Week 01
For the first week, I spent most time realigning and refining the learnings my previous assignment as we transitioned into the Positions through Contextualising. I have attached the slides below!
I am still developing my draft bibliography, but it borrows from the previous list, plus some new additions that help contextualise the new directions.
The overall feedback and takeaway for this stage was:
– Focusing the line of enquiry by anchoring around the topic of ‘value’ manifested in 2d objects, and limiting the scope to ask deeper than broader questions
– Understand if ‘value’ can be translated ‘universally’ through something that’s really specific and esoteric like Pokémon cards – be able to articulate why the enquiry is about Pokemon cards, and not just currency itself.
Generally, other points I found helpful were:
– The enquiry should be set up with a strong foundation, and not a fragile, self-contained structure, as it could fall apart very easily.
– The project should help to inform or advance enquiry but should not perform or express it.
As we move into the next stage, this feedback was helpful for me to sort how to clean up and make my enquiry more specific and rooted.
Week 02
For the second week, I decided to talk to more people about how they worked with and viewed Pokemon Cards as an object of ‘value’ in their lives. A lot of them mentioned that it had been a way – especially for young boys – to feel ‘cool’ and be in the ‘in-group’ growing up. Collecting and playing with the cards gave them a lot of popularity growing up, and this finding led my research into the direction of seeing these cards as ‘Cultural Capital’ through Bourdieu’s lens.
At this point, I tried to understand how the visual qualities of an object – Pokemon cards, in this case – garnered cultural capital.
I have attached the slides below!
The overall feedback and takeaway for this stage was:
- The investigation centres on the logic within the cards instead of the actual visual elements of the cards. Translate the objects and systems that were more familiar in our daily lives to explain the systems that you mentioned.
- To take a more expansive approach while experimentating. The cards might be constraining the scope the enquiry.
Additionally, I tried to reconfigure the enquiry and realised some gaps:
- While my reinterpretation sought to discover visual qualities on the card surface, I realised the central theme of my work – value – was rooted in the contexts of the object as opposed to its form.
This meant that the topic of value had to be explored in different ways before I find the final way of expressing my enquiry.
Week 03
For the third week, I refined the learnings my previous work:
I moved towards exploring ways of interrogating value in the circulation of cards, in the economy that makes it compelling.
I also realised that the cards were deemed valuable for their cultural significance, as opposed to their visual qualities, and this moved my enquiry into a more abstract understanding of value.
While looking more context on Pokemon Cards, it was evident that one of the most prominent catch in their economy was the circulation of fakes. This opened a new area of research – of bootlegging and fakes, and my enquiry moved in a different direction from that point.
I have attached the slides below!
I made a small booklet to visually archive my explorations in the relationship of value within objects and cultural motifs. It is called ‘Same-same but different’.
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Introduction on the booklet:
‘same-same but different’ is a South/East/Asian colloquial way of pointing out something still is different despite its similar nature with what its being compared to. This booklet recognises and brings together some references that follow this idea – of how difference exists despite, and perhaps, because of similar visualities.
This book is an archive of references and images that interrogate questions of value of cultural symbols and artefacts through symmetrical motifs. It explores the idea of translation from one point to another—sometimes linear, sometimes satirical—where value shifts in the negative space between images before it reaches the other side. Between each pair sits a tension, where culture is reinterpreted and revaluated, mostly as these motifs circulate and find belonging in different ways. The project examines how source material and/or forms with higher cultural capital, establish certain precedents that are then dismantled or reshaped through parodies, imitations, and other circulated versions.
Bootlegging and counterfeiting examples challenge cultural capital in this enquiry – like Yilong Ma, in almost a Shanzai way, or Majnu Bhai’s questionable painting- there is a certain liberation in subverting the standard that the motif starts out with.
The book also operates as a scale, with “higher” capital on one end and “lower” capital on the other. This comparison raises questions of equitability, since the conditions shaping the meaning of each image differ significantly, and also exist independently. For eg. The Local Kolhapuri slippers (p.9) still have more cultural capital within its local populace, no matter its co-option by Prada. Conversely, Yoga (p.15) has found far more patronage in its modern image than its prior one. These examples reflect their own realities. In doing so, it challenges the authority of authenticity and opens up questions around access, democracy, and the role of bootlegging. As the object moves from one end to the other, it carries the same idea, but its meaning is fundamentally altered.
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Publication scans:
General feedback at this stage:
- Great progression, and the interrogation of value works well.
- Next to consider is how does subjectivity and context play into the reading of this publication/enquiry. (Partially answered in the critical analysis)
- The archive would also benefit from a way-finding or indexing structure. This would also help to deepen the enquiry by focussing on one category at a time.
- Lastly, there is still potential for more making and adding design references.