#esuwe

Relay Response Week 4

In response to Billy's "100% Beef" burger.

This is a beef wellington. I collaged together photos of roast beef on to one of my wellington boots to create a literal version of the famous meal 'beef wellington'.

Critical Perspectives Week 6 Notes

CLASS CULTURE CAPITAL AND TASTE

The measurments of what determines social class in society have varied over time.

Karl Marx defines class as: Determined entirely by ones relationship to the ‘means of production’

The class in capitalist society - Proletarians: those who work but do not own the means of production - Bourgeoisie: those who live off of the surplus generated by the proletarians - Aristocracy: that has land as a means of production

Class has traditionally been defined by three indicators: 1) occupation 2) wealth 3) education

The new research suggests that class has three different indicators: 1) economic 2) social 3) cultural

The new classes are defined: ELITE: the most privileged group in the UK, distinct from the other six classes through its wealth, this group has the highest levels of all three capitals.

ESTABLISHED MIDDLE CLASS: the second wealthiest, scoring highly in all three capitals, the largest and most gregarious group, scoring second highest for cultural capital

TECHNICAL MIDDLE CLASS: a small distinctive new class group which is prosperous but scores low for social and cultural capital. Distinguished by its social isolation and cultural apathy.

NEW AFFLUENT WORKERS: a young class group which is socially and culturally active, with middling levels of economic capital.

TRADITIONAL WORKING CLASS: scores low on all forms of capital, but is not completely deprived. Its members have reasonably high house values, explained by this group having the oldest average age of 66

EMERGENT SERVICE WORKERS: a new young urban group which is relatively poor but has high social and cultural capital

PRECARIET or PRECARIOUS PROLETARIAT: the poorest most deprived.

What is taste? Taste can be understood as an indicator of class

According to Catherine McDermott, taste: “involves the critical judgement of human objects and culture and it suggests a well trained appreciation of what is aesthetically pleasing.” In other words… Taste: is based on knowledge, connoisseurship and critical pleasing.

What does aesthetically pleasing mean?

AESTHETICS: -The study of beauty -A branch of philosophy - “there is a certain apt disposition of bodily parts which, when combined with a certain agreeable colour, is called beauty” - For Plato, beauty was associated with what is to be admired and desired. - taste has been historically formed through a process of admiring and desiring objects that are deemed ‘beautiful’

If that is true.. Who ‘deems’ what is beautiful? - our tastes are learnt and hence, taught - they are not ‘natural’ or neutral - their learning starts the moment we are born -they reflect our ( and our families and our cultures and our religions) value systems - Our tastes in clothes

ESSAY STARTING WRITING - essays are seldom written in the order in which they are read I.E writers do not start always with the introduction and work through until the conclusion. Allow time for drafting, editing and rewriting. Be prepared to move paragraphs around! Cut sections/ideas/paragraphs that become irrelevant, rework your conclusion and rewrite your introduction

BODY OF TEXT SHOULD: Engage critically with your topic e.g. Adopt a questioning approach Engage with what others have written about And provide detailed references using the UWE Harvard system that shows where you have got your information from. Tell us what you think- Do you agree with the positions of the other writers? Imagine you are in a conversation with others who have studied your topic. What would you say to them? Get straight to the point after the introduction. Introduce ideas and topics in a logical sequence, THINK CAREFULLY ABOUT ORDER Be clear about functions of each paragraph Use subheadings if it helps Avoid long generic summaries

THE CONCLUSION SHOULD: Draw together the main strands of your discussion Not introduce any new examples, authors or case studies reflecting on set question I.E. Be clear about how your have addressed the set question Comment on what your research and analysis has enabled you to do. Establish what your argument/position is Conclusions need to be concluding but not conclusive Are there other questions that your research gives rise to?

CORROBORATION You must support your argument/discussion with evidence having looked at what other people have written As well as using facts, figures and ideas/theories that you have encountered during your research

ILLUSTRATIONS: Provide illustrations that are - relevant and appropriate - clearly labelled and referenced

SEMINAR TASK Consider how the content of todays lecture might relate to your essay and or your practice Use the time between now and your seminar to continue researching around your essay topics

HOMEWORK A checklist of what your poster must include can be found on Blackboard and bring a hard copy in for February 20th

Creativity: what a creative practitioner is?

Celebrated sole author

Collaborator

Facilitator

Consumer

Hybrid manager

Conceptional thinker

Maker

Culture jammer

The idea of creativity is central in art and design education. Creativity is considered an important part of what makes us employable.

The word creativity is also used by:

Computer artists

Chefs

Tourism managers

Even within the area of art, media and design our understanding of creativity (and what the creative practitioner does) had changed historically. It has meant different things at different times. No definition of creativity is universal or straight forward. Modern form of creative arts is European and about 200 years old. Prior to this other activities were considered creative.

18th century: art as a separate activity, different to everyday life, emergence of galleries and museums to make this distinction clear, idea of aesthetics.

Modernism, late 19th and 20th century: true creativity is avant-grande and forward looking (progresses); art as meaningful, experimental and separate to entertainment (popular culture seen as superficial); creative practice as radical.

Postmodernism, mid-late 20th century: creativity is in mixing high and low cultural forms, borrowing/quoting from earlier styles and genres, pastiche, Intertextuality; celebrating the past in the present (new and retro design), valuing the inauthentic and the spectacular.

Creative industry: combines the idea of the creative arts with an interest in commerce and the marketplace. The cultural industry is a term associated with a groups called the Frankfurt school in the late 1930’s and 40’s. This was a group of German intellectuals associated with the institute for social research at the university of Frankfurt. Theodore Adorno and Max Horkhelmer emigrated to the US where they mounted a scratching critique of standardised popular cultural forms such as Hollywood movies, magazines and music. Their criticism of mass entertainment stemmed from a hatred of fascism, which they argued had successfully used entertainment media as propaganda and lass ideological persuasion. I’m 1944 they coned the term ‘cultural industry’ to describe the products of mass culture. They argued that these products were:

Homogeneous (standardised, uniform, all working in the same way)

Predictable: (we know what from the song will take from the first few bars)

For Adorno and Horkhelmer, popular culture is dangerous because it maintains social, authority and encourages people to conform. The culture industry discourages the masses from revolting. It encourages them to accept their own exploitation by satisfying certain needs. Provides temporary entertainment in the form of short term fun, happiness, humour, relief from work, escapism, aspirations to the good life. Argued that people are therefore less likely to rise up against the the inequalities.

"Provide a Detailed, critical analysis if a cultural text?"

Planning your research.

a: research your cultural text: look ay journal articles, books, documentaries etc. that explicitly discuss your chosen text. This will provide you with facts and figures about the context of its creation, it’s creator, it’s current location etc.

b: if possible go and experience your text in situ. This will furnish you sigh a mode holistic and embodied understanding of your chosen texts current roles/reading/audience

Reflection.

a: reflect on your findings from stages 1 and 2 and on the content of the lectures, and decide on which aspect of your texts cultural signification you want to analyse and critically.

More research.

a: research how and why this signification is constructed

b: NB, the reading that you do here may not explicitly talk about your chosen ‘cultural text’

Writing, editing, more research and more writing.

Referencing: including other peoples views, concepts, ideas, theories, using facts, statistics, pictures, diagrams, etc, from other sources, directly quoting the words of another person (written or spoken), paraphrasing another person of summarising their words or ideas.

Bibliography.

a: Book: author surname, initials, year of publication, title. Edition (if not first), place of publication, publisher

b: Electronic book:

c: Journal book:

Critical Perspectives Week 4 Notes

WHY IS SEX STIL AN ISSUE?

Equality act replaced previous anti discrimination laws with a single act. - sex discrimination act 1975 - race relations act 1976 - disability discrimination act 1995 Legally protects people from discrimination

Equality of the sexes is not achieved. Up to 70% of women experience physical or sexual violence from men in their lifetime.

What is a man? Depends who you ask, but typically a ‘man’ is an adult male. Definition is difficult to pin down.. Age of consent = 16 Can’t vote until = 18 Can join army at = 16 Age of criminal responsibility = 10 Sexual age of maturity = 13

Biological definition of man = chromosomes and primary sex characteristics

Cultural efficacy definition: Massai boys must undergo ritual and ceremonies

Natural attitude: Is only two sexes.

This idea is seemingly unquestionable and is founded on the assumption that gender is determined by individuals reproductive organs. It is essentialist understanding of sexual difference.

WHAT IS MASCULINITY? - not femininity - not purposeless - not an object - not passive - not dependant - not womanly

SEMINAR QUESTIONS: - What is the cultural text you want to write/find out more about (This can change! But we need you to start focussing and thinking about pacing your work ASAP)

French/Swedish/Norwegian fashion/basics done well/comes at a price

Why that text? I.E What are the rationale behind your choice of text It’s not enough for you to say “cos I love it”! You need to be able to say how looking at the text or related critical discourses will help you. Because I’m a sucker for these things, it would be interesting to get views of people that also like to spend money on basic things done well compared to people that think it is shocking at some of the costings.

- what do you already ‘know’ about your chosen text? Write this down, how you know it I.E consider your sources of information. -What gaps are there in your knowledge? What gaps are there in your understanding?

- How might you go about filling these gaps? I.E Where might you find out more information about your chosen text? You shovel consider the provenance of your source materials. I.E Start to think about how reliable or biased these materials might be.

www.jstor.org

Critical Perspectives Week 3 Notes

IMAGE AS LANGUAGE: The science of sign systems.

Contents : Semiotics and Structualism Key theorists - Ferdinand de Saussure - Charles Sanders Peirce - Roland Barthes Signs Texts Iconic, Indexical and Symbolic Signs Intertextuality

SIGN = signifer (significant) form + signified (Signifie) concept Cat = ’cat’ + (picture of cat)

The arbitrariness of spoken languages meaning can be illustrated by looking at writing systems. A phonetic alphabet records sound values I.e the letter ‘A’ corresponds with a particular vocal sound.

Ideographic system uses symbols to represent a thing or idea without indicating any of the sounds in its name.

Different types of signs:

ICONIC SIGNS = look like they thing they signify E.g. portraits, photos etc.

INDEXICAL SIGNS = refer to other knowledges E.g. natural signs: clouds signify rain, footprints signify feet etc.

SYMBOLIC SIGNS = have meaning only due to convention E.g. rods, flags etc

STRUCTURALISM

Everything we encounter is a ‘text’ that we ‘read’

LANGUE = the structural rules and conventions within any system PAROLE = the spoken/individual usage of signs within a system

BONDWICH = a graphic designer who designed some articles for harpers bizarre, very modern for the time he created them.

PINK video language: costume, special effects, makeup, bodies, extra, locations, props I.E keyboard, piano, kids toy, lighting switching between black and white film.

Language seen from one still: Main figure: male, tall, black, muscular, loose fur coat, baggy jeans, shirt/vest, gold chain, baseball cap, do rag, stubble, hair covered still, facing communication, pointing at audience, eyes are visible, looking at camera and not the woman

Secondary Figure: white, small, female, short top, shorts, thick high socks/boots, trillbe, dancing, side on to the camera, eyes concealed by the hat, focus is on her body.

Setting: Urban, concrete basketball court? Smoke rising suggests industrialised. Natural light showing transition, maybe dusk, artificial lighting four visible lights in background shot.

Non-representational signs: camera is below the mans eyeline, audience is looking up at him, off camera lighting is focussed on the figures, figures are cropped, can only see 2/3’s of them. Lyrics and music

Sign: signifer (fur coat) + signified (functionality) Signifies glamorousness, the function of keeping warm, old money/investment, that he’s a pimp, animal cruelty.

Post structalism: meaning is not contained within a text, it relies on knowledge of other external texts to ‘make sense’ of it

ESSAY CONTENT 1200 words

Part 1: the question =

“PROVIDE A DETAILED CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF A CULTURAL TEXT”

What is a cultural text? What do we mean by critical analysis? Critical = disposed to judge or discrimination with care and precision, contributing to a decisive judgement: critical evidence Analysis = a method of determining or describing the nature of a thing by resolving it into its parts. Critical analysis = provides a well rounded balanced investigation One that is, well researched, methodical, logically structured and clearly articulated.

FOR THE ESSAY

1. Identify your subject

2. Break it down into its component parts/key words/concept/elements

3. Decide which of those points interests you the most ( make sure can be covered in 1200 words)

MODULE SPECIFICATION FOR ESSAY

-knowledge of some of the key critical theories and issues underlying ongoing debates around creative practices and their relationship to the workplace

-awareness of aspects of the historical development of creative practices in art, media and design and of the contexts of production

-the development of analytical and critical studies

-development of research and library skills

-the ability to observe describe and contextualise. SEMINAR TASK: - Reflect on fieldwork - what were our groups significant findings - what feelings did you find surprising/challenging - if you had to do it all again, what would you do differently and why?

HOMEWORK:

Consider what cultural text you might choose to study and write about for essay

Be clear about rationale behind the choice I.e why I want to spend time researching it and how it will benefit me and my practice

Consider the type(s0 of critical discourse(s) that might be employed to make sense of your chosen text.

Look at the ‘research hub’ on blackboard

Critical Perspectives Week 2 Notes

WHAT IS VISUAL CULTURE? Visual culture is the connection between say advertisements and how they connect to a certain audience. i.e Old Spice shower gel = original advert is aimed at adults, to then have puss in boots recreate, yet even though it was from a film aimed at children, this certain advert was aimed at adults still because they understand the connection between the two.

It combines cultural, historical, political, psychological, and philosophical and other critical frame works to make sense of contemporary.

Due to time restrictions you will receive a largely Eurocentric account of visual culture. - NOT because other cultures are inferior or unimportant. As researchers you should be aware of the position ally of the authors of the texts that you encounter. Writers are not disinterested, objective viewers, they are uncultured and positioned We all have a position and that position is not neutral. We are sophisticated readers of cultural ‘texts’

‘text’ does not literally mean text.

ASSESSMENT: We will need to make a poster (250 words) We will need to write an essay (1200 words) We will also need preparatory/supporting work from blog.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF RESEARCH: Primary = new, unmediated date/information. This is information taken straight from the source as it were. i.e through surveys, questionnaires, one-to-one interviews, trials, subject, observation tests etc. Primary research can be used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data.

Secondary = information that has already been gathered and interpreted by someone else for a purpose of their own. This can also be used to gather both qualitative and quantitative data. Remember information gathered via secondary research is ‘mediated’

Critical Persepctives Week 1 Notes

Connection = what something may suggest i.e “romance” (straight) is described as “normal” - many cultural references within music etc.

Connotation = what is actually there I.e Talk Talk advert - music, spaceman, ballerina and house.

All visual images carry existing ideas and values about the world, however these are contested, I.e we do not all agree.

Meanings are produced through a social relationship, which includes how viewers interpret.

Euro Centrism = putting European concerns at the centre of our view. Whatever political view you (I) start with, influences your design. Relationship between design and power.

Europeans were at the centre of discovering new countries. Design maps were made showing European countries to appear to be larger than they actually were, Greenland to be bigger than Africa showing they see they have power.

Why is north always at the top? Is the hemisphere at the top more superior? Apollo 17 captured a photo of the earth upside down but as this is not how we know the world, someone decided that the picture should be turned upside down to show how we do view the world.

Ideology = Beliefs and values that act as a basis for an idea.

Karl Marx (key name to remember) Writing in the 19th century during the rise of capitalism and industrialism.

Ideology of the youth: naturalization of values. Societies mask their ideologies as natural systems of value/beliefs.

French Algerian Marxist philosopher working in late 1960’s. Importance of family, media, religion and education in promising values. No outside to ideology. We are hailed as subjects.

Cultural appropriation = using juxtaposition to create critical distance. Combining two distinct visual languages to make strange the way we interpret them. i.e Jamie Reid for Sex Pistols. (the queens face)