Circuit of Culture

Hello!

Since Dr. Ivan breifly mentioned the circuit of culture, I thought I would share my notes on it from another module. Paul du Gay's notion of a circuit of culture is an attempt to rethink how cultural forms work. It is a model different from the production produces consumption model (unidirectional, deterministic). Each moment has a very important relationship with another moment. The way to fully comprehend a cultural product is to take into account all of the 5 moments and their articulation (the connection between the moments/the process where the moments will form temporary or meaningful unities). The 5 moments are as follows:

-1. Representation: how signs are used to present a meaningful concept (e.g. advertisement)

-2. Production: how does the product come to be/how is it made

-3. Consumption: how this product is used, what meaning people give to it when they use it, what kind of social context it is used. Often consumption happens in very different contexts

-4. Identity: once meaning is constructed, how is the product used to construct individual/group identity. Often created through the assertion of sameness and difference. Also reproduced through systems of representation. Often incomplete (e.g. if you identify yourself as singaporean, you are missing out other identities such as male/female, chinese).

-5. Regulation: not just government (e.g. censorship). To do with the norms and values of society. Influences how the products come to exist in society.

In his article, Gay uses the example of Sony Walkman to illustrate the 5 moments and their articulation. I'll be using the case study of Apple to illustrate the 5 moments.

What’s in a Name? i

-encampulastes contemporary cultural capitalism

-nobody knows what the “I” in ipod means.

            -central to the company’s image

            -”I”: individual, intelligence, internet, etc

Representing Apple

-The “1984” Commercial. (you can watch it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhsWzJo2sN4)

-“It had broken every rule of the advertising  game.”

            -only tells the product at the end of the commercial

-draws on knowledge of Orwell’s 1984

-IBM (Big Blue) was the “Darth Vader of the digital world.”

- IBM: international business machine

-corporate, bureaucratic, compartmentalized, entrenched, hierarchical.

-Apple was “friendliness, flexibility and adaptability to creative work.”

-Lady: the one to break IBM’s monopoly, to end “big brother” regime

-creative people, men and women, integrated life, casual, informal.

-“Buying is revolutionary”

            -Oxymoron. If you buy apple computers, you can go against big brother.

-substantial impact (when it was released, 200 000 were sold)

-Think Different (1995-2000)

-PC vs Mac (2006-2009)

Apple Identities: The Cult of Macintosh

-Steven P. Jobs (1955-2011).

            -his identity is tied to apple

-Eulogies at his resignation late last month:

            "Steve Jobs was the Leonardo da Vinci of our age” (The Straits Times)

-Brand cult – akin to religion

-The Creation Myth

            -he has been liken to Jesus

            - biography titled the second coming of steve

-The Hero Myth

- Steve Jobs as the new American hero

-Epitomized Silicon Valley capitalism

The Satanic Myth

-ibm as satan

-Evangelizing

-“Macheads”

-consumption of product becomes part of their identity.

 Consuming Apple

-mobile music.

-1.Music soundtrack, song selection.

-More control over music and song selection.

-2. Portable jukebox, portable music collection.

-Facilitates greater social interaction around music.

3. Mix and match tracks.

-Create soundtracks and mixtapes unconstrained by CD or tape.

 -music has become mobile (in a greater way) and social

-the ways in which people end up using ipod shows how products go beyond their initial meaning

Design – Articulating Production and Consumption

-Look and functionality of the iPod.

-Individual and social uses.

-Links visual appearance, through tactile engagement, to aural immersion.

-Apple: design, systems integration, marketing.

-Others: technological research.

-“It struck me as so unbelievable that these incredibly great people had come together to make this collective work of art.”—Steve Jobs on the Apple II in 1984, Good Guys and Bad Guys, Joe Nocera.

Producing the iPod and iPhone

-“reflecting the global way business works today” (Mail on Sunday)

-Globalization, and out-sourcing.

-Just in time production.

-obscures the actual production of the products

-Foxconn: Taiwanese company

-Suicides of factory workers

-these suicides could potentially undermine the image that apple has carefully crafted

Regulation of Culture – Piracy.

-Ownership of culture, intellectual property, fair use, digital technology.

-Diminishing of the space for creative cultural exchanges and free scientific communications.

-Greater surveillance of cultural consumption.

-Stifling of technological innovation.

-Retardation of the digital economy.

- Lawrence Lessig: for fair use of intellectual property

-“Rip. Mix. Burn” slogan from 2001

-Music industry saw it as an endorsement of priacy

-Debate over intellectual property, music, copyright

-Rip, mix, burn: users can be producers. Playing with the distinction between producer and consumer.

-The slogan was changed later.

-Now apple has iTunes and it sells music.

-Apple has changed positions in the debate over cultural production/copyright/intellectual property rights

            -apple from counter culture to large corporation

-changing identity as it becomes more popular

I hope this short example of Apple illustrates the 5 moments of the circuit of culture. If you wish to read Gay's work on the circuit of culture and Sony Walkman, you can locate it in Central Library. The title is Doing cultural studies : the story of the Sony Walkman (1997), ISBN 0761954015 (cased) \ 0761954023 (pbk). 

 

Cheers,

Kai Lin

 

Disclaimer: All of the above are notes that I have taken during a lecture for a sociology module, SC2214. All copyright belong to their respective owners.