Authorship – Andrew Slatter

According to Oxford Dictionary, an author is defined as either a writer of a book or the originator of a plan or idea. In this case, i would like to think of a graphic designer as an author. As a graphic designer who have been working for a few years now, there are situations where we have to sit down and come up with ideas alongside with the creative director and the copywriter. Example being, every project requires the input of a copywriter to make the campaign sound fancy, and the role of the graphic designer is to come up with visuals to fit the copy. In this case, who has authorship of the project? i think that there is a very fine line between the writer and the designer. I don’t think you can actually put a binding term to anyone who qualifies the role of being an author if an author is defined as someone who comes up with ideas. Essentially, by writing this post, does that make me an author because i came up with the content?

Another interesting point mentioned during the lecture was, “The birth of the reader is at the cost of the writer. I think that when the text is being moved on from the author to the reader, the entire meaning of the text might be diluted. The reader isn’t able to feel the emotions, passion that the writer had while writing the piece due to their personal subjectivity. The origin of the text might come from the author, but ultimately how the text is being perceived and interpreted is completely up to the reader. The text is as real and as alive to how the reader makes it to be.

Looking into the history of my chosen space

There’s something about old elevators. They should totally preserve these instead of replacing all of them to the current modern ones.

I’m just wondering though, is there a specific name to these kind of elevators?
Birdcage elevators? 

Bleached Dreams – Troubling Places

Disneyization influences consumption, it’s a driving force for increasing the inclination to consume. It’s used to make certain places, things seem more surreal than it’s actual self. It elevates the experiences with something more spectacular, leading to the increase of consumer demand. It’s also a form of projected distraction where it diverts consumer’s attention. The way Disneyland is designed is meant for consumers to walk through the park in a systemised manner, making sure they would walk by places with merchandises so that they would stop and shop, retaining them in the park for longer hours. With that, Disneyland is not just a place for fun rides, it’s a place for dining, shopping, and entertainment, just like a mall. Places that are “disney-ized” are constructed with intentions and it warps everyday reality in the consumer’s mind. For example, how casinos do not have clocks placed in sight so that the consumers would lose their sense of time, thus spending more time in the casino than what they intended to. It blends reality and dreams along the fine line and blurs it, which then makes you wonder deeper into the thought – What if our entire life is an orchestrated one? What if we’re doing the things we’re doing because we’re supposed to? What if our everyday encounters are staged just to test our responses just like how it was portrayed in “The Truman Show”.

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I thought that this lecture was the most interesting one. We were introduced to the term “Disneyization” where places that have been “disney-ized” are constructed with intentions and somehow it warps the consumers minds making them believe in the good of the place. All along, Disneyland to me was a happy place, until after the lecture where it was mentioned that the way the place was structure and the way the staff were told to act were all part of the plan to influence maximum consumption. The place is made up to be more surreal and ‘magical’, acting as a form of distraction where it diverts the consumer’s attention. I thought that it was really interesting to know that there are no actual clocks and windows in Casinos. This was intended to make the consumers lose their sense of time while they are in there, getting them to spend more time in the casino than intended to. With this in mind, I think that the lines between reality and make believe is blurred, and it just evokes more thought. 

Have you ever wondered, what if our entire life is actually an orchestrated one? Just like the film, “The Truman Show”. What if we’re just doing the things that we do because we are told to do so? I don’t doubt the possibility that we might be living in this alternate universe where we exist as someone else whose actions are being controlled. Along the same train of thought, I think that because sometimes we no longer can tell the difference between what’s real and what’s made up, we start to lose our identity in these circumstances, and it kind of scares me. Hence, I would be writing my essay based on the thought on current context where the Internet – the ‘place’ we spend most of our time in, is partially responsible for altering our identities over time without us realizing it.

Detailed look at the chosen space: The Lift.

(Un) Creative Writing – Lecture

During the lecture, we got to know about Kenneth Goldsmith, who is currently a poet living in New York, but once worked as a copy based artist and sculptor. He teaches at the University of Pennsylvania and recently launched a new program in the school called “Wasting time on the internet”. The course encourages the students to drift away from the realms of the online world, and through 3 hours of drifting and aimless surfing on the internet, the students would have to produce literary pieces. Goldsmiths believes that in this current age, the way we function as human beings, we tend to get distracted most of the time by technology. We could be talking on the phone with someone, but yet at the same time be checking our facebook or instagram feed. Without a constructive aim in mind, the piece of the literature that they have to submit would be derived from content that they have browsed online, this is the “uncreative writing process”. Part of “uncreative writing” involves a process/method that is known as detournement where it’s the taking of current ideas and using them differently in new situations or context, transforming them into new experiences.

I find it intriguing how surfing the internet could be seen as a form of self-expression. Every click we make, might actually be reflecting the way we think and indicate our likes and dislikes. Personally, i feel that sometimes when i surf aimlessly on the internet, i tend to generate ideas and there’ll be little thoughts that pop in my head drawing inspiration from what i have been looking at. I’m not sure what is considered uncreative writing as i find that even going through the internet to come up with something and the thought process that is being filtered in our heads before we pen it down itself is creative in its works already. Towards the end of the lecture, we were given about 30 minutes to come up with a piece of text derived from one or various sources on the internet. The first thing that came to my mind was my twitter feed. It has been a really long time since my last update, and i thought it would be interesting to revisit it. I adapted a chunk of consecutive tweets and arranged them in sentences. I used the “blackout poetry” method and void off certain words from each sentences, giving the entire piece a whole new meaning. The elimination of words was spontaneous, and through this delightful process, i found that individual words when combined and put together with other random words, forms another story on it’s own. but i can’t deny that i did filter the words in my mind and made sure that the end piece would somehow made sense. So is it still considered “uncreative writing”, or it has become creative “uncreative writing?

Genius Loci : Selected Space

Option #1: Dark Coridoor

Option #2: Fire escape stairs landing

Option #3: Old Lift
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I went for the old lift in the end because i thought it was really interesting how lifts like that still exists. It’s very different from modern day ones where the door opens automatically and you just walk in. For old ones like this, everything is manually done, from opening the door to sliding the grill gate open.

I think that the sounds produced by just operating the lift makes it even more intriguing.

Is it just me or does it seem much darker and creepier with lifts like that?

Cinema Museum

Lecture: Kays Catalogue

The lecture introduced modernity and modernisation through the advancement of years. We learnt about difference in the way people looked at things in comparison with the pre 20th century and the current consumer culture. Many ads and catalogues used then were expressively distorted, represented with abstract forms and symbolism. The catalogue served as a tool to attract consumers with imagery that seemed perfect and ideal. For example, the women portrayed in the catalogues had their height extended and body lengthened as if to represent a status elevation, the use of health and fitness equipments were used to advertise products like swimming gears with an underlying intention of giving consumers the idea that donning on their swimming outfits would ultimately give you the perfect body image. The idea of masculinity was created and manipulated through film and fashion magazines. Working on the psychology of how men generally wants to look good, the catalogue portrays men in business suits accompanied by women by their side depicting that if consumers were to purchase and wear their suits, they are reassured that they would attract attention from women. In catalogues, the designs are done in a way where important details are emphasized and positioned to direct the consumer’s first look to it. Some products are displayed in the book to resemble that of a store’s window display, attractive prices are printed in a bigger and bold font to stand out in the page more. Current consumer culture relies heavily on the use of imagery and it’s an era of leisure seeking people with spending power. And because we’re so conscious about the way we look and how we present ourselves, we get drawn into whatever we see around us that would make us look good. In short, the pictures we see online or in publications inspire beliefs, the belief that i too, will be able to look just like what’s being shown. In relation to modern day use of the catalogue with advancement of technology, there is an inclination in the use of advertising on social media platforms like Instagram and Tumblr where users would be exposed to and gain interest towards the advertised product only if they see it on a fashion personality, thus increasing the sales of the particular product.

Following through the lecture, we read and talked about John Berger’s ‘The suit and the photograph’, he wrote about the relation between suits and the people who wear them. He talked about the suit and how although fashion is constantly changing over time, the vibe that a suit gives off still remains. To emphasize his point, he compares the image of the young farmers in the village band and suggests that we look at the photo by covering the heads of the band. Just by looking at the bodies and what they’re wearing, we would automatically assume of their social status and class as the upper middle class.

I think that a lot of assumptions made these days are based on what we see and are exposed to over the years. Our minds are constantly being moulded and tastes are being formed along with the society. What makes a suit the appropriate outfit for a business meeting, and what makes the little black dress a suitable piece for classy elegant events? What makes a certain look the “it look”?  As a girl, i shop online most of the time, and the downside about shopping online is not being able to try on the class, getting an idea of how it would look and fit on me. But why do i still go ahead and buy it? Simply because it looks good the way it’s being portrayed.

Genius Loci – Research

Good / Bad?

What makes a design good? or what makes it bad?
We talked about it in class and made decisions as to which category these designs fall under.