Fredrick Jameson (pg.16-19)
A pastiche is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, or music that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche celebrates, rather than mocks, the work it imitates.
Jameson characterises postmodern parody as "blank parody" without any political bite. According to Jameson, parody has now been replaced in the modern world by pastiche, but pastiche lacks the political and or satirical viewpoint that parody has. This is shown "Pastiche is, like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique, idiosyncratic style, the wearing of a linguistic mask, speech in a dead language. But it is a neutral practice of such mimicry, without any of parody's ulterior motives, amputated of the satiric impulse, devoid of laughter"
Parody - 'Ulterior motives" - challenging the establishment through humour
Pastiche - "Speech is a dead language"
extracting signs from their original place in time.. and ultimately their meaning.
Linda Hutcheon (pg.179-186)
Hutcheon talks about parody in a sense that it is postmodernism, that postmodernist artists are creating a parody of modernism. But she also goes on to say that there could not be postmodernism without modernism "Phillip Johnson probably could not have built postmodern Transco Tower in Houston if he had not first designed the modernist purist form of Pennzoil Place".
Hutcheon criticises Jameson's work because she believe's you need to have both parody and pastiche in order to create new ideas and move forward.
STUDY TASK - Hmk
Write a 300 word summary of parody and pastiche according to Jameson and Hutcheon relating these theories to atleast 2 examples of graphic design..
Literally I have found that a 'pastiche' is seen as a work of visual art, literature, theatre, or music that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists who came before them. So pastiche celebrates, whereas parody mocks, the work it imitates.
Jameson characterises postmodern parody as "blank parody" without any political bite. According to him, parody has said to be replaced in the modern world by pastiche, but pastiche lacks this political and or satirical viewpoint that parody has. This is shown when it is said in his texts that "Pastiche is, like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique, idiosyncratic style, the wearing of a linguistic mask, speech in a dead language. But it is a neutral practice of such mimicry, without any of parody's ulterior motives, amputated of the satiric impulse, devoid of laughter".
Hutcheon, on the other hand, talks about parody in a sense that it is postmodern, that postmodernist artists are creating a parody of modernism. But she then goes on to say that there could not be postmodernism without the modernism that came first. She references how "Phillip Johnson probably could not have built postmodern Transco Tower in Houston, if he had not first designed the modernist purist form of Pennzoil Place".
She goes onto criticising Jameson's work because she believe's you do need to have both parody and pastiche in order to create new ideas and move forward.
Today many pieces of graphical work are influenced by what has come before it, and this can be seen as either a pastiche or a parody. I am going to discuss two very current examples, both have which become very successful and well-known to our society.
My first example involves Netflix’s amazing new sci-fi Gen X nostalgia-fest Stranger Things, the show is set in the 1980s in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, and is an homage to 1980s pop culture. But nothing gets you in the mood for Stranger Things’ throwback midwestern town like the show’s title sequence. The slow reveal of its distinctive typography and the creepy Giorgio Moroder–esque synth stylings of Austin, Texas, band Survive conjure the era of Blade Runner, Escape from New York, and Ladyhawke.
LadyHawke (1985 film) Intro..
For the glowing red titles, the Duffers turned to 'Imaginary Forces', the design house known for the opening of Mad Men (https://www.imaginaryforces.com/work). Michelle Dougherty, the creative director who oversaw the project, knew it was going to strike a chord as soon as she talked with the brothers about their vision. They name-checked Richard Greenberg, who made some legendary movie titles: Superman, The Dead Zone, and a little space caper called Alien.
The Dead Zone intro..
Imaginary Forces pays homage to Greenberg’s use of title type as mysterious monumental graphic by starting the sequence in such close up that the letters are unreadable. They’re nothing but lines and curves... Dougherty says, “We could concentrate on the type—the counter of the A and the serifs. We had to find the most beautiful combinations.”
In an age of visually complex titles like Game of Thrones’ ultra-detailed, world-building clockwork, Stranger Things is stripped down and retro. The type burns into place and primes the viewer for a trip to a paranormal ’80s world. Like the show, the title is an unfolding mystery. Just what are we looking at here? It’s sinister, red, and bleeding like electric lava across the screen.
My second example, involves the ever growing, now considered culture of Supreme. It is a skateboarding shop/clothing brand established in New York City in April 1994, and their distinctive red box logo containing "Supreme" in Futura Heavy Oblique is even recognised as being largely based on Barbara Kruger's propaganda art, but can this example be seen as pastiche appreciating Kruger's eye for typography or can it be seen as stealing her concept and turning it into their own movement and culture - which does not directly support Kruger's original ideologies elicited by her type and work.
After doing some research online I quickly found out how the brand are now taking another designer to court for appropriating their aesthetic — and Kruger is none too happy about everyone ripping her off.
Supreme is taking Leah McSweeney of Married to the MOB to court over her "Supreme Bitch" products in the format of Supreme's logo, which features white block letters over red text. But as pointed out, Supreme's logo was very obviously borrowed from Kruger's art work. See, Supreme first opened up shop in 1994. Kruger had been using that typography long before then in works like 1987's "We Don't Need Another Hero":
Someone reached out to Kruger to ask about Supreme's apparent hypocrisy, and she responded "in the form of a blank email, with an attachment." The attachment read:
"What a ridiculous clusterfuck of totally uncool jokers. I make my work about this kind of sadly foolish farce. I'm waiting for all of them to sue me for copyright infringement."
So she clearly views the re-use of her typographical style as a sour-parody, which could possibly grow into something bigger and more impactful in our current society than her work ever was; but no lawsuits or other legal steps have been made by Kruger directed at Supreme so it remains arguably pastiche or parody!?
Links
Frederic Jameson - Postmodernism: Or the cultural logic of late capitalism
Linda Hutcheon - The politics of postmodernism: Parody and history
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