Journal articles on the topic 'Handcrafted books'

The objective of this research is to describe the aspects of creativity in Keratin Tongan Dan Keening (Handcraft and Arts), a main textbook, used in the fifth grade of Elementary School. The aspects of creativity are identified as personality, motivator, process and product. This research employed2 content analysis method based on the data gathered by studying the whole book. It is found out that this book does not contain all aspects of creativity as expected in a textbook for Handcraft and Arts. This research, therefore, suggests some recommendation for writing a textbook for Handcraft and Arts.

Presbyopia causes diminishing of vision-targeted life quality and occupational performance for most people over 40 years old. It affects the ability to perform visual tasks at near distance such as book reading, handcrafts, stitching, cooking and surgical operation. Although there are some treatment modalities such as surgery, the use of near-glasses and contact lenses for presbyopia, topical drug treatment for pharmacological control of presbyopia is currently a very popular and attractive nonsurgical option. In this review, we tried to summarise the presbyopia drop treatment.

This paper discusses Sidel?s criticism of certain Kerschensteiner?s views about work-school and work-education. Sidel disputed that Kerschensteiner was the creator of the idea about work-school, emphasizing that, significantly before Kerschensteiner, he put forth this idea in his papers, in which he proved the pedagogical value of work and the need for work-school. Sidel objects to Kerschensteiner that he did not convincingly elaborate the need for introducing work-school, that, when explaining the need for handcraft, he underestimated the significance of books for education and culture in general, that he did not specify the term "giftedness", that is, that he did not indicate that besides spiritual, there are other kinds of giftedness and that he did not understand correctly the relation between work and obviousness. Sidel also thinks that Kerschensteiner did not understand the relation between the society, state and education, i.e. that he did not demonstrate that school reform is conditioned by social reasons, that work-school is a social an political need, that work education is the need and interest of modern society and state. Also, he objects to Kerschensteiner that he did not understand nor emphasize the significance and value of handcraft for artistic education, that he did not speak about the role of work in the development of inventive spirit of the young, that he did not sufficiently emphasize that significance of handcraft for the development of will, moral and character, that he did not speak in which way work-school can be realized, i.e. he did not see the mutual relationship between social development and school and did not demand any social changes for the purpose of accomplishing that goal. Sidel concludes that Kerschensteiner?s work-school, introduced in the conditions of monarchist organization of schools in Germany, cannot be a role model which should be followed.

Brazil adopts an educational inclusion policy, which is based on the insertion of students with special needs in the elementary and high school. In the State of São Paulo, Brazil, visually impaired students, who attend public schools, receive books adapted for blind and low sighted individuals, so they can participate on Geography classes. This paper presents the results of the analysis of the enlarged material adapted to braille used at the elementary school. The analysis was based on the principle of the graphical semiology developed by ALMEIDA (2015), which discusses the use of alternative materials in order to represent areas, lines and dots with different heights, textures and shapes. The results were obtained through interviews, surveys and evaluation of teachers and students, who somehow experience the specificities of the visually impaired students daily. We observed that the adapted books do not bring all information contained in the original versions of the books and some of the exercises are not presented. Furthermore we could notice that the teachers and other students do not have any level of proficiency in understanding braille, which can hamper the interaction between visually impaired and the other students. After the observations, we adapted 22 maps using colored materials and handcraft techniques taking in-to account the different needs of the low sighted audience. The materials used are easy to be found and purchased, since they have a low cost. Using this alternative material we achieved a learning that was representative to all students and to the teachers, providing the socialization of the acquired knowledge.

In modern electronic stock exchanges there is an opportunity to analyze event driven market microstructure data. This data is highly informative and describes physical price formation which makes it possible to find complex patterns in price dynamics. It is very time consuming and hard to find this kind of patterns by handcrafted rules. However, modern machine learning models are able to solve such issues automatically by learning price behavior which is always changing. The present study presents profitable trading system based on a machine learning model and market microstructure data. Data for the research was collected from Moscow stock exchange MICEX and represents a limit order book change log and all market trades of a liquid security for a certain period. Logistic regression model was used and compared to neural network models with different configuration. According to the study results logistic regression model has almost the same prediction quality as neural network models have but also has a high speed of response which is very important for stock market trading. The developed trading system has medium frequency of deals submission that lets it to avoid expensive infrastructure which is usually needed in high-frequency trading systems. At the same time, the system uses the potential of high quality market microstructure data to the full extent. This paper describes the entire process of trading system development including feature engineering, models behavior comparison and creation of trading strategy with testing on historical data.

Manoel de Barros se traduziu na liberdade e no encantamento dos versos, em um trabalho artesanal com as palavras. Na linguagem, construiu um infinito particular, onde desvela muito mais do que as belezas do Pantanal, mas a grandeza do homem e da vida, uma poesia contemporânea que dialoga com a tradição simbolista e moderna. Exemplo disso é O livro das Ignorãças, no qual o autor apresenta seu percurso criativo e as origens de sua criação poética, transformando o ínfimo, o nada e as miudezas em pura poesia. Assim, este trabalho apresenta um pouco do projeto poético de Barros, especialmente no livro em questão, refletindo sobre seu processo criativo de acordo com algumas das teorias da criação poética. *** The unlimits of the word of Manoel de Barros ***Manoel de Barros translated himself into the freedom and enchantment of the verses, in a handcrafted work with words. In language, he constructed a particular infinite, where he unveils much more than the beauties of Pantanal, but the greatness of man and life, contemporary poetry that dialogues with the symbolism and modern tradition. A great example is O livro das Ignorãças, in which the author presents his creative journey and the origins of his poetic creation, transforming the tiny, the nothingness and the offal into pure poetry. Thus, this paper presents a little of the poetic project of Barros, especially in this book, reflecting on its creative process according to some poetic creation theories.Keywords: Poetry; Manoel de Barros; Modern lyric; Poetic creation.

Yarn has the potential to be monstrous when placed in public places. It can cause controversy, even when carefully planned as a public art installation involving collaboration with business developers and city stakeholders. This article focuses on the fallout from City Hall on one such yarn installation at a public park in Rochester, New York, in summer 2018 and applies the theoretical lens of ‘monstrosity’ used by Nicola Moffat in the book Textiles, Community and Controversy: The Knitting Map. The article demonstrates that while the twelve original tapestries were well received by the Rochester community, they were deemed ‘not natural’ by City Hall and ordered to be removed, despite permission previously granted by a city official. Ultimately, despite the handcraft controversy, this yarn installation ignited a positive community-based response in favour of public art and ‘textile togetherness’, a term defined in this article. And later the tapestries found a second life in a different community revitalization project. The article offers suggestions for future organizers of yarn installations and calls for more public art to be placed in urban areas as the output of community engagement.

Abstract In both World Wars, combatant nations, including the United States, Britain, and Germany, learned that inadequate or poorly-maintained footwear produced costly and preventable casualties from trench foot and frostbite. While provision of shoes and boots to troops were major issues in earlier conflicts, no nation before World War I had fully appreciated the significance of warm, dry, well-fitting socks to the effectiveness of soldiers in the field. The large numbers of trench foot casualties in World War I, especially among the French and British, convinced policymakers that this vital commodity must receive a higher priority in military production planning, but few nations in wartime could shift production to knitting mills rapidly enough to make a difference. Thus, in Britain and the U.S, the best policy option proved to be recruiting women and children civilians to knit socks by hand for the military in the first war, and for refugees, prisoners and civilians in the second. This paper discusses the economic and military importance of this effort, including the numbers of pairs produced, and the program’s role in supplementing industrial production. The production of this low-technology but crucial item of military apparel is typical of detail-oriented tasks performed by women under conditions of full mobilization for war, in that they have a high impact on battlefield and home front performance and morale, but very low visibility as significant contributions to national defense. Often, both during and after the emergency, these efforts are ridiculed as trivial and/or wasteful. Unlike women pilots or industrial workers, handcrafters of essential supplies are regarded as performing extensions of their domestic roles as makers and caretakers of clothing and food. This was especially true in the U.S. in and after World War II, a wealthy industrialized nation that took pride in its modern - and thoroughly masculinist - military industrial complex.

This paper examines how the 2011 Penguin Threads editions, a series of books whose covers were hand-embroidered, intertwine the materiality of the book with digital technologies, thereby evincing Jessica Pressman's concept of "bookishness." By analyzing the historical foundations of the early English embroidered book, particularly its emphasis on the bespoke nature of embroidery, along with an analysis of early-2000s understandings of the digital, the paper argues that even as the Penguin Threads editions privilege the materiality of their handcrafted nature, they are also inevitably, and inextricably, digital products. This is, as the paper demonstrates, borne out by their conception, production, and reception.

Abstract Baldosas por la memoria are memorial paving stones handcrafted by loosely networked activists. Produced continuously from 2006 to an informally established protocol, they memorialize “the disappeared” and others murdered by the state terrorism of the Argentinian dictatorship (1976–1983). As a synecdoche of the “down and dirty” everyday pavements, they function as a metonym for democratic struggle and popular sovereignty. Aesthetically, they work against the “forgetting” and kitschification to which conventional memorials become subject. Through remediation into books and a DVD documentary, they participate in controversies within the international politics of human rights. Using a “material turn” within visual analysis, yet distinct from the “new materialism,” this article explains how they function within familiar genres of memorialization but in wholly novel ways. Baldosas create ethical complexity and moral ambiguity by troubling collective memory. Thus, we examine their relation to guilt, complicity, trauma, and affect.

Schiller, Abbie. A Little Book About Feelings. California: The Mother Company, 2013. Print.A Little Book About Feelings is a product of Ruby’s Studio, a video and print series designed to educate children and parents with respect to social and emotional learning. Adapted from the video “Ruby’s Studio: The Feelings Show,” the purpose of this book is to educate children on how to understand and communicate their feelings. The Ruby Studio is produced by The Mother Company, which is a mom-run American-based company dedicated to providing resources for parents who seek to offer their children educational entertainment.With simple text and beautiful stills of handcrafted caricatures from the program as illustrations, this book is most useful for younger children. It begins by explaining what feelings are, then describes how some feelings may feel, as well as how feelings change. The story also deals with the importance of expressing your feelings as well as listening to them.Overall, this book is a helpful resource for children and parents. With bright illustrations and simple text, this book serves as an informative and entertaining resource on feelings for children.Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 stars.Reviewer: Robin DesmeulesRobin is an Academic Librarian Intern at the J.W. Scott Health Sciences Library at the University of Alberta. Robin is an avid devourer of fiction of all kinds.

Resumen El escaso reconocimiento de la identidad y estética presentes en el artesanado y uso de la Caña flecha (Gynerium Sagittatum) de las culturas indígenas Zenú, plantea la necesidad de indagar sobre cómo entender el diálogo entre el diseño, el artesanado y procesos de producción industrial orientados hacia la innovación de procesos y productos en un contexto de sustentabilidad. Mediante una revisión bibliográfica organizada en dos fases, la primera consistente en la búsqueda de artículos científicos y libros y la segunda en el análisis, permitió clasificar la información en dos categorías: 1) Design, Handcraft y nuevas tendencias y 2) Design y Decolonization. Como resultado se muestran aspectos críticos en la relación entre diseño, artesanado y conocimiento indígena. En esta búsqueda se discute sobre el potencial que, desde el diseño, hace posible generar procesos de innovación y se presenta el diseño contemporáneo como una disciplina de síntesis que responde a un enfoque culturalista o esencialista del diseño con grandes capacidades de empoderamiento y emancipación en contextos periféricos. Esto permitió cuestionar sobre cuáles metodologías permiten acercarse a la comprensión del legado de las culturas y los procesos de artesanado. Palabras clave: Artesanía; diseño centrado en el sujeto; diseño sustentable; humanismo proyectual; materiales tradicionales; tradiciones indígenas; AbstractThe low recognition of the identity and aesthetics present in the craft and use of the cane arrow (Gynerium Sagittatum) of the Zenú indigenous cultures, propose the need to inquire about how to understand the dialogue between design, craftsmanship and industrial production oriented processes towards the innovation of processes and products in a context of sustainability. Through a bibliographic review organized in two phases, the first consisting of the search for scientific articles and books and the second in the analysis, allowed the classification of information into two categories: 1) Design, Handcraft and new trends and 2) Design and Decolonization. As a result, critical aspects are shown in the relationship between design, crafts and indigenous knowledge. This search discusses the potential that, from design, makes it possible to generate innovation processes and presents contemporary design as a discipline of synthesis that responds to a culturalist or essentialist approach to design with great empowerment and emancipation capabilities in contexts peripherals This allowed us to question which methodologies allow us to approach the understanding of the legacy of cultures and craft processes. Keywords: Crafts; subject-centered design; sustainable design; projective humanism; traditional materials; indigenous traditions;

Sinopse: O Círio de Nazaré é uma das maiores celebrações católicas do Brasil e do mundo, reunindo cerca de 2 milhões de devotos de todo o país para homenagear a Virgem de Nazaré. A procissão acontece em Belém, capital do estado do Pará, a cada segundo domingo de outubro, há já dois séculos. Em 2004, as festividades foram listadas como Patrimônio Imaterial pelo IPHAN - Instituto Brasileiro do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional. Em 2013, recebeu o certificado da UNESCO de Patrimônio Cultural Intangível da Humanidade. A celebração católica gira em torno de uma pequena estátua de Nossa Senhora de Nazaré, que se acredita ter sido esculpida em Nazaré (Galileia), e responsável por vários milagres no Portugal medieval, antes de reaparecer no Brasil. Sabe-se que a devoção a Nossa Senhora de Nazaré foi introduzida no país pelos padres jesuítas no século XVII, numa vila chamada Vigia, no nordeste do Estado do Pará. No entanto, a versão mais popularmente aceite diz que no século XVII, um humilde pecuário chamado Plácido José de Souza (de descendência portuguesa e indígena) redescobriu a pequena estátua num riacho em Belém. Plácido levou a Virgem para sua cabana onde fez um altar para a estátua, descobrindo mais tarde que esta, misteriosamente, tinha voltado para onde foi encontrada pela primeira vez. Plácido interpretou este acontecimento como um sinal divino e decidiu construir uma ermida no local para mostrar a sua devoção à Santa, onde hoje é o Santuário de Nossa Senhora de Nazaré, na cidade de Belém. Desde 1793, o Círio de Nazaré acontece na Amazônia brasileira, com festividades a partir de agosto e correndo até 15 dias após a procissão principal. Cerca de 2 milhões de peregrinos de todo o Brasil honram a Nossa Senhora de Nazaré, seguindo a imagem por cerca de seis horas ao longo do caminho de 3,6 quilômetros da Catedral de Belém ao Santuário de Nossa Senhora de Nazaré. Durante a procissão, muitos peregrinos carregam ícones como partes do corpo, tijolos e livros no topo de suas cabeças, representando assim a cura divina e o que conquistaram com as intercessões da Virgem. O momento mais esperado da celebração é quando a estátua de Nossa Senhora de Nazaré sai da catedral e é colocada na berlinda, uma carruagem de flores, e é imediatamente cercada por milhões de devotos descalços e muitas câmeras de celular tentando imortalizar este momento de fé. Outro é, quando um grande número de pessoas quer segurar a corda que é anexada à berlinda pouco depois do inicio da procissão. A corda é um dos maiores símbolos da fé durante o Círio, representa a ligação entre a Santa e seus seguidores. Outro grande símbolo são os promesseiros, os devotos que acompanham a procissão de joelhos, ultrapassando todos os seus limites em nome da gratidão e devoção à Virgem. A festa do Círio de Nazaré não pode ser definida apenas como uma celebração religiosa, pois incorpora muitos elementos culturais que formam a complexa sociedade multicultural brasileira e amazônica, como o almoço familiar de Maniçoba e Pato no Tucupi que são preparados em quase todas as casas de Belém no segundo domingo de outubro, representando a comunhão da família. Os brinquedos artesanais chamados Brinquedos de Mirití, feitos de madeira de palmeira local, que são vendidos em todo lugar durante a procissão do Círio. A mistura do sagrado e do profano também desempenha um papel importante nas festividades, sendo fortemente representada pelo Auto do Círio e pela festa das Filhas da Chiquita. O Auto do Círio é uma procissão artística, repleta de música, dança e atuação, organizada pela Escola de Teatro da Universidade Federal do Pará, abre o fim-de-semana do Círio com uma enorme festa carnavalesca nas pequenas ruas da Cidade Velha. A festa das Filhas da Chiquita é um encontro LGBT que acontece no centro da cidade na noite anterior à procissão principal do Círio, onde as drag queens preformam e a comunidade LGBT tem espaço para mostrar a sua devoção e fé na Nossa Senhora de Nazaré. A ligação simbólica entre o sagrado e o profano durante o Círio de Nazaré é uma das mais importantes virtudes e contradições da celebração, transformando-o numa teia de significados e representações que refletem de forma profunda a complexidade antropológica da maior manifestação religiosa do mundo ocidental. Synopsis: Círio de Nazaré is one of the largest Catholic celebrations in Brazil and the world, gathering around 2 million devotees from across the country to honor the Virgin of Nazaré. The procession takes place in Belém, the capital of the northern state of Pará, every second Sunday of October, for the last two centuries. In 2004, the festivities were listed as Immaterial Heritage by IPHAN – Brazil’s Institute for National Historical and Artistic Heritage. In 2013, it received UNESCO’s certificate of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The Catholic celebration revolves around a small statue of Nossa Senhora de Nazaré, which is believed to have been sculpted in Nazareth (Galilee), and performed miracles in medieval Portugal before reappearing in Brazil. It is known that the devotion to Nossa Senhora de Nazaré was introduced in the country by the Jesuit priests in the 17th century, at a village called Vigia, in the northeastern part of the State of Pará. However, the best known local folklore says that in the 1700’s, a humble cattleman called Plácido José de Souza (of Portuguese and Indigenous descent) rediscovered the small statue of Nossa Senhora de Nazaré in a stream in Belém. Plácido took the Virgin to his cabin where he made an altar for the statue, only to later find out that it had mysteriously moved back to where it was first found. After the statue went back to the same site multiple times, Plácido interpreted it as a divine sign and decided to build a hermitage on the site to show his devotion to the Saint, where today is the Shrine of Nossa Senhora de Nazaré, in the city of Belém. Since 1793, Círio de Nazaré has taken place in the Brazilian Amazon, with its festivities starting in August and running until 15 days after the main procession. About 2 million pilgrims from all over Brazil come to honor Nossa Senhora de Nazaré, following the image for about six hours along the 3.6-kilometer path from Cathedral of Belém to the Shrine of Nossa Senhora de Nazaré. During the procession, many pilgrims carry icons such as parts of the body, bricks, and books on the top of their heads, which represent divine healing and what they conquered with the Virgin’s intercessions. The most anticipated moment of the celebration is when the statue of Nossa Senhora de Nazaré leaves the cathedral and is placed on the berlinda, a flower-bedecked carriage, and is immediately surrounded by millions of barefoot devotees, many wielding cell phone cameras trying to immortalize this moment of faith. Another, when a great number of people want to hold on to the rope, which is attached to the berlinda a few minutes after the procession starts. The rope is one of the biggest symbols of faith during Círio since it represents the link between the Saint and her followers. Beyond the rope, there’s the promesseiros, those who escort the procession on their knees, surpassing all their limits in the name of their gratitude and devotion to the Virgin. Círio de Nazaré festivities can not be defined only as a religious celebration because it incorporates many cultural elements that form the complex Brazilian and amazon multi-cultural society, such as the family lunch of Maniçoba and Pato no Tucupi (typical dishes of Amazonian cuisine) that are cooked in almost every home in Belém during the second Sunday of October, representing the family’s communion. The handcrafted toys called “brinquedos de Mirití”, made of local palm wood, are sold everywhere during Círio’s procession. The blending of the sacred and the profane also plays an important role in the festivities, being best represented by the Auto do Círio and Filhas da Chiquita events. The Auto do Círio is an artistic procession, filled with music, dancing, and acting, organized by the Theater School of the Federal University of Pará, opens up the Círio weekend with a massive carnivalesque party in the small streets of the Old City. The Filhas da Chiquita event is a traditional LGBT gathering that happens in downtown the night before the massive Círio procession, where drag queens perform and the LGBT community has its space to show devotion and faith in Nossa Senhora de Nazaré. The symbolic link between the sacred and the profane worlds during Círio de Nazaré is one of the most important contradictions and virtues of the celebration, transforming it into a web of meanings and representations that deeply reflect the anthropological complexity of the biggest religious manifestation in the western world. Palavras-chave: Círio de Nazaré; Belém do Pará; religiosidade. Key-words: Círio de Nazaré; Belém; religiosity Ficha técnica: Autores: Ana Rita Matias ( BI ICS-ULisboa) Fotografias: Ana Rita Matias; Aderson de Vasconcelos; Lorena Costa; Luiza Brilhante e Geysele Santa Brígida das Mercês. (Projeto Acervo Círio 2016, VISAGEM – UFPA) Direção, Edição de Imagem e Texto: Ana Rita Matias (BI ICS-ULisboa) e Aline de Souza Navegantes (IFCH-UFPA) Credits: Authors: Ana Rita Matias ( BI ICS-ULisboa) Photographs: Ana Rita Matias; Aderson de Vasconcelos; Lorena Costa; Luiza Brilhante e Geysele Santa Brígida das Mercês. (Projeto Acervo Círio 2016, VISAGEM – UFPA) Direction, image editing and text: Ana Rita Matias (BI ICS-ULisboa) e Aline de Souza Navegantes (IFCH-UFPA)

Over the past two decades in the West, practices of ethical consumption have become increasingly visible within mainstream consumer culture (Lewis and Potter). While they manifest in a variety of forms, such practices are frequently articulated to politics of anti-consumerism, environmentalism, and sustainable consumption through which lifestyle choices are conceived as methods for investing in—and articulating—ethical and social concerns. Such practices are typically understood as both a reflection of the increasing global influence of neoliberal, consumer-oriented modes of citizenship and a response to the destabilisation of capitalism’s certainties in the wake of ongoing climate change and the global financial crisis (Castells et al.; Miller). Consume less, consume differently, recycle, do-it-yourself: activities that have historically been associated with explicitly activist movements (see Bryner) are now increasingly accessible and attractive to people for whom these consumption choices might serve as their first introduction to countercultural practices. While the notion of “counterculture” is today a contested concept—one that no longer refers only to “the” (i.e. 1960s) counterculture, but also to a range of radical movements and practices—it is one which is useful for thinking about the ways in which difference from, and resistance to, the “mainstream” can be asserted. Within contemporary consumer culture, resistance is now often articulated in ways which suggests that the lines between the “countercultural” and the “mainstream” are no longer clear cut (Desmond, McDonagh and O’Donohue 263). For Castells et al. (12), this is especially the case when the structures of capitalism are under strain, as this is when alternative and countercultural ways of living increasingly enter the mainstream. The concept of counterculture, then, is useful for understanding the ways in which progressive political values may be reimagined, rearticulated and represented within the mainstream, thereby offering access points to political participation for people who may not necessarily describe their activities as resistant or even as politically engaged (Barnett et al. 45). One of the most interesting aspects of this phenomenon is how a progressive politics of consumption is expressed through images and aesthetics that are culturally coded as conservative. Across a range of contemporary media and popular cultural forms, notions of ethical consumption are often paralleled by resurgences in practices associated with domesticity and traditional femininities. From retro fashions referencing 1940s and 1950s femininity to the growing popularisation of crafting and cooking, many of the “old-fashioned” practices of domesticity that had been critiqued and rejected by second wave feminism (see Brunsdon The Feminist 216), are being reimagined as simultaneously nostalgic and politically progressive choices for women (and, sometimes, for men). This paper explores how the contemporary mobilisation of traditional femininities can activate progressive, countercultural politics of gender and consumption. Specifically, it will examine the popularisation of the “nanna” as a countercultural icon that exemplifies the contemporary politics of retro femininities. Drawing upon data from our larger, more comprehensive studies, this paper uses two case studies—the rise of “nanna-style” cookbooks and the “nanna culture” of indie lifestyle magazine Frankie—to explore the ways that traditional femininities can be reworked to prompt a rethinking of current consumption practices, foster connection (in the case of nanna-style cookbooks) and challenge the limitations of contemporary gender norms (in the case of Frankie). While we are not suggesting that these politics are necessarily deliberately encoded in the texts (although sometimes they may be) or that these texts are inevitably interpreted in the way that we are suggesting, this paper offers preliminary textual “readings” (Kellner 12) of the ways that countercultural values can be uncovered within mainstream cultural forms. Nanna-style cookbooks and Frankie magazine are each examples of a broader resignification of the nanna that has been occurring across a number of sites of contemporary popular culture. Previous associations of the nanna as old, conservative or uncool are being replaced with new images of nannas as active, skilled, funky women. For example, this is evident in the recent resurgences of craft cultures, which reshape the meanings of contemporary knitting as being “not your grandma’s knitting” (Fields 150), but as a “fun, hip, and political” new hobby (Groeneveld 260). Such craft activities have been described using discourses of “revolution and reclamation” (Groeneveld 266) to mobilise countercultural practices ranging from explicitly activist “craftivism” (Corbett and Housley) to more ordinary, everyday politics of consumption and time management. Through activities such as “knit ins”, yarn bombing, and Stitch “N” Bitch circles, contemporary craft practices can be seen as an expression of the “historically reflexive and community minded new amateur”, whose craft practices facilitate new connections between amateurs to enable “alternative values and ways of living” and reject negative aspects of modern consumer society (Hackney 187). Even for women with less explicit activist commitments, an investment in the practices of retro femininities can provide opportunities for community-building, including across generations, in which participants are offered not only a “welcome respite from the rush and hurry of everyday life”, but also access to a suite of activities through which they can resist dominant approaches to consumption (Nathanson 119). Consequently, nostalgic images of grandmotherly practices need not signal only a conservative marketing strategy or desire to return to a (patriarchal, pre-feminist) past as they are sometimes interpreted (see Trussler), but a means through which images of the past can be resignified and reinterpreted in the context of contemporary needs and politics. Cooking Nanna-Style Nanna-style cookbooks are an example of “emergent uses of the past” (Bramall 15) for present purposes. “Nanna-style” is a currently popular category within the cookbook publishing and retailing industries that, for many critics, has been understood as an essentially conservative response to the financial uncertainties of the economic downturn (Orr). Certainly, nanna-style cookbooks are, on one level at least, uncritically and unreflexively nostalgic for a time when women’s cooking was central to providing the comforts of home. In Nonna to Nana: Stories of Food and Family, grandmothers are presented as part of a “fast-disappearing generation of matriarchs” whose recipes must be preserved so that “we [can] honour the love and dedication [they] give through the simple gift of making and sharing their food” (DiBlasi and DiBlasi, book synopsis). Merle’s Kitchen, written by 79-year-old author and Country Women’s Association (CWA) judge, Merle Parrish, is littered with reminisces about what life was like “in those days” when the “kitchen was the heart of the home” and women prepared baked treats each week for their children and husbands (Parrish vii). Sweet Paul Eat & Make: Charming Recipes and Kitchen Crafts You Will Love is filled with the recipes and stories of author Paul Lowe’s grandmother, Mormor, who doted on her family with delicious pancakes cooked at any time of the day. Such images of the grandmother’s selfless dedication to her family deploy the romance of what Jean Duruz (58) has called “Cooking Woman,” a figure whose entire identity is subsumed within the pleasure and comfort that she provides to others. Through the medium of the cookbook, Cooking Woman serves the fantasies of the “nostalgic cosmopolitan” (Duruz 61) for whom the pleasures of the nanna reflect an essentially (albeit unacknowledged) conservative impulse. However, for others, the nostalgia of Cooking Woman need not necessarily involve endorsement of her domestic servitude, but instead evoke images of an (imagined, utopian) past as a means of exploring the pleasures and contradictions of contemporary femininities and consumption practices (see Hollows 190). Such texts are part of a broader set of practices associated with what Bramall (21) calls “austerity chic.” Austerity chic’s full political potential is evident in explicitly countercultural cookbooks like Heidi Minx’s Home Rockanomics, which invokes the DIY spirit of punk to present recycling, cooking and craft making as methods for investing in an anti-corporate, vegan activist politics. But for Bramall (31), even less challenging texts featuring nostalgic images of nannas can activate progressive demands about the need to consume more sustainably in ways that make these ideas more accessible to a broader range of constituencies. In particular, such texts offer forms of “alternative hedonism” through which practices of ethical consumption need not be characterised by experiences of self-denial but by a reconceptualisation of what constitutes the “good life” (Soper 211). In the practices of austerity chic as they are presented in nanna-style cookbooks, grandmotherly practices of baking and cooking are presented as frugal and self-sufficient, but also as granting access to experiences of pleasure, including the pleasures of familial warmth, cohesion and connection. Specifically, these books emphasise the ways in which cooking, and baking in particular, helps to forge connections between generations. For the authors of Pass It Down and Keep Baking, the recipes of grandmothers and great-aunts are described as “treasures” to be “cherished and passed on to future generations” (Wilkinson and Wilkinson 2). For the authors of Nonna to Nana, the food of the authors’ own grandmother is described as the “thread that bound our family together” (DiBlasi and DiBlasi 2). In contrast to some of the more explicitly political retro-inspired movements, which often construct the new formations of these practices as distinct from those of older women (e.g. “not your grandma’s knitting”), these more mainstream texts celebrate generational cohesion. Given the ways in which feminist histories have tended to discursively pit the various “waves” of feminism in opposition to that which came before, the celebration of the grandmother as a unifying figure becomes a means through which connections can be forged between past and present subjectivities (see Bramall 134). Such intergenerational connections—and the notion that grandmotherly practices are treasures to be preserved—also serve as a way of reimagining and reinterpreting (often devalued) feminine domestic activities as alternative sources of pleasure and of the “good life” at a time when reducing consumption and adopting more sustainable lifestyle practices is becoming increasingly urgent (see Bramall; Soper). While this might nonetheless be interpreted as compliant with contemporary patriarchal and capitalist structures—indeed, there is nothing inherently countercultural about conceiving the domestic as a site of pleasure—the potential radicalism of these texts lies in the ways that they highlight how investment in the fantasies, pleasures and activities of domesticity are not available only to women, nor are they associated only with the reproduction of traditional gender roles. For example in Sweet Paul Eat & Make, Lowe’s adoption of many of Mormor’s culinary and craft practices highlights the symbolic work that the nanna performs to enable his own commitment to forms of traditionally feminine domesticity. The fact that he is also large, hairy, heavily tattooed and pictured with a cute little French bulldog constructs Lowe as a simultaneously masculine and “camp” figure who, much like the playful and excessive femininity of well-known figures like Nigella Lawson (Brunsdon “Martha” 51), highlights the inherent performativity of both gendered and domestic subjectivities, and hence challenges any uncritical investment in these traditional roles. The countercultural potential of nanna-style cookbooks, then, lies not necessarily in an explicitly activist politics, but in a politics of the everyday. This is a politics in which seemingly conservative, nostalgic images of the nanna can make available new forms of identity, including those that emerge between generations, between the masculine and the feminine, and between imagined utopias of domesticity and the economic and environmental realities of contemporary consumer culture. Frankie’s Indie Nanna The countercultural potential of the nanna is also mobilised in fashion and lifestyle publications, including Frankie magazine, which is described as part of a “world where nanna culture is revered” (“Frankie Magazine Beats the Odds”). Frankie exemplifies both a reaction against a particular brand of femininity, and an invitation to consume more sustainably as part of the indie youth trend. Indie, as it manifests in Frankie, blends retro aesthetics with progressive politics in ways that present countercultural practices not as explicitly oppositional, but as access points to inclusive, empowering and pleasurable femininities. Frankie’s version of nanna culture can be found throughout the magazine, particularly in its focus on retro styles. The nanna is invoked in instructions for making nanna-style items, such as issue 46’s call to “Pop on a Cuppa: How to Make Your Own Nanna-Style Tea Cosy” (Lincolne 92-93), and in the retro aesthetics found throughout the magazine, including recipes depicting baked goods served on old-fashioned crockery and features on homes designed with a vintage theme (see Nov.-Dec. 2012 and Mar.-Apr. 2013). Much like nanna-style cookbooks, Frankie’s celebration of nanna culture offers readers alternative ways of thinking about consumption, inviting them to imagine the “satisfactions to be had from consuming differently” (Soper 222) and to construct ethical consumption as both expressions of alternative critical consumer culture and as practices of “cool” consumer connoisseurship (Franklin 165). Here, making your own items, purchasing second-hand items, or repurposing old wares, are presented not as forms of sacrifice, but as pleasurable and fashionable choices for young women. This contrasts with the consumption practices typically promoted in other contemporary women’s magazines. Most clearly, Frankie’s promotion of nanna chic stands in opposition to the models of desirable femininity characteristic of glossies like Cosmopolitan. The archetypal “Cosmo Girl” is represented as a woman seeking to achieve social mobility and desirability through consumption of cosmetics, fashion and sexual relationships (Oullette 366-367). In contrast, the nanna, with her lack of overt sexuality, older age, and conservative approach to consumption, invites identification with forms of feminine subjectivity that resist the patriarchal ideologies that are seen as typical of mainstream women’s magazines (see Gill 217). Frankie’s cover artwork demonstrates its constructed difference from modes of desirable femininity promoted by its glossy counterparts. The cover of the magazine’s 50th issue, for example, featured a embroidered collage depicting a range of objects including a sewing machine, teapot, retro glasses, flowers and a bicycle. This cover, which looks handcrafted and features items that evoke both nanna culture and indie style, offers forms of feminine style and desirability based on homecrafts, domestic self-sufficiency and do-it-yourself sustainability. The nanna herself is directly referenced on the cover of issue 52, which features an illustration of a woman in an armchair, seated in front of vintage-style floral wallpaper, a cup of tea in her hand, and her hair in a bun. While she does not possess physical features that signify old age such as grey hair or wrinkles, her location and style choices can each be read as signifiers of the nanna. Yet by featuring her on the cover of a young women’s magazine—and by dressing her in high-heeled boots—the nanna is constructed as subject position available to young, potentially desirable women. In contrast to glossy women’s magazines featuring images of young models or celebrities in sexualised poses (see Gill 184), Frankie offers a progressive politics of gender in which old-fashioned activities can provide means of challenging identities and consumption practices dominant within mainstream cultural industries. As Bramall (121) argues of “retro femininities in austerity,” such representations provide readers access to “subjectivities [that] may incorporate a certain critique of consumer capitalism.” By offering alternative modes of consumption in which women are not necessarily defined by youth and sexual desirability, Frankie’s indie nanna provides an implicit critique of mainstream consumerism’s models of ideal femininity. This gender politics thus relies not simply on an uncritical “gender reversal” (Plumwood 62), but rather reworks and recombines elements of past and present femininities to create new meanings and identities. Much like nanna-style cookbooks’ grandmotherly figures who unite generations, Frankie constructs the nanna as a source of wisdom and a figure to be respected. For example, a two-page spread entitled “Ask a Nanna” featured Polaroid pictures of nannas answering the question: “What would you tell your 20-year-old self?” (Evans 92-93). The magazine also regularly features older women, such as the profile describing Sonia Grevell as “a champion at crochet and living generously” (Corry 107). The editors’ letter of a recent issue describes the issue’s two major themes as “nannas and dirty, dirty rock”, which are described as having a “couple of things in common”: “they’ve been around for a while, you sometimes have to talk loudly in front of them and they rarely take shit from anyone” (Walker and Burke 6). The editors suggest that such “awesomeness” can be emulated by “eating a bikkie while gently moshing around the living room” or “knitting with drum sticks”—both unlikely juxtapositions that represent the unconventional nanna and her incorporation into indie youth culture. This celebration of the nanna stands in contrast to a mainstream media culture that privileges youth, especially for women, and suggests both common interests and learning opportunities between generations. While neither Frankie nor nanna-style cookbooks present themselves as political texts, when they are read within their particular historical and social contexts, they offer new ways of thinking about how countercultural practices are—and could be—mobilised by, and made accessible to, constituencies who may not otherwise identify with an explicitly oppositional politics. These texts sometimes appear to be located within a politically ambiguous nexus of compliance and resistance, but it is in this space of ambiguity that new identities and new commitments to progressive politics can be forged, normalised and made more widely available. These texts may not ultimately challenge capitalist structures of consumption, and they remain commodified products, but by connecting oppositional and mainstream practices, they offer new ways of conceiving the relationships between age, gender, sustainability and pleasure. They suggest ways that we might reimagine consumption as more sustainable and more inclusive than currently dominant modes of capitalist consumerism. References Barnett, Clive, Nick Clarke, Paul Cloke, and Alice Malpass. “The Political Ethics of Consumerism.” Consumer Policy Review 15.2 (2005): 45-51. Bramall, Rebecca. The Cultural Politics of Austerity: Past and Present in Austere Times. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Brunsdon, Charlotte. The Feminist, the Housewife and the Soap Opera. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000. Brunsdon, Charlotte. “The Feminist in the Kitchen: Martha, Martha and Nigella.” Feminism in Popular Culture. Eds Joanne Hollows and Rachel Moseley. Oxford: Berg, 2006. 41-56. Bryner, Gary C. Gaia’s Wager: Environmental Movements and the Challenge of Sustainability. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2001. Castells, Manuel, João Caraça, and Gustavo Cardoso. “The Cultures of the Economic Crisis: An Introduction.” Aftermath: The Cultures of the Economic Crisis. Eds. Manuel Castells, João Caraça, and Gustavo Cardoso. Oxford University Press, 2012. 1–16. Corbett, Sarah, and Sarah Housley. “The Craftivist Collective Guide to Craftivism.” Utopian Studies 22.2 (2011): 344-351. Corry, Lucy. “Stitches in Time.” Frankie Jan.-Feb. 2014: 106-107. Desmond, John, Pierre McDonagh and Stephanie O’Donohoe. “Counter-Culture and Consumer Society.” Consumption, Markets and Culture 4.3 (2000): 207-343. DiBlasi, Jessie, and Jacqueline DiBlasi. Nonna to Nana: Stories of Food and Family. Melbourne: Jessie and Jacqueline DiBlasi, 2014. Duruz, Jean. “Haunted Kitchens: Cooking and Remembering.” Gastronomica 4.1 (2004): 57-68. Evans, Daniel. “Ask a Nanna.” Frankie Mar.-Apr. 2010: 92-93. Fields, Corey D. “Not Your Grandma’s Knitting: The Role of Identity Processes in the Transformation of Cultural Practices.” Social Psychology Quarterly 77.2 (2014): 150-165. Frankie. Mar.-Apr. 2013. ---. Nov.- Dec. 2012. “Frankie Magazine Beats the Odds.” The 7.30 Report. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 8 June 2010. Transcript. 30 Sep. 2014 ‹http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2010/s2921938.htm›. Franklin, Adrian. “The Ethics of Second-Hand Consumption.” Ethical Consumption: A Critical Introduction. Eds Tania Lewis and Emily Potter. London: Routledge, 2011. 156-168. Gill, Rosalind. Gender and the Media. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007. Groeneveld, Elizabeth. “‘Join the Knitting Revolution’: Third-Wave Feminist Magazines and the Politics of Domesticity.” Canadian Review of American Studies 40.2 (2010): 259-277. Hackney, Fiona. “Quiet Activism and the New Amateur: The Power of Home and Hobby Crafts.” Design and Culture 5.2 (2013): 169-194. Hollows, Joanne. “Feeling like a Domestic Goddess: Postfeminism and Cooking.” European Journal of Cultural Studies 6.2 (2003): 179-202. Kellner, Douglas. “Towards a Critical Media/Cultural Studies.” Media/Cultural Studies: Critical Approaches. Eds Rhonda Hammer and Douglas Kellner. New York: Peter Lang, 2009. 5-24. Lewis, Tania, and Emily Potter (eds). Ethical Consumption: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge, 2011. Lincolne, Pip. “Pop on a Cuppa.” Frankie Mar.-Apr. 2012: 92-93. Lowe, Paul. Sweet Paul Eat & Make: Charming Recipes and Kitchen Crafts You Will Love. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014. Miller, Toby. Cultural Citizenship: Cosmopolitanism, Consumerism and Television in a Neoliberal Age. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2007. Minx, Heidi. Home Rockanomics: 54 Projects and Recipes for Style on the Edge. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2009. Nathanson, Elizabeth. Television and Postfeminist Housekeeping. New York: Routledge, 2013. Orr, Gillian. “Sweet Taste of Sales Success: Why Are Cookbooks Selling Better than Ever?” The Independent (7 Sept. 2012). 29 Sep. 2014 ‹http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/sweet-taste-of-sales-success-why-are-cookbooks-selling-better-than-ever-8113937.html›. Oullette, Laurie. “Inventing the Cosmo Girl: Class Identity and Girl-Style American Dreams.” Media, Culture and Society 21.3 (1999): 359-383. Parrish, Merle. Merle’s Kitchen. North Sydney: Ebury Press, 2012. Plumwood, Val. Feminism and the Mastery of Nature. London: Routledge, 1993. Soper, Kate. “Rethinking the ‘Good Life’: The Citizenship Dimension of Consumer Disaffection with Consumerism.” Journal of Consumer Culture 7.2 (2007): 205-229. Trussler, Meryl. “Half Baked: The Trouble with Cupcake Feminism.” The Quietus 13 Feb. 2013. 29 Sep. 2014 ‹http://thequietus.com/articles/07962-cupcake-feminism›. Walker, Jo, and Lara Burke. “First Thought.” Frankie Jan.-Feb. 2014: 6. Wilkinson, Laura, and Beth Wilkinson. Pass It Down and Keep Baking. Melbourne: Pass It On, 2013.

This article investigates the prosthesis of identity through the process of branding. It examines cross-cultural manifestations of this phenomena from sixth millennium BCE Syria to twelfth century Japan and Britain. From the Neolithic Era, humanity has sort to extend their identities using pictorial signs that were characteristically simple. Designed to be distinctive and instantly recognisable, the totemic symbols served to signal the origin of the bearer. Subsequently, the development of branding coincided with periods of increased in mobility both in respect to geography and social strata. This includes fifth millennium Mesopotamia, nineteenth century Britain, and America during the 1920s.There are fewer articles of greater influence on contemporary culture than A Theory of Human Motivation written by Abraham Maslow in 1943. Nearly seventy-five years later, his theories about the societal need for “belongingness” and “esteem” remain a mainstay of advertising campaigns (Maslow). Although the principles are used to sell a broad range of products from shampoo to breakfast cereal they are epitomised by apparel. This is with refence to garments and accessories bearing corporation logos. Whereas other purchased items, imbued with abstract products, are intended for personal consumption the public display of these symbols may be interpreted as a form of signalling. The intention of the wearers is to literally seek the fulfilment of the aforementioned social needs. This article investigates the use of brands as prosthesis.Coats and Crests: Identity Garnered on Garments in the Middle Ages and the Muromachi PeriodA logo, at its most basic, is a pictorial sign. In his essay, The Visual Language, Ernest Gombrich described the principle as reducing images to “distinctive features” (Gombrich 46). They represent a “simplification of code,” the meaning of which we are conditioned to recognise (Gombrich 46). Logos may also be interpreted as a manifestation of totemism. According to anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, the principle exists in all civilisations and reflects an effort to evoke the power of nature (71-127). Totemism is also a method of population distribution (Levi-Strauss 166).This principle, in a form garnered on garments, is manifested in Mon Kiri. The practice of cutting out family crests evolved into a form of corporate branding in Japan during the Meiji Period (1868-1912) (Christensen 14). During the Muromachi period (1336-1573) the crests provided an integral means of identification on the battlefield (Christensen 13). The adorning of crests on armour was also exercised in Europe during the twelfth century, when the faces of knights were similarly obscured by helmets (Family Crests of Japan 8). Both Mon Kiri and “Coat[s] of Arms” utilised totemic symbols (Family Crests of Japan 8; Elven 14; Christensen 13). The mon for the imperial family (figs. 1 & 2) during the Muromachi Period featured chrysanthemum and paulownia flowers (Goin’ Japaneque). “Coat[s] of Arms” in Britain featured a menagerie of animals including lions (fig. 3), horses and eagles (Elven).The prothesis of identity through garnering symbols on the battlefield provided “safety” through demonstrating “belongingness”. This constituted a conflation of two separate “needs” in the “hierarchy of prepotency” propositioned by Maslow. Fig. 1. The mon symbolising the Imperial Family during the Muromachi Period featured chrysanthemum and paulownia. "Kamon (Japanese Family Crests): Ancient Key to Samurai Culture." Goin' Japaneque! 15 Nov. 2015. 27 July 2019 <http://goinjapanesque.com/05983/>.Fig. 2. An example of the crest being utilised on a garment can be found in this portrait of samurai Oda Nobunaga. "Japan's 12 Most Famous Samurai." All About Japan. 27 Aug. 2018. 27 July 2019 <https://allabout-japan.com/en/article/5818/>.Fig. 3. A detail from the “Index of Subjects of Crests.” Elven, John Peter. The Book of Family Crests: Comprising Nearly Every Family Bearing, Properly Blazoned and Explained, Accompanied by Upwards of Four Thousand Engravings. Henry Washbourne, 1847.The Pursuit of Prestige: Prosthetic Pedigree from the Late Georgian to the Victorian Eras In 1817, the seal engraver to Prince Regent, Alexander Deuchar, described the function of family crests in British Crests: Containing The Crest and Mottos of The Families of Great Britain and Ireland; Together with Those of The Principal Cities and Heraldic Terms as follows: The first approach to civilization is the distinction of ranks. So necessary is this to the welfare and existence of society, that, without it, anarchy and confusion must prevail… In an early stage, heraldic emblems were characteristic of the bearer… Certain ordinances were made, regulating the mode of bearing arms, and who were entitled to bear them. (i-v)The partitioning of social classes in Britain had deteriorated by the time this compendium was published, with displays of “conspicuous consumption” displacing “heraldic emblems” as a primary method of status signalling (Deuchar 2; Han et al. 18). A consumerism born of newfound affluence, and the desire to signify this wealth through luxury goods, was as integral to the Industrial Revolution as technological development. In Rebels against the Future, published in 1996, Kirkpatrick Sale described the phenomenon:A substantial part of the new population, though still a distinct minority, was made modestly affluent, in some places quite wealthy, by privatization of of the countryside and the industrialization of the cities, and by the sorts of commercial and other services that this called forth. The new money stimulated the consumer demand… that allowed a market economy of a scope not known before. (40)This also reflected improvements in the provision of “health, food [and] education” (Maslow; Snow 25-28). With their “physiological needs” accommodated, this ”substantial part” of the population were able to prioritised their “esteem needs” including the pursuit for prestige (Sale 40; Maslow).In Britain during the Middle Ages laws “specified in minute detail” what each class was permitted to wear (Han et al. 15). A groom, for example, was not able to wear clothing that exceeded two marks in value (Han et al. 15). In a distinct departure during the Industrial Era, it was common for the “middling and lower classes” to “ape” the “fashionable vices of their superiors” (Sale 41). Although mon-like labels that were “simplified so as to be conspicuous and instantly recognisable” emerged in Europe during the nineteenth century their application on garments remained discrete up until the early twentieth century (Christensen 13-14; Moore and Reid 24). During the 1920s, the French companies Hermes and Coco Chanel were amongst the clothing manufacturers to pioneer this principle (Chaney; Icon).During the 1860s, Lincolnshire-born Charles Frederick Worth affixed gold stamped labels to the insides of his garments (Polan et al. 9; Press). Operating from Paris, the innovation was consistent with the introduction of trademark laws in France in 1857 (Lopes et al.). He would become known as the “Father of Haute Couture”, creating dresses for royalty and celebrities including Empress Eugene from Constantinople, French actress Sarah Bernhardt and Australian Opera Singer Nellie Melba (Lopes et al.; Krick). The clothing labels proved and ineffective deterrent to counterfeit, and by the 1890s the House of Worth implemented other measures to authenticate their products (Press). The legitimisation of the origin of a product is, arguably, the primary function of branding. This principle is also applicable to subjects. The prothesis of brands, as totemic symbols, assisted consumers to relocate themselves within a new system of population distribution (Levi-Strauss 166). It was one born of commerce as opposed to heraldry.Selling of Self: Conferring Identity from the Neolithic to Modern ErasIn his 1817 compendium on family crests, Deuchar elaborated on heraldry by writing:Ignoble birth was considered as a stain almost indelible… Illustrious parentage, on the other hand, constituted the very basis of honour: it communicated peculiar rights and privileges, to which the meaner born man might not aspire. (v-vi)The Twinings Logo (fig. 4) has remained unchanged since the design was commissioned by the grandson of the company founder Richard Twining in 1787 (Twining). In addition to reflecting the heritage of the family-owned company, the brand indicated the origin of the tea. This became pertinent during the nineteenth century. Plantations began to operate from Assam to Ceylon (Jones 267-269). Amidst the rampant diversification of tea sources in the Victorian era, concerns about the “unhygienic practices” of Chinese producers were proliferated (Wengrow 11). Subsequently, the brand also offered consumers assurance in quality. Fig. 4. The Twinings Logo reproduced from "History of Twinings." Twinings. 24 July 2019 <https://www.twinings.co.uk/about-twinings/history-of-twinings>.The term ‘brand’, adapted from the Norse “brandr”, was introduced into the English language during the sixteenth century (Starcevic 179). At its most literal, it translates as to “burn down” (Starcevic 179). Using hot elements to singe markings onto animals been recorded as early as 2700 BCE in Egypt (Starcevic 182). However, archaeologists concur that the modern principle of branding predates this practice. The implementation of carved seals or stamps to make indelible impressions of handcrafted objects dates back to Prehistoric Mesopotamia (Starcevic 183; Wengrow 13). Similar traditions developed during the Bronze Age in both China and the Indus Valley (Starcevic 185). In all three civilisations branding facilitated both commerce and aspects of Totemism. In the sixth millennium BCE in “Prehistoric” Mesopotamia, referred to as the Halaf period, stone seals were carved to emulate organic form such as animal teeth (Wengrow 13-14). They were used to safeguard objects by “confer[ring] part of the bearer’s personality” (Wengrow 14). They were concurrently applied to secure the contents of vessels containing “exotic goods” used in transactions (Wengrow 15). Worn as amulets (figs. 5 & 6) the seals, and the symbols they produced, were a physical extension of their owners (Wengrow 14).Fig. 5. Recreation of stamp seal amulets from Neolithic Mesopotamia during the sixth millennium BCE. Wengrow, David. "Prehistories of Commodity Branding." Current Anthropology 49.1 (2008): 14.Fig. 6. “Lot 25Y: Rare Syrian Steatite Amulet – Fertility God 5000 BCE.” The Salesroom. 27 July 2019 <https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/artemis-gallery-ancient-art/catalogue-id-srartem10006/lot-a850d229-a303-4bae-b68c-a6130005c48a>. Fig. 7. Recreation of stamp seal designs from Mesopotamia from the late fifth to fourth millennium BCE. Wengrow, David. "Prehistories of Commodity Branding." Current Anthropology 49. 1 (2008): 16.In the following millennia, the seals would increase exponentially in application and aesthetic complexity (fig. 7) to support the development of household cum cottage industries (Wengrow 15). In addition to handcrafts, sealed vessels would transport consumables such as wine, aromatic oils and animal fats (Wengrow 18). The illustrations on the seals included depictions of rituals undertaken by human figures and/or allegories using animals. It can be ascertained that the transition in the Victorian Era from heraldry to commerce, from family to corporation, had precedence. By extension, consumers were able to participate in this process of value attribution using brands as signifiers. The principle remained prevalent during the modern and post-modern eras and can be respectively interpreted using structuralist and post-structuralist theory.Totemism to Simulacrum: The Evolution of Advertising from the Modern to Post-Modern Eras In 2011, Lisa Chaney wrote of the inception of the Coco Chanel logo (fig. 8) in her biography Chanel: An Intimate Life: A crucial element in the signature design of the Chanel No.5 bottle is the small black ‘C’ within a black circle set as the seal at the neck. On the top of the lid are two more ‘C’s, intertwined back to back… from at least 1924, the No5 bottles sported the unmistakable logo… these two ‘C’s referred to Gabrielle, – in other words Coco Chanel herself, and would become the logo for the House of Chanel. Chaney continued by describing Chanel’s fascination of totemic symbols as expressed through her use of tarot cards. She also “surrounded herself with objects ripe with meaning” such as representations of wheat and lions in reference prosperity and to her zodiac symbol ‘Leo’ respectively. Fig. 8. No5 Chanel Perfume, released in 1924, featured a seal-like logo attached to the bottle neck. “No5.” Chanel. 25 July 2019 <https://www.chanel.com/us/fragrance/p/120450/n5-parfum-grand-extrait/>.Fig. 9. This illustration of the bottle by Georges Goursat was published in a women’s magazine circa 1920s. “1921 Chanel No5.” Inside Chanel. 26 July 2019 <http://inside.chanel.com/en/timeline/1921_no5>; “La 4éme Fête de l’Histoire Samedi 16 et dimache 17 juin.” Ville de Perigueux. Musée d’art et d’archéologie du Périgord. 28 Mar. 2018. 26 July 2019 <https://www.perigueux-maap.fr/category/archives/page/5/>. This product was considered the “financial basis” of the Chanel “empire” which emerged during the second and third decades of the twentieth century (Tikkanen). Chanel is credited for revolutionising Haute Couture by introducing chic modern designs that emphasised “simplicity and comfort.” This was as opposed to the corseted highly embellished fashion that characterised the Victorian Era (Tikkanen). The lavish designs released by the House of Worth were, in and of themselves, “conspicuous” displays of “consumption” (Veblen 17). In contrast, the prestige and status associated with the “poor girl” look introduced by Chanel was invested in the story of the designer (Tikkanen). A primary example is her marinière or sailor’s blouse with a Breton stripe that epitomised her ascension from café singer to couturier (Tikkanen; Burstein 8). This signifier might have gone unobserved by less discerning consumers of fashion if it were not for branding. Not unlike the Prehistoric Mesopotamians, this iteration of branding is a process which “confer[s]” the “personality” of the designer into the garment (Wengrow 13 -14). The wearer of the garment is, in turn, is imbued by extension. Advertisers in the post-structuralist era embraced Levi-Strauss’s structuralist anthropological theories (Williamson 50). This is with particular reference to “bricolage” or the “preconditioning” of totemic symbols (Williamson 173; Pool 50). Subsequently, advertising creatives cum “bricoleur” employed his principles to imbue the brands with symbolic power. This symbolic capital was, arguably, transferable to the product and, ultimately, to its consumer (Williamson 173).Post-structuralist and semiotician Jean Baudrillard “exhaustively” critiqued brands and the advertising, or simulacrum, that embellished them between the late 1960s and early 1980s (Wengrow 10-11). In Simulacra and Simulation he wrote,it is the reflection of a profound reality; it masks and denatures a profound reality; it masks the absence of a profound reality; it has no relation to any reality whatsoever: it is its own pure simulacrum. (6)The symbolic power of the Chanel brand resonates in the ‘profound reality’ of her story. It is efficiently ‘denatured’ through becoming simplified, conspicuous and instantly recognisable. It is, as a logo, physically juxtaposed as simulacra onto apparel. This simulacrum, in turn, effects the ‘profound reality’ of the consumer. In 1899, economist Thorstein Veblen wrote in The Theory of the Leisure Class:Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods it the means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure… costly entertainments, such as potlatch or the ball, are peculiarly adapted to serve this end… he consumes vicariously for his host at the same time that he is witness to the consumption… he is also made to witness his host’s facility in etiquette. (47)Therefore, according to Veblen, it was the witnessing of “wasteful” consumption that “confers status” as opposed the primary conspicuous act (Han et al. 18). Despite television being in its experimental infancy advertising was at “the height of its powers” during the 1920s (Clark et al. 18; Hill 30). Post-World War I consumers, in America, experienced an unaccustomed level of prosperity and were unsuspecting of the motives of the newly formed advertising agencies (Clark et al. 18). Subsequently, the ‘witnessing’ of consumption could be constructed across a plethora of media from the newly emerged commercial radio to billboards (Hill viii–25). The resulting ‘status’ was ‘conferred’ onto brand logos. Women’s magazines, with a legacy dating back to 1828, were a primary locus (Hill 10).Belonging in a Post-Structuralist WorldIt is significant to note that, in a post-structuralist world, consumers do not exclusively seek upward mobility in their selection of brands. The establishment of counter-culture icon Levi-Strauss and Co. was concurrent to the emergence of both The House of Worth and Coco Chanel. The Bavarian-born Levi Strauss commenced selling apparel in San Francisco in 1853 (Levi’s). Two decades later, in partnership with Nevada born tailor Jacob Davis, he patented the “riveted-for-strength” workwear using blue denim (Levi’s). Although the ontology of ‘jeans’ is contested, references to “Jene Fustyan” date back the sixteenth century (Snyder 139). It involved the combining cotton, wool and linen to create “vestments” for Geonese sailors (Snyder 138). The Two Horse Logo (fig. 10), depicting them unable to pull apart a pair of jeans to symbolise strength, has been in continuous use by Levi Strauss & Co. company since its design in 1886 (Levi’s). Fig. 10. The Two Horse Logo by Levi Strauss & Co. has been in continuous use since 1886. Staff Unzipped. "Two Horses. One Message." Heritage. Levi Strauss & Co. 1 July 2011. 25 July 2019 <https://www.levistrauss.com/2011/07/01/two-horses-many-versions-one-message/>.The “rugged wear” would become the favoured apparel amongst miners at American Gold Rush (Muthu 6). Subsequently, between the 1930s – 1960s Hollywood films cultivated jeans as a symbol of “defiance” from Stage Coach staring John Wayne in 1939 to Rebel without A Cause staring James Dean in 1955 (Muthu 6; Edgar). Consequently, during the 1960s college students protesting in America (fig. 11) against the draft chose the attire to symbolise their solidarity with the working class (Hedarty). Notwithstanding a 1990s fashion revision of denim into a diversity of garments ranging from jackets to skirts, jeans have remained a wardrobe mainstay for the past half century (Hedarty; Muthu 10). Fig. 11. Although the brand label is not visible, jeans as initially introduced to the American Goldfields in the nineteenth century by Levi Strauss & Co. were cultivated as a symbol of defiance from the 1930s – 1960s. It documents an anti-war protest that occurred at the Pentagon in 1967. Cox, Savannah. "The Anti-Vietnam War Movement." ATI. 14 Dec. 2016. 16 July 2019 <https://allthatsinteresting.com/vietnam-war-protests#7>.In 2003, the journal Science published an article “Does Rejection Hurt? An Fmri Study of Social Exclusion” (Eisenberger et al.). The cross-institutional study demonstrated that the neurological reaction to rejection is indistinguishable to physical pain. Whereas during the 1940s Maslow classified the desire for “belonging” as secondary to “physiological needs,” early twenty-first century psychologists would suggest “[social] acceptance is a mechanism for survival” (Weir 50). In Simulacra and Simulation, Jean Baudrillard wrote: Today abstraction is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror or the concept. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal… (1)In the intervening thirty-eight years since this document was published the artifice of our interactions has increased exponentially. In order to locate ‘belongness’ in this hyperreality, the identities of the seekers require a level of encoding. Brands, as signifiers, provide a vehicle.Whereas in Prehistoric Mesopotamia carved seals, worn as amulets, were used to extend the identity of a person, in post-digital China WeChat QR codes (fig. 12), stored in mobile phones, are used to facilitate transactions from exchanging contact details to commerce. Like other totems, they provide access to information such as locations, preferences, beliefs, marital status and financial circumstances. These individualised brands are the most recent incarnation of a technology that has developed over the past eight thousand years. The intermediary iteration, emblems affixed to garments, has remained prevalent since the twelfth century. Their continued salience is due to their visibility and, subsequent, accessibility as signifiers. Fig. 12. It may be posited that Wechat QR codes are a form individualised branding. Like other totems, they store information pertaining to the owner’s location, beliefs, preferences, marital status and financial circumstances. “Join Wechat groups using QR code on 2019.” Techwebsites. 26 July 2019 <https://techwebsites.net/join-wechat-group-qr-code/>.Fig. 13. Brands function effectively as signifiers is due to the international distribution of multinational corporations. This is the shopfront of Chanel in Dubai, which offers customers apparel bearing consistent insignia as the Parisian outlet at on Rue Cambon. Customers of Chanel can signify to each other with the confidence that their products will be recognised. “Chanel.” The Dubai Mall. 26 July 2019 <https://thedubaimall.com/en/shop/chanel>.Navigating a post-structuralist world of increasing mobility necessitates a rudimental understanding of these symbols. Whereas in the nineteenth century status was conveyed through consumption and witnessing consumption, from the twentieth century onwards the garnering of brands made this transaction immediate (Veblen 47; Han et al. 18). The bricolage of the brands is constructed by bricoleurs working in any number of contemporary creative fields such as advertising, filmmaking or song writing. They provide a system by which individuals can convey and recognise identities at prima facie. They enable the prosthesis of identity.ReferencesBaudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation. Trans. Sheila Faria Glaser. United States: University of Michigan Press, 1994.Burstein, Jessica. Cold Modernism: Literature, Fashion, Art. United States: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2012.Chaney, Lisa. Chanel: An Intimate Life. United Kingdom: Penguin Books Limited, 2011.Christensen, J.A. Cut-Art: An Introduction to Chung-Hua and Kiri-E. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1989. Clark, Eddie M., Timothy C. 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