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TINTIN: 

The Work & Hero Of a Lifetime

 

Although I expected a bigger exhibition in terms of space, the ”Tintin: Hergé’s Masterpiece” exposition did not disappoint. No matter how big or small the space, what matters is what is done with it. At the Terrace Rooms of Somerset House it was without a doubt, done well.

As you opened one of those doors, you suddenly stepped into another dimension, that which being Captain Haddock’s home with it’s chandeliers, fireplaces and great windows. As a great fan of Tintin, this was a magical moment for me as I felt like my older brother, with whom I spent countless hours reading Tintin with, was right next to me, and I was 8 years old again.

These three rooms with the Tintin scenes in the fireplaces, the stickers on the windows, the wallpaper made like the endpapers of the comics, truly captured what it feels like to read Tintin’s adventures. The space really welcomed the viewers to submerge themselves into this atmosphere in order to appreciate and understand best the relationship the author had with his characters, specially Tintin and how he came to creating him.

The exhibition works so well because each room is presented the same way creating a really smooth transition from room to room. The wallpapers on the left walls, drawings and documents from Hergé on the right walls, maquette of the scenes or rooms from the Tintin novels in the centre of the room and Hergé’s story and history, including quotes and sketches on top of each fireplace.

 There is a real feeling of a personal and sentimental relationship between the author and his work, simply by putting sketches of the author next to his own and quite endearing quotes.

Throughout the exhibition as there is a clear evolution in Hergé’s drawings which is appreciated by the viewer as they come to understand how Tintin and the other characters came to be what they are. And this is indeed truly something to those who have been avid readers of the comic books because they already have a bond with these characters and now they are getting to understand them more and better.

This was for me a memorable experience for an exhibition. Rarely have I been to an exhibition which didn’t just present somebody’s work in a certain space but that the space itself embodied the feeling of that work to the extent where the viewer feels like he has been picked up and dropped into it. The exhibition succeeded to recognise the importance of the visual experience for the viewer, creating an honest interest for what was presented. There is, as a whole, something very touching about this exhibition. But as I previously mentioned, I have a special bond with Tintin, his stories and his friends so I can obviously acknowledge that not everybody will experience this the same way I did, and I hope not, but at least I hope you will go because it is worth experiencing something.

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Tuesday 10th November – CTS Essay

HARVARD REFERENCING SYSTEM 

This essay will explore the Harvard Referencing System also known as author-date style or Parenthetical Referencing. I will be discussing it’s origin, how and where it is used, why it should be used and the possible consequences of not referencing your work.

Although it’s name suggests it was invented in Harvard, it wasn’t. The Harvard System originated in a paper, page 194 to be exact, published by a zoologist named Edward Laurens Mark (1847-1946) in 1881. Mark was also director of Harvard’s zoological laboratory until 1921 (Chernin, 1988, p.1062). According to British Medical Journal in 1945, the Harvard System is named so because it is believed that an English visitor to the library at Harvard University ‘‘was impressed by the system of bibliographical reference in use there and dubbed it the ‘Harvard System’ on return to the UK” (Chernin, 1988, p. 1063). Chernin states in his essay ‘that Mark conceived the citation system that eventually came into common use’(Chernin, 1988, p.1062). He was right and still is as at the time it was invented, it was used for scientific articles, and more than 130 years later it is one of the most commonly used referencing systems for a wide range of areas such as humanities, history, social sciences, archaeology, economics, politics, theatre, film, television, art, philosophy (U.York, 2012, p.1)… The list goes on.

The Harvard System consists in citing references by giving the name of the author and  date it was published within the written text by using parenthesises (U.York, 2012 p.4). The written text will always include a bibliography of all the references used.

As I mentioned before it is used by many people and amongst many organisations because referencing is a very important aspect of any writing or other type of work that has used an exterior source as inspiration or information. Referencing ensures a clear distinction between what is your work and what isn’t. It is a form of respect and acknowledgement towards the professionals whom have inspired you in your work or helped in any way. Referencing is an ethical choice.

Simply put, it avoids plagiarism. Plagiarism is the attempt to present someone else’s work as your own, ‘any activity which amounts to you taking credit for work that is someone else’s’ (Greetham, 2008, p.257). As such, here is an example given by author Richard A. Posner of a young Harvard Student, Kaavya Viswanathan which had signed a two book contract with Little, Brown soon followed by selling the movie rights to Dreamworks, gaining a lucrative amount of money. Until it was discovered that she had plagiarised, almost word for word many passages from works of other authors (Posner, 2007, p.3). The book contracts were cancelled as well as Dreamworks. With that came a sullied reputation and a loss of credibility amongst authors if not everybody.

To conclude, those are the risks of not referencing your work, may it be on purpose or not, they are to be taken seriously. The Harvard Reference is the most commonly used citing system because it is a simple and consistent way of referencing. It is a simple step to acknowledging your sources and not undermining their work and the influence they have had on yours.

WORKS CITED

• Bryan Greetham (2008). How To Write Better Essays. 2nd ed. United Kingdom: Palgrave MacMillan. 257.
• Eli Chernin. (1988). The ”Harvard System”: a mystery dispelled. Available: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1834803/pdf/bmj00308-0078.pdf. Last accessed 10th November 2015.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Bryan Greetham (2008). How To Write Better Essays. 2nd ed. United Kingdom: Palgrave MacMillan. 257.
• Eli Chernin. (1988). The ”Harvard System”: a mystery dispelled. Available: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1834803/pdf/bmj00308-0078.pdf. Last accessed 10th November 2015.
• Richard A. Posner (2007). The Little Book of Plagiarism. United States: Pantheon. 3.
• The University of York. (2012). Reference with confidence. The Harvard Style. Available: https://www.york.ac.uk/integrity/downloads/15701_Harvard%20Style-webFINAL.pdf. Last accessed 10th November 2015.

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ROYAL ACADEMY SUMMER EXHIBITION

 and Richard E. Grant

 

This review will discuss the video of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (2015) starring Richard E Grant. I will be focussing on its’ objective and the means to achieve it.

 

From the top of my head I generally thought videos about exhibitions were made to discuss and present the exhibition in a quick way, like some sort of summary or introduction, like an amuse bouche, as well as promotional. But then again ‘promotional’ might not mean the same thing to everyone, or not every exhibition needs the same type of promotion. In this case, the question is, what is the purpose of the video? Let’s look at it from a promotional point of view. There now is a second question, why Richard E Grant?

Richard E Grant is an English actor, director, screenwriter and also art buyer, therefore a popular english figure I suppose. The protagonist of the video, surprisingly, isn’t the exhibition but Richard E. Grant, it does not state any facts about the exhibition, the collections it contains or any object in particular. It feels more like we are following Grant around London as he goes to exhibitions and claims all the objects he finds exciting. Like a child in DisneyLand. Or any other human being anywhere else. The approach to this video in promoting the exhibition I suppose was to bring in someone popular to the english public, someone likeable and show the video as a personal experience for this character therefore projecting the exhibition as something more entertaining rather than educational. Which is what is generally expected from a promotional video for an exhibition, in my opinion.

I personally found this approach a little disappointing. I do appreciate the idea of projecting the exhibition as something exciting as educational can often come across as boring. But, where I am disappointed is that they chose Richard E Grant as their protagonist but did not use that to their full advantage as he must have some knowledge on art, which did not come across at all in the video. In my opinion it was poor use of the means they had. It is of poor knowledge to just take for granted that educational is boring and that this perception cannot be changed.

So, what do we take away from this video, do we even remember what exhibition it is? or did we just watch Richard E Grant having some fun thinking of how he was going to spend his money?

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