Author: Sadman Hafiz (Page 1 of 3)

this is what I have so far and I’m still looking for more recent covers.

Here is my research:

https://school-eb-com.citytech.ezproxy.cuny.edu/levels/high/article/Surrealism/70462

https://school-eb-com.citytech.ezproxy.cuny.edu/levels/high/article/Surrealism/70462

https://school-eb-com.citytech.ezproxy.cuny.edu/levels/high/article/Andr%C3%A9-Breton/16379

https://books.google.com/books?id=12TuC9IkxKIC&lpg=PP11&ots=wvGqLq0eXp&lr&pg            =PP13#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://cuny-ny.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CUNY_NY/1t6v7bq/alma9994321414706136

https://journalonarts.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/SVACij_Vol2_No2-2015-Belton-The-narrative-potential_CS02.pdf­

Steven Heller in his The Underground Mainstream explains the relationship between underground and mainstream concepts. According to Steven most Mainstream commercials or adverts uses ideas from underground trends, it simply steals an idea which trending and alters it slightly to make it a complete mainstream concept. After reading this I remembered reading somewhere about the collision between mainstream music and underground music mostly rap. It is often said that underground artists are more original, independent, and skillful compared to mainstream artists who are more dependent and restricted. While some may agree with this ideology and some may not but it is clear that the underground can use very deep meanings and unique elements which cannot go mainstream. Heller mentions “It was born in a small community that shared proclivities for sex, drugs, and anarchic behavior— all threatening to the mainstream.” In these lines, “proclivities” means the tendency of doing something that may not be considered proper in the general public eyes. These trends can only be seen used by underground artists both in art and music. Some of these underground trends are very extraordinary and unique and they hold the high potential of attaining mass popularity. Mainstream media sees that the content underground is not proper for the general audience, so they steal the entire idea from the underground concepts and alter them to make it proper for the audience. 

I’m not exactly sure how surrealism can be connected to the mainstream vs underground but this was inspired by the Dada movement which is a little similar to the underground vs mainstream movement. Britannica school high states “Surrealism grew principally out of the earlier Dada movement, which before World War I produced works of anti-art that deliberately defied reason; but Surrealism’s emphasis was not on negation but on positive expression.” Dada originally was a movement that highlighted mostly the negativity of wars that will trigger people’s anger by shocking them with the harsh situations that were created by violence. This movement was extremely similar to surrealism, it also use very strong visuals that symbolized hatred, disgust, and other negativity. Surrealism evolved from Dada but it was more focused on positivity expressions. This is very similar to mainstream vs underground in my opinion because just like how mainstream alters underground concepts, Surrealism also tried to do something different from Dada even though it emerged from the Dada movement. Surrealism starts to fall undermine stream because it contains more of a positive meaning than a negation. 

Britannica also mentions “Drawing heavily on theories adapted from Sigmund Freud, Breton saw the unconscious as the wellspring of the imagination. He defined genius in terms of accessibility to this normally untapped realm, which, he believed, could be attained by poets and painters alike.” Surrealism was also inspired by the psychologist Sigmund Freud’s theories on mental health. In another article about Andre Breton, Britannica states, “As a medical student, Breton was interested in mental illness; his reading of the works of Sigmund Freud (whom he met in 1921) introduced him to the concept of the unconscious. Influenced by psychiatry and Symbolist poetry, he joined the Dadaists” Relating to the theories of Freud, surrealism uses a lot of visual representation of mental health, the conscious and unconscious mind of an individual. In short Andre through this inspiration, tried to present a relation between reality and dream through surrealism and I believe this is a very vast and interesting topic for research.

–Sorry I used 2 sources from the same database because I wasn’t able to access most of the readings from the city tech database. I used the two that I could access with my ID, for the other ones that I got it tells me that I need to be in college to access them.

Roland Barthes in this reading breaks down the aesthetics of advertising images and even images in general. This reading was very interesting and helped me realize many features of an image or a photograph that I have paid very less attention to previously. My favorite part of this reading was how Barthes described images as “polysemous” because this is something that we often forget as audiences.  According to Barthes, “all images are polysemous; they imply, underlying their signifiers, a “floating chain” of signifieds, the reader able to choose some and ignore others” by this, the author states that all images can potentially have many small and larger images within which is very important for the viewer to understand the big picture. When we look at an image, we often focus on the main subject only to quickly understand the meaning but this meaning can be something completely different once you start to look at the various elements surrounding the subject. Barthes says that it’s completely up to the individuals to ignore or choose these different underlying elements of the image. Depending on the individual many may choose to accept some of this information and others may choose to reject but these choices can clearly make a difference in what the individual is understanding compared to the actual message. Most importantly to better understand the advertising images, Barthes states three main aspects of it which are, linguistic messages, denoted messages, and connoted messages. From what I understand Linguistic messages are the language or the text, any form of writing can be considered a linguistic message. Barthes describes denoted messages as those which are not coded and are easily identified because the viewers through signifiers will know what it is signifying in real life. Barthes states “e; in order to “read” this last (or first) level of the image, all that is needed is the knowledge bound up with our perception. That knowledge is not nil, for we need to know what an image is (children only learn this at about the age of four) and what a tomato, a string bag, a packet of pasta are, but it is a matter of almost anthropological knowledge.” This is non-coded because when we see a picture of a tomato, we know that it’s a picture of a tomato. Lastly, the connoted messages are the messages that can be understood through all the elements of an image. Connoted messages have multiple signifiers that signify the different aspects of an advertisement. For example, when we see a tomato, we know that it will be an ad for tomato but when we look at the colors and other objects and the writings, we start to gain more information. Colors can determine what condition of the tomato such as being fresh, cooked etc. it may also be an advertisement of a product made out of tomatoes. We learn all these through the connoted messages where we must think and identify the different signifiers in order to understand the bigger message. Overall, the reading had given me a lot of information which is kinda hard to grasp by reading it once or twice, but I will read it again to see and better understand what.

These are my 3 advertisements which I think use some of the elements from the readings.

The reading states when working with topics such as race, ethnicity, etc, it’s very difficult for brands to achieve a clear message that the audience would understand easily. Often a wrong approach to these topics may result in completely different meanings. Trying not to be racist or sexist may make it even more racist or sexist for the audience depending on how and what elements were used.

These are my 3 advertisements which I think use some of the elements from the readings.

               Nike “Dream Crazy” Colin Kaepernick

This ad was very controversial because of the reference to Colin Kaepernick’s protest against racism and the lawsuit against the NFL. Many people hated the campaign because of racist and political beliefs. This ad also directly attacked Donald Trump and the law enforcements at the time which many of his supporters hated. Nike knew all about it but still decided to take this approach, they believed that there’s no problem if people hated it they just wanted more people loving it than hating it. Nike did have some backlashes and decrease in support at the start but in the end more people liked the campaign and they profit a lot from this Ad. This black and white ad was done intentionally by Nike and was successful doing so. 

                  Ebony HBCU STEM Queens

This ad was intended to only black, young women as they said “ The future is indeed young, Black and female!” in their web. The creators in this case, clearly designed this through the consideration of one specific race and gender. This ad made it very clear as to what they are trying to do.

My last poster is something that i’m seeing everyday now on the subway

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                  MTA, The only sure way to make it to Broadway.

Up until now I didn’t really think deeply about this ad but after this assignment I realized that this ad also considers gender, race and culture. I know that these are the actors for the show but in general as a print ad it uses the elements very well to catch the eye of every audience regardless of their gender and race.

Sources: