Assessment 2

I decided with this assignment to research more into types of people as that is what the chapter of the law of the few in "The Tipping Point" is concerned with. It made me first think, why do we associate certain things with certain people, which then was followed on by why do we feel like we have to label people. Then I decided to try and look into if there was anything that could be done to challenge our own pre-conceptions. Some of the research that I did was rather interesting as apparently our pre-conceptions are to do with what we have been initially taught about a certain subject matter so the only way it seems to change this is to try and address the intital understanding of a subject matter.
The most interesting points that I discovered however, were to do with why we label people, looking in to this gave me a wider scope into the matter. It seems that we label to mark differences/distinctions and it can also mean to name something as things have to named in order for it to be known. However other reasons that I found about why we labeled people include, to be protected in some sense, to be accepted, some choose to be labelled, or maybe it is to better understand ourselves and then eventually all of this can make you question... does individuality even exist?
My answer at the moment, is no. We are all like one another in one sense, whether we would like to accept this fact or not. We may have certain quirks or characteristics that in our opinion make us "different" I will not dispute that but at the end of the day we are all human so we are not that much "different" from each other, most of us share similar personality traits to the ones our friends have, sometimes we are guilty of even conforming too much in order for our so-called friends to accept us, but if they are you real friends.... Should they not just accept  you for who you are rather than because
 you share the same "label"? Its a nice thought that isn't being accepted for who you are, but unfortunately alot of the time this isnt the case. As most of us tend to change our personalities depending on who we are with, for example most people act differently around there friends than they would do around their parents. Which can make you question... Which one is actually the REAL you?

I was thinking more and more about this so called "memory box" and thought, it would be useful for it to accomodate both old and new pictures, as to stimulate maybe some old memories that you had with this particular friend/relative but then at the same time still interesting to see in the new pictures how they have changed. So instead of just having up-to-date pictures I think it would be a good idea to consider a mixture and if this was the case I think the box would have alot more sentimental value added to it.
The reason I say this, is as I look back at all the photographs I have taken over the years, it makes me feel as shakespear once said "such sweet sorrow". To me, this signify's a good feeling and I think others will agree as looking at your previous years can sometimes bring a warm feeling to your heart. Yet your heart may be weighted down to some degree thinking of what has been that might not ever be again. So I think it would be a good thing for owners of these "memory boxes" to be able to reflect upon such things.

Friday Lecture's Reflection Time....

After a rather inspiring talk given by jewellery designer Hazel White, an aspect which I picked up on that I found to be a particularly clever idea was when she was talking about an object called "Hamefarer's kist". To try an explain this object, I would say it works as sort of memory box. It has little knitted pieces held within and when you move the pieces to a certain bit of the box, on the top lid of the box, photographs appear of  a loved one, that is associated with that particular piece. It was said to be really good for long distance relationships, for example a grandmother living in the Shetlands getting up-to-date pictures of her grandchildren who were perhaps living in the United States.
Here is an image I found on the net of this device:

A nine year old boy explaining how the Hamefarers Kist works to the older woman.

                                          

For me personally I would like to use this device to see what was happening with my dad's relatives in australia whom we have only met a couple of times. As unless we by some stroke of luck win the lottery, it will be very unlikely that we will ever be able to go over and visit them, so for me this would be a very good tool of visual communication almost, to see some of the exciting things that are happening in their lives.

In need of inspirational compostion?? Look no further....

Looking through some of my sketchbook, I felt that one of the things the majority of my ideas lacked was good composition. So to try to solve this problem, I have been looking at several artists and designers to aide my compositional worries.
John Cage was an artist, that in particular stood out to me given his incredible use of compostion. Here are a couple of examples of his work so you can see what I am on about:



         


    

The piece at the top, I find particularly striking as I love the subtle use of the washy, almost coffee stained-like brown with the opposite combination of strong orange/red, blue and yellow circle-esque shapes that are huddled together at the bottom of the piece.

Natural Pattern Development...

BRAINSTORMING!!!! (actual the right term these days is meant to be brain shower as brain storm is thought to be sounding to violent)

In our textiles studio we brainstormed the chapter the law of the few. And then we focused more on the specific aspect of connectors...



                                                                                    

Inspired by friday's lecture, it made me want to do a bit more research into so-called "lucky" people and here is what I found:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/3335275.stm

However a quote by Larry King, which is mentioned in this particular article :

"Those who have suceeded at anything and don't mention luck are kidding themselves."

I find myself  disagreeing with this statement as I don't believe that if you suceed at something that it is because or to do with luck, necessarily. Suceeding, in my opinion usually has alot to do with talent, hard work, and dedication. But who knows, maybe the both of us are wrong??