SB1: Final Outcome

This is the final outcome that I produced for SB1 mapping. After experimenting with screen printing I've realised that although it does create a very nice handmade texture to it with the inks used, somehow I didn't feel like it fully represented the concept and intent of the map itself. As I wanted the production method to be part fo the experience of the map I needed something that can enhance that feeling, within the constraints of the exhibition. 

I thought creating an A2 vinyl map poster that will be stuck on the walls on the exhibition will be a great way of integrating it's use and intent as well as it's initial impact to the audience. It will also be accompanied with a pair of feet vinyl stickers that will be stuck on the floor adjacent to the map sticker. I thought that by having it as a sticker rather than just a poster will give it a better sense of prominence around pieces which may be in a form of posters or object. As well as that with the help of the feet stickers it will effectively indicate to the audiences that it's meant to be an interactive map that they could try and learn. Furthermore, to further emphasise this I've added instructions on the map as well as a brief rationale of what it's all about. 

In order for the audience to learn it easily without context or any long-winded instructions, I've decided to lessen the drawings to the key aspects of the dance that the audience need to learn. In addition, I also added minimal text instructions and emphasised the movements through the usage of lines and curves to indicate direction and with details such as angles and degrees noted, I think that it's effective enough for audience to not get confused or totally frustrated to learn from the map. 

Again, the usage of the colour yellow was to emphasise the design itself and help it stand out, as well as help it with concentration as it isn't too distracting nor dull for the audience to look at it for a long time. Additionally, I've used contrasting types (Nimbus sans - sans serif) and Pitch (serif). I've used both types in previous modules and thought that they work really well in complimenting the style and tone of a design. I thought especially with pitch it adds a subtle soft and playful characteristic which reflects the intent and look of the illustrations. And, Nimbus sans helps solidify the instructions making it totally reliable and helpful for the audience. 

Overall, I think that the map is effective and successful in its intend to map out a dance choreography and making it possible for the audience to learn and follow the dance through the illustrations n instructions. I think that I've made it simple but exciting enough for the audience. Furthermore, I think that creating it as a set will help showcase the interactive aspect of it whilst in the exhibition and people will actually try it out whilst they're there. 

However, if I was to make this better and more successful, I think possibly having the music go with the choreography may make it better? Having the audio may encourage the audience more, and providing them with the beat and melody to follow from may give them that little bit more detailed aid that will help them successfully follow the map. As it is a static map, having an audio player may be a bit of a hassle, therefore I could put it as a QR code that the audience can scan leading them to the song, to Youtube or Spotify. This was as well it's convenient for the audience as they have the music themselves, so they can alter which bit they are or change the speed or put it on loop etc as well as using headphones for a full personal experience. 

SB1: Design Development #3 (Screenprint)

These are the screen print developments that I've done for my map design. I choose three different colours which I think I could use for the map, and I thought choosing bright colours would be a good contrast to the black ink that I use for the illustrations. 

Upon doing the screen print I found it quite annoying how the design isn't fully being printed on the paper which kind of frustrated me. I'm also not very good with screen printing which didn't really help. I did continue doing it though and got some decent prints although they weren't really all printed well. 

I liked the one on the yellow paper the most, as I though it made the illustrations stand out the best. However, I don't think screen printing really benefit or elevate the design further other than the fact that it's hand made and the textures that it creates, therefore I don't think I will choose screen printing as the method for my final production. I want the production method to part of the overall design and concept more therefore I will have to find an alternative.

SB1: Research (Niege Borges: Dancing Plague of 1518)

Niege Borges is an illustrator who created a series of posters illustrating famous dances in movies such as dances from Pulp Ficiton, Chicago and Singin' in the Rain. She was inspired by the Dancing Plague of 1518 in France started by a lady named Frau Troffea. She also stated how her illustrations were somehow a memorial to Troffea.

Her illustrations are simplistic line drawings of the people demonstrating the movement, showing the key moves of the dances. They also only include one or two colours and certain part of their bodies are filled in to give them dimension and will be more prominent on the page.

Thoughts & Reflections:

I think that Borges illustrations are really effective in highlighting the dance moves, making them instantly recognisable to the audience with minimal text needed (also because they were from famous movies, they were probably easily recognisable in the first place already). Also, it was effective how she used a minimal colour palette as well which compliments the illustrations. Furthermore, she used line drawings to showcase the movements which also makes it easy for the audience to recognise and understand the design as it's not clouded by unnecessary details, rather only showing the important aspects of the design.

Reflecting back on my own design, I think this links nicely to Helena's suggestion to focus on certain part of the the body used for the movements. Maybe I could try and only show those body parts but still manage to have a solid silhouette which aids to the overall form of the design. However, I need to make sure that it makes sense - as the audience will probably not know the song that the moves are for (and I don't necessary need to explain it, as the main point of the map is to learn the moves, rather than the song).

SB1: Design Development #2 (Gif)

I decided to test a gif version of the design, as I thought it might be a possible better way of showing the map as opposed to a printed form. As it is about mapping a choreography, I thought it would be effective if the production outcome will also be dynamic in order to compliment the static illustrations; as well as it may also be more interactive and fun which can hopefully effectively garner attention from an audience and encourage them to participate and do the dance. 

Pros

• dynamic - attractive and engaging, so maybe it'll garner interest in the exhibition
• referencing the dance through dynamic gif production
• speed can be adjusted, so certain movements can be seen more especially if it looks hard
• It can have sound (the actual music for the choreography - may help people to learn better?)

Cons

• Though speed can be adjusted while producing the gif, in the actual final gif it can't; it may gradually become boring or frustrating if audiences have to wait a long time for the new move to come up on screen; vice versa, if it's too fast as well. 
• The gif looks to 'choppy', it might as well be an animation instead. However, I don't think it'll have the same intention and appeal to the audiences, as they may end up just watching it rather than following it, which is not the main intention of the map at all!

Thoughts & Reflections:

I realised that creating a gif for the map is actually not very effective as it's not strong enough to showcase my intended use for the map at all. I also realised that there's so many implications with a dynamic map, like being too fast and too slow, because I thought that it didn't really work well,  in order to make it better the other option was to animate it but it'll be pointless, therefore I decided to not further develop this concept as it'll be futile. 

Now, I'll need to find a better way of producing the map to maximise it's use and appeal to the audience, especially for the exhibition as well, and how I can utilise the space available in Colours May Vary. I'm definitely sure that it'll be a physical map although I'm not sure what kind of production method I'll create for it. Screen printing it may work in order to create a poster, so I will experiment with this handmade technique. However, digitally printing it may work better, time wise and cost wise so I'll have to judge which one is the better option out of the two. 

SB1: Design Development #1

This is the first development I did following my initial ideas. From my crit with Helena, I got the idea of focusing the drawings that I'm doing on the key points and movements that are done during the choreography. I also watched the choreography again and found that due to the fan prop, the upper body movements were very large and powerful, whilst the lower body movements were very intricate, which I thought balances the whole choreography very well. Due to the intricate lower body movements, I thought it would also be good to highlight this in the map. 

Similar to Borges, I also used line drawings as I thought that it would also help make my design easily understandable and recognisable by the audiences, even without context.  As I was drawing the designs, I gradually made the drawings less detailed than they already are, but at the same time making sure that they aren't too abstract. I did realise that as I knew the choreography it made sense to me even with minimal silhouette but to audiences who have no clue, they would struggle, so I made sure that it can be interpreted easily with minimal instructions. 

I've also started, to use lines and curves, which indicates directions and turns which I think can emphasise to the audience the details of the mapping of the movements, making them understand it clearer. I've also used yellow as the background colour to make the design more appealing and inciting to look at which could help with concentrating on the moves, as it's not harsh on the eyes or contrasting too much with the design. 

Thoughts & Reflections:

I think at this point I feel like this map has turned into some kind of emulation of Borges' work, which I did not mean to do. In order to differentiate this map to my my design references, I think I need to highlight its key points better as well as truly showcase my intentions for the map - which is for audiences to FOLLOW AND LEARN THE MOVEMENTS OF THE DANCE. I think the use of lines and curves is something that I will implement further as well as add details like simple instructions as well to help aid the audiences. Also, looking back at the time when I learnt the dance myself, will be helpful, as I could implement instructions or pointers that helped me learn in order to help the audiences learnt as well. 

SB1: Dance That I'm Mapping (Shang-rila by VIXX)

This is the dance that I'm going to be mapping which was the dance that was performed in the showcase, however, I'm only going to map the chorus as doing the whole song would be too long and it should be something that the audience can learn pretty quickly in the span of the time that they are at the exhibition (it's also the key point dance of the song therefore that is why I am doing it).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZcmWd6GypU

 (chorus is from 0:49 to 1:15)

They mostly use their arms and hands for big powerful movements which catches your attention which may also be because the have fans as props which they utilise throughout the performance, however on the other hand, looking at their feet movements, it's very detailed and complex with lots of quick to slow and vice versa movements. They mostly stay in one place, even when spinning which may help when creating the map as I don't have to think much about positioning and moving from one place to another. From looking at the dance and knowing the dance itself I think that I will take three points as the main bases of my map which are:

• big arms movements
• quick to slow and vice versa movements
• utilising the kinesphere idea - centre of balance (staying in one place when dancing?) 

Thoughts & Reflections:

Having these three bases will really help me as I've narrowed down the important details which I think will help the audience in understanding and learning the dance. Thinking in heir perspective and my experience in learning I will take into account how I will highlight these key points in order for it to be effective and interactive. Maybe I could show it step by step with illustrations? use colours, different shapes etc. 

SB1: Interim Crit

Today I had an interim crit with Helena about SB1 mapping as it's due next week. Honestly, I have not been focused enough on this module yet because of the PPP submission, so I haven't had any further developments for it as of now. However, I did outline to her as much as I could about the brief and what I wanted to do and she gave me really good ideas. I also asked her if it was a 'right' idea because it's not really mapping a location but certain movements and the end point is to 'learn' the movements.

I also asked her, if it was worth making a flipbook or any other books (as I was telling her, how I was kind of getting sick of making books this year for each module and it doesn't really answer the interactivity part of the brief) which was suggested in the first crit, and she said no (glad she did!)

Feedback:

• The Rodina - the do a similar thing to what I'm trying to convey, maybe research more on this.
• Make a projection - not have it that space? think of the exhibition space? Could I have it just on the corner? 
• How can I use space to make the projection interact with the audience ? 
• Different viewpoints - how will it look form an angle, do the audience need to look at it from certain angle?
• Highlight different parts of the body for movement emphasis - elbow, hands, knees, neck etc.

Thoughts & Reflections:

I thought the crit with Helena was really good and actually was much more helpful than the first crit that I had. Now I also had a clearer idea of which parts I could focus on e.g. movements of specific limbs etc. viewpoints or angles. How I still need to incorporate screen printing in a way here so I will need to research more on how I can do it in print rather than projection. 

SB2: Research Presentation Crit

Today we did our presentations as a group for 5 mins each with 5 mins feedback time.

I did have cue card with me, but as I was presenting it I actually felt a lot more confident than I thought and never looked at them and I was bang on 5 minutes with was great. After my presentation I got some feedback from the group which was:

• What is the actual problem you're trying to solve/tackle?
• How are you going to tackle this?
• I can do a really plain social media where you can't really do anything on it?
• The idea of certain apps being 'useless' and 'pointless' becomes "a meme of itself" because people still go o nit to take the piss. 
• Certain apps are filled with different medias (e.g. Instagram for pictures, Facebook for text) - I could create a filter for each app that removes their stereotypical posts. 
• Analyse myself more
• But, Helena said she doesn't have a second account because who she is influences the way she is as a designer. - Identity*
• Will and Charlotte said that there are some things that you want to express that you don't want future employers/client to see and how it's easier to look for inspiration than seeing a picture of someone halfway through scrolling (follow designers on design acc, and friends on personal so the posts that show up are tailored in relation to the followers). It's a filter in itself and it's not just about yourself but what you engage with.
• "The way you project yourself, influences the stuff that comes back"

I realised that though I've done my research I've just done in on the general idea and not really pinpointed which of the points I wanted to look further. Therefore, I will need to do this more - I could look at the how what we put out is what comes back? (This was what Helena thought was interesting so maybe I can look more into this.) I also didn't know what to do next after yet, because I haven't really narrowed down the topic. I will researched more into one of the topics that I covered in my presentation - audience, convenience, personal vs professional or apps not being flexible and see which one is the most interesting and have the most things to talk about. 

SB1: Research (Myka's Choreography Notations)

As I am doing the actual dance myself, I asked the person (Myka) who is leading the team as to how she plans the choreography and her way of taking down the choreography. 

She showed me her notes and how she has done it. As the dance that we are doing is already an existing choreography (Vixx - Shangri-la) it was easier as she already had a 'template' of what it would look like. Although the original was for 6 people, she needed to change it for 8 people, so that was the challenging part too. In addition, the song was also shortened from 5 mins to 3 mins and she said that she needed to change the choreography in  order to make the dance flow better so she had to take that into account as well. 

Myka uses lines and symbols for recording the choreography as it's easier and simpler for her when she looks back on it. It's also more convenient as they're small and direct as she mostly focuses on the formations rather than the body movements. She also mentioned marks the centre positions with a different colour and uses the member's name initials (e.g. B for Brylle or M for Myka) in order for her to know who is where and how they can get their next position on time. She also separates parts of the choreography based on how important they are and key points that she needs to remember like "Ken's bit" (name of the person that is centre in that bit of the song) or "runaway" (what formation the dancers have to be in/do). Overall, she is very simple and concise with her choreography notations as she uses simple circles and lines. This is reflective of the fact that dancers nowadays don't need to be literate to the 'formal' dance notations as they have their own way of learning and understanding dances depending on how it works for them or to the people that they are choreographing for. 

Thoughts & Reflection:

I think it's really good how Myka uses simple shapes in order to make her choreography as for someone like me who isn't familiar with making choreography formations, I understood it quite easily, which may be indicating that she also took into account other people who will look at the choreography e.g. her other teammates and team leader's of other teams - her audience. Taking this into account makes it easier for her to talk about it to other people and that the choreography will speak for itself rather than her explaining it. Reflecting this back to my own research/design I think that CLARITY FOR AUDIENCE is very important so I have to take into account who my design is for and how literate they are of dance notations or if they know anything about dancing. I may also use the same or similar shapes to make sure they understand. 

SB1: Research (Kadinsky)

Wasilly Kadisnky was a designer famous for his abstract paintings pioneering expressionism in the early 1900's. He developed theories on colour, lines, points and shape in his time in the Bauhaus school, where he analysed various art and deducted them to their simplest forms (shapes). 

In relation  to my concept, Kadisnsky's essay titled 'Dance Curves' which references images of german dancer, Gret Palucca and his deductions of her movements into shapes and lines. According to him, he illustrated the "simplicity of the whole form" and the "construction of the large form" with the structure based on Palucca's large movements. 

Regarding this technique, I think it is quite reflective of his theories and his work. Although it's abstract it still effectively shows the stature/silhouette of the dancer which still makes it legible and understandable, though in its simplest form. In reference to my own design, it may apply to the dance moves that I am trying to map, as they are big movements although not as 'liney' and 'curved' as ballet dance moves that are shown Kadinsky's designs. If I was to reference this design, I will need to make sure that the audience will at at least understand the stature layout with minimal instructions needed. 

 

SB1: Research (Dance Notations)

Choosing Idea #4 as my chosen idea to take forward I decided to research more into the different aspects which comes to learning dance. I thought of these points which I could explore further into.

Dance Notations

1800 - used for formal court dances focused just on the dancer's feet BUT...
1920 - Rudolf Laban 0 created revolutionary 'Labanotation' records not just positions of body but also the way they are executed.
1955 - Rudolf Benesh developed notation with clearer visuals of dancer's body rather than symbolic forms e.g. shapes.

Benesh 'Movement Notation is written on five-line stave, recording the dancer from behind. 'Choreology' the term used for dance notation in conjunction with Benesh Movement Notation.

TODAY, notation is more for recording and preservation of dance rather than crafting, making it, choreographers not literate in the system and have their own creative process and methods for dance preservations.

Benesh Movement Notation is mostly used for ballet for accruate recording of moves and points in which ballet dancers are in or doing. It uses the stave in music record movement.

Rudolf Laban - "Kinesphere' 

"the sphere around the body whose periphery can be reached by easily extended limbs without stepping away from that place which is the point of support when standing on one foot". Spherical space around the body shifts as soon as we shift our weight. Though is more elliptic than spherical as the average body has a wider area of reach forward than backward. 

"Body cross" The kinesphere is also the container of a cube which contains all diagonal directions and dimensions).

SB2: Presentation for Tomorrow

I summarised the information that I have gathered for my presentation tomorrow which hopefully would give me informative feedback and crit on what and  how I could improve and move forward with for this brief. 

Main Points

• Context Collapse (Article Research)
• Audience, Convenience, Personal VS Professional life and App flexibility
• Self Evaluation 
• Survey Monkey
• Ted Talks 

I have put the information in an order which would hopefully make the audience understand what my topic is in a short amount of time; whilst showing the different types of research I've done (primary and secondary) and how I've done it. 

Thoughts & Reflection:

Hopefully tomorrow I will do the presentation concisely with the aid of some cue cards, and hopefully I'll receive some good feedback on it as well as crit on what I can do better and do next. Also, I'm looking forward to see what everyone else has done and what topic, maybe through their presentations I will able to get ideas for other things I can do e.g. research method. 

SB2: Social Media Survey (Results)

After uploading my survey 32 people responded to them which i think was good as I feel like I have a varied and substantial data that I can evaluate and analyse.

Most people use 3-4 social media accounts on a daily basis and this was supported by the results on the amount of social media people have with Instagram, Youtube, WhatsApp, Facebook & Snapchat tieing on the results. I think think this is also suggesting that people use these many accounts for different purposes meaning that not one of these apps provide all the needs of the users.

53% of the people that answered said that they use social media for 4-6 hours a day which I think is quite average and not really surprising. As different people ay use some apps more often than others their interpretation of daily usage will be different. 58% said they have two or more accounts for one of the apps which I was expecting to be quite higher, but nevertheless I guess I was wrong. However, this made me realise that less people than I thought are using social media in a similar way that I do.

Although, when people said why they don't or do have two or more accounts, I found that there were very similar answers going on. For example, for reasons why they DO have two or more accounts someone said "On Instagram for example I have a 2nd account so I can post memes and more personal/comical content.", while another person said similarly, "For different target audiences e.g. a personal account for friends and some fun accounts like for pets, celebrities and food", meaning that people Do cater their account to their audiences and who follows them. Also, I think this also goes under convenience for easier and manageable content - clearly separating each personal and identity of a user. Similarly, people talked about separating personal and professional life saying that "Some for personal use, some for work/uni".

For people that said they DON'T have two or more accounts they reasoned how they simply don't need to "because 1 is enough" and it may be "too many accounts to keep track of". I think these are also really reasonable opinions and I understand why they said this and why more people than I thought said no. Especially, with trying to keep track of accounts, I think the downside of the having loads of accounts is it actually becomes an inconvenience itself. 

I also asked if their language (e.g. formal or informal) change depending on the app/account they use, and 66% said YES. I think this was partly because many people said YES as well to having more than two accounts. Most people said it's because of their audience, while some because of the difference between their personal and professional life, "My design account has to look/sound professional"; while some I found because of the nature fo the social media app: "Voicing controversial opinions on twitter so more people "educated" people can see it, Tumblr - a fanblog so my followers who are my age can relate to what I say. All in all, it's a mixture of audience presence and the app context are what people consider when using which language they think is appropriate. 

I think it is also partly because of the structure and main use of certain social media itself that people change the way they act and speak. Facebook is perceived to be where you have your family and everyone is connected therefore people may be less vocal or more polite there, whereas twitter on the other hand, is where people tend to rant more, voice their opinions and say what they want to say - especially as you can only write 140 characters, people will find ways in saying what they want to say e.g. starting threads and reposting (quote) reposting people's tweets. The same feature is named differently in different apps, such as a "Write a post" on Facebook is called "Write a Tweet" on Twitter" or Making a post on Instagram and Snapchat is simple the use of a universal camera icon. Doing this is what also makes people use the apps differently, as they have different associations to them that people will use them the way they are perceived and used by other people. Also, by using these accounts in a certain they will also feel like they have to use it in the same way in order to fit in and belong. 

Thoughts & Reflection:

I think that through my survey I've gathered a fairly good amount of data which helped me in understanding how people use them in their own way. Such as that some of the answers to some of the questions were unexpected to me, which made me think of WHY they were like that. I also helped me understand people's way of thinking about how they use certain social media and in some ways supported my earlier research on multiple online identities. Furthermore, the idea of multiple identities is also something that is very strongly related to this survey and in some way has been proven by the answers given. Hopefully, the data will aid me further into the research of this topic and will help me on the design aspect of this brief. 

SB2: How Social Media Shape Our Identity (Tedtalk)

How Social Media Shapes Identity

Talk by : Dr. Ulrike Schultze

Technology Materialism: Race Emoji (emoji being in different 'races')

• materialising  certain actions named to being able to express certain racial qualities in technology - it sets up an expectation and it's racialising our communication (makes you think of what emojis to use, and how much you're going to express your race through your tweets, posts etc.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSpyZor-Byk

Virtual World (Second Life) = Social Media

• Having a profile and essentially having your information and other people's readily available 
• Having a virtual body (avatar, persona)
• Having technology that has a broad range of expressive media AS VIRTUAL WORLD provides insight as to social media that only has a subset of that media. 

Social Media: Too Much of A Good Thing?

Talk by : Samia Khan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a7i-T_G4H0

• Hyper Positive - people in social media feel the need to only show their high points in order to be validated and shown attention through likes and comments.

Thoughts & Reflection:

Both talks mostly talked about how we use social media in order to create a 'second life' a virtual version of ourselves. Samia Khan talked about how we only want people to know about the good things that happen to use as we want to be perceived positively by everyone. In addition, the features that are within social media also shapes who we are from the filters we use to the emoji's we use, further emphasising on just how much we use social media in order to create an identity/identities for ourselves online. 

I found both videos quite helpful as they touch on things around my topic like how we use different social media sites and why we use them that way. It also informed me on things like 'materialism' and usage of features within the app like emojis and filters. 

SB2: What I personally use and interviewing friends?

To start research on this topic, I thought of analysing what I personally use and how and why I use social media.

Apps that I use on a daily basis: 

• Instagram
• Youtube
• WhatsApp
• Snapchat
• Discord

How & Why I use these apps:

• Instagram - to look at photos, videos, send messages to people, post stories, everyday life
• Youtube - watch videos
• WhatsApp - for work (job group chat), free messaging
• Snapchat - for funny interactions with friends, I can make memes of myself, post stories
• Discord - dance team conversations, society announcements

I also realised that I handle and use the apps differently depending on WHAT I NEED THEM FOR. For example, I have two accounts on Instagram (one for PERSONAL USE and one for PROFESSIONAL USE.) I have two accounts as I wanted to have a clear separation between what kind of content I wanted on the two accounts as they are meant for different audiences - I didn't want to post a picture of myself and then post a picture of my own professional work (it just wouldn't make sense). It's also a way for me to have a clear line between my professional self and my personal life - multiple identities. I tend to post a lot of nonsensical and memey stories on my personal account but on my professional account I mostly post about design and things I find interesting within the field. My language is also different, I tend to be more descriptive and informative on my professional but on my personal I use slang words and even profanity. 

This is also similar to how I talk to people on these apps, for example on my work WhatsApp chat I tend to be more 'formal' and talk in a respectful way, but on my the group chat with my friends, we send a lot of gifs and videos and in a very loud and satirical manner to each other. 

My use of social media apps is mainly for my own convenience especially with separating my personal and professional endeavours. Also, because I tend to use the app for what I think they are best for and the best in communicating with others that's why I have a limited amount of app used e.g. I don't have twitter or facebook because I realised I didn't really use them as much as I use the other apps. 

After evaluating my own usage of social media, I'm curious to see how other people use it and why they use it that way. So, I will do a survey or interview peers about their own usage of social media accounts and their view on online identity. 

SB2: Social Media Survey

I created a survey on SurveyMonkey in order to gather opinions and qualitative data from other people about their view on social media use and online identity. 

I created questions that would give me sufficient answers which are related to the topic that I am studying and picked apps which are mostly used today. The intended survey takers are young people therefore I picked apps that they would likely use; as well as narrowing down the types of social media apps that are in my study.  

• Facebook - used for messaging, looking at post, friends and family, sharing videos pictures etc. tagging people and locations

• Instagram - used for sharing videos and pictures, tags, comments, friends, family, "aesthetic pictures", "stories", tagiing people and locations, hashtags, insta filters.
• Twitter - used for messaging, posting messages, reposts, retweets, limited to 140 characters, mentioning people, adding locations and hashtags
• Youtube - used for watching and uploading video content, commenting, various options to create albums, favourites, watch laters etc.,
• Snapchat - mainly for sending photos or videos which doesn't stay in the chat, snapchat stories, snapmaps, video replays, filters
• Linkedin - used for finding jobs and employees, mainly professional setting, creating groups, linking employees together, full job description, contact numbers, emails etc. 
• WhatsApp - free call/messaging service, sending messages, photos, videos etc, group chats, single chat rooms, family and friends
• Tumblr - use for posting photos, videos, gifs, tagging people, reposting, customising URL's/ profiles etc., creative, tags, hashtags, commenting 

I also asked how often they use it as I wanted to know how long they would use it and if they use it for a long time, could I find out why? and how? As well whether they use it for personal or professional use so that I get to understand what kind of language/ activities they do on it e.g. post memes, profanity, or formal conversations. 

Hopefully, I will get a lot of answers so in order for me to have enough data to analyse and evaluate. 

SB2: Research on Online Identity

After thinking about which idea I wanted to research more about is about online identity/ multiple identities. I wanted to know more about how we communicate socially online and especially in the digital age now., as I feel like we do things unconsciously now and as we grew up with technology we make certain choices and decisions with our online usage without much thought but more of like a muscle impulse.

I wanted to focus on how we use social media because that's our main means of communicating socially online.

Social Media (noun) 

1. websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.

Context Collapse - "Different sites, Different audiences, Different Purposes."


I wanted to explore multiple online identities not in the way that people create fake identities or communicate through a false identity but more of how we use social in a versatile way where we choose to use various different social media website accounts or application or even have multiple accounts in one social media platform in order to form identities that we would like to present to our audiences through that platform.  

1) Multiple Identities/ Personas

People use different social media sites in order to cater to specific needs, themes and audiences that they have such as that, as said by Mallory Johns (social media editor) "Instagram is where everything appears to be perfect and highly filtered, whereas my Snapchat is raw and more visceral" (1) 
I think it also links the idea of having multiple identities where, we have to create various accounts for those personas in order to accomodate to the audience and filter what we want they to see abut ourselves. 

2) Convenience 

It's also done in order to have a sense of control as to what you are posting and sharing. But it also makes it easier for yourself to organise and categorise what you want to post on certain sites. Also, in relation to the audience; they would want to only involve themselves in parts which they are interested in therefore having only one account or profile can muddle the communication/messaging and may create a very chaotic and vague representation of yourself online. 

3) Not ONE APPLICATION OR SITE has EVERYTHING that we want/need

Different sites and applications advertisement themselves to be the 'best' or the 'better' option for a particular feature e.g. messaging or sharing pictures/videos, therefor we are obliged to have two or more applications depending on what we need. For example, Instagram is for sharing pictures and videos which in turn makes it the best app to share our LIFESTYLE, whereas Twitter is mainly for SHARING OPINIONS. 

4) Professional VS. Personal Life

Social media is also a platform where we share our lives but also where we seek jobs, therefore using various accounts and sites can help separate the line between the two. If a person uses one account for both personal and professional endeavours, friends and family might be okay with it, however potential employers may not be as keen as they can evaluate and judge if you are fit to represent their company based on what they see about you online. This is also another reason why people do not link their personal accounts to their professional ones in order to keep both persona's catered to their specific audiences.

1) https://www.engadget.com/2016/03/04/multiple-online-identities/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer_us=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_cs=AzjHMNZPUEpEhqFm8sFsVQ
2) https://www.quora.com/What-is-context-collapse-in-social-media
3) https://www.internetsociety.org/resources/doc/2016/online-identity-who-me/

SB1: Initial Idea Sketch

I started to draft out an initial drawing for the map that I'm intending to make. I haven't actually planned  out how I'm going to create the map, however my main idea was to map out the chorus of the song that we are doing. I thought simplifying the moves to stick line drawings would be the best as it would make it easier for the audience to understand and comprehend what is happening and what the move it of the dance. I also included the body, assuming that the audience does not know what the song and dance it, therefore they will need to understand and see what everything in order to do the moves. 

I don't have much idea yet in how I'm going to go forward with this, however as of now I do know that showing the whole body structure along with the hand and feet movements to the song is important in order to make the audience understand and interact with the map, therefore I will make this centre of my design throughout the refinement and development of this brief. 

SB1: Peer Crit

Today, we had our peer crit for our SB1 Mapping brief and I presented my Dance choreography idea to the rest of the group.

I tried to summarise my idea as much as possible and told them my references and research behind in order for them to give me ideas as I'm currently stuck on what to do with it and how I should initiate the design process.

These are the responses that I got:

• research is good on kine sphere - I should them my research on rudolf laban's kinesphere analysis and they thought it was the most interesting and probably reference it more in my design. 
• Flipbook - I was also kind of stuck to how I could present and produce the map, and someone suggested if I could make it into a flip book. I though this was a good idea because it it can emphasise the movements really well as it will be quite smooth and dynamic. However, after evaluating it again it may compromise the interactive aspect that I wanted the audience to have with it. However, I thought it would be really hard to screen print as I should have to screen print each page.  
• screen print - gradient light (first) end (dark) They suggested maybe I could use use the gradient effect when screen printing in order to indicate the start and end f the movement sin the flip book or another production process that I try. 
• concertina - (runs along) I could make a concertina in order to show the process of the movements on each page and the back pages. 

Thoughts & Reflection:

I think I got some good feedback from my peers and they liked my idea and my research and referencing behind it. I also  thought the flip book idea was good however I feel like I want to push the interactivity aspect to it more rather than the audience reading it so I maybe need to just refer to the idea. I also liked other people's idea like Eloise's idea of mapping the Corn Exchange building, which I thought was really cool and she could maybe emboss of the paper stock material that she's using in order to emulate the 3D aspect that she wanted. 

SB1: Initial Ideas

After today's briefing, I was feeling a bit stuck on what to do for SB1 however I thought of relating it back to what I like doing in Leeds and what I have done so far in the city as a way to engage and bring it back to the brief itself. I actually tried to start a  personal project last year of documenting phrases that I hear from people around Leeds which I thought represented the city, especially the student life and what students feel and do in the city. However, I lost all the content for it :(

For a fresher more specific idea, I thought of doing the same but in a specific area such as the Market and documenting the conversations and language used within the area.

Idea #1 

Market Mapping - Going around Kirkgate Market and identifying the various conversations and niche language used by vendors and customers. I might represent the different tones of the languages through typography or colour which represents the city and the area in the map. The map can be a concertina which gradually showcases the differences in the market area despite it's small proximity. 

Another way to elevate this idea, is by choosing a contrasting part of Leeds which also showcases a different side of the city. In order to highlight the diversity within the community and the different types of people that live within the city. 

Idea #2 - 

Receipt Mapping - Mapping people's left over grocery receipts. People usually leave their receipts on the counter especially on the self service aisle on supermarkets and it could be interesting to see what they have bought and think of the context of why they have bought it e.g. if it's all alcohol maybe they were about to go out or if it was different ingredients maybe they were preparing to cook a specific dish with it. I could also correlate it to the time that they bought it and if it was peak time or really late or early at night? Maybe, it would suggest the consumer traffic or spending and which product is the most popular? 

However, maybe it may seem weird or maybe goes against the ethics bit of design? If this was to be mapped out, it could be on a long piece of paper with all the products written based each receipt, time or product. 

Idea #3

Sticker Mapping - Going around Leeds and mapping stickers found on traffic posts, walls etc. as there are lots of them around the city. It would be interesting if to see which stickers are the most common or only found in certain posts/areas.

Idea #4

Dance Mapping - I'm currently taking part in a dance team to show at a dance showcase that will be shown for 3 days in Leeds University which showcases all their dance society's genre's and styles, so I thought it would be interesting to if I could map out my progress of learning the choreography that I am currently learning for the society that I am involved in. It could show certain points in which I was able to learn a move quickly and in contrast a move that I found difficult, maybe I could show it through repetition of line of shape or bolder and thinner lines. I could also maybe create the map in which the audience can actually interact with it by being able to follow the map itself in order to learn the same moves that I learnt throughout the process. 

Thoughts & Reflections:

I think that so far I have generated quite a range of ideas, which I could pick which one to move forward with. I think that the receipt one would be interesting however it would be very hard to execute as it would mean that I'd have to go to multiple self service tills in one shop with might be impossible as they tend to not let you do that, as people have to use; and it would possible disturb the workflow and customer traffic. In addition, it might not be appropriate as it can be seen as my trying to look at someones private and personal information. Also, people may actually take their receipt therefore the point of the whole idea would become redundant. 

On the other hand, I think that the dance mapping has the best potential as it's something that i have total control of and is something that I am currently doing therefore it will show a clear true progress and something that can be appealing to a certain demographic and has an interactivity aspect which actually takes the purpose of the map which is to be used by the audience/ user. 

Visiting Professional: Tom Joyes

Tom Joyes

Works for ELEPHANT magazine.
Research Practice -
Methods used such as go pros, cameras, screen recordings, magazine

Ai Hasegawa
Design Indaba
salvi
forbiddenkn0wledge
lilmiquela
Balenciaga campaigns

Today's workshop

(Fuzzy Logic Magazine)

Museum of Fiction (Today's Workshop)

After his talk we formed in groups of 5-6 in order to produce a piece of design which correlates to a series of words (Rogue, Lucid, Army). We initially thought of making Ru Paul's Drag race being portrayed as a guerrilla/ army recruitment campaign and manipulating clips form the show in order to attract audiences to join the army. However, upon doing it we found it a bit too hard and complicated as we felt that the clips from the show was more about drama and winning making it hard to portray the recruitment army. We decided that maybe we could work on different interpretations so I decided to take on the aspect of ludic dreams.

I took  the idea of lucid dreams being dreams that can be controlled by the sleeper and feeling like it's a real life experience. The stages of the dream are represented through the various visuals connoting to almost surrealistic and weird things that can come during dreams that can in turn also be something that interrupts sleep itself as they become uncontrollable and too much, making the experience very restless and in the end uncontrollable snapping one out of the dream. 

Here are the other interpretations that other people in my group created. 

Jocel created a propaganda like advert using Ru Paul's drag race and interpreting it as a way to make people enlist in guerrilla army; so when people may think they are joining the show they are actually joining the army. I quite liked her video and was really happy she went ahead with it, instead of changing ideas. I think it turned out quite good and is both funny and quite unsettling when played with the background music. 

                                          

Ellie and Lizzie created posters based on ants and how one ant may become rouge within the colony. The advert is meant to be warning to other ants within the colony to look out for the 'rouge ant'. This kind of personified the ants and make them act the same as us which I thought was cool, and made me think of how animals actually work together and the kind of procedures they do within their environment. How do they communicate? Why do they communicate? What can they communicate with?

Georgia also created this poster, which also relates back to Jocel's design and how drag has been used in a manipulative way in order to get people to enlist in the army. However, it does look a bit more straightforward visually I still like it because I think she created a good style and aesthetic to it that aid to JOcel's advert. I think that both designs would be able to be used together as a pair in order to further emphasise the concept of the drag race = army enlisting idea. 

Thoughts & Reflection: 

I thought Tom's talk in the morning was really really insightful although he didn't talk much about himself, he gave us suggestions of what we can do and who and where we should look at in order to broaden our research process and knowledge. And, I think think through that I knew who he was as a designer, his aesthetic and what the likes to do and want; which I think was really helpful. Also, the fact that he also gave use ideas on how we can broaden our research perspective through different mediums we could play around with showed how broad his research spectrum is as well. Fuzzy logic was also interesting, because it showed political issues in such an ironically interesting and funny satiric way that it actually will make you interested and aware of the topic rather than reading it from a boring news article. It also show real images from his own research making the magazine even the more factual and real. The workshop was also really fun, although we did hesitate a bit it was a really fun workshop and I enjoyed working on it and seeing everyone else's work. All in all, it was a really good workshop and was probably one of the most insightful and informative workshop we've had so far. 

SB1: Research (Leeds Riot Map 1643 - 2002)

Leeds Riot Map 

Leeds Riot Map was created for James Cauty's ADP Riot Tour. It's available both web and mobile through a static map. 

mobile static map

The riot map shows the 21 riots that happened in Leeds from 1643 to 2002. It's more of a timeline of all the riots which may be to accommodate the structure of the tour in order for tour member to understand the history of Leeds and the riots. Also, because it's related to history, it's important to make it very informative and educational hence how wordy and text heavy the format is. It's also not the typical 'map' because it's more of a timeline, however it effectively showcases the idea and its purpose for the audience and its usage.  

Thoughts & Reflection:

I think as it focuses a lot on the information and the educative side of the tour and about the riot, the design aspect of it is missing, therefore I don't think it'll be than enjoyable or memorable. I think that if the information within each timeframe was shorten and was accommodated with visual cues and ind of storyboard format timeline along with the map it would much more engaging to look at and actually learn what it's about. It will also gather the users attention span much quicker and longer as they can follow the map better with more visual direction as opposed to just the stars on each location. All in all, I think it's a pretty basic map and not something users would probably want to have or keep or even be interested in be in the first place. Although the educative and informative aspect of it is well thought out and produced the engaging and visual design aspect is lacking making it ineffective in reaching its audience for its purpose.

SB1: Research (Situationist Drawing Device)

Situationist Drawing Device by Jisoo Han and Paul Ornsby 

The drawing device is a mechanism with records the experience of landscape; through the usage of the mirrors on the device. It "records a journey taken in an altered state of perception through drawing". The device was inspired by the Greek invention (pseudoscope) and takes "the idea of reversing left and right vision...adapted to reverse forward and backward vision". It also has another key features which is a disc on the users back which created seismological sketched of what the user is seeing through the device in real time. 

Han and Orsby was inspired by the idea of creating a device which, rather than being practical and mainly useful, it's something the satisfies one's creative curiosity and a bit nonsensical in a way. Much like during the Victorian era were "Victorians invented a proliferation of devices, often ingenious, rarely of much practical use". 

I do find their device a bit out there and something that you won't really find anywhere making it unique and innovative and I think that it's a great solution and device for the concept of perception and looking at the environment in a different and interesting way. Although, I know audiences will look at it and think that it's very unpractical from the way it's created and maybe even think it's pointless, however that is part of why they created the device in the first place. 

Thoughts & Reflection:

I think that it's a really interesting way or recording something (experience of landscape), as well as catering it to the audience by making it something wearable that the audience can actually experience themselves, as experience can be more valuable than what is sometimes recorded or mapped. Although a downside of it is it's very inconvenient and more of something to display rather practically used a lot. 

SB2: Research Workshop

Today we had a research workshop in order for us to get used to and understand more about appropriate research methods we could use for  our own briefs.

Primary Research - interviews, surveys, books, documentaries, podcasts, radios etc.

Secondary research - existing research thats already been done, and examining and analysing it.

WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, HOW

Unusual Research Methods - experience it, understand it, investigate it, 

Document - document experiments, practical work etc. and analyse/ examine them

*Use appropriate research methods for you own topic*

Today's Session

• Research on maps, mapping n groups of 5 max.
• Have to go OUT the uni building. 
• deliverables are research boards. 
• findings on the wall

OUR GROUP TASK

We were split into groups to conduct a research about a concept, with our group deciding to research and document conversations that we hear from people while waking through the streets. At first me, Jocel, Kristen and Georgia walked together but found that we were getting the same exact conversations, therefore we decided to walk together the same way however at different distances, giving us really interesting results.

This research method gave us really interesting results that when we were transcribing the conversations we found similar, if not the same exact conversations are being repeated throughout, as well as conversations that seem to connect and make sense together occasionally, showing us that walking at different distance and changing our research method slightly made for a more dynamic result. As well, as having different languages slotted in between made it even more interesting as well.

Moving forward with this, research on conversation patterns and how different people react to certain conversations can be done. I could also maybe analyse how and why different conversations can make sense when put together though they don't relate? or research on English Language structure possibly, but I don't know if that going TOO MUCH OUT OF CONTEXT. Nevertheless, I think that it's a a really interesting concept and idea that can be taken into different avenues.

Thoughts & Reflections: 

Today was actually really productive and was very fun as it made me think of other more unusual research methods I could apply to my idea for SB1 (although I don't know what idea I want to do yet :(.i was also good to see what everyone else had done, as we all thought of very different things at the same time they were all very interesting. Especially, the 'hat' group, because their idea sounded very simple but at the same time it was really good because it was really well executed and it worked really well and you could understand their concept right of the bat, that's why I think it worked really well and they won.

At this point, I'm still thinking about what my concept for SB1 is, also I don't want to think about it too much and too long because I really need to have a good amount of research for it as well and screen print too.