The Death of the Author

"The Death of the Author" by (author) Roland Barthes may be one of the most influential works of theory to date, as well as a rather poetic musing on creators and their influences. Reflecting on this in the present day one can't help but see it implying how creative work can be effectively created via artificial intelligence. Here's a video explaining the basics of this essay...

 

 Here's one that's digs a bit deeper and shows how Barthes appropriated concepts from writings that preceded his by decades, in the spirit of the essay itsself...

 

The most provocative concept in this essay is contained in the final sentence "...the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author." suggesting the overlooked contribution of the reader in the functionality and meaning of an artwork (as understood in 19freaking67!!!). This awareness may be the key to effectively reaching an audience in the 21st century.

Photography's Mythic Objectivity

Panzani Advertisement from Barthes’s Rhetoric of the Image.

 

Notes on Barthes’s Rhetoric of the Image:

How images contain signifiers beyond pure representation.

 

Signs within the image (disregarding text)…

1) Narrative created by bag spilling onto ‘table’.

2) The colors of Italian flag create Italianocity.

3) Still Life genre…items are composed.

The photograph is a ‘message without a code’ so these signifiers are subjective.

 

Linguistic messages…

1) Brand name Panzani creates Italianocity. (repeated on carefully placed labels).

2) Most of the text here is simply the word associated with the depicted.

3) “A L’ITALIENNE DE LUXE” ...convenience with prestige? Truth?

The denoted message supports the connotated message.

 

Is an image always accompanied by a linguistic message…title, caption, text, dialog? What about image classifications that anchor images…found, random, surveillance, etc?

 

Although a photograph is a message without a code a drawing is a coded message, with it's visual abstraction guided by conventions of contour, linework, shading, perspective, etc.

 

Nature seems to spontaneously produce the scene in a photograph…masking the constructed meaning under the appearance of the given meaning.

 

Rhetoric of the image…how are the signified of connotation to be named? (Italianocity)

“…the discontinuous world of symbols plagues the story of the denoted scene as though into a lustral bath of innocence.”

Disclaimer; This is a mash-up of my notes from this essay and may not reflect the author's intent.

This Is Marshall McLuhan - The Medium Is The Massage (1967) - The Movie

 

Printing your 11x14

 This can be done right in the print dialogue using similar tools but can be done more accurately in photoshop as follows;

 1) Go to image (at the very top) > image size

 2)  Work with your longest dimension. Leave at least a 1 inch margin on each side. This will be 14 inches wide after we resize the canvas, so we’ll select 12 inches as the width. The height will automatically resize. Set the resolution at 350 DPI. Click OK

  

 

 3)    Go to image > canvas size. Set the width at 14 inches and the height at 11. Leave the anchor in the middle. White is the most conventional extension color. Click OK

 

 

 

This is what your framed image will look like;

 

 

 

Below is what you get with 'scale to fit media'. THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.

 

Kraftwerk

 Here's a great doc mapping the influence of Kraftwerk...

Photo-quality Inkjet Printing in the Wriston Digital Lab

 The Wriston digital lab is in the lower level of the Wriston art center, on the West side directly across from the photo area. Only the furthest in computer is connected to the printer. This video is chopped out of a longer covid-era video, so it's not the slickest production. There is also a printed version of these instructions in the lab.

Garagebandland

Three ways to use garageband;

Using MIDI  technology (there are MIDI keyboards at every station in the 013 lab)...

Using pre-recorded loops...

Or multi-track recording...

Software instruments, loops, and multitrack recording...used individually or together. The possibilities are endless, especially when you consider that a project may start with a recording conveniently made with your phone. These how-to videos are all by... 

https://thegaragebandguide.com 

which has exhaustive and always up to date info on using garageband.

Before you export your garageband track try some basic mastering. I discovered the genre-based presets are still there and that may be all you need. Click on master and output on the mastering window at the bottom of the interface. If you double click on compressor, exciter, and limiter and if you go past 'manual' you will see presets. From there you can really beef-up your track. Here's a really well-done article on mastering...

 

https://producersociety.com/how-to-master-a-song-in-garageband/