The Fall of the British Empire –

‘At the twilight of the British Empire, bankers, lawyers and accountants from the City of London set up a spiders web of offshore secrecy jurisdictions (power to make legal decisions) that captured wealth from across the globe and funnelled it to London.’

Britain’s transformation from a colonial power to a modern financial power, was due to the empires collapse, and its multiple colonies claiming their independence. This lead to many ‘British elites’ losing a lot of their wealth, power and status. However, the finance sector offered a solution; with the value of the pound decreasing (due to finances withdrawing their money from Britain due to the crisis), Britain limited its banks overseas lending and created the ‘London Euro Market’.

The Bank of England (the UK regulator) declared that the LondonEuro Market accounts were not in London and were ‘elsewhere’, it therefore had no responsibility for regulating them.

There are 14 remaining (‘remnants of the british empire’) overseas territories, 7 of which (including Jersey) are Tax Havens, ultimately they are independant, which the UK Government/ Bank of England can use as an excuse for not being able to change this fact, however many decisions and choices that are made in these territories are heavily influenced by UK officials.

With access to large amounts of offshore money, the Euro Market was able to grow rapidly.

The City of London – The state within a State

The City of London – ‘The governor of the Imperial Engine’ – London’s Financial district. Along with the British Empire, the city of London also saw a rapid decline.

A district within London that has its OWN Mayor and police force.

In 1066, William the Conqueror failed to claim the City of London, therefore allowing them to continue functioning without interference which still has an impact today as the City is exempt from some laws that govern the rest of the UK.

For example, The City of London Corporation has quite a lot of power, separate from the rest of London and the UK. The council isn’t elected by the ‘general’ public but mostly elected by powerful businesses based in the area. So it could allow banks to avoid financial regulations, and transfer money into tax havens.

The Bank of England is located at the heart of the city of London and is also a financial regulator.

Financial Regulator – Its main purpose is to supervise, regulate and provide charters to banks in the surrounding area.

At the collapse of the Empire the bank used its regulation powers in order to attract international banks to London. (Which is why there are more banks here than any other financial capital)

The ‘Trust’ –

Trusts play with the concept of ownership. Most of the time, trustees are lawyers, in these offshore jurisdictions no qualifications are needed to be a trustee. With the trustee in possession of the assets, legally you are separated from those assets and they technically are no longer yours. There is no obligation to report of these trusts – ‘invisible arrangements’. These trusts can oversee not just financial assets but anything of value such as paintings.

‘A trust is a legal arrangement created when one person (The settlor) gives legal ownership of an asset (The Trust Property) to another person (The Trustee).

An offshore structure will usually have a Trust at the top of it, The trust will control and manage assets, underneath this, the trust will own some ‘shell companies’ or trustees in another area, who beneficiaries are also in another area. This secrecy structure allows for the identity of owners of the offshore assets to be hidden as well as the wealth to be recycled back into global markets.

Jersey –

Multiple times the British government have denied claims that they have any regulatory control or powers over the financial relations occurring in jersey.

John Christensen – Jersey Economic Adviser

Traditionally, the UK governments tries to limit its input in its offshore jurisdictions (Jerseys) domestic affairs and regulations. Although this ‘input’ still does take place privately, not on paper so that it isn’t conveyed overtly, hides their input.

By keeping this power and influence over its offshore jurisdictions hidden, Britain is able to remove itself from any political affairs and state that they have no control over these areas as they are in theory ‘Independant’.

“Jersey is one of the top worldwide Offshore financial centers It is described by some as a tax haven. It attracts deposits from customers outside of the island, seeking the advantages such places offer, like reduced tax burdens.”

(Jersey’s Economy)

Deals are often agreed in London but then registered offshore for tax transparency and regulatory purposes. When scandals hit, the UK are able to separate themselves by stating that overseas territories are independent.

Deloitte – The majority of their clients offshore were involved in a legal activity with many being traced back to bribery and tax evasion.

Senator Stuart Syvret –

States of Jersey Report

” At approximately 9.00 a.m., on Monday 6th April 2009, Senator Stuart Syvret, the senior Senator of the States Assembly, was arrested by the States of Jersey Police as he stepped from the door of his home. The arrest took place in the presence of approximately 8 police officers who were on the scene in 4 police vehicles. Senator Syvret was told he was under arrest for alleged breaches of the Data Protection Law, and was, more specifically, later told that the alleged offences related to material published on his Internet blog. The Senator’s home was then searched, although no search warrant was issued for the alleged offence under Schedule 9, Article 50, Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005.”

” The reputation of Jersey as a democracy It is difficult to describe the damage to Jersey’s reputation – even its very appearance as a functioning democracy – if Laws are used against members of the legislature and their constituents, in ways that appear to be disproportionate and of dubious validity. The arrest and detention of a member of the legislature, and the searching of his home – without a search warrant – can only make Jersey appear as some kind of democratically bankrupt republic like Zimbabwe.”

Theoretically, Jersey is a democracy. But in reality a lot of criticisms can be put forward in order to contrast this. To begin, Tax Avoidance and Tax Havens – Jersey – undermy the very meaning of a democracy. Yes, we have free and ‘fair’ elections and therefore a ‘representative’ government. However, we are not all deemed equal before the law; contacts, status and wealth are far too important. In reality, Jersey, just like the UK and the US are ‘Electoral Oligarchies’ where political power is frequently tied in with status and wealth. The corruption in the government/ democracy and even the police force is clearly represented in this documentary, especially during Stuart Syvrets interview. Stuart Syvry ,even after providing a legitimate defence, was prosecuted even without a legitimate case and ended up being imprisoned 3 times. Those who speak out against the establishment are frequently suppressed and harassed such as Stuart Syvrys case and John Christensen who was continuously followed upon his arrival.

***

Uk + Offshore Jurisdictions = 25% of the (financial) Global Market.

US = 19% of the Global Market

Although the Empire collapsed, Britain still maintained a significant amount of control in the financial sectors of some of its previous colonies.

Financialisation – the process by which financial institutions, markets, etc., increase in size and influence.

Up to half of overall offshore wealth can be traced back to Britain’s offshore havens.

Above all, Britain serves the interests of its elites.

The end of the documentary suggests 5 steps in which Tax Havens and Financial Secrecey Jurisdictions can be stopped –

• Stop Public Councils from Issuing public contracts to companies companies operating out of tax havens.
• Create public Registries of beneficial owners of companies, trusts and foundations.
• Introduce full transparency of eals and secret agreements between companies and governments.
• Introduce public country by country reporting by multinational companies
• Introduce automatic information exchange between all countries.

‘Today’s economy responds to yesterday’s problems’.

Nick Srnicek

• Google has around 60,000 direct employees, facebook has 12,000, while WhatsApp had 55 employees when it was sold to facebook for $19 billion and instagram had 13 when it was sold for $1 billion.
• The digital economy can be defined as/ refers to businesses that are increasingly more reliant upon information technology, data and the internet for their business models.
• This sector is becoming essential to much of todays economy
• Data has become increasingly central to firms and their relations with workers, customers and other capitalists
• The platform has emerged as a new business model, capable of extracting and controlling large amounts of data , and with this an increase of large monopolistic firms.

Platform Capitalism – refers to the activities of companies such as Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Uber, Airbnb and others to operate as platforms. In this business model both hardware and software are used as a foundation (platform) for other actors to conduct their own business.

In 1980 the level of annual investment in computers and peripheral equpiment was $50.1 billion; by 1990 it had reached $154.6 billion, and in 2000 it reached a peak of $412.8 billion.

Tax Havens- A tax haven is a country or place with very low “effective” rates of taxation for foreign investors. In some traditional definitions, a tax haven also offers financial secrecy. 

Proletarianisation – (Proletarian = Lower class) – The ever growing size of the working class.

‘In Marxism, proletarianization is the social process whereby people move from being either an employer, unemployed or self-employed, to being employed as wage labor by an employer.’

“Capitalism, when a crisis hits, tends to be restructured. New technologies, new organisational forms, new modes of exploitation, new types of jobs and new markets all emerge to create a new way of accumulating capital”

The internet as a whole is responsible for about 9.2% of the worlds electricity consumption.

Older business models were not well designed to use and manipulate and extract data. A new Business model would be needed if capitalist firms were to take advantage of dwindling recording costs. This new business model can now be recognised as a powerful firm known as the ‘Platform’

‘Platforms’ became an efficient way to monopolise, extract, analyse and use the increasingly large amounts of data that were being recorded.

Intermediary – a person who acts as a link between people in order to try and bring about an agreement; a mediator.

Platforms are digital infrastructures that enable two or more groups to interact. They can be seen as intermediaries that bring together different users: customers, advertisers, service providers, producers, suppliers and even physical objects.

In addition, these platforms also come with a series of tools that enable their users to build their own products, services and marketplaces. For example, Microsoft’s Windows OS (Operating System) allows software developers to create apps for it and sell them to consumers.

A platform provides the basic tools needed to mediate between different groups. For example the (CSP) Vogue can be linked in with this as the vogue website acts as a platform to mediate different stories, trends and ideas to consumers (Those who read/ subscribe to the articles). A modern solution as their magazines were losing profit and views when they were previously being printed, since switching their brand to online (teen vogue) many more people have started to follow it as more people read using online platforms that actual physical books/ papers now.

Network Effect – (See Democracy Hacked post) – The more numerous the users who use a platform, the more valuable that platform becomes for everyone else. For example when the internet became publicly available on August 6th 1991; with its growing popularity the ‘network’ effect took place as previously it was only available to a handful of scientists and members of government. Another example of the ‘Network Effect’ taking place would be Facebook, is only ‘the’ default social networking platform due to the large amount of people who use it, if only one person had facebook then it wouldn’t be valuable. However, the more numerous the people who use a specific platform the more accurate its algorithm may get and the more data on those people it will collect. Therefore, platforms must manipulate and use constantly change their tactics in order to keep their number of users high.

5 Different types of platforms –

• Advertising Platforms – Google/ Facebook – extract information on users, undertake a labour of analysis, and then use the products of that process to sell ad space.
• Cloud Platforms – AWS/ SalesForce – Own the hardware and Software of digital-dependant businesses, renting them out as needed.
• Industrial Platforms – Siemens/ FE – Build the hardware and the software necessary to transform traditional manufacturing into internet-connected processes that lower the costs of production and transform goods into services.
• Product Platforms – Rolls Royce/ Spotify – Generate revenue by using other platforms to transform a traditional good into a service and by collecting rent/ subscription fees from them.
• Lean Platforms – Uber/ Airbnb – Attempt to reduce their ownership of assets to a minimum and to profit by reducing costs as much as possible. Lean platforms appear to be the product of a few tendencies and moments.

“Data extraction is becoming a key method of building a monopolistic platform and of siphoning off revenue from advertisers”

Great Platform Wars –

With network effects, a tendency towards monopolisation is built into the DNA of platforms: the more numerous the users who interact on a platform, the more valuable the entire platform becomes for each one of them. Which, in a way, could also be linked to Habermas’s theory of a ‘Public Sphere’ as the networking effect only works once the platform brings different/ numerous people together, and habermas’s idea of ‘access being guaranteed to all’.

Platforms can turn into monopolies based on the amount of data they collect from their users. For example Google gives you the option to share multiple things such as your location, your calendar dates, reminders, email, video/ search history, giving ‘us’, the users a better service if agreed. Furthermore, monopolies can also be created by platforms though their subsidiaries and the data collected by them, increased through the network effect. For example Googles subsidiary ‘Youtube’ giving them further data on us, allowing them to know what we watch and what we may like/ find interesting, their algorithm therefore generating more videos similar to our liked ones, almost forcing people to start or continue using the app. (Revenue and profits can be made through advertisements and the selling of user data, as well as through subscriptions such as YouTube Premium)

“If these platforms wish to remain competitive, they must intensify their extraction, analysis, and control of data and they must invest in the fixed capital (  fixed capital is any kind of real, physical asset that is used repeatedly in the production of a product.) to do so.

Usually for these platforms, the quantity and diversity of data exceeds the quality.

Post-Modernism – A way of viewing the world. Relating to ideas such as Re-Imagining, Pastiche, Parody, Copy and Bricolage. Fragmentation of identity via the alienation of society or even themselves.

Pastiche – An imitation of a piece of work, NOT with the intention of ‘Making fun of’ the piece.

Parody – Is a piece of work that imitates another piece WITH the intention to ridicule the original.

Does copying a piece make it original? Copying allows new meaning and contexts to be created, similar to the remix of a song, it is different to the original yet the same.

Bricolage is a useful concept or postmodernism as it ‘involves the rearrangement and juxtaposition of previously unconnected signs to produce new codes of meaning’ (Barker & Jane, 2016:237).

Intertextuality – suggests signs only have meaning in reference to other signs and that meaning is therefore a complex process of decoding/encoding 

Fragmentary/ Decentred nature of music videos allow audiences to use media such as music videos as a form of escapism as they are unable to distinguish ‘fiction’ from ‘reality’.

Shuker – “Their preoccupation with visual style”

Consumerist Culture – One of the most iconic examples of consumer culture is Apple’s rise to the top to technology, because it created a product that fit the needs of consumers in a way that buyers became part of a technology movement.

There is an argument that postmodern culture is a consumer culture, where the emphasis on style is greater than actual need.

Surface and Style over Substance – as products can be created just for the idea of connecting it to another product, meaning and focus is reduced. A lot of focus goes into the surface of a product, but not the deeper meaning behind it such as context/ cultural/ social issues or ideas.

Richard Hoggart – ‘Uses Of Literacy (1959) and the idea of ‘Neighborhood Lives’.

John Urry – Due to the massive increase in population during the twentieth century, from 2 to 6 billion, now cities, towns and villages are high-consuming energy centers. – characteristic of postmodernism = consumption.

Jean Baudrillard – The world is imploding in on itself.

Jean Baudrillard, Jean-Francois Lyotard and Fredric Jameson – The loss of a meta-narrative. (Key Thinkers for course)

Simulation – The unreal/ copy is real. The Hyperreal – An exaggerated/ hyperbolic reality.

PostModernism Definitions

• Q1: How can you apply the concept of Orientalism to Common’s Letter to the Free?
  The concept of orientalism (Edward Said 1978) can be applied to Common’s Letter to the Free in multiple ways. For example, the setting – the prison is used to exaggerate the oppression of black people and how a government with a majority of white males can profit from the wrongful imprisonment of African-American people, solely based upon the stereotypes they hold against them as individuals as well as their culture. In addition, the lyrics also express the amount of pain and abuse black people have experienced over time and in the present, the mentionings of ‘Jim Crow’, ‘the American dream’, ‘amendment 13’ and how instead of slavery people of colour are now being treated as criminals. All of these lyrics refer to how black people were treated and how not much has changed, emphasising how previous stereotypes are still around but only in a modern form – instead of slavery, people are treated as criminals. This lack of changed that is expressed relates to the concept of orientalism as the stereotyping of a culture and race is still prevalent.

• Q2: Can you apply Fanon’s 3 phase plan of action to this music video?

Assimilation – “In order to assimilate the culture of the oppressor and venture into his fold”. – The setting of the music video, the prison, acts as a device to show how African-Americans are supposedly treated fairly in modern times, in the music video the prison is open and the singers/ artists would be able to leave, though in reality this is untrue and evident due to the mass incarceration of innocent black people.

Immersion – Begin to remove the colonialist ideologies. This can be related to the music video as it is being used as a device to fight for equality and freedom, removing any stereotypes, such as the treatment of African-Americans like criminals.

Revolution – This can also be related to the music video as it is a source used to stand up for black people and their culture and fighting against the racism and oppression they have and do still face.

• Q3: How is the audience called / addressed / hailed (interpellated)? Use examples from both the lyrics and the visual grammar (shot, edit, mise-en-scene) to show how audiences are drawn into a specific subject position / ideological framework?

The audience is addressed several times throughout this music video, through the use of different codes and conventions used in music videos such as lyrics and visual aspects and shots. For example, the beginning shot is of the camera making its way through a prison, there is no subject, implying that it is in fact in first person and is meant for the audience to feel like they are walking through the prison, creating a sense of fear and distress among the audience, which many innocent black people who have been wrongfully abused/ imprisoned would have felt. The use of the personal and collective pronoun “we” also is used to directly address the audience in conjunction with the ‘first person effect’ as it acts as the the singer, Common, is telling his/ many others story in regards to racism. There is a subtle lack of stabilisation in the first-person frames which is also used to create the effect of a person (the audience) swaying in time with the music or walking.

• Q1: Where can you identify ‘hybridity’, ‘ambiguity’ and ‘cultural polyvalency’ in this music video?

Hybridity – Is evident through the band members, the combination of the two toned band which fuses traditional ska with musical elements of punk rock and new wave music. or, a mix of both British and Jamaican street styles; the combination of two cultures. 

Ambiguity – The meaning of the music video will most likely be different for each viewer depending on factors such as age, occupation, race and education. But primarily it is evident that the music video is aiming to emphasise what racism can do to society through the title and lack of other characters.

Cultural Polyvalency – Belonging to more than one culture. This can also be linked to the band members and how their combination allows them to experience and be part of different cultures.

• Q2: How does this text apply to Fanon’s 3 phase plan of action?

Assimilation – The joining of different cultures, creating the two-toned band which fuses traditional ska with musical elements of punk rock.

Immersion – Begin to remove the colonialist ideologies. The removal of stereotypes is emphasised by the bands unity as well as the lack of people in the town, juxtaposing what was actually occuring in cities at that time (riots relating to racism and unemployment).

Revolution – The ending scene sees the band sees the band in unity, where they are all throwing rocks and there is no fighting, suggesting their emotions and how this is what society SHOULD be like – without racism.

• Q3: How is the audience called / addressed / hailed (interpellation)? Use examples from both the lyrics and the visual grammar (shot, edit, mise-en-scene) to show how audiences are drawn into a specific subject position / ideological framework?

Similar to Commons ‘Letter to the Free’, this music video addresses the audience through the use of codes and conventions found in music videos; specifically, using the camera angle to create a first-person effect, allowing the audience to feel as if they are part of the video. There are also times in the video when the fourth wall is broken, allowing the band members to look directly at the camera, as if they were looking at and addressing the audience. In addition the lyrics also you direct address through the use of the personal pronoun “you” and the use of rhetorical questions.

Postcolonial Definitions

Postcolonialism Recap –

After the abolition of slavery, slave owners were compensated for THEIR loss. This shows how much of an economic impact the slave trade had in britain, as slave oweners were compensated an equivalent of £17 billion.

My Own Narrative –

Themes = Old VS New // Insane VS Sane // Love VS Hate // Loneliness

Places = Woods// desolate area // Old buildings // bedroom

People = My video will be promoting a solo male artist

For the video I am going to use some techniques used in my style models – such as ‘Summertime Sadness’ – by using an old vintage/ grain effect throughout and flashbacks to certain memories which will be in colour. The parts of the video that are ‘present’ will be in black and white of negative exposure, like the Coldplay video. As ell as this, in order for the music to match the video I am going to edit/ change scenes on certain beats of the song (shown in Cavetowns ‘pigeon’ music video).

Lesson –

Generally, in moving image products time is linear (Chronological)

Sequential = Linking each part together or each transition together

Space – About different spaces being liked together.

Narrative also generally has a primary and/ or secondary theme.

In regards to my narrative – Theme would be Love VS Hate, in a non-chronological order (Random), using flashbacks to refer back to memories at different intervals throughout the song.

Codes & Conventions – Different variables or ideas used throughout the narrative – or something that is recognizable throughout the music video industry.

Key People/ Ideas –

Todorov – Narrative structure = Equilibrium, Disruption, Resolution or Begging, middle and end.

Levi-Strauss – Binary Opposition, also examined myths and legends in ancient and primitive cultures.

Propp – 8 Stock character types, who preform stock functions

Regards to my music video – communicate that first equilibrium through contextual details such as the setting e.g. a house.

Freytag – Dramatic Arc – Freytags pyramid.  The action of the drama and the grouping of characters is therefore in two parts: the hero’s own deeds and those of his antagonist.

Dramatic Moment in My video – Flashbacks(?) Enticing incident that led to this high point of drama = the theme of Love VS hate and how they can be mistaken (?)

What is the theme and how does influence how the music video plays out? – Themes can be played out through opposition e.g. my theme Love VS hate or Happiness VS Anger.

Seymour Chatman – Satellites and Kernals –

Kernels – The main idea/ theme/ setting/ character of a story, without the Kernel the narrative wouldn’t make sense – ESSENTIAL

Satellites – Aren’t essential but help develop the story, plot or characters and help to give the audience more knowledge.

Differences –

Narrative = Overall structure

Story = The things/ themes in it

Plot = How this is all organised.

In relation to music video = About self discovery/ love/ identity. Narrative = Using flashbacks.

• “Facebook (and its subsidiaries WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger), Alphabet (notably Google and YouTube) and Twitter – Together these have become the virtual public sphere (A term popularized by Habermas)”

• Digital Democracy = the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in political and governance processes. “Digital platforms will become even more powerful than they currently are, such that they become gateways not just to commercial services, but to public services like healthcare, education and transport.”
• Surveillance Democracy = “The state will ascribe far more power to itself, such that it has much greater ability to watch, nudge and direct its citizens … many of the freedoms that citizens currently enjoy will be much more constrained”
• Rehacked Digital Democracy = “Those that want to head in this direction will need to rethink what democracy really means , and what aspects of it need protecting. Having figured this out, they will need to radically reform their current political systems and redistribute power in a way that many incumbents will not like.”

Robert McChesney – (Book) = Communication Revolutions– Idea = Critical Junctures – A major episode of institutional innovation that generates an enduring legacy. An example of this is how today, a growing number of people are recognising that many democratic political systems are no longer trustworthy/ reliable or working as they should.

Steven Levy = ‘Hacker Ethics’ = “All information should be free”. Access to computers, and any information that may teach the user how the world works should be free for use. (Six Tenets)

Facebook’s tools meant that campaigners could not only reach voters directly but their message could be effectively endorsed by people in a voters social network (friends/ family). Facebook directly targeted ‘opinion leaders’ as these people were most vocal and likely to influence those in their social network. Therefore, voters, especially those who were indifferent, were far more influenced by their social network rather than directly from campaigners.

Over 8 million people were exposed to VoteLeave content on Facebook during the last few days of the referendum campaign, reaching 40 million by the end of the campaign.

Without facebook and its political tools, the outcome of many campaigns and referendums would have ended differently as they would have had a much smaller impact.

Anyone could use Facebook as a ‘propaganda machine’, especially those against the democratic system.

Modern public service platforms cannot be democratic (At least not in the sense of liberal democracy) Most people are reliant upon these platforms in order to manage their education, energy, health and transport. Due to this the government or authorities will continually have less power, especially as these powers grow increasingly more powerful and popular.

With modern technology and platforms such as Google, Facebook and TfL it is hard to maintain a true democratic government. In my opinion, There are two sides to modern politics, the ‘real’ world and the ‘online’ world where the rules are both completely different. In the ‘real’ world a democracy (in theory) is easily maintained in a government with electorates being limited to a certain amount of money in order to campaign and promote their party. However, on the ‘Online’ world this number doesn’t have a limit, allowing those with more connections and money to be force-fed to voters, in a way brainwashing them through targeted advertising especially through political algorithms like facebooks.

The Network Effect – ‘ The network effect is a phenomenon whereby increased numbers of people or participants improve the value of a good or service. The Internet is an example of the network effect. Initially, there were few users on the Internet since it was of little value to anyone outside of the military and some research scientists.’

Turning the network effect into profit – Even though facebook is free, advertisers and marketers DO pay for user data, which is mostly unknowingly permitted by users through the terms of service (Not many people read this section and just agree).

“It is a world where authoritarian governments have worked out how to ‘tame’ the internet such that it enhances their power’

– Pg 271 – Martin Moore – Democracy Hacked

Definitions –

Sexism – Refers to the typical way in which men and women are taught to view each other as opposites, with the male being the more dominant/ superior gender.

Feminism – A range of social, political and ideological movements that aim to achieve equality in all fields for the sexes.

Patriarchy – A social system in which men hold most power and dominate in roles such as political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property – a system where women are largely excluded.

Enfranchisement – The giving of a right or privilege, especially the right to vote.

Conservatism – Commitment to traditional values and ideas with opposition to change or innovation.

Neo-conservatism – Someone whose politics are conservative or right wing, who believes strongly in the free market and thinks that their country should use its military power to become involved with or try to control problems in other countries.

• Feminist = Political position
• Female = Matter of biology
• Feminine = Set of culturally defined characteristics

Key Theorists/ People

Mary Wollstonecraft (1792) – English writer and a passionate advocate of educational and social equality for women. She called for the betterment of women’s status through such political change as the radical reform of national educational systems. A Vindication of the Rights of Women .

Virginia Woolf (1929) – Argues that a woman needs financial freedom so as to be able to control her own space and life—to be unhindered by interruptions and sacrifices—in order to gain intellectual freedom and therefore be able to write independently (expressed through the title of her book – A room of one’s own).

Simone de Beauvoir (1949) – The Second Sex, discusses the treatment of women throughout history. Beauvoir researched and wrote the book in about 14 months between 1946 and 1949.  The author also uses the comparison of girls being ‘treated like a live doll’, showing how they are totally submissive and only serve the purpose of looking pretty and being admired for that.

Jean Kilbourne – In the late 1960s, Jean Kilbourne began her exploration of the connection between advertising and several public health issues, including violence against women, eating disorders, and addiction, and launched a movement to promote media literacy as a way to prevent these problems. Critic of how women are depicted in advertising. made the documentary “Killing Us Softly”. began collecting ads with shaming or anti-feminist implications in the late 1960’s and things keep getting worse. Heavily critical of the use of women’s images in ads that teach women that looks are what matters most. most women feel ashamed and guilty when we fail. failure is inevitable because images are retouched, impossible for women of color to be perfect because only light-skinned woman achieve the ideal black women in ads are frequently featured in jungle settings and animal-skin-like clothing.

Laura Mulvey – Male Guise – The concept that texts present females through the eyes of a heterosexual male, often objectifying the physical form for gratification.

Waves Of Feminism –

The First Wave Of Feminism – Occurred during the 19th and early 20th century throughout the Western world. It focused on legal issues, primarily on securing women’s right to vote, a key movement/ group would be the suffragette movement which occurred during this period.

The Second Wave Of Feminism – began in the United States in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades. It quickly spread across the Western world, with an aim to increase equality for women by gaining more than just enfranchisement.

The Third Waves Of Feminism – Influenced by the postmodernist movement in the academy, third-wave feminists sought to question, reclaim, and redefine the ideas, words, and media that have transmitted ideas about womanhood, gender, beauty, sexuality, femininity, and masculinity, among other things. Started in the US in the early 1990s and continued until the fourth wave which began in the 2010s.

Raunch Culture – Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture (2005) is a book by Ariel Levy which critiques the highly sexualized American culture in which women are objectified, objectify one another, and are encouraged to objectify themselves. Levy refers to this as “raunch culture.”

what are you going to film?	Firstly, I am going to be filming a solo male who will appear by himself in all of the scenes that he is in. However, in order to split up the video I am also going to use some ‘filler’ scenes of landscapes of where he has previously been which will also be used towards the theme of old VS and Love VS Hate that I am trying to convey.
What do you need?	Tripod, Camera, Phone, Subject
Where?	I aim to film my scenes in desolate/ quiet/ abandoned places to further add to and emphasize my themes. Locations such as woods, fields, old buildings quiet streets.
Why?	As my themes evolve around quite sad/ depressing topics I think these sort of atmospheres will add to them.

My First Draft –

Definitions –

• Postmodernism – A mixing of different art forms, media and style which therefore, corrupts and breaks stereotypes and theories. Developed in the mid/ late 20th century  across philosophy, the arts, architecture, and criticism; postmodernism focuses on the individual.

• Pastiche – Pastiche work can be seen as a parody of a piece of work as it does imitate certain aspects in order to recreate it. However, unlike parodies, Pastiche works aim to celebrate the original work rather than mock it.

• Bricolage  – The creation of a piece of media or art from multiple things that are (at the time) available. A creation through the use of mixed media or a diverse range of things.

• Intertextuality  – The shaping of a texts meaning based upon/ sharing other texts. This is common especially with pieces of media from the same genre due to the shared code and conventions.

• Implosion – Implosion is similar to the idea of ‘internal contradictions’ in Marxism. It refers to a tendency to collapse arising from the system’s own dynamics – the internal collapsing of all the energy of the real.

• cultural appropriation – Similar to stereotypes, cultural appropriation is the adoption of an element or elements of one culture by members of another culture. This can be controversial when members of a dominant culture appropriate from disadvantaged minority cultures.

In relation to my music video –

My overall finished music video can be seen as a pastiche work as I have been inspired by and taken techniques from my style models – other music videos. In addition, my video will have some bricolage aspects due to the combination of props/ characters/ location and camera settings; variables/ satellites that if changed can adjust the whole meaning of my video. As my video will fall into multiple genres due to their sharing of typical codes and conventions some intertextuality would be expected as this allows the audience to relate to the video more due to the familiarity.

In relation to my Style Models –

Intertextuality is clear in all of my style models through the lyrics which relate to popular or well known metaphors/ editing techniques.