Traditional arts and Mass cultural productions as vernacular
productions can be a direct tool for an indigenous
knowledge base. The vernacular is
ascendant in how and what we see today. This discussion is a move away
from what we know as classical art, towards exploring the communicative
ability of the
artistry of the everyday. Helmer [1] observes that 'in many ways, the place to begin when discussing the work of art may not even
be within the exhibition space itself, but in the mall bookstore, the campus
poster shop, or the parking lot of the museum, places where the meaning of art
is negotiated and where art is transmitted as a commodity such as a calendar,
poster, or billboard and where the initial idea of an object as ‘fine art’ is
apprehended'(Pg.77)
Ads are what some critics call ‘specific representational practices’
and produce meanings which cannot be found in reality. To understand the
role that advertising plays in our
society, there is a need to understand how advertising organizes and constructs
reality, how ideology and meanings are produced within the advertising discourse and why
sonic images are the way they are, how they are been constructed[2].The billboards that I am analyzing in my research (Lollywood billboards) concur with this statement. These billboards reveal an explicit
communication influence that can be proven be ideological in essence. Exploration of technique involved in their design and production can provide
insights towards developing context specific graphic communication design principles. 
My focus therefore
is not on so-called classical art productions but mass
cultural productions that we are exposed to everyday. Lollywood cinema
billboards, Pakistani political posters and Pakistani truck art is identified as as
mass cultural
productions in Pakistan that represent the allegorical plurality of popular
arts
as vernacular visuals and cultural productions.Discussing the visual allegory of Lollywood art, we are looking at how vernacular establishes a visual content/context and how allegory is establishing a visual rhetoric.
You research topic is very interesting, infact I never knew you've also started a blog, but now that you've shared a link, I'll definitely keep on coming back. I believe our Truck Art is one of our major indigenous identities. The colors used, the symbols drawn are very much local, it is such a complete art form that it can suffice without verbal direction, and the masses can relate to it, even the ones that are in close proximity of these design and who are not literate. Such is the power of communication design. Another thing which fascinates me is the power of color...unconscious conditioning of the brain to recognize and associate colors with places. Green color is associated with shrines in Pakistan generally, both literate and illiterate individuals when see a green wall with some holy pieces of cloth hanging on would recognize that the place is 'holy', that there is someone pious buried there. It fascinates me.
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