MEDIA SPECTACLES: THE PRODUCTION AND RECEPTION OF TAMIL CINEMA ADVERTISEMENTS
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In Visual Anthropology. Vol. 11 (4): 287-322. Special Issue -"All Singing, All Talking, All Dancing. Perspectives on Cinema and Society in India." Guest edited by Preminda Jacob.
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ABSTRACT
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Contemporary popular arts in Third World locations are agents of emergent modernities produced in the context of global interactions. This paper focuses on hand-painted Tamil cinema advertisements that dominate urban landscapes in Chennai. Based on ethnographic research I demonstrate that the production network of these objects - methods of training, application of technology, and stylistic criteria - is constantly mutating. Reception of the advertisements unpacks a complex semiotics of internationalism and neo-traditionalism as well as a mix of commercial and aesthetic messages. I argue that these cinema advertisements are emblematic of the modernity of post-colonial visual culture in India.
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