bkcouture-guissepe - Tumblr blog

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Ganzfield heart

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Deleted Twitter and ig for two minutes… miss the casual strolling no lie.

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#couture noise scenes

Yeah and this felt fresh when it dropped

I remember, the deluxe (points at phone @ the table)

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ego death like im listening to the internet reading the Hagakure with legs folded and belly out like Guatama........

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IMAGINE

"Imagine there's no heaven It's easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people living for today

Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people living life in peace, you

You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope some day you'll join us And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man Imagine all the people sharing all the world, you

You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope some day you'll join us And the world will be as one"

for Lennon to be saying all this in 71 bro..so brave but. crazy how the world still needs this song. will we ever be free

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4. Compression Carpet

The Compression Carpet is a machine that offers a hug to a person craving intimacy, mimicking the positive effects of a human hug. The Carpet requires two people to operate; one lying down inside the machine, and one turning a crank to slowly increases pressure.

Body architect Lucy McRae envisions a future where the growing use of technology has a big impact on people’s mental wellbeing. She imagined a future with a lack of human touch, wondering whether mechanical touch, rather than physical contact with other humans, will become the solution, serving as a stress antidote. source:https://medium.com/demagsign/8-spectacular-speculative-designs-44fb129eb4e2

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Panopticism in Virtual Reality

Boikarabelo Tladi

PANOPTICISM IN VIRTUAL REALITY

In this essay I will discuss panopticism as defined by Foucault and how the system of a panopticon is the structural set up of virtual reality. I also aim to analyse how ideology is a key feature in identity construction in a virtual simulation. I will do this by conducting a semiotic analysis of my Instagram home page and a few other screenshots that highlight Instagram’s’ panoptic set up.

In 1786 British Sociologist designed the panopticon. An ideal prison system in which the architecture itself enforces and extends the power discourse between inmate and jailer. The idea was simple, he stated that constant visibility weather implied or enforced would cause prisoners to behave accordingly. This ideal structure was later applied to many social structures such as schools, hospitals, and places of work. While most hailed or never questioned panopticism, Foucault challenged it.

Foucault saw panopticism as regressive control mechanism that would only lead the public into a state of dynamic normalization out of the fear of being 0outcasted. “Foucault used the panopticon as a way to illustrate the proclivity of disciplinary societies subjugate its citizens” (McMullan 2015). Simply put, his dislike for panopticism was rooted in how surveillance was one sided, thus making power one sided. “To induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power” (Foucault 1975: 3).  In the past when people could whiteness public executions they could openly revolt against the system. Under panoptic rule, justice is carried out behind closed doors away from the common people making it easier for unjust actions to go unnoticed and unchallenged.  It is because of this that Foucault saw panopticism as a flawed social structure.

In 1975 when Foucault wrote ‘Discipline and Punish’ he had no clue how the system he critiqued would find its way into a new world, virtual reality. Social media is the largest panopticon.  With companies like Facebook having over 2.6 billion active users with a staff of 48 268 people, the resemblance reveals itself. I will use Figure 1 & 2 to explain further.

Figure 1

Figure 2

These images are screenshots from my instagram direct message section.  They show the same account in two different states “Active now” & “Active 1h ago”. Since users, like myself, can not turn off this function it means Instagram is structured to notice and log your movements within the app. This one sided power dynamic  is the core function of the Panopticon. We are watched by people we cannot watch.  When describing the view of the prisoners from the watch tower, Foucault beautifully foreshadows how social media would soon function. He states “They are like so many cages, so many small theatres, in which each actor is alone, perfectly individualized and constantly visible” (Foucault 1975: 3).  Unless you privatize your account, only users you select can view your profile but Instagram itself can always monitor your account. You as a user, a prisoner, have limited control while they have full control. Control not only to see you but to erase you. If enough of your content is report as uncompliant with Instagram’s code of conduct can be wiped off Instagram as if you never existed. While quiet a few people slip through the cracks, the possibility of this happening keeps most users in line with the code. This is what Foucault described as "dynamic normalisation” which is ultimately the function of the panopticon. To control people people’s behaviour simply through implying that they are watched or being reminded that they are watched.

Social media is not only a panopticon it is also a simulation. Which means there are ideologies that carve it since “Ideology is the foundation from which a simulation can exist” (Monoa 2020). To unpack this idea, the work of French Marxist philosopher, Althusser gives direction. Althusser suggested that the ruling class control the masses through two mediums. Firstly, the most blatant tool of communicating dominance is through physical control. He referred to these as Repressive State Apparatuses (R.S.A). The RSA in question would be police forces and armies.  The second control system is more subtle yet more intrenched in the several aspects of one’s life. Ideological State Apparatuses (I.S.A) I.S.A are agents that influence one’s personal identity through systemic indoctrination. ISA’s exist in every facet of life; in fact, the ruling class makes sure that certain ideas are reinforced in a plethora of institutions. The church, school, family, and media are part of the I.S.A.

The same is found in virtual reality except you almost have a clean slate to define yourself in ways you cannot in the real world, or you can extenuate your real identity. The semiotic analyses of my Instagram home page will shed light on how Social media has influenced how I express my identity.

This screenshot is comprised of multiple elements. A Handle “bk___couture” sits at the top. In the top corner is a button for settings. The black and white portrait with half the face too dark to make out any features is the profile photo. To the right of that is a panel detailing the amount of posts and followers someone has and how many accounts they are following.  Below the image is a user name “BK Couture” and a biography in which I describe myself as a “Recording Artist. Escape Artist” I also left a link to my work. There is a wide tab to edit your profile. The circles below that are story highlights. Finally, the images. The Three visible images here all have a white background and ambiguous but recognizable human figure.  The heart symbol is augmented with another heart symbol with the number 3 besides.

From the limited information in this screenshot, I curated my page to  communicate one single idea; Enigma. Evident in the minimal color pallet, the lack of posts, and mostly importantly, my identity is implied but never explicitly expressed. The similarly between the posts shows that this page is carefully curated. Social media is not physical, it exists to quantify ideas. For instance the symbol of a heart with the number on it doesn’t mean I’ve received three hearts, it only exists to confirm that someone enjoys an idea I have expressed. In the real world, I am expressive and visible but I enjoy individuality. On social media, I express these ideals inversely. The strong emphasis on enigma and is not rooted in me being reserved in person, it is my rebellion against expressing myself in the same fashion as the masses. I partly describe myself as an “escape artist”. The idea behind that is my desire to exist outside normal constrains.  

In conclusion Social media is whirlwind of philosophical ideas that explain the structure of social media and also how humans interact with social media. Panoptisim and ideology are the the axis on which users and creators spin to create the existing cultures on social media  

SOURCES CONSULTED

·         Foucault, M.1975. Discipline and Punish: The birth of a prison. Pantheon Books: London

·         What does the panopticon mean in the age of digital surveillance? 2015

. [O]. Available https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/23/panopticon-digital-surveillance-jeremy-bentham Accessed 3 June 2020

·         T Monao Tutor University of Johannesburg 2020. Online zoom discussion.

·         Personal screenshots lifted from Instagram account. [O]. @bk___couture June 2020

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MYTH IN THE SYSTEM OF REPRESENTATION

Boikarabelo Tladi

  FIGURE 1: New Ark Mission Of India “Winter Collection” advertisement. Little girl in cardboard dress. Published August 2011. Photographed by Senthil Khumar

FIGURE 2: Sisley “fashion junkie” advertisement with two models. Published July 2007 photographed by Taurus.

  The following essay will use two images (figure 1 & 2) with a common thread to detail how semiotics and myth are embedded in representation. I chose images that are centered around the idea of fashion because throughout cultures around the world, items of clothing exist as signifiers carrying loaded ideas.

This semiotic analysis of Figure 1 aims to understand the image seen through the lens of the first 2 orders of representation. The 1st order being Dennotative and the 2nd being connotative.

The Advertisment is comprised of 3 elements, a prepubescent depressed indian girl with a ponytail standing in front of a grey background wearing discarded cardboard pieces cut in place to emulate an evening gown. The words “Winter collection” are graphicaly placed in front of her in an elegant, non serif and slightly transparent font. Lastly, a small line of writing is placed below the girl. It reads as follows, “To 33.4% of the population of Karnataka, garbage is fashion. Please donate your old clothes. New Ark Mission of India. 98452 81915. www.newarkmission.org”

This advertisement is for an organization that aimed to receive donations in the form of old clothes to distribute to the less fortunate of Karnataka, India. There is no age limit to who they plan on helping yet the campaign cleverly uses the signifier of a little girl. Children signify innocence and being defenseless. This strikes a cord with a viewer, one of empathy.  The second signifier is what the girl is wearing. The shape of a dress is easily recognizable and synonymous with a girl child however what makes this element striking is the “fabric” of the dress, Cardboard. In the context of being used as substitute for cotton or silk, cardboard signifies poverty. Cardboard is often used by homeless people on colder nights as a blanket. The phrase “winter collection” becomes an ironic exclamation. We typically think of winter collections as designer, warm and beautiful clothes. Forgetting that they are just that, clothes. What is being communicated by this advert is that the privileged end of society is enthralled in consumerism and fashion culture, they become detached and forget how essential clothes are to basic living. It is a cry to donate clothes that will be used as a survival tool and not a frivolous show of class.

In closing, this advertisement is a notable example of how understanding the shared codes of society allows one to create an image that is minimal in composition yet layered and powerful in meaning.

 ‘Myth is a peculiar system; in that it is constructed from a semiological chain which existed before it.’ Barthes in (Hall 1997: 68) In other words myth can be defined as a step past semiotics. It is in this step where the ideas being signified are observed with a wholistic perspective to form an idea on what is ultimately being communicated by a medium. With Figure 2 as the premise, I aim to show myth in the system of representation.

Figure 2 is an advertisement by Sisley, a fashion brand. The photo is taken in a mysterious room with black tile walls, black glass table and a black chair against the wall. The photo focuses on two white girls. One of them is a brunette with heavy eye shadow, wearing an elegant violet dress with strings of jewellery hanging around her neck and from the dress. She is slouched over the table while her face is aligned with the positioning of the camera. Her face lacks a tangible expression, she seems to drift in and out of consciousness because her eyes are rolled back while her mouth hangs open. In her hand she holds a white stick. The other girl has dirty blond hair, her eyeshadow is just as heavy as the brunets’. She is wearing a sheer dress that exposes her breast. Her head is facing down on the table, she too has a white stick. It is in her nose and placed over the white dress on the table. The table has a black credit card on it with a white powder over it that we can safely assume to be cocaine. The words “Sisley Fashion Junkie” are placed in the center of the image.

The advertisement was banned for glorifying drug use yet, no one in the photo is seen doing drugs. This is the genius of semiotics, the bridge between what is seen and how it is received. The signifiers imply that the two girls are high off cocaine even though their snorters are placed over a white dress and not the actual coke. With the slogan of the campaign being “Fashion junkie” we align the white dress with the white powder, making the clothes the actual drug, not the cocaine. However, when analysing the myth being represented, we must consider the broader cultural context.

This ad is not selling a specific item, it is luring you into the fashion underworld. The signifiers being used (sheer designer dresses, jewelry, make up, black cards and cocaine) signify wealth and or beauty. When married together these signifiers communicate glamour, an ideal at the very core of the fashion world. The caption “fashion junkie” is a layered expression which serves as powerful commentary on how we consume fashion. Fashion is a step beyond clothing. It is not solely about being protected from the elements, it a device used to communication wealth, express political ideas, perpetuate gender roles etc. The word Junkie alludes not only to the rumours of addiction amongst models, it describes the gross consumerism within fast fashion. Fashion is currently a $2.5 trillion sector (The Problem With Fast Fashion [sp] 2019) because shopping has become a more frequent task in our lives now more than ever before. It seems that the public too is addicted to fashion.

This campaign has a dark and eerie mood, enforced by the black furniture elements and the heavy black eye shadow. Sisley sets the scene this way because the ad is about the darker side of the fashion world. Sisley does not shy away from the addiction rumours surrounding models. It is well known that super models like Kate moss and Naomi Campbell were cocaine addicts. Nevertheless, the world of fashion, blinding with flashing lights and crawling with mystery is still really enticing to young girls around the world. This ad exploits their curiosity. The way that none of the models are looking in the camera, as they usually are, gives the viewer the sub conscious impression that the ad is an expose of what is usually kept a secret. The image is also positioned in a way that puts the models right before you, not above you or. They are wearing luxurious clothes and have expensive drugs on the table but nothing about their demeanour is larger than life. This realization creates a certain intimacy with the models and the viewer, the feeling that millions of girls seeing this can almost see themselves within it.                                                                                                                    

And therein lies the myth of this Image, the idea that no matter how terrifying the things you hear about the fashion world are we still physically and emotionally buy into it. In closing, I hope I have adequately depicted how myth functions within representation. A device taking signifiers and exposing their meaning within the broader context of culture itself.

 SOURCES CONSULTED

·         Hall, S.1997. Representation: Cultural Representations and signifying practices. London. Thousand Oaks. New Delhi: Sage Publication

·         The problem with Fast Fashion. 2019. [O]. Available https://www.bwss.org/fastfashion/ Accessed 10 March 2020.

 ·         Sisley “Fashion Junkie”. Advertisement. 2007. [O]. Available https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/print/fashion_junkie_1 Accessed 28 April 2020

 ·         New Ark Mission of India “Winter Collection”. Advertisement. 2011. [O]. Available https://www.commarts.com/exhibit/new-ark-mission-of-india-posters

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Nina

I was probably five or six when i heard Nina Simone for the first time..i’m almost certain it was my great uncle playing her. Before Nina, in my young mind, “old” music meshed in a ball of sameness. Something before me, not for me. That is until i heard Nina. 

her voice too distinct to be mistook for someone else.I was in disbelief when my mom and her uncle told me that she is in fact a woman. Her music filled my young body with feelings i would only grow to learn the names of. Some i’m still learning. i vividly recall the lyric “I aint got no sweater” making me feel something, something intense. It was belted out in the middle of lyrics sang calmly.  “Nobodys Fault but mine” was an out of body experience. i truly felt the weight of her sorrow on me because i too have a mother who can sing. Songs like Mr Bojangles because the background music to Christmas holidays in our family house in Parys.                                                                                        Her spirit has always been in my life but i never stopped to consider her existence beyond the songs i cherished as heirlooms.  Never have i questioned how she became who she is, how she lived, how she died..none of that crossed my mind. Not until the Netflix documentary. I watched a little bit of it with wet eyes. ps im not done, it’s painful to watch. To see another troubled artist feeling alone in the world yet still yearning to speak to it. An artist strapped to a piano she grew to hate...while seeing similarities and pieces of her in me,i felt inspired but also worried. Worried for truth. the words, “if i die and my soul be lost, its nobodys fault but mine” now have a eerier undertone. i wonder if she’s resting in peace. I wonder if she’s resting. lemme go finish the doccie.

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Where is the water going?

https://youtu.be/kHSeIK6tmfg

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Words (extract from a conversation with Jacana)

It’s pretty tiny and under researched but here goes Anyway, this idea has been lingering in my mind since last year. While studying Sotho for matric. I found Sotho more inherently poetic when standing next to English. I realized, this ideal holds with your Zulu, Xhosa etc. In English, you say “how was your day? In Sotho you say “Le tsatsi la hau ne Le Le jwang? The direct translation of that “how was your sun?” It’s exactly the same with Zulu too. I believe language literally holds the culture of the past through generations and what that direct translation exposes is that, blacks Were really enthralled and intertwined with nature. The fact that we categorize our DAY through the existence of the SUN shows a co dependent relationships with nature. It goes on: in English we say “it’s raining” in Sotho we say “pula yana” which directly translates to..”the rain is raining” we’ve always personified nature. It’s always been “tangible” in our way of life. To say “it’s raining” exposes a disconnect or a lack of interest with wha lies beyond a human to human experience. Just from analyzing our langue, a bit, highlights how much respect if not admiration for nature we’ve always had. Black African languages are the most ROMANTIC languages

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Photos

Humans take more photos a day than the amount of photos taken in the Century before ours. For the obvious reason... more cameras. More portable cameras. A lot of people have grown to see this as evidence that humans are more narcissistic and self indulgent or whatever and while there’s a shred of truth in that... I have to disagree. We’ve always been this way. Humans have always cherished and appreciated the idea of community. We’ve always understood that we only matter in groups, that we only stand a chance at surviving as groups. Humans love community. We thrive off it! A sign of how much we love it is capturing our community’s... wether that’s a “group selfie on girls night out” or a “family portrait” or a photo of colleges on a team building camp. These are tiny communities!! We capture them now more than ever simply because there’s more to capture and it’s easier to capture not because we’re growing increasingly vane! In closing... the first insta stories were the Egyptian hieroglyphics The first group selfie were the Koi san Rock paintings

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Gucci Mémoire d'une Odeur - The Campaign Film

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the best lyrics come from emotional earworms

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https://youtu.be/C9w-Inqrcm0

“Women who do not have extensions, they depress me”😂😂

“You’re body is a temple baby bless me”