#image analysis

what do you see when you look at this tintype?

if you're like 99% of the internet, the answer is "Victorian witches."

this picture has been making the rounds for years, usually as "Victorian witches c. 1875," or "women dressed as witches c. 1875." it's available as canvas prints, framed wall art, decorative pillows, posters...you name it. I still can't find how it first got online or where the original might be, but it's spread like wildfire

but what's fascinating to me is that they're not even dressed as witches. indeed, there's really nothing to suggest that they're witches at all

the woman on the left appears to be wearing a tall, pointed hat at first glance- but she isn't. she's standing in front of a tree on the painted backdrop that perfectly aligns with her hat to make the crown look tall and pointed. none of them are wearing "witch hats," but once you think you see that first one- if you're like me -you imagine that the broad-brimmed hat worn by the woman on the right might be hiding a tall pointed crown because of the angle of her head. even though nothing about it confirms that idea

and look! she's holding a broom! witches! ...but the woman on the far right is holding a dustpan and a feather duster. suddenly the theme is less "witches" and more "cleaning supplies."

so no pointy hats and a broom clearly contextualized as just for sweeping. not sure what's up with the taxidermied bird in the middle, but at once the photo seems a lot less witchy (I don't know what it actually depicts, but I've seen at least one other photo of well-dressed women holding cleaning supplies- some sort of club, perhaps?). all because of elements that are clearly visible in plain sight

Please run a complete analysis on this particular spetument, ma’am.

>[GIF ANALYSIS]: Complete

>[VERDICT]: The elusive melanistic, short-necked flamingo

>[CERTAINTY]: 92.8%

When you reach the VOYWEX page we are greeted with an image of Wally's eyes staring at us, but I think we have overlooked the reason why the image is cut-off and only shows the eyes...

At first, we could write this off as keeping the entity's identity hidden, but why would they want to do that if they're trying to communicate with us?

My theory is that if Wally is both, the one communicating with us and consensus that he is a puppet, the image may have been cut-off because Wally knows that he cannot make any other expression but smile (as hinted at in the image below) and there is trying to hide that part of his face to convey is actual emotion, fear.

The Breakfast Club (1985) is based in a small-town high school; five students from different cliques/subcultures come together for a Saturday morning detention. Each character from the image above represents an archetype. To begin this image analysis, what is an archetype? An archetype is a "typical example of a certain person or thing." The difference between an archetype and a stereotype is that an archetype is a symbol that represents a ubiquitous pattern in human behaviour.

In contrast, a stereotype is a character with specified character traits. Essentially stereotypes stem from archetypes. Reinforcing the underlying themes of archetypes and subcultures, the movie begins with a letter written by Brian describing each character's archetypes "you see us as you want to see us.... you see us as a brain, an athlete, a basketcase, a princess, and a criminal".

Focusing on Claire and Allison (the female leads), the contrast between these characters couldn't be any more indiscreet. The positioning and clothing of the characters in the movie poster have a significant role in the perception of the archetype; Claire (princess), John (criminal), Brian (brain), Allison (basketcase), Andrew (athlete). The way each character holds themselves reflects a narrative towards the subculture they each represent. Body language plays a prominent role in identity within a subculture. As seen in the above image, Claire is lying across the floor, resting her head on her hand. As she is labelled a princess by others, she embodies this role. The representation of her pink top symbolises femininity, prettiness, sensitivity and delicateness. These are common perceived traits from a "princess". However, Claire's burgundy skirt represents passion, ambition, and aggression. Burgundy often evokes emotions of warmth and comfort to hostility and perhaps anger. The contrast of the pink and burgundy are indicative of her personality; that being immature and naive (also characteristics of being a "princess"), but she often tries to behave 'cool' and mature. Although Claire bonded with the other members in detention, it is established that she wouldn't acknowledge them in school due to her social positioning and popularity.

Labelled as a basket case, Allison is the result of neglect from her family. Dressed head-to-toe in black, she is perceived as a mystery and an outcast. As seen in the movie poster, Allison is, what seems to be, positioned in a small ball. Holding her hands close to her chest, Allison embodies the basketcase, standoff-ish, outcast behaviour. With Allison's hair covering her face, the contrast is significant compared to Claire, who is poised across the floor with her hair swept back so that all of her face is revealed. However, Allison has a significant transformation from the beginning and end of The Breakfast Club. At the end of the movie, Claire gives Allison a make-over, and she is shown dressed entirely in white. Contrasting from black, white symbolises purity and innocence. An interesting factor in Allison's transformation is her bond with Andrew.

Similarly to Claire, Andrew is popular in school. Known as a jock, he feels pressure to meet everyone's expectations. Allison and Andrew 'hit it off' during detention, but Allison must change her appearance to prove her attractiveness; this represents Allison and Andrew's archetypes. Andrew will only be seen with someone attractive as he is afraid of public and social rejection from the other athletes. In contrast, Allison seeks attention from whomever she can receive it.

For Day 5, I decided to have a go at analysing Thorin’s crown in the movies, given we don’t know what it looked like in the book. It’s an interesting design, and while this is almost all my theories, it still seemed like a cool thing to analyse.

First of all, the obvious Raven design at the front. The spikes resemble the wings of a Raven, which is why from what I can tell it was nicknames “The Raven Crown of Erebor”. Ravens symbolise many things in many cultures, but most often represent death and foresight. Together, they can also represent change coming, and cleansing or purging of something rotten.

Now, this links to Thorin in that a) his death is on the horizon, b) while foresight doesn’t really come into play, it does link with c) to symbolise an oncoming change, in the form of his dragon sickness (again, this is a movie analysis, not the book). Finally d) and cleansing could again relate to dragon sickness, and his eventual triumph over it. So the fact that the people behind the movies chose to integrate Raven symbolism into Thorin’s crown was in no way a mistake, imo.

I am a freshman in college, seeking higher education. I’ve just finished my first set of peer reviews, just four of my classmates. We did an image analysis on the image of our choosing. But I am disheartened, shocked, and frustrated. I really came close to banging my head into the wall.

Only one person cited their sources. ONE! Another put their images at the bottom of their piece which means reading in order involves discussion on pictures I haven’t seen yet, their piece was okay other wise. The next though didn’t include any image, no image whatsoever in an IMAGE ANALYSIS ESSAY! On top of that the thing he was analyzing was an ad. Which would be fine, the one before him did, but that would only be so if he analyzed details of the image. But he analyzed the ad, what it was trying to portray, and had only one detail about the image it self being of a specific body type that is not average…

My first one took me three hours, it was great. It analyzed an image, obviously didn’t have sources, but was, unfortunately for me, written by an English second language student. It was full of grammar and spelling errors, very tedious. The last one was great, just a few small errors and a definite relief. They actually cited their sources!

But I’m exhausted and my brain is fried. I know I’ll have many more to do in the future and I have no clue how to cope with that truth, nor how to handle them when I encounter them. Today was exhausting, I’m just lucky I’m good at being factually blunt, but also encouraging. I managed to find a few positives even in the worst pieces I’ve encountered in my life. Give me advice, please.

Yours,

H. and my dogs

First, let me offer my congratulations on your acceptance into higher education. I can tell you have a solid work ethic and a resolve that will get you ahead.

That said I can commiserate with your frustration. Many people, for various reasons, come into higher education settings with a range of skill sets and competencies. Things you take for granted of knowing may have been neglected in the education of another. At this point in the game, I would take these errors and omissions with a grain of salt. Perhaps they were not taught properly. Perhaps they merely require practice.

If some of these errors persist beyond the first semester or two, then it becomes less of a knowledge gap and more of some sort of inability or unwillingness on their part to follow the instructions. Luckily, you job is not to be concerned with why they are like this- your job is to offer critique.

Now, onto the critique itself. First - while I have never had to do an image analysis, I have had to read the essays and assignments of others, and I can assure you, the more you do, the faster you will be able to do. The more you will be able to filter out the unnecessary and instead focus on what matters - your comments will be more insightful, but at the same time you will learn to skim the material. You will find a balance between efficiency and thoroughness.

Second, I am pleased you have discovered the art of finding enough positives to balance with the negatives. This is a secret I learned in my years of tutoring as a Prefect. You must instill the confidence in them to fix the errors, not dishearten them entirely.

Also, as time passes, in theory, everyone's work shall improve, so reviews will be easier in that regard. So you shall have the combination of enhanced ability to perform a review and better work to review as well.

It gets better, and after a while, you may even find it fun. I enjoyed tutoring the younger students by the end of my tenure as Prefect, to the point in which I had seriously considered becoming a professor.

Best of luck to you, and feel free to consult me with any additional inquiries regarding your academic career,

Hi nonnie! When I made that podcast, I had just finished 4 years of art school, and was studying to be an art/design/english teacher - so I was a bit pretentious about it at the time (hides face in hands hahaa). But yeah, art and design teacher here, so lots of thoughts. 

First, a little bit on the general process for this design (speaking broadly here, as it changes depending on the firm/companies, but this is what my design students are taught to expect). There would have been a client brief, which probably would have included the lyric chosen, or maybe even just the song, a request that the smiley be incorporated (as across all the merch), a target audience (Louis’ demographic is probably something like predominantly female aged 18-34). I think it would have also referenced a broader marketing brief that would explain marketing strategies and how the design should fit within that. 

The illustrator/designer then will take that brief and come up with several different mock designs. If the brief was the whole song, not just the DNA lyric, then it might have presented 2-3 different design mock ups for different lyric drops. If the lyric about DNA was specified, there would still have been a few mock ups. The illustrator would have been given research on the demographic, and almost certainly would have done a little bit of their own research. They would also likely have their own style to incorporate. 

Once the mockups are presented to the client, and a direction is decided, the design would be further refined. In this process, colour ways and anything Louis did or didn’t like would be considered as part of the design. All elements would have been refined. Then the final proof would be presented to the client for final approval. 

So I guess my point is this - this design is very carefully considered, and approved, by Louis, but there’s also likely a big part that is just the aesthetic of the artist. 

The DNA and taking inspiration from arterial wall holds up for me, as far as developing design research and ideas for that lyric. I also think the choice to use that 80′s video game, virtual reality matrix, tron-esque aesthetic is also very deliberately incorporated (this for me is the most powerful element - dna floating in a constructed reality).

The cross hairs are a design feature of that virtual aesthetic, and would automatically be in all four corners, so I don’t think they mean anything more than contributing to the style and feel. The smiley is almost certainly a brief requirement, and imho it makes the most sense for the design for it to be top and centre. The shapes at the top and bottom might reference the arterial walls too, but they also reference sound waves, and also could reference the mountains in Tron, a key inspiration for this kind of 80/90s aesthetic.

TLDR: it both is and isn’t that deep. The key points to take away are that Louis almost certainly had final approval of merch with DNA on it, and he knows how that might land. 

He also approved the creative direction of an aesthetic that references constructed reality.