New Tattoo

I got a new tattoo last week during the reading week. It says 'love is enough' and is written down my right hand side. I found the picture online and loved the phrase and the font. I already have a tattoo on my foot which I didn't find particularly painful but on my ribs was agony, wouldn't recommend it! I am pleased with it now, I'll only ever get tattoo's that I can cover up, that you don't see that often because I like that little element of surprise when people don't know or forget you have them as they aren't on display all the time. Theres always the debate of whether people will regret tattoos as they get older but I feel that at least I love them now and I can look back and say at least I loved them for a while at one point in my life, and two I have are discreet (it looks bigger in the picture somehow than it actually is) and easily covered up.

No Regrets! :)

Assignment 1 -Environmental Sustainability & Design

For the first assignment of semester one (3rd year) We were split into peer groups, each group was made up of 8 designers from different disciplines. We were given a list of possible topics to further research and each person in the group was to pick one, ensuring that no two people within the group were going to be studying the same topic. Our group met up and we all had an idea of which topic we would like to look not, luckily we all had our minds set on different topics so it was straightforward. I chose to study Environmental Sustainability as I feel it is a very relevant topic to look at as a modern designer. We all created a mind map based on our chosen topics and met up again to discuss our initial thoughts and findings. It was interesting to see at this stage how, although we had all picked different topics, a lot of areas matched up and connected to each other in many ways.

Assignment 5A

After reading 'The Tipping Point' book by Malcolm Gladwell, I was intrigued by a concept that he called 'The broken window theory' which suggests that "If a window is broken and left unrepaired people walking by will conclude that no one is in charge. Soon, more windows will be broken, and the sense of anarchy will spread from the building to the street on which it faces, sending a signal that anything goes” (Gladwell 2000:141) Following on from this, I was interested by the aspect of how crime within a neighbour can affect people and this led me to conduct some secondary research on crime within neighbourhoods. The first journal I looked at concentrated on how elderly people's fear of crime can affect their social relationships within their neighbourhood (Oh, 2009). The second paper I looked at was a more focused paper that showed a case in which a neighbourhood with high rates of disorder pulled together to improve their community (Donnelly, 1998). Although quite different, both papers generally looked at how social relationships within a community affect peoples fear of crime or vice versa -how fear of crime can affect community relationships as it works interestingly both ways. To collect information for my secondary research I read the book, I used cross-search to find related journals, to analyse the information I used techniques such as mind-mapping, brainstorming and discussion, all which were helpful in developing or clarifying ideas. I have since been gaining practise in primary research methods including observation, interviews and visual association.

If I were to conduct primary research on how community relationships affect fear of crime, I think one of the most appropriate research technique to use to collate information would be interviews. Interviews would allow me to obtain a focused sample which would be beneficial in collecting information about the dynamics of one specific neighbourhood. Conducting several interviews within one geographical area would enable me to build up information on personal experience and to see how much one person's views of crime and fear within the neighbourhood may differ from another. Alternatively, since interviews can be conducted relatively easily in short periods of time, they would also allow me to compare information from several neighbourhoods to see in which ways peoples views compare or contrast in different areas. Interviews would be successful in this case as they would allow me to secure quality data from a small sample. My aim would be to discover whether people's social relationships within their neighbourhood have any affect on their fear of crime and also if their fear of crime may affect a person making social ties in a community. Asking either of these question directly would not provide me with sufficient data, instead, I would ask a series of questions that are indirect but will allow me to get more descriptive answers about a person's opinions or personal experience. I would have a pre-composed set of questions prepared for conducting my interviews to ensure consistency throughout. I would select people to interview that I did not know as a pre-existing relationship may affect my results as they might strive to provide answers they think I want, rather than honest responses. I think the best context for these interviews would be the individual's homes as they would feel relaxed and more in control in their own personal environment. Also responses to questions about their homes, safety and experiences with crime may be triggered more effectively when they are in that environment. Safety for myself may be an issue in this case, I would be going to unknown places to interview people I don't know but I could perhaps work with a partner, or alternatively book out a room to conduct the interviews in.

Another research method which could be very effective in researching community attachment on fear of crime is case study. Conducting a case study would allow me to collect a bulk of factual information, studied in significant depth. It would be focused on one specific geographical area and would be a good or possibly bad instance relating to how community social bonds influence fear of crime. Case study is ideal for creating an example from a real-life situation and can raise issues which might not be identified in controlled environments. When conducting a case study, I would have to collect background information to have a better understanding of its history, a lot of prior research would be required as my case study would need to be based on a very specific example of how people's fear of crime affects their attachments or vice versa in a real life situation. Case studies involve several different sources of data which allows for rich information to be collected, despite this however, it would be very complex, involving a lot of work therefore I could only conduct a small amount of them. It would be important to compare my information with previous studies to see how they relate as case studies are not representational and the results that I may find in one instance may not apply to others. The second journal I looked at in my previous essay gave a very interesting example of a case study which showed how residents in Five Oaks, a ‘racially and economically diverse’ neighbourhood responded constructively to an increase in crime within their neighbourhood and integrated members of the community with city officials to design a plan for the community to help reduce it. In this case the community all came together and responded positively to an increase in crime, however, I realise this is not always the case as suggested in the 'broken window theory', a neighbourhood becoming run down only leads to further decline. It would therefor be very important not to generalise my results and make sure I compare them with several other studies to see how and if my results relate to similar cases.

I don't think observation alone would be very effective in researching how community relationships affect crime or how fear of crime affects the formation of neighbourhood ties as these are difficult to distinguish just by watching and recording what you see. Observing individuals within their neighbourhood probably wouldn't provide rich enough information as observing someone in their home area might not tell me very much about their relationships with the rest of the neighbourhood or their fear of crime. I also feel it may be unethical to watch people go about their personal business in their own environment.




Bibliography

Donnelly, P (1998)‘RESIDENTS’ EFFORTS AT NEIGHBOURHOOD STABILIZATION: FACING THE CHALLENGES OF INNER-CITY NEIGHBOURHOODS Vol 13, No. 2 pp. 189-213


Gladwell, M (2000) The Tipping Point. Abacus, London.


Oh, JH (2009) Ageing neighbourhood attachment, and fear of crime: testing reciprocal effects. JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY 37 (1): 21-40

Assignment 5B

For a recent studio based project, I was asked to thoroughly research a fruit or vegetable allocated to us that is researched by the Scottish Crop Research Institute . The SCRI has "a combined objective that is key to the development of a vibrant sustainable Scottish economy in the generation of food that creates wealth whilst being healthier and safer". Our aim for the project was to produce a broadsheet with a focus from our research and also a 3D typography installation. I was given raspberry. For my research I used mainly the internet and leaflets/handouts given to me by the SCRI. If I were to do the project again, it may be useful to apply some of the research methods I have learned in design studies.

I decided to focus on ellagic acid which is found in particularly high quantities in raspberries and has cancer inhibiting properties. This fact is highly publicised on the internet and was quite easy to find a lot of information about. The SCRI has their own website which also gave me a lot of information about what they do and the fruits and vegetables that they research. I think it would have been beneficial to use cross search to see if there has been any studies done on the health benefits of raspberries as they may be more reliable than information found on websites. It would be interesting to see if any new information that is not yet very well known has been found out about raspberries. I usually always use brainstorming techniques at the beginning of studio projects now as a quick way of jotting down my initial thoughts and ideas about how I can tackle the brief and give myself options to research further.

There are several primary research techniques that would be helpful in collecting information for this project. The visual experiment technique could be effective in this case, I could use a series of pictures of things that are associated with raspberries or perhaps photographs of the different uses for the fruit, or even the variations in colours (a lot of people are unaware that raspberries come in 4 different colours). Having people interpret related pictures in their own way would likely through up some interesting information about people's assumptions and thoughts on these visuals that I would not get from health and nutritional facts.

Observation would also be an interesting method to use in this case. I could perhaps observe people within a supermarket environment to see what food stuff people buy. It would allow me to see whether certain types of people buy healthier foods or junk foods. Students are stereotypically known for having quite a bad diet but is this true? It would be interesting to see what kind of people are most likely to pick up a lot of fruit in their shopping and I would also be curious to see if people pay much attention to the packaging and the nutritional values of the food items before deciding on them. It would be good to watch people going about their food shopping in a natural setting, although I would have to be subtle and blend in so I did not make people feel uncomfortable. The problems with observation in this case is that I would only be making assumptions about people's choice of food, I would not get any facts from it, the people could be shopping for people other than themselves. Also, food shopping is quite broad and I might not get much valid information directly related to my fruit.

Interviews could also be an effective research technique to obtain information for this project. There are several groups of people I could talk too to get a range of results. It would be interesting to interview people from SCRI to find out how they begin and carry out their own research as research into how they can improve their fruit and vegetables is very key to their business. It would be helpful to interview a variety of people from the institute who are in different job positions (scientists, researchers, sellers, admin staff etc) to see whether their responses and attitudes to the questions differ in any way from each other. Again, I would create a set of indirect, open questions as this would give me more interesting answers. I could perhaps ask questions relating to their food shopping, what kind of foods do they buy and if packaging makes a difference to them. Usually packaging for fruit is transparent and very plain, would more people buy healthy fruit if it had more exciting packaging? Or does the fact that people working at SCRI know so much about the benefits already that the packaging would not make a difference to them? I would also be curious to see how people working closely with these fruits answers compare to people that have less knowledge about them, such as design students. Although design students don't have as much knowledge about the science behind breeding these fruits to perfection, they probably have a better understanding of visuals and packaging and it would be interesting to see the variations in results. I would need to keep the questions the same and the best conditions to use to conduct the interviews in would probably be a room at university as I could invite several different groups of people there to ensure consistency for valid results.

I think applying these research methods to various studio projects could be very effective. It would allow me to use information that is factual and well researched and may give me the opportunity to enlighten myself and other people with information we would not otherwise have known. I have come to realise that using research from the internet might not always be the best option for research as it might not be completely accurate and anyone has access to that type of information. If I were to conduct research myself using the methods I have learned in design studies I might get more interesting outcomes and make more of an impact with my work. If I were to conduct my own research for studio projects I might uncover some really interesting information that could make an impact on a bigger scale rather than just presenting information that is already know but in a high visual standard. After all, I want my work to tackle issues that can make an impression on a big scale, as well as looking good aesthetically.



Bibliography

(2010) Scottish Crop Research Institute
http://www.scri.ac.uk/ [Accessed March 29 2010]

Welcome to Uttzeera!

For my current studio project we were given an area from the shipping forecast. We pretty much had free reign to do what ever we wanted to design something for that given area. I was given 'North Utsire', an area off the coast of Norway. The area is named after the island of Utsira which is very well known for bird-watching as well as having most of their electricity powered by wind turbines. I was very intregued by the idea of a self-sufficient community. I also looked into the vikings which are also associate with the area. Combining these three aspects which i found most interesting I decided to create a communtity that is abandoning technology and resorting back to a life based on true skill (taken from the vikings) and community spirit. My target audience would be older, single people, mainly people who have been in very busy work positions all their life and have possibly sacrificed familes etc for it. The new community would appeal to people who feel lonely in this chaotic world and want to become part of a close knit community. The community works in a hierarchy of birds - each person is allocated a bird position based on their level of skill. I decided what type of bird went with what skill using bird symbolism, for example, eagles are at the top of the hierarchy as they are symbolic of power and said to be 'king of the birds' the job related to this would be the main organisers, the people who oversee everything and sort out any problems. The people who build and maintain the shelter would be geese, and geese are symbolic of safety and protection, which is what the shelter would be to the people...and so on. The 7 birds in the hierarchy are eagle, goose, crane, vulture, peacock, falcon and duck.




These would be small communities within (although no one is 'bottom of the pecking order' so to speak). They would wear a tribal style necklace so that they could identify each other. I handmade the necklaces using material, clay and wool. Me and a few of the girls went to St andrews beach to take picture of them being modelled as you can a few of them above. It was a very cold and wet day but I'm pleased with how they turned out :) I am currently making a welcome pack for the necklaces to go in to be delivered to the people before they set our to join the community life, I will keep you posted on how it turns out!

Assignment 4

Assignment 4 involved collecting information using interviews. After completing the previous assignment of observing people in a casino there was a bit of a debate whether or not people can feel relaxed within that environment. We decided to come up with a set of questions that would try to establish how individuals feel within a casino environment. Not wanting to ask the question directly we came up with a series of question which would provide us with a higher quality of answers rather than just getting a response to the question which would perhaps just answer the question with one answer, such as "nervous" or "relaxed". We wanted to find out WHY or WHAT made people feel the way they do within the casino environment as the purpose of the assignment was to obtain qualitative data. The questions we included in the interview were -


-What kind of environment/situations make you nervous?
-How do you feel when your spending money?
-How much do you generally spend on a night out?
-What do you usually spend your money on when on a night out?
-Is there anything you feel you are addicted to and what?
-What are your views on gambling?
-What do you participate in that could be considered as gambling i.e lottery, scratch cards, bingo, etc?
-Who do you generally go to the casino with?
-What do you go to the casino for?


All the people we interviewed were people we did not know, but due to time restrictions we asked only students within the art school. We had to establish whether the people we were going to interview had actually been to a casino before as asking someone who had never been would not provide useful information. We interviewed 4 people (there are 4 people in our group so we each interview one) 3 were female and one male. Generally the females were not big on gambling and enjoyed the casino as quite a casual night out with friends or family. All of the females felt nervous by similar situations, such as crits at uni. The also had very similar views on gambling, that they enjoyed it casually but would not take it too seriously as they think it can be dangerous. Two of the 3 girls said they were addicted to shopping and they all said they frequently betted on the lottery. Two of the females also made a point of saying they went with males every time, boyfriends or family members as they felt it was a more male thing to do to go to a casino, which I found quite interesting as when we did our observation there all the females there were in groups, usually with males. When we asked the females what they went to the casino for they generally just went with friends for 'fun' or just for something to do after a night out as it is open later than nightclubs. One of the females even said that she goes to the casino as she does not feel comfortable in night clubs because they are too crowded and she spends too much time 'looking after people'. The females also tended to feel good when they spent small amount of money but guilty when spending more.

The information we got from interviewing the male was quite different. He has a much more liberal approach to gambling. His attitude was simply 'go for it'. His approach to gambling seemed more serious and it was clear that when he went to the casino, he was keen to place bets. Although, interestingly when asked in what situations he felt nervous, he said the casino. I am not sure if this is because we had to ask if he had been to a casino before so we could interview him and it triggered that response or if he genuinely feels very nervous in that environment. When asked what he takes part it that could be considered gambling he quickly reeled off a list that included betting on dogs, horses and sports which in my opinion is more serious gambling than the females.

After discussion, from these findings we guessed that people who go the the casino solely to place bets or who gamble more frequently will feel more nervous in the casino environment as they go for the thrill or winning or losing money. The people who feel more comfortable within the casino environment (like me) tend to be more flippant and go just as something to do with friends or family rather than taking the gambling too seriously. Of course I understand that people can feel very nervous when betting money in a casino but I also think it is possible for people to go there and feel quite comfortable in that environment. It is actually very interesting how very different people can feel in the same environment. It would also be interesting to see of the difference in answers between the male and females would still be apparent on a larger set of results, especially since only one male was interviewed. Would other males have similar attitudes and why?

We all agreed that it would be better to interview people who are 'regulars' at the casino and place big bets, as I am guessing their attitudes would be very different from a student. It would be interesting to see if people who bet a lot of money can still feel relaxed within a casino environment. Also, if we interviewed people inside the casino, we would not have to ask them initially if they have been to a casino before, which may have affected the responses to our first few questions. Although they are very strict and may not allow it, if we had more time we would have liked to email the casino to ask if this would be possible.

Alice in Wonderland

I went to see the new Tim Burton version of the classic Disney film Alice in Wonderland today. I have to say I was a little disappointed! I have never seen the disney version but I had quite high expectation since its so well known. The film was good but i think it was thanks to the 3D aspect, if I had seen it in 2D i don't think it would have been nearly as good. It was my first time seeing a film in 3D at the cinema so I was quite looking forward to it. The costumes and effects were fantastic but the story didn't quite match up to it. It kind of felt like some bits had been left out and it was a bit rushed. The ending was kind of expected and not very exciting either. It makes me wonder...would all films like this be much more effective in 3D?