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[sem1-reflective-journal]

Lecture 10 Decolonising Design

Critical Race theory

According to the Imigration Museum, in 1854 physician and surgeon Josiah Clark Nott and Egyptologist  George Robins Gilddon created a theory that human races have separate origins and types of mankinds. However, Charles Darwin in 1871 refuted that argument. This artwork shows the colonization in pictures back then which had barely any proof to be true, the Europeans had main-character syndrome and thought they were the peick ideal in mankind with a ‘normal look’ while people of colour look ‘animalistic’ therefore being a racist stereotype.

In the United States of America, every June Target decides to drop a collection of pride clothes. This year I have decided to discuss some of the clothes provided. In my opinion some clothes are nice because they are made by actual queer people… however, the rest is feeding into the ‘queer steriotypes’ such as the bisexual shirt. Online it is known that bisexuals are akward and use finger guns as a way to make things akwards which is really stupid because everyone does it straight or not. Most of the generic clothes have just a rainbow and random toys as well… I actually find it infuriating that massive companies like Target, Oreos, Mattel and others just chuck a rainbow on a product but literally means nothing nor does it go to any charity. They fetishize the lgbtq+ for a month and continue to discriminate the other 11 months.

This lecture only focused on race which was had to realte to when it comes to queernes and sexuality so i basically related it to steriotypes and how companies use June (Pride month) as a fetish for money and over doing the steriotypes again every year

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In the 2000’s, myspace was a huge massive deal that had tacky gifs, backgrounds and pictures of men and women with odd haircuts and makeup. Obviously now its considered an aesthetic but what I noticed is that all the ‘emo’ kids back then shared gifs like the image here. Its bold, colourful and in your face just like the first era of the internet which was experimental. Unhinged, unregulated and graphic design was not a consideration.

Daniel Howell is a british youtuber who started making videos in the 2000s. As you can see in the video, he made a website for his friends to play games. It is the most cursed website that I have ever seen. The look of the website is messy and unhinged with weird flash games and extremely random gifs and designs. Its giving myspace vibes with the font and the edgy design. However, I find it hilarious that he was trying to be ‘straight’ for his school years, untill 2019 came and Dan posted a video called “Basically I’m gay”.

This was the most cursed and hillarious lecture I have ever laid my eyes on... Websites were a mess back then and so unhinged.. Myspace was a safe space for emos and queers so that helped but talking about one of my favorite youtuber was so funny to me because watching this lecture reminded me so much about the video above.

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Lecture 8 Sustainability and Speculation

Sustainability and Consumerism

Sustainability is a morally just and ethical approach for products which therefore cares for the customer, environment, and producers. While consumerism focuses on its profit which could be products that are a part of a phase or unusable. Then you have either self aware companies like bp or companies that want to do better for the environment making these posters with buzzwords like ‘eco-friendly,’ ‘environmentally friendly’, and ‘sustainable’. With pretty designs to either make the customers feel better or attempt to help.

This is Leilah Babirye, she fled Uganda due to the homophobic conditions in Uganda. She left behind family, friends and her Girlfriend for the sake of her survival. Babirye currently works anywhere she pleases and uses “carved using traditional African techniques mixed with found objects including metal, plastic and wood.” She uses her art and platforms to express her queerness as a lesbian and the rights that she has faced by using art that is sustainable to show activism for her own people.

To be honest there was nothing about pride or any of the other topics except for sustainability which was reall hard to discuss but when researching about Leilah was very intersting and I wouldve never expected to find someone related to this as well has being queer.

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Lecture 7 Pop + Protests: Queering Design

Gorilla Girls

Created in 1985, presented onto structures in lower Manhattan, these women who used popular women artists as their pseudo names wore gorilla masks in public to create bold and eye-catching advertising-style graphics to educate viewers about eye opening facts and figures. By doing this the gorillas faced discrimation from the city’s galleries and museums against women artists and artists of colour. 

Some of the design and text aspects they used was humor, which was a vital part of their art even though the message they were promoting is serious, therefore making it engaging. They address sexism and racism in the world of art, Hollywood, mass media corporations, art censorship, government corruption and apathy as well as the rights of womens reproductive system…. How history repeats itself.

Andy Warhol

I didnt know that Andy Warhol was a gay man but the way he creates art shows that he wasnt shy to provoke others desrectly. This picture is meant to represent a “gaydar” which is basically “knowing queer when you see it”. The colours are bright and what creates the ‘queer effect’ is Mao’s mouth which looks like he has lipstick and eyeshadow as well which at the time would be a queer thing to see if a man was wearing any sort of makeup, even till this day.

This weeks lecture was extramly helpful when it came to context and my diary which I am currently writting in. I couldve picked many artists but Gorilla Girls caught my attention because its masks made it look provocative and I was right. People were so scared of the truth back then and even now. We need more people like the Gorilla Girls.

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Lecture 6 Deception and Disinformation

Gay clown Putin is based off a series pf photoshopped images depicting Valdmir as a clown wearing bold makeup. On the other hand Putin banned these sorts of images in early April of 2017. This picture was made in April of 2013 on Tumblr called Tumblr blog putin A Rainbow which showed a plethora of photoshops of Putin. This was an online protest against Russian gay propoganda law, which would include a ban on the LGBT rainbow flag.

Deep fakes are awesome yet extremely dangerous when it comes to using it for revenge or for war. I have seen many funny deep fakes like mr bean on shrek or anything like that, but i have also seen a video of Obama calling trump a dipshit. I did a bit of research and people have used female celebrities or women they know and attached their face to pornstars and other adult actresses as a form of satisfying a kink of theirs or using it as revenge porn. Do I think it will be illegal at some point? Probably but currently it is not…. yet. 

Learning about Gay putin in the lecture made me laugh a bit because lets be honest... we were all thinking it. For a man who thinks he can invade Ukraine got pissy about an edit of his face and banned it in Russia... What a loser.... Anyways the lectures also discussed deep fakes which i havent hear about in years because I watched conspiricy videos made by controvercial youduber shane dawson. That was extreamly scary to learn the future outcomes but it was fun to play with as a from of procrastination.

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Lecture 5 Modular and Movements

Hannah Hoch

Hoch was a famous female artist who apparently was bisexual. After WWI, Hoch created this artwork / photomontage called “Cut With the Kitchen Knife Dada” which was based on the Dada movement In germany. This artwork was a reflection on the political stances and social issues across Germany during the transitional time in German society.

The Bisexual flag was created on the 5th of December 1998, by Michael Page who is based in florida. Page was a Bisexual activist, creator of BiCafe and BiNet USA. The use of pink and blue defines the hetrosexuality and homosexuality while the purple is the mix between the two colours.

To be honest this lecture was a bit confusing, mostly Hannah Hoch's work because it literally looks like something I would make as a kid in art class but to learn the deeper meaning of her polirtical perspective was intersting because of all the small words and big pictures that was mocking or exposing the poloutical situation in germany after WW1. Its also great bisexual represenation which then inspired me to do more research about the bi flag.

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Lecture 4 Craft and Commerce

Silence = Death

Avram Finklestein, Brian Howard, Oliver Johnston, Charles Kreloff, Chris Lione, and Jorge Soccaras created one of the most iconic posters in the world which also relates to today's issues. In 1987 these men gathered altogether to support one another in the midst of the AIDS crisis. Using the pink triangle symbol which was apart of the holocaust identification of the homosexuals (refer to signs and symbols page) They used this symbol to reuse this awful metaphor to metaphor about activism for the AIDS crisis.

Avram Finklestein, Brian Howard, Oliver  Johnston, Charlese Lreloff, Chris Lione and Socarras designed and founded this poster “SILENCE = DEATH”, based on the symbol that Gay men were labelled with in the Holocaust by the Nazis. This poster is related to a protest against AIDS and HIV on the 11th of October 1987.

During this lecture there was a lot of info about the pink triangle which I already discused, however I will admit that when I was studying the holocaust in 2019 in a jewish school we bairly disgusted the other minorities that the Nazis targeted so learning about this online and in lecture was nice to teach for people who have no idea as well as me who only knew a small amount.

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Lecture 3 Publishing, politics, and perspectives

Gaysi (India)

Gaysi is a media is a safe space for queer desis that was made in 2008. Gaysi continues to create and sell zines for queer folk from across Southeast Asia which share stories and experiences. They believe that these zines and other forms of media should express the meaning of being queer while using philosophy, polotics, art and literature. Gaysi’s platform discusses individual voices, enabling more people to meditate on and relate to what it means to be apart of the lqbtq+ community.

Heartstopper (2021)

Heartstopper is a comic book about two teenage boys who fall in love at school. This book is currently a netflix show which is a great representation in the media, however I started reading this book in January this year. It can be bought in Big W, Target, QBD, dymocks and many other bookstores around australia. Surprisingly it's also on a popular app called webtoon which is used for artists and readers to share their own stories and zines online. Obviously this book entertains and teaches people about the LQBTQ+ community as well as being proud of who you are whether its living through their perspective or even relating the story to your life.

I really enjoyed learning about zines because its extreamly inclusve when it comes to content. Gaysi was really interesting because I didnt realise how old it was because it was made in 2008 which I didnt think people where that open at the time. On the other hand I bought heartstopper at the end of 2021 and now its a popular netflix show (I havent watched it yet because of Uni, but I shall once this semester is over) This is what I call great representation in media and in zines.

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Lecture 2 Typography and Font

Comic Sans and how it relates to the LGBTQ+

Although I couldn't find anything based on comic sans being a part of the lgbtq+ community, but as an avid internet user I know for a fact that the community uses Comic sans to joke about either personal or international issues for fun. Comic sans creates a sense that the viewer knows its stupid no matter the context as long as there is a picture and words to put along together. It could be a keyboard mash of random letters and a picture of something “gay” and people would laugh either way… I guess thats how the internet works.

Gilbert and how it relates to the LGBTQ+

On the 31st of March 2017, Gilbert Baker the creator of the pride flag sadly passed away. In memory of Baker, NewsFest and NYC Pride partnered with Fontself to create a free font inspired by the design language og the iconic rainbow flag. This font can now be downloaded for free for personal use anywhere.It can also be used in Japanese which implies that this font is not only for those who speak english but as a symbol of community and to unite people even if it is a font that can be used for anything, especially pride related projects.

I had no idea that Gilbert was made by someone who was queer. TThe only font I learnt about in history was all the fonts used on Nazi propaganda which I will never use due to generational truama. learning about Gilbert was extreamly interetsing and I am hoping to see many more queer artists and typographers create more intersteing fonts in the future

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Lecture 1 Signs and symbols

This symbol may look like a regular pink triangle, but its a symbol that helped nazis idengtify gay men during the holocaust.In the 1930’s gay bars were shut down as well as lgbtiq+ friendly areas were shut down due to Hitlers beif in creating an Aryan nation which therefore would stop the creation of the Aryian race because the gay men have no chance in reproducing. Lesbians on the otherhand had no way of identifying whether they where lesbian or not but only gay men where identified and forced to wear the pink triangle, similar to wha the jews wore thexcept it was a yellow star that had ‘Jude’ (Jew) on it. In modern day 2022, this symbol was taken and repurposed for the better by becoming a symbol of pride thanks to a protest in Miami where people attached a pink triangle on white clothes as a way to show solidarity while protesting against homosexuality housing dicrimination back in the 70’s. During pride there is chance that you will see one or more people wearing this symbol on their shirts and as a jew who has family who were in the holocaust and a person trying to figure out my sexuality, it takesgreat pride to know that people are changing symbols with bad intentions to make it have positive inclinations that fight against homophobia and racism.

This flag dates back to 1979, when artist Gilbert Baker,an openly gay man and a drag queen, designed the first rainbow flag. Barker stated that he was urged by Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay elected offcials in the United States, to create a symbol of pride for the gay community. Each color has significant meanings like Black symbolizes diversity, Brown stands for inclusivity, Red means life, Orange means healing, Yellow means sunlight, green means nature, blue means harmony and purple means spirit. Recently people have added the trans flag to commemorate and help people include people who don't identify as what they were born as. The original pride flag had pink which was taken off due to the assasination of an openly gay San Fransico City Supervisor, Harvey Milk on the 27th of November 1978. They also dropped the pink due to Barker, who couldnt find hot pink fabric.

During this lecture I learnt a lot about symbols and how the simplest pixle can mean so many things. It did relate to pride and how emojis have upgraded to using rainbow hearts to portray the flags colours to having a pride and trans flag emoji.