In my opinion...

Tracey Emin's My Bed

This is my response after reading Understanding Bourdieu chapter 8.

One of the things I have always loved about 'art' is that it is so subjective, it draws people together and it divides others, it sparks debate and stimulates conversations. Of course people will come along and state their opinions as definitive, or condemn someone's passion as trash, but really the beauty of the subject is that it's a personal experience, different from one person to the next. There are on the whole no wrong or right answers. Of course factors such as upbringing, social status and education play large rolls in defining or swaying our tastes, what newspapers we read and radio stations we listen to all have a bearing on how we react to art. But I believe the basic instinct of liking or disliking art is something private that comes from deep inside ourselves.

I don't believe that someone who is well educated would necessarily get more enjoyment from a piece of art than someone who is poorly educated. The better educated person may be able to understand the piece better on a technical level, be able to put it into context or it's time period or social surroundings, but you do not need to be an expert to know your own tastes and preferences. On a basic level of enjoyment and personal understanding and interpretation I believe art is the one thing that everyone can have an valid and interesting opinion on.

A big question is what makes something art? What makes something worthy of being hung on a gallery wall? Being put in a case in a museum? Or selling for millions at auction? Do we hold more value to a painting if it has been validated by a renowned critic or done by an already established artist? I believe we do. But does that mean we necessarily like it any better? Personally I don't think I do. I do not like Tracey Emin's work just because it's received so much exposure, press coverage and prestige. In fact I left her exhibition last year feeling slightly disturbed and uneasy, I couldn't think of one of her pieces that I liked. But that got me thinking, was that the emotion she intended I felt after viewing her work? Did she want me not to like it? I think what is important is that it was an experience that evoked an emotion from me.

I think art is whatever you want it to be, there are no right or wrong answers, it is constantly changing, tastes change and fashions will come and go, cultural and social movements will evolve. All these factors influence art and what we think of it. I wouldn't want it any other way.

Semester 2 Assignment 1: The Photo Swap!

Over the Christmas holidays we had to collect several photos of ourselves growing up, the photos were to be candid snapshots of family days out, birthday parties and every day activities. The aim of the exercise was to swap the photos with another student who you didn't know to see if you could analyse the photos to discover what kind of person they were.

A few of the pictures I gave to Scarlett.

I exchanged mine with, Scarlett, a jewellery student who I had never met or talked to before. Looking at her photos my first impressions was that she grew up in the countryside, I felt she spent a lot of time outside in the garden playing when she was growing up. She is always surrounded by her friends and family in the photos suggesting that she is a people person, who enjoys others company. I think she enjoyed regular days out with her family when she was growing up.

The photos suggested that Scarlett loves to dance. There is a photo of her, her sister and a friend dressed up in costumes performing to her parents in her living room. it looks like they are practising for a show. They are enjoying it as they are smiling and giggling. I could see from a photo on the mantelpiece that Scarlett also did highland dancing. I think she also did some other sport, maybe running and enjoyed participating in school sport events.

Other objects in the room, such as a gold chest and an old clock look as if they could have been handed down through generation, which suggests that her family have strong family values.

There is a couple of photos where Scarlett is with animals, in one she is holding a pet hamster and in another she is petting a small deer. This suggests that She likes animals and is not afraid of them as in her pictures she is smiling and looks proud she is touching the deer. There is no evidence of any larger pets in the household such as a dog so perhaps annimals didn't play a big part in her childhood.

I feel Scarlett likes trying new experiences as long as they are within her comfort zone. In one of her pictures she is on holiday and is sitting on a camel. She is with her friend or sister and in a holiday resort which looks very nice and quiet (which suggests it is a family holiday rather than one with her friends) she is sitting behind the other girl in the photo, rather than at the front. Was it her friend’s idea to go on the camel and not Scarlett’s?

From the pictures I feel that Scarlett is a confident and a very likeable person, she is surrounded by friends and family in all her pictures, I think she is very well loved and adored by her friends and family. i think she has a wide friend base but has a few very close friends. She is always smiling and laughing in her photos. In one of the photos of her at a birthday party all her friends are not looking at the camera, but Scarlett is looking straight into the lens, pulling a pose. This suggests that she is full of energy, outgoing and enjoys being centre of attention.

I think Scarlett's fashion is influenced by the people around her, she dresses similarly to her friends, she follows trends but her style is not "out there".

I met up with Scarlett to discus my findings and to hear what she thought about my photos.

I was interested to hear that I had almost completely sussed her! There was a few things I misinterpreted like that she does actually have a dog, and that the room where she was dancing with her friends wasn't actually her house, so the chest and clock being passed down the family doesn't apply. She agreed with the statement that she likes trying new experiences as long as they are in her comfort zone too.

She then went on to tell me her feedback on my photos.

She thought I grew up in the countryside, but in fact I grew up in a tenement flat on a main road in the centre of Edinburgh.

"She seems a happy and very smiley child. She had a close family upbringing. It looks as though she has a brother and sister that are younger."

I was a very happy child, and had a very close family upbringing however I only have one younger brother, the other girl in the picture was my cousin.

Scarlett worked out that I enjoy family meals, and that we often eat outside in the summer (that's true, we have been know to sit with blankets and our coats on in the past).

She thought that there was lots of plants and flowers which created a happy atmosphere, that I love chocolate and that my family enjoy celebrating occasions like birthdays. This is true, we normally have a family meal either at home or at my Grandpa's restaurant when it's someone's birthday. My dad loves plants in the house, and what girl doesn't love chocolate!!

Scarlett guessed correctly that I'm confident and enjoy socializing with my friends. She also worked out I have studied graphic design for a while and that I'm very proud of my work.

She states that I have a unique style, that I follow trends slightly not not religiously. Which I would have to agree with, I never try to be "unique" in my clothing but am definitely not a slave to fashion or trends. She could tell that I like to change my hair style regularly, she said this shows that I like to experiment, and that I don't feel I have to be the same as everyone else. I like bright colours, which show my bright and bubbly personality. 

Although nothing earth shattering was uncovered by either of us I found this a fascinating exercise, I am currently reading Snoop by Sam Gosling which is all about the "science of snooping" so was fantastic to be able to carry out my own investigations. It is amazing how much information you can gleam from a handful of snapshots of a complete stranger. I did feel quite uncomfortable and awkward to begin with it felt daunting having to assess and judge a someone's personal memories of childhood. And it felt weird thinking she would be doing the same to my photos as I was to hers. I began thinking about what she might be thinking about me as I was thinking about her.

(Scarlett's photos to come soon)

When I grow up

I remember filling out the “In the future I want to be…” section in my yearbook at the end of primary 7 and asking my teacher what someone who designed logos was called, she said she didn’t know and I should just write I wanted to be a “logo designer”. So I did.

I went onto high school where art and graphic communication became my favourite subjects but I had no real idea of what direction I wanted to take my passion in. I flirted with the idea of set design or product design but never for a moment thought I’d make it to Art College. For some reason I did not connect design with art college and as I’ve never been an outstanding artist didn’t think it would be an option. By this time I had forgotten that I had always wanted to be a designer, I lacked guidance from my school, and six years on and I still didn’t know what a “logo designer” was.

It wasn’t until I left school after fifth year and went to college to a BTec in foundation art that I truly saw design as an art form. I ended up specializing in textiles that year which was fun but I knew it wasn’t the career path for me. I went on to complete a HNC in illustration, (purely because I still wasn’t 100% sure what graphic design involved, and illustration seemed a safer option) but as the year went on my work developed a very graphic style.

While everyone moaned about having to learn Adobe CS3 I was thriving on the Macs, I discovered typography for the first time, getting the highest test score in the year (that was including the graphics students too). I felt I did not fit in in illustration, I wanted to make the cross over to the graphic design course. Fortunately I was able to do that, and I completed the final year of my HND in graphics.

Making the switch was the best thing I ever did, suddenly I was surrounded by people who loved the discipline as much as me. I was not a square peg in a round hole, I was round too! It helped that I had very motivated tutors, something I had not experienced in illustration. For the first time I was getting positive feedback for studio work as well as CAD projects, I felt inspired about the industry I would one day end up in.

That year the course ran a mentoring scheme for the first time with six graphic designers from Edinburgh. I was privileged to have this experience as I gained valuable feedback an constructive criticism from the mentors, I made contacts and started to network, I gained further insight into the real world of graphic design. I went to their studios, emailed them, went to the pub with them, I presented to them, brainstormed with them, went on work placement with them. I began to feel and think like a real graphic designer. I was constantly learning new skills I never knew existed.

Like what a concept is. It seems silly now, but about eighteen months ago I didn’t know or understand what a concept was, or understand that you needed one as the basis to all your work. Like a lot of other things I had to learn pretty quickly, I had a whole year of catching up to do compared to my peers.

However during a months work placement I undertook last February at two different design agencies in Edinburgh I grew disheartened. All the excitement of working through and delivering a brief and the buzz of the classroom was lost in the transfer to the workplace. It was simply just another nine till five in a sterile office, the people were nice but there was no spark.

That’s why I applied for art college, I was not ready to enter that type of environment as some of my classmates were. I wanted the excitement, I wanted the thrill and I wanted to be able to stretch myself without limits. In education you have the luxury of inventing solutions that would never go ahead in the real world, I did not want to pander to the client’s every whim just yet.

So I find myself now two weeks in to my second semester and I love it here at DoJ. It took me at least six weeks to settle in and if I’m being honest all of semester one to feel like I belonged in my new course. I still loved graphics, it was just a getting used to a new way of working seemed odd, plus moving to a new city etc. The course seemed slow paced to begin with after the whirl wind year at college but there was new challenges facing me like design studies classes and lectures, more writing and reading are required of me, so while I found some aspects of the course slow to begin with other bits were flying at me.

Just as one of my previous classmates resigns from his junior graphic design post at an agency in Edinburgh after six months on the job to apply to DoJ next year I couldn’t be happier here. I know not all graphic agencies are like the ones I experienced last year, I know it is a demanding and competitive industry, but I also know that graphic design is my passion. I'm not leaving here after three years to settle as a "MacMonkey", I'm aiming higher, and I know DoJ is the right place for me to gain these extra skills to do that.

Valentines day gift ideas

1.Lorem Ipsum Cuff, $59.00 Veer.com 2. CMYK necklace, $18.00 littleshopof @ Etsy.com 3.Lorem Ipsum silk tie, $40.00 toybreaker @ Etsy.com 4. Kern rings, $11.00 plastique @ Etsy.com 5. Kernie Plush Pal, $49.00 Veer.com 6. Moleskine Pocket Sketch-book, £9.50 Paperchase 7. Ampersand necklace, $24.00 Isette @ Etsy.com 8. Love card, $3.00 Upup @ Etsy.com 9.CMYK taches T, $24.00 forwardcollective @ Etsy.com 10. Candy Script cushions, $40.00 Veer.com

As Valentines day approaches our minds turn to finding our partner that perfect gift. And if your partner happens to be a graphic designer I've found some gifts they would be thrilled to receive. (and put you in the good books for a couple of months at least!) This year be more creative than the standard teddy bear or some milk tray

How to Build an iPhone App that Doesn't Suck

I mentioned in my last post that we have been given a brief from uni to design an iPhone application. The brief states that "the app is to be original and designed by you." Which is a pretty wide criteria and leaves it very open to a variety of different subjects. Ideally I'd like to design something that I personally would find useful, something I or someone like me would buy and use everyday and utilize the iPhones fetures, such as GPS etc.

While I continue to ponder the best direction to take this project I recommend watching this lecture from Steve Marmon at Stanford University (in America) which covers the ultimate 10 steps to take when developing an app. It is primarily aimed at technically minded students that will actually be able to code their final idea, rather than me, a graphic designer that defiantly couldn't. But I still got loads out of it, so would recommend watching if you too are designing an iPhone app.

And lets hope my app doesn't suck!

Week 1 down

Well first week back at uni and already feel like I've been back for weeks, but in the best possible way.

Monday got off to a good start with our first new brief of the year and a life drawing class in the afternoon. Later I played with the two cute rats my boyfriend is looking after, they didn't have names at the beginning of the week but they left on thursday morning as Salt and Pepper (because the grey one loves pepperoni, and the other is white...like salt). I also started a new book, Snoop by Sam Gosling. We received a talk from Phil Taylor from the Scottish Crop Research Institute on Tuesday, all about the work they do there, it was much more interesting than it sounds, and I got stuck into our second brief. I also watched The Secret Lives of Pippa Lee and joined the uni swimming pool.

On wednesday I tried to go swimming, but it was shut, so chilled out at yoga instead, and I helped put together some flat pack furniture, well I watched as my boyfriend put them together as I handed him the screws.

On Thursday I had a flash tutorial and managed to make a stick man walk across the screen! I worked on ideas for my projects and briefs various, and I eventually managed to go swimming.

On Friday (well today) I went to my first lecture of the year and had a pub lunch as the union with my lovely classmates. This afternoon we received our last brief of the week - to create and design an iPhone app.

So all in all a good and busy week, looking forward to a chilled weekend.

The perfect gift for a type geek...?

...Or maybe just anyone with good typographic sense? Either way I'm wearing mine with pride.

A quirky little present from my boyfriend, he found them on Etsy, if anyone wants to purchase their own. I think they are pretty cool, but then again I am probably verging on the side of geek when it comes to type.