Movie Poster Research

"Find images of posters for at least three movies that you think carry an essence of the time in which they were made and post them on your blog."

... Well, here they are.

Cooley Gallery Field Trip Reflection

The picture above was one of the many featured in The Language of the Nude: Four Centuries of Drawing the Human Body exhibit at the Reed College's Cooley Gallery. This picture caught my eye with because of its loose and expressive linework, yet extravagant lighting and attention to detail. It became my favorite piece in the gallery, particularly for the extremely skillful highlighting which approaches dramatic chiaroscuro without the use of strong shadows. Overall, I thought this was a lovely and well-crafted piece.

In reflection of the exhibition as a whole, I thought it was a nice way of witnessing some of the changes in the style of the nude throughout changes in history and location. The increase in naturalism, with more realistic proportions and expressive poses, with the increase of time was a good indicator of changes in the views and processes of artists in various eras.

Another thing I realized after viewing the gallery was a significant difference between the conventions for depicting the nude human body in the past and the present. This shift was that, in the time these artworks were created, the ideal nude was most often of a naked man. I found that this was a sharp contrast to the nudes most often depicted in today's art, the naked woman. I think this represents a changing of views in the world, especially in the definition of human beauty.

Text/Image Hunt

I went to the library, pointed to a random page of a random book, and picked a random sentence.

"Sheathe your swords another hour! Do that, and there shall be no pointless bloodshed!"
-Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima. Lone Wolf and Cub. Vol.1, 1995. Page 118

Here are the three images I chose to pair with this sentence:

This image portrays the literal meaning and the source of this sentence: A samurai fight. It adds relatively no meaning to the sentence.


This is an image of Korean nuclear warheads. This makes the quote from the book relate to current political tension, but still displays a possible literal interpretation.

This image is somewhat different from the previous two in that instead of displaying an obvious literal interpretation of the quote, it makes the viewer draw his or her own conclusions. For example, one could interpret that the dog is the speaker of the quote or that the quote is a commentary on humanity's violence in comparison to the natural world represented by the dog. Or, the viewer may see only the dog and draw no conclusion between the two.

This assignment touches on the idea presented in our class discussions and in the text: how no matter the intention of the artist, it is the viewer's interpretation of the piece which shapes the actual meaning.

Currency Redesign Mind Map

This is my currency design mind map. Disclaimer: All images (besides the ones that are obviously drawn by me) were found on Google, so I don't own them.
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I got a little bit random toward the end.
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Not much else to say about that.

Ch.1, p.9-26

In this blog entry, I will be summarizing the important terms and concepts from our course text. (AKA any stuff that I thought was interesting, looked important, or think will be needed later in this class) All future blog entries that are similarly titled will be about the same book.

Sturken & Cartwright, Practices of Looking: an Intro to Visual Culture, 2nd ed, Oxford Univ Pess, 2009

tenkkay.deviantart.com

Practices of Looking: Ch.1, p.9-26

Chapter 1 of Practices of Looking (PoL) involves Images, Power, and Politics. In the first section of this chapter, the authors described the importance, implication, and action of "looking." They followed this section by more sections in which they elaborated on "representation" in images, the myth of photographic truth, and images and ideology.

The things that I found most interesting in this chapter were:

1. Representation- The authors write that "the material world has meaning... only through representations." This brought up the question: Do representations reflect the world as it is, or do we construct the world and its meaning through representations?

The answer to this, I believe, is entirely philosophical, and as such, I choose not to dwell on it. (In other words, I have no idea.)

2. The Myth of Photogenic Truth- The authors spend a long time discussing this in the text, and we spent a LONG time discussing this in class, so I can only assume that this must be somehow important. Essentially, this idea translates into "Are photographs really objective, as they are taken through mechanical means, and if so, can we take them as 'truth'?"

One side of the argument involving this question was that images that are mechanically or digitally recorded (photos, film, etc) can never be truly "objective", because there is always a person behind the product (ex: the photographer, the camera programmer/designer, the person who planned for that camera to be positioned where it is and the picture taken when it was). However, if I were to take this argument further, can humans in general (or things produced by humans) ever be truly objective?

Important Terms:
1. Representation- use of language and images to create meaning in the world around us
2. Mimesis (pronunciation guide for the pronunciation impaired- like me- "mim-ee-sis")- imitation, idea of reflection
3. Positivism- holds that scientific knowledge is the only authentic knowledge
4. Roland Barthes
--studium- truth function of the photograph; joining of now (image) and then (event)
--punctum- ability of certain photographs to pierce the heart with feeling
5. Ideologies- systems of belief that exist within all cultures
6. Denotative meaing- literal, explicit meaning
7. Connotative meaning- culturally specific associations and meanings