Theme 2: Reflection

The text for this week’s seminar was partially a bit difficult to grasp. Adorno and Horkheimer were sometimes very critical and negative, for example when they discuss the culture industry. They sound like grumpy old men who are only negative because things were changing and they didn’t like it. Their critique against Hollywood and the movie industry is pretty harsh, in their eyes it’s not considered as art. During the seminar this week we discussed this matter, what is art? There’s no right or wrong answer, everyone has their own definition. Some people might agree with the authors and say that the modern movie industry doesn’t produce art, only content to please the audience. The happy endings and predictable stories give the audience a satisfaction but not an intellectual challenge, like theater or art, some might say.

Art is a wide term and the definition depends a lot on one’s personal reference points. The making of movies is one art form and it differs from theater, but the foundation is the same, to tell a story. I know many people who love movies but never would walk into a theater for different reasons. One reason is that there’s as much action in the theater as in the movies and some people think that they don’t belong in the theater, it’s not for them, it’s considered ”upper-class art”.

For me, the definition of art is a form of expression to tell a story, whether it’s music, theater, a sculpture or origami. One could discuss it forever, there will always be different opinions just as long as everyone has found their own definition of art. That's my biggest lesson learned from the seminar.

During the lecture we discussed a quote from the text by Adorno and Horkheimer saying this: ” Communication establishes uniformity among men by isolating them.” In connection to this quote we discussed social media and how it affects the interaction between people. Nowadays we have all the opportunities in the world to communicate with whomever we like, there are no geographical restrictions like before. But even if we can communicate easily with each other it’s still difficult to get out of the comfort zone and interact with others. With the help of social media you can find others who share the same opinions, music taste or sports team, find like-minded. So instead to broaden our horizons we unite with like-minded and therefore the society gets more uniform instead of wider. This is one way of seeing it and it’s my interpretation of the quote.