Assignment Two. please.

pol·y·se·my [pol-ee-see-mee, puh-lis-uh-mee]

Noun: diversity of meanings.
the existence of many meanings in one word. 


For this project I decided to us the ink blot experiment, I started to make random ink blots and used three that resulted from the experiment. The best method came from pouring the ink neat from the glass bottle and then foling the page in half just like making a butterfly picture when  I was little. This kept the result from being unstructured and random allowing people more freedom to see different objects. 
The first person I asked was a girl called Madeleine, at first I thought she was about twenty but when I quizzed her about her age she was only fifteen. Madeleine was sporty, athletic and very fashion conscious wearing high heels and a full face of make up. Luke was the next, thirty two, travel agent and very friendly. His daughter studies art in Edinburgh, so he was very interested in design studies. 
1   M: stag
      L: elephant
2  M: wood/forest
      L: small lady
3  M: rainy day
      L: graffiti

1.

2.

3.

Interestingly Madeleine had a theme running through the things she saw, they are all considered male: a stag is a very macho figure. Perhaps the images would change for her depending on her mood maybe she had a boyfriend or another male influence putting her under pressure that day. 

Both the people I asked saw different things but they are also similar. Luke saw an elephant while Madeleine saw a stag, both are large mammals. Luke who was interested in what I was showing him and spent more time looking at the drawings than Madeleine but he results do not show that Luke saw more than Madeleine. Images seem to jump out of the drawings for a split moment and then are lost. Like watching clouds and deciphering shapes from them, they hover for a second and then curl and toss away in the wind.

The second part of the experiment was to add text or another layer of imagery to manipulate what people saw in the images. For number one I added the words 'drip drop' and everyone saw ripples in a puddle. For the second one I added a road sign and leaves and people saw a forest. Third one, I added an umbrella and people saw a stormy sky and rain. A water motive ran though the images people saw but I think that was influenced by the blue ink I used to draw with as most people would associate water and the colour blue together.  

Doing this experiment to me explained how easily it must be for advertising companies to twist our thoughts so that we buy their products. So from now on, I am going to keep my eyes wide open and try to spot the tricks before me in the magazines and on television before mindlessly buying the product.