Subculture and style - Helen Clarke

Main points:-Definition: In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture (whether distinct or hidden) which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong.


-Subculture is separate from style

Subculture helps you escape from the baggage of looks and gender.

People who write about subculture are generally male


Summary of the lecture:

Critical view points:

“Subcultures represent ‘noise’ (as opposed to sound): interference in the orderly sequence which leads from real events and phenomena to their representation in the media.” - Dick heddige

subcultures are taken and turned into mass produced objects/commodity form
clothing which is ripped as an anarchic statement becomes massed produced with rips as part of the design

"Skateboarders do not so much temporarily escape from the routinized world of school family and social conventions as replace it with a whole new way of life.” (Borden:2001) - Substitute family. 

Ian Borden- Performing the City
urban street skating as a political statement
he argues that street skating gives you something to do
taking in the surroundings, architecture
skating is a way outside of that experience an alternative which is what makes it a subcultural activity
Borden puts forward the idea that skating is a way of changing the urban space
for example the handrail... as opposed to the urban environment controlling them, they manipulate their own surroundings and utilise this to their advantage

Skateboarding links with Graffiti by changing an urban environment, for example tagging. Claiming ownership to a public place. 

How it relates to graphic design:

Fanzines - DIY aesthetic, turned main stream. Its about they used design to portray thier political ideology. 

In contrast to this is the grunge scene.