Our Greatest Therapy

It is the dawning of the Millennial’s and the old heads couldn’t be more terrified. 

In this new age there have been so many progressions to society and thus, changes in the way we receive text. Our social constructions shape our reality. We are the agents and it is important to understand our motivation to create and the inadvertent biases within the text created.

Looking back over the course, I find Metapictures to be extremely valuable in understanding our society, questioning behavior, and understanding who holds authority. First to understand Metapictures according to Mitchell: In his essay he explains that it is "a picture about a picture." This can seem confusing, but with further explanation it is understood "that pictures might be capable of reflections on themselves…of providing a second-order discourse" (38). I think that ‘second-order discourse’ could allude to the ability to transcend a current situation and previous experiences with the like, and focus mainly on the text (image, video, audio, words).

Landow, who is mostly interested in understanding hypertext, (which I believe can be directly associated with Metapictures) states that one fundamental characteristic of hypertext is how it is composed of bodies of linked texts that have no primary axis of organization. In short, a text essentially has no center. Therefore, he believes that for one to truly understand a certain text we must look at everything that which it surrounds; which to me is second-order discourse; to totally evade previous knowledge’s and so-called truths, but to experience the text as is.

I understand this can be extremely difficult. Hume has discussed that we use sight to create an image. She proved that a stereotype for a race that is not easily removed. She proved this through the usage of old racial cartoons. She proved that as the viewer, we understand the general message being displayed because of our inadvertent application to suggested identities that have been instilled toward our understanding to specific events, people, or ideas over time. The display of explicit and exaggerated identities was immediately understood due to our inevitable participation in social construction.

Which brings me back to my argument on the importance of Metapictures. Not only do they provide a unique reflection of ourselves, and how that prompts us to function in society through its constraints; but the practice in recognizing our biases. Self-reflexive art may be our greatest therapy.