Taking Away from Sekula's "The Body and the Archive"

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Posted by: independenceplusten Original: 10/8/2007 7:48 PM Views: 43 Comments: 0 eProps: 0 Read Comments Post a Comment Back to Your Xanga Site

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Monday, October 08, 2007

Taking Away from Sekula's "The Body and the Archive"

Whoa, 37 pages! Okay Let's see here. Okay, having to look up a term once every few lines in a span of thirty seven pages is a little too much and I'm finding it a bit troublesome to relate. But hence we continue nonetheless! This guy's got an interesting way of making things seem fit as he sees it; he's explaining that photography at the turn of the 19th century was a double entendre, a bourgeoisie "self" (Sekula 3)-portrait in one sense and a tool to suppress "subproletariats" or any miscreant lowballing enough to try and "purloin" the self-incriminating "evidence" off Talbot's (presumably a sensible bourgeosie his self) china shelf. Photography as a way to actualize the structural limitations of the "other" (3) in the "regulatory sciences" (4), but also a way to regulate the sociopathic behaviors of lawless men whom after having been photographed are easily made "referent" (4), the "lurking, objectifying inverse in the police files" (4). Sekula speaks so close to my heart, as I was once unfortunately a victim of this "honorific" tradition of having my own fingerprints and photos documented under juvenille records. So I guess the utilarian purpose to preserve the greater good of the whole confers somehow with the prison system. I'm still not very convinced where Sekula is headed with this demeaning retrogressive exploration of a cultural pasttime. So I guess he has yet to get into the inculcated surveillance practices of the Gestapal's CC cameras in modern day Britain. And I guess it is our job as art students to pick this innocent act of photography apart to somehow get an edge over common, non-art students. By the 6th page the reading has slowly got into topics like "penal reform" (6), and I begrudgingly moved to the seventh with a heap of fleshy words continuing to mount (a nice reader for a college student, btw.) Here's my alternative theory to back up Sekula: "Maybe the human inkling is to side with those that appear less primal not only as a way to patronize but to lessen the backfire when slowly letting off the patronage--as for instance--now when craniological and phrenological studies are shown to be obsolete. Then, what now for these hapless babes?" SO WHAAAATTTTTTTT? (only on page 8). So throw those lesser and greater beings all down the stairs, where the lesser ones will have survived with having nothing to have lost before the incident so death doesn't seem like a premonition just a relapse and the greater ones with traumatic brain injuries but survived nonetheless. If system is there to produce manual laborers, why not just drug em so the pain will be less - vegetables?

If you have the sufficient man-power to intervene withstanding a backlash engendering negligible casualty, the day is your's for the taking.

{stops at the end of page 12 for fear of degeneration of the lower lumbar region of the spine}. {proceeds to do what he normally does and that is, saunter around the apt. w/ after-the-fact affectations}

I resume my dialogue with the text in page 21 where I've just witnessed the oh so benign photographs taken of the decapitated men by the anthropometricians of the criminalogical/criminalist registrars and can say that the "system" is somehow just as savage or "Draconian" as Allen mentions with their execution of punishment. Makes you wonder, if all the violence was all for due justice in this age of bureaucratic consent.

By page 25, I am thinking, man, has this guy done his research! Thinking, how much of this raw info he must have internalized in order to be convinced what he was writing has actual bearing to present day standards of criminological disposal. His writing may fall a little victim to complexity and being a prisoner to it's own verbiage, maybe asking for a little measurement of its own.

{stops at page 25 and goes home at 2 in the morning from Grainger library. In one hour they will start issuing parking tickets. the reading shall be tackled at a later, unarranged time.}

Conclusionary remark: The difference between getting the "right one" during a snapshot for a bourgeoisie and the criminally inclined proletariat I guess would be on the issue of subjectivity and objectivity. One is more dealt with as an object, or so it seems. Could class difference really be drawn based on these distinctions of how photography notarizes people in different ways? Is class really all an illusion created by a trick camera angle?

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schema, anthropometric, zone of normality, utopian project, binomial curve, organismic, ebbs and flow, jurisprudence, indeterminism, nominalist, prefecture, proof of recidivation,

tau·tol·o·gy [taw-tol-uh-jee] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun, plural -gies.

1.	needless repetition of an idea, esp. in words other than those of the immediate context, without imparting additional force or clearness, as in “widow woman.”

2.	an instance of such repetition.

Logic.

a.	a compound propositional form all of whose instances are true, as “A or not A.”

b.	an instance of such a form, as “This candidate will win or will not win.”

[Origin: 1570–80; < LL tautologia < Gk tautología. See tauto-, -logy

]

re·course

[ree-kawrs, -kohrs, ri-kawrs, -kohrs] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun

1.	access or resort to a person or thing for help or protection: to have recourse to the courts for justice.

2.	a person or thing resorted to for help or protection.

3.	the right to collect from a maker or endorser of a negotiable instrument. The endorser may add the words “without recourse” on the instrument, thereby transferring the instrument without assuming any liability.

[Origin: 1350–1400; ME recours < OF < LL recursus, L: return, retreat, n. use of ptp. of recurrere to run back; see recur

]

in·sa·lu·bri·ous

[in-suh-loo-bree-uh

s] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–adjective

unfavorable to health; unwholesome.

[Origin: 1630–40; < L insalūbri(s) + -ous. See in-³, salubrious

]

—Related forms

in·sa·lu·bri·ous·ly, adverb

in·sa·lu·bri·ty

[in-suh-loo-bri-tee] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation, noun

at·a·vis·tic

[at-uh-vis-tik] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–adjective

of, pertaining to, or characterized by atavism; reverting to or suggesting the characteristics of a remote ancestor or primitive type.

[Origin: 1870–75; atav(ism) + -istic

]

—Related forms

at·a·vis·ti·cal·ly, adverb

nom·i·nal·ism [nom-uh-nl-iz-uhm] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun

(in medieval philosophy) the doctrine that general or abstract words do not stand for objectively existing entities and that universals are no more than names assigned to them. Compare conceptualism, realism (def. 5a).

[Origin: 1830–40; < F nominalisme. See nominal, -ism

]

—Related forms

nom·i·nal·ist, noun

nom·i·nal·is·tic, adjective

nom·i·nal·is·ti·cal·ly, adverb

"Daguerreotype-

1.
an obsolete photographic process, invented in 1839, in which a picture made on a silver surface sensitized with iodine was developed by exposure to mercury vapor."
Doesnt' sound too shabby.
in·cu·nab·u·la [in-kyoo-nab-yuh-luh, ing-] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–plural noun, singular -lum [-luhm] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation.
1. extant copies of books produced in the earliest stages (before 1501) of printing from movable type.
2. the earliest stages or first traces of anything.

pre·science [presh-uhns, -ee-uhns, pree-shuhns, -shee-uhns] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun

knowledge of things before they exist or happen; foreknowledge; foresight.

cal·o·type [kal-uh-tahyp] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun

1.	an early negative-positive photographic process, patented by William Henry Talbot in 1841, in which a paper negative is produced and then used to make a positive contact print in sunlight.

2.	a print made by this process.

Also called Talbotype.

pur·loin

[per-loin, pur-loin] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–verb (used with object)

1.	to take dishonestly; steal; filch; pilfer.

–verb (used without object)

2.	to commit theft; steal.

[Origin: 1400–50; late ME purloynen < AF purloigner to put off, remove, equiv. to pur- (< L prō- pro-¹) + -loigner, deriv. of loin at a distance, far off < L longé

]

—Related forms

pur·loin·er, noun

pro·te·an

[proh-tee-uh

n, proh-tee-] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–adjective

1.	readily assuming different forms or characters; extremely variable.

2.	changeable in shape or form, as an amoeba.

3.	(of an actor or actress) versatile; able to play many kinds of roles.

4.	(initial capital letter) of, pertaining to, or suggestive of Proteus.

[Origin: 1590–1600; Prote(us) + -an

]

u·niv·o·cal

[yoo-niv-uh-kuh

l, yoo-nuh-voh-] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–adjective

having only one meaning; unambiguous.

[Origin: 1535–45; < LL ūnivōc(us) (ūni- uni- + -vōcus, adj. deriv. of vōx, s. vōc-, voice) + -al¹

]

—Related forms

u·niv·o·cal·ly, adverb

de·lim·it [di-lim-it] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–verb (used with object)

to fix or mark the limits or boundaries of; demarcate: A ravine delimited the property on the north.

sur·feit

[sur-fit] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun

1.	excess; an excessive amount: a surfeit of speechmaking.

2.	excess or overindulgence in eating or drinking.

3.	an uncomfortably full or crapulous feeling due to excessive eating or drinking.

4.	general disgust caused by excess or satiety.

–verb (used with object)

5.	to bring to a state of surfeit by excess of food or drink.

6.	to supply with anything to excess or satiety; satiate.

–verb (used without object)

7.	to eat or drink to excess.

8.	to suffer from the effects of overindulgence in eating or drinking.

9.	to indulge to excess in anything.

[Origin: 1250–1300; (n.) ME sorfete, surfait < MF surfait, surfet (n. use of ptp. of surfaire to overdo), equiv. to sur- sur-¹ + fait < L factus, ptp. of facere to do (see fact); (v.) sorfeten, deriv. of the n.

]

—Synonyms 1. superabundance, superfluity. 5, 6. stuff, gorge. 6. fill.

—Antonyms 1. lack.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Ben·tham·ism (běn'thə-mĭz'əm) Pronunciation Key
n. The utilitarian philosophy of Jeremy Bentham, holding that pleasure is the only good and that the greatest happiness for the greatest number should be the ultimate goal of humans.

Ben'tham·ite' (-mīt') n.

pal·li·a·tive (pāl'ē-ā'tĭv, -ē-ə-tĭv) Pronunciation Key
adj.

Tending or serving to palliate.
Relieving or soothing the symptoms of a disease or disorder without effecting a cure.

n. One that palliates, especially a palliative drug or medicine.

pal'li·a'tive·ly adv.

sal·u·tar·y [sal-yuh-ter-ee] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–adjective

1.	favorable to or promoting health; healthful.

2.	promoting or conducive to some beneficial purpose; wholesome.

fam·i·lism

[fam-uh-liz-uh

m] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun Sociology.

the subordination of the personal interests and prerogatives of an individual to the values and demands of the family: Familism characterized the patriarchal family.

[Origin: 1635–45; famil(y) + -ism

]

—Related forms

fam·i·list, noun

fam·i·lis·tic, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

ex·em·plar

(ĭg-zěm'plär', -plər) Pronunciation Key
n.

One that is worthy of imitation; a model. See Synonyms at ideal.
One that is typical or representative; an example.
An ideal that serves as a pattern; an archetype.
A copy, as of a book.

panopticon

noun
1. an area where everything is visible
2.
a circular prison with cells distributed around a central surveillance station; proposed by Jeremy Bentham in 1791
in·di·vid·u·a·tion [in-duh-vij-oo-ey-shuhn] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1. the act of individuating.
2. state of being individuated; individual existence; individuality.
3. Philosophy. the determination or contraction of a general nature to an individual mode of existence; development of the individual from the general.
[Origin: 1620–30; individuate + -ion]

in·ter·pel·late

[in-ter-pel-eyt, in-tur-puh-leyt] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–verb (used with object), -lat·ed, -lat·ing.

to call formally upon (a minister or member of a government) in interpellation.

[Origin: 1590–1600; < L interpellātus ptp. of interpellāre to interrupt, equiv. to inter- inter- + -pellā(re) to speak + -tus ptp. suffix

]

—Related forms

in·ter·pel·la·tor

[in-ter-puh-ley-ter, in-tur-puh-ley-] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation, noun

her·me·neu·tic

[hur-muh-noo-tik, -nyoo-] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–adjective

of or pertaining to hermeneutics; interpretative; explanatory.

Also, her·me·neu·ti·cal.

phre·nol·o·gy

[fri-nol-uh-jee, fre-] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun

a psychological theory or analytical method based on the belief that certain mental faculties and character traits are indicated by the configurations of the skull.

[Origin: 1795–1805, Americanism; phreno- + -logy

]

—Related forms

phren·o·log·ic

[fren-l-oj-ik] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation, phren·o·log·i·cal, adjective

phren·o·log·i·cal·ly, adverb

phre·nol·o·gist, noun

phys·i·og·no·my

[fiz-ee-og-nuh-mee, -on-uh-mee] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun, plural -mies.

1.	the face or countenance, esp. when considered as an index to the character: a fierce physiognomy.

2.	Also called anthroposcopy. the art of determining character or personal characteristics from the form or features of the body, esp. of the face.

3.	the outward appearance of anything, taken as offering some insight into its character: the physiognomy of a nation.

con·cat·e·na·tion

[kon-kat-n-ey-shuh

n] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun

1.	the act of concatenating.

2.	the state of being concatenated; connection, as in a chain.

3.	a series of interconnected or interdependent things or events.

[Origin: 1595–1605; < LL concaténātiōn- (s. of concaténātiō), equiv. to concaténāt(us) concatenate + -iōn- -ion

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

vol·u·met·ric

[vol-yuh-me-trik] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–adjective

of or pertaining to measurement by volume.

Also, vol·u·met·ri·cal.

fi·a·cre

[fee-ah-ker, -ahk; Fr. fya-kr^uh] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun, plural fi·a·cres

[fee-ah-kerz, -ahks; Fr. fya-kr^uh] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation.

a small horse-drawn carriage.

[Origin: 1690–1700; < F; after the Hotel de St. Fiacre in Paris, where such carriages were first for hire

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

fi·a·cre

(fē-ä'krə) Pronunciation Key
n. A small hackney carriage.

[French, after the Hôtel de Saint Fiacre in Paris.]

tax·on·o·my

[tak-son-uh-mee] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun

1.	the science or technique of classification.

2.	Biology. the science dealing with the description, identification, naming, and classification of organisms.

[Origin: 1805–15; F taxonomie. See taxo-, -nomy

]

—Related forms

tax·o·nom·ic

[tak-suh-nom-ik] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation, tax·o·nom·i·cal, adjective

tax·o·nom·i·cal·ly, adverb

tax·on·o·mist, tax·on·o·mer, noun

an·i·mal·i·ty

[an-uh-mal-i-tee] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun

1.	the state of being an animal.

2.	the animal nature or instincts of human beings.

3.	animal kingdom.

pu·ta·tive

[pyoo-tuh-tiv] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–adjective

commonly regarded as such; reputed; supposed: the putative boss of the mob.

[Origin: 1400–50; late ME < LL putātīvus reputed, equiv. to putāt(us) (ptp. of putāre to think, consider, reckon, orig. to clean, prune) + -īvus -ive

]

—Related forms

pu·ta·tive·ly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

psy·chom·e·try

[sahy-kom-i-tree] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun

1.	Psychology. psychometrics.

2.	the alleged art or faculty of divining facts concerning an object or a person associated with it, by contact with or proximity to the object.

[Origin: 1850–55; psycho- + -metry

]

pol·y·graph

[pol-i-graf, -grahf] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun

1.	an instrument for receiving and recording simultaneously tracings of variations in certain body activities.

2.	a test using such an instrument to determine if a person is telling the truth.

3.	lie detector.

4.	an apparatus for producing copies of a drawing or writing.

5.	a prolific or versatile author.

–verb (used with object)

ju·ris·pru·dence

[joo

r-is-prood-ns, joor-is-prood-] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun

1.	the science or philosophy of law.

2.	a body or system of laws.

3.	a department of law: medical jurisprudence.

4.	Civil Law. decisions of courts, esp. of reviewing tribunals.

[Origin: 1620–30; < L jūris prūdentia knowledge of the law. See jus, prudence

]

—Related forms

ju·ris·pru·den·tial

[joo

r-is-proo-den-shuh

l] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation, adjective

ju·ris·pru·den·tial·ly, adverb

fac·tic·i·ty

[fak-tis-i-tee] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun

the condition or quality of being a fact; factuality.

[Origin: 1940–45; fact + -icity (-ic + -ity), perh. after authenticity

]

in·cor·ri·gi·ble

[in-kawr-i-juh-buh

l, -kor-] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–adjective

1.	not corrigible; bad beyond correction or reform: incorrigible behavior; an incorrigible liar.

2.	impervious to constraints or punishment; willful; unruly; uncontrollable: an incorrigible child; incorrigible hair.

3.	firmly fixed; not easily changed: an incorrigible habit.

4.	not easily swayed or influenced: an incorrigible optimist.

–noun

5.	a person who is incorrigible.

Fou·ri·er·ism

[foor-ee-uh-riz-uh

m] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun

the social system proposed by François Marie Charles Fourier, under which society was to be organized into phalanxes or associations, each large enough for all industrial and social requirements.

con·tin·gen·cy

[kuh

n-tin-juh

n-see] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun, plural -cies.

1.	dependence on chance or on the fulfillment of a condition; uncertainty; fortuitousness: Nothing was left to contingency.

2.	a contingent event; a chance, accident, or possibility conditional on something uncertain: He was prepared for every contingency.

3.	something incidental to a thing.

[Origin: 1555–65; conting(ent) + -ency

]

—Synonyms 2. emergency, likelihood, predicament

lex·i·cal

[lek-si-kuh

l] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–adjective

1.	of or pertaining to the words or vocabulary of a language, esp. as distinguished from its grammatical and syntactical aspects.

2.	of, pertaining to, or of the nature of a lexicon.

[Origin: 1830–40; lexic(on) + -al¹

]

fi·at

[fee-aht, -at; fahy-uh

t, -at] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun

1.	an authoritative decree, sanction, or order: a royal fiat.

2.	a formula containing the word fiat, by which a person in authority gives sanction.

3.	an arbitrary decree or pronouncement, esp. by a person or group of persons having absolute authority to enforce it: The king ruled by fiat.

[Origin: 1625–35; < L: let it be done, 3rd sing. pres. subj. of fierī to become

]

pro·cliv·i·ty

[proh-kliv-i-tee] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun, plural -ties.

natural or habitual inclination or tendency; propensity; predisposition: a proclivity to meticulousness.

in·de·ter·min·ism

[in-di-tur-muh-niz-uh

m] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun Philosophy.

1.	the doctrine that human actions, though influenced somewhat by preexisting psychological and other conditions, are not entirely governed by them but retain a certain freedom and spontaneity.