Lecture 5 - The Document

- Joseph Nicephore Niepce 1828 ' View from a window at La Gras'
The photo took 8 hours to process



- Frances Frith 1857 'Entrance to the great temple'
This was used to capture one idea of the east by the western eye

The decisive moment

"Photography achieves it's highest distinction - reflecting human condition in a never-to-be-retrieved fraction of a second" - Cartier Bresson


- Henri Cartier Bresson 'Gare saint lazare' 1932
The scene is almost posed. Like the photographer has waited for a moment like this to strike. he refused to manipulate the photograph.

F.S.A photographers 1935-44

- Director: Roy Stryker
- Depression - 11 million unemployed
- Mass migration of farm labourers 'oakies'
- The photograph as both photojournalism and emotive lobbyting tool
- The reality is already pre-recored.


- Dorothes Lange 1936 'Migrant mother'
This photo is very composed. She looks thoughtful in her despare while her child weeps on her shoulder.


-Cesare Lombroso ' Portraits of Italian and German criminals' 1889
He claimed that criminals looked a certain way, that they had small chins or accessively long ones.

Magnum group

- Founded in 1947 by Cartier Bresson and Capa
- Ethos of ducumenting the world and its social problems
- Internationalism and mobility

Ket features of documentary photography

- They offer a humanitarian perspective
- They tend to portray social and political situations
- They purport to be objective to the facts of the situation
- People tend to form the subject matter
- The images tend to be straightforward and unmanipulated

Lecture 1 - Modernity & Modernism: an introduction

- William Holman Hunt, (1851) The hireling shepherd
- Trottoir Roullant (electric moving walkway) - urbanisation

Enlightenment - period of time in the lat 18th Century when scientific/philosophical thinking made leaps and bounds

Haussmanisation
Paris 1850s onwards = a new paris.
Haussman redesigned paris streets from old narrow streets and rundown houseing to large boulevards. This made the streets much easier to police which is a form of SOCIAL CONTROL.
Also the 'dangerous' elements of the working class are moved outside the city centre - the centre became an expensive middle class and upper class zone
.





The big iron bridge shows just how much modernism is beggining to take off.


If we start to think about subjective expericence (the experience of the individual in the modern world) we start to come close to understanding modern art and the experience of modernity.
MODERNISM emerges out of the subjective responses of artists/designers to modernity.









Alfred Stieglitz 'flatiron building' (1903)
This was amazing for the times and this was when sky scrapers started to emerge.











Marcel Dunchamp 'nude decending a staircase' (1912)
This shows how abstract art is taking off as modernisation takes over.

Modernism in design

- Anti-historicism - no need to look backwards to older styles
"Ornament is crime" - Adolf Loos (1908)
- Truth to materials - simple geometric forms appropriate to the material being used
- Form floolws function
- Technology
- Internationalism

Technology

- New materials
- Concrete
- New technologies of steel
- Plastics
- Aluminium
- Reinfoced glass

Mass production

- Cheaper more widely accessable products
- Products made quickly

Internationalism - A language of design that could be recognised and understood on an international basis

Artists who worked with typefaces: Herbert Bayer, Stanley Morison (Times New Roman)

Conclusion

- The term modern is not a neutral term - it suggests novelty and improvement
- "modernity" (1750-1960) - social and cultural experience
- "modernism" - The range of ideas and stles that sprang from modernity

importance of modernism:

- A vocabulary of styles
- Art and design education
- Idea of form follows function

Extra task

Feminist art is much Diversified. It grew in the late 1960's and early 1970's out of the contemporary woman's movement. One example of feminist art is that of Jenny Saville, who trained as a figurative painter in the 1980's. After she established herself, she dabbled into her second passion; photography, however always preferred painting. Saville represents bodies rarely appreciated in contemporary Western culture. She didn't paint any figure however, she focused her work on obease nude female which was usually done by males. Some of her artwrok focused on surgical marks of liposuction, trauma victims, and even transgender patients, which caused much controversy. In a discussion about her surgically marked up woman painting in the Hunter Davies interview she says, "I'm not painting discusting, big women. I'm painting women who have been made to think they're big and discusting; who imagine they're thighs go on forever... i have'nt had liposuction myself but i did fall for that body wrap thing where they promise four inches off or your money back." (Carson,F 'Feminist visual culture' p44-48) She paints her models on huge canvases commonly through distorted perspectives; this thrusts the figure into the viewer's eyes forgetting about sexual desire or notions of idealised femininity.

The way Saville picks her colours is also very in tune to the messages she is putting across. The bright reds and yellowy shades suggest injuries, physical injuries from the dominant male in the house but also it could be representing the emotional injuries the women of that time were being caused. There is no doubt that Jenny Saville is making a bold statement about the female body forcing the viewer to think about their own views and emotions about their own body. There was some controversy about the real reason why Jenny Saville made these paintings. The obvious and most common response was that she was trying to get people to believe large bodies were beautiful again, in contrast to the current western notions. Saville replied to these remarks with, "I don't make paintings for people to say we should look at big bodies again and say they are beautiful. I think that it's more that they are difficult. Why do we find bodies like this difficult to look at?"



Another largely feminist artist is Cindy Sherman. Sherman, instead of using paint to represent her feelings about patrarchy and sexism in society, she has opted for showing this via the lens of a camera. Through a number of different series of works, Cindy Sherman has raised challenging and important questions about the role od women in society and the media. Within her photographs she queries the very nature of representation. Does the photograph that we see give and insight into ourselves or is this just what we want others to believe? Are we creating an illusion for others to devour? She created a set of 69 black and white photos which she started in 1977. She stars herself in her photos; however they could not be classed as self portraits because self portraits portray you as a whole including your personality, whereas she dressed up using clothes and props to create different characters. Fashion is a big part of Sherman's work as she is representing the woman being able to be themselves and look the way they want. She has been quoted saying "I do get inspired by how things are made, by fashion as art form." (HTTP://www.tate.org.uk/magazine/issue5/sherman.htm)

Sherman tries to show herself not as the ideal "beautiful" woman that men love to gaze upon but as real women, an individual. The idea of the art she produces is to bulldoze the image of women that men have constructed throughout the years and show that confident and "unfeminine" women don't have to attempt to look that way to be seen as beautiful. "Cindy Sherman frequently uses, distorts and messes with archetypes and stereotypes of women and their portrayal in the mass media and art. Untitled #92 is a mockery of how women are portrayed in mens magazines." (HTTP://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/feminist/feminist-art-practices.html) Cindy Sherman did not want to use materials such as paints to present her work, as she thought photography was something that everyone could relate to without knowing much about contemporary art. Cindy Sherman herself claims that her work justifies itself and she doesn't wish to preach about Feminism: "The work is what it is and hopefully It's seen as feminist work, or feminist-advised work, but I'm not going to go around espousing theoretical bullshit about feminist stuff." (HTTP://www.tate.org.uk/magazine/issue5/sherman.htm)

The ideas that Sherman introduced with her posed photographs trying to project different and conflicting images of herself with the intention of proving that you dont have to conform with the sterotypes that society expects women to look like. In many ways she was before her time. Modern society has become more image consious as proved by the desire for young people on social networking sites such as MySpace, all trying to create similar perfect images of themselves, with all the individuality removed many of them become clones of the celebrities they admire. (HTTP://www.feministartrevolution.blogspot.com/2008/06-cindy-sherman.html, 02.06.08)

5 point text

The first point that is being made is that of expresionism. He claims that the one thing that expressionism needed is the notion of 'self' from the artist, basicly he needs to be expressing something about himself in his art. he believes that this notion comes from marginalised and neglected places, in new art this incantation was however made under urban circumstances. He says that the expressive devices had to match the real experience and the modern condition pressed down on the avent-garde as the century went on.

The second point explains that cubism, expressionism and futurism were large miles stones for european avant-gardes reception of the modern. he claims that the modern was not yet 'total' and so it could be measured against what was yet to come. Modern was still similar to traditional values.

The third point that he makes is about modernisation, modernity and modernism.
Modernisation is the processes of scientific and technological adnvances. It refers to the growing impact of the machine and chemical industries.
Modernity refers to the social and culteral condition of these changes. He claims that modernity was a form of experience, adapting to the changes and the change in character that it caused in people.

The fourth point was the pesimism that came about with the increase in population and control of human life and machinary. Human beings were becoming imprisioned in what the sociologist Max Weber saw as the 'iron cage' of modernity.

The final point that was made is that there is an impulse to decode and change the modern but there is another argument that art must transform itself.

Harvard Refrence:

• McGuigan, J (1999). Modernity and postmodern culture. Milton Keynes: Open University Press
• Mckenzie, B & Holme, M (2002). Expressionism. London: Heinemann Library
• Piotrowski, P (2009). In the shadow of Yalta: art and the avent-garde in Eastern Europe 1945 - 1989. London: Reaktion Books
• Turner, J (2000). From Expressionism to Postmodernism: styles and movements in 20th-century art. London: Macmillan
• Wilk, C (2006). Modernism 1914-1939: designing a new world. London: V&A Publications

Lecture 6- Postmodernism and the mass media

Modernism is associated with - expressionism
- innovation
- individualism
- progress
- purity
- originality
- seriousness

The postmodern condition is characterised by - exhaustion
- pluralism
- pessimism
- disillusionment of the idea of absolute knowledge

Modernism is an expression of modern life, technology, new materials, communication (postmodernity)

Origins of postmodernism

- 1917 - a German writer called Rudolph Pannwitz spoke of 'nihili stic, amoral, postomdern men'.
- 1964 - Leslie Fielder described a 'post' culture, which rejected the elitist values of modern culture.
- The begginings of post modernism was in rthe 1960s
- Post modernism was established as a term in the 1970s by Jencks
- During the 1980s it became a recognisable term
- between the 1980s to the 90s it was the dominant theoretical discourse.
- and today post modernism is tired and simmering

Uses of the term 'postmodernism'
- After modernism
-The historical era following modern
- Contra modernism
- Equivalent to 'late capitalism'
- Aritstic and stylistic electicism
- 'Global village' phenomena; globalisation of cultures, races, images, capital, products




AT&T building, Philip Johnson NYC 1982



Frank Gehry, Guggenheim museum, Bilbao 1997

JF Lyotard
'The postmodern Condition' 1979
'incredulity towards metanarratives'
metanarratives = totalising belief systems
Results = Crisis in confidence.

Post modern Aesthetics:

Complexity, chaos, mixing materials/styles (brieolage), reusing images: parody & irony




- Roy Lichtenstein 'This must be the place' 1965

At the end of the 1950s the purest form of modernist paintings was FORMALISM theorised by the critic Clemant Greenberg.

"Advertising is the greatest art from of the 20th century" - Marshall McLuhan.

Crisis in confidence
- BUT also freedom and new possibilities
- Questioning old limitations
- Space for marginalised discourse: Sexual diversity & multiculturalism

'Neo TV' - Umberto Eco.
- TV quiz shows about TV shows
- Out take shows
- TV news items about TV celebrities
- 'Reality TV'

Postmodernism

- Avague disputed term
- Post modernist attitude of questioning conventions (especially modernism)
- Post modernist aesthetic = multiplicity of styles and approaches
- Shift in thought & theory investigating 'crisis in confidence'
- Space for 'new voices'
- Rejection of technological determinism?

Lecture 4 The mass media and society

Definition of mass media
Modern systems of communication and distribution supplied by relatively small groups of cultural producers

- "late age of print" this term comes from the media theorist Marshall McLuhan.
- The role of the 'reader' - the electronic book (is it democratic?)
- the reader takes on the role of the author.

Computer Media
The way we read has changed because of hypertext and hypermedia.

Negative criticism of mass media
- Superficial, uncritical, trivial
- Viewing figures measure success
- Audience is dispersed
- Audience is disempowered
- Encourages the status quo
- Encourages apathy
- Power held by the few motivated by profit or social control
- Bland, escapist and standardised
- encourages escapism, seen as a drug which anaesthestises us

Positive criticism of the mass media
- Not all mass media is of low quality
- Social problems and injustices are discussed by the media
- Creativity can be a feature of mass media
- Transformission of high art material reaches a broader audience
- Democratic potential


Artists' use of mass media = a book by John A. Walker 'Art in the age of mass media'

Can art be autonomous? (exist on its own in a vacuum)
Should art be autonomous? (for some yes, by doing so it retains its purity and integrity)

- Roy Lichtenstein - Whaam (1963)
- Drowning girl (1963)

New media is changing the way we consume and read text and images.
Theorists of the mass media have different viewpoints seeing it either as;
a) negative and a threat
or
b) positive, pleasurable and democratic

Much 20th century art has used the mass media, often to be critical of it.
There is a serious question in art theory as to whether art should be autonomous or not.

Lecture 3 - Advertising, Publicity and the media

- 25 million print adverts produced a year
- 11,000 new commercial in the UK each year
- Pop ups target
Karl Marx
Critique of consumer/commodity culture
- We construct our identities through consumer products
Stewart Enwein 'the commodity self'
Judith Williamson author of Decoding Advertisements instead of being identified by the produce
- Symbolic associations - symboliclly associate life traits to a meaningless product.

How does commodity culture perpetuate false needs?

- Aesthetic innovation
- Planned obsolescence
- Novelty
- Makes us believe we need to buy things to feel satisfied in the world

Aesthetic inovation: Look, style
Novelty: something thats new
Planned Obsolenscence: products designed to break. trick to keep us spending/consuming

- Advertising conceals the background ' history' of products. the context in which a product is produced is kept hidden.

Reification
- Products are given human associations

Frankfurt school. Herbert Marcouse author of 'one dimensional man' - commodity culture manipulates us and makes us think one dimensionally.

conclusion:
Advertising makes us unhappy with existing material possessions. it potentially maipulates people into buying products that they dont really need and dont really want.

It encourages addictive, obsessive and acqusitive.

It uses images that encourage us to buy products and brands that have the potential to be unhealthy.

It encourages unnecessary production and consumption therefore depleting the worlds resources and spoiling the environment.

lecture 2 - graphic design: a medium for the masses

- John Everett Millais, Bubbles, 1886, Pear soap advert. Taking original traditional paintings for modern adverts.
- 1922, William Addison Dwiggins ( successful designer )
- Herbert Spencer: 'mechanized art'
- Max Bill and Josef Muller-Brockman 'visual communication' - 'Whatever the information transmitted it must ethically and culturally, reflect its resposibility to society'
- Henry de Toulouse - Lautrec, Aristide Bruant, 1893, poster.
- Alphonse mucha, job, c. 1898, poster for cigarette papers.
- Savile Lumley, Daddy, what did YOU do in the great war? 1915, poster.
Very British with English Symbols all over the image.

- Alfred Leete, Britons (Kitchener) wants YOU!, 1914, poster.
- James Montgomery Flagg, I want you for US army, 1917 poster.
Both very similar, making the viewer feel wanted, aimed at working class/lower middle class.

- F.TT. Stingemore (uk), London underground map, 1931-2
- Henry C. Beck (uk), London underground map 1933
- After Henry beck London underground map Simon Patterson (1967-)

- The great bear, 1992, lithograph on paper.
- Piet Z wart (Dutch), Het beok van PTT, 1938 ( Dutch telephone service book)
- Hans Schleger (German working in the UK), eat greens for health, 1942, poster.
- Helmut Krone for Doyle Dane Berbach, think small, advert for Volkswagen, 1959.
Very simple and tidy.

- 'The word "advertising", like "comercial art", makes graphic designers cringe. Advertising is the tool of capitalism, a con that persuades the unwitting public to consume and consume again'- Steven Heller, 1995.

- F.H.K Henrion, stop nuclear suicide, poster, 1960.
- Jamie Reid, sex pistols, Never Mind the bollocks... sleave design, 19977.
- David Carson, Dont Mistake Legibility for communication. I really like this.

- The coup, party music, withdrawn CD cover, 2001.
Taken off the shelves because it could be classed as too offensive with the two towers in the background.
Time magazine, cover, september 14th 2001

- Barbara Krunger, I shop therefore i am, 1987.
Selfridges bought this in 2006