Choosing My Three Images

This morning I've been doing a little bit more research into what images I can sue that will relate to my first essay. Although there were a lot of interesting political images I could have chosen from, I didn't want to focus too much on this theme as I don't think it was what interested me the most in the first essay. Instead I have gone for:

Myra, by Marcus Harvey:

This one relates directly to the understanding of context which was the thing I found the most interesting my essay, and also relates social value, another interesting concept I feel I could talk more about.

The Holy Virgin Mary, by Chris Ofili:

This one relates to the understanding of context and social value, as well as local profiles in terms of religion and race. This is something I only had a chance to touch briefly on in the first essay. 

Bonus- It also features some nudity from the Madonna herself and *gasp* some collaged vulvas! So it also fits quite well with the essay I looked at from the college teacher who talked about her experiences with context in art in schools.

Donald Trump 'Nope'- Unknown:

This one could prove a little difficult as I don't actually know who this is by and can't find out. It would appear that loads of these reproductions have been popping up as memes and no one is owning up to them, but I would like to try and make the point that the age of reproduction is having an effect on art (like we've been talking about in the COP lectures) and that now we have the internet, art like this can be totally faceless. This image was used in one of our lectures and relates to local profiles and political satire.

Image Analysis Worksheet

Image:	Descriptive analysis	Contextual analysis	Theoretical analysis
Steve Bell: David Cameron (conservative)	-bright cartoonist colours and style - hand-drawn satirical text - condom head - making an idiot out of Cameron and his campaign OR bringing to light his shortcomings?	-produced in the general election of 2010 -UK -Made and displayed in the Guardian -left wing, Labor, liberal influenced paper	Relates to cultural and political studies due to its depiction of a political figure and the way in which society reacted to it
Obama Campaign: Hope Shepard Fairey	-uses colours of the American flag - very strong portrait photo - messages of hope, change and to vote - became a bit iconic	-2008 presidential election -designed independently by Fairey and then approved by the Obama campaign -quickly went viral and was displayed on shirts and mugs etc. - inspiring as 1st president of color, inspired a new audience	Could relate to cultural and political studies again as it depicts a political figure and represents a rise to power. Also the way people reacted to it could say a lot about the country at that time and the opinions of people
Donald Trump ‘Nope’	-same patriotic colours as the Obama image -a headshot has also been used but its decidedly not Trumps best image -many different versions of this have been produced all using Trumps face and the word ‘nope’ but all of them are either anonymous or have been created by small scale creators in the internet -shows the buffoon side of Trump	-made during the run up to the 2016 Presidential election -made when everyone was jumping on the bandwagon of laughing at Trump but did it actually act as free exposure for him? -audience: could be trolls laughing at Trump but could equally be the people that happily voted for Trump knowing fully how stupid he appeared to most people	Again fits into the social and political categories, political because, obviously at the heart of this issue, this was the man that was running for president and really this could be seen as presidential campaign advertising. Social because most of the people consuming this image were making a mockery of him (rightly so) yet he still won? Does this mean that society can joke about someone and still respect them enough to elect them, or does it mean this just acted as free publicity for him?
Chris Ofili The Holy Virgin Mary	-bright colours and rich yellow/gold tones -traditional attribute of the virgin mary -female genatalia and elephant dung made it controversial -Black Madonna	-1996 -bought by Charles Saatchi at first -Chris Ofili- 1st black artist to win the Turner prize -hip hop version of traditional master’s paintings -dung used after inspiring trip to Zimbabwe -Chris Ofili was raised as a Roman Catholic	Could be seen to fit into society or cultural studies due to the fact that the main causes of controversy in this piece were the depiction of a black Madonna and the elephant dung and female genetialia added to the canvas. Society were seen to have taken strong vews on this, especially those trying to defend the Christian faith
Myra- Marcus Harvey	-black and white image appears to be a fuzzy newspaper image at first -in reality it’s made of casts of small children’s hands to form a mosaic in black, white and grey -headshot of Myra Hindley that was used prolifically in news articles and the media - ‘the iconic power that has come to it as a result of years of obsessive media reproduction -juxtaposes the innocent hands of children with the “depraved world of adults”	-1995) long after Myra’s conviction - first displayed at the Sensation exhibition in London in 1997 -attracted larger audiences than usual and because of this was said to have been using young children’s murders to attract crowds -protested against not only by artists from the same exhibition but by some of the victims mothers	Fits into cultural and social studies as it was how society reacted to it that was the big thing. "a sole disregard not only for the emotional pain and trauma that would inevitably be experienced by the families of the Moors victims but also the families of any child victim." Quote from Myra herself Could be seen to offend large audiences but is this something that needs to be seen and talked about? Starts conversation
Everyone I’ve Ever Slept With- Tracey Emin	-brightly colored tent inside which is stitched all the names of people the artist has slept with - resembles the shape of the Margate grotto which Tracey is familiar with - hand appliqued, it lists everyone from lovers to friends and family members meaning more specifically “everyone I’ve ever shared a bed with” -very personal and exposed	-1995 -also displayed at the Minky Manky show with much bigger artists work - displayed at the Sensation exhibition - another young brit artist from this list who seems to be so unpopular with society -art for everyone, not aimed at a specific audience	Relates to cultural studies and society as again, it was society’s reaction to this piece which made it both a success and controversial. People didn’t want to see it as art, many people of note laughing when it was destroyed in a fire, however many people did not stop to notice it was not just simply a list of all the men she’d ever slept with

GETTING MY BUM IN GEAR

Yesterday was our hand in for visual skills module so today is the day I've decided I really need to get my ass in gear and start thinking properly about getting my triangulation essay done. I got so into it last time I did some research into what makes art offensive but every time I've thought about it since my heads been really foggy. I'm really having trouble getting my thoughts into place and at first I'd just assumed it was this hand-in looming but now I think its just the prospect of writing an essay and whether or not its going to be good enough. I have my dyslexia test on the 9th of December though so hopefully I'll get a bit of help from that. I'm also going to go the the learning support people to get some help with structuring the essay as I'm really rubbish at that. 

On a brighter note I found a great fourth source today from a book called 'Cultural Appropriation and the Arts' which I think will really fit the theme of the other three sources. Now I'm going to start structuring my essay out of these sources and see how it goes. Depending on how much detail I can manage to go into on those four maybe I'll look into adding a fifth.

My (very messy) first 3 sources

The last source

Society Quote Essay Thingy

Today I had a bit of a break-through with the theme of my 1000 word essay. I decided to focus on what makes art offensive and how can we measure offence in its different forms. I was so pleased to think of this subject as thinking about the different ways in which people are offended was one of the things which sparked my interested most in the last COP seminar and its important I do and essay something that will hold my focus. I've found 3 sources on my own so far which I think are very viable and varied. 

Chronologies- Type: Production and Distribution

Today we had our second lecture on the history of type which although I've found confusing is also very interesting. 

Things I found interesting about this lecture:

We learnt a lot more about the key developments in type progression including parts on the Bauhaus movement, which I didn't realise encompassed buildings and architecture as well as graphic and product design. We also learnt the phrase "Form follows function", this put simply means that the shape of a building or object should be based upon its function or intended purpose for use. I like that this movement stripped down all the intricacy's of pre modern design and kept only the basics, which in turn made simplicity beautiful in its own right.

We also learnt more about significant people and events from the Pre Modern, Modern and Post Modern movements and I was particularly interested to find out that Helvetica font was designed by Max Miedinger in 1957 and was designed to highlight cutting edge Swiss technology. It was also essential in times of mass production and distribution to different countries as it was a clear font with no fuss that most could use and understand. (I've actually used Helvetica for this blog post and I really like it). 

Points to take away from this lecture:

- What is my stance on where type sits in our society?

• I think its important much like any other creative discipline to convey messages and make things accessible to other members of society
• I think although its been made more accessible to the masses, this is really a  good thing as it allows everyone to develop their thoughts and feelings on it

- What decisions am I going to make as a creative?

• I personally think I will make every effort to use my practice to portray things in a more stripped down way, keeping my bias to a minimum where necessary to let others make up their minds

- Do I think we can shape the world?

• Definitely, through good practice and the right exposure I think creativity can change the world, I think its just our choice how we change it.