Theme 2: Critical Media Studies, part 1

1. Dialectic of Enlightenment

a. What is "Enlightenment"?

I believe that enlightenment is our way of answering more complex questions with understanding of the world and mankind in ways that we can measure and argue for. Enlightment gives us comfort since we fear the unknown and thus we replace myths and sagas with knowledge. And disregards something that cannot be explained as something that does not exist.

b. What is "dialectic"?

Dialectic is a methodology for discovering truth of questions. With two parties arguing over one question from different point of views. By doing this, it is believed that they will finally come across the truth while they are seeking in their rational argumentation.

c. What is "nominalism" and why is it an important concept in the text?

Nominalism is a philosophical term for saying that every object is unique and does not say anything about anything else then purely itself. Categories and names are therefor nothing more than purely a name and are thus meaningless in terms of its purpose.

d. What is the meaning and function of "myth" in Adorno and Horkheimer's argument?

Myths were created so that we could understand the phenomenons that we experienced in the world such as lightning, death, birth, earthquake, feelings etc. It is in our nature to fear what we don’t know of and therefor we used myths to make the unknown believable. Adorno and Horkheimer wanted to dispel myths since it wasn’t the truth about the world.

2. "The Work of Art in the Age of Technical Reproductivity"

a. In the beginning of the essay, Benjamin talks about the relation between "superstructure" and "substructure" in the capitalist order of production. What do the concepts "superstructure" and "substructure" mean in this context and what is the point of analyzing cultural production from a Marxist perspective?

The substructure is the base for forming the superstructure. It is the things that we people can experience and feel such as material and economic things. This is reflected in the superstructure such as art, religion, culture and ideology. They are well connected to each other and one cannot change without the other being affected although the subculture is much easier to change. A Marxist perspective is trying to understand the cultural production and how it is affected by changes to the different structures.

b. Does culture have revolutionary potentials (according to Benjamin)? If so, describe these potentials. Does Benjamin's perspective differ from the perspective of Adorno & Horkheimer in this regard?

Benjamin talks about photography as a revolution in the world of art since it could be reproduced and this created the idea of that art should not have a social function. He believed that art has an aura, something that makes it unique and with reproduction this aura goes away and thus photography could not be seen as a pure art form. Adorno & Horkheimer welcomes reproduction since it helps to spread knowledge and thus give more enlightnement to human society.

c. Benjamin discusses how people perceive the world through the senses and argues that this perception can be both naturally and historically determined. What does this mean? Give some examples of historically determined perception (from Benjamin's essay and/or other contexts).

Perception can be received in several ways. By experience something – such as seeing a flower in the forest, or historically by being told about the very same flower, how it looks and smells. Since our human mind can recreate stories, we are able to perceive history such as an event we experienced, and it will make a mark on us even though we have no physical relation to it what so ever. One example could be our perception of slavery. We never experienced it but we know that it is one of the worst things in the world.

d. What does Benjamin mean by the term "aura"? Are there different kinds of aura in natural objects compared to art objects?

Only a unique piece of art can have an aura. An aura is the special feeling that a unique piece of art creates.  For example the Mona Lisa is so much more than just a painting, it has a layer of mystery that makes it more interesting. Benjamin believes that through reproduction this aura disappears from the object. Natural objects does also have a unique touch and patterns, which gives the natural object an aura as well.