UMD Visual Literacy QUIZ 6

Visual Culture

Reflects a movement to a concern with theories and art and design in addition to histories

Culture

Framing device, what humans have done or added to nature by their inventiveness and labor

Culture Concepts

base, superstructure, and ideology

Base

Material resources, means of production

Superstructure

Spiritual

Ideology

Shared set of societal values and beliefs

Karl Marx

Ideology is false conciousness

Louis Althusser

We're unconsciously constituted as subjects by ideology

Hegemony

Dominant ideologies are always in flux

Civilization

A culture synonym with broader and evaluative connotations; = mannered

Paradox

Civilization usually increases the potential for destructive power

Culture and Class

Traditional levels of culture: high, middle-brow, and low

High Culture

Royalty, aristocracy, upper middle class

Middle-Brow

Bourgeoisie or middle class & lower-middle class (petit bourgeoisie)

Low Culture

Proletariat or working class & underclass (lumpenproletariat)

Kitsch

Visual artifacts judged to have little or no aesthetic value

Camp

Recodes kitsch as valuable, sees value through its status in invoking class standards of bad taste

Connoisseur

Master of taste; masters the rules of a subculture

Cultural Capital

Like money, everyone has some access to culture

Folk Culture

Rural societies (in decline)

Mass Culture

Modernity, industrialization & mass communication

Mass

Made by professional designers and artists

Popular

Made by untrained people for masses

Anthropology and Sociology

Culture as objective of study for both fields, even a "visual" subfield in each

Pluralist Culture

Many cultures; a flexible, dynamic, process

Intercultural

Way cultures interact

Multiculturalism

Need to incorporate values and ideas which do not reflect merely the dominant group ideology; dangers or tokenism

Culture and Barbarism

Cost of culture often exploitation; critics often wary of "celebratory" approach to history and criticism