Year 2- (January 22nd 2020) Art Assessment: Writing Down notes and Picking my Options

This year I get started for second design context, like during my first at university I was given assessments of designing a character and using it to create a game with everyone else’s character and then writing an essay. This year is going to be like that, hopefully it will a bit better. Through these sessions I start learning about about the subjects I could chose to write for an essay by taking down notes and then thinking about which one to use for the job. I start with Semiotics.

Semiotics

The Definition of Semiotics

• Defined as the study of signs and sign systems within society.
• Anything that is capable of conveying meaning is a sign (e.g. words, images, clothes, gestures, symbols...etc).

Encoding- Decoding
​Often sign are grouped together to codes;

• Gestures (body language)
• Clothing/dress (dress codes)

Clothing- a cultural sign system which has a strong communication value and of which is used on a daily basis... to negative meaning and internet on the basis of that neglected meaning.

Roland Barthes- (The Fashion System (1967)
Semiotics is a critical methodology- to study;

1. How did signs communicate (cultural) meanings.
2. How we relate to signs.

Semiotics provides a useful framework for;

• Deconstructing visual "texts" around us.
• Looking beyond their mere surface at any underlying (cultural) messages and ideas.

Facts about Roland Barthes

• Born: November 12th 1915 - Died: March 26th 1980.
• Roland Barthes is known for developing and extending the field of semiotics through the analysis of a variety of sign systems.
• French literary theorist, philosopher, critic and semiotician.
• Explored ideas of a diverse range of fields and influenced the developments of many schools of theory....
• Including structuralism, semiotics, social theory, design theory, anthropology and post-structuralism.
• In 1957, he has created a collection of essays from examine the tendency of contemporary social value systems to modern myths, has made it into a book.
• Roland Barthes has quoted:
• "Myth is neither a lie Nora confession: It is a inflexion".
• "Myth is imperceptible and unquestionable, time or knowledge will not make it better or worse."

Relevance to Design...?
"Semiotics in the heart of graphic design theory, just as it is the implicit (subconscious) engine in graphic design practice.

History of Semiotics
Root from Greek semiotic meaning "sign". Modern semiotics can be traced back to;

• Swiss academic Ferdinand Saussure (1857-1913)
• American Charles Pierce (1839-1914)

Sausurre and Pierce were linguist academic- both advocated a synchronic approach as opposed to diachronic approach to language.....More interested in language existing as a "state" in a particular moment of time.

Saussure: Key ideas
The passive vs. constructive view of language.
Saussure (as a structuralist) proposed that our perception of reality is constructed by words and other signs around us. 
"signs and the media for expressing signs are the only access to the thought that we have, beyond this... there is nothing".

Saussure Terminology

• Words are symbolic signs...
• Signs are arbitrary- e.g. dog >bears no resemblance to actual physical appearance or attributes.
• The sign works because of its difference from other signs (dog vs. dig, doll, cat etc).
• Each sign has two sides (dyad). To illustrate this he devised a simple equation which reads....

​Signifier + Signified = Sign

• Signifier: Physical representation (stimulus: verbal or textual content)
• Signified: Mental concept (response: cognitive reading)

(Barthes: how about the plane of expression?)

"I would like to address your attitude of hopeless negativism- consider the lillies of the goddam field or hell, look at Delmar here as your paradigm of hope" by Ulysses Everett

Structuralist viewpoint
....Therefore language is ideological (i.e. carries traces of political thought/cultural ideas).
e.g. 1970/80's Feminism and linguistic theory.

Saussure: Key ideas...

• Communication through language is all about the exchange of minds.
• Communicating and understanding signs depended on our ​mutual co-operation or sharing of particular concepts.
• Cultural perspectives?

Saussure: Terminology

• Language is made up of signs- each word written down or spoken can be thought of as a sign.

Semiotics terminology

• Langue: whole language system.
• Sign: single word.
• Parole: partial example of speech or writing.
• Syntagm: a complete, ordered sequence of signs. e.g. a sentence (My-dog-smells-terrible).

Articulation of speech/writing is dependent on sequence/time. How about a group of visual signs?
Paradigm: point of substitution in a sentence (or group of signs) which allows for an exchange > of a similar sign... or metaphorical sign... or abstract sign, without changing the overall structure.
My-dog-(smells/pongs/hums.corrodes. etc).

Marx on...ideology

• The ruling material force of society is also its ruling intellectual force.
• Some social groups retain a privileged position (make the rules) while others are less favourably placed.
• Access to the media (the means by which ideas are disseminated) is not the same for all classes.
• Dominant ideologies can only operate through general consensus...

"ideology...is released into society like a colourless, odourless gas."

Influence of Saussure and Pierce on Modern Theorists...
Saussure: Kristen, Baudrillard, Foucault, Derrida, Levi
-Strauss Barthes...
Pierce: Richards, Morris, Ogden, Fisch, Sebeck
Non affiliated: Umberto Eco, Jakobson

Myth refers to...
...sites in the mainstream culture which;

• reflect dominant ways of thinking about people, products or places (cultural norms).
• Are structured to send messages or propagate "cultural stereotypes."
• May be ideological (i.e. politically or socially motivated).

​After writing all I had watch a bit of wrestling (classic of the worlds best Wrestlers) and study about what is happening in the moments when one fight is going at the other.

Wrestling Analysis

1. How is the role/character of each wrestler defined and communicated to the audience?- Each wrestling is to show tough they each are thinking they can taken opponent down.
2. What is the role played by the commentator?- A commentator's role is to comment on events of what he or she are seeing in a wrestling match.
3. What about the role of the referee?- A referee's role in wrestling match is to be in the middle of the match, so you could watch closely and to ensure the rules of the match are followed (in sport) to arbitrate on matters arising from the match.
4. Crowd response- is the action in the ring clear to follow? If so, how is this made possible?- To the action in the ring they were engaged to matches cheering the wrestlers either one of them or both. Either way they were excited to what they were seeing.
5. Based on observation- would classify wrestling as a sport?- People would think wrestling is more of an act than a professional fight for sport, because there were some men that are not quite fit, due to the size and fat they are.

Wrestling

• A combat sport
• Wrestling is bout for physical competition between two (occasionally more) competitors or sparring partners, who gain and maintain a superior position.
• There is a range of style with varying rules with both historic and modern styles.
• Wrestling is also been incorporated as part of other martial arts as well as military hand-to-hand combat systems.
• The sport can be theatrical for people to be entertained seeing or genuinely competitive.
• The techniques of wrestling are: Pins, joint locks, takedowns, throws, click/fighting and grappling holds.
• There are other kind of wrestling like: Freestyle, mythology, Greco-Roman, beach folk, mixed martial arts, oil, collegiate, simba and professional.

The next option was about Anchorage:

Anchorage
From Barthes: used to describe the "relay" between words and visuals... "where text and image stand in a complementary relationship".
In our visual culture and media it is rare that images and words (verbal/textual) are not placed together, for example;

• A televised wrestling bout
• (All aspects of) Graphic design
• Webpages
• Comic strips
• Product packaging and advertising
• Dissemination of news stories

Types of Anchorage? (with a nod of Scott McCloud)

• Word specific
• Image specific
• Dual message
• Interdependent (or convergent)
• Parallel (or divergent)

​"A Wend End shopper argues with a protester who is being carried away by the police"- [independent Magazine, April 7th 1990].

Word specific
Words (either text or verbal) providing all or most of the information needed to a decoded message.

Image specific
Images providing all or most of the information needed to decode the message.

Dual message
Words and images communicating the same message... either in tone or content.
(Amplified design)

Interdependent or convergent
Words and images working together whilst also contributing information independently... to convey an idea that neither could do alone.

Parallel or divergent
Word and images appear to follow different "paths" and/or communicate ideas that do not seem to interest.

Barthes and connotation
Signifier + signified = denotative sign ( + connotative signifier)

Denotation- Primary meaning

• Non-coded- the most immediate reading of a sign.
• Literal deduction- reflecting broad opinion or consensus.

Connotation- secondary reading,
for example the reader/viewer may pick upon;

• Style, made of production, expressive qualities, medium and materials...
• Objects, as "induces of ideas", -inference- words and images may trigger off associated readings or link to other concept.
• Coded > Barthes- myths is relayed at the level of connotation.

Dog: Denotation (primary meaning)

• Hairy 4 legged beast.

Dog: Connotations (some secondary readings)

• Loyalty/obedience
• Tenacity/sense of smell
• Breeds
• Crafts dog show
• Pavlov
• Tiredness (dog tired)
• Hangover cure (hair of the dog)
• It's been a hard days night and I've been working like a...
• Cultural perspectives

Blue Jeans: Connotations

• Casual, non-formal dress code
• Marker of individuality/uniformity
• Haptic qualities > personal narrative
• Design and materials > the productive process
• Historical contexts > links with American rural working class.
• 50s youth culture > subcultures
• Lifestyle > broads and status

​Barthes and connotation
a) signifier + b) signified = c) (denotative) sign and d) (connotative) signifier....
....d) Connotative signifier + e) connotative signified = f) connotative sign and g) connotative signifier...etc.
​Barthes argue that the signs are polysemous... open to many interpretations.

Research: Rene Magritte: The Treachery of Images (1928/1929)

Semiotic analysis

1. Reading text messages -Come and enjoy a smoke -Sit and relax -Enjoy a smoke pipe
2. Reading image messages -Paint/pencil for work -Using brown and blue paint for composition -Using black and white for shading and lighting
3. Consider anchorage and frame of reference.

Text message: Denotation (literal reading);

• Syntagm > French langue- "this is not a pipe".
• Written as a statement of fact.
• Slogen and signature: text/hand written style.

Text message: Connotation

• Key word/sign "Pipe"? > associations
• Hand written text > informal/personal made of expression
• Statement suggests certainty
• Signature: ownership over idea? signals that this is a price of art > status... to be valued?

​Around the session I was asked to do a quick drawing of the smoke pipe with the words written on and try to figure out what it means, doing the drawing is always fun, trying to figure out what is means was tricky (it’s like you’re looking at an old painting from ancient past and you know there is something else in that painting or what it’s trying to tell you).

Images message: Denotation (literal reading)

• Medium (print etc.)?
• Oil painting of a "smoking" pipe.
• Ironic sign > painted realistically as a photograph (Barthes-meaning of signifier and signified).

Image message:Connotation (associated readings)

Style and aesthetic

• Plane and expression (Barthes)
• The artist hand > painted carefully/skill-fully
• 2D representation of a 3D style
• Genre- photography surrealism
• Pipe smoking as leisure pursuit

The pipe as a visual sign

• Paradigm of male sexuality?
• Statue symbol/expensive looking
• Symbolic signifier of authority- class etc?
• Intertextuality > cultural/media reference?

​Anchorage

• Relationship between images and text?
• Contradictory messages- slogan encourages the viewer to question the image. To question the function of art? Truth of representation?
• Interesting/conveying
• Intended meaning- art as illusion?

Frame of reference

• Painted in the 1920's > displacement > cultural reading is a dependent on time and place.
• Meaning changes with the context that artwork is seen- presentation/representation.

Artist, gallery, catalogue, book, lecture etc...

The next session is about the graphic code of comic books.

The Graphic Code of Comic Books- Reading from...

• Paul Gravett: Comic Art
• Scott McCloud: Understanding Comics
• Nick Dodds: AO1 Varoom

Primary Research- Formal Analysis

Secondary Reading- Critical Texts

• The graphic code of comics
• Control and Readership

The Graphic Code of Comics
....A set of graphic signs that artists use to tell a story.
These graphic signs are;

• Unique to comic strips- have evolved over time.
• Easily accepted and understood by most readers....

(Surface efficiency > underlying complexity)

• Encoding (creating)
• Decoding (reading)

​I was shown several examples of what comic strips are like from many famous artists that are known and showing examples of how some comic strip were done in.

Encoding

Cognitive reasoning
The creation of the page involves selection, arrangement and layout of textual and visual elements that comprise the narrative.

Decoding
Comic strips rely on the reader to;

• Read and understand the linguistic and visual information at hand.
• Navigate spatial relationships- to make meaningful connections between one panel and the next.

"Reading a comic is an acquired skill... it takes an amazing number of eye movements to understand a panel flicking from picture to text and back again".

Roger Sabin (adult comics- An introduction)

Plurivectorial flow?

• To understand the story- the reader is constantly traversing and rewinding across the page.
• Focus and direction of eye movement can be erratic.
• Unlike other narrative forms- audience deviation is common.
• Past/present/future is shown to be simultaneously.

Control strategies?
Seasoned comic artists are aware of reader deviation and employ various strategies to counteract this;

• Page design (and multi-frame)
• Strip ellipse
• Key panel co-ordinates
• Cliffhangers/Page breaks
• Negative space
• Closure and passage of time.

​Writing down these notes, I was shown some more example of an artist who did rough drawing of his comic strip design, then made adjustments to the final design.

Page design

The system of comics

• Encourages the reader to imagine the "contentless" comic.
• The page emptied of its visual, iconic and textual innards...
• ....Leaving only a series of interrelated frames within frames.
• Page skeleton: page multi-frame.

The page as a multi-frame

• Encourages an appreciation of the complexity of the creative process.
• Just as the eye can move erratically across a page, it may also telescope in and out.

​It is possible to identify at least 3 levels at which the page can be approached;

1. Level of the page
2. Level of the strip
3. Level of the panel

The level of the strip;

• The reader becomes more conscious of the style and aesthetic of the artwork.
• Reader function-routing sequence left to right etc.
• Correlations between panels will begin to motion the story.
• The story is utilised as an intermediate ellipse in the narrative or shift in location.

At the level of the panel;

• The reader is most engaged in the visual and textual content... anchorage etc.
• ....and the transition between one panel and the next [importance of the gutter/negative space].

Panel co-ordinates

• A panel has a relation not only to abutting panels, but to other panels in the multi-frame.

Significant coordinates on the page grid;

• Entry/exit points and the centre.
• Used to punctuate the narrative.
• Seen over a number of pages- instils a formulaic orderliness.

The potency of negative space
The page presents a partial visuality,

• The drawn surface represents only a portion of the story content.
• The uni-drawn (negative) space in the margins and gutters- function as a surrogate for the omitted/hidden parts.
• Closure the reader must enter the negative space, in their imagination, to make a coherent whole of the story.

​Breaking the Rules?
The comic book page is, "the organised space that cheats between the two dimensions of the format and the perceptive suggestion of the world" [Alan Rey 1978]. More examples were shown about comics:

I was set on a task to write what each images in the comic strip is:

​1. Moment to moment
2. Action to action
3. Subject to subject
4. Scene to scene
5. Aspect to aspect
6. Non to scepter

​….And to try to write what each were on a comic strip page we were given each.

The next session was Subculture and the meaning of style

Subculture and the meaning of style

The term Subculture...

• It goes back to 1800's -early studios referred to deviant groups or an urban underclass.
• The prefix 'sub" suggests a lower rank i.e. subordinate or subterranean.

Gin Lane [1751 William Hogarth]

• ... it is associated with past 1945 youth subculture [rise of teenager etc]... moods, rockers, teddy boys, skinheads, punks etc..
• Refers to any minority group with a shared set of beliefs, values or lifestyle that resists mainstream culture.

​A subculture is a minority group that stand apart from the prevailing mainstream culture.

Mainstream culture?

• The organisation of a society into hierarchical structures that are...
• ...shaped by prominent political, media, social and corporate interests.
• Also called parent, official or dominant culture or the establishment.
• Found in state of institutions and apparatus, government, laws, authorities, bureaucracy, economic systems, the media etc....
• ....school, work, university, corporations, popular visual/consumer culture.

​Mainstream > dominant ideology

• Reflect the interests of dominants social groups.
• Are responsible for the construction of myth [semiotics > abiding cultural ideas/treads etc].
• Are reflected unpopular visual culture/media texts.
• Can only operate through consensus.

"A subculture... signals a breakdown of consensus" [Hebdige- the meaning of style 1979]

Breakdown of consensus?

1. Refusal to participate in mainstream culture.
2. Desire to subvert, parody or disrupt elements of mainstream culture.

Contradictary themes: empowerment and importance [personal autonomy vs lack of political influence]

Case study 1: the beats [1950's America]

• Sub cultural elite: mostly male, young, white, educated, middle class, sexually ambivalent etc...
• Writers: William Burroughs, Allen Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti etc.
• Frame of reference: post WW2, 1950's America, alienation from mainstream society.
• The Beat as in "beaten."

Beat literature themes;

• Anti-mainstream [straight] culture
• Anti- 1950's materialism
• anti-censorship (liberal attitudes towards sex and relationships > moral ambiguity).
• Opposition to the military- industrial machine
• Emphasis on individual autonomy
• Underlying spirituality/ecological consciousness
• iconoclastic in form > freeform prose, experimental, links with abstract painting, be-bop jazz etc.

Square values vs. beat values (provides a useful framework for thinking about other subcultures). Here are some examples:

Square values

• Mainstream culture
• Defend gratification/planned future action
• Conformity to bureaucratic rules
• Fatalism... comfort in routine
• Strong work ethic
• Consumerism = status
• Family as moral centre
• Defined gender roles
• Deference to religious beliefs

Beat values

• Counter-cultural
• hedonism-leads to personal enlightenment
• spontaneous action/new experiences
• Non-conformity
• Belief in self-autonomy
• Distain for work ethic
• Anti-materialistic
• Spiritual > interest in other (e.g. Eastern) belief systems
• Non-binary relationships

The Beats: significance and absorption

• Dissemination of a subculture-fed in part by self promotion by beat writers.
• Popular with a young college audience-disenfranchised by Eisenhower's America.
• Attracted audiences outside USA > Europe [French new wave, 1960's counterculture etc].

Absorption of a subculture

• The late 50's/early 60's- critical framing [e.g. Lawrence Lipton].
• Mainstream media- distortion and vilification of "beat" culture.
• Evolving into the caricature of beat values... the beatnik used as a derogatory term.

The Holy Barbarians [Lipton 1959]
Beat[nik]

• Sloppy groomed/goatee.
• Turtle neck sweater, scandals/sunglasses/beret.
• Prone to nonsensical slang and an affected patois.
• Convinced of his own intellectual [hip] superiority.

Beat [chick]

• Over sized sweater, black stockings.
• Lots of eye make up, unkempt hair.
• "Weird and spacey."
• Deviant/morally suspect.
• Sexually available.

Punk no.1 An inferior, rotten or worthless person or thing. no.2 Short for punk rock. no.3 A young male homosexual. no. 4 A prostitute -adj.

[Collins English Dictionary]
Case study 2:Punk [1970's Britain]

"No subculture has sought with more grim determination than the punks to detach itself from the taken-for-granted landscape of normalise forms'.
[Hebdige: subculture and the meaning of style 1979]

Punk- Frame of reference?
Punk as a definitive subculture >cliche?

• Political/social context > Britain mid 1970's
• Economic recession > youth unemployment
• Articulated the frustrations and alienation of the young [urban] working class.

[....empowerment and impotence]

Punk- The meaning of style

• The visualisation of a subculture.
• The creation of cultural capital.

Punk style- Key points (themes)

1. The influence of the subcultural elite > alternatives "codes" [defined by select individuals].
2. Dress and body image.
3. Subcultural rituals.
4. Demystification.
5. DIY culture and cultural capital
6. Detourment

"You're going to wake up one morning and know what side of the bed you've been lying on!" [t-shirt by McCiaren, Rhodes and Westwood 1974].
(1) influence of the subcultural elite)

Straight [Mainstream >square] values

• Clockwork soul routines/the job you hate but are also scared to pack in/arse lickers.
• Television [not the group].
• 19/Henry/Vogue/infact all magazines that treat their readers as idiots.
• POP STARS that are thick and useless/a passive audience.
• Birthday spending/West End shopping/old ideas and all this resting in the country business.
• Dirty books that aren't all that dirty.censorship.
• All those fucking saints.

The Punk dress code- 2)Formulating a dress code

• Reflecting social dislocation.
• Collage and bricolage [the safety pin].
• Anti taste > ugliness.
• Original > non-uniform.
• Provocative > adaption of fetishist wear and sexualised imagery.
• Subversion > of loaded cultural signs.
• Cross-gender dress

3) Subculture rituals

• Sarcastic patois
• Nihilism
• Speed logic
• The "pogo"
• Participation in the spectacle
• Gibbing etiquette

4) Demystification

• Iconoclastic > "denture your idols".
• Anti-corporate/anti-elitism
• Amateurism as a virtue (signals authenticity).

5) DIY Culture and Cultural Capital

• DIY Culture [music, design, zines, fashion, film etc].
• Participation and Creature control > "taking hold of the reins".
• The primary of the punk 45 single.
• The development of a visual legion... to accompany the music.

The punk visual lexicon/semiotic code
anti aesthetic;

• Energetic/urgent
• deliberately crude [but often well composed!]
• Cheaply printed [Xerox]- restricted use of colour.
• Mix of photomontage/collaged elements.
• No rock star posturing!
• Lettering: ransom note style/stencilled/use of letraset....

​Themes;

• Class and suburbia (irony)
• Anti- consumerism
• Urban decay/displaced youth
• Provocative imagery
• Criminality/nihilism
• Subversion of mainstream signs and symbols

6) Detourment

• "Aping" the parent culture.
• Apparition and alteration of an existing media artefact.
• Diversion, interference and intervention.

The graphics of Jamie Reid

• The political content of early punk/Sex Pistols comes from Reid's graphics and world view?
• Reid's lesion of do-it-yourself graphics > highly influential.

Background in the 1960's;

• Student politics and "counter-culture"
• The Situationist International [Paris]
• King Mob

Reid and Suburban Press (1970-1975)

• A radical printing press.
• Based in Croydon- London borough- dealt with local issues.
• Low level political agitation.
• Detournement

[Up They Rise: The Works of Jamie Reid]

The absorption of a subculture
There is a point [Hebdige] where a subculture is at its most potent, after which it begins to be co-opted or absorbed into the mainstream.

​Features of absorption

• The subculture becomes common knowledge- popularised, vilified, disseminated, copied, parodied, commercialised....etc.
• Signals loss of power/control for the subcultural elite.
• Absorption can take many forms...

The next session was about Global culture and Ethical design.

Global Culture....
"....can be considered as a space or field made possible through improved means of communication in which different cultures meet and clash".
(Mike Featherstone Global Culture/An introduction 1990)

"Framing" Globalisation
Inter-linking themes;

1. The global village
2. Digital integration
3. Trade without borders

1. The Global Village
"The whole earth as the physical environment where all citizens, consumers and producers, possessed of a common-sense interest in collective action to solve global problems".
(Martin Albrow- Globalisation, knowledge and society- 1990)

• Sense of shared common destiny -health, environmental and sustainability issues?
• Cultural exchange and hybridity: mix of the local/indigenous culture with global influences.
• Cultural imperialism: the disproportionate effect of one culture over another.
• The post-traditional community.

Traditional Community vs. Post Traditional Community
Traditional Community

• Being rooted- sense of belonging and allegiance.
• Fixed spatial environment- of private/public spaces.
• Historical ties- length of family residence.
• Moral certainty- respect for community hierarchy.
• Decline of the real?

Post- traditional community

• Transient connections [people move more frequently]
• Changing spatial environment [reflecting socio-economic change]
• Generational shifting
• Individual narratives
• Moral uncertainty
• The growth of online virtual communities

2. Digital intregration

• ​As digital technology develop- the media synchronises into virtual "world Tim,..."
• ...Opening up new patterns of cultural exchange > the internet, mobile networks, social make etc.
• Stories, money, technologies, cultural trends, political ideologies... now move speedily around the world.
• The rise of digital subcultures etc.
• Computerisation as the principal force of production...
• ...has changed the way knowledge is acquired, classified and exploit (e.g WWW, search engines etc...)
• Knowledge is power (not territory).

3. Trade without borders
(Post- industrial society, turbo or late capitalism)

• Since 1980's > growth in global economics.
• Movement in the west from manufacturing to service based on economics.
• National borders/ideologies less relevant > collapse of institutional barriers (protectionism) to trade.
• Global Brands > rise of transnational corporations.

The role of global corporations

• What is a global corporation?
• The difference between a corporation and the brand?

Answers:
A global corporation, also known as a global company, is coined from the base term ’global’, which means all around the world. It makes sense to assume that a global company is a company that does business all over the world.
In simple terms, there is a difference between company and brand. Companyrefers to the organization that markets or produces products or services; brand refers to the image and “personality” a company applies to its products. In reality, the two can overlap.

Klein on corporations...

• Growth can be traced back to the 1980's (trade liberalisation, union reforms, global economics...) e.g. sub-contracting production > cutting labour costs etc.
• Marked the movement from production > branding.

"Lumpy object purveyors to players in brainwave". The circle of innovation (Tom Peters 1997).

Klein argues that...corporations are;

• Immortal: accumulated power, wealth and influence.
• Ephemeral: can change their operation quickly (wages, tax breaks, inducements etc).
• Aggressively competitive: driven by profit and growth.
• Chameleon like: change their ideology to suit location (e.g. media networks)- lack of accountability.

....The corporate brand?
"Products are made in the factory... but brands are made in the mind". Walter Landor in NoLogo [1999 Naomi Klein]
Signifier of image/lifestyle/attitude/myth

• Designed > corporate identity, logotype etc.
• Disseminated via advertising, billboards, celebrity endorsement, product placement, info-commercials, web advertising and content provision, sponsorship, intertextuality etc....

....The race towards weightlessness
"After establishing the soul of their corporations, the super brand companies have gone on to rid themselves of their cumbersome bodies".
[Naomi Klein No Logo]

Klein and the fashion trade

• Outing of the logo (early 1970's) and logo inflation (mid 80's onwards).
• Growth of the fashion franchise: Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Gap, Levi's etc... fashion as status.
• Growth of high concept advertising: absence of product (e.g. Benetton's infamous 1980's ads).
• Brand vs production: division between head and body.

Cumbersome bodies...?

• The production process is hidden from view as it is not part of brand construction.
• Bargain hunting: outstanding the manufacturing process- ideally in the developing world (Indonesia, Korea, Philippines, Vietnam, Pakistan...etc.
• Minimising labour costs: non-unionised labour > sweatshop models of employment.
• Export Processing Zones: corporate enclaves with countries > tax breaks (with no benefit for the local economy).

Ethical Design etc...
First Things First 2000 Manifesto

• Rewrite of 1964 FTF document.
• Redesign for a global/corporate age.
• Signed up to by leading designers/artists etc...
• "Design as a weapon for social change."

There are pursuits more worthy of our problem solving skills. Unprecedented environmental, social and cultural crises demand our attention. Many cultural interventions, socials marketing campaigns... urgently requires our expertise and help.
First Things First 2000 Manifesto

​A creative's code?
As a creative how far should you be guided by your conscience?

Next session was Post Modernity and Visual Culture.

Post Modernity and Visual Culture
"Post modernism remains a different, slippery and for some, infuriating topic.... it is now so well established as a way of thinking about our time and our "condition" that it cannot be simply ignored".
Rick Joyner (No more Rules)

Opening thoughts...
Post- defined in relation to what it isn't [i.e. modernism]

• After modernism
• Anti modernism
• Hyper modernism

Modernism.... recap

Modernism timeline and context

• Roughly 100 years > mid 19th century [Europe] to late 1970's [America].
• Sustained period of innovation in the arts-linked to change in industrial practices, science and media.
• Marked by rupture and dispersal [WW1 and 2 etc}.

Modernism...key ideas;

• Rationalism [replacing religious doctrine].
• Scientific/industrial determinism > culture.

Karl Marx: infrastructure > superstructure

​Key themes in visual culture

• Crisis of representation
• Foregrounding of high [enlist] culture
• Belief in grand narratives

Defining post modernism?

• After modernism
• Anti modernism
• Hyper modernism

"The modernist laboratory is now vacant. It has become a period room in a museum, a historical space that we enter, look at, but are no longer be part of."
Robert Hughes [The shock of the New 1980]

After modernism?
That modernism has run its course..... or a complete knowledge and/or history of modernism has been surpassed by a new age.

After modernism: context
​From 1980's onwards;

• The post Industrial Age (post-gordian economics).
• Historical fragmentation > post-modernity displace and fragments meta-narratives so they become subjective, doubtful and multiple.

"I define the post-modern as incredulity towards meta-narratives'.
The Post-Modern Condition [Jean-Francois Lyotard]
"We have lost the ability to locate ourselves historically'.
Post Structuralism and Post Modernism [Madan Sarup]

The end of the grand narrative

• Grand narrative replaced by localised or individual "micro-narratives".
• Technology: allows for experimentation with identity and personal narrative.

Ant-moderism
"Reason (i.e. modernism) has been shaped by a dishonest pursuit of certainty".
[The Post-modern Condition by Jean-Francois Lyotard}

• A complex reaction to the failures of modernism > conflicts, holocaust, ecological disasters etc...
• Anti-foundational: rejection of rationalism, truths, certainties, doctrines and unstable belief systems- there is no universal truth of philosophy.
• A questioning of the "ideological bias", of all history and knowledge.
• Scepticism towards the grand political schemes of modernism [e.g. post-Marxist thinking].

​Anti-modernism....examples

• Contradictory attitudes to modern media.

[Fake news: we look to put trust in the "media' whilst also acknowledging mistrust in its construction and message].

• Feminist anti "patriarchal" perspectives.
• No more rules- subversion of modernist ideals.

"Post-truth" culture
​Emotion > fact/expert opinion

RayGun is something I’m a little familiar with because it was part of a project I did when I was in college.

Hyper modernism...
"In an amazing acceleration... post-modernism is not modernism at its end but in its nascent state, and this state is constant".
The Post-Modern Condition [Jean-Francois Lyotard 1979]
​
Hyper modernism

• Modernism is a incomplete project?
• Cyclical > seen in relation to/in tandem with post modernity.

In relation to new media technologies.

• Technological acceleration [determinism]
• Cyber-culture and the ideological new
• Post- internet > cultural hybridity

Searching for Post Modernity?

Visual Culture: PO-MO features

1. Merging of high a low cultural forms
2. Mutations in public space
3. The unstable image
4. Society of the spectacle

​
High Vs. Low Culture?
​
High Culture

• Depth
• High value
• Spiritual
• Elitist
• Long lasting
• Serious
• Unique
• Politically motivated

Low Culture

• Surface
• Low value
• Commercial
• Popular
• Transient
• Gimmicky
• Mass produced
• Politically influenced

2) Mutations of public space
Urban fantasy architectural spaces- sampling of different period styles, reflecting;

• Global/cultural hybridity
• Turbo- consumerism
• Hyper- reality
• Nostalgia culture

"Certain postmodern sites, with their vast open spaces, layers of escalators, and facades that allow no interference from the surrounding city, have been theorised as mutations of space".
[Madan Sarup]

3) The unstable image

• The hyper-real (semiotic overload)
• The order of the simulacra
• Bricolage
• Parody and Pastiche
• Intertextuality and double- coding
• Hybrid genres and forms Irony Retrovision

Jean Baudrillard and the unstable image

• Semiotic overload? [signifier (?) + signified (?) = sign (?)]
• The hyper-real: proliferation of image signs that we can only read their representation and not their meaning.
• We can no longer trust images as true images as true representations of the image- see Baudrillard's order or the simulacrum.

The hyper-real
The presentation of images without reality or meaning...
The real is produced.
The hyper-real is reproduced.

Order of the Simulacra [from Baudrillard]
The representational image-sign goes through 4 key stages;
Stage 1) It is a reflection of a basic reality.
Stage 2) It masks and perverts a basic reality.
Stage 3) It marks the absence of a basic reality.
Stage 4) It bears no relation to any reality whatever.

Bricolage: Sampling of images and ideas from the past [e.g. design, pop music etc.] to create something new. The age of Pillage [1983 Jon Savage].

Parody
Original text [author and referent]- Parody [loaded simulation]
Parody [loaded simulation]- pastiche [blank simulation]

Pastiche
images are presented without reality or meaning
Internality and Double coding
Hybridity and irony within filmic texts

​Retrovision
[nostalgia culture- re-interpret the past in our own image] 

My group and I were shown of a short video clip of pulp fiction.

4) The society of the spectacle

• Mediation: life lived on and through a screen.
• Multi-modality.
• Complexity and simulation is the new reality.
• More information = less meaning.

​The Gulf War did not take place
"The outcome had been devoured by the retro virus of history. And now that it is over, one can finally take account of its non-occurrence". [Jean Baudrillard 1991]

These photos are examples about the gulf of war.

Post- modernism

• A contested term?
• Post = after/anti/hyper modernism
• Visual culture > features and terminology

Some alternatives....

• Post-structuralism
• Past-internet
• Post post-modernity?

Key theorist to explore

• Francis Fukuyama
• Pierre Baurdieu
• Jean Bruadrillard
• Jurgen Habermas
• Michel Foucault
• Jacques Lacan
• Julia Kirsteva
• Giles Deleuze
• Helene Cixous
• Jacques Derrida
• Jean- Francois Lyotard
• Linda Hutcheon
• Cornel West
• Frederic Jameson
• Sherry Turkle

"Now I want to dance.
I want to win.
I want that trophy".

And the last session I went to before I start on my essay, was about the research journey.

The Research Journey
An overview of doing a primary research project.

With Claire Stewart
Library and Academic Advisor
Information Services

Defining research
What do we mean by "research"?
Research seeks the answer to a question or a solution to a problem.
Research utilises and may generate theory.
Theory: Representative construction of ideas in order to explain or describe a phenomenon.
Research contributes to the existing body of knowledge on a topic.
What is original?

Ways to research

• Methods
• Interviews and focus groups
• Practice-based research
• Visual methods
• Observation and diaries
• Secondary literature
• Surveys

The research Cycle

• Generates
• Defines
• Finds
• Solves
• Problem/Idea
• Research Question
• Research Methodology
• Research outcome

The research line

• Initial ideas
• Framing your research question
• Review the literature
• Choose your method
• Conduct your research
• Presentation

1. Initial Ideas
Manageable-

• Within given word count.
• Time considerations.

Original-

• Contribute to body of knowledge.
• Avoid well-trodden routes.

Relevant-

• Within the field of media, conversation etc....
• To further study or career.

Interesting-

• An issue deemed worthy of study.
• To keep motivated.

You're thinking of doing something about Youtube.... What kind of angles could you take? To answer that question, is make that most clip are available and safe for kids to watch, till there are old enough to all youtube clips, and for everyone who have signed on account (myself) included should make sure no one else is using it. That’s what I think should happen at all times.

2.Framing a research question
Research isn't a general exploration a subject area.
It should be a focused inquiry on a particular aspect.
Locating a specific question about your topic within your research territory will "frame", the path your research will take.

Considerations:

Preliminary reading
Read around year area to get a sense of the subject area.
Familiarise yourself with the territory.

Take a fresh angle
What questions remain unanswered in your chosen area?
How can you take a different perspective?

Keep your scope narrow
A broad-ranging question leads to a shallow dissertation- you cannot appropriately tackle large scope in a short word count!

3.Review the literature
What has been written about the topic to date?
What are relevant theoretical framework?
What are the key texts or studios in that field?
What methods have been used?

4.Choose your method
Choose the methods that's the best fit for your research question.
The methods you use must be valid in terms of giving "data" that can be used to address research problem-how well does it do what it's meant to?
Must also be appropriate to scale of project.
Hint- Refer to the literature to see what methods have been used.

Three key methodologies
Visual- Study of media and artefacts
Social Science- Traditional interviews etc...
Practice-based- Based in the process of field.

Deconstruction and evaluation of films, comics and graphic novel, games or any other visual artefact using theory to frame analysis.

Visual analysis
Ross Johnston, R. (2012) "Graphic trinities' language, literature, and words-in-picture in Shaun Tan's The Arrival, visual communication, 11(4), pp. 421-441

Semiotic and literacy analysis of visual narrates in Shaun Tan's The Arrival to explore key themes of belonging, family and migration.
Apply theory is a bit like applying a filter e.g. feminism, semiotics, narratology.
Social Science- Traditional interview etc...
Approaches used in sociology, cultural studies, psychology etc. to understand humans and their interactions.

Quantitative or Qualitative?

Quantitative
Quantitative methods use numbers:

• Surveys, counts and questionnaires
• Aim for generalisability -to represent the whole of target population.
• Roots in science
• Good for snapshots of trends
• Can't answer how or why?

​Qualitative
​Qualitative methods use words:

• Interviews, focus groups, conversations, diaries etc... etc...
• Aim for deeper insights
• Recognises complexity of "humans" in cultures and wider society.
• Values individual perspectives
• Good for asking how or why
• Difficult to generalise.

So these were the option I got to learn from and I had to decide, which subject I want to do, towards the start of March I decide to do an essay on graphic novels.