Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Friday, November 13, 2015
Gender Essay Ideas
So far I have looked at 3 different books focusing on gender, a few articles on ever growing dismissal of sexism in interviews/magazines and a more recent publication on solely advertising which will set my ideas in to motion as the books I were looking at were more about feminism, and I need to focus on the question in hand.
First of all I looked the popular book, 'The Beauty Myth: 1990', which was a good start as it reminded me of the basics of how women have been dominated in everything from adverts to films by men and how that has effected the way women have thought and felt throughout the decades. It was important to look at the dates the books were released as Im very conscious and interested in the rapid rise of feminism in the last decade which I want to research more.
After much note making, reading and taking pictures of key quotes from the books to reference, after a lot of confusion on what road to go down, I want to have the essay end on quite a positive note. I will discuss the basics on the discrimination of women in advertising, but I find this to be such an interesting time of women going against this so much in interviews (such as Ariana Grande and Scarlet Johansson shutting down interviewers due to sexism) and zines/magazines such as The Mushpit showing the world a different and radical angle, going against what has been the norm of perfect, preened perfection of women in magazines for the whole across all past time.
On an end note, I believe sexism will never completely die, but there are so many of us fighting back against these ideas and this will develop rapidly in future generations and the more people that do, the better world we will live in. Ofcourse, i need to see if from different perspectives, for example I am a woman who enjoys wearing makeup and clothes shopping but I do this because I enjoy it and it makes me happy, whereas I have seen arguments in the Beauty Myth for example that argue we subconsciously do this to please men, which I so disagree with!
I am glad I have finally got to the stage of knowing where to take the essay, which is why I felt ready to blog!
First of all I looked the popular book, 'The Beauty Myth: 1990', which was a good start as it reminded me of the basics of how women have been dominated in everything from adverts to films by men and how that has effected the way women have thought and felt throughout the decades. It was important to look at the dates the books were released as Im very conscious and interested in the rapid rise of feminism in the last decade which I want to research more.
After much note making, reading and taking pictures of key quotes from the books to reference, after a lot of confusion on what road to go down, I want to have the essay end on quite a positive note. I will discuss the basics on the discrimination of women in advertising, but I find this to be such an interesting time of women going against this so much in interviews (such as Ariana Grande and Scarlet Johansson shutting down interviewers due to sexism) and zines/magazines such as The Mushpit showing the world a different and radical angle, going against what has been the norm of perfect, preened perfection of women in magazines for the whole across all past time.
On an end note, I believe sexism will never completely die, but there are so many of us fighting back against these ideas and this will develop rapidly in future generations and the more people that do, the better world we will live in. Ofcourse, i need to see if from different perspectives, for example I am a woman who enjoys wearing makeup and clothes shopping but I do this because I enjoy it and it makes me happy, whereas I have seen arguments in the Beauty Myth for example that argue we subconsciously do this to please men, which I so disagree with!
I am glad I have finally got to the stage of knowing where to take the essay, which is why I felt ready to blog!
My scrambling of ideas over the last week of research
http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/28394/1/how-famous-women-are-taking-control-of-their-own-pr
http://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/blog/Adeles-rolling-stone-cover-destroys-the-male-gaze
'This Girl Can' campaign
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/feb/16/advertising-reverse-hypersexualisation
http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/28394/1/how-famous-women-are-taking-control-of-their-own-pr
http://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/blog/Adeles-rolling-stone-cover-destroys-the-male-gaze
'This Girl Can' campaign
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/feb/16/advertising-reverse-hypersexualisation
Print Culture & Distribution Lecture
I hadn't ever really researched or looked in to the history of print culture, so this was really informative in terms of how art used to be only for the rich and elite, and how print played a major role in the divide of the working class and bourgeoise which still exists today in left and right wing publications.
I always admired the fine art from before the 1800's and knew it was done for the elite to portray their power and perfect lives, but I didn't realise this was the only type of art that was taught at the Royal Academy, and that there was the hierarchy only considered to be for the elite.The fast growing possibility of reproducing these paintings and the working class doing art on their own made the aura of the rich disappear which was really important. You no longer had to visit a gallery, and women could be in publications without being pushed out due to misogyny of the rich.
Print culture came in to its own, despite writers trying to argue this was being done to destroy our 'british culture' by the 'uncultivated masses, raw and half developed', as they were scared of change and I believe this idea still hangs on within our right wing government bodies. Throughout the lecture I kept thinking back to this and how it is still relevant, which fascinated me as it is something everyone should be aware of in todays world. For example, seeing some headlines in right wing newspapers such as the daily mail are pretty shameful and thirsty to scare the masses as they are afraid of development and change, opposed to a publication such as the independent.
Another point raised which still echoes throughout todays culture is the addictive distractions of programmes such as the X Factor which I detest, but cannot say need to be gone completely as we all need distractions from day to day troubles. Reading publications such as gossip magazines/soap magazines, watching these programmes eases peoples lives by helping them be part of something bigger and away from their everyday struggles. Similar again to the past centuries, when they would watch hangings for example as entertainment; as humans we all need distractions, and print culture allows this in all different ways, either in your face ways or more subtly. Print is a very powerful tool, and has also surprised the people who said in the early 2000's print culture was dying and we would have everything on a screen, which has backfired on itself in recent years.
I always admired the fine art from before the 1800's and knew it was done for the elite to portray their power and perfect lives, but I didn't realise this was the only type of art that was taught at the Royal Academy, and that there was the hierarchy only considered to be for the elite.The fast growing possibility of reproducing these paintings and the working class doing art on their own made the aura of the rich disappear which was really important. You no longer had to visit a gallery, and women could be in publications without being pushed out due to misogyny of the rich.
Print culture came in to its own, despite writers trying to argue this was being done to destroy our 'british culture' by the 'uncultivated masses, raw and half developed', as they were scared of change and I believe this idea still hangs on within our right wing government bodies. Throughout the lecture I kept thinking back to this and how it is still relevant, which fascinated me as it is something everyone should be aware of in todays world. For example, seeing some headlines in right wing newspapers such as the daily mail are pretty shameful and thirsty to scare the masses as they are afraid of development and change, opposed to a publication such as the independent.
Another point raised which still echoes throughout todays culture is the addictive distractions of programmes such as the X Factor which I detest, but cannot say need to be gone completely as we all need distractions from day to day troubles. Reading publications such as gossip magazines/soap magazines, watching these programmes eases peoples lives by helping them be part of something bigger and away from their everyday struggles. Similar again to the past centuries, when they would watch hangings for example as entertainment; as humans we all need distractions, and print culture allows this in all different ways, either in your face ways or more subtly. Print is a very powerful tool, and has also surprised the people who said in the early 2000's print culture was dying and we would have everything on a screen, which has backfired on itself in recent years.
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
What Is Research? Lecture
As creatives we make a synthesis; we solve problems through creative thinking, we are driven by ideas, creativity is always about; what if? However, for COP and doing essays a lot of thorough research has to take place.
Unlike how we are taught throughout our lives in schools, now comes the point where we should question and let the process drive the outcome rather than the other way round, as this is how new information is obtained. These are done through different methods of research:
-Stimulative research
-Systematic research
-Initiative research
We must use all of these in some way to collect information in varieties and experiment to make the essay as individual as possible. We must also include primary and secondary research, quantitive to give our words a solid backbone, and importantly qualitative, in which we gather from peers/friends/strangers. We need others points of views to truly understand the subject matter we are delving in to, in my case, gender.
Information is the output of meaning and knowledge, and without taking all these in to consideration the essay will be weak. Ofcourse, it has to be straight to the point and not be too balanced, as these are frustrating to read such as the gender extract source on studio- it was informative and non bias, but I want to look at all extreme ends of the spectrum to be confident i have done research right. As said in the lecture, why would we be researching if we had full knowledge of something?
I currently have the book 'The Beauty Myth' which I will take quotes from but I checked the date, and it was published in 1990, which is very dated in consideration of a large development in feminism in the last 10 years. Sources related to magazines such as 'Mushpit' which I really enjoyed reading the other day, would be modern fresh ideas to pinpoint to from older sources such as 'The Beauty Myth'.
Unlike how we are taught throughout our lives in schools, now comes the point where we should question and let the process drive the outcome rather than the other way round, as this is how new information is obtained. These are done through different methods of research:
-Stimulative research
-Systematic research
-Initiative research
We must use all of these in some way to collect information in varieties and experiment to make the essay as individual as possible. We must also include primary and secondary research, quantitive to give our words a solid backbone, and importantly qualitative, in which we gather from peers/friends/strangers. We need others points of views to truly understand the subject matter we are delving in to, in my case, gender.
Information is the output of meaning and knowledge, and without taking all these in to consideration the essay will be weak. Ofcourse, it has to be straight to the point and not be too balanced, as these are frustrating to read such as the gender extract source on studio- it was informative and non bias, but I want to look at all extreme ends of the spectrum to be confident i have done research right. As said in the lecture, why would we be researching if we had full knowledge of something?
I currently have the book 'The Beauty Myth' which I will take quotes from but I checked the date, and it was published in 1990, which is very dated in consideration of a large development in feminism in the last 10 years. Sources related to magazines such as 'Mushpit' which I really enjoyed reading the other day, would be modern fresh ideas to pinpoint to from older sources such as 'The Beauty Myth'.
Monday, November 2, 2015
Modern Magazine 2015 Lecture
In this very new and exciting time of a post-digital era, designers from all over the world and in different sectors are having to rethink magazine culture and its presentation as what was predicted in the year 2000+ digital era, didn't happen. Magazines weren't all transferred successfully to iPads and they are not read this way. That is why this era is so interesting, designers are going against the set standards. Though still, online magazines are read for example by 300 million opposed to tens of thousands in actual print, but not just on iPads. Magazines/zines are being adapted for mobiles, which is probably the most used way to connect to the world. Everyone wants information as fast as possible.
This of course depends on your situation- if you are commuting, you may not want to read, but listen to podcasts and audios. If you want to get stuck in to a lot of reading, print draws the readers in whereas online articles rarely exceed 1000 words due to distraction, and immediacy expected from online.
Key points to take from this lecture, points made by many of the speakers:
-Modern compilations need depth to them, collaborations, tangents, range of interests to keep what you are reading new and personal to you and what you take from the words and images. Gourmand/Flaneur/Alpine Review
-Consider the effects of the platforms and its audience- audiences online may want more visual, quick information. Flaneur/Uncube?(online mag isn't readable on phones)
-Scewer Morphism. Why do things need to be made exactly as they originally are, adapted? Why not create a whole new concept specific for the platform
-Starting basic on a low budget can become bigger, if it is informed and reaching out to a hungry audience there are ways to involve these people and get funded. You are respected for keeping organic in what you are doing however. The Mushpit
-Create something new; don't conform to the norms of layout and composition. A great graphic design legend as an example is David Carson, praised for refreshing the ways designers can look at layout. Shortlist
This of course depends on your situation- if you are commuting, you may not want to read, but listen to podcasts and audios. If you want to get stuck in to a lot of reading, print draws the readers in whereas online articles rarely exceed 1000 words due to distraction, and immediacy expected from online.
Key points to take from this lecture, points made by many of the speakers:
-Modern compilations need depth to them, collaborations, tangents, range of interests to keep what you are reading new and personal to you and what you take from the words and images. Gourmand/Flaneur/Alpine Review
-Consider the effects of the platforms and its audience- audiences online may want more visual, quick information. Flaneur/Uncube?(online mag isn't readable on phones)
-Scewer Morphism. Why do things need to be made exactly as they originally are, adapted? Why not create a whole new concept specific for the platform
-Starting basic on a low budget can become bigger, if it is informed and reaching out to a hungry audience there are ways to involve these people and get funded. You are respected for keeping organic in what you are doing however. The Mushpit
-Create something new; don't conform to the norms of layout and composition. A great graphic design legend as an example is David Carson, praised for refreshing the ways designers can look at layout. Shortlist
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