Notes

Discourse:

A connected communicated framework, series of meanings or context built around a medium or topic such as society, or media.

Author & Ownership

From a poststructuralist perspective the author becomes irrelevent as the product they are presenting to us is created from preconceived notions, thoughts, objects, concepts, etc. By this logic we can consider ourselves the author as we create the meaning and context of the product within our minds based on our own preconceived notions and concepts.

According to Barthes, so far in the capitalist society, the author has been:

• Credited as the anchor of the literary work's signifiers

• The center of the work

• The origin of all the work's meaning

• The figure towards which all reading should direct itself

• The author has been traditionally a transcendental signified who stands behind the work like God

• The author grants stability and order to the work

"The author's only power is to mix writings." -Barthes

Class exercise - watch and observe then answer: "Does it matter what the creator of creative work, says?"

I think there is an extent where the creator's intentions matter but it's not the be-all end-all of how the work is interpreted. Hearing the creator's explanation for certain decisions they made can help add context where the audience may have not understood something. However, I think the most important thing is to let the audience experience the work first let them come to their own understandings before hearing the original intent.

Deconstruction

An approach to criticise and dismantle the tendancy to think in terms of binary opposition. E.g. good vs evil, boy vs girl, peace vs war.

Deconstruction can be seen as a creative method.

Deconstruction steps:

1. Choose a certain text (any form of media or creative work.)

2. Respond to the following:

   • Who made the work?

   • What were they influenced by?

   • Who is being addressed?

   • What text, images or sounds lead you to this conclusion?

   • What is the text of the message (literal meaning)? What is the subtext (understated or underlying message)?

   • What kind of lifestyle is presented? How?

   • What values are expressed?

   • What tools or techniques of persuasion are used?

   • What story is not being told? What subtexts are not expressed?

   • In what ways is this a rejection or reinforcement of a mainstream discourse?

3. Identify pairs of binary oppositions OR an aspect of the work that has not been emphasized enough.

4. Dismantle those paris of binary opposition OR underrepresented aspects into smaller pieces.

5. Emphasize on the the aspect that you find underrepresented by magnifying or highlighting it in your work based on what you think needs to change in the original media text.

Class activity: Deconstruction

Describe a media text that you find deconstructive. What was deconstructed in this media text? What techniques and aesthetics were used to make that deconstruction?

Re:Creators is an animated series about fictional characters coming to life. It deconstructs cliches and tropes found in many different genres. For example there is a young girl character called Mamika from a "Magical Girl" show. They deconstruct her show's genre but setting her up in the typical way the audience would expect her to be but putting then placing her into a completely foreign environment. She is dressed in a pink frilly dress with a magic wand as a weapon just like how in most magical girl shows the hero would wave their wand and the bad guy is defeated but when Mamika is suddenly transported from her fictional world into the real one she finds that her powers are massively destructive. While chasing down someone she saw as a bad guy she created a massive trail of destruction and severly injured the other person in the process. It was not until seeing the consequences of her actions that she stopped and questioned what she knew about being a hero from her world. "No way. Usually there's no blood."

Critical Reflection

What?

So what?

Now what?