Sunglasses - False Consciousness
In this picture, a pair of sunglasses is placed on a tablecloth, folded and pointing toward the viewer. These sunglasses are indicative of the Marxist thesis of false consciousness, wherein the capitalist machine creates a false sense of happiness and harmony between social classes. In reality, the rich control the poor but the poor do not quite know it. This harsh reality is overshadowed by materials and institutions that place importance on consumerism and capitalism as a means to accrue happiness. With the potential for wealth dangled in front of a public that does not see the truth, people can actively vote or work against their own interests.
These sunglasses were chosen to depict the shades that are placed over the uninformed to hide the truth from them. Often, these blinders are placed over people's vision by themselves; believing that they know everything, they forbid themselves from learning more about the world and enhancing their experiences. Either way, the idea of false consciousness involves a willful ignorance of the world around them. When someone puts on their sunglasses, it is impossible to see what is behind their eyes; part of our world is obscured from us. This is extremely similar to the way in which the poor do not necessarily understand or commit themselves to the ideas of social justice and accountability for the rich, or a satisfying life beyond the material.
This can be related through politics as well - the upper classes provide needed products and amenities to the lower classes; instead of recognizing the lack of privilege and freedom they are given, they instead take these meager gifts given to them and ignore the class differences that set them apart. Because people are so preoccupied with products, to the point where they connect human value with their monetary value, people ignore the fact that the bourgeoisie want them to have this perspective in order to keep them alienated from each other.
With this picture, the sunglasses are also a commodity in much the same way; by creating fashionable accessories that are not strictly necessary for survival, the upper class have one more thing to keep the proletariat chasing after in order to chase a capitalist dream they will never truly attain. Sunglasses come in many different brands, some fashionable and some utilitarian. They are yet another component of the consumerist culture that demands we have the freshest clothes, the finest food, the cleanest home; all of these things are components of a lifestyle perpetuated by the accumulation of wealth. Advertising and marketing tells us to spend our money to look good, so that we may feel good; this ties our well-being and happiness inextricably to the gathering of these things. Because it is impossible for many of the lower classes to reasonably acquire these things to the level of the rich, this happiness is implied to go unfulfilled. At the same time, the rich keep the poor on this leash with the promise of upward mobility. If we buy better sunglasses, if we buy Ray-Bans instead of aviators, we will be one of the elite (or at least one step closer). This is the quintessential example of false consciousness, wherein our ideologies are controlled by the privileged to give the poor a false sense of security and forward momentum.
Stamp - Mechanical Reproduction
In this picture, a stamp instantly engraves a name and address on a blank piece of paper. That stamp is indicative of something that is very prevalent in a commodity-based society, a concern that grows with many who seek the individuality of art. With a stamp, any design at all can be instantly replicated and reproduced, no matter how intricate or beautiful. With that ability to replicate, the question must be asked: Does it then matter how beautiful it is if it is no longer unique? The idea of mechanical reproduction arguably takes away everything that is unique about art and makes it mass-produced, safe, homogenous. By removing a sense of individualism with our creations, we take something away from ourselves. Beautiful works of art, each important in their own way, become templates for mass-produced objects that are stamped onto paper and sold to others for diminishing returns.
However, does this make the work of art less special? Does each new copy take away from the uniqueness of the original? When someone stamps a piece of artwork onto one piece of paper or twenty, is that artwork as original? These questions raise issues of the validity of reproduction, and how important uniqueness and rarity is to the value of art. If everyone considered copies equal in value to the original, there would be no point in paying more for original artwork, and we would also not treasure rarity. Uniqueness is what sets our experiences apart and makes us individuals; if we all had access to the same things, we would live the same lives and be the same people.
With the advent of movable type, all the way to the invention of the camera, the photocopier, and the stamp, mechanical reproduction has created easy ways for us to create and recreate. No longer do we have to settle for a single copy of something, which runs the risk of being destroyed and being lost forever. Now, a beautiful work of art can be photocopied or placed on a stamp and instantly remade or distributed to many more people. There are those who argue that this is a good thing; exposure is everything, and the more people know about your work, the better you feel. Moveable type brought the Bible to many more people, and innovated the idea of mass production of text - this is definitely good, because the ideas that are conveyed in a book are still unique, and the artistry comes from the thought behind it.
Visual art, however, is another story. It took discrete and concrete talent, artistry and deftness of hand to make whatever painting, drawing or sculpture they produce. If one were to mass produce it, they would be recreating that same painting but without that deftness of hand or level of care. It makes the creation of visual art a mechanical process, one which takes seconds to replicate what some artist worked for hours and hours on, if not days or more. With this particular medium, the act of mechanical reproduction takes what is unique about art - the connection with the artist - and divorces it from that. Instead of the work being created by an artists' passion, it is traced by an unfeeling machine, and someone who owns a reproduction of artwork would be able to feel that lack of care.
A Man Tortured - Enlightenment Fails to be Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was supposed to be the finest age Man had known; we were to finally own up to our potential as the masters of reason, of logic, and of thought. No longer did we have to enslave ourselves to the concepts of religion, dogma and ritual; we wanted to know for ourselves, think for ourselves, and understand the universe. However, despite how far we reach for enlightenment, we can never truly reach it. No matter what our expectations, we simply cannot meet them; it feels like torture. To that end, this picture of a man being tied up and blindfolded is indicative of the Enlightenment failing to be enlightenment.
When man strives for enlightenment, they want to elevate themselves to a higher cause. They want to be masters of their own fate, and not let anything else stand in the way of their goals and continued life. Religion and doctrine have been telling them what to do their whole lives; instead, man wanted to bring themselves into a place where they were on top. However, Man will never truly be master of their fate; no matter what we do, death will always come, and there is simply never enough to go around. We will never be as happy or as lucky as we think the other people around us are, and we hate ourselves for that. Because we operate on logic and reason, and have reached enlightenment to an extent, we expect that all of our problems will be solved. They aren't; we are simply a bit more aware of them, and how helpless we are against them.
The ideas behind enlightenment are fantastic; we seek to get out of our abusive relationship with myth and live for our own selves. However, sometimes, this move can often swing the other way, moving towards a socialist or superstitious state that permits us to regress from reason. The tenets of these kinds of organized societies can often resemble the same kinds of myths and superstitions we tried to shake ourselves from. We are always tortured by the dilemma between living for the individual and living for others; often, the latter involves accepting an ideology that runs counter to our desire for free agency.
One of the most substantial problems often found in attempting to reach enlightenment is that we can commit ourselves to going down the wrong direction. How do we know that what we are really feeling is enlightenment, or if we are wrong somehow? There is always the uncertainty that we do not know all that we need to know, or that our ideas are incorrect, and that tortures us. Mankind in general is perpetually in a holding pattern wherein we think we know the answers, but someone comes along with a different idea. When that opposing idea happens, often we do not know if that person really has the answers. We are never given confirmation of our true purpose, or the way an ideal society should run; therefore, we are confused by our next course of action. It is as if someone is tying us to a chair and torturing us; we want to escape, but we simply do not know how, and the waiting until the answer comes is sheer agony.
Police Car - Two Means of Relations of Production Being Produced
In operating in a civilized society, it is expected that everyone will follow the rules that are put in place to keep everyone safe and cooperative. The benefits to this cooperation include a greater collective set of resources, community, social access and amenities; however, this comes at the sacrifice of even just a little bit of our freedoms. In order to make a life for ourselves in a society, we have to understand the relations of production. For many of us, one expectation is the giving up of freedom to do absolutely everything we want, and face punishment when we break these rules. The police enforce these rules and provide accountability for those who break the ones needed to live in society. Police, among other civil services and restrictions on our agency, prevent us from doing harm to others and the community as a whole for the sake of our own individual wants.
The relationship between the people and the police is necessary for survival of the society; this provides a structure to the society and a series of expectations that is understood by everyone involved. The police produce safety, while the people help create that safety by abiding by their rules. This type of relation between these two forces of production is the way in which the infrastructure of an organization holds; without the expectation that people will obey rules and work in the best interests of the community, there is no point in having the community.
In this example, the police carry the means of production, the product being the safety of the community. Their means include the use of weapons, various kinds of force, and approval from the city to fine and detain criminals who break rules and endanger citizens. They are provided these means of production by the city, who give them a budget accrued largely from taxes, which are supplied by the people. It is an extremely circuitous yet necessary way to provide equal protection to everyone in a society, and a way to distribute lump sums of funds given by the people to the government in exchange for various services. This relationship of production creates a system that allows people to be self-governing, and to invest in their own safety and the safety of others. By providing this comprehensive benefit to everyone, all members of the community have a vested interest in maintaining the community, allowing it to continue.
Even the police car itself exemplifies a relation of production between people and the creator of the car. People pay money to purchase a car from a dealer, who buys it from a manufacturer, who holds the means of production; police cars are purchased by the city from the same source, and provided to officers to use as they please. These cars, in turn, are used to help protect the citizens, which includes the people who make, distribute and sell the cars; in this way, they are playing a hand in their own safety simply by contributing to the relation of production. However, it can be argued that these social forces are masked by the market forces that people usually think about, and this can prevent people from understanding every consequence of their actions in the chain of production.
Advertisement of Woman - Interpellation, Most Effective Means of Functioning, Is There a Way Out of Ideology?
In this picture, a sexy woman graces the face of an advertisement. That woman was placed on the advertisement because marketers know that "sex sells." However, how do we know that sex sells? According to interpellation, we are interested in the ad because they inserted sex into the ad. The idea of sex selling was pitched to us long before it actually occurred; in that way, it was interpellated - it came first before the subject recognized it.
According to interpellation, however, we have no real say in the process, since the ideologies around us are created without our input, and we merely react to them. Since we do not affect them, we cannot change them, and so we cannot escape ideology. The answer lies in the level to which interpellation can really exist in shaping market and sociological forces, which is still the realm of theory. If there is sufficient room for growth and manipulation of these market and societal forces, we can escape our current ideologies and move on to new ones; these ideologies must, then, be a consequence of our actions and deciding what we like.
Forging a new direction must be deliberate and purposeful, the new ideology coming as a consequence of active resistance of the old one. However, what if this change in preference is simply a consequence of the ideology? What if it is just another link in the chain that continues the vicious cycle of ideology, and that is just an inevitable next step? Instead of feeding us what we want, the ideology pushes us toward the next thing we want by making us sick of it. All of these questions are interesting to consider, but the issue remains that we cannot truly know how to get out of the ideologies we saddle ourselves with. If interpellation is in any way true, we are led around by our influences and external forces, and do not have any real sense of control over our lives. We will perpetually look at the sexy ads in magazines most frequently, because we will never get over how appealing sexually suggestive images are to us. The degree to which they do may change, but never the fact that they do.
