ART1900 Visual Literacy Quiz 8

hegemony

(Antonio Gramsci) power relations in constant state of flux

habitus

field exists before entry with rites of passage; individual assumes position within it (Pierre Bourdeau) "legitimate language"

Post-Colonial Theory

European countries relinquished colonies, which became aware of their colonial/imperial legacies

primitivism

cult and appropriation of tribal arts by modern artists

orientalism

exotic conceptions of East as European inventions

design history

Britain, 1977, group of retrained art historians formed.

U.S., 1983 Design history caucus at CAA

architectural history

traditionally, "Mother" of the arts; shift from modernism to postmodernism

film/media/communication studies

visual culture includes all electronic media but radio

cultural studies

broader than visual culture, as it includes all the habits and customs of people

theory

a coherent group of tested general propositions, commonly regarded as correct, that can be used as principles of explanation and prediction for a class of phenomena

Ekphrasis

detailed description of works of art

criticism

a genre of writing that describes and evaluates particular examples of visual culture for the benefit of non-specialist readers

exchange value

what something costs

use value

how useful/necessary something is

interpellate

viewers as subjects - address "you"

presumption of relevance

insinuates necessity

pseudoindividuality

consumption will make you unique

equivalence

made between disparate things

differentiate

producers _______ artifacts from competitors'

commodity fetishism

separates goods from context of production for new meanings to be attached

reification

abstract ideas given concrete form

Metacommunication

an exchange where topic is act of communication itself; reflexive

signifying practice

goal of producing meaning as well as object

auteur

idea of defining individual style vs. Barthes' "death of the author" with "birth of the reader"

aesthetic resources

enormous bank of object types, images, symbols, techniques and styles accumulated over centuries; appropriation issues

circulation

through space and over time; can have many "lives"; changes in classification: transient/durable/rubbish

exchange

3 main ways: bartered for good or services, gifts, and bought and sold for money

post industrial society

emphasis put on consumption, not production

reception aesthetics

branch of criticism/history concerned with the impression art, design and media make and how they are "read" by various individuals and social groups; taste: key variable in reception

transient cultural objects

finite life; exchange value decreases over time

durable cultural objects

no finite span; exchange value can increase

rubbish

zero value; no increase

social effects

effects of visual culture on society, affecting behavior and attitudes

bricolage

taking existing artifacts and recoding them for new subgroup meanings

counter-bricolage

mass culture reappropriating (coopting) the bricolage