Context of Practice 1 Evaluation

The Context of Practice (COP) module made me more aware of ethical practice by introducing philosophical concepts related to culture and design. I have learnt that the design process is not just about making impressive things for self-promotion as the process must effectively communicate my response for a given brief to the audience. Although I found reading academic articles challenging at first, the study tasks given during seminar sessions helped me to familiarise with the language used in academic writing, and ultimately, apply it to my written assignments. I really enjoyed reading for COP because it gets me to evaluate deep concepts like Adorno's theory of the Culture Industry and Freudian theory. Moreover, it makes me appreciate what I have, and cut down unnecessary consumption despite all the temptations that come from publicity.

We were told to choose a question and write an essay at the beginning of the academic year, in which I choose a question about the relationship between Animation and the Culture Industry. I wrote several drafts to get to the final writing to ensure that the tone of voice in my essay is appropriate to the concept being discussed in the essay. It is a painstaking process of researching to develop a deep understanding of the concept of Culture Industry, yet it is worthwhile since it allows me to consider different perspectives about the concept and use it to critically analyse the animation industry. The idea for my animated response through reading other essay by Adorno titled 'How to Look at Television' in which he explained how the theory of Culture Industry is structured to control the unconsciousness of the people, to depoliticise them so that it maintains the status quo in the capitalist society. I decided that motion graphic is the best way to present my visual response because it has the capacity to clearly present the process of animation, as a product of the Culture Industry, influence the mind of the audiences who watched it. I am pleased with how my animation turns out as it is my first time animating with After Effects, and I relied heavily on online tutorials while doing it. As I am new to the software, the effects that I could make is limited, hence I made some changes from the initial storyboarded idea as I could not figure out how to make some of the effects. For instance, instead of having a camera panning away from the audience and zooming into Walt Disney, I made a ripple effect while Walt pops into the scene.

Procrastination would always be the most prominent issue that I face when I was writing the essay. Although I like the module, it is still hard for me to have the motivation to start work early, and it took me a while before I get myself to start writing even though I know what I want to discuss about in my essay. I need to be more disciplined and stick to my schedule.

Semiotics

This lecture covers how meaning is shaped from signs and introduces us to the keywords often used to describe signs, such as signifiers, signified, denotation and connotation. Ferdinand de Saussure, who is a Swiss linguist, described making signs as looking for hidden pattern that affect the unconsciousness of the audience. In semiotics, there is no logical relationship between the signifier (sound image) and the signified (mental concept) since it is decided by culture. In film and animation, this communication system comes in the form of formulaic plot of narratives with respect to the genre codes and framing conventions. As we acknowledge this system, we will be constantly judging these cultural artefacts according to a fixed standard derived from shared knowledge, and deem anything else that deviates from this standard as idiosyncratic. As compared to the modernists, we live in a society that can better appreciate idiosyncrasies, such that it encourages animators to explore the possibilities of animation as a medium of art. For example, a group of animators from a collective, and made an animated film from Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet, a compilation of Gibran's prose poetry essays. The animation itself is a narration with compilation of segments uniquely made by each artists based on their own interpretation of the literary work.

The second half of the lecture covers myths and how the meanings of sign shifts according to arbitrary connotation.'The myths which suffuse our lives are insidious, precisely because they appear so natural' (Barthes, 1984). There were instances in which myths have disguised the history and validating cultural attitude. This enables the artists to trigger the conscious and the unconscious mind of their audience, and that's why works of art are powerful tool to introduce ideas to the masses.

Post-Modernism

In the Modernism lecture, we learnt that people have positive mental attitude towards progress that it is mostly the case that they blindly obey rules established by social authority. Modern Art movements evidence originality and minimalism. The post-modern society is the total opposite of all these. It is characterised by disintegration, pessimism and impurity. Modernism is the expression of modern life, while Post-modernism is the reaction to it. The reaction against modernism sparks off when the reality of modernism starts to prevail as metropolitan building crumbled and people start to snap out of the disillusionment that the advancement of technology will improve their lives.

Some of the rebellious acts by post-modern artists include celebrating kitsch and ridiculing bogus religiosity. Animation could be classified as kitsch (or trivial culture) especially Western cartoons such as The Simpsons. It is made to be unoriginal, as the episodes were made based on popular culture, so that the audience can relate to the jokes. The series is highly satirical as producers unintelligently mock social authorities and propose conspiracies. The fact that this type of cartoon is really popular reflects the post-modern audience's attitude of not taking things seriously.

Think Say Make 2015: Animated Response

The Animation Industry from Brenda Christie Muliawan on Vimeo.

My animated response to the question: 'What is the relationship between Animation and the Culture Industry?' There is a major difference from the initial idea because of the choice of music. I use a groovy tunes instead of patching up sounds from documentaries. It works better because the tune suits the flow of the animation. Also, the repetitiveness of the music also conveys the idea of the standardisation.

Modernism

The world 'shrinks' at the start of the modern era because urbanisation becomes a trend for those who lived in rural areas due to the popular belief that they would hace better living conditions if they live in the city. The modern era started off positively with the excitement of the people towards new inventions; or rather inventions gave them psychological shock. Living itself becomes more organised as people have routinised work and leisure, yet this lifestyle compromises the free form of existence. Eventually, people start to develop a fear of work, and escape the reality of work by adopting hedonistic lifestyle, such as drinking alcohols, taking drugs, and leisure. Many modern filmmakers immortalise the experience of the brutal and unapologetic aesthetic in modern lifestyle, and it has successfully made working class trend into subculture like mods, skinheads and punk.

Mosh pits and rave painting by Dan Witz

A large fraction of the population living in the modern era could read and write, which is a factor to why they subscribe to the process of rationality and reason. The Western world had undergone secularisation which have significant impact on individuals. And, this had become a common subject matter in modern paintings where artists expresses personal feeling of isolation and sense of being lost in the crowd similar to how modern fashion taught us to express individuality. This characteristic of modern artwork is also visible in modern cartoons like Gerald McBoingBoing produced by UPA. In the animation, the main character is isolated from the other character as he offers a unique talent, which made him stood out. The highly style of the design reflects modernism with the clean and simple look. Truth to materials is evidenced by the use of colour blocking method in the mis-en-scene, such that no effort is put on to add details and realistic elements to the character.

Scientific breakthroughs in modern era had encouraged modern artists to do experimentation, and pioneered modern art movements, one of which is animation. The interest of the population towards optical illusion contributes to animation's success as commercial entertainment, and inventors like the Fleischer's Brothers continue to make animation and invent camera tricks to give fantastical experience to the audience.

Print Culture and Distribution

The invention of printing press in 1450 kick started the renaissance era as it multiplies the capacity to publicise information to the masses. Publicity - controlled by the elites - brought class discrimination to the Western society as they establish the elite class, which are deemed to be superior to the rest of the people. The elite class built institutions like the Royal Academy for the sake of self-aggrandisement, in which artists were trained to make historical painting and immortalise the 'great and the good'.

Modernisation brought a paradigm shift towards the Western culture. People started to migrate to urban areas, and establish new class division between the proletariat (working class) and the bourgeoisie. Therefore, giving rise to new culture since the working class made their own culture, mass manufactured, and become the root of popular culture. The prints sheer capacity to disseminate information had given more freedom for the working class to communicate their ideas. It also helped artists to gain more by selling reproduction of their artworks. The sale of prints could also potentially give boost on the value of their artworks. On the other hand, could poses some risks. It could encourage people to create their own political culture and form cults, which contributes to many prevailing political conflict in today's society. The domestication of print culture is threatening elitist culture, and the elites believed that the 'authentic' culture is trashed by the popular culture. In 1936, Walter Benjamin writes about the impact of reproducing to the aura of the authentic artwork. He touches on the potential of the changing aura to bring a social revolution. He thought that reprinting will distribute culture to the people, and allow them to respond to the culture. In this sense, people becomes aware that they have the freedom to own and voice out personal ideas on real world issues.

 Members of the Frankfurt School, like Adorno and Walter Benjamin, perceived that popular culture gave rises to facism as the masses were made aware and accepts that there are some people who deserves better than them. Therefore, they are willing to abide the totalitarian social authority, and dismisses any idiosyncrasies prevalent in works of art as pretentious. However, the working class does not care about what the people from the ruling class think about their culture. Instead, a democratic cultural revolution occured, followed by the establishments of many school of designs 70 years after the Royal Academy, in which people learn to focus on functionality of ideas and images,while learning about the popular culture and produce lesser arts. Despite its name, lesser art have the potential to do big things in the society. This is why school of designs have reintroduced the concept of genuine art so that it can be applied in any form of popular arts.

What is Research

As designers, ideas are our tool of trade. Ideas could be generated with 3 pronged approach which are stimulated approach, systematic approach intuitive approach. Knowing these approaches has helped me a lot in coming up with ideas for the concepts of my animation. It gives me idea on how I generate my idea: I often leave out the systematic approach for the last to refine the idea that comes from stimulated and intuitive approach as systematic approach will spark off an internal dialogue regarding the effectiveness of the preceding ideas.

After having the lecture, I ponder about my personal struggle in finding the right method to realise my idea because I am more of a thinker rather than a doer. If I got an idea at the back of my head, I continuously think about how can I realise it better, yet not trying out possibilities through experimenting. Therefore, I am always stuck on the thinking phase, deciding which medium to use for my animation. The moment I finally decide which medium that I'd like to use is usually close to the deadline. Luckily, the lecture helped me identify this bad habit of mine. I decided to work on this weakness to make myself more prolific, although I have only improved by a little. In addition, the lecture has proposed a methodology which helped me organise how I arrange my sketchbook so that it accounts thorough account of the concepts that I have been researching on. I usually started off by analysing the brief, list down sets of things I need to research on, research on these things online. Afterwards, I critically analyse what should I add or omit to have a solid idea which will be made into a final product which resolves the brief.

The History of Type: Production and Distribution

Type is a form of visual literacy agreed and used by people. Letters are set of codes used to communicate information that existed since 5,000 years ago. It is unique that the human mind reads alphabetical symbols as a word, and not each letter on its own. Therefore, it must be understood that individual letters does not contain information, and human beings could only make sense of it if letters are grouped together to form words. This concept is similar to how animation works, such that to make illusion of motion, we need to have a collection of frames compiled into a single footage that plays the motion. A single frame does not signify any message as animators communicate messages through movements.

Eadweard Muybridge's Photographic Studies of Motion

Due to the increasing literacy in the Western World, many modern typefaces were developed to suit printing needs. Walter Gropius (1919) distinguish forms and function of these typefaces, creating norms for typefaces used for decorative purpose and those used to mimic handwritten words in printed literature. Around the same time, The Bauhaus also started designing crafts movement where designers designed typography that could make a significant impact to those who read the texts. Nowadays, graphic design has become a famous occupation. They use typefaces to advertise products, or even develop a cultural language of protest and conflict. With this in mind, graphic designers does continuously develop new typefaces to suit social needs, political and cultural preference, and advancement of technology. This give rises to a wide range of typefaces that the designers can use in their design, and lead to individualistic tendency which threatens the design process. It is a crime for a designer to choose a typeface solely based on personal taste, and they are responsible to take into consideration whether the typeface would enhance or disrupts effective communication of the core message to the audience. 

OUCH!

Sometimes, animators underestimate the importance of using the right typeface to represent their animation. This is because making animation is the focus of their occupation and adding text is just a post production thing, yet this is a total misconception. Considering typeface used for the title of the animation as it sets up the mood before the animated film starts, so that the audience know what to expect from the film. Typeface that appears at the end credit is as significant as those used in the title, as both of them must reinforce the genre of the film. In the present, it is popular for title sequence or end credits of animation to be made with kinetic typography. Saul Bass pioneers this trend as he created many title sequence masterpieces by designing the motions of typeface so that they are coherent to the musical piece that sets up the mood of the film. 

Study Task 4: Triangulating & Harvard Referencing

The manifesto 'FUCK COMMITTEES' is an outlet of Kalman's frustration towards the corporate culture in America, in which many designs that have been realised, are sanitised and trivialised to instill corporate servitude. Kalman (1998) is concerned to the creative people who are now 'working for the bottom line', such that the outcome of their work is predetermined the efficacy set by the corporate authorities to fit into the corporate system and generate revenue. Hence, unlike in authentic culture, there is no room for 'idiosyncrasies' in today's popular culture. The popular culture will not stimulate the people's mind to internalise this 'idiosyncrasies', while they ended up giving instant gratification by using pseudo-individualisation to represent their products. Therefore, integrating the society into a seemingly flawless capitalist system where they are unconsciously controlled by the corporate elites. On the other hand, Kalman (1998) still believes that there is a solution to this issue if designers can find the 'very few lunatic enterpreneurs' who understand that 'wealth is means, not an end', and work hand in hand with them to create a positive social change. 

Other collectives, such as Experimental Jetset and the Vignelli Associates, have made manifestos which identify the same problem raised by Kalman in FUCK COMMITTEES. In Disrepresentation Now!, Experimental Jestset (2001) argues that the paradigm shift from presentative to representative design process causes socio-political problem. In The Vignelli Canon, the Vignelli Associates (2010) supports the argument through identifying the problem of the shift, such that it would encourage designers and marketing people to use crude designs intended to instill consumer passivity to the audience. Hence, people, including designers, unconsciously measure value in works of art according to the standard imposed by the culture industry, not based their own opinion. As a result, designers work according to the efficacy set by the corporate system, such that the outcomes are strictly standardised to maintain the iron grip of social authority, defying the real purpose of a piece of 'design as a functional entity' (Experimental Jetset, 2001). In other words, they think of design as a 'particular style', although 'design is a discipline, a creative process with its own rules, controlling the consistency of its output towards its objective in the most direct and expressive way' (Vignelli Associates, 2010).

Animation is perceived as a particular style, which made it no different than these representative designs as the animation industry made animated films to entertain the people, and ultimately appeal to the masses using doughball-shaped cartoon characters. Although more animation artists have perceived Animation as a discipline nowadays, publicity still favours Animation as kitsch fabricated from authentic folklore. Fortunately, there are animation artists like Chuck Jones who made use of this situation to prove that such ''appropriation' when appropriate, could be done - just another way of solving a problem or expressing creativity' (Vignelli Associates, 2010). In his stylised animation titled The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics, Chuck Jones evidenced what the Vignelli Associates (2010) describes as good design: 'an expression of creative strength bringing forward clear concepts expressed in beautiful form and colour, when every element expresses the content in the most forceful way'. He successfully uses animation to make the mathematical puns obvious in the animation. For instance, when the author described the Dot as 'perfect', and the diameter of the Dot shows a consistent value as it is being measured using micrometer screw gauge from various angles.

In addition, Jones demonstrated that, with effective mis-en-scene, even limited animation on basic shapes could effectively communicate their character traits to the audience. Overall, all the components of design shows high level of consistency as all components are worked towards the clarification of the moral of the story, which is 'To the vector belongs the spoil' referenced from an old saying 'to the victor belongs the spoils.' Despite all these evidence of a powerful design, the absence of creativity in streamlined production of animation is still apparent to a certain extent. The sound effect in the animation is highly suggestive of the stereotypes that prevails at the time when the animation was made. The content is sanitised by the authority, such that intellectual elegance in designs made by individuals is reduced to crude and vulgar design for the sake of 'carrying out corporate strategies' (Kalman, 2008). The rock and roll melody used to represent the Squiggle would make the audiences associate people who listens to such music to have rowdy personality.

Such representation is regarded by Experimental Jetset (2001) as 'highly anti-revolutionary' because it made idea that 'constantly dissolves its physical appearance, in order to describe and represent appearances other than itself.' They advocate 'abstraction' can get the masses away from the control of corporate authority, as it is the 'ultimate form of engagement'. However, such remarks is rather pretentious because, in reality, the majority of the masses perceive 'abstraction' as kistch. With that kind of mindset, it is difficult to forcefully make these people appreciate 'abstraction' as authentic culture. Furthermore, by doing so, creatives are setting up standard just like what the corporates do. In The Vignelli Canon, the Vignelli Associates (2010) proposes a more objective idea of creating a responsible design to counter the retrogressive traits of the representative designs. Anything could be a successful design so long as the design process is done with careful consideration of the need of the designers, the clients and the public at large. In doing so, 'it is important to understand the starting point and all assumptions of any project to fully comprehend the final result and measure its efficiency' (Vignelli Associates, 2010). Hence, we, designers need to synthesise the meaning of the project by doing thorough and accurate research , and come up with a design that shows 'syntatic consistency' (Vignelli Associates, 2010) to ensure that it could clearly communicate the message to the audience.

Bibliography:

Manifestos

[internet] Available <http://www.manifestoproject.it/> [accessed 23/04/2016]

• Kalman, T. (1998) 'FUCK COMMITTEES'
• Experimental Jetset (2001) 'Disrepresentation Now!'
• Vignelli Associates (2010) 'The Vignelli Canon'

Animation

The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics (1965) Dir. Chuck Jones and Dir. Maurice Noble [animation] USA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 10 min, Available <https://youtu.be/OmSbdvzbOzY> [accessed 23/04/2016]

Study Task 4: Triangulation - Synthesising the Sources

Main concepts:

(From Disrepresentation Now!)

• The process of representation is a problem because of its anti-revolutionary effect.
• It is common for designers to disregard their profession, denying the societal and political importance of Design.
• Designers should snap out of the mindset that design is made to impress because it is against the real purpose of a piece of design as functional entity which can be revolutionary.

(From The Vignelli Canon)

• The culture industry is made possible by designers and marketing people who disregard consumers as commodity. They look down on the masses by thinking that the masses have affinity towards superficial aesthetic in designs, while are indifferent towards intellectual elegance in designs. As a result, designers continue to manufacture such 'crude and vulgar design' for the sake of entertaining the masses.
• Emphasis on the importance of achieving 'the correct level of continuity'; all components of a design should be worked to achieve clarity in delivering the intended meaning to the audience.
• The intended meaning of an effective design have to be based on broad contextual research on the subject matter, not just based on the designer's instinct. It is also essential to take note of other rules so that the design shows consistency throughout.
• 'Appropriation - borrowing certain designs and 'transforming it by placing it in a different context' - is an acceptable creative process.
• 'Intellectual elegance' is designers' moral obligation and their form of respect to the society's needs.
• Design is more than just entertainment, it should have a clear purpose aimed to a precise target.
• Authenticity is not in the design, but in the new ideology the designer tries to put forth as he undergo the creative process.

(From Fuck Committees)

• The present creative industry is commercialised such that, now, the purpose of a creative process is to impress the audience with the end product.
• Trend propaganda is imposed through advertisements by media to the masses.
• The advertising culture caused designers' work to be disregarded as commodities.
• There are still hope to the future of design because there are still designers who are aware of the revolutionary attribute in the discipline of design.

Quotes:

(From Disrepresentation Now!)

• 'Every cause that is formulated outside a design context, and superficially imposed on a piece of design, is tendentious, representative, and thus reactionary, whether it deals with corporate interest or social causes.'
• 'The society of spectacle ... a world of representation and alienation.'
• 'denial and neglect of its own physical dimensions' 
• 'The only way out of this representative illusion is through presentative culture.'
• 'What we need is a form of graphic design that is neither immoral or moral, but amoral; that is productive, not reproductive; that is constructive, not parasitic.'
• 'We believe that to focus on the physical dimensions of design, to create a piece of design as a functional entity, as an object in itself, is the most social and political act a designer can perform.'

(From The Vignelli Canon)

• '... there are designers and marketing people who intentionally look down on the consumer with the notion that vulgarity has a definite appeal to the masses and therefore they supply the market with continuous flow of crude and vulgar design.'
• 'Vulgarity ... a blatant intention of a form of expression that purposely ignores and bypasses any form of established culture.'
• 'I think that we have to listen to what a thing wants to be rather than contrive it in to an arbitrary confinement. However, sometimes there may be other rules that one must follow to achieve the correct level of continuity.'
• 'During the post-modern time, the verb 'to be appropriate' assumed the meaning of borrowing something and transforming it by placing it in a different context. We could say that this kind of 'appropriation' when appropriate, could be done - just another way of solving a problem or expressing creativity.'
• 'Intellectual elegance is also our civic consciousness, our social responsibility, our sense of decency, our way of conceiving design, our moral imperative.'
• 'We are for a design that lasts, that responds to people's needs and to people's wants. We are for a design that is committed to a society that demands long lasting values. A society that earns the benefit of commodities and deserves respect and integrity.'
• '... transcends subjectivity and searches for objective values.'
• 'We strive for a Design that is centered on the message rather than the visual titilation.'
• 'What is new is not a graphic form but a way of thinking, a way of showing respect for history in a context that usually has zero understanding for these values.'

(From Fuck Committees)

• 'By now, virtually all media, architecture , product and graphic design have been freed from ideas, individual passion, and have been relegated to a role of corporate servitude, carrying out corporate strategies and increasing stock prices.'
• 'please target audiences'
• '... creative people have their work reduced to 'content' or 'intellectual property'.'
• 'There are very few lunatic entrepreneurs who will understand that culture and design are not about fatter wallets, but about creating a future.'

Think, Say, Make 2015: Animated Response Concept and Storyboard

I want to make an animation that explains the process of how standardisation is imposed on the masses. I use symbols which can best represent sequence. For instance, the claw crane machine signifies commodification by pre-existing cultures popular among the masses, while the monkey symbolises instant gratification which creates noises that distracts the masses from thinking independently. The animation could be presented in GIF format, if I got a consent to do so. The reason of this preference is the repetitive nature of the product of culture industry.

Concept

The first sequence of my animation shows how the corporate authority (represented by Walt Disney) randomly choosing the idea that will be manufactured as a product of the culture industry. This idea is chosen among the pre-existing cultures that have been well received by people in the past, which is explained with the arrangement of popular cartoon characters around the instant gratification monkey.

Storyboard 01

The monkey will then fell into the hole in the crane machine, and Walt Disney's hand will take the monkey. The darkness signifies anti-enlightenment, such that the idea has fallen into a society which Adorno describes as 'shamelessly conformists' to the status quo established by the capitalist system. The sequence continues as the hand drops the monkey, and an animator's hands start to draw it on paper. The flow of animation clarifies the role of animators working under for the corporate giants to manufacture commercial entertainment which deliberately shapes people's perception of the so-called faceless corporate committees.

Storyboard 02

The screen multiplies by 9, meaning that the production line expands. The idea is now a commodity, which undergoes continuous reworking, but the essence of stays the same. In the next scene, a person is staring blankly at the television and the monkey pops into the person's head. This scene accounts the issue of passive consumption of popular culture, describing how the product of culture industry mmediately gets into the person's consciousness without getting internalised beforehand.

The monkey will make banging noise which reduces sound of a documentary narration to a bare white noise. Instant gratification has take over the consciousness of the people that they forgot their reason for being. The animation will end as Walt Disney raises both of his hands, and fortune falls over him.

Storyboard 03