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Lecture 5 - 'Gaze and the media' Helen

Lecture Notes:

'According to usage and conventions which are at last being questioned but have by no means been overcome - men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at' (Berger 1972)

Women carry around in their heads, an idea of themselves being look at 'to be lookedatness' 

Hans Memling 'Vanity' (1485)

Device of the mirror - present in painting, Makes it appear the woman enjoys looking at herself. 

Mirror used in contemporary advertising as a device.

Camera positioned to focalise between models legs, we're almost allowed to look, due to the mirror, and gazing of model

Alexandre Cabanel 'Birth of Venus' 1863

reclining position

Covering of eyes, allows us to look at her body, hides her gaze

Sophie Dahl for opium - Advert

Again, eyes closed, focus of our gaze is upon her body

Image rotated, emphasis on face

Titian's Venus of Urbino, 1538

'Traditional nude'

We have her gaze - Quite inviting, relaxed, wealthy woman

Manet - 'Olympia' 1863 - Modern nude

Sits slightly elevated, direct gaze, Pose more assertive that "titians Venus'

Prostitute - receiving gift from admirers 

Ingres 'Le gran odalisque' 1814

Guerrilla Girls

5% of the artists in the modern art sections are women, but 85% of the nudes are female.

Manet - Bar at the Folies Bergeres, 1882

Important in sense of 'Gaze'

Manet in portrait, top right

Several perspectives at once

Distorted mirror reflection

We've become the subject of environment, she is almost waiting for us to place order

Jeff Wall 'Picture for women' 1979

Inspired by Manet - Bar at the folies Bergeres, 1882

Woman has absorbed gaze, similar stature

Picture device is visible

Poles divide image into sections ( we are centralised)

Coward, R , 1984

The camera in contemporary media has been put to use as an extension of the male gaze at women on the streets

Normality to lack or attire / nudity

sunglasses has eyes, we're not challenged by her gaze

Eva Hertigova, 1994 'Hello boys' - Wonderbra

Looking at herself

Looking down onto billboard viewers

Flirtatious 

Coward, R, 1984

Peeping tom - 1960

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

Filmed women being killed by Male subject

Male objectified too

Male reclining in underwear, eyes closed, similar to Alexandre Cabanel 'Birth of Venus' 1863

Genderads.com - Looks at the gaze

Dolce and Gabbana from 2007 - Display of male strength, Gym setting, everyone returns gaze, inc reclining male

'Im in ur movies...disrupton ur male gaze'

Marilyn: William Travillas dress from 'the seven year itch' (1955)

Artemisia Gentileschi

'Judith beheading Holofernes' 1620

Uncommon women protagonist 

Pollock, G, 1981

Women 'Marginalised within the masculine discourses of art history'

This marginalisation supports the 'hegemony of men in cultural practise'

Cindy Sherman

'Untitled films still number6' - 1977-79

Turned around reclining body

Mirror not used as a device - Denial , mirror facing away

Her gaze away from us

Position false - hand position awkward - Acting - Uncomfortable 

Barbara Kruger

'Your gaze hits the side of my face' 1981

Babarar Kruger

' I shop therefore I am'

Sarah Lucas 'Eating a banana' 1990 - To be-looked-at-ness

Women may be conscious about eating banana in public as it replicates something else

Sarah Lucas - Self portrait with fried eggs - 1996

Challenging idea of small breasts

Uses food o challenge idea of womens body used to be consumed

Illustrative of gaze

Tracy Emin ' money photo' 2001

Making money from their art

Almost pulling money inside her

Replicates pornographic pose

Women making money from body and art

Susan song

To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed'.

Reality television 

Appears to offer us the position as the all-seeing eye - the power of the gaze

Allows us a voyeuristic passive consumption of a type of reality

The truman show 1988 dir Peter Weir

Big brother

Persuaded to swim, tan, chair has front on view of contestants crotches, contestants performing 'to be looked at ness' through mirrors

'Looking is not indifferent...there can never be a question of just looking'

Ways fo seeing chapter 3

Victor burgin 1982 thinking photography

Rosalind coward the look

Laura mulvey - 

CTS seminar - Technology will liberate us

Keys points:
- Reproduction, Technology, value
- Original < - > copy
- Dematerialisation of art


The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction, 1936, Walter Benjamin, Frankfurt school lecturer


(notes taken in lecture) 


- The age of technology and art

- Parallel and specific to new developments ; a duality expressing the zeibeist 

- Dialectical due to copy, reproductive nature and the role of the original

- The aura and uniqueness of art

- "Not as good as the original"

(notes taken from seminar)

Analyse a section of the essay in pairs....
To explain it, in simple terms, finding the important points.


PREFACE
- Setting the scene for what is to be written about


First quote
- Divided between 'men' and 'others' working class and educated


Preface:
- To exploit the working class, creates its own grave diggers. When the masses come together. A huge dividie. Class consciousness.
- Superstructure and substructure (base) - transformation of the institution of art, development of capitalism form early to development stages, the superstructure is lagging behind the change (delayed), we need a new idea of art for this new developed capitalist society.
- "Prognostic requirements...conditions of production"  inventing a new idea of art which reflects this new modern work, if this is done, this can be a weapon against the old ways of thinking about art ( done by those of a ruling class of society) 
- Creativity, genius, eternal value, mystery - common liaison of art. 
- Societies changed but the way society talks about art, hasn't. `talks about it by the idea that high class had. The way we talk about art needs to change. Art has changed.
- This way of thinking about elitist culture is a weapon
- Investments in concepts, leading to a similar way of thinking to the fascists.
- Concepts of 'genius' means we think ourselves a certain way
- Mystery - 'probably something i don't understand' (art), must mean it good?
- As graphic designers, its all about speaking to the masses through technology communication, 
- Reading newspapers online - free. Read a story, only a relationship between you and journalist. Theres a comments section you can see opinions about news story. A consensual opinion on the news through community.
- Changed our relationship of power, freedom. Technologies given us the chance to really challenge power 'wikileakes'


Aura:
-AUTHENTICITY
- AUTHORITY
- CREATIVITY
- GENIUS
- ETERNAL VALUE
- MYSTERY
- PRESENCE
- HISTORY
- TRADITION
- RELIGION
- RITUAL






Section 1.
- Reproduction means art is available to all of the public. Both working and upper class.
- Etching, litho and photo. 
- Link between original to copy much more complicated.


Section2.
- First quote. Reproduction of work doesn't contain the 'aura' of the original art work.
- Reproduction can be changed and altered and become an art work in its own right. Lines are blurred. Equally as important??
- Original has history, history as meaning. A copy lacks the same heritage.
- Authenticity
- Authority
- Tradition
-  All of above is removed my mechanical reproduction
- Art is made by genius's.Who are we to question it?
- Mona Lisa - unique but now so many reproductions, theres millions of different versions. But only one original.
- Art work, with reproduction, can recontextualise work. We can re define what the art is. E.g mona lisa on a t-shirt.
- We no longer have to go to a gallery to see work, can look on computer in a different environment. "Tremendous shattering of tradition"


Section 4, 5 & 6
- Art wasn't made to be art, had more meaning than art. In modern age, its now made to be just art. To be reproduced.
- an art work hidden is one with Aura, one which is reproduced and seen by all loses this value.
- The person who makes the art, ut across a certain aura and value. Reproduction doesn't do this.


4 -
5th line. Art was a cult.
Cave paintings now seen as art, when in fact they had a purpose (to contact gods)
Art from churches, spiritual function, ritual, religion.
The way you act in churches and galleries are similar showing link between religion and art
rothko room tate modern - holds cult value, affects viewers, to cry, become emotional. The gallery room is 2 degrees cooler than rest of gallery, lights dimmer etc
- Art is being made for reproduction, using new technologies, re-writing what art is. political, challenging old systems


12 -
Last quote. The masses, react to how something is labelled. Comedy to laugh. Surrealist. Usure. Crisis of a painting.
Chinese takeaway. To eat at home, taking out of original situation. To eat at the chinese, out of the 'correct' environment. 
Positive reaction to cinema than art. As a crowd, determine whether it is good or bad. Art - one person says what it is, and you 'bow down' to that


RELATION TO GRAPHIC DESIGN

'limited edition print' to add aura- make it more cultish. Strange as graphic design obliterates cult value.

Hand rendered fonts - re add aurish elements

TASK


MOODLE
Look at one piece of graphic design, that in some way reflects or could be read in regard to aura. 

Popular Culture - Lecture 4

Popular Culture


Critical positions on the media and popular culture


Aims:
- Critically define 'popular culture'
- Contrast ideas of 'culture' with 'popular culture' and 'mass culture'
- Introduce cultural studies and critical theory (German Marx)
- Discuss culture as ideology
- Interrogate the social function of popular culture




What is culture?
- 'One of the two or three most complicated words in the english language'
- General process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic development of a particular society, at a particular time
- A particular way of life - Certain set of values, way of living, ways of thinking about the world, elite, southern, global culture etc
- Works of intellectual and especially artistic significance


Culture can be use to describe a canon of really important art and literature, Shakespeare Divinci Beethoven, institutions signify those as really important, they become culture. They represent and significance.


Marx concept of base and superstructure (previously studied in another lecture)


Culture emerges from the base, culture almost legitimises and makes possible the base relation of production
Culture could be a sight of political conflict


Ideology


Raymond William (1983) 'Keywords'
4 Definitions of popular
- Well liked by many people, the idea of something being popular. Leads to confused results. Shakespeare - well liked by many, but would be strange to call that popular culture.
- Inferior kinds of work. Lesser or inferior form of real culture, work that is mass produced, 'kitche', works that aspire to be important but for various reasons, fail. To label popular culture in this way, means someone making a valued judgement. You need a taste maker to say what is good and bad? A taste setter makes a subjective judgement based on world view. The ruling class, since being able to be educated, make the tasters.
- Work deliberately setting out to win favour with the people. Anything that aims to be populist. Jack vettrinano prints. Works thats elitist and not understandable is of importance. 
- Culture actually made by the people themselves. Made by people for the people - organic. associated with the working class.


Which you decide upon depends on your political position.


High Culture - Caspar David Fridedrich (1809) 'Monk by the sea' 


Jenny Morrisons 'Sea and sky in watercolour' - popular culture




Inferior or residual culture
- Popular press VS quality press
- Popular cinema VS Art Cinema
- Popular Entertainment VS Art Culture


Quality newspapers aimed at...
Popular newspapers aimed at....




Examples of popular culture
Boby Sanders mural
Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane (2005) 'Folk Archive' - Went around the country looking for authentic forms of creativity, Potato structures, decorated eggs etc
The first thing you do is laugh...but why? What is it your laughing at? The objects are poor art attempts, why do we make judgements on whats good and bad. We are coded into a certain way of thinking whats correct and whats not in terms of aesthetics, thinking in an institutional way.  No experience of the elite artist movement - self taught - to judge by our aesthetic codes is flawed and informs class judgement. Are we laughing at the failure of the attempted art?


Popular culture exhibited in a place of high culture - Banksy exhibited in Covent Garden
Graffiti - translated to mainstream western culture (Banksy) 


Popular culture can start off as representing people and be incorporated the interest of a few or minority, to be bought and sold.


Dynamics between culture and popular culture, very complex. 
E.P.Thomson (1963) 'The making of the ~English working class' 
prior to modernity , society had a common culture
First changes with industrialisation and urbanisation, people are condensed and physically separated, working class condensed in factories as a mass, and clearly separated from owners of factories (Bourgeoisie), living/habitation is set to certain people. Works - Slums
You get a physical distinction between rich and poor, this starts to create a cultural separation, working class begin to author their own culture, create own cultural forms and activities, e.g playing piano,singing, own forms of literature.
Start to see emergence of working class voice, and organic culture.
Two competing cultures working against each other


Chartism - Campaign for working class to vote, seen as not important enough.
Political movements emerging


Mathew Arnold (1867) 'Culture and Anarchy'
Arnoldism - 


Culture is:
- 'The best that has been thought and said in the world' - Perfection, beauty
- Study of perfection
- Attained through disinterested reading writing thinking
- The pursuit of culture
- Culture is the force that can minister the diseased spirit of our times


Anarchy


Culture polices 'The raw and uncultivated masses'
Tell them to appreciate our culture, we can put them in line. Disallow creation of their own culture
Once hidden (working class) now emerging, beginning to do what 'they' like


Theories evolve
Deffend upper class culture




Leavisism - F.R Leavis & Q.D. Leavis
Mass civilisation and minority culture
Fiction and the reading public


- Still forms of a kind of repressed, common sense attitude to popular culture in this country
- For Leavis-
C20th see a cultural decline
Standardisation and levelling down
'Culture has always been in minority keeping;
'The minority, who has hitherto set the standard of taste without any serious challenge have experienced a collapse of authority'
Cultures coming down


-Collapse of traditional authority comes at the same time as the mass democracy
- Nostalgia for an era when the masses exhibited an unquestioning deference to authority
- popular culture offers addictive forms of distraction and compensation
- 'This form of compensation...is the very reverse of recreation, in that it tend, not to strengthen and refresh the addict for living, but to increase his unfitness by habituating him to weak evasions, to the refusal to face reality at all (Leavis and Thompson 1977:10)


Frankfurt school - Critical theory
Institute of social research, university of Frankfurt, 1923 - 33 (closed by Nazis, moves to New York)
University of Columbia New York 1933 - 47
University of Frankfurt 1949-


5 most Important writers:


Theodore Adorno
Max Horkheimer
Herbert Marcuse
Leo Lowenthal
Walter Benjamin


Theo and Hork


Reinterpretted Marx, for the 20th century - era of "Late capitalism"
defined "The culture industry"
2 main product - homogeneity and predictability 


"All mass culture is identical"


'As soon as the film begins, it is quite clear how it will end, and who will be rewarded, punished or forgotton'


'Movies and raio need no longer to pretend to be art. The turth, that they are just business, is made into an ideology in order to justify the rubbish they deliberately produce...the whole world is made to pass through the filter of the culture industry...the culture industry can rpide itself on having energetically executed the previously clumsy transposition of art.


Frankfurt writers
Think mass culture is so bad, cements authoirty and codes you into ways of thinking about the world. Watch such programs (x factor, dancing on ice) you don't begin to think about politics, its dumbs you down. Depoliticises the working class
e.g Hollyoaks calendar - Sexual objects (the characters are women in education) depoliticises young women, says its okay to be this way at university. 


Products of the contemporary 'Culture industry' 
- Big brother
- Holy oaks
- The X factor


Teaches us thats the only way we can succeed in the world. Lottery e.g.


Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer, Dialect of Enlightenment, 1944


Fordism (1910 onwards) Mass production, economic 


We identify ourselves by the culture we consume.


Andreas Gurksky (2000) May day


Adorno 'On popular music'
STANDARDISATION
'SOCIAL CEMENT'
- PRODUCES PASSIVITY THROUGH 'RHYTHMIC' AND EMOTIONAL 'ADJUSTMENT'


Dance music - Insistant rhythm is a kin to modern productions, slave to the beat.
Emotional adjustment , listen to music as an emotional escape, 


Authentic Culture VS Mass culture
Qualities of authentic culture
- real
- european
- Multi-dementional
- Active consumption
- Individual creation
- Imagination
- Negation
AUTONOMOUS


Walter Benjamin 'The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction'1936
Techniques of mass production change the status of the works of culture. e.g the mona lisa - once reproduced loses value, importance. We know not what its about, but that it is of cultural importance. We can change high culture into low culture.Technological reproduction.
In amongst this, there is a chance to define our own meaning.


Hebdige, D (1979) 'Subculture: The meaning of style'

CTS - Marxism and Design Activism Lecture - 4

 Marxism and Design Activism

Aims:

Introduction of ideology

Introduction of the basic principles of Marxist philosophy

Explain to the extent to which the media constitutes us as subjects

Introduce 'Cultural jamming' and the idea of design activism - trend among activist designers

"The philopsohers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change is."

Marx, k. (1845) Theses on Feuerbach

There no point in just thinking without combining it without actions

To find some kind of synthesis between theory philopshy and thought and action

Marxism is:

• Policitcal manifesto leading to socialism, commiunism and the twentieth century conflicts between capital and Labour.
• A philosophical approach to the social sciences, which focuses on the tole of society in determining himan bahaviour, based on the concept of dilectical materialism
• Revolutionary policatl movement

What is capitalism

Bourgeoisie, the commodity, proletariats

_ Control of the means of production in private hands

- Markete where labour lpower is bought and sold (inc humans - almost commodities)

- Production of commodities for sale 

- Use of money as a means of exchange

- Competition / meritocracy 

'Best suceed' etc 

Stature in society , to be at the top, its a competition

Communist evolution

1. Primitive communism - hunter gather societys - co-operated at every level, no such thing as monogamous relationship (social and sexual freedom)
2. Slave society - birth of aristocracy - Develops when the tribe be becomes a city state
3. Feudalism - Aristocracy becomes the ruling class, merchant develop into capitalists
4. capitalism - Ruling class, employ the real working class
5. Socialism - Workers gain consciousness, overthrow the capitalists and take control over the state (revolution) 
6. Communism - a classless and stateless society (never properly materialised)

Marx concept of base / super structure

Base (economic)

Forces of production - Materials, tools, workers, skills, etc

Relations of production - Employer, class, master, slave etc

Superstructure

Social institutions - Legal, political, cultural (art , design, education) Can be traced back to issues of class, gender/racial politics, everything bears this stamp

Forms of consciousness - Ideology

"The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles."

Capitalism (the society were in) produced laws, culture, law, politics, education which reflects the capitalist attitude

Base > Determines content and form of > super structure

> Superstructure > reflects form of legitimises> base

Educator > instrcuts (form of education)  Work > instructs (act although its normal, marxist reading into education)

Super structure > Education, family, religion, mass media, politics > Base - Relations of production, means of production

Super structure - maintains and legitimates the base

Base - Shapes the structure

Reading - Marx, (1857) "contribution to the critique of political economy' :

In conclusion:

Society produces our life's, not us, the accident of our birth produces what were are going to be. Where we are in life we are forced into relations and situations, these relations which reflect the society we live in. the base determines the superstructure, which determines our consciousness ( to rebel, to take it as normal etc) our society condition everything, philosophy, interaction etc. Social being dtermines our consciousness. Change the base> change our attitudes, arts and culture. 

1917 poster international workers of the world, pyramid of capitalist system.

The capitalism > 'We rule you'  king / queen > We fool you > religious statures > We shoot at you (Army) > We eat for you (upper class - bourgeoisie) > We feed all and work for all (workers)

control subjects in society - by ideology, controlling way they think

To set up an organised religion , e.g - religion teaches us how to think, is we're good and honourable, work hard for family, doesn't matter if were poor, as long as we're moral, to die and be rewarded in heaven. But your dead, so wheres the reward? Religion a trap - a form of mental control.

One can have an ideology, system of ideas and beliefs (e.g Christianity, conservatives) 

Ideology - The way in which a system of ideas masks, distorts a way of thinking about the world, which covers ove glass/gender/race discriminations. Legitimises over certain classes/races - false consciousness - exploited

Karl Marx (1846) ' [the ruling class has] To represent its interest as the cmoon interest of all members of society,...to give its dieas the form if universality, and represent them as the only rational, universally valid ones.

'Religion is the opiate of the masses' - Marx

Art as ideology

Only people who became artists, had money to be taught, rich people making art. Women not allowed to make art. White rich men making art. Who buys art? Kings / queens. dictate what is painted. How does it reflect interest of common man?

Modern time - Reflecting a certain ruling class thinks. We can be fooled to think this way.

'Guerrilla girls' 2007 and 1989

Althusser (1970) 'Ideology and ideological state apparatuses'

Society = economic, political and ideological. Mechanism to the way we live our lives.

Ideology is a practise which men and women 'live' their relations to real conditions of existence.

Ideology offers false, but seemingly true resolutions to social imbalance.

Ideology offers reasons why we are in our situation. E.g women - ogled - well actually, thats okay as women are more beautiful than men (art - studies perfect female form)

The media as ideology state apparatus

• Means of production
• Disseminates the views of the ruling class
• Media creates false consciousness
• The individual is produced by nature; the subject by culture. (fiske, 1992)

- The constitution of the subjects

Newspapers have ideological assumptions when approaching language to their target audience. The sun - working class people - talks of tv, uses slang etc. The times - political, literature etc.

Student riot articles - Headlines - not discussion, just opinion , assumption, ideological

Darcus Howe - BBC interview on London riots - Youtube

Ideology:

- System of beliefs

- Masking, distortion, selection of ideas, reinforce power relations

- False consciousness

'Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most of the relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves' - Berger ways of seeing

Wonderbra adverts

"double major' 

'I cant cook, who cares' Patriarchal views - Women should automatically cook for men

Through buying, consuming we make ourselves poorer through buying, never gain status in society.

Commodity fetishism (marx, capital Vol.1)

Fetisise commodities

Something that gets in the way of something else, used as a substitute

Trainers taking appearance of 'cool' , you being 'cool' mediated by trainers

The assets of the worlds top three billionaires are greater than those of the poorest 600 million on the planets

'The life of Bryon'

'Occupy wall street'  Organised events / protests through media , twitter etc
These need visualisation 


Adbusters & cultural jamming
'Buy nothing day' etc
techniques - do something to a piece of work / object to alter message. E.g - `billborad - used to give a message - Distort this - its still a strong message.
Look at youtube videos


'Clean city law' banned advertising - Visual garbage