Media Conference #4 - Dr. Peter Milne

Dr. Peter Milne in his media conference today opened our minds to the idea of Visual Culture Jamming. Visual Culture Jamming uses the idea of icons which are images that are highly recognisable to a large number of the population. These could be forms of religious paintings or portraits like the Mona Lisa. Almost every member of society have feasted their eyes on this painting therefore it has become part of our shared visual memory and therefore making it iconic. The painting in turn has power.

Visual Culture Jamming starts off with artists playing with these iconic images in a humorous way usually to make a political statement. Due to the images being iconic we as viewers are able to recognise the differences in the picture and construe through our own knowledge the message that the artist is trying to portray. Still images that have been broadcast by the media also become iconic pictures. For example the pictures of Kim Fook running away from her town that had just been bombed in Vietnam. Also, the images taken by soldiers of the detainees at Abu Grahib have all become iconic images in society. These images have all risen through the zeitgeist to become iconic.

So what actually is a culture jam? Dr. Milne describes culture jamming as an engagement with existing media for the purpose of social critique very often using humour. It is inverting an existing form of media, turning it on its head to create something politically challenging. Many groups active in culture jamming manipulate existing visual media that belongs to corporations in order to make their political statement.

When culture jamming there are three questions to ask:

• What do you want the audience to feel?
• What do you want the audience to see?
• And what do you want the audience to know?

One of the most famous culture jammers is Banksy, a graffitti artist from England, some of his work is posted below. 

 Photo: theorginialwinger.com 

Photo: endeavours.typepad.com