Modernism vs. Postmodernism

Modernism:
Occurred during the late 19th and early 20th century, when people believed that traditional culture along with culture theories were becoming outdated. Modernists focused on innovative forms of expression and rejected realism and sought to be more progressive in creating and shaping the world (specifically art/architecture/things that make up culture). Modernism can also be called a way of thinking that supports the ability of humans to be able to change their environment in ways that make it more practical for their use. It also rejects boundaries between high and "low" forms of art. Before modernism what was considered to be art and in museums were things that were associated with the upper class. This began to change in modernism when different things could be looked at as art.

The chair to the left is an example of an arm chair that was created in America during the Art Deco stage of modernism.









This is an example of a modernist building.














Postmodernism:
It is a reaction that occurred as a result of modernism. It is a very ambiguous term that is hard to define. Postmodernism deals with the idea that if something is meaningless that it is not important to focus on finding meaning in it, but rather just having fun with creating it. It is also concerned with the organization of knowledge.

Installation art is an good example of post modern art.
To the left is a piece by Jenny Holzer’s who calls her work "truisms."











Andy Warhol is considered a postmodern art. This is also called Pop Art.

New Coke / Marketing Atrocity

In the Mid-80s the Coca-Cola company decided to create a new formulate for their product; it was going to be called just Coke, or the New Coke. The reason why they decided to do this is because Pepsi was an emerging brand that was challenging them and their sales. Coca-Cola's sales remained stagnant while Pepsi's were continuing to grow. In order to fight back against the growing popularity of Pepsi they decided to try out the new formula.

They released the new Coke on April 23, 1985 with a lot of hype. The New Coke had a new taste in a new can. The company ran by chairman Roberto C. Goizueta, bought prime time spots for Coke's new ads. He described the new Cokeas “smoother, rounder yet bolder.” However the publics' reaction was completely different. People were completely unhappy with the new coke, and spoke of it almost as an atrocity. People actually tried to stock pile cases of the original Coca-Cola!! The original product was being sold at a rate of $30 a case (that sounds like a lot for soda now, think about how much it was in the mid-80s before the recession!) By July 11, of the same year, the New Coke was already taken off the market by the company. The president of the company released the statement: “We did not understand the deep emotions of so many of our customers for Coca-Cola.” Enrico of Pepsico even stated back on April 24, 1985, "These two products, Pepsi and Coke, have been going at it eyeball-to-eyeball. And in my view the other just blinked."

It has been said by marketing experts that the reason the Coca-Cola's marketing ploy went so wrong was because people did not actually want a New Coke. I think this makes a lot of sense, because Coca-Cola original is something that has always to me represented in a way the classic aspects of America. For instance, apple pie represents the wholesome American, and to me when I think of this I think of a glass bottle of coke, a Nathan's Ball Park hot dog, and a slice of apple pie, all resting on a white and red picnic blanket. I think changing the Coke took away a vital part of the identification that people feel with the Coke brand. Coca-Cola had been exactly the same since 1903, when the formula had to be changed because it contained too much cocaine. By the 1980s most consumers had grown up drinking the original and had most likely developed some sort of brand loyalty. I think that is the catch. If the consumers are to stay loyal to the brand the brand must stay loyal to them. I think when the Coca-Cola changed, this shocked people. It wasn't the same brand anymore, in a way it broke the "trust" that it had with it's costumers. Consumers trusted Coca-Cola to remain the same -- Here is my perspective on this aspect of their failure. Things change in life that we can't control, and sometimes when this happens we want to fall back on things that we know won't change or dissapoint us. For some loyal consumers Coca-Cola could have been just that. After a hard day at the job, a refreshing Coca-Cola with dinner, to remind them that some things are unchanging and some things are just as good as they were when they were children, could be just what they wanted, but with the New Coke there feeling of security was taken away from them.

Coca-Cola made three key mistakes when launching the New Coke. They focused on the individual product, not the brand name, they didn't take into consideration the emotional attachment that the public felt to the original Coca-Cola, and their research did not aim at actually determining whether or not a New Coke would be appropriate and if so how should it be created. The slogan "Always Coca-Cola" is probably the most memorable when associated with the brand. Though new slogans have come in and out, that one seems to remain. A company can never underestimate the loyalty of their consumers with out making a drastic mistake.

Subvertising

<--Original.
















<-- Recreation.

Absolut

The advertiser grabs the attention of the consumer by juxtaposing the parts of the male body. The slogan is "in an absolut world" and on the box in the picture it says "the perfect man".. this is an appeal towards humor because in an ideal world this would happen. This ad is very identifiable and is aimed at women. If I saw this ad I would probably first find it humorous, but in a way I think I would be attracted to the product in that it is presented as a thing that is perfect or could make the world perfect. It is idealized and this is an appeal towards power. Everyone wants to be in control of their life.

Consumer Culture and the Manufacturing Of Desire

A new place that advertisers are placing ads are on social networking sites. On facebook when you log in there is a "mini feed" it will tell you the recent activities of your friends. Sometimes there will be "sponsored ads" or "sponsored links." I actually usually look at these because they are highlighted in a different color and tend to stand out. I know my student credit card was advertised on there, and that is what actually prompted me to get the credit card.

Something Corporate

Love :)

Barbara Kruger Assignment

The Myth of the Potographic Truth

The first image is kind of humorous, but it also can make a statement. The statement or meaning is can be different depending on how you interpret the image. For instance, the image could be a sign of how ridiculous it is to eat meat, this would be a message from a vegetarian. Most Americans find the idea of eating cat meat as ridiculous, however eating cow meat (beef) is considered to be normal in American society. This image could be saying that eating beef in a taco is just as ridiculous as eating a cat, because they are both forms of life that could be potentially ingested by humans. So the first image to me says, in a humors way, "If it is okay for us to eat a cow, why not a kitten?" (Trying to prove a point that it is not "okay.") When the image is cropped and the second Image is produced. The entire meaning of the image changes. The second image is more mysterious and makes less of a statement. The image could be interpreted as a man posing for a picture makign a silly face. It could be interpreted as a man who is shocked or surprised, or trying to act shocked or surprised, or a similar emotion. It could even be interpreted as a man trying to show us something about the inside of his mouth. While the first image seems to take a stand on a controversial issue, the second image just seems to be an expression or emotion.

This add alludes to both a stripper pole and being "green." Sex sells, but this draws humor to that. This also relates to the society context of democratic elections, especially now more so, because many woman are very important political figures. "Working the poles" is a pun because it draws upon sexuality of woman and also their ability to work the poles, politically (election polls). "Going green" is also a very contextual thing, because no society places a very high importance on doing things that are environmentally friendly.

This image of a car photocopying it's rear end is very funny because it alludes to someone in an office who is photocopying their rear end. This is a known joke but one doesn't expect the person in this joke to be replaced by a car. The quote at the bottom that says "anything but cute" makes it even more funny because no one associates photocopying a rear end with the word "cute."

Toys'R'Us Ad

This ad uses toys to represent a very famous scene from the classic movie "Titanic." Nearly all Americans are familiar with this image. The ad is advertising both toys and classic DVDs. I think this ad is more attractive to parents than children, because children probably are not as familiar with Titanic, but it is the parents who have to be convinced to take their children to the store. I think it's a very creative/cute ad.

Thinking some more about Chapter 1.

After looking over the chapter again, I started to think more about looking as an exertion or power. One may think that he or she has the power to control what they look at. However, there are many images and forms of media competing for our attention. The most powerful image therefore, gains our more of our attention. This is perhaps the competition that advertisers are in.

We can exert power by choosing to ignore a certain image or even a certain person, by simply choosing not to look at or acknowledge it or them. This is a very powerful tool.

With all the various stimuli that is around us, competing for our limited amount of attention, it is impossible to focus on everything at once. No one can take in every detail of what is going on around them, not even the most attentive person. This is important for advertisers especially to know, because they want to create an image that can get the most attention. That will shock, surprise, intrigue, fascinate, excite, and capture an individual.

It's interesting to take note of practices of looking and images in this sense.

Still Icon (headphones)

This is the 48x48 icon I made on photoshop. I wanted to make a new icon for my music folder. I saved it as a .gif because .jpg would not support the transparency when I uploaded it onto my blogger. It seems to work better this way.

2nd animated .gif ! =)

After making my last .gif and my friend mentioned that she was eating a popsicle so I thought this would be a more simple .gif that I could make look better than the first one. This only needed 19 frames and each frame is 0.03 of a second.

animated .gif =)

I chose to do a dinosaur eating a leaf from a tree. I wanted to pick something simple to draw, but at the same time something interesting. I had a bit of a hard time making the dinosaur look like it was eating the leaf. I found out that it was easiest just to make the animation go in a straight line, since I am not very experienced with photoshop. I ended up having to use 57 frames, which is a lot more than I thought that I would need. Each from is 0.07 of a second.

Media - The Extensions of Man Part 3

Media: mp3

Content: Dictionary.com defines mp3 as "The file extension for MPEG Audio Layer-3, a set of standards for compressing and downloading audio files from the Internet." It uses a lossy compression algorithm that is designed to reduce the amount of data required to represent audio recordings. These recordings sound just as good to the average person.

Message: This type of file allows for the fairly easy transfer of an audio file from computer to computer. With the invention of the mp3 there came to creation of file sharing websites such as Napster (originally) and now other websites such as Kazaa, Ares, Limewire, and others. These websites allow one person to download music onto their computer from another persons computer. This type of transfer became illegal because of copy right infringement. People illegally downloading music has caused the music industry to suffer a bit economically. It also perhaps spread the message that piracy is moral. For instance many people of my generation believe that there is nothing wrong with downloading a song from the internet for free. This is because they don't really see it as stealing. However with stricter laws many people now download songs from legal programs, such as iTUNES where songs cost 99 cents per download. While the music business has perhaps been harmed by illegal downloading this same type of downloading has done a lot to help musicians gain success. Many musicians will increase their popularity after their music is distributed freely over the internet. Also people have the opportunity to be exposed to a more wide variety of music that they may not have had access to otherwise. In addition to these social changes, mp3 players have become very popular. CDs are becoming a thing of the past when thousands of songs can easily fit onto one small hand held device that can be carried around, such as an iPOD. There fore CD stores are not frequented as much as say the iTUNES e-store. The creation of mp3s has not only changed the music industry but it also has changed other industries. Many cars are now equipped with plug-ins for mp3 players or voice synchronization to have hands free use of mp3 players. Also there have been inventions of protective covers to allow you to bring mp3 players into pools and showers. Mp3 players have really revolutionized the amount of music that people can have at almost any place any time.

These social changes can be seen as a negative impact with the increased amount of piracy, but also positive because the ability to include music more easily into a life style can have many benefits to both mental and physical health.

Media - The Extensions of Man Part 2

Media: Online data bases, such as WebMD or IMDB (Internet Movie Database).

Content: A data base is defined as a a comprehensive collection of related data organized for convenient access. A database contains facts that can be trusted. The facts depends on the type of database and can vary from medical facts to facts about movies.

Message: The average person is now able to access all types of information with out leaving home. Someone with a medical question could access a database such as WebMD to answer questions about certain medical issues. This saves a person time and money because instead of visiting a doctor every time they have a small question they can just visit the database. This also allows the average person to become more educated and have more knowledge about facts that might otherwise be completely unaccessible to them. Information is also organized in a way that is easily obtainable so research can be done more quickly and efficiently.

This is a very positive form of new media because it allows for the general public to be more educated and aware. It also causes people to be more independent and self reliant. The only down side to this is that people may become "too" independent, where as they aren't communicating as much or as often. For instance, with WebMD, people might misdiagnose themselves instead of communicating with a doctor who would have perhaps given them the proper diagnosis.

Media - The Extensions of Man

Media: Conference Calls

Content: A conference call could contain both live streaming of audio and video. It can contain many people on both ends of the conference calls. Usually these people are business people, which include both people in management and other employee positions.

Message: This really displays McLuhan’s idea of the Global Village. Many companies can do business very easily with companies overseas with the use of this new technology. They can have different branches of their company in different places and more easily communicate with them. This type of conferencing also serves as an extension of man and their senses because it allows their ideas to be spread all over the world, just as quickly as they are stated out loud. The communication established by video and audio conferencing over the web or telephone makes communication nearly or just as efficient as in person communication. Companies save money and time this way because they don’t have to pay for travel fees or have to take long flights or drives to have in person meetings. This means that many companies have branches all over the world and ties the world together. For instance there are branches of IBM both here in the United States and India. This ties the two countries together with some similarities because this means that people in both countries will both be aware of and be able to identify with IBM, greatly enhancing the concept of the Global Village.

This is a positive form of new media because globalization allows for the world to become more understanding of other cultures and to be more united along with the fact that this form of technology also aids the economy of many nations.

Practices of Looking - Chapter 1: Images, Power, and Politics

They say a picture says a thousand words, and this chapter describes that cliche perfectly.

From reading this chapter I learned that images have a lot of power over people. They have the power to invoke feelings and to create other images in one's mind. Different images invoke different responses from people depending on their culture and the period in time as well as their frame of reference.

The most interesting part of the chapter I found was the part about photographs. I like most people believe a photograph to display the truth, especially when it comes to crime scenes and investigations. I never really thought that a picture can be stage to make something appear to be something else. However this makes more sense to me when I think of a family portrait. Often families look happy in portraits even though they may not be as happy as they appear.