Surrealism is an art movement beginning in the 1920s, coming about during the World War 1. Artists and writers who became affected during that period explored this new style, focusing on trying to create art through through the unconscious mind. This was a way to obtain true inspiration where no conscious bias was present. Automatic drawing is an example; wiping away all thoughts and simply drawing by allowing the pencil to flow with the mind in a state of calm and neutrality.
It is important to design because it deals with trying to draw on peoples inner real inspiration. Many designers in our current time use their extensive abilities to research to create new designs, but it is also important for us to try other ways of getting inspiration. This is a method of obtaining inner inspiration where ideas and concepts are in their most purest form, leaving much room to explore, improve and experiment with.
Designers leave a piece of themselves in what they design; therefore having a piece of something unknown to your conscious mind helps you learn something new about yourself.
Assignment 2
The Swing by Jean Honore Frangonard is a historical example of the "continuing curve" in design. I believe that this is an example of the "sensuous impulse". The painting created a fairy-tale type of atmosphere, where the luxuries of life are clearly represented here. No tension or aggression in the people of the painting present; their facial expressions, body language and poises; only playfulness. The urge to create a curvature; a sensuous impulse portray the playfulness and pleasures in life are conveyed by the artists painting strokes; almost a feathery, dream-like appearance soft and gently blended colours.
This painting was an example of the Rococo style, where the Greek rules where cast aside in favour of the curvature, emotional response and therefore sensual impulse. It is because the focus here was not on the social problems happening at those times, but on the fairy tale world of indulgence, enjoyment and prosperity. This caused the artist to act upon a sensuous impulse for it was in favor of what the aristocrats desired, and desire is but the epitome of the Rococo style.
Assignment 3
Carpet, Messrs, Turberville Smith, London from catalogue of the Great Exhibition, 1851.
Owen Jones had a principle, that “Construction should be decorated. Decoration should never be purposely constructed.” The argument was that the purpose of this wallpaper design for example, was to adorn or furnish a room/wall. What it has done instead is break all the traditions and rules of good design, taking on a 3D appearance and creating a false sense of space and depth. This is wrong. Pretending to be something that it is not, hereby becoming something that is 'decoration constructed'.
Jones' argument regarding the issue of good design is something that I agree on. When you choose a wall paper you do not choose something that has an image of a castle; a plate should not have images representing Church's and lamps should not look like they really are, flowers. Such ornaments are defying the purpose of the object giving people a sense of escapism and fantasy that is a lie.
Looking at this design, you would not be really seeing a patch of garden plants on your wall. It does not even make sense to have something that gives depth to be hung upright. In all simplicity, the aim of this paper design is to appear "pretty" and aesthetically pleasing (something the Great Exhibition of 1851 was full of). It does not look good in appearing to be a gateway or door to another realm; this is dishonest, deceitful and corrupt.
In Charles Dickens Hard Times he expresses that the root of all this bad design that is being flushed out in the 19th century feeds from the middle classes innocence rather than vulgarity or dishonesty. The middle-class was "uneducated" in fine taste and easily conquered by the trickery of fantasy and cheapness. Good design was and will continue to be hard to get across people because they are at times too difficult to educate on the rights and wrongs. As Pugin conveys, materials should look what they are, objects should clearly represent what they are used for. Staying true to the material, form and purpose of whatever is designed, means to create good design; this is what creates beauty. Everything in good design comes down to a basic yet overlooked fact, construction should be decorated, decoration should never, ever be purposefully constructed.
Assignment 4
This Ladybug Stained Glass Accent Lamp is a typical example of the "crime of ornament" that Adolf Loos stressed in his 1910 essay Ornament and Crime. Similar to Owen Jones theory about decoration and construction, Loos stresses that the "The evolution of culture is synonymous with the removal of ornament from objects of daily use." Objects should not be smothered in ornamentation like this lamp has been because it is not necessary. It is a sign of looking back to the past for directions; trying to live in the past when we should be looking forward.
According to Loos there are some objects in life when ornamentation is deemed safe, but this boundary is being over stepped. Ornamenting this lamp serves no purpose to the function. The purpose of a lamp is to provide light for a dark enclosed space. This Rococo stylized ornamentation hinders the true purpose, preying in the human instinct for ornamentation; tempting people to buy it for the sake of its beauty. Being aesthetically pleasing, this lamp draws in attention not to its functionality but to a superficial beauty that sooner or later would be cast aside for it does nothing but imitate the true integrity of real art.
Drawing us into the past, seeking comfort in a confined period of time and isolating ourselves from the future, this is the reason ornamentation is a crime. Ornamentation is a human instinct that matures over time, a bad habit that needs to be cured. To this degree I agree with Loos' argument of human evolution thriving upon the removal or ornamentation. In the simplest form Loos' view is that, ornamentation is simply the bane of existence, a desire that over-rules logic and reason. It is nothing but wasted labor, wasted money and a deception to those who are dependent upon them.
As Adolf Loos expresses (1910 Adolf Loos, Ornament and Crime) "ornament is no longer organically related to our culture". It is now swept up in mass production as a means of growing our economy. Like The Great Exhibition of 1851; nothing but "bad design" being baited out to people who have not been educated about good design; tricked and hypnotized by imitations.
Assignment 5
Starry Night [photograph]. (n.d.). Retrieved August, 2011, from http://vincentvangoghart.wordpress.com/tag/van-gogh/
In John Goethe's book he explains that the experience and experimentation of artists has influenced our understanding of colour. Taking precedent from Newtons’ Optiks and in particular Goethe’s “Theory of Colors”, artists have investigated with effects of colour being juxtaposed and brought together to come upon a basis that it relies heavily “on the eye as a sufficient tool” to give a painting its distinctive atmosphere. On such explorations artists have determined the values of colours, the darkness and lightness of a colour which gives it a particular effect. These have revealed that when the right pigment of colour is not found, it is not that fault of the quality of the colour, but the influence of the colour its surrounding.
In Ogden Rood’s Modern Chromatics he described this as the “physiological and psychological effects of light and color on the human eye”, that the sensation of colour is dependent on visual perception.
In later years artist (impressionists such as Vincent Van Gogh) have taken this understanding of “color perception” and pushed it forward seeking to capture this visual experience; a development where “colour vision” would allow people to “capture the visual experience as it appeared on the retina”. The sought out the development of optical mixing, an experience where people could view lines, or dots of colour in conjunction with other colours close enough that the human could draw out mixtures of the pigments and thus create a new sensation of viewing colour rather than simply mixing them physically.
Jonh Gage, Colour and Culture: Practice and Meaning from Antiquity to Abstraction. In Colours of the Mind: Goethe’s Legacy (pp. 158-212). Available from http://dev.schoolofdesign.ac.nz/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=136
Assignment 6
Donatello's David c.1440 [photograph]. (n.d.). Retrieved September 11, 2011, from gogh/http://dev.schoolofdesign.ac.nz/mod/folder/view.php?id=134, Week 9 Modern Vision.pdf
In the an age of digital design and manufacture that we experience in our current (and future) society the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed solely for reproduction. To ask for the "authentic" of any art work that has been reproduced makes no sense.
The image above is Donatello's David, c.1440. This in itself is a replica of the original. Even the "most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be." Looking at this image, there is no sense of its presence in neither time and space, you can not experience these things unless you were there yourself, thus no personal connection is established. Experiencing the authentication of any artwork requires this unique existence, without it the work of art the "aura" is lost.
Simply knowing that this sculpture was Donatello's David gives you some indication of its aura, the sense of its existence, but this image can only give you so much. Aura "is tied to his presence; there can be no replica of it", to be able to feel, experience the nature of Donatello's David you must not just see a mere reproduction of it which capture's nothing of its unique existence, in "time, space, history", you have to be there yourself to witness his true authentic nature; experience it.
Therefore there is no role for valuing any artwork's authentic in this digital age of reproduction. Aura is can not be copied, traced or replicated, it is a sensational experience that is irreplaceable. Donatello's David, like any piece of art, is to allow us to experience the emotions, the story behind its "birth". Art is unique, there is no sense in replicating something which can never capture its aura, for "aura is tied" to its "presence" and in the century of digital manufacturing, this is a concept that is lost, and is being tarnished.
Walter Benjamin: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Available from http://itp.nyu.edu/~mp51/commlab/walterbenjamin.pdf
Assignment 7
Assignment 6
In the an age of digital design and manufacture that we experience in our current (and future) society the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed solely for reproduction. To ask for the "authentic" of any art work that has been reproduced makes no sense.
The image above is Donatello's David, c.1440. This in itself is a replica of the original. Even the "most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be." Looking at this image, there is no sense of its presence in neither time and space, you can not experience these things unless you were there yourself, thus no personal connection is established. Experiencing the authentication of any artwork requires this unique existence, without it the work of art the "aura" is lost.
Simply knowing that this sculpture was Donatello's David gives you some indication of its aura, the sense of its existence, but this image can only give you so much. Aura "is tied to his presence; there can be no replica of it", to be able to feel, experience the nature of Donatello's David you must not just see a mere reproduction of it which capture's nothing of its unique existence, in "time, space, history", you have to be there yourself to witness his true authentic nature; experience it.
Therefore there is no role for valuing any artwork's authentic in this digital age of reproduction. Aura is can not be copied, traced or replicated, it is a sensational experience that is irreplaceable. Donatello's David, like any piece of art, is to allow us to experience the emotions, the story behind its "birth". Art is unique, there is no sense in replicating something which can never capture its aura, for "aura is tied" to its "presence" and in the century of digital manufacturing, this is a concept that is lost, and is being tarnished.
Walter Benjamin: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Available from http://itp.nyu.edu/~mp51/commlab/walterbenjamin.pdf
Assignment 7
In fairly recent years the creation of social networks derived from the internet such as Facebook became a “symbolic universe”, following the “image of an ordered and smoothly functioning society” (F. Khilstedt. 1987, Utopia Realised, p. 102). Facebook became an important social structure for society’s transition. As the development of technology continued to further itself, science arose the world’s fair of the 1930s and spread out to be included in every department.
Media and design implicates itself with the construction of these social universes because these attributes are also part of science, thus it is concerned with aiding in and working together to help organizing the social world as comprehensible and connected. Science is “the most powerful social force and decreed that it should permeate all”. The stress to “improve life through science” was highly regarded (F. Khilstedt. 1987, Utopia Realised, p. 99). As this sought to stretch out to the utopian mode where symbolic universes are lividly stressed, structuring society was significant.
Facebook is an example of a symbolic universe; concerned with the cultural structure of legitimation it places the individual in a known and knowable space. Composing of technology and science (design) it possessed the “potential for the actualisation of a utopian vision.” (F. Khilstedt. 1987, Utopia Realised, p. 99)
Assignment 8
According to Walter Gropius, art is not a ‘profession.’ “There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman” (Walter Gropius 1919, Lecture slide 12 retrieve from http://dev.schoolofdesign.ac.nz/mod/folder/view.php?id=134, Week_11_Modernism, Standardisation, Rationalisation, and the Universal.pdf). From David Raizman’s “The first machine age in Europe” Hannes Meyer (Swiss-born architect and appointed director of the Bauhaus in 1928) argued that design is a product of “function x economy”; that design is a political discipline concerned with the needs of the people at a certain time in period and taking the available technology to manufacture potential products. “The reality of our century is technology: the invention, construction and maintenance of machines. To be a user of machines is to be of the spirit of this century. Machines have replaced the transcendental spiritualism of past eras.” (László Moholy-Nagy, 1923 “A new Unity”.)
During World War I, Germany suffered the Great Depression causing the social and political need to get away from the problems it suffered. This example compromised of Meyer’s theory; the economic situation overlaid with the desire, the need for improvement (function – for Germany to escape from the reality of the Great Depression) using science as a model, gave the push to integrate new technologies into its manufactured potential to the highest decree.
In this time period design could be an art, science or even both because traces of the two continued to bleed through one another, however I agree with the Meyer’s position of design as a result of “function x economy” and so design to me falls under the definition; a science.
Assignment 9
Retrieved from http://www.brandchannel.com/features_effect.asp?pf_id=78 at 2/10/2011
The Starbucks brand is the product of an advertising campaign which expresses an ideology of today’s designing message. As a successful company, like McDonald’s, this brand informs us of the large belief of consumerism and the need to conform to something where people can feel included. These days, going to get a coffee is becoming replaced with the ideology of going to Starbucks because it is the idea behind going somewhere contemporary, that is inclusive that spurs on the cultural need to become part of a group.
This logo is a representation of the cultural and ideological belief of society’s desire to conform to the norm. The product that is actually produced may not be ideal, but it is the reinforcement of this belonging to the products company; the symbol of something great, like an accessory to adorn people.
Underlying ideas and motifs that exists in brands informs us of the cultural ideology that is a response to our “social and economic progress”. “Technological change should be encouraged to meet our own increasing industrial needs” (Thomas Watson Jr., 1960, IBM and the imaging of an American corporation). Branding design takes on the form of an icon, to normal people who don’t understand the profession of design; it is a versatile means of allowing others to take in stride design, whether it is fully understood or not because the message that is conveyed takes precedent.
Assignment 10
Image retrieved, http://rosemaryandgrace.com/2011/02/23/last-season-banksy/ 9/10/2010
Banksy an anonymous graffiti artist is famous for his stencil artworks around the world. Crucifixtion showcases an example of postmodernism; a remix of different points in history, it shows Jesus Christ crucified with gift bags and presents. Postmodernism brought back the missing element that was believed vital to cater the "increasingly variegated and desires of the consumer" (Woodham, J. (1997). Pop to Post-Modernism: Changing Values in Twentieth-Century Design Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, page 183). It became a response of the population that had been dominated by modernism, clean, simple design that had stripped everything down to its core basic; fighting against this belief of society being evolutionary with the "removal of ornament" (Loos, A. (1910) Ornament and Crime, in C. Gorman (ed.), The Industrial Design Reader (2003, pp.74-81). New York; Allworth Press. page 76).
Design became reinvented; postmodernism and remix allowed people to experience the spirit of different points in time. Taking bits and pieces from history and experiencing the joy to do so, this began to be constricted by restraints. Copyright stopped others from taking their work, allowing others to tamper it. This restriction was one of the inevitable effects of postmodernism. Remixing things from a variety of cultures, art, buildings; anything and everything was not viewed in such high forms of self expression from everyone.
This portrays the idea of contemporary society being covered in consumerism; the bags indicating materialism and the need for being pleased shows that people are being too concerned with money. It outlines the dominance of money in our society by the crucifixtion of Jesus Christ. Remixing of this religious image served to emphasis the idea because it was so bold but the manipulation of this symbolic message hit a constraint. Crucifixtion, takes on religion which was a pretty bold risk.
Religion was one of the aspects that did not bode well with postmodernism. Remixing it could be seen as highly offensive serving as a reminder that postmodernism was not the ideal perfect form of design to everyone as some people did not accept the prospect of sharing certain things - ideas that could be stolen, taken, manipulated, they were in danger; as postmodernism was welcomed during the postwar, what is there to stop us from taking ideas from people that no longer live and toy with them to our hearts consent?
