Ass face, thy name is Brett Ommen

Department of Communication
BROWN BAG COLLOQUIUM
presents
BRETT OMMEN
Wednesday, October 4, 2006
12:00-1:30 p.m.
BSB 1169

"TWO FISH, BLUE STATE"

Brief Description: The presentation examines a variety of visual phenomena, from the Darwin fish bumper sticker and magnetic ribbons to the red and blue electoral-college maps and television shows devoted to forensic science, in an effort to mark the relationship between contemporary visual culture and political culture.

Brett Ommen is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at UIC and his research focuses on the impact of visual culture on cultural identity and imagination as well as the effects of media technologies on the traditional critical vocabulary applied to public discourse.

This lecture is sponsored by the UIC Department of Communication.

--OK, his name is Brett "Omen"? Hi. Nice to meet you. My name is Josh Punchface...
--Brett "Omen" is going to do us all a favor and explain to us what obvious symbols obviously mean at the level of something he calls "political culture," by which he no doubt means the way that popular culture affects political thought. What a guy. It's as though he thinks that most people look at something, scratch their heads, then their asses, then smell their fingers and in so doing they forget what they were looking at and just shuffle off to watch TV (uncritically, of course). BUT BRETT "OMEN," now, he's special! He looks at stuff and takes it to another level by asking himself what it MEANS. He smart. You dumb.
--Our student fees paid for this twat to give this "lecture," which is really just a one-sided conversation in which, ordinarily, two people would see a bumper-sticker and one would say, "Hey, what's up with that?"
"I don't know, maybe they're skeptical about religion...?"
"I wonder where you get something like that?"
"Well, I've seen a bunch of them around, so it must be a lot of people who want to make a statement. It must be aimed at Conservative Christians."

And there, ladies and gentlemen, you pretty much have it. That's popular/political culture. No need to get sticky over it, Brett. You wouldn't want to go overboard with a bunch of assertions that you can't back up with evidence and that your critics can't disprove for the same reason....

...or DO you? Hey, that's a good scam you got going there! Can I get in on it? Yes? Awesome!

Could Brett "Omen" interpret the finger gesture I'm making right now? What does he think it means, you know, symbolically and at the "visual culture" level that affects "cultural identity" and "imagination"? Why do people always seem to make this gesture whenever he's around? Thank God he went to college and got a degree that allows him to puzzle out these universal mysteries.