RATIONALE - Consumerism

RATIONALE:

Consumerism

SPAM, 2014.

Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the excessive acquisition of goods and services. In the UK, consumerism drives capitalism, relying on private companies and corporations convincing us we want and need products that we don’t actually need at all. In the 21^st century, we are obsessed with consuming which has no doubt evolved from the expanding dominance of media culture and mobile technologies. In common, everyday life it is unlikely that we will go a day without finding ourselves bombarded by the enticing imagery, bold typography and bright colour of advertisement. The use of celebrity endorsement, ‘weasel words’ and humour all contribute to the manipulative approaches of advertisement, encouraging us to relate through their promotion of false, short term ‘needs’. It has almost become more about how well a product is marketed than the actual quality of the product itself that determines its success.

Recently I have become interested in the expansion of online advertisement. On a daily basis I find myself bombarded with poorly designed, tacky advertisements and junk email presenting imperative statements telling me how I’m ‘entitled to compensation for my recent accident’ or how I can ‘claim a free iPhone’. The persistency of these distracting and empty claims is almost mesmerizing, underlining the manipulative methods associated with 21^st century advertisement. 

Initially I was considering the idea of using found imagery in my response, montaging a collection of moving advertisements or ‘GIFs’ found online. However I felt it was an image-making process that would be the more appropriate method.

The shifts in online advertisements have brought the need for new words or semantic changes to the meaning of a word. For example, ‘SPAM’ once completely associated with the brand name of a tinned ham product is now more commonly used to define ‘irrelevant or unsolicited messages sent over the internet to large numbers of users’. I find irony in the comparison of these two definitions of the word – the idea of a cheap, processed product often described as ‘mystery meat’ almost echoes the cheapness of the ‘SPAM’ advertisements.

It seemed appropriate to take this comparison forward into the image making process by combining an image of tinned SPAM with the techniques applied to the online SPAM. Whilst wanting to comment on the prevalence of online advertisement I also wanted to ensure that I was producing a response of visual interest.

In my final response, I shot a still life image of a SPAM tin depicted almost as a commercial product image. The spam is positioned in the center of the frame on a bold coloured red backdrop helping to emphasise attention on the tin. By using direct flash I was able to create quite a flat image with the rich tone of the red backdrop appearing more saturated. This method also created glare from the tin highlighting its shiny, greasy textures. These technical choices were based on the idea of creating an almost distasteful and uninviting aesthetic to the product, perhaps the opposite of the clean, polished aesthetics of advertisement. I suppose essentially I was aiming to implicate an amateur aesthetic, presenting a more realistic, untouched, unedited image, going against the conventions of commercial advertisement and traditional photography in order to draw a comparison to the amateur characteristics of online advertisement. To further illustrate this I made the image into an animated .GIF, with the image continuously bouncing and flashing a variety of colour hues in an almost strobe like manner, an appropriate method intended for online and mobile use.

RATIONALE - Identity

RATIONALE:

Identity

Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman believes that our identity is no longer identified by social affiliations such as our age, social class, gender, religion etc. We are now faced with the increased responsibility of choosing and constructing our identity rather than being born into it. We long for the experience of belonging to a new group, with a sense of togetherness, through which we can facilitate identity-making. Bauman is concerned with how these groups are becoming very virtual and electronic, he illustrates that online communities are making us lose the ability to enter spontaneous interaction with real people.

I'm interested in the shifts in how one identifies themselves as an individual and how much of our identity is now built in a virtual, non-space. The way we interact with one another has changed considerably with the advances of mobile technology and social media. I find it interesting how social networking sites are almost like an extensive identification card such as a drivers license or a passport. This is quite an interesting comparison which would address the shift from being born into your identity to choosing and constructing it. Social networks display information about an individuals social affiliations such as name, age, gender, nationality in the same way that a passport would. However, social networks are much more self regulated with identity in the sense that you are able to choose how you represent and identify yourself with the ability to choose your 'profile picture' or 'like' pages that relate to the group/subculture you long to belong to. It was this interesting comparison that influenced my rationale for the image making process.

My final response depicts a male subject wearing a floral-patterned shirt against the backdrop of some floral-patterned curtains. I was looking to capture a portrait image that referenced passport identification photos but with an almost casual twist that would essentially represent a social networking 'profile picture'. To achieve this I applied the aesthetics of a passport booth, capturing a head-and-shoulder portrait with the subject using the direct mode of address. Using a disposable 35mm camera with a direct flash juxtaposed the association with passport images due to the amateur aesthetic. Cropping the frame to a square format referenced the way in which a Facebook 'profile picture' is cropped and displayed. This way you make associations with identity in an online format...

- Floral patterns linking to materialism and identity building

RATIONALE - Globalisation and Sustainability

RATIONALE:

Globalisation & Sustainability

RATIONALE - Cities & Film

RATIONALE:

Cities & Film

IDENTITY - Zygmunt Bauman

IDENTITY:

Zygmunt Bauman

Zygmunt Bauman is a Professor of Sociology originating from Poland regarded as one of the greatest interpreters of modern life. His primary focus is the idea of post-modern identity considering the shift in the social conditions that have characterised contemporary life; this shift from ‘modernity’ to ‘post-modernity’ saw a transition from a society of producers to a society of consumers consequently leading to liquid modernity. His writings interpret modern life, in reality, to be more concerned with transience over permanence; for example, the capitalist society we are bound within provides lots of options with little stability as we are blinded by the abundance of choices we face to shape our short term identity.

In Bauman's book, 'Identity' (2004), quoting Lars Dencik, he speaks of how our social affiliations (traditional definitions of identity such as race, gender, social class, family, country and place of birth) are losing importance, becoming diluted by a longing to experience belonging in new groups from which we can facilitate identity-making. Bauman explains that, today, these 'groups' are becoming increasingly virtual and electronically mediated. These 'virtual totalities', as Bauman coins them, are easy to enter and easy to abandon. He continues by withdrawing the virtual, liquid forms from the solid, genuine forms of togetherness that he believes to promise that comforting 'we feeling' we long for. 

Bauman states "we are losing the ability to enter into spontaneous interaction with real people" on the subject of virtual communities. He then quotes management theorist Charles Handy who believes that virtual communities are not a valid substitution for real, face-to-face interaction. He also believes that not only do they do not provide any substance for personal identity, they actually make it more difficult to come to to terms with one's self.

THE GAZE - Gender Ads

THE GAZE:

Gender Ads

'The Gaze' is a term referring to the ways in which we view images of people in any visual medium. It also refers to the gaze of those depicted in the imagery.'The Male Gaze' is used by media theorists and feminists to refer to the voyeuristic way in which men look at women.

This voyeuristic dimension is initiated by the idea that the object of the gaze is unaware of the current viewer despite that they may have originally been aware of being photographed and that there could subsequently be viewers of the image.

Johnathan Shroeder claims 'to gaze implies more than to just look at - it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze'. It is the act of photographing that objectifies the subject making them 'an object of the gaze'. However, Evans and Gamman believe that there is a distinction between gazing and looking. They suggest that 'the look' is open to all; a mode of perception. Whereas 'the gaze' is a mode of viewing that reflects 'a gendered code of desire'.

The Gender Ads Project is a completely self-funded and voluntary website originally created by Scott A. Lukas. With over 4,000 advertisements it is dedicated to providing a resource for the analysis of gender and advertising.

A section of the website entitled 'Roles' discusses the stereotypical and limiting roles of women in advertisement. This continues with the consideration of womens confinement to the domestic sphere in which they care for children, clean the house, shop for food etc. and the solidification of this in pop culture and advertisement. 

The image above is taken from the 'Roles' section of the site. Depicted is a trouser-less male and nude female. Whilst the male observes the newspaper he's holding, the female observes him, making the direction of attention semi-reciprocal. The advert, intended for a male audience, outlines the idea of the male gaze and its voyeuristic dimension as we look into an intimate situation between the two subjects from an outsiders viewpoint. The idea of 'gazing' referring to a 'gendered code of desire' is reflected in the sense that the male audience are primarily drawn to the nude female before the product thats being advertised, due to the sexualised nature of this campaign. 

In terms of roles, we can see that the female is trapped behind her domestic activity seeking attention from the male. Her complete nudity is almost animal-like...