17/10/19 - CRITICAL EVALUATION AND REFLECTION
In today’s session, in groups of six, we presented our white space outcomes to each other and had an opportunity to listen to some criticism and feedback. It was interesting to see the various ways in which people approached and interpreted the meaning of ‘white space,’ all of our outcomes and ideas were completely different. One outcome that really stood out to me was Finn’s project, in which he experimented with different ways in which he could bleach and destroy hair held in small plastic bags, in an effort to create new forms of white space. When I presented my film, it was really interesting to hear how people interpreted it in ways that I didn’t initially intend, which wasn’t my immediate goal but was something that I appreciate and enjoy hearing from people. The criticism that I received was that the first section of the film, with the panning shots of skylines, could have been structured in a way in which it had more direction to the second act, for example in a stylistic way. I actually agree with this criticism, I think that there is a detachment between these two ‘scenes,’ however, the intention was the present alternative interpretations of white space. In future projects, this is something that I could bear in mind – how my different acts/scenes within a film transition and tie into each other in a way that makes sense or exists as an addition to the overall message.
16/10/19 - WHITE SPACE PROJECT OUTCOME
16/10/19 - WHITE SPACE PROJECT OUTCOME
Above is my final outcome for the White Space Project. I decided to make a short film in order to respond to my ‘White-Sky Manifesto,’ as I felt that it conveyed a multi-sensory experience for the audience that could communicate an atmosphere, whilst also being accessible and realistic for me to make in the short time frame. The concept behind the film started with the idea that the sky, when cloudy and colourless, exists as a piece of negative space next to the skyline of the buildings. This then progressed into thinking about how a lot of people’s association of ‘white space’ would be with ideas of cleanliness, serenity and a place to relax. So what if I destroyed this association by interfering perfect, white spaces with information? – hence the buildings swooping into the frame, the girl positioning herself in front of the white background and the stains and marks on her white clothes and pale skin. When editing the footage into a film I was inspired by the work of Douglas Gordan, and his project ‘Take Me I’m Yours,’ in which he puts images into negative in order to create artificial white spaces. I decided to corrupt the concept of ‘white space’ even further by making the interfering visual information the ‘white space’ in the image, and the actual areas of white coloured instead. I think that I managed to respond to my manifesto, mostly. I made use of light by showing images of huge light boxes becoming dark when put into negative, with the messy background becoming the area of white, negative space. All the audio used was from white noise (sources below). And 75% of the film shows purely white/light in tone images. I am somewhat happy with my outcome. I think that it’s quite clear how messy and candid the shots are, I used only my camcorder and a light-box in the Archway studio, and I don’t think there’s much of a clear structure or narrative to the film. However, I am happy with the over-all colour grading of the film, as I feel it does communicate a counter-acted and frenzied response to the idea of ‘white-space.’
NORMAL
IN NEGATIVE
White noise sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmLNvQ65lsI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzjWIxXBs_s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr9T-943BnE&t=1220s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMfPqeZjc2c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlKyGAGHc4c
15/10/19 - WHITE SPACE RESEARCH
Douglas Gordon, ‘Kissing with Sodium Pentothal’ 1994
“Douglas Gordon (born 20 September 1966) is a Scottish artist. He won the Turner Prize in 1996, the Premio 2000 at the 47th Venice Biennale in 1997 and the Hugo Boss Prize in 1998. He lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Much of Gordon's work is seen as being about memory and uses repetition in various forms. He uses material from the public realm and also creates performance-based videos. His work often overturns traditional uses of video by playing with time elements and employing multiple monitors.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Gordon
“The series of slides documents three performances given successively at the Lisson Gallery in London, in the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven and in the artist’s own bedroom. In the performances, Gordon kisses three different persons on the lips, each time with another ‘truth drug’ on his own lips. The slide projections slow the images in negative. The description ‘truth drugs’ is an ironic commentary by the artist. The three medicines – scopolamine, sodium pentothal and amobarbital – are respectively an agent against nausea, a tranquilizer and a somnambulant. At one time or another, they were said to encourage telling the truth and made use of by various secret services. […] Despite the x-ray-like close-ups and the use of ‘truth drugs’, the viewer ultimately remains in limbo regarding the true situation of the kissing pair. With this series Gordon offers a commentary on voyeurism in our society, the urge to want to see what you usually don’t get to see. Reality soaps like The Delivery are seen by him as examples of this urge. In this work, we get to see everything, but in fact, we are not any closer to ‘the truth.’”
https://vleeshal.nl/en/collection/self-portrait-kissing-with-scopolamine
What I like about these series of images by Gordon is the way in which he has put the images in negative. It adds a sinister and ambiguous atmosphere to the images, by simplifying the colours and textures and creating simple shapes and blocks of negative space in the image. This is a technique to consider when editing my piece of moving image.
Image sources:
https://waysofcurating.withgoogle.com/exhibition/take-me-im-yours-serpentine/media/5949380779573248
Nam June Paik, ‘Zen on Film’ (1965)
Nam June Paik (1932 – 2006) was a Korean American artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the founder of video art. He is credited with an early usage (1974) of the term "electronic super highway" in application to telecommunications. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/nam-june-paik-6380
“In an endless loop, unexposed film runs through the projector. The resulting projected image shows a surface illuminated by a bright light, occasionally altered by the appearance of scratches and dust particles in the surface of the damaged film material. As an analogy to John Cage, who included silence as a non-sound in his music, Paik uses the emptiness of the image for his art. This a film which depicts only itself and its own material qualities, and which, as an «anti-film,» is meant to encourage viewers to oppose the flood of images from outside with one’s own interior images.” - Heike Helfert
What inspires me about this piece of work is the way in which Paik uses a simple occurrence of white/negative space in order to create an immersive experience for the audience. He plays with the idea of limited information and interpretive context and meaning.
Image sources:
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/zen-for-film/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/netzkult/5262715451
http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/kuspit/kuspit4-8-09_detail.asp?picnum=12
15/10/19 - WHITE SPACE PROJECT DAY 2
I think that my most successful experiments from yesterday were the ones in which I replaced the sky with pieces of white material, after thinking about how the sky itself when colourless and cloudless, is a section of negative space against the skyline. These experiments were as visually successful compared to the other ones; however, I think that the concept was the strongest and had the most scope to be developed into a manifesto and eventually an outcome. For this project, I am particularly interested in conveying my ideas into a piece of moving image and audio. Therefore, the research references from yesterday’s presentation that particularly interested me were John Wood and Paul Harrison, ‘One More Kilometre’ (2009) and Nam Jun Paik’s ‘Zen on Film.’ I thought that these examples presented really interesting ways to incorporate the concept of white space into more of a performative piece of work, and an experience for the audience to be involved in. Therefore, in my manifesto, I included the use of light and audio, to encourage myself, or whoever else might be using the manifesto, to create some sort of experience for the audience – whether that be an installation, performance or through moving image.
Today we began to develop and generate ideas for our white space outcomes, based on our manifestos. I thought about various portions of moving image, and how they communicated unconventional visions of white space. I then began to think about how white space is associated with cleanliness, a place to think and relax, and how I could counteract that. Combining all of my ideas for a piece of moving image I began to shoot some content. This is a method that I don’t usually do when approaching filmmaking. Usually, I plan out the exact shots with the exact people and props, however, I decided to shoot this film on a whim, which actually worked out well with the lack of time and resources that I have to make this outcome. This approach in itself counteracts the connotations of perfection and cleanliness associated with ‘white space.’
14/10/19 - WHITE SPACE RESEARCH
David Batchelor, Found Monochromes
“Photographing white single squares and rectangles found in urban areas, David Batchelor’s Found Monochromes project expands the artist’s interrogation of colour, skill and the cityscape. Since 1997, David Batchelor has been photographing single square and rectangle planes of uninterrupted white that he passes as he walks through London and places he visits. The images are informal and impromptu; shot from a uniform distance the white planes are seen on a diversity of backdrops: brick walls, car doors, metal fences and more.”
https://www.ridinghouse.co.uk/publications/46
Bethnal Green, London, 26.12.05, David Batchelor
Bow, London, 20.08.02, David Batchelor
Jardins, São Paulo, 25.09.06, David Batchelor
This project is seemingly the inspiration behind our task today. What’s interesting about this work by Batchelor, is the idea that these monochromes should say something. The iconography of what these are, posters, signs, billboards, makes us instantly assume that there should be information inside them. To play with that presumption, makes the audience second-guess themselves, and draws them in. Playing with presumption within a white space is a technique I should bare in mind as a designer going forward with this project.
Images source: http://www.davidbatchelor.co.uk/works/Monochromes/
John Wood and Paul Harrison, One More Kilometre (2009)
“John Wood and Paul Harrison explore the physical and psychological parameters of the world around them through a series of immaculately constructed video works, informative and uninformative text pieces, drawings, doodles and half thoughts, and quite useful sculptures. As trust and support, and cause and effect are played out through simple material and conceptual gestures, the artists question and ultimately affirm a human position in the world that is essentially positive.” http://carrollfletcheronscreen.com/2014/09/02/500-thoughts-and-one-more-kilometre/
This moving image piece is an example of combining white space with movement, in a moving image format. To some, ‘white space’ is a sense of serenity and calmness, however, Wood and Harrison penetrate this with their violent destruction of the perfectly stacked piece of paper. This is an example of how I could use movement within the white space project to contrast and break down people’s first-hand ideas about ‘white space,’ e.g. Ruin their peace, or idea of cleanliness
14/10/19 - WHITE SPACE PROJECT DAY 1
In today’s workshop, we started off in groups of 4 to discuss our research, and ideas on the topic of white space, and to share our varying perspectives. We did this blindfolded, which was a weird experience not being able to see people’s expressions as they spoke, however it helped to listen and to visualise what they were saying more clearly. These are some notes that I took after our discussion, to summarise what we talked about as a group:
- Can be a break: area of white in a print, black transitional screen in film to focus, digest and to build suspense
- Skyline – white sky contrasted by the noise of the skyline, white in nature, snow
- Negative space – doesn’t have to be white, Wes Anderson creates white space using vibrant colour and patterns, to focus on certain things, if it be an object or a person, used negative/white space very thoughtfully
- White space is a place to think, meditate, breathe – Solar mentioned how she finds it hard to focus and relax sometimes, as there is not a single blank wall in her home – power of a lack of information
- White noise – can be relaxing, yet also build terror and suspense (Carol mention the fog and the use of sound in the film ‘The VVitch’
- Connotations that come from the colour/tone of ‘white’ – purity, cleanliness, sterility, we talked about how in a print/image, the white, especially in a black and white colour scheme, can have just as much of an intensity to it
We then went around the Archway campus and building to photograph areas of negative/white space that we noticed. I soon started to realise that in this project, the most simple images are often the most effective. One thing that I really liked was the way the sky on a cloudy day looked like a huge area of white, negative space against the skyline of buildings. These are the images of white/negative space that I took:
Using these images, we then used various white materials to cut out shapes that resembled the white/negative space within the image. We then experimented with interrupting various spaces around Archway with these cut-outs, creating our own combination of white space surrounding or engulfing other visual information. These are the images of my experimentations:
What I find quite difficult about these white space tasks is not overthinking it. I keep having to remind myself that simplicity is most effective in this case. For example, when we were experimenting with our negative space shapes in areas of Archway, I came up with the idea of turning a fire hydrant into a tree trunk with pieces of plastic bark, however, it didn’t look that effective and didn’t communicate ‘white space’ at all. Whereas the simpler idea of turning the text on the hydrant into a sort of window was a lot simpler but ultimately looked stronger and worked more practically.
I was particularly interested in the idea of how the sky can be an area of white space. Although the photographs and my experimentations of this concept are not particularly effective, this is a concept that I would like to carry forward. Therefore, when writing my manifesto, I decided to make that the overall aim/starting point. Making a manifesto will have a different effect on me as a designer. Instead of being able to make last-minute decisions on a whim, I am going to have to think more carefully about whether my work is fitting the obstructions, which will require a lot more planning, research and experimentation to make sure that I am properly fulfilling the requirements.
This is my manifesto poster, inspired by my ‘sky negative space’ experimentation:
13/10/19 - WHITE SPACE IN GCD
My understanding of white space, in the context of Graphic Communication Design, is the use of emptiness, cleanliness, simplicity and a purposeful lack of information, in order to convey a message or narrative. I decided to explore this idea through research in a variety of mediums.
Photography: Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson was a photojournalist, who was known for his use of compositional harmony and creating a sense of timelessness within his images. Cartier-Bresson documented places and events around the globe for decades, always in search of those 'decisive moments' that have come to define his work. From France to the USSR, Mexico to the Middle East, Cartier-Bresson captured some of the world's most historically significant moments. He gave us images documenting life in the Soviet Union and the cultural revolution in China. He photographed Mahatma Ghandi less than an hour before his assassination and was there to document the emotional outpouring that followed. He would often wait for the perfect interaction between people and their surroundings, taking the landscape to a whole new level. He used shadows and shapes to his advantage to evoke rhythm and repetition within landscapes.
'Gare Saint Lazare Paris,' (1932) Henri Cartier-Bresson
This image stands out to me for Bresson’s exceptional use of white space. The action is frozen in time, with the silhouette of the figure paused above a white body of water, creating a gap between the figure and the reflection. Bresson’s use of white space here creates a sense of timelessness and mystery – by positioning the white space in this composition he creates a whole other narrative, beyond the man jumping across the water on a foggy day.
Film: Stanley Kubrick and Zach Braff
‘White’ in film is often translated into the concept of using colour to convey a mood. It can be used to create a mood/atmosphere of purity, simplicity, cleanliness, peace, precision, innocence, winter, snow, sterility, coldness, or something being quite clinical for example. ‘White space’ in film can most easily be translated into the idea of negative space, a commonly used compositional technique.
For example, in Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey,’ Stanley Kubrick uses negative space, with the colour white. The shot isolates the actor, bringing the focus towards him, creating a powerful, intense amount of attention and pressure to his actions. This shows how white space can be used in graphic communication design to draw focus to other areas of information, and almost exaggerate what they are trying to communicate.
Another example of white space in graphic communication design is Zach Braff’s ‘Garden State.’ The dreary mise-en-scene during the opening sequence establishes the mood for the rest of the film and reflects the main character’s inner feelings. On the aeroplane, the colours are muted. This gives the impression of a numb, sad world despite the chaos of the action surrounding the main character. Even items which are usually colourful, such as lifejackets, are lighted in a way that makes them appear less bright. When Andrew wakes from the dream, the mise-en-scene is completely sterile. There is little furniture in his bedroom and everything is white or silver. It is almost surreal how clinical Andrew’s apartment is. This clues the audience into what type of person he is and his life. It shows his lack of emotions and ambivalence toward the world. https://rtasker.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/30/
Screen-print: Wethreeclub
In terms of white space within screen-print, this starts with the fundamentals of how screen-printing works. The white in a screen-printed image is most often the colour of the page left behind, that isn’t covered with ink. It could be left for added detail, as a form in the image, or simply to make a coloured section in the image stand out. It is a vital piece of information however, that is key in communicating the message or the narrative of the screen-printed image.
‘Wethreeclub’ is a London-based print studio run by a married couple, Alex and Chris White who also operate Poster Roast. With their mutual love in illustration and visual design, their work is mainly orientated around psychedelic screen-printed posters, apparels and striking stationery. They are an example of to use white space within an image as a vital piece of information, balancing out the loudness of the psychedelic colours that they use and bringing focus to the most important areas within the image.
Images source: http://www.wethreeclub.com/posters
13/10/19 - DOGME RULES
Dogme Rules
Dogme 95 was a filmmaking movement started in 1995 by the Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, who created the "Dogme 95 Manifesto" and the "Vows of Chastity." These were rules to create films based on the traditional values of story, acting, and theme, and excluding the use of elaborate special effects or technology. It was supposedly created as an attempt to "take back power for the director as artist", as opposed to the studio. They were later joined by fellow Danish directors Kristian Levring and Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, forming the Dogme 95 Collective or the Dogme Brethren.
Dogme 95: The Vow of Chastity: http://cinetext.philo.at/reports/dogme_ct.html
I swear to the following set of rules drawn up and confirmed by Dogme 95:
- Shooting must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in.
- The sound must never be produced apart from the image or vice-versa.
- The camera must be handheld. Any movement or mobility attainable in the hand is permitted.
- The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable.
- Optical work and filters are forbidden.
- The film must not contain superficial action.
- Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden.
- Genre movies are not acceptable.
- The film format must be Academy 35mm.
- The director must not be credited.
- Furthermore, I swear as a director to refrain from personal taste. I am no longer an artist. I swear to refrain from creating a 'work', as I regard the instant as more important than the whole. My supreme goal is to force the truth out of my characters and settings. I swear to do so by all the means available and at the cost of any good taste and any aesthetic considerations.
“The Dogme film No. 1 is Vinterberg's Festen. Before the title sequence, the Dogme manifesto certificate is showed with the number of the film. Central to the plot is the 60th birthday party of Helge, the father of four children. The eldest son Christian reveals the dark secrets of his childhood to the assembled guests. With natural lighting, sound and hand-held video camera Festen creates disorientating images as disturbing as the content of the story. As the film is shot with a digital video camera and blown up to 35 mm, the material is very grainy on the big screen of a cinema theatre (on Video this graininess is invisible). The aesthetic of the movie resembles the aesthetic of the French New Wave, as hand-held camera equipment was used extensively. Vinterberg sees the vow of chastity as liberation from technical considerations and the limitations as inspiration. But also the collective aspect appeals to him. Festen was awarded the Jury Prize in Cannes this year.
The second film of the Dogme group is Idiots by Lars von Trier, who is already famous for Breaking the Waves(1996). A group of young people, who live in a large house, pretend in the public to be idiots. They try to find their 'inner idiot'. By accident, Karen gets involved in this group. In the end, it turns out that one of them really had the disease the others were pretending and the group falls apart. Some serious questions about society's attitude to the disabled arise when watching the movie. The funny thing is the reactions to the idiots rather than the idiots themselves. The film is very provocative because of its sensitive subject. The movie seems to break with the Dogme rules, as film music appears, but von Trier reveals in an interview that the source of the music - the harmonica player - was located behind the camera while shooting. So the sound is always recorded with the image, however tricky this is to achieve.
Filmmakers have often used the limitations placed upon them as inspiration, but few have used formulated restraints on their own freedom. However strictly the filmmakers really follow their own rules, the existence of Dogme 95 led to the increased public interest in Danish cinema and provoked debate. The motivation behind the vow of chastity could be something between a gimmick and a serious attempt to produce a pure form of cinema but it had its first impacts: the Danish government has offered increased financial support. State film funding will increase by 70 % over the next four years.” – Evamaria Trischak, London, 15th January 1999
13/10/19 - THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS
Lars Von Trier – The Five Obstructions
The Five Obstructions is a 2003 Danish documentary film directed by Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth. The film is conceived as a documentary but incorporates lengthy sections of experimental films produced by the filmmakers. The premise is that von Trier has created a challenge for his friend and mentor, Jørgen Leth, another renowned filmmaker. Lars von Trier's favourite film is Leth's The Perfect Human, and von Trier gives Leth the task of remaking The Perfect Human five times, each time with a different "obstruction" (or obstacle) imposed by von Trier.
The Obstructions:
- Leth must remake the film in Cuba, with no set, and with no shot lasting longer than twelve frames, and he must answer the questions posed in the original film; Leth successfully completes this task.
- Leth must remake the film in the worst place in the world but not show that place onscreen; additionally, Leth must himself play the role of "the man". The meal must be included, but the woman is not to be included. Leth remakes the film in the red light district of Mumbai, only partially hiding it behind a translucent screen.
- Because Leth failed to complete the second task perfectly, von Trier punishes him, telling him to either remake the film in any way he chooses or else to repeat it again with the second obstruction in Mumbai. Leth chooses the first option and remakes the film in Brussels, using split-screen effects.
- Leth must remake the film as a cartoon. He does so with the aid of Bob Sabiston, a specialist in rotoscoping, who creates animated versions of shots from the previous films. As such the final product is technically an animation but not a cartoon. Nevertheless, von Trier considers the task to be completed successfully.
- The fifth obstruction is that von Trier has already made the fifth version, but it must be credited as Leth's, and Leth must read a voice-over narration, ostensibly from his own perspective but in fact one written by von Trier.
The Five Obstructions, in my opinion, is an example of how a piece of work can be put through various contexts and forms to the point that it is no longer a piece of work, it is a starting point, or a manifesto if you will, for other work. As Brian Eno says: “Stop thinking about artworks as objects and start thinking about them as triggers for experiences.” Leth’s film ‘The Perfect Human’ is no longer a piece of work on its own, it is the starting point for each outcome produced by the obstructions and then ultimately the work is ‘The Five Obstructions’ itself. However, this theory could go on and on, with ‘The Five Obstructions’ just existing as a starting point for something else. What I find difficult to grasp, after looking into the Dogme Rules, the Oblique Strategies and the ideas explored in the work of Von Trier and Leth, is that at what point does an outcome simply exist as an outcome? Or is there no real point in having such a thing as a final outcome at all? Perhaps everything that we produce really is a starting point for endless possibilities?
13/10/19 - OBLIQUE STRATEGIES
Brian Eno – Oblique Strategies
‘Oblique Strategies’ is a card-based method for promoting creativity jointly created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt, first published in 1975. Physically, it takes the form of a deck of 7-by-9-centimetre (2.8 in × 3.5 in) printed cards in a black box. Each card offers a challenging constraint intended to help artists (particularly musicians) break creative blocks by encouraging lateral thinking. Though a conceptual art project, the cards were essentially a practical tool for generating ideas, breaking through creative block, and breaking free of stale thought patterns. Eno even employed the cards while producing David Bowie’s iconic 1977 album Heroes, using Oblique Strategies on the song “Sense of Doubt.”
“Stop thinking about art works as objects, and start thinking about them as triggers for experiences.” – Brian Eno
Oblique Strategies (1974)
“We cannot grasp the ambient identity of Eno’s artwork without also recognizing the ambient identity of the artist himself. This demands knowing not only where to place him in the spectrum of roles across philosophy, visual arts, performance, music, social and cultural commentary, and activism, but in terms of personae, or as we say now, avatars. . . . Throughout his career, not only has Eno explored identity, he has provided the context, employing light, sound, space, and colour, in which each participant can playfully and passionately share in the breaching of the boundaries of the Self.” – Ascott
Brian Eno lecturing at the MoMa (1990)
12/10/19 - MANIFESTOS
Wassily Kandinsky (1912)
“The mutual influence of form and colour now becomes clear. A yellow triangle, a blue circle, a green square, or a green triangle, a yellow circle, a blue square – all these are different and have different spiritual values.”
"The Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky wrote this shortly after completing the watercolour Untitled, often considered to be the first ever abstract painting. Having progressed his work through early influences of Russian folk art and Post-Impressionism, he arrived at his colourful and emotive abstract works, informed by his belief in painting as an expression of the artist’s inner life. He outlines these ideas in this now famous text, written during his time with the group Der Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider). Central to his argument is the claim that seeing any given combination of colour and form will cause a particular “inner resonance" in the viewer. Later, during his years as a teacher at the Bauhaus, he famously issued students with a questionnaire asking them to instinctively match circle, square, triangle with red, yellow and blue. The fact that most of them got it “right” (yellow triangle, red square, blue circle) proved, he said, that there was a universal correspondence." https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/ten-game-changing-manifestos
'Blue Segment' (1921) Kandinsky, Oil on board, New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
'Colour Study Squares with Concentric Circles,' (1913) Kandinsky, Watercolor, gouache and crayon on paper, The Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus
'Swinging' (1925) Kandinsky, Oil on Board, London, Tate
We can see how Kandinsky’s manifesto informed and determined the direction of his work by the continual use and exploration of the relationship between form and colour. Throughout his career, he was fascinated with this balance between block colours within a form, and how the variations of that within in a composition altered the mood, atmosphere and “spiritual values” of his work.
The Guerilla Girls (1985-)
“In 1984, a group of anonymous women, wearing gorilla masks, picketed the Museum of Modern Art in New York. MoMA was opening a show which purported to be a definitive survey of contemporary art, and yet out of the 169 artists featured in the show, only 13 were female. Since their inception, the group have worked to expose the under-representation of women in the art world by targeting galleries, art dealers and critics. Their manifesto comes in the form of their famous slogan artworks.” https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/ten-game-changing-manifestos
‘Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into the Met. Museum?’ (1989) www.guerrillagirls.com
'3 Ways to Write a Museum Wall Label when the Artist is a Sexual Predator.' (2018) www.guerrillagirls.com
'Women in America Earn Only 2/3 of What Men Do.' (1985)www.guerrillagirls.com
These manifestos were more spread out across of a variety of work and were much more literally embedded within the work itself, with the message often supported by corresponding illustration. By having the manifesto as the work itself, it served as a piece of communicative graphic design, protesting the injustices within the art world. These images have become iconic over the years, and were ultimately successful in what they were trying to achieve, as there is a lot more equality within the documentation of art history – which shows how these manifestos informed and determined the direction of art and design in general.
Dieter Rams: The Ten Principles of Good Design
“Dieter Rams (born 20 May 1932 in Wiesbaden, Hessen) is a German industrial designer and retired academic closely associated with the consumer products company Braun, the furniture company Vitsœ, and the functionalist school of industrial design. His unobtrusive approach and belief in "less but better" design generated a timeless quality in his products and have influenced the design of many products, which also secured Rams worldwide recognition and appreciation.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Rams
“Less but better – Dieter Rams’ 10 principles remain an iconic guide to good design. With an emphasis on simplicity and sustainability, his influential ethos continues to inform timeless classics.”https://www.themodernhouse.com/journal/design_manifestos_philosophies_principles_good_design/
S60 Razor, Dieter Rams
T1000 Short-Wave Reciever, Dieter Rams
Urushi Collection, Dieter Rams
Rams’ manifesto of ‘less is better’ is incredibly clear within his work. His designs don’t fuss around with unnecessary detail that is going to hinder the effectiveness of the design, oftentimes simplicity more effectively communicates what the design is, how it works and who it is for. This manifesto has informed and determined his work to the point that we see how this concept has influenced modern design today – for example, the simplicity and sleekness of Apple products, that we associate with working successfully.
12/10/19 - ANNOTATED PROJECT BRIEF