Symposium Research 4: TOPIC: Polish Education During Communism

Information:
The Polish People's Republic's public education went through numerous reforms while the Soviet Union had control over Poland. One thing that stayed consistent however, was that everybody had access to a free public education. 

At the beginning of the Polish People's Republic, city population grew due to the creation of four year technical schools and two year vocational schools. The total number of colleges, universities, and poly-technical exponentially increased, and school attendance was mandatory up until the age of 18. By the year 1954, the Chrzescijanska Akademia Teologiczna (Christian Theological Academy,) as well as the Akademia Teologii Katolickiej (Academy of Catholic Theology,) were established and state funded. (Due to the fact that the theological faculty of other universities were removed.) This event caused members of the church to be worried that the teachers were loyal to the state and not the church. To ease these fears, the communist government employed priests to the first state supported Catholic university. This lead to Polish citizens to have more exposure to Catholicism and Christianity religion. On July 15th, 1961, Primary school had been created, and attendance was decreased to the age of 17. At this time, the church and public education had been separated, however the church was allowed to start schools of their own.
The Polish educational system would be reformed yet again by 1971, this time however, the communist government was focused on creating a secondary education system. By 1973, students were required to take 2 year vocational schools should they prepare for employment, or 2 year preparatory colleges, which prepared students to take entrance exams to go to university. Students were also required to partake in a 10 year secondary school prior to these two year schools. This reform however, would not last due to the lack of funding in 1981. By the end of the Polish People's Republic and the fall of the USSR, Public and nursery schools would introduce religious education, and the beginning of school administrations.

Citation: 
Poland - History Background. (2018). Retrieved April 3, 2019, from
   https://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1209/Poland-HISTORY-BACKGROUND.html

Symposium Research 3 - TOPIC: The Influence of Poster Art Schools

Information:
One major contribution to the influence of new poster styles in 1956 were Polish art schools. These schools would teach artists how to hand paint each poster, and would make the difference between designer and artist non existent. While the Warsaw Polytechnic Institute, as well as the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts each influenced artists with new styles, the Polish School of Posters influenced artists with the use of art fundamentals. 
Posters developed by artists from the Warsaw Polytechnic Institute focused more on creating geometric images. Heavily inspired by the west, these posters take a less realistic approach to art.  On the contrary, the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts encouraged artists to play with these new realistic ideals, however to stay true to the Soviet realism. A third school which heavily influenced artists was the Polish School of Posters. However, rather than focusing in on a style, this school focuses on art fundamentals, such as vibrant colors, fantasy, individuality, as well as linear quality. As a result, posters created by artists of this school have an aesthetic tension between the individual style of it. Influencing the world on yet a new way to suggest topics through allusion.

Citation:
Matthews, W. (2018). The Polish poster. Retrieved April 1, 2019, from
    http://www.historygraphicdesign.com/index.php/the-industrial-revolution   
    /photography-the-new-communications-tool/753-bitumen-of-judea

Symposium Research 2 - TOPIC: History of the Polish Communist Poster

Information:
Before the beginning of the Polish People's Republic, Poland had been subjected to numerous policies of cultural extermination as well as suppression by the Nazis. After the end of World War II, Poland's new leaders, the Soviets, would also implement their own version of this. 

Soviet suppression can be seen in early propaganda posters, marked by the realistic art form of the poster. These posters were used to help welcome the ideals of Communism, and to limit the artistic expression of the Polish people. Typically these posters only promoted communistic ideas, messages which had been approved by a censor, or they represented the government/people. These posters were created up until 1956, the end marked by both a more liberal regime led by Władysław Gomułka, as well as Joseph Stalin's death.
The year 1956 marked the beginning of new types of Polish poster art, as Soviet realism was no longer the only art form accepted. New predominantly western art styles appeared onto posters such as: geometric, abstract, minimalism, and surrealism. These styles were then promoted through major poster art schools such as: the Warsaw Polytechnic Institute, as well as the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. The Warsaw Polytechnic Institute would favor the geometric approach, while the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts would favor more of a painterly one. Artists graduating from these schools were influenced in these new styles, leading to the bloom of new poster art. On top of it all, artists experienced more artistic freedom due to the new centralized film distribution authority. It was widely believed that once a film was approved by a censor, there was little to no need to have the film poster censored.

While artists had more artistic freedom, this did not remove them entirely from censorship. Artists were not allowed to be overly political, nor were they allowed to criticize the government.  To overcome this hurdle, artists highlighted their emotions and criticisms through symbolism. While it was not enough to get censored, it called for the Polish people to think for themselves.


Citation:

Pillardy, P. (2014, November 05). The Politics of Polish Poster Art under Communism.

Retrieved April 1, 2019, from https://curatedhams.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/the-politics-of-
polish-poster-art-under-communism/

Symposium Research 1 - TOPIC: Accessing Food in Communist Poland

Information:
Accessing food between the years 1952 and 1989 was difficult in the Polish People's Republic. Grocery stores were very small, typically with only one clerk. Their stock was very limited because they only stocked the "basics" in small quantities. They quickly sold out of bread, meat, and sugar; however, other items such as vinegar and vodka, were almost always accessible.
Accessing food became even more difficult when ration stamps were introduced on August 12th, 1976. These stamps were a tool for the government to control how much food the people brought, what they were able to buy, and who was able to buy food. All of these factors were based on the citizens age and profession. By 1981, meat was only available for purchase through these stamps. Since grocery stores quickly sold out, the people often turned to unofficial sellers for "high demand" food items. This action was so widespread across Poland, it was almost impossible to discourage by law; as it could not be enforced. Another way the people got around buying food with stamps was raising carp in their homes. It was easy to raise, leading it to become a staple in traditional Polish cuisine.
As briefly mentioned in the previous paragraph, vodka was almost always accessible in grocery stores.  However, other types of alcoholic drinks such as beer and wine, were rarely available. Polish citizens would use ration stamps for vodka, or any other kind of alcohol they could get as well as food. When the people ran out of stamps, they made bimber in their homes; an alcohol typically made out of sugar, grain, or potatoes.

Citation:

Staga, D. (2014, November 3). The Communist Regime in Poland in 10 Astonishing Pictures.

Retrieved April 1, 2019, from https://culture.pl/en/article/the-communist-regime-in-
poland-in-10-astonishing-pictures

History: 14th Century Humanistic Script

During the thirteenth century gothic script was getting outdated. Scribes would ask for copies written in "littera […] castigata et clara" meaning "neat and clean letters." The problem with gothic script was that it was hard to read, and readers preferred a cleaner script. It was called "barbaric" at times, and it was undesirable to the Italians. This would lead to the Italian development of the Humanistic script, leading to it's success in the fourteenth and fifteenth century. This script's origin is unknown, however it it widely believed that either Niccolò Niccoli or Poggio Bracciolini were the first to influence it's development. Afterwards, the Humanistic script developed variants all thanks to Coluccio Salutati. Coluccio was well known for creating and practicing many different types of script, and it is theorized that he influenced both Niccolò Niccoli and Poggio Bracciolini before the scripts development. This would lead to the scripts variants. Another important figure was Vespasiano da Bisticci, a bookseller who sold books written in Humanistic script across the western world. espasiano da Bisticci was not the only way this script was widely spread, the Roman Catholic Church had taken a liking to this script and had their bibles written in it. I n the end, this script had influenced the creation of two modern typography fonts: Italic and Roman.

Citation:

Menna, G., & De Vos, M. (2019). Humanistic Script - The story of the writing style of the Renaissance. Retrieved March 10, 2019, from https://sexycodicology.net/blog/codicology/medieval-scripts/humanistic-script/

Calligraphy: Gothic Textura

The Alphabet: This week I had been practicing the Gothic alphabet. In particular I had learned Gothic Script, specifically the Textura. This Gothic font was used to symbolize art and architecture, and spread all across Europe, except for Italy, by 1400. Gothic Textura, as well as Gothic Script is also known as "The Blackletter Typeface." [1][2] Gothic Textura is described as letters which weave together across the page, for your better understanding, I have provided an image below. This image is a picture of a document given to me in class, I could not find an alphabet online which contained the alphabet I used today. Thank you for understanding.

Reflection: This week I worked on Gothic Textura. I learned how these letters weave together in words. I also learned how to write this alphabet with both the dip and the fountain pen, in a way you cannot distinguish them. I really liked weaving words together, and how the capital letters look. However, I did not like how long these letters take to make.

Time-Frame: In total I practiced this alphabet for a little over two hours.

Progress: I started off this week only practicing the capital letters, shortly after moving onto lower case letters, and finally figured out how to write words.

Attachments (Photos):

Note: None of the following images are in a particular order.

Practice:

Paper Used: High quality laser printing paper.

Pen Used: Y&C CALLIGRAPHY, Size: 5.0, 3.5

Note: All I wrote was "Cheese Wh I wrote this as a joke." I am NOT taking credit for the background. Thank you for understanding.

Paper Used: Printing paper.

Pen Used: Dip pen and fountain pen.

Paper Used: Printing paper.

Pen Used: Y&C CALLIGRAPHY, Size: 5.0

Paper Used: Printing paper.

Pen Used: Y&C CALLIGRAPHY, Size: 3.5

Exploration
Note: I spent a lot of time this week exploring how to draw with these calligraphy markers, as well as a few other gothic fonts.

Pen Used: Expo Marker.

Paper Used: Whiteboard.

Note: I don't think the drawing counts as practice, however I wrote the words "Dakron", "Doc", and "Tidy" in a gothic font.

Pen Used: Y&C CALLIGRAPHY, Size: 3.5

Paper Used: Printer paper.

Citations:

[1] Farley, J., & Farley, J. (2009, November 07). The Blackletter Typeface: A Long And Colored History. Retrieved from https://www.sitepoint.com/the-blackletter-typeface-a-long-and-colored-history/

[2] Farwell, S. (2018). Textura. Retrieved March 5, 2019, from http://www.historygraphicdesign.com/a-graphic-renaissance/printing-comes-to-europe/7-textura-europe

History: Carolingian Renaissance

The British Islands in 410 CE evolved the roman scripts into variants of the finches in Galapagos script, which included upper and lower case letters. This would continue into the seventh and eighth century. During this era, Europe was a melting pot of rustic, uncial, and roman capitals when it came to writing. The roots of lowercase letters during this era, is marked by the writings of both the Luxeuil and Corbie monasteries. There was a steady decline of literacy, spelling, and grammar during this period; until Charles Short inherited the Frankish throne in 771. Charles would then rule that the court would follow the Church's time table and would then commission a new manuscript written  on vellum. This manuscript would have both uncials and Carolingian minuscule. Carolingian minuscule was the work over decades of developing a new clear script for writing. It was derived from half-uncial and insular scripts. It was so popular, in fact, that Alcuin, a noble teacher wrote his version of the bible in it. This bible would become a best seller, having over 100 copies being made in less than fifty years. The book itself was approximately 18" x 20.25" x 31" in dimension. When printers came into use by 1464, Carolingian minuscule also was used to print books in Italy.

Clayton, E. (2014). Roman Foundations. The golden thread: The story of writing  Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint. (pp. 55-60)