Savremena umjetnost i pitanje medija poslije 11/9 (original) (raw)
Related papers
Reality made abstract: the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre
Lundmark, Fredrik (ed.) Culture, Security and Sustainable Social Development after September 11. Stockholm: Gidlunds, 2004
An essay of how violence has been aesthetized in Occidental culture and how this has been mirrored by various reactions in connection with the destruction of the Twin Towers. The text was a contribution to an anthology written by members of The Working Group for Culture, Security and Sustainable Development of the Centenarian Fund of the Swedish National Bank.
2005
The present form of terrorism, which appeared in the late 60's, is called " mass media terrorism " . It seems to be a consequence of the mass media's need of " media events " which can be characterised as: " unusual, abnormal, dangerous, new, destructive? and violent " 1 . Nowadays, terrorist organisations not only actively seek mass media attention so as to use it to spread their message to public opinion, but they are also deeply aware of the mechanisms of mass media activity. Consequently, they try to use the mass media as a mouthpiece for their propaganda. As a result, terrorist organisations which try to achieve their political goals by acts of crime and violence, can be treated as the subject of a process of political communication and every act of terrorism can be regarded as an expression of that form of communication 2 . The aim of this paper is to analyse the terrorist attack on the USA on September 11, 2001 as a " media event " . What is crucial is the fact that this act of terrorism seems to fulfil all the conditions laid down by the mass media. Analysing this event is an opportunity to highlight the role of the mass media in modern internal and external political affairs. As we shall see later, in political communication the mass media can be treated not only as a subject (an independent element) but also as a channel or even an instrument for spreading messages held by other subjects. The terrorist attack on the USA immediately became breaking news almost all around the world and is now regarded as a turning point in mass media history, especially as far as American mass media are concerned. Previously there had been very few events that 1 A. Schmid, J. de Graaf, Violence as Communication, London 1982, s. 217. 2 B. Mc Nair, Wprowadzenie do komunikowania politycznego, Poznań 1998, p. 25 – 27. According to B. Mc Nair, the main characteristics of political communication is its intention. There are three main types of political communication: about politics, acts of communication created by subjects involved in politics and, last but not least, acts of communication created by non – politicians but addressed to them.
Contemporary Art and the Media after 9/11
Život umjetnosti, 2018
The collapse of the Twin Towers in 2001 and its direct transmission around the globe introduced a new paradigm in warfare conducted through the media. The time span between the first and the second attack on WTC was a suitable moment for the cameramen and photographers to install their equipment and make it possible for the viewers to watch the second airplane crushing into the towers live. The disturbing images travelled around the world in no time, and their character shifted from documentary to symbolical. The resulting hypertrophy of meaning led to an image production encoded with the explicit content of violence and trauma. The newly created media setting generated new viewing mentalities and new visual literacy. Art produced in the period since September 11, 2001 has been an indicator of the new social order, which endows images with the brutal power of reality. The aim of this paper is to present some examples from the contemporary artistic production—primarily works of Hans Peter Feldmann, Doug Ashford, Francis Alÿs, Thomas Hirschorn, and Munir Fatmi—and to perform an analysis of the way in which the contemporary art practices deal with the issues imposed by the post-September eruption of images. The works of the said artists have thereby been used as primary sources in articulating a perspective that will lead to a better understanding of the new role of the media.