March 31 Lecture

In todays lecture we went over:

Otto neurath- pictorial langauage the isotype movement

Europeans sought to eliminate future conflicts through modern logic and "pictorial statistics"

Design for information : design systems became a metaphor for design

Ladislav Sutnar structuring text and image as logical information patterns

information graphics

Modernism and the NY School, beginning of wwII modernist flee europe

cast off its neutral stance not have anything to do with facism.

Playful puns, american metaphors. content and meaning

Editorial Design using photography and making it the dominate tool in editorial design.

business, manipulation

Bell Labs combined mathematical theories and engineering principles to set the stage for digital computers.

Universal communication.swiss design all aspect of communication of design.

School at ULM developed a curriculum, goals similar to bauhaus. swiss grid.

Multilingual formats of signs and symbols

We also watched the movie Helvetica for most of the class and made me realize how much the typeface is used in todays industry. We also learned alot about the NY School and how symbols and signs are used for communication for international places. We also went over american design and i enjoyed many of the posters. Again photography was used in many of the posters.

McLuhan's Wake

The Laws of Motion

I decide that I would use the idea of the chair to talk about the four Laws of Motion.

1. What human trait or experience does the medium enhance? the human trait/experience that the chair enhances is the idea of stretching your bones and spine. Also for us to feel relaxed or comfort, a way to unwind.

What is the intended function of the medium or technology? The chairs function is to not only let us relax but for us to sit in and give us support. We also use it to eat at a table.

What does it improve or make more efficient? What the chair improves or makes more efficient is the idea of having to stand or sit on the floor in a uncomfortable way. It gives support to your back so that you don't hurt it like you do when you sit on a floor pillow or on the floor.

Does it extend part of the human body? It extends our bones and spine.

One or more of the senses? no

Does it extend an aspect of the human mind, such as memory? It gives us the sense of relaxing.

Does it amplify some human capability or augment some form of human action? the way we sit

Does it extend the individual, the group or society?? It extends everyone.

2. What pre-existing technology, method, system, or medium does this medium obsolesce? floor pillow, floor, standing.

What older technology does the new medium replace? the stool and the bench

What does it render unnecessary?

What procedures does it short-circuit or bypass? standing

What happens to the old medium that is rendered obsolescent? the old medium is still around but is only used for certain times, the chair can be used everyday.

Does it disappear entirely,become an art object, or find a new niche? the chair can also be used as an art object, there are many beautifully designed chairs that are considered art.

3. What technology, method, system or medium that was previously obsolesced or abandoned does this medium retrieve? the seat, legs of a stool.

What archaic elements are made relevant again? sitting

4. When fully utilized or pushed to its extreme, what will the medium reverse into?

What effects will the medium create that are opposite to what was originally intended? the cushion,pride

What are the contradictions inherent in the technology? design

What is the ecological impact? the use of wood in the chair and being able to recycle and different types of ways to sit and chairs are evolving.

The events or the trends that occurred from the chair was all different kinds of materials used to make the chair, such as metal, wood, plastic and even inflatable. Different shapes of chairs formed and more creativity came to mind. Some chairs became egg shaped and others had arm rests and reclined. In conclusion, the chairs importance to technology and media is that it is used in day to day life. Everyone uses it and uses it everyday. It can be used as art or just for sitting. The chair is used just for the reason why they created it, to sit,relax,and to stretch your bones. The design of the chair was very well thought out, the legs support the seat which supports you and gives you comfort and the back of the chair supports your back, not one part of your body doesn't feel relaxed and in use when you sit in a chair. The chair is very useful to me. The importance of the laws shows how much a chair or thing can impact something and build into more things. It takes technology further. It shows us how much the object improves the past and how it makes one feel.

march 3

here are some key points in tonight's lecture

dutch modernism, idea tech. of commerical reproduction tool of creativity of dutch designers. everything created from bits of metal

typography and photography overprinting

druksels small presses to produce one of a kind compositions

Piet Zwart

modernist graphic design heavy rule lines

german plakastil and typographic form comes together

idea of style more than substance

post cubism and art deco, ideal expression of the age.. great depression

forms take on dramatic graphic motif

Futura- modernist typeface

tourism and entertainment industries flourish exploding new degrees of mobility and leisure in a growing middle class.

Design of the 1920s and 30s become a common source of stylistic fantasties crucial to the growth of consumer culture.

propaganda of the nazis during the olympic games

posters became much larger.... idea of everyone having to be involved in the war efforts, period of rosie the rivetor

suspicion of motivates a tactic of persuasion appealing to patriotic emotions and fear of the unknown enemy.

We went over modernism, art deco and the nazi propaganda and went over the posters that showed off the idea to get involved in the war. We talked about A.M Cassandre and how he was the master of the art deco period. We also went over Piet Zwart who had very interesting poster ideas he has done. I liked the typography and little details that were in his posters, also i liked how playful he was with his designs.

Discourse 1

On Photography by Susan Sontag

America, Seen Through Photographs Darkly

• in photography's early decades, photos were expected to be idealized images.
• Walt Whitman tried to tell the difference between what is ugly and what is beautiful
• In 1915, Edward Steichen photographed something that wasn't the typical idea of something beautiful, he photographed a milk bottle on a tenement fire escape.
• People who get themselves photographed back then were known as a celebrity, later on that has changed and immigrants and workers started to get photographed such as the photographs by Lewis Hine.
• Walker Evans brought out beauty in normal everyday objects/people, he wanted his photographs to be literate,authoritative, and transcendent.
• "Family Man" exhibit in 1955 organized by Steichen were 533 photos from 273 photographers from 68 countries to prove that humanity is one and showed the human beings flaws in a way that made them attractive. People in the photos were different races,ages and classes.
• Diane Arbus in 1972, her show had photographs of monsters and borderline cases, which most of them were ugly. They wore unflattering clothes and in dismal locations but they were gazing with confidence at the viewer.
• Arbus has also taken photographs of carnies as well as patients in a mental facility. She says " you see someone on the street and essentially what you notice about them is the flaw"
• Arbus gets to know the people she photographs to make them more comfortable, she usually has them staring straight/dead pan at the camera. She would take photos that came off as painful, but her photos also demonstrated that "life's horror can be faced without squeamishness"
• art changes morals
• Photographers are always trying to find different views of objects, subjects, and the unknown to photograph for entertainment.
• Arbus was against what was safe, instead she photographed what was private,ugly,and fascinating

This is a Diane Arbus photograph titled "Child with Toy Hand Grenade" in Central Park, N.Y.C. in 1962. The kid is a very odd and awkward looking with a straight/dead pan look that is most seen in Arbus's photos. This is not known as a typical everyday photograph, you would not normally see a kid like this walking with toy grenade. Most people would have viewed this as a shocking sight to see. The kid is not attractive or the typical model.

This photograph is done by one of my favorite photographers,Bruce Davidson the series is titled "The Dwarf" and was shot in 1958. In the photograph the people in the background look disgusted or were making fun of the way the dwarf looks but the main focus in the photo is about how much pain the dwarf must feel by the way he looks. He isn't something known as beautiful and is sometimes thought of as an outcast of society. Davidson has shot a photograph that shows the pain that these "ugly" people experience in a way that is beautiful.

This is a photograph done by Lewis Hines taken in 1908 and is one of my favorites done by him. It shows a poor young girl that is being forced to work in a factory at a young age. It exposes the cruelty of the child labor industry. It shows the pain of the young girl and sadness of what she has been put through. The image even though is beautiful the message behind it is not. It is not typical viewpoint to be photographed. This photos shows the different classes that are out there and shows the truth in society.