REFERENCES

Anonymous. (2011, August 30). Banksy’s legacy. The Lawyer. Retrieved from Pro-Quest database.

Anonymous. (2009, October 31). Beautiful vandalism. The Nelson Mail. Retrieved from ProQuest database.

Moore, R. (2004). Postmodernism and Punk Subculture: Cultures of authenticity and deconstruction. The Communication Review, 7(3), 305-327. doi:10.1080/10714420490492238

Eleanore Rogers: 300245808Tutor: Meredith Crowe

CCDN 231 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN IDEAS

PROJECTTHREE

CONTEXTUALISATIONSpecific feelings and moods can be constructed through the use of design; having the Specific feelings and moods can be constructed through the use of design; having the power to manipulate and generate sensory and emotion responses. The withdrawal and inclusion of distinct elements within a given design has a hereditary effect on the sensory and emotional responses. Building on the experience gained in projects one and two of this course, I have crafted an experience that aims to construct the feeling of rebellion in the participant. Using aural and physical components my curated expe-rience manipulates the emotions of those who use it. My main inspirations were graf-fiti, vandalism and street artists such as Banksy. I also drew heavily from the 1970’s

punk rock aesthetic, as its characteristics are synonymous to rebellion.

It has been said that Rebellion is a refusal of obedience or order, It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviours aimed at destroying or replacing an es-tablished authority. Rebellion is commonly associated with the punk rock era and is related to a range of destructive activities such as graffiti, rioting and vandalism. The subculture and musical genre known as punk responds to “the condition of postmo-dernity” which can be described as a personal response to a postmodern society

(Moore, 2006, p. 322).

The idea behind this particular project is to create a piece of art through the behav-iours associated with rebellion, based on the work of Banksy, a Bristol-based graffiti artist. Banksy’s “closely guarded anonymity, politically charged images and high-profile exhibitions have led to him becoming a household name.” (Anonymous, 2011) This is controversial as rebellion is typically seen as destroying aspects of ‘art’ within society. To achieve this piece of art, I feel it is necessary to collage images of well-known ideas, and personalities within our social consciousness. As the images are familiar to the user it gives them an opportunity to express their own thoughts and

emotions, through the act of vandalism. The art piece is intended to evoke an outcome similar to the work of Banksy.

Graffiti comes from the Italian ‘graffiare’, meaning ‘to scratch’, and is defined as a drawing or inscription that is scratched, scribbled or sprayed onto a surface

(Anonymous, 2009). Graffiti an act condemned as vandalism by most; an illegal act, that raises questions when the artistic, social and cultural aspect are considered. Graffiti for many is merely used as a tool to express, or to make a mark. According to the article Beautiful Vandalism, “Graffiti is a huge subculture with rules, music and a vocabulary of its own. It has fashion and trends, codes and more”. The article also states “another inherent irony is the fact that illegality is a major part of graffiti; of its states “another inherent irony is the fact that illegality is a major part of graffiti; of its culture and its visual language” (Anonymous, 2009). I based the expectations of my curated experience on this definition in the hopes of evoking a feeling of rebellion but

with positive connotations.

My experience consists of a large mounted canvas collaged with a range of emotionally charged images. The images I chose to use included visually loud punk styled art, faces of New Zealand politicians, her majesty the Queen, Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, and Osama Bin Laden. I also included album covers of punk bands such as the Sex Pis-tols. I was very purposeful with my placement of the various collage components, trying to create juxtaposition. Alongside the canvas, various tools were placed, in-cluding a knife, screwdriver, vivid’s, paints and brushes, spray paint, a hammer as well as several nails and an electrical drill. Beside the canvas was one rule which stated “don’t add anything positive to the images on the canvas”. The idea of the rule was to elicit some sort of rebellious behaviour from the participant, whether they

chose to obey the rule or not, as the rule initiated this behaviour in its own sense. To accompany the experience and aid the feeling of rebellion, multiple tracks from the

iconic punk rock band the ‘Sex Pistols’ played aloud.

When I first put my experience up on display the participants were hesitant about in-teracting with the canvas and explained feelings of respect towards the canvas as if it were an art piece that was not to be defaced or vandalised. Though, in saying this, once the first participant began the activity, it gave the others the reassurance that they had permission to follow. This resulted in some sort of ‘chain reaction’, an idea that is commonly associated with the act of rebellion. An example of this is George L Kelling and Catherine Coles (2009) ‘Broken Window’ theory which states, “if a broken window remains unfixed, a message is sent that no one cares about it. More and more window remains unfixed, a message is sent that no one cares about it. More and more windows get broken; the destruction escalates” (as cited in Anonymous, 2009). It was interesting to note the ways in which they began defacing the canvas, drawing inap-propriate imagery over images that we as society know to respect such as the Mona Lisa and the Queen. It was also interesting to see the images that I had pre-consid-ered to be the most likely to be vandalised weren’t, for example the portrait of Osama Bin Laden. Instead participants acted in the opposite way, writing quotes such as “I

love you” over the image, although this may just be for humorous reasons.

Through this project it became apparent that there were many underlying ideas behind the concept of rebellion. What appealed to me was that initially the partici-pants were hesitant to approach the activity, mentioning their respect for the object and the images. Due to underlying moral and values within society, the participants had understood that the canvas was an item created with care and therefore under-stood that in following the rule alongside, they were going against these morals and in turn the resulting behaviour was considered rebellious. Participants expressed they were “acting like such a rebel” and mentioned they would never involve themselves in such “risk-taking” behaviour. Ultimately, the feeling of rebellion was evoked during my experience and the resulting art piece successfully portrays Banksy’s philosophy.