Popular Culture 1950s to 1990s

Music – war – fashion politics – art – ideas technology - style

Part II

The Story from the 70s to the 90s

Reflections on ourselves

Points to Remember

‘Media’ is the plural form of the word ‘Medium’

A Medium is a communication channelIt is a means of expression

It is a vehicle for transmitting ideasIt is the pipeline through which ideas travelIt is the means of exchange between people

It is a BRIDGE between MINDS

Types of Media (1)

Speech - Writing - Mathematics - Painting - Drawing -Newspapers –

Television - Magazines - Music – Singing - Sculpture – Dancing - Movies – Fashion - Theatre……. and More

These and many other kinds of media allow the transmission of ideas between the minds of human

beings.The marks & drawings on the wall of the cave

are ancient media

Types of Media (2)A Spiritual MEDIUM

Supposedly a person who can communicate messages from the dead to the living

An Academic Medium

A teacher – who transmits the accumulated knowledge of society to young minds

A crumpled piece of paper

The note scribbled between two pupils in a classroom

“what are you doing tonight?”

Types of Media (3)

Emotional MediumThe wind that brings her perfume through the air

Musical Medium

The electric guitar played by Eric Clapton singing ‘Tears in Heaven’

Print Medium

Books through which you can access the ideas of many other people

Tall - Medium – Small

Three people stand in line

One is tall - One is ‘medium’- One is small

The medium is always the mid-point between two poles

The medium acts as the bridge

between two minds

Between Minds and Things

The Medium – whatever it is – is always BETWEEN things

Connecting them together

It has no purpose in itself other than to link different entities

There is always the MEDIUM and the MESSAGE

1970s – 1980s Movies

Blade Runner Star Wars Alien

1970s – 1980s Movies

E.T. Indiana Jones Jaws

All by Steven Spielberg

The 1980s – The New Wave Romantic Style

In the 80s style is everything if its clean and looks expensive:

David Bowie Meta punks Yuppie

The Postmodern Era 1970s-1980s

Elements of shock, retro, Pop art, clashes of colour and of normal design associations

The armchair joke An ‘historicist’ office building Portland Building, Michael Graves

Postmodernism – what it is (1)Postmodernism is…..

Since the 1970s an intellectual shift of attitude

Towards diversity of opinion, explanations and ideas

Towards different ways of doing the same thing

Towards identity, ethnicity, feminism, anti-science, individuality

Towards the validity of PERSONAL experience

There is no one single, right or dominant way of doing or thinking

Fragmentation of the social consensus

Postmodernism – what it is (2)CONTRAST WITH MODERNISM WHICH PROVIDES:

A single theory or explanation for many different events

The Meta-Narrative (the big story)

Darwinism, Marxism, Freudianism, Functionalism, Fascism, Science, Rationalism, Authority,Truth

Dominance of a priesthood, an elite and

‘Those who are supposed to Know’

Rejection of the validity of personal and individual

experience in the face of collective authority

The 1980s – Technology

Live Global Broadcasting possibilities thru

satellite communications and computer Control.

Top: ground station & shuttle satellite Delivery.

Right: Bill Gates of Microsoft

Space Exploration

Right: U.S. Space Shuttle

services a Russian MIR

space station.

Increased cooperation

between these countries

leads to the building of

the International Space

Station

The 1980s – Style Consciousness

Sub-rock music, sub-punk styles, smooth fashion all make the

1980s a matter of clean and inoffensive imagery.

No Threat to anyone here.

Above: Adam Ant ‘rock’ singer plus

80s fashions

The Movies 1970s-1980s

Raging Bull 1980 Apocalypse Now 1979 Cabaret 1972

Dir: Martin Scorsese Dir: Francis Coppola Dir: Bob Fosse

From Medium to Medium to MediumAn IDEA – a MESSAGE - can travel from medium

to medium

It can start as a book

It can then be translated into a play

It can then be translated into a film

The film can then be translated into a musical score

The musical score can then be translated into a stage musical

(And finally all of this can be translated into a lot of money at the bank for the guy with the original idea!!)

The Language of Media (1)

A medium is a kind of language

The Message, Idea, Plot is written out in the form of the language.

This can be sounds, writing, body language, mathematical symbols, film, etc.etc.etc……..

The language/medium has its own vocabulary of forms and a grammar for putting them

together sensibly

The language of Media (2)

When you buy birthday flowers for a family member

The flowers REPRESENT your affection for thatperson

The flowers themselves ARE NOT the affectionThey are just SYMBOLS of it

A medium for its expression……SO

The map is not the territoryThe map is just a symbol – a medium - for

representing the territory

The Language of Media (3)

Do you really think Media are just about

Words and Numbers?

When you are watching a powerful Movie

What do you think then??

When you look at a photograph of someone you love

What do you think then??

Japanese Design 1980s +++The hi-tech alternative

New Architecture The Sony Walkman Matrix in Japan

Postmodern Style 1990s-2000

• Left: M-M• Invitation Card• 2002

• • • • Rings by Azagury-Patridge ‘Muff Daddy’lounger 2002• by Seymour

Postmodern Style The 1980s

1980s

Yuppie symbols of wealth and confidence

Wars 1970- 2002

Afghanistan, Burkina Faso,

Comoros, Fiji, India, Liberia,

Libya, Myanmar, Nicaragua, China,

Iran, Ghana, Chile, Albania,

Azerbaijan, Bougainville, Haiti,

Macedonia, Yugoslavia, Panama,

Argentina,Grenada,

Israel, Iraq, Russia, Bosnia,

Palestine, Ireland (Britain), Iran,

Iraq, Serbia, Morocco, Congo,

Angola, Bali, New York, Chechnya

East Timor, Somalia, Guatamala,

Wars 1970s-2002

• • Chechnya, Georgia

Palestine

Bali, Indonesia

TV News Media

Channel News Asia; BBC; CNN; Fox News; CBS; Al-Jazeera; Sky News……………

Every country has its own news serviceWhere do they get their information?

1. If they are rich, they have reporters on the spot.2. They buy reports from news agencies who have

reporters on the spot

News Agencies:

AP, UP, Agence France, Reuters, Novosty, China News Agency……….

The Medium of Art (1)

Magritte

It is a painting of a pipe. Title:‘This is not a pipe’ 1928

Art as Representation – As a medium of ExpressionPlaying games with ideas

The Medium of Art (2)

Making things much bigger than expected, changes their meaning, and also changing the context in which you expect to see them. They remain familiar BUT also strange. Claes Oldenburg:

‘Clothespin’, Philadelphia’

Its all about changing expectations

The Medium of Art (3)

Size matters!Do we expect this kind of scale of Ordinary things?A giant matchstick in an art gallery.

Claes Oldenburg 1970s

Manipulating the medium to provoke thought

The 1980s – Graphics Imagery

Below Left: Giger Extreme Graphics

Right: Grace Jones

album cover

Below right: Garry

Glitter

posing

on the

Glitter

Glam

Rock

Show

Top 100 Albums of 80s90s

Top 100 albums of 80s90s

The Postmodern Era1980s-1990s

Above: Lou Reed album cover

by Stefan Sagmeister, 1996

‘Mona leo’ by Schwartz

1998

The Berlin Wall The Fall

Built in 1960/61 – to keep

East Germans inside the

Soviet Empire

November 1989 it is opened

And demolished soon after

Top: The Demolition

Conceptual Art Ideas• Pure Form, no ‘art’

to be seen. Art is no longer regarded as a precious commodity, but simply as an EVENT, as an EXPERIENCE. So..

• Carl Andre:

• ‘Equivalent VIII’

• (The ‘bricks’) 1978

Installation Art (2)

• A temporary event• In Conceptual and

Installation art it is the idea which is supposed to be significant – NOT the physical object.

• Installation Art:

1980s

Flash Cars of the 80s and 90s

Above:Lamborghini Countach Above : Ferrari

Below: Lamborghini Diablo

If you have to ask –

You Can’t afford it!

1980s 1990s – Sport

The World Cup

Argentina winners: 1978 & 1986

Brazil winners: 1970 & 1994 Italy winners: 1982 Germany winners: 1974 & 1990

1990s – The News (1)The Gulf War 1991 U.S. and

Allies force Iraq out of Kuwait

U.S. Soldiers in the Iraqi desert President George Bush

with Margaret Thatcher

1990s – The World News (2)

Princess Diana Bill Clinton elected Mother Theresa

Dies in 1997 President in 1992 & 1996 dies in 1997

Japan Fashion

From Streetwalk to CatwalkJapanese fashion can be VERY

Radical and fun

Icons & Ideas (1)Popular icons

Ironic statements about familiar figures

Cute but strange

‘Bubbles’ 1970s

Icons focus the values and desires of many people onto a single object or person

Icons are media for belief and devotion

Icons & Ideas (2)The Medium is one thingThe Message is another

The message is an organized set of ideas transmitted through a particular medium and intended to persuade, provoke or trick you into

Doing something

Sometimes people are out to trick you with illusions

1980s - 1990s Movies

Platoon 1986 Unforgiven 1992 Braveheart 1995

Dir: Oliver Stone Dir: Clint Eastwood Dir: Mel Gibson

1990s – Movies

Gladiator: 2000 American Beauty 1999 Pulp Fiction 1994

Dir: Ridley Scott Dir: Sam Mendes Dir: Q. Tarantino

2000+ Movies

8 Mile Matrix Reloaded Chicago

Terrorism Sept.2001

Terrorists attack the

World Trade Center New York killing over 3000 people

The Iraq War 2003

The bombing of Bagdad

Child & Saddam poster Iraqis taken Prisoner

The Iraq War 2003

Pain & suffering at the

loss of family

The Goodbye Wave

The Wave by Hokusai, 19th Century Japan

The End• Thank you for your

attention.

• I hope you have found it interesting

and maybe have learned something.

Vroom! Vroom!