- Bombarded by images.
Early 1990's- 11000 new tv commercials made in Britain in a year (estimate)
25 million print advert a year (estimate)
POP UPS- Invades conciousness. They target you!
Karl Max 1818-1883- communist
Critiqu of consumer/ commodity culture:-
Bought and sold
Construct our identities through consumer products.
- The commodity self - Stewart Ewan
- Judith Williamson 'Instead of being Identified...'
Symbolic Associations:
Make people want to buy product
Make something seem more interesting - eg, sex appealing, youth...
How does commodity culture perpetuate false needs?
- Aesthetic Innovation: Looks 'sexier' or 'newer', makes us think we need it.
- Planned Obsolencense:
- Novelty: Something NOW. = iPod, iPhones etc..
Commodity Fetishism:-
Advertising creates background 'history' of products. Context which product is produced is kept hidden.
Reification:
Products are given human associations.
Products themselves are perceived as sexy, romantic, cool, stylish, sophisticated, fun etc...
-Frankfurt school- 1923, Herbert Marcuse
- Commodity culture manipulates us and makes us think one dimensionally- way of thinking about the world, prevents us living meaningful lives.
John Beiger ways of seeing:
Surrounded by sculptures + stuff- from travelling..
Sony Advert: person= identifying self through lifestyle
Economy
Subsiding the media quality
Sterotyping
Advertising= tricking people into consumption
Positive side to advertising= strengthens society.
Seeks to make people unhappy with existing possessions, potentially manipulates, encourages addictive/obsessive + acquisitive behaviour, distorsts the language and encourages bad usage and incorrect spelling, eg Xscape and iTunes
- Encourages children to want products and brands that they cannot afford, causing feelings of inadequacy and envy.
- Unhealthy- junk food and sweets etc..
- uneccessary production and consumption, spoiling the environment.
Wednesday 2nd December:
[Art] The mass media and society:
- Characteristics - new digital media
- Mass media
- Relationship between art and mass media
"Late age of print"- media theorist, Marshall Mclunan, 1450- began around- the age of print, Gutenberg's printing press.
E-book= takes over actual printed books. Reader is allowed more power
Hypermedia- sounds, pics etc.. more entertaining.
Wikipedia problems, surf through knowledege- can skip through things- but feel like you've read through it all. 'lost knowledge'
MASS MEDIA DEFINED:
modern systems of communication and distribution supplied by relitively small groups of cultural products but directed towards large numbers of cinsumers.
-Negative Criticisms of the mass media:
superficial, uncritical, trivial, viewing figures measures success, audience is dispersed, encourages the status quo, encourages apathy, power held by few motivated by profit or social control (propaganda), bland, escapist, encourages escapism, seen as a drug which anaesthetises us.
-Positive criticisms of the mass media
not all media is low quality, social problems and injustices are discussed by media, creativity can be a feature, transmission of high art material reaches a broader audience, democratic potential.
Wednesday 9th December:
The Document:
Documentary Practice:
- If photography is used correctly, could be antidote to war.
- Purpose
- Joseph Nicephore Niepce (1826) capture reality, grasp and record.
Previously was printed and paited, now a new way of doing it.
Photographers- invisible eye.
Photographers do influence what they see.
William Edward Kilburn
- No staging
- He's at a distance
Its dangerous (reasons)
Political, Social, I dea of Neutrality
Roger Fenton 1855, glory, triumph, memory, artistic element, added to the photograph.
The deceisive moment:-
- Photography achieves its highest distinctions
- Work aesthetics. Not influenced.
Jacob Riis- Teritory
Underclass, that kind of teritory. eg gangs of newyork.
They are aware of a photograph being taken- not authentic- a construction- middle class fantasy of what underclass is like.
