Week 1

NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION

The political and social power of film.

http://www.crystalxp.net/galerie/en.id.6312-building-dream-sangohanama-wallpapers.htm

We dream, imagine, question, wonder, think, puzzle, and search for answers. Part of the answer to out puzzling is art. Images are language.

Example; boy/girl, mens/womens, toilet, etc. all represented and interpreted from one image.

http://www.safetysignsupplies.co.uk/search/?group=198&withinGroup=true&filter_group=true&search=&range=650&tick=161,%20365&start=0&limit=70&search_type=product

Hierarchy of art making:

    1. Fine Art 

    2. Commercial Art

    3. Popular Culture

These operate as codes within a culture and are easy to decode if you live in that culture. But there are also sub-cultures and special interest groups. Codes change and we never stop learning them, especially from one generation to the next.

SEMIOTICS - is the study of meaning

We as artists or designers have to interpret the meaning of works. There is a three part method:

   1. Materiality (the paint used, board, etc.)

   2. Formalism (the line, shape, etc.)

   3. Content - denotation and connotation (deno - spotting what is there, conno - giving meaning to what was denoted).

Materiality:

Each culture has different materials available to it. The artists or designer chooses from them. For example the material (also read as technology) for an ipod was not available to your parents, it belongs to your generations when people had the correct material.

Formalism:

The formal elements:

     - line

     - colour

     - form/shape

     -composition

Content:

    - Denotation: what you see...

    - Connotation: what meaning do we attach to each denotation...

CULTURE CRITIQUE

Social conditions and issues are demonstrated in works of art.

We communicate non-verbally personally in the way we do things in our daily lives.

http://beauty101.org/cute-hair-styles/

Examples:

  - the way we wear our hair 

  - the clothes we wear distinguish us as belonging to a subculture or particular class, country or occupation

  - the car we drive may say something about our income, class or attitude to life

  - the way we arrange the things we have chosen for our house or room (esp. teenagers trying to be individual and independent whilst still living with the parents)

  - facial expressions and body language

  - tattoos or makeup

  - where our trousers start and finish or the amount of flesh we reveal

  - the gifts we give family and loved ones

  - greeting cards we choose for others

  - photos we may upload to social networking sites

  - the social activities we choose to do (eg. swimming, bingo, netball...)

and much much more.

CULTURE WE LIVE IN

Our culture has produced many media forms for Visual Communication to be "transmitted".

  - Television

  - Cinema

  - Magazines

  - Films (special effects and animation)

  - Photography

  - Advertising on billboards, TV included

  - Road and traffic signage

  - Merchandising in stores and store windows

  - Music videos, internet aswell

  - Computer games, animation

All the things you will do as a graphic designer will be responsible for cultures and sub-cultures.

http://www.gonzalobarr.com/blog/?cat=12

* Lecture by film producer Sir David Puttman, discusses movies of social and political importance. Puttman reveals the relevance of cinema in our lives and how cinema can reflect or damage our lives. Impeding and embedding ideas and values we may or may not have in our lives and hence we have what is called dislocation (imagination versus reality).

http://www.narooma.org.au/naroomacinemas.html

Medium: Cinema

In the digital age we value cinema, although it encourages conformity and can dislocate us from our lives. The Asian pacific and United States of America show a huge contrast to viewers who may believe they don't have what others do half way around the world, and start to question their culture and way of life.

    

              "Try to live beside them not instead of them"

Puttman is trying to say that everyone has to get a grip on their reality, culture and life. Of course we will be different from others, we all lead a different life and should not envy or be jealous of someone else, just be happy with reality and change it if necessary, not hate others because we don't have the same.

Cinema is the one true international language, used to spread values (both good and bad) and often propaganda, all in the name of storytelling. It's the social media experience, everyone goes and watches together and comes out discussing the issues or values brought up in the film.

Even the internet has come on board with this sharing of values, with sites like the very popular You Tube which has a records amount of downloads and viewing per day. Over one hundred thousand xlips are uploaded every week and even more are watched.

http://www.clingmanmusic.com/main/index.php?option=com_jukebox&view=category&id=38

The bottom line in cinema is to play with the viewers emotions, to reinforce and underline values in society. A reaction in the community is what they intend be it subtle or not. Cinema also helps to connect generations, by watching a film from the 1950's a person can have the feel of the clothes, hair styles, slang used when say their grandparents were children. A good film will help to overcome fear of indifference.

We have to choose different interpretations of reality, empathising and sympathising with others and their situations helps us overcome any dislocation. On the most part it is a quest for social justice. The mass media like to inflame people when exaggerating news. There is also a damage of out national identity. Because of mis-communication and mis-trust we get dislocation.

Example: 

   Man in the Mirror - Michael Jackson; has become a sentiment that's taken off.

   Making individual stand; on Global Warning.


*List of Movies: How they fit in? Serious or not? Reinforce good/bad values? Underline dominate paradigm of the time? dislocation?

These days there are many films that are being realised that fit into the romantic-comedy sometimes having a twist of disease or indifference to overcome. These films are of the imagination and often cause dislocation because they end up 'happily ever after'. They also reinforce the values of the time with the appearance of the characters, form hair and clothes to the place they live and work. Such as, 'Love and other drugs'.

http://www.what-song.com/movie/title.php?Title=Love%20and%20Other%20Drugs

   Some movies reinforce bad habits, like smoking, drinking and drug taking. They may not accept it but reveal it to the audience and continue it throughout the film. In movies like 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'.
  Other movies still like, 'The boy in the Striped Pajamas' set during World War II, has a very different influence on the audience. The very surreal tale encourages us in our own lives to live to our own and best.
    There is a huge variety of films out there and many more to be produced, all influencing one person or a thousand, it all depends on how content we are with our own reality and how broad our perspective is whether or not it has a dislocating effect or not.