On Monday 9th January our class took a trip to the V&A museum to look at the exhibition ‘You Say You Want a Revolution’. We needed to document our trip and discuss the signifying practices and homology (the ‘ fit’ between the music, clothing, design)
(Ref + Imagery: https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/about-the-revolutions-exhibition)
I really enjoyed the exhibition, it was insightful and engaging throughout and particularly interesting to see how the generation created a revolution. Seeing the different artefacts each youth culture created, such as the many posters seen at the exhibition has gave me inspiration for my Creative Review front cover from the psychedelic styles to the consumerism posters.
Revolution in youth identity
In 1966 ‘TIME Magazine’ named London ‘The Swinging City’ showing its dramatic rise to the attention of the rest of the world. The fashion thrived and was often vibrant and unique, boutique shops such as Bazaar on Kings Road and Biba on Carnaby Street offered colourful new designs of clothing to the younger generation.
The signifying practices of ‘Swinging London’ come from the vibrant, new clothing such as the ladies miniskirt. Music also is a signifying practice, bands such as the Who, the Kinks, the Small Faces and the Rolling Stones; bands which were the mainstay of pirate radio stations like Radio Caroline and Swinging Radio England. The Union Jack flag became a symbol of the culture, and featured in many designs including the famous ‘TIME’ cover.
The homology between all of the different medias is clear to see in the culture. It all relates to how the youth drove this revolution. The clothing is bold, unique and broke the tradition which caused a lot of attention. Music was ‘swinging’ from such artists as The Beetles and The Rolling Stones which goes in hand with the style of clothing. The design of the ‘TIME’ magazine uses collage/photomontage technique, which is bright, bold, colourful, breaking tradition again all of this media fits together perfectly.
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