/ 1968

DEATH – FROM TABOO TO POPULAR CULTURE

From Roger Fenton’s 15-second exposure to Instagram. The first war photographer took pictures of soldiers chatting at ease around trenches but avoided photographing death scenes. He wanted to show a less gruesome side of war. The famous Valley of the Shadow of Death, a photograph Fenton took during the Crimean War, represents more than an objective documentarist approach. There is no explicit death on this photograph, but it is in a way a portrait of death without the dead. Today, with Instagam app, we can upload death scenes to the web instantaneously, at the moment of exposure. The photographs of death we took in passing along the local road will immediately be uploaded to our FB profiles, Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr, Flickr and Posterous. Hybrid forms of photo apps and social networks have made death scenes even less of a taboo by making them commonplace – a trend which had already started with the advent of digital photography. The first major change was introduction of a rolled photographic film by Kodak (“You press the button, we do the rest”). The phenomena which shed more light on the process of de-tabooing death and creating a phenomenon of popular culture include WEEGEE and other art photographers who build on their tradition.

/ 1968

LOUVRE-LENS – A NEW PARADIGM OF MUSEUMS AS GENERATORS OF ENVIRONMENTAL DEVELOPMENT

Traditional approach to evaluating the contribution of museums to their environments only considered the social aspect of the benefits and the benefits were recognized only in the areas of heritage protection and educational and cultural missions. Modern approach, however, perceives contribution of museums from the standpoint of branding, as well as economic benefits that non-profit entities and profit entities in the community receive from museum visitors. In addition to secondary contributions to economic development, museums can also be primary instruments of economic revitalization and community development. The paradigm of this kind of development in the last decade of the 20th century was represented through Guggenheim Foundation in Bilbao (Spain), and at the beginning of the second decade of 21st century through Louvre II in Lens (France). Lens has based its previous economic development on mining and accompanying industries. However, the closing of the mines resulted in grave social problems. In addition to decentralization of culture, which has been a focus in France for the past several decades, the establishment of Louvre Lens had as its primary goal the revival of the town with an unemployment rate of 24% (French average is 9%). It was estimated that during the first year of its operations the new museum would have 700,000 visitors, and that after the “first wave”, the normal number of visitors would be 500,000 annually. The new museum was located in a town of 35,000 inhabitants with a hotel capacity of only 250 rooms. However, during the first year of operation (December 2012 – December 2013), it was visited by 900,000 guests. Due to the number of visitors, Lens has seen a 42-million-euro rise in additional income. After Bilbao, Lens has became another paradigm pointing to the economic and developmental benefits that communities can enjoy due to existence of attractive museums branded as cultural and tourist attractions.

/ 1968

ANNUITY FROM ARCHITECTURAL MONUMENTS

Research, restoration and maintenance of immovable cultural heritage requires funding. Before proposing a new way of funding that is in accordance with society possibilities and market principles, all the problems, field situations and needs should be professionally assessed. Monument annuity represents a way of including the immovable cultural heritage into economic domain. If based on professional principles, this would not represent an attack, a denial or profanation of heritage but could be the first step in regulation of the monumental potential of a territory. Monumental annuity provides sustainable monument management, defines maximum number of monument users, restricts monument exploitation, encourages proper attitude towards the monument, stimulates income, balances expenses, provides incentive for further exploration, provides funds needed for research and maintenance etc. During research, we used the theoretical and practical experiences of countries that have introduced payment of monument annuity.

/ 1968

CULTURAL STRATEGY OF VOJVODINA`S HUNGARIANS AND POLITICS OF CULTURE

The Cultural strategy of Vojvodina Hungarians is one in a lineup of strategies, which was made and adopted by the National Council of Hungarian National Minority. This comprehensive and complex document was contributed to by most members of the National Council and its chairman, as a pioneer attempt, since no other national minority in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Serbia has produced a document such as this. The reason for such an ambitious enterprise by the National Council of Hungarian National Minority is found in outlining plans and aims of the Council as well as a number of experts, institutions and civil organizations active in the area of culture, which are established and are working on the territory of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. Introduction and analysis of the Strategy as well as recognition of the cultural policy of the Hungarian minority are the subject of this work.

/ 1968

COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE AS A SOCIAL POTENTIAL

This paper analyses the phenomenon of collective intelligence, which is intriguing and increasingly important, and it presents research that provides interesting insights about its existence and presence. The central part of this paper analyzes various trends and theories which are associated with the collective intelligence in order to show it in a larger context. Furthermore, the paper provides an overview of examples of collective intelligence in humans and provides parallels with various management techniques and practices that testify that the knowledge of this phenomena and advantages of its use in a variety of human activities have been known for a long time. In conclusion, the importance of collective intelligence is emphasized for the development and evolution of the human society, constituting possible directions for further development of this field and raising questions about further potential directions. This paper was produced using the method of content analysis of domestic and foreign literature, the classification method, the description method, the comparative method, the method of analysis and synthesis and the historical method.

/ 1968

A FESTIVE DINNER

This study of a festive dinner in a rural micro-community in the period of socialist Yugoslavia shows how a group confirms and redefines its existence through a formal menu. The menu bears the male sex signifier, yet matches the taste of all the consumers. The abundance of meat in the meals shows that “a class body” – a strong (male) body is desirable, revealing the deepest dispositions of habitus. Alcoholic drinks are taken by both men and women, yet men drink more being members of a more dominant sex, thus having a greater need in reproducing the cultural norm. The activity of preparing and serving food at the table is not subject to ritual rules and bears the female sex signifier. By introducing changes in the menu and by emancipation of the woman at the dinner table, this patriarchal micro-community shows dynamics and flexibility, thereby negating the stereotype of the rural population as passive. The differences in the economic power are least visible at the festive dinner table, which confirms the Bourdieu’s statement that food is a privileged field where it is symbolically possible to regain dignity and self-respect of the social groups positioned at the bottom of the social ladder, in real economic and social terms.

/ 1968

A REFLEX OF CULTURAL STUDIES IN DON DELILLO’S MAO

In the paper, Don DeLillo’s novel Mao II (1991) serves as an example of a relationship between cultural studies and the novel. Starting from the influence which this interdisciplinary field of research could have on the construction of the novel world, focused on the prevalence of cultural processes, the paper pinpoints and examines several aspects of selected chapters and scenes in the given novel in order to show some points of convergence and the shared interests between cultural studies and the novel, knowledge invested in them, meanings of depicted cultural phenomena and tendencies and their potential cultural value. The analysis is primarily focused on the presentation and interpretation of the masses as both physical entities and entities of identity and consciousness, as features of the discourse and the ideas produced.

/ 1968

INTERTEXTUALITY AS A GAME OF POPULAR AND SUBLIME

The thesis presented in this paper shows that literature has not completely lost its role of cultural capital. The reason for optimism is found in intertextuality as a key feature of postmodern art. The postmodern method in popular culture involves use of high art stylistic solutions while at the same time the content of popular genres treats very complex issues. We take as an example the television series True Detective, produced by the American HBO network, to show that even in that popular form it is possible to identify features of postmodern art such as double coding, intertextual irony and quotations. Through its themes and motifs, this series has been associated with one of the most significant work of the canonical literature – Dante’s Divine Comedy. Also, one work of popular literature has been explicitly quoted in this series – a collection of stories from the 19th century The King in Yellow by Robert Chambers.

/ 1968

JOURNEY FROM HERO TO VILLAIN AND ENJOYING TELEVISION ANTIHERO NARRATIVE

The author examines how the former binary opposition between heroes and villains neutralizes and transforms inside the television fiction. While heroic and villainous characters in the past used to be based on the contrast between the absolute Good and Evil, today, their definitions are in continual transformation. This paper also attempts to provide insights and redefine aspects of anti-heroism. Popular TV series subvert the idea of heroism, as well as the idea of morality which is present in classical genres, based on duality of the world, the struggle between Good and Evil, temptation, a pact with the devil, suffering etc which culminates in redemption, catharsis and salvation. For the antihero, there is no rescue. In the second part of this paper, the author comprehensively discusses the theories that have appeared since the second half of the 20th century which have addressed developing emotions towards media content and media characters defined as anti-heroic, primarily affective disposition theory which explains how a viewer refocuses moral positions of the protagonists, as well as moral defense mechanisms, developed for the purpose of pleasure.

/ 1968

VIRTUAL WORLDS IN CONTEMPORARY SERBIAN WOMEN’S FICTION

The paper is an attempt at illustrating the radical changes in the way in which gender, media and literature interact. Its intention is also to examine the ways in which the media and new digital technologies contribute to representations of gender-linked communication in the novels written by Vida Ognjenović, Ljubica Arsić, Tamara Jecić and Dunja Radosavljević. The new informational technologies have managed to capture the voices lingering at the margins, helping women transcend their real-life grounded identities and explore new narrative practices. The process of identification of women’s social self as depicted in contemporary Serbian women’s writing (such as Dunja Radosavljević’s Life After America, Tamara Jecić’s Stinky Onion, Vida Ognjenović’s The Address is Correct and Ljubica Arsić’s All Inclusive) lavishly uses computer mediated communication. These books introduce different kinds of women’s narratives, ranging from intimate confessions in letters and journals to experimental practices involving different points of view and focalisation. The aim of the paper is to analyze the ways gender is redefined in the cyberrituals of womanhood.