Humanities Seminar - Love and Desire

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Casey Beasley - "Double Vision"

For my visual project I felt the medium that I could best articulate my feelings through would be a mixed media sculpture, however in the fine arts most of the time the description is left up to the viewer themselves because each individual will have a different reaction to the piece based on what makes up their background. Now that being said I will describe my piece entitled “Double Vision” in the traditional way sculpture is critiqued by breaking it down into its separate elements and explaining how each element builds the full picture that I wished to portray to my audience.

The general description of the piece is as follows:

Two faces, both androgynous, blank, and brilliant white gaze at each other longingly through a pane of glass. The glass becomes slightly reflective as bright light illuminates the faces making the viewer wonder just who are they staring at so longingly? Their partner or themselves? The empty positive forms of the masks are self-contrasted with a more matte dark black interior that highlights the understated negative form on the inside. Both sides of the hollow masks are complimented by a matte black and white base which serves as a functional unifying agent of the piece itself. The pane of glass is positioned on the diagonal to better cater to the needs of a more interesting juxtaposition of the piece as a whole. The glass is rimed with a thin frame of matte black to help it better transition into harmony with the base. The black white faces both balance on delicate wrists and expressive hands in a pensive position yet their proximity to each other indicates more. What are they doing? They are lovers, scrutinizing what they both see through and in the glass for as long as they remain frozen there.

Each material used in this sculpture was picked with a purpose, the paint colors for instant are used to simultaneously contrast and unify giving them the benefit over more vibrant colors which may have had the side effect of distracting from the piece itself. By using two different models for the piece it introduced different bone structure and made the blank faces more interesting by highlighting their similarities through differences. Note that while they are both black and white casted forms with expressive hands one face is slightly smaller indicating a more effeminate form while the other face is more domineering in bone structure perhaps making it more masculine yet the smaller form has a more dramatic hand positioning, seemingly making it more aggressive while the larger form has a nurturing hand opening the face up to more of an exposed expression. While both faces are generally expressionless this was done to escape the cliché act of recreating the theater masks, why over emphasize the expression when it is better left off for interpretation by the audience? By doing so the piece invites one to partake in a transference of emotion with whoever is viewing it therefore faces that were essentially left blank can now be viewed as contemplative, contemptuous, or just plain bored with their partner.

The theme of our class that has really stuck with me and grown on me through the course of our time together is the idea of questioning what do we really love? What do we see in one another or what do we see in the person who holds our affections unwittingly? This is essentially the reasoning behind the lover/beloved dynamic, in which the beloved is simply an object of ones affections and the lover is chasing after a mirage craving something in the other person that does not exist. What we chase after is really a fulfillment of self which cannot be achieved because we seek this completion of self through another person and what we see in that person that we crave does not even exist. To put this idea into a strange context consider that you have been on a road trip for a while heading to house sit for a friend in a different state but unfortunately you had the poor idea of not bringing any food with you and when you arrive in town everything is already closed for the evening. You pull up to the house, park your car, drag your bags inside, and head straight for the kitchen. Imagine the relief that floods you upon seeing a cozy kitchen with decorated cabinets and softly humming refrigerator, and now imagine the betrayal you feel upon opening the door of the refrigerator to find that it is completely empty as are the cabinets. In this scenario seeing the kitchen gave you a false sense of relief, much like when people fall in love they often feel completed without receiving anything tangible, and when it was realized that the blind trust that was put into the refrigerator would be violated the fall was much harder. The sense of blind hope that people put into one another when it comes to love can be a very dangerous thing however it seemingly can be successful in some cases.

Aven Rose - "Running Away"

When I sat down to do this project, I had no idea how to start. I went through so many different ideas, all of which felt inadequate to the goal I had set for myself. Then I sat down at the piano to practice a song my sister had taught me over break, and all the pieces started falling into place. I realized that the words of the song fit into the themes of this class really well, and considered recording it as part of my visual project. When I had finished recording the song, adding some of my own harmonies, I started thinking about the themes of the song, and looking through pictures. (All the pictures used in the video were taken by me.)

In the beginning of the video, I put a montage of people in love—couples who are happy with each other and in their relationships. I thought this would be a good way to start the video, as it makes the later pictures more poignant in my opinion. I transitioned from the pictures of couples to pictures of people less happy in their relationship, with a transition slide of all of the words I could find synonymous with love and desire. In the second set of pictures, I tried to show people who were upset. Love isn’t always easy—in fact, it usually isn’t—and it can end in heartbreak. These people aren’t trying to pretend that things are ok, they are accepting that they aren’t happy, and that it has to end. They’ve decided to leave, unwilling to put up with the pain and the misery that love provides anymore, though still very much in love.

The third set of pictures is meant to depict the paths people take—going with the song’s theme of running away. It reminded me a bit of The Bad Girl, in that every time she left, she took a different path to get to where she was going. In a few pictures, a person can actually be seen running along these paths. This set transitions into one showing that heartbreak doesn’t have to be dealt with alone. These people are dealing with their pain by walking with their friends, arm in arm, ready to face the world with support from the ones they love in a way that can be much stronger than romantic love: the love we have for our family—both the one we are born with, and the one we create with our best friends.

The video ends with those same people who were so upset in their relationships, now smiling, happy to be on their own. The project as a whole was made to show that we don’t need love to be happy. We can be just fine on our own, and feel complete with the platonic love we have for the people most present in our lives.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

OPINION PIECE A

Erasing the Memory of Desire: Individual Fulfillment in a Delusional World

The emotions associated with love and desire are perhaps the most fundamental part of the human experience – neither kings nor beggars can escape the cruel clutches of Cupid. What many do not realize is that when we fall in love, we are actually falling in love with our idealized image[i] of the other. We do not desire the other for who they truly are, but rather what we want them to be. This idealized image deepens the division between self and other and makes the fulfillment of desire an impossible feat.

Where do these idealized images come from? When a memory is first formed, it is vulnerable to personal interpretation. As a memory is consolidated, we create a long-term memory based on our interpretation and reaction to the event2. We then use these memories to construct an image of the beloved. However, new breakthroughs in the arena of neuroscience indicate that specific memories can be targeted and erased, or at the very least neutralized, to alter the physiological reaction to memories.

Particularly in recent years, neuroscientists have made countless advances in the arena of memory erasure. In 2007, Yadin Dudai discovered that injecting the brain with a certain protein inhibitor caused memories to be forgotten at an increased rate in lab animals[ii]. This January, researchers at the Medical University of Vienna discovered that opioids could be used to completely erase spinal memory traces of pain[iii]. Additionally, many neuroscientists have looked to behavioral conditioning as a means of altering the subject’s emotional response to a specific memory[iv]. The implications of these discoveries may extend to affect not only medical practices, but also the manipulation of personal desires.

An important thing to keep in mind is that memory erasure is a double-edged sword – it can be used as a means to both destroy and preserve the image of the beloved. Unmet desires could be erased from the brain permanently by destroying the memories used to construct the image of the beloved. To desire is to acknowledge that the self is lacking something and unmet desires can lead to prolonged feelings of deficiency and dissatisfaction. Recent research indicates that it is probable that within the next few years, neuroscientists will be capable of targeting and erasing memories of unmet desires. This could lead to healthier opinions of self, higher self esteem, and a stronger sense of fulfillment on a societal level.

Conversely, memory neutralization can assist in the upkeep of an idealized image. On some occasions, the beloved exhibits a behavior that disrupts or damages the idealized image. If a specific memory or event triggered the dissolution of the image of the beloved, it can be neutralized. In the instance that a significant other made a hasty comment or was caught in a lie, the negative emotions of betrayal associated with the memory can be neutralized. This makes an open, rational dialogue about the issue more possible. In this way, the discovery of memory neutralization can be used to assist in relational conflict resolution.

There is speculation that the manipulation of memories can increase the probability that a relationship will be fulfilling and enduring. However, the scientific community has seen a strong backlash from ethicist groups on these discoveries. Although memory erasure and neutralization may make for a more positive individual experience with desire, it is nevertheless a false rendering of reality. When considering the ethical use of memory erasure for non-medical purposes, the age-old question arises: Is the delusion of a society worth the fulfillment of the individual?

[i] Lacan, Jacques. 1949. Pp. 1-3 and 172-175 in Écrits: A Selection. New York: Taylor and Francis, 1977.

[ii] Shema, Reut, Todd Charlton Sacktor, and Yadin Dudai. "Rapid erasure of long-term memory associations in the cortex by an inhibitor of PKM." Science Signalling 317.5840 (2007): 951.

[iii] Drdla-Schutting, Ruth, Justus Benrath, • Gabriele Wunderbaldinger, and Jürgen Sandkühler. "Erasure of a Spinal Memory Trace of Pain by a Brief, High-Dose Opioid Administration." Science 335.6065 (2012): 235-38.

[iv] Reichelt, Amy. "Remembering To Forget." The Conversation. The Conversation Media Group, 2 Oct. 2012. Web.

OPINION PIECE B

Love: What Happens When Pain Becomes Pleasure

How many times have we been told? Love hurts. To be in love, requited or not, is to be, to some extent, in a constant state of pain. A person in love will spend hours watching the phone waiting for a call that will never come, or will be irrationally upset by any mistake their partner makes. It comes down to this: everyone is human, and all humans are imperfect. To be in love with a person, then, is to be in love with someone who will make mistakes—who will hurt you in some way at least once. But it is not just about the other person. We ourselves will make mistakes as well. Further than that, it is in our nature to drive ourselves crazy for no reason (if you need more proof of this, read Annie Ernaux’s Simple Passion). Especially young girls will obsess over what they may or may not have done wrong, possible additional meanings behind their lover’s words, and whether or not the relationship has a future. With all the worry and pain we put into relationships it’s a wonder we don’t give them up all together.

A recent study on pain might bring some new insight to why, despite all the pain and frustration, we still actively seek love. Siri Leknes, along with her colleagues at the University of Oslo (in Norway) conducted a study in which sixteen participants were put on a machine designed to put them in varying levels of pain by applying heat to their arms. While the subjects were being put through the tests, researchers carefully monitored MRIs of their brains. At the end subjects were asked to rate the enjoyability they found in each shock.

In the first test, moderate pain was the highest level the subject were put through, and the subjects did not list this level as enjoyable. However, in the second test, when intense pain was added to the mix, the subjects—and their brain activity—confirmed that the same level of moderate pain suddenly became enjoyable. But here’s the really interesting part: the part of the brain that feels pleasure is the same part that feels relief. In fact, that may be all the subjects were really experiencing when they thought they were getting pleasure from the pain. "In other words, a sense of relief can be powerful enough to turn such an obviously negative experience as pain into a sensation that is comforting or even enjoyable," (Siri Leknes qtd. by Tia Ghose).

So is the simple answer that love is just a relief from the pain of being single? It would seem from this experiment that the pleasure of being in love may stem from the fact that we are relieved to have someone to focus on—to have hope. This may also be the reason we are so drawn to the chase of unrequited love, or a person who will play ‘hard to get’. Perhaps the reason we want the chase is that it makes the pain of not having that person worse and more drawn out. And if the pain is worse, would that not make the relief more satisfactory?

There you have it. Love is, in short, a relief from being single—the lesser of two evils. If it were not, we would not enjoy the torture it puts us through, and might even run screaming at the first sign that it was coming on. Relief may be the most powerful emotion of all.

OPINION PIECE C

Dating in College: What’s your price?

Dating in 2013 is nothing like it was in the 60’s. In fact, dating in college is completely different from dating after college. College students are notoriously unconcerned about their romantic encounters. They look around the changing environment and choose what they consider to be a safer route. Marriage rates are going down and divorce rates are going up. What’s to be optimistic about? So the attitude evolves into indifference and then into a craving for attention with no long-term commitment or even a lingering friendship in order to increase security. Most of us figure that we’re never going to find that one person we want to spend the rest of our lives with. The idea of a “soul mate” is so restrictive that most college students throw this idea away in favor of carrying on a series of non-committed relationships. But this new collective attitude has unmistakable and unpredictable negative repercussions: broken hearts. We need a system to prevent unmet expectations and unfulfilling relationships as a way to boost optimism in America for finding a partner for life and increasing marriage rates.

If you read dating guidance books like The Rules, they give a very strict set of guidelines to follow that are nearly impossible for college students: don’t accept a date for Saturday night after Wednesday, don’t see him more than twice a week, don’t live with him until you’re engaged. The rules for college kids have evolved but our attitudes have out-evolved our working knowledge of how the opposite sex thinks.

Instead of focusing on how the other sex thinks, we would be more successful in thinking about how humans think. People want what they can’t have. They want the shiniest thing in the display case with the highest price tag, no matter how unaffordable it is. From this information, it is possible to create a personal price. The more expensive you appear, the more desirable you are. But you can’t just look expensive, you have to be expensive. While always looking good is of the utmost importance, what good is looking good if you appear to give it away too easily? Now you’re a pretty item that only costs $5. You want to be a pretty item that costs so much that only the best suited will be willing to pay your price. Your price is not a dollar amount. It’s a representation of the amount of work someone will have to put in to meet your expectations and ultimately win your heart. These expectations will not appear on your price tag. You have to “train” your date to follow them without actually telling them what you want. For example, I expect my date to treat me with respect. He can do this by showing up when he says he will and being courteous to my friends and family. Should my date fail to meet my expectations, I’ll stop seeing him or explain the importance of whatever he failed to do.

Many people play the traditional hard to get game but never mastered the art. Yes, you must restrict your availability to ensure the other person isn’t getting an overwhelming dose of you. At the same time, you must raise your price another way, not just by limiting your supply, but by evolving yourself from a normal good to a luxury good by having clear and meaningful expectations. By using a system that places value on ourselves, we can minimize our romantic losses and heartbreaks to find better quality partners who see and recognize our value and adhere to our expectations.