Tuesday Lectures

So the lecture with Peter was about image and how the different elements of the image effect it. From the lighting, composition, cropping of the image, the space in which its in, its context, the angle of the image, contrast, and framing etc. He showed us lots of examples of different images and the different ways they can be used for different advertising. He drew upon the fact that images of products and lifestyles are often sexualised to encourage consumers into buying into a 'utopian' lifestyle. The orientation of an image is also important in changing the feel of it. For example rural natural landscapes are often shown in a horizontal format to evoke gentleness whilst urban landscapes are often shown in a vertical format to give a dynamic and dramatic feel the the image. It is something which is pretty obvious but which I'd never thought about before...

For next week I've got to take two photographs of a common household object. One photograph has to projec the image dramatically, whilst the other should be softer and have a more romantic feel about it. I'm thinking of using hairbrush. I don't know why, it just popped into my head.

Later we had contextual studies with Vishua and he explained the basics of our essay which is due in at the end of term. We have to discuss the interpretation of images and texts, and how the context of these images and texts affects their meaning. We also have to discuss how the two elements work seperatley and together. For some reason me and Natasha (we're doing the presentation together which accompanies the essay) thought of using rabbits. I don't know why. We just both like rabbits. It started as a bit of a joke but then we actually started to come up with some good ideas. How the image of a rabbit is used in various ways; from a childhood symbol to something much more adult and sexualised with the playboy bunny. How rabbits are used in film and litereature to give across these different meanings as well as to promote social messages, i.e. in the Novel Watership Down. Later today I was drying my hands and found that the name of the hand dryer company to be 'bunnie hand and face dryer' with a rabbit as its logo. This gave me the idea of the image of a rabbit being used to symbolise efficiency and speed. So what started off as a bit of a joke might actually end up being the focus of our end of term presentation and essay. Vishua did say to be as creative as possible....