Final crit

End of module Evaluation

Leeds College of Art BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION	Level	04
OUIL401 Context of Practice	Credits	20
End of Module Self Evaluation

NAME	Rebecca Williamson

1.  What skills have you developed through this brief and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

I feel I have definitely improved my essay writing skills with help from study support, I have learned how to divide my essay into manageable chunks, and how to expand my points and ideas as much as possible. This module has pushed me to deconstruct research so I am able to produce illustrations, which have a strong Relationship between my theoretical essay and my practical work. I have learnt to develop my own opinions on my subject matter and have tried to convey this in my practice work and final resolutions.

2. What approaches to/methods of image making have you developed and how have they informed your concept development process?

Dialogue – I initially played around with creating small dialogue scenes in a attempt to convey information I had found out about the women, I thought this would give the viewer a indication of a part of their life. Text and image- using quotes and portraiture- I thought the combination of the appearance of the woman and some inspiration words they have spoken would create a stronger concept and make the women’s personality/inspiration and empowerment more obvious to the viewers.  Collage and pencil-creating detailed portraits in combination with a simpler collage style would create a stronger focal point and de-clutter the image from information which is not important-i.e. clothing Photoshop- I used Photoshop to digitally enhance the quality of my images and add elements that would not look as effective if done by hand-eg the subtle glow behind the women’s heads to give the illusion of a halo.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these? I feel I balanced my time wisely when constructing the essay as I knew I would struggle with it, so I started early which allowed me more time to revisit and alter, and also gave me time to ask for advise of how to improve. This has benefitted me in the mong run as I have been able to concentrate on the practical brief of the module instead of worrying about the essay at the same time.

I feel I have also been able to annotate my out my strength and weaknesses in this project, especially with sketch Ideas, which has meant I have been able to visualise what I felt has not work, allowing me to move on and develop ones that have.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

I feel a weakness I have shown in this module, and one that I have come across in other modules, is not having confidence in ideas. Because of this I have pushed to hard in creating new ones that are too literal as I felt my initial ideas were too basic and do not have a strong enough concept. I also feel because of this I have not spent enough time developing with media and technique as I have spend to much time on quick sketch ideas when I could have used that time in developing a current idea further with the use of media. Another weakness in this project was that I spend to much time decided on a pathway to take my research after creating the map of understanding, I feel I get overwhelmed with the amount of options on offer for me to explore that I get scared I choose the wrong pathway to go down.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these? When choosing research idea, make sure I don’t keep changing my mind as this will loose me valuable time I could of used improving and finding out more about my existing idea. Be careful not to spend to much time producing ideas and keep in mind that media/technique development is also very important and will also improve and develop current ideas further. Make sure to blog each post as I go along to avoid missing valuable work or conversations about my project that I could reflect on later down the line.

6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance				x
Punctuality				x
Motivation			x
Commitment				x
Quantity of work produced			x
Quality of work produced			x
Contribution to the group				x

Essay

Rebecca Williamson

“Write a semiotic analysis of series of related illustrations. As semiotic texts, what sort of reality does these illustrations construct and how do they do so?”

This essay will conduct a semiotic analysis of set of related illustrations and discuss the reality each is trying to represent. The visual images/illustrations chosen look at three different idealistic representations of women. The first explores the stereotypical housewife - secondary to the man, cleaning, cooking, looking after children. The second:

Objectified woman-competitors for the attention of men, sexual availability, unachievable beauty. The third: the independent woman- feminist, career driven, strong, independent.

Semiotics is described by (Streeter.T) as ‘the study of signs and symbols’ and ‘the study of how meaning is created’. This essay therefore will be divided into 2 parts. The first will read 3 visual images and study the signs and symbols within them. The second part will look more closely at how these images make or create meaning.

As culture operates as a language, the cultural codes present within the illustrations will be understood and signified in the same way by consumers due to our cultures agreed system of shared knowledge.

“Language is legislation, speech is its code. We do not see

the power which is in speech because we forget that all

speech is a classification, and that all classifications are

oppressive.” (Barthes)

This analysis will identify the signifiers and discuss what is being signified in each illustration. It will have to take into account how the connotation of cultural codes can shift over time, therefore can mean something completely different in different time periods.

These analysis’s will discus how these representations of women are being stereotyped and how these stereotypes are being perceived as natural due to the overload and repetitiveness of images we are exposed to.  Certain signs act as symbolic representation of the  stereotypes depicting  women.

This is a stereotypical 1950s illustrated image of a housewife.  It implies particular ideologies using codes of femininity, insinuating what it means to be a woman.it Implies a true woman is immaculately presented, thin, servile, and feminine. The image depicts a couple conforming to the gender stereotypical roles, – wife waiting upon husband after he has been out to work.

The woman's rosy cheeks signify a number of different meanings such as excitement and anticipation, this connotes that she desires his approval and is excited about possible praise.

Their clothing conforms to the ideologies of Western society and expected systems of meaning. The suit the man is wearing is a cultural code and emits the meaning of professionalism and a working environment, connoting he has just returned from a day's work. The woman's attire is feminine dignified and classy  with the denotations of perfectly styled hair, make-up, and jewelry, evoking the paradigm (reality) that a wife must pay attention to the looks and make an effort for their husbands in order to have a happy marriage. This illustration has qualities that can almost be related propaganda as it coveys a pre determined worldview and forces a belief system, the happy cosy image has undertones of something sinister.  But how this differs is in why this illustration is being produced, it arguably for the gain of men and the sexist culture of the 1950s. In reality this is unachievable reality, dreamt up by Western culture.

The notation of the band of light surrounding the woman’s head signifies a ‘halo’ evoking a paradigm of a ‘sacred figure.’ This connotes to the consumer that this woman (a housewife) radiates the qualities of a holy person such as recognition, or, has spiritual respect, therefore performing household duties will earn you these qualities. A key focus to this image is the Hot pot in the woman’s hands, this is central in illustration and is the first thing the consumers eye will be drawn to. The handheld woman is cradling the pot with signifies that it is hot as she is using it to protect her hands. This suggests she has very recently been cooking. The fact that she is immaculately presented, along with the lack of washing up (pots, pans, food etc) denoted in the mise en scene, produces a ‘false consciousness’ as it presents an unrealistic/false reality.

 The excitable, intriguing smile which is a looming on the man's face, and with his hands lifting away the pot to reveal the food, connotes his happiness when presented with food. The opening of the dish symbolic of the opening up of the man's heart, ‘a way to a man's heart, is through his stomach.’ This saying has cited a decade of sexism. The colour of the napkin is also at important cultural code in the illustration. The colour pink, especially light/baby pink signifies unconditional love, nurture, universal harmony, and emotional balance (Scott-Kemmis.J). The man is wearing this colour (napkin) connotes he expresses these feelings towards the woman, suggesting to the consumer that for  your husband to feel this way about you is through your embodying the qualities of a housewife and providing him with food.

The illustration is warm, with saturated colours; this along with its soft focus signifies the dreaming, gentle atmosphere.  The wave shaping the background signifies waves in the sea, connoting a calm and relaxing environment, reminiscent of that of a beach.  These chains of collective signs in the illustration evokes this related paradigm (beach) making it more likely for consumers to delve off into their imagination and associate other elements from a beach paradigm, and hopefully to link the stereotype housewife to it. There is a constant repetition of different tones of blue in the illustration- through the background and the woman’s dress. Though blue often signifies a cold, hostile environment, the way they are separated by a gradient adds to the beach,/sea paradigm.

The napkin tucked into the man's shirt signifies he is about to the, it also signifies a likelihood that he may spill his dinner. This connotes to the consumer that men are clumsy and acquire woman to take care of them.  Indicating the mode of address of this illustration is aimed at women as it promotes the necessity of a housewife, thus making women feel important, and more likely to aspire to this role, in the hope of gaining a desirable status.

Adding to this paradigm further, the written sign in the illustration ‘life can be wonderful’ affirms the ideology that if you act as the people portrayed in the image, life ‘could be wonderful’ the type of ‘wonderful’ life you connect to that of a holiday (beach).

This stereotypical image is a long way removed from any sort reality in everyday life, though it is presented to us as a reality.

The second illustration also deals with the constructed realities. It has some similarities to that of the first illustration, using codes of femininity to portray an ideal feminine beauty, or in other words an ‘unachievable beauty’

“it happens because of the widening gap between girl’s self-images and society's messages about what girls should be…

girls are surrounded by images of female beauty that are unrealistic and unattainable.”(Media Smarts)

This illustration is an example of a ‘cultural pattern’ representing predictable aspects of a woman that we see in the media -thin, beauty, flawlessness etc.

Due to the sheer amount of images, which are displayed to us in this way and hold these codes of femininity, as a culture we have come to accept and expect that this is a true representation. These realities have been maintained throughout all realms of the media, and over a long period of time.  This repeated denotation of woman imprints an image for people to interpret, for women to interpret and one which women believe others will interpret as reality.  

“Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object and most particularly an object of vision: a sight.”(Berger)

Along with selling the value of normalcy, this illustration also sells sexuality, passion, and power.

A common cultural code used in this illustration is the woman’s red lips, signifying romance, passion, and sex appeal. The Use of colour is directed at focal points in the image to draw the consumer’s eyes to the most informative parts of the illustration. This emphasizes their importance and their shared understanding in our culture. Lips connote love, kissing, etc eyes connote a gateway to the soul,, clairvoyance etc.

The fact that the eyes are blue could be a sign of being in love. Other meanings linked to this colour of eyes are forcefulness, directness and, enormous energy. However the forcefulness and directness is also shown to the written sign present.  The exclamation mark as opposed to the question mark, connotes a demanding order, giving no option. This also connotes an associated persona, relating to feminism – something that was not present in the first illustration. The mode of address aimed at men. The confrontational glare alongside the written sign purposes a hidden question to the man ‘call me if you think you can handle me’ This connotes that the woman is easily available, yet maintains her integrity, and shows her power over men.

“Her self value is measured through the manner in which she is portrayed, in her own eyes, in others eyes, and in men’s eyes.”(The cultural studies reader, 2011).

This quote clarifies the point made above about the woman’s power.

Unlike the first illustration, this one included broken cultural codes, which do not fit into the code of femininity, such the women with tattoos. In western culture tattoos are usually associated with men as they signify strength and masculinity. Therefore this illustration is trying to shift these shared system of knowledge of tattoos onto this representation of a woman. Signifying she too is strong, not afraid of pain, daring and also rebellious as she is not conforming to feminine stereotypes.

One of the tattoos is of a fire-breathing dragon. When situated on a woman’s arm; this tattoo is believed to signify ‘strength’, ‘protection’ and ‘creator’.

This has connotations of independence and suggests she is not reliant on a man for protection, showing she does not conform to the traditional woman’s role.

The way the woman is straddling the chair and leaning forward over it, again evokes a strong and dictating persona, it also connotes a confrontational temperament; the way she is staring directly into the camera involves the consumer into some sort of starting competition. This goes back to the hidden message suggested in the written sign ‘call me if you think you can handle me’. This again emphasizing the connotations of her strength and power over a man.

Even though this image may seem to present a powerful image it could still be seen to be objectifying woman. This rebellious side to a woman could be seen as determining to how women are objects; it could be argued that the image is constructed in the eyes of a man. This idea has been developed through the masculine norm of men desiring women and constructed their fantasies.

 “Object of pleasure to the spectators and their fantasies, desires, and masculinity.” (Eletreby, 2012)

The illustration illustrates the male gaze, the denotation of the hand gesture against her lips connotes a teasing action to entice males in. The delicately placed finger signifies a stereotypical feminine code. The Woman shown has bare arms and chest, the use of the chair implies the rest of her body is also bare, creating a provocative image and enticing the man in further. It also connotes that this woman is making use of her sexuality and is competing for the man’s attention, conforming to the ideology that ‘men have the legitimization of examining women’

The denotation of her long wavy hair signifies her femininity, however the choice of colour used (black) could connote that this woman is mysterious. It is also thought to signify ‘the colour of the night’ this implies that the woman possesses qualities, which are culturally associated with the night time- evil. This attitude to dark coloured hair stems from the western mass media. Society is overloaded with catalogues of personalities that have black hair and as a general trend in for example, villains in Disney films. Black hair relates directly to the unknown, which is scary, misunderstood and therefore evil.

This last illustration is similar to illustration 2 in that it could be seen as a woman who is perhaps not conforming to stereotypical societal expectations. Both women suggest a self -assured persona and both reflect an independent female who is in complete control of all aspects of life. It contrasts with both of the previous illustrations in that it is not tailored to entertain a male audience, instead it indicates a powerful female role who is clearly driven and striving for her own success, completely not acknowledging the male behind her, unlike the previous image,

where the male’s attention is the woman’s aim.

The mis en scene is modern and industrial, signifying that this representation of a woman in modern day society is as it is now, unlike the stark contrast of the 1950’s housewife illustration, which represents the traditional expected stereotype of an inferior female. However, although much has changed since the 1950’s regarding the role of women, there are still assumptions that women will simply fall into the role of a housewife, thus showing how these kinds of expectations of women remain the societal norm.

The colors within the illustration are particularly significant to the characters featured. The woman is dressed in red which signifies power, strength and determination, whereas the man is dressed in blue which is often seen as a calming color and could be seen as a reflection of the man’s non- threatening persona towards the woman’s empowering façade. Blue is also thought to connote a colour which lives in the past (Smith, 2013) ; this could be symbolic of them both breaking tradition male and female stereotypes.

The fact the woman is carrying a cup of coffee accentuates her business like persona. She is clearly walking with purpose and the cup of coffee shows she is always on the go.  Nowadays cup of coffee is also seen as a sign of sophistication, it has become the ‘in thing’ to carry around a Starbucks cup. She is also carrying her coat on her arm and her stance indicates a sense of urgency. All of these signify that she is on her way to something or somewhere important. The use of both power dressing and authoritative body language accentuate this.

The fact that she is captured walking across a crossing could be a metaphor for her crossing into a new phase of her life – walking towards a goal or to something of significance. Her body language gives off an air of determination so could be seen as her progressing from one stage of her life to the next. The overall image presents self-accomplishment.

The woman is positioned in the center and foreground of the illustration, signifying she is the focal point. The fact the illustrator has chosen to include a man in this image, and has positioned him in the background emphasizes the connotation that the woman is dominant and he is inferior to her. However it could be argued that the inclusion of a male figure shows that women are still in need of a male presence. This is symbolized by him carrying her luggage; it indicates she still relies on him in some way. It suggests the woman can be the successful; however she will always be reliant upon the man.

This analysis set out to look at visual language and meaning. Overall we can see that the importance of a visual image in today’s culture can have a powerful impact on the way we view it and the phrase ‘a picture equals a thousand words’ has never been more appropriate. Images are often more powerful than text as the image is telling your subconscious mind what to think, warping your own opinions through the power of marketing. Pictures can be read in different ways, however a picture can make you think in a certain way – the way the product or message wants to be portrayed. We read an image like a book, it often tells a story within the picture. The pictures I have been analyzing all have possible back-stories to them, they all represent a social situation. Images are crucial to first impressions, the woman in the final picture may not be powerful, but the image presents her to be, so we immediately think she is. Images can manipulate people to think what they want them to think.

Bibliography

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