Wednesday 5 January 2011

Wednesday 5th January

Consuming Passisons

Consuming- We live in a consumer culture
The SS Great Britain was the start of manipulating materials
1872 Claude Monet, transporting materials to enable him to work outside. A change in the mobility of paints helped work to be produced as its not confined in the area of a studio.
"Difference" changing the art world
Karl Marx 1818-1883

Capitalism
Acquisition of money
Economic system
Revolutionised the 'classes' example the classes where then not just separated into rich and poor
Free-market than a controlled market
Fetishisation
'Exchange value' of a commodity is separate to its 'use value'
This results in 'alienation of the workers' example paying the Chinese not very much, health and safety is also poor

Renoir 1881 painting of leisure showed a time in which the middle/richer class could enjoy themselves
Selferedges where the first shop to have toilets this meant that you could spend a day at the shops instead of only a short period of time as people needed to stay close to home just in case they needed the toilet. 
Charles Frederick Worth 1895 was the first o'couture designer. Buying fashion in an expensive way
"Real" or true needs vs. "false" need as there must need it and you don't really need it. Waste plays a great issue as things on the shelves don't always sell in time for the new products to be shelved... so what happens to the items that didn't sell ??

Standardisation
Democratising society, all people can do what they want and they are not divided by classes.
Pseudo-individualisation- you put your mark onto something, we want to individualise ourselves instead of having fashion from the shelf. Such as our personalised Nike trainer. For example we would have our name on it, choose the colour and laces ect however the Nike tick will still be very much visual.. so is it really making it personal?

The Global Village- are you "Real?"

Familiar Values- We live a postmodern, postindustrial society
Advances in transport- is the world 'Shrinking' due to this technology?
We can travel safely and in a short space of time 
Even though there is now more people in the World than ever before we are part of what Marshall Mcluhan called a "global village"
Artists where collaborating World Wide via Internet ect even though they where miles away
Global Village has benefits- Two cultures meet and produce different cultures and produce creative and innovative and interesting forms of work

"Chinoiserie"- refers to China's tradition. Theoretical

"Japonisme" 1870's. Exotic, impact of oriental things that haven't been seen before
Before mid 1880's Japan was keeping themselves very much to themselves from the rest of the world. Japonisme used depth, sculpture looking work 3D looking and the sense of real elements of form.

Chinese and Japanese work in the way of a scroll
"Rediscovery" of Japanese art and design as trade was merged with the Western World. They used blocks, stylisation. This style of work impacted on impressionism. Oriental, exotic. However very much based on traditional values.
Japanese graphics commanised. The way that people where stylised was hugely influenced by the Westernised animation such as Mulan.

The risk of loosing individuality. New an innovative thinking however there is a bad side of uniformity.

Mac Donald's: Its not surprising, not unique, not individual, you know exactly what your getting where ever you are. No matter where you are in the world if you see a Mac Donald's sign they always taste the same. The fast food industry is: Efficient, predictable, controlled and standardised. 

"Cultural Imperialism"
Dominant: Not just visual but what they represent. How we feel about cultural demonstration ideology= Body of ideas or beliefs
Hegemony
A dominant view point

Hussein Chalayaris
Conceptual fashion designer not about the garment but what the garment is associated with.

Communicate World Wide. Its immediate. Images, messages, videos ect.
We think we 'know' and 'understand' whats happening. When we 'stop' seeing these images does it mean they have stopped? And there's no issue in that place anymore just because its not headline news? The pace of what we see and how quickly they move onto something else is astonishing. The power of imagery.
Hegemony. Confusing what we see to what is real and 'reality'
'Hegemony"=dominant influence we accept national stereotypes and our assumptions. Cliche
We understand cliches
Edward said "Orientalism" and "Culture & Imperialism" Interested about how people are seen as the are 'surposed' to be. Question the assumed objectivity of the researcher.

The concept of the 'Other' is key to our understanding of ourselves and other people. We might not no who we are but we know who we are not.
You are "other" than normal if you don't meet a certain criteria.

Symbolic value is relational and arbitrary pink=feminine and blue=masculine
"False needs" are created by capitalism and perpetuated by the culture industry 
"Simulacra" are hyper real copies of the real thing. We only have "simulations" of reality-false versions of reality.. is it the same though?

Games are simulacras of war. Games are used as marketing and recruiting to join the war, as children like to play shooting games so a perfect way to put a hidden messages as children enjoy the game will they enjoy the army? However this is not a real representation of what the army is actually like as it is only showing the big strong heroic guys nothing is said about the injured or the dead. Only makes it sound good which is actually a very good marketing tool. 

Space man and a cowboy both are representations of the real iconic American man. Also both used in Toy Story as the two main characters. 

"Idealised Person" What defines good looking and acceptable? Who defines this? Good looking people on a 'Ugly' website, they consider themselves to be ugly?

Everyone from even a young age is concerned about their looks...

Sexualisation of girls

The new range of girls dolls called BRATZ. The new Bratz dolls are trying to be very 'down' with the youngsters. The logo and the writing is very graffiti style looking and they are playing with how words are actually spelt and changing the s to a z. The physical appearance of the dolls: They have very large over exaggerated eyes, this even makes them look slightly alien like but overly sexy for a little girls dolls almost like 'come to bed eyes'. They look very sexy dolls. On the website, not only is it games and looking at dolls and there overly sexy names but also once you sign out it says about 'Be beautiful', solely about image and looks! And at all points as your playing the game or looking on the website ect there is always a little symbol about shopping ie buying! Therefor it is also a profitable website, directed at CHILDREN!

Primark produced a bra for a girl aged two that was padded this eventually was removed from all shops after a long time. This is an outrage!
T-shirts printed from children with rude messages wrote on the front, also not acceptable
Sequined thongs produced for young girls 
Pink Playboy pencil cases on sale obviously directed at school goers
'Zoo' Magazine at eye level for everyone to see, is this unacceptable for young girls to see or is it offensive to them?
Young people are affected by what they see around them so are we sending out the correct message?
This affects the way we see, understand and think about the world.

Sexualisation to all women is in:
Magazines, Adverts, on the TV, song lyrics, on the internet, computer games, movies/films and music videos ect
What does this say about the male community?






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