The Circuit of Culture

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       This Blog is an Assignment of paper no.: 205 (A) Cultural Study. In this assignment I am discussing  The Circuit of Culture.

 

Personal Information 

Name:- Mansi B. Gujadiya

Roll Number:-12

Enrollment Number:-4069206420220013

Batch:-M.A SEM -3( 2022-23 )

Email ID:- mansigajjar10131@gmail.com

Paper Number:-205(A)

Paper Code:-22410

Paper Name:- Cultural Study 

Submitted to:- English department MKBU

Topic:- The Circuit of Culture 

Introduction 

The theory was devised in 1997 by a group of theorists when studying the Walkman cassette player. The theory suggests that in studying a cultural text or artefact you must look at five aspects: its representation, identity, production, consumption and regulation. Du Gay et al. suggest that "taken together (these 5 points) complete a sort of circuit...through which any analysis of a cultural text...must pass if it is to be adequately studied."

Gerard Goggin openly uses this framework in his book Cell Phone Culture: Mobile technology in everyday life in order to fully understand the cell phone as a cultural artefact. His book is split into four parts: production, consumption, regulation, and representation and identity (through looking at mobile convergences).

The Circuit of Culture :-

the Circuit) was created as a tool of cultural analysis, initially by members of the British Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS), and later developed as a conceptual basis to the 1997 Culture, Media & Identities series (Sage & Open University). This provides a brief history of the Circuit of Culture from its beginnings in the CCCS through to its later use and development. Reference is made to a number of interdisciplinary studies that have critiqued the Circuit or made explicit use of this tool of analysis. The Circuit’s application and usefulness are examined through reference to a recent study that draws on the Circuit to explore a topical cultural phenomenon, international (full fee paying) student programs in Australian state schools (Leve, 2011a). An assessment will be made of how this tool has been utilised and made contextually relevant as a tool of analysis that opens the way for an exploration of the multiple interrelated processes involved in the construction and management of a cultural phenomenon. The Circuit of Culture emphasises the moments of production,representation, consumption, regulation and identity, and the interrelated articulations of these moments, and is considered for its contemporary significance and possibilities for considering the increasingly complex multiple modes of each of these mutable moments.

What is the procedure for 'knowing? This requires formulating the structure of the 'case study'. The 'case study' is a limited bounded system which is under observation for particular phenomena. & sefine & evcm The 'Circuit of Culture' A sophisticated analysis of cultural artefacts requires a close examination of five basic elements, which together constitute what Paul du Gay et al have called 'the circuit of culture' (1997). 

David Bowie:-

David Bowie is one of the most influential artists for the last 40 years and yet in terms of academic scholarship he has, until recently, garnered minimal attention. He has an incredibly dedicated fan base, had global main-stream success, is influential in numerous cultural and artistic arenas, and straddles the popular with the avant-garde and experimental nexus. His cultural currency is presently at an all-time high, his death creating a revisitation to, and a canonization of, his oeuvre, and an outpouring of grief and remembrance that seem to cut across or through different generations and international landscapes. His most recent albums and theatre work have had him defined as being at his artistic peak (Gill 2013); while, the globally touring ‘David Bowie Is …’ exhibition, that started at the V&A in London in 2013, has broken attendance records across the world.

 More profoundly of course is the fact that David Bowie crosses borders and ‘articulations’, whether this be the resigning of gender and sexuality, the confrontation with regulatory masculinity and sexual mores, or the way he was an active consumer in the production of his own star image fictions. We might speak of David Bowie as simultaneously being part of culture but also embodying a distinct culture that employs specific meanings and practices. His own sonic and visual assemblages have allowed cultural fissures to be created and polysemic tapestries to emerge and converge. As a type of science fiction he is an alien messiah and alienated outsider. He is, then, the living embodiment of the waveforms of the circuit of culture.

These elements are: 

• 1) representation
• 2) identity
• 3) production
• 4) consumption
• 5) regulation

 What these elements present is a process through which every cultural artefact, object or event must pass. The elements work in tandem, and are closely linked with each other, a process that has been called 'articulation'. In order to illustrate the 'circuit of culture' we need to use a concrete example. 

Let us take a now-ubiquitous technological device: the television. 

1)Television and Representation :-

What does the television represent, and how is it represented? The answers to these two related questions are basically means to discuss the centrality of representation in a culture. Television represents communication, information entertainment Most television ads work with these three aspects, with more features and facilities.

 

2)Television and Identity :-

What kinds of identity does television project? What is the difference between state (that is, government) television programmes and say, STAR TV?

Television and Identity What kinds of identity does television project? What is the difference between state (that is, government) television programmes and say, STAR TV?

 What kind of age group is targeted in particular kinds of promotional material? Do car and mobile phone manufacturers target youth? What kinds of identity are given importance in tel 17/88 ri - Family? Young professionals? Youth? Business culturer What does it mean to appear on television? Is the identity of a public intellectual governed by appearance on a programme? Think of so-called 'serious' programmes on contemporary affairs like Aaj Tak, health and medicine or yoga. What is their target audience? What is the Indian identity projected on television? Does the Northeast of India come into the picture? Or Dalits? If so, what is the tone of programmes that try to give representation and space to the marginalized? As we can see the series of questions posed above are about cultural and public contexts where identities are linked to images on screen. Cultural Studies is interested in the ideologies that underlie these identity-projections. self -prejetia a Tuencnoes, Seuf esteem.

3)Television and Production:-

 The theme of production can be phrased as a series of pointed questions: Look at the major television manufacturers. What are the policies in these companies? How is recruitment done? What welfare policies are in place for workers? How much profit does the company make? Does the company project a democratic work culture? Does the management mix with the workers? Does the company cater to an Indian milieu specifically? Does it project itself - owned companies like Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) did - as a truly Indian' firm? state- lill Reliarce or kytsher handed aver a Cahitoer or child ? to a man.

4)Television and Consumption :-

Small Tv or LED Who are the major buyers of television sets, black and white and colour? What are their income levels? Why would you buy a particular model? Is the choice of a particular kind dictated by fashion, taste, functionality? Do you upgrade models because you are an enthusiast and can afford to? Television and Regulation:- Consider the union government's ban on Fashion TV, ostensibly because it offends Indian cultural sentiments. y po ban on Paum leel What does the government do with regard to either production or consumption? What is the role of the censor board or the Information and Broadcasting Ministry in television sales, production, programmes? This 'circuit of culture' is perhaps the most thorough examination of any cultural artefact. As we can see it covers a range of issues and themes from the question of media representation to the construction of identities in a culture. The 'circuit of culture' includes within it several smaller components and modes of analysis. The rest of this chapter outlines some of them. Cultural Studies today, in most academies across the world, adopts certain key areas and methods to understand the modes of meaning-production. These are: language, discourse identity everyday life ethnography media studies reception/audience studies cultural intermediaries.

Conclusion:-

 In sum up we can say that the Circuit of Culture has proved useful as a conceptual tool for probing the complexities of cultural construction of meanings and reminding me to look beyond the surface – whether contemplating an image, a statement, a document or a theory. The elements of the revised Circuit reached beyond the production/consumption binary and allowed me to stop and consider moments in that process. Representations are produced and consumed but they are also affected by regulatory practices, identity and assumed meanings and connections with what is already known. The Circuit and its related cultural studies theoretical grounding allows for delving into all of the complexities, or alternatively, focussing on the complexities of only one or some of these processes.

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