Weekly Response 7&8

Lauren Korany

During discussion, we were asked to take part in an exercise. Each of the class members folded a paper into four squares and drew images (or wrote words) in response to the prompt we were given. The page was passed to the right after each person did his or her response. The paper in which I have been assigned has one square that I have answered a prompt and the rest from 3 different individuals. As I was analyzing each square in depth, I noticed a sequence in the four squares. If you were to look at the squares as if you were reading a book (from left to right, then bottom left to right) you can see the pattern. The first square portrays a series of symbols. Symbols in themselves are hard to identify unless you know their context. The box is full of incoherent symbols. The second box reads “painful, headache”. Although this is not descriptive, it leads from the first square in an interesting manner. The over-bearing incoherent symbols have created “painful, headache”. This is a cause and effect sequence. The next square portrays a figure next to a pile of medication and drugs. The pile is quite large. The figure also appears to be highly “influenced” by the drugs. He has dilated eyes and a huge smile, with his arms triumphantly thrown up into the air. The square transitions into the fourth square that is taken up by the first work “SMILE”. The box is followed by a series of other words but the first is the largest, bolded, and most prominent word in the box. In my eyes, the sequence follows as; overwhelming amount of incoherent symbols (logos, advertisements)--mental pain--solution: mental diagnosis and drugs--relief. This is a great indicator of what Lasn sees in consumer society. Over-advertising causes the population to become over-stimulated, so they seek escape in medication and mind-alterations. This is the psychological baggage from consumerism.

In the Chapters Spring, Lasn introduces the term “Situationist.” (100-109) This group of people was the generations that defied the established order of society. Not only were the Dadaists included under this umbrella, but so were the anarchists, surrealists, automatists, fluxists, hippies, beats and visionaries (100). All of these groups had the same goal in common, to break away from the commercialism and everyday spectacle. Dada in itself was a cultural movement “that was based on the principles of deliberate irrationality, anarchy, and cynicism and the rejection of laws of beauty and social organization.” (Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature) They were taking the new route, just as Lasn points out. He uses the example of the Sex Pistols, a British punk band that had a hit called “Anarchy in the UK”. Even though these groups rose at different time periods, they countered and responded to the structures in which they lived.

After reading this chapter I felt inspired to take action on things I was passionate about. Lasn quotes Edward Abbey (117) saying, “Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul”. This really spoke to me. I realized that I had fallen into the habit of being passive, dreaming of solutions that I did not have the willpower to set into action. I suppose this would be the same fire that the Dadaists had felt at one point. I do not need to work under a group, but I have not been the prime example of an “activist” in the past. I used to feel that it was hopeless to try to change something, and even so, I did not know where to start.