Final Script

Artwork on Buses
Artwork can be found all throughout the city of Pittsburgh hidden in doorways, displayed on the ground, in windows, or any space made available. A major problem with these forms of artwork is that they are physically static making them seen only by a small niche of people either going out and looking for them or by people passing by who happen to take notice. With the use of the new medium of buses, artwork can be seen by the masses with its outwardly bold displays and constant motion.
In control of the mass transit here in the city of Pittsburgh, Port Authority is in charge of what advertisements appear on the buses. Companies who want their ad’s displayed on the buses create their design then send the idea to a printing company who then prints out the vinyl design in the actual size it will be seen on a bus. This adhesive print is distributed among a group of men who then apply the print to a set number of buses amongst the five Port Authority bus garages. Wearing the proper attire, we enter the Ross Garage about ten minutes outside downtown Pittsburgh, where Port Authority buses are lined up after the morning rush.
This is the tail light, the smallest of the advertising choices. To remove the vinyl an upper corner is peeled off first with the rest of the ad following in one large piece. All of the adhesive must be removed from the bus to ensure that the next ad sticks properly and doesn’t peel off. In preparing a side of the ad to attach first, the ad is bent so that it can be peeled from the waxy back. The ad is then lined up with the markings on the bus, a small section of the wax backing peeled from the side of the ad, and smoothed out with a squeegee type tool. This process is repeated removing the back waxy sheet, straightening the vinyl, attaching it, and then smoothing it out with the squeegee tool. This is done section by section until the full ad is attached. Some buses even have a flat attachment to make applying the ad easier, because it must go on as smooth and straight as possible without any bubbles. A simple way of thinking about the process is to think of the ad as a large bumper sticker someone might put onto their car.
The larger advertising displays are attached the same way, but with the help of 2-3 people. Advertisers have the option of the queen, which is displayed on the sidewalk side, the king-size, slightly larger the queen and still on the sidewalk side, the king kong, which extends the whole middle of the bus from wheel to roof and is displayed on the sidewalk side, and the largest, the full wrap, covering the entire traffic side with edges appearing to extend onto the roof.
Presented in the form of images, text, and designs, the artwork displayed on buses is ever changing and in constant motion, displaying advertising and announcements unique to the city of Pittsburgh.

Script

Artwork on Buses- Script
Materials:
Interview script
digital camera
release form for interviews

List of Interviewees:
Representative from the community connections
Terri Landis – director of advertising sales
Artist

Day planner:
** sent emails on Friday asking for interviews and submitted possible days and times, but still waiting for a response

History:
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/23307791.html?dids=23307791:23307791&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Oct+25%2C+1996&author=SKIP+WOLLENBERG&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=Marketers+Are+on+a+Roll+With+Wrapped+Buses+..DH%3A+Advertising%3A+Covering+billboard-sized+vehicles+helps+sell+products+or+images%2C+pleasing+bus+riders+and+adding+revenues+to+mass+transit+systems.+..DH%3A&pqatl=google *1997 newspaper article describing a new way of using artwork on buses in cities by using the wrap



Construction of Documentaries

Intro, using questions, presenting what the documentary is
Background, exposition, posing the question, setting up the argument
The real meat, the drama
Ramifications on other things, its effects on society, ways the problem has tried to be solved, wrong arguments of other side
Left with questions for the future, some closure on the narrative

Storyboard:
Visual and textual outline
Includes what will be shot, said, how it will be shot, effects, script, requirements, idea
Block it out according to still and individual shots
Jamendo.com
Image, script, breakdown of description
www.storycenter.org

First Storyboard

Storyboard
1) Picture- video of a bus driving up to a stop with a close up of the people and ad’s behind them that then focuses on the side of the bus and zooms out on the bus artwork
Effect- zoom out on the bus when the bus comes into the focus
Voiceover- Artwork can be found all throughout the city of Pittsburgh hidden in doorways, displayed on the ground, in windows, or any space made available. A major problem with these forms of artwork is that they are physically static making them seen only by a small niche of people either going out and looking for them or by people passing by who happen to take notice. With the use of the new medium of buses, artwork can be seen by the masses with its outwardly bold displays and constant motion.


2)
Picture- early port authority buses with designs before ad’s were added (or just the older looking buses that still contain only abstract designs on them)
Effect- still photos
Voiceover- brief history on Port Authority and its use of artwork on buses

3) Picture-
Effect-
Voiceover- discussing how the program came about to begin adding artwork to buses (will contain interview material)

4) Picture- show an Ad on a bus (still shot)
Effect-
Voiceover-how companies create the artwork for advertising purposes



5)
Picture- specific types of ad’s that can be bought to put on the buses ex: full wrap, tail lights
Effect-
Voiceover-the different sizes of artwork seen, not confined to a traditional rectangular or squared shape

6) Picture- the Ad’s before they are added to the bus
Effect-
Voiceover- explaining that these are how the ad’s are presented to port authority and then enlarged and added to the bus

7) Picture- the materials used in the process of putting the artwork on the bus
Effect-
Voiceover- saying what each tool is and briefly saying what it does

8) Picture- artwork physically being added to buses in a garage and using a different still clip of each action taken to add the artwork
Effect- video
Voiceover- generally describing the process
9) Picture- bus showing text
Effect- fade in
Voiceover- artwork on buses displays both text and pictures with one example being the repeated use of the word “Port Authority”

10) Picture- bus showing a picture
Effect-
Voiceover- while others contain solely pictures to get the Ad’s point across

11) Picture- an Ad on a bus for the Pittsburgh zoo
Effect-
Voiceover- The Ad’s are specific to the different routes the buses take. Say what the bus is and where it passes by

Multimodal Rough Draft

Artwork on Buses in Pittsburgh
Artwork can be found all throughout the city of Pittsburgh hidden in doorways, displayed on the ground, in windows, or any space made available. A major problem with these forms of artwork is that they are physically static making them seen only by a small niche of people either going out and looking for them or by people passing by who happen to take notice. With the use of the new medium of buses, artwork can be seen by the masses with its outwardly bold displays and constant motion.
Demanding attention through their massive physical state, buses are not something that go unnoticed by the people of Pittsburgh who walk past them on the sidewalks. Glancing at the buses that pass by in a blur, one may notice many different kinds of artwork displayed on the exterior. On every bus in Pittsburgh there is a design of some sort trying to grab the attention of the audience. The buses display text, pictures, and a combination of both. Both the text and pictures serve very functional purposes, which is that predominantly of advertisement. Written in varying languages, the text on many of the buses is repetitive, multicolored, and a large enough font to be seen from a distance. The text uses the whole side of the bus as its canvas rather than sectioning off a rectangle of space, such as traditional advertisements do.
Port Authority, the company in charge of the mass transit of the city, has different sized displays advertisers can chose from to display their artwork. The options range from “the full wrap”, which literally wraps the artwork around the bus without regards to a rectangular shape, to a small rectangular space called “the tail-light” which displays the artwork on the back of the bus making it visible to those behind.
Artwork on buses has been seen in our cultural past for almost fifty years. One of the first groups to gain recognition for their bus art was Ken Kesey and his band on Merry Pranksters, who decorated a school bus, the Furthur, with psychedelic art making bold vibrant statements as they drove cross country. The ideology of bus art has changed little since then demanding viewers to take notice to the artwork.
The artwork on the buses contains both text and pictures. Some examples are the repeated words “Port Authority” or an advertisement for the local Pittsburgh Zoo. The artwork is usually specific to the different parts of the city that the buses pass through, so as to make a connection between the bus route and nearby attractions. Functional and purposeful, the artwork is mostly displayed in the form of an advertisement. Some of the buses however only contain abstract designs and patterns, serving no other purpose then as to be aesthetically pleasing. The buses are painted in unnatural colors not commonly found in the Pittsburgh landscape so as to stand out. Demanding attention and constantly on the move, bus artwork in Pittsburgh is a rising form of art that is continually able to reach the masses through its use of the mass transit system.

Script Rough Draft

Artwork on Buses- Script
Materials:
Interview script
digital camera
release form for interviews

List of Interviewees:
Representative from the community connections
Terri Landis – director of advertising sales
Artist

Day planner:
** sent emails on Friday asking for interviews and submitted possible days and times, but still waiting for a response

Asked for tuesay morning or afternoon, thursday afternoon, and friday morning or afternoon

Will be taking pictures, video clips, and recording speeches (either written or with sound)

History:
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/23307791.html?dids=23307791:23307791&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Oct+25%2C+1996&author=SKIP+WOLLENBERG&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=Marketers+Are+on+a+Roll+With+Wrapped+Buses+..DH%3A+Advertising%3A+Covering+billboard-sized+vehicles+helps+sell+products+or+images%2C+pleasing+bus+riders+and+adding+revenues+to+mass+transit+systems.+..DH%3A&pqatl=google *1997 newspaper article describing a new way of using artwork on buses in cities by using the wrap

Interview Questions:

When did the program begin?

What was its main intentions and how has the direction changed since then?

Could you please explain the process one must go through to get their artwork displayed?

Does the artwork have to solely be for advertising purposes?

Can someones artwork be denied if the material is controversial?

Roughly how many companies or individuals submit their artwork each year?

Has this form of advertisment proved to be economically useful for Port Authority?

Multimodal Essay

Artwork on Buses in Pittsburgh

Artwork can be found all throughout the city of Pittsburgh hidden in doorways, displayed on the ground, in windows, or any space made available. A major problem with these forms of artwork is that they are physically static making them seen only by a small niche of people either going out and looking for them or by people passing by who happen to take notice. With the use of the new medium of buses, artwork can be seen by the masses with its outwardly bold displays and constant motion.
Demanding attention through their massive physical state, buses are not something that go unnoticed by the people of Pittsburgh who walk past them on the sidewalks. Glancing at the buses that pass by in a blur, one may notice many different kinds of artwork displayed on the exterior. On every bus in Pittsburgh there is a design of some sort trying to grab the attention of the audience. The buses display text, pictures, and a combination of both. Both the text and pictures serve very functional purposes, which is that predominantly of advertisement. Written in varying languages, the text on many of the buses is repetitive, multicolored, and a large enough font to be seen from a distance. The text uses the whole side of the bus as its canvas rather than sectioning off a rectangle of space, such as traditional advertisements do.
Port Authority, the company in charge of the mass transit of the city, has different sized displays advertisers can chose from to display their artwork. The options range from “the full wrap”, which literally wraps the artwork around the bus without regards to a rectangular shape, to a small rectangular space called “the tail-light” which displays the artwork on the back of the bus making it visible to those behind.
Artwork on buses has been seen in our cultural past for almost fifty years. One of the first groups to gain recognition for their bus art was Ken Kesey and his band on Merry Pranksters, who decorated a school bus, the Furthur, with psychedelic art making bold vibrant statements as they drove cross country. The ideology of bus art has changed little since then demanding viewers to take notice to the artwork.
The artwork on the buses contains both text and pictures. Some examples are the repeated words “Port Authority” or an advertisement for the local Pittsburgh Zoo. The artwork is usually specific to the different parts of the city that the buses pass through, so as to make a connection between the bus route and nearby attractions. Functional and purposeful, the artwork is mostly displayed in the form of an advertisement. Some of the buses however only contain abstract designs and patterns, serving no other purpose then as to be aesthetically pleasing. The buses are painted in unnatural colors not commonly found in the Pittsburgh landscape so as to stand out. Demanding attention and constantly on the move, bus artwork in Pittsburgh is a rising form of art that is continually able to reach the masses through its use of the mass transit system.

Mutlimodal Essay Rough Draft

Artwork on Buses in Pittsburgh

In a city such as Pittsburgh it is necessary to have forms of mass transit so as to transport the masses of people living in such a highly densely populated area. The mass transit in the city of Pittsburgh consists of buses, a subway called the “T”, and bicycles. Out of all of these forms of transportation buses are the most commonly used because of their convenient and numerous bus stops on almost every street block. Possessing its own lane on Forbes street, buses hold not only a physical dominance over all other forms of transportation in the city, but a physiological one also.
Demanding attention through their massive physical state, buses are not something that go unnoticed by the people of Pittsburgh who walk past them on the sidewalks. Glancing at the buses that pass by in a blur, one may notice many different kinds of artwork displayed on the exterior. On every bus in Pittsburgh there is a design of some sort trying to grab the attention of the audience. The buses display text, pictures, and a combination of both. Both the text and pictures serve very functional purposes, which is that of advertisement. Written in varying languages the text on many of the buses is repetitive, multicolored, and a large enough font to be seen from a distance. The text uses the whole side of the bus as its canvas rather than sectioning off a rectangle of space, such as traditional advertisements do.
These advertisements contain both text and picture, but the text is on a much smaller scale and is often a longer written phrase that is not repeated. The advertisements are usually specific to the different parts of the city the buses pass through, so as to make aware what is nearby on the bus route. Aesthetically appealing, the viewers attention is drawn to the functional artwork of the advertisements and text. Some of the buses however only contain designs and patterns of abstract shapes, serving no other purpose then as to be aesthetically pleasing. The newer buses are painted in colors not naturally found in the landscape causing them to stand out.

Annotations for Fredric Jameson Reading

Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism:
Everything is seen as waning and has already reached their maximum whatever that may be pertaining to each object individually. Postmodernism in culture takes a posistion on multinational capitalism whether it means to or not. It holds a dominant posistion in our culture with many features comprising it. Postmodernism helped form modernism and can be seen in it. Modern art, which is the precedent to postmodernism, during its time was seen as ugly because of the post victorian era that had just ended. Now because of education we see modern art for what it is and accept it. What was once seen as obscure and explicit is now welcomed with hardly any controversy. Today the aesthetic and commodity are now hand in hand with the aesthetic being overpowered by the idea of commodity and capitalism. With postmodernism we leave the past and don't integrate it, and postmodernism is the pinnacle that all culture must reach.
I) In "Peasent Shoes" its message has been demoralized and most see it as a pretty piece of art now. The viewer must look at the piece in terms of context and how it was made. The painting expresses hardworking unpleasent peasent life. It's a part of a capitalist society. Art rises not from how it physically is aesthetically pleasing, but rather from its social and historical meaning of the time. Since the painting is now mass produced it is seen as a material object seen for nothing more then visual pleasure. In "Diamond Dust Shoes" the object is there to represent something bigger and greater occuring during the time. A problem with postmodernism is the question of trying to find the political statements critical in art. Postmodernism is seen as more superficial and face based compared to modernism. Appearance is lost through photographs and becomes mutated. With the Waning of Affect the newer image has lost some affect due to frivolity, but not all is gone. The aesthetic becomes lost in high modernism to make way for social meaning. Inward emotions are conveyed through outward appearance. There are four models to measure depth in art: the dialectal, Freudian model, existential model, and great semiotic opposition. Surface appearance replaces depth in these models. Loss of depth can be physical and literal such as a building that gives the illusion of being unsupported. The postmodern world does not know anxiety and allienation, but rather the opposite effect occurs causing the subject to break. The subject conveys outwardly the inward emotion being felt. The downfall of this monad-like subject is that the subject becomes self-sufficient and its shut off from all other things. With postmodernism comes the end of the bourgeois style, such as individual brushstroke. With the loss of subject feelings are left up for interpretation and not defined for you by the artwork.
II) Individual subject has disappeared with its personal style. Dialect is also affected by the change in social life and speech is reduced and many jargons are formed. Leaving the old modernist style of speech and enter the postmodern redifined jargon. Because no longer a ruling class in capitalistic societies styles are heterogenous, because not one hierarchy is imposing its beliefs which causes a loss of collectivness. The pastiche then arises which imitates parody found in modernism and is a void mimicry of it. With the collapse of the ideology of style, uniqueness is lost and people who produce culture have to look to the past. Historicism is the random compiling of past styles to create an allusion of the past. Simulacrum then occurs with the idea that there was never an authentic and everything is a copy of something else. In the Nostalgia mode our addiction to the photograph is seen as historicism. Ideology of generations emerged through an attempt to understanding the past. Many look to the 1950's as the desired lost era and we can continually surround ourselves with past generations.

Andy Warhol: "Diamond Dust Shoes"

Warhol's pop art piece displays various high heeled shoes on a background of sparkling black. Larger then actual life size, the shoes are laid in various positions and angles appearing unorderly. The shoes are placed so as not to overlap eachother, but Warhol almost gets a little sloppy with the paint and allows for some of the colors to spill over other shoes at the points where they meet. Using acrylic paint Warhol uses various colors and shades to paint each shoe. Anywhere the print came out black whether it the background or shadows created on the shoes, Warhol added a sparkling touch. All of the black on the painting sparkles and shimmers, because Warhol added sparkles to resemble diamond dush. The object of high heeled shoes gives off an air of sophistication and famousness with the addition of sparkles. By adding the shimmering touch it makes one almost think of flashing lights which leads your mind astray to stardom and the flashing of cameras. Also the sparkles give the allusion of diamonds and how they sparkle. The subject is very fitting for the mood that is given off, because if old ragged shoes were painted the same feelings would not be evoked and would contrast with the sparkles. Fitting of Warhol's attitude and obsession with stardom the piece is easily associated with Warhol and and what he stood for.

Vincent Van Gogh: "A Pair of Boots"

In this painting Van Gogh takes an ordinary object most people would never think twice about and focuses in on it turning it into something to be looked at. The painting is of a brown pair of boots untied with the right boot upright and the left boot laying on its side. Rugged and well worn, the boots resemble work boots that would have been put through rough conditions. They sit on a blue floor with a brown wall meeting in the back of the painting, but without a defined horizontal line. The lack of definition between the wall and the floor is due to Van Gogh's painting stlye. He uses large defined brush strokes that are visible and without rigidity causing an almost blurry effect so as not to give the object a defined shape. A post impressionist painting, the painting is more concerned with conveying the mood of the picture and color rather than the realistic shape of the object. The fact that Van Gogh chose a pair of work boots over nice dress shoes gives an entirely different mood to the painting. It appears almost tired and lonely and gives an impression that the person who wears them might even live a modest hardworking life. The subject therefore becomes very important in conveying the mood and giving the painting a meaning.

Barthes and Rivane Neuenschwander

BARTHES: Rivane Neuenschwander's I Wish Your Wish Barthes essay From Work to Text relates to artist Rivane Neuenschwander's idea of art who uses text to comprise her piece of artwork. Ribbons hanging from holes in the wall display phrases of individual text each with their own specific meaning. When put together the ribbons make a whole piece of work, but divided they are just a piece of the whole. When divided they are taken into context of wishes made by individuals, but when all displayed together the greater meaning of the piece comes out. The viewer notices that in a group a greater message is conveyed and that many peoples wishes went into producing the work. Each ribbon has an individual meaning, because "text is not a co-existence of meanings but a passage, an overcrossing"(Barthes 159). The passages are displayed individually and put together to produce the piece of work. The work has many meanings with many co parts that comprise it, because "text is plural...an irreducible plural"and each ribbon makes its own individual statement. The text on the ribbons has many different meanings, which when understood as a whole become a work of art conveying the wishes of people from all around the world in various languages of text with unique messages.

Works Cited: Barthes, Roland. "From Work to Text." Image Music Text. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1977. 161-61.

Thoughts on Warhol Collection

When first entering the Warhol museum the first piece that welcomed me and introduced me was the self portrait prints of Warhol himself. I had to go to the left to see this piece, because it was not presented outright. The bi-paneled pieces displayed images of Warhol using an overlapping technique with double images in each frame. It was quite fitting, seeing as how the entire museum is dedicated to one man and his art, that the first piece should be of Warhol himself. This first piece communicated that Warhol was an important figure in the art world and deserved to be recognized as so. I thought the choices were eclectic, displaying installations, paintings, silk-screens, and films, more of his recognizable pieces. I had studied the Campbell's boxes in multiple classes and was not surprised to see them presented in the museum. Museums are meant for the public and many do not have a great understanding of what they are looking at, so using familiar and recognizable pieces in the museum gives the public some familiarity to the exhibits.

Andy Warhol Museum

Having never visited this museum before, or seeing Warhol's authentic work, I was taken aback by his pieces. I've studied Warhol in my Art History Class last year and just recently in Comtemporary Art, so I had some background knowledge on him and have seen many of his works. Seeing them in person was much more powerful and not generic, which I thought they sometimes appeared when displayed over and over again on paper, in pictures, on clothes, and accesories.

5 Pieces that caught my attention:

1) Silver Clouds- This piece was an installation of metallic silver helium filled balloons. The balloons are rectangular in shape with ends curving in because of the pressure of the hellium. Free moving, the balloons float in the room and move about with the air currents that enter the room. The piece is lively and active and has little concern for the space being used. The balloons are able to move about with little interference besides contact between themselves.

2) Self Portrait- Warhol made a series of self portraits in 1986 using the same picture of himself. He differentiated the prints by changing colors and adding designs giving the self portrait an unnatural feel. His face is centrally located with his hair theatrically sticking up on the left side. Not smiling, Warhol is intently staring at the viewer wide eyed. These prints were made near the end of his life and give an unmasked view of Warhol without his crowd of followers or dark sunglasses making him appear mystical.

3) Box Installation- This installation was comprised of packaging boxes for Campbells Tomato Juice and Heinz Ketchup. The boxes are wooden and have silkscreen covering them. They are replications of the original boxes that were used for shipping and packaging. This piece caught my attention because Warhol was not creating someting original, but rather making a duplication of something that already existed. His choice of subject conveys his idea of consumerism and mass production by machines, only in this case Warhol was the machine.

4) Flowers- Scattered throughout the museum were Warhol's Flowers. Each piece consisted of four hibiscus flowers of varying size. The flowers appeared to be stem less and placed onto a field of grass. The jagged defined lines of the grass gave it a very cartoonish exaggerated look. The flowers are basically a solid color without detail or any attention towards distinct individual petals. These flowers can now be seen displayed on peoples accessories such as bags and shirts and were quite familiar when I viewed them in the museum having seen their duplicates before.

5) Elvis- Displayed eleven times on a huge wall are a series of Elvis duplicated elvis images screenprinted onto a canvas. Using shades of grey, black, and white Elvis is displayed with a western aura of legs spread, double holstered belt, and gun in his right hand ready to shoot. He is not staring at the viewer but rather past at the person in which he is in confrontation with. Similar to the Marilyn silkscreens, Elvis is a fallen legend whose fame made him a pop icon and a product of society.

Interpretation of 3 Passages from Barthes

"this unease in classification being precisely the point from which it is possible to diagnose a certain mutation"(Barthes 155):
-Part of the introduction of the essay, this passage is an opening to why Text became prominent. With the breaking down of an old discipline a mutation arouse leading way for a new way of deciphering work from text.

"the Text is experienced only in an activity of production"(Barthes 157):
-Text is not the actual work but rather part of what makes up the work and is depicted as the work is processed. It is the writing that went into producing the work but not the work as a whole. Seen in the work it loses its identity and becomes part of the whole.

"the metaphor of the Text separates from that of the work: the latter refers to the image of an organism which grows by vital expansion, by development'"(Barthes 161):
-By taking pieces of the work you break apart the Text. Solely by itself the meaning of the Text is altered and the point the author was trying to get across can be lost. By making the Text longer the message of the author is brought about again, but without the whole network a meaning is left up to discussion.

Works Cited:

Barthes, Roland. "From Work to Text." Image Music Text. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1977.
161-61.

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Summary of Roland Barthes' Essay From Work to Text

Roland Barthes essay called From Work to Text gives an in depth view and compare and contrast between work and text. He starts off by giving an introduction to explain that there is this new component that was once not so obvious. "This unease in classification being precisely the point from which it is possible to diagnose a certain mutation," makes an opening statement to the object Text(Barthes 155). Text had arisen from "the sliding or overturning of former categories"(Barthes 156). Part of the whole, Text only takes shape through the production of work. Work is the real and demonstrated whereas Text is reality and the displayed. Just looking at the Text of something leaves the viewer to decipher their own meaning and interpretation instead of having it all laid out for them by the writer. Nowadays the pleasure that is arisen from Text is part of consumption and the acknowledgment that we can not write like the great authors of our past.


Works Cited:

Barthes, Roland. "From Work to Text." Image Music Text. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1977. 161-61.

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Barthes and Eco

By taking a part from a whole the meaning can become lost or distorted. Only having a piece gives only a small portion of what is. Taking Text from a piece of Work "reads without the inscription of the Father"(Barthes 161). In other words, by taking a phrase from a whole piece of work the intention of the writer becomes vague and is left up to interpretation. This can be related to real life situations such as the false environments in which Umberto Eco describes in his essay "Travels in Hyperreality." Eco describes the scene of the San Diego Zoo in which wild animals all live in an allotted plot of land, but each with their own ecosystem pertaining to their survival. Without the scene of the replicated environment surrounding the animals, viewers would not be seeing the area in which was attended by the park staff. By having the natural habitat the viewer sees the attachment between the animals and their habitat giving it a realistic feel. The same applies to the extension of Text, because "if the Text extends itself, it is as a result of a combinatory systematic"(Barthes 161).


Works Cited:

Barthes, Roland. "From Work to Text." Image Music Text. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1977. 161-61.


Back to Interpretive Project

In Class Writing #5/ IP #1

Eco states “the American imagination demands the real thing and, to attain it, must fabricate the absolute fake” (Eco 8). This thought is most vividly seen in representations made by many American artists such as those who recreate human figures in wax museums, or reconstruct the habitat of a wild animal captive in a zoo. Contemporary artists however are beginning to step away from representations, and using the authentic as the piece of art. English artist David Shrigley boldly takes a step in this direction of reality in his piece “I’m Dead.” Displayed in a case is a taxidermy kitten standing on its hindlegs holding a sign that reads “I’m Dead.” Shrigley was able to give the viewer the authentic, which is what they wanted. However, many reactions were varied from complete awe to shock and aversion. It makes a point that maybe the authentic is not what we actually want to see, and that it would be easier to look at a stuffed kitten rather than a taxidermy one. Seeing the unreal does not bring about conflict and our imagination leads us to accept the reproduction, “because the reproductions of the reproduction are perfect”(Eco 10). The visual is able to convince the viewer that “the fact that it seems real is real, and the thing is real even if, like Alice in Wonderland, it never existed”(Eco 16).


Works Cited:

Shrigley, David. I'm Dead. 2007. Carnegie International Gallery: Life on Mars, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh.