Subculture Revolutions by Akanksha Negi

Design and Subculture

REVOLUTIONS

Design and Subculture

Visual Analysis

SUBCULTURES

Design and Subculture

A cultural subgroup differentiated by status, ethnic background, residence, religion or other factors that functionally unify the group and act collective on each member. Its like one culture of microorganisms derived from another. Socialogy is a sub division of a national culture or an enclave wihtin it, with a distinct intergrated netowrk of behaviour, beliefs and attitudes. A culture within a broader mainstream culture, with its own separate values, practices and beliefs in sociology. The concept of subculture explains the behaviour of some social groups. 4

Sociologist study subcultures as one way of studying culture. A few examples of subcultures are as follows: - Beat Generation - Emo - Grunge - New Age - Hippie - Heavy Metal - Hip-Hop - Punk - Queer - Rave - Skinhead - Graffiti - Teddy Boy - Skateboard - Psychedelic etc..

Types of subcultures:

Design and Subculture

• Alternative culture:

It exists outside or on the fringes of mainstream or popular culture, usually under the domain of one or more subcultures.

• Counter culture:

It is a subculture whose values and norms of behaviour deviate from those of mainstream society, often in opposition to mainstream cultural moves. The movement expresses the ethos, aspirations and dreams of a specific population during a well-defined era. Counter cultures can trigger dramatic cultural changes when oppositional forces reach critical masses.

• Security Culture:

It is a set of customs shared by a community whose members may engage in illegal or sensitive activities.

• Underground Culture:

It exists outside the scope of mainstream mass media and popular culture. It may also refer to - Underground comics - Underground economy or black market - Underground film - Underground music - Underground art - Underground press.

Culture: A set of patterns of human activity within a society or social group and the symbolic structures that give such activities a significance. Customs, dress, laws, social standards, architectural style, traditions and religious beliefs are examples of cultural elements. I’ll talk about five subcultures, they are as follows: • Punk • Graffiti • Skateboard • Hippie • Psychedelic 5

Design and Subculture

Punk Punk is a subculture upon which the punk rock musical style is based and associated with. It has a history, community, lifestyle and culture. Punk emerged in the period between the World Wars and the 1970’s in United Kingdom and United States. The punk culture has its own style of fashion, music and visual art. Punks were aggressive and open-minded. They never restricted themselves from doing the unusual. They followed the rule of anarchism. Nihilism had a hand in the development of punk’s careless and humorous character with Marxism giving punk some of its revolutionary zeal. There were influences of Dadaism, Futurism and Minimalism in the fields of music and art. Their fashion style was all about wearing ripped jeans, leather jackets, t-shirts with different sayings done with markers, big boots. Initially it was handmade, but later it was mass produced and sold in record stores. They supported tattoos and piercings with different hairstyles, mainly mohawks and spikes with vibrant colors. The 80’s was more attached to the punk fashion than the 70’s. The Marten boots, motorcycle boots, combat boots were a rage. Punk’s most important aspect was music. Punk emerged as a strong subculture because of its music. Sex Pistols were one of the most famous punk rock bands of the 1970’s. Their song “God save the Queen” was released as the band’s second single and was featured on their only album “Never mind the bullocks, here’s the Sex Pistols”. The singer, Johnny Rotten claimed that the song was written out of love for the English people’s working class and proclaiming that England has no future. The song was fairly a revolution in 1977. Punk art was all about pop art with vibrant colors and strong messages. The whole idea was to disturb and disrupt the happy vibes of the wider society. Punk art was seen a lot in the album covers of that period, with collages to express their rage towards the sensitive topics. Their idea was to DIY (Do it yourself). The typography was untidy, chaotic and aggressive. They believed a lot in the concept of DIY. 8

Design and Subculture

GRAFFITI Graffiti is a hop-hop culture associated with the punk rock movement. It came from New York City in the late 1960s, and was born on the subway trains. Graffiti started appearing on building walls, public places, after The Vietnam War had just ended and the United States had hit recession. The americans were facing a lot of problems because of the recession. There was a very high rate of unemployment, inflation and shortage of electricity which was causing a lot of trouble to the american people. The crime level had increased and so the subways/trains werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a safe option for the people to travel in. People started doing odd jobs and ended up doing drugs and alcohol. Graffiti became a mode of communication to bring out a message or frustration with the happenings in the city. In the early 70â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Taki 183, who lived on 183rd street in Washington Heights, worked as a messenger who traveled all throughout the city. While he did so, he would use a marker and write his name wherever he went, at subway stations and also the insides and outsides of subway cars. Eventually, he became known all throughout the city as this mysterious figure. Teenagers found this really interesting and started with graffiti too. In 1968, The student protests and general strike in Paris, brought out the painted graffiti posters and stencil arts with revolutionising, anarchists and situationist slogans. Later, Taki 183 was joined by Skeme, Dondi, Zephyr, Mini One, Lady Pink. Keith Haring was an American artist who opened a pop art shop which sold bags, t-shirts, key chains etc. In 2001, A computer based company called IBM launched a graffiti advertising campaign which said love, peace and linux. It was banned and IBM was fired with a huge amount. Graffiti is still practiced in the world but its totally illegal. Banksy is one of the most famous graffiti artists of our time. He is a graffiti artist, political activist, film director and a painter. 12

Design and Subculture

SKATEBOARD The skateboard subculture began in a small slum area on the south of Santa Monica that covered the Venice beach and ocean park beaches called Dogtown, in California. Its all began in the early 1970â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, during the Cold War era. The surfers were aggressive and pool dropouts because surfing was all they knew. Jeff Ho, Skip Engblom and Craig Stecyk opened a surf shop as Jeff Ho Surfboards and Zephyr Productions in 1971. They were the ones who started off the trend of surf boarding and skateboarding amongst the teenagers. Later, Jeff Ho, Skip Engblom and Craig Stecyk formed a Zephyr Skateboard Team with some local teenagers. They tried bringing out new moves and techniques that were influenced by surfing which made skateboarding a very popular culture amongst people. After a record breaking drought, that took place in California, all the local backyard pools were emptied in the town and they became the new hotspot for all the young and aspiring skateboarders looking for places to practice their skills. Skateboarders were fearless by nature and were crazy about skateboarding. They would often go around the houses that have a pool and empty them to do skateboarding, illegally. They had their own equipments to empty the pool. The members of the Zephyr skateboard team gained popularity and national attention when they competed in skateboard competitions and started receiving media attention for their skills as young athletes. The Zephyr skateboarding team were a mixture of guys and girls. Allen Sarlo, Bob Biniak, Chris Cahill, Jay Adams, Jim Muir, Nathan Pratt, Paul Constantineau, Peggy Oki, Shogo Kubo, Stacy Peralta, Tony Alva and Wentzle Ruml IV. These were the original Zephyr team of skateboarders, who made skateboarding a popular culture.

Design and Subculture

HIPPIE The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid 1960’s and spread to other countries around the world. The word “Hippie” came from “Hipster”. The hippie movement in the United States began as a youth movement composed mostly of white teenagers and young adults between 15-25 years old. They inherited a tradition of cultural dissent from bohemians and beatniks of the Beat Generation in the late 1950’s. Hippie fashions and values had a major effect on culture and influenced popular music, television, film, literature and arts. The eastern philosophy and spiritual concepts had reached a larger audience. The hippie trend legacy can be observed in contemporary culture, including food, music festivals, sex moves and also the cyberspace revolution. By 1968, the hippie culture was beginning to take off in the main stream and people, mainly the young adults moved in with the tribal communes. One of the most famous communes was the Black Bear Ranch in Siskiyou County, California. The youth had a lot of questions about the civil rights, the Vietnam war, drug use and more. They were against nuclear weapons and the Vietnam war. They believed in the aspects of the Eastern philosophy a lot and believed in non-violence and love, a popular saying “Make love not war” was derived from them. They often practiced open sexual relationships and lived in various types of family groups. Hippies promoted the recreational use of hallucinogenic drugs, particularly marijuana and LSD, justifying the practice as a way of expanding consciousness. Both folk and rock music were an integral part of hippie culture. Singer such as Bob Dylan and groups such as the Beatles and Rolling Stones were among the most closely identified with the movement. Music festivals were an important part of the hippie movement. A three day music festival known as Woodstock, held in rural New York state in 1969, drew an estimated 400,000–500,000 people and became virtually synonymous with the movement.

Design and Subculture

psychedelic Psychedelic art is informed by the notion that altered states of consciousness produced by psychedelic drugs are a source of artistic inspiration. The psychedelic art movement is similar to the surrealist movement. Whereas the mechanism for surrealism is the observance of dreams, a psychedelic artist turns to drug induced hallucinations. Both movements have strong ties to important developments in science. Whereas the surrealist was fascinated by the Australian neurologist, Sigmund Freud’s theory of the unconscious, the psychedelic artist has been literally “turned on” by the Swiss scientist Albert Hoffman’s discovery of LSD. The early examples of psychedelic art are more literary than visual. Writers used the experience first to record their experiences such as, Antonin Artaud - Journey to the land of the Tarahumara (1937) Henri Michaux - Miserable miracle (1956) Aldous Huxley - The door’s of perception (1954), Heaven and hell (1956). Lot of poster artists like Wes Wilson, Victor Moscoso, Bonnie MacLean, Martin Sharp, Rick Griffin and many more launched the psychedelic art movement in the 1960’s. As time passed, many more new artists joined the movement of psychedelic art. The most famous ones were Milton Glasier, Robert Williams, Roger Dean, Peter Max and Bridget Riley. The typography and designs of the posters were inspired by smoke and the most famous ones were the filmore posters designed by Bill Graham in 1966 and the OP-art by Bridget Riley. Later, New York artists Milton Glaser and Peter Max produced posters for concerts and social commentary. Life magazine’s cover and lead article for the september 1, 1967 issue at the height of the “summer of love” focused on the explosion of psychedelic art on posters and the artists as leaders in the hippie counterculture community.

Design and Subculture