Study task 3

In Walter Benjamin's 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction' (1936), Benjamin discusses how new technology and new mechanical means of working are changing how we appreciate and perceive art in various forms. He describes original pieces of work to have an 'aura', giving them a value that will increase with age:

'The authenticity of a thing is the essence of all that is transmissible from its beginning, ranging from its substantive duration to its testimony to the history which it has experience'.

(1939,p.221)

An 'aura' of a piece increases as it gets older and even if it gets a bit of wear and tear. With the rise in mechanical reproduction, there is a lack of original work because it's so easy now to reproduce a piece of art. This means that they lack the value of the original, one off pieces. With a body of repeated prints, the first print holds just as much value as the last because according to Benjamin you can not reproduce authenticity, giving them not much value at all:

'One might subsume the eliminated element in the term ''aura'' and go on to say; that with the wither in the ages of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art'.

                                                                                                (1939,p.221)

This, with the development of photography and the rise of socialism, was concern for the art world. Benjamin stated that 'photography freed the hand of the most important artistic functions'(1939,p.220) arguing that photography gave artists more freedom, allowing them to produce their own art, not just commissioned portraits. Another reason for the contemporary decay of the aura is also due to the 'desire of contemporary masses to bring things ''closer'' spatially and humanly' (1939,p.223). Illustration became more accessible to society as the mechanical reproduction sped up the print process, allowing prints to be made in large quantities at a fast rate.

Andy Warhol was one of the first artists around the time this was published to break away from this idea of an aura and in to the mass print world. The shift in the way he produced work proved a successful move for him. In fact, a large number of his works were devised through mass production, however it could be argued that he's achieved just as much success as those who did not mass-produce. This contradicts Benjamin's statement. Warhol challenged the rise of republication to his advantage and didn't see the negative side. Now almost 80 years on, the ways of producing work have expanded dramatically, allowing society to obtain work easily on a number of media platforms such as via the Internet. The mechanical reproduction has not necessarily taken value away from an individual, especially from the working class that perhaps could not get hold of an original, unique work before this change happened. Benjamin illustrates this point by saying ‘technical reproduction can put the copy of the original into situations which would be out of reach for the original itself' (1939,p.220).

However, Benjamin did not peak about the mechanical reproduction in just a negative light. He saw the potential for the future. Written at the time of the rise of Adolf Hitler, Benjamin thought that it would be 'useful for the formulation of revolutionary demands in the politics of art’. It would improve communication with society which was proved through later propaganda posters. Propaganda however holds a different kind of value altogether because it's intention is different. It has not been produced to just be appreciated but to communicate and persuade.

Benjamin goes on to discuss how film, newsreel and photography all enable the viewer to witness situations in detail from a distance, therefore, meaning we can see detail, for example in a still photography, that we may have missed seeing with our own eyes, even if we were at the event being photographed. This is another positive of mechanical reproduction in today’s society.

Study Task 2

This illustration by Helen Oxenbury is from the well renowned children’s book; ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt”. The page depicts a father and his children going on an adventure. As advised in Bruce Mau’s ‘An incomplete manifesto for growth’: they ‘Avoid fields. Jump fences’.

This illustration disagrees with the statement that illustrators ‘have flogged their skill and imagination’ to sell universal products such as cat food and detergent like it’s stated in First Things First (1964). ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ and a lot of children’s books are illustrated in a way that will inform and teach a child, and also provide an opportunity for family members to spend quality time together. A large percentage of children’s books require an imagination which First Things First (1964) manifesto so unfairly suggests designers / illustrators have lost in order to make money.

First Things First (2000) is even more aggressive with its views on how illustrators have supposedly given in to consumerism which Helen Oxenbury has not. She disagrees with the point that ‘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 professions time and energy is used up manufacturing demands for things that are inessential at best.’ Illustration works on all kinds of platforms and products; it’s not necessarily selling out.

This children’s book teaches children that all can and must be confronted, and together you can get through it. The book describes and illustrates the obstacles the family face using sensory descriptions such as: long, wavy grass, a deep, cold river. By using a range of descriptive vocabulary, the child can learn, engage and imagine. Children’s illustration also requires and allows the designer to use their creative imagination. The story using repetitive language patterns such as ‘we’re going on a bear hunt, we’re going to catch a big one’ along with similar illustration compositions on each page. This supports Mau when he say’s ‘if you like it, do it again’. Working on a children’s book also allows for ’collaboration’ between the author and designer in order that the text is depicted visually in a way which fits the story and style the author envisages. Mau also cites collaboration, despite its difficulties, as a growth element for designers.

Poyners theory from the First Things First (revisited) manifesto is that ‘we have absorbed design so deeply into ourselves that we no longer recognize the myriad ways in which it prompts, cajoles, disturbs, and excites us. It's completely natural. It’s just the way things are’. On a number of platforms, that statement is true. We are now surrounded by so much design that we sometimes do not appreciate it. However with a children’s book illustration, it is hard not to appreciate the skills and processes involved in its construction, even if a child is not aware of design principles and processes they are aware of what engages them in their story books. As this book is so well known and a best seller since its first edition in 1989, its clear people still find it visually engaging.

The chosen illustration has contrasted with most of the manifestos. It proves that illustrators still produce work for educational purposes and make work that’s visually engaging, because ‘what seduces us is its image’, a contradicting point by Poyner. There is this sense that the design world are selling out, but even though commercial work may not be meaningful, it still requires talent to seduce its viewer.

Lecture Three

Identity

Theories of identity
- essentialism (traditional approach)
-phrenology
-physiognomy

Cesre Lombroso-criminal trouts intented.

Historical Phases of identity
- Pre modern identity -personality identity stable
-Modern identity- side range of social roles-find identity
- Post modern -identity is constructed through social experience
Fragmented e.g online and offline identity

19th and early 20th centuries
Simmel:
-trickle down theory
- Emulation
- Distinction
-the 'mask; of fashion- establishing distinction between classes through fashion.

Simmel suggests that because of the speed and mutability  of modernity, individuals withdraw in to themselves to find peace.

Post-modern identity
'Discourse Analysis'-identity is constructed.


Discourses to consider:
-class- Humphrey spender/ Mass Observation, Worktown Project, 1937
-nationality
-race/ethnicity
-Gender and sexuality    'otherness'

Bauman 'Identity' 2004- 'indentity' revealed to be something intended rather than discovered


Zygmunt Ballman-Identity

-Robbie Cooper-photographs individuals and their alter egos

-Jo Spence: Indentity explored through class and family history, 1980s
-Gillian Wearing: self portraits album, 2003
-Robert Mapplethorpe: gender, sexuality and indentity.
-Nikki S Lee- explored differing social groups through self-involvement

Lecture Two

'Subculture -the meaning of style'- Hebdige, D (1979)

Youth cultural styles begin by usually  symbolic challenges, but they must end by establishing new conventions: by creating new commodities, new industries, or rejuvenating old ones'

Over time, subcultures eventually bleed in to the mainstream.

youth culture=rejecting the norm.
Generation gap in the 50's, 'rocker' subculture not appealing to parents.
attention in the media exploited visual expression and led to opposed popularity.
'Mod'- pride selves on looking forward, dressing ahead of time.

'Quadrophenia' (1979) dir Frank Reddam depicts the conflict between youth subculture.

'This is England' (2006) Shane Meaddus - becoming part of a subculture

Ryan McGinley 'you anal' (2011)

Home-grown cool: The style of the mods.

in 'the meaning of style' Dick Hebdige describes the development of mod subculture through the acceptance of black groups, growing up alongside British working class citizens in the early 1960s.

By becoming rather jirecky in the way they chose the clear, mods aimed to emulate a familiar style to that of an 'American Hipster'.

Task One

'Make mistakes faster' 

When Ralph Steadman spoke to us last year he kept saying mistakes are good! He carries on with his mistakes and makes something out of it. 

'Avoid fields. Jump Fences'

Image from 'We're going on a bear hunt'. Seemed to fit well I think!

Lecture One

The Gaze and The Media

John Berger
analyses 'vanity' by Hans Memling- mirror allows justification for looking at the image
imagery that is still used today in contemporary advertisiments etc

Berger includes Alexandre Carbanel's 'Birth of Venus' 1863-women unable to return The Gaze again allowing permission to objectify the female form.

Tibian's Venus of Urbino - returns 'the gaze' as if allowing permission herself.
Comparing
Monet's 'olympia' appears less relaxed . 'The Gaze is challenged by a dismissive expression. Subtle differences in the tension of the hands. Titian's Venus appears to be much more relaxed.

Jeff Wall's- 'Picture for Women' (1979)- tuguly constructed image- camera central focus point. Brings the fourth wall in to the image, and offers a multitude of gazes. Viewer has an attire role in the image.

Nudity becomes normalised through advertisements expressed to a public audience.


The profusion of images which characterises contemporary society could be seen as an obsessive distancing of women… a form of voyeurism- Peeping Tom, 1960

There are real world disadvantages - objectified women could be riled as easily disposable 

Cindy Sherman challenges 'the gaze' by manipulating poses- making them seen artificial.

Sarah Lucas identifies female objectification with an underlining humour, yet her gaze challenges the viewer in a dismissive manner.

The vagenda magazine discusses ad campaigns etc.

The everyday sexism project allows women to shave their experiences.