore, the public opinion is created by the mass media. Being so closely intertwined with the mass media, the modern mass culture is coming through all elements of people's lives. Moreover, it appears in the literary works, which reflect the influence of the mass media on the consciousness, mentality, point of view and decisions of the literature characters, using their set example in the literature. Odessian playwright Aleksander Mardan presents his characters in the context of the events, which entails new circumstances both due to the characters decisions and out of more extensive economic and political changes. One may notice the presence of mass media in the form of music, information broadcasts and press almost in all Mardan's play. One may track out the influence on the character’s consciousness and reveal the difference between the official version and what happened in the real life. Using the performance tool, there is the action in the play showing the influence of the stereotypes implicated by the mass media. The performance reveals not only the stereotypes affection influencing the mentality of the characters, but also the viewers whose interpretation of the play’s direction is not always critical enough. Therefore, the question about the relationship between the society and mass media, about the level of freedom in mass media from the society and concerning the influence exerted by mass media on the modern culture and the human's consciousness is repeatedly presented in Alexander Mardаn’s plays.

scholarly journals Sinking in Quicksand: The Demise of Victorian High Culture in America 1870-1915

2008 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitra Sharafi
Keyword(s):  
Mass Culture ◽  
Ethnic Origin ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
High Culture ◽  
Level Of Education ◽  
Modern Mass ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Ideal

Today, the term Victorian implies snobbishness and rigidity. Our world, the result in part of a rebellion against Victorian formality and social hierarchy, celebrates the classless, the democratic, and the popular. It professes faith in the artistic judgment of all members of society regardless of ethnic origin, level of education or wealth. From the Victorian point of view, however, twentieth-century mass culture is accessible to all by appealing to the lowest common denominator; it is inclusive at the cost of a loss of education, refinement, and profundity. Turn-of-the-century America is the ideal subject for a study of the interaction between Victorian high culture and modern mass culture; the period from 1870 to 1915 was one of drastic cultural metamorphosis. Social change threatened the foundations of high culture and eventually killed it, but not without the unintentional help of the Victorians' own self-alienating behaviour.

THE APPEARANCE OF FASHION AS A SOCIOCULTURAL PHENOMENON

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-88
Author(s):  
V. S. Sapozhnikova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
Initial Period ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Fashion Theory ◽  
Definition Of

One of the problems of modern culture and, in particular, fashion theory is the question of the time when fashion appeared in the socio-cultural space. To date, there is no single answer to this question, which is the key to the approach to the definition of "fashion". According to some scholars, fashion, being associated primarily with clothing, accompanies the development of mankind along the entire path of its existence, and fashion in the modern sense of the word can be spoken about since the era of Ancient Greece and Rome. According to other researchers, including the author of this article, fashion as a socio-cultural phenomenon was formed quite late - only in the initial period of the development of capitalism, and therefore the development of large cities, which corresponds to the era of the late Middle Ages. The substantiation of this point of view is the purpose of the article. The author identifies the factors contributing to the emergence and development of fashion, and attempts to prove that fashion as a phenomenon of mass culture could not arise in earlier periods of historical development.

scholarly journals Frankensteinowska hybryda

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 529-532
Author(s):  
Justyna Kowal
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
South America ◽  
Visual Culture ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Unique Form ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
Animated Films ◽  
Illustrative Material ◽  
Film Critic

The review of Frankenstein — 100 lat w kinie describes a unique form of the book proposed by Rafał Donica, Polish film critic and expert in popular culture. The shape of the book remains the object of its deliberations; fragmentary, heterogeneous narration by Donica reflects an idea of Frank-enstein’s monster body. Donica builds his narration with quotations, critical essays, historical re-constructions and original illustrative material. The author examines the character of Frankenstein’s monster in cinema and visual culture, which — as Donica accounts — brought about the transform-ation of the monster picture, extremely distant from Shelley’s prototype. The heterogeneity of Don-ica’s book manifests itself in several fields; the form of character appearance (from feature films, through animated films, TV series to commercials), temporal (from the beginnings of the cinema to present day) and territorial range — the author makes an attempt to present an objective, non-Euro-pocentric point of view, including examples of Frankenstein’s monster appearance in Asia or South America. Donica also proves his sensitivity to sociological mechanisms which guides popular cul-ture; he shows how “faces” of famous actors (like Boris Karloff) affected the monster image.

‘A song goes round the world’: the German Schlager, as an organ of experience

Popular Music ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Currid
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Visual Culture ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Music Practice ◽  
Siegfried Kracauer ◽  
Precise Understanding ◽  
Modern Mass

In recent work in film and cultural studies, the set of social configurations, practices of everyday life, and ideological formations that constitute twentieth-century ‘modernity’ have been increasingly the subject of research and debate. Fuelled by a renewed interest in critical phenomenologies of modernity, most prominently the work of Walter Benjamin and Siegfried Kracauer, scholars have focused the debate on the specific historicity of visual culture in the early years of the twentieth century, in order to illuminate the contradictory and fragmented nature of modern mass cultural experience. Fusing the theoretical traditions of critical theory with the empirical and theoretical interest in contradiction and contestation typical of cultural studies, not only does this debate open new perspectives for considering the problem of mass and/or ‘popular’ visual culture, it can also contribute to rethinking the way we discuss the historicity of popular music. Conversely, a more precise understanding of the historicity of popular music practice in modern mass culture, its institutions and modes of experience, can broaden the scope of this debate beyond the spectacles of visual culture to the ‘attractions’ of the acoustic.

scholarly journals Romantic arts in modern mass culture

2021 ◽  
pp. 143-146
Author(s):  
Дарья Андреевна Сигида ◽  
Елена Анатольевна Гербут
Keyword(s):  
Mass Culture ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
Single Body ◽  
Creative Personality ◽  
Artistic Life ◽  
Internal Properties ◽  
Modern Mass

В статье рассматриваются некоторые виды романтического искусства, их связь с внешним и внутренним свойством личности, принцип субъективности. По Гегелю, в классическом искусстве имеет место совершенное слияние идеального содержания и чувственной формы. Но дух не есть просто единичный конечный дух, соединенный с единичным телом; он есть божественное и бесконечное. И в романтическом искусстве, христианском по всем своим целям и устремлениям, никакое чувственное воплощение не ощущается адекватным духовному содержанию. Определяется первое искусство в ряду романтических искусств, которое должно указанным способом сделать видимым свое содержание в формах внешнего человеческого облика и всех природных творений, но без того, чтобы задерживаться на чувственности и абстракции. Выполнение этой задачи ставит перед собой живопись. В статье определяется место массового искусства в современной культуре, где творческая личность как создатель и потребитель этого искусства транслирует новое искусство, которое должно выдерживать новую реальность XXI в. Этап смены укладов вносит в искусство свои правила и пожелания, а также требует подчиняться новым законам в художественной жизни современного общества. The paper discusses some types of romantic art, their connection with the external and internal properties of the person, and the principle of subjectivity. According to Hegel, in classical art there is a perfect fusion of ideal content and sensual form. But the spirit is not just a single finite spirit connected to a single body; it is divine and infinite. Also, in romantic art, which is Christian in all its goals and aspirations, no sensual embodiment is felt adequate to spiritual content. The first art in the range of romantic arts is defined, which should, in this way, make visible its content in the forms of external human appearance and all natural creations, but without lingering on sensuality and abstraction. The fulfillment of this task is set by painting. The publication defines the place of mass art in modern culture, where the creative personality, as the creator and consumer of this art, translates new art, which should withstand the new reality of the 21 century. The stage of changing styles introduces its rules and wishes into art, as well as requires obeying new laws in the artistic life of modern society.

scholarly journals Kitsch's casus in modern culture

2019 ◽  
pp. 27-29
Author(s):  
Galina Pavlovna Klimova ◽  
Viktor Petrovich Klimov
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
Art History ◽  
Aesthetic Theory ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
Modern Mass

The article discusses the phenomenon of kitsch in its modern functioning in modern mass culture. The authors reviewed modern scientific researches in aesthetic theory, art history, and cultural studies.

scholarly journals Narrative Ethics of Post-Modern Visual Culture between Chinese “Diors Series” and Western “Loser Series” in Comparative Perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 205-219
Author(s):  
Shaomin Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Visual Image ◽  
Narrative Ethics ◽  
Business Culture ◽  
Ethical Orientation ◽  
Ethical Values ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
Modern Context

The main characteristics of the post-modern culture such as counterculture, non-conformism, virtualization, fragmentation, mass culture, business culture and irrationalism etc., decide the post-modernity of visual culture. “Film”, as an indispensable element of visual culture, has a narrative ethics that can be used for an interpretation of ethical orientation and ethical values in post-modern visual culture. This article, by comparing “Diors image” in Chinese Diors series with “loser image” in western loser series, the typical post-modern visual image, takes the post-modern context as the focal point and makes a further study of “Diors culture” or “loser culture”, which is formed in the phenomenon of post-modern culture, and thus explores narrative ethics and ethical values in post-modern visual culture.

УКРАЇНОЗНАВЧИЙ ОСВІТНІЙ ЧИННИК В УМОВАХ СУЧАСНОЇ УКРАЇНСЬКОЇ МАСОВОЇ КУЛЬТУРИ

2019 ◽  
pp. 22-29
Author(s):  
Н. В. Фрадкіна
Keyword(s):  
Mass Culture ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Character Trait ◽  
Main Task ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
The Individual

The purpose and tasks of the work are to analyze the contemporary Ukrainian mass culture in terms of its value and humanistic components, as well as the importance of cultural studies and Ukrainian studies in educational disciplines for the formation of a holistic worldview of modern youth.Analysis of research and publications. Scientists repeatedly turned to the problems of the role of spirituality in the formation of society and its culture. This problem is highlighted in the publications by O. Losev, V. Lytvyn, D. Likhachev, S. Avierintsev, M. Zakovych, I. Stepanenko and E. Kostyshyn.Experts see the main negative impact of mass culture on the quality approach, which determines mass culture through the market, because mass culture, from our point of view, is everything that is sold and used in mass demand.One of the most interesting studies on this issue was the work by the representatives of Frankfurt School M. Horkheimer and T. Adorno «Dialectics of Enlightenment» (1947), devoted to a detailed analysis of mass culture. Propaganda at all socio-cultural levels in the form is similar in both totalitarian and democratic countries. It is connected, according to the authors, with the direction of European enlightenment. The tendency to unify people is a manifestation of the influence of mass culture, from cinema to pop. Mass culture is a phenomenon whose existence is associated with commerce (accumulation in any form – this is the main feature of education), in general, the fact that it exists in this form is related to the direction of the history of civilization.Modern mass culture, with its externally attractive and easily assimilated ideas and symbols, appealing to the trends of modern fashion, becomes a standard of prestigious consumption, does not require intense reflection, allows you to relax, distract, not teach, but entertains, preaches hedonism as the main spiritual value. And as a consequence, there are socio-cultural risks: an active rejection of other people, which leads to the formation of indifference; cruelty as a character trait; increase of violent and mercenary crime; increase in the number of alcohol and drug addicts; anti-patriotism; indifference to the values of the family and as a result of social orphanhood and prostitution.Conclusions, perspectives of research. Thus, we can conclude that modern Ukrainian education is predominantly formed by the values of mass culture. Namely, according to the «Dialectic» by Horkheimer and Adorno, «semi-enlightenment becomes an objective spirit» of our modern society.It is concluded that only high-quality education can create the opposite of the onset of mass culture and the destruction of spirituality in our society. It is proved that only by realizing the importance of cultivating disciplines in the educational process and the spiritual upbringing of the nation, through educational reforms, humanitarian knowledge will gradually return to student audiences.Formation of youth occurs under the influence of social environment, culture, education and self-education. The optimal combination of these factors determines both the process of socialization itself and how successful it will be. In this context, one can see the leading role of education and upbringing. It turns out that the main task of modern education is to spread its influence on the development of spiritual culture of the individual, which eventually becomes a solid foundation for the formation of the individual. Such a subject requires both philosophical and humanitarian approaches in further integrated interdisciplinary research, since the availability of such research will provide the theoretical foundation for truly modern educational and personal development.

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