Lecture Notes - 8/12/10

An Introduction to Postmodernism

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Important images/notes referenced include:

Modernism

- Born out of optimism: an aspiration reaction to WW1

- A view to harnessing technology

- Building the future

- Bling obedience to rules

- Form follows function

- Experimentation, innovation, progress etc

Postmodernism

- Binary opposite to previous list of associations

- More light-hearted

- Exhaustion, pluralism, pessimism etc

Modernism is the EXPRESSION of modern life, technology, new materials and communication whereas postmodernism is the RESPONSE or pessimist reaction to these.

Jean Tinguely (1960) Homage to New York

- Placed outside Museum of Modern Art

- Unusual construction & almost anti-aesethetic

- No progressive message

- The modern world ultimately self-destructing

- Denies 'purpose' of art

15 July 1972, 3:32 - The day Modernism dies (according to Charles Jencks)

Demolition of the Pruitt-Igoe development in St Louis

- Perfect example of modernist architecture

- Social housing project for the poor, built on equality

- Became rife with crime, drug use, prostitution etc

- Epitomised failed project of 'modernism'

Postmodernism

- Ultimately about questionning

- Everyone is different and unique

- Multiplicity of styles and approached (space for new voices)

- Modernist was deemed an elitist, one-dimensional view

Park Hill flats (Sheffield)

- Unappealing aesthetic at highest point in Sheffield

- Became slums and homeowners even signed a petition to be re-housed

- Will not be demolished due to its 'historic', modernist nature

- Post-modernist architectures wish to rennovate

Neue Staatsgalerie (1977-1983)

- Juxtaposition of colours, styles and materials

- Aesthetic architectural choices seem spontaneous, yet unique

Robert Venturi (1972) Learning from Las Vegas

- 'Postmodern city': A playground to reinvent yourself

- No organised structure or routine

- Ultimate rejection of the 'modern' city (New York, for example)

Seen as a positive model to follow in terms of postmodernism

- To a modernist, it would represent the degeneration of the world whereas to postmodernists, it is seen as the degeneration of the modernist world.

Andy Warhol

- Change of the status of an artist: Image of a celebrity

- Attack on what is deemed the role of an artist

- He never claimed to be a 'leader' and always took a neutral stance

- Ultimate rejection of modernism

Lecture Notes - 1/12/10

New Media & Visual Culture

Critical Positions on Advertising (Seminar)

Advertising

- Advertising as a harmful, social source

- Manipulative device?

Relationship between propaganda and advertising

- Impossible to escape advertising

- Times square epitomises use of advertising

- Subject to onslaught of messages

Instructions, promises, fantasies, unattainable ideas

- From a range of media

Billboard, web, TV etc

- In some way, they do effect us

Directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously

- The most effective medium of the 20th and 21st century

- Early 90s -> 11,000 TV ads a year

This was 20 years ago therefore it has increased exponentially

- 25 million print adverts produced in Britain a year

Karl Marx (1818 - 1883)

Karl Marx played a significant role in the development of modern communism and believed capitalism would inevitably produce tensions and chaos leading to its destruction.

Marx cultural theorists

- Critique of consumer/commodity culture

- Culture based around the purchasing and selling of things

- Begins to define ourselves and each other

- Stewart Ewen terms 'the commodity self'

'Instead of being identified by what they produce, people identify themselves through what they consume"

Judith Williamson

John berger - Ways of Seeing (Advertising)

- Contemporary culture created on the idea of glamour and the condition of being envied (anxiety, value etc)

- People competing against each other and unattainable ideas

- Products promise to give human fulfilment but ultimately make us poorer

Superficial appearances

Would we change how we interact with each other if we had no commodities?

- Encourage people to do something more productive?

- Shortcut to relationships? Problematic due to quick judgements?

- Fools you into thinking you can gain acceptance

- Becomes a barrier between our understanding of people

On the surface, advertising sells things whereas statistics prove otherwise.

CK One - case study

- Sociability, belonging and popularity is being sold

- The assumption that if you don't purchase the products, you won't achieve these associations

- Men and women

- Youth

- Sophistication

- Fashion (models)

- Status

- Glamour

- Androgenous

- Developed sexuality

- Ultimately seems more powerful

Images like this creates a false desire to gain the symbolic associations and therefore perpetuates false needs (Marx critiques)

How does commodity culture perpetuate false needs?

1) Aesthetic innovation

Fashion, for example, is referred to as 'capitalists baby' by Marx critiques. We are tripped into believing we need more clothes due to the update or change in the 'latest' style or trent.

2) Planned obsolescence

Are computer circuit boards designed to break or planned to have a certain shelf life? Consumers are required to purchase updated products and therefore keep coming back.

3) Novelty

Apple products are involved in a new culture and once a product is obtained, you feel you 'belong' to what is new.

Commodity Fetishism

- Symptom of capitalist society

- Relationships are formed through 'things'

- Our society revolved around third party commodities

- De-huminisation

Reification

- Products are give human associations (personified)

- Products themselves are perceived as sexy, romantic, cool etc.

- Conversely, people become the opposite

Inversely transposed

People treated as objects

Lecture Notes - 24/11/10

Advertising and New Media

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Important images/notes referenced include:

Sunlight Soap - The Lever Brothers

- Founded by James Darcy & William Hesketh Lever

- Today, it is known as Uniliver and encompasses 900 brands such as

 Ben & Jerry's, Bird's eye & Persil

- It is a ubiquitous brand: part of the average consumers 'mental furniture'

- "The corners of somebodies mind is the most expensive real estate." Hegarty (2009)

Contemporary art & advertising

- Brands began using contemporary paintings in their advertising

- 'The New Frock' (1889) by William Powell Frith was used in a Sunlight soap ad 

alongside the caption, 'So Clean'.

- Colourful & innovative advertising was crucial to Lever's success

Product placement

- The Wedding Morning (1892)

- It was used as an advertisement by the Lever Brothers but using traditional photo manipulation techniques, they switched the clock and cup (higlighted) to soap

- The white dress is supposed to indicate the effects of the product

- Social gathering; product bringing the family together

Promotion Boom

- Opening of new offices in Switzerland

- Promotional washing competition in Lake Geneva (1889)

- Influential schemes including a royal endorsement in 1897 and a wrapper scheme in 1903 where the company offered free products in return for a few wrappers of soap

Target market

- Spoke directly to working-class housewives

- Improves their live (leaving time for romance)

- High-feeling/emotive strategy

- Power of suggestion

- Same strategy still used today (Dove etc)

NEW MEDIA:

Viral advertising

- One distinction between old and new media

- Voluntary viewings as opposed to forced (TV, radio)

- Unpaid peer-to-peer communication

- Audience is engaged

Coke & Mentos

- Viewer generated content

- The two brands had no association with this video

- Advertising generated from this video would normally be worth in excess of $10 million

Modernist Graphic Design

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, from Dunes, 1914. From Drucker p. 124.

http://www.metaphorical.org/poetics/page2.html

"For all intents and purposes, visual poetry can be defined as poetry that is meant to be seen – poetry that presupposes a viewer as well as a reader." - William Bohn

Poetry isn't just about reading it aloud - it is meant to be seen and replicated through type and image. Visual poetry was developed from a large number of factors, including Mallarmé's prototypical Un Coup de Des (1914).

IBM (1961) Computer Advertisement [online] Available at: http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/08/08/101-classic-computer.html

This IBM advertisement uses emerging photo montage techniques (typical of modernist design) to create a vivid piece of imagery. The use of subdued colours against the black stripes create immediate impact. The imagery dominates the ad as the text is laid out in a simple, one paragraph structure.

Insurance advertisement, Outing Magazine 35:4, Jan. 1900. APS Online; pg. XXVI.

http://www.metaphorical.org/poetics/page3.html

Although at first glance, this may seem like a relatively simple insurance advertisement, the designer has included a wide array of text sizes, weights and text positioning in order to create a visually interesting and stimulating piece. It is reminiscent of modernist graphic design as it is anti-ornament and an engaging piece of text, originating from short, simple phrases presented in an unusual composition.

lya Zdanevich, “Soirée du Coeur à Barbe”, 1923

This innovative example of modernist design transforms type into image and is largely anti-ornament. The curve of the text embodies the negative space which in itself, encompasses a short paragraph. The text consists of bold, black serif and sans serif typefaces yet the larger letters are mostly sans-serif and seem to create the most impact, (S and E)

Carlo Vivarelli, Neue Grafik, 1958 [online] Available at: http://wiedler.ch/felix/books/story/260

Grotesk, a sans-serif typeface, is prominent in early modernists works. The design is based largely on form follows function as the composition is intended to ease reading - this is due to the left aligned text, clear and concise spacing throughout and the use of the aforementioned sans-serif typeface.

Lecture Notes - 17/11/10

The Document

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Important images/notes referenced include:

Documentary style images dominate photography.

It instantaneously captures the world around us and covers a wide variety of topics and ongoing events - there is no unifying definition. It signifies evidence (although this can be argued at times) and documents the world at a certain point in time. It instigates social change and becomes our history, our only knowledge. 

Joseph Nicephore (1826) 'View from a window at La Gras'

Nicephore took what is believed to be the world's first photograph. This is his earliest surviving photograph of a scene from nature taken with a camera obscura.

James Nachtwey (2000) Palestine - War photographer

He photographed events such as the one above in order to negotiate for peace. He believed photography was the opposite to war and as everyone cannot be there to witness, he took it upon himself to document the conflicts. He wanted to persuade to benefit humanity - an involvement in society by taking a stance.

William Edward Kilburn (1848) The Great Chartist Meeting at the Common

In this case, the photographer is not involved and is instead, stood far away as to not alter or change that specific moment in time - this therefore adds a sense of authenticity.

Henri Cartier Bresson (1932)

The decisive moment: "Photgraphy achieves its highest distinction - reflecting the universality of the human condition in a never-to-be-retrieved fraction of a second". He carefully composed his photographs and would sometimes wait hours upon hours to caputre the aforementioned, 'decisive moment'.

Jacob Riis (1888) 'Bandits Roost'

He was a social campaigner in New York who took photographs of the poor to feed the morbid curiosity of the rich - allowing them to 'spy'. It therefore became more and more popular with the rich as their curiosity grew yet it was not a true depiction of life but instead is their projection of life - their poses are forced and they are looking directly in the camera. 

F.S.A Photographers (1935 - 44) Farm Security Adminstration

During the depression, 11 million people were unemployed. These photographers were employed by the government and were asked to document the plight of migrant workers by using the photographs as photojournalism and as an emotive lobbying tool. However, they were given a shooting script and were instructed exactly what to photograph - this process was highly controversial.

Margaret Bourke-White (1937) 'Sharecroppers Home'

An image of a boy and his dog is iconic, emotive and sentimental which is exactly why a boy and a dog are acting as the subjects in this particular photograph. Although it may seem natural, it is staged. The surrounding advertisements connote commercialism and the comparison between the rich and the poor.

Dorothea Lange (1936) 'Migrant Mother'

This was known to be the image of the great depression. It portrays the emotional struggle of a mother and has immense symbolism to Raphael's, 'Madonna & Child'. The photographer arranged her subjects like actors.

Roberte Haeberle (1969) Vietnam

Haeberle intersected the last point of these peoples lives, by asking the American Soldiers who were about to shoot this Vietnamese family to stop in order to give him enough time to take a photograph. This was highly criticised due to its moral questioning.