Theme 2: Critical media studies (Before)

1a.
Enlightenment in this context is the acquirement of knowledge which will bring the beholder towards the truth or to a deeper understanding of an objects relation to the world which surrounds it. Enlightenment means in other words to break free from disillusions of the world.

1b.
Dialectic is the art, or science, of investigating truth. The term is used differently by different philosophers and the field ranges from investigating whether objects hold absolute truth to the methods through which one might acquire truth.

1c&d.
Nominalism has its origin in the question whether an object can hold truth. Its answer is that no object will hold truth independently but that the features which we ascribe to objects are features of their own and not absolutely inherent within an object. These features are not reality themselves but abstractions of reality.

This approach is important in Adorno & Horkheimers text since it is the base of their argument. Nominalism means detaching oneself from illusions of the world and is, in their argument, the way towards enlightenment. The illusions which we've created to explain our world is what they call myth. That objects hold a quality similar to the "aura" which Benjamin describes and that this is a "myth". The myth is a division which estranges us from the world as it is. The myth upholds the concepts of religion and fate, incommensurables that stand in the way of enlightenment.

--------------------

2a.
What I think Benjamin means is that the Superstructure of communism implies that the power of production is more equally distributed among its societies citizens. The capitalist approach means emphasizing superstructure (the power comes from above) so that the substructures are controlled, or rather dominated. The emphasis from a marxist point of view is to let the substructures define the superstructure. That is the relations between people on a lower level will define the culture and political life of the marxist state. He suggests that theses of art of the proletariat, situated in the substructures, will inhibit the fascination of concepts related to that of the strong individual, inherent in fascism.

2b.
I believe it is Benjamins opinion that culture may enlighten the individual together with the mass, and therefore empower them to take action. The art of film especially may give the individual insight both to the reality of what is depicted as well as it's aesthetic and philosophical values, Benjamin seems to argue. The clarity with which film both separates and intertwines reality and myth is what is so powerful of this art. In contrast Adorno & Horkheimer argues that the blatant mass production of films that are created for the mere purpose of entertainment gives the individual no intellectual nor cultural insight but rather deceives him, withholding him from contemplation and, as a consequence, from knowledge and truth.

2c.
Benjamin defines naturally determined objects as those that are of a permanent nature. Historically determined is anything which is more open to interpretation and which will change over time since interpretation is a process which is dependent on the culture which the beholder is a part of. Knowledge, for example, may change the meaning of an object. What something symbolizes in one culture might symbolize or mean something different in another. An example of my own is that of the perception of tone quality in a musical context. What is now perceived as "joyful" notes (major scale) was once perceived as "sad" in many church hymns and probably in other contexts as well. Benjamin might have considered musical notes to be naturally determined but the distinction is hard to make.

2d.
In the knowledge of an object it might be presupposed that not everything can be known (only what we can perceive can be known) and to that effect when something holds the same appearance it might seem as it holds all the same qualities yet some qualities which may be hard to grasp, or perceive, may be part of that objects more important characteristics. So with the absence of ”aura”, deprived of the object in the mechanical process of reproduction, knowledge of that object will be lost. For objects of art the context in which they are in and by whom and in what way they are observed effects both the appearance and the possible diminishing or absence of aura. It is in the interpreters perception that the aura comes forth. Natural objects differ from those of art, Benjamin argues, since they hold "permanence and uniqueness" and may be observed in an untampered way ("seen by the unarmed eye"). Again, I believe this distinction will be hard to hold upon further investigation since the beholder will always perceive on the basis of previous experiences.