Context of Practice: Essay 2

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.