The Handmaid of Capitalism

Along with our trip to the Museum of Brands, Advertising and Packaging we had a lecture. In this we discussed the negative effect of cooperations and their heavy influence upon our ethical choices. It is important to highlight the fact that people are becoming increasingly aware of the consequences of the apparently banal decisions that we make based on the price of, say, a sofa. Our current rate of consumption is through the roof and it seems that both consumers and the workers for large companies are feeling less and less comfortable with buying and producing according to price given the enormous environmental effects. Most worryingly, we learnt that if the US carries on manufacturing and consuming at the rate it does, it would need the equivalent of over 5 worlds worth of resources to do so. Whereas many countries in Africa would need less than a quarter of the worlds resources to carry on. How can this obsession with ever increasing growth make us happy let alone justify the means by which these never-ending shopping lists are manufactured? We were given the task at the museum of choosing a cooperation to analyse. I chose to look at Guinness and its very clever advertising over the years. First of all the basics. Guinness sells mainly a dark beer that gains its colour and distinctive burnt taste from a little roasted unmalted barley in the brewing process and its signature moussey 'head' simply by adding nitrogen when poured. On their website they describe a pint of Guinness draught beer as 'Swirling clouds tumble as the storm begins to calm, settle, breathe in the moment, then break through the smooth, light head to the bittersweet reward. Unmistakeably GUINNESS® beer, stout, or draught , from the first velvet sip to the last, lingering drop. And every deep-dark satisfying mouthful in between. Pure beauty. Pure GUINNESS®'. Pretty much every adult in the country knows the phrase 'Guinness is good for you' from the 20s and thus came the loyal Guinness drinkers who drank it because of its beneficial qualities of a high iron content and several calories when they weren't as cheaply and readily available in food. Even doctors recommended it. I have several issues with Guinness and  their so-called legacy, one being that every other middle-aged beer belly that comes to the microbrewery I work for asked for a pint of it even though we have a far superior stout. Anyway, Guinness sell to mainly men and a large portion of their market is in Ireland; in spite of a decline in consumption since 2001, it is still the best-selling alcoholic drink in Ireland where Guinness & Co. makes almost €2 billion annually. They also have a huge market in Africa; Guinness has a significant share of the African beer market, where it has been sold since 1827. About 40% of worldwide total Guinness volume is brewed and sold in Africa, with Foreign Extra Stout the most popular variant. Guinness' brand values are their distinctive style of beer, being so unique that very few pubs in the UK offer an alternative stout on draught, their so-called Irish heritage despite the fact that a porter such as the original Guinness originates in London, and an emphasis on advertising, having coined several phrases over the years including 'Good things come to those to wait', a reference to the fact that it should take 119.53 seconds to pour the 'perfect pint' of Guinness due to a 'double pour' method. The social and environmental impact of Guinness is also to do with its advertising, well at least the social aspect is. Up until the late 80s there was still advertising in Africa that claimed Guinness had health benefits which is totally illegal due to various laws in place to prevent excessive consumption of alcohol. It only became such a popular drink because of clever campaigns that always had some kind of catchphrase- "Guinness is good for you", "It's 17.59 it's Guinness time", "Guinness for Strength", "Lovely Day for a Guinness", "Guinness Makes You Strong," "My Goodness My Guinness". In terms of the environmental impact, there's the obvious impact of transportation and also bottling. Furthermore, there is a huge amount of water wasted in the brewing process.

A Reflective Statement

I feel that my blog has become somewhat less prioritised in favour of our practical work and, being mindful of this and some of the last minute updates I've had to make for this assessment, I intend to try to become used to updating regularly and viewing it as a tool as opposed to a task. I feel that there was a strong level of research for my Brixton and Science Museum study tasks and the presentation was successful. My photographs for our Brixton research project are amongst my favourites. In relation to other blogs I have been looking at Clare Vuletich's blog, http://www.loveandthrift.com/; whilst there is a great deal of information there I enjoy its chatty style with immediate photographic references to all her writing. I now see it as essential to the whole idea of blogging to maintain this very readable, free writing style and avoid getting into large chunks of writing without anything to break it up a little bit. Furthermore, it makes for a much more interesting blog to be constantly updating it with your wider concerns and your own opinions; things you have independently been to see, things you have found that you are really passionate about. Not just images that 'I loooove!!!' with far too many exclamation marks but things that are important for you and you want to share. I have achieved this to some extent with my blogging before the Christmas break but this can be improved and certainly will be. One blog where you can feel the passion and genuine concern of the writer is Emily Campbell's, http://projects.rsablogs.org.uk/; it isn't as involved with textiles but I enjoy her approach of sourcing such a vast range of articles and opinions and her writing is full of questions for the reader. One thing I am thoroughly pleased with is the layout of my blog; without being too intrusive in itself it compliments my writing and photographs.

Trade Between East and West

Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising

Certainly not your average exhibition; what some have described as a 'time tunnel' of British consumerism and advertising, Robert Opie's collection combining perfectly British nostalgia and advertising memorabilia is an amazing contrast to the displays we were looking at just a couple of weeks ago at the V&A. Allegedly and perhaps romanticised, Opie came home in 1963 clutching a munchies wrapper, aged 16, and vowed never to throw anything away again. Surely one man couldn't have amassed this amazing range of things but a man with a mission he was... I really enjoyed the unique style of presentation, it is rare for you to see objects crammed into spaces and stacked on top of each other supermarket-style. In this way the exhibition sort of elevated these essentially very ordinary things. On other blogs I have read that talked about the exhibition people have touched on the sentimental attachment they have to some of the packaging. This is key to advertising memorabilia as it due to the friendly face companies put on say, a cereal box that means you remember eating that cereal with fond memories. It has a lasting impression as opposed to the totally unimpressionable basic packaging. 

Technical Blocks- Knit

I really struggled with knit at first. I found it frustrating because my almost finished samples kept falling off for no apparent reason. That was before I discovered the chunky machine. I loved working on it as I could use several different yarns on one sample and I could create far more textural effects such as cable knitting which you usually do by hand. I was most pleased with the effect of simply creating ruffles. My punch card was supposed to look like the cross section of a mushroom but I feel it it somewhat too angular. 

Technical Blocks- Weave

Just had our final block which was weave. It was funny because just as I had done in knit I really loved using the chunky loom because I became more involved with what types of yarns I used. Unfortunately on this loom you can't seem to do lots of the patterns because of the way its threaded so I made up quite a few. Also, on the sample where I dyed the wool this was very time consuming as it took ages to dry. It also came out quite patchy. I'm really pleased with the effect I got by brushing the mohair sections with a wire brush once I had cut them from the loom.

Technical Blocks- Stitch

So these are photos of my stitch samples. Was ridiculously fiddly and difficult to mount the lycra. I am pleased with the samples as I feel they reflect my colour palette very and also they are really 3D liked I had hoped. There are a couple that I had hoped would turn out more textural and 3D but I think I worked into them too much so they are too close to being quite naff embroideries.