CULTURALWEDNESDAYS

CULTURALWEDNESDAYS

3 Introduction

5 Bernard Canniffe

7 Dog-Town and Z- Boys

9 Donnie Darko

11 Do the Right Thing

13 Paris, Texas

15 Dawn Shadforth

17 La Haine

19 Graduate Lectures

23 Lost in Translation

25 Fermat’s Last Theorem

27 Joel Lewis

29 Grayson Perry 31 Ricky Burgess

33 Jonathan Barnbrooke

35 Hoxton Mini Press

37 Krage Design

39 Big Bang Data Exhibition

41 Warriors

43 The Man Who Fell To Earth

45 The Black Hole

47 Twin Peaks - David Lynch

Introduction

In this journal I am going to reflect on vidoes that I have seen this year. I am also going to write about lectures I have been to by my fellow students and also by other graphic designers.

This journal covers a series of cultural events that can affect peoples lives in the graphic world.

Some of the films I have watched as part of this design course are Donnie Darko, about a young boy with paranoid schizophrenia, La Haine a film all about Hate, and Do The Right Thing which deals with racism. Interesting issues have been raised in these videos.

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Bernard Canniffe

Bernard Canniffe has a deep dedication to academic rigor, a strong commitment to creative practice, and a profound belief in the power of design to make the world a better place.

PIECE STUDIO

A social desgin studio that partners with communtity organisations , activists, researchers, scientists, institutions, politicians and artists to define solutions to societal problems and create change.

PROJECT M

Intensive summer program that provides collaborative opportunities for young graphic designers, writers, photographers, and other creative professionals to generate new

ideas and design directions that challenge the status quo. He led design projects and workshops that address socioeconomic and cultural topics and has made presentations on design for the common good at international medical, design and academic conferences throughout the world.

Designers are a special breed of thinkers. We engage in the discussion and help define solutions to the problems failed by society. Through partnering with community organisations activists, researchers, scientists, institutions, politicians, and artists, designers become an essential piece of the collaborative process needed to enspire and create change.

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Dog Town and Z-Boys

A 2001 documentary film exploring the evolving sport of skateboarding. It tells the story of a group of teenage surfer/ skate-boarders and their influences on the history of skateboarding culture.

“The sport of skateboarding continued to evolve as the z-boys continued to bring edgy moves influenced by surfing.”

“Local background pools were emptied and became hot spots for these young skate-boarders looking for places to skateboard.”

It was amazing to watch all the stunts that the z-boys performed. They took skateboarding to the extreme.

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Donnie Darko

“A troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes , after narrowly escaping a bizarre accident.”

“An american science fiction psychological thriller drama film.”

It was an altogether amazing experieince watching this film. The storyline was attention grabbing. It is about a young teenager who has paraniod schizophrenia.

This was a very interesting film for me to watch as my work is now based around mental health. Donnie Darko had a serious mental health problem with hallucinations and he felt like he was being controlled. He decided to give up hs own life to save others from being killed. Very fascinating to watch! 9

Do The Right Thing

This movie tells a story of a neighbourhoods simmering racial tension, which comes to a head and culminates in tradegy in the hottest day of summer. The film was a critical and commercial success and recieved numerous accolades and awards. It was directed and written by Spike Lee.

This film looks at life in the Bedford-Stuyve-sant district of Brooklyn on a hot summer Sunday. As he does everyday, Sal Fragione opens the pizza parlor he’s owned for 25 years. The neighborhood has changed considerably in the time he’s been there and is now composed primarily of African-Americans and Hispanics. His son Pino hates it there and would like nothing better than to relocate the eatery to their own neighborhood. For Sal however, the restaurant represents something that is part

of his life and and sees it as a part of the community. What begins as a simple complaint by one of his customers, Buggin Out - who wonders why he has only pictures of famous Italian-Americans on the wall when most of his customers are black - eventually disintegrates into violence as frustration seemingly brings out the worst in everyone.

The storyline was gripping and racism is dealt with well in this film. It shows that racism is a huge problem in america and can result in tradegy.

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Paris, Texas

“Plot: An amnesiac who after mysteriously wondering out of the dessert , attempts to reconnect with his brother and seven-year-old son. He and his son end up embarkng on a voyage through the american southwest to track down his long-mising wife.” A 1984 drama.

This film was fun to watch and the filming in this video is very clever.

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Dawn Shadforth

Dawn is a british music video and documentary diector, editor and artist. She made videos for artists including Kylie Minogue, Selena Gomez, Flornece and the Machine, Bjork and The Streets.

She direected Kylie Minogues “Cant get you out of my head”. This video made the song a number one hit worldwide.

She also directed “The Importance of Being Idle” by Oasis, from their album :Dont believe the truth”. This song went to number one and is said to be the best video that Oasis has ever made.

Dawn quoted, “Because it’s music, its different from cutting a story. When i have an idea, its motivated by editing.” 15

La Haine

La Haine means ‘Hate’. ‘La Haine attire la Haine’ means hatred breeds hatred.

This is a 1995 film written and directed by Mathieu Kassowitz. He also starred in the film.

Injured by a police inspector during an interrogation, Abdel is at a hospital, almost dead. In the suburbs where he lives, some riots happened during the night, and one policeman lost his gun. One of Abdel’s friends, Vinz, finds it. Vinz and his two pals, Said and Hubert, have nothing to do so they try to kill time. Vinz swears that if Abdel dies , he will shoot a policeman....

This was a strong drama about hate and tells the story of 3 young guys set out to get revenge. 17

Graduate Lectures

JORDAN LEWIS

Whilst at the universitiy of East London, I was selected as part of a small group to run a zine workshop with the public to promote the graphic deisgn course. This took place at Boxpark and operated for a few days and then transformed for the open night exhibiting all work made by the public. All work was printed using a risograph machine and then bound into a zine that showcased all, to be handed out and shown to the public that attended the open night exhibition. I created a theme “I confess” that got the public a base to create work on, confidentially they creatively confessed and then sealed it in an envelope. These confessons were then printed and bound and the public had a great time discovering each others confessions.

KATIE DIEBELIUS

A flexible, self motivated designer able to work under pressure in a busy environment, its all part of the fun! I enjoy being an active member of a team. Design is a natural instinct for me, best enjoyed applying it to communicate problems that relate to the people, provoking action or an understanding- even making them laugh.

TEMIDAYO O.D. KOLAWOLE

Today i learned to make mistakes... Tomorrow i think i will make some more!

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Graduate Lectures

ARIADNI ADAM

It is almost impossible to define what is graphic design. As design is moving away from the traditional relationship between text and images, the designer has to become liberated to create without boundaries.

Graphic design is not uninformed , it is not about digital software and pleasing images. But software and digital processes can be part of it. What differentiates graphic design from lets say word clip art images is the concept. The idea that lies behind a piece of desgin is its defining point but also it is because of this idea that the piece has taken a particular form.

What is the position of the designer though?Reaching the conclusion that graphic design is too vast to define with one single name and that really it is about creating images or objects to communicate, based on a concept, the designer is the person that turns this concept into a reality. Consequently the designer reshapes this concept, in a way, into an object or a process that takes a part of his/ hers personality as well. Thus designers have the power to shape what is graphic design and what is not and in today more than ever can express their personality through these projects as well.

The lectures from these 4 graduates were helpful because they showed the type of work needed to be produced in third year.

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Lost in Translation

Bob, an aging American movie star comes to Tokyo to film an advert for Whisky. Charlotte a young college graduate is left in her hotel room by her husband, John. She is unsure of her future with John and feels dispassionate about their relationship. Bob’s own 25 year marriage is tired as he goes through a midlife crisis. Bob and Charlotte meet in the hotel bar one night when they both cant sleep. Charlotte invites Bob to meet with some of her friends. Bob and Charlottes relationship develops as they spend more time with one another. One night unable to sleep, the two share an intimate conversation about Charlottes personal troubles and Bobs married life.On the penultimate night of his stay, Bob sleeps with the hotel bar’s Jazz singer.

The next morning Charltote arrives at his foom to invite him for lunch and overhears the woman in his room, leading to an argument over lunch. Later that night, during a fire alarm at the hotel , Bob and Charlotte reconcile and express how they will miss each other as they make a final visit to the hotel bar. The following morning, Bob is set to return to the United States. He tells Charlotte goodbye at the hotel lobby and watches her walk back to the elevator. In a taxi to the airport, Bob sees Charlotte on a crowded street and gets out and goes to her. He embraces the tearful Charlotte and whispers something in her ear. The two share a kiss ,say goodbye and Bob departs.

A gripping storyline but the ending was not so good. 23

Fermat’s Last Theorem

The theory: an+bn=cn

In number theory, Fermat’s Last Theorem (sometimes called Fermat’s conjecture, especially in older texts) states that no three positive integers a, b, and c can satisfy the equation an + bn = cn for any integer value of n greater than two.

By accomplishing a partial proof of this conjecture in 1994, Andrew Wiles ultimately succeeded in proving Fermat’s Last Theorem, as well as leading the way to a full proof by others of what is now the modularity theorem.

I was interested by this video because i like working with numbers , it enspires me to think about relative things in the world. 25

Joel Lewis

Joel Lewis is half of the duo called Helicar and Lewis. Pete Hellicar was a skate-boarder for over 25 years. Joel Lewis studied Computer science and Maths at Imperial in London and then did and MA in interaction design at the royal college of art.

Joel Lewis created an instalation called Caravideo. This was a caravan videoing people in the public. It was a live broadcast space that streamed visdeo throughout the Mobile Republic Tour.

Circulate, was an outdoor artwork asking the youth of london to write a about and draw their visions of the future. They built characters on 3D and made an insatalla-tion that mapped them to the movements of passersby in real time. He launched this installation on a high street in London.

Joel said, “Do something that is going to make you happy. Not sometiing that is going to make you rich.”

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Grayson Perry

Grayson Perry (CBE) is an English Artist, known mainly for his ceramic vases and cross dressing. Perry’s vases have classical forms and are decorated in bright colours depicting subjects at odds with their attractive apearance.

Perry studied at Braintree College of Further Education from 1978 to 1979 and graduat-ed from Portsmouth Polytechnic in 1982. He was awarded the Turner Prize in 2003. He works in a variet of mediums but is best known as a ceramicist. Threre is a dissonance between the conventional forms of his vessels and the depictions that adorn them.

He uses imagery and text to chronicle social concerns, his own formative experiences and to tell the story of his alter ego, Claire.

The tone of his narratives is psychologically complex and often caustic. Although he uses traditional methods to make his pots, he employs a range of techniques, such as embossing and photographic transfers, to create intricate, animated surfaces.

A quote which Perry said was , “all snow-flakes are different, but in the end it still all looks like fucking snow!”

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Ricky Burgess

Boiler Room is the worlds biggest online music broadcaster and the leading community of underground music fans.

From a webcam taped to a warehouse wall in Hackney, we’ve now hosted shows in over 65 cities, showcasing the output of quality emerging & established musicians and the highly engaged fans of their local music scenes. Our shows are broadcast to millions of passionate music fans around the world, who use Boiler room to curate their discovery of new music and connect them with remote underground music scenes unavailable to the moffline. Our quality-only approach to music programming has grown a loyal mass audience from the grassroots up, established our reputation as the most credible voice in music, and secured unrivalled brand equity for Boiler Room.

We currently generate revenue through partnerships with brands seeking access to our valuable audience and cultural credibiity.

Boiler Room is revolutionalising music online: its mjusic telelvision, for the digital age.

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Jonathan Barnbrook

Jonathan is a british graphic designer, film maker and typographer. He trained at St. Martins School of Art and at Royal College of Art. He designed David Bowie’s album cover for the album “Heathen”. He is a font designer who released fonts including Bastard, Exocet, False Idol and Mason.

Barnbrook lives and works in London. He multi-layers meaning and style, working with language and latterforms in an ingenious way.

In addition to being a type designer, Barnbrook runs a design studio where he has collaborated with such noted people as David Bowie, Damien Hursdt and Adbusters.

He is also seen as one of the early innovators in the world of motion graphics , and his contribution to graphic design was recognised by a major exhibition at the Design Museum, London in 2007. You can often find him exchanging the measured world of type design for the more spontaneous acivity of VJing.

Jonathans typgraphy is interesting and unique.

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Hoxton Mini Press

Hoxton mini Press typically works with photographers and illustrators to turn existing projects into books.

Hoxton Mini Press was founded in 2013 by Martin Usborne and Ann Waldvogel and is an independent publisher making collectable art books about East London. We think that Hackney and its surroundings are the city’s most exciting and vibrant areas.

We also think that art books should be accessible. We work with the best photographers, illustrators and writers (both established and upcoming) to make books so beautiful and charming you’ll keep them for your grandchildren. We also sell limited edition prints on fine paper at reasonable prices. 35

Krage Design

Krage Design is skilled at creating new branding; improving, revamping or totally redesigning companies’ marketing material. Providing graphic design services for the construction industry, architecture practices, in food retail, media companies and other service providers including social care and accountancy firms.

The leader of Krage Design is Mike Krage. They specialise in Branding, Website design, Design for print: brochures, annual reports and posters, etc. They also specialise in magazine and newspaper design and art direction. They also design for exhibition displays and signage.

“You have a product, a service and a message. You need to communicte it clearly, simply and memorably.”

They believe that the best designs are simple.

They listen carefully to you and learn as much as they can about your business, and express what you want to convey in striking clean graphic designs in print, online and digital formats.

They also design beautiful magazines, brochures and flyers and get you and your company established across social media with an identity and a voice that everyone will remember.

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Big Bang Data Exhibition

We are living in a huge Data explosion. Data gets us from A to B and data is gradually transforming our lives. Artists and designers use data as a raw material; they visualise the invisible.

“We are endlessly producing and releasing data, whether passvely as our daily lives are recorded by cameras, telephone calls, and card payments, or by actively engaging in social media and searching the internet.”

The Big Bang Data exhibition was set in Somerset House, London. It was very interesting to learn about everything that surrounds us.

The Warriors

In 1979 a charismatic leader summons the street gangs of New York City in a bid to take it over. When he is killed, The Warriors are falsely blamed and now must fight their way home while every other gang is hunting them down to kill them.

This film is about a race to get away from the people that think the warriors had killed someone important.

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The Man Who Fell To Earth

An alien, who adopts the name Thomas Jerome Newton, arrives on Earth and quickly sets about creating enough wealth to allow him to return to his own world. His home world is portrayed as a vast arid land where water is at a premium. With the help of patent lawyer Oliver Farnsworth - who later becomes the CEO of Newton’s holding company, World Enterprises - he has a number of original patients that make him very rich. Along the way he meets a number of interesting characters, including Mary-Lou, who falls in love with him and Nathan Brice who works for him. The question of course is whether Newton will ever get to return home.

This film made me jump , as it was quite scary seeing Jerome Newton taking his eyes out. He was an alien but seemed to appear to be human. 43

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The Black Hole

The crew of the spaceship Palamino stumbles across the ‘’lost’’ ship U.S.S. Cygnus, hovering on the edge of an immense black hole. Once aboard, they find the ship is manned by robots - it’s only human inhabitant, one Dr. Hans Reinhardt; an eminent scientist, missing for the past twenty years. His plan - to enter the Black Hole . . . Whether Dr. Reinhardt is a genius or a mad-man, one thing is for sure, he will not be denied his life’s dream.

What lies beyond the Black Hole?

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Twin Peaks - David lynch The small northwest town of Twin Peaks, Washington is shaken up when the body of the Homecoming Queen, Laura Palmer, is discovered washed up on a riverbank, wrapped in plastic. FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper is called in when Ronnette Pulaski, who attended the same high school as Laura, is found wandering on a bridge before lapsing into a coma. Cooper believes there is a connection between Laura’s death and the death of another girl named Theresa Banks that happened a year earlier. Cooper discovers a small piece of paper with the let-ter “R” on it shoved under Laura’s fingernail. He reveals to Sheriff Truman that under the nail of Theresa Banks he found a “T.” There’s little doubt the same killer has stuck again. Meanwhile, the rebellious Audrey Horne ruins a business deal for her father Benjamin; Twin Peaks sheriff Harry S.

Truman arrests Laura’s boyfriend Bobby, who is secretly seeing a married woman named Shelly; Laura’s best friend Donna and secret boyfriend James discover a mutual attraction; and Laura’s mother has a terrifying vision.

I was disappointed because we do not find out who murdered Laura Palmer.

JUSDEEP PAL