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One early genre that became very popular was blue films. The main patterns that were woven into films that fit this category was the semi-pornographic, heterosexual male centred gaze that was directed at attractive actresses for the entertainment of male moviegoers
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One such example is From Show Girl to Burlesque Queen (1903) [below] which depicts an actress changing from one outfit to another, both in front of the camera and behind a screen, which would have been very racy at the time. Such films, although only short and rarely for more than a minute or so, were designed to be cheaply made with very little plot, purely for the viewing pleasure of the audience. Such films probably grew out of the popularity of pin up girls and racy burlesque shows of the time and drew a completely new audience into the picture house.
I changed the video to blue in aftereffects. I really like the textures on this video and this could be an interesting visual to screenshot for the start of my publication to show where sexualisation and its identity through clothing and within females originated
A blue movie is ironically called blue movies ( 1988 ). A satire of the genre .
The "slippery" comedy is about 2 easy-living young men. They decide to make sex films.
Directed by Ed Fitzgerald and Paul Koval
Again I changed the colours using aftereffects and the colour correction tool (lumetric colour). I plan to use this footage to collage over her moving image. I love the effect this film has, as even before editing the colour, there is a grain and blurriness from the time period 1980s films have due to the film used.
As I have been focusing so much on older examples of sexual imagery and general representation I thought it would be interesting to focus on a more modernised example of sex. The red light district is notorious for being a sexualised area. Within the name it is already a clear link to my project concept.
The term red-light district originates from the red lights that were used as signs for brothels. Prostitution dates back already to the 15th century of Amsterdam, when many sailors would make port in Amsterdam, and would be looking for entertainment near the harbour, in what is now called the Red Light District. Ever since the 15th century there has always been prostitution in the Red Light District. The first brothel in Amsterdam was recorded back in 1675, and together with the many bars and pubs in the Red Light District and the prostitutes that offered their services there, the Red Light District became both famed and notorious all over the world. In 1570 prostitution became illegal in The Netherlands, although not much was done to uphold this law. Every now and then the police would have raids in brothels, and women that would be arrested would be banned from the city for a while or placed in the 'Spinhuis', where women would have to spin wool or sow to 'rehabilitate' them. ( reinstalling the thought of ' sex ' as a micheavious, scandalous thing )
In 1795 the French invaded The Netherlands and replaced the prostitution policy by legalizing prostitution and strictly regulating brothels.
At the end of the 19th century and around 1920 the Red Light District of Amsterdam had become completely run down. In 1911 brothels became illegal. Over time the curtains of the prostitutes behind the windows began to open up more and more. And around the 1950’s and 1960’s prostitution in the area increased again. More women would start to offer sex from behind windows, and would use red lighting to attract customers. In 2000 the Dutch government finally lifted the brothel ban, making brothels a legal business.
I really like the rough texture style to this video. This is due to the lower quality of the mp4 file due to it being initially taken on a iPhone creating a grainy texture.
Playboy has long been a part of the American man's private life. Hugh Hefner raised $8,000 (including $1,000 from his mother) to produce Playboy's first issue. The main hook: nude photos of Marilyn Monroe. It sold 54,000 copies, and the magazine was an instant hit. playboy tried to maintain an air of sophistication, with fiction from authors like John Updike and Vladimir Nabokov bumping up against topless centerfolds. Despite helping spearhead the 1960s sexual revolution, Playboy felt the heat from newer, racier publications like Penthouse and, later, Hustler.
Hefner briefly toyed with more explicit pictorials but chose to stick with a more tasteful approach. Heading into the 1970s, an estimated one-fourth of college men bought Playboy. The company went public in 1971, and the magazine's circulation peaked in 1972 at more than 7 million. But those glory days are long gone. The proliferation of online pornography and upstart men's mags like Maxim and FHM severely weakened Playboy. Debt of $115 million prompted Hefner's buyout of the company's stock. The brand has now shifted its energy toward licensing clubs, mansions and even bedsheets around the world--especially in growing markets in Asia. Sure, it's a far cry from nudes and Nabokov, but Hef's betting the bunny never loses her appeal.
Since Hefner’s passing, journalist Sophie Wilkinson has tweeted out a passage Hefner had written in 1963, which demonstrated his suspicious views on women:
“The rabbit, the bunny, in America has a sexual meaning, and I chose it because it’s a fresh animal, shy, vivacious, jumping – sexy.
“Consider the kind of girl that we made popular: the Playmate of the Month.
“She is never sophisticated, a girl you cannot really have, she is a young, healthy, simple girl – the girl next door. We are not interested in the mysterious, difficult woman, the femme fatale, who wears elegant underwear, with lace, and she is sad, and somehow mentally filthy.
Holly Madison, a former bunny,
The title of her book speaks for itself: Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny.
Censorship in media
It's been almost 25 years since Dennis Franz showed his bum on NBC's NYPD Bluein ( 1995) . Unlike language, which has gotten more lax, similar nudity hasn't become as commonplace on primetime -- case in point, the FCC's decision to fine 44 ABC stations $1.4 million for airing a 2003 episode of the same show that, again, showed a butt, this one belonging to Charlotte Ross. A court overturned that ruling, but, not to be deterred, broadcast networks have bypassed rules by showing nudity blurred, in shadows, or pixelated, which experts say can be just as titillating as the real thing. And instances of this have risen a lot. Another PTC study saw an increase of more than 6,000 percent for full frontal nudity from the 2010-11 television season to the 2011-12 season. Going into 2020, it's hard to imagine a blurred breast or butt being much of a shock whether one agrees with seeing it or not.
Naturally, premium cable plays by different rules. But, even there, hardcore, penetrative sex is still off limits on even the randiest of shows. Some, however, have gotten damn near close -- especially on Starz, the pay cable and streaming power player with a penchant for showing male nudity. Outlanderand Vida have no qualms about letting limp dicks flop freely. And though hot, graphic sex scenes are a norm, Starz even blows past what we might've deemed shocking just 10 or 15 years ago on HBO, like talked-about scenes inPower and American Gods where, respectively, 50 Cent whipped out his johnson and, on American Gods, Brian Fuller oversaw the creation of the most intense and graphic man-on-man sex scene in the history of TV. When asked about rules or notes from the network in terms of what's OK on that network, one writer onAmerican Gods told TV Guide pretty much anything goes before shrugging her shoulders.
sourced images of a retro photoshoot on a
porn site on alexaporn.com - I tried putting a grain to make the image look older - but as you will see further down I experiment with AI and the higher quality image works better to divide and put into the software.
I found this pixel censor image
and changed the colours then placed this
over the images to make them PG to
place in the publications
tried black censor as this is the other colour
that I am allowed to use
on the publication as
specified in the brief
- but I didn't like it as
much as the blue as it
looks too much of a stark
contrast and I asked my
housemates and they
agreed
I am planning to run these through photomosh to make them
come alive and start moving to screenshot further down the line
I find these images so powerful and I can't specifically pin point why. There's an element of a forceful element due to
some of her facial expressions like in the photo below. Porn has
definitely got a darker side and I feel these photos represent some
of that emotion.
I decided to experiment with adobe aero as I have used this software in my previous project ( museum of conflict ) and I found the experience very intuitive and I loved the moving element look of it and how you can make 2d images feel three dimensional through augmented reality
therefore I divided the images up into layers from above on photoshop and placed them into the app. I then developed this further by compiling the videos from above and liner keying them on aftereffects to collage. Then placed the adobe aero experimentation above the top and finished by placing a wireframe on top show how the publication could look when the visuals come to life
above is the compiled video elements. I decided to add the darker blue videography over the top as you can see in the examples below and a preference these due to the contrast of colours. I think everything stands out more and doesn't just blend in.
The color blue has long been associated with royalty and riches. Any plant yielding blue dye was considered a valuable commodity, and there are only a couple of plants that do. It is possible that the rarity of blue color sources is the reason for its value. Until the Industrial Revolution, all dyes used to color fabric, skin, or any other decoration came from some natural source. Dyes or pigments came from plants, minerals, metal salts, or some combination of those.
The process of dyeing with indigo is so complicated that it is a wonder mankind ever discovered its true blue secrets. Without certain steps in the process, indigo won’t reveal any blue color at all. It will make brown. It will make a kind of dirty pink. It won’t dye blue, however, until the plant has been subjected to either chemicals or a long rotten bath, then different chemicals added to create a green dye bath. The blue color never appears until the fiber is oxidized after submersion in this green vat.
The unique properties of indigo, which is technically a pigment, not a dye, make the color of faded blue jeans unique. Modern chemical dyes might label themselves “Denim Blue,” but they are never going to really mimic the color of true indigo pigment. The blue color from indigo is laid on the surface of each fiber, rather than penetrating inside the fiber as a dye does. The blue pigment from indigo is bonded with the white cotton of denim, but can be rubbed off with wear. This wearing has its own special term when it happens with indigo. It is called “crocking.” Indigo crocking reveals the white of the cotton, making that special, faded denim look.
One of the most interesting archaeological finds from the Viking era was that of the Oseberg Ship in Norway. An entire ship was in the burial mound, filled with treasure of all sorts. It is a testimony to the value of blue dye that textile finds were considered treasure worthy of this burial. The Oseberg ship woad finds included dyed blue fabric and a number of woad berries. Woad berries, or woad balls, are small, round cakes of indigo pigment which was skimmed off the top of the dye vat after the color was separated from the plant. The pigment was powdered and aged urine was used as a source of alkali to break down the pigments into a soluble form for dyeing with woad. Modern day indigo often comes in the form of a hard “cake” which must be broken up into water with lye (sodium hydroxide) and heated gently before use. Modern chemistry research has revealed a manufactured indigo, so Indigo and Woad plants are no longer the only source of the pigment.