Postmodernity and Design Part 2:
Anarchy and Empowerment – visual communication in the postmodern world
Key questions for today:
• How is appropriation; pastiche, parody and satire utilised in design and to what effect?
• What’s ‘postmodern’ about psychedelic design?
• Visual communications today – are we in ‘post-post modern’ world?
Richard Buchanan, Declaration by Design ( 1985)
The goal of communication is ‘to induce in the audience some belief about the past, present or future’.
Appropriation – MOMA definition
The intentional borrowing, copying, and alteration of pre-existing images and objects. It is a strategy that has been used by artists for millennia, but took on new significance in mid- 20th-century America and Britain with the rise of consumeriam and the proliferation of popular images through mass media outlets from magazines to television.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/df/Roy_Licht enstein_Drowning_Girl.jpg http://artobserved.com/artimages/2008/10/andy- warhol-marilyn-298×300.jpg
Andy Warhol, Orange Disaster #5,
1963 http://annex.guggenheim.org/collections/media/902/74.2118_ph_web.jpg
‘Vintage’ – appropriated nostalgia http://grapplegraphics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/01-Vintage-Poster-Design-Arizona.jpg
God save the Queen (the Sex Pistols), Album cover by James Reid
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q-4_etj_Dpc/TZDuzDo8Z- I/AAAAAAAAAq8/cF_eWoaIbR0/s400/1003pistols_wideweb__470x324%252C0.jpg
Marcel Duchamp, LHOOQ, 1919 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/it/e/e2/Marcel-duchamp-lhooq-1919-1371340666_b.jpg
‘Readymade’ – the term applied from 1915 to a commonplace prefabricated object isolated from its functional context and elevated to the status of art by the mere act of an artist’s selection.’ ‘Assisted Readymade’ – where slight interventions have been made to such an object.
(http://www.moma.org/collection/theme.php?the me_id=10468) .
Banksy, Show Me the Monet, 2005 http://oddstuffmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/qcpZG-580×578.jpg
Paula Sher, Swatch, 1985 http://retinart.net/media/images/scher-plagiarism-parody/matter-02-sm.jpg
Sherrie Levine, Fountain (after Marcel
Duchamp: A.P.), 1991 http://thewildmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/LEVINE001.jpg
Is appropriation plagiarism?
Pastiche, parody and satire
• Satire – a critique or attack, driven by a desire to make a social commentary or to challenge the status quo (people/institutions in power) but which employs humour as its weapon to do this.
Punch magazine
http://www.primroseprints.co.uk/ekmps/shops/primroseprints/images/1919-vintage-first-world-war- propaganda-print-3957-p.jpg
• Amy West, Grafik BS, a series of work based on the internet’s obsession with trends and style over substance.
• Parody, or visual punning, is a form of visual satire; the practice of copying the conventions, style or appearance of a work or its author’s voice to make a point about that work. Parody adopts the guise of the work, sometimes to present it as ridiculous, sometimes just to trigger recognition among the audience.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TNN9xV2M kI
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI4fp- AneJk&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Ballyhoo magazine http://spyhunter007.com/the_history_of_pinball.htm
• A pastiche is a form of ‘homage’. Like a parody, it copies or mimics elements of another work’s style, sometimes in a humorous way, but usually just as an affectionate nod to another artist’s work. It references the original without necessarily making a comment (positive or negative) about it.
Daniel Eatock, Everything Heinz http://eatock.com/projects/everything-heinz/
Situationist International and Guy Debord (The Society of the Spectacle)
- Debord traces the development of a modern society in which authentic social life has been replaced with its representation: ‘All that once was directly lived has become mere representation.’
- ‘The spectacle is the moment when the commodity has attained the total occupation of social life. The relation to the commodity is not only visible, but one no longer sees anything but it: the world one sees is its world. Modern economic production extends its dictatorship extensively and intensively.’
The Guerrilla Girls, 1989 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/guerrilla-girls-no-title-p78793
Culture Jamming
Shepherd Fairey
https://encrypted- tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQJNcQaxz5eiL5Ece4nAv64gmr1c8j2ChUUZrFil1W3tZuPNC851liq-x4
Adbusters campaigns
http://inthesetimes.com/images/32/04/adbusters.jpg https://www.adbusters.org/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/magazine/articles/adbusters_114_unof ficial_history_T.jpg?itok=-U4bSYH4
Guerrilla advertising http://www.brandinsightblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/guerilla6.png
Stephan Sagmeister, Set the Twilight
Reeling, 1996 http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT2SivNb30lwtOmhes3DHGyMOZjUVkwyy2Ybd39kPG2MGcImEO3
Spontaneous appropriation of situations – the Flash Mob
Psychedelic Design
Rick Griffin http://www.olsenart.com/FILLMORE/BG%20105.gif
Oz Magazine (1967) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oz_(magazine)
Appropriating Art Nouveau http://katspencerblogg.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/mindblowing-exhibition-malmo/
John Alcorn, 1969 http://brlsq.net/mike/somuchpileup/johnalcornpepsi.jpg
Vibrating Colour, Victor Moscoso, The
Doors, 1967 http://images.wolfgangsvault.com/the-doors/poster/memorabilia/FD057-PO.jpg
David Carson http://dcd.rawquality.com/img/mini/typeone.jpg
M C Escher, Waterfall, 1961 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e8/Escher_Waterfall.jpg
Animation and motion graphics
Heinz Edelmann
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/bb/Yellow_submarine_songtrack.jpg/220px- Yellow_submarine_songtrack.jpg
http://vimeo.com/86120207 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lJhEg5tA6s
Push Pin Studios
Milton Glaser http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000176N4O.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
Push Pin Monthly Graphic http://www.pushpininc.com/images/ecommerce/pushpingraphic/67body.jpg
Infographics
https://encrypted- tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRXh5eKrtJko9Y_49o03mAJKsf_WCv0T9eB5WY6btWzeRpsRHPeaBtz- y80
Animated Infographics
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yhGrwi- f0Q#t=74