Seminar 3 - Richard Miles

Presentation Seminar:

Summary of main points on lecture
Point and ideas: ideally on writers / theorists 
Some suggestions as to relevance to lecture for graphic designers. 

Presentation for Lecture on: Celebrity Culture 

Lecture looks at:

History of celeb

- relationship between photography/film/TV and celeb

- the cultural significance of celebs

- how contemporary identity and celeb are intertwine

- contemporary icons as case studies

- Summary of main points
- Link to theorists- Some suggestions as to relevance of lecture in terms of graphic design

Lecture 7 - Celebrity Culture

Summary

1. History of celeb

- shift from the Victorian celebrity, who were men and women of the arts; to the Hollywood Era; through Andy Warhol's Factory and into the contemporary celebrity

- line between on-screen and off-screen life and personality and how this can lead to their destruction

2. Relationship between photography/film/TV and celeb

Female

- Julia Margaret Cameron - celebrity portraits in the Pictorialist tradition

- style that imitated painting: soft focus, toning such as sepia, romantic/theatrical themes

- sitters are often acting scenes from mythology or religious themes

Male

- male celebrities of the day were given a different treatment photographically

- celebration of what they did, more than how they looked

Film

- rise and fall of actor and actress who play main roles

- examines inevitability of celebrities going in and out of fashion

- mixing of on screen and off screen personality e.g. Clarke Gable

- reversal of roles between the ordinary and celebrity e.g. Bette Davis

TV

- celebrities in the home, in personal private space

- get space for TV to influence every day life

- private life coming through life on film which is almost the thing that destroys celebrity e.g. Marilyn Monroe

3. How contemporary identity and celeb are intertwined

- imitation of celebrity - celebrity informs/shapes individual identity/mass identity and industry involved around celebrity market/preservation of celeb

- ASOS - celebrity translating to ordinary person, opportunity to 'own the celebrity' and 'become the celebrity'

4. Contemporary icons as case studies

Lady Gaga

- recycles her image every time she is seen in public

- no longer have a signature look, get mutability of several different selves portrayed through contemporary celebrity

- impossible to get in touch with real self

- just about spectacle not about her at all

David Beckham

- contemporary 'everyman'

- as a brand

- overcomes private life scandals - he seems invincible

- untouchable status that invites us to wait for it all to go wrong

Whitney Houston

- idea of ownership and commercial value to celebrity deaths

Link to theorists

The Celebrity Culture Reader (2006) edited by P. David Marshall, Routledge

- Celebrity culture publication; through history of celebrity culture

image based publication - 

- Installation of celebrity culture: conceptual and shows how this influences social masses. 

- 

http://beautifuldecay.com/2012/07/30/conceptual-graphic-design-and-politically-oriented-installation-from-british-artist-scott-king/

21st centurey : the contemporary celebrity as spetcile
19th cnetury : celebrities were poets / philosophers

WARHOL
consumer culture

Celebrity who does things
celeb who are hollow speticle sign superficial 
production of fame, production of glamour, no art > empty product brand. 


POPULAR CULTURE SEMINAR:

* What is the social function of popular culture? > Popular culture as business 
Commidifcation
TV MOVES CHART MUSIC 
Promotes passivity
Design ideas: rebrand > on trend with mass > product or values not changing but the 'ideas' 
Magazines/popular culture > layouts similar > gossip magazines layout and type.
STANDARDISATION > FRANKFURT SCHOOL


> base is the forms of products and relation of production
superstructure > institutions that come from it. 
Classes that create own subculture > upperclass dint like this because culture had been controlled by the elities > poetry philosy painting > assumption that the culture which haws produced by rich people, was the culture of the whole country > industrialisation shift in Base (economic relation of world from surf and land owner to city relations) working class lumped together in sections of city > distinct separations > dynamic working class culture > by the people for the people > commercial aspect > working class route to a better life > polictial radical > working class get vote > upperclass for them, culture was under threat. 
popular culture as a threat to the social order. 

Class based anayalsis of Culture...

Matthew Arnold 
F.R Leavis 

Write about how this new culture is now > represented slide of great culture (rich). They say that new popular is threat.

Frankfurt said that the working class should develop their own important culture that makes them think + change the world.

Both believe that there is culture : one believes that popular culture is the answer.    
Graphic Design > Popular culture > for the masses. We as designers are part of this 19th century process, we popular culture started to emerge, made for people, by the people. fine art = culture of elite. 



Cities and Film Presentation

- Modernism and city 
The city as personal syblime space

Fordsim / Body and Machine 
Chaplin
FLANEIR - City as stage / experience 
Bandelaire, Benjamin Simile 


Postmodernism and the city 
Public and private 
Modern Flaneur
citron journalism
CCTV 

Links to graphics: Where fine art / photography and advertising leads to graphics > billboards > advertising. 
liNKS TO CULTURE AND POPULAR CULTURE > NEW TECHNOLOGY INVENTED eg, camera > made art redundant > don't need to paint > paint had to rebrand > abstract to keep up to date with modern etc > photography > instagram > photography students > really bad cos everyone think they can do photography. 


Subculture and Style

Subculture > distinct group of people diff, from the mainstream
subculture is separate from style.

Minority vs mainstream

symbolic opposition or resistance
changing their urban environment > graffiti / skateboarding / 

When a sub culture generally becomes mass produced, original to mainstream.
Incorporation  >  punks, hand made clothes > shop > reduction > subculture becomes style.
Commodification by the system
D.I.Y // ZINE

MINORITY against the majority > popular culture same but other way round. Minority trying to fight the majority for specific reseaons, culture industry > revolutionary > moments of resistance / opposition. Symbolic moments of resistance become a style that incorporated into the 'system'. End up becoming a commodity that is bought / sold churned out for style purpose. 

ANY SUB CULTRE METHODS O PRODUCTION AT THAT TIME;

eg hip hop 1980 - black american population
excluded from white mainstream american culture
develop music, dress sense etc
threatens to change nature of society
hip hop gets commodified and incorporated
turned into another american 

SUB CULTRE FAILS

?????

are there subcultures now? is it incorporated? 

TASK:
A short paragraph  - summary of the lecture and triangulate a piece of academic writing. Practice!