'Good Design, Bad Design'

One of the first things that Johnathan said to us at the beginning of our lecture titled 'Good Design, Bad Design' was that the lecture was designed to provoke us. I immediately decided not to get provoked. This didn't work. Anyway, I found this lecture interesting as it was his personal point of view, not like most lectures where the tutor is given a system to follow. There were many topics touched upon in this lecture from racism to sexism, assuming to knowing, and although these are broad subjects which may not immediately relate, they tied together well.

The main thing in this lecture which got me thinking was when Johnathan showed us the images from the Ladybird books. Although I have seen images like these throughout my life and they were not anything new to me, Johnathan pointed out a few things which, for some reason, had never occurred to me before. For example, a picture of children sitting in their dressing gowns drinking milk, watched by their mother, with a completely oblivious father reading the newspaper in the background. Although this was not an obvious stereotype to me, it showed pretty clearly the womans place in the family - caring for the children. Johnathan then brought up, with some hesitation and glares from the female audience, the sexist assumption 'a womans place is in the kitchen' . After assuring us quickly that he was not sexist in any way and with some giggles from the onlookers, he made the point that since this was the imagery that he and others of his age were brought up with, why would anyone think any differently? I was surprised to find myself really agreeing with him, usually as a female I would be protesting this and joining a feminist group, ahem, but in this case this is a completely valid point. If you had grown up being told by everyone you knew 'the sky is not blue, it is orange', you would believe it because that's the 'knowledge' you've grown up with. Makes you think doesn't it?

Later on in the lecture, Johnathan was talking about his childhood. Although I am a strong believer in women having an equal position in society as men, I found myself making what could be seen as a sexist assumption myself. Johnathan mentioned that his parents had got divorced when he was younger, and that he lived with his father. I'm embarrassed to admit that I was surprised by this - I assumed that he would live with his mother. This is because, in my mind, when parents divorce the children live with the mother. I then felt like kicking myself - what a stupid thing to think!

Maybe I am not thinking in the way that Johnathan was hoping us to, but I have to say I haven't been so intrigued by a lecture in a long time as I'm usually the one falling asleep at the back.  I think the interesting factor in this lecture was that it was not a purely design based lecture 'this is a design for a chair, this is a design for a scarf, this is a design for a poster.............. yah de yah de yah', it appealed to me because there were so many different things brought up which could be linked to design. Think outside the box!

Bibliography - Harvard Style.

Book - The Tipping Point,  'How little things can make a big difference'

Author - Malcolm Gladwell

Publisher - Abacus

First published - 2000

Case Study - Smoking

 

Viscusi, W. Kip, 'Smoking: Making the Risky Decision', (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), pp. 61-78.

Krogh, David, 'Smoking: The Artificial Passion.' (New York: W.H. Freeman, 1991).

Pomerleau, Ovide.; Pomerleau, Cynthia.;  Namenek, Rebecca.; "Early Experiences with Tobacco among Women Smokers, Ex-smokers, and Never-smokers," Addiction, (1998), vol. 93, no. 4, pp. 595-601.

Eysenck, H. J. 'Smoking, Health and Personality', (New York: Basic Books, 1965), p. 80. (This reference is found in David Krogh's 'Smoking: The Artificial Passion', p.107.)

Shiffman, Saul.; Paty, Jean A.; Kassel, Jon D.; Gnys, Maryanne.; Zettler-Segal, Monica.; "Smoking Behaviour and Smoking History of Tobacco Chippers," Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, (1994), vol. 2, no. 2, p. 139.

Fidler, Wendy.; Michell, Lynn.; Raab, Gillian.; Charlton, Anne.; "Smoking: A Special Need?", British Journal of Addiction, (1992), vol. 87, p. 1583-1591.

 

The Tipping Point

When I was first told to read Malcolm Gladwell's 'The Tipping Point' I was immediately worried. At first impressions it sounded like the sort of book I would deliberately avoid - analytic books have never been a source of interest to me, however I found myself pleasantly surprised by this book. Gladwell basically talks about how easily people can be influenced and, of course, 'How little things can make a big difference".  Although there were some parts of the book which were completely lost on me (we'll not talk about those parts - I was told today by an irritated class mate "that's the easiest bit!!") I was particularly intrigued by the section of the book on smokers and their mentality.  Despite finding some of the points that Gladwell made slightly biased as he is clearly a non-smoker himself, I found myself agreeing with the majority. Then it occurred to me that this may be because I am also slightly biased, but maybe I was thinking too much into it. 

A definite recommendation to anyone who is interested in finding out about stereotypical groupings and how they occur, how and why addictions really come to pass and also how to keep your child well educated and out of the crime scene; Sesame Street (That may sound silly, it was my initial thought as well, but Gladwell really does make a very good point, and I now thank my mother for buying me all the Sesame Street video tapes). Also recommended to anyone who just wants a good read, and maybe to think a little.

Anyway, I made two mind maps, one on the book as a whole and another looking into the smoking section in more detail. I'll apologise for my messy handwriting in advance - calligraphy has never been my strong point - but hopefully it'll be legible enough.#

I have also made a bibliography concentrating on the smoking case study in this book. Since it was to be written in 'Harvard Style', I have spent a long time looking up this 'Harvard Style', and I'm pretty gutted to admit that I don't think I've got the hang of it even now, but I gave it my best shot and I hope the bibliography makes sense.

 

Probably the reason that I am an art student

My ridiculously life-like collages.