October 17, 2005
reflexivity 2
I picked up a book at the library today "Picturing Culture - Explorations of Film and Anthropology" by Jay Ruby...
I have become a little distracted by Anthropology and so have been mooching around in that area online in google scholar and in the physcial library shelves at Swinburne. I can never remember how to spell Pierre Bourdieau's name and so can't find him in the catalogue...
anyway I found this book...Jay writes about Producer - process- product - audience...and the necessity for anthropological works to have a reflexive nature and reveal their authoriship - obviously one might also apply this to communication design...what forms might emerge and what new ways might one look at authoring the visual or material nature of the artefact.
Imagine a comm design practice that looked for transparency and complete enunciation of intentions to be incorporated into the work: what form might that take...
Posted by Neal Haslem at 06:30 PM
April 22, 2004
what I like and don't like... is this useful?
What I don’t like
(never really like talking about what I do and dont like - always thought it was the start of becoming a fashion nazi, or just a plain nazi....maybe it is the opposite of that though and is the only way to fight that)
What I don’t like
(never really like talking about what I do and dont like - always thought it was the start of becoming a fashion nazi, or just a plain nazi....maybe it is the opposite of that though and is the only way to fight that)
certainty
refinement
smartness
lying
duplicity
pretense (though I do like playfulness)
new clean living
interior design as in magazines about ID
middle class snobs ( though I might be one)
being told what to do and think
feeling left out
feeling like I have to fit in
telling people that there is a better way
design wankers (who are they? purists?)
ponces
mean-ness
manipulation
emphasis on money
giving service people a hard time
feeling you have a right to be served
supercilliousness
feeling “better than”
modern communication methods
marketing methods
spin
evryone for themselves
flying in over LA (too many people)
first looking online and googling things (too much too many)
having to say “I’m sure”
telling people what to do
people who tell you where it’s “at”
snobby groups
patronising groups
dismissing the naive as worthless
violence
conflict
dumdness and chest-beating that leads to the above
anger
people who think they are better than other people
judging
capital punishment
prisons (that act create serial criminals)
class dynamics
ideologues
blind followers of a political group (whatever persuasion)
committing myself
bullying
being made to feel a fool
being exposed, feeling unprotected
when I can’t get my computer to work
forgetting names and things
when my bike doesn’t start
having a bad back
telling people I’ve got a bad back
over-indulgence and excess (ruth’s BBQ)
thoughtless consumption
being stuck in the city for weeks and weeks
sitting around watching TV for ever
missing my friends
losing friends
telling people what I really think
confronting people
saying “no”
engaging in conflict
pitching myself
justifying myself
going in to boardroom meetings
boardroom manouvering
things that call themselves art but arn’t
doing things badly because of economic/time pressure
lying to the client
over-selling
under-delivering
not being able to sing
feeling responsible for capsizing the boat
letting down the team
letting anyone down
being on my own
feeling stupid
the way I get so easily embarrased
advertising that tells people what to do
magazines that sell “lifestyles”
people who try and turn life into “lifestyle”
not seeing much live performance stuff
not being able to afford to travel
people telling me I need to prepare for my retirement
someone taking my job and being paid a lot more
enterprise bargaining
haggling
concealment
not being able to talk about stuff
not knowing what other people are earning
not being able to trust other people
when trust dissappears
people who think they know
not being able to do stuff
not doing everything myself
not being included
computer generated half-tone screens and rosettes
Design Graphics
style
people who think they know me
being mis-understood
being over-looked
not being taken seriously
typeface snobbery
design snobbery
people who think it’s OK to rip other people off
being questioned
having to defend myself
people criticising my work
what I do like
the bush
some colour combinations
things that mean more than one thing
things that don’t have a verbalized meaning
people that say one or a few words and yet have said everything
honesty
playfulness
inefficiency
making things
making things work
understanding things
crafting things - roughly
rough craft
the things left over
the unintentioned
the sun
the outdoors
pleasing people
riding bikes
feeling free
being underground
noise
very empty spaces
the desert
being praised
fitting in
things people have done themselves
looking at the stars
communicating clearly
being above the clouds
everything to some degree
talking
taking photos of things
solving problems
jury-rigging things
old things
things I have known for some time (history)
the colour and light patterns at the bottom of the pool
raw materials
rough finish
minimalism
the non-precious
screen-printing
fixing things
things of uncertain meaning
the juxtaposed
the 3 peso note
things that have not been commodified
chidrens takes on stuff
unknowing design
feeling needed and connected
helping other people feel needed and connected
taking the other point of view
going over to the other camp
teaching
seeing people excitedby new stuff
doing it all myself
being in control
experiencing new things
learning new things
people who don’t know
acceptance of others
not to be ruled by money
watching people’s faces
a lot of art
not much design
details and things seen in minutae
correlations between nature and humans
wild weather
having a purpose
Neil Young - sometimes
DIY culture
the energy of youth
Posted by Neal Haslem at 11:09 PM
April 08, 2004
painting prouns
and another utopian connection - which also connects back around to Andrew Benjamins architecture talk the other day at RMIT....
The alluring idea of a composition actually providing a leverage to the future?
"...broadened Malevich's Suprematist credo of pure painting as spiritually transcendent into an interdisciplinary system of two-dimensional, architectonic forms rendered in painted collages, drawings, and prints, with both utopian and utilitarian aspirations."
on El Lissitzky
Posted by Neal Haslem at 12:35 PM
April 07, 2004
Cairns
You know how strong a cairn is visually/mentally?
Of course you need a fairly (visibly) pristine environment, but in the act of making a sign and putting just one stone on another (i'm not really talking about those huge cairns that you might see holding up a survey marker or on top of a hill, I mean those almost insignificant ones that might remind you that you are on a track in the absence of other signs) a very strong sign is constructed. As humans we're naturally very aware of an object in our environment that can only be made by another human (almost like dogs and scent) It "sticks out" as a human construction and takes on meaning, some meaning, like a pair of inverted comas with nothing in between ( " " ) - it is a holder of meaning, we might not be sure what meaning.
If this were a graphic object what form would it take?
Does this class as an object that invites discourse rather than shut it down?
ps This is not a cairn. I have to buy a digital camera - I hate their lack of clarity and I can't afford it but I think I have to get one....
Posted by Neal Haslem at 01:33 AM