In paper number 2 I will be writing about episode number 5 of “Ways of Hearing”, titled “Power” by Damon Krukowski. In episode 5, Krukowski talks about the power companies have over music and our interests altogether. Companies use algorithms to try and give suggestions based on our personal interests. These algorithms are made by collecting the user’s personal data. As helpful as this might seem, it’s concerning to think about the amount of information these companies have and what they can do with it. Many of these companies sell your information to others, who may start to target you with ads and other suggestions you may not want to get. 

    Generation Wealth is a 25-year multimedia project by Lauren Greenfield. The project was released as a photobook, an art exhibition, and a documentary. Its purpose is to comment on society’s obsession to be wealthy, young, and beautiful. 

Former model Ilona Stolie and her 4-year-old daughter Michelle in their luxury mansion.

        In the image, Stolie is wearing a sweater that says I’m Luxury. The sweater was recreated for Stolie by stylist Andrey Artyomov in a blue color that was made just for her. Ilona Stolie is an icon in Russian style and fashion, which equates to wealth. This shows one part of society that desires wealth and now those beliefs and traditions are passed down onto the younger generation where the desire for wealth and luxuries will only continue to grow.

A 49-year-old patient recovering from plastic surgery eating lunch in a private room at a luxury cosmetic surgery aftercare facility.

Lauren Greenfield documented the moment where a 49-year-old woman recovering from a full face laser resurfacing and an upper eye lift at an expensive facility that offers certain luxury treatments. room rates can go up to $1,195 dollars a night. The image not only shows the desire to spend money but the desire to be young and beautiful as well.

In episode three of john burgers “The Ways of Seeing,” Burger talks about valuable objects in which we buy. The most valuable object we can buy, Berger says, is an oil painting. In the oil paintings, the objects depicted in the paintings often look real. We as people have become obsessed with things and wealth. Luxury is present in pop culture and the way we think. Just like in the above images, certain luxuries are seen, such as the luxury of an expensive home or the luxury of plastic surgery. Unlike the oil paintings Berger discusses, wealth isn’t just about things or money but can be about beauty, youth, or just looking rich. Wealth is about the impact it makes on society and the mind and the way we adapt to it in everyday life. A lot of people are concerned about luxury brand names and whatever image they portray and that is a result of the importance and the light we shine on these things.

    In episode 2 of “ The Ways of Seeing,” Berger talks about the difference between being naked and being nude. To be naked is to be one’s true self and to be nude is to be on display. The use of nudity in European art has brought on the idea that women must submit and please men. In many of the examples Berger gave in the second episode of “The Ways of Seeing,” he shows how the positioning an artist chose for the subject is used in pleasing the often male spectator. One example Berger shows is the 1814 painting by, Jean-Aguste-Dominique-Ingres, “La Grande Odalisque.” The face is in the direction towards the viewer and the gaze is meant to charm them. More often than not, this positioning and body language are used to show the ease and submissiveness of the subject to please the oftentimes male spectator. 

        There is a poster that uses the same woman and her positioning in the painting. The Poster was published in a portfolio in the 1980s by a group of anonymous, feminist, female artists that went by the Guerrilla Girls. The guerrilla Girls dedicated to combatting both race, sexism, and gender in the world of art. The use of nudity in this piece is to contradict and inquire about the use and representation of women in not just early European art, but all art.  

The contents of an image have changed after the invention of the camera. Camera movements and image availability alter the way we interpret the story and meaning of an image. The use of the camera today has made art like this easily accessible to the general public creating more possible meanings for a given image. The invention of the camera is used not just as a mechanism that manipulates the meaning of art externally but can be used internally as part of the image itself. Surrealism paintings often had a photographic likeness to them, which added a modernized feel.  Surrealism was a 20th-century movement in art and literature that used irrational imagery to evoke the unconscious mind. 

The Persistence of Memory is a 1931 surrealist painting by artist Salvador Dali. The four clocks look to be as they are melting while the white almost faded looking figure on the ground appears to be sleeping. The Persistence of Memory possibly represents the dream state. The clocks depict the passage of time in reality. The melting of the clocks and then ants on the clock furthest to the left represent times powerlessness in the dream state. Since time is something we deem very precious in the everyday world, the distortion of the clocks shown how irrelevant our conscious worries are to our unconscious mind.