| Open College of the Arts | |
| Tutor report |
| Student name | Lara Jobson | Student number | 519703 |
| Course/Module | UVC1 | Assignment number | 3 |
Overall Comments
Again a well collated and worked through set of exercises and assignment writing. It is clear that your reading is more in depth and this has enabled your reading of allegory and critical ideas to evolve. You are now evaluating complex information and dealing with it in a comprehensive and clear way. Your communication of some big ideas has developed as well as your discernment of visual material with which to work.
Feedback on assignment Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity
I have made some annotations on your document, some comments are below.
Assignment: Plato’s Cave is a difficult exploration in the sense that – as you noted- there are many correlations to the world today, so it is hard to discern a pathway through. However, you have, and have threaded your way through visual culture to reflect on various aspects that you have identified. It was good to see you referring to Michael Moore and indeed the comment …’If the prisoners are now free to become projectionist then maybe some people could use the media as a platform to enlighten others.’ Was a good summation of the earlier text, prior to the conclusion, well thought through and clearly had led from your research. I feel that your visual and cultural research has improved and become more curious (which is a good thing) reflecting in the discernment of your examples.
In the following example: The projectionists could be seen as those in power – governing bodies but also on a larger scale, capitalists and corporations who profit from our seduction of the images on the cave wall. Berry (2010 ) states that:’.. the information age floods our senses with endless imagery that we cannot avoid. The narrative has metamorphosed, however, the deceiving actors relating confusing information, for instance, no longer represent just our perceptual apparatus and reliance on convention but a corporate-sponsored, globalising, capitalist regime.’ The use of this long quote needed some opening out in your own terms, it is excellent to use the vital words of others but aim to make clear the use and value of the quote opening up this perceived shift before moving onto the next Para around Baudrillard’s argument and onwards.
In general we must, when introducing an example say clearly why that was used to illustrate the issue, the Chanel example was one such case, which you claim is fetishized but need to say how and in what ways this might be the case – and weave it into your critical observation- stay with it to expand on your good ideas.
I always think that it is interesting in the sense of gender to move from considering the intelligence and enlightenment of ‘men’ to the gendered shifts in our 21st Centuary visual culture and a necessary shift like this is better noted than not.
Returning to your text, it was good to see the reference to Martin Luther King and John Lennon- another good insight but one that needed expanding on, it was not enough to say that they were enlightened (even though we know what you mean) rather in this form of essay you need to say how and in what ways this manifested and continue to relate and use your ref back to Plato. It is a question of using some word count to open up the good ideas and build the line of reasoning- in this essay it being the validity to today or not.
It was good to see you looking at the differing viewpoints and gaining confidence in exploring. Overall a good account that just needs a little further writing into to explore the key concepts fully. Your evaluation and discernment of them is good. My advice would be to highlight them and just question if they are fully opened up and explored (as much as you can) and if not take a little time to make the careful adjustments. Well done.
Exercises. You have worked through some testing ideas and have come to your own points of view, I particularly appreciated the note on Emerson’s understanding of Man as being of nature not set apart from it- in a sense if only we had listened! The ‘poetics’ of his work is an area that I think you might become more interested in, it goes back to Aristotle and ‘a poetic’ is often a form of philosophical reading within contemporary art practices, often stemming from Gaston Bachelard’s seminal text: A Poetics of Space, which if you haven’t read it before I would advise you to. Aristotle assumed that a poetic gave underlying truths to us, whilst histories deals with facts, which are merely versions.
General Comment: One aspect that is developing well within your exercises, is the notion that you need to define what something might be- this will stand you in good stead; it can be confusing at times because definitions can be multiple and can shift- so when you have defined something look out for the mutability of it, and note these shifts as you come amongst them.
In the exercise about Art remaining a distinct category, you note your reworking of it, and you have managed to make a coherent unpacking of the complex question. The later half of dealing with Aesthetics, Morals/ethics and the social expectation of Art is less developed but you have come to a clear point of view that Art is ‘best seen’ as a ‘species’ of Visual Culture- which your reading and re-working led you to.
I enjoyed your collation of meta-paintings and there was a confidence in this exercise that was good to see. Your application of the notion of a Meta painting evolved from the obvious into a more thoughtful set of ideas of what Meta Painting can be- Dali’s image reaching for a ‘mise en abine’ taking us far beyond any comfort in looking. Well done.
In the Whiteread House piece, the exposition of the indexical sign is clear, you have steered a path through this well. One small thing is that you point to the politic of the work but don’t really contextualise this enough so as to situate the making of the work. It is useful sometimes to use tangential research to help us, so don’t be reticent to do this in a brief way (so as not to take up huge portions of an essay) in the future.
Sketchbooks Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity
Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical essays Context
Great to see some of your ideas developing well in the sketchbook, it will really help the synthesis of what you’re finding out and help inform your creative practice.
Suggested reading/viewing Context
Poetics, Aristotle.
Poetics of Space Gaston Bachelard
Harrison, C. and Wood, P. (eds.) (2002) Art in Theory 1900–2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Oxford: Blackwell. A useful go to text.
Pointers for the next assignment
- At the next assignment, please send me the assignment as word docs.
Well done, keep the impetus up now, you are building on your research and critical skills.
| Tutor name: | Michele Whiting |
| Date | 6th June 2020 |
| Next assignment due | 27th July 2020 Please contact me to confirm date/time, it would be good to meet online for a tutorial if possible. |
Response to Feedback
I was very pleased with the feedback from my tutor. My exercises were well received and I was pleased that I had managed to organise my assignment in an effective way that allowed it to read better.
I shall in future ensure that any long quotes are carefully chosen and ensure that I write into and out of the quote to make it relevant and valuable. I can now see that sometimes I use examples to illustrate a point but do not fully explain or expand upon the ideas surrounding these examples. I shall ensure that when using examples I will fully explore how this example validates a theory or an idea.
I have amended my assignment (underlined below) based on the comments from my tutor.
Assignment 3 amended
Amended sections are underlined and references have been added in line with feedback from Part 4
Read Plato’s account of the Allegory of the Cave and say whether and why you think it is valid today.
Introduction
‘The Allegory of the Cave’ was written by Plato as part of his collective books ‘The Republic’ approximately 2300 years ago in the height of the Greek’s classical age. The allegory is relevant today in many ways. It highlights the ability of the individual to become an enlightened being and what that might mean for society. It also offers a fresh and unique perspective on certain aspects of human societies as well as society as a whole.
Plato’s allegory of the Cave
At https://www.learning-mind.com/plato-allegory-of-the-cave/
accessed 14/04/2020
In a dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon, Plato describes a cave with men shackled facing the cave wall so that they cannot move their bodies or their heads. Behind them and higher up, a fire burns whilst other men carry in front of it objects that cast a shadow on the cave wall that the shackled men can see. The men name these shadows through agreement and consensus and believe them to be real as they know no different. When one man is freed from his shackles, he turns and is dazzled by the fire light only to be confused by the objects he is seeing. When leaving the cave he struggles to see the things clearly. The sunlight is too bright to see so he starts to look at shadows and reflections and then the stars at night before finally seeing the sun and its true nature. If that man were to feel compelled to return to the cave and try to tell the prisoners about the real world outside, he would be ridiculed and possibly killed for his delusional behaviour.
Education and enlightenment
Plato intended the allegory to refer to and criticise the education of the individual and the masses. ‘Compare our nature in respect of education and its lack to such an experience as this.'(Plato B.C.E 517:514) The allegory places the individual in a passive state, accepting and unquestioning what they see. In today’s world this could be our socially constructed reality and the acceptance of institutional facts and belief systems (Searle 1995:2). The descent out of the cave was a descent out of ignorance and into enlightenment. Plato saw this as leaving the world of the material forms (copies) and into the realm of the mind and the ideal, the world of the philosopher. Today we could see this as an ascent into a bigger perspective or an awakening of a deeper understanding of reality beyond what we are presented with from birth.
The freed prisoner ‘compelled to stand up suddenly and turn his head around’ (Plato, B.C.E 517:515) would be turning away from an illusion and confronting the real world. The light from the fire signifying the artificially created light and knowledge and the light from the sun signifying pure truth and light. The individual ‘..in doing all this felt pain.. and was unable to discern the objects whose shadows he formerly saw..'(Plato, B.C.E 517:515) The experience of awakening to a more truthful reality would be confusing and painful.
In the film The Matrix,(1990) Neo awakes in the real world of the machines struggling to see with painful eyes. He ascended out of the ‘cave’ after swallowing the red pill enabling him to leave the illusionary world of the matrix and enter the grim real world of the machines.
There are many individuals who have freed themselves from the chains of the cave. John Lennon and Martin Luther King could be seen to have rejected the reality that was presented to them and enlightened themselves outside the cave – whether this was in regard to racial inequality or peaceful living. They questioned the fixed reality presented to them and sought to make changes through protests and demonstrations. When they returned to the cave to enlighten and liberate others they faced tough opposition – ‘Would he not provoke laughter, and would it not be said of him that he had returned…. with his eyes ruined.. And if it were not possible to lay hands on and to kill the man who tried to release them..would they not kill him? (Plato, B.C.E 517:517). Both John Lennon and Martin Luther King were assassinated.
Unless there is a strong enough incentive for others to turn their heads and discover a new reality, those returning to the cave are seen as a threat. For Plato, the majority of ordinary people only see the material surface of reality and do not see through it to the divine forms themselves. Outside the cave could be described as an encounter with the ‘immaterial sublime’. Emmerson called this seeing with the ‘transparent eyeball’ a moment of insight and transcendence (Emmerson 1883). ‘..the soul is able to endure the contemplation of essence and the brightest region of being.’ ( Plato, B.C.E 517:518) Religious figures, such as Jesus (who was crucified) and the Buddha, could be seen to have had this moment of insight.
Mass Media and Technology
The images and shadows cast on the cave wall could be regarded as a metaphor for the mass media via technology in today’s world. We are inundated by images displayed through screens that we view via phones, laptops, tv’s and tablets. We name these images and apps – facebook, tv documentaries, newspaper articles and they reinforce our reality. Even the fictional content reinforces our reality or world view. ‘Then in every way such prisoners would deem reality to be nothing else than the shadows of the artificial objects.’ (Plato, B.C.E 517:515). Baudrillard(1983) describes this as the age of the ‘hyperrreal’ The artificial has become more real than the real itself.
‘Having never left the cave, and having no experience of that larger extra-cavern universe,the cave dwellers naively experience shadows on the wall as actuality, appearances as the real thing, these mere semblances as the ‘really real‘ (Plantiga, 1996 cited in Allen & Handley 2018:368).
The flickers of the shadows have been replaced by the flickering of the screen.
Screens are everywhere in today’s society – TV’s, phones and tablets reside in houses and public buildings. The world viewed and experienced through the screen is not a true reality. Reality shows are scripted or contrived with unstable personalities to create tension. Fame, celebrity, the illusion of the ideal relationship are not what they are perceived to be. Facebook pages are filled with only the beautiful, exciting aspects of our lives -never the nitty-gritty. Plato’s corrupt copy (media) has lost connection with the original. In the instance of journalism,the audience gains second hand information through various sources – tv news, papers, social medias that are likely to be skewed, have information omitted or have vested interests.
Consumer society
Who might the men or puppeteers be who carry the objects past the fire to cast the shadows? ‘See also, then, men carrying past the wall implements of all kinds..‘ (Plato, B.C.E 517:514) They can perhaps be best understood by looking at the wider structure of today’s society. We are living in a global capitalist society. We are all consumers, producers and some of us are profiteers. The mass media reinforces this status quo. The projectionists could be seen as those in power – governing bodies but also on a larger scale, capitalists and corporations who profit from our seduction of the images on the cave wall. Berry states that:
‘.. the information age floods our senses with endless imagery that we cannot avoid. The narrative has metamorphosed, however, the deceiving actors relating confusing information, for instance, no longer represent just our perceptual apparatus and reliance on convention but a corporate-sponsored, globalising, capitalist regime.’ (Berry, 2010:74)
Our emotions are deliberately manipulated – desires and needs exploited for the purposes of capitalist machine. Baudrillard (1981) argues that the object has now entered the realm of the fetish. The commodity no longer has exchange value but now has pure symbolic value. Consumer objects now have symbolic meaning. Adverts played on mass media symbolise happiness, success, popularity etc. The relationship to the real has now become a simulation. Examples of the shadows displayed on the cave wall could be the perfume advert in Fig 6. which symbolises confidence, attractiveness and beauty. Qualities that the capitalist machine exploits and displays in an attempt to seduce the consumer.
Despite ‘having their legs and necks fettered from childhood, so that they remain in the same spot, able to look forward only,’ (Plato, B.C.E 517:514) individuals in the global consumer village believe that they are free. The illusion allows for freedom of choice – what products to buy, what films to watch etc. to create a better life. The ‘projectionists continue to reinforce a consumer reality’ that reinforces the capitalist ideology (O’Neill 1991 cited in Berry 2010:4).
How does one remove the shackles and exit the cave? Perhaps some people become dissatisfied with the illusion or possibly another person who has returned to the cave influences them somehow.
Critique of Plato’s cave
It is possible to examine Plato’s cave and argue that it is not quite valid today and would require some adaptation to make sense of modern society. McLuhan(2005 cited in Berry 2010:83) argues that prisoners are no longer shackled in contemporary society. The cave can be seen as the entirety of reality and contains different levels of truths. There is no outside and the cave remains sealed. Individuals can move about, look at different walls, interact with and even become the projectionists. Anyone can partake in creating the shadows through media such as youtube and facebook. If the prisoners are now free to become projectionist then maybe some people could use the media as a platform to enlighten others. For example, the director Michael Moore has directed many films that unveil realities such as the American health care system. Unfortunately this form of enlightening without leaving the cave relies on individuals choosing to look at the cave wall showing Micheal Moore’s projection.
Conclusion
Plato’s allegory of the cave is a timeless observation of human nature that illustrates the potential for human enlightenment and the attainment of a bigger and wiser perspective. It’s wisdom and insight allow for a deeper reflection of aspects of society (such as education) and the wider society as whole. However, slight modifications to the allegory could illustrate how modern society allows for the flexibility of human roles( within the cave) via mass media to reinforce the global capitalist system we live in today.
Reflections
It was very difficult to plan a coherent argument to this question. There were a lot of examples that illustrated how the allegory is relevant today and a whole section regarding the avant-garde artists was removed to respect the word count. The use of sub-headings was used in an attempt to place ideas in relevant sections. It was more effective to analyse the allegory starting off with the individual, and then move outwards to sections of society such as education and media before using the allegory to understand society as a whole.
List of Illustrations
Fig 1. Plato’s allegory of the cave.
At https://www.learning-mind.com/plato-allegory-of-the-cave/
accessed 14/04/2020
Fig 2. The Matrix (1990) Film still, Warner Bros. At https://retrophaseshift.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Red-Pill-Blue-Pill.png (Accessed 14/04/2020)
Fig 3. John Lennon and Yoko Ono’ bed-in for peace Amsterdam (1969) At https://time.com/5557089/lennon-ono-bed-in/ (Accessed 14/04/2020)
Fig 4. Apps available on the modern mobile phone. At http://blogs.creighton.edu/cah17654/the-advancement-of-technology/ (accessed 15/04/2020)
Fig 5. Advert for Coco Chanel. An example of consumer fetishism. At https://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/celebrity-news/keira-knightley-channels-her-inner-bond-girl-in-this-glam-new-chanel-video-1-91232 (Accessed 15/04/2020)
Bibliography
Allen, D. & Handley, A. (2018) ‘The most Photographed Barn in America:Simulacra of the Sublime in American Art and Photography,‘ Text Matters, Vol. 8 No. 8, 2018 At https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328672957_The_Most_Photographed_Barn_in_America_Simulacra_of_the_Sublime_in_American_Art_and_Photography (Accessed 16/04/2020)
Baudrillard, J. (1981) Simulacra and Simulations From Jean Baudrillard, Selected Writings, ed. Mark Poster (Stanford; Stanford University Press, 1988). At https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5ae3/a24f445c44655a14da3048254885e3d13373.pdf?_ga=2.227913885.1050673049.1584982660-1385428089.1579533044 (Accessed 16/04/2020)
Berry, G. (2010) ‘The Mythic Element of Mass Media and its Relation to Plato’s Cave’ Journal of Media And Communication ANZCA Special Ed. (April): 72-85 At https://www.researchgate.net/publication/44098969_The_Mythic_Element_of_Mass_Media_and_Its_Relation_to_Plato’s_Cave (Accessed 16/04/2020)
Deleuze, G. & Krauss, R. (1983) ‘Plato and the Simulacrum’ October, Vol.27 (Winter, 1983) pp.45-56. The MIT Press At https://www.s ’emanticscholar.org/paper/Plato-and-the-Simulacrum-Deleuze-Krauss/c429e1129e1c341d6b933e4da5f163b934765b48e9 (Accessed 16/04/2020)
Emerson, R.W. (1836) Nature At https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/nature.html (Accessed 16/04/2020)
Kleiner, H. ‘Allegory of the Cave’ (2014) Utah State University lecture, [online video] at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBPd7getIcM (Accessed 16/04/2020)
Koch, A. & Elmore, R. (2006) ‘Simulation and Symbolic Exchange: Jean Baudrillard’s Augmentation of Marx’s Theory of Value’ Politics and Policy 34 (3) 556-575September, 2006. At https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/asu/f/Koch_Andrew_2006_Simulation_and_symbolic.pdf (Accessed 16/04/2020)
Radzikowski S. (2011) ‘Media Metaphor in Plato’s Republic’ At http://drshem.com/2011/08/20/media-metaphor-in-platos-republic/ (Accessed 16/04/2020)
Sadler, G.B. ‘Intro to Philosophy: Plato’s Republic Book 7’ (2011) Marist College Lectures.[online video] At https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBPd7getIcM (Accessed 16/04/2020)
Shorey, P. (1963) ‘Plato:The Allegory of the Cave translated’ from Plato: Collected Dialogues, ed. Hamilton & Cairns, Random House At https://yale.learningu.org/download/ca778ca3-7e93-4fa6-a03f-471e6f15028f/H2664_Allegory%20of%20the%20Cave%20.pdf (Accessed 16/04/2020)Posted bylarasocaPosted inAssignment 3, AssignmentsLeave a commenton Assignment 3EditAssignment 3Lara’s Understanding Visual culture (Visual Studies 1) blog, Blog at WordPress.com.
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