11/03/2019 – 15/03/2019

CTS: WEEK 5

What is the U in Utopia? Under construction. As a society we are constantly building, developing and every businessman’s favourite word: innovating. From lighting fires to designing spaceships, mankind is in a constant pursuit to better our lives. The vision doesn’t always line up with reality. Some dreams become living nightmares. Some are driven by greed and don’t care about what people want. Some actually are making a difference in people’s lives and destroying them. There are a lot of things I would want to  talk about: Robert Moses and his plans to build a super NYC, Judge Dredd and the anatomy of the architecture of its cities, Antonio Sant’Elia’s drawings, Buckminster Fuller, Rick Guidice’s NASA commissioned drawings for space colonies, Blade Runner, High-Rise by J.G.Ballard, and so many more. However, as interesting space exploration and colonisation is, the possibility of oceanic living spaces are becoming a possibility. Many people across the world in places like Hong Kong, Amsterdam, London etc. already live in houseboats, moored or slow-travelling boats converted to homes. An Asian community living in South-East Asia called the Bajau have almost completely adopted a Maritime lifestyle, they only return to the mainland for supplies or shelter from violent storms.

Some of the Bajau experience land-sickness and need to return to the sea, some sailors are the same way. Humans are fascinated by the ocean and with a growing world population, we cannot keep building on top of natural sites or else we won’t be able to feed ourselves. Maybe building into the ocean, might be a possibility.

According to the Future Living Report by Samsung in 2016, we will be digging homes into the earth, building higher into the sky and into the ocean. There are already super luxurious home boats for sale with master bedrooms in the lower deck with the view of the ocean. Though we as creature have evolved from the ocean, it still took millions of years before we achieving humanity and establishing an international community based on land. Wouldn’t it be too drastic to suddenly fit hundreds if not thousands of humans and moving and floatable homes. It would take several generations and probably a lot of mistakes, if not deaths to build a mentally solid aquatic human communities. Children born under the sea or on Mars, could be a reality, but are we really ready for all of this. Flying cars would be a disaster if we already had those. Wouldn’t it make more sense to fix the problems we have right now on land and on earth before we start destroying other planets? We are chaotic enough as it is and there is so much to be done to fix plastic oceans and empty forests.

Although, with proper funding, research, equipment and a team making the dream come true, this may very well be a possibility. There are a lot of people out there who would be willing to start a new life and be forerunners in human development. English designer Phil Pauley has come up with floating modules that would submerge during stormy times and reemerge when it’s calm again. He calls it the Sub-Biosphere 2. Eight biomes, one central nucleus supporting the whole on a structure of beams anchored to the seabed. Pauley spent 2 decades designing this world suitable for 100 people to live in. Using the water around, flora and fauna will be watered, fed and grown used for human consumption. The structure is made viable due to tensional integrity = tensegrity coined by Buckminser Fuller 1960. this means the building would not be like our homes or most buildings where the compression is held together from the bottom brick to the top brick, but instead floating bars put under tension by cables. These bars don’t touch each other, but with each beam held by tension. This makes for a longer lasting structure in a moving ocean unlike a solid ground.

The Sub-Biosphere 2 is: “designed for aquanauts, tourism and oceanographic life sciences and long-term human, plant and animal habitation” meaning this isn’t a gimmick or a the next aquatic Vegas, this is for long-term human development and research.

Similarly, Samsung designed an underwater sphere when they wrote their Future Livings Report back in 2016. The sphere is capable of desalinating the water around the sphere and splitting H20 into Hydrogen for fuel and Oxygen for breathing. Energy would come from the ocean’s current and the sun. This concept is a little more far-fetched and makes Pauley’s a little more realistic, but with time anything could be possible.

There is also the luxury side to the world. From personal homes floating off the coast of Dubai to five star hotels in the ocean. Most of the time what starts as a luxury soon becomes trivial, like cars, only the elite has them in the beginning now anyone can save up for one. In the Maldives on the five-star Conrad Maldives Rangali Island resort, they built hotel suite which cost 15 million dollars and it’s famous for the first ever underwater glass room. It has all the living essentials on top, like showers, toilets and meals are delivered at specific hours three times a day. What was once reserved for luxurious leisure we can make this a foreseeable future. We can turn 15 million dollar hotel suites into affordable housing, this could be a possibility.

The world is getting smaller, humanity is getting bigger and we only have one planet at the moment. So, innovation is key if we want to upkeep cushy and environmentally exhaustive lives and make them more eco-friendly and safer for the planet. Maybe, in the next 10, 50 or 100 years permanent aquatic cities and homes could be a possibility and maybe the Bajau aren’t so crazy to live on water after all.

Bibliography

Grant Geary, B. (2015) Available at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3063691/The-incredible-Bajau-refugee-community-told-not-allowed-live-Malaysian-land-built-homes-ocean.html (Accessed: 04 April 2019)

Lavinia (2014) Self-Sustainable Underwater Living: Sub-Biosphere 2. Available at: https://freshome.com/2014/03/05/self-sustainable-underwater-living-sub-biosphere-2-phil-pauley/ (Accessed: 14 April 2019)

Im, J. (2018) World’s first glass underwater hotel room. Available at: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/03/photos-worlds-first-glass-underwater-hotel-suite-at-conrad-maldives.html (Accessed: 14 April 2019)

Deist, C (2013) Ocean Living: A Step Closer to Reality. Available at: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20131101-living-on-the-ocean (Accessed: 14 April 2019)

Samsung (2016) Futre Living Report. Available at: https://wewanttolearn.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/future-living-report.pdf (Accessed: 29 March 2019)

Mexican Architects () Available at: https://www.mexican-architects.com/en/bnkr-arquitectura-mexico-city/project/the-earthscraper (Accessed: 28 March 2019)

Weller, C. (2017) These ultra-luxurious underwater homes are being built in Dubai. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/dubai-floating-seahorse-underwater-homes-2017-8?r=US&IR=T#the-floating-homes-will-have-a-massive-floating-bed-as-well-as-an-observation-deck-above-water-3 (Accessed: 29 March 2019)

Wikipedia (2019) Houseboat. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houseboat (Accessed: 04 April 2019)

Richman-Abdou, K. (2017) Dubai Is Building Beautiful Underwater Homes with Exceptional Aquatic Views. Available at: https://mymodernmet.com/underwater-homes-dubai/ (Accessed: 29 March)2019)

Gerdhart, N. (2019) 17 Bold Predictions of How the Future Will Look. Available at: https://www.familyhandyman.com/smart-homeowner/17-bold-predictions-of-how-future-houses-will-look/ (Accessed: 29 March 2019)

Mexican Architects (2009) The Earthscraper. Available at: https://www.mexican-architects.com/en/bnkr-arquitectura-mexico-city/project/the-earthscraper (Accessed: 29 March 2019)

Images

Fig. 1

Choo, N. (2015) Bajau people living on water, Hotspot Media. Available at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3063691/The-incredible-Bajau-refugee-community-told-not-allowed-live-Malaysian-land-built-homes-ocean.html (Accessed: 25 April 2019)

Fig. 2, 3

Pauley, P. (2013) Sub-Biosphere 2. Available at: https://www.designboom.com/architecture/sub-biosphere-2-is-a-self-sustainable-underwater-habitat-10-10-2013/ (Accessed: 25 April 2019)

Fig. 4

Samsung (2016) Smartthings Future Living Report. Available at: https://www.topsimages.com/images/future-underwater-towns-6e.html (Accessed: 25 April 2019)

Fig. 5

Underwater Room (2017) Muraka, Hilton Conrad Hotel. Available at: https://www.finder.com.au/bucket-list-underwater-hotel (Accessed: 25 April 2019)

04/03/2019 – 08/04/2019

CTS: WEEK 4

From Graffiti’s roots in 1960s Philadelphia to today, a lot has shifted in the eye of the public. It has always been hated, but in present times not as much. Graffiti used to be completely illegal, teenagers who painted on walls were being put in jail with murderers. Nowadays certain countries have accepted graffiti artists into the urban environment. In England, Switzerland and other countries, the local authorities make certain public walls legal for the artists. There has also been an explosion in graffiti related activities, walking trips, festivals, workshops, etc. It is especially used to revitalize dilapidated areas. Like skateboarding and rap, I feel that graffiti has grown to unimaginable heights considering their disregarded status 50 years ago. This is thanks to Haring, Basquiat and Banksy.

Recently, Basquiat’s ‘Untitled’ skull sold for a record 110.5 million dollars (Sotheby’s, 2019), the highest for an American and graffiti artist. All three began spraying illegally making a name for themselves and soon, their fame turned vandalism into Fine Art. Their cult names brought the streets into the gallery and the gallery into the streets. As a new market and a demand for painted walls is sprouting in cities all over the world, they casted a spotlight on Graffiti and made it mainstream. Worldwide, we see graffiti artists exhibiting and the value of their pieces are only climbing. What would never hang in the walls of an esteemed gallery is now fighting to have an original Banksy. Though they opened the doors to a whole community of artists, the raw and authentic side has watered down.

Big brands like H&M, Oakley and GM are appropriating and stealing counterculture from the artists to sell it back to us, something they would not have done before graffiti’s popularity. Even among street artists there is conflict, Jeffery Dietrich in 2011 stated “a whole new tribe of artists who are exploiting the street-art aesthetic” which is true. They steal someone else’s style, notoriously Basquiat, Banksy and Haring to make easy money, how many cheap copies are there? Too many to count. However, Shephard Fairey, street art legend and owner of Obey, said in 2018: “Sometimes you can change the system from within.”. You do make a difference introducing new artists with inspiring messages to larger audiences and local communities. The giant mural Wynwood walls is the central attraction that helped revitalize a derelict neighborhood in Miami and today is a thriving hub. However, when you run a street art empire and clothing brand, it is convenient for Shephard Fairey as it keeps his business alive. It is safe to say that we will see more of Graffiti in the years to come and it will fill some bleak walls, but to find the next graffiti rebel like Banksy in an age where it is so accepted will not be so easy. Even Banksy has been attacked by the graffiti community claiming he sold out. The appeal of this counterculture is the niche community and the hatred from the public and authorities, so how can Graffiti find its spark in an age of mainstream counterculture?

Bibliography

Adams, A. (2017) Basquiat versus Banksy. Available at: https://www.spiked-online.com/2017/10/02/basquiat-versus-banksy/(Accessed: 30 May 2019)

Dickens, L. (2014) How Did Banksy Become the World’s Most Famous Vandal. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/timelines/zytpn39(Accessed: 29 May 2019)

Pape, C. (2013) 50 greatest graffiti artists of all time. Available at: https://www.complex.com/style/2013/02/the-50-greatest-nyc-graffiti-artists/riff-170 (Accessed: 25 April 2019)

Shaw, A. (2018) Available at: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/street-artists-come-in-off-the-streets(Accessed: 30 May 2019)

Sotheby’s (2019) From Basquiat to Banksy how street art became high art. Available at: https://www.sothebysinstitute.com/new-york/summer-institute/from-basquiat-to-banksy-how-street-art-became-high-art/(Accessed: 30 May 2019)

Sprayplanet (2018) A History of graffiti – The 60s’ and 70s’. Available at: https://www.sprayplanet.com/blogs/news/a-history-of-graffiti-the-60s-and-70s(Accessed: 25 April 2019)

White, K. (2018) 7 Things You Need to Know About Street Art. Available at: https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/7-things-you-need-to-know-street-art(Accessed: 30 May 2019)

Sutton, N. (2018) How Graffiti Artists Are Fighting Back Brands That Steal Their Work. Available at: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-graffiti-artists-fighting-brands-steal-work(Accessed: 2 June 2019)

McCarthy, M. (2018) Street Art As a Tool for Change. Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mary-mccarthy/street-art-as-a-tool-for-_b_15329722.html(Accessed: 2 June 2019)

Images

Halsband, M. (1985) Warhol and Basquiat. Available at: https://www.vulture.com/2015/05/bromance-of-warhol-and-basquiat.html(Accessed: 3 June 2019)

Warhol, A (1982) Portrait of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Polaroid dye diffusion print, 9.5 × 7.3 cm (3 3/4 × 2 7/8 in.). Available at: http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/125802/andy-warhol-portrait-of-jean-michel-basquiat-american-1982/(Accessed: 25 April 2019)

Levine, C (2018) Banksy, Lenticular print on lightbox, 75 by 55cm., 29½ by 21½ in. Available at: http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/made-in-britain-l18144/lot.240.html?locale=en(Accessed: 25 April 2019)

Warhol, A. (1982) Portrait of Keith Haring, Polaroid dye diffusion print, 9.5 × 7.3 cm (3 3/4 × 2 7/8 in.). Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/415738609323063961/(Accessed: 25 April 2019)

CBS News (1982) Haring arrested. Available at: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/keith-haring-how-a-furtive-artist-invaded-the-art-world/(Accessed: 3 June 2019)

Basquiat. Available at:http://thebluerider.blogspot.com/2008/03/photograph-of-jean-michel-basquiat-by.html(Accessed: 3 June 2019)

Kasper, W. (2007) Banksy. Available at:https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4400836/Has-mystery-Banksy-finally-solved.html(Accessed: 3 June 2019)

25/02/2019 – 01/03/2019

CTS: WEEK 3

We all grow up listening, reading and watching tales told long ago, from little red riding hood to the Pied Piper. What we don’t realise until later on is how institutional they are to our development. They introduce us to adult themes such as death, kidnapping, pedophiles, strangers, murder, etc. and teach us about courage, lying, hard work, compassion, kindness etc. So much of it is so fantastical that we dream about fighting monsters and mimicking our heroes. The best way for a child to learn is by themselves, they need to understand their mistakes and learn from them and having a role model or someone to look up to helps them achieve this. Why do some stories become iconic and some we have never heard about? In ancient times, stories were transmitted from word to mouth and most of these stories have definitely changed over time. Many of the reasons are linked to the stories morals no longer conforming to societies beliefs, for example a story about a brother and a sister falling in love was once normal, but if society has evolved and condemns this act then the story is either swept under the rug or changed. There is also the scenario where the society regresses and the story is too modern, imagine a story about a black man and a white woman falling in love, if society no longer accepts this union then story disappears or changes. Another reason why most stories are long forgotten is because one generation stopped passing it down or were simply killed. We mustn’t forget, stories are organic, if people die, stories die, if people grow, stories grow, if people change, stories change.

I believe that the past should be preserved, because there is so much rich knowledge and unrecognised storytellers who have passed down centuries of tales no one has ever heard about. The brothers Grimm are a proof of that, they helped preserve so many of the stories we hold dear today and still retell. Though many of the stories were generally intended for adults, in modern times changed some of the outcomes and original plots to suit it for children. In Cinderella, one stepsister cuts off a toe and the other her heel to try and fit into the glass slipper and once Cinderella is queen, the birds pecked the eyes out of the stepsisters. There are many more gruesome examples and generally the original plots were no longer suited for larger audiences. We needed people like the Brothers Grimm to inspire future generations to preserve these stories and save our past, but we needed modern storytellers to make it an undeniable part of our modern society. There are many versions to one story, but only one can become the official version and from there, anything else is a deviation (when in reality the official ones have been also changed). Today most of us would consider the Disney version, the official version, as no other company has retold these stories to such praise and long-lasting glory. Interestingly enough, movies like Bambi and Pinocchio were box office bombs when they were released, but with time and re-releases they have matched Cinderella’s reputation and are extremely difficult to compete with. When it comes to folk tales and fairy tales, it is the magical aspect we cannot be drawn away from, until someone can show us magic like Walt Disney and the Nine Old Men, it will be very hard to create a new official version for a fairy tale.

Time has trickled down millions of stories across thousands of years to a select few. There is a quote by Trevor J. Black “Contrary to popular belief folk law is just as much, if not more, of an agent of the present as it is of the past.”. I believe this to be true, if the tale persists and is accepted, even indoctrinated, as a part of society then the longer the tale lasts the more engrained it becomes in our minds. If it survived this long it must mean that it’s important, like the boy who cried wolf, it has become a point of reference and now it’s a part of our vocabulary. We use the past to teach us about the present, to not make the same mistakes as the characters we hear in our stories. This is why they are so important for children’s development, they are institutional more than anything. Children are wondrous beings so important life lessons, which seem simple need to be told in wondrous ways. Usually fear is the best way to make them behave, you always remember more vividly a nightmare than you do a dream. So good and evil is taught in a black and white way, because children lead black and white lives. The only problem is when they grow up, good and evil tends to have a lot of grey in the middle and this is the part which most parents fear, how dark will their grey get.

So how do folk tales fit in the modern world? The answer is urban legends. With technology stories as well as fabrications and myths can move much faster. It takes one newspaper to pick up a wrong or falsified article and soon enough other, maybe even major, newspapers will spread fake news. The truth becomes confused and we all believe that a story that never happened or happened differently to become true. Sure enough, if it becomes part of our vernacular than the story will persist and it will live on regardless if it really happened. As time moves on, movies become a powerful motor to keep urban myths alive and fresh, if we see it, it’s almost like we believe it. Typically in horror movies, there is a famous story about a boy and a girl who drive out to lover’s lane to make out and soon enough a man with a hook kills them. This has become a cliché in so many horror movies and now whenever we find ourselves in that situation, we tend to believe it might happen, because we saw it we cannot get it out of our minds anymore. The same with the Bloody Mary game, I’m scared to even utter it three times into the mirror, I believe that it might actually happen weirdly enough. In countries like Korea, Japan and China the number 4 is bad luck because it is homophonous to the word death, you see in most hotels, residential buildings and even hospitals the 4th floor is completely omitted, because people genuinely fear it.

With the internet, the same occurrences happen, people devise fake stories, use photoshopped images and write fictitious backstories and soon enough it takes a few websites to repost it before becoming viral. Most commonly people use chain emails, social media and viruses to spread them. The most famous example is Eric Knusden’s  Slenderman, a tall tentacled man that appears and kills you or kidnaps children. The falsified images he made were for a brief back in 2009 for website called Somethingawful.com. Within 20 minutes people latched on to it and continued spreading more stories, until slowly but surely it became part of mainstream culture and started hitting our shelves in stores. Today it is part of modern society, we cannot deny that slender man was never created, and strangely he almost becomes real. So real that in 2014, in Wisconsin two 12 year-old girls lured another girl of similar age into the woods and stabbed her 19 times, because they reported seeing Slenderman and wanted to impress him and become his minions. The girl thankfully survived, however it left a mark on the family and especially the girl. The creator was so saddend, his small, even innocent internet post within 5 years almost killed an innocent girl. The internet is excellent at promoting more stories like it, from the Russian sleep experiment to Robert the Doll. All these unexplainable half truths just create this eerie feeling where you don’t know if it’s true enough to kill you and don’t really intend to find out. In the same category are conspiracy theories that circulate about major events in history such as the twin towers and Area 51, the latter becoming famous for people falsifying images of aliens and Facebook spreading lies claiming they were true. The image of the aliens was for the set of X-Files and the artists who made it said it was faked, but it just takes one person to say that it is real before it spreads.

We did an exercise during class where one person from a group would go and be shown an image, have to describe it to us and then draw. They were all horror characters, but since everyone imagines the description in a different way, the horror characters all looked different from another. For some there weren’t huge differences, but for others, people either didn’t know the references or chose to change it to suit them. The best example was the drawing I received, it looked like a fat cigar with Mickey Mouse hands sticking from its sides and a tennis ball shaped head with a basic two-eyes, mouth and a nose.  I had to explain this to my group and all of them drew similar characters. We couldn’t determine who this monster was, no one had ever seen him before. Once we compiled all the drawings together from other groups, we determined it was Dracula. The real problem were the people before me, someone drew the image and maybe didn’t care, didn’t know how to represent it. The image was then shown to me, even though there were better variants within that group, someone thought it would comical to choose that one. It worked, I was puzzled and so was my group. This is exactly what happens on the internet or in the news, the source material was wrong, but because I didn’t look anywhere else or couldn’t find anywhere else, I assume it’s right. Then I say it’s true and then 6 other people confirmed it, one wrong thing became 7 more wrong things in mere minutes and with the internet it happens in mere milliseconds. This is the danger we live in, falsified or badly recorded information can have on our society and people’s lives. The following are images from the workshop we did.

More than ever we need to be careful with what we come across, because as enchanting as the internet is, there are a lot of dark and scary corners with a lot of disturbed imagery and fantasies.

Bibliogrpahy

Wikipedia (2019) Cinderella (1950 film) Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinderella_(1950_film)#Critical_reaction (Accessed: 2 March 2019)

Morfin, M. (2016) 13 Twisted Tales by The Brothers Grimm. Available at: https://theculturetrip.com/europe/germany/articles/13-intriguing-fairy-tales-by-the-brothers-grimm/ (Accessed: 2 March 2019)

Wikipedia (2019) Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimms%27_Fairy_Tales (Accessed: 2 March 2019)

Greenwald, M. (2018) 27 Spine-Tingling Internet-Era Urban Legends. Available at: https://bestlifeonline.com/scary-urban-legends/ (Accessed: 2 March 2019)

Images

Walt Disney Productions (1950) Cinderella. Available at: https://www.sweetyhigh.com/read/best-disney-princess-cinderella-truths-011817 (Accessed: 2 March 2019)

Getty Images (2018) Brothers Grimm. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/ai-robot-brothers-grimm-fairytale-write-story-the-princes-and-fox-a8393826.html (Accessed: 2 March 2019)

Crane, W. (1875) Little Red Riding Hood, Illustration, Available at: https://exhibitions.fitnyc.edu/fairy-tale-fashion/fairy-tale-art/ (Accessed: 2 March 2019)

Bustle (2015) Available at: https://www.bustle.com/articles/98853-5-urban-legends-that-are-actually-true-so-you-may-want-to-check-your-backseat-for (Accessed: 2 March 2019)

Hoaxeye (2017) Aliens Area 51. Available at: https://hoaxeye.com/2017/06/13/area-51-aliens/ (Accessed: 2 March 2019)

18/02/2019 – 22/02/2019

CTS: WEEK 2

Humour, comedy, jokes and banter, we all love to laugh until are sides split, our lungs collapse and our faces turn red, but what makes something funny? Laughing is much linked to society and culture. How we grow up, language, expressions, history, politics, social classes, etc. There are a lot factors that go into comedy and I personally believe the hardest genre to be a master in. When someone delivers a terrible punchline and the room fills with crickets there is no harsher or more awkward feeling, it’s almost embarrassing not only for you but for the person cracking the joke. Timing, execution, material, these are some things that take years to master, but are so easily overlooked as being just a natural trait, because above all a comedian has to appear completely natural when delivering. Thankfully, comedy is being take more seriously and academics around the world are writing books, studying it at university and are even bringing in comedians to help educate audiences. I will explain and analyse why the following meme is funny, funny enough the word meme doesn’t come from the media, but from an English biologist called Richard Dawkins in 1976. He coined the term because he said ideas spread and mutate just like genes, we notice this with memes that are created and widespread daily. It is much dependant on every day life the news and pop culture and we see how fast the internet picks up funny or shocking news and turns it into something funny.

The meme begins by someone posting a disturbing photoshopped image of the famous Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup oozing baked beans instead the signature filling. The mere thought of biting into a sweet, chocolate cup to find beans inside is repulsive and haunting. Immediately you question if you could ever fully trust Reese’s again. This is the first sign of incongruity. Incongruous is defined as (Merriam Webster, 2019) “incompatible”, “disagreeing”, “inconsistent within itself” and “unsuitable”. We can clearly see how unsuitable and disagreeing filling a chocolate cup with baked beans is, but it also stains the image of the brand. You don’t associate a brand built on delivering sweet flavours with disturbing flavours and in turn can also ruin childhood memories of Hallowe’en and birthday parties. It also plays with your sense’s, you try replicating the taste in your mouth and imagine what it would be like to live that horrible experience, because your mind is trying to wrap its head around the inconsistency of it all. The caption: “If I bite into a Reese’s and beans come out everybody dying” . This accentuates the possible scenario by adding hysteria making it funnier, an obvious response in comedy when an unsuitable action happens is to reply with an unsuitable reaction which most of the times wants to top the initial one. In comedy we can make references to death and violence without it offending anyone, because no is going to get hurt, it’s just a joke. So when he mentions everyone dying, we imagine all the ways he would kill somebody if they were to feed him this vile food. It reflects our total disagreement, even hatred for this image, it’s so wrong we would kill because of it, thus exaggeration emphasises the situation, the same way a swear word can. The way all jokes work is based on a setup and a punchline, the setup takes you in one direction and the punchline either changes direction or exaggerates it. A few things happen when you hear a joke: You have a moment of listen, realise, laugh and then cool down. However, a lot of ways comedians keep their audience laughing is to take the punchline and spin it in another direction, continuing the joke. This is what the comment by sosa_on_the_beatv2 does, by saying: “I think it’s kinda quirky” reinforced by a quirky-winking and a licking-lips emoticon. We establish an initial point: Reese’s beans make us feel gross, we then amplify that emotion and spin it back round making us consider the possibility of trying it. The way it’s said as well: “kinda quirky”, it’s what someone would say describing somebody, but in a romantic or sexual way. It’s an unusual, but cute trait, a girl might make that kind of comment if she saw a boy she was interested in make. In the end, the meme relies on absurdity and exaggeration with an intent to get a deeply emotional reaction out of us.

Bibliography

Macmillan, T.(2017) The Art and Science of Comedic Timing. Available at: https://www.thecut.com/2017/05/the-art-and-science-of-comedic-timing.html (Accessed: 2 March 2019)

Jeffries, S. (2014) The science of comedy: can humour make the world a better place Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/feb/11/science-comedy-academics-social (Accessed: 2 March 2019)

Jr., M. (2017) More Than Funny. TED. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twSvd5bQLDw (Accessed: 2 March 2019)

11/02/2019 – 15/02/2019

CTS: WEEK 1

This year’s challenge is to make a visual essay and actually print it and bind it as we please. I have never made a visual essay before, but I’m eager to. Not only do I get to make all the content in terms of writing, but I get to make all the executive and stylistic choices when it comes to the shape, size, the way it’s bound, the type of paper, the design and the font. I included images of my top 3 favourite books I saw by previous IVM students. I’m very keen on taking it to the next level and making my visual essay look as professional as possible, like it belongs in a book store.

Before I delve into the definition, I want to start by representing my peers work. The reason I selected these visual essays from past students is because they were the only ones I feel were being more creative and experimental. The laser-engraved cover for Nudity is absolutely eye-catching. The confident drawings of different types of breasts really compliments the classic, straight-edge typeface against wooden cover.

The hand stitched cover is also beautiful bringing in a natural and rough feeling to the publication world which is always so smooth and polished.

The images I think are amazing in the open book and work well with the off-white paper, the contrast between the bold spot coloured images with the historical, blue images play an interesting contrast.

The front cover of the previous images is a testament that outside should reflect the inside. There is nothing worse than a bad front cover and great contents and vice versa, I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but I do. There has to be the same level of care and attention to detail with the physical and written aspect.

I enjoy the  experimental cover mixed with the quickly scribbled masking tape title, its nice to see a more rugged and street style and immediately tells you how to feel about the book itself.

Now let’s explore what a visual essay is? It’s a piece of work that’s made entirely of images and the narrative should be mostly understood through the visuals. Words can be used, but they should be used restrictively to not take away or distract from the images. The subject of the visual essay is derived from the 1500 word written essay about one of the sessions we have done or will do across the year in CTS. I had never seen one in person, it is not the typical format you see when you research a subject, much less likely to be seen in a bookstore or a museum. It is a very ubiquitous format, because you are more likely to see an essay with lots of images, graphs, etc. or a picture book, comic book, graphic novel, etc. A visual essay is this grey area where different institutions have different definitions, some believe a visual essay has the full essay in between the visual aspect, some have a limited amount of words whereas us in IVM want to remove as many words as possible. This made my research difficult, because the internet wasn’t helpful and neither were the online databases that UAL offers. I found 4 copies which call themselves visual essays from the library, 2 normal books and 2 from the special collections of the Chelsea College of Arts library.

The first book, A Visual Essay on Gutai at 32 East 69th Street, was made for the exhibition they held in that New York address. It’s about a collective of avant-garde Japanese artists from 1954-1972. They were a young group of artists who experimented in a new realm of aesthetics.

Lead by Jiro Yoshihara, the artists came into prominence in New York when they exposed 28 paintings selected by Yoshihara in the Martha Jackson Gallery on 32 E 69th St. and renowned French art critic Michel Taipé encountered their work. Even with the help from the gallery, they were dismissed for being derived of Abstract Expressionism – spontaneous and expressive mark-making and brushstrokes inspired from surrealist idea that art must come from the unconscious mind and Miro’s automatism (or making without conscious decisions), Rothko and Pollock are some famous examples- and Art Informel – highly gestural paintings popular in the 40s and 50s with important members such as de Kooning and Dubuffet. However, this group was highly conceptual and philosophical. Their gained prolificness during the 60s for their performance paintings and gained international recognition.  They were open to constant experimentation and extracting shapes from everyday life and materials. The electric dress was inspired by the Osaka street station, paper breakthrough came from Murakami’s son bursting through the sliding doors while his dad was working. Their goal was to create powerful and stunning imagery “never seen before”, instead of ‘just experimenting’ it was more about making something completely original in artistic creation. These artists were trained in painting and with Yoshihara’s guidance broke tradition in Japan when Western Art was still seen as the highest form. Their financial constraints forced them to do the best with the little they had and used tin, newspapers etc. because they couldn’t afford canvases mixed in with odd tools such as umbrellas, electric cars and vibrators. This quote resumes it the best: “the group realised that the elements needed to make art “never seen before” were in fact found in unexpectedly familiar places”. The group officially disbanded in 1972 with the departure of prominent artists and the sudden death of Yoshihara.

The book is made of 10 pages of a non-industry sized paper, like A4 or B4 for example, and then wrapped in a thicker cover and stapled down the middle. The publication is very neat and organised, all the text are in columns and leave priority to the image being the dominant figure throughout the book. The text serves as contextual and historical background and explains the origins of the paintings, the artists and the movement itself. There is a separation between the art and the text, the art is elevated on a glossy and brilliant white paper. The paper is a heavier, glossy stock and of very high quality allowing the high quality pictures shine in the readers hands. This allows us to enjoy every detail of every artwork displayed. Another reason why the art is on better paper is mirrored with the extremely expensive art books that are being made and how artists work is set to a high standard in publication. Since the art is precious so is the book. Another financial aspect aside from the actual printing is the cost of the art in today’s market compared to the past, Gutai is now an internationally recognised movement whereas in the past they were dismissed that is another reason it’s on more expensive paper it’s on another level. The essay is written on a thinner, matte off-white paper which reflects the artists financial limits of the past and it also reinforces the history of the movement. Off-White paper is synonymous with the past, because old books become yellow with time and it contrasts the present of the 2012 exhibition with the early days in 1954. Another contrast is the use of colour, to print colour on thick, glossy paper is expensive, whereas printing black on off-white is inexpensive. This further accentuates the use of time, the past is in black and white, because they could afford black and white film. Today they have professional, full colour photoshoots for their artwork. This separation between off-white and brilliant white lets us jump through time, we get to go to and fro Japan and New York. The white paper is in the middle of the essay and the off white is at the beginning, middle and end. As much as we should celebrate the success it has in the present and future we must not forget where it comes from, the past is more important than the now. That is why it envelops the artwork at the exhibition, the artwork is a small part of the ideological movement and of the artist themselves, kind of like Jiro Yoshihara’s circles. In fine art, sometimes the artwork will shadow the artist and its roots, this is why the author decides to end with a glimpse of the past. The design is minimal and angular, trying to occupy the least amount of negative space possible to maximise the impact of the artwork. I personally think that this is an amazing publication and has definitely inspired to mix different types of paper and given me thought to experiment with my final outcome, maybe I will fade the paper from white to black, who knows, but this is definitely worth investigating.

Here are some of their famous pieces:

Atusko Tanaka, Electric dress, 1956, LED lights,

Yoshihara Jiro, 1967, Work, oil on canvas, 90.9 x 115.5cm

Kazuo Shiraga, Red Fan, Red-lacquered tissue paper and wood, 310 x 155 x 155cm

Noiro Imai, White Ceremony-G, 1966, Acrylic, cloth, plastic old, 162 x 130.3 x 18cm

Takesada Matsutani, Work65-Daiwa, 1965, Polyvinyl acetate adhesive, paint on canvas, 183.4 x 183.5cm

Shuji Mukai, 1963, Work, mixed media, 93 x 71cm

Tsuruko Yamazaki, Work, 1967, Tin, wood, lights, 160 x 224.8 x 12.7cm

Shozo Shimamoto, Indicators, 1953, ink on paper, 36.4 x 25.8cm

Shozo Shimamoto, Bottle Crash, 1962, Glass and paint on canvas, 162 x 130cm

In Victor Pasmore’s limited collection of his book The Man Within, he mixes 8 pieces of poetry with illustrations.

The book is perfect bound with a hard cover and the paper is a thick, matte, watercolour paper. The paper has this beautiful texture even though it is smooth at the same time giving the artwork a more organic feel to it, almost as if it were drawn into the page. Each poem has two pages. The first, seventh and eight poem are in the middle of the right page. The other, shorter ones all occupy the far-centre left of the left page. The illustrations are coloured and linear, they are very scratchy and child-like and represent an abstract visualisation of the poem they are associated with. It’s simply designed and very minimal, but it does the job. The poems are abstract, making you ponder on what they mean. The artist gives us as much visual information required to get the point across and stripped away all the useless bits. Minimalism is a very difficult thing to accomplish because you need to know when you have stop and when you need to add, this style mixed with Gutai could be an interesting visual experimentation.

The following two books from the Special Collections archive in Chelsea aren’t the best and definitely I can make something superior. I wasn’t allowed to photograph them, because they are “special”. The first was a book called Terra Nullius Acts of Possession: A visual essay by Elisabeth Tonnard. A Dutch artist who specialises in making books and poetry, however I don’t know what she was trying to achieve with this. Each page is made of 6 boxes with pictures of the Dutch countryside and underneath there are passages in English of famous explorers like Colombus, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Master Edward Hayes etc. The book didn’t spark any interest and felt like it was put together in less than an hour with no attention or thought behind it. The second book was by Elina Pavildes called Home Sweet Home: A Visual Essay, a Cyprian artist, who had a mix of writing and poetry. The colour was like this terracotta and dirt yellow and It was all messy and all over the place, it was mostly confusing and wasn’t put together correctly. Again, it sparked no interest. However, this must be some sort of a study for a larger project and not a final piece, they might be experimentations or the beginning of an idea, because it does look more like a research essay rather than something finished.

More inspiration from this special commission from Frieze Magazine: Lacrima: Viviane Sassen’s Specially Commissioned Homage to Lee Miller. It’s a beautifully organised, intimate and polished to perfection. I absoluelty adore the composition and it made me think photographically how I would print and organise it. Please see the link for what I mean: https://frieze.com/article/lacrima-viviane-sassens-specially-commissioned-homage-lee-miller

Bibliography

University of Hertfordshire (2019) The Visual Essay. Available at: https://catoolkit.herts.ac.uk/toolkit/the-visual-essay/ (Accessed: 2 March 2019)

Tate (2019) Art Informel. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/art-informel (Accessed: 20 March 2019)

Tate (2019) Abstract Expressionism. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/abstract-expressionism (Accessed: 20 March 2019)

Nishizawa, M (2012) A Visual Essay on Gutai at 32 East 69th Street, Hauser & Wirth New York, New York.

Pasmore, V. (1997) The Man Within, Enitharmon Press, London.

Tonnard, E. (?) Terra Nullius Acts of Possession: A visual essay, Special Collections archive, Chelsea College of Arts Library.

Pavildes, E. (?) Home Sweet Home: A Visual Essay, Special Collections archive, Chelsea College of Arts Library.

Images

Art trip museum (2019) Yoshihara Jiro, the Leader of the Gutai: his Life and Works. Available at: https://www.city.osaka.lg.jp/contents/wdu120/artrip/en/gutai_yoshihara.html (Accessed: 25 March 2019)

Coetzee, C (1959) Gutai Group in Osaka

Contemporary daily (2012) A Virtual Essay on Gutai at Hauser & Wirth. Available at: https://www.contemporaryartdaily.com/2012/10/a-visual-essay-on-gutai-at-hauser-wirth/yoshihara1965_edited/ (Accessed: 25 March 2019)

Schofield, N (2019) The Man Within. Available at: http://neil-schofield.squarespace.com/victorpasmorebook1/eqaglvvw43ah211hokuxd82tx78k1k (Accessed: 25 March 2019)

Past Students work

Nudity – artist name wasn’t mentioned inside the book

Tell me what you think – Kathy Hayes

Pizza Planet, cover + inside – artist name wasn’t mentioned inside the book

Catalogue – Ruiyao Zhu