Seif Abdelmeguid 900221201

Question 1:

Postmodernity is a theory that emerged in the 1980s with the publication of The

Postmodern Condition by the French philosopher Lyptard. It is characterized by its

skeptical view of modernity’s sciences, universally accepted designs, and its focus on

functionality. One of the fields where the effect of postmodernism can be most

experienced is architecture. Yet some of its theories and concepts provide an effective

framework for interpreting the global visual culture scene, chief among these is Jean

Baudrillard’s simulation concept.

One of the clear examples of postmodern architecture is the former headquarters

of the Longaberger company located in

Newark. Upon first encountering this

structure, it is clear to the viewer that the

building is designed to resemble the shape

of a traditional fruit basket. To elaborate,

The building’s facade resembles the

common weaving pattern found in many fruit baskets, which was achieved by the

architect’s intuitive use of window placements and geometric patterns. On top of the

building, two humongous leaning metal structures were constructed to mimic the

handles found on top of many traditional baskets. The building was also painted in a

somewhat bright brown paint in an attempt to resemble the glossy brown color of fruit

baskets. Lastly, the use of the gold-plated plaque to display the company’s logo and

name is a direct reference to the company’s branding found on many of its baskets.
 The first clear element of postmodernity found in this structure is the departure

from the modernity’s focus on high-rise metallic buildings that dominated the 1930s,

which were often regarded as the universally-superior design. Furthermore, the irony

and humour associated with the building design is another element of postmodernist

architecture. To clarify, This irony is derived from the fact that the Longaberger company

specializes in producing the exact baskets that are resembled by the building. The

building’s designed handles is an example of the building's postmodernist design. This

is comparable to the AT&T building using chippendale pediment, as both can be

regarded as decorative and non-functional architectural designs. These strictly

ornamental additions are explicit examples of postmodernity challenging architectural

functionality that defined modern architecture (Sturken & Cartwright, 332).

Another example from the architecture field that presents a different set of

postmodernist principles is the Beijing World

Park. This gigantic theme park consists of

miniature versions of several of the world’s

most popular and influential buildings and

cities. For instance, the park has an entire

section dedicated to the city of New York,

which incorporates the famous Financial District and the Statue of Liberty. The park also

houses some miniature historical monuments, such as the Sphinx, Leaning Tower of

Pisa, and the Eiffel tower. In order for one to see the postmodernist influence inherent in

the park’s design, it is important to take into consideration Jean Baudrillard’s simulation

concept where he states that a simulation is an imitation of an object that then acts as a
substitution for the real (Sturken & Cartwright, 307). Thus, it becomes clear that these

miniature representations are in reality a simulation of their real world counterparts.

These simulations give the opportunity to the visitor to experience all these monuments

all at once without needing to visit the originals, in effect they can act as a replacement

of the originals.

In addition to understanding how simulation

is used in the world of architecture, it is important

to note that the concept can be used to analyze

other areas of global visual cultures. One of these

areas is artificial identity formation, where

individuals use several techniques to build certain desired identities that are often

severely detached from one’s actual personality. This trend of creating hyperreal

identities has been especially pervasive in the world of social media and politics. For

example, George W. Bush used several techniques in press conferences to present

himself as not only the victorious side of the 2003 Iraq invasion and the savior of the

American nation, despite the fact that the Iraq war was far from being an accomplished

and successful undertaking. Additionally, with the recent rise of A.I. and artificially

generated images, Baudrillaud’s hyperreality concept is expected to take center stage.

Due to the potential of these synthetic images becoming more believable in the near

future, these images can start taking precedence over the real.
Question 2:

It has become crucial in recent years to use practices of looking in order to

discern the different subliminal messages and ideologies being conveyed through

different mediums of visual culture. One such aspect that one needs to recognize is

racial microaggression due to their destructive manner. These are forms of systematic

and everyday racism used to keep racial minorities as a weak and controllable group.

One example of visual microaggression that was repeatedly seen across the long

history of the United States is the image of the Mexican bandit.

For instance, one derogatory representation of the latino

community was found in the children book Don’t Tell Lies Lucy. In

this book, a white girl named Lucy is seen being threatened by a

thief wearing a sombrero, serape, and sandals. These kinds of representations are

made by their authors with the aim of appropriating this form of vicious criminality to the

latino community. Nonetheless, the Mexican bandit evolved over time into the chicano

criminal that included new characteristics to it, chief among these new attributes is the

illegal immigration status. These representations have come to play an increasingly

important role in the political arena owing to the recent rise of the radical right.

The black community has also faced their fair share of racial microaggression

across their history of existence in the United States, nevertheless the manner in which

they were represented differed significantly over time. Owing to these differences, this

analysis will primarily focus on representation of the African-American community post

civil war. One of these representations were of the black youth which were known as

Pickaninny. These often painted the black kids in an unkempt manner, where they are
presented with a naked body and uncombed hair. Additionally, they were usually placed

in natural settings such as a forest, where they were being threatened

by predators. These representations were aimed to push viewers to

regard blacks as animals, which justified the threat they were facing in

these renderings. Another representation of the black community

painted blacks as brutes unfit for the freedom they were granted. For

instance, the Birth of a Nation movie depicts blacks chasing after white

women with the aim of sexually assaulting them. These renderings

helped justify racial violence.

As previously mentioned the main goal of these racist and derogatory renderings

of minorities is to keep the existing systems of discrimination in place, which is achieved

through a twofold effect. Firstly, the linking of certain illegal activities to a racial group

pushes the viewing public to fear said racial group. Additionally, Huber and Solorzano

suggest that racial microaggression can help start a bigger and more pervasive vicious

cycle of racial discourse (231). To elaborate, the public who are exposed to these racial

renderings can start to develop certain negative prejudices against a certain race, which

can result in increased reproductions of these renderings based on said prejudices.

Secondly, these negative representations of other races not only aim to tarnish the

reputation of said races, but they also attempt to establish whites as the superior race

and promote the ideology of white supremacy. Hubor and Solorzano argue that these

two effects lead to and justify Institutional Racism which are structural systems that

discriminate between races (230).

freedom, rights, and livelihoods of racial minorities, there are ways by which one can

resist and dismiss these racist narratives being relayed. Hubor and Solorzano highlight

that resistive responses led to more positive outcomes in regards to minorities

internalization of these racist perceptions. Thus, one way of tackling these racial

microaggression depictions is by developing and creating counter-depictions that reflect

the true identity of these minorities. It is crucial that youth be educated on the racist

ideologies that act as the foundation of these visual representations of racial minorities.

Both of these remedies can help in avoiding many from adopting these racist views, as

well as stopping the internalization of white supramacist’s perception of the black and

latino communities.
Question 3:

One of the most important elements that contributes frequently to the making of

any piece of visual art is the environment and the biological organisms that inhabit. Yet,

as will be presented in this work, the artists and architects depart from the traditional

depiction of this ecological element in a multitude of different ways. One extreme

example of such departure is Hassan Fathy’s work on rural areas planning. Owing to

this, this work will primarily focus on the traditional depiction of the environment in

Egyptian visual culture, and how it compares to Hassan Fathy’s projects.

Typically, there is an inherent animosity between humans and

the environment that is often seen in many visual works of art.

This likely stems from the human desire to explore and expand

into nature. This is supported by Shalem’s suggestion that

Nature is often regarded as an enemy of immense power and

grandeur that must be tamed and conquered by humans. He

supports by citing multiple theological examples that show

humans’ obsession with controlling nature, such as Solomon’s ability to control animals

(20).

This rivalry is also seen in Egyptian visual culture. One example of that Egyptian

conquering nature is the construction of Aswan High Dam. In terms of visual culture, the

construction of the dam and its accompanying conquering of Egypt’s Nile river can be

evidently seen in Al Gazzar’s al-Saad al-Aali. This influential painting shows an

embodiment of the Dam successfully standing in the way of the immense force of the

Nile’s current (Shalem, 24).

between the Gazzar’s depiction of nature and Fathy’s in spite of the latter being an

architectural work. For instance, the work shown in this essay shows a plan of a rural

village. Firstly, the work has two different view angles, one is the bird's eye view of the

building’s floor plan and the other represents a street view of the buildings’ facade. The

image shows two buildings that somewhat look similar, yet they

have some differences in their design. The buildings also

represent the traditional architectural style associated with rural

areas of Upper Egypt. There is a hill on the right of the

pictureHowever, the most interesting element in this work is the

depiction of the animals and plants. Firstly, animals associated

with rural areas are seen roaming the alley dividing the two

buildings. These animals include the famous Herons and some

type of Gazelle. Additionally, plants are depicted growing in front,

behind and in between the houses. Also the choice of trees depicted is important, since

it shows plants that usually grow in the climate of these rural areas like Palm trees.

Finally, Fathy clearly did not intend for the ground to be paved as evidenced by the

yellow color the floor is painted in.

The above analysis of this piece of Fathy’s work clearly shows his focus on

working with nature rather than conquering it. To elaborate, the fact that animals are

allowed to roam the streets of this Fathy’s imagined village rather than being

marginalized by human urbanization as in the cities shows a clear departure from not

only Gazzar’s treatment of nature but also the conventional treatment of nature by many
modern architects. Finally, Fathy’s emphasis on mediating between the environment

and human expansion is the hill that appears on the right side of the frame. As Fathy

decided to amend the design of the first building in order to avoid the hill rather than

flattening the hill, which is an activity seen frequently in contemporary architectural

projects.

Question 4:

Throughout history imaging technologies have changed their forms over a

multitude of times, starting with the original silver-film camera to the current digital

mobile camera. Additionally, the modes in which these images are transmitted was

drastically changed thanks to the rise of the internet and social media, where images

travel with speeds previously thought impossible. As a result of this increased

connectivity, certain fields that mostly rely on images and image dissemination
underwent massive changes in their methods of work. Chief among these fields are

politics and social activism.

One example of this change in the world of political activism is the 2011 Arab

Spring, where the world witnessed a large-scale social rights

movement that ignited across the whole Arab world. Yet, it is

clear that the Arab Spring was largely made possible by social

media websites. To clarify, it is plausible to say the Egyptian

revolution initially started on social networking sites such as

Facebook. The creation of facebook groups such as “Kolna Khaled Saeed” which

documented the killing of the Egyptian activist Khaled Saeed, helped to quickly incite

anger throughout the Egyptian public and nudge them further towards uprising.

Additionally, the quick dissemination of images from protests in the neighbouring

country of Tunisia through social media helped in igniting the revolution on 25th of

January. Thus, it is easy to conclude that social media allowed for the needed

dissemination of revolutionary ideas and images throughout the regions in ways that

was not possible under traditional media forms due to the heavy censorship associated

with them.

Social media changed the world of political activism on a much more

fundamental level. As social media became widely used by all participants

in a social movement, it allowed for a less hierarchical structure in said

social movements. As Sturken and Cartwright mention that while

traditional movements relied on certain manifestos for communication,

movements in the age of social media allowed for a more participatory

could be argued that this more collaborative model allowed for more creative forms of

dissent. One example of this increased creativity and individuality is the memes and

jokes that were devised, written on placards, photographed and uploaded to social

media by Egyptian protests. These creative and humorous forms of dissent were

largely made possible by social media granting protestors the ability to freely participate

in the communication mechanisms of the revolution.

The increased number of social movements experienced in recent years was

also the result of the rise of social media. This is important when

taking in account Sturken and Cartwright's suggestion that these

globalized networks enable protest movements to build global

support and even ignite protests elsewhere in the world (404).

This could be evidently seen in the Black Lives Matter (BLM)

movement of 2020 that started in the United States, where the images of police brutality

proliferated social media sites such as Tik Tok. To elaborate, BLM protestors used social

media to not only show evidence of police brutality against members of the black

population such as George Floyd, but also document the actual scenes from the

protest. As a result, this ignited a global protest movement that showed support to the

American BLM movement by showing symbols such as the “I Can’t Breathe” placard.
Bonus Question 1:

The art piece that will be analyzed in this work is dominated by a sense of

disturbance which complicated the analysis process significantly. This sense of unease

is created by the mysterious nature of the paintings as well as the stylistic choices made

by the artist. Owing to this, this analysis will primarily focus on three main areas:

descriptive analysis of all the painting’s elements; the story and signs being relayed by

the painting; and the meaning behind the specific painting style adopted by the artists.
 First of all, the painting’s events seem to take place in a barren wasteland, where

emptiness dominates the scene. Additionally, due to the color of this land being

brownish yellow, it could be argued that the painting is of a desert region such as the

MIddle East. However, the element that steals the viewer’s attention at first glance is

undoubtedly the possible murder scene. To elaborate, the painting shows a dead body

lying on the floor in a pool of blood. The actual source of blood in the body is unclear,

However, what is clear is that the deceased seems to be a female, due to the fact that

she is wearing an orange hijab. Additionally, this clothing choice supports the argument

that the painting’s event is taking place in the Middle East where hijab is a common

clothing choice for women. The woman’s skin tone appears to be on the darker-side, yet

it still could not be labelled as black. This again supports the argument that the painting

is of the Middle East region, since said region’s population are known to have a skin

tone somewhere between dark skin and caucasian. The dead woman is also wearing a

long purple dress. Finally, the woman’s facial features are largely unclear which add to

the aforementioned sense of mysteriousness that dominates from the painting.

Another important part of the painting is the kid that appears sitting next to the

dead woman’s body. To begin, the kid’s skin tone is evidently the same as that of the

woman. Moreover, the kid’s hair can neither be labelled as short or long, which initially

made it difficult to determine the gender. However, due to the fact that the kid’s clothing

does not cover his arms and legs and the kid’s supposed Middle Eastern roots, it could

be concluded that the kid is a male.

One of the main methods by which the painter conveyed certain messages and

signs to the viewer of the painter was the kid. These messages can be plainly revealed,
when one considers a connotation-denotation model of understanding visual signs

(Berger, 17). To elaborate, the kid’s face is dominated by his widely open eyes. One

could argue that said eyes connote the fear that one experiences in violent murder

scenes such as one presented in this painting. Another important element to analyze is

the boy’s placement of his hand on the woman’s body. This could be connoting a sense

of deniability that is often associated with grief. To elaborate, the painting may be

capturing a unique moment during a person’s dealing with grief, when the kid is denying

the death of the woman by trying to touch it. Finally, the kid’s other hand plays an even

more important role than the other. While the placing of his hand on his mouth might be

simply connoting a sense of fear similar to that of aforementioned eyes. However, when

one considers that kid might be the actual culprit of the murder, the whole perception of

the painting can change. Since the hand-over-mouth could connote a sense of remorse

and surprise at one’s own actions that were possibly evoked by the kid’s killing of the

woman either intentionally or unintentionally. This argument is supported by complete

emptiness of the scene of the painting, which leaves the analysis with no other possible

culprit other than the kid.

The stylistic choice of the painter also plays a major role in cultivating a sense of

disturbance and mystery that were evoked by other elements of the painting. To

elaborate, the painter uses a unique painting technique where individual brush strokes

appear clearly all throughout the painting. Additionally, these brush strokes largely

follow an irregular and unexpected pattern. Additionally, the edges of all of the elements

of the painting are not clearly lined and are somewhat blurred in with their surroundings.

It could be argued that these stylistic elements leave the viewer with a sense of unease,
due to the unusual appearance of the painting and its departure from the traditional

painting styles. Thus, this style adds to the overall feeling of the painting that was

possibly intended by the artist.

Bonus Question 2:
 This short analysis will cover a photograph that bears political importance. This is

because the image shows US president-elect Donald Trump celebrating with members

of the black community, which is a community that is often at odds with the former

president’s policies. However, upon further examination it appears that this image is not

actually real. Instead, it appears to have been synthesized by an artificial intelligence

image-generating software in similar fashion to that described in the “In the Age of A.I.,

Is Seeing Still Believing?” article (Rothman). Owing to this revelation, this analysis will

focus on two main points: a descriptive analysis of the image and its elements; and a

discussion of the ways in which said image reveals its fabricated nature.

First of all, Trump appears to be wearing a navy suit with a white shirt. The

president is also wearing his usual red tie that represents his political party. It is also

clear from Trump’s facial expression and his overextended grin that he is happy. The

incoming president also appears to be hugging two black women, who also appear to

be happy to be in the picture with Trump. Behind the president and the women are other

African-American people posing for the picture. The picture seems to have been made

during Christmas. This is because there are two men wearing the iconic Santa Claus

hat that is associated with the festive season. Additionally, there is a christmas tree in

the background that towers over the president and his companions. Finally, the mirror in

the background is also fitted with festive decorations.

As previously mentioned, this image is actually artificially-made by machine

learning software. One can realize when taking into consideration the several elements

highlighted in this paragraph. Firstly, the whole image seems to be dominated by this

glossy look. To clarify, the president’s suit and tie seem to be abnormally clean, as they
bear a somewhat reflective look. Additionally, the skin of Trump and the rest of photo’s

participants in the photos also have this glossy look. For instance, the arm of the

woman to the right of the president reflects light to an extremely unusual degree that it

somewhat resembles a wax figure.

Another element that puts the image’s artificiality in full focus is the fingers of the

people participating in the photo. First of all, the gentleman on the left on frame appears

to be missing half his ring, despite him hilariously still wearing a ring. Furthermore, both

of the president-elect’s hands are even more strange. To begin, his right hand’s pointing

finger appears to be merging with middle finger. This is likely the result of a malfunction

in the imaging software used. Additionally, the fingertip of his left hand’s pointer finger is

abnormally small compared to the rest of the finger. There is a strange white thing that

appears to be extending from Trump's left pinky and left ring finger. Finally, Trump’s chin

is drooping unusually to the right, which further shows the unnatural look of the image.

Thus, all the aforementioned elements point to the conclusion that this image was

synthesized by an A.I. model.

Berger, Arthur Asa. Media Analysis Techniques. 3rd ed., SAGE Publications, Inc, 2005.

Pérez Huber, Lindsay, and Daniel G. Solorzano. “Visualizing everyday racism.” Qualitative
Inquiry, vol. 21, no. 3, 25 Feb. 2015, pp. 223–238,

Rothman, Joshua. “In the Age of A.I., Is Seeing Still Believing?” The New Yorker, 5 Nov. 2018,

Shalem, Avinoam. “Man’s conquest of nature: Al-Gazzar, Sartre, and Nasser’s great aswan
dam.” Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art, vol. 2013, no. 32, 1 May 2013, pp.
18–29,

Sturken, Marita, and Lisa Cartwright. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture.
MTM, 2018.