High and Low Culture 2

Your third and final topic (write about one for Unit 3)
Choose two brands of the same product and compare their packaging, design and promotional material. One should reflect the values of high culture and the other those of low or popular culture. Say what characteristics and contexts mark each out as high or low. Lastly, discuss whether and why the boundaries between high and low culture are still clearly defined or are becoming blurred today.

Minimum: 750 words

Brief: your tasks

1. 2. 3. Give a short introduction to, or a definition of, high and low culture. Analyse an example: how does it reflect high culture values Analyse an example: how does it reflect low culture values Discuss with reasons and illustrate whether the boundaries between high and low culture are still clearly defined or are becoming blurred? Include a title page, bibliography and images

4.

5.

High and Low Culture

Culture: Collectively, art, literature and music but also describes how society is organised in terms of knowledge, beliefs and attitudes of different groups. High culture: high brow; the highest achievements in society in terms of art, music, literature, ones which are held to be improving and significant Supported by an exclusive elite of refined or educated taste Expensive, elegant and collectable Complex, often difficult to understand, deep, and supported by critical texts Traditional rules and codes established, handed down and followed Supported by Government funds, housed in official buildings Low Culture/Popular culture: low brow, consumed by the masses, held to be vulgar, worthless and insignificant Cheap, easily understood or appreciated, less complex and often amateur. Consumed passively (no education required, no rules to understand) Kitsch, trivial, simple, superficial and easily produced Low value, trivial, throwaway and for fun and entertainment only Low class consumers and often opposing the ruling elite

Keywords
High Culture Long established forms Professional and endorsed by critical material Supported by an elite from the wealthy strata of society Improving and elevating with profound and significant meaning & content Housed in museums etc and so sanctioned Supported by government subsidy or business and regarded as civilising Low Culture Regarded as vulgar, kitsch and transient/expendable Cheap, expendable and for a mass audience Consumed passively, indiscrimiinating Entertainment, popular, and commercial Often youthful (not exclusively)

Which is Which?

In Pairs
Discuss the cultural associations of these examples and then decide which could be best described as reflecting the values of high or low culture, and which cause you problems (and why) Soap Operas Rugby Union The Sun Ballet The Cinema Jewellery Tattoos Primark Remy Martin Jeffrey Archer

The Canon and Good Taste (Film Clip)

Last week we looked at how a set of rules and hierarchies was developed over time, and as a part of the classical tradition, to establish a clear idea of what high culture was and how an educated elite could acquire the understanding to use them to identify high culture. This became known as having good taste.

Use the sheet at the back of this Reader to follow Stephen Bayleys account of this development and how it has changed in the twentieth century. (The annotations are mine, to pick out the main points for you) Next two examples: see how these illustrate, I think, the ways in which industry and commerce still play on this hierarchy to suggest that an elite or exclusive product must be superior to a more available and popular one.

Exploiting Blurred Boundaries in a Postmodern Age

However, its clear, as weve seen in earlier examples and in the video, that marketing and the media also exploit the modern tendency to criticize, break and mock the divisions and pretensions of a high-low culture hierarchy. As we saw with Burberry, the consumer can be encouraged, often with humour, to disrupt social patterns by mixing and matching products and styles from all parts of our culture: why do you think this is commercially successful today? Weve encountered these traits as Postmodernism before (see Pop Art) and will return to it soon and this makes these changes to High and Low Culture part of bigger changes in culture/society

Identify the styles, content and contexts of this example (texts, image, production values, connotations etc) and say which elements are best described as high or low culture. Overall, does this example reflect the values of high or low culture?

We can now look at your examples.

UNIT 3: RECAPS
BRIEF PRESENTATION ASSESSMENT CRITERIA EXTENSIONS, LATE WORK AND THE MITIGATION PANEL CAPTION PACK examples, key words, writing mistakes use this 6 COMMON MISTAKES: using Art examples, no name on the work, plagiarism, gaps
(not checking the deliverables), not applying for an extension in advance and being late (up to two weeks = 40%, later = no
marks)

HAND IN ONE DOCUMENT VRF + Contextual Issues Writing at the back Cover, contents and bibliography - VRF = 6 introductions, 12 images, 12 explanations + research materials - Writing = one topic from 3 covered), min 750 words, title, and images