Myth – e.g The poor all out council estate dwellers
Essay questions
Focusing on specific examples, describe the way that modernist art & design was a response to the forces of modernity?
Choosing a particular period from 1800 to the present, in what ways has art or design responded to the changing social and cultural forces of that period (2 specific examples) –
Could use graffiti – initial graffiti New York etc as an example
Is it possible to describe any aspect of graphic design today as post-modern(ist)?
Could it be argues that fine art ought to be assigned more ‘value’ that graphic design?
Tomorrows lecture – monetary value / social value – how much society needs something / intellectual value / philosophical value
Think about what value means,
‘Advertising doesn’t sell things; all advertising does is change the way people think or feel’ (Jeremy Bullmore). Evaluate this statement with reference to selected critical theories (past and present)
Todays notes
Pick a question and update blogs
Critical Positions on Advertising
-Advertising as a manipulative tool
In the 21st century it’s impossible to escape advertising
Onslaught to media messages, overwhelming barrage of instructions, promises, fantasy lives, ideals – Billboards / television / Internet
As a medium advertising is probably the most dominant through the 21st century
Adverts that seek to persuade
-Instead of measuring yourself by your abilities / intelligence etc, in contemporary society we measure things by what people own or what people can buy.
Commodities
House / Wallet / Car / Jewellery / Haircut / Computer / Clothes / Music / Shops
Phone – Connotes sophistication, organisation, social status?
Music – Connotes your identity as a consumerist, a physical reflection of yourself, a record of who you want to be or your own opinions.
House – A symbol of who you are as a person for everyone to see.
Strive for things to reinforce who we are, and judge people on simplistic and superficial categories on what they own, creates a barrier between people.
Thinking this way shackles people, it allows you to make snap judgements and superficial assumptions about who people are.
YOUTUBE – ways of seeing
Contemporary culture creates this idea of glamour, competing, measuring ourselves under unattainable ideas.
Paradoxically it makes our lives poorer looking for this human enrichment.
Cooker Advertisement
Selling it on its virtues changes very quickly, moves onto the idea of an idealised life.
At the core of adverts – selling an improved version of you life, through the purchasing of commodities.
CK1 Advertisement – symbolic association
Connotations - Idealised lifestyle, sociability, being part of a community, being popular, men and women, youth, sophistication, coolness, fashion, status & glamour, belonging, multi racial,
It creates a false need to buy things. To keep buying & spending.
How does commodity culture perpetrate false needs?
Aesthetic innovation – making something look new and sexy makes us feel like we need it, e.g. fashion works on this. New clothes that are with it
Planned obsolescence – Designed to break, its planned so they can constantly release them, they keep you coming back.
Novelty – The idea that the new is always better, that we are more up to date
Commodity Fetishism
Advertising conceals the background ‘history’ of products. In other words the context in which a product is produced is kept hidden.
A dehumanisation of society.
Reification
Things become personified.
Products are given human associations. Products themselves are perceived as sexy, romantic, sophisticated, fun etc.
