Something to make you think...

I have just watched Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion" on 4od. It is definitely the most controversial programme I have ever come across and some of its content is really shocking. Although I am not going to discuss my beliefs or views on my blog (I think that would be an extremely foolish thing to do) I would definitely recommend this programme to anyone who has an interest in debating religion.

Second Bibliography - Harvard Style

In Assignment 2 I talked about how economic conditions can effect design. I came up with a few ideas; money problems, psychological factors etc, but for assignment 3 I have decided to look at the topic of psychological factors in more detail. 
Cross search has not been my friend so far. The whole concept has been very difficult for me, a self confessed computer-phobic, but I think I have got the hang of it. I wasn't able to find any books or journals relating to psychological factors and design specifically (although I have the sneaking suspicion that there will be loads and I'm just not looking in the right place) but nevertheless I have found some what seem to be interesting and informative books and journals on psychology and stress in particular, which can easily be related to designers at work.

Bibliography

•  Feldman, Robert S. (1997) Essentials of Understanding Psychology, McGraw-Hill

This book is simply about understanding human psychology. It looks at the symptoms, causes and outcomes of different psychological problems and how they can or cannot be cured. I focused on Chapter 9 - Motivation and Emotion, as it had some interesting facts about stress and how it can effect a persons quality of life. At one point it gives you an example of how a person can be under stress, using a volunteer at her work and monitoring her heart rate and blood pressure at different points during the day, then comparing them to someone who has instead been enjoying a leisurely day. The results are very interesting, yet it is a little frightening to see how dramatically a persons health can change when faced with what seem to be tiny stresses.

•  Gilbert, Daniel T., Schacter, Daniel L., & Wegner, Daniel M. (2009) Psychology, Worth

This book is more about the science of the mind. More than half of the book is about understanding how it is that the brain works by referencing known facts, experiments and even philosophical sayings. It devotes a whole chapter to Stress and Health, even drawing up an experimental table which names different events, such as financial difficulties or peer pressures, then rates on a scale from 1 to 100 how stressful they are (apparently having two exams in one day has a stress rating of 80 - oh dear). 

• Hicks, James W. (2005) 50 Signs of Mental Illness, Yale University Press/New Haven and London 

 This book looks at psychiatric symptoms, what they can mean and how to deal with them. It has separate, very detailed chapters each devoted to a single 'mental illness', such as Delusions, Paranoia and of course Stress. Self-described as a book of 'reassurance', it provides advice on whether you or a loved one are suffering from any of these illnesses and whether you should seek help. Although it is generally a self-help book, it gives some interesting facts about mental problems in general, such as 'Life slows down during depression... You walk slowly. You eat slowly. You speak slowly.'

• Mental Health Forum, http://www.mentalhealthforum.net/   

 This website is for general use, it offers discussion forums, question and answer pages and a list of numbers which can be contacted for those who wish to seek help with their problem privately. I found the stress discussion forum particularly interesting because although the opinions shared may not be correct, it was fascinating to read about different peoples experiences with stress. One lady had written about how she had recently been made redundant from her job and is now on benefits. She spoke about how ashamed she felt to be claiming benefits for the first time, and her struggle to find a new job was becoming a heavy burden. When she was diagnosed with severe stress she said she felt helpless and pathetic. I found that hearing about a sufferers feelings was very insightful.

• Scientific American Frontier, http://www.pbs.org/saf/1310/index.html

This website has some interesting links and articles about different types of stress. I found an article which I found particularly interesting as it was all about Post-Dramatic Stress Disorder (PDST), a condition that many soldiers suffer during their time in the army and afterwards. The soldiers were basically traumatised by what they had seen in war, and it affected them mentally. The article explains the origins of PDST, how it affects people, why it affects people and who it is most likely to come to.

Assignment 3

There was only one website that I could think of that I regularly look at and take a great interest in - the London Fashion Week website. It is kept up to date with interesting links to various designers blogs and recent shows and/or exhibitions, and exciting website for anyone who enjoys fashion and art. Aside from this, I couldn't think of any other relevant websites, so browsing the internet began. After a good hour or two of aimlessly losing myself in various textiles websites I finally remembered I was supposed to be recording the useful ones. I found quite a few interesting websites, but I narrowed them down to four (plus the LFW) which I definitely would recommend to anyone interested in the world of textiles.

• www.londonfashionweek.co.uk

• www.textilearts.net

• www.gold.ac.uk/constance-howard

• www.texi.org

• www.textileworld.com

 I then started to look at websites which could keep me up to date with the world outside of textiles. There were the obvious ones - major news broadcasters and the sorts - but I also found an interesting art related sort of news letter which was all about current exhibitions, dates to remember, recent goings on, basically your average news letter but completely art based. Oh, and I threw in the last one because, lets face it, nine times out of ten the news is depressing so a little lighthearted news website can't hurt!

• www.bbc.co.uk

• www.artdaily.org

• www.guardian.co.uk

• www.sky.com/skynews

• www.davesdaily.com

Propaganda and Visual Communication

Today's lecture was pretty interesting. We spent some time looking at War time propaganda and the message that it conveys to the onlooker - hearing everyone's different opinions was very helpful, and it seemed that certain posters were interpreted in various ways, and usually males seemed to think that the message was something else than what the females thought. Simplicity was a major factor in these posters as well, since we looked at first German and Russian propaganda, then British. The British posters were easier to understand (not just because I could understand the language...) as they were mostly simple images of simple things, such as women waving men off to war. The German and Russian posters however were more painterly, with lots of detail and imagery, which in turn made the point less clear and almost gave the onlooker too much to take in. I was really intrigued by this since i have never really given this topic much thought, but British propaganda was very clever. Its simple, easy to understand aesthetics and obvious message worked extremely well when convincing men to join the army and encouraging women to make the most of their time without their husbands/sons etc. So basically, design has to speak to the viewer - if something is confusing or difficult to understand it will not work as well as something which is simple. I had a mixed reaction to this. I don't believe that everything has to be simple to be understood (lets give ourselves some credit) but I definitely do think simplicity appeals to the vast majority of people, purely because they don't have to think about what they are seeing, it can just be taken in and accepted or not accepted, easy as pie.

Knit week

I loved the knit week - it's been the most enjoyable week for me so far this semester. We just got to mess about on the machines trying different techniques and using various yarns, then eventually we were to come up with our final samples. I moved onto the chunky knit machine which is slightly bigger than the normal knit machine, as I was using a very thick lambswool that was basically impossible to put through the smaller machine. I made some really lovely samples looking mainly at skipped stitches and holes - texture and shape over colour. I also managed to avoid any major mishaps (not including getting my sleeve stuck in the machine and having to get it cut out) and produced a fair amount during the week, so all in all it was a success.

I was looking through the internet at different knit designs as well - here are a few images I found particularly interesting.

I have also found the work of RCA graduate Alison Linton very inspiring. She specialised in knit and her pieces are beautiful. As she is the older sister of one of my friends I hear updates about her work and how she is getting on very regularly, it was through this that I found this dress which she displayed in her degree show, I was blown away by the detail and how intricate it is.

How Do Economic Conditions Affect Design?

My final outcome.
After I had researched my title further using the internet, I wrote up a simple mind map which I felt highlighted the main economic conditions which can and do affect designers and their work. The two more obvious aspects of this I felt were to do with money and the recession which I already know a fair bit about, so I did less research for these. I found looking at the psychological aspects extremely interesting as it is not something I would usually consider when talking about something like this. One website I was looking at referred to stress being the deadliest predator when related to business and output. After thinking about this for a while, I found myself unable to disagree with this statement. If someone has their mind on other things, is constantly worried and just plain unhappy then of course their work is going to suffer, and of course this will relate to design. Also, apparently it is far easier now than it ever has been to trade within the European Union, which means instant difficulty for any designer. Designers are having to work harder than ever to create the biggest and best ideas for their field of work in order to compete with competition from out with the UK. And then there's the problem of money. With businesses collapsing left right and centre the demand for design will be decreasing, not to mention jobs being lost. So how does a designer make any money anymore? Beats me.

Helpful Stuff

 I found this article very helpful and interesting in relation to this assignment.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2008/sep/19/art.photography

I have read a few articles by Jonathan Jones and have always found his opinions and approach to art and design very illuminating. Although this article looks mostly at how art has changed due to economic changes, I found that a lot of his main points could easily relate to the design side of art as well.

This is another article I came across.

http://www.allbusiness.com/economy-economic-indicators/economic-conditions-recession/12722389-1.html

Although I don't really have any idea who wrote this I found their opinions and outlook on the economic depression extremely thought provoking.

Assignment 2

For Assignment 2, we were asked to brainstorm our detailed mind maps which we had completed for Assignment 1. I got together with a few others who had also chosen Smoking or The Stickiness Factor and we brainstormed this topic in relation to how connectors influence design. Below are a few images from the brainstorming session.

After completing the brainstorming, myself and a couple other members of the group decided to look at how economic conditions affect design, in relation to money problems, poverty etc. My final piece of work will be based on this. 


I enjoyed working in a group, simply because it is reassuring to have someone there to compare your thoughts to and discuss your work with.