Focussed around the motives of Richard Hamilton, this workshop entailed for the investigation of human values, and how these have been altered with the notion of time.

 

Study of Hamiltons work’s documented change. He produced his outcome in the fifties as a stance to publicise the drastically rising consumerist nature of a generation/society. He then re-made his work in the nineties to show ‘progression’, with movements and ‘advancements’ of the more modern era. These have each been embedded dramatically into his personal representation of a modern home, implementing values relevant within such a time period.

“Just What is it that makes Todays Homes so Different?” Richard Hamilton

In note form above, I deconstructed meaning based upon contextual ideas embedded within content. These prospects have been deliberately placed to infer signified message and meaning with regards to socially constructed values.

In specific, the house is busy, and can be described as ‘cluttered’. This is suggestive of the gradual progression of a society into a consumerist nature. There is a television that can be noticed, displaying an item of early media technology. With this, began the initiation period of digital advertising, growth of trends, social status as well as gradual globalisation. On the wall is a hung picture of a traditional art piece, revealing a traditional background with the appreciation of fine art. A symbol of high culture, this highlights the presence and relevancy of the ongoing divide between high and low culture. The stairs in this particular representation are carpeted, a small signifier of life in luxury. With focus surrounding values and morals, the woman figure is pictured to have an unrealistically proportioned body- skinny with large breasts. The inclusion of this element draws reference upon the fact this was a period of strong objectification, later provoking such desires and pressures within the beauty industry.

We then studied Richard Hamilton’s remake of his home representation, displaying an insight into the nature of the nineties.

The second image documents change through signs and signifiers. These differentiated values are refined within embedded meaning, deliberately intended for audience understanding and interpretation.

In specific, this image highlights the transition to more practical based motives, focussing on the exploration of scientific and mathematical entities, reformed advanced focus into educational direction of specific objective studies. A period of enlightenment, straying away from religion and looking towards practicality and known truths. This is directly shown through the incorporation of planet Jupiter, presented as the lamp-shade, reminiscent of recent space exploration. On the walls, a texture/ pattern comparable to binary code and circuit boards is applied, displaying our advancing understanding of technological items, construction and utilisation of specific processes. The satellite outside the window also supports this theoretical construct.

With regards to interior design, the methods of composition reforms a spacious room set-up and layout. This documents reflection, where society began to analyse space utilisation and how this effects our interactions with space in our own homes. A pop of a strong yellow pigmentation brings brightness in a simplistic nature, slowly recognising the art of minimalism while implementing inferable assets of self-expression.

Displayed amongst other components, an insight is provided into values and occurrences within the nineties: a tank in the background showing the notion of war; a crowd of hundreds showing globalisation and over-population; a man at a desk showing ongoing gender stereotyping; an expressive individual showing gender expression and personal freedom; a poster of type saying ‘aids’ to reference a massive issue of the time; and finally the lollipop stick for the lollipop lady, showing conventionality in job roles determined by gender.

Task

For this workshop, were were given the task of recreating a modern home, saturated with metaphors and symbolic assets with purpose of providing insight into todays values and principles in society.

Documented above is my initial draft of thoughts, associating contemporary interior products and items with contemporary themes and ideas.

 

These are my compositional, linear thumbnails, visually organising my ideas into concepts for potential modern representation. Of all designs, the bottom right is my favourite, featuring the greatest scope of relevant principles, applicable to the nature of modern-day society.

Features include- an oversized person sat on the sofa watching Netflix while eating McDonald’s, a posey female flaunting her body/ figure in a mirror stickered with ‘Selfie! For The Gram”, a MacBook with news of Brexit and Syria on the screen, protesters outside campaigning for people to vote, a homeless, starving person outside rummaging through bins, a poster of Donald Trump the president of America on the wall, and a baby sat playing with an iPad.

These concepts target the domination of politics within the way of which society is run, and in response to this, how people react and respond. A concentration of a social media and technology obsession is also signified, displaying how our productivity has decreased, and how a insociable sacrifice is made tearing a community away from social interaction an experiencing ‘beyond-digital’ experiences. The baby playing with the iPad is a prime example of this, becoming restrictive of development and experiences. The inclusion of McDonalds suggests how judgement of quality has been outdone by convenience and ease, showcasing an impatient attribute of a new generation. Perceptive nature has also been altered, where many turn a blind eye to global occurrences and social implementations, instead reforming a narrow mind set concentrated on personal stance and blinded by personal situation.

This is my digital line drawing of my modern interior room proposal, simplifying aspects to create a realistic set-up. This provided compositional vision, enabling insight of how the room would look as a finalised piece.

I then saturated this image, applying colour samples to specific elements to suit modern-day trends. For instance, I chose the colour ‘mustard yellow’ as this is the current ‘in-colour’, with a brown floor to represent wood.

The result of this workshop brought about more consideration surrounding our modern society, and the morals seen within this. It enforced recognition around observation, perception and key principles, highlighting our fallbacks as well as our priorities. Sought through this workshop, an obtained knowledge has been developed surrounding the incorporation of metaphorical values, and signs and signifiers,  utilising shared knowledge to infer message. This provokes dramatic effect while providing recognition of modern stance.