This chapter dealt with a completely different side of visual studies than we have looked at until now. Where as we had always talked about interpreting images from our own experiences and points of view, it would seem that one would be unable to draw any conclusion but the "correct" one when looking at cases of scientific visuals. I thought it was interesting how science and anatomy used to be such a spectacle, being made open to the public and viewed like a performance in a theater. On the other hand, some art was too chocking and graphic and was rejected during its time period, like we saw with Portrait of Dr. Samuel D. Gross.
This also dealt with the invention of the camera as the modern principle of an eternal truth. The camera can't lie or interpret in and of itself, and so anything that is captured by this technology must be "true." Photographs are used as evidence to prove points. People often leave disposable cameras in their car just in case they get into an accident and must document the scene and the damage. Photographs are also used for cataloguing and showing the evolution or time elapsed via visual images. Also, as we saw in Principal Varieties of Mankind, it isn't even just the depiction itself but the composition as well. By placing Europeans in the center, a larger political statement was made about the way we categorize people.
I remember last year there was a big display outside of the student union about abortion including very graphic images. The point is made by pro-lifers that it is shocking and graphic and inhumane and that is what they are trying to prove. It is human anatomy, they are not making any of it up. But again, we know from studying visual communication that a picture is never just an image. The way they were presented on huge posters in an area that many students had to walk through to get from their dorms to their classrooms, and the way that the presenters stood around the images all made for a very biased presentation, even though only "truthful" photographs were used. Intimidation tactics were evoked to send a certain message.
As technology expands, our place in "truth" amongst all of the images we can be exposed to is likely to get lost. Between DNA imaging, digital body visuals, medication and pharmaceuticals... we will never stop developing technology and visuals to go along with it. I think of the Bodies exhibit where you walk through and look at actual human bodies in all different forms, and then at the end can even sign up to have your body donated to science. It's something that will keep developing until a line has to be drawn somewhere.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Chapter 7
I chose to write my term paper on logo redesign and its relation to the success a company has at branding, so this chapter on advertising and consumer culture was very interesting to me. Right in the beginning the chapter stated that, “advertisers and marketers are compelled to constantly reinvent easy in which they address and hold the attention of increasingly jaded consumers.” The constant demand for innovation and the latest thing leads to old products being sold with new looks, added features, new designs and new slogans and campaigns. These decisions, when they are made and how effective they are, is what I am interested in researching.
Another aspect of branding and logos is the necessity of understanding our complex consumer culture. It’s almost crazy how personally connected people feel to brands and products. While reading this in the chapter I kept thinking of my boss at the restaurant I used to work at. He was in love with Nike. Nike was the second most important thing to him, only after his wife. I know he has at least two tattoos that incorporate the Nike ‘swoosh.’ Permanently drawn on his body!
I’m not even sure if that’s considered brand loyalty, or mental illness. I also thought of a postcard I had recently received from a friend who is currently overseas with the Navy. He sent me a postcard from Dubai, and on the front is a picture of some sort of majestic building and then it says ‘Dubai Heritage’ in white letters at the top. However, the font that is used is the same font that we are used to seeing Disney use, and so every time anyone sees it they always ask when I went to Disneyworld in Dubai, even though no where on the post card is there any mention of Disney.
There is mention of the Obama campaign’s logo, and this is something I became very familiar with in Washington, DC last semester. As part of an assignment, I went canvassing for Obama in Richmond, VA one weekend. We were knocking on doors asking registered voters who they planned on voting for for President and for Senate. Since most people had their minds made up as for their Presidential pick, but were still undecided for the Senate, we were given leaflets to hand out in support of Mark Warner, the Democratic candidate. It was very interesting to me that it was obviously designed to make people associate him with Barack Obama, but without coming right out and saying it. The color scheme, font and overall aesthetics of his leaflet were identical to Obama’s ‘brand’ or logo. People say Barack Obama ran one of the best campaigns we have ever seen, and I agree. In my media and politics class we learned that with the evolving technology by which we receive our news, candidates much become entrepreneurs who are prepared to sell their message in a new media friendly package. The development of the Obama brand, which sold everything from handbags to jerseys to onsies for toddlers, was astonishing. This must have been the first time that there was ever a “Runway to Change” category in a politician’s online store, with designers like Donna Karen and Juicy Couture making special pieces in support of the President.
A term I had never heard before was metacommunication. I thought the liquor ad that talks about subliminal messaging in advertisements was really interesting. It reminded me of a commercial I saw probably a month ago. I don’t watch tv in my room at school, but do turn it on when I am exercising at the gym. This commercial came on then:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RfCO02M2_A
It has similar intentions as the print advertisement does. It explains to the viewer how the creators expect you to interpelate the ad. It’s almost like reverse psychology, and I wonder if this is a successful marketing strategy. It stuck out to me because I immediately connected it to my visual communications studies, but I wonder how it affected the average viewer’s reaction.
Another aspect of branding and logos is the necessity of understanding our complex consumer culture. It’s almost crazy how personally connected people feel to brands and products. While reading this in the chapter I kept thinking of my boss at the restaurant I used to work at. He was in love with Nike. Nike was the second most important thing to him, only after his wife. I know he has at least two tattoos that incorporate the Nike ‘swoosh.’ Permanently drawn on his body!
I’m not even sure if that’s considered brand loyalty, or mental illness. I also thought of a postcard I had recently received from a friend who is currently overseas with the Navy. He sent me a postcard from Dubai, and on the front is a picture of some sort of majestic building and then it says ‘Dubai Heritage’ in white letters at the top. However, the font that is used is the same font that we are used to seeing Disney use, and so every time anyone sees it they always ask when I went to Disneyworld in Dubai, even though no where on the post card is there any mention of Disney.
There is mention of the Obama campaign’s logo, and this is something I became very familiar with in Washington, DC last semester. As part of an assignment, I went canvassing for Obama in Richmond, VA one weekend. We were knocking on doors asking registered voters who they planned on voting for for President and for Senate. Since most people had their minds made up as for their Presidential pick, but were still undecided for the Senate, we were given leaflets to hand out in support of Mark Warner, the Democratic candidate. It was very interesting to me that it was obviously designed to make people associate him with Barack Obama, but without coming right out and saying it. The color scheme, font and overall aesthetics of his leaflet were identical to Obama’s ‘brand’ or logo. People say Barack Obama ran one of the best campaigns we have ever seen, and I agree. In my media and politics class we learned that with the evolving technology by which we receive our news, candidates much become entrepreneurs who are prepared to sell their message in a new media friendly package. The development of the Obama brand, which sold everything from handbags to jerseys to onsies for toddlers, was astonishing. This must have been the first time that there was ever a “Runway to Change” category in a politician’s online store, with designers like Donna Karen and Juicy Couture making special pieces in support of the President.
A term I had never heard before was metacommunication. I thought the liquor ad that talks about subliminal messaging in advertisements was really interesting. It reminded me of a commercial I saw probably a month ago. I don’t watch tv in my room at school, but do turn it on when I am exercising at the gym. This commercial came on then:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RfCO02M2_A
It has similar intentions as the print advertisement does. It explains to the viewer how the creators expect you to interpelate the ad. It’s almost like reverse psychology, and I wonder if this is a successful marketing strategy. It stuck out to me because I immediately connected it to my visual communications studies, but I wonder how it affected the average viewer’s reaction.
Chapter 6
As someone who has studied journalism and is really interested in the entire business surrounding the media, I particularly enjoyed this chapter. Not only as a student was this relevant, but also I felt like the author was speaking right at me when she said "We may find ourselves anxious when these systems of communication and consumption fail us." I have MAJOR separation anxiety from my cell phone and when I was in the library yesterday and couldn╒t get my wireless Internet to work, I felt completely disconnected from the world. It is absolutely incredible how much communication technology has woven itself into our everyday lives.
Media is changing and changing rapidly. We are not only the consumers, but also the authors. We are no longer a massive, uncritical, generalized audience who passively accept messages presented to us by media. It has become a reciprocal relationship, a complex system where everyone actively participates to some degree. It is no longer only used for the wealthiest class or for the government to ╥inject╙ their ideology into the uneducated working masses. We are constantly making choices and interpellating information presented to us.
The term cyberblitz is used to describe ╥the escalation of random and unpredictable media forms, images, and information that have bombarded us in postmodern society.╙ This chapter also talks about the newfound power in YouTube, which I learned of first hand in Washington last semester. I was able to profile anyone for an article and I chose James Kotecki, a 23-year-old working at Politico.com. In 2007, at 21, James was an undergrad at Georgetown University and bought a webcam so that he could stay in touch with his long-distance girlfriend. He wondered what else he could use the webcam for and started making short clips to put on YouTube. He then wanted to start some kind of regular videoblog and see what kind of following he could get. He decided to comment on politics since that was what he was most interested in, but also wanted to add something new to the conversation so he chose to discuss the presidential nominee╒s use of YouTube in their campaigns. After a few months of videos full of pencil puppet candidates and silly college banter, he received the first ever interview granted by a Presidential candidate in a dorm room. James interviewed Ron Paul, and soon after the popular media caught hold of his extraordinary story. He was interviewed by the Washington Post and called by Economist magazine "the foremost expert on YouTube and political campaigns." Kotecki went on to interview several other prominent politicians and candidates and after graduating in three years from Georgetown was offered a full time position making humorous videos for Politico. This December, YouTube hosted a live concert full of celebrities, musical artists and self-made YouTube "stars." James was invited to talk for a segment about his fame and showed his first pencil puppets that started it all. I just think this story is the ultimate example of the role reversal from mass media conglomerates injecting us with ideology, to the everyday man being able to broadcast for himself his view of information in the world today.
The spectacle is another important term in this chapter as it refers to ╥an event or image that is particularly striking in its visual display to the point of inspiring awe in viewers.╙ We learned a lot about the philosophy behind the spectacle in Sexuality in the Cinema, but it is interested that the same concept can be applied to entertainment movies that are fictional, as well as news and media that is supposed to be a representation of real life.
The example of a spectacle that occurred within our lifetime and that we are the generation of is 9/11. This unprecedented event sent shockwaves across the globe with the haunting images of black, ghastly, billows of smoke coming from iconic buildings, of planes hanging out of windows, of people jumping from hundreds of stories, and of people running through the streets of New York City completely covered in ash and debris. It should have been a movie, it shouldn╒t have been real life, but it was. The Newseum in Washington DC has an incredibly emotional exhibit on the news media╒s coverage of this tragic event. It makes you really think about where the media draws the line between getting the public the information they need, and being just an average citizen themselves. While most people ran as fast as they could from Ground Zero, those that consider getting us images as their duty ran the opposite direction, trying to get the best angle they could. I really liked when the book said ╥The point is not that spectacle is more important than real violence, but that spectacle is understood to have the potential t generate vast, global shockwaves of violence that go beyond the actual destruction of life and property in the single event.╙ When people bring up September 11th, the image that pops into my head is pretty much the image from the book in fig 6.13. The terrorists intended for the destruction to be a spectacle that represented the demise of Western culture.
Media is changing and changing rapidly. We are not only the consumers, but also the authors. We are no longer a massive, uncritical, generalized audience who passively accept messages presented to us by media. It has become a reciprocal relationship, a complex system where everyone actively participates to some degree. It is no longer only used for the wealthiest class or for the government to ╥inject╙ their ideology into the uneducated working masses. We are constantly making choices and interpellating information presented to us.
The term cyberblitz is used to describe ╥the escalation of random and unpredictable media forms, images, and information that have bombarded us in postmodern society.╙ This chapter also talks about the newfound power in YouTube, which I learned of first hand in Washington last semester. I was able to profile anyone for an article and I chose James Kotecki, a 23-year-old working at Politico.com. In 2007, at 21, James was an undergrad at Georgetown University and bought a webcam so that he could stay in touch with his long-distance girlfriend. He wondered what else he could use the webcam for and started making short clips to put on YouTube. He then wanted to start some kind of regular videoblog and see what kind of following he could get. He decided to comment on politics since that was what he was most interested in, but also wanted to add something new to the conversation so he chose to discuss the presidential nominee╒s use of YouTube in their campaigns. After a few months of videos full of pencil puppet candidates and silly college banter, he received the first ever interview granted by a Presidential candidate in a dorm room. James interviewed Ron Paul, and soon after the popular media caught hold of his extraordinary story. He was interviewed by the Washington Post and called by Economist magazine "the foremost expert on YouTube and political campaigns." Kotecki went on to interview several other prominent politicians and candidates and after graduating in three years from Georgetown was offered a full time position making humorous videos for Politico. This December, YouTube hosted a live concert full of celebrities, musical artists and self-made YouTube "stars." James was invited to talk for a segment about his fame and showed his first pencil puppets that started it all. I just think this story is the ultimate example of the role reversal from mass media conglomerates injecting us with ideology, to the everyday man being able to broadcast for himself his view of information in the world today.
The spectacle is another important term in this chapter as it refers to ╥an event or image that is particularly striking in its visual display to the point of inspiring awe in viewers.╙ We learned a lot about the philosophy behind the spectacle in Sexuality in the Cinema, but it is interested that the same concept can be applied to entertainment movies that are fictional, as well as news and media that is supposed to be a representation of real life.
The example of a spectacle that occurred within our lifetime and that we are the generation of is 9/11. This unprecedented event sent shockwaves across the globe with the haunting images of black, ghastly, billows of smoke coming from iconic buildings, of planes hanging out of windows, of people jumping from hundreds of stories, and of people running through the streets of New York City completely covered in ash and debris. It should have been a movie, it shouldn╒t have been real life, but it was. The Newseum in Washington DC has an incredibly emotional exhibit on the news media╒s coverage of this tragic event. It makes you really think about where the media draws the line between getting the public the information they need, and being just an average citizen themselves. While most people ran as fast as they could from Ground Zero, those that consider getting us images as their duty ran the opposite direction, trying to get the best angle they could. I really liked when the book said ╥The point is not that spectacle is more important than real violence, but that spectacle is understood to have the potential t generate vast, global shockwaves of violence that go beyond the actual destruction of life and property in the single event.╙ When people bring up September 11th, the image that pops into my head is pretty much the image from the book in fig 6.13. The terrorists intended for the destruction to be a spectacle that represented the demise of Western culture.
Chapter 5
This chapter made the point that technology advances separately from the way we as a culture create meanings as a visual society by utilizing these new innovations. New technological gadgets may be invented but it is how we implement these into our lives and how they shape and change our worldview that makes them fundamentally important.
It was really interesting to see the progression in how we have become the visual image hungry society that we are today. Starting as early as Vaudeville, when groups of spectators gathered to be visually stimulated, to the visual effects-packed mega blockbusters we pay $10 to see today, the advances in technology and the ways they have affected us a culture are immense. One point that the book makes is that the reason cinema is the mass entertainment medium that it is today is not merely just that it has the ability to show us moving images, but because it gave us the ability to assemble in a group before the projected image. Before this people viewed quickly moving images through peephole devices in a private, voyeuristic manner, which completely changes the meaning of what is being seen.
I never before thought of the evolving meaning and value of the term “authentic.” The ability to reproduce images has completely changed the meaning of the word, but for several different reasons. It is interesting that the book notes that, “a reaffirmation of the unique image, one that had more value than the copy, took place precisely at the time when that original image could be easily reproduced in copies thanks to the photographic camera.” This is another example of how innovative technology alone doesn’t affect our culture. The reproducibility stood as a roadblock in allowing photography to be accepted at the same level of art that paintings and drawings held.
While that may be the drawback to photography, the most positive attribute was its inherent truth-telling abilities. Less existent today, when photography was first being used, it was used to document facts in the realm of medicine, science, and law. The “noeme” of photography is the fact that a picture is guaranteed to have been physically copresent with the subject, sharing the same space, light and air.
While I was in Washington last semester, I was able to visit Reuters and talk to the head of the photography department. He showed us pictures that he had been taking during the election campaigns, and then one very familiar one popped up. It is a picture that looks as if Senator McCain is running to grab Senator Obama’s butt…
It was reproduced everywhere and we all had seen the picture at least a hundred times, and there we were sitting with the man who snapped his camera to take it. He told us the narrative behind the photo (that McCain had started walking the wrong way off the stage after a debate and made an awkward gesture as he went to turn around), but almost no one else would receive that narrative. They would produce their own meanings-- and they did. He said he received dozens of letters from people who had digitally doctored his photo to make jokes. Even these reproductions received a lot of publicity.
When the chapter talks about Che Guevara and asks if the constant reproduction of the image diminishes the intentional meaning, I thought of many other works that this has been done to as well. I feel like you can find “Starry Night” on everything from notebooks to coffee mugs, and we have two Picasso pieces in our dorm room. I think they definitely do take on a whole new meaning in a college dorm room than the original does in a famous art museum. We also have 4 Andy Warhol posters, each with his image washed over in a solid color, and a quote in black type over it. They all look extremely similar aside from the color and the actual quote, which makes sense because Warhol was always trying to make the point that art had become a cultural and capitalist commodity. I think he is the master of image reproduction.
One other personal reaction I thought of while reading the section of ownership and copyrights. Before I interned at a magazine last semester, I had no idea how much images cost. We were given major discounts since we were a non-profit, but it was still more than I would have ever imagined a photo costing. Our September/ October issue of Moment featured Jon Stewart on the cover, and trying to find a picture of him that we liked that the owner would allow us to use and that wasn’t outrageously out of our price rage seemed like an impossible task.
Main Points:
-“Technologies interact with people and then forces of politics, economics, and other aspects of culture in various social and historical contexts”
-Imaging and its reproducibility directly relates to the governmental system in place. The means of production in socialist, fascist, and democratic states are drastically different.
-The meaning/ value of the term “authentic” is forever changing and evolving
-Photography was once held as the standard of truth, but this sense of objectivity is being eroded as it becomes easier and easier for us to manipulate digital images.
It was really interesting to see the progression in how we have become the visual image hungry society that we are today. Starting as early as Vaudeville, when groups of spectators gathered to be visually stimulated, to the visual effects-packed mega blockbusters we pay $10 to see today, the advances in technology and the ways they have affected us a culture are immense. One point that the book makes is that the reason cinema is the mass entertainment medium that it is today is not merely just that it has the ability to show us moving images, but because it gave us the ability to assemble in a group before the projected image. Before this people viewed quickly moving images through peephole devices in a private, voyeuristic manner, which completely changes the meaning of what is being seen.
I never before thought of the evolving meaning and value of the term “authentic.” The ability to reproduce images has completely changed the meaning of the word, but for several different reasons. It is interesting that the book notes that, “a reaffirmation of the unique image, one that had more value than the copy, took place precisely at the time when that original image could be easily reproduced in copies thanks to the photographic camera.” This is another example of how innovative technology alone doesn’t affect our culture. The reproducibility stood as a roadblock in allowing photography to be accepted at the same level of art that paintings and drawings held.
While that may be the drawback to photography, the most positive attribute was its inherent truth-telling abilities. Less existent today, when photography was first being used, it was used to document facts in the realm of medicine, science, and law. The “noeme” of photography is the fact that a picture is guaranteed to have been physically copresent with the subject, sharing the same space, light and air.
While I was in Washington last semester, I was able to visit Reuters and talk to the head of the photography department. He showed us pictures that he had been taking during the election campaigns, and then one very familiar one popped up. It is a picture that looks as if Senator McCain is running to grab Senator Obama’s butt…
It was reproduced everywhere and we all had seen the picture at least a hundred times, and there we were sitting with the man who snapped his camera to take it. He told us the narrative behind the photo (that McCain had started walking the wrong way off the stage after a debate and made an awkward gesture as he went to turn around), but almost no one else would receive that narrative. They would produce their own meanings-- and they did. He said he received dozens of letters from people who had digitally doctored his photo to make jokes. Even these reproductions received a lot of publicity.
When the chapter talks about Che Guevara and asks if the constant reproduction of the image diminishes the intentional meaning, I thought of many other works that this has been done to as well. I feel like you can find “Starry Night” on everything from notebooks to coffee mugs, and we have two Picasso pieces in our dorm room. I think they definitely do take on a whole new meaning in a college dorm room than the original does in a famous art museum. We also have 4 Andy Warhol posters, each with his image washed over in a solid color, and a quote in black type over it. They all look extremely similar aside from the color and the actual quote, which makes sense because Warhol was always trying to make the point that art had become a cultural and capitalist commodity. I think he is the master of image reproduction.
One other personal reaction I thought of while reading the section of ownership and copyrights. Before I interned at a magazine last semester, I had no idea how much images cost. We were given major discounts since we were a non-profit, but it was still more than I would have ever imagined a photo costing. Our September/ October issue of Moment featured Jon Stewart on the cover, and trying to find a picture of him that we liked that the owner would allow us to use and that wasn’t outrageously out of our price rage seemed like an impossible task.
Main Points:
-“Technologies interact with people and then forces of politics, economics, and other aspects of culture in various social and historical contexts”
-Imaging and its reproducibility directly relates to the governmental system in place. The means of production in socialist, fascist, and democratic states are drastically different.
-The meaning/ value of the term “authentic” is forever changing and evolving
-Photography was once held as the standard of truth, but this sense of objectivity is being eroded as it becomes easier and easier for us to manipulate digital images.
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