Monday 26 October 2015

OUGD501 Possible Direction for Essay (Studio Brief One)

Subcultures > Sexual Subcultures > Sexual Revolution > Gender Identity > Commercial Graphic Design & Advertising

Steer Clear from an Ethical Statement.

Things/People to research into:

Freud
The Sexual Revolution
Tracey Emin
Egon Schiele
Joseph Finegan

Monday 12 October 2015

OUGD501 Parody and Pastiche, Study Task Two (Studio Brief One)

Postmodernism was from the 60s onwards and changed the way people thought. It was in reaction to modernism.

Modernism does away with history in favour of the future. It is industrialism and technology based.

Jameson is a marxist theorist, so is therefore critical and political.
Hutcheon is a culture theorist. Her theories are influenced by movies and books etc.

Parody & Pastiche.

1. What is parody/pastiche according to each author?

Jameson: Talks more about pastiche than parody. He says that pastiche is the appreciation of being able to relive the past. He says that the work parody shouldn't be used to talk about post-modernism.

Hutcheon: Talks more about post-modernism being parody. She thinks positively of it, as it is mocking modernism.

2. How does parody/pastiche relate to postmodernism?

Parody is copying a style of work and mocking it, whereas pastiche is copying a style of work and honouring it.

3. How does Jameson's tone of voice compare to Hutcheon's?

Jameson: Speaks of pastiche critically, as he is a Marxist theorist.

Hutcheon: Speaks of parody positively, however is critical of Jameson.

Jameson thinks that parody should be avoided however Hutcheon quotes him on pastiche when discussing parody.

4. How might these ideas relate to graphic design/visual communication?

It can either be used as nostalgia or as a rebellion. This needs to be addressed along with the audience at the beginning of the design process.

Write a definition of parody/pastiche according to Jameson & Hutcheon and how these relate to contemporary visual communication. Use at least one quote from each author and use Harvard Referencing.

According to Jameson, parody is 'the imitation of a peculiar or unique... style, the wearing of a linguistic mask, speech in a dead language' He says pastiche is 'thus a blank parody, a statue with blind eyeballs" it is to parody what the other interesting and historically original modern thing, the practice of a kind of blank irony.' He speaks very highly of pastiche, however says that the word parody shouldn't be used in relation to post-modernism. He kind of says that the word parody gives the opportunity to copy other peoples work and get away with it, for example 'Plato's conception of the "simulacrum", the identical copy for which no original has ever existed'.

However, according to Hutcheon, parody is 'the modern city of being the product of an alliance between bureaucracy and totalitarianism', meaning that she views postmodernism as a mockery of modernism. She disagrees with Jameson as she thinks parody is 'not just the cry of rage of a minority of intellectuals who want to teach others how to live, and who celebrate their own solitude and separateness'.

Stranger and Stranger.




Adbusters.



Political Satire.




OUGD501 Design and Authorship, Study Task One (Studio Brief One)

In the next 2 weeks, think about possible questions to write a 3,000 word essay for.
What kind of designer do you want to be? What kind of person are you? What interests you?

Image Music Text - Roland Barthes (1960's French philosophy)
At its core - a set of ideas about the world that are relevant to Graphic Design students, and also society in general and every individual in the world.

Barthes, R. (1977) 'Image-Music-Text', London, Fontana Press pp.142-148.
Barthes, R. (1968) 'The Death of the Author' in May 1968, 'Image Music Text', London, Fontana Press, pp.142-8.

Written in the moment of a revolutionary uprising. Psycho-social and sexual revelations - reinvention of life, morals and identity.

'Auteur theory' if someone has a particular style/technical expertise/underlying inner content that reflects their ideas about the world. You understand the world through the person who produced it.

  • Putting an author to a text makes the text close ended and not open to interpretation.
  • Author - closed rather than open ended.
  • Reader should be interpreting and creating own opinions from text. Should be challenging the author not conforming. 
  • There's an idea that nothing is original without any knowledge of anything that has happened before.
  • Meaning only ever happens when we create it.
Study Task: how does the text relate to graphic design process?
My groups words; History & Politics.


Technology.


  • Removal of the author by the internet.
  • Author nowises to text.
  • Modern separator is simultaneous with text.
  • Authoritative/Author
Society.
  • Author = limit.
  • These limits create conformity.
  • Modernism.
Culture.
  • Cultural authority.
  • Original ideas.
  • Culture - Popular culture.
  • The meaning isn't fixed e.g. Burberry.
History.
  • Modernism removes author.
  • The 'author' of history.
Politics.
  • Birth of the reader - take charge of your lines; make your own meaning of the world.
Summary.


This text was written in the 1960's by Roland Barthes. Back when this text was written, it was not as easy a task to obtain information. The age we live in nowadays can still be interpreted through the text, for example online the author is often removed so the information can be interpreted by the reader and not just by the author, for example on news websites, there are comment sections below so you can get an opinion from people all over the world and not just the writer. This is key to Barthes theory, as he wrote 'Once the author is removed, the claim to decipher a text is quite futile' (Barthes, R, 1977).

Another example of the internet supporting Barthes theory is the fact that with image, text and audio online, it is often hard to decipher the owner (author) of that creation, as online it is very easy to copy and paste and share, especially on social media websites where information gets shared worldwide. Barthes wrote ‘The removal of the author is not merely an historical fact or an act of writing; it utterly transforms the modern text’. This shows that the creation can be interpreted a lot easier these days and we can have opinions on certain things that back in 1977 might not have been apt.