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First slide created

Project Production and Development

The group elected to go with the comic narrative format for our artefact. To utilize the skills of most of the members, we adapted the comic to a short film to include some animation. We also agreed to add the infographic to this concept to include a factual element in the project.

The stories we tell will be based on three of the group members’ personal experiences shortly before and after the coronavirus became a pandemic. We then allocated the work responsibilities according to the skills each member had. We all combined our efforts in developing the stories, illustrations, animation and final edits.

Over the first week we illustrated and animated a scene as a guide for how the rest of the artefact will look.

We met frequently via zoom over the few weeks to communicate tasks, organise our work and contribute towards the development of the project.

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Art and Memory Jack Hocking

Jack Hocking Blog Post 4 – Memory and Art – Michael Angelo

Born in 1963 George Michael was a hit in the 80s and at a quick pace became an incredibly famous part of pop culture through his original band ‘Wham’, who are well known for the classic ‘Wham Rap’. He later went on to pursue an individual career being his own song writer, producer and general singer. His last song entry was ‘We Want You to Get High’ before passing away in 2016. His last words on stage were “I love you London, we will see you soon”.

In popular art culture he has been revisited and lived on through not only illustrations but public graffiti. Creative Artists appear to create remarkable detailed versions of particular iconic individuals including Michael himself. They do this to others memorize him and to show that he is dearly missed by the LGBT community.

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Power, Memory & Architecture

(Sudheer Kumar Koppula)Blog post #3

Power memory architecture

The book under review is an excellent interdisciplinary study that falls squarely in the shadowy space between art history and political history.

Architecture and cultural landscapes especially in the Deccan peninsular India bespeak conquest, dominion, destruction, and redefinition.

The three issues highlighted in this study are power, memory, and architecture.

It took me a while to read through the volume because I dwelt on each page, poring over the pictures and delighting in the art historical perspective as it emerged. And in the process, there were two similar works that I was immediately prompted to fish out from my shelf to consult alongside: Simon Schama’s Landscape and Memory, and Sheldon Pollock’s The Language of the Gods in the World of Men. “Intriguing,” is perhaps the one word that jumps to one’s mind while perusing all three. Land and memory are inextricably connected and built-environments suffer from invasion and conquest leaving traces of the depredations and maraudings of colonisers as much as those of defeated rivals.

In the vision of the authors of Power, Memory, Architecture, the invaders of the Deccan were confronted with complex cultural situations and were in turn left with a range of options: they could continue to patronize pre-existing structures in a similar manner like of old or rebuild them in the same sites in their own manner. They could also redefine or alter them in imitation. In some cases, they could destroy them or in other cases, they could ignore the cultural sites altogether and turn a blind eye.

In any of those cases — examples of each are elucidated in the various chapters of the book — what emerges is the struggle of power over cultural landscapes and people’s memory.

The book is divided into four sections, titled respectively: Orientations; Kalyana and the Chalukya Legacy; Warangal and the Kakatiya Legacy; The Raichur Doab in the Age of Gunpowder. Power is the lynchpin of this book: and relying mainly on the available architectural and epigraphic record, the authors read beyond crude stereotypes of the clash between Hindus and Muslims and attempt to identify and explain the wide range of ways at critical points in the Deccan’s history, conquerors, administrators, and even local chieftains interacted with the key cultural monuments of this area. As they argue, historians have often tended to neglect the Deccan during the 1300-1600, and this book proffers different perspectives from the usual ones toward a better understanding of how regional politics operated at the ground level. The authors approach monuments and other material evidence as dynamic texts that tell their own tales about how they related to different communities over time.

The battle of Talikota spelled catastrophe for Vijayanagara while for Bijapur it was a physical and ideological transformation, and its Sultan Adil Shah used the plundered wealth to upgrade Bijapur from a mere provincial outpost to a major Indo-Persian capital. Architectural narratives reveal this process of fusion, transformation, and reintegration. It is not unusual for scholars of history to refer to the plunder and pillage of Hindu temples by Muslim invaders.

But as this book attempts to reread in the remains of Deccan’s architectural monuments, desecration and destruction were not the sole processes but deliberate cultivation of aesthetic and architectural history integrated with the memory of place also was in the scheme of things.

refrence:- ( Richard M.Eaton, Phillip B. Wagoner)

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Art as Memory Blog Post #3 Johanna Castillo

AR-based value-added visualization of infographic for enhancing learning performance

I read a study by Mahmoudi ( 2017), related to the reality-Base infographic (AR), which analyses the usability of animated visual information, 3D that includes texts to transfer educational content. The study was particularly developed to analyse the effects of AR-based infographics to improve learning.

Prototype infographic and mobile application

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In this paper, infographics are described as a medium that presents information in a quick and understandable way. The paper remarks that the current potential of infographics is in the electronic form of infographics, applying multimedia because it can be more appealing and groundbreaking.

On the occasion of the study, a mobile application was designed on an Android platform using zxing QRcode scanner for scanning content on the prototype mobile application. Which was developed to include infographics through QR codes. Through this application, the participants got acquainted with aspects of traditional and electronic learning environments, tools, and teaching methodologies provided as an infographic. It was believed using this innovative method that the information in this way would not be ignored since, in addition to transferring the differences between traditional and electronic learning, it would help the public to become familiar with the concept of augmented reality.

The main reason for this experiment is to improve the learning of the participants through an infographic. the researchers analysed first the way to learn of participants using the Felder-Silverman model (FSLSM)  which according to Wadhwa et al.,( 2018), is a learning style model that is often used in technology-enhanced learning, designed for traditional learning. FSLSM is based on tendencies, that indicate learners preference or certain behaviours. After that the initial cognitive ability of participants based on the Bloom model was analysed through a pre-test.

The results indicate that compared to the pre-test, the post-test display a significant improvement in learning. Although, the increase is minimum it confirms the improvement in knowledge through the use of AR.

This study I found it very interesting to apply as a model to follow in our group project since it develops an experiment with computer graphics that make use of audio-visual technology to contribute to the improvement of learning. I also considered that this method could also be used for different art areas to reinforce messages, which may reach the viewer in a more meaningful way.

References:

Mahmoudi, M. T. (2017) ‘AR-based value-added visualization of infographic for enhancing learning performance’, (February), pp. 1038–1052. doi: 10.1002/cae.21853.

Wadhwa, N. et al. (2018) ‘Synthetic Depth-of-Field with a Single-Camera Mo-bile Phone’, ACM Trans. Graph, 37. doi: 10.1145/3197517.3201329.

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Economic Catastrophe - architecture

(Sudheer Kumar Koppula) - Blog post #2

        As we crawl into the second decade of the 21st century, many parts of the world are experiencing an economic catastrophe. It is crucial to understand and comprehend that architecture is a powerful visual and objective tool that influences the economy of a region. Architecture is beyond artistic prudence. It is a fundamental part of a bigger system - an element of the process of economic development, technological progress, and social change. It evokes unpredictable changes and processes, that only time could tell.

         The Covid-19 outbreak as made a drastic impact in all the sectors of Indian economy, including the architectural and design, Some of the major point that contributed to slowdown in the industry include scarcity of the labourers, restricted supplies of the materials(Concrete, sand, cement, iron, marble, etc...) that were earlier imported from other countries, and finding some replacements from local markets. This pandemic has impelled us to think out of the box in every sphere in order to continue survival.

        In such trying times, companies are re-evaluating the need for large buildings and acclimatising to the work-from-home culture, consolidating branches spread in different areas, re-sizing the offices, and shifting offices to newer areas with less expense to reduce running costs. With so many firms readjusting to new norms, cancelling the deals of expansion, spaces and payments, has brought the architectural industry to a major halt, especially in leasing activities and conformation.

        To bring the upliftment of the economy, special care must be put into rethinking the industry sector. The new challenges of managing cost quality and time factors due to limitations in investment could be address by adapting phase-wise planning. The next important phase to consider is the IT sector. Ergonomic designs, inculcating the value of team clusters and privacy, along with social distancing measures, will be the necessity for planning and modelling of IT sector buildings. it is important to design structures that would promote a healthy work environment and space aesthetics, Internal space designing will bring in lifestyle changes at both ‘micro’ and ‘macro’ levels.

With social distancing and precautions as the new mantra, the concept of ‘built environment’ will need modifications with a call for innovative ideas to substantiate the requirements.

(Manish Dikshit Founder partner and principal architect AUM ARCHITECTS says on a post as follows)

Before trying to explain the impact of coronavirus in the construction industry, I would like to throw light on the bigger picture. Three important points which needs to be attended globally are the health, economy and civil unrest. If these are taken care of, globally, it will prevent any downfall of businesses. We, as architectural professionals, should ensure we participate in ensuring the above and play our part to make our future better and just not expecting our governments to do miracles. At Aum Architects, like most design studios, we followed the instructions from our government to shut our sites as well as our office and operate remotely with all the technology at our disposal.

The lockdown is currently affecting our income which will soon start pinching our functionality. We as an ethical organization, planned to take a salary cut across the board. This will ensure no one is left to fend for themselves. Our team has gracefully accepted our solution too. Along with our design studio, we have reached out to our contraction consultants to check if they need any sort of assistance during this time and monitor it on a regular basis. Let us not be disillusioned, this will only ensure we are able to sustain for a longer period of time without handing over the pink slip to anyone. Looking at the entire scenario, we feel it should take our industry at least 6-8 months before we are back to designing new projects. Keeping our fingers crossed, hoping for a new beginning and better future.

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HURDLES OF PANDEMIC IN INDIA  (Sudheer Kumar Koppula)Blog post #1

    At the time of the pandemic started in India I was working as an Interior designer for a Multi-National Company called "Real page", The day we heard the news about the Covid-19 was very anxious because the Covid case was registered in our office building, everyone in the office got nervous and panic. In an hour or so the admin department made the building vacate, they declared a holiday for the next day. And then after someday, WFH system started, As we are using high-end machines it is a bit complicated for WFH, somehow we managed it well so that it could not affect the client, As the days are passing on the Covid has been started increasing day by day and the nervousness has also been raised to the saturation point. Some of the other companies have started the rescission plan and that news kept us in a very downcast situation, to our mental health. Some companies haven't paid enough wages for their employees and some of them paid only half of their service.

The situation of the Public due to the National Wide Lockdown.

  The public has started moving to their hometown by been restricted by Police and the government Government rules are very strict in India if you come out of your home without a valid reason or proper permission of the government the police are ready to do Lotte charge on the people to control to the public. Homeless people on the streets are out of food and water as no one is coming out of their homes, after some days people started helping each other and the homeless on the streets by providing some food and water, and also providing food to street animals, these all are because of the complete closure of the groceries shops and supermarkets, after some days they were allowed to open for a stipulated time frame in a day. And all the Schools, Colleges and Universities were changed into Quarantine Centres.

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Animated Infographic Idea -Johanna Castillo

About the proposal

After reviewing some valuable references and theories on the use of images to preserve memories and activate memory through the use of phrases and images such as, the “three Rs” of associative mnemonic techniques: recoding, relating, and retrieving (Levin, 1983). It occurred to me that the images could be combined with simple explanatory texts in an animated infographic that would talk about Covid -19, its origen, ways of transmission, and prevention. So that, all members of the group could participate and contribute with their skills.

I considered and proposed to my colleges that for this suggestion of the project that we could base on the infographic style of the videos of Ted-Ed which I post below.

I envisioned a project that could be disseminated and useful for society. Nevertheless, The idea was analyzed in two group presentations, and my classmates considered that the idea was too educational and and more complex in the context of execution, because it would require more research and time. Thus it was discarded giving way to an idea more related to the narrative of events and memory keeping.

References:

Levin, JR (1983) 'Pictorial Strategies for School Learning: Practical Illustrations', pp. 213–237. doi: 10.1007 / 978-1-4612-5519-2_8.

Yunn, K. (2017) ‘Why is it so hard to cure cancer?’, The True South Through My Eyes - HK Edgerton. TED-ED.

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Blog Post 5 Jack Hocking

My starting idea is based upon real world Covid from a more non human perspective. While everyone is in Lockdown and struggling with the current pandemic I thought it might be a good idea to look at those who are potentially benefiting from this dilemma. I added the man living room and a simplistic character idea that creates personality with the room. A set of stock piled objects helps reiterate the impacts of Covid and how restricted we have become. 

I then decided to look at the exterior to the property and reflect upon how I think it would look in contrast to the man being inside. To do this I decided to include nature and how the animals are not restricted to their homes and can thrive without any interruption from human interaction.

By sticking to the same house idea I am able to relate the first image to the second and ensure that a consistency is kept. 

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Interdisciplinary project idea 1- (Oluwaseye Sanyaolu)

Our first idea is a simple interactive short film that focuses on the lives of different people from different countries and their experiences living through the corona-virus pandemic. Inspired by documentary graphic narratives - Josh Neufeld’s A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge (2009) and Joe Sacco’s Safe Area Gorazde (2000) - it illustrates the effects of the corona-virus through the eyes of individuals to personalize the story.

We have come up with an idea to create a menu for viewers to select one of the 5 people that this project will cover. One from Nigeria, Pakistan, South America, India and England. However due to time constraints we will likely limit to 3 stories and use a simpler alternative for the menu. 

Each story will start of with an introduction to the character and their plans for the year before the corona-virus was globally known. The stories will then progress to the events preceding and after most countries decisions to enter into lock-downs and social distancing. We will get different perspectives from the way each of the represented countries handled this crisis and how their citizens were affected during this period.

One of the screens we create will then show facts and figures about the effects of the virus and the lockdown in the countries. Transmission rates, fatality rates, the economy, the citizens attitudes towards the government’s handling of the situation etc.

Our group has members from different fields of discipline and we can use these different fields to enhance this idea. We can have the members experienced in animation to bring motion in to the illustrator’s drawings as well as using the fashion’s student’s experiences to give an interesting take on one of the stories.

This is still a rough idea and we hope to polish it as time goes on as well as consider other ideas .

References

Neufeld, J., 2009. A.D.. 1st ed. Pantheon Graphic Novels.

Sacco, J., 2000. Safe Area Gorazde. Seattle, Wash: Fantagraphics books.

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Art and Memory (Oluwaseye Sanyaolu- Blog post #2-3)

Preserving Memory in Josh Neufeld's Graphic Novel, "AD: After the Deluge" (Oluwaseye Sanyaolu- Blog post #2)

http://www.joshcomix.com/work/ad-new-orleans-after-the-deluge/

Josh Neufeld's “AD: New Orleans After the Deluge” (2009), is a critically acclaimed graphic novel which portrays the lives of several New Orleans residents in the days before and immediately following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Neufeld provided volunteer relief in the immediate aftermath of the storm; However, he chose to create graphic avatars of real individuals who survived Katrina, to make sure that his representation of the events that happened because of the storm were not influenced by his conceits and judgments, but rather would depict the words and thoughts of people who were there to experience the storm and the significant catastrophes (Coby, 2015)

The way in which Neufeld illustrated the characters and stories gives readers an intimate look into their experience and memories.

Neufeld also used some imagination to graphically represent the experiences of the characters in his book based on the real-life stories he was assisting to tell. For example, I have illustrated a variety of a character's possessions (such as comics, journals, clothes) being devoured by a circulating vortex (Coby, 2015). Davies (2019), also notes that Neufeld's book not only shows the destruction Katrina caused, but it also sheds light on the US government and the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) failure in handling and responding to the events.

https://illustrationfixation.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/ad-new-orleans-after-the-flood/

A fascinating feature of the webcomic version of this graphic novel is that some pages contain web links to external sources and websites to aid the reader's understanding of New Orleans as well as the events incited by the natural disaster. Coby (2015), notes that many of these links include; sources that educate the reader on the vibrant community and culture of New Orleans; eyewitness Youtube videos or news media documentary videos. It is also interesting to note that some of these links are broken and the information or website pages do not exist anymore. “This shows even though Neufeld is trying to document what happened, technology moves on and indirectly gives the audience a feel of how much time has passed since the work was created in recent times” (Coby, 2015).

This comic serves to preserve the memories of the real-life experiences of the characters in the book and attempts to preserve links to relevant online information to make sure that readers also do not forget their stories.

REFERENCES

Coby, J. 2015, "" —it's pretty easy to forget what it's like to be a have-not ": Envisioning and Experiencing Trauma in Josh Neufeld's" AD: New Orleans After the Deluge "",  South Central review,  vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 110-123.

Davies, D. 2020; 2019 ;, "Graphic Katrina: disaster capitalism, tourism gentrification and the affect economy in Josh Neufeld's AD: New Orleans after the Deluge (2009)",  Journal of graphic novels & comics,  vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 325-340.

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Changes Over Time (Oluwaseye Sanyaolu- Art and Memory Blog post #3)

Nigel Walker is a British artist Originally from Salford and his work has previously been shown in Salford Art Gallery (Pike, 2021). His paintings are displayed at Manchester Town hall in the Mayor’s office (Johnson, 2015).

Walker moved to Rossendale a few weeks prior to the first lockdown in the UK and has devoted himself to recounting and memorialising how life has been in this area during this unprecedented period by capturing the changing faces, people and environment. (Pike, 2021).

https://www.inyourarea.co.uk/news/tourist-artist-captures-towns-changing-faces-through-lockdown/

https://www.lancs.live/news/lancashire-news/artist-captures-changing-face-rawtenstall-19584571

Some of this work shows empty streets, closed shops and passer-bys with facemasks on.

His approach in using art to form memory is simply by making art from what he observes from the streets he passes by. There is no specific story or person he intends on capturing; instead, the streets are the subject and the changes he witnesses in his paintings will reveal and memorialise the pandemic.

References

Pike, S., 2021. 'Tourist' artist captures town's changing faces through lockdown. [online] InYourArea.co.uk. Available at: <https://www.inyourarea.co.uk/news/tourist-artist-captures-towns-changing-faces-through-lockdown/> [Accessed 24 February 2021].

Pike, S., 2021. Artist captures changing face of Rawtenstall through covid lockdown. [online] LancsLive. Available at: <https://www.lancs.live/news/lancashire-news/artist-captures-changing-face-rawtenstall-19584571> [Accessed 24 February 2021].

Johnson, H., 2015. Artist who gained the backing of LS Lowry's friend creates oil paintings of Middleton. [online] Manchester Evening News. Available at: <https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/artist-who-gained-backing-ls-9435526> [Accessed 24 February 2021].

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Art and Memory: Oluwaseye Sanyaolu- Blog post #1)

Chibok Girls Mural (Oluwaseye Sanyaolu- Blog post #1)

In Nigeria, a terrorist group known as ‘Boko Haram’, translated to ‘(Western) education is forbidden’, started a conflict against the Nigeria's Government with the objective of creating an Islamic state in the region since 2009 (Bertoni, Di Maio, Molini and Nisticò, 2019). The group had targeted school systems specifically in the north-eastern regions of the country. In 2014, 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped by Boko Haram which sparked an international reaction and the ‘Bring Back Our Girls’ social media campaign that transfixed people around the world (Holpuch, 2018). Over the years, some have been released or have escaped; however till today, many of the girls are reported to still be missing or in captivity (Milbank, 2021).

A significant piece of art that has memorialized this on-going tragedy is a mural by Polly Alakija, on the Falomo bridge in Lagos, Nigeria. Alakija is a British Muralist based in Lagos, Nigeria and she created the murals on the columns in 2017 in homage to the Bring Back our Girls organisation campaigners, who have met at the site every Saturday since 2014. (FALOMO UNDER BRIDGE – MOE+artArchitecture, 2021).

https://moeaa.com/portfolio/falomo/

In an interview with Visual Collaborative, Alakija discussed how the project came about saying “With the kidnapping of the Chibok girls this space became intrinsically linked to the BBOG (Bring back our girls) movement. It was clear to me that any visuals in this space that did not acknowledge the suffering of these girls, and many others and their families, would be disrespectful. The faces were the relevant response to the recent history of the space and the receding strong flyover “legs” the perfect canvas on which to recognize female strength beauty support and resilience”.

The mural is located an area of ​​high transit and serves to remind the people living in this area of ​​a real-life tragedy that is still playing out as they pass by. The location was also selected because of how it became the physical spot where organizers gathered and campaigned for the release of the girls.

The mural also helps to give a face and identity to the girls from those who are still in captivity or missing as well as those who managed to escape. An indirect message can also be read from this mural in how the government of the country failed to protect each of these girls represented and still fails to rescue them. Alakija clearly could not have replicated the identities of the girls but she used her art and imagination to document and display what had happened.

https://moeaa.com/portfolio/falomo/

 References

Bertoni, E., Di Maio, M., Molini, V. & Nisticò, R. 2019; 2018 ;, "Education is forbidden: The effect of the Boko Haram conflict on education in North-East Nigeria",  Journal of development economics ,  vol. 141, pp. 102249.

Holpuch, A., 2018. Stolen daughters: what happened after #BringBackOurGirls? . [online] The Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/oct/22/bring-back-our-girls-documentary-stolen-daughters-kidnapped-boko-haram> [Accessed 14 February 2021].

Milbank, S., 2021.  Chibok girl escapes from captivity by Boko Haram . [online] The Tablet. Available at: <https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/13817/chibok-girl-escapes-from-captivity-by-boko-haram> [Accessed 14 February 2021].

Moeaa.com. 2021.  FALOMO UNDER BRIDGE - MOE + artArchitecture . [online] Available at: <https://moeaa.com/portfolio/falomo/> [Accessed 14 February 2021].

Visualcollaborative.com. 2019.  Polly Alakija - Visual Collaborative . [online] Available at: <https://www.visualcollaborative.com/polly_alakija_lagos/> [Accessed 14 February 2021].

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Art and Memory (1) (Hinna)

In the last three centuries orators, instructors and mnemonists have encouraged the use of psychological scanning and mnemonic devices to support memory decoding and collection. Until recently, our science community would not generally support these arguments also because data they were based on was rather anecdotal. This isn't the case now. As is evident from the other chapters within this book, regulated laboratory experiments carried over the past 20 years have proven the general argument that imagery and mnemonics promote memory learning and reminding can be taught to a broad variety of people.

Although you can store and reliably gather facts and data, they would need intellectual achievement at that later date. This has its drawbacks to remember names, date, milestones, formulas, the sense of the vocabulary of the different tongue. As students pass from the early elementary level to the junior high school and secondary school level, more content is taught and the teacher strives more and more to emphasize interpretation, examination and synthesis of simple or general concepts. Students also need to use learning technique to recognize and understand both the factual facts (sometimes called micro-initiatives or ideas of a minor order in prose learning literature) and the key ideas that are integrated into prose materials (also known as macro-initiatives or ideas of a higher level).

Overall, the solution to this dilemma can seem evident and simple as we can teach students to use mnemonic devices that help to understand and remember both kinds of thoughts. This will work for relatively concrete and organized passages. One common explanation why word lists or insane syllables are used is that learning mechanisms can be studied more clearly by simply organized and regulated stimuli (Meyer, 1975). Although this claim is true, it does have some inconveniences when it comes to essay learning. For one thing, studying concepts of word lists cannot always be found with writing (eg serial positioning). Secondly, Prose has a framework structured to convey a message. For vocabulary collections, that's not the case. Thirdly, prose is the key tool for the dissemination of knowledge in the school setting. Therefore,

Reference

Snowman J. (1987) Explorations in Mnemonic Training. In: McDaniel MA, Pressley M. (eds) Imagery and Related Mnemonic Processes. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4676-3_17

Benefits Of Viewing And Creating Art (2)

People often prefer to view art as aesthetic reasons within their homes, but new research has shown that interacting with visual arts can really enhance depression, memory and empathy by looking at or making art.

Viewing art has countless advantages. A research carried out by Westminster University showed that people who visited an Art Gallery during their lunch break were less pressured. They spent just 35 minutes walking through a gallery, with lower cortisol concentrations, the stress hormone.

When you look at art, you still experience pleasure, like the feeling of falling into love. In order to alleviate people with emotional fatigue, people have often toured the gallery, as well as the outside world. As per the research by Jan Packer on the benefits of museum immersion, in natural environments and museums, the four aspects lead to mental rehabilitation (fascination and absence, compatibility and scope) make it a perfect break.

Not just adults love a visit to the Museum of Sculpture. A research conducted by Arkansas University revealed that teachers who saw art exhibited higher critical thinking abilities, stronger understanding and an ability to sense what it was like for people living in a different time and environment. Observation, understanding, assessment, association and problem solving capabilities were tested by ten thousand students. After a tour of the art gallery, the students' critical thinking capabilities improved by 9-18 points.

Art and Memory Relation with Mental Health

Besides seeing art, the production of art benefits mental health as well. The brain establishes new bonds between brain cells as individuals participate in complicated projects. It also facilitates coordination between the conservative and liberal brain hemispheres. Therefore, an assessment of the effects of the visual art development reveals that an individual's capacity to respond to circumstances and inconvenience has improved its psychological resistance .Art also decreases tension and negatives, providing a meditation-like atmosphere. Like meditation, art attracts attention to information and the world, which distract from daily thinking.

For other health conditions, visual arts activities help patients forget about their illnesses. It also lowers their stress hormone cortisol and gives them an outlet to express their feelings and experiences. Many ways to appreciate art, such as watching an art exhibition or dabbling in oil paints are open. It will lead to better mental states to be exposed to art, sculptures and photos. Try adding a lovely photo to your home at the end of a frustrating day to a fast rise of dopamine.

How Covid-19 permanently altered life of a fashion student (3)

There's no pandemic rulesbook, while blog posts and Instagram Live streams tend to want to bring one for young designers together – to encourage us to put our heads down and to be constructive and now all right that we are not productive.

We should find a way to "transform the fashion industry for the better," when we are all limited to our homes and apartments. People get even tougher in cases like this in their characteristics.

When Covid hit Pakistan in 2019 i was working as an Assistant Designer at a Boutique and suddenly cases of coronavirus were increasing day by day and because of shortage of masks, as a fashion designer i decided to make masks with my logo on for people and distribute them as a gesture of care and protection.

Pakistani designers such as Ali Zeeshan, Khaadi, Sana Safinas and many more had to face much loss during this time because of cancellation of orders from all over the world, above 15000 workers were fired from the factories, which contributes almost 70% of the countries export, which is a great loss to the country. Pakistani Fashion influencers and stylists were totally in shock because it is hard for them to tackle that situation in the first place and after three to four months 22.2% of Pakistani population moved towards online shopping and tried to tackle the pandemic situation. 

Since in the COVID-19 pandemic we are all spending more, more and more hours at home, loungewear is becoming a new normal. You have comfortable sets to watch TV in, and then you've got the sets you can save for "best" to wear at weekends, so we feel fascinated with loungewear, we feel there are several levels. 

https://fashionista.com/2020/12/loungewear-fashion-trends-2020

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/may/27/fast-fashion-pakistan-garment-workers-fight-for-rights-amid-covid-19-crisis

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Art as Memory- Johanna Castillo Blog Post #1

Remembering Art Through the Art of Memory

This paper by Carney and Levin (2018), develops two follow-up research involving the learning of works of art. Hypothetically, traditional portraits could be more difficult to associate with artists' names than works with thematic representations. While the thematic paintings include additional details these should improve memory. For the purpose of this study 64 undergraduate psychology students were recruited.

 The research method was based on a private study by Carney and Levin (2014), the students were assigned to one of the two groups called: own best method and face-name mnemonic, a learning method that consists of remembering relevant aspects of an object or a person to later associate it with a peculiar phrase, The face-name mnemonic strategy can be broken down into three steps that termed the “three Rs” of associative mnemonic techniques: recoding, relating, and retrieving (Levin, 1983). Twenty-eight paintings by not very well known painters were chosen to be learned by the students. Members of the "Your Strategy" group could use their best method to associate the names of the artists with their paintings. In contrast, students in the mnemonic condition were directed to study the same two artists / painting name pairs through the mnemonic approach. In addition to replicating previous mnemonic art learning findings, the scientists found that thematic paintings are generally easier to associate with names than portraits, it could be because they are more distinctive and because they provide a "more lens-rich environment" for making mnemonic associations. 

Twenty-eight paintings by not very well known painters were chosen to be learned by the students. Members of the "Your Strategy" group could use their best method to associate the names of the artists with their paintings. In contrast, students in the mnemonic condition were directed to study the same two artists / painting name pairs through the mnemonic approach. In addition to replicating previous mnemonic art learning findings, the scientists found that thematic paintings are generally easier to associate with names than portraits, it could be because they are more distinctive and because they provide a "more lens-rich environment" for making mnemonic associations.The group could use their best method to associate the names of the artists with their paintings. In contrast, students in the mnemonic condition were directed to study the same two artists / painting name pairs through the mnemonic approach. 

In addition to replicating previous mnemonic art learning findings, the scientists found that thematic paintings are generally easier to associate with names than portraits, it could be because they are more distinctive and because they provide a "more lens-rich environment" for making mnemonic associations. group could use their best method to associate the names of the artists with their paintings. In contrast, students in the mnemonic condition were directed to study the same two artists / painting name pairs through the mnemonic approach. In addition to replicating previous mnemonic art learning findings, the scientists found that thematic paintings are generally easier to associate with names than portraits, it could be because they are more distinctive and because they provide a "more lens-rich environment" for making mnemonic associations. .

The researchers found that thematic paintings are generally easier to associate with names than portraits, it could be because they are more recognizable and they provide "more environment details" for making mnemonic associations.

This paper represents a meaningful contribution to the education of artists, face-name mnemonic method suggests the power of images connected to phrases to stimulate memory. 

Reference:

Carney, RN and Levin, JR (2014) 'Learning more about and with the face-name mnemonic strategy', Applied Cognitive Psychology, 28 (4), pp. 569-578. doi: 10.1002 / acp.3036. Carney, RN and Levin, JR (2018) 'Remembering Art Through the Art of Memory', Journal of Experimental Education, 86 (4), pp. 530–545. doi: 10.1080 / 00220973.2017.1386154. Levin, JR (1983) 'Pictorial Strategies for School Learning: Practical Illustrations', pp. 213–237. doi: 10.1007 / 978-1-4612-5519-2_8.

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Art as Memory-  Johanna Castillo Blog post #2

The Art of Memory

This paper talks about how an art exhibition was held at White Cube Gallery in London in memory of the anniversary of this place. The exhibition carried out by the art curators Susan May and Susanna Greeves sought to achieve an effect similar to that achieved by the Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov when he wrote his autobiography detailing events of his life, considering the validity of his self-confessions and the plasticity of the memory.

The curators mounted an exhibition spanning the entire London Ehite Cube site, displaying the work of forty artists divided into six sections: Historical, Autobiographical, Traces, Transcription, Collective, and Sensory. The first theme encompassed social events that influenced collective memory, memories here are seen as a powerful influence to establish an official record in history. Artists like Gates, Doris Salcedo and Magnus Plessen, shared the exhibition with experiences of war and emigration. Magnus inspired by Ernst Friedrish's work of him, and his photographs of deformed soldiers returning home after doing their duty. He uses an amazing color with cutouts to distort the shape of the bodies that she creates a feeling of imbalance and confusion, making the viewer reflect on the experiences of the past. In the second theme of the exhibition, the relationship that certain features have between art and memory in a physical way is analyzed. The author mentions the work of Pollock’s and Basquiat to introduce the idea that images cannot be disconnected from the origin of their creation. In this exhibition. Mona Hatoum makes use of the power of the graphical memory to represent an experience from the past, representing her mother in the baking machine on three tulle sheets, giving her an optic of movement and depth, where the traditional is connected with the distorted simulating active memory. The paper by Context and Saba ( 2018), sheds light on the understanding of what can be achieved with visual storytelling since images are considered capable of unleashing and preserving memories in a better way than a book or an exclusive textual narrative. I think that this paper for our project would be very useful since based on the experience of this exhibition we could create a set of images that narrate different collective experiences that help us to prevail in the memory of more people thanks to narrating our experiences in a creative way.

Reference:

Context, I. and Saba, L. (2018) ‘Exhibition The art of memory’, 4422(18), pp. 2018–2019. doi: 10.1016/S1474-4422(18)30430-7.