Mermaid shows in our time and project title

1. 'The Little Mermaid', a fairy tale, first published in 1937, by the Danish poet and author Hans
Christian Andersen.

Vilhelm Pedersen illustration

- It is about a young mermaid who is willing to give up her life in the sea and her identity as a merperson to gain a human soul and the love of a human price.

- Only allowed by his father to swim to the surface at the age of 15

- Saved a Prince from drowning

- Sold her voice to the evil sea witch and lost her tail in order to get near to the Prince

- In the end, didn't get the Prince, was transformed into deadly cold sea foam

- No name - only use 'the prince', 'the little mermaid', 'the sea witch', etc.

2. An American traditional-animated feature film by The Walt Disney Animation Studios - 'The Little Mermaid'

The Little Mermaid original poster

The Little Mermaid poster

3. A stage musical by Disney Theatrical based on the animated film 1989 'The Little Mermaid' and the classic story of The Little Mermaid fairy tale, 'The Little Mermaid' (musical)-2007

Sierra Boggess as Ariel in the stage musical

Playbill cover for The Little Mermaid at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre

4. Neptune's Daughter (1914) film starring Annette Kellerman and directed by Herbert Brenon, the first feature film about mermaids.

After all the research that I've done, I've decided my project title on; 'The Legendary and Mythology on Mermaids in Persisting Mermaid Shows in our time.'

Mermaids in reality shows

There is a reality show in Florida on mermaids. It is called the Weeki Wachee Springs, a natural tourist attraction located in Weeki Wachee, Florida. The attraction was created by Newton Perry, ex-Navy Frogman, in 1947 based the show on frogman techniques. There is a underwater performances by 'mermaids', women dressed with fins about their legs as well as other fancy outfits, viewed in an aquarium-like setting in the spring of the Weeki Wachee river. They breathe underwater and dive 175 feet into a spring blasting water at the rate of 117 million gallons a day.

They showed two types of performance :

- The Little Mermaid based on the classic Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale

The Little Mermaid as she yearns to find her prince and grow legs instead of a tail, just like her statue.

The Little Mermaids friend, Chester the Sea Turtle, guides her on this incredible underwater journey to help find her true love.

The Little Mermaid sisters perform for the audience.

All is not safe for the Little Mermaid as the wicked sea witch tries to stand her way of finding happiness.

But in end, love does conquer all as the Little Mermaid finds her Prince.

All is well again in the spring of Live Mermaids

- Fish Tails, a salute to the history of Weeki Wachee and demonstrations on just what is required to be a mermaid

The famous Mermaid feat of eating and drinking underwater.

Fish Tails also includes the mermaids " Tribute to America"

Video taken in 1952

Mermaid History - The REAL Mermaids of Weeki Wachi, FL

For more pictures of the two performances, you may go to: http://www.realfloridaphoto.com/gallery/4170824#P-1-15

Project Research on Mermaid (Myth in Contemporary Design, Fashion and Media)

Before I could start typing down my research on mermaid, I would like to share two legendary stories which are true from my grandma and my mum. My grandma told me that when she was a little child, her mum told her that she saw a lot of big master with bold head at the sea. They were very much like a 'Buddhist God'. They were all surrounding a ship and was believed that they were the 'God of the Sea'. That's the only thing that my gred-grandma told her. Another legendary which is from my mum, telling me about her uncle who used to be a sailor during the 1930's. He told her about this legendary when a mum who was scolding her little son not to cry anymore or she will throw him down to the sea. Immediately, the ship went wrong. It has stopped sailing. Everyone in the ship was frightened and curious. The workers checked all the engines and everything in the ship was fine. So, one of the sailor got up and asked every passenger in the ship that who has did or said something wrong just now? They were many witnesses when the woman scolded her son and everyone wants their life. Therefore, one of them told the sailor about the woman scolding her son. In that, the sailor has no choice but to ask her do what she had said. Sadly, the child has to be thrown to the se a and finally the ship starts to sail. This was because there are lots of 'God of the Sea' surrounding tightly at the ship and wouldn't let it go until they throw down the child. The mother of the child felt so regretful and sad for her son.

This story was strange to me but it was true and my mum's uncle is still alive in Hong Kong now.

Mermaid

A mermaid by John William Waterhouse

Mermaid is a creature with half body of a human and a fish. In other words, a mermaid is a legendary aquatic creature with the head and torso of human female and the tail of a fish.Mermaids would sometimes distract the sailors by singing and enchant them causing them to walk off the deck or cause shipwrecks. In stories, they were to squeeze the life out of drowning men while trying to rescue them and were also taken them down to their underwater kingdoms. 'The Little Mermaid' in Hans Christian Anderson's, it is said that they forget that humans cannot breathe underwater, while others say they drown men out of spite.

Legend and Myth :

- Ancient Near East

The first mermaid stories was appeared in Assyria, ca. 1000 BC. Atargatis, who is the mother of the Assyrian queen Semiramis, was a goddess who loved a mortal shepherd and in the process killed him. When she jumped into a lake to take a form of a fish, the water wouldn't conceal her divine beauty. After that, she's the first representation of Atagartis who took the form of a mermaid, showed her as being a fish with human head and legs, similar to the Babylonian Ea.

- Arabian Nights

They have several tales include 'Sea People', such as Djullanar the Sea-Girl that anatomically identical to land-bound humans, differing only in their ability to breathe and live underwater. They can interbreed with land humans, the children of such unions inheriting the ability to live underwater.

- British

In British, mermaids were thought as a threatening, foretelling disaster and causing someone to become angry. In the ballad Sir Patrick Spens's, several variants depict a mermaid speaking to the doomed ships, some were told they will never see land again and they are near shore. They can also be a sign of rough weather. Some mermaids were known as monstrous in size up to 160 feet. Mermaids could also swim up rivers to freshwater lakes.

- Others

It is said in Japan that eating the flesh of a mermaid can grant unaging immortality. Whereas in some European legends mermaids are said to grant wishes. Strangely, some people claim they have seen dead or living mermaids in places like Scotland, Malaysia, British Columbia and Haiti. Mermaids and mermen are also characters of Philippine folklore, where they are locally known as sirena and siyokoy respectively.

Mermaid and Mermen

The fishermen and the divers that have explored underneath who have a profound connection with the ocean, had sought a glimpse of the sea creature. It was told that the mermaids had saved the fishermen from boat wreck in storms. But up to now, the myth lives on and they are still hunting for the proof.

Mermaids are said to be known for their vanity as well as their innocence. They often fall in love with human men and are are willing to go to great extents to prove their love with humans.

Mythology in Design

In this class, there is a movie section after a short lecture on myths. The movie that is being shown is 'The Devil Wears Prada'.

Mythology is the collection of myths or legends of somebody regarding about their origin, history, heroes and ancestors. It is a myth that certain culture believes it is true and that, they use the power to explain natural events and the nature of universe and humanity. In general use, myth is often being put itself in a place of the other with legend but were dintinguish by some people. The myth is known as a traditional story, typically involve supernatural beings or forces or creatures, which express and provides an explanation for something such as the early history of a society, a religious belief or ritual or a natural phenomenon. It's a widespread but untrue or mistaken story or belief. It could also be a person or thing held in reverence and wonder or based on the awe of the admiration on the basis of popularly repeated stories. Myth could be a person or thing that exaggerates the truth.

In terms of traditional stories, it will need to divide into three categories; myths, legends and folktales. Myths here is a story which connected with religion concerning the distant past, particularly the creation of the world and generally focussed on the Gods. Legends stories are about the past that focussed more on heroes and folktales are stories which is lack of historical but animal characters are usually included.

In the movie; 'The Devil Wears Prada', Andrea's fashion style is out of the fashion world where she's living as a normal life in the city. But ever since she got a job with Miranda, she was condescending by the staffs there especially her senior assistant, Emily, her coworker is condescending her. Soon after all, Andrea gets the help of art director Nigel to reposition herself by having free designer clothing and accessories. She was so proud of herself the next day when she started to furnished up her new fashion style and was shocked by Emily and Miranda. Her fashionista keeps going till the end of the episode where she found out the evil character of Miranda that makes her quiting her job. Since then, she's back to her normal life with normal fashion. Here, the myths was exaggerating the truth of Miranda's fashion style.

In The Devil Wears Prada, they use Runway as Vogue magazine. In my research, Vogue is not a magazine that rank styles like appliances according to efficiency, power ratings, size and cost. Each magazine, they has its particular clientele, and it both understands reiterates the social values of its readers. It has the authority to tell those readers who share its view how the zeitgeist translates into ideological positions and can be expressed by wearing fashion. Vogue tells us which among many possible expressions are in fashion, and we share Vogue's view of fashion. Other than this, the myth could also include the proverbial 'cerulean sweater' in the movie. In the modern fashion world, it may end up after years in the clearance bins of department stores, but this has nothing to do with the formation of fashion across social strasta. Another myth, in The Devil Wears Prada where anti-feminist as the fashion biz itself, perpetuating the myth that women sizes 6 and over are fat, ugly, and worthless.

Pop Art Culture

First of all, 'uh oh!' . (ssssh... I'm super late) hehe. ooops!.... anyway, here am I writing my first ever blog. I never write blogs but diaries. Well, I have no idea what is socio-psychology all about until I've actually attended the classes.

Alright, during the second week of the class, we've learned about Pop Art Culture; Pop Culture and Pop Art. But we did more studies on Pop Art. Nevertheless, I've did a little research on Pop Culture. It is an interdisplinary study of mass-produced culture such as arts, artifacts, entertainment, beliefs and values. Pop culture can defined as quantitative that it is a much high culture such as television dramatisations of Jane Austen;

Pride and Prejudice (1980 TV serial) , BBC miniseries starring Elizabeth Garvie as Elizabeth Bennet and David Rintoul as Mr. Darcy.

Pride & Prejudice (2005 film), starring Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet and Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Darcy.

The 2007 film The Jane Austen Book Club is about a group of people who form a Jane Austen discussion group. Much of the dialogue concerns her novels and her personal life.

It is also defined as 'left over' when they have found out the 'high culture'. An authentic culture of the people is also well defined but it is a little complicating as there are many meanings defining the 'people'. There is an argument on political dimension to popular culture on neo-Gramscian hegemony theory. They sees popolar culture as a side of struggle between the resistance of subordinate groups in society and the forces of incorporation operating in the interests of dominant groups in society.

The storey emphasises that popular culture emerges from the urbanisation of the industrial revolution which identifies from the definition of 'mass culture'. In the studies of Shakespeare (by Weimann, Barber or Bristol, for example) locate much of the characteristics vitality of his drama in its participation in Renaissance popular culture. Whereas the modern practitioners like Dario Fo and John McGrath use popular culture in its Gramscian sense that includes ancient folk traditions as for example; the commedia dell'arte.

Commedia dell'Arte troupe Gelosi in a late 16th-century Flemish painting (Musée Carnavalet, Paris)

Popular culture changes constantly and appears uniquely in place and time. It forms current and eddies and represents a complex of mutually-interdependant perspectives and values that influence society and its institutions in many ways. Certain current of pop culture may originate from a subculture. It represent the perspectives which the mainstream popular culture has only limited familiarity.

Pop Art is a visual art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the parallel in the late 1950s in the United States. It is also known in the 1960s that classifies the works of art that use everyday life as their subject matter. Pop art is one of the major art movements of the twentieth century. It is characterized by themes and techniques drawn from the popular mass-culture; the cinema, advertising, comic books, television and packaging that interpreted as either a reaction to the then-dominant ideas of abstract expressionism or an expansion upon them. At times, pop art targeted a broad audience. Pop art in academic consideration, it often make the unconventional organizational practices difficult for some to comprehend.

Pop Art in the United States

During the 1920s, American artists Gerald Murphy, Charles Demuth and Stuart Davis created paintings from the pop art movement that contained pop culture imagery culled from American commercial products and advertising design.

Examples of Gerald Murphy artworks;

Gerald Murphy. (American, 1888-1964). Wasp and Pear. 1929. Oil on canvas, 36 3/4 x 38 5/8" (93.3 x 97.9 cm). Gift of Archibald MacLeish

Gerald Murphy (American, 1888–1964) Watch, 1925Oil on canvas 78 1/2 x 78 7/8 in. (199.39 x 200.36 cm) Foundation for the Arts Collection, gift of the artist, 1963.75.FA

Examples of Charles Demuth artworks;

The Figure 5 in Gold (1928)


Incense of a New Church (1921)

Examples of Stuart Davis artworks;

Hot Still-Scape for Six Colors - 7th Avenue Style, 1940


Garage No. 1, 1917.

Pop Art in Japan

Pop art in Japan are unique and identifiable of its regular subjects and styles. Many artwork inspiration of the Japanese pop artists are from the anime, sometimes ukiyo-e and traditional Japanese art. Currently, the best-known pop artist in Japan is Takashi Murakami. He has a group of artists, Kaikai Kiki, is world-renowned for their own mass-produced but highly abstract and unique superflat art movement. Kaikai Kiki, known as a surrealist, post-modern movement whose inspiration comes from anime and Japanese street culture, is mostly aimed at youth in Japan and has made a large cultural impact.

Examples of Takashi Murakami artworks;

"Army of Mushrooms", Frank Cohen Collection, Manchester

Eye Love SUPERFLAT 2003 painting, acrylic on canvas mounted on panel, signed and dated 'Takashi 03' (on the reverse), Contemporary (ca. 1945-present)

Murakami: Jellyfish Eyes - White 5 2006, Prints, Lithograph, Offset, signed, Signed and dated in pencil, lower right, ontemporary (ca. 1945-present)

Mister Wink, Cosmos Ball 2000, Sculpture; Colored Plastic Object, Contemporary (ca. 1945-present)

Anthology 1998 painting, Acrylic on Canvas on Board, Contemporary (ca. 1945-present)

Hospital 2002 painting, acrylic on canvas, Contemporary (ca. 1945-present)

All of those are my own extra research. I was embraced with Takashi Murakami's artwork. It is unique and unbelievable. Although he creates weird shapes and designs but that is what proofs his uniqueness. Hmmph....I better keep track on his latest artwork...hehe.

During the 'Pop Art Culture' class, Ms.Teresa explained to us more on Andy Warhol's work. He is also known as the American artist. Besides being a successful commercial illustrator, he also became famous as a painter, an avant-garde filmmaker, a record producer, an author and a public figure. His early paintings show images taken from cartoons and advertisements, hand-painted with paint drips. During the 1960s, Andy Warhol did some paintings on famous American products such as 'Campbells Soup Cans' from the Campbell Soup Company and Coca-Cola, as well as paintings of famous celebraties like Marilyn Monroe, Troy Donahue, and Elizabeth Taylor.

'What's great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coca Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca Cola, and just think, you can drink Coca Cola, too. A coke is a coke and no amount of money can get you a better coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the cokes are the same and all the cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it.'

– The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: (From A to B and Back Again), 1975, ISBN 0-15-671720-4

Campbell's Soup I (1968)

After the class, Ms Teresa gave us a class exercise on a Cut-up technique from the magazines that we brought. We were asked to form a group of five but I only have three, including me, Deane and Ryan. We are supposed to find any advertisement and do a collage of it. We need to come out a creation of our own and here it is;

Global Warming and Green Earth

In this piece of artwork, we were trying to create a Global Warming and Green Earth cut-out. The reason is because of its recent 'issue-alert'. We find advertisements that contain several textures on sand, tree, bright and dark clouds. It was pretty hard and lots of work with cuttings and stickings. Luckily, it is just an A4 size. haha! The fresh and bright side shows the green leaves with clear clouds whereas the darker side shows the tree branches and dirty clouds. Although it doesn't turned out that nice or 'whether is it even look like Global Warming' but overall I think it is a good work. Thanks to all my team-mates.