German midterm 3

John Durham Peters

“Broadcasting and Schizophrenia”

Symptoms of the schizophrenic relationship to media

• secret codes: imagination of personal relationships with media personalities (Coleen Nestler believed David Letterman was communicating with her through, code words, eye expressions, and gestures)

• Mistake between “for someone” vs “for anyone” structure of communication

• Hallucination of voices in your head, no filter, world without walls (lack of private mind, hearing voices and thinking others can read your mind)

• thought broadcasting (think their thoughts are leaking or escaping

Describe the historical connection between media theory and psychology as it pertains to broadcasting

schizophrenic thought broadcasting and delusions of reference mirror the idealization of early telephony, for example, as a form of telepathic communication

“Delusions such as thought broadcasting are the hidden truth of the ideal of perfect communication. Liberated from all barriers, communication would be indistinguishable from madness. The mad do not violate norms of communication; they show us what it would mean to take seriously the project of transmitting our unique funds of mental meaning”

Bolter and Grusin’s immeidacy

Communicative structure of the radio

How the radio people talk make if feel like it’s personal but it’s really going to the mass

“Radio separated the context of speaking and the context of listening. Its historic problem was to create forms of discourse that detain or entertain people who do not have to listen”

Radio personalities “used an intimate style to hide radio’s disseminative logic, she invited her listener to engage in the solipsistic reverie of being her sole addressee. Her listeners were to engage in the willing suspension of the knowledge of their co-listeners

Sexual innuendo, “singular direct address.and chummy intimate tone”
“to listen to radio or watch television normally is to engage in an interpretive process of being included and excluded at the same time”

Correct behavior toward broadcase media

Listeners/viewers recogize that the reationship between them and the broadcast personality is parasocial

John Durham Peters overarching claim

“pathology reveals normality. Madness shines a bright light on hidden assumptions about communication”

songs

should be listening to the message and can relate, but shouldn’t think the artist is talking directly to them

This is the voice of algeria

Frantz Fanon

summarize Althusser’s theory of “interpellation” or “hailing” in terms of its ideological/linguistic production of subjects.

“Assuming that the theoretical scene I have imagined takes place in the street, the hailed individual will turn round. By this mere one-hundred-and-eighty-degree physical conversion, he becomes a subject. Why? Because he has recognized that the hail was ‘really’ addressed to him, and that ‘it was really him who was hailed’ (and not someone else). Experience shows that the practical telecommunication of hailings is such that they hardly ever miss their man: verbal call or whistle, the one hailed always recognizes that it is really him who is being hailed. And yet it is a strange phenomenon, and one which cannot be explained solely by ‘guilt feelings’, despite the large numbers who ‘have something on their consciences’.”

• when responding to the address for you, you become the subject

• the idea of hey you is not only about how and whether you choose to enae with media, but also symptomatic of your status as a subject to state power

Radio for colonizers vs. colonized

• for Alerians: “the ever possible eventuality of lauhin in the presence of the head of the family or elder brother, of listenin in common to amorous words or terms of levity… acts as a deterrent to the distribution of radios in alerian native society” (mismatch in cultural values, traditions)

• both the technoloical instrument and the voices present on it are rearded as a separate society that has nothin to do with Alerians. “Frenchmen speakin to frenchmen”

• Radio is a mark of superiority an dties to europe “on the farms, the radio reminds the settler of the reality of colonial power and by its very existence, dispenses safety, serenity… Raio ALer sustains the occupant’s culture, marks it off from the non-culture, from the nature of the occupied… radio for the settler, is a daily invitation not to o native, not to foret the rihtfulness of his culture

Radio revolution

skyrocketing sale of radios in algeria, illegalization of selling radios without military voucher

“the algerian people decided to relaunch the revolution. Listening in on the revolution, the algerian eisted with it, made it exist”

Media practices participate in the creation of new political realities

Connect Althusser’s theory to Algerians’ response and non-response to radio

Non-response to radio alger= refusal of hailing by colonial media, not claiming to be the listener

Excessive, enthusiastic response to the voice of algeria= formation of political community, positive response to hailing, “made it exist”

Contrast algerians’ use of radio from Phillis Weatley’s and Frederick Douglass entry into the public sphere of print

Wheatley and Douglass strive for inclusion, Algerians craft an alternative public sphere at war with the colonial authority

someone “running amuck”

the lack of objective news led to an "irrational overestimation" of revolutionary success. Fanon describes individuals in a "fit of aberration" who would dash into streets or farms waving knives and shouting that the Revolution had been won. This was a disconnection from reality where "any news is good news," and the group supplemented the silence of the press with a "collective conviction" to be "in on" the Revolution at any cost

Snatching Garbled Fragments

Because the French systematically jammed the Voice of Fighting Algeria, the broadcast was often a "choppy, broken voice". Listeners would "snatch fragments of sentences" and attach decisive meanings to them, effectively performing a "task of reconstruction". In this context, the radio was not a carrier of information but a "virtual connection" to the nation; the act of listening itself was the message.

Analyze the jammed-frequency “battle” and musical “victory” on the

radio

Listeners would sit for hours with their ears glued to receivers producing nothing but an "excruciating din" of jamming. They would imagine concrete battles occurring behind each crackle of static. When the broadcast ended with a few notes of Algerian military music, it was experienced as a symbolic victory in the "war of the sound waves".
where electronic noise and frequency manipulation are used as tools of counter-cultural resistance and political identity, transforming "non-culture" or noise into a site of struggle

Explain how and why Fanon’s description of Algerians’ use of radio makes it

an example of counterpublic discourse (referencing specific parts of

Warner’s definition). name a point of tension with Warner’s

definition

aligns with Michael Warner’s definition of a counterpublic, which is "constituted through a conflictual relation to the dominant public"

hostility by the colonial power: it’s being outlawed, jammed

Actively promoting revolution: not just opening-up of the public

The psychopathologies (and communicative tactics) that emerge in relation to the radio can also

be seen as a form of resistance to a normative relation to media

“public” is also minimizing the violence involved in

producing the idea of a universal public under colonial rule.

Recall how the change in attitudes toward radio led to changes in the

hallucinations of voices that some Algerians suffered.

Before 1954, Algerians suffering from hallucinations often heard "highly aggressive and hostile" radio voices that were inquisitorial and insulting, reflecting the radio's role as an instrument of the occupier. After 1956, once the radio was "digested" by the Revolution, these voices became "protective and friendly," offering words of support and encouragement

This shift illustrates madness as a psychic response to the trauma of colonialism. The "accusing voices" represented the fear and anxiety of the occupied subject. The transformation into "friendly voices" acts as a mechanism of self-defense or self-cure, where the mind creates a protective psychic environment to survive the "disintegrating colonial situation

According to John Durham Peters, a “correct” or “sane” relation to broadcast media

such as radio is one in which listeners:

All of the above

Which of the following is NOT a symptom of a schizophrenic relation to

broadcasting?

identifying with a lyrical “I” or “you”

according to John Durham Peters, why did radio personalities use tactics such as

sexual innuendo, intimately familiar speech, and direct, personal sounding

address?

in order to overcome the structural separation of the context of

speaking and listening in radio;

in order to engage listeners who did not HAVE to tune in or pay

attention;

in order to make listeners feel included;

in order to mediate between “for anyone” structure of broadcasting

and the “for someone” structure of personal communication.

Based on John Durham Peters’ argument, what we understand as a schizophrenic

relation to media is actually representative of what sort of ideal(s) of

communication?

Telepathy

Immediacy

Draw on the lyrics to one of the pop songs we discussed in class on Tuesday to

explain how the musical artist makes the listener feel both “included” and “excluded” at the same time. Your answer should be specific to the song.

Nobody” – Included either by identifying with the “I” or as

potential saviors for the “I” / excluded by the word “Nobody” (for

anyone becomes for no one), refusal of intimacy and Mitski’s failure

(in the song and/or video) to establish communication with anyone.

Your response to a policeman saying “hey you” is NOT an example of which of the

following, according to Louis Althusser:

A guilty conscience

According to Frantz Fanon, why did Algerians initially have no interest in owning

radio sets?

mismatch in cultural values and traditions;

perception that radio is a “separate society” or “Frenchmen speaking

to Frenchmen”;

association between radio technology and colonial rule

For which of the following reasons might NOT the Voice of Algeria be considered

counterpublic discourse (based on Michael Warner’s definition)?

It delivers more culturally appropriate radio content for Algerians

Name and explain some of the practices through which Algerians “made the

Revolution exist” through the radio.

Practices: buying radios, listening to the radio even on jammed frequencies,

collective listening, reconstructing fragmented broadcasts,

hallucinating/fantasizing victories.

Explanation: these acts, even when dissociated from actual information,

created the consciousness and collectivity of a free Algeria, of the

Revolution. They unified free Algeria as a public.

t or f: Because the radio frequencies were so frequently jammed, Algerian’s relationship

to the radio Voice of Algeria as the vehicle of revolution can be seen as an instance

of McLuhan’s claim that “the medium is the message.

true

explain your answer to the previous question.

Algerians were not actually gaining concrete information about the

revolution, but were more invested in participation

the “hailing” function of the radio as constitutive of the revolution was

more important than the content.

Sun Ra, Lee Perry, George Clinton, Derrick May,

• Sun Ra: A jazz musician and mentor to George Clinton, known for his Arkestra and the philosophy that his music is a "mirror of the universe".

• Lee "Scratch" Perry: A reggae and dub pioneer associated with his Black Ark studio and label.

• George Clinton: The leader of Parliament-Funkadelic, described as a "fucking maniac" who pioneered the "Mothership Connection" and "uncut funk".

• Derrick May: A key figure in Detroit techno who explores the "man and machine intertwined" cyborg aesthetic.

• Robert Johnson: A 1930s blues man who allegedly sold his soul at the crossroads for the "secret of a black technology"—the blues.

• Samuel R. Delany: A science fiction writer whose novel Dhalgren introduced black characters that changed the terms of how the genre is written

Explain the idea of “Mothership connection”

The "Mothership Connection" is a central Afrofuturist symbol that links Africa as a lost past to Africa as an alien future

• Historical Trauma: It recasts the history of slavery as a science fiction narrative. The transatlantic slave trade is viewed as an alien abduction where mass populations were forcibly moved, genetically transformed, and "dematerialized".

• Space as Heritage: Space is not seen as something new but as a place black people are returning to. Figures like astronaut Bernard Harris note that exploring space is a way for black people to acknowledge their heritage as the world's first astronomers.

Identify the film’s connections to Benjamin’s “Theses on the Philosophy of

History”

• Against Progress Narratives: nstead of a guiding “spirit” of reason or civilization who pushes history into the future, the so-called angel of history, for Benjamin, has his back turned to the future and his eyes fixed on the accumulating wreckage of the past. “Where we see the appearance of a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe, which unceasingly piles rubble on top of rubble and hurls it before his feet [...] That which we call progress, is this storm."

• History as Ruin: The Data Thief wanders through wastelands and ruins, collecting "techno fossils" or fragments of a history that is not entirely his own.

• The Data Thief: Unlike a traditional archivist, the thief is a marginal figure who steals from the "archive of domination" to invert the dominant narrative

• Data thief wanders through ruined landscapes

  collecting fragments from a history that’s not his own.

  • Thief because a marginal figure who inverts the

  dominant view of history as progress – a counter-

  narrator who steals from the archive of domination.

Define Afrofuturism as a movement

Afrofuturism is a global cultural and aesthetic movement that transforms archival absences and historical traumas characteristic of Black experience into visions of alternative possible futures through a creative engagement with science and technology

Describe key stylistic choices in the film aspects of Afrofuturist musical practice (e.g. sampling, idea of “secret technology” and cyborg aesthetics, non-institutional music

education, etc.) + broader ideas in Afrofuturism

a. Blurriness/lo-fi/fading  history as ruin, post-apocalyptic

b. Futuristic and sci-fi aesthetic (e.g. glasses, technological

devices/computers, use of digital effects)  creation of new futures through

technology, often rooted in sci-fi

c. Orange/blue lighting  movement between past and future in Afrofuturism

d. Quick, flashing montages and code-like imagery  notion of a “secret

technology”

e. Use of archival materials, fragments, and symbols, “data thief” framing 

similar to musical sampling: connection to history, creation of something

new

Explain how Afrofuturism changes the use of technology from an instrument

of oppression (military-industrial complex, factory work) into an instrument

of liberation (through art, creation of alternative worlds)

• instrument of Oppression: Computer technology originated in the military-industrial complex and was used for factory work and war.

• Instrument of Liberation: Musicians have mutated this technology into a "digital ecology" used to construct "sonic worlds". They release the "potential energy" of inert objects to create soundtracks that signal the end of the industrial epoch.

Name ways in which Afrofuturism redefines madness:

• Gaslighting and Reality: Being black in America is described as a "far out" experience where one's reality is constantly questioned or not believed by the dominant culture—akin to the alienation found in sci-fi.

• Artistic Innovation: Madness is used as a trope for artistic excellence, such as George Clinton's "maniacal" vision that allowed for the exploration of places where black people were not "perceived to be," like spaceships.

Explain what makes Afrofuturism a good example of counterpublic

discourse, relating it to different aspects of Warner’s definition.

Afrofuturism fits Michael Warner’s definition of a counterpublic because it is constituted through a conflictual relation to the dominant public. It creates "imaginary musics" that do not reflect the past but secede from mainstream worlds to suggest an alternative future.

Be able to offer a connection between Afrofuturism’s “secret technology”

and Benjamin’s concept of “play” as a solution to oppression through

technology

Benjamin viewed "play" as a solution to technology's domination, where the subject places the "apparatus in the service of his triumph".

• Example: Underground Resistance’s "Electronic Warfare" uses "sonic warfare" as a secret technology to wage war on mediocre programming. Just as Charlie Chaplin subverted the factory, techno musicians take the "rigidness" of industrial sequencing and mix it with the "groove" of P-Funk to liberate the human side of technology
  

The last angel of history

John Akomfrah

Feels Good Man

Jones

Viruses of the Mind

Dawkins

Define a meme and relate it to Dawkins’ evolutionary theory and real-world examples

A meme is defined by two primary frameworks in the sources:

1. Analogy to Genetics: A cultural element or behavioral trait transmitted through imitation, considered analogous to the inheritance of a gene.

2. Internet Specific: An image, video, or piece of text, often humorous, copied and spread rapidly with slight variations by internet users

Richard Dawkins’ evolutionary theory posits that the human mind is a "humming paradise" for replication, similar to how a cell nucleus is a paradise for DNA. Memes "restructure" the brain to make it a better habitat for their own survival. Real-world examples include accents (which show the stability and slight changeability needed for evolution), religious doctrines (which Dawkins views as "mind-parasites" or "viruses"), and schoolyard crazes like hula hoops or reverse baseball caps

Name the shortcomings of Dawkins’ theory of memes and viruses of the

mind

• The Mind is Not a Computer: Unlike computers, human minds do not simply "store" or process information like hard drives; this analogy is part of a misleading pop-psychology legacy.

• Social Darwinism: The theory implies a "Universal Darwinism" where culture is a battleground of "stronger" ideas. This has historically been used to justify the violent suppression of marginalized identities by framing them as "inferior" or destined for extinction.

The Evolution of Pepe the Frog on 4chan

• Message of "Permission": Pepe’s original "Feels good man" catchphrase became a message of self-acceptance for "loserdom" or being a "social reject".

• NEET Culture: The primary demographic consisted of young men identifying as NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training). These "social rejects" utilized 4chan's anonymity to engage in a culture of competitive insulting and the assertion of an "outsider" status.

• 4chan's Structure: The platform functions as a Darwinian competition for attention. Posts that are the most offensive or "ragebait" float to the top, while boring posts "die". This encourages "bad" behaviors because the platform privileges controversial and transgressive content.

Give reasons why 4chan identified Trump as a Pepe-like figure and how the

Trump campaign used this

Reasons: outsider status, appearance, desire to make 4chan “real,”

destroy normies

Trump campaign’s use: dogwhistle to disaffected political

constituency, not understood by mainstream

Meme magic

to manipulate the replication system & endow

memetic symbols (i.e. internet memes like Pepe) with

social and cultural power.

Know what “Kek” means (Egyptian god, also “lol” variant in gamer forums)

and explain how 4chan users used this connection to attempt “meme

magic”

Kek refers to an ancient Egyptian frog god and is also a gamer variant of "lol". Users engaged in "meme magic" by creating "hypersigils" (like Pepe images), endowing them with psychic energy and replicating them to "change reality". Many on the "Chans" believed Trump’s election was a successful feat of this magical manipulation.

Explain what makes Pepe/4chan an example of counterpublic discourse

Pepe fits Michael Warner’s definition of a counterpublic because it is constituted through a conflictual relation to the dominant "normie" public and uses a "hostile idiom".

• Point of Tension: Unlike typical counterpublics that engage in "worldmaking," the Pepe meme war is often nihilistic, aiming for the destruction of the communicative basis of the public sphere rather than the creation of new poetic worlds.

Be able to define the public sphere, using Habermas, as constituted

through “rational-critical dialogue” in the media

Defined as a space of "rational-critical dialogue" meant to hold government accountable, the public sphere is threatened by "meme warfare". The influx of "ragebait" and guarded irony causes a loss of the "rational" and "dialogic" elements necessary for democracy, making accountability and empathy across differences impossible

Know that Matt Furie

regained some control over Pepe using copyright law.

In Defense of the Poor Image

Hito Steyerl

Define a “poor image”

low-resolution, “copy in motion,” defined by speedand wide sharing.
social media,Pirate Bay, soulseek, etc.

Explain Steyerl’s connection between poor images and people

Name details of how she personifies them: “lumpen proletarian in the class society of appearances,”“fifth-generation bastard of an original image,” “Wretched of the Screen trash that washes up on the digital economies shores”

▪ Connect poor images to capitalism: they’re at the margins or

“outside” the system – pirated, anarchic, etc. – like political outsiders

or disenfranchised people.

they’re at the margins or

“outside” the system – pirated, anarchic, etc. – like political outsiders

or disenfranchised people.

Recognize and analyze Steyerl’s comparison of poor images to “the

contemporary crowd” and its “internal contradictions”

Poor images reflect the internal contradictions of the crowd:

• Neurosis, paranoia, and fear vs. a craving for intensity and fun

Pepe, Fanon, Afrofuturism 

potential for liberation and solidarity, but also for spiraling into

negativity, paranoia, conspiracy theories

identify Benjamin parallels in Steyerl

images as “crowd” and “poor” = parallel to Benjamin’s

discussion of “mass existence” of reproduced artworks and their

connection to the “masses” of the proletariat

Poor images have no aura according to Benjamin (Steyerl

acknowledges this) – because they’re copies

Steyerl finds a “different aura” in poor images because they

travel quickly: speed and prevalence (virality) becomes the

new aura. Be able to connect this to Pepe.

The title of John Akomfrah’s film, The Last Angel of History, makes reference to

which theorist’s understanding of history?

Walter Benjamin

Against the narrative of civilizational progress promoted in most dominant histories,

Akomfrah’s film is interested in a conception of history as

Ruin

The term “Mothership connection,” pioneered by George Clinton of Parliament

refers to a connection to:

All of the above

Which of the following ideas does Afrofuturism NOT embrace?

Military uses of technology

Every evening, from nine o’clock to midnight, the Algerian would listen. At the end of

the evening, not hearing the Voice, the listener would sometimes leave the needle on a

jammed wavelength or one that simply produced static, and would announce that the

voice of the combatants was here. For an hour the room would be filled with the

piercing, excruciating din of the jamming. Behind each modulation, each active

crackling, the Algerian would imagine not only words, but concrete battles. The war of

the sound waves, in the gourbi, re-enacts for the benefit of the citizen the armed clash

of his people and colonialism. As a general rule, it is the Voice of Algeria that wins out.

The enemy stations, once the broadcast is completed, abandon their work of sabotage.

The military music of warring Algeria that concludes the broadcast can then freely fill

the lungs and the heads of the faithful. These few brazen notes reward three hours of

daily hope and have played a fundamental role for months in the training and

strengthening of the Algerian national consciousness.”

Frantz Fanon

Make 2 connections between details from the passage above and the aesthetics of

beat-driven techno music.

Jamming/din = related to the intensity of beat-driven techno music;

b. Algerians’ reinterpretation of the jamming as meaningful (battle sounds)

mirrors techno music’s reinterpretation of the sounds of industry.

c. musical “victory” at the end = related to the idea that techno is a space of

collective creative resistance.

In addition to (or even against) the definition of madness as mental illness, John

Corbett also points to the importance of the use of the word “mad” to describe:

Artistic excellence or innovation

Name 2 features of counterpublic discourse that apply to Afrofuturism, and explain

each one in relation to a feature of Afrofuturist aesthetics as represented in

Akomfrah’s The Last Angel of History

i. conflictual relation to the dominant public (because of

marginalization/exclusion from history);

ii. discourse that would be regarded with hostility or with a sense of

indecorousness (because of channeling the idea of madness,

orbecause of its orientation against/breaking of dominant cultural

forms)

iii. discourse that follows different forms of expression from that of the

dominant public (channeling of the idea of madness);

iv. poetic-expressive character of counterpublic discourse (imagination

of other worlds through the trope of madness)

Which of the following is NOT a part of the definition of a “poor image” according to

Hito Steyerl?

It’s analog

According to Richard Dawkins, memes are not just images, videos, or pieces of text

shared online, but are also

Cultural elements

Behavioral traits

Who is the creator of Pepe the Frog?

Matt Furie

Which of the following is a shared feature between the schizophrenic relation to

broadcast media described by John Durham Peters, and the 4chan meme

phenomenon of Pepe the Frog? Select all that apply

Secret codes

Why did 4chan begin to identify Donald Trump with Pepe?

All of the above

Which of the following features of the public sphere is threatened by the far-right

meme wars surrounding Pepe the Frog?

Rational-critical dialogue

Which element(s) of counterpublic discourse were lacking in the 4chan/Pepe meme

phenomenon?

Poetic, worldmaking quality of counterpublic discourse

How did Pepe’s creator manage to regain some control over his creation?

By asserting his copyright