Wearing colour

Colour Distinctions

'In the biological records of animal life it is apparent that the female responds to vivid colours.'

'Babies still being dressed in pink for a girl and blue for a boy. This tradition may have originated in ancient Egypt, where boys were seen as a gift from the heavens, and so became associated with blue, while girls were seen as being of the flesh and were, therefore, were invested with a more mortal skin colour. Also the Victorian class division of 'blue collar worker and white collar worker' is still common currency.'

Colour Psychology

'The colour eye' - Robert Cumming and Tom Porter

Red - Most common preference, a dislike for red - a characteristic of someone who has been frustrated or defeated. Pink, preference of someone who lacks the colour to favour red, seeks tenderness, affection and gentility.

Exposure to red - blood pressure goes up, breathing and pulse rates quicken, brain waves are stimulated.

In dark conditions, the eye is sharpest under red light.

Purple - indicates knowledge, sanctity, humility, sorrow nostalgia and old age. Rich colour, wealth and extravagance. Those who prefer violet are said to be tasteful and sensitive, liking for the arts , philosophy, music and ballet.

Colour and human responce

'Colour and Human Response'- Faber birren


E. R. JAENSCH (THEORY)

Blond complexion types for the most part have different attitude toward color than do brunets.'

'the difference between a predominance of sunlight in the more tropical regions of the world and skylight in the more polar regions.'

'red-sightedness' - intense light (brunets, dark eyes, hair and complexion) - natural preference is for red and warm hues.

Blonds - 'green-sighted' (blue eyes, light hair and light complexion) Prefernce is for blu and greens.

Where sunlight is abundant, people are likely to show a preference for warm, vivid hues.

Study Task 3 - Images and Theory

Key terms and concepts:

Signification and Representation:

Elsa from Frozen 2016

Baby blue dress - reversing colour-gender appropriation

Reverting back to the nineteenth century (blue for girls and pink for boys)

Aimed at younger children which indicates that the colour-gender appropriation is slowly disintegrating - the representation of blue and pink is changing.

 Nazi concentration camp badge - ID emblems

Were used to identify people who were placed there.

Pink signified homosexuality, Yellow signified Jew

Representation of colour 

Order and identification

Pink and blue

'Pink and Blue - telling the boys from girls in America'

'The Fauntleroy suit'

Before 1900, toddler and preschooler clothing (up to age of 6) hues were assigned according to complexion, season or fashion, not sex.

Blue has never been as powerful symbolically as pink.

From the 1960s, pastel clothing and pink in general were disfavoured - 'babies found strong contrasts more interesting' / 'women's liberation movement.'

History of pink

'Pinking shears to trim cloth - gave rise to the popular name Dianthus'

For most of the 19th Century, the dominant colour for baby clothing was white (due to the introduction of bleaching and inexpensive cotton)

'Pure and innocent', 'withstand frequent laundering with boiling water.'

A July 1856 news item in Godey's Magazine and Lady's book about the preparations for the first child of Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie of France noted that the layette featured lots of white dresses with blue trim. This was because their firstborn baby "voue au blanc" (dedicated to the Virgin) and would wear white and blue for its first seven years. This, the author explained "symbolizes special protection."

'Pure white is used for all babies' Blue is for girls and pink is for boys, when a colour is wished.' (Ladies' Home Journal 1890)

Study task 2 - Reading and understanding texts

Part 1

I have decided to narrow down my theme slightly and look into colour trends - not only in the illustration world but also in fashion.

'Pink and blue: the colour of gender'

Paolo Frassanito, Benedetta Pettrorini

The author is trying to investigate the meaning of colour and how it has changed over the years. She is trying to establish whether or not there was a pivotal turning point when colour coded gender differences (pink for girls, blue for boys) drastically changed - and the factors of why/how it changed.

Key quotes/points:

'Amy ties a pink bow and a blue bow on Meg's twins Daisy and Demi, so people will know the difference between the girl and boy.' - Novel Little Women - Said to be done in the "French style" (1868) suggests that in France pink and blue were already gender-specific.

'If you like the color note on the little one's garments, pink for the boy and blue for the girl, if you are a follower of convention' The Sunday Sentinal (advised mothers)

'the accepted rule is pink for the boy and blue for the girl. the reason is that pink being a more decided and stronger color is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl' - Ladies Home Journal

'It was not until WWII that the colours were reversed and pink was used for girls and blue for boys...' - The Dress Maker Magazine

Darker blue was associated with Virgin Mary

Painters often mixed 'Lapis lazuli' in paints to depict the most sacred female icon.

Nazi Germany had something to do with pink being associated with femininity - catholic traditions in Germany reverse the current colour coding because of the association of blue with Virgin Mary.

The Nazi's in their concentration camps use a pink triangle to identify homosexuals.


Part 2

Colour theory

Kandinsky's Colour theory

Kandinsky was interested in colour itself and music. He was fascinated by the effect of music and how it can reflect so much power and emotion, he wanted to bring this into art.

He was inspired by the works of Scriabin and Wagner which allowed Kandinsky to experience his own spiritual experience with art and music.

Study task 1 - Establishing a research question

Following on from my year 1 cop, I became really interested in colour as an overall subject. This is something I really wanted to explore and research further - in all aspects of the word. It would be interesting to look into colour theory and the psychology of colour. I could also look at gender in colour, the gender norms and why pink is associated with girls and blue with boys. Colour portrays various emotions in illustration and I find it interesting how artist deploy certain colours for specific audiences. I aim to do some broad research into colour and the start by refining my research ideas to help me start thinking about developing a more specific question.

Evaluation

Essay 3 - Reflection

Reflective Practice

Rationale:

For my journal I have decided to go with the theme of 'unpredictability'. I will be exploring analogue materials using various unpredictable techniques and processes, hopefully creating alluring outcomes. There will be no sense of planning when creating my outcomes to emphasise that idea of unpredictability. I will go about it by not caring about visually creating something amazing, instead just go with the flow and if mistakes happen, hopefully it will create something interesting and add to my whole concept. I aim to use a real variety of materials from paint to coffee to bleach. I will use unusual ways in which to put these on the page from splatting to blowing. I could also perhaps look at the other side - look at digital techniques. I could maybe scan these into Photoshop and add some digital techniques. Maybe I could do half the journal analogue the other half digital, but then again my theme is unpredictability so maybe I should just stick to analogue techniques. Both Aura and William Morris's theory of craft and the uniqueness of analogue have inspired me.

The visual journal reflects the overarching module theme of ‘analogue is more alluring’ with the main focus on creating unpredictable outcomes. Throughout the journal there is a clear sense of unpredictability which is portrayed by the techniques used - there seems to be a high level of expression and a real authenticity which probably wouldn’t have been visible with digital outcomes or more pre planned pieces of work. One of the main fundamental reasons why analogue is becoming more and more extinct is the fact that it is so ‘slow’ and the introduction of digital techniques, sped up the process and enabled technology to reproduce art again and again - Looking through the journal, there is a clear sense of fast paced production of work through the mindset of not caring how the outcome will turn out which is very effective. Analogue doesn’t necessarily have to be ‘slow’ and in actual fact some of the most interesting pieces of art are very simple and don’t take long to make at all. Phil Taylor - university of Brighton believes with digital ‘anyone can do it’ there is no ‘distinctiveness’. The journal has evidence of pieces of work which simply cannot be duplicated and therefore maintaining its distinctiveness. If someone were to draw the same subject again and again each time there will be a slight difference in the composition as a whole. It backs up what Walter Benjamin was saying about ‘Aura’ - a piece of art ‘arising from their uniqueness’. Much of the work inside the journal is extremely unique and probably unrecognisable as to what media has been used which backs up my initial quote extremely well in terms of artwork becoming more ‘alluring’ due to its unpredictable nature.

There is a flame used to create the burnt effect of the paper as a replacement of paint or other pigment based tools. The unpredictable smoky texture has created really interesting tonal marks. There is a clear sense of movement created through the black smoke moving around the paper - a swirl of mist and unpredictability. In order to create something like this there is no real planning involved and probably if there was some kind of restriction the result wouldn't be as interesting or ‘alluring’ backing up the initial quote quite well. Spontaneity is a concept which works so well with analogue technology - creating an outcome without knowing exactly how it turns out, such an exciting concept. Copying a photograph or trying to replicate something to its exact visual sense through perhaps a different media is something which is mundane and doesn’t represent art in a very exciting way at all. The other piece of work present portrays a real sense of chaos and there is no real structure or plan present. The colours used do not look as though they were  dry when creating the collage so they have bled slightly and created some interesting textures.It is clear that a dry brush technique has been used which again creates a really interesting texture and reflects that unpredictable analogue theme quite well.

The comparison between the burnt paper piece of art and that of William Morris’ woodblock printed wallpaper titled ‘Trellis’, poses a few similarities and differences. They obviously both employ an analogue technique and that is evident through the interesting textures presented and real sense of depth. However there is a real difference in terms of structure and style. Morris’s piece conveys a real solid structure and meticulous way of working - there is a clear plan it seems and the intricate detail suggests a lot of time and care was put into creating it. This is in complete contrast to the burnt paper as this is a whole different side of analogue process. This has no clear plan or structure and is purely an experimentational work. There is no real detail and any detail created is purely down to the effect of the flame. It’s interesting to see different aspects of analogue processes. Both are very successful in their on rights and both definitely could not be repeated or reproduced without digital techniques involved. Analogue also allows you to learn a lot more about the colour wheel and colour theory - mixing colours. Perhaps the colours on screen appear slightly differently to what they actually look like on paper. It is interesting to see how different colours compliment other colours and which ones simply do not.

All in all the journal supports the idea that analogue technology is unpredictable and therefore more alluring extremely well. The various materials and techniques used without a clear sense of direction or structure with pure focus on freedom of expression, has created very intriguing outcomes. Not knowing exactly how the final piece of artwork turns out adds so well to the excitement of making art.

Essay 2 - Visual analysis

Technology - 'The alchemy of the analogue is more unpredictable, and therefore more alluring.'

Image Analysis

This essay will be an analysis of three different images which have been informed by the previous essay. It will be looking at the Industrial Revolution and how that has had a significant change to the analogue world. It will also be investigating print culture and how it is more aimed at a niche subculture.  

'Trellis' woodblock printed wallpaper, by William Morris, England, 1864.

This is Morris’s first ever wallpaper design, inspired by his rose-trellis in his garden. Morris used printing techniques like block and woodblock printing. His evident use of detail in his patterns shows his strong interest in naturalism. Nature was very much his inspiration, getting his subjects from either his garden, or occasional walks he’d take in the countryside. He didn’t however want his designs to come across as literal perspectives of natural forms, and more of a subtle feeling or memory.

The limited colour pallette corresponds well to the detailed composition. The natural, quite mundane colours reflect the natural landscape quite well and also allow the composition to become less overcrowded and complex. If there were bombards of contrasting colours it would have lost its sense of style and significance.

One of the most influential of modern art movements is 'The arts and crafts movement' established in 1862 by William Morris, in response to the negative social and aesthetic consequences of the Industrial Revolution. This movement believed that there is nothing more important than design and craftsmanship, with the constant increase of industrialisation. They felt this was sacrificing quality in favour of quantity. This idea is exactly what the ‘slow movement’ depicts.

Shepard Fairey another artist who employs the traditional analogue methods of creating pieces of art. Part of the ‘Beautiful losers’ group, a documentary film exploring a group of artists who start off creating analogue pieces of work purely because of their love and passion for it. As soon as they start to become recognised, they start to lose the analogue side of making things and become more into the digital advertising, corporate commercial side. This is a perfect reflection of what is happening to analogue technology as a whole, and as a result, like I was saying in my previous essay, people are starting to lose skills because of the reliance of digital technology.

Shepard Fairey - Obama Hope poster 2008. Fairey uses a stylized stencil format using the colours navy, pastel blue, cream and bright red (the American flag). Compositionally, Obama is looking up which indicates a brighter positive future. It signals strength and power as there is  real sense of confidence being portrayed. This was digitally created based on the original analogue stencil effect, Fairey employed.

Both images give off an analogue style, although Morris’s is hand crafted and Fairey’s gives the idea that his is too due to his early work as a street artist using stencils, but it clearly has been developed into a digital piece. Fairey’s image is more striking and stands out, something which the artist was intending to achieve due to its context. Morris’ is a little more subdued and perhaps mundane? It doesn’t particularly draw you in due to its colours but then again the purpose of the image is to convey a more authentic style to reflect his rage against the Industrial Revolution, which was happening at the time. Although William Morris’s piece doesn’t seem visually striking, it definitely is striking in terms of the context - It was such a statement to produce a hand crafted analogue piece of art when industrialisation seemed to enable access to such amazing new developed facilities to speed up the process of making things. He enjoyed the pure and simple beauty of medieval craftsmanship, which is evidently reflected in his work.  

Analogue processes are starting to become more and more popular these days. In Phil Taylor’s article he states ‘those of a younger generation, are not drawn to using the latest technology.’ He goes on to explain that this generation have grown up with computers and the latest IPhones. Because they are so used to this form of technology, seeing analogue methods used 100 years ago is unsurprisingly of great interest to them. The younger generation like to create unique, niche outcomes and that is something which is easily achieved through analogue processes; especially with the majority of people having a digital preference. Schools and colleges are encouraging students to experiment with a broader range of processes to help them gain a greater knowledge and understanding.

Another artist which will be analysed is David Carson and his experimental and unconventional  type in which he combines both digital and analogue techniques. Described as ‘the Godfather of grunge’, he uses cut up pieces of type and then scans them in to add bits of refinement. This relates quite well to Shepard Fairey’s deceiving analogue design - conveying a sense of analogue when really it has been digitally created, ‘beautiful losers’. Carson completely revolutionised the graphic designing seen in the 1990s. He was an art director of magazines. His abstract style shows aspects of mistakes which I think make it more successful and unique - this completely backs up my previous essay about how mistakes are key in creating success and a sense of individuality.

All three pieces of art employ a sense of analogue process and it shows that analogue technology was slowly becoming abolished due to the Industrial Revolution, but  has since become back into the frame due to the younger generation and its niche sub cultural market becoming more interested in ‘vintage’ processes to create outcomes which people simply are not used to seeing anymore.    

 

 

Bibliography

http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/graphic_designers/william_morris.html

http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr196/nineham.htm - Issue 196 of SOCIALIST REVIEW Published April 1996 Copyright © Socialist Review

https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/cctp-711-spring2014/what-is-the-meaning-making-process-behind-barack-obama-hope-poster/ - Fall 2014 – Communication, Culture, and Technology

Beautiful Losers - documentary, 2008

http://www.famousgraphicdesigners.org/david-carson

Essay 1 - Text triangulation

Technology - 'The alchemy of the analogue is more unpredictable, and therefore more alluring.'

This essay will analyse three different sources of text. It will explore how mistakes can play a significant part in the creation of unique and striking pieces of art; the digital age as a general subject and how analogue technology has been almost completely abolished due to increasingly  demanding digital possibilities.

Is analogue technology more alluring due to its unpredictability? Or is it purely a simple time consuming inconvenience that is unnecessary in this day and age? Phil Taylor from the University of Brighton, Faculty of Arts department believes that, in his article ‘The Lo-Fi Phenomenon’, many artists and designers are immersed in digital technology and because “anyone can do it, there is no distinctiveness, no gatekeepers and no rebels”. People are losing a sense of ambition with regards to creating pieces of art. The reliance on digital editing is continually increasing and because of this more and more artists are losing the sense of authenticity created through analogue processes. Taylor goes on to talk about film and how the prolonged development process prevents any sense of impatience, which is a word that is paramount in why analogue technology is becoming more and more redundant

Film cameras - the process of making something requires skill and patience, things can quite easily go wrong which creates interesting results. The fact the process is completely out of your own control leads to a more exciting outcome. Melanie Rothschild, a self taught artist, backs my argument up to some extent. She believes that mistakes are key in the development of our creative process. The setbacks along the way can be viewed as a driving force in creating new adventures. After she ‘accidently’ spilled a gallon of paint on the floor, she felt it was ‘too messy to clean’ and left it for a few days to dry. She managed to peel it all off in one ‘glorious piece’ and this then inspired her to create more spillages. This links so well with the Lo Fi article particularly in terms of the focus on creating authentic pieces of art through analogue processes and the idea that the unpredictable result creates alluring outcomes - this presents the idea that mistakes are what make us improve, make us more skillful and knowledgeable and most importantly, more successful. This also backs up the idea of ‘Aura’ by Walter Benjamin, his theory of art historically having an aura - a sense of uniqueness . He believes this has ‘disappeared in the modern age because art has become more reproducible’. Mistakes in art simply cannot be reproduced or repeated somehow which gives them that sense of uniqueness that Benjamin is talking about.    

It seems like people are losing the urge to learn new skills, as things are becoming more and more fast paced within contemporary 21st century society. One of the main causes of this was the effect of the Industrial Revolution when the printing press was invented. It was created to be more efficient and faster than making manual copies. The press experienced constant development until it could print one million copies a day. This of course not only created more of a fast paced world, but people lost their jobs as they simply were not needed anymore. The slow movement of analogue technology is a cultural revolution against the notion that faster is always better. The book ‘In Praise of Slowness’ performed on ‘TED talks’ (2005) by Carl Honore conveys the importance of quality over quantity in everything from work to food to parenting. The book tells the story of how people are constantly rushing things throughout the day, causing you to not remember things as vividly as if you were to stop and thoroughly focus on something. This idea represents analogue technology as being the slow movement whereas digital is presented as the fast one. Digital technology can now rapidly keep reproducing pieces of art without much effort and within a matter of minutes. This idea relates back to what Phil Taylor was saying about film, the idea that because the development of film is a delayed process, it in fact takes time to produce but you are gaining some amount of skill and knowledge through the process.

Carl Honore’s transcript and Phil Taylor’s Lo Fi Article are both written in favour of the analogue world. However what is quite interesting is that Lo Fi (an acronym meaning low quality) is used in Phil Taylor’s title but he then states later on in the article that ‘analogue equates to low quality’. This indicates a huge contrast to the whole meaning and concept behind Honore’s transcript which backs the idea of quality over quantity, stating that ‘we're living the fast life, instead of the good life,’ and taking more time to achieve certain things will make for a more quality outcome. (now make a concluding statement of the paragraph and relate to the title’s trigger words)

Melanie Rothschild’s story is a perfect reflection of what my quote is intending to suggest. The unpredictable nature of analogue technology and mistakes it can create is exactly what her article is depicting which thus makes the outcome more alluring. Perhaps the difference between this article and that of Honore’s is that if everyone was to thoroughly take their time on everything they do and particularly make sure they are making the most out of life (the slow movement) then maybe mistakes wouldn’t happen? Carl Honore says having breaks and slowing down from work is very beneficial. He backs this up with an example of a school in Scotland who have decided to ban homework so the pupils get the opportunity to slow down at the end of the day so your brain can process everything - the pupils achieved higher grades as a result as they weren’t making mistakes due to their fast paced brain. In the controlled environment where people don’t rush around to get things done, mistakes like that simply do not happen. Taking more time and putting more effort into certain situations, allows people to gain a greater knowledge and develop new skills, something which perhaps isn’t so easily achieved with the development of the latest digital technology.

The Lo Fi article goes on to mention ‘happy accidents’ to cause an ‘unpredictable outcome’. This backs up both my quote as a whole and Melanie Rothschild's theory that mistakes make for a more alluring outcome. Mistakes are something which cannot be replicated. Firstly, because people learn from them as part of the development process, and secondly, making the exact same mistake twice is very unlikely, so therefore there is a possibility of creating a one off and unique outcome.

So all three sources have overriding similarities and a few differences but the main point is that mistakes are paramount in making individual unique pieces of art - for example in Pollock and his splattered paint effect, as opposed to Lichtenstein's digital paint brush mark - a complete slap in the face to not only Pollock but to the whole analogue world.

So, yes the world is becoming more and more digital due to the lack of people’s patience and the faster pace of contemporary society. Digital appeals because it is less time consuming and more convenient medium, but making mistakes along the way is by no means a bad thing, in actual fact it could potentially create something exciting and allows us to go into projects with an open mind without knowing what possibilities are lurking around the corner.  

Bibliography

Phil Taylor - The Lo Fi Phenomenon (2010) http://futureplaces.org/essays/the-lo-fi-phenomenon-analogue-versus-digital-in-the-creative-process/

https://www.ted.com/talks/carl_honore_praises_slowness/transcript?language=en#t-150180 (July 2005)

http://www.designworklife.com/2014/04/04/melanie-rothschild-the-art-of-mistakes/ Garth (April 2014)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py-FJ1vAa24&t=120s Youtube (Published 12 September 2014) Editor Amy Jones

https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/walter-benjamin-art-aura-authenticity/ Andrew Robinson (June 14 - 2013)

http://www.environmentalhistory.org/revcomm/features/19th-century-printing/ John Walter

LCA Context of Practice lecture

Part 2 journal - reproducible aspect

I have used an image from my analogue experiments and scanned it into Photoshop, playing around with digitally enhancing and editing it, and using digital techniques such as threshold and stylise. I find it quite interesting that it is such an easy, quick process of creating different kinds of art, without putting much effort into it at all. This is exactly what my essay is trying to convey. I like how one half of my journal is purely analogue and the other is a digital representation, works quite well with my digital vs analogue concept.