Media Meditation #4: CBS & the "Gastro-typographical-assemblage"

Lou Dorfsman in 1982, at the “Gastrotypographicalassemblage” he created for the CBS cafeteria.


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I know, you're wondering, what the hell is the Gastrotypographicalassemblage? It does look like nonsense without spaces.






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Just watch the video that I came across:


The Kemistry Gallery is celebrating the work of legendary designer Lou Dorfsman, art director for the CBS network. The Kemistry Gallery's exhibition focuses on this most notable creation, the handmade wooden typographic wall.



Gastrotypographicalassemblage from christian carlsson on Vimeo.


Vimeo page




So where did this come from? Who made it? Why? How? & What's its course of history?
Source

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The icon titled "Gastrotypographicalassemblage", was completed in the mid 1960s. The wall was in the CBS cafeteria that was conceived and designed by Lou Dorfsman, the legendary art director. The Gastro typographical assemblage, commonly referred to as “the wall,” is enormous; it's 33 feet in length, and 8 feet in height, 11 meters wide. Each letter was hand milled out of thick wood and pine, with a team of carpenters and sculptors set to work. In addition to words, it's dotted with food imagery, from sausages, to seltzer bottles, to loaves of bread. The piece uses custom type to display food-related words and objects. The wall contains more than 1,450 individual characters to converge into this design. Wow. I saw the video first, then read that 1,500 letters where used on one graphic display, on one wall. Pretty amazing for a wooden design in the 60's. The Gastrotypographicalassemblage icon is the first of its kind, a perfectly orchestrated collage.









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It graced the CBS cafeteria, for twenty years after its completion, the wall inspired all who saw it. It's future was called into question during the late 1980s after a change in leadership. The wall was removed from the cafeteria and, save a call from a building superintendent, Richard Spiro, the wall would have been lost forever. After receiving Spiro’s call, Lou Dorfsman called Nick Fasciano, a decorated designer, who rushed and collected the discarded panels. Fasciano took the panels to his Long Island home, where they sat in storage for more than 20 years, safe and dry, but slowly deteriorating.

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The Center for Design Study, became aware of the wall’s current state, aware of its potential destruction. The Center took responsibility over the wall, seeking to restore this magnificent piece to its original glory. However restoration is enormous. The letters were originally glued to the panels, and over time, they came loose. Many of the letters were damaged beyond repair. Fasciano, who created several sculptures for the wall, is working with a team of craftsmen to repair each letter by hand: stripping, sanding, patching, sealing, and repainting more than 1,450 letters. More than 25 percent of the letters were damaged beyond repair and must be completely re-milled. Then theres the sculptures and food objects. From the soup cans, to the seltzer bottles, each piece must be recreated by an artisan.

Here is a video from a CBS radio interview where Lou Dorfsman discusses the creation of the amazing Wall.

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To bring this all together, Dorfsman created a lifelong and timeless design, showing a magnitude of achievement. It represents an icon of design. The wall never ceases to excite the imagination. It represents one of the most arresting design creations ever to be seen.


This piece carves a niche for design history; we can understand the significance of its creation and conception. There are few pieces that can both represent typography and the spirit of design, and also illuminate a specific moment of history. It is not only an ambitious scale of achievement in art and graphic design, but it's also a symbol of the typographic mind that once was. The typographic mind is the mindset of American's in terms of being shaped to perceive media. That is, to be shaped to take in media most effectively through words and type. Today, we've evolved and have been shaped to perceive media through images.  This piece of art can illuminate thinking in a word-centered culture, and thinking in an image-centered culture. This piece in a way blends both cultures. These are the direct ideas of Neil Postman. Who stated,


"...the printed word had a monopoly on both attention and intellect, theres being no other means, besides oral tradition, to have access to public knowledge (60)."


This typographic piece of art is interesting to reflect back on this quote because it represents a piece of typography,  but its within the medium of a physical graphical image. An image that conveys intellect, besides oral tradition.    

Media Meditations #3: Kris' and 9th Wonderful's Lessons on Media and Hip-Hop

KRS-one:
MC, Teacher, Philosopher


"Rap is something you do, Hip-Hop is something you live" -KRS






Image Credit: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/251362/Interview_Hip_Hop_Legend_KRS_ONE_Seizes_New_Ways_for_Rap_to_Work_with_Major_Brands



9th Wonder: 
Producer, Beat maker,
Teacher, MC




Image Credit: http://hiphopmakers.com/9th-wonders-10-track-commandments


-For this media meditation, I found a short interview with one of my favorite hip-hop producers and beat makers of all time, North Carolina's 9th Wonder. His soulful sound, and infusion of jazz has made a name for himself. He is also an educator of hip-hop culture, giving classes and lectures to students of all ages, mainly at colleges and universities. His philosophies and teachings focus on hip-hop's origins; how its changing with the forces behind it, and ways to preserve the culture.

In this video the producer talks with interviewers on his viewpoints on how the hip-hop culture is being altered from the media. How the current media structure splits the generations in terms of who's listening to it. 9th talks about how media depicts the culture, portraying a commercialized 'gangster' lifestyle that has negative affects on youth and hip-hop education, and how people perceive it. 9th says specifically that the one thing he'd like to change is how in hip-hop today it's disrespected with a lack of support by older generations, and older black Americans. 9th vouches that all they see is BET, MTV, magazine covers or corporate radio, and that's what they're told from the media, this glorified world that portrays the culture in a negative light. This lack of support enables it to be 'taken' from other people, that is, taken from higher education entities, and the media structure in control, of mostly white executives. Some older black people in the US don't want to give the hip-hop culture support or a chance, that their people initially started in the late 70's and early 80's. 9th says the media has separated the generations because of the picture painted of hip hop from the media. The regulation and washed out content from corporate media today in the state of hip-hop, as a musical culture, has forced people to an ignorant lack of understanding of the wonderful music of hip-hop.





Heres a sample of a 9th Wonder beat so you can get an idea of the soul and jazz influences in his head nodding music:











And another:










Sorry I could post these all day. Heres the actual video interview:





Backstage with 9th Wonder - No. 1 from LRG on Vimeo.
In our latest video series LRG takes you back stage at the annual A3C hip-hop festival in Atlanta Georgia. A3C stands for All Three Coasts and showcases the best independent hip-hop artists from all over the country. LRG was lucky enough to sit down with one of hip hops most prolific and gifted minds, super producer 9th Wonder. This is a three part series, that takes not only Hip Hop's temperature but America’s and it’s perception of the culture as a whole. 9th is asked three questions that are sure to leave everyone with some serious food for thought. Watch as 9th Wonder takes us to school and drops some serious knowledge on the state of hip hop today. Enjoy!







In my digital web digging, I found another interview with a hip-hop pioneer and educator, KRS-one. Which is an acronym for Knowledge Reigns Supreme- Over Nearly Everyone. And he displays his reigning knowledge all the time. Whats interesting in his testimonies and why I am comparing it to 9th's views is that KRS actually supports corporate relationships with positive hip-hop artists. Now anyone that knows a thing or two about hip-hop, knows that KRS is anything but corporate. He's more religious and spiritual than corporate any day. Kris' argument is that working with companies to make songs for websites, videos, or commercials may be jarring, but in fact it is the only major way to get good music to the masses, to utilize digital convergence as one of the major aesthetic shifts of 21st century media. Good music for the masses means music for the people who need to hear it, so they can get enlightened instead of being subjected to the phony watered down music coming out of corporate mainstream record labels, and radio stations. KRS focuses on the positives of the changing music and media world, its economies and ways to accommodate to its shifting forces. He says that authenticity is a new business model from corporations, that companies need a product that's not destroyed by an artist's shady image. Companies need a good image, good artists need outlets to reach the world, and an ability to turn the media against itself. KRS says artists can embrace this opportunity to get their good music out in the public, using the power of the media structure as a method or medium to carry the positive messages from good hip-hop music. KRS is almost using the media against itself, to achieve balance with hip-hop culture and the economic structures in place. Corporations are giving money away to good artists to make music for them. KRS says these very corporations are going to finance the very revolution he is creating with the music and his postive messages displayed on Nike's, or Red-bull's website.

Link to full article and Interview



For those of you that think that KRS is still selling out, read this article of his speech and testimony at a 2007 FCC meeting in Chicago. How the people, and KRS, want the media landscape of a specific area to reflect the ideas of that specific community, and not those of media conglomerates.

Important Quotes from the article:

Here's the full FCC article

"KRS-ONE asked the FCC, "If you have a government that is run by Big Business, how can the FCC get that Business out of radio? Right now, as we speak, I can't get my record played…I would appeal to the FCC to please help me in this situation."

Further, KRS argued: "Our culture is being criminalized by the radio stations… we are not gangstas, pimps, ho's, thugs. This is not who we are. But this is what we're being advertised as, and I think it's a public safety issue because police officers listen to the radio as well…"

"KRS-ONE left the room to a standing ovation. When a handful of huge media companies decide what music gets played via automated playlists on radio stations across the country, local culture is either misrepresented or not represented at all".



To bring all of these ideas together, and to take it all into context of our class ideas, we can compare and contrast 9th Wonder's and KRS-one's arguments for how media is shaping hip-hop. They both refer to how the changing media landscape is a reflection of economic shifts and ownership influencing public opinions, and public discourse, reflecting a discursive shift. These are direct arguments that relate and illuminate to our friend Neil Postman (RIP). Also, our Mass Media/Society text would agree with KRS that this corporate control of the media has social implications and has negative impacts on social interactions and peace in our society. 9th and KRS both vouch to keep the culture in the hands of the people away from corporate media influences. However 9th focuses on the music and the distribution himself, while KRS uses new ways to use convergent media forces and their 'large pockets' against itself, to get his good music out widely. The more of KRS's music is out there, the more positive messages of hip-hop and other themes are portrayed, an effort to counter attack the junk from media. They both have views about the system, and both have different ways of coping with the many media shifts in our society.

MIDTERM REFLECTIONS: Half-Way to Culture Jamming

So far from this Fall 2010 Contemporary Media Issues class, I have...

1. Majorly learned how media is reflected upon us, how we perceive it, and scientifically how our brain is affected by media. How the development of our brain and various segments of it are affected differently by various structures of the media industry. Also with this influence on our selves, I learned how to analyze media effectively. To step back and not be persuaded by media, but to understand it, and to critically analyze its use and origins.

2. I learned that I am able to think and perform critically as an intellectual, by honing my neo-cortex's abilities by forcing to think critically about a text. This practice in class has made me learn about being an efficient critical reader, writer, and thinker.

3. I would study the course resources to widen my research and knowledge of the elements in place, and also I would try to cover more of the readings, to develop a heightened critical understanding of the given texts if I could do anything differently this first half of the semester, if I were to take this class again.

4. I would shorten the readings to specific components and segments, this way I could take in, intellectualize, and understand key concepts of the texts. Reading everything is good, but with so many great texts, maybe one thing I'd like you (Rob) to do differently is to limit the readings more concisely. This may enable me to be more engaged with the books. Maybe reading fewer texts in their entirety will enable deep level of comprehension to specific texts.

5. The usefulness of the course elements were clearly seen. The power tools break down the structure of media, its power, and ways to evaluate media. The power tools are very clear in their layout to understand the media machine. Quizzes train us to remember this information, useful in its own way. The blogs document this learning and progress, for worldwide viewing. The films and books in class act as useful texts to analyze and utilize examples of media to evaluate it, and learn about tis power, influence, and structure.

Camp Champ Radio Spot: "The Guilty Pleasures of the FEED"

Script:


Alex: Sup meg brag units? Do you hate thinking? Making decisions?
Jon: School to boring?
Kate: what are we going to eat?
Casey: What do I wear?
Kate: Where am I?
Casey: Whats happening?
Alex: Then you need FEED (echo in feed)
Jon: Know everything in a minute
Alex: Even God has FEED
Matt: Hey guys, its me God! Feed is the coolest thing around since original sin! I'm God! I would know!
Alex: Here are some testimonials!
Casey: This is Winona Ryder and life is so much more fun when you buy things. Feed gets me what I want when I want it. No more shoplifting for me!
Kate: I’m Paris Hilton and Feed makes my life so great. Feed’s hot, and if you don’t have one you are just so lame.
Jon: I’m Michael Vick and my feed is so brag. Get your head in the game with feed. Its sick.
Feed is here to stay. You have to get one. Imagine being like left out while your friends all like jam out to their feeds and have like the best time ever.
Yea didn’t think you’d like that one.
Join the real world, get a FEED (echo out).