Deconstructing secondary research that addresses current practice-related problems, debates and trends and how this could strengthen personal practice as a means of collecting ideas through critical analysis to inform one’s work.
Vintage ads may look different from today’s, but they continue to portray the same messages and still determine society’s idea of gender roles, what we should value and who we should be (Kilbourne, 1999).
“The camera doesn’t rape, or even possess, though it may presume, intrude, trespass, distort, exploit and, at the farthest reach of metaphor, assassinate – all activities that, unlike the sexual push and shove, can be conducted from a distance, and with some detachment” (Sontag, 1977).
A documentation of ideas, process and critical reflection.
“Plastic surgeons are reporting that patients are coming to them with selfies of themselves edited using the filters on Snapchat or Instagram and asking to look more like the retouched photo.” (Wolfson, 2018)
Factual observations tie in common interpretation of Narcissus with the selfie and the psychoanalytical studies based on these facts through years of observational studies in clinical settings, and research and psychoanalysis.
In addition to the unconscious motives of the human psyche, this study examines the objectified self in the context of the phrase “object relations” where the external world becomes the focus of analytical investigation.
The central theoretical approach will be exploratory and open-minded, hopefully employing unconventional methods of research theories and analytical methodologies, make theoretical connections and provide the reader with material to amend, criticize and contribute to further studies.
I believe the process of reflective writing gave me a chance to learn through storytelling and connect my research methodologies with my practice by gaining deeper insight as to the role research led practice and practice led research have both contributed to my practice.
Because this module of study was focused on experimentation and exploration in terms of development, I freely and divergently tested this process throughout, possibly devoting too much time to this phase, dreading the presentation and modes of display for the assessment with the amount of time I have allowed for this process.
The work I am producing for this project creates a very intimate space with the viewer in which the concept of theory and my practice have led my design decisions which have emotionally controlled the layout, materials and typographical placement and techniques.
This blog entry will focus solely on the backgrounds for the front and back covers I am working on for documentation of process and experimentation methods. I feel if I were to go into the logotype, the layout design, etc. that the point of this message would be overshadowed by noise.
I will begin this blog writing about my passion: Culture. Youth culture in particular. I believe that youth culture is the driving force of society, communication, art, music, and the nemesis of politics.
These outcomes will respond to the theme acting as a stimulus to creative problem solving for the project.
My methodologies are a blend of goal and process oriented systems where there is a beginning and an end to the project brief but the idea generation phase isn’t always subjective to the progression of the selected goals, but rather subjective to research.
In this form of play questions are formed, ideas are structured, tested, questioned, iteratively.
Practice led research = practice based research practice as research uses a form of research based on the works itself intended to identify research outputs. I
Interpretive research is vastly different in that it is similar to qualitative practices but distinct in its approach placing subjects of study in their contexts, historical, linguistic, etc. shaped by the social contexts of human experience.
The research is coming along really well since during the course of the first module, I drew up a rough draft of my brief and spent most of the break in-between gathering up scholarly journals and relevant books on my theme.
The concept of reflection can be found in writings dating back to Plato, who stressed great value on reflecting through narratives or dialog, but the modern beginning of the study began with Flavell and became a trend in psychology in the 70s.
I believe we must understand the philosophy of epistemology and the development of these theories in order to grasp a working knowledge of how critical thinking is employed.
If you were a counterculture in the past, you were in all the way, it was unthinkable to be part of another. Today, it isn’t unusual to be a part of several countercultures to form an identity. Many things suggest that future countercultures will become more complex in a future where globalization plays the omnipresent because of the internet and virtual worlds.
Warhol in particular, was fascinated with the subject of celebrity and the ordinary in mass culture and it was in this graphical context that he forced viewers to see the mechanical reproductions of this same likeness in items of common goods.
The interaction between mainstream ideology and the underground is conflict, this runway further morphs the punk styles with popular culture into high fashion absorbing the core signifiers of anarchy and angst the punk culture identifies with.
“Corporate America has stolen, repackaged, and sold it back to popular culture. Our children have grown to become consumers of a bastardized variety of hip hop that is devoid of its roots, rather than creators of their own self-expression.” (Khafreg 2013)
Popular culture has become an object of consumption and the signification of pleasure.
The poverty, the homelessness, the drug addiction and the personal tragedies all became part of the commodity. Reminiscent of the same pathway that absorbed the hippie movement and the significance of the kind of culture that it represented entirely.
The historical succession of these youth countercultures and the synthesis of evolution is considered by observing the endless conflict between these systems and the meaning behind this. Has this conflict created a system in which the dominate culture has dictated its own ideology to popular culture based on consumerism?
Consequently, sales increased during the prohibition period due to strategies linking pleasure and the representation of gendered activity. Benson and Hedges began a Surrealist campaign in 1977 taking into consideration the first Surrealist Manifesto. In 1978, the campaign won the Design Council award for best adverts.
The study researches the counterculture explicitly in terms of the consumer culture, the repetitiveness of historical symbolism reestablishing its relevancy within the advertising industry and the contrasting calamity in corporate thought.
I am curious to find that if in fact to what degree pop culture has been influenced by these systems or if these countercultures dissolve because popular culture is the dominate social system, controlling graphic communication to retain its influence on these countercultures and their identities
This moodboard represents one of the ways that the melting pot of youth subcultures and countercultures can co-exist in one piece while illustrating the effects that these cultures have on graphic design as communication.
I will be researching the effects that youth countercultures have on social groups, their influence on these identity systems and how it can be seen in a graphical context.
My interests as a creative practitioner by far, involves positive social change and awareness campaigns. I have a fascination that lies with the relationship between graphic communication and social and cultural function.
As a practitioner, my primary focus is on awareness campaigns, humanitarian work, and social issues.
Mia Shappee 