Radical Cartography

I came across this website today that is all about maps, but in very different ways you would expect to see a map. The maps aren't simply about places but a whole host of issues, race boundaries, suicides and comparisons in scale with different country's and cities. Some of the issues the maps are built around are pretty serious but some are really amazing to see and quite shocking and are a great way to get information across really fast and in a easily understandable way.

here's a couple of examples, find more here!

'what the world needs now' 

Assignment 2: What images mean

For our second assignment of semester 2 we were looking at what images mean and how different people can interpret the same image in different ways. To test this out myself and two other design students tried a little experiment.

We found 4 different advertisements and took off the text/logo so only the image was left. Here are the 4 images;

The images were very varied and also not obvious so the results were quite interesting. As a group we went into the student union just after lunch time so we could ask people about the images without being a pain! We asked 5 groups of people and gathered the results for each as all the people in a group combined.
The first image had most groups baffled, however the over all idea was that it was funny and weird. The image confused most people not understanding what it was about. After asking people what they thought it might be advertising no-one knew, someone guessed religion but this was the only guess.
The second image was a lot more obvious to the groups as being about some kind of danger and that it was also something about children. Someone also said that it was dangerous and that they wanted to stay away from it. For a complete opposite one group said it was happy and reminded them of childhood. Two groups also guessed that it may advertise child abuse.
The third image was the most popular image, with people laughing, finding it funny and 'cool'. One person said they also thought it was a little creepy and about control. A lot of the groups thought that, perhaps obvious, it advertised a magic show.
The final image was in complete contrast the least favourite image. One girl in a  group didn't even want to look at it after a while. A lot of people screwed their faces up when the image was shown to them for the first time. The general consensus was that it was 'horrid'. A lot of people also guessed that it advertised domestic abuse.

Images with the advertisements still attached:

domestic abuse helpline

viagra

mens deodorant 'Axe'

save the children

When we revealed to the groups what each of the advertisements were the reactions were quite interesting. The Viagra advert was one of the best examples. When we explained it was for Viagra and showed the image again they had a little think while it all clicked in their heads and got a typical 'oh yeah!' as they worked it out. People used words such as 'magic' and 'control' to describe the image, which in a way does describe the product and people thought the advert was quite clever and understood it as soon as its meaning was revealed. The logo was a tiny part of the image but revealed a lot to make everything click together and make sense. I found this advert the most amusing as unknowingly the people described the advert to be exactly what Viagra is about (well not exactly literally) and only from an image. Its very clever advertising in my opinion. 

The nun image, which advertises 'Axe' deodorant, the equivalent to the UK's 'Lynx' confused people, and even when the meaning was revealed, still confused people a little. Lynx advertisements are well known to be about attracting women with their scent, so i would guess that Axe is very similar with their approach. So the nun and the clothes peg is quite clever, saying that without it she too would be attracted to men, how sinful! People didn't seem to think much about the peg, only seeing the nun. The one guess we got about this advert was it advertised religion, a type of advert i personally don't see too often! The placement of the brand on the image was a discrete deodorant can in the corner of the advert, not obvious at all. Telling people the meaning of the advert didn't really clear up the confusion either, a lot of people still not 'getting it'. This shows that logos sometimes don't make an image 'make sense'. Maybe the advert needed a logo? Or was meant to just grab the viewers attention, and purposefully not obvious. 

The two more serious adverts, one for save the children and one for domestic abuse, were more hard hitting, hard to look at and  also apparently more obvious. These advertisements are important, not selling a product so therefore cant be too clever and difficult for people to 'read' as they need their message out there in the best possible way. Both images didn't even need a logo or writing for people to understand them and this shows just how successful and powerful they are. What was interesting about these adverts was that the two groups of people who guessed very quickly, before even asked, studied psychology and social work. The social work group commented on this fact that they could understand the harder hitting images more than the more light hearted adverts. This shows that different people see images in very different ways. One of the groups we asked was a younger girl and her parents waiting in the union for a nursing degree interview. She was clearly going to be nervous and i'm guessing was a little younger so perhaps more immune to some serious issues. She thought the save the children advert was happy and reminded her of childhood... probably not what STC had in mind when implementing the advertisement. 

In 'The Rhetoric of the Image' by Roland Barthes, Barthes talks about three types of messages in advertising; text, symoblic and non symbolic. All of the images we showed people were symbolic ones. There was no text describing what was being advertised and the literal product was not involved. However the 2 adverts we had that were advertising a tangible product were the ones that people couldn't guess... The two advertising services, people could guess. Possibly we asked the wrong people, or that the particular people we asked needed all three types of images to get what they were supposed to from the advertisement. For our experiment, it seems that more than just a symbolic message was needed.

Labyrinth

Today I came across this installation by Motoi Yamamoto, created on the floors of the Saint Peter Cologne cathedral in Germany. Its a Labyrinth created entirely by salt and made by hand, by Yamamoto alone. He started working with salt after his sister passed away from brain cancer, as salt represents mourning and purification in Japan, and used it as a way of honouring her life. He works his way forward carefully as to not cross over his previous work and destroy it, and at the end of the installation a group of children were asked to collect the salt and put it back into the Rhine River. Yamamoto has a lovely story behind his work and the installation looks beautiful and is an almost cradle to cradle cycle. 

Are You What You Wear/Buy/Sit On/Sleep In/Talk To?

Our first assignment of semester 2 was to be partnered with another design student we didn't know, swap photos, either from recent/teen years or of your room. We were also to read the book 'Snoop' by Sam Gosling to help us with the assignment. At first I was really looking forward to reading the book, I was interested in what it was going to say but I felt a lot was repeated and got bored with a few bits, although I was really interested in some parts and how much you can tell about someone from their stuff, and how much of the things we have on display are for show and to give people an idea of who we are,  which may be not who we really are.
I was excited to swap photo's with my partner, Lauren from textiles. The whole assignment reminded me of that television programme through the keyhole and I was interested to see what I could find out, and if i'm honest I love a good nosey at other peoples things! I was also curious as to what Lauren would think of me based on the photos of me from the past few years.

I gave Lauren photo's of me within the past 7/8 years and I do think this was quite hard for her to work out what i'm like from this,and although I really wanted to know what a complete stranger thought of me I was a bit apprehensive about sending them personal photos! She didn't really get a lot about my personality, however did mention that my appearance at the time was influenced by posters I had on my wall of pop stars, which I didn't even realise myself but now it makes sense that that's why I had my hair the way I did and the way I dressed. I wish i had sent pictures of my room as i feel this would maybe give my personality away a bit more and the results might have been a bit more in depth.

When looking at Lauren's photos one of the first things i noticed with the pictures is that the bed is unmade. This suggests that she is a little messy. However i then noticed that she has lots of different boxes and units for organising things, and everything seems to have its place. Although everything is quite organised there is a little mess, so its not organised in an anal way. Most of the organisation is with beauty products, i.e, hair products and body products have a box each in their own area with nail varnish and make up organised on the desk. The desk seems to be a working place and a make up table, as there is a laptop and a mirror. This gives me the impression she takes a lot of care in her appearance and probably takes a lot of pride in it too. I noticed a small cut out of a Mac advertisement, i'm not sure if its from an actual product or just from a magazine, but i also noticed that she had a lot of nail varnishes, and noticed some revlon branded ones, so i think she maybe spends a bit on cosmetics and buys branded, high quality products rather than cheaper alternatives, further showing she cares about her appearance.  Also on the desk was a little note to remind herself of some sort of appointment, suggesting she is quite forgetful, or that it was very important and not to be forgotten. Throughout the room there are a lot of very girlie little ornaments and momentos. In one of the photos, the small shelving unit on the desk there is a set of russian nesting dolls, and because this is one of the only close ups i was given i would guess they are quite important to her, maybe were given as a present or just something she really likes. One of the items that sticks out is a small box that looks hand made, im guessing its a jewellery box. It was maybe made by her or made by someone else for her. Either way this shows that she is quite sentimental, preferring this to a typical jewellery box everyone else has too. There is also a jewellery box that has held a charm bracelet. The charm bracelet itself is another insight to the 'girliness' of the room, and to her but the fact that she has kept the box also shows that perhaps it was given to her by someone special and that it's important to her, therefore keeping the box for memories sake. Although i wasn't shown any images of her clothes there was an image of a drawer in which she keeps her shoes, and there were also a lot of shoes on her floor, probably the ones she wears most. The high number of shoes and different types shows she is fashion concious and cares about her appearance. I also noticed a few fashion magazines and books showing her interest goes further than the typical person who follows everyone else when it comes to fashion. There was a fashion book that looked a bit like a 'coffee table book' and i thought maybe it was for show but then i noticed a page was kept with a piece of paper which suggests regular reading and a genuine interest in fashion rather than just being there for show. One of the things i noticed that was nowhere on show in her room were photos. This makes me think that she is maybe quite a private person, as maybe she does have them, they just aren't on show, possibly inside a wardrobe door on in a photo album somewhere. There are very little personal items like these, or obvious ones anyway. Although i'm guessing this is her room in Dundee and not her room at home i can understand that maybe this is the only reason there are a lack of personal things to give clues to her personality. Or it may even just be she likes to keep her family life at home separate to her life here in Dundee.

Overall I thought that Lauren had a typical 'girly' room but there wasn't a lot of insight into her personality, or maybe I just missed a lot of clues. Snooping was a lot more difficult than I first thought but the over all process is really interesting that people can find so much out just by looking at the things you keep. Whether I like it or not I think I will now 'snoop' a lot more when i'm in other peoples rooms!