Hah...late post. Well we never did finish the film, but I did learn about who Barbara Kruger is and her role in the art world. I knew I've seen her posters before all around because they are so popular but I didn't know who created them. I like their witty humor in some of them, the bold graphic design of the letters collaged onto the black and white photos. I find it interesting that she was a worker for hire graphic designer, hated doing others assignments and just broke away from it to pursue her own career as an independent artist. Her work was also made during womens' rights movement at the time, which would explain why her images are so strong and are primarily in a photographic collage medium. And even though she refuses to explain the political influence her work has over people she at least acknowledges the power they potentially hold. It's interesting how she explains that omnipresence of power that is all around us. Politics discussions always become heated so it was probably a good idea for her not to go into depth her political views and the meaning behind her works. We as a society, people, and viewers definately need to take a step back from the television and world of reproduction around us and think for a bit the meaning behind it and not just entertainment.

Yesterday, we watched The Persuaders which was a documentary about the advertising world of today, how it has evolved and how it's still evolving pushing at its limits. The movie called this era of consumers and advertisers, 'crammed culture' or something like that. It was a comment about how crammed together the advertisements that surround us are. Everywhere we go we see both still and moving advertisements, big, bright, and in the most unexpected of places. It almost feels like there's no privacy, space or alone time for yourself because you're being pressured to buy, buy, buy.

They also talk about how ads have basically become something like white noise to us; we've grown immune to the bright lights, and flashy colors. I'm also just shocked to see how much studying, and analyzing is involved before creating any sort of plan to advertise a product. That German guy for example pretty much created an equation to explain the consumer mentality and how advertisers can manipulate it.

Then they also showed those god awful surveys most people hate doing. The questions they ask for research seem ridiculous even the guy being survey was like huh?! There had to be some sort of incentive for those survey participants to get them to answer those questions (being filmed shouldn't be one of those incentives). Just the whole analyzing the consumer thing was pretty wild, but if it works and they're convinced it works, why stop doing it I guess.

It was also interesting to see why some ads are far more successful than others even when a lot are very similar. It's also interesting how intimate the ads are trying to be with the consumer. Some people try to make the ads too vague, metaphorical, and not literal enough; for some ads and companies it worked because of product and/or timing, for others not so much. So in the end its one big risk and for some risk and an art form which is probably why some ads are too vague in what they're trying to sell.

I myself usually turn a blind eye to ads because I don't pay enough attention to them. And if they do catch my eye its usually because of color, design, humor or something like that. But I never feel the urge to buy the product just admire the ad. Heh, advertisers must not like my type.

EMAC

EMAC and art blog, I say hello and bid you farewell until next time.