Reading Response 1

When reading through Practices of Looking, I felt that it presented a wide variety of concepts that would be extremely useful to someone working through a design process to create a particular product or enhance an experience. Some of the larger concepts that I found particularly interesting were first the idea that "Viewers Make Meaning," which is a chapter title, and the concept of the difference between a viewer and an audience. I consider myself to be somewhat familiar with the first concept, in that it suggests that the meaning that the author / producer / writer / creator intended in his or her work is not necessarily the meaning that the viewer will glean from observing or interacting with it. For instance, Practices of Looking mentions the reception of the movie Titanic in China, which while similar to that of western audiences (in that as a sad movie it has a capacity to engender sadness in others,) happened for very different reasons and in much greater numbers. The reason offered for this variance is the context in which the Chinese viewers were experiencing the film. I believe it is safe to say that the movie Titanic was envisioned and filmed with romantic tragedy firmly in mind, and indeed the cast and crew succeed admirably in that goal. Similarly, I believe it is equally likely that most successful movies and television ads go through their respective creative processes with the intention of creating in their viewers a certain emotional state. In both cases, advertisements movie trailers must make the attempt to somehow grab the attention of their target viewers and draw them in, and in both cases this hailing process is instrumental to the success or failure of the final product. In English 853, we also read and considered the first two chapters of Practices of Looking. In my response I mentioned Nivea's recent (and short-lived) attempt to promote a new product, by means of a TV ad campaign using the phrase "Civilize Yourself." I will play the devil's advocate, and assume that in creating this campaign, Nivea hoped to tap into the sentiments and lifestyles of young men (presumably between the ages of 18-30 or so,) who it felt could be reasonably classified as uncivilized, unkempt, dirty, etc, but with the desire to participate in activities where such a condition would not contribute favorably to social success, e.g., dating, applying for jobs, going to school, etc. However, as Nivea soon found out, they made a critical error in their coding of the ad. By having the main model in the ad be a black man throwing his decapitated, afro-adorned head, Nivea unwittingly (or perhaps intentionally, but that would be unconscionably stupid) tapped into racial waters that ultimately ruined the campaign. It would be interesting to see how differently that ad would have been received if the model had been a white man or someone of another skin color.