Von Trier’s manifesto was a violent reaction to Hollywood. “The Five Obstructions” with Jorgen Leth. Trier challenged Leth to remake his “The Perfect Human” with obstructions and limitations on creativity. Once Leth had completed this challenge successfully he had to edit within a strict list of rules;
12 frames per second (change angle)
Answer the questions posed in voice over in the original film
Had to be shot in Cuba
No set was allowed to be built.
His next task was to challenge the ethical dilemmas of controversial media work;
Had to be shot in a miserable place – Bulgaria
Not to be made for exhibition, for own personal documentation.
Film a child dying of war wounds and not help
Eat a plentiful meal in front of a starving family.
Leth agreed to become part of the experiment, but why does he concede? Surely a moral response would be to argue against the more severe regulations.
Spectacle is a way of distracting mass audiences from realities of power. Spectacle is usually created for and by power, but may sometimes be detourned.
Spectacle is something the audience watches passively, although often with the illusion of participation.
Spectacle is usually, but not always, made by the powerful for the consumption of the disempowered. Spectacle can be used by the disempowered to make points or claims about the powerful. Spectacle can be used to make people or objects seem to have much greater power and significance, for example Royalty is largely sustained through spectacle.
Manifesto of the surrealist movement towards revolutionary free art. Influenced others such as; Leon Trorsky, Andre Benton, Diego Rivera.
“Little Otik” (2000) was a political statement about desires in Eastern Europe at the time. “Alice” is Svankmajer’s surreal version of “Alice in Wonderland”
Dreamlike quality
External concrete forms to relate to internal states, creating a surreal world to reflect on the real world
Portraying logical in an odd or non-logical way Influential to David Lynch, the Cohen Brothers and the Brothers Quay.
The Stamford experiment was a study of the psychological effects of being a prisoner or a guard. The task was to live in a mock prison and carry out a ‘normal’ routine, the guards were allowed to punish where they saw fit. The experiment only lasted six days as it was unexpectedly stopped. Prisoners were losing their identity, however only one rebelled still understanding that it was an experiment, the others simply conformed to the guards abstract rules. After the experiment was conducted, the guards said they were surprised to see how they acted in a simulated environment. We can see similarities to this in modern day media, reality television shows, such as‘Big Brother’ (Channel 4);the producers encourage conflict in the house for public entertainment.
What is the nude, why does it exist? Berger argues that art should not be questioned.
Says men were jealous of women being openly nude, so they created vanity as a sin.
Some religions use nudity to demonstrate sexual activity and love.
Read ‘seeing’ as looking, not as a display; there are differences between paintings made for display or personal gratification (hedonism).
The woman’s positioning in the paintings is demonstrating the male’s sexual pleasures; it has nothing to do with her own. Women in these paintings are always laying in wait for their male judge, however, her look is one of calm content; she knows an audience/painter is looking at her. The gaze is for the viewer. Both modern day and ancient medias use this for male voyeurism.
The only rival for a man usually shown in these renaissance paintings is Cupid or cherub type small boys.
“The spectacle is not a collection of images; rather, it is a social relationship between people that is mediated through images” (Debord).
Debord draws on Marxist theories of Alienation, Commodity Fetishism and False Consciousness. In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation, reality has stated to become a representation. With other means of communication available such as MSN Messenger, Skype, Facebook, and mobile phones, human contact and communication is increasingly restricted.
The spectacle presents itself as something enormously positive, indisputable and inaccessible. The attitude which it demands in principle is passive acceptance which in fact it already obtained by its manner of appearing without reply, by its monopoly of appearance. The spectacle is the moment when the commodity has attained the total occupation of social life. Not only is the relation to the commodity visible, but it is all one sees. The consciousness of desire and the desire for consciousness are identical, the project which in its negative form seeks the abolition of classes, the workers direct possession of every aspect of their activity. Its opposite is the society of the spectacle, where the commodity contemplates itself in a world it has created.
I want to make my final piece photography as opposed to moving image. Photography seems more apt for ‘spectacle‘ in terms of forms of media. I will investigate and research this later.
I want my photo to be obviously staged; reminding the audience they are viewing a purposely constructed piece, will hopefully make them question what they see, forcing them to evaluate/analyse my message.
I want to use women as a spectacle here, I will be conforming to Laura Mulvey’s theory of the ‘Male Gaze’ to make the woman/women appear fetishistic or voyeuristic from the male perspective.
I want my piece to have a sense of privacy to have a sense of privacy about it, like the audience is witnessing something secret. This could evoke feelings of curiosity or mischief. I like the idea of staging the camera through a crack in the doorway.
I want to use media inside my photograph somehow but not to be the focus. The audience will be forced to think about media control. The spectacle could be the audience.
Olivero Toscani, is an Italian photographer for ‘United Colors of Benetton’. His photography is very controversial, the photo’s seen here; ‘Breast Feeding’ 1989, ‘Guisy’ 1990, and ‘Portraits’ 1993 created debate amongst critics. The spectacle here is non-conformity, the confidence to be adventurous.
Portraits
Luciano Benetton’s advertising philosophy is “communication should be commissioned from outside the company, but conceived from within its heart”. These adverts are non-related images with their single green brand logo as the only caption, but they hold incredible power as an image, each advert has a Benetton campaign behind it.
This World War II recruitment poster is an excellent example of propaganda and advertising as a spectacle. The power this advert holds is legendary. Lord Kitchener’s finger points directly at the viewer (almost like an optical illusion) forcing them to communicate with it. In this instance power is the spectacle, the blatant propaganda used here dominates over the image.
This NHS infomercial uses the power of spectacle to shock the audience into drinking responsibly. The almost disturbing image of a young woman soberly being drunk
The following is cited from the 4th edition of Gill Branston and Roy Stafford’s ‘The Medis Student’s Book’ 9: Advertising and Branding. Advertising: Debates and Histories:
Advertising is arguably the most powerful and pervasive form of propaganda in the history of the planet
The media’s use of glamorous body images, leads to huge degrees of conformity, especially around already powerful identities involving the ‘approvedversions‘ of appearance, gendered behaviour and how differences in class, ethinicity, disability and age are imagined.
It brain washes its audience, not with subliminal messages, but with deceptive promises and appeals designed to promote consumerism, materialism, waste, hedonism (pleasure seeking) and envy.
To advertise originally meant ‘to draw attention to something’. *SPECTACLE*
Representation of women in the 1950s and 60s in magazines stereotyped women as ‘homemakers‘ with limited interests and power.
FeministGillian Murphey argues the media exert a strong influence on the gender related behaviour of teenagers.
Laura Mulvey’s theory of the ‘Male Gaze’ says women in the media are seen from a male perspective in either a voyuerisitc or fetishistic way.
After a quickly comparing gender presented through advertising I have found all women to be slim, young, attractive, usually blonde, and not defined as having a job. However, where men were displayed there was a wider age range, most men were established as having an office job, and although attractiveness is still an issue here I feel not as important.
Women tend to be judged more than males in todays media. Modern magazines such as ‘Cosmopolitian‘ ‘More‘ and ‘Glamour‘ have articles about how to improve your appearance (for mens benefit), about how to multitask being the perfect wife/mother/collegue. Whereas men’s magazines tend to use women for visual and sexual gratification.
Women are under constant pressure to be thin, beautiful and successful. This anorexic womanwas used in a public advertising and health awareness campaign. I think this sends out the wrong message, although I understand the power the image holds, I believe the media should be promoting healthy eating among men and women. This will reflect on what image I want to portray in my final image.
