assignment #8

Choose a passage from Jünger, write it out, explain the meaning of it, and why you chose this passage.

In war, when shells fly past our bodies at high speeds, we sense clearly that no level of intelligence, virtue, or fortitude is strong enough to deflect them, not even by a hair. To the extent this threat increases, doubt concerning the validity of our values forces itself upon us.


Since Liberalism fades out and totalitarianism is the new progress. War and evil is what affords us the pleasures.
This concept means that we must see things accordingly.We do not associate pleasure with pain.  Pain is felt by the individual fighting to build power to choose our pleasures.. But to associate pain with pleasure is not possible. We create values in reflection of pleasure.  We do not associate pleasure with pain because there are sacrifices.  However, the sacrifices can have consequences.  We may be made to think that we can come to expect peace.  However, in order to maintain peace, there is pain.  Pain can be the harmful actions that we overlook to procure values and pleasures.  We have to watch our back at all times. We enjoy pleasure, but with a doubt that nothing is permanent.  We also experience pleasure it as a uniform society. But politics will deal with the pains to organize pleasures of life  through technology  We want freedom and pleasures, but we have to make sacrifices of evil actions to make it possible. If we share things, we may have to deal with a consequence of how we use or develop with our pleasures of life. Nothing is permanent. Progress is made through control, not by enjoying pleasure.

March 28th Weber assignment #7

Will you simply and dully accept world and occupation? Or will the third and by no means the least frequent possibility be your lot: mystic flight from reality for those who are gifted for it,

This quote is stating that it wants to know if the person assigned to public service is wanting to do it full time or part time as a vocation.  Is he disciplined enough to follow the assignment which consist of passion and non-emotional discipline.  Weber is asking are you loyal and committed to following the actions of your Ruler or are you more inclined to emotional interaction with your land and production from your following.  He also states that it is delusional to think it is effortless. Since the information and rules may not agree with the serviceman, it may get into his soul.  So he wants to know if the structure is there to do what he is told or will his emotions get in the way.

March 21st Lecture assignment #6

Article 109

All Germans are equal in front of the law.

In principle, men and women have the same rights and obligations.

Legal privileges or disadvantages based on birth or social standing are to be abolished.

Noble titles form part of the name only; noble titles may not be granted any more.

Titles may only be granted, if they indicate an office or occupation; academic degrees are not affected by this regulation.

The state may no more bestow orders and medals.

No German may accept titles or orders from a foreign government.

Article 109 is stating that Germans are supposed to be loyal to his country and his people and not abide by any rules from other foreign countries.  It also states that no special family name is going to get you any special privilege status.  If you are part of a political party, it is because of the office or occupation that you declare with your accomplishments to be part of the government.  Men and women are equal in Germany and both have the same rights. 

assignment lecture 3/14/15 Luxemberg essay 1819 assignment #5

“Abolition of all differences of rank, all orders and titles. Complete legal and social equality of the sexes. Radical social legislation. Shortening of the Labor Day to control unemployment and in consideration of the physical exhaustion of the working class by world war. Maximum working day of six hours. Immediate basic transformation of the food, housing, health and educational systems in the spirit and meaning of the proletarian revolution”.

What it’s saying is that if somebody wants this to be a law, Luxemburg is pointing out that the proletarian Labor forces are growing in population. She is now looking at the idea of bringing both groups together in uniform. The idea is to bring them to a mutual understanding and coexist. Nobody will feel mistreated and less equal since the Proletarian are gaining in numbers the concern has to be for both the social democratic party and the Proletarians. The people who are working are just as smart as the people who are middle class. In today’s politics some people were just born with the short end of the stick and they need some help getting on their feet. Some people are against our tax dollars helping those less fortunate but I feel we should help our fellow neighbor. It’s morally the right thing to do in this competitive world.

February 28th assignment #4

assignment #4

I choose the scene with the Somnambulist creeping up on Dr. Caligaria's wife. Just after Dr. Caligaria decides to introduce his wife to the Somnambulist he starts trying to make the moves on her to seduce her.  As Dr. Caligaria's wife starts looking for her father, he begins to think that Somnambulist will develop urges and impulses to tempt her. Though the doctor was looking for his power to kill the somnambulist and his wife, he also wanted to prove that the lack of desire of Somnambulist would adjust by the sight of a female. The idea of this scene was to show that you may live to comply through a condition of limitation, but desire is always going to take control.

February 14th assignment #3

 assignment #3

“I have experienced on my body and on my soul that I needed sin very much, I needed lust, the desire for possessions, vanity, and needed the most shameful despair, in order to learn how to give up all resistance, in order to learn how to love the world, in order to stop comparing it to some world I wished, I imagined, some kind of perfection I had made up, but to leave it as it is and to love it and to enjoy being a part of it.—These, oh Govinda, are some of the thoughts which have come into my mind.”

This quote explained that Siddhartha became more wise and philosophical because he took it upon himself to experience a beautiful world a world full of lust, greed and isolation. It was a different world from Siddhartha’s world which was full of a proper and controlled environment. He basically concludes the theory of Nihilism which focuses on living and not resisting the dada perspective.   Siddhartha’s is also using the different individual with the universal world or the unity of opposites in the context of his experiences. He saw that nothing really changed. He just realized that he lived to know what life can be for him.

February 7th assignment #2

Assignment #2

For written assignments choose a specific piece of the text that you want to quote. Write out the quote. Then interpret the quote, what is the meaning of this quote, why is the author saying this? Then explain why you chose this quote, do you agree or disagree? Did the quote make you think about something or challenge you? Does it relate to anything going on in the present?

 “Dada is the heart of words”

I believe that the quote “Dada is the heart of words” is stating that Dada is the explanation of nothing. The word has no meaning and it the same concept as Nihilism. I chose this quote because it doesn’t sugar coat anything. The sound is the heartbeat of Hugo Ball’s words and of many words.  It is simply an example of just its appearance and sound.  You are saying the word, but you are saying nothing.  I don’t agree with the term because I believe that whatever comes out of your mouth has a purpose and a meaning.  In terms of art and Dadaism you cannot simply say that an image or words mean nothing. Everything has a meaning.

It makes me think of how our street corners were designed to make us identify with where we live.  There is supposed to be a consistency of appearance in our society. Obviously, Nihilism with its word “dada” takes on the same point of view.  It is like the president’s speech on change.  It means nothing because nothing changed everything in our lives remained the same. The trauma of the war however created an entirely new form of artistic expression, known as Dadaism.

Your interpretation of the piece, try to describe in as much detail as you can the physical appearance of the piece (how does it look, what kind of techniques are being used, what kind of colors, light etc are used, what kind of actions are going on) and the meaning of the piece what is it trying to say, what themes does it address, especially paying attention to nihilistic themes.

Use the Modern Art Timeline link on the blog for assistance. Choose three examples from one or more of the artists, and try to depict what is going on in the piece, and what meaning it may have, especially drawing attention to how nihilistic themes show up in these pieces or how it reflects social conditions.

"Cut with the Kitchen Knife through the Beer-Belly of the Weimar Republic," Hannah Höch,  1919

I see nothing but images of animals, machine parts, and people thinking.  Not understanding anything.  It is like you can’t take anything away from it from the perspective of expressionism.

November 1, 1889 – May 31, 1978) was a German Dada artist. She is best known for her work of the Weimar period, when she was one of the originators of photomontage. Raoul Hausmann, a member of the Berlin Dada movement. Höch's involvement with the Berlin Dadaists began in earnest in 1919.

ABCD," Raoul Hausmann, 1923-2"4

In this image I see meaningless numbers, hands, letters, currency, and face with a letter clinging on painters teeth.  It seems like there is an expression of being consumed in crazy world of meaningless information in the context of numbers and letters.

Wikipedia.

Raoul Hausmann (July 12, 1886 – February 1, 1971) was an Austrian artist and writer. One of the key figures in Berlin Dada, his experimental photographic collages, sound poetry and institutional critiques would have a profound influence on the European Avant-Garde in the aftermath of World War I.

"Adolf the Superman: Swallows Gold and Spouts Junk," John Heartfield, 1932

In this portrait Adolf Hitler knew nothing on how to make his cause mean anything.  It was nothing but garbage.  There was no vision because vision is not real.  You just do “dada”. Nonsense and with no purpose. Wealth was not anything of meaning. I guess in terms of color, the picture is gold in the sense that his world appears to be luxurious.  

John Heartfield (born Helmut Herzfeld; 19 June 1891 – 26 April 1968) was an artist. He was a pioneer in the use of art as a political weapon. Some of his photomontages were anti-Nazi and anti-fascist statements. Heartfield also created book jackets for authors such as Upton Sinclair, as well as stage sets for such noted playwrights as Bertolt Brecht and Erwin Piscator.

In 1917, Heartfield became a member of Berlin Club Dada, Heartfield later became active in the Dada movement, helping to organize the Erste Internationale Dada-Messe (First International Dada Fair) in Berlin in 1920. Dadaists were the young lions of the German art scene, provocateurs who disrupted public art gatherings and ridiculed the participants. They labeled traditional art trivial and bourgeois