FARMVILLE/FACEBOOK/VIRTUAL GAMES AND MYSELF

These virtual games are hilarious. I AM ADDICTED TO FARMVILLE. what I find funny is that on the day I started playing it I had a particularly shit day, and as I started playing a thing came up on my facebook page "Trees has escaped to the country to be a farmer" (name is Trees R Green) and I found that so funny because it really is an amazing level of pop escapism. I find myself spending alot of time on it and getting quite addicted. I don't want to make a piece of work which is so obviously "a farm" which one lady is doing, but I'm interested in this idea of people's identites being expressed through their own personal decisions on how they plan their farm. and it's not even real! Maybe a piece of work where I print off everyones farm to show people the different ways people react to it. The maximum way is to go on my friends accounts and try to get as many different peoples as possible. I need some time to properly conceptually break it down. However there is another element, which is this "make the character into yourself thing" which makes me laugh and is DEFINATELY a piece of work. This thing is also available on Wii. Tatsu brought in his Wii the other day and him and Guy were playing it massive on a projector in the project space and they played bowling and I just thought about how weird it was and took a photo of it. People cant even be bothered to actually go bowling. They have to run and do yoga and punch punch bags virtually in order to do it. I find this strange. Actually maybe this is the working classes way of participating in these activities. ****** LIBERATED IN THE SENSE I KNOW I SHOULD NOT BINGE DRINK AND GO FOR WALKS AND GO BOWLING ETC BETTER FOR BRAIN BUT ALIENATED BECAUSE I KNOW I SHOULD DO THAT BUT I CANT BECAUSE I DONT HAVE MONEY TO OR TOO TIRED FROM WORKING IN CAFE 9-6 EARNING A DEPOSIT TO GET A HOUSE TO COME BACK TO UNI TO. NO TIME 2 RUN. NINTENDO WII IS THE WORKING CLASS MANS PRODUCT TO MAKE THEM FEEL LIKE THEY ARE EXPERIENCING THIS.******

piece of work = getting lots of different versions of ME from wii and nintendo from screen printing etc.

PRESENTATION RESEARCH FOR WORK, - SHOP DISPLAY COMPANIES

I'm starting to think that now I'm buying dummy phones etc to make fruit bowls that maybe shop window displays etc would be the best way to present them. I could show my THE SUN THE STAR stuff on these stands. would be amazing. Need to spend hours thinking about it though. Briefly glimpsing

LOOK AT WHAT MY LIFE COULD BE....ROLAND BARTHES AND HIGH END ADVERTISING

I'm becoming increasingly aware of adverts from the toff end of the market. Where I haven't been introduced to them much I'm starting to realize the difference in advertising. e.g. today I found a banana republic advert in the metro and realised it was a perfect family perfect holiday. It's not the same as the adverts in POP or Vogue, their more interested in the clothes. These are specifically aimed about a lifestyle.it was the christmas one I saw today.

I'm starting to relate to the Roland Barthes chapter about vogue and how the working class were never supposed to cook the stuff because they could never afford all the ingredients but looking at it was enough. ***********FOR DISSERTATION......RELATE HOW THIS COURSE HAS ALIENATED ME IN THE SENSE THAT I KNOW THESE COMPANIES EXIST NOW YET I STILL CANT TOUCH THEM SO WHAT AM I GETTING WHEN THINKING ABOUT LOUIS'S I.S.A'S?*********************

I can never touch these products. I even asked if they would send me some and they wouldn't. This education has just given me the chance to realize it's there but not touch them YET.

GOOGLE IMAGES AND GOOGLE ZEITGEIST

I'm finding brainstorming on googles images particularly helpful this year. Ill just type in one word and then that will link to another then another, I made a massive map in my space but I felt like I had to take it down due to not having enough space to keep it up and concentrate on work. If I had a bigger space I would constantly have this big map up on everything I'm interested in because it helps. but yes google images, I find it easier to kind of map out how everything is connected becuase one thought will lead to another. Helpful way off researching.
Also Im interested in the ways they customize the google logo according to universal holidays etc. it makes clicking on google exciting and I do actually use google for EVERYTHING!

This interest in the top 10 universal stuff is grabbing me. Google zeitgeist being able to see the top 10 searches of what people in amercia, england poland all search for is beautiful. Facebook is winning so much but it helps to understand what humans are looking for. I definately want to find these lists everywhere and keep myself updated and maybe start to make work from them?

CONSUMED/CIVILISATION? AND SHAKESPEARES SEVEN AGES OF MEN

I'm currently reading a book called Consumed ^^^^^ and it's very interesting it discusses how markets corrupt children and dumb adults down. I picked up the first civilization game in a charity shop over the summer without really knowing why but understanding that it had significance. I then found a second one the other day and bought that as well. interestingly...in this book is suggests that civilization no longer exists and it is now a virtual game. I am interested in playing with this idea. It also states that universally every middle class teenager lives pretty much the same life nike shoes, gets ready of school, eats same kind of cereal etc. and this is what markets are aiming for. to get the biggest amount of mass people buying the same stuff and this is why they dumb adults down so they all meet in the middle. It reminds me of an advert in the Times of something I read in the summer about parents going to meet their children whilst their travelling around the world. How bloody weird. Also the guardian supplements now has how to look cool in all ages from 20's to 50's and 60's. In China because of the 6 people in each house hold 1 child thing every person will cater to the childs needs to markets aim everything at them. (2 parents 4 grandparents) Also there are adverts in between school t.v channels which cost the same ammount as a slot during the superbowl final. No body wants to be old anymore. Ageing gracefull is unheard of and some parts of the seven ages are being cut out. I researched the seven ages of man and tried the paint them out as a reaction to what I was ready.
I will highlight which bits I painted over in red


All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players,
They have their exits and entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then, the whining schoolboy with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice
In fair round belly, with good capon lin'd,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws, and modern instances,
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side,
His youthful hose well sav'd, a world too wide,
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again towards childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

What I also found interesting was in the book it talks about Spielberg etc doing trash shit films to get blockbuster money and it had tables of the top 10 sellers in 2000-2006. All of them were either chick flicks, trash like shrek, and blockbuster shit like war of worlds.

I want to continue watching figures like this as pop culture interests me alot!!!!

I also found a save the rainforest article with the times and on the back were a list of companies which supposidily have helped the amazon. these included the likes of shell and mc.donalds. GIVE ME A BREAK?!?!

WALL-E

Oliver has lent me Wall-e and I really love it. I never really watch film but the concept of it is beautiful. This topic of humans destroying everything follows through my work a lot. The way he didnt understand objects and collected them. There was one particular point where he had a plastic spoon shaped fork and a 2 piles....one of plastic spoons and one of plastic forks and he can't decide which pile so he chucks in it the middle. Genius. and the relationship between him and Eeeeva. The element of almost jealousy and awe when she flies and how they've created human traits within him. The city in the sky with loads of brands flying everywhere and humans being fat animals on chairs that just talk to each other , and when evas asleep and he drags her around and takes her to sunsets even though shes off, its just so beautiful in so many ways. I'd love to properly break it down one day. His relationship with objects inspires me the most.

THE ARGOS CATALOGUE AND DEVELOPMENT TO HIGH MARKET BRANDS

I have been stemming a lot of my research on the argos catalogue because its such a quick way of looking at objects. Its a quick way of being able to cut out and really look at objects and pick up brands as well which I'm collecting. Logos and stuff. I find catalogues in general like little bibles of logos and brands. Maybe I should order LOADS to this address. The more Ive been looking at branding the more Im becoming aware of brands which never pass my life e.g banana republic and mitchell and peach, i have collected these because they are fruit and I am making a conceptual piece about fruit within branding but I'm becoming more aware that the more I look and the more I ask people around me the more I realize that I only have half the story because of where I'm from. I also can't really afford these objects to use for my work so I've tried emailing the companies to send me free stuff and they won't. VERY interesting.