This article was downloaded by: [The University of British Columbia]On: 23 August 2012, At: 01:24Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number:1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street,London W1T 3JH, UK

Journal of Curriculum andPedagogyPublication details, including instructionsfor authors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ujcp20

Pasolini's Public Pedagogyin a YouTube WorldChelsey Hauge aa University of British columbia

Version of record first published: 02 Jan2012

To cite this article: Chelsey Hauge (2010): Pasolini's Public Pedagogy in aYouTube World, Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, 7:2, 19-21

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15505170.2010.10471329

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that engages teachers ' intellect in creative and powerful way s'! In w hat waysmight colla borat ive, dialogic communities of practice reignite teacher agency '!

To down load a com plete file of participant responses, visithttp://www.curriculuma ndpedagogy.org/JCP7-2.htm l

Pasolini's Public Pedagogy in a You Tube World

CHELSEY HAUGEU Il / I'l'I;, /ty 4 Brit1:'/.' C{1/IIIl1/)I~l

Search for Pasolirii's Sz!,) on You Tube. and th e list that appears includes

hundreds of videos. Many are clips taken di re ctly from the film, while oth­ers are trailers made by users who created montages of selected scenes.The re are a lso vid eo journals of people talking about their re actions to Sa/,)from all kinds of perspecti ves . The top-grossing video of those on the list ,with over 300,000 viewings , is a montage of scen es that g ive little indi ca tio n

of the violence a nd horror that define the film.It is doubtful that Pasolini imagined Sz!,) in a You Tube world, although

the fragm ents of Sz!ti th at a re pu lsing through the Internet might not sur­prise him . A ce ntra l concern of Pasolinis "vas th e social ro le of intellectualsand artists: " Paso lini insi st s that far from cha nging society, w riters andfilm makers ca n do little more - and ev en th is ' little ' is problematic - th anoffer creative resistance to [the] triumph of technologica l neocapita lism "(Green, I990, in Pinal', 2009. p. 119) . More than 30 years late r, Pasolini 's"creative resistance to [the] triumph of technologica l neocapitalism " mani­fests itse lf through the appearance of clips from .s~llt) on You Tube . Can a nold film by a master artist about the horrors of fascism be re pur posed de c­ades later in a co rpora te -ow ned participatory space like YouTube,thereby offering a form of resistance for an e nt irely different community '!Can th ere be "c reative re sistance to [the] triumph of te chnological neo­

capitali sm " on an Inte rnet s ite whose growth sterns direct ly out of techno­log ica l neo capitalism ? Does SalJ's fragme nted existe nc e on You Tube,where a digital public watches and comme nts on its clips, constitute cos-

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20 Jonrna l l~fCur r i cu lum a//f) Pcda.lJo.lJY

rn o pol itan e ngagement w it h a pi ece of art t hat is te mpora lly, h is to r ically ,

a nd c u Iturally si tuat cd ?For Pa sol ini , "ci ne ma was b u t th e most p ub lic a nd spectac u lar cx p res­

sion of his co m m itme nt to 'perma ne nt interve ntion.' a co m m itme nt co n ­

stan tly renewed and re- expressecl as each new film opposed sti ll anothe r'

configuration of politica l and social cod es and co nve ntio ns" (Pi na l'. 2009, p.

141 ) . Th is pub lic pedagogica l att empt to interven e with soc ia l cod es a nd

conventio ns bears th e mark ings o f what Cee rtz Lovink (Garc ia & Lovi n k ,

1997) ca lls ta c tica l media - es pec ia lly o nce it is posted in a fre e- use space

like YouTube. Tact ical media is the exploitation of do-it-yourse lf. inexpe n­

sive m ed ia tool s by co m m u n ities or groups w hose beliefs are not main­

stream. Tact ical media is hy b r id a nd provisional. a nd it di srupts

d ic hotomies like a mateur versus p ro fessio nal a nd a lte rnat ive versu s mai n­

stream , Y ou T u be a llows users to post v ideos up to 12 min ut es long , a nd it is

wi th in t h is space th at a number of use rs ha ve posted , d own loa d ed . repu I'­

posed, a nd rem ixed fragme nts of Pasolirii' s mast e rpiece Salt>.On YouTube, the lin es defining a mate u r and p rofession al. artist a nd

v iewer' a re increasingly bl urr y . \Vh ile Paso lini 's co nce r n about the socia l

role of t he inte llectual a nd th e artist is s t ill re levant, on YouTube w e se e

no np rofessio nal user s rcpurposing cl ips from his film to ha ve co nve rsa t io ns

not o n ly abou t Iasc ism . bu t a lso abou t viole nce in fi lm a nd t he role of th e

film in soc iety . \ Vhil e muc h of the co nve rsa t io n is l ~l i dy s u pe rfic ia l. t he re

are co nt r ib u t io ns t hat serio usly e ngage a ra nge o f topics relevant to Sa/li.The fragme nts from Slli thu s beco m e a pedagogica l in rcrvc nr ion th at e re ­

ates co nve rs a t io n a bout both the specific film and its histo r ical signifIcance.

and about the role of film and a rt in g'e nera l. T he co nvers a tions are tran­

sie nt and brief'. T hat this space exists at a ll for these tra ns ient, brie f COI1\'e r ­

satio ns may disrupt "te c hnologica l neocapira lism" by s ig na ling the use of

space provided by co r por'a te Coogle to e ngage in co nve rs a t io n about artisti c

purpose and t he d isrup tion of dom inant soc ia l a nd politi ca l cod es a nd co n­

ventions , Hovvever. is t his d isrupt io n one that (h; 'lli r/J" tec hnologica l neo­

ca p ita lism, or is it 11pro(JIle! 0/tech nolog ical neocapira lis rn ? T he cl ips of S zfd,

t he re m ixes , and th e com me nts are made poss ib le th l'o ugh the co nt inued

(capita list) ec o nom ic success of Coogle, just as the show ing of Pa so lini 's

film was depende nt u pon the te c hnological faci litat ion of w hateve r the lea d­

ing tape/camera/screen producer' was at t he t ime . These co nt ra d ict io ns are

not unique to thi s medium (d ig ita l v ideo) or space (You'Tube).

E ngaging with th ese ma te r ial s m igh t be considered cosm o po lita n , a nd it

indeed reaches across temporal a nd spatia l co m m u nit ies Facilirntecl by You­

Tu be. II is im po rt aru to note that th ey a re repu rposed w it h in this new te rn­

pond space and used/und erst ood d ifferen tly than Pasolin i init ia llv• v

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intention ed, perhaps with a wider net of implication . In the original Sa/,), the"very co nst ruct ion of t he Fi lm gives ris e to a terrifying w eb of comp licity

with the libert ines, a w eb that forces us to see ourse lves -and Pasolini -asamong the ir number" (Greene, 1994. in Pinar, 2009, p. 135). This w eb of

complicity crystall ize s when the clips are posted on You T ube and be comepart of a network where social roles a re increasing ly blurred. Placing thesefragments into th ese online so cia l networks and remix ing th em implicatesposters. v iew ers. and their networks in the horrifying story t hey te ll -or isit ho rrif)ring at all anymore? iviany of the remixes th at use fragments fromSa/,) lea ve out t he mo st horrifying moments. Removing these integ ral scenesstrips th e film of its intense crit iq ue of fas cism a nd soc ia l and political cod es

a nd convent io ns. so th at te chnologi cal neocapitali sm subsu mes th e initialcr it ica l meaning . The film fragments, then, a re Folded into dominant dis­course and no longer represent cr it iq ue of soc ial and politica l codes andco nve ntions. historical or otherwise. And y et. it is this ve ry "mainstreamcom merc ia lity" that ha s "p roduced the possibi lity of participation in anon line video cu ltu re fo r a mu ch b roader range of participants th an before "

(Burgess & Green , 2009 , p. 76) .The pedagogica l implications of our immersion in a technological se nso r­

ium of which YouTube is a part a re contrad ictory. YouTube provides spacefor tacti ca l e ngageme nt w ith soc ial and political conve ntio ns . \Vhen this en­gagement stret ch es across temporal and spatia l boundaries, it might well co n­stitute cosmopolitan engagement with th e world . At the same tim e, itsa llowa nce for remix ing films like ~"'~zl6 without mandating e ngagement withhistorical moments. major films, and filmmake rs and thei r ties to contempo­rary society constitu tes technological neocapita lism in the lace of possibi lityFor cosmopolitan engageme nt. The public pedagogy manifested by socialnetworking spaces like YouTube has th e potential to playa ro le in fosteringed ucational engage me nt with major historica l events, people, periods. and a rt,including film, that link these moments to contemporary society, even as thiscosmopolita n possibility is easily subsumed by technologica l neo capitalism .

References

Burgess. ,J.. & Green , ,1. (2009) . }~1/I7 itl,c: Olililll' I'I,JCO till ,) ptl rlLi'iptl t ,'ry rulturc.

.\ \a lden : Polity .Ga rcia . D.. & Lovink , G . ( 1997). TI'l' f1 /~ (' oftartical mciha. Retrieved J anua ry 20.

20 11 from http://www.waag.orgltm nPinal'. \V. (2009) . Tl»: ll'or ltJlill t'.,., o/tlC""lIl op" l i ll/1i m.'1t1.'1t'lIl l'll l : Pa.oionatc lil 't'•• i llpl/Mli ·

.icrvu:«, New York : Routl edge.

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