Jonathan Valero – May 5

‱ Comparing video game advertisments over the decades
‱ Comparing crash bandicoot advertiment from the 90’s to now
‱ The changes in advertisments for Video games in and out of the game
‱ Use of video games for advertisments in our modern age

Duran, H.B. “Then Vs. Now: The Evolution Of Videogame Commercials.” AList, 29 Dec. 2016, www.alistdaily.com/media/then-vs-now-the-evolution-of-videogame-commercials/.

“Videogame Advertisements from the 1980’s to 2010.” Mega Cat Studios, megacatstudios.com/blogs/press/videogame-advertisements-from-the-1980-s-to-2010.

McCarthy, Caty. “Let’s Remember the Wacky Crash Bandicoot Commercials from the 1990s.” USgamer.net, USG, 30 June 2017, www.usgamer.net/articles/lets-remember-the-wacky-crash-bandicoot-commercials-from-the-1990s.

Push Square. “Crash Bandicoot Is Back with 90s Style N. Sane Trilogy Ads.” Push Square, 19 June 2017, www.pushsquare.com/news/2017/06/crash_bandicoot_is_back_with_90s_style_n_sane_trilogy_ads.

Barnes, Martin, and Felix Parr. Trendjackers, 11 July 2019, trendjackers.com/the-past-present-future-of-advertising-within-video-games/.

Islam Mahrouss- May 5th

Sources:

Jaque, AndrĂ©s. “Grindr Archiurbanism.” Log, no. 41, 2017, pp. 74–84. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26323720. Accessed 5 May 2020.

Woo, Jaime. “Grindr: Part of a Complete Breakfast.” QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, vol. 2, no. 1, 2015, pp. 61–72. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.14321/qed.2.1.0061. Accessed 5 May 2020.

“Relationships: Just Swipe Right.” Behind Closed Doors: Sex Education Transformed, by Natalie Fiennes, Pluto Press, London, 2019, pp. 137–147. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvpbnnng.16. Accessed 5 May 2020.

“Finding Love: A Modern Tale of Dating, Tindering, OKCupiding, Ghosting, and Generally Putting Yourself Out There.” Love, Inc.: Dating Apps, the Big White Wedding, and Chasing the Happily Neverafter, by Laurie Essig, 1st ed., University of California Press, Oakland, California, 2019, pp. 57–82. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv86ddp8.7. Accessed 5 May 2020.

Anthony Delbrun – April 28th

When something is mainstream, it means it is gaining a lot of views to the point where everyone is doing it. The particular something is very popular that people are making big businesses out of that particular something. Sadly, that particular something out grows the popularity and it does not become mainstream anymore. Things that are not mainstream anymore becomes underground, meaning it is not trending but it is still popular and is possible to make something out of it. Something that is underground can potentially become mainstream if it is appropriate to the public’s eye. 

 When it comes down to contemporary design, being mainstream means that a product will most likely be re-invented in a unique way or help inspire other designers to design something similar of the mainstream product. An example would be rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg when he started evolving as a rapper under the tutelage of Dr. Dre and how his persona changed over the years.  

The part where Steven Heller talks about copyright I kind of understand what he was saying. Copyright means protecting a person’s work. This means whatever content the person created cannot be used or published by anyone else without the consent of the originator. When it comes down to copyright, a lot of stuff on mainstream have a better chance of being recognized easier. The possibility of something being stolen is at a much lower risk, however it can still get an imitation. 

 Source(s):

Biography.com: https://www.biography.com/musician/snoop-dogg 

Theknow.denverpost.com: https://theknow.denverpost.com/2012/03/02/snoop-dogg-fillmore-denver/46410/ 

FromTheStage.com: https://fromthestage.net/snoop-dogg-involved-in-a-serious-fight-with-wwe-superstar-in-a-rare-video/ 

Assignment for May 5th

Our final reading assignment for the semester will be two short articles, both from Graphic Design Theory. Here are the PDFs:

Jessica Helfand, Dematerialization of Screen Space (2001): Helfand_ScreenSpace

Lev Manovich, Import/Export, or Design Workflow and Contemporary Aesthetics (2008): Manovich_ImportExport

This week’s writing will not be a direct response to the readings. Instead, the written portion of this week’s assignment will be to post (1) “sketches” of your poster and (2) a working bibliography.

You can interpret sketches literally and/or loosely; include actual drawings, outlines of material, or brainstorm clouds of related ideas. The bibliography can include relevant assigned readings, but it must also include at least a few outside sources.

Please also feel free to email me with any project-related questions that might come up through the week.

April 28 hw…

Steven Heller believes that mainstream art is stolen from visionaires, slightlty altered and then mass produced as a “new” product. For example he uses avante garde art as an example. It is bashed or looked at in confusion as it fades into infamy and obscurity only until something or someone mainstream accepts it, steals it and profits off of it does it get its recognition. I aimed to summarize some of Heller’s ideas via reasearching and comparing my own ideas of contemporary art in the sources I’ve cited below.

According to Heller, Mainstream vs. underground is relevant in contemporary design. One example he gives is where he points out the fact that “Outsiders are, after all, invariably marginalized until the mainstream celebrates them as unsung geniuses.” He also points out that underground art has been folded into the mainstream and is called cool now. All of this ties into the present day situation however. There is a sort of cold war between the two seemingly divided sets of “artists”..

Contemporary design is always changing, mainstream artists seeking ideas can take from the underground artist and pass it off as theirs. This dilemma ranges from clothing to art to music the entire gamut of creative execution deals with this age old problem and it will likely be around forever.

cited

SÁNCHEZ, ALBERTO RUY, et al. “Snakes in Contemporary Art.” Artes De MĂ©xico, no. 71, 2004, pp. 73–92. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24316122. Accessed 28 Apr. 2020.

Mugno, Charles V., and Steven Heller. “The Design of American Heraldry: An Interview with Charles V. Mugno.” Defense Transportation Journal, vol. 64, no. 2, 2008, pp. 17–19. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44118360. Accessed 28 Apr. 2020.

“Contemporary Art.” The Museum Year: Annual Report of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, vol. 101, 1976, pp. 26–27. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43481740. Accessed 28 Apr. 2020.

Nirel Escalante – April 28

When the term “mainstream” is used, it is referring to what as is deemed acceptable by the masses.  “Underground” is a term that refers to something underrated, new, or in other words what is “edgy”. Before reading “The Underground Mainstream” by Steven Heller, I have thought about how impossible it is for anything to be considered underground these days because of the internet. It is so easy and accessible to discover various sub cultures whether it be art, music, media etc. But as I’ve discovered in the reading, anything is underground until it is appropriated by the mainstream. For example in the reading he states  “In Europe the Weiner WerkstĂ€tte, Deutscher Werkbund, Bauhaus, and scores of other reformist schools and movements that sought to better the marketplace with convention-altering arts and crafts fell victim to their own successes. Their collective goal was to raise the level of both manufacture and design while changing timeworn habits and antiquated expectations, yet their ideas became established. The avant-garde is usurped when its eccentricity is deemed acceptable.” I think this example perfectly captures the relationship of the mainstream and the underground, and how it is relevant to contemporary design. It is pretty ironic how these reformist schools and movements wanted to do something new and innovative as a reaction to the mainstream, yet their innovations became mainstream themselves. Contemporary design can be considered the “underground” in this case, because it is all about being new, experimental and original.

We can see other examples of how the underground blends into the mainstream through music. Take for example the Punk movement. We see what happens when the core ideal of the punk movement contradicts with famous punk bands who have made it into the mainstream. We explore this idea in “Not For Sale”: The Underground Network of Anarcho Punk. by Tim Gosling We can see an example of this contradiction in this statement ” In actual fact, behind the glitz, “pink” saw itself as having an attitude that was counterposed both to established society and to the theatrical rock it had generated. The media stars of the mainstream movement were reviled and heckled for their betrayal of the cause by placing themselves in the hands of the industry.”

Another instance we can look at to see how the underground turns into the mainstream is the evolution of white nationalist politics, or what they’ve recently started to call themselves “the alt- right”. In this case we can see how the mainstream pertains to the majority of white people in america and the underground would be people of color. In this current time in America, white people are becoming the new minorities, and the rise of white nationalism is a consequence of that. In Blood and Politics by Leonard Zeskind, he states ” I predicted a mid twenty first century conflict within the united states as white people became a minority in a nation of minorities and were no longer able to preserve a system of white privilege through majority rule winner take all democracy.” I always thought that the twenty first century was so progressive and I was completely shocked to see the large subculture of alt right people empowered by a bigot president to make themselves more visible in the mainstream media which in turn empowers more people to join them too.

Citations

Zeskind, Leonard. “Blood and Politics.” Google Books, Google, books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=6Yx1-sBC1VcC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=the%2Bunderground%2Bmainstream&ots=EzoKAzjQGq&sig=55FLdYydyyVf-wLl-nb5QutDgKM#v=onepage&q=the%20underground%20mainstream&f=false.

Gosling, Tim. “Music Scenes.” Google Books, Google, books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=zrGa3vYOoZgC&oi=fnd&pg=PA168&dq=the%2Bunderground%2Bmainstream&ots=OVO592E3z-&sig=N__nqhMvCtF8OAw0iA3nCoJnyMc#v=onepage&q=the%20underground%20mainstream&f=false.

Heller, Steven. “Underground Mainstream.” Design Observer, designobserver.com/feature/underground-mainstream/6737.

 

Gelek Samphel_April 28

Many scholars regard Picasso’s creation of the “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” in 1907 as the beginning of modernism. There is no doubt that Picasso has made many new innovations and breakthroughs, but it has not broken the boundary between “elegant” art and “common” art. Under Picasso’s pen, art is still a palace work that should be placed in the museum. All trends that followed after Picasso from cubism, expressionism, futurism, or post-war American abstract expressionism, all did not break the “high” and “low” in art. Whether it’s Jackson Pollock who was a major figure in American abstract expressionism or other artists, they all wish their work end up in a museum. 

But it is the pop artists represented by Andy Warhol who appeared in the 1960s that really made this breakthrough, Cans, Coke bottles, posters, Marilyn Monroe, politicians, everything can become the artwork of the artist. This group of artists also includes James Rosenquist, who painted street billboards. Whos billboards design is mostly gum, cola can, etc., on a very large scale. At that time, pop art was indeed an underground art, and no one could imagine that it would succeed.

 American brands aim at the common, while European brands aim at the elites. The cultural differences between the two are huge. When commercial advertisement posters and alike become the subject of art or even replace art, the “high” and “low” of art are truly broken, The recognition of pop art means that non-mainstream art with a prominent commercial focus has a mainstream status. Many years later, Rosenquist ’s art has been well received, and his works can be auctioned big price, even entering major art museums. 

The inversion of mainstream and non-mainstream requires two conditions, one is timing and the other is to follow the “trend.” In the context of the development of the entire art, if a consortium or a country wants to create certain art, there is an opportunity to become “mainstream”, the most typical representative is the American abstract expressionism. Abstract expressionism was developed by the United States in order to compete with the Soviet Union and create its own unique artistic and cultural trend.

Incertain context, Japanese design has become a mature design system comparable to Europe and the United States, because of the coexistence dichotomy of mainstream and underground. Japanese design is greatly influenced by Europe and the United States. Even in terms of art and culture, Japan can find very deep traces of Europe and the United States. However, in the process of Westernization, Japanese society still fully retains many national traditions and characteristics of itself, a two-track system of international and national, a perfect fusion between world wide mainstream and local underground.

 

“About Contemporary Art.” j Paul Getty Museum, www.getty.edu/education/teachers/classroom_resources/curricula/contemporary_art/background1.html.

 

“Modern Art Was Cia ‘weapon’” Frances Saunders – https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-weapon-1578808.html

 

“Picasso and the Painting That Shocked the World”: How a Picture Of Five Women Ignited Modernism

2018 Posted: March 21 – https://www.inquirer.com/philly/entertainment/arts/picasso-and-the-painting-that-shocked-the-world-how-a-picture-of-five-women-ignited-modernism-20180323.html