Blog 1

Place is defined by Cresswell on page 7 as a "meaningful location". For example, an empty house just built, waiting to be bought is just empty space. But, a house that has been lived in for quite a while would be a place to someone because it means something to them, there are memories in that house.  When the people bought their house, they took an empty space, made it their own and transformed it into a place. Landscape is different from place because landscape is just scenery and something to look at. Cresswell defines landscape as, “An intensely visual idea….the viewer is outside of it.” (Cresswell 8). While on the other hand, “Places are very much things to be inside of.” (Cresswell 8).

Place in America can be defined in many different ways. It just depends on where in America you live because someone from the south might look at place differently than say someone from the north or the west. I think place in America should be defined as wherever you feel comfortable because no matter where you are from you should feel comfortable and at home in your own place. 

Culturalpolitics.net

I think the Culturalpolitics.net website is a excellent source for everything that we are going to be studying in our Gender in Popular Culture class.  With how the website is broken down into different catergories/tabs it makes it easy to find exactly what you are trying to look for.  I think it will be very useful when it comes to our discussions and especially handy with our Pecha Kucha projects in the future.  Popular culture is such a huge topic especailly when you throw Gender in the mix.  This website provides everything from the different forms such as music, to the theory of culture.  To be honest, this website is so packed with different kinds of information that I have yet to have a chance to take a look at everything.  I look forward to using more of this website in our upcoming class projects, readings, and blogs.

culturalpolitics.net

As, many have already stated the overall first impression of the culturalpolitics.net website is very basic and seems easy enough to navigate. This site is full of information broken down into dummy-proof categories. I would assume it would be very useful for information on a wide range of topics regarding popular culture and easy enough to be accessed quickly. Not only does the side provide one with a plethora of accessible knowledge, it provides citation information to be able to legitimately use the information or a project, paper, etc. Overall, I think the site will be useful, not only in this course but for future needs as well.

BLOG #1 PLACE

 

            Place is defined as a "meaningful location"(7). Place simply stands still as the world moves about. We simply carry on with our lives, but find some way to a significant place or landscape that has a meaning to us. Narrative shapes out understanding and experiences in place because we are the founders of giving meaning to specific locations. Often times, we find places and become very familiar with them, placing values on those places and making them a comfort zone when things aren't as they seem. That place can take away the pain and suffering, or place can simply bring about hurt and prevent us from wanting to be there. It's all about a connection to that place... good or bad.

            A study of place in America can reveal several things about us and the people who surround us. Place provides at times a security of knowing surroundings. For example we are more comfortable in our neighborhoods. We see the same familiar faces, homes, cars, and buildings. When a new person moves in could provide a little discomfort of not knowing who is in your "space". Over time, you get to know that person or family and become more comfortable with them being around. The same situation for starting a new job. The new hire has to become familiar in a new place, in order to get comfortable. Often times, we find that one place of comfort in knowing that we are safe in that location.

            For me walking in a new classroom is a challenge. New classrooms, new teachers, new books, and ultimately new faces. As the semester progresses, I'm more comfortable with those people in my class. I'm sure a lot of students can relate to this "place".

Blog 1 --

Cresswell defines place on page 7 as a “meaningful location.” Therefore we give significance to specific spaces on earth. Cresswell mentions the phrase “A place for everything and everything in its place” to demonstrate how flexible the word place is (2). In order to understand place, we must understand space. According to the text, space is moving while place is paused. Therefore, “each pause in movement makes place possible” (8). While landscape is a place, Cresswell makes it clear that, “we do not live in landscapes – we look at them” (11). We “inhabit” place by making it our own personal space. People do this by redecorating or landscaping their homes, and giving space an aesthetic value. Cresswell states on page 13 that his text will “show how place is used in the construction of ideas about who and what belong where.” I think this will show readers how self identity is found by different people in different places (cultures) in the Americas.

Blog #1: PLACE

Place is defined as “a meaningful location” in the Cresswell book on page 7. However, place seems to have many subjective definitions, depending on the individual as well as the physical location of the space in question. Narrative shapes our understanding and experiences in place, because we are the ones who give it meaning through such.  On page 8 of Cresswell, the book states that "undifferentiated space becomes place". I think the implications of that statement is simply that we assign the meaning of an undifferentiated space as being simply that. It then becomes a place that is not special to us, and may hold no  meaning, but still a place nonetheless.

Landscape and place are shaped by fiction and visual arts by painting us a picture, or a visualization of what a place is supposed to be, or what meanings we are supposed to assign to it based on the feelings evoked by scenery or through story telling. With fiction or landscape, spaces can  become places without our own experience but the experience through these outlets.

To "inhabit" place is to make it your own, to possess it. The book talks about moving into a college dorm with a new roommate. To differentiate this room from previous owners and eachother, one might put up posters or photos, choose certain colors and decorations, whatever it takes to make that space feel like THEIR place, their inhabited place, and not someone else's place. A study of place in America reveals that there are many, many ways to define place and that consequently, there is no one way of looking at place in America. That speaks volumes about the culture and attitudes, beliefs, etc. of the people who make up "America", and everything that the word encompasses.

Blog #1 What is place?

               If someone asked me, “What is place?” I might respond in a matter of different ways, but the main ideas that illustrate place would be culture, home, comfort, predictability, belongings, and emotional understanding.  Since the class has been required to read from Tim Cresswell’s PLACE, I can assume that one very simple definition to suffice as an answer to the question is “a meaningful location”, as stated on page 7 of the book. Now, because I have read through page 14 of PLACE, I can recognize that this definition of place is the most watered down, elementary way of describing a word that took an entire novel to explain. Through the reading, I have reached the realization that the word place has many dimensions and requires a very wordy explanation. The phrase, “undifferentiated space becomes place,” (Cresswell, 8) speaks to the relationship between space and place and the dependence of the two terms upon each other.

               For me space is almost uncomfortable, and makes me feel small, helpless, or even distant. In contrast place feels warm, safe, secure, and most important to me, predictable.  For example, the first day of classes at KSU, each student is looking for their classrooms, for their teachers, for their classmates. They have no idea what to expect, zero predictability, zero direction, zero understanding of whether they are walking past the art building, or the east deck. These places are merely spaces to them at this point because they have not established an understanding of what it is to have the characteristics that make up the art building, or the east deck, or Dr. Whitlock’s classroom. As the semester moves on and we start to associate an arrangement, an assembly of desks, faces, décor, hallways, in a particular space we begin to have certain feelings about what it means to be in that specific space, and at this point it has become a place. No longer am I frantically moving through space blindly looking for room 1022, now I am walking straight to Dr. Whitlock’s room and that is comforting, and predictable.

CulturalPolitics.net

As many have already stated, the layout of the website Culturalpolitics.net is very basic and functional. The construction of it seems like a project--one in which the content is more important than how it is presented. I've also considered that because it is so functional, it is probably easier to access and view for some of those in other countries who have limited internet access (can't view pictures or detailed layouts, etc.) as these are some of the people that the topics and issues definitely affect. I also viewed the website as sort of Wikipedia-esque, because it offers so many links to further knowledge about certain subjects. I really appreciate how everything is simple to navigate because of how it is organized. T.V. Reed definitely seems to have put a lot of thought into how everything should be organized. I think this is a great place to go when needing further explanations of things or wanting to branch off of topics currently known-about. It's a great place to start learning about things or verify things, or even stay up to date about movements and culture. I can see this website as an excellent tool to be used for writing research papers! I was overall impressed with this website. It appears credible, is functional and useful, and it is extremely relevant to the topics we will cover in class. It's also really nice to see bibliographies scattered throughout the pages; knowing that there is verification in the topics covered is helpful. So, all in all, I like it! It houses a lot of things not only of interest for the class itself, but for my personal interests as well. 

Cultural Politics . Net

My  initial perception of the website was that it was pretty plain and simple but made it easy to navigate. I can just click on whatever subject I want to read more about. I liked that it got straight to the point and let me know the focus of the website was to analyze how culture shaped our lives in many ways to include political, economical, and social. I know for this class specifically it helped me to better understand pop culture and all that the subject covers. It is such a broad subject and cultural politics.net really went in depth on each subject. I would want to navigate this site regularly to assist me as I learn more about popular culture and it's relation to gender. My overall impression now that I have seen my way around the site is that it is extremely useful and the simplicity of its layout makes it easy for users to find what they need.

Cultural Politics Website

I was not very impressed with the Cultural Politics website. It did not have the welcoming feel that most websites have. However, after i began to explore the website a bit more, my opinion of the site changed. In my opinion, I think that it is a really unique way to "house" a lot of useful information.

I think that the site would be very useful for our class. It seems, almost, that it is exactly what our class is, except it is online. Even though the site doesn't have all the exciting and flashy display, I think the content is excellent.

Cultural Politics.net

My initial reaction to this website was that it was not very impressive.  the home page looks very uninteresting and it does not have any eye popping colors that would cause the average browser to want to explore the site. 

I began to explore the links within the various categories and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there was such a wealth of information, housed within, this seemingly boring website.  I was especially interested in the miscellaneous pop culture topics, which contained information abou the analysis of the Baribe Doll.  I never imagined that there was so much information about a doll and how it has affected society.

I guess the lessopn I learned is to not be so concerned out the attractiveness of a website and to be more concerned about its content.

Cultural Politics

The way the website is a little dull. I think that if the website was more appealing due to the fact they are providing information about cultural differences. The information on the other hand is very useful, I would use this as a resource if I ever needed to. It goes along with some of the things we went over in class like television, movies, and other types of media. Overall, If I could give any advice to the creator(s) I would simply say "Add more detail in appeal". Other than the dullness, this is a very useful website.

Never Judge a Site By it's Home Page

The Cultural Politics website does not exactly “POP”. When I first went to explore the site I was anticipating exactly what I associate with pop culture; paintings, famous actors/actresses, comics. The home page of Cultural Politics was more like what I would expect when going to read a computer manual. After looking at the large amount of subject matter covered on the site I was immediately impressed. Each link on the toolbar leads the user to more and more information. Easily a reader could sit and discover information for hours with the massive amount links given. I am already impressed with the many genres of film that I discovered, many of which I never knew existed. In looking at the website I also saw that fashion is considered pop culture. Prior to viewing the site I had no idea! I am very excited about this. I think overall the website is useful for GWST3030. It is user friendly and is jammed packed with resources that would take the average internet user weeks to discover searching the internet on their own. Like other users I am apprehensive how often the website is updated with current data. In combination with current trending articles I believe that the Cultural Politics website will be very useful for us this semester.  

Cultural Poltics

I thoroughly enjoyed this site. It was neat to see all of the different topics available to read about and to educate oneself on different topics. I am sure that I will find this website extremely useful when it comes to this class and relating to different issues rather quickly. A lot easier to find topics rather than shifting through tons of google websites and suggestions.  The over all eye appeal is not the best I have seen in a website design, but the easy navigation is a plus for this website.

CulturePolitics.net

Like most of my classmates, I also agree that the website isn't the most appealing, but there is a lot of useful tools! I do like that everything is straight to the point and easy to navigate. I would encourage my peers to visit the site because it offers a variety of topics and interests. The site seems useful as far as getting information or discovering other site that you may not know about. My overall impression of the site is that it is great! I'm not exactly sure how often things are updated, but I would like to see more sites added that weren't listed.

Cultural Politics Website

The cultural politics website is managed by T.V. Reed in order to inform viewers about popular culture, digital cultures, social movements, environmental justice, and/or cultural theory. Reed purposely intended for the site to be simple instead of exuding extravagant graphics and glitz. The goal of this site is to take a positive step toward social justice and cultural politics. I believe this site will be beneficial to our research. It provides relevant material that is happening in today’s world. In addition, there are plenty of topics to grab the interest of different audiences. I would definitely use this site as a resource to further my research and studies. Considering that was my first time exploring the site, I was pleased with it overload of resources. Even though I personally enjoy the glamorous side of websites, I will continue to use this particular website. I respect the creator’s preference of simplicity and find it a good thing because it will probably lessen my chances of getting distracted.

culturalpolitics.net

I liked the overall design of culturalpolitics.net. I really like how each form of popular culture has a wealth of other sites and articles one can read. This would be an immense help when conducting any research into one of the topics. I thumbed through some of the forms and read several fascinating articles. The gender issue section is what really caught my interest, especially playing off a conversation some friends and I has this weekend on feminism. I think this site could have an intriguing presence in our class.

culturalpolitics.net

Although rather boring to look at, culturalpolitics.net appears to be a useful website for our class. The vast amount of info within the site is well organized making it reasonably easy to navigate. I agree with Robert, it’s probably not a popular website. I don’t really care about the lack of graphics as long as I gain the necessary material I need.

CulturalPolitics.Net

Ansley Eason
Gender and Pop culture
W 5 pm
The cultural politics website is very organic.  It's seems like it is meant to be functional and it is quite user friendly.  On face value, it's not as flashy as most websites and I find this appealing because it feels more academic in nature. It's very structured, but once you get to the topic of interest it becomes colorful.  Some of it seems outdated, but it's still interesting. This seems like a hearty resource to use to write papers in the future.  The articles I read were intriguing and there's plenty of art.  Perhaps my opinion will changed once we get a little further into the course.

CulturalPolitics.Net

When you click on the website the first thing I thought was boring and bland but when you start clicking on different links on the site you find out that the website is full of information and  has links to many other sights that would be able to help someone looking for information. The website in my opinion is out of date, some of the links don't work and in today's society most people are attracted to websites by flashy images and animation on the sites, this site doesn't contain either. The website is a great tool but probably not too popular.

thoughts on culturalpolitics

My first glance at this site wasn't eye catching and pleasing to my taste. The background or the top module seemed outdated or the color of ancient. After some long period of sitting behind the computer monitor and reviewing what could be appealing to me was that there are resources from many stand points and descriptive sources to browse within many cultures such as anime and manga is originated from Japan and the spread of anime interests numerous individuals. The site doesn't appeal with fond colors to attract me but I forced myself into getting well equipped to understanding what sort of links, advertisements, and references were displayed on this site. I browsed for approximately 3hrs not in one sitting. I took my time to look at the left hand module to investigate and to analyze the focus of this site as a whole. I found it interesting to look up what is popular in today's society. In my opinion, this site is useful to me in order to define and articulate society's hottest new gadgets, pop songs, fashion, and artworks. I believe I am outdated and alittle jaded because of the way I perceive the pop culture as over-daring and dramatic. I get the feeling that this site can be of help to unravel some sense of humor and inform what may be discomforting to some and open up a new soul and mind. I believe the site culturalpolitics.net is one of many helpful resources out on the internet in which can be used as an assistance to understanding and viewing pop culture in several views other than your/my initial view. "Being able to accept the traditional change into newer improved popular change." Why wouldn't we want to go there would be the queer question to ask? It wouldn't hurt to know the diverse cultures of pop culture and being able to be informed and be noticed with much pride to express there are such changes within the issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and even arguements of censorship. I haven't read all the articles on this site and by my bias selection, I selected fashion, art, music, and anime since those are the hottest topic to discuss amongst colleagues and business associates.

culturalpolitics.net

Upon first look at culturalpolitics.net, I was confused as to how this could be helpful at all.  From what I see it is a collection of links to other sources for additional information on the various topics and issues on the site.  As I dove deeper into the site its’ usefulness became apparent.  Instead of having to search for sources on each of these different topics the work has already been done for us.  Pages and pages of resources for us to use for research on different forms of media, different issues and what appears to be some solid, credible research.  As a communication major I believe this site would have been useful in many of my communication classes for research and will probably be very useful for this class as well.

Pop Culture website

I agree with Amanda as far as my initial response to the website. When I think about pop culture I expect it to be bright and entertaining. But the site seemed very plain and slightly lack luster; however, it does give a very adequate initiation to all things pop culture. The prompts to the left of the home page screen lead you on a guided exploration of the various topics. Guidance is important when dealing with the internet (because it's very easy to get lost, frustrated, and give you things that aren't of any use), which is why I feel that this site could be helpful to us during our research.  

     Initially when I visit the site it does not grab my attention. As far as the information it provides, that is where the bait is thrown to me. The site is arranged by all the genres of pop culture, forms and issues, as well as examples of each with sites and articles to expand. The site also magnifies the history and overviews of pop culture throughout the cyber world, society, and the environment. We would definitely want to go to this site in order to research and find references regarding any territory of pop culture. For the mere fact that there are hundreds of articles, books, references in general, etc., it is in fact useful. Personally, I love visuals and this site lacks that, but it has information of purpose so I can say that supersedes my need for flashiness and videos. I am sure we'll be using it quite a bit throughout the semester so I guess I should get used to it, huh?

Space, Place, and American Studies

To me, American Studies is a very broad term for a diverse mix of topics that range from human sexuality to geography to arts and music to “place”-all in the context of how these things interact with one another to form the texture of American culture. It is the study of how a very dynamic culture assimilates and creates different types of people, places, ideals, values, and subcultures.

The concept of “place” is equally complex, its definition broad. While Cresswell defines place as “a meaningful location,” (Cresswell, 7), political geographer John Agnew defines it in three parts: physical location, locale, and the emotional attachment or “sense of place” that people assign to a space (Cresswell, 7). From this, I conclude that the difference between “space” and “place” is a matter of assigning emotional value to an area, be it through personalization, memories of events that have taken place there, or hope for future events to occur in that space. This closely follows Yi-Fu Tuan’s definition that “what begins as undifferentiated space becomes place as we get to know it better and endow it with value…The ideas ‘space’ and ‘place’ require each other for definition” (Cresswell, 8).

The idea of landscape in relation to place is interesting, because it is created by the different viewpoints and meanings assigned to a space by people that inhabit its surrounding place. Landscape “combines what we see with the way it can be seen” (Cresswell, 10). I think of it like this: I have never been to Venice, but when I view Joseph Mallord William Turner’s “Venice The Rialto,” I am overcome with feelings of romance, excitement, and kinship with the gondola passengers. I can feel the breeze, smell the water, and hear the paddles cutting through the canal. Obviously, these feelings are fantasy, and stem from the way Mallord sees and subsequently portrays the landscape of Venice in his work. Still, it invokes an emotional reaction to a space I have never visited; by the definition I explained earlier, this makes it a “place.” However, it is important to note that the context and meaning of this “place” can and likely would change were I to visit myself, as I would assign different meanings and develop different memories from my visit than those portrayed by Mallord in his painting. From this I conclude that the concept of “place” is also dynamic; as events occur and memories are made, so shape the definition of that particular “place,” and different places can take on different meanings to others, so the definition of a specific space likely has several different “place” distinctions.