CMNS 223 - Week 3

Consequences of commodification (Abstraction, Equivalence, Reification) and the Commodity Sign.

2. ▪ Abstraction ▪ Equivalence ▪ Reification
3. ▪ Abstraction: From quality to quantity. Necessary to measure commodities’ exchange value ▪ Equivalence: The quantitative value of thing, measured through money, becomes dominant. ▪ Reification: Transform human properties and social relations into objects.
4. A composite of signifying unit (signifier) and signified meaning (signified).
11. Raw materials: cultural references, i.e. “meanings from the lifeworlds of viewers” + viewers’ interpretative labour.
12. Create “structures of meanings” to promote the preferred interpretation of an ad. Technically: Positioning concept, mortise, caption.
13. Split into group of three. Find an example of bad advertising. One which failed to address YOU (like the GAP ad show in class).
15. The reading mentions the 70s punk as an example of movement that withdrew, intentionally, from the process of signification. Can you think ok any contemporary or recent example of similar resistance?
16. twitter.com/albertolusoli alusoli@sfu.ca Office hour: Mon + Wed, 12.30-13.20, room K-8661