Identity, Modernity and Culture

An International Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Conference for the Arts

Schedule

4 December 2015 | 2015 12 4

Welcoming Address

Prof. Joshua Mok Ka-ho Chair Professor of Comparative Policy

Vice-President, Lingnan University

Prof. Sun Yifeng

Professor, Department of Translation

Director, Centre for Humanities Research

Dean, Faculty of Arts, Lingnan University

LBYG01 | 9:15 a.m.

Keynote Speech (in English)

Fighting Amnesia, Constructing Hope: Reading Iris Changs The Rape of Nanking and Marjorie Chans a nanjing winter

Prof. Shan Te-hsing Distinguished Research Fellow, Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica

LBYG01 | 9:45 a.m.

Panel: Hong Kong Identity (LKKG03 | 11:00 a.m. 12:30 p.m.)

Chair: Nina Ng (Department of Fine Arts, Chinese

University of Hong Kong)

This is Hong Kong: Shaping Hong Kongs Image Overseas, 1959-1965 (James Fellows, Department of History, Lingnan University)

Far More than Just a Fight against Corruption The Role of Fight Corruption Campaign in Hong Kongs Identity and Modernity (So Ka Hei, Department of History, Lingnan University)

Writing Hong Kong Outside 1997: Identity Crisis in Xu Xis The Unwalled City (Long Chao, Division of English, Nanyang Technological University)

Discussant: Prof. Shen Shuang (Department of

Comparative Literature, Pennsylvania State University)

(LKKG05 | 11:00 a.m. 12:30 p.m.)

Lunch Time (Lingnan Chinese Restaurant | 12:30 p.m.)

Panel: Children/Students/Participants as

Protagonists in the Construction of Knowledge in Education and Meaning of Art

(LKKG03 | 2:00 p.m. 3:30 p.m.)

Chair: Samson Wong (Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan University)

Connecting early childhood education with the

social constructivist perspective: nurturing young souls in the postmodern environment (Sandrine Chung, Psychological Studies, Hong Kong Institute

(LKKG05 | 2:00 a.m. 3:30 p.m.)

of Education) Two Pioneers in Teaching Ink Painting in Hong

Kong (Sheng Hung, Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan University)

Adapting Dewey's Proposal for Teacher-Student Relationship for Artist-Participant Relationship under Community Arts Settings (Samson Wong, Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan University)

Discussant: Prof. Sophia Law (Centre for Humanities

Research | Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan University)

Panel: Identity at the Turn of the Century

(LKKG03 | 4:00 p.m. 5:30 p.m.)

Chair: James Fellows (Department of History, Lingnan University)

Organized Oriental Vice: China, the

International Drugs Trade and the Reimagining of the Other in Early Twentieth Century Britain (Simon Case, Department of History, Lingnan University)

Exploring Multi-cultures of Shanghai: A Study on Shanghai Artists Sojourn in Japan in the Late Nineteenth Century (Nina Ng, Department of Fine Arts, Chinese University of Hong Kong)

The Rulers and the Ruled: Identity in a British Leased Territory in Northern China (Kong Rong, Department of History, Lingnan University)

Discussant: Prof. Poon Shuk-wah (Department of History, Lingnan University)

(LKKG05 | 4:00 p.m. 5:30 p.m.)

1941.5.161942.3.31

Welcoming Dinner (Lingnan Chinese Restaurant | 6:00 p.m.)

5 December 2015 | 2015 12 5

Panel: Image, Fiction and Identity (LKKG03 | 9:00 a.m. 10:30 a.m.)

Chair: Sheng Hung (Department of Visual Studies,

Lingnan University)

Perceptions of Otherness through Translating Semiotics: Chinese Calligraphy in Exhibition (Song Ge, Department of Translation, Lingnan University)

An Analysis of Milan Kunderas Ignorance from a Structuralist Perspective (Chen Yanyi, School of Foreign Languages, Shenzhen University)

A Study on the Relationship between Art and Cultural Contents (Kim Soyoung, Hankuk Univeristy of Foreign Studies)

Discussant: Ms. Zoie So (Department of Visual

Studies, Lingnan University) Discussant: Prof. Mary Wong (Centre for Humanities

Research | Department of Chinese, Lingnan University)

(LKKG05 | 9:00 a.m. 10:30 a.m.)

21

Panel: Exhibition and Performance (LKKG03 | 10:30 a.m. 12:00 p.m.)

Chair: Nis Grn (Department of Visual Studies,

Lingnan University)

Representations of Hakka Women in the Museums of Hong Kong (Luca Yau, Department of History, Lingnan University)

A Study of Foreign Musical Performance Status

(LKKG05 | 10:30 a.m. 12:00 p.m.)

and Implications in Korea (Park Hyunjoo, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies)

Class Taste and Capital Transformation in Contemporary Chinese Art: A Case Study of Indonesian Chinese Collector Budi Tek and His Private Art Museum in Shanghai (Luo Xianmei, Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Discussant: Prof. Sophia Law (Centre for Humanities

Research | Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan University)

Concluding Remarks

(LKKG05 | 12:00 p.m.) (in English and Chinese )

Prof. Sophia Law (Centre for Humanities Research | Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan University)

Contents

8 Panel: Hong Kong Identity

12 Panel: Children/Students/Participants as Protagonists in the

Construction of Knowledge in Education and Meaning of Art

17 Panel: Identity at the Turn of the Century

21 Panel: Image, Fiction and Identity

46 Panel: Exhibition and Performance

59

95

122

126

170

202

8

Panel: Hong Kong Identity

(LKKG03 | 11:00 a.m. 12:30 p.m. | 4 December 2015)

Chair: Nina Ng (Department of Fine Arts, Chinese University of Hong Kong)

This is Hong Kong: Shaping Hong Kongs Image Overseas, 1959-1965 (James

Fellows, Department of History, Lingnan University)

Far More than Just a Fight against Corruption The Role of Fight Corruption

Campaign in Hong Kongs Identity and Modernity (So Ka Hei, Department of

History, Lingnan University)

Writing Hong Kong Outside 1997: Identity Crisis in Xu Xis The Unwalled City

(Long Chao, Division of English, Nanyang Technological University)

Discussant: Prof. Shen Shuang (Department of Comparative Literature, Pennsylvania

State University)

9

This is Hong Kong: Shaping Hong Kongs Image Overseas, 1959-65

James Fellows

Department of History, Lingnan University

In the late 1950s Hong Kong seemed to have a serious image problem. The colonys

competitors in the textile trade argued that an exploited labour force gave Hong

Kongs manufacturers an unfair advantage, and used such rhetoric to successfully

agitate for restrictions on the industrys exports. The alleged use of sweated labour

was one issue of many, as observers in the colony also lamented Hong Kongs

apparent reputation as a site of vice, corruption, and squalor. In 1959, the Hong Kong

General Chamber of Commerce therefore campaigned, successfully, for public

funding to coordinate and increase the level of public relations activities undertaken in

the UK, US and Europe in order to portray a more positive picture of Hong Kong and

deter further protectionist moves against the colony.

This paper will explore the content of promotional material and

government-sponsored media produced by the coalition of government departments

and business organisations who were granted control of the funding, as well as the

rhetoric used by government and business representatives in public and private. I will

suggest that from the discourse a sense of Hong Kong exceptionalism emerges in

references to the colonys unique combination of geographic, demographic, and

geopolitical pressures and the culture and characteristics of its inhabitants. This

simultaneously justified a particular approach to social and economic policy in the

colony one of minimal government intervention. This paper therefore aims to

uncover the mechanics of how certain colonial myths and narratives regarding Hong

Kong were deliberately constructed and propagated.

10

Far More than Just a Fight against Corruption The Role of Fight Corruption

Campaign in Hong Kongs Identity and Modernity

So Ka Hei

Department of History, Lingnan University

The spontaneous outburst of a rash of leftist-agitated riots in 1967 aroused the

initiative of the colonial government to forge a Hong Kong identity for its Chinese

subjects. Besides providing better welfare, the colonial government attempted to

create a distinction between China and Hong Kong, and hence a sense of local

identity by achieving political credibility. According to John Carroll, the fight against

corruption in the 1970s was part of this bigger project. The establishment of the ICAC

and the charge of Godbar convinced the public that the colonial government was able

and willing to deal with social evils associated with high-rank officials. This

campaign was a great success in both eradicating corruption and forging a local

identity.

This paper will also explain the affiliation of the fight against corruption to Hong

Kong's modernity. The rule of law was among the most essential ideas of a modern

society. Only with a well-established rule of law, capitalist idea could be entrenched

and allowed the economy to attract foreign investments. The fight against corruption

ceased the practice of maintaining social order in Chinese communities through

corruption by the police force. Set regulations also convinced the public that paying

for convenience was no longer legitimate. With efficient law enforcement body and

bureaucracy, Hong Kong subsequently developed to be a financial centre known for

its law-abiding and stable society.

11

Writing Hong Kong Outside 1997: Identity Crisis in Xu Xis The Unwalled City

Long Chao

Division of English, Nanyang Technological University

Hong Kong, the former British crown colony, has always been represented in popular

discourses along the China-Local-Global nexus. Even after almost two decades, the

1997 handover narrative still has a residual impact on the publics mindset affectively

and even politically. The China-Local-Global relation is hence reified as a

stigmatization of Chinas sovereignty over Hong Kong. Yet critics often fail to

recognize that it also runs the risk of reinforcing, whether consciously or involuntarily,

an Orientalist and Eurocentric ideology to pit Hong Kong against China via equating

Hong Kong with the West. In the meantime, rejecting both sides would result in a

provincial localism. This paper aims to offer an alternative insight on this issue

through the examination of the representation of Hong Kong in literary productions.

By investigating how Hong Kong as a lived experience helps to negotiate and

construct the characters identities in Hong Kong Anglophone writer Xu Xis novel

The Unwalled City, the paper situates the identity crisis felt due to the 1997 turnover

in a broader historical, regional and global context. Specifically, the analysis will

invoke Baudelaires notion of flneur as its theoretical framework and explore the

tensions and ambivalence conjured up by the three main characters with regard to

their sense of self in their act of walking and seeing. In the end, the paper wishes to

stress not only literary productions provide alternative views on Hong Kong issue but

also the use of English language as a strategy to bring Hong Kongs peripheral

position to the global center.

12

Panel: Children/Students/Participants as Protagonists in the Construction of

Knowledge in Education and Meaning of Art

(LKKG03 | 2:00 p.m. 3:30 p.m. | 4 December 2015)

Chair: Samson Wong (Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan University)

Connecting early childhood education with the social constructivist perspective:

nurturing young souls in the postmodern environment (Sandrine Chung,

Department of Psychological Studies, Hong Kong Institute of Education)

Two Pioneers in Teaching Ink Painting in Hong Kong (Sheng Hung, Department

of Visual Studies, Lingnan University)

Adapting Dewey's Proposal for Teacher-Student Relationship for Artist-Participant

Relationship under Community Arts Settings (Samson Wong, Department of Visual

Studies, Lingnan University)

Discussant: Prof. Sophia Law (Centre for Humanities Research | Department of

Visual Studies, Lingnan University)

13

Note from the Chair:

Samson Wong

Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan University

This panel investigates the teacher-student and artist-participant interaction in the

learning process. Underlying the three proposals is the repositioning of power within

the education and artistic process. CHUNG first sets the panel by establishing the

child or learner, as the protagonist with teachers as caring adults to deliberately

prepare a learning environment where the child actively constructs knowledge.

HUNG then presents a Chinese ink art school curriculum pioneered in the 1960s by

Hong Kong artist Tam Chi-Sing (1933-2013), where innovation and expression of the

students are valued over imitation of conventions. Finally, WONG proposes an

adaptation of this framework for teaching and learning to the setting of community

arts where artists guide participants in a creative and expressive path in a social

setting.

The reference to Vygotsky by CHUNG is responded in the closing by WONGs use of

Dewey. Though not the focus of the panel, both Vygotsky and Dewey also theorize on

the social and cultural dimensions of art (Krensky & Steffen, 2009). To Dewey, art as

an experience is educational. However, he critiqued that the prevailing

misconceptions of education, through methods so literal as to exclude the

imaginationnot touching the desires and emotions of men, caused people to be

repelled by any suggestion of teaching and learning in connection with art (Dewey,

2005). According to Dewey, if imagination can be reintroduced to the process of

education, then art would be a powerful tool for education. It is the view of the

presenters that such a critique of education is still applicable in the current context.

Evaluated here are the conventional teacher-student relationship, function of

curriculum and the authority over knowledge. Applied to the artistic process, this

panel also evaluates the authority over the construction of meaning in art, creative

expression and standards of artistry. The concern of power over construction of

knowledge and meaning both in education and art is faced in the daily lives of

students and people of the general public. Slogans, catch-phrases and even mission

statements of nurture and inspiration are meaningless unless it is carried out in

classrooms, workshops and studios. This panel is a proposal and evaluation of

theoretical frameworks and their execution in concrete settings.

14

Connecting Early Childhood Education with the Social Constructivist

Perspective: Nurturing Young Souls in the Postmodern Environment

Sandrine Chung

Department of Psychological Studies, Hong Kong Institute of Education

Educating young children in a postmodern society is not as easy as using the didactic

teacher-oriented pedagogy in the past centuries. Under a postmodern context, the

origin of creativity and autonomy is more important than following instructions and

rules (Koo, 2002). When connecting education with the postmodern context,

innovative pedagogical changes in certain perspectives are significant to enhance the

quality of early childhood education. The needs for young children to construct their

own knowledge and actively explore their learning environment are emphasized

(Edwards, 2005). This presentation will focus on exploring the theoretical framework

in the Vygotskian perspective and examine the practical pedagogy developed by

Emilia Reggio.

In early decades, the Vygotskian perspective is one of the pioneers to suggest that

knowledge is socially mediated (Ogunnaike, 2015). While other Western

perspectives emphasize on the individual exploration and discovery, Vygotsky

stresses the importance of environmental factors in fostering symbolic functioning

and higher mental functioning (Bodrova & Leong, 2011). With the ideas posited by

Vygotsky and Gardner, the constructivist framework has established the following

five aspects for early childhood education: 1) the child is the protagonist, 2) the child

actively constructs knowledge through interactions with the environment, 3) learning

is holistic, 4) the learning environment is deliberately prepared, and 5) caring adults

are presented (Ogunnaike, 2015). Vygotsky also suggests that the internalization and

sociohistorical knowledge are the tools to comprise both intrapersonal and

interpersonal psychological planes (Vygotsky, 1986). Social constructivists in the

ECE field, including Emilia Reggio, later developed pedagogies with the ideas from

the Vygotskian framework.

15

Two Pioneers in Teaching Ink Painting in Hong Kong

Sheng Hung

Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan University

Imitation has been a traditional practice of learning Chinese painting, but an

alternative pedagogy was carried out by Lui Shou Kwan (1919 1975) and Laurence

Tam Chi Sing (1933 2013) that emphasizes on innovation and expression. Despite

the different settings of an extramural department and secondary school, their beliefs

and philosophy of teaching echoed each other.

Lui was not only a significant artist, but also an influential figure teaching ink

painting in Hong Kong in the 1960s and 1970s, especially in the Extramural

Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Tam was one of Luis students

who were inspired by his philosophy of teaching. As an art teacher at Wan Yan

College (Kowloon), Tam shifted from teaching western media to ink painting between

1966 and 1971, and applied this new pedagogy of teaching ink painting.

This presentation discusses the teaching philosophy and methods of Lui and Tam in

detail. It also demonstrates the diversity and possibilities evident in their students

works. Their teaching still provides insights for todays field of teaching Chinese

painting.

16

Adapting Dewey's Proposal for Teacher-Student Relationship for

Artist-Participant Relationship under Community Arts Settings

Samson Wong

Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan University

This presentation elaborates on the teacher-student relationship described in

Experience and Education by John Dewey (1938) to propose an artist-participant

relationship in community art settings.

The community arts are defined by numerous practitioners and scholars as a practice

where artists guide participants in their own creative and expressive path. However,

the method of that guiding or the role of the artist is often provided unsystematically

and lacking theoretical backing. This paper draws on Dewey (1938, 2005), who

explained that the teacher should guide students in a process to generate and discover

knowledge applicable to their own concern. Deweys proposal is in fact so flexible

that it is adaptable to unconventional educative settings such as the community arts. It

is proposed that the artist should guide participants in an artistic process to create and

express ideas and works applicable to their own concern. Furthermore, just as Dewey

indicated that the teacher should enable activities to be selected which lend

themselves to [a] social organization[where] all individuals have an opportunity to

contribute something (1938, pg. 56), the settings of community arts should also lend

themselves to an artistic process with vibrant social dynamics.

Cases of community arts activities will be examined to evaluate the effectiveness of

adapting Deweys proposal for its analysis. Modifications and counterproposals will

also be presented.

17

Panel: Identity at the Turn of the Century

(LKKG03 | 4:00 p.m. 5:30 p.m. | 4 December 2015)

Chair: James Fellows (Department of History, Lingnan University)

Organized Oriental Vice: China, the International Drugs Trade and the

Reimagining of the Other in Early Twentieth Century Britain (Simon Case,

Department of History, Lingnan University)

Exploring Multi-cultures of Shanghai: A Study on Shanghai Artists Sojourn in

Japan in the Late Nineteenth Century (Nina Ng, Department of Fine Arts,

Chinese University of Hong Kong)

The Rulers and the Ruled: Identity in a British Leased Territory in Northern

China (Kong Rong, Department of History, Lingnan University)

Discussant: Prof. Poon Shuk-wah (Department of History, Lingnan University)

18

Organised Oriental Vice: China, the International Drugs Trade and the

Reimagining of the Other in Early Twentieth Century Britain

Simon Case

Department of History, Lingnan University

A leader in organised oriental vice, read the headline of the Daily Express

newspaper on the 24th

April 1925. Brilliant Chang, a Chinese restaurant owner in

Londons Limehouse, had been convicted after a witch hunt of the possession of a

packet of cocaine. His arrest, and the subsequent press mania, reflected both the

public moral panic towards drug use and increasingly sensationalist and

discriminatory attitudes towards Londons Chinese community, and towards Chinese

in general. His case was but one prominent example of a common trend. By 1925

British state legislation regarding drugs and the regulation and prosecution of drug

trafficking had become established and had begun to hold sway in popular social

contexts, as users of drugs and the trade itself had been pushed underground. The

literary and pseudo-journalistic trend of the Yellow Peril was in full swing, and the

hysteria of scapegoating and discrimination of Chinese in popular mediums and the

press was widespread, encompassing both moral judgements and racial fears. For

several decades from around 1870 to 1914, the British anti-opium movement had

opposed opiate consumption and the British-dominated international opium trade,

from a broadly religious, but also ostensibly humanitarian, perspective. Through

analysis of a variety of primary source materials including the popular press and

popular literature, this paper explores the relationship between attitudes towards

Chinese in British society and attitudes towards the international trade in drugs in the

early twentieth century. Its main argument is that the discourse that fuelled such

popular attitudes and representations of the Chinese in the early part of the twentieth

century was a direct product of the anti-opium movement of the late nineteenth

century, the legacy of which was its deep-seated association of the Chinese with moral

depravity, drug use, and the provision and production of illicit drugs.

19

Exploring Multi-cultures of Shanghai: A Study on Shanghai Artists Sojourn in

Japan in the Late Nineteenth Century

Nina Ng

Department of Fine Arts, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Ever since the outbreak of the Opium War in 1839, China was forced to make her

gates ajar. Shanghai not only became a treaty port to foreign countries, but also

disclosed herself to the modern cultures and commercial cultures, and social changes.

At meanwhile, going to Japan became a fashion for Shanghai artists to earn their

living. Yet owing to those Shanghai artists tremendous focus on developing the art

market of Japan at that time, their reputation in China was comparatively low. Or,

maybe because of his conservative painting style made him out of the mainstream of

the art development in Shanghai in their day, their artworks had been ignored by the

collection market in China for a long time.

However, it is worth for us to review their place in the history of Chinese art and their

contributions to modern culture in the late-nineteenth-century Shanghai. This is

because a more comprehensive understanding about the culture of Shanghai, and the

culture exchanges between China and Japan in the late-nineteenth century, and their

influences on the development of modern Chinese art later on could be acquired

through the study of the art of the Shanghai artists who had been to Japan at that time.

20

The Rulers and the Ruled: Identity in a British Leased Territory in Northern

China

Kong Rong

Deparment of History, Lingnan University

Facing aggressive competition in scrambling for concessions in China in the late 19th

century, Britain leased two areas: Weihaiwei and the New Territories of Hong Kong.

Unlike the latter, the colonial history of Weihaiwei seems obscure for most at present,

including for local residents, although it lasted for over three decades. What is

interesting is that natives then in Weihaiwei never considered themselves subjects of

the British Sovereign, despite the majority expressing appreciation and satisfaction

towards the Britain rulers. Residents themselves in the neighboring areas extended the

boundary of the leased territory by moving boundary tablets to take advantage of the

comparative low taxes in Weihaiwei, which indicates that nationality or loyalty

matters little in real life. On the other hand, local rulers especially James Lockhart and

Reginald Johnston who worked as senior officials were favorable to the local

inhabitants and Chinese culture. Johnston even claimed that some of the Englishmen

in the territory came to be Chinese in his farewell speech when Weihaiwei was

returned to China in 1930.

My research aims to explore the perception of identities among the opposite groups

during the leased period, as well as the reason behind them. The hypotheses are it

related that British governors adopted a mild style to administrate in Weihaiwei by

complying with local customs and Chinese traditional culture.

This research will shed a light on mutual understandings of identity in places with

similar history, it can also help us to think about what we should do when facing

cultural or identity conflicts.

21

Panel: Image, Fiction and Identity

(LKKG03 | 9:00 a.m. 10:30 a.m. | 5 December 2015)

Chair: Sheng Hung (Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan University)

Perceptions of Otherness through Translating Semiotics: Chinese Calligraphy

in Exhibition (Song Ge, Department of Translation, Lingnan University)

An Analysis of Milan Kunderas Ignorance from a Structuralist Perspective

(Chen Yanyi, School of Foreign Languages, Shenzhen University)

A Study on the Relationship between Art and Cultural Contents (Kim Soyoung,

GS Department of Global Culture & Contents, Hankuk Univeristy of Foreign

Studies)

Discussant: Ms. Zoie So (Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan University)

Discussant: Prof. Mary Wong (Centre for Humanities Research | Department of

Chinese, Lingnan University)

22

Perceptions of Otherness through Translating Semiotics: Chinese Calligraphy

in Exhibition

Song Ge

Department of Translation, Lingnan University

Chinese calligraphy, a quintessential Chinese symbol, has long been favored by

exhibitions like museums and galleries, both in China and overseas. Calligraphy

works are put into these carefully-designed exhibitions aiming at visitors optimal

experience of the culture embodied.

This study focuses on exhibitions held in Chinas Mainland and Hong Kong, where

apart from calligraphy work itself, English translations accompanying the original

Chinese language can be always seen in introductory text panels, labels, captions,

leaflets and catalogues. Some of the translations are literal, some free, some

incomplete, some overloading, some even totally independent of the source language.

Through the multiple interactions between source language and target language,

between text and image, between viewers standing position and the whole layout of

the exhibition within this semiotics entirety, perceptions of Chinese calligraphy have

thus been generated in the minds of the English-speaking visitors. These perceptions

further render them more room to imagine about this otherness.

This paper begins by leading in some key theoretical perspectives, including

exhibition design, interplay of texts and images, translation and intertextuality,

restraints of museum translation, and visitors reception. With these theoretical

considerations in mind, this paper will meticulously examine the afore-mentioned

aspects, and try to demonstrate the final perceptions formed in the mind of this group

of foreign visitors. It tentatively shows that despite of their active participating in

experiencing otherness, their perceptions of Chinese calligraphy through the

medium of exhibition is quite limited and even distorted. Therefore, these inadequate

perceptions should be compensated and counterbalanced by other possible mediums.

23

An Analysis of Milan Kunderas Ignorance from a Structuralist Perspective

Chen Yanyi

School of Foreign Languages, Shenzhen University

Ignorance, the title of the book as well as the trigger of an migrs home-coming

journey, suggests a dichotomy and even precedes a collection of theme-revealing

binary pairs. An analysis from a Structuralist perspective with a focus on the primary

opposition, i.e. Ignorance and Experience, the key word Ignorance of which is

connected with a series of secondary oppositions, may bring to light the novels deep

structure and its relations with the books theme and cultural implications. In

Ignorance, Kundera by alluding to the home-coming motif in Homers epic tells the

story of the migrs failed grand return and shows their failure to rebuild their

cultural identity lies mainly in the relative brevity of human life.

1. Introduction

1.1 Kunderas Narrative Features

Published in French in 2000, Ignorance deals with the subject of emigration and

exile with Odysseus, the protagonist of Homer's epic poem Odyssey as the archetype

for two paralleling characters who pursue a home-coming journey. Recounted by an

omnipotent narrator, the story centers around two expatriates, i.e. a woman named

Irena who returns to Prague from France after twenty years of absence, and her male

counterpart Josef who is back from Denmark. The novel is characterized by its

re-narration, allusion to ancient myth and theme-revealing key words. According to

WU Xiaodong, only a change of point of view may reveal multiple aspects of

something because a narrative from a single point of view is so confined that partiality

is unavoidable. And it is Kunderas re-narration that establishes multiple points of

view by repetition which indicates new perspective and motivation, just as several

eyes cast on the same story. (, 2003: 339) Apart from re-narration, Kundera is

keen on choosing a mythical hero as an archetype for his novel like Odysseus in

Ignorance. The narrative theme of archetypical significance enjoys equal vividness

and independence with the characters in the novel and it plays the major role; while a

specific plot as well as characters are no more than supporting arguments or materials

for the archetypical theme. (, 2011: 135) In The Art of the Novel, Kundera

reaffirms in a defining manner the problems he is exploring, the characters and

themes of his novels by using key words, which reveal his characters way of being,

24

his major way of thinking, his strategies on novelistic structure and theme, as well as

specific textual form. However, those key words are neither complete nor unitary

for Kundera is inclined to lay bare the conflicts, confrontations, splits and anxiety

within his propositions and focused on sharp representation of the contradiction

within a theme. And the characters and their lives represented in the novel are an

analyzable text that explain the key words and are also footnotes to the key

words. (, 2011: 125-126)

1.2 The Key Words in Ignorance

In the case of Ignorance, Kundera puts forward the first key word in Chapter 2,

i.e. nostalgia, the Greek words for the constituents of which mean return and

suffering, sonostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return

(Kundera, 2002: 5). To further explore the words implications, Kundera traces its

origin and finds that nostalgia seems something like the pain of ignorance, of not

knowing (Kundera, 2002: 6). In this way, Kundera kills two birds with one stone by

first creating a key sentiment in the novel, i.e. the feeling of nostalgia, from which a

second key word, i.e. ignorance derives and which later turns out to have more weight

in the theme of the novel.

Kundera once talked about the reason of his preference for the word ignorance in

an interview, amnesia erases ones past, while memory changes it, one is living in

ignorance not because of his/her intellectual insufficiency but because ignorance is a

characteristic of human experience. (, 2006: 69) Intrigued by the relativity of

the word, which makes a dichotomy with experience, the author of this article would

like to pursue a Structuralist analysis on the binary oppositions manifest in the novel

to find out some values or beliefs that emerge from the privileged terms.

Consequently, a deep structure that reveals the theme of the novel as well as a pattern

that past-and-present writers unconsciously adopt may be exposed.

2. From Structure to Theme

2.1 Binary Opposition

According to the Structuralists, underlying our use of language is a system, a

pattern of paired oppositions, binary oppositions (Selden, 1986: 55), this article aims

to examine the binary pairs, overt or covert, of the novel that are in close connection

with the theme.

25

2.1.1 Primary Binary Opposition

Among the binary oppositions ingeniously devised by Kundera, there is a major

one between the privileged term ignorance and a hidden one, i.e. experience. On one

hand, as the major cause of nostalgia, the word ignorance in the novel has several

implications. Firstly, it represents the state of being unknown of a country and its

people that an migr has left behind, unable to remember his/her life in the past as

well as uncertain about the possibility of being re-integrated into local community or

regaining a sense of belonging there, all of which arise from the fact that one has

become less concerned with recollections bound to the country he no longer lived in

(Kundera, 2002: 76). For example, urged by Sylvie in France to make a great return,

Irena can only pick up pieces on the return theme from books, films, her own memory,

the lost son home again with his aged mother; the man returning to his beloved from

whom cruel destiny had torn him away (Kundera, 2002: 5). Not knowing their

preference for beer, she brings an old Bordeaux with all the greater pleasure: to

surprise her guests, to make a party for them, to regain their friendship (Kundera,

2002: 35) It is the ignorant Irenas wish to figure out whether she can live here, feel

at home, have friends (Kundera, 2002: 36). Similarly, Josef, a male expatriate,

before leaving Denmark he had considered the coming encounter with places he had

known, with his past life, and had wondered would he be moved? cold? delighted?

depressed? (Kundera, 2002: 52) Secondly, it can be attributed first to forced caution

then to lack of interest (Kundera, 2002: 110) that if silence fails to play a part, a

terrible poverty of relations between an migr and his/her family or acquaintances

will become obvious. The Communist regime hurled anathema at

emigrationEveryone who stayed abroad was convicted in absentia in their home

country, and their compatriots did not dare have any contact with them (Kundera,

2002: 17). Those who have fled from the country are generally considered

irresponsible and thus induce animosity, and the policy of restitution of properties

after the collapse of the regime would account for the separation from their once

beloved migrs. Thirdly, it implies a lack of knowledge of the fact that a reality no

longer is what it was when it was; it cannot be reconstructed (Kundera, 2002: 124).

To make fragmentary recollections consistent, one is to unleash his/her imagination

and insert a causal sequence with other events, other acts, and other words

(Kundera, 2002: 125). In the process, he/she has to invent facts to make the

recollection intelligible. A case in point is Josefs practice of association in reading his

high-school diary. Fourthly, it displays an illusion of a regained romance behind

which is a conflict between memory and amnesia, anticipation and disappointment,

not only has he[Josef] forgotten their meeting in the bar, but the truth is worse: he

26

doesnt know who she[Irena] is! He doesnt know her! In the airplane he did not know

whom he was talking to (Kundera, 2002: 186). Lastly, it is far-reaching and

frustrating, a whole life has already been determined at a stage when we didnt know

a thing (Kundera, 2002: 163). This is true of both Irena and Milada, who have made

their own choice of life disregard of any possible consequences that they themselves

are to bear in future, for example, Irenas early marriage with Martin in the hope of

freeing herself from her mother, Miladas failed attempt to commit suicide for loves

sake.

On the other hand, as structuralism proper contains a distinctive doctrine: the

belief that the individual units of any system have meaning only by virtue of their

relations to one another (Eagleton, 2004: 82), the word ignorance presupposes and

can only have its meaning by being contrary to experience, which is to be gained

when the protagonists finally approach the point of their ignorance. Unfortunately,

like Odysseus, who, once return, was amazed to realize that his life, the very essence

of his life, its center, its treasure, lay outside Ithaca, in the twenty years of his

wanderings. And this treasure he had lost, and could retrieve only by telling about it

(Kundera, 2002: 34), Josef finds Czech an unknown language though he understands

every word. (Kundera, 2002: 55). He has an encounter that he has never expected,

which is attributed to the fact that an invisible broom [that] had swept across the

landscape of his childhood, wiping away everything familiar (Kundera, 2002: 52).

As to Irena, she reflects that there is no place more alien to her than that Prague.

(Kundera, 2002: 136) Both of them find that people in Czech are no longer interested

in one another. Like the Greek hero, after twenty years of absence from and nostalgia

for ones natal place, they go back to their Ithaca only to find the journey is

anything but a great return. Worse still, their experience shows that they no longer

exist in their homeland though they have a deep love for it. Strolling in the garden

neighborhood in the autumn sunshine, Irena re-experiences the Prague born at the

turn of the precious century, the Prague of the Czech lower middle class and of

her childhood (Kundera, 2002: 133). She felt happy in Paris, happier than here, but

only Prague held her by a secret bond of beauty. She suddenly understands how much

she loves this city and how painful her departure from it must have been. (Kundera,

2002: 134) Talking with his old friend N., Josef finds Czech was no longer the

unknown language (Kundera, 2002: 157), he recognized it now, and he savored

itfor the first name in his visit he was happy in his homeland and felt that it was

his. (Kundera, 2002: 158) In addition to the knowledge of what they have deserted,

the two protagonists experience unexpected encounters that convince them of their

being ignorant. Josefs intended identification with himself in the past turns out to be

a failure as he cannot tell whether his high-school diary is identical with what he has

27

actually experienced, then he learns that it was only the plausible plastered over the

forgotten (Kundera, 2002: 126). When Irena finally realizes that she is a complete

stranger to Josef, she knows loneliness is awaiting her (Kundera, 2002: 187).

However, it is by experience that Irena begins to look back upon her emigration at the

age of ignorance and determine to be a master of her own life.

2.1.2 Associated Binary Oppositions

As constituents of the complicated system of a text, secondary binary oppositions

render the story conflicting yet intriguing. It can be inferred from the novel the

below-listed oppositions which, when combined, make up the route for a frustrating

home-coming journey: obedience/rebellion, at the time of Russian invasion, the

protagonists make a decision between (continued) obedience to the Communist

regime or to a domineering mother on one hand, or rebellion against subjugation by

emigration on the other. Paradise/hell, suffering from uncontrollable nostalgia

(Kundera, 2002: 16), the migrs find that the images of home landscape is a paradise

by day and a hell by night. (Kundera, 2002: 17) Stay/return, with the collapse of the

Communist regime when Czech has become open to the outside world, the prospect

of a great return is looming. Like Odysseus, they prefer the return over a stay. Rather

than ardent exploration of the unknown (adventure), he chose the apotheosis of the

known (return). Rather than the infinite (for adventure never intends to finish), he

chose the finite (for the return is a reconciliation with the finitude of life). (Kundera,

2002: 8) Indifference/enthusiasm, having finally setting foot again on their homeland,

they experience their old acquaintances indifference to their wandering stories and

even to each other which is quite contrary to the excitement or enthusiasm they have

expected from them. Alienation/integration, the contrast places the two migrs in a

dilemma: things that range from dress, building to weather, language and lifestyle

seem familiar and at the same time alien to them. Gain/loss, what bothers them more

is the question whether they still belong to their natal place or not, which points to the

matter of cultural identity. Black/white, it seems that the image of a black hand on the

big wall of a square to a country where people hardly knew that blacks even existed

(Kundera, 2002: 73) is a vivid representation of the countrys migrs who, when

back home, fail to locate their suspended identity and can only exist like a shadow

that is actually invisible to their families and acquaintances. Freedom/unfreedom, at

last, they wish to find a way out by exercising their right of freedom which is in fact

more of an illusion, for they are so deeply trapped in irresolvable nostalgia for their

lost homeland, and at the same time not as well received as they have found they are

in a foreign country the people of which, according to Edward Said, though

28

sympathetic with the migrs, consider them outsiders and inferior, and thus show no

equality to them. As a matter of fact, their freedom is preceded by unfreedom.

2.1.3 The Privileged Terms

Works of art do not occur randomly. They are created. Their creators dispose

their material in such a way that it usually exhibits some organization or pattern...the

structure, in short, will often reinforce the meaning by throwing emphasis on what is

important. (Bloom, 2007: 151) As no equal importance is possible for either side of

an opposition, one side or the other which dominates its counterpoint will stand out as

the privileged term and demonstrates what the author intends to emphasize. Based on

the above-mentioned oppositions, a collection of privileged terms can be drawn as

follows: ignorance, rebellion, paradise, return, indifference, alienation, loss, black,

unfreedom, according to which the main thread of the story can be summed up. At the

time of national crisis, some people prefer emigration as a means to rebel against

subjugation. However, after they begin a new life in a foreign country, they are

inflicted by nostalgia for their lost paradise which in fact is owing to their ignorance

of how things are going in their natal place, so they pursue a return journey. Contrary

to their expectation, they come back only to experience indifference and a lingering

sense of alienation, which indicates a threat of identity loss. Staying in ones

homeland as an migr is thus like living in the dark and leading a mentally unfree

life as neither integration into the local community of his/her homeland nor sincere

acceptance by the people of a foreign country is possible. In that sense, an migr

belongs to nowhere.

2.2 The Pattern

Focusing on the dislocation of the protagonists, the novel has an obvious

exile-return or round-trip pattern that is detectable not only in Homer's epic poem

Odyssey but also in a number of works written by the past-and-present authors.

According to Todorov, there are two higher levels of organization: the sequence and

the text. A group of propositions forms a sequence. The basic sequence is made up of

five propositions which describe a certain state which is disturbed and then

re-established albeit in altered form. The five propositions may be designated thus:

equilibrium, force, disequilibrium, force, equilibrium (Selden, 1986: 61).

Accordingly, Todorovs five propositions can be applied to the novel in the analysis of

the exile-return pattern, where Russian invasion can be seen as the first force to break

29

the equilibrium of a peaceful life in Prague and the protagonists communication with

their old acquaintances or their frustrating experience during their short stay back

home constitute the second to restore an equilibrium in an altered form. In Ignorance,

the dichotomy of exile and return involves a two-way movement of home and

homeless on one hand and home-leaving and home-coming on the other, in the middle

of which lies the re-establishment of a spiritual home. (, 2011: 160)

2.3 The Deep Structure

The text was really just a copy of this deep structure, and structuralist criticism

was a copy of this copy. (Eagleton, 2004: 97) A shared deep structure may be found

between Ignorance and Odyssey, namely, a reluctant desertion of ones beloved

homeland at the time of crisis followed by a great return that turns out to be a failure.

Having undergone a transition from ignorance to experience, the protagonists are

emotionally frustrated and confused in that they fail to restore a sense of belonging to

their homeland, which implies a loss of cultural identity that is attributable to the great

change happened to the homeland and its people during their long absence. To Irena

and Josef in Ignorance, Prague is now a Prague of Gustaf, which is newly-rising,

superficial, stirring and ready to break from the past. (, 2006: 109) Nowadays,

being willing to die for the country is no longer valued, and people are inclined to

brag about success (Kundera, 2002: 41) and indifferent to each other. According to

Milada, even the Bohemian no longer read poetry. It can be imagined that an Odyssey

is inconceivable today and the epic of the return is no longer pertinent to our time. To

Odysseus, his mother has died and his wifes suitors have squandered away his

fortune during his long absence. People talk about the past and never ask anything

about his wanderings, he realizes that his life lay outside Ithaca. But for the old olive

tree1, he would recognize nothing around him.

2.4 The Theme

As far as Structuralism is concerned, a Structuralist critic is able to define the

structural components of a work of fiction and their relations with nonfictional

1 In the Odyssey, however, the olive tree is repeatedly associated with Odysseus, particularly in the

context of Athenss protection or assistance. By far the most prominent olive tree in the poem serves as

the post of Odysseus own marriage bed. Odysseus demonstrates his legitimacy as ruler with the story

that he had once built the walls of his bedroom around this tree, which was growing within the herkos.

(Cook, 2006: 161) As the "Tree of Fate", or Morios of Athens, the olive tree also embodies the

well-being of the city. (Cook, 2006: 7)

30

structures (Smithson, 1975: 158), therefore, the theme of the novel and some cultural

implications beyond the deep structure may be revealed by adopting this approach. It

is inferred that being re-integrated into the local community of a homeland to any

long-term migrs is nothing but an illusion, as some narrative in the novel explains,

for the very notion of homeland, with all its emotional power, is bound up with the

relative brevity of our life, which allows us too little time to become attached to some

other country, to other countries, to other languages (Kundera, 2002: 121).

Consequently, being an migr is miserable in that within a limited lifespan it is out of

his/her ability to build a new cultural identity in an alien country, nor can he/she

retreat and regain the original identity in a homeland. Again Kundera poses a

dichotomy between limitedness and unlimitedness, where the former points to

ones lifespan and the latter his/her aspirations. (, 2011: 102)

3. Conclusion

Begin with the implications of a key word, i.e. nostalgia, from the etymology of

which the title of the book is introduced, Kundera invents the privileged term of the

first binary pair, i.e. ignorance and uses it as a primal cause of a home-coming

journey which has an ordinary round-trip pattern. It is found that when combining the

primary pair with the ensuring oppositions, a structural thread of the novel is exposed,

i.e. a frustrating home-coming journey that asserts a long-term migrs dilemmaa

loss of cultural identity in ones homeland and a failure to settle in a foreign land in a

true sense. It is an irony that an migr is too ignorant to realize their being

marginalized both at home and abroad. In short, a great return to ones spiritual home,

of a hero or an ordinary man, in the past or at the present time, is nothing but an

illusion.

Bibliography

[1] Bloom, Harold. Homer's The Odyssey [M]. New York: Infobase Publishing,

2007.

[2] Cook, Erwin F. The Odyssey in Athens: Myths of Cultural Origins [M]. New

York: Cornell University Press, 1995.

[3] Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory: An Introduction [M]. :

, 2004.

[4] Kundera, Milan. Ignorance [M]. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2002.

[5] Selden, Raman. A Readers Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory [M].

Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1986.

31

[6] Smithson, Isaiah. Structuralism as a Method of Literary Criticism [J]. National

Council of Teachers of English, 1975, 37(2): 145-159.

[7] . - [J]. (

), 2006, 2: 105-110.

[8] . 20 [M]. :

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[9] .

[J]. , 2006.

[10] .

[M]. : , 2011.

32

The Convergence of Media Art and Cultural Contents

Kim Soyoung

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

Modern society is going through multi-faceted change in many of its domains due to

digital media. It has given rise to Media Art in the realm of art and a development of

Cultural Contents. This study focuses on the media in Media Art and Cultural

Contents, thus aiming to discuss the correlation between the two.

In this paper, I use a research method based on Kittlers theory of media technology

that explains the typewriter, film, and gramophone in correlation to Jacques Lacans

three cognitive dimensions - the Symbolic, the Imaginary, and the Real - to

identify the characteristics of Media Art. Three analytical frameworks, the

Imaginary-Film, the Symbolic-Typewriter, and the Real-Gramophone, are set to

identify the characteristics of Media Art through a four level analysis of

formation-development-conversion-representation and elements at each level. Media

Art has three characteristics: intersubjectivity, interaction, and regression

instinct. Each characteristics of Media Art, through an active transition into Cultural

Contents, is interlinked to intersubjective subject, transformation for interaction,

and regression instinct based enjoyment. The analysis provides an expanded

definition of Cultural Contents, and concludes with a search for the possible

conversion between art and Cultural Contents.

1. Introduction: The Correlation between Media Art and Cultural Contents

Infrastructures of modern society are diversifying due to the development of

media. Along with media development, the 21st century is experiencing active

movement to intermix different fields of studies that had separately developed within

their own branches of academia, under titles of integration, convergence, confluence,

interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and such. This trend was a response to the limited

growth suffered by separate divisions of academia, and also a natural development

from the integration across multiple different fields triggered by advancements in

digital technology.

Art also saw various usage of digital media; in fine arts rose a new genre called

New Media Art, which can be considered a reproduction of the Ancient Greeks

'tchn' that combines art and technique. Cultural Contents, a classic example of

integrated studies, is also developing with digital media. In order to find how art and

33

cultural contents converge and analyze the interaction between the two, it is necessary

to first understand the definition of Cultural Contents. 'Contents' generally refer to

substances carried out by media or platforms, and mean the overall distribution

system of knowledge and information combined with media. 'Cultural Contents'

indicates when the usage and material is cultural. Considering the media part of

modern arts, in addition to the cultural part of Cultural Contents, an explanation of the

relationship between Cultural Contents and art can be a topic of significance.

Art holds a important part in the realm of culture. Contents of culture are gained

from sources such as history, art, and literature. Thus examining the relation between

Media Art and Cultural Contents by analyzing their commonality, media, is a

well-timed research topic.

This study looks into how characteristics of Media Art connects to the category of

Cultural Contents, in an effort to not only analyze art but also extend theoretical

expansion within the field of Cultural Contents. This is followed by a discussion of

expanding the Humanities concept of Cultural Contents and the potential of art as a

mode for Cultural Contents. The study contributes to establishing status and academic

continuity of the newly developing discipline that is Cultural Contents, in addition to

providing an opportunity to examine the correlations among man, media, art, and

cultural contents in an age of digital media.

2. Characteristics of Media Art based on Lacans Registers and Kittlers

Discourse Networks

The social importance of media is rising as it continually changes its form with

historical events and technological advancements. Linear and diachronic theories

about media therefore can contribute to understanding human history and modern

society, but especially the phenomenological problems of communications between

men, and between man and art.

Because it relates to discourse, theory of media is a valuable methodology to analyze

the aspect of art form. This study takes as theoretical background Friedrich A.

Kittlers discussion of the discourse networks of the 1900s in connection to Lacans

Registers.

Kittler argued that films, typewriters, and gramophones in the 1900s started to

replaced the recording function of writings. Stating that Media determine our

situation, Kittler considers media as an extension of man. In Kittlers view, the

purpose of studying aesthetics was to determine the corporeality of the organs of

human perception. Like Lacan, Kittler considered the subject to be dependent on the

object, and thought human perception formed an interface with physical reality.

34

Therefore, media always existed prior to aesthetics. With this in mind, Kittler

connects the three digital technologies of the 1900s, the film, typewriter, and

gramophone with Lacans three registers; the Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real.

Kittlers theory was creative for it reinterpreted the subconscious and the conscious

human mind with media.

Lacans three registers are the Imaginary which is associated with the Mirror

Phase, the Symbolic created of language and symbols, and the Real which is a world

that exists outside the other two registers. Kittler connects Lacans three registers with

the digital technologies of the 1900s- films that are a reproduction of disconnected

images, typewriters that changed writing tools and deconstructed the way of thinking

and the gramophone which recorded and reproduced not only sound but also noise.

Kittler explains the correlation between each of the devices and Lacans three

registers.

Only the typewriter provides a writing which is a selection from the finite and

ordered stock of its keyboard. The typewriter literally illustrates what Lacan

shows in terms of the antiquated letter-box. In contrast to the flow of

handwriting, here discrete a elements separated by spaces are placed side by

side. The symbolic has the status of block letters. Films was the first to store a

moving double in which men, as opposed to all other primates, misrecognize

their bodies. That is to say that the imaginary has the status of cinema. And the

phonograph was the first to fix what is being produced by our larynx as noise

before any semiotic order or semantic units. To obtain pleasure, Freud's patients

need no longer want the good of the philosophers, they just have to babble. The

realparticularly in the talking cure of psychoanalysishas the status of

phonography.

This study adapts Kittlers theory by setting Imaginary-film,

Symbolic-typewriter, and Real-Gramophone as analytical tools. The cross between

psychoanalysis and Media Theory can be a complementary methodology that reflects

both the essence and the form in analysis of the internal and external characteristics of

Media Art.

Set as analytical frameworks, Imaginary-film, Symbolic-typewriter, and

Real-Gramophone are each divided into four levels - formation, development,

conversion, and representation - from which symmetrical elements that determine

characteristics are derived. comparatively organizes the elements at each

level of the three frameworks.

35

Level Elements based on

Lacans Three Registers and Kittlers 1900 Discourse Networks

Level Imaginary-Film Symbolic-Typewrite

r Real-Gramophone

Formation Crack-Fragment Arbitrariness

-Machinery Lack-Veiled

Development Separation-Capture Splitting

-Restriction Touch-Collision

Conversion Identification/Alienatio

n Serial/Cutting

Repression

-Deconstruction Fantasy-Transcendence

Representation Illusion/Virtuality Otherness

-Communication Trauma-Uncanny

Firstly, the Imaginary-Film framework have elements of Crack-Fragment at

the level of formation, Separation-Capture in the level of development,

Identification/Alienation-Serial/Cutting at the conversion level, and

Illusion-Virtuality at the reproduction level, reflecting the splitting and alienation

of the incomplete body image in Mirror Theory, and how images of reality are

disconnected.

Lacan argued that because language is a condition of the subconscious, the

subconscious, like language, is structured. The Symbolic explains the superiority of

the signifier over the signified based on this Lacanian concept of the subconscious.

The Symbolic, when linked with the typewriter that represents the world of machinery,

shows the deconstruction process of the mind and the consciousness, and thus possess

elements of Arbitrariness-Machinery in the formation level,

Splitting-Reconstruction in development, Repression-Deconstruction; in conversion,

and Otherness-Communication in the reproduction level. Lastly, in existence prior to

language, the Real is a realm of the residual and the essential that cannot exist nor be

incorporated into the Imaginary. The Real corresponds with the gramophones

attributes as a medium, recording and reproducing inaudible noise. Therefore, in the

Real-Gramophone framework can be identified elements of Lack-Veiled in the

formation level, Touch-Collision at the development level, Fantasy-Transcendence

at the conversion level, and Trauma-Uncanny at the reproduction level.

In the analysis of Media Art based on the three frameworks, the following

characteristics are identified. Firstly, in all the elements at each level of the

Imaginary-Film can be determined a characteristic of intersubjectivity due to the

double subject of artist and consumer in Media Art. From all elements of the

Symbolic-Typewriter can be derived the characteristic of interaction based on a

36

relationship-oriented structure of the writer, media, and consumer. Lastly, all elements

in the Real-Gramophone indicate a regression instinct driven by the repeated desire

to realize through art creation.

Having derived through the analytical frameworks the three major characteristics of

Media Art, which are intersubjectivity due to double subject, interaction through

relationship-oriented structure, and regression instinct based on repeated desire, we

then move to discuss each of the terminologies and their theoretical grounds.

1) Intersubjectivity due to the Double Subject

The intersubjectivity of Media Art results from the power given to the consumer

as much as the artist. The artist of Media Art stays open to consumer interference,

without precluding a conclusion of the work. This is partially because Media Art is a

genre that cannot exist without consumers, as it inherits the characteristics of its

predecessor, the Mass Media, and also because it is characterized by

intersubjectivity. That the artist postulates consumer interjections in the art work

prior to the production, means that the artist recognizes the consumer as an

intersubjective subject. Thus the consumers also naturally contributes to the

completion of the art.

The function of double subject through images in Imaginary-Film is equally

manifested in Media Art between the artist and the consumer or between media, with

monitor images as the medium. As we go through the four levels from formation to

reproduction of the Imaginary-Film, in all elements appears the double subject. The

double subject would expand to multi subjects, with the relationship between the self

and the subject, the fragmented body and the mirror image as a whole, the director

and the camera, and the audience. Such analysis of Media Art shows that the artist and

the consumer gain an intersubjectivity by playing an independent role towards the

medium.

2) Interaction through Relationship-Oriented Structure

The elements of Arbitrariness-Machinery, Splitting-Restriction,

Repression-Deconstruction and Otherness-Communication all have a

relationship-oriented structure. Language of the Symbolic encompass relationships

from that of splitting and repression created between the signifier and the signified, to

the human relationship based on otherness. On the other hand, the typewriter

formulates a relationship-oriented structure of arrangement and deconstruction within

a limited special restriction, the keyboard.

37

Each level element of the Symbolic-typewriter show a relationship-oriented

structure between the artist and consumer, and between the medium and consumer.

This relationship-oriented structure operates to support interaction within Media Art,

and makes possible communications not simply between man but also between art

and human, media and human, and technology and human.

Interaction or interactivity is often provided as the main characteristic of Media

Art or digital media. But this paper is differentiated by extending beyond simple

conceptualization, and identifying the interaction through relationship-oriented

structure, using Lacans three registers and Kittlers media characteristics. The

relationship-oriented structure of the Symbolic-Typewriter operates as a grounds for

interaction between the artist and consumer, and the art and consumer.

3) Regression Instinct based on Repeated Desire

The instinct to regress towards abstract reality such as pleasure or death, as

confirmed in multiple cases, is an original character of the natural man. In his analysis

of ancient religious remains such as the complex spiral structure of temples,

pilgrimage to holy sites, the heroic travels in search or golden hair, gold apples, and

elixir, and the wanders in mazes, Mircea Eliade remarks on the perpetual and circular

tendency of man to move from death to live, from the meaningless to the real and

eternal. Gilbert Durand who described the moon as a measurement of time and

promise of eternal recurrence stated that the philosophy of Moon is a perspective of

dramatical rhythm created by the alternation between contrasts such as life and death,

and that the manifestation of cycles can be discovered in all history and all customs.

Tanehisa argues that the essence of the human mind is to define the self and

perpetually repeat a cycle of retreating within oneself while simultaneously exploring

the external. Only through this power of the mind could humanity rediscover the

center it had lost. The internal mind has a regression instinct continued through a

cycle of desiring to fill the missing void.

The regression instinct is an important instinct of man, and is an element in the

Real-Gramophone framework. The human desire for the Real, which deals with

death drive and jouissance, continually circulates through the elements of

Lack-Veiled, Tuch-Collision, Fantasy-Transcendence, and

Trauma-Uncanny. The analysis of the elements of the Real-Gramophone show

that the repeated human desire circulating to meet the repressed reality is realized and

manifested in works of art. Media Art, therefore, is a genre that expresses regression

instinctual desire through the Lacanian process of realizing artistic sublimation.

38

Each of the registers and their elements provide characteristics of Media Art based

on the structural phenomenon within the Imaginary-Film, Symbolic-Typewriter,

and Real-Gramophone frameworks. The three characteristics of Media Art derived

from the structural phenomenon within the three frameworks can be organized as in

. To summarize, the double subject of Imaginary-Film in Media Art forms

an intersubjectivity of the artist and the consumers with art as the medium. The

relationship-oriented structure of the Symbolic-Typewriter fosters interaction

between man and media in Media Art. Lastly, Media Art is an art genre that realizes

the regression instinct of man based on the repeated desire within the

Real-Gramophone.

Characteristics of Media Art based on Registers and Discourse Networks

3. Active Transition from Media Art to Cultural Contents

Based on the three characteristics of Media Art identified using Lacans three

registers and Kittlers 1900 Discourse Networks, this section aims to theoretically

expand Cultural Contents by examining how Media Art can be applied to Cultural

Contents.

Firstly, Media Arts intersubjectivity from the double subject of the

Imaginary-Film framework, correlates to the issue of subject of Cultural Contents.

It is a question of how double subject and intersubjectivity manifests in the various

39

genres of Cultural Contents. The issue of subject is relevant in the entire process of

Cultural Contents planning, production, distribution, and enjoyment, relating to

position and function of the intersubjective subject within Cultural Contents.

Media Arts interaction through relationship-oriented structure in the

Symbolic-Typewriter framework can be linked with the issue of transformation of

Cultural Contents, primarily represented in OSMU (One Source Multi Use). Currently,

multiple forms of Cultural Contents products have been distributed through various

media, and there is especially serious discussion over transmedia storytelling. As

Media Art expands the area of media, this study addresses the transformation issue of

Cultural Contents as well.

Media Arts last characteristic, regression instinct based on repeated desire analyzed

in the Real-Gramophone framework, demonstrates the deep-rooted desire for

constant expression through art and culture. Regression instinct therefore can be

associated with the enjoyment of Cultural Contents, and allows suggestions on the

convergence of art and technology, or more specifically, the role of Media Art as a

mode of Cultural Contents.

below shows how the characteristics of Media Art are related to Cultural

Contents. Media Arts intersubjectivity correlates to the subject of Cultural Contents,

interaction to transformation, and regression instinct to enjoyment.

Active Transition from Media Art to Cultural Contents

The problems of subject, transformation, and enjoyment of Cultural Contents are

as following.

40

First is the relation between Media Arts intersubjectivity in the Imaginary-Film

and the subject problem of Cultural Contents. In both Media Art and Cultural

Contents, the double subject - the artist and the consumer- function as intersubjective

subjects.

Secondly, interaction in Media Arts correlates to Cultural Contents transformation.

This part addresses the current trends to commercialize Media Art and examines

phenomena of Cultural Contents that further invigorate interaction, followed by a

discussion whether the commercialization of Media Art and the commercial viability

of Cultural Contents can function complementarily.

Thirdly, Media Arts regression instinct analyzed in the Real-Gramophone

framework can be extended to the enjoyment of Cultural Contents. Thus we discuss

the convergence between Cultural Contents and art- in other words, the possibility of

Digital Art as a mode of Cultural Contents.

4. Expanding the Area of Cultural Contents

This part deals with the expansion of Cultural Contents in two parts. First is

expanding the Humanities understanding of the Cultural Contents concept, in

reflection to the previously provided characteristics of Media Art. The other is a

proposal on the functions of, as a mode of Cultural Contents, art including Media Art.

1) An expanded Concept of Cultural Contents

While media is an exteriority of Cultural Contents, the aforementioned

intersubjective subject, transformation through interaction, and the enjoyment towards

regression instinct are the substantive material of human-centric Cultural Contents. In

other words, reflecting the three correlation between Media Art and Cultural Contents

leads to a conceptual expansion of Cultural Contents.

Comparative analysis of Cultural Contents and Media Art shows that firstly both

areas are actions conducted by humans as the primary self. Both ultimately pursue

beauty, using media as a tool of expression. Also, art as a social product inherits from

past trends and yet its simultaneous changes indicate a contemporaneity. Thus art is

similar to the contemporaneity of Cultural Contents shown in its combinations of

tradition and modernity.

As such, the properties of Cultural Contents are very similar to those of art, or

Media Art, necessitating a Humanities-based definition of Cultural Contents that

includes the general concept of art. Moreover, the defining of Cultural Contents

should fulfill basic components required in any other definitions and

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conceptualizations, notably, the subject of the production activity, the medium of

distribution and its function, and the purpose of action. With such a definition, the

concept of Cultural Contents can be expanded based on its attributes of intersubjective

subject, transformation for interaction, and regression instinctive enjoyment.

Firstly, the producer of Cultural Contents is an intersubjective subject, related to

the intersubjectivity of Media Art by its double subject. This is a shift from the

original definition of human-centric singular concept, to a double subject of both the

artist and the consumer. In addition, it is also a discussion on the contributive role of

the development of digital media and the involvement of consumers to Cultural

Contents. Addressing the double subject in defining the concept of Cultural Contents

would allow perception of the consumer to change from a passive actor to a more

active subject in this age and era of digital media.

Secondly, in consideration of the media that delivers Cultural Contents and their

functions, the concept of Cultural Contents needs to involve the transformation of

media for interaction. This is interconnected to the intersubjective subject, as

transformation for interaction are typically commercial strategies that aim to maintain

consumer loyalty. Cases of transformation for active participation of consumers will

only diversify and thus should not be neglected when conceptualizing Cultural

Contents.

Lastly, the purpose of producing Cultural Contents as a cultural product lies

within the human instinct to enjoy pleasure. Linked to Media Arts regression instinct

based on repeated desire, regression instinctual enjoyment is closely tied to artistic

properties. The regression instinct towards pleasure directly relates to the

sublimination that Lacan spoke of art. Inversely, sublimination in art is interpretable

in Cultural Contents as an aspect of enjoyment that fulfills the desire for pleasure.

Therefore, the purpose of Cultural Contents as a cultural product is correlated to the

purpose of art creation, and thus the concept needs to incorporate such artistic nature.

Considering the above material, a Humanities expansion of the Cultural Contents

concept would provide the definition: cultural product for enjoyment of pleasure

through interactive media transformation, for by the artist and the consumers.

2) Expanding Domains of Cultural Contents

To examine the grounds and reasons why a genre of art can function as a form of

Cultural Content, we must first focus on current phenomena within art (including

Media Art) and examine the characters of Cultural Contents in art.

Firstly, modern art tends to be media-oriented. Art that lay heavy meaning and

emphasis on visuality such as paintings and objects continue to influence modern pop

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culture. As most consumers are accustomed to visual media, pop culture mostly deals

with televisions, computers, and smart devices. The tendency to be media-oriented in

pop culture is even more prominent in Digital Art. Of the multiple applications that

can be accessed through the internet on websites or smart devices, many have the

characteristics of Media Art. In an era of digital media, all media develop through

interaction, and their interfaces are being integrated. Media Art no longer is just a

imagined expression that reproduces nonexistent images; it is also used as a technical

tool to cognize the real through the virtual.

Secondly, modern art is constantly expressed through the media with a consistent

level of commercial viability. The best examples that embody the commercial

viability of modern art would perhaps be Jeff Koons or Damien Hirst. Their works are

used as advertisement images all around the world, winning both commercial utility

and aesthetic achievement. In 2010, Koons and Hirst applied their arts to automobile

design, and increased the effects of advertisement for a certain car brand. The process

of gaining such commercial utility of art works is very similar to that of Cultural

Contents. Famous modern artists, after gaining recognition, create their own brands,

directly and indirectly managing the image of their works as well as derivative

products.

Lastly, such tendency can be observed in the convergence of art and Cultural

Contents. Games are a great example. Changes in modern art are media-centric, but

games show artistic properties that now museums in many countries display video

games. The Museum of Modern Art of New York City in November of 2012,

displayed more than 40 video games such as Pacman (1980), Tetris (1984), Another

World (1991), and Mist (1993). (Pic. 1, 2). Art and games now share commonalities,

dissolving borders and boundaries.

Left: Alexey Pajitnov,

Right: ric Chahi,

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It is well recognized that art films have properties of both art and cultural contents.

Unlike movies that are filmed for commercial purposes and popularity, art films

pursue aesthetic ideals through image and the directors idea. There had already been

considerable opposition to Hollywoods dominance in the film industry since the

1950s, and there is consistent interest in art films. An exemplary art film would be the

Hungarian art film director Bela Tarrs (2011).

The long take technique used in almost all shorts or this movie functioned to make the

audience participate in the directors ideas of human weakness and the apocalypse.

Tarr Gogh

is a scene from in which the father (Janos Derzsi)

and daughter (Erika Bok) eat potatoes, their only source of food. is Vincent

Van Goghs masterpiece, (1885). In the former, potatoes were the

only source of sustenance due to a serious food shortage, and in the latter, potatoes are

used as a subject matter representing the honest life and table of the farmer. In each

art work, the potatoes carry a different symbolic meaning, but the visualized images

of both the movie scene and the painting give similar vibes to the viewer, possibly

because the image of the art film is similar to the aesthetic impression of the painting,

in addition to the shared primary symbol of life sustenance of the potato as a primary

stable food. Also, the consumers individual appreciation such as Lacans Tuch or

Barts punctum of the farmers rough hands is replaced with a metonymy of

Derzsis unsophisticated movements of peeling the hot potato.

The continuance of specific images based on the long take technique, and the

background color, limited body motion in the film scene all provide a similar image to

van Goghs work. The metonymic slide of the film image of the father and daughter

eating potatoes into the painting of farmers eating potatoes is delivered by the realistic

expressive technique to reproduce real image as is, in both genres. Gogh wanted to

express the farmers eating potatoes with dirtied hands after a hard days work, in his

masterpiece. Like Barts Studium of photos, both works do not simply rely on the

44

simplicity of the potato, but shift the focus to the rough details of those eating, and

therefore is related to the heart-moving effect of Punctum.

5. Conclusion: A Proposal for a Mutually Reciprocal Relationship

This study conducted a discussion on how Media Arts defining characteristics,

register and medium, takes present in cultural contents. Starting with an examination

into the relationship between Media Art and Cultural Contents and then expanding the

concept of Cultural Contents, the discussion is one that determines how various

genres of art can play a role in theorization of Cultural Contents. More specifically,

the Humanities-based conceptualization of Cultural Contents to include artistic

properties is an expansion of not only the concept but also expression form,

contributing to the academic status and continuance of Cultural Contents.

It is a reasonable surmise that various genres of art, including Media Art, can

function as a form of Cultural Contents. Even so, most art genres pursue aesthetic

value based on purity, and thus a overall acceptance of other shared domains of

Cultural Contents, other than commercial viability, would be difficult to achieve. The

reason to argue that Media Art and various art genres still can function as a form of

Cultural Contents, lies in the fact that most cultural products of modern society are

realized through media and such media-oriented character are prominent in both art

and Cultural Contents. With further cutting-edge technology, it is apparent and

obvious that more characteristics will be shared and integrated.

Considering characteristics of Cultural Contents in art, Media Art as a form of

Cultural Contents holds great potential to act as a bridge between art and Cultural

Contents. Moreover, Media Art may become a mutually beneficial operational tool to

move high arts towards popularization, and cultural contents towards non-commercial

value creation.

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45

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46

Panel: Exhibition and Performance

(LKKG03 | 10:30 a.m. 12:00 p.m. | 5 December 2015)

Chair: Nis Grn (Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan University)

Representations of Hakka Women in the Museums of Hong Kong (Luca Yau,

Department of History, Lingnan University)

A Study of Foreign Musical Performance Status and Implications in Korea (Park

Hyunjoo, GS Department of Global Culture & Contents, Hankuk University of

For