Culture and Education Clash

Design school has taught me to strive for innovation and creative individuality. My New Zealand upbringing however, is clouded by Tall Poppy Syndrome (TPS) (Kirkwood, 2007). This creates internal confusion, should I stand out, and “Enjoy the Crowd” (Lucas, 2008), or do I challenge my cultural background? According to Kirkwood (2007, p.366) “knocking high achievers is often described as being ingrained in New Zealand's culture”. In order to be recognised as a designer, I should be unafraid of standing out. I deserve to be recognised for my passion and hard work, I will strive to be proud of my own talents and create my own crowd

References:

Kirkwood, J. (2007). Tall poppy syndrome: Implications for entrepreneurship in new zealand. Journal of Management and Organization, 13(4), 366-382. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/233254825?accountid=14782

Lucas, R. (2008). ‘Taking a line for a Walk’: Walking as an Aesthetic Practice. Ways of Walking: Ethnography and Practice on Foot. Hampshire: Ashgate.

Culture vs Education Clash

 Tall poppy syndrome,

Innovative designer?

Create your own crowd.

Haiku

Sweet I have found a reference online saying that grammar of the haiku is up to the poet, so that's good! I almost want to capitilise each word, but the last line doesnt look right capitilised, so i'll sort out what I feel looks and sounds best.

I have written a draft summary also which I need to edit, but here's the draft...

Culture and Education Clash

Design school has taught me to strive for innovation and creative individuality. My New Zealand upbringing however, is clouded by Tall Poppy Syndrome (TPS) (Kirkwood, 2007). This creates internal confusion, should I stand out, and “Enjoy the Crowd” (Lucas, 2008), or do I challenge my cultural background? According to Kirkwood (2007, p.366) “knocking high achievers is often described as being ingrained in New Zealand's culture”. Alternatively my design education has taught me to let this cultural norm go. In order to be recognised as a designer, I should stand out, and be unafraid of creating my own crowd. Everyone deserves to be recognised for his or her hard work, and New Zealand should destroy our TPS culture.

References:

Kirkwood, J. (2007). Tall poppy syndrome: Implications for entrepreneurship in new zealand. Journal of Management and Organization, 13(4), 366-382. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/233254825?accountid=14782

Lucas, R. (2008). ‘Taking a line for a Walk’: Walking as an Aesthetic Practice. Ways of Walking: Ethnography and Practice on Foot. Hampshire: Ashgate.

I'll put up my images and haiku finished soon. then I need to figure out how to combine pdfs, and get those submissions ready, then finalise my summary and boom! :)

Coming together

Its all coming together, I am really happy with my Haiku, and my images. Now it's just getting everything presented in the correct way, in the correct format, and my write-up summary.

I have found a really good article as a back-up of my 'tall poppy syndrome' NZ culture critique, which is good! So Im just going to figure out the write-up now, and get that sorted so all I have to do is finalise the PDFS.

I am sad to see my building images go as it doesnt fit my story and stands out. I love the image though, but ah well! I have taken another one which I quite like and hope works. I may need to go get some more as a lot of the images (and the best one) are portrait instead of landscape. Bugger! Newbie mistake there.

Anyway! Almost there! I am striving to submit tomorrow during the day and not be faffing about late!

Progress

Feeling ok about this project now. I have been working on my haiku tonight, trying to get it perfect.

I have started getting the images ready and looking at placement order, and also where some gaps are. I feel like I am pretty sorted, but you ever know!

I am in Auckland for my first wedding dress fitting this weekend, so I wont have time to worry about this up there. I was hoping to be basically done, so hopefully after tonight I'll have my haiku done, and ideally my images in the high res and low res options. I'm pretty confident I can write a summary on Monday after work, or Tuesday, as I feel like I have a really strong sense of what my critique and my personal reflection is in this project.

Yay I do love it when it seems to come together.

HAIKU

Tall Poppy Syndrome
Innovative Designer?
Stand out in the crowd

I like the first two lines, I'm just working on the last one currently.

Stand out

Rise

Grow

Raise

Raise your own crowd..

Grow your own crowd..

Develop

Cultivate

Nurture...

Its hard finding the right word. It's not there yet. I like that it has changed from standing out in a crowd to create.....There it is! I was going to say to creating your own crowd,  by standing out in the crowd, but then create happened!

Hopefully its clear what I mean instead of spelling it out like "stand out in a crowd" did...

Tall Poppy Syndrome

Innovative Designer?

Create your own Crowd

 Yay.

Draft Images

I seem to have a broken vs on purpose  thing going on with what I could find in Wellington - so perhaps I do the first half as broken, or unfinished, and then the haiku and then the on purpose designed to stand out ones.

Anyway...

after today's feedback I need to take a few more as apparently the smaller scale images work better together and the larger ones are less obvious - e.g. the above. I also need to think really hard about the order and framing of these shots so they portray what I am trying to say.

My haiku is almost there as well, I just need to edit a little bit more.
I am hoping to have this done before the weekend as I am in Auckland this weekend and working monday :)

Progress

Sooo I didnt think we were using the blog as a working area, I thought it was just a to keep track of our process for ourselves, so here we go just to summarise the STEP ONE and STEP TWO's for the current assignment...

STAGE ONE

As part of stage one we were to choose a statement from a reading or scholarly text which resonated with us.
"The perspective you choose should resonate with you and your personal values or inclinations as a
designer".

I chose "Enjoying a crowd is an Art" from 'Taking a Line for a Walk'; Walking as an Aesthetic Practice by Raymond Lucas. I feel like this sentence is really open to interpretation and that is what I like about it.  It could have a critical focus, or it could be literal. The interpretation of 'Crowd' for me has been a rollercoaster. But this is what I focused on when I took my second set of photos and what resulted was more of a critical focus on NZ culture, and the standing out in a crowd idea. As discussed in other posts, this area of designers should be designing new things and standing out in the crowd but as part of culture in NZ is to be a 'Short Poppy' and not be too successful, or at least shout about it.

I became interested in objects in Wellington which have been designed, or are designed objects where it is all uniform and made to be the same, but something has been changed or designed which results in one of the objects (or people) standing out, or looking different from the others. The feeling that gives people is interesting to me, some people like things that stand out, others feel uneasy that things should fit and be the same. Its interesting that objects out of place or different can cause people to have such an overwhelming emotional response. On the other side, is it a part of our culture and history so is it possible for NZ designers to want to stand out in a crowd and enjoy standing out?

FOR STAGE TWO of the critical part of the assignment I have approached the images with this in mind and found some, but a lot of the work for these images will be in post production I feel. I need to ensure the difference is the main area of focus. I am not entirely happy with where my images are at the moment, and need to take some more (4th time lucky) while exploring different areas of wellington again, but I feel like I can see it coming together.

I feel like I am pretty good at Haiku's and, like a critical summary, I want to wait until the ideas have come together before I produce it, otherwise as the ideas change, the haiku will also change. I am very interested in getting the haiku right though so don't be fooled into thinking I am just going to do it last minute and not care. I am sad we only have few words to describe everything, I like words:)

STAGE ONE of the Photos I produced MAAANNY photos, and as you would have seen if you had been reading my earlier posts, I wasnt happy with them, so I went out again, and for a 3rd time as my idea came together. I can now see myself in my idea, and also a critical stance on NZ culture of standing out in a crowd. STAGE TWO is therefore also occurred in the last week, although I need to get really focusing on the images and how they may look in order to get the best feedback I can in tutorial tomorrow.

I am off to take more photos, I hope I get enough as I feel like I may have 4 or so at the most currently that I can use...

Back to it...

Side note: I am also developing man-flu which makes me sad.

Practice Haiku for how I am feeling now:

Developing Flu
Projects all due at same time
such first world problems.


Practise Haiku for Critique:

Short poppy culture
Innovative designer?
Stand out in the crowd


Peace.

Project Progress

Hmm ok so after the first experimentation with this project I decided to go down a different path, but then when I got out there with my camera again I didnt find myself inspired. I have wandered for a 3rd time now and I started getting interested in things that stand out in a crowd, so still on the line of "enjoying a crowd is an art" but now I think it has more of a stand out in the crowd type feel to it too, whether thats a good thing or not. Certainly in NZ history we are a bunch of short poppies, instead of wanted to stand out and be different. But then design is all about coming up with innovative ideas, and so is interesting.

I have found a few things so far where there are a few objects that are all the same and then something about another one that makes it stand out, either for good or bad, and why do we do that? Some things standing out is designed, and others is not. I'm still developing this, but I think I will continue down this avenue and hopefully get some good photos out of it.