Reflection: Week 10 [Wednesday]

Fan and participatory culture is a fascinating evolution of entertainment and popular culture. When Trekkies and Star Wars junkies start recycling and creating their own stories, films and characters out of the original canon of material, a phenomenon is born and a cyclical relationship to the medium is generated.

When reflecting on this class overall, I believe understanding historical and contemporary culture is vital to understanding the individual, youth and contributors to our popular culture and world.

The church cannot remain in a bubble and ignore how the world has and is working. Too often, I believe the church tries to create Christian alternatives to culture, rather than embracing popular culture. And more often than not, the Christian product is crap. Christian media tries to package the crap to make it look and sound the same, but in the end it's still crap. You can't polish a turd.

Reflection: Week 7 [Monday]

As we continue to discuss culture, I am reminded how dependent today's culture is on technology; and as it changes, so does our culture. It is fascinating to think that only 10-15 years ago, cell phones were as big as a textbook and computers were pretty much only in large tower desktop form.

Our culture has grown dependent on technology, to the point where a fictional scenario like the script to Die Hard 4: Live Free or Die Hard of a group of terrorists plotting to systematically shutting down the United States computer infrastructure is a legitimate fear and real possibility.

This past weekend, my dependence on technology came full circle. After finishing shooting footage for a short documentary film, I proceeded to download the footage to my Apple laptop… an hour later, my computer died. Turns out the hard drive had crashed, was dead and gone and the data not recoverable. Admittedly, the experience is a large pain in the ars. And ironically, the situation could have been avoided if I would have used the technology available at my home to diligently back up my data onto my external hard drive. Irony. You cruel beast, you.

Reading: Barker [Language]

The relationship between language and culture seems very basic on the surface and how societies communicate and find meaning in things. But when one looks at the social connotations of "dress codes," for example, it is fascinating to break down that what is socially acceptable in one context is completely unacceptable in another. And that meaning is derived from the cultural practices of different sects and subgroups within individual societies. For example, one could blend in as "normal" in suspenders, overalls, and boots in a farming community, while wearing the same clothes in a downtown nightclub just wouldn't fly... and wouldn't get you past the doorman.

Reflection: Week 2 [Monday]

I'm not going to brag... but our small group's definition of culture was clearly the best. Or maybe it's my perception that it was the best definition. [Eh, Group #4? Ya, I'm talking to you!] Nevertheless, our group [Denise, Harmony, Michael, Randy, and myself] came up with Culture: "A conscious or unconscious fluid dynamic of art, behavior, ideology, and signs developing organically within and characterizing a given society or subgroup."

It is interesting when thinking about the universal aesthetics of a current cultural canon and what would be considered the best and brightest pieces of art of our times. I'm afraid that popular culture would proclaim American Idol, MTV's Real World, or The Apprentice as the most influential media reflection of current cultural society. Personally, I'd lean towards the iPhone, U2 & the World Wide Web as greater cultural signposts. But people love to hear Simon bitch out a horrible singer and hear the Donald mutter, "You're fired!" [Sigh... I hate America.]