In the research and communication skills module I found that the subjects we covered has really helped me to understand more of how to research properly when researching for inspiration ,for my future projects. I really enjoyed each lecture and then doing each task to put the lecture in to practise.

The subjects that where covered in the RCS I felt helped me understand why it’s important to reference the influences in your work. The first 2 lectures were on online resources and academic integrity. The lectures focused on Harvard referencing and the topic of plagiarism. We were shown step by step of how to reference books, newspapers and websites, I found this most helpful as it’s not something that I’ve been shown before, when it’s really important to do this in your work. When I went to do both tasks, I found that I really enjoyed visiting the library; I was able to become familiar with how to use it to help me when researching. I struggled with writing the essays as I normally do but as we were giving plenty of time to complete them I could do them bit-by-bit.

Tasks 5/6 looked at looking at how other artists have used, books, other designers, collections, movies and nature to influence their collections, I chose to look at alexander McQueen’s Plato’s Atlantis, I found this task really interesting, to pull apart how a high fashion designer was influenced. I created a mood board of 10 different things that he was inspired by when creating the collection. I found this helped me to look at different sources for inspiration when looking at my projects.
In task 7/8 we were given the choice of two texts in two different books, I chose ‘taste, Fashion and he French Fashion Magazine’ by Sanda miller. The chapter discusses the ways in which the authors used the magazines as a platform in order to make fashion as a whole equal to the other arts. They also discussed the ways in which people critique differently due to our own tastes. I found this task the hardest as I found it really hard to understand the text, once I eventually picked apart each page I was able to gain a brief understanding in order to write about it.

Task 9/10 was on the ethics around adverts, this is a topic I really enjoy looking at, as it’s a big problem within the industry and something I’ve written about before. In the lecture, we discussed and debated the issues this topic brings, I liked how everyone was able to discuss this together, I found this helped me to write about different points when it came to analysing the image we had to choose.
When it came to the task we had the choice of 2 controversial adverts one by American apparel and the other by Duncan Quinn both are adverts for male or female clothing, both brands using alarming images in order to sell their products. I chose Duncan Quinn’s advert for men’s suits, this particular advert I found extremely alarming especially in todays society. As discussed in the lecture the advert gave off many negative messages to its audience, such as women should be subservient for men. I found this topic most interesting, as everyone was able to discuss the different problems around the ethics in the fashion industry.
Overall, over really enjoyed these lectures and what I’ve learnt from them, I feel I will take the things I’ve learnt in this module for future reference.

Choose one of the indie designers / developers and outline why their work, and approach is of interest to you?

An indie developer which interests me is TheGameCompany which was founded in 2006. This indie developer has developed games like Cloud and Journey which both try to capture the feeling of smallness and anonymity using gameplay and art style. For example, Journey uses a very aesthetic art style which consists of geometric shapes and a color palate which is very mellow and calm to look at visually. This art style interests me because rather than focusing on amazing visuals and fast paced gameplay it tries to capture a feeling by using both visuals and gameplay in harmony to create an atmosphere that the user can be immersed in and feel the urge to invest time into day after day. Cloud a game developed before journey and was used by TheGameCompany to test how gamers would feel about a simplistic game which focuses on trying to make the user emotionally invested in the story and game. Cloud was a game based on one of the developer’s childhood who was hospitalized very often due to being asthmatic, when in this state he would dream a lot about flying around in his mind. This then spawned the game Cloud. This attention to detail in an indie game creates empathy, so the user can connect and feel what it was like to be in the mind of person going through hardship and this exactly what interests me about this developer they focus on creating a connection through the game by adding layers of depth which in turn add more meaning then indie games which solely focus on following a puzzle solving game style, where the player will just solve puzzles and carry on to the next one.

Sources and references

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_(2012_video_game)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_(video_game)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thatgamecompany

What do you think could be the most exciting indie projects that are in development?

 One of the most exciting indie projects I am looking forward to is Budget Cuts this an indie game which uses VR to allow the user to play the game. Budget cuts is a game based around the player being a spy and infiltrating set locations he or she must go through the map killing robots by using weapons like guns and knives to eliminate targets but being a spy, you are also required to cover up your kills by hiding the bodies this use of stealth mechanic totally immerses the player. The player can also peak around corners and hide in vents if needed. This is one of the best VR games out there so far and has been in development for around 3 years and should be released early 2018. When I played the demo, it was like entering a new world and felt totally connected as the graphics and gameplay had great synergy to immerse me in the gameplay. Budget cuts has a vast array of mechanics such as a use of a portal gun which throws a ball in a chosen direction and then allows the player to scan the room for enemies before blinking into the room, I love the use of stealth mechanics incorporated with VR.

Sources and references

https://futureofstorytelling.org/project/budget-cuts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpgn8U5Ug8M

Duncan quinn
The advert by Duncan Quinn which is supposedly advertising men’s suits, Described as ‘Savile Row meets Rock ‘n Roll’, by buzz feed. The advert shows a young female helplessly stretched out on top of what looks like the bonnet of a car. She lays at the foot of a well-dressed business man whom you can clearly see the face of as he looks directly into the camera. The high camera angle shows off the female’s body, as she’s lead in skimpy lace underwear with just her upper body on show. Her body looks as if she is asleep or lifeless making her look helpless and vulnerable. Her neck is tilted back whilst willingly allowing a stick like object held by the man to be clawed at her neck, this suggests she’s submissive, showing the male as a dominant figure over the woman, the fact that her face is also not shown dehumanises her.

The use of a half-naked woman draws in the male gaze as men would be drawn to the image, as they would naturally be attracted to the female body. The advert could also be seen to attract men in a negative way. The messages that the advert gives off to its male audience that this is what their suits could do for them, making women fall to their feet, and not just purchase the suits.  “we do “a great disservice” to boys in how we raise them, putting them in the “hard cage” of masculinity; and that we do “a greater disservice” to girls.” Tedx Talk, ‘we should all be feminists’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, she states that the way men are portrayed in today’s culture is allowing certain behaviours.
The advert could also suggest that women are made to serve men. The way that she is willingly laying on the bonnet of the car shows to male and female audience that women should be submissive and they are only there for men to use for sex or to for fill a need. By sending this message it allows men to think it’s okay to treat women in this way. The way the model is made to look vulnerable, by her lack of clothing and her face not shown in the shot it could suggest to the viewer the idea of rape and abuse towards women, making this look okay, suggesting to young women that they should allow men to treat them this way.
The use of a car which holds connotations of masculinity reinforces the masculine control the man has over the female in the shot.

Overall, the advert by Quinn sends negative messages to its reader, supporting this message is an issue with in the fashion industry as it targets such wide audiences.

Bibliography
Tedx Talk, ‘we should all be feminists’, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 2013

Buzzfeed Staff, Buzzfeed (2012) The Five Most Sexist/Misogynistic Print Ads From The Last Five Years. Available from: https://www.buzzfeed.com/copyranter/the-five-most-sexistmisogynistic-print-ads-from-t?utm_term=.pu5EMnGYjj#.qroBE1rlZZ Acsessed: 30^th November

Taste, Fashion and The French Fashion Magazine

For task 7/8 we had the choice of reading 2 different texts out 2 books, I chose to look at the first text from ‘Taste, Fashion and The French Fashion Magazine’ by Sander Miller it explains the rise and struggles of the first few fashion and lifestyle magazines published in and around Europe in the 16 and 17 hundred’s, during the enlightenment in late 17th centaury and the French revolution in 1789. The authors and publishers, such as Jean Donneau de Vise, Fredrish Melchior von Grimm, Henri Bidou and many more created and published many magazines around England and parts of europe, in which they wanted to explore or showcase the different trends and fashions but also the work of other designers like, interiors. By doing this they wanted to create a window for the fashion world to bring fashion designers to the forefront making their work to be appreciated in the way other artists such as painters and musicians do.

The magazines where used as a platform to make fashion more of a common interest, influencing women on the finest clothes and creating fashions and trends. In the book ‘Adorned In Dreams’ by Elizabeth Wilson, she states “The mass production of fashionable styles- itself highly contradictory, links the politics of fashion to fashion as art. It is connected both to the evolution of styles that circulate in ‘high’ and avant garde art; and to popular culture and taste”. From reading the first chapter, in ‘Taste, Fashion and The French Fashion Magazine’ by Sanda Miller. The text mainly discussed the ideas of taste and how this can alter or effect how we critique objects or work and how other people critique different things differently because they have a different taste, but it also making a valid critique. For example, Immanuel Kant states from the text ‘Taste, Fashion and The French Fashion Magazine’, “our subjective experience… ‘Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder’- affirms that there is no common denominator in our likes and dislikes”. This back’s up the idea of people having different concepts of ‘taste’, meaning no critique can be wrong. I found when reading this I thought It was a good concept as I may like a certain style of paintings and appreciate them where as others may have a different style to me therefore could disagree with my liking of certain works of art.

Bibliography
Barlett, Cole & Rocamora (e.d) 2013, Fashion Media: Past and Present, London: Bloomsbury

Wilson, E, (2003) Adorned In Dreams. United Kingdom: I.B Taurus & CO Ltd.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Je49xdoIajwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=adorned+in+dreams&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiD7rCLhfbXAhUhJsAKHaDrCBQQ6wEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false