Here are my notes from the sixth lecture Cities and Film on 01/12/2011.
Cities in modernism
An urban sociology
Public and private space
City in postmodernism
Georg Simmel was asked to lecture on the role of the individual in the city but reversed it and wrote about the effect of the city on the individual
Looks at the resistance of the individual to be levelled, swallowed up in the social technological mechanism.
Louis Sullivan - Architect
Creator of the modern skyscraper.
Influential architect and critic of the Chicago School
Guaranty Building
image of building and detailed images
The details are influenced by the arts and craft movement. Can see the natural influence of the plants.
Divided the basement into 4 zones, basement ground level, middle zone is offices, top zone is lift materials and more offices.
It must be every inch proud and souring.
Skyscrapers in the modern city represents the upwardly mobile city of business opportunity.
Charles Scheeler
images
The city is a towering, mechanical presence. Images taken in Detroit as part of a 1.3 million dollar advertising campaign.
Fordism: mechanised labour relations
The human becomes embodied by the machine.
'The eponymous manufacturing system designed to spew out standardised, low-cost goods and afford its workers desin enough wages to buy them'
Stock market crash of 1929
Factories closed, unemployment rises. Leads to the great depression.
Flaneur
Comes from the french masculine noun flåneur.
A person who walks the city to experience it. Suggests that art should capture this experience. A figure who is simultaneously a part and not a part of the crowd. Just there to observe peoples actions and reactions.
Walter Benjamin
Adopts the concept of the urban observer as an analytical tool and as a lifestyle as seen in his writings.
Photographer as Flaneur
Flaneuse
Female version of the flaneur.
The invisible flåneuse.
Susan Buck-Morss
Suggests that typically what we think of when we think of a woman alone on a street is either a bad lady or a hooker.
Arbus/Hopper
2 images
Distanced observed moment of a lady alone in a bar. A sense of threat, the darkness on the right has a depth to it. The representation of the darkness is represented as the head and shoulders of the dark clinging on to her.
What we get is an observed moment, just before or just after something that has or will happen. Something where our imagination has to fill in the gaps.
Sophie Calle
Creates a photographic piece of work where the person has a relation to the city. Followed strangers on the street and took photos of them without them knowing.
4 images
She creates an experience that is somewhere between stalking and a love affair. Creates a relationship between herself and the man she follows.
The act of following encourages this obsessive reflection.
Venice
Labyrinth of streets and alleyways. Somewhere that would be easy to get lost, but because it's small it's easy enough to end up back to where you began.
Don't Look Now - the story of a couple who travel to venice to recover from the death of a child. The woman in haunted by a figure in a red cape that glides around the city. Every time she sees the figure it disappears. Trauma of grief.
Calle - The Detective
image
Gets her mum to hire a secret detective to follow her. To document her existence in note form. Wanted to take him to places in Paris she loves and what not. Leads on a journey creating a kind of relationship between the two. A story written by her documented by the detective.
Cindy Sherman
Looks at the figure of the woman in the city - stereotypical. The woman is in some sense almost lost or trapped by the city. Low angled view points, looming presence of the skyscrapers in the characters behind in the cities.
image of back of the aoman
Weegee (Arthur Felig)
Dark side of the lowers east side of New York. He developed his work by following the emergency services and documenting their services. He persues the incident as they happen, develop the photos and take straight to the press.
images of people on floor
The Naked City
LA Noire
Based on the idea that is found in the naked city. Set in 1947.
The street and anything that happens on the street is available for artistic consumption.
Postmodernism in the modern city
9/11 Citizen journalism
The end of the flaneur?
Impossible to become a detached flaneur. The body in the city is also destroyed in a mental capacity.
Different aestetic. Returns photography to it's original use. Returning to the idea of citizen journalism.
Further research list available on the powerpoint.
Thursday, 1 December 2011
Thursday, 24 November 2011
Lecture 5 - The Gaze and The Media
Here are my notes from the fifth lecture The Gaze and The Media on 24/11/2011.
'according to usage and conventions which are at last being questioned but have by no means been overcome - men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at' - Berger
Woman carry around an idea of being looked at - not vanity, proliferation of images.
The word vanity is used as some sort of sinful regard to oneself.
image of woman on bed
lost in thought, lost in a moment of reverie and this allows us to look at her without the challenge of her looking back at us. Her body is arranged in a fairly low view point, the main focus is between her legs but thats ok because of the mirror.
babys flying image
Depict the female figure in a reclining position. She's raised her hand which partly covers her eyes. This gesture suggests either just woke from sleep or just going to sleep. This position allows us to look at her body.
image laying on back
Sophie Dahl for Opium - withdrawn because of its overt use of nudity. The naked body takes up 3/4 of the image and the rest is where we rest our gaze.
portrait version
This version of the advert was allowed and the only change really is the image has been rotated. With the vertical image there's more emphasis on the face rather than the body.
girl on bed
Woman looking in an inviting way, so is looking directly at us from the image. Welthy woman who has servants in the background. Knows we are there looking and allows us to do so.
image of woman in bed with black behind
This image was painted during modernism, so this one has a modern view. Slightly elevated on the cushions and uses hands to cover area, but position is more assertive and endorses the likeness of a wealthy woman, not a hooker. Servant offering flowers but she is turned away disregarding which suggests they are from one of her lovers.
gorialla girls poster
Do women have to be naked to get into the met. museum? Was cancelled because the fan was taken as more than just a fan and suggested other things.
girl in bar
gentleman is stood face to face with the barmaid, this is represented through the mirror. We are also in front of the barmaid also seeing what he sees. The mirror reflection is a distorted reflection as we wouldn't see it if this was real life as the reflections would be directly behind the woman. Womans gesture is approachable suggesting she is ready to wait on us.
mirror image
Reinterpreted the previous image. No hidden device. The camera is directly in the centre of the image. We are in the middle section, the woman on the left and artist on the right.
The camera in contemporary media has been put to use as an extension of the male gaze at women on the street. - Coward, R. (1984)
hello boys
Wonder bra ad. The link between the text and image, either the woman is saying 'hello boys', although she isn't looking at us she is looking down at herself, at her cleavage, her own body. Imagine it huge above a street, she is looking down on the people below the billboard.
Coward also looks at voyeurism, Peeping Tom, character with the camera spies on women and lures them to his apartment then records himself killing them. Obsessive take on women. Perversion.
image of guy
Underwear advert of male in the reclining pose the same as the previous looked at ones in paintings. He has his eyes closed, so we are able to look at his body in the same way.
d&g ad
From 2007. We see here a display of male strength, sport, the male body. Obsession with the cult of health. Every single guy returns the gaze in the image.
Ideas about the gaze comes from Laura Mulby's theory of the gaze. She looks at the cinema from the 1950's. The framing focuses on the areas that allows us to look at and be pleasurable to see. The body is an object for consumption.
Freud referred to the pleasure in looking at other peoples bodies being pleasurable. Mulby suggests that the cinema allows for more closer look into the bodies that are being displayed on screen. Pleasure in looking has been split between active male looking and female role.
beheading image
There's also a tradition in art history that suggests that the woman is passive. This image reverses these roles by beheading the man.
Women are 'marginalised within the masculine discourses of art history'
'I shop, therefore I am'.
is it her that did the 2 fried eggs and a kebab sculpture? its minging either way
polaroid money
Self portrait of her 'stuffing money in herself'. The idea of the body replicates a pornographic pose. The idea of women making money from their art.
Reality Television
Appears to offer us the position as the all-seeing eye- the power of the gaze
Allows us a voyeuristic passive consumption
Turning voyeurism is turning this into an everyday activity. Contestants are performing for us to watch. Is it really real?
Looking is not indifferent. There can never be any question of 'just looking'.
'according to usage and conventions which are at last being questioned but have by no means been overcome - men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at' - Berger
Woman carry around an idea of being looked at - not vanity, proliferation of images.
The word vanity is used as some sort of sinful regard to oneself.
image of woman on bed
lost in thought, lost in a moment of reverie and this allows us to look at her without the challenge of her looking back at us. Her body is arranged in a fairly low view point, the main focus is between her legs but thats ok because of the mirror.
babys flying image
Depict the female figure in a reclining position. She's raised her hand which partly covers her eyes. This gesture suggests either just woke from sleep or just going to sleep. This position allows us to look at her body.
image laying on back
Sophie Dahl for Opium - withdrawn because of its overt use of nudity. The naked body takes up 3/4 of the image and the rest is where we rest our gaze.
portrait version
This version of the advert was allowed and the only change really is the image has been rotated. With the vertical image there's more emphasis on the face rather than the body.
girl on bed
Woman looking in an inviting way, so is looking directly at us from the image. Welthy woman who has servants in the background. Knows we are there looking and allows us to do so.
image of woman in bed with black behind
This image was painted during modernism, so this one has a modern view. Slightly elevated on the cushions and uses hands to cover area, but position is more assertive and endorses the likeness of a wealthy woman, not a hooker. Servant offering flowers but she is turned away disregarding which suggests they are from one of her lovers.
gorialla girls poster
Do women have to be naked to get into the met. museum? Was cancelled because the fan was taken as more than just a fan and suggested other things.
girl in bar
gentleman is stood face to face with the barmaid, this is represented through the mirror. We are also in front of the barmaid also seeing what he sees. The mirror reflection is a distorted reflection as we wouldn't see it if this was real life as the reflections would be directly behind the woman. Womans gesture is approachable suggesting she is ready to wait on us.
mirror image
Reinterpreted the previous image. No hidden device. The camera is directly in the centre of the image. We are in the middle section, the woman on the left and artist on the right.
The camera in contemporary media has been put to use as an extension of the male gaze at women on the street. - Coward, R. (1984)
hello boys
Wonder bra ad. The link between the text and image, either the woman is saying 'hello boys', although she isn't looking at us she is looking down at herself, at her cleavage, her own body. Imagine it huge above a street, she is looking down on the people below the billboard.
Coward also looks at voyeurism, Peeping Tom, character with the camera spies on women and lures them to his apartment then records himself killing them. Obsessive take on women. Perversion.
image of guy
Underwear advert of male in the reclining pose the same as the previous looked at ones in paintings. He has his eyes closed, so we are able to look at his body in the same way.
d&g ad
From 2007. We see here a display of male strength, sport, the male body. Obsession with the cult of health. Every single guy returns the gaze in the image.
Ideas about the gaze comes from Laura Mulby's theory of the gaze. She looks at the cinema from the 1950's. The framing focuses on the areas that allows us to look at and be pleasurable to see. The body is an object for consumption.
Freud referred to the pleasure in looking at other peoples bodies being pleasurable. Mulby suggests that the cinema allows for more closer look into the bodies that are being displayed on screen. Pleasure in looking has been split between active male looking and female role.
beheading image
There's also a tradition in art history that suggests that the woman is passive. This image reverses these roles by beheading the man.
Women are 'marginalised within the masculine discourses of art history'
'I shop, therefore I am'.
is it her that did the 2 fried eggs and a kebab sculpture? its minging either way
polaroid money
Self portrait of her 'stuffing money in herself'. The idea of the body replicates a pornographic pose. The idea of women making money from their art.
Reality Television
Appears to offer us the position as the all-seeing eye- the power of the gaze
Allows us a voyeuristic passive consumption
Turning voyeurism is turning this into an everyday activity. Contestants are performing for us to watch. Is it really real?
Looking is not indifferent. There can never be any question of 'just looking'.
Thursday, 10 November 2011
Lecture 4 - Critical positions on the media and popular culture
Here are my notes from the fourth lecture Critical positions on the media and popular culture on 10/11/2011.
Aims
Aims
- critically define 'popular culture'
- contrast ideas of 'culture' with 'popular culture' and 'mass culture'
- introduce cultural studies and critical theory
- discuss culture as ideology
- interrogate the social function of popular culture
What is culture?
Gain culture - they grow and as they grow they gain culture - the process of general emancipation
A way of living - a certain subculture, values, attitudes, certain ways of thinking about the world.
Global cultures - thinking globally.
It can be used to describe a cannon of really important artworks or type of literature, i.e Shakespeare, Beethoven.
A marx's reading of culture is that you have a particular class/relations, and because of these relations a superstructure forms ideology.
boat image
Culture emerges from the base, then culture almost legitimises and makes possible the relation of base production.
Culture could be a site of political conflict.
Popular culture
If you think about popular culture instead of culture, you get different answers. Theres 4 answers for this all of which are different.
1. The idea of popular culture as an idea of something that is popularly measured. The problem with this is that it leads to confused results.
2. Different but most common is that popular culture is a somewhat inferior form of culture, work that is mass produced as opposed to individually produced. Works that aspire to be important but for various reasons they fail.
3. Anything that aims to be populist comes under popular culture.Work that is easy and for the people is easy and less important. There's an elitism.
4. Culture that's made by people for themselves. By the people for the people. The working class popular culture would be brass bands.
Inferior or Residual Culture
- popular press vs quality press
- popular cinema vs art cinema
- popular entertainment vs art culture
The reason why we question wether something is good or bad comes from the fact that we're coded to think and accept certain things - to do this is flawed.
There are different levels to popular culture, and the dynamics.
Prior to modernity and urbanisation, society had a modern culture on top of a shared common culture. The first time this changes is with industrialisation and urbanisation, people are condensed together but aso physically separated. Where these people now start to live when industrialisation comes in to action the classes get really separated, working class, elite, etc.
You get a physical distinction between the rich and the poor. This starts to create a cultural separation. Classes then start to create their own culture forms, and activities- such as drinking, playing piano. They find their own form of literature and music.
This starts to emerge a working class voice/working class culture. Before this moment in charge of setting what was important culturally was the ruling class. Now there is two voices competing against each other.
Massing people together gets them to start thinking about how their culture should be, writing new ones.
Culture and Anarchy - M Arnold (1867)
He tried to define what culture was. The book's about him defining what culture is. 'The best that has been thought and said in the world'. He explains how one gains culture by the perceit of culture.Culture is the force that can minister the diseased spirit of our times - meaning the opposite to culture. Anarchy, that has its own voice heard. If we teach them how to respect our culture, they can be welcomed in, but if they start to develop their own then its classed as anarchy.
These theories start to emerge when the control of the working class starts to be questioned.
Leavisism- F.R Leavis & Q.D Leavis
- still forms a kind of repressed, common sense attitude to popular culture in this country.
Throughout the 20th Century, we have seen a dumbing down of culture. A cultural decline. 'Culture has always been in minority keeping'.
It's a form of snobbery that can still be seen now in attitudes towards popular culture - such as attitudes towards x factor and big brother, the snobbery in the way that people just dismiss these programmes emerges from Arnold and Leavis. They have an agenda.
Frankfurt School
Theodore Adorno & Max Horkheimer
'the culture industry'
At this time there was the start of mass production in America.
Frankfurt School
Herbert Marcuse
Thursday, 3 November 2011
Lecture 3 - Marxism & Design Activism
Here are my notes from the third lecture Marxism and Design Activism on 03/11/2011.
Aims
Aims
- to introduce a critical definition of ideology
- to introduce some of the basic principles of Marxist philosophy
- to explain the extent to which the media constitutes us as a subject
- to introduce 'culture jamming' and the idea of design activism
What can designers do to change the world that we live in or alter the situation that we find ourselves in?
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it" - Marx, K. (1845) 'Theses On Feuerbach.
Praxis - a unification of thought and action.
Marxism is: was both a political manifesto which outlines what Marx saw as a better way of organising society, and described the road to achieving that. As well as politics describes how workers will always be in conflicts. A physiological method. It lead to the rise of the soviet union.
What is Capitalism?: This is the stage of which we live in, the society in which we live in. It's a society where control of the means of production is held by a few individuals, therefore a few individuals makes loads of money.Everyone else works for these individuals. Everything is bought and sold. People are commodities in the way of shoes. Our interactions evolve around the logic of a market. It's a system which makes us compete, and says that if you end up at the top of society it's probably because you deserve to be. Compete against each other for grades, jobs, etc.
The evolution of humanity
1. Primitive Communism - society would change and hierarchies would emerge
2. Slave Society - someone had something someone else didn't
3. Feudalism - develop the ruling class
4. Capitalism - capitalists are the ruling class
5. Socialism - people will gain class consciousness, overthrow the capitalists and take control over the state.
6. Communism - people who own the ability to own money
The materialist conception of society.
Marx argues that society can be broke into teo sections - first is economic, the base. At any given moment society will have certain technology/tools/skills etc. This has relations of production, and develops things like employer and employee sides. Certain relations emerge.
Everything is a result of the forces of production and everything that surrounds that production.
Everything can be traced back to issues of class, gender politics, racial polotics. Anything can be read as a certain political attitude.
Capitalism produces laws, culture, politics, education, art that reflects that attitude.
pic of boat
The base determines the content and form of the superstructure which then reflects the form of and legitimises the base, and so on.
Education - the base are ones of bosses and workers, the boss telling the worker what to do. The education emerges. This then makes people think where workplace relations where the boss is like do this, do that is acceptable.
house image
We're forced into situations that we don't really have control of.
image of pyraid thing
The ruling class.
Ideology - it has a double meaning. One can have an ideology of beliefs. The way in which a certain system of ideas distorts the power of relations, through creation of 'false consciousness'. We don't understand things the way we could, but how could we. We wouldn't let it happen.
Ideology usually emerges from the ruling class, and represents their world view. The exploited class then start to think that this is also their world view.
There's all sorts of forms of ideology.
- Art is about one persons expression, yet it's never been like that. In classical art, the only people allowed to be artists were the people who could afford to be educated, so you had to be rich.
- Women weren't allowed to be artists, just white rich men making art.
- A culture is then developing by rich people for rich people.
- Looking at art and thinking about art can influence you into thinking the way that the artist wants you to think.
image of gorilla woman
Ideology is not just something produced by society, but also a relation.
Theres various different apparatus in society.
Education isn't about freeing you up, it's about training you up to turn how how you're expected to be.
All media outlets are owned by super rich people, and what the media does is reflect ideology that is in the world already and creates a false consciousness.
Monday, 31 October 2011
Lecture 2 - Technology will liberate us
Here are my notes from the second lecture Technology will liberate us on 20/10/2011.
Summary
Summary
- technological conditions can affect the collective consciousness
- technology trigger important changes in cultural development
- Walter Benjamin's essay 'The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction' (1936) significantly evaluates the role of technology through photography as an instrument of change.
Task
- draw a doodle - original
- faithfully copy this - copy
- and again... - reproductions
- and again - reproductions
A reproductions can either be a work in its own right, or merely an image representation of the original.
The relationship between art, design and media is born from this scenario. Who is copying who?
The transformation between that is the relationship between art, media and design.
Machine Age; Modernism
Walter Benjamin and mechanical reproduction - wrote some critical essays but his work was never completed due to him committing suicide after the war.
- the age of technology of art
- parallel and specific to new developments; a duality expressing the zeitgeist
- dialectical due to the copy, reproductive nature and the role of the original
- the aura and uniqueness of art
On encountering an original work, there is an ora that is distinct from anything that is then reproduced or copied.
Photography is at the beginning of this technological relationship between art and design.
The camera eye is still one of fascination as it can come from a number of points - not just your perception or what you see, it can be used for multiple viewing points.
The camera eye has a variable gaze, and a new consciousness conveys and represents technological progress and the faith within it.
Photograms - the early experiments with technology and photography
Benjamins provokes two strands of thoughts which have then been explored by Freud and Marx
Marx brings about that an understanding of technology and how it is a work of art.
Once art and design enter modes of production and consumerism, the values of it can be changed.
A copy of something onto something can increase its value - up for reinterpretation.
Margo Lovejoy - photography has overturned a seat of art. Form of aesthetic. Technology moves something into a new context, therefore meaning the value of it becomes under question.
Freud - What the material aspect of how it can express our deepest unconscious.
Films can play with our subconscious and deepest desires. The material way at looking at the developments of technology.
Kineticism - the idea of capturing movement.
The pre curser of cinema photography. Exploring how we pursue space. The understanding of space and time begins a whole dialogue of de materialism of art and design.
Once you start to look at the moving image, it starts to move away from form and object. Once you move into just image, you can replicate and reform it. With photography becomes the de materialism of art and design.
Dadaism is clearly using technology to produce image. Instead, with photography and technology, images and objects are ordered and coded and styled. This is the beginning of the development of art and design merging together- how you code and replicate and style and order it can be resting in either the context of art or context or design or both. It is why you see design increasingly from this period within art.
Marx is associated with the term technological determinism. He believes there is a logical relationship between economical reproduction and social existence. He sees it as a role and tool for progress, and also a tool for alienation.
The main issues Marx discusses -
- technology drives history,
- technology and the division of labour,
- materialist view of history,
- technology and capitalism and production,
- social alienation of people from aspects of their human nature as a result of capitalism,
Electronic Age; Postmodernism
Post modern and post machine - as we move into it, many electronic works were still made with modern aesthetic, the emergence of information and conceptual based works, the computer has become a centre in both art and design, there is an openness to industrial techniques, and collaborations between art and science.
We consumer the technology, and in term develop new techniques - everything becomes that much more image and illusion based.
Boundaries are broken between different forms of medial and subjects.
Simulation and Simulacrum
- It is the reflection of a profound reality
- It masks and denatures a profound reality
- It masks the absence of a profound reality
- It has no relation to any reality whatsoever; it is it's own pure simulacrum
- - Jean Baudrillard (1981)
Whats to say by reproducing an image doesn't make it a object/form in its own right? What do we call original and what do we call copy? It is a reflection of a profound reality, masks and absence of reality. Becomes a reality in it's own right. It's confusing, because it's all to do with what is virtual and what is not.
What is a reality and what isn't a reality?
The word of mouth masks the absence - we take it as real, we take it as factual because it's what we hear.
Nam June Paik
The illusion of power.
John Walker and art and mass media; Art in the age of mass media (2001)
- art uses mass media (1990 - 2000)
- Art in advertisements
- The artist as media celebrity
Digital Age
Margot Lovejoy; Digital Currents
- digital potential leads to multimedia productions
- technological reduction of all images so they are addressed by the computer
- new contexts
Multimedia work
- interactivity
- performance
- transdisciplinary
- time, space and motion explored in art and as art
- collaborations
- computer as a tool for integrating that media
Colclusion
- art comments on the ideology of every day life
- art can be expressive of progressive
- technological tools can blur the line between production of fine art works and commercial and design production
Seminar Notes - Panopticism
Notes from seminar on 17/10/2011.
Review of Panopticism lecture.
Panopticon - Jeremy Bentham, design for building, 1971, used for prisons, schools, hospitals, institutions.
Constant visibility/invisibility - institutional gaze
Self discipline - depersonalises
Self regulating
Isolation - like a laboratory, experiment
Individualising the experience increases psychological actions
Binary division - eg mad/sane
Productive - concentrate harder, no talking, got to work
Seek to correct unproductive behaviour
Make people insane to make them sane
Under surveillance
Shift from physical to mental discipline - modern disciplinary society
Society where social control is woven into every kind of existence
Examples of Panopticism
Review of Panopticism lecture.
Panopticon - Jeremy Bentham, design for building, 1971, used for prisons, schools, hospitals, institutions.
Constant visibility/invisibility - institutional gaze
Self discipline - depersonalises
Self regulating
Isolation - like a laboratory, experiment
Individualising the experience increases psychological actions
Binary division - eg mad/sane
Productive - concentrate harder, no talking, got to work
Seek to correct unproductive behaviour
Make people insane to make them sane
Under surveillance
Shift from physical to mental discipline - modern disciplinary society
Society where social control is woven into every kind of existence
Examples of Panopticism
- Facebook - performance of yourself behaving how you think someone else wants you to present yourself to the world
- Schools
- Hospitals
- Media
- Advertising - shows images of 'perfect' life all the time. should look/should act? makes people not comfortable with who you are, correct body for someone else
Dosile Body - easily trained, controlled
Power - power is a relationship A > B
- school teacher has control over a class rather than its more
- a <-> b
- only exists because they allow it
- students sit quiet let themselves be controlled
Affects the controllers as well as the controlled
Thursday, 13 October 2011
Lecture 1 - Panoptcism
The ways in which our society controls and disciplines people.
Complex institutional framework.
- think about the way the way we, artists, designers, makers, our ideas are not only produced by us independently.
- before we get to the creative act determines what we produce.
Panopticon is an allergry of social control.
<image of panopticon>
This, as a building, has the same principles of controls as our society has the same principles of control.
Michael Foucault (1926 - 1984)
- philosopher
- activist
Two of his works
- madness & civilisation
- discipline & punish: the birth of the prison
These both survey the rise of madness and civilisation, and social control.
Discipline. Punishment. Madness.
Madness & Civilisation
- madness is different socially
- mad people were incorporated into society
- part of society
Towards the 1600's - a different attitude starts to emerge
- moral attitude
- those who 'weren't useful' were stigmatised
- 'the great confinement' - houses of correction
- everyone who weren't socially productive were thrown in.
- the insane
- criminals
- poor and unemployed
- single mothers
- idle - people considered lazy
Take those who aren't productive and force them to be productive with violence.
- the error was that it corrupted people more
- the insane made the sane more deviant
- specialist institutions start to emerge
- a different between sane and insane start to emerge
Inside the asylum, the inmates are controlled in different ways.
- treated like children/minors
- if they do well they get a reward
- important shift
- society realise there's a better way to control people
- mentally rather than physically
All sorts of knowledge emerge
- they legitimise these institutions
- this mental source of social control represents from someone else being in control of your own behaviour to you being in control of your own behaviour.
Those who were deviants, were seen to by social embarrassment.
- to show if anyone chooses not to obey they will also be socially humiliated
Guy Falks
image
Quote under image.
Not to correct his behaviour, but to make an example of it. That anyone who dares to confront the king will be treated the same and have the same punishment
- made to scare people off the thought of even considering it
Disciplinary Society and Disciplinary Power
- modern discipline - making us useful for society
The Panopticon
- designed by Jeremy Bentham - proposed 1791
- could be a school, hospital, asylum, prison
Modern one is build in Cuba.
image of it
Another modern one in the states
image of this
The panopticon - the ideal mechanism of gaining power and control
- each prisoner in their cell constantly see the central tower so they know they are being watched, but can't see each other.
- the central tower wasn't lit so the prisoners couldn't tell if they were actually being watched
- knowing you are/might be watched has a peculiar effect
- it internalises the individual
- always behave in the way you feel you should whilst being watched
- gives immediate power
- once you accept you're always being watched the people start to control themselves
- keep themselves disciplined
- resulted in not even needing guards to control it because the people just control themselves.
image of in cell
People controlling themselves rather than being controlled
- don't need any physical way of controlling people, just mental
Faucault Quote, 1975
The institutions were used for a variety of purposes.
- the had the function of laboratories
- they used to measure things like performance and contrast
- allows scrutiny
- allows supervisor to experiment on subjects
- aim to make them productive
This lecture theatre is designed to make us learn more productively
- we can only really talk to people to left and right of us where as Richard can see us all
- the way we are arranged are most productive
- allows him to survey us
- make us more useful and do what he wants us to do
- reforms prisoners
- helps treats patients
- helps instruct school children
- helps confine, but also study the insane
New mode of disciplinary power - Panopticism
- don't just want to punish those who don't do what we say - correct and punish them
- surveillance of bodied/people
- about training people
- getting people to train themselves the way you want them to be trained
Constantly visible
- easier to be caught out
Open plan office
- not just a trendy design
- efficient system for the bosses
- allows the boss to constantly see what the workers are doing
- the fact you know you can be constantly seen makes you not because you know you can be caught out
- the boss can just be sat there as a visible reminder
The Office
- film crew following main character around
- he knows he is constantly being filmed
- he modifies his behaviour
- put on a face of being the perfect boss
- just the idea of being watched caused him to change his behaviour
You are acting in a way you think a correct citizen is supposed to act.
- behaviour conditioned by all sorts of factors
Right now
- monitored
- registered
- grade
- can be seen
Library
- automatically know you have to control yourself in a library
- same with art galleries
- just know you have to be quiet
- perfectly behaved, despite what like out of it
Modern Bars
- open plan
- change from being intimate to spaces where you now you're being watched
- walk into a modern bar feeling less atmosphere
- everyone is watching you
- spaces are much easier to control
CCTV
- most obvious example
- another example is Google Maps
- photos of streets
- personal levels of own homes are available to everyone
- another way to get caught out?
Lives are recorded
- everything that we do is recorded
- fear of being caught out
- resulting in more productive, well behaved people
Not just physical places, or the design of places
- fundamentally, for it to have an effect it relies on you being visible and knowing that you're being monitored
A register is not just a record, but it's also a panoptic sign to be monitored
- our knowledge of ourselves goes into Richards hands
Don't question it, just cooperate to not raise any awareness to wether would be doing something wrong
Security cameras are usually revealed to visibly instruct people that they have to behave, not to catch them out
Some just put as a reminder that you could be caught out, but not actually set to catch you out - speed cameras, etc
The fact in college how staff have red cards and we have blue cards controls us, and gives us a status of power. If you see someone you don't know with a red card, you would immediately act more appropriately.
It's not just a form of mental control, there's a direct relationship between mental control and physical control. These power relationships control our bodies and forces us to act in a certain way and has physical responses. We become docile bodies - self monitoring, self-correcting, obedient bodied. Docile bodies in the terms that we won't repel. Makes ur work harder and come in when were supposed to, etc.
The whole keeping healthy thing
- not just keeping healthy, but also to endure people work harder and better
- people are living longer so expected to work longer and harder because they are healthier
- constant physical reminder that our bodies are constantly on display
- no one makes you go to they gym and fret about how you look, you do it to yourself. You make yourself anxious.
Everyone watches telly, but it's like a metaphor for the panopticon, fixed forward watching something centrally.
Foucault and Power
- definition is not a top-down model as wth Marxism
- power is not a thing or a capacity people have - it's a relation between different individuals and groups and only exists when it's exercised.
- the exercise of power relies on there being the capacity for power to be resisted
- there there is power there is resistance.
Facebook - everything you post is recorded by everyone who can see it. You control what you post, put on an act of yourself for others. A form of control - must announce to people things like relationship changed, and can actually loose jobs over it as there is always someone somewhere watching.
There is always something controlling our actions.
Things to go away with today
- Michael Foucault
- panopticism as a form of discipline
- techniques of the body
- docile bodies
Level 05 - Briefing
14 lectures - Thursdays 11:00am
Seminars - Group 2 1:00pm - 3:00pm
We will be split into 4 groups then we will have a seminar every 2 weeks.
Private study - 120 hours / 20 credits
2 hours reading per lecture
10 hours seminar development
20 hours essay development
60 hours e-learning
bagd-10cts.blogspot.com
CTS Blog
- lectures
- tasks
- exhibition visits
- essay
- independant research
- CTS crit documentations
- links to practical work
- make links to own GD work / friends / others
741.6 library
Introduction to Communication Studies - John Fisce
23rd January - essay deadline
Seminars - Group 2 1:00pm - 3:00pm
We will be split into 4 groups then we will have a seminar every 2 weeks.
Private study - 120 hours / 20 credits
2 hours reading per lecture
10 hours seminar development
20 hours essay development
60 hours e-learning
bagd-10cts.blogspot.com
CTS Blog
- lectures
- tasks
- exhibition visits
- essay
- independant research
- CTS crit documentations
- links to practical work
- make links to own GD work / friends / others
741.6 library
Introduction to Communication Studies - John Fisce
23rd January - essay deadline
Monday, 28 March 2011
Essay and Bibliography - Resubmission
'Advertising doesn't sell things; all advertising does is change the way people think or feel.' (Jeremy Bullmore). Evaluate this statement with reference to selected theoretical theories.
Advertising is a common form of communication, set out with intentions to persuade a selected target audience to generate a sense of need for what is being advertised: whether it’s a brand, service or product. Jeremy Bullmore raises a thought-provoking point with his statement expressing his opinion on how he considers advertising to work:
…”Advertising doesn’t sell things; all advertising does is change the way people think or feel”…
More often than not, advertising relies on endorsing its audience with the impression that along with this product if you purchase it, your life will automatically be more like this ‘ideal’ lifestyle, or you will fit in more within the genre of people that is represented throughout its advertising campaign – thus leaving the impression that the main focus of an advertisement is to focus on promoting the lifestyle, rather than the actual product. They do this by making them envy what it possesses, leaving them with the feeling that what they already have is inadequate in comparison – therefore leaving them wanting to purchase it.
…”Advertising’s central function is to create desire that previously did not exist. Thus advertising arouses our interests and emotions in favor of goods and more goods…it is thus the advertiser’s task to try to persuade rather than inform.”… (Dyer, 1982, p6)
The advertiser sets out with intentions of creating a branding for a product that usually involves the repetition of an image, message or product name, which should in time create an idea of related qualities to the brand in the mind of the audience. An interesting example of this is the message that Dove allocates to their soap for women with dry skin, promising to ‘leave your skin soft and smooth – without the dry feeling caused by soap’ (Ogilvy, 1995, p12). This promise was first allocated to the product over 25 years ago by copywriter David Ogilvy, and is still used within their advertising campaigns today – along with other promises such as the ability to firm skin, quoting in one of their more recent ads ‘Let’s face it. Firming the thighs of a size 8 supermodel is no challenge’ (Williams, 2010, p47).
One thing that is vital when advertising agencies begin any new projects is to research: to fully understand what it is they are promoting. Most times the client would provide a sufficient amount of research relevant to what they are wanting, but then it is down to the advertisers to fill in the gaps: to look at the more meticulous details about the product to generate ‘a clear understanding of the brands current position’ such as what the consumers already ‘actually think about the product, as opposed to what the client believes that they think’ (Ogilvy, 1995, p9). This way it ensures the campaign can be as effective as possible.
…”Now comes research among consumers. Find out how they think about your kind of product, what language they use when they discuss the subject, what attributes are important to them, and what promise would be likely to make them buy your brand.”… (Ogilvy, 1995, p12)
As well as the research aspect, the message that the campaign is going to have is decided upon within the early stages to give it more of a directed focus: therefore proving that the main intention within the campaign is to create envy towards it (Wikipedia, 2011, online). This entails them to consider factors such as the target audience it is intended to appeal to, and the background of them and so on.
What’s interesting is the people’s choice of what brand they ‘choose’ to consume from a variety of different ones, all fundamentally for the same product.
…”Take Whiskey. Why do some people choose Jack Daniels, while others choose Grand Dad or Taylor? Have they tried all three and compared the taste? Don’t make me laugh. The reality is that these three brands have different images which appeal to different kinds of people. It isn’t the Whiskey they choose, it’s the image. The brand image is 90 per cent of what the distiller has to sell.”… (Ogilvy, 1995, p15)
Looking at the advertising for two different brands of lager: such as Carling and Budweiser, it is apparent that a similar thing happens with their advertising strategies. They both are proud of the countries that they originate from and this reflects well within their ads, and each have a distinct audience they want to target.
Carling is a British lager that derived from the mid 1900’s after a team of British Brewers came together and discovered a way of involving the flavor of ale with the refreshment of continental lager. It is made from ‘only the best British barley’ (Molson Coors Brewing Company Ltd, 2011, online), and is proud to have this as the main aspect of one of their recent advertising campaigns.
Budweiser is an American lager, ‘perfected in 1876’ by Adolphus Busch. This exact recipe, brewing process and taste has remained the same for more than 133 years, and will be staying the same for a long time as they believe this is what has made the product so successful (Anheuser-Busch, 2010, online). The fact that the lager is American reflects clearly throughout their advertisements with it coming across to the audience that the brand is better and brighter than others, which is also a good representation of something American.
After watching a recent television advert for these brands, the target audience that they are reaching towards is apparent, and quite distinct from each others. The Carling advert has a group of English friends in their twenties out together in the middle of no where, with one providing the Carling from the nearest source – this insists their target audience is adults who like to have a laugh, go out to have a good time and stick together. Where as the Budweiser advert is of a hectic stadium of people all having an exciting time together; which insists their target audience is the type of person who likes to be in the middle of the action and not miss out on something ‘amazing’.
Throughout the whole thirty seconds of the Budweiser advert, apart from the general noise from the stadium, there is no voice at any point that says anything about the product. There is just the end where the logo appears on the screen and underneath it has the strapline ‘this is beer’ for the viewer to read. By doing this, as well as having thousands of people all together in a huge place suggests that the product is that successful and popular it can speak for itself with its quality and status. Having the stadium so busy and showing that everyone is having a good time suggests that by drinking Budweiser it brings all sorts of people together as though it has its own community or is in a league of its own. This is then endorsing the audience with the thought that they could also be involved in something as amazing as this – if they drink this lager, and creates desire and envy for wanting this sort of life, and to be there in the middle of what is happening amongst the rest of the targeted audience. The imagery shows the crowd all in sync holding coloured boards above their heads each in the right order so that when it is seen from above, it shows a Budweiser bottle being opened and poured into a glass, and after being drank. Immediately thereafter the whole crowd at once throw their heads back with huge grins on their faces doing somewhat over enthusiastic ‘ahhh’ sounds that people make after finishing a very satisfying, refreshing drink they enjoyed.
Unlike this, the Carling advert is more relaxed by having just a few close friends in the middle of a dessert with the weather conditions being very hot, and one of them goes out of his way to find them a lager. He then returns to find he has forgotten one and insists on going back for another, suggesting that Carling is worth all the time and effort, as well as connoting the fact that people who drink it stick together and would do anything for each other, no matter what the situation is. The whole scene could be adapted as a metaphor of a situation that could happen anywhere in the world, and can always be made better being with your closest friends drinking Carling. The end of the advert has the sentence ‘You know who your mates are’, followed by the logo and strapline saying ‘Tastes great, every sip of the way’. Even by this it shows that Carling are intending on aiming their advertising towards someone who values their friendships, and by having Carling as a common interest amongst them ensures these friendships will stay strong and stick together. What Carling is promising to its target audience and generating envy towards in order to promote their brand is solid friendships with those that matter, as well as the enjoyment of a well-needed refreshing drink anywhere in the world.
In all, it is believed that advertisings main purpose is to influence its targeted audience into feeling the desire to purchase the product being advertised, by making them envy the status and lifestyle it embodies. It is agreeable with what Bullmore articulates; that fundamentally all it does is ‘changes the way people think or feel’, but in order for someone to purposely go out of their way to buy a particular product does usually originate from feelings in the first place, but without this raises the question as to whether advertising would work at all without these feeling involved.
Bibliography
Anheuser-Busch, 2010. Budweiser. [online] Available at:< http://www.budweiser.com/public/agecheck.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fen%2fdefault.aspx&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1#/en/index> [Accessed 15th January 2011].
Burtenshaw, K. Mahon, N and Barfoot, C, 2006. The Fundamentals of Creative Advertising. Case Postale: AVA Publishing SA.
Dooley, R, 2009. Emotional Ads Work Best. Neuromarketing. [blog] 27th July. Available at:< http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/emotional-ads-work-best.htm> [Accessed 15th January 2011].
Dyer, G, 1986. Advertising as Communication. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd.
Hanson, D J, 2009. Alcohol Advertising Facts and Information. [online] Available at:< http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/Controversies/1106153502.html> [Accessed 17th January 2011].
McNamara, S L, 2010. Persuasive Advertising Theories. [online] Available at:< http://www.adcracker.com/theory/Persuasive_Advertising_Theories.htm> [Accessed 14th January 2011].
Mfirth199, 2010. New Carling “Round” Ad. [video online] Available at:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gyD9zR8U3A> [Accessed 15th January 2011].
Molson Coors Brewing Company Ltd, 2011. Carling. [online] Available at: http://www.carling.com/index.html [Accessed 15th January 2011].
Ogilvy, D, 1995. Ogilvy on Advertising. London: Prion Books.
Rakesh048, 2008. Amazing Budweiser Ad. [video online] Available at: [Accessed 15th January 2011].
Unilever, 2011. Dove. [online] Available at :< http://www.dove.co.uk/> [Accessed 17th January 2011].
Wikipedia, 2011. Advertising. [online] Available at: [Accessed 14th January 2011].
Williams, E, 2010. This is Advertising. London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd.
Advertising is a common form of communication, set out with intentions to persuade a selected target audience to generate a sense of need for what is being advertised: whether it’s a brand, service or product. Jeremy Bullmore raises a thought-provoking point with his statement expressing his opinion on how he considers advertising to work:
…”Advertising doesn’t sell things; all advertising does is change the way people think or feel”…
More often than not, advertising relies on endorsing its audience with the impression that along with this product if you purchase it, your life will automatically be more like this ‘ideal’ lifestyle, or you will fit in more within the genre of people that is represented throughout its advertising campaign – thus leaving the impression that the main focus of an advertisement is to focus on promoting the lifestyle, rather than the actual product. They do this by making them envy what it possesses, leaving them with the feeling that what they already have is inadequate in comparison – therefore leaving them wanting to purchase it.
…”Advertising’s central function is to create desire that previously did not exist. Thus advertising arouses our interests and emotions in favor of goods and more goods…it is thus the advertiser’s task to try to persuade rather than inform.”… (Dyer, 1982, p6)
The advertiser sets out with intentions of creating a branding for a product that usually involves the repetition of an image, message or product name, which should in time create an idea of related qualities to the brand in the mind of the audience. An interesting example of this is the message that Dove allocates to their soap for women with dry skin, promising to ‘leave your skin soft and smooth – without the dry feeling caused by soap’ (Ogilvy, 1995, p12). This promise was first allocated to the product over 25 years ago by copywriter David Ogilvy, and is still used within their advertising campaigns today – along with other promises such as the ability to firm skin, quoting in one of their more recent ads ‘Let’s face it. Firming the thighs of a size 8 supermodel is no challenge’ (Williams, 2010, p47).
One thing that is vital when advertising agencies begin any new projects is to research: to fully understand what it is they are promoting. Most times the client would provide a sufficient amount of research relevant to what they are wanting, but then it is down to the advertisers to fill in the gaps: to look at the more meticulous details about the product to generate ‘a clear understanding of the brands current position’ such as what the consumers already ‘actually think about the product, as opposed to what the client believes that they think’ (Ogilvy, 1995, p9). This way it ensures the campaign can be as effective as possible.
…”Now comes research among consumers. Find out how they think about your kind of product, what language they use when they discuss the subject, what attributes are important to them, and what promise would be likely to make them buy your brand.”… (Ogilvy, 1995, p12)
As well as the research aspect, the message that the campaign is going to have is decided upon within the early stages to give it more of a directed focus: therefore proving that the main intention within the campaign is to create envy towards it (Wikipedia, 2011, online). This entails them to consider factors such as the target audience it is intended to appeal to, and the background of them and so on.
What’s interesting is the people’s choice of what brand they ‘choose’ to consume from a variety of different ones, all fundamentally for the same product.
…”Take Whiskey. Why do some people choose Jack Daniels, while others choose Grand Dad or Taylor? Have they tried all three and compared the taste? Don’t make me laugh. The reality is that these three brands have different images which appeal to different kinds of people. It isn’t the Whiskey they choose, it’s the image. The brand image is 90 per cent of what the distiller has to sell.”… (Ogilvy, 1995, p15)
Looking at the advertising for two different brands of lager: such as Carling and Budweiser, it is apparent that a similar thing happens with their advertising strategies. They both are proud of the countries that they originate from and this reflects well within their ads, and each have a distinct audience they want to target.
Carling is a British lager that derived from the mid 1900’s after a team of British Brewers came together and discovered a way of involving the flavor of ale with the refreshment of continental lager. It is made from ‘only the best British barley’ (Molson Coors Brewing Company Ltd, 2011, online), and is proud to have this as the main aspect of one of their recent advertising campaigns.
Budweiser is an American lager, ‘perfected in 1876’ by Adolphus Busch. This exact recipe, brewing process and taste has remained the same for more than 133 years, and will be staying the same for a long time as they believe this is what has made the product so successful (Anheuser-Busch, 2010, online). The fact that the lager is American reflects clearly throughout their advertisements with it coming across to the audience that the brand is better and brighter than others, which is also a good representation of something American.
After watching a recent television advert for these brands, the target audience that they are reaching towards is apparent, and quite distinct from each others. The Carling advert has a group of English friends in their twenties out together in the middle of no where, with one providing the Carling from the nearest source – this insists their target audience is adults who like to have a laugh, go out to have a good time and stick together. Where as the Budweiser advert is of a hectic stadium of people all having an exciting time together; which insists their target audience is the type of person who likes to be in the middle of the action and not miss out on something ‘amazing’.
Throughout the whole thirty seconds of the Budweiser advert, apart from the general noise from the stadium, there is no voice at any point that says anything about the product. There is just the end where the logo appears on the screen and underneath it has the strapline ‘this is beer’ for the viewer to read. By doing this, as well as having thousands of people all together in a huge place suggests that the product is that successful and popular it can speak for itself with its quality and status. Having the stadium so busy and showing that everyone is having a good time suggests that by drinking Budweiser it brings all sorts of people together as though it has its own community or is in a league of its own. This is then endorsing the audience with the thought that they could also be involved in something as amazing as this – if they drink this lager, and creates desire and envy for wanting this sort of life, and to be there in the middle of what is happening amongst the rest of the targeted audience. The imagery shows the crowd all in sync holding coloured boards above their heads each in the right order so that when it is seen from above, it shows a Budweiser bottle being opened and poured into a glass, and after being drank. Immediately thereafter the whole crowd at once throw their heads back with huge grins on their faces doing somewhat over enthusiastic ‘ahhh’ sounds that people make after finishing a very satisfying, refreshing drink they enjoyed.
Unlike this, the Carling advert is more relaxed by having just a few close friends in the middle of a dessert with the weather conditions being very hot, and one of them goes out of his way to find them a lager. He then returns to find he has forgotten one and insists on going back for another, suggesting that Carling is worth all the time and effort, as well as connoting the fact that people who drink it stick together and would do anything for each other, no matter what the situation is. The whole scene could be adapted as a metaphor of a situation that could happen anywhere in the world, and can always be made better being with your closest friends drinking Carling. The end of the advert has the sentence ‘You know who your mates are’, followed by the logo and strapline saying ‘Tastes great, every sip of the way’. Even by this it shows that Carling are intending on aiming their advertising towards someone who values their friendships, and by having Carling as a common interest amongst them ensures these friendships will stay strong and stick together. What Carling is promising to its target audience and generating envy towards in order to promote their brand is solid friendships with those that matter, as well as the enjoyment of a well-needed refreshing drink anywhere in the world.
In all, it is believed that advertisings main purpose is to influence its targeted audience into feeling the desire to purchase the product being advertised, by making them envy the status and lifestyle it embodies. It is agreeable with what Bullmore articulates; that fundamentally all it does is ‘changes the way people think or feel’, but in order for someone to purposely go out of their way to buy a particular product does usually originate from feelings in the first place, but without this raises the question as to whether advertising would work at all without these feeling involved.
Bibliography
Anheuser-Busch, 2010. Budweiser. [online] Available at:< http://www.budweiser.com/public/agecheck.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fen%2fdefault.aspx&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1#/en/index> [Accessed 15th January 2011].
Burtenshaw, K. Mahon, N and Barfoot, C, 2006. The Fundamentals of Creative Advertising. Case Postale: AVA Publishing SA.
Dooley, R, 2009. Emotional Ads Work Best. Neuromarketing. [blog] 27th July. Available at:< http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/emotional-ads-work-best.htm> [Accessed 15th January 2011].
Dyer, G, 1986. Advertising as Communication. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd.
Hanson, D J, 2009. Alcohol Advertising Facts and Information. [online] Available at:< http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/Controversies/1106153502.html> [Accessed 17th January 2011].
McNamara, S L, 2010. Persuasive Advertising Theories. [online] Available at:< http://www.adcracker.com/theory/Persuasive_Advertising_Theories.htm> [Accessed 14th January 2011].
Mfirth199, 2010. New Carling “Round” Ad. [video online] Available at:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gyD9zR8U3A> [Accessed 15th January 2011].
Molson Coors Brewing Company Ltd, 2011. Carling. [online] Available at: http://www.carling.com/index.html [Accessed 15th January 2011].
Ogilvy, D, 1995. Ogilvy on Advertising. London: Prion Books.
Rakesh048, 2008. Amazing Budweiser Ad. [video online] Available at:
Unilever, 2011. Dove. [online] Available at :< http://www.dove.co.uk/> [Accessed 17th January 2011].
Wikipedia, 2011. Advertising. [online] Available at:
Williams, E, 2010. This is Advertising. London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd.
Saturday, 5 March 2011
Essay Question
From the list of essay questions available, the one I have chosen to cover is:
"'Advertising doesn't sell things; all advertising does is change the way people think or feel.' (Jeremy Bullmore). Evaluate this statement with reference to selected theoretical theories.
The advertisements I looked at for the essay to support my points were:
"'Advertising doesn't sell things; all advertising does is change the way people think or feel.' (Jeremy Bullmore). Evaluate this statement with reference to selected theoretical theories.
The advertisements I looked at for the essay to support my points were:
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
Deconstrustion Task
Using given text, write 500 words on what it has to say about deconstruction.
A main block of text to a typographer is usually referred to as the ‘body’: defined as an ongoing sequence of words, it has more integrity and wholeness than any surrounding elements, including headlines and captions. It’s a sturdy object that flows from page to page and is treated consistently, with long texts broken down into chunks offering shortcuts and alternate routes such as indents and hyperlinks.
Before the mass production of movable type, handwritten texts usually consisted with errors, each with their own glitches and gaps where copies were copied from copies, making them seem more personal. They had their own interpretation from the one who wrote it, which meant that the reader was left questioning what the text was saying. Printing text introduced a new way to ensure the faithfulness to the author’s handwritten original, making the role of the ‘proofreader’ to correct any errors within it right from the original copy to the final production, without misrepresenting the authors work.
Contemporary typographers produce bodies of text for various contexts, each with their own limitations and opportunities, ensuring the help for the readers to navigate the flow of the content. Typographic pages emphasize the completeness and closure of a work, and follow a grid of known coordinates. They ensure that the reader isn’t aware that they are reading, but at the same time they certify that the content is read in a certain order that is intended, making the typographer invisible to them. Even so, their role is just as important as the spaces and punctuation, where French philosopher Jacques Derrida quotes they are ‘seen but not heard’.
French critic Roland Barthes believes that the reader ‘performs’ the writing – ‘death of the author’, where the reader chooses to create meaning. Todays Graphic Designers embraced Barthes’ idea of the readable text using layers and interlocking grids to explore his theory breaking grids and rules, making how the text is used more important than what it actually means. By destroying structure, it makes the reader more aware of it: unpicking it, making it strange and question what is normal. It changes the way that the text is read and makes the readers’ role more active and thought provoking, revealing how the type affects meaning. Writing occupies space as well as time, and liberates readers from bonds of linearity; which is amongst typography’s most urgent tasks.
David Carson / End of Print Presentation Poster / 1996 / URL
David Carson's work is very representative of the deconstructionists style. The example I have included is good as it consists of just type, so it showcases how it has allowed Carson to completely destroy the structure. Even with the headline section at the top with the bolder text: it overlaps and doesn't read in the right order, so even though the immediate reactions are primarily drawn to this, it still makes the viewer think more about what they are reading. The rest of the body of text with all the relevant information has a strange, random layout, with no obvious beginning or an end, leaving the viewer to start reading anywhere and unpick the structure within it - making them question what is normal and become more active in finding out the relevant information they want to gain from it. The way that Carson has used multiple typefaces also adds to the effect of the deconstruction as it causes more immediate confusion that the viewer then has to untangle, and reveals more effectively how type affects the meaning. Definitely with this poster, the intention to absorb the information from it works a lot better than one that follows a typical grid and reads in a particular way as it is down to each individual to 'find' what they want to know - this ultimately achieves a better response from it as they are then more likely to actually remember it.
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
Avant Garde Task
In 300 words, discuss the concept of 'Avant Garde' in relation to two examples of Graphic Design (include pictures and references).
Avant Garde – sometimes known as ‘advance guard’ or vanguard, refers to people or work that is considered to be innovative or experimental with aims to shock, challenge and re-assess conventions. It pushes boundaries of what is usually accepted as ‘normal’, and artists which are involved consider themselves and what they do to be innovative and ahead of the majority. The concept of Avant Garde refers exclusively to marginalized artists whose work opposes the mainstream values and often has an abrasive social or political edge, as well as introduces and explores new forms or subject matters. It is said to have began in 1850’s with the Realism or Gustave Coubert, followed by the successive movements of modern art, making the term Avant Garde more or less synonymous with modern. Nowadays, the term has grown to be almost neutralized, leaving it meaningless to the point where it can be applied to anything.
Marcel Duchamp / 1917 / Fountain / URL
Marcel Duchamp is definitely one of the most memorable artists considered within Avant Garde, with works such as the ‘Mona Lisa’ and ‘Fountain’ (pictured). He caused a huge riff within art around 1917 when he entered his ‘Fountain’ piece into an open exhibition under the name of R. Mutt, where anything was accepted; but this actually wasn’t and was mysteriously misplaced and not exhibited resulting with the original piece being lost. It totally went against what art was believed to be at this time, and Duchamp entered it to shift the focus of art from physical craft to intellectual interpretation. It was something people has not seen done before, and they refused for sometime to accept because they didn’t consider it to be ‘actual art’ due to the fact that he didn’t make it with his own hands – this later proved to be irrelevant.
Oliviero Toscani / United Colours of Benetton / URL
A more recent example of Avant Grade is the advertising campaigns from the label United Colours of Benetton. Not only do they promote themselves as a brand, but also tackle racism showcasing images of things the public would not necessarily expect to see. In just a few years, Benetton became a global force with their concept of encompassing the different races to the ideas of tolerance, peace and respect for diversity. As shown in the example, they have a black woman breast feeding a white baby, incorporating the 'shock' factor of Avant Garde. It is making the statement that all colours are united as one, and by using such strong imagery not just in this example but in all of their campaigns, definitely challenges peoples beliefs amongst racism, and forces them to re-asses it. The 'united' colours of their sweaters is considered to be a metaphor for the united skin tones from the youth of different countries for who the sweaters were designed for.
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
5 Examples of Post Modern Graphic Design
Here is my 5 examples of Post Modern Graphic Design.
Postmodernism has an attitude of questioning conventions, especially ones set out through Modernism. The only rule within it is that there are no rules, and celebrates what might otherwise be termed kitsch. It is a reaction to modern life and technology, and has no progressive meaning - designed to blow up and destroy itself in a way of expressing how the modern world is destroying itself. It is not about equality, but more personal and about difference, exposing the flaws from the structures of the past. Re using images and a rejection of technological determinism.
Postmodernism has an attitude of questioning conventions, especially ones set out through Modernism. The only rule within it is that there are no rules, and celebrates what might otherwise be termed kitsch. It is a reaction to modern life and technology, and has no progressive meaning - designed to blow up and destroy itself in a way of expressing how the modern world is destroying itself. It is not about equality, but more personal and about difference, exposing the flaws from the structures of the past. Re using images and a rejection of technological determinism.
David Carson / Ray Gun No 15 Magazine Cover / URL
This magazine cover for Ray Gun by David Carson is a good example of Postmodernism because of the way that he has just completely stripped any structure to it. The text within it doesn't follow any form and overlaps, not really making any sense with only a few words actually left readable. The whole thing, when properly considered, is actually really simple, but with the way he has positioned the type and dark background image really builds it up.
Jamie Reid / 1977 / Sex Pistols Album Cover / URL
This Sex Pistols album cover by Jamie Reid is a strong example of Postmodernism with the way that none of the typefaces that he has used in it actually really go together, but when forced together with no specific order other than to give the title works really well. Just the fact that such a varied amount of typefaces have been used within one design completely goes against what many typographers believe to be 'right', as the more that is used, the less effective it works - but this example clearly proves otherwise.
Dan Friedman / Typografische Monatsblatter / 1971 / URL
The way that Friedman has used a montage style with the different typefaces scattered randomly over the top of the image of times square makes this example Postmodern, showing how he didn't follow any rules when putting it together and didn't try and follow any sort of grid within the image. It looks simple and reduced.
Kunst Kredit / Wolfgang Weingart / 1977 / URL
Both the type and images used within this poster had a Postmodern style, with an unstructured overall look.
Katherine McCoy / Cranbrook graduate poster / 1989 / URL
Again, the type and image used within this poster has a very Postmodern style, and has avoided and form or grid or structure. Most of the body of text that is used within it also is illegal due to the fact of the photomontage underneath with the bases of function follows form.
Tuesday, 25 January 2011
Essay and Bibliography
Envy and Desire Within Advertising
Advertising is a common form of communication, set out with intentions to persuade a selected audience to generate a sense of need for what is being advertised: whether it’s a brand, service or product. Jeremy Bullmore raises a thought-provoking point with his statement expressing his opinion on how he considers advertising to work:
…”Advertising doesn’t sell things; all advertising does is change the
way people think or feel”…
More often than not, advertising relies on endorsing its audience with the impression that along with this product if you purchase it, your life will automatically be more like this ‘ideal’ lifestyle, or you will fit in more within the genre of people that is represented throughout its advertising campaign. They do this by making them envy what it possesses, leaving them with the feeling that what they already have is inadequate in comparison – therefore leaving them wanting to purchase it.
…”Advertising’s central function is to create desire that previously did not exist. Thus advertising arouses our interests and emotions in favor of goods and more goods…it is thus the advertiser’s task to try to persuade rather than inform.”… (Dyer, 1982, p6)
The advertiser sets out with intentions of creating a branding for a product that usually involves the repetition of an image, message or product name, which should in time create an idea of related qualities to the brand in the mind of the audience. An interesting example of this is the message that Dove allocates to their soap for women with dry skin, promising to ‘leave your skin soft and smooth – without the dry feeling caused by soap’. This promise was first allocated to the product well over 25 years ago by copywriter David Ogilvy, and is still used within their advertising campaigns today – along with other promises such as the ability to firm skin, quoting in one of their more recent ads ‘Let’s face it. Firming the thighs of a size 8 supermodel is no challenge’.
Something that is vital when advertising agencies begin any new projects is to research: to fully understand what it is they are promoting. Most times the client would provide a sufficient amount of research relevant to what they are wanting, but then it is down to the advertisers to fill in the gaps: to look at the more meticulous details about the product to generate ‘a clear understanding of the brands current position’ such as what the consumers already ‘actually think about the product, as opposed to what the client believes that they think’. This way it ensures the campaign can be as effective as possible.
…”Now comes research among consumers. Find out how they think about your kind of product, what language they use when they discuss the subject, what attributes are important to them, and what promise would be likely to make them buy your brand.”… (Ogilvy, 1995, p12)
As well as the research aspect, the message that the campaign is going to have is decided upon within the early stages to give it more of a directed focus: therefore proving that the main intention within the campaign is to create envy towards it. This entails them to consider factors such as the target audience it is intended to appeal to, and the background of them and so on.
What’s interesting is the people’s choice of what brand they ‘choose’ to consume from a variety of different ones, all fundamentally for the same product.
…”Take Whiskey. Why do some people choose Jack Daniels, while others choose Grand Dad or Taylor? Have they tried all three and compared the taste? Don’t make me laugh. The reality is that these three brands have different images which appeal to different kinds of people. It isn’t the Whiskey they choose, it’s the image. The brand image is 90 per cent of what the distiller has to sell.”… (Ogilvy, 1995, p15)
Looking at the advertising for two different brands of lager: such as Carling and Budweiser, it is apparent that a similar thing happens with their advertising strategies. They both are proud of the countries that they originate from and this reflects well within their ads, and each have a distinct audience they want to target.
Carling is a British lager that derived from the mid 1900’s after a team of British Brewers came together and discovered a way of involving the flavor of ale with the refreshment of continental lager. It is made from ‘only the best British barley’, and is proud to have this as the main aspect of one of their recent advertising campaigns.
Budweiser is an American lager, ‘perfected in 1876’ by Adolphus Busch. This exact recipe, brewing process and taste has remained the same for more than 133 years, and will be staying the same for a long time as they believe this is what has made the product so successful. The fact that the lager is American reflects clearly throughout their advertisements with it coming across to the audience that the brand is better and brighter than others, which is also a good representation of something American.
After watching a recent television advert for these brands, the target audience that they are reaching towards is apparent. The Carling advert has a group of English friends in their twenties out together in the middle of no where, with one providing the Carling from the nearest source – this insists their target audience is adults who like to have a laugh and go out to have a good time and stick together. Where as the Budweiser advert is of a hectic stadium of people all having a good time together; which insists their target audience is the type of person who likes to be in the middle of the action and not miss out on something ‘amazing’.
Throughout the whole 30 seconds of the Budweiser advert, apart from the general noise from the stadium, there is no voice at any point that says anything about the product. There is just the end where the logo appears on the screen and underneath it has the strapline ‘this is beer’. By doing this, as well as having thousands of people all together in a huge place suggests that the product is that successful and popular it can speak for itself with its quality and status. Having the stadium so busy and showing that everyone is having a good time suggests that by drinking Budweiser it brings all sorts of people together as though it has its own community or is in a league of its own. This will create desire and envy for wanting to be there in the middle of what is happening amongst the targeted audience. The imagery shows the crowd all in sync holding coloured boards above their heads each in the right order so that when it is seen from above, it shows a Budweiser bottle being opened and poured into a glass, and after being drank. Immediately thereafter the whole crowd at once throw their heads back with huge grins on their faces doing the ‘ahhh’ sound people make after finishing a refreshing drink they enjoyed.
Unlike this, the Carling advert is more relaxed by having just a few close friends in the middle of a dessert with the weather conditions being very hot, and one of them goes out of his way to find them a lager. When he returns it turns out he has forgotten one and insists on going back to get another, suggesting that Carling is worth all the time and effort. As well as the fact that people who drink it stick together and would do anything for each other in whatever situation. The whole scene could come across as a metaphor of something that could happen anywhere in the world, and can always be made better with Carling. The end of the advert has the sentence ‘You know who your mates are’, followed by the logo and strapline saying ‘Tastes great, every sip of the way’. Even by this it shows that Carling are intending on aiming their advertising towards someone who values their friends more than anything, and it can make these friendships stronger. What Carling is promising to its target audience in order to persuade them to buy their brand is stronger friendships with those that matter, and would do anything for each other, as well as the enjoyment of a well-needed refreshing drink anywhere in the world.
In all, I do believe that advertisings main purpose is to influence the targeted audience into feeling the desire to purchase the product being advertised, by making them envy the status and lifestyle it embodies. I agree with what Bullmore articulates; that fundamentally all it does is ‘changes the way people think or feel’, but without this raises the question as to whether advertising would work at all without these feeling involved.
Bibliography
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Burtenshaw, K. Mahon, N and Barfoot, C, 2006. The Fundamentals of Creative Advertising. Case Postale: AVA Publishing SA.
Dooley, R, 2009. Emotional Ads Work Best. Neuromarketing. [blog] 27th July. Available at:< http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/emotional-ads-work-best.htm> [Accessed 15th January 2011].
Dyer, G, 1986. Advertising as Communication. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd.
Hanson, D J, 2009. Alcohol Advertising Facts and Information. [online] Available at:< http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/Controversies/1106153502.html> [Accessed 17th January 2011].
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Mfirth199, 2010. New Carling “Round” Ad. [video online] Available at:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gyD9zR8U3A> [Accessed 15th January 2011].
Molson Coors Brewing Company Ltd, 2011. Carling. [online] Available at: http://www.carling.com/index.html [Accessed 15th January 2011].
Ogilvy, D, 1995. Ogilvy on Advertising. London: Prion Books.
Rakesh048, 2008. Amazing Budweiser Ad. [video online] Available at:<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeoh2QJQotw> [Accessed 15th January 2011].
Unilever, 2011. Dove. [online] Available at :< http://www.dove.co.uk/> [Accessed 17th January 2011].
Wikipedia, 2011. Advertising. [online] Available at:<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising> [Accessed 14th January 2011].
Williams, E, 2010. This is Advertising. London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd.
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