Helping Nursing Students to plan and understand their career

Helping Nursing Students to plan and understand their career Introduction This paper provides critical information aimed to help Nursing Students to plan out their career and have a better understanding of Reflection Nursing in the health care industry. The paper is separated into two different parts. As a nurse, individuals are exposed to several number of employment positions during the working life. The paper consists of two specific areas related to the industry. The success of a nursing career depends on gaining experience, skills and competencies to climb the ladder with different roles at higher and higher levels (Turner, 2007). Therefore, the first part of the paper provides the reader with a Career Development plan along with an analysis of the main skills and attributes requires for a nurse to have in them. The second part of the paper focuses n Reflection Nursing, discussing the aspects of this practice, including the importance of it, even though it is a criticized area in the health industry itself. This paper will focus on the technicalities behind starting off a Nursing Career and also, discuss aspects of the industry that involves constant reflections, critical thinking and analysis. Part A A Nursing Career Plan According to Dan Thomas (1994), you must manage your career like a business. In order to pursue in nursing, a career plan is an essential tool for professional development, job satisfaction and illustrates commitment to your discipline. The career as a nurse is a rewarding career with plenty of room for advancement and development (Zehr, 2010). My long term goal to achieve is to be a nurse who leads an entire ward of a health institute. However, to get there, I need to have a strong foundation. Therefore, within the coming 3 years, through hard work and continuing education, I would like to become a registered nurse and start working in an established health institute. The main attribute that attracted me towards this career is because being a nurse requires you to be intimately involved with another human being (Turner, 2007). I once read that Nursing affords the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others. You can earn good money, but you can also make a difference (Hugg, 2005, cited in Turner 2007). This was the main aspect that drove me towards a nursing career in general. This career requires you to be involved in peoples most important life moments, such as birth, death or even surgery (Turner, 2007). Along with this, in the nursing career, there are always chances for more advancement and diverse ranges of specialty. In order to reach my goal to be a nurse in a leadership role, there are few processes I have to go through. The first is to pursue my Bachelors Degree of Science in Nursing. As an undergraduate, I would be able to study and familiarize with areas such as medical technology, patient care procedures, math, anatomy and biology, along with any specialized areas I might consider in the future, such as surgical nursing, obstetrics nursing, etc (Jeffress, 2003). The completing of a nursing degree takes a minimum of 2 years. While pursuing my nursing degree, I want to join an internship program at a hospital. This would be a chance for me to earn while learning. By joining an internship program, I will be able to demonstrate the understanding and competence in technical skills and procedures related to my specialty while being provided with an opportunity to apply sound clinical judgment and critical thinking throughout the process in the management of patient care (Lee Memorial, 2011). In short, I will be able to gain a knowledge base and skill set needed to transition to competence in clinical nursing practice. After the completion of my 2 year degree program, the biggest step I need to take is to pass the national licensing test in order to earn my Registered Nurse Credentials. This test would be where my theoretical and practical skills will be tested in order to ensure that I have the required qualifications to become a Practical Nurse. Passing this test would set the path to the starting off of my nursing career. Most new nurses begin their careers in emergency rooms, ambulatory care units, and general hospitals (Jeffress, 2003). Hence following the passing of the licensing exam, I would apply to work as an emergency room nurse, starting off my practical career. From here onwards, I would work my way up the ladder, to reach my long term goal, pursuing my continuing education along the way. While this would by plan for the coming three years, I plan to stay active in my career development throughout my whole career in order to stay successful. This is because many nurses careers burnout or stagnates with time without considering long-term strategies (Turner, 2007). Skills Attributes needed for a Nursing Career Nursing is a service profession (Turner, 2007) which requires me to have a combination of several skills. Nursing career is an integral part of the healthcare profession which calls for skill, hard work and devotion. While there are several skills required to be in a nurse, there are certain skills that takes priority which are: Professionally Competent knowledge based skills and ability to answer questions feasibly Developed Interpersonal Skills communication and observational skills Emotional Skills be able to deal with emotionally charged situations and ability to offer advice Being professionally competent is defined as the knowledge and skills of the nurse to make decisions and prioritize care, and includes competence in relation to physical or technical aspect of care (McCormack McCance, 2010). As a nurse I need to be organized and be effective in multitasking. While taking care of patients, nurses interact a lot with them, sometimes more than the doctors themselves. So, in order to answer any question the patient or their family might have, I would need to have a deep knowledge and understanding of the conditions of the patients (NHS Careers, 2011). A strong background in Science is required to understand most aspect of this area since it helps me understand better what is wrong with the patients. Since nurses are responsible for recording patients information such as the medical history accurately, it is important for a nurse to be intuitive to ask the right questions without missing out any critical part. Along with working with patients, a nurse ha s to work with different kinds of machines and medications during work (College Crunch, 2009). In order to work with these tools harmoniously, a nurse requires being fluent in math. Being familiar with math includes being fluent with both the standard and metric system of measurement, specifically while dealing with medications (College Crunch, 2009). According to Calman (2006), patients describe competent nursing practice as a combination of technical care and nursing knowledge, but it is only when technical care is assumed that interpersonal attributes become the more important indicators of quality nursing care. Another main kill that is required for nurses to have is a well developed set of interpersonal skills. As a nurse, I would have to work with doctors, patients and a team of other nurses communicating with them in a very fast paced environment (College Crunch, 2009). Poor interpersonal communication by a nurse can be profound and often increases the vulnerability experienced by patients. As a nurse, its crucial to be a good at listening as well as talking. With the patients, this is important to make them and their loved ones feel secure leaving their care in your hands and this skill proves important with doctors and your peer because without communicating with them, carrying out the task of patient care will be impossible. Nurses also have to be constantly alert to changes in patients conditions and the implications in terms of care (NSH Careers, 2011). They have to be able to spot anything out of the ordinary or basically anything that doesnt seem right. These changes need to be co mmunicated back to the doctors clearly and concisely in order to ensure the patients well being. With poor interpersonal skills, barriers might occur in this communication process which might include misunderstandings and even lack of information provided to certain parties involved in this communication process. In healthcare, these are errors that might lead to grave problems. Effective communication requires a combination of good verbal and non-verbal skills (McCormack McCance, 2010). Therefore, as a nurse, I would have to be able to understand gestures and facial expressions of my patients, peers as well as doctors, especially during an emergency. Emotional skills can be considered as the next main attribute a nurse is required to have. Empathy and compassion are foundation of nursing care (Turner, 2007). As a nurse, I would be able to see people at their worst days and also at their best. This involves me to have developed traits such as caring, understanding, being non-judgmental and have a strong ability to empathize with the patients from all the walks of life (College Crunch, 2009). At times of crises, a nurse is required to play a key part in helping patients and their loved ones come through these crises and manage distress within a very distressed environment. This requires very strong emotional stability in a person. Since I plan to start off my career from an emergency room, this skill set needs to be extra strong in me. This is because in the emergency room of a hospital, nurses have to deal with people who are very sick, disabled, or experiencing any number of physical, mental and emotional issues and even major ac cidents (College Crunch, 2009). In an environment as such, I would have to be emotionally strong enough to provide the patients with the help they require without letting the situation affect my judgment or quality of work. In order to gather emotional skills, I would have to learn take care of myself in order to be balanced enough to provide care to other since I will encounter difficult staff members, angry physicians, non-cooperating patients and disgruntled family members as well (Turner, 2007). With these skills and many others put in consideration, I will be able to achieve my goal into becoming a successful registered nurse. Part B In the nursing practice, reflection is a process of reviewing an experience of practice in order to describe, analyze and evaluate and so inform leaning from practice (Bulman, 2004). Reflection is undoubtedly an important concept, which has succeeded in stimulating debate and investigation, and influencing nursing education around the world (Bulman, 2004). This process involves focusing on how the individuals interact with their colleagues and with the environment to obtain a clearer picture of their own behavior (Nursing Times, 2004). Reflective thinking highlights the intermingling of practitioners feelings and emotions, and acknowledges this interrelationship with actions as well as the importance of intellectual thinking thus providing a vehicle for legitimizing professional knowledge that develops from the realities of practice and challenges more traditional form of knowing (Bulman, 2004). The process of reflection in nursing aims to develop professional actions that are aligned with personal beliefs and values. Current thinking in nursing advocates the need for nurses to be educated in ways that develop their autonomy, critical thinking, sensitivity to others and their open-mindedness (Reed Ground, 1997). Nursing is a practice discipline and effective preparation of nursing requires that we are able to care competently for our clients and continue to develop our skills and knowledge over a professional lifetime. They are responsible for providing care to the best of their ability to patients and their families (Turner, 2007). In order to achieve this, it is vital for nurses to focus on their knowledge, skills and behavior to ensure that they are able to meet the demands made on them by this commitment. According to Fitzgerald (1994), nurses develop competence through a process of critical reflection on experience; they examine their work and the contribution their nu rsing and nursing generally makes socially. She also states that in turn, nurses also consider the effect social forces have upon themselves and their work. Through the process of reflection, nurses are able to gain a heightened awareness of the variety of factors that shape their practice resulting in informed practice (Bowden, 2003). Grasping the idea that reflection is a combination of thinking, emotion and commitment to action is not an easy one. (Bulman, 2004). The process of achieving reflection in a field such as nursing can be seen as a challenge. These skills required to achieve reflection was stated by Atkins Murphy (1993) as self-awareness, description, critical analysis, synthesis and evaluation. But while the competent nurse just beginning to utilize the reflective practice is unlikely to be able to use all of these, this stems in part from the limitations of the level of performance which may be efficient and complex but is based on deliberate planning (Benner, 1984). Reflective practice is part of the requirement for nurses constantly to update professional skills. As a nurse, professional competency is a vital attribute to ensure efficiency in their daily works. Using reflective practice, portfolio offers considerable opportunity for reflection on ongoing development. Annual reviews of their self and skills allow nurses to identify their own strengths and areas of opportunity for future development (Nurse Times, 2004). Reflectio n on personal attitudes, feelings and values as well as reflection on life and educational experience is a critical process in nursing education; it is a critical process in becoming a nurse (Lundy Janes, 2009). However, there are some cases where it has been identified that reflections of the nurses as taken-for-granted assumptions that rarely acknowledge that doing as a nurse is more important than thinking or reflecting (Bowden, 2003). For reflection to be really meaningful, it must being with a shared overall aim to achieve effective learning and positive experience. Nurses face ethical dilemmas, and both professions are characterized by specific moral discourses and practiced. In nursing, it is importance to practice a professional identity and practice of personal behavior bound up with notions of moral agency: empathy, compassion, understanding. It is imperative that self-reflection be developed early in the educational experience and continued in nursing practice (Lundy Janes, 2009). Reflective practice potentially provides a way to justify the importance of practice and recognizes the interrelationship between theoretical and practical knowledge, embracing the intermingling of thin king, emotion and action (Bulman, 2004). This appeals to nurses especially because it they are able to identify with this aspect of reflective thinking since it provides a justification for practice knowledge. Peden MacAlpine (2005) discusses the importance of design, evaluation and outcomes of a reflective practice intervention that can be used to train critical care nurses on how to incorporate family intervention into their nursing practice. The befits and problems of reflective practice are many and most beneficial aspects include improvement of professionalism and better ability to tackle similar situation leading to professional development through experience in nursing (Oxbridge, 2011). Reflection practicing relates to a nurses experience and learning from the experience, helping them to change their attitude towards critical care especially in family and enhanced their communication and ability to build proper relationships with families bringing in a new way of understanding family stress or appreciating family values. Reflection helps nurses face practical problems encountered related to role integration, professional autonomy, legal and consent issues, non-medical prescribing and role evaluation. Considering the benefits of changing nursing attitudes and developing professionalism through reflective practice, many researchers have emphasized the need to use reflective practice as a training method within nursing education (Oxbridge, 2011). Guidelines could be developed according to the theoretical framework of reflective practice and can give a new direction nursing education. Reflective thinking has become a popular word in nursing education worldwide, but its meaning and effective use remains debatable because of lack of clarity in its meaning (Mackintosh, 1998). Donald Schà ¶n (1983) suggested that the capacity to reflect on action so as to engage in a process of continuous learning was one of the defining characteristics of professional practice. Nurses should consider the ways in which they interact and communicate with their colleagues. Communication as discussed in Part A of this paper is a vital attribute to a nurse in the face paced environment they work in. And using reflective practicing in order to harmoniously communicate with the peers help create a more efficient working environment along with developing their personal skills as well. They should aim to become self-aware, self-directing and in touch with their environment (Nursing Times, 2004) rather than depending on their peers to carry out certain works during their daily work. This allows the nurses to provide efficient service to the clients/patients more feasibly through reflective thinking. It allows the nurses to think out of the box rather than stick to traditional meth ods and moving forward in their career themselves. This goal can be achieved by making full use of the opportunities available to them via the feedback using the impact on patients, their families, colleagues and the organization as a whole (Nursing Times, 2004). Hospitals over the millennium have developed relinquishing their role as the recognized hub of care delivery, while delivery of health care services at home, at work, at play, in schools and churches, online with the World Wide Web through the internet, and on the telephone continues to increase. In order to stay on course with these developments, nurses have been challenged to re-conceptualize their roles within the complex and changing medical contexts (Forde, McPhee, McCahon Patrick, 2006). Reflective Practicing can be used as a feasible tool against such as discriminatory practices. This tool can be used as a framework for professional development by analyzing the current, past and future actions of the individuals to avoid going against the strong ethical codes set for nurses. Evaluations along with alternatives to similar situations can be provided using reflective practice to ensure that problems do not arise in behavior of professionals (Oxbridge, 2011). While there are no set rules to developing a reflective framework, with experience an efficient framework can be developed incorporating not only reflections on actions but ethical, political and broader social issues that develop for a given experience (Bowden, 2003). This helps bring together a reflective solution that works for an organization in whole, ensuring more efficient processing of daily works within the organization. Comments that reflective practice is regarded by many authors as particular importance to continuing professional excellence which has lead to an almost unquestioned element in professionalism; the room to excellence is through reflection (Forde, McPhee, McCahon Patrick, 2006). Reflection in nursing leads to the individuals in developing their skills in leadership and provide stability to deal with difficulties and complexities within a stressing environment such as a hospital. As discussed above, there is enough educational research and theory that advocates the importance and effectiveness of learning through reflective practicing (Bulman, 2004). Through constant questioning, we see more clearly just who we really are, and what remarkable resources we have access to. We will also see more clearly, what is really facing us, and we will become more capable of accepting and responding to change (Ferguson, 2010). Conclusion In conclusion, the Nursing Career is clearly a career with chances for development and allows individuals to continue their education as they progress through their career. During their career, nurses needs to develop extensive skills during their daily basis and also use their intelligence to climb up the ladder in their career. With long-term planning and reflective practicing in hand, it is obvious that one could become very successful in the a career such as nursing.

Comapring Gardners Model to the Theory of John Dewey Essay -- Teachin

Philosophers are part of history, caught in its movement; creators perhaps in some measure of its future, but also assuredly creatures of its past.-John Dewey American philosopher, social commentator, idealist, educator, and democratic theorist, John Dewey has had a profound impact on America's educational system. Proponent of change and advocate of "hands-on" learning and interactive classrooms, Dewey accomplished a great deal in his long life, (interestingly enough, he is the only major philosopher to live beyond his ninetieth year). He is the one professional philosopher of our age whose ideas have touched the common man through institutional changes in education and social action. Born on October 20, 1859, in Burlington Vermont, John Dewey was born into a small-town middle class family. His father was a reasonably successful town grocer and tobacconist, while his mother, almost twenty years younger and "better-born", had come from a prominent Vermont family. Dewey remembered his mother as a woman of great piety, strict with her sons, and frequently questioning their "rightness with Jesus". Until he was almost thirty years old, the greater part of Dewey's intellectual life was concerned with mediating between the core of evangelicalism that his mother had given him and life as men live it, particularly the intellectual life of the later nineteenth century. Mrs. Dewey prized the principles of work, prayer, benevolence, maternity, and ambitious goals for her family. The disappointment of her marriage seems to have led her to seek an exaggerated sense of self-reliance. Due to her strong convictions, the home life of her three sons was very demanding. The teachings of his mother left Dewey with the notion that the world... ...ample is the characteristic of egoism among creative individuals. This also seems obvious, especially when dealing with the individuals he has chosen, as they are all famous and recognized worldwide for their achievements. On the whole I do not agree with Gardner's model, and I believe that it is somehow wrong to stereotype and dissect people to the extent that he has. But hey, maybe that's why I'm not an psychology or phyciatry major. Works Cited 1. Hook, Sidney. John Dewey: Philosopher of Science and Freedom. 1950. Dial Press. New York 2. Campbell, James. Understanding John Dewey. 1995. Open Court. Chicago, Illinois 3. Johnson, A.H. The Wit and Wisdom of John Dewey. 1949. The Beacon Press. Boston. 4. http://www.albany.edu/~dkw42/s2-dewey-progr.html 5. http://education.ucdavis.edu/ACADEMIC/EDU120/dewey1.html 6. http://www.fred.net/tzaka/demointr.html

Finding My Way Home :: Personal Narrative Religion Christianity Essays

Finding My Way Home I was the king and master of my domain, and all that I saw was good. When I decided to write new chapters in my life in the world of College Academia, I entered a realm that was anything but familiar to me. Constant battles and trials raging day and night for each month of my freshman year became known as Hades’ Gauntlet. The first challenge I faced was dealing with the seeds of conspiracy and betrayal. I was the leader in my church’s youth group for a few years, where I led my â€Å"friends† into a positive direction of peace and prosperity. Around the same time I started my college journeys, I was at my finest hour. I saw success, happiness, and admiration of many people around me. But what I didn’t see was the hidden jealousy and hatred a few people had towards me and storms over the horizon. I found myself in a dispute with a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and because his significant other at the time is the daughter of the head of the youth group, he decided it was best to banish me from the youth group and strip away my duties and sources of accomplishment and hope. He then handed over my reigns to his daughter, who treated me as harshly as the executioner to the prisoner. To add to it, he persuaded the Senior Pastor to prevent me from being in any leadership positi ons, in an effort to encourage/force me to leave the church completely. He also did this, because he, for some reason, resented my father, who decided to leave my church one month before I started my college life. What did I do to deserve this? Suddenly, the skies turned black, and this was a direct reflection of the pain I experienced. A perfectly good ministry turned into the vulture’s nest, then into a mockery of what was true and what was right. I felt that every time I walked into the same church I’ve been in my whole life, I now entered enemy lines. Each second the vipers gazed their eyes upon me, I could feel their venomous strikes invading my heart, filling it with poison. I was no longer home, and my church became a prison to me, where I was fed to the mob and the Triad of Traitors.

Superflat

Bijutsu Fine art Kindai Bijutsu Modern art Manga Manga are comics and print cartoons, in Japanese and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 20th century. Otaku Known as a mass media product presenting Japanese Culture, anime, has gained an increasing exposure and acceptance overseas during the 1990s.The term otaku, which was coined in 1982 and came into popular usage by 1989, is usually translated as ‘geek’ or ‘aficionado,’ and refers to a group of people who ‘take refuge in a world of fantasy, drinking in the images supplied by the modern media – usually from television, magazines and comic books, but also computer images or video games’ (Baral 1999: 22). The etymology of â€Å"otaku† was drawn upon the work of Volker Grassmuck in his seminal otaku-studies article: I'm alone, but not lonely†: Japanese Otaku-Kids colonize the Realm of Information and Media, A Tale of Sex and Crime from a faraway Place. Superf lat art â€Å"The world of the future might be like Japan is today – Superflat. Society, customs, art, culture: all are extremely two-dimensional. It is particularly apparent in the arts that this sensibility has been flowing steadily beneath the surface of Japanese history †¦ [Superflat] is an original concept that links the past with the present and the future. † (Murakami, 2000: 9)Superflat is a concept and theory of art created by the contemporary Japanese artist, Takashi Murakami. The Superflat (2000) exhibition in Tokyo marked the launch of this new aesthetic which took contemporary Japanese art and identity into a globalised milieu of critical thought. The exhibition, which was curated by Murakami and subsequently travelled to the United States, featured the work of a range of established and emerging artists drawn from art and commercial genres in Japan. As an essential part of Murakami’s political strategy, Superflat was always designed to travel g lobally.An elaborate, bilingual catalogue Super Flat (Murakami, 2000), which included Murakami’s manifesto, A Theory of Super Flat Japanese Art, accompanied the exhibition. In this manifesto Murakami affirmed that the Superflat exhibitions were created to provide a cultural-historical context for the new form of art that he was proposing, and which was specifically exported for Western audiences. Superflat art, as a cultural text, is intricately enmeshed in the tensions between the location and representation of local/global cultural identities.These identities, while proffering resistance through the assertion of difference, are also formed as part of the processes of globalization rather than in strict opposition to it (Robertson, 1995). In producing Superflat for Western art markets and Japanese art worlds, Murakami addresses existing discursive knowledge of Japanese art, history and popular culture, while simultaneously presenting a new variant of those identities. In thi s way, Superflat is part of the politics of commodification and expression of cultural difference generated in global consumption.Murakami’s Superflat concept identifies a new aesthetic emerging from the creative expressions produced in Japanese contemporary art, anime (Japanese animation), manga (graphic novels), video games, fashion and graphic design. Superflat is presented as a challenge to the institutions and practices of bijutsu (fine art), which Murakami argues are an incomplete import of Western concepts. Murakami is specifically referring to the modern institutions of kindai bijutsu (modern art) that were adopted during the Meiji period (1868–1912) as part of Japan’s process of modernization and Westernization.To Murakami, the innovation and originality of post-1945 forms of commercial culture represent a continuation of the innovations of the Edo (1600–1867) visual culture. Murakami problematically argues that Edo culture represents a more â₠¬Ëœoriginal’ cultural tradition, because it was a time of restricted foreign contact. At the same time, Murakami self-consciously uses Western art markets and the popular appeal of Japanese consumer culture to propose the Superflat alternative. That is, Murakami utilizes the Western popular imaginings of Japanese culture as a hyper-consumeristic, postmodern layhouse (Morley & Robins, 1995: 147–173) in constructing Superflat. SUPERFLATNESS: GLOBALIZING STRATEGIES IN ART MARKET As the interaction between social groups has become increasingly globalized, the meaning-making and expressivities associated with ‘art’ have also become progressively more engaged through national and transnational gradients (Papastergiadis & Artspace, 2003). In particular, the formation of identity and expressive modes in a national genealogy becomes problematic within a globalizing cultural sphere.Many artists struggle to find the binary position of balancing East and West cultures , while Takashi Murakami, contemporary Japanese artist, with his theory of Superflat art, worked out his way in this dilemma. He provides a useful case study of the strategies artists can employ to negotiate cultural and artistic identities ‘in between’ this binary. This paper investigates the Superflat concept and analyses Murakami’s art works to expose the tensions and dialogues regarding cultural identity and commodification that are produced by their global circulation.The first section maps Murakami’s strategy in constructing Superflat and contextualizes this in relation to discourses of Japanese national-cultural identity. The second section applies this theorization by analyzing the visual codes of Murakami’s figure sculpture My Lonesome Cowboy. This figure sculpture is part of a series in which Murakami combined the aesthetic codes and markers of otaku culture, particularly the prominence of anime and manga characters, with various art histo rical references.This piece demonstrates the multifarious local/global codes and cultures that Superflat art engages. Global Flows and the Soy Sauce Strategy Globalization creates spaces in which mobile elements interact with both positive and negative effects. Three key issues emerge in contemporary theorizations of globalization that are relevant to this discussion: firstly, the problem of how to retain the concept of local/national cultural particularity and to concurrently recognize the onvergences and overlaps between cultures in a global context (Robertson, 1995); secondly, how to recognize the value in cultural difference as a tool of critical (oppositional) agency (Fisher, 2003) and acknowledge that difference can also become a commodity in the global market place (Hall, 1991); and thirdly, to acknowledge the dominance of Western cultural, political and economic imperatives in globalization (Hardt & Negri, 2000), but also to recognize that it cannot be reduced to this condit ion (Held et al. , 1999).Consequently, concerns and celebrations are generated by the increasing fragmentation of national and cultural identities (Morley&Robins, 1995). In response to this process of deterritorializing identity, impulses arise to reclaim local and national identities in a form of resistance (Hall, 1995). This resistance is complicated because it is formed in relation to the transnational imaginings of the Self and the Other, stimulated by the constant circulation of people and mediated images through globalizations (Appadurai, 1996).These are irresolvable struggles and they demonstrate how globalization contributes to rather than eliminates incommensurability (Ang, 2003). Thus, while cultural identities can become territorialized and demarcated, for instance as ‘Japanese’, they are also challenged by the processes of deterritorialization activated through interaction and exchange. The meaning of ‘Japanese’ is therefore open to re-articulat ion by both global and local forces allowing new strategic identities to emerge.These processes are evident in Murakami’s â€Å"soy sauce strategy†. Murakami demarcates the identity of Superflat as Japanese by proposing it as an affirmation of a Pop Art aesthetic that is â€Å"born from Japan† and distinct from Western art: a type of post-Pop (Murakami, 2005: 152–153). Murakami asserts Superflat as an example of the current influence of Japanese culture globally and as a model for a future aesthetic, thereby identifying the ‘Otherness’ of Superflat in a positive way.Even though Murakami acknowledges that this sensibility emerges from the transformations arising from the influences of Western culture, he simultaneously reaffirms the originality of Superflat as a Japanese sensibility. This is what he refers to as his â€Å"soy sauce† strategy. Japanese contemporary art has a long history of trying to hide the soy sauce. Perhaps they will strengthen the flavor to please the foreign palette, or perhaps they’ll simply throw the soy sauce out the window and unconditionally embrace the tastes of French or Italian cuisine, becoming the Westerners whose model of contemporary art they follow †¦I see the need to create a universal taste – a common tongue – without cheating myself and my Japanese core †¦ I continue to blend seasonings †¦ I may have mixed in the universal forms and presentations of French, Italian, Chinese, or other ethnic cuisines – and I am vigilant in my search for their best points – but the central axis of my creation is stable †¦ at its core, my standard of ‘beauty’ is one cultivated by the Japan that has been my home since my birth in 1962. (Kaikaikiki Co.Ltd & Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2001: 130) This essential Japanese identity of Superflat is reinforced by the ways in which Murakami connects (visually and ideologically) the kawaii (cute) forms of anime and manga with the playful aesthetic of Edo period artists and the two-dimensional formal properties of Japanese screen painting. This foundation is then used to propose Superflat as an alternate lineage of Japanese visual culture, one that breaks away from the canon of kindai bijutsu and Western art history.Edo functions in Superflat as the determinant of its cultural authenticity – that is, as the DNA of Superflat (Murakami, 2000: 25). Edo is presented as the site of Japan’s cultural tradition and subsequently as a symbol of its Japaneseness. This is a convention from modern Japanese discourses in which Edo becomes the repository of nostalgic yearnings for a pre-modern, traditional Japan (Ivy, 1995).In the late 1980s and early 1990s this was extended to become part of the debates on Japan’s (post)modernity; postmodern cultural expressions in Japan were considered to be a revival of Edo concepts and practices and thus particularly à ¢â‚¬Ëœindigenous’ to Japan (Karatani, 1997). However, as Gluck (1998) points out, the definition of authentic and traditional Japanese expression in relation to a fixed point of origin in Edo culture has been heavily challenged. Therefore, Murakami’s use of Edo to mark the culturally authentic transmission of the Superflat aesthetic should be treated with caution.At the same time, Murakami has emphasized that he is not presenting Superflat as the definitive interpretation of Japanese art nor does he claim a unified identity for Japan: Unfortunately, I can never give ‘Japan’ a fixed shape. I cannot meet my real ‘self’. Nor can I discern what ‘art’ really is †¦ I thought I could solve the problem by lining up a series of images in a powerful procession that words could not clarify. (Murakami, 2000: 9) Even this position can be critiqued.Murakami self-consciously demonstrates his awareness of the historical interaction between J apan and the West and stresses the hybrid history of Superflat. However, he also tends to celebrate Japan’s skill in assimilating and domesticating foreign influences, echoing other discourses on Japan’s hybridity as a national-cultural trait (Tobin, 1992), which paradoxically reconstructs Japan’s hybridity as an essential identity. Murakami’s intention to create an epistemological context for Superflat is explicitly part of his aim to sell work in international art markets: First, gain recognition on site (New York). Furthermore, adjust the flavoring to meet the needs of the venue. 2 With this recognition as my parachute, I will make my landing back in Japan. Slightly adjust the flavorings until they are Japanese. Or perhaps entirely modify the works to meet Japanese tastes. 3 Back overseas, into the fray. This time, I will make a presentation that doesn’t shy away from my true soy sauce nature, but is understandable to my audience. (Kaikaikiki Co . Ltd & Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2001:131)The impulse in Superflat towards the affirmation of a national-cultural aesthetic can be considered as a form of self-Orientalism: an identity formation that is constructed in relation to the Western Oriental gaze (Said, 1995). While self-Orientalism has been considered (although not specifically in relation to Superflat) as an empowered strategy, because it appropriates the West’s gaze of Japan and re-packages it for the same audience (Mitchell, 2000), others have considered it collusive to Orientalism and a continuation of the Japan/West binary construction (Iwabuchi, 1994).This self-Oriental identity is complicated by a number of factors. First, Superflat does echo conventional discursive constructions of a Japan/West binary, which obscures the connections and power relations in this structure. In particular, Superflat can also be interpreted as being part of the discourses on Japanese identity, particularly the emergence of nihonjinron and postmodernism post-1970s in relation to Japan’s economic and technological influences (Befu, 2001). There was a tendency in both these strains of discourse to emphasize Japan’s national identity as unique and different from the West and the East.Secondly, while Murakami acknowledges the Western influences on the Superflat aesthetic, his simultaneous transposing of this hybrid identity into a reinforcement of a Japanese identity, characterized by cultural assimilation and hybridization, reinforces a unified national-cultural identity. This identity is supported by the references between Superflat and already existing discursive constructions of Japanese culture as post-modern and the interpretation of the two-dimensional properties of Japanese art, which will be discussed later in the paper.Thirdly, Superflat is also part of ongoing trade relations and cross-fertilizations of visual culture forms between Japan and the West particularly since the late nineteenth century. These include the adoption of bijutsu in the Meiji period, the popular consumption of Japanese visual culture in the West (in late nineteenth century Japonisme and since the 1990s with the consumption of anime and manga), and the post-1945 influx of commercial culture from the United States and its subsequent impact on the development of the anime and manga industries (Kinsella, 2000).In some ways, the self-Orientalism of Superflat can be interpreted as a post-colonial defensive reaction. Superflat is presented by Murakami as a localized expression of cultural uniqueness resisting the global hegemony of Western art and transcending the imported colonialist history of bijutsu by presenting â€Å"icons of excessive otherness† (Matsui, 2001: 48). This resistance, in turn, strategically uses identity as a commodity in Western art markets.By explicitly emphasizing the differences of Superflat, and Superflat as Japanese, Murakami becomes open to criticism that h e is merely providing a futuristic Orientalist spectacle for Western audiences (Shimada, 2002: 188–189). Furthermore, the ever-present danger with this position is that the centrality of the United States and Europe is re-asserted rather than challenged. Murakami explicitly reinforces this centrality through his statements regarding the importance of his profile in New York, London and Paris (Kelmachter, 2002: 76).Murakami’s strategy of merging artistic expression and the commercial imperatives of Orientalism also echoes the export art of the late nineteenth century in which new works were created for foreign markets, according to the dictates of those markets (Conant, 1991: 82–84). Export objects were deliberately constructed to appeal to the taste for Japonisme that was fashionable in Europe and the United States at the time. Murakami’s affirmation of Superflat as a Japanese-made model for the future also reiterates the recent rhetoric on Japan’s global cultural power in relation to the export of anime and manga (McGray, 2002).These discourses emphasize the symbolic (and subsequent economic) capital of the Japaneseness of anime and manga texts and they deliberately emphasize the commodity potentials of self- Orientalism. Murakami draws attention to these politics in the Superflat exhibition Coloriage (Coloring) at the Foundation Cartier by referring to it as â€Å"post-Japonisme† (Kelmachter, 2002: 103–104), thereby both connecting with the past market in Japanese art and suggesting a new contemporary context for the consumption of Superflat art.However, to reduce Superflat to a collusive Orientalism, or to see it as just a commodification of identity in a pejorative sense, misinterprets the dynamics in play. Murakami is both proffering resistance as well as marketing his work strategically. Firstly, Murakami articulates his identity through the exhibition structures of the West as well as through conventional signifiers of Japanese aesthetics in order to establish his profile and to sell his work.Yet he also acknowledges the ambivalences of his own position and the playfulness of this global soy sauce flavoring: In the worldview that holds delicate flavoring as the only concept of ‘beauty’ with any value, heavy flavouring is taboo, and too much stimulation is definitely problematic†¦ In order to create something that is understandable both to the West and Japan, what is needed is an ambivalent flavor and presentation †¦ . (Kaikaikiki Co. Ltd & Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2001: 131)Furthermore, dominant scholarly arguments on the popular consumption of anime and manga outside Japan hold that these forms express plural cultural identities and, as Allison (2000) shows, are detached from specific representations of space and place. This suggests that the consumption of Superflat, like that of anime and manga, is not simply based on a desire for reflected images of Japaneseness as a cultural Other; rather, it offers audiences a flexibility of alternate identities, free from specific geo-cultural connections.It can also be argued that a critical factor in the reception of Murakami’s works in the United States and Europe has been the familiarity of the Superflat aesthetic to anime and manga as part of a common rather than Orientalised visual vocabulary. Superflat echoes the paradox of affirming the non-nationality of texts, while also presenting them as expressions of national-cultural identity. However, there is another way to explain this contradiction of Superflat between the affirmation of non-national and specific cultural identities.The critical theorist Yoda Tomiko (2000) presents contemporary anime forms as a useful example of a coterminous fluidity between local codes that are interchangeable and coexistent with non-local elements. Elements in the text can be swapped around and adapted for different audiences, and these elemen ts are simultaneously collated with non-specific elements drawn from a wide variety of sources; therefore, the overall form remains transportable as well as expressing cultural proximity.While this process of adaptation is not new, what Yoda indicates is that it is increasingly becoming a normative process within the logic of postmodern consumer society. The local identity expressed in Superflat utilizes the connections with Edo and anime and manga culture to articulate its cultural specificity and yet it also expresses a postmodern fluidity and self-reflexivity that enables it to be globally circulated. The following section demonstrates the multifarious local/global codes and cultures in Murakami’s figure sculpture My Lonesome Cowboy. Superflat IdentityTakashi Murakami may have been the happiest at Sotheby’s Auction on May 14th. My Lonesome Cowboy, his larger-than-life sculpture of a boy waving an ejaculate lasso, brought in $15. 2 million — quintupling the ar tist's previous record at auction. Just like what Alexandra Munro has written, â€Å"Murakami does not merely appropriate the manga and anime based worlds of otaku subculture; he operates within them. His lushly bright, mutant characters, all of which have names, act coveted by convenience store consumers as much as they are sought after by international art community. Murakami’s works always act in the multiple spaces in and between Japan and the West, referencing there intertwined relations. My Lonesome Cowboy can be linked to a number of familiar aesthetic forms from both Western and Japanese art history, thus it is a field of knowledge operating both within and between the social, cultural and aesthetic conditions of East and West. My Lonesome Cowboy is characterized by a large lasso of ejaculate reminiscent of Jackson Pollock’s splash paintings in the late 1940s.The confident masturbatory pose of the figure can be interpreted as a parodic and sexualized reference to the phallo-centric ideology of Western Modernism, in which the autonomy and expressive subjectivity (as well as the masculinity) of artists such as Pollock was celebrated. The title itself, My Lonesome Cowboy, also references the heroism and romanticism of the iconic image of the cowboy, which was celebrated in relation to the New York Abstract Expressionist painters, and was parodied in the homo-erotica of Andy Warhol’s film Lonesome Cowboys (1969).The stream of ejaculation fluid is both an exaggerated and grotesque parody of otaku (hard-core anime and manga fans) imaginings and masturbatory activities and a parody of the ‘unique’ stroke of the brush of the artist. The overt and ironic decorativeness of the fiberglass splash subverts the modernist ideology of the unique mark of the artist’s hand as an expression of interior subjectivity in a manner that is reminiscent of Roy Lichtenstein’s series of screen-prints, Brushstrokes, created in the m id to late 1960s.These references are then combined with recognizable Japanese aesthetic markers. For example, the Dragon Ball Z character Goku is the model for the head of the cowboy; the splash of ejaculate is also reminiscent of the static dynamism of Hokusai’s ukiyo-e print View of Mount Fuji through High Waves off Kanagawa (ca. 1829–1833). The standing pose of the figure with the power and energy concentrated in the hips thrust forward, accentuated by the expulsion of liquid from the penis, is something that has also been specifically linked to the style of character pose developed in anime (Kaikaikiki Co.Ltd & Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2001: 96). This is contrasted to the Western comic hero pose in which the concentration of power and muscular strength is emphasized in the pectoral muscles (96). The sense of dynamism between stasis and movement in My Lonesome Cowboy can also be linked to various forms of compositional structures in Japanese screen-paintin gs and anime. One of the key features of early Japanese television animation is an aesthetic based on the frozen pose, in which a figure can leap in the air and freeze the pose, unfixed from gravity.Part of the rationality behind the frozen moment in animation was a response to budget constraints and efficient production processes; by freezing the frame and allowing the dialogue to continue fewer frames of animated movement were needed for the narrative (Lamarre, 2002: 335). As a stylistic tendency, the technique of freezing the action in animation relies on selecting the most dramatic or aesthetic moment to freeze, creating a dramatic pause before the action (2002: 335–336).Therefore, what is evident is that Murakami simultaneously articulates Japanese and Western aesthetic markers in My Lonesome Cowboy. While these references can be individually demarcated and identified, there is also an interchangeable flexibility that is addressed. More specifically, what this means is t hat the splash of semen can simultaneously reference Pollock, Lichtenstein, Hokusai and Kanada. Thus, it becomes a fluid and slippery signifier. This can be explained as one of the reasons for the global prominence and popularity of Superflat and Murakami.Furthermore, the art historical and popular cultural references would be considered relatively conventional markers for audiences conversant with these texts. Many of the Japanese works in the Superflat catalogue are held in Western collections, including Hokusai’s Great Wave. Murakami’s works are therefore characterized by a particular inter-determinacy, which enables him to manipulate the Japanese identity of the works while also utilizing the familiarity of the visual references for Western audiences. This trategy is further complicated by the overlapping historical aesthetic relationship between Japan and the West. First, the concept of Superflatness, as an aesthetic of two-dimensionality, reinforces the Western i mage of Japan as a culture of surface. The development of the flat surface, which has been interpreted by Clement Greenberg as the underpinning aesthetic realization of Western modern painting, was influenced by Japanese art, particularly ukiyo-e prints, in the nineteenth century (Evett, 1982: ix–x).In particular, an aesthetic of two-dimensionality was identified as a distinctive feature of Japanese art in late nineteenth century Europe (1982: 30). 13 In contrast to the Western discursive construct of Japanese art as inherently two-dimensional, Western practices of linear perspective by this time had already influenced Japanese art. 14 Secondly, because anime and manga are increasingly familiar to consumers outside of Japan, particularly since their export in the 1990s, they have become part of the database of visual aesthetics of artists and fans outside of Japan (Craig, 2000: 7).The complex visual cultural relationships between Japan, United States and European art are more politically intertwined than these explicit and obvious references imply because they are influenced by ideologies and constructions of national identity. The image of Japan as a culture of surface continued into the twentieth century and was translated from the mid-1980s into the confirmation of Japan’s post modernity: Japan as a culture of surface was now celebrated (Barthes, 1982; Field, 1997) and it was constructed (arguably) as the epitome of post-modernity (Miyoshi and Harootunian). 5 This was contrasted to Western modernist discourse of the surface as a manifestation of interior subjectivity. Postmodernism presented a challenge to this concept of originality and interior/exterior distinctions through theories of simulacrum, pastiche and the collapsing of surface/depth models as developed by Baudrillard (1983), Jameson (1991), and Virilio (1991). Even the discourses that emphasized Japan’s creative skill in domesticating foreign imports (Tobin, 1992) as a contra st to the earlier pejorative concept of mimicry reinforced the image of Japan as an appropriator of different styles or surfaces.While the distinction between surface and depth is not absent in Japan, the duality between surface and depth in Western modern epistemology (and even in subsequent discourses that challenge it) is not necessarily expressed using those dichotomous terms in Japanese culture; rather, the surface is considered to be meaningful and creative. For example, the art historian Tsuji Nobuo (2002: 18) identifies the decorative surface as providing a link between the ordinary and everyday sphere and the extraordinary metaphysical realm.In this way, the decorative surface does not ‘lack’ meaning but is active as an intermediary expression and aesthetic. Hendry (1993) also identifies the importance of ‘wrapping’ in Japanese culture, in which the external layers, whether they be clothing, architecture or gifts, form the critical meaning structur e. Wrapping operates as a method of accumulating ‘layers of meaning’ that are not normally present in the unwrapped object (1993: 17). This process inverts the Western philosophical privileging of the core (the object inside the wrapping) as the primary site of meaning and the external wrapping as obscuring the object.In fact Hendry argues that the meaning of the enclosed object and the layers of wrapping are conceptually embedded in each other and cannot be separated (1993: 17). While flatness and the emphasis on surface quality and decoration in Superflat art can thus be considered an exploitation of the Western construct of Japan as a culture of surface aesthetics, it can also be interpreted as an assertion of the creative value of the surface in Japanese culture. In this latter interpretation Superflatness becomes a unique aesthetic form that articulates multiple and active spaces, not the erasure or reduction of meaning.The concept of active flatness and continual transformation is a useful approach to understanding the Superflat aesthetic. It is difficult to differentiate a singular point of origin or a stable and unified subject in the multiple cultural identities embedded in My Lonesome Cowboy. Such is the shared history and cross-fertilization of aesthetic forms that these multiple layers of references and aesthetic histories of Japan and the United States/Europe present a significant complexity to the explicit identification of these references as Japanese or Western.Furthermore, to presume that they will even be decoded as signifying geo-cultural aesthetic territories is equally problematic. It is evident that Murakami’s explicitly playful references act as heterogeneous and malleable signifiers of identity, and thus can be readily interpreted as a postmodern expression of multiplicity. Furthermore, the inter-textual references to Japanese art history, Western art history, and imagined constructions of Japanese identity, play to the knowingness of audiences. The Westernization of Superflat and its Japaneseness articulate two forms that can be accessed by Murakami from his database of codes.

Consumer Decision Making Process for Purchasing Property in Spain Essay

This study has investigated the decision process of consumers purchasing property in Spain. The report focused on the underlying reasons for purchasing a property in Spain, the methods used by the purchaser to gather information and the overall satisfaction with the purchase process. The intention of the report was to link current theories on consumer purchasing behaviour to the purchase of property abroad. The methodology used was deductive research using a survey approach. The questionnaire was analysed by a means of Chi square and variable comparisons. The results were collected using a postal and an email questionnaire. The investigation revealed a clear link between the level of satisfaction of the purchase process and the level of information and advice sought. The report concluded that the majority of respondents from the questionnaire purchased their property abroad as a holiday home and purchased from an estate agent. The gathering of information and the seeking of advice was prevalent among most respondents; this was reflected in satisfaction levels and the overall purchase experience. The majority of consumers were overall, satisfied with their purchase. However, if given the opportunity to repeat the purchase, most stated they would change something about the process they followed. Many stated they would not use a Spanish agent again due to experiencing communication problems. This area gives scope for future research in order to establish why communication weaknesses are present in the supply of Spanish properties to British citizens.

Advertising, Sex and Shifting Cultural Attitudes Assignment

Advertising, Sex and Shifting Cultural Attitudes - Assignment Example The long time ago, the society demanded of us to repress our instincts even though this often resulted in psychic dissatisfaction. Over the last few decades, advertising and particularly using sex appeal has led to a massive shift in this attitude. Today, passions are advocated for to be freely indulged. Individuals have been led to believe that they are entitled to seek romantic and sexual zeal. As a result, social ills such as divorce, unfaithfulness in marriages and polygamy are now considered legitimate solutions. In fact, the sexual sell in advertising effectively trashes sex, which should be respected as a human activity meant for reproduction rather than just a mere recreational exercise. The other concern that sex appeal advertising has bred over the years is that of people as objects. Additionally, recent advertising’s perspective of sex is nothing but pornographic which reduces sexuality to a stupid joke. This is in itself a direct insult to any cultural values that uphold human dignity. Even more worrying is the fact that people have come to accept these demeaning images to the point of actualizing them. Besides, human beings being prone to accepting trends even when some are wrong have been trapped by this shift in cultural attitudes towards sex and romance. Some advertising images portray the woman consumer of a particular product as a superwoman. These images present a woman capable of performing all sorts of activities at home and at work assisted by the product being advertised. This effectively renders the people around such as the husband, friends, and children as just passive spectators. In connection to romance, this product gives the woman self-esteem and independence that no man can afford to offer.  

Evaluative argument Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Evaluative argument - Assignment Example Hence, the two sides agree on one thing that video games should be played sparingly to enable an individual balance with work or assigned duties because of its addictive nature. This paper will focus on the effects of video games. Most video games have negative implications for children or adults because they shape the way individuals thinks and modifies their behaviors. For instance, some video games such as â€Å"Mortal Combat† contain violence, which affects the behavior of the player (Mullan 5). This makes the player develop aggressive thoughts, feelings, and actions towards the third party (Mullan 5). Similarly, it makes the players develop decreased pro-social of helping making it have a harmful effect. The violent nature of video games is because of its interactive nature since the players are rewarded for being violent (Mullan 7). In addition, the players become in control of the violence experience through killing, stabbing, shooting, among others depending on the programming of the game (Greitemeyer 500). Hence, the active participation makes the players learn the violent behaviors, which they might exercise after the end of the game (Mullan 7). Secondly, video games make the players become socially isolated since they spend most of their time playing games than interacting with other peers (Kim, Byungjoon and Robert 22). Those who become addicted to video games spend little or no time to do their homework, read, sports and interact with family members, hence contributing to their isolation. In many cases, a child who is used to interacting with the game finds pleasure in games than bonding with family members. This makes others lock themselves as they play the game. In other instances, gamers stay away from others whom they feel interferes with their gaming ability. For this reason, many children will abscond their duties assigned to create