Eighty-three Texas high school football stadiums have opened since 2008. Both pro stadiums and amateur stadiums have found their way into the ire of economists, who decry such expensive projects as lavish and foolhardy. Sociologists meanwhile point to ambition and pride as contributing to the growth of professional and amateur stadiums. / text

<p>Savremeni diskurs amaterske pornografije na internetu izmiče tradicionalnim interpretativnim shemama koje i &ldquo;kućne&rdquo; seks snimke povezuju sa delovanjem seks-industrije.<br />Predmet istraživanja su internet stranice na kojima su dostupni pornografski sadržaji amaterske produkcije. U centru naučne pažnje rada nalaze se pornografski materijali i prakse &ldquo;običnih ljudi&rdquo; u virtuelnom domenu kiberprostora.<br />Istraživanje polazi od stanovi&scaron;ta da je amaterska pornografija specifičan seksualni diskurs. Pornografija predstavlja gotovo dominantni način zapadnog govora o seksu koji ga u isto vreme i inauguri&scaron;e, a specifična istraživačka pažnja pridaje se amaterskoj reartikulaciji pornografskog režima pri čemu se amaterizam određuje kao dru&scaron;tveni registar svakodnevnih praksi baziranih na delovanju &ldquo;iz ljubavi&rdquo;.<br />Internet predstavlja najpoznatiji kompjuterski mrežni sistem, to jest medijsku tehnologiju mrežne, decentralizovane, dehijerarhizovane i relativno slobodne komunikacije na globalnom nivou. U pitanju je tehnosocijalna platforma &ldquo;kreativne aproprijacije&rdquo; pornografskog diskursa od strane &ldquo;običnih ljudi&rdquo;, te transfera amaterske pornografije u dru&scaron;tvenu pojavu globalnih razmera. Dru&scaron;tvena upotreba Web 2.0 predstavlja sredi&scaron;nji uslov mogućnosti, proliferacije i globalizacije amaterskog porno-diskursa.<br />Centralna hipoteza rada glasi da amaterska pornografija na internetu predstavlja relativno novi način govora o seksu i seksualnosti. Istraživanje je okrenuto dokazivanju kako pornografske prakse &ldquo;običnih ljudi&rdquo; nisu finansijske, nego seksualne prirode, i u tom se smislu problemsko klupko istraživanja ogleda u specifikaciji amaterske pornografije kao diskurzivnog diskontinuiteta, to jest dru&scaron;tvene činjenice da se u okviru postmoderne kulture za relativno kratko vreme prestalo o pornografiji razmi&scaron;ljati isključivo na prethodne načine.<br />Istraživanje ukazuje na socijalni značaj koji aktuelno preoblikovanje reprezentacione politike seksa povlači po pitanju seksualnih interakcija i seksualnih identiteta njenih praktikanata i/li protagonista, i u tom smislu polazi i potvrđuje osnovnu teorijsku pretpostavku o dru&scaron;tvenoj prirodi seksualnosti, sociokulturnom ustrojstvu sveta &ldquo;prirode&rdquo;. Jedan od centralnih istraživačkih problema mogao bi se formulisati pitanjem da li amaterski produktivizam uživanja fabrikuje seksualne subjekte poput seks industrije ili alternativni modus diskurzivnih postupaka imenovanja &ldquo;realnog&rdquo; seksa legitimi&scaron;e i nove procedure identitetskog samoblikovanja, te neposrednog delovanja ispovednih &ldquo;tehnologija sopstva&rdquo;.<br />Ispitivanje sociokulturnih aspekata amaterske pornografije na internetu strukturisano je na nekoliko interpretativnih nivoa i vr&scaron;i se kroz analitiku konteksta pojave, materijalno-afektivne ravni praktikanata i korisnika, pornografskih reprezentacija, potro&scaron;ačkog ustrojstva kiberprostora, rodne simetrije u okviru reprezentacija i korisničkih grupa, virtuelnog komunitarizma pornografskih praktikanata i identitetske politike seksualne ispovesti.<br />7<br />Analitičko de&scaron;ifrovanje složenih veza između pornografskih praksi &ldquo;običnih ljudi&rdquo; i složene strukture &ldquo;umreženog dru&scaron;tva&rdquo; polazi od epistemičkog polja sociokonstrukcionistički orijentisane sociologije seksualnosti, dok se na užem metodolo&scaron;kom planu predmetnog specifikuma istraživanja izdvaja upotreba kritičke diskurzivne analize.<br />&nbsp;</p> / <p>Contemporary discourse of amateur pornography on the Internet eludes traditional interpretative schemes that associate &quot;home&quot; sex videos with the sex industry business. This research is based on web sites with available amateur pornographic production. In the heart of the scientific interest of the work are pornographic materials and practices of &ldquo;ordinary people&rdquo; in the virtual domain of cyberspace.<br />The research is based upon the premise that the amateur pornography is specific sexual discourse. Pornography is seen as almost predominant mode of western inaugurating narrative on sex. At the same time specific research attention is given to amateur rearticulating of pornographic regime, whereby amateurism is defined as a social register of daily practices based on the act &quot;of love&quot;.<br />Internet is the best-known computer network system, decentralized and relatively free media technology network of communication, without hierarchy on a global level. It is a techno-social platform of &quot;creative appropriation&quot; of pornographic discourse by &quot;ordinary people&quot;, as well as transfer of amateur pornography into the social phenomenon of global proportions. Social use of Web 2.0 is the core condition of possibility of amateur porn discourse proliferation and globalization.<br />The central hypothesis of this work is that amateur pornography on the Internet is a relatively new type of narrative on sex and sexuality. The research points out that &ldquo;ordinary people&rdquo; pornographic practice is not of financial but rather of a sexual nature. Following this sense problem of the research is reflected in the specification of amateur pornography as a discursive discontinuity, a social fact that within the framework of postmodern culture in a relatively short time, pornography has not being considered exclusively in prior way.<br />The research points to the social importance that current remodeling of representational politics of sex entails in terms of sexual interactions and sexual identity of its practitioners and / or protagonists and in this sense starts with the main theoretical assumption on the social nature of sexuality, socio-cultural conformation of the world of &quot;nature&quot;. One of the central research problems could be formulated as a dilemma whether amateur productivism of enjoyment fabricate sexual entities, such as sex industry, or the alternative mode of discursive designation procedures of &quot;real&quot; sex also legitimize new procedures of identity self-formation and direct action of confessional &quot;technologies of the self&quot;.<br />Examination of amateur pornography socio-cultural aspects on the Internet is structured on several interpretative levels and is done through analytics of phenomena context, materially-affective level of practitioners and users, pornographic representations, consumer conformation of cyberspace, gender symmetry within the framework of representations and user groups, virtual communitarianism among pornographic practitioners and identity policy of sexual confession.</p>

Since John Ruskin and William Morris's protestations against mass production in the nineteenth century, critics of mass consumption thought that it not only reduced the necessity, but also the desire, to make things for personal use and enjoyment. The history of leisure painting in art societies and adult education, and of the amateur artist’s consumption of art materials and self-help literature, shows that, on the contrary, affluence both inspired and facilitated a quest for self-actualisation amongst the rank and file. Creative activities such as drawing and painting served this quest at little financial cost to the individual. Following the Second World War, a significant increase in the take-up of leisure painting was encouraged by the state as part of the broader postwar settlement. The pursuit of personal wellbeing through creative activity was regarded as a public good, of benefit not only to individuals but also to the communities of which they were a part. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, state support for recreational pursuits such as leisure painting was pared back: in the shift from collectivist social democracy towards individualist market liberalism, personal enjoyment was recast as a private affair for which the consumer must pay. Painting continued to grow in popularity, supported by expanding consumer markets in self-help literature and affordable art materials. Yet while consumerism sustained the popularity of amateur art-making, the ways in which amateur artists participated in the arts changed. Personal creativity emerges here as an inherently social activity: the private experience of creativity is mediated and structured by society. Consumerism was not bad for personal creativity per se, but the replacement of a communitarian approach with a consumerist model restricted the breadth and reach of creative aspiration nurtured as part of the postwar settlement. By the end of the century, most amateurs were painting alone.

Critical discourses on contemporary digital cinema tend to be either overtly negative, framed within a rhetoric of loss or disenfranchisement, or unilaterally positive, celebrating the user agency and freedom digital technologies enable. Both these conceptual positions are unhelpful because they either focus on what contemporary digital cinema fails to do or what it should do, without examining more closely how it actually functions. What is needed is a third, neutral approach which takes both sides into consideration but is also aware of their limitations and weaknesses. This thesis takes as its impetus Giles Deleuze’s suggestion that, just like the cinemas of the movement-image and the time-image before it, contemporary digital cinema needs a basic will to art – a new aesthetic principle, a new function of the image, a new politics, a new representational potential distinct from those that have come before it. The aim of this thesis is therefore to establish this will to art and explore its ramifications for and manifestations in contemporary digital cinema. Taking into consideration a variety of filmic texts from the 1980s to the present day which prominently feature diegetically recorded footage, as well as amateur film-making practices from the home movies of the 1960s to the video clips now uploaded to online media sharing platforms, the increasing relevance of home media in the reception of contemporary digital cinema, and most crucially the process of convergence inherent in digital media, this thesis argues that the will to art of contemporary digital cinema is intimacy.

The purpose of this study was to examine the justifications for and production problems of presenting elementary children in public performances.

Michael Haneke est reconnu pour la froideur de sa mise en scène depuis ses premiers films. Le cinéaste a mis en scène plusieurs personnages dans des situations violentes, personnages entourés de média. Le présent projet vise à identifier l’évolution de la démarche du cinéaste dans la représentation des média au sein de ses œuvres. Pour ce faire, j’ai déterminé trois phases dans sa filmographie. À l’aide de trois cadres théoriques distincts, je préciserai ces trois étapes : l’observation, à l’aide des écrits de Marshall McLuhan ; son passage à l’acte, avec les théories d’interaction du microsociologue Erving Goffman et ; l’affirmation, une possible solution par l’accompagnement avec les écrits de Serge Tisseron et Marie-José Mondzain. Je tenterai de déterminer, par l’analyse des films de Michael Haneke, que ces différentes phases dans sa filmographie visent l’éducation morale des spectateurs face à l’image. / Michael Haneke is best known for his stark mise en scène, beginning with his earliest theatrical release. Onscreen, the filmmaker has depicted several characters in violent situations, whom are often in a densely mediatic environment. The following work seeks to identify the evolution of his artistic process concerning the presence of media in his cinematographic universe; to this effect, I have identified three distinct phases in his filmography. Using a different theoretical framework for each one, I will attempt to outline and define all three periods, namely: observation, with the writings of Marshall McLuhan; action, with Erving Goffman’s works on interaction and; assertion, a possible answer to the issue of guiding the viewer in the act of watching images with the writings of Serge Tisseron and Marie-José Mondzain. I will demonstrate, through analyses of Haneke’s films, that these different phases within his filmography ultimately serve the director’s intent to morally educate the viewers.

Cette recherche repose sur l’interrogation suivante : qu’est-ce qui fait être amateur d’art contemporain ? Les amateurs d’art contemporain constituent un public envers lequel les études, même si elles sont porteuses d’indications utiles, sont peu nombreuses. On constate que la plupart des études présentent un profil qui rend compte du caractère solitaire, assidu, souvent diplômé du visiteur amateur d’art contemporain et de son comportement peu interactif. Nous savons ainsi très peu de choses sur ce rapport qui pourtant est souvent à la source de débat important sur l’art contemporain et notamment sur la question de l’accessibilité. Partant de la définition pragmatique, selon laquelle l’amateur est celui qui entretient un rapport suivi quels qu’en soient les médiums ou les modalités, notre recherche consiste à se démarquer d’une méthode quantitative qui se délimiterait à une pratique, à un type de public et à un seul lieu. Cette recherche repose sur une méthode qualitative dont l’objectif est de reconsidérer l’amateurisme en art à travers l’analyse d’entretiens. La position communicationnelle permet d’analyser ce rapport sous un rapport pluriel à l’objet. L’amateurisme est ainsi étudié, en dépassant d’une part le rapport sujet/objet, décrit et analysé par la philosophie esthétique, mais aussi la relation objet /système sur laquelle reposent de nombreuses études sociologiques, centrées sur le système des mondes de l’art. Dans cette optique nous avons cherché à observer cette pratique en mettant en lumière son caractère construit. En témoigne notamment les activités formelles, mais aussi celles issues des expériences anecdotiques et circonstancielles, liées à des processus d’appréhension qui révèlent la spécificité de cet attachement pour l’objet d’art et d’un goût toujours en exercice / This research rests on the principal interrogation: what makes contemporary art lover ? There is not a lot of studies on the practices of the art contemporary lovers. The art contemporary lovers constitute a public towards which the studies are very few but carrying useful indications. Most of the studies present a profile which presents the art contemporary lovers as a solitary character, assiduous, often graduate and not having a very interactive behaviour. On the basis of the pragmatic definition, according to which the amateur is someone who maintains, whatever are the mediums, a followed relation, our research consists in being dissociated from a quantitative method which would delimited too much a practice, a type of public and a place. In this purpose practices and specific posture in contemporary art are considerate differently. The discipline of communication makes able to analyse this practice by according a plural relation. The object of this research is too analyse different practices through a passion for contemporary art and to reconsider an experiment, not only according to a relation as subject/object, study by the aesthetic, but not also to a relation place/object, like in the sociologies research which analyse the worlds of art Accordingly, the purpose is to revaluate the taste like a construct movement. The lover’s formal and non formal practices demonstrate the presence of procedures revealing the specificity of this attachment and of a taste which is always in exercise

Este trabalho tem por objetivo analisar a cultura amadora fotográfica na virada do século XIX, tendo como contexto Petrópolis e Rio de Janeiro e tomando como fio condutor a produção e atuação de Alberto de Sampaio, um advogado e apaixonado fotógrafo amador, pertencente à elite da cidade serrana. São examinados os integrantes dessas atividades, suas qualificações sociais e culturais, práticas e objetivos, competência (econômica, material, técnica e outras), seus produtos, usos e funções, referenciais (critérios, normas, valores e seus veículos), suas formas de associação e interação. Três séries de fotografias tematizando a natureza, a família e a cidade permitem concluir que fotografar não era um registro documental mas uma prática comunicacional, completada pela circulação familiar e entre amigos, homens cultivados e refinados, sedimentando laços e garantindo solidariedade, tudo alimentado pelo afeto, pela diversão, pelo lúdico e pelo humor. Era um propósito que não poderia assentar-se em outros fundamentos, como os de natureza política, econômica e profissional. / This piece of work aims to analize the amateur photographic culture in the turning of the Nineteenth century, using as context Petropolis and Rio de Janeiro and taking as guiding principles Alberto Sampaio\'s production and performance, a lawyer and passionate amateur photographer, who was part of the mountain range city\'s elite. It will be examined the components of such activities, their social and cultural qualifications, practices and objectives, competence (economical, material, technical and others), their products, uses and functions, frames of reference(criteria, rules, values and their vehicles), their forms of association and interaction. Three series of photographies using as a theme, the nature, the family, and the city allow to conclude that photographing was not a documentation recording, but a communication practice, completed by the circulation in family and among friends, refined and educated men, settling bonds and assuring solidarity, everything powered by affection, by enjoyment, by the ludic, by humour. It was a purpose that could not be settled in other basic rules as of political, economical or professional natures.

Investigamos nesta pesquisa o que denominamos vídeos amadores de acontecimentos: filmagens operadas por pessoas \"comuns\" que flagram um acontecimento de relevância midiática. Esses flagrantes amadores são apropriados pelo jornalismo profissional e pelos grupos de comunicação em geral ou então encontram circulação direta em espaços digitais, onde, supostamente, circulam com maior autonomia. Entre as questões endereçadas ao objeto empírico, podemos citar: 1. O modo específico como angariam seus efeitos de real: quais os operadores realistas e a historicidade desses efeitos de sentido no interior do percurso do audiovisual. 2. Os modos de obtenção dos efeitos de verdade e de evidência, entendidas numa chave discursiva, e o vínculo com os regimes de verdade (Foucault, 2001). 3. A política das imagens, partindo-se da hipótese de que o fenômeno da difusão dos vídeos amadores acontecimentos esteja associado à emergência de novos sujeitos e novos lugares de fala nas mídias. 4. O estatuto de acontecimento dessas imagens: de que modo estas se inserem e participam da construção de acontecimentos de maior amplitude; 5. Finalmente, uma indagação que é pano de fundo e atravessa todo o trabalho é a compreensão do lugar dessas imagens no interior da cultura midiática e o que revelam sobre o regime do visível contemporâneo. A tese está divida em quatro capítulos. Nos capítulos 1 e 2, conciliamos análise de imagens consagradas com a exposição de algumas teorias e conceitos norteadores. No primeiro, enfocamos o exemplo paradigmático do filme de Zapruder, o amador que flagrou o assassinato de Kennedy. Aprofundamos a qualidade de evidência documental: sobretudo o contraste entre a eloquência do referente e o caráter incompleto e ambíguo dos flagrantes visuais de acontecimentos. No segundo, o episódio do atentado de 11 de setembro serve de base para a reflexão sobre a inserção das captações amadoras nas transformações no regime de visibilidade contemporâneo e nas configurações dos meios de comunicação. Os capítulos seguintes são mais detidos na análise de vídeos, ambos centrados em imagens de forte teor político e em exemplos brasileiros. No capítulo 3, o objeto de análise são imagens tomadas no interior dos protestos durante os acontecimentos de junho de 2013 no Brasil. No capítulo 4, examinamos vídeos de violência policial na periferia registrados por moradores, evidências aptas a impor acontecimentos à pauta noticiosa. / The following thesis investigates amateur videos of events, images shot by ordinary people that capture an occurrence of great media relevance. These amateur images are either incorporated by professional journalism and media groups or shared in digital platforms where, supposedly, they acquire a more autonomous status. Among the questions to be addressed regarding the topic of our investigation, we include: 1. The particular way these videos build reality effects, their realist traits and historical dimension. 2. The modes of obtaining truth effects and evidence value, their discursive dimension and connection with regimes of truth (Foucault, 2001). 3. The politics of aesthetics considering, as a hypothesis, that the phenomenon of massive sharing of amateur videos of events is associated with the emergence of new subjectivities. 4. The fact that these images are events by themselves and how they participate and intervene in larger scale occurrences; 5. Finally, the core issue of our research is to understand the importance of these images in our current media culture and what they reveal about contemporary visibility regime. The thesis is divided in four chapters. In chapters 1 and 2, we analyze consecrated images in the light of certain theoretical standpoints and guiding concepts. The first chapter is dedicated to the paradigmatic example of the Zapruder film, the amateur footage that captured Kennedy\'s assassination. On the second chapter, the nine/eleven events help us to understand the importance of amateur footage in the transformation of media coverage and of our contemporary visibility regime. The following chapters are dedicated to the analysis of Brazilian videos with high political content. In chapter 3, our main subjects are the images shot during the wave of protests that took over Brazil in June of 2013. The last chapter is dedicated to videos of police violence in Brazilian suburbs, registered by the local population, pieces of evidence with the strength to impose their presence in news agenda.

La thèse ci-après présente une étude de films amateurs, fournis par le Centre National d'Audiovisuel au Luxembourg, dit CNA. Elle examine certaines notions de sens et d’interprétation en l’absence de métadonnées et du contexte d'origine. Plutôt que de prendre le film amateur comme genre ou pratique à part, cette étude porte sur le seul langage cinématographique. La première partie de ce travail identifie ainsi des modes filmiques hautement différenciés et interprétés à partir des images. Sans contexte original, ces films perdent leur principale source de signification, à savoir les commentaires fournis par les membres de la famille. En effet, la projection du film dans le cercle familial interpelle les souvenirs et donne lieu à l’explication des évènements reproduits. La présente thèse examine ces images comme vestiges d'une narration visuelle plutôt qu'en termes de récit de souvenirs. Elle adopte le point de départ très simple que ce qui est filmé était important pour les cinéastes. De plus, elle examine comment le langage filmique peut servir comme illustration des intentions et motivations, à la fois volontaires et involontaires. Y suit l’examen des différents styles employés dans les films amateurs. J’attire l’attention sur la codification culturelle sous-jacente à la pratique de représentation dans le privé, qui prend la langue filmique comme moyen d'auto-narration. La deuxième partie aborde les films amateurs comme moyen d’expression primitif d’une tentative de signification qui implique le chercheur et sa propre expérience. La projection des films est constitutive de ce processus d'entrée en signification / The following thesis presents an examination of privately produced amateur films taken from the Amateur Film Archive in the Centre National d’Audiovisuel in Luxembourg. It analyzes how amateur films present a filmic world and examines specific notions of meaning generation without meta-data and original context. Rather than take amateur film as a homogenous genre or practice, this study concentrates on film language. The first part of the following two-fold engagement with these filmic worlds thus identifies the highly differentiated filmic modes that can be read from theimages. A filmic mode is related to as a concomitance of style and choice in subjectmatter. Without original context, these films lose their most important means ofmeaning generation, namely the recollective narratives that are constructed by theintended audience in the viewing situation. This work takes these images as remnantsof a visual narration rather than in terms of recollective narratives. It operates from the very simple basis that how the camera was used can serve as illustration of underlying intentions and motivations—both intended and inadvertent. The first partof this study then focuses on the diversification within the images and reads concomitant cultural codifications that structure representational productions in the private and also analyzes film language as means of self-narration. The second part of this two-fold engagement explores filmic language in terms of a visualization of primordial signifying expression coming-into-being. This engagement extends to include the researcher and his/her own background as co-constitutive part of this process of primordial meaning