So Lucy and I just met to go over the initial story board for our anti-vert. She showed me what she has been working on so far with the footage we have already sourced and its looking good! We agreed that now we have some initial footage to work with its a good idea to clarify the message, structure and imagery we wish to use that best coveys what we have been working on. As it currently looks a little like a critique of celebrity culture witch is relevant but needs more variety. The song Lucy has been working with provides a good structure as is (broadly speaking) all happy days at the start, descends into chaos, then emerges again - ( i dont think ive listend to the song all the way to the end but is 4 mins long so will need to edit)



Motifs for anti-vert 
we thought that using similar themes of images in the different stages will be a good way of opening spaces for critiquing the comodifyed happiness we've been talking about

- Mattresses = initially showing gleaming bed adverts then later cutting in images of discarded         mattresses on the streets

- Celebrity fandom = this is something we seemed to have all ready picked up a lot of content for so initially showing all the happy excited faces then later showing

- Holidays = initially showing the sun soaked smily adverts then later depictions of climate change/ pollution to highlight our critique of the expense of happiness

- healthy life style pics = initially women laughing at salads and exercising

- Adverts  = the most obvious one!! showing some old school nuclear family fifties fun and using the modern using deep emotions to sell things like cars ect

- please can peeps sugest more motifs! I think visually playing with similar concepts to show deeper critiques will create an understandable and impacting narrative 



Structure for anti-vert 

1 Happy days/ perfect consumption 
- this could be seen as a kinda documentation of how things are before we critique
eg - mattress adverts, happy fans, jolly hollidays, laughing at salads, adverts

2 descends into chaos / consumption consequence 
- this could be wear we start to disrupt the mentioned above happy narrative by showing unsettling images
eg - discarded matresses, fainting crying fans, pollution from planes, sinister laughing at salad type pics, creepy ads
   - also where we can put the footage of London riots ect for impact

3 emerges again 
- this is the part where we can make our message a bit more complex by using supposedly nutural images begging the question of how everyday life facilitates the above critiques
- this section deffers needs developing please can everyone have a think about this

4 our message 
- we don't buy it!
- prehaps we could draw a little logo for this phrase and incorporate it into pen raged



TO DO LIST
- think of more motifes that fit our critique and find footage
- develop section 3 of the anti-vert
- discuss our plans for audio - do we think some kind of narration will help or make it too obvious
- work on the we dont buy it tag line and how were gunna present it


lots a love xxx

Interviewing today/messy brain thoughts

So today me and Sari went to Monument station and interviewed people around the city of London specifically dressed in suits. We found firstly that:

1. Shannon Howard is very annoying and doesn't check that the on button on the mic is fully switched on
2. Most people were rushing around/waiting for business lunches/about to leave for a meeting
3. It was a lot of white dudes in suits
4. We are both very shy when it comes to vandalism/penraging
5. Most of the suits were very friendly, especially two guys in a pub we were told to find by another man who had to rush off who ended up talking to us for ages and offering to get us a drink

Interestingly as well, and what I wanted to talk more about is the homogeneity in the answers given by the archetypal successful people we spoke to today and other people we have interviewed who are arguably in a more precarious situation, ie students, cleaners at Goldsmiths. A lot of the answers today centred around contentment and happiness being as a result of surrounding yourself with family and friends which has been a common theme throughout the interviews. The interesting thing about the similarities in these answers is that the people we are interesting have very different financial situations, social situations and working conditions. Although this is interesting I don't think it is surprising. A lot of people spoke about pressures around being young in such industries when they were younger to do with success and money, which one guy said took a back seat once he settled down, and as the majority of the people we interviewed were 40+ men it would have been interesting to see the responses of younger people.

I think it's do with the idea of contentment, or the myth of it that creates such homogeneous responses. Everyone interviewed has said that family, friends and stability are the key to contentment but the people in the city have better material conditions than others interviewed. Even when we talked about stress and working hours, people said that 80% or above work 9-5 jobs in the insurance industry, or at least the 12 hours days are rare in their field. Such contentment means that the factors that appease city workers and those that appease cleaners or students are the same, meaning that self reflection on your own material condition/those of others becomes very difficult because you become less able to evaluate your own advantages/points of oppression (sorry not sorry for the Marxist tone guys xxx). Also I don't mean this to be demeaning or insulting to students or cleaners, and i really hope it hasn't come across as that, but from a lot of the work/stuff I've learnt to do with social reform, it's the same sort of appeasement that comes as a result of social welfare. In Germany in the early 20th Century, to protect the stability of the Crown a lot of piecemeal social reform was created to stop people revolting and killing their factory owners, because of this, a sort of acceptance came on the part of the workers who were appeased due to their conditions being improved but arguably not in a positive way because it meant factory owners/capitalists were still able to exploit their labour. I would go in more detail about this but this is form A Level history which was a v v v long time ago. Anyway, yeah, I think that contentment acts as a set of rose tinted glasses that can dramatically change the way you view your own situation, which isn't surprising because I doubt a lot of people would readily admit that their labour is exploited, but definitely something to bear in mind in terms of our project.

I hope this made a little bit of sense,

Shannon xxx

Stuff that went down today

Quick update and record of what went down today and plans going forward for us all:

1. RATIONALE

We began streamlining our extensive thoughts into a rationale, which went something like this:

"Happiness as a goal is widely functioning as a normative and atomising force, furthering and being used to further unexamined participation in capitalist lifestyles"

Not sure about 'lifestyles' myself - not full enough? Lifestyle is part of this but it is about the whole system - production and consumption. Us as participants in producing, consuming and reproducing..

We went on to break down themes/points within this, such as the objectification of happiness (as Will Davies talks about), the atomisation of the project as individual responsibility/opportunity (and failing if you don't manage to be happy - see pathologising of unhappiness, both Davies and Sara Ahmed talk about this), and normative function of happiness when happiness is embodied by certain lives, lifestyles and goods (which fit in with marketable hegemony).

Think Josh is doing a fuller version of this to post, so we can collaborate on bashing it out properly.

2. ANTI-VERT

Started collecting clips for our anti-vert. We are downloading these via keepvid.com (incredibly easy) and then saving on shared 'life a users manual' google drive so everyone not in London can have a look and add to.

3. TOMORROW
 
Pen-rage and interviews - 2 groups heading out, one to Peckham and other to Canary Wharf. We will split time pen-raging and also interview as wide a range of people as we can, poking around with our rationale.

%$*&^()(*)_)(_"$£&&~@:~

Finally, here's Guy Debord calling the Apple helpline, sort of. This is this home-made anti-slick vibe I like and think we could consider in our works (maybe as well as slick one..). It's quite amazing what the Apple guy starts saying at the end of the call, playing into the fetishisation of commodity point. Maybe we should make some calls for our anti-vert audio..

 

Penraged got me thinking...

So I was on my way to Euston last Friday and was immediately inundated with lots of ridiculous adverts on the underground. I would have started scribbling in the name of political intervention but it was very busy and the majority of the ridiculous ones were behind the tracks. Anyway, I saw this and it got me thinking about the relationship between the tyranny of happiness and the commodification of  empowerment. These are both rather well linked as it is through such commodification that the tyrannical nature of advertising can be fully grasped. In our meeting this week I was talking to Sari about the idea that a huge part of advertising, and where my immediate problem lies, is through how adverts take real joy from human interaction and suck all of the life from them in order to sell us stuff. I believe that is the real tyranny. In the case of feminism it's clear that we are sold faux empowerment in order to get us to buy things. It's so gross and manipulative. With the advert I saw in particular, it's like 'you're a superwoman but your legs are still fat so wear our shoes'. It really is completely ridiculous

This is a really great article about it:

https://qz.com/692535/we-sold-feminism-to-the-masses-and-now-it-means-nothing/

Wow. Check out this article. This man is the living consequence of all we are trying to resist. Living his life to make money - for 'security'. He is the machine.  He doesn't buy comfort, he just keeps accumulating because he doesn't seem to know anything different. Clearly, he has let human connection diminish.


http://nextshark.com/man-reveals-how-choosing-comfort-in-his-20s-led-to-a-life-of-emptiness-and-pain/

Yesterday I started reading 'anti-Oedipus by Deleuze and Guattari, I highly recommend it. Foucault writes the preface and in it lists things to live counter to all forms of fascism (including the fascism within all our heads that "causes us to love power, to desire the very thing that dominates and exploits us").

Here are a few of his suggestions:

• Develop action, thought and desires by proliferation, juxtaposition, and disjunction, and not by subdivision and pyramidal hierarchization
• Do not demand of politics that it restore the "rights" of the individual, as philosophy has defined them. The individual is the product of power 
• Do not become enamoured of power

I think theres something here we can use for our rationale...

See you soon,

LC X

WE/YOU/I

Thoughts on the everyday politics of group work

If we must work to play this project is my kind of game - we discussed the idea of the 'i' vs the 'we' and it got me thinking about this project pertaining to the 'we'. We are within the individually driven educational system that pits us against one another, encouraging competition and providing society with individuals fit for a capitalist system.

Group work can take us away from that. Especially this group.

Your minds and thoughts are making me think. Hard. And I love it. Perhaps this is the alternate side of this vast project. This group has made me feel allllllll kinds of emotion; happy, inspired, angry, frustrated, motivated, challenged. The diversity of human emotion is worth celebrating, no one emotion is more valid or useful than the rest, they require each other to function.

You feel emotion individually, no one can comprehend the way someone feels completely. But sharing the memory of a moment or idea or creating a moment or an idea with an other is vital for human beings. We are social creatures. And our discussing emotional obsession is important, and an interesting paradox. To have to think about thinking about emotions in order to try and not prioritise thinking about emotions. Classic academia eh!

Adverts Around London

As a follow up to the idea of Brandalism, I found this!

We should definitely use this to post an huge advert, or adverts, around Goldsmiths and London. We could film people viewing the ad from afar. It is perhaps not legal but I'm prepared to take the risk for the sake of the project if you guys are? 

(Cick on the image to see it larger to view the text).

Sample Release Forms

Here's two sample release forms we can use for the interviews today, I'm not privy to the details of permission/copyright with this kinda stuff but these two detail what we can use the footage for:

https://www.dukeupress.edu/Assets/Downloads/DUP_SampleInterviewRelease.pdf

 http://www.folklife.si.edu/resources/pdf/interviewreleaseform.pdf

Tailoring questions towards advertising

Super work on the questions Sari and Lucy, I particularly like the ones that zoom in on Happiness as an 'agenda': 

• Can you think of something you buy to alleviate discomfort? 
• Does it work? 
• Do you feel a pressure to be happy?
• Are you happy enough?

As we're looking at Happiness, a huge umbrella term, I think we should clarify where we think the pressure to be happy is coming from  - namely advertising.

Therefore our questions and overall vision for the project should reflect the tandem between pervasive, explicit advertising of happiness and it's failure to produce a real happiness. 

Asking people how advertising makes them feel is crucial, we're not just asking people about unhappiness or discomfort but about the methods and tactics that they encounter everyday. Focusing on advertising will help to narrow the line of questioning and analysis of the answers we receive from interviews. 

What do you guys think?

Hey Hombres, great meeting Monday deffers feel a lot clearer too!

for the word
- making a word that enables us to express the concepts of 'bad comfort' and 'ok sadness' is really hard! I have thought of some words but alas none of them would be clear in meaning to a random person on the street. I think it is best to prioritise the clarity of our message over the creation of a word (sob) unless anyone else has had some good ideas?

getting in contact with Brandalism 
I have been doing some research and Brandalism are a super interesting and relevant group to our Pen-raged section of the project i really recommend checking them out. I have messaged Brandalism's Facebook page to get some advice on how to make the most impact and on legality. Hopefully they will reply starting a dialog and we could wing for an interview!

questions for interview

really like your qs Lucy are strait to the point, perhaps we could add:

- what is comfort to you?
(leaving this q open at the start might be interesting to see if they go for consumable/non consumable things Lucy your question 'can you think of something you buy to elevate discomfort?' is good cuz its direct about our project themes but i dont think we should open with that as is too leading we want people to answer from their own interpretations instead of leading them to the answers we want. I think its a good question for the end of the interview but not an opener!  )

big love yalls  xx

Hey guys, great day. I feel loads clearer about what needs to be done! I quickly jotted down some questions (as discussed in the session) and asked Henry and Angie them - it felt more like a survey than an interview (perhaps not appropriate for everyone we 'interview')... their answers were GREAT they said they would be filmed on Wed - I appreciate we don't just want our pals but the more the merrier at this stage perhaps, until we know more of what we want. 

These are the questions - 

Can you think of something you buy to alleviate discomfort? 

Does it work? 

Do you feel a pressure to be happy?

Do you feel pressure to be successful?

What does success look like to you? 

I know theres more than 3 but I was just experimenting and once we all have written 3 questions we can see which ones to go for. 

Hey lovelies, i think we have spent a lot of time trying to theorise  how comfort can be dubious. I think this clip is eloquent and spot on. The transient comforts our culture presents as dogmatically good and are meant to necessarily make us happy remove us from reality and nature.

Project ideas:

1 We could start by creating the  ability to understand what we are trying to critique with language

The idea of 'too much bad comfort' is currently hard to express. I think we should create a word that enables us to critique this currently insidious effect of comfort by naming it and thus demystifying it. The propagation of this word could come in many forms; we could create flyers with the word and definition, start a Facebook page, create an advert for the word or even lobby for it to be added to official dictionaries. Language shaped our ability to connect with concepts and the creation of dissenting language could be radical in the effects of its use.

2 We could focus on critiquing the existing consequences of 'too much bad comfort'

I think this is where the ad idea we have been discussing comes in. We have been taking ridiculous inventions that through consumerism seem normal and critiquing them. Perhaps by parodying them by advertising different things in a similar way. For example instead of advertising a ridiculous devise made to cut only avocados we could advertise dirt. Dirt, literal earth is something seen as uncomfortable by many as its messy and not instagramable ect ect. But is vital to our existence and is not a traditional consumable 'product'.

3 we could focus on how comfort is played out in class relations

Jo's recent (Brilliant!) blog post describes this well and we could use that as a point of departure.


I have to finish this post as the workshop starts now but lets go through the ideas we have had perhaps by catogorising them as i have attempted to do above to bring a bit of structure to our convos and we will more clearly be able to see which we feel are more important.


xxx

How does wealth come into comfort?

Comfort is something which is felt, at least at some point, by everyone in their lives. However, the degree to which comfort is experienced depends on a number of factors. One of which is money. The distribution of money within a society based on capitalism is bound to affect the comfort which people feel.

Ostensibly, one would suggest that discomfort is a part of life felt much more by those of less wealth. Through less wealth, there is less ability in a capitalist system to purchase goods and services which make one feel comforted, including necessities. Because of this, are people are likely to feel alienated as they lack the resources to escape this problem, therefore discomforting them more? If there is a limited availability to the poorer margins of society they therefore have less opportunity to experience comfort, and are subject to a number of hardships and disadvantages because of this.

Conversely, is there an aspect of desensitisation for those who have a vast amount of wealth? Through mass comfort, perhaps the upper classes, those who have enough wealth to make themselves feel more comforted through the ability to purchase masses of goods and services, perhaps build a tolerance which limits their comfort through hyper-comfort and a lack of sensitivity to the comforts they receive. It is perhaps an infinite cycle of chasing hollow superficial wants which leads to less comfort.

Therefore, do the polar opposites of wealth bring a similar result, in the sense of comfort? That is not to question the overall result that it is most likely much better to have wealth than not to have enough, however it is a question on whether masses of wealth bring comfort.

Undoubtedly, however, comfort does not solely come from purchasing goods and services. It comes from the ability to affect the world around you, or be affected by the world around you; to feel different in a positive light on behalf of this. For example, you may feel comforted through the love of someone close to you, or giving love to someone close to you. Perhaps then, is comfort better obtained through more meaningful and compassionate objectives and acts?

There is often a greater sense of community with the poorer divisions of society, who frequently band together and aid one another to get by and survive; union of people who feel akin to one another, helping one another for their needs. Could this lead to organic comforts through aiding other people? This is something which the poor perhaps have more access to, therefore have a different form of comfort more readily available – a comfort which is bound by human connection and the want to help each other. Again, that is not at all to suggest in any form that those with inadequate wealth to survive are of a better position, or not unprivileged. However, it is a pondering on whether a lack of availability to purchase goods and services within a capitalist society leads to greater connection with human beings; finding this comfort without the money and selfishness.

Inevitably, this questioning is touching on the very surface of the multitude of inputs and factors which affect human comfort. Wealth is something which affects us all, positively and negatively, and it has the same effect on comfort too.

All-singing, all-dancing crap of the world

Some of the clips we chatted about from Fight Club on Monday

Streamlining ambition

Good morning my sweet angel delights,

It's just over a month since this project started and it's gone from looking at everyday discomforts to rejecting hyper-consumerism to discussing happiness. We've all agreed the topics of study are ridiculously broad but fascinating at the same time, so after the conversation at Natura on Wednesday I think we should decide once and for all on a headline for this project.

Let's meet today and decide as we can then take out the camera and begin to collect the first reels of interviews/vox pops/background imagery for any potential advert.

I'm also thinking if we have the camera then a small mini-documentary could also be achieveable. With text, spoken word over a moving image and interviews we could construct a short but punchy take on people's discomfort/happiness and use it to construct a narrative around the politics of everyday life.

Chuck on some comments and we can get this train chug chug chugging 

Josh 

X

/// The Myth of Minimalism ///

I saw this article today on our much loved Facebook group 'sounds like late stage capitalism but okay' and I really really loved it. If you've ever ventured onto the minimalist YouTube community as I unfortunately have, you will see for yourselves how sanctimonious and privileged this lifestyle can come across as.

~~~http://thefinancialdiet.com/minimalism-just-another-boring-product-wealthy-people-can-buy/~~~

This article perfectly surmises why the minimalist aesthetic embodies a new form of consumption rather than rejecting it as it states it does. It is not a coincidence that minimalist fashion or home decor comes with a hefty price tag. It is merely another choice the middle class have. It does not mention those who are forced into minimalism because of economic reasons. Its. just. so. gross. when. you. think. about. it!!!!!!!!!!

It also reminds me of another article I read recently (although I cannot find the article at the minute, I'll leave it in the comments if I succeed later on) about the soaring interest in kitsch culture and accumulation of 'things' being a result of more and more people living in rented accommodation and wanting to personalise their environment but being unable to actually decorate their homes.

I think the dichotomy in these two forms of consumption are really interesting and although this is not strictly related to our project, I think it does serve to show just how aligned consumption and personal identity are.

That's all from me for now xoxo

I like it!

So I really like this idea of making an alt-ad - advertising against advertising in a sense, as well as advertising against comfort - the anti branded brand; the advert that has nothing to advertise. I think you can definitely develop this idea a bit more. The anti-brand puts you in line with YoMango's work as discussed last week so have another look at them or at any other artists /collectives who attempt to critique some of the assumptions of capitalist society. Are you considering the degree to which advertising promises comfort but necessarily fails to deliver it and the way that what is being sold to us is not so much the fetishised commodity (Marx) but the promise of ourselves only better, happier , more content, more beautiful, smarter, sexier, more secure, etc. etc.? If so, then have a look at Naomi Klein's No Logo which will give you some initial ideas about the scale and scope of capitalist agendas and the degree to which they are embedded in everyday consumerism. The affective economy is also discussed in Will Davies' book on happiness, as mentioned by Lucy, so I would also have a look at this too and at other texts that discuss this, to try to tease out your agendas a bit more.

I'd like to know more about your advert too. Sounds Potentially very exciting and original - and importantly, as though you have the means to pull it off. Can you storyboard it? What will it feature? How long will it be? What does it want to achieve? Who will see it and how?

It's discomfort I can't buy that I'm scared of

I keep running up against a paradox when thinking about our question of discomfort/comfort, it seems significant that some discomforts are palatable whilst some are not, and vice versa for some comforts. I keep wondering, what are we talking about by discomfort or comfort? The intersection of the concepts seems vital, but how exactly? We are not simply saying one is good and the other is bad. When does comfort or discomfort become 'good', and when is it 'bad'? What is the logic that we are opposing?

Being part of the market is how we play our part in capitalism, by both producing and consuming. Has the logic of the market been internalised to the point that going against it is the definition of uncomfortable? 

For instance, I'm sitting in a cafe right now. I can’t just sit on a bench or little wall somewhere and have a think. There’s something scary about that - I feel unprotected, confused. What am I doing here? I need to sit in a café and have a coffee and maybe a cake. Then I can think safely, within the comfort of the right logic. It’s not just fear that I might get a bit cold out there on a bench or need the loo – although that worry also exists. Am I so fragile? This is part of the push and pull of the logic. The less often I’m cold, the more I’m afraid of cold, the more alien it is when I feel it nipping at me, the more disturbing that feeling is, the pain is real. Quick get into the café, buy fur-lined leather gloves, a hot chocolate, maybe with some brandy, treat yourself. Youreworthit! I propose that it is discomfort I can't buy that I’m scared of. The sensations of discomfort themselves are not the deciding factor of whether I withstand or reject an experience. I can buy a gym membership to sweat uncomfortably, that’s not scary. I can work 45 hours a week in front of a computer screen in an office, that’s extremely uncomfortable physically but it doesn’t feel wrong or scary. It feels quite correct, even if I hate it. It makes perfect sense. 

There’s also something unnatural, strange, about comfort I can’t buy. Lying in bed all day without hyping up (commodifying - normalising) the experience by making it into a capitalist sanctioned event ‘netflix and chill’ (copious snacks also required, wither trash route (supanoodles/mini marsbars etc), hyper komfort route (m + s, waitrose, finest, taste the difference yeah baby this is gonna feel better than sex) or hyper-authenticising (coffee-table cookbook officialised instructions for home-made Lifestyle grade komfort hummus and flatbreads). Just reading and maybe eating a shit left-overs sandwich and calling a friend. Hmm, that doesn’t feel very special. What about YOLO?? Sounds boring, lonely. Sounds like I might encounter the void a bit too much. I might encounter myself a bit too much. Eeek. Choosing to work 4 days a week, have less money, have less stuff, have less swish food, have a less swish home, but more time. Time is money isn’t it?  Choosing money (by money I mean anything that is part of capitalist approved production and consumption) over time feels so much more natural. 

What choices and behaviour seem attractive and natural and what don’t... How often does the obvious choice map onto what capitalism wants? (hint – for me OFTEN).

So I wonder; is it the market which creates this hierarchy of acceptable/non-acceptable comforts and discomforts? Is 'comfortable' actually being defined by capitalism in a tautological sense? I mean, comfortable is that which capitalism finds comfortable, uncomfortable is that which it does not? Like those razors Josh mentioned, they are comfortable because taking care of your style is the right thing to do (because it entails consumption and encourages others in their consumption). 

Have we internalised the market definition of these things - to the detriment of our mental health/real happiness/communities/societies/environments? Is the market at the heart of what we want to resist in the modern definition, and more importantly, experience, of comfort and discomfort? Rosie's thoughts on the power/importance of words, a new one for bad comfort (and maybe one for good discomfort) seems resonant again. 
  
Rejecting produced experience and market logic feels perverse because it goes against what seems rational.. Why would I get rid of googlemaps? How can making life harder for myself make sense? 

On the other hand, how is common sense located? Re. googlemaps: what are we missing when we can't get lost anymore?