Blog Assignment 3

Owen Jones, writer of the 'Grammar of Ornament, argued that construction should be decorated and decoration should never be purposely constructed. The title of this passage indicates that Jones was eager to be known for the object of his work, and that it was intended not to create a series of works and/or models for mere plagiarists. What Jones meant by his statement about decoration and construction is that items or objects should be purposely constructed for further usability, and decoration is just an artistic compenent used for enhancements to the construction, so therefore, objects should not by any means be constructed for use of decoration. He beleived the true order of construction was that the object came first, while the decoration was secondary to the requirements.

In regards to Owen Jone's statement, I would agree with him as objects are constructed for development, and as Jones was saying, decoration comes second. A persons efforts would be wasted on a concept of design for no usability except for decorative qualities, and the design of their work would have no further development in the future, whereas decoration is one of the main key factors in development of design. The stone ceramics displayed in the image below are an example of 'decoration constructed, which Owen Jones would have been appalled by. You can identify in this image, that a persons artistic talents and efforts are wasted on objects which are not designed to make 'the world go round,' as these works will have no other uses aside from decoration.

 

Looking at Walter Benjamins argument, I would agree with his statement 'To an ever grater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducability.' When a work of art is created, there is always a sense of improvement that can be made to it. There is a never ending avaliability for development in every work regarding design, so each time a work of art is reproduced, there is always room for improvement afterwards. This is still the case in a modern use of design today, as design aspects such as modelling or ornamentation can be 'added' on to in terms of modernisation and creativity, which puts design and manufactur in the role of reproducability.

 

I would also agree with Benjamins statement about the role for 'authenticity,' because with modernisation of design comes modernisation with technology. But as Benjamin states there is a requirement for originality, and use of digital technology such as cameras which are essential for photographing one particular image to express the originality of what the person is seeing, and that it has no relation to past works of art which truly makes it 'authentic'

 

The development of technology nowadays is a good cause of use for originality when it comes to works of art, as originality is important for 'Mechanical Reproduction'

1. Considering this week’s lecture and reading, "The Work of Art in the

Age of Mechanical Reproduction” by Walter Benjamin, respond to the

following question (approximately 150 - 300 words, as needed):

Blog Assigmnet 9

"Design & The Democratic Ideal"

What kinds of political or ideological messages inform design or
the branding of design today? Identify one example and
describe in what ways it expresses larger cultural, political, or
ideological beliefs?


After reading 'Design and The Democratic Ideal,' I discovered that the concept and branding of design has been informed with several political and ideological messages. This is because anybody who uses an object that is professionally designed can have some ideas about the objects improvement in the future. And as objects have been created over time, development comes with feedback support from professional design suppliers. An example of an ideological message of branding in design today would be Eco-friendly (enviromentally or earth friendly) products. Eco-friendly refers to 'designed to inflict little to no harm on the enviroment. The ideology of 'eco-friendly or enviromentally friendly has proven to be more successful than the International Organisation for Standardisation, as this organistaion has no interest in the meaning of labels.



An example of  'enviromentally friendly' products, the green gifts are useful towards the tips of home and ideas as they use less electricity save money and the world at once. They are regarded as a symbol of cleanliness as well as simplicity. It expresses the idealogical beleif of being 'eco friendly'

Blog Assignment 10

Pop to Post-Modernism



Post-modernist and 'remix' techniques are a vibrant part of our design culture today. The image above is an example of contemporaray design, and it utilises several techniques, particulary in ornamental electism. As it demostrates simplicity and elegance, it  can reside with almost any type of ornamentation. It is made from natural materials such as stainless steel for construction) and glass (in stages). As well as connecting with ornamental electism, it also consists with historical quotation. It displays how staircases have been modernised and simplified over time by lessening various materials. The first types of staircases were usually constructed with high furnished oak, and were designed to 'marry' other types of ornamentation surrounding it, however the aim was usually to have a close resemblance with the ornaments. Nowadays, a simplified staircase is essential to unite with any type of ornamentation, and that is what is beleived to be the 'beauty of simplicity nowadays.

Notes- andy warhol/postmodernism

ANDY WARHOL

"Andy Warhol began as a commercial illustrator, and a very successful one, doing jobs like shoe ads for I. Miller in a stylish blotty line that derived from Ben Shahn. He first exhibited in an art gallery in 1962, when the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles showed his 32 Campbell's Soup Cans, 1961-62. From then on, most of Warhol's best work was done over a span of about six years, finishing in 1968, when he was shot. And it all flowed from one central insight: that in a culture glutted with information, where most people experience most things at second or third hand through TV and print, through images that become banal and disassociated by repeated again and again and again, there is role for affectless art. You no longer need to be hot and full of feeling. You can be supercool, like a slightly frosted mirror. Not that Warhol worked this out; he didn't have to. He felt it and embodied it. He was a conduit for a sort of collective American state of mind in which celebrity - the famous image of a person, the famous brand name - had completely replaced both sacredness and solidity. Earlier artists, like Monet, had painted the same motif in series in order to display minute discriminations of perception, the shift of light and color form hour to hour on a haystack, and how these could be recorded by the subtlety of eye and hand. Warhol's thirty-two soup cans are about nothing of the kind. They are about sameness (though with different labels): same brand, same size, same paint surface, same fame as product. They mimic the condition of mass advertising, out of which his sensibility had grown. They are much more deadpan than the object which may have partly inspired them, Jasper Johns's pair of bronze Ballantine ale cans. This affectlessness, this fascinated and yet indifferent take on the object, became the key to Warhol's work; it is there in the repetition of stars' faces (Liz, Jackie, Marilyn, Marlon, and the rest), and as a record of the condition of being an uninvolved spectator it speaks eloquently about the condition of image overload in a media saturated culture. Warhol extended it by using silk screen, and not bothering to clean up the imperfections of the print: those slips of the screen, uneven inkings of the roller, and general graininess. What they suggested was not the humanizing touch of the hand but the pervasiveness of routine error and of entropy..."

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