During the first task, what’s in my bag, I was defining things in a very practical and functional way. Ernesto commented that the chapstick I had was a Yelp brand and that reviews are very postmodern. This made me think.
What if logos were like an emoji, communicating a thought but also defining you as part of a group. This led me to search if it was possible to find an audio-visual for each of the items I had in my bag without orally saying the name of the item.
Surprisingly, there was a lot of English audio-video commercials on the items I had in my bag from home made commercials to professional advertising. I decided to arrange the audio-video clips from current ads to those that look like they were made in the 70s and 80s. I thought it was interesting to see that the ones from the past, such as the Vaseline ad was more literal and would orally say the name and visually show you the function. The more recent audio-visuals conveyed mood and meaning from visuals and sound.
From an archeology point of view, the first task delineate that I live in the city since all of the items enable me to move around the city in comfort. But upon closer scrutiny, an archeologist would notice that the brands communicated which mini communities I belong to within the city. I used to be an Android person, but the plug from my iphone would say I belong to a community that uses Apple language and Mac functions on a laptop. You’d probably find me at an Apple workshop 🙂
I think we live in this big blogging and video making society that is continually growing where we communicate by text, but we also use sound to create mood and meaning , such as the Lexus ad. As technology becomes easier to use, this fueled a more multimodal approach of communicating where everyone can become an author or co-author creating different dialogues. However, this does bring up the question of author and authenticiy……
As I slice, pull apart and put together different visuals and sounds to create a playlist like a DJ, I decided to add in an Apple audio-video but from China. I was thinking about multiliteracies from The New London Group which was why I wanted to try incorporating this. I chose Apple because this was not as easy to find as I thought it would be. Some audio-visual were universal, a lot of the ones I was looking for were not. Some items were cultural specific and difficult to find in any other language such as that of Nature Valley and Sunkist.
References:
Jessiedamage. (2008, April 2). Hello Kitty Theme Song [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J6-WITRcVg
Nature Valley Canada. (2019, June 28). Nature Valley | Rediscover The Joy of Nature [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9GvhjVejSA
Suzanne Ciani. (2017, March 13). Sunkist Orange Juice [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-mdKMcHblI
80scommericalsforever. (2011, March 11). VINTAGE 80’S VASELINE “THE WONDER JELLY” COMMERCIAL [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGNoKknQ73o
Seeker. (2013, Sept 7). Does Yelp Really Impact Businesses? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFv87mxbPfs&list=RDCMUCzWQYUVCpZqtN93H8RR44Qw&index=1
Pilot Pen. (2018, Feb 12). Pilot FriXion Erase Doubt [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBprh1Ztuzk
RK Reid. (2009, Oct 27). Derek Alexander Handbags [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GbQ892YXfs
Lexus International. (2018, November 23). Discover the Lexus UX [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlqmWCID6mc
3dmihai. (2009, March 18). Thermos commercial ad [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGGpEQg9U3Q
Apple. (2015, March 9). West Lake, China – Apple Store Opening [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9bq33sbYsc