Ok, so semiology is a little difficult to wrap one's head around because-- in a way-- what you're doing is separating form from meaning. Signifier from signified. But that's very nearly what's happening here: the women on this show, whatever I think about the idea personally, seem to have separated the form of their bodies (signifier) from the own idealizations of self (signified). Yet what's striking to me, is that these women's desire for plastic surgery connects to Manovich's idea about the remix. It's the same concept being applied to bodies, a'la transcoding. Thoughts? (Besides or including wtf or ew?)
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Shared Cultural Experiences: PoMo Realized, Part Two.
I think I'm probably going to win honors for the most disgusting initial post, but I wanted to pick up on Joshua's idea that PoMo is drifiting into wider culture. Below, I include a video from the new TV show "Bridalplasty." After that, some thoughts.
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Injectables Party.
ReplyDeleteBridopasty is terrifying to the uninitiated and digestively/comprehensively disorientating to the rest.
I think Manovich's theory is involved with Biridoplasty in terms of modular editing. These fiancées are not transcoding themselves but rather re-figuring or editing themselves. I'm not sure what Manovich would call it, but these women are segmenting their bodies into parts (lips, ass, nose, tummy, cheeks, etc.) and asking a professional to modify those parts into a unified vision. To me it seems like a segmentation of the whole to edit each part at will. There is the an air of Potato-Head accessorizing in that "this nose goes with these eyes." It's digitalizing the analog, physically.
Wow. ew. AND wtf.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to take the ideas of Manovich regarding the description of discrete "units" of information and think of them in terms of body parts. But there isn't a reason that we can't, is there? But that is truly what Bridoplasty is showing us, isn't it? I desperately want Tom's input on this... TP, are we off base here? This logic makes complete sense to me.
BTW, loving Barthes "Myth Today." Nice to have a concrete example we can carry on to form an extended example...
The analogy with Mr. Potato Head seems apt (segues with Barthes' "Toys," perhaps?) and I'm a little concerned that the analogy to Manovich seems to hold as well. "Digitalizing the analog, physically." But how far do we want to go down this road, really?
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