Page 173 - Museums, Media and Cultural Theory In Cultural and Media Studies

GL O S SARY

Affect: Affect refers to subjective feelings both psychological and physiological. It
encompasses more than physical sensation, but is also distinguished from emotion.
Emotion incorporates the notion of expression or display of feelings, and is cultur-
ally shaped: different societies recognize different ranges of emotions and have
conventions for their communication or expression. According to the cultural the-
orist Brian Massumi, affect, on the other hand, is experienced as ‘moments of
intensity’. It belongs to experience before it is made sense of or emotionally
responded to. Massumi sees emotion as that which captures affect and turns it into
something which can be expressed, or given meaning.
Alienation: This term comes originally from the philosopher Hegel, but is used here
mainly in its Marxist sense which refers to the way in which conditions in a capital-
ist society estrange workers from one another, from the products of their own
labour and even from themselves.
Animism: The belief that objects can possess souls or consciousness was associated with
so-called primitive societies. See also fetishism.
Aura: Aura is a concept developed by Walter Benjamin which refers to both the mystical,
cult or ritual value of the unique artwork and the ability of things to offer an
authentic or direct relationship with a past moment. It is a term which is often used
rather one-dimensionally to argue for a progressive political potential for new (non-
auratic) media. It is also sometimes used to argue for the unreproducible emotive
power and significance of the unique object or work of art. However Benjamin was
more ambivalent about aura, and the concept is more complex than these uses
allow. Auratic experiences can be provoked by objects which embody tradition and
historical continuity, especially handmade objects which bear the marks of their
moment of production, but also by everyday events and sensations.
Behaviourism: Behaviourist psychology analyses mental life in terms of stimulus
(sensory input) and response (behavioural output) and is concerned with the scien-
tific observation and conditioning of human and animal behaviour. Behaviourism