Icons & Cultural Text Studies
Bent Sørensen
Aalborg University
Iconic Representation
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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.
Icons - thesis 1
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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.
Icons – thesis 2
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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).
Icons – thesis 3
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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.
Icons – thesis 4
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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.
Icons – thesis 5
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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.
Icons – thesis 6
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Icons can become overexposed.
As a result, people may attempt to actively
resist icons, e.g. by defacing them or
tampering with them (slander, rumourmongering, 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 person’s status and
longevity.
Icons – thesis 7
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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
Icons – thesis 8
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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.
Icons – thesis 9
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Iconography reveals by concealing
and conceals by revealing.
The Cadillac
- as Icon & Cultural Text
Bent Sørensen
Aalborg University
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Cadillac Ads
1952-59
Well I’m the king of the road
Ain’t 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
Dreamgirls still
On the Road Cadillacs 1
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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
On the Road Cadillacs 2
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It was the last of the old-style limousines,
black, with a big elongated body and
whitewall tires and probably bulletproof
windows
“Sal, I’ve never been to Chicago all my life,
never stopped. We’ll come in there like
gangsters in this Cadillac!”
On the Road Cadillacs 3
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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
o’clock 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.
1950 Coupe De Ville
1956 Coupe De Ville
1958 Coupe De Ville
1960 Coupe De Ville
Fin light - detail
Rocket Bumper
tailfins and frontal bumpers
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
The Cadillac Ranch (1974) Amarillio,
Texas
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1949 through 1963
"Art is a legalized form of insanity, and I do it
very well." (Stanley Marsh)
Cadillac Ranch
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Cadillac, Cadillac
Long and dark, shiny and black
Open up your engines let 'em roar
Tearing up the highway like a big old dinosaur
Hey, little girlie in the blue jeans so tight
Drivin' alone through the Wisconsin night
You're my last love baby you're my last chance
Don't let 'em take me to the Cadillac Ranch
Howlin’ Wolf
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
Chuck Berry
Maybellene
As I was motorvatin’ over the hill
I saw Maybellene in a Coupe de Ville
A Cadillac arollin' on the open road
Nothin' will outrun my V8 Ford
The Cadillac doin' about ninety-five
She's bumper to bumper, rollin' side to side
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
No Money Down 2
Well Mister I want a yellow convertible
Four - door de Ville
With a Continental spare
And a wide chrome wheel
And I want a full Murphy bed
In my back seat
I want short - wave radio
I want TV and a phone
You Can’t Catch Me
I bought a brand new airmobile
It was custom made
It was a Flight DeVille
With an powerful motor
And some hideaway wings
Push in on the button and you can hear her sing
Now you can't catch me
No, baby, you can't catch me
'Cause if you get too close
You know I'm gone like a cool breeze
Cadillac Escalade
Tiger Woods’ black Escalade