tESTE *

Cultura Visual

14 janeiro 2015

Diana V. Almeida

Duração: 2h (30m tolerância) // Consulta de material escrito e impresso

Cotação = 200 // I = 45 + II = 70 + III = 75 + Componente formal (correção, estruturação textual) = 10

I

“Just looking is just hunting, but it is not quite right to say it is only hunting. There is also something quietly hypnotic about just looking, something less like hunting and more like dreaming. (…)

So just looking is like hunting or being hunted, but it is also kin to hypnosis, nightmares, and dreams. Those meanings draw near to yet another, because there is also a deep parallel between looking and loving. Sometimes, falling in love really feels like falling, as if you have no control (…). On other occasions love is all a calculated pursuit. Some people spend their lives searching like detectives among all the faces and bodies they can find. (…) But as lovers say, it’s not always so easy to know who catches whom, and looking happens in both directions. There might be a good definition of love here: love as the moment when the prey becomes another hunter, so that both people are hunters and hunted at once. (…)

It’s strange that love stories begin to fill my mind when I meant to think only about looking, and that is what I want to say about that phrase ‘just looking.’ It is not possible; there is no such moment. All seeing is heated. It must always involve force and desire and intent. (…) It doesn’t matter what I’m looking at (…); ‘just looking’ is a lie. I am always looking out, looking for, even just looking around. (…) There is no looking that is not also directed at something, aimed at some purpose. Looking is looking at or for or just away. Everything that the eye falls on has some momentary interest and possible use. (…)

When I say, ‘Just looking,’ I mean I am searching, I have my ‘eye out’ for something. Looking is hoping, desiring, never just taking in light, never merely collecting patterns and data. Looking is possessing or the desire to possess—we eat food, we own objects, and we ‘possess’ bodies—and there is no looking without thoughts of using, possessing, repossessing, owning, fixing, appropriating, keeping, remembering and commemorating, cherishing, borrowing, and stealing. I cannot look at anything—any object, any person—without the shadow of the thought of possessing that thing. Those appetites don’t just accompany looking, they are looking itself.”

Elkins, James. The Object Stares Back: On the Nature of Seeing.  San Diego: Harcourt, 1997. 20-22.

Comente o excerto acima apresentado, refletindo sobre a complexidade do conceito de visão.

II

“One way of thinking about our times is that we are enacting a wonderful success story. Economic and technological development has made many aspects of our lives easier. If we’re looking at how to move forward, the path this story suggests is ‘more of the same, please.’ We’re calling this story Business as Usual.

This is the story told by most mainstream policy makers and corporate leaders. Their view is that economies can, and must, continue to grow. Even in the face of economic downturns and periods of recession, the dominant assumption is that it won’t be long before things pick up again. (…)

For a market economy to grow, it needs to increase sales. That means encouraging us to buy, and consume, more than we already do. Advertising plays a key role in stimulating consumption, and increasingly children are targeted as a way of boosting each household’s appetite for goods [namely through television commercials]. (…) As we grow up, we learn by watching others. Our views of the world about what’s normal and necessary are shaped by what we see.

When you’re living in the middle of this story, it’s easy to think of it as just the way things are. Young people may be told there is no alternative but to find their place in this scheme of things. Getting ahead is presented as the main plot, supported by the subplots of finding a partner, fending for your family, looking good, and buying stuff. In this view of life, the problems of the world are seen as far away and irrelevant to the dramas of our personal lives.”

Macy, Joanna e Chris Johnstone. Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in without Going Crazy. Novato: New World Library, 2012, 15.

Comente o papel das indústrias publicitárias no sistema neoliberal e aponte alguns dos impactos deste sistema no mundo contemporâneo. Recorrendo a (pelo menos) um post do blogue da cadeira (que não tenha sido da sua autoria nem por si comentado), indique modos/áreas de ativismo disponíveis para a consolidação de modelos de desenvolvimento alternativos.

III

Analise esta imagem da campanha “Unemployee of the Year”, lançada pela Bennetton para promover a sua coleção outono-inverno de 2012. Tenha em conta, entre outros elementos que considerar relevantes: i) o contexto socioeconómico contemporâneo; ii) o texto verbal [Michaela, 29, non-photographer from Czech Republic. Angel, 28, non-industrial engineer from Spain. Katerina, 30, non-manager from Greece. Eno, 28, non-actor from the US. Unemployee of the Year. Call for Entries at the Unhatefoundation.org. United Colors of Bennetton. 4 of the nearly 100 million people under 30 years of age in search of a job. Tell us about your non-work experience. Enter the Unemployee of the Year contest with your project or vote for the one that inspires you: 100 of them will be supported. #UNHATE]; iii) o texto visual (e suas estratégias composicionais); iii) a interação entre ambos.