Phenomenological reduction is about sustaining a sense of wonder or astonishment when analyzing phenomena (observable / perceivable occurances.) Also referred to as ‘eopche’ (suspension) or ‘bracketing’. I will be analyzing examples of remixed work and also analyzing people’s reactions to viewing such material, how it affects them/us and where the work stands from an ethical perspective in western and eastern societies and the differences between these cultures. The aesthetics of the work itself will be fully deconstructed and analysed to get inside the artists’ mind, their original intentions for the work and whether or not this work achieves the desired intention when exposed to audiences. The specific types of remix work I will be analyzing are political remix videos distributed virally via the web – critiquing power structures and potentially exposing untruths. Would be very interesting to screen ‘Planet of the Arabs’ to Arabs and measure their reactions (emotional – Paul Eckhart) and then interview them qualitatively to see if their actual felt emotions tally with how they say the work made them feel and whether it is an immoral work. Could be potentially dangerous, e.g. Mohamed cartoons.
Can art itself be considered moral or immoral? Husserl, Hegel, Heidegger, Adorno – Layers of meaning in the work and how those meanings are interpreted by individuals and demographic groups. Existential phenomenology. Definitely. Resonance with Taoism and Zen Budhism. Reconciling Western and Eastern philosophy. Perhaps it would make a lot of sense to seek out and analyse example of Eastern remix and expose them to Western audiences as well as the opposite. Asian remix? Perhaps they have a different word for it. If remix does not exist in the Middle East, perhaps I could introduce it into the cultural stream? The subject and object of experience – their beingness. For example, watching a YouTube video. The video is the object, the viewer is the subject. Watching the video is the experience. How do the subject and object exist in reality and what impact does the experience have on the viewer? You can see the video on YouTube, on a cinema screen on TV, on your iPod – the experience is different each time. You can also see it in your memory, your imagination, your dreams and experience it just as fully – also if someone were describing it to you, verbally or in writing, it is also experienced, albeit indirectly.
Political remix as Alatheia – uncovering the hidden truths concealed by politicians, transnational corporations and power elites. Observation is receiving information of the outside world through the senses or the recording of data using scientific instruments. Filtering sensory information through the thought process. Input is received through hearing, sight, smell, taste or touch then analysed and interpreted through either rational or irrational thought. A judgment is made on whether what was observed was/is good or bad. Over time, these personal impressions and opinions develop into a construct/framework about the moral implications of behavior. The defining characteristic of observation is that it involves drawing conclusions and building personal views on situations as similar situations may occur in the future and one’s thinking on the initial situation will almost certainly colour their impression of the second. Observation may also be considered a continuous process of learning and increasing our understanding of the world around us.
‘Qualia’ – the way things seem to us. The subjective quality of conscious experience. The Phenomenological Reduction consists of the ‘Epoche’ and the ‘Reduction.’ It is a form of self-meditation that aims to free the individual from the scientific framework of presupposition and prejudices as well as their personal psychological assumptions from lived experience that inevitably colour the way we observe and draw conclusions from phenomena. The idea being that by transcending these preconditions, we can potentially observe a phenomenon in its pure form and understand it objectively. It is a way to make subjective observations objective. By performing the phenomenological reduction, one can convert from being a philosopher into becoming a phenomenologist. It is like a religious or spiritual conversion that laters the way one can observe phenomena in the world. The process is as follows: 1) Still the body, the mind and the emotions, sitting in a comfortable position having made provisions not to be disturbed. 2) Repeatedly affirm ‘I am’ – attempting to experience the ‘I’ in the present rather than remembering it, trying to “push back” and force the self onto itself in the present moment so that you are fully “in the now”, being in the moment ,experiencing and observing phenomena as they occur in real time. There are three ‘I’s, the human ego, the constituting ego and the spectator.
CriticalRemix.com
Dr. Owen Gallagher, SFHEA
