Mr Freud...analyse this site part 4

Bishonen Info : http://www.bishoneninfo.curvedspaces.com/

The reason why I wanted to have another look at this site and included it in my site analysis is because it stuck in my mind for its peculiar look. It is by no means a glitzy website, shiny and smart...instead, if you look at some of the sections, they strike me as a way of thinking about web design that is more illustration oriented...it is a simulation of a manuscript or print layout. The way information is laid out, it plays a lot with the idea of a dictionary, in case you didn`t get the point about the informative and quite possibly educational nature and value of the site from its domain name.

Another thing that is worth noticing is the eclectic nature of the imagery. It graciously combines photos with black and white, duochrome or coloured drawings or prints, web-friendly fonts with fancy capitals and manages to have several types of fonts on the same page without giving the user a sense of...unease.

Also, maybe it is just me...but identity wise, the authors of the site, whether consciously or not, made the place exude a sort of dandyish arrogance, eclectism and slight contempt for the presumably uninformed or ill-informed visitor, who is ` kindly` taken for a `devil-may-care`, ` we`re-here-we`re-queer` informative ride. Then again, that might just be me...

Mr Freud, analyse this.....website! part 3

La Antena: www.laantenafilm.com.ar/

This is an Argentine film that is really putting the silent back into film. A city has lost its voice, and there is a villain (there always seems to be one, right?) keeping a close eye on the few remaining inhabitants that still have the voice, and trying to channel their abilities so as to gain more control (typical, bloody typical!).

I found this site even more austere than the film, with its suspended subtitles. The choice of the book as a layout and the lack of any background music is in tune with the idea of a world dominated by written words, by the logos yet flat because of its lack of sound (or, I`m just completely making that up).

I....guess I should be as austere with my comments as the site is...that would make for a good analysis...my silence should speak more than anything else...right? Or should I say I`m looking for the voice as well? Ok, I think I need to stop browsing this site...not very good for my communication skills.

Mr Freud, analyse this.....website! part 2

YO MANGO! http://www.sindominio.net/fiambrera/007/ymng/index.htm

I came across this site last year, while doing some research for an essay on New Social Movements. The general pattern I was trying to outline was that there was an ongoing competition between these protest groups and capitalism; for every attempt of these movements to escape consumerism would be, after a while, exploited by the market to express a new `lifestyle choice` and thus, become, yet again, a commercial product.

YoMango, a Catalan shoplifting movement uses intense self-irony to try and counter this. The lesson that new social movements have taught in the 60s and 70s has been that of art and difference as essential components of the self and of self-expression. Yet, these ideas have been internalised and neutralised by capitalism and translated into the concept of the `lifestyle choice` , which is only to say, express yourself through what you buy. So, because it is about buying, and also because protest groups are still associated with artistic movements and happenings, YoMango plays the card of irony by describing `mangar` (shoplifting) as more than an act of sabotage: in a wonderfully ironic twist of art de-sublimation it associates it with the excitement of a creative endeavour.

The look of the site seems to poke fun of yet another clichè: the DIY. Again, the idea of self-management, of manufacturing, of doing it yourself in order to feel both liberated from the clutches of big business and empowered by being involved in the whole process of creating something has been used to open up a new market niche.

YoMango are taking the irony a step further, presenting their manifesto as a Communist Red Book with the insides of a DIY book.

Mr Freud, analyse this.....website!

INGO MAURER : http://www.ingo-maurer.com/frameset.html

I first stumbbled upon Maurer`s name while reading an article of Victor Margolin, an author I have used for my Design Method essay. After a quick search on Google I was....well....impressed and eager to see more. His site didn`t fail to surprise me yet again. The intro is this sketchy animation of two angel-like characters, combining (I mean that in a purely abstract way) to form a new entity with...a light-bulb as its head. OK, so if you`re thinking to yourself `what is going on here?` , don`t worry...I`ll explain in a minute.

Ingo Maurer is a German enfant terrible of lighting...it doesn`t feel right for a German to be terrible...eh? Ok, so that would partly explain the lightbulb in the intro....right? But what about the rest of it? And why can`t it be neat and clean and refined and German looking like the rest of the site? Because, it would seem that the intro animation is an illustration of Maurer`s perception of the lightbulb, that apparently insignificant and mundane medium through which he is able to manipulate his art: light!

"It was like a flash. I fell in love. The light bulb is in everyone's heart. Cartoonists use it when a character has an idea - a bulb lights up above their heads. It has tremendous poetry."

-The International Herald Tribune-

The rest of the site, is generally what one would expect from a designer`s or a company`s website, catalogues, best items, team membres, a brief history, etc. What I found most...illustrative of the sort of relation Maurer has to his craft as revealed in interviews or reports about him, is that the individual items are presented not as mere enlarged pictures. Instead, they just basically take over the background, creating a sort of momentary environment of the whole site, because they are not just shape, but mood and colour and texture...all the things they bring-out in the environment that they are made to be part of.

Another interesting thing to look at is this little video on Youtube that seems to have been made to promote Ingo MAurer`s exhibition at Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York: