Thunderbirds
(Above) is the orignal photograph of the front cover from a magazine called The Observer. In the original, you can see that the concept of the design is from the Thunderbirds back in 1965. The design is of Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, a fictional puppet character (foreground) (Wikipedia, 2013 ^1) with the ‘TB1’ rocket in the background.
(Above) To create my appropriation from this front cover, I wanted to produce something that has a contempary meaning. I therefore wanted to relate it to a topic in the News. This was the finding of water on the surface of Mars:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-34384101. (BBC News, 2015 ^2). I therefore, replaced the text on the original with the text “From here are Mars?” posing a question to the viewer.
Although Thunderbirds is a fictional story and set up, it relates to the real world being that it has characters or puppets that represent humans and vehicles that represent space ships, that reality was not present during the production process of the television program in the mid 1960’s. However, towards the end of the 1960’s and present day, we have had space crafts leave our atmosphere and land on other planets such as, Mars and the Moon. The next conquest for human exploration is the expedition to Mars with a human on board. (Wikipedia 2015 ^3). This is what I wanted to represent in my appropriation task.
Michael Jackson
(Above) is a magazine cover from GQ. In the original, you see Michael Jackson’s portrait photograph being just off to the right of the centre of the frame. Behind his head, there is the GQ logo which is red while the rest of the photograph is in monochrome. In front of the portrait photograph of Michael, there is text that says “Was Michael Jackson Framed?”. This is the title of the magazine, asking a question to the viewer, “Was Michael Jackson Framed?”.
(Above) to change the meaning of the magazine cover and the photograph, I wanted to ask the question “Did Michael Jackson Ever Die?”. The meaning behind why I wanted to change the text is because, understanding that Michael Jackson died on the 25th of June 2009, his music still lives on, in which many people around the world still listen to in present day. I wanted to express the thought that perhaps Michael Jackson didn’t die as his music still lives on.
Burger King
(Above) is the original photograph I took of an Burger King advert on the side of a phone box. Focusing on the advert, there is large text at the top of the design that says “£1.49 BIG KING”, bellow is a photograph of two burgers, which both look to be perfectly composed and realistic trying to sell the product the viewer. Bellow the photograph is the Burger King logo.
(Above) is my appropriation of the original photograph. In the edit, you can see that the right burger has been distorted at the top and in the middle facing front on. I have also added the text saying “EAT ME” with a texture that blends in withe texture of the burger. My reasoning behind this edit, is that I wanted to show what the unavoidable temptation from advertisers advertising their new food that they want you to buy. As we live in a society where more and more fast food is being consumed, this is impacting on human health in a bad way if consumed regularly. For example, if you eat too much fast food, it is possible that you could contract Type 2 Diabetes, heart disease and obesity; all of which could be life threatening. In my appropriation, I wanted to express the pure temptation of what fast food really is as I believe that if you saw my appropriation as an advert you wouldn’t want to buy the product, putting you off fast food.
Reference list:
^1 (2013) Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward: available from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Penelope_Creighton-Ward
Accessed on {5/10/2015}
^2 (2015) Nasa briefing: ‘Liquid water on Mars’ BBC: available from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-34384101
Accessed on {5/10/2015}
^3 (2015) Human mission to Mars: avalible from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_mission_to_Mars
Accessed on {5/10/2015}