Project 11 the thorny subject of taste

Project 11 the thorny subject of taste



Dick Hedbdige the bottom line on planet one

War of the worlds

Two different worlds the first Power and Knowledge  ordered so as to give written and spoken word to the second mere imagery i.e. scribes (learned people) determine the rules and grammar - draw the line between them and the subordinate caste whose job is to produce a publication of images and written text to the public in general.  Each movement is like a work in a sentence - this sentence is called history.  In the second world the higher order has been abolished - Truth if it exists at all is first and foremost pictured in images which have their own power and subsequent effects - looking takes over from seeing sensing over knowing words pale in to insignificance. Thus there is nothing behind the image so no hidden truth to be revealed - does this imply that a lot art to-day does not require explanations just a title and what the subject is made of and called?

No meaning no classes no history just a continuous precession of images and or shadowy likeness.

Hebdige makes the distinction between high and popular culture  by comparing the magazines The Face (popular cultures) and  Ten 8  (high culture) which is used as a springboard showing the difference between modernist and post-modernist visual culture.  I think that Hebdige is saying that there is the younger audience defined by The Face who are not moulded by the culture of the older generation. In the modernist world
shown by Ten 8 knowledge is ordered by rules and traditions.  Images are situated in a historical and theoretical framework.

In the post-modernist world (The Face) this previous view has been changed the once vertical way has made way for the horizontal,  So it is no longer the function of language to explain the origin or functions of the image portrayed.

The key argument of Hebdige against what he call "the peoples of the post"  is that he questions the politics of representation and it does not matter if Social Realism has been removed as being superficial.  The Face supersedes the traditional (Ten 8.)

Popular Culture  commonly known as pop culture is the totality of ideas, perspective, attitudes, images etc. that are deemed preferred though an informal consensus.  Also it is heavily influenced by the mass media and permeates the everyday life of  people - also the term of the 19th century original use referred to the education of the lower classes the current meaning is culture for mass consumption.

A postmodernist approach to popular culture would no longer recognise the difference between high and popular culture.

High culture definition - Excellence taste in the fine arts and humanities (ballet, opera etc)

Low culture definition  - was considered to be Kitsch things low culture was popular with the masses and in poor taste (pop music - cinema etc)

In the light of developments in  the media and other branches of the arts and culture in the second world war an analogy Dick Hebdige uses for a Port Modernist world (high) is round.

Examples of contemporary popular culture are

Rita Ackerman African Nurse 2005-8
Ida Applebroog Modern Olympia 2002
Francis Bacon Triptych 1971
Jennifer Bartlett Houses 2005
Maurice Bensyon World Skin 1997
 
High Round Culture

Edward Hodges Bailey Eve at the Fountain
John Corwall Bernard and the Big Boys
Mary Knott He's not heavy
James White Frank and empties 2003

High Referencing popular culture

Andy Warhol Campbell's Tomato Juice box 1964
Wayne Thibaud  Three machines 1963
David Hockney Bigger Splash 1967
Alex Kat  Vincent with mouth open 1970
Jim Dine The Robe following her 1984-85 

Note:   I am now beginning to understand at look at this subject in different ways.  I know I have still a lot to learn but it is becoming a little clearer