Category Archives: Post 2.2

2.2: Chaos in Grey Scale

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Before: An eerie foggy parking lot, with a grey shopping cart being the subject of the photograph. The shopping cart defies two of society’s norms of parking between the white lines of the parking lot and returning your shopping cart to the coral. In the distance lamps light up small patches of the sky only to be muffled by the dense fog, except for one rebellious lamp, which refused to light up, ironically drawing the most attention to itself. In the foreground you can really see the lack of uniformity within the asphalt, due to the discoloration and cracks.

 

Revision: An eerie foggy parking lot, with a grey shopping cart being the subject of the photograph. The lack of color and mixing of many shades of black and white adds to the feeling of eeriness and chaos erupting from pollution. The shopping cart defies two of society’s norms of parking between the white lines of the parking lot and returning your shopping cart to the coral, which furthers the idea of chaos. In the distance lamps light up small patches of the sky only to be muffled by the dense fog, except for one rebellious lamp, which refused to light up, ironically drawing the most attention to itself. The lamp accomplished the exact opposite of what it intended, which can be considered chaotic. In the foreground you can really see the lack of uniformity within the asphalt, due to the discoloration and cracks. Chaos can also be consider to be a lack of uniformity.

2.2 The Broken Street Lamp

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Broken Street Lamp DRAFT

 

No people – except photographer

No cars

Fog – cool air

Early morning hours

Store closed or open 

Broken street light

Cool breeze

Buzzing noise from working street lamps

No food left, no humans left to shop, end of life?

But who is taking the pic, who is turning on the lights

Apocalypse, end of humanity

 

Broken Street Lamp REVISION

 

In the wee hours of the morning, before crowds of panicked Brooklyn shoppers arrive, a young supermarket employee snaps a quick picture on his phone of a lonely abandoned shopping cart in the parking lot.  As a amateur photographer, he thinks it’s an artsy picture that he can cleverly caption for his Instagram account with joking hashtag of #COVID19 or #Apocalypse. He is acutely aware he’s alone and actually inhales the dense March fog.  He’s not scared at this moment that he’s inhaling a havoc-wreaking virus. Within one hour he’ll put on a cheap mask and have hundreds of fellow New Yorkers breathing on him as he bags their quarantine groceries. But for now, he’s relaxed, at peace and calm.  His attention turns towards the upwards buzzing of the halogen street lamps. He looks up to the lamps and notices one is broken. He thinks to himself that won’t be fixed anytime soon. Usually he has to report an outage like this to his manager. In that instant, he is snatched out of his calmed state and back to reality.  This scared young employee goes down a deeper darker hole and thinks what if this street lamp never gets fixed, What if in two weeks time no maintenance crew is present to fix it because we are on full lockdown. What if no one ever returns? Will all the streetlights go dark one morning? Is this really the #Apocalypse???

 

Broken Street Lamp REFLECTION

 

This was a little difficult because I took this pic and went towards a creative writing piece.  Not sure if that was the intent of the exercise. Even knowing the title of the picture, it was hard for me in these uncertain times to not relate this picture to our current health pandemic we are facing.  I was happy how this turned out though I’m not sure I hit the mark in terms of the assignment. Very hard to concentrate these days on tasks…

2:2 Draft, Revision, Reflection

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Draft:

At the first glimpse you notice an absence of color in the picture and a couple of things which draw your attention right away. First: the sharp, straight and white lines on a vast stretch of grey surface. Second: the round and shining points spread above in the second plane. Third: a single object standing in the middle of the plane. As we continue examining the picture we start noticing more details: the surface is becoming a vast and empty parking lot, the points are turning into lamp posts’ lights and the awkward object in the middle takes on a form of an empty shopping cart. It may seem like the front which is sharp and vivid with it’s white parking lines blends into the back being dimmed and clouded by the fog. The shopping cart is in  the middle of the picture, between the foreground and the background giving us a clue that it may be a focal point of it. It’s turned the same way as the lines on the ground. Above the cart raises a post with it’s black, straight line holding round light on the top. We could see some shapes in the fog, but it’s hard to tell what they could be. Behind the shopping cart are some tracks on the asphalt, but they don’t look like tire marks. There is one more lamp post on the left side of the picture with the light off. The picture can make an impression of stillness, quietness or stagnation.

Revision:

At the first glimpse at the picture you notice an absence of color and the peaceful stillness of it. Although you may think of it as not peaceful but haunted or deserted. The sharp, white parking spot lines stretch on a vastness of an empty parking lot. Above the flat surface hover the round lights of the lamp posts vanishing in the foggy background. Awkwardly abandoned in the middle of it stands an empty shopping cart pointing to it’s lonely significance. It’s hard to tell what time of the day it could be: dawn or dusk? You feel the screaming absence of the cars, people, and any glimpse of action or movement. The foreground is wide, empty and opened and the background is giving a claustrophobic impression, because it’s all covered in a fog and not only is it unclear, but it also looks like it’s closing around on the shopping cart. Now, it’s time to start wondering how is this picture connected with the theme of the book: “Petrochemical America“. What are we looking at? Is it a picture of fossil-fueled American consumer’s lifestyle, when even after the shopping center is closed you still have the lights on, wasting away energy? Or is it about the petrochemical production of shopping cart, asphalt and lights? Perhaps it is a symbolic representation of where America is heading if climate change continues to be ignored. The possibilities of subjective interpretation are as vast as this empty parking lot…

Reflection:

In the draft I solely focused on a concrete description of the picture trying to be as detailed as    I could. Throughout the exercise I had to fight using personal tone and refrain from making implications. That meant a lot like avoiding adjectives ;-). It was hard.                                                   In the revision I focused on an abstract more, trying to match the tone of description to the picture. I don’t know if I succeeded in it. The revision gave me an opportunity to come up with some claims I could later pursue. This exercise showed me how important is the context plus abstract and concrete description, in connection with claims and evidence. Thank you ;-).

2:1 Fossil Fantasy or Reality?

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In her article: “Petro-masculinity: Fossil Fuels and Authoritarian Desire” Cara Daggett claims that: “Taking petro-masculinity seriously means paying attention to the thwarted desires of privileged patriarchies as they lose their fossil fantasies” (44).

Daggett gives us her self-coined term “petro-masculinity” which rises from the convergence of threatened hypermasculinity, socio-economic roots of white West patriarchy, and the desire for authoritarianism combined with fossil fuel systems. The author presents to us detailed “psycho-political catalysts”(42) which trigger the actions of individuals fitting this description, trying to defend their “endangered status quo” solidly situated in “petrocultures” created by “Anglo-European fossil-burning men”(34). According to her arguments we shouldn’t take it lightly, because endangered “fossil fantasies” may lead to authoritarianism and “reconceptualized” mysogyny (43). However, if we remember that her article was a response to 2016 election, her claim with “thwarted desires” and “fossil fantasies” being “lost” may sound a little confusing. After all she calls Trump Administration and the Republican Party actions “A nascent fossil fascism”(27) and gives us examples of their substantial actions, which are securing fossil fuel systems’ well-being. In that light Daggett’s stating that these people are “losing their fossil fantasies” may contradict her claim of taking petro-masculinity seriously.