A Product of Products?

On a daily basis we see hundreds of ads. When we are driving, when we are at work, when we surf the internet, and the most often occurring, when we are watching TV. Because advertising is apart of our daily life so much and because society is always seeking to change for the better, society, including myself, gives in to these advertisements that speak the language of transformation. Like we talked about earlier in the quarter, advertisements do this by presenting a person of object that is physically perfect. As a result, people link that "perfect" person or object to the object that the company is selling. 

I am not going to lie and say I have never seen an advertisement and gone out and bought that product--I've done it many times and will continue to do it. I agree that we construct our identities through the consumer products but as for myself, I don't necessarily always just buy the product. If I find something appealing in an ad that I have been wanting, I do my research. I don't base my decision off of what the ad is showing me. I think since ads have become an inevitable part of our lives, society has learned to cope with these advertisements that show perfect people and we take in to consideration; this product may work for this person, but will it work for me?

Overall, I do think society has somewhat constructed their identities through the consumer products but I think we are learning to not just buy what we see, but what is best for us. 

Helen Frankenthaler

"Wrong thing that make it right", in Helen's own words. These contradictions simply help explain the fact that Frankenthaler's work is full of paradoxes--which in my mind, also explains abstract art perfectly. Each of her pieces of work seem to be unique but there is also a coherence and there is a reoccurrence with characteristics configurations. Although all of her work wasn't consumed in abstract work, it did compose a great deal of it.

Frankenthaler started off her career studying a mexican painter, Rufino Tamayo. Tamayo taught her privately for months at the Dalton School in New York. She became intrigued with his teaching and began to impress herself when she could reproduce his Picasso-inpsired manner (Picasso--another abstract artist!). Later, at Bennington College, she then began to follow Paul Feeley, an abstract painter. Feeley's main emphasis was on Cubism, which later reflected in Frankenthaler's still-lifes in which she produced in her Bennington painting classes.

After studying different artists and exploring different dimensions of art, Frankenthaler found her self "agonizing over relationships of plane to plane". In Frankenthaler's work, everything had to be reduced to schematic rectangles and each geometric plane had to take its place as part of a flat pattern in the two-dimensional scheme of the picture, but at the same time, it had to fluctuate in a acceptable relation to its neighboring planes. I think this doesn't only explain Frankenthaler's art well, but abstract art in general.

Some of Frankenthaler most famous abstract pieces include: Mountains and Sea, Other Generations, May 26th Backwards, The Highway, and Jacob's Ladder. 

Mountains and Sea

Other Generations

May 26th Backwards

The Highway

Jacob's Ladder

Overall, Frankenthaler's work overloads the senses and engulfs you into the painting. Not only does the structure help attract the voyeurist but her color use completely expands the imagination.  I like art that makes you think and experience and I feel that Frankenthaler's work does a great job of this.


References:
Wilkin, K. (1984). Frankenthaler: Works on Paper 1949-1984. New York, New York: George Braziller, Inc. and the International Exhibitions Foundation.

Fine, R. (1993). Helen Frankenthaler: prints. Washington : National Gallery of Art.

Art Makes a Difference.

When I first read this topic about art making a difference in society, I had no doubt in my mind that art has made a huge impact on social change throughout history and is still doing so today. One piece I looked at that cemented this idea was Harrell Fletcher's project called "Humans at War". This project was done in 2005 in Wausau, Wisconsin with a group of students. As a result of the war in Iraq, Harrell gave the students an assignment to go out into the local community to find someone who had personal experiences with war. The students were then supposed to ask them to describe a particular scene they had witnessed; dramatic or banal. The students were then supposed to make a drawing based on the scene described to them. After the students had completed their task, the drawings were exhibited and the community came and explored the display of drawings. This is a great example of how art effects the community. This exhibition was a way of students to express creatively people's experience in the war and through these drawings, there has been a social change on how people in their community see war. The drawings did this by not only helping the vouyerists try and visualize these scenes but it also helped them critically think about the war, elicit new actions related to the war, and inspire them to make a difference. Art has this effect because we can take something so "casual" to society and make a conscious effort to facilitate and participate social change by introducing it in a different manner than what the community is used to seeing. 

Not only has art had a huge impact on the past and present, but it will be continuos 20 years from now. There will be events that occur and people will build emotions from these events and create art to present to the community. Things are always changing; war, cultures, technology, economy, politics, you name it. 

Although art can make an impact on society by making viewers think critically about the subject matter or inspire them, there is art that is solely for viewing. I don't feel all art should make you want to go out and change the world. For example, you are not going to want a drawing of a scene from war on your bedroom wall. That's kind of creepy. But you may want a scene from a garden because it is relaxing and calming. Although this kind of art doesn't make a HUGE impact to go out and make the world a better place, it does have an effect that I feel is important; it can calm you and make you feel at ease which we all need in our life. 

Overall, I have always believed in art and its ability to make a difference in the world. Art from other areas of the world can make their way all the way across the world and make a impact on millions of people. Not only does art make an impact on the vouyerist viewing the piece, but that person who goes out and elicits action from it, has an impact on other people. ART MAKES A DIFFERENCE. 

Connection with Low Expectation and the Search for Community in an age of Alienation

"We have diluted the meaning of friend to virtually nothing", Hal explained at the Symposium. This goes hand and hand with connection with low expectation. I think the overall most people involved with a social network want to connect with new people but like the fact that they don't have to commit to a real friendship with this new person. If their new friend posts a facebook status saying, "Had a bad day", they aren't obligated to call up that person and see if they want to grab a drink to cheer them up or sit down and talk about what happened. Instead, they can simply take a glance at that and go on with their day.

Looking at peep culture in a different aspect than connection with low expectation, it does in fact give us an opportunity to share our REAL stories. When we meet new people and build relationships, we don't necessarily give them the complete 4-1-1 on our whole lives. For example, the female blogger who talked on her blog about her obsession with being spanked. You aren't going to explain over dinner with a friend that you just love to be spanked. "Hey..by the way..spanking turns me on". It may be just me, but I think people may take that the wrong way. But on her anonymous blog where she didn't indentify herself, she got responses and comments that were genuinely interested in her and could relate to her. No, those people that responded to her weren't her BFFs (best friends forever) but they were people who felt that they could relate to her and she may have in fact, impacted someone's life by just feeling relatable or giving them the confidence to be more open.

So in conclusion, I think that the word friend has been diluted to a certain degree through social networks, but I also feel it has given people the opportunity to open up anonymously to express themselves completely. May be it could be considered some what therapeutic?

Double Standard

It is common knowledge throughout society that many people feel there is a double standard when it comes to women and how they are portrayed in advertisements versus fine arts. In order to better understand this issue, I felt it was necessary to understand the history of women in art. Advertisement is considered art just as much as the fine arts is and this is where advertisement derived from. 

In the history of art, paintings were geared toward the male viewer because the collectors of art were mostly men and they they were also the primary viewing audience of art. What do men like to look at? WOMEN. That isn't a recent discovery people! So, because of this, women held much of the focus in art. Ironically enough, many of these male artists went to brothels and used prostitutes as their models and in these fine art pieces, women were idolized and still are today.  

Centuries later, businesses discovered advertisement; they could sell and broadcast their products through art; photographs, paintings, and designs. Businesses also discovered another important factor; "sex sells". When this new aspect of advertisement began, companies wanted to use what was most appealing to the viewer; women and sex. On page 130 of Practices of Looking, the author explains that since the 1940s when theorists thought gendered viewing was fixed, many theorists began to disagree with that idea, and explained that what viewers may take pleasure in looking at, does not always strictly conform to the codes of our respective sexual identities. Women can identify with the male position of exercise voyeuristic tendencies in looking at men OR looking at women. These new theorists believed that pleasure and identification are not dictated by one's biological sex, or even by one's sexuality. This meaning:  a straight man doesn't JUST enjoy looking at a woman and a gay male doesn't always necessarily enjoy looking at JUST a man. In conclusion to this idea, although women are used in advertisement, they are not solely for the man's view and although many people feel that women are exploited in advertisement, I think to myself: that is what is the most appealing thing to the majority, correct? So, looking at this in a logical aspect, it is the smartest thing to do in my point of view.

Looking at the exploitation from a feminist point of view, we see a different point being made. The fact is, is that this depiction of women as objects of desire in advertising effects gender relations and society's attitudes towards women and their sexuality. Although selling products by using women is smart, it has resulted in discriminatory advertising and has spread imposed images of femininity and females roles in society. 

Overall, I am kind of split on this issue. I agree women are exploited in advertisement and I do not think it's right. It is degrading and disrespectful. But looking at the purpose of advertisement from a business point of view, using women does sell products and although it is not right, it happens because it is what helps businesses be successful.