A couple of months ago I posted about Žižek: The Lecture!, which took place at the University of Leeds. Video of both the lecture and an interview conducted by Diane Myers prior to the event are up at SubalternStudies.
Author Archive for Paul Aitken
Oh “Earth Hour“, how quaint. It puts me in mind of “Buy Nothing Day”, a similar guilt-assuaging activity for those whom Žižek calls “liberal communists”. As far as I can tell, it provided the opportunity for those who otherwise have no idea how to address things like the climate crises, or rampant consumerism for that matter, in a way that makes them feel as if they are actually doing something. It also provides a great opportunities for politicians to make the electorate feel like they are doing something too.
But let’s face it, most suburbanites can turn off their lights at 8pm on a Saturday night. “The CN Tower soon darkened in the city’s skyline,” reports the CBC, “along with highrises, sports arenas such as the Rogers Centre and Air Canada Centre” Jeez, on a Saturday, aww…thanks big business, for taking an hour out of your weekend to show how much you care! (1)
I’d like to see Toronto participate in an Earth Hour on a Monday, say around 10am. Let’s see how many takers there would be for that! Of course, the effect isn’t so dramatic is it - you can’t see all those lights that are always on during the day go out when its still daylight!
My favourite quote from the CBC article comes from a stalwart Albertan, who like many wasn’t about to let Earth Hour get in the way of the Battle of Alberta: “Not a chance, I’m sorry to say…Let’s celebrate Earth Hour at four in the morning. That will be a lot better time, I think.”
Just as Buy Nothing Day hasn’t caused a massive rethinking of consumerism in the lives of many, Earth Hour isn’t going to all of a sudden make people use less energy. In fact, because these events are promoted in a such a dramatic fashion, and involve a dramatic action (turning all the lights out, buying nothing) they can actually undermine their stated goals. They make consuming less seem to be a dramatic thing when in actuality, consuming slightly less over longer periods of time (say, walking to work, taking public transit, turning out lights in rooms that you’re not in, sucking up the hot weather in summer; the cold in winter, etc.) would likely be much more effective. By casting environmental action as a dramatic, Earth Hour runs the risk of scaring people off because the task of acting responsibly becomes too large, to unobtainable: “how can we live without the lights on?”
Other things to consider:
- I wonder how many people drove to Earth Hour events like the one described in this article?
- I wonder how many enjoyed a nice hot coffee or tea in a paper cup with a cardboard ring around it and a plastic lid while at the event?
- How many rushed to their computers to frantically check email after one hour of blackout - were computers even part of the items turned off, or was it just lights?
- Were energy saving compact fluorescent lights turned off? By my recollection I think those things use more power when they are turned on than when they are left on.
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(1) According to TheStar.com, “the ACC participated in Earth Hour by dimming exterior and corridor lights” - playing on a darkened ice surface would be chatoic, despite the “lights long turned off on the Leafs’ playoff hopes”. Ha!
This past few months I have been lucky enough to be among the organisers for Slavoj Žižek’s visit to the University of Leeds on Tuesday 18 March. We got over 550 people out to see one of the most interesting and provocative intellectuals alive today. It was a great event that showed what a spirit of volunteerism and collective investment in a project can bring!
Pictures are up at subalternstudies.
Will Merrin posted a fascinating essay at Media Studies 2.o back in September, which I have only just now got around to reading. He addresses the social networking user through Roger Caillois’s 1935 essay “Mimicry and Legendary Psychasthenia“. Merrin critiques the social networking profile and points out a beef I’ve had for a while with the proliferation of Facebook and its boring, blue and white layout used for every person on the site:
Once the construction of a personal webpage required some degree of programming expertise. Today the social networking user merely interacts with, manipulates and fills-in pre-programmed templates and applications.
In an interesting twist, especially with the references to Baudrillard, who often points to the importance of symbolic exchange in pre-industrial society in his work, it seems that the personally designed webpage now takes on the aura of artisanship. In effect, opportunities for difference and “individuality” are better able to be expressed through the freedom of basic html design than the restricted and similar nature of the Facebook profile page, which looks the same for everyone and the content of which is dictated by that which is made available to Facebook users.
What one hopes will add to one’s distinction only adds to ones depersonalisation: how many images of friends posing with drinks are there already on Facebook? And there is no hope here of resistance. Even the refusal to post a photo, the use of alternative images or attempts at an artistic subversion of the form merely take their place within a pre-coded representational system as part of the normal range of allowed responses.
Indeed, while many view social networking as liberatory, this essay points out some fairly important reasons why it can also been seen as further disconnecting and “depersonalising” the self from the world.
For a while I was thinking that I wouldn’t bother posting my MA online. Really, after the defense, and what with the evolution of my thought since I started the PhD, I figured it old news. But, I’ve decided to let it out of the dusty confines of my hard drive and give it some air. After all, what’s this whole academic thing about if it isn’t about sharing ideas, even if doing so risks criticism? It’s in the criticism that we can alter and adjust our thinking. So, while I stand by what I’ve written in this document, I’m not promoting it as my final position on these matters and I’m eagerly anticipating changes in my thought, even to the point of disagreeing with myself (which happens more often that not anyway, so what the hell)! Enjoy!
Abstract
With its almost exclusive focus on the economics of the music industry, the early-21st century debate over digital music piracy has obscured other vital areas of study in the relationship between popular music and the Internet. This thesis addresses some of these neglected areas, specifically issues of agency, representation, discipline, and authority; it examines each of these in relationship to the formation and maintenance different online music communities. I argue that contemporary online trends related to music promotion, consumption, and criticism are, in fact, part of a much larger socio-cultural re-envisioning of the relationships between artists and audiences, artists and the music industry, and among audience members themselves. The relationship between music and the Internet is not only subversive on the level of economics.I examine these issues in three key areas. Independent women’s music communities challenge patriarchal authority in the music industry as they use online discussion forums and websites to advance their own careers. The tension that exists between the traditional for-profit music industry and the developing ethic of sharing in the filesharing community creates the conditions whereby we can imagine alternative ways that music can circulate in culture. “Citizen media,” such as blogs and “open source” encyclopædias, allows for those who otherwise had no avenue for presenting their thoughts and ideas to engage in public discourse. Traditional understandings of authority and expertise are subject to revision as new ways of assessing authority develop for online sources. This is also evident in the struggles of “old-media” groups in reconciling their established publishing and editorial practices with emergent online practices.
This thesis foregrounds the work of individuals by drawing extensively from interviews, personal blogs, and online discussion forums. In this way, the monolithic “grand narratives” of the Internet, such as the filesharing “battle” or the democratic potential of online discourse, are shown to be the product of many individual subjectivities, each of whom contribute to authoring the online environment.
EDIT: Holy Crap! For those of you wondering what “Captialism” is, I have no answer. I only just noticed the misspelling on the cover today as I posted the picture! My parents sent me these pictures the day the bound copy arrived in the mail back in Novvember! I guess I never really looked close enough at them!
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