Reflection on Folklores II

For this week we were going to go further in re-writing objects, this included taking the narrative that is presented to us about an object, mapping it out to reveal ideological narratives and re-write the object with our own narratives found during our mapping.

First, the subject we talked about was “Absolut Vodka” and how it was advertised through mythologies and how people created satires to show what it was “really” doing to people. For the advertisements, they’d often set up either a simple or dramatic scenario and use part of the products name for a corny tagline.  (e.g Absolut Perfection, Absolut Self-control, Absolut Idol, Absolut Power, etc)

For the next part of the lecture we focused on another object and it’s mythology and re-designed it. The object we focused on was “Washing Machines”, First we read through a few pages of Ellen Lupton’s Mechanical Brides: Women and machines from home to office, in this she wrote about various advertisements on washing machines and many other home appliances,

Next, we analyzed for the “Wizard” washing machine by looking at its own folklore and see what message they’re trying to say

We all came to the conclusion that this ad is an exaggeration because:

• No one would really gather round in excitement over a washing machine
• It says that it leaves you free to do other things but it could be referring to woman doing other kinds of chores
• This ad was most likely aimed at the woman  (due to the time period)
• It’s hinting that the machine will

We also talked about Levittown, Levittown was a small suburb in New York, it had affordable houses, a carefully controlled community and every home came with a stove and a TV, however, it was an exclusive neighborhood for only Caucasian people to live in.

Finally, each of us had a task of creating our own washing machine AD with an alternate narrative. (we had a choice how we made it, I drew it) For me my set up was a 1950s kitchen with a woman under pressure washing the dishes while keeping an eye on a stopwatch, meanwhile various machines such as the washing machine, oven, and smoke alarms go off, while all this is happening her husband is outside lying on a hammock relaxing, also her son is standing behind her, pulling at her dress calling her name while she’s stressing.

Reflection

During this lecture, there were a few things I didn’t know about such as Levittown and how it was an “exclusive” neighborhood, I also didn’t know how exaggerating the washing machine ADs were mainly how exciting they made them look, like a big event.