The Proper Distance Project

[gurujace]

DEFENSIVE PREAMBLE: Perhaps their interpretations might have been too close(d) and too far sometimes, but the important thing is that my students tried. And that's more than can be said about all of us in our moments of complicity and collusion. :P

Presenting:

Comments

[mucho_suerte]

Your students are probably gonna flame my ass for this....

I could not help but be struck by how most of the descriptions of images reflect a dichotomous worldview - pinoy and american. Inasmuch as the non-American world was being discussed, it seemed to be viewed from American lenses, refracted past Filipino filters.

Here's the spanner in the works - the distance of the observers themselves from their subjects comes into play.. of course, if we start demanding 'but such-and-such should be viewed from x point of view', we'd probably go on and on, ad infinitum. I guess it doesn't work all that well either.

So, yeah, just me being a jerk here. Apart from the fact that maybe I have gotten everything wrong side up..

[gurujace]

Yes...this point is very true. This is what's tricky with the notion of proper distance. Audiences will be interpellated differently, even if they are looking at the same media text. This is why Roger Silverstone says that it is not so easy to measure. But that doesn't mean we should strive less for a more moral media. :)

[mucho_suerte]

Ah, yes. The social-cultural-humanities studies conundrum - the very ground upon which we stand is mere quicksand temporarily hardened. The observers are unreliable, as are the subjects! But I think that is where cross-cultural observations (and critique) helps: it hopefully exposes those cultural blind spots that could lead to more nuanced and penetrating analysis. Someday.