One of the images from KIDing®'s I Love Calpe 5 series.
Christiane Paul mentions in her first chapter that, because of the ease of manipulating images, digital media has always been closely linked with advertising. The work of the collaborative team KIDing®, most specifically their series I Love Calpe 5 (1999), uses advertising to make fun of the industry itself and the way it treats images. KIDing® is (they are still around in some capacity) a team comprised of artist João António Fernández (born 1969 in England) and graphic designer Edgar Coelho Silva (born 1975 in Portugal). Their work "cross[es] the boundaries between art and advertising" and criticizes the advertising ascetic and treatment of images. The series is composed of multiple purposefully-blurred images that, coupled with the series title, are meant to relate to the Spanish tourist resort Calpe. Though the blurry images are hardly discernible as what they are "meant" to be, they are overlaid with company logos which add more context. Instead of the image of the advertisement being the centerpiece of the ad as we would expect, in these pieces, the logos are what draws the eyes' attention.
One of the images from KIDing®'s I Love Calpe 5 series.
These images are meant to be funny--the artists are satirizing how the advertisement industry uses graphics in ads. By blurring the true image and making it more of a background for company logos, KIDing® is making a comment, saying that the advertising industry has no respect for art and design but only abuse it for the purposes of making money for themselves and their client companies. The image of an ad is not what is important but the product it is selling and the company that is selling it. Since the eye, when it looks at one of the images in the I Love Calpe 5 series, does not find anything to focus on within the main image, it is directed toward the small logos. These logos are what get the real attention of the viewer. In the above image, the logos are directly in the center, taking away what little attention the blurred figures in the pool may attract. It is almost as if the logos are yelling, "Look here, look here! We're what's really important! Buy me!" This is KIDing®'s plan all along--they want to show the viewer how the advertising industry is abusing images. The industry doesn't respect them but uses them to serve a specific, consumer purpose--rather than trying to speak through the images in order to make a point, the advertising industry just want to sell goods and does it at the expense the images (and their creators).
I love what KIDing® is doing in this series. However, I think it's a little difficult to understand what they are trying to do immediately. I think that the choice of logos makes it a little difficult to put the blurred images into context--perhaps if the logos were more targeted to Calpe and its resort, the series would be more effective because the viewer would more easily "solve" the mystery of what the blurred images are. As they stand right now, two of the logos (the first two from the left) in the series actually pertain to KIDing® and their series itself. If these logos were, instead, the logos of a famous restaurant from the area or another resort's logo, I think the message would be clearer.
There is a good chance, though, that KIDing® didn't want their message to be clear and purposefully left the logos vague in order to make the viewer work to decode the meaning of the series. Perhaps this is also part of the comment they are making--images are meant to be encoded with meaning in a deeper level than advertising allows. Advertising is meant to be looked at quickly and have meaning absorbed quickly whereas the art that KIDing® might be supporting requires respect, deep reflection and thought. Even if I think there is some room for needed clarification, I really respect KIDing®'s work and the message they are trying to send--as artists, I recognize that they want images (and, more specifically, the images they create) to be utilized in a respectful and thoughtful manner rather than as tools for a consumerist agenda.
I love what KIDing® is doing in this series. However, I think it's a little difficult to understand what they are trying to do immediately. I think that the choice of logos makes it a little difficult to put the blurred images into context--perhaps if the logos were more targeted to Calpe and its resort, the series would be more effective because the viewer would more easily "solve" the mystery of what the blurred images are. As they stand right now, two of the logos (the first two from the left) in the series actually pertain to KIDing® and their series itself. If these logos were, instead, the logos of a famous restaurant from the area or another resort's logo, I think the message would be clearer.
There is a good chance, though, that KIDing® didn't want their message to be clear and purposefully left the logos vague in order to make the viewer work to decode the meaning of the series. Perhaps this is also part of the comment they are making--images are meant to be encoded with meaning in a deeper level than advertising allows. Advertising is meant to be looked at quickly and have meaning absorbed quickly whereas the art that KIDing® might be supporting requires respect, deep reflection and thought. Even if I think there is some room for needed clarification, I really respect KIDing®'s work and the message they are trying to send--as artists, I recognize that they want images (and, more specifically, the images they create) to be utilized in a respectful and thoughtful manner rather than as tools for a consumerist agenda.
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