GES Notes Compiled
GES Notes summarized
Week 1: Basics
What is representation?
- A representation is a deliberate construction with intended effects,
embodying beliefs, values and perspectives. It is political in choosing
one view over another and trying to persuade you to follow suit
- RE- present (making it spatially present/ visible,
and in the present time)
- term/image/agent Standing in for (proxy, in place of)
absent idea/object
- action/process of making
words/gestures
How is representation done?
- establishing equivalence between a sign (eg. word) and the concept and the thing that is
observed (the referent) using Cultural Practices/Codes
- Semblance
- we think outselves into a rs with them
- tries to seem objective and as 'truth' through mimesis/realism
and naturalisation
-- We can be made to view something a certain way via HOW
the view is conveyed, CONDITIONS/FRAMES, and WHO say so ( Source, Context, Methods)
Characteristics of represenation: CONSTRUCTION/ Encoding
and INTERPRETATION (Decoding)
- Cultural, not natural
- 2 DEGREES OF SEPARATION: 1) Perception translates from
object to mental image. 2) Translate image to other signs
- NOT STATIC ie. related and changing from every interation
we have
- Closely tied with IDENTITY and KNOWLEDGE
What can representation do? (EFFECTS)
- actually make those connections via substitution,
reiteration and MAKES REAL (constitutes) the world + how we live. Defines
reality. (We can know and access the world only
through
language, or representation .)
- allows us to conceptualize/ organise signs and
concepts + relationship between ie. We dont have direct access to the new
concept/idea so we need Semblance (we don’t really know anything new, we act
take sth we alr know and map it into our minds. If not able to, create new
language. eg. It tastes LIKE chicken)
- enable us to obtain insight into the nature of things
Questions: When looking at a representation,
-dont think about its correctness.
- focus more on the effect
- does it succeed in its effect? Does it convince you? Why
or why not?
- Acceptable vs unacceptable. Why or why not?
The Paradox of Misrepresentation
- If representation doesnt provide presence/truth, how can
anything be a representation if its obverse, perfect representation, does not
exist?
- we call misrepresentation when
we FEEL theres a violation of our own assumption of objectivity
- the problem isnt MISrepresentation, but 'interested'
representation: representation that
offers only a particular inflection of that situation. Representations are
inflections of a
situation, not reflections of that situation
- LIES VS. BS: liar believes he’s not speaking the truth
but BS doesnt care about truth, only what he can gain by the representation.
Liars and Truth-tellers care about whether or not sth is true but BS does not
What can we do with representations?
- we can only gather info for an argument which serves our purpose
- Don’t stop at conjecture (forming an opinion with
incomplete information)
Language
-
Governed by common set of beliefs/worldview
-
Organized by its own rules and
-
Expressed in distinct/shared codes (signs) and
conventions
-
Language mediums CONSTRUCT and TRANSMIT meaning
Meaning
-Making meaning is an unequal,
incomplete exchange
- Helps us to separate from other groups
therefore forming IDENTITY via things like shared “cultural codes” and similar
language (visual, sounds, words, gestures etc)
- Defines normality, and therefore
Exclusion
- These language mediums ^^ only serve as
functional tools, thus have no meaning in
themselves
Culture
- “the BEST things produced” ie. high
culture art/lit/philo
-
WIDELY DISTRIBUTED ideas ie. mass culture pop music/publishing/leisure
activities]
-
Anthropological ie. whatever is DISTINCTIVE of a group of people
Week 2: Singapore!!!
Representation always involves an idealization (Perfect
standard/ necessary qualities). What are the ASSUMPTIONS behind these? What
VALUES are being promoted?
History/Origins
- Singapore’s independence was never intended. Couple
of decades ago, Singapore as a concept did not exist. We didn’t have natural
resources/ domestic market for industrial goods compared to Msia.
- Lack of merger: no more market/resources + konfrontasi +
UK pulling military out. Therefore there was trauma of separation and
'abandonment'
- Lky 'riding the tiger' with Barisan socialis and communist
ties
Characteristics of SG!!!!
1) Survival: tightly organised and highly disciplined
citizens.
- Unity,
public spiritedness and SELF SACRIFICE for economic development
2) Siege mentality ( defense/paranoia based on the belief
that others are hostile)
- We
could NOT look like another China therefore couldnt be openly
socialist/communist. We had to go Capitalist.
- Public
imagination: always vulnerable, fragile success
- Obssessed
with fear and achievement
- Kiasu:
Singapore FOMO
3) Threat to survival + Siege
mentality = Pragmatism
- Vigorous
econ devt through Science and Tech + Centralised public Admin
- Why
Econ > Cultural? guarantee of social and political stability for
survival: Majulah Singapore
- Motivation
to perform optimally (+) but also with repression and anxiety (-)
4) Multiculturalism
- Race
Riots in 1964: Synthetic identity made of traditional elements of major
communities ie synchronism vs hybridity?
Paradox bc multiculturalism=
synthetic culture BUT indivs identify closer to race to manifest evidence
of cultural origins ie. Rootless vs chauvinist
Gives the impression of 3 homogenised cultures , erasing linguistic, religious, and cultural differences (eg. malay=muslim, dialects) eg. Malay as a national language-but no one speaks it vs. English/mother tongue (mandarin/dialect)
Things which render people uniform to certain features
- Cliches:
overused idea to the point of losing its effect
- Stereotypes:
Essentialise into simplistic characteristics and Naturalise
sth to make it seem normal eg. Through media
- eg. Spatial disjuncture of moving from a kampong to HDB. We
don’t feel it now bc we have internalized and naturalized it, but there
was a psychological burden on people who moved in the 60s
Maybe We are always searching for authenticity because maybe
we don’t have an ‘origin’. We were hurriedly pieced together.
Week 3: Lit/Performing/Visual arts
Mechanisms
of the Arts
- Language (figurative/performative) to describe/explain
reality
- Tone (irony/earnest)
- Narrative ( sequencing, POV)
- Images (captured/simulated/imagined/staged)
- Action (coherence, connection)
Fiction
- capitalises on our existing narratives. Easier for people who have experienced more narratives
growing up.
- Make Believe (to draw
connections to ‘reality’ as they want you to see it):
- Props
to guide imaginings (give a concreteness?)
- Operates
according to underlying rules
- Referential: points to
external referant based on association and preexisting knowlege to evoke
responses
- Metaphors capitalise on the power of
association/semblance. Connection to audience.
- our understanding of a story depends on its structure and
narrator. (outcome) of a story canbcause us to
reinterpret earlier episodes, to see in them a significance we did not see on
first
encounter.
Performing Arts
- mind stage in a novel vs Real ‘concrete’
Stage as a template for possibilities (image, movement, liveness)
Visual Arts
- extremely mediated, filtered and
fixed eg. Via camera perspectives in films
- More mimetic and therefore
DECEPTIVE via film’s high fidelity capture
- able to jump time, space, indiv
characters consciousness/thoughts
- adheres to mutual understanding
stemming from familiarity with conventions
- devices like Montage allows creator to select/emphasize
when audience sees vs Long shots which are more realistic bc similar to eye
movement
All 3 are concretised in our minds via aesthetic, social and
cultural conventions
Week 4: Short Stories( Cold Comfort, Miss Pereira) + Text (Teenage Textbook)
Recap of Singapore: Nation Building + Modernisation
- Nation building: Coexisting with many races
- Modernisation: Social change to fit industrialization,
high tech, globalisation eg. Mentality of efficiency, adaptability,
rationality, pragmatism, high achievement
- MATERIALIST UTOPIA: Material
success, progress valued. Matter as status.
- Childbearing: materialist ethos ideology.
The
Mirror and the Lamp (M. H. Abrams)
- Mirror: reflect, recreates likeness
- Lamp: Sheds light, visibility
- each makes us notice different things in the
same vision
Short Story: identity + changes in life/society
- brief, episodic, economical (little time and energy)
- Collectively, provide context of
society via diff writers
- Struggling on-going process of defining
what 'Singaporean' means. Balance between ethnic culture and British edn system
+ Modernisation wrt the world.
- Tension from Changing
values/circumstances.
Women In Singapore
- Anxieties in balancing career+ family (reproductive
machinese in the context of ageing popn and no nat. rsc) + public service
- Stereotype: Materialistic Bossy Western women vs Men
looking for Subserviance in China/ SEA
Miss Pereira: Women defined by men
- Paul represented stability, fulfilment of
‘duty’/expectation via narrative of Prayers Answered
- Ms P. promotes narrative of mad lonely women perpetuating
the assumption that women are weak
- Ahmad’s act: kindness/violence? Honour masc vs
protect fem? The woman is trapped in internalized social roles
- Ms P. as a Eurasian, Malay “saviour”, Indian “trickster”.
Does this confront/conform to stereotypes ?
- Everyone has
an opinion on what Miss Pereira should be and will do?
- The single
woman being lost without a man that defines her role – from father
to Paul
Malay Plight
- small minority
- discrimination in SAF, govt positions, Isalm, economic
backwardness
Cold Comfort: Projection (Forecast of future from
present trends)
and Guilt
- Classic
Projection: Denying the existence of impulses/ideas/qualities in oneself but attributing
to others – disassociated but not necessarily a detachment to see clearly
- Razmi jumps to
conclusion based on physical. Annoyed at being grouped with the stereotypical
young malay girl. IRONY.
Cold Comfort: Some kind of kinship
- Malay Phrase Sejuk
perut mak mengandung -- A shared reference and a moment of understanding BUT
What is the resistance and the denial?
- Racial self-hatred, fear, loathing
Cold Comfort: Self Stereotyping, Identity Enclaving
- Self stereotyping: the use of stereotypes to
‘reward’ oneself/ ‘justify’ difficulties not only as indivs but also a part of
SG community. Kind of like a self fulfilling prophecy?
- Issue arises when one is unaware that they are using
stereotypes/ generalisations/ categories/ maps to represent reality.
- Effects:
undermines potential, identity enclaving
- Identity enclaving: indivs perceive themselves
as only the expression of a particular group and dont try to exmplore other
identity spaces. Indiv closes themselves in limited range of
representations.
- In Cold Comfort, fit in through disassociation and
denying responsibility
Week 5: The Teenage Textbook, Pop Culture in Singapore
Pop Culture
-High Demand/Supply, Indiscriminate pdn/consumption,
originating from the people, Liminal/wandering between high and low culture
-struggle between the forces of resistance of
subordinate groups in society, and the forces of incorporation of
dominant groups in society
- Made from within/below, not imposed?? Reaches outside,
makes viewer connect it to the world/history
- Culture:
experiences --> meanings --> social identity
- Subculture: more exlcusive and immersive
- High Culture: Value stands test of time, less accessible
- Tends to the excessive, sometimes parodic (mock the
conventional, evade ideology). Hence Exceeded norms become visible and stop
being common sense
Puns
- Pleasure: 1) microcosm of social differences and
inversion of obstructive power irl. 2) invites people to solve the pun and make
their own meaning
- Highlight a rs between 2 things (associative rather than
cause/effect), processing separate simultaneous info
Effects
- Disrupt (Latently subversive)
- Contestations between the subordinate and dominant
- Provide alternate POV in SG (rational, regulated),
purposefully frivolous
- Engages audience
Teenage Textbook
- High school as a site of resistance eg. Glee, Heathers.
Struggle with identity parallels SG.
- Embedded book within a book (cover for
commentary/censorship). Pre-emptive/suggestive
- Growing aspirations beyond just the material but yet there
is a tension with maintaining or improving the material – demanding more
self-determination and more independence
- The use of English as a binding lingua franca
Week 6 Notes: Theatre
Characteristics
- Liveness, Singularity of the experience (Can't be
repeated)
- Iterative
(keeps reproducing different versions of the same thing) bc it is
generative, interactive
- Impactful
via emotions, empathy. Therefore, political via discourse about issues and
spiritual via change beyond the material/mundane
History/
Politics of Theatre
- art is
being new within the conventional
- PAP
reduced power/denied influences of social organisations by providing svc
-
Registrar of Societies basically censoring things, so responsibility for
critical commentary on society and politics have ended up disproportionately on
the shoulders of the arts. Forms saying that your
art needs to "reflect social norms" and has a social agenda but isn't
art supposed to be pushing the boundaries?
- OB Markers on race and religion bc govt wants to prevent
riots
- Regulation eg who determines what is ‘unsuitable’ for
the young
- Reflections and Refractions:
·
Reflections not just
in the mirroring but also in the sense of contemplation and self‐review
·
Refractions in the
sense that it shifts and alters attention and direction – attempting to engage
Singapore in a different way
- Monodramas: effective bc there's only 1 character
to focus on. Combined direct realism with representational illusion. 1 vs
audience like private vs public or self vs community
The
Coffin is too Big for the Hole
-
ambiguity of the first line
- Nameless
narrator makes him the Everyman, generic so it more relatable.Conservative
heteronormative values.
- invites
the audience in, intimate language, setting and characters
- The
scenario is almost ludicrous but is not out of the realm of possibility.
- The
inflexibility of Bureaucratic standardisation, indiv vs rationalist,
dehumanising system which seems fair and democratic
- Ironic
outcome – the disparity between appearance and reality. Coffin represents time.
Worried about heritage and tracing back to roots
MidTerm Notes
Representation is not synonymous with exclusivity
therefore the statement ‘only singaporeans speak singlish’ is not an effective
argument for representations
No language can be translated completely
Don’t use sweeping statements
dont say ‘we’
View the text as an insular piece
GES Tut 5
Romanticize a part of Singapore’s past that we don’t
necessarily think of / associate with
what do we sacrifice for progress? What do we think about
national cinema now?
The idea of Multiculturalism is an ideal which SG pushed to
sell ourselves
Notion of the Singapore arts scene is dead/gone
'The Girl' by Jack Neo
Romanticizing the past of the Kampong life. Comical light
hearted. Romanticizing the notion of the ‘kampong to hdb’ transition
'The Flame' by K Rajagopal WORST
Easily transferrable to other colonised countries. What makes
it SG is that it takes place in SG
Exclusivity is not representation, but IDENTITY CRISIS and
Tension
Represents sg bc it talks about an issue we don’t usually
think about, as part of our national rhetoric
Represented through a diff race
Black and White?
'4:30 Bunga Sayang' by Royston Tan BEST
Music- Royston Tan’s style
Romanticising through the eyes of the child. Colourful and
Whimsical
Neighbourly Relations
'Pineapple Town' by Tan Pin Pin
Similar bc they talk about SG in relation to Msia. Identity
and roots
Questions the rhetoric presented to us about sg
can we be singapore without Msia?
'Parting' by Boo Jun Feng BEST
Artistic style of the director
Using the literal space of a connection between SG and Msia
'Grandma Positioning System' by Kelvin Tong WORST
Identity and Roots
Grave is in Msia. Through our familial connections to msia
2 ideas of SG: 1 who is very attached to their roots (msia)
VS. Modern impatient people who don’t see the value in this ritual
Different people, personas and ideas
Security
Censorship
Pragmatism vs Tradition :
GES Week 7 Lecture
Peranakan Museum: Former Tao Nan School in terms of space?
Qn 3: focus on Assessment, and what it is trying to tell us
Exegesis is your narrative, what you learnt etc. Focus on
Research Project, not the module as a whole.
Film: artistic, aesthetic + RESEARCH and POV: what are you
TRYING to say??
Skills, Techniques, Cultural Literacy
Model Citizens
The Singapore Identity
- There was nothing organic about SG as a nation. We never
really wanted independence, so we had to create it from scratch
- ‘ Singapore also ingrained a common set of values in
people: hard work, tolerance, the importance of meritocracy, and the belief in
pragmatism both in day‐to‐day behaviour and national policies. These values
were born out of the sense of crisis and vulnerability that first emerged
during that period, and were seen as appropriate responses to ensure the
survival of the nation.’
- Makeup of the popuplation: one of the few countries in the
world where there are more migrants‐including temporary workers, permanent
residents and foreign‐born citizens‐than native‐born people.
•
So what? CMIO’s reductionist tendencies render
it irrelevant today. Fractured country in terms of ethnicity
•
that locals are streamlined into socially
constructed racial buckets while newer Chinese
and Indians migrants
continue to express their unique identities.
Immigration and Anxiety (Anti Immigrant Anxiety)
- rise in foreigners aggravated the national tension caused
by this survivalist rhetoric and the competition for public resources.
- Singapore being used as a stepping-stone. “take and go”
- citizenry is not only about time but also about fulfilling
‘obligations’
As a
tourist
destination, what does the The Peranakan Museum represent to the foreign visitor to Singapore? What impressions will it give to the
tourist? How does it go about creating
this impression?
Research Question #2
How do the architecture and
the building site of the Peranakan Museum represent Singapore? How has
repurposing the former Tao Nam School into The Peranakan Museum affect the
nature and the impact of the representation(s)?
Research Question #3
How do the exhibits on display represent
Singapore? Paying special attention to the permanent exhibits on display about
the Pernakans, give your assessment on how these exhibit depict the ‘Singapore
Story'.
Introduction
- Functions of a tourist
destination? Money, Culture, History, attraction, visibility, fame
- Foreign Visitor: blank slate
ie. something like ‘tabula rasa’
Research
Aims and Objectives
- What effects are created by
the choice of architecture and geographical location ?
- Why are the exhibits arranged
in that way?
- Interactive aspects of the
museum ?
Findings
and Outcomes
Conclusions
2000
– 3000 words
list
of works/reference cited and a bibliography
-
research aims and objectives
-
approaches, focus and methodology
-
findings and outcomes
-
conclusion(s)
-
DUE 22 APRIL
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