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Identity, Modernity and Culture
An International Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Conference for
the Arts
Schedule
4 December 2015 | 2015 12 4
Welcoming Address
Prof. Joshua Mok Ka-ho Chair Professor of Comparative Policy
Vice-President, Lingnan University
Prof. Sun Yifeng
Professor, Department of Translation
Director, Centre for Humanities Research
Dean, Faculty of Arts, Lingnan University
LBYG01 | 9:15 a.m.
Keynote Speech (in English)
Fighting Amnesia, Constructing Hope: Reading Iris Changs The
Rape of Nanking and Marjorie Chans a nanjing winter
Prof. Shan Te-hsing Distinguished Research Fellow, Institute of
European and American Studies, Academia Sinica
LBYG01 | 9:45 a.m.
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Panel: Hong Kong Identity (LKKG03 | 11:00 a.m. 12:30 p.m.)
Chair: Nina Ng (Department of Fine Arts, Chinese
University of Hong Kong)
This is Hong Kong: Shaping Hong Kongs Image Overseas, 1959-1965
(James Fellows, Department of History, Lingnan University)
Far More than Just a Fight against Corruption The Role of Fight
Corruption Campaign in Hong Kongs Identity and Modernity (So Ka
Hei, Department of History, Lingnan University)
Writing Hong Kong Outside 1997: Identity Crisis in Xu Xis The
Unwalled City (Long Chao, Division of English, Nanyang
Technological University)
Discussant: Prof. Shen Shuang (Department of
Comparative Literature, Pennsylvania State University)
(LKKG05 | 11:00 a.m. 12:30 p.m.)
Lunch Time (Lingnan Chinese Restaurant | 12:30 p.m.)
Panel: Children/Students/Participants as
Protagonists in the Construction of Knowledge in Education and
Meaning of Art
(LKKG03 | 2:00 p.m. 3:30 p.m.)
Chair: Samson Wong (Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan
University)
Connecting early childhood education with the
social constructivist perspective: nurturing young souls in the
postmodern environment (Sandrine Chung, Psychological Studies, Hong
Kong Institute
(LKKG05 | 2:00 a.m. 3:30 p.m.)
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of Education) Two Pioneers in Teaching Ink Painting in Hong
Kong (Sheng Hung, Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan
University)
Adapting Dewey's Proposal for Teacher-Student Relationship for
Artist-Participant Relationship under Community Arts Settings
(Samson Wong, Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan University)
Discussant: Prof. Sophia Law (Centre for Humanities
Research | Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan University)
Panel: Identity at the Turn of the Century
(LKKG03 | 4:00 p.m. 5:30 p.m.)
Chair: James Fellows (Department of History, Lingnan
University)
Organized Oriental Vice: China, the
International Drugs Trade and the Reimagining of the Other in
Early Twentieth Century Britain (Simon Case, Department of History,
Lingnan University)
Exploring Multi-cultures of Shanghai: A Study on Shanghai
Artists Sojourn in Japan in the Late Nineteenth Century (Nina Ng,
Department of Fine Arts, Chinese University of Hong Kong)
The Rulers and the Ruled: Identity in a British Leased Territory
in Northern China (Kong Rong, Department of History, Lingnan
University)
Discussant: Prof. Poon Shuk-wah (Department of History, Lingnan
University)
(LKKG05 | 4:00 p.m. 5:30 p.m.)
1941.5.161942.3.31
Welcoming Dinner (Lingnan Chinese Restaurant | 6:00 p.m.)
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5 December 2015 | 2015 12 5
Panel: Image, Fiction and Identity (LKKG03 | 9:00 a.m. 10:30
a.m.)
Chair: Sheng Hung (Department of Visual Studies,
Lingnan University)
Perceptions of Otherness through Translating Semiotics: Chinese
Calligraphy in Exhibition (Song Ge, Department of Translation,
Lingnan University)
An Analysis of Milan Kunderas Ignorance from a Structuralist
Perspective (Chen Yanyi, School of Foreign Languages, Shenzhen
University)
A Study on the Relationship between Art and Cultural Contents
(Kim Soyoung, Hankuk Univeristy of Foreign Studies)
Discussant: Ms. Zoie So (Department of Visual
Studies, Lingnan University) Discussant: Prof. Mary Wong (Centre
for Humanities
Research | Department of Chinese, Lingnan University)
(LKKG05 | 9:00 a.m. 10:30 a.m.)
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Panel: Exhibition and Performance (LKKG03 | 10:30 a.m. 12:00
p.m.)
Chair: Nis Grn (Department of Visual Studies,
Lingnan University)
Representations of Hakka Women in the Museums of Hong Kong (Luca
Yau, Department of History, Lingnan University)
A Study of Foreign Musical Performance Status
(LKKG05 | 10:30 a.m. 12:00 p.m.)
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and Implications in Korea (Park Hyunjoo, Hankuk University of
Foreign Studies)
Class Taste and Capital Transformation in Contemporary Chinese
Art: A Case Study of Indonesian Chinese Collector Budi Tek and His
Private Art Museum in Shanghai (Luo Xianmei, Chinese University of
Hong Kong)
Discussant: Prof. Sophia Law (Centre for Humanities
Research | Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan University)
Concluding Remarks
(LKKG05 | 12:00 p.m.) (in English and Chinese )
Prof. Sophia Law (Centre for Humanities Research | Department of
Visual Studies, Lingnan University)
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Contents
8 Panel: Hong Kong Identity
12 Panel: Children/Students/Participants as Protagonists in
the
Construction of Knowledge in Education and Meaning of Art
17 Panel: Identity at the Turn of the Century
21 Panel: Image, Fiction and Identity
46 Panel: Exhibition and Performance
59
95
122
126
170
202
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8
Panel: Hong Kong Identity
(LKKG03 | 11:00 a.m. 12:30 p.m. | 4 December 2015)
Chair: Nina Ng (Department of Fine Arts, Chinese University of
Hong Kong)
This is Hong Kong: Shaping Hong Kongs Image Overseas, 1959-1965
(James
Fellows, Department of History, Lingnan University)
Far More than Just a Fight against Corruption The Role of Fight
Corruption
Campaign in Hong Kongs Identity and Modernity (So Ka Hei,
Department of
History, Lingnan University)
Writing Hong Kong Outside 1997: Identity Crisis in Xu Xis The
Unwalled City
(Long Chao, Division of English, Nanyang Technological
University)
Discussant: Prof. Shen Shuang (Department of Comparative
Literature, Pennsylvania
State University)
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9
This is Hong Kong: Shaping Hong Kongs Image Overseas,
1959-65
James Fellows
Department of History, Lingnan University
In the late 1950s Hong Kong seemed to have a serious image
problem. The colonys
competitors in the textile trade argued that an exploited labour
force gave Hong
Kongs manufacturers an unfair advantage, and used such rhetoric
to successfully
agitate for restrictions on the industrys exports. The alleged
use of sweated labour
was one issue of many, as observers in the colony also lamented
Hong Kongs
apparent reputation as a site of vice, corruption, and squalor.
In 1959, the Hong Kong
General Chamber of Commerce therefore campaigned, successfully,
for public
funding to coordinate and increase the level of public relations
activities undertaken in
the UK, US and Europe in order to portray a more positive
picture of Hong Kong and
deter further protectionist moves against the colony.
This paper will explore the content of promotional material
and
government-sponsored media produced by the coalition of
government departments
and business organisations who were granted control of the
funding, as well as the
rhetoric used by government and business representatives in
public and private. I will
suggest that from the discourse a sense of Hong Kong
exceptionalism emerges in
references to the colonys unique combination of geographic,
demographic, and
geopolitical pressures and the culture and characteristics of
its inhabitants. This
simultaneously justified a particular approach to social and
economic policy in the
colony one of minimal government intervention. This paper
therefore aims to
uncover the mechanics of how certain colonial myths and
narratives regarding Hong
Kong were deliberately constructed and propagated.
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10
Far More than Just a Fight against Corruption The Role of Fight
Corruption
Campaign in Hong Kongs Identity and Modernity
So Ka Hei
Department of History, Lingnan University
The spontaneous outburst of a rash of leftist-agitated riots in
1967 aroused the
initiative of the colonial government to forge a Hong Kong
identity for its Chinese
subjects. Besides providing better welfare, the colonial
government attempted to
create a distinction between China and Hong Kong, and hence a
sense of local
identity by achieving political credibility. According to John
Carroll, the fight against
corruption in the 1970s was part of this bigger project. The
establishment of the ICAC
and the charge of Godbar convinced the public that the colonial
government was able
and willing to deal with social evils associated with high-rank
officials. This
campaign was a great success in both eradicating corruption and
forging a local
identity.
This paper will also explain the affiliation of the fight
against corruption to Hong
Kong's modernity. The rule of law was among the most essential
ideas of a modern
society. Only with a well-established rule of law, capitalist
idea could be entrenched
and allowed the economy to attract foreign investments. The
fight against corruption
ceased the practice of maintaining social order in Chinese
communities through
corruption by the police force. Set regulations also convinced
the public that paying
for convenience was no longer legitimate. With efficient law
enforcement body and
bureaucracy, Hong Kong subsequently developed to be a financial
centre known for
its law-abiding and stable society.
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11
Writing Hong Kong Outside 1997: Identity Crisis in Xu Xis The
Unwalled City
Long Chao
Division of English, Nanyang Technological University
Hong Kong, the former British crown colony, has always been
represented in popular
discourses along the China-Local-Global nexus. Even after almost
two decades, the
1997 handover narrative still has a residual impact on the
publics mindset affectively
and even politically. The China-Local-Global relation is hence
reified as a
stigmatization of Chinas sovereignty over Hong Kong. Yet critics
often fail to
recognize that it also runs the risk of reinforcing, whether
consciously or involuntarily,
an Orientalist and Eurocentric ideology to pit Hong Kong against
China via equating
Hong Kong with the West. In the meantime, rejecting both sides
would result in a
provincial localism. This paper aims to offer an alternative
insight on this issue
through the examination of the representation of Hong Kong in
literary productions.
By investigating how Hong Kong as a lived experience helps to
negotiate and
construct the characters identities in Hong Kong Anglophone
writer Xu Xis novel
The Unwalled City, the paper situates the identity crisis felt
due to the 1997 turnover
in a broader historical, regional and global context.
Specifically, the analysis will
invoke Baudelaires notion of flneur as its theoretical framework
and explore the
tensions and ambivalence conjured up by the three main
characters with regard to
their sense of self in their act of walking and seeing. In the
end, the paper wishes to
stress not only literary productions provide alternative views
on Hong Kong issue but
also the use of English language as a strategy to bring Hong
Kongs peripheral
position to the global center.
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12
Panel: Children/Students/Participants as Protagonists in the
Construction of
Knowledge in Education and Meaning of Art
(LKKG03 | 2:00 p.m. 3:30 p.m. | 4 December 2015)
Chair: Samson Wong (Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan
University)
Connecting early childhood education with the social
constructivist perspective:
nurturing young souls in the postmodern environment (Sandrine
Chung,
Department of Psychological Studies, Hong Kong Institute of
Education)
Two Pioneers in Teaching Ink Painting in Hong Kong (Sheng Hung,
Department
of Visual Studies, Lingnan University)
Adapting Dewey's Proposal for Teacher-Student Relationship for
Artist-Participant
Relationship under Community Arts Settings (Samson Wong,
Department of Visual
Studies, Lingnan University)
Discussant: Prof. Sophia Law (Centre for Humanities Research |
Department of
Visual Studies, Lingnan University)
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13
Note from the Chair:
Samson Wong
Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan University
This panel investigates the teacher-student and
artist-participant interaction in the
learning process. Underlying the three proposals is the
repositioning of power within
the education and artistic process. CHUNG first sets the panel
by establishing the
child or learner, as the protagonist with teachers as caring
adults to deliberately
prepare a learning environment where the child actively
constructs knowledge.
HUNG then presents a Chinese ink art school curriculum pioneered
in the 1960s by
Hong Kong artist Tam Chi-Sing (1933-2013), where innovation and
expression of the
students are valued over imitation of conventions. Finally, WONG
proposes an
adaptation of this framework for teaching and learning to the
setting of community
arts where artists guide participants in a creative and
expressive path in a social
setting.
The reference to Vygotsky by CHUNG is responded in the closing
by WONGs use of
Dewey. Though not the focus of the panel, both Vygotsky and
Dewey also theorize on
the social and cultural dimensions of art (Krensky &
Steffen, 2009). To Dewey, art as
an experience is educational. However, he critiqued that the
prevailing
misconceptions of education, through methods so literal as to
exclude the
imaginationnot touching the desires and emotions of men, caused
people to be
repelled by any suggestion of teaching and learning in
connection with art (Dewey,
2005). According to Dewey, if imagination can be reintroduced to
the process of
education, then art would be a powerful tool for education. It
is the view of the
presenters that such a critique of education is still applicable
in the current context.
Evaluated here are the conventional teacher-student
relationship, function of
curriculum and the authority over knowledge. Applied to the
artistic process, this
panel also evaluates the authority over the construction of
meaning in art, creative
expression and standards of artistry. The concern of power over
construction of
knowledge and meaning both in education and art is faced in the
daily lives of
students and people of the general public. Slogans,
catch-phrases and even mission
statements of nurture and inspiration are meaningless unless it
is carried out in
classrooms, workshops and studios. This panel is a proposal and
evaluation of
theoretical frameworks and their execution in concrete
settings.
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14
Connecting Early Childhood Education with the Social
Constructivist
Perspective: Nurturing Young Souls in the Postmodern
Environment
Sandrine Chung
Department of Psychological Studies, Hong Kong Institute of
Education
Educating young children in a postmodern society is not as easy
as using the didactic
teacher-oriented pedagogy in the past centuries. Under a
postmodern context, the
origin of creativity and autonomy is more important than
following instructions and
rules (Koo, 2002). When connecting education with the postmodern
context,
innovative pedagogical changes in certain perspectives are
significant to enhance the
quality of early childhood education. The needs for young
children to construct their
own knowledge and actively explore their learning environment
are emphasized
(Edwards, 2005). This presentation will focus on exploring the
theoretical framework
in the Vygotskian perspective and examine the practical pedagogy
developed by
Emilia Reggio.
In early decades, the Vygotskian perspective is one of the
pioneers to suggest that
knowledge is socially mediated (Ogunnaike, 2015). While other
Western
perspectives emphasize on the individual exploration and
discovery, Vygotsky
stresses the importance of environmental factors in fostering
symbolic functioning
and higher mental functioning (Bodrova & Leong, 2011). With
the ideas posited by
Vygotsky and Gardner, the constructivist framework has
established the following
five aspects for early childhood education: 1) the child is the
protagonist, 2) the child
actively constructs knowledge through interactions with the
environment, 3) learning
is holistic, 4) the learning environment is deliberately
prepared, and 5) caring adults
are presented (Ogunnaike, 2015). Vygotsky also suggests that the
internalization and
sociohistorical knowledge are the tools to comprise both
intrapersonal and
interpersonal psychological planes (Vygotsky, 1986). Social
constructivists in the
ECE field, including Emilia Reggio, later developed pedagogies
with the ideas from
the Vygotskian framework.
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15
Two Pioneers in Teaching Ink Painting in Hong Kong
Sheng Hung
Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan University
Imitation has been a traditional practice of learning Chinese
painting, but an
alternative pedagogy was carried out by Lui Shou Kwan (1919
1975) and Laurence
Tam Chi Sing (1933 2013) that emphasizes on innovation and
expression. Despite
the different settings of an extramural department and secondary
school, their beliefs
and philosophy of teaching echoed each other.
Lui was not only a significant artist, but also an influential
figure teaching ink
painting in Hong Kong in the 1960s and 1970s, especially in the
Extramural
Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Tam was one
of Luis students
who were inspired by his philosophy of teaching. As an art
teacher at Wan Yan
College (Kowloon), Tam shifted from teaching western media to
ink painting between
1966 and 1971, and applied this new pedagogy of teaching ink
painting.
This presentation discusses the teaching philosophy and methods
of Lui and Tam in
detail. It also demonstrates the diversity and possibilities
evident in their students
works. Their teaching still provides insights for todays field
of teaching Chinese
painting.
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16
Adapting Dewey's Proposal for Teacher-Student Relationship
for
Artist-Participant Relationship under Community Arts
Settings
Samson Wong
Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan University
This presentation elaborates on the teacher-student relationship
described in
Experience and Education by John Dewey (1938) to propose an
artist-participant
relationship in community art settings.
The community arts are defined by numerous practitioners and
scholars as a practice
where artists guide participants in their own creative and
expressive path. However,
the method of that guiding or the role of the artist is often
provided unsystematically
and lacking theoretical backing. This paper draws on Dewey
(1938, 2005), who
explained that the teacher should guide students in a process to
generate and discover
knowledge applicable to their own concern. Deweys proposal is in
fact so flexible
that it is adaptable to unconventional educative settings such
as the community arts. It
is proposed that the artist should guide participants in an
artistic process to create and
express ideas and works applicable to their own concern.
Furthermore, just as Dewey
indicated that the teacher should enable activities to be
selected which lend
themselves to [a] social organization[where] all individuals
have an opportunity to
contribute something (1938, pg. 56), the settings of community
arts should also lend
themselves to an artistic process with vibrant social
dynamics.
Cases of community arts activities will be examined to evaluate
the effectiveness of
adapting Deweys proposal for its analysis. Modifications and
counterproposals will
also be presented.
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17
Panel: Identity at the Turn of the Century
(LKKG03 | 4:00 p.m. 5:30 p.m. | 4 December 2015)
Chair: James Fellows (Department of History, Lingnan
University)
Organized Oriental Vice: China, the International Drugs Trade
and the
Reimagining of the Other in Early Twentieth Century Britain
(Simon Case,
Department of History, Lingnan University)
Exploring Multi-cultures of Shanghai: A Study on Shanghai
Artists Sojourn in
Japan in the Late Nineteenth Century (Nina Ng, Department of
Fine Arts,
Chinese University of Hong Kong)
The Rulers and the Ruled: Identity in a British Leased Territory
in Northern
China (Kong Rong, Department of History, Lingnan University)
Discussant: Prof. Poon Shuk-wah (Department of History, Lingnan
University)
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18
Organised Oriental Vice: China, the International Drugs Trade
and the
Reimagining of the Other in Early Twentieth Century Britain
Simon Case
Department of History, Lingnan University
A leader in organised oriental vice, read the headline of the
Daily Express
newspaper on the 24th
April 1925. Brilliant Chang, a Chinese restaurant owner in
Londons Limehouse, had been convicted after a witch hunt of the
possession of a
packet of cocaine. His arrest, and the subsequent press mania,
reflected both the
public moral panic towards drug use and increasingly
sensationalist and
discriminatory attitudes towards Londons Chinese community, and
towards Chinese
in general. His case was but one prominent example of a common
trend. By 1925
British state legislation regarding drugs and the regulation and
prosecution of drug
trafficking had become established and had begun to hold sway in
popular social
contexts, as users of drugs and the trade itself had been pushed
underground. The
literary and pseudo-journalistic trend of the Yellow Peril was
in full swing, and the
hysteria of scapegoating and discrimination of Chinese in
popular mediums and the
press was widespread, encompassing both moral judgements and
racial fears. For
several decades from around 1870 to 1914, the British anti-opium
movement had
opposed opiate consumption and the British-dominated
international opium trade,
from a broadly religious, but also ostensibly humanitarian,
perspective. Through
analysis of a variety of primary source materials including the
popular press and
popular literature, this paper explores the relationship between
attitudes towards
Chinese in British society and attitudes towards the
international trade in drugs in the
early twentieth century. Its main argument is that the discourse
that fuelled such
popular attitudes and representations of the Chinese in the
early part of the twentieth
century was a direct product of the anti-opium movement of the
late nineteenth
century, the legacy of which was its deep-seated association of
the Chinese with moral
depravity, drug use, and the provision and production of illicit
drugs.
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19
Exploring Multi-cultures of Shanghai: A Study on Shanghai
Artists Sojourn in
Japan in the Late Nineteenth Century
Nina Ng
Department of Fine Arts, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Ever since the outbreak of the Opium War in 1839, China was
forced to make her
gates ajar. Shanghai not only became a treaty port to foreign
countries, but also
disclosed herself to the modern cultures and commercial
cultures, and social changes.
At meanwhile, going to Japan became a fashion for Shanghai
artists to earn their
living. Yet owing to those Shanghai artists tremendous focus on
developing the art
market of Japan at that time, their reputation in China was
comparatively low. Or,
maybe because of his conservative painting style made him out of
the mainstream of
the art development in Shanghai in their day, their artworks had
been ignored by the
collection market in China for a long time.
However, it is worth for us to review their place in the history
of Chinese art and their
contributions to modern culture in the late-nineteenth-century
Shanghai. This is
because a more comprehensive understanding about the culture of
Shanghai, and the
culture exchanges between China and Japan in the late-nineteenth
century, and their
influences on the development of modern Chinese art later on
could be acquired
through the study of the art of the Shanghai artists who had
been to Japan at that time.
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20
The Rulers and the Ruled: Identity in a British Leased Territory
in Northern
China
Kong Rong
Deparment of History, Lingnan University
Facing aggressive competition in scrambling for concessions in
China in the late 19th
century, Britain leased two areas: Weihaiwei and the New
Territories of Hong Kong.
Unlike the latter, the colonial history of Weihaiwei seems
obscure for most at present,
including for local residents, although it lasted for over three
decades. What is
interesting is that natives then in Weihaiwei never considered
themselves subjects of
the British Sovereign, despite the majority expressing
appreciation and satisfaction
towards the Britain rulers. Residents themselves in the
neighboring areas extended the
boundary of the leased territory by moving boundary tablets to
take advantage of the
comparative low taxes in Weihaiwei, which indicates that
nationality or loyalty
matters little in real life. On the other hand, local rulers
especially James Lockhart and
Reginald Johnston who worked as senior officials were favorable
to the local
inhabitants and Chinese culture. Johnston even claimed that some
of the Englishmen
in the territory came to be Chinese in his farewell speech when
Weihaiwei was
returned to China in 1930.
My research aims to explore the perception of identities among
the opposite groups
during the leased period, as well as the reason behind them. The
hypotheses are it
related that British governors adopted a mild style to
administrate in Weihaiwei by
complying with local customs and Chinese traditional
culture.
This research will shed a light on mutual understandings of
identity in places with
similar history, it can also help us to think about what we
should do when facing
cultural or identity conflicts.
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21
Panel: Image, Fiction and Identity
(LKKG03 | 9:00 a.m. 10:30 a.m. | 5 December 2015)
Chair: Sheng Hung (Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan
University)
Perceptions of Otherness through Translating Semiotics: Chinese
Calligraphy
in Exhibition (Song Ge, Department of Translation, Lingnan
University)
An Analysis of Milan Kunderas Ignorance from a Structuralist
Perspective
(Chen Yanyi, School of Foreign Languages, Shenzhen
University)
A Study on the Relationship between Art and Cultural Contents
(Kim Soyoung,
GS Department of Global Culture & Contents, Hankuk
Univeristy of Foreign
Studies)
Discussant: Ms. Zoie So (Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan
University)
Discussant: Prof. Mary Wong (Centre for Humanities Research |
Department of
Chinese, Lingnan University)
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22
Perceptions of Otherness through Translating Semiotics: Chinese
Calligraphy
in Exhibition
Song Ge
Department of Translation, Lingnan University
Chinese calligraphy, a quintessential Chinese symbol, has long
been favored by
exhibitions like museums and galleries, both in China and
overseas. Calligraphy
works are put into these carefully-designed exhibitions aiming
at visitors optimal
experience of the culture embodied.
This study focuses on exhibitions held in Chinas Mainland and
Hong Kong, where
apart from calligraphy work itself, English translations
accompanying the original
Chinese language can be always seen in introductory text panels,
labels, captions,
leaflets and catalogues. Some of the translations are literal,
some free, some
incomplete, some overloading, some even totally independent of
the source language.
Through the multiple interactions between source language and
target language,
between text and image, between viewers standing position and
the whole layout of
the exhibition within this semiotics entirety, perceptions of
Chinese calligraphy have
thus been generated in the minds of the English-speaking
visitors. These perceptions
further render them more room to imagine about this
otherness.
This paper begins by leading in some key theoretical
perspectives, including
exhibition design, interplay of texts and images, translation
and intertextuality,
restraints of museum translation, and visitors reception. With
these theoretical
considerations in mind, this paper will meticulously examine the
afore-mentioned
aspects, and try to demonstrate the final perceptions formed in
the mind of this group
of foreign visitors. It tentatively shows that despite of their
active participating in
experiencing otherness, their perceptions of Chinese calligraphy
through the
medium of exhibition is quite limited and even distorted.
Therefore, these inadequate
perceptions should be compensated and counterbalanced by other
possible mediums.
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23
An Analysis of Milan Kunderas Ignorance from a Structuralist
Perspective
Chen Yanyi
School of Foreign Languages, Shenzhen University
Ignorance, the title of the book as well as the trigger of an
migrs home-coming
journey, suggests a dichotomy and even precedes a collection of
theme-revealing
binary pairs. An analysis from a Structuralist perspective with
a focus on the primary
opposition, i.e. Ignorance and Experience, the key word
Ignorance of which is
connected with a series of secondary oppositions, may bring to
light the novels deep
structure and its relations with the books theme and cultural
implications. In
Ignorance, Kundera by alluding to the home-coming motif in
Homers epic tells the
story of the migrs failed grand return and shows their failure
to rebuild their
cultural identity lies mainly in the relative brevity of human
life.
1. Introduction
1.1 Kunderas Narrative Features
Published in French in 2000, Ignorance deals with the subject of
emigration and
exile with Odysseus, the protagonist of Homer's epic poem
Odyssey as the archetype
for two paralleling characters who pursue a home-coming journey.
Recounted by an
omnipotent narrator, the story centers around two expatriates,
i.e. a woman named
Irena who returns to Prague from France after twenty years of
absence, and her male
counterpart Josef who is back from Denmark. The novel is
characterized by its
re-narration, allusion to ancient myth and theme-revealing key
words. According to
WU Xiaodong, only a change of point of view may reveal multiple
aspects of
something because a narrative from a single point of view is so
confined that partiality
is unavoidable. And it is Kunderas re-narration that establishes
multiple points of
view by repetition which indicates new perspective and
motivation, just as several
eyes cast on the same story. (, 2003: 339) Apart from
re-narration, Kundera is
keen on choosing a mythical hero as an archetype for his novel
like Odysseus in
Ignorance. The narrative theme of archetypical significance
enjoys equal vividness
and independence with the characters in the novel and it plays
the major role; while a
specific plot as well as characters are no more than supporting
arguments or materials
for the archetypical theme. (, 2011: 135) In The Art of the
Novel, Kundera
reaffirms in a defining manner the problems he is exploring, the
characters and
themes of his novels by using key words, which reveal his
characters way of being,
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24
his major way of thinking, his strategies on novelistic
structure and theme, as well as
specific textual form. However, those key words are neither
complete nor unitary
for Kundera is inclined to lay bare the conflicts,
confrontations, splits and anxiety
within his propositions and focused on sharp representation of
the contradiction
within a theme. And the characters and their lives represented
in the novel are an
analyzable text that explain the key words and are also
footnotes to the key
words. (, 2011: 125-126)
1.2 The Key Words in Ignorance
In the case of Ignorance, Kundera puts forward the first key
word in Chapter 2,
i.e. nostalgia, the Greek words for the constituents of which
mean return and
suffering, sonostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased
yearning to return
(Kundera, 2002: 5). To further explore the words implications,
Kundera traces its
origin and finds that nostalgia seems something like the pain of
ignorance, of not
knowing (Kundera, 2002: 6). In this way, Kundera kills two birds
with one stone by
first creating a key sentiment in the novel, i.e. the feeling of
nostalgia, from which a
second key word, i.e. ignorance derives and which later turns
out to have more weight
in the theme of the novel.
Kundera once talked about the reason of his preference for the
word ignorance in
an interview, amnesia erases ones past, while memory changes it,
one is living in
ignorance not because of his/her intellectual insufficiency but
because ignorance is a
characteristic of human experience. (, 2006: 69) Intrigued by
the relativity of
the word, which makes a dichotomy with experience, the author of
this article would
like to pursue a Structuralist analysis on the binary
oppositions manifest in the novel
to find out some values or beliefs that emerge from the
privileged terms.
Consequently, a deep structure that reveals the theme of the
novel as well as a pattern
that past-and-present writers unconsciously adopt may be
exposed.
2. From Structure to Theme
2.1 Binary Opposition
According to the Structuralists, underlying our use of language
is a system, a
pattern of paired oppositions, binary oppositions (Selden, 1986:
55), this article aims
to examine the binary pairs, overt or covert, of the novel that
are in close connection
with the theme.
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25
2.1.1 Primary Binary Opposition
Among the binary oppositions ingeniously devised by Kundera,
there is a major
one between the privileged term ignorance and a hidden one, i.e.
experience. On one
hand, as the major cause of nostalgia, the word ignorance in the
novel has several
implications. Firstly, it represents the state of being unknown
of a country and its
people that an migr has left behind, unable to remember his/her
life in the past as
well as uncertain about the possibility of being re-integrated
into local community or
regaining a sense of belonging there, all of which arise from
the fact that one has
become less concerned with recollections bound to the country he
no longer lived in
(Kundera, 2002: 76). For example, urged by Sylvie in France to
make a great return,
Irena can only pick up pieces on the return theme from books,
films, her own memory,
the lost son home again with his aged mother; the man returning
to his beloved from
whom cruel destiny had torn him away (Kundera, 2002: 5). Not
knowing their
preference for beer, she brings an old Bordeaux with all the
greater pleasure: to
surprise her guests, to make a party for them, to regain their
friendship (Kundera,
2002: 35) It is the ignorant Irenas wish to figure out whether
she can live here, feel
at home, have friends (Kundera, 2002: 36). Similarly, Josef, a
male expatriate,
before leaving Denmark he had considered the coming encounter
with places he had
known, with his past life, and had wondered would he be moved?
cold? delighted?
depressed? (Kundera, 2002: 52) Secondly, it can be attributed
first to forced caution
then to lack of interest (Kundera, 2002: 110) that if silence
fails to play a part, a
terrible poverty of relations between an migr and his/her family
or acquaintances
will become obvious. The Communist regime hurled anathema at
emigrationEveryone who stayed abroad was convicted in absentia
in their home
country, and their compatriots did not dare have any contact
with them (Kundera,
2002: 17). Those who have fled from the country are generally
considered
irresponsible and thus induce animosity, and the policy of
restitution of properties
after the collapse of the regime would account for the
separation from their once
beloved migrs. Thirdly, it implies a lack of knowledge of the
fact that a reality no
longer is what it was when it was; it cannot be reconstructed
(Kundera, 2002: 124).
To make fragmentary recollections consistent, one is to unleash
his/her imagination
and insert a causal sequence with other events, other acts, and
other words
(Kundera, 2002: 125). In the process, he/she has to invent facts
to make the
recollection intelligible. A case in point is Josefs practice of
association in reading his
high-school diary. Fourthly, it displays an illusion of a
regained romance behind
which is a conflict between memory and amnesia, anticipation and
disappointment,
not only has he[Josef] forgotten their meeting in the bar, but
the truth is worse: he
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26
doesnt know who she[Irena] is! He doesnt know her! In the
airplane he did not know
whom he was talking to (Kundera, 2002: 186). Lastly, it is
far-reaching and
frustrating, a whole life has already been determined at a stage
when we didnt know
a thing (Kundera, 2002: 163). This is true of both Irena and
Milada, who have made
their own choice of life disregard of any possible consequences
that they themselves
are to bear in future, for example, Irenas early marriage with
Martin in the hope of
freeing herself from her mother, Miladas failed attempt to
commit suicide for loves
sake.
On the other hand, as structuralism proper contains a
distinctive doctrine: the
belief that the individual units of any system have meaning only
by virtue of their
relations to one another (Eagleton, 2004: 82), the word
ignorance presupposes and
can only have its meaning by being contrary to experience, which
is to be gained
when the protagonists finally approach the point of their
ignorance. Unfortunately,
like Odysseus, who, once return, was amazed to realize that his
life, the very essence
of his life, its center, its treasure, lay outside Ithaca, in
the twenty years of his
wanderings. And this treasure he had lost, and could retrieve
only by telling about it
(Kundera, 2002: 34), Josef finds Czech an unknown language
though he understands
every word. (Kundera, 2002: 55). He has an encounter that he has
never expected,
which is attributed to the fact that an invisible broom [that]
had swept across the
landscape of his childhood, wiping away everything familiar
(Kundera, 2002: 52).
As to Irena, she reflects that there is no place more alien to
her than that Prague.
(Kundera, 2002: 136) Both of them find that people in Czech are
no longer interested
in one another. Like the Greek hero, after twenty years of
absence from and nostalgia
for ones natal place, they go back to their Ithaca only to find
the journey is
anything but a great return. Worse still, their experience shows
that they no longer
exist in their homeland though they have a deep love for it.
Strolling in the garden
neighborhood in the autumn sunshine, Irena re-experiences the
Prague born at the
turn of the precious century, the Prague of the Czech lower
middle class and of
her childhood (Kundera, 2002: 133). She felt happy in Paris,
happier than here, but
only Prague held her by a secret bond of beauty. She suddenly
understands how much
she loves this city and how painful her departure from it must
have been. (Kundera,
2002: 134) Talking with his old friend N., Josef finds Czech was
no longer the
unknown language (Kundera, 2002: 157), he recognized it now, and
he savored
itfor the first name in his visit he was happy in his homeland
and felt that it was
his. (Kundera, 2002: 158) In addition to the knowledge of what
they have deserted,
the two protagonists experience unexpected encounters that
convince them of their
being ignorant. Josefs intended identification with himself in
the past turns out to be
a failure as he cannot tell whether his high-school diary is
identical with what he has
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27
actually experienced, then he learns that it was only the
plausible plastered over the
forgotten (Kundera, 2002: 126). When Irena finally realizes that
she is a complete
stranger to Josef, she knows loneliness is awaiting her
(Kundera, 2002: 187).
However, it is by experience that Irena begins to look back upon
her emigration at the
age of ignorance and determine to be a master of her own
life.
2.1.2 Associated Binary Oppositions
As constituents of the complicated system of a text, secondary
binary oppositions
render the story conflicting yet intriguing. It can be inferred
from the novel the
below-listed oppositions which, when combined, make up the route
for a frustrating
home-coming journey: obedience/rebellion, at the time of Russian
invasion, the
protagonists make a decision between (continued) obedience to
the Communist
regime or to a domineering mother on one hand, or rebellion
against subjugation by
emigration on the other. Paradise/hell, suffering from
uncontrollable nostalgia
(Kundera, 2002: 16), the migrs find that the images of home
landscape is a paradise
by day and a hell by night. (Kundera, 2002: 17) Stay/return,
with the collapse of the
Communist regime when Czech has become open to the outside
world, the prospect
of a great return is looming. Like Odysseus, they prefer the
return over a stay. Rather
than ardent exploration of the unknown (adventure), he chose the
apotheosis of the
known (return). Rather than the infinite (for adventure never
intends to finish), he
chose the finite (for the return is a reconciliation with the
finitude of life). (Kundera,
2002: 8) Indifference/enthusiasm, having finally setting foot
again on their homeland,
they experience their old acquaintances indifference to their
wandering stories and
even to each other which is quite contrary to the excitement or
enthusiasm they have
expected from them. Alienation/integration, the contrast places
the two migrs in a
dilemma: things that range from dress, building to weather,
language and lifestyle
seem familiar and at the same time alien to them. Gain/loss,
what bothers them more
is the question whether they still belong to their natal place
or not, which points to the
matter of cultural identity. Black/white, it seems that the
image of a black hand on the
big wall of a square to a country where people hardly knew that
blacks even existed
(Kundera, 2002: 73) is a vivid representation of the countrys
migrs who, when
back home, fail to locate their suspended identity and can only
exist like a shadow
that is actually invisible to their families and acquaintances.
Freedom/unfreedom, at
last, they wish to find a way out by exercising their right of
freedom which is in fact
more of an illusion, for they are so deeply trapped in
irresolvable nostalgia for their
lost homeland, and at the same time not as well received as they
have found they are
in a foreign country the people of which, according to Edward
Said, though
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28
sympathetic with the migrs, consider them outsiders and
inferior, and thus show no
equality to them. As a matter of fact, their freedom is preceded
by unfreedom.
2.1.3 The Privileged Terms
Works of art do not occur randomly. They are created. Their
creators dispose
their material in such a way that it usually exhibits some
organization or pattern...the
structure, in short, will often reinforce the meaning by
throwing emphasis on what is
important. (Bloom, 2007: 151) As no equal importance is possible
for either side of
an opposition, one side or the other which dominates its
counterpoint will stand out as
the privileged term and demonstrates what the author intends to
emphasize. Based on
the above-mentioned oppositions, a collection of privileged
terms can be drawn as
follows: ignorance, rebellion, paradise, return, indifference,
alienation, loss, black,
unfreedom, according to which the main thread of the story can
be summed up. At the
time of national crisis, some people prefer emigration as a
means to rebel against
subjugation. However, after they begin a new life in a foreign
country, they are
inflicted by nostalgia for their lost paradise which in fact is
owing to their ignorance
of how things are going in their natal place, so they pursue a
return journey. Contrary
to their expectation, they come back only to experience
indifference and a lingering
sense of alienation, which indicates a threat of identity loss.
Staying in ones
homeland as an migr is thus like living in the dark and leading
a mentally unfree
life as neither integration into the local community of his/her
homeland nor sincere
acceptance by the people of a foreign country is possible. In
that sense, an migr
belongs to nowhere.
2.2 The Pattern
Focusing on the dislocation of the protagonists, the novel has
an obvious
exile-return or round-trip pattern that is detectable not only
in Homer's epic poem
Odyssey but also in a number of works written by the
past-and-present authors.
According to Todorov, there are two higher levels of
organization: the sequence and
the text. A group of propositions forms a sequence. The basic
sequence is made up of
five propositions which describe a certain state which is
disturbed and then
re-established albeit in altered form. The five propositions may
be designated thus:
equilibrium, force, disequilibrium, force, equilibrium (Selden,
1986: 61).
Accordingly, Todorovs five propositions can be applied to the
novel in the analysis of
the exile-return pattern, where Russian invasion can be seen as
the first force to break
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29
the equilibrium of a peaceful life in Prague and the
protagonists communication with
their old acquaintances or their frustrating experience during
their short stay back
home constitute the second to restore an equilibrium in an
altered form. In Ignorance,
the dichotomy of exile and return involves a two-way movement of
home and
homeless on one hand and home-leaving and home-coming on the
other, in the middle
of which lies the re-establishment of a spiritual home. (, 2011:
160)
2.3 The Deep Structure
The text was really just a copy of this deep structure, and
structuralist criticism
was a copy of this copy. (Eagleton, 2004: 97) A shared deep
structure may be found
between Ignorance and Odyssey, namely, a reluctant desertion of
ones beloved
homeland at the time of crisis followed by a great return that
turns out to be a failure.
Having undergone a transition from ignorance to experience, the
protagonists are
emotionally frustrated and confused in that they fail to restore
a sense of belonging to
their homeland, which implies a loss of cultural identity that
is attributable to the great
change happened to the homeland and its people during their long
absence. To Irena
and Josef in Ignorance, Prague is now a Prague of Gustaf, which
is newly-rising,
superficial, stirring and ready to break from the past. (, 2006:
109) Nowadays,
being willing to die for the country is no longer valued, and
people are inclined to
brag about success (Kundera, 2002: 41) and indifferent to each
other. According to
Milada, even the Bohemian no longer read poetry. It can be
imagined that an Odyssey
is inconceivable today and the epic of the return is no longer
pertinent to our time. To
Odysseus, his mother has died and his wifes suitors have
squandered away his
fortune during his long absence. People talk about the past and
never ask anything
about his wanderings, he realizes that his life lay outside
Ithaca. But for the old olive
tree1, he would recognize nothing around him.
2.4 The Theme
As far as Structuralism is concerned, a Structuralist critic is
able to define the
structural components of a work of fiction and their relations
with nonfictional
1 In the Odyssey, however, the olive tree is repeatedly
associated with Odysseus, particularly in the
context of Athenss protection or assistance. By far the most
prominent olive tree in the poem serves as
the post of Odysseus own marriage bed. Odysseus demonstrates his
legitimacy as ruler with the story
that he had once built the walls of his bedroom around this
tree, which was growing within the herkos.
(Cook, 2006: 161) As the "Tree of Fate", or Morios of Athens,
the olive tree also embodies the
well-being of the city. (Cook, 2006: 7)
-
30
structures (Smithson, 1975: 158), therefore, the theme of the
novel and some cultural
implications beyond the deep structure may be revealed by
adopting this approach. It
is inferred that being re-integrated into the local community of
a homeland to any
long-term migrs is nothing but an illusion, as some narrative in
the novel explains,
for the very notion of homeland, with all its emotional power,
is bound up with the
relative brevity of our life, which allows us too little time to
become attached to some
other country, to other countries, to other languages (Kundera,
2002: 121).
Consequently, being an migr is miserable in that within a
limited lifespan it is out of
his/her ability to build a new cultural identity in an alien
country, nor can he/she
retreat and regain the original identity in a homeland. Again
Kundera poses a
dichotomy between limitedness and unlimitedness, where the
former points to
ones lifespan and the latter his/her aspirations. (, 2011:
102)
3. Conclusion
Begin with the implications of a key word, i.e. nostalgia, from
the etymology of
which the title of the book is introduced, Kundera invents the
privileged term of the
first binary pair, i.e. ignorance and uses it as a primal cause
of a home-coming
journey which has an ordinary round-trip pattern. It is found
that when combining the
primary pair with the ensuring oppositions, a structural thread
of the novel is exposed,
i.e. a frustrating home-coming journey that asserts a long-term
migrs dilemmaa
loss of cultural identity in ones homeland and a failure to
settle in a foreign land in a
true sense. It is an irony that an migr is too ignorant to
realize their being
marginalized both at home and abroad. In short, a great return
to ones spiritual home,
of a hero or an ordinary man, in the past or at the present
time, is nothing but an
illusion.
Bibliography
[1] Bloom, Harold. Homer's The Odyssey [M]. New York: Infobase
Publishing,
2007.
[2] Cook, Erwin F. The Odyssey in Athens: Myths of Cultural
Origins [M]. New
York: Cornell University Press, 1995.
[3] Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory: An Introduction [M]. :
, 2004.
[4] Kundera, Milan. Ignorance [M]. New York: HarperCollins
Publishers, 2002.
[5] Selden, Raman. A Readers Guide to Contemporary Literary
Theory [M].
Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1986.
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31
[6] Smithson, Isaiah. Structuralism as a Method of Literary
Criticism [J]. National
Council of Teachers of English, 1975, 37(2): 145-159.
[7] . - [J]. (
), 2006, 2: 105-110.
[8] . 20 [M]. :
, 2003.
[9] .
[J]. , 2006.
[10] .
[M]. : , 2011.
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32
The Convergence of Media Art and Cultural Contents
Kim Soyoung
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
Modern society is going through multi-faceted change in many of
its domains due to
digital media. It has given rise to Media Art in the realm of
art and a development of
Cultural Contents. This study focuses on the media in Media Art
and Cultural
Contents, thus aiming to discuss the correlation between the
two.
In this paper, I use a research method based on Kittlers theory
of media technology
that explains the typewriter, film, and gramophone in
correlation to Jacques Lacans
three cognitive dimensions - the Symbolic, the Imaginary, and
the Real - to
identify the characteristics of Media Art. Three analytical
frameworks, the
Imaginary-Film, the Symbolic-Typewriter, and the
Real-Gramophone, are set to
identify the characteristics of Media Art through a four level
analysis of
formation-development-conversion-representation and elements at
each level. Media
Art has three characteristics: intersubjectivity, interaction,
and regression
instinct. Each characteristics of Media Art, through an active
transition into Cultural
Contents, is interlinked to intersubjective subject,
transformation for interaction,
and regression instinct based enjoyment. The analysis provides
an expanded
definition of Cultural Contents, and concludes with a search for
the possible
conversion between art and Cultural Contents.
1. Introduction: The Correlation between Media Art and Cultural
Contents
Infrastructures of modern society are diversifying due to the
development of
media. Along with media development, the 21st century is
experiencing active
movement to intermix different fields of studies that had
separately developed within
their own branches of academia, under titles of integration,
convergence, confluence,
interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and such. This trend was a
response to the limited
growth suffered by separate divisions of academia, and also a
natural development
from the integration across multiple different fields triggered
by advancements in
digital technology.
Art also saw various usage of digital media; in fine arts rose a
new genre called
New Media Art, which can be considered a reproduction of the
Ancient Greeks
'tchn' that combines art and technique. Cultural Contents, a
classic example of
integrated studies, is also developing with digital media. In
order to find how art and
-
33
cultural contents converge and analyze the interaction between
the two, it is necessary
to first understand the definition of Cultural Contents.
'Contents' generally refer to
substances carried out by media or platforms, and mean the
overall distribution
system of knowledge and information combined with media.
'Cultural Contents'
indicates when the usage and material is cultural. Considering
the media part of
modern arts, in addition to the cultural part of Cultural
Contents, an explanation of the
relationship between Cultural Contents and art can be a topic of
significance.
Art holds a important part in the realm of culture. Contents of
culture are gained
from sources such as history, art, and literature. Thus
examining the relation between
Media Art and Cultural Contents by analyzing their commonality,
media, is a
well-timed research topic.
This study looks into how characteristics of Media Art connects
to the category of
Cultural Contents, in an effort to not only analyze art but also
extend theoretical
expansion within the field of Cultural Contents. This is
followed by a discussion of
expanding the Humanities concept of Cultural Contents and the
potential of art as a
mode for Cultural Contents. The study contributes to
establishing status and academic
continuity of the newly developing discipline that is Cultural
Contents, in addition to
providing an opportunity to examine the correlations among man,
media, art, and
cultural contents in an age of digital media.
2. Characteristics of Media Art based on Lacans Registers and
Kittlers
Discourse Networks
The social importance of media is rising as it continually
changes its form with
historical events and technological advancements. Linear and
diachronic theories
about media therefore can contribute to understanding human
history and modern
society, but especially the phenomenological problems of
communications between
men, and between man and art.
Because it relates to discourse, theory of media is a valuable
methodology to analyze
the aspect of art form. This study takes as theoretical
background Friedrich A.
Kittlers discussion of the discourse networks of the 1900s in
connection to Lacans
Registers.
Kittler argued that films, typewriters, and gramophones in the
1900s started to
replaced the recording function of writings. Stating that Media
determine our
situation, Kittler considers media as an extension of man. In
Kittlers view, the
purpose of studying aesthetics was to determine the corporeality
of the organs of
human perception. Like Lacan, Kittler considered the subject to
be dependent on the
object, and thought human perception formed an interface with
physical reality.
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34
Therefore, media always existed prior to aesthetics. With this
in mind, Kittler
connects the three digital technologies of the 1900s, the film,
typewriter, and
gramophone with Lacans three registers; the Imaginary, the
Symbolic, and the Real.
Kittlers theory was creative for it reinterpreted the
subconscious and the conscious
human mind with media.
Lacans three registers are the Imaginary which is associated
with the Mirror
Phase, the Symbolic created of language and symbols, and the
Real which is a world
that exists outside the other two registers. Kittler connects
Lacans three registers with
the digital technologies of the 1900s- films that are a
reproduction of disconnected
images, typewriters that changed writing tools and deconstructed
the way of thinking
and the gramophone which recorded and reproduced not only sound
but also noise.
Kittler explains the correlation between each of the devices and
Lacans three
registers.
Only the typewriter provides a writing which is a selection from
the finite and
ordered stock of its keyboard. The typewriter literally
illustrates what Lacan
shows in terms of the antiquated letter-box. In contrast to the
flow of
handwriting, here discrete a elements separated by spaces are
placed side by
side. The symbolic has the status of block letters. Films was
the first to store a
moving double in which men, as opposed to all other primates,
misrecognize
their bodies. That is to say that the imaginary has the status
of cinema. And the
phonograph was the first to fix what is being produced by our
larynx as noise
before any semiotic order or semantic units. To obtain pleasure,
Freud's patients
need no longer want the good of the philosophers, they just have
to babble. The
realparticularly in the talking cure of psychoanalysishas the
status of
phonography.
This study adapts Kittlers theory by setting Imaginary-film,
Symbolic-typewriter, and Real-Gramophone as analytical tools.
The cross between
psychoanalysis and Media Theory can be a complementary
methodology that reflects
both the essence and the form in analysis of the internal and
external characteristics of
Media Art.
Set as analytical frameworks, Imaginary-film,
Symbolic-typewriter, and
Real-Gramophone are each divided into four levels - formation,
development,
conversion, and representation - from which symmetrical elements
that determine
characteristics are derived. comparatively organizes the
elements at each
level of the three frameworks.
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35
Level Elements based on
Lacans Three Registers and Kittlers 1900 Discourse Networks
Level Imaginary-Film Symbolic-Typewrite
r Real-Gramophone
Formation Crack-Fragment Arbitrariness
-Machinery Lack-Veiled
Development Separation-Capture Splitting
-Restriction Touch-Collision
Conversion Identification/Alienatio
n Serial/Cutting
Repression
-Deconstruction Fantasy-Transcendence
Representation Illusion/Virtuality Otherness
-Communication Trauma-Uncanny
Firstly, the Imaginary-Film framework have elements of
Crack-Fragment at
the level of formation, Separation-Capture in the level of
development,
Identification/Alienation-Serial/Cutting at the conversion
level, and
Illusion-Virtuality at the reproduction level, reflecting the
splitting and alienation
of the incomplete body image in Mirror Theory, and how images of
reality are
disconnected.
Lacan argued that because language is a condition of the
subconscious, the
subconscious, like language, is structured. The Symbolic
explains the superiority of
the signifier over the signified based on this Lacanian concept
of the subconscious.
The Symbolic, when linked with the typewriter that represents
the world of machinery,
shows the deconstruction process of the mind and the
consciousness, and thus possess
elements of Arbitrariness-Machinery in the formation level,
Splitting-Reconstruction in development,
Repression-Deconstruction; in conversion,
and Otherness-Communication in the reproduction level. Lastly,
in existence prior to
language, the Real is a realm of the residual and the essential
that cannot exist nor be
incorporated into the Imaginary. The Real corresponds with the
gramophones
attributes as a medium, recording and reproducing inaudible
noise. Therefore, in the
Real-Gramophone framework can be identified elements of
Lack-Veiled in the
formation level, Touch-Collision at the development level,
Fantasy-Transcendence
at the conversion level, and Trauma-Uncanny at the reproduction
level.
In the analysis of Media Art based on the three frameworks, the
following
characteristics are identified. Firstly, in all the elements at
each level of the
Imaginary-Film can be determined a characteristic of
intersubjectivity due to the
double subject of artist and consumer in Media Art. From all
elements of the
Symbolic-Typewriter can be derived the characteristic of
interaction based on a
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36
relationship-oriented structure of the writer, media, and
consumer. Lastly, all elements
in the Real-Gramophone indicate a regression instinct driven by
the repeated desire
to realize through art creation.
Having derived through the analytical frameworks the three major
characteristics of
Media Art, which are intersubjectivity due to double subject,
interaction through
relationship-oriented structure, and regression instinct based
on repeated desire, we
then move to discuss each of the terminologies and their
theoretical grounds.
1) Intersubjectivity due to the Double Subject
The intersubjectivity of Media Art results from the power given
to the consumer
as much as the artist. The artist of Media Art stays open to
consumer interference,
without precluding a conclusion of the work. This is partially
because Media Art is a
genre that cannot exist without consumers, as it inherits the
characteristics of its
predecessor, the Mass Media, and also because it is
characterized by
intersubjectivity. That the artist postulates consumer
interjections in the art work
prior to the production, means that the artist recognizes the
consumer as an
intersubjective subject. Thus the consumers also naturally
contributes to the
completion of the art.
The function of double subject through images in Imaginary-Film
is equally
manifested in Media Art between the artist and the consumer or
between media, with
monitor images as the medium. As we go through the four levels
from formation to
reproduction of the Imaginary-Film, in all elements appears the
double subject. The
double subject would expand to multi subjects, with the
relationship between the self
and the subject, the fragmented body and the mirror image as a
whole, the director
and the camera, and the audience. Such analysis of Media Art
shows that the artist and
the consumer gain an intersubjectivity by playing an independent
role towards the
medium.
2) Interaction through Relationship-Oriented Structure
The elements of Arbitrariness-Machinery,
Splitting-Restriction,
Repression-Deconstruction and Otherness-Communication all have
a
relationship-oriented structure. Language of the Symbolic
encompass relationships
from that of splitting and repression created between the
signifier and the signified, to
the human relationship based on otherness. On the other hand,
the typewriter
formulates a relationship-oriented structure of arrangement and
deconstruction within
a limited special restriction, the keyboard.
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37
Each level element of the Symbolic-typewriter show a
relationship-oriented
structure between the artist and consumer, and between the
medium and consumer.
This relationship-oriented structure operates to support
interaction within Media Art,
and makes possible communications not simply between man but
also between art
and human, media and human, and technology and human.
Interaction or interactivity is often provided as the main
characteristic of Media
Art or digital media. But this paper is differentiated by
extending beyond simple
conceptualization, and identifying the interaction through
relationship-oriented
structure, using Lacans three registers and Kittlers media
characteristics. The
relationship-oriented structure of the Symbolic-Typewriter
operates as a grounds for
interaction between the artist and consumer, and the art and
consumer.
3) Regression Instinct based on Repeated Desire
The instinct to regress towards abstract reality such as
pleasure or death, as
confirmed in multiple cases, is an original character of the
natural man. In his analysis
of ancient religious remains such as the complex spiral
structure of temples,
pilgrimage to holy sites, the heroic travels in search or golden
hair, gold apples, and
elixir, and the wanders in mazes, Mircea Eliade remarks on the
perpetual and circular
tendency of man to move from death to live, from the meaningless
to the real and
eternal. Gilbert Durand who described the moon as a measurement
of time and
promise of eternal recurrence stated that the philosophy of Moon
is a perspective of
dramatical rhythm created by the alternation between contrasts
such as life and death,
and that the manifestation of cycles can be discovered in all
history and all customs.
Tanehisa argues that the essence of the human mind is to define
the self and
perpetually repeat a cycle of retreating within oneself while
simultaneously exploring
the external. Only through this power of the mind could humanity
rediscover the
center it had lost. The internal mind has a regression instinct
continued through a
cycle of desiring to fill the missing void.
The regression instinct is an important instinct of man, and is
an element in the
Real-Gramophone framework. The human desire for the Real, which
deals with
death drive and jouissance, continually circulates through the
elements of
Lack-Veiled, Tuch-Collision, Fantasy-Transcendence, and
Trauma-Uncanny. The analysis of the elements of the
Real-Gramophone show
that the repeated human desire circulating to meet the repressed
reality is realized and
manifested in works of art. Media Art, therefore, is a genre
that expresses regression
instinctual desire through the Lacanian process of realizing
artistic sublimation.
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38
Each of the registers and their elements provide characteristics
of Media Art based
on the structural phenomenon within the Imaginary-Film,
Symbolic-Typewriter,
and Real-Gramophone frameworks. The three characteristics of
Media Art derived
from the structural phenomenon within the three frameworks can
be organized as in
. To summarize, the double subject of Imaginary-Film in Media
Art forms
an intersubjectivity of the artist and the consumers with art as
the medium. The
relationship-oriented structure of the Symbolic-Typewriter
fosters interaction
between man and media in Media Art. Lastly, Media Art is an art
genre that realizes
the regression instinct of man based on the repeated desire
within the
Real-Gramophone.
Characteristics of Media Art based on Registers and Discourse
Networks
3. Active Transition from Media Art to Cultural Contents
Based on the three characteristics of Media Art identified using
Lacans three
registers and Kittlers 1900 Discourse Networks, this section
aims to theoretically
expand Cultural Contents by examining how Media Art can be
applied to Cultural
Contents.
Firstly, Media Arts intersubjectivity from the double subject of
the
Imaginary-Film framework, correlates to the issue of subject of
Cultural Contents.
It is a question of how double subject and intersubjectivity
manifests in the various
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39
genres of Cultural Contents. The issue of subject is relevant in
the entire process of
Cultural Contents planning, production, distribution, and
enjoyment, relating to
position and function of the intersubjective subject within
Cultural Contents.
Media Arts interaction through relationship-oriented structure
in the
Symbolic-Typewriter framework can be linked with the issue of
transformation of
Cultural Contents, primarily represented in OSMU (One Source
Multi Use). Currently,
multiple forms of Cultural Contents products have been
distributed through various
media, and there is especially serious discussion over
transmedia storytelling. As
Media Art expands the area of media, this study addresses the
transformation issue of
Cultural Contents as well.
Media Arts last characteristic, regression instinct based on
repeated desire analyzed
in the Real-Gramophone framework, demonstrates the deep-rooted
desire for
constant expression through art and culture. Regression instinct
therefore can be
associated with the enjoyment of Cultural Contents, and allows
suggestions on the
convergence of art and technology, or more specifically, the
role of Media Art as a
mode of Cultural Contents.
below shows how the characteristics of Media Art are related to
Cultural
Contents. Media Arts intersubjectivity correlates to the subject
of Cultural Contents,
interaction to transformation, and regression instinct to
enjoyment.
Active Transition from Media Art to Cultural Contents
The problems of subject, transformation, and enjoyment of
Cultural Contents are
as following.
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40
First is the relation between Media Arts intersubjectivity in
the Imaginary-Film
and the subject problem of Cultural Contents. In both Media Art
and Cultural
Contents, the double subject - the artist and the consumer-
function as intersubjective
subjects.
Secondly, interaction in Media Arts correlates to Cultural
Contents transformation.
This part addresses the current trends to commercialize Media
Art and examines
phenomena of Cultural Contents that further invigorate
interaction, followed by a
discussion whether the commercialization of Media Art and the
commercial viability
of Cultural Contents can function complementarily.
Thirdly, Media Arts regression instinct analyzed in the
Real-Gramophone
framework can be extended to the enjoyment of Cultural Contents.
Thus we discuss
the convergence between Cultural Contents and art- in other
words, the possibility of
Digital Art as a mode of Cultural Contents.
4. Expanding the Area of Cultural Contents
This part deals with the expansion of Cultural Contents in two
parts. First is
expanding the Humanities understanding of the Cultural Contents
concept, in
reflection to the previously provided characteristics of Media
Art. The other is a
proposal on the functions of, as a mode of Cultural Contents,
art including Media Art.
1) An expanded Concept of Cultural Contents
While media is an exteriority of Cultural Contents, the
aforementioned
intersubjective subject, transformation through interaction, and
the enjoyment towards
regression instinct are the substantive material of
human-centric Cultural Contents. In
other words, reflecting the three correlation between Media Art
and Cultural Contents
leads to a conceptual expansion of Cultural Contents.
Comparative analysis of Cultural Contents and Media Art shows
that firstly both
areas are actions conducted by humans as the primary self. Both
ultimately pursue
beauty, using media as a tool of expression. Also, art as a
social product inherits from
past trends and yet its simultaneous changes indicate a
contemporaneity. Thus art is
similar to the contemporaneity of Cultural Contents shown in its
combinations of
tradition and modernity.
As such, the properties of Cultural Contents are very similar to
those of art, or
Media Art, necessitating a Humanities-based definition of
Cultural Contents that
includes the general concept of art. Moreover, the defining of
Cultural Contents
should fulfill basic components required in any other
definitions and
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41
conceptualizations, notably, the subject of the production
activity, the medium of
distribution and its function, and the purpose of action. With
such a definition, the
concept of Cultural Contents can be expanded based on its
attributes of intersubjective
subject, transformation for interaction, and regression
instinctive enjoyment.
Firstly, the producer of Cultural Contents is an intersubjective
subject, related to
the intersubjectivity of Media Art by its double subject. This
is a shift from the
original definition of human-centric singular concept, to a
double subject of both the
artist and the consumer. In addition, it is also a discussion on
the contributive role of
the development of digital media and the involvement of
consumers to Cultural
Contents. Addressing the double subject in defining the concept
of Cultural Contents
would allow perception of the consumer to change from a passive
actor to a more
active subject in this age and era of digital media.
Secondly, in consideration of the media that delivers Cultural
Contents and their
functions, the concept of Cultural Contents needs to involve the
transformation of
media for interaction. This is interconnected to the
intersubjective subject, as
transformation for interaction are typically commercial
strategies that aim to maintain
consumer loyalty. Cases of transformation for active
participation of consumers will
only diversify and thus should not be neglected when
conceptualizing Cultural
Contents.
Lastly, the purpose of producing Cultural Contents as a cultural
product lies
within the human instinct to enjoy pleasure. Linked to Media
Arts regression instinct
based on repeated desire, regression instinctual enjoyment is
closely tied to artistic
properties. The regression instinct towards pleasure directly
relates to the
sublimination that Lacan spoke of art. Inversely, sublimination
in art is interpretable
in Cultural Contents as an aspect of enjoyment that fulfills the
desire for pleasure.
Therefore, the purpose of Cultural Contents as a cultural
product is correlated to the
purpose of art creation, and thus the concept needs to
incorporate such artistic nature.
Considering the above material, a Humanities expansion of the
Cultural Contents
concept would provide the definition: cultural product for
enjoyment of pleasure
through interactive media transformation, for by the artist and
the consumers.
2) Expanding Domains of Cultural Contents
To examine the grounds and reasons why a genre of art can
function as a form of
Cultural Content, we must first focus on current phenomena
within art (including
Media Art) and examine the characters of Cultural Contents in
art.
Firstly, modern art tends to be media-oriented. Art that lay
heavy meaning and
emphasis on visuality such as paintings and objects continue to
influence modern pop
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42
culture. As most consumers are accustomed to visual media, pop
culture mostly deals
with televisions, computers, and smart devices. The tendency to
be media-oriented in
pop culture is even more prominent in Digital Art. Of the
multiple applications that
can be accessed through the internet on websites or smart
devices, many have the
characteristics of Media Art. In an era of digital media, all
media develop through
interaction, and their interfaces are being integrated. Media
Art no longer is just a
imagined expression that reproduces nonexistent images; it is
also used as a technical
tool to cognize the real through the virtual.
Secondly, modern art is constantly expressed through the media
with a consistent
level of commercial viability. The best examples that embody the
commercial
viability of modern art would perhaps be Jeff Koons or Damien
Hirst. Their works are
used as advertisement images all around the world, winning both
commercial utility
and aesthetic achievement. In 2010, Koons and Hirst applied
their arts to automobile
design, and increased the effects of advertisement for a certain
car brand. The process
of gaining such commercial utility of art works is very similar
to that of Cultural
Contents. Famous modern artists, after gaining recognition,
create their own brands,
directly and indirectly managing the image of their works as
well as derivative
products.
Lastly, such tendency can be observed in the convergence of art
and Cultural
Contents. Games are a great example. Changes in modern art are
media-centric, but
games show artistic properties that now museums in many
countries display video
games. The Museum of Modern Art of New York City in November of
2012,
displayed more than 40 video games such as Pacman (1980), Tetris
(1984), Another
World (1991), and Mist (1993). (Pic. 1, 2). Art and games now
share commonalities,
dissolving borders and boundaries.
Left: Alexey Pajitnov,
Right: ric Chahi,
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43
It is well recognized that art films have properties of both art
and cultural contents.
Unlike movies that are filmed for commercial purposes and
popularity, art films
pursue aesthetic ideals through image and the directors idea.
There had already been
considerable opposition to Hollywoods dominance in the film
industry since the
1950s, and there is consistent interest in art films. An
exemplary art film would be the
Hungarian art film director Bela Tarrs (2011).
The long take technique used in almost all shorts or this movie
functioned to make the
audience participate in the directors ideas of human weakness
and the apocalypse.
Tarr Gogh
is a scene from in which the father (Janos Derzsi)
and daughter (Erika Bok) eat potatoes, their only source of
food. is Vincent
Van Goghs masterpiece, (1885). In the former, potatoes were
the
only source of sustenance due to a serious food shortage, and in
the latter, potatoes are
used as a subject matter representing the honest life and table
of the farmer. In each
art work, the potatoes carry a different symbolic meaning, but
the visualized images
of both the movie scene and the painting give similar vibes to
the viewer, possibly
because the image of the art film is similar to the aesthetic
impression of the painting,
in addition to the shared primary symbol of life sustenance of
the potato as a primary
stable food. Also, the consumers individual appreciation such as
Lacans Tuch or
Barts punctum of the farmers rough hands is replaced with a
metonymy of
Derzsis unsophisticated movements of peeling the hot potato.
The continuance of specific images based on the long take
technique, and the
background color, limited body motion in the film scene all
provide a similar image to
van Goghs work. The metonymic slide of the film image of the
father and daughter
eating potatoes into the painting of farmers eating potatoes is
delivered by the realistic
expressive technique to reproduce real image as is, in both
genres. Gogh wanted to
express the farmers eating potatoes with dirtied hands after a
hard days work, in his
masterpiece. Like Barts Studium of photos, both works do not
simply rely on the
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44
simplicity of the potato, but shift the focus to the rough
details of those eating, and
therefore is related to the heart-moving effect of Punctum.
5. Conclusion: A Proposal for a Mutually Reciprocal
Relationship
This study conducted a discussion on how Media Arts defining
characteristics,
register and medium, takes present in cultural contents.
Starting with an examination
into the relationship between Media Art and Cultural Contents
and then expanding the
concept of Cultural Contents, the discussion is one that
determines how various
genres of art can play a role in theorization of Cultural
Contents. More specifically,
the Humanities-based conceptualization of Cultural Contents to
include artistic
properties is an expansion of not only the concept but also
expression form,
contributing to the academic status and continuance of Cultural
Contents.
It is a reasonable surmise that various genres of art, including
Media Art, can
function as a form of Cultural Contents. Even so, most art
genres pursue aesthetic
value based on purity, and thus a overall acceptance of other
shared domains of
Cultural Contents, other than commercial viability, would be
difficult to achieve. The
reason to argue that Media Art and various art genres still can
function as a form of
Cultural Contents, lies in the fact that most cultural products
of modern society are
realized through media and such media-oriented character are
prominent in both art
and Cultural Contents. With further cutting-edge technology, it
is apparent and
obvious that more characteristics will be shared and
integrated.
Considering characteristics of Cultural Contents in art, Media
Art as a form of
Cultural Contents holds great potential to act as a bridge
between art and Cultural
Contents. Moreover, Media Art may become a mutually beneficial
operational tool to
move high arts towards popularization, and cultural contents
towards non-commercial
value creation.
References
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l'imaginaire, Dunod, Paris,
1992.
2. Eliade, Mircea, Le Mythe de l'ternel retour, ditions
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4. Kittler, Friedrich A., Optiche Medien: Berlin Lectures 1999,
translated by Anthony
Enns, Polity Press, 2010.
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45
5. _______, Gramophone, Film, Typewriter, translated by
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Panel: Exhibition and Performance
(LKKG03 | 10:30 a.m. 12:00 p.m. | 5 December 2015)
Chair: Nis Grn (Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan
University)
Representations of Hakka Women in the Museums of Hong Kong (Luca
Yau,
Department of History, Lingnan University)
A Study of Foreign Musical Performance Status and Implications
in Korea (Park
Hyunjoo, GS Department of Global Culture & Contents, Hankuk
University of
For