It's Degree Show Time Again!

Come one come all, if you're in Dundee it's free!

My work will be at the Dalhousie building as of Friday! But Assessments tomorrow so keep your fingers crossed!

Good Luck to all the Masters students! x

Just a Pin Prick

Scott McMahon's collection of pinhole cameras (http://featured-photographers.projectbasho.org/)

Geddes and the art of seeing...

Patrick Geddes bought part of the old Edinburgh School of Art in 1892 and converted the building into the Outlook Tower, a place which was supposed to enliven the minds of the people of Edinburgh and give them a new outlook of their town through the use of the camera obscura.

Now, my friend Kam Chan made the most beautiful pinhole cameras for her degree show last year and throughout the show she took photographs with them and developed them for display. Even though she is my friend and I’m baise, it was still one of my favourite pieces in the whole show. So, while Kam spent a year making really professional looking pinhole cameras to very great effect, I’ve never made one...unless you include using a colander to look at an eclipse when I was a kid. Hundreds of tiny little crescent moons with the giant shape of a colander surrounding it. Nice.

The principal of both the camera obscura and the pin hole camera is that within a darkened chamber a tiny hole lets through enough light to converge on a backing to create an image. The part of the lecture which I found really interesting was about the distortions caused used a stereoscope, which creates two imaged that when layered creates a more three dimensional image, adding more information therefore more depth.

Try this wiki one by moving a little bit further back than normal and try to refocus so the two images become three and the centre image kind of pops out...just go cross eyed.

Anyway, the reason I found this both interesting and really bloody hard is because I actually have a convergance problem with my eyes. Which means I have trouble with double vision caused by something in part of my brain, thus I have a poorer ability to focus my eyes. As a treatment for this, my optician (my dad who’s just drawn a mass of scribbled diagrams to explain this all to me in a little more detail) had me doing excercises when I was a bit younger which involved me sitting in front of a computer with glasses with one red and one blue lense and then I’d have to make two squares on the right and left converge in the centre.

Not only did I look like muppet, but I didn’t really take it seriously and this is where I’m really glad I went to this lecture today because image is a huge part of my Masters project. Because I wasn’t taken seriously and was vain enough to feel stupid in the glasses, I stopped myself from improving. Just the way people do with dyslexia treatments. The way I did with my colourimetry specs.

Reflective Journals...

Mike Press mentioned something today about creative writing in academia and the importance of recording everything and finding your own style. It's gone along with the theme of a most of the lectures this week and one of the things that has stuck was the difference in attitudes to reflective journals between designers & fine artists.

Raskolnikov (Detail) and You're A Wolf by Louise Boyd

My little sister Louise is a fine artist in the middle of her third year, she's recently come under critism in a review which has brought her spirits down and made her doubt herself. Now I'm not saying this to embarrass her, in fact I hope to do the opposite. Mike's comparison about the fact that fine artists seem to use reflective journals more effectively than designs is entirely true in the case of my younger siblings and myself. She fills sketchbooks with her thoughts and reflections, her notes on her research, on her practice...these sketchooks are at bursting point, but she'll keep going back into them time and time again and drawing out more information.

When it comes to these books, I'm jealous.

I also know the complete and utter dispair she's feeling at the fact that this is where all her thinking & work goes and while at Masters level it would be looked over carefully, at her stage it's barely glanced at. I had that at her stage of uni - tutors not looking at sketchbooks and only at finished products - I remember being frustrated and angry because the working is as important if not more so. I mean in math you'd fail if you didn't show you working, why art different?

This first week back all our lectures have either been about or touch upon the importance of reflective journals and showing your working and it's something I need to work on, but it's also something I think that needs more emphasis on at an earlier stage of learning.

Rough and Ready Folios

Why is it such a struggle for designers to share? We spend our entire lives pouring over research in order to create our designs and yet when it comes to talking to people about it, sharing what we know and how we got there, we've got a bit of a mental block.

Thinking about our lecture from Richard Harper on Monday afternoon, he talked about how when we go to pitch to someone we only ever show the glossy images or finished products and don't show any of the rough and ready bits in between, when really the thinking's the interesting part and the articulation of these ideas is where you're probably going to impress people. Recently I revisited my 4th year portfolio. It was just as Harper had said, glossy images with little if no explanation. No quick and dirty.

When I've been asked for my folio I send my CD-ROM CV with all my images in an order which I think is cohesive...but I don't have any info about my thinking apart from ambiguous titles and material lists. But why not? What am I scared of? At the degree show and New Designers I loved talking to people about my work and what I'd based it on and how I'd made it. It was easy and it was fun and after I talked to them people understood my work. Ask me to present the work formally and I'd have freaked out, but that informality was wonderful and being able to go into more depth was wonderful and it made me feel proud about my work because of the meaning behind it.

Reflecting on Reflecting

My favourite picture of Pepper who died in July. He was such a poser!

What happens when a cat is confronted by a mirror? Absolutely bugger all. In fact what I'd always pegged as a dislike of mirrors is more likely a complete disregard. But my cat's aren't to be trusted with this sort of thing...Dizzy's scared of the blue vase in our living room and Pepper was an unashamed camera whore.

Jonathan's analogy was basically saying yesterday that unlike cats we reflect on the reflection we see in the mirror. Reflective writing is a way of thinking through things, it's a way of finding links and meaning in our design practice. It forces you to think about what's happened and what may come out of that or come before it.

Reflective Journals are confusing...or at least I find that they are because of their contradictory nature. They're personal and private but their also public and revealing...that's weird. Now, I've kept a diary since I was at school in one form or another. I've also kept sketchbooks since I started college (at school they were discouraged because you couldn't send them to the SQA). However, the two have rarely met. I've always kept them separate because my diary is private, my private view on the world, it's the way I vented troubling issues with friends and family. My own personal issue too...I'd hate it if someone read it. My sketchbooks were my public ideas which needed input, but any writing was usually quotes or formal and stunted.

I've always wanted to combine the two, but there's just something about that need for privacy. Sometimes, as with the Rituals Project Journal, sometimes my thoughts felt to personal to document, other times too mundane...

I need to find the balance!

Empire Biscuits...

Today we had a class by Alan Monroe about Scenarios & Persona and as part of it we decided to make something to bring in for lunch from the country we were born in. As a Scottish delicacy I made Empire Biscuits from my grans recipe and using some of her homemade jam. What's better is they all got eaten, so I was really chuffed.

Yum!

The lecture was interesting, however between the first part and second, I got to talk to Alan about my own project & about Meares-Irlen Syndrome & how it manifests itself. It was interesting because he said a lot of the symptoms he actually suffered from and he seemed really interested. He also had been talking about how we generalise people into pigeonholes and end up designing for the wrong people which is why persona are so important.

Hazel ever suggested that Alan himself could end up being on of the persona's for my project.

Once upon a time...

...there was a strange pair who entered the world of the Masters. Quietly they moved into the room filled with inquisitive looks & worried faces, but as the Masters wondered who these people were, the stranger approached and began to tell their story.

While the stranger spoke the Masters sat and stared, fascinated by the tales of stingless bees and the the travelling folk that clung to the mans hair. He was a Storyteller and his companion was training to be a doctor of story telling.

Thinking she would hate the class the girl sat nervously, dreading the moment where she would innevitably be called upon to tell some sort of tall tale. But as day swiftly turned into night and the Storyteller gave the Masters task after task to complete in order to gain the rewarded of another story, the girl realised how much fun she was having and that years of reading old local myths was time well spent.

......................................................................................

Okay so on Monday we had two Storytellers come and do a workshop with us, which I have to admit that I thought was going to be very silly, but it was incredibly fun. Our last task was as pairs so I was put with Gio and we had to tell the group a story together about a Raja who was afraid someone knew what was in his heart & the search for that person.

It was really fun and it actually reminded me of two things, the first that my friend Fiona had based all my work last year on some of the travellers the speakers were talking about & that I have to tell her about the storytelling group that happens at Dundee Rep. And secondly a conversation on DeviantArt with a French woman called Sophie. We'd been talking about local history of our home towns and I'd been telling her about all the old fables & myths surrounding Blairgowrie such as; The Green Lady of Newton Castle; Jean Mercer and the Meiklour Hedge & Lady Lindsay's pennance. These were all stories I was told as a kid by my Primary 6 teacher, Mrs Harvey, from a book called The Ghost o'Mause: And Other Tales and Traditions of East Perthshire by Maurice Flemming.

A few years ago, when I was frequenting the BBC's H2G2 website, I had an article published about Blairgowrie & its mythology which I wrote when I was about seventeen. Now if you search for Blairgowrie Ghost Stories, my article is the first to come up! Which I'd never realised until I was looking back at it this year. I left the site just after it was published & I've just had another pang of wanting to go back. So, as a homage to h2g2 I've added a Douglas Adams Daily Quote to my blog.

Today's is Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so, which is perfect given h2g2 stands for Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy & is one of my favourite books.

Brand Me

Branding...okay, so in my head, after two years of researching body modificiation, my head immediately went to the practice of physical branding onto the skin using a hot wire. I joked with Kate that maybe we should take it literally as jewellers and create our own brands and imprint something into our skin. I was joking, I'd be too much of a wimp, Kate however - who is really into body modification, tattooing etc - says she's always fancied doing it.

Anyway we have to do a presentation about 'Brand Me' and rather than premanetly scaring my body to do a we bit of joke for my PowerPoint, instead I went for the pen and ink tattoo option. I don't think I really need Emily stamped on my wrist until I start loosing my mind, so give me until the end of my Masters. I wanted for this to be a little tongue in cheek because I have been struggling with this project a little I think I've now gotten into it a little more and realised it's more personal and not literally branding in the form of logos, hot wires & hallmarks. That has actually dissapointed me, as I've been trying to get one made & have yet had the insentive to part with the money given I'm not currently making. I have however finally downloaded the forms and half decided on the design. Which is a step forward.

I may use this as my reading week postcard (#6) but I haven't decided yet.

iHappy

So it's post reading week and I have to admit I was sceptical about whether I would enjoy being part of a group project - I've only done one once before and it was a bit of a farce and jewellery tends to be a rather solitary practice. However, I really enjoyed it.

Over the first semester we've been given lectures by Professor Tom Inns and this three day projects put into practice all of the lectures on processes, branding, strategy, ethics etc which we have been given in which we had to come up with a theoretical product for Apple based on three questions. First we were put into groups - I was with Jumi (my studio buddy) and Brandy from design ethnography and then we were given our task: design a product based on monitoring happiness...

...yep. Vague, but curious and then we were given various methods in order to work our way through the design process including:

• Edward de Bono "6 Thinking Hats" as a method of improving decision making.
• Brain Storming (individual & group in a mass of post-it joy)
• Prototyping
• Stakeholders
• Ethics (what are the products ethical standing)
• Intellectual Property (copyright, patent, designer right etc)

It was really interesting and I actually really enjoyed this week. Working with Brandi & Jumi was brilliant, we had lots of fun making models & using a rainbow of post-its & I know I'm being vague, but I think I've come up with a possible idea for my own research project & because I've not thought it through completely I'm going to let it mull over in my head for a bit first. Sorry!

Bowler Hats with Sleeves...

Bowler Hats with Sleeves, I love this reference to good old Billy Connelly used by David Townson as the title of his lecture today. I admit it, I am a complete and utter comedy geek, so it made me smile.

It was an interesting lecture about the importance of communication and community in design so you don't come up with ridiculous ideas scotch taped onto an exisiting one. That designers shouldn't design for themselves they need to design for others.

'be selfless, not selfish'

Which is of course a point we should probably all take on, but it was particularly pertinent as generally in undergraduate courses you design for you and your tutors and rarely think of the world outside. Or at least, not in a 'my jewellery must solve world peace' kind of way. But David's point was that designers need to be aware that the public should/need to be of huge influence to designers. The bit however, which really struck a cord with me was on Research Prob Packs given out to a community of children during one of the projects he worked on.

Questionnaires in my experience never tend to be as fruitfyl as you expect thanks to people responding with yes/no answers. Interviews can often seem stunted - especially when the interviewer isn't exactly the most confident of themselves or that they are in fact asking teh right questions...plus the interviewee can often just give back desired answers. But this idea of Research Prob Packs, that could really offer some insight into peoples experiences with dyslexia and the current manifestations of treatments/aids, their coping stratgies...even just a critic of the university/school/work environment (something which I have started myself during my lectures out of my own curiosity and I shall put at related posts).

I have no clue how I'll go about it or what I will put in them. But it's an idea.

Disclaimer: Please note I have no control of Billy Connelly or his use of the f-word. Apologies if you're offended.

Processing Information...

In school art classes, I was given a process by which to Design, it was this:

RESEARCH---------->DEVELOPMENT---------->OUTCOME

Pretty basic as you can see, and I suppose at school, with limited numbers of boards allowed to be submitted for exams this was a perfect equation. Two boards of Research, two boards of Development and your final Outcome board. Yet, this is still the bases I work to 5, going on 6, years later after my final Blair High exam.

In my DLPSI lecture last week, Tom Inns set us the challenge of making a visual representation of our design process. This is mine.

It's based on the urban sprawl model that I referenced before and seem to be so fond of, except with fail safes and more communication...so kind like having more slip roads on the motorway as you break the law by answering your mobile phone - something I have never done or condone but I hope you get what I mean. These two elements (fail safes & communication) are both really very important in my design process, especially now that I have been through a degree and worked for and as a designer. Without discussion about projects I can't be sure anyone other than myself feels that they are worthwhile, or solve the questions which arise, which is where the fail safe 'slip roads' come into play. It doesn't matter how much work you do, how much Research and Development (R&D) you do...you can't plan for everything. You always have to be prepared - like a good girl guide - and adapt to the new obstacles which arise.

When we hung them on the wall I had to try and explain this - Tom picked on my design and I was terrified it was because it wasn't complicated or detailed enough - especially the looping quality, which he thought of as like kneading bread in order to develop the texture, mix the ingredients and form the loaf...so I guess that makes my Process model a great big Stottie?

Wicky Sticky Problems...

Nathan Cole: The Lamp of Sacrifice, 286 Places of Worship

Today's lecture was based on Research Methods & Methodologies: Wicked Problems and Sticky Toffee Pudding. The theory as far as I have grasped it is that Wicked Problems are problems which are messy, complicated and often need to wonder in and out of other subjects in order to create a hypothesis...nope, nothing to do with Wicked Witches...and the way in which these problems are visually explained is through the idea of putting your finger into a dish of Sticky Toffee Pudding. Obviously if you did that you'd get very messy and very sticky and generally get told off by someone for making a mess, but as you removed your finger you'd also drag a column of goo with you. At the base of this column is all the existing information and at the top there's a new plateux of information, but in the middle of the column (at its weakest point) is the area to begin your research because this is the area where a solution to a problem is needed...or at least that's what I think it means.

The way I've started to think about it however, is like urban sprawl following a concentric formation. You have a central nucleus of a city which sprawls out into new layers of industry and housing and each additional circle has either a primary, seconday or tertiary purpose. If you reverse the order so that you go from the outer less structured circle and work your way in through the various layers, then this is how I see research.

My idea, based on the Burgess model for urban sprawl is that gradually as you research you'll get tighter and tighters into the circle before you reach an answer (or at least a defining question), in other words:

GREEN = the broad subject & the existing

YELLOW = narrowing the field of study

OCHRE = questions form at several points

ORANGE = define your rationale

RED = discover new information

I am basing these zones on the process of academic research we have been introduced to over the past few lectures, and there is obviously over lapping and you can get lost in research the same way you get lost in streets. But it is a basic idea of how research defines itself by the methods it uses.

(Incidentally, the first image is of Nathan Cole's work 'The Lamp of Sacrifice, 286 Places of Worship' in which he documented all the churches around Edinburgh by making scale models in cardboard. It was exhibited in The Gallery of Modern Art in December 2006-May 2007 and filled two of the galleries exhibition spaces. I fell in love with it because although it's a really simple idea, it was beautifully executed and given I was speaking about Urban sprawl I though it was appropriate.)

In Need of Directions?

At uni we're being encouraged to mind map as an alternative to the traditional method of franticly scribbling down every piece of information thrown at you throughout a lecture. I have to be honest, I've never really gotten to grips with mind mapping. The general format is to go from a central point and branch off with main pieces of information and then creating a new branch with each additional piece of information added...

...my mind maps always end out incredibly conviluted.

Tony Buzan - who claims to have invented 'Mind Mapping' and is an authority on the subject - suggests that mind maps reflect what's going inside our heads when. That they help us classify and clarify our thoughts and also aid memory in business, studying etc. In the last few lectures I have made every effort to try mind mapping and even though I'm still geting slightly muddled, they do seem to help. I admit, I can't keep to the 'one branch, one word' concept and my maps turn out less like trees and more like webs, as each branch seems to end up connected to another miles away. They do, however make not taking notes a little easier and I can definetly see why they would be beneficial for brain storming design ideas.

This year shall be a mind mapping year.

The Tipping Point...

The Tipping Point was a very surprising book which explains and analysis the way ideas and social trends go from a normal level to epidemic proportions. I never really expected that it would have been so interesting or relevent to my subject.

What I really found interesting was Chapter Two - The Law of the Few: Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen, in which Gladwell discusses the different personalities that aid the progression of social trends to the point where they tip.

Connectors are people who have that special nack of bringing everyone together. The seem to know everyone which leads to a wider social grouping and the spread of information.

The example Gladwell gives of this is the six degrees of Kevin Bacon, a game where you have to connect him to any other actor in 6 movies or fewer...for example (as Walk the Line is about to come on the TV) Joaquim Phoenix to Kevin Bacon:

Joaquim Phoenix [Quills] Geoffry Rush [Pirates of the Carribean] Johnny Depp [Benny & Joon] Oliver Platt [Flatliners] Kevin Bacon

Easy peasy...although I've now thought how to do it in fewer :

Joaquin Phoenix [To Die For] Matt Dillon [Wild Things] Kevin Bacon

This pop-culture reference makes a good example of connectors because everyone knows who Kevin Bacon is, and could play along, it's interesting though when you consider your own social grouping and thinking about the important connectors within them.

The next term, Mavens, are founts of knowledge. These people absorb information and want to solve problems by passing it on for the benefit of others. They repeat the information they learn because they simply can't hold onto the it. They enjoy learning and they enjoy educating people as they go. Salesmen on the other hand are persuaders, they convince us of the importance of something that we are generally skeptical of through their personality and the way they express themselves.

In our lecture today, Jonathan Baldwin asked the M.Des students which category they fitten into, were they a connector, a maven or a salesman? I don't know what I am, but the book has certainly made me think differently about the way in which the design world works.

[Oh and I'm certainly not a salesman after that disasterous presentation!]