Visual Journal - Failed Idea, Dead End

This image was an attempt at exploring an idea, but one that was wildly unsuccessful and a dead end in regards to my visual journey through this project.

My thinking was to try and represent advertising's power and impact over public space. I wanted to try and visually present their bombardment, showing how they 'take over' more than just the physical billboards and walls they inhabit.

I went into Leeds city centre and found all of the Street Posts that I could, and standing there for a few minutes I tallied how many people walked past them, close enough to notice the adverts and so be influenced by them. By no means was this a scientific experiment which I had some contention with; I think that if I am going to explore this idea then the data needs to be accurate and that is important. Then from photos I took of the advertising and a map that I picked up from tourist information I tried to visualise this experiment and depict my findings, by taking as many shapes and outlines from the photos as people I tallied to show the concentration and scale of influence these images were having.

Needless to say it didn't work as well as I had hoped, and there were a lot of loose ends with it as an idea, such as the incorrectness of the data and the randomness of my visualising methods. However I think that the idea is interesting and there could be some value there. I think I will still just put it down to a failed experiment and carry on exploring other methods of image making and idea exploring with this journal.

Visual Journal - Shape/Line

Today I started exploring the shape element, but as each element can be vague and the boundaries blurry, they could fall into line also.

The initial idea was to look at adverts and pick out shapes that the compositions used made, looking at not only the forms of the products and actors depicted, but also the negative space around them, to create abstract and fairly random assortment of shapes from these.

When searching for different advertising, I stumbled on perfume adverts and for whatever reason they caught my eye so i started responding to them. Because they basically always use actors and female forms, my responses ended up becoming quite interesting, abstract anatomical outlines and shapes. There is the obvious controversy surrounding such adverts for being objectifying, which added an extra layer of intrigue within the work and the comment I was making. 

I really love the way they turned out, that they can be abstract yet you can still pick out the forms of the women and they are distinguishable at the same time. I think the least effective one would be the top right as it's just too obvious as to what it is, I think i may redraw it but vaguer and more abstract.

Whilst drawing these and studying the adverts, I noticed the type of names the perfumes were called, things such as 'reveal' and 'addict', and thought they were odd names. They don't really have positive connotations, yet they sell the product and people buy them, and genuinely I wonder why people don't see them as strange names.

I thought it would be an interesting idea to take these words out of context, to redraw them in the same typefaces used in the adverts, but taken away from the adverts, the elegant and often quite fancy type really juxtaposes the actual words they are spelling out. I want to put these on posters with the previous drawings. I think the combination of the words and their contrasting typefaces along with the line drawings of mysterious and anonymous yet elegant and sexual women will create some really interesting and thought provoking results.

Study Task 6 - Peer Review Focus

Here is the peer review form....slightly sparse lets say.

At this point I have an idea of the vague direction my project may be heading in, and I have focussed down on advertising within the creative arts as a topic to explore and deconstruct further. I have really enjoyed the textural responses and experiments and really want to continue with these.

There are a lot more possibilities within the other formal elements too to explore, and I think line/shape is going to be my next direction, trying to push my image making and idea exploration further. I am hoping this will then lead into, inform and incorporate the textures somewhere later too.

I think it will also be really crucial to do some more research around my concept. More artist research will inspire my outcomes but also some more contextual, theoretical research to inform my ideas and the intentions I am formulating throughout my journal. 

Visual Journal - Research, Flying Leaps

An interesting essay on fly posting:

http://www.flyingleaps.co.uk/notes-on-flyposting-and-porous-urban-space/

"Propaganda must be made directly by words and images, not by writing,” states Goebbels […]. Reading implies time for reflection, a slowing-down that destroys the mass’s dynamic efficiency".

- Paul Virilio (1977 [1986:5]) Speed and Politics Semiotext(e), NY, USA


There appears an interesting similarity between what Adrian Burnham called 'incongruous eruptions' and what I am making with my textures. Both show simply the hand of the maker and not much else, they serve no commercial or capitalist purpose, the sell nothing and say little, but that is their point. Whether they are simply 'eruptions', visually appealing or refreshing oasis's among the jungle that is public advertising space, or whether they have a deeper meaning, provoking thought and making a statement against the system, they have a certain charm and boldness about them. They exist to exist, and are there whether they are meant to be or not, unapologetically. 

Visual Journal - Textures

I wanted to use this opportunity to just experiment with, and get lost in, making different textures and just seeing where it took me. Whilst drawing the first few I was thinking about advertising and the influx of sale posters and billboards up around this time of year, post-christmas. I considered it an interesting concept to make fake posters, essentially selling textures, for example a texture background with a common sales phrase on top, such as '50% off'. These posters would exist merely to entice a consumer into thinking, into wondering what is for sale but not actually acting upon their retail urges. The more I thought about it the more I found an interesting relationship between what I was doing and what big companies were doing; I on one hand was spending hours slaving over intricately detailed textures, with no profit in mind, only the curiosity to explore texture and the desire to make something visually appealing and engaging, whereas on the other hand companies are pursuing the fastest, cheapest methods of getting their offers across as efficiently as possible. Often the results of the latter are ugly and boring and disinteresting, but are made to grab the consumer and entice them into buying whatever products are up for grabs for whatever discount is offered. Mine however are all hand drawn and aim to also catch the viewers attention, but make them think and question what is 'half price', what the poster is for and what it is offering them.

Hand drawing all the type also got me researching again about sign painting, something I have a big previous interest in. The ethos around the trade is one of appreciating hand crafted and traditional signs over cheap vinyl ones, for their charm and character and value as pieces of art as well as identities for the businesses and companies using them. In this way, perhaps using one's talents for commercial means is a worthwhile investment after all, if done right and with quality and tradition in mind.

Here are some of my outcomes:

Visual Journal - Research, Steven ESPO Powers

Steve Powers started his artistic endeavours on the streets of Philadelphia, writing his name 'ESPO' on walls and gates around the city. But among the traditional lettering styles common within the writing culture, there is something unique about the extensive work Steve made illegally on the streets, which led to a prolific mural project, A Love Letter for You, among other sign painting and mural projects around the world. A lot of his work was made to not look like graffiti, whether that was in the act or the resulting finished artworks. He devised a way of painting storefront gates so that it looked like he was just re-painting them, and then with a few swift movements to finish, he would create the letterforms leaving his name ESPO in big clear block letters. Other pieces are painted to look like advertising, selling imaginary products, similar to a lot of his more fine art work, in which he is inspired by sayings and phrases, creating signs selling feelings or emotions. 

I like the way in which he disguises what he is doing as something else, in a way making it more accessible to the general public who are so used to advertising and commercial imagery in their day to day lives, but also how he manages to hide in broad day light. He uses the commonplace of advertising to his advantage, giving him the opportunities to get away with making his often illegal works of art without being suspected. He adopts the techniques and aesthetics of old advertisements to create new pieces of appealing work that engages with communities, but also subtly commenting on the situation and power that advertising has. 

Visual Journal - Initial Responses, LINE

Inspired by the research I had done about the line work by the artist Word To Mother, I started responding to my idea of advertising using just ball point lines. Picking certain images from the newspaper, I wanted to try and portray a busy, confusing, dystopia representation of advertising that you may not notice at first.

By using lots of elements, I wanted to recreate the bombardment with which advertising is forced upon us even in our newspapers, including the vocabulary commonly used, especially around christmas time; words such as SALE, NEED, DON'T MISS, all used to dictate what we should spend our money on.

I found it quite interesting how lots of the adverts out at the moment are for furniture and sofas, all very similar and portraying an idealistic ideal of a home and material goods that should be in it. It links to that idea of illusion of choice, when actually there isn't much difference between one sofa or another. I like the way in this drawing the words used to persuade the viewer into buying the product are overlapping the actual product; usually people end up buying things just because they are on sale or they feel they need them, not because they genuinely want or need the actual product, in a way making the deal more important than what is being sold. 

Once you start paying attention to the photos used by advertisers to portray an ideal to a possible consumer, they start to appear quite disturbing and just odd. These images are of people pretending to be happy to give the impression that whatever is being sold will have the same effect on it's consumer, but they're actors and their expressions are fake, its all an act. They are always very over the top and 'perfect', whilst very false and sinister. 

Trying to push this idea of dystopia and sinister, and the bombardment of desires and persuasions.