Blog #2 linguistics

Language-the concept of a sound created from the movement of the lips and tongue. Yet still without doing so one is able to recite a mental verse with the sound images on our head. The concept of the “phoneme” which is the sound of the word determined by vocal activity is eliminated from the Saussure’s views on language and the mind. The concept in translated into a sound image by the carrier we associate with the concept as an individual. We settle on the vocal activity to express this concept because we know no better option.

The arbitrary sign-within every society there is a set based of expressions, which are based on principal.

The function of language regarding thought is to create the precise and individual phonic sound in the expression of idea to link thought and sound.

The division between “thought-sound” is shapeless and implies division; Saussure compares the process to air pressure, water and atmospheric change, which turn into waves. When its windy the waves are larger and the opposite when not. The signified (wave) is more or less depending on the link (carrier), which represents the scale of the wave in this case (sound-image). The only reason the water has big waves or small waves are because it only knows to react or be so from the carrier to the concept or signified to signifier.

The way language and money relate is they both can be exchanged and compared. Exchanged for something of dissimilar value, which is to be, determined i.e. a piece of bread. It is compared to something similar in the exchange from a pound or dollars, which may slightly vary in exact value, put, serve same concrete purpose.

Saussure’s comparison to Greek architecture in defining the difference between “syntagmatic” and “associative” relations in style to words in groups which tie together, linking to part of a whole and at the same time remaining individual.

The individuality in speech in how one combines the words from these various groups together. The freedom of combination results that all synthases are not equally free.

Blog 5

The Cost Disease: Started From The Bottom Now…

The high arts and the individual’s reality of earning a living in a capitalist society follow two general realities according to Ross. One, the individual who holds the skills necessary to obtain intellectual professions such as professors, writers, painters etc. spends as much time, if not more obtaining the qualifications in order to hold these positions, yet receive much less capital gain than the, “others” for the honor they feel they receive in working in the profession they do. They feel it is an honor and privilege to be qualified enough to hold such a position of prestige that to place a monetary value on it is beneath them. In addition the cost of the performance has risen with the heightened technology-of actors per say which leave these intellectuals having to learn and develop more and more to keep up with the desires of the audience-special effects on Broadway. The amount of money to produce such a spectacle is much higher and the person who is affected by the increase in the price in the production is the amount the artist is paid. We all see how well that worked out for the actor who played Spiderman-who was actually harmed quite badly during a live performance. All due to the audience demands of artificial excitement in the art of story telling. Do the special effects make the performance any better? Is it impossible to imagine a flying spider man, rather than see the actor, we know cannot fly and shot cobwebs from his finger tips, pretend to do so with these “special” effects.

Who is to blame for the artists willingness to provide services in which they worked hard toward mastering, yet receive unfair compensation for the services they provide?

The response from the public is enhanced when there is mystery behind the artist’s work, especially if there is a public message and agenda behind the master’s skill. A perfect example of this is Banksy-a graffiti artist whose career and prestige is based soley on his ability to remain concealed. If we knew who he was and that he was capitalizing off of his very controversial and sometimes even illegal public displays-would we believe it? Would we care? Or would it just be some more spray paint vandalism?

I found the very last tid bit on the black artist and the demands of being paid in full to be interesting. The already suppressed nature of the black culture in turn generated an artist who demanded to be “paid in full”. The concept of being, “all about the Benjamin’s” in comparison to the white bohemian was not looked down upon. The “starving artist” is celebrated and recognized in the white community as heroic. Contrary, to the already suppressed history of the black community, talking about money and material gain is celebrated and remains a lyrical trend- in the hip hop community.