Analyzing the PSA

I then take parts of the video to make a story line 

Storyline

Part 1

-          The story teller/singer is a Nigerian

-          Part of the content of this script is “not to see race”

-          This is typical people perception

-           The focus point is the people surroundings give the perspective on labels.(racist)

Part 2

-          The story tells us that, during our young age we are forced to learn the labels and we learned them without ever questioning why.

-          The labels never describe people

-          Skin color never describe people

-          People are always judging others using these labels and people had gotten so used to it that it is hard to change

Part 3

-          The singer explains that our bodies are like cars that we control and do our daily task with.

-          In terms of cars, our cars(bodies) are label as different “editions”

-          We cannot change our bodies because we are born with it.

-          Who we are is found in our personality, not our body.

Part 4

-          This script say that science has already proven that we are the same species and race never existed in the 1^st place

-          The singer tells us people in the past (15^th cent) created race to divide people and was so effective that it still exist until now.

Part 5

-          This part of the script says that if labels have never existed, the world would be at peace and people would ever have called others black or white.

-          We have been blinded from the truth of a person because of labels.

-          Because of labels, we judge based on what we think.

-          The singer says, if you let labels control you, then you are hurting, trapping and confining yourself from others.

Part 6

-          This section of the script tells us that because of these labels, we had become separated ad because of that, conflict will occur.

-          Because of conflict, war breaks out.

-          The singer says that ever war was started because of these labels.

-          Every – ism was created because of labels

-          All these –ism problems would easily disappear if the labels are eliminated

Part 7

-          The scripts tells us that we are never born as a racist

-          As babies, no matter the color or culture they would care for one another.

-          The singer tells us that his message would probably be ignored by half of the population because they cannot accept it.

Part 8

-          The singer describes us as caterpillars and the labels are our shell.

-          We must break free from labels to become a butterfly

-          We are never bounded by labels and are meant to be free

-          Changes can only happen within yourself

PSA script

Script/Synopsis of I am not black, you are not white

I am not Black
I mean, that’s what the world calls me, but it’s not... me
I didn't come out of my mother's womb saying, “Hey everybody, I'm... Black.”
No, I was taught to be black
And you were taught to call me that
Along with whatever you call yourself
It’s just a.... label

See, from birth the world force feeds us these.... labels
And eventually we all swallow them
We digest and accept the labels, never ever doubting them
But there's one problem:
Labels are not you and labels are not me
Labels are just ...labels
But who we truly are is not... skin... deep
See, when I drive my car, no one would ever confuse the car for.... me
Well, when I drive my ....body, why do you confuse me for my... body?
It's.... my ....body....get it? Not me

Let me break it down
See, our bodies are just cars that we operate and drive around
The dealership will call society decided to label mine the "black edition,"
Yours the "Irish" or "White edition"
And with no money down, 0% APR, and no test drive
We were forced to own these cars for the rest of our lives
Forgive me, but I fail to see the logic or pride
In defining myself or judging another by the cars we drive
Because who we truly are is found inside

Listen, I’m not here to tell you how science has concluded that genetically we’re all mixed
And race in the human species doesn't exist
Or how every historian knows that race was invented in the 15th century
To divide people from each other and it has worked perfectly...
No.... I'm not here to lecture
I just want to ask one question
Who would you be if the world never gave you a label?
Never gave you a box to check
Would you be White? Black? Mexican?
Asian? Native American? Middle Eastern? Indian?
No. We would be one; we would be together
No longer living in the error
Of calling human beings Black people or White people
These labels that will forever blind us from seeing a person for who they are
But instead seeing them through the judgmental, prejudicial, artificial filters of who we THINK they are
And when you let an artificial label define yourself
Then, my friend, you have chosen smallness over greatness and minimized your.... self
Confined and divided your .....self from others
And it is an undeniable fact that
When there is division, there will be conflict
And conflict starts wars
There-fore every war has started over labels
It's always us... versus them
So the answer to war, racism, sexism, and every other -ism
Is so simple that every politician has missed it
It’s the labels...
We must rip them off
Isn't it funny how no baby is born racist
Yet, every baby cries when they hear the cries of another
No matter the gender, culture or color
Proving that deep down, we were meant to connect and care for each other
That is our mission, and that it's not my opinion
That is the truth in a world that has sold us fiction
Please listen, labels only distort our vision
Which is why half of those watching this will dismiss it
Or feel resistance and conflicted
But, just remember...
So did the cater-pillar
Before it broke through its shell and became the magnificent butterfly
Well, these labels are our shells and we must do the same thing
So we can finally spread our wings
Human beings were not meant to be slapped with labels like groceries at supermarkets
DNA cannot be regulated by the FDA
We were meant to be free
And only until you remove them all
And stop living and thinking so small
Will we be free to see ourselves and each other for who we....TRULY.... are

Public service announcement

I am tasked to find one public service announcement video about any topic to analyze. So, I choose a few of the ones that I found and had interest in.

I am not black, You are not white 

PSA Womens rights

Anti-Bullying Video PSA - Animated Buster The Fraud Dog

From the 3 videos above, I come to a conclusion to choose the PSA : I am not black, you are not white due to its powerful message as well as how the video was made.

Postmodern Art

What is Postmodernism

Postmodernism is best understood by defining the modernist ethos it replaced - that of the avant-garde who were active from 1860s to the 1950s. The various artists in the modern period were driven by a radical and forward thinking approach, ideas of technological positivity, and grand narratives of Western domination and progress. The arrival of Neo-Dada and Pop art in post-war America marked the beginning of a reaction against this mindset that came to be known as postmodernism. The reaction took on multiple artistic forms for the next four decades, including Conceptual art, Minimalism, Video art, Performance art, and Installation art. These movements are diverse and disparate but connected by certain characteristics: ironical and playful treatment of a fragmented subject, the breakdown of high and low culture hierarchies, undermining of concepts of authenticity and originality, and an emphasis on image and spectacle. Beyond these larger movements, many artists and less pronounced tendencies continue in the postmodern vein to this day.

Postmodernism is distinguished by a questioning of the master narratives that were embraced during the modern period, the most important being the notion that all progress - especially technological - is positive. By rejecting such narratives, postmodernists reject the idea that knowledge or history can be encompassed in totalizing theories, embracing instead the local, the contingent, and the temporary. Other narratives rejected by postmodernists include the idea of artistic development as goal-oriented, the notion that only men are artistic geniuses, and the colonialist assumption that non-white races are inferior. Thus, Feminist art and minority art that challenged canonical ways of thinking are often included under the rubric of postmodernism or seen as representations of it.

Postmodernism overturned the idea that there was one inherent meaning to a work of art or that this meaning was determined by the artist at the time of creation. Instead, the viewer became an important determiner of meaning, even allowed by some artists to participate in the work as in the case of some performance pieces. Other artists went further by creating works that required viewer intervention to create and/or complete the work.

The Dada readymade had a marked influence on postmodernism in its questioning of authenticity and originality. Combined with the notion of appropriation, postmodernism often took the undermining of originality to the point of copyright infringement, even in the use of photographs with little or no alteration to the original.

The idea of breaking down distinctions between high and low art, particularly with the incorporation of elements of popular culture, was also a key element of postmodernism that had its roots in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the work of Edgar Degas, for example, who painted on fans, and later in Cubism where Pablo Picasso often included the lyrics of popular songs on his canvases. This idea that all visual culture is not only equally valid, but that it can also be appreciated and enjoyed without any aesthetic training, undermines notions of value and artistic worth, much like the use of readymades.

History

Beginnings

The first signs of postmodernism were evident in the early twentieth century with Dada artists who ridiculed the art establishment with their anarchic actions and irreverent performances. The term, however, was not used in the contemporary sense until 1979 in the philosopher J.F. Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition. In art, the term is usually applied to movements that emerged beginning in the late 1950s in reaction to the perceived failures and/or excesses of the modernist epoch.

Modernism

From the late nineteenth to the mid twentieth century, art as well as literature, science, and philosophy was defined by a sense of progress and technological advancement, brought about by the industrial revolution and affiliation with the positivity of modern life. Artists such as Paul Cézanne and Piet Mondrian strove to find a universal means of expression through the increasing abstraction of their subject. Other artists who focused on the subjective and the forbidden, such as Salvador Dalí or Marcel Duchamp were seen as outliers in this emphasis on progress and rationality and their work became precursors to postmodernism. By the 1930s in certain artistic circles, the process of painting, once the means to depict a subject through the use of line, color, and form, became the subject itself. This emphasis on formalism was first observed and championed in the U.S. by Clement Greenberg, an art critic and fierce proponent of modernism. His theoretical writings are often seen as the antithesis of postmodernism because of their advocating of artistic purity and for their singular focus on formalism at the expense of subject matter. By the time the Abstract Expressionists were painting in New York lofts in the 1940s, representation had been entirely eliminated in favor of a direct gestural expression that focused on paint application rather than narrative. Fundamental to the modernist avant-garde artist was individuality, autonomy, and the tendency for radical experimentation in search of an ultimate truth or meaning.

Most Important Art

Marilyn Diptych (1962)

Artist: Andy Warhol

Artwork description & Analysis: This series of silkscreen prints of Marilyn Monroe was taken from her image in the film, Niagara and reproduced first in color, and then in black and white. They were made in the months after her death in 1962 by Warhol who was fascinated by both the cult of celebrity and by death; this series fused these interests. The color contrasted against the monochrome that fades out to the right is suggestive of life and death, while the repetition of images echoes her ubiquitous presence in the media. This work can be conceived of as postmodern in many senses: its overt reference to popular culture/low art challenges the purity of the modernist aesthetic, its repetitive element is an homage to mass production, and its ironic play on the concept of authenticity undermines the authority of the artist. The use of a diptych format, which was common in Christian altarpieces in the Renaissance period, draws attention to the American worship of both celebrities and images. All of these translate into an artwork that challenges traditional demarcations between high and low art and makes a statement about the importance of consumerism and spectacle in the 1960s.

Acrylic on Canvas - Tate Modern, London

Floor-Burger (Giant Hamburger) (1962)

Artist: Claes Oldenburg

Artwork description & Analysis: Giant Hamburger was one of Oldenburg's first soft sculptures, where he recreated common objects using cushioned materials that belied their solid structures. His works are monumental but placed directly on the floor, dispensing with the pedestal or plinth normally associated with sculpture in a way that literally places the work of art in the viewer's own space. Giant Hamburger uses the banality reminiscent of Dada's readymades to elevate a piece of everyday life to the status of art. In his re-appropriation of this object with discordant materials he underscores the larger than life quality of popular or low culture - in this case junk food - in everyday life. Oldenburg's essay entitled, 'I Am for an Art,' (1961) succinctly expresses his belief that anything can and should be considered art.

Canvas filled with foam rubber and cardboard boxes, painted with acrylic paint - Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

Michael Jackson and Bubbles (1988)

Artist: Jeff Koons

Artwork description & Analysis: In this piece, Michael Jackson and his pet monkey (and closest friend), Bubbles, are shown life-size sitting on a bed of flowers. The work is a good example of the excesses that characterize Koons' art in terms of color, size, and theme. At the time, Jackson was at the height of his popularity, which Koons underscored by painting the figures in gold in order to make Jackson into a "god-like icon." The gold and white coloring is also reminiscent of Byzantine, Baroque, and Rococo art; this hearkening back to past styles and deliberate theatricality is typical of the camp aesthetic that characterizes some postmodern art. The work was done as part of Koons' "Banality" series and serves as a good example of the kitsch aspect of much of Koons' art in that it valorizes the garish and the sentimental. Like most postmodern art, the work seems to be a deliberate challenge to conventional notions of taste and to the modern separation of high art and popular culture.

Porcelain - The Broad Art Foundation

Conceptual art

 What is conceptual art?

Conceptual art is art for which the idea (or concept) behind the work is more important than the finished art object. It emerged as an art movement in the 1960s and the term usually refers to art made from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s.

Conceptual art can be – and can look like – almost anything. This is because, unlike a painter or sculptor who will think about how best they can express their idea using paint or sculptural materials and techniques, a conceptual artist uses whatever materials and whatever form is most appropriate to putting their idea across – this could be anything from a performance to a written description. Although there is no one style or form used by conceptual artists, from the late 1960s certain trends emerged. Browse the slideshow below and read the captions to see examples of conceptual art and to find out about some of the main ways conceptual artists explored and expressed their ideas.

When, why and where did conceptual art happen?

The term conceptual art usually refers to an art movement that emerged in the mid 1960s and continued until the mid 1970s. It was an international art movement happening more or less simultaneously across Europe, North America and South America. 

Artists associated with the movement attempted to bypass the increasingly commercialised art world by stressing thought processes and methods of production as the value of the work. The art forms they used were often intentionally those that do not produce a finished object such as a sculpture or painting. This meant that their work couild not be easily bought and sold and did not need to be viewed in a formal gallery situation. 

It was not just the structures of the art world that many conceptual artists questioned, there was often a strong socio-political dimension to much of the work they produced, reflecting wider dissatisfaction with society and government policies.

Key conceptual artists

Some of the main artists associated with the conceptual art movement are: Art & Language, John Baldessari, Joseph Beuys, Marcel Broodthaers, Victor Burgin, Michael Craig-Martin, Gilbert & George, Mary Kelly, Yves Klein, Joseph Kosuth, John Latham, Richard Long and Piero Manzoni.

Keith Arnatt
Trouser - Word Piece 1972-1989

The development of conceptual art

Although the term ‘concept art’ had been used in the early 1960s. it was not until the late sixties that conceptual art as a definable movement emerged. Joseph Kosuth’s series Titled  1966-7. the proposal for an exhibition Air Show Air/Conditioning 1966-7 by English artists Terry Atkinson and Michael Baldwin . John Baldessari’s word paintings exhibited in LA in 1968; and important group exhibitions such as that organised by art dealer Seth Siegelaub in New York in 1969.

In 1973 a pioneering record of the early years of the movement appeared in the form of a book, Six Years, by the American critic Lucy Lippard. The ‘six years’ were 1966–72. The long subtitle of the book referred to ‘so-called conceptual or information or idea art’.

John Latham
Time Base Roller 1972

Origins and influence

As a definable movement conceptual art is associated with the 1960s and 1970s, but its origins and its influence reach beyond these two decades. Marcel Duchamp is often seen as an important forefather of conceptual art, and his readymade Fountain of 1917 cited as the first conceptual artwork. The influence of conceptual art also stretches way beyond the early 1970s with contemporary artists such as Martin Creed, who is often referred to as a conceptual artist, championing the importance of the idea and process of art making over the art object.

Marcel Duchamp
Fountain 1917, replica 1964

What is the Role of a Designer?

Designers work in a multitude of fields, from fashion, architecture and graphic design to web and user experience. While the specifics of actual jobs may vary by field, the work of “designers” share many essential features.  However, the common impression of the typical designer can differ greatly from reality.

Let’s take a look at the real work of designers, the skills required, and the differences in designers’ environments in the US and Japan.

The Designer’s Job Beyond the Drafting Board

Many misinterpret the designer’s work to be simply deciding upon some sort of representation based on an artistic rendering. In fact, that’s only one small part of a designer’s final work product; the real work of a designer involves a process that brings forth the greatest possible outcome despite imposed limitations.

Artistic renderings are a part of the development process of the work of designers, but this is quite different from the work of artists, who freely express themselves in an environment that is, ideally, without limitation.

Designers need not be a specialist in everything to fulfill their role. The designer must be a generalist capable of receiving the most important information from specialists such as engineers or marketers, and decide upon an overarching thread. There are those that may be reminded of confrontations between designers and engineers, but in reality designers are not a confrontational group. Instead, they serve as guides who determine priorities.

The reason this is the designer’s job is related to their role in illustration. As humans, visual perception is incredibly important and no matter how much information comes our way, it is difficult to interpret based on numeric values or words alone. Unless we’re given a visual, we aren’t able to judge things clearly.

For example, if someone were to describe a web page with an 800px minimum variable width creating a sharp image with a blue base color, it doesn’t quite do the trick. Instead, if an illustration of the given information were to be presented in a rough draft, people would understand immediately.

The initial unification of multiple pieces of information and preconditions packed into a proposal is part of the design process. For that reason, the chief designer serves as a guide in coordinating the flow of this information.

Abilities Required of Designers

It isn’t enough for a designer to simply be a good illustrator, so it is insufficient for aspiring designers to have simply studied illustration at an art school. Presentations skills are a must, and superb communication skills allowing for the free exchange of opinions with a variety of specialists are extremely important.

While there may have been a time when a person graduating art school who only knew how to illustrate could become a designer, a designer today must be able to comprehend the big picture, process a deluge of information, pick up important points on the fly and provide optimal communication through visual media.

Depending on the organization, these roles may be defined in terms of “director” or “producer” but there is no question that these abilities are required of designers generally.

Additionally, the ability of a designer to determine whether a given decision is theirs to make is important. If a designer makes decisions that should be left to their supervisor or client, they would be usurping authority, while if they constantly ask questions about decisions they themselves should be making they run the risk of being thought incapable.

The Importance of Objectivity

There are many who think that design relies on a good sense of style. Style is only one element at the end of the design process. There are subjective and objective elements in design, and style is a subjective element that is only one part of the whole work product.

Before that, there are extensive objective elements such as functionality and applicability, price and overall impact which intertwine complexly. The formation of these into a delicate balance is a design in itself.

If one could design simply based on good taste it would be the easiest job imaginable. But in actual fact, there are so many elements necessary before reaching the point where a designer’s style comes into play that covering them all amounts to 90% of the overall workload. However, subjective elements are still necessary; in fact, a good sense of design style is what separates the good from the great.

Design and Communication

Communication holds the key to success in the design world. It isn’t an exaggeration to say that two-thirds of a designer’s job is communication.

1. The first part of a designer’s job is to find the right people with the right information.
2. The second part is the actual work of design.
3. The last part is relaying information from the finished product to the right people in the right way.

Following these steps, a designer can begin to create solid designs.

Essentially, the first and last parts each hang on one’s ability to communicate. The era when one could sell something simply by creating a good product has ended. It is necessary for designers to think about how to present and relate their creation via marketing, promotion and presentation.

Environmental Differences Surrounding Designers in the US and Japan

There doesn’t seem to be a gap in the abilities of designers in the US and Japan. There are a large number of excellent designers in Japan more sensitive to the intricacies of design. However, when it comes to the quality of the designs as they are actually produced on a global scale, it is true that Japanese design is, to some extent, viewed unfavorably.

Rather than a gap in the quality of designers, this can be attributed to the intrusion of Japanese business structure in creative work.

The ideal design process is one that provides an environment in which the designer’s ideas can flow from start to finish. However, most Japanese businesses tend to focus on organization and debate ideas during meetings.

Meetings are really no more than a place for organizing existing ideas and searching for keywords for already developed thoughts. Even by lining up work product and feeling as if the work was done collectively, these meetings do not result in producing creative elements.

Excellent ideas don’t come from meetings but reside in a more relaxed space. For that reason, designers must, and will, come up with ideas more efficiently in their own systems and environments. If one is relaxed, for example, more alpha waves will result in the flow of interesting ideas. Businesses in San Francisco and the Silicon Valley are particularly aware of this and are building create office environments as a result.

On top of that, organizations in Japan tend to favor the group rather than the individual, so the group squashes the creativity of the designer as an individual, and it’s not uncommon for the concept originally developed by a passionate designer to fall apart.

Despite the many designers in Japan doing excellent and very creative work, it is a shame that their individual gifts and talents are squashed by organizational systems. If the importance of a designer in an organization were to increase and their thoughts valued in society and business, there would be greater capacity for the development of extremely profitable products.

The Importance of the Designer

Going forward, creative work is sure to become more common place. Today, despite the many professions available, creative work seems to be on the rise. Just outside the boundaries of the system, risks are being taken in new ventures. In a creative enterprise, the most important factor is to give life to innovation.

The job of the designer when creating new products is to clearly relay the benefits of a product to the layman and lead them to a proper understanding. There are also cases where a supervisor makes a judgment without the presence of the designer, and this is part of the difficulty of the profession.

Despite putting in thousands of hours into one project, most are sure to end in failure. Nevertheless, in order to create an impact on the world, it is necessary to continue on. The designer, even when not actually designing, must be continually sharpening their insight so that they may regularly contribute fresh ideas.

In that sense, our work can’t be clocked in the normal way. But there are many things only a designer is capable of bringing about and that thought alone is truly exciting. That’s why I believe it is a noble profession.

http://blog.btrax.com/en/2015/01/28/what-is-the-role-of-a-designer/
http://practicalaction.org/whats-the-role-of-a-designer