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Consumer Capitalism and the Construction of Desire . Brief History of the Commodity Image-System . Earlier, books produced by hand-writing or by hand-engraving sheets of wood, page by page. Gutenberg Press - 1436 moveable type
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Earlier, books produced by hand-writing or by hand-engraving sheets of wood, page by page NEW271Y
Gutenberg Press - 1436 • moveable type • Gutenberg’s invention changed the ancient world into the modern world NEW271Y
16th-19th Century • Shakespeare - 1593 (Venus & Adonis) • paper banknote – Sweden, 1666 • economics, transportation, crime, design of clothing & equipment NEW271Y
Affects of availability of books • languages consolidated • European nations & nationalities formed • colonization & imperialism • economic system shifted to mercantile • new class formation: the bourgeois, middle, or merchant class • educational institutions NEW271Y
Enlightenment • All forms of life changed, & all forms of knowledge changed, including science, literature, philosophy, religion • change in notion of identity & individuality – COGITO NEW271Y
Industrial Revolution • change in modes of production • wages – consumption • Power Press • London Times - 30,000, 1837 • imported goods NEW271Y
Modern Capitalism • 2 major factors • newsprint & paper-producing industry • market economy • modern capitalism • Company shares - stock market • Constant growth NEW271Y
1880s: Advertising • first as information tool - “the reason why” - verbal • 1920s turning point NEW271Y
Modern Magazine Advertising • commodity image-system • produced, structured, designed & written around advertising • advertisers determine content • women’s magazines = commercials for make-overs • Bodies eroticised & colonised • every other part of life also equally marketing targets NEW271Y
Commodity Image-System • camera gives rise to commodity image-system • primacy of images (20th c.) - central to notions of individual identity & to structures of consciousness NEW271Y
mirror phase • construction of subjectivity • unified sense of self • identity • mirror / photographic image crucial for W • “Looking is not a neutral activity” • camera as extension of male gaze NEW271Y
aural to visual • displacement of the aural by the visual • Jhally: areas that used to be defined by auditory experience - now subordinated to regime of the visual - music videos • chasm between surface and reality NEW271Y
Intermission NEW271Y