Posts Tagged ‘Germany
22
Apr
09
Disaster(ous) Logo(s)
21
Apr
09
chronologically inaccurate
Was trying to squeeze this in with some earlier posts but couldn’t successfully pull it off, so I’m just placing it here – suspended. It hypothetically fits everywhere, yet cannot practically be placed anywhere.
Visual triggers —> bound to cultural myths, historical baggage, national identity, politics etc < —
In researching my disaster, I inevitably came across images of what I now consider cliched, overused, misappropriated and, frankly, bordering on kitschy. I am referring to images of classical Greek structures such as the Parthenon, whose rendering into a mass produced image (among other commodity forms) has now become similar to a tacky souvenir that ignorant tourists eagerly purchase in the midst of some kind of spiritual cultural consumption. Those images, to me, no longer bear any “real” connection to the past… they are merely attractors to the easily seduced and the easily misled.
I was therefore cautious in using the meander because its use can often become tacky. I did not want my logo to turn into a condensed equivalent of this tacky Greek house:
In any case, I feel as though an obligatory analysis (ala Macnab) is in order, so as to justify the image/shape I chose to extract from the montage/collage/ pastiche of images that has been created in my mind with the help of the Google image search engine.
Instead of choosing the most typical shapes characteristic of the three prevalent architectural styles in Ancient Greece (Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian order), I chose to focus on the meander-like shape that is perhaps a fusion of principles extracted from all of the aforementioned orders and -at the same time- a creative departure from all these styles and their functionality. The meander-like shape emerges from some recurrent shape/image-concepts in this blog, such as the labyrinth and the hypertext metaphors.
What is interesting about the meander is that it has made the leap from architecture (originally: Greek and Roman, e.g. used in temples) to art – from function and form, to aesthetics and conceptual design. Nowadays, the Key design is not only used in modern Greek design (sometimes to a fault, as in, for example, Greek restaurants in America), but also in products of other cultures (e.g. Mexican buildings).
Commonly, the meander symbolizes unity and infinity, or infinite potential.
Ironically (or, fittingly), a random snapshot of a meander reminded me of the swastika symbol. Not the spiritual and religious usage of the swastika, but the stigmatized version that is loaded with fascist overtones.
Of course, the meander-turned-swastika could be related to many aspects of the disaster, such as in relation to concepts of anarchy, education, democracy, freedom, cultural myths, and progress.
In terms of my logo design, I wanted to transform and appropriate the meandering shape so as to touch on its classical undertones, but also transcend its overbearing significance. However, with this transformation, some unexpected associations emerged that were unintended and beyond my control (see my aforementioned swastika symbolism).
In Decoding Design, Maggie Macnab cites the example of the swastika to illustrate how “subtle alterations [in design] can be used to influence belief and reconstitute the common meaning of a symbol.” She then goes on to mention how the positive associations of the swastika became overwhelmed by the propagandist appropriation of the symbol by the Third Reich. Despite Macnab’s assertion that an appropriated symbol can overcome its original meaning once it becomes redesigned and recontextualized (and, inevitably, de/repoliticized), I do not think the swastika can ever fully move beyond the negative signification it gained post 1920s. These associations will continue to overwhelm the swastika symbol – at least for the Western imagination – and no amount of amount of de/reconstruction and manipulation can help it surpass the baggage it is automatically associated with.
I am aware of this unspoken stipulation, and using it productively to stimulate my logo’s evolutionary progress and the branding of my disaster.
22
Feb
09
(A Primal Scene?)
* * *
I’m not there, I’m gone
It’s all about confusion…
(Bob Dylan, “I’m Not There”)
I’m not there, except through a photograph. I’m not there except through a scanned and digitized version of a photograph. Unheimlich/ Heimlich. An un(canny) image that serves as a reminder that I was not there even when “I” was there.
(A Scene?) – This term is ill-chosen, for what it supposedly names is unrepresentable, and escapes fiction as well; yet ‘scene’ is pertinent in that it allows one at least not to speak as if of an event taking place at a moment in time.” (Blanchot)
[Yes, this is me. Another me. Unrecognizing myself in the disaster.]
A scene: – A little over seven. The excitement of a first holiday abroad with family. Meeting new family. – Germany: so many expectations tied to it. So many expectations miraculously fulfilled. Unexpectations not fulfilled. Germany no more: Germania – germarina. – The wall. Wall? History I could not see. – Would like to own a piece, even though I don’t want to touch it. Looks dirty. Ewww. – Why did it happen? When? What are you not telling me? The generous effect of the disaster.
22
Feb
09
Memento Mori
Memento mori is a Latin phrase meaning “Be mindful of death” and may be translated as “Remember that you are mortal,” “Remember you will die,” “Remember that you must die,” or “Remember your death”. It names a genre of artistic creations that vary widely from one another, but which all share the same purpose, which is to remind people of their own mortality. (Wikipedia)
Memento. Mori.
MORI
“Man’s guilt in history and in the tides of his own blood has been complicated by technology, the daily seeping falsehearted deathbed.” >>> “You are the sum total of your data. No man escapes that.” <<
(from Don DeLillo’s White Noise).
MEMENTO: 
“They tried to teach you to make lists in grade school, remember? Back when your day planner was the back of your hand. And if your assignments came off in the shower, well, then they didn’t get done. No direction, they said. No discipline. So they tried to get you to write it all down somewhere more permanent…[The list is] like a letter you write to yourself. A master plan, drafted by the guy who can see the light, made with steps simple enough for the rest of the idiots to understand.” (from Jonathan Nolan’s short story, Memento Mori)
The blog is the list I make to myself, for myself. The instructions from my relays are part of my list. Do not forget to …
I will help myself remember that which escapes memory. Google will help me conjure the images. Can I make my unconscious googleable?
22
Feb
09
Cinematic mnemonics
Scene from Wolfgang Becker’s film Goodbye Lenin! (2003).
East Germany, 1989: A loyal Socialist living in Eastern Berlin during the Cold War loses her husband to the West. After seeing her son protesting against the Socialists, she suffers from a heart attack and falls into a coma. While she is in a coma, East and West Germany reunite. When she awakes from her coma, her children try to prevent her from experiencing shock by converting their now westernized lives back into an Eastern-Socialist lifestyle…
* * *
The shock of discovery … the shock at discovering that the disaster has come and gone (was it ever here?), and I could not bring myself to its site. The disaster is beyond me, beyond time, beyond comprehension. A film/ a ” reality”/ a fiction/ a myth conveys this feeling better than I ever will.
One of my happiest and most idealized childhood memories: a family trip to Germany.
Up to this moment, I never thought of my first visit to Germany as anything else but a blissful childhood memory.
The last vacation we took as a family.
My first time on a plane.
First time in another country.
First time to meet my new aunt.
First time to practice the few German words I learned. First time to have my accent made fun of.
Exploring the unknown for the first time …
… and that is where it was located all this time… buried under happy, ignorant moments.
The Greek Riots ® 
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