Research 2
- Tami
- Jan 7, 2021
- 7 min read
Updated: Jan 14, 2021
Thursday 07th January 2021
Although this is titled research part 2, it isn't only about research but I'm pretty sure that it is mostly about research so I will leave that until the end.
Mood Sheets
I am not good at mood boards so I didn't really focus on doing that, I did want to try though, but my laptop broke and I had to wait three weeks to get a new one. I could just do one now but I think that it is already in the past. On the other hand, one of my tutors did create a mood board from the idea that I had described and it really amazing and I have been taking influence from that and because I also want to look a bit into colour, I also looked at a previous one that I had made.
For this project, the colours I want to use are striking colours but maybe not only the ones in the previous mood board.
Brainstorm
I had a little brainstorm and came up with a loose storyboard of how I am thinking the film might go. I actually have high hopes for it but I am certain that I will be very disappointed
Reading Task
This one was done far before most other things. It was somewhat interesting, quite repetitive and uninspiring for me. I read all three texts that we were given to read, they were all excerpts. Unintentionally I read them out of the order that they were presented on myUCA (I had downloaded them) but I believe I read them in length order (longest to shortest), unexpectedly the longest one was the most interesting one to me. This is unrelated to the content each text had but it was just an observation. All of the background information about the texts were from myUCA.
Plato's Cave from Susan Sontag On Photography - "In Plato's theory, the cave represents people who believe that knowledge comes from what we see and hear in the world – empirical evidence. The cave shows that believers of empirical knowledge are trapped in a 'cave' of misunderstanding. Plato's Allegory of the Cave is an interesting philosophical standpoint particularly in relation to new technology and mass communication via social media what we see and hear in the world becomes not only to do with our physical experience but our digital one as well.
In this chapter Susan Sontag's On Photography discusses ideas to do with experience and truth via photography (analogue) she talks about how a photograph becomes an object a real thing an experience." I don't really see how that specific point relates to digital photography because people like me become driven by things we don't fully know and take pictures of everything maybe trying to immortalise the current world as it is because we know that everything if finite but if we take a picture it lasts longer; we can pretend it's all going to disappear at some point. I really think that from what I can remember almost everything she says is still relevant today, I guess the world hasn't changed much from 300 B.C.E to 1977 to now. I don't think we can still call digital photographs "real objects" now, they are so over produced that they have taken a different thing. At the time the book was written, I feel like people may have still cherished photographs and they all meant something special. Nowadays without any thought digital pictures can be deleted as quickly as they were taken because they aren't physical, not all of them were taken because of perceived important events, they are taken 'just because'. We may have sort of forgotten the importance of actually living in the present and really experiencing experiences though there are a lot of people who are starting to deter from what seems to be the current norm. But also, I am not properly able to look at things past surface level, I probably don't fully understand the chapter at all.
"The main theme of Plato's Allegory of the Cave in the Republic is that human perception cannot derive true knowledge, and instead, real knowledge can only come via philosophical reasoning. In Plato's example, prisoners live their entire lives in a cave, only able to see shadows. To them, these shadows are reality."
Species and Spaces and other Pieces by Georges Perec - The next one I read was "Species and Spaces" I found the first half interesting but towards the end I found it very hard to continue reading it. I just couldn't understand why I was reading about him describing his past living spaces. As a whole, space is an interesting topic, there is so much to it and so much to explore with space and this is not just the "outer space" that we talk about, it is so much more. However, we as humans (I especially) am too selfish and self concerned to really do it well or to listen to other people's stories, we are too concerned with ourselves. "Georges Perec considers space both in terms of how he uses the page he writes on as well as how he describes space. He begins at the page on which he is writing then to the bed, to the bedroom, to the apartment and so on. Although he is very structured in his exploration of the 'space' he also allows his mind to wonder and remember, this in turn creates other spaces." I think it was very cool how he used the page and the space it just felt too repetitive for me. In a similar way, I take too many pictures of the spaces around me, I used to do it much more in the past but during the past year, most what I have seen is the same and I never leave my house, it meaningless to have 100 pictures of my cupboard but I have over 1000 pictures of the sky though they are different it is just the sky. For George Perec, the way he records his space is through writing whereas mine is through photography. A big difference is that he can also use writing for creating imaginary spaces and I don't use photography that way. It isn't something I have every really considered before, I just take picture of things as they are and that's where it ends but there is so much more that can be done. For example, a lot of photographers construct spaces in real world that they had seen in their head. It is an interesting concept.
Ways of Seeing by John Berger - I tried very hard to read this first chapter but it was quite hard for me to do. I think the topic is something that should be interesting, I think that maybe the reason I found it hard to connect with the text might have just been because of the way it was presented. The text "asks you to consider the way you see image, how you read it and how we are affected by norms and constraints created by history and society." I take most things at face value and I don't really find deeper meaning in them unless told to or explained to what it is so I didn't really think much of it. It may have been because I was tired from reading the other ones so it may be best for me to reread it and then maybe I can get a better understanding of it but I definitely found the repetition of words relating to "mystical" irritating. If I were asked to write about how I see and look at the world I would say, very multi-coloured, very self-centred. If something doesn't directly affect me, I don't usually have a strong opinion on it because I don't think it is my place to have an opinion. Everything in the world must be balanced for it to work well but everything is also contradictory.
Research 2
I can't find my research on colours so I guess I am going to have to be doing that again at some point.
But Subliminal messaging isn’t the only aspect of my project to be researched on. I said I was going to do research on typography, but I think because subliminal messages are the main thing I am focusing on, the typography isn’t actually important. However, I looked at what typography was and why it was important in general. “Typography is the art of arranging letters and text in a way that makes the copy legible, clear, and visually appealing to the reader. Typography involves font style, appearance, and structure, which aims to elicit certain emotions and convey specific messages. Good typography will establish a strong visual hierarchy. Typography has a profound effect on the way that users digest and perceive the information conveyed by the text. Eye-catching type is much more persuasive than weak fonts that don’t reinforce the message of the text.”(1)
In my original idea, language played a more important part than it does now, but I think that it is still worth talking a bit about language barriers and communication.
“Language is needed for any kind of communication, even people with speech impairments communicate with sign language and brail. Communication becomes difficult in situations where people don’t understand each other's language. The inability to communicate using a language is known as language barrier to communication.”(2)
I have no intention of spreading propaganda, but I thought it was important to research a bit about it as a reference.
“In its origins ‘propaganda’ is an ancient and honourable word. Religious activities which were associated with propaganda commanded the respectful attention of mankind. It was in later times that the word came to have a selfish, dishonest, or subversive association. In our modern day, the inventive genius of man perfected a machinery of communication which, while speeding up and extending the influence of information and ideas, gave the propagandists a quick and efficient system for the spread of their appeals. This technical equipment can be used in the interests of peace and international good will however, most have preferred to seize upon this magnificent nervous system for selfish ends and inhumane purposes, and thus enlarged the role of propaganda in today’s world.”(3)
(1) businesstopia, 2018, "Language Barriers to Communication," in Businesstopia https://www.businesstopia.net/communication/language-barriers.
(2) Hannah. J, 2020, “What Is Typography and Why Is It Important”, in Career Foundry
(3) unknown, unknown, “The Story of Propaganda”, in American Historical Association
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