Merry Xmas & A Happy New Year!

Seminars resume on 10th January. Happy Holidays!
Richard

Portfolio Task 3- Essay Ideas

Propose a topic and working title for your Level 5 essays. Your proposal should include-

5 bullet points explaining the main thrust of your argument.
Your chosen methodological approach
At least 5 texts (referenced using Harvard) from the library that you think will be useful for this essay, with a comment next to each explaining why.
A .jpeg of a relevant image that you may discuss in the essay, again briefly explaining why.

Portfolio Task 2- On Popular Music

Quickly read Adorno's (1941) article 'On Popular Music' (links below). In no more than a few paragraphs, summarise his ideas on pop music, concentrating on key points such as 'standardisation', 'psuedo-individualisation' etc.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Post a link to a YouTube pop video that, in your opinion, epitomises Adorno's sentiments. Explain why, trying to emphasise the links to the wider 'culture industry' in general.

If you are struggling, here's an example I found to get you thinking...

Portfolio Task 1- Panopticism

Choose an example of one aspect of contemporary culture that is, in your opinion, panoptic. Write an explanation of this, in approximately 200-300 words, employing key Foucauldian language, such as 'Docile Bodies' or 'self-regulation, and using not less than 5 quotes from the text 'Panopticism' in Thomas, J. (2000) 'Reading Images', NY, Palgrave McMillan.

Welcome to Level 5

Portfolio Task 4 (Semiotic Analysis)

Write a semiotic analysis comparing 2 similar images (or texts to use the correct semiotic terminology) of your choosing, ideally a piece of graphic design. The analysis only has to be about 250-500 words but you must attempt to use key semiotic language such as denote, connote, signify etc.

This website by Daniel Chandler should help you conduct your analysis.

This is also a useful example of a semiotic analysis of different newspaper articles.

Portfolio Task 3

Choose one of the essay questions below and produce a preliminary bibliography (in Harvard) of 5 books, from the Leeds College of Art library, that you think may be useful. Include a library reference also (e.g. MIL 709.12)

1. Focussing on specific examples, describe the way that Modernist art & design was a response to the forces of modernity
2. Choosing a particular period from 1800 to the present, in what ways has art or design responded to the changing social and cultural forces of that period? (2 specific examples)
3. Is it possible to describe any aspect of graphic design today as post-modern(ist)?
4. Could it be argued that fine art ought to be assigned more 'value' than graphic design?
5. 'Advertising doesn't sell things; all advertising does is change the way people think or feel' (Jeremy Bullmore). Evaluate this statement with reference to selected critical theories (past and present).
   

Portfolio Task 2

Summarise the text Harrison, C and Wood, P. (eds.) (1997) 'Art In Theory: 1900-90', Oxford, Blackwell, pp. 125-9.

Write no more than a few paragraphs but try to include what you see as the five key points that the authors are trying to communicate about Modernity and various Modernist responses to the conditions and forces of Modernity.

Include a bibliographic Harvard reference for the text at the end.