katyelgar

[katyelgar]

project four: manifesto // final submission

DOCUMENTATION / PRESENTATION

Photographic documentation of my physical manifestation and promotional material/keepsakes.

[katyelgar]

project four: manifesto // development

PHOTOGRAPHY & EDITING PROCESS

Here I am sorting through the 70 photos I have taken of my final manifestation and promotional material. I have shot a mixture of isolated images as well as some where the necklace is worn by a model. I want to keep the processing of these images quite restrained to retain the honest nature of my project.

[katyelgar]

project four: manifesto // development & process

CONSTRUCTION OF MANIFESTATION & PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS

This project has been very fiddly in terms of handcraft and time investment. Each step has taken a long time to execute, and sometimes it hasn’t been to the degree that I would have liked/had planned.

My promotional material is essentially a ‘business card’ showing the two main points of my written manifesto - this world is more than [>] human; design should be made to last. The cards are made of the same materials as my physical manifestation; materials that have been chosen because of their propensity to wear and change over time. The wood is coated in copper foil on one side, with the secondary message. These items boil my manifesto down to it’s most basic parameters and although they aren’t as aesthetically successful as I would like, I think they serve the purpose they were created for.

[katyelgar]

project four: manifesto // interim submission

CREATIVE MANIFESTATION DEVELOPMENT

Over the past week I have been researching different types of the materials I will be using to make my pendant and sourcing them where possible. The materials I will be using are

a small stone

layered wood thin and workable (balsa or similar)

copper foil or plating

strands of leather

Here I have a small stone composed of chalk and flint from Møn's Cliff (the White Cliffs of Denmark) which I collected when I visited the area a couple of years ago. I really like the fact the stone already has sentimental value to it, and its rare composition means it is very prone to wearing and changing over time.

I have also bought some copper plating which is fairly malleable and may be suitable to use for my project. The copper foil I was intending to use is apparently quite hard to source in Wellington, so this may be the next best alternative.

[katyelgar]

project four: manifesto // final submission

WRITTEN MANIFESTO: this world is more than human

[katyelgar]

project four: manifesto // interim submission

CREATIVE MANIFESTATION PROGRESS

For my manifestation I am planning on creating a pendant/necklace built from layers of different natural materials which are renowned for their tendency to change or ‘get better’ over time. The centre of the pendant will be a regular stone or pebble, preferably with some texture and interesting colour gradients. An intermediary layer will be made up of stacked sheets of wood creating a “shell” over two thirds of the stone. The wood will be coated in copper foil, and the pendant will be worn on a plaited leather strap.

Each of these layers has been carefully considered and the materials selected for their tactile elements and tendency to wear over time. I want to keep part of the stone uncovered to reveal the complexity of what would otherwise appear to be a copper-covered rock, and to encourage the handling of the pendant.

Due to my limitations with time, scope and most especially personal resources/skills I have had some real trouble coming up with a physical manifestation of my ideas surrounding planned obsolescence and the value of things that last the test of time. I feel my proposed output is achievable and will accurately represent the high design standards I try to apply to my work as well as creating a great conversation piece surrounding the modern ideals and principles of design.

[katyelgar]

project four: manifesto // interim submission

WRITTEN MANIFESTO DRAFT

This is the current state of my written manifesto about planned obsolescence and humanity’s [designers’] role in the circumvention of it’s seemingly inescapable consequences. I still need to articulate the principles by which this should be achieved, and I think I need to better articulate a call to action but I am happy with the overall feel of the writing.

WE ARE ALL HUMAN

To be human is to examine, to make, to touch, to feel, and to learn. It is to destroy, to rebuild, to question and to consider. Incontestably, to be human is to design. Innately, purposefully and accidentally we design our surroundings, our attitudes, our habits and our possessions. More than this, we design global cultures capable of affecting species and galaxies existentially bigger and more important than our own. To be human – to be a designer – is a curse, a privilege, and a responsibility; according to Melissa Hogenboom (2015), “no other species has wielded such power, and no other species could”.

While humanity enjoys creating great distinction between members of it’s society, we cannot argue that this idiosyncrasy (in design especially) is necessary or even functionally positive. Designers, through the creation of objects, items and cultures based wholly around the conspicuous consumption of eternally evolving technologies are responsible for the inherently destructive economic and social systems that plague the developed world today (Jensen, 2006). Further, the consequences of these permanently iterating innovations affect not only the nations they were designed in and for, they consistently generate devastating consequences for entirely innocent cultures and ecosystems in developing territories around the globe. 

To encourage the deliberate redundancy of modern design would be immoral; the same practices that have the potential to debilitate whole cultures and environments undoubtedly carry the same weight as the potentially life-saving designs of the future. However, in a world divided by the extremes of excess consumption and technological, medical and physical starvation, the need for moderation has never been more explicit. It is inhumane to assess the value of one life above another; the construction of time saving luxuries for one civilisation does not excuse the exploitation of resources effectively stolen from another. 

Now more than ever before, the consequences of our actions (and the actions of our predecessors) are being experienced on an exceptional scale. Humanity is blamed for destroying the earth while designers are accused of exponentially speeding up the process.  But blame is pointless if it does not catalyse reparative action. It is up to us – the designers, thinkers, makers, travellers, creators and consumers of today – to respond to the humanitarian crisis we have invested in so blindly. We must circumvent the seemingly inescapable doom of humanity through the determined application of considered principles to revive, repair and rejuvenate global economies and ecologies.

[principles to go here]

Basically, we need to agree upon and embody an idea so obvious we have become blind to it: we are all human. So let’s start acting like it.

Hogenboom, M. (2015). BBC Future: The traits that make human beings unique. Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150706-the-small-list-of-things-that-make-humans-unique

Jensen, D. (2006) Endgame, Vol. 1: The Problem of Civilization. New York: Seven Stories Press.

[katyelgar]

project three: critical writing // final submission

SELF-ASSESSMENT AFTER COMPLETION

1. Effective communication of a unique critical perspective that addresses contemporary design practice My critical perspective - that as design establishes itself as a global phenomenon and infiltrates every aspect of modern life, it is important to question the nature of innovative designed outputs, their varied implications and how design is being used as a tool to shape cultures - is clearly articulated in the introduction of my essay and further expanded upon throughout the main body of text. My essay contextualizes this statement with an exploration of the contemporary design practice of planned obsolescence and the maker movement as a consumer reaction to the consequences of determinedly conspicuous consumer culture. I have used academic sources to give my claims integrity, but I would have also liked to include some specific design examples of each of the contemporary issues identified in order to fully ground the essay in the 21st century.

2.  Application of a theoretical approach based on research, analysis and evaluation My theoretical approach to this assignment grew from an interest in the negative consequences of contemporary design cultures sparked during one of the course lectures. The contemporary nature of the topics explored in my critical perspective meant that the breadth of academic sources I found to substantiate my claims and develop my arguments were somewhat limited. However, I feel that the integrity and depth of the work done by the designers and design thinkers in my bibliography enabled me to form a deeper understanding of the issues I was writing about, and led to a well researched, critically justified piece of writing. In terms of improving my research approach, I think including multimedia such as audio or video interviews/lectures with current critical designers has the potential to provide wider insight into planned obsolescence and the maker movement, as these opportunities allow the design thinker to truly present their ideas without editing by external parties.

3.  Effective visual impact of graphic design in support of communicative intentions The layout of my essay reflects the growing use of modern technologies to create traditional outputs in contemporary, innovative ways. The vertical, text-heavy nature of my work explicitly speaks of the 'expected' format of traditional essays, be they hand written or presented in tangible printed form. I decided to juxtapose these traditional elements with contemporary quirks, including the employ of a single page document deliberately constructed to suit the scrolling screens that are ubiquitous in daily life today. The format is suitable for consideration on computer, tablet and mobile screens, with imagery, vector graphics and block quotes used to break up the 'wall' of text and increase user engagement. If I had more time I would have liked to include more white space in homage to the wide margins and blank pages of traditional print outputs.

[katyelgar]

project three: critical writing // interim submission

DEFINED THESIS STATEMENT

The ubiquity of design in modern societies is constructed of a global culture of diverse humanities. As much as cultures (and designs) diversify us as a species, they are also what unify us as creatures of human nature. In particular, a recurring theme of global design in current and prospected future practices is that of innovation. As design establishes itself as a global phenomenon and infiltrates every aspect of modern life, it is important to question the nature of innovative designed outputs, their varied implications and how design is being used as a tool to shape cultures.

LITERARY REVIEW(S)

ONE // In a critical response to the innovation-rich design practices of today’s creators, Anne Balsamo’s 2011 text questions the role of designers in creating and manipulating cultures through the production of fast moving consumer goods.

The research and arguments made in Designing Cultures suggest that physical and digital representations of cultural values in products and other commodities allow modern day designers to encapsulate their interpretations of the key identifiers of a culture and package these into a product or service designed to appeal to the majority of the culture they are marketing their product at. Balsamo expands on this theory and takes it further, suggesting that “Those who engage in technological innovation are not simply involved in the creation of unique consumer goods, digital applications, gadgets, and gizmos, but also in the process of designing the technocultures of the future” (p5).

This book successfully articulates many of the concerns I have with modern design practices and will act as a key foundation for the arguments/statements made in my literary response.

TWO // Guy Julier’s The Culture of Design (2014) provides a far reaching, in-depth analysis of the culture and practice of design in the 21st century. Drawing on multiple perspectives including design culture as an ‘object of study’ and an area of academic discipline, Julier’s (2014) commentary will act as a foundation reading while I construct my own arguments around the disruptive components of the innovation-led culture we see in today’s design ambitions.  

Further, the inverse arrangement and perception of a culture of design, rather than the design of culture(s) creates the addition of another dimension from which to investigate the context of my own research. Julier (2014) also discusses a range of models for studying the culture of design, each of which are applicable to a personal study of the transposed design of culture. It is in both the marginal similarities and differences of these two spheres of thought that I seek to gain insight from this study.

THREE // One publication that has provided recurring guidance for my own standing on the chosen context over the course of my undergraduate study is Anthony Dunne’s Hertzian Tales (2008), in which the author questions the consequences of 21st century design practices in particular reference to the ‘rapid fire’ culture we have developed through the production of purposefully fast moving consumer goods.

Dunne (2008) critiques the attitudes resulting from the creation of such common iterations and the power their designers have over whole cultures; new technologies and products/services are announced almost daily, but the impacts of these designs on the cultures that consume them go largely unmonitored and overlooked.

I will use this source to supplement my critical writing with thoroughly researched and acclaimed details as provided by Dunne for the purpose of further questioning the ramifications of a design culture that acts on and influences global cultures with almost no regard for the inescapable consequences – whatever they may be.

Bibliography:

Balsamo, A. (2011). Designing Culture: The Technological Imagination at Work. London: Duke University Press.

Dunne, A. (2008). Hertzian Tales: Electronic Products, Aesthetic Experience, and Critical Design. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

Julier, G. (2014). The Culture of Design (3rd ed.). London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

[katyelgar]

project two: critical selfie final submission

VIDEO / PHOTO ESSAY

The photo essay I have produced showcases the results of my designed processes and experience dabbling in both flânerie and gamification.

To give some context: I decided to investigate and document the commonly neglected architectural structures that anonymously give Wellington so much of its reputed charm. The acts of looking up and shooting on film instantly alienated me from the crowds of locals and tourists bustling through our city streets, the results of which are clear from my photos. 

As a flâneur, I created an analogue system with simple rules for rebuilding the modern city of Wellington, thus including the notion of gamification in my work. The most important “rule” i considered was:

The flâneur should use traditional, analogue methods to document their findings (film photography and hand-drawn illustrations) to reflect the buildings of the past and contrast the disposable digital attitudes of today’s structures.

I utilised my soundtrack to drive this message home, with a modern cover of the old classic “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd. The subdued audio gave a fittingly nostalgic, retrospective tone to my video as well as lending lyrics that are cynical of the younger generation; just as the structures I photographed questions the lasting power of newer, less considered buildings.

Also, due to hand-in week insanity, I seem to have dated this 2013 D: apologies.

[katyelgar]

project two: critical selfie final submission

SUMMARY

According to Shaya (2004), the role of the flâneur is to be “keenly aware of the bustle of modern life, an amateur detective and investigator of the city, but also a sign of the alienation of the city and of capitalism”. To observe these norms and actively question them enables the flâneur to discover diverse, ungoverned spaces and ways of life.

This excerpt and insight became my mantra during the three weeks of flânerie undertaken to complete this project; as an amateur flâneur, I decided to investigate and document the commonly neglected structures that anonymously give Wellington so much of its reputed charm. The acts of looking up and shooting on film instantly alienated me from the crowds of locals and tourists bustling through our city streets, the results of which are clear from my architectural discoveries. 

Personally, the flâneur’s history – how his mindset was built in retaliation to Haussmann’s relentless unification and clarification of Paris (Lucas, 2008) – is to me what makes flânerie so captivating; my small acts of rebellion upon social norms enabled me to simulate the original flâneurs’ own experiences.

Salen and Zimmerman’s (2003) definition of a game as, “a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome” (p.80) also played an instrumental role in the creative process of my design. With these paramenters in mind, I created an analogue system with simple rules for rebuilding the modern city of Wellington, thereby conflicting with social norms/expectations and resulting in the  production of an illustration and film photography collaboration designed to inform and inspire.

Bibliography: − Lucas, R. (2008). Taking a Line for a Walk: Walking as an Aesthetic Practice. Ways of Walking: Ethnography and Practice on Foot. Hampshire: Ashgate. − Salen, K., & Zimmerman, S. (2003). Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge, Massachusets: MIT Press. − Shaya, G. (2004). The Flaneur, the Badaud, and the Making of a Mass Public in France, circa 1860-1910. The American Historical Review, 109(01), 41-49. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/530151

[katyelgar]

TOMBOY Calligraphy by SPIDER MONEY

[katyelgar]

project two: critical selfie

HAIKU DEVELOPMENT

A couple of drafts // key words I intend to include in my final submission. Love the idea of the haiku being spoken from the buildings’ perspective, a shaming grandfather teaching naïve youngsters to value their history. Also thinking about multi-stanza haikus for this project to add continuity and reverence to the first/last slides.

Standing tall, but lost. Forgotten and now dying; You ignore the past.

Exoskeleton Hiding in your ignorance Longing to be seen.

Wellington. Your bones invisible in plain sight. All we need? Look up.

Silent canopy. Out of sight, out of mind? True. We stand forgotten.

[katyelgar]

project two: critical selfie

SOUNDTRACK SAMPLE/DEVELOPMENT

As mentioned in tutorial, I’d really like to use an old(er) piece of music as part of my soundtrack for the final video. An old favourite of mine is Wish You Were Here, originally recorded by the English progressive rock group Pink Floyd in 1975. This song (and subsequent album) speaks of the nature of humanity and how we have a severely limited capacity to see our individual position in the world, or in our lives. It hints at the lack of vision of most mankind, and the limited horizons and the pain that that causes.

As such, I think it is a perfectly fitting accompaniment to my critical selfie project, which I want to use to encourage people to look outside of themselves and their lives and realise the beautifully rich history that surrounds them; in literal terms through the city’s legacy architecture but also in the metaphor that these buildings represent.

[katyelgar]

And then there is the most dangerous risk of all – the risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later.”

Randy Kosimar, The Monk and the Riddle (via keenancummings)

[katyelgar]

project two: critical selfie interim submission

SHOOT TWO

These are the best 15 images yielded from my second shoot. I used a 35mm film camera to capture these images, which is why they are slightly grainy and have subdued colour values. Personally I really like this aesthetic, as it is unmistakably produced by analogue photography.

[katyelgar]

project two: critical selfie

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT (in progress)

My intention for this project is to create a critical selfie of Wellington’s oldest and most contradictory structures. These buildings are contradictory in the way they represent the city’s most treasured architecture (and are therefore well maintained), yet in my flânerie I have witnessed the public rush by them seemingly unaware of the magnificent architecture above them.

My observations suggest that Wellingtonians (and perhaps the wider population) are so busy trying to succeed in the modern day ‘game of life’ they fail to notice the physical and intangible forces that uphold and enable the continued shaping of their personal livelihoods.

In my critical perspective I noted this city is an exoskeleton; these preserved yet publicly neglected buildings are the bones of Wellington, proudly displayed and determinedly preserving the integrity and heritage of this city. These external bones stand obvious yet forgotten by those that should cherish them.

There should be no denying Wellington has a profoundly special ‘personality’ yet by unwittingly/unconsciously crediting only ourselves for this city’s identity we are diminishing the history of those that built it and the spectacular achievement they have made, represented by their legacy architecture.

I want to credit these early conceivers and their lasting structures through my work as a flâneur, speaking through photography to reveal the joy in pausing (or at least decelerating) the game of life in order to notice and pay homage to the structures, the bones of Wellington that support the lifeblood of this city: it’s people. I plan to use analogue photography (film) to capture my images in reference to the permanent nature of the buildings being investigated.