Contextual & Theoretical studies

Fearne Cotton beauty article

2011-04-01T06:03:00.001-07:00

This is a beauty article containing tips and adverts for products. It is written by a ‘beauty expert’ who gives her advice on how to achieve the latest make up looks and rates the products on the market. Because the article is written by an expert the reader trusts the information given and is likely to buy the products on recommendation from this expert. Also there is an image of a celebrity with no make- up on looking rough, the reader can relate to this image. Next to it is the same celebrity looking made up, glam and attractive. The reader aspires to looking like a celebrity and the article provides them with ‘insider knowledge’ of the products the celebrity supposedly uses to look like she does, giving the reader the impression if they buy these products and follow the experts tips they too can look as glamorous and beautiful as a celebrity, reinforcing their status in the world.

I married a truck article

2011-04-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an article about an American woman who is an ‘object sexual’, after years of being alone, has fallen in love with and married a truck. This promotes a feeling of disbelief in the reader, thinking this person must be ‘mad’ reassuring the reader that they are ‘normal’. It could also create a cultural prejudice from the reader too with the woman being American, they might think ‘only an American could be crazy enough to marry an inanimate object’ reassuring themselves that, being more conservative, the British are saner. On the flip side some readers may relate to this story and feel reassured that their weird sexual fantasy is actually not that weird at all in relation to this one and reassure them they are ‘normal’.

Britain’s youngest mum article

2011-04-01T05:58:00.001-07:00

This is a ‘real life’ article about a girl who became Britain’s youngest mum aged 12, and then had another baby at 16. It conforms completely to the stereotype of the teenage single mum, stating that she is unemployed, has been in trouble with the law and has been evicted from her house due to non-payment of rent and noise pollution. It includes information about the girl’s mother, who she has recently moved back in with to try to sort her life out, and states that she is a single mother of 9 who lives on benefits. This would be quite a shocking real life story to the reader of this magazine; it would make them feel better about their own lives as they would think they were different, better than these people.

Kinder Bueno Advert

2011-04-01T05:56:00.000-07:00

The readers of this magazine are conscious about their appearance, believing in order to be successful in life they must look good; like their hero’s - the celebrity. This in turn means they are conscious about their weight but, as they constantly reassure themselves that they are ‘normal’, like to enjoy a treat. This advert for ‘light chocolate’ reassures the reader they can have that treat without sacrifice to their appearance.

Specsavers advert

2011-04-01T05:54:00.000-07:00

A glamorous, sophisticated, perfectly groomed and intelligent looking woman wearing a pair of glasses designed by Gok Wan who is a celebrity the readers are familiar with as being someone who transforms the lives of women by styling them, making them feel confident about themselves. It is accompanied by text which states you can get a pair of these designer glasses for £99 and get a pair free, meaning they can use their glasses as a way of expressing their identity through owning more than one pair. Necessity has been stylised and is at a price affordable to the reader.

Portfolio task 7 – Photo Essay

2011-04-01T04:57:00.000-07:00

Closer is a weekly magazine aimed at working class young women who like to keep up with the latest trends and fashions, but don’t have much money to spend. They are interested in the world of the celebrity and thrive on celebrity misfortunes as a way of reassurance in their own lives. They like to read about shocking real life stories, which are a way of confirming to them that they are ‘normal’. They are heavy consumers and base their status on the commodities they own and the way they look, but don’t have much disposable income so look to magazines like this one for inspiration on a budget. They also usually have busy lives through working or having children and so want something easy to read in their spare time.

Portfolio Task 6 – Sustainability and Capitalism.

2011-03-31T07:01:00.001-07:00

Sustainability in the text Balser, E (2008) 'Capital Accumulation, Sustainability & Hamilton Ontario'is defined as being an ‘inter and intra-generational equity in the social, environmental, economic, moral and political spheres of society’. (Meadows 7) It is also stated that ideologically it is a communal concept, however in reality environmentally conscious decisions have largely fallen to the individual and through technology. It is said that sustainability is a concept that only the rich can afford.
The characteristics and tendencies of Capitalism are that it is constantly looking for things to commodify; it thrives on creating and is constantly expanding. It subsumes non-capital markets and intensifies internal markets. Capitalism is not a linear system but a diverse web that continuously expands and traps.
The natural world is a necessary pre condition of any profitable business and therefore a crisis of capitalism would be the loss of natural conditions needed for production.
Solutions that have been offered are –
Radically increase the productivity of resource use.
Shift to biologically inspired production with closed loop, no waste, and no toxicity.
Shift the business model away from the making and selling of things to providing the service that the thing delivers.
Reinvest in natural and human capital.
An example of a solution is the BIOX Corporation in Canada, which was built to provide ‘high quality, accessible and affordable bio-diesel for environmentally concerned consumers’. However this plan is flawed due to a sacrifice of social equality. The local community have seen their quality of life diminish and residents of the area are exposed to potentially harmful chemicals and pollutants. Bio-fuel is also expensive and therefore can only be afforded by the rich, at the expense of the poor. The plant was built on community green space and constant tremors have caused damage to the nearby resident’s houses, this is also an example of ‘crisis of Capitalism’.
I think the lines between the concepts of sustainability being compatible with Capitalism are quite blurred due to the contradictions it makes. It states that ecological integrity and economic prosperity are important for sustainability, however this is at cost to the local environment and at the sacrifice of the poor. In theory sustainability is supposed to be a communal concept but in practice it is down to the individual and technology, this creates a class divide in the population. It blames capitalism for the environmental problems we face but also asks for its help to rectify them. The ideology of sustainability is not compatible with capitalism, however in practice the reality of sustainability is that it is compatible.

Portfolio task 5 – Lefebvre and space

2011-03-30T08:14:00.000-07:00

Social space in Leeds - Woodhouse Moor Park

Map of Woodhouse Moor

Woodhouse Moor 1906

Woodhouse moor, sometimes called Hyde Park, was the first public park in Leeds. The council purchased it in 1857 for use as a recreational space for the growing population of the area. It was formally designed and landscaped in the 1870’s with a vision of it being ‘the most healthy open space in the township of Leeds’. It consisted of open green spaces with diagonal tree lined paths leading to the centre, where stood a bandstand and a fountain with clock turret. It was used by hundreds of people who would stroll around the paths of the park and sit listening to bands and concerts at the bandstand. Although it was extensively used by the local people, it was apparent due to the lack of lighting that it could only be used during the daylight hours and so in 1902 it was enhanced with iron archways and gas lights to ‘facilitate evening promenading’ extending it’s use even further. It was the epitome of the Victorian’s ideology of a social recreational space.
In the present day it is also still used as a public park and boasts it is the most intensively used green space in Leeds. It is large, open grassland, multi recreational family friendly space. 26 hectares in size it contains, among other things, a children’s play area, Skateboard Park, multi use games area, tennis courts and bowling greens.
However the location of the park and its layout mean it is not always used as intended. Based in a heavily populated student area of the city it attracts a lot of young people who use the park as a place to hang out, often drinking alcohol, creating noise and leaving litter. There are also many disputes with local residents concerned with the amount of fires and barbecues on the park.
When the paths were laid out over 100 years ago they were intended for people to stroll around the park at their leisure, they were a way of controlling where peopled walked to keep order and preserve the grass. Now the paths are in a bad state of repair and due to the way people use the park, are not always followed. The park has become more of a cut through to other areas and often people veer away from the allocated pathways and find their own way across the grass, taking shortcuts to their destination. This is apparent in the areas of bald, muddy paths where the grass has died through heavy footfall.
The park was intended to be a family friendly space but due to anti social behaviour and concerns regarding health and safety this is not altogether true. Poor visibility and lighting are contributing factors towards the high rate of crime in the area.
There are ornamental gardens and statues in the park for people to enjoy, however these are often vandalised and fall into a state of disrepair due to lack of general upkeep.
The vision of the way the park is intended to be used in the present day is one of a family friendly, easily accessible, multi use sports and general recreational space intended to bring the community together. However in reality it is actually an untidy, unsafe and non-family friendly place, which is prone to vandalism and crime.

Contextual studies task 4 – Essay ideas

2011-03-28T03:19:00.000-07:00

Hannah Montana Video Game TV Advert

I have chosen this short TV advert which is advertising a product associated with the children’s TV icon Hannah Monatana. I think it sums up what I am going to investigate in this essay. It promotes the idea that if you play this video game you too can lead a life like a famous rock star.

Contextual studies task 4 – Essay ideas

2011-03-28T03:13:00.000-07:00

Title – Could children’s TV advertising be thought of as negative or harmful?
The main thrust of my argument;
• Advertising and how it affects society.
• The history of advertising children’s products, medium used, who it was aimed at, who it was for etc.
• The advent of Television and Consumerism, and how it affected children’s advertising.
• How advertisers target children. Age, gender, race etc.
• How adverts affect children.

I will do this by looking in to advertising in general, the history, type’s aims and how it affects society. I will then research advertising and children focusing on gender, age and race differentiation, and the effects advertising have on children.
I will look into how advertisers communicate to children and how they market products designed for them.
I will focus on a particular advert and analyse it in relation to my findings.
Finally I will construct a conclusion based on my findings that answers my question.

Bibliography

Berger, J. (1972) Ways of Seeing. Penguin: London.
Fennis, B. Stroebe, W. (2010) The Psychology of Advertising. Psychology press: Hove.
Gunter, B. Furnham, A. (1998) Children as consumers; A Psychological analysis of the young people’s market. Routledge: London.
Kenway, J. & Bullen, E. (2001) Consuming Children. Open University Press: Berkshire.
Strasburger, V., Wilson, B. & Jordan A. (2009) Children, Adolescents and the Media. (second ed.) Sage publications inc: California.
All of the above should give me a good insight into advertising, marketing to children and the psychology behind it.

Contextual studies task 3 – Semiotic Analysis

2011-03-28T03:11:00.000-07:00

The first signifier in this image that draws your attention is the bold headline. It occupies a quarter of the page and is written in upper case, bold, black letters aiming to catch the attention of the viewer and causing them to be curious as to what the article is about. The word GOTCHA is a simple, straight to the point, one word headline that appears confident across the page. Gotcha is a slang term for the words ‘got you’ and is often used in an informal way. This is a term that would often be used when playing a game, or swatting a fly for instance, a very informal and playful word used to signify a very a very formal and serious subject such as war, which makes this a very tasteless headline.
The Sun newspaper is a red top pro-war newspaper whose political stance at the time of this article was towards the Conservative party. It is one of the highest selling newspapers in the country and is aimed at young, working class men who thrive on reading about shocking news. The use of slang and informal words throughout the piece connotes that this is the audience they are trying to communicate to.
After reading the headline your eyes automatically move to the left of the page where underneath the headline sits two images of ships, these are key signifiers as to what the article regards. One is an image of a boat similar to the one sunk which is accompanied by text underneath it. The word ‘sunk’ is written in white, bold, upper case, italic letters on a black banner denoting news about the war in a very ‘matter of fact’ way. This is continued under the second image, which is of the Belgrano, and reads ‘crippled’.
Next to these images your eyes lead you to the subheading which is also written in bold, black lettering and is underlined. Under this is the name of the writer which also states he is aboard the HMS Invincible, denoting that the news is coming right from the heart of the action and therefore must be true, promoting confidence within the reader that the information provided is fact.
The Argentinians are often referred to as ‘Argies’ in this text giving connotations of a cultural prejudice towards the opposing side. Connotations of conflict are also present with the use of words such as on their knees, double punch, wallop and asking for trouble all day. These are all part of a cultural code aimed to make the reader feel they can relate to the story. The words ‘our lads’ are also part of this cultural code designed to make the reader feel like one of them and evoke patriotic feelings among the readers of pride and national unity.
To the right of the article is a logo which reads ‘battle for the islands’ and contains an image of a soldier ready for battle, this denotes the information is about the war and is also a key signifier.
After reading the article your eyes move to another article also about the War; however in this article the enemy is the Union. The Sun sees the Unions opinion as a boycott and this is denoted in the bold, upper case, black, and italic heading ‘Union boycotts war’. This connotes that The Sun sees the Union as being ‘party poopers’ within this ‘game’ of war and this promotes a negative feeling towards the Union. This also connotes that this is a pro-war newspaper.
From this article your eyes avert to a small piece in the top right hand corner, here The Sun claim in quite a childish, playground manner that they know everything that is happening in the War first hand, reinforcing the idea that their newspaper is the one to buy if you want to the latest War news. The article states that the QE2 is also poised and ready for battle, denoting strength and dominance. This is a key signifier of confidence in defeating the opposition.
There are a few examples of myth within this piece, such as mis-information about the damage done to the Belgrano, quoting that the Belgrano was ‘not sunk’ and ‘left a useless wreck’ when in actual fact it had sunk. Also there is wrong information within the article about the type of torpedoes fired at the Belgrano.
The ideologies throughout this piece are ones of a superior, united, strong and unbeatable nation, giving the reader confidence that this is just a small problem and they shouldn’t worry about it as ‘the lads’ will sort it out. The general consensus of the article is that it is almost laughable that the Argentinians should think they can attack the British with a narrative that basically says ‘Stupid Argies, don’t you know who we are?!’

Contextual studies task 2 – Adorno’s ideas on pop music

2011-03-28T03:06:00.000-07:00

Spice Girls - Wannabe

This song epiotmises Adorno's sentiments by having a very standardised structure and rhythm to it. It also has a melodic harmony and is very catchy. When it was released it was heavily plugged by repetition and also by the spice girls brand. It has memorable lyrics, is recognisable, stimulating and also has an element of novelty to it. Each member of the band has their own 'character' based on stereotypes of women, making each one appear an individual but belonging to the same group, all variations of the same, creating pseudo-individualisation. Their slogan is 'Girl power' and yet they dress in provocative and revealing clothing.

Contextual studies task 2 – Adorno’s ideas on pop music

2011-03-28T02:54:00.000-07:00

In this piece of writing Adorno states that there are many differences between serious music and popular music. His main point being that popular music is very standardised. He explains that the structure of these types of songs consist of simple melodic harmonies which are easy to listen to and understand by those who are not ‘musically experienced’. Adorno writes about how pop music falls into the category of natural music and is not dissimilar to nursery rhymes and hymns sung as children; therefore this type of music is recognisable as the listener feels they can relate to it in a personal way.
Adorno states that the music industry is very competitive and that they are always churning out pop songs which, due to the fact they are heavily standardised, are very similar. In order to make a pop song successful Adorno explains about ‘plugging’ and how constant advertising, mentioning and playing a song can make it successful. He goes on to explain about how repetition leads to recognition and how recognition is the key to success. He also writes about the plugging of personalities associated with the song such as the band leader, contributing the work to that person as opposed to the composer of the music, this creates a brand preference effect amongst the listeners.
Adorno writes about the effects of popular music on the listener, stating that in his opinion there are several components involved in the act of listening to a pop song, these are:
Vague remembrance; standardisation of pop songs promotes a feeling of vague remembrance.
Actual identification; when the listener remembers they have heard it before (due to it being played incessantly)
Connection by label; the listener associates it with the song title, memorable lyrics or the record label.
Self-reflection on the act of recognition; the listener feels proud of their ability to recognise the song.
The psychological transfer of recognition; the listener feels a sense of authority to the object and feels flattered to own something everyone owns creating an illusion of value.

He also writes about the reasons why people listen to pop music stating that popular music offers a stimulant and novelty for which the public crave. He explains about how people wish to be distracted from the demands of reality by entertainment that doesn’t demand attention and induces relaxation. Popular music can easily create this due to the fact it is patterned and pre-digested. He also states that popular music creates pseudo-individulisation among people, causing them to think they are an individual by liking a certain genre of music, when in actual fact they are just conforming to their stereotypes.

Contextual studies task 1 – panopticism

2011-03-28T02:52:00.000-07:00

I have chosen CCTV as a panoptic aspect of contemporary culture.

CCTV is short for closed-circuit television and refers to the use of video cameras for surveillance in areas that need monitoring. These areas may need monitoring for a number of different reasons but the main reason I am going look at CCTV as panoptic is in relation to its use for the purpose of crime prevention.
CCTV is a mechanism designed to control the mass population by leading people to assume that they are constantly being watched and therefore adapt a sense of self-regulation. Foucault states that “He who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power; he makes them play spontaneously upon himself; he inscribes in himself the power relation in which he simultaneously plays both roles; he becomes the principle of his own subjection.” (Foucault in Thomas. 2000. Pg66)
Foucault’s idea behind this “permanent visibility” is that it “assures the automatic functioning of power” creating a disciplinary society made up of docile bodies who are constantly self-monitoring and self-correcting in their behaviour. (Foucault in Thomas. 2000. Pg65) This reinforces Foucault’s theory that “it is not necessary to use force to constrain [the convict] to good behaviour.” (Foucault in Thomas. 2000. Pg66)
The nature of this form of control means that the controller; the person watching the video in the central control unit, does not have to have any special kind of training or qualities, all they are required to do to carry out the task is to watch. As Foucault states “it does not matter who exercises power. Any individual, taken almost at random, can operate the machine.” (Foucault in Thomas. 2000. Pg66)
Foucault argues that the “Panopticon is a machine for dissociating the see/being seen dyad” stating that the controller “sees everything without ever being seen” and that the individual who is being watched “is seen, but he does not see; he is the object of information, never a subject in communication.” (Foucault in Thomas. 2000. Pg65)

seminar notes 11.2.11

2011-03-10T08:50:00.001-08:00

Identity and the other in visual representation
- Creation of identities
- Concept of otherness
- Analysis of visual example
Identity creation – what makes you you?
(subjectivity) – who we think we are and everything that we think has made us. What conditions and creates out subjectivity?
Values, how you were brought up, where, western subjectivities and non western.
Culture, sub cultures, job, intelligence.
Education – different educations have different effects.
Nurture.
How do you express your identity? (who we are/want to be/how we think we are)
Fashion, culture you consume (music etc) job.
Identity is not constructed by us or by someone else it is a dialogue of the world.
Complex multi determined battleground.
Production – the things you do, make, what you do in life.
Representations – stereotypes, stereotypical representations of your identity already in society.
Consumption – what you consume, buy, what you have.
Regulation – how you regulate yourself, you can only be what a given society will allow you to be.
Identity formation
Mirror stage 6-18 months old
Sense of self – an illusion of wholeness receiving views from others – determined by what other people think of us.
Identity is a performance created for a reaction from others.
Constructing the other.
Defining who you are.
We as subjects create objects to reaffirm ourselves.
Perpetuate negative stereotypes.
We other people to secure our own identity
Subterranean values.
Go through a magazine or journal etc find various bits of magazine (photo/scan) think about how the other is represented.

seminar notes 28.1.11

2011-03-10T08:49:00.000-08:00

SPACE – urban space
Social space – sites of power
Ways of looking and interacting in spaces
All urban spaces hidden are mechanisms of control and power the more you think about them the more you can spot them.
Leeds
Cant park wherever you like
Attempts to order space and control people within it
Adverts – billboards etc (try and effect how you feel, to encourage to consume and spending) businesses.
Dehumanising and regulating society.

Single point perspective – unique to western art, optimises a particular way of thinking about the world.
Quote 1

Jemima Stehli – strip
Henri Lefebvre (1905-1991) French intellectual Marxist sociologist
Revolution via everyday life
Influenced the situationist in 1950’s and 60’s
(Guy Debord)
Influenced student leaders may 68.
A theorist of radical movements.
A rambling revolution of provocations.
Creation and function of space – spatialisation.
‘the production of space’ 1974
The reality of space is defined by how people use it, not just a plan on paper.
Choose a social space in leeds.
‘Illusion of transparency’
The illusion that; 1) understanding is possible
2) the objective viewpoint exists and somehow enables understanding.

seminar notes 10.12.10

2011-03-10T08:48:00.002-08:00

2000 word essay – 18th feb 2011
Choose your own title - critical and theoretical, something you’re interested in.
pick a lecture or a visual communicator
think about things through a certain lens (feminist/Marxist etc)
pick an initial topic or title
chose something you’re interested in and links to your practise (i.e animation, film, photography) and a particular aspect of it.
Do a library search and select the books which will be most useful.

Plato – allegory of the cave – to teach us a lesson about how people interact with the world, slaves
Prisoners shackled facing wall, born in the cave, die in the cave.
Only reality known to prisoners is shadows on walls.
We only see what we are shown.
TV, tabloid newspapers – present a certain image of the world.
Metaphore – psychological imprisonment, only fed a one dimensional vision of the world.
People chose ignorance instead of reality.
Boudrillard.
Reality and representations of reality.
Hyper-reality – a condition of the modern age where images become a representation of the world.
Haddon Sundblom – illustrations for coke ads 1930’s, santa – what we think he looks like. Used to dress in green, red-branding.
Cognitive illusion – an illusion that appears in your brain.
A world of hyper-reality and simulation.
Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) also a post structuralist
Structuralism – all culture is a language and can be read and analysed.
Post-structualism – its not as simple, more broad than that.
Society is obsessed with the spectacle of the world – produced by mass media, TV film etc.
Guy Debord – similar to Baudrillard.
Rather than being you, you are living the way you think you should.
Sign value – symbolic value, dominates symbolic exchange, more important than monetary value.
A copy of reality that makes it difficult to distinguish between reality and a copy.
The desert of the real – Baudrillards explanation of reality.
Charlie brooker.

seminar notes 26.11.10

2011-03-10T08:48:00.001-08:00

The gaze
Men act, women appear, men look at women, women watch themselves being looked at (Berger 1972)
Imbalance of power, power relation
Hans Memling – Vanity (1485) implies she enjoys looking at herself and enjoys being looked at.
Double power game
The nude becomes a genre of painting
Venus – goddess of love
Produced by men for the consumption of men
Ingres ‘le grand odalisque’ (1814) a western perspective on the east, weird and wonderful women to perve on.
The gaze that meets you is not a powerful one, usually a weak one
Doe eyed, look up as opposed to down, look of innocence or youth
Manet – Olympia (1863) a gaze that meets your gaze, more powerful, not in fantasy land, fantasy born out of reality
Manet – Bar at the folies bergeres (1883)viewing it in the first person, power, real.
Erotic appeal of paintings is it’s a one way gaze.
Jeff Wall ‘picture for women’ (1979) 1st person is the camera – we are seeing what the camera sees, an updating of the gaze critique.
Susan Sontag (1979) ‘on photography’ book
Image making is always about power, trying to show someone in a certain way.
Photography judges and aims to be judged.
Mechanical extension of the male gaze.
Images are produced in a male way, even if they are produced by men or women.
Commodity fetishism
A – B A finds B sexy and B finds A sexy too, very human.
A – C – B A likes B because of what B has/is wearing etc.
Knowing that you are constantly being scrutinised means you adapt your behaviour (panopticism)
Normalising – what you class to be ‘right’ is right.

lecture notes 25.11.10

2011-03-10T08:47:00.000-08:00

The information or cybernetic theory of communication
Useful for – researching how as a designer your work makes effective communication
Main limitation is that it is a linear process and is not concerned with

Level 1 – technical accuracy, systems of decoding and encoding, compatibility of systems/need for specialist equipment or knowledge.
Level 2 – semantic precision of language, how much the message can be lost without meaning being lost.
Level 3 – effectiveness does the message effect behaviour the way we want it to? What can be done if the required effect fails to happen?
Systems theory
BARB – broadcasters audience research board
Audience catagories – individuals, adults, men, women, children, housewives – further subdivided by
age and social class.
Audience sub-categories, sub-demographic

Semiotics – three basic concepts
Semantics
Syntactics
Pragmatics

The phenomenological tradition – the process of knowing through direct experience, it is the way in
which humans came to understand the world.
Rhetoric
Hyperbole
Irony
Personification
Metaphor
Sociopsychological tradition – study of the individual as a social being.

lecture notes 11.11.10

2011-03-10T08:46:00.001-08:00

Critical positions on the media and popular culture
Critically define ‘popular culture’
Contrast ideas of ‘culture’ with ‘popular’ culture and ‘mass culture’
Introduce cultural studies and critical theory
Define ideology
Interrogate the social function of the mass media and the extent to which the media constitutes us to society.

What is culture?

General process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic development of a particular society at a particular time.
A particular way of life
Works of intellectual and especially artistic significance

Marx
All societies are based around forces of production – materials, tools, workers, skills etc
Relations of production – employer/employee, class, master/slave etc
Superstructure
Social institutions – legal, political, cultural
Forms of consciousness – ideology
Fundamentally antagonistic

Ideology – system of ideas or beliefs (eg beliefs of a political party)
Masking, distortion, or selection of ideas to reinforce power relations, through creation of false consciousness

‘popular’
Well liked by many people
Inferior kinds of work
Work deliberately setting out to win favour with the people
Culture actually made by the people themselves

(book) Raymond Williams (1983) keywords

Inferior or residual culture
Popular press v’s quality press
Popular cinema v’s art cinema

Graffiti – popular culture
Folk archive

Early modernity – mass working class
Clear lines of class division
Working class and bourgeois became separated
(books) Matthew Arnold (1867) culture and anarchy
Leavisism – F.R Leavis and Q.D Leavis
Mass civilisation and minority culture
Fiction and the reading public
Culture and environment

Frankfurt school – critical theory
Institute of social research, university of Frankfurt 1923-33
University of Columbia, new york, 1933-47
University of Frankfurt 1949-
Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer reinterpreted Marx for the 20th century, era of late capitalism
Defined ‘the culture industry’
2 main products – homogeneity and predictability
All mass culture is identical, anti thinking device.
Walter Benjamin – the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction 1936 essay.

seminar notes 5.11.10

2011-03-10T08:45:00.000-08:00

Panopticism – idea of constantly being observed (self regulation)

Foucauldian
Shift in society from physical to mental control
Discipline aims to make us useful for society
Humiliated and punished in front of people – people were frightened, scared to misbehave
Docile body – a person who will take instruction, behave, conform to society, easily controllable, controls self
Foucault calls it - disciplinary society
Institutional power
Power is a relationship
Write a few hundred (200) words on an institution which you feel is panoptic with reference to at least 5 quotes from the sheet (use key foucaudian language)
Specialist knowledge – power to define what is normal.

Panopticism in contemporary society
CCTV
Facebook/social networking
Lecture theatre
Schools
Prison
Colleges
Workplace
Bars
Exams
Art gallery
Swimming pool

CCTV
1) Consequently, it does not matter who exercises power. Any individual, taken almost at random can operate the machine.
2) The perversity of those who take pleasure in spying
3) It is not necessary to use force to constrain the convict to good behaviour.
4) He who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power; he makes them play spontaneously upon himself; he inscribes in himself the power relation in which he simultaneously plays both roles; he becomes the principle of his own subjection.
5) He is seen, but does not see; he is the object of information, never a subject in communication.

lecture notes 4.11.10

2011-03-10T08:44:00.000-08:00

Panoptisism

Punishment
Prisons
Deviant/normal

The panoptican – building (school, army, hospital)

Michael Foucault 1926-1984
Madness and civilisation
Discipline and punish – the birth of the prison
The great confinement (late 1600’s)
Houses of correction to curb unemployment and idleness
All people deemed to be socially useless – mad, tramps, criminals, unmarried pregnant women, drunks, unemployed – locked away in confinement.
Made to be useful – put to work, teaching them how to be a ‘normal’ person in society, repress devients.
Operated for a long time then seen as a gross error
Started to corrupt each other
Legislation to segregate them
Asylum – disciplinary techniques were different, if good were rewarded
New forms of knowledge emerge.
Specialists have super human powers to decide fate of people
The pillary – put in front of the people to have stuff thrown at them etc
Disciplinary society and disciplinary power

Panopticon – a round building, illuminated by windows, going to be a prison
Each prisoner shut away separately, everyone constantly visible – always being watched, self- regulate behaviour.

Panopticism
Allows scrutiny
Allows supervisor to experiment on subjects
Aims to make them productive
Reforms prisoners, helps treat patients
Open plan areas – easy to control, keep an eye on people, people constantly watched.
Google street
Everyone everywhere under surveillance and scrutiny
CCTV – classic example of panoptic gaze
Always stay in line cos you know your being watched
Disciplinary society produces what Foucault calls – docile bodies
Self- monitoring, self- correcting, obedient bodies.
TV – classic way of creating docility
Bruce Nauman – video corridor pieces (late 1960’s)
Michel Foucault
Panopticism as a form of discipline
Techniques of the body
Docile bodies

Task 4

2010-03-24T05:52:00.001-07:00

For this analysis I have decided to steer away from modern art and focus on a piece of postmodern art instead.

The artist I have chosen for this is Tracey Emin and the particular piece of work I would like to concentrate on is her installation piece ‘Everyone I have ever slept with 1963-1995’ (1995)

Postmodernism is a late 20^th Century art movement that began after the modernism era, which was dated around 1860-1960.

Modernist artists believed art had a meaning and that life could be made better through art and rational thought. The modernists were obsessed by technique and purity of form and were true to their values such as truth to materials, form follows function, less is more and art for arts sake.

By the mid 1960’s people became more and more disillusioned about the meaning of life and art due to the holocaust and the Vietnam War and lost confidence in the modernist’s values. An onset of crisis in confidence lead to the postmodern era being born.

Postmodernism is often said to be a reaction to the modernists strict rules and can be characterised widely by the introduction of parody, pastige and irony coupled together with complexity, chaos and bricolage.

New image-based technologies such as screen-print, television, computers and video played a huge part in the rise of postmodernism. These new techniques enabled artist to create something fresh, new and different from the art being produced previously, these new techniques also meant they could create works quickly without having to rely on the traditional time consuming craftsmanship used before.

Another huge impact on the visual arts throughout the postmodern era was the growth of consumerism. Entertainment and novelty was now required by the modern consumer and an ability to experience art in a more pro-active way together with a desire to be shocked lead to artists and curators to explore more about art as a product. This was achieved by constructing new ways of viewing art, for example using video and installation and by the creation of new subject matters.

The Young British artists were particularly guilty of using these new ways of creating art and in the case of Emin the subject matter was the key ingredient to her success as a postmodern artist.

The piece ‘Everyone I have ever slept with 1963-1995’ is a small blue tent that Emin appliquéd with the names of everyone she had ever shared a bed with from the year she was born up until it was created in 1995.

People often mistake the names for people she has had sexual intercourse with one review stating 'She's slept with everyone – even the curator'! However this is not the case.

There are 102 names on there in total including ex boyfriends, family members, friends and the two foetuses she aborted.

The use of a tent for this work suggests the notion of sleeping and the shape of the tent could be described as a womb like structure in which a person could curl up into the foetal position to sleep, wombs and foetuses are subjects which appear in many of Emin’s artworks. The shape of the tent is also reminiscent of the Margate Shell Grotto where Emin is said to have spent a lot of her childhood time.

To view the work you have to crawl inside the tent, lie on your back as if sleeping and look around the inside to find an explosion of visual and textual bricolage. This has been created by appliquéing letters to the side of the tent using pieces of material that have meaning to the artist, this could be something given to her by a friend, an old blanket from her childhood or material from an old family sofa, all of which add to the autobiographical aspect of the work.

The work, which Emin refers to as ‘the tent’, is one of two seminal pieces she has created and became quite an iconic piece. It was first exhibited at the ‘Minky Manky’ show at the South London Gallery in 1995 and was later destroyed in a fire at the East London Momart Warehouse in 2004.

Emin has since refused to recreate the piece stating "I had the inclination and inspiration 10 years ago to make that, I don't have that inspiration and inclination now ... My work is very personal, which people know, so I can't create that emotion again — it's impossible."

Wikipedia. (2010) Everyone I have ever slept with 1963-1995. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everyone_I_Have_Ever_Slept_With_1963–1995 [accessed 24 March 2010]

Everyone i have ever slept with 1963-1995 (1995) Tracey Emin.

2010-03-24T05:50:00.000-07:00

Task 3

2010-03-23T09:19:00.001-07:00

Bibliography

Produce a preliminary bibliography (in Harvard) of 5 books, from the Leeds College of Art library, that you think may be useful. Include a library reference also (e.g. MIL 709.12)

Bergdoll, B. & Dickerman, L. (2009) Bauhaus (1919-1933): Workshops for Modernity. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. (library ref: 709.43)

Harrison, C. & Wood, P. (eds) with Gaiger, J. (1998) Art in Theory 1815-1900: An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. (library ref: 709.034)

Hughes, R. (1991) The Shock of the New. London: Thames and Hudson. (library ref: 709.06)

Kennedy, A. (2006) The Worlds Greatest Art: Bauhaus. London: Flame Tree Publishing. (library ref: 709.43)

Sim, S. & Van Loon, B. (2001) Introducing Critical Theory. Cambridge: Icon Books. (library ref: 306.1)

Task 2

2010-03-23T09:01:00.000-07:00

The five key points that the authors are trying to communicate are:

The advent of modernisation meant that massive advances in science and technology were taking place at an alarming rate. This together with the forces of modernity, a social and cultural condition which was a response to the changes taking place around the world, challenged the mental state of the population with some people feeling exhilarated and hysterical with excitement whilst others were left feeling depressed and alienated.

New found wealth and social status coupled with a vast majority of humanity now being ruled by time and the machine, meant that there was also becoming a much more prominent division between the classes of people, with the bourgeois fearing but also needing the working class people. The working class had a shared ideology of a better life for all using the notion of a shared nation, race and culture as their catapult. This was to become known as socialism and it soon became apparent that it was very much a socialist V’s capitalist world.

The effect of modernism on the art world was only really to become apparent once the cubism movement began. Before this there was an attempt for art to be created which was ‘new’ but could also stand alongside the traditional art of the past.

The concept of expression using the notion of the self was explored, however the biggest effects of modernism on the art world were not really felt until after the First World War.

The development of a new pictoral language meant that a concern began to grow in wider social forms regarding art’s realism. Those who were unable to grasp the new pictoral language saw the art for its aesthetic value while others saw that the work remained a signifier and that its duty was to decode and maybe even change the modern world.

This conflict of opinions was rife in the respect of the cubism movement and was to continue for many years to come with cubism marking the turning point for modern art of the nineteenth century and the future of modern art in the twentieth century.

Harrison, C and Wood, P. (eds.) (1997) 'Art In Theory: 1900-90', Oxford, Blackwell, pp. 125-9.

Notes from task 2

2010-03-23T08:58:00.000-07:00

Write no more than a few paragraphs but try to include what you se as the five key points the authors are trying to communicate about modernity and various modernist subsequent responses to the condition of modernity.

Include a bibliographic Harvard reference for the text at the end.

Notes from text

First decade of 20^th century saw attempt to create art, which was ‘new’ but also could stand alongside traditional art.

A concept of expression – notion of the self – self-portraiture using nature as inspiration whilst under urban circumstances.

Development of cubism ensued Paris was at the forefront of the forces of modernity.

3 related movements of the modern –

Modernisation – process of scientific and technological advance.

In developing societies the new was overtaking the old at a rapid pace.

Modernity – the social and cultural condition – experience, awareness and adaptation to change. Both a social and inner experience.

Modernism – a reflection upon the representation of the new.

Experience cannot be grasped until it is represented.

Responses to the modern condition.

Pessimism at the increase in population and the urban concentration fuelled by increasing control by the machine. A sense that life was losing depth and freedom – humans were being imprisoned in ‘the iron cage of modernity’.

Some places were at first delayed with the changes but then even more rapidly changed when they felt the need to catch up.

Some people overcome by hysterical exhilaration while others a mix of alienation and apocalypse.

Depression and exhilaration 2 sides of same coin – both responses to the effects of modernisation.

The effect on art before 1^st world war is slight.

Modernisation not totally a technological fact also social – new social relations between people – particularly classes of people (capitalist modernisation)

The culture thought of itself.

Ideology of modernisation – acute and contradictory forms of bourgeois response to bourgeois society.

Bourgeois needed and feared the working class, who had ideologies of a shared nation, race and culture, who were excluded from capitalist wealth – socialism.

Socialists believed art should be used to change that modernity.

Cubism with its still life’s and portrait figures gave little clues to the modern storm brewing, became a thing in itself, rather than depicting the modern life, on first reflection could think it had internalised its modernity.

However this may have been seen by those who were unable to grasp this new pictoral language, the picture still remained a signifier.

Mattered less what subject artist addressed.

Meaning of cubism remained focus for conflict – a decoration of the surface (aesthetic) and the true reality (meaning). Prising apart 2 aspects of cubism – its continued referentiality and an autonomous picture surface. One side – art whose duty to decode modern world, the other – art that transforms itself.

lecture notes on handouts

2010-03-17T06:44:00.001-07:00

Lecture notes on handouts

2010-03-17T06:42:00.001-07:00

Lecture notes 13.1.10

2010-03-11T07:44:00.000-08:00

Postmodernism

1960’s - beginnings
1970’s – established as a term (Jencks)
1980’s – recognisable style
1980-90’s – dominant theoretical discourse
Present – tired and simmering

After modernism
The historical era following the modern
Contra modernism
Equivalent to ‘late capitalism’ (Jameson)
Artistic and stylistic eclecticism
‘Global village’ phenomena: globalisation of cultures, races, images, capital products.
15 July 1972 @ 3.32pm – modernism dies according to Charles Jencks (due to the demolition of the Pruitt-lgoe development, st Louis).
Le Corbusier ‘plan voisin’ 1927 – ideal plan for future housing, perfect fusion of ecology and urbanism. Looks good on paper.
Postmodern architecture – arrogant, not genuinely concerned with solving social problems.
Urban splash – postmodern architectural practice.
AT and T building New York – popular postmodern building – designed to be fun and playful as a building.
Guggenheim museum, Bilbao, Frank Gehry (1997)

Book – J.F Lyotard – The postmodern condition (1979)
Incredulity towards metanarratives = totalising belief systems.
Result – crisis in confidence.
Directionless society trying to pick its way through a shattered world – very pessimistic.
Postmodern aesthetics.
Chaos, complexity, not truth to materials.

Book – Learning from Las Vegas – Robert Venturi (1972)
Postmodern city is dystopia
(Blade runner) the future in the postmodern city – technology has gone so far people can’t work out if they are human or robot anymore.

At the end of the 1950’s the purest form of modernist painting was …
Postmodernist artists – lampooning the modernist art world.

Book – Postmodernism or cultural logic of late capitalism – Fredric Jameson.
Advertising is the greatest art form of the 20th century, Marshall McLuhan.
Memphis group – the most important graphic designers in the postmodern era.

Crisis in confidence
But also – freedom, new possibilities, questioning old limitations.

A vague disputed term, po-mo attitude of questioning conventions (esp. modernism)
Po-mo aesthetic = multiplicity of styles and approaches.
Shift in though and theory, investigating crisis in confidence e.g. Lyotard.
Space for ‘new voices’.
Rejection of technological determinism?

Seminar notes 3.2.10

2010-03-10T08:09:00.001-08:00

Defining the avant-garde.

Objectives

Understand the term avant-garde.

Question the way art/design education relies on the concept of avant-garde.

Understand the related concept of ‘art for arts sake’

Avant-garde – advancing guard.

Art and design – progressive, innovative, popular discourse.

Annotating critical text!

Photocopy sections of books.

Carefully reading and highlighting text.

Ring words that are important or you don’t understand to look up later.

Draw links.

Scan in and put on blog.

Kitsch is rubbish culture.

People in high culture tending to sway toward kitsch too.

Snobbery to kitsch.

Seminar notes 9.12.09

2010-03-10T07:55:00.001-08:00

Ways of seeing episode.

Sells lifestyle

Aspirational

Stops you being happy with existing life

Emancipation = consumption.

The life sold through advertising is incompatible to real life, under the process of a commodity culture the images of the dream appear to be real.

Commodity fetishism

Reification

False need

Symbolic association

Ideology and stereotype

False need

Makes us think we need something we don’t

Novelty – newness, up to the minute, new = good. To have the highest status.

Symbolic association

Belonging – branding, social inclusion, have something to have acceptance.

Idols – desire for a dream life or status.

Commodity fetishism

Define ourselves through things, out understanding of the world is defined by what we do and own.

Alienation of our life, relationships are distanced. The reality of the thing is irrelevant.

Fetishism the substitution of a thing for what is real.

Reification – a tendency under commodity culture.

Things stop appearing as things and take on a different meaning, personality, more human.

People under commodity culture become more objectified.

Ideology – system of ideas, a way of thinking about the world. A system of ideas or beliefs that disguise the true nature of the world in a society. Ideas are created by the dominant strata of society but portrayed as being ideas of everybody.

Religion – a system of ideas or beliefs.

Eg – beliefs of a political party. Making, distortion or a selection of ideas to reinforce power relations trough a creation of false conciousness.

Hershy bar – reification, giving an inanimate object a personality and humanity,

Marlboro fags - symbolic association. Ideology, loading the cigarette with ideas of the American dream – west, masculine.

Silk cut – false need, silk – more smoother milder, richer.

Silk cut 2^nd ad – symbolic association, silk and purple associated with status. Sexual.

Scoundrel perfume – commodity fetishism, reification, masquerade ball, aimed at men.

Lecture notes 9.12.09

2010-03-10T07:54:00.000-08:00

Photography as something neutral

Joseph nicephore niepce (1826) first surviving photograph.

James Natchtway – records events as a witness.

Frances Frith (1857) entrance to the great temple.

Photographers like an invisible eye. Image used to capture an idea of the orient. Life in Africa as the western eye wants to see it.

William Edward Kilburn, (the great charlist meeting at the common) photographer distanced from the image, recording an important event.

Roger fenton (1855) into the valley of the shadow of death. Romantisised, artistic subjective element, view the image as something other than an objective record. Battle field.

The decisive moment. Photography achieves its highest distinction.

Henri cartier bresson. Influenced by the photographers eye, not neutral.

Jacob riis (1888) bandits roost. Construction, not an authentic representation, photographs slums. Horrors of lower class slum life.

A growler gang in session (robbing a lush) 1887. Staged, (lush is a drunk) gave them cigarettes to pose for him.

Lewis hine – document American sum life. Left wing social reformer.

F.S.A photographers 1935-44. Director ray stryker.

Depression – 11 million unemployed. Mass migration of farm labourers – oakies.

The photograph as both photojournalism and emotive lobbying tool.

Images designed to stir our emotions – political propaganda.

Margaret burke – white – sharecroppers home 1937. A record of adject poverty. Images on wall are adverts of the haves, use of a child etc there to promote an illicit response.

Russel lee – interior of a black farmers house.

Dorothea lange (1936) migrant mother, looking into ¾ distance. Thoughtful, thinking ahead, worried about the future. Pictorial analogy, composed.

FSA – individual photographers working for the government archives of all photos taken. Photography used to document different races and disabilities.

Cesare lambroso – photographed criminals to define criminal facial characteristics.

Robert capa – Normandy france 1945 – war conflict photography, dramatic blurring – capa shake, famous for a style.

Magnum group – international coalition of photographers. Founded 1947 by cartier bresson and cappa. Ethos documenting world and its social problems.

Internationalism and mobility, nick ut (1972) accidental napalm attack.

Don mccullin (1968) shell shocked solider banned from going to falklands war by british government.

Robert haeberle (1969) – split second after photo was taken the people were shot.

William klein – st Patricks day fifth avenue 1954-55. Documentary photographer – walk down street, push people, elbow them and take photo, gave props and bribes. Explicitness key to a more objective truth.

Bernard and hilla becher. Photographed water towers etc, series of ground rules, conceptual art.

Richard long 1981, a long line and tracks in Bolivia, transistent, uncommodifiable. Could only experience the art if you were there.

Documentary photography reason why conceptual art failed.

Allan sekula – fish story (book) lukaca ‘theory of the novel’ andreas gursky (1999) ‘99 cent’.

Gillian wearing – signs that say what you want them to say 1992-3.

Jeremy deller- the battle of orgreave 2001 – restaged miners strike. Miners strike – English civil war in the modern time.

Critical realism, restaging reality, testements from people who were there.

They offer a humanitarian perspective. They tend to portray social and political situations. They purport to be objective to the facts of the situation, people tend to form the subject matter. The images tend to be straight forward and unmanipulated.

Seminar notes 2.12.09

2010-03-04T07:03:00.001-08:00

Essay notes

1500 words, Harvard referencing. Can be tailored to an area of interest within vis com.

Questions

1) Parks and open spaces, recreational spaces etc?

Bauhaus etc

Walter Gropius (1923) the theory and organization of the Bauhaus.

Filippo tomassi

Look at work of the actual people. (books)

2) 2 examples = 2 different pieces of work.

Changing cultural force, post war affluence, disposable income 70’s US.

Define a shift in society or culture and show how that effected the design of the time.

3) postmodernism characteristics

exhaustion

pluralism

pessimism

dissolusionment

references modernism and tries to do something else.

David shrigly.

Books – the end of print, david Carson.

The postmodern condition, lyotard j.f (1979)

Jencks, c. (1986) ?

Recommended books

Introducing, and books for beginners.

Very short introductions books

Critical introductions or critical readings (new media)

www.jstor.org - massive journal archive.

Applying ideas from books to analyse pieces of work.

Book – a short guide to writing about art, sylvan barnet.

The whole woman, greer, g (2000) London transworld.

Always put last date,

…………..(greer, G. 2000:9)……….[….] – to edit stuff out of a quote either make it into 2 quotes or square brackets and dots.

Jenkins, D.F (2006) ‘edward hopper and british artists’ [internet] U.K, tate research. Available from [accessed 30.1.2007]

Portfolio task

Choose one of the essay questions. Come up with a provisional bibliography, in Harvard, of 5 books. Add a couple of sentences explaining why you feel each may be relevant. Include a library reference also (e.g 735.1)

Lecture notes 2.12.09

2010-03-04T07:02:00.002-08:00

Late age of print

Term comes from media theorist marshall mcluhan, began around 1450.

Gutenbergs printing press.

First piece of new technology that enabled mass print.

Electronic book – reader takes on role of author.

Hypertext – blue text used on web.

Hypermedia – many media, pics, sounds. Feeling of being lost in knowledge, empowering but incomplete.

Definition of mass media modern systems of communication and distibution supplied by relatively small groups of cultural producers, but directed towards large numers of consumers.

Newspapers, cinema, ads, tv etc.

Thinking critically about the mass media.

Negative critisism.

Superficial, uncritical, trivial.

Viewing figures measure success, audience is dispersed, disempowered.

Encourages the status quo (its conservative) resistant to change cos of its pandering to the viewer.

Encourages apathy.

Power held by the few motivated by profit or social control (properganda)

Bland, escapist and standardized.

Encourages escapism, seen as a drug which anaesthatises us.

Positive critism of the mass media, not all media is of low quality.

Social problems and injustices are discussed by the media.

Creativity can be a feature of mass media.

Transmission of high art material reaches a broader audience.

Democratic potential.

(knowledge can reach us, we can engage with it and have an effect on the world)

book – art in the age of mass media, john a. walker.

Can art be autonomous? (exist on its own in a vacuum)

Should art be autonomous? For some yes.

Book – Thomas crow, modern art in the common culture.

Art gets appreciated by mass media.

Sensation exhibition 1997 – royal academy.

New media are changing the way we consume and read text and image.

Theorists of the mass media have different viewpoints seeing it as either negative and a threat or pleasurable, positive and democratic.

Much 20^th century art has used mass media – often to be critical of it.

There is a serious question in art theory as to whether art should be autonomous or not.

Lecture notes 25.11.09

2010-03-04T07:02:00.001-08:00

Advertising, publicity and the media.

Time square – new york – bombardment of publicity images.

25 million print ads created every year.

Consciously or unconsciously effect us. Mass advertising.

Karl marx 1818-1883 ‘communist manifesto’ 1848. ‘Das capital’ 1867 philosopher and social critic, theorist of social class structure.

Marxists argue we live in a consumer culture.

In commodity culture we construct our identities through the consumer products that inhabit our lives.

This is what stalwart ewan terms the commodity self idea of being an individual and shaping yourself by what you own.

Judith Williamson author of decoding advertisements.

Instead of being identified by what they produce.

Lives will be better by buying things as apposed ot what we do.

Symbolically assosiate a product with an ideal life.

The Stanley range ad – traditional ad, selling itself on its attributes.

Pipe ad – sells itself as a new trend.

How does commodity culture perpetrate false needs?

Aesthetic innovation

Planned obsolescence

Novelty (3 characteristics common to all false needs)

Makes us believe we need things that we don’t.

Products that are designed to breakdown – a trick to keep you spending.

Commodity fetishism

Basically advertising conceals the background history of products. In other words the context in which a product is produced is kept hidden.

Bastardisation of humanity.

Reification

Products are given human associations.

Products themselves are perceived as sexy, romantic, cool, sophisticated, fun.

Frankfurt school (set up in 1923)

Herbert marcuse – author of one dimensional man (1964)

Commodity culture manipulates us and makes us think one dimensionally, it stifles us.

Economy

Subsidizing the media quality

Stereotyping

Positive sides to advertising

It seeks to make people unhappy with existing material possessions.

It potentially manipulates people into buying products that they don’t really want.

It encourages addictive, obsessive and acquisitive behaviour.

It encourages consumers, especially children to want products and brands that they cannot afford causing feelings of inadequacy and envy.

It uses images that encourage us to buy products and brands that have the potential to be unhealthy.

It encourages unnecessary production and consumption therefore depleating the worlds resources.

Seminar notes 18.11.09

2010-03-04T05:45:00.000-08:00

Paris – a city designed to be modern.

The city – the locus of modernity.

Media – new technologies.

Modernity – class divisions – more noticeable, becomes obvious.

Change of working patterns – work takes over your life, free time is rationed.

Time standardized – because of trains.

Novelty.

Modern – to be moder is to be new, cutting edge, contemporary, good, positivity, improvement.

Modernity – the condition of living in the modern. 1790 ish – 1960. Modern society.

Modernism – crosses every genre of society, individuals subjective responses to the modern and modernity.

Alexander cabonel ‘birth of venus’ 1863.

Not a response to modernity, fantastical, kitsch, traditional style, doesn’t aim to be new.

Venus – god of love, flirtatious pose.

Manet ‘olympia’ 1863, doesn’t look.

Clear class divide, shes a prostitute, banned from the salon, shocking, a critique of what art was, challenging pose, strong, experienced woman.

titans venus of urbino 1538. Fantasy of the ideal – male.

Gustav corbet – origin of the world 1866.

Photographic composition, no face, just tits and fanny.

Picassos – les demoiselles d’avignon 1907.

5 prostitues from his favourite brothel, based on African masks he stole, a new style, new aesthetic, inspired by sequential images.

Callibotte – le pont de l’europe 1876.

References new idea of flaneur, shows class divide, the new replacing the old, the bridge revels in its modernity, new technologies, inventions.

Caillebotte – jeune homme (1875)

Caillebotte – a balcony (1880) overlooking the new world.

A style that tries to be new, pointelism, made up of dots.

Spare time is controlled, on a break from the factory in the background.

Degas (1876) l’absinthe.

Underside of modernity, reflection of not all good.

Alfred Stieglitz – ‘the hand of man’ (1902) shows the trains, lifes quicker, seccularisation – mans world now, not gods world.

Negative – look what mans done.

Positive – look how weve changed the world.

Alfred Stieglitz (1903) flatiron building. Controlling nature and dominating.

Giacomo balla – visual attempt to capture the speed of a car going past.

Futurist – key modernist movement.

Gets rid of all the conventional rules of typeography.

A new technique of printing onomatopaic . thought war was the ultimate modern thing.

Herbert bayers san serif typeface – form follows function.

Bauhaus – embraces new technology and materials, practical, functional, impersonal, international.

International language of design that can be understood by anyone.

Modernism in design

Anti historicism

Truth to materials

Form follows function

Technology

Internationalism

3 photographs of things found on travels which are modernist.

Lecture notes 18.11.09

2010-03-04T05:44:00.000-08:00

Graphic design – a medium for the masses

Areas for consideration –

Graphic design versus fine art.

The origins of graphic design.

Graphic design versus advertising.

Graphic design as a tool for capitalism.

Graphic design as a political tool.

Graphic design and postmodernism.

Graphic design and social concience.

Pears soap ad – does just putting type on a painting make it graphic design?

Persuades somebody of something.

Graphic design has an ethic to it.

Henry de Toulouse-lautrec, artist/designer.

Charles rennie macintosh , architect/designer.

Saville Lumley poster – illustrative doesn’t embrace graphics.

Bauhaus – one of the first institutions to teach graphic design, important in cases of typeography, page layout etc.

Art and power Europe as dictators.

Images relate to war.

Collage effect – joseph renau. Simplistic, use of type, striking.

Pere catala I pic – striking.

Abram games, key british graphic designer, celebration of 6yrs since war.

Paul rand – branding capitalism, advert, use of type etc.

Paul rand – iconic logos.

Peter saville – factory records, new order etc.

New order blue Monday, biggest selling 12” of all time.

Neville brody – designer behind the face magazine (1980’s)

David Carson – surfer, American, one day decided to be a graphic designer.

Peter blake – designed st. peppers lonely hearts band cover and band aid do they know its Christmas.

Designers republic – Sheffield based take graphic design as an industry in itself.

Julian house (for intro)

Mark farrow (farrow design)

Spiritualized album – ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space (1997)

Spirit of the age – zeigeist

Jonathon barnbrook – bastard typeface.

Naomi klein – anticorporate writer.

Oliviero toscani – bennetton ads.

Barbara kruger – I shop therefore I am.

Adbusters.

Lecture notes 11-11-09

2010-02-03T03:55:00.000-08:00

Contextual studies lecture 11.11.09

1760 – 1960 – Modernism.

(modernist era)

Modern – to make something new, to make something better.

Project of building, of the new, better.

Progressiveness, positive thinking.

1851 – advent of industrialization.

Image in its day looked new and radical. Considered modern but not modernist, traditional style in a modern era.

Paris – sight of modernity, most advanced city at the time.

Urbanization, idea of the city as a figure, dense, populated, quicker.

Revel in their modernity, built around 1900’s.

Whole world invited to paris in 1889 – exposition.

All buildings created at this time try to be modern, unapologetically, built with modern materials, steel etc. revels in its industriality/modern aesthetics.

Urbanization – shift from the agrarian, from country to the town. As a place for our existence, came to the city for work factory work replacing rural work. Working shifts, changes in communications, roads built, telegraphs, telephones, railway, steam ships. 1912 – world time standardized. Before this lived a carefree life, now being ruled by the clock.

Trottoir roullant – invented for paris exhibition. Women would get skirts stuck in it, people shocked at how quick they could get around the city.

Process of rationality and reason.

Enlightenment = period in late 18^th century when scientific/philosophical thinking made leaps and bounds. When people embrace technology, science, knowledge and ditch the old way of thinking.

Secularization – look at ourselves instead of god.

The city becomes a product of our culture.

The Eiffel tower, dominating, imposing – symbol of modernity.

Impressionists were one of the first artistic movements to paint the city – experience of urbanity – more interested in the modern city.

Haussmanisation

Paris 1850’s on = a new Paris, old Paris architecture of narrow streets and run down housing is ripped out. Haussman (city architect) redesigns Paris. Large boulevards in favour of narrow streets – made streets easier to police = a form of social control.

Also the ‘dangerous’ elements of the W.C were removed.

Subject of images is figure of the city.

Psychologically did have an impact on people, scared them, everything happened so fast. People alienated, reserved.

More about class division now, no sense of community.

Flaneur – talking in the city, walking round showing off their wealth.

Fashion becomes an important communicator of your wealth, of who you are – status symbol.

Shyrat – inventor of pointillism.

The whole idea of life changes – the advent of shift work, spare time arranged around work.

L’absinthe

Modern image of modern life, getting pissed in Paris cos life is so shit.

Kaiser panorama 1883 – another invention of the time. People would pay to look in it and see images of the world, landscapes etc and sometimes even erotica.

Technology and inventions replace our own experiences. Techno fetish.

If we start to think about subjective experience (the experience of the individual in the modern world) we start to come close to the understanding of modern art and the experience of the modern world.

New York

Quintessential modern city, built around a system of grids, blocks. Strange triangular buildings, flatiron. Brings different ways to view.

New technologies give us more understanding into how we work.

Modernism in design

Anti-historicism (attempt to be new, new s better)

Truth to materials (materials speak for themselves)

Form follows function (functional first them form comes from that)

Technology

Internationalism (modernism is a mutual language)

Replicable anywhere, accessible by all.

Anti- historicism – no need to look backwards to older styles.

“ornament is crime” – Adolf loos (1908)

truth to materials – simple geometric forms appropriate.

Bauhaus – the most progressive art school of its time. Interdisciplinary, revolutionary, on the back of modernity. Futura font – created in Bauhaus.

Technology

New materials – concrete, new technologies of steel, plastics, aluminum, reinforced glass.

Mass production – cheaper more widely available products.

Seagram building – mies van der rohe – modernist building, not decorative.

Internationalism

A language of design that could be recognized and understood on an international basis. Utopian aspect of modernism – things should be international.

Herbert Bayer, sans serif typeface, argued for all text to be lower case.

Stanly Morrison (1932) times new roman font.

Fraktur font – Nazi font, referencing medieval, gothic script.

The term modern is not a neutral term – it suggests novelty and improvement.

Modernity (1750-1960) social and cultural experience.

Modernism – the range of ideas and styles that sprang from modernity.

Importance of modernism

1- a vocabulary of styles

2- art and design education

3- idea that form follows function.

Image Analysis exercise task

2009-11-19T08:08:00.000-08:00

'The Uncle Sam Range' (1876) advertising image by Shumacher & Ettlinger, New york

Poster by Saville Lumley (1915)

‘The Uncle Sam Range’ V’s ‘Daddy what did you do in the Great War?’

The choice of font in the advert for the ‘Uncle Sam Range’ is not dissimilar to the text associated with the wild west, it is bold, strong and recognisable as American. The way it is organised suggests granditure and importance and the colour which is a yellow-gold represents wealth, instantly implying that this product is for those who might see themselves as being ‘posher’ than they may actually be.

The font in the Saville Lumley poster is a simple and straight forward no nonsense style, the italic style reflects the question asked in the way it flows and the colour white may suggest innocence from the child who is asking it. Also the underlining of the word you makes the question personal along with the fact that the man in the poster is looking directly at the viewer. The question asked is very ‘matter of fact’ suggesting that everybody goes to war to fight for their country and if they don’t they will be frowned upon.

The purpose of the ‘Uncle Sam Range’ image is to advertise a cooker. The emphasis on the product being aimed at wealthy white Americans is being supported by the use of the colours red, white and blue, giving a positive image to the target audience the image attaches the idea of an American dream to the product. There are many aspects of this image which imply American greatness and the inferiority of the rest of the world, for instance the clock which has the dates 1776 and 1876 on the dial is a celebration of 100 years of American independence and the central figure who is tall and grand in his appearance is meant to be ‘Uncle Sam’ and is modelled on Abraham Lincoln. Also through the window you can see Centenary Hall in Philadelphia. There are stars from the American flag on the carpet and also the children in the image have the words Dixie, West and New England written on their chests. These are all places in America, Dixie being the Deep South, West being the Wild West and of course New England being New England.

The purpose of the Saville Lumley poster is to recruit new people into the Army to help fight against the War. This is done in a very emotionally manipulative way using the children as a catalyst to this. The children are both engaged in activities linked to the War, with one of them seemingly reading a book about the War with her father and the other playing with toy soldiers. This along with the question they are asking almost glorifies the War, making it seem like the right thing to do to go to War and if you do you will come back unscathed and a hero. This poster is very English in its appearance and is designed for the more gentile, educated male whose first choice may not be to go to War. There are red roses on the curtains and the fleur de leys on the chair – both are symbolic of England giving an impression you are fighting for King and Country.

Although the subject matters contained within the images are very different from each other there are also many similarities. Both images are very patriotic in their design with symbols of their Country of origin rife throughout. They are both aimed at middle class white people and both are very manipulative in their approach making the viewer feel that they should buy that cooker or they should go to War and if they don’t they won’t be the person they would like to think they are.