INFLUENCES FOR MY PRINT PRODUCTIONS By Jessica Doran

DAVID BOWIEBowie is renowned for his breaking of conventions both

within his art and music. An English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, painter, and actor, he was a figure in popular music for over five decades, and was considered by critics and other musicians as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s.

Bowie’s album covers have inspired the designs for my own print productions due to his alternative and unique look upon the world. He labelled himself as an outsider, but the one who everybody wanted to be, enabling individuals to embrace their own style and not feel the need to conform to societies portrayal of ‘the norm’. Bowie reflects these breaking of conventions in his art. 'The Man Who Sold The World' featured the famous 'dress cover.' Mercury Records in the UK went with Bowie's original album cover design, in which he was pictured in a 'man's dress' by London designer Mr. Fish; but the German and US labels chose to create their own covers for the album. Ultimately the cover didn't seem to matter; while the music was indisputably great, the record sold very poorly in all territories and was soon out of print. Only one year later, Bowie released 'Ziggy Stardust' and became a major international star. Bowie reflects Bulmer and Katz’ theory that the audience use and choose a text to find a personal identity. This is something I wish to expand upon both through my music video and prints.

Bowie’s representation of the ‘outsider’ will be reflected in my own print productions. I am using my main actress Freya’s punk style to create an unconventional and ‘whacky’ taste to the prints. For example; whilst Bowie breaks conventions by wearing a dress, Freya breaks conventions with her punk and less feminine attire, which separates her from the usual representation of women on album covers, and avoids the idea of the male gaze in such video’s as Rhianna’s ‘Rude Boy’ or Miley Cyrus’ ‘Wrecking Ball’. Freya’s style will also be reflected in the print productions as a dominant theme that will hopefully emphasis her character’s dominance in the music video e.g using images of her repeatedly on each cover to emphasis who the song is about and what genre the music video is trying to portray.

DAVID BOWIE

Another album cover of Bowie’s that strongly influences my own print productions, is his 1984 album ‘Tonight’. However, because it was featured in the so called ‘Pop period’ it may not push my audience to engage with the inter textual reference as easily (considering my target is primarily punk and slightly reggae). Having said this, as an alternative icon ever since the 70’s, even those interested in Punk will have grown up and listened to Bowie at some point. I love his use of bright colours to suggest almost an alien within himself and to emphasise further his outsider portrayal. I could easily use this same effect on my actress Freya, to embrace her individuality but also perhaps reflect the conflicted and confused mind-set with a multi-coloured montage. This reflects her trapped feeling of being in the forest/ civilisation, and the splash of colours would bring the audience into the character’s unique yet unconventional mind. His art also reflects a similar punk style here, to that of the Sex Pistols, with his use of bright colouring and collage effect that creates a sort of chaotic/ stick and cut effect used by punk bands to suggest rebellion.

THE BEATLES

This album cover by the Beatles looks similar to the works of Escher that I have posted previously. Because my main antagonist is conflicted between reality and what’s in her mind, I too, intend to use a montage of images and her face/eyes perhaps to create a confused and disorientated effect on the page – similar to how I use this idea within the music video. Additionally, it would be useful to make an inter textual link between the Beatles and my own print productions because the Beatles were a massively acclaimed British band that dominated British fashion and music. A main focus of my video is the unconventional style that my female antagonist has, therefore I too want to use her fashion to provoke an alternative impact upon my unique target audience and my print productions – similar to that of the Beatles. For example; Nicholas Abercrombie states that ‘genres permit the creation and maintenance of a loyal audience which becomes used to seeing the genre’. Here, I need to uphold the punk conventions in both my video and prints to make this connection and for my audience to engage with the genre easily.

Escher

PAUL KLEE

Paul Klee was a Swiss-German painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented with and eventually deeply explored colour theory, writing about it extensively; his lectures Writings on Form and Design Theory, published in English as the Paul Klee Notebooks, are held to be as important for modern art as Leonardo da Vinci's A Treatise on Painting for the Renaissance.

Klee’s use of expressionism I find intriguing and could be used as a way of expressing my main antagonist’s confusion between reality and dream. I would then be able to combine this with the punk style of using bright colours to attract my target audience. The colours I would use would be more bold and outrageous than these, because the colours Klee uses here suggest more of an Indie band style and doesn’t reflect the style of my video.

Expressionism: A term used to denote the use of distortion and exaggeration for emotional effect, which first surfaced in the art literature of the early twentieth century. Expressionism is an artistic style in which the artist attempts to depict not objective reality but rather the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in the artist. Here, the emotions of my main character fuel my music video. The audience is supposed to be in her mind, so my print productions should use the influence of expressionist art to reflect her emotions also.