Drunk passed out, Why women drink? (because it is fun), oil pastel and watercolor on paper, acrylic on canvas, 2015-
Based on images online and the reality how females are and become exploitable goods when intoxicated and how that reputation continues with no end. To my experience too when a woman is drunk attitudes change towards her, become negative or maybe they already were and now it is ok to show them and to hear I’ll be glad to abuse you, is a normal. In a group when this happens and nobody defends you, you can end up in a pretty bad place. Topic of talk changes immediately to sex when you are incoherent. Exploitation and abuse are so normal, people clearly see them as justified and she deserves what she gets. She did this to herself.
Politics of exploitation: When you are against exploitation as leftism originally is, you probably should understand what it is and means, like leftists today, do you even know what you are talking about? In art it looks they don’t. To have a glow of leftism makes you more desirable I understand. So next time you see a woman wasted, don’t treat her as garbage, it makes you garbage as well and it isn’t what decent people do, not even leftists. Someone got drunk, so what? That man got drunk but it is ok for him, it’s fun. Make sure drunkards don’t choke on vomit because choking on art is an option. Imagine it is still 2007 in many people’s minds.
What she deserves? It is true, I have a condition and it is called Fuck you. Dye yourself blonde, dye your hair blonde, change yourself completely is the message. It equals beauty. Be skinny and fit, it equals to what? Torture? What is it? Essentials to being beautiful is to be less and not aggressive, agreeable to a point you can’t say anything back, be nice so that you do not disturb and it is what it means to be a woman and behaving like one. How to be pleasant wearing Crazy Love the fragrance is a tightrope and you are under looking glass. The flaw is in you.
Beauty is subjective. It is when you are able to do what you want and be free? To stick penis into her mouth and make her choke, make her throw up as she should, die as she should, killed by penis in her mouth, mouth like a sewer. Beauty is in the image and you are not it. That is discussed, being disgusted by her feeling empowered by herself and taking that feeling away it is the right thing to do, she does not deserve to feel powerful.
HOW MANY FREEDOMS DO WE ALLOW OURSELVES TO HAVE? COULD IT BE CALLED INDULGING NONSTOP what we collectively do AND WAY TOO MUCH, BUT FOR HUMANS NOTHING IS TOO MUCH until it hurts? Going all the way to the deep end full speed is a fun way of looking at what we have ended up doing. Talk about freedoms is an interesting one. How about your fellow man and woman, are you accepting and non-judgmental to their endeavors, wishes and needs? Social norms may seem more accepting than they really are, even here in the open and free Nordic countries, which flow of refugees/immigrants is in part changing, we do say other than what we do and others have more freedoms than some. Muslims can have many issues especially what comes to how women dress and behave and how they think, Islam should take place here and be respected, which freedom and respect is too often much to ask. Respect doesn’t just fall on you anywhere. Freedom here too is such, that we can disrespect religions and make fun of them, all of them, that means critique them out loud and question. It is quite new a thing as blasphemy laws allow even art to disrespect the Holy or do they? Not so sure, since art is a religion kind of and ever so careful these days since Islamophobia is a thing. Islam cannot be critiqued at all. I don’t think so.
Art likes to support Muslims and Islam weirdly enough, so art is a safe space for the poor Muslims looking for peace and harmony. I just don’t know how much human rights you’ll find in the good old contemporary art and are their values Muslim proof? Maybe daylight is needed since even leftist ideals don’t really function there, so in that sense Muslim faith might be a right thing for the contemporary art scene to begin to see itself or the rest of us, otherwise religion is a far away world among perverts, abusers, bullshitters and opportunists, or hold on, maybe not. Jesus Christ!! To rebuild bombed cities would be a responsible thing to go and do, since responsibility is what freedom requires, right? That is what the left cries for, responsibility.
Female behavior is heavily monitored no matter how open and free we think we are, like look what she is wearing, she is too old over thirty. Women do think about the consequences and some what other people think, but boundaries must be pushed for thinking to evolve, just as religious feelings and sentiments must be challenged. Coming to the Northern Europe and think this wouldn’t be the case and we absorb Islam just because you say so and that is multiculturalism? Challenging Fine Art is just as dangerous as challenging religion, lots at stake like benefits and faces. They will destroy you, just try and poke some established power user. Female nipple being one interesting tender spot, get freaked out please. It is what catches the eye, isn’t it, but sexism is hard to do anything about. Enough is when someone says so, depending on who that person is, what is his/her authority, legality issues taken into consideration, right? What kind of legitimized victim position Muslims have and why, is a mystery to me. Freedom is what we want it to be, called our fundamental right and here it is very different in comparison to lots of other places. I don’t know how we see oppression having lived in such wealth, even lockdown is oppressive. We do not have freedom to destroy, but the so-called left thinks, it is fine since feelings are valid, important and all defining as are positions. Art the eternal and well-chosen on the side of the good supporting our mental well-being solving the biggest problems of humankind inside the white cube. Somebody throw a rock.
How much do we want to be free, let others be free the same way and is it an utopia, since we do dream about freedom quite much and fantasize freedom is something fantastic and up lifting and as it happens is easily taken away from us. What do we want from freedom is all the good and it is given, granted. Constructive or destructive freedom must be the question as we are also afraid of freedom. You can’t just go and do whatever.. You have the right to become an artist but.. but what, what but, I ask? There is no but. Men and women are definitely in different situation when freedoms are at play. How free art is I am still exploring and find it stuck to the old stuck-up. It is true women are in a hazardous place what comes to freedom and are hazardous themselves disturbing the peace and again hurting dear sacred feelings. Shouting my choice my body essentially is problematic and abortion is used as contraception, sadly, but. How much your choice impacts others must be asked and how much chosen pronouns must be in use by others and respected? Dictating is what narcissists do. Do whatever is what egoists do. Self-love and freedom somehow joined in with loathing.
It sounds the bestest thing, but we can’t handle freedom, freedom of others it seems, and it goes without saying we need many restrictions set for ourselves and for others to be safe and do the rational thing. Humans need to work with themselves and work in their lives to have stability and continuity and purpose. Life of an artist, the freedom illusion, which isn’t that free after all, is a perfect position to explore freedoms and what to do with little or nothing. Sex of mine makes it even more so. Safety being the weird contemporary bubble and demand for many people a necessity. No need to panic by flow of refugees/immigrants, by climate change, by war but be on guard. Is there somebody to catch you? Women have to think about safety all the time and plan for the catastrophe, which is just right round the corner. Allowing those who think differently and are different do and say freely, is oh so hard for the so-called left. Why do you like your circles so much? Are you afraid of something? Different can be dangerous just like in any middle class circle where shouting too loudly drunkenly is humiliating (look now she is drunk, we can harass her freely, is what freedom can also mean). There are too many freedoms, which is dangerous for democracy some think, for peaceful society and safety of those who like their bubbles. How can we handle the ultimate catastrophe when it hits?
Does social media threaten democracy since there are lots of people who are forbidden from using their platforms to speak on grounds they are themselves a threat and do hate speech? To speak hatefully is to say biology matters, sex is real and female body is very different to male body. The left fails, Trump wins. But even creativity needs strict rules and frames to evolve and grow and for us to be productive, how is it with free speech? I don’t need art system to control me. I feel they are the same thing, creativity finds its way as does free speech. It wouldn’t be creativity if it didn’t. Just don’t get discouraged by control freaks and people who can’t handle your opinions. Art and speak are restricted quite much in our free society. Somehow it looks like we don’t want freedom and don’t want to be free, only look like we are. Being able to travel I suppose, is the ultimate freedom experience for the contemporary human. Routines and everyday life kill freedom? Those who feel free to offend, because it opens up a flow of something, a battle, bring out the truth in stuck up places and poke fun and are absolutely necessary. Social media and its noise has made something to the speed and ways how we react, interact. Innovation there on micro level would be interesting to study and how societies get fractured and constructed again via internet and connection online, uniting people who wouldn’t have otherwise known of each other. Social media itself is democratizing. Activism today isn’t so much. It despises democracy and free speech.
Freedom the ultimate question, who is free and how should we define freedom we can accept and live with, more over who is the authority, who defines freedom of speech and how we speak, what is the right thing to say and why. What other can it mean than person is free to speak his/her mind everywhere if he/she wants without fear? To be able to say and do, express, we have to use consideration, supposedly we have lots of freedoms in Europe until we don’t. I don’t see it freedom to be monitored and be policed, that is restricting personal space and creating fear. Restricting freedoms has come to show in full through social media and pandemic, which entity SOME practices American idea of freedom, which we here in Europe need to consider as much as we can, but we are under the power of these massive companies. What does it mean and do we want to live by American ideals, movements and laws? Imperialism which big business is, not globalism to my mind, entertainment, intersectional feminism, neoliberalism, BLM, trans-ideology, penis is a female organ too accepted as such everywhere without criticism, because critics are silenced and everybody is afraid of losing everything. This culture is open to freedom to exploit, manipulate and rip of/ we are ready to be exploited, manipulated and get ripped of as a kind of constant and who is doing what in the end to the big issues we face. The user is left puzzled and without much means to influence on how one is used. Social media has opened up how addicted we can get and how easily manipulated we are. Freedom to think for yourself and weigh in on options gets easily lost, us silenced and banned. It is, you think you are doing the thinking, you think you are finding the best you. Social norms are slightly open in most of Europe, but people are freaked out by Poland and Hungary. Rise of the far-right happens when countries close their borders to immigrants from the Middle East? People also struggle to label things correctly and Nazis are everywhere now. Trump and white supremacy as well. Labelling Nazi a Nazi is to label a Holocaust denier, rightly so, who to my surprise continue spreading this horrible nonsense. How do falsehoods serve, we will see. Distributing disinformation, lies and simple falsehoods: freedom of speech is dangerous. Transphobic Nazi is pretty much anybody who objects to the lunacy of trans fanatics. We have to know better and totalitarianism didn’t only happen by Nazis. Polarization is stark and confusion about lots of things obvious. When talking about conservatives how many on the left wing think there are shades to the right? Media doesn’t favor such views. Defending women’s rights puts you easily to the conservative side and you will be shut out from social media and work, which could be almost a relief. Freedom is out there. Nazis give me the creeps, but they do make entertaining movies.. I mean, WW2 is the mother of all topics and one center piece of how post-modern Europe got made, changing clothes and stuff.
Foreword: With corrections on language and added thoughts in 2018. Revolution is a moving, evolving thing difficult to define, events are not enough, so what is? I am in hopes that mankind takes up with my plea and effort to rethink revolution the act anew. Humanitarian catastrophes and environmental disasters make the world move at frightening speed to destruction. I’m sure you have noticed. Has it hit your way already? Agreements to do something in ten years is ten years too late. And I am the tool here or am I a button? Revolutionary object ready to hit, instrumental feminism is not just jargon, right. Some people don’t know what hit them or will hit pretty soon. Later.
Abstract
Digging into concept, act and idea of revolution, which we all have constructed in our minds to mean a specific kind of event, maybe we take it for granted what revolution means and understand it plainly as an aggressive social political chaotic act. It is a mass event and making revolution is a necessity setting the world to understand the inevitability of change on attitude level, in action, on every possible level. Though we live in already revolutionized world it is an issue always constant and acute.
I have taken feminist perspective into idea and act of revolution, into changing the world more democratic and equal which work is done around the globe by many as we speak. What are the results of work of activists, dissidents and artists is being on display in social media and other media how things spread fast. My means in comprehending and making the phenomena and act of revolution are written text and art which both have an important role in making social change visible, worthy and active. Easily spreadable manifestos, columns, articles, slogans, songs, poems by which everybody can contribute and be heard. With this work I agitate people to do revolution of wisdom, it takes all of us. No one can and must not be excluded. Happenings of chain reactions for common cause await. Cause of and for us all is to end poverty, exploitation, suffering, abuse, ruling of liars who call themselves bankers, politicians, businessmen and journalists. I wish to bring fire in form of texts which I also have published on my website www.hennajoronen.net. My topics in this thesis are feminism, human rights, war, emotions in making revolution, environment, injustice and historical insights to social reforms, writing political poetry mixing experience and desire, how experience matters, trying to understand despair, birth mechanisms of aggression and violence and why the world is in a situation as it is.
How does one experiment academically including one’s art and knowledgeable information to make worthy observations? To make solid worthy new information to follow, think, argue with and comprehend by other artists, students, academics or anyone. Everything is information, there are signs and signals and we have to be able to understand what is going on now and what has happened before. We live in flood of information. Radioactivity is information to our cells as is sunlight and we know this because of scientific studies and results offered for us. I want to be that kind of researcher but I have a brain of an artist. Is this equation impossible: I cherish the contradiction.
Do I discover new information with my current work and how do I measure? I need to have a question to which I try to find an answer. I ask When is revolution? How can I answer to it other than it is ongoing and never-ending? And how do I know that, what are the measurements? Revolution in my mind is a fact, world is revolutionized and image of the world is made by people who have taken risks and trusted their visions and capabilities. My task is to make this notion of possible comprehensible, the revolutionized world because it is not self-evident and yet it is present and true. Revolution is to make noticeable positive change which would be commonly happening via people and for people learning their possibilities with their active involvement changing societies for better and making societies function to benefit all. How to make impossible possible?
I need to pick up the parts, acute parts of and for revolution, where the power lies, how does it lie, the idea of power for me and pass the ideas molded forward after seeing and thinking through thoughts, situations and images that revolve and float in the air. My interests one being change of which we talk about, the inevitable and absolute and fear of change, objects of change, forces against it and why it is a mantra. The other is how via accomplishments of revolutions that have passed we come up with new ones and how does idea of making revolution vary. Which deeds make revolution, a revolutionized society and thinking? Which words make it? Is it who speaks them and how? Is it just a decision and dedication to one cause and what that cause can do, choosing a side? What kind of information is important to know altogether and include in writings about making revolution, a manifesto and thesis put together, because I intend to do revolution as I go. One question is how aware are we of the change that we make? To seek change, one has to know what needs to be changed and how things are to be altered. Talking is not enough.
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How does one make an artistic test and how is it research? I have to see what happens. That is what I normally do with my art or with anything I try it out. I can try assume how people might react. Fact realizes itself when people react to what they have witnessed, reaction is evidence, but how right and truthful reaction is. I hope reactions are for the better. How does written text shape the visual world (seen, looked at, observed) and how is that impact and possible change measured? It takes time. What does a poem do? I should see what has been written about poets’ works before, what kinds of results have researchers come up with, what have poets accomplished? Poets scare rulers because they are fearless and listened to.
And as my work is a manifesto shouldn’t it be where people are making a statement, online? And what is that, the internet, one big revolution? I question myself as a writer, student and artist and do not hope to see my part as a preacher of one-sided truth but see the issue at hand from different standpoints. To be a hammer, hand, vein, blood and hit. It is what revolutions usually fall down for, bloodshed, for having one-sided truths, war, icons to follow believing in themselves more than in justice, short-sidedly. Should the question be, am I ready to die, is that what it takes? It so often seems to be. Question of how to analyze and evaluate artistic input and output, what makes a sufficient academic thesis in the context of artistic research, in context of social change? Matters of subjectivity and objectivity on what there is to gain, the subject of interest and matters of facts found.
Just like revolution?
Should I explain what is a poem? Is a poem serious and reasonable evidence of something or is it just something thrown in the air because I felt like it? To comprehend a poem, how they should be understood as there is no formula, no rules in contemporary poetry which idea suits revolutionary mindset but not necessarily making a social reform? Poetry is constructed out of abstractions and of pieces what is, what there is as there are all possible ideas, things and deeds in the world to be thought and played with. Revolution is to rearrange and solve, make crystal clear solutions. What is it to write creatively and could it be done plausibly in academic frame and still call it art? More important question is reliability, seriousness and trust-worthiness that there is weight and goals. What does a poem prove is individual experience. And who is the judge of artistic work? Measurements are how the art effects and who is the poet, what does poet want and who is listening. Does it have to be judged or praised in context of art? What is judgment in this case may be silence and value of judging can be in making a change that things stay unchanged. For some people who is valuable. What are the measurements I should use other than my gut feelings and understanding of ill people make in the world, situations of the vulnerable, of poverty and struggle, point out things that are told over and over again in the news and what are the means to measure my work accomplished other than see what happens. My success or failure, my personal view in public what does it do? What is the relevance?
Academic work is about making observations, writing them down, comparing and measuring results and reporting those results in understandable accurate way. It is the most difficult part of this work for me since I have written my essays with personal agenda, personal world view and with a goal of making a revolutionary impact, boldly and just like that aiming at the objective attempt to the general and political away from personal. I have been my making conclusions and putting knowledge found as I see them happening trying to find the truth and what is right. In this sense my thesis is experimental, individual furious plea leaning on evidence I have felt is true, wrong or out-of-place, read on the internet and in books and it sounds like what is happening online all the time, doing something based on feelings and personal observations. What kind of knowledge have I found other than that? I have become dedicated to the causes of environment and human rights. Have I contributed, created and given something worth-while and new or is it just an individual learning process of how to write an academic work and how to find information? Is that the whole idea of Master of Art thesis, to learn to repeat? It is a difficult task in every way because I
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am determined to make a collection of writings of original and heavy contents. Effort, mission and piece of work may seem obsessive, chaotic and full, understandable and disorderly in purpose. Naivety is part of revolution, the hope for the better and belief in one’s vision, overcoming powerlessness. Enjoyment of making mistakes is there as I live for them, the individuality of imperfection and having joy over not feeling shame for being blunt. To have that error made guides without desire to correct. To write poetry demands desire to wonder, stop and wonder, pause. To let need to write fill me. Writing things down, anything, especially insignificant indifferent and small. The profound, the opposite, the shallow, unique and not at all. It is fearless expression, anarchy of language, curious possibility of finding voice of one’s own. Poetry as a method of linguistic expression has interesting element of time in it. What was it that passed us by. Time experienced and lived, remembered, crystallized, to understand what was it that happened and is happening within field of social change globally, within us and around and be part of it which is indescribable and new. How can I analyze all of it is to follow the patterns people make and look to the future as masses move humanity forward and what kind of influence has our past made without me needing to analyze revolutions thoroughly? Events of revolutions that have happened and have been analyzed many times over. How necessary is it for academic reader to know my past and my involvement in doing art since that is from where I write? Well it is there, art, in every manner and the way to perceive.
1.2. My ground, why I write and what do I seek to achieve with my work.
I declare in my poems freedom of expression and speech, freedom to experiment, fearless daring, which is what one may ask. My poems are not fiction though they move in landscapes of fantasy and nonsense, sudden randomness and subconscious. Notes, fragments, ideas, pictures which words and alphabet make. Poetry is heavily included in the vast context of revolution which we live like a stage act. Revolutions seen as massive mass of energy, battling and tearing emotions, insane, desperate and violent. Revolution is a body of work individually and communally, forceful in labor, demanding rights and responsibilities, setting obligations, people fighting to survive but what do they ask of themselves or demand of themselves to do the impossible? Revolution can be life-threatening.
Poetry has long tradition in making revolution, of being involved inventing and changing the world by mocking rulers, telling sides what is visible and invisible, what is being told what is not, making satire, giving voice to those who are not heard and listened to, what is unknown or secret. Art is made to make people see and feel, raise compassion, awareness, hope and to set unity within people. Poetry can be very personal moving towards the political. Political as personal to me is frank, active, direct and true (realistic in its horror, daring and irrational weirdness). Honesty with promises kept is asked of politicians but honest making of politics is not happening in the real world. It is something required of a
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poet, of everyone, what is left unseen and unsaid. Honesty and all the good promised seem to fade in repeat. Poetry is and should be something expressed without hierarchy, manners, protocol or anything hindering or obstructing wordy bullets. Poetry is expression that is thought to be delicate, anarchy and agitation is a dangerous game, game of language as is politics, curious possibility of finding voice of one’s own. Scribbling, writing anything without thinking it being trivial or maybe it is. When is trivial meaningful, when there is power in the smallest detail tossed aside, is an interesting thought. What do we toss aside as unimportant? It is making one kind of revolution in our time of effective productivity; to stop and wonder, for how long is for you to decide. Who decides what is meaningful? What is a good time and what is enough time? What is long enough and what is heavy enough?
Poetry exists as revolutionary, private and/or public act, a note revealing secrets, uncensored and an inexpensive way to use language for anybody to practice. To express personal thoughts and emotions, situations, personal experiences, personal sensitiveness, fragments of time. Way to use words and to find words, find sentences, find imaginative verbal images. To say forcefully, look for energy in how to say and what does it mean to say or whether to say at all. Appealing to unreason combining reason, sense, irrationality, dreamlike visions and concrete reality, seen and unseen, short or long. For poetry any area of life is not unfamiliar. I personally have been influenced by several exceptional, original and unique artists. As I think of my influences they all seem and have been very revolutionary and have gone up-stream and strongly against the system, against stream of banality in their lives and in their art. What comes to poetic influences I have searched and found before are Finnish, Russian and several artists from South and North American countries that have made an impact and stayed with me. Impact is lasting, profoundly emotional and intellectual. Their message has been encouraging, hopeful and sincere. One person can make an impact that makes a difference.
1.3. Reasons to wake up, rise up and write
During military coup in Chile September 11th 1973 Salvador Allende was killed after being elected for the first Marxist/Socialist president in the world in democratic elections. It is one of the military takeovers which has stayed in my mind as pictures and as an event. Refugees from Chile began to immigrate Finland in the eighties. There have been many documentaries about Chile turning into a dictatorship shown on Finnish television. Life before and after Augusto Pinochet. Tanks moving on the streets, men with machine guns, military outfits and sour looks with dust moving in the air. Movie House of Spirits by Bille August (1993) [2.] based on Isabel Allende’s novel is situated in those times and events in Chile. Both the novel and the movie tell vividly
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what happened like kick in the face. It is a short bridge to poet Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) friend of Salvador Allende, to Neruda’s exile in Europe from Chile in 1949, murder of Federico Garcia Lorca 1936, civil war in Spain 1936-39 and radical movements which were triggered very much because of the Spanish war and fascism raising. There is a bridge to a Peruvian poet César Abraham Vallejo Mendoza whose poems are leftist and political (1892-1938). I have learned to know him as César Vallejo. He published during his life only three collections of poems but is known as a radical reformer of poetry in his country and abroad. Texts of all those poets have been major influences politically and artistically to me and are very much respected globally no less for being shamelessly political.
South America as mentality, emotion and state of mind in pictures and in written texts has been inspirational and continues to be. There is vulgar violence, brutality, misogyny, but yet hope, colors, joy of living which I can relate to and admire. Same goes with Russia. It is an opposite to Finland in many ways, but we share some similarities, neighbourly love and curiosity towards each other enough to like each other. The amount of sheer aggression and violent behavior there is, is appalling colliding against with beauty which is heartbreaking. Life is short and full of pain. Can that be beautiful?
It is there in every day like a habit, a necessity and right to have, aggression. Violence which is due to macho culture, politic making, poverty and exploitation first because of Europe and then the United States. What comes to South America it has been under many rules and dictators. The US today has trouble on many fronts because of the flow of immigrants and drugs coming from the south especially after the US having declared war on drugs, which according to the critics is waste of money and effort as are many battles US likes to fight. Because the US has been interfering politics in all South American countries during 19th and all of the 20th century it is in trouble: morally, financially and politically. Assassinations, financial aiding of dictators, coups, terrorism and civil wars that have happened the US has been involved in brutality one way or another dictating how South America should be ruled. Chile is a very interesting case in this respect. It has been manipulated by the US long before 1973. For the record Chile declared independence 12th of February 1818 from Spain.
During short presidential era of Salvador Allende starting 1970 in Chile much of the banking sector was nationalized. ” Many enterprises within the copper, coal, iron, nitrate, and steel industries were expropriated, nationalized, or subjected to state intervention. Industrial output increased sharply and unemployment fell during the Allende administration’s first year. As a result, the Richard Nixon administration organized and inserted secret operatives in Chile, in order to quickly destabilize Allende’s government. In addition, American financial pressure restricted international economic credit to Chile. ” [1.] Sounding familiar and infuriating. This piece of history taken from Wikipedia says something to the point what comes to interfering economical balance and making it benefit interests of one. Has anything changed? No.
What does this got to do with poetry or revolution? What does anything got to do with art? Everything. Art is a powerful tool in making appearances. What can an artist say and what kind of topics are there for artists to go through, look through and comment, satire and mock, bring on spotlight? Same miseries affect artists as anybody. If there is possibility to give voice to that misery that is a lucky chance for revolution and social change? People like to listen songs and read texts that tell of their lives, what happens and what has happened. Stories and emotions unify. Are artists still as dangerous free spirits as before or under capitalist monetary powers like every merchant?
History and what happens now in the world has got everything to do with art and my work. Art has been and still is cultural beauty, aesthetics and productivity harnessed to serve those in power. Art luckily happens also outside power circles, money rings and clichés. Outside meaning usually a counterforce, counter voice, revolutionary art has always come from the marginal, different, waking up, striking and breaking beauty standards, in other words ass-kicking. Regardless of does it get financial aid or recognition it happens and needs to be made such as street art, performance art, activism and any other outsider art. Internet has proved to be very needed and useful tool in getting voices heard. One of the most revolutionary inventions of 20th century uniting expression in good and bad excessively, notoriously in good and bad, democratically in right and undemocratically in wrong. Writer can publish one’s texts without anyone in between and audience can be enormous or small as the impact following the contribution. It is a new possibility for an artist to create. Possibility of inexpensive, instant output and feedback, of finding collaboration and new ideas. Internet is innovative and connective tool of changing how we interact with each other and within societies. How does it change us? What is the change we like to talk about? We have to find the best ways of making the world democratic and equal? Is equality the aim? It is an issue of everybody. everybody seems to have an opinion on every matter. How valid feelings, impressions, personal agendas, opinions are is an interesting case of what do we want. Do we make the same mistakes over and over again? War and violence are something we make nonstop. That is what we believe?
1.Heart of a superstar. A dream, an obsession, what is the impact, what is the thing wanted. Introduction to sex-filled culture that is not able to shake sexism off. 2.How can a woman be powerful: Her figure, waves of her. 3.Marketing her forcefully, emancipation to have it all. Personal problematic of womanhood, race, size, voice, body parts, attitudes towards feminine and intellect. Diversity there, what kind of voices do we hear and what is silenced?
1.Heart of a superstar. A dream, what is the impact. Introduction to sex-filled culture that is not able to shake sexism off.
A popular more than agreeable person called a star when she is in the spotlight is something to idolize, envy, look up to and imitate. To be looked at is a curious place. What are we looking at? What is in the person we see first? How our conceptions and biases work and get formed via celebrity culture which highlights talent which sometimes seems a bit thin. Is it a persona or an image what is wanted a person to be and what is the self we like to emphasize but to my understanding do not fully accept or comprehend? What is the mystery here or is the issue that there is no mystery? A place of high expectations and to die for. Womanhood is like a corridor where goals are set according to how much adoring and sex appeal one is able to achieve. This feminine mind is a tunnel where prize is the perfect life defined by images, so tunnel vision is not only a male characteristic. To want that image given on you, to be you as it is something professional and authentic-like, seems to be within reach when your body is shaped into ideal form with all means possible, making a woman a package who still pleases those who watch her, pleases herself because she is liked after what she has done to herself and that there are people watching her as nothing is wrong which is pleasing to her, everything is right. No mystery here, how do we prove the pointlessness of all this torture and culture of pleasing the eye which is sanitizing the female? Only thing mysterious is how addictive and thorough sold ‘perfection’ is as it is seen as an individual choice, which it of course is, creating persona that is interesting and truly amiable but dislikes herself. Sanitizing women is about getting rid off ugliness on women’s bodies which is hair, fat, colour, asymmetry to find harmonious body. The whole process is anything but harmonious, it is a battlefield which does not lead to harmony or symmetry it just looks that way. For human mind to find harmony in variety and the thought that flaws we see are part of harmony is difficult to accept. We want to demolish visible flaws which we think are ugly. The very idea of how aesthetics of the contemporary people gets made is disturbing or when do we begin to control ourselves and look for fitting in and why we think we should?
It is voluntarily to want the place of an object as it is lucrative to be one, to be a desirable product but human, vendible living machine, cash apparatus whose income is one cause and effect, money followed, listened to and listed. One after another constantly appearing to keep the entertainment industry happy, happiness being the ultimate goal which both happiness and unhappiness and how did it get that way is the interest of the media. For instance how unhappiness/life comes across successful people and how we like to know all about it. Does our curiosity reach further than voyeurism and poking, does this result self-reflection or just posing a mouth to feed as we are curious for a reason and this is entertainment. My interest lies in the desire, what brings us joy in the visual and what kind of visual are we creating which is the joyful or otherwise something we like so much? Also, it is interesting how we judge people according to their gender and what gets revealed of them who judge and of those who are judged, it is the thought that someone under evaluation and judging is weak, vulnerable yes, but weak very possibly not. It takes a lot of strength to want to be judged, or even unwillingly endure judging from day-to-day.
How men are manly and women are feminine in this picture, how they make theatre of their gender and media presence or desiring that spotlight. What makes a stupid cunt is only to follow instructions. A victorious businessman or woman who can be accomplishing and making a fortune, being a mastermind of his, her plan, has also been following instructions to culture and has exploited them to his or her benefit, this is what is admirable in celebrity culture for many. How does this exploiting happen? Celebrity still has something of his or her own left which is their power. The stereotypes are there to abuse as media is more conservative than it should be, change there is also quite deliberately slow. Do gender roles and stereotypes wear off as women have to behave like men to achieve the gold medal pedestal? Can we rise above of what we see gender is and think it through to be more flexible and imaginative? To want to see the same over and over again is something happening, change is there in a way and something we might eventually get rid of is the narrowing of human tightly and neatly. Or is this the very issue the simplifying of us which we like, a hero but still an everyday person, unproblematic with opportunities? Women who do not play according to the script and assumptions in real life or within celebrity culture are categorized crazy, unmarketable, the word mental is often in use, stupid, weird, difficult bitches who deserve their ill-treatment. But to see difference an opportunity is the it thing.
Of course, ill-treatment comes for all, it is seen a possibility to abuse someone who is stepping outside the box doing out of the norm thing, a weakness or illness to exclude. Being gay or being caught with a prostitute are delicious topics as they still pose something to hide, be ashamed of and be secretive about. What is prostitution in comparison to entertainment industry as it is one wonders. It is very much about sex and selling it.
To understand the scope and meaning of sex in our culture is to live as a woman. It knocks out the easily thought suggestions of rapid change. The thinking or not thinking, calculating and manipulating behind there is felt and what is not lived because of unwritten rules women must follow in fear of punishment. Change is not celebrated or variety, open-mindedness can be found less and less and art for example scandalizes sex although naked body is its number one topic and sexism is very much alive, denying it does not remove the problem. How important sex is to us and what it stands for reveals itself in how obsessed and flammable the topic is and how hypocritical and blinded our thinking can be. For example, YouTube has a ban policy against nudity and sexual content but obviously this does not apply to music videos. A force in our culture which we must face and feel is the denial of pleasure and on the other hand indulgence as much as is possible and afforded. How do we do the facing of our urges, acts, pleasure-seeking, right and wrong and what do our desires mean for us and make us do create a whole cultural backbone or book of codes to know. What is the moral guide and authority there, what is our own knowing of sex and sexuality, our attitudes towards this undeniable thing in us, what about it must be respected, restricted, understood and what do we fear about it. Fear is to be exposed and violated, humiliated and abandoned, left without, ignored, hurt. Into what do we grow knowingly and unknowingly as it seems there are patterns that repeat as one is born female one is born into assumptions which are extremely difficult to alter and fight against. Having tried answers found do make one go bonkers as assumptions are as stupid as they can get. To go with the flow is a safe bet, maybe, but is it the right one, definitely not. To go far gets interesting meanings for women, how far can women go and what are the goals for women, why are women any different from men in regard to capabilities and interests?
Woman or girl walks down the street, she is looked at in a certain way. Why can’t you be happy about how you are wanted, is the question asked. I bury my face in to my hands and I can’t believe this is happening. Woman and her role is vitally important in understanding humans, the violence she faces because of her gender, because of this violence and constant knowing of that she is a target woman should be happy. My definition of happiness is different. Everything on her is a message, she is a moving message. How these messages are read and what does a miniskirt mean makes living as a woman complicated. It can mean that man can put his hand in between your legs and think you must like it because he likes it. Having your hair open can mean you are in a good mood and enjoying your blessed freedom. Sex is violence and aggression, it is to take over and own, define to death. To be vulnerable is to get hurt and grow sick of all this. System justifies men to be the wanting part by which women are seen as servants. Sexism in Finnish culture has been hard to tackle because coherence within the male group is not against it. In a group, males cherish sexism of theirs, it makes them manly. It is their right, tradition, fun and nature. Female point of view is laughed at as it is weakness. Calling women and girls whores is normal. It comes effortlessly without shame for the male, shame is always on the female part. Woman is invalid and handicap who is not defended especially when alone. A woman invading spaces for men is a mistake of hers. This attitude is clearly taking place at workplaces where women go and do men’s jobs, they steal jobs from men. Naturalness is emphasized, natural power and physicality of men, the unnatural gay culture is openly hated. Feminine male is weak and not a true man. True man is nevertheless a myth and cover-up, fragility is too much to bear and be shown, but it is there, of course we are not machines, yet. To make it simple cover-up is a lie, a pretense to keep alive the myth. It represents the things that can’t be seen in daylight and admit to.
What do women contribute to changing this? It does not happen by taking sides of men as women can use sexism for their ends. To take on beauty ideals that please male gaze is part of this sexist culture, that is weakness when it is the only way to find confidence. Lack of support is telling misogyny is rampant and female body is factory goods. What women could be giving to each other than the hate? When culture is more into hating femininity finding your way gets lonely. How do we own femininity if it is for pleasing purposes? Banning openly sexual feminine might be working against women. How could female sex be celebrated in any other way than sexual and open? Hating and loathing the feminine women because they stick out and are unashamed. Damage is to celebrate and make more damage as damage is what is the threat here, to be damaged goods. For many being born female is the ultimate damage and disappointment as we have our individual preferences and rules for feminine. How is this hate possible today and continues to live? I have been wondering as male dominance is enforced and chances for women’s voices reduced which voices are to make a difference favourable to women and children.
When woman is not having sex, she is a nun or there is something wrong with her, she is repulsive, frigid, cold or pathetic. Sex defines her, how she rejects or welcomes and what there is to reject and welcome. Something negative is there and must be found. Woman who is not utilizing her asset her femininity in the normal discreet way is weird and can be openly shamed a whore. Woman still must want a man but not too much, you’ll be seen a nymphomaniac, again via illness. She is the weak one who wants to be penetrated and must like it and this is like a joke. This is what you want, isn’t it, is the question, when man sends a picture of his penis to a woman online. Obviously, many think they know what woman wants and that is the obvious flaw in their thinking. The total misunderstanding, underestimating and misjudging of the female sex is in reducing her quality only sexual. If she is not wanting this she is ignoring the best thing life has to offer her and denying male pleasure makes men angry. The fucking is very much that is male but it can be imposed on females as something women desperately want and can be left without and there, women are weak again hanging on to men for rescue. Her place is the place of being desired by man, wanted, look at, evaluated and rejected. Ignoring or opposing this mind fuck is nearly impossible, aggressiveness and sadism is thorough and justified. Her fuckableness being the currency she uses, she is evaluated by women and men equally and that evaluation she must also do herself on herself. She must know what is expected of her. Do the right thing but nothing is right.
To find perfection there must be something done wrong, as Žižek puts it: you might think to lose couple of Kilos you would be perfect, but what then what is the perfection. If woman does not look like every-woman, a role is invented for her by which she is ailed, it is almost impossible to accept her as she is. She must be moulded. Nevertheless, the wrong is in her with her it is not in the culture, how woman is treated and viewed, how she treats and views herself. She makes us look at her and it is her fault, she looks at her and what happens when she looks at herself? To think what is love and where sex fits in, the beginning or end, does love justify sex and why harassment is an operation which is also justified and questioning is seen hateful. Why make women feel threatened, just because they are women and not men? That is what is done to women, made them feel scared, timid and unmovable. Paradoxes and contradictions there get lost for many, as well as for me. Repetitious mind games that genders must play strike as really odd, cruel abuse of power and vulnerability.
2.How can a woman be powerful: Her figure, waves of her.
Faces are changing but something more important is not that much. Standards for beauty, what is success or good entertainment or what it is to be good, how far can we go in being spectators of public figures and how we perceive our position as spectators as it is justified as a right to have. A trend to keep up with, speed and a sparkling idea, embodiment of a kind of perfection which must be matched or if not it will be noticed and talked about, flaw is horror. Neuroticism is part of this system and it shows which rises questions. The same questions are asked over and over again which concern eating, dating, weight loss and marriage. Exceptional people whose blooming sexuality and eroticism are at the core of this event even though there might be art there these famous people do for work. It is their sexual preferences, sex appeal and lives which are seen as more important to headline. A tale of her that needs to be told is how she maintains that image of hers and what goes on behind. That is one kind of shuttle into vast space of a market where all the stars may shine for us and share their blessings like refreshments we cannot live without.
Legends to look up to, astronomical positions of stars making fashion, future of what moves us or does not. What the mass of people like to see and hear, will see, hear and like, remember if making memories and moments worthwhile is the business. Stars lead the way as entrepreneurs, talents found, visionaries, makers, wisdom there is popular culture banalities, truth tellers, maybe, storytellers, wise men and women who taste the sweetest fruits of mankind and capitalism and get our constant attention provided by media, kindly. Fame and fortune, full house and flush, flash of spotlight, hurry for a new trend to make a difference, business and action in the middle of it all, moving forward. In the middle of it all are Swarovski crystals on stockings, strings and on toned bodies moving as moments of pleasure happen for the audience, creating the moment of now, witnessing and being part of nowness, a kind of freedom experience where everything is possible, which reflects this day, fantasy and values of ours, rush of ours to get instant gratification, importance and joy. Fun of having a tiny grip of life’s nonsense, lightness and puffing breath of meaninglessness, heaviness in a way and away with it. Circus of big money performers pays off bringing moods and something to dream about. Celebrity culture is all about recycling clichés, idols, idiosyncrasies, stereotypes of gender roles and body language, dance moves, sticking to straight sex and relationships, secrets, weddings, surviving break-ups. Picturing a fantasy of a perfect life in music videos taking a stand, interviews and paparazzi shots and portraying happiness and what is success: it is to be seen and being paid for it. Things people wish to hear about and dream of on a very infantile instant gratification kind of way, a primal level of penetration of what?
Who is the most outrageous, who reveals most, in a way groundbreaking but not innovative, revealing the most, sexiest and fuckable babe who can sing, oh. That is something spectacular. Nothing too difficult, stay simple. Who is the most wanted piece of ass is easy to understand, it is the very basic urge. It is a modern world sickness and therapy in one package, without healing. At best art of entertainment offers contemporary society a possibility of studying mind itself if we were willing to take a better look at ourselves. Limits of what is tolerated, how women are treated, how they want to be treated and seen, pinpointing the achy spots there on display if you know how to look. Taboos and prohibitions there are concerning womanhood and sexuality and are inescapable, practically force-fed. Sexism, rape, violence, diminishing, teenage pregnancy, abortion, racism, inequality and in Beyoncé’s case modern-day feminism to tackle hard issues sure, and to make love for all. She loves her husband,(which is good to know, note since feminists are known of hating men). Strength of women is in their sexuality and how they are in control of their bodies and how body is presented is the message. Human rights of women, which are the same as everybody elses’, are important. Freedom of speech and freedom of expression are almost there behind the corner. How critical big money entertainment allows its stars to be depends on how successful they are. How critical big money artists actually dare to be – not very or not at all. To be critical towards the business world and society does not prevent from being successful, or does it? Feminism surely is the strong hate word, banned ideology. Controversy and heavy critique can make tsunami-like response in sales. Who would want to change a world that moves with such easy recipes. Place for criticism is easily found. It is there by feminists, anti-capitalists, socialists and anarchists and is targeted against the full-blown pornographic imagery of entertainment, which also represents all of the business world, all of economy. One can see erotic self-expression as freedom or exploitation, admiration for notorious crime-filled underworld, prostitution, drugs, guns and fast cars and hot babes in furs in tiny swimsuits sucking their fingers. Power of female entertainers is much boosted with explicit contents, leather, pvc-outfits, clear references to prostitution and other dangerous living. Not much is left for imagination. In a way music videos work as short movies and they should be viewed as such. The art of video is art of advertising. All of the movie is an ad. Direct tutorials of how to live, narratives for youth of today. We are what we consume. Maybe power of this kind which reaches tens and hundreds of millions of people can be questioned rightfully as it should. Are we worried who is under influence and how do those affected take the impact, message and cultural load given? It seems so very light. Or should it be called cultural task of figuring out moral codes and what to do.
Luring pictures of a way of life with riches and enjoyments make an odd parallel universe and it leaves the millions of individuals wondering how to get there and should we. Main subject to argue being the objectification of women and that telling that they are in charge, misogyny and discrimination of women is a hard one to solve. Conversations can and must be taken over, over and over again what is done to women and femininity if anything, what happens to it? What is control in this picture? What can and must be expressed in terms of sex and gender? What remains unsaid, what is too touchy a topic? Why there still is such naivety about expressing sexuality as music video prove, which stereotypes reveal and why am I bothered by this as change there is more happening in body shape than anything else? Naivety that brings out immature brutality is the issue. Why those who put sex in front rely on naive lust and fantasy and call it liberation? Woman crawling on a beach like a horny animal means she is free (Beyoncé on her video Drunk in love)? What is she portraying is a famed woman on her way to her husband saying she has been drinking and thinking. Some kind of everyday imagery which I can like or dislike? If anything, the ordinary is there.
To create monetary value of this magnitude we have to define perfection, frame it, follow the idea of simplicity stereotyping characters. Perfecting money-making machinery is to take and make explicit content for all viewers. What do we want and how do we want it is what we need to know how to get it? Define sexy, sexy defining, everything as wealth and possession is what we want. That is what we need to be, in charge and owning. We have to define the body and get it, measures to get it for ourselves have a cost.
Stardom is all about the journey and how it is made and told, a trick of posing, trick of luring and possessing. Beating and eating one’s opponents and to become imitated and imitate is to admire. Is there place for truth in this competition and know what is good? How about virtue? Not to worry, virtues are well represented in the tough field of music industry, women there are Madonnas and Holy Marys. The thing is how to define them, their ecstasy. That is the way to look good in the public eye, have respectability of not revealing it all. How to monetize everything and that is the biggest virtue of all, other is secondary, unless it serves becoming rich and famous. There is truth to human nature here which puts self-interest at first. It is truth of theirs who make the contents. Truth of one’s own is a kind of secret issue, which no other completely knows about but is guessing. It is everybody’s own truth which people live by? That is the ideal, to live a lie but be confessional. There is some truth to that people can identify as confessional TV is the reality. We get our morals and ideals as we are educated by this the society and this strange family we belong to. Virtues get redefined as much as do lives we want to live. Fairytales and dreams do come true reflecting reality which is harsh. This is all old news and repetitious patterns of what is human desire, folklore to continue, cruelty we possess and the infinite mess of human psyche of wanting to be adored, successful and listened to and is a never-changing tune. It is to avoid boredom by having lots and things to do. Celebrity and pop culture change all the time, but what is the change other than new faces, gimmicks and beats. People, who want to move away from silence and loneliness, away from being forgotten, seem compulsive escapists who are dictated by fear of FOMO.
Do celebrities now have other things to say than the stars before them in history? There definitely are more of them, of stars. Exposure is extreme as is the need to be there. That life is more than just work seems impossible because we are brands. It is an ideology moulding our existence effectively but to dare break that mould is a must. That we are allowed to enjoy ourselves in this way as we are is ludicrous, embrace ourselves and do whatever we want is of course a seductive motto to live by: we can do what we want and know what is enjoyment. Are celebrities looked up to because of their message and the fact that dreams do come true, because they bring real amusement, are truly approachable, intellectually interesting, calculating and aware as we should be, produced objects as we should be, themselves and natural, or is there just a palette of plenty which is overflowing of whatever might sell and whatever urge qualifies? A give and take, a shot in the dark as we are desperate. Fair bargain is not the deal and amusement for one’s soul can get boring, to have fun, to dance and sing along, enjoy for a while.
A successful pop diva is in control without anybody’s permission doing her thing. She likes what she does and is good at it, what is the good? Is she in search of something new, original expression, invention of hers? To invent again something that works so beautifully in repeat, to invent beauty and energy. Feminine seduction via curves, clothes, videos and flying hair, fierceness and walk infant of everybody. Is she looking for a perfect match which is her husband, ecstasy between her and the audience, expressing herself through erotic (exotic) dancing, tiny wardrobe and emotional lyrics. Is her desire to be penetrated in public by her husband? Is she being raped by looks revealing more than gossip pages do? She penetrated, the one who works a penis as she appears to be and is in charge. That is a domino act. She has multiple roles to choose from and she does work both ways, being pleased and being a pleaser. She is a receiver and provider of pleasure so honey and bee is accurate metaphor. A bitch and public whore speaking her mind, saint mother, a wife and a business woman who roles all professional pop stars must master and state on stage and in real life. It is mastery of womanhood and presentation. Mastering and toying with ideas and ideals. You cannot do music with your clothes on. All that she can be is what she is, what you can see. It is expected of her to have layers to peel, veils and canvases to fly with her hair with the help of a wind machine. Multifaceted public image to talk about make an interesting personality, who is she we wonder and want to know. Someone, who is not emptied at one stroke, with one look, pages of magazines. There is desire to fill up the world and airwaves.
3.Marketing her forcefully, emancipation to have it all. Personal problematic of womanhood, race, size, having a voice, how body parts are us, attitudes towards feminine, talent and intellect. Diversity there, what kind of voices do we hear and what is silenced? Why do you dye your hair blond?
What is talent? What kind of talent has value, whose talent is noticed? I ask because talent for artist, to become an artist, talent is something person has to know having and it must be something which definitely evolves all the time. Knowing what to do with what one has no matter what anybody says and everybody will have an opinion, I guarantee you. Also, society places talents into categories important and less important meaning money-worthy and not, primary being the tech and mathematical skills, those are to make a career that produces trustworthy employees in the eye of society, respectable, money-making career-focused citizens that benefit the economy. Artist is on very shaky ground as it is the irrational, emotional, even sick and an untrustworthy character who is expected to fail, and money comes or usually doesn’t. What kind of package is needed to be in the talented category? Does an artist need to have a statement of her own to be sold or is it rather no statement at all, at least a political one? What kind of message is the sellable one? A PR strategy which leads to success is a curious one and it varies within arts. Provide stories and solutions, behaviour, coverage and narratives of lives lived preferably by divas, destinies and making the world a better place.
Times of moral crisis: Explicit contents, sexuality for sale and how it adds up with feminism and art. What does feminism represent for a pop star and for the music industry? How can feminism be implemented in any other way than refusing to work as a sex goddess or is the role of sex goddesses included in feminist frame as choice? It is good to question patriarchy from that widely seen and admired position, it is not useless. Question still is what changes in that process and using words that scare people such as feminism. When an idol who is also a sexy product and begins her feminist practice in her work it raises attention and questions, or has it been feminist all along without possibility to declare it?
To begin a dive into the world of Beyoncé is to begin with what it is that she represents and what is the place she is at. Her skin is the first issue, her voluptuous body supports her music as she is very much visual as vocal. To analyze Beyoncé is to analyze the whole of pop celebrity culture from a female and a black singer point of view, from race, origin, scenic point of view, art and sex combined. She is part of something and has brought a lot of new with her such as her extravaganza and not giving a toss will the political effect, her sales. She brings in the political side without it being strange but organic although it is flammable, explosive and pushes to look at her making others to do the same as it now is safe to do so, at least safer than before. She is with the whole of black community, she is not alone in this. Safe is what pop stars are usually all about, a comforting voice and sight, message and vision to dance to. To engage in feminism which threatens all of the values entertainment stands on and men especially, causes all kinds of reactions as is expected. As pop wants only the adoring wave of consumer love feminism is not the place to cash in. Popular culture which today strongly parades out from the United States is political. Music business is still sensitive to women being political demanding their rights. It is the one industry that thrives despite financial lows but how much experimenting is allowed for artists must be asked. Glitter and gossip stick like glue and scandals sell and are for many the blissful ignorance people like to grant themselves taking peeks in to grand lives with voyeurs’ victory and thrill. To give a remark or thought on anybody is a right to have to feel better than, critique is different from ranting. Culture of ours, nature of ours is to be interested in other people’s affairs and have an opinion. Entertainment making people famous, celebrities and brands are money-making culture which many want to be part of. Fame is obsessive, addictive and tempting, it is a perfect stage to be outrageously political and critical. Culture of prestige and opulence is so attached to our daily routines as spectators on the side of all that is everyday, our commercial capitalism being vividly flat, that it could be strange not to have the phenomenon of far away beautiful people and their luxury to watch. Stardom obsessed with the surface, the spectacular shining thing making money and preserving eternal youthfulness, it would be foolish not to use the opportunity and have an agenda of political.
The US and GB probably have the most followed musical scenes world-wide with massive PR and machinery that produces selection of stars made possible by endless media coverage, competitions, gossip and chit-chat and social structure that makes people pursue grand dreams which do not take note to class issues, to be grander than themselves. Interviews, documentaries, photographs, imitators, fans, fan art, gossip, stories, dreams, shows and how to become a star tutorials: how to be like a famous person with healthy appetite and an attitude. Stardom cult is defining the whole of America and Europe and has a significant meaning economically, psychologically and culturally. Religion with gods and goddesses is a significant phenomenon for the whole world in good and bad. The essence and idea are our need to be adored as spectacular and unique and the ability to fall in love with an image, persona, character, actress and to know that image, relate and feel free. To make the image your own, know it by heart, own it. Our need to worship images tells how much our thinking is guided by what we see. Today we are shown a lot of visuals and it is a fanfare. We are quite fragile in the sense what comes to being manipulated. We are put in a fragile situation, inescapable, unavoidable. Easy to manipulate is what we are desired to be (lack of confidence is an easy target) and wanted to stay that way. That is what Hollywood and music business is about, manipulation of souls and minds. Where does the industry want to lead us or push us? Is it the logic of business and politics today, take the public by leash as people need to be led? We are told to be nice and you’ll get candy.
Entertainment disguises itself as rescuer of hearts and souls with message girl-you-are-sexy when you do this and you can do whatever you want when you are like this girl in this picture. One has to want the right thing, be the right kind. There are particular right things that we pay attention to, sex, money and fame, popularity, positivity and love with tiny inch of philosophy of how to be a good person. We like to want what we see that glorious person has and be like her for a moment. To get her like me, to get to be like her. How much people control their desire to identify as a pop star and what does it tell of a mass of people who want to identify with a singer and image of her. Is it a secret desire, a fantasy, sexual or ideological, or is altogether naive to think people are that dissatisfied with themselves that they want to replace their identity with someone’s on a magazine and on a stage? Someone heroic, who teaches a mass of people to be heroic and stand up for themselves, be creative. Maybe, but when one takes a look at what kind of influence celebrities have on what people wear, eat, drink, how people like to live and do for living, how much gossip sells and is followed, the image of what is going on in people’s minds is crooked and infantile. Question is how creative can one be in frame of such order of strict perfection? What does it do and why does it do what it does. How has it become the way it is? What kind of women succeed in that particular business and what could be called success? Success cannot be minor. It has to be grand. Music industry is one of the most lucrative businesses if one manages to hit the jackpot as Beyoncé has done. Should we start with her passion for her art and what she has to say. She has a very similar kind of message as many other female superstars in music: female strength, expression of her sexuality and why is it important one may ask. To pose and act female strength in a manner it does not fall flat, but has a figure, a form in a thin world, not a pancake. Body that wobbles in right places as it is shaken in a dance. Furious, decisive, girly with attitude to illegal scale. Spread your legs, show your legs, shake that tush, reveal your skin. We imagine your bush. It is now internet’s basic method, a celebrity procedure, image galleries all over show this so what is new? A production line of lookability, likeability, profile managing, success managing, a celebrity survival game, which is also our survival game and we appropriate the methods of the most successful.
Who will make it to be seen. Essence of celebrity culture is to be seen and desire that, to stand as an ad post. To stand in front of all on a wall covered with company names, in between of photographers and a fence who snap pictures of these ladies and gents on red carpet. How and why someone is powerful, more powerful than most is a tricky issue but this is power. To come up with conclusion and decision on influence that a person has. How that influence is measured is an interesting case of visibility and earnings, which are public information largely on display stating the fame. Is it due to what that powerful person has to say, possibly some. What do celebrities who now get the most coverage in media have to say. What is their message? What is the message of celebrity culture as a whole? Its influence is massive. Financial winnings made within the culture of entertainment for the artists and their creators can be whopping. Industries flourishing out from movies, sports and music such as fashion, magazines and other merchandise do well with right face. What is the real power here is an interesting thing to go through. Could the answer be as simple as who does best financially and what kind of message does that person have. What kind of story and continuity person’s career has had and will have. Future prospects and who is listening. The list of the most powerful celebrities by Forbes from year 2014 introduces Beyoncé the most powerful celebrity. Grounds for her number one spot lie on her 95 concerts, the released new album called Beyoncé, her fragrances Heat, Pulse and Rise, clothing collection, which all contributions have been financially very successful. Estimated 115 million in earnings during one year is according to Forbes is an extremely powerful thing. Since 2014 her earnings have kept growing. She is made of gold, is golden and a high school dropout who has had since early age support for her talent and dream, so I don’t know what the self-made means at this point. No celebrity is self-made. https://www.forbes.com/profile/beyonce-knowles/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2017/06/12/why-diddy-is-no-1-on-the-2017-celebrity-100-list/
Forbes is a magazine focusing on finance which is very male centered field, focusing on businesslife providing entrepreneur insight such as quotes of the day. Its specialty are lists of successful people, information for the world’s business leaders how success is made and what it is. Figures are mentioned daily million and billions. Beyoncé defines herself as a businesswoman and through that image and role a strong independent woman whose strength is large part of her agenda. “It’s a good year to be famous. Over the past 12 months,the world’s 100 highest-paid celebritiespulled in $5.15 billion–more than the combined GDP of Belize, Liberia and Gambia–led by Diddy,who clocked a career-best $130 million. Beyoncé and J.K. Rowling round out the top three with $105 million and $95 million, respectively.” https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2017/06/12/full-list-the-worlds-highest-paid-celebrities-2017/
Gender, sexual orientation nor racial issues do not show to be such a large stepping stone. At least what comes to making entertainment for the masses. It has become an advantage to be part of a group that once or still is seen weak. There has been empowerment and strength. Idols do empower and encourage, so maybe they are worth all the money they make. That could be one point Forbes is making by its list and yet again only point is to be as rich as is possible. This is how one succeeds nowadays. How does glamour, luxury and beauty businesses benefit from all the bling accessory advertising and music videos represent is one thing. It is a lifestyle presenting moves and rhythm. It is clear since the beginning of her career independence and strength of the feminine have been core issues in her music but that is the case for many successful female artists to focus on showing their capability as women. What comes to celebrities Beyoncé is the one of the few who publicly state and promote feminism and calls herself a feminist. In her videos and music she is openly sexual, feminine and posing her assets to the world as any pop star. This way looking she is very similar to Rihanna, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj who all are artists and personalities creating in a business where women to have a voice of their own is new. Feminism in this landscape is a curse word banned and feared until now. Beyoncé has made it sink into the world of plastic and money in a new way. Even though it is clear feminism has never been absent as women have had to struggle their way up to the top. Women breath feminism whether they like it to admit it or not. We are bound to reasons behind feminism and what it has accomplished in over a hundred years and continues to accomplish.
The United States offers a peculiar scene to dream for many and reach out the impossible, but very few do make it big of course. Yearly listings of financially the most successful people in entertainment are part of making that dream a sensational happening and news worthy. To be part of something admirable and huge, that happiness, feel the hard work, luck, visibility and talent. How does power manifest itself by women, via women, via visibility and what is the stage women can be powerful on? What is female power and do women have it in the end? Do women make decisions and decide for their work when to catch the eye is one aim? Who is the weak in this image of making it? Who is stepped over in this business driven world as it is a struggle for survival? Women have battled with those who have power over them, who have justified their power with God’s word and justice from above. That woman is not capable of taking care of herself, making decisions not even over her own life is deeply build-in. The repetitious mantra of having control and power over one’s body, life, work and art is rightful, but it is still a mantra, if women do not know what it is to have control and know for yourself. The opposition is bigoted patriarchy and religious tradition, God’s word. How are we affected? Part of entertainer’s job is to entertain. The more it gets noticed the more political it is. The more people listen the more there is reason to put out a message to be heard. To share is political act, to act for all the oppressed couldn’t be more needed. The more people do not pay attention the more they have to be shaken and woken up. How does entertainment shake the world other than making sexual advancements, opening a blouse, taking it off and showing genitalia. Nothing out of the ordinary. We have seen it. The most ordinary landscape on the scene. Do they who create this visual spectacle for us speak for free sex, for prostitution and sex trade, sexual expression and what it is to be a woman? Is that freedom to be able to show skin, sexual freedom to be taken over and had?
Beyoncé showing her buttocks in her show becomes a hit in YouTube. It does not make the society more approving. Our obsession over sex could still not be more obvious. A matter talked over in talk shows and by journalists it is the very scandalous topic and interest for all. Scenery on many music videos of female pop singers is exactly from a red light-district, a stereotyped sex worker image who is a fantasy for an everyday woman and man, as dancers wear the same all showing outfits, posterior-revealing lingerie. It is the latest superstar fashion on stage, wearing very little. Position as standing back against the audience, bending one’s back and looking the crowd, gazing behind one’s shoulders and singing holding the microphone almost licking the microphone, it is naughty. This said sounds if I disapprove. I disapprove the cliché, the repetition. I dislike the ongoing similarity and unwillingness to move ahead, unwillingness to push any envelop despite saying so. That envelope has been opened and seen, stamped and sent. Lack of any kind of self-criticism nor effort to do differently. Is that power, to be a repetitious? Is that showing the world how to be wanted in a right way? To portray women singing about relationships, having sex, breaking up and being still strong independent women is almost all there is to this empowerment. Sexual expression, what is it exactly? And why is it empowerment and not sexism? Empowerment through sexism taken over is a strange thought, but there is no other way as sexism is power. Sexism which is a force used against women to have them, to possess them as silent bodies. Sexual expression is in a way an idea of getting by pleasing in the right way and doing wrong, being a bad girl. To express this is to state that one is a sexually free, an open-minded being with desires and willingness to use these desires for one’s benefit still willing to please the other, be at service of the audience.
It is a one thing that women are noticed exclusively because of their sex, having a closer look into their wardrobes looked at as deep as it goes. Watched over, guarded but not kept safe, gazed curiously, jokingly, teasingly. Entertainment is the ultimate pleaser of the senses and flattening of them. To please is to get the wanted thing and impact is to make one’s way. Pop singers and performers like to state that they are in control of what they do. What does it mean exactly to be in control of one’s work as a performer is to have an idea of why one does what one does and how to get attention. Is it possible to know the amount of control one has? Isn’t it an illusion of having power when it is actually other people who make you by choosing to look at you, think about you, idolize and evaluate what you do, liking or not liking it, judging, remembering or forgetting. So to talk about control is a modern capitalist dream and necessity to live by as one wishes but control is not having freedom. It is interesting to explore the idea of control which especially several celebrities comment and state having. Rules they think they make, that they see are set for them and they are changing those given rules of the business. Much of what we can take and understand must be lined inside ideals. Outside are left the things unwanted.
1. Pounding a Mall
2. How architecture creates thinking as a structure for society. Ideology and model behind mass consumption
3. Architect as a fascist or is it him to blame?
4. I call them space invaders.
An article trying to define and understand, look at to the core of the mental landscape we now possess and own as familiar and acceptable. Modelling the body of profit architecture, what kind of purposes and meanings lie behind creating our consuming based social structures, architecture we inhabit and dwell in, which has overwhelmingly conquered the planet and the style to construct is total and fast. Trying to understand power there is in use and how this type of architecture is used to control us, our behaviour and thinking. Also my concern is what kind of public spaces within the frame of consuming are offered for us. How we are in and outside, how these spaces exist and what they do, what is the function there and the lasting effect. Issue of time is essential as buildings stay put a period of time, are made in factory style and manufactured in similar fashion all over.
1.Pounding a Mall
I was told that behind us was a supermarket being built. This was in Pori where there are old factory buildings of which some are restored others aren’t. That we were inside what is left of a cotton factory, which dates back a hundred years or so. I was also told that in this little town called Pori, there are three shopping centers within one kilometer radius (not to mention supermarkets). So thinking to myself and continuing, how is it possible to imagine infinite growth and consumption, that there are people who can afford and are willing to spend their money and time at malls and thinking building malls is progress as is continuous consumption. How is it possible for one to have customers for all of them all the time? Other puzzling issue is how is it possible to get a permission to tear apart old historical factories for this kind of use. Since it has been done, the demolishing of our heritage in Finland, since the 60’s and seventies at least, it has been part of bringing down our visible history to make profit and call it progress.
As a small country, as people, wouldn’t it be crucially important to preserve our cultural memory which is visible, a sight and kept in use? Yes, I could see it a vital issue for many reasons. To see the construction site and feel the pounding of concrete pillars getting hit in to the ground felt physical and alien. Such heavy-duty raises questions. Walls of our classroom were trembling. One hammering pound per second. I looked up at the clock on the wall, it was like a heartbeat. Sweet metaphor for grey concrete stumps to hold it all together, engineered. Isn’t it heartbeat that synchronizes, resonates, comes to bring us enjoyment in music, like music of building up a house. A simple monotonic beat made robotic as we are in a hurry and made look effortless in a way in its massiveness. But when you listen to your own heart, the squeaking and bumping makes you feel nausea. This pounding irritated everybody and the thought of a new market was a sickening idea. Wondering this happening everywhere we got a new perspective, when Yik Chum someone from Hong Kong told us that, she had worked in an office and listened to the same kind of sound every day for three years, a nonstop pounding. Also that in Hong Kong this kind of sound is constant. She lived upstairs to a mall and it is very common in HK to build such high buildings, which contain every possible service one can possibly need in order to live there. Well, we were stunned. How small Finland seemed and how small it is. It looked like Hong Kong lives in different time that is science fiction here in Pori Finland. To adopt this kind of progress probably is inevitable, one cannot live hating it can one? Well one can question the inevitability of it. One thing being what does questioning on one’s own do and being irritated by this progress. We are the ones they are for, these malls, right? Question mark is that I’m not sure. Users, the customers, passerby, owners of the premises, owners of the land, what is it to use a building?
To build is a practical practice, daily sight in a city. Cities are being reconstructed, modelled for our purposes in a democratic or undemocratic way to sustain and restructure our lives. At least in Finland attempt is to be as democratic as possible and process is public. Though it puzzled me to hear an architect say that the system is too democratic, making the decision-making avoid any experimental or bold solutions and in the end everybody mostly follows the same safe patterns fearing something different would not make the wanted profit. In Finland it is clear to see this since the old has been gladly removed and cubical architecture has invaded our land. It is difficult to find which democratic ways are in use when it comes to constructing when it all looks the same. I have my doubts. One approach to view this dilemma is to see who is building and what are the main reasons to construct. Quick look tells me behind my back a supermarket is getting started and another one and another one. Is there a demand for it? Who investigates the demand, who designs these shopping places? It must be calculated and the system manipulated. Calculated so that it emerges as ultimately what people need. Profit architecture which has a purpose and which does good for all.
Profit architecture is to get value out of us during and after having built the site, it is us who are abused, but do we feel abused? We are supposed to like it as it is convenient, easy and part of way of life. Reasons for such houses to exist, to exploit, to have ground to stand on. It could be called fascism wrapped in a package with a smile and sold to us or forced on us and we go where things are cheapest. Just as fascism it lures a crowd with cheapness and slogans with looks, something we think we can afford and must have. So in this line of thought, it is not for us, it is for those who profit. Not just talking about the supermarket behind me, but of the genre of malls, supermarkets and shopping centres are brainwash. There is plenty of reason for harsh critique, but does it sink in there where critique is aimed at? For some it’s a kind of progress that cannot be stopped and should not be stopped. People like malls, they go there to spend time and have fun. That we like and live in capitalism emphasis is on enjoyment and be able not care for the consequences is part of the enjoyment. To live we have to consume products, we need products as we do not have time or energy or capabilities to make all by ourselves, malls and shopping centres easily provide us cheaply what we need and beyond in a pounding-like way.
How malls are brought to us is one way to tell there is nothing ordinary citizens can do, somehow. Companies building their empires are enormous forces. What comes to capacity in funds, employees, connections, planning, they are getting their voice heard in ads and via lobbying via ideology of consuming is the only way modern people must live etc. The whole idea of a mall is to be an ad and a container. Malls, as I see them, are shaped for storage, to have simple routine-like maneuvers practiced, for people to move with trolleys, for the shopkeeper to bring in huge amounts of goods, to cash out, rip off as many people as is possible in rows like in a factory. Interesting article on the issue on www.thefunambulist.net # Weaponized architecture///Architecture for profits Optimization: The Supermarkets’ layout (2012). Which remarks ‘the evil’ from above gazing, an architect laughing at us when we think we are free, but are carefully put in use, used like puppets and under control as our behaviour and thinking is studied, how we need and how we want to be seen. Thought of an evil individual behind architecture may be a bit coloured but there is clearly a group of people who profit a huge deal and there is cynicism and pure exploitation that should not go without critique. How architects/constructors/politicians can and make an impact on the culture of building and consuming is an interesting one. Do architects have to be heroic master minds who stick out via competitions until they can make a difference and are listened to? Do architects have opinions about profit architecture or do they just fulfil needs of constructors who pay architects to not make architecture but constructions for money? Template buildings need obviously very little creativity as it is repetitious, new or old architectural ideas get simplified as concrete elements and other building materials are factory goods and time is money.
2.How architecture creates thinking. Ideology and model behind mass consumption.
To enjoy a shopping center there is entertainment, cinemas, cafés, restaurants, floors, elevators, stairways, carousels, fountains, trees, glass ceilings, lighting, ads, lots of ads and lights. Interior design posing pretty or what happens to be in style, kind of cheap but glittering, mostly depending on what is sold in the particular place and for whom. We can spend time there looking, sitting, walking, buying, dreaming, seeing people, spending money and time. The main issue bothering me has been how this architecture influences us, our behavior, mental state and health, thinking, imagining and understanding what is good and valuable. How such places engage us, harass, puzzle, disturb, change our attitudes that we are not harassed by being harassed or the way we see the world and ourselves. Or on contrary malls make us feel good about ourselves giving inspiration, peace of mind, maybe healing and protection. I’m asking because pounding up structures like malls next to each other is a very impressive and aggressive act, even humiliating. Secondly to lure thousands of people to consume is another gigantic happening, which like chain reaction has started movement like no other which is monotonic and similar. I examine the phenomenon as a pedestrian, biker, careful consumer, artist and a Finn. Also, because I’m concerned as it is a global phenomenon, a consuming and living disaster.
An interesting case began when in the 1950s scientist Jonas Salk was working on polio in the basement of a Pittsburgh laboratory. Work was not proceeding. He left to Italy to rest in a monastery. After the breakthrough, which led to the vaccine for polio he felt that the monastery had deeply effected him as a place and as a building. He invited architect Louis Kahn to design The Salk institute in La Jolla in California hoping other scientists would benefit the serene surroundings. Since then in Salk there has been research on how our surroundings affect feelings and behaviour. “In the current issue of Scientific American Mind, Emily Anthes describes how ceiling height, colors and other design factors influence attention and creativity. Scientists are just beginning to address these questions, in part by studying changes in brain activity as subjects make their way through virtual reality rooms.” “Mose Bar, a neuroscientist, speculates that our brains are hard-wired to avoid sharp angles because we read them as dangerous.” https://www.fastcompany.com/1278814/your-brain-architecture
What does research give to building new if it is not taken into consideration in no other way than how to make the most of us as consumers and psychological beings? What comes to being efficient at the place of consuming, work, living is to be a machine and in use for profit purposes, being useful. How workers enjoy working in a place has a lot of value for employers and of course for workers themselves. Same goes with were you live and spend time at. What we see and how we react to structures around us is interesting. Does monotonous dull city architecture depress us or make us violent, for example.
The thing I wonder is do we create new points of views at all or do we build the obvious taken for granted state for the monetary value is the primary value and an interest for small group of people who have too much power? Do we live in science fiction already where efficiency and amount is what has number one value? To go back to something that we are losing is impossible, something is lost entirely in terms of architecture. Possibly all that which we value as beautiful and worth having around and go see abroad, the history which has brought value cannot be made again.
3.Architect as fascist or is it him to blame?
In Finland we have small-scale and a short history of profit architecture in comparison to for instance the United States. In the US there are already generations who go and see malls of their childhood which may be abandoned and empty with parking lots, to remember what it was like then, how it was maybe better. Would you be nostalgic for a mall? For example website www.deadmalls.com is filled with pictures of abandoned malls. Companies owning these not-in-use buildings don’t want this kind of publicity, but the site still exists and it is quite interesting and has a fun side to it. Documentaries like Malls R us from year 2008 by a Canadian Helene Klodawsky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAIDAzTtoCA gives a good picture of impact of malls to people’s lives, picture of people who have spent a lot of their leisure time at malls and around them. The idea of a mall has become to statue something else as well. Has bad profit architecture and bad architecture eventually come up to equal the same as bad television? People love both, but feel guilty for using and liking them. As I see youngsters in Finland using mall parking spaces to meet friends, skateboard, bike, spray graffiti, have fun etc., I wonder is it so because they don’t have any or many other places to go to do these things. Conclusion to this is that options are given scarcely and one has to make the best out of places that are there. How to imagine something else can be a difficult task. To find and create alternatives is hard work. What makes malls problematic as public spaces is that they are privately owned, monitored and similar. What one owns one also controls. “By designing this space as an interior area accessible by definite entrances and supervised by dozens of video cameras and sensors, corporations were able to minimize the number of undesirables that were allowed in “their public space”. “The design is also oriented in order to compose a whole interior fantasy world that is supposed to be perceived as better than the outside reality. This world is safe, clean, warm, entertaining and attractive. It is a disappointment to leave it says a consumer who forgot/denied reality. The main characteristic of capitalist design is to leave nothing at chance. Indeed chance provokes uncertainty and uncertainty provides an illegibility that can be unproductive for Capitalism.” https://thefunambulist.net/architectural-projects/politics-capitalisms-architecture The mental landscape hyper-controlled public spaces create is oppressive, paranoid and delusional. Other mental emotional image given is the feeling that consumer is in charge, choosing and being cared for, nurtured and given the best chances, opportunities and goods available. The customer can feel enjoyment, pleasure of consuming and freedom. “The unreliable, possibly dangerous group of people is kept outside.” Capitalism’s Architecture tells that: the contemporary mall is said to have been invented by The Austrian-American Victor Gruen in the 1950’s. It is supposed that it was him who thought of the pure capitalist architecture as an element of urbanism. Firstly shopping malls were intended for the middle class as the equivalent of old European city centers, a pedestrian place of gathering and activity. Doing it differently the United States placed this new kind of public space within the framework of privatized supervision, security and control.www.thefunambulist.net # POLITICS///Capitalism’s Architecture. This is the insides of a mall in short, the gathering of crowds and almost inhaling the same ideas has some scary visions. How about the shells around, cubes as I call them, shapes built? Still controlled by cameras, even the trashes behind are watched, locked up.
4. I call them space invaders.
There is a field, wasteland or a meadow of some kind, bushes and it’s been there like that for a longer period of time surrounded by small-scale shops and supermarkets. Like in Tampere where I live, there is Lielahti which is one part of the town where many malls are situated and are all offering a bit different varieties of goods, but none of them is for spending time, dwelling. Such dwell in malls are in the center of town. Shopping centers are booming in Finland. Is it hysteria or just convenient acceptable progress? Interestingly the biggest malls are not the biggest sellers according to the statistics on shopping centers in Finland in Wikimedia about 20 biggest shopping centres, 2010. The website of the Finnish Council of Shopping Centers says that a successful shopping center is the pounding heart of a community and gives a definition: shopping center consists of a commercial building in which retail outlets and services open inwards onto a walkway or concourse. The gross loanable area is generally at least 5,000 sq. m. Shopping centers have at least 10 retail outlets. A mall has one or more anchor tenants and a number of key traders as well as other retailers and services. The services may be either commercial or public. A single trader may not exceed 50% of the total commercial space. Shopping centers have joint management and marketing. www.kauppakeskusyhdistys.fi. Though year 2012 yle.fi reported a decline in building shopping centers in Finland in the next few years. Finnish real estate company Citycon is a pro-active owner and long-term developer of its properties. It is a major owner and builder of Shopping centres in Finland, elsewhere in Scandinavia and in the Baltic. They say on their website they take on account of environmental aspects and the well-being of the areas surrounding its retail properties, which provides solid foundations for the company’s success and growth in the future. www.citycon.fi. In the light of having seen and visited many shopping centres anywhere in Finland and my skepticism I very much would like to see one of their properties to be what they claim. Very often those interested in constructing shopping centers are multinational companies to whom project investors can invest in. But there are good news too as Rautalampi municipality has taken chance and is looking for funders to build wooden 1000 square meter shopping center, which would focus on locally produced goods such as local food and organic food. http://www.investinfinland.fi/web/invest-in-finland/search-results?p_p_id=3&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=maximized&p_p_mode=view&p_p_col_id=column-1&p_p_col_pos=2&p_p_col_count=3&_3_groupId=162753&_3_struts_action=%2Fsearch%2Fsearch&_3_keywords=rautalampi+shopping+centre This is a soon hopefully to become a trend, because so far in Finland the repetition of the same models is a major fault and worry. Monotonous landscape of blank straight forms, blank colors, cubes with gigantic ads are rising up to the sky in favor of vast amount of traffic, visibility, exploitative industries for mass consumption. Made consuming look easy, unproblematic and light in weight and problems like abuse of employees’ rights seem far away. There are projects that have designed different kinds of malls, for example for a mall to create it’s own energy and experimenting new kinds of appearances. It is called climate protection supermarket and one is located in Graz Austria. Also designers have had emphasis on using sustainable materials and environmentally friendly economical construction to reduce the life-cycle cost of buildings. Critics assume such projects to be only local and exist only to polish the surface of the big players in the industry. One way or the other there definitely is a demand and hurry to develop new ways of consuming and constructing.http://www.archdaily.com/805071/shopping-nord-graz-behf-corporate-architects http://www.archdaily.com/search/projects/categories/shopping-centers
Issue of understanding is very crucial today like the issue of what you can say to somebody and what is not good to say to somebody and who is this somebody to whom we choose to say what we think or choose not say what we really think. Why do we think the way we do and what is this social game? What are the grounds of our thoughts and actions, what are the benefits and drawbacks? Do you encourage as you think it is the best way to practice humanism or do you discourage and why, what kind of place does silence play in discouraging and giving lessons, choosing not to act upon something or someone, choosing not to benefit someone. Via this we can analyse people’s motives, character, emotional capacities and attitudes, positions people think they have in relation to others, also power people think and clearly have over others. Who gets encouraged and who does not. This is a very important factor in making of us. Who has the strength to fight against constant discouragement, constant doubt and ridicule? How much is it allowed to say I do not understand this without sounding stupid and what is the thing we want to understand, because sometimes it seems it is not ourselves or the other, it is not politics, it is not social media and reasons behind it. The question of I do not understand is frequent for an artist to hear. It was not frequent at university, because fear of sounding stupid is acute and real. This is the record of rational contemporary humans, fear of not being adequate, of not being smart enough to wonder out loud. Art can be the thing which must be understood immediately or else it is pointless, wrong, out of place and futile. Measured by reason which is obviously there owned by the viewer who walks by, gazes, feels awkward and refuses art as it is not so him or her, it is not part of this person meaning it does not resonate, give much, have personal touching points. Art therefore must be owned by the viewer as likeable as it flatters the viewer, belongs to his or her realm, reality, understanding and does not frighten. Point of making difficult and complex art is exactly this, that it is not a straight passage to walk through and say this I understand, this is good and worthy the money. What I understand is good what I do not understand is threatening and maybe even bad, corrupt. Art must be equal to good as it is seen as doing good, teaching us about ourselves. Question is what art teaches about ourselves then? Art we are shown has an entertainment value, it has to be applauded and accepted by experts, this makes art valid and existent. Seen, judged, talked about, placed, viewed, liked. Art expert is someone who has a lot of power telling what is good, hopefully clearly telling to those who are not experts why good is good and bad is bad. So what is the situation when art experts are corrupt and are not telling about art objectively but subjectively and when personal relations define good, and even what is art? When things get more than instantly comprehensible people lose their temper, patience, interest, the difficulty is almost an insult against the viewer because it is not made into easily chewable bits after which to feel thankful and smart of having seen this, witnessed.
What kind of message and content sinks in? How must information be modified, modelled, moulded, simplified, made comprehensible within the frame of our culture, the frame being as we understand our culture, ourselves and people’s needs, desires, minds, assumptions, patterns of thought, appreciations. We all search for some kind of grandness which elevates us. We understand via where we come from and we see people through that lens. It is all so often said and thought of me for example that I as coming and working working class jobs am not able to understand, gain, reach out for and grasp his and her culture. I do get, I really get it if you know what I mean. “That kind of people rarely take interest in classical music, even less to contemporary classical music” or ” I can’t afford to get a PhD in Switzerland” or “My art is not art” Straightforward no to my desires and dreams. I have shut up about them because to understand value of my dreams and capability to reach out go uncomprehended. Strangely my gender and my class, my poverty put me in a position where I am told more no’s and told about my lack of cultural and intellectual capacity which is bound to where I come from and what kind of an instant image my gender poses to people. If I tell what I would like to do, I am told the reasons why it is impossible for me, just like that. Please tell me your motives, they really stay in the cloud. Thank you for the moral and mental support. You guys shine a light.
This is my understanding of contemporary humans where understanding is the most difficult and hardest part even though there seems to be loads of it as personally all view themselves and pose. How contemporary it is let’s pause for a moment and ponder. Still even though we live in the age of intellect, smart this and that, there are strict boundaries who can be smart and what is smart, who can make and who can’t. Anything worth while is simulated and signalled via the named, labelled, defined, understood in a way concept of smart. Smart which is effortless and an easy process of making things to better our lives, availability and accessibility signalling this. What do we have access to and how? Who can access what? Do we have access to something that is relevant or to something which is on the go, moving and getting replaced as easily as it is coming to us like a whistle?
When you have access to all this what is named smart you are smart too, that you have it. You know how things work on the surface and you do not have to know what things truly are, are for, are made of, come from and why. Is this living a lie and not wanting to admit it because it would be too hurtful? Purpose of smart is the created illusion which brings the good feeling of being inside and having it all. It is still an unfortunate fact that possession, bank account saldo, where you come from and who you know define our moral, intellectual and cultural superiority. This is also believed and held dear by those who should be able to question everything even status and relevance of their own, those are ‘intellectuals’ in arts and academies. Vanity is the biggest drive we seem to have and be incapable to fight against. Why should we fight it when it justifies and states our uniqueness and glory.
Social media is a compass and it is also a destination where we make ourselves for audience. It is more to represent than anything else. Yes we have conversations and storming outburst are almost a definite way to make headlines, and having lots of followers. What does social media and branding do to creativity and how we perceive creativity? Shopping, any kind of consuming is creating your persona and a voice nowadays. It is telling of what one stands for. Shopping beautiful objects, perfectly designed and then be seen around and in these objects. Instagram is a place where one can hype one’s lifestyle for everyone to see and admire. It is an interesting phenomenon combining modern thinking of what creativity is and makes way to wonder creativity in pop culture, in contemporary world where posing as an active maker of images with technology makes everyone a professional, an icon, a model. To represent something on Instagram and in today’s world there must be a clear style, specific choices made where one stands, stands for and what kinds of things and values one represents. There is a completely out blown way to sell products and brands by telling they represent creative thinking, progress, creative making. The future which is sold with the product is revealed, owned and being made with special defined and refined accessibility, originality, excess, consciousness and creative solutions. Buyer makes together with producer the product by wanting it, showing it, using it, living with it and looking for another, a better one, which brings something different, novel feel of continuity, surprise, feeling of extraordinary and luxurious in to everyday. It is curious to analyse feed of pictures which show a lifestyle and are a product at the same time. To analyse the impact, motifs and motives, desires, needs of the maker and the viewer is to analyse the world we live in
On the video of Rich Kids on Instagram (Cutting the edge) there are sentences like one picture tells a thousand words and of course, there are haters, they make me the money. Opinions of haters and the amount of negative feedback is essential to make fame and to be able to ignore and use for one’s benefit the pure force of public lashing is a big help. With help of finance and security of money it really does not matter what people say. It is all business. Hating is a way of showing interest.
What is striking is how traditional gender roles are for the rich and within Instagram culture. Is it because there is a flow of women bringing themselves forward wanting attention from rich men? Women scream when a man pours champagne on them like children, they seem very helpless walking on the highest heels possible and lean on men. Women in that world still look for male assistance, look to be used and men enjoy the cattle. Strength is in the wealth. It is boldness, arrogance, exploitation and indifference, it is ability to use wealth in any way possible and brag about it. There is no interest or need to change how women are, even women don’t seem to mind. It is cluelessness how they must behave and act out because luxury is about sex, not caring and showing off. To win is to like all this culture has to offer.
Femininity is a tool and an asset. Ultra femininity is a power look where other people do the work, although posing is work too. Women seeking to be trophies even though they have all the means to do otherwise is very odd. Is it an easy way to live? Is it an instant life thinking it is the best way to live? Obviously. What is lasting and does the result matter? Interest is in the now and in the future, where deals and money are made. These people live their lives without interest in the outside world, rather escape anything that reminds of the outside, other than what to gain from it. Interest in rich people in general is the same as interest in royalty.
On video below there are rich Asian women who create businesses of their own on the side of spending their parents’ wealth. They have the freedom of realising any idea possible. It is feminist wave that has reached these women, to allow women to live as they please, which in a strict patriarchal policing culture like China has is quite new.
To those who this rings bells you might be a feminist. Feminist the activist, advocate of rights of women and children and therefore of all people, boys and girls. Feminist usually is a woman who is not afraid to speak up and act for those who need help, are in need and she helps herself because there often is a deep personal experience of discrimination, sexism that has happened over and over again in patterns and ways that do not change until they are forced to change. Feminist is the one who is not afraid to be trashed by many for her belief in equality, to be herself, who is not afraid to protest in a way she sees fit, usually in provocative way making many angry because there truly are plenty of people who do not want human rights for all nor equality to apply all, people who want to protect rights of the rich, white females and males, protect power of the elite, white power, male power, patriarchy or whatever that is called nowadays. Feminism is not a movement that would not have a mission today, quite on a contrary. It has got plenty to accomplish.
Why is this so confusing?
http://radicalsoapbox.com/is-neo-liberalism-really-fascism-light/ “This elite owns the privatised public sector, which includes gas, electricity, water, telecommunications, airports, air traffic control, airlines, railways, bus services, and most recently the Royal Mail. The outsourcing companies run an ever-increasing part of our public services, covering social security, correctional services, employment services, the NHS, the disabled, the educational sector, the care sector, etc.
Today, it is conveniently forgotten that the financial base of household names such as ThyssenKrupp, Mercedes, BMW, VW, Porsche and Hugo Boss all came from the vast profits made under the Nazi government, when there were no unions, few regulations and cheap labour – very often slave labour from the concentration camps.
