Over the course of these two lectures, we were shown a film called Beautiful Losers directed by Aaron Rose. This is a documentary type film interviewing 'Do It Yourself' artists, mainly from America, on their careers and work ending up with an exhibition show also called Beautiful Losers.
Since the 1990's, this collective group of artists have been involved with the beginning of a movement in the art world using D.I.Y aesthetics, including skateboarding, graffiti and underground music such as punk rock and hip hop.
While these artists discuss their growth in popular artistic culture, they also explain how it never really occurred to them about becoming renown or admired, they were more interested in creating art for themselves.
Many of the featured artists became sought after and have moved onto commercial success, becoming involved in creating adverts, designing products, working in the film industry and even painting or creating artwork in well-known locations.
Their personal feelings on how creating work for companies compares with their beginnings in street culture is also discussed. The film basically portrays the artists as
"outside the realm of contemporary art."(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beautiful_Losers_%28film%29)
Personally, I am not a fan of documentaries and the number of cuts between the different artists was confusing at times as they were all talking about different things which quite often didn't relate to what was being said about 5 seconds before. I do realise that it was to make the film interesting as just staying on one person for say 20 minutes would be quite dull, but all the same, in my opinion, some of the editing could have been done a little better.
It was also quite slow in getting off the mark and actually getting into the point of the film, but that just maybe me being biased. I could relate, however, to the artists creating art for themselves, as that's how I see any of my art that I do. I don't think I could ever be a world class artist, even if I wanted to be when I was younger. I am very bad at coming up with my own ideas for things like this, copying is what I do best really.
If the right person were to watch this film, though, I think it could be a good insight in how to become successful in the art world, which is becoming slightly easier nowadays with websites like Youtube, Flicker and even Facebook, where people from around the world can view peoples work.
20 October 2011
Design Thinking, that's what this lecture was about. But what is Design Thinking? Well that is very difficult to tell you, because I am still trying to work out what was being said!
"The only important thing about design is how it relates to people"This is a quote by Victor Papanek, who was a designer, educator and a strong advocate of the social and economic designs of products, tools and buildings. He was very disapproving towards manufactured products that were showy, unsafe, maladapted or essentially useless.
What is design about? Well apparently there are loads of different aspects to design. Here are just a few that were covered in the lecture;
The Function Complex
- Method
- Use
- Need
- Telesis
- Association
- Aesthetics
- Choice of Material
- Manufacturing Process
- Packaging of Product
- The Finished Product
- Transportation
- Waste
I won't go into all of them because I think it would take too much to explain and I don't really understand most of it as it is.
Other people who were brought up as to having the same or similar type of mindset as Victor Papanek include; Sir George Cox, Tom Kelly, Daniel Pink, Marty Neumeier, Herbet Simon, David Kelley and Tim Brown.
David Kelley and Tim Brown both came up with the idea of a T-shaped designer while working for IDEO (Kelley was the founder, while Brown is the current CEO).
There is also a third element of a T-shaped designer, which isn't shown. This is the Values of Design, which are placed right at the bottom of the 'T'. I suppose they could be considered the roots.
Tim Brown is also been known to have said:
"There are useful starting points and landmarks, but the road to innovation consists of overlapping spaces or paths, rather than a sequence of steps."My personal opinion on this lecture is that it's very complicated, which is why I haven't put everything down. If you can't make any sense to what I have written then I deeply apologise, but I have tried my very best with what I did manage to get down at the time. For me, there is no obvious link to half of the things in the lecture, which just confused me even more.
There was too much said in the time we have allotted for this module, which is just an hour. I have since learnt that this presentation was part of the lecturer's Higher Education course that they are working on, and that most of the research is PhD level based. I think a case of 'dumbing down' is appropriate here as although the lecturer may be able to understand it, most of the students are not on that level.
3 November 2011
This, I have to say, was my favourite lecture of the year. Innovation, something that we had to a project on in first year, was the name of the game.
Marshall McLuhan gave this quote, which actually finished the lecture, but I felt it was appropriate to place it at the beginning. This is mainly because the content of this lecture is about new, modern technology, which mostly consists of the World Wide Web and how we are all connected and all of our information is there for people to look at.
Touchscreen vs Standard mobile phones is what started us off. Lots of people have their opinions on which one is best and I could probably guess that most people would go for the touchscreen ones especially with products such as iPhones. They are more than just a phone now aren't they? You can do all the normal things like text and call people, but they also have the ability to hold applications for all sorts of things like games, sat navs, mobile versions of social sites like Facebook and Twitter.
There's also the handheld 'computers' or tablets that you can read books on like the iPad or the Kindle. They are certainly lighter than a standard book and they can hold much, much more than a regular bag can.
But are these things really the better option? Are you reading the book, or is the book reading you?
All of these things are saving and sending information about who you are and how you react to certain things. It gives the companies who make these products a better insight into the ways in which people consume media digitally. I believe it was said that the iPad even lets Apple know which way round a person holds it, whether it be vertically or horizontally!
Facebook could be one of the worst companies for storing information as it stores everything you do from the moment you start an account. This includes all status' written, all friends added and when, any photo's that are uploaded and any credit/debit card information if you purchase anything through your account. This can be accessed by you if you so wish, but depending on how much you use it, depends on how large the file will be.
Personally, this does scare me a little as it seems very 'Big Brother' like. Someone, somewhere, is watching our every move. I can see why companies do store some of this information, but I don't think it has to every single little thing nor do I believe that most of it has to be stored permanently. It also does depend on how companies use this information once they have it and how safely it is stored so that not just any person could get a hold of someone else's information, essentially stealing it. I know in Britain we have the Data Protection Act, which does alleviate some worries, but companies like Facebook are American and I'm not sure whether they have the same or something similar.
10 November 2011
This lecture is essentially in two parts. This one's about Designers & Ethics and if having an ethical makeup is easy in the current world.
This is quite hard to put down into words but I shall give it go.
Bauhaus set up the concept of the 'one true type' of object; choice and variety wasn't necessary. The Modernist world is;
- Rational
- Unsentimental
- Functional
- Serious
Then came the 'high mass-consumption stage' of post war USA. Products were being designed in a way that stimulated the urge to buy. Companies used designers to increase sales of a product by doing just that. Variety, choice and individuality had arrived, but with it, so had designer's ethical views on how things should be seen.
In 1964, a design manifesto was created and signed by graphic designers, photographers and students, who were fed up of using their skills in advertising products such as before- and aftershave lotion, slimming and fattening diets, cat food and cigarettes. An updated version of the same manifesto was created in 2000, which was not just about advertising this time, but about setting new values as well. This one was signed by graphic designers, art directors and visual communicators. Both of these manifestos can be found at the below link;
(http://backspace.com/notes/2009/07/design-manifestos.php)
In 2002, Milton Glaser wrote The 12 Steps on the Graphic Designer's Road to Hell which deals with the ethical values of designing and how making exceptions could, essentially, be a bad thing. The full list can be found at the below link;
(http://www.metropolismag.com/html/content_0802/gla/)
This then begs the question, Are companies telling us the truth about their products? and if they aren't or if we know they aren't why do we keep buying from them? Loads of companies are boycotted and yet we still purchase a range of products from them. What does that tell us about ourselves?
The easy targets are the global brands, such as Nike, Nestle and McDonalds. For a full current list of boycotted companies and the reasons why, go to the below link;
(http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/Boycotts/CurrentBoycottsList.aspx)
Can we even trust the Internet? Government? The BBC?, etc.
Personally, this is an eye-opening lecture on a subject that I hadn't really thought of before. This might be because I am not a graphic designer, which is really who this aimed at, or it might be that, like the rest of the world, I turn a blind eye to what is going on during day-to-day life.
My shopping habits vary really depending on what's going on at the time. I do have a select favourite shops and items, but really who doesn't? I do know, though, that some people go to the same store time and time again even if people have complained about the company recently. I'm not really into big brand names or designer labels, mainly because they are very expensive, but some people just can't help themselves even if they are already in debt.
What is the actual truth in this world? You can draw your own conclusions but I don't think we'll ever find out.
17 November 2011
Visual Music is the topic of this weeks lecture. All about how music and colour can be linked together and has been since the time or Aristotle and Pythagoras!
The Ancient Greeks first identified Synaesthesia, which is the subjective interaction of multiple sensory perceptions. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe carried out a lot of work studying the after image of complementary colour and Giuseppe Arcimboldo unusually equated darkness with a high-pitched sound. Issac Newton had even argued for a 'musical' division of the spectrum of light
Above is a picture of Rimington's Colour Organ, 1915. He had wanted to establish a school in London of Colour Music: the art of mobile colour.
Above is a representation of the HSV Colour Model, which is a current day instrument for mapping colour to music. I don't know if this is the right picture as the rest were pretty much similar to this.
Wassily Kandinsky, Maureen Furniss, John & James Whitney, Len Lye, Hans Richter, Barbel Neubauer, Oscar Fischinger, John Cage and Norman McLaren have all been influence or involved in visual music. McLaren even said:
"Animation is not the art of drawings that move but more the art of movements that are drawn. What happens between each frame is much more important than what exists on each frame."In my opinion, this lecture's not hugely relevant to my work, it's more for the animators of the group, but I will admit that the concept can have it's uses. Kandinsky is a favourite artist of mine and he did a lot of paintings with musical influence and named them using the terminology such as Composition and Improvisation. The McLaren quote is basically saying read between the lines, which people do naturally when watching something, whether it's a live action film or an animation, so that is somewhat relevant to my work.
The lecture pace was on the slow side, which was good for me personally, but it meant that not all of the video clips that the lecturer wanted to show us was played.
1 December 2011
Part two of the Ethic lecture. This one called The Sustainable Lie and the truth about companies being 'green'.
So what is the truth? Well the truth is not what the companies or the government are telling us. More energy is used making recyclable products, like paper bags and cups, than it is making the non-recyclable ones, such as some plastics.
Companies pay more money on promoting themselves as 'green' than actually going ahead and making themselves produce products in an Eco-friendly way. This is called 'Greenwashing'.
Apparently 20% of the worlds population use 80% of the planet's resources, which isn't that surprising really considering all the poverty in the world. It does show, though, that if the world was on an equal footing there wouldn't be enough to go around, especially with all the modern technology and gadgets people crave nowadays.
Another thing that was brought up in the lecture, is that every single regular china mug would have to be used 1,006 times for it to be sustainable. Paper cups normally have a coating on them, which stops them from being easily broken down naturally.
This lecture was another eye-opening one, making us ask loads of questions about whether this new life is really going to make a difference in the long run. Should we carry on this way or revert back to overflowing landfill sites? Is there a different solution out there that is better? In my own opinion, almost everything can be reused, even if it's not labelled as recyclable! I am a bit of a hoarder really, trouble is I don't often get to put any ideas I do get into practise.
Should we be looking towards the poorer and undeveloped countries who don't really care about the latest phone or gizmo's, but care about themselves and their families. In the past, we were like this as well, but through inventions and progresses are we more of a throw-away society?
We should be asking ourselves who is actually responsible for the way the world is now?!
8 December 2011
This was meant to be a two-part lecture the same as the first one, where we are shown a film that may or may not be relevant to everyone. The second half was cancelled due to classes having tutorials. Manufactured Landscapes, directed by Jennifer Baichwal, was the title of this film.
"Inspired by nature - that's the theme here and I think, quite frankly, that's where I started."Edward Burtynsky, the 'star' of the film, says this. Baichwal's team follows Burtynsky around the world as he observes the changes in landscapes due to manufacturing and industrial work. He visits huge factories in the Fujian and Zhejiang provinces of China, where they produce items such as irons. He also goes to slag heaps and e-waste dumps where children play or adults sift through debris to get necessary items. In Bangladesh, old ships are taken apart for recycling. The film ends in Shanghai, the world's fastest growing city, where wealth and poverty live side-by-side.
Personally, I didn't enjoy this film, even if it was only half of it. That may have been because I have seen it before, in a session in first year. To me it is slow, uninteresting and not very exciting. There is no real explanation of what is going on throughout, it's just a series of photographs and film cut together to make something that not many people would actually be that interested in for leisure watching. For those interested, or are viewing this for the first time, it could be a big eye-opener into what's going on in the countries that we don't often see day-to-day, that is if they don't drift off half way though.
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