Assignment Two... Peoples Perceptions....

 I paired up with some other fellow classmates. We decide that we would each create our own ink blot and ask people what their intial thought of it was. This helped to show how we all think in different ways. In our group we all independently went our separate ways and showed these images to a variety of people. And then reconviened and collectively discussed our findings.
Here are the Ink Blots that we used:

With this ink blot the responses were as follows:

Landscape, Foot, Long sock, Buildings, A woman, Tractor, A pram, Lines-machinery

In this blot the things that were said are as follows:

Coffee, Trees, Landscape, Little Ailiens, Caterpiller, An elephant, Green splat tree or face.

For this one the reply was:

Cells, Body Cells, Raindrops, A game that they used to play that gives you a birds eye view of the world and armies different terrortories, World from a height, Beach, An arrow, Mould.

And last but not least the feedback for this particular ink blot was:

Giraffe, Burned Fire, Animals, Dog, Fish, Koala bears face, Bumble bee, An ardvark, An Animal "weird looking, thats looking at me."

After these responses, it was clear that everyone has their own unique perception of things. So the next part of our experiment at hand we manipulated one of the above images to try and see if we could get all our participants to see the same thing. Here is the image after we manipulated it:

The thought here was we would adjust the image ever so slightly to see if this was able to make everyone see the same thing. The type of answer we were looking for would be something along the lines of: trees, landscape etc
After all the people that I asked, I got a simlar response from all of them. All answered either tree's landscape, foliage or something to do with sunlight peeping through the forestry.

So we manipulated the image further and added text so try and enforce that everyone got the same idea:

Everyone that I spoke to about this image had the impression that it had something to do with saving the trees or forest, which was what our aim was.
I was pleased witht this result as it just helps you to see the power of images and the influence that they can have on peoples perceptions.

Discussion for Assignment 2....

Today, some of my fellow textiles students and myself discussed the content of "The Rhetoric of the Image" by Roland Barethes. It discusses the three main points about an images. Firstly their is the sort of literal way of looking at it i.e text, slogans etc, then there is a symbolic way of looking at an image (which what your interpretation is), and lastly a non-symbolic meaning which to me suggests more "what you see only" i.e a girl sitting on the ground with a toy in her hand.
     To me the most interesting point out of the three is the symbolic way of looking at an image, as everyone will have the own opinion as to what is going on in the said image. This is why for our assignment we chose to make up ink blots and I am hoping for some exciting results, which show that we all think and see things differently and interpret it in a different manner. But only after the experiment is carried out will I be able to prove or disprove this point.
Even after we had made our random ink blots, we looked at each others, and all of us saw different things in each others ink blots. Although we did notice that once someone said what they could see it sometimes influenced others. This helped us realise that with this experiment we will have to treat all of our participants the same and ask them the same questions and not add our own opinion so as not to influence them in any way which will hopefully keep the experiment kosher.

Lecture Response...

Today I felt that Kate Pickering gave a very insightful talk about her journey as a designer. I think that the majority would be able to relate to the things she was saying.
It also made me think that if I don't start planning what I want to do with design now, I might end up working in a job where I get little or no satisfaction and I do not get any use out of the degree I will hopefully achieve. So essentially there would be little point in me doing this degree course if I am not going to use it.

Assigment 1... Snooping Around...

The Johari Window

　

	Known to Self	Not Known to Self
Known to Others	Open	Blind
Not Known to Others	Hidden	Unknown

The Johari Window was named after the first names combined of both its inventors.
This “Window” Helps to try and explain to an extent human interaction in these quadrants.
Open Quadrant- explains things that I know about myself and that others know, both factual and emotional.
Blind Quadrant- this shows what others know about me, that I am unconscious of.
Hidden Quadrant- this represents what I know about myself but others do not. Unless you tell them.
Unknown Quadrant- This is when we do not know something about ourselves and neither does anybody else.
This Model of Human Interaction will come in useful when attempting to decipher different things about my partnet for assignment one. In particular I think the Open and Blind Quadrants.
However I feel that with “snooping” within other people’s possession’s however it might give you a slight insight, it will not tell you everything there is to know about this person. And even with making assumptions about certain objects that you spy you can be way off what your instinct thinks about this person.
Looking at people’s things and trying to figure out what they are like, is entirely guess work. However I think that it will become clearer when you discuss with the person about certain objects to help give you a better insight, as there are stories that may go along with some objects.
Such as some things might be borrowed, gifts, sentimental and more.
Evidence in pictures may be tainted as people will on show what they want you to see, not necessarily unloading any proper truths about themselves as they may find this uncomfortable to with a complete stranger.
　

On the shelf there appears to be what looks like a weight loss book/leaflet. Which suggests to me that the said person is trying to lose weight the now most probably as it is lying out or it is maybe going to get used in the near future.
The weight loss also could highlight conscientiousness when it comes to body image.
However it should be taken into consideration that they might be living with another person or that this item may have been given by a friend or it is meant to be given to friend.
Semi-skimmed milk (rather than say its more fattening counter part whole milk) is lying out on the counter would help support the weight loss hypothesis for the said person to be a present subject matter.
However the disorganised manner in which it appears letters are stored may contradict when I say that this person is conscientious.
If this person is conscientious person I would imagine that they would wear dark colours (possibly mood reflecting) and would dress casually.
Red teapot perhaps a gift? Does not blend in with the rest of the utensils in the kitchen. Or maybe it has sentimental value?
The piece of cake contradicts what I mentioned early what I said about weight loss.
No much of an organisational system when it comes to stationary, which also contradicts my conscientious claim.
Bright colours of things stored on the shelf could suggest maybe that this is a fun person to be around, if these are her possessions and not someone else’s.
　
　

Phone on the wall, suggests she likes to communicate with people, which could suggest that she is an extroverted person.
Calendar on the wall suggests that she likes to keep her affairs and events organised and in order.
Ornament on the wall could suggests that she is into crafts and arts.
　
　

Here I notice the kettle to be quite a prominent part of the kitchen adjacent to a cup of tea/cofee, so I am assuming that she often enjoys a good cuppa.
Also an assortment of chopping boards suggest that she enjoys to cook, or possible she wishes to learn to cook better.
The red pot on the stove also hints towards the idea of enjoying cooking.
Appliance plugged in and switched on at the wall, when not in use, could imply that she is not particularly environmentally friendly. Or it may just be a coincidence that she forgot or didn’t realise to switch them off before taking the picture.
Celebrations hiding high above on top of the unit, tells me that she likes chocolate but is trying not to give into temptation and is maybe thinking whilst putting them up there, out of sight out of mind.
Putting them in a hard to reach place may also support the weight loss idea.
　

The cupboard at the far side appears to be filled with books. Since we are in a kitchen and going by the evidence of some of the cooking utensils, I would say that some of it is filled with cookery books which would support my proposition that she is wanting to learn how to cook or to cook better.
A clean sink area could imply that she prides her self with cleanliness and hygiene there is also what looks to be a disinfectant bottle beside the microwave which would support this.
Outside the window, it appears there is some sort of green house which may mean that she is into gardening and plants. There are plants also on the window sill which would aid in defend this argument.
　
　
　
　
　
　

This image here indicates that she likes plants.
I think that the grinder and bowl also assist with the proposal that she likes to cook.
Piece of metal jewellery discarded on the window sill may suggest a lot or little meaning. As if she was washing up she may of taken it off to prevent it from damage or it has just been abandoned and forgotten about.
　
After meeting up with my partner and discussing our findings, I found it rather interesting how we both managed to make some pretty good assumptions about each other.
For instance, I found it hard to pin point in the photo’s why but I guessed that she did not live alone and it turns out that she lives with her husband and two kids.
I thought that one of her personality traits would be that she was disorganised and was the kind of person that would leave things to the last minute, this was also correct.
I also made an assumption based on the fact I thought in ways she seemed like a conscientious person and that she would be dressed in dull colours, when we met up she was wearing grey and I asked her how she would usually dress and dull colours were her answer.
In addition I guessed that she maybe had cook books in her cupboard I was spot on.
Moreover I assumed that the red teapot was given as a gift as it did not blend in with the rest of the kitchen equipment too well, and that turned out to be a precise hypothesis.
However some things like the cake on the counter surrounded by various different cooking utensils gave me the signal that she maybe interested in baking but it turns out that it was her birthday cake instead.
Furthermore I thought given the amount of plants on the window sill and the greenhouse outside would indicate that she was a keen gardener. It turns out that the plants she was given was a present and she keeps it for sentimental value.
Overall I would say that I have learned that from these picture you can learn a lot about a person from their belongings and their environment. Although I do think that it would be very hard to given an one hundred percent accurate reading about a person, as I have found out from this exercise, it is a guessing game until you get to know more about the person.

　

Language Authority....

In today's lecture J.B was talking about how people use their own language when talking about a subject matter which seems to give them a sense of authority. In other words "Look I know the terminolgy about this subject which means I know what I am talking about and you don't, which means I know best" or something to that extent.
But in actual fact, us designers, whilst it is good for us to have all this terminology when communicating with likewise designers. Its not a good way with communicating with clients as they do not share the same knowlegde of the subject and see designs in a different way from us.
So when handling a client it is better to talk "their" language in terms of design from their point of view, rather than our own.

Who gets to decide....

When something is compiled, for example a book of the 100 most greatest designs, whom gets to decide what designs are good and what are bad? Where do they establish these opinions?
The "whom" part is very important because is a list like this more valuable when one person is compiling it, or does it just make that list valid to that said person. Or is it better when a variety of people are making it up, but then, comprimise is involved would that make it less value to others in the group. People are bound to disagree with some of the decisions made, making it not a very accurate list.
I dont believe that one persons opinion should be valued more than anybody elses.
So when it comes to these "lists" I think people should just make them up for yourself, that way it has alot more meaning for you.
Personally, when it comes to establishing where peoples opinions originate and form from I think it has to do with numerous amounts of enviromental factors such as the people they are surrounded by, what someone else has wrote on a particular subject matter, how they are brought up etc.
But I also believe that these opinions can be changed as whether most of us would like to admit it or not we are influenced by what is done and said around us consciously and subconsciously.

Professional email address...

I think the great J.B was right in friday's lecture about getting a professional email address, which is why I think that I need to get one. Especially as my current one is sarahpxox@msn.com which isnt exactly "professional" but I think its alot better than something like BigAndBouncy@msn.com which is fine for an email address to have between friends but perhaps maybe not collegues and potential employers.