Tuesday, 2 December 2014

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?


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?