a lot of things

commodity critics-

anti-aesthetes like negation of aesthetics in dada- like, duchamp's urinal.
commodity critics like the GESTURE, rather than deflating high art (what is walter benjamin's famous aura??)
So, art isn't really dead, instead there is nothing more for art to do but splinter into different varieties of art making- the pluralistic creation of hand-crafted objects that no longer asked philosophical questions. In other words, art is now shallow. ?
Commodity critics believe there is no real individuality, only the illusion of it.
The work is a response to this takeover of individual consciousness by the mass media.
So, now the commodity status of art is being ironically celebrated. ?

PoMo Feminism-
I love this and the following essay!!

1st wave= feminist consciousness raising, changed "woman as nature, body, emotion" from negative to positive qualities
2nd wave= reveal the way the ideas of womanhood and femininity are socially constructed
Reading states "woman is only an internalised set of representations." Our body is what sets us apart from man. I feel this reading does not take biology into account. Perhaps our biological differences have something to do with many socially constructed stereotypes. The reading states there is "no reality outside of representation." Therefore, doesn't that make it reality??
What is the castrated woman?
Analyzing pleasure or beauty destroys it. I love that.
If there is no complementary female gaze (pg 54), there is no other. ?
I'm not a mother, so I don't know, but the statement on pg. 60 that motherhood is socially constructed seems terrible to me. I can agree perhaps to an extent, but aren't women, again, biologically predisposed to be mothers?

Postmodern Multiculturalism-
(pg67) why must art be judged as they reflected the historically necessary progress of art?
I feel like categorizing artists by race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality only perpetuates the problem. Why can't one just be judged based on talent or credentials? I hate when people play the race card or the sex card.
The discussion on 68 about where a multi-ethnic person should turn for identity parallels with the presidential campaign. I wish people could stop turning this into a black president thing. I understand this is history in the making, but he is bi-racial and has ties to numerous ethnicities. I was listening to a radio program today that absolutely enraged me. The African Americans who were speaking could only talk about how we have a black president and how this is so great for black america. Why does this have to turn into a race thing. Why can't people focus on the great things he can do for ALL of america? I wonder what kind of artwork this will spawn?! ha
Some argue this is an issue of representation, not identity. I disagree with Thomas McEvilley here, I believe. Images govern reality (but I also believe there is no set reality, but each person can have their own reality that is true and real to them. How do I know for a fact that you see the color blue the same way I do? Neither of us are right or wrong, it is just our own personal reality). So, who represents whom? Each person's experiences are different just as each person is different, so why can't each person represent themselves? No one white woman can represent me. I represent me. And the only way we know I'm a white woman is because of these socially constructed images that have become reality, right?
Are the projections of Wodiczko and the spectracolor of Jaar legal??
The excerpt from Piper's cornered I feel is more about identity than representation, but rather enhanced by representations of what you view as your identity.
No one can speak for anyone!! because we all have our own personal experiences.
The nature of the representations that govern public perceptions = stereotypes
An exclusive focus on representation offers little in the way of a map for positive change!!
The idea of cultures and individual identities continually being remade through their contact with each other is interesting to me.
representations become raw materials for transformations and new kinds of meaning
There seems to be a thin line between representation and identity here.