critical theory

A Flashy Subculture

Posted by kshitiz on December 04, 2008
HCI, Interaction Design, critical theory / No Comments

After reading an article by Hebdige on Subculture and Style, today, I tried to go into the cultures and subcultures that exist within the frame of Interaction Design. I was surprised how the thing that first sprang up was the culture of Web Design. And inside the culture of Web Design, we had (or still have) the subculture of Flash Websites.

When I dug more into this topic I found that it is really interesting to analyze from the days of the flashy banners (one subculture) , to the days of Web 2.0 (another subculture)

Initially the websites were full with texts, monotonous and boring content. In order to break away from this monotonicity, it was followed by the usage of lots of pictures and providing more and more links in order to make it more interactive for the user.

picture-11

However in the gamut of links available for the user who often got confused, the notion of using flashing texts, and blinking images were introduced. This led to a surge in the number of websites trying to do it. And yes, what better way to gather attention then have a extremely harsh color like pink, orange, bright greens on a black background. Visual ergonomics took a back seat. It was all about garnering attention. Anything that helped in doing so, was in fashion. So many sites had extra borderings around content, in bright colors to lay emphasis. Clip arts were used to add to the texts to make it look more stylish. I am sure one can look at the prime background colors of the websites during this period and see that it was black.

picture-3picture-41

This was similar to the punk subculture where the appearance itself was enough to get attention. Since what was accepted in the internet world was not clear and User Experience was unheard of, it was ok to have anything that “looked” attractive.

In around mid 90s , comes Macromedia Flash, and the whole notion of interactivity changes.But even within this there was still a group who saw Flash not as a means to increase interactivity, but to add more flashy and attention gathering content. Till this time animated gifs were in full swing.  They were dancing, sliding, and scrolling their way across the eyes of web surfers trying to read the texts on the page. And for many Flash was merely an easier tool to produce this kind of “eye-catching-graphics”.

What Flash also did was that it set divisions within the society as to who built sites using what. It also became a status symbol to have a website built in Flash. The connotations being that it looked cool and contemporary. People who built websites using flash (the senders) were considered to be extra talented and hence looked high upon.  So photographers, artists, musicians, and other “creative” people (the addressers) looked up to them having a Flash website and the more reliable, faster loading and content heavy sites made on plain HTML was left to the academia mostly. HTML sites became more of the intellectual, and the high funda stuff, whereas Flashy websites denoted a person who was more creative and was involved in the disciplines like the arts.

The above argument has evolved over the years. The use of Flash has proliferated well and crossed boundaries. Similarly with the advancements in the web development and other interactive options like PHP etc, this subculture may not exist anymore. And even if it does, it is probably limited to the amateur content.

What has evolved into web 2.0, could very well be considered a subculture these days. After all what was fashionable a few years ago like to have a Flash website, is now having a Web 2.0 website. I often wonder how many actually know what the meanings behind either of them were / are .

What I am trying to get into is that with constantly evolving paradigms in web design and User experience on the web, it is really interesting and I think worthwhile to study these various subcultures that have been established within the community.

Tags: , ,

Semiotically analyzying parody posters

Posted by kshitiz on November 18, 2008
critical theory / No Comments

One of the most interesting application of the semiotic theory and the various functions in it, I find; are in the area of graphic design, and posters in advertisements in particular. The more minimalistic the poster in terms of the elements that make up the poster, the more meaning it makes and the more the viewer is forced to hunt for the signifiers and also make meaning out of it.

Disclaimer: This is a parody for a GAP Khakis advertisement. I am pretty sure this is not an authentic GAP ad. I just happened to come across this on the internet. The idea behind this post is to see how a semiotic understanding of the parody posters could send in negative as well as positive vibes with the audience.

gap

referential (content)
An advertisement poster for GAP Khakis.

metalingual (code)
The text (Hitler wore khakis) that supports (or reinforces) the statement made by the central character in the frame.

formal (form)
The form is a poster that is either in print or on web medium. It is not known which one it was first made in. It is a nevertheless a bold cultural expression. The absence of color makes the statement more prominent. The user is forced to get their attention on the chief components of the frame.
The first attention is on the face and the stature of the man (placing his hands on the hips- a signifier of achievement, and dictatorship).
Then if your attention digresses towards the top, it is making a strong statement – “Hitler wore Khakis”.
And if your focus digresses towards the down, then there is the brand name – “GAP KHAKIS”.
Either way a statement is being made.

expressive (addresser)
The addresser here is GAP, the garment company. The designer who designed the poster is the sender but what the public sees, is a projection from the company GAP. So the addresser here is actually the company as a whole and not necessarily one person.

phatic (contact)
Users engage in viewing the artifact. There is a lot of deciphering that is happening at the cognitive level because of the elements in the frame. The viewer is not only forced to think in a denotative manner as to what in the poster,  but also connotatively in terms of what the person stood for.

conative (addressee)
The addressees are potential buyers of the brand’s clothings. Its target customers are younger generations. By using the icon of Hitler, there is a conscious effort on the addresser part to focus on the current youth generation.

contextual (situation)
The situation in this case is a website (presuming that the poster is an internet ad). The company has chosen a controversial figure like Hitler to make a statement. It is a statement of power, of confidence, of dictatorship, of arrogance and pride. The stature makes that bold statement and allows the user to agree upon the fact that a person of this status wore Khakis.The addressee is expected to wear the GAP clothing with the same amount of pride.

The use of a prominent historical figure in their advertisements (also done by Apple a lot) is perhaps an attempt to make the advertisements move away from the cultural significance. It is to use the ideologies that the person was famous for, in bringing about the resonance with the company’s values and ideologies. So when GAP uses Hitler or Apple uses Gandhi, it is to appreciate the good things that these prominent figures stood for.

Having said that, companies should be very certain about the usage of figures in the cultural context. Religious sentiments were hurt, when some leading American brand portrayed the Hindu gods on lingerie ads. Similarly a GAP ad featuring Hitler, would not be prominent to be released in a Jews dominated areas. Time and again we hear of people protesting the usage of a particular brands in relation to the cultural significance.

Since this advertisement (in the form of a parody) has been there on the internet, it is been influencing addressees and that could be a reason why their sales could have gone down (if at all i.e. ).

Tags: ,

Rhythmic Dance of Aesthetic Expression

Posted by kshitiz on November 16, 2008
critical theory / No Comments

Reflections from McCarthy and Wright: Technology as Experience.
Have you ever felt the adrenaline rushing through you in a movie.. or the sound of silence falling into the valley.. onto to rise into a crescendo, only to fall back into an inquisitiveness… that slowly slowly catches you.. comforts you.. and then .. then there is the sudden jerk of emotion again .. and the cycle keeps repeating itself again and again… You keep moving from one an experiences to another… In the end you say .. What an amazing Experience! Movies after movies , roller coaster rides after rides… and photo exhibitions after exhibitions..

Here we talk about the Rhythmic Dance of an aesthetic expression. Dewey previously mentions about the rhythms of life, tensions and releases of engagement, and feelings of vulnerability in the face of our own needs and desires. Thus “rhythmic flow of life is the basis of our experience of meaning and value in the world.”
Basically there are four components to it. It has an internal, dynamic structure. Its called the Cumulation, the Conservation, the Tension and the Anticipation.

Roughly Cumulation is the build up of the experience in the absence of a priori information about the experience. This is a build up over time. The human capacity of deriving meanings over things increases in a temporal flow. Cumulation is a thing of the past, leading to the present. Without such a build-up there is no fulfillment and without fulfillment there is no aesthetic experience.

Conservation is the tendency to hold onto the some of what one has gone through before, in-order to make sense and a better experience of what is in present. Conservation is in the present. This takes cues from the past and is creating the experience along the present. An example for this could be you enjoy a particular kind of music more, if you have listened to that music before. Like say Jazz music.

Tension is where the fun begins! This is where movie makers make most of their money! Music invariably plays an important role in the tension. Tension refers to both the opposition of energies within the experience and between the people involved in the experience. Any resistance prevents immediate discharge and accumulates tension that renders energy intense.
Thus tension appears from this compressed energy that is seeking release. And when they try to do it, another form tries to block it. This struggle is the cause of tension. Analyze it this way, say in a movie, you are in a state of conservation.. enjoying the experience of the plot, and suddenly there is a gun shot. For a moment, you freeze…. its may be instantaneous, that time may be in milliseconds, but for that instant the hard pounds an extra beat. This creates that struggle within the energies that were already there with the experience you were having.

Then comes the anticipation. As one would guess, this is for the future with the knowledge of the present and the future. This thus occurs in two temporal phases. The first one occurs before the aesthetic experience is taken pace, and the other during the aesthetic experience taking place. Thus there is an expectation build up in this. When that expectation is met, the past is conserved as if the anticipation is molded into the experience itself. When it is not met, the conservation is breached. Often this would also lead to tension and then further lead back to conservation.

Thus, as Dewey says, a rhythmic dance connects aesthetic experience to its history and circumstances. This dance involves a continuous interplay between the past, present and future, each shaping and renewing the others.

Tags: ,

« Previous Page Next Page »