Find, Observe, Record

The first task in thematic groups was for each person to present our ideas and areas of possible interest under the following subheadings:

• Why we are interested in the subject
• How it might relate to our practice
• What we know about it already
• How we can observe, record and respond to it

Practical task 1: Spend one hour going out and find examples or inspiration of my chosen theme.

I found this task quite difficult as my topic is rather broad, but I had a look around a few local shops to see how sugary products were marketed.

I challenged myself to resist the urge to buy something sweet, I will record each time I get a craving!

The Smoothie Company

The Smoothie Company sells healthy smoothie drinks as well as a range of sandwiches and snacks to suit specific dietary requirements; for example having vegan, vegetarian and gluten free options. Although I did notice that on the counter as you are waiting to pay, there is a variety of sweet snacks such as biscuits and brownies that are very hard to resist.

1 urge to buy a brownie

Subway

Similar to The Smoothie Company, subway promote themselves as a healthy sandwich shop, the main difference being that they are not an independent company. Although when you are waiting to pay, a selection of cookies becomes available. The option of a meal deal is also available, making the overall price of a subway only a penny extra for including a soft drink and a choice of a bag of crisps or a cookie, making it very difficult to say no.

No urges to buy anything (partly because I didn't have enough money)

Tesco

I went into Tesco with the intention of buying milk only. So I walked to the back of the store to buy some milk, walking past all of the offers for sweets and chocolate on the end of the aisles (share bags for a pound etc). THE WORST thing about this branch of Tesco is the aisle where you queue. This aisle shelves really mundane items such as toilet rolls, air fresheners etc. But they display sweets and chocolate in mini drop down units so that you are almost forced to be tempted to buy something on impulse whilst you are waiting in the queue.

I left Tesco with milk AND a chocolate bar...

Reflection

This task was really interesting to experience being tempted and exploited by marketing schemes first hand. I have always had a soft spot for cadburys chocolate, and when it is on offer I do find it hard to resist. But in moderation. It is SO difficult to avoid these temptations when they are near enough everywhere. It makes me think,  are supermarkets responsible for adding to the obesity crisis? Part of me thinks yes, because they thrive off customers money, so they are bound to want to sell as much as they can to keep growing and developing and gaining the reputation as the best supermarket. 

So I'm thinking what needs to be controlled here? Is it peoples will power and conscience not to give in to temptation? Or is it the food industry trying to wean every penny that they can out of us? 
This is something that I would like to further explore.

Practical Task 2: Continue by drawing 20 more images relating to your question and theme.

I didn't quite manage 20 drawings, due to feeling uncertain about where my question is going at the moment, and worrying that my topic is too similar to one of my class-mates. So I have been feeling pretty disheartened and anxious about the whole thing.

Although in my images I did manage to vent out some things that really interest me and fuel me up to start a discussion. Some of these things included:

• Honest branding 
• The strain that obesity and such conditions are having on those responsible for providing care e.g. doctors and nurses
• How the NHS COULD be more cost efficient if these things were prevented
• How marketing exploits young people
• Government statements
• How I think the government should invest more into educating the next and current generation about these conditions

The next steps I will take

From these drawings, I know now to go out and find real examples of these issues and use them as evidence and reference in my essay.

Establishing a Research Question

I managed to narrow down some information that I would like to include in my essay and generally gain a better sense of direction with the whole thing. It still isn't crystal clear but that is something that I can work on.

I also checked out the JSTOR and found some handy reference material on there about obesity, the only problem is that because it is American, I couldn't find an awful lot about the NHS.

Things I need to do from here:

• More research into the NHS
• Create an essay plan
• Define the desired outcome of this research proposal

Illustration and Authorship Essay

Owen Davey has been working as a freelance illustrator in Leicester since graduating six years ago from Falmouth University. His colourful and playful vector illustrations have won many awards such as the YCN professional award in 2013 and he has worked for many well known companies such as Google, Facebook, Virgin and more.

Linking the work of a creative practitioner to 'The Death of the Author' by Roland Barthes, we could view the illustrator, in this example, Owen Davey as an author in relation to their individual practice. The meaning of authorship can be seen as ‘the person who originates or gives existence to anything’ (M.Rock, the designer as author 1996). 
A lot of what Barthes is portraying in his text is that any form of authorship is open to interpretation and the audience may not relate on the same level as what  the author set out to achieve, both in an emotive and logical response.

In relation to Owen Davey's practice, I am personally inspired by his work due to his use of bright colours in textured vector form that I think appeal to a really broad audience, including both adults and children which is a really difficult thing to do. For example, his book 'Mad about monkeys' is an educational and informative picture book with supportive language about the history and relationships of the animals. Barthes claims that 'it is the language which speaks, not the author' although Davey is merely answering a brief to visually inform a large audience with facts about monkeys. This could also mean that the audience is looking at it from a non personal perspective, meaning that the purpose of reading and looking at the book is for its sole purpose, to learn about monkeys, rather than reading and looking at the book to understand Davey's thoughts and feelings towards monkeys.

I also feel like this is a rather difficult statement to interpret from Barthes; 'the image of literature to be found in ordinary culture is harshly centred on the author, his person, his life, his tastes, his passion'. Yet again  I feel like this cannot apply in the correct context with an illustrator in terms of authorship, as the majority of the time the illustrator is given a brief from an external person in which they need to answer. It would be completely different if the illustrator had devised the narrative and imagery themselves where they could fully intertwine their personality, life,tastes and passions when answering a brief, but this is not always the most appropriate method to take when appealing to a broad audience.

This statement from Barthes translates to the fact that a text comes together gradually along the process of engagement with it, rather than from the point where it started,'a texts unity lies not in its origin but its destination'. If we were to relate this to illustration and the specific practice of Owen Davey's authorship this could make sense in the process of becoming a developed illustrator in a personal sense, for example the unity of his practice will take time to develop etc. However in terms of his work for example a book or piece of work, this could also apply and be seen as relevant in the sense that the unity of the image doesn't lie where it started- a lot of loose ends and ideas, but in the finished product which communicates the appropriate message and answers the brief efficiently.

To conclude, I believe illustration and authorship are two completely different things. In today's society, an illustrator will often answer a brief that is given to them with specific requirements, whereas a traditional author or writer will express themselves through language, and have entire control and ownership on what is delivered to the audience. However if we look at the illustrator as 'the person who originates and gives existent to anything', then this becomes relevant in a sense that through image making, the illustrator is illuminating and giving existence to a particular subject matter, message and theme that can be visually interpreted.

The Flipped Classroom

• The flipped classroom basically means flipping the control so that the students have more authority of what they are learning, and so that they are more in charge of their own learning
• They also in a way create their own answers
• The idea comes from how there is no hierarchy between students and teachers, in effect that the teacher is not all knowing and that the students are stupid

Jacques Ranviere  (a trendy French philosopher)

• He wrote two texts; the ignorant school matter and the politics of aesthetics
• He was involved in the French May 1968 student revolution, including a general strike and occupations of factories and universities
• The students revolted due to unfair fees and general oppression in the creative industries.

• In this era, dressing down was a weapon used against conservatives
• He was also involved in producing pamphlets on the poverty of student life
• There was a poster made entitled 'sous les paves, le plage', translating to something along the lines of that underneath the horror and repression, there is beauty.

Louis Althusser

• Ranviere also admired the French marxist philosopher, Louis Althusser.
• He had two states of apparatus in which he believed:
• Repressive state apparatus- physical control
• Idealogical state apparatus- happy with social status/ mental control
• He stated that the world is not equally available to all and questioned who can actually have a share in what is common to everyone? He believed that these states could prevent certain people from participating in certain things.

Looking back at Ranviere; his book 'The ignorant schoolmaster:five lessons on intellectual emancipation' looks at an exiled French teacher attempting to teach a class of Dutch students, but the main problem here was the language barrier. To overcome this, the teacher takes a 'figure it out for yourself' approach to the matter, embracing the theory that anyone can learn by themselves.

Conclusion

• Education is a project that should be undertaken n common; for the common
• 'The distribution of the sensible' and 'society of content' prevent participation in common therefore acting as an educational barrier.
• Stultification- Repression
• Self-education- Emancipation

Research and Epistemology Part 1

What we mean by research

• Research informs our practice, and out practice informs our research
• Process (research of a project) is more important than outcome
• If we focus on the end point, we are focusing on what we already know
• "Everyone is a genius at least once a year. Success comes from having brighter ideas closer together"
• Reflective, experimental, creative process
• Process of finding facts
• Collecting information from a variety of sources

Ideas

Research impacts ideas with either a:

• Stimulated approach - Looking at external things and developing associations with what I am trying to achieve
• Systematic approach - Taking what you've found and adjusting it
• Intuitive approach - Generating ideas from nothing (eureka moments)

Types of Research:

• Primary - It hasn't existed before, targeted at the problem
• Secondary - Already existent. Analysis of that information
• Quantitative - Facts/stats or numerical measures OBJECTIVE
• Qualitative - Un-quantifiable. Peoples beliefs or opinions SUBJECTIVE

What is information?

Processing and manipulating facts/date you've collected. Information should be sufficient, competent, relevant and useful.

• Phase 1 - Assimilation- organising relevant information
• Phase 2 - General Study - what are the aspects of the problem
• Phase 3 - Development - refining solutions to the problem
• Phase 4 - Communication - delivering information to improve knowledge

Analysis (it is a cyclical process- not linear)

STEPPING INTO THE UNKNOWN : Where I will start and how I will move forward

• What is the problem/brief/question about?
• What is there and what am I meant to do?
• KEY: Generate loads of stuff
• Solutions: Compromising 

Paradigm Position

• Ontology: What is out there to study? Analysis of what can be known.
• Epistemology: How we can know about things, how we can justify and validate them.

Conclusion

• Start with what you know
• Identify what you want to know more about
• Plan how you're going to find out about it

Finding an area of study

Group Task: Splitting the categories into sub-topics

Dictionary definitions of each category

Social

I find social the most interesting topic of the five, because the human condition is always changing and reacting to society and I am fascinated by the human mind and behaviour. Health and wellbeing are also some of my areas of interest; I believe that everyone deserves to have a healthy body, healthy mind and general overall healthy way of life, and I enjoy exploring external factors that may alter and change human behaviour and therefore have an affect on our health.

Quotes

"In the social jungle of human existence, there is no feeling of being alive without a sense of identity" - Erik Erikson 

I like this quote because it stresses the importance of self awareness and the importance of having a sense of identity, which can help an individual develop a sense of belonging and progress in life. 

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all"- Oscar Wilde 

The difference between living and existing is something that I have recently been thinking about. The lifestyle choices and decisions we make can all contribute to whether we challenge and enjoy ourselves or just hide away from opportunities or feel emotionally numb.
 "Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.  ~World Health Organisation, 1948

Images

 A lot of people in todays society question happiness; what is the true meaning of happiness, whether they are happy themselves. The idea of false happiness or being happy due wealth or following a trend to feel accepted is extremely common in todays society.

Wellbeing, pressure at work, dependancy and strain on the NHS. There is huge pressure on the NHS with todays level of obesity in the nation, and a huge strain on expenditure. It is causing pressure in all areas of the NHS; budget, staff, primary care.

'Social media' is something that primarily springs to mind when we think of the word social. In fact, the heavy use of social media can have the opposite effect, when people live their lives behind a screen in a big comparative competition with other users, resulting in feeling incredibly isolated.

Photographs

'Social gathering'. Being sociable is often associated with spending time with others engaging in activities as a group.

'Social documentary'. Photography documenting social situations or events in history to give a sense of atmosphere. This one in particular shows when youngsters used to work in dangerous conditions in factories.

'Social worker', engaging with a professional to help manage social problems, e.g. abusive relationships, personal issues etc.