"Safety Blanket" a PseudoDoc/Music Video

THE IDEA
Let me start by providing some context: the impetus for this project was actually an idea to shoot a music video documenting my wife’s regular public transit commute. Recently she was approached by a transient neighbor of hours, and after he made an inappropriate gesture, she —understandably— was beyond creeped out and called the police who, thankfully, arrived promptly and escorted the man away.

Her experience made me acknowledge my own naivete; I also take public transit, but as a six-foot-three black man, there are things I don’t have to think about. I’m less likely to be approached or assaulted. So, the idea was to tell a story with footage of her commute set to music. However, after recording a conversation with her, I realized that the audio from my “interview” would fit well into the piece. The resulting pseudo-documentary-music video, called “Safety Blanket,” features actual footage from a typical commute on the Los Angeles Metro Gold Line and #83 bus. The piece juxtaposes two experiences of nighttime travel.

THE METHODOLOGY

• The footage was shot first. It is an actual commute. I shot in 24fps and 60fps.

• Shot on 18-35mm Sigma Art Lens. Wider lens = objectivity
  (no extreme closeups to force the viewer’s gaze)

• The interview was recorded afterward, the most pertinent sound bites were chosen, and then the footage was laid on top.

• The music chosen was a joint decision and, as expressed by the lyrics and tonality, was intended to reinforce the tone of the overall experience.

• The aural nature of story is highlighted by the use of black screen.

• The filmic conventions traditionally used to express memory (film grain, light leaks, slow motion, etc.) are employed with the goal of reiterating that this is a reconstruction of a past event.

REFLECTIONS
To be honest, I recently purchased a new camera, and this project was a chance to break it in. While in the field, there were times when I fumbled about trying to figure out various functions. And it reminded me of Margaret Mead, some of the early documentation of “ethnographic” material, and how the technical aptitude —or ineptitude—of the ethnographer affects the resulting media captured of the ethnographic sample. (Think of Flaherty’s Nanook of the North). But, to take it a step further, we can say that the ideologies, “creativity,” and goals of the ethnographer/documentarian/storyteller also affect the resulting media.

Tips for Producers from Radio & Digital Storytelling

Every year PBS Kids releases an RFP (request for proposals), and for several years I’ve submitted show treatments. Although, I’ve made it to the final round a few times, my shows don’t get chosen. And for a while, it hurt my feelings (For the record, I love PBS, and it will forever be close to my heart. Alas, reluctantly, I will share my latest proof-of-concept video and then critique it).

At any rate, after reading a few chapters in STORY CIRCLE: Digital Storytelling Around the World, I think I’ve stumbled across some tips to help me in the future. I’ll be referring to two articles: “Radio Storytelling and Beyond” and “Digital Storytelling in Education.” (I should mention that, of course, the goal isn’t just to be selected for production on a show, but also to create engaging and authentic media. Whether one’s goal is to strengthen their television pitches, produce better YouTube vlogs, or educate an international audience, I think the tips mentioned in these articles are helpful).

In “Radio Storytelling & Beyond” Marie Crook shares a few pointers she’s gleaned from leading storytelling workshops for the BBC. (I should mention that Radio stories are two- to three-minute audio stories made in the same way as digital stories —in the CDS [Center for Digital Storytelling] style, but without images.)

1. There should be no agenda on the part of the facilitator regarding which story the participant should tell.
   —> I think this is incredibly difficult to enforce when producing content for a network with a broad audience, as some stories are more compelling or relevant than other at any particular time. Sometimes because of what’s happening politically, for example, some stories have more significance. All things considered, I think this tip (although difficult to enforce) is a good starting point: that story emanates from character. SO involve the subject in the creation process. Regarding my most recent PBS submission, I should have involved a subject from the target demo in this process. Instead of myself as subject, it should have been a kid!

Now, switching articles, there are some really cool benefits of digital storytelling within the realm of education. Patrick Lowenthal describes digital storytelling as an emerging institutional technology —and I agree! These are just a few of the benefits he lists:

• Increase student engagement
  Unlike traditional instructional strategies, digital storytelling engages students in the “language of their generation” (Hofer and Swan 2006: 679)

• Student emotion
  Digital storytelling has been shown “to provide closure to deeply emotional issues in … [students] lives” (Robin and Pierson 2005: 713).

• Agency
  Some commonly identified benefits range from increasing student reflection (Barrett 2004), engendering student creativity (Hofer and Swan 2006), increasing students’ technology skills (Robin 2006), developing communication skills (Porter 2006), appealing to diverse learning styles (University of Houston n.d.), creating critical thinkers (Ohler 2005/6) and critical viewers of media (Howell and Howell 2003), improving research skills (University of Houston n.d.), and, finally, building learning communities (Standley and Ormiston 2003).
  
  *This element is perhaps the most important to me. How do we create educational media that encourages agency on the part of the consumer? How do we train viewers to be critical thinkers?

Conclusion?

I think it’s important to note that the only way to arrive at the benefits that Lowenthal mentions, is to begin with the tips that Crook stipulates (and she share two additional helpful tips in her article). In retrospect, I would have done things differently for my last RFP submission.

• I should have involved a subject from the target demo

• I should have let the story emanate from the subject instead of a predetermined script and concept.

I think these two considerations would have fundamentally altered the pitch, and produced a proof-of-concept that mitigated the distance between it and the intended audience.

Highlighting the Aural Experience in Stories

When discussing the early Israelite and Christian communities, I often pause to reflect on how they likely experienced the stories now canonized as sacred text. Initially, there were no images, let alone a text or book. Initially these stories were heard, experienced aurally. I think stories told with such an aural intention allow the listener to use their own imagination to “fill in the blanks,” if you will. Consider the following video from StoryCenter.org

For nearly 30 seconds, the creator allows no images to accompany the voiceover. In addition to this, there is no sound design or score. There is only a voice. What effect does this have on a listener? It forces them to listen while allowing their own subjective imaginations to take over. I think this is compelling story telling. Just like the ancients, the aural element is highlighted. But that leads me to my next question:

If the absence of image and sound design highlights the aural element, is the converse true? Can the inclusion of sound effects, music, and voiceover also highlight the aural nature of storytelling?

I’m inspired by the modern landscape of storytelling particularly on YouTube. Because of the increased accessibility, modern attention spans, and sheer quality of technology, stories are now more immersive than ever (and I’m not even considering VR and augmented reality). Modern digital storytelling on YouTube is deliberately crafted and designed to elicit specific effects. Consider one of my favorite editors, Sam Kolder.

Did you noticed the inclusion of highly stylized sound design, music score, and voiceover? Notice the EQ of sound and music anytime Sam cuts to an underwater shot. Or how the music crescendos during transitions to a new scene. Or did you notice the self-reflexivity at 7:19 where Sam demonstrates his editing method? Do all of these elements make your experience better, worse, or somewhere in between?

Regardless of the types of stories told in stylized videos such as these, the traits that I am highlighting are the special attention to aural design. How does sound affect the manner in which you perceive the story? As technology further increases, I am willing to bet that digital stories will become even more stylized, more self-referential, and hopefully, more visceral.

Problems with Images of Jezebel

INTRODUCTION
During the process of creation, an artist’s work is inevitably affected by —among other things— their previous life experiences, their understanding of the world, ideology, what they ate for breakfast, a recent breakup, etc. This statement may seem obvious or unnecessary, but the implications of such a human element are vast and potent. In instances where the image functions as authority, it is important to acknowledge the human element and examine any resulting bias. The goal of this study is to explore the problems inherent to images as it pertains to representations of the biblical character Jezebel. I argue that, by and large, the modern understanding of Jezebel does not accord with the original biblical text. The vehicle for this misconception is, largely, Jezebel’s visual culture. Therefore, in order to better understand how such a misunderstanding can occur, it is necessary to consider how images function within a culture— an increasingly digital culture. How can such a visual culture and its resulting ideologies be examined? Fortunately, YouTube, Google, and digital media are fundamentally built upon data, and this data may serve as quantifiable indicators of the cultural understanding of Jezebel. The accompanying video piece Jezebel & the Internet highlights many of these modern cultural understandings.

PROBLEMS WITH IMAGES

How do images play into the misunderstanding of Jezebel, specifically in the visual culture of digital media? Before considering the data, it is necessary to consider how images function in society.

In his popular book Ways of Seeing, John Berger argues that the social presence of a woman is different from that of a man (Mulvey makes a similar argument of women in classical Hollywood). Tracking the development of Renaissance religious art, Berger elucidates on the disappearance of narrative sequences. Instead of several panels depicting a story, the narratives were conflated to a single frame or moment. The single moment depicted becomes the moment of shame. Within the conventions of the art form itself, the women become blamed for sin. According to Berger:

““In the nudes of European painting we can discover some of the criteria and conventions by which women have been seen and judged as sights.””

— John Berger, Ways of Seeing

And regarding paintings of Adam and Eve in the garden, he goes on to say:

““The striking fact is that the woman is blamed and is punished by being made subservient to the man. In relation to the woman, the man becomes the agent of God.””

What we can surmise from Berger’s work, is that leading up to visual representations of Jezebel is a cultural convention of blaming women for sin. By depicting single moments, we lose any sense of narrative and complexity. Instead, stories become flat and binary ideologies. But the problem is even more complicated because images also contain inherent bias.

Consider W.J.T. Mitchell who, in his essay There are No Visual Media, discusses the bias toward the “visual” in discussions of art. He argues that there is no merely visual media because more than one sense is involved during the perception of meaning. When we see, we smell, we reflect, we sometimes touch and taste. Referring to media as solely “visual” is too simple:

““The specificity of media, then, is a much more complex issue than reified sensory labels such as “visual,” “aural” and “tactile.” It is, rather, a question of specific sensory ratios that are embedded in practice, experience, tradition and technical inventions.””

— WJT Mitchell, There Are No Visual Media



What Mitchell is suggesting is that images are complicated things. Not only are they an indiscriminate combination of sensory ratios, but those ratios have something to do with the conventions of a society. But it’s more than just a sensory experience:

“We also need to be mindful that media are not only extensions of the senses, calibrations of sensory ratios, they are also symbolic or semiotic operators, complexes of sign-functions.”

According to Mitchell, we should always consider the symbolic significance of an image because it may vary according to who sees it, and the context in which they see it. John Harvey discusses a similar notion while describing the multivalence of images. In his book The Bible as Visual Culture, he says that images:

““...have little by way of a fixed relationship to knowledge. They can not embody semantic meaning with any precision. In and of itself, an image is multivalent; it can have many possible significations and, therefore, no one in particular. In the absence of information which would otherwise expound or guide our perception and stem the image’s flux, it may be as impenetrable or vaguely suggestive as a word in a language we do not understand.””

— John Harvey, The Bible As Visual Culture

The metaphor of image as language is apt, and it is the connection back to the biblical text and Jezebel. For, if images contain inherent sensory ratios, semiotic ratios, and multivalence, then images of Jezebel provide infinite opportunities to reimagine her, retrofit her, and reprove her.

WHO IS JEZEBEL?
If one knew nothing about the biblical character Jezebel, but used a search engine to find more information, the search results would have almost nothing to do with her as she appears in the Hebrew bible. She is one of the few biblical characters to have become her own noun; in the modern world, “Jezebel” connotes a sexually immoral woman. The thesaurus yields results such as “floozy, hooker, and hussy.” The Urban Dictionary returns definitions like:

“ “...Often beautiful, she uses her looks to her advantage to ‘lure in’ her next victim.””

— Thesaurus.com

In addition to these search results, “Jezebel” is a line of lingerie, a modern luxury magazine, and a blog geared toward women that initially launched with the tagline “Celebrity, Sex, Fashion for Women.” Thus, there seems to be a colloquial correlation to extravagance and sexual impropriety.

But the appearance of Jezebel in the bible includes no mention of her sexuality. In the Hebrew Bible, Jezebel appears in the books of first and second Kings as the wife of King Ahab— the marriage being a political alliance between Israel and Sidon (a coastal city to the north) where Jezebel was the princess. Jezebel brings her religion to Israel with her, and the worship of Baal is blasphemy in the eyes of the biblical writers. According to the text, Jezebel begins killing Israel’s prophets. Because of this, Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal to a showdown with Israel’s deity. The Baal worshipers fail to summon their deity, so Elijah calls upon Yahweh and fire descends from heaven and consumes the altar. Having won, Elijah then slaughters all of the prophets of Baal. Jezebel threatens kill Elijah by the same time the next day, and, ironically, Elijah retreats.

The next time we hear of Jezebel is during the ploy to obtain Naboth’s vineyard for her husband, who is unable to secure the transaction. She sends letters, with the stamp of the king, to the elders in Naboth’s town, commanding them to lie against Naboth, and then stone him. The elders do so, and after Naboth’s death, the vineyard is claimed for Ahab. Few bible commentators acknowledge the bizarre betrayal of Naboth by his neighbors. If, as is suggested, Naboth’s neighbors had known him since birth and patronized him, how could they turn so quickly? Some scholars argue that this incident highlights Jezebel’s keen understanding of Israelite men. It is perhaps, also, one of the impetus for her modern connotation as manipulator-supreme.

The final time we hear of Jezebel (an entire chapter later) is just before her demise. Having just killed the sitting king and son of Jezebel, Jehu enters town to do the same to her. As she sees Jehu, Jezebel stands at the window, issues one last zinger insult, and then puts on makeup. Jehu commands the eunuchs to throw her down, they do so, and Jezebel is trampled. The donning of makeup is the final impetus for her conception as a whore. The most popular interpretation is that Jezebel puts on makeup in effort to seduce Jehu, but this interpretation is not bolstered by the text. Jezebel is the sitting Queen, presumably old in age by now, and has performed in a political function her entire life. She very likely understands that she is about to die and even issues one last insult as Jehu approaches. A more compassionate reading of the text would indicate that Jezebel, for lack of a better term, “goes out with a bang.”

It is worth noting that nowhere in the text is Jezebel characterized as promiscuous or seductive. The text makes no mention of her physical appearance. Unlike characters such as Rachel, Joseph, and Rebekah, whom the Bible explicitly labels as aesthetically appealing, there is no such indication for Jezebel. In fact, if anything, the text indicates that Jezebel is an all-too-loyal wife —even capable of murder. She is not an admirable character by any means, however, it is critical to highlight that nothing about her modern connotation is exemplified in text.

A SURVEY OF MODERN UNDERSTANDINGS

The accompanying piece to this article is a video entitled “Jezebel & the Internet.” The video animation recreates the pages of popular platforms (Google, YouTube, Thesaurus.com, Urban Dictionary, etc.) and features actual entries, comments, and view counts. It is a recreated first-person experience of learning about Jezebel using search engines. The piece ends with a total view count of all clips featured throughout; the total is over 1.5 million (This number only indicates the total views, which inevitably grows by the month. I am not including number of comments, shares, likes, or dislikes in this total). Without counting the superfluous interactions, the videos featured within the animation have been seen at least 1.5 million times, and interacted with by an inevitably higher number. Since the video highlights actual comments, interactions, and view counts, it is a viable ethnographic survey of modern cultural understandings of Jezebel. An analysis of Jezebel & the Internet will reveal several recurring themes and motifs. We shall explore two of these tendencies now.

Jezebel’s prominent association is that of a sexual essence. Consider authoritative sources such  Thesaurus and Urban Dictionary which return results like “whore,” “harlot,” “slut.” This idea is advanced by spokespersons who, by nature of their occupation, also function as authorities. Jezebel & the Internet features TV show hosts, priests, and preachers who all drive the notion that Jezebel is sexually immoral. We must not forget that, in addition to the bias these opinions express, the videos are themselves images and operate in a multivalent manner.

Another significant tendency highlighted in the video is Jezebel’s retrofitting onto modern situations. She is often modified to align with a contemporary issue. For example, a video called President Jezebel uploaded in 2016 to the YouTube channel “Wild Bill for America” has 6,258 views and over 100 comments —all of which agree with Bill regarding the sentiment that Hillary Clinton was “poised to go from being an Obama minion to full fledged president Jezebel.” In this case, an ancient text is interpreted within a modern context and modified to demonstrate a political affiliation and ideology.

As an ethnographic survey, the video Jezebel & the Internet demonstrates of various modern uses of the word “Jezebel.” We have explored two tendencies (a potentially false correlation to sexual impropriety and the retrofitting of Jezebel onto modern women); we have also noted that the videos have been engaged over one million times. Although outside the scope of the current study, an in-depth examination of the comments section would yield demographic details about the interactions: which users are commenting, whether they agree, and to which additional channels they are subscribed. Often they are subscribed to channels featuring similar subject matter, and thus it is easy to imagine how confirmation bias can persist among digital communities. Andreas Ekstrom often discusses digital bias and the philosophical impossibility of search engines to return “knowledge.”

CONCLUSION
In order to combat many of these inconsistencies and biases, there is a need for new language and vocabulary. Regarding “visual” media, Mitchell proposes a need for a new language and taxonomy. In her article Blindness and Visual Culture: An Eyewitness Account, Georgina Kleege describes the overwhelmingly negative connotations of vernacular regarding the blind. Regarding new language, she says:

“And as we move beyond the simple blindness versus binary, I hope we can also abandon the cliches that use the word “blindness” as a synonym for inattention, ignorance, or prejudice.”

Jezebel has been interpreted in many and various ways throughout the centuries. This paper has highlighted, what I argue to be, several inconsistent representations of this biblical figure. In addition to her multivalent interpretations, we have also explored how images are themselves multivalent —capable of conveying meaning within various contexts. These meanings are demonstrated by what W.J.T. Mitchell calls sensory and semiotic ratios. Furthermore, John Berger and Laura Mulvey describe the errors of conventions by which women have been represented in art. Once these images become available through the internet, they are capable of circulation amid the confirmation bias of connected communities.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. America, Wild Bill for. “President Jezebel.” YouTube, YouTube, 19 Apr. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW0D17GwU0A.

2. Berger, John. Ways of Seeing: Penguin, 2008.

3. Deez, Genie. “Jezebel & The Internet.” YouTube, YouTube, 27 Feb. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=aogkRTTGmto.

4. Ekström, Andreas. “Andreas Ekström.” TED, www.ted.com/speakers/andreas_ekstrom?language=en.

5. Gaines, Janet Howe. Music in the Old Bones: Jezebel Through the Ages. Southern Illinois University Press, 1999.

6. Harvey, John. The Bible as Visual Culture: When Text Becomes Image. Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2013.

7. www.thesaurus.com, www.thesaurus.com/browse/jezebel?s=t.

8. “Jezebel (Website).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Apr. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jezebel_(website).

9. “Jezebel.” Urban Dictionary, www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Jezebel.

10. Kleege, Georgina. “Blindness and Visual Culture: An Eyewitness Account.” Journal of Visual Culture, vol. 4, no. 2, 2005, pp. 179–190., doi:10.1177/1470412905054672.

11. Mitchell, W. J.t. “There Are No Visual Media.” Journal of Visual Culture, vol. 4, no. 2, 2005, pp. 257–266., doi:10.1177/1470412905054673.

12. Rose, Rachel, and Laura Mulvey. Laura Mulvey 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' 1975. Afterall Books, 2016.

A Paradox of an Ethnographic Sample

In his article McCarty’s Law and How to Break It, McCarty proposes a general timeline for filmmakers when filming a community other than their own. He states that “detailed visual and aural representation of a discrete community demands a minimum of three months' fieldwork” (70). Then he elucidates each month: the first is for getting over culture shock and language barriers, the second month for becoming familiar and tending toward intimacy, and the final month for reaping the rewards of material that is simple, natural, and unaffected by the camera's presence. He concludes by proposing his law which basically stipulates that relevant action takes place when the camera isn’t rolling —but that’s okay because filming isn’t supposed to go smoothly anyway. And that mere statement reminded me of, arguably and humorously, the most difficult documentary ever made —which happens to include themes of (a) establishing rapport with indigenous peoples (Brigard), (b) coincidental capture of relevant action (McCarty), and (c) the relationship of ethnology to film-making (Mead). The film to which I am referring is a paradox, the Inception of all films, a film within a film about itself. I’m talking about Burden of Dreams.

For some context, peep the trailer:

The film requires clarification: it is a documentary about the making of Fitzcarraldo directed by the legendary Werner Herzog. The character Fitzcarraldo, is based on the historical figure Carlos Fermin Fitzcarrald, was an actual rubber baron in the late nineteenth century. He literally tried to transport a steamboat over a steep hill in order to access oil in the Amazon River basin. Fitzcarraldo relied on indigenous tribes to create a system of intricate pulleys to pull the boat over the hill. So, in effort to pay homage to these workers, Werner Herzog also literally pulled a steamboat over a hill in Peru for his film Fitzcarraldo.
Herzog is renowned for risking high stakes in order to achieve images that have never been captured. He’s been called “nuts,” and, having met and interviewed him, I can attest to that colloquialism.

These things considered, the documentary on the making of this film elucidates common struggles of film-making while (I argue) serving as a metaphor for the function of ethnographic material. The following is a short clip from the documentary in which Herzog describes why he makes films.

My argument is that both of these films (Burden of Dreams and Fitzcarraldo) are pieces of visual anthropology that, although fictionalized, demonstrate a further development of ethnographic material. Brigard recounts the history and development of ethnographic film, but the process did not stop with the conclusion of the article. The development continues and is augmented to include semi-fictional content. In addition to this, and considering Mead’s argument, cultures have the potential to vanish without being captured for posterity (3). Films about films about real people demonstrate ethnographic tendencies, but furthermore, function as history for those who watch them. If anything, Burden of Dreams is one of the most entertaining documentaries you will ever see. It is worth watching in full and several times.

A Tour Through The Internet

If we only had the internet to learn about anything, we would have all sorts of visual media through which to wade. And what about Biblical figures? What if we were to use Google and YouTube to learn about the Biblical character Jezebel? The most recent and popular postings, arguably, are accurate indications of pop culture regarding Jezebel. As such, they indicate current conceptions of this character.

My goal was to recreate the experience of learning about Jezebel using the internet. The graphics featured in this video essay are recreations of actual search results.

Project Questions

1. What are the current conceptions of the Biblical figure Jezebel as demonstrated by various internet tools?

2. How are these “conceptions” dispersed?

3. By who? For whom?

4. As a result, how and to what degree are people affected?

Methodology

• Compile a montage of media featuring the word “Jezebel”

• Restrict montage to media occurring in the first page of search results on Google and YouTube

• Count the total views and total comments

There Are No Visual Media

Remember the “there is no spoon” moment from The Matrix? My initial response years ago was outright confusion. What are you talking about kid!? You’re holding the spoon. What’s going on here...

After some sleuthing and forum searching, I arrived at the conclusion that the scene probably represents that perception of reality is altered only after altering oneself. “There is no spoon” implies that, despite all visual, physical, or mental evidence to the contrary, the thing in question does not exist --at least not as is currently perceived. Well this brings me to another question: How do we, as visual culture readers, perceive images? As discussed in W.J.T. Mitchell’s essay “There Are No Visual Media,” more than one sensory receptor is involved when considering visual media. As we’ll see, perception is everything.

---

“Why does all this matter? Why quibble about an expression? ”

— W.J.T. Mitchell "There Are No Visual Media"

Mitchell argues that visual media is never “purely optical,” but rather, is made up of two different ratios. First he describes a “sensory ratio” inherent to all media. When one admires painting, they must be aware that the painting is a handmade object itself. “But what is the perception of the painting as handmade if not a recognition that a non-visual sense is encoded, manifested, and indicated in every detail of its material existence?” John Berger elucidates on the insinuation of touch and feel in his influential “Ways of Seeing.” But the theory applies to other media: photographs, radio, television/film. They all utilize, in some proportion, an amount of visual, aural, and tactile engagement. Consider that most modern films employ, not only cinematography, but also sound design, scoring, and editing. Click below for interesting examination of how two different filmmakers (Fincher and Nolan) take advantage of our sensory perceptions.

But there is also a semiotic ratio that Mitchell describes. Since any form of media exists within a historical, cultural, and social framework, it must contain icons, codes, symbols, and references of and to that framework. “We also need to be mindful that media are not only extensions of the senses, calibrations of sensory ratios, they are also symbolic or semiotic operators, complexes of sign-functions.” What are the archetypes in a story? What does the color red indicate? What does slow motion mean in a film? These are examples of semiotic elements.

The last thing to note is the effect of the senses and semiotic on emotion and interpretation. As Mitchell states, “The sensory ratio of vision as such becomes even more complicated when it enters into the region of emotion, affect, and inter-subjective encounters in the visual field...” Not only is our conception of “visual media” too broad, but the issue is even further complicated when we consider how an image effects others.

“There are no purely visual media because there is no such thing as purely visual perception in the first place.”

— W.J.T. Mitchell "There Are No Visual Media"

Ultimately, Mitchell argues for a nuanced taxonomy of visual media based on the sensory and semiotic ratios. We need to redefine our definition, and find something that better represents the deep and complicated issues inherent to media. Doing so encourages us to ask “how and why the visual became so potent as a reified concept. How did it acquire its status as the sovereign sense?” In other words, is what we see more important than how, when, and why we see it?

Furthermore, is seeing the only sense with which we should apply rigorous scholarship? What about sound, touch, and even more subjective: emotional impact? Once we redefine “visual media” and stop relying solely on the visual, perhaps we will realize that, in fact, there is no spoon.

Welcome!

Hi, my name is Genie. I am a creative director, media producer, and PhD student in Bible as Visual Culture. My goal is to understand the history and use of images in various communities and time periods. As a filmmaker and media producer, I am inspired by the extent and opportunity of the milieu of academic digital material, and my goal is to, not only study the use and impact of images, but to create and present scholarly material about visual culture. From week to week, you might find writings, podcast clips, short videos, or music. We live in an exciting time. Let’s talk about it!

-Genie