Movement Plan

This is my idea for the material transitions. It'll be moving around more, but this is basically how the three stages fit together.

Assignment 1 -Tools for Investigation

CCDN 271 Assignment 1- Tools for Investigation                                       
Ashleigh-Jean King (300252037)

The Everyday

In Emotional Design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things Norman writes about how we place sentimental value on everyday objects. We interact with them so often that any qualms we have with them initially may be aggravated into hate after time; Conversely any features that we find attractive, we may grow to love and it may influence our future purchases. Norman writes in an informal, easy to understand style that perfectly matches the theme of ‘The Everyday’. Norman argues that the ‘emotional’ side of design may be just as important as the manufacturing side. He describes three teapots that he owns, one of which is completely unusable as the spout is on the same side as the handle. It is not a teapot, it is a talking piece and its lack of practicality is critical to its success.

Norman, D. A. (2004). Emotional design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things. New York: Basic Books.

Critical Design

This paper discusses how factors like gender, economics and socio-cultural contexts are essential to design. How to assess design is discussed at length but they offer no instructions for anyone who may want to carry out a ‘critical design method’ instead claiming that there is no ‘recipe’ for critical design. They also talk about two of their design projects and the processes behind them. Not only did they carry out extensive research beforehand, they also continued to find flaws and make criticisms of their design after the project had concluded. After reading this paper one could argue that critical design is leading the frontiers of innovation.

Bardzell, S., & Bardzell, J., & Forlizzi, J., & Zimmerman, J., & Antanitis, J. (2012). Critical Design and Critical Theory: The Challenge of Designing for Provocation. 288-297. doi: 10.1145/2317956.2318001

 

DIY design/ Craft/ Gender

Macdonald and Merrill give a brilliant and comprehensive summary of gender expectations in the work force with verified statistics and fluent analysis. They argue that society’s perception of gender roles has a huge influence on female employability in certain sectors. The sections of the workforce that are female dominated consist of the ‘softer’ occupations like cooking, cleaning, child care, teaching, nursing etc. These jobs require emotional, rather than manual, labour. Even when women do find work in DIY orientated positions discrimination occurs. This chapter gives an example of a hardware store where female employees would be restricted to the paint and carpet section and kept away from the masculine power tools. They also found that customers with inquiries would bypass female employees in search of someone fitting the ‘Bob-the-Builder’ type associated with DIY.

Macdonald, C. L., & Merrill, D. (2008) Intersectionality in the Emotional Proletariat: A New Lens on Employment Discrimination in Service Work. In Macdonald, C. L., & Korczynski, M (eds.), Service Work: Critical Perspectives (pp. 113-133) Taylor & Francis: London.

Google Warming –Personal Surveillance

In the book The electronic eye: The rise of surveillance society Lyon describes surveillance as neither good nor bad but definitely ever-present. We are living in an impersonal, distrusting age where a laminated card is taken more seriously than a person’s word for who they are. Your passport, your driver’s license, marriage and birth certificates are all ways for people who have never met you to find detailed information about you; but now that our world is more internet-centred it becomes so much easier. Lyon regards the government specifically, but any third party who looks hard enough could find an unnerving depth of information on almost anyone. Indeed far too much information to be defended by the excuse of ‘keeping tabs’ on the population. Lyon writes in a sophisticated manner that is reinforced by personal accounts and sharp observations.

Lyon, D. (1994). The electronic eye: The rise of surveillance society. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

 

Material Maps

We presented out concepts in class today and I think I've settled on my first one. We also went through adding texture maps to objects step by step.
Here is an example of a displacement map added to a sphere. parts that are lighter stand out and darker parts go into the model.

Concepts

I have chosen to focus on Damien Hirst as my precedent, specifically the way that he takes things apart so you see them in a completely different way.

Research -Part 2

Francis Bacon (1909-1992) was a British painter. A lot of his paintings feature opened carcasses and are quite graphic in their use of colour.

Patricia Piccinini (1965-) is an Australian artist known for her hyper-realistic sculptures.

Damien Hirst (1965-) is a British artist. Several of his works feature dead animals including cows, sheep and even a tiger shark.

Research -Part 1

Hannah Höch (1889-1978) was a German Dada artist who worked a lot with photo-montage and collage. Here are some examples of her work.

László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) was a Hungarian artist and professor at the Bauhaus school. Here is some of his work

He was very influenced by constructivism and you can see it in some of his work.

Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge
-El Lissitzky

Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) was a Spanish surrealist painter. His 'melting clocks' are very famous.

There are some very interesting forms in his art. An evolving object using him as a precedent could melt or break apart.

Readings -The Meaning of Things

Mother of pearl, I found this difficult to read.

I took several key points from this reading.
Design and the designer must be flexible, the end product will hardly ever keep entirely true to the original concept. Alterations may have to be made because of material availability or limitations.

Form no longer strictly follows function. Consumers enjoy having choice and their preferences influence designs rather than there being one definitive 'design solution' for an everyday object.

Design has changed in the last 20 years. There is a new found sense of practicality. Everyday things are being rethought for the benefit of the user. If someone finds a simple object difficult to use it is not their fault but rather that of the designer and it creates an opportunity for improvement. Designers are also becoming more socially and economically aware.

Readings -The Mezzanine

The Mezzanine -Nicholson Baker

I enjoyed this reading. The main character named Howie (according to a review I found online in the New York Times) has amazing attention to detail. He observes things about, not just objects, but human nature that I would take for granted.

When he asks for a bag for his milk it's pretty unnecessary. The milk is going to take one hand to carry; he could have done without the bag, but he notices that it's a habit of ours to hide possessions.
Habits like this are an important thing to keep in mind when designing. For example, people wouldn't want a chest of drawers made out of glass, no matter how easy-to-use the sliding mechanism or how straightforward the organisational system.

Howie also mentions that he likes to keep one hand free even if it would be easier to carry everything using both hands. I do this too; people like to be able to respond to things quickly and I think it is linked to the way a lot of students wear only one strap of their backpacks so it can be taken off much faster. I hope companies that design bags and luggage take things like this into consideration in terms of reinforcing stitching etc.


Another thing Howie commented on was the 'floating straw.' I've found a couple of solutions.

You can buy titanium straws here.    Or you can thread the straw through the tab of the can.

Intro to CCDN 271

Topics
Everyday                                                                         Massive Change
Critical Design                                                                 Design for the other 90%
DIY/ Craft/ Gender                                                            Social Design
Google Warming

1. Tools for Investigation                             10%
2.Identify a Standpoint and Support for It      10%
3. Make a Claim and Substantiate It            15%
4. Plan Your Attack                                    15%
5. Research Paper.                                     40%
Two in class quizzes                                  10%

Today was the first CCDN 271 lecture and tutorial. It looks like it's going to be very interesting and involve a lot of thinking. I'm not sure which topics I'm going to end up choosing, but I do like looking at everyday objects and how they could be made better and I am a DIY fan, so without knowing any of the topics in depth I'd be leaning towards those two.

I actually did a bit of DIY today; I made earrings that look like jam jars. I like the fact that you can make something that isn't commercially available. It makes it special and one of a kind. They were also really fun to make.