LECTURE 12// Globalisation, Sustainability and the Media

Definitions of globalisation:

Socialist- Local and regional phenomena turn into global ones. A single society begins to function together.

Capitalist- The elimination of state-enforced restrictions on exchanges across boarders and he increasingly integrated and complex global system of production and exchanges.

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Economic liberalisation. With the advent of globalisation we see a dominant culture, an Americanisation of the world perhaps.
Communication has allowed the world to be more globalised.

'Macdonaldsisation', not just the culture of America gets imposed on another, the principles of American corporations is imposed on a foreign culture. 'The MacJob'.

Marshal MaLuhan, talked about the advent of radio and tv, 'we have extened our central nervous system in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned'. He believed this brings us all together. 1964.
 "the globe is no more than a village", we should become more aware of global responsibility.

In many ways MaLuhan was right and wrong. We can all see the events on the news and the internet. People in power are more often held to back up their own action.

Jihad vs McWorld, book about the slow crushing of American culture on the world, but also the fight back from traditional culture, McLuhan was wrong here because he though all people would be bought together, however this has not occurred. 

'Pessimistic Hyperglobalisers' argue that we are not being connected but smothered by a larger globalised governmental bodies.

Cultural imperialism is born, instead of invading countries, cultural ideas slowly drip-feed into the national subconscious and people begin to think like there cultural imperialists.

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Rigging the 'Free Market'

Most companies are owned by four or five giant multinational corporations. For example Time Warner who own massive amounts of telecommunication businesses, magazines and news corporations.

News corporations divide the world up into a Hierachy of 'market importance'
1.North America
2.Western Europe, Japan and Australia.
3.Developing economies and regional producers. (India, China, Brazil).
4.Rest of World.

This creates a slow drift of western culture on the world. As the media focuses on an interest on where the money is, this drips down to other countries, changing culture over time. 

For example the largest cosmetics growth industry in India is face whitening cream.

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Five ways the news is like propaganda.(Chomsky and Herman).
-Ownership
-Funding
-Sourcing
-Flak
-Anti Communist (now Islam) ideology. 

Ownership=
A tissue of lies which push the agenda of a few powerful men.
I.e, Rupert Murdoch controls a third of the UK marketplace. He boasts that if his papers support a politician, he will win the election.

Sourcing=
You can only report what you are allowed to report. 
These news corporations also rely entirely on advertising, where huge amounts of space is assigned to an advert.

Flak=
Global Climate Coalition for example, set up by Exxon, Texaco and Ford bought out a lot of 'research' about the end of global warming and wrote articles which bashed real climate scientists.

Anti Communist (Radical islamist) Ideology=
Constant remineders and warnings of an 'other', whilst also backing up our own ideologies.

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Al Gore realised the cinema was the most effective way to push his views when he made 'An inconvenient truth'. Set up like a disaster movie, it outlines the more scientific, but negative side of our effects on the planet.
However the solution the film gives is that we should buy more stuff, green stuff. A very capitalist response.

In reaction you get a rebuttal from more conservative/ republican bodies. 'Global Warming is a hoax'. Paid massive amounts of money for prime time advertising with tagline; 'Carbon Dioxide, we call it life'

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DESIGN FOR PRINT AND WEB// Visual Research

Some more visual research for the design for print and web work.

 Nice use of colour rather than chapter names to separate booklets. Many designers will have a set stock so its nice to see stock coming first as a design consideration. Also good use of spot varnish to get that white R to stand out.

Having just started my own record collection im always trying to look out for interesting vinyl art and sleeves.The very subtle way that the red is used at the top of the sleeve is what caught my attention here, I hope its varnished too.

Rare vinyl business cards, im not sure why they are not more popular, this clear (but also red) design really stands out amongst other cards. This is the sort of thing you would keep just for the sake of the material so the giver will always be remembered.

DESIGN FOR WEB// ISTD Visual Research

Here is some visual research for we design that is popular at the moment...

 Almost poster style websites have begun to appear online, I definitely dont want mine to look like a conventional website. This particular website is pretty content heavy in my opinion, it needs some stripping back but it illustrates what people expect to see out of new sites.

 Here is a much more cut back site with a simple menu down the left and some nice visuals. In contrast to the website above it appear much more approachable, however I do think that to those not inspired by the typography, it could be seen as a bit of a bore.

 With the way we use smartphones to view websites (where continuous scrolling is preferable to multiple pages) more and ore websites pop up with the same idea. Also with faster connection speeds more content can be loaded into a single large page so stuff like this is much easier to use.

See here too how the page is almost tripled in size, users will probably be able to smooth scroll down the page meaning new pages will not have to be loaded before they get to see new content, much faster and more enticing to the user.

DESIGN FOR PRINT// Design Inspiration

Japanese posters always feel very decorative and well balanced to me. I can appreciate but down really enjoy overly minimalist design as much as some of these Japanese offerings.

What I appreciate about this poster is the great use of colour, an ivy green mixed in with gold and black is very bold yet the composition of the poster does not allow it to become garish. I also like the folk-loresque style of the illustration and the huge amount of text.

So this poster is more minimalist, it was designed for an art college in Japan in 2006 and would look much older if it weren't for the spots (flags) covering the text.

An illustrative Japanese movie poster. I'm not so interested in the design here as much as the opportunity to sceenprint the design.

Movie style wartime exhibition poster from Japan. The style here comes from the red/blue colouration and simple imagery and layout.

DESIGN FOR PRINT// Poster Inspiration

Very elegant vintage swiss air poster. Its unusual length is interesting because it really works with the length of the plane, showing off some great livery and one of the engines. Nice piece of modernist design, forward thinking and clean.

Taken to a more post-modern style wit this mock vintage look. This print is of a war era photograph with some Japanese infusion.

Cut up Hitchcock poster is inspired by his own films, screens taken directly from these. The cut up asthetic probably comes from the Saul Bass posters of that era. Here the designer has taken both old and new and combined. This superimposition of of images, a collage, is something which I would definitely use in my screenprint posters, where I will need to merge typeface and photography.

The Thing, modern take on the classic film poster with a two colour screen print. I have been searching for a few screenprint posters for this print project. What I especially like here is the clever use of the dogs shadow as the nightmarish vision of the thing,

DESIGN FOR PRINT// Poster Inspiration

 Soviet Movie poster, constructivist styling with some nice use of post production on photography.  The use of the yellow outline to separate the face from the dark background is interesting, as is the other additional illustration added to the photograph like the headband and the stripes.

 Another simple but visually interesting alternative film poster for 'The Thing'. The use of different shades of just one colour has been worked on here creating good atmosphere in a stylish way.

Looking at this design because it is an interesting layered work. There is a lot of movement in this poster, and I am particularly interested in its almost grunge style.

LECTURE 11// Censorship and 'Truth'

Ansel Adams, moonrise hernandes. 1941. Moon over Half Dome, 1960. Creates rather small photographs, uses the same negative over and over again, he alters what the print shows in the dark room, is this truth or manipulation?

Soviet state newspaper Pravda 'truth'. A lot of what was shown/ written about was not the truth, they edited a lot of photographs to remove political enemy from history.

Digital editing has allowed photographs to be editied on a massive scale.
9/11 had many fake ads mocked up for it.
Famous GQ Kate Winslet photographs edited with longer legs and facial enhancements.

'Death of a loyalist soldier' Robert Capa. No one is sure weather the man is actually dying. Capa is not the photographers real name, Hungarian photographer changed his name to this fabricated myth about an American photojournalist.
'The Mexican Suitcase' Capa's found in Mexico, the photo was a set up which went wrong, soldier did die but not in full battle.

'The Unseen Gulf War' Peter Turnley.
 Werent suppose to be out photographing actual war but were put in groups with the military.
Took photos of 'the mile of death' massive unseen scenes of carnage. Angry that no one can give an answer to the question 'how many deaths?'

Buallriard 'The gulf war did not take place'. An essay about how the war was masqueraded as a show. The war started in time to got out in the news. No news of people being killed, if anything slipped through american media and government would clamp down. Black and white used to 'sanitise the images' was used even in the free photography journals. Some newspapers printed one in colour and got in a lot of trouble. Should they have given it is the truth?
 Radio islam: 'much of american ausience {cant tell the difference) between entertainment and news'

An-My Le, 'Small Wars' Documented Afgan Conflict. More fine art inspired. Took beautiful landscape photos full of tanks.
Not presenting the universal truth. But the photos are slightly self-aware.

Censorship, Morals and Ethics.
Advertising, everybody wants to construct there own perfect life. Turn a bland existence for a superior one. Advertising allows this.
Cadburys Flake ads from 69, picture is of chocolate bar fellatio, is it the viewers or the designers fault that that link is made?

Opium Advert with Sophie Dahl, in original she is lying on her back, there is a nipple showing which is against the rules for ASA. It was fliped over to a portrait version, and became 'acceptable'.

Feminist writers often comment on the difference/ similarity between renaissance painting of naked women and naked women in photography today.

Balthus paintings from war time, painted young women/ possible children, clothed, but in highly sexual positions.

Bow Wow Wow (1980) used a nude photo of lead singer, who was 15, on album cover. It is a copy of a painting by Manet. There was minor outrage about it but today it would not even be thought of.

The Miller Test (1973)
Test as to whether something is obscene or not...
'To protect art whilst prhibiting trash'
'The dividing line between speech and non-speech'

Sally Man, Cansy Cigarette, 89'. Photograph of her child pretending to smoke.
Took photos of her kids nude. Like most parents, but she did blow them up, print them in books and show them in exhibitions. Paedophilia was not new, but people didn't really talk about it or know about it.
This has been copied further by Gearon in 2001. When applied to gaze theory, her photographs become very sexual. She said the shots are not sexual, if you read up on her she appears to be very naive.
Brooke Sheilds was photographed naked for an offshoot of penthouse in the late 70's. It became part of an exhibition by Richard Prince, the photograph was taken down by the police. 

DESIGN FOR PRINT AND WEB// Research

Interesting website which illustrates some nice typefaces, as well as what I can look out for when picking my own for this project.

http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/typography-articles/a-beginners-guide-to-pairing-fonts/

DESIGN FOR PRINT// ISTD Poster Inspiration

Some international posters which have caught my attention;

Not a typical football poster. Very minimalist, especially for the subject which is usually portrayed fairly garishly. Nice simple flag signifier for Germany.

More interested in the print precess than the design. The use of colour here is at once stylish and almost regal. Red/gold colour usually looks very over the top, but when applied to east Asian design it can appear to be much more tasteful.

This is just an interesting astronomical inspired design I came across. The simple use of shapes has created an eclipse effect. The poster is at once minimalist and decorative. 

Another astronomy themed poster, this time much more detailed, perhaps more interesting to look at also. It is a one colour screen print, something which I am going to do within the next few days. I would like to work with photography personally however posters like this make it clear that screenprint works best on vector based artworks.

LECTURE 10// Communication Theory

Semiotics...
Four Candles, Fork Handles.

Fredinand De Saussure defined semiology, a study of sign systems.

Semiotics is a form of meta-language, a language about language.

The 'signified' is whatever you imagine the word or sign to mean. The 'referent' is what the sign or word actually means.

Systems and structures (the context of the sign) dictate the reading to some extent.

For example, green signifies, Grass, Go, Nature etc.
Blue signifies, Water, cold etc.
If you add crisps to this the green and blue signify cheese and onion and salt and vinegar.
There is no literal relation between  these colours and the flavour, there is a system of semiotics in place that tells us this.

Suassure tells us that meaning is established by differentiation.

Connotations and Denotation- gives us levels or orders of signification. Not everything works on the same literal levels. 

Myths are signs that are culturally informed. There is no literal or logical meaning but time has made it 'known'.

Red wine is associated with class and intellectuals, it is not logical to make this association.

Milk is associated with wholesomeness and strength, it is something that is not related.

Syntagm and Paradigm
Syntagm, a series or collection of signifiers within a 'text', for example a paragraph.
Paradigm, signifiers that relate to each other through function or relative meaning.

Metaphor and Metonym
Metaphor, one sign is replaced with another, non-litteral form of signification.
Metonym is where you use a related signifier to descrobe a sign, like calling your car your 'Wheels'.

Rhetoric, the act of persuasion using words. Photojournalists for example will pick particularly emotive rhetoric for a war photograph. It will explain that 'war is bad' making it simple to understand, however the problem will be much much more complex.

Structuralism - With Roland Barthes
Is the term used for the broad application of semiotics/ semiology to a range of sign systems.
Further than the application solely to linguistics.
Structuralism emphasises structures or systems in signs...

Post Structuralism
Like post-modernism.
It is about scepticism of any assumed rules of signifying system.
Being aware that milk isn't wholesome, priests aren't holy etc. 

Intertextuality
'every text is from the outlet under the jurisdiction of other discourses which impose a universe on it' Kristeva.

Simulacra
Jean Buadrillare, introduces the idea of hyper-reality in representation, a copy without an original.
Most of our experience of the world is through images and representation rather than experience. There is real connection between what we see and our reality.

1. The image is a clear counterfeit of the original (post modern)
2. Distincion betwwen the copy and the real are broken down (modern)
3. The copy is precedes the original, like Disneyland, a copy of the original. That teaches opinion on the actual.We see the news and form opinion on a culture for example before experiencing in reality.

DESIGN FOR PRINT AND WEB// Visual Research

 Some more visual research for the design for print and web ISTD brief. 

 I've got a real affinity towards this early 20th century cut up modernism. Real clean lines which break each other up, hinting at post modernism but just much, much more refined. Also the simple use of colour, where the orange really jumps forward dispute being printed over or retracting from the other content.

 A similar thing is seen in this typography poster however taken in a much more modern (post-modern) light. In this poster it is (at first) unclear if the type is actually part of the environment or if it has been placed there post production. Again a nice high contrast black is used.

Something much more experimental, not sure if I like this work at all, perhaps because the designer has relied on the unusual material entirely and not in any sense of true originality on the design. This is a case of, no idea, Helvetica.

This poster seems to rely on some interesting print technique to achieve this effect. It is almost like the white has been printed over wet black ink. It brings to mind a medicine bottle in style.

An interesting typography piece. White on black and messy. I would note to myself that when I design for screen print I would not like to add a screen print effect in photoshop, I think it unnecessarily detracts from the overall design, this would be better without the fake scratch marks in my opinion.

Interesting because they are unusual. Hand-drawn but distinctly digital at the same time. Again a simplification of the colours and ability to understand type-hierarchy what makes this work.