In the first semester I was looking at how designers influence who we are and how we act. I was also curious if the media has created unrealistic ideals for the average person to keep up with. Especially for women and teenage girls growing up in culture where everyone wants to be attractive. I want to investigate further using research tools I have learnt throughout this semester.
I think for the most successful and positive way to discover what people think about the media I would have to use a combination of interviewing and observing.
I plan to observe the way people shop due to the trends. Discover the styles people wear in different seasons and why. Do people become influenced by what celebrity's wear? If so, which ones. How young do women begin to feel the strain of following celebrities? People often feel a massive pressure to wear the right brands, people will pay a lot of extra money for the brand name scrawled across the front of clothing. My little sister is only in first year of high school and when we were shopping for a new hollister hoodie (which had to be hollister), I picked up a blue plain hoodie and she dismissed it straight away because it did not have the logo clearly visible.
I know that some people do not like to wear brands at all. How many people know about hemp clothing? Or whether amnesty international sells clothing. How many people are wiling to pay the extra money for ecover?
I hope to interview dietitians about how popular different ways of weight loss are and what time of year people feel they need to do this. When do people want to look their best and why? All these questions I hope to answer using methods of research in due course.
Interviews with people shopping will be greatly helpful and will allow my understanding of what people truly thinks affects their daily life and what they think is expected of them by society. I will interview people on a Saturday at around midday as this is the high time for shopping and is the busiest time all week. The Overgate will be a perfect place to do so as it has such a large variety of shops that it draws many customers of all ages and not just from Dundee but from the countryside coming in to do their weekly shop.
In other research projects I have undertaken there has only been a very small number of people that have been questioned. To get a better and more precise sample I would need to ask a much larger and varied number of people. I will use a structured questionnaire instead of letting the interview go freestyle, this will mean I get useful information which I can precisely construct.
Perhaps I could put questionnaires through people's letter boxes and hope to get a response with an address to Duncan Of Jordanstone and a stamp. Although this could be expensive and insufficient, although the results would be thought through and give more information than a quick answer given in a quick interview.
Putting up posters for people to write there thoughts on has worked very well in the past and given me a large and varied response before as people can do it anomalously and do not get embarrassed by what they write down. Saying what they actually think and not just what they think people think they should.
I plan to work alone although working in pairs has worked well in the past and can be an advantage as two brains do work better than one. The research for this project should be spread over roughly a week. Interviewing people on different days and not just Saturday should also vary results.
Monday 25 April 2011
"Have you heard of the Sydney Writers' Centre Best Australian Blogs 2011 Competition? Hila of le projet d'amour is in the running for the People's Choice Award, and if you, like me, think she has one of the most beautiful blogs and deserves to nurture that talent further then show your support by voting. Click here to vote. The amazing prize is writing classes at the Sydney Writers' Centre. Vote for Hila!"
bear hug.
Sebastian Errazuriz's creation. I wonder if this will ever reach the high street because if it does, I want one.
summer change.
Over the luscious, long, hot, summer. We have to work. 5 books we will be read, 5 things will change on my blog and 5 people will be contacted.
Blog
I have had a word press and found it difficult to use so I am going to stick with blogger, against what most people seem to be saying. I will be attending the workshop with Vanilla Ink in May to aid my skills on the computer because I am more dyslexic on blogs than I am on paper. My many aim is to change more than one thing and make my blog look more like a website than a juvenile jotter. I want them to look more grown up but I hope this comes with experience. I had never even considered having a blog before design studies and I was very wary. My only experience with them being my geeky, typical indie flatmate who put Morrissey on her blog and quotes from Oscar Wilde not that there is anything wrong with these kind of blogs I just never understood why. After exploring the net to gain understanding, I found amazing, inspiring blog. I loved the verity and the sheer amount of them, and since then i have not stopped searching. My ideal would be for my blog to look like Birdy & Me (http://kjsdesign.blogspot.com/) or (http://joannagoddard.blogspot.com/)or (http://intimatevignettes.blogspot.com/. I also think it would be usual for me to add a Flickr photostream.
Connections
1. Wonderland is my favorite magasine and very difficult to come by. I was hoping that I could contact someone there. Maybe. letters@wonderlandmagazine.com
2. Alison King is an amazing textile designer who works with mixed media. "I usually work directly from my sketchbooks, paintings and occasionally photographs. In the final pieces I use a wide variety of media including felt, stitch and paint." King is a Scottish textile designer who takes inspiration form Aberdeenshire.
3. Michi Girl is one my favorite artists slash weather girls. It would be a dream come true to have a connection with her. http://michigirl.com/contact
4. Birdy & Me's blog is really beautiful and it would be great to get some tips. http://www.birdyandme.com.au/
5.Sam Hessaminan is a hero of black and white photography. "When it comes to black-and-white fashion photography, there are few who carry the same communicative talent as Sam Hessamian. His black-and-white prints convey striking emotion befitting the world of fashion, from simple facial expressions to behind-the-scenes stills to lone figures amidst urban architecture. For those aspiring toward this kind of work– or to those who simply admire it, you’ll find plenty of inspiration."
Books
1. Street Style by Ted Polhemus.
2. What An Earth Are You Wearing? by Michi Girl
3. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote. Simply because I never realised it was a book.
4.The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage by Rodger L. Martin
5.The Fundamentals of Fashion Design by Richard Sorger/Jenny Udale
Blog
I have had a word press and found it difficult to use so I am going to stick with blogger, against what most people seem to be saying. I will be attending the workshop with Vanilla Ink in May to aid my skills on the computer because I am more dyslexic on blogs than I am on paper. My many aim is to change more than one thing and make my blog look more like a website than a juvenile jotter. I want them to look more grown up but I hope this comes with experience. I had never even considered having a blog before design studies and I was very wary. My only experience with them being my geeky, typical indie flatmate who put Morrissey on her blog and quotes from Oscar Wilde not that there is anything wrong with these kind of blogs I just never understood why. After exploring the net to gain understanding, I found amazing, inspiring blog. I loved the verity and the sheer amount of them, and since then i have not stopped searching. My ideal would be for my blog to look like Birdy & Me (http://kjsdesign.blogspot.com/) or (http://joannagoddard.blogspot.com/)or (http://intimatevignettes.blogspot.com/. I also think it would be usual for me to add a Flickr photostream.
1. Wonderland is my favorite magasine and very difficult to come by. I was hoping that I could contact someone there. Maybe. letters@wonderlandmagazine.com
Books
1. Street Style by Ted Polhemus.
4.The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage by Rodger L. Martin
5.The Fundamentals of Fashion Design by Richard Sorger/Jenny Udale
and maybe.. The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar
assignment four. "remember that life's most treausred moments often come with no warning".
what object do people treasure the most and why?
People enjoy objects for many different reasons, the most common not being the price value of the object but what someone had to do to achieve it. Work hard and save lots of money or maybe someone has looked after it for years or was given it by a now dead relative. Memories are very powerful and people associate odd things things with different memories.
Music is very nostalgic and I have a special song that always makes me think of them no matter where I am for each of my very close friends and family.
Radio 4 asked their listeners to answer the question: What is YOUR most treasured object - and what does it have to say about the 20th century?
1.Cigarette case - "My grandfather's cigarette case, engraved with his initials, was among the belongings sent back to my grandmother after he was killed in the trenches in 1917"
2.Dance card - "My most treasured object is a dance card, belonging to my mum, Ethel, from a dance she went to in 1924 at the local church institute. She was a lady's maid at a stately home called Mackerye End House in Hertfordshire. My father, Jack, worked there, too, as an electrician, and his name is written against several dances.But it's always tickled me that Mum saved the last dance for another chap called Ted."
3.Camera - "Andy Kohn, 62, works as a photographer and is also assistant principal of Killester College of Further Education in Dublin, where he lives with his wife Caroline, 46. When my Czech father, Sigmund Kohn, fled the Nazis just before the war, this camera was one of the few possessions he managed to bring with him."
The facebook group: What things remind you of your grandma's house?
1. "Olivia Newton John records, banana cream pie, double solitaire, and yarrow."
2. "glass insulators, puffed rice, old furniture, a huge ceramic bull, a porch swing, raspberries, lots of beads and crocheting things, humming birds..."
3 "It depends on the grandma...my great-grandmother's house reminds me of old pillows made from tassels and corduroy pleats and buttons. My paternal grandmother's house was paperd0lls and barbies and my mother's mother's house reminds me of pecan pie, hot tea and canning."
Food is another way people seem to remember things with a strong fondness. I have a friend who can not ever remember what the weather was like last time I saw her or what we were both wearing but she can always remember what we ate. "Oh that time, when we had beans on toast for lunch and then lollys in the park". I have known her for over ten years and that is still how she relates all her childhood memories, through food.
To find people to be interviewed I decided I would be brave and ask people off the streets. This would ensure I did not ask anyone what knew me and to keep results random. I kept the interview unstructured, so that they could lead the conversation and I could just prompt them when I wanted a more specified answer.
First I spoke to Minnie a twenty three year old who has moved form her home town in north England to study geography. I asked her the question and watched as the cogs in her brain rummaged through her possessions.
A teddy bear called Rupert.
I asked her why.
Rupert was given to her by her boyfriend on their one year anniversairy. He still lived in England and this teddy bear kept her warm at night. Rupert was blue and fluffy and to Minnie and no one else reminded her of the family, friends and boyfriend who she dearly missed from home. Rupert was not an embarassment and stayed firmly on the left pillow of her bed even if she has friends around. Rupert will never be given away or hand down or given away because he was not just a teddy he represented a whole life that was Minnies.
What I found interesting is that Rupert would only hold all these memories whilst everything in her relationships was good. I asked what would happen if she broke up with her boyfriend, if Minnie was discarded so would Rupert be. Probably in a violent way such as beheading or burnt. Most likely both. But if Minnie was the one to stop the relationship, Rupert would stay as he still wold hold all those fond memories of home.
Next was Elliot. An adventure enthusiast. When I asked him, he did not hesitate.
Car. Audi A3 Hatchback. 1.6
The answer was simple. Elliot had worked very hard, full time in a restaurant with an extra weekend manual labour job to earn enough money to buy one. I looked them up, they are nearly £20,000. I noticed the difference between the sexes. Minnie's was all about emotions and connections. Elliot's was his pride and joy. His shining achievement to all those hours spent serving food.
nuff said.
People enjoy objects for many different reasons, the most common not being the price value of the object but what someone had to do to achieve it. Work hard and save lots of money or maybe someone has looked after it for years or was given it by a now dead relative. Memories are very powerful and people associate odd things things with different memories.
Music is very nostalgic and I have a special song that always makes me think of them no matter where I am for each of my very close friends and family.
Radio 4 asked their listeners to answer the question: What is YOUR most treasured object - and what does it have to say about the 20th century?
1.Cigarette case - "My grandfather's cigarette case, engraved with his initials, was among the belongings sent back to my grandmother after he was killed in the trenches in 1917"
2.Dance card - "My most treasured object is a dance card, belonging to my mum, Ethel, from a dance she went to in 1924 at the local church institute. She was a lady's maid at a stately home called Mackerye End House in Hertfordshire. My father, Jack, worked there, too, as an electrician, and his name is written against several dances.But it's always tickled me that Mum saved the last dance for another chap called Ted."
3.Camera - "Andy Kohn, 62, works as a photographer and is also assistant principal of Killester College of Further Education in Dublin, where he lives with his wife Caroline, 46. When my Czech father, Sigmund Kohn, fled the Nazis just before the war, this camera was one of the few possessions he managed to bring with him."
The facebook group: What things remind you of your grandma's house?
1. "Olivia Newton John records, banana cream pie, double solitaire, and yarrow."
2. "glass insulators, puffed rice, old furniture, a huge ceramic bull, a porch swing, raspberries, lots of beads and crocheting things, humming birds..."
3 "It depends on the grandma...my great-grandmother's house reminds me of old pillows made from tassels and corduroy pleats and buttons. My paternal grandmother's house was paperd0lls and barbies and my mother's mother's house reminds me of pecan pie, hot tea and canning."
Food is another way people seem to remember things with a strong fondness. I have a friend who can not ever remember what the weather was like last time I saw her or what we were both wearing but she can always remember what we ate. "Oh that time, when we had beans on toast for lunch and then lollys in the park". I have known her for over ten years and that is still how she relates all her childhood memories, through food.
To find people to be interviewed I decided I would be brave and ask people off the streets. This would ensure I did not ask anyone what knew me and to keep results random. I kept the interview unstructured, so that they could lead the conversation and I could just prompt them when I wanted a more specified answer.
A teddy bear called Rupert.
I asked her why.
Rupert was given to her by her boyfriend on their one year anniversairy. He still lived in England and this teddy bear kept her warm at night. Rupert was blue and fluffy and to Minnie and no one else reminded her of the family, friends and boyfriend who she dearly missed from home. Rupert was not an embarassment and stayed firmly on the left pillow of her bed even if she has friends around. Rupert will never be given away or hand down or given away because he was not just a teddy he represented a whole life that was Minnies.
What I found interesting is that Rupert would only hold all these memories whilst everything in her relationships was good. I asked what would happen if she broke up with her boyfriend, if Minnie was discarded so would Rupert be. Probably in a violent way such as beheading or burnt. Most likely both. But if Minnie was the one to stop the relationship, Rupert would stay as he still wold hold all those fond memories of home.
Next was Elliot. An adventure enthusiast. When I asked him, he did not hesitate.
Car. Audi A3 Hatchback. 1.6
The answer was simple. Elliot had worked very hard, full time in a restaurant with an extra weekend manual labour job to earn enough money to buy one. I looked them up, they are nearly £20,000. I noticed the difference between the sexes. Minnie's was all about emotions and connections. Elliot's was his pride and joy. His shining achievement to all those hours spent serving food.
such a beautiful video. such a beautiful girl.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wHF9aZU3vbA#at=42
Nicole Trunfio.
Friday 22 April 2011
ff. stands for fashion forecasting.
Fashion Forecasting.
Tarka Heath.
Start. Every project begins and then continues. Designers for that matter find starting difficult. Getting the ball rolling. Pulling the trigger. You know, pushing that ball up the hill is difficult and annoying sometimes. But always worth it when it free falls and crashes down the other side of the hill. Picking up speed and then stopping as the momentum looses all power and time takes control. Start. For me, it was Paris in spring. Bus. London. Sleep. Train. McFly. The romantic city surrounding us. Premiere Vision, the crème de la crème of textiles.
Yet the peak was not until I bought an Italian Vogue, which contained all the fashion forecasting goodies of the 2011-spring/summer collections. The colours were delicate and pretty. Pastels. I liked the palette of colours and decided I would try and be carefully and not bolshie as I normally was. Alexander McQueen was an inspiration for me, very feminine and pretty.
Breeze was the idea that I selected. I liked the idea of trying to capture Breeze, never thinking that in the future this idea was going to be a pain. Drawing the sky or wind was awkward for me like eating spaghetti with a spoon. I tried to keep it simple.
After doing research I found a love for Japanese art, which blossomed as I delved into looking at clouds and trying to capture the shapes in a modern way with a Japanese kick to it.
Then I started to take photographs of the Tay Bridge. It was a miserable day, so there where plenty of clouds and the light was fantastic. This introduced minty green into my palette that was reinforced by tundra.
I started to look through lots of fashion magazines and noticed that photographs in adverts have little colour and then a splash of bright red. Red has always been one of my favourite colours symbolising the most powerful emotions, love and anger. Which in my experience go hand in hand.
Japanese woman are renowned for glamour, dressing in very impractical clothes. Being dressed in a kimono behind a very fine silk screen. Erotic as some of the body can still be seen. A silhouette or maybe more. Perhaps my pattern could be used on a screen?
If I could have gone back and changed my project; I would have started experimenting straight away in the print room and on paper. Hopefully I have leaned form my mistakes. I defiantly learned a lot doing this project and feel that I have grown as a textile designer.
taa xx
Tarka Heath.
Start. Every project begins and then continues. Designers for that matter find starting difficult. Getting the ball rolling. Pulling the trigger. You know, pushing that ball up the hill is difficult and annoying sometimes. But always worth it when it free falls and crashes down the other side of the hill. Picking up speed and then stopping as the momentum looses all power and time takes control. Start. For me, it was Paris in spring. Bus. London. Sleep. Train. McFly. The romantic city surrounding us. Premiere Vision, the crème de la crème of textiles.
Yet the peak was not until I bought an Italian Vogue, which contained all the fashion forecasting goodies of the 2011-spring/summer collections. The colours were delicate and pretty. Pastels. I liked the palette of colours and decided I would try and be carefully and not bolshie as I normally was. Alexander McQueen was an inspiration for me, very feminine and pretty.
Breeze was the idea that I selected. I liked the idea of trying to capture Breeze, never thinking that in the future this idea was going to be a pain. Drawing the sky or wind was awkward for me like eating spaghetti with a spoon. I tried to keep it simple.
After doing research I found a love for Japanese art, which blossomed as I delved into looking at clouds and trying to capture the shapes in a modern way with a Japanese kick to it.
Then I started to take photographs of the Tay Bridge. It was a miserable day, so there where plenty of clouds and the light was fantastic. This introduced minty green into my palette that was reinforced by tundra.
I started to look through lots of fashion magazines and noticed that photographs in adverts have little colour and then a splash of bright red. Red has always been one of my favourite colours symbolising the most powerful emotions, love and anger. Which in my experience go hand in hand.
Japanese woman are renowned for glamour, dressing in very impractical clothes. Being dressed in a kimono behind a very fine silk screen. Erotic as some of the body can still be seen. A silhouette or maybe more. Perhaps my pattern could be used on a screen?
If I could have gone back and changed my project; I would have started experimenting straight away in the print room and on paper. Hopefully I have leaned form my mistakes. I defiantly learned a lot doing this project and feel that I have grown as a textile designer.
taa xx
Monday 18 April 2011
magpies. are lovely.
"Two Black-billed magpies. Photograph: Kim Taylor/Getty Images/Dorling Kindersley
If you see a single magpie this week, consider yourself the lucky one. Because the Songbird Survival Trust has called all bird lovers to arms. They want a magpie cull and they are not just asking farmers or gamekeepers to lock and load; they want everyone with a garden to use their legal right to kill these birds now, in their breeding season, leaving their chicks to starve in the nest. Well, as a lifelong and passionate birder, I'm not going to be signing up for the slaughter.
The trust's reasoning comes down to the same old misinformed chestnut - that evil magpies are causing the decline in smaller songbirds. It's kneejerk ornithological racism, ignorant and counterproductive. It's true that some magpies prey on the nests of smaller birds during the breeding season, but this is for perhaps three or four months of the year and only affects young birds that are easily replaced. The magpies never kill the more valuable breeding adults (unlike cats, which do so 365 days a year). No predator would thrive by dramatically reducing its own food supply; indeed, in areas where there are more magpies, there are typically more smaller species too. So how could the trust get it so wrong? I can only assume that this fringe group is still clinging to outdated views built on a foundation of medieval superstition.
Magpies have long been Britain's most hated bird. They are big, brightly marked and bark like Bren guns. Despite their brash appearance, they are a native species, but an in-your-face one, with a wealth of folklore to subconsciously seed such hateful reactions. Many people still tip their hats to a lonesome specimen and say, "Hello Mr Magpie, how is your wife today?", in a bid to appease the harbinger of misfortune.
The truth is that no scapegoats are required to explain the horrific reduction of songbird numbers. It all our fault. We have levelled and poisoned the landscape in our drive for cheap food and when the refugees fled to the cities we decked and concreted over our gardens to park our cars and save cutting the lawn. So rather than killing anything I'm going to continue to support creative conservation and fill up my bird feeders, and when I see a magpie I'll smile.
• Chris Packham will be joining the team on BBC2's Springwatch next month"
The trust's reasoning comes down to the same old misinformed chestnut - that evil magpies are causing the decline in smaller songbirds. It's kneejerk ornithological racism, ignorant and counterproductive. It's true that some magpies prey on the nests of smaller birds during the breeding season, but this is for perhaps three or four months of the year and only affects young birds that are easily replaced. The magpies never kill the more valuable breeding adults (unlike cats, which do so 365 days a year). No predator would thrive by dramatically reducing its own food supply; indeed, in areas where there are more magpies, there are typically more smaller species too. So how could the trust get it so wrong? I can only assume that this fringe group is still clinging to outdated views built on a foundation of medieval superstition.
Magpies have long been Britain's most hated bird. They are big, brightly marked and bark like Bren guns. Despite their brash appearance, they are a native species, but an in-your-face one, with a wealth of folklore to subconsciously seed such hateful reactions. Many people still tip their hats to a lonesome specimen and say, "Hello Mr Magpie, how is your wife today?", in a bid to appease the harbinger of misfortune.
The truth is that no scapegoats are required to explain the horrific reduction of songbird numbers. It all our fault. We have levelled and poisoned the landscape in our drive for cheap food and when the refugees fled to the cities we decked and concreted over our gardens to park our cars and save cutting the lawn. So rather than killing anything I'm going to continue to support creative conservation and fill up my bird feeders, and when I see a magpie I'll smile.
• Chris Packham will be joining the team on BBC2's Springwatch next month"
Thursday 14 April 2011
LEGS ELEVEN.
BINGO.
1 Kelly's Eye 2 One Little Duck 3 Cup of Tea 4 Knock at the Door 5 Man Alive 6 Tom's Tricks 7 Lucky 8 Garden Gate 9 Doctor's Orders 10Tony's Den 11 Legs Eleven 12 One Dozen 13 Unlucky for Some 14 Valentines Day 15 Young and Keen 16 Sweet Sixteen 17 Dancing Queen 18 Coming of Age 19 Goodbye Teens 20 One Score 21 Key of the Door 22 Two Little Ducks 23 Thee and Me 24 Two Dozen 25 Duck and Dive 26 Pick and Mix 27 Gateway to Heaven 28 Over Weight 29 Rise and Shine 30 Dirty Gertie 31 Get up and Run 32 Buckle my Shoe 33 Dirty Knee 34 Ask for More 35 Jump and Jive 36 Three Dozen 37 More than Eleven 38 Christmas Cake 39 Steps 40 Naughty Forty 41 Time for Fun 42 Winnie the Pooh 43 Down on your Knees 44 Droopy Drawers 45 Halfway There 46 Up to Tricks 47 Four and Seven 48 Four Dozen 49 PC 50 Half a Century 51 Tweak of the Thumb 52 Danny La Rue 53 Stuck in the Tree 54 Clean the Floor 55 Snakes Alive 56 Was she worth it 57 Heinz Varieties 58 Make them Wait 59 Brighton Line 60 Five Dozen 61 Baker's Bun 62 Turn on the Screw 63 Tickle Me 64 Red Raw 65 Old Age Pension 66 Clickety Click 67 Made in Heaven 68 Saving Grace 69 Either Way Up 70 Three Score and Ten 71 Bang on the Drum 72 Six Dozen 73 Queen B 74 Candy Store 75 Strive and Strive 76 Trombones 77 Sunset Strip 78 Heavens Gate 79 One More Time 80 Eight and Blank 81 Stop and Run 82 Straight On Through 83 Time for Tea 84 Seven Dozen 85 Staying Alive 86 Between the Sticks 87 Torquay in Devon 88 Two Fat Ladies 89 Nearly There 90 Top of the Shop. For the design safairi assignment I went to the mecca bingo. The first impression of going is the reek of cigarettes even as a smoker the smell is unpleasant. The variety of people who go is also a surprise, old hunch back ladies puff away next to young adults. Nicotine giving them a break to think their game over and to calm after the stress of the balls turning over. Another shock when playing bingo is how stressed people get when playing bingo. The tension is thick and the money you can win is higher than I thought. People become very competitive. A very nice bonus to anyone's pension. Lots of people who go the bingo are very prepared, bringing snacks, sandwiches, flasks on tea and slippers! No one was unfriendly but I did feel like an outsider as everyone else pretty much knew each other. It was defiantly lots of locals who come every week. I did not win anything unfortunately but my friend who I went with won £20. It was interesting to watch such a social sport and see couples playing who have been doing bingo together for years and will do for years to come. I do not plan going back to the bingo anytime soon, not for at least fifty years anyway.  In one seminar with vanilla ink we discussed in our groups the visit to the bingo. First we brainstormed and came up with the main points about our visit which stayed in our mind and grouped them. Addicts was one of the main categories as people who go to the bingo can get addicted and also their is the smoking factor. Social is also another because some old people can find socialising very difficult, therefore going to the bingo is a very treasured time to them. |
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.
michi girl.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Earth-Are-You-Wearing/dp/1845434005/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1302772136&sr=1-1
Michi girl has just bought out a new book. A Michipedia of Fashion. What an earth are you wearing? I know its on my birthday wish list.
Michi girl has just bought out a new book. A Michipedia of Fashion. What an earth are you wearing? I know its on my birthday wish list.
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