Reading list

I've been trying to pull together a list of all the books and magazines I've been reading this year that don't feature in the course reading list, here it be:

Barnard M, (2001), Approaches to understanding visual culture, Hampshire, Palgrave
Barthes R, (2000), Mythologies, Great Britain, Vintage
Berger J. (1972) Ways of seeing, London, Penguin Books
Eagleton T, (2000), The idea of culture, USA, Blackwell Publishers Inc
Eco U, (1976), A theory of semiotics, Bloomington, Indiana University Press
Hartley J, (2002), Communication, Cultural and Media studies, New York, Routledge
Lyotard J, (1991), The inhuman, Oxford, Polity Press
Materson, J.F, Klein, R., (1995) Disorders of the self, USA, Brunner/Mazel
Robinson J, (1999), The manipulators, Great Britain, Pocket Books
Sahlins M (1976), Culture and practical reason, Chicago, University of Chicago Press
Said E W. (1994), Representations of the intellectual, Reading, Vintage
Sorlin P, (1994), Mass media – key ideas, London, Routledge
Sturken M & Cartwright L, (2001), Practices of looking, USA, Oxford University Press
Thomas J, (2001), Reading images, Hampshire, Palgrave
Evans J and Hall S, (2003), Visual culture: the reader, London, Sage Publications
Church Gibson P and Gibson R, (1993), Dirty looks: women, pornography, power, London, British Film Institute
Fletcher A, (2001), The art of looking sideways, London, Phaidon Press
Poynor R, (2001), Obey the giant, London, August Media Ltd.
Burns C, (2005), Black Hole, UK, Jonathan Cape
Newark Q, (2002), What is graphic design?, Switzerland, RotoVision
Rhinehart L, (2001), The dice man, USA, The Overlook Press
Golding W, (1954), Lord of the flies, London, Faber and Faber Ltd.
Burgess A, (1962), A clockwork orange, London, Paperview UK
Hislop V, (2005), The Island, Great Britain, Review
Garland A, (1997), The beach, England, Penguin Books
Heller J, (1962), Catch 22, Great Britain, Vintage
Orwell G, (1956), Keep the aspidistra flying, USA, Harvest books

George Shaw [writings]
Adbusters [magazine]
Graffik [magazine]
Eye [magazine]

Phiadon

I've recently been considering what it is that I would want to do in the future and as I enjoy creating books I would like to look into the publishing industry...

I've got many design books created by Phaidon, they are the publishers of one of my favourite books of all time - The Art of Looking Sideways. They also create many good reference books for art students such as: The photo book, The art book, The art of the 20th century and The American art book - all of which come in both large 'coffee table' books and smaller 'pocket books'.

They've recently released a new book called 'Ice Cream' which contains:

-An exhibition-in-a-book that presents 100 contemporary artists
-Selected by 10 internationally renowned curators, these artists will be the stars of tomorrow
-Each artist is featured over four pages with a selection of their most interesting work together with a commentary by the curator who selected them, an exhibition history, and a bibliography
-Each curator has also selected a source artist who has inspired or influenced the younger generation, providing readers with a broader historical perspective

and is said to be "A must-have for art-world insiders, an essential source book for students and all those who follow the contemporary art scene."

I'm intrigued.

Maybe one day I'll have a company that creates some amazing books to help all those art students and other along in the world or just show them something a little bit different...

My online portfolio

I've recently completed my web design optional module in which I've created a website with contains a portfolio of some of my work it's called : Me in a box in front of your eyes. Check it out.

Books - My Creations

This first book is from my Collections project in which I collected my emotions every hour on the hour for 24 hours. It's called "24 Hours" and is bound in black buckram with a double layered card slip cover. The pages contain the emotions which are relative in size to the amount they are felt, the pages are embossed with numbers to signify the hour the pages represent.


This is the first book I created for the Reportage project in which we had to report the city of Leeds in some format. I decided to base my first book on the city scape of Leeds, the pages run together creating a total 360 degree view from the top of multistory car park.


This and the image below are photos of the second book I created for Reportage. For this book I focused on the people of Leeds.


I asked them to complete a questionnaire and have their photo taken, the photo was then printed on to the reverse of the hand written questionnaire, folded and bound into this book.


This is the book I created for my Storytelling brief. It was a story of a stick boy called Sam who lived on the edge of a haunted forest. The forest is surrounded by red ribbon to stop people from entering it and becoming lost, until one day Sam ventures into and meets Bird, learns to fly and solves the mystery of the not to haunted forest.

Found

I recently bought the Found book which is a further more indepth publication of the Found magazine and website. It reminds me a little of post secret . I have always liked being given the opportunity to see into other worlds, to create a story around the insight you have found. It seems I'm not alone with this... I am glad.

Buy it here.

Ladyfest - Leeds

"Karen's art represents a mystifying and odd universe. The bright and lurid colours of her work will primarily lure you in, sweet style, but it doesn't take long before the goofed out and bent content takes hold and really snatches you. You are never really sure what is going on in this place populated by acid damaged individuals, seeping wounds, 'knowing' wildlife, feral children, unknown exotic narcotics, strange skin conditions and so much more. Its all here, baby."

This is not an exhibition I would have chosen to go to alone but my housemate is involved with Ladyfest and so I went along for the jollies. It was very inspiring and a little surreal but worth the visit. We also went to 'EXP24 does Ladyfest' in which Holy Trinity is further transformed to allow for screening of experimental films which was really amazing as they didn't stick to conventions but used the ceiling as a screen also, there was a lot going on around you; so much to take in.

Check it out here.

Crosby Beach - Antony Gormley - Another Place

Antony Gormley is one of my favourite artists of all time. I focused my National Diploma end of year art history essay on his work and various other presentations and projects since. I was thrilled when I was offered the chance to go and see his piece called Another Place situated on Crosby Beach near Liverpool. The exhibition consists of 100 cast iron figures cast from Gormley's own frame. Each figure stands to attention, gazing out across the sea as though waiting for something that never seems to arrive...



Still Antony Gormley inspires me, I have recently been reading about his new exhibition called Blind Light which is another step away from Gormleys roots of his human figure sculptures. The piece is a large glass room filled with fog in which the viewer can enter and become lost and disorientated but yet strangely at peace and they see other viewers drift in and out of view in the contained space.




Although he seems to be moving away from the work that attracted me in the first place I think that he has captured my imagination enough that I will continue to follow his progress and hopefully get to see more of his work in the future. Check it out at: Antony Gormley's Blind Light

Yorkshire Sculpture Park - Andy Goldsworthy Exhibition

[Hanging Trees]

I've recently been to visit the Antony Gormley exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my digital camera but I do have these post cards...


[Stone Room]

Some of the work was really amazing to take in - I've seen a lot of photos and been told a lot about the exhibition but it was great to have the opportunity to go and view it in person.

Unfortunately at the time I went to the gallery I was on crutches so wasn't able to go and view the piece's outside so mainly stayed in the gallery spaces.


[Leaf Stalk Room]

The leaf stalk room was amazing, I wanted to walk up and touch the net to see just how fragile the piece was. It really made me wonder how such a large structure was made - is there a trick or is it just time and patients? Impressive.


[Wood Room]

I found the Wood Room really quite daunting and oppressive it made me quite nervous that it would collapse at any moment. It was quite awe inspiring to see - it was nothing like I had heard it described


[Stacked Oak]

I find it really interesting the way in which Antony Gormley has the ability to take found objects (like the tree branches in Stacked Oak) and turn then into a human, controlled shape but not through the use of forming or carving, just through their natural grown shape. Maybe this the way man should work, taking nature and manipulating it but without distorting and loosing it's original form. We should fit into nature, it shouldn't be made to fit around us...

Animations and Flash websites

I've just found this flash based ...digital toy by a Japanese freelance designer. Not quite sure of it's purpose but it's very pretty...

This is a very attractive and cleverly built website which one day I aspire to have the abilities to be able to build something as amazing as this Ted Rosedale (although I'd use better music...)

One of my favourite videos on youtube has recently been deleted by the creator - gutted, it was awesome [Chik 'n' Jack]

This is another video I've recently found on utube using stopframe animation techniques to create this quirky, slightly disturbing video in which the character - Sara gets up and literally puts on her face but she get's angry with her lips which make her smudge her eyebrows and cuts them in half in anger and hasto tape them back together. Snip has a certain Tim Burton-esq quality to it

See The World
is a really attractive music for the band The Deadly Deaths. I really like how you get to see both the close up view of the world and it as a whole from the distance. One of my favorite features is the trees which are incredibly effective and well designed.

Contraption number 019 has to be one of the strangest videos I have seen in a long time; just watching it gives me the shivers. It opens in a clinical room with a large contraption which is controlled by a maggot creature. The contraption has many mechanical arms that pick up parts of human bodies that are stored in the draws on the wall and places them into the machine at the side of the room which closes and spins. upon opening flies fly out and up through a hole in the ceiling out of which bright light flickers. The maggot eventually places itself inside the machine and emerges as a disturbing human/maggot mixed up creature which flies up through the hole and into the awaiting fly zapper and dies...

Live Project - When I grow up I want to be...

For one of my live projects I worked on a brief called "When I grow up I want to be..." for the brief we had to create a poster which completed the title. The poster had to be A3 size, it had to be suitable to be displayed alongside 7-9 year old's and other artists work on the same title and had to be possible to be hung with pins.

For this brief I chose to focus on a wish I have held since I was a child; a fantasy I think most children would agree with. I have always been fascinated with birds and have always wished to be able to fly like a bird, soaring through the sky above the clouds where the sun always shines...

My poster was landscape and was made out of sculpted white card built up in layers to signify the clouds and a silhouette of a bird soaring through. One thing I like about this piece is the shadows that are cast from the 3D forms - unfortunately this photo doesn't do it much justice but hopefully you'll get the idea.

Live Project - Future Perfect

For the Live Project I chose to work on a brief which was set by the group Designers are Wankers and Grafik the magazine. I bought a copy of Grafik to inspire me as to what they were wanting... I'll review it in a bit but first:

The brief reads:
Write an 800 word article in response to one of the following titles
01 Graphic design's best-kept secret is...
02 A manifesto for the modern graphic designer.
03 Advertising is the root of all evil. Discuss.
04 In what ways does design education leave its protégées ill-equipped?
05 Designers are wankers. Discuss.

the prizes were:
First Prize
For one overall winner:
01 A paid writing assignment to interview an international design studio in a future issue of Grafik.
02 An Apple MacBook.
03 Publication of your article in Grafik and on designersarewankers.com.
04 A regular column on designersarewankers.com.
05 Dinner with the Designers are wankers guru of your choice.
06 A library of essential design books.
07 A year's subscription to Grafik.

Runner-up Prize
For three short listed entries:
01 Publication of your article on designersarewankers.com.
02 A selection of design books.
03 A year's subscription to Grafik.
04 A copy of the Designers are wankers book.

I chose to write an article concerning title number 04 and here it is...

The Art of Bullshitting
By Nikki Bratt

Those creative students with a fragile deposition must beware of the dangers of placing their work in the spot light if they have not learnt the invaluable art of “Bullshit”. Bullshitting is something that all students must learn in order to pass as a designer; they must be able to talk their way through their work and out the other side with some dignity intact; this can be a messy process to begin with.

On the whole design tutors hold the ultimate skill of bullshit and are able to recognise a bullshitter at thirty yards but yet they never let on. They never speak of how you’re floundering but instead push and pull you until you find some sort of edge to grasp or rather a deadline to swim for and pull yourself out in time. Only to be shoved back into the swirling wake of ideas once again and the process is repeated throughout your entire educational life in the design world.

It seems most small children hold the ability to be creative, so why as they age do they become more or less adept at these skills? It is all down to a crisis in confidence, the child begins to recognise the world around them and how what they do can be perceived by others. They begin to hold the desire to fit in, to conform to the norm. In later life (after mastering the art if bullshit enough to give you time to become a good designer on the side) it becomes necessary to be able to place your ideas out into the open to be scrutinised and regarded for what they are, without you there to defend yourself or your reasoning. This in turn with a desire to fit into the accepted roles of society has the strong ability to crush or conceal the creativity within many young artists who flared as children only to die down in the presence of years. To ‘educate’ in the simplest form means:

“Give intellectual, moral, and social instruction. To train or give information on a particular subject.” Concise Oxford English Dictionary

So if you cannot teach creativity what exactly are we being ‘trained’ for? Is the focus predominantly shifted onto the technical side of becoming a practicing and paid designer; the abilities required to be able to take whatever form of creativity and artistic drive the pupil holds and form it into something desirable, useful to the outside world? The tutors must have the aptitude to be able to see what talent the pupil has and mould it to fit into the overbearing world of the designer. While the whole time allowing for the bullshit to circulate and manipulate the student who will on the whole generate their best ideas when placed under the pressure of critiques and blagging their work. The tutors must have the ability to nurture the creative gene and allow it to flourish in a safe environment, occasionally allowing it to be exposed to the world but not long enough for it to be crushed by opinion because let’s face it after all – we’re only learning.

So when does it become acceptable for our work to be left out in the spot light for more than this predetermined time, when the gaze of opinion has time to form a voice? Maybe GCSE or A-Level or possibly Foundation? Or maybe they should keep it safe until the time in which we leave university and have to find out on our own that the world is not as safe, un-opinionated and supportive as we were led to believe? This is a harsh lesson to learn and so they attempt to wean us away from this support during our years in university, away from the comfort of the protective wing and into the real world through the use of live briefs and critiques at all stages of production. They allow complete strangers to appraise our work, strangers who could hold the key to our success and who will not tolerate the finer art of bullshit.

The fault cannot be placed solely on those who teach design education but also on the student themselves who, in the sudden freedom of university has realised the world’s a bigger place and has gone to investigate. Some may take this desire to create with them on their wanders while others leave it behind and go and get distracted with ‘life’. It feels that by the age of university students we are in such a position as to feel we have reached adulthood. We have contradicting feelings between the want for nurture of our creative gene and the lust for freedom but without that piece of paper that states we can be creative to a professional standard we are all a little stuck. Thus we continue to live by the deadlines until we reach that freedom, piece of paper clutched tightly in hand and mortar board tossed deftly into the air to realise that actually the worlds a pretty ugly place and shuffle back to do an MA course under the safe wing of education.

And so we return to the art is bullshit, which in truth is what you’re being trained for, never mind the technical aspects the jobs required, as long as you can get in and out of a critique or design proposal alive and with the majority of your arrogance intact then you, sir, have the ability to be whoever you want to be in the pretentious, mixed up world of design. Now good luck trying to find a job.

I doubt it's a winning piece but it was fun working towards a live brief and the possibilities of my work having some credit outside the walls of the college and the internal briefs we've worked on in the past

Charlie Chalk

Charlie Chalk is a children's television character that I used to watch when I was younger and I recently bought all the episodes on DVD so that I can reminisce...

The episodes last about 10 minutes each and are made using stop motion animation. They were created by Woodland animations who also made other kids tv shows such as Post Man Pat, The Wombles and Thomas the Tank Engine and friends.

There were ten characters in total called Charlie Chalk, Captain Mildred, Mary the Hover Fairy, Lewis T. Duck, Arnold the Elephant, Edward the Gorilla, Trader Jones, Sam Mellor, Bert and the Litterbug. They all lived on a small island called Merrytwit on which Charlie was shipwrecked when out fishing in his boat one day. There are thirteen episodes in total that follow Charlie and Co. through their adventures on the island.

I remember when I was younger being absoloutely terrified of the characters in Charlie Chalk but yet I used to love scaring myself silly watching them. I'm not sure why I was so unnerved when watching the cartoons but when I re-watched them a few weeks ago I still felt a little unnerved and disturbed by them (especially by the one where they meet Burt who is a large hairy creature that's been trapped in a cave for years on his own).


Click here for more info and pictures from Charlie Chalk

Clicky here to watch an episode of Charlie Chalk and see for yourself just how creepy it is...

Rock Lobster

This is an animation me and a friend made for our animation module. We used stop motion techniques to film it on a stills digital camera and edited it using Flash. We weren't/aren't very adept with Flash so I'm afraid at the time we weren't able to add sound to the animation. We both really like the idea of the story and hope to be able to go back and create a better version of it in the future... it's named Rock Lobster after the B52s track, clicky clicky to go and watch it:Rock Lobster :)

Leeds Gallery

We went for a wander into the Leeds art gallery and my god it's so uninspiring... I would have thought they'd have had some more interesting work around but it just seemed bland and nothing appeared to have changed since when we had to go there in the first year for drawing practices!

I would think that in such a creative and constantly changing city as Leeds the gallery would have so many opportunites to put on exhibitions on a regualar basis. It's not like there isn't enough artists and other talented creative people around looking for a break or opportunity to show the city what they can do.

They need to be less old fashioned, get with the plan Leeds!

Calvin and Hobbes

Calvin and Hobbes is a comic strip written and illustrated by Bill Watterson, following the humorous antics of Calvin, an imaginative six-year old boy, and Hobbes, his energetic and sardonic—albeit stuffed—tiger. The strip was printed daily in newspapers from November 18, 1985 to December 31, 1995. At its height, Calvin and Hobbes was carried by over 2,400 newspapers worldwide.



The strips can deal with many political and social issues that try to show the worlds views through the eyes of a small child. Other strips focus on Calvins life and on going themes like his and Hobbes club called G.R.O.S.S [Get Rid Of Slimy girlS], their made up game of Calvinball in which you can't have the same rule twice and the regular sled and wagon rides in which Calvin and Hobbes hold their most philosophical of conversations.


And sometimes it's just pure genius... nothing like the truth to make you laugh out loud

Buy, review and find out more about Calvin and Hobbes here

The Pianist

The Pianist is an absolutely immense movie set in Warsaw, Poland in the Second World War focusing on a Polish Jewish family who are split apart as they are interned in a German labour camps. One thing that really effects me when I watch this movie is the fact that it is based on a true story of the life of the skilled pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman during the Second World War.

It follows his hardships as he breaks free from the labour camp and strives to survive the war through starvation, attack and despair.

I love this movie with a passion, it is definitely one of my favourites and I would recommend it to anyone but beware of the content as it leaves you with a heavy heart as to what people had to go through for the insanity of another...

Read about it here

Buy it here - trust me it's worth it.

One flew over the cuckoo's nest (DVD review)

Ok so I've now watched the DVD of One flew over the cuckoo's nest...

The synopsis reads:

A nice rest in a state mental hospital beats a stretch in the pen, right? Randle P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), a free-spirited con with lightning in his veins and glib on his tongue, fakes insanity and moves in with what he calls the "nuts." Immediately, his contagious sense of disorder runs up against numbing routine. No way should guys pickled on sedatives shuffle around in bathrobes when the World Series is on. This means war! On one side is McMurphy. On the other is soft-spoken Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher), among the most coldly monstrous villains in film history. At stake is the fate of every patient on the ward. Based on Ken Kesey's acclaimed bestseller, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest swept all five major 1975 Academy Awards: Best Picture (produced by Saul Zaentz and Michael Douglas), Actor (Nicholson), Actress (Fletcher), Director (Milos Forman) and Adapted Screenplay (Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman). Raucous, searing and with a superb cast that includes Brad Dourif, Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd in his film debut, this one soars.

Unfortunately the movie failed to hold my gaze particularly well which was disappointing as I had head such rave reviews of it. One thing I noticed is that the focus of characters is completely shifted from the Chief, who is the narrator of the book, to Randle P. Murphy played by Jack Nicholson. In the movie you tend to miss out on all of the inside views that you get from the Chief in the book and it feels as though quite a lot of the depth of the book has been lost in this translation - although I guess this happens quite often when books are placed in the world of Hollywood. There are some heartfelt moments which I appreciated in the movie but in all honesty I am not particularly impressed with either the book or the movie of One flew over the cuckoo's nest, but it is one of those classics which I am glad I took the time to read.

Buy or just check out reviews for the DVD here

Buy or just check out reviews for the book here

Hand to Eye

Hand to Eye is a book that has continued to inspire me throughout my design education. I first came into contact with it in my first year of my National Diploma in 2003. The book contains 144 pages of 45 contemporary illustrators from around the world.



It is one of those books that I tend to flick through from time to time to inspire me when I'm feeling at a bit of a loss. It is something I come back to on a regular basis when I'm searching for specific styles because it contains such a large wealth of styles and imagery that I usually find something to cater for my needs.



It contains many styles of illustration and graphic design including styles using pen, pencil, paint, embroidary and designers that merge digital art with hand rendered styles to create some highly original pieces.



The above image is one of my favourite in the book, I love the use of colours and patterns to evoke such feeling in a 2D piece.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

I took my first trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park back in December of this year. These are some of the pictures we took in the wandering...




This is the metal walkway leading up to the main gallery building, supposedly all the names contained on it are people who have sponsored/donated to the park...








These are permanent Henry Moore sculptures found in the first part of the park.

I really like the Last of these three photos, this sculpture is huge, you can walk inside it and sit and gaze out through the hole at a framed view of the fantastic countryside.



This is, ermmm... me is a sculpture. yeah, anyway - moving on -->



These are huuuuuge sculptures made out of steel that stand over about 14 foot tall. They are so big you can walk inside them, when I was there they were full of kids playing hide a seek. I managed to jump in when they were finished and took a couple of photos looking up into the structure (see below).






This is another random sculpture... I like the interactivity of the park, art should be interactive, who wants just a pretty picture?




Antony Gormley - the only piece he has at the park but it was good to be able to see it in person. There was a professional photographer there taking photos at the time, we stopped and eavesdropped on the conversation for a little while, he had worked with Gormley in the past on other projects.



A sculpture of nature

"winds through the branches becomes the silence" - found on a stamp in a box next to a turn style in the park





This is a piece by James Turrell called Deer Shelter in which he had created a concrete room with a hole in the ceiling that frames the sky, we lay in there and watched as the clouds passed us by, bliss.

D & A D

We recently entered some work in the D & A D student awards. We had to choose one out of about thirty briefs for various different companies and groups requiring different outcomes.

The brief I chose to work on was in the direct mail catagory. I had to design something that could fit through a standard letter box and would persuade people to swap their credit card balance to Capital One.

[First board design]

The first board had a pair of turquoise scissors attached through the foam board to show how they would arrive through the post.

the second board contained pictures and some blurb about the project. Here are some of the pictures...

[Front of box]


[Back of box]


[Open box]


[Open box with contents]


[In progress]

Three projects were chosen in total from those who entered from Vis Com to be published in the D & A D awards 2007 annual.

Guinness - Hands

[

This is the new Guinness advert which came out a few months ago. I absolutely love it, it's pure genius! It came out just as I was in the middle of researching into stop motion animation which has really made me appreciate how difficult and how long it must have take to create the short animation. My favourite part has to be the end with the typewriter fingers, excellent.

Yet again Guinness have managed to keep up their good record for creating quality, entertaining adverts for something so mundane... Why can't all advertising be like this!

Smirnoff - Diamond

This advert annoyed me so much that I wrote an essay on it for critical studies...

How could the connotations of the Smirnoff vodka – Diamond advert be perceived as manipulative to the viewer?

We live in a daily state of visual and verbal manipulation from advertising companies and product placement surrounding us wherever we look. On the one hand we live in a material world in which we are all influenced by advertising and made to desire and imagine - how much better our lives could be if we could just own that “insert product name here”. However, on the other hand it is unclear whether the advertisements instil a need in us to purchase the product or if we ourselves have created the need in the first place. Surely without a need there would not be a product created to fulfil the need? One of the reasons the term “advertising” carries such a pejorative cast is that it is seen as manipulative, aggressive, deceiving and sneaky but yet it is often clever, entertaining and amusing. One thing people find so disturbing about advertising is that when it is done well it is usually quite unnoticeable and we become lured into the trap of desiring without even realising. The use of advertising really comes into play when we have a range of products on offer that all do similar things and we have to make a choice about which to purchase. Advertising is used to help to persuade or in some cases dissuade us from buying one brand of product over another. When we break down an advert we can see the underlying messages and meanings which we realise are all placed purposefully by the advertiser as a means to manipulate us into buying their product. Advertising is used to create or intensify a feeling of desire in the viewer who would in turn, if the advert is successful, become a consumer of that product.

“Advertising often presents an image of things to be desired, people to be envied, and life as it “should be”… It is also a central strategy to invite viewers/consumers to imagine themselves within the world of the advertisement…

The product must acquire particular attributes, indicate a kind of lifestyle, and produce an image of it potential consumer.” Sturken M & Cartwright L, (2001), Practices of looking

The Smirnoff vodka - Diamond advert proposes two forms of lifestyle to the viewer. The first we encounter is a run down, dilapidated house situated in the middle of scrubland on the edge of a freeway. We meet the narrator five seconds into the advert and watch as he chokes to death on a crisp in a dreary, darkened room, as he sits unaccompanied watching day time television. He says in his own words:

“It was only when I died that life got interesting.”

We then meet the deceased’s brother Morton who sits alone on a church pew as his watches his brothers casket roll away to be cremated. The world that Morton and his brother inhabit is a predominantly dull, drab world in which life is mundane and difficult.

The second form of lifestyle offered by the advert is the world of Live On. The world created by Live On is clean and crisp using mainly whites, silvers and pale greys as their coloring. The use of a lot of over head lighting and open spaces creates a feeling of something better, a way of living that is far removed from the world of Morton and his brother.

The deceased man has or rather had a certain persona which has connotations of a gangster lifestyle. The deceased has a close resemblance to Tony Soprano played by James Gandolfini in the HBO production – The Sopranos. In the short time that we meet the narrator we see he is dressed in dark suit trousers, a pale blue shirt which lies open over a white vest top – a fashion, although easily obtainable, was often seen worn by similar character figures as members of the Sopranos cast. The use of these features and the overweight, balding actor all act as a signifier to the signified overtone of a gangster lifestyle.

“In Barthes’s model [of semiotics], in addition to the two levels of meaning of denotation and connotation, there is the sign, which is composed of the signifier, a sound, a written word, or image, and the signified, which is the concept evoked by that word/image.” Sturken M & Cartwright L, (2001), Practices of looking

The deceased, now narrator has a strong New York accent. The choice to use a New York accent in the narration again supports the feeling of a gangster lifestyle. It connotes a feeling of untrustworthiness upon the viewer and implies an underlying impression that something illegal and criminal may be occurring. This feeling is also supported by the shifty look upon Morton’s face throughout the entire advert. Morton, like his brother has an aura of the gangster lifestyle to him. This may be due to his appearance, his expression, mannerisms or purely due to the fact that he is associated with the deceased.

We can assume by the lack of people attending the funeral that the deceased was not a greatly popular man, also due to the fact of where his home is situated – in a place where it looks like there may once have been many houses which have since been torn down leaving only the narrators house standing. One thing that does not support the gangster lifestyle is the narration itself as one would assume that to be a gangster; one would have a highly charged and interesting life.

We enter Live On which is the world of Smirnoff, the advertisers have disguised it willingly as Live On – the fictional company but we all know as soon as we see the end of the advert and realise it is for Smirnoff vodka that the well lit, clean crisp world is a simili to Smirnoff; it also helps to tie in this advert with previous advertising campaigns run by Smirnoff. The advertisers are trying to create a myth (relating to Barthes’s (1972) terminology) in which they want to show us how not only could partaking in the consumption of Smirnoff vodka help to improve our lives and our prospects (meet beautiful women, escape our dull, drab lifestyles) but also (shown through the scene in the pawn shop, the expression of the broker and the amount of money the diamond was exchanged for) that by doing this we will have obtained something so exquisite and striking that others would pay dearly to acquire the same product.

During the scene in which the ashes are supposedly being transformed into a diamond it is possible to see the narrators face eerily spinning, flashing and gyrating around within the science equipment and liquid. The expression on his face is one of elation and euphoria as he is moved through these processes. The use of this imagery could relate to the physical and mental feelings upon the human form as it becomes intoxicated.

There is an American based company called Life Gem which, in fact, use the ashes of human cremation to create diamonds. Their schema focuses greatly on the aspect of loving relationships and creating a memorial in the form of a diamond for the family and friends of the deceased. In the Smirnoff advert is it possible to see that the creation of the diamond is, in reality created for the sole purpose of monetary gain for the deceased’s brother. We watch as Morton enters a pawn shop with his newly obtained trophy from Live On clutched in his hand. At this point in time the viewer has not been informed as to what the small red box contains although one can assume it is something precious. When the pawn shop owner opens the box and sees the contents he looks shocked and glances at Morton who continues his troubled expression. The pawn broker inspects the contents of the box which shines brightly onto his face, adding a feeling of awe and inquisitiveness upon the viewer. In the next scene a large stack of banknotes are placed upon the counter by the pawnbroker in receipt for the diamond, Morton thanks the broker and leaves the shop, with the money safely stashed away in his pocket.

The Life Gem Company creates gemstones by separating the carbon elements out of the human cremation remains and through excessive use of heat, pressure and time a diamond is created. Smirnoff vodka is filtered through layers of charcoal (carbon) which is made from birch trees, the process by which the diamond in the advert is created is said to be:

“They do some amazing things with carbon. Take two and a half pounds of human ash and if you sift, you sleush and you rinse time after time after time, ‘til you’ve dunked out all the nasties...”

The colloquial terms used by the narrator in the Smirnoff advert relate both to the creation of Smirnoff vodka and slightly to the creation of manmade diamonds. The terms used; “sift,” “sleush” and “rinse” relate to the processes the ashes go through to create the diamond (in the advert) however they are more relevant to the process of creating vodka which starts as a dry product (sift) which is transformed into a liquid (sleush) and then filtered through carbon (rinse). The advertisers have used two things that are known to be practiced in the industries they are relating to and have merged them together to create a half truth which is not a working process to either the creation of diamonds or the creation of vodka. The invention of this half truth allows the viewer to glance over the imagery passing before them and accept what they are seeing in terms of disregarding it – or rather not over analysing what they see before their eye is pulled to another scene.

One of the main features of manipulation in the advert is the way in which the moving image is used to create an alternative and distracting meaning to the narration. If we take the narration on its own, although in places images are needed to understand some of the content, there are semi-concealed and deceiving statements which can be interpreted in a very different manner to that which it appears to be first intended. There is one line in particular that relates to this:

“You can turn Mr Butt-Ugly into a girl’s best friend,”

This line does of course have connotations to diamonds which are commonly referred to as “a girl’s best friend”. However, when this line is associated to the promotion of buying and consuming alcohol it creates a deeper, more sinister meaning. There are many adverts and articles out there that talk about the lowering of inhibitions through excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages and the problems this may cause. Purely

“Alcohol lowers inhibitions and makes you more relaxed. It makes it easier to talk to people and, although there is no scientific explanation, it also has the power to improve other peoples' appearance! [Alcoholic] Drink acts as an aphrodisiac” https://bathstudent.com, Alcohol

The advertisers have created a story in which they hope to achieve some form of relation between the targeted young adult, male audience and the characters within the advert. The reference to a gangster lifestyle relates to many cult and popular movies that appeal to a predominantly male audience. Movies such as The Godfather (1972), Scarface (1983), Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994) and also more recent films for example Snatch (2000) and Layer Cake (2004) are all held within the same genre of Mafia related movies and carry similar denotations and connotations of the mobster lifestyle. The only female that features in the advert is a young, slim yet curvy, attractive woman who appears purely to entertain Morton while his brothers ashes are transformed. We see her welcome Morton upon entering Live On and we see her again briefly, standing in the company garden chatting with Morton. She is seen merely for the purpose of an attainable feature to the viewer and how they could spend their time with similarly attractive females if there were to partake in the Smirnoff “lifestyle.”

At no point during the advert do we see that Morton is charged anything for the proceedure the Live On scientists have performed. There is no show of anything changing hands other than the ashes to the scientist – which may hold sentimental values but little to no monetary value and in return Morton is presented with the diamond which holds a high monetary value which is evident when he takes it to the pawn shop and exchanges it for cash. As diamonds have such a high value it is unusual that there was no charge for the proceedure, however, it is just another form of deceptive advertising in which people are not made aware of how much a product costs but are made to focus on what lifestyle they could have if they owned the product. If this process works and the viewer goes on to purchasing the product featured, only then will they see what it will cost them to obtain that lifestyle.

One thing that is quite striking of this advert is the way in which it suggests that it is acceptable for the viewer to effectively sell a member of their family in order to gain the type of lifestyle that the advert proposes. In truth we do not know what it is that Morton will be using the money he received from selling the diamond for, the connotations of the gangster lifestyle and his persistent anxious expression could suggest that he is in difficulties and with the help of Live On (or rather as we now know it to be a simile for Smirnoff) he is able to possibly rectify his life.

It is only within the last few seconds of the advert that it becomes clear to the viewer of both what is in the small red box (51st second out of 60) and what the advert is meant to be promoting (55th second). This style of advertising is possible for Smirnoff to use due to the fact that they are a well established, well known and highly consumed product (“the world's No. 1 vodka with 122 million 9 litre cases sold in 2004 alone” www.findarticle.com Diageo’s spirits.) When the viewer finally does find out that the box contains a diamond the camera focuses in closely on it and the background changes quickly then the camera zooms out showing the diamond embedded in a woman’s second to front tooth. You see little more of this woman other than her mouth with is set in a wide, attractive smile. The fact that the diamond is placed in a tooth instead of a more usual setting of say a ring or necklace may seem a little bizarre but when we consider that the diamond could represent Smirnoff vodka we can see that the situation is not so strange. The advertisers are trying to relate the creation of the diamond (the underlying connotation that it represents Smirnoff vodka) to the expression of the woman (happy, smiling) and the placement of the diamond (vodka) into the mouth which has created this elated expression on the woman’s face.

To focus again on semiotics and Barthes’s theory of myth we can ask ourselves what is the myth the advertisers are trying to create with this advert? Possibly that if you buy our product you will be happy? (as with the smiling woman featured at the end.) Maybe the focus should not be on the fact that the diamond was created from the ashes of Morton’s brother but more so on the woman that bought the diamond (vodka) from the pawn shop (off licence) which was created by Live On (Smirnoff) and has made her happy when she consumed it. If Smirnoff were to re-assess and re-create this advert to that effect they would loose a great deal of the distraction happenings which they have used and the story would become much more confusing which would in turn make the viewers focus on the confusion and end up asking themselves “why is this advert so unusual?” and not “where can I buy that product?”

In conclusion there are many factors the creators of this advert have used that are manipulative to the audience; such as the use of text with underlying connotations and the distraction of moving image with a storyline that does not relate directly to the product and the music. In truth this advert is no more manipulative than many other adverts seen today. It may simply be the fact that the science of advertising has become one that appears to know us better than we know ourselves and so we feel manipulated but yet we still buy into the product and the desire for that product lifestyle and if we do not? Someone we know and admire probably will and so we will emulate them and again the advertising world is successful.

“Advertising has two prime objectives. One is to increase the number of customers who will buy the product. The other is to increase the amount of product those customers will buy.” Robinson J, (1999), The Manipulators.

oh how it angers me...