Sophia Spanos McGill

Originally, this was going to be a blog post on Bruce Mau. His supergraphics captured my attention during the weekly lecture and I wanted to find out more about him. Unfortunately, I fell down a sort of rabbit hole, instead, finding myself staring at pictures of the Seattle Central Library. I got sidetracked and this blog post is a testament to that.

What drew me in about the Seattle library was the way it evoked a sort of childhood nostalgia. When I did more research about how the library was supposed to not only be a library but also a “lived-in” area, I couldn’t help but remember hours spent at the local library in the town I grew up in and realize that I wanted to write a little informational post about the Seattle Central Library

The Seattle public library is an anomaly amongst libraries and an anomaly amongst buildings. Not only does it have surprising little books, but it has the design of a modern business building with an interior inspired by 70s trends. With 12 stories, rigid, geometric architecture, and an abundance of glass, this Library is a sight to behold

The library, which opened to the public in 2004, relies heavily on technology: from the supergraphics characterizing its look to the literal information it stores. It captures the zeitgeist of the 21st century. Especially during a period when libraries are at a higher risk of dying out and disappearing, the Seattle central library prevails, keeping its relevance. This is mostly due to the emphasis on the idea of access to information, instead of raw information. Thus, the use of supergraphics in its interior is fitting.

Bruce Mau paired with OMA to create the supergraphics for the Seattle Central Library. The graphics line and decorate the simple, yet slightly harsh interior of the library. They transform what could have been a cold, stark, and unwelcoming design into a cheeky one. Through the supergraphics, the library became less about books and more about living.

This blog post isn’t about a certain designer, but rather about an art movement that I feel quite passionate about Environmental art. This was inspired by the section of our lecture where Paul brought up the early beginnings of the environmental movement, which I wanted to look into. That led me here. During my research, it was almost funny to look back at the history of art, design, and architecture and see just how long the artists behind some of the most influential movements have been advocating for nature. Climate awareness as it turns out has been around longer than the word “climate change”. That being said, there has never been a time it is needed more than right now.

The environmental movement has been a long process. As of the early days of industrialization, there have been actions taken to protect nature from it. National parks were created and sanctuaries established, all with the aim of protecting our ecosystem. Perhaps most monumental was the creation of Greenpeace in Vancouver in 1971. This organization would grow to become one of the spearheads of the modern climate movement 

Since its founding, Greenpeace has fought against many potentially harmful acts against the environment. They have blocked the dumping of certain materials in the ocean, protested nuclear testing, organized and enforced animal sanctuaries, created petitions, designated world heritage spots, and lobbied against multiple governments

Nowadays, we not only have design and illustration based on the environmental movement but environmentally-themed art has become its own category of art: Land art. Land art aims to link and observe the relationship between nature and humans, with art serving as a sort of bridge connecting the two. Artists that create this art aim to alter materials found in nature in a non-destructive way. The harmless alteration of position or formation infuses nature with the human element.

For the first blog post for Paul’s 142 class, I decided to look into and learn more about art director and designer Bea Feitler. Not only does she have an impressive career, becoming an art director at Harpers Bazaar at 25, but as one of the only female art directors of the time, she had a unique visual language that resonates in the art world to this day

Bea Feitler was a Brazilian designer, most well known for her art direction for well-known fashion magazines. She graduated from Parson’s school of design and during her career, she aimed to change the female body from a subject of over-sexualization to an artistic element, using an objective lens to integrate pictures of women into her magazine covers.

Bea Feitler was aware of the graphic designer’s influence on society, noticing how design could shape populations. Therefore, she purposefully wanted to expose the theme of gender equality

Throughout her career, she faced similar problems as women do to this day. From negotiating her salary to a lack of proper credit, she struggled with it all. Due to this, she purposefully made it her mission to establish femininity as a force to be reckoned with.(She quit Harper’s Bazaar due to their inability to give her a raise)

In 1965, Feitler and Richard Avedon hired the first black model to be on the front cover of Harpers Bazaar. Due to an overwhelming amount of backlash, Feitler and the other fashion magazine designers didn’t dare try to hire black models until a good couple of years afterward. 

When mentioned in class, Feitler immediately caught my attention. As someone who had tried to enact change earlier than history would have it – hiring a black model for a front cover – I wanted to read more into her work and who she was as a person. It was satisfying, to learn that she had a very strong personality and wanted to push the limits of pretty much every aspect of her life. But it was also disappointing because there was just so little on her that I could find. I think she truly embodies what I believe artists should strive for: enact good and aim to improve society through art.

The german golden age of art

 In the early years of the 20^th century, art was thriving. Several movements, from impressionism to the Bauhaus movement were prominent in Germany. Here, many artists grew to be famous, such as Kathe Kollwitz or Auguste Macke. Movements such as new Objectivity and Dadaism were taking flight in Weimar Germany in the 20s. New, experimental forms were being practiced, with artists exploring integrating photography, satyr and so much more into their pieces. It was an era of rebirth and exploration within art. Until it wasn’t.

The catalyst

Just as the field of art branched off and new branches were created, something similar happened to politics. New movements like Fascism and Communism rose to compete with democracy. In Weimar Germany, the streets quite literally ran red due to the conflict between the far right and the far left. After many years of grappling, fascism slowly trumped socialism and in 1933, Adolf Hitler was elected the Chancellor of Germany. The world was never the same.

The fall of truthful art

All forms of art faced backlash with the rise of fascism in Germany. In literature, the devastating book burnings wiped through years of stories, poems, and prose. Specifically, Jewish, and contemporary German writers, like Franz Kafka, feared for their lives and lost much of their work too. But the Nazis were especially cruel to visual artists. They took hundreds of pieces of art from museums and collected them for a special exhibit of their amusement. This exhibit was dubbed “Entartete Kunst”, degenerate art in English. Here, these pieces were lazily displayed and laid out for members and supporters of the Nazi party to make fun of. This was not just for their enjoyment, however. They started manipulating German society by twisting and controlling the art they consumed. Via art, the fascist government saw a pipeline for controlling the narrative within Germany at the time. No man understood this better than Joseph Goebbels.

Joseph Goebbels, the master manipulator

Chief propagandist for the Nazi party, Goebbels was set apart due to his methods. He was quick to join Adolf Hitler, expressing antisemitic views throughout his early adulthood and seeing Hitler’s trial for treason in the early 1920s as a way to spread propaganda of his choosing. He was quick to take action after joining the Nazi party in 1924, rapidly being given many responsibilities. But the role that shaped him the most was his position as the propaganda minister

How art was weaponized

As the Nazi party slowly took control of Germany, Goebbels quickly controlled the media. He was especially keen on using media such as films and radio to spread his propaganda. He presented the Nazi party and the atrocities they were inflicting as good and favorable, brainwashing most of German society into supporting and believing Nazi ideals. Most famously, Goebbels helped contribute to the myth of the fuehrer and helped build Hitler up as this larger-than-life figure. This helped turn the tide of people’s opinions on Hitler, this image of him being a form of messiah for Germany buying his “success” in the Nazi party. Under Goebbel’s watchful eye, propaganda flourished and pushed the boundaries of representative art at the time. Styles were explored to keep the German population engrossed in the war and supporting the Nazis. New ways were created to manipulate people, twisting the way design communicates with people.

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Goebbels

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/german-art-between-the-wars/xdc974a79:nazi-fascist-visual-culture/a/art-in-nazi-germany

https://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/arts/artreich.htm

For Judy’s 141 Survey class, our assignment was to make a type identification poster.

If I’m being entirely honest, I both started and ended this project struggling. Going into the project I started off weakly with only a couple of sketches as I wasn’t quite sure what to make and how exactly to present it. I went back and forth between whether I should do entire words, just a letter, if it should have figurative elements or be more design-like, should it be an infographic or more illustrative? After many hours of unsuccessful brainstorming and a headache, I decided on an idea that I later scrapped. I then chose a third idea, one that harks back to the board game “Guess Who?”. I decided to give the piece a sense of narration and comic feel, as I enjoy the way comics deliver information. Also, the childhood game is about identifying a person, so switch people out for types of type and I feel like I touched upon the theme of identification well. Where the piece is lacking is information, and due to the way I set up the piece and its storytelling aspect, it loses on pure information.

Throughout the entire process of this piece, I fumbled and second-guessed my choices, unsure if what I was doing was right. Perhaps it was the subject matter, as I struggle with type, or maybe it was because I couldn’t wrap my head around how to present 8 different fonts in one poster without confusing the reader. And how to include being creative into that

This project left me frustrated and creatively drained and lost. I spent around 7 hours on it and would give myself a 5/10 on a personal scale.

For my fourth blog post for Jeff’s 131 class, I continued my trend on researching female artists. This week, my subject was Sonia Delauney. As a big fan of Robert Delauney’s work and his depictions of the chaotic, loud, and overwhelming Parisian life at the beginning of the 20^th century, I felt almost ashamed for not knowing his wife was a successful artist like him.

Sonia Delauney considered an “avant-garde queen” and half of the “avant-garde power couple” of the 1910s, pushed the boundaries of the art of her time.  Privileged to get a cultured upbringing in St. Petersburg, Sonia was originally born in Ukraine before moving at the age of 7. Her childhood memories of Ukraine later influenced her choice of bright, vibrant colors

Sonia Delauney was proficient at painting, creating an impressive amount of pieces that followed the ideals of Orphism and concentrated on color and its influence on the viewer. She specifically used the “simultane” technique, a method that both Delauneys infused and used in their art. The main principle of the technique, which was a branch of Orphism, was the simultaneous contrast of colors in paintings. In Sonia’s works, this principle was expressed by the way she lined shapes, lines, and colors up next to each other, allowing for a dynamic relationship between the elements that evoked life and rhythm

Much to my dismay, I discovered Sonia put painting down as a medium to allow Robert to pursue his career and not be a potential competitor. But she didn’t let this stop her from being successful. Letting her husband fiddle with paint, she set her gazes elsewhere, entering the domain of multidisciplinary art. She created a fashion store “Casa Sonia”, designed the set and costumes for the play “Le Coeur a Gaz” and many other set and costume designs for many films. She proved that this limitation only gave her the room to push herself and her creative potential.

Sources:

https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/ey-exhibition-sonia-delaunay/delaunay-introduction

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/mar/27/sonia-delaunay-avant-garde-queen-art-fashion-vibrant-tate-modern

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonia_Delaunay

I wrote this summary for English 100 on the article “The importance of Urban Forests”

In “The importance of Urban Forests” (2016) Amy Fleming shares research on the effects of including greenery in modern cityscapes. Jill Jones, a historian, explains the importance of the presence of trees and their canopies with a series of examples. Despite what city officials think, Jones shows that trees aren’t mere “expensive ornaments” (qtd in Fleming 2). From economic savings and ecological benefits, with to improved mental and physical health, cities and their residents require nature. Jones reports that “one tree can absorb 150kg of carbon” (2) and Fleming elaborates that trees have an “economic impact (…) added up to 120m a year” for cities. They stress this, wanting to establish canopies as more than just being easy on the eye.  Furthermore, Jones insists that environmental equality must also be established. She states, “Everyone knows, if you look at fancy neighborhoods, they are the ones with the most trees” (qtd. In Fleming 3). Her point here is that richer neighborhoods have trees for a reason: more nature equals a better quality of life. However, Fleming reveals that in certain urban areas, tree populations are facing a multitude of dangers. Diseases and human growth pose a threat to a green cityscape. This, combined with the social-economic circumstances means a large chunk of the urban demographic don’t experience nature as much as they should. William Bird, a British GP, and public health expert expresses the urgency of the situation, underlining how future generations will become out of touch and apathetic with nature as their exposure to it declines.