seeing / investigating

Snippet: iterating of Coca-Cola poster

Iterating_0

Imagine these elements composed of posters in the middle of a pure white empty room, we walk into this room, between the elements. We move closer, then further away, sometimes lying down, sometimes standing up. We remove some elements, replace others. Occasionally, we step out of the room, viewing the composition from a distance.

iterating_100

I chose to lay out all 100 iterations because they do not follow a linear relationship of 0, 1, 2, 3 … 99, 100. Rather, it’s like four sets of 25 or twenty-five sets of 4. I approached this by working with 3-10 images at a time, and then comparing the processed images with the original ones before moving onto the next iteration.

Contextualising

In the 1950s and 1960s, industrial consumer goods emerged as significant components of daily life due to industrial progress. Everyday items, acting as symbols, found their way into homes, shaping an appealing vision of family and life. In Andy Warhol’s work, he and Marilyn Monroe also evolved into symbols, separating the symbolic person from the real one.

Simultaneously, advances in printing and television made information mediums more visually focused.

‘The diffuse spectacle is associated with commodity abun dance, with the undisturbed development of modern capitalism. ’
‘The satisfaction that no longer comes from using the com modities produced in abundance is now sought through recognition of their value as commodities.’
— Guy Debord

The phrase ‘Media is massage’ urges us to consider the medium itself. The tools we utilize undeniably alter our interaction with our surroundings, and the filters we employ have transformed.

Marshall McLuhan, The Medium Is the Massage(1967)

Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle(1967)

Richard Hamilton. Paints, Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? 1956.