In the video, all the bikers have the names of the disciples on their leather jackets and you wouldn't know that unless you knew the bible. Jesus also has a crown of thorns on his head Judas is always by his side. In the film, Gaga is wearing a blue hooded outfit and also in the video she washes Jesus's feet. These things are indexical because it refers back to Mary Magdalene who washed Jesus' feet and also wore blue, much like Jesus' mother Mary who is often depicted in a blue gown. You wouldn't know this if it wasn't your culture to know.
Tuesday 22 November 2011
Judas
In the video, all the bikers have the names of the disciples on their leather jackets and you wouldn't know that unless you knew the bible. Jesus also has a crown of thorns on his head Judas is always by his side. In the film, Gaga is wearing a blue hooded outfit and also in the video she washes Jesus's feet. These things are indexical because it refers back to Mary Magdalene who washed Jesus' feet and also wore blue, much like Jesus' mother Mary who is often depicted in a blue gown. You wouldn't know this if it wasn't your culture to know.
Tuesday 15 November 2011
Stupid Girls
I love this video but not because I support being something you're not. Now I thought that looking at this video semiotically would be easy but actually, it's kinda hard!!
I guess for the most part this video has a lot of indexical imagery. I don't think many people in like Papa New Guinea know what a Beverly Hills or 90210 girl is so WE get the reference to purging, tanning and tiny dogs etc because we are exposed to it so much in the UK and America.
I think thats why you get fashion like Gyaru because I don't think the Japanese really understand the reference like we do.
The devil and angel on the little girls shoulder I think could be symbolic but also indexical because I think it might be a very western reference to your bad and good conscience. So you would only understand it if you understood the reference.
Also you know that when she is standing in front of the American flag that she is a politician (the president of the united states). This would only be understood by people who have been exposed to pictures of the american presidents.
Like I said at the beginning, this is hard, but I think, for the most part, this video is indexical because this wouldn't mean anything if you weren't privy to the knowledge needed.
Tuesday 8 November 2011
Japanese Subculture and Fashion
As you're probably aware, I'm not new to Japanese subculture, streetstyle and fashion. However, it was interesting to hear a little of the backstory to why the Japanese like to adopt similar fashions to Europeans, with their own twist.
I was always a little bit curious about why they wanted to ignore their fashion traditions but then I realised that the occupation by the Americans in the second world war could have something to do with it. The excert soon confirmed it.
In our lesson we did discuss the ways in which fashion has changed our culture and this would be a perfect example of how a whole nation can be changed just because of the cultures of another or even just the dress.
For instance, women in Japan have always, tradtionally, been quite reserved because it wasn't acceptable to be flamboyant if you wanted to be respected. However, when American ('western') fashions were adopted, women became louder, more talkative and even rude. When I was in Japan about 3 years ago, I met a lovely Japanese man in a Yakitori joint in Tokyo and we were talking about how people used to say Gaijin girls (foreigner girls) were always so loud and unreserved compared to Japanese girls but now, all the girls in Harajuku and Shibuya are crazy loud and outgoing.
Anyway, needless to say there are a lot of different subcultures and fashion styles in Japan but for me to go through all the ones I know would take a LONG time.... so I will try as I can to spread them out over a couple blog posts. :D
I was always a little bit curious about why they wanted to ignore their fashion traditions but then I realised that the occupation by the Americans in the second world war could have something to do with it. The excert soon confirmed it.
In our lesson we did discuss the ways in which fashion has changed our culture and this would be a perfect example of how a whole nation can be changed just because of the cultures of another or even just the dress.
For instance, women in Japan have always, tradtionally, been quite reserved because it wasn't acceptable to be flamboyant if you wanted to be respected. However, when American ('western') fashions were adopted, women became louder, more talkative and even rude. When I was in Japan about 3 years ago, I met a lovely Japanese man in a Yakitori joint in Tokyo and we were talking about how people used to say Gaijin girls (foreigner girls) were always so loud and unreserved compared to Japanese girls but now, all the girls in Harajuku and Shibuya are crazy loud and outgoing.
Anyway, needless to say there are a lot of different subcultures and fashion styles in Japan but for me to go through all the ones I know would take a LONG time.... so I will try as I can to spread them out over a couple blog posts. :D
Tuesday 1 November 2011
Session 4
Didn't realise but there is a playlist on B.O.B. for CHI1! So I'm deffo gunna take a look at that when I have a spare moment.
In this session we discussed what graphic design is. The definition of a sign is "something which stands to somebody for something in some capacity".
Signs, images, etc are entirely relative to the culture, time etc, that they were produced in. Looked at some another view or culture. it can be interpreted in an entirely different way.
The arts and crafts movement saw a separation between hand made and machine manufactured. Machine made art was seen as soulless ad not a craft if it wasn't made using human talent or skill.
Thinking of graphic as not just an aesthetically pleasing but being able to communicate ideas.
We were asked to discuss how you can judge the quality of graphic design. In my opinion you can't. Even if something like a road sign in our culture is understandable, take it to a German person and they won't understand it because culturally, different signs mean different things. Even hand gestures mean different things in different culture so there is not way that we can assess whether that art is good or bad.
Even fine art has no way of calculating, as it were, whether it was good or bad. In Japan, there are lots of ancient erotic paintings that are treasured for their quality but in Britain those sort of paintings would be considered inappropriate.
We were also asked to read two things but I could only find the piece on Vivienne Westwood. Here is a symbol that CAN be recognised over all cultures that have a knowledge of fashion or even just an appreciation. As with Louis Vuitton's famous print, Vivienne's Orb can be recognised the world over, so is it possible, that through branding, Graphic design can become cross-continentally relevant?
Also, I watched Planet Word and how language, a form of graphic design, has become recognised across the globe and understood. English is a language that is spoken in a lot of different countries and can be expected to be taught in schools as a second language. It was interesting to listen to the man who basically used the Roman alphabet to make mandarin Chinese, easier to learn as only 20% of Chinese people at that time could actually speak and/ or understand Chinese because it was so complicated.
Finally, a word about the 2012 logo. The only thing I heard about why there was such an outrage is because of the image, in some peoples eyes, looks sexual. Now, if you look a the image straight away, being told that it was just 2012 written in a strange font, then you wouldn't have cause to see it sexually, but because I have been told, I can see nothing else now. However in the lecture, I couldn't see it any more because I was told that it was 2012 in a strange font. The outrage is entirely based on who shows you the image first.
In this session we discussed what graphic design is. The definition of a sign is "something which stands to somebody for something in some capacity".
Signs, images, etc are entirely relative to the culture, time etc, that they were produced in. Looked at some another view or culture. it can be interpreted in an entirely different way.
The arts and crafts movement saw a separation between hand made and machine manufactured. Machine made art was seen as soulless ad not a craft if it wasn't made using human talent or skill.
Thinking of graphic as not just an aesthetically pleasing but being able to communicate ideas.
We were asked to discuss how you can judge the quality of graphic design. In my opinion you can't. Even if something like a road sign in our culture is understandable, take it to a German person and they won't understand it because culturally, different signs mean different things. Even hand gestures mean different things in different culture so there is not way that we can assess whether that art is good or bad.
Even fine art has no way of calculating, as it were, whether it was good or bad. In Japan, there are lots of ancient erotic paintings that are treasured for their quality but in Britain those sort of paintings would be considered inappropriate.
We were also asked to read two things but I could only find the piece on Vivienne Westwood. Here is a symbol that CAN be recognised over all cultures that have a knowledge of fashion or even just an appreciation. As with Louis Vuitton's famous print, Vivienne's Orb can be recognised the world over, so is it possible, that through branding, Graphic design can become cross-continentally relevant?
Also, I watched Planet Word and how language, a form of graphic design, has become recognised across the globe and understood. English is a language that is spoken in a lot of different countries and can be expected to be taught in schools as a second language. It was interesting to listen to the man who basically used the Roman alphabet to make mandarin Chinese, easier to learn as only 20% of Chinese people at that time could actually speak and/ or understand Chinese because it was so complicated.
Finally, a word about the 2012 logo. The only thing I heard about why there was such an outrage is because of the image, in some peoples eyes, looks sexual. Now, if you look a the image straight away, being told that it was just 2012 written in a strange font, then you wouldn't have cause to see it sexually, but because I have been told, I can see nothing else now. However in the lecture, I couldn't see it any more because I was told that it was 2012 in a strange font. The outrage is entirely based on who shows you the image first.
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