For one of Alison's lectures, we (the art department, photography, graphic design) looked at how society, art and we as people view Gender and Sexual difference and how this is interpreted in different works, from more older means of design right up to the modern day. I've always found although Alison's lectures don't necessarily relate to the course, they prove quite interesting as they're topics I find interesting as a whole and always spark a lot of debate between my peers, especially in the modern society that we live in today, where Gender and Sexual differences are becoming a lot more common than previously seen. Because of this, it was a nice break from the Graphic lectures I've grown accustomed to.
Firstly we looked at WAR (the Women's Art Revolution) that we can change the way history is constructed and viewed, having a digital input into this, and that current and future generations can break the way we currently view this, by creating their own histories. The forums sort of allow people to come together and collect, share and create their own works that let them contribute to the history of women's art.
The ideology behind women's art is that has been ever growing and changing, Alison showed us examples such as "Why Have Their Been No Great Women Artists?" or "Old Mistresses" which depict the history of women in art and the reasoning behind why, maybe, they're viewed differently to the male counterpart. Ideologies particularly are the focus of this as they're always manifesting and people make assumptions based on the ideology that they've heard or seen before, if something has been presented to them they're likely to follow it, too.
Although the lecture wasn't relevant to my course, it made me a lot more mindful about how differently our work can be perceived by different status of people, as well as gender, backgrounds and likeness, so it made me more aware to remind myself that I need to concentrate on creating a target audience and sticking my work to this. It proved an interesting lecture, although complex, and a nice change from my usual Graphic's ones.
