PRIMARY RESEARCH - Photographic Observations of Fairgrounds and Objects

I have collated a body of reference images, mainly from a visit to the Museum of Childhood, Edinburgh, and traditional seaside towns. These photographic observations document the creative practices applied to everyday objects, and particularly the practices deemed 'unsophisticated' for museum collections.

PRIMARY RESEARCH - Photographic Observations of Typography

From visits to traditional seaside towns, and museums, I have been keeping a photographic record of typographic practices, particularly fairground and commercial signage as these document a heritage around visual communication. Moving into practical work, these will serve as valuable reference images.

Study Task 5 - PRACTICAL APPROACHES

PROPOSAL

Following Noel Carrington's principle of art for the people; 'popular art is designed to meet the taste of those amongst whom the artist himself lives and works', my intent for practice is to explore objects of heritage and visual culture and how these uphold practices of craftsmanship and tradition in a more accessible visual culture. Audience is pivotal to the generation of culture so I intend to explore the relationship between traditional visual arts and cultural awareness and acquired knowledge of social groups, most discernibly within immediate objects that surround them or inform their daily lives and industry. My focus in COP 1 was on the re-appropriation of vernacular culture and pop culture in a high-art context and I feel a similar approach could be carried over to this project. Re-appropriation of traditional visual media and objects within a gallery or museum context would work to corroborate my intent to celebrate heritage and also work towards an educational tool.

With the content of my practical work focussing on a celebration of accessible visual media and the visual objects that define certain classes and societies, I could consider some practical workshop proposals for a museum or gallery space. Considering community and knowledge, I could explore illustration as a means of celebrating heritage and tradition in a mode that is engaging and accessible for a wider audience, particularly children. 3D illustration could drive this project, by exploring crafted qualities and the value they add to tangible objects, or a more functional object such as a book documenting a lost visual culture could also be interesting. In the early stages of the work, collage will be pivotal to me understanding the imagery and content, but this could progress to print making and other relevant analogue methods.

INITIAL IDEAS - Deconstructing Project

Study Task 4 - INTRODUCTION

OVERVIEW

The act of viewing and absorbing visual media is organic and is a process we carry out without realising, but the culture of viewing seems more problematic due to social constructs and barriers which determine and stunt cultural awareness. I am interested to explore the culture of visual objects, how they interact with our lives, thus exploring how cultural awareness may be defined or confined by the immediate visual objects around us.  

My research may include a study of the power of visual objects in awareness of social history but also the sense of story telling which is upheld by objects of heritage; which in turn encourages an exploration of the theory of viewing and the acquired knowledge that comes with visual culture. 

A text central to the research is Popular English Art (1945) by Noel Carrington as this discusses the issues of artist and audience, how the artist creates work for the audience and society to which he belongs. Aspects of pride and tradition could be important here in considering the weight of creative practices within certain societies and classes, focussing on industry and the role of the craftsman. 

Roland Barthes offers some interesting ideas around toys that will also drive my research, in his text Mythologies (1972). Indigenity is a theme pivotal to the subject of visual culture, this could make for an interesting consideration in light of Barthes discussion on the nature of children’s toys and how this sits within traditional toy manufacturing and more primitive childhoods. 

Tradition and heritage work closely in my intent for practice to encourage an investigation of belonging and authenticity, particularly within visual industrial practices such as canal boat and fairground ride painting. Craftsmanship seems problematic as it’s functionality can destroy its artistic status so I will be working closely with Bruno Munari's Design as Art (1966) and Isaak I. Rubin’s Essays on Marx’s Commodity Fetishism (2008) to investigate the value of craft and labour and its competition with the high arts. 

SUMMARY

PROTO-QUESTION 

- To what extent is visual media and cultural awareness informed by social-historical heritage?

FOUND OUT SO FAR

- Craft does not attain the same cultural status as art despite the value of labour

- Societies and classes are often confined to a specific visual heritage and way of seeing

- Cultural knowledge can be defined by one's own social context

CORE TEXTS

- Design as Art (1966) by Bruno Munari; issues of form, function and taste

- Popular English Art (1945) by Noel Carrington; heritage and the value of industrial craftsmanship

- Mythologies (1972) by Roland Barthes; the limitations of toys and how toys should encourage a greater sense of curiosity and invention

CASE STUDIES

-industrial crafts such as canal boat painting, fairground rides, toy making

-low art vs. high art and accessibility

-immediately accessible visual objects; toys/books

Study Task 3 - IMAGES AND THEORY

Following my research into relevant texts, I have identified a variety of concepts and problems that could drive my research practice. Noel Carrington's essay has provided the base for my primary explorations of tradition in visual media and the boundaries of craftsmanship within heritage practices.

TASK 3A 

IDENTIFIED TERMS/CONCEPTS
-tradition
-commodity fetishism
-indigeneity
-vernacular
-popularity
-heritage
-craftsmanship

IMAGES/ EXAMPLES
-Grayson Perry's ceramics
-Grayson Perry's 'All in the best possible taste'
-Folk Art/ Industrial Art - fairgrounds/ canal boats/ signage
-Contemporary heritage driven practices - Alice Patullo/ Emily Sutton
-Eames 'form follows function' approach within craftsmanship vs. art dilemma

INTERPRETATIONS
-How does common/ traditional visual media assert the status of art or not? What are the barriers between craft and high art?
-How are boundaries of craftsmanship pushed in contemporary art practice?
-Has the resurgence of folk art brought status to traditional practices?

TASK 3B

LAUIL501                    Research Questions – Initial Ideas – Feedback

Specific areas of interest – Question? Heritage of visual objects and visual/ cultural awareness through traditional art and craft practices. What have you found out so far? Heritage - culture of visual objects and awareness Social relationship with art through accessible objects - books and toys Importance and role of tradition Knowledge is determined by socio-cultural influence Industrial art Low art vs. high art Personal collections Accessibility The people’s art What are your core texts - (choose four - ish) – quotes? Popular English Art - Noel Carrington Design as Art - Bruno Munari Ways of Seeing - John Berger Mythologies - Roland Barthes The Unsophisticated Arts - Barbara Jones Playing to the Gallery - Grayson Perry

Case studies - what images, examples, phenomena How does it link together with your proto-question and quotes? Toys and their value - toys derivative of certain social/ class groups Meaning of certain toys as asserted by lower class societies Nostalgic relationship with objects - personal memories of childhood objects Canal Boats - objects of industry, decorated with folk art/ imagery of heritage and tradition Fairground rides - public, rotating galleries How does the painting of a carousel horse differ from an oil painting of a horse? Thoughts on practical? Collage as a starting point for reappropriation of imagery Subvert context of traditional imagery - industrial/ working class objects in a museum/ gallery context Use bookbinding to create more tangible outcomes - concertina timeline?

Presenting my current overview to my peers, the main issue that was identified was the idea of a 'social relationship with art', posing the idea that our awareness of art could very much be paved by our own social context and personal connection with visual objects. From these discussions I may look into the meaning and value of certain visual objects, perhaps taking a more psychological approach to the research, considering cognitive development and how visual objects can be pivotal in the preliminary stages of coining a creative awareness or how socio-cultural influences can shape our acknowledged definition of art.

Study Task 2 - READING AND UNDERSTANDING TEXTS

NOEL CARRINGTON - POPULAR ENGLISH ART 1945

KEY CONCEPTS
-Art for the people 
-Problematic nature/definition of craftsmanship
-Art grounded in a belief culture
-Popularity aligned with accessibility
-Folk art as function, value added to the everyday; fine art to display status

KEY QUOTES
- 'to meet the taste of those amongst whom the artist himself lives'
- 'the popular arts show the greatest resilience in those walks of life which, by their nature, were confined to the more or less uncultured'
- 'practised by artists of the people for the enjoyment of the people'

EXAMPLES
-Folk Art - canal boat painting/ ceramics/ signage
-Fairground rides
-Ornaments and toys - vernacular culture/ immediate visual objects

HOW COULD THIS TRIANGULATE WITHIN MY PROJECT?
-Explore how the immediate visual culture we are surrounded by defines or confines our awareness and knowledge of art and how heritage and tradition can celebrate art in more accessible forms and uphold storytelling. 

Study Task 1 - ESTABLISHING A RESEARCH QUESTION

PART 1 - ME

Taking time to consider where I sit within my practice and the world around me worked positively to help me identify my research concerns. 

FINDINGS 

- Learning and knowledge are key concerns of mine, I see great value in creative learning and wish to work within the context of teaching or inspiring others.

- Heritage is something that informs me both within and outside of my practice, particularly in the knowledge I acquire.

- Craft, play and storytelling are pivotal to my creative practice.

- I am intrigued by the culture of viewing through books and museums, I use these observations to drive my intent for practice.

LAUIL501                    Research Questions – Initial Ideas – Feedback

Specific areas of interest – PRACTICE – PHENOMENA – THEORIES How children are exposed to art - culture of toys/ visual objects Visual culture Canal boat/ folk art Fairground rides - industry and revolution Unsophisticated arts - signage/ boat/ fairground painting

10 most important points – theories – ideas – quotes Piaget’s theory of cognitive development Beamish - contemporary resource of heritage Leeds Discovery Centre - museum archives Nostalgia Throw away culture - modern toys Contemporary illustrators that make toys today - Tom Frost/ Ed Cheverton Why do people keep certain things? Carry out research into toys people have kept Re-using toys - recycling vintage toys/ wooden blocks Aura High art vs. low art Aesthetic vs. utilitarian

Possible research questions How are children informed about art via their immediate visual objects? How do a child’s first toys and books shape their awareness of cultural landscape? How do visual objects operate as the foundations of our cultural awareness? To what extent is our awareness of art defined or confined by our own social/ historical/ cultural context?

PART 2 - FEEDBACK 

Sharing my identified interests and concerns with my peers, we were able to pin-point more specific topics within my practice to form my research project. My proposal at the end of level 4 was to develop my investigation of taste within education and the art media that children consume, now my project seems to have some more personal directions relevant to my intent for practice.

PHENOMENA & THEORIES

-Children's exposure to art, culture of books and toys

-Exposure to visual objects in childhood

-Folk Art within industry and class

-Visual culture within revolution

IDEAS & QUOTES

-Cognitive development

-Nostlagia

-Reclamation/ re-purposing old toys

-Why do people keep certain objects/ childhood memories

-How does illustration add value to objects?

POSSIBLE RESEARCH TOPICS

-Heritage in the cultural landscape

-Weight of immediate visual objects on cultural awareness

END OF MODULE EVALUATION

SB1 - CRITICAL ANALYSIS - FINAL ESSAYS

SB3 - Study Task 8 - EVALUATION OF SYNTHESIS - PROPOSAL

SB1 - Study Task 8 - REFLECTIVE PRACTICE ESSAY PLAN

PLAN

1. What were my initial enquiries?
- Exploration of commercialism and aura in art and the choice of the artist to conform to one or the other. Rules of taste driving artists towards high art pretensions and entrapment within art institutions or into kitsch consumerism. Does the accepted view of art actually inform our taste, how vulnerable are children to being told the definition of good art?

2. What were my rationales for image making? 
- To visually realise the conflict between aura and consumerism through re-appropriation of high-art imagery and pop culture icons into kitsch iconography.

3. How do my images relate to the overarching theme?
- While the images explore the issue of kitsch and ridicule of high art, I have strayed away from the focus on rules of taste and challenged this by satirising art, capturing a transgression of the institutionalised view of art taste.

4. Why have you used certain materials?
- Working within the constraints of a kitsch aesthetic, I have worked primarily with metallic, holographic media, in eccentric colours conventional to kitsch objects. Collage has enabled re-appropriation of existing images inline with this formulaic aesthetic.

5. Which image from the image analysis essay is best reflected in my journal?
- Koons' 'Michael Jackson and Bubbles' resonates most with my visual work as I have paralleled Koons' flux between high art conventions and pop-culture tropes through media and subject matter. While Koons' sculpture explores pop-culture, kitsch imagery in a high art context and traditional media, my work explores high art imagery against pop-culture icons through kitcsh tropes and garish media. 

7. Relevant quotes and key theorists from triangulation essay to include?
- 'Rules of taste enforces structures of power' Sontag
- The reproduction artist as 'the lesser genius who absorbed the Pure Forms and Styles of the Master and attempted to give these some sort of currency by applying them to objects of everyday use' Munari
- 'Tretchi committed the cardinal sin of commercialising his work and selling it to the masses' Ward
- 'The masses, thanks to reproductions, can now begin to appreciate art as the cultured minority once did' Berger
- 'Taste is not free and its judgements are never merely 'natural'

Quotes not from triangulation essay:
- The original of a reproduction as 'an object whose value depends upon its rarity' Berger
- 'When a painting is put to use, its meaning is either modified or totally changed' Berger

SB2 - Study Task 8 - FINAL JOURNAL RESPONSES

Progressing towards more resolved outcomes in my visual journal, I have maintained the kitsch aesthetic through colour and imagery, but within this series I have used drawing as opposed to collage to communicate the icons of pop and art culture. I feel that the hand drawn approach really enhances the kitsch through a DIY aesthetic, something which enhances the satirical nature of commercialism religious imagery. The pop-up approach has enabled me to bring crafting into my visual work, channelling a novelty approach suitable to the kitsch theme. These pop-ups have also enabled me to explore context and audience, echoing the devices of children's picturebooks.

In line with my rationale and discussions with peers, I have resolved my journal in a picture-book context, exploring the ultimate destination of commercialisation of art and the conflict between pop culture and high art. Maintaining the collage approach explored throughout my journal, this linear piece echoes the style that has been developing over the course of the journal, while introducing a new tone of voice. The cut-paper characters maintain the bright, pop colour palette, whilst achieving a clarity important to their place in the hierarchy of components. My intentions throughout the project have been to explore the relationship between viewer and taste and this final image seems to effectively capture the act of viewing art in a subversion of high art conventions.

SB2- Study Task 8 - EVALUATION OF SYNTHESIS

SYNTHESIS

The combining of the constituent elements of seperate material of abstract entities into a single or unified entity (opposed to analysis) the separating of any material or abstract entity into its constituent elements.

A complex whole formed by combining.

My process: WHAT/ WHY/ HOW?

1. Analysed the starting quote from within the theme of aesthetics by defining key words and meanings around the issue of taste and power structures.

2. Selection and analysis of sources and texts relating to taste and power structures, focusing on opinions of artists, art critics and theorists to understand the wider issue.

3. Deconstruction of texts and quotes relating to chosen theme, focusing on issues of commercial art vs. the high brow.

4. Collection and selection of imagery - kitsch/ high art/ art in education

5. Triangulation of quotes and ideas, forming an argument regarding the issues of taste and expectations.

6. Drawing similarities between ideas and imagery, starting to unpick existing imagery. Why is high art taught to children? Why is art ridiculed by the kitsch?

7. Responding to observations and ideas through visual research of abstract interpretations of the flux between commercialism and aura, exploring kitsch colour palettes.

8. Exploring the impacts of media and colour on the theories identified in critical writing.

9. Capturing a satirical tone of voice through exploration of language and image.

10. Consideration of an ultimate resolution based on the blurred boundaries between high art cultures, pop culture and the kitsch. 

SB2 -Study Task 7 - Visual Response FURTHER JOURNAL DEVELOPMENT

Furthering the development of my visual journal, I have re-considered the use of existing imagery, now considering more theoretical values surrounding these particular images. Religious imagery has been pivotal to the visual research carried out so far as I feel it is grounded it both high art and kitsch matter. With the viewers engagement with religious imagery as either holy and deified, or kitsch and trivial, these figures seem to hold power, and as such, I have explored the weight of religious imagery.

 In my written work I have been critically analysing the issues around Tretchikoff as a commercial artist. Many argue that Tretchikoff was a commercial artist, serving the masses. This has provided the rationale for the above image as I wanted to explore the crux of Tretchikoff as an art icon. Does his work really challenge high art structures or does this transgression simply re-conform? Collage has enabled me to satirise his paintings and re-establish my visual devices.

Language is continuing to inform my practice, enabling me to explore more direct messages. I feel this image is the most successful in my journal so far as it explores a satire appropriate to the kitsch culture, whilst capturing a very real conflict been culture and anti-culture. In light of these developments, I will now explore how I can realise my visual and theoretical research towards a more refined and succinct outcome.

SB2 - Study Task 7 - Visual Response RESPONDING TO RATIONALE

Following on from points discussed in my rationale, I have continued to develop my collage responses to issues of high art and consumerism, continuing to focus on the impact of language on the immediacy of my work. Starting to work with shape based elements, these collages seem to echo post-modern examples of graphic design through geometric shapes. These playful shapes seem to develop the kitsch aesthetic channelled throughout the journal but now introduce a very contemporary aesthetic which achieves a clear contrast against re-appropriated images. While more direct and single-word phrases were complimented in my previous work, I feel that I need to develop the 'what's his face' image to achieve more weight on the Christ image and perhaps have the language displayed in a linear format to achieve clarity.

Moving away from collage, I have also explored paint as a means of re-appropriation and ridicule of high art imagery. Painted marks have enabled me to explore quicker, simpler modifications, something I could explore further to achieve more simplified, yet direct responses. The metallic paint has worked effectively to maintain the kitsch aesthetic. 

Lecture 15 - Semiotics

SEMIOTICS - science of signs/ how things mean/ how things attain that meaning

-literal meanin DENOTATION

-cultural associations CONNOTATION

-changes in the moment SYNCHRONIC

-development over time DIACHRONIC

SB2 - Study Task 7 - Visual Response GROUP CRIT & RATIONALE

FEEDBACK

Further to the discussions had with my peers on my presentation and the synthesis of my work so far, I received some new feedback which will drive the focus and development of my project in line with a new rationale. 

With my new responses presented, the use of existing imagery and language was very well received, my peers identified that my illustrations now fostered an immediacy and tone of voice that suited the kitsch theme and underlying ideas of my project. 

Considering the holographic and metallic papers I had used, it was suggested that I could enhance the novelty aesthetic of my work using pop-ups and lift the flap elements, to almost trivialise the imagery.

Other feedback/ themes identified by peers:

- playing on the idea of forgotten art works well to achieve satire

- characterising statues and portraiture 

- keep on playing with language as these get to the point and achieve humour

- keep playing with existing imagery to maintain kitsch aesthetic

- start considering vernacular icons - elvis/ michael jackson 

- consider more concise slogans to create more immediate images

- mix high art with pop culture

- religious iconography

Look at - RICHARD HAMILTON/ PETER BLAKE/ TERRY GILLIAN

This feedback session has provided me with some new directions to explore and some more specific approaches to elements I have already been experimenting with to drive more developed outcomes. With the practical work I have carried out, feedback I have received and theoretical ideas explored throughout the module, I can create a rationale to direct my project towards a coherent conclusion.

RATIONALE

Working within the theme of kitsch, I am exploring re-appropriation of imagery and the characterisation of high art imagery. The methodologies I am working with are mainly collage and exploration of language. These approaches seem fitting to the development of high-art imagery towards more novelty outcomes and invite a comical tone of voice to support the novelty aesthetic of kitsch cultures. John Berger's discussions of reproduction have driven me to explore re-appropriation of imagery to challenge the stability of aura and meaning in art. Through garish media and conventional kitsch colour palettes, I am working towards novelty iconographies that capture vernacular culture. Working towards a conclusion, I will focus my work towards novelty shrines to vernacular culture in light of Berger's reproduced image.

Lecture 14 - Post-Modernism

-recycling old concepts

-impurity

-futility

pluralism

-pessimism

-backlash on modern life and technology

-disillusionment with the idea of absolute knowledge

-criticism of cultural authority

SB1 - Analysing Sources JOHN BERGER

ANALYSING SOURCES
Responding to feedback received on my draft submission, I have further researched the issues of reproduction and commercialisation of images through the writings of John Berger. I have identified some key quotes and started to consider how these might triangulate with existing themes and issues raised in my essays.

KEY QUOTES AND INITIAL IDEAS

'When the camera reproduces a painting, it destroys the uniqueness of its image. As a result its meaning changes. Or, more exactly, its meaning multiplies and fragments into many meanings'
-Does reproduction taint the aura of an image, or simply offer an alternative interpretation. Perhaps meaning relies on context and as such, the reproduction is an entirely different image.

'Because of the camera, the painting now travels to the spectator rather than the spectator to the painting. In its travels, its meaning is diversified'
-With access to photographs and reproductions, the viewer no longer has to go on a pilgrimage to view the art in its holy space, in that sense, contextual aura is removed. 

'It is no longer what its image shows that strikes as unique; its first meaning is no longer to be found in what it says but what it is' 
-Aura is maintained in reproduction as the viewer now becomes aware of the originality and rarity of the image, rather than its original meaning or symbolism.

The original of a reproduction is 'an object whose value depends upon its rarity'
-No longer defined by history and socio-cultural contexts but by process and its survival.

'When a painting is put to use, its meaning is either modified or totally changed'
- Is an object displaying a work of art so far removed from the original work that it does not tarnish its aura?

'The masses, thanks to reproductions, can now begin to appreciate art as the cultured minority once did'
-Reproduction brings art culture to a wider audience that can perhaps admire it in a way similar to that of its original audience. Or is Berger satirical of the fact that reproduction removes art from its elite realms and high-brow conventions.

Working back through my essays and triangulation work, I will analyse Berger's discussions in line with my own ideas and identified problems and begin to strengthen my written work with this new source and new evidence.

Lecture 13 - Modernism PART 2

-harnacing the power of the new

-anti-historicism

-inventing

-truth to materials, new ways of making - raw materials/ new technologies

-INTERNATIONALISM

-Education as the key to emancipation

Lecture 12 - Modernism PART 1

-industrialisation and urbanisation of the city

-modern artists response to the city

-psychology and subjective experience

-vocabulary of style

-idea of FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION

SB2 - Study task 6 - FOCUS

RESPONDING TO FEEDBACK

In light of the feedback received on my presentation and in the group crit, I have been working with language, more garish media and recognisable images. I feel that the use of existing imagery has achieved an immediacy that supports the communication of the underlying message. The contrast between high art imagery and kitsch florals and patterns achieves an immediate sense of the kitsch and commercialisation of art, capturing the ideas pivotal to my essays; that taste is subjective and defined by the context and institution in which it finds itself. 

Subtle alterations work successfully to re-appropriate the imagery by subverting the tone of voice and establishing more accessible motifs, furthering the idea of status and class.

 

NEW DIRECTIONS

For me, I feel the most successful images to come out of this set were the ones that used concise and direct language. While the image of Christ and the bust capture the ideas explored within my essays, they are perhaps a little too specific and as such, are not as immediate in communication. I do feel that their subtle alterations, however, work in their favour but subverting the tone of voice through little means.

The image of Mona Lisa, and Michael Jackson seem more successful through the single words as these are more direct and communicative. I am particularly interested in exploring language as a means of triggering questioning of imagery, encouraging the viewer to engage more organically with the issues of power in taste.