Seminar 2nd December

Seminar December 2nd

In japanese animation facial characteristics are westernised, to not only make it more acceptable to a western audience. Is it a problem to make things more westernised?

Is it bad if characters are made more western?

Products for face whitening, dark people want to fairer and fair people want to be darker.

National Identity:

Is there a national identity in animation?

Not so much in-between studios, unlike the merging of styles in american studios. Animation studios in England vary very differently.

As a culture we have an identity, of London buses, stopping at four for afternoon tea and scones. 

The monarchy. Pro monarchy because of the amount of wealth and tourism they bring in.

Is animation an appropriate way to show national identity?

Food (1992) Jan Svankmajer from nadacomercial on Vimeo.

As a nation how ope are we to watching animation?

Personally i believe it’s split into the classes, it’s the same as with music we only watch what we are into and if you only like mainstream stuff then you’re only going to stick to disney and so on. 

For example triplets of belleville:

Shows lots of stereotypes of france, eating frogs, wine mafia, tour race.

Also shows Josephine Baker (1906-75), ‘Exotic Dancer, Civil Rights activist, champion of orphaned children, and adoptive mother of twelve.

American Dad

The stereotypical american national identity.

Seminar 25th November

COP Seminar 25th November

Propaganda - information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view.

Persuasion - ‘a deliberate and successful attempt by one person to get another person by appeals to reason to freely accept beliefs, attitudes, values, intentions or actions.’ 

very wordy not a succinct way of describing persuasion. 

Isn’t propaganda less about the medium and more about the narrative and storytelling? But some may say it is a successful to use animation as propaganda because is it aimed at children so not expected to have strong political messages behind it.

‘At that time [World War II], I fervently believed just about everything I was exposed to in school and in the media. For example, I knew that all germans were evil and that all Japanese were sneaky and treacherous, while all white Americans were clean-cut, honest, fair-minded and trusting’ Elliot Aronson in Pratkanis and Aronson, (1992) Age of Propaganda. p xii

Arthur Melbourne Cooper, Matches an appeal

Propaganda emotional blackmail. I.E this poster.

Shocking, playing on emotion. By listeng a number of americans, makes it more relevant to the typical western culture, The raft of medusa probably influenced the style of this animation.

When commenting of the multiple people on the boat it only mentioned the really which notably important white people. 

Momotaro Vs Mickey

An alternate perspective on global products. Japanese Propaganda.

 Interesting that even at that point Mickey Mouse was a global icon, and that hear he is represents america. 

Disney, Der Fuehrer’s Face 1943

Very controversial, playing to cultural stereotypes. Is that acceptable in times of war? More refined than the Japanese one. Animation allows your to create something that disrespectful to the regime. Leni Riefenstahc - german film maker and photographer, but made a load of films in the 1930’s including the neurenburg rallies. Commissioned to make films spent rest of career arguing that she wasn’t a Nazi Sympathiser. Documentary films that promote germany to germans.

Disney Victory through air power

More education than Der Fuehrer’s Face. A form of documentation?

All of these that have been shown are all propaganda designed to show you what persuasion was originally used to disrespect the opposite sides and so on.

Here we have a political film that has an undertone is When The Wind Blows. Just to show how animation and illustration can be used for political purposes.

Ethics (BAF WEEK)

Ethics Lecture

What is good?

We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, art directors and visual communicators who have been raised in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable use of our talents. Many design teachers and mentors promote this belief; the market rewards it; a tide of books and publications reinforces it.

Encouraged in this direction, designers then apply their skill and imagination to sell dog biscuits, designer coffee, diamonds, detergents, hair gel, cigarettes, credit cards, sneakers, butt toners, light beer and heavy-duty recreational vehicles. Commercial work has always paid the bills, but many graphic designers have now let it become, in large measure, what graphic designers do. This, in turn, is how the world perceives design. The profession’s time and energy is used up manufacturing demand for things that are inessential at best.

Many of us have grown increasingly uncomfortable with this view of design. Designers who devote their efforts primarily to advertising, marketing and brand development are supporting, and implicitly endorsing, a mental environment so saturated with commercial messages that it is changing the very way citizen-consumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact.

There are pursuits more worthy of our problem-solving skills. Unprecedented environmental, social and cultural crises demand our attention. Many cultural interventions, social marketing campaigns, books, magazines, exhibitions, educational tools, television programmes, films, charitable causes and other information design projects urgently require our expertise and help.

We propose a reversal of priorities in favour of more useful, lasting and democratic forms of communication – a mindshift away from product marketing and toward the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning. The scope of debate is shrinking; it must expand. Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design.

In 1964, 22 visual communicators signed the original call for our skills to be put to worthwhile use. With the explosive growth of global commercial culture, their message has only grown more urgent. Today, we renew their manifesto in expectation that no more decades will pass before it is taken to heart.

“A meme (rhymes with dream) is a unit of information (a catchphrase, a concept, a tune, a belief) that leaps from brain to brain to brain. Memes compete with one

another for replication, and are passed down through a population much the same way genes pass through a species. Potent memes can change minds, alter behavior, catalyze collective mindshifts, and transform cultures. Which is why meme warfare has become the geopolitical battle of our information age. Whoever has the memes has the power.”

Culture Jamming / Meme Warfare. Adbusters & Kalle Lasn

‘Most things are designed not for the needs of the people but for the needs of manufacturers to sell to people’ (Papanek, 1983:46)

How do we determine what is Good?

Ethical Theories,

Subjective Relativism

There are no universal moral norms of right and wrong

All persons decide right and wrong for themselves.

Subjective Relativism

There are no universal moral norms of right and wrong All persons decide right and wrong for themselves

Cultural Relativism

The ethical theory that what’s right or wrong depends on place and/or time.

Subjective Relativism

There are no universal moral norms of right and wrong

All persons decide right and wrong for themselves

Cultural Relativism

The ethical theory that what’s right or wrong depends on

place and/or time.

Divine Command Theory

Good actions are aligned with the will of God

Bad actions are contrary to the will of God

The holy book helps make the decisions

Kantianism

Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804) a German philosopher

People’s wills should be based on moral rules

Therefore it’s important that our actions are based on appropriate moral rules. To determine when a moral rule is appropriate Kant proposed two Categorical Imperatives. Two Formulations of the Categorical Imperative. Act only from moral rules that you can at the same time universalise. If you act on a moral rule that would cause problems if everyone followed it then your actions are not moral. Act so that you always treat both yourself and other people as ends in themselves, and never only as a means to an end.

If you use people for your own benefit that is not moral.

Utilitarianism (John Stuart Mill)

Principle of Utility (Also known as Greatest Happiness Principle)

An action is right to the extent that it increases the total happiness of the affected parties. An action is wrong to the extent that it decreases the total happiness of the affected parties.

Happiness may have many definitions such as: advantage, benefit, good, or pleasure.

Rules are based on the Principle of Utility

A rule is right to the extent that it increases the total happiness of the affected parties.

The Greatest Happiness Principle is applied to moral rules.

Similar to Kantianism – both pertain to rules.

But Kantianism uses the Categorical, Imperative to decide which rules to follow.

Social Contract Theory

Thomas Hobbes (1603-1679) and Jean- Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778).

An agreement between individuals held together by common interest.

Avoids society degenerating into the ‘state of nature’ or the ‘war of all against all’ (Hobbes).

“Morality consists in the set of rules, governing how people are to treat one another, that rational people will agree to accept, for their mutual benefit, on the condition that others follow those rules as well.”

We trade some of our liberty for a stable society.

Morality vs. Legal

Are all legal acts also moral?

Difficult to determine because many immoral acts are not addressed by the law.

Are all illegal acts immoral?

Social Contract Theory: Yes, we are obligated to follow the

Kantianism: Yes, by the two Categorical Imperatives

Rule Utilitarianism: Yes, because rules are broken

Act Utilitarianism: Depends on the situation. Sometimes more good comes from breaking a law.

Toolbox of Moral / Ethical Theories

Whether presented with problems that are easy or difficult to solve, the four workable ethical theories, could provide us with possible solutions to many of the problems that are raised by the ‘First Things First’ manifesto.

Kantianism

Act Utilitarianism

Rule Utilitarianism

Social Contract Theory

Socially and Ecologically Responsible Design.

The assets of the worlds top three billionaires are greater than those of the poorest 600 million on the planet.

More than a third of the worlds population (2.8 billion)live on less than two dollars a day.

1.2 billion live on less than one dollar a day

In 2002 34.6 million Americans lived below the official poverty line (8.5 million of those had jobs!). Black American Poverty double that of whites.

Per capita income in sub-Saharan Africa =$490

Per capita subsidy for European cows = $913

Consumerism Lecture

Consumerism Lecture

Sigmund Freud (1856- 1939)

New Theory of Human Nature- PSYCHOANALYSIS. Everyone has primitive sexual forces and animal instincts that need controlling. Repressed Hidden Desires that can lead to chaos. Analysis in The Unconscious (1915) and The Interpreting of Dreams (1899) books. 

Freud's Model of Personality Structure

3 Levels of Desire:

      Conscious- Contact with Outside World (Ego)

      PreConscious- Beneath the surface of Awareness (Superego)

      Unconscious- Below the Surface (The ID)

Civilisation and its Discontents (1930) Book

Fundamental tension between civilisation and the individual

Human desire is incompatible of being alongside a society/ community

Society imposes systems to keep law and order

Humanity will always be unhappy and dis-satisfied

"The Pleasure Principle"

     - Concept- if desires are fulfilled in a socially acceptable way, we are docile, happy and content

World War 1

     - Testament to Freud- not surprised by this reaction as it is a reaction to being discontent

     - Release of desire on a grand scale

Torches of Freedom,

Any business succeeded if you related the product to one of the repressed animal instincts, or any of the repressed unconscious instincts, you can make someone desire that product, through an unnecessary need. 1929 Easter Day Parade, It was taboo for women to smoke, Bernays was employed by a tobacco company to get women to smoke. He payed a bunch of debutons to parade in New York, and at an organised moment, they all lit up cigarettes, and it was photographed, when it was photographed he fed a story that these women were a group of suffragettes, and this was a political protest about women in society, the cigarettes were dubbed torches of freedom, against the male repression of society. Cigarettes had become a symbol of status, and app leaded as sexy. Attaching something meanness to a desire, for status, sex appeal and gratification  - a symbol of power.

1924

Marketing took a new turn with Product Placement, Celebrity endorsements, The use of pseudo-scientific reports. This are bought because the illusion that those things will satisfy something subconsciously in some way. America was investing in more factories and more technology, the need to mass produce things massively improved.

Fordism led by, Henry Ford (1863 - 1947)

Transposed Taylorsim to car factories of Detroit, Mass production, Moving assembly line, (Batch production.) Standard production models build as they move through the factory. Required large investment, by increased productivity so much that reactively high wages can be paid, allowing the workers to by the product they produced. 1910 - 20,000 produces, $850. 1916 - 600,000. This led to the emergence and the importance of brands, and brand identity.

Aunt Jemima's Pancake Flour,

Originally became a product for pancake mix, However, house wives believed this robbed them of their jobs, as the packet mixture was too easy to make. The company reduced the mixture to just flour, so you needed to add an egg to make the pancakes, so house wives took this a believed they were cooking. Aiding that desire that there were actually cooking, and therefore providing for there family.

It became more important for companies to distinct their products from their own competitors as production grew more efficient, this is where the idea of branding comes in, Car adverts seem to base themselves around male sexual potency to draw in their customers.

Roosevelt and the 'New Deal' (1933 - 36),

On the back of a promise to introduce welfare, society security, created jobs, and industry. Rather than a scheme of big business doing what they want for society, 

this was about wealth creation, which was unpopular for big businesses.

World's Fair of 1940, in New York, labelled The Futurama. Futuristic inventions which could be america’s including new modes of travel, a depiction of what the world could be like. ‘Democracity’ which could be yours, at a cost.

Conclusion

You are not what you own, consumerism is an ideological project. We believe that through consumption our desires can be met. The legacy of Bernays/PR can be felt in all aspects of 21st society. The conflicts between alternative models of social organisations continue to this day. To what extent are our lives free under the western consumerist system?

Cities and Film Seminar

Seminar

500 word response to a piece on contextual text.

The city, space and environment, needn’t necessarily be the city as much. People as a whole or the individual and there relationship with space and backgrounds. Interactions with the environment. City as a pilgrimage for those with dreams and ambitions, being novel and new, and then through the evolution and development of the modern period is very different. 

Does the city represent a civilisation and the country represent an untamed culture? 

Archtitect's who influenced skyscraper:

Walter Gropius - German Architect, founder of the Bauhaus, moved to america as the Nazi's didn't like or appreciate the modernist style of his

Frank Lloyd Wright - Guggenheim museum, megalomanic. 

Gary Cooper as Howard Roark in The Fountainhead 1949 - a book about an architect turned into a film in 1949. 

It’s interesting that art and animation you choose to go see it in a gallery or at the cinema or watch it on TV. But with architecture it’s imposed upon you, you don’t have a choice whether you see it.

Other megalomaniac architects include Philip Johnson and Le Corbusier. Le corbusier isn’t his real name, it’s the name he’s given himself and Philip Johnson modelled his look on him. 

‘Through almost seven hundred pages of elaborate plot, stilted speeches, and overwrought emotions, [Ayn] Rand’s ideological cartoon of a book (she also wrote the screenplay) pits the individual, whose undaunted ego is the fountainhead of all praise-worthy human activity, against the common man, Rand’s rabble, who, fearing the individual, attempts to destroy or reduce him to its own base level. To translate her philosophy into fiction, the author cast her hero as an architect’

Albrecht, D. (1986), Designing Dreams: Modern Architecture in the Movies, London, Thames and Hudson, page 168

Locations.

How you use environments or locations to create sensory effects.

Edward Hopper, house by the railroad 1925

Pyscho house Universal Studios.

‘Milieus and architecture have always the same role in Hitchocock’s films; they function as psychic amplifiers of the story. Characteristically his films start off in an idylic and relaxed atmosphere. Scenes and buildings reflect a somewhat naïve and amusing balance of bourgeois life. As the story begins, however, a sense of foreboding begins to convey a negative content to the buildings. The very same architecture turns gradually into a generator and container of fear, and in the end, terror seems to have poisoned space itself'
Pallasmaa, J. (2001), The Architecture of Image: Existential Space in Cinema, page 25

‘The ‘oneiric house’ described by Gaston Bachelard has three or four floors: the middle ones are the stages of everyday life, the attic is the storage place of pleasant memories, where as the basement is the place for negative remembrances, pushed outside consciousness. In the final sequences of Psycho the different floors of Bates House obtain their meaning in accordance with Bachelard’s oneiric house. Beginning her survey of the enigma of the house in the attic, Lila is forced to a panicked escape own into the basement where she finds the terrifying mummified wigged corpse of Norman’s mother’

Pallasmaa, J. (2001), The Architecture of Image: Existential Space in Cinema, page 25 - 26

The Shining, very contrasting difference between the countryside and scary/creepy music.

Then we ended with this which not only questions the idea of characters with the built up environment they are in but leads nicely onto the consumerism lecture we have next with Richard.

I think the cities texts might be the most interesting to analyse so I think I'll try look at one of them whilst it's still fresh in my mind to write the analysis on.

Cities and Film Lecture

30th October

Cities and Film - Helen Clarke

The city in modernism,

the beginnings or an urban sociology. As a public and private place. The city in post modernism and the relation of the individual to the city.

Georg Simmel

The first person to attempt to write about the city, wrote a really important essay called Metropolosis. Influenced by the school of Frankfurt. Writes about the effect of the city on the individual. Reflects on the individual with the built up city. This is the same time freud was writing about psychoanalysis.

He writes about the resistance of the individual to be levelled and swallowed up..

In context the growth of the city was exponential. People were moving to the city specifically for employment. Made people vulnerable, even crossing roads was a skill to be learnt, avoiding traffic etc.

Architecht Louis Sullivan.

Creator of the SkyScraper. Guaranty building was designed in four zones, below ground mechanical no detail. Second zone shops, Third zone office space practical cell design. Outside the building was very detailed with a lot of embellishment.

Particularly designed buildings in Chicago as there was a huge fire in 1871 so there was space for the skyscrapers and he redesigned the sky line of Chicago.

Sky Scraper symbolism for the sky being the limit for opportunities in the city.




Manhatta Paul Strand & Charles Sheeler.
Text in the film is taken from a poem by Walt Whitman.

Film celebrates the transport in the city. Highlights the relationship of transport and building with the individual from a detached viewpoint.

Charles Scheeler was an advertising photographer for the ford motor company.  in the industrial environment and his photography comes from the abstraction of machinery. A composition of shapes.

Fordism: mechanised labour relationships.

Antonio Gramsci. The repetitive nature of the factory line almost turns the individual into a cog in the machine but they only earn enough to buy the product they are making.



Charlie Chaplin parodies this in Modern Times (1936) a political comment on him being driven mad by working on a factory line. Causes chaos in the film and gets accused of being a communist and sent to jail and ends up being a performing artist. Escaping the factory. The FBI investigated Chaplin due to this film and whether he was a communist.

'In handicrafts and manufacture, the workman makes use of a tool, in the factory, the machine makes use of him' (Marx cited in Adamson 2010 p75)

Stock Market Crash of 1929

A rupture in the brave new city and it no longer being a place of opportunity. This led to the Great Depression. People unable to feed their families and unable to find work.


“The man with a movie camera”

A revolutionary film. Similar themes to manhatta where it explores scenes where people come together en mass. Celebration of machinery by showing all the components that go into the cinema.

Flaneur

Gentleman stroller. A bourgeois dilletant. From 19th century literature. A way of investigating the individual with the city. Observes the city with a detachment. SEE NOTES FROM IDENTITY FOR MORE INFORMATION

Walter benjamin adopts this concept as a analytical tool. Particularly arcades as a central meeting point for social groups and cafe culture.

Susan Sonntage proposes that the photographer is an armed version of the Flaneur. Finding the world picturesque.

Daido Moriyma - a drunken flanuer. Walks round areas that are districts, red light, drugs bars etc. Brings back grainy disjointed abstract photographs. Influenced by william Klein.

Flaneuse - The feminine version.

Susan Buck-Morss

The bag Lady or the Prostitute are the two main street lady’s you hear about.

Venice a labrinyth of alleyways. You’ll probably get lost but always end up back where you started.

This kind of detective motif also comes up in Sophie Calle's other work, she becomes the followed as they both photograph each other.

The series The Detective (1980) provides photographic evidence of her existence, by her hiring a private detective to follow her and then she lures him round the city taking them to all her favourite places.


Further Research

 Cityscapes of modernity: critical explorations By David Frisby

 Art of America: Modern Dreams (2/3) Andrew Grahame Dixon BBC 4 21/11/11

 De Grazia, Victoria (2005), Irresistible Empire: America's Advance Through 20th- Century Europe, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press

 Susan Buck-Morss, The Dialectics of Seeing: Walter Benjamin and the Arcades






I didn’t feel like this lecture was very well put together considering you’ve got such a wide audience from illustration to graphic design to animation in this lecture she pretty much does only cover photography. And what she does mention of other disciplines is the tiniest bit of film to say film is in the title and a bit of games design. Well DFGA doesn’t exist anymore it’s just animation why hasn’t she changed her powerpoint in the last five years? I also felt that feminism and the female gaze was touched upon very heavily in this lecture which i did not appreciate because it’s the same stuff that was covered by James in identity don’t these lecturers talk to each other? Also there’s only so much female gaze content a person can take especially if it’s not an issue close to you.

Subcultures Seminar

Seminar - Subcultures

South park, parody goths and other subcultures, tenuous link. Episodes of simpsons as well reference subcultures, family guy etc. Exaggerated forms of the subculture for comedy. 

Difficult subject to link to animation.

Go back in history, with 1920’s flappers. But Dick Hebdige writes about skinheads and punk that are recent and started off being underground then died out because of the media. 

Is Daria from a subculture? Is she her own subculture because she’s so different to everybody else. 

Tim Burton adopted by goth’s, Not confining to those who like it.

Is it preferable to an avent garde following or a mainstream following?

Freud’s Pyscho Anaylsis.

Un Chien Andalou, Salvador Dali

Part psychology (behaviour) and psychiatry (mental illness). Although it is linked to them both, it’s a ‘way of thinking’ that can be applied to society including art and design.

Misconception that is about sex, whilst psychoanalysis does position the role of sexuality, especially in our infancy, as a foundation of our adult live. It is also about how we treat and examine other objects.

Look at where psychoanalysis emerges,

Identify key concepts and terms, ego, super ego, ID, abject, object relations.

Look at object-relation theory with regards to art and design,

Look at the abject.

Freud’s definitions.

A discipline founded on a procedure for the investigation of mental processes that are otherwise inaccessible because they are unconscious.

A therapeutic method for the treatment of neurotic disorders.

A body of psychological date evolving into a new scientific discipline.

Hitchcock films deals with subconscious, so does David Lynch. Is there an appropriateness to it with it being live film.

The third category comprises Freud’s work on culture, which is largely based on the view that culture is a product of the diversion or sublimation of sexual energy.

Sublimation - the conversion of sexual drives and energies into creative and intellectual activity. Deny that its there, like the M&S advert.

Pyschoanalysis dissects the unconscious mind. It comes out when you most lose control of it, like in dreams. 

Sigmund Freud 1856-1939

ID- Governed by the pleasure principle

Ego - Governed by the reality principle

Superego - the ego ideal

Dali,

Drugs or creativity?

Paintings of dreams, drug fuelled, ate hash. Had mental illness also.

Were surrealists a subculture?

Identity Lecture

Identity

James Beighton

introduction of historical conceptions of identity.

Introduction of Foucault’s ‘Discours’ methodology.

Placing and critiquing contemporary practice within these framework and considering their validity.

Considering ‘postmodern’ theories of identity as ‘fluid’ and constructed.

Considering Idenitity in the digital domain.

Essentialism is the tradition approach to identity. That your biological make up is who you are.

Post Modern theorists disagree with this.

The difference and judgement between white and african ethnicity. The judgement suggestion of a link between intelligence and facial features. This goes back much further than 20th century but even in Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516) Christ carrying the Cross, Oil on Panel, c. 1515.

Chris Ofili deals with black identity in the modern age.

Per Modern Identity - personal identity is stable, defined by long standing roles, like being in the monarchy.

Modern Identity - Modern societies begin to offer a wider range of social roles. Possibily to start ‘choosing’ your identity, rather than being born into to. People worry about who they are.

Post Modern Identity, accepts a fragmented identity, one self constructed. I.E Facebook.

Pre-Modern Identity.

Institutions determine identity.

Baudelaire

introduces the concept of ‘flaneur’ gentleman-stroller. 

Veblen ‘Conspicuous Consumption’ it’s obvious to others what you spend your money one.

Consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure.

Simmel writes about how fashion defines identity. Write the trickle down theory, which is basically the fashion cycle, so working class emulate the upperclass fashion so the upperclass distinguish themselves with something new and the cycle goes on. 

“the feeling of isolation is rarely as decisive and intense when one actually finds oneself physically alone as when one is a stranger without relations, among many physically close persons, at a party, on the train, or in the traffic of a large city”

Makes the point that showing off is actually an alienating way of life...

Simmel suggests because of the speed and mutability of modernity, individuals withdraw into themselves to find peace. He describes this as ‘the separation of the subjective from the objective life.’

‘… a set of recurring statements that define a particular cultural ‘object’ (e.g., madness, criminality, sexuality) and provide concepts and terms through which such an object can be studied and discussed.’ Cavallaro, (2001)

Possible discourses:

Age, Class, Gender, Nationality, Race/ethnicity, Sexual orientation, Education, Income, Etc.

Class:

Humphrey Spender/Mass Observation, work town project. Which we looked at last year. Commenting on the working class through the eyes of a middle class man.

“Society” …reminds one of a particularly shrewd, cunning and pokerfaced player in the game of life, cheating if given a chance, flouting rules whenever possible.

‘Much of the press coverage centred around accusations of misogyny because of the imagery of semi-naked, staggering and brutalised women, in conjunction with the word “rape” in the title.  But McQueen claimed that the rape was of Scotland, not the individual models, as the theme of the show was the Jacobite rebellion’.

Even though classes aren’t as prominent in western society as they are as for example third world countries where there is a big difference between poverty and those with money, there still is a formidable boundary especially when it comes to things like where/how you do your food shopping. I think this is the biggest divide my grandma is very working class and shops at jack foultons, my step dad is more middle to working class and uses telcos my mum likes to think she’s more middle class and would always use sainsburys my step mum is very middle to upper class and only shops at wait rose and she has friends that only use ocado. To me this is the biggest symbol into showing which class you’re apart of.

Race

Chris Ofili was one of the first successful black artists in the 90s, by presenting the stereotyping of black people, he plays on racial stereotypes normally accepted by the white society. Paints with bold colours referencing the raster movement.

"Captain Shit and the Legend of the Black Stars" (1994) was conceived from a negative view, of there being no black super heros. He had negative thought around what a DC black hero would look like since he was a child. 

Emily Bates, Textile Designer/Artist

Spent her life growing up being called ginger, won a scholarship around rome and made a larger than life dress out of red hair. Inspired by the portrait of Mary Magdalene with her long locks that sweep round her body.

‘Hair has been a big issue throughout my life… It often felt that I was 

nothing more than my hair in other peoples’ eyes’

Gender and Sexuality

There’s a stereotype that all fashion designer’s that are male are homosexual.

Objectification of a woman. Tracey Emin - the standard and tabloid way of looking at this would be too say she's a slag however they were her intentions, the actual meaning of the tent is showing everyone Tracey Emin has actually just got into bed with, not necessarily who she's slept with.

Is this how males perceive women? judging them solely on their physical appearance? however the women on the right wearing the 'I may not be brilliant, but I have great breasts' is actually a male undergoing surgery to become a women.

After looking at these topics the Lecture then goes on to look at post modern identities, how people are portrayed in the tabloids how they choose to portray themselves on social media. 

To be honest though everything in this lecture is just covering the stereotypes associated with identities, I think everyone in this room knows what stereotypes are associated with people, I think it would of been much more interesting to show a new way of looking at people’s identities. 

Take this article for example: 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/alanwhite/12-pictures-of-death-row-prisoners-last-meals

This says a lot about the identities of inmates.

SubCultures

COP 2 Lecture

Subculture: The Meaning of Style

Introducing a text that all subcultural theory comes from: 

Hebdiege, D. (1979) ‘Subculture: The Meaning of Style'

Film by Don Letts. 

In one way or another you are all part of some part of subculture.

‘Youth cultural Styles begin by issuing symbolic challenges, but the must end by establishing new conventions; by creating new commodities, new industries, or rejuvenating old ones.

We feel the need to make subcultures, as we don’t feel part of main stream society, so we group together with like minded people, rethinking what it means to be individual. Creates our own values. Share an infinity with people we like. Challenging society, they might not have a specific politics, but by its nature is an attempt to suggest to the rest of the world that what there doing is alienating other. Symbolic challenges to the norm. People join the as an excitement for an alternative form of existence.

Historically, they start off as challenges to the norm and then eventually they end up as a convention. Main stream industries get involved and sell it back to them, so they no longer are independent so are no longer underground. 

Punk, rewrote the rules on masculinity, rejected the idea that music was a skill to be learned, a DIY ethos. Rejected the mainstream and challenged it, and utter refusal to conform. Part of this was not redefining what it means to be british but what it means to be from London.

London Calling album photo, an attack on mainstream pop music. Reference Elvis Presley album. 

It’s not authentic to by the main stream companies products that use the subculture as imagery and advertising this is just supporting what the industry was supposed to be rebelling against. Fancy dress lampoons the subculture as fun. Incorporation, is the term he gives to the consumer process and capitalism sucks back in that the subculture originally opposes.

Commodity form; the ay capitalism seizes on subcultures and creates a market for it. Once it becomes a mass market a new subculture has to be made.

Idealogical form; the fun made out of the subculture, such as fancy dress.

Tragically, always try to overthrow the mainstream, but always end up being sucked back in.

Fred Perry presents ‘Subculture’ (2012) Dir. Don Letts.

Comissioned by Fred Perry.

Opening line ‘Has anyone won wimbledon since fred perry? Ye that lass.

End of war, rock and roll from america, from early fifties. Eagerly consumed by teenagers.

Teddy Boys

First subculture that came along. With a uniform. Cared about Hair. The more flamboyant the better.

Reknowned for being conservative, and led to be racist in the media which caused fuss in the streets.

Rockers

Leather Jackets and motorbikes. Marlon Brando, ‘The Wild One’ biggest influence.

Teddy boys in notting hill riots,

Mods vs Rockers in Brighton

skin heads - 

Punks smashing things up

Violence made them more popular but also kills it. The essence of subculture is that there elitist but then that’s broken when everyone joins in.

Modernists

interested in modern jazz not rock and roll. 

Vespa

Gives an ability for the teenage generation not to rely on there parents.

Desert Botts, three button jacket. About being smart. Androgynous girls, and then camp looking guys. 

Both wore make up. 

Later on Parkas.

Mods separated 

Between Hippies, velvet jackets became flowery and started taking different drugs, pink floyd etc.

Harder mods became skinheads. 

Braces, anarchy.

Mods were never extreme, chosen by fred perry as chosen for simplicity that could also be sportswear.

England became multicultural. 

Rudeboy culture

The specials,

white socks and trousers, hitched up trousers, low rise hats.

Mixed with braces and loafers and you get skinheads.

’68’69’70 weren’t racist. 

Serious dressing no creases allowed!

As soon as the media reported it the whole thing died out in the 1970’s. Bu then later on it was revived and it was racist and violent. These kids adopted the look as it looked intimidating. 

Tennis - Mod - Skinhead

Soul Boy

early seventies, black music dance obsessed, counter parted by northern soul. 

all about loose fitting clothes you could dance in.

Platforms. Multi racial. No political statements, but subtly making a social statement about accepting others. Started clubbing.

Punk

Scare people

Malcom Mclaren - college artist (sex pistols)

lots of rips in clothes, chains, colours, no one looked the same.

Women with guitars. Feminist ideas got acted out in punk.

Once Sex Pistols swore on tv, became a pantomime with super big hair. 

Glam Rock

Two tone, those punks that joined with reggae. The specials, ska sound. Challenge authority through music and politically be able to change things. 

Monochrome feel, dressing in black and white. 

Every subculture was getting shorter and shorter. 

Football

casual wear fans, addidas puma, ellesse. Designer sportswear to football fans.  Discovered ecstasy, so rave started.

Rave a child of the hippies. Drugs, lights and sound.

Dressed to dance. 

Less about musical movements, more about musical genres. 

Brit pop

backward looking, guitar, bass and drum. Rock edge. \refreshing.

A celebration of british culture.

Documentary ends on youth culture then, as if subcultures haven't continued but I feel like some subcultures have been missed out, such as chavs, emos, goths and now the new hipster?

Visual Analysis Exercise

Visual Analysis Exercise

Kirsten Lepore, Bottle 2010

http://www.kirstenlepore.com/bottle

Bottle by Kirsten Lepore is a beautifully executed stop motion/pixilation. Which every time I watch never ceases to amaze me. I first watched this when searching for animations for our very module animation skills, and during summer it was shown on the aeroplane when I went on Holiday. It’s clear it’s been executed well when you wish you’d made it. It’s clear to see a lot of hours have gone into the production and preproduction by the lighting. There is a magic in the way shadows are cast, often when doing a stop motion if not filmed in a blacked out room lighting can be a nightmare to get smooth looking, so she was very adventurous to do this outside.

The big question that people could interpret from this short is to do the relationships between people of different places/cultures. It’s very sad in that the two main characters don’t get to hug. I think there’s a lot of challenges with people who are in relationships from different cultures, and I think more often than not the relationships do disintegrate but there’s always some that are destined to be together.

Another comment in society this film could question is how identity is questioned. Do you have to look like other people say you do? Neither of the characters asked for their accessories and just accepted them even though actually receiving a mouse would be pretty horrid. A bold statement could be made about when they go to meet it other the accessories float off them in the water like they are meaningless and shallow.

The Dog Who Was a Cat Inside, is a completely different skill set in animation realm. It looks to be computer generated with hand drawn textures and facial features (maybe on a tablet). Yet still has strong themes and similarities to the bottle running throughout. Discussion on this animation made us as a group question whether the inner battle of the cat and the dog, represented a bigger issue of possibly, schizophrenia or other mental illness. Or was a question of gender? Does the cat represent female and the dog represent male? Is it a man who thinks he’s a woman? I did do some research into Siri Melchior, and she is a Danish women who has written an awful lot of children’s books. Therefore I find it hard to believe there’s a hidden concept other than to be super charming and loveable by all because it’s very clear that her target audience is children to entertain, and their parents. You probably wouldn’t buy a book for your child if it were about transgender. I think Kristen Lepore’s work is more likely to tackle deeper issues being a student project, generally student’s are pushed to convey messages in their work and challenge the audience.

However saying that, similar themes that make both these shorts so successful are how much appeal the main characters have. In Bottle, the shapes are round and are friendly, there’s no reason to dislike them. And in the other short the characters are kept very simple and are very playful giving them appeal too. I also think the biggest similarity is how they both end up in water to form a resolution in the narrative. It’s something I’ve never noticed in a narrative before. I really like how one resolves the issue in a positive way and the cat and dog learn to swim, where as the snow and sand man disintegrate. I think it sums up their similarities and difference in visually metaphorical way for there contextual way.