Capitalism & Sustainbility

In the text 'Balser, E (2008) 'Capital Accumulation, Sustainability & Hamilton, Ontario' sustainability is defined as as equity in the social, environmental and economic, among others, in our society, meaning that ideally everything is all the aforementioned areas of society are impartial and fair. Ideally sustainability should be a communal concept, shared and practiced by everyone but in reality sustainable habits and eco-awareness has come down to the choice of the individual. Sustainable lifestyles can't be achieved by many people, the technology needed can't be afforded, which leads to seclusion and 'environmental crisis'.

Capitalism is wanting to ever expand it's reach. It is constantly finding new products, objects and ideas to commodify. Capitalism creates an opposition, a series of purposely committed anti-Capital ideals, which it then feeds off and and creates into a commodity, creating an endless, seemingly inescapable, cycle of new commodities. Capitalism is always looking to widen it's market and sought's after new consumers and new prospects or it's "sphere of circulation". It is a process of making money and making as much money as possible.

Capitalism is a system that requires a constant cycle of production and consummation. A 'crisis' is when there's a glitch in the system causing it to break down or work significantly less efficient then it is intended to. This can happen when the demand for labor gets too high causing an increase in wages, ultimately hurting the profit of the business. When wages are too low or not enough work is being provided and unemployment rises people can't afford to consume certain products, which eats away at profits. Crisis' can lead to businesses disintegrating and mass unemployment.

The recent economic crisis with financial institutions, such as building societies and banks. Major corporations presumed that the economy was going to continue to expand and grow, leading them to continue lending and borrowing money resulting in asset prices rising until they cannot rise anymore causing them to plummet. House prices dramatically fall, businesses start to fail and people become unemployed and people become disillusioned with the current system which causes them to stop spending money. People are constantly being encouraged to spend more money, so business keep offering new products which people are reluctant to buy, causing even more debt.

The text offers four solutions which it believes will result in environmentally responsible businesses. Reduce waste by increasing the productivity and efficiency of their resources, Shift to new, eco-friendly 'closed loop' means of production which generates no waste and no toxicity, Alter the business model so it is providing the service of a product rather than just producing and selling it and reinvesting in natural and human capital, for example, planting new forests which can be used for production further down the line. Although in the long term these solutions would ideally work you need to consider other effects. Converting an entire means of production to something more eco-friendly will cost a business a lot of money as it would require new technology which is often extremely expensive. Producing these new eco-friendly technologies may also be produced in a way that is harmful to the environment itself.

I feel that Capitalism and sustainability are compatible and can work together, but it is a transformation that will take a long time and has to be done carefully. A shift in consumer attitude needs to be made, if consumers start applying pressure on businesses to become more environmentally sustainable then the corporations may have to change. At the moment I don't feel people care about the environment too much, they do not take an interest in it's well being because they never really see it's devastating effects but attitudes are slowly changing and people are taking little steps, people are interested in buying cars that are friendlier to the environment, people are reusing shopping bags and buying 'bags for life', councils are offering recycling and park and ride schemes. Some businesses are starting to alter, such as B&Q. It needs a change in popular culture and the consumer mindset to put the concept of sustainable capitalism into practice.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/b-q-ceo-ian-cheshire-capitalism-reappraisal

Essay Proposal

Essay Title: The Incorporation of Black Metal

- Black Metal initially started out as a rebellion against commercial metal

- Black Metal was a rebellion against Christianised Norse culture and conservative ideals

- It was soon made into a caricature by mainstream media after the murder of Euronymous and the church burnings. Turned into an Other

- Corporate record labels started signing black metal acts to appeal to a certain subculture. It has now become a standardised genre

- Black Metal imagery can be seen (incorporated) in mainstream culture. Inverted crosses in Topshop, The Undertaker (wrestler), Lady Gaga, The Crow (film)

Moynihan, Micheal and Søderlind, Didrik, 1998. Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground. 2^nd Ed. Port Townsend: Feral House. Gives an in depth history of the genre and features interviews and direct quotes from many musicians from the scene, including Varg Vikernes and Euronymous. It has quotes from band members criticising commercial music and contemporary Norwegian society. It is an essential read for anybody interested in the genre and is one of the only published books solely for the genre.

Until The Light Takes Us, 2009 [Documentary] Directed by Aaron Sites and Audrey Ewell. USA: Ewell & Aites. The documentary again features interviews with band members from the original black metal scene and covers much of the same area as Lords of Chaos. It is especially good because it shows the after effects of Black Metal, showing how it became commercialised and what effect it has had on Norwegian society. It also shows people who have taken Black Metal imagery to create Fine art and performance art.

Hebdige, Dick, 1979. Subculture: The Meaning of Style. London: Routledge. Gives the main idea that subcultures become incorporated into mainstream society, particularly how the aesthetics make it easily relatable and fashionable. The essay on Incorporation concentrates on Punk but it's ideas and opinions can easily be applied to most subcultures and to Black Metal.

Adorno, Theodor, 1941. On Popular Music [Online] Last Updated: 17/02/11. Available at: http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/SWA/On_popular_music_1.shtml

Comments on standardised commercial music, which Black Metal eventually became. It also introduces the idea of pseudo-individualism which is used to mask over standardised music to make it appear unique to the consumer. In this case it was designed to look evil, rebellious and shocking.

Cohen, Phil, 1972, Subcultural Conflict and Working-Class Community. Found in Gelder, Ken, 1992, The Subcultural Reader. 2^nd Ed. New York: Routledge. This essay talks about the inherent nature of rebellion and the urge to discover and undermine the things subcultures find wrong with mainstream society. Gives an psychological insight into why subcultures start and states that they are often a reaction to the dominant class in a particular society. In this instance, a reaction against the dominant idea that Christianity is the one true religion despite the countries strong religious past

Taken from fashion website Polyvor.com, shows how Black metal has become a fashion statement. You can now join the subculture by simply buying some clothes from high street retailers

Constructing The Other

I chose to look at the April 2011 issue of the free music magazine 'Loud and Quiet'. It is a magazine that is aimed at a very specific group of people, young people (probably aged between 16-25) who like Indie and Alternative music. These people are generally middle class and see themselves as different to mainstream culture, despite being a part of it, and probably feel they above chart music and like music that is more 'authentic' than manufactured. It is only distributed at exclusive alternative venues.

The magazine format highlights that it's audience wants to differ themselves from popular music magazines. It is like a newspaper, which only renforces their belief that what they are reading about has more credibility, class and of higher worth than the regular glossy music magazine. Making it look like a newspaper makes it superior to a glossy mag. The type face is enough to differentiate it from a 'square' reading a newspaper though, it is modern and new, like the music they're into. Throughout the magazine we are shown adverts from lesser known record labels, such as Wichita and Matador, we are also told to shop at independent record stores rather than chains. We are shown that these are the labels we should be buying from, we need to listen to these bands to belong to this group of people. We are also shown how to look, we are shown photos of the staff and the bands.

It Others mainstream culture by mocking people who belong to it and conventions mainstream publications adhere to. There is an article called 'Style Wars' about goth fashion versus indie fashion, with the main picture being an illustration of goths, who we are against. At the back we see a comic made up of stills from 'Eastenders', an ironic fashion column about Noel Edmund's attire and a fake lonely hearts add 'Gooutwithmyfriend.com' featuring Charlie Sheen.

The magazine has spent it's whole type prescribing what to listen to, what to dress like, what to look like and where to shop to make yourself superior to popular culture and mainstream music yet it is still a part of the mainstream. Wichita is a subsidiary of Virgin Media, it opens with a double page advert for HMV, Gaymers Cider are sponsoring gigs, iTunes is openly advertised as a place to buy music. You can only get this magazine for free because it is essentialy a catalogue of adverts. These people may Other popular culture as much as they like but they are active participants and are just sold the same things, just repackaged.

Semiotics Analysis

The main headline from the newspaper, 'GOTCHA', denotes that 'we' have caught or captured an enemy, which we later find out is an enemy gunboat. It connotes victory, after trying to get the better of the enemy for a while it is almost as though a suprise attack happened and we finally came out the victor. You could also read that 'Gotcha' adds a lighter tone to the text, masking over the true horror of physical warfare, the word has childlike connotations and is like a playground game of cops and robbers. Using a term like this would only make the reader of the paper be more supportive of the war, giving it a competitive, masculine edge in which we seek superiority. The myth behind this that runs through the whole text is that we are a superior nation, it is perfectly fine to kill the Other, we are constantly 'wining' the war.

The tagline "Our lads..." denotes that we as a nation have greatly damaged the opposition and are ahead of them in the battle. Using the collective term 'Our' connotes that we are all a part of this war and that the soldiers are providing a service for us personally. It is something for us to relate to and support. 'Lads' connotes testosterone filled masculinity, youthful fun and collectiveness again. If the reader sees themselves as 'one of the lads' then they're obviously going to support the war. Using the term 'Lads' represents them positively, because The Sun is a pro-military paper it wants us only to see the positive aspect of young soldiers going to war, not the deaths of hundreds of young men.

'Crippled' denotes that we have destroyed and taken an enemy boat out of action. It connotes our superiority and shows the we have the power to put something out of use. To take a powerful object and make it unable to operate. Having it under the image of such a large boat only enforces this, as a nation we can destroy such a large, well armored vessel.

'Union Boycotts War' denotes that a workers union has a stance against the war and is refusing to deal or take part in it. Due to the connotations of previous pro-war bits of text we automatically form a negative opinion of this union. The small print below it makes it obvious that this person is just as bad as the enemy for being against the war, he is preventing troops from fighting against the Other.

The myth behind the entire text is that this a just war that we should all support and if you don't then you are wrong. The whole text makes the war seem like a game or a sport. Lads is a term used frequently with sports teams, the text is seperating us from the true reality of war and showing us that it is us against them and that we are winning. It isn't a matter of people dying it's a matter of defeating objects, such as boats. The opposition are dehumanised and all categorised into 'Argies', which almost sounds like a nickname for a sports team. We're used to hearing sports teams referred to in a similar manner (Baggies, Potters, Maggies, Toffies etc.) which only enforces the fact that this is a game that we are winning.

Lefebvre & Space - Henry Moore Institute

The Representational Space of an art gallery (our ideas, theory and vision) is an important aspect of how people act in this space. Art galleries hold high social power in our society and are respectable institutions in which prestigious and socially important pieces of work are exhibited. Our perceptions of art galleries will effect our behaviour when we enter this space. It is a place we know we're supposed to be respectful towards as it a place we believe to be of great importance and superiority. We have to comply to certain rules because of this, we have to be quiet and inspect all pieces of art. We walk slowly, don't take pictures and read everything in an almost ritualistic manner

The Representations of Space, the physical building, in art galleries also makes us behave in the ways mentioned above. They are often open planned, which means we are always in the open and easily viewable and has a panoptic effect on us. Because we are always in sight and constantly being judged we want to show that we have a deep interest and vast knowledge of Art, so we make sure we look like we're inspecting all the works. The buildings which contain art galleries also help to enforce there social power and high status. Art gallaries are placed in grandiose buildings, in this case the Henry Moore Institute with it's black marble facade. It is the only building to use black marble that I can think of in Leeds city centre. Marble has been a historical symbol of wealth, luxury and importance for centuries, used only on the most important buildings.

Our Practice is supposed to mean that we look at each piece of art in depth and explore every room in the gallery in a certain order and in a certain manner as described earlier. In some cases people do but often they don't, people wander round and vocally express their negative opinions of the work, people are perceptible to rebel against a set authority. People outside the building use the area to practice Freerunning and teenagers loiter around the area on weekends. It isn't a place to be held in high respect and importance, it is often ignored and regularly empty.

Adorno - On Popular Music task

Adorno viewed popular music as different to 'serious' more respectable forms of music, he believed it was inferior. It used cheap methods to create catchy songs that people could relate to and that would be familiar to the listener as it sounds the same as other songs. This was done through Standardisation, which relates to song structure, lyrical content, genre, time signatures and notes used. Standardisation makes songs a 'familiar experience' and has a prescribed effect on the listener.

Adorno also believes that through pseudo-individualisation the listener will be fooled to believe that what they are listening to is not 'pre digested' (Adorno, 1941) standard pop music, but something more meaningful and real. Record companies will create characters that are slightly different from the average popular musician in order to mask the completely average characteristics of their music.

The Shangri Las - Leader of the Pack

The Shangri-Las were part of a mass produced set off female pop musicians, known as Girl Groups, in the 60s. Although their music is nearly identical to other Girl Groups of the time none are nearly as recognised and popular now as they were then. The Shangri-Las pseudo-individualisation is what set them apart from other similar bands and provided a unique gimmick for them that would make them more appealing for people who wanted to believe they weren't a part of mainstream culture.

The Shangri-las were produced to have a 'bad' girl image. They predominantly sang about men who ride motorcycles and motorbike gangs. The lyrical content was still compliant to the genre, almost always singing about falling in love and bad breakups, yet instead of being about mainstream males, it was about men who are regarded as outside of popular culture yet their subculture had been absorbed by it. This will have appealed to people who also wanted to rebel against 'the norm' in the safest way possible. It gave people who were part of an increasingly popular subculture the chance to enjoy easily accessible music without them realising it was part of popular culture.

Foucault blog task

A Foucaudian reading of the modern day cinema reveals that it is a very Panoptic space. The role of the user of a cinema is extremely similar to Foucault's description of the objectification of the inmate of Bentham's Panopticon. "He is the object of information, never a subject in communication." (Foucault, 1975) relates to the nature of cinema and how it is essentially a monolog for the viewer to withstand and absorb without being able to argue against directly. Due to the layout and design of a cinema the user often 'self regulates' their behaviour. As soon as we walk into a cinema we know there are certain guidelines that we need to follow, you don't talk, you turn your phone off and you try your very best not to leave during the film. There are no signs telling us to do this, we just do it. Bentham states that power should be 'visible but unverifiable' which can be seen in different ways in the cinema. There are ushers outside the screen and sometimes in the screen room, we do not identify personally with these people to us they're just someone in a uniform, a point of authority who we have no personal connection to, although we can see what they look like and hear what they sound like we can never verify there personality, status or force. The projection room offers a more literal version of 'visible but unverifiable'. We know that there should be a person in there and we know there is a window with which they can see everybody in the room through but we never see the person in there, they can see if we're talking or being rowdy but we never see them.

There is an omniscient authority in the cinema that causes the viewer to self regulate their behaviour to a point where we feel uncomfortable to even go to the toilet even though they are provided. The architecture, as well as allowing everyone to see the screen, makes us completely in view from both infront and behind. Both these factors make us completely powerless in communication with the auteur, we can't question what we are being told or discuss with the rest of the audience nor do we feel like we can leave so we become a subject to information regardless of wether or not we personally agree with it