Afternoon my fellow Cushion crew, hope all is well

The paragraph I chose to translate was:

"The whole world is made to pass through the filter of the culture industry. The old experience of the movie-goer, who sees the world outside as an extension of the film he has just left (because the latter is intent upon reproducing the world of everyday perceptions), is now the producer’s guideline. The more intensely and flawlessly his techniques duplicate empirical objects, the easier it is today for the illusion to prevail that the outside world is the straightforward continuation of that presented on the screen. This purpose has been furthered by mechanical reproduction since the lightning takeover by the sound of film."

As you all know, I am rather fond of bright colours and the odd fabulous photo. I therefore chose to interpret my paragraph in a the the style of a mood-board.

-Leanne

Hello, Jenna here!
For this week's portfolio task, I chose to translate paragraph 2:

"Under monopoly all mass culture is identical, and the lines of its artificial framework begin to show through. The people at the top are no longer so interested in concealing monopoly: as its violence becomes more open, so its power grows. Movies and radio need no longer pretend to be art. The truth that they are just business is made into an ideology in order to justify the rubbish they deliberately produce. They call themselves industries; and when their directors’ incomes are published, any doubt about the social utility of the finished products is removed."

I intitally set out with the plan of turning it into a quirky little limerick but soon stumbled across the problem of a lack of syllables within which to get my point across! So my creation is still somewhat in the limerick format, with a few variations to the rules. Here we go...

Within monopoly all culture is the same,
It's the people at the top we all need to blame.
As violence is exposed
So the power grows
And profit is the name of the game.

Poignant and beautiful, I think you'll agree! Haha
Over and out

Prepare yourselves for an emotion-filled poem...

Ahoy there Cushioners!
I, like many others, decided to take a stab at being a poet for the day, pretty much reminding me how I am not aspiring to be the next Dylan Thomas. However, I have somewhat succeeded in rhyming, moreso not, though.

ORIGINAL
"The sociological theory that the loss of the support of objectively established religion, the dissolution of the last remnants of pre-capitalism, together with technological and social differentiation or specialisation, have led to cultural chaos is disproved every day; for culture now impresses the same stamp on everything."

My beautiful interpretation:

"The idea that religion is declining,
Capitalism is dominating,
Society is developing,
Have all led to cultural chaos,
Is proved untrue.
As we all live in a world with the same cultural values."

- Carys.

erm..

Hi after being delegated (i think) the second paragraph to the first section, the only idea i could come up with is a poem after literally hours of brainstorming. Though whether you'd actually call it a poem when only 2 of the 3 lines rhyme is debatable

anyway here is the original-
"Films, radio and magazines make up a system which us uniform as a whole and in every part. Even the aesthetic activities of political opposites are one in their enthusiastic obedience to the rhythm of the iron system. The decorative industrial management buildings and exhibiton centers in authoritarian countries are much the same as anywhere else."

and my attempt at a poem...

'Films, radio and TV, all strive to conform
as differences yield to obedience, no one dares to outperform,
embellished buildings hint at a total aspiration.'

don't laugh

Ben

Hi - Laura here!


Right, I've done paragraph 4. I too have unleashed my bard skills and have written a poem:

Man eats

Man sleeps

Man works all day

Man comes home,

And needs to play,

TV tells politics

Of planet zog

Man not arsed

And wanders off

TV then shows gripping thriller:

He ate, he slept, he worked…

He was being watched!

Man watches show

With utter fixation

The academic takes note:

Use and gratification?

Awww I really wanted to do a video interpretation of this - but that ruddy thing called time got in the way. I've got to whizz off now - interviewing the Cardiff Blues rugby team this afternoon (I hope they're a bit phwoar!)

Mass culture or mass power?

For the portfolio task this week, I chose to adapt point two of the Adorno and Horkheimer extract, attempting to create a poem! It was difficult to rhyme it, but I got there in the end...even if the rhyme scheme is a bit sporadic.

The original text from Adorno,T. and M. Horkheimer (1994) "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception" in The Dialectic of Enlightenment, New York: Seabury Press, is below for a reminder:

"Under monoploy all mass culture is identical, and the lines of its artificial framework begin to show through. The people at the top are no longer so interested in concealing monopoly: as its violence becomes more open, so its power grows. Movies and radio need no longer pretend to be art. The truth that they are just business is made into an ideology in order to justify the rubbish they deliberately produce. They call themselves industries; and when their directors' incomes are published, any doubt about the social utility of the finished products is removed."

I changed the above, into a more basic form, and after hours of tediously rhyming words and not getting anywhere, the outcome is this (below)...the point it makes is clear however:

"When a business controls the market, all the profit goes to one,
and all the public see is rubbish, for the "work" that had been done.
They don't care about hiding their power, and masking their money scheme,
their production is a masquerade and nothing is as it may seem. "

Well there you go...another portfolio task closer to Christmas....I enjoyed this one a lot!
Thanks cushioneers,

-Kendra

Capitalism: The Never-ending Lie

So, I got paragraph 5 of Adorno and Horkheimer's list of paragraphs. In case you're wondering just what that is, it's:

The culture industry perpetually cheats its consumers of what it perpetually promises. The promissory note which, with its plots and staging, it draws on pleasure is endlessly prolonged; the promise, which is actually all the spectacle consists of, is illusory: all it actually confirms is that the real point will never be reached, that the diner must be satisfied with the menu. In front of the appetite stimulated by all those brilliant names and images there is finally set no more than a commendation of the depressing everyday world it sought to escape.

Which I interpreted and wrote into a song that goes to the melody of Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves. It doesn't really rhyme, and sure, there are even instances where the rhythm isn't right, but let's pretend everything is lovely and perfect. :D

Initially, I wanted to do a nice karaoke/sing-a-long video kind of thing, but I soon discovered that that was just way too complicated, so I ended up doing something really lame instead by using lots of images I got from Google (Yes, all the pictures I used are from searching with Google Images except the background), putting them all together with Adobe Photo Elements and getting the timing and music right with Windows Movie Maker. Fun!

The dream that is always played to us is but a lie.
Capitalists, they promise, but that dream still dies.
It never really exists, just in our mind.
Perpetual lies - it happens all of the time.

That's capitalism, woah!
That's capitalism, woah!
That's capitalism, woah!
And it doesn't do good!

Our hopes are built up and then they come crashing straight down.
All we've got left is depressing - reality.
But didn't they say we'd be happy everyday? No, no, no.
But that's what they told me - yes, happy everyday.

That's capitalism, woah!
That's capitalism, woah!
That's capitalism, woah!
And it doesn't do good!

♥ Sue-Anne

Our video extravaganza!!!

Ah the cushion club blog... seems like a while since I last posted here! But here goes... The Paragraph that myself and Danielle decided to translate was number 7.

All are free to dance and enjoy themselves, just as they have been free, since the historical neutralisation of religion, to join any of the innumerable sects. But freedom to choose an ideology - since ideology always refletcs economic coercion - everywhere proves to be freedom to choose what is always the same.

The most intimate reactions of human beings have been so thoroughly reified that the idea of anything specific to themselves now persists only as an abstract notion: personality scarcely signifies anything more than shining white teeth and freedom from body odour and emotions. The triumph of advertising in the culture industry is that consumers feel compelled to buy and use its products even though they see through them.

In order to be creative we decided to make a video (don't judge us lol) it was more fun than just translating it :) Anywho this is our visual interpretation of the paragraph ... Enjoy

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kIZ6uv3y0_U

-Amanda

*Portfolios a go-go

*Dunno why I called it that.....

Anyway, yay, back writing on the dear Cushion club blog :) , this time for portfolio entry number seven no less, how time has flown....This is the passage I chose to translate;

'Not only are the hit songs, stars, and soap operas cyclically recurrent and rigidly invariable types, but the specific content of the entertainment itself is derived from them and only appears to change. The details are interchangeable. The short interval sequence which was effective in a hit song, the hero's momentary fall from grace (which he accepts as good sport), the rough treatment which the beloved gets from the male star, the latter's rugged defiance of the spoilt heiress, are, like all other details, ready made cliches to be slotted in anywhere; they never do anything more than fulfil the purpose allotted them in the overall plan.'

Adorno, T. and M. Horkheimer (1944) 'The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception' in The Dialetic of Enlightenment, New York: Seabury Press

Being instructed to be as creative as possible, it took me a while but then inspiration struck, and I decided to translate the passage into a poem, more specifically into a Haiku. Haikus are a japanese form of poetry, consisting of three lines with five syllables in the first and third lines and seven syllables in the second line. This is what I managed to come up with:

Soaps, stars and hit songs
Are designed to entertain
Their content can change.

Creative? Displays flair? Maybe, but although haikus might only consist of three lines they can take long enough to come up with!

Happy Blogging! :)

Harriet C.

*The final countdown...

Afternoon all- I e-mailed our personal tutor, whose name conveniently found its way into our group name (Stephen Cushion in case anyone's been having a few heavy nights and can't really remember- not suggesting you're all alcoholics or anything, ....I'll keep digging...).
Anyway, Stephen said he teaches until four but I got the impression that he was going to try and come some time after that so everyone keep an eye out!

See you guys on monday :) !

*(Sorry- didn't mean to make that sound foreboding. Cracking song though.)

Here's Harri...!

Hey guys! Bit random but just thought I'd post a little something for my first ever blog!! Exciting, I know.
Actually, researching this topic (mine being Harry Potter) has made me wonder what new and fabulous, well most likely disturbing pieces of fan art and fan fiction will arise, once the next film is released! Aaaagh soon be back to Hogwarts again- is it just me or did anyone actually wish there was a wizarding school you could go to? Flying lessons or trigonometry? Hmm......

Anyway, see you soon, fellow cushioners- not long now, the excitement builds by the hour...... :)

At last! I’ve found my topic.

After literally hours on the internet googling all of the films, TV shows and actors that I could think of, (okay I may have ventured onto Facebook, but it wasnt for long, promise) I stumbled across one fan forum, and immediately knew that it was the one for me.
I reluctantly registered with the forum (the title “Desperate Fans” managed to put me off a little, but I thought, as its all in the name of research of course, I'll just go with it) and it claimed to be “The oldest and largest Desperate Housewives fansite”.
I’m not the biggest desperate housewife fan, I must admit, (though I couldn’t resist posting “Edie Britt is a legend” on quite a few forum pages) but I still really enjoyed watching some of the fan-made videos, compiled of clips from the series’ and from public events in which the actors have attended. There are hundreds of pictures, videos and stories posted on this site. It also makes me think that Despo would be a pretty good cultural object to look at for my essay... hmm, is it too late to change my plan now?
But anyway, with a lot to catch up on after transferring from Birmingham, I better get cracking!
- Danielle.

You guessed it... It's that time of the week again!

It may be freezing outside but the Cushion club doesn't let that stop them being cheerful!

Like old friends ...

Ben loves the cushion club!

He may be new but he fits right in :P

Someone's been busy...

Maybe the worst picture EVER but demonstrates how cold we were....

Awww the weekly meeting of the masses! I can't help but feel sad that after next weeks presentation they shall be no more :( Anywho, i'll save my sentimental ramblings for another time...

This weeks meeting in true Cushion Club style took place in the one and only Bute cafe, and boy had people been busy! Leanne showed us her creative side by unveiling the first part (of many) of what will grace our board, and provided us with paper of many colours so we can all do our bit for the display. So a big thank you from everyone to her! We also decided upon what to actually put on the board...and in front of... No awards for guessing what that'll be really :P

This weeks meeting also saw the first appearance of our two new members, it seems the Cushion club has grown in popularity, but as the saying goes the more the merrier! Just good luck guys in choosing a topic! And horrah Kendra was this week in attendance, the team was let down however by Nick, who i'm guessing after seeing out last night was probably nursing a hangover! But cummon thats no excuse for not turning up.

Our next meeting will take place on friday, this time in the Bute library...oh controversial! All members are obliged to bring their creations so we can put them all together into one giant board of prettiness, the more we get done then the more we can have a relaxing weekend before the dreaded presentation.

-Amanda

It's a long one!

Evening all - Laura here!

Hope you don't mind, I've been starting to think about some slides to put up on our board. I've been playing around and have come up with something like this: (these are four individual slides I've just squished up next to each other)


I'm really not sure about it - I like it, but not confident you guys will! I'm happy to redesign or if somebody else fancies having a go that's fine too :-)
What I thought, was if we have a presentation board, we could put the blown up slides with the questions on- and then for some of them present visual answers. For example:
what kind of creative output is there? - we could surround this with pictures of output from all the different areas we are individually researching. Apart from being interesting, it should look good!

I've been thinking about this a lot - and I think there are two areas that we haven't covered enough yet - we need more specific info on what kind of similar research has gone on before (meeting Matt Hills would help us with this). And also - why should anyone give a dam about fan output, let alone study it?
I have my own opinions on this (mainly that the fans may well be the next generation of media producers, and it's good to keep an eye on what direction we're going in). But I bet a lot of you have your own ideas - maybe we could discuss this at the next meet?

Anyhoo, sorry for the long blog - lots of things whizzing around my head!

p.s who thinks we should have cushions at our presentation (would we get marked down for unprofessionalism?)

ooooh and p.s.s. Please could you all email me pictures of fan creativity, of any kind - I'm gonna see if I can put them all together.

The Jonas Brothers' fans are like, mental.

Make note, its Wales- the sun is shining.
Good times.
Today the Cushion Club were back in business and back in Bute.

After recovering Laura from her near-death experience (damn Cardiff and its lack of care for cyclists!!), we took a stroll to our favourite café a la Bute.
Thanks to
- Carys
- Jenna
- Sue-Anne
- Nick
- Ben
- Harriet
- Laura
and of course Amanda
who all attended, where art thou Kendra? And does anyone even know if random-email-guy is actually on the course?! No? Moving on.

Today we found out which particular area each person is researching and also who has signed up to fan sites.
So far we have

Harry Potter


Anne Rice


Britney Spears


Tim Burton


Star Wars


The Jonas Brothers



We reached the solid conclusion that the ‘willy nilly’ research must now stop and order must resume. Crowning Laura our methodical leader, we have devised a set of questions that we will each apply to our certain areas of fandom.

1. What mediums of creative output do fans produce?
2. What part does the online community play in the support of these outputs?
3. What is the value of the finished product?
4. Does the product ever affect the original source of fandom?

These questions help us to focus on what has been most under-researched in fandom, including fans creative outputs. Although many texts have been found on fandom and online communities, we found little focus on fans creativity and how they display it.

Next Wednesday we will compare and contrast our findings, maybe even buy some shiny coloured paper and start some fabness for the presentation.

See you next week guys.

- Leanne

Settled.

After a lot of Googling and a lot of link-clicking and a lot of thinking, I've finally found something I'm satisfied with...

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Anne Rice
But in particular...

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Her Vampire Chronicles

(You could feel the suspense, couldn't you? :p)
This website is what convinced me though, because I found it really interesting how the people who run it pose as actual characters from the book series (my favourite character's Lestat :D). The forum they run even has a "Get to know your hosts" section where members can ask the "hosts" (who are the characters) questions which are answered by the "hosts" in the exact way the character would answer it. It's really weird and strangely intriguing. :D

Kay, that's all. See you guys tomorrow?

♥ Sue-Anne

Hazaar ! I have decided on a topic!

After much deliberation I have decided that Tim Burton be my topic of choice. For all of you who are unaware of Tim Burton let me explain... Director of great movies such as Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare before Christmas and most recently Sweeney Todd, Tim's work has become legendary amoungst movie go-ers everywhere and has earnt him a cult-status amoungst fans. "And are you one of these creepy fans, Amanda?" I hear you cry! Indeed I am... (gotta consider yourself pretty hardcore after standing in the rain for hours waiting for him and Johnny Depp to turn up at the Sweeney Todd premiere) Now I know what your thinking... he looks like a bit of a nutter! But lets face it, the "eccentric" look's earnt him millions of dollars throughout his career, so he must be doing something right!

Part of the decision to choose Tim Burton (apart from being a fan of his work) came from the fact the other eager members of The Cushion Club, chose themes in the television and music categories. Choosing someone who inhabits both the film world and in particular Movie Direction just shows the diversity of topics covered by the online community network.

But what has this homage to Mr.Burton got to do with Online Communities, well I decided to join one of his many online fan blog sites: http://www.timburtoncollective.com/forum/ so I too could visit the realms of the adoring fan, even if some of the members do scare me slightly with their enthusiasm and dodgy (in every sense of the word) story rewrites :P

It's Britney Bitch.

She came. She sang. She shaved. She’s back.

Britney Spears is one of the most famous music icons of the nineties and naughties. After an immensely followed public breakdown she’s back and using the internet to re-launch herself. In less than a week her newly made social networking site has gained 18,641 followers (18,642 with me!)- by the way this is before the site has even been promoted! The launch of the new britneyspears.com saw over a million hits in 24 hours, Britney herself even got in on the action by posting videos for the fans.

So any who, before I whittle on any further- this is deal.
Team Britney have created a VIP blog, launched a new central fan site, signed up to a twitter account AND created a youtube account devoted solely to an up-close and personal (non-paparazzi) follow of the Britsters life.

The picture above is a fans attempt to create a new album cover for the upcoming 'Circus' album, I think it's fabulous. Very pop-art-warhol-esque.

Using the internet to re-launch a career and create a new following with a community of fans? I’m there.
Booyah Britney.

-Leanne

You'll never guess what I've chosen......NOT! ;-)

Ello all! Laura here!

I've been looking around the fan art section of http://www.doctorwhoforum.com/ and have found loads of interesting stuff. There's every kind of art you can think of, some of it pants, some of it fantastic. I've used my proud D in Graphics AS level, to put a few pages together of examples.

This first one is just a mix match of stuff I found. From DVD covers, to my fave, which is the Wicked Witch of the East underneath the TARDIS.

The picture below, shows one mans gradual progress in building a 3D spaceship. About once a week, he would put up a picture of how far he had got, and other forum posters would make suggestions and, more often than not, criticize!

From what I have seen, nobody gets any money for any of their artwork - they just do it for fun!

Ahhh - and I look like such a geek in this post. I don't normally eye up spaceships in my spare time - I prefer bar men!

Anybody else found anything like this? (fan art, not bar men)!

My Choice Is Made

Hi everyone,Jenna here!
As the theme of our presentation was now decided upon,I went away in search of a forum on a particular aspect of the media to join as part of our research into fandom.
The inspiration for my choice of forum came on Saturday night when I attended The Mighty Boosh live! As I was sat there in the front row, taking extremely close-up and zoomed in photos of Noel Fielding worryingly frequently, I thought that this show might be an appropriate and relevant choice. Aside from my own personal obsession, I was also aware of "Cheekbone" magazine - an online magazine, purely made for and created by the fans of the Boosh - a perfect example of a creative output which I thought could be beneficial to our presentation.
So as I sat there on Sunday, contemplating how amazing last night was, I found a Mighty Boosh forum, joined up, and let the research commence...

We <3 the Cushion Club !

Today (15th/10/08) was a productive day for the Cushion Club. After meeting in the coffee shop of the Bute Building,

Leanne
Harriet
Jenna
Nick
Ben
Carys
Sue-Anne
Laura
and
Amanda
met to discuss ideas for the topic of our presentation. Unfortunately Kendra was unable to attend due to circumstances beyond her control, which has been understood by the group.

The main focus of our meeting (besides completing this week's portfolio task) was to discuss our ideas for our presentation. After much deliberation the group settled on the theme of Fan Communities and their creative output.
Collectively we decided that amongst academics the topic of fan creativity has failed to be studied in much depth. We have decided to look into the way fans actively respond to media by looking at online forums. There are several questions that need researching. What is the value of the fan fiction and art that fans post online? Does this alter or influence at all ,the way the programme is made. And what do people use fandom for?

We decided that in order to examine this topic further we could look at many different aspects of the media ranging from books and magazines to films, TV and music and decided that our task before next week was to each pick an example of one of these types of media content and join a 'fandom' forum based upon it.

This pretty much sums up this week's festivities... and what do we have to show for our efforts ? Photo's of course !!!!

Deep in concentration...

The guys are happy to work :)

Laura loves her metro!

Leanne makes 'The pyramid of cultural power' cool !

What an attractive bunch we are !

-Amanda

Our First Meeting...

It's official 'The Cushion Club' is up and running...

Today saw our first meeting (of hopefully many) in Solus in the Student Union. Due to a serious lack of free tables the group opted for the standing option as we joined in general chit-chat and discussed our possible ideas for a reasearch topic. Our ideas mainly focused around all things Cushion themed, but realising the overall lack of these subjects we decided to think outside the box a little and return at the same time next week with our, what i'm sure will be brilliant, ideas.

We were able to gather photographic evidence of the 'event' including pictures of those all important cushions! (Genuine lack of might i add guys... next week i expect everyone to bring one!)

SMILE!

Lovin' the Union

Very Nice Cushion Modelling

Although not everyone in our group attended a big thanks to Leanne, Sue-Anne, Carys, Harriet, Amanda, Jenna and last but not least Kendra, who all showed up to show their support.

-Amanda

Thank you!!

I'm happy "The cushion club" has got started now, we're going to have to meet up together and get started with the research etc.

WE HAVE A BLOG !

Well i thought i'd get the ball rolling and create the blog... very crappy i know, and for that i apologise...