OUIL501- 10 Areas of Interest

Fake News- It's influences on creative practitioners and the work they produce.

Social Media- How it's changed the work we create.

Over-saturation of Art- How over-saturation of art has changed the kind of work we produce.

Demand for Art- How and why the demand for art has changed.

Why we Buy- How advertising has changed what we buy and the way we buy it.

Retail- Following on from 401, how illustration and art has changed the way we use retail spaces.

Consumer Influence- How the work being created by creative practitioners is being influenced and demanded by consumers, and how it's changing the context of work being produced.

Recreational Drugs- How the use of drugs in creative practices is viewed externally and its effects on the work being created.

Modern Propaganda- How propaganda is used in contemporary culture.

Changes in Propaganda- How Propaganda has changed (its functions, aesthetic, application and effects).

OUIL501- Study Task 3- Triangulation

In the text written by Laura Mulvey 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' (1975), she argues that cinema, and the roles projected on women are the source of womens' oppression (pg15), stating that women are often seen as the 'bearer, not maker, of meaning' (pg15) which suggests women are portrayed as the inferior of men in modern cinema. Similarly, in 'Cultural Theory and Popular Culture', John Storey describes the idea of an audience viewing 'women as sexual objects' (pg18), further enforcing the idea of women's inferred inferiority. This is summed up successfully in Dyer's 'Stars and Audiences', in which he describes that this idea of oppression is targeted at a specific category of people, and that 'the moviegoer is positioned accordingly to the pleasures of male heterosexual desire' (pg188).

The idea that women are 'crucial to the pleasure of the Male gaze' (Storey, p82) is a much discussed topic, with a focussed topic in Mulvey's text being the idea of 'scopophilia'(pg18),  defined as '

sexual pleasure derived chiefly from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity; voyeurism' (google), as she goes on to describe how female objectification can occur when people see themselves as 'looking in on a private world' (pg17). This is reflected by Storey, who talks about the sole focus of the female body as a 'pure erotic spectacle' (pg83) for a member of the viewing audience.

OUIL501- Study Task- 2 Establishing A Research Question

Suggested Research Question

- Explore ideas of how 'fake news' is used in social media and how if affects the work we produc.
- Social media and how it's being used to interact with clients and customers
- How social media is being used to change the work we make (demand for certain types of work)

Theorists Relating to this Question?

- Barthes- Death of the Author- style over substance?
- McLuhan- Understanding Media- how social media influences
- Foucault- similar take on Barthes
- Solzhenitsyn- A Warning to The West- how social media and new media can be used negatively.

Academic Sources Available?

- Articles on social media and art, lots of sources
- Theorists- Propaganda and mass/ new media
- Satirical illustrators
- Use examples of different types of illustrators' works.
- Illustrators who became more well known because of social media.

How could the research Question be investigated through Practice?

- Producing satirical work around social media
- Use techniques used by popular online illustrators
- Commenting on social medias use within art

OUIL501- Study Task 1- Roland Barthes Summary

In 'The Death of The Author', Roland Barthes discusses the links between the author and he reader, and the interpretation of the authors work.

Barthes talks about the authors work becoming somewhat more important when the authors identity and past is removed from it. He states that 'language knows a 'subject' not a 'person' (P145) and that taking the 'person' or personality from a text can instantly alter how the reader perceives it. However, it is argued that in some examples, that the author is and integral part of or understanding the meaning behind the work. Andy Warhol's depiction of famous images are an example of the author being a vital part of the context behind the work. Through using already 'popularised' images, Warhol reworked imagery which was known by everyone, representing prominent contemporary events and interests. For example, Warhol's soup can (1962) were a statement about the repetition of the every day routines of the population, including his own. This is a prime example of the author having meaning behind how the images are viewed, as if you took away the personality and interests, the reader would miss the opportunity to understand the original intended meaning.