Identify and briefly describe two ways the article illustrates Appadurai's argument concerning electronic and post-electronic media and migration as marking new ways in which to construct "imagined worlds and imagined selves."
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The New York Times article about Lee Si-Kap's collection of satellite dishes in his home is directly related to Appudurai's ideas about imagination, migration, and technology. First, the fact that Mr. Lee did not relate to his own cultural practices or people from his village and used his access to mass media to escape from these confines, relates to Appudrai's comments on how the general population can now use imagination through electronic media to transport them to a place where they feel more comfortable. Similarly, Appudurai says, "For migrants, both the politics of adaptation to new environments and the stimulus to move or return are deeply affected by a mass-mediated imaginary that frequently transcends national space" (Appudurai, 6). Because of his ability to work satellites, Lee can now connect the young foreign brides who have migrated to his rural village feel more connected through satellites to the loved ones and culture they left at home. For both the young women he is helping, and Lee himself new electronic media and imagination have connected them to a world they never thought they'd find.
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ReplyDeleteThe NY Times article gives evidence for Appadurai’s assertion that “For migrants, both the politics of adaptation to new environments and the stimulus to move or return are deeply affected by a mass-mediated imaginary that frequently transcends national space.” The foreign brides who have moved into rural South Korea use satellite dishes and TV reception to get in touch with their homeland. They are not even calling their mothers and sisters on the telephone in this story, they are just joining in the shared experience of television to condense space and give them a bit of escapism.
The ability of foreign brides to connect emotionally in such a passive way with their homeland brought to mind Appadurai‘s view of the nation state, and it‘s viability as a community, or identity for people to latch on to. He says, “There are actually existing social forms and arrangements that might contain the seeds of more dispersed and diverse forms of transnational allegiance and affiliation.” The “satellite communities” of South Korea, which harbor immigrant women and television waves, is an example of a social arrangement that allows members to create their own imagined world and imagined selves.
Christian Bojar Film 301
ReplyDeleteThe New York Times article on Lee Si-Kap is a good representation of Appadurrai's theory that mass mediation can can offer a virtual tool of communication and imagination for those who are part of migration or a diasporic sphere. Recently there has been many women that have migrated from countries like Vietnam, China and the Philippines to find husbands. South Korea is becoming less and less homogeneous all the time. Although the country has become less homogeneous they have not given in to the cultures of the women who have come to their country. The 85 satellite dishes Lee owns is a valuable tool for many of the foreign brides that have migrated to South Korea in search of a husband. Most of the brides feel very distant from there home because of having to learn the Korean language and customs. For these foreign brides Lee's satellite dishes provide a way for them to feel a little more connected to their home. This form of virtual communication is giving these brides the chance to imagine themselves in a completely different place. Lee himself has also used this technology to imagine himself in a different place. He has been able to come in contact with different places and their culture that he might not have ever experienced. Mass mediation has brought foreign ideas as well as people to South Korea. This could become a normality in years to come as more people gain access to these types of virtual tools.
The article on Lee Si-kap is similar to what Appadurrai experienced in Bombay. They were both able to become a member of the globalized community through media: Lee Si-kap through his satellites and Appadurrai through B-grade films and through his brother who lived in America. (Appadurrai, 1) This ability, that is to be able to experience culture beyond the national boarder, is proof that the concept of the “nation” is imagined; that is, its boarders can be broken down through media exchange. The brides as a whole are another concept of an imagined nation. They are able to keep their own culture through the media they get from the satellite; thus they can stay connected to their nation while not even being a part of it.
ReplyDeleteLee Si-kap use of modern satellite technology, demonstrates perfectly this ideas that Appadurrai is trying to convey in his writing, "Here and Now." First of all, Si-kap and Appaudurrai are very similar in the ay that they both felt very out of place in their home environments, Appadurrai being from Bombay India. They both were intoxicated by waht they were seeing and hearing coming from distant countries and felt very removed and quite isolated from all the people around them. What saved Si-kap, as stated in the article, was "Music and Satellite television." Appadurrai had a brother in America in the early 1960's, and begged him to bring back jeans and claimed to smell America on his brother when he returned. He states " In 1970, I was still drifting toward a rendezvous with American social science, area studies and that triumphal form of modernization that was still a secure article of Americanism in a bipolar world." (Appadurrai,2) They both were attempting to get outside the confines of their isolated villages and began to create a world all their own, inside their minds which opened their minds to a point that they never quite thought was possible. Si-kap uses however, of this technology begins demonstrate Appadurrai's point of cultures using imagination to escape the confines of their reality and take them into a new world, or perhaps a world they once new. The use of these satellites for communication between many of Korea's foreign brides and their homes and, in many cases, the culture they left behind, keeps them connected with their nation. Which directly related to this idea of the nation, and taking the nation beyond the confines of a continent and that the nation truly lies in the people and travels wherever the people go.
ReplyDeleteFilm Section 301
ReplyDeleteThe NY Times article is proof of Appadurrai's ideas regarding our current globalized society and the role global media plays to provide reconciliation with one’s culture even if that person migrated to a completely different culture. The first example is Lee himself: his social isolation and inability to leave the village made him want to escape his life and create an illusory world using the media. His addiction to the media turned into obsession and he continued to expand the “illusory world” by continuing setting up more satellite dishes. Although Lee did this due to his isolation from his world, migrants soon turned to his satellite complex as they were also isolated from their own culture. Through the media they were able to connect to their cultures, even if it was only an illusion, and were able to feel better in a completely different culture. Appadurrai says that the migrants, who left their country for another, don’t really leave it if they have access to the media of their home country. In a way, their culture follows them through media and they are able to remain with their old distinctive culture and not adapt to the new culture.
Nate Meads
ReplyDeleteFilm 301
The article about Lee Si-Kap's collection of satellite dishes in his home has a lot to do with Appudrai's about migration, technology and imagination. First, Appudrai talks about how people today can use 'imagination' through electronics to take themselves away from their normal lives. Lee Si-Kap's house is decorated with 85 satellites allowing him to reach channels in more than 100 countries. He is able to go where ever he wants, to escape to where ever he wants. This is what technology today allows us to do. This is a perfect example of Appudrai's article.
Also, after reading Lee Si-Kap's story, Appudrai's, “For migrants, both the politics of adaptation to new environments and the stimulus to move or return are deeply affected by a mass-mediated imaginary that frequently transcends national space.” gives us good insight into the female foreign brides who are able to connect with their families. This gives the brides a chance to emotionally connect with their homeland while being in a completely new environment.
Jeremy Patton film
ReplyDeleteThe theories Appadurai displays in his writing can be beautifully through Lee Si-kap's satellites.The country of south Korea greatly depend on there foreign immigrants. Korea depends so much on there immigrants that economy would crash with out them. The immigrant wives in Korea make up 2/5 of the wives in rule areas. With such diverse parts of Korea the cultures cant help but to mix, bringing new views and out looks. In Korea the influx of immigrant wives, a large percent of children will be raised bye racial. they will be divorce in at lest two cultures.
In the article Appadurai expresses the versatility the media. He talked about how Lee Si-kap used his 85 satellites to connect to more then 100 countries, and how he was able to use the satellites to help home sick wives connect to there dissent homes. Through the media of satellite t.v. he was able to experience a world most Korean farmer would never dream of. Using his Satellites he was introduced to a hole new world consisting of things like Japanese baseball, music from Russia, new religions, and Ronnie James Dio.
Matt Bozora-301
ReplyDeleteWhat Lee Si-Kap and the foreign wives of Korea experience is very much the same as to what Appaduri discusses in "Here and Now". There is a constant longing for the connection to your home and culture while being in a foreign land. Through the mass media and invention of new technologies on can make that connection past the natural boundaries and distances felt. Lee Si-Kap uses his field of satellites to find his own global culture and allows his imagination to his own "belonging". After gaining popularity Lee is now able to spread his love of media to the new additions of an aging farm society. Re-usable satellites in South Korea are now finding their place in helping housewives from distant cultures find a connection with their far away homeland. While some view Lee as a rebel blasting his American heavy metal, others see him as a man of the people, simply trying to help the lost find their way back home in the way he knows how; through a global connection to the world's society.
Ryan Bingham - 314
ReplyDeleteThe article is focused on an introverted South Korean man, Lee Si-Kap, who had difficulty assimilating into his immediate cultural atmosphere as a child. Consequently, he turned to satellites and music for a sense of belonging. Si-Kap is a fitting embodiment of Appadurai’s writings on globalization and imagined borders in the modern world. This man, who has ingested cultural nuances from dozens of nations, is a far different person than he would be without this peripheral influence. One could make the argument that Si-Kap is more a member of these outside nations than he is of his native South Korea, further enhancing Appadurai’s statements concerning imagined borders. Appadurai’s interpretation of the nation has little to do with the physical, literal limitations of a state, but instead the social, cultural, and individual ramifications of life in a given nation are his focus.
Jessica Knap
ReplyDeleteFilm 301
The New York Times article about Lee Si-kap and the influence of his 85 satellite dishes on immigrant brides proves Appadurais theory and ideas. Apparduais clearly states how all forms of technology-based media connect society on a much larger scale. By stating, “…through daily routines electronic media provide resources for self-imagining as an everyday social project,” the article displays self-imagining through the immigrant brides. These brides often become home sick with no way of remembering home; however, this changed because of Lee Si-Kap’s satellites. The concept, “For migrants, both the politics of adaptation to new environments and the stimulus to move or return are deeply affected by mass-mediated imaginary that frequently transcends national space,” because these wives were either born into this lifestyle of farming or migrated they no longer had any reminder of home. But, by collecting secondhand satellite dishes, Mr. Lee creates a wider field of connection through satellite tv for the homesick women. Through various forms of media the world now has the capability of connect with each other in the easiest ways possible. The media not only connects a select few but a plethora of cultures can inter mix, creating and sharing multiple perspectives.
Section - 301
ReplyDeleteThe article in the New York Time’s regarding Lee Si-kap and his unusual collection of satellites shows a great amount of supporting evidence to the theories put out by Arjun Appadurai about mediation and migration in the modern world. Mr. Lee’s life story of an obsession with electronic media closely connects to the theory of the effects that media and migration have on the “work of the imagination”. A strong connection with the surrounding world is created with each new broadcast that’s “reeled in” by one of Lee’s satellites. This connection of close proximity is made in the viewer’s mind while the physical distance remains the same. Although his hobby isn’t the source of his main income, he still can’t help it but pick up a battered old when he sees one. This is supported by Appadurai’s statement that, “…where there is consumption there is pleasure.” Also, the lonely foreign wives in rural South Korea that receive the broadcasts from their home land to lessen their homesickness help support Appadurai’s theory of the diasporic public spheres.
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ReplyDeleteFilm 314
ReplyDeleteThe NYT article commenting on Mr. Lee’s satellites shows us how electronic and post electronic media have been used to expand the imagined world. It was mentioned that Mr. Lee often does not know the languages he hears. Not knowing what is being said allows for one to fill in information. Stories, people, and worlds can be imagined. He collects as many satellites as he can, furthering the amount of information coming in as well as creating more opportunities to stretch his imagination. Not only can his satellites create imagined worlds but they can also be a reminder. The foreign brides who now cannot fit in with this new culture have a way of connecting with who they were. For them, the “imagined self” is one where they belong and connect with their language and culture. With this ability to take comfort in familiar images and sounds, the “imagined self” might be easier to attain in their new life.
The New York Times article about Lee Si-kap's 80+ satellite dishes reinforces the concepts that Apparduais states in his writings, particularly in relation to what he says about imagination becoming a less exclusive notion. Where previously works of imagination were restricted to storytellers and raconteurs, the spread of technology allows the creative arts from the entire world to be watched by anyone, including the foreign brides discussed in the article, to be privy to the "collective, social fact" of the imagination that Appadurai discussed. With the spread of the imagined worlds, the "invisible college" of creativity is globalized and homogenized, and the nigh on 100 satellite dishes Lee Si-kap owns is a hub from which creative works from all over the world are spread in his area of South Korea. The homesick foreign wives, having grown up in other countries and living in South Korea, while, thanks to the satellite dishes, still being exposed to the mass media from their home countries, are helping to blur the line even further.
ReplyDeleteJustin Tilley 301
ReplyDeleteThe New York Times Article offers an obvious example of what Appadurai is discussing in the reading; being connected through things that are an illusion, be it “B-grade films” or the songs of Dio. Though the diced up portions of Earth are not physically slit, their existence is enforced and defended, but through an array of different forms of media the entire planet is able to collectively veer towards a mutually desired direction without opposition and gather at a singular point. Two people on opposite ends of the planet, with opposite world views can still agree on their love for Iron Maiden or King Kong. Such truths may be deemed as trivial but the fact that said truths can be reached, that an agreement can be reached between two pink brains out of billions is something that is amazing but also has a slight tinge of melancholy. In the article one of the foreign brides declares: “I now miss my country, my mother and father less than I used to” It is sort of like feeling connected to a photograph of a dead person except everyone in these scenarios are very much alive. Feeling connected with that which is not there, it is almost like a religion. It is an illusion of unity, though no one is physically present. When one decides to go outside they prepare themselves for the event, but if you are going to talk to someone who can’t gaze upon you all that is needed is your thoughts and opinions, not a tone of voice or a non offensive odor. It is an imaginary agreement that is achieved between minds but not through handshakes or high fives. Perhaps it is a new dawn for introverted cowards. That seems harsh, but it makes it so much easier to retreat from the world, to be more machine than man. And yet, perhaps it is a beautiful thing, I don’t know yet.
Adam Wynne, 301
ReplyDeleteThe New York Times article about Lee Si-kap and his most bizarre collection of satellites is directly connected to Appadurai’s argument regarding electronic media, migration, and imagined worlds.
South Korea, what was once considered to be one of the most homogeneous countries in the world, is now decreasing in homogeneity at an alarming rate; in fact, foreign women have increased by twenty-eight percent in the past year and a half. Brides from Vietnam, China, and the Philippines are immigrating to South Korea because a lot of Korean women don not like the rural life, and are moving to the city. The migration of these women, and Si-kap’s 85 satellites set the stage for a perfect example of post-electronic media being used. Lee uses his 85 satellites, and his free time to help these foreign women get set up, and feel more comfortable in the rural parts, and help them “miss their family less.” This could also be looked at as an imagined world, because if it weren’t for Lee, in fact the town might not have hardly any channels. With no channels brings these women to feel completely isolated. With satellites, these women can use mass media culture to imagine them self in a different place, feeling more comfortable, and feeling more connected with the people they love back at home, and the life they left.
DJ Tate- 301
ReplyDeleteWell this article was about a guy that lives with his 80 year old mom, and 97 year old grandfather. He has 85 satalitte dishes that get over 1500 from 100 countries. He doesn't even understand half of the stuff he gets but says its, "... gets addictive. The more dishes you have the more channels you get." He enjoys being connected to the rest of the world, but i personally don't know why.
Another thing he does is connects foreign brides to their home countries. He helps them connect to their families so they wont miss them as much. Some of the foreign brides husbands aren't to keen on the idea, but others just go with the flow.
Karch Schwake- 301
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of this article you find out the they guy it is about still lives with his mom and his grandfather. But he has a different type of hobbie. He has 85 satalittes that recieve over 1500 channels from over 100 countries. He likes to feel like he is connected to the rest of the world, even though he cant understand everything that they talk about because he doesnt speak all the laguages. But he doesnt stop there. He goes as far as setting up a forign brides setup, so that people from other countried can talk to people at their home countries. So it is like the people never left.
Isaiah Wells - Section 314
ReplyDeleteThe New York Time article about Lee Si-kap, the shy farmer living in a satellite covered house in central South Korea illistrates Appadurai’s written argument in a specific way. Lee Si-kap has access to over 1,500 different channels which literally connect him daily to ideas and cultures in countries and cities around the world. This fact alone proves two major points of Appadurai’s argument. Point One: Lee Si-kap’s life has been enhanced and shaped by the different cultures he now has access to. He states that music and satellite television saved his life, and Appadurai’s argument confirms his statement by explaining how the media creates images in people minds which ultimately shapes a persons personal identity and their personal views. Point two: the experiences Lee Si-kap has with all the different satellite channel allows him to develop into a person he imagines, and Appadurai argues that this is a chain reaction and action in his own life is inevitable. Lee Si-kap, declared that when he looks to the sky he thinks about satellites, and compares receiving reception from far away to reeling in a big fish. It is a fact that these satellites have molded and shaped Lee’s life, and arguably made him a happier man. I believe Appaduarai’s argument holds firm ground with this exaple because he states in his argument that the media can change a persons subjective view about the world and about themselves. A once shy Si-kap now finds time to share (globalize) his need for satellite tv to homesick woman throughout his village.