Lecture: A History of Animation

Our first lecture back with Spencer was looking into a brief history of animation. I'm more into graphics than animation, though I found some of the work (mostly the Pixar or later work) interesting to watch and take away from, especially the difference from the beginning of the first animation work to what is currently being displayed on our screens effortlessly.

The first established animation was by a man called Emile Cohl, 1908. Firstly I was quite staggered by how early animation was being created, as I'd thought it was much later on in the 1900's. Titled Fantasmagorie, it's often positioned as the 1st animation, although some argue that Stuart Blackton's work is the first actual animation.

"To make this film, Cohl placed each drawing on an illuminated glass plate and then traced the next drawing-with variations-on top of it until he had some 700 drawings"

I found it really interesting to see how different the work is now, yet can appreciate the amount of work that went into the piece. It feels un-real to look at because of the textured look of the old camera, but there's something mesmerizing about watching something so old.

Throughout the lecture we leapt through time and looked at many other artists: Bruce Bickford, 1988 for example, and Tim Hope's Wolfman, 1999. Hope's work was animation that went against the realism that was of it's time, using simple cartoon drawings mapped into 3D. He eventually went onto work for the Mighty Boosh, signifying how successful he actually was.

This work was not something I'd like, going against my likeness for modern, clean and simplistic work, although the story was quite amusing to watch. Hope's work however was recognizable to me as something that the Mighty Boosh would have liked and picked up upon, however it was not work I'd like and do myself at all.

Zoetrope was one of the last things we explored in this lecture. Invented in 1834, it allowed mass audience participating and viewing, and allowed some of the first "animated" movements to be played, which led onto flip-books and even more. In comparison to Pixar, the final movie shown, they clean up the "jitter" material that Zoetropes once gave out, removing the fact it was made by machinery.
Oddly enough this was my favourite out of the entire lot, I love Pixar movies and the realism they bring to animation. It's incredible to look back and see how far we've come in terms of using the computer to bring characters to life.

Seminar: Introduction

Our first seminar back was to refresh ourselves for the year ahead and prepare for any upcoming work we had. We also delved into ways of researching, which proved really helpful to begin my first project back.

What (do you want to investigate)

Why (do you want to investigate)

How (does it relate to you?)

How (will you proceed)

By following the four main questions when researching, you're able to come up with an efficient way of explaining yourself through research, which I took to myself when starting my first project, Cybernetic Self. This also helps if you're stuck and don't know where to start, a good ideal is to begin by using the four questions and it enables you to explain yourself in a more competent manner.

Further into this seminar we looked at our own development and how, with the seminars and theory lectures, we'd be able to go from starting in year one to becoming fully fledged creative students in the final year.

Year 1 - Foundation, Year 2 - Transformation, Year 3 - Professional, Year 4 - Independence and Originality

This year is focused on transforming into our own independent, self working creative person, which allows us to manage our own time, work and ethics. This would be applied in the third year for placement and allow us to gain some real experience into the working world.

We then applied our research methods we'd learnt into a rebranding for a museum called The Whitney. Applying these questions to a piece of writing enabled us to extract and learn quite a lot about the website, illustrating the change in the museum and how the designers approached the assignment as to "embrace the spirit of the museum"

I'd associate the Whitney rebrand with likeness such as the BBC (2+3), Channel 4, and Sky Cinema rebranding; making themselves more modern and interactive with their audience.

Overall I enjoyed my first seminar back. They felt more related to the course compared to the first year, and allowed me to start immediately applying what I'd learned into my current project. It proved interesting and let me work alongside my peers, which I'd really liked too.

Presentation Research

My first research into my presentation narrowed me down to the BBC. I love television and the design that goes into it, and I wanted to look at the branding behind each channel the BBC produce. Specifically why they choose to market each channel for a specific audience and how they go about doing this. To me, it's really interesting to see what they perceive as the correct design for a specific audience.

Firstly I looked into the main question behind my research: the audience. I looked online to find the BBC's response onto each channel and what their target audience is. Surprisingly, I found that the BBC 2 response did not match up to the stereotype assumed of the channel, when I think of the BBC 2 channel I think of more older people - shown below:

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tv/articles/bbc-three
• 
  
• "The channel is disciplined in its focus on young audiences and 16-34 year-olds are its centre of gravity: people who are young in spirit and mindset. BBC Three"

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tv/articles/bbc-two

" BBC Two is a channel for grown-ups who are young at heart and our tone reflects this: confident, with a touch of irreverence, positioned as the leading edge of the mainstream. "

Narrowed down the era to 2006 - Present, specifically look at those eras and not before (to concise the document and be able to say enough about the research without going over the top). Look at how they've been remade to represent unity, and how BBC 2 and 3 reflect the styles of the audience and intention.
Also look at logos: specifically, why do we immediately associate certain logos with the audience they're aimed for? Based on adverts, what is being broadcasted, colours, use of language.

Could look at sub subjects such as cbeebies, radio, online.

Represents move to online

Represents the "creativity, playfulness, surprise"

Represents unity with the circle, and use of nature

Cybernetic: Visual Appearance

Another way of looking into how our online vs offline selves differ is the way we look. Specifically: do the clothes we wear show who we are as a person? Relating back to Online Personas, the clothing we wear is usually based off trends and what can be considered "cool" or "trendy" is usually from celebrities, the runway and fashion blogging/websites.

The main reasons behind new clothes revolves usually around the internet - whether we've seen something we like, it's in trend, or we want to be as good looking as a Kardashian. However, because they're celebrities, usually their appearance is tailored around what we want to see them look like - polished, made up and fashionable. Even going out to the gym can be a fashionable experience for them, something that we, as normal human beings, wouldn't even consider.

With the introduction of the internet it's made us more self aware about our appearance. When somethings in trend, you can usually tell by the amount of people wearing it - they've seen it from their favourite celebrity, or another friend, or someone of importance to them - this keeps the constant cycle of fashion up to date.

A study done by Simon Bray, titled "Duality" expresses this by photographing two sides to each person (one photograph with their work wear, one with normal every clothing) and the aim is "to see how a viewer responds to the uniform and how it shapes the person" when we see someone, we immediately assume something about them based on how they look and dress, it's always the first thing we take in when we see someone.

I personally feel about the fashion the same as everyone else - it tells someone who you are. I believe most people feel conformed to dress how they are perceived by other people, for example, because you like this certain type of music, you must wear this type of clothing, when that shouldn't be the case. From what we see online is how we think the norm is - even though most of the time the clothing is stylised in a certain way and isn't accurate to real life. Celebrities and Fashion Bloggers are a good example of this, going to style over practicality, as well as clothing that simply isn't affordable. How we feel comfortable in our own clothing is something that effects us emotionally, and the ever growing need to keep up with the trend is a way of showing your personality and traits by not even talking. This is why fashion is so important online - it shows us, an audience, who you are.

I and other people always worry about what other people think of us. Even online, you feel you must look your best in profile pictures, you must be this idealised person. Many people buy clothes simply because they think it's fashionable and gets them some form of justification, even though they may not even like the clothes they buy. It's a long cycle of constant advertising and exposure to these "inspirational" people that spark this purchase.

Ref: 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/behind-online-behavior/201609/do-we-control-our-own-purchasing-habits

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-37488811

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/behind-online-behavior/201505/online-personality-disorders

http://asos.com

http://daily.newlook.com/

Cybernetic: Online Marketing

Another research term I looked at was Online Marketing. Whether this be for a store, a company, a webpage, video, musician, or even yourself; it's the focal point behind a lot of the content we see. Constantly we are introduced to adverts in our everyday life - it's said we come across over 5,000 in our everyday life. They constantly change our decisions, impact what we think and buy. 

By using things such as carts and wishlists, ASOS, and many other clothing companies, give the user a feeling they own the items they can't afford. Because of the way the websites work, if something lingers in the cart for too long, usually they send a promo code to the user to entice them into buying the product. Of course, someone would feel it's "god's way of telling me to buy the product" and then buy it, obviously that's not the case - many websites are trying to make as much money as possible. They'd rather have your money than none at all. This helps to re-inforce wishful thinking.

Marketing online is a case of getting to know a person, and to pull at the emotional strings that entice them into buying things. This makes it easier to get the money from the customer. From a marketing point of view, everything should be sleek, well laid out and not overpowering - it's a way of emotionally bringing in the customer and making them feel enticed with what they see. 

Because of the way trends are built through other people (if one person buys something, more than likely this is the best way of advertising) it'll allow other people to gain access to this product. This is another reason why sponsorships, adverts etc are huge ways of bringing in a market and are becoming popular. 

This goes back to my previous post in how personalities (Youtubers, Celebrities) are endorsed to make themselves look relatable, to look like an aspiration. Then adverts are placed on top of them because you feel much more emotionally invited into someone you feel you know, instead of just advertising the product on a website - markets/websites know this and will exploit it.

Adverts are also based on your previous searches - I particularly notice when I've shopped through an online clothes store, the adverts will then start popping up on Social Media, as a constant reminder to something you could have bought. Because of the way it's presented, in a friendly manner that showcases other clothing you may want to buy, sometimes using compliments or slogans such as "Missing something?" It pulls emotionally to the audience and encourages even more purchasing. 

Overall, Online Marketing is constantly aimed at me and my peers everyday. I myself have fallen for the emotive language they give off; and the discount codes constantly given to me, and despite being well aware of the way it's purposely intended that way, I still contribute to the market and create more advertisement for them.

Ref:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cutting-through-advertising-clutter/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZVjKRRfrfc

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/behind-online-behavior/201505/online-personality-disorders

Cybernetic: Own Persona

Feeding back to the idea that this project is more of a personal, emotive response than a wider look at the online world, I thought to reflect on my own persona on the internet. Considering I'm extremely self aware, it seems strange that my online life can be considered completely different to that of my offline world. I've been using the internet ever since I was about 11, and now, having 9 years of experience, by researching and looking through Instagram; #goals, #friends, whatever I've seen, I've learnt how to market myself to other people.

This can be considered a very easy way to start my research into online personalities. I'm, and I'm sure many others, use the lack of emotional interaction to their advantage - I met my online best friend through the blogging platform Tumblr. Without the internet I'd have never of crossed paths with her. Although arguably our friendship was built upon the lack of real life interaction (it's much easier to express anything about our life without having to physically talk, see each others gestures etc) it made meeting in real life and showing each other our real life worlds easier, as we'd already established a relationship then. Arguably, this shows that social media is a way of coaxing ourselves into a confidence boost.

A lot of people including myself use Social Media as a way of making ourselves seem put together and that we live in "perfect" life; my Instagram feed is carefully selected to show the best photographs I've taken, then edited, to people. I create a colour scheme, use white backgrounds and aesthetically pleasing objects to purposely create an identify for myself - even though I and many other people I know don't live exactly like that. We have much more messy, complicated lives.

The idea that I'd formed from examining my own persona was to create something that would clearly show the differences in online vs offline. I wanted something that could be relatable, and establish how we are marketing ourselves completely differently than what we actually are, whether that be a good thing or bad. My piece would hopefully be illustrative and easy to de-code; showing the differences between the Internet and real world. 

This led me to my next research: the way we see our mentality. Because we can sometimes have very down days, but act completely fine online, it's a way of hiding our emotions for fear of judgement, or to escape real life and have a satisfactory perfect life online.  The lack of unable to read someone through the internet means it's a lot easier to hide away, or make yourself look like an idealised, happy person, though you may not be. I wanted to explore why people do this (including myself) - for popularity or not.

Cybernetic: Personality & Behaviour

Online Personality & Behaviour

Because the topic for research is so broad, I new immediately that because of the personal take I wanted to do on the project, I could narrow down my research into specific fields. Firstly, I wanted to look at how we are perceived in terms of personality, and what we do online that we wouldn't offline.

My first idea came from the split between offline and online. I feel that we show ourselves to various different degrees on each platform we use. Instagram is an idealised situation of what we choose to show to someone, Snapchat is in the moment, less perfected, and Twitter can be live thoughts and feelings. These are all different degrees to which we show an insight into our lives. I came to the conclusion straight away that a lot can be hidden from social media and platforms that we may be feeling in real life. It's quite the norm to hide if you're feeling upset, or you're not that perfect idealised persona that everyone seeks.

However through the internet I think you can develop an intimacy you wouldn't in real life. Because of the lack of emotional pull a computer, or screen provides, you're able to be a bit more confident online and share details you wouldn't normally because of how you're unable to see someone physically. I think this has changed how we also interact with people - in Tribes, for example, they require long term engagement between a certain amount of people. The internet and screen provides more of a personalised relationship with someone without giving the emotional response that a real life person would.

I can link this back to myself very easily. It's far easier for me to talk to someone online than it in real life - it's quicker, I can communicate myself in a more professional manner, and say what I really want to say without the worry of an immediate response - or an emotional one. It requires a lot more intimacy to talk to someone in real life than it does online, which means I can communicate my point across a lot easier, helping me in the long run.

"Studies have found that day-to-day interactions are based almost entirely on nonverbal communication. When we interact with others, we are continuously processing wordless signals like facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures, body language, eye contact, and even the physical distance between us and them."
 Without this on the internet, the lack of nonverbal communication can also cause misinterpretation, but save the emotional intimacy between two people. I've found there are issues with both sides - many a time it's allowed me to say things I wouldn't normally say, but also read things the wrong way.

I want this project to be something that is personalised but also is relatable to a lot of people. Several friends; online friends, people I've come across feel the same way along the lines of they aren't exactly who they say or perceive themselves to be on the internet.  I wanted to address this, making people feel they aren't alone in how they feel - an emotive piece. We often choose to show ourselves as happy and relaxed when in fact we may not be, because it's the easiest option.

"These platforms help people project any image they want; they can be whoever and whatever they want to be. Without the ability to receive nonverbal cues, their audiences are none the wiser. "

Ref:
http://www.dailydot.com/via/evolution-digital-online-behavior/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/behind-online-behavior/201506/the-psychology-web-browsing
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/behind-online-behavior/201408/the-psychology-behind-social-media-interactions
http://www.internetsociety.org/sites/default/files/Online%20Identity-An%20Overview.pdf

Cybernetic: First Research

My first form of research for the project 'Cybernetic Self' involved looking at the three themes provided and exploring the meaning of each. Since I'd never come across the terms before, I found that starting by simply googling the meaning of each of the words allowed me to gain a more broader understanding of the project itself.

Sociomaterial 
The way technology and social interact. For example, how people are shaped, or their activities by technology.  It makes it extremely easy to contact a variety of people that you may not have ever seen before without the internet, all over the globe. The concept is that the internet or technology has become a extension of ourselves as such.

If this would be associated to me, as the project I want to undertake would be at a personal level, then I could justify this by saying that I would have never made contact with my best friend without the internet - it shaped my personality, my friendships, how I made decisions based from her. 

Network Ego
What is being said and what is being hidden? The idea that, online, you may not be the same person you are in real life. The internet is great at hiding things you do not wish to be seen, by making yourself a branded product. One example of this is Amalia Ulman, taking photographs to instagram that were purposely formed into a certain way that would look normalised in every day life, but also "perfected" every day life.

Celebrities (seen left, Selena Gomez) make up a good example of this - they, and their marketing team, perfect the shots/videos/promo that they want to show to the fans or press. However these are all cleverly branded in a certain way to give an image of a person. Gomez, for example, posting pictures with fans, branded photos with Coke, and dolled up shots, clearly not showing her everyday life as you and I would live it.

If this associated to myself, I would agree with the idea that we market ourselves in different ways. I, for example, post instagram shots that are positioned in a certain way that position me as someone who has an artsy-style life. I post pictures based off my interests, but create them in a way that visually looks pleasing - so it's not entirely accurate.

Autopoiesis
Consider your Autopoiesis your ‘self making’ —  ‘self poetry’, your identity and its subsequent interactions with others. How do I interact with someone else? What does this say about me, how I type, my profile picture, my way of interpreting things? Am I marketing myself as someone I'm not? These are questions I'd like to explore in my research and possibly my finished outcome, as I feel this is something that is happening with almost everyone that joins social media. You are only making a polished version of yourself and it's very rare to have raw, unedited persona.

Ref:
http://www.oikos.org/mariotti.htm
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20140528040601AA6syq8

Physical Process: Creating a Zine

Initial sketches to drawing and then tracing the work onto the finished paper.

For the first process and production session back, we were introduced to Zines - personalised work that adheres to a portable form. We were presented with words to portray in illustration - I chose to stick to the words. At first I'd struggled to come up with any ideas, but as I'd progressed into my work it became easier to create words and images associated to the definition. I found it really relaxing as the workshop progressed on, as I felt I wasn't conforming to work I didn't want to do and could make the piece entirely my own. I also liked the process of drawing alongside my peers, which made the session a lot more relaxed.

When the workshop first began I didn't feel comfortable creating the work as it was something I'd never done before, and couldn't come up with any ideas on the spot, I'd always go home, research and then come back with ideas. This was a way of creating some spontaneous result out of me; which, in the end, I liked.

I didn't adhere to a certain theme and visualised what each word meant to me, using the contrast between black and white to create striking pages. Patterns were also added in at the end when I wanted to create a more interesting design visually.

I've not done any illustration like this before and really, really enjoyed it. I'd definitely want to do more zines outside of University as they were quick and expressed a different side to my work, which allowed carefree drawing. I was also drawn to simplistic design and fonts, which formed a book I was satisfied with at the end.

Introduction to Year 2

My first lecture back was exploring, to begin with, Placements. Ideally after my first year, I'd love to go into something that was motion graphics, or television and film based, as this is my main interest. 

Peter gave us a clear indication where to start our research. My first inspiration came from my following on social media; the main things I've always been interested in in graphic design came down to what I'd look for and what I'd seek out for in a placement. 

My first idea came from motion graphics. After spending a year learning After Effects, I'd really want to get intro the industry for film, television, specifically title cards or anything to do with that. I'd start immediately coming up with names of who to contact in my head; Sky Design, BBC, Only Studios, Elastic, HUGE, etc. These were ones that I'd researched last year, and come to completely admire in awe. They became a focal point of research for my final project (the one that inspired me to pursue a career in this section) and allowed me to learn heaps in my final year.

We moved onto learning about the market around us. If this market, whether it be in a firm, national, or even international scale, would change, it would also change how this effects us and how we're paid. For example, if this is changed, it changes how you approach clientele depending on the market. This is impacted by technology, change, politics, war and even natural disasters. It's important to know what changes as designers.

Basic Marketing:

• Price
• Product
• Promotion
• Place

Marketing for graphic designers is the most important way we are able to sell ourselves to companies and any clients. Primarily, why a person buys or interact with the object/design is critical to making it successful; we must be able to justify why we're doing certain things, as this leads to a more successful design. Promotion such as advertising and how we place our products out for people to see is key to people consuming our products.

What is design?

• Visual Communication
• Problem Solving
• Creativity

Consider your problem and go through it. I also learned that, as a graphic designer, my thinking is divergent, meaning I have empathy, I can pull an emotional response out of my work - however, this has a draw back, you need to know when to draw a line under things and not to work to constant perfection. On a contrast, engineers are lateral, solution led thinking people that strive towards working around the problem and not the solution at hand. This is also why companies, especially ones you're approaching, may be wary - this is there way of thinking.

Overall, this lecture gave me an insight into how to start preparing for my placement - I've already started researching on the web, and essentially the best way to go about things is to start getting yourself out there towards people and approach them. The only way in the industry forward is to know contacts and to start approaching people yourself. I found this lecture extremely helpful, as well as a reminder what I want to do for my placement year.

year two