Study Task 3- Reading Texts- Triangulation

The issue of gender roles within media has been widely discussed by many theorists, with Mulvey, Storey and Dyer having contrasting views. Mulvey would argue in Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema that women are often seen as lesser beings than than men, due to her lack of a phallus, meaning 'it is her desire to make good the lack of phallus' which 'produces the phallus as a symbolic presence'. Mulvey also explores how the 'male gaze' can be put onto women by viewing her only as in existence to inspire the hero, and has not the 'slightest importance' in herself. This is something Storey would agree with and push further, as in his text based around Mulveys, he states how both men and women play a part in this male gaze 'and signifying male desire' meaning 'women are therefore crucial to the pleasure of the male gaze'. Dyer would offer that the explanation of this inequality between genders is due to 'an Oedipal identification with the father and the repression of the mother' and slightly disagree with Mulvey's ideology that the male gaze is nothing more than 'sadistic voyeurism' by stating that it is due to an innate primal urge and is not, as Storey believes, a building of social inequality. Mulvey would disagree, and say that this relationship between the genders in manufactured in order to allow the male viewers to identify with the male lead character and ‘allow a temporary loss of ego, whilst simultaneously reinforcing it’, meaning cinema is often tailored to fill the male ego, which in itself oppresses the female figures. Again, Storey would agree with Mulvey, as he believes that despite the efforts to show women as stronger, independent characters in certain media at first glance, ‘the second look confirms women as sexual objects’ due to cinema being created with male ideologies firmly in mind. Dyer however, offers a fairly dismal solution, as he states that the only way to even the bias among film is to ‘feminise’ the present males and bring them down to the condescending level women are viewed with so that the woman role has a chance of over taking him, and not by celebrating the unique strong qualities of a woman, as this would make the male viewer feel emasculated and the female viewer feel unworthy.

Study Task 2- Establishing a Research Question

OUIL501 – STUDY TASK 1 – ESTABLISHING A RESEARCH QUESTION

Suggested Research Question. This can be a topic or theme, but please try to be as precise as possible.

Interactivity within illustration, and how this links to authorship

Which Theorists Related to this question? You can find these on eStudio

John Berger John Storey  Laura Mulvey  Roland Barthes

Which Academic Sources Are Available On The Topic? What examples of practice / practitioners / images have you discovered? Include a Harvard Referenced bibliography of at least 5 possible sources.

Berger, J. (1972) Ways of Seeing, Harmondsworth: Penguin  Heller, S. & Vienne, V. (2012) 100 Ideas That Changed Graphic Design, London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd Lidwell, W., Holden, K. & Butler, J. (2010) Universal Principals of Design, Massachusetts: Rockport Publishers Lupton, E. & Cole Phillips, J. (2015) Graphic Design The New Basics, New York: Princeton Architectural Press Storey, J. (2008) Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, 5th ed, London: Pearson

How Could The Research Question Be Investigated Through Practice? What types of illustrations would you make in response to this, and why? Think about processes too.

Interactive, activity based illustrations, perhaps with an ability to have a strong audience input, and an ability to change the outcome them Perhaps through using traditional print and type to make finished products

Peer Feedback – How could this topic be refined / developed / suggestions? More specific theorists More refined question

Study Task 1- Illustration and Authorship

The work of Sherrie Levine, After Walker Evans is much debated within the art community, due to the complex ideologies surrounding its creation, which in its simplest forms, is simply a photograph of a pre-existing photograph, taken by Walker Evans, entitled Alabama Tenant Farmer Wife. Barthes would be uncertain as to whether After Walker Evans is the creation of Levine, as he believes that the author ‘has the same relation of antecedence with his work that a father sustains with his child’ (1968), which would suggest that he believes the life of the art after its creation is of no concern of the artists themselves, and therefore any forms of copying could simply be regarded as have been influenced by the original. This would further suggest that Barthes would believe that although Evans is the original creator of the piece, it has then taken on a life of its own and become a creator of a piece itself, in turn, transferring the authorship of the new photograph to Levine. 

Barthes (1968) also supposes that a piece of art cannot possibly be contained by a single artist, as it is ‘a multi dimensional space… none of which is original’ as it is ‘resulting from a thousand sources of culture’. This may suggest that he would support Levines work as a new entity, as all culture and art appears as varying forms of pre-existing work. This unoriginality of art proposed by Barthes is far less despondent than it first seems, as he celebrates this through exposing how it has far more than ‘a single ‘theological’ meaning’ and is open to interpretation from anyone who views it, which in itself imbues a uniqueness in meaning through a shared authorship.

One person who would disagree with Barthes is Rock, who argues that the origin of authorship denotes ‘the person who originates or gives existence to anything’ (1996). This viewpoint would aim to persuade that there can only ever be one author to a piece of work, and that this is where the meaning is implied. It would also suggest that Levine has indeed simply copied Evans, and that her work could never actually be accredited to her in the first place, since it adds no more meaning than Evans did when he created the photograph.

Barthes has a counter argument that ‘these 'imitative' arts comprise two messages: a denoted message, which is the analogon itself, and a connoted message, which is the manner in which the society to a certain extent communicates what it thinks of it’. Here, he would suggest that the physical work itself has little to no impact on the perceived message, which is created by the meaning surrounding it. Therefore, Levine has as much ownership to the piece as Evans, as he took a photograph of a pre-existing image, as did Levine. It could even be argued that Levine has more authorship over the piece, as ‘the Author is supposed to feed the book’ and the most famous contribution to this work is Levines copy, which gives it notoriety and adds a depth to the piece, therefore extending its lifespan in the public eye. 

Lecture- Research and Epistomology

Key points for preparing a research project:

- Embrace the fact you don't know things, that's how progress is made.

- Connection making increases ideas- what you know vs what you don't know, and who does know-> benefit of group crits

- Get out there and BE PROACTIVE, think of new and useful ways to gather research

- Some parts have to be put to the side, as topic should be very direct-> put it on the back burner and allow it to still inform practice

"Research is creating new knowledge" - Neil Armstrong

Research is NEW, the purpose to research is to fit the brief

Broader research- scope and scale, driven by CoP module, going out and getting primary research-grade makes it relevant

3000 word limit put on to limit size and scale and scope of research

How does what you want to learn fit into the CoP module?

Individual and as discipline, paradigm positions-everyones is individual, helps to define question

What is there to study? (Ontology- About knowledge itself)
How can we know about it? (Epistemology)

Ontology
- The philosophical analysis of what is or can be known
- What can be known? e.g. number of people in a room (like quantitive)
- How appropriate?

Epistemology
- Analysis of scope and nature of knowledge
- How can we know it?
- Know because you're part of that circumstance
- Know because we read/saw it

Knowledge is the overlap between facts and opinions (objective and subjective)

-Using experiences/beliefs, then what are you going to prove? Combine with facts to show

-Research question will be changed in reflection to findings

Methodology includes- Approaches, techniques, analysis and interpretation

Methodology creates data

Lecture- The Flipped Classroom

- Progressive teaching-flipping teaching dynamic
- Non-hierarchical, therefore empowering

Jacques Ranciere (The Ignorant Schoolmaster)

France, May 1968
- Revolutionary civil unrest
>Youth energy and anti authoritarian
>Calls for equality, sexuality and liberty of the student
>Education as authoritarianism and discipline-wanted change

"la beauté est dans la rue"

I.S.A Vs R.S.A
Ideological state apparatus-school/family
-School is where you learn ideologies-compete rather than collate-squashed and fear of failure
Repressive State Apparatus
-The distribution of the sensible-the world is not free, everything is predetermined, so our expectations are already set before we experience it

'Police' is anything which maintains divisions in society- we act as police to repress others- E.g stereotypes and prejudices

Joseph Jacotot - 1800's
-World in French colourised Belgium- student spoke Flemmish, he spoke French
-Two books, one in French, one in Flemmish- left to figure it out
We are saying men might be all equal

The School of the Damned
- Free, autonomous
>Not linked with/validated by any other
-Run by students
-Tutors unpaid, but time spent will be returned in time
-Time spent s time repaid, equalises field