Theories Lecture w. Karl

Difficult things can be stripped away to simplicity if you look with ‘soft’ eyes.

Altermodernism/third space – critical realism?
Experience/transformation (Nike sold myths, not shoes. The shoes were a vehicle to transport the myth.) On balance, what is more authentic to me and others?

Raymond Williams: Theory of cultural formation.

Kendall-jenner's-new-pepsi-ad-appears-to-erase-the-black-lives-matter-movement

What were the Pepsi ad people thinking? This theory shows you how.

Interesting thought on capitalism: It can take provocative, opposing forces that attack the dominant culture, and absorb them into the dominant. Flip them on themselves to further the dominant voice.


Emphasis in tangible experiences - if websites look pretty but don’t have immersion when you can interact with them, they are quickly rejected. Selling the myth to selling the functional.

Individual transformation as product - the customer is the product. Apple stores that have lecture theatres to transform the user.

Two-way dialogue - conversation, user input and participation, rapid decline of interruption advertising. Like the Tui ads that have become ‘catch the ball one handed at the cricket’ instead of mysoginistic brewery ads.

Social responsibility - planet, people, profit, causes and effects, concern and mindfulness (Patagonia clothing that tells you the good and bad about their products through brand transparency)

Provenance - Local vs international product, conscious consumption (Dave in Aro Valley brewed your beer)

Consumer citizen - social, connected, active consumers, blurring or social realms.. Working with feel-good factor.

Authenticity - facts, truth, genuineness, honesty, transparency, directness, sincerity, causes and effects, mindfulness. What is about the production values and how things are made and presented that make them more or less appealing?


Real means:
ethical
natural
honest
simple
unspun
sustainable
beautiful
rooted
three-dimensional
human

G. Orwell: “During times of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act”

Pine/Gilmore chart on authenticity

Research Proposal

Makes the body of work more focussed, less speculative and floaty. Helps you support your argument so it’s not generalised.

Advising meeting
Sharing what we’re up to with different disciplines. Need something tangible. Nothing has to be resolved or finished, but print some stuff, have some sketches and mind maps, show some insights etc. Sketches of potential outcomes etc.
What could the solution and the direction be? Have your designer hat on! Think and respond like a designer.

Vic Books Talk - 1984, George Orwell

I went to a book discussion at Vic Books Pipitea about George Orwell’s dystopian novel ‘1984’, as the topic of the book relates well to my topic.
The blurb for the talk is as follows:
"George Orwell's '1984' paints the disturbing picture of an England under the rule of an absolute totalitarian regime. Published in 1949, Orwell gave the world a glimpse into the mindset of those manipulated by their own government, and that of those who chose to rebel against it.
Orwell's classic dystopian novel has re-entered the best-sellers list in 2017 after Trump's advisors re-introduced the world to the concept of "alternative facts"."

Here are my notes, revelations and thoughts:

• In the book the authorities created a new language to make the population use (form of oppression)
• ‘Black-weight’ where a fact is presented as evidence, a blatant lie in spite of evidence that people believe anyway.
• Fear and distaste of language, of adjectives and expressive language. Things such as Sad. Good. Very Good. Trumpisms.
The idea that eventually, everything might be abolished. Devaluing and misuse of language.
• The post-war dream of the little man who finds a tiny corner hiding from the government to do his things.
• Can a fact be changed? Is perception fact? These things aren’t malleable by political structure.
• Trump’s lies are, in a bizarre way, comfort texts that offer an alternate reality, like a pick-an-ending book where you can pick the answer that you prefer to hear.
• Quizzes? Are they a form of fun and play theory that addresses this pick-an-answer idea?
• Does a lie-maker have a ‘saving stupidity’? He’s using a position of lowliness in a high place in a way that is deliciously intoxicating and dizzying.
• Cecelia, in Ian McEwan’s Atonement: “So nearly handsome, so deliciously stupid”.
There is a joy and satisfying interest and fascination at watching and spurring on something so stupid to see what it will do.
• A comfort in Trump, he is a lier and a bad guy, and so you know who he is. “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.” It was likely on this idea that he was elected over Clinton.
• There’s an element of story and dystopia that gives us a sense to keep going and functioning in our similar lives.
• Interesting to run to fiction, perhaps a form of extended lie, to find solace from a post-truth world.