SM2706 Critical Theory & Socially Engaged Practices

Sep-Dec 2017 / Dr. Cdric Maridet

Name: Tseng Chih-I (Elisa)

SID: 54479279

Weekly Reflection

Week/Lecture My Response and Reflection

What is critical thinking and socially engaged practice?
The first lecture opens with free answer question asking us what we
think about critical thinking. In my opinion, I think critical thinking is what
you want to believe and the ability to judge clearly to think what to do. To be
able to think critically, it must relate to different ideas, and evaluate into
different arguments. However, in this course, we are connecting critical
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thinking to socially engaged practice, which seek to critical reflection on the
social practices, for example, anything related to the environment around
you or the society. I think it is really interesting that it can relate to the
participation of social action. For example the artwork Pad Thai (1990) at
the Paula Allen Gallery in New York involves social engagement by inviting
viewers to inhabit and active the artwork.
What is Critical Theory?
Critical theory could say to the extent that seeks to human emancipation
from slavery, the acts as liberating influence, and the works to create a world
that satisfies the needs and powers of human beings. Critical theory has
emerged in connection with many social movements that varied with the
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domination of human beings in modern societies. The question that raised in
(No Class)
class, Do you think that inequality exists even in democracies? I have
thought a lot about this. At first, I didnt think that much and wouldnt
expect that there is so much inequality I would be aware of in the world. For
example those people wont have a choice even they have a chance to vote.
When people are born in certain family, and the income inequality.
 Participation: Forum Theatre
Todays class focused on the idea of theater should be encouraged with
the participation with the audiences. To encourage audiences to think
critically of the situations and character and get more involved to whats
happening on the stage. In the end of the class, we are formed into big
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groups of 10 people and to discuss a particular situation of oppression. Our
group raised a situation of the oppression of language barriers for
internationals while talking to a taxi driver. I think this exercise is interesting
because it raises a question for us to think and we need to identify our own
problems within the situations.
Participation: Production of Space
This week focused on the production of space and it is the inspiration
for my first project. The representation of space is interesting to me, because
art can give a space a new meaning and transform it to a new space, which
are the relations of production. It is interesting to know the domination of
space by one group over another group. For my project, my idea is to do
busking street performance on public space. To occupy a space and assign a
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new behavior to a certain location, so the audience will participate and think
critically or questioning about the space, and what I am doing there. The
topic this week is really interesting to me. I really agree about the modes of
intervention for space. Especially to change assigned usage to fit the needs
of a group. For my project, buskers create an open stage on the street to
attract the tourist, so it fits the needs of entertaining the tourist as a local
attraction to people traveling to Hong Kong.
Fetishism Relational Aesthetics
In this weeks lecture, I found it interesting to hear how data has
become the medium that connects and separates human, and it might be the
new form of commodity fetishism. Nowadays, only images are the products
that are bought and sold to us, including those advertisements on media
online or offline. As human, without knowing the real process of how those
05 commodities are made, we are not aware of the background of the products
but only the final look of how it is like. This make me think critically of the
change of society through decades due to the change in technology. In my
opinion, people are lack in participating in everything, and the media is
controlling us too much, especially by the data. What we see becoming what
we want and what we peruse, but it isnt what we really want. This is what I
have been thinking after this lecture.
 What defines socially engaged art?
In this lecture, we studied the socially engaged art through several case
studies, what gave me the most impression was Ai Weiweis Fairytale from
2007. This piece of artwork was huge in terms of participation and it
engaged with people from both countries. I think this is an unique social
engagement, as there are 1001 unique personal experiences. This artwork is
06 inspiring to me because Ai Weiwei changes the relation between audience
and art. In this artwork, the audience and artwork affect each other from the
exchange of culture, language, knowledge, and different lifestyle. Therefore,
the artwork is not only about how it looks from the documentation, but the
interaction during that time and how people feel was the most important
thing. This artwork is a perfect example for me to understand what defines a
socially engaged artwork.
Structuralism
It is interesting that the lecture started with introducing the structural
semiotics, where a sign is used to refer to a meaning. At first I am confuse of
how it is related to structuralism, but when it continues to a deeper
conversation of the social contrast, I understand how it is related. I think it is
really interesting to see the correlation of MALE vs. FEMALE, and WORK
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vs. HOME, and to relate it to MALE and WORK, and FEMALE and
HOME. The society and culture has been structured through decades and
already has its own sign to people. When we see something, we know what
it means and what the term is related to, for example masculine and
feminine. This lecture makes me think more critically of how structuralism
determine what human think is real.
What are the immediate associations of feminism that come to my mind?
What comes into my mind of feminism during the lecture was the
ability of females, and how people see us. For girls who does weight lifting,
I heard a lot of people keep telling me that No, you are a girl, you shouldnt
do weights, otherwise you will be so buff, or people just think that I am too
masculine because I do what males do. This is also what bothers me a lot.
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Many people buy into the myth that weightlifting will make women bulky
In fact, it has numerous benefits for women and it definitely wont have this
effect if you do it the right way. People always have the stereotype that
women looks good when they are skinny, and man looks good when they are
muscular. This is what immediate associated to my mind when the professor
introduce this topic today.
 Psychoanalysis and Critical Theory
This is my favorite topic in this course, because I am always fascinating
about how people think in minds rather than the reality outside their minds,
especially in dreams. I always have weird dreams, and after understand the
dream work of condensation and displacement, I think I will be more aware
of the meanings in my dreams. Sometimes I wont think that they all have
some meanings, but when I really connect it to reality, actually those images
means something, either small or big, and it is usually my unconscious
09 thought.
It is also interesting to learn the defense mechanism for anxiety,
because I can apply those into real life. I agree to the defense mechanism of
reversal into the opposite, which a feeling that causes anxiety can be
turned into the opposite. Although sometime it might turn it to a negative
side, but it would be good to apply the mechanism when I feel something
negative. In my opinion, I think the idea of idealization wont be that
effective, because by idealizing something that is too extreme will make you
unconscious about reality, and it is sort of escaping reality for me.
Discipline & Control
For school, factory, prison, hospital, I realized all of these society
systems are similar in a way of how they function and organize. In fact,
people are always under the control of these societies, and the spread of
normalizing power throughout different institutions defines the disciplinary
society. It is really mind blowing that the main technology of control is the
10 computer, and that every individual can be tracked at all times, so there are
no exact privacy anymore ones we connected to the computer. Once we
connected to the computer, us as an individual become dividual like the
output of data. The data can always generate our preference and tracked
what we have been doing to control our future. For instance, our lives are
shaped and modulated moment by moment. It is also crucial that nowadays
people cant live without technology.