week 4

In Representation and the Media, Stuart Hall subverts the dominant understanding of representation as something which represents an essential and fixed idea. While he states that creating meaning depends on a certain kind of ‘fixing,’ he explains that there can always be many meanings and meanings may change over time. Hall argues that representation creates meaning “within the event”, and that meaning is constructed through shared conceptual maps - it is a relational and contextual process. Further, he states that the question of circulation of meaning always involves questions of power, and that the purpose of power is to fix meaning absolutely. Power and ideology are intent on closing language & closing meaning. This is important because Hall understands that images constantly construct us and create new subjectivities through this meaning-making process, so having narrow and essentialist images & representations restricts our abilities to be and to understand ourselves in relation to others.   

I found Hall’s arguments about stereotypes really interesting - he used stereotypes as an example of a kind of fixed meaning system which is driven by ideology and power structures. He argues that rather than combat negative stereotypes with positive ones, it would be much more effective and powerful to explode the stereotypes by breaking them down and analyzing the process by which they are produced and reproduced. This is critical to consider as art educators, as we will regularly encounter stereotypes in the classroom - we are in a position to give students the critical tools to carefully consider stereotypes in order to try to figure out where they come from, whose interests they serve, who they oppress, and how they are upheld within dominant culture. This kind of analysis can help develop and sharpen students' critical thinking skills, which will serve them in all areas of their life.