Assignment 4; What do you treasure?

For assignment 4 we were asked to pick one of 10 questions and i decided to pick the subject of what people treasure the most and why. The question reminded me of a lecture we had last semester when we were asked what our favourite presents were, some people picked recent presents, things like a new laptop or camera where as others were less about material value and more about memories, choosing things like items that were lovingly handmade for them, so had a bit more of a meaningful value. It interested me to see that some people care more about the item itself and some about the meaning behind the item.
When researching I found random websites where people stated the items they would treasure, one of the people said his items were his playstation, his guitar and his nirvana box set. On the other end of the scale some people had said items made by a close relative, or even just their memories, although not tangible, the only thing they felt was important.
It really confused me how some people could be so materialistic and some not even want an object, with memories or not.
The question itself reminded me of that question, what would you save if your house was on fire? So on googling this, I found an interesting article written by a grandmother and her findings when interviewing her 5 grand children (all aged below 14 I believe) on what they would want her to save from her house and then what they would save from their own house. She was surprised at how un-materialistic the children were, choosing things like paintings that reminded them of their heritage and hair pieces that their grandmother wore a lot. The younger grandchildren were least materialstic, saying she should save the pet dog as it needs someone to care for it and that she should save herself so then she can see her grandchildren.
This then also interested me, that children and adults have different views as to what they value as important and what isn't.
I decided then to take a 'now and then' approach to my interviews, seeing the difference in what people treasured in childhood and what they treasure now, as adults.

I asked 3 people the 2 main questions what was your most treasured item as a child and what's your most treasured item now. I asked 2 people the same age as me, a female student and a male non student and a female friend of my mums. The results were as follows:

The female student was first. A pink tartan blanket described now as 'rubbishy' was her favourite item as a child, she took it everywhere and it was given to her by her parents. The fact she described it as rubbishy said a lot, she realised now it was just a blanket but at the time it clearly meant a lot more to her. Her chosen item now was a Charles Rennie Mackintosh jewellery set also bought for her by her parents for her 18th. Both items are distinctly Scottish and bought for her, by her parents. This would be a big clue to the fact that both are a big part of her life, even though the items are material objects, both seem to have memories behind them, not just the cost or use of the items. 

I asked my mums friend second, she's slightly older but still in the same kind of age group so I expected slightly different answers. For her childhood item she said teddies, not any in particular, just in general and for her present treasured item it was her family and friends. The fact one was a material item and the other wasn't was interesting. I thought maybe as she was slightly older and maybe a bit wiser she had realised it wasn't material objects that mattered.

My third and final interviewee was a male student living at home and in full time work. His childhood treasured item was different to everyone else, he chose football. He said that whenever there was a football around he would be kicking it about. I thought a sport was an interesting choice, people i knew growing up who were interested in football were always very focused on it, and it was an important part of their life. For his current treasure he chose his friends, although a bit wary of choosing his friends, he said he knew it was 'cheesy' but they are amazing and wouldn't change them for anything. He didn't choose one material object, and appreciates his social life more, starting from an early age with his football. 

All three peoples objects linked back to their family and friends. I had first thought people either chose materialistic objects or memories or people, however it seems that all are linked. People may choose an object as it reminds them of a memory, or was given to them by a certain person. For me, I treasure a lot of things, and keep things because they link to memories. I value things such as my uncles watch i was given after he passed away, and a bracelet which is totally value-less as i made it myself, but haven't taken it off since he died over 2 years ago now. When I was a child I treasured my dolls (lovingly named Baby Jesus and Elena Rosie) both of which I still have. I also have a pair of my first shoes that are still in my wardrobe at home, which i plan on keeping for my first child. Things such as laptops and clothes can easily be replaced but the idea of losing things that mean so much to me leaves an uneasy feeling in my stomach. 

Having tangible items we treasure is a good way of reminding yourself of people or events you don't want to forget, and family and friends are the most valuable objects we can ever have, without them we wouldn't need objects to remind ourselves of them!

I was very interested in finding out what people treasured most as children, so decided I would ask a few friends and family as I knew what they treasured now but what they treasured when they were younger was all new to me. My mum treasured a pair of wellie boots bought for her by her mum that she used to wear all day, even to bed. My younger brothers was a car with a handle for us to push him in that I remember him rolling about the house in, he named the car Barbara, we were never sure why... He also had a pair of mouse slippers that were his 'mousey browns', he adored those slippers. Strange the things some people see as valueless mean so much to other people.
You can never just look at something and know it has a lot more meaning than you would expect.

Ryan Tatar

My favourite season will always be summer and I came across this photographer who captures it in ever picture he takes! He has a few different series of work, my favourites are sea tribes and the cape fear kooks.
Heres what Tatar has to say about the cape fear kooks,

"The Cape Fear Kooks is an ongoing photo essay, and subset of the sea-tribes body of work, that focuses on a small pocket sized capsule of eccentric surfers in North Carolina.  The photographs in this subset continue the tradition and attributes of the sea-tribes essay, however are specifically focused in the area around the photographer’s home and personal lifestyle from the fall of 2008 until early 2010.   Also, like sea-tribes, the photographs were taken with fully manual 1960s and 1970s era equipment and shot on a variety of black and white, cross processed, and expired films.  The colours are unique to the film processing technique (various slide films processed in C-41 chemicals) and polaroid."

 Every single photograph makes me wish it was summer and want to go on a road trip, here's some of my favourites, you can see all of his work here!

Assignment 3: Design Safari

Our third assignment was all about people watching, or the technical term 'Ethnography'. For this I decided I wanted to go and visit the G Casino in Dundee, a place all of my friends had been but I had never got around to going. So with a couple of other girls in my course we went for lunch one afternoon, a monday afternoon to be exact. When we first went in we got chatting to the guy on reception, who sorted out our membership for us. He informed us that the casino was in fact not that busy but we went on in anyway. When entering the casino you have to go up a few floors after reception to get to the actual casino, and as interior students we immediately started noticing all the decor, interesting wallpaper made up of tiny images of Dundee which we were all quite impressed with, and a rather out dated carpet we were a little confused with, as the casino has only just recently opened. However we carried on, ordered some lunch (which was very good by the way) and started to observe. We noticed that the casino was a little bit deserted, and the whole are very separated, with very different people in each area. The table area seemed to have only men, all age 40 or over and looking mostly middle/upper class. They were all looking very serious and very in to their gambling, something i thought odd for it only being lunch time. When we were observing them (perhaps not very subtly) they looked a little shifty and uncomfortable. We also noticed that as there wasn't too many people everyone was sitting a seat apart. Some seemed on edge as well, fidgeting and looking quite nervous. On the other side of the casino at the slot machines there were older people, typical 'grannies' who would sit at the same machine with a drink with them. This side of the casino was a lot more relaxed, more fun i would guess rather than the seriousness of people at the tables. It surprised me there was such a lack of younger student types in, as from what I'd heard from friends the casino was the place to be! Maybe not during the day but I still expected a few.
We noticed from the way people were so separated that the casino layout was designed with very different zones, the bar, the restaurant, the roulette tables, the slots and a seating area with televisions. The betting table area was very literally separate, with a railing around the area and it was central to all of the other zones, most likely because it's the part they make the most money and want people to go to the most. The bar is very flashy and glamorous, bright lights attract your attention and expensive wine and champagne menus are laid out at every table. We got chatting to the barman and he told us that the flashy lights at the bar were a great way of spotting the drunks as they can be quite disorientating, although i'm not sure if this was a deliberate design decision, but if it was, it's a clever one!

Lights played a prominent part in the design of the casino, adding to the 'glitziness' and also subliminally guiding people through the room. The lights on the ceiling swooped across the room guiding you from the entrance through to each section. This is continued with flooring and with the glass panels surrounding the roulette area, all allowing any user to smoothly walk from one area to the next.

Adding to the whole casino experience even more is the atmosphere of the place. Calm music is played throughout the day and the place is a lot more soothing and relaxed than i expected. This may just be due to the fact that it was during the week I visited and that at the weekend it livens up. I would expect the atmosphere is calm deliberately, keeping users happy and relaxed enough to keep on playing. 

My experience in the casino was not at all what I expected. Having never been in any casino I expected something like in the movies in Las Vegas, it was not like this at all. I visited once in the afternoon and then later in the week at night and at night it wasn't all that more exciting. It wasn't fun and full of the glamour advertised in its leaflets and the way casino's are portrayed in Hollywood, just older business men losing their money.

What a wonderful night for a moondance...

As part of our latest assignment we were asked to visit somewhere we'd never been before either a casino, a football match or the bingo. I visited the casino but also decided to go the Jazz night at the union, something i've always wanted to do, therefore killing two birds with one stone! The event was held on a Wednesday night in 'mono' in the union. Usually when i'm in mono it's for 'skint' and its a nightclub full of drunk, very drunk normally, students dancing away to a random mix of music. To walk into mono sober and to listen to music I haven't shown a lot of interest in previously was all very new to me!
The night attracted a lot of different people.        There were the slightly older group of people, sipping on cocktails and wine, very sophisticated. There were the more what i would call, artsy people, swaying about in time to the music. Finally there were people like my friends and I, people you probably wouldn't expect to see at a Jazz Night. I did feel a little out of place for a while, I have to admit.
I felt the atmosphere was overall relaxed and everyone fitted in. My idea of people who would be into jazz was pretentious people who thought they were all so cool, but there wasn't anyone like that really. Although saying this, it maybe wasn't a true
example of the whole jazz scene as it was a temporary space.
Although it was totally new to me I like new situations, getting out of my comfort zone a little. Last year i travelled to Madrid and lived with a host family alone and lived their lifestyle with them, something that was extremely new and quite brave for me. Its nice to seek out new experiences.
Here's a video of one of the songs the Universities Big Band played in the union 'Moondance', I also have a new found love for Sinatra and Etta James.

Service Design Tools

For assignment 3 we were asked to look at the website Service Design Tools,which shows you different communication methods that you can use in the design process. Looking through some of them i thought i would never use this and found a couple hard to understand but looking more into it I realised I actually use a few of the methods already, just didn't realise what exactly they were. There were tools such as mind maps that obviously all of us have previously used in the first semester. There was also an 'offering map' which I realised I have been using  (okay a much simpler version but still..)  for our current office project in order to help me get my head around the layout of the building.

One of the methods which was a very obvious communication tool was a mood board, however I have never sat down and made one so decided I would try it for this project and it really helped me sort all the different design ideas I have going on in my head right now!

There were some other methods i thought would be quite useful, especially since I'm quite a disorganised person, it would make sense for me to use some, mainly methods such as a task analysis grid, which looks time consuming but probably helps a lot when there's just too much information to take in at one time, I problem I have had with our current project. The context panorama looks like an interesting tool, and simple and easy to understand as well. I'll try to use as many methods as I can in future projects!