Sunday, December 6, 2009
Almost forgot
I so liked the "Sordid Underbelly of One Girl's Filthy Apartment" in Graphic Design: The New Basics that I gave it to my Advanced Composition students as an example of an "Essay of Place."
Welcome to Bollywood!
I also use Bollywood films in teaching (well, it's a toned down, Indian film that utilizes many of the Bollywood musical conventions). India has always had a strong film industry (think Ishmael Merchant if nothing else), but it's like Bollywood films have just been "discovered" by the west. Given that these films have a larger per capita international following than Hollywood films, it's no wonder that they are finally spreading to this culture. Baz Luhrmann was influenced by a Bollywood film for Moulin Rouge! I have a couple Bollywood films in my DVD collection (although one isn't really Bollywood; it's from Tamil--I know "Bollywood" is really only for a fraction of films coming out of the Mubai film industry and India is a very large place--although it does star Aishwarya Rai); they are quite delightful. I hadn't heard of "Nollywood", but then I don't really care that much about documentaries, although one of the winners at this year's Manhatten Short Film Festival was a Nollywood style documentary from Mozembique.
What I find interesting about Bollywood films in the context of Practices of Looking, is that the Bollywood films were influenced by the Hollywood musicals of the 1930's and 1940's and now Bollywood is starting to influence Hollywood films. At the beginning of the current recession, i did hear talk that this sort of movement was likely and that the recession or an economic depression is good for musicals--these are usually upbeat with a triumph over adversity ending, just the sort of pick-me-up people who are stressed often need. There's even apparently a Bollywood parody of Bollywood, Farah Khan's Om Shanti Om (I haven't seen it, but a such a film should be hilarious).
My students seem to like the Bollywood clips I've shown, and my Indian students (some of whom have been really shy about speaking in class) get really talkative when they see my examples. But it is also important to realize that Bollywood films are a specific genre in the Indian film industry--films like Fire and Water are hardly "Bollywood."
What I find interesting about Bollywood films in the context of Practices of Looking, is that the Bollywood films were influenced by the Hollywood musicals of the 1930's and 1940's and now Bollywood is starting to influence Hollywood films. At the beginning of the current recession, i did hear talk that this sort of movement was likely and that the recession or an economic depression is good for musicals--these are usually upbeat with a triumph over adversity ending, just the sort of pick-me-up people who are stressed often need. There's even apparently a Bollywood parody of Bollywood, Farah Khan's Om Shanti Om (I haven't seen it, but a such a film should be hilarious).
My students seem to like the Bollywood clips I've shown, and my Indian students (some of whom have been really shy about speaking in class) get really talkative when they see my examples. But it is also important to realize that Bollywood films are a specific genre in the Indian film industry--films like Fire and Water are hardly "Bollywood."
Rembrandt's The Anatomy Lesson
This is a painting that shows up in my lecture slides as well, but for a very different reason. While the bodies of executed criminals were used in dissection suggests, as the authors of The Practice of Looking point out, the difference in social status between those attending the dissection lecture and the body being dissected, the painting also provides a shift in how medicine was viewed. That a body was being dissected at all suggests a difference in thought with regards to dissection--good luck getting a corpse to dissect if you were a da Vinci or Michelangelo. They dissected corpses, but they had to get them on the sly--dissection was forbidden by the Catholic church. Rembrandt's Holland was split between Catholics and Protestants. That Rembrandt is showing a public dissection attended by prominant burghers without fear of the authorities (even if the painting is a composite)rather than a furtive midnight dig and an Igor-like assistant hauling a mysterious bag into the laboratory also signals a change in how the human body is viewed.
The book briefly mentions the ethics of displaying bodies, such as the 19th Century Paris morgues, the Visible Human Project and Body Worlds, but doesn't go into much depth. I know there is a big concern with that here--the bodies at Dixon Mounds had been on public display until fairly recently (not any more) and legislation has been passed regarding the display of human remains. I ended up my Survey of British Lit class with Seamus Heaney's "Gauballe Man" and "Punishment" and I debated showing them photographs of these people. I'm not bothered by them, but then if the CSI series did an archeological version, I'b probalby do something about my television (like get a new one). Meanwhile I've made due with PBS's Secrets of the Dead--the episode of ergotine being the likely suspect in teh Salem With Trials also looked at some of the European bog people. But I digress. Finally, I decided to use a photo of Tollund man (he looks like he's sleepingso the student's shouldn't be too grossed out--Heaney wrote a poem on him too, but it wasn't in our anthology). There's the hint of Danish blood in my family tree, so Tollund man could be a relative, albeit a distant one, so I'm not appropriating someone from outside my "group". When I've gone hiking in bogs, I've joked with my hiking partners that someone centuries from now will find out blackened bodies and surmise we were part of some ancient ritual that involved the goddess Canon Eos judging by the necklaces around out necks and strange three-pronged pyramids. Plus, I think these bodies found in European bogs are fascinating and if I weren't so horrible at chemistry, forensic anthropolgy definitely has its attractions.
This reminds me of a story from a few years ago. My niece was in junior high, and she was very upset at her social studies teacher for focusing on Otzi the Iceman (the 9,000 body found by hikers in the Italian alps in 1991). In talking with her, I discovered the real reason she was upset was because Otzi was a boy mummy and she wanted to know where the girls mummies were. So, I went on-line and found articles on the Incan Ice Maiden found in Peru and the Pazyryk Ice Maiden found near Mongolia/Siberia. Despite the gruesome nature of this research, my niece went to bed happy because now she had seen the girl mummies.
The book briefly mentions the ethics of displaying bodies, such as the 19th Century Paris morgues, the Visible Human Project and Body Worlds, but doesn't go into much depth. I know there is a big concern with that here--the bodies at Dixon Mounds had been on public display until fairly recently (not any more) and legislation has been passed regarding the display of human remains. I ended up my Survey of British Lit class with Seamus Heaney's "Gauballe Man" and "Punishment" and I debated showing them photographs of these people. I'm not bothered by them, but then if the CSI series did an archeological version, I'b probalby do something about my television (like get a new one). Meanwhile I've made due with PBS's Secrets of the Dead--the episode of ergotine being the likely suspect in teh Salem With Trials also looked at some of the European bog people. But I digress. Finally, I decided to use a photo of Tollund man (he looks like he's sleepingso the student's shouldn't be too grossed out--Heaney wrote a poem on him too, but it wasn't in our anthology). There's the hint of Danish blood in my family tree, so Tollund man could be a relative, albeit a distant one, so I'm not appropriating someone from outside my "group". When I've gone hiking in bogs, I've joked with my hiking partners that someone centuries from now will find out blackened bodies and surmise we were part of some ancient ritual that involved the goddess Canon Eos judging by the necklaces around out necks and strange three-pronged pyramids. Plus, I think these bodies found in European bogs are fascinating and if I weren't so horrible at chemistry, forensic anthropolgy definitely has its attractions.
This reminds me of a story from a few years ago. My niece was in junior high, and she was very upset at her social studies teacher for focusing on Otzi the Iceman (the 9,000 body found by hikers in the Italian alps in 1991). In talking with her, I discovered the real reason she was upset was because Otzi was a boy mummy and she wanted to know where the girls mummies were. So, I went on-line and found articles on the Incan Ice Maiden found in Peru and the Pazyryk Ice Maiden found near Mongolia/Siberia. Despite the gruesome nature of this research, my niece went to bed happy because now she had seen the girl mummies.
Parody
(I wrote this some time ago, but it didn't get posted for some reason)
Since the text for class mentions parody—I happened to see two hilarious commercial parodies on television quite some time ago (like the 1980's). One was an advertisement for RAID, the bug spray, but it was clearly based on the black and white Calvin Klein Obsession ads that were also on the television at the time. There were obvious differences in that the animated insects RAID usually employed were there and the commercial was in color (so there was no confusion as to the product being sold—a can of insect killer, not musky perfume). However, the cartoon insects were lounging around, leaning on classical columns and things like that, spouting fragments of speech like the attractive people in the perfume commercials.
The second commercial was a Burger King ad that was based on the De Beers diamond ads—the people (I remember there being a man and woman) were in grayscale silhouettes, but the Whopper was in color. The “diamond music (“Palladio” by Karl Jenkins) played in the background. Instead of the diamond, the man handed the woman the Whopper. Again, I don’t think many would have confused the product being sold.
Despite both of these commercials being brilliant parodies, in my opinion, they only aired once or twice. I’m sure there was a curt cease and desist letter sent in each instance, and I’m not sure “fair use” applies to commercial works (commercial speech isn’t as free as regular speech).
When I did research on Stella Gibbon’s novel Cold Comfort Farm, I discovered it was a parody of the “rural” novels that were popular in England during the first couple of decades of the 20th century. I actually have two novels by Mary Webb, who was one of the major authors of this literary genre, but I would not have associated them with Cold Comfort Farm (and I was introduced to that book through an ad—how could I resist a book described as “Jane Austen meets the Beverly Hillbillies”? ). However, Cold Comfort was such a great parody that it apparently put an end to the genre it was making fun of. Speaking of Austen and parody, I read Northanger Abbey long before I was able to find a copy of Ann Radcliffe’s Mysteries of Udolpho (which was not quoted in the recent BBC adaptation of Northanger Abbey—Matthew Lewis’s The Monk was. Geesh. It isn’t as if Mysteries lacks bits as titillating as The Monk). The same goes for Thomas Love Peacock’s parody of the 18th century gothic novels, Nightmare Abbey (I probably read that before Northanger Abbey). Finding the original novels being parodied was a bit tough 20 some years ago. I eventually did.
I like a good parody.
Since the text for class mentions parody—I happened to see two hilarious commercial parodies on television quite some time ago (like the 1980's). One was an advertisement for RAID, the bug spray, but it was clearly based on the black and white Calvin Klein Obsession ads that were also on the television at the time. There were obvious differences in that the animated insects RAID usually employed were there and the commercial was in color (so there was no confusion as to the product being sold—a can of insect killer, not musky perfume). However, the cartoon insects were lounging around, leaning on classical columns and things like that, spouting fragments of speech like the attractive people in the perfume commercials.
The second commercial was a Burger King ad that was based on the De Beers diamond ads—the people (I remember there being a man and woman) were in grayscale silhouettes, but the Whopper was in color. The “diamond music (“Palladio” by Karl Jenkins) played in the background. Instead of the diamond, the man handed the woman the Whopper. Again, I don’t think many would have confused the product being sold.
Despite both of these commercials being brilliant parodies, in my opinion, they only aired once or twice. I’m sure there was a curt cease and desist letter sent in each instance, and I’m not sure “fair use” applies to commercial works (commercial speech isn’t as free as regular speech).
When I did research on Stella Gibbon’s novel Cold Comfort Farm, I discovered it was a parody of the “rural” novels that were popular in England during the first couple of decades of the 20th century. I actually have two novels by Mary Webb, who was one of the major authors of this literary genre, but I would not have associated them with Cold Comfort Farm (and I was introduced to that book through an ad—how could I resist a book described as “Jane Austen meets the Beverly Hillbillies”? ). However, Cold Comfort was such a great parody that it apparently put an end to the genre it was making fun of. Speaking of Austen and parody, I read Northanger Abbey long before I was able to find a copy of Ann Radcliffe’s Mysteries of Udolpho (which was not quoted in the recent BBC adaptation of Northanger Abbey—Matthew Lewis’s The Monk was. Geesh. It isn’t as if Mysteries lacks bits as titillating as The Monk). The same goes for Thomas Love Peacock’s parody of the 18th century gothic novels, Nightmare Abbey (I probably read that before Northanger Abbey). Finding the original novels being parodied was a bit tough 20 some years ago. I eventually did.
I like a good parody.
The Perspective of realism
When I teach my humanities class, I use really streamlined definitions of realism, stylistic, and abstract: realism is close to nature proportion-wise (I use one of George Stubb's horses, Whistlejacket, as an example), stylistic is "we can still tell it's a human, but it's somewhat out of proportion (Marc Chagall for this) and abstract is the essence of human, horse, etc. (Picasso). Some of the Greek sculpture is idealized or hyper-realistic, and the text book we use questions if Michelangelo's David is really an abstract sculpture, because it violates phi in its proportions--David would be monstrous (arms too long, hands too big, etc.) if he were to get down off his pedestal and walk the streets, yet the brilliance of the sculpture is that it looks normal.
When I was researching the history of perspective and looking for examples of the first Renaissance paintings to actually use perspective, I got a different result than what Practices of Looking claims. First there are the frescoes of Pompeii and Herculaneum and the Fayum mummy caskets of Roman Egypt that portray humans fairly accurately in three dimensions (much better than Giotto, who was really, really close to depicting 3 dimensions on 2 dimensional space)--one and two point perspective were still a little bit off in the landscapes I've seen. Practices of Looking mentions Brunellschi, but not Masolino, and I've seen claims that his St. Peter Healing the Cripple predates Brunellschi for demonstrating one point perspective.
I wrote a poem on Simone Martini's The Annunciation--it was in response to a poem written by Eva Chruscial, who got her Ph. D. here.
My students really struggle with abstract paintings, and I confess I do too (maybe not in the same degree though)--because I know how difficult it is to draw a hand, I really appreciate the skill it takes (I will be absolutely captivated by textures like mink in a painting). But you can change--I was never a big fan of the Impressionists, but I really like Impressionist paintings by American Frank Benson and Dane Pieter Kroyer (a poster of one of his paintings hangs over my desk as I type this--a remarkably peaceful painting of a woman in pink, reading in a lounge chair with a dog at her feet and a huge rose bush covered with white blossoms in the foreground.) Okay, so maybe its the French Impressionists, who have all the fame, I really don't care for. Jackson Pollack is useful for demonstrating that art needs to be INTENTIONAL and even though they may have painting dropclothes that rival a Pollack painting, they didn't put the splotches there on purpose. I've also discovered that if students look long enough at a Pollack painting, some of them start to see faces.....Hm.
I thought it interesting that the authors used Who Framed Roger Rabbit and A Night at the Museum as examples for their blend of real actors and animated characters. Did these authors never hear of Gene Kelly's famous dance with Jerry Mouse in the 1945 Anchors Away! ? This concept is nothing new, but by dating the use of this technique to 1988 and 2006, they make it seem like it is fairly recent.
When I was researching the history of perspective and looking for examples of the first Renaissance paintings to actually use perspective, I got a different result than what Practices of Looking claims. First there are the frescoes of Pompeii and Herculaneum and the Fayum mummy caskets of Roman Egypt that portray humans fairly accurately in three dimensions (much better than Giotto, who was really, really close to depicting 3 dimensions on 2 dimensional space)--one and two point perspective were still a little bit off in the landscapes I've seen. Practices of Looking mentions Brunellschi, but not Masolino, and I've seen claims that his St. Peter Healing the Cripple predates Brunellschi for demonstrating one point perspective.
I wrote a poem on Simone Martini's The Annunciation--it was in response to a poem written by Eva Chruscial, who got her Ph. D. here.
My students really struggle with abstract paintings, and I confess I do too (maybe not in the same degree though)--because I know how difficult it is to draw a hand, I really appreciate the skill it takes (I will be absolutely captivated by textures like mink in a painting). But you can change--I was never a big fan of the Impressionists, but I really like Impressionist paintings by American Frank Benson and Dane Pieter Kroyer (a poster of one of his paintings hangs over my desk as I type this--a remarkably peaceful painting of a woman in pink, reading in a lounge chair with a dog at her feet and a huge rose bush covered with white blossoms in the foreground.) Okay, so maybe its the French Impressionists, who have all the fame, I really don't care for. Jackson Pollack is useful for demonstrating that art needs to be INTENTIONAL and even though they may have painting dropclothes that rival a Pollack painting, they didn't put the splotches there on purpose. I've also discovered that if students look long enough at a Pollack painting, some of them start to see faces.....Hm.
I thought it interesting that the authors used Who Framed Roger Rabbit and A Night at the Museum as examples for their blend of real actors and animated characters. Did these authors never hear of Gene Kelly's famous dance with Jerry Mouse in the 1945 Anchors Away! ? This concept is nothing new, but by dating the use of this technique to 1988 and 2006, they make it seem like it is fairly recent.
Stole 'N Symbols
I got my final project complete enough to take to church so my friend could model it (I told him to practice his catwalk strut) and I could take photos for the project. He reiterated that he liked using the less obvious or popular symbols as then people ask questions. They won't ask questions if they think they already know the answers. I also had photos of the church in Germany where I saw the bleeding pelican, and teased him that when he met me, he probably didn't know I'd know such esoteric information (he had to agree).
Several others ooh and aahed the stole so far (a number of women quilt and one had made my friend his Good Friday stole), associated the phoenix with Fawkes in the Harry Potter novels, and then my friend brought up the eagle and its symbolism. He pastors a dual parish (two churches) and the younger church had gotten most of their their paraments from the older congregation. One of these has an eagle, but other than representing the Gospel of John, he wasn't sure what the meaning of this bird was (and if for St. John, it would be on a white background, which this wasn't--he thinks it's purple, which is Lent or Advent). Not a problem--I looked it up in my book (you really don't need the Internet if you know me; I don't remember why I got the book on church symbolism, other than it was really cheap and I thought it would be a useful resource to have in my library--I've gotten my $3 worth. It has to do with Resurrection, the spirit and baptism.
While treasure hunting at the local thrift stores, I found another piece of religious visual rhetoric for a quarter. It's a bracelet with roses alternating with lilies and has a Mary medal at the end--I know roses and lilies are associated with Mary, but absent that reference, it appears to be a sterling silver bracelet that I can make fit my wrists and I like flowers. When I got it home, I discovered there are various depictions of St. Christopher, the Misercordia, etc., on the flip side of each flower. I'm not Catholic (I probably would be if it weren't for the theology--the ritual and visuals certainly appeal) but I thought the bracelet well worth what I spent.
Several others ooh and aahed the stole so far (a number of women quilt and one had made my friend his Good Friday stole), associated the phoenix with Fawkes in the Harry Potter novels, and then my friend brought up the eagle and its symbolism. He pastors a dual parish (two churches) and the younger church had gotten most of their their paraments from the older congregation. One of these has an eagle, but other than representing the Gospel of John, he wasn't sure what the meaning of this bird was (and if for St. John, it would be on a white background, which this wasn't--he thinks it's purple, which is Lent or Advent). Not a problem--I looked it up in my book (you really don't need the Internet if you know me; I don't remember why I got the book on church symbolism, other than it was really cheap and I thought it would be a useful resource to have in my library--I've gotten my $3 worth. It has to do with Resurrection, the spirit and baptism.
While treasure hunting at the local thrift stores, I found another piece of religious visual rhetoric for a quarter. It's a bracelet with roses alternating with lilies and has a Mary medal at the end--I know roses and lilies are associated with Mary, but absent that reference, it appears to be a sterling silver bracelet that I can make fit my wrists and I like flowers. When I got it home, I discovered there are various depictions of St. Christopher, the Misercordia, etc., on the flip side of each flower. I'm not Catholic (I probably would be if it weren't for the theology--the ritual and visuals certainly appeal) but I thought the bracelet well worth what I spent.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Zombie brands
This is a new one. I was trying to find the Xerox corporation graveyard ad and found references to it (no visuals). One of the websites was a World Intellectual Property Organization newsletter written by Timothy J. Lockhart. He writes about the death of trademarks--nothing new there--but at the end of the article he talks about Zombie brands (formerly known as ghost or orphan brands). These are marks that "die" (the registration is allowed to lapse, is sold, etc.) but are resurrected for the same or similar products. Some examples are WHITE CLOUD toilet paper--acquired by Procter & Gamble, but was phased out because P&G also owned CHARMIN toleit paper, and then sold to Wal-mart as a private label. A company is looking into looking into resurrecting the BRIM coffee brand, but for caffinated as well as decaf coffee. More info is at http://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2009/06/article_0010.html
Copies of Copies
Since I’ve talked in class about how we would not have any idea of some Greek sculpture if it were not for the Roman copies, I will not go there. However, the Practices of Looking authors barely touch on “value” and originality and copies. I’m not so sure that the first pulling of a silkscreen is more important than a later; I remember my lithography professor explaining that the value is in the number of the prints so it doesn’t matter if you have print 1/2000 or 1999/2000, but rather that there are no more than 2000 prints. The first prints are usually designated as artist proofs, and those are tricky because you don’t know how many of those are out there.
The authors mention that an “original” bronze “required casting the true original the work in clay, from a plaster mold” (190). Hm. You can do it that way (my one and only cast sculpture—a relief using the Soloflex ad that was highly popular at the time—was, but it was also cast in a polyresin, not bronze). However, all of the bronze sculptures poured in the art department used the lost wax method—in theory, you can make as many sculptures as you pull wax copies from the mold . Actually, I’m not sure if casting bronze from the clay would work, unless the sculpture is solid bronze which would be very expensive and VERY heavy. With the lost wax method, the second mold that is made (the first one is for the wax, which you can then alter before you pour the bronze) allows for the bronze sculpture to be hollow (think of hollow chocolate Easter bunnies), so that it weighs less and uses less bronze (so less expensive).
The other thing not mentioned is that certain copies of originals, usually sanctioned by the museum that owns the original, also have certain value that increases over time. Certain artists are gaining cache in the art world for their “copies” (not “forgeries”—those are done with the intent to deceive—these are opening marked as copies) (this info comes from a newscast on PBS years ago); also, some museum-associated organizations, such as the Museo d’Arte e Scienza in Milan advocate that copies honestly made by students (copying art work is a standard part of an artist’s training) should not be dismissed as mere “copies.”
However, making copies of paintings and sculptures by hand is very different than taking a photograph of a photograph, that is more akin to photocopying (note I didn't use "Xerox"--I wish I could find the graveyard of genericized marks ad Xerox Corporation ran years ago; it was really clever.) and there is little artistic skill in that.
The authors mention that an “original” bronze “required casting the true original the work in clay, from a plaster mold” (190). Hm. You can do it that way (my one and only cast sculpture—a relief using the Soloflex ad that was highly popular at the time—was, but it was also cast in a polyresin, not bronze). However, all of the bronze sculptures poured in the art department used the lost wax method—in theory, you can make as many sculptures as you pull wax copies from the mold . Actually, I’m not sure if casting bronze from the clay would work, unless the sculpture is solid bronze which would be very expensive and VERY heavy. With the lost wax method, the second mold that is made (the first one is for the wax, which you can then alter before you pour the bronze) allows for the bronze sculpture to be hollow (think of hollow chocolate Easter bunnies), so that it weighs less and uses less bronze (so less expensive).
The other thing not mentioned is that certain copies of originals, usually sanctioned by the museum that owns the original, also have certain value that increases over time. Certain artists are gaining cache in the art world for their “copies” (not “forgeries”—those are done with the intent to deceive—these are opening marked as copies) (this info comes from a newscast on PBS years ago); also, some museum-associated organizations, such as the Museo d’Arte e Scienza in Milan advocate that copies honestly made by students (copying art work is a standard part of an artist’s training) should not be dismissed as mere “copies.”
However, making copies of paintings and sculptures by hand is very different than taking a photograph of a photograph, that is more akin to photocopying (note I didn't use "Xerox"--I wish I could find the graveyard of genericized marks ad Xerox Corporation ran years ago; it was really clever.) and there is little artistic skill in that.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Dorothea Lange
When I was reading the textbook there was a comment regarding Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother photograph and that John David Viera questioned the loss of privacy of the people in Lange's photographs (206). Apparently he wasn't familiar with Lange's comments on taking Migrant Mother:
"I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean- to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it." (From: Popular Photography, Feb. 1960).
Lange also apparently alerted a San Francisco newspaper and government about conditions at the camp where the migrant mother and her family were, and the result was 20,000 pounds of food being delivered to the camp.
Lange was paid by the US Government to take these photographs precisely so that these people were not forgotten in their poverty. They were works made for hire, so I doubt Lange benefitted monetarily from them beyond her salary. I really don't have time to see who has the copyright to these photographs, but one of the reasons Migrant Mother is such a common image may have to do with its publication not being restricted, not Lange and others like her trying to make a buck off of these people. I
Another similar photograph is the Afghan girl with the green eyes that Steve McCurry took. The girl gave permission for him to take her photograph and was apparently oblivious that her face became such an icon for that situation until she was contacted a few years ago. She allowed a female photographer to take your photo a second time and is reported that she was pleased that her first photograph symbolized her people. According to http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/03/0311_020312_sharbat_2.html, she is being financially "looked after" and money from proceeds of her photograph is being used to assist in the development and delivery of educational opportunities for young Afghan women and girls. Sharbat Gula has returned to purdah; how is this an invasion of privacy?
"I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean- to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it." (From: Popular Photography, Feb. 1960).
Lange also apparently alerted a San Francisco newspaper and government about conditions at the camp where the migrant mother and her family were, and the result was 20,000 pounds of food being delivered to the camp.
Lange was paid by the US Government to take these photographs precisely so that these people were not forgotten in their poverty. They were works made for hire, so I doubt Lange benefitted monetarily from them beyond her salary. I really don't have time to see who has the copyright to these photographs, but one of the reasons Migrant Mother is such a common image may have to do with its publication not being restricted, not Lange and others like her trying to make a buck off of these people. I
Another similar photograph is the Afghan girl with the green eyes that Steve McCurry took. The girl gave permission for him to take her photograph and was apparently oblivious that her face became such an icon for that situation until she was contacted a few years ago. She allowed a female photographer to take your photo a second time and is reported that she was pleased that her first photograph symbolized her people. According to http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/03/0311_020312_sharbat_2.html, she is being financially "looked after" and money from proceeds of her photograph is being used to assist in the development and delivery of educational opportunities for young Afghan women and girls. Sharbat Gula has returned to purdah; how is this an invasion of privacy?
Judging Wine by Its Label
I'm my family's wine czar. It's not because I really know much about wine other than you color coordinate it with the type of meat (white meat/white wine, red meat red wine, not sure--rose) and that "late harvest" means the wine will be sweet as the grapes had more time to develop the sugars. Oh yes--the type of wine (Merlot, Shiraz, etc.) refers to the grapes used. I get to be the wine czar so my family doesn't have to eat my cooking, and this arrangement suits us both.
Earlier in the year I had purchased some rhubarb wine (serving suggestion: ice cream)and it was a big hit so I was kind of hoping to get more for Thanksgiving. No such luck, but the store did have a few bottles of pumpkin wine. It met my requirements: it was made at an Illinois winery (Prairie State Winery in Genoa)out of Illinois pumpkins. Best yet was its very colorful label depicting the state of Illinois with bright blue skies and big plump pumpkins. I'm a sucker for an interesting wine label. My mother wasn't too pleased when I told her what I had gotten, but all it took to convince her to try it it was one whiff. The wine was really good too--just a hint of pumpkin with a bit of spice--and a big hit. Too bad this year's pumpkin harvest is so bad.
You can see a picture of the label at http://prairiestatewinery.com/fruits.html--I like some of the other labels (like the one with the cardinal on it).
Earlier in the year I had purchased some rhubarb wine (serving suggestion: ice cream)and it was a big hit so I was kind of hoping to get more for Thanksgiving. No such luck, but the store did have a few bottles of pumpkin wine. It met my requirements: it was made at an Illinois winery (Prairie State Winery in Genoa)out of Illinois pumpkins. Best yet was its very colorful label depicting the state of Illinois with bright blue skies and big plump pumpkins. I'm a sucker for an interesting wine label. My mother wasn't too pleased when I told her what I had gotten, but all it took to convince her to try it it was one whiff. The wine was really good too--just a hint of pumpkin with a bit of spice--and a big hit. Too bad this year's pumpkin harvest is so bad.
You can see a picture of the label at http://prairiestatewinery.com/fruits.html--I like some of the other labels (like the one with the cardinal on it).
Pride and Prejudice, Graphic Novel
While waiting for the plumbers to repair the water lines at the laundremat--so much for going early on a Wednesday morning to beat the crowd--I headed over to Borders. I needed some blank books for my nephews (didn't find what I was looking for). I did notice that Marvel comics had depicted Pride and Prejudice as a graphic novel (all five issues were bound in one), though. The front cover was very eye-catching--kind of like the magazines in grocery store check-out lines (and I do have a thing for kitsch); however,an illustration on the back cover had me a bit concerned--it looked like the models for the Bennet sisters were taken straight from the Joe Wright/Keira Knightly film version. Despite this, I bought the book anyway (the film is visually interesting, but the screenwriters should be shot: the title is Pride AND Prejudice and they left out the prejudice. Lots of pride though, but it isn't fueled by much. The character of Wickahm only gets 5 minutes of screen time--not much to seduce three women, nearly run off with one and actaully run off with the third--and that doesn't even allow for his dalliance with Mary King!)
The person doing the text adaptation did an okay job, and I was delighted with several of the issue covers, but it irked me that the visuals inside so heavily relied on the one film adaptation. Why couldn't the illustrator do something original? The Brock, Thomson, and Hassall illustrations are different yet still convey the flavor of the story (okay, so most of them pre-date all the recent film and telly adaptations). Because the illustrator relied on this one film, the colors are drab (never mind that Regency fashion was quite colorful for both men and women; see blog entry on Bright Star)
I was amused when the writer said she had to tell the illustrator to include more bonnets--that was one of Joe Wright's complaints, too many bonnets, in his director's commentary.
The person doing the text adaptation did an okay job, and I was delighted with several of the issue covers, but it irked me that the visuals inside so heavily relied on the one film adaptation. Why couldn't the illustrator do something original? The Brock, Thomson, and Hassall illustrations are different yet still convey the flavor of the story (okay, so most of them pre-date all the recent film and telly adaptations). Because the illustrator relied on this one film, the colors are drab (never mind that Regency fashion was quite colorful for both men and women; see blog entry on Bright Star)
I was amused when the writer said she had to tell the illustrator to include more bonnets--that was one of Joe Wright's complaints, too many bonnets, in his director's commentary.
Bright Star
I see from my list of things to do that I didn’t write a blog on the visuals of Bright Star. So here it is. The timing of the films showing here in Normal was impeccable as I was covering John Keats the following week and it made for a really good extra-credit opportunity for my students (had I known in advance it was going to be playing here, I would have made it required). However, I didn’t learn of it until I was skunking around on some British news sites looking for information on the horde of Anglo-Saxon treasure found recently.
Anyway, the film did not disappoint. I really don’t need much of a plot if the cinematography, costumes and such are up to snuff. While Jane Austen claims there is nothing so fine as a woman in white, Brawne was bright—no pale whites, dingy earth tones, and pastels for her. Try red (especially when she was walking through the mud). Even when she wasn’t wearing a bright color, she stood out. There was the iridescent blues of butterflies and cool blue of bluebells (a sea of flowers), pink of blossoms, and of course, the greenness that is so very English. Keats was suitably fragile looking—I was surprised to learn recently he wasn’t much bigger than I am physically, and I am a rather dainty person. Of course the architecture and furniture adds to the visuals (sorry, I read too many issues of Architectual Digest in my formative years).
Anyway, the film did not disappoint. I really don’t need much of a plot if the cinematography, costumes and such are up to snuff. While Jane Austen claims there is nothing so fine as a woman in white, Brawne was bright—no pale whites, dingy earth tones, and pastels for her. Try red (especially when she was walking through the mud). Even when she wasn’t wearing a bright color, she stood out. There was the iridescent blues of butterflies and cool blue of bluebells (a sea of flowers), pink of blossoms, and of course, the greenness that is so very English. Keats was suitably fragile looking—I was surprised to learn recently he wasn’t much bigger than I am physically, and I am a rather dainty person. Of course the architecture and furniture adds to the visuals (sorry, I read too many issues of Architectual Digest in my formative years).
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Ralph Lauren
Normally I don’t pay much attention to branding—I narrowly missed the whole “designer jeans” craze in the 1980’s—and because I can sew, I can copy. I was really peeved in high school because I had a pair of tweed knickers and wore them (with argyle socks of course) and was the only one in school who had such a garment and then knickers became popular. That took a lot of the fun out of wearing them. The one brand that has intrigued me since my formative years is Ralph Lauren; however, I was (am?) a horse-crazy Scottish Anglophile with upscale tastes and a great love of vintage fashions before I found the brand (and if I’m going to watch grown men chase a little ball around a field, let them do it on horseback; there’s nothing like a good chukker—or chukka for that matter, comfortable boots even when not on horseback) so I’m not sure if the marketing ploys really work—If I were to design my own clothes, I’d probably be wearing something pretty close to RL anyway. I love tweed with old lace—that IS me—not a Madison Avenue construct of me (the tweed goes well with my hair and the old lace with my skin; I look good in ivory). Also, there is a quality issue—RL clothes tend to be well made and made from natural fibers (I avoid synthetic fibers as they’ll melt into your skin and make the burns much worse if you’re ever in a fire) so that rather than the fantasy they sell appeals to me. I also only buy the Lauren brands at thrift stores—I just found a Black Watch lambswool scarf made in Scotland—what could be better than this? Well it could have been cashmere and made in Scotland, but that’s about it.
One of the hard things about writing about advertising for me is that I have given up on commercial TV (I only watch PBS, and I can't do that any more because my converter box isn't bringing in WILL-TV, Champaign Urbana, and cable thinks I'm in a Peoria market, so it dropped WILL for the Peoria station) and I listen to NPR stations so advertising is kept to a minimum. I hate shopping in malls, unless "antique" is in front of "mall" and I've always been attracted to old things so they don't need to advertise to me. I love perfume ads, but perfume aggravates my allergies (or the allergies of the person next to me), and most of the ads that attract my attention are for things I cannot afford. This could be because I am a baby-boomer and my Mom sometimes teases me that I, and not her and my father, was really the one who grew up during the Depression and war years (really, rationing sounds like a good idea sometimes)
One of the hard things about writing about advertising for me is that I have given up on commercial TV (I only watch PBS, and I can't do that any more because my converter box isn't bringing in WILL-TV, Champaign Urbana, and cable thinks I'm in a Peoria market, so it dropped WILL for the Peoria station) and I listen to NPR stations so advertising is kept to a minimum. I hate shopping in malls, unless "antique" is in front of "mall" and I've always been attracted to old things so they don't need to advertise to me. I love perfume ads, but perfume aggravates my allergies (or the allergies of the person next to me), and most of the ads that attract my attention are for things I cannot afford. This could be because I am a baby-boomer and my Mom sometimes teases me that I, and not her and my father, was really the one who grew up during the Depression and war years (really, rationing sounds like a good idea sometimes)
Springdale Cemetery
October 16. Great day—a friend and I went to Springdale Cemetery in Peoria since I had to do a “visual rhetoric” photo shoot. The day was perfect weather-wise: sunny and warm enough for a jacket, but not oppressively chilly. The cemetery was rather busy with others doing what we were doing—people had cameras, or were dog-walking, making grave –rubbings, or a combination of both. Peoria Wilds people were also doing something (seed collection?) as there were several vehicles parked by the savanna with “Peoria Wilds” and “Yard Smart” bumper stickers. The Peoria Public Transport System had a “trolley” bus that cruised by when we were near the table graves. The sculptures proved to be very compliant and posed without complaint against a very blue and largely cloudless sky. One bronze sculpture was particularly photogenic . I knew there was a dog sculpture at the cemetery—we ended up finding four, and I found a horse too (I can’t say I’ve ever found one of those before—and none of these were in the pet cemetery section). Many of the mausoleums had glass behind the decorative ironwork doors and these reflected the autumn trees (the autumn color season was just starting) as well as the light and sky. I had fun at the main mausoleum trying to capture the stained glass windows on the far wall through the glass doors as the glass also reflected the trees behind me (who needs Photoshop?). We then went to two cemeteries in Metamora and did more of the same. Both of us got some really great photos.
I had been at Evergreen Cemetery in Bloomington earlier in the week--it was gray nad rainy, and I was by myself, but that's okay. It was fresh air and no computer screen and the colors were starting to change (although they always seem to be in front of the sculptures I wanted to shoot). It is amazing what you can find in these places when you have a camera and are on a mission.
I had been at Evergreen Cemetery in Bloomington earlier in the week--it was gray nad rainy, and I was by myself, but that's okay. It was fresh air and no computer screen and the colors were starting to change (although they always seem to be in front of the sculptures I wanted to shoot). It is amazing what you can find in these places when you have a camera and are on a mission.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Color of Green, Part II
I had a lot of fun with putting together this presentation; for it being such an esoteric subject and narrow culture (Renaissance England), I was surprised at how much information I found before the book The Key of Green came in and I wasn't initially aware there was a time limit (my first read through was at 14 minutes). I am not a huge fan of Power Point presentations in the classroom—even if the presentation text is short, I notice students often don’t write down anything more than what is on the screen. On the other hand, chalk dust aggravates my allergies, whiteboard markers stink, and I can only write on the lower half of the boards any ways, so Power Point allows me to use text in easy to read fonts (no deciphering my handwriting) and I don’t have to worry as much about spelling (Spellcheck usually gets my big spelling goofs). Best of all, I can use pictures, and students have to come up with their own notes. However, I have been warned by other, more-experienced-than-me colleagues against using some of the flashier aspects of Power Point such as fancy backgrounds and fonts, and animation—keep it simple, they tell me. Hence the use of Ariel as my main font—although I used Britannic Bold for the slide titles (I chose that font just because of the name, but it worked well) and colored all the fonts a dark green. I saved the Old English Text just for a handful of slides. Also, apparently aspects like animation can trigger epileptic seizures. In hind sight, I could have tried a buff background, but I would have ditched that if some of my illustrations had white borders (they blend into a white background so well). So, if my presentation seemed a bit stark—that is why.
Bits and Pieces
While the text listed the spectator, the gaze, and spectating, it wasn’t as specific with one other aspect of the relationship: the spectacle, or what is looked at. I was working on choosing texts for next semester, so Euripides Medea has been on my mind. Medea flying off to Athens at the end of the play in a chariot pulled by dragons is what I usually see given as an example of spectacle as per Aristotle and his unities of drama. As I was perusing possible translations, there was repeated reminders that Euripides’ audience was much more familiar with Medea’s back-story and her marriage to Jason of Argonaut fame (Medea literally saves Jason’s hide). I thought it interesting that spectacle, as a concept at least as old as the Greek dramatists, was not specifically mentioned.
An interesting twist on Foucault and Bentham’s inspecting gaze and constant surveillance in our world—perhaps this is why vampire stories are so prevalent in our society today. Part of the vampire myth is that vampires cast no reflection; in the British television series Ultraviolet, the inability to cast a reflection is extended to technologies such as telephones, photographs, surveillance videos, and answering machines/voice mail. The only way to see them is with the eye. A danger/predator that cannot be detected or recorded by technology is certainly very provocative.
If the spectator does not know what an odalisque is, will he or she see a painting such as Ingres’ La Grande Odalisque as orientalist? Why is this woman Turkish? I’m northern European and she is no darker than I am. She is wearing a turban, but that was a popular hat style during the Napoleonic War years (watch Jane Austen films and note the hats, especially for evening wear). Before commenting on western women appropriating the head gear of eastern women, note the role of women’s hats in western culture. To me, she is just a woman. There appears to be a hookah off to the side of the painting as well, but unless you know what it is, it is easy to overlook. The Guerilla Girl Met poster is interesting in its argument, but I noticed that the poster also slyly directs our gaze to where it WANTS us to look—yes, it visually uses the Ingres painting (an example of French Neo-classicism), but the text limits the statistics to art and artists represented in the “Modern Art sections” of the museum. I’ve never been to the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, but the Modern Art sections of the art museums I have been in would not be the sections I would expect to find a painting such La Grande Odalisque (Magritte, Rothko, Picasso—yes). What about the artists and nudes in Medieval art? By limiting the statistics to Modern Art, the Guerilla Girls exclude the male nudes of ancient Greece and Rome (the Greeks didn’t portray women completely in the nude until Praxiteles’s Aphrodite of Cnidus), and other artistic periods in Western art as well that may have had women actively painting or sculpting (Angelica Kaufmann was one of the founding members of the Royal Academy). But we weren’t supposed to notice that the stats are limited to certain sections—just the 3% of artists and 83% of nudes that are set off with purple ink, rather than black ink. The poster also doesn’t address the number of women who were art patrons and collectors (Lucrezia Borgia, Catherine the Great, to name a few) whose private collections form the core of some of these art museums (like the Hermitage—named after a painting in Catherine the Great’s bedroom). One of the explanations I have read on Vermeer’s domestic interiors is that a female viewer would have had more access to the paintings (the men being off fighting wars and trading). I will warrant though that there are more male artists and female nudes represented in museums.
I take exception to the statement that the mirror convention in paintings of Venus establishes her gaze as narcissistic. There is a convention in classical art that only deities are portrayed in the nude, so are these female nudes with goddess names actually human? As for Aphrodite/Venus and the mirror—narcissism gets its name from a male character in mythology. While a mirror is one of the attributes of Aphrodite (she is, after all the goddess of beauty), it would have been an item only the wealthy could have afforded in the ancient world where this association originates. Mirrors could show literacy (why inscribed them if their owner couldn’t read) and have scenes from mythology on them. Mirrors were also dedicated by women to various deities (male and female) and appear in bridal art. While a mirror may have symbolized vanity during the Renaissance, it was more a symbol of femininity and grace. (this info comes largely from a book entitled Women in the Classical World by Elaine Fantham, Helene Peet Foley, Natalie Boymel Kampen, Sarah B. Pomeroy, and H. Alan Shapiro).
Were the Calvin Klein underwear and perfume ads homoerotic, or were they being used to market the products to women, who may be in a position to buy the items for their men? I just remember an awful lot of the ads being used to decorate women’s dorm rooms when I was an undergrad, but not in the rooms of gay friends.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
PINK
About color being trademarked: technically any trademark that includes “plus the design” in its registered description has color protected within the mark as a whole. Just because someone has a registered mark, that does not necessarily mean the mark holder has a monopoly on everything to do with that mark—the mark holder has to take a back seat for any previous uses of a similar mark, which is why there is a Burger King restaurant in Mattoon, Illinois that is not part of the franchise chain and that reportedly makes much better burgers, or if the mark is also someone’s legal name, which is why McDonald’s restaurants get into trouble in Scotland when it tries to enforce its trademark on every McDonald who opens a restaurant.
A lot of time and money goes into developing a good trademark or service mark—that was the argument Owens-Corning used with registering the color “PINK.” In addition to the prior use and name exceptions, the mark registration is only good in the class(es) the mark is registered for, so Owens-Corning cannot stop Victoria’s Secret from using “PINK” as a mark—while arguably they both provide insulation (Styrofoam or silk), they marks are used in very different businesses where there is little likelihood of confusion. “Likelihood of confusion” is a one of the controlling factors behind granting trademark registration—if there is deemed to be a likelihood of confusion, registration will be denied. It is unlikely someone will go into a Victoria’s Secret store expecting to find foam house insulation.
Even then, once a mark is registered, the registration is not indefinite; the owner has to periodically renew the mark or it becomes available for someone else to use. There is also the danger the mark can become “generic”—enter into the vocabulary as a regular word. Thermos, aspirin, and kerosene were all once protected marks, but no more. Xerox Corporation has gone to great lengths to remind people that one does not make Xeroxes on a Xerox, but rather one makes photocopies on a Xerox photocopier machine (I particularly like the graveyard of genericized marks ad). Besides, trademarks and service marks are grammatically adjectives, not nouns or verbs (sorry—the legal department where I worked was in a constant battle with the marketing department because they wanted to save space and noun the mark and we insisted they use the ™ , sm (Word doesn’t have a symbol for sm) or ® as well as a noun for what ever the business was (restaurant, car wash, etc.).
Any way, I’ve digressed and so I’m going home.
A lot of time and money goes into developing a good trademark or service mark—that was the argument Owens-Corning used with registering the color “PINK.” In addition to the prior use and name exceptions, the mark registration is only good in the class(es) the mark is registered for, so Owens-Corning cannot stop Victoria’s Secret from using “PINK” as a mark—while arguably they both provide insulation (Styrofoam or silk), they marks are used in very different businesses where there is little likelihood of confusion. “Likelihood of confusion” is a one of the controlling factors behind granting trademark registration—if there is deemed to be a likelihood of confusion, registration will be denied. It is unlikely someone will go into a Victoria’s Secret store expecting to find foam house insulation.
Even then, once a mark is registered, the registration is not indefinite; the owner has to periodically renew the mark or it becomes available for someone else to use. There is also the danger the mark can become “generic”—enter into the vocabulary as a regular word. Thermos, aspirin, and kerosene were all once protected marks, but no more. Xerox Corporation has gone to great lengths to remind people that one does not make Xeroxes on a Xerox, but rather one makes photocopies on a Xerox photocopier machine (I particularly like the graveyard of genericized marks ad). Besides, trademarks and service marks are grammatically adjectives, not nouns or verbs (sorry—the legal department where I worked was in a constant battle with the marketing department because they wanted to save space and noun the mark and we insisted they use the ™ , sm (Word doesn’t have a symbol for sm) or ® as well as a noun for what ever the business was (restaurant, car wash, etc.).
Any way, I’ve digressed and so I’m going home.
Color of Green
I am so glad I found reference to The Key of Green: Passion and Perception in Renaissance Culture as it has made the color Power Point project to be rather fun. Since I can’t see to ever focus on the contemporary world (must be the “old soul”) focusing on the culture of a past world is right up my proverbial alley. It didn’t hurt that the color in question is my favorite, thereby solving the problem of how to present on “green” without dredging up the obvious, 20th-21st century environmental references. Best of all, Renaissance green has lots to do with love and textiles and the arts, my other passions. Wow! A new way at looking at “Greensleeves”! Discovery of naughty Renaissance ballads (let’s just say the refrain “Hey dilly do down day” has a new meaning)! Who would have thought that “green” was a verb as well as adjective in Middle English and the Scots of James VI/I? My only regret is that my book order got screwed up the first time and I didn’t get the book until AFTER I had lectured on Andrew Marvell. Incidentally, the cover of the book, sans jacket, is Nile green.
The only negative thing about this project was a sinus cold over seasonal allergies and an overlay of caffeine withdrawal from all the tea and honey I drank to preserve my health. If that wasn’t bad enough, having to stare at my vibrant green Power Point slide during class until I could figure out how to change the backgrounds back to white without changing all the backgrounds of all the slides (Note to self: next time, do everything in white and then add the colored backgrounds) in whatever crazy version of Word is on the classroom computers. Talk about “green-sickness”—the techno version.
As a side note, for the font exercise, I gave a copy of “Pink Hollyhocks” to the person who first gave me the poem, and she informed me that she not only liked my treatment of the poem, but she hung it in her office, and a former student of mine whom I sent the Waymen poem and the John of the Cross poem to enjoyed both of those.
The only negative thing about this project was a sinus cold over seasonal allergies and an overlay of caffeine withdrawal from all the tea and honey I drank to preserve my health. If that wasn’t bad enough, having to stare at my vibrant green Power Point slide during class until I could figure out how to change the backgrounds back to white without changing all the backgrounds of all the slides (Note to self: next time, do everything in white and then add the colored backgrounds) in whatever crazy version of Word is on the classroom computers. Talk about “green-sickness”—the techno version.
As a side note, for the font exercise, I gave a copy of “Pink Hollyhocks” to the person who first gave me the poem, and she informed me that she not only liked my treatment of the poem, but she hung it in her office, and a former student of mine whom I sent the Waymen poem and the John of the Cross poem to enjoyed both of those.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Color and Personality
I always laugh with personality tests because the results are usually consistent—and fairly accurate (at least I think so; my sister might disagree). So it wasn’t too much of a surprise when I took the color and personality tests in class and got the results.
I am not sure what my “magenta” aura color means, but I did find a color code on another website which describes a “pink-bright and light” (magenta is a bright pink): loving, tender, sensitive, sensual, artistic, affection, purity, compassion; new or revived romantic relationship. Can indicate clairaudience.” I have good hearing, but I am not clairaudient. Apparently, a red aura means a healthy ego—which my friends have been telling me for years. (http://www.reiki-for-holistic-health.com/auracolormeanings.html). However at another website, the description of a “magenta” aura (a bit too long to reproduce here) was sort of accurate—magenta’s can be very creative and optimistic, but I like a bit more structure in my life than what this list suggests (“cutting-edge” “urban” “avant-garde” are not terms usually used to describe me). If I have a magenta aura, it’s a rather subdued one . (http://www.russellrowe.com/Magenta%20Aura%20Color.htm )
I finally found the missing pages to my ColorQuiz. “Inclined to choose luxurious things, which are gratifying to the senses. Turned off by things which are tacky and tasteless." Is spot-on and something that many other personality tests have said about me—I will take quality over quantity any day (and you aren’t likely to find any black-velvet paintings of Elvis in my possession either). I do like to play with kitsch in moderation though. This test also says I’m stressed out by current events, which also has some truth in it—I tend to fret about money and not having enough, especially as I get older, but I don’t see this as hampering me.
The interior design quiz is also VERY me. I had a negative reaction to the visual posted with my results (those orange pillows wouldn’t even make it past my front door) and the furniture in the photo was not me either. However, the text description is accurate—beige and various greens are the dominate wall colors (I have dark wood trim and hardwood floors so the neutrals keep the house from looking too dark). Again it says I’m driven by texture—I have very poor eyesight and a heightened sense of touch, but that luxuriousness aspect of me just loves the feel of silk velvet, wool, brocade, mink…(even the sound of these is very touchy-feeling). I also have plants (the violets and geraniums all have fuzzy leaves), both inside and outside.
The Color Code results also described me pretty well: loyal (my favorite dog breeds are spaniels, so go figure), again preferring quality over quantity, expect others to live up to my standards, dependable, etc. I will admit I can be self-righteous, moody and prone to worry. The results called my type a “sainted pit-bull” which I can see that, although I prefer being compared to a spaniel—they can be very protective too and bite when provoked, but aren’t as scary (and they have that longer silky fur too).
I found a couple of other color and personality sites—I found one that ties in color, personality, and Myers-Briggs—not too surprisingly, I am a “green” personality (this corresponds with Myers-Briggs “NF” personalities, which is what I am. According to “Color Q Profiles,” greens are creative (but need structure), like variety, can make the mundane into a great adventure. They are drawn to and work best with people like themselves (my personality opposites drive me nuts! They may be fascinating people, but I can only tolerate them in small doses). However, I note from some of the other tests I looked at that “blue” and “green” are often switched around for their attributes.
I am not sure what my “magenta” aura color means, but I did find a color code on another website which describes a “pink-bright and light” (magenta is a bright pink): loving, tender, sensitive, sensual, artistic, affection, purity, compassion; new or revived romantic relationship. Can indicate clairaudience.” I have good hearing, but I am not clairaudient. Apparently, a red aura means a healthy ego—which my friends have been telling me for years. (http://www.reiki-for-holistic-health.com/auracolormeanings.html). However at another website, the description of a “magenta” aura (a bit too long to reproduce here) was sort of accurate—magenta’s can be very creative and optimistic, but I like a bit more structure in my life than what this list suggests (“cutting-edge” “urban” “avant-garde” are not terms usually used to describe me). If I have a magenta aura, it’s a rather subdued one . (http://www.russellrowe.com/Magenta%20Aura%20Color.htm )
I finally found the missing pages to my ColorQuiz. “Inclined to choose luxurious things, which are gratifying to the senses. Turned off by things which are tacky and tasteless." Is spot-on and something that many other personality tests have said about me—I will take quality over quantity any day (and you aren’t likely to find any black-velvet paintings of Elvis in my possession either). I do like to play with kitsch in moderation though. This test also says I’m stressed out by current events, which also has some truth in it—I tend to fret about money and not having enough, especially as I get older, but I don’t see this as hampering me.
The interior design quiz is also VERY me. I had a negative reaction to the visual posted with my results (those orange pillows wouldn’t even make it past my front door) and the furniture in the photo was not me either. However, the text description is accurate—beige and various greens are the dominate wall colors (I have dark wood trim and hardwood floors so the neutrals keep the house from looking too dark). Again it says I’m driven by texture—I have very poor eyesight and a heightened sense of touch, but that luxuriousness aspect of me just loves the feel of silk velvet, wool, brocade, mink…(even the sound of these is very touchy-feeling). I also have plants (the violets and geraniums all have fuzzy leaves), both inside and outside.
The Color Code results also described me pretty well: loyal (my favorite dog breeds are spaniels, so go figure), again preferring quality over quantity, expect others to live up to my standards, dependable, etc. I will admit I can be self-righteous, moody and prone to worry. The results called my type a “sainted pit-bull” which I can see that, although I prefer being compared to a spaniel—they can be very protective too and bite when provoked, but aren’t as scary (and they have that longer silky fur too).
I found a couple of other color and personality sites—I found one that ties in color, personality, and Myers-Briggs—not too surprisingly, I am a “green” personality (this corresponds with Myers-Briggs “NF” personalities, which is what I am. According to “Color Q Profiles,” greens are creative (but need structure), like variety, can make the mundane into a great adventure. They are drawn to and work best with people like themselves (my personality opposites drive me nuts! They may be fascinating people, but I can only tolerate them in small doses). However, I note from some of the other tests I looked at that “blue” and “green” are often switched around for their attributes.
Self Portraits
In Released into Language, Wendy Bishop describes a writing activity involving postcards, landscapes, and description. I have used this activity shamelessly in my writing classes with much success—perhaps the success is that the students have fun with the somewhat out of the ordinary writing assignment and fun is often overlooked in writing assignments. When I presented Bishop’s assignment at an Illinois State Writing Project class a couple of years ago, one of the ways discussed to complicate the assignment was to use self-portraits of famous artists instead of post cards of landscapes. Since my Advanced Comp. students are a savvy bunch, I decided to up the ante and try the self-portraits instead of the landscapes.
While I inherited a stash of old postcards, I had to resort to Wikipedia for the self-portraits (it has its uses—and it publishes copyright status of images). I garnered a nice collection and several were similar in appearance soas to make it a little more difficult to identify the portraits (there are ones of Rembrandt and Sir Joshua Reynolds that look particularly similar).
The “vague word” exercise went over well, although a vast majority of students described “beautiful weather” as the sort we are having right now. An “awesome vacation” brought more variety with definite divisions forming between the Las Vegas/Disney World factions, the beach goers, and the campers (two students even discovered they vacation in the same little nook of Door County). Quite a few of them responded with “Oh gross!” to the photo of Frank’s baby bluebirds, which he insisted were “cute,” and this led into my “gross” story. While I cannot print the gross story here (something crucial is lost in the translation from an oral telling to one in text), suffice it to say that once the students realized what “gross” was referring to, there was a large burst of laughter, and I doubt they will ever use the word “gross” again.
The next step was to have them describe the person in the self-portraits I had given them, and print the description (having a printer in the rooms is very useful). Then I called for two volunteers. One read his description while the other drew the person being described on the white board. There was much laughter by both the volunteers and the class during this process (especially over the words “cleavage” and “corset” and the drawer’s reaction to them). In the end, I put the self-portrait of Angelica Kaufmann (the painting being described and reproduced by the volunteers) up on the screen. All things considered, it was a decent reproduction.
The students then turned to their own reproductions; they exchanged descriptions and hit the box of markers. Once done with their drawings, they looked up the original self-portraits in my STV250 folder, and then wrote a note to their classmates as to what details would have made the drawings more successful. Because one of the students already had his description exposed to the class, I substituted a description. The student who got my description chastised me for being vague and saying the person in the portrait was “pretty.” All the students were able to find the right self portrait in the master list, so the descriptions must have been sufficient, and they all seemed like they had a good time (and maybe, just maybe, they will add a bit more description to their essays).
While I inherited a stash of old postcards, I had to resort to Wikipedia for the self-portraits (it has its uses—and it publishes copyright status of images). I garnered a nice collection and several were similar in appearance soas to make it a little more difficult to identify the portraits (there are ones of Rembrandt and Sir Joshua Reynolds that look particularly similar).
The “vague word” exercise went over well, although a vast majority of students described “beautiful weather” as the sort we are having right now. An “awesome vacation” brought more variety with definite divisions forming between the Las Vegas/Disney World factions, the beach goers, and the campers (two students even discovered they vacation in the same little nook of Door County). Quite a few of them responded with “Oh gross!” to the photo of Frank’s baby bluebirds, which he insisted were “cute,” and this led into my “gross” story. While I cannot print the gross story here (something crucial is lost in the translation from an oral telling to one in text), suffice it to say that once the students realized what “gross” was referring to, there was a large burst of laughter, and I doubt they will ever use the word “gross” again.
The next step was to have them describe the person in the self-portraits I had given them, and print the description (having a printer in the rooms is very useful). Then I called for two volunteers. One read his description while the other drew the person being described on the white board. There was much laughter by both the volunteers and the class during this process (especially over the words “cleavage” and “corset” and the drawer’s reaction to them). In the end, I put the self-portrait of Angelica Kaufmann (the painting being described and reproduced by the volunteers) up on the screen. All things considered, it was a decent reproduction.
The students then turned to their own reproductions; they exchanged descriptions and hit the box of markers. Once done with their drawings, they looked up the original self-portraits in my STV250 folder, and then wrote a note to their classmates as to what details would have made the drawings more successful. Because one of the students already had his description exposed to the class, I substituted a description. The student who got my description chastised me for being vague and saying the person in the portrait was “pretty.” All the students were able to find the right self portrait in the master list, so the descriptions must have been sufficient, and they all seemed like they had a good time (and maybe, just maybe, they will add a bit more description to their essays).
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Logotypes
When I read this section, my first thought was if there was much difference between a logotype (business oriented) and the fancy, stylized initials some artists use to sign their paintings or otherwise classify their paintings. I seem to recall the artistic initials being termed a “cartouche”—and some of them are surrounded by a border, such as the “PRB” for the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood—but that does not fit for artists such as James McNeill Whistler, whose used a “monogram” of his initials J and W formed into a butterfly (this was, in part, so it blended into his art better). I always found signing my name to art distracting, so I switched to a monogram or logotype of my own This solved the problem of my name being distracting, especially since my works tend to be miniatures (8 x 10 or smaller). Any way, I almost put Ralph Lauren’s logotype on my cultural map since I like his style of clothing, well, I like anything tweedy, and it is probably the only logotype I voluntarily and consciously display (I am looking around my office for other examples of logotypes and other than on the computer and phone, I am not finding much. “NCTE” on some of my books is something of a logotype (I just checked the Trademark office and it is a “dead” mark). Anyway, since I have a background in intellectual property (trademarks, service marks and copyright, but NOT patents—my brain would explode if I had to prosecute a patent) that unfortunately I never got to use as much as I would have liked to, I find logotypes rather fascinating. Incidentally, I also note that Ralph Lauren’s logotype uses a serif font.
The one really noticeable use of non-logotype fonts in my office is my Pieter Krøyer poster—the city in Norway where the exhibition was (Blaafarvevæket) is an font similar, if not identical, to Kunstler Script (darn--Blaafarvevæket in Kunstler Script on my draft and it did not transfer!) and the rest of the exhibit information is in a font like Palatino or Garamond.
The one really noticeable use of non-logotype fonts in my office is my Pieter Krøyer poster—the city in Norway where the exhibition was (Blaafarvevæket) is an font similar, if not identical, to Kunstler Script (darn--Blaafarvevæket in Kunstler Script on my draft and it did not transfer!) and the rest of the exhibit information is in a font like Palatino or Garamond.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Typefaces: Bembo
When getting ready for work this morning, I grabbed my copy of The Prettiest Love Letters in the World: Letters Between Lucrezia Borgia and Pietro Bembo 1503 to 1519 (translated by Hugh Shankland). I have the book because I have long had an interest in Lucrezia Borgia—a fascinating woman, much maligned because of her father and brother—and I enjoy reading the letters and diaries of famous people. So, what does this have to do with a blog post that claims to be about typeface? Well, Bembo (the scholar, Cardinal, and half of the letter-writing team) happens to be the person the an early italic type was named after and the typeface that the letters are reproduced in (more or less—“Monotype Bembo” is what the book officially calls the font.. Okay, I confess I read those typeface blurbs in books that identify the typeface and paper, although the quality of paper is usually betrayed through the subtleties of its texture—I am such a nerd—although this tidbit of typographical trivia was also featured on the book’s back jacket. So, while I will leave the contents of the letters for the curious to discover on their own (save it to say they are very pretty letters, indeed), I will only say that Peitro Bembo was a classical scholar and friend of the printer Aldus Manutius, whose student trip up Mt. Etna, recounted in part in his De Aetna, was printed in 1495 in Francesco Griffo’s first Roman font, which in turn inspired the Bembo typefaces.
Incidentally, I noticed in Thinking with Type that two of my other favorite fonts, Garamond and Palatino, were linked with Bembo.
Incidentally, I noticed in Thinking with Type that two of my other favorite fonts, Garamond and Palatino, were linked with Bembo.
Diagrams
The first diagram in Graphic Design really caught my eye—both with the scrolls that reminded me of Spenserian script and the subtle (okay, that red heart is not very subtle) use of color. I would like to see a larger version so I could see the photographs more clearly. The musicality of it did not appear to me until class, as the identification of Marian Bantjes’s fondness for medieval and Celtic illumination and things baroque was enough for me to relate to it—I used a picture from the Lindesfarne Gospels as part of my Power Point lecture on Beowulf and I could see the resemblance. The networks on Page 201 reminded me of some of the geometric embroidery patterns I have done on evenweave fabric and perforated paper, the “tube” knockoff (I believe the London diagram gets points for originality, not Tokyo) caught my eye having travelled the London tube extensively one summer (I even have a coffee mug with the Tube map on it), but there is an even better representation in David Booth’s 1986 poster, The Tate Gallery by Tube, where the subway diagram is made up of rolls of paint squeezed out of the tubes (so great play of the word “tube”). Visually the insect phobia map interested me because I like (and appreciate) the detail in 19th century engraving (I never took engraving, but my classmates who did expressed much frustration when mistakes were made). Meanwhile, the diagram of “The Sordid Underbelly of One Girl’s Filthy Apartment” did not interest me that much visually (although I could tell common symbols used in setting out a floor plan for interior design were used); however, the text was hilarious—especially the references to dust bunnies, dead insects, and found change.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
This is really Blog #2
Sorry--technical difficulties...
Now that I have the textbook, this should be a little easier. I initially made some notes regarding the still life by de la Porte on page 13; it seems the author spends more time reading the Peck painting that follows and gives that painting more voice than the de la Ponte’s painting. De la Ponte’s painting is dismissed as being symbolic of peasant life, but how do we know this is a peasant table? There are nectarines in a painted bowl—do peasants have easy access to nectarines? Is the painted bowl a local product or is it imported (the design looks Asian to me)? How does the author know the flowers are “wildflowers,” suggesting that they were plucked from nature rather than cultivated? The flowers look like stocks or delphiniums—those are garden flowers (in the Peck painting they look more like wild asters}. What was happening in the world when de la Porte painted his still life—sometimes the very stillness carries meaning. The 17th Century Dutch painters that de la Porte apparently admired, for instance, were painting at a time when the Netherlands was known as the “cockpit of Europe” because of all the fighting (the Thirty Years War, trade wars with England, etc.). For me, the de la Porte is much more intriguing than the Peck, with it silly little faces (it’s too “cute”; the lack of chiaroscuro softens the composition). Who left the coffee and cheese? What caused this person to leave cheese crumbs on the table? The other thing I wanted to comment on regarding the first reading had to do with the Nancy Burson photos on page 22—an interesting concept, but was she familiar with what Ingmar Bergman did about 20 years earlier when he merged Liv Ullmann’s face with Bibi Anderson’s in Persona?
Now that I have the textbook, this should be a little easier. I initially made some notes regarding the still life by de la Porte on page 13; it seems the author spends more time reading the Peck painting that follows and gives that painting more voice than the de la Ponte’s painting. De la Ponte’s painting is dismissed as being symbolic of peasant life, but how do we know this is a peasant table? There are nectarines in a painted bowl—do peasants have easy access to nectarines? Is the painted bowl a local product or is it imported (the design looks Asian to me)? How does the author know the flowers are “wildflowers,” suggesting that they were plucked from nature rather than cultivated? The flowers look like stocks or delphiniums—those are garden flowers (in the Peck painting they look more like wild asters}. What was happening in the world when de la Porte painted his still life—sometimes the very stillness carries meaning. The 17th Century Dutch painters that de la Porte apparently admired, for instance, were painting at a time when the Netherlands was known as the “cockpit of Europe” because of all the fighting (the Thirty Years War, trade wars with England, etc.). For me, the de la Porte is much more intriguing than the Peck, with it silly little faces (it’s too “cute”; the lack of chiaroscuro softens the composition). Who left the coffee and cheese? What caused this person to leave cheese crumbs on the table? The other thing I wanted to comment on regarding the first reading had to do with the Nancy Burson photos on page 22—an interesting concept, but was she familiar with what Ingmar Bergman did about 20 years earlier when he merged Liv Ullmann’s face with Bibi Anderson’s in Persona?
This is Really Blog #3
What started out as an impromptu hike to one cemetery prairie to see prairie gentian in bloom ended up at a different cemetery prairie (by Paxton). Oh well, the cemetery Frank and I ended up at had better “architecture” for photography than the original destination. I’ve been fascinated by cemeteries since I was a very little girl and cemetery prairies, while tiny, usually have the best biodiversity of any prairie remnant in Illinois. The day was perfect for a prairie hike—it was cloudier and more overcast than the previous day (which was even more perfect—oh, the blue background we could have had for our photographs!), but the texture the clouds added to the sky was equally desirable and blue flowers (like gentian) photograph better on overcast days rather than in bright sunlight (bright sunlight works better for yellow flowers). My companion and I didn’t find any gentian, possibly due to the cooler summer (delayed? Didn’t bloom at all?), but I amused myself with the iron fence around some of the graves. It’s tricky trying to compose around cornfields and parked cars (don’t want those in the background) and yet get the architectural elements in the frame with a bit of stiff goldenrod for a splash of color. Of course the clouds didn’t cooperate; they were dissipating into a smoothness that also worked. My main focus was the ironwork fence around several graves, but I layered one of the posts, pock-marked with the rust of time, over a gravestone orb. Some great geometric shapes: the straight lines (and some not-so-straight lines) and angles over a smooth circle. By the time we left (the ragweed was getting to us) the sun was out and the clouds gone; as I type this, maybe I should have tried the shot with blue sky behind the architecture. Oh well, next time.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Coloring classrooms
I just left my Advanced Exposition classroom after 50 minutes of creating "life maps." For those of you reading this who are unfamiliar with life maps, this is a topic generating exercise in which you make a “map” of your life with various icons depicting important people, places, events and things in your life; Ray Bradbury writes of something similar in The Zen of Writing (his was a “neighborhood” map; he maintains every idea he has ever had for his writing can be traced back to some neighborhood adventure he had when he was 8-10). I have used this exercise, or variations thereof, in my writing classes since I discovered it. I also tied it in to the reading for the day as it had talked about making discoveries through your writing, and I discovered how important the “prairie” was to my life when I did mine as an example.
There was some groaning and “I can’t draw!” at the beginning, but I assured them that the drawer was the only one who had to understand the significance of the icon—so what if you can’t tell that “Fluffy” is a dog, cat or gerbil. However, once the markers were set to paper, the tone changed and There was a flurry of “How do you draw X?” and “How do you draw Y?” as well as much laughter, bonding, and discovery. Some minds went blank for a while, and then the stories became even wilder.
The students had a blast if noise is any indication of their enthusiasm. It helped that the classroom has been reconfigured so there is a table in the middle (although the table is not big enough for 15 students and drawing paper). Some of the quieter students worked by their computers. The maps are now displayed on the walls with blue painters’ tape (so as not to ruin the recently painted walls), and the walls are more cheerful and less sterile now there is a bit of color on them.
I told my students the first day this would be nothing like their ENG 101 class; I think they are convinced.
There was some groaning and “I can’t draw!” at the beginning, but I assured them that the drawer was the only one who had to understand the significance of the icon—so what if you can’t tell that “Fluffy” is a dog, cat or gerbil. However, once the markers were set to paper, the tone changed and There was a flurry of “How do you draw X?” and “How do you draw Y?” as well as much laughter, bonding, and discovery. Some minds went blank for a while, and then the stories became even wilder.
The students had a blast if noise is any indication of their enthusiasm. It helped that the classroom has been reconfigured so there is a table in the middle (although the table is not big enough for 15 students and drawing paper). Some of the quieter students worked by their computers. The maps are now displayed on the walls with blue painters’ tape (so as not to ruin the recently painted walls), and the walls are more cheerful and less sterile now there is a bit of color on them.
I told my students the first day this would be nothing like their ENG 101 class; I think they are convinced.
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