Monday, 4 October 2010
Semester 1, Assignment 1: Second Meeting
Our group chose to meet a second time before the due date, to see how we'd all gotten on with our mind maps and research, and to check if anyone had been having any problems, or wishing to change their topic. We'd all been fairly successful and our research was well underway.
Semester 1, Assignment 1: Mind Map
I chose 'Branding and Design' as my topic for the first assignment. I've chosen to examine the conflict in Israel and Palestine for the jewellery aspect of my discipline, and have been researching what brands support Israel and how they contribute to the Israeli economy, so was intrigued to look at the branding process in more depth. My mind map is a first draft, and I just jotted down words and key phrases that sparked my imagination, as well as some solid research.
I looked at the different types of brand names and what inspires them, the main aims of companies when they design their brands and how design can aid branding. With some of the subject headings, I had the information I required when it cam to writing the wiki article, but with others, I had to research further. The mind map helped me with research process as it forced me to look down many avenues and explore the subject quite fully, before I could choose areas to focus on.
I looked at the different types of brand names and what inspires them, the main aims of companies when they design their brands and how design can aid branding. With some of the subject headings, I had the information I required when it cam to writing the wiki article, but with others, I had to research further. The mind map helped me with research process as it forced me to look down many avenues and explore the subject quite fully, before I could choose areas to focus on.
Friday, 1 October 2010
Semester 1, Assignment 1: First Meeting
For our first asssignment of third year, we've been asked to choose from a variety of headings and write a wikipedia article on our chosen subject. We've been placed into random groups that include members from all the disciplines that attend Design Studies lectures, and have so far met twice to discuss our ideas.
Our first meeting was to see which subject everyone had selected, and is as follows:
Natalie: Social Change & Design
David: Interactivity & Design
Sara: Gender & Design
Sean: Mass Production & Design
Colette (that'd be me!): Branding & Design
Samantha: Fair Trade & Design
Sophie: Corporate Identity & Design
Robbie: Co-design & Design
We noted down each other's blogs and photos were taken as evidence that the meeting had taken place:
Our first meeting was to see which subject everyone had selected, and is as follows:
Natalie: Social Change & Design
David: Interactivity & Design
Sara: Gender & Design
Sean: Mass Production & Design
Colette (that'd be me!): Branding & Design
Samantha: Fair Trade & Design
Sophie: Corporate Identity & Design
Robbie: Co-design & Design
We noted down each other's blogs and photos were taken as evidence that the meeting had taken place:
Monday, 29 March 2010
Semester 2, Assignment 5: Part B
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.
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.
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?
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