kvarterakademisk - Akademisk kvarter - Aalborg Universitet

akademiskacademic quarterkvarterIcons of TransgressionBent Sørensenlating existing iconic texts/images, or creating new additions to thebank of already existing iconic representations of a given culturalicon, as in the case of more recent representations of Manson andHearst. Images enter the open field of cultural iconicity where othersmay contribute freely to elaborating and reinterpreting their iconicstatus. Historically this has worked to extend the lives of these imagesand figures beyond the span one might otherwise have estimatedfor them in an age of cultural acceleration, which is particularlypertinent in the case of what might otherwise have becomeextremely time-bound and -specific icons of a dead counterculture.I propose that all iconic representation combines two modes ofrepresentation: the images presented are both stylized and sacralized.This duality originates in the connotations of the word ‘icon’from two spheres of use of the term: The commercial icon or pictogramwhich works through simplified representation (i.e. is stylized),and the religious icon which works through embellished representationand through symbolic detail (i.e. is sacralized 3 ). A fullyworked-up religious icon, or a pastiche thereof as we shall see anexample of (depicting Manson) later, tends to borrow very directlyfrom an old formal language developed in specific traditions ofworship, but also always adds the specific signifiers that throughstylization identify the uniqueness of the icon in question andtransgress the old forms.From the religious connotations of iconicity we as public inheritthe position of worshipper. The need for icons is an expression ofour longing for something beyond our own subject-hood, a desireto idolize. This need is no longer fulfilled in traditional religiousways, but has become transferred onto other manifestations of theextraordinary, such as heroes, stars, idols. As we shall see, oppositionalor anti-hegemonic worship of cultural heroes sometimesfixates on figures that are recognisable as subtypes of the Outlaw(mass murderers, bank-robbers etc.) or as Messianic specimens ofparticular transgression.A person who achieves icon status has to be recognisable to alarge number of members of a specific group, whether that is anoppositional subculture (defined through age, race, class, beliefetc.), a group of hegemonically inscribed consumers, a nation, orthe global community: Iconicity presupposes immediate recognitionand familiarity. In apparent contradiction of the safety connotedVolume03 122