With regards to using the methods learned throughout both semesters, I can only see the benefits to be gained from putting them into practice. As a jeweller, I look at my work as something to be worn on the body, and for me, that aspect is always at the forefront of my mind when designing a piece. Although, I can’t see how the techniques will help me all that much at the moment – our briefs this year have never been specific to one person; you’re designing the piece more for yourself than a client, I can most certainly see how they’d be extremely useful in the future. My aim, when I graduate, is to try and create pieces which always have the wearer in mind, as it’s to be more about them than me when I’m designing a ring, or a brooch etc, as it’ll be them that wears the piece, and it needs to fit the occasion it’s meant for; be that a piece to commemorate a particular event, or evoke a certain memory, or a piece to be worn everyday to remind them of something. Although, I’ll be ever present as the maker, it’s not myself I’m designing for, and I will need to learn to separate myself from the piece, in a sense.
However, I’m going to try and apply the techniques learned to one of the briefs we were assigned this year, and have chosen the stone setting project. The key directives of the brief that had to be answered were as follows; it was to be piece of wearable jewellery, it had to be made in metal, it had to incorporate the setting of another material or materials and it was to be inspired by religious/spiritual symbolism. I chose to focus on the ongoing Palestine/Israel conflict, as it was not only a subject that fitted in with the brief, but also a subject that I have been interested in for a while now. I chose it also because I wanted to reflect on the consequences of what happens when religious fanaticism gets out of hand; and to appreciate that while religion often carries positive message of love and respect, these messages are lost when situations like this arise, and innocent people are murdered in bloody warfare.
I originally deigned to concentrate solely on the struggles of the Palestinian people, as I am of the opinion that they are oppressed by Israel, but after further research and exploration of the topic, decided to include a piece which would reflect the suffering of the Israeli citizens, as it’s important to remember that the aggressors have lost victims as well, albeit, a fraction compared to Palestine. As precious or semi precious stones are not something I would associate with that part of the Middle East, I decided to set another material; a fragment of porcelain, and chose this to be my representation of the Israelis, as it is a white piece of porcelain overlain with blue patterns; the colours of the Israeli flag.
In terms of research, I read a selection of magazines and websites in order to gain an understanding of the series of events that surround this war, and as it was a visual piece, researched photos of silhouetted mosques, as this was to represent the Islam. Looking back, ideally, my strongest form of research would be to go to Palestine myself and take photographs, record notes on the atmosphere, the people, graffiti, slogans, observe the suffering in the refugee camps that litter Palestine and interview their inhabitants, but in terms of time and money, this is an unfeasible task. However, it’s something I long to do and fully intend to do in the future, as it’s a subject that both fascinates and repulses me, and is one that I’d like to explore further.
As I was not designing for a client, I’d like to think I was designing for the people of Palestine themselves and trying to create something beautiful and aesthetically pleasing, that was inspired by a horrendous subject. I wanted to shed more light on the subject, as I feel it’s something that not enough people are informed about, as more would be outraged. So, looking at it from that aspect, I’d like to put my secondary research skills to use and go out and talk to people about the situation in Gaza. I’d use a variety of interviews to find out how people felt, or how much they knew, and whether or not they sympathized. It would be a set of unstructured questions that began with loosely finding out the interviewee’s grasp of current affairs, before honing in on the subject I was most interested in their views on. This would be useful as not only I’d find out people’s reactions, I could also use it as an opportunity to inform them as well.
Another method I could use would to show people images, preferably not too disturbing, but to an extent unsettling, and ask people what the images made them think of. I could collect a selection of key words and phrases, which I’d use as inspiration when designing the piece. In saying that, I could also show people my designs and ask them what it made them think of; would they immediately associate as I’d intended? This could be, potentially, incredibly useful, as it would give me as outsider’s opinion as to what message my piece was relaying, and how obvious it was. Although I wanted the message to be subtle, I also wanted it to be fairly recognizable, but again the problem arises of people not knowing enough on the subject, so would they understand the message I was trying to convey? I think that, given the opportunity, I’d need to display the piece next to some of my research, such as an open page of my sketchbook, in order for the viewer to fully recognize the subject matter.
Monday 29 March 2010
Semester 2, Assignment 5: Part A
Throughout the Design Studies aspect of our course, we have focused on using a variety of research methods to help us question how we process information, and as a result, the ways it can be manipulated and translated into assisting us in our own specific discipline. Semester one focused on secondary techniques; using research carried out by others to forward our analysis of our chosen subjects; and semester two had us try out a selection of primary research methods, to give us the experience of doing the initial research for ourselves, and the benefits gained from the process.
The alarmingly rising influence of The British National Party, and identity cards were the subjects I chose to look at in depth. (Lyon, D, (2009), Trilling, D, (2009), http://bnp.org.uk/, http://www.jobbik.com/) They were two separate subcategories that frequently reappeared during the tasks I completed last semester which included different brainstorming techniques and seeing where one idea may lead you through a series of linking concepts, and although I don’t consider them to be an obvious progression from one to the other, the subjects kept appearing, so something was driving me back to them. They are both matters I already had strongly formed opinions on, and although the research I carried out did little to shake those opinions, it did help me to gain more perspective on them.
As most people will already have a fairly set opinion in regards to the BNP, I’ve chosen to look purely at identity cards for this set of experiments. Identity cards, if ever brought into practise, are a topic that would directly affect everyone of all ages and cultures, and for my first experiment, I’d choose the most obvious and direct route; to find out how the public feel towards identity cards, and if they would have a direct impact on their day to day lives. I’d conduct this experiment through a series of interviews, beginning with a general set of structured questions to find out how much people knew about identity cards. The questions would need to be in a fairly roundabout fashion, as asking “how to you feel about identity cards?” is unlikely to get me very far, unless I get someone who is already well informed on the subject. I would begin with by questioning the interviewee about how often they give their details out in standard situations such as a job application, or applying for a course, and how they feel about giving out their details; does it bother them that although they may not get that job or gain a place on that course, those details may still be stored somewhere? I wouldn’t directly ask them about their thoughts towards identity cards, and may not even mention them in the first stage of interviewing, but would try and gauge their attitudes towards information storing and how comfortable they felt about it, which would give me a fairly good estimation of what their feelings towards identity cards may be.
In order to conduct these interviews, I’d prefer not to ask passers by in the street, as from my experience in a previous assignment, I don’t feel comfortable approaching people, as I feel I’d be hassling them, and I know from my own experience as being the potential interviewee, people express reluctance in having to stop and answer questions. I’d perhaps try a round-robin style email to have the potential interviewees meet me in an environment I’d chosen, such as a coffee shop, as I’d want my interviewees to be relaxed, as I feel they would be more likely to be cooperative and willing if they felt at easy. It may also encourage them to go into more depth in their answers. However, this method would only really be beneficial if it was student opinions I was trying to gather, so in order to target different age groups, I’d need to look at other methods as few people will have an email address that I’d be able to access out with the university. A questionnaire that could be delivered would work, and I’d only use a couple of questions in order to save time and keep people interested, as members of the public are unlikely to fill out a long, detailed set of questions. It would also have a section to fill out contact details in order for me to contact them at a later date to ask the full set of questions I’d prepared.
Another experiment I’d like to try out, but am unsure how feasible it would be due to ethical reasons; would be to follow a random member of the public for a set time period, say an hour, taking snapshot photographs of them in various locations, and recorded notes, but only of key words or actions, and then approach them to show what I’d recorded. I think it would give the subject a real insight of what it’d be like to have someone be aware of his or her movements through out a section of time when they were shown back to them. It would be easy enough if I was carrying out this experiment and keeping the results for myself, but it’s the reaction of the person I’d have followed that I’d want to get. Perhaps if I was to carry out the experiment, I could then approach the person and explain to them that I’d taken a couple of photographs of them for an experiment, and if they were comfortable with it, perhaps we could meet at a later date to discuss what I’d found. However, the problems I can foresee with this experiment are rife. What if the person reacted negatively at being followed in the first place? Or when I approached them, they wished to go no further with the experiment and wanted the photos I’d taken destroyed, resulting in me wasting time. I couldn’t prearrange the experiment as the subject’s actions may be influenced by my presence. Time management and diplomacy would be key to carry out both this experiment, and others, successfully.
Bibliogrpahy
http://bnp.org.uk/
http://www.jobbik.com/
Lyon, D, (2009), Identifying Citizens; ID Cards as Surveillence, Cambridge, Polity Press
Trilling, D, (2009), Who do you think you are kidding…?, New Statesman, London, Spencer Neal
The alarmingly rising influence of The British National Party, and identity cards were the subjects I chose to look at in depth. (Lyon, D, (2009), Trilling, D, (2009), http://bnp.org.uk/, http://www.jobbik.com/) They were two separate subcategories that frequently reappeared during the tasks I completed last semester which included different brainstorming techniques and seeing where one idea may lead you through a series of linking concepts, and although I don’t consider them to be an obvious progression from one to the other, the subjects kept appearing, so something was driving me back to them. They are both matters I already had strongly formed opinions on, and although the research I carried out did little to shake those opinions, it did help me to gain more perspective on them.
As most people will already have a fairly set opinion in regards to the BNP, I’ve chosen to look purely at identity cards for this set of experiments. Identity cards, if ever brought into practise, are a topic that would directly affect everyone of all ages and cultures, and for my first experiment, I’d choose the most obvious and direct route; to find out how the public feel towards identity cards, and if they would have a direct impact on their day to day lives. I’d conduct this experiment through a series of interviews, beginning with a general set of structured questions to find out how much people knew about identity cards. The questions would need to be in a fairly roundabout fashion, as asking “how to you feel about identity cards?” is unlikely to get me very far, unless I get someone who is already well informed on the subject. I would begin with by questioning the interviewee about how often they give their details out in standard situations such as a job application, or applying for a course, and how they feel about giving out their details; does it bother them that although they may not get that job or gain a place on that course, those details may still be stored somewhere? I wouldn’t directly ask them about their thoughts towards identity cards, and may not even mention them in the first stage of interviewing, but would try and gauge their attitudes towards information storing and how comfortable they felt about it, which would give me a fairly good estimation of what their feelings towards identity cards may be.
In order to conduct these interviews, I’d prefer not to ask passers by in the street, as from my experience in a previous assignment, I don’t feel comfortable approaching people, as I feel I’d be hassling them, and I know from my own experience as being the potential interviewee, people express reluctance in having to stop and answer questions. I’d perhaps try a round-robin style email to have the potential interviewees meet me in an environment I’d chosen, such as a coffee shop, as I’d want my interviewees to be relaxed, as I feel they would be more likely to be cooperative and willing if they felt at easy. It may also encourage them to go into more depth in their answers. However, this method would only really be beneficial if it was student opinions I was trying to gather, so in order to target different age groups, I’d need to look at other methods as few people will have an email address that I’d be able to access out with the university. A questionnaire that could be delivered would work, and I’d only use a couple of questions in order to save time and keep people interested, as members of the public are unlikely to fill out a long, detailed set of questions. It would also have a section to fill out contact details in order for me to contact them at a later date to ask the full set of questions I’d prepared.
Another experiment I’d like to try out, but am unsure how feasible it would be due to ethical reasons; would be to follow a random member of the public for a set time period, say an hour, taking snapshot photographs of them in various locations, and recorded notes, but only of key words or actions, and then approach them to show what I’d recorded. I think it would give the subject a real insight of what it’d be like to have someone be aware of his or her movements through out a section of time when they were shown back to them. It would be easy enough if I was carrying out this experiment and keeping the results for myself, but it’s the reaction of the person I’d have followed that I’d want to get. Perhaps if I was to carry out the experiment, I could then approach the person and explain to them that I’d taken a couple of photographs of them for an experiment, and if they were comfortable with it, perhaps we could meet at a later date to discuss what I’d found. However, the problems I can foresee with this experiment are rife. What if the person reacted negatively at being followed in the first place? Or when I approached them, they wished to go no further with the experiment and wanted the photos I’d taken destroyed, resulting in me wasting time. I couldn’t prearrange the experiment as the subject’s actions may be influenced by my presence. Time management and diplomacy would be key to carry out both this experiment, and others, successfully.
Bibliogrpahy
http://bnp.org.uk/
http://www.jobbik.com/
Lyon, D, (2009), Identifying Citizens; ID Cards as Surveillence, Cambridge, Polity Press
Trilling, D, (2009), Who do you think you are kidding…?, New Statesman, London, Spencer Neal
Sunday 21 March 2010
Semester 2, Assignment 4: Interviews
For assignment 4, we had to choose a topic from a list in the design studies, and go out and interview a selection of people in order to gauge a selection of responses. I chose "How do magazines influence people’s ideas of design and taste?" as I am dedicated follower of Vogue, so thought I might learn something about how much I am also influenced by the constant bombardment of advertising that we are subjected to on a daily basis.
Decided to go for an unstructured approach, with a list of set question, but wasn't afraid to go off course if need be. I had originally intended to ask three different individuals, but for my last interview, I had a mother and daughter out shopping together, and decided to interview them both separately, although they were both present. My dad was throwing a party this weekend for his work colleagues, and I thought it may be more interested to interview slightly older members of the public, as I’m fed up of asking students seeing as I am one, and didn’t think I’d be able to get that much new information than what I could say myself. It was also a safe environment to interview as I could just take them into the guest room of our house. This post is a tad late, but I was very preoccupied on Friday evening having to cajole my rather inebriated father and his friend down from the coffee table during their rendition of Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again”. Hideous.
I started off asking general questions about the last items my interviewee’s had purchased, most of which were clothes, ranging from the high street to boutiques, and had one woman who had last bought food for her lunch. My first interviewee was a nurse, who was a friend of my mum’s who she knows through Unison. She gave me a fairly interesting set of answers, including denouncing magazines; she instead chose a newspaper The Socialist Worker, which I occasionally read, and my parents do as well. It’s fairly self explanatory, but she chose this particular newspaper in order to keep up with current affairs, and due to her political views. I wouldn’t say this was particularly helpful to me, as it was more magazines that I was interested in, but it was an interesting response seeing as all my other interviewees read magazines. She read The New Statesman as well, which is a weekly left wing political magazine that my family and I also read, so I didn’t seem to be getting very far on getting opinions that differed very much from my own. However, in terms of music and television, she was a fan of the Manic Street Preachers, whose only song I know is “If you tolerate this, then your children will be next”, which tells the tale of fascism in Spain, so you can see links between reading material and musical tastes.
My second interviewee was a Debbie, female colleague of my dad’s, and is a social worker. (My dad’s a criminal justice assistant, which none of us know what that means, but we assume it’s some form of superhero.) She was the one who’s ‘last purchased item’ was sushi and grapes, and the only one to answer an item that wasn’t clothes related. She was also the only one to have considered her purchase; all the others had acted on impulse. She is a monthly subscriber of ‘Zest’ a health and well being magazine, and chose it purely for the reason “makes me feel healthier without doing anything”. Already, I can see patterns emerging as Debbie was choosing seemed to be choosing ‘healthy’ items over anything else by choosing fruit and fish as her lunch, and subscribing to a health magazine, which although she appears flippant in her answer of why she chooses it, it does obviously influence her lifestyle.
She is a listener of Radio 2, and watched only 2 television programmes; Hustle and Coronation Street, and answered that she limited herself to these two, and these two only, suggesting that she wasn’t a big fan of vegging out in front of the TV screen, again, encouraging the trend as before that she cares about her health.
My third and final interviewees were mother and daughter, Margaret and Susan. I happened to stop them as they passed me in Dundee City Library. I originally targeted Susan, but it became clear Margaret wasn’t going to let her answer for herself, so I asked Susan first and then her mother. Their answers were very similar; they shopped in the same places, and both relied on each other for answers. For example, when I asked Susan what television programmes did she watch, her mother immediately answered “you like Sex and the City, don’t you?” and the same happened when I posed the same question to Margaret as she paused to think, and Susan said “what’s that one with David Jason?” They definitely influenced each other’s answers which was interesting as the two obviously have a very close relationship. Both subscribed regularly to magazines; Susan; Vogue and Elle Decoration, Margaret: Good Housekeeping, Woman and Home, She and Prima, and Susan would read She once her mother had finished with it. Margaret also circulated the magazines within her circle of friends, and gave me much more positive answers when it came to questions relating to music/film/theatre as Margaret was a regular listener to Radio 2 and went at least 4 times a year to plays in Dundee, as well as a variety of shows in Glasgow and Edinburgh, whereas Susan had less opinions on music and opted to just listen to whatever CD was in the car which I thought slightly odd seeing as she lives in Dundee and commutes every morning to Kinross to teach which is considerable journey. Susan is an art and design teacher, so I assumed she’s by more up to date with theatre and music, but it would appear that her mother had more of idea of what was currently popular in the charts. However, Susan did choose her magazines with the intention to keep up to date with interior design and architecture, so is obviously taking in her surrounding, just not through perhaps the most obvious channels.
I enjoyed assignment 4, although in future will need to think my questions through more thoroughly and be more specific to my area, but think the unstructured interview technique worked well.
Decided to go for an unstructured approach, with a list of set question, but wasn't afraid to go off course if need be. I had originally intended to ask three different individuals, but for my last interview, I had a mother and daughter out shopping together, and decided to interview them both separately, although they were both present. My dad was throwing a party this weekend for his work colleagues, and I thought it may be more interested to interview slightly older members of the public, as I’m fed up of asking students seeing as I am one, and didn’t think I’d be able to get that much new information than what I could say myself. It was also a safe environment to interview as I could just take them into the guest room of our house. This post is a tad late, but I was very preoccupied on Friday evening having to cajole my rather inebriated father and his friend down from the coffee table during their rendition of Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again”. Hideous.
I started off asking general questions about the last items my interviewee’s had purchased, most of which were clothes, ranging from the high street to boutiques, and had one woman who had last bought food for her lunch. My first interviewee was a nurse, who was a friend of my mum’s who she knows through Unison. She gave me a fairly interesting set of answers, including denouncing magazines; she instead chose a newspaper The Socialist Worker, which I occasionally read, and my parents do as well. It’s fairly self explanatory, but she chose this particular newspaper in order to keep up with current affairs, and due to her political views. I wouldn’t say this was particularly helpful to me, as it was more magazines that I was interested in, but it was an interesting response seeing as all my other interviewees read magazines. She read The New Statesman as well, which is a weekly left wing political magazine that my family and I also read, so I didn’t seem to be getting very far on getting opinions that differed very much from my own. However, in terms of music and television, she was a fan of the Manic Street Preachers, whose only song I know is “If you tolerate this, then your children will be next”, which tells the tale of fascism in Spain, so you can see links between reading material and musical tastes.
My second interviewee was a Debbie, female colleague of my dad’s, and is a social worker. (My dad’s a criminal justice assistant, which none of us know what that means, but we assume it’s some form of superhero.) She was the one who’s ‘last purchased item’ was sushi and grapes, and the only one to answer an item that wasn’t clothes related. She was also the only one to have considered her purchase; all the others had acted on impulse. She is a monthly subscriber of ‘Zest’ a health and well being magazine, and chose it purely for the reason “makes me feel healthier without doing anything”. Already, I can see patterns emerging as Debbie was choosing seemed to be choosing ‘healthy’ items over anything else by choosing fruit and fish as her lunch, and subscribing to a health magazine, which although she appears flippant in her answer of why she chooses it, it does obviously influence her lifestyle.
She is a listener of Radio 2, and watched only 2 television programmes; Hustle and Coronation Street, and answered that she limited herself to these two, and these two only, suggesting that she wasn’t a big fan of vegging out in front of the TV screen, again, encouraging the trend as before that she cares about her health.
My third and final interviewees were mother and daughter, Margaret and Susan. I happened to stop them as they passed me in Dundee City Library. I originally targeted Susan, but it became clear Margaret wasn’t going to let her answer for herself, so I asked Susan first and then her mother. Their answers were very similar; they shopped in the same places, and both relied on each other for answers. For example, when I asked Susan what television programmes did she watch, her mother immediately answered “you like Sex and the City, don’t you?” and the same happened when I posed the same question to Margaret as she paused to think, and Susan said “what’s that one with David Jason?” They definitely influenced each other’s answers which was interesting as the two obviously have a very close relationship. Both subscribed regularly to magazines; Susan; Vogue and Elle Decoration, Margaret: Good Housekeeping, Woman and Home, She and Prima, and Susan would read She once her mother had finished with it. Margaret also circulated the magazines within her circle of friends, and gave me much more positive answers when it came to questions relating to music/film/theatre as Margaret was a regular listener to Radio 2 and went at least 4 times a year to plays in Dundee, as well as a variety of shows in Glasgow and Edinburgh, whereas Susan had less opinions on music and opted to just listen to whatever CD was in the car which I thought slightly odd seeing as she lives in Dundee and commutes every morning to Kinross to teach which is considerable journey. Susan is an art and design teacher, so I assumed she’s by more up to date with theatre and music, but it would appear that her mother had more of idea of what was currently popular in the charts. However, Susan did choose her magazines with the intention to keep up to date with interior design and architecture, so is obviously taking in her surrounding, just not through perhaps the most obvious channels.
I enjoyed assignment 4, although in future will need to think my questions through more thoroughly and be more specific to my area, but think the unstructured interview technique worked well.
Friday 19 March 2010
The quality of line
Ok, so it's never been my favourite activity, but having struggled through 4 years of non-stop nudity (and that ain't as exciting as it sounds!) I thought I'd upload a few shots of my most recent session of life drawing. At Dundee College, we had it well and truly drummed into us that the quality of line in a drawing is hugely important; entire weeks were dedicated to this process, and it's something I always carry with me now. I'm not a huge tonal genius; it just always looks flat and grey, but I get well into my linear flow when I want to.
The first two were a series of 10 minute poses, and the third was 40 minutes. Funnily enough, none of my drawings are of a whole human - the first two feature a collection of torsos, and my third is only a head. Wonder why that is?
The first two were a series of 10 minute poses, and the third was 40 minutes. Funnily enough, none of my drawings are of a whole human - the first two feature a collection of torsos, and my third is only a head. Wonder why that is?
Tuesday 9 March 2010
Sophie Calle
In light of our most recent assignment, my flatmate told me of a French artist, Sophie Calle, who followed people she saw on the street and observed them.
http://www.whitecube.com/exhibitions/suitevenitienne/
"For months I followed strangers on the street. For the pleasure of following them, not because they particularly interested me. I photographed them without their knowledge, took note of their movements, then finally lost sight of them and forgot them."
http://www.whitecube.com/exhibitions/suitevenitienne/
"For months I followed strangers on the street. For the pleasure of following them, not because they particularly interested me. I photographed them without their knowledge, took note of their movements, then finally lost sight of them and forgot them."
Monday 8 March 2010
Seminar Reflection
For our seminar this week, we discussed the results from this weeks assignment; The Design Safari. Three of us went to two different shopping centres in Dundee; the Wellgate and the Overgate. We talked about our experiences, the people we observed and the stories we could make up about people; the tale of the lesser toed single mother turned lesbian being er, a Natalia specialty! I'd actually like to go and follow someone for the day, make up a name and a life for them, based perhaps on the things they buy and what they'd tell you about them? They would essentially be a blank canvas for you to manipulate any way you saw fit. You'd need to be fairly subtle to follow a person for the amount of time you'd need to make up their story, hence why this may not be the best idea for me! Time to whip out those dark sunglasses ...
Don't think the shopping centres were the best idea for people watching - there's a limited amount of information you can gather on a person in the 3 seconds it takes them to walk past you. Unless they have an extra leg. Or a very humorous walk. If we knew this before we'd done it, we would have opted for a train station or bus station; someplace that emotions would be more obvious, goodbyes and hellos, harassed parents, students lugging backpacks from whichever parts of the country they're zooming off to. Plus, there'd be people waiting around for other passengers or for a bus/train to arrive, so you'd have more of an opportunity to study them, whereas you only get a glimpse of someone pacing past you in a shopping centre.
Doing something like this makes me ponder what people passing me must think of me. I tend to have a very serious face (constantly being told to cheer up; it may never happen ... well, obviously it has freakin' well happened if I'm wandering around looking like this!) and no doubt I must look a miserable git to passers by! If I don't know someone well, or feed off their nervousness around me, I become very quiet and reserved - quite unlike how I am around any of my friends or family, and it makes me wonder; after a 10 minute meeting with me, how do people perceive me?
In terms of relating it to my own discipline, I think this method will make me observe a person more closely; what do their movements and body language give away about their character? I’d focus on that quite strongly, because like me, I know that to someone who knows nothing about me, I’d come off completely different to how I am. I think I could manipulate this method, because you can tell plenty about a person by their clothes/makeup/hair because these are all methods of self expression and can usually take a relative stab at their music taste, interests and possibly in some cases, their sexuality as well; you just have to be selective in what assumptions you make. For instance; if a person wears trainers, it doesn’t necessarily make them a chav. They could be someone who practises a sport, or prefer them purely from a comfort perspective. We judge people on a daily basis, not necessarily fairly, but there’s no denying it. You just have to be fairer and more objective to use it in a beneficial way.
Don't think the shopping centres were the best idea for people watching - there's a limited amount of information you can gather on a person in the 3 seconds it takes them to walk past you. Unless they have an extra leg. Or a very humorous walk. If we knew this before we'd done it, we would have opted for a train station or bus station; someplace that emotions would be more obvious, goodbyes and hellos, harassed parents, students lugging backpacks from whichever parts of the country they're zooming off to. Plus, there'd be people waiting around for other passengers or for a bus/train to arrive, so you'd have more of an opportunity to study them, whereas you only get a glimpse of someone pacing past you in a shopping centre.
Doing something like this makes me ponder what people passing me must think of me. I tend to have a very serious face (constantly being told to cheer up; it may never happen ... well, obviously it has freakin' well happened if I'm wandering around looking like this!) and no doubt I must look a miserable git to passers by! If I don't know someone well, or feed off their nervousness around me, I become very quiet and reserved - quite unlike how I am around any of my friends or family, and it makes me wonder; after a 10 minute meeting with me, how do people perceive me?
In terms of relating it to my own discipline, I think this method will make me observe a person more closely; what do their movements and body language give away about their character? I’d focus on that quite strongly, because like me, I know that to someone who knows nothing about me, I’d come off completely different to how I am. I think I could manipulate this method, because you can tell plenty about a person by their clothes/makeup/hair because these are all methods of self expression and can usually take a relative stab at their music taste, interests and possibly in some cases, their sexuality as well; you just have to be selective in what assumptions you make. For instance; if a person wears trainers, it doesn’t necessarily make them a chav. They could be someone who practises a sport, or prefer them purely from a comfort perspective. We judge people on a daily basis, not necessarily fairly, but there’s no denying it. You just have to be fairer and more objective to use it in a beneficial way.
Sunday 7 March 2010
And now, a little self indulgence ...
"When his two hour set ended, I could only think, 'Can anyone really be this good; can anyone say this much to me, can rock 'n' roll still speak with this kind of power and glory?' And then I felt the sores on my thighs where I had been pounding my hands in time for the entire concert and I knew the answer was yes." Jon Landau.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3vUKBOJ5sU
This isn't his most recent video, but it sums up all that is Bruce Springsteen for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3vUKBOJ5sU
This isn't his most recent video, but it sums up all that is Bruce Springsteen for me.
Semester 2, Assignment 3: Design Safari Analysis
The top floor of the Overgate is a fairly deserted realm first thing on a chilly Thursday morning. I say first thing, when I really mean; just after half past 10 when most reasonable people are up and about in their busy day, and not blinking, bleary eyed into the town in search of some much needed hot chocolate. Apparently however, their busy day doesn’t lead them to the Overgate; it probably leads them to their no doubt very respectable and well paying jobs. Quite unlike a certain threesome of miscreant art students who are unused to seeing this early hour, unless the period of sleep that takes place in the dark hours has been missed out altogether.
Quite a specific group of people littered the top floor of the town’s busiest shopping centre; mainly being single elderly males, and a few mixed couples of either; boyfriend and girlfriend, husband and wife, mother and daughter (who is sometimes a child, sometimes not). These people obviously have much higher tolerance levels than I, as no mentally well balanced amour of mine has ever had the urge to disturb me in the dawn hours. For that matter, no member of my family (spare my father, but he’s always been a tad slow) or friend has bothered me either. I tend to hurl various objects in the direction of the no doubt well meaning individual who has deigned to bring me cup of coffee and curse in a heavy Dundonian accent, littered with glottal stops. It’s only about 2pm that I start to have functioning thoughts (just) so perhaps that would explain the scarcity of people other than aged singular males. It tends to be, in my experience, that the elderly do rise earlier than the young, indeed my own slightly batty grandmother has a tendency to hoover at around 4am when she can’t sleep.
The sole purpose for the top floor seemed to be purely as a thoroughfare for people to belt along, obviously with someplace better to be going. Few went into the surrounding shops; Thompson’s the travel agents and Optical Express, and I sat and studied a bored looking sales assistant polish the same pair of glasses for a good twenty minutes. Debenhams up to 25% off sale seemed to be doing a roaring trade and it wasn’t long before I was taking a tally chart of all the luminous lime green carrier bags that passed my way. The power of advertising on carrier bags is unbelievable as it drove me to Debenhams, a venue I rarely venture, and had be thoroughly abusing the discount. It’s someplace I’d be unlikely to bother noticing the advertising but seeing all the lime green bags made me want a piece of whatever action these people were getting. Goodbye £25.60 and hello Art Deco dress and crippling student debt. Primark, M&S and Next seemed to be doing not too shabbily either, and working in retail myself, I took noticed of another shopper’s gaudily lit red bag baring the message of a massive sale at Next. Maybe I’ll just take a wee gander…
Other than a woman wearing one UGG boot and a trainer, and Karen and I being interviewed for the Evening Tele’; “If you won the lottery, would you spend it or save it?” Save some, spend the rest. “And what would you buy?” A pony. (I’m such a girl); the Overgate had little to offer, so we moseyed on down to the Wellgate, also a shopping centre, but quite with quite a different vibe.
Little drives me up that end of town; albeit TopShop and my own work, Clarks, and the Wellgate has little to offer a younger crowd like myself. Save from New Look (which the Overgate boasts a larger store), the Wellgate is filled by BHS, bargain store TJ Hughes and a scattering of random little shops that sell all manner of crap. It’s no secret Dundee’s shops er, suck and with TopShop moving to a bigger space in the Overgate, how much longer can that end of town survive? It’s a relic from a bygone era; the lady’s toilets in BHS haven’t changed their sickly gleaming white and blue interior since I were a wean, and that were many moons ago. Even the music belongs to a time gone by; Maroon 5’s “This Love” was one I heard played and right enough, every time I’ve passed through the Wellgate, I’ve never heard a snatch of Gaga or whatever else is topping the charts blaring out over the tannoy. It seems the Wellgate is trapped in the past, the clientele being (without sounding heinously like an middle class snob) specific to the less well off and well, chavvier people of Dundee,
Beco, a smallish vintage boutique, has opened on the first floor of the Wellgate and despite it having a not too bad collection of shirts, scarves and handbags (shoes too, but they don’t count for me seeing as I have to buy my shoes down at the boatyard), it’s location isn’t prime, and I wonder how long it will manage to survive. I bought a skirt whilst out on safari and whilst the price right enough, the girl who served me seemed fairly out of it; eyes glazed over, either at the prospect of another dull day trapped in the Wellgate, or the previous night out on the town; who knows? Perhaps I’m being harsh, but realistically, the future doesn’t look good, as every time I’ve been there, the place is deserted, and in a town thronging with art students and quirky fashion sense, surely Beco’s rails should be bare, save for the odd hanger? The power of advertisement is key, and I think Beco ought to be looking into some of those lime green bags …
Dundee’s other vintage shop, of which I am a frequenter, is RARA and The Pretty Vacant Showrooms. Located on Exchange Street, it’s location is also not ideal, but it’s a cosy wee shop littered with a variety of jewellery, handbags and clothes. Its interior is completely different; Beco favours minimalist chic whilst RARA is chockablock with memorabilia and it’s something I much prefer. The girl who works there is pleasant and chatty and lacks the snobbish airs of the girl who served me in Beco. I’m a fierce supporter of one off thrift shops and vintage boutiques popping up in Dundee, and I will continue going to both, but I know which I prefer.
The differences in the different ends of town were what I noticed most; the people, the shops and the feel of the two centres struck quite opposite chords, and I look forward to Dundee welcoming more shops, and await with a certain melancholy the no doubt certain demise of the Wellgate centre.
Quite a specific group of people littered the top floor of the town’s busiest shopping centre; mainly being single elderly males, and a few mixed couples of either; boyfriend and girlfriend, husband and wife, mother and daughter (who is sometimes a child, sometimes not). These people obviously have much higher tolerance levels than I, as no mentally well balanced amour of mine has ever had the urge to disturb me in the dawn hours. For that matter, no member of my family (spare my father, but he’s always been a tad slow) or friend has bothered me either. I tend to hurl various objects in the direction of the no doubt well meaning individual who has deigned to bring me cup of coffee and curse in a heavy Dundonian accent, littered with glottal stops. It’s only about 2pm that I start to have functioning thoughts (just) so perhaps that would explain the scarcity of people other than aged singular males. It tends to be, in my experience, that the elderly do rise earlier than the young, indeed my own slightly batty grandmother has a tendency to hoover at around 4am when she can’t sleep.
The sole purpose for the top floor seemed to be purely as a thoroughfare for people to belt along, obviously with someplace better to be going. Few went into the surrounding shops; Thompson’s the travel agents and Optical Express, and I sat and studied a bored looking sales assistant polish the same pair of glasses for a good twenty minutes. Debenhams up to 25% off sale seemed to be doing a roaring trade and it wasn’t long before I was taking a tally chart of all the luminous lime green carrier bags that passed my way. The power of advertising on carrier bags is unbelievable as it drove me to Debenhams, a venue I rarely venture, and had be thoroughly abusing the discount. It’s someplace I’d be unlikely to bother noticing the advertising but seeing all the lime green bags made me want a piece of whatever action these people were getting. Goodbye £25.60 and hello Art Deco dress and crippling student debt. Primark, M&S and Next seemed to be doing not too shabbily either, and working in retail myself, I took noticed of another shopper’s gaudily lit red bag baring the message of a massive sale at Next. Maybe I’ll just take a wee gander…
Other than a woman wearing one UGG boot and a trainer, and Karen and I being interviewed for the Evening Tele’; “If you won the lottery, would you spend it or save it?” Save some, spend the rest. “And what would you buy?” A pony. (I’m such a girl); the Overgate had little to offer, so we moseyed on down to the Wellgate, also a shopping centre, but quite with quite a different vibe.
Little drives me up that end of town; albeit TopShop and my own work, Clarks, and the Wellgate has little to offer a younger crowd like myself. Save from New Look (which the Overgate boasts a larger store), the Wellgate is filled by BHS, bargain store TJ Hughes and a scattering of random little shops that sell all manner of crap. It’s no secret Dundee’s shops er, suck and with TopShop moving to a bigger space in the Overgate, how much longer can that end of town survive? It’s a relic from a bygone era; the lady’s toilets in BHS haven’t changed their sickly gleaming white and blue interior since I were a wean, and that were many moons ago. Even the music belongs to a time gone by; Maroon 5’s “This Love” was one I heard played and right enough, every time I’ve passed through the Wellgate, I’ve never heard a snatch of Gaga or whatever else is topping the charts blaring out over the tannoy. It seems the Wellgate is trapped in the past, the clientele being (without sounding heinously like an middle class snob) specific to the less well off and well, chavvier people of Dundee,
Beco, a smallish vintage boutique, has opened on the first floor of the Wellgate and despite it having a not too bad collection of shirts, scarves and handbags (shoes too, but they don’t count for me seeing as I have to buy my shoes down at the boatyard), it’s location isn’t prime, and I wonder how long it will manage to survive. I bought a skirt whilst out on safari and whilst the price right enough, the girl who served me seemed fairly out of it; eyes glazed over, either at the prospect of another dull day trapped in the Wellgate, or the previous night out on the town; who knows? Perhaps I’m being harsh, but realistically, the future doesn’t look good, as every time I’ve been there, the place is deserted, and in a town thronging with art students and quirky fashion sense, surely Beco’s rails should be bare, save for the odd hanger? The power of advertisement is key, and I think Beco ought to be looking into some of those lime green bags …
Dundee’s other vintage shop, of which I am a frequenter, is RARA and The Pretty Vacant Showrooms. Located on Exchange Street, it’s location is also not ideal, but it’s a cosy wee shop littered with a variety of jewellery, handbags and clothes. Its interior is completely different; Beco favours minimalist chic whilst RARA is chockablock with memorabilia and it’s something I much prefer. The girl who works there is pleasant and chatty and lacks the snobbish airs of the girl who served me in Beco. I’m a fierce supporter of one off thrift shops and vintage boutiques popping up in Dundee, and I will continue going to both, but I know which I prefer.
The differences in the different ends of town were what I noticed most; the people, the shops and the feel of the two centres struck quite opposite chords, and I look forward to Dundee welcoming more shops, and await with a certain melancholy the no doubt certain demise of the Wellgate centre.
Thursday 4 March 2010
Semester 2, Assignment 3; Design Safari
For our third assignment, we had to go out as a group and study our fellow human beings in an environment such as a coffee shop, shopping centre, bus/train station etc. Here are our findings, copied exactly as I wrote them down.
4th March, 11.05 am, opposite Thomsons, top floor of the Overgate.
20 year old guy, wearing a suit, possibly getting interviewed. 25 - 26 year old female, grey jacket. Interviewing/ survey for Evening Telegraph. If you won the lottery would you spend it all at once? Took names and photographs. Use top floor as thoroughfare - few passers by actually go into the surrounding shops. High ration of singular elderly men. Lots of couples either husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfiend, mother and daughter etc. Odd workman. 2 policemen carrying paper cups in a Morrison's bag. UPS guy carrying an Orange bag. Chinese mother and son waiting for something/one? Sat behind us. Many a buggy/push chair. Mixtures of races but predominantly white. Man - Rupert. 10 x 10 -13 year old boys with tennis rackets. Black lab guide dog in training. Couple both drinking Irn Bru and eating Greggs. 2 men unsuccessfully flogging makeup in black bags outside WHSmith. One woman wearing an UGG boot and a trainer.
Debenhams bag count: 25
M&S bag count: 8
Next bag count: 4
Primark bag count: 18
Will analyse and discuss results in a future post.
4th March, 11.05 am, opposite Thomsons, top floor of the Overgate.
20 year old guy, wearing a suit, possibly getting interviewed. 25 - 26 year old female, grey jacket. Interviewing/ survey for Evening Telegraph. If you won the lottery would you spend it all at once? Took names and photographs. Use top floor as thoroughfare - few passers by actually go into the surrounding shops. High ration of singular elderly men. Lots of couples either husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfiend, mother and daughter etc. Odd workman. 2 policemen carrying paper cups in a Morrison's bag. UPS guy carrying an Orange bag. Chinese mother and son waiting for something/one? Sat behind us. Many a buggy/push chair. Mixtures of races but predominantly white. Man - Rupert. 10 x 10 -13 year old boys with tennis rackets. Black lab guide dog in training. Couple both drinking Irn Bru and eating Greggs. 2 men unsuccessfully flogging makeup in black bags outside WHSmith. One woman wearing an UGG boot and a trainer.
Debenhams bag count: 25
M&S bag count: 8
Next bag count: 4
Primark bag count: 18
Will analyse and discuss results in a future post.
Project 3: Catwalk; Evaluation and Results
So with my laptop outta use, I've found it harder to keep up with the blog, but going to post a variety of posts today to catch you up with all everything that's been happening.
Project 3: Catwalk ended a couple of weeks ago, and rather successfully I may add. I've posted pictures of me modelling Natalia's piece, so I'll upload a couple of Suzi modelling mine. I chose Art Nouveau as my inspiration and spent most of my Christmas holidays tearing up vintage Vogues and researching various designers including jewellers, glassmakers, interior designers, furniture designers and illustrators. I focused mainly on the work of Rene Lalique who crafted these beautiful intricate costume pieces, often with a macabre edge to them.
I love how elaborate his pieces are but how they also have a somewhat sinister air to them, and this was something a really wanted to incorporate into my own work.
I also focused on furniture designers of the period, in particular Louis Majorelle, whose Nenuphur bed was a endless source of ideas.
I wanted to manipulate the heavy solidness of the furniture into my headpiece and my first idea was to carve the headpiece out of wood. However, after much debate and deciding that it would be both too heavy for the wearer and too time consuming to construct, I settled on combining brass, reminiscent of the feet from the bed, and branches; the main inspiration for the Art Nouveau artists was nature afterall.
I created a lily out of brass and etched a pair of eyes on two of the petals, giving the viewer the impression of having someone stare back out at them. I wanted it to be subtle and not instantly recognisable.
One of the main components of the brief was to use colour in this piece and for this, I used flocking; namely a textile technique for velvetising surfaces using a static charge and coloured fibres, and used acrylic paint and gold leaf to make the inside of my flower as lavish and decadent as possible.
For the photographs I got Suzi back in touch with nature and dressed her up in a sheet and had her wandering the campus. I think they worked really well, and my only issue with them was the college in the background which if I'd had more time, I would have edited out. Also, it was the middle of February and I think it may have been too much to ask Suzi to travel much further in her toga without catching hypothermia!
Project 3: Catwalk ended a couple of weeks ago, and rather successfully I may add. I've posted pictures of me modelling Natalia's piece, so I'll upload a couple of Suzi modelling mine. I chose Art Nouveau as my inspiration and spent most of my Christmas holidays tearing up vintage Vogues and researching various designers including jewellers, glassmakers, interior designers, furniture designers and illustrators. I focused mainly on the work of Rene Lalique who crafted these beautiful intricate costume pieces, often with a macabre edge to them.
I love how elaborate his pieces are but how they also have a somewhat sinister air to them, and this was something a really wanted to incorporate into my own work.
I also focused on furniture designers of the period, in particular Louis Majorelle, whose Nenuphur bed was a endless source of ideas.
I wanted to manipulate the heavy solidness of the furniture into my headpiece and my first idea was to carve the headpiece out of wood. However, after much debate and deciding that it would be both too heavy for the wearer and too time consuming to construct, I settled on combining brass, reminiscent of the feet from the bed, and branches; the main inspiration for the Art Nouveau artists was nature afterall.
I created a lily out of brass and etched a pair of eyes on two of the petals, giving the viewer the impression of having someone stare back out at them. I wanted it to be subtle and not instantly recognisable.
One of the main components of the brief was to use colour in this piece and for this, I used flocking; namely a textile technique for velvetising surfaces using a static charge and coloured fibres, and used acrylic paint and gold leaf to make the inside of my flower as lavish and decadent as possible.
For the photographs I got Suzi back in touch with nature and dressed her up in a sheet and had her wandering the campus. I think they worked really well, and my only issue with them was the college in the background which if I'd had more time, I would have edited out. Also, it was the middle of February and I think it may have been too much to ask Suzi to travel much further in her toga without catching hypothermia!
Semester 2, Assignment 2: Stories
Ok, so with my trusty laptop outta action, and apparently unfixable (I'm hoping that the bearded man that haunts level 3 of the Matthew building can save it; it's in his capable hands for the time being). However, I lost all the work that was on it, but have got some of it back, so here be the long awaited assignment two.
For this we had to show three photographs (the images just above this) to a mixture of people from different backgrounds and see what stories they could come up with...
A pagan ritual involved the midwinter worship of a giant orb. The barbarians stay up drinking in the moonlight after leaving their dirt cave houses. Every one in the pagan community went out for this ritual, except the muppet normaloid who was kept locked up inside the mud hits, because his rantings and ravings and science talk was dangerous to the moon people! In the full bright ritual night, the moonlight passed through the window into the raving mans room, he changed and morphed and broke free from his chains! ARGHHHHH arf.arf woof he becomes a god, to dance and jump and participate in their crazy moon sacrifice! Josh, English student
In the dark dark forest, there was a dark dark cottage and in the dark dark cottage, there was a dark dark room, and in the dark dark room, there was a dark dark bed and under the dark dark hid a dark dark dog. The bright bright moon shone through the dark dark window revealing a dark red eyes … Julie, Psychology student
A man looked through a telescope at the shining moon. It was still visible despite the low rising sun. He was in the observatory atop his tower, in the middle of a vast desert, in the middle of a dark land! The only noticeable thing in the tower beneath the vast glass dome on the top, was a small window with a cross bar across it, and a disturbing and putrid stench escaping in surges from the dark square hole. The man shuddered as a howl escaped loudly from beneath him! Emma, Shop assistant
Nose close to the ground, he ran snuffling through the forest, lightly pattering against fallen leaves, the luminous moon his only source of light. He wasn’t sure what had driven him from the warmth of the cottage. He stopped, paused, and sniffed the air. A mile on, he reached his destination and growling, pulled at the trouser leg protruding from beneath the leaves … David, Lecturer
Once upon a time, there was a boy, his face yellow and bright. He was a sad boy; he got very lazy in summer and would only wake up for a couple of hours in the middle of the night when it was nice and cool. What he longed for most was to up in the day hovering above everyone watching the world pass by. He only gets to see the sinful stop outs and drink addled fools stumbling home to their cottages and homes, in his bright light. On occasion when he was wearing his heels and had eaten too much and was highest and fullest in the sky, some odd hairy folk came out and yelled at him. This boy felt this was very unfair. He was only doing his job. Ruth, Vet
The main themes that my er, subjects picked up on were mainly that of er, werewolfism and murder. Cheery stuff. So, with these somewhat sinister thoughts in mind, I chose an image of a werewolf silhouetted against the moon to put across the concepts of darkness and terror.
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