OUAN501 - COP2: Identity

OUAN501 - Identity:

Our Identity lecture took part last week, following on from Subcultures and this idea that we are able to construct who we are to a certain degree. Identity focused on the many theories surrounding what allows us to become the person that we show to the world and how these theories came with consequences - Physiognomy for example.

The theories of identity are as follows: Essentialism (the traditional approach that dictates who we are based on certain factors), Anti-Essentialism (based on a more modern idea of identity, some degree of choice), Physiognomy (based on appearance/race/ethnicity), and lastly Phrenology (a study of the shape/size of brain giving an indication as to said person's mental capabilities and personality traits).

This idea of pre-modern identity stems largely from "secure identity" - institutions such as your workplace, the church, the state, government, monarchy, and even who you married all secured your identity as a definite portrait of who you were in society. Class and social standing all played a huge role in what people saw you as.

Modern identity, cropping up around the 19th and early 20th centuries, has the issue of materialism and fashion brought in. It seems to me that the more objects you owned (be it physical, very "real" objects that you can pick up, or the objectification of a woman around your arm), you were seen to be better than those that managed without. The Victorian era was very much about the items you owned in your house, and the competition over who could own the best technology and most interesting adornments was immense.

There was also a struggle for fashion too. As the rich and wealthy strolled about in lavish clothes of silk and cotton, the poorer percentage of the population were finding new innovative ways to keep up with the trends by mass replicating the fashions of the once seen "untouchable" higher classes. This stems back to subcultures as when a trend starts off being exclusive to a certain group of people, you can guarantee that irony kicks in as the masses hijack this completely as it suddenly becomes mainstream - not so exclusive anymore! So, the act of copying other people's fashion came about roughly at this time. The rich had to constantly keep changing what they wore as to not be drowned out by the working classes. They needed to stand out! Gustave Caillebotte, and Edvard Munch both painted works that illustrate this in action.

Post modern identity came with the theory of discourse analysis, constructed by Michel Foucault. Identity is constructed out of the discourses culturally available to us. What is a discourse ?

‘… a set of recurring statements that define a particular cultural ‘object’ (e.g., madness, criminality, sexuality) and provide concepts and terms through which such an object can be studied and discussed.’ Cavallaro, (2001)



The possible discourses that have so far been identified are:

Age
Class
Gender

Nationality
Race/ethnicity
Sexual orientation
Education
Income

I'm sure there are possibly others that will spring up in the future, but where there is a means to judge people by, people shall be judged. In my opinion, everyone should be who they want to be without the fear of being classified or put into boxes with labels adhered to them. People are people, we are all the same, we all eat, breathe and defecate. We are all human. 

"I think therefore I am."  - Descartes (Discourse on Method - 1637)

OUAN501 - COP2: Psychoanalysis & Freudian Theory

COP2 - Psychoanalysis & Freudian Theory:

During our seminar on Freudian Theory and psychoanalysis, we were a shown a fabulous surrealist film by Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali of which absolutely nothing made sense. It was sick, full of unusual stuff and was simply amazing to watch. You either loved it or hated it, and due to the silliness and stupidity of the entire film, I loved it! 

The film, of course, was shot in black and white which was nice to watch for a change as your mind was forced to fill in the gaps where the colour was lacking. It was a welcome change to be able to imagine what was happening instead of being given the entire plot throughout. It starts with a completely psychotic scene of a man cutting his partner's, I presume, eye out with a shaving knife. It also ends with as much wacky eccentricity! The idea is that the film makes no sense at all, though our minds will try and find a rational explanation for what has happened, even though the creators intentionally gave it no real purpose or meaning. 

Cultural influences will manipulate our opinions and thoughts on what happened within the film, which can give for some interesting answers if you ask different generations to analyse this film. I related this to Freudian Theory easily as there was obvious aspects of fear, death and sexual desire. These are thoughts and feelings suppressed by the "id", the part of us that tried to hide our deepest, darkest thoughts and locks them up from the prying eyes and beliefs of society. I believe that we all have a sick fixation with something. We all have fetishes and desires that would be seen as taboo in society, therefore our id keeps those at bay. Psychoanalysis can be applied to many different films and animations. I plan to hunt down some interesting animations beyond my knowledge and will keep them posted!

Although I blogged about Tool's Vicarious for my other module, I still go back to this as it has strong implications of fear, death, psychological instability, and eccentricity. On the one hand, you could say it makes no sense at all, but on the other, you could interpret to however you see fit. I personally view this as a human becoming the host for a parasite, which could be the media and consumerism worming its way into our skin without us knowing, or rather us freely allowing it to do so.

OUAN501 - COP2: Subcultures

OUAN501 - Subcultures:

Although our lecturer for that session was off and couldn't make it in to the lecture, we still had a very interesting time watching a series of six short films about Fred Perry, the fashion designer, and the way he has influenced fashion throughout the decades. I thought it was a great series and really enjoyed seeing how fashion has changed and how subcultures coexisted with one another... or fought with one another!

It went through the eras and featured talks from famous people such as Phil Jupitus, giving their take on how the fashion industry changed their lives and what subcultures they fit in with at the time. The films discovered the meaning behind the Teddy Boys - the Edwardian take offs of the 1950s, rockers, punks, mods, Northern and Southern Soul, ska, skinheads, scooter boys, ravers, Brit Pop culture, indies, and the legacy of house/acid music. I found that a lot of subcultures were heavily tied in with music, and although it is considered that there are no more original subcultures out there as most are either revived in some form or another, we still have groups such as emos, goths, chavs and all the rest in between that still conform to some extent or another.

However, subcultures used to be more than just what you wore and what music you listened to. Although most derived from genres of music and the people that listened to such, a lot of subcultures tried to at least have an impact on society in some way or another. Be it through political stance (punk/anarchism), beliefs, equality, economical factors (skinheads/working class) and so forth. Nowadays, the chance to change the world is in all of us, but few really have the drive to do it. Teens are getting lazier, the government is getting more controlling and there's little we seem to want to do about it... This is probably why we consider there to be no "real" subcultures anymore!

All in all, I find the idea of a subculture in itself very contradictory as you try and be different and stray from the norm only to popularise something "new". Consumerism gets a sniff of the new "trend" and sells it to the public who then abuse this by conforming to what was seen as unusual and unique, without understanding of what the cult actually stood for in the first place or why it was formed. It thus become "fashion" and dies out as it becomes mainstream.

OUAN501 - COP2 - Analysis Exercise: Bottle & The Dog Who Was A Cat Inside

OUAN501 - Analysis Exercise:

During this week's seminar, we looked at two rather interesting animations that contrasted in so many ways yet shared very similar themes. Bottle, by Kirsten Lepore is a stop motion animation shot on two beaches, both of which have opposing climates - one is covered in snow, the other a very warm-looking, sandy beach. The animation starts out by showing us a very blank, emotionless sandy character with little detail. Despite all this however, he is full of character and life and is a very loveable part of the animation.

He finds a bottle on the shore of which contains some snow, indicating that someone or something sent this from afar. He sends the bottle back containing some sand as a hint to the type of beach he is residing on. This backwards and forwards action carries on throughout, each sending the other bits from their beach until eventually both are adorned in treasures which are fashioned to distinguish them as male and female. This is a very critical scenario as it could relate to the way people fashion or even groom potential partners over the internet to look a certain way when the sinister reality is that they look completely different. Through the media, you are led to believe that reality is completely different, superficial.

However, when the two finally decide on meeting, they literally go from the ends of the Earth to get that moment of happiness they've been waiting for. Sadly, the struggle proves too much as all their adornments fall off under the ocean of which they've been crossing only to leave them as the sandy and snowy blobs they once were. This correlates with social media and internet dating once again as meeting in person is completely different to what we perceive ourselves to be online. In fact, online you are able to fashion a personality for yourself and act in a manner that may be very untrue to who you really are in person. I think Bottle might seem "cute" and "romantic" on the outside, but underneath are quite deep messages regarding who we see ourselves.

The Dog Who Was A Cat Inside tells us a very different story, still sticking with the theme of identity. This animation, by Siri Melchior, a Danish animator, has a very cartoony style of which seems very harmless and suitable for children to watch, Like Bottle, the innocence of it on the exterior makes it a very entertaining watch and seems harmless if you intend to watch without picking at the strings trying to find the pragmatics behind it. The audience may be very wide for both animations, as children and adults alike would find both very amusing and appealing. However, in terms of themes and this idea of identity, Bottle may be seen to be less offensive to some as The Dog Who Was A Cat Inside...

The Dog (for short) is a rather wacky-looking tale of a dog with, well, a cat inside its body. The title gives this one away! It seems more logical that the dog is the dominant species of which the cat, the submissive, is contained as dogs are seen to be more powerful creatures. These two animals were probably used as for one, more people can identify with their many quirks and characteristics, and also they are very opposite in the way they stereotypically behave. They are also seen to be quite volatile when in each others' presence which is suitable for this animation as all they seem to do is fight with one another to get heard.

The setting seems to be a very Parisian-like city, with a small replica of the Eiffel Tower in the background. This could be seen as significant as Paris is known for being the city of love, which is ironic considering the two "personalities" are constantly battling it out for dominance. Albeit being aggressive throughout, eventually the pair put their differences aside and learn to coexist peacefully.

The Dog explores themes of identity in a rather different way to Bottle. Where Bottle could be seen to acknowledge false identities, as does The Dog, the Bottle features ideas of social media, how we are perceived against how we want to be perceived, and distant relationships based on false appearances of one another. The Dog may be seen as unsuitable and offensive to some as it appears to deal with deeper topics. Although the animation is quite broad and unapparent, some could argue that it covers a range of issues such as transgender struggles, gender identity, and mental health. I personally saw this to be conveying Schizophrenia as a constant battle with oneself is a difficult time to have to go through. Luckily, there was hope for the dog and cat which is an optimistic outlook on dire events. Bottle was not so optimistic.

The two animations were very successful in the way they were directed. It was very apparent as to the topics that were covering, and they both shared identity as a common theme. Despite the two contrasting endings, they were very entertaining and could be taken as lighthearted fun if this were shown to any audience, particularly children.

OUAN501 - COP2: The Gaze and The Media

OUAN502 - COP2: The Gaze and The Media

This year's first lecture focused on The Gaze and The Media of which feminism was a heavily used theme. "Men act and women appear. Men look at women, women watch themselves being looked at." - Berger

The Gaze is very prominent in many paintings, photographs and other media sources. It explores how the gaze of the audience can either be challenged or coyly averted in innocence or dismissal by the woman/man in the image/film. Sophie Dahl's advert for Opium, the fragrance (of which I wear ironically!) by Yves Saint Laurent, was actually deemed too sexual as her face when the image was presented horizontally didn't actually meet the audience quite in the right way as when presented vertically. This minor change to the advert might seem small, but more of her body seems exposed,(which was looked down upon) to the viewer because of the angle it was shot, when turned horizontally. Your eye is drawn more to her face, the "apparent" intention for the piece despite all the flesh on show when vertical.

the Birth of Venus from 1863 albeit having plenty of nudism on show is actually perceived as very innocent and naive. she is venus, the Goddess of love, benevolent and pure. Her arm is shielding the gaze of the audience almost even playfully as she lies back in - to me - a very seductive manner. The way we perceive an image and whether or not it is deemed fit for public viewing depends on a number of things, one major role being the gaze.

Many modern adverts actually work on normalising the display of nudity in society with models often wearing skimpy clothing, if not barely anything at all! The gaze of models now are more often challenging that not. This was very rare for the gaze to be challenging the audience many centuries ago as women were made to look pure and almost non-sexual/dominant. The gaze was often very passive. 20th/21st century media often shows an aggressive pose in an attempt to be overtly sexual.

A group of women who are known as the Guerilla Girls attempted a campaign against nudity in the media and women just being seen as sexual objects. If women are seen as sexual objects in the media, a very false and unreal realm, then many might see this as a means of abusing women in the way the media does in reality. This then leads to sexism and abuse on a very real level which can devastate many women. It doesn't just happen to women though, men often get a bashing from the media too.

In a Dolce and Gabbana advert, there are numerous men challenging the audience with aggressive gazes and stances all making the effort to almost intimidate the audience. They are all very masculine and seem to work by using this masculine, muscular appearance by promoting this product (underwear) to men who want to look like them. Men are also seen as sexual objects and sexism is equal on both sides despite many protesting tat women are solely the victims of the gaze in media.