Triangulation

Comparing three texts on Ken Garland's First Things First manifesto

Ken Garland, a British graphic designer of the 1960's, wrote and published the manifesto First Things First as a plea to raise support and move designers away from advertising jobs to focus in their skills on worthier activities. Garland believed their skills were going to waste and that they were becoming an industry of plastic consumer designers when there were 'signs for streets and buildings, books and periodicals...industrial photography, educational aids' (Garland 1964) that needed their attention. He then went on to say; 'We hope that our society will tire of gimmick merchants, status salesmen and hidden persuaders' and at the time he got 21 designers, photographers and students on boards, but as we know from living in today's society we haven't yet tired of the commercial world of advertising, we have in fact gone in the opposite direction and jumped on the band wagon even more.

Rick Poyner, writer of First Things First, A Brief History, agrees with Ken Garland’s words saying himself that ‘it is no exaggeration to say that designers are engaged in nothing less than the manufacture of contemporary reality. Today we live and breathe design.’ (Poyner, 1999) When Garland wrote the manifesto it was at a time when the ‘rapid growth of the affluent consumer society meant there were many opportunities for talented visual communicators in advertising, promotion and packaging.’ (Poyner, 1999) He believed that Garland’s words caused a stir in the industry and as Poyner’s name is on the list of signatures on the original manifesto, it is obvious that he is bias towards it, but he admits it might have been popular, just not as affective as they had hoped, otherwise a second version of the manifesto would not have been necessary.

Poyner goes on in his text to agree further that designer’s talents are going to waste on trivial advertising and that if only a few more designers in the 1960’s had spoken out and accepted the work of more useful and educational tasks ‘balance would be restored’, but instead ‘advertising and design are closer today than at any point in the 1960’s’ (Poyner 1999)

The manifesto was re-written, First Things First Manifesto 2000, in Adbusters with the help of Poyner, and became a much more political and confrontational text suggesting that by going along with and advertising such products, as a designer, you support the exploitation of the third world. It is very forceful, saying that designers must stop doing what they do, whereas Garland’s original piece just pointed out that designer’s talents are wasted. Poyner, who’s name is on both versions of the manifesto, also agrees with this Adbuster’s version posing the questions; ‘In whose interest and to what ends? Who gains by this construction of reality?’ (Poyner, 1999)

However, Michael Bierut in his text The Footnotes argues that working for the advertising, consumer market has its advantages and that in today’s society it does not waste the talents of the designer. It shows good design and spreads that good design across the globe Just because you are advertising, doesn’t mean as a designer you have to lie to your audience to better the brand. Bierut analyses the First Things First Manifesto 2000 picking out the phrase ‘a new kind of meaning’. Tibor Kalman orders; “Designers: stay away from corporations that want you to lie for them,” but Bierut makes a good point that ‘the greatest designers have always found ways to align the aims of their corporate clients with their personal interests and, ultimately, with the public good.’ (Bierut, The Footnotes, n.d) The creators of Adbusters and the likes of Rick Poyner renewed the manifesto because they believe it will then be heard and acted upon, but Bierut stands firmly by the words of designer Bill Golden who wrote “I happen to believe that the visual environment...improves each time a designer produces a good design - and in no other way.”

He is obviously slightly sour towards the manifesto, as he openly comments in this text; ‘Good question. As for me, I wasn’t asked to sign it’ (Bierut, The Footnotes, n.d) but I do agree with a lot that he has to say. If designers turned their back on advertising, it wouldn’t make it any less of a global takeover, it would just mean that you would be faced to look at bad design attempts everywhere, and who wants that?

Annotations

As I was absent for the seminar on annotating Adorno's TV essay, I have posted annotations made in other seminars on two other pieces of text.

Essay Proposal

A proposed essay title or topic:
'How does the gaze theory within paparazzi culture affect celebrities and how the general public sees them?'

The main issues addressed by your argument
Who controls the mass media.
The positives and negatives of the 'Celebrity world' and the invasion of paparazzi
How and why gossip magazines and media portray celebrities the way they do
Why the general public obsess over them.
How celebrities cope and their need to self regulate

Any visual material that you will look at:
Gossip magazine images, eg. Heat magazine

What theoretical approach / methodology will you use?
The gaze theory, particularly the male gaze and panopticism

Which specific theorists / writers will you refer to?
Foucault, M.
Chandler, D.
Sontag, S.
Coward, R.

At least 5 books / articles / resources already located:
Berger, J (1972) Ways of Seeing, London, Penguin

Chandler, D (1998) Notes on the Gaze, www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/gaze/gaze06.html (09/03/2010)

Foucault, M (1977) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, New York, Pantheon

Marshall, P.D (2006) The Celebrity Culture Reader, New York, Routledge

Thomas, J (2001) Reading Images, New York, Hampshire, Palgrave

Initial essay ideas

Foucault's Theory of Panopticism

• within the media today - too broad?
  
• towards celebrities?
• through the eye of a celebrity?

Perhaps look at the extreme lengths papparazi go to to catch them out - showing how difficult it is to self regulate 24/7

• look in gossip mags
• idea of 'stalking' on twitter/facebook
• Michel Foucault's book
  

Adorno on pop music culture

A brief summary of:

'On popular music by Theodor W. Adorno, with the assistance of George Simpson. Originally published in: Studies in Philosophy and Social Science, New York: Institute of Social Research, 1941, IX, 17-48.'

Theodor W. Adorno was a marxist ideologist with a materialistic theory on culture. He argued that all 'popular' music listened to by the mass culture goes by a set of rules and that it is all standardised. Apparently you will know what it will sound like before you've even had to listen to it, yet you still buy it. In other words, you want what you are taught to expect. Adorno believed there were 'two spheres of music', one being serious music that was authentic culture because it wasn't afraid to be different and didn't fit into the standardised category of the other sphere; the popular music, whereby there is a rule 'that the chorus consists of thirty two bars and that the range is limited to one octave and one note...nothing fundamentally novel will be introduced.' (Adorno, T. 1941, pg1)

Pseudo-individualisation is another key point he brought in, whereby you, as a listener, choose to go against the 'pop' culture and think you're different to everyone else but you are actually part of a group that all think like that too, so in the end you're not really an individual at all and still a part of standardisation. Adorno also believed that it became a standardised idea that if we like one genre, we will like all music within that genre. Not only that, but he raised an interesting point about songs deemed as being 'popular'. The songs, however, simply go through a process of promotion known as 'plugging' with the idea that if we hear things enough times it will grow on us and become 'popular'. 'Listeners become so accustomed to the recurrence of the same things that they react automatically'. (Adorno, T. 1941, pg2) A good example of this almost mechanical business of churning out music is the reality TV show X Factor. Each year they look for someone that stands out from the rest and has that unique quality, but they already have a 'winning song' lined up for them as they want to produce a pop star and a song 'that is fundamentally the same as all the other current hits and simultaneously fundamentally different from them'. (Adorno, T. 1941, pg2)

The false idea that the collective experience through the consumption of a standardised product makes you the same as everyone else and the fact that we feel the need to belong and have 'recognition and acceptance' is another interesting theory of Adorno's about the listener. 'He feels safety in numbers and follows the crowd of all these who have heard the song before and who are supposed to have made its reputation.' (Adorno, T. 1941, pg3)


This years X factor winner Joe McElderry:

Lecture notes

Panopticism

The idea of 'panopticism' still stands in contemporary society today, being used in the most obvious forms, as well as the most discreet. For example; CCTV, Google street maps, speed cameras, where we are always being watched, parking tickets, in which we pay without questioning, all involve clever mental discipline whereby it ends up being the individuals paranoia that disciplines oneself.

The Panopticon model itself is still used in institutions, such as offices - that used to be cellular but are now open plan with the idea that you work harder if you believe you're being watched - bars, and even churches. Foucault explains 'the gaze is alert everywhere' (Foucault, 2000 p 76), which is true even in places such as universities. Our computer suite in university has that feeling too that you are always being watched. Even if there's no-one in the room you are working in, the I.T. staff can still see your screen from their office. There's to be no time wasting or browsing through irrelevant websites, as staff keep a record in the form of an archive of all the websites you have ever been on. You have your own 'segmented, immobile, frozen space' (Foucault, 2000, p 76) by having your own desk space, computer, log-in name and password, but it's hard to chat or spread your work out. You do not know when they are checking your computer: 'He is seen, but he does not see' (Foucault, 2000, p 80). There is an image of a little pair of binoculars to let you know they are keeping an eye on your work to make sure you work productively. They can even send you messages that pop up on your screen to tell you to get back to work. All this is a form of panopticism so that the student working on the computer ends up disciplining him/herself and the staff are actually not needed, unless to offer support if you need help.