Completed Essay Review

To begin with I was quite daunted by the challenge of writing about a cultural item, while relating it to actual theories. But through extended planning and collecting of research, as well as by attending the sessions and lectures, the tasks became easier the more that I became engaged with it.

I started with Metropolis as my cultural item as not only am I a fan, so I wanted to research it's creation, e.g. use of camera angles, sets, etc, but I knew that it had a lot of themes in it and history attached. I wanted to keep it as broad as possible to begin with, to make choosing a specific area of analysis easier later. This proved to be the case as I actually had too much that I wanted to research into. However, the process of stripping back and focusing on certain points began to become quite natural after a while, as some areas were easier to relate to the theories and research. Also, I found that choosing an item from the start of the 20th century was incredibly helpful as it meant that there was a lot of information on the item already to study. At the same time, it was sometimes difficult to sort through all of this information, but by using a range of sources, from books, online journals to websites, it meant that a range of information, whether it was focused on Metropolis, or more general, was always available. My main problem was with the title 'Metropolis' - as it's so generic, it frequently brought up anything even remotely related.

The actual writing of the essay wasn't as problematic as I'd imagined it would be. I'd collected all of my research, I had a basic plan and I'd completed the poster which outlined my direction for the essay. Having notes compiled on my blog was useful for me as well, as it meant that all of my notes at least were in one place. Using these it was pretty easy to just get started and then to determine more structure to the essay later. I did have difficulty not including more information on the film's history and production as it is so interesting, but this would have slowed down the pace and diverted slightly off topic. The word limit was my biggest problem - I could have continued to write, so in a way it was good for making my writings concise, but it was quite taxing to develop a point with so few words. However, I liked to think that I focused in enough to anaylse the item to a degree where a point is picked out well. After completing my first draft, getting it checked by a lecturer and making amendments, like collecting extra research, helped to make the essay more analytical and to fit the brief. Plus it helped me to know that I was on the right track.

From the whole process I now have a much better understanding of what is needed to compile and write an essay, from research, drafting to the bibliography and referencing. As well as a knowledge of selected theorists' work. Using the information learnt here, I feel I can apply them to other areas of my practical work, particularity if working for a client, to understand how my work may be interpreted by an audience. Not only this, but I feel that I know more about my cultural item as well. I set out wanting to analyse how Lang had constructed the film, because it's style is so iconic. While I only partially focused on this in the final essay, I actually learnt a lot about how a cultural item exists in the world, surrounded by other items. Next time I think I'd like to collect more wider research as most was based around Metropolis. I found that reading around the item on related topics actually not only helped me to understand the film, but other areas and perspectives on culture. This way it might aid in understanding other texts as well, not just Metropolis. However, I feel that I've learnt a lot that can be taken and improved upon next year.

Essay Work

I was able to find a lot of material on Metropolis from the UWE library. Most of it focused on Fritz Lang and his filmography, but some offered more in depth reflection on the film. A lot of the same information was repeated, but most were great for picking parts of the film apart. It took a while to find information on Lang's wife, von Harbou (to say she was involved with the Third Reich, there really isn't a lot chronicling her life). By looking around the subject, at design books and books by suggested theorists, this helped as well to get a different perspective on what could be influencing the film and us as consumers.

This was only an efficient way to work because I researched which books were relevant beforehand. I think if I had picked every book up, I wouldn't have found half of the information that I needed. Still it guaranteed that the sources were reputable - which I've been careful with over the research, although the Eisner book did seem quite biased. Even reputable sources can be misleading in this way and had to be checked when doing an essay on opinion.

I managed to find relevant images as well, mainly from the film or the documentary Die Reise Nach Metropolis. I initially thought that I wouldn't be able to relate any images to the essay, as it focuses on the audience. But it's their interpretation of the item that's being studied, so illustrating this with images, that the reader can interpret themselves, actually works well.

Poster Exhibition

To advertise which Cultural Item we were analysing we had to create a poster, detailing our intentions for the final essay, e.g. which theorists and theories we're studying and why etc, as well as being visually appealing.

Below is my poster for Metropolis:

I really wanted to get across the style of the film as well as have enough room for all of the text - the poster image was perfect for this, as it communicates that it's about the film.

Original Film Poster:

While the altering of the poster (the bright red and yellow) relate to how it's been appropriated, especially by Moroder's Pop version. I took inspiration from that version's poster:

I did a bit of thumbnailing as well on how to position the text:

This helped to get a good idea of where the text would go. It was a bit of a challenge to have such a busy background and to fit the quite large amount of text on as well. It was useful practice though as normally I don't have to consider this amount of text on a visual document.



On Display:
( 04/03/14 - 07/03/14, F Block, Bower Ashton)

The poster helped me to cement some of my ideas and pushed me to prepare an outline of where I want to go with the essay. This made starting to write the first draft a lot easier then I previously thought.

W8: Class, Cultural Capital, Taste and Power

Key notes from this lecture:

The measurements for social class have varied over time. Marx determined them entirely by a person's relationship to 'means of production'. There used to be 3 main classes; Proletarians, Bourgeoisie and Aristocracy. These were determined by looking at your occupation, wealth and education.

However, a recent BBC initiative has determined that there are now 7 classes, which are determined by your relationship to the economic, social and cultural.

Taste can be said to be an indicator of class. Catherine McDermott stated that a critical judgement of human objects and culture creates a well trained appreciation of what is aesthetically pleasing. It depends on knowledge, connoisseurship and critical appreciation.

But what is aesthetically pleasing? A study of beauty/ branch of philosophy/ a colour palette?

Is taste learned as well? Historically, it's admiring and desiring objects that are deemed 'beautiful'. But can taste be learned and then taught to others? Can it be natural or neutral, or is something always affected by cultural capital?( the status gained from non-financial factors, like education, clothes, food).  Learning is said to start the moment that we're born and can reflect our family's culture, religion and value system. Our taste positions us withing cultural hierarchies as well though.

Pierre Bourdieu defined cultural capital. He was also interested in the construction and performance of class and in what roles education, consumption and cultural capital had in this. Whether there was a form of value associated with culturally authorised tastes, such as consumption patterns, attributes, skills and awards.

Also considered was whether the same cultural level means it is easier to connect and share with others. Here parent influence plays a large part as practicing the same activities may generate a taste or make it easier to relate to similar others.

Essay:

I found this lecture really appropriate and interesting for my essay as reviews are basically centered around personal tastes. As it appears that there has always been a mass evaluation of Metropolis, it would be useful to apply McDermott's theory to see why, when we're all developing tastes, that we could have ended up with one mass opinion and at set times in history? Highlighting contributing factors would help this as well.