More pictures to come...
Friday, August 12, 2011
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Visual Communication Episode 7 - Commercial Reality
What is Agitprop? The word 'Agitprop' was created from the two words 'Agitation' and 'Propaganda'. Agitprop is defined as the following:
• Political strategy in which techniques of agitation and propaganda are used to influence public opinion. Originally described by the Marxist theorist Georgy Plekhanov and then by Vladimir Ilich Lenin, it called for both emotional and reasoned arguments. The term, a shortened form for the Agitation and Propaganda Section of the Communist Party in the former Soviet Union, has been used in English, typically with a negative connotation, to describe any work — especially in drama and other art forms — that aims to indoctrinate the public and achieve political goals.
Agitprop first appeared in post-Revolutionary Soviet Union. It was intended to promote values among the masses, and has taken on many forms, from trains and cars, poster campaigns, agitation centres, and even 'agitpunkts'. Agitprop proved to be a powerful technique to politically educate the mass of population. Books and libraries played an important role in enforcing this concept of agitprop, with many books published about certain 'educational' topics, such as ones that promote the pride in the valour of labour, or ones that enforce the memory of great moments in the revolutionary history.
Agitprop reached its peak during the Stalinist era, and was one of the most important Central Committee sections by 1946. Agitprop's role was to oversee publishing, television, radio, and sports, to control the masses and directing the agitation and propaganda work, to educate them politically and conducting cultural work with trade unions. Early Agitprop techniques included parades, spectacles, posters, scultures, films, kiosks and such, and there existed these agit-stations which were present in most railway stations, which held libraries of propaganda material, lectures and the like.
https://www.adbusters.org/gallery/spoofads
http://thebookman.wordpress.com/2008/03/01/postmodern-terms-absence-to-curtain-wall/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_jamming
http://www.answers.com/library/Russian+History+Encyclopedia-cid-1458
http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/russian/agit.htm
- 22nd April lesson
• Political strategy in which techniques of agitation and propaganda are used to influence public opinion. Originally described by the Marxist theorist Georgy Plekhanov and then by Vladimir Ilich Lenin, it called for both emotional and reasoned arguments. The term, a shortened form for the Agitation and Propaganda Section of the Communist Party in the former Soviet Union, has been used in English, typically with a negative connotation, to describe any work — especially in drama and other art forms — that aims to indoctrinate the public and achieve political goals.
- Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Agitprop first appeared in post-Revolutionary Soviet Union. It was intended to promote values among the masses, and has taken on many forms, from trains and cars, poster campaigns, agitation centres, and even 'agitpunkts'. Agitprop proved to be a powerful technique to politically educate the mass of population. Books and libraries played an important role in enforcing this concept of agitprop, with many books published about certain 'educational' topics, such as ones that promote the pride in the valour of labour, or ones that enforce the memory of great moments in the revolutionary history.
Agitprop reached its peak during the Stalinist era, and was one of the most important Central Committee sections by 1946. Agitprop's role was to oversee publishing, television, radio, and sports, to control the masses and directing the agitation and propaganda work, to educate them politically and conducting cultural work with trade unions. Early Agitprop techniques included parades, spectacles, posters, scultures, films, kiosks and such, and there existed these agit-stations which were present in most railway stations, which held libraries of propaganda material, lectures and the like.
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Culture Jamming, it is defined as a colloquialism that refers to a species of 'media activism usually presented in the form of a fraudulent mass media event'. It's a mechanism in which an activist attempts to disrupt or subvert mainstream cultural material or corporate advertising; often seen as a form of subvertising. Often aimed to expose the questionable political assumptions behind commercial cultures, in other words, to reveal the unbuttered side of a toast to the audience. In this branded environment we live in, our information is usually covered with a layer of butter, disrupting us and steering us from the REAL information, the truth; culture jamming 'unbutters' this toast, or simply flips it around, to reveal the real information, to expose the lies and conspiracy behind the political decisions made to cover up some information and altering it to directly affect us, the audience. Culture jams re-figure logos, fashion statements, product images, advertising campaigns, parodying on the commercial side of things and challening the idea of 'what's cool' while giving us some freedom in what we, as an audience, and as a consumer, consume.
One example of a Culture Jammer is Adbusters, perhaps it being the most famous. Adbusters is a magazine which has made its way to the international audience, and has a website to expand the range of audience its reaching. It mostly plays and parodies on the things that exist in our commercial world. From Adbusters' website:
Culture Jamming, it is defined as a colloquialism that refers to a species of 'media activism usually presented in the form of a fraudulent mass media event'. It's a mechanism in which an activist attempts to disrupt or subvert mainstream cultural material or corporate advertising; often seen as a form of subvertising. Often aimed to expose the questionable political assumptions behind commercial cultures, in other words, to reveal the unbuttered side of a toast to the audience. In this branded environment we live in, our information is usually covered with a layer of butter, disrupting us and steering us from the REAL information, the truth; culture jamming 'unbutters' this toast, or simply flips it around, to reveal the real information, to expose the lies and conspiracy behind the political decisions made to cover up some information and altering it to directly affect us, the audience. Culture jams re-figure logos, fashion statements, product images, advertising campaigns, parodying on the commercial side of things and challening the idea of 'what's cool' while giving us some freedom in what we, as an audience, and as a consumer, consume.
One example of a Culture Jammer is Adbusters, perhaps it being the most famous. Adbusters is a magazine which has made its way to the international audience, and has a website to expand the range of audience its reaching. It mostly plays and parodies on the things that exist in our commercial world. From Adbusters' website:
"We are a global network of culture jammers and creatives working to change the way information flows, the way corporations wield power, and the way meaning is produced in our society."
https://www.adbusters.org/gallery/spoofads
http://thebookman.wordpress.com/2008/03/01/postmodern-terms-absence-to-curtain-wall/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_jamming
http://www.answers.com/library/Russian+History+Encyclopedia-cid-1458
http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/russian/agit.htm
- 22nd April lesson
Visual Communication Episode 6 - Culture
What is culture? The dictionary defines 'culture' as the following:
There is also the Counter Culture, e.g. the Hippies, for they try to introduce a different set of values into the society they live in, with their beliefs more intellectually based and backed up by rationality.
Then we have the Sub-Cultures, such as Christian culture, Gothic culture, Arts culture, Football culture, Japanese culture, etc. These cultures are different to Counter Cultures because Sub Cultures themselves are pretty much a set of rules, instead of defying those rules and trying to introduce new values like the Counter Cultures do, we instead follow these rules in order to fit in.
For example, Gothic Culture, in order to become part of that culture, one would have to follow the rules in the Gothic culture, e.g. dress code. Wear full-black clothing, dyeing your hair black, and maybe even throw some black mascara in for overkill, and voila, you're a perfect example of a Goth.
We don't really notice these cultures and whatnot in our usual everyday mundane lives, we've become so accustomed to them that we barely notice them, or barely pay attention to them. We just accept them as they are. If one's walking on the street and see a person in a gothic dresscode, and obviously he/she is going to think, "Wow, that person is Gothic." or something along the lines of that. We become so immersed in these cultures, that we ourselves sometimes forget that we're in some cultures ourselves too, whether it is our nationality's culture, our school culture, or to look at it in the simplest way, the way we dress itself fall under a certain culture.
In this fine example, pages and pages of the magazine just seems to emit the same message over and over again, "You should, you should have, you should think about, you should do it." The content just seems to be wanting to dictate our everyday lives. A 'Perfect' landscape block should have a golf course? I live in the western suburbs, it's hard enough to find a golf course as it is, but one on the block? I guess where i live is obviously not the 'perfect' place then.
I've included some examples from the magazine, which pretty much explains what the magazine is about:
Having seven donkeys will improve my life? Why didn't anyone tell me earlier? *rushes to buy twenty-one donkeys* Three times' the charm.
- April 15th lesson
- the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively : 20th century popular culture.
- a refined understanding or appreciation of this : men of culture.
- the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group : Caribbean culture | people from many different cultures.
- [with adj. ] the attitudes and behavior characteristic of a particular social group : the emerging drug culture.
There is also the Counter Culture, e.g. the Hippies, for they try to introduce a different set of values into the society they live in, with their beliefs more intellectually based and backed up by rationality.
Then we have the Sub-Cultures, such as Christian culture, Gothic culture, Arts culture, Football culture, Japanese culture, etc. These cultures are different to Counter Cultures because Sub Cultures themselves are pretty much a set of rules, instead of defying those rules and trying to introduce new values like the Counter Cultures do, we instead follow these rules in order to fit in.
For example, Gothic Culture, in order to become part of that culture, one would have to follow the rules in the Gothic culture, e.g. dress code. Wear full-black clothing, dyeing your hair black, and maybe even throw some black mascara in for overkill, and voila, you're a perfect example of a Goth.
We don't really notice these cultures and whatnot in our usual everyday mundane lives, we've become so accustomed to them that we barely notice them, or barely pay attention to them. We just accept them as they are. If one's walking on the street and see a person in a gothic dresscode, and obviously he/she is going to think, "Wow, that person is Gothic." or something along the lines of that. We become so immersed in these cultures, that we ourselves sometimes forget that we're in some cultures ourselves too, whether it is our nationality's culture, our school culture, or to look at it in the simplest way, the way we dress itself fall under a certain culture.
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In Graphic Design, we have to take into consideration and notice these cultures and how they vary. We do this in order to understand our TARGET MARKETS, their culture depicts their how they act, how they react, how their mind works; and in doing so we can manipulate our designs in order to make our message really REACH OUT to them EFFECTIVELY.
In order to understand this concept more effectively, we(in groups) picked a random magazine and decided to analyze it in terms of:
Materiality:
• Jacket is a softcover cardstock, coated.
• Adhesive bookbinding.
• High-quality recycled paper, with a few mixed stocks thrown in
• Very clean and neat layouts
• Moderate amount of ads in relation to the amount of pages
• Some ads are subtle, and blends into the contents of the book. You won't realise it's an ad unless you look carefully.
• Ads also relate to a lot to what the magazine is about: lifestyle, money, etc.
• The designs of the ads are at least of the intermediate, or professional level.
Messages:
• "The Perfect Landscape Block" pull-out is too idealistic, their ideas are too focused and based on the rich lifestyle. e.g. A so-called PERFECT landscape block does not necessarily need a golf-course, or a 'Monocle" shop, or 3 basketball courts side-by-side
• The concept of the magazine is revealed on the website, www.monocle.com
⁃ "Monocle is a global briefing covering international affairs, business, culture and design."
⁃ "Developed for an international audience hungry for information across a variety of sectors."
• Monocle's team of editors and correspondents have won awards, and have been drawn from The New York Times, The Independent on Sunday, BBC, CBC, and a host of other news and current affairs outlets.
• Monocle's designed to be more of a book than a magazine, it's made to be highly portable, robust, and collectable.
• While the print focuses more the 2D stuff, the online website focuses on broadcasting videos, slideshows, and audio reports.
• Monocle's edited by the founder of Wallpaper* and columnist of Financial Times, Tyler Brule.
• In both the print and online, writers and photographers are dispatched to over 50 countries every issue to gather stories and deliver it to the audience.
In order to understand this concept more effectively, we(in groups) picked a random magazine and decided to analyze it in terms of:
- Materiality Check: Layout, typography
- Message of the book
- Target audience
Materiality:
• Jacket is a softcover cardstock, coated.
• Adhesive bookbinding.
• High-quality recycled paper, with a few mixed stocks thrown in
• Very clean and neat layouts
• Moderate amount of ads in relation to the amount of pages
• Some ads are subtle, and blends into the contents of the book. You won't realise it's an ad unless you look carefully.
• Ads also relate to a lot to what the magazine is about: lifestyle, money, etc.
• The designs of the ads are at least of the intermediate, or professional level.
Messages:
• "The Perfect Landscape Block" pull-out is too idealistic, their ideas are too focused and based on the rich lifestyle. e.g. A so-called PERFECT landscape block does not necessarily need a golf-course, or a 'Monocle" shop, or 3 basketball courts side-by-side
• The concept of the magazine is revealed on the website, www.monocle.com
⁃ "Monocle is a global briefing covering international affairs, business, culture and design."
⁃ "Developed for an international audience hungry for information across a variety of sectors."
• Monocle's team of editors and correspondents have won awards, and have been drawn from The New York Times, The Independent on Sunday, BBC, CBC, and a host of other news and current affairs outlets.
• Monocle's designed to be more of a book than a magazine, it's made to be highly portable, robust, and collectable.
• While the print focuses more the 2D stuff, the online website focuses on broadcasting videos, slideshows, and audio reports.
• Monocle's edited by the founder of Wallpaper* and columnist of Financial Times, Tyler Brule.
• In both the print and online, writers and photographers are dispatched to over 50 countries every issue to gather stories and deliver it to the audience.
In this fine example, pages and pages of the magazine just seems to emit the same message over and over again, "You should, you should have, you should think about, you should do it." The content just seems to be wanting to dictate our everyday lives. A 'Perfect' landscape block should have a golf course? I live in the western suburbs, it's hard enough to find a golf course as it is, but one on the block? I guess where i live is obviously not the 'perfect' place then.
I've included some examples from the magazine, which pretty much explains what the magazine is about:
Having seven donkeys will improve my life? Why didn't anyone tell me earlier? *rushes to buy twenty-one donkeys* Three times' the charm.
- April 15th lesson
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Visual Communications - Episode 4
- Check: Book - Data Flow
- Check: Marxism
- Check: Sartorialist - Website on men's and women's clothing, studies the trends and changes of teenagers. Earns $20,000 p/year/subscription
- Hegemony - Domination, influence, or authority over another.
- Zeitgeist - The "spirit of the time". Refers to the moral and intellectual trends of a given era.
- Mook - A disagreeable or incompetent person. E.g. Borat, Jackass crew.
- Design is POLITICAL (through power and manipulation)
- The Merchants of Cool is a video documentary that portrays how design and advertising have been used by the industry as a means of obtaining power and controlling our everyday lives.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Fine Art Analysis
Painting of An Allegory of Chastity by Giorgione. (ca. 1478–1511) Rijksmuseum, AmsterdamMATERIALITY
- Not much information is known about this painting, but judging by the appearance of the textures and colours on the painting, this piece of artwork is most likely oil on canvas.
- A dry brush finish gives it the sharp and rough textures as seen in the painting.
- At first glance, the painting consists of a maiden sitting on a grassfield of some sort, with a unicorn kneeling beside her. The maiden gently rests her right hand on the unicorn, with a neutral expression on her face, as if awed by the presence and action of the unicorn to even think about anything else.
- The name of the painting is "An Allegory of Chastity"; in simple terms: allegory is a short story, while chastity is the morality associated with sexual relations.
- The unicorn is one of the most mysterious of all animals, we have not seen it with our own eyes, but yet we cannot deny its existence. The myths and stories surrounding it is still being passed on today. According to ancient Chinese myth, the unicorn is careful as to not to tread on even the tiniest living thing, and is a herbivore animal, eating only plantations and living for a thousand year. And with its existence and myths being spread around the world, by the thirteenth century, in the West, the unicorn had become a metaphor for earthly love; referring back to its cautiousness as to not tread on life.
- Richard de Fournival, in his Bestiaire d'Amour, wrote:
I have been drawn to you by your sweet odour alone, as the Unicorn falls asleep under the influence of a maiden’s fragrance. For this is the nature of the Unicorn, that no other beast is so hard to capture, so that no one dares to go forth against him except a virgin girl. And as soon as he is made aware of her presence by the scent of her, he kneels humbly before her and humiliates himself as though to signify that he would serve her. Therefore wise huntsmen who know his nature set a virgin in his way; he falls asleep in her lap; and while he sleeps the hunters come up and kill him. (de Fournival, as quoted in Megged, 1992, 30–31)
- Whether that paragraph from the Bestiaire d'Amour was written based on the painting or not is unclear, but the point he made was important. The Unicorn was hard to capture, no one dares go forth against him except a virgin girl. This relates back to the title of the painting, "An Allegory of Chastity". The essence of chastity was portrayed by the unicorn kneeling next to the maiden; for a unicorn to kneel before a maiden "as though to signify that he would serve her", the maiden would've had to been a virgin, for a unicorn can smell the odour of pure innocence.
- The overall mood of the painting was set by the use of warm colours. The orange, the brown, and the red; possibly depicting a scene under the warmth of the setting sun. The warmth of innocent love as the maiden sat herself on the earth the unicorn has been so careful as to not damage.
- However, the warmth was contrasted by the darker shades used in the right hand side of the painting, as well as the shadow cast on the right hand side of her face (from our view). Is there another side to this 'innocent' maiden? Refering back to the Bestiaire d'Amour, the quote "Therefore wise huntsmen who know his nature set a virgin in his way; he falls asleep in her lap; and while he sleeps the hunters come up and kill him. (de Fournival, as quoted in Megged, 1992, 30–31)". Is it possible that this maiden was part of a plan to capture and/or hunt this unicorn, the symbol of earthly love?
- The maiden is not smiling, while her expression looks quite neutral, one can't help but feel that there is a bit of sorrow and loneliness surrounding her character. The way she is looking at the unicorn, exchanging eye contact with it, along with that expression and her hand resting on the beast, it seems as though she's pitying the unicorn.
- While red is a warm colour that can suggest excitement, warmth, and passion; at the same time, it can also symbolize blood-shed. The bright red dress covering the maiden from shoulder to feet, and black ribbon tied around her waist, as if telling her that she's trapped in this plan that could possibly involve bloodshed, and she has yet found a way to free herself from this shackle of a ribbon.
- The painting also gives a feeling that the unicorn already knows what's coming for him. As a symbol for earthly love, its nature is to protect the mother earth and all elements that make up this earth, that includes us, the humans. Resting on the maiden's lap, the unicorn points its horn away from the maiden, as if to assure her that its not going to harm her. There it laid its head on her lap and allowed her to caress itself, sharing that last moment of mutual love before the unicorn accepts its ultimate fate, bloodshed, darkness, as demonstrated by the bright contrasting red and the dark shades its horn points to.
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