Project Presentation
Written Response
Feedbacks
Category: Cataloguing
Unit 1: Methods of Cataloguing / Written Response II
Unit 1: Methods of Cataloguing / Written Response II
The Cyclical Differences between the Utopia of Catalogue Covers and the Real World
MAGCD / 20036676
After Foucault studied how power and social change played out in the French revolution, he believed that we tend to simplify transition by viewing it as an ongoing inevitable attainment of ‘freedom’. In this Methods of Cataloguing project, I started by analyzing the transitions through the decades on IKEA catalogue cover designs. I am questioning the design: layouts, visual objects selections, style of typography, used materials, and colour tones. because there must be something influences those decisions and more interestingly it might be represented the conditions of the certain decades. My works focused on the five first decade of IKEA catalogue editions to re-assemble narratives where people looking for changes to create a better future as the company vision is ‘To create a better everyday life for the many people’ and their key message is ‘Small changes, a refreshing new life’.
Gioni Massimiliano stated that as the early twentieth century discovered the power of images and photography, artists felt the urge to reconfigure this amorphous mass of anomic images by creating connections, possible narratives, sudden clashes, and interpretations. He also said that it was an attempt to make sense of the world, to structure it, while still preserving its absurdly cacophonic, at times sublime, multiplicity. (Gioni, Massimiliano, The UnMonumental Picture, p. 12) Using montage as the medium, I tried to represent the contradictive situations: where people changing their interior to be comfortable, but, in another side of the world people making ‘change’ to get a ‘comfortable’ future. My process so much influenced by Martha Rosler’s work, Bringing the War Home: House Beautiful in her essay, she said, “the spatial comfort of these constructed works is belied by the discomfort of the details, in which two (or more) discourses are visibly made to collide,…” We might see in the 70s collage, how I tried to portray a glimpse of difference of how women represented in the media and how actually they are on the real life in the early 1970s where women fight for Equal Rights Amandement. I used the women on IKEA covers who sit comfortably on the fancy furniture having a good time at home. While on the outside, some women fighting for their rights. I also put a woman, who hold a big handwritten poster, blocking a place where medias always connect them to the female role in a house: a kitchen. As a further experiment, I made kaleidoscopic patterns out of the montages, it represents that this world made of two aspects: cycle, and constant changes.
What I see as the connection between my works and Foucault’s ‘The Order of Things’ is the similarity between my working process and the way he analyzed documents. Foucault organizes documents, divides, distributes, and organizes them in levels, sorts, distinguishes between relevant and not, finds elements, defines unity, describes relationships, as I did when I started to analyze the IKEA cover designs and tried to find different interpretation rather than look at them as a furniture catalogue covers.
Reference:
Gioni, Massimiliano 2007 It’s Not the Glue that Makes the Collage essay on The UnMonumental Picture, Merrell, London.
Rosler, Martha 2007, essay on The UnMonumental Picture, Merrell, London.
Foucault, M 2001, The Order of Things, Taylor & Francis Group, London.
Christopher Pollard, https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-ideas-of-foucault-99758
Unit 1: Methods of Cataloguing / week 002
4/NOV/2021
On The Second Week:
RE-ASSEMBLING IKEA CATALOGUES
The ideas: Manipulating objects on IKEA covers by adding another set of objects that describe the current situations in a certain year. My works focused on the 5 first decade to re-assemble contradicting narrative where people looking for changes to create a better future.
…. artists felt the urge to reconfigure this amorphous mass of anomic images by creating connections, possible narratives, sudden clashes, and interpretations.”
(Gioni, Massimiliano, The UnMonumental Picture, p. 12)
Experiment #4
Focusing on 5 earlier decades, I tried to tell the contradictive situations: where people changing their interior to be comfortable, in another side of the world people making ‘change’ to get a comfortable and better future.
In the 70s collage, I want to portray a glimpse of differences how women represented in the media and how actually they are on the outside. I used the women on IKEA covers who sit comfortably on the fancy furnitures, like not minding anything else but having a good time at home. While on the outside, some women fighting for equality. I also put a woman, who hold a big handwritten poster, blocking a place where medias always connect them to the female role in a house: a kitchen.
Experiment #5
Because I see two similar aspects: cycle, constantly changing. I turned the collages into kaleidoscopic patterns.
…. to reflect objects and create beautiful, fascinating repeating patterns”
Kaleidoscope
The Feedback
note written by Marie (thanks!! >.<)
Working:
- layering image of historical events with the utopia-like settings that IKEA portrait.
- cover: summarize the IKEA at that time
- find the pattern of the overall representation
- Subtlety is powerful; the few collages are too pop out. Keep the subtlety.
Not working:
- The first approach of putting people into the setting. (t is an interesting visual approach but a little lacks meaning) -These explorations are showing the real people and items in the perfect setting, maybe use people’s photo in IKEA shop instead of use people’s photo on street.
To do:
- Look into what happened in Sweden. (Amandine)
- Make the collage more like an IKEA cover. The covers are essential as a summary. (Parth)
Unit 1: Methods of Cataloguing / week 001.b
29/OCT/2021
Office Hours
with Andrew Brash
After getting feedback from yesterday’s class, I made the slides to present them on office hours and I thought about several things:
→ Re-deconstruct IKEA catalogue?
- Separating people out of the catalogues
- Make them homeless? → context: homeless-milennial issues in Indonesia
→Re-imagining IKEA catalogues?
- What if we use real people from the year to put on the covers?
- Using people who sit around Londond
- Make IKEA catalogue out of utopia: people throwing garbage, doing chores, or even homicide case in a house?
What I found interesting: the visual mood in every transition
Experiment #1
Experiment #2 and #3
The ideas: Some of ideas that crossed into my mind but I do not think I want to finish them because lack of closure. There are manual collage ‘Deconstructing IKEA Catalogue’ and Original Life Soundtrack’ the advanced version of ‘Through Normal Days’ digital collages.
The Feedback
- Find surprising things, make it interesting and rich
- might be a connection with interior design
- sorry, lost you at the end of the chat. What i would say about this project is that the focus is on categories, sets and reworking them (methods of sorting, taxonomising, classifying, captioning, framing, recontextualizing, adding, substracting, stretching, compressing, hijacking, subverting, exaggerating, etc.)
- What might be more interesting is to continue with the set you have and reconfigure the purpose, value, and play with the meaning of the individual components and the set, while asking what the meaning and values are. but bringing in another set could be interesting – maybe using homeless people could be a bit obvious and crass however…
Unit 1: Methods of Cataloguing / week 001
28/OCT/2021
On The First Week:
In this project I choose IKEA catalogues to work with because I recently went to IKEA and they said that 2021 would be the last edition of printed IKEA catalogue. They already printed catalogues since 1950s. I think it would be fun to explore the visual styles of IKEA catalogue covers through the decades.I also think it would be interesting too, to see how the trend back to the past, compared the oldest catalogue design to the newest. I love the idea to see how ages represented in visual works, and in this case, I use IKEA cover to find out.
I just made rough thoughts of the IKEA covers because I thought that we only had to discuss about the set that we choose, apparently my tutor expect me to show experiments I already did last week (which I had not yet, at the moment) and I just talked about what I see and short-analyzed on the covers through the decades using IKEA website which I prepared 30 minutes before the class. (I’m so sorry :””( )
Frankly speaking, I failed to present my ideas and I could only hope that Mr. Houman didn’t upset. :”(
The Feedbacks
- Find out the possibilities of lifestyle
- They use 3D renderings/hyperrealistic → More economic way?
- The style in 50s back again in 2000s?
- make uncovers, look at various angles?
- explore this in this kind of way
- why they lost of character of identity as years go by?
- why they put many things on the covers that makes them look like a cheap tabloid?
To Do
- try short the shape/size
- do experiment with the catalogues
- look for the political condition as well
- try framing