Collanisation
(Collanise - to establish a colony in another country or place)
Possibly sybolised by the 2nd World War when different ways of thinking were recognised, revolutionary ideas and styles in art, architecture, and literature developed as a reaction to traditional forms. The old ideas of the so called taste makes who dictated what was right and wrong, i.e. the rich were disgarded and a new era of new free thinking surfaced.
Liquid Moderism (fluid, constantly changes)
Is there a point in time when modernisation became apparent, or is it how some say "liquid modernisation" which constantly changes along with fashion trends and new and upcoming ideas and artists who influence us, i.e. Banksey recently changed a large proportion of the populations view on graffiti, whether its considered art or vandalism or just another method of free speach.
Does the majority of the human race feel that science is the only logical explanation, giving us control over our own destiny, giving us purpose and meaning and making us the higher spieces; making man master of the universe.
Or is this just arrogance and having a very narrow minded view on things, whereas religion puts us in perspective, being a tiny speck in time. The idea of our destiny already mapped out for us and we have no control. For some people religion give confort as everything happens for a reason and if your a good person your spirit goes to heaven.
Nurse suspended for offering to pray for elderly patient's recovery
A nurse has been suspended from her job for offering to pray for an elderly patient's recovery from illness.
Caroline Petrie, a committed Christian, has been accused by her employers of failing to demonstrate a "personal and professional commitment to equality and diversity".
She faces disciplinary action and could lose her job over the incident.
She faces disciplinary action and could lose her job over the incident.
The Nursing Midwifery Council code states that 'you must demonstrate a personal and professional commitment to equality and diversity' and 'you must not use your professional status to promote causes that are not related to health.
This article really shocked me that someone might get offended for someone caring enough to pray for them to get better. I'm an athiest, but I feel that prayers are good kind thoughts and that even though its not proven to make people better I feel that positive thinking and having people that love and care around you can be the difference between getting better and not getting better. Although if I was very ill and my nurse offered to pray for me I would instantly think that all science and logic had been exhausted and there was no hope for me. Even though I know its ment to be a kind gesture I would be especially offended if my doctor offered to pray for me, as I would feel that he couldnt do his job properly.
World War 1 had massive impact on societies view of Art; previous to the war art was thought to be something beautiful to be admired by the rich. After the War art and design was used to support progress and to be good for the population, there now was the question "what was the point of art?" design focused more on practical needs and function, so called ugly buildings i.e. tower blocks were constructed, this also raised issues about technology and the modern world being linked to brutality, creating public eye sores and society loosing the once appreciated skills and attention to detail which was thought to define Englands society; high society was diminising along with the taste makers and snobbery in art.
Marshall McLuhan
McLuhan's theories consisted of a core of related propositions. He argued that human communication media are extensions of one or more of the senses and that use of these media re-arranges the sensory balance by stressing one sense over another. The self-definition of a culture (or a person) can thus be traced, says McLuhan, to the media that the culture relies on. To emphasize the importance of the sensory reorganization imposed by a medium, McLuhan claimed that "the medium is the message," which he later extended to the metaphor that "the medium is the massage."
In The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man (1951), written before McLuhan's theories had reached their full development, he demonstrates the ideologies that are invisibly (and therefore influentially) built into the content and structure of popular culture. Drawing mainly upon newspaper and magazine advertising, McLuhan argued that images of mechanical technology had come to dominate popular consciousness, so that human beings reduced themselves to mechanical and instrumental objects.
McLuhan became famous with the publication of Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964). He argued that "the medium is the message," in the sense that the 'message' of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs. The railway did not introduce movement or transportation or wheel or road into human society, but it accelerated and enlarged the scale of previous human functions, creating totally new kinds of cities and new kinds of work or leisure. This happened whether the railway functioned in a tropical or a northern environment, and is quite independent of the freight or content of the railway medium. The airplane, on the other hand, by accelerating the rate of transportation, tends to dissolve the railway form of city, politics, and association, quite independently of what the airplane is used for.
The way that cultures view space in art throughout history says a lot about culture,below are Chinese and Russian paintings, theses both have a very flat perspective. Both these countries were Romantised in the 1980's this may have been because both these places weren't really traveled to at this time and so were thought to be mysterious.
Now we seem to have a culture where all countries are becoming the same (homogenity) in dress, shops, image and language.
The virtual self such as in 2nd life gives people the opportunity to be whoever they want to be in apperance and actions.
The maternity corset was invented in the Victorian era to stop women looking pregnant, this was life threatening to the baby and mum in order to look more acceptable in society and still fit into the fashionable clothes.
What is the ultimate spieces and why?
Even though every culture has major differences, through the media it shows we all aspire to the same image. With the constant stream of the perfect body on the TV, magazines, adverts, newspapers throughout the world, are we just conditioning ourselves as a race to only except and promote certain types of people? In the next 200 years is our plant just going to have one race of tall slender tanned people all with perfect features, straight teeth, and no expresion because everyones injected on a weekly basis with botox to stay young.
In our culture we're never content, never good enough, always needing the latest clothes, in the sales we buy things we dont need because we feel were getting a good deal and missing out if we dont, it seems we're all searching for happiness but we have no idea where to find it so we follow the media and try to fit into the steriotype that they've created.
Plastic surgery is now shockingly considered normal, even for under 18's. We've created a culture through airbrushed images and the constant reminder of perfection in magazines and TV, that if you dont like something about yourself you can mutulate your body and get it fixed. This culture originated from America where the likes of marylin monroe were completly manufactured. With her actual name being Norma Jeane Mortenson, her mother was declared insane and she was molested by her step father she was married at 16 and throughout her life was married and divorced 5 times and died at 36 after taking an overdose.
She had surgery on her chin and nose. Monroe went through plastic surgery in 1946, when she signed a contract with Twentieth Century-Fox Studios and an agent suggested Norma should become Marilyn to boost her career. After that Norma Jean Baker changed her name to Marilyn Monroe, dyed her hair and underwent rhinoplasty to make her bulbous nose more feminine and delicate. She was also made to wear heels where one was shorter than the other to give her a wiggle when she walked.
Jane Fonda is also seen to be a symbol of youth in older age, being the face of an anti-ageing skin cream, but it seems ironic that she has had surgery.
Japanese foot binding
Foot binding was a custom practiced on young girls and women for approximately one thousand years in China, beginning in the 10th century and ending in the early 20th century.
Foot-binding resulted in lifelong disabilities for most of its victims, though as the practice waned in the early 20th century, some girls' feet were released after initial binding, leaving less severe deformities. However, some effects of foot-binding were permanent, especially if a girl's arches or toes had been broken or other drastic measures taken in order to achieve the desired smallness. In the 1990s and early 2000s, some elderly Chinese women still suffered from disabilities related to bound feet.
Foot-binding resulted in lifelong disabilities for most of its victims, though as the practice waned in the early 20th century, some girls' feet were released after initial binding, leaving less severe deformities. However, some effects of foot-binding were permanent, especially if a girl's arches or toes had been broken or other drastic measures taken in order to achieve the desired smallness. In the 1990s and early 2000s, some elderly Chinese women still suffered from disabilities related to bound feet.
It really seems stupid that smaller feet would be so important, but the pressures society put on women where it actually ment that women with smaller feet would get the better jobs and husbands made it quite a sick reality.
If we dont fit into society where do we go?
If we dont fit into an image driven steriotype society do we have an option to go anywhere else? If people were seen to be different 100 years ago they were often locked up, thought to be crazy, even in Salem witch trials people who had read hair, freckles or to be slightly odd where hung as witches.
Do we define ourselves by putting ourselves in opposition to others? and if so is it just human nature to want to be better? if everyone looked the same would the human become extinct?
