Visual Culture #12

In Malcolm and Diane's lectures, we looked at eroticism. Exciting stuff. To quote Malcolm; "some nice porn before the Holidays".

We looked particularly at Art Nouveau, focusing on graphics and architecture. Reaching a 'fin-de-siecle' (end of cycle), there was a feeling of change in the air with a new millennium (1900) approaching. People started re-evaluating their identity (particularly their national identity and political and social reactions). 

Mass production and industrialisation was also a worry with a clear boundary and binary opposition between rich and poor, and with the introduction of high rises. And yes, I am going to put another gif of Tom Hiddleston in High Rise again, because it is relevant. 

http://www.newpoptab.com/watch?key=0cdb16b7667982280fbb05007a35eb39

Again, High Rise portrays the differences in social classes separating the rich from the poor on separate floors. The higher up, the richer.

I digress.

The whiplash motif was major in architecture and paintings and just everywhere really. 

http://thetextileblog.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/art-nouveau-whiplash.html

Not to be confused with...

http://rebloggy.com/post/film-jk-simmons-whiplash-miles-teller-2014-films-filmgif-damien-chazelle-whipla/115074595005

The Female Form was also focused on, which helped sell products (with the rise of consumerism). 

The language of flowers were also symbolised in different graphics and paintings. The most common one was open flowers, suggesting women being open sexually. Closed ones, obviously meaning pure and chaste. Specific flowers also had symbolic meanings; the orchid meaning a vagina and the iris being a penis.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/408842472395096370/

The Language of Flowers

Just to clarify why I posted this

The Will to Flight was also important in art nouveau as people believed with the turn of the millennium, society will improve and fly. This movement is shown in the art, such as the whiplash motif. 

Japanese art also had a big influence over European art nouveau, with their simple and small eyes, noses, lips and eyebrows. Ukiyo-aye was also used to show images of everyday life (sex in this case).

In Diane's session, we looked at what exactly is erotic and apply it to films.

For this topic, I decided to look at vampire films and how vampires have changed from monsters to an object of desire. Vampire films is a topic I am very enthusiastic about and relates well to the topic. I was in my comfort zone.

Let’s start with Nosferatu (1922, F.W. Murnau).

Here, vampires are creatures to be feared, no eroticism here. Fairly straightforward. This clip is just to establish that vampires should be feared.

Skip forward a few decades (a big jump I know) and we have The Lost Boys (1987, Joel Schumacher) (my favourite film ayeeee). Here, vampires started to become more human like and more like objects of desire. In this clip especially, there are religious connotations of drinking blood but also sexuality and desire with the overlaps and fades to add some glamour to the vampires. However, the vampires still have an element of horror with plenty of gore in the film (critics have called it an ‘orgy of death’).

Last clip I want you to look at is Twilight (2008, Catherine Hardwicke). Here, the vampire has peaked in sex appeal but have no elements of horror. Edward is even seen as a victim and we are made to sympathise with the vampire.

I have a theory that the motif of the vampire changes with society. Nosferatu, people wanted their fears to be projected on screen and vanquished with wars and moral low. The Lost Boys, youth culture and yuppies were forming and becoming more powerful shown in the film with David and his gang. Twilight, people in context were obsessed with the idea of love.