COP2 lecture-what is research

Where good ideas come from  by Stephen Johnson
idea driven research

stimulated approach
conscious or sub conscious search for inspiration from an external repertoire:in the surrounding media, in discussing, libraries etc.

systematic approach
this is based on the systematic collection and modification of components, characteristics and means of expression such as by structuring, restructuring, replacing, adding, mirroring, reproducing.(a process)

intuitive approach
this is the development of thought process which is primarily based on internalised perceptions and knowledge, that is to say an internal repertoire. this type of thought orioles may occur spontaneously, without being evoked especially. this is actually a systematic...

research is the process of finding facts. facts lead to knowledge. research is done by using what is already known 

research is driven by questions

collecting information, variety of sources including books, journals and the internet. also by carrying out experiments and talking to people and the analysis of this information.

primary research
research that is developed and collected for a specific end use to generate or solve a specific problem
research that involves the collection of data that does not yet exist
new stuff that you find that doesn't exist yet

secondary research
published or record data that have already been collected for some purpose other than the current study
the analysis of research that has been collected at an earlier point in time for reasons unrelated to the current project.
using things that have already been found

quantitate research
deals with facts figures an measurements and produces data which can be readily analysed. measurable data is gathered from a wide range of sources
generated numerical data or can be converted into numbers
the gathering and analysis of measurable data
red arch that is objective and relies on statistical analysis such as surveys

qualitative research 
explored and tries to understand peoples believe experiences, attitude, behaviour, and interactions. to generated non numerical data. the best known methods of inquiry included in depth interviews focus groups documentary analysis and participant observations
non numerical data. through interviews, conversations,
capturing peoples thoughts and emotions and being involved and document it.
a way of studying people or systems by interacting with and observing the subjects regularly.
gives and idea about the perceptions or views.

information is the result of processing manipulating and organising data in a way that adds to the knowledge of the person receiving it.

information should be sufficient competent relevant and useful
need a breadth of sufficient information


methodologies

start anywhere. just get started.

COP seminar-essays

3000 words
4 references to academic sources
10 sources in bibliography

animated artefact
driven by essay topic-something achievable and that you will enjoy
complete essay proposal form

idea of essay - 13/01/2015

DEADLINE - 24/03/2015

-name, course
-title/question
-intro stating intentions
-main essay-differing viewpoints,logical progression of ideas
-conclusion-try to say something conclusive and  original
-bibliography-harvard referencing system-ideally more books than websites
-3000 words INCLUDING quotations form referenced sources not including bibliography

try and pick something you can analyse and show different view points. possibly linked to a lecture or something you've learnt about or linked to your discipline.

dont rely on your opinions in the essay. be objective, neutral unbiased, based on reason not personal response based on feelings or emotions
research
use variety of sources, research thoroughly 
books and academic websites
journals newspapers magazines, dads videos from library
primary research, interviews etc will always gain additional marks (more in dissertation)
3rd person, no abbriviations-this essay will address not in this essay i am going to
provide images of examples you are referring to. refers to them as text or figures e.g., see fig 1)
www.jstor.org
Neil toolbox-harvard referencing

COP 2-lecture- censorship and truth

Ansel Adams-landscape photography
exposes things over and over again in the dark room but slightly different each time to get unique results.
kate moss legs elongated
war photo manipulated
images are manipulated to portray different meaning or just to make things look better.
the death of a royalist soldier- people weren't sure if it was real and in a way its not, he was not shot in a proper battle he was 'on his break' when a photographer asked people to run down a hill while he takes photos and then someone shot him. But they put it together with a moving quote and it seems real. because that is what you are told so that is what you believe.
Simulacrum 
censorship
the practice or policy or censoring films letters or publications to ban or cut anything considered obscene or objectionable. 
flake advert- inserting chocolate into mouth could make one think of felatio but is that just how that one person thinks?
united colours of benetton deliberately provocative
obscenity law-to protect art whilst prohibiting trash. 
child protection act- photos of naked children put in a gallery. gallery had to be closed to investigate the photograph.
jack bankosky- image had to be removed because it was too sexualised for a child
how much should we believe the 'truth' in the media?
should we be protected from it?
is the manipulation of the truth fair

COP seminar

globalisation

-americanisation is sort of good because it has brought new things over to our country and opened our eyes to new things.

-also bad like taking german grimm tales that are quite dark then americanising it and making it all cute and princess needs a prince kind of thing.

-America trying to re do british tv shows to make them more popular to american viewers.

comunism
-in Berlin they have trabans which are a specific type of car and you can't have it in different colours but only that car.

-lots of countries are quite westernised but there are parts of the country that aren't.

- series 9 episode 14 -american dad

COP lecture- globalisation, sustainability and the media

definitions of globalisation

-socialist

the process of transformation of local or regional phenomena into global ones. it can be describes as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and function together. this process is a combination of economic technological sociocultural and politician forces

-capitalist

the elimination of state enforced restrictions on exchanges across borders and the increasingly integrated and complex global system of production and exchange that had emerged as a result.

possibility of a globalised world sharing all the resources and the possibilities of wealth.

the pursuit of classical liberal (or "free market") policies in the world economy  (economic liberalisation) the growing dominance of western (or american) forms of political, economic and cultural life "westernisation" the proliferation of new information technologies (internet revolution) as well as the notion that humanity stands at the threshold of realising one single unified community in which major sources of social conflict have vanished (global integration).

-Stanford encyclopedia

process of globalisation collapses

 cultural globalisation did not start with the world wide dissemination of rock and roll and cocacola.

"mcdonaldisaton" wide ranging sociocultral process y which the principles of the fast food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of american society as well s the rest of the world. "mcjobs" "mccitizens"

menial job low salary for massive profit. 

-George Ritzer

Marshall mcluhan

radio and tv, our capacity to hear and see has been extended to a global scale because we can see what going on all around the world. This means we can immediately see the impact of our actions. Also we can see other people and empathise with them, increase the humanity of the world.

as electrically contracted the globe is no more than a village. electric speed at bringing all social and political functions together in a sudden implosion has heightened...

he was wrong quite a lot. were not a single unified global tribe. 

does globalisation around the world make the world more alike or more different?

 "pessamistic hyperglobalizers"

If the global village is run with a certain set of values then it would not be so much an integrated community as an assimilated one.

-schiller

-chomsky

argue that building an empire happens in much more subtle ways. "cultural imperialism"

Rigging the 'free market' media conglomerate operate as oligopolies. giant system for spreading western culture globally.

US media power can be though of as a new form of imperialism

-local cultures destroyed in this  process and new forms of cultural dependancy shaped mirroring old school colonialism

-Schiller- dominance of US driven commercial media forces US model of broadcasting onto the rest of the world...

Rupert Murdoch

An inconvenient truth. - Al Gore

if we did something about global warming, it would effect profits etc.

to fix the planet created by excessive consumption you have to buy more things....(solar panels, special light bulbs etc)

cocacola plantbottle.

The Wil drinkable book

'the story of stuff' free range studios

COP 2 seminar

-Sigmund Freud, bernays, books in library
-Persuasion - a deliberate and successful attempt by one person to get another person by appeals to reason to freely accept beliefs, attitudes, values, intentions, or actions.
-you don't expect animated films to give  political message so you watch it more openly

-matches the appeal-propaganda?

-the sinking of the lusitania -Windsor McCay
persuading that germans are bad because they bombed a ship full of americans

-raft of the medusa (painting) french. represents the spirit of survival. promoting the idea of evil forces that you rise up again. 

-Momotaro vs Mickey Mouse
Mickey mouse represents America

Der feuhrers face (Donald duck in nazi land)
-makes hitler look stupid basically.
-can get away with it because its a cartoon.
-more refined than Japanese one as better animation inducts in america at that point

-Leni Riefenstahl 
- german film maker and photographer
-made films in 1930s
-olympia

Victory through air power
-once we got the issue of the propeller in the way of the gun, the aeroplane became a weapon of war.
-more positive saying how good they are making the machinery whereas the others we have watched are looking at the negatives

COP lecture- ethics-what is good?

First things first- garland 1964
argues that visual communicators and creators in comtempary society in 80s wasting talent by taking jobs such as advertising toothpaste and cigarettes. Use your talent don't waste them on trivial jobs that don't benefit society.

Manifesto was re published in adjusters in 2000. Tells us that we are told that we should use our talents for advertising. if your encouraging people to buy credit cards with your talents, you are encouraging people to get themselves into debt.
participating n a system thats brain washing people?

Ken Garland, Kalle Lasn, Rick Poyner

anti capitalism designer, anti consumerist designer
culture jamming- use skills to promote political cause.
detournment
advertising puts a meme in our heads that we can't forget
'im lovin it' is a meme.
advertising design- advertising for things you don't need to impress people that dont care-papernick- were all contributing to making the world un ethical
papenek beer can automobile can bumper 1971- home made bumper that was safer than the original.

how do we determine what is good?
subjective relativeism 
-There are no universal moral norms of eight and wrong
-All persons decide right and wrong for themselves
cultural relativism
-the ethical theory that what is righ for wrong depends on the place and time
devine command theory
-good actions are aligned with the will of god
-bad actions are contrary to the will of god
-the holy book helps make the decisions

Kantianism (deological ethics)
-Immanuel kant (1724-1804) a german philosopher 
-peoples wills should be based on moral rules
-therefore its important that our actions are based on appropriate moral rules
-to determine when a moral rule is appropriate kant proposed to categorical imperatives.

Two formulations of the categorical imperative
-act only from moral rules that you can at the same time universalise
-if you act on a moral rule that would cause problems if everyone followed it then your actions are not moral

-act so that you always treat both yourself and other people as end in themselves and never only as a means to an end.
-if you use people for your own benefit that is not moral.

Utilitarianism, or consequentialist ethics (john stuart mill)
principle of utility
-an action is right to the extent that it increases the total happiness of the affected parties
- an action is wrong to the extent that it decreases the total happiess on the affected parties
-happiness may have many definitions such as: advantage, benefit, good or pleasure
Rules are based on the principle of utility
-a rule is right to the extent that it increases the total happened of the affected parties 
-the greatest happiness principle is applies to moral rules
Similar to kantianism-both pertain to rules 
-but kantianism uses the categorial imperative to decide which rules to follow.

Social contract theory
-thomas hobbes (1603-1679) and jean-jaques rousseau (1712-1778)
-an agreement between individuals held together by common interest
-avoids society degenerating into the state of nature or the war of all against all
-morality consists in the set of riles governing how people are the rest one another that rational people will agree to accept for their mutual benefit on the condition that other follow those rules as well. 
-we trade some of our liberty for a stable society.
ripping up the current social contract and replacing it with a new one but would only work if everyone bought into it

Toolbox of moral/ethical theories
whether presented with problems that are easy or difficult to solve the four workable ethics theories
-kantianism
-act utilitarianism
-rile utilitarianism
-social contact theory
could provide us with possible solutions to many of problems that ae raised by the first things first manifesto


critera for a workable ethical theory?
-moral decisions and rules
-based on logical reasoning
-come from facts and commonly held or shares values
-culturally neutral
-treat everyone equally
aim for socially and ecologically responsible design

paperken radio- not just something that can be made cheep and sold to poorer people- its designed to be made from things that are freely available that people can make for them selves. powered by elephant dung. - treated people as end not means to an end.

COP 2- consumerism, persuasion, society, brand, culture

National cash register building
Aims
-analyse the rise of us consumerism
-discuss the links between consumerism and our unconscious desire
-Sigmund Freud
-Edmund Bernays
-consumerism as social control

century of self- Adam Curtis
no logo brands globalisation resistance- Naomi Klein

Sigmund Freud
-psychoanalysis
-new theory of human nature
-hidden primitive sexual forces and animal instincts which need controlling
-the interpretation of dreams
-the unconscious
-the ego and the id
-beyond the pleasure principle
-civilisation and its discontent

ego-rational understanding of yourself
id-base animalistic desires and instincts are repressed- they drive everything we do
-when your conscious mind is asleep the unconscious mind dreams and the id comes out
-fundamental tension between civilisation and the individual
-human instances incompatible with the well being of  community
-the pleasure principle
-ego represses our id

-freud thinks that because we have to suppress these ids they create anxieties and discontentment etc for us so we let them out in other ways
we have hidden base desires that influence our actions that we need to let out to feel like were fulfilling life

Edward Bernays- freuds nephew
-Press agent
-Employed by public information during ww1
-post war-set up the council on public relations
-birth of PR
-based on the ides oaf freud
-crystallising public opinion
-propaganda

-He took the understanding of freud and said if we can make people feel that their desires are being met when they buy things, they will feel happy and also make a consumer demand.
-first early success-working with cigarette companies- getting past the social taboo of women smoking.
-easter day parade. paid debutants to light a cigarette at the same time
-suffragettes- early form of feminism- lighting up touches of freedom- symbolic display
-cigarette smoking became popular among women because they relate it to being independent, sexually desirable, etc
-product placement
-celebrity endorsements
-the use of pseudo-scientific reports
-makes you equate the product with being successful and desirable

Fordism
-moving assembly line
-standard production models built as they move through the factory
-requires large investment but increases productivity so much that relatively high wages can be paid, allowing the workers to buy the product they produce
-the model T ford- 
-1910-20,000 were produced a year
-1816- 600,0000
-1927-15 million
assembly time reduced from 12.5 to 1.5 hours

as the world incases its production and created more and more things it becomes important for manufacturers to distinguish their product from others.
this is where branding comes in.
a common technique was to give the product an individual identity 'aunt Jemimas pancake flower' makes you think its more special of has a secret ingredient/special recipe when its actually just pancake flower.

-cars are sold not only on their merit but for the power of it making you more sexually desirable.
-masculine, in control, head of the family, impress the wife, man drives-women gets driven.
-by 1919- what more being advertised it that if you buy this car you are richer you can have the fancy house and look more sophisticated.
-things shift from a need culture to a desire culture- you buy because you want not because you need.

-marketing hidden needs
-selling emotional security
-selling reassurance of worth
-selling ego gratification
-selling creative outlets
-selling love objects
-selling sense of power
-selling sense of roots
-selling immortality

Walter Lippmann- public opinion
-started researching what the public want so they can tell the government what to do about it.

1917 in russia the workers army overthrow someone.

people thought if they didn't keep people happy they would start a war

The great depression- if you let big businesses do what they want you will end up destroying society

Roosevelt- the new deal-increase taxes to give to unemployed/homeless-ameican government to have total control- project where the government intervene and create a farer society
labourers choice- choice of the worker.
what makes america great is the amount if things in america that you can buy! independent living in a country of free choice. 

'Democracity' your world tomorrow- not democracy just the bankrupt illusion- all kept docile, fooled into thinking were living rounded meaningful lives. 

-consumerism is an idealogical project
-we belief that through consumption out desires can be met.
-the consumer self
-the legacy of bernays/pr can be felt in all aspects of C21st society
-the conflicts between alternative models of social organisation continue to this day
-to what extent are our lives 'free' under the western consumerist system? 

COP2 seminar

cities and film
city represents civilisation, country is a bit savage and less advanced.
Walter gropius- founder of bauhaus
flat iron building in new york used to be a skyscraper not the empire state building looks down on it
architecture is imposed upon you, you can't choose not to see it like you don't have to walk into an art gallery or watch a movie but you have no choice but to look at buildings because they will be on your journey.

The architectural metaphysics of fear. 
Edward hopper house by the railroad
psycho house universal studios 

id super id and ego levels like levels of a house, in psycho the body is found in the basement
shining
Hitchcocks films start of in an idyllic and relaxed atmosphere

COP2-leacture 5- Cities and film

Dresden exhibition 1903
-Simmel asked to lecture on the role of intellectual life in the city but instead reverses the idea and writes about the effect of the city on the individual
-(Herbert bayer lonely metropolitan 1932)

Urban sociology
-the resistance of the individual to being a levelled swallowed up in the social technological mechanism
-Georg simmel the metropolis and mental life 1903
-before health and safely-people had to learn how to live in built up world

Architect louis sullivan (1856-1924)
-details from guaranty building- 3 levels one below ground, one public, 2 more. -Very pretty embellishments at the top of the building. 
-Skyscrapers represented upwardly mobile city of business opportunity
fire cleared buildings in Chicago in 1871

Manhatta 1921-paul strand
Charles scheeler- advertising photographer for for motor companies plant ad the river rouge Detroit (1927)

Fordism:mechanised labour relations
-coined by antonio gramsci in his essay americanism and fordism
-the eponymous manufacturing system designed to spew out standardised low cost goods and affords
Modern times (1936)charlie chaplin

stock market crash 1929
-factories close and unemployment goes up dramatically
-leads to the great depression
-Margaret Bourke-White

The man with a movie camera

Flaneur-saunterer or stoller or lounger. 
charles boudalaire
the nineteenth century french poet charles proposes a version of the flaneur that of a person who walks in the city...
Walter benjamin
adopts the concept of the urban observer as an analytical tool and as a lifestyle as seen in his writings. 
Photgrapher as flaneur
the photographer is an armed version of the solitary  walker reconnoitring stalking cruising th urban inferno the voyeristic stroller who discovers the city as a landscape of voluptuous extremes. adept of the joys of watching connoisseur of empathy 

Daido Moriyama (1970) Shinjuki district of Tokyo
Flaneuse
the invisible flanuese. women and the literature of modernity.
describing fleeting anonymous ephermal encounters of life in the metropolis mainly accounts for the experiences of men. it ignores the concomitant separation of public and private spheres from the mid nineteenth century....

susan buck moores
this text suggests that the only figure a woman on the street can be is either a prostitute or a bag lady.

sophie calle suite venitienne 1980
the detective 1980
-wants to provide photographic evidence of her existence
-his photos are notes on her are displayed next to her photos and notes about 
him

Weegee-the naked city

9/11 citizen journalism:the end of the flaneur?
liz wells says that phrase is first seen in an article by stuart allen online news journalism nd the internet in 2006. she discusses the 7/7....

surveillance city
since the attack on the towed in 2001...

COP2 seminar 3

Subcultures in animation eg Simpsons, south park, making fun of them almost. 
presepolis 
tim burton adopted the gothic style in his animation but its not made FOR goths you don't have to be a goth to like it.

posers of subculture- wearing things you know nothing about because other people are wearing it like band t-shirts of bands you have never heard of or  like wearing star wars pyjamas when you've never seen star wars.

psychoanalysis
.look at where and why psychoanalysis emerges
.identify key concepts and terms:ego, super ego, id, abject, objet relation
.look at object relation theory with regards to are and design
.look at abject.
Freuds deffinitions
.a discipline founded on a procedure for the investigation of mental processes that are otherwise inaccessible because they are unconscious
.a therapeutic method for the treatment of neurotic disorders
.a body of psychological eta evolving into a new scientific discipline

the third category comprises frauds work on culture which is largely based on the view that culture is a product of the diversion or sublimation of sexual energy. 
sublimation- the conversion of sexual drive and energies into creative sexual energy
psychoanalysis seeks to analyse and structure our consciousness through careful dissection of the unconscious mind.

sigmund freud 1856-1939
id- governed but the pleasure principle desires and drives, sex, death, pain, fascinations
ego- the side we show the world
super ego- moral conscience
we repress them because society would allow/like them
to live in society we must repress instinctual desires- sexual or aggressive usually the taboos of society

We watched 'Un chien andalou' which is a very strange black and white film that seems to draw attention to pain, fear and sex. Maybe cause they are things we usually try to cover up.

COP 2- lecture 4

Identity

Zygmunt Bauman
physiognomy- the study of physical features. 
the closer to the vertical your brow, upper lip and chin line up, the more intelligent you are. (racism)

Hieronymus Bosch- christ carrying the cross, oil on panel. Jewish people that have condemned him to death are portrayed as ugly-anitisemitism.

Chris Ofili, holy virgin Mary- deals with black identity in his work. uses lumps of elephant dung in his work. shown in metropolitan museum in new york. outrage at the fact he portrayed the virgin media as black. 

Douglas kellner- media culture:culture studies, identity and politics between the modern and post modern 1992
.pre modern identity- personal identity is stable defined by long standing roles

.modern identity- modern societies begin to offer a wider range of social roles.
possibility to start choosing your identity rather than simply being born into it

.post modern identity- accepts a fragmented self identity is constructed.


post modern identities- secure identities. farm worker, land worker, soldier the state, factory worker industrial capitalism, housewife patriarchy, gentleman patriarchy, hunsband-wife marriage/church

modern identity
Charles Baudelaire- the painter of modern life- introduces the concept of the 'flaneur' (gentleman stroller) never writes about a 'flaneurse' (female version) woman is always his accessory on a mans arm not the object. Walking around in the middle of the day for no reason shows they have time on their hands means your rich enough that you don't have to go to work. 

Gustave Caillebotte (1848 - 94), 

Le Pont de l’Europe, 1876

Gustave Caillebotte (1848 - 94), 

Paris Street, Rainy Day, 1877

Thorstein Veblen- theory of leisure class- conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentlemen of leisure. 

Geor Simmel- writes about fashion in a term of defining identities, trickle down theory, emulation, distinction, the 'mask of fashion' 
people want to align themselves with the upper classes so they wear cheaper versions of what the rich people wear. Then the upper class start wearing something else so the poorer people follow. no longer trickle down its bubble up.  - street fashion being re made into something they sell for hundred of pounds.

'the feeling of isolation is rarely as decisive and intense when one actually finds oneself physically alone, as when one is a stranger without relations among many physically close persons at a party, on the train, or in the traffic of a large city.'- Simmel
'The separation of the subject from the object of life'

Michel Foucault- discourse analysis
 identity is constructed out of the discourses culturally available to us.

possible discourse- age class gender nationality race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, 

discourse- a set of recurring statements that define a particular cultural 'object' (e.g. madness, criminality, sexuality) and provide concepts and terms through which such an object can be studied and discussed' Cavallaro

martin parr, new brighton, merseyside, from the last resort,1983-86. , ascot - lower classes pretending to be upperclass.

identity page 52- Bauman- society reminds one of a particularly shrewd cunning and pokerfaced player in the flame of life, cheating of given a chance flouting rules whenever possible. 
nationality- think of England, think of Germany. english perceptions of germans.

much of the press coverage centred around accusations of misogamy because of the imagery of a semi naked, staggering and brutalised women in conjunction with the word 'rape' in the title but McQueen claimed that the rape was of Scotland, not the individual models as the theme shows was the jacobite rebellion- Alexander McQueen, highland rape collection, autumn winter 

Vivian Westwood anglomania collection. uses tartan. 
las vegas- Venice, New york, Egypt, Disney land, mini versions of different countries, do you even need to go anywhere else. 
'i didn't like Europe as much as disney world. at disney world all the countries are much closer together and they just show you the best of each country.'

race/ethnicity, chris ofili, no woman no cry, - murder of Stevie Laurence- black hate crime. racial stereotypes white people might impose. 

captain shit and the legend of the black stars. no black super heroes. He realised there were no black superheroes so he thought how would white people portray a black superhero so came up with that. 

from signs that say what you want them to say and signs that say what someone else wants you to say- gillian wearing. 

its a jungle out there- some people thought this migh thane been racist because he put a black model in animal skins and put horns of her etc. he made a pout he was drawing attention to the fact theres not a lot of black models.

Emily Bates was abused for having red hair. She believed that people saw nothing more than her hair. So she decided to make a dress from her own hair. 

 saint mary magdaline -titan-had red hair and she was thought to be a prostitute- maybe that is where all the stigma comes from.

gender and secuality- wilson E 1985, adorned in dreams:fashion and modernity, london IB  taurus page 94. secret hatred of women but forcing them into exaggerated ridiculer hideous clothed.
flapper, 1925, frowned upon to show knees and short hair. la gar cone women vs man
androgyny 1920s style from punch magazine. 
masquerade and the mask of femininity, Cindy Sherman, untitled film stills 1977-80. stereotles of femininity in films 

post modern theory- identity can be constructed through our social experience
Erving Goffman, the presentation of self in everyday life
Goffman saw life as theatre made up of encounter sand performances
for Goffman the self is a series of facades

Zygmunt Bauman- yes identity is revealed to us only as
introspection is as disappearing act faced with moments alone in there cars on the street or at supermarket checkouts more and more people do not collect their thoughts but scan their mobile phones for shreds of evidence that somebody needs of wants them. 
i think therefore i am- i shop therefore i am. what you buy where you go. sponsored Selfridges sales.  

Visual analysis

In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting two short animations. These are "Bottle" by Kirsten Lepore and "The dog who was a cat inside" by Siri Melchior.

"Bottle" is a Pixillation animation so it's made by putting a series of photographs together in a timeline. In this animation there are two characters, one is made of sand and the other from snow as they live in different parts of the world. They Send bottles across the ocean with different objects in them and they stick them on themselves like pen pals and friendship bracelets. One day, the guy made out of sand sends a drawing of himself and the snow girl meeting under the ocean. So that is what they do. Unfortunately when they go underwater they both disintegrate because what they’re made of cannot survive underwater.

This could have been about long distance relationships and saying they don't work as they are in contact for a long time before they actually try to meet. It also could be about social media and trying to portray yourself as something your not on your profile like they are sending each other items and they become different people but when they go to meet each other all the fake stuff comes off and they look like themselves again and that’s why it doesn't work because they fell in love with the fakery. This is the same in real life when if you start talking to someone online and pretend to be someone else then you go meet up with them and they see who you actually are and don't like it.

"the dog who was a cat inside" is a 2D hand drawn animation that looks really simple. In the story, there is a dog and inside there is a cat. The two appear not to get along at all. The cat would try and stop the dog from doing what he wants and visa versa. They are both very unhappy to the point they have a big fight and fall in the river. Where somehow they learn to get along a little better and work together. When they get out they find a cat with a dog inside!

This animation can be taken in a number of ways. One thing could be transgender. Like humans sometimes feel that they should have been born a girl and there actually a boy, the dog feels he should have been born a cat and he constantly fights himself saying no that’s silly.

Another issue this could be facing is homosexuality- The dog is a dog so he should like other dogs but inside he actually really likes cats. He feels people will think he is weird so he suppresses the cat inside him. When he finds a cat that is a dog inside he realizes he is not so weird.

It could also be tackling the issue of split personality disorder. Where you have another voice inside your head and sometimes it tells you to do things that perhaps you don't want to do. Like when the cat is interacting with another cat.

I think its nice that it doesn't clarify what issue it is trying to portray as it gives us opportunity to figure this out for ourselves and put our own take on it.

I think both of these stories work well through animation as it makes you think more about the issue but it's not right in your face so you actually feel more comfortable watching it. Also a child could watch this and just think it's a sweet animation but when they’re older that might be still in their heads and help them to understand things. I think if this was done in a film/ documentary kind of way it would have been a lot less engaging and you would probably turn it off.


These animations are executed in quite different ways. One is photographs and one is hand drawn. The sound track is also quite different. In "Bottle" there is just sound effects like the ocean and the sound of sand moving, but in "the dog who had a cat inside him" it is a sound track playing over the top and the sound effects are secondary. They both work though. The soundtrack shows us that time is passing by staying constant while the images change. It also tries to make it more emotional.

I like how ‘the dog who was a cat inside’ used simple 2D animation because it makes such a complex issue seem rather simple and your just concentrating on that rather than the beauty of the animation. However, perhaps people that actually have one of these issues might feel a bit offended by the fact that it has been simplified.

I think both stories work well just as stories and can be enjoyed whether you are reading into them or not.

In conclusion I think these are two very good animations that both portray a human issue using animation which gets the message across in a less in your face way which is easier to take. I think ‘the dog who was a cat inside’ did this more and also had multiple things you can read into it.

COP lecture 3- subculture: most ocmmonthe meaning of style

Hebdige,D (1979) 'subculture: the meaning of style
Subcultures form when we feel the views of society don't fit us or reflect our views so we form a group of like minded people. It issues a symbolic challenge to society suggesting theres a better way of living. political? it attempts to say that what society is doing is wrong or not inclusive etc. 
subcultures quickly turn conventional and become something that can be sold and bought and it turns into a brand and becomes mainstream. This neutralises the subculture and it gets sucked into the system that they were trying to change in the first place. The challenge is removed. 
The punk style rewrote the rules of masculinity in how they dressed. They thought there were music skill to be learned. The newspapers were saying they're shocking diverts. Punk was a refusal to conform to mainstream society. being from London, working class, underprivileged kids they all came together and started listening to things like London calling.
incorporation-ideological form- society says its stupid, looney, ridiculous, irrelevant.
commodity form-process with which capitalism seises on youth subculture and makes a market out of it then they have to make new culture
people actually just buy into the idea of rebellion. 
buying a punk rock album will not make you a punk rocker your just buying into the industry. trading off a youth subculture. making things look stupid and passing it off as fun which neutralises the original idea.
Fred perry presents 'subculture' 2012 Dir. Don Letts.
most common subculture atm is hipster. but its not a subculture. its not rebelling or anything its just a meaningless transparent subculture. they're not issuing symbolic challenges anymore. 

We then watched a video about all these subcultures and here are my notes from it:
http://vimeo.com/52431977
rock and roll american culture coming in people watching it and then pop culture started.
the wild one- expresses the rebellion. although they're copying americans it looks brittish
teddy boys. wearing a uniform- making it okay for a man to care how they look and do up their hair. rejecting things around you. edwardian style idea which gets changed. adopts the upperclass uniform and subverts it. almost takes the mick out of it. middle class teenagers liked to dress casual annd working class teenagers wanted to dress smart in a uniform. teds racist? 
mods n rockers. leather jackets, motorbikes. muscular american culture based on bikes and fighting. took on the american look and made it British with a British motorbike. generation gap- parents don't want their kids long like that.  media spread the subculture people pick up and idea and a set of clothing from people they've never met. 
started by a few kids who wanted to be different but then everyone copies so that defeats the object. they can't play music or may bot have a record player but they have trousers and thats how they make themselves different. 
modernist- people start to look forward more than back. interested in modern jazz. vespa, jacket, ideda of cool. vespa means they don't have to rely on their parents for transport. being smart, short hair, started by guys,mods would have been called puffs. 
drug culture, creating generation gaps. ready,steady,go the tv show people watched it and wanted to dress like they did. kids wtart running round smashing things up because thats what the mods were doing. the who, small face. 
Drugs and stuff form hippies and some people go and form skin heads. 
punk was anti style and anti fashion but ended up turning into a fashion. 
mod style isn't extreme so more acceptable and more durable. mod living is clean living under difficult circumstances. 
rudeboy-edgy dangerous, anti mainstream.narrow trousers with white socks. emphasis of masculinity. -less english version of skin heads. 
skin heads weren't racist they were happy with there own cultue=re. american ivy league. astronauts had buzz cuts and they thought it was cool. no creases allowed you had to look immaculate. 'sea re proud to be working class' grow up in inner city areas shared with black and white. girls wore suits too. skin head girls would attack people. 
when the media coverage started people stared growing their hair long and the look fazed out. then it revived in the 70's but became racist. they weren't cool anymore. 
fred perry went through lots of fases. 
soul boys- wiggan -black music enjoyed by white people. all about sharing records an having a record other people didn't have. working class work hard all week so they want to go out and dance. dress comfy. impressive dance moves. 
northern sole and southern soul are different. black kids bought gabiccis white kids bought hawaain shirts and things they could dance in. black kids started to dress up too and join in. 
jazz funk in the south. essex was the home of black music in the uk. chris hill and froggy. multi racial there to have fun. no political statements. making a statement about accepting people. didn't have figureheads and specific bands so it never really went anywhere. this keeps it as a subculture. 
clubculture- dis move around and play recognisable music. 
england was boring and duo and people wanted to create something to do.
punk- people start ripping clothes and wearing chains. usually people that had been to art schools. malcom mclaren. mix of different cultures dress. because it was so mixed noone looked the same. dIY ethos. women start playing guitars how they want to play it. hippy ideas got acted out in punk. 
regge welcomed everyone. After a punk swore of tv it ended then extremist styles occurred. steve jones. two tones. punk regge dub scar, mashup of regge and punk. the specials. 
margret thatcher, lots of change. politics. recism is bad, the specials wrote about things close to home. 
working class people earning more money than they ever dreamed of. able to spend a lot more money. starts in liverpool. expensive designer stuff they see when playing in europe. thatcher didn't destroy football hooligan it was someone who bled some chemicals together (ecstasy) 
ravers go dressed to dance and sweat. casual. when it gets into the media rave become national. 
brit pop. was it a real culture? retro enthusiasm. mod, london, rock edge. back to bands. lost of things in common. and they knew how to sell it. 
internet brings people together because you can find people like you. 

COP 2- seminar 2

Our first task:

Visual analysis 
Consider two short films in terms of but not limited to the following 
the films we have been asked to analyse are:
Kristen Lepore, bottle 2010 and siri melchior, the dog who was a cat inside 2002

Some thoughts on these animations are as follows:
. Technological/production values
. colour and light
. contnet and symbolism
. Relationship with the sound track
. Historical and contextual factors
. function, and fitness for purpose
. target audience and how it communicates with them
Write a short review analysing comparing and contrasting the two films in ratlin to the above. minimum 500 words to be posted onto blog. 

Kristen Lepore, bottle 2010

This animation is a pixillation meaning it uses lots of photographs to make a moving image. in this film there are two characters. One is made from sand and the other from snow-they live across the sea from each other  one sends a bottle with some objects in to the other, who puts the objects on themselves and sends more objects back and they become friends like pen pals. They do this over and over until the sand guy sends a drawing of himself and the snow girl meeting under the water. When they try to actually do this, unfortunately they both die because neither snow or water can survive underwater. This animation can be taken in lots of ways. one way is about identity and they are sending each other what they think the other person should wear but they are choosing where to put them on themselves so maybe that is like trying to create your own style? It also covers the subject of long distance relationships like saying they don't often work in the end or something. Another thing you can get from this is about social media like a Facebook profile picture they are putting things on their bodies to make them someone they're not and when they get in the water,all the false things come off and they become themselves again. This also works with the long distance theory so they pretend they are someone they're not through long distance relationship where they don't actually have to see each other then when they actually meet up they see each other for who they really are and they don't like it.

www.kirstenlepore.com/bottle

siri melchior, the dog who was a cat inside 2002

This animation is a story of a dog with a cat inside him. The style is a very simple 2D drawing. We think that this is could be portraying a few different subjects which are transgender or homosexuality- the dog is a dog so he should like dogs but the cat inside thinks otherwise. Or the dog is a dog but he wants to be a cat and his personality is just like a cat but he can't show it because people will think it's weird. The dog was never happy because he couldn't be the cat and the cat was never happy because he couldn't be outside and show himself like the dog. Until he found a cat thats a dog inside at the end and found someone he could talk to about it. 
It could also be tackling personality disorders. Like they have a split personality so sometimes they are the cat and sometimes they are the dog and they fight between the two as we see in the film. I think it is good that its simple because it shows clearly the issue and also i like that they used animals because then you can read different issues into it being human. Humans often have these issues that could be read into it so i think it's really nice that someone has explained this so simply for people to understand. However maybe people that have these issues might be offended that they used animals or made it so simple because it's not a simple thing at all. But you can interpret it how you like for instance children will just find it entertaining that theres a cat stuck in a dogs body and find it nice when it finds a dog stuck in a cats body.

In the animations they both end up underwater at some point. I think animation is a good platform to address this issue because it means you don't have to address it head on which can be easier for a lot of people to handle and maybe if older children are watching this it will be the start of them understanding this.  


About the lecture
Lara cCroft could be said to challenge the generalised roles of men and women but actually she is just as sexualised  as all the other women in media with her sex appeal and big boobs and small waist etc. New ones are more normalised. Although Lara is an archaeologist and smart and educated if you didn't know this you would judge her from her looks just like in Jessica rabbit where she says "I'm not bad I'm just drawn this way"

Bayonetta- cool character still very sexualised
Something to think about is : Do we have such sexualised characters because most of the industry is run by men and games are played by majority men? 

We watched an animation call the hat bymichele cournyer 
I actually found it extremely disturbing but maybe that was the intention because it shows just how creepy the male gaze is. I also got the feeling it was saying something about sexual abuse maybe child abuse because the drawing of the woman kept turning into a child and there was one scene where the child was hugging and sliding down a mans penis which is just wrong and either the artist is very perverse or she was tackling the issue of child sex abuse. 
This animation was completely the opposite to things like Jessica rabbit. She is attractive and appealing and you want to watch her but with 'the hat' I just wanted to turn it off. But that might have been the idea, you want it to stop so you should want it to stop in real life too.  
Then we watched pleasure of war ruth longford.- men are fighters of war women are objects. But in this case the woman uses her sexuality to slay the man, they know the man can't resist the womans' charm. a bit like Judith beheading Holofernes. women goes and seduces the man then cuts his head off but is it objectifying to women to say they have to use their sexuality to conquer. Is nudity objectifying? However it does show how powerful their sexuality can be and how easily men can fall for it. They are using sexualisation and objectification as a weapon, using what she had to get what she wanted. Some would call that resourceful!