Maggie Pringle, Extra Credit Paper

Marley & Me

Book vs. Movie Adaptation

Transforming a book into a movie is a risky endeavor. Most often, the book wins the popularity contest and the audience is disappointed with the film version. Seeing as how it is usually impossible to fit the entire storyline of a book into a movie without the movie being four or more hours, parts of the story need to be taken out which can affect the production negatively in the end. The audience knows when aspects of the book are being left out, and it is not a part of the movie-making process that is generally smiled upon by movie-goers.

I chose to talk about the book Marley & Me by John Grogan. I was excited to read this book because I am an animal lover and I knew by the brief synopsis on the back of the book that I would stay interested, which is a problem I sometime run into with books. I read it right around the Christmas season, so it hit home with the warm feelings and the loving family atmosphere. It is rare that a book actually makes me laugh out loud, and at times in Marley & Me, I was literally cracking up by myself. Part of the reason I found some of the things the character Marley did so funny was because my family and I have a golden retriever named Sugarbear who has done or could potentially do some if the ridiculous things Marley did. I finished the book in a couple weeks and as I grew to love the characters, especially Marley, I was greatly effected by the emotional ending of the story. I cried, I was even in a slump for the rest of the day because I could not stop thinking about the ending.

I was excited to hear the book was being made into a cinematic production, I was a bit skeptical about how the storyline was going to be edited. When I was reading the book I had pictured all the characters in my head as I saw them, I had pictured their homes, their surroundings, everything to the leash they used for Marley, in my mind. I did not expect John Grogan’s wife to look like Jennifer Aniston and I did not expect John Grogan to look like Owen Wilson, but, that’s Hollywood, everyone has to be pretty. The movie started off immediately by leaving out something I had remembered reading from the book, John says in the book he had a dog as a little boy by the name of Shaun, and they were best friends, etc. There was no mention of this in the movie, in fact, John Grogan in the movie said he had never had a dog before. This was a minor exemption, but noted.

Marley was an extremely neurotic dog, he had countless anxieties. He was terrified of thunderstorms and he would have such traumatic experiences when they occurred. He would rub his nose raw until it bled, he would rip things to shreds, he would temporarily go out of his mind. The film kind of skimmed over this and even though it wasn’t a funny part of Marley’s life, it was a crucial aspect of his strange disposition. Another portion that I think the movie did not go into enough detail about was the Grogan’s experience with the obedience trainer. The film did include a scene or two but I found the book’s description of the trainer and her interactions with Marley to be far more detailed.

Overall, I did enjoy the film adaptation of Marley & Me. The book was more descriptive and I was more fond of the images I produced in my head of the story, but its always interesting to see what the story would look like in movie form. I was not disappointed in the film, I think that considering the large amount of content in the book, the film did a satisfactory job condensing it into a reasonable length. I loved Marley’s character in the movie just as much as I loved him in the book.

Final Project

You will present a short photo essay. This will consist of 10 pictures that tell a story or make a statement. Using knowledge you have acquired in class, take or select 10 pictures and put them together in a particular sequence that gives them a narrative purpose. You can combine words with them, but the fewer the better. Optimally, they should convey their message through visuals alone. These pictures can be ones you take yourselves or they can be selected from any source; magazines, newspapers, online, etc. They can be black and white or color. This project will also have a short 1-2 page statement on what your project represents and a brief description of the reasoning behind your selection and sequencing of the pictures.

Jillian Ramirez -Paper #5 - Artistic Movement

Jillian Ramirez
April 3, 2010
Professor Hammond
MWF 10-11:10 a.m.
Paper #5 - Artistic Movement


Romanticism / Pride and Prejudice


Romanticism is defined as an artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 18th century and characterized by a heightened interest in nature, emphasis on the individual’s expression of emotion and imagination, departure from the attitudes and forms of classicism, and rebellion against established social rules and conventions.1

Changes in society, beginning in the 18th century and have continuing into our own time, underling the Romantic Movement. It started as a reaction against the conceptualism of Enlightenment; reasoning is the principle of life. Social structures, protecting privilege, and materialism became questioned. It was a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment. “Unlike classicism or the baroque, romanticism has no definable standards. Indeed rejection of rules is almost a touchstone of the romantic temperament,” from the website History World.2

As a result, a mood that spread through much of western life. The romantic nature responded to emotions rather than reason. People were more excited by mystery instead of influenced by intelligibility. They started to listen more intently to their consciences than to the demands of society. The people started to rebel rather then to accept and conform. The movement established strong emotions as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as apprehension, terror, fear and awe.

By the mid-19th century, "Romanticism" has been used to refer to certain artists, poets, writers, musicians, as well as political, philosophical and social thinkers of the late 18th and early to mid 19th centuries. It has also most commonly been associated been various artistic, intellectual, and social trends of the romanticism movement.

A movie, but foremost a novel, that embodies the romanticism movement is Pride and Prejudice, directed by Joe Wright and written by Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice particularly identifies and highlights the romantic qualities of Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy. The movie focuses on their personalities and role within the movie, mainly in terms of their relationships as individuals to the social worlds they live and function in. Joe Wright uses the natural settings of the countryside landscape to help enhance the viewer’s vision of Elizabeth’s character to the conflict between personal desire and the social order in terms of Romanticism.3

“Wright’s film focuses on Elizabeth and Darcy’s mutual struggles to achieve self-fulfillment through the pursuit of individual desire within an oppressive patriarchal social order. Dramatized using Romantic natural settings and landscapes, the journey of Elizabeth and Darcy is presented in Wright’s film as the struggle of two Romantic heroes to achieve self-realization independent of the social world they inhabit.”4

Pride & Prejudice reflects the conflict between individual self-realization and the demands of society. The movie’s characterization of Elizabeth and Darcy accurately reflects the time period of romanticism’s concern with the complicating factor of gender in the pursuit of Romantic individualism.

Elizabeth, an intellectually independent heroine who needs to find a path for herself, faces the real possibility of social isolation because of her declaration about marriage for love and not for financial security. Her search for personal happiness eventually leads her to the most eligible man in the novel. Elizabeth is eventually not forced to pursue her individual desire despite the social and economic obstacles. Her claims about the right of individual, at the expense of social cohesion, go untested.

Elizabeth’s life would have been the epitome of the Romanticism movement, breaking away from social order and having her own mind, but she and Mr. Darcy ultimately end up together, not saying they did not disrupt order in higher society. Darcy was “promised” or engaged to another woman due to his social class status and arranged marriages during the time period. But yet again another example of the Romanticism movement appears because he finds he own mind and disregards the arranged marriage, against his families and societies wishes, to be with Elizabeth.
I never really realized how much of the romanticism movement was interpreted and imbedded into movies. I keep picking it out more and more when I watch movies and catch on to it quicker after learning about romanticism. I would definitely have to say that this is one of my favorite movements because it has change. A movie, and time period, would be boring if there was no significant change going on. It just goes to show how far society has come and how far we can go; meaning if Elizabeth and Darcy can disregard social norms, why can’t gay’s and lesbian’s get married too? (Just a though that came up while writing).


Work Cited:
1 "Romanticism." The Free Dictionary. Farlex, 2009. Web. 6 Apr 2010. .

2 Gascoigne, Bamber. “History of the Romantic Movement” HistoryWorld. From 2001, ongoing.
3 Ailwood, Sarah. "“What Are Men to Rocks and Mountains?” Romanticism in Joe Wright’s Pride & Prejudice." PERSUASIONS ON-LINE. The Jane Austen Society of North America, 2007. Web. 12 Apr. 2010. .
4 Ailwood, Sarah. "“What Are Men to Rocks and Mountains?” Romanticism in Joe Wright’s Pride & Prejudice." PERSUASIONS ON-LINE. The Jane Austen Society of North America, 2007. Web. 12 Apr. 2010.

Robert Hubbard

April 8, 2010

Hammond

Surrealism: The Subconscious Mind

The oxford english dictionary defines surrealism as, "A movement in art and literature seeking to express the subconscious mind by any of a number of different techniques, including the irrational juxtaposition of realistic images, the creation of mysterious symbols, and automatism." This artistic movement began in the early 1920s and spread throughout paintings, films, and literature. The best example of a surrealist is Salvador Dali and his paintings like the one shown above. The style is odd and non-conventional. Known objects are seen and recognized but they are shown in a way that is distorted and out of place. Like the clocks in the picture, the objects portray an image that could be the representation of a dream.

In dreams your mind often takes objects seen throughout the day and puts them together in odd ways that make sense to you but are not in touch with reality. Trying to relate these strange visions to other people can be difficult and the more detail you can uncover about the dream the less sense it begins to make. LIkewise, Dali's paintings seem normal at first but as you look closely they begin to seem strange and unusual. The clocks are hanging off the table and on the tree limb like cloth or rubber. The tree is growing off the table and the horizon line is not even. These images represent something from the conscience mind of Dali but anyone who sees the image can have their own interpretation based off of their own personal experience.

When I look at "The Persistence Of Memory" I think of somebody lost in the desert. To me the drooping disfigured clocks represent how time is only an illusion. They are showing the relativity of time and is unimportance when you are all alone wandering the desert barely alive. The landscape reminds me of a desert and the horizon line looks like water on the horizon which could be a mirage caused by dehydration and hallucination. The dead tree looks like despair. The image as a whole brings me to a dream of wandering the desert with no hope of survival. There is no water to be found and I have lost track of time. To someone else this image might be representing something very different, but that is up the ones individual conscience.

Surrealism has also showed up in film. David Lynch is a famous director who has often used a surrealistic approach in his films. His films seem to be non linear and jump to parallel universes, He uses images that he creates on his own to draw an emotional response from the audience. In Lynch's film "Fire Walk With Me" he uses a little boy in a clay mask with a long nose to represent fear and a large gorilla to represent the face of death. Lynch's films are successful because people seem to share the meaning of these different symbols. If people had very different connotations for the strange characters he pulls from his mind then the film would only make sense to the director. But because there seems to be a basis for the way people perceive things, what Lynch dreams up can be shared by others as well.

I find this style of art very interesting because it offers a window into the stranger parts of an artists mind. Any piece of art can tell something about its creator but it often only tells about the sane parts. There is a little bit of insanity inside of everyone and someone who can capture that hidden nature and share its experience with others has found a whole new way of expression and experience. I enjoyed watching "Fire Walk With Me" and I was pleased that in the end many lose ends were tied up and the film did not remain non-linear. It is easy for a director to create a film where things are strange and appear to have no explanation but only a great director is able to that those events and explain them in a way that new and exciting.

symbolism and the da vinci code

Melissa Lebor

Com 232

Professor Hammond

4/7/10

Symbolism in The Da Vinci Code

Symbolism is the use of one object to represent or suggest something else. Broadly, symbolism may refer to symbolic meaning or the practice of investing things with a symbolic meaning. Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. It first appeared in the 1880s among French poets, les poètes maudits, who developed an idealistic type of verse, as a reaction to Naturalism and Realism. The Symbolists drew inspiration from the mid-century poetry and critical writing of Charles Baudelaire and also from the earlier works of Edgar Allen Poe.

Symbols form the most ancient use of ‘communication’; some believe humanity’s use of symbols to date back as far as 1.2 million years. It started out with relative ’simple’ markings. As time passed, and various cultures developed, the use of symbols grew in its complexity. Different symbols came to mean many different things and quite often certain symbols would have a different association depending upon the culture it was found in.

Symbolists believed that art should aim to capture more absolute truths, which could only be accessed by indirect methods. We can see examples of this in the movie the Da Vinci code. The novel/movie tells the story of Harvard professor and symbologist Robert Langdon who is called to the Louvre Museum in Paris to examine cryptic symbols found in Leonardo da Vinci's artwork. In masterful storytelling, author Dan Brown leads his readers on a journey that explains the "real" story of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, and the final whereabouts of the Holy Grail, with intriguing clues and symbols found in some of da Vinci's most famous paintings.

This movie has many symbols many of which are rooted in truth. Sophie Neveu’s red hair, mentioned at the beginning of the text, foreshadows her divine blood. When Langdon first sees Sophie, he calls her hair “burgundy” and thinks that her attractiveness lies in her confidence and health. He compares her favorably to the blonde girls at Harvard over whom his students lust. Later, at Teabing’s chateau, Teabing shows Sophie that Mary Magdalene is depicted with red hair in The Last Supper. By the end of the novel, when Sophie’s brother gives a tour of the Rosslyn Chapel and his hair is described as “strawberry blonde,” we understand that Sophie and her brother are of Mary Magdalene’s bloodline.

Blood stands for truth and enlightenment in The Da Vinci Code. Sophie realizes that her grandfather has left a message for her on the Mona Lisa because a drop of his blood remains on the floor. And at the very end of the novel, the discovery of the blood of Mary Magdalene running through Sophie and her brother’s veins proves that the story of the Grail is true.

In a novel/movie that spends a great deal of time interpreting ancient symbols like the pentacle, the chalice, and the rose, the cell phone might seem like an incongruous modern interloper. But the cell phone symbolizes the fact that in the modern world, secrets are both harder and easier to keep.

“God whispers in his ear, one agent had insisted after a particularly impressive display of Fache’s sixth sense. Collet had to admit, if there were a God, Bezu Fache would be on his A-list. The captain attended mass and confession with zealous regularity—far more than the requisite holiday attendance fulfilled by other officials in the name of good public relations.” This description of the French Judicial Police Chief’s supernatural sixth sense is an example of the false clues and mysteries that Dan Brown sprinkles throughout the text. This paragraph comes early in the novel, and it plants the idea that Fache, who has at this point made a dramatic effort to arrest Langdon for the murder of Saunière, might be involved with an evil force such as Opus Dei or the Church itself. The cross that Fache wears is mentioned, as is the fact that he lost a lot of money recently in speculating on technology. The reader is meant to think that Fache might be involved with the Church and the killings for reasons of money and faith. Later, Brown reveals that Fache had nothing to do with Saunière’s killings, and that the insinuations of Fache’s guilt were a red herring meant to throw us off of Teabing’s trail.

This movie has symbolism scatter throughout. Symbolism is used to connect aesthetics, cognition, feeling and though. Sometimes the viewers catch on quickly to the symbols and hints, while in other movies it is harder to point out.

Surrealism: Across the Universe

“The mind which plunges into Surrealism, relives with burning excitement the best part of childhood.”

ANDRE BRETON, Surrealist Manifesto, 1924

Surrealism, which began in the early 1920s, was greatly influenced by Dadaism. Dadaism is an art movement that began in Switzerland during World War II, and its concentration was anti-war, anti-bourgeois, and anarchistic in nature. The leader of the Dadaism movement, Tristan Tzara, decided to attack society with ugly and obscure art because of their [society] need to create the monstrosity of war. That is when the surrealist movement got its momentum. Artists that did not appreciate Tzaza’s approach of lashing out began to follow surrealism. The surrealist movement washed over the U.S. in the early 1940s, and from there created a hard foundation to art and what it is today. Surrealism was discovered in Paris by Andre Breton, and the goal of the movement “…is to resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute, a super-reality.” (Wikipedia) From my understanding, surrealism is all about taking what isn’t real and turning into a form of rationality. Surrealism is about “…reuniting the conscious and the unconscious realms, the world of fantasy and dreams, and are joined to the everyday rational world.” (surrealist.com)

The movie, Across the Universe, is a phenomenal film based heavily on the surrealism movement. Across the Universe is about a love story that took place during the era of riot and protest. The 1960s were the years the counterculture was born, so the movie is saturated with characters that portray people during that time. Across the Universe starts with a man named Jude singing on the beach, and then quickly transfers scenes to a high school prom where Lucy is dancing and singing with her boyfriend. The movie goes back and forth for awhile between scenes of Jude and Lucy, and then the story begins to unravel. Jude, the main character, is a young guy fresh in his early twenties. Originally from Europe, he travels to the Americas to find his father. Once he reached the states, he found his father immediately, and what he had hoped for was unsuccessful. His father was nothing more than a working man with a family he could barely support, and his father made it clear he didn’t want a further relationship with Jude. Luckily, before Jude decided to return to Liverpool, he met a guy named Max. Max, a former student at an Ivy League College, takes Jude under his wing and becomes close friends with him as Max continues his journey to self discovery. Jude and Max make a spontaneous decision to move to New York after Max explained to his parents, “…I’m just not cut off for this collegiate crap...”

After Jude and Max moved to New York, Lucy’s boyfriend that was drafted to serve in Vietnam was killed. With Lucy being Max’s little sister, she decided to move to New York for the summer to be with her brother as she recovers from her loss. The house that Jude, Max, and Lucy are living is a condo/apartment like complex that houses many other individuals that are in New York for the same reason they are; to live, love, and have fun. Inevitably, Jude and Lucy fall in love, and throughout the movie it’s a constant battle keeping their relationship strong. Because Max dropped out of college, he unavoidably was forced to join the draft to Vietnam. The idea of Max risking his life, too, wasn’t something Lucy was ready to face. To occupy her time and thoughts, Lucy and Jude along with their other housemates took a road trip. They ended up experiencing the weirdest of occurrences along the way, but with each passing day Lucy and Jude fell further in love. When returning from their trip, Lucy gets involved with the peace advocates and anti-war protesters. When her position with the peace organization consumes her, she begins to lose hold of her relationship with Jude. Jude uses his art as an escape to overcome the pain of losing his one true love. Eventually, Jude returns to Liverpool with an empty heart because he completely lost the best thing that had ever happened to him. Unsure of when he’d ever see Lucy again, Jude gets word from Max that Lucy misses him and loves him. Jude returns to New York, and when he gets to the city he quickly becomes hopeless because Lucy is nowhere to be found. His former housemates were gathered on the rooftop of a tall building singing of love, happiness, and peace. When Jude arrived on the rooftop, the police forced everyone to get back downstairs. But Jude hid from the cops so that he could sing Lucy back to him. He started singing, and the housemates talked the police into allowing them to stay, so they joined Jude in singing Lucy’s way back to them. The next thing you know, Lucy appears on the rooftop of a building across from them, and the depth of love in Jude’s eyes when he saw her was enough to make you feel their love. After the scene on the rooftops, the move ended.

The reason I chose Across the Universe as a surrealist movie is because of the creativity in the scenes. Throughout the movie, the characters sing songs by The Beatles. The significance of the music being by The Beatles is that during the 1960s, The Beatles defined the era of peace, love, and happiness. According to IMDB, over 30 Beatles’ songs are woven into the plot together with visual allusions to their timeless films. The lyrics to the Beatles songs in Across the Universe are acted out as a part of reality in the movie. When the characters are singing the Beatles’ songs, the scenes are fabricated with creativity and a surreal type setting. For instance, my favorite scene is when Jude, Lucy, and the other housemates are lying in the tall grass meadow singing ‘Because’. They start off by lying in a circle in the tall grass, but the scene changes to Jude and Lucy swimming under water and singing to each other. Other scenes that portray the surrealism in the film include the scene at the bowling alley, the scene when Max gets drafted and he is carrying the Statue of Liberty, and the scene when they take the party bus to the carnival. Each of these scenes is acted out through song, but the graphics and use of color portray a parallel universe between reality and fantasy. Surrealism is about reuniting your conscious and your unconscious. In Across the Universe, the director, Julie Taymor, does just that. The director does a phenomenal job combining reality and surrealism into multiple scenes.

In conclusion, surrealism is an expression of imagination revealed through dreams that are free of conscious control. The purpose of surrealism is to combine the unconscious and conscious realms to produce a form of surreality. The movie, Across the Universe, is known for its exaggerated scenes of art and music, and is clearly defined as a surrealist film. Through a love told through music, art, and peace, we are given insight to the minds of creativity, and the capture of surrealism in every scene.

Postmodernism & Pulp Fiction

Mary Kate Gowl

04/02/10

Artistic Movements

Professor Hammond

Postmodernism & Pulp Fiction

On initial viewing Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction is an array of visual and mental stimuli; a multi-faceted cult movie that has somehow made the difficult crossover to the mainstream, achieving widespread recognition both from audiences and the film industry itself. The picture's self-reflexivity, unconventional structure, and extensive use of respect and pastiche have led critics to describe it as a prime example of postmodern film. Considered by some critics a black comedy, the film is also frequently labeled a “neo-noir”. Critic Geoffrey O’Brien argues otherwise: “The old-time noir passions, the brooding melancholy and operatic death scenes, would be altogether out of place in the crisp and brightly lit wonderland that Tarantino conjures up. It is neither neo-noir nor a parody of noir”.

Postmodernism is a movement in the humanities characterized by denial of objective truth and global cultural narrative. It emphasizes the role of language, power relations, and motivations. In terms of rhetoric, postmodern philosophers examine texts in terms of the motives of the person making it. It emphasizes the role of language, and of power relations involved in being male (versus female), straight (versus gay), white (versus colored), and imperial (versus colonial). Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from modern approaches that had previously been dominant.

The thought of writer-director Quentin Tarantino's when he wrote Pulp Fiction was postmodernist. He presented the narrative out of sequence. It is structured around three distinct but interrelated storylines—in Tarantino's conception, mob hit man Vincent Vega is the lead of the first story, prizefighter Butch Coolidge is the lead of the second, and Vincent's fellow contract killer, Jules Winnfield, is the lead of the third. Although each storyline focuses on a different series of incidents, they connect and intersect in various ways. The film starts out with a diner hold-up staged by “Pumpkin” and “Honey Bunny”, then picks up the stories of Vincent, Jules, Butch, and several other important characters, including mob kingpin Marsellus Wallace, his wife, Mia, and underworld problem-solver Winston Wolf. It finally returns to where it began, in the diner: Vincent and Jules, who have stopped in for a bite, find themselves embroiled in the hold-up.

The three stories, 'Vincent Vega and Marcellus Wallace's Wife', 'The Gold Watch' and 'The Bonnie Situation' - encapsulated by what is perhaps best described as a preface and prologue at the very beginning and very end of the film. These are the metanarratives that Jean-Francois Lyotard speaks of when he speaks of postmodernism's “incredulity towards metanarratives”, and the narratives that Peter Barry refers to when he speaks of the shift away from ''grand narratives of ... human perfectibility towards metanarratives which are provisional, contingent, temporary ... and which provide a basis for the actions of specific groups in particular local circumstances”.

Pulp Fiction shows generic situations with moments of the everyday pervading the narrative fabric. In fact, in postmodern terms, what the text is offering is the fourth stage of Jean Baudrillard's 'four stages of real' - the hyper real. Stage one's concept of “real” is based on an appearance, hence appearing like a generic tale, whereas the fourth stage's hyper real presents the removing of this “appearance” - this generic content - and showing moments of trueness, or as Baudrillard refers to them, “simulacra”. This element of the hyper real is key to an understanding of Pulp Fiction, forming the hypothetical reason for structural, thematic and textual details.

Since the term postmodernism was first used in the 1870’s it has contradicted itself and its derivatives are widely applied. It is a category and a phenomenon in the analysis of contemporary culture. It can be seen in not only movies like Pulp Fiction but in music, architecture, and literature. The world of postmodernism, much like the world that Quentin Tarantino established in Pulp Fiction, is a place where everything is possible and almost nothing is certain.

Artistic Movement: Pop Art

Leigh Cardi

Visual Literacy

Tom Hammond

7 April 2010

Artistic Movement: Pop Art

Throughout time artistic movements have been established as a result of influences in that time period. It is a fact that different styles of art grab the attention of all types of people, which, as a result, inspires creativity. This creativity pushes artists in the direction of what they want to achieve, and in doing so, they inspire other artists to put their own spin on a certain style. These styles tend to be prevalent for a period of a few to many years. One movement in particular, known as pop art, is very striking, and different from any other technique used in the past. The integration of pop art into the world of expression paved the way for many films and graphic novels of the future.

Pop art first emerged in Britain in the early 1950s, and was influenced by American pop culture seen with a foreign eye. This artistic movement is said to have stemmed from Dadaism; a movement that had tones of satire and anarchy. Some artists that created the inspiration in others to produce pop art are Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, and Mann Ray. In 1952, the Independent Group was founded in London and consisted of young painters, sculptors, and artists of the like who challenged modernist approaches to culture and traditional views of fine art. They discussed pop culture as it related to mass advertising, films, product design, and technology. During their second meeting in 1955, the term “pop art” was used freely, as it was coined by John McHale in 1954. Word then started to spread about the movement to other parts of the world.

Eventually, pop art made its way to the United States in the late 1950s. In contrast to the British movement, American pop artists had experience and understanding of American pop culture. During the 1960s, American pop art was in full swing. By this time, advertising reflected modern art and had become very sophisticated. This meant that the artists had work very hard to create art that was set apart from advertisements. Two American pop artists that made a name for themselves early in the movement are Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. While Rauschenberg’s paintings were very similar to Dadaism, his focus was on social issues on the moment. A currently popular artist that uses pop art is his style of choice is Peter Max. In his paintings he depicts images on pop culture paired with vibrant, eye catching, colors. For example, some of his paintings illustrate the Statue of Liberty, Shaquille O’Neal, and the Twitter logo. Not only has pop art carried on through present time paintings, but it has also been portrayed in films.

The film Sin City, released in 2005, was based off of Frank Miller’s film noir-style graphic novels. The plot of the movie is four stories of corruption the are intertwined within one another. Along with corruption comes the criminals, crooked cops, and steamy love stories, all adapted from Miller’s comics. Since pop art is derived from works of art and everyday american objects, such as comic books, Sin City fits the mold. Not only for this reason, but also because the film depicts the typical American gangster story seen numerous times in film.

With the fading movement of Dadaism in the late 1940s, in came the new artistic wave called pop art. Although it got it’s start in Britain in the early 1950s, it become exceptionally popular in the United States in the late 1950s. The images in the two countries contrasted in style though, because of their different views of American pop culture. The movement clearly made an impact on the artists of today, as well. Director and graphic novelist Frank Miller showed his creativity in the field when he created both the graphic novel and film “Sin City”. Miller’s work depicts the quintessential American way, as does the style of pop art.

Factory Girl

Maggie Pringle

Paper #5

Artistic Movement: Pop Art

Factory Girl

Pop art, which is an abbreviation for “popular art,” is an art movement that took hold in England in the 1950’s and made its way into the United States by the 1960’s. Pop art was not consistent with classic art, it utilized the themes and items of mass consumption and advertising in contemporary culture. The works of pop artists were commonly compilations of different concepts and items all blended into one work of art. Important players in the American pop art movement were Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Tom Wesselman, and the infamous Andy Warhol. Product logos and labels, popular cultural items, and comic books were influential to the artists’ ideas. Andy Warhol is most famous for his Campbell Soup Cans,1962, in which he mass produced the image of the soup can and executed it in a grid like display. His work echoed the mass production and consumption that was going on in American society at the time. Warhol’s work had tones of irony and parody. Warhol did mostly silkscreen printmaking but he also worked in short films and installations. The pop art movement is an important stepping stone in history and should be recognized because of its effects it had on the art world. The playful, humorous works of pop artists introduced the idea that art doesn’t have to be a fine art painting or a massive bronze sculpture, it cleared the stuffy air in which art existed.

Factory Girl, a movie directed by George Hickenlooper, was a film based on a woman by the name of Edie Sedgwick. Edie Sedgwick was a young girl in the 60’s who met Andy Warhol while living in New York City. When the two met, Warhol became infatuated with her and he urged her to work with him in what was known as “the factory.” The factory was a studio in Manhattan where Warhol’s artistic style came to life. Warhol did not work alone in this factory, he had an entourage of artsy friends that would spend countless hours in the factory working alongside of Warhol. It should be noted though, their relationship was not sexual, as Warhol was gay. Edie quickly became seduced by the fame Warhol created for her. She was his muse, and they were inseparable for quite some time. This film really takes you into the time period of the 60’s when freedom of just about everything was being embraced. The film is full of music, drugs, sex, parties, alcohol, and the theme of free spiritedness. Each character lives their life as if they were untouchable, they experiment with drugs, they have open, sexual relationships and just about every character is smoking a cigarette in each scene. It was a carefree time and no one seemed to care about the consequences of their actions or what the future had in store for them.

This was the perfect environment for an avant-garde artist such as Andy Warhol. He had a permanent carefree attitude and he lived his life unaffected by others by simply keeping himself detached of any feeling or affection. His art was his life, and he relished in the fact that art critics could not make sense of his work. In interviews he rarely answered with more than a sentence, he was short with just about everyone he interacted with. In a time of elevated consumerism, Warhol in a way made fun of American society with his prints. He took everyday objects and would mass-produce them on a canvas or other medium. I think that Warhol might have been thinking when making these, that society might think his repeated images of the same object were silly, but in fact, he was simply mocking what they took part in everyday. He also loved to produce portraits, celebrity portraits to be exact. Some of his portraits include Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley. In the film, just about every time someone walked into the factory, he was start rolling the camera or he would take a snapshot. He loved capturing life in its raw, untouched form.

Edie Sedgwick was Warhol’s inspiration, but she was swept under the rug of stardom and she fell in too deep. While Warhol kept Edie around for inspiration, he continued to stay detached and when he was no longer inspired he kicked her to the curb and moved onto someone new. Edie’s life took a turn for the worse, she was a drug addict and she had no money to live on after her days at the factory. Her old life of being a superstar had quickly spiraled out of control and she was left with nothing but a drug addiction and serious psychological issues. Edie eventually overdosed in the 70’s after multiple attempts at staying sober. Warhol moved onto another muse and he continued to create art for years to come. When asked about Edie’s death, Warhol only spoke about how long it had been since he had last seen her.

This film really captured the spirit of the pop-art movement. It was interesting to see how detached people were from real-life and how devoted they were to their artwork. I’m not sure if the heavy drug use had something to do with Warhol’s bizarre outlook on life but either way, it was eerie how cold he was. Warhol died in New York City on February 22, 1987, of surgery complications while getting his gallbladder removed.

Some quotes of Andy Warhol:

These quotes I thought were very interesting and very descriptive of Warhol’s overall attitude towards…everything:

“Fantasy love is much better than reality love. Never doing it is very exciting. The most exciting attractions are between two opposites that never meet” -Andy Warhol

“I'd asked around 10 or 15 people for suggestions. Finally one lady friend asked the right question, 'Well, what do you love most?' That's how I started painting money.” –Andy Warhol

“Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.” –Andy Warhol

“Being born is like being kidnapped and then sold into slavery.” –Andy Warhol

“If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings and films and me, there I am. There's nothing behind it.” –Andy Warhol

Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/andy_warhol_3.html

http://www.allgreatquotes.com/andy_warhol_quotes2.shtml

Surrealism and Fire Walk with Me

Sarah McConnell

COM 232: Visual Literacy

Surrealism and David Lynch’s Fire Walk with Me

Surrealism is an artistic movement that has influenced many different aspects of the art world. From writings and paintings to the big screen, many surrealist elements transcend cultural and regional differences within the human race. The famous cinematic director, David Lynch, takes the surrealist movement to a new level in the movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. Using all of the standard elements of the surrealist movement, this movie allows the audience to release personal inhibitions and expectations and follow a tragic tale full of inexplicable imagery, the psychology of the human mind without the restrictions of academia and science, along with the idea of humanity in its simplest forms. Understanding the surrealist movement and its origins can help the audience see the beauty within this film and the thought process that went into creating an artistic masterpiece of the human mind.


The word “surrealism” first appeared in 1917 by the writer Guillaume Apollinaire in Paris. The word was to describe the elements that were “truth beyond realism”. Seven years later, Andre Breton adopted the word in “The Manifesto of Surrealism.” The Surrealist group was formed in Paris in October 1924, and looked for a way to escape the intensity and overwhelming emotions caused by World War I as well as the current state of the art world. They wanted to change the ideals of society and brought together artists, the most brilliant minds, and different researchers to translate the pure expression of the unconscious mind. They were searching for new aesthetic as well as a new social order free from the conventions of societal mind control and exact reason. Surrealism was similar to current Dadaism movement as it was anti-rationalist, but differed with the intention of lightness in its very own spirit. Some of the main elements of surrealism include elements of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions, and nakedness of the human body but also of the mind involving dream sequences and subconscious imagery.

Between 1924 and 1935, surrealist Antonin Artaud was the only surrealist writer to create a piece of theoretical work about “the potential of the medium”, coining "raw cinema." His aim was to discover and recreate the intense and violent power of the subconscious. He took a pure and simple image from a dream and waited as “spectators in a subjugated position reacted to the experience triggering a violent reaction of their senses.” David Lynch took this concept and recreated it with the film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.

In the opening scene of the film, we are introduced to FBI agents who have a unique and unorthodox way of executing their power and position representing the anti-authority elements of surrealism. This sets the stage to let us know that our predisposed societal notions of will not be followed or entertained during the film. The transsexual informant shows symbolic images that reference specific details of tale involving corrupt police, drugs, sexual assault, and murder, things that we view within society to be wrong. Processing this scene requires a free association of visualization combining auditory and visual response. Once the visualization aspect is comprehended, the verbal script was written in metaphors allowing the audience to develop an egoless connection of the spoken word and its visual meaning.

Throughout the movie, the score moves your mind through a peaceful and relaxing atmosphere; however the visual scenes of murder, drugs, and sexual abuse cause violent feelings contradicting the feeling of peace. This sets up spiritual symbolism of the Black Lodge and the White Lodge. The Black Lodge is seen throughout the movie as a place of deep concern and twisted inexplicable imagery. The ridged patterns of the floor, the dark tapestries, and the unusual cast of characters cause a sense of darkness and turmoil (a lot like Dali’s paintings during the surrealist movement) within the visual sensory portion of the brain. This is where Lynch reveals his most honest, raw, and dark secrets. The alter egos of Leland Palmer present themselves within the Black Lodge as a source of “good and evil” within the human mind. The constant struggle between what is right versus what is wrong is represented with the man who has half of an arm (a symbolic reference within itself), the little person in red who speaks in a demonic voice, and Bob, the pure monster who controls an incestuous relationship with Laura Palmer, Leland’s daughter. Bob manifests himself into a viable character during the rape scene between Leland and Laura.

Laura’s own version of Bob feeds the original interpretation and validation of a monster brought upon by a defense mechanism within her own brain to rationalize and suppress her feelings regarding her father’s sexual abuse. These defense mechanisms manifest themselves into Laura’s everyday life that includes extreme promiscuity, alter egos (of her own), and rebellion with drugs. Laura’s appetite for sex and promiscuity shows her fear of intimacy with others who are close to her. This is shown in her relationship with her best friend Donna by not trusting her and concealing her dark secrets. She will brag about the men who “love” her but not the intimate details of the relationships or her rendezvous with strange and random men. That side of Laura is only revealed when Leland stumbles upon her about to participate in an orgy with two other women and him. This surrealism element tests the thought of societal judgment of a “good girl’s behavior, showing no boundaries when it comes to the naked body or the limits of eroticism of sexual acts between adults. Lynch explores that theme with the sexual orgies, and the lost innocence of a teenaged girl by having Laura say “…so you want to fuck the homecoming queen?” This shows that Laura still has the thought of teenage innocence, but the rebellious and broken mindset to detach herself from that persona and what ultimately got her killed by her father who lived with the torment of society’s standards and his own personal demons.

It is the innocence of Laura that turns the Black Lodge into the White Lodge. The Black Lodge is the place of darkness and brutally honest reconciliation of good versus evil. Leland is ordered by the little person to “give me all of your pain and sorrow” and then blood is dumped on the Black Lodge’s floor, the Black Lodge begins the transformation into the White Lodge for Laura. The White Lodge cleanses Laura of her sins and creates a peaceful place without the torment of her abusive father and the guilt of her past. It allows her to feel the innocence of her soul without societal judgment. The Angel who cleanses Laura of her sins brings a sense of peace to the audience that allows us to reconcile our own feeling of guilt towards our past mistakes. This ending scene is the pivotal piece that expresses surrealism’s light spirit. It changes the audience’s perspective of judgment as we do not know that everyday dealing of people living within our society. It expresses the thought - can we judge others for what we think is wrong, when we don’t really know them or their life. David Lynch’s film expressed the elements of surrealism in almost every way, solidifying himself as the “modern” surrealism artist.

Symbolism-Se7en

Danielle Salm
Visual Literacy
Professor Hammond
April 4, 2010

Artistic Movements Essay
Symbolism-Se7en

The symbolism movement began in 1885 and continued until about 1910. It all started as a reaction against the literal interpretation of objects and subjects. These ideas were more commonly used by poets that told a story or idea by means of expression instead of simply explaining what they mean. It created a movement that involved suggestive pieces and metaphorical scenarios. People soon were learning that there were other ways of sending a message other than through simple words. Emotions or ideas could be expressed through sound. This movement contributed very much so to the abstract arts of the 20th century. It gives a feeling of intelligence because one must look deeper into something to find its true meaning.
In film, symbolism is used to connect aesthetics, cognition, feeling and though. Sometimes the viewers catch on quickly to the symbols and hints, while in other movies it is harder to point out. The symbols are usually mixed in with the theme, characters and a specific conflict. There are many different symbols used to depict what is going on and each one used is pertinent to the story line and slowly unravels the mystery behind what is about to come about.
The movie Se7en is a great example of how symbolism is used in movies. Aside from the actual story line, the plot of the movie was gloomy, dark and scary. It sets the viewer up for what is about to occur. We don’t need to be told that something terrible is going to happen, because you can feel it coming. The trembles of the music, and the dimness of the lights, and even the rain all lead a person to anticipate what the movie is about to tell them.
Detective Somerset is on his last case before retiring. He is paired with young, cocky, short tempered Detective Mills. They go to inspect the crime scene of an obese man who had died at the dinner table from what they thought to be over eating. Upon arriving at the scene, they realized that there was much more going on there then just a man over eating in his own misery. Mills finds behind the refrigerator, the first sign to this mystery of chain murders that is about to occur. Gluttony is scratched into the wall, and so the answers start to unfold. Shortly after, the next victim is killed. This man was a defense attorney and with his blood the killer spelt greed on the floor. The detectives at this point figure out that the killers crimes are based on the seven deadly sins. Next they found a drug dealer tied to his bed for what they determined to be a year. He had been tortured, and when found they presumed him to be dead, which they soon found out, he was not but very close to it. The prostitute was the next to die. A man was strapped with a knife by the killer with gun in mouth and told to have sex with her, which would lead the blade to stab her stomach and inevitably kill her. Lust was written on that door. Pride was for a model that was then given a choice by the killer, he cut off her nose and told her to call for help and live with the handicap or to take the bottle of sleeping pills and slowly fall into a never ending sleep. She simply couldn’t handle not being “beautiful”, so chose death. During the last two murders they find out the residence of the killer and go to make an arrest. He spotted them and shot then spared Detective Mills life when holding him at gunpoint. Soon after the killer turned himself in to let the remaining killings play their course. He then goes to take the detectives to the scene of the last two murders. When they arrived a package conveniently is dropped off at 7:01. As Somerset opens the package, Mills holds the killer (Doe) at gunpoint. Mill’s wife has been killed by Doe because she wouldn’t be with him; he placed her head in the box. The kill signified envy, for Doe wanted Mills wife. Since he could not obtain her he killed her so the final murder could take place. Mills was faced with the choice to kill the person responsible for all the deaths including the one of his wife to finish the chain of murders and end with wrath, or to let him serve the consequences and not let his goal be complete. Mills took the life of the killer and the seven deadly sins played their course.
The killings we used to show the evil in everyone. It was a message that the world is filled with horror and sin, and Doe wanted to make a statement of that so no one would ever forget it. He used the killings to finally get people to notice what has been in front of them but they never truly saw. People will not see what they choose not to but through the symbolism of his killings, the message cannot be so easily ignored. Simply stating an opinion or idea doesn’t always get through to people, but through action, and mystery, people try to unravel the truth. Doe was no scary character. He planned his murders meticulously to expose the evil in ourselves and to demonstrate his disgust in it.