As defined by Jurgen Habermas, a public sphere is:
“the virtual space where the citizens of a country exchange ideas and discuss issues, in order to reach [an] agreement about 'matters of general interest'" ([Jurgen] Habermas, 1997: 105)
By that definition, we can reasonably identify this site as an example of a public sphere in which visual ideas are exchanged. The website, named DeviantART, is a virtual space where pro artists and wannabes gather to share and critique their artwork. As “the world’s largest online community of artists and art-lovers”, DeviantArt should provide a (somewhat) representative sample of the (probably teenage) world’s ‘matters of general interest’ in terms of visual art. The ‘issues’ are ‘discussed’ using visual rhetoric. If you were to view the current front page and compare it with a -useful- sample (i.e. I couldn’t tell you how many) of previous popular postings (tacky alliteration FTW) you might interpret the ‘visual exchanges’ as correlating with the day’s art and social trends.
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| "Simpsonzu" by Space Coyote on DeviantART
For example, in the above picture we have a visual representation of the rising popularity of japanese anime in the world of cartoon fans. This image works because anime has entered the cultural consciousness of America. Now, imagine if shows like Naruto and Avatar hadn't reached a large audience here. A Japanese-style interpretation of The Simpsons wouldn't really be relevant because it would be too unfamiliar. In another case, if this was modeled after the Dilbert cartoon strip, that might be funny in a random-humor sort of way, but it wouldn't make sense to our youth culture which is largely unaware of the Dilbert cartoon series. In this way images can represent the cultural trends of our society, and by extension the public sphere which both influences our culture and is motivated by it.
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Being an anime nerd, I completely approve of this post. I agree with your point that an image like the one in your post ONLY makes sense because of television programming blocks like Adult Swim, which brought several popular anime series to the U.S. (although obviously this isn't the only way we've been exposed to Japanese culture).
ReplyDeleteCultural trends are definitely an important factor in how a reader interprets the information that is being transmitted.
The thing I wonder is: As we use our knowledge of rhetoric to communicate information, should we shy away from using certain themes if it is not popular already? Or, perhaps better stated, should we try to spread this awareness ourselves (and possibly lose some readers initially) or just make use of the trends that are in the public sphere at the moment?
Great post!
LH