Cybernetic: Design Research 5

As I'd eventually worked on my final piece for the project, the face was something that I was settled upon looking how I wanted it to - however, I had to work on the background and start intertwining the ideas I'd initially drawn out from the beginning. I tried using basic shapes on Photoshop and editing them to give a 3d feel, but didn't feel this was enough to depict what I'd drawn out.

I then decided to do some artist research to gain some inspiration for the background and to start planning out what I wanted them to look like. Through research and Pinterest, I found Mike Winkelmann, a digital artist from America whose speciality is using Cinema 4D.

His work is really what I wanted to capture in my own, the colour schemes, abstract yet "computer-rendered" feel, and the use of circles, triangles, angles etc to give life to his piece. Particularly the middle work and the portraits are my main sources of inspiration. They're exactly what I was looking to depict in my own work, a mix of real life and cyber.

Although I can't create them exactly using photoshop, they're my main source of inspiration for the background, to depict the online reality of the world crashing with my own face to the right, and the use of colour is also what I wanted to take from his work too. Visually they're beautiful pieces and his use of shadow, lighting and colour make beautiful work.

Cybernetic: Design Research 4

My next research progress involved me looking around the internet, pinterest, behance etc for some inspiration. Despite the project going far into experimentation and research, I felt it needed a boost for me to provide more work that I was happy with, so I decided to look more into images that inspired/motivated me to create the work I wanted.

This led me to an artist called Giamoco Carmagnola, an italian graphic designer. Initially, the concept of the project was hard to establish - I found Carmagnola through researching self portraits in graphic design; and when approaching the source (a tumblr blog) he'd posted it on, there was no clear explanation behind the art work and what it represented.

Based more around photography work than graphic design, I loved the concept behind the work; "create the Glitch Art works that represents the fragility of our time." - I interpreted the piece in relation to my project, particularly the way the face is "caved" in using geometric lines, quite similar to the glitch style of research I also looked at. Although the intention behind the piece is completely different to what I interpreted at, I love the style as it's hyper-realistic by using photography and it looks like the face is almost carved out.

 My response was trying to relate back to the brief, I didn't want to stray too far into photography or make it over realistic, but I liked the implied implication of a broken face and sort of the digital, geometric lines over taking parts of you. I chose my base image of a fox again and tried to mimic the work in my own style. The piece was more meant to be free-flowing and nothing too serious, I spent less than 10 minutes on it, but like the contrast between the digital and more 'painted', 'flowy' side of the fox. 

This would also be my first way of mixing the two styles together from my previous research. I liked the effect overall and wanted to explore this further.

Ref:
https://www.behance.net/gallery/26317147/Glitch-app-artwork
https://www.behance.net/GoreCarmagnola

Cybernetic: Mood Research

Another thing to consider for my project is the association with moods and certain personalities. Particularly if I wanted to do a piece based off emotion it would be a good idea to research into the words and emotion associated with each colour.

Red Intensity, Anger

Yellow Jealousy, Aggrivation, Joy

Orange  Warmth, Excitement

Blue  Sadness, Calmness

Green Nature, Jealousy

Pink   Calm, Loving

Purple Powerful, Calming

White Neutral, Cold

Black, Mourning, Dark, Mysterious

Although it was quite apparent what most words are associated with, it was interesting to find that blue was something of calmness. For my project, I wanted blue and grey to be associated with depression and sadness, so this was something to consider - how can I make blue be associated with this without specifically writing it down. I wanted two contrasting colour schemes; blue/grey and to oppose that, yellow/red/pink. These are contrasting "emotions" as such.

I'd always considered colour when working in any document, whether the scheme worked well together or not, but never in depth about the certain emotions that each gave off. Because this was an emotive piece and I needed the message to come across without any text, I had to research into colour clearly and make sure that each side gave off the right response.


Ref:
http://visioncarebenefits.com/24568/psychology-colors/psychology-colors-brilliant-with-color-theory-in-advertising-philosophy-communication

Cybernetic: Animal Research

Further into my design process, I initially sketched out an animal as just a test shot (later I would have incorporated a face instead of the animal).

From feedback with Jay, I thought this could be a good idea to intertwine into my project; namely, associating animals with our emotional state. Although going slightly off the basis of our self vs something else, I thought that this could be interpreted into an idea of your online vs offline self and clashing personalities that we often get with our online persona.

This took me to research into animal/spiritual meanings and what they are associated with, personality and trait wise:

Wolf - Intelligence, Social

Owl - Wisdom

Bear - Strength

Hawk - Focus

Fox - Cunning

Butterfly - Light of being, playfulness

Cat - Patience

Horse - Driving Force

Panda - Gentle Strength

Rabbit - Loneliness/Shyness

Deer - Compassion

So for example, if I were to select animals I feel would depict myself, or specifically my online vs offline self then I'd choose a Panda or a Horse, then a Rabbit to compare. I believe it's quite telling of your personality and proved for interesting research for each culture to look into. It'd also be nice to have some self portraits clashing with the animals that you choose to believe you're associated with, with what your depicted as. There's lots of viable options for mood, colour, personality etc by going down the animal route however I'm not sure how I can bring this back into my project to the Online world.

Ref:
http://www.spiritanimal.info/
https://whatismyspiritanimal.com/spirit-totem-power-animal-meanings/

Cybernetic: Design Research 3

 

Continuing my research into portraiture in graphics, I came across an artist called David Walker. The blue piece in particular is what drew me to his work, the colour palette I immediately felt inspired by and wanted to re-create in my own work. As I'm coming down the route of using emotion and personality in my project, I felt that Walker's work was something to draw immediate inspiration from; the use of colour, texture, brush strokes, with a mix of realism is my intention for my project and to depict the two contrasts between the online and offline world.

Although done by hand, my aim is to recreate a similar appearance using brushes on Photoshop with paint strokes and mimicking the contrast between the background and the bright colours from the face. The work has been an inspiration for me because although it isn't exactly what I intended my work to look like, it's something I'm going to draw inspiration from and recreate in my own way, in Photoshop or Illustrator. Walkers work brings an emotional response to me because of the agressive strikes of colour and paint he's used.

Ref:

http://www.artofdavidwalker.com/

Cybernetic: Design Research 2

My second design research was focusing more on the style of the graphics I'd wanted, not layouts. I'd came across the artist Denis Gonchar via pinterest and found his work to be ideal for my project. Gonchar himself is a digital artist who focuses work in Illustrator & Photoshop; earlier works were also created by hand. The first piece (Parrot) is what initially drew me to the work, primarily the sense of a 3D effect created by the layers he's used. I also felt inspired by the lines coming out of the work, and the slight abstractness of the piece - this is something I'm looking to recreate in my project, focusing on colour and texture.

The work itself is created on Illustrator, however I'm going to be making this on Photoshop and hopefully animating sections of the work to make it come to life - I'm drawing inspiration from the "flow-ey", carefreeness of the work that isn't too precise. Clear sections of the parrot over-line which gives it the abstract look, whilst the colour palette and shading still makes the piece look realistic.

His work is amazingly well detailed and mixes abstract and reality together to create pieces that seem almost painted on instead of digitally created. I've been inspired by Gonchar to use this style as a centerpieces for my work, I'd aim to use the lines and swirls of colour coming out of the middle of my work and spiralling out. I also like his use of slight-3D with the shading and lighting, which I also aim to recreate in my work.

The style is modern and simplistic, which is exactly why I like it so much - it gives personality to the animal he's drawing and by staying with a certain colour palette almost draws an emotion from the animal.

Cybernetic: Design Research

After coming to a rough conclusion on what I wanted the content of my work to be on, I chose to begin researching into the style of graphic and design that would work best with my idea. Immediately when I'd come up with the idea, the work above, for an unused Mercedes-Benz campaign sprung to mind. It perfectly captured the "split personality" I was intending for my piece, even the style of graphics to the right was something I'd drawn out in a rough idea. Although the subject matter of the design wasn't the same as what I wanted to capture, the way some icons intertwine into the paint and the quality of the work is something I'd want to re-create myself. The illustration was created by Y&R Israel, although for some reason the campaign was never launched. Thus, it's very hard to find the intentions of Mercedes-Benz with the advertisement. 

Personally I believe the intention was to "unleash" a creative side to the market and show the car can be a fun addition to the audiences life, whilst maintaining the market of professionalism they usually aim for their client.

Particularly my favourite part of the piece is the use of line work over the brain, and inter-spilling between both the right and left sections. I like the way they've represented the two sides and the use of colour and shadow to represent the paint almost dripping off the brain. It's quite a contrast to what you'd expect from a car company such as Mercedes, and brings them almost into a more fun light for me. 

My work for this project has been inspired by the campaign, particularly the use of textures/brushes and the way it's directly split in the middle. My interpretation of the project is to do two sides, one which depicts the "real" you and one that shows off your online self. I'll be using the split down the middle from this campaign as a basis for my own project.

Ref:

https://web.archive.org/web/20160308010140/http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/mercedes_benz_left_brain_right_brain_paint

http://adsoftheworld.com/campaign/mercedes-yr-02-2011
http://blog.entrepreneurthearts.com/2011/11/09/mercedes-whole-brain-ads-musicpaintpassion/
http://www.psfk.com/2011/04/mercedes-benz-print-ad-targets-both-sides-of-your-brain-pics.html

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