Wednesday, 7 November 2012

Displaying Your Essay

This lecture explained the structure of our essay, what we should include and how we should layout.

What is a essay?

 identifying a topic, the importance of clear aims, form and construction.

Essay - Well informed, structured, sustained. Communicate a idea, using analysis and images such as examples of work.
Having a clean flow to the argument, whilst meeting the assessment criteria. Building an effective argument whilst developing the aim.
Understanding the question will support the argument.

What are you studying?
What is the broad field?
What are you interested in?
Examples?
2,000 words, what is possible within this limit, and what do you aim to achieve. Explore, discuss, analyze, argue that, consider, expose, think what I aim to do?

What do I need to do? do I have evidence what examples would allow me to make my points effectively. Think of research broadly, state your aims effectively, what am I aiming to say overall? Conclusion: did I achieve them?

1. Introduce the reader to the essay. Should be one page stating what I'm studying, why am I studying this, why is it of interest, how and what kind of research have I used.
Introduce what each section of the essay may contain, using phrases such as:
"I will start by..."
"In the second section I will"

Followed by the body of the text, sub headings ending with a conclusion.

Make sure you have research, careful aims.

Essay Presentation

Articulation, Referencing and Bibliography
Title page, title of essay, my name, tutors name and details of module.
Title page, content list, list of illustrations, introductions, conclusion then bibliography.
Number pages size 11 font and double spaced.

When referencing an image you should use ( fig 1, fig 2 ) to allow easier referencing.  Located under the image should be the artist, date , size, medium and whatever else you feel the reader should know.

Are your facts correct, referencing correctly, grammar and spelling ( Read aloud to ensure yourself )

Use quotations when quoting an artist the reference it using ( Berger, 1972, p45 ) - Harvard System.
Online - Date last accessed - listen separately
Notes - Endnotes.

 

Thursday, 25 October 2012

Sex and Gender

Identity - Sex & Gender


What is a man?
and an adult male?
- Age of sexual consent ( 16 )    UK
- Age of Voting ( 18 )     UK
- Joining the army ( 16 )  UK
- Age of criminally responsibility ( 10 )  UK
- Age of final growth ( 21 - 25 ) 
- Sexual maturity ( 13 )
( Changing of the voice )
- Emotional or physiological maturity ( Different based on individuality )

Biological Definitions:
- Cromozones ( x-y )
- Primary sex characteristics ( Sex organs )

Culturally Definitions:               
- Masai ( Boys - Circumcision )
- Jewish boys ( Bah mitzvah - 13 )

Natural Attitude:
Woman & Man = 2 sexes/genders 
Unquestionable - Seen on the assumption of reproductive organs.
- Essential understanding
- Assumption of natural difference 
- Masculine + Feminine - Not a choice (?)
- Any deviation from this is not the norm (?)

The Model Of Masculinity:
- Purposeful
- Active 
- Independent
- Heterosexual
- Violent/Fearless
- Powerful
- Strong

What is Masculinity?
- Not feminine
- Not purposeless
- Not an object
- Not passive
- Not dependent
- Not fearful
- Not powerless
- Not weak
In the media we are displayed male role models to fit the categories of the above, it shows an ideal man under the eye of the audience. Most male models,actors and musicians, have a large quantity of these traits.


Heterosexuality - Heterosexuality is viewed as the norm, in doing so it renders all other sexual identities  inappropriate or abnormal. 
Same sex marriage in illegal in the UK although they are aloud a civil partnership since 2006, before this time being homosexual was deemed as "unnatural" as they can not reproduce and are seen as sinful from the bible. During today you come across homosexuality and it is deemed acceptable by most people.


     




Wednesday, 24 October 2012

Where do you find works of design


  • Museums 
  • Exhibitions
  • The streets
  • Catwalks
  • Internet
  • Magazines
  • Sketchbooks
  • Galleries
  • Posters
  • Architecture
These are several examples of where you find aspects of design in the world, Some may not seem obvious such as the streets or architecture, but are an example of design, such as graffiti for example which is at a high percentage in Bristol and London which we are viewing on a daily basis. Architecture, some designing went into creating this end product and a lot of altering went into those designs to make buildings interesting or sturdy/supporting.

Magazines and internet are not the real design but show image of the product they are secondary research and are used to display.

Museums and galleries are the prime example of where you would find works of design, you are viewing it primary and you are seeing the reality of a painting garment or such, the best way to view a design of art.

Andre Malraux's Museum without Walls, 1947


Sunday, 21 October 2012

Structuralism

Claude Levi influenced in 1960/70's based on visionary opposites:
male/female, inside/out, day/night

He released a book know as Tristes Tropiques which told the journey of him of a  French expatriate throughout the 1930s,  the work is infused with philosophical reflections and ideas linking to many academic disciplines, such as sociologygeologymusichistory and literature which are among the 36 chapters.

Deconstruction:
There is no fixed meaning, established modes of thought and binaries are questioned. Taking things apart, to possibly make something new and to get a better understanding.

Intertextuality:
Text to text connections alluding other images either historic or contemporary.

Physical Context:
In your subject area, how does the physical context affect the reception of the art/design fashion: Cat walks as performances,mass distribution through magazines.


Second session Visual Culture

Semiotics

Signs consisting of signifier  ( the sound of the word cat/the printed word cat) and signified ( the cat as a certain species of animal example: Siamese )

Photo of the chair ( the form ) - signifier.
Definition of the chair ( concept ) - signified 
Reference for the sign - the actual chair.

Joseph Kaswth:
 One of his most famous works is One and Three Chairs, a visual expression of Plato's concept of The Forms. The piece features a physical chair, a photograph of that chair, and the text of a dictionary definition of the word "chair". The photograph is a representation of the actual chair situated on the floor, in the foreground of the work.

Interesting artist to look at:
John A Walker - London Underground
Barthes - Photography and Fashion
Judith Williams - Advertising 

Wednesday, 10 October 2012

Content Flower

The flower is an organic living being.
Scented.
Made up of shapes.
Fact.
Beneficial.
Pastels.
Small.
Soft.
Green.
Chosen.
Form of emotion.
Event related.
Difference.
Grows.
Dies.
Pretty.
Natural.
Planted.
Emotionless.
Painless.

Examples of Post Modernism in the Fashion Industry





Post Modernism within the Fashion Industry.


Post Modernism within the Fashion Industry.

Post Modernism has developed within the fashion industry over a large period of time. And within this time have been created an array of fashion designers such as Alexander Mqueen, Vivienne Westwood and Comme des Garçons. The main concept of Post Modernism was mixing different media to create an improved outcome. There are many forms of post modernism fashion displayed worldwide that we view on a daily bases. This can range in large artist pieces to viewing a clear dress highlighted by the lingerie, this would be viewed differently 40 years ago and associated with sexual references.
Fashion changed greatly during post modernism, they could dip into all aspects art related, and create something mixed media, such as more artistic or productive pieces. I think this has benefited fashion as it widens your range of audience, product and knowledge, it allows you too adapt and broaden the fashion industry. Post modernism is needed in order to keep the audience interested in todays life clothing that appears obscure, bizarre and highly pigmented are considered norm. Todays life has effected the industry as we become more influenced by the media we keep expecting developing ideas within the industry, as everything else evolves we expect all aspects of life to evolve as well. We are born into consuming so we’re always expecting something new and improved to be released, as the world and humanity grows there will always be a need for improved items, we are driven by evolution of product. Fashion houses are always finding new inspirations and techniques to develop their collection to enable people to want it, mixed media is a selling tool, you have the choice of basic or flamboyant the more techniques they find the more surreal the garments appear. A piece considered interesting in 19th century was associated with money or wealth in todays society there is a wide range of garments suitable for all budgets, it is more widely available.
The most relevant part of post modernism was the reference towards other artists such as graphic designers or photographers incorporated within a dress, I think this effected the boundaries we can push within our industry’s and gives us a another world to incorporate within our speciality. I think the use of other medias benefits our work and allows us to learn different techniques and better our pieces.

Tuesday, 9 October 2012

Visual Culture 26th September 2012

This lesson introduced us to what we going to explore this term, the power point gave us a list of all the subjects we would undergo these include;
labels,art,visual language,photography,symbols, propaganda,graffiti,branding,paintings,film and advertising.
Each lesson will be based around these topics giving examples and explanations. These will lead us to a end outcome of an essay backed up by various research, this will give us a insight on historical and contempry culture. 

The lesson dabbled on different aspects such as;
 targeting a specific audience and making choices based on their needs. Such as changing a brands designing or logos to appeal to that specified audience, if the design is sleek and modern it will appeal to a young up to date character, if the design is more colorful with artistic illustrations it will appeal to a young creative audience. The nature of the design it to increase profits and distribute product. 

How and image can influence us to buy a product such as using celebrities in advertisements or showing a celebrity wearing a certain brand.

Iconography - writing about images, descriptive and classifications.
Iconology - Interpretative, considers the work of art/design as a product of the personality.

Genre 'species,mind,sort or type' what are the genres or types within your industry;
Fashion.

Menswear
Womenswear
Childswear
Haute Couture 
Ready to wear
High street
Photography
Packaging
Illustration
Pattern maker
Designer
Promotional 
Journalism 
Seamstress 
milliner.

Form Analysis - Materials,colours,lines,lighting,tonal volume,form,shapes,space,structure, form follows function.

We spoke of lack of something can have content, we used the description as if you were in a white room, you would not see anything among the white walls, but if a black line was drew threw the center you could inter prate as many things, such as heaven and earth, day and night or in and out. It shows a lack of something can still hold content, if it based around our imagination and how we view it.



Monday, 6 August 2012

An Interesting Article

I found an article showing Teen Age's protesting against Teen Vogue using Photo shopped images in their magazine. I find this article highly useful for my essay as we are worried of the impression of Photo Shopped images on the young and how they aspire to be like the women they view, this shows that they understand what goes into a magazine spread sheet and chose to protest against it.
"The girls have collected nearly 30,000 signatures on their Change.org petition, which asks Teen Vogue to "stop altering natural bodies and faces so that real girls can be the new standard of beauty." 
Which is inspiring that these young women want to help make change to the industry, I think it is one thing for  use to notice the misuse of Photoshop but another to participate in a petition or begin one.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/amyodell/teens-protest-teen-vogue-lack-of-ethnic-diversit

Found a article/journal

related to my topic on MyUwe, known as Little Book Of Photoshop Horrors, I find it gave different views about the subject and gave me a realization of different angles to approach the subject, some of the main Photo Manipulation incidents such as OJ Simpson in Time and Newsday containing Tonya Harding an Nancy Kerrigan, there were different views on this, which I found useful to my essay. The book also shows how people in the industry have realized the imperfections of photo manipulation. 
 

Sunday, 1 July 2012

A interesting article

http://jezebel.com/5913951/german-vogue-shows-supermodels-without-photoshop-[nsfw]/gallery/8

Showing Vogue models without any varnishing or any form of Photoshop. I feel this article backs up that Vogue previously used Photoshop, otherwise they wouldn't have made a huge deal about not using it.
I feel this is a good a article for my essay as it is evidence of a huge branded magazine using Photoshop.

Monday, 30 January 2012

Which areas of Creative Practices particularly interest you (these may include areas outside of your immediate subject specialism)?

I found many topics we have covered previously concern me especially the one discussion we had on if you saw a child staving would you take a photograph ( if you were a photographer ) or would you actually help the child through this time, but there are so many points of view on whether you are changing life and not letting nature have its causes.
My other topic was air brushing, as there are is so much airbrushing in the fashion industry, it has got to the point where these adverts are giving the younger generation un-realistic expectations of themselves and sometimes effecting more of the middle age women and men.
I am currently researching different areas of the air brushing industry seeing what information I can find.

Which aspects of the readings and lectures from the module have you agreed with? 


I agree with the ban of the pornographic images of a certain photographers children, they may have been regarded as acceptable in the past but are no longer. I feel that images like that shouldn't be exposed to the public.
I agree with the magazine Time being taken to court for their edited front cover of OJ Simpson, as I found it pointless of how they went to the effort of editing his image to make him seem more "Criminal" it wouldnt have upped their sales so what would be the point.

Interesting articles related to Times - Oj Simpson

Before and After



The 29-year-old singer made the extraordinary move in order to highlight the pressure exerted on women to look perfect.

I have been looking at interesting articles relating to my chosen topic

Air Brushing in the Fashion Industry 


Guardian Article on Government clamping down on Airbrushing 

I wanted to look at Air brushing in the fashion industry from different angles and see all points of view, I found this article paticulary interesting as it was speaking of the health warnings that these edited images our inflicting on the younger generation.

Wednesday, 18 January 2012

During today's Lecture

We were asked to go find some information on our chose topic, I wasn't sure of what I wanted to do so I just scouted through some Fashion & Photography magazines until I found something appropriate, although I found many suggestions I didn't find any that I really wanted to do. I have strong views on Photoshop being used in fashion photography as I have already dabbled with this subject during this course I though it would make the perfect candidate as I still wanted to learn more about this case.
I will be researching why photographers do it, and many other questions which will be following this post over the course of time. 

Tuesday, 17 January 2012

Vivienne Westwood's logo

Logo Article

I have always adored Vivienne's logo from her man to red label, I find it fits her style very well, and also is linked to the queen which compliments her punk look. Her design is timeless and is one you never forget and will always link back to Vivienne, after reading the article they thought of changing her logo to her handwriting a few years ago. I find that most designers have their signature as their logo, which I find is common. I really enjoy the pen style by Tracey Emin of her design and think this could be just as popular.

2012 Olympics Logo

After reading articles and reviews about the logo, I have came to a conclusion. I think that some of the reviews were abit overrated, it may not be the best design but it still does deserve to much critique. In my opinion I think it could have been developed further, it looks like stage 1 out of about 4, this logo needed to be developed and changed. I find it very basic, but I do enjoy the mexico logo, but it does give me a headache after looking at it after awhile, I found that it was fresh and timeless. Although I am happy that the British logo comes in many colours to add that variation.

Radio 4 - Midweek programme discussing 'The Lost Photographs of Captain Scott'

The beginning of the recording talks about old pieces of furniture that had been placed in their homes as they were growing up and how one of the interviewees used to play hide and seek in one before it got send to a museum and was deemed a priceless artifact. The conversation moves on to the photographs they had found that no-one had ever seen before on how they stumbled upon these, The photos show through scotts eyes, what he saw during his expedition. They talk about the hash weather he endured and how sometimes it was not possible to take photos in that type of weather, especially if you breathed on the camera because you would steam it up, then it would freeze, leaving you with and afternoon without a camera. Scott kept a diary of all things he came across, the diary narrates the photos, they follow hand in hand.

Radio 1 Programme

Im going back to all my sessions and completing all tasks given

The first is an image that we find represents our individuality.

I find this Image reflects me in different ways, I am a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland and this image is based on the book and the outfits are correspondent to different scenes in it.
I love the Photography being used and the different scenes that were used during the whole photoshoot, and admire all the angels the photographer has used.
I am also studying fashion which also benefits from this images because of their outfits and Karl Largerfield.
I wish I had discovered this shoot sooner as I could of used it in my previous project.

Although this video isn't related to fashion ( I couldn't find any suitable ) I did find it really inspiring and I think others will find it really interesting to watch, it shows how things quickly change and can go unnoticed.
I have only discovered these designers recently after lending a book out of the Library, and I find them truly amazing from their different types of garments and range of colours. I really enjoy how weird looking their clothes are, they relate to Alexander McQueen, probably why I like them so much because they are so overdressed.