Experience

This last week I have been thinking basically non-stop about what experience I could design that would make the participants feel rebellious and I have decided I care too much, and can always see the negatives about each idea that I might just have to pick one and run with it.

I have come up with similar variations on an idea of common design degree thoughts from outsiders, for instance that design is a waste of a degree, there are no jobs, and it doesn't prepare you for life in a professional career. So perhaps "Commerce is the only way to success" or "Don't waste your money - There are no Design Jobs". This idea would have the participants either writing these messages massive in the atrium, or seeing these messages hung up and tearing / ripping them down or destroying them however they want.

Variations on this have been running through my head for the last week. Two others which I think are stronger I have also found it hard to get away from in terms of the track I am on. Having the tutors etc tag my car could be an interesting one to explore. Although being able to tag a car (with water based paint may I add) would be fun and they would want to do it, and would  do it as a group having that kind of team rebellion thing - its still not really hitting the mark for me...I feel like the destruction would be half hearted if they couldnt destroy things properly, and I don't want my car trashed if I can't clean it off....haha

The last one which Is my main idea at the moment, is to set up a mock exhibition in the atrium, and have them all trash it. It would be an industrial exhibition claiming to be the best dsicipline in design or something and have peices in pliths. Then they would be given paint and in a limited time, trash the peices and stand up for ccdn maybe. I am worried this will not feel rebellious though as they might just feel bad about trashing students work (even though its fake) and wont want to do it, which takes an element of rebellion away because they have to want to break the rules for a reason...In this circumstance I feel like I would have a top secret invite, or I would whisper to each of them before the time and tell them to meet me in the student common room lounge, then I would put masks on them maybe (like those face cover black things with the eye slits) and tell them their mission and act all hard out and stand up for culture and context-y and give them only 5 minutes or something so its a rush, and mad dash to trash them before getting out. Maybe spin a story about the guard on his rounds and I have rigged the cameras...anyway, I would need to act a lot in this which is fine as long as I am confident in what I am going to say. I'm not sure if I am allowed to participate in this experience making it more convincing in terms of the acting that I am leading a rebellion maybe....anyway...chat about it in class. Hopefully will have a better idea about it then so I can go outside in the sun...;)

So I am always thining of reasons these ideas arent great, I think I need to just go with one and hope it works instead of stressing out about it not being awesome enough.

Tutorial

After having a chat with my tutor I have been trying to think of a good way to push this idea a little more, and yet still keep the basic makeup of the physical submission the same, as I have the materials and steps to make it work.

I have come up with a alternative storyline with extra parts. For example, on the opposite page that the spinny outfits is on, I was thinking of having a title  describing the design - and my new thought it to have parts on this page that you can lift up, which reveal another outlook. For example, on the "Unfitting" page a businessman will be wearing a new world outfit, which would not be acceptable to the social group he was trying to belong to at work. But an alternative story would be that he spilt coffee on his shirt on the way to work, and his sons New World shirt was in the back of the car, so he wore that instead. Or a retail worker girl wearing her workout gear might be that she is working in a sports shop. I hope to highlight two parts of uniforms. That we try to fit in to what is expected, and join the same social group as our work colleagues by wearing similar outfits, and that if we weren't working the correct one we would find ourselves being judged, and not following the rules. Then there is the alternative part where our own stereotypes get in the way and we can't let that lead to judgements of what work people do as it might be completely different.

Below are images of the workbook currently...

Specifications

Last night I spent a few hours figuring out how my presentation of the photos will work when I put it all together and what materials I'll need. It took longer than I thought, but I think the creation of the book should be pretty straight forward now, and im excited! I hope it turns out like it looks in my head!

I am using a turning feature, like a wheel, with the cut out, so the uniforms can be swiveled around compared on the same body - I need the body to stay as the uniforms are the parts that matter. It will definitely be difficult to pull off, but hopefully really awesome.

Photos tomorrow! All set up and ready with my different outfits!
The man will have a business outfit with a shirt and pants, and a construction worker outfit and probably a work out outfit (as in going to the gym) as this was very apparent in the fieldwork with both male and females. This part is interesting as it isnt thought of as "working" but we call it "working out" and so it bring s a different perspective. We still work out in a selection of similar clothing and wear a uniform of sorts to complete that task in our days also.

The girl has a variety of business, retail and workout.

The turny circles will be made of ohp, so you can match the outfits to the body, and they will have a flipside, which mixes the outfits with the context,  and this will portray the fact that those who do not follow the mainstream uniform are unfit for working in that area, and are asked to dress a certain way to fit in. People want to feel like they belong to groups, so the majority wears the expected and mainstream 'uniforms' to their workplace.

Rationale

and because I can't get photoshop to work I'll add the words below....

LIPSTICK & REBELLION

The term rebellion can be described in many ways. Rebellion according to Muller & Weede (1994) occurs when “people attempt to change the institution, personnel, or policies of the government by resorting to illegal or aggressive methods”. Another definition is as simple as refusing to buy certain products in the marketplace due to individual beliefs (Plouffe & Peters, 2005).  Rebellion, it seems, can range in extremities, but two themes appear constant. The first relates to the individual power people display, and control that is felt when taking a stand about what they believe in. Secondly it often involves going against the mainstream, and disobeying social norms or rules.  (Muller & Weed, 1994; Plouffe & Peters, 2005).

The final experiment I conducted in order to turn using lipstick into a rebellious act combined both of the reoccurring themes of power and disobedience.  The experiment required the subject to use lipstick as a device for graffiti. She illicitly wrote on property to make a political statement, which targeted both the act of breaking the rules, and power in standing up for her beliefs.  As a teacher, the subject chose to make a written statement about the current Education Minister. This is a political topic that affects her personally, and given that a majority of the research outlines rebellion in response to government actions, this statement was ideal. “What the Hekia!?” was tagged, using the lipstick, and the minister Hekia Parata’s  first name as a play on words  (New Zealand Government, 2013). The statement is displaying dissatisfaction of the minister and how she is carrying out her role in parliament. While writing, the determination in the subject’s eyes and facial expression was clear. She believed in what she was writing, and used up all the lipstick making sure her political statement was bold and legible.

In this case, putting lipstick in a rebellious context changed the entire experience.  The lipstick was used in the form of an individual political statement, which brought a sense of power to the act. The experiment also required an element of rule breaking. The subject described the experience saying, “although I felt naughty, and self-conscious of others catching me, I also felt proud of what I was writing, and wanting others to see me standing up for what I believed in, and agree with my view” (L. Borkin, Personal Communication, September 7, 2013).

As previously noted, much of the research on rebellion relates to politics (Muller & Weede, 1994) and I believe this final experiment has embodied rebellion and all of the reoccurring themes beautifully.

References

Caroline, G. A., Plouffe, C. R., & Peters, C. (2005). Anti-commercial consumer rebellion: Conceptualisation and measurement. Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing, 14(1), 62-78. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/236968161?accountid=14782

Edward N. Muller & Erich Weede. (1994). Theories of Rebellion: Relative Deprivation and Power Contention Rationality and Society 6(1) 40. Retrieved from: http://rss.sagepub.com/content/6/1/40

New Zealand Government. (2013). Beehive.govt.nz. retrieved from: http://www.beehive.govt.nz/minister/biography/hekia-parata

Uniforms

SO the second exploration I did was to sit by a large intersection in Lambton Quay, where many workers walk around, during lunchtime. I saw many different workers of all different shapes and sizes, and noted many things down.

One of the interesting things from this exploration was the similarity in types of clothes people were wearing. There was many people who clearly had different roles of work, but the clothing they had on fit a certain criteria. I was interested in this avenue to explore further.

Initially I was going to investigate the machinery / structures that have taken over human roles in working, but I quickly realised what I really needed access to photograph was the scan and go thing that supermarkets have now. As permission to photograph there would be needed, this option was pretty quickly thrown out the window.

I then turned my focus to the interestng parts of the second exploration and so I am going with uniforms for my photostoryboard. Its very interesting how we wear similar clothing to show other people what form of work we engage in, and also to fit in to the culture of that job, and what society expects we wear.

I have organised to take some photos Thursday night with some lovely friends of mine. I am currently thinking of interesting ways to display these images.

Most of my focus is on the project I have due on Thursday this week, and another I have due Friday, but the entire weekend is mine to work on this and as long as I have a clear path, once the photos are taken on Thursday I can really dive into making the nice book to display the work.

Hopefully it all works out how it does in my head!

Almost there

233 and 231 papers are very similar in terms of the way we are supposed to think this semester, and because of this I keep labelling my posts with the wrong paper! So it might be out of order now but ohwell!

So tonight I put together my slides, and have got all that ready for presentation. I am aiming to write my rationale tomorrow, so I am all ready for Thursday ahead of time.

I have another assignment due on Friday after Thursdays presentation, and also another Tuesday ( for some reason my three design papers this semester are doomed to make my life stressful!) so getting ahead of the game is necessary.  I hope that they don't give us a gem of knowledge last minute which makes me feel like I need to change something!!

I'll upload final images, but not the slides as I tried to get that on here last time and I wasted about half a day and it didn't work! The images are the important things anyway.

The first image below is the first of the first experiment. I LOVE the emotion and conflict coming through her face in this shot. She is very uncertain as she is being asked to break the rules of the paper, and doesn't want to because 'someone' told her she's not to use it. The awkward smile just adds to the facials, but her conflicted eyes tell a great story. Once she picks up the lipstick and the siren starts, she gets a fast determination to complete her task and the rebellious part of the emotion kicked in for her.

 The above shot is all about the moment of rebellious, or in this case disobedience and rule breaking. you can see the "do not touch" and also the reflection of her hand slowly coming down to grasp the lipstick and break the rules. The red gritty nature of the image is representing the heat of the moment, and the gritty/dirty connotations that come with the word rebellion.

 This is the first image for the second experiment, which was focusing on power. The look on her face is what I wanted to stand out here, as well as the markings she is making with the lipstick. The comments she made regarding control and power were great. She is purple as it is a colour that historically is associated with royalty and with royalty comes great power.

 This one is one of my favourites. I again love the look in her eyes, and the illusion, for me I wanted to try and visually show what she may have felt like inside after being given the task. Almost like her power growing, but as feeling powerful is an emotion I wanted to keep her opacity lower - also - it looks awesome.

 I also love this image. I couldn't leave it out, even though 2 is all that is asked of us. The markings she made on his face, when given all power with the lipstick is very interesting to me, and to her as well and it could be that given power what we do with that surprises us. (perhaps she is wanting a cat?)

This shot is the first of the 'tagging' rebellion experiment. She is a teacher and has chosen to portray her view on the current education minister. She really believes in this statement, and that power to say what she thinks, coupled with breaking the rules by tagging, embodies exactly what I wanted. I wanted to highlight the ACT of tagging especially in this image.

 This image is the last, and again, her face says it all. She is determined to show what she thinks by acting rebellious, and it is all done using lipstick in a different way. The context is completely changed and this alters everything about the act of using lipstick.

Project 2

I am not sure whether we are required to blog for this project, but I thought I do it anyway. I have progressed during the break to completing my three experiments with my friend.

The first one I wanted to focus on disobedience, or that feeling that breaking the rules gives, as a large part of rebellion is breaking the rules. The second experiment I focused on the other aspect of rebellion which is power. The power that being rebellious can evoke when you are doing something you believe in, and also having an effect is extremely large. The last experiment joint the two aspects together and this is the one I will talk about in my words.

1st Exp: I set up a lipstick which was surrounded by a "do not use" title, and a red circle with a line through it, which we know as a do not do/take symbol here. The person was told to put lipstick on, and the indecision in her face was great. She behaved exactly as I thought she would which was unsure because it says she shouldn't, and when she picked up the lipstick, a siren was played while she had it in her hands. The nervous face displayed, and the description of emotion afterwards was exactly what I was trying to get with this experiment of rebellion. She did not want to break the rules, even though she had no idea who's rules they were and when I asked who's rules she thought that would be she said "I dont know the goverment!?" and that was bang on, as many of the rebellion related articles I have come across are fighting politics in some way.

2ns exp: This one was all about power, and my user was told to draw on another's face, whatever she liked, she had the power to do whatever she wanted and the aspect I was after was her enjoying this power, and feeling like she had control. In comments after the experiment was good as she definitely felt in control, but there was a slight awkwardness as well which I hadn't anticipated because she didnt know the subject well enough to feel like she could draw on his face. That is an interesting observation as I had not really accounted for that in my experiment. Although not entirely the outcome I wanted, the feeling of power was still there so not unsuccessful.

The last experiment was to 'tag' a wall using the lipstick, but about something that she believed in. The power, and breaking the rules was involved (although we did clean it off afterwards). This is my favourite experiment because I think it embodies rebellion beautifully with lipstick.

Currently I am playing around with the photos I took trying to get two for each that I like and can play with in photoshop. I have been stalled in this area for about 4 days as I don't know exactly what direction I want to go in with these images.

Some of them I think are great shots and don't need much done to them, but others require a lot of photoshop and they all don't seem cohesive. Oh well, I will try my best to get them all at a good level so I am not too stressed out this week and can focus on the words and putting them in a PDF slideshow. EK!

Some photos from experiments...