blog task 7 - Constructing the Other
This is the back cover of the Daily Mail. It's an article which introduces an incident between England football team's manager, Fabio Capello and Rio Ferdinand. The text and the photo really go hand in hand together, with an overall childish tone. Capello is photographed with his hand covering his smile and his face all lit up. Giving the sense that he done something quite naughty and he's having a little laugh to himself about it. The text to the left sounds like it could be a line out of a song or some kind of football chant, which fits in well with the audience that the publication is aimed at. The text at the top also compliments the photo very well, as this could be what Fabio is grinning about, making him look like he is selfish and some kind of dictator within the football team. This type of article turn the affairs of the national football team into some kind of soap, which middle aged men who are into their footy would most likely love to read about.
blog task 6 - Sustainability & Capitalism
Balser defines sustainability within the text as an idea. An idea that is a response to the environmental crisis of climate change, natural resource depletion, species extinction, deforestation and a whole other range of problems. It is defined as a communal concept that we should all undertake within all spheres of our society, no matter what ocial attitudes, environmental habitats, economical, moral and political differences. However this is not the case, as at the present sustainability comes down to the individuals lifestyle choices and their own concerns for the environment.
Capitalism is a system where private companies within a country keep the profits that they gain for themselves (private accumulation). Constantly exploiting and expanding to make make the rich richer, the poor poorer and creating a greater level of social inequality. This system creates a massive social divide within the country, from one extreme to the other. Capitalism is constantly looking for new markets and to commodify them to make profit.
Not all is well when it comes to capitalism. Companies are constantly relying on resources and overaccumulating from the Earth to create new technologies and thus 'crisis of capitalism' happens. Capitalism has no limits, creating new products from a widening sphere of circulation. The sphere is directly expanding and points within it a branching out to create more points of production, whereas the Earth has a limit. Once this limit is reached there is no turning back and this is when Capitalism will cease.
In Hawken's 'Natural Capital' he interpretates the sustainability of the environmental crisis as a practical and realistic approach. He says we should work towards change and not towards fighting against the problems at hand. He lists four points that businesses need to follow in order to become environmentally responsible. Businesses should radically increase the productivity of resource use, shift to biologically inspired production with closed loops (no waste, and no toxicity), shift the business model away from the making and selling of "things" to providing the service that the "thing" delivers and reinvest in natural and human capital. This would only become realistic if capitalist states would join together in making these changes to gain sustainable achievement. Companies would make a massive loss in doing so as to move away from their comfortable and unsustainable ways and towards these changes for a better and healthier planet.
The concept of sustainability is not compatible with capitalism, as capitalism is the main force that has caused all the problems within our planet today. The greed of these corporate empires have imprinted their carbon footprint and we are already reaping the cautions. Over time this will become more clearer and people will wonder why sustainability wasn't set in place from the get go.
Capitalism is a system where private companies within a country keep the profits that they gain for themselves (private accumulation). Constantly exploiting and expanding to make make the rich richer, the poor poorer and creating a greater level of social inequality. This system creates a massive social divide within the country, from one extreme to the other. Capitalism is constantly looking for new markets and to commodify them to make profit.
Not all is well when it comes to capitalism. Companies are constantly relying on resources and overaccumulating from the Earth to create new technologies and thus 'crisis of capitalism' happens. Capitalism has no limits, creating new products from a widening sphere of circulation. The sphere is directly expanding and points within it a branching out to create more points of production, whereas the Earth has a limit. Once this limit is reached there is no turning back and this is when Capitalism will cease.
In Hawken's 'Natural Capital' he interpretates the sustainability of the environmental crisis as a practical and realistic approach. He says we should work towards change and not towards fighting against the problems at hand. He lists four points that businesses need to follow in order to become environmentally responsible. Businesses should radically increase the productivity of resource use, shift to biologically inspired production with closed loops (no waste, and no toxicity), shift the business model away from the making and selling of "things" to providing the service that the "thing" delivers and reinvest in natural and human capital. This would only become realistic if capitalist states would join together in making these changes to gain sustainable achievement. Companies would make a massive loss in doing so as to move away from their comfortable and unsustainable ways and towards these changes for a better and healthier planet.
The concept of sustainability is not compatible with capitalism, as capitalism is the main force that has caused all the problems within our planet today. The greed of these corporate empires have imprinted their carbon footprint and we are already reaping the cautions. Over time this will become more clearer and people will wonder why sustainability wasn't set in place from the get go.
blog task 5 - LEFEBVRE & SPACE
Morley Cemetery
Bruntcliffe Lane
Morley
Leeds
LS27 0LZ
Every morning I wake up to the view of this cemetery at the back of my house, so when it came to this task I thought I may as well try and write something about it.
Dead people are buried in this place and this is the practical reason why it was created. People come and go all the time to remember their loved ones that have passed away. They come to escape from the people who are alive in their lives and to reminisce, lay flowers and sometimes even talk to the grave stones. This space is also used as a short-cut by school children to get from their high school and into the town centre where their buses are. It is also used as a space for people to walk their dogs. This has been recognized by the people who run the graveyard and the council, as there are dog bins situated at the north and south side.
At night the graveyard is very dark, as no street lights are situated within the space. Only a few people come and go at this time during the evening. It is a perfect place for people to easily score and even take recreational drugs, because of the absence of light and CCTV. Nobody ever comes to visit the graves or to walk their dogs through it at night. Graveyards are also scary places at night, not just because of the people that might be lurking in the dark, but because of all the supernatural happening. Many ghost stories take place in graveyards and people assume that they could be haunted. It is also a place when in some cases people go to perform certain rituals for religious beliefs.
The graveyard is represented by this darker grey on the map that I grabbed from Google. This is to show it's distinctions from the places that surrounds it. It isn't a block of flat, or a street with houses on, or even an industrial estate. The use of grey shows it's importance.
One thing I noticed when walking through this graveyard that it is very well kept. There isn't litter lying about and there isn't graffiti everywhere. I think people have much respect for this place or the staff that work there are doing an exceptional job at keeping it in order.
blog task 3 - SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS
This cover page from the Sun newspaper was published during the Falklands war. The first thing that jumps out of the page is the bold headline reading 'GOTCHA'. The editors have used a very informal approach to this headline with making it stand out by increasing the point size and using no punctuation, all this makes the heading very paradigmatic. When reading this I imagine a working class male southerner shouting it in a hooliganistic manner. This definitely sets a very patriotic tone for the whole article and conveys a very positive message to the population of Britain, as the word "GOTCHA" signifies that we have the enemy within our grasp and that we are now the empowering force, we are winning. This headline denotes the words 'got you' into slang that is on a more personal level with the reader and this connotates a more friendly feeling to the article.
They have now engaged the reader in this friendly and open strategy and then they read 'our lads sink gunboat and hole cruiser'. This suggests that 'our lads' have probably killed a whole lot of people, but with the way it has been stated it makes it alright. Again with the friendly use of slang, the Sun is speaking at the level of the target audience and are assuring them that we are winning. This sub-heading is perceived in a light hearted manner and is kind of poking fun at war and making it into a joke.
Words like 'wallop' and 'double punch' also do this. This style of language is used within comic books to illustrate the sounds that the superhero's strikes make to apprehend their enemies. It can easily be said that this is used as propaganda to give the 'lads' who are fighting a superhero image and that what they are doing is acceptable. This language goes hand in hand with the image of the troop with the text 'BATTLES FOR THE ISLANDS'. This image looks like some kind of movie poster or a cover of a book and connotates a false sense of a happy ending to the story, as the readers are not at the battle front and can only experience the war from what they read in newspapers.
blog task 4 - ESSAY IDEAS
A look into the Pragmatic of popular symbols
- How are symbols used within modern design and illustration
- Are they connected to their origins
- Their effects within popular culture and people
- How/why sub genres use symbols as identification
Tresidder, Jack, (2006), Symbols and There Meanings, London, Duncan Baird Publishers Ltd
Adorno, Theodor W. (1991), The Culture Industry, London, Routledge
Adkinson, Robert, (2009) Sacred Symbols: Peoples, Religions, Mysteries, London, Thames & Hudson Ltd
Jean, Georges, (1998), Signs, Symbols and Ciphers: Decoding the Message, London, Thames & Hudon Ltd
Adorno, Theodor W. (1997), Aesthetic Theory, London, The Athlone Press Ltd
- How are symbols used within modern design and illustration
- Are they connected to their origins
- Their effects within popular culture and people
- How/why sub genres use symbols as identification
Tresidder, Jack, (2006), Symbols and There Meanings, London, Duncan Baird Publishers Ltd
Adorno, Theodor W. (1991), The Culture Industry, London, Routledge
Adkinson, Robert, (2009) Sacred Symbols: Peoples, Religions, Mysteries, London, Thames & Hudson Ltd
Jean, Georges, (1998), Signs, Symbols and Ciphers: Decoding the Message, London, Thames & Hudon Ltd
Adorno, Theodor W. (1997), Aesthetic Theory, London, The Athlone Press Ltd
blog task 2 - ON POPULAR MUSIC
AdoAdorno explains that music has divided into two spheres. There's an apparent split between serious music and popular music. He explains how music has fallen to standardization, with the structures of the songs and the notes within that bars that are put together follow certain standard rules. Each big hit is pretty much the same when it comes to the fundamental values of the songs.
He notes that the serious music never follows a musical scheme to creating a piece. The music is unorthodox and there is more relationship between the detail, whereas popular music is nothing like this and once a listen hears the start of a song they can quite easily tell what's going to happen next throughout the song. There is no real effort required from the listener when trying to engage with the music.
The standardization of popular music has effected people's attire and their social interaction. People are now striving to become individuals and are searching for something of their own, when everything sounds the same and there are other people trying to do the same thing.
Destiny's Child - Bootylicious
There are plenty of examples that show the standardization of popular music within this music video. When listening to the song you can predict what is going to happen next. The structure of the song is like most popular songs, intro, verse, break, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus and outro. The beat is a steady drone of about 140 bpm in 4/4 timing and throughout the whole song it doesn't change. This makes the song very easy to listen to and it drives the song on it's boring road from start to the end, where one of the ladies ends with "...my body's too bootylicious for you baby". From the success of this song compared to the effort that must've gone into making it shows how people are force fed this type of music, and because someone else you know is listening to it you start to like it yourself.
The guitar part has been sampled from a Fleetwood Mac just shows how old songs that have died out are now being brought back into more modern songs to increase the repetition of what's being created today. Stevie Nicks appearance also gives the video some kind of accolade that then pulls people in to view it's contents and her rocking on her guitar.
Just like every other girl band music video there is a lot of dancing and glamorous people prancing about the screen. I looked up the video to try and get more information and the dance moves featured in the video were inspired by Michael Jackson, the video features a lot of steps he used for his songs. This just solidifies the fact that within popular music every song you listen to is the practically the same.
He notes that the serious music never follows a musical scheme to creating a piece. The music is unorthodox and there is more relationship between the detail, whereas popular music is nothing like this and once a listen hears the start of a song they can quite easily tell what's going to happen next throughout the song. There is no real effort required from the listener when trying to engage with the music.
The standardization of popular music has effected people's attire and their social interaction. People are now striving to become individuals and are searching for something of their own, when everything sounds the same and there are other people trying to do the same thing.
Destiny's Child - Bootylicious
There are plenty of examples that show the standardization of popular music within this music video. When listening to the song you can predict what is going to happen next. The structure of the song is like most popular songs, intro, verse, break, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus and outro. The beat is a steady drone of about 140 bpm in 4/4 timing and throughout the whole song it doesn't change. This makes the song very easy to listen to and it drives the song on it's boring road from start to the end, where one of the ladies ends with "...my body's too bootylicious for you baby". From the success of this song compared to the effort that must've gone into making it shows how people are force fed this type of music, and because someone else you know is listening to it you start to like it yourself.
The guitar part has been sampled from a Fleetwood Mac just shows how old songs that have died out are now being brought back into more modern songs to increase the repetition of what's being created today. Stevie Nicks appearance also gives the video some kind of accolade that then pulls people in to view it's contents and her rocking on her guitar.
Just like every other girl band music video there is a lot of dancing and glamorous people prancing about the screen. I looked up the video to try and get more information and the dance moves featured in the video were inspired by Michael Jackson, the video features a lot of steps he used for his songs. This just solidifies the fact that within popular music every song you listen to is the practically the same.
blog task 1 - PANOPTICISM
An example of a panoptic institute in contemporary culture would be the interrogation room. The subject is "seen, but he does not see; he is the object of information", the relationship changes as the subject being observed shifts to becoming just an object, a docile body, and loses their own subjectivity. Police officials are hidden behind the mirror "and this invisibility is a guarantee of order", as the subject being interrogated can not see anyone behind the two way mirror they feel unnerved and feel obliged to conform. The subject "becomes the principle of his own subjection", even if nobody was behind the mirror, the presence of the mirror itself has a great effect on the subject. This makes the mirror a "machine" not an "architectural apparatus" and proves that "power should be visible and unverifiable". When a subject is placed in an interrogation room, even if not guilty, just being in that room can make you feel so on edge that you appear to be guilty. The way that a panoptic institute can be described as a "labratory; it could be used as a machine to carry out experiments", this is totally what an interrogation room is. Police are bringing these people into this room to get information out of them and seeing how they react.
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