Colour Theory

Last week and today, we had visually jarring lectures on colour theory. The first lecture touches on the way we perceive light while the second one is on subjective colour and the optical reaction that our eyes make when we stare at colours on different conditions and or contexts. Since I've learnt about the physics behind the colour spectrum prior to the lecture, I can appreciate the diffusion of white light when it passes through a slit or in between small particles producing different spectral colours as perceived by the eyes. In general, the greater the wavelength, the slower it travels, so it appears more reddish, while the shorter the wavelength, the faster it travels, the more purplish-blue it will be.

For instance, the sky is not pure blue because the particles floating in the air have different physical properties, they diffract light in different manners, therefore the blue is a combination of spectral colour which our eyes interpret as blue.

Mixing Colours

Fred also explained CMYK/substractive colour and RGB/additive colour and why the first is used for printing and the latter is used on screen.

Subjectivity and Optical Reaction of Colour

I find the lecture useful because I tend take the optical effect of the interaction between colours for granted, and attending the lecture allows myself to reflect on the subjectivity of colour. Despite having fixed codes of colour on Pantone colour system, the way out eyes perceive colours are still conditional and contextual, hence it is optically subjective. (The Pantone colour system is made by comparative colour matching so as to adjust the consistency of colour on the screen and on the printed material)

First thing first, we need to understand the factors that affect chromatic value represented by a simple equation.

Chromatic Value = Hue + Tone (Luminance) + Saturation

The effect of interaction between colours with different chromatic values depends on these 7 factors:

1. Contrast of TONE 
• Light - dark
2. Contrast of HUE 
• Difference in tonal value relative to the distance between the colours in the colour wheel
3. Contrast of SATURATION
• More like boldness of colour. The bolder it is the more pure it will be.
4. Contrast of EXTENSION
• The weight of colour to create visual balance.
• The distribution of colours in a composition affects the weight of a colour relative to another, the more widespread they are, the lesser the weight of the colour.
5. Contrast of TEMPERATURE
• Warm - cool (subjective interpretation)
• The longer we look at colours, the more we can feel the temperature difference
• As a result, our eyes can perceive flat colour gradients.
6. COMPLEMENTARY contrast
• On a neutral grey background, depending how bold the colour is, we'll be able to see the optical change of the neutral grey to the complementary colour of the bold colour if we stare at it for long.
• Proves that complementary colours imposes themselves on a neutral background.
7. SIMULTANEOUS contrast
• Optical illusion formed when all 6 factors are working together
• A physically same colour will be optically changed if placed on background with different chromatic value.

I Like to Sock Myself in the Face

Written by Henry Jenkins, 'I Like to Sock Myself in the Face' is an essay that touches on gags in popular entertainment from 1940 to 1960 in relation to 'Vulgar Modernism' written by J. Hoberman in 1982. It is an example-driven essay which gives a really detailed description of vaudeville performance by Olsen and Johnson in the television film Hellzapoppin, M.A.D Magazine cartoonists and Tex Avery's cartoons, which are made in the Modern era, to explain how vulgarity were fit into popular entertainment. The essay talks about how artists which Jenkins classifies as 'vulgar modernist' assimilate high art and popular culture 'to produce laughter as opposed to the shock and displeasure that often surrounds reflexivity within the modernist tradition'. Some of these transgressive jokes mostly emerges from the artist's commentary on current affairs and trends from his 'avant-garde impulses'. The Simpsons and South Park are some example of innuendo cartoons that are widely watched by the mass today. People will never get bored with transgressive jokes because they are continuously changing with respect to trends and events. Personally, I really like these kind of comic relief, but the fact that the jokes are short-lived is undeniable, such that when the trends have calmed down the jokes will become corny. This links Adorno's theory on the standardisation in the Culture Industry to popular television cartoons through the manufacture of jokes out of popular trends and affairs. Also, it exposes the capitalist nature of the television cartoon industry as they maintain a certain standard of their product out of what has been prolific in the past without any consideration on ethics.

Quotes from 'The Ways of Seeing' Chapter 7

Most animation are publicised widely for mass entertainment, so I decided to find out more about the traits of publicity by reading essay no.7 from John Berger's 'The Ways of Seeing'. 

The following are some of the quotes that I consider as relevant to the Culture Industry:

• 'only interests of cultural prestige have obscured it (direct continuity)
• 'Sometimes the visual resemblance (between work of art and publicity) are so close'
• 'All its references to quality are bound to be retrospective and traditional.'
• 'Publicity needs to turn to its own advantage the traditional education of the average spectator-buyer'
• 'vague historical or poetic or moral references'
• 'imprecise and ultimately meaningless is an advantage'
• 'Publicity makes all history mythical, but to do so effectively it needs a visual language with historical dimension.'
• 'only use the future tense'
• 'Publicity is judged, not by the real fulfillment of its promises, but by the relevance of its fantasies to those of the spectator-buyers.'
• (Social function) 'Publicity helps to mask and compensate for all that is undemocratic within society, it also masks what is happening in the rest of the world.'
• (Philosophical system) 'explains everything in its own terms. It interprets the world'
• 'Capitalism survives by forcing the majority, whom it exploits, to define their own interests as narrowly as possible. This was once achieved by extensive deprivation. Today in the developed countries it is being achieved by imposing a false standard of what is and what is not desirable.'

Relating them to Animation:

• Book adaptation feature animation by Disney
• Story-based animations use real societal problems, prominent in the present, that everyone can relate to win the empathy of the audiences. Also, the importance of having a resolution is relative to the target audience
• It is important to give a resolution for the conflict at the end, if the animation is targeted for young audience, so as to teach them about moral values. 
• Having resolutions is no as important for independent animation screened exclusively at film or animation festivals. Instead, some of them have indefinite endings as it is meant to be watched by educated people.
• Fictional setting in Animation
• Animation makes the artist's vision comes to life through moving images
• Animation have the capacity of being suggestive
• Servitude helps capitalism to thrive

Refined Essay Plan

Earlier on I did a general essay plan for Study Task 3, but as I got back to it, I feel that it does not give me a clear direction of the essay. After reading some sources and having a discussion with Mike earlier on, I have clearer ideas of the concepts of the Culture Industry. So, I decided to make a new and more refined essay plan which can guide me more effectively in writing the essay.

Aim of my essay

To Explore the relationship between the Culture Industry and Animation

Contextual Questions & Pointers

1. What does the concept of Culture Industry says?
2. Where does Animation sit on the culture hierarchy?
3. In what instances could Animation be considered as a product of the Culture Industry?
4. How does Animation promotes the Culture Industry?
5. What is the present situation like in the Animation Industry?
6. Is it diverting away from commercialised entertainment?
7. Consider the non-commercialised sector of Animation
8. Possibly talk about the democratisation on YouTube

Pointers

• What are the inherent traits of the product of Culture Industry?
• Define Low Culture and High Culture
• Based on that definition, derive where does Animation sit on the culture hierarchy. Consider the context it is placed on
• Relate the concept of aura and mystification to Animation
• Ease of mass access: Animation is not a tangible form of art, and it can be easily duplicated and distributed to the mass.
• It is undeniable that animation shows many resemblance to science. It is undergoing similar phase to the 'race to space'. Big animation studios, like Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks and Paramount, continuously develop cutting edge softwares and gadgets, which enhance the audience's animated feature films experience.
• Exclusivity of Animation: Take into account animations exclusively screened at animation or film festivals. It is not domesticated as long as no one uploaded it on video streaming sites like YouTube and Vimeo. There are people who are willing to pay to go to such events evidenced that Animations are valued and are still celebrated as works of art.
• Animation commissioned for The Animate Projects in the UK are exceptional and deemed to be worth-watching. The organisation places value on Animation by giving financial supports to talented animators in the UK.
•  Some modern animated film does not have to tell a story, it can be a reflection of an artist's vision through motion pictures. It does not have to be suggestive as well for people to value the animation. 
• Animation is just a medium for an artwork. People can use it creatively for anything, and there is neither rules nor restrictions to its usage just like any other art mediums.

Essay Feedback

I was struggling since quite a while in coming up with a strong thesis for my essay, so I decided to have a fruitful conversation with Mike about it.

He pointed out some misconceptions in the essay and corrections to it, which are the following:

• The 12 principles of animation is an aid used by Disney, and it is not a fix rule. It depends on the artist's decision whether to use it or not. Animation is just a media that can be used to brought the artist's vision to come to life, so the method production really depends on the artist's preference.

• pre-production, production and post-production sequence is not absolute as well. It is made to communicate ideas and development clearly in the production process in big studios producing content for TV and feature films to meet tight deadlines. Independent animators works not based on a definite sequence as they have the luxury of time to experiment.

I also told Mike that I want to make a research-based essay, and he said that I can do it. I am more confident as I know roughly what to do after he demonstrates how to put examples into the context of the essay.

He also introduced me some key ideas related to The Culture Industry. While these ideas are applicable and worth-exploring, I chose to be pragmatic and only focus on a few of them and discuss them in depth in my essay.

These are some of the ideas that I would like to focus on:

• The place of animation in the cultural hierarchy depends on the context it is put on. They can be celebrated as a work of art through winning film awards and exhibited in an art space, while they are mass entertainment when they are screened on TV. 

• Some animations were made commodities, and it had lost its genuine values because of the profit-driven big animation studios'efficacy is based on preceding successful film. The artist's vision, which is the essence of a work of art, is not applicable for some animation artists working in big studio unless the studio recognised the content as profitable. 

The Designer as A Social Critique & Practice as Social Comment

The Designer as A Social Critique

Historical Background

Social activism in design became popular during the Modern era where the hippie positivity flourished; everyone thinks that everything can be solved with peace. Artists becomes aware of the revolutionary power of design, and many of them grouped together, formed a collective, and created the First Thing First Manifesto in 1964 written by Ken Garland. Basically, they decided not to waste talent in representative culture. In 2000, the manifesto is enforced by the AdBusters. They are a collective of artist who believe in the anti-capitalist ideology in their pursuit to attack capitalist giants.

Ethical Dilemma

As a result, it becomes a polarising factor which classifies designers as either supporting or against the consumerist system. However, I reckon that the real problem is not on this matter. Instead, there is an ethical dilemma between earning money for a living and giving a humanist view on social issue. While it is easy to say that when one is a successful designer, that is actually a hassle for fresh graduates who just entered the industry and so most of them choose to start their career in advertising companies. Victor Papanek is one designer who took a different approach in design. To him, things designed are not necessarily needed, they exist for the manufacturers to earn money. Instead of making anything fancy, he design things which is functional by recycling scrap materials to solve real social problems like poverty in third world country by offering designs allows them to be self-reliant so that they do not have to be ripped off by the western world capitalist manufacturers. This brought up the question to the capitalist nature of the commercial design practice: Why making money for other people when the world is falling apart?

Practice as Social Comment

In practice, it is common for designers to put symbolic details to their artwork which represents their view to the society. The Charlie Hebdo incident, however, has brought a valid point that we, as designers, should be more cautious of disseminating the message in the work that we produced. We should take into account the social conditions at an instance to produce content which is relevant and does not create social tension. On the other hand, I think that creators of subversive designs are not the one to be blamed for social tensions because the audience is the one to judge and react to a design content. 

Anthropomorphism is a technique commonly used by creatives to conceal subversive ideas in their works. Jan Svankmajer is famous for using a many visual metaphors to give an account of the situation in the Iron Curtain during the Cold War in his animation regarding freedom of speech, control and surveillance to avoid getting involved with the authorities. In the novel Animal Farm, George Orwell also used anthropomorphic animals to get his political idea into the world. These evidenced that back in the day freedom of speech is non existent unless one can implicitly get the idea across.

It is so much different compared to the present situation mainly because of The Internet. We can remain anonymous and state our ideas of the world. Although, in most cases, opinion will remain insignificant due to the plethora of information uploaded to The Internet. Getting enough publicity is really important for present day designers, and therefore it is essential to build a good body of work in our portfolio and maintaining our commercial practice. In the end, we, designers, need to balance our work for social commentary and commercial practice to get the best of both.