Diana Bang's ETEC 531 e-portfolio

The circuit of culture is a framework that can be used to examine the meanings of a cultural artifact by taking into account the following key concepts: identity, regulation, consumption, production, and representation. 1) identity- is the meaning that a cultural artifact and various social groups can take on 2) regulation- controls cultural activities and consists of the formal and informal controls of culture 3) consumption- occurs when consumers create meanings by using cultural artifacts 4) production- is the process where producers of cultural artifacts create meaning in their products 5) representation- is the form and meanings the cultural artifact contains At the centre of the model is refuse/waste which interconnects the five key concepts. Feng & Petrina (2000) illustrates the conditions and processes in the political ecology of design and technology in their circuit of culture model. Based on the examination of this methodological model it appears that there is no defined beginning or end and rather it appears that all key aspects affect each other at varying moments in time.