Writing an Introduction

How relevant is the concept of Auteurism in a contemporary animation landscape?

To me it would seem the past twenty years has seen a dramatic shift in the popular culture, with the emergence of new technologies and the proliferation and democratisation of new media channels to disseminate information. This has lead both to an explosion of culture and a fracturing of it, as the power wielded by the traditional gatekeepers is greatly diminished, creating a sort of two way channel of influence where alternative forms of artistic expression, whether that be illustration, animation, graphic design, now have a seat at the table of the cultural conversation.

In this essay I will explore the relevance of Auteur theory in a contemporary animation landscape. As an animator, I have sincere aspirations to apply the tools afforded to the medium of animation as a means of creative expression, much like how the filmmakers of The New Wave used their cameras, which is partially why I have chosen to research into Auteur Theory and it’s relevance in regards to the industry today. Animation today encompasses a wide variety different industries and processes, so for this essay I will be focusing on animation in film, television, video-games as well as other alternative forms of media.

For this, I will find and highlight examples in the industry where the principles of Auteur Theory are being applied, both on an individual creative level as well as on a studio level; exploring how the concept of auteurism manifests in different creative contexts, making the argument for how animation studios have adopted a flat organisational structures and investigating whether this reorganisation has effected the work culture. In order to explore this hypothesis I will investigate both studios and individual practitioners in regards to authorship, identifying specific motifs and creative trademarks and relating these to their respected work pipelines, management organisation and general creative philosophy.

Choosing a Research Question

How relevant is the concept of auteurism in a contemporary animation landscape?

For the CoP module I have chosen to address the question 'How relevant is the concept of auteurism in a contemporary animation landscape'. After careful consideration I have chosen this question as I am interested in the role of the writer/director in animation and film and the status that affords them. Encoded meaning and intertextuality are topics that interest me greatly as a creative practitioner who aspires to tell stories with some sort of purpose. In the essay I hope to touch upon a variety of topics relating to 'studios as auteurs' as well as the wider societal implications of the creative industries adopting a flatter, more hierarchical power structure as well as the place of the traditional auteur in an ever-changing media landscape.

As for research I intend to gather a range of both qualitative and quantitive data from primary and secondary sources to back up each point of my argument. For primary research, this could include creating questionnaires and surveys to send to my peers to gather quantitive data, or interviewing industry professionals to gather their opinions and testimony to gather qualitative data. After gathering this information and forming a hypothesis I intend to gather a range of secondary research from books and journals, preferably from the library. I would like to rely less on articles from the internet and more on sources I have found myself from my own wider reading. One area I do wish to improve in terms of research is in the triangulation between different theorists, as last year this was an aspect of my essay in which I was lacking.

One of the key ideas I am hoping to explore is the idea of the studio as the auteur and how the role of the auteur in recent years has been made obsolete with the emergence of studios such as Pixar and Aardman, who have gained a reputation for creating high-quality, family friendly films with a particular style and voice, and how previous generations of auteurs working at these companies have had a hand in shaping their work ethic and creative process. Another thing I hope to touch upon is the broader societal context of these changes, how companies in the creative industries have adopted a flatter, non-hierarchial structure and how such a structure enables creativity to flourish.

In terms of case studies, I am hoping to explore a range of studio's work from film, television and in particular video games. In my essay I am hoping to establish similarities between the creative industries in order to try identify a broader cultural trend in the direction of more democratic power structures.

Potential Sources:

Caughie, John. (1981) ‘Theories of Authorship’, London and New York, Routledge

Adorno, T. & Horkheimer, M., 1944. The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception. In

T. Adorno and M. Horkheimer. Dialectics of Enlightenment. Translated by John

Cumming. New York: Herder and Herder, 1972.

Benjamin, Walter (1935/1969) The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, New York: Schocken Books

Bazin, André. (1957) La politique des auteurs, Paris, Cahiers du Cinema

Mitchell, Ben (2017) ‘Independent Animation: Developing, Producing and Distributing your Animated Films’, Boca Raton, FL, CRC Press

Triangulation: Laura Mulvey's 'Women as image, man as bearer of the look': CoP2 Seminar (10/10/2016)

For our first CoP Seminar of the year we were tasked with triangulating between three texts revolving around Feminist film theorist/Avant-Garde Filmmaker Laura Mulvey's 1975 essay 'Visual and Other Pleasures' which discusses women's roles in what she perceives and argues to be a male-dominated narrative media. In the extract which we analysed as a part of the seminar, Mulvey puts forth the argument that women are placed in a passive, exhibitionist role to be looked at and displayed, while the male characters, in most cases, often take on a much more active driving role in the narrative. She reinforces this point by referencing Molly Haskell's argument that most traditional narrative structure is centred around a main controlling figure, a person who assumes control of the narrative and is the centre of the events that unfold, which she argues is reflective of the assumed male spectator.

The crux of Mulvey's argument is that men take the active role, often relegating the female characters to a more passive role in the narrative. In her argument Mulvey quotes film director Budd Boetticher in saying;

'What counts is what the heroine provokes, or rather what she represents. She is the one, or rather, the love or fear she inspires in the hero, or else the concern he feels for her, who makes him act the way he does. In herself the women has not the slightest importance.'

Man is reluctant to gaze upon his 'exhibitionist like' as it were. The glamorous looks of the male movie stars who inhabit these narratives are not the erotic object of gaze, like the female characters often are, rather they are there to fulfil the 'ideal ego' and power fantasies of the presumably male spectator. John Storey echoes this sentiment to a degree in his 2008 essay 'Cultural Theory and Popular Culture' in which he echoes the arguments put forth by Mulvey, arguing that this 'Voyeuristic Fantasy' of the male gaze is encouraged by the darkness of the cinema and the bright lights of the projector screen. Storey compares the way audiences see themselves in narrative cinema  with 'The Mirror Phase' of child cognitive development, where the child's physical ambitions outstrip their motor capacity. To Storey, narrative cinema offers a means for audiences to fulfil their own fantasises and 'ideal egos' through what Mulvey describes as a 'screen surrogate', and that these fantasies whether consciously or not reinforce harmful patriarchal norms that place women in a passive role.

However, in his 1998 essay 'Stars', Film Academic Richard Dyer argues that research shows that a broader context of social relationships is equally, if not more influential in how people view media, though for the purposes of his argument, he means in terms of television.

Parody and Pastiche

For this study task we were required to write a definition of parody/pastiche based on the two texts (using at least one quote from each of the texts) we analysed during the seminar...

Frederic Jameson- Pastiche

'We are condemned ti seek history by way of our own pop images and simulacra of that history, which itself remains forever out of reach'

Jameson refers to Pastiche in regards to Postmodernism as 'Blank Parody', essentially parody without the context with 'no connection to history, which gets turned into a series of styles, superseded genres and simulacra'. Jameson mentions how postmodernist architecture 'randomly and without principle' cannibalises the architectural styles of the past, combining them into an overstimulating ensemble. We approach the past through stylistic connotation, conveying 'pastness' through the glossy qualities of image. This, Jameson argues, displaces real history in favour of the popular images of the past. By cannibalising the past through Pastiche, we strip away its context, viewing the past through a distorted lens and therefore displace real history. 'A statue with blind eyeballs'.

Hutcheon- Parody

To Hutcheon, parody is 'art marked primarily by an internalised investigation of the nature, the limits and possibilities of the language of discourse in art.'  Parody is essentially postmodernist deconstruction of a piece of work from a critical perspective, inherently political in nature . Paradoxically Hutcheon also argues that Postmodernism is inherently parodic in nature, though not necessarily 'depthless trivial, kitsch, as Eagleton and Jameson both believe, but rather it can and does lead to a vision of interconnectedness...'

The Flipped Classroom

The Flipped Classroom is a hierarchical student-centric method of teaching pioneered by french theorist Jacques Ranciere after his experiences during a period of civil unrest in France during May of 1968. The students of 'L'Ecole de Beux Arts'  in Sorbonne, tired of what they perceived to be authoritarian teaching practices and wanting a fairer and more accessible education for all, not just the snobbish elite, took direct action against the educational elites, occupying the university and declaring it 'open all day and night' to all worker. The students saw 'education as initiation' as the catalyst for all societal problems regarding gender and income inequality, seeking liberation through the challenging of visual communication as a product in service of capitalism, seeing the arts as a weapon in their so called 'revolutionary struggle', shunning the established avenues for art such as what they perceived to be bourgeois art galleries, instead using their skills and talents to further societal revolutionary ends.

Equalite! Libertie! Sexualite!

Ranciere was a student at the university in 68, and thus had a first hand account of the events. He was tutored by famed French Marxist Louis Althusser, who similarly believed society was controlled/oppressed by ideas, but ultimately believed that the educational system in its current form at the time could serve as a sort of 'ideological training', to equip students with the skills and ideals necessary to influence and implement societal change. His students on the other hand, including Ranciere, believed differently however and in '68 a rift emerged between the teachers and students at 'L'Ecole de Beux Arts'. Teachers such as Althusser believed that experts, in this case teachers, were necessary for revolutionary change in society, much to the dismay of students such as Ranciere, so much so that he based some of his future writings off his experiences, challenging Althusser's methods of teaching and suggesting his own alternatives in his essay 'The Ignorant Schoolmaster'.

In 'The Ignorant Schoolmaster' Ranciere challenges the ideas of what defines a 'student' and what defines a 'teacher'. In his essay, Ranciere references a school teacher from the french colonies in the late 1800s called Joseph Jacotot. Jacotot taught students in a different language to their native Flemish, but instead of translating the texts into Flemish, Jacotot told them to translate the material themselves in order to 'become masters of their own learning'. The result was, the students wrote and spoke better French that Jacotot's students back in France. Ranciere took this as evidence for his theory that in order to create independent learners, educational hierarchies needed to be abolished in order to help emancipate students and stop reinforcing what he perceived to be structures of oppression.

Ranciere proposed a system of learning which was the antithesis to what he called in his essay 'The Politics of Aesthetics' the 'society of contempt'. He proposed a system which swapped out individualistic learning for collective learning, a classroom where the teacher validates the students contribution to a system where students peer assess each other and where passively following instructions is replaced with an environment where students are encouraged to actively engage, challenge and raise questions. The Flipped Classroom scenario is something that since learning about it I have started to pick up in our CoP seminars. Richard's seminars for CoP very much conform to the decidedly hierarchical, non-conformist learning environment outlined by Ranciere. We are actively encouraged to raise questions and challenge the status quo and at Level 5 especially we are put in charge of deciding on our own learning, choosing our own essay questions relating to subjects which interest us specifically in our creative practice.

CoP2 Briefing: The Re-Contextualising (of Practice)

During our brief for Level 5 Context of Practice Richard outlined a few of the key differences between CoP2 and last year's context of practice. The keyword for this briefing was 'Visual Research'. Richard wants us to focus more on developing practical work in synthesis with the theory side of the module. Part of this involves keeping a visual journal as a part of one of the study tasks, which will inform the bulk of the practical work we produce for this module. In terms of practical work, we are expected to produce some form of animated artefact to coincide with our essay, meaning anything from storyboards to character sheets. Last year I produced an animated response as a companion to my essay,  but spent a disproportionate amount of time in the pre-production phase. This year, in response to the mistakes I made last year, I will take steps to manage my time better and produce a final product more suited to the content of my essay, whether it is an animation or not.

In terms of the 3000-word essay, this year at Level 5 we are given more leeway to write about a subject that interests us. The module is more independently directed and as a result we are supposed to write our own question to answer in our essay and relate it to one of around half-a-dozen possible themes. As the subject of my essay last year was related to Modernism and Postmodernism, I want to take a more socially focused approach to my essay this year, exploring ideas of representation or more politically charged topics in order to ensure I'm not retreating territory I already explored back in Level 4.

Ultimately, Level 5 is a continuation of what we did at level 4, but takes it up a notch, with more of a focus on self-directed study and independent learning. As Level 5 consists of roughly 33% of my final grade for my degree it is important this year I ensure I am fulfilling all the learning outcomes and assessment objectives to a relatively high standard. Last year, especially when it came to my essay, I struggled to properly establish a link between theory and practice. This is something I am hoping to address and improve this year in my CoP by looking at my developmental work with a more critical eye at an earlier stage, not leaving it til the last minute.

Module Evaluation

On the whole, I have found this year's context of Practice module very interesting and have enjoyed almost every aspect of it. The lectures has served a meaningful purpose in informing my work and I have found them useful in providing valuable insight into the creative practice and I very much look forward to them returning in second year. Applying what I learn in the lectures to the medium of animation with my studio practice was also a valuable skill to have. As somebody who enjoyed English Language at A-Level, Context of Practice has provided me with an outlet for my creative writing and writing the essay was an interesting and enjoyable experience.

I do however feel there is room for improvement in second year. I myself am guilty of putting Context of Practice on the back burner while I got on with other projects for most of the year. Also, I didn't really keep to my essay plan, mapped out at the beginning of the year as a part of one of the study tasks and I feel had I done that I wouldn't have struggled with structuring my essay like I ended up doing. Next year, for CoP, I will make an effort to better pace myself and ensure that all the work I do as a part of the seminar programme and study tasks informs the final product of my essay.

There are a few things I would change about my essay. Upon reflection, the structure is all over the place and I dedicated a bit too much of the essay to providing the context for postmodernism in the broader culture. I would also have wished to study more case studies and more independent animations differing from the mostly mainstream affair I ended up analysing for my essay. While I did meet the minimum requirements for the bibliography I do feel I should have referenced more academic sources overall. 

As for my animated response, I have mixed feelings. While I do feel it effectively communicates the content of my essay to some degree I could have spent more time on it. The final product here I feel is rushed and as a result the animation quality is not to the standard I would hope for. This is in no small part due to poor time management on my part, as I far too long on the pre-production part of my animation and ended up changing my entire idea numerous times. Originally I had something more ambitious planned for my animated response and pre-production went as far as the storyboards, but in practice the animation didn't work and I was forced to scrap it. Some of the ideas however did carry over to my finished product, such as character designs and the overall themes of the piece. My animated  response also deviated from my storyboard more than I would have hoped, as I had to cut corners in the animation in order to get it finished on time.

Overall, I feel my work has proved successful with room to improvement going into second year. I am satisfied with the quality of the essay itself, but feel that the animated response could have had more time spent on it.  

Context of Practice- Visual Response

The basis of my Animated response to accompany my CoP essay is to depict disillusionment with the modern world, specifically modern ways of living and social conventions in an age of social media. The way in which I chose to approach this was deliberately more obtuse than usual, opting to utilise suggestive imagery and symbolism in order to tackle the themes of Modernity and disillusionment.

Storyboard for my Final CoP Animation

The animation consists of a series of camera pans between a woman and her neighbour in what is supposed to be a modern apartment block. The idea is that this woman longs for human interaction, a point illustrated and symbolised by the flowers on the windowsill. I deliberately chose pink Camellia flowers as they symbolise 'longing' and are reflective of the main character's internal feelings. Externalising the internal is a technique I am very interested in exploring in my animations and the colour palette is also designed to reflect the depressed psychology of the main character.

Subjectivity is another technique I employ in order to communicate my message. My intention with this animation was to show a character's perception of the modern world, which is not necessarily accurate to how it is in reality. When the camera pans to the other window, this is supposed to be symbolic of the character's perception of what is going on next door. When the character leaves the scene we are brought back to a more objective view of the scene, where the window next door also has flowers in the window. What I am trying to say with this is the modern world, as symbolised by the setting in the case of this animation, skewers our perception of the truth, a point discussed in my essay on Postmodernity and that in actuality while we may feel lonely and isolated in the modern world, many others feel the same.

My animation is Postmodern because it seeks to deconstruct perceptions of modern life and expectations, as well as in its multiplicity of styles, especially the colour palette. The soundtrack, taken from the Spike Jonze film Her which deals with similar themes in a Postmodern way, dictates the rhythms of the editing in a way which draws attention to the artificiality of the animation in a way that is self aware. While I do wish I had more time on my animation I am overall satisfied with how I get my point across and feel it effectively commmunicates some of the points of my essay.

Context of Practice Lecture: Semiotics

'The myths which suffuse our lives are insidious precisely because they appear so natural.'

                                                                                                                                                 -Barthes, R

Semiotics is the science of studying codes, signs and signifiers. Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure describes it as a philosophical way of viewing the world based around structuralism. Saussure believed that there were deep underlying unconscious structures of culture and that the same way we unravel meaning in language by understanding written and spoken material, we can also unravel meaning in cultural practices if we take culture as operating like a language.  Saussure identifies Signifiers as sounds and images, while the signified is the mental concept said signifiers evoke.

Signs are based around socially agreed conventions. For example, we associate suits as items with connotations of prestige, following the cultural codes of conformity, whereas a more rebellious punk fashion style denotes anti-conformity. A code is a system of symbols and signifiers that embody meaning. They can encompass anything from fashion styles to the language of cinema. There is no logical relationship between the signifier and the signified. Their relationship is arbitrary. It is whatever the culture decides it is. There is no innate link between the signifier and the signified, this link is constructed by the culture.

In his book 'Mythologies' published in 1957, Barthes attempts to unpick and unravel underlying cultural codes. Barthes says that a 'myth' is the deep level of a crude connotative meaning that people forget has been encoded into a signifier in the culture. Semiotics is the attempt to decode cultural meaning and debunk myths.

Context of Practice Lecture: Colour Theory

White light is made up of a spectrum of colours. Spectral colour, is colour exhibited by a single wavelength of light within a visible spectrum. Every wavelength of light is perceived as a spectral colour in a continuous spectrum. Colours of similar or sufficiently close wavelengths are often indistinguishable to the human eye. Our perception of any colour is based on the eye receiving light that has been reflected from a surface or an object.

Colour is contextual. As white light is refracted it has different effects on the receptors in our eyes. The Rods, receptors that convey black and grey determine the luminance and tone, while the cones, which allow the brain to see colour, determine the hue. These factors, when combined together are how we perceive spectral light.  There are three types of cones, Type 1 which allows you to see Red and Orange, Type 2 which allow us to see Green and Blue, and Type 3, which allows us to see Violet. When a single cone is stimulated, the brain perceives the corresponding colour, though light must be present in order to perceive colour.

When it comes to Systematic Colour there are three aspects of colour to consider. The Physical, Physiological and Psychological. Perception of colour is physiological, meaning we can never be entirely sure everyone is seeing the same colours.

The Principles of Colour:

• Systematic understanding of colour dates back to Josef Albers (1888-1976) and Johannes Itten (1888-1967).
• Colours can be categorised as Primary, Secondary and Tertiary. 
• By mixing complimentary colours, we create neutral tones/tertiary colours. (Grays, Browns etc…) This is why complimentary colours are aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
• Because perception of spectral light is a physiological response, the eye can be fooled into seeing this wide spectrum of colour through stimulation of three primary colours, Red, Blue and Green, not Yellow.
• Yellow is a combination of Red and Green. The eye cannot differentiate between spectral yellow and some combinations of red and green.
• Theoretically, Primary colours cannot be created by combining colours.

Colour Modes:

Additive Colour System: 

• RGB (Red, Green, Blue)
• Used for screens, RGB Primaries CRT Monitors.

Subtractive Colour System: 

• CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black)
• CMY Primaries, Film Stock, Print Media

The Primaries for one colour system are the secondaries for the other and vice-versa. 

Dimensions of Colour: 

• Colour has dimension, a range of values.
• Chromatic Value (Colour) = Hue + Tone + Saturation

Today's lecture on colour theory should prove useful, especially in regards to my own work, as I typically opt to work in neutral tones or black and white for my animations as to emphasise line work. As somebody interested in the visual language and communicating things through visuals, today's lecture on colour has proved useful and will hopefully inform work produced in the future. I do wish we had gone more into the semiotics of colour, however I imagine the subject will be touched upon in the lecture on Semiotics coming up. 

Context of Practice Lecture: Postmodernism

Before talking about Modernism, one must first define modernism in order to properly define what it is to come after the modern. Born out of the aspirational and optimistic reaction to WWI, with a view to harnessing technology to improve people's lives, however in reality the ideology ends up doctrinaire, with almost blind obedience to rules above all. While Modernism is associated with innovation, individualism and progress, Postmodernism is about challenging these principles of modernism and the perceived austerity and pressure to conformity that comes with it's adoption. Postmodernism is characterised by exhaustion, pluralism, pessimism and disillusionment with the idea of absolute knowledge.

The term was first coined by German writer Rudolph Pannwitz, however wasn't widely popularised until the countercultural movements of the 1960s, born out of the perceived failure of Modernism. Postmodernity is very much a response to modernity, but does not necessarily have to come directly after it. Postmodernity rose to prominence with the countercultural movements of the 1960s, born out of a disillusionment with modern life in the west, and in America in particular, the Vietnam war. Postmodernity started off as a critique of the modernist International style but soon grew into it's own ideology. The only rule is there is no rules, so to speak. The Postmodern celebrates what may otherwise be deemed kitsch, perceived 'low culture' by the modernist elite.

Andy Warhol is probably one of the most widely recognised postmodern artists for his work with The Factory. His 1962 piece 'Marilyn Monroe Diptych' Warhol sought to expose the meaninglessness of art with an anti-auratic piece, a poorly printed pattern of Marilyn Monroe. It was anti-iconic, exposing the flaws of Technology and thus by extension the modern world, embodying a Postmodernist message.

For my essay I have chosen to answer the question 'To what extent can contemporary animation be described as Postmodern'. I really feel that this lecture, while a good introduction to the concept was overly broad in it's relation to animation, as is the nature of the term, whose meaning is still disputed to this day. I did pick up on a number of names of theorists on the subject, whom I will research further for my essay, such as JF Lyotard, who talks about 'The Postmodern Condition' and our rejection of 'totalising belief systems'. 

Context of Practice Lecture: Designer as Social Critic/ Practice as Social Comment

'Most things are designed not for the needs of the people, but for the needs of manufacturers to sell to people.'
                                                                                                                             - Victor Papnek (1971)

Idealistic design can be paralysing and not ideal for change. Graphic design is tied to commercial disciplines due to industrialisation, but in the 21st century, some practitioners are advocating towards a more humanist view of design. Social comment and commercial practice are not necessarily polarising and can be one and the same, however if you choose to communicate an idea, you cannot choose to ignore it's consequences.

Adbusters (2000):

In 1964, at a time of countercultural movements such as the rise of youth culture, pop music and the 'Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament' Ken Garland wrote his 'First Things First' manifesto aimed at creators and communicators with a persuasive talent calling for socially engaged creative practice. In response to decades of rampant consumer capitalism, Adbusters, a left-leaning, anti-capitalist, anti-establishment journal for cultural activist movements reprieved Garland's essay for the 21st century.

In this reprieved manifesto, Adbusters reaches out to the visual communicators and designers of the new millennium, encouraging them to utilise their talents for social change and not commercial purposes, citing ethical dilemmas such as outsourcing manufacturing to areas of cheap labour in third world countries. The manifesto proposes a more democratic ethical design practice, that is more socially aware, geared for social change and not profit oriented. Adbuster's ideology is very left-leaning and fairly incendiary, citing the 'you're either part of the solution or part of the problem' mindset.

'Artists who create advertisement and products for commercial purposes, you are endorsing ethically questionable practices and the predatory, toxic capitalist system. Your skills have more important 
applications'.
                                                                                                                     - Adbusters Manifesto, 2000

One of the ways in which designers can utilise their medium for social change is through something Kalle Lasn from Adbusters calls 'Culture Jamming' or 'Meme Warfare'. Memetic information in the 21st century holds the keys to cultural dominance, with the advancement and proliferation of technology becoming a larger part of everyday life,  easily digestible, hyper-charged memetic units of cultural information wields more and more power.

'Potent memes can change minds, alter behaviour, catalyze collective mind-shifts, and transform cultures. Whoever has the memes has the power.'
                                                                                                                             - Kalle Lasn, Adbusters

Study Task 4: Triangulating and Harvard Referencing

1)
 The manifestos I have been asked to analyse, 'First things first' by Ken Garland (1964), the reprinted version by Adbusters (2000) and 'Fuck Committees' by Tibor Kalman (1998) all share the same message advocating a repositioning of priorities regarding the ethics of their work for people working in the creative industries, though to different extents. The original Ken Garland essay argues the basic point that a creator's skill set is better served elsewhere than to advertisers and corporate interests, advocating a 'reversal in priorities' in order to contribute more 'useful and lasting forms of communication', explicitly stating they do not advocate the 'abolition of high pressure consumer advertising.' Adbusters (2000) reprieve of this essay has no pretensions of being an anti-capitalist statement, explicitly attributing environmental, social and cultural crises to the capitalist system, calling it 'reductive and immeasurably harmful' to the public discourse. The manifesto goes so far as to state 'designers who devote their efforts primarily to advertising, marketing and brand development are supporting and implicitly endorsing a mental environment so saturated with commercial messages that it is changing the very way citizen consumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact', painting those who contribute to this system, no matter how well meaning as part of the problem. Adbusters' manifesto as a result is a much more radical view of the issue calling for extensive social change. Tibor Kalman's (1998) manifesto more indirectly supports Adbusters' thesis, painting a bleak picture of the culture, calling the culture of the late 20th century an extension of the corporate culture. Kalman (1998) questions the corporate world's influence on culture, stating 'culture used to be the opposite of commerce' and calling into question what billionaires such as Bill Gates have contributed to the culture when compared to Rockefeller and Ford.

2)

Animation Analysis: 

David Firth's 'Ready err not' music video for Flying Lotus is about as anti-corporate as music videos in the 21st Century can get. Due to the nature of how music videos are mostly shown and seen on the internet, David Firth uses this as an opportunity to explore imagery which would not pass on corporate network television in the heyday of MTV. Kalman, in his 'Fuck Committees' manifesto, talks of 'lunatic entrepreneurs', people who 'understand that culture and design are not about fatter wallets' and Firth certainly fits this description. The animated music video contains a plethora of uncompromisingly surrealist and gory imagery, a stark contrast to the usual for music videos of this kind. With it's images of disembowelments and a sea of disfigured infants, 'Ready err not' is a prime example of anti-corporate content creation for the sole purpose of contributing something to the culture, a position Kalman argues in favour of in his essay.

3)
Adbusters' (2000) reprint of Ken Garland's 'First Things First' manifesto deliver's a similarly welcome message as the original 1964 writing, however with more urgency following the decades of rampant  consumer capitalism and Thatcherism which has wrecked havoc in the western world. Most of the main argumentative points made in Garland's (1964) essay remain intact, but with more relevant, updated details and specifics which lend greater urgency to the piece and while the original essay states that the 'abolition of high pressure consumer advertising' is 'not feasible', Adbusters' updated version stands in opposition to the consumer capitalist ideology, which it argues is 'running uncontested', speaking to the more destructive side of the capitalist system. While both texts share the same basic message, Adbusters' version stands in stark opposition to the consumerist ideology, while Ken Garland's simply suggests 'a reversal of priorities'.

4)

Summary of Tibor Kalman's 'Fuck Committees' essay (1998)

Kalman argues in his essay that culture has been relegated to the role of corporate servitude. Corporations, in America at least, have become the sole arbiters of cultural ideas and taste, and the line between culture and commerce has been blurred. Kalman supports this theory by pointing out how TV scripts are vetted by producers, advertisers and lawyers, to determine whether they are 'dumb enough to amuse' and how film studios screen focus groups to determine whether the ending of a film will please target audiences, arguing how culture has become commodified to the point of being homogenised and neutered.

Study task 3: Planning and Structuring an Essay

Which Academic Sources will you reference?

Collins, Jim (1989) ‘Uncommon Cultures: Popular Culture and Postmodernism’, Routledge, Abingdon-on-Thames 

Connor, Steven. (1997) ‘Postmodernist Culture: An Introduction to Theories of the Contemporary: Second Edition’, Oxford, Blackwell Publishers Inc

Jameson, Fredric (1991) ‘Postmodernism or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism’ , Durham, NC, Duke University Press

Kaplan, E. Ann. (1987) ‘Rocking Around The Clock: Music Television, Postmodernism and Consumer Culture’ London and New York, Methuen

Wyver, John. (1986) ‘Television and Postmodernism’. London, Institute for Contemporary Arts: London p.52-4

What Animation will you analyse?

The Simpsons: Popularised postmodernity on mainstream animated television.

South Park: Embodies a postmodern attitude towards intertextuality.

Adult Swim: (Space Ghost: Coast to Coast/ Sealab 2021): Characterised by multiplicity of styles/ repurposing of animation cells.

Waltz with Bashir: Example of dissent in a Postmodern world.

Essay Map:

The basic thesis of my essay is that aesthetically, contemporary animation bears many of the trappings of works produced in the postmodern era and are thus inherently postmodern. In order to explain this in my essay first I will have to explain the history of Postmodernity in relation to arts and entertainment, pinpointing the moment in which it penetrated the mainstream of the popular culture, influencing works that came after this. 

One of the key animations in explaining all of this is The Simpsons, a quintessential case study in the postmodern era, as it paved the way and influenced many animations in it's wake that came to define the era. From here I will discuss the television network Adult Swim where I will be comparing it to MTV in the 1980s, drawing upon E Ann Kaplan's theories of 'the postmodern mode of TV'.

The conclusion I am hoping to reach is that Postmodernity has been absorbed by the mainstream as an aesthetic, commodified and homogenised to the point it doesn't have the transgressive potential it used to have in its inception, a point from Fredric Jameson's essay.

Context of Practice Lecture: Modernity and Modernism

John Ruskin (1819-1900) was one of the first writers to use the term 'Modern' in a  more positive light than had been used up until that point. Up until that point, the term was synonymous with deviation from tradition, and often used as a pejorative. Ruskin had a different view. He saw the contemporary artists of the time, such as William Holman Hunt, as a fresh alternative to more classical forms of art, and had a place alongside of it in terms of value and merit. This kicked off a debate as to whether the modern world could ever live up to classical culture, which to many in the upper echelon of society was seen as the peak of civilisation.

The idea of the 'modern being better than what came before took root in the cultural consciousness with an explosion of new technologies at the turn of the 20th century. Urbanisation and mass industrialization in the western world led to a sort of perceived compression of the world, with the expansion of the railways travel became more widely available to the masses, proliferation of communication technologies the world becomes more negotiable and with the aid of new technologies, people's perceptions of time changed form the rising and setting of the sun to the ticking of the factory clock.  Time becomes standardised and in the modern world people are the dominant element on the planet. This coupled with the leaps in philosophy and scientific thinking of the time has led to historians catergorising this period in history as an enlightenment, marking the transition from a society at the behest of god to a secular world run by people and technology.

The city was where people lived out their newfound modernist fantasies, with mass migration from rural areas to the inner cities. In developed nation, gothic architecture is dwarfed by mechanical monuments, symbols of the triumph of the enlightenment. Out of this the term 'modern' carried almost universally positive connotations. Artists began to create art depicting these new modern cities, famously Caillebotte, with 'Paris on a rainy day' (1877) which showcased the positive impact of modern living. City architects, such as Hausman ripped out the narrow streets and run down housing in favour of larger boulevards, partially to make the cities easier to police, one of the ways in which modernists employed social control.

Not everyone was convinced however of the universal positivity of modernism. Max Nordan in his book 'Degeneration' published in 1892 was decidedly anti-modernist...

'The end of the 20th Century will probably see a generation to whom it will not be injurious to read a dozen square yards of newspaper daily'.
                                                                                                                     -Max Nordan, Degeneration

Modernism had a profound effect on classical art forms. Photography overtook Painting as the primary way of depicting the world. In response,  some traditional painters opted to become more abstracted and focused on the material of the paint, while others attempt to emulate photography, with more radical compositions, such as for example Caillebotte's 'The Boulevard viewed from above' (1880). New urban spaces gave artists new views of the world both figuratively and literally, and new technologies gave them new ways to perceive and interpret.

Modernist design philosophy can be described as Anti-Historicism ('Ornament is Crime', Adolf Loos, 1908), while true to materials, focusing more on geometric forms appropriate for the materials, with function taking precedence over form. While western centric, most modernist design has a focus on Internationalism, or rather a neutral, utopian, but also western view of the world. Swiss Type and Modernist Architecture influenced design worldwide, reflective of the rise of globalism and global capitalism following the end of WWII.

Miles Van Der Rohe's Seagram Building in New York, built in 1958, served as a template for hundreds of similar monuments to modernism throughout the world.

As my essay for Context of Practice is on the subject of Postmodernism in relation to Animation, an understanding of Modernism as a utopian concept is required to make any substantial points. In that sense, today's lecture was useful in informing the content of my essay. Modernist design ideas, I feel have their merit, particularly in the realm of Typography and Graphic Design.