Icons

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Icons Cultural Text Studies

• Bent Sørensen
• Aalborg University

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Iconic Representation

• All iconic representations of actual persons
  (living or dead) are caught in a dichotomy
  between elements of normality/familiarity and
  elements of transgression.
• Manipulation of representations of celebrities or
  famous persons into hero- or other-images can
  either constitute adversarial or collaborative
  icon work.

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Icons - thesis 1

• The commercial icon or pictogram works through
  simplified representation It is stylised
• The religious icon works through embellished
  representation and through symbolic detail It is
  sacralised
• Iconic representation of persons combines these
  two modes of representation It presents a
  stylised and sacralised image of the person.

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Icons thesis 2

• A person who achieves icon status has to be
  recognisable to the majority of a specific group,
  whether that is a subculture (defined through
  age, race etc.), a nation, or the global
  community Iconicity presupposes familiarity.
• A person who achieves icon status has to be
  extraordinary, whether through his/her
  achievements, or through image. Iconicity
  presupposes transgression of normality.
• Iconicity is only achieved when the person imaged
  represents a combination of familiarity (fame)
  and transgression (cool).

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Icons thesis 3

• Iconicity is a form of immortality
• Iconicity has a history, i.e. not all icons are
  permanent.
• Icons can become dated, and consequently slip out
  of their apparent immortal status.

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Icons thesis 4

• Icons place us, as viewers and readers, in
  communi(cati)on with the icon
• We are not ourselves icons.
• Icons thus enforce a passive role on us as
  viewers or voyeurs, a role which we may resist
  but are doomed to re-enact whenever we
  communicate with an icon. The relation between
  icon and viewer is thus basically unequal.

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Icons thesis 5

• From the religious connotations of iconicity we
  inherit the position of worshipper.
• From the industrial, service and information
  oriented connotations of iconicity we inherit the
  position of consumer.
• Both these positions are well served by dead
  icons, and by marketable icons, which offer no
  resistance to commodification.

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Icons thesis 6

• Icons can become overexposed.
• As a result, people may attempt to actively
  resist icons, e.g. by defacing them or tampering
  with them (slander, rumour-mongering, gossip,
  satire, co-optation etc. are all possible
  strategies) The formerly passive worshippers
  become iconoclasts
• All of these activities ultimately serve chiefly
  to perpetuate the iconic persons status and
  longevity.

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Icons thesis 7

• Iconicity means a reduction of the person behind
  the icon (the iconic subject) to image, to
  object.
• Iconicity is a form of martyrdom.
• Iconicity is a reduction or translation from
  individuality to symbol

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Icons thesis 8

• The need for icons is an expression of our
  longing for something beyond our own
  subject-hood, a desire to idolise
• The need for icons is no longer fulfilled in
  traditional religious ways, but has become
  transferred onto other manifestations of the
  extraordinary.
• The need for icons has not diminished over the
  last 50 years, on the contrary there are more
  icons now than ever, despite the acceleration in
  cultural change.

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Icons thesis 9

• Iconography reveals by concealing and conceals by
  revealing.

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The Cadillac - as Icon Cultural Text

• Bent Sørensen
• Aalborg University

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• Cadillac Ads
• 1952-59

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Well Im the king of the road Aint got no place
to go, no place I call home Seen the world from
behind this old wheel Driving away from those
feelings I feel - Cadillac Man
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Dreamgirls still
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On the Road Cadillacs 1

• He was a little taut Negro with a great big
  Cadillac. He hunched over the wheel and blew the
  car clear across Frisco without stopping once,
  seventy miles an hour right through traffic and
  nobody even noticed him, he was so good

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On the Road Cadillacs 2

• It was the last of the old-style limousines,
  black, with a big elongated body and whitewall
  tires and probably bulletproof windows
• Sal, Ive never been to Chicago all my life,
  never stopped. Well come in there like gangsters
  in this Cadillac!

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On the Road Cadillacs 3

• At intermissions we rushed out in the Cadillac
  and tried to pick up girls all up and down
  Chicago. They were frightened of our big,
  scarred, prophetic car. In his mad frenzy Dean
  backed up smack on hydrants and tittered
  maniacally. By nine oclock the car was an utter
  wreck. It had paid the price of the night. It was
  a muddy boot and no longer a shiny limousine.

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1950 Coupe De Ville
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1956 Coupe De Ville
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1958 Coupe De Ville
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1960 Coupe De Ville
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Fin light - detail
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Rocket Bumper
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tailfins and frontal bumpers
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Cadillac Walk

• Lonely tonight honey hear my call She said
  boy I won't make you crawl Rita pound by pound
  Knows how to work it down Weep and cry to and
  fro Leave your heart she'll steal your gold No
  matter what the cost Ooh...them dual exhaust
  Make my motor sigh My baby's got the Cadillac
  walk

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The Cadillac Ranch (1974) Amarillio, Texas

• 1949 through 1963
• "Art is a legalized form of insanity, and I do it
  very well." (Stanley Marsh)

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Cadillac Ranch

• Cadillac, CadillacLong and dark, shiny and
  blackOpen up your engines let 'em roarTearing
  up the highway like a big old dinosaur
• Hey, little girlie in the blue jeans so
  tightDrivin' alone through the Wisconsin
  nightYou're my last love baby you're my last
  chanceDon't let 'em take me to the Cadillac
  Ranch

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Howlin Wolf
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Cadillac Daddy

• I love the Cadillac, long wreckin' machine
• I love a Cadillac, it's a long wreckin' machine
• Me and my baby can ride it, ev'rything is nice
  'til then
• (Yeah!)
• I'll make a cool hundred, I ain't got time to
  stop for gas
• I'll make a cool hundred, I ain't got time to
  stop for gas
• I'm gonna drive this automobile, just as long as
  the gas lasts

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Chuck Berry
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Maybellene

• As I was motorvatin over the hillI saw
  Maybellene in a Coupe de VilleA Cadillac
  arollin' on the open roadNothin' will outrun my
  V8 FordThe Cadillac doin' about
  ninety-fiveShe's bumper to bumper, rollin' side
  to side

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No Money Down

• Trade in your Ford
• And I'll put you in a car
• That'll eat up the road
• Just tell me what you want
• And then sign on that line

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No Money Down 2

• Well Mister I want a yellow convertibleFour
  - door de VilleWith a Continental spareAnd a
  wide chrome wheelAnd I want a full Murphy
  bedIn my back seatI want short - wave radioI
  want TV and a phone

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You Cant Catch Me

• I bought a brand new airmobileIt was custom
  madeIt was a Flight DeVilleWith an powerful
  motorAnd some hideaway wingsPush in on the
  button and you can hear her singNow you can't
  catch meNo, baby, you can't catch me'Cause if
  you get too closeYou know I'm gone like a cool
  breeze

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Cadillac Escalade
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Tiger Woods black Escalade