Lecture Notes 5: Cities and Film

This lecture will look into the city in terms of Modernism and Postmodernism, the possibility of an urban sociology, the city as public and private space, and the relation of the individual to the crowd in the city.

Industrialisation

• The first known urban sociologist is Georg Simmel (1958-1918) who wrote "Metropolis" and "Mental Life" in 1903
• For the Dresden Exhibition , Simmel was asked to lecture on the role of intellectual life in the city but instead reverses the idea and writes about the effect of the city on the individual
• "the resistance of the individual to being levelled, swallowed up in the social-technological mechanism." ~ Georg Simmel, "The Metropolis and Mental Life", 1903
• It was believe that architect Louis Sullivan (1856-1924) coined the term modernism, creator of the modern skyscraper, an influential architect and critic of the Chicago school. he was a mentor to Frank Lloyd
• "form ever follows function" ~ Louis Sullivan
• The Guaranty Building was built in 1894 by Adler and him in Buffalo NY

•  The Guaranty Building was divided into 4 zones, different styles of blocks distinguish the three visible zones of the building from one another: 

1. The basement being the mechanical and utility area with no decorative elements since it was below ground
2. The next zone was the ground floor zone, namely the public area for shops, entrances and lobbies 
3. The third zone was the office floors done in a practical (Expectedly mundane) design with identical office cells clustered together around the central elevator shafts
4. And the final zone was the terminating zone, consisting of elevator equipment, utilities and a few offices

Carson Pirie Scott store (1904)

• Skyscrapers represent the upwardly mobile city of business opportunity
• Fire cleared buildings in Chicago in 1871 and made way for Louis Sullivan new aspirational buildings

• "Manhatta" (1921) was a short documentary film by Paul Strand and Charles Scheeler while revels in the has rising from city smoke stacks, pieces of texts from Whalt Whitman's poetry were used for part of the title cards, the film being an obvious reference to the city of Manhattan (Hehe…). The objective was to explore the relationship between photography and film, with camera movements being kept a minimum, and the relationship of people with buildings, transport, etc. It was an attempt to show the filmmakers' love for the city of New York.
• Charles Scheeler was an advertising photographer for Ford Moto Company, his works reflecting industrialism and modernism

A production line created for maximum productivity with minimum effort
through repetitive mechanical action

• The term Fordism was coined by Antonio Gramsci in his essay "Americanism and Fordism", it is a notion of a modern economic and social system based on an industrialised and standardised form of mass production
• This subject has been brought up numerous times in classic cartoons, such as Looney Tunes (Acme anyone?), I couldn't find a particular example (I mean there definitely a lot of them around it's just a lot harder to find them than I thought) so have the music that normally goes with those scenes of Fordism and Taylorism instead:

• "the eponymous manufacturing system designed to spew out standardised, low cost goods and afford its workers decent enough wages to buy them" ~ De Grazia: 2005:4

• Charlie Chaplin parodied this in "Modern Times" (1936), portraying an industrial worker employed on an assembly line, who is driven mad after being subjected to several awful mishaps involving machinery, and causes chaos in the factory he works, he gets accused of being a communist, goes to jail, meets a girl, works as a waited, before ending up becoming a performer
• Charlie was investigated into later on because of this film, being placed under suspicion for actually being a communist
• "In handicrafts and manufacture, the workman makes use of a tool, in the factory, the machine makes use of him" ~ Marx cited in "Adamson" 2010, Pg75
• During the stock market crash of 1929, factories closed and unemployment rates went up dramatically, leading to the Great Depression

• "The Man with a Movie Camera" (1929) by Dziga Vertov, was a Russian silent documentary film with no story and no actors, a revolutionary film at the time for using various cinematic techniques that Vertov himself invented, deployed and developed (Such as double exposure, fast and slow motion, freeze frames, jump cuts, split screens, extreme close ups, tracking shots, etc.). Vertov's film strove to awaken the Soviet citizen through truth and ultimately bring about understanding and action. It celebrates industrialisation, mechanisation, transport and communication. It explores locations where bodies come together in masses, much like Manhatta and the celebration of machinery.

Noir

• Weegee (Arthur Fellig) worked in the Lower East Side of New York City as a press photographer during the 30s and 40s, developing his signature style of stark black and white shots of unflinchingly realistic scenes of urban life, crime, injury and death by following the city's emergency services and documenting their activity
• The nickname Weegee is phonetic rendering of Ouija (Spirit board), because of his frequent, seemingly prescient arrivals at scenes only minutes after crimes, fires or other emergencies were repotted to authorities

• "The Naked City" (1984) is a black and white film noir based on a story by Malvin Wald, depicting a police investigation that follows the murder of a young model. A veteran cop is placed in charge of the case and he sets about, with the help of other beat cops and detectives to find the girl's killer. The movie is shot partially in a documentary style
• The film was selected for preservation in the USNFR by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historical, or aesthetically significant"
• "There are eight million stories in the Naked City. This has been one of them." ~ Tag line in the "Naked City"

• Team Bondi's "L.A Noire" (2011) is the first video game to be shown at the Tribecca Film, the game incorporates "MotionScan" where actors are recorded by 32 surrounding cameras to capture facial expressions from every angle
• This technology is central to the game's interrogation mechanics as players must ust the suspects' reaction to questioning to judge whether they are lying or not

• As the title suggests, the game draws heavily from both plot and aesthetic elements of film noir (There are even several cases named after well known noir films, such as "The Naked City"), the game uses a distinctive colouring style in homage to the visual style of film noir, including an option to play the game in black and white (If your eyesight is good enough that is). The post war setting is the backdrop for plot elements that reference the detective films of the 40s (Especially from "L.A Confidential"), such as corruption and drugs, with a jazz soundtrack
• More information can be found in this write up I did in the past

Flaneur

• The term flaneur comes from the French masculine noun flaneur - which as the basic meanings of "stroller", "lounger", "saunterer", "loafer" - which itself comes from the French verb flamer, which means "to stroll"
• Charles Baudelaire propose a version of the flaneur that of "a person who walks the city in order to experience it"
• Art should capture this
• Simultaneously apart from and a part for the crowd

• The flaneur version of a photographer is an armed version of the solitary walker reconnoitring, stalking, cruising the urban inferno, the voyeuristic stroller who discovers the city as a landscape of voluptuous extremes. Adept of the joys of watching, connoisseur of empathy, the flaneur finds the world 'picturesque'
• The female version is the invisible Flaneuse, with the flaneur almost always being male
• Janet Wolff refers to the idea that it wasn't common at the time for women to be outside on the streets at the time (1985)
• Susan Buck-Morss suggests that the only figure a woman on the street can be is either a prostitute or a bag lady
• "The Detective" (1980), a woman named Calle gets her mother to employ a detective to follow her, proceeding to lead the unknowing detective around parts of Paris that were particularly important to her, thereby reversing the expected position of the observed subject
• Such projects, with their suggestions of intimacy, also questioned the role of the spectator, with viewers often feeling a sense of unease as they became unwitting collaborators in these violations of privacy
• The deliberately constructed and artificial nature of the documentary 'evidence' used in Calle's work questioned the nature of all truths
• Calle wanted to proved photographic evidence of her existence, his photos and notes on her are later on displayed next to her photos and notes of him
• Documentation of 9/11 where images from many different people were taken of the incident, these images were then all put together and remained anonymous, a democracy of photographs

• Lorca di Corcia "Heads" (2001), is able to capture these dramatic, thoughtful scenes of his subjects, with accidental poses, unintended movements and insignificant expressions, almost looks staged even
• In 2006, a NY trial court issued a ruling in a case involving one of his photographs, a photo subject of his argued that his privacy and religious rights had been violated by both the taking and publishing of the photograph of him. The judge dismissed this lawsuit, finding the photograph taken on street is art- not commerce- and therefore protected by the First Amendment
• The judge ruled that NY courts have "recognised that art can be sold, at least in limited editions, and still retain its artistic character"
• "First Amendment of art is not limited to only starving artists. A profit motive in itself does not necessarily compel a conclusion that art has been used for trade purposes"

Lecture Notes 4: Identity

• Identities can be fluid and constructed, our biological make up makes us who we are, an inner essence that makes us who we are
• Post modern theorists however disagree with that and are anti essentialist

• Physiognomy is the assessment of a person's character or personality from his or her outer appearance, especially the face. No clear evidence indicates that physiognomy actually works, though recent studies have suggested that facial appearance do contain a 'kernel (A KERNEL) of truth' about one's personality

• Phrenology primarily focused on the measurements of the human skull, based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localised, specific functions or modules
• Both studies are most definitely considered obsolete in this day, seeing that all they truly do is legitimising racism, with no real logic behind them at all
• Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909), the founder of Positivist Criminology created the notion that Criminal tendencies are inherited
• Physiognomy legitimised racism, a number of stereotypes were based from it, creating an expected superiority among the white europeans and seemingly putting them above the irish and africans

• Heironymous Bosch's "Christ Carrying the Cross" (1450-1516) portrays a number of stereotypes portrayed with incredibly grotesque faces as they surround Jesus, most notable biblical features in this painting have either their eyes closed in a solemn expression, or in Simon of Cyrene's case, face upside upturned, this would be a example anti-semitism as it quite clear that the grotesque faced figures in this painting are meant to represent the Jews, who had been the ones to send Jesus to his execution

• Refer to Douglas Kellner's "Media Cultural Studies, Identity and Politics between the Modern and the Postmodern" (1992), if focuses on the pre modern identity (Stable and defined by long standing roles), modern identity (Offer a wide range of social roles, possibility to start choosing you identity, rather than simply bring born in it) and the post-modern identity (Acceptance of fragmented self, identity is constructed from there)
• In Pre-Modern Identity, institutions determined identity (Eg, Marriage, the Church, Monarchy, Government, the State, etc.)
• Secure Pre-modern identities are farm workers, the soldier, the factory worker, the housewife, etc. holding apparent important roles in society
• The key writers of Modern identity in the 19th and 20th centuries are Charles Baudelaire, Thorstein Veblen, Georg Simmel
• Baudelaire introduces the concept of the 'flaneur' (Its closest translation being the gentleman-stroller)
• Veblen - 'Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure', the consumption that is obvious to those around you (Such as throwing a massive party? A wasteful kind of consumption)
• Simmel suggests that from what you wear, it shows your way of life, the middle class however begin emulating the upper classes with cheaper versions of the fashion they wore, the upper class took some offence to this and attempted to break away to make themselves look different from the middle class once more (That's seems kinda familiar…)

• "The feeling of isolation is rarely decisive and intense when one actually finds oneself physically alone, as when one is a stranger without relations, among many physically close persons, at a party, on the train, or in the traffic of a large city" ~ Georg Simmel on Edvard Munch's "Evening on Karl Johan", 1892
• An increasing sense of solitude and isolation when you have no interaction with the large groups of people around you

• Simmel suggests that because of the speed and mutability of modernity, individuals withdraw into themselves to find peace. He describes this as 'the separation of the subject from the objective life'.
• An identity is constructed out of the discourses culturally available to us
• "A discourse is a set of recurring statements that define a particular cultural 'object' and provide concepts and terms through which such an object can be studied and discussed" ~ Michel Foucault, 2001
• The "Worktown" project might seem like an important form of documentation, however the project happened to be documented by a group of upper class folks, which come into question whether all of their content are really genuine documentation, or simply staged to the way they want it to
• '"Society"… reminds one of a particularly shrewd, cunning and pokerfaced player in the game of life, cheating if given a chance, flouting rules whence possible' ~ Bauman (2004), Identity, Page 52

• "Much of the press coverage centred around accusations of misogyny because of the imager of semi-naked, staggering and brutalised women, in conduction with the word "rape" in the title. But McQueen claimed that the rape was of Scotland, not the individual models, as the theme of the show was the Jacobite rebellion." ~ Evans. C, "Desire and Dread: Alexander McQueen and the Contemporary Femm Fatale", 2001
• Las Vegas is a mish mash of various identities, questionable authenticity, as 70% of americans don't have passports, they simply make do with taking a trip there

• "I didn't like Europe as much as I liked Disney World. At Disney World all the countries are much closer together, and they just show you the best of each country. Europe is more boring. People talk strange languages and things are dirty. Sometimes you don't see anything interesting in Europe for day, but at DW something different happens all the time, and people are happy. It's much more fun. It's well designed!" ~ A college graduate's incredibly compelling opinion from her trip to Europe, 1995
• Chris Ofili was one of the first successful black artists in the 90s, by presenting the stereotyping of black people, he plays on racial stereotypes normally accepted by the white society

• "Captain Shit and the Legend of the Black Stars" (1994) was conceived from a negative view he had since he was a child, when he was questioning the lack of black superheros in the comic books when he was growing up… it was the believe that a white character designer might come up with something like this

• "Holy Virgin Mary" (1996) is only one of the many exaggeratedly stereotypical pieces black artist Chris Ofili has done, by doing so he is able to get the attention of the audience. As expected, the "Holy Virgin Mary" and has caused an uproar during its showcase, especially since the Virgin Mary is portrayed as black (How dare he portrayed her as black!)

• Alexander McQueen has always been considered a controversial figure in the fashion industry, in "It's a Jungle Out There" fashion show in 1997, he was called out for being racist, due to the lack of representation of black people in the fashion industry at the time, in response, he had been aiming to bring forth that subject to his audience, be it negative or positive
• Emily Bates created a dress using her own hair, people judged her by her hair colour throughout her life due to the perception origination from Mary Magdalene
• Mary Magdalene is a religious figure in christianity, and was said to be a repentant prostitute, she was normally identified by her red hair and clothing
• "Masquerade and the mask of femininity" by Cindy Sherman (1977-1980), by being the model in all of her works, she demonstrates the ability to construct a notion of self, which may not entirely be accurate, her work mainly picking up on stereotypical female roles in films
• It brings into question how different the context of an artwork is if the artist happens to be male or female, responses from the audience will most definitely vary as well
• Much like how a man will be praised as a stud for sleeping with a number of women, a woman will instead be treated negatively and seen as a slut if she were to share with the world that she herself had slept with more than a handful of partners
• In Post modern theory, identity is constructed through our social experience
• Erving Goffman saw life as 'theatre', made up of encounters and performance, the self is a series of facades
• '"idenity' is revealed to us only as com thing to be invented rather than discovered; as a target of an effort, 'an objective'" ~ Zygmunt Bauman
• "We use art, architecture, literature, and the rest, and advertising as well, to shield ourselves, in advance of experience, from the stark and plain reality in which we are fated to live’." ~ Theodore Levitt
• Rene Descartes (1596-1650), an enlightenment philosopher simply defines his place in the world by thinking for himself
• "The typical cultural spectator of postmodernity is viewed as a largely home centred and increasingly solitary player who via various forms of 'telemediation' (Stereos, game consoles, videos and televisions), revels in a domesticated (Eg, private and tamed) 'world at a distance" ~ Darley (2000), Visual Digital Culture
• "If I put up a flattering picture of myself with a list of my favourite things, I can contrast an artificial representation of who I am in order to get sex or approval" ~ Tom Hodgkinson, 2008
• Some people simply want to be praised and admired… but at what cost? Especially when they begin to catch onto you and your lies? (Much like the female lead in "Castaways on the Moon")
• "Fun they may be, these virtual communities, but they create only an illusion of intimacy and a pretence of community" ~ Charles Handy, 2001, "The Elephant and the Flea"

No.

• Just be true to yourself… if you can (Obviously it's easier said than done)

Seminar 3.2: Psychoanalysis

There are several misconceptions about Psychoanalysis, one being that it is a mixture of psychology (Behaviour) and psychiatry (Mental illness), and although it is linked to the two, psychoanalysis is also 'a way of thinking' that can be applied to all aspects of society, including art and design. And well, another misconception is that it focuses on nothing but sex, whilst it does position of the role of sexuality, it is also about how we treat and examine other objects.

Sigmund Freud's definitions of Psychoanalysis are:

1. A discipline founded on a procedure for the investigation of mental processes that are otherwise inaccessible because they are unconscious
2. A therapeutic method for the treatment of neurotic disorders
3. A body of psychological data evolving into a new scientific discipline (This one comprises Freud's work on culture, which is largely based on the view that culture is a product or the diversion of sublimation (The conversion f sexual drives and energies into creative and intellectual activity) of sexual energy)

Consciousness has became identical with the meaning 'our awareness of "self"', it is how we perceive the world and how it can be visualised and defined in many different ways. It is Psychoanalysis that seeks to analyse and structure out 'consciousness' through careful dissection of the 'unconscious' mind. The 'unconscious' is what lies beneath the conscious mind, although we often done have access to it. This can perhaps be better understood by the iceberg metaphor:

Our consciousness is normally above ground while our subconscious
is below (And noticeably much bigger).

And now let's use something more specific as an example to better
understand its structure.

Freud's structural breakdown of the mind is ID (Governed by the pleasure principle), Ego (By the reality principle) and Superego (The conscious and ego-ideal).

The consciousness if entirely made up of the ego, namely that small side that we show to the world. Our superego is what lies below that surface, that being our 'conscience', while the ID is our desires and drives (Which are also hidden below the surface and makes up the most of that iceberg). Even by briefly glancing the diagram above, you could say that humans hence find themselves repressing a lot of things…

"Society develops by repressing its desires (Manifested as the ego)" ~ "Civilisation and its discontents', Sigmund Freud, 1930

So anyway… why are we looking into Psychoanalysis? As mentioned earlier, it can be applied to all aspects of society, and in this case, it can be applied here. Psychoanalysis is interested in art, design and the media precisely because it expresses ideas about 'drives' and 'repressors', it interprets the motivations and drives together with the unconscious acts of making and meaning, and it attempts to look at how desires and their repressions are interpreted.

The Surrealists (Eg, Breton, Dali, etc.) emerged themselves in psychoanalysis as a way of uncovering their unconscious and repressed desires. Dali's really specifically titled "Dream Caused by the flight of a bee around a Pomegranate a second before Awakening" (1944) was intended (As quote by Dali in 1962) "to express for the first time in images, Freud's discovery of the typical dream with a lengthy narrative, the consequence of the instantaneousness of a chance event which causes the sleeper to wake up. Thus, as a bar might fall on the neck of a sleeping person, causing them to wake up and for a long dream to end with the guillotine blade falling on them, the noise of the bee here provokes the sensation of the sting which will awake Gala."

Dali and Bunuel, Un Chien Andalou, 1929

We try to believe that there is a meaning to everything in life, no matter how confusing or just plain pointless something might seem. While it has been stated by many that the purpose of this short film in the end was to simply provoke thought from other meaningless and random scenes (Much like David Lynch's "Eraserhead"), each individual couldn't possibly help but initially see possible meanings and symbolism in this film, that will most definitely differ from one person to another. One could conclude that it was all a dream, or a metaphor for sexual depravity, or even death (Though the rather humorous nature of the film might hint at something else altogether…). 

Object-relations is the psychoanalytic concern with how we view and use objects. It also argues that 'transitional objects' are precursors to our adult appreciation of art. Because we can 'invest' emotional energy into an inanimate object, we can also appreciate art and literature, this 'investment' is related to the fetish. For example, Peanut's Linus uses his blanket as a 'transitional object', the object representing his transition from his mother to the outside world. It is argued by Winnicott (1951) that by being able to invest such feelings as maternity and safety in a blanket, we can also invest feelings in other objects, which I believe many of us have actually done (We could act as parental figures to our own electronic gadgets, though I haven't been very responsible when taking care of Trevor… as compared to EDI, god I'm so sorry, Trevor...).

Art and design distracts as well as reassures us from real loss, such as the loss of our mother to our father (Oedipus complex), we invest emotion and sexual energy into them because they are 'safe' objects - unlikely to hurt or leave us.

The abject is the part of our body that repulses us, it is the object that transgresses taste, while it is natural, it still repulses us, something society itself cannot accept. Such example are bodily fluids like urine, faeces, blood, pus, semen, mucus and vomit, all that we regard as dirty and are taught to feel distaste for (Well… they do have germs that will make us ill after all… it's not just that).

In conclusion, Freud's model of the mind is the process of repression forms individual subjects and society. It highlights the importance of the external world, childhood influences and the limits of acceptability in society. The fetish and object relations invests in emotional and psychical energy into inanimate objects, often 'reassuring' us - related to fears regarding castration and estrangement (Okay…). Psychoanalysis is the reading of one's self through analysis of one's actions, it is an attempt to understand how we create the world around us through our neuroses and our drives.

Seminar 3.1: Subculture

So… how exactly can this topic be applied to animation?

In the end (Even to this day), most people (Or at least those that are not really fans) probably see animation as a form of media that parodies a topic rather than presenting it in a more accurate manner. It is not the question of whether this topic can be applied to animation (Because honestly, animations can do anything live action can, especially these days when freedom of speech is definitely growing), but how it is presented and how the audience would respond to it.

Examples such as "South Park" and "The Simpsons" (Or any sitcom, young adult, adult animation series for that matter) do seem to poke fun at the best known subcultures whenever they can, and simply seem to show them as nothing more than a joke. One subculture that especially comes to mind are the Goths, in nearly every show I have seen (Even if they are not of the gothic genre), both animated and live (Eg, "Hercules: The Animated Series", "Danny Phantom", "Teen Titans", "Total Drama Island", "Adventure Time", etc.), there is at least going to be the cliched "goth chick" character present, regardless of how big a role she plays.

But we could consider that by presenting a subculture in a exaggeratedly stereotypical manner, it gains the attention of those that are unfamiliar to the subject, rather than attempting to push it right into their faces, if they are interested enough, like so many other topics, they can actually properly look into it after… instead of being so negatively influenced and so many might simply think (This might not be the best and most related example, but Don Bluth's "Anastasia" was still able to get most of the audience interested enough to actually look into the true history behind it all, and the same can be applied to this topic). 

There are however also times when these representations can also effectively evoke a deeper message than one might believe, "South Park" for example, despite it's shock humour most of the times, has actually been successful in addressing such topics in their own twisted and hilarious manner.

But as always, when it comes down to it, it really depends on the audience themselves and how they decide to view it, it definitely helps however when a subculture is not only portrayed in a negative light, but as a full fleshed out character (AKA, human beings), or simply how a considerably normal character learns from it all when he or she briefly decides to explore into the subculture itself (Eg, "The Simpsons", "Archie Comics", "Phineas and Ferb", "As Told by Ginger", etc.).

Lecture Notes 3: Subculture and Style

• In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong.
• Dogtown and Z boys (2001) is a documentary film directed by Stacy Peralta, the film tells the story of a group of California surfer/skateboarders and their influence on the history of skateboarding culture.
• In the 1970s, there had been a change in skate culture when it turned from a nerdy kids pastime to a subcultural sport.
• Borden argues that the performance of street skating gives the body something to do other than passively stare at advertising surfaces; the movement and action creates an interest in other aspects of the city and in the skaters own physical presence - of being in the city, rather than being walked through it by the architecture
• Urban street skating is more political than 1970s skateboarding's use of found terrains: street skating generates new uses that at once work within (in time and space) and negate the original ones ~ Ian Borden, "Performing the City"
• In the quote above, Ian refers to an altered sense of time experienced in skating as the physical experience is cut up into moves and runs. Rather than the city carrying the body along at it's own pace which is dictated by commerce.
• "Skateboarders do not so much temporarily escape from the routinised world of school, family and social conventions as replace it with a whole new way of life." ~ Borden:2001
• Parkour is a method of movement focused on moving around obstacles with speed and efficiency. Parkour practitioners are known as tracers. They train to be able to identify and utilise alternate or the more efficient paths through the city. Free running is a form of urban acrobatics in which participants, use the city and rural landscape to perform movements through its structures. It places more emphasis on freedom of movement and creativity than efficiency as compared to parkour.
• Yamakasi (2001) focuses on a group of traceus who battle against injustice in the Paris Ghetto. They use parkour to steal from the rich in order to pay off medical bills for a kid who injured himself while attempting to copy their techniques. The group denies the differences between parkour, 'art du deplacement and free running, and instead consider them all to be the same thing, the only thing that differs them from one another is the individual's way of moving.
• McDonald suggest that women come to the subculture laden with the baggage of gender in that her looks and her sexuality will be commented on critically in a way that male writers do not experience. This seems to be reflected, even exaggerated in Miss Vans' poupees.
• Girl subcultures may have become more invisible because the very term 'subculture' has acquired such strong masculine overtones (1977)
• In postmodern subcultures overly feminine subcultural movements like the Lolita fashion are often assumed to be sexually suspect
• Motorbike girl suggests sexual deviance which is a fantasy not reflective of most conventional real life femininity at the time
• In rocker and motorbike culture, girls usual rode pillion. In this subculture, women were simply either the girlfriend or the mother figure.
• Mod culture springs from working class teenage consumerism in the 1960s in the UK. Teenage girls worked in the cities in service industries for example, or in clothing shops where they are encouraged to model the boutique clothing. This meant that they had money for socialising and mod rallies.
• Subculture arises through universities of the late 60s and early 70s. Middle class girls therefore has the space to explore subculture.  Space for leisure without work encourages 'personal expression'.
• Feminist authors point out that traditional sex roles prevailed in the hippy subculture.
• Hippies are distinguished into two groups, the peace loving flower child, and the drug addict weed smoker, Janis Joplin is used as a figure for the latter, representing a warning against overindulgence in subculture.
• It is suggested that the Riot Grrl movement is one of the few genuine feminine/ feminist subcultures in that it is lead, formed and used by women. The Riot grrrl band often addresses issues such as rape, domestic abuse, sexuality, racism and female empowerment.
• The Spice Girls presents a set of visual 'types' that are easily consumable by the target audience.
• There is no actual empowerment for young women as there is nothing but the reduction of young women to cartoon representations.
• Subcultural signs like dress styles and music are turned into mass produced objects.
• Eg, clothing which is ripped as an archaic anti-fashion statement becomes mass produced with rips as part of the design
• Vivienne Westwood and McLaren capitalise on this through the shop SEX which sells punk clothing - the polar opposite of the original DIY aesthetic of punk.
• Teddy boy culture was an escape from the claustrophobia of the family, into the street. While many girls might adopt the appropriate way of dressing, they would be much less likely to spend the same amount of time hanging about on the streets. Girls had to be careful not to 'get into trouble'. ~ Mc Robbie, Garber
• This is England (2006) by Shane Meadows explores the difference between the skinhead style and the politics of the National Front skins as they infiltrate the working class estate in the UK in the 1980s.
• Refer to Subculture: The Meaning of Style by Hebdige, D (1979), THE book of subcultural theory 

• "Youth cultural styles begin by issuing symbolic challenges but they must end by establishing new conventional; by creating new commodities, new industries, or rejuvenating old ones"
• By being a part of a subculture, it is rethinking what it is to be an individual
• The reason subcultures are formed is because they are trying to suggest that they have a better way of living as compared to the rest of society
• Subcultures are symbolic challenges to the norm, an attempt to oppose mainstream society, though eventually these groups get sucked back into the system
• Eg, skateboarding is a form of micro rebellion, society then makes use of this subculture and sells it to the rest of society, making it a part of the mass market, making the subculture invalid as it leeches of the idea and its true values (Another valid example would be the punk rock subculture)
• That symbolic challenge, edginess, rebellion is then neutralised, being practically made a joke for what it really is
• Refer to Fred Perry presents Subculture by Dir. Don Letts (The unofficial fifth member of the Clash)
• Through the subculture of punk, it would seem races were able to unite for a moment to fight against the wrongs of society, if only for a brief moment
• Are there no more subcultures now? The most prevalent one in this day and age is probably the hipster...
• Though it's just a superficial thing, as it doesn't necessarily have its values or outstanding features (In terms of looks and mindset), unlike past subcultures
• Most youth cultures are about rejecting other things around them
• The Teds are closely associated to the rockers, known for their leather jackets, bikes and need to fight, except more "English-ed"
• The media tends to play a mixed role when it comes to focusing on these up and coming subcultures
• Each one of these youth cultures have a sensational element that attracts the media to them
• In the end however these sub cultures eventually end as they ones that start are are just a bunch of elitist, just wanting to have things different
• Rockers and punk rockers didn't necessarily need to play instruments in akin to the genre that would normally be associated, they just needed to be dressed that way
• Mods are probably one of the only subcultures that still look good to this day
• Elements of relation to the Mods are scooters, that gives them the feeling of independence from their parents, mod fashion seems to be defined by men
• While women were more androgynous in appearance, the men were more campy in a way.
• Mods initially had an upscale London influence, overtime it became distinctly 'corrupted', separating into two groups, hippies and skinheads
• Punkrock was meant to be an anti style of sorts, when it became its own successful style altogether
• Mods were better known for their iconography, music does seem to vary despite there beginnings with jazz
• The Fred Perry is the pinnacle of design for its simplicity
• Youth cultures should be anti-mainstream
• No racism was actually experienced in the original skinhead subculture, hence the unification of two different races that were otherwise always fiercely kept apart at the time
• Hippies tend to get attack by skinheads
• The skinhead culture died out in the 1970s, when it returned however, it was a corrupted, vile parody of what the style originally was, these new 'skinheads' (AKA, new nazis) choosing it merely for its intimidating style in getting what they want
• The Soulboys subculture was practically focused on dancing, it was another subculture that created a unification between the blacks and whites
• Acceptance from other backgrounds and races
• The Soulboys was overlooked by the media
• It didn't have figureheads unlike the other subcultures, in the end it was all down to the kids
• The Soulboys is perhaps one of the healthiest subcultures around, as they were able to avoid the involvement of the media and were able to carry on with their own devices
• Punk rock became a pantomime, along with many other subcultures
• Brit pop was possibly the last defining sub culture (Though was it truly one?) albeit very backward looking with all its influences from mod, punk rock, etc. (Oasis)
• The internet prevents the creation of any new subcultures (Why would there be a need to find people that are just like you because you are able to find people who hold the same interests as you on there?)
• In a global society with a rapid proliferation of images, fashions and lifestyles, it is unsurprisingly becoming increasingly difficult to pinpoint what 'subculture' actually means.

Seminar 2: The Gaze

Just placing these little extracts here so that I can allow the definition of the gaze to sink in better, you can skip on ahead to what we actually discussed about in the seminar today.

Intro

In the psychoanalytical theory of Jacques Lacan, the gaze is the anxious state that comes with the awareness that one can be viewed. The psychological effect is that the subject loses a degree of autonomy (Freedom, independence, etc) upon realising that he or she is a visible subject. This concept is bound with his theory of the mirror stage, in which a child encountering a mirror realises that he or she has an external appearance.

Lacan suggests that this gaze effect can similarly be produced by any conceivable object such as a chair or a television screen. This is not to say that the object behaves optically as a mirror; instead it means that the awareness of any object can induce an awareness of also being an object.

The "Male Gaze" in Feminist Theory

The concept of the "male gaze" was first introduced in Laura Mulvey's essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" where it was stated by her that women were objectified in film because mainly heterosexual men were in control of the camera. Hollywood films played to the models of voyeurism and scopophilia (The sexual pleasure derived from looking at erotic objects such as erotic photographs and pornography).

This gaze occurs when the camera puts the audience in the perspective of a heterosexual man. It may linger over the curves of a woman's body. The  subject is normally displayed on two different levels, as an erotic object for both the other characters and viewers. The man emerges as the dominant power within the created film fantasy. The woman is passive to the active gaze of the man.

Mulvey's essay also states that the female gaze is the same as the male gaze (Not vice versa of the male gaze), meaning that women look at themselves through the eyes of men. From this perspective, a woman who welcomes an objectifying gaze may be simply conforming to norms established to benefit men, thereby reinforcing the power of the gaze to reduce a recipient to an object. Welcoming such objectification may be viewed as akin to exhibitionism.

Women and the Gaze

Robert Doisneau's "An Oblique Look"

It is argued by Griselda Pollock, in her article, that the female gaze can often be visually negated. The photo above supports this argument, a couple is looking around an art gallery, while the spectator's view is from inside the shop, the couple is looking in different places than the view of the spectator. The woman is commenting on an image to her husband, while her husband is distracted by a nude female painting off to the left, in view of the spectator. The woman is looking at another image, but it cannot be viewed by the spectator. The man's gaze has found something apparently more interesting and has chosen to ignore the woman's comment. The woman is also contrasting to the nude female in the painting, as she presents herself as "actively returning and confirming the gaze of the masculine spectator", instead of passively accepting the male gaze.

Video Games 

There have been numerous arguments over whether Bayonetta was created mainly for the male gaze (It feels like such an odd coincidence since the term male gaze is specifically being used during these discussions on "Bayonetta 2" as it nears its release date in Europe and America, instead of the usual "It's sexist!"), truth be told, the negative side of the argument has yet to win me over, as I have seen some actually backing down over their detest over her design (And pretty much the entire game) simply because they found out after that her initial designer happened to be a female.

Design wise, Bayonetta comes off more elegant than sexual (Sure most of her back is exposed and she has a… boob window), with her beehive hairdo, flowing ribbons and sleeves, and rather classy english accent. The ability to use her hair in battle and as her clothing to be overly sexist as it puts her nude body on display when carrying out certain attacks or summons (Honestly it depends on how it's done, it is not always sexist putting your body on display). The only truly exaggerated part of her anatomy are her limbs, which is perhaps done merely to enhance her elegance and movement, and it is still in no way as exaggerated or obscenely done as other animated female characters. 

She is in no way a passive female character, in fact, she many one of the strongest female characters around, sure she maybe seen as fetish fuel by some (What with her glasses and very dominatrix-y looks and personality), but in the end she is clearly an incredibly empowering character that makes full use of her sexuality against her enemies, and in a more direct and forceful manner, as compared to more subtle tactics carried out by others.

You want sexist? Doe eyed females that are practically creepy sex robots? Go play Killer is Dead then.

Sorry, no triangle boobs here, but have some short shorts.

Lara Croft of Square Enix's "Tomb Raider" series is a beautiful, intelligent and athletic British archaeologist adventurer, and perhaps to this day, remains one of the most famous female game characters and sex symbol (Perhaps even one of the first in video games) in the gaming world. However… do people truly remember Lara Croft as an archaeologist when ogling her for her looks? Or simply as some pin up girl with guns? That basic fact, might not even be well known outside of the fandom, everything that makes her the strong character that she truly is, is in truth, overlooked for her short shorts.

Thankfully the reboot does portray Lara as a much more realistic and developed character (Far more than Angelina Jolie ever could), so at least Square Enix is doing something right since that merge many years back...

Animation

The Hat by Michèle Cournoyer's The Hat (1999)

Despite its attempts to be surreal, I still find the presentation of the subject matter to be pretty direct and obvious,  and in all honesty there is nothing truly outstanding or new about it. The hat could be decent metaphor for the gaze, but honestly, the only thing I felt that this animation managed to accomplish is it's disturbing presentation (No stop, I have seen enough crotches and phallic shapes to last me the rest of the week).

The music at times quite clearly hints that the woman is a stripper, the eyes and hands of her viewers attempting to devour her whole. While the creepier music that plays when she is a child hints at a dark history of sexual abuse under some unknown male figure (It is never really specified whether this man was her father, or her uncle, or just some complete stranger altogether). Her eyes are closed most of the time (In fact, her face is hidden quite a few times, with more focus being placed on the rest of her body), to seemingly avoid the gaze, as she allows herself to be viewed by everyone. It is mainly the music and sounds that portrays the inner turmoil she faces through it all.

Honestly, this animation lasted a little too long, the same effect could be given in just two to three minutes.

Ruth Lingford's Pleasures of War (1998)

For ages, men have always been seen as the more dominant and powerful gender, whereas women  are seen as weak and feeble creatures that they use for their own pleasure. This animation is the radical retelling of the Biblica story of Judith, a beautiful hebrew widow, and Holofernes, commander of an invading Assyrian army laying siege to her hometown. Judith gains entry to the enemy camp's fortress, ostensibly to offer a personal surrender, but instead plans to seduce Holofernes then kill him after in order to save her country.

The art style is considerably gritty and stylised, while genitals aren't necessarily seen, explicit sexual imagery is still displayed throughout, with integration of archival documentary footage from 20th century wars also seen in some part of the animation, the imagery is used to raise disturbing issues about the connections between sex, violence and war.

Ruth Lingford's What She Wants (1994)

Another rather creepy and provocative piece by Ruth Lingford, a woman taking a subway train back home is bedevilled with images of desire (Which is probably the nicest way of putting it...) where ever she looks, needless to say she has pretty wild imagination... I still find the ending a tad baffling, what is that creature suppose to symbolise as it leaves the woman's body? Flying about so freely and gayly after in celebration? The animation style done through the low-tech graphics of the Commodore Amiga computer to give the animation a more heightened lucidity.

Joanna Quinn's Girls Night Out (1987)

Finally taking a break from all of those intense examples… Girls Night Out is a rather humorous story about a sexually repressed woman finally getting the chance to go a little wild during a trip out with her friends to a stripper's club on her birthday.  Certain scenes accentuates how unattractive (When she takes a seat, it humorously shows how much weight she has gained over the years as she struggles briefly to remove her thumbs after accidentally sitting down upon them) and unwanted she actually feels and her desires to just feel wanted again, especially as she lives her life as dull housewife, her husband never sparing her a glance (Even on her birthday!) with each passing day.

Joanna Quinn's animation style has always been uniquely cute (While her characters can be very cartoony in nature, there are times when she is able to mix in a nice bit of realism to their features), and her choice of voice acting style has always been amusing to listen to it, though a tad hard to hear at times.

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Seminar 1: Visual Analysis Exercise

Bottle and The Dog Who Was a Cat Inside both came out in the 2000s, albeit quite a few years apart, respectively in 2010 and 2002. Bottle was created by CALarts student Kirsten Lepore from Los Angeles, California, while The Dog Who was a Cat Inside was done by Siri Melchior, a danish animator from Copenhagen, Denmark. And so Bottle is the more recent of the two animations.

Bottle focuses on the long distance relationship between two fairly different creatures (With one composed of warm sand while the other of snow), and by not actually having the chance to meet with one another until the very end, the little gifts they would receive from the other perhaps hints at their belief to alter their appearances to satisfy the other’s expectations for when the time came for them to see one another.

The title for Siri Melchior’s piece, with the usage of the word “was” (Instead of “had”, which would imply something else altogether) already suggests that the message behind its story is the identity issues the main character/s faces, and that it is in fact just one individual that suffer from split personality, or even transgender issues.

While not actually dark in terms of its storytelling, Bottle does give off a far more somber tone as compared to The Dog Who Was a Cat Inside, with its lack of music and its rather sad (But still considerably open) ending. One would assume that the two perished upon entering the sea, hence never getting the chance to meet with one another, while it could also be assumed that the two simply became a part of the sea and hence were finally able to join together as one, discarding their physical forms whilst doing so.

Comparing to Bottle’s ending then, The Dog Who Was a Cat Inside clearly had the happier ending, as the character/s was/were able to find a kindred spirit in the end and accept themselves for what they are (Allowing both personas to get along with one another). And as mentioned earlier, it has an overall more light-hearted and humorous tone of storytelling compared Bottle, with its more colourful and cartoony style and whimsical soundtrack (Which is most definitely an aspect that makes a huge difference to any animation, film, video game, etc.).

Both shorts do seem to focus on the subject matter of identity, though on considerably different levels and areas of it, Bottle seems to focus on identity through peer pressure while The Dog Who Was a Cat Inside focuses on a more different psychological aspect of it. Regardless, both animations were perhaps made to be more open to interpretation, so that they would be more presentable to a wider audience. This especially applies to The Dog Who Was a Cat Inside, if it truly had been focusing on a considerably sensitive subject such as the acceptance of transgender; it had to be made in a way that it is not too obvious or offensive for its audience.

While both animated shorts can be enjoyed by a wide audience, The Dog Who Was a Cat Inside will perhaps be better enjoyed for its cute and quirky presentation and overall more light-hearted tone of storytelling.