Lecture: Perception & Illusion

This lecture was all about how we see things and also how we interpret these things.

perception: meaning to us as individuals; how we interpret

how we see:

• visual stimulation
• cone cells; retina
• rod cells; peripheral vision
  this is our subconscious vision and our eye sees this in black and white, our eye exaggerates these movements to warn us of possible danger 

illusion: misinterpreted perception

we looked at lots of optical illusions during the lecture to show how people see things differently.

Physical Process; Object Drawing

This weeks workshop was still life drawing of a variety of objects arranged in the centre of the tables.The first table i was at had a collection of bottles and tubes on it which i quite liked drawing although it took me a while to get started.

The second table i went to had big 3D letters in different sizes, i decided to try using tonal markers for this to try and show depth. This was my first time using these markers so i wasn't sure how it would turn out but i was quite pleased with the outcome.

The final table had a collection of cardboard boxes and similar bits and pieces, as there was a lot of colour i decided to take this opportunity to try using the coloured markers as i'm not very good at using them. I concentrated on one box and looked at the grass drawing on the side of it.

Seminar; Abstracts and Intros

In this seminar we were split in to groups and were given the task of writing a sentence based on a 20 second clip of the film. The point was to produce an abstract; these need to be concise, exact and open strong. For example 'Mother died today.'

Seminar: Meaning and Messages

During this seminar we looked at information graphics and ways of displaying information in a visual way. We were shown examples of this and then we had a go at creating something similar ourselves.

I chose to present my family in order of how close I am to each of them and how this has changed over my lifetime. 

Lecture: Message and Meaning

 

“The difference between poetry and practical messages is that the latter are successful only when we correctly infer the intention.”
-Michael Rock

communications are only successful when your audience react in a certain way.

Message - a short communication
Meaning - what the source or sender expresses. what the receiver infers from the current context.

Sender: (encoder, designer)

• translate information in to symbols that represent ideas or concepts.
• to improve; mentally visualise the communication from the receivers point of view
• is the message urgent? is immediate feedback needed? is documentation required? inside or outside?  =  choose an effective channel

Channel: (medium of transmission)

• each medium has its own strengths dependent on situational effectiveness 

'are we sleepwalking through our waking state or wake-walking through our dreams.'-waking life

Kurzgesagt; German company that produce information films

Receiver: (decoder)

Conclusion:

• without feedback the sender cannot confirm that the receiver has interpreted the message correctly.

Workshop: InDesign 2

In this week's workshop we learnt new skills in InDesign such as manipulating text as seen below and we also used photoshop and illustrator to manipulate images ready to use in InDesign. For example in the screenshot below you can see where I have manipulated the text on the left hand page and on the right hand page I have changed the image to a bitmat file on Photoshop and then edited the colour of the image on InDesign.

I found this workshop quite difficult to keep up with as InDesign is still new software for me however I learnt quite a lot of new skills and feel more confident using it now.

Seminar: Expanded Genealogy

future genealogy - reverse family tree

Michel Foucault (french philosopher) popularised the genealogical method.

method - a way of doing something

methodology - the knowledge of doing something

genealogists examine the pre-conceived and question the phenomenon that 'we tend to feel is without history'

-looking at something that has already been thought of before

without history: things we don't think about e.g. internet (for this generation), goodness, colour, sexuality

Nietzsche beyond good and evil (1886)
-pre-conceived notions/eternal truths

genealogies are subjective

genealogy claims there is no eternal truth (no fabrication) 

-you can never have a full perspective

'purpose of history, guided by genealogy is not to discover the roots of our identity, but to commit itself to its dissipation'
-Foucault

root-eternal truth

'philosophers do not search for eternal truth'
-Zizek

use everything you have access to

writing the essay 
every film starts with an establishing shot
-what the characters are doing, where they are e.g Simpsons in their home

1. establish parameters of research: where you are, what's the 'tone' etc.
2. contingencies/conditions of the space: setting the scene
3. what has occurred? what's the concept
4. analyse this new fabrication: what does it mean

'a paranoid man is someone who knows a little of what's going on'
-William Burroughs

Lecture: Influence & Behaviour

Influence: the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behaviour of someone or something.
Behaviour: the way in which a person behaves in response to a particular situation or stimulus.

Designers need to understand the context and thoughts of their audiences in order to illustrate a problem and then relate this problem to their solution.

Many things affect out ability to make decisions; e.g.

• personal
• political
• psychological
• informational 
• social
• cultural

manipulation, propaganda..

'The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organised habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country...we are governed, our minds are moulded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organised. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.'
-Edward Bernays 'the father of public relations'          

             

Touchpoint: any encounter where customers and business engage to exchange information, provide service, or handle transactions.

Manipulation and deception shouldn't be the intention when designing a campaign message or story but you must consider who you are designing for an how they might interpret it.