Metro: Euthanasia Rollercoaster

Yesterday I came across something very interesting in the Metro newspaper. Not only the idea is great but it is also created by a guy called Julijonas Urbonas who is Lithuanian like myself! I am kind of proud that a person with my nationality appeared in the English newspaper, but the most important thing is how. Julijonas has created a theoretical roller coaster that theoretically has an effect of euthanasia on people. The creation is told to cause tunnel vision (the one people see right before they die) and because of it's high speed 100m/s the passenger would suffocate and have a very beautiful but also full of adrenaline death.

I am not sure if i should be against these kind of things, as Euthanasia was legal before as i learnt in school (during religion lectures), it was a way of relieving horribly sick people or people in pain who are slowly dying and letting them die by killing them in the easiest and least painful death. Ofcourse patients had to agree to go with the method and if they couldn't then the relatives would sign the agreement.
Coming back to the piece by Julijonas it is only an engineered piece, people would not ride it, it is just for the sake of art, and i do like it, it is a good idea and it thrills

Semiotics

Semiotics?????????????????????????????????????????????

·         a 'signifier' - the form which the sign takes;

·         the 'signified' - the concept it represents.

Word OPEN on the shop door:

    * a signifier: the word open;

    * a signified concept: that the shop is open for business.

As I have understood, we grow up with semiotics. Right from we were little, we were taught to add word, and later on a meaning, to the viewed, image or written text. When we grow up we don’t understand that our brain actually makes a combination of signifier and signified when we see hear smell or taste something. Semiotics is a very primary reflex that we develop with time, a reaction to the things we feel but this time it’s much more academic and much deeper and philosophical.

‘’ The semiological approach... suggests that the meaning of an ad does not float on the surface just waiting to be internalized by the viewer, but is built up out of the ways that different signs are organized and related to each other, both within the ad and through external references to wider belief systems. More specifically, for advertising to create meaning, the reader or the viewer has to do some 'work'. Because the meaning is not lying there on the page, one has to make an effort to grasp it. (Leiss et al. 1990, 201-2)’’ http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem10.html

ICON-is a sign that stands for an object by resembling it. (picture of a dog, a drawing of a dog)

INDEX- is a sign that refers to an object. (smoke – fire)

SYMBOL-is a sign that refers to an object by law religion culture tradition (female sign – female body)

Semiotics

Semiotics in type

I have found this successful example that represents its meaning within visual symbol. A signifier is the word itself, a combination of letters we read and imagine or understand the meaning. The signifier is the letters ‘I’ hiding behind the other letters and made a different colour to stand out and make an effect of hiding behind.

Semiotics in signs

This sign is seen by everyone mostly in large buildings and its original purpose is to be somewhere where it’s wet, just been polished and is slippery because a cleaner has just cleaned the floor or there is a leak or spillage right under the sign. This particular image is remade with humour and refers to the movie 300. Most of the people know the scene where the messenger has been kicked in the chest by king Leonidas and fell down the huge well. Judging this image the signifier is the actual sign and the signified is the reference to the movie.

Semiotics in ads or videos

 advertising with impact

While looking for the perfect video to write about I have chosen this perfume ad with Nicole Kidman. The video hasn’t even got the product on the show, just the logo all over the video and it is mentioned quite a lot and always somewhere high on the top. The signifier here is the logo which constantly reminds us that the advertisement is about the perfume. The signified here in this ad is that the perfume is so special that if you spray some, you will have a fairy-tale, a prince-like guy, he will love you for your smell, you will look gorgeous like Nicole Kidman and live in a dream.

Identity (race and gender)

While writing my biographical post on Wangechi Mutu i thought i could include her in the topic of Identity as she has inspired me so much. Wangechi‘s work is mostly using black female body/ face to tell a story about females in Africa.

This piece of her work relates the most to the indentity topic. It illustrates what is in a typical black females head: the ideal magazine white female with a perfect smile and body. This is not an issue for black women only, it is a big issue for all the females. How magazines are showing us the perfect shapes and parts, faces that not everyone has. It also changes how men look at females expecting all of women to be perfect. I understand how this artwork touches other issues like migration and surgery and this is illustrated by the packaging tape stuck all over the head. The white fluff stuck on the cheek to me personally illustrates what black women go through to have straight hair, the weave, changes in the colour of their hair. The piece also illistrates the loss of history and heritage of any tribe or tradition, people these days are so despereate to reach perfection that they forget the real values of their heritage. While reaching perfection all of us want to be different, but if we are reaching the same perfection pictured in magazines, at the end of it all we are all going to be the same, but if we treasure our heritage we will stay different as we are now, each with our own story.

Image link. 

Wangechi Mutu

During my research i have found this piece of work by Wangechi Mutu and the reason i chose it was because i could relate to it alot when talking about feminism. I think Wangechi has very sucessfully created a female body with all the meaningfully illustrated body parts. I have chosen this image because it isn‘t as scary as her other work with ulcers and tumours. This piece especially shows the feminine strength, the beauty, and that female body can create wondeful things. I love how Mutu illustrated birth with a butterfly and how motorcycle parts underline the feminine power or, as i see it, womens everyday armour.

Wangechi Mutu is and African artist born in Kenya. She uses collage and mixed media in her, usually body themed, work. She uses cutouts from magazines to construct a face or a body and by some of the cutouts she gives a meaning to each body/face part. Mutu is very protective of the traditon and heritage, and in her work she portrays political, fashion and cultural and health issues. The way she makes her work look is quite easy to read so that makes her statements very clear.

Image link.