By far this weeks lecture and seminar were the most interesting. This interested me the most because it not only talked about visual culture it explored visual culture in a way that interested me. Generally speaking, when people think of fashion they think of clothes and make-up and not the art and practice and technique that goes into making the clothing or the pictures of the models in clothing. I found in interesting when we were looking at the different the first models in fashion. I think it shows how far society has came. For example, when the young woman was posing for a picture on the Eiffel tower with Paris in the background. I found this picture to be extremely pretty and it captured the essence of Paris fashion. However, as was stated in lecture that this picture pushed the limits of what was appropriate. The limits being pushed in this time frame were the different colours being used, the different angles and etc., it seems now that fashion has lost that sense of being and it more concentrated on making the models expose their selves and also look in my opinion fake. Whenever I think of models, I think of that Dove commercial where the girl looks completely different when she has no make-up on in comparison to after she had had different make-up artists working on her and then digitally altered. Moreover, I think that fashion is lacking the essence in beauty. For instance, the show Americas Next Top Model, although I do watch and enjoy the show,it is almost impossible to tell who the girls are after the get their make-up on. They are transformed so much that it amazes me how people can feel like the same person. However, all that effort that goes into making the models what they are and making them changed by a computer is art to me. There is a technique and effort that goes into making someone look like that and therefore I consider it of value. Another thing that interested me about this week was the concept of bricolage and counterbricolage.
I found this very interesting because it happens in everyday life and I would have never thought anything of it. For example, it is almost everyday that I see a woman, including myself wear a belt around the ribcage, however, a belt is supposed to be used to keep your pants up and not fall down. I found this concept interesting because advertisers and companies feed on these bricolages. For a couple years now the fashion has been to wear belts for fashion and not to keep your pants up. However, each year the fashion changes and one year it may be skinny belts that are in and the next year they are thick belts with big buckles. Each year companies make lots of money off the different designs that are becoming popular. It makes me think that perhaps I should have saved all my moms clothing and brought them back out now because all of the stuff will come back into fashion at some point in time and I will just have to pay a lot of money to buy new stuff. Overall, I think that this chapter was the most interesting, and because of this lecture and seminar I have decided what I want to do for my final project.
