During the first session we were provided with the statement "Who's culture is it anyway?" and were asked to explore what we thought the answer to the question might be. In order to be able to understand the question fully and be able to explore our thoughts successfully, it was important that we first came up with a definition of the word culture. Within my group we had several different opinions about what culture meant to each of us. This made us realise that culture may mean something very different to each individual and therefore it is difficult to provide a generalized of such a personal and meaningful word. However we found that for us to provide the most successful definition of the word culture, we should each input one of our thoughts about the subject and combine them together to create a definition. After doing so we came up with the following definition:
Culture: Groups ad their activities in all forms, from every day living, to popular pursuits and higher art forms. Shared interests within a population, including those as small as individual lifestyle choices. These shared interests are an ever evolving set of actions and reactions rooted in the past and present in todays society, and possess the ability to influence the future lifestyles and belief's of people belonging to that particular culture.
After sharing our definition with the rest of the group it was interesting to have everyone feed back their thoughts and hear that some peoples views on culture are very different than my own. This sparked a debate within the group where we talked about how important culture is within the work we do here at RSAMD. Some people shared the view that for them the culture created at RSAMD and their own culture played no significance in their art form and the work they were planning on producing as creative practitioners. This was surprising to me because even though my family does not uphold a particularly strong sense of tradition, this is not all culture means to me. For me represents who someone is as a person, it represents someone's past and how a person was brought up, and i don't see how such crucial factors in a persons life can not have some influence or impact on a persons work, especially if they are involved in a career within the film or TV industry.
Throughout the rest of the workshops we also explored the roles that stereotypes play when people think about different cultures. In this particular situation we were shown a box of objects all based around scottish stereotypes. There was a wide variety of objects such as a can of irn bru, a postcard of a castle, another of a thistle, a C.D containing scottish music, a packet of shortbread and a bottle of whiskey. Our group was given the bottle of whiskey to use as a prop and had to create a short piece of theatre based on the idea of scottish people drinking heavily. This workshop helped teach the group how common stereotypes are not always accurate and are in fact unrealistic generalizations that do not actually apply to the majority of a social group. I found this interesting and appropriate to my course as it made me aware that when creating a piece of television or film stereotypes are so often created when trying to represent a social group, advertising is especially guilty of this. Therefore we must be aware of the fact that these stereotypes should not always be used as they can be seen as offensive. A much more interesting piece of work can be created if characters are shown to be realistic unique and not simply a generic and overused stereotype which neither reflects society or has any firm basis on reality.
Overall I feel that the most enjoyable moments over the past three days came when we developed ideas based around our photographs we had to take before coming to RSAMD. These included each individual holding a sign saying "This is where I am coming from". During the first day we were asked to display our photographs on the wall, this gave the group the opportunity to look at other peoples photo's and find out more about where they were coming from. We were then asked to write on a piece of paper our thoughts about being here at at RSAMD and one hope for the future. We then one by one chose to sit on a chair in the middle of the room and reveal what we had written to the rest of the group. This tuned out to be a very emotional moment as I felt that it provided a window into how the people you have been working with are really feeling. It also was interesting to see that many of the people within my group had very similar hopes for the future and are feeling the same emotions as I am feeling about being at RSAMD right now. This helped me to understand that although everyone that was in my group for creative beginnings comes from different disciplines within the academy we are all united by our common goals and in the long run are here for the same reason. The final installation that the entire class of first year students took part in also reinforced this idea for me. When each member of the year group had finished writing down one of their hopes for the future, an anxiety, a question and one thing they were bringing to the course, each individuals personal thoughts combined together with the rest of the groups, which i felt united everyone together in a very emotional and thought provoking way.
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