Context of Practice: 2014

Quotations:

. "What's up doc?" Bugs Bunny
. "We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future". Franklin D. Roosevelt (September 20, 1940).

Statistics/Facts:
. First stone age cave painting was found in France.
. 1945 - Hitler commits suicide

Location/Enviroments:
. In the home.
. Factories
. Farms
. Road trips were born - See more of the country

Photo/Drawing/Diagrams/Images:

Significant moments in history:
. World War 2
. Music - Jazz, Rock and Roll.
. First computer 1941
. The Holocaust - 1942 -45
. Partition of India
. Berlin Airlift

People:
. Hitler
. Rita Hayworth
. Eva Gardner
. Anne Frank - 1947 - Diary of a young girl.
. Rosie The Riveter - Advertising that women are equal and can do whats seen as a mans job.
. Frank Sinatra
. Judy Garland
.Albert Einstein
. Winston Churchill
. Humphrey Bogart

Inventions/Objects/Artifacts/Garments:
. Aerosols can spray by Lyle David Goodloe and W.N. Sullivan - 1941
. The slinky toy invented by Richard James - 1943
. Silly putty invented by James Wright - 1943
. The microwave oven invented by Percy Spencer - 1946
. Cake Mix
. Jukebox
. Colour Television invented by Peter Goldmark
. Frisbee
. 1946 refridgerators went into mass production
. Frozen dinners
. 1946 Bikinis were introduced
. Big band theory formulated
. Electric guitar became famous
. 1944 - ball point pens go on sale.
. Polariod Cameras invented - 1947

In this next lesson we were all given a sketchbook each which we shall fill with illustrations to do with the previous research. This was one of my favourite days since being here;I really enjoyed this lesson just playing about with different media and tools. I did a lot of repeat drawings as I really think that this is the best way to improve and find the best results.

After that last lesson of doing a lot of repeat drawings I thought I should continue with doing that. I am still unsure of which area of the 40s I should focus on yet so I feel if I keep drawing something will come to me.

I began by focusing on dancing and particularly the famous dance of the 40s; the Jitterbug.

Which then got my into looking at the dresses and the clothing.

I then found I was particulary drawn to the hairstyles especially after doing the detailed sketch of the woman before with the beautiful hair.

In my PPP I have been looking at a lot of vector work and the way that they use character in their work so I decided to take that on board and draw in that kind of style. I am actually really pleased with the outcome and really enjoyed drawing in this way. I think that the line work emphasizes the hair well too.

I then changed it to black and white to see what it would look like. As my first drawing was in purple pen because I didn't know it was going to go well.

In the first drawing I messed up on the fringe a little bit so I went over my drawing on the light box and fixed it. I think that the hair looks a lot better after doing that but the lines in the face have less of a flow so I think that I need to re draw it without tracing on the light box as it takes something away from it I feel. However, I don't think that this style of drawing is very authentic to the era which I want my final piece to be, so think I need to go back and think about the way in which I draw.

Today I went to the library as I needed some inspiration for my work. I really want to make this brief different to what I would usually do. I was in the illustration section and came across this book Illustration Play. Looking through I came across a lot of illustrators that work with fabric and stitching. I thought that this would be a great idea seeing as in the 1940s was the era of 'make do and mend'.

From having a look through I was drawn to Eleanor Bowley's work. I think that I am definatly take on board the idea of using different materials to emphasize certain features and areas. It also says in here that she often uses waste materials. I think that would be a great idea for me to use unwanted materials within my final piece, seeing as this is exactly what women in the 40s would have done; use unwanted materials to make new things.

I was also inspired by the work of Jenny Hart. After seeing her work I have now decided that I defiantly want to focus on the hair styles of the women in the 1940s. I really love the detail that she uses within her work; plus I like all her work has stitched boarder around the edge.

I need to think about what I actually want my final piece to become. I came across Aya Kakeda's work; I noticed that she seems to frame her work. I thought that this could be a good idea for my work. After writing my essay I discovered that women would spend a lot of their time in the home so were very house proud and family orientated. Therefore, placing my work within a family photo frame with amplify that.

I then came across this piece by Sandrine Pelletier. I just liked the different materials she uses within her work. Her way of working with different fabircs is less simplistic than Eleanor Bowleys but think that this works really well. I think when creating samples of my work I should try both ways of working to see which would work best for me.

After gathering this information I want to make a list of some of the things I could make from using fabric just to see what ideas I can come up with. Taking into consideration I want it to relate to 1940's women:
- Family photo frame like Aya kakeda's work.
- Tea Towel
- Cushion Case
- Tea Towel

- Blanket
- Curtain

- Scarf
- Skirt
- Towel
- Hankechief
- Wall hanging

I think that I need to take into consideration that I don't know how to use a sewing machine therefore my sewing skills aren't good so I don't want to be to ambitious and create something realistically do-able. I think that using this media will be challenging for me but I am excited to try it out.

Today I did my pechacucha presentation. I found it a really helpful task exercise. It forced me to organise my ideas and see what I have done so far and evaluate the work that I have done so far. It was great to get some feedback from people to see what their thoughts and opinions are.
issuu.com/rosiefairholm/docs/cop_pechacucha?e=11352003/7261268

It's nice to see that people think that I am on the right track with this. I am going to take on board the feedback I have received from people I completely agree with what people have said and think I need to begin developing my women and emphasise the women's expression to make them look strong and independent In addition, when I get home and can use my mums sewing machine I can begin playing around with sewing and fabrics.

Before moving onto fabrics though I want to keep drawing different women's hairstyles. I did do a few drawings of pin up girls but thought after that I think it would be better to just draw their head for two reasons. One being that on a sewing machine I think that I would find it quite hard doing small details like their eyes, where if I did just the head I can just focus on that rather than the entire body.

I then thought I needed to decide where the different colours of fabric should go. So using masking tape I marked out the different areas so it was visually clear for me to see.

Next, I went to the market and bought my materials. I think I may have bought too many but think I would rather have too much than not enough. I lightboxed my final drawings of my three favourite women onto the calico based material.

Next, I have played around with different materials layered on top of the calico. Plus I wanted to get used to using a sewing machine.

After testing out different materials I wasn't actually sure about using them as I thought that they could look a bit flat and I don't think that they were really working. So thought of maybe using watercolours over the calico but tested it out to see if you can paint onto material well. Which I realised you can and this really excited as thought the range of media worked well together.

Here are my final pieces. I wanted them to look authentic to the era, which I feel I have successfully done through my choice of media. Plus, I wanted them too look like strong independent women, which I feel could of been portrayed better. I am really happy that I have pushed myself to use a different form of media that I have not used before. It took a bit of getting used to sewing and realized it was hard to go back if I have made a mistake.

1. What skills have you developed through this brief and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
I feel that my essay writing skills have improved. I really thought and planned it all out and was very organised and spent a lot of time and thought on it. I really found it interesting researching and felt that it helped me express my own opinions on the matter and yet still it be an informed opinion. I felt myself getting quite passionate about it. In addition, I am really pleased that I have tested out a new form of media; I really enjoyed sewing and definitely want to use it in the future again.
2. What approaches to/methods of image making have you developed and how have they informed your concept development process?
Through my development drawings I wanted to test out a range of different medias and be quite broad on what I wanted to do as I was very unsure at the start so felt if I tried out a lot of different medias it will eventually guide me to where I want to go. I then came across some work in a book which influenced my project greatly as it gave me the idea to try out sewing which I would never of thought of. I think that using this process of image making really related well to my project with the 40s being the era of make do and mend. I think that it successfully portrayed the era well using this method.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these? I feel like I have learnt a new skill. Before this project I had no confidence in sewing or using a sewing machine and I actually really enjoyed this method and definitely will do this again. I think that my essay writing skills have improved. At first I found the thought of writing 3000 words quite daunting but I really got stuck into it.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
I don't think it really relates/portrays my essay too well and doesn't really have that much depth in it. I think that the final outcomes could've been framed and presented better. I felt it quite hard to juggle numerous projects at once and feel like this project has suffered slightly.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these? 1. Test my process more before jumping straight into it. 2. manage my time better when juggling numerous projects at once. 3. Spend more time researching, and keep it ongoing throughout the project. I think that this would've helped give me a stronger outcome. 3. Prepare myself more when doing a presentation. I think that my Pechakucha could have been thought over more. 4. Spend more time doing exhaustive drawing. 5. Keep more up to date with my blog. I began well with the project but as we were getting closer to the end I left my blogging. 4.

6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’) 5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance					x
Punctuality					x
Motivation			x
Commitment			x
Quantity of work produced		x
Quality of work produced			x
Contribution to the group	x
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self-evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

My Essay:

This essay will discuss the attitudes towards women portrayed in advertisements in the 1940s. I will do a semiotic analysis of a series of advertisements from that era and shall talk about the sexist representations that they portray. Before my semiotic analysis of the example advertisements I shall explain what a semiotic analysis is:

A semiotic analysis is all the aspects of the studies of signs and looking in depth at the meaning by which what things literally mean and how they are interpreted in a given social structure. “Signs necessarily generate further signs” (Cobley and Jansz page 27) said American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce. You can break down the study of semiotics by looking at the signifiers and signified, and denotations and connotations. To begin, this signifier is the literal raw matter of something ‘a signifier is the thoroughly material aspect of a sign’ (Cobley and Jansz, 1999 page 10) which was said by Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. The signified is provoked by the signifier and the mental concept for something for instance using the word ‘cat’ the signifiers c/,a/,t what the word literally is and then signified is the whole word ‘cat’. The connection between the signifier and signified is called the arbitrary nature. Next, once recognising the signifiers and the signified you can then analyse the denotations and connotations. Roland Barthes says “the process of connotation is so ‘natural’ and so immediate when it is experienced that it is almost impossible to separate denotation and connotation” (Cobley and Jansz, 1999, page 50). Therefore, to find out the denotations of something you have to remove any connotations and look at exactly what it is. A denotation is literally the acknowledgment of the objects within an image, and once you have identified the denotation you can then analyse the connotations it gives, which are the cultural associations that you correlate with an object. Using the example of ‘cat’ that I used before, the denotative is the cat and then the connotations of the word cat could be: soft fur, paws, mice, purring, fish etc. So overall in my semiotic analysis of my chosen advertisements I shall be covering over all of these aspects within semiotics.

I have chosen this advertisement for the beer brand Schlitz. I found this piece of advertisement to be quite striking and strongly displayed sexist messages about women through many denotations. The denotations within this piece are: the burning frying pan, the wife crying into a tissue, the quote, the beer bottles and the husband.

To begin the burning frying pan signifies that the wife can’t cook. The denotative of the frying pan with black smoke arising from it connotes the idea the wife is incapable of the slightest of tasks and is emphasized by the pitch black smoke and the fact that you cannot even see what the food was supposed to of been. Furthermore, the next signifier is the wife crying into the tissue. This signifies that women are an emotional gender and this also connotes and triggers the thought that she feels she cannot bare to let her husband down, especially within the kitchen, which is stereotypically the woman’s main place within a 1940s family. The denotative is her holding the tissue gazing up at her husband looking up and connotes she’s looking for forgiveness for what would be seen as such a terrible wrong doing and letting the family down. This really amplifies that advertisements in this era had very sexist views towards women. Whereas in reality looking at this in a modern day context it actually is quite humorous as the roles of men and women are now a lot more equal, and if created now a lot of people would take offense to it.

Another factor that illuminates the sexist representation of women is the denotative that he is wearing a business suit. This connotes that he is a conventional hard working male, which communicates a sign of power over her, which also illustrates his masculinity. The masculinity is also signified through the beer bottles on the table that is a stereotypical connotation of the male gender. In addition his authority is enhanced by the fact he is illustrated in the centre of the advertisement amplifying his power and that everything within the household revolves around him.

Moreover, the quote that is reflecting the voice of the male reinforces the illustration by clarifying the idea that women are useless without men and is actually making a joke out of the situation. The quote connotes that he is an understanding easy going husband. His laid back attitude is again strengthened by font how it has been created in plain white and a very simple basic non-distractive font. In addition the fact the quote if coming from him suggests the woman has no say or a voice of her own.

Overall, after looking into detail at the semiotics within this piece of advertisement it clearly illustrates the reality of the role the woman played in the 1940s and that the world had a very stereotypical sexist view of how the woman should be and portrayed in that era; which is helpless, incapable and emotional. Whereas in reality this is not true everyone is different and women can be very strong and intelligent and equally as powerful as men; this sexist piece of advertisement is just how the media want the audience to distinguish women to be like. ‘All media texts are re-presentations of reality. This means that they are intentionally composed, lit, written, framed, cropped, captioned, branded, targeted and censored by their producers, and that they are entirely artificial versions of the reality we perceive around us’ (K, Wilson, 2011, http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/alevelkeycon.php?pageID=represent). But because of mass produced advertisements like this one in the 1940s people were then normalised to this ideology of how a woman should be and even women thought this was how the reality is.

The next piece of illustration is by the well-known men’s clothing company Van Heusen. This advertisement I actually found quite humorous at how ridiculous it is now in modern day society. It exhibits many sexist attitudes towards females through a lot of signifiers and denotations to create a false sense of reality to its audience.

The first denotative that you are immediately drawn to is the male in his bed; the connotations of laying in bed and the position he is laying in illustrates he is relaxed and comfortable; also he has a smile on his face that exemplifies that he is very happy and content with his life style and is in fact looking rather smug.

In addition another denotative that you can see is how the woman is dressed. She has her hair and make-up done up suggesting women need to look presentable for their husband despite the fact she is wearing a dressing gown which signifies stereotypically clothing to wear casually around the house; meaning that she still has to always look like she has put in the effort for her husband. Another factor displayed by wearing a dressing gown is that it contrasts what he is wearing: a shirt and tie suggesting he is the one that goes out and earns the money, emphasizing his power. Whereas her clothing illustrates the idea that she stays at home and doesn’t go out and is there to look after him and the house; and is accentuated by the fact she is down on her knees serving him as he is the one with authority in the household.

To continue, another signifier that is displayed is the statement that is written above the male “show her it’s a man’s world” which in itself is a blatant sexist remark to make. It generates connotations that women are inferior to the male gender and that men have the power and control in what happens in the world. Everything within the advertisement backs up this statement through signs and icons.

Moreover, Van Heusen is a well known desirable brand in which males would aspire to have in their closet. Therefore, their audience will see this piece of advertisement and be programmed into believing that they want to have this life style and by buying into it they can achieve this. Thus, portraying a false sense of reality that “it’s a man’s world” and you will have your wife waiting on your hand and foot. This is completely chauvinistic towards women as realistically this would not happen. Additionally, having breakfast in bed is seen as a luxury to many people, amplifying this desirable lifestyle that that they can buy into. Though by well known aspirational l brands portraying this sexist message to the public it then creates the ideology that this is normal that men are the superior sex.

In conclusion, this advertisement constructs a very artificial reality to its male audience using very obvious signs and denotations to create a perfect ideal male lifestyle to persuade the viewers to buy into their products, and in doing so they have been very sexist towards females making the male audience feel empowered.

Comparing these advertisements they both portray the sexist reality of the 1940s though visions of denotations. They do this in 2 ways, one being both of the wives within the posters are looking up towards their husbands which I feel connotes that they are looking up in seek of approval from their husbands as a woman’s role is purely to please her husband. Secondly, the body languages of the husbands have an air of arrogance about them as they look down upon their wives whilst they are trying to satisfy his needs. This creates connotations of the male gender have a power and authority over the female.

This is my final chosen piece of advertising from the 1940s for the well known American food chain Hardees’s. Personally when viewing this poster it actually evoked feelings of sadness and sympathy towards the wife within it as I believe it reflects the lonely reality of how a housewife would’ve felt. This piece of advertising contains plenty of signifiers and denotations that give connotations of the sexism towards women in that period. Accomplished by the use of colour, the body language of the people and the use of text.

To start with, the first denotation that strikes you is the body language of the woman stood in the kitchen gazing out the window looking very engrossed with what’s happening outside. I sense that this suggests she feels trapped in the kitchen and longs to leave almost like a prisoner; a slave to the kitchen. Which in the 1940s women stereotypically were mainly obedient diligent housewives that would spend their days constricted inside maintaining the home, and preparing for when her husband returns from work. This sadly reflects the true reality of the female role in this era. The overall context of the illustration is then further backed up within the smaller text: ‘We all know a woman’s place is in the home’. By saying ‘we all know’ is very sexist towards women as it separates men from women and is suggesting that it was a common fact of society.

A signifier that could be picked up is the colours that the woman is wearing. As you can see she has a blue apron on; the colour blue indicates emotions of loneliness and sadness which I think helps support how way the body language is portrayed. In addition the fact that her dress and shoes is colourless signifies emptiness, mindless and no personality. In the 1940s women weren’t allowed to voice their opinions and ideas so by using no colour it actually insinuates how a good wife should be. In contrast, the yellow colour clothing of the daughter outside symbolises optimism, happiness and gives a feel of warmth, which is emphasized the sadness of the wife more as it looks like she’s yearning to feel these emotions.

Though this advert portrays a stereotypical family the poster is in fact aimed at the single man; which is only made clear through the text on the bottom left. However, if you read between the lines of the text the sexist remark suggests in actual fact, men are slightly inferior to women. This is because it suggests men need women, without them they are actually helpless and incapable of cooking a meal for themselves. Also it suggests that they are impatient and have low standards “sloppy and hastily prepared”. This actually contrasts the first advertisements linguistic message of belittling and patronising the wife, making a joke about her mistakes. Whereas this advert is in fact suggesting a slight recognition and appreciation of the cooking a woman does, as without a wife a man is incompetent of cooking for himself. However, without thinking about the text in detail, it appears to be very sexist towards women insinuating that they belong in the kitchen and that it is their role to wait on her husband; “little miss waiting on you” this to me comes across very disparaging and patronising towards women.

All three examples of sexist advertisements were created to promote big named established brands. Plus they are all aimed towards a male audience, which is made very evident through the use of signifiers and denotations. In all three posters the men are wearing suits which connotes business, and working which contrasts the wives clothing of casual everyday clothing. Having such a strong contrast in clothing amplifies his dominance. By the brands using this technique of making the males look superior to their wives in their advertisements, it will make their male audience feel empowered and therefore will want to buy into the brand. In addition, another way in which the brands have made their male audience feel superior is through the use of text that supports the illustrations. All three of them are very sexist and demeaning; within modern day society they would most likely now be seen as humorous because of how ridiculous it is that they are saying.

Because all three are promoting famous and trusted brands and are portraying sexist messages within their advertisements, their audience will assume that the ideologies they have transmitted are showing the true reality of how a husband and wife should be. What the brands are doing can very much so be related to the hypodermic needle theory by Katz and Lazarsfeld, which basically is about the medias manipulative power over the public. Viewers passively receive information and process that information without even noticing they’d done it. Therefore, motivating they way the audience behave in reality through what they have seen in the media and becomes normalised: ‘mediated messages go directly from their source, creating a stimulus, to their receiver, creating a response’ (Olson, 1989, page 61).

In conclusion, the three advertisements that I chose from the 1940s were three of many that I believe to portray sexist representations and ideologies of women. They all imply the cultural associations and stereotypes that society had constructed about women; that they belong in the house, always look presentable and do what her husband commands, and was believed to be the true reality of the era. These adverts have successfully portrayed these attitudes towards the female gender using semiotics within their illustrations and linguistic messages. Personally, I am very against these advertisements from the 1940s. However, looking at them from a modern day point of view I can’t help but find them somewhat humorous at how preposterous they appear to be. Though they are only conforming to how our culture used to view the role of women in society and that this was once a reality of how women were supposed to act. As against these posters I am, still to this day advertisements, often targeted towards the male audience can be seen as demeaning and sexist towards women. Frequently, women are featured in the mass media in our modern day society wearing little clothing and often posing in a derogative manner. At least in that era women were dressed decently and sending a good message of working hard, whereas now women especially when promoting to a male audience are mainly there for their appearance; which nowadays women are very highly judged on appearance. So people could argue; are women actually presented any better in the media now than what they were back in the 1940s?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

K, WILSON (2011) Media Studies Key Concepts [online] Available from: http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/alevelkeycon.php

P, COBLEY and L, JANSZ (1999) Introducing Semiotics. Cambridge: Icon Books Ltd.

PITALLI (2011) The 1950s Good Wife’s Guide [online] Available from: http://pitalli.hubpages.com/hub/The-Good-Housewifes-Guide

P, THODY and PIERO (2011) Barthes, A Graphic Guide. London: Icon Books Ltd.

RoobixCoob (2005) A Woman’s Role In The 1950s [online] Available from: http://voices.yahoo.com/a-womans-role-1950s-10246.html?cat=41

SCOTT R. OLSON (1989). Human communication as a field of study: selected contemporary views, New York: State University of New York, Albany.

THE J-WALK BLOG (unknown) The Good Wife’s Guide, from Housekeeping Monthly, 13^th May 1955 [online] Available from: http://j-walk.com/other/goodwife/index.htm?utm_source=mandiner&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=mandiner_201309

22/11/2014

Reportage Trip

Research Propsal

Peer Crit

18/11/2014

Horror/Violence websites noted

30/10/2014

Lecture: Cities and Film

23/10/2014

Lecture Notes: Identity

17/10/2014

COP: Practical

14/10/2014

Study Task 2

09/10/2014

Study Task 1

25/02/2014

Studio Brief 2: Theory Into Practise

About Me