This module has involved a close integration of written and visual responses. This synthesis, in theory should better inform the work produced. I have found that my interest in technical drawings have indeed been facilitated by the focus of mechanical advances in the home media industry within my research. My original area of study was based around product obsolescence, I felt that this was far too vast a theme to tackle in 3000 words. I refined my topic to one example of apparent obsolescence, being cinema and home media. I immediately found that this specificity enabled me to produce more satisfactory drawings, and find more relevant books on the topic to fuel my essay research.
The vast majority of the work produced in the module has existed as analogue drawings, with the finalised imagery made in photoshop. I have not experienced any particular problems during production thanks to the foresight to print my final imagery a week before the deadline.
I have improved greatly in my use of digital-based line work. Following on from my developments within the responsive module, I continued to refine my application of the pen tool and customised photoshop brushes resulting in work that can be produced quicker, and with a greater consistency of line quality and quicker production time. Although I have produced less visual journal work in comparison to previous examples, I have found the process less laborious. The journal has been the format through which I have developed the synthesis between theory and practice, by exploring ideas and concepts. Similarly to my previous essay, I found that the research topic was highly invigorating and was a great incentive to spur on the developments. I also improved upon the proper use of academic sources, rather than a plethora of websites. While last year's essay contained minimal use of such sources, the essay for this module had a much stronger bibliography sourcing books that I found highly enjoyable.
My prime regret for this module is not producing my finalised imagery through analogue practice. As I have aforementioned, I continued my investigations into digital due to the successes in other modules. Perhaps the digital process was more appropriate due to the topic, but I would have liked to make use of the analogue developments present in my journal. I initially set out to write an essay that was not too preoccupied with historical trivia, however I feel as though this was often present within the writing. This historical distraction meant that I was unable to explore some more in-depth theories in regards to the simulacrum of cinema, or hybrid franchises. I would have liked to touch upon the topic of nostalgia, and the role it had upon various technological revivals, but perhaps I was right to refrain from too much topical deviation.
If I had the opportunity to revisit the module I would ensure that my essay and visual responses had a greater integration, perhaps to the extent that the two could be produced as a singular publication. I feel as though the illustrations I produced would have benefitted from being printed on a larger scale. My decision to produce hot-dog books reduced the over-all size I could print. The format of the book would also have allowed for the printing of a large design on the back, which I refrained from doing.
I would suggest that my project would have been improved if I added more informative text to the booklet. Again, the format of the hot-dog book prevented this, however a traditional bound booklet would have allowed for spreads of illustration and text, similarly to the book Aircraft of WW1 discussed in a previous blog post. I would suggest there was potential for producing moving image, considering the focus on cinema throughout the module. One of my earlier concepts involved appropriating waste materials, while to some extent I have touched upon this with the found VHS tapes, I would have liked extend this further.
To conclude, I am more or less pleased with what I have produced during the module. My time planning has meant that I have not rushed any particular part of production, and the imagery is satisfactorily finalised. While other modules have been prioritised during the length of CoP, I have ensured to habitually produce work within the visual journal. This consistency has led to an improved synthesis when writing the essay portion of the module, to the extent that I would draw in the journal when breaking from the essay.
Monday, 27 April 2015
Context of Practice 2: Essay Response
Has home video rendered the cinema obsolete?
The following discourse aims to focus on three technological developments in the history of home video. By applying Marxist methodologies, with particular reference to Walter Benjamin the discourse will examine to what extent home video has rendered cinema technically and socially obsolete. Cinemas offer an artificial environment that influences the viewer’s perception of the screened film. To elaborate; cinemas invite viewers to not only personally consider the film, but to compare and respond to the perceptions of every individual in the theatre. Home video liberates the viewer from being tied to an exterior simulacrum, allowing them to choose the manner in which they view films. The home video initially entered the mass consumer base in the late 1970s with the introduction of VHS and Betamax. Since the cassette, home video has expanded into the Internet, where casual piracy has continued to threaten the wider industry.
When Walter Benjamin (1936) celebrated the transitional characteristics of film, the medium was in its primal stages of development. Benjamin compared the experience of film to the ‘increased threat to his life which modern man has to face… the film corresponds to profound changes in the appreciative apparatus’. To him, film represented a microcosm of the greater mechanisation of art. Benjamin described ‘Aura’ as the intangible value attached to original artworks and their inherent sensual labour. Mechanical reproduction therefore was a process that diminished ‘aura’ by removing it from the art gallery and placing it in the hands of the viewer. Benjamin hailed cinema as a liberating medium, one that came and ‘burst this prison-world [of modernity] asunder by the dynamite of the tenth of a second.’ To Benjamin, the birth of cinema was a symbolic victory against established metropolitan environments, however the following discourse would suggest that film in the modern cinematic environment also exerts a form of aura and thus a form of control. The constructed environment of the modern cinema may be compared to that of the art gallery, where the viewing space has been devised to amplify the effect of crowd perception. This simulacrum, or simulated environment may be considered as the postmodern successor of aura or that what intangibly communicates the ‘domain of tradition’. The simulacrum of the cinema is constructed from omnipresent CCTV surveillance, lifts, ticket-checkpoints and various rules all of which restrict freedom of movement and action. The effect of the simulacrum is to influence the audience to think, act and respond emotionally through environmental conditioning.
The videocassette recorder or VCR was the first product that enabled the viewer to capture television at their convenience. Fig 1 demonstrates the primary selling point marketers focussed on; the ability for viewers to miss live television content, with the security of being able to watch it at a later time. This changed the incorporeal nature of film viewing into a format of entertainment that could be saved on tape, then hoarded, shared or sold, just as mechanised reprographics had done so with the work of art. The VCR hindered the ability of television and cinema to confine viewers to one place at a set time. The consumer was also enabled actively avoid advertisements by fast-forwarding their prerecording. As Beller (2006) explains, screen based media primarily capitalises on ‘value-producing human attention’. Thus, the consumer was now at liberty to chose the time in which they gave their attention, rather than complacently obeying the schedule of television and cinema. Initial resentment amongst film corporations climaxed in the US Supreme Court case Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios 464 U.S. 417 (1984), in which companies attempted to sue Sony, arguing that the Betamax VCR could be used for copyright infringement. The court ruled in favour of Sony adding that ‘time-shifting merely enables a viewer to see such a work which he had been invited to witness in its entirety free of charge’. With the Supreme Court siding with Sony, the viewer has since enjoyed the liberty to record any footage broadcast on television. This freedom to consume films for free is a large contributory reason why modern viewers maintain an attitude of entitlement; they expect instant gratification and are unlikely to shy away from piracy to obtain the entertainment they want.
The market was initially polarised into two main competitors with their own unique formats, JVC’s VHS and Sony’s Betamax. Although each product initially offered essentially the same service, the Betamax differed in its ability to capture sixty minutes of slightly higher quality video, while the VHS could capture up to two hours of average quality. JVC licensed their technology to a multitude of electronics manufacturers, thus increasing internal competition and lowering prices. The longer duration and cheaper production value allowed the VHS format to dominate the film rental market and render the Betamax obsolete. Sony had failed to appreciate that the audience as Neil Fiske (2003) described; was a ‘sophisticated and discerning consumer with high aspirations and substantial buying power and clout’. Consumers found that home entertainment was a more affordable and flexible alternative to habitual trips to the cinema. Visual quality was an acceptable trade-off for instant gratification, much like modern consumers frequently stream films at low quality rather than paying for a cinema admission price or purchase a download. The video rental industry extended the decline of cinema attendance, which had long been driven into the ground since the introduction of television. According to the Cinema Exhibitors’ Association (2015), the nadir of cinema attendance occurred in 1984, at which point it was figured that there were less than 60 million admissions to movie theatres in the UK compared to a peak of 1.64 billion admissions in 1946.
In 1995, a consortium of seventeen electronics manufacturers gathered to decide upon a standard digital format in anticipation of another costly format war as experienced with the previous decade’s VHS and Betamax conflict. The primary contestants were again divided in two, with Philips and Sony’s multimedia compact disc or MMCD competing against the Super Density Disc, supported by a plethora of companies such as Toshiba, Time-Warner and JVC. After the intervention of third parties such as IBM’s president Lou Gerstner, the competitors united under one combined format, the Digital Versatile Disc or DVD. DVD players were marketed to the international mainstream audience in the late 1990s. Region locking had been explored in video game consoles in the previous decade and had enabled manufacturers to extend control over international releases. The manufacturers applied region locking by encoding DVDs into six regions, allowing for studios to precisely time global releases and prevent unregulated trading. In hindsight, DVDs were mired with technical flaws. While the VHS tape was somewhat durable even when devoid of case, the DVD is quite fragile and susceptible to dust, stains and scratches capable of ruining the content. The overall proportions of the DVD case were a direct reference to the VHS, a comforting visual reference for consumers as well as an opportunity for manufacturers to reuse existing artwork. The disproportionately larger packaging also made DVDs distinct from CDs and thus made them seem more valuable.
During the late 1990s, PC ownership and access to the Internet rose sharply as prices lowered significantly. A cycle of product obsolescence caused an exponential advance in processing power and Internet speeds. A combination of marketing and social pressures ensured that consumers recognised the advantages of faster and marginally improved machines and persuaded them to spend accordingly. Apple’s introduction of the general user interface made computers easier to use for a wider casual market, where earlier DOS-based systems had initially put them off. In 1997 the first online video hosting website shareyourworld.com was introduced, it endured for four years before closing but paved the way for future video hosting sites. Later sites such as The Pirate Bay specialised in the indexing of torrent files. To elaborate on the process; BitTorrent is particularly efficient at distributing large files. Rather than relying on a single source, the downloader joins a collective swarm of users, both uploading and downloading from each other simultaneously. Sites that share and archive torrents are enabling the process of illegal file sharing, rather than being the active party who hosts the files. In this sense, the notion of illegal file sharing is abstracted and more difficult to prosecute. According to Envisional, (2011), a group formed by NBC Universal, eDonkey, a peer-to-peer service was compromised of 98.8% copyrighted material. Computer savvy consumers recognised the widely unregulated Internet as an opportunity to download films for free, view them on their computer, or even burn them onto a disc for further circulation.
Fig 2 is a screenshot taken from the relatively short information film, ‘The Pirates are Out to Get You, 2002’ This segment was inserted into the majority of rental and retail VHS tapes. The film makes some rather sensational claims including; ‘piracy funds terrorism.’ The latter quote has a particular weight considering the near-memory of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre, less than a year before. The portrayal of the pirate as a bald, sweating and obese man conjures connotations of greed and disease. The red hues, open fires and abundant smoke and steam seem to convey images of hell and damnation. Certainly, the advert is painting piracy as a threat to humanity, rather than simply an affront to manufacturer’s profits, which is openly suggested by the voiceover who grimly warns that piracy will ‘will destroy our development and your future enjoyment’.
. Fig 3 shows two screenshots of the public information film ‘Piracy it’s a crime, 2004’. In this film composed of relentlessly jerky fast cuts and a thrashing metal beat, the Motion Picture Association reminds the viewer that they are unlikely to engage in the theft of cars, handbags or televisions, reasoning that therefore the viewer should refrain from engaging in illegal downloads. The short fifty second film was added to the majority of commercially available DVDs, whilst encoding prevent users from skipping the film. To the surprise of one viewer, the Dutch musician Melchior Reitveldt, the thrashing music in the film was oddly familiar. In-fact Reitveldt had written the song for an anti piracy advert with the expressed intention to be played at a singular film festival. Rather as Kruszelnicki (2013) reported, the song ‘had been illegally used on dozens of movie DVDs’, all while the musician received no royalties. It wasn’t until 2012 after a plethora of bureaucratic procrastination that the artist received the royalties owed to him.
Piracy therefore is a direct threat to both home media and cinema industries, however piracy must be recognised as a form through which viewers can enjoy home entertainment. Piracy is enabled by users being technically informed, rather than relying on the transaction of wealth. A distant example of rampant piracy exists in Spain, where according to Llwellyn (2010), La Coalition found that 83.7% of movies downloaded in 2009 were done so illegally.
Netflix was conceived as an online DVD rental service in 1999, the introduction of a monthly subscription fee eliminated the need for individual shipping costs and late return payments. This holistic business model was unique, in that it could be equally applied to the users of the streaming service introduced years later. Netflix also ushered in an era of on-demand services, as Sandvine (2013) detailed, peer-to-peer downloads fell to less than 10% of the total bandwidth share, while they had enjoyed a 60% share a decade earlier. The consumer has turned to the instantly gratifying services such as Netflix, rather than waiting hours for a torrent. According to the aforementioned source, Netflix accounts for a 20% share of downstream Internet traffic in the UK. Netflix presents the consumer with the option to pay a periodic membership fee in order to watch a limited library of licensed films from the comfort of their own home on a variety of devices, including games consoles, PCs, and unsurprisingly tablet devices. As Anthony Oliver Scott remarked, ‘it is now possible to imagine – to expect – that before too long the entire surviving history of movies will be open for browsing and sampling at the click of a mouse for a few Paypall dollars.’ Though we have not reached this climax of an all encompassing digital library, the Internet certainly offers a more expansive medium for viewers to habitually and instantly consume videos. In addition, the Internet enables content creators, artists and directors to distribute videos to an international audience without the need of third party publishing or physical reproduction. In this sense, cinema seems obsolete; offering relatively sparse opportunities for independent filmmakers.
The superficially utopian image of an open internet with assured fame and wealth for all contributors contrasts with the modern cinema.
Conversely to the previous point, the Internet is not a utopia. An effect of a levelled entry point for content creators is an overall saturation. Independent filmmakers are lost to what Ken Garland (1964) and his collaborators once referred to as the ‘high pitched scream of consumer selling’. In the noise, consumers gravitate to the familiar, evidenced by the lack of originality witnessed by many modern releases. The box office successes generally involve a familiar brand, logo or franchise. Even as a concept is seemingly exploited in full, producers do not shy from total reboots, as seen recently with Star Trek (2009), The Amazing Spider Man (2012), or the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). Cinema is on average a conveyer-belt of the same products periodically regurgitated with aesthetic, social and cultural updates. In this way, cinema primarily commodifies familiar visual culture. Independent content producers are also less equipped to prosecute piracy compared to larger corporations. In addition, those that rely on advertising revenue when hosting on sites such as Youtube are vulnerable to users applying advertising blocking plugins.
The cinema’s simulacrum is at times a caricature of western society. The standard VUE cinema involves binary viewer class system, those attempting to save money being ‘standard’, and those who wish for marginally more comfortable seating at the additional cost of £1.50. The latter individuals with apparent greater aspirations of seating are referred to as ‘VIPs’, insinuating that anyone not willing to purchase the right to seat themselves in bigger chairs are not important. VUE forbids the consumption of hot food bought outside the premises, whilst offering it’s own range of hot foods at inflated prices. Behaviour deemed antisocial is responded to with forced expulsion and possible prohibition from all future screenings. Bryman (2004) referred to this commercialist simulacrum as ‘Disneyization’, which in effect ‘exchanges the mundane blandness of homogenised consumption experiences with frequently spectacle experiences’. In short, the environment conditions the consumer to spend more, and have fun whilst they are doing it. Cinemas have applied theming, which involves association with an unrelated exterior culture or environment. An example of this would be modern cinemas that have been refurbished to appear more archaic, to inspire notions of nostalgia and old Hollywood. All of the aforementioned elements of the average big brand cinema would seem to have a negative effect on public perception. Cinema attendance has continued to diminish, according to the Hollywood Reporter (2014) 1.26 Billion consumers attended the cinema in the USA and Canada, the lowest numbers since 1995. The rising ticket prices and drastically higher prices for 3D performances have discouraged the consumers from venturing forth to the cinema aisles. Self-proclaimed industry changing epics such as AVATAR (2009) seems to have done little to sway public opinion.
An example of simulated environment would be ‘Secret Cinema’ (see fig 4) which attracts a cult following by situating screenings in locations related to the screened film. The events require viewers to attend in a prescribed dress code, also related to the film. These screenings involve performative labour; the use of paid actors to play roles and wander amongst the viewers, much as performers impersonate Disney characters and inhabit the Disney theme parks. Secret Cinema capitalises on the audiences’ palette for total immersion, only partially offered by the gleaming illusions of 3D technology and the escapism of video games.
To conclude, cinema and home media are competing forces that capitalise on mental activity rather than traditional labour. Consumers of film willingly subject themselves to emotional manipulation. The implicit value of this experience is realised in the price of an admission ticket, the cost of a DVD or the subscription fee of Netflix. The rise of home media formats has pushed emphasis onto material organisation; that is to say the access to an Internet connection, or enough disposable income to invest in relevant technologies. The cinema offers a simulacrum, a manufactured atmosphere in which the consumer is invited to spend, sit and enjoy. The simulacrum has evolved from advances pioneered in Disneyland, introducing notions of theming, hybrid consumption, merchandising and performative labour. This immersion would seem to be the last device cinema may offer that home video cannot. Screenings by organisations such as Secret Cinema are unique, and cannot be digitally reproduced with any modern technology as of yet.
Perhaps the recent developments in the virtual reality industry, with the introduction of accessible products such as the Oculus Rift are a foreboding signifier of what is yet to come. Home video offers only the familiar environment; the enabling of the consumer to exert minimal effort to enjoy visual sensuality. Home video liberates viewers from the requirement to subject themselves to synthesised environmental control, and perhaps it is that choice that matters. Benjamin’s original vision of a social emancipation born from collective cinematic viewing has evolved into a consumer paradise of polymorphous franchises that extend their reach from the cinema into an innumerable amount of contexts such as television, streaming, social media, video games and merchandise.
Home video has not rendered the cinema experience obsolete, it has simply been absorbed into a larger multitudinous form of commercial symbiosis.
Bibliography
BELLER, Jonathan, 2006, ‘The Cinematic Mode of Production’ Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA, University Press of New England
BENJAMIN, Walter, 2008 (1936) ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’, London, Penguin UK
BRYMAN, Alan, 2004, ‘The Disneyization of Society’, London, SAGE Publications
Cinema Exhibitors Association Limited, (2015)
http://www.cinemauk.org.uk/facts-and-figures/admissions/annual-uk-cinema-admissions-1935-2013/
Envisional, (2011)
http://documents.envisional.com/docs/Envisional-Internet_Usage-Jan2011.pdf
FISKE, Neil, 2003 (2008 Paperback Edition), ‘Trading Up’, London, Penguin Books Ltd
GARLAND, Ken, 1964, ‘First Things First Manifesto’, London, Goodwin Press Ltd
KRUSZELNICKI, Karl S, 29th of January 2013, ‘Anti-pirating music stolen’, ABC,
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2013/01/29/3678851.htm
KATZ, James, 2006, ‘Machines that Become Us’, New Jersey, USA, Transaction Publishers
LLEWELLYN, Howell, 10th of Jun, 2010, Billboard, http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/1205759/spanish-online-piracy-rate-nears-96
MCCLINTOCK, Pamela, 31st of December, 2014, Hollywood Reporter
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-2014-moviegoing-hits-760766?
Sandvine (2013), Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
https://www.sandvine.com/pr/2013/11/11/sandvine-report-netflix-and-youtube-account-for-50-of-all-north-american-fixed-network-data.html
SCOTT, Anthony Oliver, 2007, ‘The Shape of Cinema, Transformed at the Click of a Mouse’, New York, New York Times
SHAVIRO, Steven, 2009, ‘Post Cinematic Affect’, UK, Anthony Rowe
HAKE, Sabine, 1993, ‘The Cinema’s Third Machine’, Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press
SLADE, GIles, 2006, ‘Made to Break’, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press
Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios 464 U.S. 417 (1984)
Fig 1, JVC, 1978 an advertisement for the JCV Home System,
Fig 2, F.A.C.T. -Federation Against Copyright Theft, 2002, ‘The Pirates Are Out to Get You’ public information film, found at the beginning of most retail and rental VHS tapes in the UK
Fig 3, Motion Picture Association, 2004, ‘Piracy it’s a Crime’ PSA
Fig 4, Secret Cinema, 2011, A promotional image taken at a screening of ‘The Battle of Algiers’ (no photographer credit given), London
The following discourse aims to focus on three technological developments in the history of home video. By applying Marxist methodologies, with particular reference to Walter Benjamin the discourse will examine to what extent home video has rendered cinema technically and socially obsolete. Cinemas offer an artificial environment that influences the viewer’s perception of the screened film. To elaborate; cinemas invite viewers to not only personally consider the film, but to compare and respond to the perceptions of every individual in the theatre. Home video liberates the viewer from being tied to an exterior simulacrum, allowing them to choose the manner in which they view films. The home video initially entered the mass consumer base in the late 1970s with the introduction of VHS and Betamax. Since the cassette, home video has expanded into the Internet, where casual piracy has continued to threaten the wider industry.
When Walter Benjamin (1936) celebrated the transitional characteristics of film, the medium was in its primal stages of development. Benjamin compared the experience of film to the ‘increased threat to his life which modern man has to face… the film corresponds to profound changes in the appreciative apparatus’. To him, film represented a microcosm of the greater mechanisation of art. Benjamin described ‘Aura’ as the intangible value attached to original artworks and their inherent sensual labour. Mechanical reproduction therefore was a process that diminished ‘aura’ by removing it from the art gallery and placing it in the hands of the viewer. Benjamin hailed cinema as a liberating medium, one that came and ‘burst this prison-world [of modernity] asunder by the dynamite of the tenth of a second.’ To Benjamin, the birth of cinema was a symbolic victory against established metropolitan environments, however the following discourse would suggest that film in the modern cinematic environment also exerts a form of aura and thus a form of control. The constructed environment of the modern cinema may be compared to that of the art gallery, where the viewing space has been devised to amplify the effect of crowd perception. This simulacrum, or simulated environment may be considered as the postmodern successor of aura or that what intangibly communicates the ‘domain of tradition’. The simulacrum of the cinema is constructed from omnipresent CCTV surveillance, lifts, ticket-checkpoints and various rules all of which restrict freedom of movement and action. The effect of the simulacrum is to influence the audience to think, act and respond emotionally through environmental conditioning.
The videocassette recorder or VCR was the first product that enabled the viewer to capture television at their convenience. Fig 1 demonstrates the primary selling point marketers focussed on; the ability for viewers to miss live television content, with the security of being able to watch it at a later time. This changed the incorporeal nature of film viewing into a format of entertainment that could be saved on tape, then hoarded, shared or sold, just as mechanised reprographics had done so with the work of art. The VCR hindered the ability of television and cinema to confine viewers to one place at a set time. The consumer was also enabled actively avoid advertisements by fast-forwarding their prerecording. As Beller (2006) explains, screen based media primarily capitalises on ‘value-producing human attention’. Thus, the consumer was now at liberty to chose the time in which they gave their attention, rather than complacently obeying the schedule of television and cinema. Initial resentment amongst film corporations climaxed in the US Supreme Court case Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios 464 U.S. 417 (1984), in which companies attempted to sue Sony, arguing that the Betamax VCR could be used for copyright infringement. The court ruled in favour of Sony adding that ‘time-shifting merely enables a viewer to see such a work which he had been invited to witness in its entirety free of charge’. With the Supreme Court siding with Sony, the viewer has since enjoyed the liberty to record any footage broadcast on television. This freedom to consume films for free is a large contributory reason why modern viewers maintain an attitude of entitlement; they expect instant gratification and are unlikely to shy away from piracy to obtain the entertainment they want.
The market was initially polarised into two main competitors with their own unique formats, JVC’s VHS and Sony’s Betamax. Although each product initially offered essentially the same service, the Betamax differed in its ability to capture sixty minutes of slightly higher quality video, while the VHS could capture up to two hours of average quality. JVC licensed their technology to a multitude of electronics manufacturers, thus increasing internal competition and lowering prices. The longer duration and cheaper production value allowed the VHS format to dominate the film rental market and render the Betamax obsolete. Sony had failed to appreciate that the audience as Neil Fiske (2003) described; was a ‘sophisticated and discerning consumer with high aspirations and substantial buying power and clout’. Consumers found that home entertainment was a more affordable and flexible alternative to habitual trips to the cinema. Visual quality was an acceptable trade-off for instant gratification, much like modern consumers frequently stream films at low quality rather than paying for a cinema admission price or purchase a download. The video rental industry extended the decline of cinema attendance, which had long been driven into the ground since the introduction of television. According to the Cinema Exhibitors’ Association (2015), the nadir of cinema attendance occurred in 1984, at which point it was figured that there were less than 60 million admissions to movie theatres in the UK compared to a peak of 1.64 billion admissions in 1946.
In 1995, a consortium of seventeen electronics manufacturers gathered to decide upon a standard digital format in anticipation of another costly format war as experienced with the previous decade’s VHS and Betamax conflict. The primary contestants were again divided in two, with Philips and Sony’s multimedia compact disc or MMCD competing against the Super Density Disc, supported by a plethora of companies such as Toshiba, Time-Warner and JVC. After the intervention of third parties such as IBM’s president Lou Gerstner, the competitors united under one combined format, the Digital Versatile Disc or DVD. DVD players were marketed to the international mainstream audience in the late 1990s. Region locking had been explored in video game consoles in the previous decade and had enabled manufacturers to extend control over international releases. The manufacturers applied region locking by encoding DVDs into six regions, allowing for studios to precisely time global releases and prevent unregulated trading. In hindsight, DVDs were mired with technical flaws. While the VHS tape was somewhat durable even when devoid of case, the DVD is quite fragile and susceptible to dust, stains and scratches capable of ruining the content. The overall proportions of the DVD case were a direct reference to the VHS, a comforting visual reference for consumers as well as an opportunity for manufacturers to reuse existing artwork. The disproportionately larger packaging also made DVDs distinct from CDs and thus made them seem more valuable.
During the late 1990s, PC ownership and access to the Internet rose sharply as prices lowered significantly. A cycle of product obsolescence caused an exponential advance in processing power and Internet speeds. A combination of marketing and social pressures ensured that consumers recognised the advantages of faster and marginally improved machines and persuaded them to spend accordingly. Apple’s introduction of the general user interface made computers easier to use for a wider casual market, where earlier DOS-based systems had initially put them off. In 1997 the first online video hosting website shareyourworld.com was introduced, it endured for four years before closing but paved the way for future video hosting sites. Later sites such as The Pirate Bay specialised in the indexing of torrent files. To elaborate on the process; BitTorrent is particularly efficient at distributing large files. Rather than relying on a single source, the downloader joins a collective swarm of users, both uploading and downloading from each other simultaneously. Sites that share and archive torrents are enabling the process of illegal file sharing, rather than being the active party who hosts the files. In this sense, the notion of illegal file sharing is abstracted and more difficult to prosecute. According to Envisional, (2011), a group formed by NBC Universal, eDonkey, a peer-to-peer service was compromised of 98.8% copyrighted material. Computer savvy consumers recognised the widely unregulated Internet as an opportunity to download films for free, view them on their computer, or even burn them onto a disc for further circulation.
Fig 2 is a screenshot taken from the relatively short information film, ‘The Pirates are Out to Get You, 2002’ This segment was inserted into the majority of rental and retail VHS tapes. The film makes some rather sensational claims including; ‘piracy funds terrorism.’ The latter quote has a particular weight considering the near-memory of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre, less than a year before. The portrayal of the pirate as a bald, sweating and obese man conjures connotations of greed and disease. The red hues, open fires and abundant smoke and steam seem to convey images of hell and damnation. Certainly, the advert is painting piracy as a threat to humanity, rather than simply an affront to manufacturer’s profits, which is openly suggested by the voiceover who grimly warns that piracy will ‘will destroy our development and your future enjoyment’.
. Fig 3 shows two screenshots of the public information film ‘Piracy it’s a crime, 2004’. In this film composed of relentlessly jerky fast cuts and a thrashing metal beat, the Motion Picture Association reminds the viewer that they are unlikely to engage in the theft of cars, handbags or televisions, reasoning that therefore the viewer should refrain from engaging in illegal downloads. The short fifty second film was added to the majority of commercially available DVDs, whilst encoding prevent users from skipping the film. To the surprise of one viewer, the Dutch musician Melchior Reitveldt, the thrashing music in the film was oddly familiar. In-fact Reitveldt had written the song for an anti piracy advert with the expressed intention to be played at a singular film festival. Rather as Kruszelnicki (2013) reported, the song ‘had been illegally used on dozens of movie DVDs’, all while the musician received no royalties. It wasn’t until 2012 after a plethora of bureaucratic procrastination that the artist received the royalties owed to him.
Piracy therefore is a direct threat to both home media and cinema industries, however piracy must be recognised as a form through which viewers can enjoy home entertainment. Piracy is enabled by users being technically informed, rather than relying on the transaction of wealth. A distant example of rampant piracy exists in Spain, where according to Llwellyn (2010), La Coalition found that 83.7% of movies downloaded in 2009 were done so illegally.
Netflix was conceived as an online DVD rental service in 1999, the introduction of a monthly subscription fee eliminated the need for individual shipping costs and late return payments. This holistic business model was unique, in that it could be equally applied to the users of the streaming service introduced years later. Netflix also ushered in an era of on-demand services, as Sandvine (2013) detailed, peer-to-peer downloads fell to less than 10% of the total bandwidth share, while they had enjoyed a 60% share a decade earlier. The consumer has turned to the instantly gratifying services such as Netflix, rather than waiting hours for a torrent. According to the aforementioned source, Netflix accounts for a 20% share of downstream Internet traffic in the UK. Netflix presents the consumer with the option to pay a periodic membership fee in order to watch a limited library of licensed films from the comfort of their own home on a variety of devices, including games consoles, PCs, and unsurprisingly tablet devices. As Anthony Oliver Scott remarked, ‘it is now possible to imagine – to expect – that before too long the entire surviving history of movies will be open for browsing and sampling at the click of a mouse for a few Paypall dollars.’ Though we have not reached this climax of an all encompassing digital library, the Internet certainly offers a more expansive medium for viewers to habitually and instantly consume videos. In addition, the Internet enables content creators, artists and directors to distribute videos to an international audience without the need of third party publishing or physical reproduction. In this sense, cinema seems obsolete; offering relatively sparse opportunities for independent filmmakers.
The superficially utopian image of an open internet with assured fame and wealth for all contributors contrasts with the modern cinema.
Conversely to the previous point, the Internet is not a utopia. An effect of a levelled entry point for content creators is an overall saturation. Independent filmmakers are lost to what Ken Garland (1964) and his collaborators once referred to as the ‘high pitched scream of consumer selling’. In the noise, consumers gravitate to the familiar, evidenced by the lack of originality witnessed by many modern releases. The box office successes generally involve a familiar brand, logo or franchise. Even as a concept is seemingly exploited in full, producers do not shy from total reboots, as seen recently with Star Trek (2009), The Amazing Spider Man (2012), or the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). Cinema is on average a conveyer-belt of the same products periodically regurgitated with aesthetic, social and cultural updates. In this way, cinema primarily commodifies familiar visual culture. Independent content producers are also less equipped to prosecute piracy compared to larger corporations. In addition, those that rely on advertising revenue when hosting on sites such as Youtube are vulnerable to users applying advertising blocking plugins.
The cinema’s simulacrum is at times a caricature of western society. The standard VUE cinema involves binary viewer class system, those attempting to save money being ‘standard’, and those who wish for marginally more comfortable seating at the additional cost of £1.50. The latter individuals with apparent greater aspirations of seating are referred to as ‘VIPs’, insinuating that anyone not willing to purchase the right to seat themselves in bigger chairs are not important. VUE forbids the consumption of hot food bought outside the premises, whilst offering it’s own range of hot foods at inflated prices. Behaviour deemed antisocial is responded to with forced expulsion and possible prohibition from all future screenings. Bryman (2004) referred to this commercialist simulacrum as ‘Disneyization’, which in effect ‘exchanges the mundane blandness of homogenised consumption experiences with frequently spectacle experiences’. In short, the environment conditions the consumer to spend more, and have fun whilst they are doing it. Cinemas have applied theming, which involves association with an unrelated exterior culture or environment. An example of this would be modern cinemas that have been refurbished to appear more archaic, to inspire notions of nostalgia and old Hollywood. All of the aforementioned elements of the average big brand cinema would seem to have a negative effect on public perception. Cinema attendance has continued to diminish, according to the Hollywood Reporter (2014) 1.26 Billion consumers attended the cinema in the USA and Canada, the lowest numbers since 1995. The rising ticket prices and drastically higher prices for 3D performances have discouraged the consumers from venturing forth to the cinema aisles. Self-proclaimed industry changing epics such as AVATAR (2009) seems to have done little to sway public opinion.
An example of simulated environment would be ‘Secret Cinema’ (see fig 4) which attracts a cult following by situating screenings in locations related to the screened film. The events require viewers to attend in a prescribed dress code, also related to the film. These screenings involve performative labour; the use of paid actors to play roles and wander amongst the viewers, much as performers impersonate Disney characters and inhabit the Disney theme parks. Secret Cinema capitalises on the audiences’ palette for total immersion, only partially offered by the gleaming illusions of 3D technology and the escapism of video games.
To conclude, cinema and home media are competing forces that capitalise on mental activity rather than traditional labour. Consumers of film willingly subject themselves to emotional manipulation. The implicit value of this experience is realised in the price of an admission ticket, the cost of a DVD or the subscription fee of Netflix. The rise of home media formats has pushed emphasis onto material organisation; that is to say the access to an Internet connection, or enough disposable income to invest in relevant technologies. The cinema offers a simulacrum, a manufactured atmosphere in which the consumer is invited to spend, sit and enjoy. The simulacrum has evolved from advances pioneered in Disneyland, introducing notions of theming, hybrid consumption, merchandising and performative labour. This immersion would seem to be the last device cinema may offer that home video cannot. Screenings by organisations such as Secret Cinema are unique, and cannot be digitally reproduced with any modern technology as of yet.
Perhaps the recent developments in the virtual reality industry, with the introduction of accessible products such as the Oculus Rift are a foreboding signifier of what is yet to come. Home video offers only the familiar environment; the enabling of the consumer to exert minimal effort to enjoy visual sensuality. Home video liberates viewers from the requirement to subject themselves to synthesised environmental control, and perhaps it is that choice that matters. Benjamin’s original vision of a social emancipation born from collective cinematic viewing has evolved into a consumer paradise of polymorphous franchises that extend their reach from the cinema into an innumerable amount of contexts such as television, streaming, social media, video games and merchandise.
Home video has not rendered the cinema experience obsolete, it has simply been absorbed into a larger multitudinous form of commercial symbiosis.
Bibliography
BELLER, Jonathan, 2006, ‘The Cinematic Mode of Production’ Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA, University Press of New England
BENJAMIN, Walter, 2008 (1936) ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’, London, Penguin UK
BRYMAN, Alan, 2004, ‘The Disneyization of Society’, London, SAGE Publications
Cinema Exhibitors Association Limited, (2015)
http://www.cinemauk.org.uk/facts-and-figures/admissions/annual-uk-cinema-admissions-1935-2013/
Envisional, (2011)
http://documents.envisional.com/docs/Envisional-Internet_Usage-Jan2011.pdf
FISKE, Neil, 2003 (2008 Paperback Edition), ‘Trading Up’, London, Penguin Books Ltd
GARLAND, Ken, 1964, ‘First Things First Manifesto’, London, Goodwin Press Ltd
KRUSZELNICKI, Karl S, 29th of January 2013, ‘Anti-pirating music stolen’, ABC,
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2013/01/29/3678851.htm
KATZ, James, 2006, ‘Machines that Become Us’, New Jersey, USA, Transaction Publishers
LLEWELLYN, Howell, 10th of Jun, 2010, Billboard, http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/1205759/spanish-online-piracy-rate-nears-96
MCCLINTOCK, Pamela, 31st of December, 2014, Hollywood Reporter
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-2014-moviegoing-hits-760766?
Sandvine (2013), Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
https://www.sandvine.com/pr/2013/11/11/sandvine-report-netflix-and-youtube-account-for-50-of-all-north-american-fixed-network-data.html
SCOTT, Anthony Oliver, 2007, ‘The Shape of Cinema, Transformed at the Click of a Mouse’, New York, New York Times
SHAVIRO, Steven, 2009, ‘Post Cinematic Affect’, UK, Anthony Rowe
HAKE, Sabine, 1993, ‘The Cinema’s Third Machine’, Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press
SLADE, GIles, 2006, ‘Made to Break’, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press
Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios 464 U.S. 417 (1984)
Fig 1, JVC, 1978 an advertisement for the JCV Home System,
Fig 4, Secret Cinema, 2011, A promotional image taken at a screening of ‘The Battle of Algiers’ (no photographer credit given), London
Context of Practice 2: Final VHS Cover
As stated in a previous post, I discovered these VHS cases in a hipster clothing boutique. I deliberately took the most sticker-clad case as it suggested the item had a long history of ownership, eventually ending up as a mock-up tool for this project.
I also took a relatively unmarked case for presentational purposes, although it required some cleaning to remove dust.
In relation to my essay, I find that the discarded valueless VHS tapes are illustrative of the face-paced development of home media. The cycle of technological obsolescence has rendered a medium that was once the revered as an alternative to cinema may now be found as cheap window dressings.
I would suggest that a sort of nostalgic revival is already underway, with various collectors searching for the huge catalogue of titles that never transcended to DVD or Digital Download.
Thursday, 23 April 2015
Context of Practice 2: VHS Cover
To present the book I have appropriated a VHS case as packaging. This gives me the opportunity to create an original cover design.
It was surprisingly difficult to find VHS cases. It seems that every charity shop in Leeds has sent their VHS cassettes to recycling firms. Thankfully I remembered that a hipster clothing boutique uses cases as fashionable prop. Upon enquiry the shop owner let me take a bunch of cases free of charge.
Using archaic 90s cover design as reference I produced the following sleeve:
Wednesday, 22 April 2015
Context of Practice: VHS Cover Contextual Reference
To inform the aesthetic decisions involved in producing the VHS cover I have referred to several examples of contextual design.
I have focussed on the imagery used for blank recording tapes, as my essay analysed more of the technical characteristics of home media, rather than mentioning specific content. Thus, I would suggest that it would be wrong to design a cover based on any particular film franchise etc.
Context of Practice 2: Texture
Although my final resolved imagery has not made use of textures, I have nevertheless found it pleasing to produce several pages of textures based on VCR static. The resolved imagery is monochromatic and made over a long period of concentrated drawing, the textures were a sort of antidote to such an involved project.
Tuesday, 21 April 2015
Context of Practice 2: Final Imagery
I have spent the available time over the last week to develop the final imagery. Each design has been drawn at A3, although I intend to scale it down somewhat.
I find that each design is progressively better than the last, as I have developed my use of digital line art throughout the process. I am pleased with how the imagery was finalised. The imagery has been directly informed by the essay. The synthesis is somewhat obvious, as I have simply illustrated the technical advancements present in the essay. I would suggest that had I made accompanying text explaining each innovation (potentially on the reverse side of the hot-dog book) the synthesis would have been improved to a greater extent.
Monday, 20 April 2015
Context of Practice 2: Visual Reference
To produce the disemboweled technical drawings I have referred to online archives. There are obviously many communities and hobbyists that share the imagery of a vast quantity of device circuitry. With modern devices such as the Mac Book Pro, it has become more specialised due to Apple's policy to avoid informing their customers about fixing products (thus to generate revenue through their own inflated repair fees). I found that this aspect oddly connected to some of my earlier research into planned obsolescence. Apple frequently changes the shape of their screw-heads to discourage individual repair, the designs are so odd, that there are often very few reliable sources to purchase the relevant screwdrivers from.
Thursday, 2 April 2015
Context of Practice 2: Contextual Reference
I have recently been looking at the artwork of Kerby Rosanes. The artist produces artwork that uses highly involved detail, balanced with negative space. Interestingly, I use the same standard fine liners they have used to create the imagery. The drawings are obviously fantastical, but maintain attention to technical accuracy, which is a characteristic I aim to produce within my illustration.
Philipp Hennevogl creates fantastic linocuts teaming with technical detail. Although I do not plan to make a linocut (for this project at least) I do enjoy producing black and white imagery. Machines, artificial environments and waste products seem to be a recurring theme throughout the work, which is somewhat useful as they are themes that I can definitely relate to.
Friday, 20 March 2015
Context of Practice 2: Visual Developments
Some time ago I realised that one may create brush marks in photoshop with additional strokes added using blending options.
Essentially, this means that I can create wire-looking shapes easily.
I tested this method in the imagery below:
Essentially, this means that I can create wire-looking shapes easily.
I tested this method in the imagery below:
This image took far too long compared to the quick gestural imagery I produced in the sketchbook.
Hopefully my digital work in other modules will help me improve the speed at which I can produce line-based artwork in photoshop.
Thursday, 12 March 2015
Context of Practice 2: Visual Developments
To investigate my process of image making, I made two designs in based on the same imagery.
The first image took roughly an hour; the perspective and line work was carefully considered.
The second image took less than 10 minutes and I enjoyed it far more. I would suggest the less considered of the two is far more dynamic and expressive. The chaos of the line work seems to exaggerate the complexity of detail and add more depth.
Eventually, I would like to produce imagery that combines elements of both processes.
Friday, 27 February 2015
Context of Practice 2: Study Task 5
I have developed a series of illustrations that visually tear apart the technology that appears throughout my essay. In doing this, I hope to remove the mysticism often associated with technology. Consumers frequently disregard the historical progression that has led to the modern devices they frequently purchase. By exposing the progressively minimal and intricate innards of devices I hope to show the advancement over time.
Wednesday, 11 February 2015
Context of Practice 2: JVC advert - remastered
During a break from essay writing, with some poor quality reference, I remastered the imagery used in a JVC commercial. Using illustrator I reconstructed VCR manual interface and colouration.
Although this was essentially an example of tracing; which is a process already mired in ethical questions, I found the twenty minutes or so of study highly useful, and allowed me to familiarise myself with the JVC - HR7100, from 1983.
Context of Practice 2: Visual Developments
The new topic of investigation; being home video, has led to further visual developments in my sketchbook. I have recently made a transition in the way I use sketchbooks, I now attempt to make a more efficient use of the space available, rather than wasting paper needlessly.
The initial studies are based upon both the exterior and interior details of VCRs. I find the diversity of the internal machinery and components highly interesting, when exposed they appear pseudo-organic.
Thursday, 8 January 2015
Context Of Practice 2: Notes are Helpful
To formulate the essay it is obviously important to maintain notes taken from a range of sources.
General notes simply summarise the historical narrative, whilst recording useful quotes.
Occasionally I find it useful to explore ideas through image making in response to the literary information. This integration is important to maintain throughout the project as it will hopefully better inform the resolved piece/s.
Below is the first rudimentary essay plan I made, this structure is based upon the notion of triangulation; using sources to inform opinions or theories and arrive upon a conclusion.
Thursday, 1 January 2015
Context of Practice 2, Question Alteration
Having begun the process of research I have concluded that I wish to narrow my field of investigation.
Initially, my topic centred on the culture of disposability, citing the development of home video as evidence. However, after a considerable amount of research I have decided to focus on the history of home video in relation to cinema.
Thus my question becomes 'Has home video made cinema obsolete.'
While this initially seems a tenuous development, the essay and visual responses will continue to deal with social issues, relating to a Darwinistic culture of technological evolution.
Interestingly this development will be less noticeable in my visual developments as my studies have revolved around a focus of technology.
Initially, my topic centred on the culture of disposability, citing the development of home video as evidence. However, after a considerable amount of research I have decided to focus on the history of home video in relation to cinema.
Thus my question becomes 'Has home video made cinema obsolete.'
While this initially seems a tenuous development, the essay and visual responses will continue to deal with social issues, relating to a Darwinistic culture of technological evolution.
Interestingly this development will be less noticeable in my visual developments as my studies have revolved around a focus of technology.
Monday, 8 December 2014
Context Of Practice 2: Contextual Reference
The project question I have defined concerns with an efficient artistic practice.
Initially, it seemed obvious to refer to artists who worked primarily with recycled materials.Gerhard Mayer splices together old jigsaw sets into vast collages, which is an excellent example of appropriation. Having seen them in person, I can contest that they are highly considered and well crafted designs.
In addition I looked at the work of various practitioners whose work would lend itself to collage. In particular I considered the work of 'HR FM', who specialises in the use of highly detailed vector artwork. Through my own responses I hope to apply a highly detailed aesthetic in order to use materials and tools efficiently rather than wasting them on dry minimal designs.
Context of Practice 2: Study Task 1 Practical
Through the duration of this project I wish to improve how I use sketchbook space, as I have found that I am somewhat wasteful in my illustrative practise. I would suggest that it would be a poor reflection on my practice if I criticise wasteful design through my work, whilst doing nothing to improve my efficiency.
The obvious way to address wasteful design is to make each page visually dense, so rather than producing large quantities of uninvolved drawings, I would instead use the all of the free space available.
I have found the book 'Made the Break' highly useful to fuel my initial research. The book summarised the growth of the culture of obsolescence.
(SLADE, GIles, 2006, ‘Made to Break’, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press)
The book explains the three distinct forms of obsolescence:
Technological Obsolescence
The normal improvement of technology causes the replacement of hardware / software
Psychological/Progressive/Dynamic Obsolescence
Consumers purchase newer products as they are marketed as 'new'. They are pressured to buy the products in order to conform
Planned Obsolescence
Manufacturers create products with deliberately short life-spans, to increase the rate at which consumers buy replacements
The book also has a great amount of quotes from industry leaders who initially pioneered the concept of planned obsolescence to ensure profit. I found it interesting that these figures rationalised the obviously wasteful practice as a tool to ensure continual economic stability.
'Our whole economy is based on planned obsolescence, and everybody who can read without moving their lips should know it by now. We make good products, we induce people to buy them, and then next year we deliberately introduce something that will make these products old fashioned, out of date. We do that for the soundest reason: to make money!'
PRENTIS, Karl 1958, 'Brooks Stevens: He Has Designs on Your Dough,' True: The Man's Magazine 1958
Monday, 10 November 2014
Context of Practice 2: A Trip to the Museum
In order to encourage a practice of primary research we were given specific places in the city to study. Our group visited the Leeds Art Gallery and made a variety of studies on tracing paper.
Upon our return to the studio we began to assemble the imagery on a light box.
Having found the space limiting we expanded to the window.
Although the final composition seems to lack a logical structure, it was created with the consideration of the contexts of each image; the
landscape painting studies appear at the top, while figure-based studies appear in the implicit foreground.
Identify unexpected/useful outcomes of (a) combing your drawings with other group members and (b) having a focused task to achieve in a short time
a) By combining our work we managed to create a sort of holistic study, encompassing the many distinctive view points and aesthetics of each individual. The response we created was more diverse than what any one person was capable of.
b)The short time limit provoked us to allocate tasks to each other, and use the space of the museum more effectively, we deliberately split up in order to gather a varied amount of information.
Comment on how Task 2 led you to respond to the gallery/museum. If this was different to previous visits, how and why?
I found the task different to other such research tasks as it wasn't provoked by initial contextual research, in addition I found that I was more sceptical of the art work when considering it's compositional and aesthetic elements.
How could the practical aspect of COP 2 be extended to challenge your image-making further and enhance your essay line of enquiry?
I shall consider visiting more locations, even if they aren't obviously associated with the themes of my inquiry. Using a small selection of dry media seemed to enable quicker responses, meaning I could create a larger quantity of reference material for later developments.
Upon our return to the studio we began to assemble the imagery on a light box.
Having found the space limiting we expanded to the window.
landscape painting studies appear at the top, while figure-based studies appear in the implicit foreground.
Identify unexpected/useful outcomes of (a) combing your drawings with other group members and (b) having a focused task to achieve in a short time
a) By combining our work we managed to create a sort of holistic study, encompassing the many distinctive view points and aesthetics of each individual. The response we created was more diverse than what any one person was capable of.
b)The short time limit provoked us to allocate tasks to each other, and use the space of the museum more effectively, we deliberately split up in order to gather a varied amount of information.
Comment on how Task 2 led you to respond to the gallery/museum. If this was different to previous visits, how and why?
I found the task different to other such research tasks as it wasn't provoked by initial contextual research, in addition I found that I was more sceptical of the art work when considering it's compositional and aesthetic elements.
How could the practical aspect of COP 2 be extended to challenge your image-making further and enhance your essay line of enquiry?
I shall consider visiting more locations, even if they aren't obviously associated with the themes of my inquiry. Using a small selection of dry media seemed to enable quicker responses, meaning I could create a larger quantity of reference material for later developments.
Tuesday, 4 November 2014
Context of Practice 2: A Trip to the Dump
To provoke some visual responses, I visited two local recycling and waste sites.
The first, Ellar Ghyll is the community waste cite of Otley. Here locals bring their various wastes and deposit them in the relevant large container, which is taken to landfill or another recycling facility.
The second, Crossley Evans Scrap Yard is a much larger site. A mountian of scrap material is observable to all who cross the main bridge in Shipley.
I would suggest that referring to a local location within the essay would be somewhat beneficial, using primary research can produce new lines of enquiry and totally original arguments.
Friday, 24 October 2014
Context of Practice 2: Study Task 3
Le murmure du désert grondait à l’infini.
C’est ici que se perdent les nuages.
The following discussion shall cite Pierre's illustration as an example of digital distribution in order to summarise Walter Benjamin's essay 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction' (Benjamin, W, 1936). The essay establishes the notion that 'aura;' being the intangible appeal of art.
According to Benjamin, aura 'withers in the age of reproduction'. He goes on to say 'By making many reproductions it substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence,'by which he means that the sense of authenticity inherent in individual artworks is saturated by their reproduction. Pierre's illustration has been created almost entirely digitally, meaning that there is no original artwork. In addition, the image has been optimised for digital distribution; it is in .gif format. The imagery has not been considered for print distribution, thus the only interaction an audience has with the piece is through screen-based media.
Pierre's .gif is indeed 'designed for reproducibility;' it costs nothing for the viewer to simply copy or bookmark the .gif and view it at their leisure in almost any context. Benjamin suggests that this is a positive aspect of reproduced artwork; 'in permitting the reproduction to meet the beholder or listener in his own particular situation, it reactivates the object reproduced,' meaning that the artwork remains personal and fresh to the beholder in whatever context it is viewed in, rather than becoming stale or aged in a gallery format.
Obviously, Benjamin did not predict how screen-based media would eliminate the ageing effects of artwork, as he suggests; '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.' Artwork that exists on screen is not subject to the ravages of time, while arguably the screen itself may become outdated and replaced, the art itself goes unchanged.
However it may be noted there is an elitist quality to work existing in a digital environment; it presumes the viewer has access to such equipment, although arguably the vast majority of Pierre's audience exists in the digital environment. To initially view the .gif one must also have a reasonable internet connection which is an additional obstacle to it's viewing.
Thursday, 23 October 2014
Context of Practice 2: Study Task 2
War is Nothing More
The title of the collage 'War is Nothing More' refers to the concise quote 'war is the continuation of politics by other means' as defined by Carl von Clausewitz in his book 'Vom Krieg' (On War). In relation to the image, the artist is insinuating that contemporary wars are an extension of political motivations, rather than moralistic campaigns.
This discussion shall establish whether the aforementioned collage created by Thomas Dellart-Delacroix may be considered as an example of valuable illustration, using supporting references.
This discussion shall establish whether the aforementioned collage created by Thomas Dellart-Delacroix may be considered as an example of valuable illustration, using supporting references.
Paul Schutzer, the renowned Life magazine photographer captured the original image of a VietCong prisoner who had been bound and gagged by American soldiers. Contextually Dellart-Delacroix's image was created during the Iraq War, which was subject to mass criticism and protest.
The artist is suggesting that the American foreign policy has changed little over the decades, where once communism was a valid excuse for conflict, now the vague evidence of weapons of mass destruction are now cause for war. In addition the design makes the allegation that war is not simply an extension of political motivation, but also commercial. This supports the view that 'consumerism is running uncontested', and that this work is indeed challenging consumerism 'through the visual languages and resources of design,' (Lasn, K. et al, 2000), thus reinforcing the value of piece.
Further, the collage draws attention to typical products associated with consumer selling, we may observe imagery of tomato sauces, cigarettes and fizzy drinks. This is akin to the listing of products of the original First Things First manifesto which gives examples such as 'slimming diets, fattening diets, deodorants, fizzy water, cigarettes, roll-ons, pull-ons and slip-ons' (Garland, K. ,1964). The piece is indeed 'a reversal of priorities in favour of the more useful and more lasting forms of communication' (Garland, K. ,1964) as rather than contributing to the system of commerce it instead chooses to satirise it and it's relation to modern conflicts.
Through the use of subversive collage the piece illustrates what the artist has decided is an unhealthy synthesis between business and foreign policy. By appropriating familiar brands as the gag of the victim, the artist may be suggesting that the images crafted by graphic designers are in fact 'helping draft a reductive and immeasurably harmful code of public discourse' (Lasn, K. et al, 2000).
To summarise, the piece may be viewed as valuable design which challenges the relentless onslaught of commercialism. Rather than aiding it's message it contends it, further it seems to have a lasting effect, it equally relevant now as it was during the Iraq conflict, and it shall continue to provoke viewers to question their countries own role in global conflicts.
The artist is suggesting that the American foreign policy has changed little over the decades, where once communism was a valid excuse for conflict, now the vague evidence of weapons of mass destruction are now cause for war. In addition the design makes the allegation that war is not simply an extension of political motivation, but also commercial. This supports the view that 'consumerism is running uncontested', and that this work is indeed challenging consumerism 'through the visual languages and resources of design,' (Lasn, K. et al, 2000), thus reinforcing the value of piece.
Further, the collage draws attention to typical products associated with consumer selling, we may observe imagery of tomato sauces, cigarettes and fizzy drinks. This is akin to the listing of products of the original First Things First manifesto which gives examples such as 'slimming diets, fattening diets, deodorants, fizzy water, cigarettes, roll-ons, pull-ons and slip-ons' (Garland, K. ,1964). The piece is indeed 'a reversal of priorities in favour of the more useful and more lasting forms of communication' (Garland, K. ,1964) as rather than contributing to the system of commerce it instead chooses to satirise it and it's relation to modern conflicts.
Through the use of subversive collage the piece illustrates what the artist has decided is an unhealthy synthesis between business and foreign policy. By appropriating familiar brands as the gag of the victim, the artist may be suggesting that the images crafted by graphic designers are in fact 'helping draft a reductive and immeasurably harmful code of public discourse' (Lasn, K. et al, 2000).
To summarise, the piece may be viewed as valuable design which challenges the relentless onslaught of commercialism. Rather than aiding it's message it contends it, further it seems to have a lasting effect, it equally relevant now as it was during the Iraq conflict, and it shall continue to provoke viewers to question their countries own role in global conflicts.
Life Magazine, 26th of November 1965
Garland, K. (1964) 'First Things First Manifesto', self published
Lasn, K. et al (2000) 'First Things First Manifesto', Adbusters
Poyner, R. (19990 'First Things First: Revisited', Emigre 51
Mau, B. (1998) 'An Incomplete Manifesto For Growth'
Beirut, M. (2007) 'Ten Footnotes To A Manifesto', in 'Seventy Nine Short essays On Design'
Garland, K. (1964) 'First Things First Manifesto', self published
Lasn, K. et al (2000) 'First Things First Manifesto', Adbusters
Poyner, R. (19990 'First Things First: Revisited', Emigre 51
Mau, B. (1998) 'An Incomplete Manifesto For Growth'
Beirut, M. (2007) 'Ten Footnotes To A Manifesto', in 'Seventy Nine Short essays On Design'
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