Next term I begin a new project called "Formats". The idea behind it is to pick a format (e.g books, magazines, posters) and make something in this format about the format! (Confusing I know).
And here I am as an Obamicon!
The main problem for me is picking the right format, making a whole book or a magazine could be quite a daunting task but there will be plenty to research, whereas making a poster will be much easier, but it would need to be a really amazing poster for me to do well! So there is my dilemma!
Today was the beginning of the Visual and Cultural Theory lectures for this project (as it needs to also include a 2000 word essay about your chosen format) There is only six of these workshops and they don't cover all of the formats, so they are just there to get you thinking.
The first lecture I had was about Posters, and raised the interesting issue "Is the Poster Dead?"
This was something important to think about as posters are everywhere, but they are now moving into digital moving image territory, technology is evolving and big screens replace the large billboards that need a guy with a big brush to change the posters. It is all done by the touch of the button. And thanks to the internet we can distribute posters and advertisements very easily through flickr or email.
A subject we touched on was the Obama HOPE campaign by Shepard Fairey which was made for the streets but became something that Obama campaigners took as an official logo for the campaign and really that is working in the old traditional way of posters, almost a backward step, the poster does not move or transform, it remains still as a poster should. But it is then used on the internet and is shown on television, which makes me think that the poster will never die, but will just move from being something seen in the outside world, but to being all over the media as well (if it is effective that is). If all advertising becomes moving images, we may not have enough time to consume them, because our train may arrive half way through or just before the end, it will not have enough time to sink in. So yeah as you can see I have got a lot to say about the poster, which makes it a strong candidate for my project, but we shall see!
A website mentioned in the lecture was www.obamiconme.com where you can put yourself or any other image into it and make it Obama Shepard Fairey style, I of course thought I'd try it for myself (it will make excellent research!)
And here I am as an Obamicon!
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