Writing an Academic Essay

“Signs of the Times”

At the end of this course of lectures, seminars, exhibition visits and workshops you have to produce a publication, which could be in the form of a pamphlet, or blog/website, or newspaper, or catalogue, or magazine, or zine, that is a chronicle of these lectures, seminars and workshops. This will mean you will have to take notes on every session and upload them to your blog weekly, so you can then use them to write up your ‘publication’. You will also have relevant reading each week that will enhance your understanding of the theme of the session and will help you write an articulate ‘article’.

Each lecture, seminar or workshop will have its own section, chapter, page or pages dedicated to it. As in any publication these will be your individual sections/articles and will be fully illustrated/captioned and cited and referenced in a bibliography. Whenever you use a piece of information in your articles you must reference them by telling the readers where you got this information from, i.e. the author of a book, website, magazine etc.

During each session you must take extensive notes and/or record the session, as a journalist would at a press conference. These notes will form the basis of your articles/sections. You will start to write up these notes in the library immediately after the lectures whilst it is fresh in your mind. You will choose one of the lectures, seminars or trips to make into a long form ‘journal article’ and will be an extended piece of writing of 2,000 words long and again it will be fully illustrated/captioned and referenced.

The form, design, layout and size the publication takes is entirely up to you. It may be a small A5 size pamphlet or a broadsheet A1 style newspaper or an online presence, website/blog.  You may want to use one of the visual ideas discussed during the lecture series or a combination of visual ideas, depending on what you want the publication to look like. You will have special lectures and workshops that will help you conceptualise and manufacture these artefacts.

Assignment Title: ‘Signs of the Times’
Hand-in/Deadline date: Friday 23 May 2014 by 8.30pm
Hand-in method: Manual hand in via hand in office D104 by 8.30pm

MY CHOSEN QUESTION:

Q1. With reference to no less than three writers or theorists you are required to offer a critical evaluation of one cultural artifact of your choosing (an artifact is a man-made object that might be considered to be of particular social and cultural interest. Examples would include a piece of music, paintings, sculptures, or even iconic design objects like the Mini or the Volkswagen Beetle)

An Anatomy of an Academic Essay: (Part 1 The Skeleton)

Pre-face: The conception

Before the start of any essay you need to bring it to life. This usual means looking at the question or questions or what the brief set for you very closely.  Or by setting yourself a question you would like to answer. It this case you were asked to chose a piece of cultural production to start your three types of analysis from. It is the forms of analysis, the methods that you use that you need to research as much as the thing you are scrutinising.

Introduction (The Head)

Section (The Body)

Section (The Body)

Section (The Body)

Conclusion (The legs)

Bibliography (The feet)

To elucidate further:

1) A Cover Sheet

At UAL/LCC you also need to have a cover sheet that tells the reader and the people administrating your essay who you are and which course you are from. You should include your full name as the University has it on their records, your student number, year and course you are on, the unit title and your LCC email address.

2) Title

The hat/hair in this case is the title of the essay and as Helen Sword the author of, Stylish Academic Writing (2012a) argues, ‘Snakes on a Plane” is an inviting title; “Aggressive Serpentine Behaviour in a Restrictive Aviation Environment” is not.’ (Sword 2012b)

3) An Introduction

Why? An Introduction should tell the reader why you have chosen to write about the subject you have spent so much time researching. It both tells us why you personally choose it and why you think it is important to you and your thinking about the subject. This is sometimes called the rationale and can be if you wish, a separate piece of writing as will be suggested in your dissertation unit.

What? You then should describe and explain to the reader what it is you have chosen to write about. At this stage you need to decide how much detail you wish to go into about the subject. If you are going to have a chapter on the history of the subject then you can keep this brief. If this is where you situate your subject in its various contexts and histories then you can elaborate more at this point. Do not make it too long otherwise it should be in a section on its own after the introduction. Use images at this stage to help the reader understand more fully what it is you are talking about. They also will allow you to save your words for the more important task of analysing and evaluating the research you have carried out.

How? You then tell the reader how you went about this study and the reasons why you chose these particular methods to investigate and explore your subject. This is sometimes called the methodology section and if in a longer piece of writing might have its own section after the introduction. In this essay you will have to explain why you chosen the three ways of analysing your chosen piece of cultural production and how you think they will help you think more deeply about it and what it means.

When? If you have not already done so in the how section you then need to tell the reader what is going to actually happen in the essay and when and why you have structure or ordered in this way. This will help the reader navigate through your essay and set them off on the right foot.

4) Backbone and DNA

From the title through the introduction to the body of the text and on to the conclusion your essay needs to have a backbone/spine that every thing hangs off. It is what you return to in each section of writing and it will help you stay focussed as a writer. It will help you to remember what the question is and help the reader understand your central arguments. Another analogy is that all writing of this sort needs to have DNA running through it so that we know where it is coming from and where it is going.

5) Organs

After the coversheet, the title and the introduction in all it parts comes the main body of your text. For this essay you have been asked to choose three different ways of describing, analysing and situating a piece of cultural production of your choice. This obviously lends itself to a three-part structure. In a longer piece of writing you might have more sections and often it is between 3 and 5 chapters but there may ne more depending on what type of writing it is. You have roughly 500 words per section so the have to do a lot in a very short amount of space. They have to work hard to keep the whole body alive and kicking. Always put in as many illustrations as you need and as near as to where you are talking about them as possible.

6) Digestive/Nervous/Respiratory Systems

“Each of the 3 main sections will describe, analyse and situate your chosen piece of cultural production in 3 distinct, separate and different ways. You will take 3 different views, angles, positions, writing styles, of it. You could look at it through 3 different theoretical ‘lenses’ from your own area of practice.  You could do a semiotic analysis of it. You could psychoanalyse it. How would Sigmund Freud see it? How would a forensic scientist look at it? How would an artist look at it?  Would people of different ages, cultures, genders look at it differently? You could use 3 different genres of fiction writing to describe, analyse and situate it.  How would you describe it in a sci-fi way? If it was written like a gothic novel what would it read like? Whatever 3 ways you choose, they must try and say something about your piece of cultural production that has not been said before. This will mean you have to research a variety of ‘methods’ of analysis.” (Ingham 2014)

7) Blood Vessels

To keep your body alive you need a good circulatory system and this means that you need to keep your ideas a live. One way of doing this to introduce each section to remind the reader what it is they are about to digest and why it you have done the section in the way you have. If you have the words you can conclude each section with a summing up of the main points you have discussed and if possible evaluate them as to their worth to your overall arguments. I always think it help the reader to have (snappy) titles for each section that names the parts of the body.

Conclusions can mirror the introduction and help the reader understand clearly what it is you have tried to argue in the body of the text. It is the place where you can shine and show how much work you have done and how your thinking might have changed by doing the research for the essay.

Conclusions keep the essay running:  According to Tips for writing a good conclusion (2014) “Like introductions, conclusions are important because they leave an impression. Since the conclusion is the last thing your audience reads, it may leave the most lasting impression. An effective conclusion should make readers glad that they read your essay.” (Jacobi 2014)

Conclusions are strong muscular pieces of writing. “An effective conclusion will often: Push beyond the boundaries of the question or subject. Elaborate on the significance of your findings. Highlight the most important moments of your argument. Demonstrate the importance of a particular idea. Propel your reader to think about your subject in new ways” (Ibid)

“Strategies for writing effective conclusions: Give yourself time away from the essay before you create the conclusion: This will give you the ability to look at your essay with a fresh perspective, so that you can come back to it and see the overall importance or significance of your own argument with new eyes. Play the “So what?” game: Read back your thesis and topic sentences to yourself and then ask, “So what?” Your answers will help you write a conclusion that emphasises the broader significance of your subject. Free write your conclusion in the form of a letter or email (to yourself or to a friend). Writing informally can help free your thinking and help you focus on the big picture. Think about what you’ve learned about the topic as you have gone through the process of creating the essay.” (Ibid)

“Ineffective conclusions: “So This Is What I Just Said” Simply summarising exactly what you already said without adding anything in terms of the significance of your subject or the big picture is easy, but also not very interesting. “We Shall Overcome” An overly emotional declaration is not very appropriate for an academic paper, and often falls into cliché.” (Ibid)

 

AUTHORSHIP: Reading and Interpretation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Angelo (16th Chapel) – Creación de Adán (Creation of Man)

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer of the High Renaissance who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art.

Google Search Engine Definition

RENAISSANCE

“Renaissance, literally “rebirth,” the period in European civilization immediately following the Middle Ages and conventionally held to have been characterized by a surge of interest in Classical learning and values. The Renaissance also witnessed the discovery and exploration of new continents, the substitution of the Copernican for the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, the decline of the feudal system and the growth of commerce, and the invention or application of such potentially powerful innovations as paper, printing, the mariner’s compass, and gunpowder. To the scholars and thinkers of the day, however, it was primarily a time of the revival of Classical learning and wisdom after a long period of cultural decline and stagnation.”

Britannica, T.E.o.E. (2014)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before the founding of Renaissance, there was no ‘artists’ – they were in-existent. All “artists” were just seen as skilled men and craftsmen and their work was traded with customers for goods.

Hermeneutic Development:

1) 1950’s – Auteurism –> resides with the author

– art cinema history can be understood (pantheons and canons)
– rest in idea of ‘biographical legend’
– Andrew Sarris (1963) – The American Cinema film culture

2) 1960’s – Structuralism –> scientific or total theory

– theoretical framework associated with Roland Barthes and Claude Levi-Strauss
– based upon structural linguistics pioneered by Ferdinand de Saussure at the beginning of the 20th century
– distinguishes between langue
– represented an attack on the ‘romantic’ concepts of humanism and personal expression
– offers a more ‘scientific’ approach to cultural analysis
– artists genius seen as myth
– artists are unable to transcend the structures of language
– responsibility – see yourself as socially meaningful

3) 1960’s – Post-Structuralism –> meaning resides with receiver

– does not find an easy definition but stems from the idea that a single theory is inadequate in accounting for the lived experiences of different groups
– 1968 Roland Barthes ‘the death of the author’
– meaning shifts from artist/producer to reader/spectator
– gives rise to the idea of ‘truths’ rather than the truth

We also briefly touched upon David Lynch’s purpose within the postmodern cinema and how his famous film, ‘Blue Velvet’, impacted the society.  Although the controversy of the movie generated indecisive and critical feedback from some, the main attribute is the enormous impact and personal input from David; He managed to combine his feelings, ideas and narrative into the film so purposefully – it just shows how important authorship is in the precess of creating art artefacts/pieces.

 

 

 

 

 

The Enlightenment

Hermeneutics -> The term hermeneutics covers both the first order art and the second order theory of understanding and interpretation of linguistic and non-linguistic expressions. As a theory of interpretation, the hermeneutic tradition stretches all the way back to ancient Greek philosophy.

Ramberg, B. and Gjesdal, K. (2005)

Theory -> a supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something, especially one based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained.

Google Search Engine Definition

Ideology -> a system of ideas and ideals, especially one that forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy.

Google Search Engine Definition

Hegemony -> leadership or dominance, especially by one country or social group over others.

Google Search Engine Definition

Imperialism -> a policy of extending a country’s power and influence through diplomacy or military force.

Google Search Engine Definition

Aesthetics -> a set of principles concerned with the nature and appreciation of beauty, especially in art.

Google Search Engine Definition

Romanticism -> a movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual.

Google Search Engine Definition

René Descartes (1596-1650) “cogito ergo sum” – “I think therefore I am”

Top 10 Philosophers: 

– John Locke

Declaration of Independence, and the rhetoric in the U. S. Constitution.

– Epicurus

Teacher of self-indulgence and excess delight.

– Zeno of Citium

Founded the school of Stoicism. Stoicism is based on the idea that anything which causes us to suffer in life is actually an error in our judgement, and that we should always have absolute control over our emotions. 

– Avicenna

His two most well known works today are The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine, which was his compilation of all known medical knowledge at that time.

– Thomas Aquinas

Supposedly proved the existence of God by arguing that the Universe had to have been created by something, since everything in existence has a beginning and an end.

– Confucius

He espoused significant principles of ethics and politics, in a time when the Greeks were espousing the same things.

– Rene Descartes

He created analytical geometry, based on his now immortal Cartesian coordinate system, immortal in the sense that we are all taught it in school, and that it is still perfectly up-to-date in almost all branches of mathematics.

– Paul of Tarsus

Paul accomplished more with the few letters we have of his, to various churches in Asia Minor, Israel and Rome, than any other mortal person in the Bible, except Jesus himself. Jesus founded Christianity. But without Paul, the religion would have died in a few hundred years at best, or remained too insular to invite the entire world into its faith, as Jesus wanted.

– Plato

Plato lived from c. 428 to c. 348 BC, and founded the Western world’s first school of higher education, the Academy of Athens. 

– Aristotle

Aristotle topped another of this lister’s lists, heading the category of philosophy, so his rank on this one is not entirely surprising. But consider that Aristotle is the first to have written systems by which to understand and criticize everything from pure logic to ethics, politics, literature, even science. He theorized that there are four “causes”, or qualities, of any thing in existence: the material cause, which is what the subject is made of; the formal cause, or the arrangement of the subject’s material; the effective cause, the creator of the thing; and the final cause, which is the purpose for which a subject exists.

Flamehorse, (2011)

Rationalism…

Rationalism is the philosophical stance according to which reason is the ultimate source of human knowledge. It rivals empiricism according to which the senses suffice in justifying knowledge. In a form or another, rationalism features in most philosophical tradition; in the Western one, it boasts a long and distinguished list of followers, including Plato, Descartes, and Kant.

Borghini, A. (2013)

THE ENLIGHTENMENT –>   The ideology of rationalism

Enlightenment was a cultural movement that stood for individualism & reason rather than tradition.

READ: Rene Descartes – I think therefore I am

MODERNITY

məˈdəːnɪti/

noun

noun: modernity; plural noun: modernities

1. the quality or condition of being modern.

   “an aura of technological modernity”

   • a modern way of thinking, working, etc.; contemporariness.

     “Hobbes was the genius of modernity”

MODERNISM

ˈmɒd(ə)nɪz(ə)m/

noun

noun: modernism

1. modern character or quality of thought, expression, or technique.

   “a strange mix of nostalgia and modernism”

   • a style or movement in the arts that aims to depart significantly from classical and traditional forms.

     “by the post-war period, modernism had become part of art history”
   • a movement towards modifying traditional beliefs in accordance with modern ideas, especially in the Roman Catholic Church in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Google Search Engine Definition

 

From the above information we can now say that Modernity and Modernism is not the same thing – Modernity is associated with a period of time in which Modernism began, as opposed to Modernism- an aesthetic/atristic response of modernists.

Ideology – the body of doctrine, myth, belief, ideas that guide an individual, social movement, institution or large group

 

 

 

HOW MANY WAYS CAN AN ALIEN ANALYSE AN ANIMATED ROBOT?

Or maybe… How many ways can you skin a dead cat? 

Imagine you have just landed on Earth. 

You have come from a distant planet… 

in a galaxy far, far away. 

You are very curious & highly observant species. 

You are always meticulously externally recording what you see, hear, touch, taste, feel, think.

Your internal memory systems are used in more imaginative ways.

You only know the history of Earth from Voyage 1, a space craft sent into outer space on September 5th 1977. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Golden Record

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/goldenrec.html –> What is the Golden Record?

You land in Brixton Ritzy. 

 

 

 

 

 

It feels a bit like home. 

You blend in. 

Nobody screams. 

Being a highly inquisitive species you start some Exploratory Research. 

(Exploratory Research is undertaken then few or no previous studies exist. The aim is to look for patterns, hypotheses or ideas that will be tested and will form the basis for further research.)

You relax.

Some words in a language you do not understand appear on the glowing area in front of you.

‘ROBOTS OF BRIXTON’ 

TASK:

Write your impressions on the video for 5 minutes, non-stop – Free Writing Task.

Through some waves, that you find out are called 

W.I.F.I

you understand on Earth.

Free Writing…

is the act if writing without hesitating, and without self-censoring, accepting everything as it comes. This can help writers get started and sometimes unblock writers who are stuck. The process can yield ideas too, as the writer gives up control to some extent. It has precedents in automatic writing, employed by the Surrealists, but that tended to have connotations of spiritual interventions (literally ‘ghost writing’).

You find out this is sometimes called, Descriptive Research.

(Descriptive Research can be used to identify and classify the elements or characteristics of the subject)

Fiona Banner – Apocalypse Now, 1997 (Handwritten account of the film)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To reflect upon what you are doing, or have done, you need other methods of analysis to help you understand more fully the product/activity under scrutiny)

Leading M.I.T social scientist & consultant, Donald Schon, in his book:

The Reflective Practitioner : How Professionals Think in Action (1991)

distinguishes between reflection – on – action & reflection – in – action in the following way; paraphrased.

Reflection – in – action is concerned with practising critically.

So, a design student working with a client on a project is making decisions about the suitability of a particular design, which presentation to do next and judging the success of each response at the same time as they are conducting the activity.

Reflection – on – action on the other hand, occurs after the activity has taken place when you are thinking about what you (and others) did, judging how successful you were and whether any changes to what you did could have resulted in different outcomes. (This is usually the type of reflection which you are asked to write about as a part of your studies).

You’re very curious.

You want to know more about the film you have just seen.

You’re a bit confused and cannot remember exactly what happened.

You come across a way of possibly looking at this film more closely.  

This is called shot by shot analysis

http://filmtheory.wikispaces.com/shot+by+shot+analysis+guide

You think it might help you remember the film. 

Luckily for you, one of your external memory devices has slowly recorded some of the images from the film. 

You may have gained some more information from looking back at the images you have recorded. 

BUT 

Not enough to satisfy your insatiable. 

Curiosity kicks in again… 

The film is past, but there seems to be many sources of information around you. 

They seem intelligent. 

TASK:

Discuss the film with the people around you for 5 minutes. How could you situate this film in different contexts from which you could then analyse it more specifically and efficiently.

Write down a list of these contexts.

1) Brixton Riots 

2) Aliens vs Humans 

3) Government Conspiracy Theories

4) Similarities between us & Aliens 

5) Class & Capitalism issues 

Introduction to D.A.S 

Describe – Describe it 

Analyse – Split in sections and study efficiently 

Situate – Place in context 

Portable Life Museum by Keri Smith

How to be an explorer of the World…

1) Always be looking (notice the ground beneath your feet)

2) Consider everything  alive & animate 

3) Everything is interesting

4) Alter your course often

5) Observe for long durations (and short ones :))

6) Notice the stories going on around you

7) Notice patterns -> make connections 

8) Document your findings (field notes) in a variety of ways

9) Incorporate indeterminance

10) Observe movement

11) Create a personal dialogue with your environment – TALK TO IT!

12) Trace findings back to their origins 

13) Use all of the senses in your investigations

How many ways can you analyse a film? (or any other work of cultural production)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You are intrigued by some of the methods of analysis that have been suggested to you. 

TASK: 

Which ones would you choose and why?

Are there any others you could suggest might be useful that haven’t been mentioned above?

Choose 3 or more examples of ways of looking at the film or your practice that might help you understand it more. Spend 5 minutes with a partner discussing this.

1) Political -> Riots

2) Psychogeographical -> Brixton

3) Conspiracy -> Robots operating the World

Who is Kibwe Tavares?

 

 

 

 

Sundance prize-winning director, Kibwe, was cited as one of Fast Company’s ‘100 Most Creative People in Business 2012’ and was recently awarded a prestigious TED fellowship.  Recently he directed the Sundance film JONAH, a stunning combination of live-action shot on location in Zanzibar with beautiful visual effects created at Factory Fifteen.

Kibwe created his award-winning film Robots of Brixton while pursuing a degree in architecture, at which time he also met Jonathan Gales and Paul Nicholls who together formed Factory Fifteen.

Nexus Productions

Auteur Theory 

“auteur theory, theory of filmmaking in which the director is viewed as the major creative force in a motion picture. Arising in France in the late 1940s, the auteur theory—as it was dubbed by the American film critic Andrew Sarris—was an outgrowth of the cinematic theories of André Bazin and Alexandre Astruc. A foundation stone of the French cinematic movement known as the nouvelle vague, or New Wave, the theory of director-as-author was principally advanced in Bazin’s periodical Cahiers du cinéma (founded in 1951). Two of its theoreticians—François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard—later became major directors of the French New Wave.”

Britannica, T.E.o.E. (2014)

“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce”

-Karl Marx

 

FRANKFURT SCHOOL

Theodor W. Adorno…

Theodor W. Adorno was one of the most important philosophers and social critics in Germany after World War II. Although less well known among anglophone philosophers than his contemporary Hans-Georg Gadamer, Adorno had even greater influence on scholars and intellectuals in postwar Germany. In the 1960s he was the most prominent challenger to both Sir Karl Popper’s philosophy of science and Martin Heidegger’s philosophy of existence. Jürgen Habermas, Germany’s foremost social philosopher after 1970, was Adorno’s student and assistant. The scope of Adorno’s influence stems from the interdisciplinary character of his research and of the Frankfurt School to which he belonged. It also stems from the thoroughness with which he examined Western philosophical traditions, especially from Kant onward, and the radicalness to his critique of contemporary Western society. He was a seminal social philosopher and a leading member of the first generation of Critical Theory.

Zuidervaart, L. (2011)

 

– Looking critically at the idea of mass culture

– Looking critically at the Americanisation of culture

– Considering the function of culture

– Can critical theory enable us to reflect meaningfully upon creative practice?

 

AMERICA –> Mass Producer; America is the leading nation for the world, we’re like the sheep – everything they do we follow. From music to movies, to style and trends.

Frankfurt School background…

– A culture industry

– Americanisation & failure of communism in Germany

– Disillusionment with rationality and the enlightenment

– Both capitalism and rationality as ends in themselves

– Fettering of conciousness – can we perceive the true nature of our social/economic situation? (refer to Marx’s ideas of alienations and ‘species being’)

 

 

MASS CULTURE 

Mass culture started in the 20th century under the influence of mass media, (internet, tv, etc.) where people discovered new ways to communicate, research and purchase. As you can imagine – the advertising industry benefited from this on a massive scale. Now, in the 21st century, mass culture is not just a movement or hype – it’s a lifestyle. A woman will spend huge amounts of money on beauty products to look like the models in the adverts, and the men? The Axe campaign will answer that for you… People are now obsessed with their image and lifestyle – therefore mass culture has a great influence on today’s society.

“Mass culture is the set of ideas and values that develop from a common exposure to the same media, news sources, music, and art. Mass culture is broadcast or otherwise distributed to individuals instead of arising from their day-to-day interactions with each other. Thus, mass culture generally lacks the unique content of local communities and regional cultures. Frequently, it promotes the role of individuals as consumers. With the rise of publishing and broadcasting in the 19th and 20th centuries, the scope of mass culture expanded dramatically. It replaced folklore, which was the cultural mainstream of traditional local societies. With the growth of the Internet since the 1990s, many distinctions between mass media and folklore have become blurred.”

Chegg. (2005)

Standardisation 

– Constructed according to an industrial model

– resulting from the capitalism mode of production – the use of ‘standards’ (especially in Jazz music). Songwriting books/programmes

Interchangeability (of song verses and choruses – soul wax) 

‘In popular music, position is absolute. Every detail is substitutable; it serves it’s, only as long as a coy in a machine’ (Adorno)

Pseudo Individualisation 

A false sense of uniqueness in any particular piece. Hook as identical, no value in the organization of whole, the fake appearance of individuality.

POP MUSIC IS ALL THE SAME!! 

Adrian explained to us that when making POP songs, only 4 chords are used each time! Which means that most POP songs are put through the same beats/harmonies, but are then later customised to make it sound unique and individual.  Just think of hooks, such as Rihanna’s “ella, ella, ella” in Umbrella and Beyonce’s “halo, halo, halo” in Halo… Sounds quite similar!

To prove that this is all correct information, I have posted a Mash Up (two or more completely different songs bonded into one by Axis of Awesome

Enjoy 🙂

Popular music always had the potential to shock.

–> Avant Garde and Popular Music!

Roger Scruton (The Aesthetics of Music) 

– Avant Garde as a modernist misconception –

‘art cannot be the critical instrument he (Adorno) requires it to be simply by defying the aesthetic expectations of those whom it seeks to criticize”

Scrutton, 470

– The dying vanguard of Romanticism (desperately & precociously contrasting itself with bourgeois tastes)

– Does society, in it’s current form, actually express the kind of freedom from domination above of which Adorno speaks? If much of mass culture itself derives from the people it purports to suppress, is Adorno’s model workable?

Music is now, mostly, made and produced digitally plus only includes 4 chords; so the chances are highly unlikely that your song will be more unique than others. Soon people will drop real instruments overall and all songs will be bland and predictable.

Adrian showed us many different note combinations on his guitar, in order to show us how similar song backdrops really are… We think POP songs are individual; they’re far from it.

 

 

 

 

Back to Black

 

AMY WINEHOUSE

“Back to Black” Music Video

Quick impressions on the video:

– Abney Park Cemetery

– Amy & Blake’s relationship portrayed in a subliminal way

– Burring her emotions/feelings

– Retro theme (60’s black & white)

– 60’s kind of film (Phil Spencer)

“Visual Culture is concerned with visual events in which information, meaning or pleasure is sought by the consumer in an interface with visual technology. By visual technology, I mean any form of  apparatus designed either to be looked at or to enhance natural vision, from oil painting, to television and the internet”

“Human experience is now more visual and visualises than ever before… this globalisation of the visual, taken collectively, demands new mean of interpretation”

(Mirzoeff, 2009, (3))

Areas of investigation overview:

1. How do we make sense of our understanding an element of visual culture like the video ‘Back to Black’

2. What is psychogeography? Could it open up new understandings?

3. What form/forms might a psycho-geographic analysis of Amy’s ‘Back to Black’ take?

4. Amy Winehouse as a Gothic Heroine?

5. Implications in terms of identity and ”Englishness”

Interpretative Strategies

– How do we understand, interpret or make sense of popular (POP) songs?

– General Methodological approaches in POP music studies

– Consumptionism

– Intersubjectivity

– Textual Analysis

– Phenomenological & literary approaches

PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY 

– Situationist movement

– Marxist view of the city as an analogue of the capitalist system – waiting to be subverted

– Surrealism – unexpected juxtapositions and connections (re. Sinclair)

– A sense of anarchy and disruption

– Wider definitions

A psychogeographic approach:

How might my response to Amy’s music bring together different elements? (Adrian’s points):

– Hobby as a flaneur, London explorer, navigator of the waterways

– Knowledge as musician & producer

– Interest in London’s history

– Architecture and literary sources

– Career as teacher and academic

“Back to Black” the video:

1. Shot in black & white, noir-filmic quality

2. Backward looking gaze – 60’s, dusty springfield, The Krays

3. Gothic setting – ruined, derelict chapel in Abney Park:

“Ruins are the chief conveyors of Gothic sentiment”

(Clark, 1970, (23))

4. A sense of dramatic irony when watched in the context of later events

Amy Winehouse – Gothic Heroine (intertextuality)

1) York St John summer course

2) Film – the making of Dracula-The Prince of Darkness

3) ‘Ronnie Spector meets the Bride of Frankenstein’ (review of Amy Winehouse’ gig in the USA, cited in Winehouse, 2013:78)

ABNEY PARK

‘With Amy Winehouse, Abney Park is wonderful because this Jewish person, with a lot of interesting baggage is in this Christian, slightly non-conformist even, burial ground which has got such extraordinary people in it anyway; salvationists etc.”

(Ian Sinclair interviewed on 23rd August 2013)

1. She contrasts with this distinctly English & protestant urban space

2. Dissenting, non-conformist space

3. Ecumenical, inclusive space – a metaphor relating to the position of Jewish artists in the music industry

Abney Park – it’s environs and associations

– ‘The Hair of Bunhill Fields’ (Weinraub et al, 2008 (138))

– Edgar Allan Poe

– Daniel Defoe

– Mary Wollstonecraft & William Godwin

– Sinclair triangulation between Bunhill Fields, Abney Park & Chingford Mount (where The Krays are burried)

– “It was estimated in 1782 that nearly a 1/4 of the families in Stoke Newington were protestant dissenters. The proportion increased during the 19th century” (British History Online website)

– Angry Brigade

Amy Winehouse – Gothic Heroine (literary approaches)

– The Gothic novel – dark and gloomy themes, crime

– An evil duke/ other patriarchal figure

– A damsel in distress, often incarcerated in a dungeon, prison or asylum

– Could Amy Winehouse be seen as a Gothic heroine?

– Psychogeography and the Gothic

–> The Gothic setting as a kind of chronotope which conjoins the middle ages, with the Victorian Gothic revival of Abney Park and then a video (and the life of a contemporary POP star). Here the Gothic Novel gives us a repertoire of recognisable place types (and other elements/motifs – i.e. the damsel in distress).

Mapping Amy Winehouse in Gothic & Romantic terms (Gothic confinement)

– Amy as damsel in distress – troubled figure

– Literal sense – imprisoned for drug possession & containment in drug rehab facilities

– Metaphorical incarceration – split between the I (the ‘veridical’ self) and the Me (the self as seen by others) – the veridical self has been destroyed – “The public face becomes a living tomb of staged personality” (Rojek, 2001, (80)) emphasis added.

“The addicted genius, who experiments with alcohol & drugs as a way of escaping from the constraining boundaries of ordinary social interaction, is a powerful motif in Romantic culture” (Rojek, 2001, (172-3))

Mapping Amy Winehouse in Gothic & Romanti terms (blackness and other)

“The beautiful Jewess’ anti-Semitic stereotype” (Stratton, 2009) 

1. Connection with Scott’s ‘Rebbeca’ (daughter of Isaac of York), a character in Ivanhoe,

– the darkness of her complexion

– Jews as oriental & black

– Sexual and hedonistic excess (Stratton, 2009, 187)

– Jewish Princess rather than ‘Nice Jewish Girl’ (Stratton, 2009, 187) 

2. The hairstyle (beehive), along with her looks, reminded older people of Shapiro; knowingly or not, Winehouse was positioning herself in a line of Jewish, and non-white representation.

3. Not-quite (-not) – Englishness  – “borderline Englishness or whiteness” (ibid, 174) 

4. ‘Irish Catholics from another group that was linked with blackness” (ibid, 169)

5. Amy Winehouse as ‘black’ (ascribed/constructed blackness)

– General association of Jews with the history of African-American music.

“Historical accounts of the gothic suggest that it is characterised by it’s dramatic contrast of splendour and squalor, the beautiful and the grotesque” (Honour, 1981, 161) 

The latter stages of her deadline were a confrontation with evil – gothic in this sense (Traditional associations of Gothic with crudeness, darkness, sinclair and dissent).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

” A very contemporary way with a lyric”

– Mel C

“U made a MAJAH impression on this industry and throughout the world, in such a short space of time…too short!”

– Rihanna

“i cant even breath right my now im crying so hard i just lost 1 of my best friends. i love you forever Amy & will never forget the real you!”

– Kelly Osbourne

 ❤

 

art&consumerism: POP CULTURE!

Towards a culture of postmodernism…

The avant-garde are people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics.

The avant-garde pushes the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm. The avant-garde is considered by some to be a hallmark of modernism, as distinct from postmodernism. Many artists have aligned themselves with the avant-garde movement and still continue to do so, tracing a history from Dada through the Situationists to postmodern artists such as the Language poets around 1981. (Wikipedia, 2014)

Avant-garde is a way of changing attitudes through art. The artist is a part of society, a modernist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘THE NEW YORK SCHOOL’

The New York School (synonymous with abstract expressionist painting) was an informal group of American poets, painters, dancers, and musicians active in the 1950s, 1960s in New York City. The poets, painters, composers, dancers, and musicians often drew inspiration from Surrealism and the contemporary avant-garde art movements, in particular action painting, abstract expressionism, Jazz, improvisational theater, experimental music, and the interaction of friends in the New York City art world’s vanguard circle. (Wikipedia, 2014)

ABSTRACT: No representational meaning, No representative

EXPRESSIONISM: Representing feeling, Emotion through the use of Art

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PIET MONDRIAN – COMPOSITION WITH RED, GREY, BLUE, YELLOW AND BLACK GEOMETRIC SHAPES. Made in 1925 – before the age of expressionism.

This image represents the social and environmental issues of the US.

“Current drought conditions and the decreasing water supplies in the Southwest certainly make Hogue’s striking imagery from the “dirty 30s” seem amazingly prescient,” said Sue Canterbury, The Pauline Gill Sullivan Associate Curator of American Art at the Dallas Museum of Art. “The Dust Bowl was a man-made disaster, and it is impossible to view these works without considering the choices we each need to make in our relationship with the environment and our use of its resources.” (DMA, 2013)

1930’S AMERICA…

…in New York many art critics & artists (Polloc, Rothko, Newman) commited to social politics.

The new deal government establishes a huge welfare program.

Federal Arts Project (FAP) starts in 1935 (to 1943)

Artists employed by the state to produce art for public clients (subways, schools, cafes, streets, etc.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reginald Marsh

These two paintings were created by Jackson Pollock in reference to the crisis in the American economy that forces American people to migrate.

(Freedom of speech is represented)

top: ‘Expressionistic Contours’

bottom: ‘Going West’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Pink Flamingos’

Notorious Baltimore criminal and underground figure Divine goes up against Connie & Raymond Marble, a sleazy married couple who make a passionate attempt to humiliate her and seize her tabloid-given title as “The Filthiest Person Alive”.

(IMDb)

 

 

 

 

Mark Rothko paints people on the NY subways. He features a stretched expressionistic style, explores social criticism in the way the figures are stretched, distorted and separated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark Rothko – ‘Subway’ (1973)

Cesare Stea is the grandeur of the sculpture (20 sq.m.) symbolic of the nation’s need to rebuild itself, and the personification of the worker as an ideological emblem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cesare Stea – ‘Sculpture Relief for the Bowery Bay Sewage Depot’ (1963)

Towards abstract expressionism…

These works were seen as mediocre & inferior to European modernism. However, this began to change with the obliteration of the social themes that had dominated between 1938-48.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark Rothko – ‘Multiform’ (1948)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jackson Pollock – ‘Male and Female’ (1942)

By 1941 many socialists became repulsed by Stalin’s rule in the USSR, and as social realism was an enforced form of national culture. Social realism became discredited in the USA.

CLEMENT GREENBERG…

– The defining influence on Abstract Expressionism & the rise of the New York School

– Essay: ‘Towards a Newer Lacoon’ called for the assimilation of abstraction into American paining and rejected social realism

– Believed that Illusionist Art could only be defined by it’s limitations

– Greenberg champions the virtues of an art ‘free from ideological struggles of society’

The avant-garde should be about ‘the physical, the sensorial, absolutely autonomous & entitled to respect for (it’s) own sake, and not merely vessels of communication.’ an existentialist drive behind to work (not ideological), a response to a post-war (post-Holocaust) hospitality of the age. ‘Drip paintings’ represents a palpable sense of movement and rhythm (sometimes linked to Jazz music) & the artist’s movement around the canvas.

POP ART!

Richard Hamilton ‘Just what it is…’ (1958)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hamilton’s description of Pop Art:

– Popular

– Transient

– Expandable

– Low Cost

– Mass Produced

– Young

– Witty

– Sexy

– Gimmicky

– Glamorous

 

 

Andy Warhol’s ‘Marylin Monroe’ (1962)

Pop Art in America makes an impact in about 1961. For the first five years it was mainly underground. It appeared to be completely reject Abstract Expressionism. Where it succeeded is that it got through to the public.

James Rosenquist – ‘I love You with my Ford'(1961)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pop  artists became established, and rich, in a very short space of time. Seen as an art movement coming to terms with American’s urban environment.

Andy Warhol- ‘Coca-Cola Bottles’ (1962)

Pop Art is still a very ‘learned & self-conscious’ art movement. Warhol wanted to eradicate the idea of  hand-made art altogether and used images based on photographs. Still, the idea is that we take a fresh look at the objects and signs that are so familiar from every day life and give them a brand new meaning – customer culture in other words.

 

 

THE AMERICAN  UNDERGROUND SCENE

The first ever statement of the New American Cinema Group:

“We don’t want false, polished, sick films – we prefer them rough, unpolished – but alive; we want them the colour of blood”

(Jonas Mekas, 2006)

Their movies:

1. the tacit gay sexual liberation activities that subverted heterosexual, same-race sexual nnorms

2. the expression of community in attending these films after midnight

3.the ironic appropriations of Pop Culture (Kenneth Anger, ‘Scorpio Rising’ (1964))

PHOTOGRAPHY! FILM! ACTION!

La Jetee (1962) by Chris Marker

( watch at: http://alaskapirate.com/lajetee/)

Synopsis:

“The movie that inspired Terry Gilliam‘s 12 Monkeys, Chris Marker‘s La jetée is a landmark of science-fiction filmmaking, a 28-minute masterpiece told almost entirely in still frames. Set in a post-apocalyptic near-future, it tells the story of an unnamed man whose vivid childhood recollections make him the perfect guinea pig for an experiment in time travel. After a lengthy and nightmarish period of conditioning, he is sent into the past, where he falls in love with a woman whom he once saw on a pier. At the experiment’s conclusion, he is visited by an advanced race, who offer him the opportunity to journey into their future world, but he instead requests that they send him permanently into the past, where he can remain with the woman of his dreams. A singular experience. ~ Jason Ankeny Rovi (Jason Ankeny Rovi, 2013)”

Chris Marker (www.chrismarker.org), born July 29th, 1921 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France is a worldwide known director, writer, cinematic essayist and audio-visual poet. He is known best for his brilliant movies, such as, ‘Twelve Monkeys’ (1995), ‘La Jetee’ (1962) and ‘Sans Soleil’ (1983). After the WW2 Marker wrote his first book (Le Coeur net – The Forthright Spirit) in 1949, however in 1950’s he finally discovered his real passion – documentary film-making. ‘La Jetee’ was considered one of the best. In the 60’s-70’s he was involved with the SLON, an activist production film-making collective. As well as making documentaries, Marker was interested in making films based on other filmmakers; including ‘One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich’.

When was the first photograph taken?

1826…

‘View from the Window at Le Gras’ was taken by Nicephore Niepce in 1826. this is the earliest surviving photograph of a scene from nature taken with a camera obscura.

However photography wasn’t available to the public until 1839, when Daguerre and Talbot  released their discoveries. There were some previous experiments, although there was problems with long exposure times and fixing of the image.

 

 

 

 

THE HISTORY OF THE SELF PORTRAIT – ‘SELFIE’

(visit http://www.vulture.com/2014/01/history-of-the-selfie.html for a more in depth history of the ‘selfie’)

“Today the Oxford Dictionaries announced their word of the year for 2013 to be “selfie”, which they define as “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.” Although it’s current rampant incarnation is quite recent, the “selfie” is far from being a strictly modern phenomenon. Indeed, the photographic self-portrait is surprisingly common in the very early days of photography exploration and invention, when it was often more convenient for the experimenting photographer to act as model as well. In fact, the picture considered by many to be the first photographic portrait ever taken was a “selfie”. The image in question was taken in 1839 by an amateur chemist and photography enthusiast from Philadelphia named Robert Cornelius. Cornelius had set his camera up at the back of the family store in Philadelphia. He took the image by removing the lens cap and then running into frame where he sat for a minute before covering up the lens again. On the back he wrote “The first light Picture ever taken. 1839.” ” (Underlying Work: PD Worldwide, 2013)

(http://www.businessinsider.com/history-of-the-selfie-2014-1)

When we hear the word ‘selfie’ we usually think of girls wearing tons of make-up, taking photographs of themselves at an arm’s length, while pouting at the camera. However in the past it was a totally different experience. A device called a ‘head-clamp’ (image below) was used in order to keep the person being photographed still and in the right pose. It would take a minute for the shutter to take an image, therefore the ‘model’ sat still while their head is clamped tightly in place, for a whole minute!

(http://static.neatorama.com/images/2006-07/daguerreotype-head-clamp.jpg)

(http://api.ning.com/files/8-m8GaGqDliVunygbUjUnSVgBgLY5SDReJqN402XxXs*o3KYJcVtaIuOP2B6gfXmsl3DNNHPx7lqF6YE9GZsg2vAcNkAJMJi/Headclamp.jpg)

PHOTO = Light (Greek)

GRAPHY = Writing (Greek)

PHOTOGRAPHY = WRITING WITH LIGHT

What is the difference between a ‘self-portrait’ and a ‘selfie’?

– Everything you make of yourself is classified as a ‘self-portrait’. From ‘selfies’ to portraits and paintings of yourself. Mark Ingham: “A ‘selfie’ is classified to me as a ‘self-portrait’, however a ‘self-portrait’ doesn’t always have to be a ‘selfie'”

“We live in the age of the selfie. A fast self-portrait, made with a smartphone’s camera and immediately distributed and inscribed into a network, is an instant visual communication of where we are, what we’re doing, who we think we are, and who we think is watching.” (Jerry Saltz, 2013)

PHILIP DICORCIA

Philip-Lorca diCorcia, born 1951 in Connecticut, USA, is an American Photographer who studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. DiCorcia also received a Master of Fine Arts in Photography in 1979, while he attended the Yale University. DiCorcia was recognized for his famous ‘Heads’ series.

“To create his Heads series, diCorcia rigged a powerful strobe light to a scaffold high above the street in New York’s Times Square. He activated the strobe by radio signal and captured unwitting pedestrians in a flash of light from over 20 feet away. Remarkably, the strobe was imperceptible to his subjects since the photographs were taken in broad daylight. Using this technique, the figures appear to emerge from inky darkness, spotlighted and haloed and as if there was almost no distance between the camera and the subject. Over the course of two years diCorcia took more than 4,000 of these photographs, though he chose only 17 for the series. DiCorcia’s Heads serieswas at the center of a debate between free speech advocates and those concerned with protecting an individual’s right to privacy. In 2006, one of diCorcia’s subjects sued the artist and his gallery for exhibiting, publishing, and profiting from his likeness, which was taken without permission. While critics claim that the project violated his subjects’ right to privacy, diCorcia explained that he did not seek consent because, “There is no way the images could have been made with the knowledge and cooperation of the subjects.” Free speech advocates argue that street photography is an established form of artistic expression and that the freedom to photograph in public is protected under the first amendment to the United States Constitution. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed, but the presiding judge suggested the complex nature of this issue, stating, “Even while recognizing art as exempt from the reach of New York’s privacy laws, the problem of sorting out what may or may not legally be art remains a difficult one.” The debate rages on.” (MoMA Learning, 2002)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Is a photograph ‘you’? Or is it just a frozen moment in time?

What are your opinions?

SOME POSED IMAGES LOOK UNPOSED

SOME POSED IMAGES LOOK UNPOSED

THE OBAMA, CAMERON AND THORNING ‘SELFIE’ SCANDAL

Some time ago an image appeared in the news, of the three world leaders, taking a ‘selfie’ together. Our lecturer (Mark Ingham) showed us a cropped version of this photo. I did not recognize the photo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Mark asked what we see, we all agreed that this is a picture of Obama, Cameron and Thorning taking a picture of themselves. We suggested it could be taking place at a conference or event. They seem to be happy and to be enjoying each other’s company.

Then we were shown this image…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This changed my perspective on the image. When I saw Michelle Obama’s face expression, I initially though she was jealous or angry at Obama for sitting with Helle.

However when we were told that the image was taken at Nelson Mandela’s funeral, we were all extremely surprised. There were many debates whether this was totally wrong on may levels or if it was a photographic memorabilia? What do you think?

“It’s easy to see why the photo blew up on the web. There are plenty of apparent dynamics to parse. Cameron leans in like a goofy uncle trying to join the party. Obama bites his lip coolly. Thorning-Schmidt, mouth slightly agape, has the self-consciously expectant face of so many selfie-takers before her.

And off to one side, Michelle appears to be fuming but is probably just not paying attention.” (Randy Hall, 2013)

“Although both Obama and Cameron came in for criticism, it was Thorning-Schmidt who bore the brunt of the outrage. Described as a narcissist in the Daily Mail, she was forced to defend her actions at home. “There were lots of pictures taken that day, and I just thought it was a bit of fun,” she told the Danish newspaper Berlingske. “Maybe it also shows that when we meet heads of state and government, we too are just people who have fun.”” (Andrew Anthony, 2013)

To me, a ‘selfie’ is a way of portraying yourself the way you want others to see you. What I mean by that is that no-one is asking you to pose a certain way or look towards a direction, nobody is telling you what to wear or how much make up to apply; it is purely what YOU want others to see. I have taken many ‘selfies’, or ‘self-portaits’ as you like, by myself, with my friends and family.There is many trends when it comes to ‘selfies; many are used in fashion blogs, make-up tutorials, personal social media platforms and many other forms of art. What interests me is that a large number of people see ‘selfies’ as something stupid and fake – when older people hear the word ‘selfie’ they straight away think of teens posing in their bedrooms/bathrooms; However I would like to show you a different perspective on ‘selfies’, a much more artistic one, hopefully it will expand your opinion on what a ‘selfie’/’self-portrait’ can be through the following images:  Visit Link : http://www.viralnova.com/kyle-thompson-photography/

some of my ‘selfie’ memories…

 

EXERCISES:

1. 1 MINUTE PORTRAIT

What was it like posing for an early photographic portrait?

Recreate the experience by timing yourself, sitting completely still for one minute. Have someone photograph you at the end of the time. Reflect.

Look at the photograph. What does your facial expression and body language convey? How did it feel to be still for that long?

2. TAKE AN UN-POSED ‘SELFIE’

Try to take an un-posed self-portait of yourself. Was it difficult? How realistic was it?

3. TRY TO CATCH YOURSELF UNAWARE

Try to take a self-portrait, however you have to look as if you’re unaware the picture is being taken. How did you feel about that? How difficult was it?

4. TAKE THE MOST POSED ‘SELFIE’ OF YOURSELF

Try to take the most posed ‘selfie’ you have ever taken. Pouts and everything. Was that easier than previous? Could you have posed a little bit more?

5. TAKE A PHOTOGRAPH OF SOMEONE TAKING A ‘SELFIE’

Now, take a photo of someone who is taking a photo of themselves. How does this image look? Does it show the other persons personality through it?