Roland Barthes’ Toys

For this assignment, I’ve been tasked with writing up a reflection on Roland Barthes’ essay on ‘Toys’ and his views on them by paraphrasing his words, seeing if I agree with his analysis and finding evidence to support my own argument

What Are his views?

Barthes sees toys as being an obscure representation of adult life, meaning their sort of a representation of adult life, meaning their sort of a transition for children becoming adults, he says this is because of the set up scenarios (e.g Easy bake oven= Homemaker, Plastic doctors tools= Doctor, science equipment= Scientist, etc.) He even says that the child playing with the toy is seen as a user, not a creator.

He also states that most toys have readymade solutions that don’t fully strengthen they’re imagination and creativity (e.g a toy based on a movie already has its own set up and story and character name, A toy spaceship is just a toy spaceship and god knows what occupation Barbie has now, etc) unlike LEGO that does the exact opposite, sure they do sell construction sets with ready-made scenarios, instructions and even characters but that’s really just a suggestion some buy the sets for either the parts, the figures, they’re collections or just to build their own creations, LEGO is unique because its about taking a bunch of bricks given to us and making something new out of it. In fact when the creators of LEGO were selling theses set they became so popular they decided to just focus on the building bricks instead of they’re original wooden toys, that’s part of what Barthes is saying not many toys give kids motivation to expand their imagination there just filled with limitations, manufacturing limits and creative scenarios not made by the kids. The only limitation LEGO has is the imagination of the user.

My Argument

After reading his analysis on toys and reading his strong views on them, the question is “What do I think of his views?”

First off I wouldn’t necessarily say that certain toys would reflect a Childs future, thats not really how it works, no one knows what they want to be when they grow up. It takes time to learn, experience, make mistakes and take risks. The main purpose of toys is to entertain, meaning they’re not meant to be taken too seriously. Toys are just meant to be happy distractions so a kid doesn’t have to think about his/her future just yet.

I would also make another analogy on imagination restriction by comparing toys with ready-made solutions to nature

What I mean by this if a kid is given a type of action figure (e.g a superhero, a spaceman or transformer, etc) they’re creativity is mostly restricted, however if a kid is playing in a park or forest they’ll find imagination almost everywhere they’ll climb trees, play hide in seek they’ll even use a stick a sword, a wand or a gun, some kids might even find inspiration to make their own toys.

The point of this is nature can inspire more children than manufactured toys.

Conclusion

I’m not saying manufactured toys are completely limiting children’s imaginations, in fact, kids have lots of imagination even with these kinds of toys, I’m saying kids need to allow their minds to expand, to challenge their thinking and imagination and by doing that, they could create something amazing.

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

Screen Shot 2019-02-13 at 22.07.48.png

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.

Reflection on Folklores

For this assignment, I’ve been tasked with writing a reflection about Folklores I’ve discovered from last weeks lecture.

First the subject was about whiskey and it contributed back in the old days of high society, for this I read an extract from Marshall McLuhan’s “Men of Distinction”, In this he explained how whiskey was an important part of society, business, advertising and culture and how many people used it to work or “blend in”. In my opinion Mcluhans trying to say that whiskey is a corruptive substance and how people use it to “escape” form their problems in a really unhealthy way, he also points out how there were certain types of societies based on wealth and popularity, they referred to as “brows”, there was high brow,(the highest) medium brow (the middle) and lowbrow (the lowest) and he expressed how the high brow was the most dominant society and how drinking whiskey made one feel cultured.

Next, I drew a mind map based on text from the extract and mentioned relevant quotes about his views on whiskey.

Next, I watched a commercial for Bell’s whiskey, then I expressed my opinions on the ad as a whole and pointed out what it had to do with whiskey such as:

The whiskey doesn’t appear until the last five seconds
It mainly focuses on an elderly man learning how to read so he can read his son’s book.

Lastly, each of us was tasked in picking a commercial and drawing out a spider diagram analysis

I picked an ad for “Nescafe Gold” and made sure to include as much as possible.

Link Here:

(24/1/19) Myth-Making Reflection

On the 23rd of January, I had my first lecture on “Myth-Making”, for the first week I learned about “mythologies” such as Plato’s Allegory of the cave, George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, and the philosophies of Roland Barthes.

During this, I read a page of Barthes plastic in Mythologies, whilst reading he described plastic as more a material of infinite possibilities, that its a miracle of materials and even said “A miracle is always a sudden transformation”, he even talked about it being compared to other materials effusiveness such as rubber and flat hardness of metal, and genuine produce such as foam, fibers, and strata.

Next, I had to identify an object and find examples of it using different materials

Here are the ones I included:

Money notes
Fingernails
Watches
Chopping boards
Bowls
Chairs
Tents
Tables
Body prosthetics
Buttons

The best example I gave was Body prosthetics because we really have come a long way from wooden legs, hook hands etc, because nowadays we can 3D print plastic hands with moveable fingers, and in case of a scenario if the hand is broken, it can always be 3D printed again under the same program file. There are even some that are completely functioned by the user’s mind.

Has it made me think differently about my discipline or my own practice as an individual?

Not really, I still see plastic how it is “a dominant material”, in many ways plastic has helped due to it being easy, cheap and safe (if used probably), In other words we wouldn’t be where we are today, plastic has helped us Create new inventions, toys, equipment and has even helped the environment with there imitation products such as tables, chairs, and various tools. With plastic, we have more opportunities and possibilities to go beyond limitations, we can make things easy, safe and eco-friendly. As for my own practice I see it being useful since it provides me with the right tools I need such as my equipment and leftover materials I can use for making or as a pallet for paint, glue and other substances.