Activity 2D: The fourth image

I decided to add a fourth image to see if doing so would give the same kind of response if asking a different person!
I decided to go with Subject 1's story as i found an image of a couple watching the fireworks!



I then asked the same questions to a different group of people.. the reponce was quite a positive one!

Subject 5-
Im on holiday in Australia with what appears to be my wife/ girlfriend. we are cuddling as we watch the fireworks. It looks like we are older and perhaps on our honeymoon?
- Male, 19, art student

Subject 6-
On holiday perhaps with my parents? We are in Sydney and and standing watching the fireworks.
- Female, 18, art student

Subject 7-
Obviously with someone i care about in australia watching the fireworks display? maybe on new years?
- Male, 20, geography student

Comment...
I found it amazing by adding just one extra picture i managed to give slightly more visual information to people which led to them almost discovering the same outcome! (romance, watching fireworks, holidays?!)

Activity 2C: Talk to people

After selecting my random pictures i then asked a few people to create a story based around them. I let them choose their own order and jotted down their response...

Subject 1-
I was traveling with my boyfriend, somewhere abroad. It was a cold autumn night, clouds formed above us. We looked up to see fireworks shooting through the sky above us! It was very romantic.
- Female, 16, high school

Subject 2-
While visiting friends in Sydney, we sat and sheltered under bushy trees and waiting for the firework display!
- Male, 21, law student

Subject 3-
I had just immigrated to Australia. I arrived in March, coming from our winter to their autumn. I had moved into a lovely suburban neighbourhood surrounded with trees. My first night in Australia, I visited the Sydney Opera House where i watched the firework displays. Almost as if Sydney was welcoming my arrival with a big bang!
- Female, 19, psychology student


Subject 4-
After a long day on the way to watch the fireworks in the city we stopped the car and stood under beautiful apple trees where we rested in the shade looking up at the blue sky through the branches.
- Female, 20, art student

Activity 2B: Select random images

Three random pictures from www.sxc.hu

Book Project, Year 2, Semester 2...

(Follow on from Natural design project... This is almost a project to build up to our first interior/ architectural property development. Ill recieve the breif on Monday so more to come...)

Update on mini project...

Researching into wearable books & book making.

discovered a few designers i liked for different reasons.

doing little sketches to help me decide the over look + design of my peice.

Allison cooke brown <<

















the black spot books, etsy.com >>

This then made me think...

what defines a book? does it have to open/ close?


can it just contain words not sentences?


can you slide it along instead of turning a page?


does it protrude? Is ut static?


does the contents of it give information? if so what kind?





Then i started looking at the form of the fuction... Including materials?
Glass found on the beach? Wood scraps from the workshop?

This quick wee sketch illustrates my line of thought... it isnt a book literally... printed or engraved writing could be used to transform it into a 'book'

Flipper

Recently i have started watching documentaries about wildlife, but in particular the film "the cove" and series like "whale wars".

The cove is a film based documentary, exposing the brutal killing of dolphins and small whales in a town called Taiji, in Japan. After watching this film... i felt angry. What gives us the right as human beings to take innocent animals out of their natural environment and brutally kill them with harpoons and axes.

The lucky ones are selected to perform for our entertainment in sea world and dolphin shows all around the world. Are they lucky though? Swimming around a minuscule tank of water with screaming people cheering and chanting...

Personally when i was younger, on a holiday to Florida with my family i visited sea world. At this age i was,( as every young person is) obsessed with them, They are cute, and friendly and have a permanent smile! Whats not to love... But its not till i watched 'the cove' i realised that they in fact aren't happy. Many aquariums cant keep their dolphins alive. Dolphins can stop breathing and 'commit suicide.'

In Taiji, the dolphins not selected are tied up to boats and taken round the corner and never seen alive again. The water turns from clear turquoise to blood red. They are slaughtered, mainly for their meat. Over 2000 dolphins are slaughtered each year.

Mercury spreads up the food chain into dolphins. (mercury released from factories etc...) When people eat dolphin meat the mercury enters their bodies at an alarming rate...in the town of Taiji, Japan (where 'the cove' is filmed) the people there contain over 10 times the national average of mercury in their bodies.

Assignment 1: the consumption of design...

I decided to focus on someone i know for this project. So i focused on one of my friends. I took random photographs of objects in her room (how they appeared naturally). I gained a lot of information which i did not know about/ didn't think i would be able to gain from pictures. I was able to tell a staggering amount of information about her appearance, music taste, habits, obsessions, past and future.

Looking at her desk... it is quite tidy, she was obviously in the process of using her laptop and needs reading glasses? shown on top of the blue book. obviously keeping certain things on show that might mean something to her, such as ornaments and cards and jewelry, while keeping things hidden away underneath. Maybe she is embarrassed of these things she stores away? Or maybe they aren't used as much.

I think she uses her desk as a place to read and do her work, a psychology book is lying on her desk which i can tell she has been in the process of reading as her glasses beside it.

Her taste in music is quite interesting as she has punk music and generally music that would be stereotyped as music a boy listens to. This contrasts with the flowers for example because flowers are associated with femininity. This makes me ask questions... are they old Cd's from her past? do they belong to someone else? Were the flowers given as a gift? or were they selected by herself? The cards show me that they were probably a gift. On top of her shelf lies some junk (bottle of booze + some candle holders?) this shows to me that she probably doesn't use these Cd's anymore... if they were used regularly they might not have as much on top of them.

Moving onto her bed section of the room we can see that there is a simple standard double bed and beech effect headboard + bed side table. Quite tidy looking... some jeans and clothes on the end of her bed, also a handbag and a small 'dobbies' carrier bag. By this section you can tell a bit more about her age, she is in her late teens which can be shown by the double bed... The colours are quite a good example of modernising a room as a child grows. Pink carpet was probably fitted when she was younger and as every child does... loves pink! maybe been painted green as she grew older through her teens. (less expensive to replace than a carpet.)

It is quite a big room with new PVC windows? quite a recent modern house. quite big windows also...

Looking at her DVD shelf we can see just how organised she is! The DVDs are displayed in alphabetical order!! Shows how neat she is and proud of her possessions. She might also suffer from slight O.C.D by the looks of it! Again the shelf matches the other furniture in her room (beech laminate). Looking at her DVDs you can see again the range of genres, from chick-flick to horror. She also has a book and computer games so there is a variety of technical and more traditional aspects.

The cuddly toys keep this element of childhood, obviously penguins mean something to her. variety of sizes + types of materials with smaller ones kept to the front. Again so they can be seen and displayed.

Under her bed i found ucas papers which could show she is already in university or college. Also books and folders containing information. There was also a calculator? maybe shes studying maths? "third party fire and theft" - car insurance? does this mean she has a car?

An empty packet of cigarettes... secret smoker?! (terrible!!), maybe they were left by someone? hidden away... not wanting anyone to see them...

This is quite interesting as there are several things she likes to keep from people seeing. Others that she wants people to notice, such as her DVDs (arranged in alphabetical order!)

Waiting on a reaction...

New Year... New project's!

Happy new year folks!

Just been given our first brief of 2010!! (scary!)

Been asked to focus on natural design and over the course of the week, join with a few people and find out what it is!

Natural building materials and facts that are quite surprising...

-Straw bales used in buildings, easily shaped, assembled, cheap AND 3 TIMES MORE FIRE RESISTANT THAN A CONVENTIONAL HOME! (Because the bales are so tightly packed there is so little oxygen so if a fire breaks out it'll take a lot longer to burn than you would think!) Also can be treated with fire resistant chemicals and things...
I remember watching 'grand designs' where a straw bale house was built in the woods. It is totally energy efficient and runs off solar? and wind power? (i think...). At the time i thought it was a bit hippy-ish! but after reading and researching more and more Ive become fascinated! I think its amazing! So simple... Yet effective and cosy! (has very good insulation! + thick walls). Usually plastered with natural materials like lime and cob.

-Adobe! [A-do-bee] (NOT photoshop!) ... In fact it is a very substantial material made from clay, water, sand and straw to strengthen... Usually used in the African continent. Seen usually in poorer countries where bricks and other resources aren't available financially and physically. Adobe involves the mixing of these materials, it is then poured into square brick shaped moulds then left to dry in the sun. Some people say that the amount of clay in the mixture effects the strength... and that it could break up... this wouldn't be ideal for building if the wrong mix is produced...

There are so many more natural materials such as - Rock, Cob, Earth Covered Roofs... etc...

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The next project involves working with a client! I am really looking forward to this project as it is something different and new skills can be gained. The brief is pretty broad and asks to make and design a book out of natural materials... it has to be handmade and can be in any format. For example it could be a physical book? or even a piece of jewelry or clothing?! (Could be anything really!)

So what makes something a book?! is it the writing? is it the cover...? is it the context? The Vocabulary? What is it?!


I really want to make something physical that i can keep and cherish... Particularly something i can wear and use! almost as a talking piece. I really like the idea of recycling coke cans/ bean tins and creating a really nice broach or even bracelet? What it is... is up to me.

But if it is a piece of jewelry or clothing... what can then turn that into a 'book'?! Is it bit opening like a book cover and revealing hidden text?/ Pictures?

I'm quite looking forward to how open the brief is and what i can produce in the short period of a week!

Updates to follow!!