Adolf Loos Design Culture Essay Example for Free

Adolf Loos Design Culture Essay There are, or were, better arguments than Loos’s against the misuse of ornament. It could be considered morally dubious, because it is a means of showing off ones wealth. That historical argument was made in the days when hand-crafted decorations were very expensive, but it no longer applicable, now that ornament can be machine-made at a modest cost. In any case, good ornamentation has never been valued solely as ostentation; traditionally, it has also been seen to have real aesthetic merit. Sometimes, excessive ornamentation could be said to be unaesthetic; and in my perspective, some extreme art creations fall into this error. Art plays a particularly important and influential role in culture. It does not simply reflect culture; it creates culture. By studying ornamentation in different periods of design history, we can understand more about how it has manifested itself and why it is a vital part of our history. Window displays, if used effectively, can bring retailers new customers, create customer loyalty, and enhance the image of the business. By decorating and furnishing the display windows, retailers can attract more customers into their stores, increase the sales and revenue, because the majority of purchase decisions are made on impulse. Window displays continue to have a massive influence even until now. It is one of the most important tools to draw customers’ attention. Even from an economic perspective, ornamentation is not necessarily a waste of labour, money, and materials. The 19th century definitely is the century of decorative arts. At the beginning of the century, the arts were ornamental subjects in the education of young ladies and gentlemen. Artistic accomplishments were displayed in pleasing social performances that appeared effortless but demonstrated good taste and ideal values, knowledge, and skills. Art education was one component of a process of secular refinement that spread from the wealthy to the middling sort and included the beautification of houses, churches, as well as school buildings. The art of interior decoration and design was at the same time intimate and luxuriant. Loos argues that ornamentation is uncivilized and primitive, and would hinder the development of national culture. However, ornamentation meant more than just decoration at that time, and the acceptable use of ornament, and its precise definition became the source of aesthetic controversy in academic Western architecture, as architects and critics searched for appropriate styles. â€Å"A plain, functional form generally signified the often harsh necessities of work, and as such was tolerated in its place, but art, in the form of decoration and ornament, represented for many people a deep aspiration for a better life† (Heskett, 56). Ornamentation at that time brought not only the sense of beauty but also mentally content to its user. What do vehicles, vacuum cleaners, ironers, planes, and ships have in common? Obviously, the streamlined design. In the 20th century, streamlined design has evolved from a scientific to an ornamental purpose. While Loos argues that ornamentation is crime and designers should focus on functions, streamlined design actually improves the functionality and the durability of a product. The goal for the future is to improve aerodynamic efficiency by greatly reducing drag while maintaining and, wherever possible, increasing down-force† (Ferrari. com). As a result of using aerodynamic streamlined design, Ferrari has become one of the best hyper-sport car brands in the world for fifty years, best known for its speed and handling. â€Å"In fact, Fordism turned the factory into a kind of super-machine in its own right, with both human and mechanical parts† (Wollen, P66). Fordism is the economic period that turned craftsmanship into the mass production of standardized objects. Under Fordism, production entailed an intensified division of industrial labor; increased mechanization and the coordination of large-scale manufacturing processes to achieve a steady flow of production, and shifted toward the using of less skilled labour. This system effectively reduces the costs of producing large quantities of products and, consequently, makes the sale price significantly lower than the craftsman’s. An ornament is not considered to be a prior-determined mask anymore, to create a significance, or, to have a certain meaning, as it was during the postmodern period. It does not have the role of concealing things, as it did in different historical periods before the modern period, when its existence was futile. A good example of modern design is a wall clock. A clock is meant to draw our attentions through its function. With a fancy design, it also serves as a decoration in the environment. But no matter how fancy the design is, a clock is always meant to be seen easily and quickly. Practical and ornamental designs oftentimes intersect. In those cases, the design elements involved can either work well together or hinder each other. Loos’s argument about decoration is degenerate and inherently criminal does not stand up. Given the time in he is writing, we can forgive Loss his racist assumptions about the black and the Papuans. However, his assertion that primitive people decorate themselves in tattoos so, therefore decoration must be a degenerate practice is completely unfounded and holds no weight at all. I appreciate modern design just as much, if not more than the ordinary person, but truth be told, I am not really interested in decoration.

The Destructive Effects of the Vietnam War Essay example -- Vietnam Wa

The Destructive Effects of the Vietnam War The destructive effects of the US war in Vietnam encompass not only a body count, but also the festering intellectual wound of a war that could not be satisfactorily explained away. The battles of Vietnam, in particular, seemed an affront to conventional understandings of ‘American culture’, military power, the limits of technology, the very possibility to control, and the causes of wartime atrocity. This deeply unsettling part of the Vietnam experiences the US endured revolve, at least to a degree, around the division between the inside and outside. The inside going into the war, from the US perspective, was an ‘American culture’ with ‘American values’, entailing an entire worldview with attendant sets of behaviors considered domestic. The outside was, of course, the radically alien junglescape populated with in-credible enemies, ‘shifty’ and ‘dangerous’ peasants, and untamable environmental hazards to boot. Apoca lypse Now works from a context fixated on the terms of inside and outside for analysis of the battles of the Vietnam War to question these categories by a strategic challenge to both totalizing theories’ explanatory power with elements of layered complexity. Of the post-war 1970’s commentary and reflection on the Vietnam war, the anti-war and rather pacifist afterglow of wartime activists offered perhaps the clearest analysis of the tragedy of the war and its atrocities: the problems are deeply internal to American culture. The 1978 film The Deer Hunter addresses the issue head on, with the Washington Post review opening, As the world moves down the various roads that converge at apocalypse, the ultimate issue becomes life itself, transcending politics or ideology... ...e before the theoretical, where place cannot exist because there is not yet a relation formed to tell the experience where it is. In the bright flames of a reality with uncertain connection to simplistic theories of division of place, the credits roll as the forest and dichotomy of place explode and burn away. Works Cited Apocalypse Now. Dir. Francis Ford Coppola. Miramax, 1979. Bonds, Ray. The Vietnam War. New York: Crown, 1979. Hornbacker, Robert Allen. Real Ultimate Power. 2002. UCLA. 1 March. 2002. http://www.bol.ucla.edu/~rahjr79/ Kroll, Jack. â€Å"Life or Death Gambles.† Newsweek 11 December, 1978: 113+. Matthews, Jay. â€Å"Chinese Assert Viets have Been ‘Taught Lesson’.† The Washington Post 4 March, 1979, A1+. Price, Bem. â€Å"They Fought In Vietnam with One Hand Tied Behind Their Backs.† U.S. News & World Report 30 June, 1975: 41+.

Singles

A day I will never forget One day I will never forget would be September first 2014. That was the day that Is made the volleyball team. I was eager to tryout since my friends and I did It last year. Everyday I had to wake up at six o clock In the morning and play volleyball. The coaches made us run a mile, pass to the target, serve, and set. After the first day of tryouts were over I went to straight to Walter and bought a volleyball.That night I practiced and watched volleyball videos on youth working on everything that we did in tryouts. During the tryouts I had to deal with negative people who didn't want to play with me because last year in 7th grade I wasn't all that great. It really hurt my feelings that people didn't want to play on the same team with because of last year. Sometimes those girls made me go to the point where I just didn't want to do tryout anymore because they were so mean and made me feel bad.When tryouts started this year I was determined to make the a team; I had to make it. Through tryouts I striver to be a better volleyball player and a better athlete. When I did really good and got my serves over I would pass to the target the coaches would tell me good Job or keep It up. When they said that It made me want to do better. So I did what they said and kept It up.

The House on Mango Street - Esperanzas Voice - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 927 Downloads: 10 Date added: 2019/05/31 Category Literature Essay Level High school Tags: The House on Mango Street Essay Did you like this example? The story of Esperanza is one that many minorities face, even in todayrs society. Every day she had to deal with things from both a poverty and racist standpoint. She talks about how the poverty she faced affected the way she looked at her self. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The House on Mango Street Esperanzas Voice" essay for you Create order She also goes on to talk about how the racial divide she felt, even at a young age, influenced how she felt about the world. Even with all the issues that Esperanza faces, she uses poetry as a means of escape, and uses it to help rebuild her self-confidence. While these problems exist today, we can use The House on Mango Street, and Esperanzars story, to look toward the future, and maybe one day, fix this world so no man, woman, or child has to go through the pain and suffering she did. Throughout The House on Mango Street Esperanza dreams of an escape and is able to find solace through writing and reading poetry. Esperanza talks about the effect of her Aunt Lupe, who she would read stories and poems to. Lupe is the first person to really connect Esperanza to her writing. Her aunt stated, It will keep you free (Cisneros 61). In chapter 29 Four Skinny Trees is when Esperanza is starting to develop a new sense of self and strength. She uses the trees to find inspiration, Four who grew despite concrete. Four who reach and do not forget to reach. Four whose only reason is to be and be (Cisneros 75). As the book keeps progressing Esperanza takes a look at the women surrounding her on Mango Street. Each is trapped in some situation and she take a special interest in Minerva. Minerva is married with two children to a physically abusive husband. Esperanza compares herself to Minerva because they both write poetry. Esperanza notices and decides she will try to avoid Minervar s path for her future. Experiences Esperanza encounters with racism also helps to build her character. Racism is something that she is faced with on numerous occasions. In the chapter Those Who Dont Esperanza talks about noticing how people who arent from her Latino neighborhood become scared and that her people of color are dangerous. She believes those who enter her neighborhood and dont belong are often there by mistake. Also, even as a young girl she mentions the change in attitude when going somewhere, in her words, they dont belong. All brown all around, we are safe. But watch us drive into a neighborhood of another color and our knees go skakity-shake and our car windows get rolled up tight and our eyes look straight (Cisneros 28). Later in The House on Mango Street Esperanza has an altercation with Sister Superior at her school about being able to eat in the canteen for lunch. Her mother writes a note stating to please allow her as their house if too far away. The Sisters response was That one? She said, pointing to a row of ugly three-flats, the ones even the raggedy men are ashamed to go into (Cisneros 45). This statement raises the question in the readers mind, why does the Sister assume Esperanza lives in the run-down apartments? One assumption could be based on Esperanza being a little Hispanic girl living a more poverty lifestyle. In some cases, poverty and race intertwines and could be believed that this example shows that correlation. One factor that shaped Esperanzas character was the poverty her family faced. The first example of their economic status was Esperanza describing her house on Mango Street. She describes the house as bricks crumbling, having an extremely small yard, paint peeling, and wooden bars over the windows (Cisneros 4-5). After describing her house, she talks about a specific incident with a store clerk. Where do you live? She asked. There I said pointing to the third floor. You live there (Cisneros 5)? Esperanza goes on to explain the way the conversation with the clerk made her feel as if she was nothing. This was a pivotal moment in the growth of Esperanzas character. I knew then I had to have a house. A real house (Cisneros 5). Another example of her shame is during a baptism party. Esperanzas mom buys her a new dress, undergarments, and new socks while she is still having the where an old pair of school shoes. Once every year in September she gets a new pair of shoes for school. Esperanza describes the shoes as scuffed and the heals being crooked. It doesnt matter how new the dress mama bought is because my feet are ugly (Cisneros 47). Esperanza feels ordinary having to wear her school shoes and this affects her self-esteem. The House on Mango Street follows the story of a young girl named Esperanza Cordero. This book takes us through a year of Esperanzars life and the growth she experiences. The House on Mango Street talks about the shame Esperanza feels due to her families poverty, the unfairness of the racism she faces, and how beautiful poetry and music can be. The book also shows the lives of some of Esperanzas neighbors. This helps to show the common living condition for Hispanics during this time period. Mamacita is afraid to speak the English language, Alicia has dreams of graduating college while her father wants her to focus on womanly duties, and Minerva who is married with two kids and a husband who is physically abusive. By giving these examples the readers are able the see the male oppression happening around Esperanza which is fueling her dream of leaving Mango Street even more.