Essay Deconstruction

In mondays seminar we looked at an essay which had been written by a previous student. The essay was about consumer culture as a creative process, which is linking into our sub culture essay question which we have been set.

Whilst reading the piece we were set various tasks:

• To highlight and point out each section of the essay - introduction, main body and conclusion
• To show where the writer should've used referencing
• To show where the writer has used particularly good language in order to covey her thoughts
• To write three sentences which describe the whole essay

For the last point our three sentences were: 

To summarise, consumers are manipulated by the advertising and marketing world which then creates a hyper reality which questions whether anything after all is 'real'. As said it can also differentiate between markets, a bike designed for women is an example of how subcultures change and how they are represented within society. To finalise, consumption plays a vital role in the expressive nature of which we consume materialistic products - it is all a creative process. 

As a group we discussed that it was vital to use APA 6th referencing in order to credit other writers and researchers which have found out things that are of similar nature to your own opinion. It is also important as it is a vital skill within any university course and later life. 

The entire essay along with our annotations is shown below, for future reference. 

Deconstruction

In this seminar we looked at deconstruction and how it is useful within design. We looked at how a designer had deconstructed a book in order to produce a new book. In this session we were given a number of different passages in which we had to cut out parts which we found interesting and arrange them on a page. We then numbered them and responded to questions which were asked after rolling a dice and saying the phrases that we had selected and numbered. This was a fun session and some of the outcomes were extremely amusing.

I found the topic of deconstruction incredibly interesting and therefore I went to research it even further. 

Deconstruction is a method of critical analysis of philosophical and literary language which emphasizes the internal workings of language and conceptual systems, the relational quality of meaning, and the assumptions implicit in forms of expression.

In terms of art and design it means a form of criticism first used by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in the 1970s which asserts that there is not one single intrinsic meaning to be found in a work, but rather many, and often these can be conflicting.

A deconstructive approach to criticism involves discovering, recognising and understanding the underlying and unspoken and implicit assumptions, ideas and frameworks of cultural forms such as works of art.

Location Drawing: third session

During this session with John we looked at sculptures which had been created within the workshop with things such as cardboard boxes and items which people had created. I enjoyed this session as it gave us the opportunity to do live drawing again, we also had access to a number of different drawing tools which made the drawings even more experimental. We had about 40 minutes on each station and then we rotated. I enjoyed this session as it gave me the opportunity to do hand drawn type again.

Morph

In todays seminar we watched this really strange video which was about how things aren't always as they seem. It showed us basic illustrations and animations which were incorporated into a very strange storyline.



We were then set the task of creating our own 'thing' which was a sort of form of morph art, but we had to start off with something nice and then make it into something dark. I decided to start off with an Ice Cream and then it morphed into a rotten apple.

Helvetica

In todays lecture and seminar we looked at Helvetica the font. Helvetica is a widely used sans-serif typeface which was developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and with input from Eduard Hoffman. It is a net-grotesque or realist design, one influenced by the famous 19th century typeface Akzidenz-Grotesk and other German and Swiss designs. It is widely used all over the world and renowned for its crisp and clear quality and modern conveyance of words and phrases. During todays lecture we watched a film about the font and how it was created and produced, it was very informative and told us all that we needed to know about the font and the history behind it.

In the seminar we were giving two sheets of paper with six different styles of Helvetica on it, we were then told to create our own style, which meant a lot of cutting and sticking and producing a new version of the typeface which was designed by ourselves. I thoroughly enjoyed this session as it gave me the opportunity to change the font completely to make it look extremely different.

Morpholo Tiles

In todays session we learnt about Morpholo Tiles. They are a set of tiles which link together in a certain order and they are generated by a code which is created using a certain formula.
Firstly we looked at different fonts which we found visually interesting, and then we picked certain aspects of the letters that we wanted to draw. Which is showed in the image below:

During the session we chose various numbers from a spread sheet and entered them into an online generator which showed us which tiles we were to create. This then generated squares which showed us which edges we had to touch with the letters that we wanted to create, it didn't have to be full letters, we were more just creating parts of letters. I found this sessions incredibly interesting and made me think of more ideas for my current project.

Semiotics in Christmas Adverts

In todays seminar we looked at how semiotics was present during a range of different Christmas adverts. We determined as a group that christmas adverts have become their own genre due to the fact that there is a wide variety of them available on the television today. From upbeat adverts, to sad and emotional ones, there is a great range which is able to get anyone into the christmas spirit. After watching all of the adverts we found that they all had a number of things in common, they all involved: family, tradition, good will and peace, whilst coming together at christmas. We analysed each advert separately as well. 

• Goggle box - family, going to work, toys, overworked, trying to get the perfect gift, 
• John Lewis - giving her something she's always wanted, the animals are doing something they shouldn't but their all enjoying it together, they're all reunited except the dog is stuck inside and he's jealous because they're having a lot of fun, they've got the trampoline because not only the young girl will enjoy it. gender stereotype roles.
• Sainsburys - dark and gloomy, a touching subject which inspires all people and affects everyone in different ways, shows both sides reuniting because its christmas, one act of bravery or one person making the first move can make the christmas that much more special. people can move past things to share a special day together, uplifting music. The act of sharing is much more important than anything else. It makes you appreciate whats important
• M&S - shows the stereotypical view of christmas, but shows that children are even willing to move past things in order to make other people happy. different from the normal presumptions of christmas. feminist approach. Mrs Claus represented the women in the help. Connotations of powerful independent women, colour red is very chrsitmassy. Vehicles that she uses are expensive. 
• john lewis man on the moon - emotional music, she's trying to reach him but he cant see her, she tries and tries until its christmas day and she finally does it, the moment the package reaches him she sees it. we should consider other people at christmas. people are lonely at christmas, we should consider them as well as ourselves. Balloon and telescope represent her search for him.