Modernism

Modernism -->

1. Terms- ‘modern’, ‘modernity’ 
2. Modernity – Industrialisation, Urbanisation – the City 
3. Modern artists’ response to the city 
4. Psychology and subjective experience 
5. Modern art and photography 
6. Defining ‘modernism’ in art 
7. Modernism in design

If we start to think about subjective experience, the experience of the individual in the modern world, we start to come close to understanding modern art and the experience of modernity. 

Modernism emerges out of the subject response of artists / designers. Modernism can be about embracing modelled techniques, making images that responded to sensations / energies of the modern world, how the modern world helps us understand ourselves and reinstating order and control.

Modernism in design -->
- Anti-historicism -
Doesn't look backwards at historical atheistic, pushing things forwards. Modernism is about creating the new.

No need to look backward to old styles, Ornament is crime - Adolf Loos (1908).

- Truth to materials -

Embrace the new world such as new materials for example concrete, steel, new paint technologies. Modernism tends to celebrate these materials and celebrate what they are. 

Form follows function -

Places functionality before aesthetics as you solve a problem with the design and if solved efficiently the design will have beauty/ an aesthetic. Don’t design something to be pretty.

Quarry Hill Flats, Leeds 1938-78

Attempt at modernism as the utopia hasn't materialised. Modern world hasn't provided equality.

Internationalism -->

Modernist practices aim to create a neutral yet universal language, culture that is available to all. Tend to get styles of making that don't seem to belong to a particular country but could belong to any country.

Harry Beck underground map -->

Form follows function, to understand London at a glance therefore not typographically correct. Doesn't use the exact way the lines run of distances, strips system down to the bare minimum to be legible and easily understood by all.

Aesthetic that doesn't belong to a specific time period

If you try and make your work fit a specific style at a particular moment your work will look out of fashion and old in a matter of years. Modernism looks to strip things down to their essentials which creates timelessness which shows the success of modernism. 

The Bauhaus -->

Re-invented the way art and design is taught in the spirt of internationalism. Interdisciplinary approach with photographers teaching typography etc. Created a diffusion of high art into everyday life, not just principles of craft objects but that would transform into everyday life. 

Russian Revolution 1917 -->

set up worlds first socialist country, workers take control and distribute wealth so all would be equal and no-one would starve. During this time you can't have a style of communicating that uses old styles, need to communication. 

El Lissitsky 1924 -->

Reduces photography down to it essence of light but getting rid of the camera. 

Colour Theory: Colour and contrast

How we perceive colour -->

Spectral colour = a colour that is evoked by a single wavelength of light within a visible spectrum. A single wavelength or narrow band of wavelengths generates monochromatic light. Every wavelength of light is percieved as a spectral colour in a continuous spectrum. The colours of similar or sufffiecently close wavelengths are often indistinguishabe by the human eye.

Our perception of colour is based on the eye recieving light that has been reflected from a surface of an object.

White Light:

cant see individual wavelengths, see as a mix of white light

interpret colour when white light is reflected of a surface.

different materials create different wavelengths 

Shorter wavelengths produce blue light, why the sky is blue. 

Everything to do with colour is based on how we see it.

Rods: conveys shade of black, white and grey 

Cones: colours

Type 1: sensitive to red-orange light

Type 2: sensitive to green light

Type 3: sensitive to blue-violet light 

When different cones are stimulated we will see different colours such as if our green cons are stimulated we will see green. The eye if folded due to the physiological response which allows the eye to see a full range of colours through the adjustments of red, green and blue. 

Spectral colour is where the eye can not differentiate between spectral yellow and some combination of red and green. The same effect accounts for our perception of cyan, magenta. Different colour modes are needed to be able to understand colour which relate to physical colour and spectral colour to do with light. 

Subjective Colour

Chromatic Value:

 - tone, hue and saturation is what is spoken about when we discuss colour, as these make up colour. Give each colour a chromatic colour, 

• neutrals created my mixing more colours together to reduce the colour values, mixture of primaries and secondaries with more white added to reduce there values. 
• complementary colours are those opposite colours on the colour wheel this is because the complementary is made by combination of two primaries. 
• Everything we see has a colour value but depends on its hue, tone and saturation which can be altered to create different colours. 

Series of Contrasts in:

Tone -->

 This can be seen by looking at black and white, series of colour contrast that allow different colours to be visible through the contrast which allow for differentiation. Contrast and tone allows for things to be seen easily as black and white are quite high contrast. However using tones/shades of the same colour make it more difficult to see due to little contrast. 


Saturation -->

Juxtaposition of light and dark values and their relevant saturations. The variation effects how the eye sees the shades as colours can appear lighter and darker. Tone, hue an saturation work together within the contrast of saturation to see how pure a colour is. 

Hue -->

The contrast in hue allows for colour to be recognised based on the wavelengths. Contrast of hue looks purely at the tonal value and the colours they create, closer in hue the colours, lower the contrast. 


Temperature -->

Relates to the hues that can be considered warm or cool. Oranges and reds are associated with warmth whereas blues are perceived as cold colours. The use of different tones of red can create a cooler red based on the contrasts created when they are overlapped or placed next to each other. 


After Image -->

How are eye see and perceive colour as well as the memory of the eye. When you look at something that is bright and look away you can still see aspects of the image. Eye remembers colour that it’s seeing, as information seen by rods and tons burns information into the retina. Eye seeing saturated light to the eye flips the colour in order to balance the colour. 

Consumerism

Consumerism -->

- is an ideological project
- too what extent are our lives free under the western consumer society
- we believe that through consumption the desires we have will and can be met
- the legacy of Bernays can be felt in all aspects of the 21st century society

Freud was the inventor of a method of treatment focused n the interpretation of dreams as a way of accessing the subconscious mind. Our desires (sexual forces and animal instincts) that need controlling are incompatible with society today as we are consitently going against what we truly want to do in oder to comply with the society. If we believe that our desires are being met then we are momentarily happy. 

Freud saw the conscious mind as the tip of an iceberg. The conscious is contact with the outside world. THe Pre-Subconscious is material just beneath the surface of awareness. The unconscious is the difficult to retrieve material well below the surface of awareness.

1891-1995 Edward Bernays -->

Freuds nephew produced propaganda during WW1, he used his background in propaganda and knowledge of freuds theory. He created a new form of advertising to manage public opinion. This was the birth of public relations. 

Public relations is a mix of freuds theory and propaganda to persuade a group of people to believe something which then in turn makes companies more popular. 

Fordism -->

he use in manufacturing industry of the methods pioneered by Henry Ford, typified by large-scale mechanised mass production. This is where society becomes filled with things, overproduction becomes a crisis as market becomes overstated - thus meaning that people no longer want to buy. Brands then become very important as companies need to distinguish their product from that of their competitors by giving their products individual identity. TO do this they give products names such as a persons name making the product more human and hand made.

Bernays -->

A way to sell was to give off the impression that something you were selling would give increase something that was desired by the client. For example selling a car to a man with the impression that it would increase their masculinity. 

Some products are marketed on the potential for you to realise your unconscious desires. 

1920 --> 

Walther Lippmann. Advertising government on society to avoid wars, stop eruptions of society and revolution. Theories can be applied to organise the society instead of just marketing. 

1917 --> 

The rise of comminism, creating a world where we seem happy. Due to inequality there is an extent to where we can do this. The quality of life shows that people in the west aren't really happy at all.

Print Culture and Distribution 2

Theory -->

Recently there has been a return back to old methods of hand made production such as letterpress as it’s more personal and rewarding than the instant gratification achieved through digital design. Consequently this return to slower methods of production is not about nostalgia but about changing society to focus on quality not quantity.

Slow food movement -->

Returning to local sourced methods of production and small scale production relationships has become a global trend/following in order to rebelling against what fast food stands for within our  cultural to return to quality. 

Slow Design -->

Focus on how practise relates to other people within the world and their individual environment.

This can be seen in the work of Anthon Burrill who placed his prints into circuits of market/advertising in order to comment on publicity and society. It can also be seen in the Print revival project which marks a return to old fashioned print mediums taking on digital media on its own terms.

Nicolas Bourriaud believes there is a tendency in contemporary arts to move away from creating things to focus on a message/issue to make social relations happen, create networks and collaboration. Barbara Kruger used her work with mass media ‘I shop therefore I am’ to contradict mass media based on the Latin phrase cogito ergo sum meaning I think therefore I am. Slow design is important as its re-humanising society that has been dehumanised due to digital age.

Post Print Culture -->

Technological reproduction of art removes aura/ air of importance surrounding art to create new hand made methods of production to create aura again. Post print culture shows a move beyond print culture to potentially digital due to the capacity for computer to create still image accurately, 

Print Culture and Distribution 1

The 'late age of print' comes from the media theorist Marshall McLuhan in around 1450. 

1760-1840 the industrial revolution happened. Because of the industrial revolution production sped up and became more mechanised which caused a shift in labour and cities began to grow. This meant that there was a need for more products at a faster rate as the industry was expanding quickly. This made a more divided class system which caused the working class to form and come together. The majority of products produced during this time now came from mechanised machines and were produced in mass. The working class created new forms of popular entertainment of which the upper class looked down on. 

In 1820 John Martin was one of the first artists who put his work in a commercial exhibition and charge a larger number of people an entrance fee to see his work rather than work for one paying client. Mass image culture further aided the working class as it made art available to the masses and was not just for the upper classes to own. 

Culture vs popular culture  -->

Levisism says that culture has always been in minority keeping. F.R. Leavis believes that there needs to be an educated few to maintain culture, as only a few can truly understand culture. He thinks that popular culture creates an addiction that does not refresh attitude to life where 'art' makes you question the world.

Aura -->

'The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction' was explored by Walter Benjamin and he questions how art responds to the popular culture of design. Fine art is thought to keep the creativity, authority, mystery and authenticity that technological reproduction of art can't provide, this is knows as the 'aura'. Artists try to tell you how to feel about their art. 

Contemporary print culture -->

Philip James de Loutherbourg introduces a new form of art which was based on perspective as it is framed, however there are moving objects in the gap.

In 1829 the panorama was made famous by Thomas Hornor. The panorama became more popular than pieces of art as they allowed for an immersive experience. 

The use of photography meant that there was no need for portrait painting as photography was a much cheaper, quicker and accurate than hiring a painter. 

Print Cpaitalism -->

In 1842 the idea that images are made for the purpose of profit and the system evolved from the industrial revolution, with its own rules and creates its  own markets centred around images made for purpose of profit.

Chronologies: Type- Production & Distribution 2

Typography is a language which has developed from oral communication to visual communication in the form of type. Over time designers have no set approach to the publication of typography as many rules and ideas have been created, but the most interesting and noticeable work is that when the rules and expectations of design are broken. 

"typography is a communication method that utilises a gathering or related subjects and methodologies that includes sociology, linguistics, psychology, aesthetics" - Shelly Gruendler

Typography is a language that has developed from oral communication to visual communication in the form of type. Brief timeline -->

In 1919 Bauhaus allowed for a new connection between new technology to happen which made different disciplines coming together to create new and exciting ideas, trends on of which form follow function which is still popular today. This meant that what an object was supposed to do drove the design outcome. Thus resulting in a minimal approach to design. 

In 1957 Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann created Helvetica which quickly became the typeface of the Swiss Style movement. This was due to the simplicity and neutral nature of the type. Helvetica was a hugely influential typeface. 25 years after Helvetica was released Microsoft released Arial which was only a slight variation of Helvetica. 

in 1977 Jamie Reid introduced the visual culture of punk which went against the grid systems and rules of typography. 

In 1990 Tim Berners-Lee founded the world wide web and gave it away for free which created a way of communicating without paper allowing for the democratisation of distribution and design. 

In 1995 Bill Gates wanted to make money from the world wide web so he introduced internet explorer which laid the foundations for template based layout. It restricted design due to the fact of only having 8 fonts and only a certain amount of templates.

In 1992 Daid Carson had a modernist approach to redefining typography. He undermined the grid and saw how that reflected upon subcultures within the music scenes of America. His iddeas were based on heritage that dates back to Bauhaus -  resulting in aesthetic evolution.

Technology is positively impacting on the design world and how designers distribute thei ideas, however it also has negative impacts. It has negatively impacted the way in which we have long conversations which are often needed. The web dooesn't allow for these so  shorter and more consise versions of the long conversations are uploaded. Thus affecting how people view and engage with the text that we are communicating by. 

Chronologies: Type- Production & Distribution 1

Type is a very powerful form of visual language and can be influenced by many different factors like cultural and social developments. One principle of visual literacy states that for a language to exist there must be an agreement that one thing will stand for another. Type is what language looks like. 

The historical definitions of typography are no longer accurate in society today. This is due to the fact that they are based on old typography which then was based on movable type due to the methods of printing that was used when they manually printed everything. Todays definition of typography is:
'the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form' or 'the art or procedure of arranging type through the style and appearance of printed matter'. 

The first physical representation of language was thought to be found in 7000BC, it was shown as a range of symbols that represented different objects. Each symbol was used to describe existing things, not experiences or emotions. We do not know the spoken language before this time however to create the alphabet we know today we had to manipulate those symbols over time. 

So that trade and other things in our world could take place, typography had to transform so that the different cultures and people could communicate with each other. This needed something that was understood by different cultures so it couldn't be one language it had to be the simplest form of visual communication - symbols.

In 1870 William Foster introduced the Education Act which made it compulsory for people to learn to read. It was a skill that needed to be taught and learnt by all as it is a vital part of communication. 

As more and more people were learning how to read hand lettering of newspapers and books became less common. This was due to the fact that the audience for these things were becoming bigger and hand lettering took a lot more time than the printing of text. 

in 1919 type was further developed by the industrialisation of type through the Bauhaus as it merged type with craft thus informing mass manufacturing of type. Which then allowed modern type to develop causing designers today to not just look at one aspect of typography but all aspects to understand and develop type further.