More thoughts on Class, Culture, Taste and narratives

We bounced around a number of ideas in order to kick-start the creative processes

Looking at Class, at a single point of enquiry; - at a high level we can divide this into;

• divisions, 
• orders,
• relationships,
• hierarchy & stratification

The question is;- who decides in which of these classifications of class does one fit?

A point of reference may be taken from Tony Ray Jones, who is a photographer of class and social structure.  He invites people to read an image, to study and to reflect upon the class and structure of his subjects.

Consider this against the work of Martin Parr, and his similar work in 1991, when he created "we wanted a cottagey stately home kind of feel".

both Jones and Parr take personal stands on their narrative of class. Parr is a little bit aggressive,

and tends to 'sneer' at people, whilst Jones is just simply mischievous in his portrayal of his subjects.

Another research item that I need to engage with would be Raymond Williams, and his book written in 1976. entitled "Culture".  This is defined as a vocabulary of culture and society,

Throughout the day I have been thinking again of one of my favourite quotes from Shakespeare, - Hamlet, Act one; "nothing is either good nor bad but 'thinking' makes it so!"...

I also recall another area of research that I can use, which would be the publication of the National Geographic Society, and the one in mind that I have is regarding the culture in Nigeria, and in Kinshasa in particular, and "The Culture of the Ghetto".

An example of a subculture was well well recorded by Richard Allen, who studied the "skinhead" culture of the early 1970s, which grew out of the working class opposition of middle-class Hippies of the 1960s and early 1970s...  - This then fragmented, got reinterpreted, and "co-opted" into the "Punk" movement of the late 1970s / early 1980s.

The process of 'culture' continues to develop.  Culture is always more into something new, for example the 1950s cultures of mods and rockers turned into skinheads & Hippies, then punk and and New Romantics.   - Maybe I can create a better, easier to read Hereditary Tree of cultures?

Coming back to earth,... I need to remember who will be the audience for my work?

I was particularly interested in another example of creating a narrative on culture today through my Lecturer's (Christian's) own performance art, which takes reference from Hank Williams and the "Nudie Suit" of the 1950s Country and Western music image.
This concept of the Nudie Suit as a badge of identity has been taken up by Christian's group "The Bongaleros", where they have taken an inexpensive second-hand suit jacket and painted it with logos in acrylic paint on the back and sides upon it.   The group tries to create an image of the subversive,

with an undertone of anarchy, together with the Carnivalistic barking of a circus ring master or carnival leader.  It tries to capture the act of celebration that sits outside class constructs,  with combinations of accoutrements such as horse brasses and references to Morris-Men working together with "clean black shoes that have once been worn to Interviews", and other idiosyncratic devices.

References and signifiers;

differences and similarities;

behaviour and manners; - 

the contexts of all of these can often be seen in the way that people or group of people, in other words the tribe, dress themselves.   For example the use of uniforms, garments, trade identifiers, badges etc,, - what does dress say about the tribe or a group?
For example, clean black Oxford style shoes, other shoes, boots, sneakers, trainers?...

How do we read and understand semiotics?  This will be crucial to this project...

In order to build narratives, I spent time in the library using the book written by Nicholas

Merzoeff, (first published 1998 by Routledge, Oxford). 2nd Edition published in 2002, reprinted in 2008). Entitled "The visual culture reader".  (2nd Edition). Within this book, Nicholas Merzoeff

provides a highly detailed reference place in order to truly understand the subject of visual culture.

Another point of reference that I need to research is at the work by Carl Rogers, and his book

the window on the self.  Within this he describes how one sees oneself, How others see you, 

how you see others and how others see others.

Further examples for us all to reflect upon can be found in the BBC Radio 4 programme

"Thinking aloud"

Other headings can also be considered, such as image consciousness and taboos, together with the Taboo breaking (which seems to be quite an English, or even or British activity). Famous examples being; the Goon Show, and BBC television's Monty Python's Flying Circus. - These two programs were very much on the cutting edge of what was acceptable versus what is not acceptable.  They touched on the the Taboo...

The whole aspect of pushing the boundaries is a good place to explore;

In his book "one thousand faces",  Joseph Campbell discusses the 36 "standard narratives" of all stories...  - This is mentioned in the potential goal, for me to try and ascertain "where is the work in this investigation?"

I need to find it, right it,  make it, and paint it!

I need to create the narrative structures before I can execute this work.