1. In “The Banality of Images,” Nicholas Mirzoeff attributes the lack of dramatic media images of the invasion of Iraq to a “changed status of images” that has accompanied globalization since 1998
(p. 68). What does he mean by the phrase “changed status of images?” How and why has the image changed over the past 20 years, and in what ways does this change impact the ways in which we receive
and process images of war? How do artists such as Wafaa Bilal intervene in this state of affairs to create new ways of seeing the violence of war? 2. According to Sarah Banet-Weiser, what is
“commodity activism?” What form does commodity activism take under current economic conditions (i.e. late capitalism), and how is this expressed in the relationship between the consumer and brand
culture? Please illustrate your understanding vis-a-vis a close reading of a contemporary marketing campaign (not Dove!), paying attention to the ways race, gender, sexuality, and consumerism are
represented and mobilized. Remember to provide links to the images/advertisements you analyze for this response. 3. What distinction does Rosemary Garland-Thompson make between the act of “staring”
vs “engaged looking?” How do the zines of E.T. Russian and/or the performances of Bob Flanagan engage with this distinction to create new opportunities for “ethical” looking with respect to bodies
marked as “disabled?”