#lecturereflections

Typology: a classification according to general type, especially in archaeology, psychology, or the social sciences.

It’s the idea that things can be classified or catergoised into sections and areas, such a Jamie McCartney’s “the great wall of vagina”. This piece was made to change the view of the female body, i think it does its job as it’s saying that not every lady’s vagina is the same - thus stopping women from feeling inferior towards their peers, giving a sense of relief and belonging in the sense that it’s okay that it’s a little different. As we’re all a little different and that’s okay, but we’re all women regardless of our differences.

Thomas Ruff did something similar but with his students, he took passport like photos of each student and blew the images up. Possibly suggesting theres a sense of uniform. Or it’s a play around with identity, in my opinion the work is a collection of students and how each of their photos makes them an individual but when together they’re united by the fact that they’re students. They can be easily catergorised by that tagline, that’s a common trait they share and thus unifying them.

When it comes to archetypes, Tarantino might have possibly created one for gangsters - as we associate sharply dressed men as gangsters possibly because of Tarantino. As he made this evident in the film Pulp fiction as Samuel Jackson and John Travolta were smartly dressed gangsters ready to kill. These two set the standard for future gangsters and they’re apearences, thus creating an archetype for sharply dressed gangsters.

Urban decay is the process whereby a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude.

It is becoming a growing trend for people to take photos of decaying buildings, this is evident through the popular hashtag #urbex on instagram - suggesting that there is a certai appeal to abandoned buildings and ruins. We find it daring to sneak into places we aren’t allowed to enter, that feeling of adventure and adrenaline motivates people to do these things. Also another popular trending hashtag is #ruinporn, i guess ruins really are a popular trending thing, but why are they popular? why are people drawn to them?

Historical context and kitsch ruins:

Maybe ruins are popular because of tutorism, as many people enjoy seeing them from a historical point of you.

The fondness for ruins increased in the 17th century and 18th century.

Folly - using ruins as a form of decoration, meaning you’re purposely making/creating a building to look like a building for aesthetic purposes. The reason they used the word ‘folly’ was because it comes from the word ‘foolishness’ or, lack of good sense. But a folly can also be seen as a building providing reminders of the failings of the past.

The jealous wall - Belvedere house 1740:

It was a short marriage but the wife basically married her husbands brother , the wall was built to block the ex husbands view of their home. If ruins keep exs away then i’ll gladly participate in #ruinporn.

It’s strange how we find it normal for fish tanks to have model ruin civilisations in them - is this a reference to the lost city of Atlantis or do fish secretly want to be destroyers of worlds? But still isn’t it strange how ruins still appeal to us? They’re a reminder of the past and the future, thats pretty bizarre. eg: Planet of the apes (1968) ruins represent disaster and the end of the world.

The ruinous effect of urban planning: 

New grand urban plans relied on ruins, as they were a reason to demonlish and reconstruct new buildings. Then those new buildings became ruins themselves, they’re a reminder of the old past dreams, a utopian dream of a new world. A reminder that they’re dream died and became the thing that they sought to destory is interesting.

Demolishing is popular:

Cyber space: the notional environment in which communication over computer networks occurs. Cyberspace is a word that was first coined by William Gibson, first being mentioned in his book ‘Necromancer’ - depicting cyberspace to be in-between utopia and dystopia. Maybe this is suggesting that humans have mixed emotions towards cyberspace, out of caution we are looking at potential futures and their extremes - its fear of the unknown through caution. As we acknowledge the good and the bad of cyberspace, but can we truly trust something that can be extremely good and become extremely bad in a short span of time? 

Many works of entertainment have been depicting the future, feeding the scifi genre and its fans - films such as Back to the future, The Matrix, Tron and Blade runner have been highly influential. Tron and The matrix share similar themes that, cyberspace is a place that is both physical and non physical. As both films have protagonists entering or being in worlds that aren’t physical but, require physical equipment to maintain this non-physical reality. This same concept corresponds with real life, as the internet is both physical and digital. Ruslan Tnikeev created the ‘the internet map’ an image that represents the internet and what is commonly searched and things associated with it. Pretty interesting how someone is trying to map out something non physical. 

Besides non physical and physicality, the internet was a place filled with many opportunities - besides chemical intoxication. Many people felt like they were being liberated from society, as the cyberspace feels like a very free environment. John Perry Barlow, created the declaration of the independence of cyberspace - trying to stop politics from entering the free world known as cyberspace. 

This connects well with an app were you can remove text from posts - it gets rid of all the noise of cyberspace, allowing you some piece of mind. Cyberspace is all about communication but, you don’t always need words to communicate a message - sometimes its nice to see something and just think about it. Since the internet can be overwhelming with the vast amount of information, its just simply too much to register. 

Surrealism is a very bizzare thing, especially when you start getting into details about the complexities and, many fetishes of its famous representatives.  Surreal means bizzare or dream like, the sur pretext meaning ‘over, above or in addition’.

The talk about automatism was very interesting, that people’s involuntary actions or thoughts can say a lot about ourselves. What made it more interesting were the flaws that can be disputed about the theory, in regards to Freuds ‘free association’. Where patients are told to say words that come from the top of there heads - then you look at the words that have an association with eachother. The flaws would be, if a patient tried too hard to be random - then what they’re saying isn’t involuntary at all, but rather voluntary. But, the artwork is interesting, as Andre Masson let his hand go wild he created many bizzare pieces of artwork. But how can you mindlessly draw, drawing comes with a thought or and idea in mind... so how does automatic drawing work?

Surrealism wanted to push boundaries and explore things that society brands as a taboo - so they decided to dismember and eroticism the body. This part of surrealism was inspired by Freud’s views on psychological sex... oedipus complex. But these things do say a lot about people, such as Dali’s piece on ‘the great masturbator’ - representing his sexual fears, attractions and anxieties. eg: fetishing feces.

The uncanny was intriging, as i never thought about surrealism being familiar yet disgusting at the same time - kind of sums up how you can feel about the artwork. As they distort things we are familiar with, and then disturb us with the unusualness of a familiar thing being reinvented.

Rave culture was more than about partying, getting layed and getting high -it was a movement formed by a community of people who seeked a change. An ulternative to the political choices that were around at the time, music and moshs brought people of all ethnic backgrounds together.

The political stand off was against neo liberalism, personally i’ve never really understood poltics - i would have appreciated more of a break down in regards to its policies and the impact it could bring.

Rave culture had many sub genres, from fashion to politics - there was so much to cover with little time. But i am glad it was covered, i never knew it had such an impact on peoples lives.

“To collect photographs is to collect the world”, this lecture was interesting as it forces us to think deeply about a habit, we all subconsciously do as a society.  

I never truly thought about the impact photos had on people, and how we are precieved by others - photos are just images but they hold a lot of significance. eg: photos are evidence of our achievements, journeys and of things we simply like. Its crazy to see how they hold so much power over us.

The analysis of the selfie was intriguing, the whole idea of it feeding psychological/emotional needs was thoughtproking. That and it does lead many including myself to, ponder on ones own selfies and begin an existential crisis.

This lecture was intriguing, never really saw how proximity can change the perception of the viewer! This lecture brought up the principles of proximity, similarity, continuity, figure and ground etc. These images give room for viewer’s perception, allowing the viewer to deduce the message of the image. This showed me another dimension of visual communication and how perspectives can be seen in another dimension through these principles. Here are some examples that have used gestalt principles:

In the case of this logo for “Hope for African Children Initiative”, the Africa continent is made distinct through figure and ground. Similar faces of children are seen too. When put together, they bring across a message about African Children. Although it is not a complete picture of Africa, the viewer is able to deduce it as the Africa continent, bringing closure. 

This is another interesting one that I noticed, where gestalt principles are applied in logo design. This is a classic IBM logo. Using Figure and ground, the blue colour form the figure while the white lines that cut across form the ground. It may not be a complete picture of the words IBM, but when seen, there is sufficient shapes to deduce that it is IBM.

This lecture covered composition and it was very interesting to find out the workings behind it! I have never thought much about composition as an integral part of our visual perception. In this lecture, we found out more on the different angles of photography shots and how it influences the way we interpret and perceive.

Different compositions can reveal the relationships of power and meaning. For example, an extreme long shot of Grand Central Station in New York show the general environment while having a close up shot of Superwoman show the details of her face and highlights the expression that she has. In a high framing angle, the subject in the picture looks weak and insignificant while a low frame angle makes the subject look majestic and awe-inspiring. An over the shoulder shot gives you the POV of interaction taking place. These different angles brings out different highlights, which in turn influences the viewer’s perspectives and emotions towards the pictures. By setting pictures in different angles, it can evoke different perceptions and emotions in viewers.