Making my Character

I needed to make my character before going to ceramics. I bought some air drying clay so that I can make my character from home. I have decided to base my character on the cat that I drew for my zine for Thought Bubble. The reason I chose to do that was because he is quite fairly simple character to make as I haven't really got much experience with using clay. Also, I didn't want to use an already existing character as it's not necessarily about who the character is but what is symbolizes. And I think by using a well known character it would distract from that. 


I am pleased with how my character has gone. He is a little bit bumpy and needs fixing up a bit. Will have to wait and see how it drys. I have also made some other products using the clay to make the character have more of a product range and have more of a collection surrounding it. I made a candle holder and a small bowl. Which by making these extras have also helped me get better with using clay and know what works etc. 

Understanding The Meaning of Colour

I want to look at another few websites and their colour meaning theories to see if they link with each other. 

The meaning of a colour can be dependant upon the culture and circumstances. Colour is a form of non verbal communication. It is not a static energy and its meaning can change from one day to the next with any individual - it all depends on what energy they are expressing at that point in time. 

Red
http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/color-red.html
"At its most positive it can create life with its sexual energy, or use its negative expression of anger and aggression to fuel war and destruction."

Orange
http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/color-orange.html

Yellow
http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/color-yellow.html

Green
http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/color-green.html

Blue
http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/color-blue.html

Pink
http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/color-pink.html
"Violent and aggressive prisoners have been successfully calmed by placing them in a pink room for a specified amount of time"

Purple
http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/color-purple.html

Objectum-Sexual Cases

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEDwr8ndvIM

He sees the soul in objects

love - chemical imbalance in the brain 

He says its more than being in love with an inanimate object

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZOw5KI-f4k

Objectum Sexuals

I came across this website which tells you all about this sexual orientation. Also, it has links to other pages relating to this.
http://www.objectum-sexuality.org

Eija-Riitta was the pioneer for this sexual preference and her and two close friends, Lars and Frank were the ones who gave it the name Objectum-Sexuality or the acronym OS. 

"In 1996, Eija-Riitta started the first website dedicated to OS in 4 languages.  More or less a personal account of her own life and sexuality but also an informative site directed at the nature of OS."

"In 1999, Eija-Riitta launched the first internet group with an extended invitation to anyone interested in discussing objectùm-sexual issues.  People poured in but it was unclear if they were actually OS or simply curious and discussions never developed.  While this first attempt failed to bring about an open dialog, Eija-Riitta decided to close and reopen another in 2002 with focus directed at providing a more private environment for discussion."

"Another founding member was Erika Eiffel, a world class archer and martial artist.  She travelled extensively to meet with Oliver and having a kinship love for the Berlin Wall also met with her close friend, Eija-Riitta, in 2006.  Later Erika set out to meet all the OS membership in an effort to gather data and learn more about the enigma of objectùm-sexuality.  Together, Oliver and Erika successfully adapted their German OS group for English speaking objectum-sexuals in 2004. "

Eija-Riitta and Erika were in the documentary that I watched the other day 'Married to the Eiffel tower'. 

"The Red Fence is cherished by Eija-Riitta as an object she holds dear to her heart.  As a tribute to her courage and devotion, Röda Staketet is to the objectùm-sexual community...  our symbol."

"Fences exist throughout society.  We put them up to protect ourselves but not to shut people out.  One can look over a Fence and see what’s on the other side.  If the grass is indeed greener or not…  this we decide for ourselves."

"Objectùm-sexual love comes for most in a similar awakening as other sexualities at the start of puberty.  This is often followed by an acute awareness that we do not relate to peers due to the source of projected feelings.  Often objectùm-sexual people feel outcast or pressured by mainstream sexuality with a helpless feeling that we cannot change what comes so naturally to us."

Is OS a fetish? 

"No, objectum-sexuality is not a fetish.  While a fetishist must have their desired object present as a catalyst to achieve sexual gratification, the love for our object is not based on a habitual psychosexual response.  It is the object that captivates us on many more levels besides sexual arousal.  Fetishists do not see the object as animate as we do and therefore do not commence to develop a loving relationship with the object."

"While animism is not a condition, it is the most common reason objectum-sexual people with no notable psychological condition have for loving and connecting to objects on a significant level.  The innate belief that objects are not inanimate but possess a spirit, soul, or energy to which one can connect with."

Turnitin

Sent off my dissertation so far! 

Chapter Headings

Introduction 
Chapter 1 - The differences between hoarding and collecting 
Chapter 2 - Reasons for collecting 
Chapter 3 - Stigmas attached to adults who collect and why some collections are deemed more acceptable than others. 
Chapter 4 - People who are Objectum Sexual 
Chapter 5 - Impact of mass production and consumerism and advertisement 
Conclusion 

Just thought I would write it clearly as I think that it's all got a bit lost in all the information gathered. 

Cultivation Theory

The theory was developed by George Gerbner. 
Television has gradual long term effects. 
They reinforces the norms. 
Reinforces someones opinion rather than change. 
Doesn't take in the audiences life experiences. 
People want to read/see what they want. E.g a guy against immigration so will read newspapers that backs up his opinions. Again reinforces opinion. 

Grant Abbitt (2014) Cultivation theory - audience theory. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hKaIeAi7OI (Accessed: 24 November 2015).

Uses and Gratifications Theory

Looks at the audience as an active audience. how the audience react to the media. And how they choose to watch the media. 

5 reasons why we watch the media. 
1. Informed and educated e.g news, documentaries. 
2. To be entertained 
3. Identity - Might identify to certain characters. Learn from people around us. If we watch a lot of television we might see character traits that we like and sort of mimic them. Reinforce personality traits. Gaining identity through television. People find it concerning because of violence and body image in fashion.
4. Integration and social interaction - People watching the same shows and chat about them. Reality heightens this with phone ins to get involved
5. Escapism 

A lot of research into this theory happened before the media boom. Though has been developed to take into account social media such as Facebook or mobile phones. Have we all got media dependancy?

I know this theory is more about television. But a persons toy collection could link to a specific TV show character that they love and which then sparks the collection. Back in the documentary 'The hoarder next door' where …had a huge Spongebob collection. This character originated as a television show character. Looking at the 5 reasons above I feel that she could of connected with reasons 2, 3 and 5 and they are possible reasons as to why this collection began. 

Grant Abbitt (2014) Uses and Gratifications - audience theory. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn9_0mTfT3Y (Accessed: 24 November 2015).

Influence of Media

Hypodermic Needle Theory. 

Brett Lamb (2012) The hypodermic needle theory | media in minutes | episode 1. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt5MjBlvGcY (Accessed: 24 November 2015).

Hypodermic Needle theory.  Earliest way of thinking about how the mass media influences its audiences. It was developed in the 1920s and 1930s.  After researchers observed the effects of Propaganda during WW1

It’s a linear communication theory. Which suggests that media messages are injected directly into the brain to the passive audience. It suggests that we all respond to media messages in the same way. No longer really accepted.

Mass media has a powerful effect. Influence of television. Direct influences on audiences.

Mass media injects thoughts values and beliefs straight into a passive audience. 

this theory has been criticised greatly but can still be seen today. 
Became about aspirations and associations 
By brands putting their logos onto things they are then associated with that thing/activity. They then become cool. 
if you buy into their product you are buying into that lifestyle. 
Media does effect people other wise why would advertisers spend so much time into making them with such thought. 

Grant Abbitt (2014) Hypodermic needle theory. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-toj0weAEM (Accessed: 24 November 2015).

Emotions a Collector goes through

The colour of emotions. Within my practical I am thinking of using colour as a symbol of emotions, so I thought that I would look into the different colours of which emotions they portray and how they relate to the Collector. 


- Jealousy (Jealousy system; When someone has the toy that they want) 
- Love (Objectum Sexuals. Or a more innocent level of love/appreciation of the toy/obsession) 
- Anxiety, depression (Some collections are triggered by suffering or something bad happening in their past) 
 - Happiness/Joy (from owning the collecting, completing a set, possessing the object) 

Here's one example of the meaning of colours:

Another example: 

http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/meaning-of-colors.html

"yellow is the color of the mind and the intellect. It is optimistic and cheerful. However it can also suggest impatience, criticism and cowardice.

Green is the color of balance and growth. It can mean both self-reliance as a positive and possessiveness as a negative, among many other meanings.

Blue is the color of trust and peace. It can suggest loyalty and integrity as well as conservatism and frigidity. 

Indigo is the color of intuition. In the meaning of colors it can mean idealism and structure as well as ritualistic and addictive.    

The color meaning of turquoise is communication and clarity of mind. It can also be impractical and idealistic.

The color psychology of pink is unconditional love and nurturing. Pink can also be immature, silly and girlish.

In the meaning of colors, magenta is a color of universal harmony and emotional balance. It is spiritual yet practical, encouraging common sense and a balanced outlook on life.

Gold is the color of success, achievement and triumph. Associated with abundance and prosperity, luxury and quality, prestige and sophistication, value and elegance, the color psychology of gold implies affluence, material wealth and extravagance.

White is color at its most complete and pure, the color of perfection. The color meaning of white is purity, innocence, wholeness and completion.

Black is the color of the hidden, the secretive and the unknown, creating an air of mystery. It keeps things bottled up inside, hidden from the world."

Making the Vessel

I just went down to metal work to ask whether it would be possible to make the toy in there using the vacuum former. I have clay at home so thought that if I made the shape then vacuum form it then stick the two halves together leaving a space to funnel the liquid in and then seal up. But, he said that he just doesn't think that it would be water tight and probably not possible. 

But it is a good thought if I did want to test out putting different objects inside the toy. As I was thinking of trying out putting in different human things inside, like plastic eye balls or photographs of the owner. 

Anyway, so I went down to ceramics to ask the same question. He said that potentially we could give it a go out of resin. He as well isn't sure as to whether this will work at all. I am booked to go down next Thursday to try some samples using simple shapes and to bring a long some coloured dyes with me to play with. If I can't have the liquid motion timer effect I would maybe test out putting things into the resin.

Things that I could put into the resin (which is clear) could be items that represent why people collect. E.g some people collect for the social element of it to make friends and online communities so I could put in a friendship bracelet to express that. Another idea could be to do with people who are objectum sexual and could put in some hearts.  

Liquid Motion Timer

Going with the idea of having a see through toy vessel and then having colours inside, I want to have a go at making something a bit like a liquid motion toy: 

Having the vessel take the shape of a certain toy and then having the different colours inside. One perhaps representing positive and one negative. Which represents the toy embodying the different emotions of the collector. 

I've just watched quite a few videos on how to make them on Youtube. I wasn't sure whether to go down the route of the lava lamp. But to keep the flow of the colours moving you have to put in a tablet to set it all off. Where as the liquid motion timer allows the colours to all ways move and float around when shook or held. Which also represents that once owning the toy the emotions are triggered. 

More Ideas

Stemming from the last idea, I had a thought about making a set of see through/ clear plastic toys. Have the same toy in repetition. Which then you can see into the inside of the toy, the collector. Either I use human parts like plastic eye balls, hair, doll hands etc. Or photographs. Perhaps I drop different coloured inks inside the clear toy representing different emotions. The anxieties and depressions that the toys absorb. But then happy bright vibrant colours which the toys can give in return. 

Jason Freeny's gummy bear toy is a great example of I mean. 

He's done a whole collection of toys that have skeletons inside well known popular toy characters. Giving them a skeleton implies that they are real and a life like quality to them. However, in the toys that I want to create I feel like I want to show the life of the collector being reflected and shown through the toy. But keeping separate from giving the toy life.  

http://www.moistproduction.com/Menu/index.html

Practical Idea

Been thinking of ideas as for what to do for the practical side of the project. I am straying away a bit from the collector's collector guide idea that I was thinking about. Since then I've done a lot more research. I noticed in quite a few case a lot of people were starting to become like characters from their toy collections. Dressing like their obsession. For instance, Ron Broomfield dressing as a gnome and in fact was buried dressed in his gnome costume. Which relates to the concept of collecting because of existential anxieties. Quite a lot of collectors see their collection as an extension of their personality and that the collection remains to live on even when they have passed, therefore in a way that they live on too. 

Taking them ideas on board I came up with the thought of making a toy and then either collage or sewing or drawing a human face or features onto the toy representing the owners features integrating with the toys and becoming one. A bit of a hybrid of the two. Plus I thought that if I repeated that toy over and over and over again and placed them into a very neat and precise order. Potentially make my own cabinet?  Follow Rosie Fairholm's board COP Practical on Pinterest.

Consumerism

http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/bitstream/1/2027517/1/HS1273.pdf


"Some economists suggest that whenever United States citizens fail to step up their over-all consumption by at least 4 per cent in any given year they are inviting a "failure-to-grow recession." How to live with mount- ing productivity is each year becoming a more urgent problem for Americans, and soon it will be plaguing Western Europeans." 

All this backlog of what he called consumer need was awaiting "activation by advertising.

"Our enormously productive economy ... demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satis- factions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption....We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing rate."

Old-fashioned selling methods based on offering goods to fill an obvious need in a straightforward manner were no longer enough. Even the use of status appeals and sly appeals to the subconscious needs and anxieties of the public

The way to end glut was to produce gluttons. But, of course, it would not be put that baldly. Consumers should be provided with plausible excuses for buying more of each product than might in earlier years have seemed rational or prudent.

A spokesman for Revlon, Inc., the cosmetics firm, explained that one of the secrets of the company's fabulous success during the late fifties was that it "taught women to match their nail enamel to their moods and occasions, so that
they bought more."


Brooks Stevens

And Brooks Stevens, a leading industrial designer, explained obsolescence planning in these terms: "Our whole economy is based on planned obsolescence; and everybody who can read without moving his lips should know it by now. We make good products, we induce people to buy them, and then next year we deliberately introduce something that will make those products old fashioned, out of date, obsolete.... It isn't organized waste. It's a sound contribution to the American economy."

Packard, V. (1960) The Waste Makers. Available at: http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/bitstream/1/2027517/1/HS1273.pdf (Accessed: 24 November 2015).

Sexual Attraction to Inanimate Objects

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/married-to-the-eiffel-tower/

(The documentary is split into 5 parts. The rest of the videos are on Youtube). 

I actually found this documentary quite compelling. To begin I just thought it was all very weird and strange to me and couldn't understand it. But as the documentary went on and talked about the upbringing and childhood of some of these people I found it a lot easier to try to understand this. And to me I could see that there were definitely strong links as to why they are Objectum Sexual. Especially towards the end when Naisho was relating to the Berlin Wall. Not being loved and tried to be knocked down but despite all that "standing tall". Plus what is a strong correlation to her life is that she began her love for inanimate objects for weapons of aggression. Which links with her childhood of abuse and perhaps saw these weapons as a source of safety and comfort to have.They all talked about the energy that they received from the objects and the warmth. Which from all their situations they have never seemed to of got that in return from a human. They seemed to confide in objects and have conversations with them. In addition, they all had names which is a very life like quality.

Amy talks about a theme park ride in particular that she is in love with. Backing up what I read previously today about people falling in love with the parts of an object and how they make them feel. Not what the object actually is as a whole.. The way she speaks about 'him' breaking down to the different parts she loves the most about it. 

seductive structures. 

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Zack Dean (2011) Married to the Eiffel tower [Part 1]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLCDD19C0B83DEEF3B&v=h93Q_RruQJY (Accessed: 24 November 2015).

Zack Dean (2011) Married to the Eiffel tower [Part 2]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2FQtdxuVbA&index=2&list=PLCDD19C0B83DEEF3B (Accessed: 24 November 2015).

Zack Dean (2011) Married to the Eiffel tower [Part 3]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF34Uqulmfs&list=PLCDD19C0B83DEEF3B&index=3 (Accessed: 24 November 2015).

Zack Dean (2011) Married to the Eiffel tower [Part 4]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGNi6A1jbvc&list=PLCDD19C0B83DEEF3B&index=4 (Accessed: 24 November 2015).

Zack Dean (2011) Married to the Eiffel tower [Part 5]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sOGTckmfWo&list=PLCDD19C0B83DEEF3B&index=5 (Accessed: 24 November 2015).

The Cultures of Collecting

Reading this has really radicalised how my thoughts about collecting. Its opened up more topics and aspects of collecting that I had not thought about. For instance, thinking about collecting within the jealously system and how that can push collectors more within the hunt of collecting. Also, got me thinking about peoples relationships with objects, and how it can be more than just a possession to them and could develop feelings for them - objectum sexuals. 

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Contemporary Collecting

https://www.academia.edu/4058859/Contemporary_Collecting_Objects_Practices_and_the_Fate_of_Things

Banash, D. (2015) Contemporary collecting: Objects, practices, and the fate of things. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/4058859/Contemporary_Collecting_Objects_Practices_and_the_Fate_of_Things (Accessed: 23 November 2015).

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Why people collect

http://coolandcollected.com/amiibos-are-creating-toy-collectors/

PBS Idea Channel (2015) What’s the deal with Amiibos? | idea channel | PBS digital studios. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZGloufeJkg#t=72 (Accessed: 23 November 2015).


"Now people collector Amiibos for the reasons why people collect anything. To develop or advertise the skill effort or wealth related to collection to associate themselves with what they perceive the thing being collected, to mean, to preserve, or display that mean for others." 

"All summed up by a Baudrillard quote, we used in our morning routines video. 'What you really collect is always yourself'." 

What makes them worth collecting? 

"Archaeologist Ian Harder wrote that an object can gain cultural meaning as opposed to scientific meaning in three ways. First, the many effects it can have on the world: it's utility, functionality. Second, the fact of its symbolic existence, being quote being part of a code, set or structure. In other words objects generally are meaningful because they are symbols. Specific objects are meaningful because of where and how they fit into the larger structure of symbols. And third, to what their symbolism refers. The values or ideas, that a singular object may represent. Harder calls this the historical content of the object itself. It's why your Grandfather's watch is so meaningful." 


"Where its understandable, if not expected, that people like me and my pals will play video games and watch animated television shows. For the general totally un-cool popularise  adults collecting  and displaying figurines remains a marginally aberrant behaviour. Unless were talking about your Grandmother's Hummel collection, that is totally normal so how." 

"Physical meets digital" 

"Action figures that do something, they take action. They're not simply an inert object, they can be used or consumed."   

"David Banash wrote 'use is one way to distinguish a consumer from a collector' it's in making a collectable consumable, that the act of collecting it makes it less wacky in the eyes of many people." 

The video is focused around the Amiibo toys but relate a lot to collecting in general. He mentions some key people which I intend to look into further: Baudrillard, Ian Harder and David Banash.