Key Text - Ways of Seeing, John Berger

Notes from Text

• 'the social presence of a woman is different in kind from that of a man. A man's presence is dependant upon the promise of power which he embodies' - Roles.
• 'Her presence is manifest in her gestures, voice, opinions, expressions, clothes, chosen surroundings, taste...' - Aesthetics.
• 'A woman must continually watch herself. She is almost continually accompanied by her own image of herself' - Judged by appearance.
• 'Men act and women appear'.
• 'Thus she turns herself into an object and most particularly an object of vision: a sight' - Objectification.
• 'Physical emanation'.

Technologies of Gender - Teresa De Lauretis

Notes from Text

• 'Mulvey would not relinquish the political commitment of movement and the need to construct other representations of woman... feminine aesthetic'.
• 'The idea that a film may address the spectator as female, rather than portray women positively or negatively, seems very important to me in the critical endeavour to characterise women's cinema as a cinema for, not only by, women' - Interesting idea relating to the conclusion of my essay, what can we do to change the way women are portrayed in cinema.

In the Culture Society - Art, Fashion and Popular Music, Angela McRobbie

Notes from Text

• Chapter 3 - Feminism, Fashion and Consumption.
• 'Fashion is of course an almost wholly feminised industry' - Arguable.
• 'It has been a female sphere of production and consumption'.
• 'Fashion is a feminist issue'.
• Chapter 4... 'the magazines promoted romance as the means by which women should interpret and practice their sexuality'.

Film - Female fashion icons, examples

• Patricia Arquette
• Sienna Miller - Factory girl
• Natalie Portman - Leon the professional
• Gwyneth Paltrow
• Brigitte Bardot
• Katharine Hepburn
• Meryl Streep

Body Image Campaigns

Dove - Real Bodies

This ad focuses on the idea that every body is beautiful, no matter the size or shape. There is no 'perfect' body, or one body to define what a 'good' body is, we are all different and that's okay. In my opinion there aren't enough adverts that depict this kind of attitude towards our bodies and the way in which we look at ourselves.

Fashion Illustration

I found this image really effective. The fashion industry is seen as one of the main culprits for people comparing themselves to unrealistic and unattainable standards, and this style of transcends into the fashion illustration too. People are always sketched to be extremely slim and tall, however the reality is that models for high fashion spend their lives trying to look like these images, 'normal' people couldn't possibly keep up and frankly, shouldn't have to.

 

The Body Shop - Body Confidence

I love the message behind this campaign, a doll is used to illustrate the different issues people face due to the the pressures of western society. The left image reads 'There are 3 billion women who don't look like supermodels and only 8 who do', in my opinion this succeeds in making women feel less alone and points out that the expectations of looking like a supermodel are completely unattainable and unrealistic. Similarly, the right image embodies this idea of female empowerment by portraying ageing as an achievement rather than a hindrance on our physical bodies.

He for She Campaign - Gender Equality

When thinking about gender roles, I wanted to look at ways in which people now are trying to tackle the issues by making people aware of prejudice in society. HeForShe (UN Women) immediately came to mind as a campaign everyone heard about, and stuck in my mind as something people paid attention to. 

Equality is the main goal, and the the issues of inequality, highlighting things that are accepted in our daily lives that really shouldn't be. The issues are separated in to categories - Education, Health, Identity, Work, Violence and Politics. Identity is one I am particularly interested in exploring.

Celebrity and Power - Fame in Contemporary Culture, P. David Marshall

Notes from Text

• Part 1... 'Conceptualising the collective: The mob, the crowd, the mass, and the audience'.
• Preface... 'The media themselves have often been perceived as powerful in their capacity to shape and frame the messages and representations of particular cultures'.
• 'Celebrity status operates at the very centre of the culture as it resonates with conceptions of individuality'.
• 'The celebrity sign is entirely image' - No substance.
• 'Constructs and deconstructs the social world in terms of temporal and transforming audiences'.
• Films... 'the heroes they portray are fixed images'.
• 'fixed conceptions of their identity can be made' - Not real.

Aesthetics - Observations

Women are constantly bombarded with the idea that in order to be happy you must first look acceptable, that beauty and happiness live simultaneously together and a disruption of one leads to the limitation of the other. In Western culture, from an early age young girls are influenced by family members, the media and friends to wear makeup and get rid of body hair. It is abnormal if you are a woman to not wear makeup, in order to be 'normal' you must conform to society by changing the way you look every morning, usually starting as an early teenager. From this young age women are made to feel unworthy for public view unless they are 'ready'.

Aesthetics of Everyday Life: East and West

edited by Liu Yuedi, Curtis L. Carter

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is an interesting way of categorising the human need to appear a certain way aesthetically and why this may pose as such an important aspect in someone's life. The idea of self-actualisation is something I may want to explore and talk about within my essay. Changing your appearance is something some may argue as being concerned with Esteem, as many people undergo procedures etc. on their body when they are emotionally and psychologically affected by something they are not happy with. Some may argue that in a western society, because we are so comfortable with our physiological needs being met, the other stages become the things we are more concerned with.

More Refined Thesis Question

To what extent does a patriarchal society influence women to modify their appearance?

Patriarchy relates to the aspects of society I have chosen to focus my research on. Gender roles and the way women are inferior to men who generally are portrayed as powerful and having the default point of view in many aspects of life, including in cinema and the media.

Advertising - Promotion of Youth, links to Cosmetic Surgery

Celebrity Endorsement - Anti-ageing

All the adverts I found below use a certain terminology to promote their products. Words like 'lift' are used throughout, which straight away has connotations to cosmetic surgery and 'face-lifts'. Doing this, the makeup brands are subtly claiming that these creams can achieve the same effects as a procedure.

Lancome Paris - Eye Cream

Helen Mirren - Anti-ageing Cream

Davina McCall - Anti-wrinkle Cream

Andie MacDowell - Anti-wrinkle Cream

Tutorial with Pete

The tutorial today with Pete really useful in pinpointing where I want go with my project. I have felt a bit stuck recently with cop as we have so much work on in all modules so have been putting it to the side. Over the Christmas break I want to really make sure I know what it is I want to take a stand against and things I want to research in order to do this effectively.

Making the Cut, How Cosmetic Surgery is transforming our lives - Anthony Elliott

Key Notes

1. Drastic Plastic - The Rise of Cosmetic Surgical culture

• 'Narcissistic obsession'.
• 'One of excess, fear, disposability anxieties and melancholia'.
• 'Beauty business' - cosmetic surgery in US, worth $15 - $20 billion a year.
• Culture - concerned with sex.
• Mentions Kathy Davis' books - decisions. 'Drawing on feminist and sociological notions of power'. 'Thesis of cosmetic surgery as pure (patriarchal) oppression...'
• 'Pro-choice'.

2. Celebrity obsession: fame, fortune and faking it

• 'Personal identity comes under the spotlight and open to revision'.
• 'Globalisation of media looms large'.
• 'Celebrate a culture of in-authenticity'.
• Role models - Identity.
• 'Celebrity, I am suggesting, is becoming increasingly synonymous with self-reinvention' - 'artificial beauty' - becomes the norm, idea of 'perfect' - fashions/trends.

3. Want - Now Consumerism: Immediate transformation, instant obsolescence

• Social Media - google, instagram, snapchat culture, impatience. Quick fixes.
• Beauty products - makeup.
• 'Women are beautiful to the extent that the project of anti-ageing and its marketed strategies are adopted and followed'.

Study Task 5 - Initial Ideas - Definitions

Line, shape, colour, texture, collage.

To start my practical work, I experimented with line and colour, later developing into collage and how this effects these elements.

Line

Primarily I wanted to use line as a way of mimicking lines drawn on a person's face, linking to plastic surgery. Stitching lines helped me to create definitions and highlight how people take portions of their own face in order to change them. I want to continue to describe this mis-jointed element within my theme of changing appearance.

Reshaping the Female Body, The Dilemma of Plastic Surgery - Kathy Davis

 

Themes explored that link to my research question -

• 1. Plastic bodies - 'fashions and cultural values'. The idea of a 'perfect' body, or a 'perfect' woman. The problem with defining perfection. Celeb culture - 'from celebrity junkie to the girl next door'. The cosmetic surgery boom. Pornography and the male gaze. Social Media - photo filters and persona.
• 2. Patriarchy - 'power hierarchy between the sexes' - 'women's quest for beauty'. Norms. Women are expected to be beautiful.
• 3. Public face/private suffering - psychological needs, just as important as physical needs? - 'once they started making comparisons, it rapidly became an obsession'. Comfort - the difference between being at home and in public/the outside world.
• 4. Objectification.
• 5. 'From fantasy to reality' - Ideals, the grass is always greener..
• 6. Choice.
• 7. 'Listening to women's voices' - 'choices' - 'the problem of political correctness'.

Study Task 4 - Images and Theory

Commodity Fetishism

In Karl Marx's critique of political economy, commodity fetishism is the perception of the social relationships involved in production, not as relationships among people, but as economic relationships among the money and commodities exchanged in market trade.

How this could link to my project - Consumerism and social media, how people are influenced to buy clothes, makeup, things to make them 'look their best', could also link to advertising.

Link to visual culture - Social Media, selfies and the want-now generation. Store products, advertising.

Images that relate - https://uk.pinterest.com/sw255328/pins/

Scopophilia

Sexual pleasure derived chiefly from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity; voyeurism.

How this could link to my project - Male gaze, how women are seen/ in society.

Link to visual culture - Porn, film, makeup ads, perfume advertising ,etc.

Images that relate - https://uk.pinterest.com/sw255328/pins/

Intertextuality

The relationship between texts, especially literary ones.

How this could link to my project - Triangulation,Terminology used to describe the sexes. 

Link to visual culture - Advertising, how words are used to label genders, etc.

Images that relate - https://uk.pinterest.com/sw255328/pins/

1. 
   

Metacommunication

Metacommunication is all the nonverbal cues (tone of voice, body language, gestures, facial expression, etc.) that carry meaning that either enhance or disallow what we say in words. There's a whole conversation going on beneath the surface.

How this could link to my project - The limitations of plastic surgery, changing your face. Body language, women and men. Expressions used in Advertising and promotion of products.

Link to visual culture - Hidden meanings within imagery, conversations amongst people about our society.

Images that relate - https://uk.pinterest.com/sw255328/pins/

1. Reproduction

1. 1.

   
   

   the action or process of copying something.

   
   

   "the cost of colour reproduction in publication is high"

   
   

   synonyms:

   copying, duplication, duplicating, replication, replicating

   • 
     

     
     

     
     

     
     
   • 
     

     
     

     
     
   • 
     

     
     
2. 2.

   
   

   the production of offspring by a sexual or asexual process.

   
   

   "toads converge upon lakes and ponds intent on reproduction"

   Images that relate - https://uk.pinterest.com/sw255328/pins/ How this could link to my project - The natural forms of human bodies and what makes us think of each gender in a certain way. Link to visual culture - Sex Sells! Advertising where sex is the theme of focus in order to sell a product, eg. perfume Ads.

Research Question

To what extent do the pressures of society influence women to modify their own appearance?

My proposed research question focuses on body modification and what drives women to make the decision to alter their own appearance, however big or small that alteration may be. I chose to focus on this because the pressures of society on people, social media in particular, is something I have noticed recently and is something I worry about, especially for future generations. Adolescents start to engage in more adult behaviours (looking older) a lot earlier now than in the past, I have noticed this even in the past few years since I left school. What will be expected of future generations in regards to this?

Study Task 3 - Triangulation

Laura Mulvey's essay 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' (1975) examines the presence of a Patriarchal society within the film industry and how this 'has structured'(pg.14) its form. Mulvey argues that the roles of men and women portrayed on screen are the 'roots of our (women's) oppression'(pg.15), women are constantly seen as 'bearer, not maker, of meaning'(pg.15) which puts them inferior to men (the maker). In 'Cultural Theory and Popular Culture' John Storey describes this differentiation as confirmation of an audience viewing 'women as sexual objects'(pg.83). Similarly, Richard Dyer's 'Stars and Audiences' looks at the generalisation of how film is made and who for, he argues that 'the moviegoer is positioned accordingly to the pleasures of male heterosexual desire'(pg.188).

A focal point of Mulvey's essay is the notion of 'Scopophilia'(pg.18), the pleasure in looking or viewing sexual acts. Storey argues that in a 'world structured by 'sexual imbalance''(pg.82) the evident roles encouraged by this idea are for men to 'look' and women 'exhibit'. This therefore supports the view that women are 'crucial to the pleasure of the (male) gaze'(pg.82). Mulvey considers how objectification can occur when people believe the 'illusion' that they are 'looking in on a private world'(pg.17). Alongside the attention on the human form created by the 'conventions of mainstream film'(pg.17), Dyer suggests that 'male gaze produces a sadistically voyeuristic pleasure'(pg.189).

Furthermore, Storey describes the focus or 'hold' of the female body as a 'pure erotic spectacle'(pg.83) for an audience member. Women are constantly displayed as sexual beings while, as Mulvey examines, men have the capacity to 'control' and emerge as the 'representative of power'(pg.20). In this way, a 'passive' woman becomes the 'active' man's property, in Dyer's words, film 'styles were designed as a spectacle for male desire'(pg.191).

Study Task 2

Study Task 1 - Summary

Roland Barthes' critical essay 'The Death of the Author' (1967) examines the relationship between the author, the reader and the interpretation of a text, but what does this mean in the context of a modernised society? 

Barthes argues that when the author’s identity in regards to their body of writing is lost, this is when the content can thrive in the hands of the reader. 'Language knows a 'subject', not a 'person'' (pg.145), and the removal of the 'person' can change the meaning of a text instantly. However, in some cases the context of the author is important to understanding the context of the work. Andy Warhol’s Pop Art, for instance, was predominantly created using images that already existed. His repetitive prints were based on popular culture, events of the time and his own personal interests. For example, Warhol's famous ‘Campbell's Soup Cans’ (1962) were a reflection of his own routine and everyday life. To differentiate the author and work as two separate entities in this case would take away any possibility of understanding the original intended meaning behind it, ‘the temporality is different’ (pg.145), leaving it open for interpretation by the reader.

Arguably, originality doesn't exist in regards to the identity of the author. In ‘Consumerism is a way of life’, Steven Miles describes the modern society as being ‘constituted in an artificial environment surrounded by artificial objects and artificial ‘nature’’. With this artificiality comes technology and social media. The use of this, duplication of imagery and sharing features in particular can completely eradicate the identity of an author, often the image/text speaks for itself in this case. Similarly, Barthes describes the author as 'a modern figure, a product of our society' (pg.142), which suggests that in order for the piece of work to become timeless the background of its origin must be lost. This loss of background creates a freedom for the writing itself, the reader now has ownership over it and can interpret it as he/she wills. In contrast to this, although Warhol’s ‘Marilyn Diptych’ (1962) can be seen as an iconic piece of work it was still very much appropriated to the time of which it was produced, just four months after Monroe’s suicide. If the same work had been produced today it would not have had the same poignancy.

Ultimately, Barthes expresses the point that in order for the reader to gain everything that he/she possibly can from a text, the author and context must be forgotten. In other words 'the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the author' (pg.148).

10 Themes of Interest

Possible Themes

1. Gender - Focus on terminology used to describe women/men. Expectations.
2. Plastic Surgery - Why do people opt for it? Differences between medical necessity and cosmetic surgery. Social constructs, media influence, celeb culture, psychological and physical.
3. Animal Testing - Is it necessary? Makeup/cosmetic products and medical research.
4. Representation of women in the media - Changes, film and TV.
5. Arts education - how important is it? Encouragement of creativity, early education and school curriculum.
6. Social Media/Internet effects on Children/young people - how things have changed.
7. Art therapy - effects on people, medical and everyday life. Why/how does this work? Case studies.
8. Social hierarchy - roles in society, influences on people and the way they identify themselves. Problems that arise in communities.
9. Consumerism - Advertising and the effects of this on individual people. Debt and snowball effect.
10. Nuclear family - Is this still the ideal concept? Should it be? Gender roles and social change in history.

End of Module Evaluation

Leeds College of Art BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION	Level	04
OUIL401 Context of Practice	Credits	20
End of Module Self Evaluation

NAME	SOPHIA WATTS

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
Researching for my project, both the written and visual elements, has been an essential part of this module and one I feel like I have done fairly well. I feel like I almost wanted more time away from other projects to concentrate on really exploring the different paths I could take the project. My writing skills are a bit rusty, even more so as I had a break between education courses. When I got into writing the essay I felt like I got better as it went along, hopefully next year it will be less of a daunting task. Learning to set my own briefs, both finding a theme for the essay and working through my visual journal was something I found quite challenging at first. Once I got the ball rolling I found the process really enjoyable and the discovery of it all was very exciting for me. Also taking my drawings into print was a lot of fun.
2. What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your practical outcomes?
Books were predominantly the biggest method of research I had. As I enjoy reading in my own time, I like any excuse to go down to the library. I also found this was easier than reading things off of a screen, although this was probably the method I adopted more for the initial essay research. During my research for my practical work, I watched documentaries on my chosen topic. As my theme was based on something that happens mostly in Africa, I thought this time of filming would be as close to the actual events of hunting as I could – from less of a biased viewpoint than a cinematic film would. I am getting used to drawing through ideas anyway within my practice but as this module didn't have a set outcome or quantity, I found it particularly useful to work through random thoughts I had about what I was investigating.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
Exploration was something I had a lot of fun with as I genuinely enjoy finding things out that I didn't know before, I think to an extent this came across within my work for the module. I feel like there was definitely a journey from where I started to where I ended up, especially with my practical work. Finding a topic that incorporated class and protest imagery helped me with connecting it all together. Following this, the visual element kept to the themes of my essay but was also took a very different turn, I think this was a positive as I was able to keep myself engaged in what I was doing by producing work on something I felt passionate about.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
I definitely felt a bit rushed towards the end of the module. I think in the future it would be better for me to organise my time between all the modules. Along the same lines, I could have expanded my research a bit more if I had spent more time on the visual research near the beginning of the year. I felt very confused about what COP was and what was expected of me at the start, also blogging was a problem as I wasn't sure if we had to do it for this module as much or whether to only include set tasks. In the future I will feel more prepared for what I have to do and how to approach it.
5. Identify five things that you feel will benefit you during next years Context of Practice module?
Make sure I am thinking about it from the very beginning and set time aside every week just to work on COP – Organisation. Find a topic I feel passionate about, I feel like I enjoyed the latter parts of the project because it was something I believed in. If I had more time to develop this idea I think I could produce some great work. Primary research, interviewing people and finding out what people’s opinions are first hand may benefit my further investigation, rather than relying on secondary sources. Choosing appropriate research to focus on, I feel like I wasted a lot of time being unsure of where to start. Especially with the actual essay, I changed which question I wanted to focus on after the first couple of tasks. Remember that COP is not as bad as I think it is when I am actually engaged in it – Don't push it aside!
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (Please indicate using an ‘x’) 5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance					X
Punctuality					X
Motivation			X
Commitment			X
Quantity of work produced				X
Quality of work produced				X
Contribution to the group				X
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self-evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

A copy of your end of module self evaluation should be posted to your studio practice blog. This should be the last post before the submission of work and will provide the starting point for the assessment process. Post a copy of your evaluation to your COP blog as evidence of your own on going evaluation.

Notes

Visual Evaluation

Final Essay

Final Campaign Booklet

What I am happy with

I like the overall aesthetic of my work for this project and grouping different elements together to create a campaign booklet seemed like a natural step in the progression of my practical work.

Things I could have done differently

If I had more time I would have experimented more with this idea. I really liked the idea of making badges and stickers for a campaign. If I was able to go even further then even developing campaign wear; hats, t shirts, etc - but maybe that would be going a bit too far. I just think that I could treat this like a real campaign as hunting/poaching it is a very real problem and something I feel passionately about. I would have also liked to have asked more people about their opinion on the matter and maybe emailed certain groups on-line - maybe this is something to think about as I progress next year.