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