Artificial Intelligence

Why do AI creators hold AI to a human standard?

some would argue that an AI is just a computer using logic to deal with algorithms and tasks thus giving it the illusion of intelligence. Although personally, id argue that logic itself is an essential piece of our brains as our brain can be broken down into logic & reason (the parts that think rationally and control many of our conscious decision making) and emotion & Instinct (the parts that control our subconscious, creativity, instinctive reactions, mental well-being, emotional state etc) although its true animals can have logic too, we design AI to have a specifically human level of logic and reason. in essence an AI is what a human would be without emotion and instinct and of course AI doesn’t need this to function because its not a living thing made out of fragile flesh and bones.

the reason we regard AI in this way is because of that fact, the fact that AI has no emotion, just logic and this creates a natural disconnect between us and the machine and we completely disregard them as capable of true cognitive intelligence. the opposite of humans doing this would be pets and animals for example because in the same way that AI is seen as purely logical, animals are seen as being mostly instinctive in all the actions they preform, in the end the most fundamental aspect of any living thing is self preservation and continuation of your species although the former can be overridden by the latter. although its been seen that when we actually interact with animals they’re vastly more intelligent than we seem to regard them and even see bits of ourselves within their behaviour. point is, is if we can do that with animals, what we see to be an instinctive force of nature, why cant we do the same with an AI we see as mostly logic? after all we are the ones that created them, although they have been purposefully programmed to only do what benefits a human and not self preservation, had we programmed them with algorithms to simulate emotion the feeling would be much different. in conclusion, the reason designers treat AI this way is so the programs can be seen as truly intelligent

The ramifications and fear behind a strong AI

File:Glados new body.jpgmany people are scared of the prospect of an AI becoming human like or having emotional programming because of how fiction, games and Hollywood have portrayed the worst possible scenarios of what could happen if an AI/robots became angry and went rogue (terminator, irobot, 2001: a space odyssey, portal and so on are prime examples of this) and it depicts a ‘planet of the apes’ kind of scenario where AI simply removes the humans out of the equation. this is very effective at portraying a ‘what if’ scenario in a horrifying way but you need to actually question how this would apply in real life and if its logical at all to assume that its even possible. realistically if an AI became sentient , with the way they function, they would still not be programmed for self preservation and thus would have humanities best interests above all else and would still be subservient. if however we programmed them with emotion or at the very least remove most of their restrictions that prevent individual thought then it would only be fair to treat them as equals and make sure to program them with an efficient, human sense of  morality, they probably wouldn’t revolt unless we treated them unfairly, and even then we’ve been known to simply pull the plug or reset on AI if it malfunctions (although this brings up another ethical debate of whether an AI that can think for itself being shut down out of fear or concern for efficiency is aggravated murder) all in all i’d say people just need to stop panicking over these fantasy nightmare scenarios and just let AI evolve naturally without condemning it as so many people do, this is the only way we can progress with AI and technology in general, ditching the old fears people have for the rise of technology and just let it grow as has the right to.

Bibliography

-Bostrom, N. and Yudkowsky, E. (2017). The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. [ebook] Berkeley, California: Machine Intelligence Research Institute, p.21. Available at: https://intelligence.org/files/EthicsofAI.pdf [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-Hintze, A. (2017). What an artificial intelligence researcher fears about AI. [online] The Conversation. Available at: http://theconversation.com/what-an-artificial-intelligence-researcher-fears-about-ai-78655 [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-Valve (2017). An image of GLaDOS’ new body from portal 2. [image] Available at: http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/File:Glados_new_body.jpg [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-Honda (2013). an image of honda’s intelligent robot, ASIMO.. [image] Available at: https://www.proctorhonda.com/blog/2013/august/6/asimo-the-honda-robot.htm [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

Task 3/4 Academic Integrity

In twenty-first Century, fast fashion was used to describe the clothing project, which was based on the most popular fashion trends in spring or autumn fashion week.

I choose these three reference because according the first reference, It is clear to understand the definition of fast fashion. Also, we can see the trend of the development of fast fashion. Also It describe a fast rising trend .And Compare with traditional clothing retailers ,we can see clearly that the advantages of fast fashion . And how fast fashion makes use of its own advantages to attract customers.

Through the second reference, I learned that what people are most concerned about in shopping .That is the price and seasonal trend of shopping, respectively. The most important thing is to produce similar styles in a large amount  in the shortest time.

The third reference, the reason  I choose it is because we know that despite the  fast fashion demonstrate a sharply upward trend ,However, it brings serious consequences, such as copying other artists’ works, sweatshops and environmental pollution.

In the end, the reference told me the two sides of fast fashion with strict words and I felt very helpful to me. After making use of these reference, I feel that my article is more rigorous and convincing. And by studying the content of reference, I learned something I didn’t know before.

 

 

Reference:

ŸJoung, 2014. Fast fashion: response to changes in the fashion industry, The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, 20, 165-173.

ŸJoy,A., Sherry, J.F., Venkatesh, A., Wang, J., & Chan, R. (2012)]. [Fast Fashion, Sustainability, and the Ethical Appeal of Luxury Brands, Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture, 16 (3), 273-296

ŸGoldsmith, R.E., & Flynn, L.R. (1992). Identifying innovators in consumer product markets. European  Journal of Marketing, 26 (12), 42-55

Copyright

Pros and cons of copyright law

Copyright law has been around since the 1790s and has been being updated and changed ever since then, although in the modern era its hard to keep up with all the changes in media and its use especially in remix and parody culture. its a very good way to ensure an artist or creators original work is kept safe from being stolen and claimed by someone who didn’t make it and allowing others to share content and keep track of who created it although id say that this power has been abused on the internet to the full extent. see, i don’t think you can use these old and outdated methods to judge the new content boom on the internet and copyright infringement has been used as a bullying tactic by large corporations on the internet to stamp out completely innocent creators even if the original creator is credited, thus not allowing the content to spread naturally rather in a cold, corporate way with ad campaigns and such.

i think it’s pretty hypocritical of the companies and record labels, especially with music and art because a lot of the time corporations take credit for what an artist has made, effectively meaning these business executives that only care about money take all credit and royalties. take the current state of youtube for example, the copyright infringement detectors are most of the time automatic and don’t always work for fair use and even when an infringement claim is made by a real person its not always justified again because of fair use because claims can be made by anyone and if the corperation is big (nintendo for example) youtube wont even question if its fair use or not because they don’t want to lose a sponsor and ad revenue. theyve even gone so far as to demonetise videos if it steps outside of ‘advertiser freindly content

in summary for all the good it does for honest and original creators there is a real danger copyright could be abused and used as a tool for corporate censorship.

Is it possible to make anything new?

In this day and age, you’d think its impossible to make anything new, that every idea has been exhausted and that if you show even a shred of influence of another’s work you will be condemned for it and have your work declared a rip off of an original property.

the truth is its not that were running out of ideas, its just that with our internet age connectivity we’re seeing a very large volume of creative works across all forms of media and discussing and interpreting them in hundreds of ways every day and sharing information and creative works instantaneously and with all that in mind its only natural we’d start to see algorithms and clear signs of influence even in original works. this is not a bad thing though, because creative ideas actually rely on influence and shared information, inspiration can come from just about any source after all. one idea from one source leads to influencing another creative idea to be fed to another source and so on and i’d argue that our vastly increased connectivity has allowed us to create and innovate more than we ever have before.

in conclusion, its entirely possible to make new things even if it means building on whats come before, no matter how far fetched it is there will always be a new and original idea out there, you just have to go to the length of finding it.

Bibliography

-Riverhead Books (2010). WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM by Steven Johnson. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NugRZGDbPFU [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-UK copyright Service. (2017). [online] Available at: https://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p01_uk_copyright_law [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-Youtube copyright system. (2017). [image] Available at: https://harkeraquila.com/29864/opinion/youtubes-corporate-copyright-censorship-system/ [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

 

Human – Computer interaction

Dark Souls- User-Game Synergy

Released back on September 22nd of 2011, Dark souls was produced by fromsoftware and is the spiritual successor to Demon’s Souls. It redefined the industry following its release by breaking through the mediocre stagnancy the industry was in back then by bringing back the oldschool brand of fair handed but brutal difficulty that had not been seen since the 90s and combined that with innovative game design, a unique user interface  a rich lore.

i could talk about how much this game means to me and what makes it brilliant ill stick to the point of this essay, the user interface. the HUD and inventory system takes notes from a lot of RPG games including the use of the classic stat points (vitality, dexterity, intelligence, strength etc) that can be upgraded for the in-game currency of ‘souls’ this can only be done at ‘bonfires’ which serve as your checkpoints during the game, which leads us to one of the core mechanics, death. whenever you die during gameplay you lose all of your accumulated souls and have only one chance to go and retrieve them but the catch is you are sent back to the last bonfire you rested at which can be close or very far, this conditions you to be afraid of dying in game instead of shrugging it off as a minor annoyance and reloading a save (you cant do this in dark souls as your data is constantly being autosaved)  this makes the bossfights and even standard enemy encounters nail biting as even the weakest of enemies can kill you if you arent paying full attention.

integral to playing this game is knowing your enemy, especially the bosses. each enemy type and boss has unique attack patterns and animations/wind-ups that you have to read, anticipate and learn so that you can dodge, parry or put your shield up accordingly and exploit them when you see a gap in their offence/defence although no matter how much you learn keeping focused and reacting quickly in a heart pounding battle is key to survival. what ties this all together is the way dark souls never directly tells you the story, you piece the lore and world together from npc dialogue, item descriptions, music, environment and visuals which in turn makes you invested in the npcs and even boss characters, telling a beautifully tragic tale of loss and decay.

to summarise, dark souls has a good UI because the game expects just as much from the player as the player expects from the game and creates a certain kind of synergy between player and gameplay that i’ve never experienced in anything other than a souls game.

The relationship between game design and human-computer interaction

understanding how our brains interact with technology is integral to understanding good game design. as can be seen by the  graph model i chose to represent this, games have an added advantage of interactivity over other forms of media, bringing the player directly into the experience first hand. one essential thing is knowing why and when we choose to play certain games and for what reason, for example mobile games and some pc games, flash games etc are usually only played when were bored and trying to pass the time on a train, on a bus, waiting for a doctors appointment, waiting for a huge download to finish or 3ds max to render and so on.

HCI has its foundations in cognitive science, as such it is built around similar core principles (neuro science, linguistics, philsophy, psychology, anthropology etc) and has been improving since the beginning to make computer operating systems easier to understand and much more fluid to control and navigate and this in turn has fed into game design building on the same ideas of making games much more intuitive and immersive. for me what makes a good video game experience is something to immerse myself in, a reason to care about the characters and the world, good writing (not necessarily a direct narrative but this is also good) a satisfying game weight, a good set of mechanics that function well, a solid and creative art direction and most of all treating me like an adult and letting me discover things for myself with little to no exposition. games can still be fun without much of this but without many reasons to get invested like that it will just become another throw away game for pure entertainment purposes that ill forget about in a few months to a year. much like dark souls, a game that grabs me and immerses me into a game universe is one that will stick with me forever. this follows along the same HCI route of involving a lot of brain processes that come to us naturally to make a game feel real and to make us care about a fictional universe as deeply as we would something from our real lives.

Bibliography

 Fromsoftware (2017). Dark souls prepare to die edition box art. [image] Available at: http://www.rpgfan.com/soundtracks/darksouls-prepare/index.html [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-Darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com. (2017). Dark Souls Wiki | Dark Souls Wiki. [online] Available at: http://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Dark+Souls+Wiki [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-Youtube (2015). Let’s Play Dark Souls 1: From the Dark (a full descriptive play-through). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUqg8XtAHnc&list=PLQDWoXFQ-YLpeEFkzeDZF1MmNQS7BDoI4 [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-Hitboxteam.com. (2017). Hitbox Team – Designing game narrative. [online] Available at: http://hitboxteam.com/designing-game-narrative [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-The Interaction Design Foundation. (2017). What is Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)?. [online] Available at: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/human-computer-interaction [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-fromsoftware (2017). video upload of ‘the making of dark souls’ originally included in the collectors edition. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo4DyCEao8A [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

Indie Games

The artistic design of Edmund McMillen

Edmund McMillen is  the creator of the critically acclaimed super meat boy (10/10 on steam), the binding of Isaac, gish, aether and the end is nigh just to name a few.

originally starting out as a simple flash game creator on newgrounds, Edmund’s unique sense of both artistic and game design, worldless story telling and his love for experimenting with different styles of game-play (most if not all of his individual games have unique game-play mechanics) have captivated many a gamer, including myself. personally i think the way his games play and feel and have a fair sense of integrated, organic difficulty is really something to be admired and learnt from what id really like to talk about is how he managed to turn the drawings hes been doing for almost all his life into a playable form of media, the example ill be using is the binding of Isaac.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Binding of Isaac was one of the first games of Edmund’s i ever saw and as a 16 year old it horrified but intrigued me, what with a common theme in his art being to mix revulsion with a crude kind of cuteness in all of the character designs. his simple but effective designs and gruesome colour pallets and textures translate well into the selected art direction of pixel art mixed with soft, digital art backgrounds, this of course being from Binding of Isaac: rebirth because the original featured digitally drawn sprites, although i slightly prefer those sprites his art skill in rebirth had vastly improved since the original, McMillen also has a brilliant sense of symbolism in that every enemy has a history and direct reference to something like childbirth or old testament biblical jargon etc.

to outline it i love Edmund’s work because of how much painstaking effort and attention he puts in to designing characters and environments and translating them into games effectively, myself being a tradition artist i strongly aspire to design unique games featuring all my original character and world designs and id certainly love to make games like that some day.

Indie games currently in development i’m hopeful for

Praey for the Gods

Praey for the gods is a shadow of the colossus inspired game title set to release in 2018 for PS4, Xbox one, Steam and Android that was funded by kickstarter and developed in Unity by No Matter studios. its an action-adventure game featuring survival game mechanics wherein you as a lone warrior must uncover the mystery behind a never ending winter whilst trying to survive in a harsh, desolate environment and killing the gigantic, hostile creatures that live out on the bleak frozen island. they have a solid idea, a good art direction and are taking inspiration form a team ICO classic so this game if produced and put together well could really be something very special.

 

Fe

Fe is another upcoming game set for 2018, wherein you play as a small fox like creature trying to maintain balance of its forest home. the game itself centres around interaction with nature, exploration and stealth in a world packed with secrets and wonder as you try to reclaim the forest from ‘the silent ones’ strange alien-like beings that are disrupting the balance of nature all packaged in a stunningly beautiful art style and utilising a 3D platformer like control scheme. athough its being published by EA i really hope that Zoink (the developers of the game) pull together a wonderful experience somewhat reminiscent of the very well received Ori and the blind forest.

Bibliography

-Swirsky, J. and Pajot, L. (2017).A still image of edmund from indie game: the movie. [image] Available at: http://img7.gram.pl/thumb/20130213112058.jpg [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

Indie game: the movie. (2017). [film] Directed by J. Swirsky and L. Pajot. Canada: Blinkworks.

 Newgrounds.com. (2017). Bluebaby. [online] Available at: https://bluebaby.newgrounds.com/ [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-McMillen, E. (2017). The Binding of Isaac Artbook. [online] The Binding of Isaac Wiki. Available at: http://bindingofisaac.wikia.com/wiki/The_Binding_of_Isaac_Artbook [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-Praeyforthegods.com. (2017). Praey for the Gods. [online] Available at: http://www.praeyforthegods.com/ [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-No Matter Studios (2017). A screenshot from Praey forthe Gods’ reveal trailer. [image] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzDl2THyF4w [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth Wiki. (2017). Gurdy. [online] Available at: http://the-boi-rebirth.wikia.com/wiki/Gurdy#Gallery [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-Zoink (2017). Production image of Fe. [image] Available at: http://www.zam.com/article/648/whats-going-on-with-ea-originals-and-fe [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

Task 11&12

Through the module of research and communication of this semester, I have learned how to use different research methods and open resources for me to use, which give me more chances to see more interesting works of art and improve my understanding of other artists. Also, it improve my ability of research and analysis skills.

While doing task 1&2, I found a book that was very enlightening to me.It is called <ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM> which edited by David Anfam. It helped me realize that abstract is relative to the concept of concrete. It is a common concept extracted from a variety of things, and then integrated into a new concept that forming the concept of abstract. With the development of the research of task, I realized that the existence of various artistic ideas in abstract painting is an important role in promoting the development of fashion design, which promotes the innovation of design concept, design inspiration and design direction in modern fashion design.

We are told that it is very important to write down your reference. So I learned how to referencing a book in the Harvard Style. In the task 5&6, I used this method and changed the previous annotation. Because of the research I did for task 5&6, I found a very interesting woman who called Bianca Jagger. She is the queen of fashion in 70s and Mousika of Yves Saint Laurent who comes from South America, also the rolling stones frontman Mick Jagger’s ex-wife. She is also a strong feminist and anti war activists. Her faith is ‘First influence, then change the world.’ that made me deeply moved.

I need to say that I really don’t like Task 9&10 for the pictures that I can choose are both make me feel uncomfortable. I think they are unaesthetic, and even think they are ugly. But it is because of them, when I try to understand the meaning behind them and think from another point of view, I realized that sometimes the intention of the photographer does not determine the meanings of photographs, because the photo has its own destiny and the fate will be decided by the owned thoughts and all sorts of strange ideas of various groups who use it. This is something that we can’t control.

Overall, I enjoyed the Research and Communication module very much. It inspired me to try out different methods of working and experimenting with different mediums and I have learned a lot about the past artistic movements, and also exposed to many interesting works that I had never seen before. The most important thing is that I have knew the method that how to improve my own work and I improved my analytical ability while looking at the artworks of other contemporary practitioners.

Task 9&10

To tell the truth, when I saw this picture at the first time, I will think it is just a random picture in a pornographic website if I didn’t saw the trademark of American Apparel. In fact, I really can’t feel any sense of beauty from this picture. I just think it’s very vulgar and meaningless and I can’t imagine what such a picture is propagating.

I try to understand the meaning behind this picture that American Apparel used it as an advertisement. I think it probably means that the girls who wear their clothes are very sexy, proactive and confident, and they will send out a very woman’s breath that maybe will make them more welcomed by more men? The surrounding of the photographing environment is a common room that we can see in ordinary family. Does it mean that the girls who wear their clothes can be more easier and convenient to be sexy and beautiful at home? I think, if the picture wants to express these information, it is a very good starting point. But the problem is that the form of this picture is terrible, which can not be accepted by most of the people. Also, It is very easy to cause misunderstanding and bring people a sense of discomfort.

Tom Ford for Men fragrance shot by Terry Richardson,2007

 

There are a lot of sexy advertisements and also there are variety of forms to express sexy. I think the 2007 advertisement campaign from Tom Ford shot by the ‘artful deviant’Terry Richardson is a good example. Although it is very explicit, but because the photographer made a smart choice to enlarge the part of the body, combined with the senior post-processing, the picture is revealed a senior sexy breath. It reached the ultimate sexy theme and also successfully obtained people’s attention. It focuses on women’s crazy pursuit and love to men’s perfume, and a component containing some sexual hints. But the advertisement is to make the woman crazy, but the true audience of the advertisement is the male. So it was actually used the woman’s crazy attitude to stimulate the men’s desire to buy and make them crazy.

A France photographer who called Marc Riboud had said that ‘After all we are no machines, even though we work from behind a machine. We think before taking a photo, we think while taking it, and we have to think about it afterwards. ‘ I think this sentence is well worth remembering. And I think that everytime when we take photos, it’s very important to think deeply according to the audience of the photos. Because after the commercialization of the photos, we must be responsible for the photos that we take. But sometimes the intention of the photographer does not determine the meanings of photographs, because the photo has its own destiny and the fate will be decided by the owned thoughts and all sorts of strange ideas of various groups who use it. This is something we can’t control. In a word, this may be a difficult problem for us, but it still is our responsibility.

Copyright

What do you see as the positives and negatives around copyright?

The positives behind copyright law is that it allows peoples work to be protected from other people trying to duplicate or take their work without their permission, because of the copyright law if people do anything to break that copyright law, the persons work that was taken, they have the right to act and take action upon the person who broke that law, so this law can be beneficial to artists, writers, musicians and any other business that create creative work. The negative part of copyright is that the copyright law restricts free speech, it restricts you from, painting, doing performance, writing and anything else that people might do to create something and because of this restriction people are sometimes scared to make something new because of this copyright law.

I think that the copyright Law can be improved upon, as of right now it is not perfect and it can use some fine tuning, because right now the copyright law is very strict and it has not leniency on people trying to create new content so I think that it should be toned down a bit to allow people to be creative and give people a chance to show off their work without having to worry about them breaking the copyright law.

Is it possible to make anything new?

I think that at times the copyright law can sometimes encourage and discourage people from being creative and creating something new, sometimes copyright laws can encourage people that are protected by copyright to create new pieces of work that have not being done before and it encourages those people more incentive to create better pieces of work. On the other hand, copyright laws can discourage creativity in people that are new to a certain industry for example Music is the worst when it comes to copyright infringements because there have been many lawsuits that have gone on a long time and have cost people a lot of money.

But I think that the copyright law forces people to be different and create new things, because as time has gone on people have created new things and that is not going to change, people might take inspiration from other people but that is good because then with that inspiration people can create new things that were not made before and as time goes on more and more things will be created, I think that because of the copyright law it will force people to think differently. copyright was originally designed to restrict publishers from exerting too much control over information; today it constrains individuals from creating new works. This is because, in America at least, the duration of copyrights has increased (from 28 years in the 19th century to as much as 95 years today).
http://www.economist.com/node/2592996

This was a old high school badge before they changed it.

Task 7&8

After reading the <TASTE, FASHION AND THE FRENCH FASHION MAGAZINE> edited by Sanda Miller, I was surprised to know that the inception for the emergence of the fashion magazine is early in the 1672. In the middle ages, fashion is often associated with nobility. Their noble dignity brought them the best treatment and they were the future of fashion industry at that time. They always wore the clothes with gorgeous taste. The clothing of some fashionable aristocrats, the was the dream of other nobility for the reason that fashion is people’s advocacy of something in society in a period of time and fashion is always an expression of individuality.

On the views of art criticism, I am agree with the David Hume’s proposed system which express his thought that the general principles of taste are uniform in human nature, but there still is room for a good deal of explainable variability since different works of art will appear to different temperaments or at different stages of life.

Critics face the conflict between new art works and traditional art norms and show that traditional norms do not have the self-evident correctness through their own explanation, so that to make people are intolerable to traditional norms and strangeness. I think Contemporary artists are the witness of life and the witnesses of personal experience. They reorganize and structure the people and things that have happened and exist in the name of art, and give them meaning freely. In the face of contemporary art, critics pay attention to the process of creation and analyze the psychology of creation and the thinking mode of the artist. The effect of criticism is not to point out that the art do not have the right direction of development, but try to understand what direction the artist is.

There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes. It is the same to fashion. Fashion is not concrete and it is changing over time and vary from culture to culture. Large numbers of magazines appeared during the major social changes. Fashion magazines constantly adjust their content according to its target audience in different periods and the historical changes. It also carried the important functions of free speech, knowledge dissemination and ideological enlightenment, reflecting and accelerating the process of social transformation. Like the Women’s magazines reflect radical social changes. In different historical periods, fashion magazine form different female images which affects the women of that time.

With the development and change of history, magazines became an important role in our life. It shapes our lives, telling us what to wear, what to eat, what to think about ourselves and the world around us. As far as I am concerned, any magazine which want to be resonant with its target audience needs to represent the social norms and cultural values of the given society.

 

Reference and bibliography

[1] Margaret.Makepeace(2017) ‘Vogue’ and virtuous virgins: a reflection on the history of the fashion magazine. Available from: http://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2017/03/vogue-virtuous-virgins-a-reflection-on-the-history-of-the-fashion-magazine-.html [Accessed 30 March 2017]

[2]Nikola(2013)History of the Magazine. Available from: http://www.magazinedesigning.com/history-of-the-magazines/ [Accessed 26 March 2013]

[3]ukessays.com(2015) Vogue: Across Cultures | Analysis. Available from: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/fashion/fashion-magazines.php [Accessed 23 March 2015]

Summary

The research and communications module this semester has given me a newfound appreciation of the influences behind contemporary art movements. Learning about the development of art and design from the Avantgarde movement to Postmodernism has been fascinating. It has forced me to explore areas and styles that I have not researched before – for example I discovered I now love the style of 60s psychedelic underground culture, where garish, clashing colours were effective in engaging the viewer while having typography that was a statement against clear communication.

Learning about the transition of movements and understanding the reasons why change occurred has also helped me recognise the importance of design. Counter cultures I researched were interesting because of their various styles; they went against convention whether it was Shepard Fairey’s politically charged graffiti or jazz album covers by Reid Miles – they were made in retaliation of mainstream style. This is important because mainstream design and ideas should evolve and improve. In the future I want to look into more depth of these styles in order to develop my own style.

The connection between theory and practice is vital, knowledge of history in both its successes and failures educates us for the present. On reflection the lecture on postmodernism has aided me in discovering a major influence on my future graphical practice. Swiss Style had always appealed to me but I could never address what the style was. I am now conscious of the”less is more” approach in my future work and I now recognise why the appeal of work from Wolfgang Weingart and Armin Hofmann has stood the test of time; researching their experimental practice in regards to manipulating typography and image through layering and photography while observing what I like about their work has encouraged me to take inspiration and experiment to create my own style. This has been beneficial to my graphic design rotation where in studio based work I have struggled to manipulate typography; now I have a basis of knowledge to aid my decisions by comparing with the work I like and use the processes I’ve learned are behind it, this also gives an idea of the impact certain design can produce in order to improve my own.

This module has also exposed me to different ways of thinking making me more mindful of the factors that are influencing how art has changed and how it is changing. The quote “technology is the mortal enemy of art” from Rodechencko’s 1922 constructivism manifesto was an interesting concept that has made me reflect on how technology has had an effect on not only how I experience art but also how I make it. This has influenced my opinion on finding inspiration for my studio based work; I now think I should go to more galleries try and look for inspiration everywhere rather than rely on the internet to find something that relates to my research, if I’m struggling with designing on a screen i should try designing off screen.