Revolutionary design in Russia (Seminar)

The Document

Joseph Nicephore Niepce

Took what is considered the first ever photograph. It is called 'View From a Window at La Gras'.

James Nachtwey-

Is a documentary who is noted for documenting war. 'I have been a witness and these virtues are my testimony. The events I have recorded must not be forgotten and must not be repeated'

Frances Firth -

'Entrance to the Great Temple' where photographers go against generic documentation as the image depicts an Egyptian temple the way the Western eye would like to see it

Photographers capture reality, there is always a reason behind photography whether it is political, social or historical. The photographer will not effect the image themselves.

The Decisive moment

“Photography achieves its highest distinction-reflecting the universality of the human condition in a never-to-be retrieved fraction of a second”

Henri Cartier Bresson (1908-2004)

Jacob Riis

(1888) 'Bandits Roost' Is a constructed photograph which depicts people in a slum who are very much aware of the photographers presence. Riis has set up a middle class fantasy of lower class life in the slums. The validity of documentation can be questioned as Risse used to bribe the poor subjects with cigarettes and such things to pose for him.

Lewis Hine- Was a sociologist in terms of photography. He had left wing beliefs and photographed the working class to glorify them. There was no personal gain involved.

FSA Photographers (Farm Security Administration)

• Roy Stryker founded the program
• At the time 11 million people over America were unemployed in the depression
• Mass migration of farmers/labourers
• The photography was used as both photojournalism and emotive lobby tool

Photographers were given instructions of what to record. The reality of what was to be recored had been pre-determined

Margaret Bourke-White- 'Sharecroppers Home' (1937) is a depiction of abject poverty

Dorothea Lange

War/conflict photography-

Robert Capa 'Normandy, France' 1945

Magnum Group

• Founded in 1947 by Carier-Bresson and Capa
• Ethos of documenting the world and its social problems
• Internationalism and mobility

Robert Capa- 'The falling solider' (1936)

Don McCullin (1968) 'Shell shocked solider'

Robert Harberle (1969)

William Klein- St Patrick's Day, Fifth Avenue 1954-55

Conceptual Art

With photography in conceptual art, the purpose was to create a problem that cannot be solved. Selling documentary photographs for thousands of pounds makes conceptual art fail.

Critical Realism

A photograph of a Krupp factory or the AEG says practically nothing about these institutions. Reality itself has shifted into the realm of the functional. The reification of human relationships, such as the factory, no longer betrays anything about these relationships, such as the factory, no longer betrays anything about these relationships. And so what we actually need is to “construct something,” Something “artificial” “posed”

Bertolt Brecht (1931)

Jeff Wall (1992) Dead soldiers talk

Gillian Wearing Signs that say that you want them to say 1992-3

Jeremy Deller (2001) 'Battle of Orgreave'

Key Features of Documentary Photography

• They offer a humanitarian perspective
• They tend to portray social and political situations
• They purport to be objective to the facts of the situation
• People tend to form the subject matter
• The images tend to be straightforward and unmanipulated

Summary

Portfolio Task 2 (Text Summary)

The Idea of the Modern World

Art in the late 19th century, early 20th century saw many changes. The emergence of new art from Avante Garde artists which drew a kind of 'Natural' Force, over time spread across Europe from the epicentre Paris. By the first World War expressionism, cubism and futurism represented Europe's Avante Garde reception to the modern world.

There are three dynamics of modern; modernisation, modernity and modernism. Modernisation refers to the impact and growth of technology and machinery, changing the world into the modern. Modernity can be understood to be the social and cultural changes in society as a result of modernisation there are three dynamics of modern; modernisation, modernity and modernism. Modernisation refers to the impact and growth of technology and machinery, changing the world into the modern. Modernity can be understood to be the social and cultural changes in society as a result of modernisation. Cubism develops as a representation of the more realistic world- a display of obvious existence of something.

Harrison, C and Wood, P. (eds.) (1997) 'Art In Theory: 1900-90', Oxford, Blackwell, pp. 125-9

Graphic Design

• Cave paintings were used as a form of communicating visually
• 14^th century Italy with paintings such as Giotto Di Bondone- Betrayal 1305
• Paintings were used to communicate messages to the illiterate, as at the time only the wealthy and scholars were able to read.

William Addison Dwiggins 1922, (successful designer):

"In the matter of layout forget art at the start and use horse- sense. The printing-designer‟s whole duty is to make a clear presentation of the message - to get the important statements forward and the minor parts placed so that they will not be overlooked. This calls for an exercise of common sense and a faculty for analysis rather than for art‟.

Herbert Spencer: “Mechanized art”

Joseph Muller-Brockman

• "Visual Communication"
• "Whatever the information transmitted, it must be, ethically and culturally, reflect its responsibility to society"

Saville Lumley

• 'Daddy, What did You do in The Great War?' (1915)
• Persuasive communication through design to get people to join up to fight in the war
• Was unlike the abstract advertisements at the time , but was considered a complex piece of graphic design

Wassily Kandinsky

• Considered to be a fine artist but influenced the graphic design in the Bauhaus
• Composition VIII (1923)

London Underground map

• Progression
• Overtime it has developed more clarity

Oskar Schlemmer (German), Bauhaus logo, 1922

Herbert Matter

• Swiss
• Swiss Tourist board posters (1932-34)

Jamie Reid

• Sex Pistols, Never Mind the Bollocks ... sleeve design (1977)
• Visual representation of what the punk music scene stands for

Peter Saville

• Renown for missing deadlines
• FAC 001, The Factory Club Night poster
• New Order, Blue monday, sleeve design (1983)
• The sleeve was intricate, with an extensive colour palette that they made a loss on selling every album as they were so expensive to produce

Jonathan Barnbrook

• Bastard typeface 1990
• Olympukes

Summary

Graphic Design through the ages developed more and more expanding and exploring various methods of communication. Graphic design over the years has involved many people certainly media for the masses.

Modernism and Modernity

Modernism and Modernity

• 1700s - 1960s Modernist development period
• Post Modern. The world as it is now, after the modern
• The word modern is associated with positive connotations
• Tate Modern- New Gallery

Paris 1900's

• Paris in 1900 most advanced city in the world - Urbanisation 'City of the modern'
• Eiffel tower built with steel - built for purpose – Industrial Prowess
• Aesthetic
• City becomes a product of culture 'A place to go'

Urbanisation

• Factory Work takes over rural/farming
• Communication
• Defined cultural 'shift' from country living to town lifestyle
• Roads built
• Telephone and telegraph invented
• Railway
• World time standardised- People previously had no concern over time living by their own clock
• Steam ships
• Cinema, music and photography

(Class Division came about from modernity)

Secularisation-refers to the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious (or "irreligious") values and secular institutions. Secularisation thesis refers to the belief that as societies progress, particularly through modernization and rationalization, religion loses its authority in all aspects of social life and governance. Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart, Sacred and Secular. Religion and Politics Worldwide, Cambridge University Press, 2004. Chapter 1.[Accessed

Impressionist of the ist group depicted modernism

Haussmanisation

• Paris 1850s- New Paris
• Large Boulevards in favour of narrow streets- Streets easier to police (Local Control)
• Criminals were moved out of the city
• Centre becomes expensive and upperclass

Fashion becomes communicator and signifier of who you are

Discovery of white light (colour made up of RGB) Seurat paintings

Degas L'absinthe- Looks more and more like photos

Kaiser Panorama (1383) Images of modern times

Alfred Stealitz (1903) Flatiron Building

Paul Citreon (1923) Metropolis

Eadward Muybridge (1885) Descending Stairs

Giacomo Balla (1913) Speed of a motorcar

Modernism emerges out of subjective responses of artists/designers to: Modernity

Media important figure in society as it was used to:

• Sell
• Inform
• Advertise
• Persuade

Modernism in design

• Anti-historicism
• Truth to materials – Artists and designers let materials speak for themselves
• Simple geometric forms
• Materials appropriate
• Form follows function
• Technology
• Internationalism

Bauhaus

• The most progressive design movement of the 20^th century
• Re-wrote rules of teaching art and design
• Interdisciplinary
• Futura was created for the Bauhaus (typeface)- Was a Sans serif font, modern, no need for licks form over function
• Bauhaus Building – Lots of glass, large windows, modern design

New materials and Technology

• Concrete
• Plastics
• Aluminium
• Reinforced glass
• Building vertically was seen to be the best way as you are able to fit more people in a smaller space
• Religion and real-life experiences replaced

(Materials all associated with industrialisation and mass production)

Internationalism

• A language of design that could be recognised and understood on an international basis

Harry Beck- London Underground

• The design of the map is a good example of how form follows the function. To some it is not particularly aesthetically pleasing to look at but it is easily globally recognised.

Herbert Bayer-

• Sans serif typeface
• He wanted to standardise type so that there was only 1 case
• He was an important figure in helping develop Bauhaus

Stanley Morrison-

• He invented Times New Roman (1932)
• Challenged modernity going back to the archaic style of typography

Nazi's-

• Nazis shut down the Bauhaus as they were thought to have been to progressive
• Fraktur- Nazi Font

Conclusion

• The word modern suggests novelty and improvement
• The mid 1700's- 1960 has seen a social, cultural and political change
• Modernism is the range of ideas and styles that the concept of Modernity acts as a catalyst for.
• Modernism was important for the development of vocabulary and styles, in that the idea form follows function was the key

Image Analysis Exercise (Portfolio Task 1)

The Uncle Sam Range

1876

Schumacher and Ettlinger

This is a piece of advertising is trying to sell a cooker, 'The Uncle Sam Range'. Unlike modern adverts the product being advertised is off to the left of the piece and without a full understanding of what the message of the poster is conveying it is hard to tell that it is an advert for a cooker. In the advert there are a lot of images in the piece, making it seem cluttered. The type in the advert is bold and could be most recognisable in comparison to font associated with Western America, 'the wild west'. From the image of the range the audience can see that it is good quality but the main message of the poster is focused more towards the patriotism of America. The clock on the wall is showing 100 years of American independence, the company Abendroth Bros is using the celebration to emphasize the patriotism of there 'Uncle Sam Range'. Depicted in the poster are what look like a typical upper class patriotic American family, which at the time could inspire people to be like. The main audience that this poster is focused on is middle-class, who have the money to buy the range but aspire to be like the upper-class.

Saville and Lumley

1915

The second poster is first world war propaganda for men to join the army in 1915. It is aimed at men that hadn't initially joined up at the start of the war and was before the period where conscription was compulsory. Generally the intended audience is working middle class men who have a decent house, job and family and who don't feel the need to join up. In contrast to the first poster it is quite simple and direct, with less imagery and text in the overall composition of the poster. The text in the image is very British and anyone looking at the poster would recognise it as war time propaganda. The type in the image is simple with and underline emphasis on the 'You', directing it at the audience. Unlike the other poster , this poster has subtle hints; such as the toy soldiers that the child is playing with and the child sitting on the knee of the adult pointing at a book with pictures in it. These both relate back to the text used which try and make the audience feel guilty and that they should sign up to the army. There is also an underlying assumption that Briton will win the war, as the name 'Great War' implies that if you are not a part of it then what will you tell your children.