This dissertation addresses the phenomenon of 'radical commodities'-commercial products which advance an oppositional politics. Examples of such include the products of Rage Against The Machine, a 'revolutionary' rock band; Michael Moore, a best-selling author and award-winning documentary filmmaker; Naomi Klein, a journalist and author of the international bestseller No Logo; The Body Shop, a multinational manufacturer and retailer of 'natural' cosmetics and toiletries; Freitag, a company which manufactures bags, wallets and other fashionable accessories from recycled materials, and; the Adbusters Media Foundation, publisher of Adbusters magazine and producer of Blackspot shoes. Radical commodities are fundamentally paradoxical objects whose apparent ethic would appear to be at odds with the fact that they are commodities. This dissertation asks: can a commodity-object legitimately serve as a vehicle for social and political critique? It is reasoned that the problem of radical commodities is principally structural. Marx's seminal writings on the commodity accordingly represent the logical point of departure. The Marxian analysis illuminates not only the commodity-structure, but also the political problematic which emerges from that structure-for Marx, the commodity is a mechanism of exploitation. From an orthodox Marxist perspective, the idea of a radical commodity would therefore be most contradictory, or indeed impossible. It is argued, however, that the Marxian analysis is inconclusive. This dissertation traces a genealogy of analyses of the commodity, which variously advance or diverge from the orthodox Marxist position. From a perspective of the consumption of commodity-objects, the radical commodity would appear to be possible. Yet, the relationship between the commodity-structure and the capitalist ideology runs deep. The question of the radical commodity is therefore markedly more complex than it might initially appear. With regard to the ideological consequence of the commodity-structure, however, certain streams of post-Marxist analysis are themselves problematic, for they ultimately short-circuit historical critique and destabilise the very possibility of politics. In contrast, this dissertation seeks to reaffirm a place for politics and, in so doing, to establish the theoretical possibility of radical commodities. To contend that the idea of a radical commodity is not fundamentally contradictory, however, says nothing of the political potency of such objects. These are undoubtedly complex objects, whose peculiarities cannot be ascertained by abstract theorisation alone. For this reason, this dissertation also employs empirical analyses of a number of radical commodities. In sum, it is argued that the sphere of commodities should be admitted as a possible site for the expression or implementation of a radical politics, and thus that radical commodities should be understood as a legitimate vehicle for social and political critique, but that such objects are by no means free from contradiction, and that the political efficacy of these products is anything but guaranteed.

This thesis focuses on the problem of defining and designing public space in contemporary mass society. "Assembly" revaluates a cultural understanding of public space as the space of regulation, consumption and leisure, and works to find spaces of freedom, agency and action. Three iconic sites located in Toronto from three successive generations are examined: Nathan Phillips Square, the Eaton Centre and the new Dundas Square. These three sites form the primary division of the work and are respectively paired with extended critiques from three thinkers: Hannah Arendt, Jean Baudrillard, and Guy Debord. The pairings centre on Arendt's account of the "rise of the social", on Baudrillard's analysis of consumption and on Debord's dissection of the spectacle. The argument is presented in the form of an assemblage. Although the nature of this method invites each reader to construct their own meaning, this thesis grounds itself on a defined polemic. It considers public space to be marked by 1) the erosion of a clear distinction between our public and private realms, and their subsequent dissolution into the realm of the social, 2) the ideology of consumption overtaking the realm of the social, and 3) the world of the commodity replacing reality with the world of the spectacle. "Assembly" first consists of three main sections corresponding to the three sites. Each of these parts is assembled from three distinct strands: factual, theoretical and visual. The factual strand forms the main "field" of each section and is made up of selected quotations from mass media ? newspapers, public documents and websites. The theoretical strand, consisting of pointed quotations from the relevant social theorist, is threaded through the field of mass media. The visual strand comprises two elements: a postcard that marks the beginning of the section and a series of authored photographs that follows and complements the text-based assemblage. <br /><br /> Inevitably, the relationship between general social values and those of individuals is fraught. Consequently, and perhaps also inevitably, architectural design tends to reduce the manifoldness of the public realm into a homogenous and singular public space: the "whole". This thesis pursues the question of how to conciliate individual agency with collective public experience. The process and form of "Assembly" deliberately celebrates this uncertainty of design, and takes "heterogeneity" as a necessary condition of public space. That it cannot offer a comprehensive solution is, perhaps, inherent to the question.

This thesis focuses on the problem of defining and designing public space in contemporary mass society. "Assembly" revaluates a cultural understanding of public space as the space of regulation, consumption and leisure, and works to find spaces of freedom, agency and action. Three iconic sites located in Toronto from three successive generations are examined: Nathan Phillips Square, the Eaton Centre and the new Dundas Square. These three sites form the primary division of the work and are respectively paired with extended critiques from three thinkers: Hannah Arendt, Jean Baudrillard, and Guy Debord. The pairings centre on Arendt's account of the "rise of the social", on Baudrillard's analysis of consumption and on Debord's dissection of the spectacle. The argument is presented in the form of an assemblage. Although the nature of this method invites each reader to construct their own meaning, this thesis grounds itself on a defined polemic. It considers public space to be marked by 1) the erosion of a clear distinction between our public and private realms, and their subsequent dissolution into the realm of the social, 2) the ideology of consumption overtaking the realm of the social, and 3) the world of the commodity replacing reality with the world of the spectacle. "Assembly" first consists of three main sections corresponding to the three sites. Each of these parts is assembled from three distinct strands: factual, theoretical and visual. The factual strand forms the main "field" of each section and is made up of selected quotations from mass media ? newspapers, public documents and websites. The theoretical strand, consisting of pointed quotations from the relevant social theorist, is threaded through the field of mass media. The visual strand comprises two elements: a postcard that marks the beginning of the section and a series of authored photographs that follows and complements the text-based assemblage. <br /><br /> Inevitably, the relationship between general social values and those of individuals is fraught. Consequently, and perhaps also inevitably, architectural design tends to reduce the manifoldness of the public realm into a homogenous and singular public space: the "whole". This thesis pursues the question of how to conciliate individual agency with collective public experience. The process and form of "Assembly" deliberately celebrates this uncertainty of design, and takes "heterogeneity" as a necessary condition of public space. That it cannot offer a comprehensive solution is, perhaps, inherent to the question.

No description available.

The advanced stage of capitalism that we now live in has brought many changes to the way that society consumes and produces. One of the biggest shifts to the modern economy was the use of visual culture to distract, pacify, and exert power over the masses; a cultural change French theorist Guy Debord named the Society of the Spectacle. As a result, Debord and the Situationist International developed a movement of resistance to reclaim the territories of everyday life being eroded by the spectacle through separation and alienation. Since the term was coined the use of visual culture has accelerated and become even more pervasive in the postmodern world which led Jean Baudrillard to claim that the real has been replaced by simulation and hyperreality. This thesis explores this cultural shift to determine whether the practices of resistance theorized by Debord and the Situationists are still relevant as the reach of postmodernism increases. Link to associated video file: https://vimeo.com/64727252

The advanced stage of capitalism that we now live in has brought many changes to the way that society consumes and produces. One of the biggest shifts to the modern economy was the use of visual culture to distract, pacify, and exert power over the masses; a cultural change French theorist Guy Debord named the Society of the Spectacle. As a result, Debord and the Situationist International developed a movement of resistance to reclaim the territories of everyday life being eroded by the spectacle through separation and alienation. Since the term was coined the use of visual culture has accelerated and become even more pervasive in the postmodern world which led Jean Baudrillard to claim that the real has been replaced by simulation and hyperreality. This thesis explores this cultural shift to determine whether the practices of resistance theorized by Debord and the Situationists are still relevant as the reach of postmodernism increases. Link to associated video file: https://vimeo.com/64727252

This thesis is a 'big-picture' look at the course of Western philosophy and its eventual arrival at ideas that look remarkably similar to the revelations of Guatama Buddha 2500 years ago. I look at the roots of how the West has understood itself and understood "being" through the centuries and at the revolutions in thought that took place in the 20th century. I look more closely at 20th century thinkers to demonstrate how their thinking begins to align with the ancient insights of Eastern philosophy, particularly the notions of a prevailing emptiness as "ground" of Being and of the fallacy of the individual subject. I also look at how some 20th century artists have engaged with these new ideas. I see generally two responses to the postmodern (post-subject) position: that of a play of surfaces, such as in the work of Andy Warhol and the philosophy of Jean Baudrillard; and that of an embracing of absence, presented in the philosophy of Martin Heidegger and the works of such artists as John Cage, George Brecht, Pauline Oliveros, Bill Wegman, David Hammons and others.

This thesis examines the forces that affect subjectivity in two novels by the author Philip K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. The close reading of these two novels makes use of postmodernist theory as its theoretical foundation. In these works, stable subjects are fractured through a series of disconcerting incidents originating in a “reality shift,” an event that sees the seemingly solid state of Dick’s speculative future worlds collapse. Split into three sections, this paper first positions Dick within a postmodernist tradition developed mainly by Lyotard, Hutcheon, and Baudrillard, supported by critics such as Sim, Malpas, and Kellner, among others. It then defines the reality shift and its underlying causes, three types of science fictional drugs across the two novels: Can-D, Chew-Z, and KR-3. Finally, this essay examines the full extent of Dick’s inquiry into subjectivity by exploring the metamorphoses the subjects of his novels endure.

The book Postproduction: Culture as Screenplay, written by French aesthetician Nicolas Bourriaud is going to be initial text for my diploma thesis. Bourriaud claims, that contemporary art is mostly made by the principle of assemblage; art works are made by reinterpretation, reproducing or by new exhibiting of artefacts or forms of past. The assumption of the original concept in artworks of contemporary artists - semionauts (travelers in the worlds of signs) has been allready completely ineffective. Through the example of hyperrealistic paintings, which has lately reappeared in portfolios of international and czech artists, I will try to show whether its revilal is based on the emergence of new medias, that even more than in the seventies simulate reality or whether they deal with the concept of postpostprodution - the artists lend only formal, in this case, hyperrealistic, signs. This diploma thesis will be completed by the case study of paintings of czech hyperrealist painter Jan Mikulka.

The purpose of this essay is to analyze award-winning author Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 through the lens of postmodernism. The focus will be on identifying symbols and signs of the hyperreal when it comes to freedom of speech, censorship, and technology through Jean Baudrillard’s orders of simulacra from his book Simulacra and Simulation. The images of Ray Bradbury’s dystopian society in Fahrenheit 451 are analyzed, as well as the main characters and their relationship to technology, books, censorship, and freedom of speech. This essay also argues that the hyperreal is relevant today and has been throughout history if knowledge is suppressed or controlled by society as presented in Fahrenheit 451.