Teets, 9/27

Our visit to the museum this week helped link together some of the concepts we have been talking about, especially Zizek’s concept of reality versus virtual reality. The first exhibit we visited was Michael Phillips and the Internal Method of William Blake. Blake developed the technique facsimile copy, or simply the perfect copy. What we saw in the museum were not Blake’s plates, because those were lost awhile back. We saw copies of Blake’s copies, which to me is funny given what certain authors would say about that. Benjamin would argue that neither Blake’s plates nor the ones were saw were authentic. The fact that the plates were in casing made them seem authentic, but in reality they were simply copies of an original. This is similar to the concept of “simulacra” I learned about in CMC100. Simulacra is an unsatisfactory representation or reproduction of an original. I would side with Benjamin and say that all copies or duplicates are unsatisfactory because they do not exude the aura of an original. To me the plates we saw had no aura of authenticity or originality. The typical passerby would disagree, but they are less informed.

The second exhibit we examined was photographer Andre Kertesz’ “On Reading.” This title is fitting because we discussed texts and what the definition of a text is. One person said that a text is something that can be read. From the photos I read the most into the idea of surveillance. The point of view of the photos was rather “peeping-tomish”, which is why I read the images like I did. Surveillance and becoming more and more advanced as new technology develops. This is a scary concept because soon government’s will have unlimited control of a nation in every way if they can see what is going on. Taking this notion a step further, I think that a government could even manipulate footage for certain reasons. This would allow them to create virtual reality from reality, a concept Zizek discusses in depth. Zizek’s comments on September 11th were controversial, yet they were provocative. Americans feed on virtual reality and chaos, as long as it never crosses over into their reality. I am yet to have the “click” happen in terms of understanding and relating the materials we have read. However, I am beginning to grasp the concepts better each passing week it seems.