Sexualisation of Women

How Women Are Sexualised 

I've decided to base my research essay on the way women are sexualised in the music industry! I've been reading many books about how women are objectified and viewed within the industry. Mostly, I've been watching documentaries and reading articles. Here are a few samples of my research so far. 

This video was short documentary about how women are treated in the general music industry. I would like to focus my research on a more specific music genre. I think that R&B and Hip-hop are probably the most interesting routes for me to go down. 

An interesting quote I heard in this video mentioned that "Brittany...is sending a message that is okay for women to be objected and submissive". 

Another interesting resource I found was from the Guardian on-line. It was an article based on sexual content in the media. 

One of the images used had this note beside:

The singer Rihanna has faced criticism from parents' groups for her music video in which she shoots someone who raped her. Photograph: Joe Stevens/Retna Ltd/Corbis

I could use specific artists in my essay as part of my analysis. However, I'd like to focus on the topic more than artists. I will use few named artists but probably not very recent ones. 

Here's an interesting paragraph from the Guardian article about parents worry over sexual content in the media. 

"Findings from a survey conducted for the Bailey review show that:

• Two-thirds of parents had come across clothes, toys, games, music videos or other products that they thought were inappropriate for the age group they were aimed at.

• 40% of parents said they had seen things in public places (shop window displays, advertising hoardings) that they felt were inappropriate for children to see because of their sexual content.

• 41% of parents said they had seen programmes or adverts on TV before 9pm that they felt were unsuitable or inappropriate for children because of their sexual content.

• Of those parents who had felt the need to complain about these issues but hadn't, over 60% said that they had not done so either because they didn't think anything would be done or they didn't know who to complain to.

• Around half of parents felt that celebrity culture, adult style clothes and music videos are encouraging children to act older than they are.

Bailey has previously said: "For us to let children be children, we need to let parents be parents. That means giving parents the support and encouragement they need to help their children understand and resist the harms they face.

"But it also means putting brakes on ever greater commercialisation and sexualisation facing children in modern society. Only then can we look to create a truly family friendly society that protects children."

including statistics in my essay may also come in handy in terms of proving factual information or supporting a statement from other sources. 

Favourite Artists - iO Tillett Wright

Favourite Artists - iO Tillett Wright

I've been doing a lot of research into photography lately for my latest graphics projects. I came across an amazing talk via TED.com and discovered a photographer who believes in receiving equal rights for the LGBT community. Her photography is raw, natural and exactly the sort of style that I'm looking to create for my project.  

You can see that majority of her photos are black and white. They're candid and beautiful in presentation. They also have an almost vintage feel to it. 

Modernism & Postmodernism (1)

What is Modernism

Today's lecture was based on modernism. For the next few lectures, we'll be discussing what modernism and postmodernism is.

There are three stages of modernism: 

- Crisis in the representation of reality

- The Rise of abstraction 

- Abandoning the aesthetics

We discussed each of these stages thoroughly and I also went ahead and researched into each stage for myself.  From what I have gathered from this lecture, I understand that Modernism can be seen as a sort of development in design of all kinds. It is also argued that we might not be in a modernism stage, but rather, we are in a Post Modernist stage.

Crisis in the representation of reality:

"representation could be thought of as means of depicting or portraying of a subject, which relied upon the connection between the rendition and the original". 

We discussed a great deal about how the representation of reality has changed in design. Photography has contributed greatly to the way society sees images. Before photography, artists were hired to paint an image of what they saw. If someone where to see that image/painting they only had the option of believe it for what it was. It could be argued that photography has drastically changed the way in which designers represent an image.

"In a similar manner, artists turned to photography as a means of documentation outside of the content of abstract, purely conceptual art and instead focused attention on the political and social climates connected to the image" http://www.andrewschroeder.net/2009/03/24/crisis-of-representation/

The rise of abstraction:

We spoke briefly about abstract art and how it may a new way in which designers view imagery. Abstract art could be a way of breaking out of a set of rules. Abstract art has only recently been accepted as an art form. Realism in art and design is something that will always be there but abstract art is almost like a rebellion against the traditional way of designing.

"Artists like Monet, Manet, Pissarro and others, bravely all helped break out of the classical tradition , allowing us to see that art could be more than we had come to accept. In their time these paintings were seen as revolutionary". http://www.arts-fine.co.uk/paintings-for-sale/abstract-realism.html

Here are some examples of modern abstract art.

"This abstract realism is a form of art that sits between realistic depiction of the world and a non representational abstraction. No longer are the two separate and opposed, but come together to strengthen each other and form an alloy. The artist who can make realistic images, but takes that skill and creates a more abstract painting that is greater than sum of them both"

Abandoning the aesthetic process:

This was a part of the lecture that I was especially interested in. The reason for this was due to the fact that I study graphic design. Graphic design can focus heavily on rules and specific styling. Despite the fact that we have some kind of artistic licence, we are still expected to follow an unspoken set of rules and formatting in order for our work to be considered. 

Abandoning the Aesthetic process is a time in which artists dared to stop following a set of rules in order to make aesthetically pleasing art work. Modernism is basically about abandoning the rules. 

"If the rules inherent in one tradition are abandoned or proscribed, another set of rules will replace it. Thus we find that the modernists, in breaking all the rules of harmonious composition, in turn generated a set of rigid rules that are simply the opposite of the rules they replaced, rules that guarantee that complex coherence is permanently denied."

I found this quote very candid in the way it explained that explains how no matter how badly artists try to diminish "the rules", we still manage to develop a new set of them. 

My Favourite Creative Practitioners - Max and Eduard

My Favourite Creative Practitioners

For the next few months, I'll be using this blog to talk about my favourite Graphic Designers and other artists.

Max & Eduard

Last year I've researched the history and orientation of the Helvetica typeface. Helvetica typeface is one of the youngest typefaces I've research so far. This means that it's quite modern. Here's some information that I've discovered about the Helvetica Typeface and the creators Max & Eduard. Although, they're not entirely graphic designers, I still love the fact that they have such a huge impact the design of type today. 

"The original Helvetica was designed in Switzerland in 1957 by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas type foundry (Haas’sche Schriftgiesserei). Haas was controlled by the type foundry Stempel, which was in turn controlled by Linotype." 
The original name for Helvitica was actually Die Neue Haas Grotesk. It was closely based on a typeface knows as Schelter-Grotesk. The typeface was created to be something safe and basic. "This neutrality was paramount, and based on the idea that type itself should give no meaning"

Here's an image of what the Helvetica Typeface looks like:

Here's an image of how Max and Eduard's typeface is also used in today's modern businesses!

Modes of Analysis

Analysis Elle Magazine 

This week, I attended a lecture about Modes of Analysis. This year's lecture was definitely a lot different from what we were all used to last year. Last year, we were very focused on simple creative cultures and basic terminology. This year is certainly a lot more intense and requires a great deal of note taking in order for me to keep up! For this session, we were given a series of tasks to complete in our own time. 

Undertake a Form and Content analysis of an object or image. You should detail this process in writing on your blog
I'm still not entirely sure I understand modes of analysis yet. 
From what I have learnt from the lecture, content analysis consists of two things; Iconography and Iconology. So, with the knowledgeable that I have on Iconology and iconography, I will analyse this image of Gabourey Sidibe that I found on ELLE magazine a few years ago that caused quite a lot of controversy. 
ELLE magazine is known for using A-list celebrities as part of their front cover art work and majority of the front covers they use are usually full length body images of the celebrity at the time. Here's an example of the sort of ELLE covers that I am talking about:

You can see that in most of the front covers, the images are full length body photos unlike the image of Gabourey Sidibe in her front cover. 

From the way that the image is focused close up to Gabourey's face, you can see that the director, editor did not want the target audience to focus on her body. Also the way her shoulders have been covered up in comparison to the women in the covers below is quite a lot. Compared to the women in the image below, Gabourey's entire body has almost been cloaked over.

I found a very interesting article that commented on the skin colour change of Gabourey's face. It stated that "The 27-year-old is one of four celebrities to appear on four separate covers for its 25th anniversary issue. In the image Sidibe’s skin appears to be several shades lighter than her normal colour. The magazine said the four celebrities – Sidibé, actresses Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried, and Lauren Conrad, the reality star – were chosen as examples of young women who were “changing the world”. ELLE has also been criticised because each of the other three cover girls are shown in full length photographs while Sidibe’s image is cropped at chest level.In a statement the magazine said that “nothing out of the ordinary” had been done to the photograph". 

Make a list of genres that are evident in your discipline
I thought that this was quite an exciting task seeing as I don't know all that many areas of Graphic Design. It was a great opportunity for me to research a little bit and findnabout certain genres that I might be interested in for the future. Here's what I found

- Editorial Design 
- Logo Design
- Branding
- Motion Graphics
- Animation
- Typography
- Web Design

This information below was taken from a website called Ezine Articles. 
Basically it can be categorized into four distinct categories: 
1. Image-based 
2. Type-based 
3. Image and type 
4. Symbols, logos and logotypes

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5783204

Make a list of styles that you can identify in your discipline
This are the sorts of styles that I know about so far in Graphic Design. Some of what is listed below are gathered from the internet.

- Vintage/ Retro
- Swiss Style AKA International Style
- Urban Design
- Mainstream Arts

I also found this article about the trending styles within Graphic Design. I found this article very useful for personal use. http://www.creativebloq.com/top-20-graphic-design-trends-2012-1212327
Here are a few examples of what the article contains:

"Graphic Design Trends: Royal Mail Stamps by Marion Deuchars

With polished digital perfection everywhere, the raw, flawed product of the human hand is becoming increasingly appealing, especially in contrast to overly slick digital design that’s too clean and crisp to have a soul of its own. Starting in reaction to the homogenisation of type in emails, texts and tweets – where the personality of handwriting is stripped away – hand-written type adds a real sense of authenticity to a piece of design, as well as a whimsical edge"

Introduction To Year 2 Creative Cultures

Introduction

This year, we'll be continuing with our study on Visual Cultures and the industry. I'm definitely looking forward to my future lectures. This year I hope to gain a wider range of knowledge in terms of creative practitioners and possibly learn a little bit more about signs and semiotics. This is mainly because I feel that these two areas of visual cultures last year greatly contributed to my understanding and confidence in my specialist pathway which is Graphic Design! 

Last year, Visual cultures grew to be my favourite part of the course. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the history and future of art and design and was hoping to learn something similar this year. Not to my surprise, we learnt something completely different this year. Learning something new can only ever be a good thing! We focused a great deal on Modes of Analysis. This is something I knew nothing about and was totally open to learning a bit more. In the next post, you'll find out what I learnt this week and my completed tasks from the lecture. 

Teen Violence: Research Notes

Researching The Effect Of Media On Teenage Violence