Gwatter06, 9/27

I believe we covered a lot this week in class, and our approach was revamped with the visit to the museum. I enjoyed the visit to the museum because it was the first time that I’ve been there and our curator did a good job of implementing the artists in terms of modernity and postmodernity. Doing this opened up a whole new window in applying the aspects of imagery and their meaning and applying to our newly found notion of postmodernity. I really enjoyed the Andy Warhol exhibition because it was not only well done but the backdrop to his artwork was very compelling. He is known for coining “being famous for being famous,” which is this interesting concept where people become famous for really nothing at all, just being seen with the right people at the right times and acting or playing famous which ultimately makes the person famous. His display of polaroids and the simplicity of his work that turns into a complex plethora of images and designs was also very enthralling. Then later in the week, we focused on Zizek and his excerpts and discussions in class. What caught my attention the most, besides his critically acclaimed, “outlandish” comments surrounding the 9/11 instances was his take and concept on reality and virtual reality. He makes a great point in stating, “In today’s market we find a whole series of products deprived of their malignant properties: coffee without caffeine, cream without fat, beer without alcohol…” What I think Zizek is getting at is that the public is losing our sense reality and trading it for virtual reality. We spoke about how could diet coke be coke when it contains nothing that is within coke, it isn’t “real” in a sense because it is trying to personify something that it is not. I believe society today has gotten caught up in this concept of virtual reality and has taken on to it so strongly clearly do to mass media and creating a social norm that things are what they are but really aren’t.