Spectacle Research

For Spectacle i started off with a brainstorm like I did with Power which is to put down anything thats got to do with the the word and things that relates to the word. Well these were the things that came to mind.

Grandeur, show, colourfulness, spectacular, sight, parade, display, ceremony, exhibition, effects, splendour, ceremonial, pomp, extravaganza, ostentation.

In the oxford dictionary spectacle is a visually striking performance or display.

Make a spectacle of oneself draw attention to oneself by behaving in a ridic.

Online dictionary spectacle is something exhibited to view as unusual, notable, or entertaining, especially : an eye-catching or dramatic public display b: an object of curiosity or contempt.

A spectacle is something you watch but not something you take part in. While you are watching a spectacle you are not doing anything but you are merely passive. Spectacle serves to keep people quiet. Spectacle gives the illusion of participation like for example sporting events make us feel as if we are taking part because we cheer and boo, we engage with our emotions. This can be enhanced by betting on the result as in horse racing or by identifying strongly with one side as in football.

Spectacle is also something big and impressive and overpowering, it is also something that impresses us. Moreover, spectacle is something we know to false for example Wrestling but we still engage to watch it. The reason why we like spectacle is because it makes us lose ourselves in crowds and it also makes us forget our worries and problems. The theatre engages the mind and then the emotion and spectacle engages emotion and overrides the mind. Spectacle is something that goes straight to body like for example watching a firework display you immediately feel overwhelm by the light show in the night sky.

 

During the summer holidays i was glued infront of the television watching the China Olympic 2008 and the most unforgetable part was the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony was incredible and breathtaking, intricate and pyrotechnically the last word. The event was overwhelming, visually spectacular undertaking and fireworks were so good it worked on every demographic.

This part was the count down for the start of the Olympic games which was something I have never seen before like for example all those people drumming at the same time was so amazing that it created an incredible spectacle which made me felt like I was taken out of my self.

The footprints in the sky was also spectacular which represented footprints of history. The significance of fireworks was the representation of gun powder which is one of the four great Chinese inventions. The most phenomenal scene for me was the five olympic rings and how it lifted off the ground was just incredible. Well I decided to look at the opening ceremony because that was one of the most sight seeing event I have ever seen and also I want to get something which I could build my artefact on.

I also looked at art because art is a form of spectacle which expresses emotions. Art is the process of deliberately and creatively arranging elements in a way that appeals to our senses. Talk about art, I came across Pop art, which is a visual art movement that emerged in the mid 1950′s in Britain and the name that pop’s up is Andy Warhol. He was an American artist who started painting mundane object such as campbell soup cans and Coca Cola bottles and later on he became very well known in the art scene of new york. Andy went from painting Coca Cola bottles to making individual portaits of USA’s rich and famous, such as Mick Jagger, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley. Although Andy’s work is pretty much a spectacle because in his art he uses different medium of colours which makes his work look more vivid. However, I decided to look at some clips of Andy’s work on youtube which I thought was quite interesting because I have always been interested in art and different types of art. After watching this clip about Andy Warhol, i came up with an idea about exhibition which i thought would be quite interesting for my spectacle artefact. The idea I had in mind was to go for a car exhibition and take some pictures of the show but to do that i decided to watch a few clips from youtube based on car exhibition.  However, after watching this clip about car exhibition in Detroit (U.S.A) I started thinking of how I’m going to build my artefact and the only place that came to my mind was the Coventry transport museum. The transport museum displays some of the largest collection of British cars, cycles and motorcycles in the world. The museum exhibits about 240 cars and commerical vehicles, 250 cycles and 100 motorcycles. Moreover, I decided to pay a visit to the museum to see all the exceitment is all about.