Interviewing the Public

I found this assignment to be much more challenging. I don’t feel terribly nervous about meeting new people, but it’s a different story when you feel like you’re hassling strangers. I asked 3 randomly selected members of the public a series of questions, some of which were more personal than others. I found that a lot of people were more willing to help me in my interviews than others, but I don’t blame them as I instantly shut off when approached in the street to answer a questionnaire or to be offered some service or product. I went ahead with the assignment with my questions written in my notebook, but left some room for people to go off course a little, without letting them go off the topic completely. My first question was what is your most treasured possession, and I found the answers differed greatly depending whether or not the person I was interviewing was male or female. I asked two women and a man, the women both presented quite sentimental possessions, such as a ring and a cat. The man I asked said he couldn’t decide between his flat screen telly or his Xbox. Later in the interview I discovered he was a student, so his answer isn’t that surprising! The women’s answers however, do show that they are more emotionally attached to their treasured possessions, whereas the man’s possessions were more functional. I then asked them if they had purchased these possessions themselves, and if they hadn’t I asked what relationship they had with the person who had purchased them. The lady with the ring had it bought for her by her husband on their anniversary, and she informed me that they had just recently celebrated their second wedding anniversary, with a big smile on her face, and it took me too long to realise I was smiling like a big goon back at her. Happiness is contagious! The woman with the adoring cat bought it for herself when she moved into a new house to keep her company, so I assumed she wasn’t married, but it was nice that she found comfort in her cat’s company. The student with the TV and the Xbox had worked over the summer and Christmas to pay for his gadgets, and he looked quite proud of himself. I asked him if he appreciated them more because he had had to work for them and he agreed. I tried not to force people to answer the way I wanted them to, but found it quite tricky. Another question I asked all three was that if they had the chance to replace their chosen items, would they and if so, why or why not? The student told me he had insurance on both so he wasn’t too bothered if he had to replace him because he would “just buy a bigger telly”. The woman with the ring said she couldn’t replace the ring, but I secretly think if something happened to it she would want her husband to buy her something equally special to replace it. The woman with the cat said the only way she would replace her cat was if it died, but she said she hoped this wouldn’t happen for another few years yet as the cat was only 4. I was quite lucky in the people who let me interview them in that they were all quite laid back about it, and were more than willing to take time out of their day to help me. I tried to make the three people I was interviewing as varying as possible, but it turned out in the end that they were all (as an estimate) between the ages of 20 and 30. If I was to redo this assignment, I would have preferred to interview a larger number of people to get a wider set of answers. It would also have been helpful to ask an equal number of males and females, just to get an fair perspective on the difference in answers. The only other thing I would have changed would have been to do the assignment in pairs, and either pair with another couple and compare answers, or do this in my own pair. I feel it would have been much less daunting doing it with a friend along side. Nevertheless, it did feel quite good to do something I wouldn’t usually, and gave me a little bit of a confidence boost.

Design Safari

For this assignment, we had to go out of our comfort zone. I decided to observe the public and see what conclusions I could draw about people without actually speaking to them. I brought a notepad and pencil to a coffee shop in town and sat at the window watching the passers by. If I saw an interesting looking conversation between two stationary people, I would sketch them, and write down everything that came to my mind beside the drawings to help me remember each situation. One that springs to mind was a conversation I saw between a boy and a girl, who I am assuming were boyfriend and girlfriend. She stopped him in the street as they were walking and held both of his hands and looked like she was pleading with him in a lighthearted way about something. I decided she was trying to get him to meet her parents. He pulled away from her grasp, and his body language wasn’t positive at all. After a minute or two, they began walking again, whilst holding hands, except this time they both displayed a certain awkwardness, and they held each others hands much looser than before the “tiff”. I also observed an old man walking with his dog and talking to it as they walked together. I think he was very lonely, and I felt a bit sorry for him. I found myself making up little stories about each of the people I found to be the most interesting, from their favourite foods to family holidays they went on as children. I then became briefly paranoid that someone was sitting watching me watching people, and felt quite self conscious! After reading the book “Snoop”, I feel that I look at people and their possessions with a much more analytic eye. I also read a novel when I was younger, and in it the main character would follow people around shops to see what they buy and make up life stories about them, and I felt a bit like her. I enjoyed this assignment, even though it was slightly more formal, sometimes its nice to just sit back and watch the world go by.

Lapis Lazuli

After researching different gemstones and their symbolism, I've been drawn to the semi-precious stone Lapis Lazuli, mined in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan for over 6,000 years. It can be dated back as far as the times of the Egyptians and I plan to research the different rituals that Lapis Lazuli was believed to be used in.

Catwalk Project

Just had the exhibition for our catwalk project, was it just me or was this one the most stressful one to date?! We had to choose a culture to research and then design an extravagant piece of catwalk jewellery, so I had a look at India. The art of henna is a cultural symbol of love and an old age tradition of aesthetic design. Combined with the rich colours and fabrics often associated with India, it was my aim to produce a selection of quick vibrant bracelets to adorn the wearers' arms in an extravagant and exaggerated way. In the end I made 25 fabric bracelets and 3 arm cuffs made by etching my own henna designs onto copper and brass, and forming into the shape of a cuff using my trusty hammer. We had a big photo shoot at the end of the project, and used some of the photos to display in our exhibition. Here's a few shots of Sana Aziz wearing my jewellery:

I also ended up modelling Colette's head piece, probably because I have the biggest head in our group... She wrapped me in a bed sheet from Primark, kind of felt like I was on my way to a Toga Party, but it was good fun regardless!

Just had the project brief this morning for our next project, Stone Setting. I used to collect old pieces of glass and broken pottery when I went to the beach, and I knew it would come in handy ooooone day! I'm planning to set some of the old glass and perhaps produce a ring for my final outcome, but we'll see where my research takes me. I'll be investigating different stones and their religious/superstitious/symbolic meanings, watch this space...

Design Studies Assignment 2

"Denotation is what is photographed, connotation is how it is photographed." Fiske

For this assignment we were asked to show 4 chosen images to a selection of people and ask them to write a short description of what they think is going on. These are the images me and my group chose:

We were not allowed to ask any design students to help us with the stories so I asked a few friends and family members to help, and here is a few examples of what they came up with.

Neuroscience Student -

It was a dull monday morning, you know the kind. The sun was soo dull and covered by clouds that it looked like the moon. It was the kind of morning where I wished my house had windows, but it only had iron poles framing it. As I left my stone house to walk my dog, John, I thought to myself, "I really wish I had weeded the garden before those branches started growing all over the side of my house and into my glassless windows." John didn't mind though, he dragged me into the forest by his lead and then lay down, not moving an inch. I could not figure out what was wrong with him, it was very out of character. But then I heard a very loud snort and a scream. I turned around sharply. To my astonishment a man had just been thrown off a bull in the middle of the forest. This was not your average Monday morning.

Mechanic Student -

As if my day could get any worse, my dog Stuart, had cut his paw while poking about in a strange, abandoned building. As he lay down in the leaves of the thick forest feeling sorry for himself, I began to feel anxious. The clouds gathered over the sun, casting great shadows over the windowless building, and as my body shivered in the February chill, the sky cracked open into a storm, and I didn't even have an umbrella.

Maths Teacher -

A dog is lying down in a forest, looking up at a full moon, thinking about a bull fight his master was watching on the TV that day.

Music Student -

Here Comes The Sun
At first glance this picture has a slightly dark and almost scary atmosphere to it. However after thinking about it further and incorporating the title given to the picture it makes you think about the peaceful hours of the early morning when the moon starts to submit and the sun begins to rise. It makes you think about what they day will bring and the optimism of new things to come.


Window
When I saw this picture my immediate reaction was to think of someone (the photographer) spying on whoever or whatever was dwelling in the house. I feel that this picture has a subtle darkness to it as the house is overgrown with plants and the window is very small, it makes me think that if there is anything living in the house it is perhaps trapped.


Murphy My Dog
I feel that this picture captures the essence of "Mans Best Friend" as the dog is sitting willingly for the photograph and also looking into the camera. This shows that he must be loyal and trust the owner to listen and pose for the photo.


Bull Riding
This picture has caught the horror of bull Riding as it clearly shows the man being tossed around by the bull. As you can see this in great detail i think this photo depicts the pain that this man must be feeling quite well. Seeing the facial expressions of both gentlemen looking alarmed makes you ask the question Why Do They Do It?

Vet -

My spaniel was lying down in the forest, when for the first time, I noticed his age. His arthritis had become so bad, he could no longer run the length of his favourite walk through the forest without taking a rest. So I sat down next to him and we both looked up at the sky, the blue skies had disappeared and now the sun was hiding behind clouds. We must have been there for hours, because when we both woke up, the moon was full. I had dreamt about a building I used to play in with my sisters when I was little, it didn't have any windows, just holes high up in the walls with bars covering them. We would play cops and robbers, pretending to lock each other in the "cells" when we had been bad. My dog had dreamt that he was watching a bull fight in spain. I thought this was a bit strange, because he has never even left the county.

Midwifery Student -

One night, with the moon shining brightly in the sky, I took my dog, Jasper, a walk in the woods. As we trampled through the forest, we came across a huge building with bars across all of the tiny windows. It looked like a prison, but curiosity got the better of Jasper and he ran inside to take a closer look. The building was empty, except for an old newspaper, with a photograph of a man riding a bull on the front page. Jasper was as unimpressed as me, so we turned from the creepy place and ran home in time for tea!

I found with this assignment that a few people were unwilling to participate, most likely feeling uncomfortable thinking they were going to be "psycho-analysed", and this is understandable considering they weren't really into the creative side of things. However those who did take part showed that although each explanation was different, each contained similarities. For example a few pointed out the sun's resemblance to the moon, giving the dog a name and human characteristics and all produced the same explanation for the bull rider photograph. I found it fascinating that my music student friend went into such a thorough analysis of each photograph, the things she picked up on were typical of an arty student, which makes sense as she is a very creative person. The bull picture was the photograph least likely to encourage my little guinea pigs to use their imagination as its so obvious as to what's going on. It was interesting to see some people creating short stories and others simply describing the photographs on a fairly basic level.

Photograph Assignment

Bit delaaaayed...

For our first assignment of semester 2, we were asked to swap photographs from someones youth that we did not know very well. Currently half way through Sam Gosling's text “Snoop”, I found that it helped me a great deal in analysing the photos I was given. His book gives you helpful hints on becoming a top class “snooper”, teaching you how to get to know someone through the possessions they own, their body language, and other everyday things that previously I wouldn't have paid much attention to. The girl I exchanged mine with provided me with a number of interesting pictures of her childhood, often pictures of herself and a boy I have assumed is her brother. She looks cheerful in them, but not in a “smile for the camera” kind of way, a genuine happiness and innocence associated with most people's childhoods. Gosling's book teaches us about how to detect the “Big Five” dimensions of personalities. These include openness, extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness and concientiousness. I'll use his method of analysis to contribute to my own of these photographs.

In the first photograph, The girl is sitting on top of a gate with another person who is standing. The background shows a farm house in the countryside, which may be her house. Both are dressed warmly in jumpers and jackets, and are wearing sensible shoes for the fields. Her hair is very long and blonde and appears to be looked after very well. Both have rosey cheeks, suggesting that they have been running around and have rested at this wooden gate to take a break from playing. She looks about 11 in this picture. The outdoor setting makes me think that she was active as a child, enjoying the outdoors and fresh country air. The second picture is one of her with a middle aged woman who I assume is her Mother. Her mum is in graduation attyr, holding her degree, and the girl is standing next to her smiling mum, gazing off to her right, possibly because someone else is taking a photograph at the same time. I want to ask her what her mum studied at university and where. I think she is probably about 7 or 8 in this photo, and the fact she has chosen this one shows how proud she is of her mum's achievements, and a strong bond between them. So far, it is clear that family life is important to her and I think they are all very close.

The third picture shoes her and a boy, who I've concluded is her brother, sitting on a mechanical bull. They're probably on holiday as both are wearing shorts and displaying sun tanned skin. Both look like they are hysterically laughing, mechanical bulls are good fun after all. She is sitting behind her brother, and this suggests to me that she is the older of the two, and possibly quite protective of her younger brother, showing compassion and loyalty. Family holidays are always some of the happiest memories, and this picture definitely suggests that this is one of her favoured times. In the next photograph, her and her brother are in the back seat of a car in school uniform. The photograph is taken from the front passenger seat and is unformal and lighthearted. Her brother has a big grin on his face, while her smile is quieter. She appears more laid-back than her brother in this picture, again suggesting that she is the older sibling. She is wearing two clasps in her hair, and looks about 10, showing a change in her interest in personal appearance, as with every girl around this age. Both are wearing the same uniform and I've guessed that she is probably in primary 7 here, perhaps her brother in primary 5. her lighthearted expression and hair clasps convey that she is feeling more responsible now that she is a little older, she appears mature and friendly.

Assignment 4 - Part four

Reflection of Semester One Assignments

I found the assignments from this semester quite beneficial in aiding my essay writing. The thorough research we were asked to carry out proved effective in widening my thinking, and improving my brainstorming skills. As each assignment became more and more difficult, I found I began really pushing myself to succeed, and this in turn, forced me to produce work to the best of my ability. At the beginning it was hard for me to see the relevance of the assignments to Jewellery and Metalwork Design, but a phrase from our first lecture that stuck in my mind, "How can we design for a world that we know nothing about", helped me to see that the work was worthwhile. I think the most beneficial and enjoyable exercise was the Brainstorming exercise in assignment 3. I liked working in a group, as I got a chance to work with different people, and also because it was really interesting discovering the way other people think. This process helped me a great deal in assignment 4, which I felt I stressed about much less than I normally would have due to good preparation.