ONLINE CULTURE

Mitchell (2002.p.170) states “Visual culture is the visual construction of the social”. My original intention for this project was to investigate how internet has transformed visual culture and identify influential key designs to deliver them in fashion-oriented outcome. The omnipresence of internet drives consumer culture toward a more visual culture brought on by technology and media (Young, 2012). The birth of smartphones and tablets foster information mobility; social media, wikis, blogs provide endless entertainment and ubiquitous news. Brands take advantage of available channels (apps, website, email, social media) to interact with customers. Advertising is everywhere. Internet permits an easy network of shared experiences and visuals. Due to advanced commercial software tools and social platforms, internet artists and individuals can reproduce, alter and distribute images/videos easier than ever. Moreover, we are now used to going through enormous amount of images and videos online rather than physically going to an exhibitions or paging through a catalogue. The virtual environment and reality have already merged. The work of artist Alex Gross illustrates how our contemporary world looks. “Twins” depicts the harmony of our existence with global media and mass marketing, our ability to stay connected IRL (in real life) as well as in the virtual world. “Twins” depicts the harmony of our existence with global media and mass marketing, our ability to stay connected IRL (in real life) as well as in the virtual world.

“Twins” oil painting by Alex Gross.Link http://www.alexgross.com/paintings/two/twins.html

INTRODUCTION

“Twins” oil painting by Alex Gross.Link http://www.alexgross.com/paintings/two/twins.html

POST - HUMAN AGE

Contemporary society, in which digital manipulation, information technology and the internet were born, has summoned the reconsideration of what it means to be a human. The movement ‘cyber feminism’ in 1994 was an early wave of feminism that exploited the internet’s cyberspaces to advance themselves and challenge male authority on the internet (Consalvo 2002). This was the first effort of women using technology to counteract the construction of women stereotypes. Nowadays, feminist art has a large presence on the internet.

New visual technologies allow individuals to put new understanding and interpretation of self. It is difficult to speak about the self as a comprehensible entity in a hi-tech world Braidotti (1994b: 179). I feel that being a human is more than just the physical self, the existence of computer and internet has produced a new way of being and seeing.

When I was working on The Col-laborative Project in Practice Unit 1, I was very pleased to be in a group with strong col-laborative feelings, we used FACEBOOK to communicate and share ideas/research outside of the classroom. Therefore, we always managed to stay connected. We were in this global network that allowed us to share images, research, and information instantly and globally. The internet has delocalized visual culture and allowed it to spread globally, born out from online sharing culture.

‘VICKI DEEP IN SPRING VALLEY’ BY PETRA CORTRIGHT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XPbdUOzePQ&index-

=5&list=FL_wc7XfClFxZQpsAC7BhsDQ

In my PECHA KUCHA presenta-tion, I looked at how net art circulated online. My research centered around TUMBLR. It is micro-blogging site devoted purely to visual consumption. It contains nostalgic 90s images, internet art, collages of popular culture that continue to be reproduced infinitely. The site has its own aesthetic and style that influences artists such as Petra Cortright whom exhibited a video installation “VICKI DEEP IN SPRING VALLEY” which has strong 90s window graphic.

MEDIATED C U L T U R EMEDIATED

HYPERGEOGRAPHY BY JOE HAMILTON http://www.joehamilton.info/

While researching, I also found Aoto Oouchi and Joe Hamilton having similar style. Their work is about ‘recontextualise’ objects and images through questioning human validity of materiality via images. In an era of searched images that have replaced museums, we experience masses of searched images which have corpoprate aesthetics or digital manipulation influenced upon each of them such as filtering, photoshopping etc. To me both artists are trying to show us the experience is like “what we see online is what we get”.

ARTWORK BY AOTO OOUCHIhttp://aotooouchi.tumblr.com/post/48350307879

The invention of Web 2.0 has made the internet more transparent, giving us a space for self-promotion. Mesh (2009) states that “virtual identity is often used to express unexplored aspects of the self and to create a virtual persona.” Nowadays, our identities are repackaged and consolidat-ed through social networking profiles. Many individuals have succeeded self-branding via their “filtered” selfies and experiences. It is clear that we are more willing to be under surveillance, in which we are taking private part of life to public and our interactions are mediated through screens.

WAY OF BEING...

PERFORMANCE ART ‘PERFECTIONS AND EXCELLENCES’AMILA ULMAN CREATES A VIRTUAL PERSONA ON INSTAGRAM

AND TURNS IT TO A PERFORMANCE ART.

WAY OF BEING...

The theory of simulation, written by a french socialist Jean Baudrillard is about how reality is determined by a sign system constructed by mass media that replace the real.

“In a society where a constant flow of images via mass media and mass communication becomes part of everyday life, we are treated to an endless barrage of signs which we accept, not as being real but, as Baudrillard would argue, supplant the real.”- Raizman (1998)

Due to the enmeshment of internet into our daily life, our experiences of society, representation and self are increasingly become virtual. Our world is mediated, becomes hyper-reality, where clear distinction between the real/originals and virtual world/reproduction collapse.

INTERNET STATE OF MIND

INTERNET STATE OF MIND

“It is no longer a question of imitation or of reproduction, nor even of parody. It is rather a question of substituting signs of the real for the real itself” (Baudrillard, 2001, p.166-184). Therefore, it is important to design with an awareness of the social environment that accepts the centrality of the internet, the merger of reality and vir-tual environment. The first key design is looking at representa-tion of self in the post-human age. According to Toffoletti (2007), post-human im-ages already exist in contempo-rary visual culture that involves digitalization. These forms are virtual computer game, digital photography and CGI which are brought up by the consumer capi-talism, the socio-economy design to create evermore desire. These images surpass reality representation; exist to be representative of themselves.

Therefore, polished, glossy aesthetics of commercial ads will be what I am looking to investigate in the next practice unit. The second key design in this project that I am looking to investigate is unnatural environ-ment, influenced by technology, capitalist symbols and the virtual persona. It is the blend between human technology and nature in respond to the merger of reality and virtual world.

These design propositions arise due to the existence of the inter-net in cybernetic era. Their rel-evance remains for as long as internet is still part of our life. They can be translated into visual communication for online magazine, website or art direction in my future profession. For MA project, the outcome will be animated gifs/videos which can be shared on various social media channels and integrated into web-site interface.

BRANDING AND CORPORATE AESTHETICS

its narratives often weave betweenthe polar extremes of the corporate internet (Web 2.0, start-up culture,and the design of multinational giants like Google and Apple) and a pirate underground, even though the two are increasingly indistinguishable

One specific strategy that has attracted much attention late-ly is to facilitate the creation and sharing of user generated content.User generated content sites suchas Youtube and Wikipedia have built significant brand equity in a short time dueto their ability to interactively create content and value, BRANDING NOW

BRANDING AND CORPORATE AESTHETICS

its narratives often weave betweenthe polar extremes of the corporate internet (Web 2.0, start-up culture,and the design of multinational giants like Google and Apple) and a pirate underground, even though the two are increasingly indistinguishable

One specific strategy that has attracted much attention late-ly is to facilitate the creation and sharing of user generated content.User generated content sites suchas Youtube and Wikipedia have built significant brand equity in a short time dueto their ability to interactively create content and value, BRANDING NOW

REFERENCE LISTYoung, A. (2012). Visual Culture Is Taking Over -- and Other Insights From Studying the Media. Avail-able: http://adage.com/article/media/visual-cul-ture-taking-insights-media/233122/. Last accessed 6th Jan 2015.

Bauldrillard, J and Poster, M (2001). Jean Bau-drillard Selected Writings. 2nd ed. Oxford: Polity Press. p166-184.

Braidotti, R. (1994b). ‘Toward a New Nomadism: Fem-inist DeleuzianTracks; or, Metaphysics and Metabo-lism’, in Constantin V. Boundas andDorothea Olkowski (eds.), Gilles Deleuze and the Theater of Philosophy, NewYork and London: Routledge, 179.

Consalvo, M. “Cyberfeminism.” Encyclopedia of New Media. Ed. . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2002. 109-10. SAGE Reference Online. Web. 4 Apr. 2012.

Mitchell, W.J.T., “Showing seeing: a critique of visual culture”, Journal Of Visual Culture, 2002, Vol 1(2), p. 170

Mesch, G. S. (2009). The Internet and youth culture. The Hedgehog Review,11(1), 50-60.

Raizman, N. (N.A). Baudrillard, Postmodernism, and the Reinforcement of Power. Available: http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/theory/baudrillard/raizman.html. Last accessed 7th Jan 2015.

Toffoletti, K (2007). CYBORGS AND BARBIE DOLLS. London: I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd. p46.