Text/Image - seminar 1

CHOSEN IMAGE


DENOTATIVE DESCRIPTION:

Medium: photography with digital composing and retouching
Format: landscape
Description: one couple in a boat on the foreground, on the background, we see a large body of water. A big concrete statue of a man in open arms stands above the water. There are some rocks on the background marking the shoreline, on the far background a hilly shoreline completes the picture. The horizon is in the middle of the picture, and runs in a slight upward diagonal across it.
On the boat the man has long, blond hair and white shirt, paints and snickers. He is seated on the handrails and is spitting water in a young woman who is laying on the sun in front of him. The woman is a brunette wearing sunglasses and a colourful 2 piece bikini set. She is laughing.

CONNOTATIVE DESCRIPTION

The image is quite disturbing, We see this rich, well dressed couple in a fancy yacht in front of the partially sunken statue of Christ The Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As the Redeemer stands on the top of the Corcovado hill, which is very high, we can assume that the image shows that a gargantuan rise in see level happened, flooding the entire city of Rio, as well every costal area in the world.
Moreover, the playfulness of the couple in face of such mass scale tragedy is quite upsetting. The fact that they belong to a rich class, given their looks, clothing and the fact that they are having a very expensive form of entertainment, makes the picture even more shocking.
In addition, we cannot help but raise questions such as :"Is this why the rich and powerful are not really taking measures against global warming and the subsequent melting of polar ice? Because they will be able to preserve their wealth and lifestyle?" or, further along: "Would it be possible to be so frivolous about a global tragedy of unseen proportions?"
Finally, the fact that the man is spilling water, probably drinking water, in the middle of a saltwater wasteland, completes the shocking picture.
We can read this as a "straight in your face manifesto to the middle and lower classes of today to act against global warming.

CONNOTATIVE REDUX


As we are aware that the picture is actually an add of a campaign of fashion label Diesel (other campaign ads below), we still feel shocked, but in the opposite way. The campaign is very cynical, for it projects an image of success, of superpowers for those who wears it. As it slogan states, it's a brand for "successful living". Those who wear the label would associate themselves with the rich, the upperclass, the ultimate winners of social darwinism. The final touch of the image's cynicism comes in the figure of the Redeemer, Christ in open arms, welcoming us and forever forgiving mankind for it's sins.

QUESTION RAISED:

How would we perceive the ad, have it only been signed by the greenpeace logo, for example?

OTHER ADS IN THE CAMPAIGN

Film Screening - Reviews

A STUDY IN THE RELATION OF INNER AND OUTHER SPACE
Dir: DAVID LAMELAS
Year: 1969

In his 1969 film "A study in the relation of inner and outer space", David Lamelas presents us with a clinically descriptive narrative about some facts of the city of London. Lamelas restrains himself from jumping into judgements and conclusions. He doesn't "connect any dots" of information.
The film starts depicting a gallery space to the minutiae of electric voltage use and decibels produced. What at first resembles a Monty Python sketch in it's awkwardness and surreal character turns into a cold description of London. Devoid of any emotions and using a monotone narrator, Lamelas builds a black and white portrait of a civilisation that appears to be long gone, from which only unconnected data remains.
Despite his use of a very straightforward approach, Lamelas is able to weave some poetical moments, such as the calm, silent footages of the aircraft movement in Heathrow airport.
However, as the film approaches it's conclusion, there is a rupture in it's structure. In a cold cut, the soulless descriptive narrative is replaced by interviews done by Lamelas on the streets of London. The interviews's subject, "man's landing on the moon", relates somehow to the issue of inner and outer space, but it completely brakes the aesthetic proposition of the film. Moreover, the interviews are performed by Lamelas himself, who tries to put the subjects in a awkward position asking them questions such as: "Would you be surprised if the first man on the moon was black?". Furthermore, the inclusion of the racial issues at end of the film, backed by Lamelass shallow approach to them and the natural way people responded to his questions, weaken and crack what could be a more closed, concise and powerful work.