Art, Power & Ideology #3: Imagery of Capitalism AWD 4M1
Ideology: - a set of ideas that constitutes one’s goals; a world view that directs action.
Visual culture is always affected by an artist’s or his/her society’s ideologies.
Background: Sometimes a nation’s dominant ideology dictates the style and content of visual culture.
Background: Most of what you see in visual culture is the imagery of Capitalism: imagery designed and intended to sell you things.
Background: Most of what you see in visual culture is the imagery of Capitalism: … you see over 3000 images per day… (that’s about 200 per hour).
Background: You experience more imagery daily than any other people have in the entire history of the planet.
Background: What is the effect of exposure to so many images? Images become cheap and overwhelming; we stop ‘seeing’ images.
Background: What is Capitalism? - an economic system based on private ownership of the means of production and the creation and selling of goods and services for profit. It is the system in which you live and participate.
Background: … the selling of goods and services for profit. How is this achieved?
Mainly through advertising, the visual language of capitalism
Early advertising merely said that goods and services were available -- they gave information about products (and assumed people at whom they were aimed were rational beings capable of evaluating information).
By the 1920s advertisers were talking less of the products and more of the emotional and social lives of the prospective consumers. They began to create demand in a society where more goods were produced than consumed -- they told people they needed the products.
Advertising learned from the propaganda of World War 2 in how to persuade and move the masses.
Advertisers learned that the way people are persuaded is to appeal to them on unconscious levels.
Advertisers no longer treated us as rational, but rather irrational and non-thinking.
By the 1950s a main function of ads became the production of discontent in people. The subtext became “you're not okay”; you are lacking.
The Imagery of Capitalism generates anxieties and doubts and offers solutions in the form of consumer goods.
thrusts the images of perfection upon us thousands of times a day… The Imagery of Capitalism
provides images of persuasion that we wish to associate ourselves with resulting in phenomena like brand loyalty. The Imagery of Capitalism
Many people are not conscious of this subliminal persuasion, thinking they are not influenced by advertising; and this is a mistake.
Background: So, what’s the problem with thrusting images of perfection upon us thousands of times a day? Body image issues; perfection is unattainable.
Background: So, what’s the problem with the production of discontent in people; “you're not okay”; you are lacking. Generalized societal anxiety.
Background: So, what’s the problem with creating a demand for products where no demand would be otherwise ? Overconsumption, pollution, waste, global warming & depletion of finite resources. (Basically, overconsumption is killing us.)
Background: So far in Art, Power & Ideology: Soviet Art: Nazi Art: Imagery of Capitalism: What are similar themes; goals?
Background: Theme: sentimental imagery of a fictional, perfect society. Goal: to persuade you to think and act in a prescribed way.
Background: So far in Art, Power & Ideology: Soviet Art: Nazi Art: Imagery of Capitalism: What are some similar themes; goals?
Background: Theme: idealized figures, embodying the message of the specific ideology. Goal: to persuade you to think and act in a prescribed way.
Background: Soviet Art, Nazi Art and the Imagery of Capitalism are similar in these ways. So… be aware of when you are being seduced, persuaded and hypnotized; don’t buy the hype; and think critically about the imagery you are barraged with every day.
Background: "A democratic civilization will save itself only if it makes the language of the image into a stimulus for critical reflection, not an invitation for hypnosis." -- Umberto Eco