Journal 6

Assemblages and repetition go quite easily hand in ahnd. According to Arola and Arola, bare repetition is almost an exact replication for the purpose of preserving the importance of culture, whereas a creative repetition is an interpretation of the original assemblage. An example of a bare repetition is Harry Potter World at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. It is a replication of the scenes in the movies, which are an assemblage of the Wizarding World that J.K. Rowling created. All aspects of Harry Potter World, from the train ride, Hogsmeade, and Hogwarts Castle, were built in honor of the incredible assemblage Rowling created. They are exact replicas of the original ideas in order to attract the greatest amount of visitors and fans.

            Assemblages can be much more than social, and as seen in Arola and Arola’s piece, can be very pragmatic to cultural situations. An assemblage is defined as something that is “is alive and active, it is in flux and flight. It is the permanence of becoming. Moreover, the work of an

assemblage aims at ridding us of any subject of action that could be characterized as standing as the lone agent relative to the passive material of experience” (Arola). An example of an ethical assemblage is the use of sombreros as a cultural appropriation in today’s society. Is it ethical for people who host Mexican themed parties to require of their attendees to wear a hat that once served a unique purpose in Mexican culture? In American society, sombreros are seen as a relaxed example of a party, when in reality they served a strong purpose for Mexicans in the hot southern sun.

            When responding to potentially hurtful assemblages, I always think communication is key. I am a very passive person by nature, but I don’t think it’s necessary for a fight to break out just because a white person wears a head dress, or because a sombrero party is throne. Communicating the hurt that cultural appropriation and negative ethical assemblages may not change the circumstances, but the shared knowledge of ethics and feelings creates an understanding that may not have been had beforehand.

            Assemblages change, they are constantly in flux, and it is because of this that they can often be changed throughout circulation. Though they are not always intended, these changes can cause a lot of difficulty for the original authors. For instance, in the Arola and Arola piece, we learned of the powwow music that was amped up into a disco song that ultimately caused an audience to do obscene and discriminatory actions. The author of the original powwow music may have been really hurt, had he or she seen this, but they may have also felt happy that at least their music was being heard. The actions and reactions of the authors of assemblages is all relative.