Reflecting upon today's lecture,  Jonathon made some interesting points. I particularly like the point he was trying to make when he was distinguishing more into what may in fact help to make a person "lucky" or "unlucky".
I felt particularly drawn to this part of today's lecture as I find myself to sometimes be, in general, an "unlucky" person.
He pointed out that these so called "lucky" people are  more aware of what is going around them where as the "unlucky" people tend to be really focused.
The particular example that stuck in my head was an experiment where they took both of these sorts of people and said to them to leaf through a newspaper counting all the pictures with people in them, the twist however, was that in the newspaper there was an advertisement that said something along the lines of if you read this add, stop the experiment and claim your £200. As soon as I heard this, I thought to myself, "God, I bet I would be one of the unlucky few that wouldnt get the £200."
So if I have learned anything today, it would be that I need to be more aware of what is going around me, as from that experiment, it shows that it can most definitely lead on to better things.

Once upon a time...

I feel obliged to share with you, a short story that my dad told me, that means a lot to me and has helped me when necessary.
It is a story about a king, whom is given a gift. The gift in question is a ring. Enscrypted inside the ring were the words "It will pass". The king was instructed to look at this ring when things in his kingdom were going really well or when matters were in a state of devestating sorrow.
This was to remind him that no matter how bad things may seem or how good things may seem, it will pass and you will eventually move on to new pastures.
I think this story can really help with everyones lifes, especially to try enable us to try and keep level headed about a situation.

Assignment 1c/d

Bibliography

The Tipping Point By Malcolm Gladwell

Chapter: The Law of the Few

　

Fischer Hackett .D , 1994, Paul Revere’s Ride, New York: Oxford University Press (Page 30) : An example of how one man, raised the alarm about the british invading america and how on his midnight ride the news spread like wild fire. Given the time of night, it is supported later on in the chapter that people assume because they are being awakened in the middle of the night that it is important news and I think this helped Revere on his mission.


Milgram.S, 1967, Psychology Today Vol.1, pp.60-67 (Page 34): A chain letter, which was used to see how we were all connected. In the experiment, the letters that managed to reach the stockbroker, it was apparent that it only took 5 or 6 steps/people. This is where we get the idea of six degrees of separation. It showed that the majority of the letters were sent lastly to the stockbroker by a few of the same people, these are whom are thought to be connectors.
　

Werner. C, Parmelee. P, 1979, Social Psychology Quarterly,m Vol 42, no.I, pp62-66 (Page 35): This study showed that people were usually closest to someone that lived near their proximity. However it is usually generally thought that most people tend to be friends with people nearer their own age and race, but this study showed these aspects are a lot less important than has previously been assumed.
　
　
Granovetter Mark, 1995, University of Chicago Press (Page 53): Showing how it depends more on who you know rather than what you know, in enabling you to get yourself a job. It also proves a good point that having many aquintances (I.e being a connector) can have many useful advantages.
　

Inman Jeffery. J, McAlister Leigh, Hoyer. D. Wayne, 1990, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol 17, pp-74-81. (Page 60): In a supermarket, they could just keep rising their prices but the reason they don’t is because of the “Market Mavens” who keep a close eye on the prices and details of things and notice if something isn’t quite right and would do something about it, I.e. like complain to the manger and/or tell all their friends and acquaintances to not go to that particular supermarket.
　

Feick. F. L, Price. L. L, 1987, Journal of Marketing, Vol.51, pp.83-97(Page 61): This shows the obsession of a Maven to get the best deal on whatever the item maybe, in this instance it is cans of coffee, but it could be anything.
　

Mullen. B, Et Al, 1986, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 51, pp. 219 -230. (Page 74): This showed how when a news caster reported on an election, how their facial expresion could be biased and could probably change the voting behaviour of the public.
　

Wells. L. G, Petty. E. R, 1980, Basic and applied Social psychology, Vol. I, No3, pp. 53-76. (Page 77): This experiment was to do with head shaking movements whilst wearing headphones and listening to radio editorial affecting your opinion on a subject matter. In this particular experiment it involved how much undergraduate tuition per year. There were 3 groups involved, the control group, a group that had to shake their heads up and down and another group that had to move their head side to side. The group that moved their heads from side to side strongly disagreed with what was being said. And the group that had to move their heads up and down strongly agreed with what was being said.
Condon. S. W, 1982, Interaction Rhythms: Periodicity in Communicative Behaviour, New York: Human Sciences Press, pp. 53-76. (Page 81): This was a study of a film which last 4.5 seconds. After a year and half it he discovered that whilst having the conversation the people moved simultaneously as people were talking and listening. This is known as “interactional synchrony”
Hatfield. E, Cacioppo. T. J, Rapson. L. R, 1994, Emotional Contagion, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Page 84): This shows that we tend to emulate each others responses to situations to show a sense of empathy.
　

Friedman. H, Riggio, 1981, Journal of Nonverbal Behaviour, Vol.6, pp.96-104. (Page 86) :This shows us that emotion from a charismatic person can be contagious and can transfer their good mood onto someone who is inexpressive/depressed just by being in the room with them for 2 minutes not saying a word. But this test did not work the other way around. E.g inexpressive person can not transfer their mood upon a charismatic person.

A Thought Process.... Assignments 1a/b

A Mind Map on the book "The Tipping Point" By Malcolm Gladwell.

Here is another Mind Map but with this one I chose to look more in-depth into a particular chapter of the book- 3 Rules of Epidemics.

Recent Project Developments...

I feel that in this sketchbook page for my brief of natural pattern, I have managed to develop more into what I have been trying to do. I have had a  break through with my work of sorts, but have'nt quite managed it ( I feel as though I have had a bit of an "An Artist's block" if you will). However, I do not feel as though it is anywhere near finished and still needs considerably development. But, hey design is a process is it not??

Life is just one "BIG" curve

On Friday morning, I felt that Mike Press, made a very valid, yet interesting point about the Sigmoid Curve. He refered to it as " the meaning of life". And on some level, the more I began to interpret and question the points he was making, the more I began to agree with what he was saying.
Before Friday I had never heard of the Sigmoid Curve as maths has never been my forte. He showed in various examples,  how at some point we will reach our peak at whatever the given subject matter, then decline.
It also relates  to the book "The tipping Point" By Malcolm Gladwell about the emphasis how things reach an epedemic peak, then they decline. At the same time it reminds me of the the cliche saying "what comes up, must come down".
I never thought something as simple as a mathematical curve would be a reasonable explaination to one of lifes most philosophical questions...

Andy Warhol inspired...

Sketchbook Work...

Photoshop Bonanza!! :D

Political Correctness, taking the biscuit...

At the weekend, I heard on the bbc news that there had been an investigation in Ireland into the grooming of a child by a school dinner lady. The incident in question, is a good example of how today, political correctness has gone almost completely barmey. As all the poor dinner lady did was give the school child a biscuit at lunch. This then lead to a series of enquires and meetings lasting up to one hour. Luckily the woman in question, her name has been cleared.
I just can't believe that because an adult gives a child a biscuit, it automatically makes them a sexual preditor in today's society??
So I think we have all learned the moral of this story, never share your biscuits...

A little taster of some sketch book work...

Word of mouth epedemic...

Recently I have read an interesting book called "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell. Which, in short discussed epedemics and how they came to light. I as I was watching the news on friday night a current example of word of mouth epedemic arose, "les miserables" apparently people in New York, were simply flocking to see it as they were celebrating there 25th anniversary of being in production. Here are some more interesting facts, that I stumbled across, that I found out about les miserables as I researched it,  trying to discover as to why it had become such an "epedemic" recently... http://search.bbc.co.uk/click/p/1/ds/best/t/News%2520%252d%2520Bon%2520anniversaire%2521%252025%2520facts%2520about%2520Les%2520Mis/id/17231394218266128614032889734301000/sp/6b628b91fee1c20abad9bdb980f9219f/-/http%253a%252f%252fwww%252ebbc%252eco%252euk%252fnews%252fentertainment%252darts%252d11437196