Lecture Notes 3: Resolving your Research Project (Academic Conventions)

• Our dissertations require:
• Introduction
• Outline your question
• Outline your general argument and how it will develop
• Academic Conventions structure and standardise and aspire to academic honesty
• You're expected to:
• Demonstrate a critical knowledge of practice
• Apply theory to practice
• Analyse relevant material (Such as linking two materials together synthesis)
• Evaluate theory and evidence within the context of study
• Reflect - Critiquing and critically reflecting on your learning and using this to improve practice 
• Deep and Surface Learning: Knowledge/Remembering > Comprehension/Undersranding > Application/Applying > Analysis/Analysing > Synthesis/Evaluating > Evaluation/Creating
• Surface/Superficial Approach (What you won't get great grades for):
• Concentration on Learning Outcomes
• Passive acceptance of ideas (Without questioning it and comparing it to others)
• Routine memorisation of facts
• Sees small chunks 
• Ignore guiding patterns and principles
• Lack of reflection about, or ignorance of, underlying patterns and theories
• Little attempt to understand
• Minimal preparation and research
• Deep Approach:
• Independent engagement with material
• Critical and thoughtful about idea and information
• Relates ideas to own previous experience and knowledge
• Sees the big picture
• Relates evidence to conclusions
• Examines logic of arguments
• Interested in wider reading and thinking
• Ongoing preparation and reflection
• Deep understanding of your topic
• Academic Writing is formal and follows some standard conventions
• Each academic discipline has its own specialist vocabulary which you will be expected to learn and use in your own writing
• The substance of academic writing must be based on solid evidence and logical analysis, and presented as a concise, accurate argument
• Academic writing can allow you to present your argument and analysis accurately and concisely (No more than 500 words)
• Aim for precision. Don't use unnecessary words or waffle. Get straight to the point. Make every word count.
• If there is any uncertainty about a particular point, use cautious language (Such as may, might, could, potentially)
• Unless you are a confident writer, it is best to avoid over-long sentences and to aim for a mixture of long and short sentences for variation and rhythm.
• Avoid repeating the same words
• Avoid abbreviations and contractions
• Avoid slang words and phrases
• Avoid conversational terms
• In many academic disciplines, writing in the first person is NOT acceptable as it is believed to be too subjective and personal. Many tutors prefer impersonal language to be use in assignments.
• Structure:
• Preliminaries - Title/Acknowledgements/Contents/List of Illustrations
• Introduction - The Abstract (Quick summary, no more than a paragraph) / Statement of the Problem / Methodological Approach
• Main Body - Review of the Literature / Logically Developed Argument / Chapters / Results of Investigation / Cast Study
• Conclusion - Discussion and Conclusion / Summary of Conclusions
• Extras - Bibliography (Alphabetised by surname) / Appendices (Interviews, statistical data)
• 1.5 Lined Space, 12 Point Type, Single line space for quotes, all properly Harvard referenced
• 14th January - 4pm
• Project Self Assessment
• Write down the major aims of the project (So you don't go off track)
• Give a brief summary of the work so far
• Comment on your time management
• Do you know what the final project will look like? (How the practical relates to the written)
• What steps will you take to ensure it gets there?
• What areas of the project are you worried about?
• What 'risk management' plans do you have

Lecture Notes 2: Methodologies and Critical Analysis

• Every CoP3 project submitted has to have a methodology and critical analysis.
• Evidence to use logic, reasoning and critical judgement to analyse ideas from a range of primary and secondary sources, and critical and theoretical methodologies to evaluate examples from the relevant subject discipline. -- 20%
• Evidence the capacity for undertaking a wide range of independent practical and theoretical research that demonstrates an informed critical, testable, logical form of research taking. (Self planning and independent management, and critical decision making) -- 20%
• Every Research Project needs to have a methodology.
• Will have some sort of methodology, even if it is still ill thought out, or you don't recognise it as such.
• Some plan of attack to get through this module.

Methodology pretty much means:

1. A logical, systematic, and structured way of organising a research project and gathering necessary information.
2. Evidence that you have reflected critically on various research methods and chosen the ones that are most appropriate for your particular research project.
3. Strategy and what is the best strategy in terms of research gathering.

• Therefore, a methodology is unique to each project.
• Refer to Palgrave Study Skills.

1. What kind of research methods are you going to use? Quantitative, or qualitative, or a mixture of both?
2. What will the method enable you to discover?
3. What might they prevent you from discovering?
4. What sort of problems do you envisage in setting up these methods?
5. What are their benefits?
6. Refer to Chapter 13-15 of The Postgraduate Research Handbook by Gina Wisker

Methodology may include

1. Literature Review - Libraries, Journals, Internet (May not have the most reliable sources)
2. Questionnaires
3. Interviews
4. Sketchbooks/Critical Diaries/Reflective Logs

• Outline your methodology at the start of your dissertation.
• Set out your way of approaching the investigation to this question (An introduction should be 500 words max.), the strategy to going about this project.
• Try not to use quotes for your introduction.
• Focus on flashing out on one issue than attempting to focus on all of them.
• You get more marks for attempting to outline your methodology.
• Reasoned Thinking: Using evidence and logic to come to your conclusions
• Think about the bias of those sources
• Where was the author/artist/designer/photographer situated?
• Try to consider the different point of views, where the creator was coming from intellectually; emotionally; philosophically, politically
• Where am I coming from?
• Consider the influence of one or more of the following: the time; place; society; politics; economics; technology; philosophy; scientific thought...
• Marxist, neoliberal, sociological, psychological, postmodernist, technological, fundamentalist, positivist

Argument

1. What do I want to say? (Never lose sight of your central argument)
2. Have i got the evidence to back it up?
3. Could you find more evidence to support your conclusions?
4. Where else do I need to look in order to find more evidence?
5. Am I expressing myself clearly and logically?

Triangulation

1. Pitting alternative theories against the same body of data

Bad Argument

1. Contradict themselves
2. Have no relationship with precious statements
3. Do not have logical sequence
4. Are based on assumptions that were never questioned
5. Appeal to authorities that are known to be limited or suspect (Dictionaries, historical traditions long since discredited, research now challenge, famous people, writers of fiction)
6. Present opinion as argument unsupported by evidence
7. Take no account of exceptions of counter claims
8. Try to claim absolute instead of qualified truths.

A clear logical plan:

1. Keep it simple-refine what you want to say and focus on a few key issues
2. Look into your key issues in depth and bring in the maximum evidence in to support your views
3. Discuss your issues and the evidence you have found in a clear and logical manner.
4. Move from the general to the specific.

Evaluation

1. You need to show the reader that you are evaluating the evidence for its relevance and reliability
2. Looking at and coming to conclusions about the value of your evidence.

Critical Analysis of a text: Step by Step

1. Identify an aspect of your specialist subject that you would like to explore
2. Select a writer or theorist and a particular piece of writing about your specialist subject
3. Make notes that identify the key points in the writing
4. What evidence is used to support or prove the key points
5. Is it convincing? What else needs to be said in order to prove the key points?
6. Write a response to the piece of writing and comment on: the implications for your work: do you agree/disagree with what has been said? Does it help to support your views/argument? The thoughts you have had as the result of reading this piece; on the evidence used by the writer.

Visual Analysis: Step by Step

1. The following prompts could be used when analysing a piece of visual work:
   Comment on the usage of: Line, Colour, Tone, Texture, Form, Composition
2. How are these related to the function of, or message communicated by the piece?
3. How are they related to context, media and materials available; technology prevalent at the time the work was made?
4. What evidence do you have to support your conclusions?

Lecture Notes 1: Organising your Research Project + CoP3 Aims

• 400 hours = 40 credit module
• 6000-9000 words (9900 words is the limit)
• Get the most of each 30 minute support
• Deadline: Thursday 14th January, 2-4pm (In 15 weeks)
• Submit draft for Christmas
• 3 Lectures (Including this one)
• Students will develop a research project, with practice and textual outcomes, in response to the proposal developed during the later stages of Level 5 programme.
• To organise and undertake a personal programme of in-depth critical research, to collage and present a coherent written argument and related practical investigation based on analysis and evaluation.
• Planning the Project:
• Write down all questions that you want to investigate
• Consider the merits of each and focus on two
• Write an A4 'first thoughts' sheet for each
• Purpose of the study?
• Working title
• Choosing a title
• May opt for a title and subtitle
• Make notes of key questions that your research has raised
• No more than 15-20 words
• Appropriate tone
• Discuss this with tutor at first tutorial
• Can be revised before submission, but shouldn't be radically different to your ideas at this stage
• Think about your working title and the different component parts that need researching
• Draw up a project outline based on the above
• Include targets/milestones for the written and practical components of the project
• Turnitin Draft Submission - Last Date is December 11 2015
• Literature Search
• How much can you actually read in 100 hours?
• Try to find out all key texts on chosen topic.
• Find key texts and plan time to read them
• Find secondary sources/Criticism of key texts (Triangulation)
• Use journals (www.jstor.org)
• Referencing
•  Compile that bibliography at the very beginning of the project
• Structure Dissertation into chapters
• Separated into chapters
• Each chapter should ideally evidence a different theoretical/methodological approach
• Hopefully the introduction will explain why you have chosen a certain structure, and the conclusion will draw these disparate characters together.
• How do these different chapters relate to your practical research
• Approaches to Research
• Quantitative
• Surveys
• Data Collection
• Qualitative
• Interviews
• Participant Observation
• Reflective Journal
• Action Research

Lecture Notes 13: Dissertation or Extended Written Piece: Library Research

• If you require aid when researching over the summer (With chances being that you won't be in Leeds during that period), do contact chris.graham@leeds-art.ac.uk
• The book loan limit has been upgraded from 10 to 15 for third years.
• eStudio >>> College Library (To the right)
• Notable Things that are available there:
• 1. Harvard Referencing- Comprehensive Guide
  Secondary Referencing Using Harvard, Pg 25 (For referencing the quote by an author different to the book's author itself) 
• 2. SCONUL ACCESS (Allows you to access other University libraries, such as University of Leeds)
  Step 1: Full Time Undergraduate
  Step 2: Leeds College of Art
  Step 3: Fill out a form
  Submit and wait for an email
  You won't have to repeat this process for other facilities once you have done it once
• Keywords when researching: Focus and Relevance
• Clearly define the area of study you wish to focus on before you actually begin researching, so to avoid wasting time looking into irrelevant material
• Examples of Dissertation Titles:
  Straight Forward Example: "The role of costume within the film "A Taste of Honey""
  A More Wooly Example: "Did western society ever need cars; are they a necessary and how have they contributed to the formation of the urban environment" (Practically two topics instead of actually one)
• Mindmaps help as always, to identify areas you should begin to research, it will obviously continue to expand as you go along with your research
• Primary Research - Gathering your own original data (Interviews, etc.)
• Secondary Research (Scholarship) - Reading up on the subject, making use of the research and findings of others for corroboration, disagreement, triangulation, theoretical underpinning, etc. (Books, magazine, the contextualising of your findings)
• Exciting stuff if you can actually contradict you secondary research
• Research methods:
  Visual practice, experiment, interest and enquiry (Research and critical diaries)
  Questionnaires/Survey (Qualitative/Quantitative), try to give a time limit (So people won't take their time when filling it out) and give a draft
  Interviews
  Case Study
  Site Visits
• Literature Search 1:
  Books and Journals (Try to go for text heavy stuff, instead of 'picture' books', though the latter would be of use for the practical response)
  Websites/Blogs/Online forums
  Videos/DVDs
  CDs/Tape Cassettes/Vinyl Recordings
  TV/Radio
  Newspapers/Maps?Reports
  Printed Ephemera (Flyers, Posters, things that aren't actually meant to last)
• Literature Search 2
  Knowing where to look most effectively
  Effective use of catalogues:
  - Narrowing and broadening search terms
  - Using related terms
  - Browsing using Dewey Decimal Classification
  Using of contents page and index
  Reading the introduction or abstract
  Using a book's own bibliography to inform further reading
• Book Search
  SCONUL (Again)
  The British Library in Boston Spa
• Journal Search 1
  InfoTrac (Available outside of college)
  - A store of online magazine articles
  - If at college, click the "proceed" button
  - If at home
• Journal Search 2
  - JSTOR
• Journal Search 3
  - EBSCOhost
• Internet Search 1
  - Athens
  - A store of password protected sites
  - Each student who wishes to access this site will need to ask the Librarian for a login and password
  http://www.athens.ac.uk
• Internet Search 2
  - WGSN (For fashion and textiles)
  - A database of fashion information and trends
  - www.wgsn.com
• Internet Search 3
  - Google Scholar
  - Some fill text PDF articles available:
  - scholar.google.co.uk
• Two Tips:
  - Keep the topic and title focused and manageable
  - Create a sense of momentum (Note taking, writing a draft section when you can, keeping your bibliography up to date)

Lecture Notes 12: Research Paradigms

• "Process is more important than outcome. When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we've already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we're going, but we will know we want to be here." ~ An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth - Bruce Mau Design In. 2006
• <=> Stimulated Approach <=> Intuitive Approach <=>
• "Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing." ~ Wernhr von Braun
• "Research is creating new knowledge." ~ Neil Armstrong
• Research is finding out by asking the questions:
  - "How?"
  - "Why?"
  - "What if?"
  -  Carrying out experiments
  - Talking to people and
  - Analysing that information
• Primary Research
  - Research that is developed and collected for a specific end use, usually generated to help solve a specific problem.
  - Research that involves the collection of data that does not yet exist.
• Secondary Research
  - Publish or recorded data that have already been collected for some purpose other than the current study.
  - The analysis of research that has been collected at an earlier time (for reasons unrelated to the current project) that can be.
• Quantitative Research
  - Deals with facts, figures, and measurements, and produces data which can be readily analysed.
  - Measurable data is gathered from a wide range of sources, and it is the analysis and interpretation of the relationships across this data that gives the information researchers are looking for.
  - Generates numerical data or data that can be converted into numbers
  The gathering and analysing of measurable data.
  - Research that is objective and relies on statistical analysis, such as surveys.
• Qualitative Research
  - Explores and tries to understand people's beliefs, experiences, attitudes, behaviour and interactions. It generates non-numerical data. The best- known qualitative methods of inquiry include in-depth interviews, focus groups, documentary analysis and participant observation.
  - A way to study people or systems by interacting with and observing the subjects regularly.
  - Research that is involved in quality. It can describe events, people, etc, without the use of numerical data.
  - Qualitative research is the gathering of information that is not statistical but that gives an idea about the perceptions of views.
• What is Information?
  - Any communication of representation of knowledge such as facts, data, or opinions in any medium or form, including textual, numerical, graphic, cartographic, narrative or audio/visual forms.
  - Information is the result of processing, manipulating and organising data in a way that adds to the knowledge of the person receiving it.
  - Data that has been processed to add or create meaning and hopefully knowledge for the person who receives it. Information is the output of information systems.
  - Information should be sufficient, competent, relevant, and useful.
• <=> Assimilation <=> General Study <=> Communication <=> Development <=>
• <=> Analysis <=> Research <=> Solution <=> Evaluation <=>
• "Research is formalised curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose." ~ Zora Neale Hurston
• Ontology
  - The philosophical analysis of what is or can be known.
  - A theoretical analysis of facts, properties and processes that form knowledge.
  - The conceptualisation or categorisation of existing knowledge and what can be known.
• Epistemology
  - The philosophical analysis of the scope and the nature of knowledge and how we can 'know' something.
  - The 'Theory of Knowledge' and how it relates to concepts such as truth, belief and justification.
  - Distinguishes between 'Knowing by acquaintance', 'Knowing that...' and 'Knowing how...'
• "If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?" ~ Albert Einstein
• Methodology
  - Refers to how you will find out what you are looking for (Approaches)
  - Identifies who will be involved and how (Techniques)
  - Specifies how you will turn source material (Data) into evidence (Analysis)
  - Considers how you will generate meaning from your evidence (Interpretation)
• Points to Remember:
  - Research is contextual, conditional, individual.
  - There is more than one form of knowledge.
  - The knowledge that you are trying to develop will affect what and how you research.
  - Your opinions, beliefs and experiences will shape the focus of your research.
• Research is about bringing new ways of seeing what is already known or has been seen before.
• In order to gain knowledge your research should have purpose.
• The purpose of your research should be formulated into a research question.
• Both the purpose of your research and your research question can and will chance and develop as you find out more about your subject.
• Developing Research Proposals
  - Start with what you already know.
  - Identify what you want to know more about.
  - Plan how you are going to find out about it.

Lecture Notes 11: What is Research? Pt 1

• Context is everything.
• "Process is more important than outcome. When the outcome drives the process we only ever go to where we've already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we're going, but we will know we want to be there."
• Process is more important than the outcome.
• Research into all different aspects of your creative practice.
• A creative practice that constantly develops as you move along, it can never stagnate.
• "Success comes from having brighter ideas closer together."
• You gotta fail before you can succeed.
• Ideas are the currency which you build and buy your future.
• Chance favours the connected mind.
• Integration of written and practical practices.
• There is a conscious or subconscious search for inspiration from external sources, from surroundings, media, discussions, libraries, etc.
• The main concern here is the development of analogies and associative approaches, which are then further developed into individual solutions.
• Brainstorming is about really making connections (Hence why we tend to start with mindmaps during the planning process)
• Stimulate the approach to ideas.
• Systematic Approach: By structuring and restructuring, enlarging and reducing, combing and extracting, replacing, adding, mirroring or reproducing.
• Intuitive Approach (What most of us have already):
  Development of thought process, which is primarily based on internalised perceptions and knowledge, that is to say an internal repertoire of ideas. This type of though process may occur spontaneously, without being evoked specially. This is actually a systematic process.
• Research is the process of finding facts, provable outcomes.
• The process of finding out how, why, what, who.. and maybe when?
• It involves collecting information from a variety of sources.
• The process taken into research will effect the outcomes of the project.
• There is also experimenting, discussing and analysing all that information.
• Primary Research:
  Research that is developed and collected for a specific end use, usually generated to help solve a specific problem. It involves the collection of data that does not yet exist.
• Secondary Research:
  Published or recorded data that have already been collected for some purpose other than the current study.
  The analysis of research that has been collected at an earlier time (For reasons unrelated to the current project)
• Quantitive Research:
  Deals with facts, figures, and measurements, and produces data which can be readily analysed. Measurably data is gathered from a wide range of sources, and it is the analysis and interpretations of the relationships across this data that gives the information researchers are looking for.
  Generates numerical data or data that can converted into numbers.
  Measurable data.
  Research that is objective and relies on statistical analysis, such as surveys.
• Qualitative Research:
  Explores and TRIES to understand people's beliefs, experiences, attitudes, behaviour and iterations. It generates non-numerical data. The best-known qualitative methods of inquiry include in-depth interviews, focus groups, documentary analysis and participant observation.
  Capturing people's thoughts and emotions as data.
  A way to study people or systems by interacting with and observing the subjects regularly.
• Information is the result of processing, manipulating and organizing data in a way that adds to the knowledge of the person receiving it.
• Info should be sufficient, competent, relevant, and useful.
• -> Assimilation <-> Development <-> Communication <-> General Study <->
• Phase 1 Assimilation
  The accumulation and ordering of general information and information specifically related to the problem in hand.
• Phase 2 General Study
  The investigation of the nature of the problem
  The investigation of possible solutions or means of solution.
• Phase 3 DevelopmentThe development and refinement of one or more of the tentative solutions isolated during phase 2.
• Phase 4 Communication
  The communication of one of more solutions to people either inside or outside the design team.
• <-> Assimilation <-> Development <-> Communication <-> General Study <->
• Identify background information
• <-> Analysis <-> Research <-> Evaluation <-> Solution <->
• Start anywhere, because, does it really matter where you start?

Lecture Notes 10: Censorship and Truth

Truth and Manipulation

• Ansel Adams was considered important as a photographer for his photos of the American landscape, and his skills in the dark room and abilities to alter the truth. He manipulates in the dark room the way he prints things to create something considerably different from the original.
• It's nothing sinister though, unless you think about it in a political context.

• Censorship and manipulation in photography goes way back to 1917.
• 9/11 photoshopped works are done seeing how well they are able to cause a react out of the intended audience

• Then there's the more superficial stuff, such as the photoshopping of models and celebrities on magazines. 
• British GQ messed up pretty badly when they slimmed down Kate Winslet in one of their cover shots... only to completely forget to alter her reflection too.

• Manipulation becomes a more impressionable and impactful thing.
• Is it real?

• Robert Capa, "Death of a Loyalist Soldier", 1936, queried for ages now over whether it was real or simply set up.
• "At that time (WWII), I fervently believed just about everything I was exposed to in school and in the media. For examples, I knew that all Germans were evil and that all Japanese were sneaky and treacherous, while all white Americans were clean-cut, honest, fair-minded, and trusting."
  ~ Elliot Aronson in Pratkanis and Aronson, 1992, Age of Propaganda, p. xii
• With lively step, breasting the wind, clenching their rifles, they ran down the slope covered with thick stubble. Suddenly their soaring was interrupted, a bullet whistled - a fatricidal bullet  - and their blood was drunk by their native soil" - caption accompanying the photograph in Vue magazine
• Persuasion - "a deliberate and successful attempt by one person to get another person by appeals to reason to freely accept beliefs, attitudes, values, intentions, or actions". ~ Tom L. Beauchamp, Manipulaive Advertising, 1984
• Simulacrum
  1. An image or representation of someone or something: a small-scale simulacrum of a skyscraper
  1.1 An unsatisfactory imitation or substitute: a bland simulacrum of American soul music

• "The Gulf War did not Take Place" by Jean Baudrillard
• Contrary to the title, the author believes hat the events and violence of the Gulf War actually took place (And expectedly such silly criticisms are made of the title alone by folks that didn't even read the book)
• Were the events that took place comparable to how they were presents, and could such events be called war?
• The title is actually a reference to the play "The Trojan war will not take place", in which characters attempt to prevent what the audience knows is inevitable
• Baudrillard argued that the Guld war was not really a war, but rather and atrocity which masqueraded as a war.
• The American military used overwhelming airpower for most part but otherwise did not directly engage in combat with the Iraqi army, and suffered few casualties.
• Thus, the fighting "did not really take place" from the point of view from the west.
• The closely watched media presentations made it impossible to distinguish betwen the experience of what truly happened in the conflict, and its stylised, selective misrepresentation through "simulacra"
• "It is a masquerade of Information: branded faces delivered over to the prostitution of the image" ~ Jean Baudrillard, p.40
• What is appropriate for the news? Despite its grimness and graphicness, do the viewers not have the right to see what truly unfolds?
• What is the news for then if such things are censored?
• An-My Le, who works alongisde the US army, has her work questioned over how much of it actually portrays the war?

Censorship

• Censorship:
  The practice or policy of censoring films, letters or publications.
• Censor:
  1. a person authorised to examine films, letters or publications, in order to ban or cut anything considered obscene or objectionable
  2. To ban or cut portions of (a film, letter or publication)
• Morals:
  Principles of behaviour in accordance with standards of right or wrong
• Ethics:
  1. Code of behaviour, especially of a particular group, profession or individual.
  2. The moral fitness of decision, course of action, etc.
  3. The study of the moral value of human contact

• ‘Suppose that a picture of a young woman inserting a chocolate bar into her mouth makes one person think of fellatio, but someone else says that this meaning says more about the observer than it does the picture. This kind of dispute, with its assumption that meaning resides in a text quite independently of individual and group preconceptions, is depressingly common in discussions on advertising as the picture does not in fact depict fellatio, but something else, what the dispute comes down to is whether everyone, a substantial number of people, a few obsessed individuals, or one particular person, understand it this way. Without an opinion poll, the dispute is unresolvable, but it is really quite improbable that such an interpretation will be individual’ ~ Cook, G. (1992), The Discourse of Advertising, London, Routiledge, Page 51 

• YES ON SO MANY LEVELS.
• United Colours of Benetton has always been known for their shocking, provocative ads that really don't have anything to do with their products, save for the unification of colours.
• "While the publicity generated by such campaigns [Benetton] is immense - and their globalised distribution protects them from the effects of a ban in any one country - it is also surely shocking that the shock effect wears off so quickly. Perhaps the overall driving motive of such campaigns is in fact nothing new - but simply an astute loyalty to one on the oldest adages in the business: there is no such thing as bad Publicity" 
• ~ Cook, G. (1992), The Discourse of Advertising, London, Routledge, Page 229

• "Dejeuner sur l'Herbe" sparked public notoriety and controversy, whilst prostitution was common knowledge in Paris, it was still considered a taboo subject unsuitable for painting

• This inspired Bow Wow Wow's album cover in 1981, which caused additional controversy seeing that the naked girl (lead singer Annabella Lwin) was only 14 at the time.
• The Miller Test in 1972 asks three questions to determine whether a given work should be labelled 'obscene' and hence denied constitutional protection.
• Whether 'the average person, applying contemporary community standards' would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest
• Whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct
• Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value
• Who is to decide whether someone thinks something is of artistic value or worth?
• Obscenity Law:
  1. To protect art whilst prohibiting trash
  2. The dividing line between speed and non-speech
  3. The dividing line between prison and freedom
• Sally Mann is an American photographer best known for her large black and white photographs - at first of her young children, then later of landscapes suggesting death and decay

• Her third collection "Immediate Family" received controversy on its release, such as accusations of child pornography and of contrived fiction with constructed tableaux
• "selling photographs of children in their nakedness for profit is an exploitation of the parental role and I think it's wrong"
  ~ Pat Robertson of the Christian Broadcasting Network
• Just how much should we believe the 'truth' represented in the media?
• And should we be protected from it?
• Is the manipulation of the truth fair game in a Capitalist, consumer society?
• Should art sit outside of censorship laws exercised in other disciplines?
• Who should be protected, artist, viewer, or subject?

Lecture Notes 9: Globalisation, Sustainability & the Media

• Globalisation by Socialist:
  The process of transformation of local or regional phenomena into global ones. It can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and function together. This process is a combination of economic, technological, sociocultural and political forces.
• Globalisation by Capitalist:
  The elimination of state-enforced restrictions on exchanges across borders and the increasingly integrated and complex global system of production and exchange that has emerged as a result.
• "American sociologist George Ritzer coined the term "McDonaldization" to describe the wide-ranging sociocultural processes by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world." ~ Manfred B. Steger, Globalisation: A very Short Introduction, Page 71
• "Today, after more than a century of electric technology, we have extended our central nervous system in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned." ~ Marshall McLuhan, (1964: p.3)
• Rapidity of Communication echoes the sense.
• We can experience instantly the effects of our actions on a global scale
• "the globe is no more than a village. Electric speed at bringing all social and political functions together in a sudden implosion has heightened human awareness of responsibility to an intense degree" ~ Global Village Thesis, (1964: p.5)
• We live mythically and integrally in the electric age, when our central nervous system is technologically extended to involve in the whole of mankind and to incorporate the whole of mankind in us, we necessarily participate... in the consequence of our every action. (1964: p.4)
• "Electric technology would seem to render individualism obsolete and corporate interdependence mandatory" (1962: p.1)
• The electronic age has sealed the entire human family into a single global tribe (1962: p.8)
• Three problems of globalisation:
  Sovereignty - Challenges to the idea of the nation-state
  Accountability - Transnational forces and organisations: Who controls them?
  Identity - Who are we? Nation, group, community?
• If the 'global village' is run with a certain set of values then it would not be so much an integrated community as an assimilated one.
• News corporations divides the world into territories of descending 'market important'.
• Chomsky and Herman's Propaganda Model - 5 Basic Filters
  . Ownership
  . Funding
  . Sourcing
  . Flak
  . Ideology (Eg, Anti-Islam)
• Sustainable development, sustainable growth, and sustainable use have been used interchangeably, as if their meanings were the same. They are not. Sustainable growth is a contradiction in terms: nothing physical can grow indefinitely. Sustainable use, is only applicable to renewable resources. Sustainable development is used in this context to mean: improving the quality of human life whilst living within the carrying capacity of the ecosystems.
• "Most things are not designed for the needs of the people but for the needs of the manufacturers to sell to people." ~ Papanek. V, 1983, p46

Lecture Notes 8: Ethics - What is Good

• We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, art directors and visual communicators who have been raised in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable use of our talents. Many design teachers and mentors promote this believe; the market rewards it; a tide of books and publications reinforces it.
• Encouraged in this direction, designers then apply their skill and imagination to sell dog biscuits, designer coffee, diamonds, detergents, hair gel, cigarettes, credit cards, sneakers, butt toners, light beer and heavy-duty recreational vehicles.
• Commercial works has always paid the bills, but many graphic designers have now let it become, in large measure, what graphic designers do.
• This, in turn, is how the world perceives design. The profession's time and energy is used up manufacturing demand for things that are inessential at best.
• Many of us have grown increasingly uncomfortably with this view of design. Designers who devote their efforts primarily to advertising, marketing and brand development are supporting a mental environment so saturated with commercial messages that it is changing the way citizen-consumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact.
• There are pursuits more worthy of our problem-solving skills. Unprecedented environmental, social and cultural crisis demand our attention. 
• Many cultural interventions, social marketing campaigns, books, magazines, exhibitions, educational tools, television programs, films, charitable causes and other information design projects urgently require our expertise and help.
• We propose a reversal of priorities in favour of more useful, lasting and democratic forms of communication - a mind shift away from product marketing and toward the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning.
• Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design.
• "Most things are designed not the needs of the people but for the needs of manufacturers to sell to people" ~ Papanek, 1983:46
• How do we determine what is good?
• Subjective Relativism
  - There are no universal moral norms of right and wrong
  - All persons decide right and wrong for themselves

• Cultural Relativism
  - The ethical theory that what's right or wrong depends on place and/or time

• Divine Command Theory
  - Good actions are aligned with the will of God
  - Bad actions are contrary to the will of God
  - The bible helps make the decisions

• Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), a German philosopher believed that the people's wills should be based on moral rules. Therefore it's important that our actions are based on appropriate moral rules.
• To determine when a moral rule is appropriate, Kant proposed two Categorical Imperatives:
  - Act only from moral rules that you can at the same time universalise. (If you act on a moral rule that would cause problems if everyone followed it then your actions are not moral)
  - Act so that you always treat both yourself and other people as ends in themselves, and never only as a means to an end. (If you use people for your own benefit that is not moral)

• The Principle of Utility (Also known as the Greatest Happiness Principle)
  - An action is right to the extent that is increases the total happiness of the affected parties
  - An action is wrong to the extent that is decrease the total happiness of the affected parties.
  - Happiness may have many definitions such as: advantage, benefit, good, or pleasure
•  Rules are based on the Principle of Utility
  - A rule is right to the extent that it increases the total happiness of the affected parties
  - The Greatest Happiness Principle is applied to moral rules
• Similar to Kantianism - both pertain to rules
  - But Kantianism uses the Categorical Imperative to decide which rules to follow
• Social Contract Theory
  - Thomas Hobbes (1603-1679) and Jean-Jazques Roussea (1712-1778)
  - An agreement between individuals held together by common interest
  - Avoids society degenerating into the 'state of nature' or the 'war of all against all' (Hobbes)
  - "Morality consists in the set of rules, governing how people are to treat one another, that rational people will agree to accept, for their mutual benefit, on the condition that others follow those rules as well."
  - We trade some of our liberty for a stable society.
• Are all legal acts also moral?
  - Difficult to determine because many immortal acts are not addressed by the law
• Are all illegal acts immoral?
  - Social Contract Theory: Yes, we are obligated to follow the law
  - Kantianism: Yes, by the two Categorical Imperatives
  - Rule Utilitarianism: Yes, because rules are broken
  - Act Utiliarianism: Depends on the situation. Sometimes more good comes from breaking a law

• Criteria for a Workable Ethical Theory?
  - Moral decisions and rules:
  - Based on logical reasoning
  - Comes from facts and commonly held or shared values
  - Culturally neutral
  - Treat everyone equally

Lecture Notes 7: Consumerism - Persuasion, Brand, Society, Culture

• Aims for this Lecture: 

1. Analyse the rise of US consumerism
2. Discuss the links between consumerism and our unconscious desires
3. Explore the Ideas and Concepts Created and Developed by Sigmund Freud and Edmund Bernays
4. Consumerism as social control

• Refer to: "Century of Self" (2002) by Adam Curtis and "No Logo" (1999) by Naomi Klein if interested
• Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was an Austrian neurologist, now known as the father of psychoanalysis, had created a theory oon human nature, the hidden primitive sexual forces and animal instincts which need controlling

• All of these unconscious desires begin to act out and manifest themselves into some shape or form when one is asleep
• Freud argued that there is a fundamental tension between civilisation and the individual, we retain a sense of violence, aggression and sexual instincts as part of our biological make up
• Human instincts are incompatible with the well being of the community, with civilised society we repress our basic human instincts, constantly frustrated from not carrying out our deepest desires
• The Pleasure Principle is the instinctual seeking of pleasure and the avoidance of pain in order to satisfy biological and psychological needs. Specifically it is the driving force guiding the ID
• The engagement in behaviours that are bad for us feels good
• Edward Bernays (1891-1995) was an Austrian-American pioneer in the field of PR and propaganda, known as the father of Public Relations, and was of course the nephew of Sigmund Freud
• He was employed by the American government as a propagandist of sorts during WW1, soon enough writing the book "Propaganda" (1928)
• Post war, he set up "The Council on Public Relations"
• If instinctual desires are being met when they buy things, not only will they be contented, a demand will be created for these things

• Edward was pretty intent on improving the sales of products by creating a larger appeal to them to draw in more customers, such as an ad for cigarettes, he was able to get past the social taboo of women smoking
• Women began to equate these cigarettes with being more independent, free than repressed and sexually desirable
• The birth of PR was seen as a disciplinary wartime propaganda
• Attempts to attach products to instinctive human desires

• Celebrity endorsements (Seeing that they are symbols of success or the ultimate models of independence and glamor) and pseudo scientific reports were used to make these products more appealing
• Fordism came about during the same time during the development of PR 
• Standard producton models built as they move through the factory (I wrote this stuff before but why not?)
• Requires large investment, but increases productivity so much that relatively high wages can be paid, allowing the workers to buy the product they produce
• Proliferates the world with things, at a more rapid pace

• It became more important for companies to distinct their products from their own competitors as production grew more efficient, this is where the idea of branding comes in
• Car ads seem to base themselves around male sexual potency to draw in their customers

• From a Need culture to a Desire culture (Getting people to buy stuff they already have or don't really need at all)
• Refer to "The Hidden Persuaders" (1957) by Vance Packard
• Analyses marketing techniques used at the time and the hidden needs that they are able to draw out from their customers
• Selling emotional security, reassurance of worth, ego-gratification (Makes you appear better as a person to others, particularly when these products are endorsed by celebrities, who were so much more admired at the time), creative outlets, (Jemima) love objects, sense of power of a sense of roots (Most cars seem to do that) immortality
• Aunt Jemima's Pancake Flour in a way tricks buyers into thinking that they are being creative by using this product to create their pancakes (HAHA)
• During the emergence of PR, a new attitude to the governing of society emerged
• Walter Lippmann wrote "Public Opinion" in 1920

• A new elite is needed to manage the bewildered heard, capitalists and consumerism society
• An educated elite advising the government in controlling this society, seeing as politicians were seen as hopeless and useless
• The idea of consumerism is employed as a mechanism to control citizens
• Create a system to rationally satiated over their desires for anarchy? Consumerism creates the illusion of freedom
• Communism was a threat to capitalism
• The stock market crash was a significant event in history as it was the first moment that the political class realised that society could be destroyed if all decisions were made by thes big business folks
• Soft socialism, regulate markets again, increase taxation with the aim or redistributing this money, recreating state control

• New York's World Fair was this giant PR exhibition of sorts, pioneered by Edward Burnays
• Celebrate everything that's apparently great about America as compared to the rest of the world, like the Soviet Union with the repressed, American consumerism
• The message pretty much reinforced through out "You are a free American to buy whatever you want."
• Free choice is being able to buy what you want, unlike Russia
• Your participation in the buying of a product signifies that you are aiding the country in a positive direction
• Big business knows what's good for the overall country than the politicians themselves
• Giant bit of propaganda for consumerism
• Democracity, the ultimate expression human freedom, the supposed vision of the future
• This however does not represent citizen control, there is no true democracy represented in it, it instead centralizes power, a bankrupt illusion to keep humans docile, making them think they are living meaningful lives
• Consumerism is an ideological project, we believe through consumption our desires can be met
• The legacy of Bernays/PR can be felt in all aspects of 21st century society
• He felt that this manipulation was necessary in society, which he regarded as irrational and dangerous as a result of the "herd instinct"
• The conflicts between alternative models of social organisation continue to this day
• To what extent are our lives free under the Western Consumerist system
• The illusion of free choice
• You are not what you own

Lecture Notes 5: Cities and Film

This lecture will look into the city in terms of Modernism and Postmodernism, the possibility of an urban sociology, the city as public and private space, and the relation of the individual to the crowd in the city.

Industrialisation

• The first known urban sociologist is Georg Simmel (1958-1918) who wrote "Metropolis" and "Mental Life" in 1903
• For the Dresden Exhibition , Simmel was asked to lecture on the role of intellectual life in the city but instead reverses the idea and writes about the effect of the city on the individual
• "the resistance of the individual to being levelled, swallowed up in the social-technological mechanism." ~ Georg Simmel, "The Metropolis and Mental Life", 1903
• It was believe that architect Louis Sullivan (1856-1924) coined the term modernism, creator of the modern skyscraper, an influential architect and critic of the Chicago school. he was a mentor to Frank Lloyd
• "form ever follows function" ~ Louis Sullivan
• The Guaranty Building was built in 1894 by Adler and him in Buffalo NY

•  The Guaranty Building was divided into 4 zones, different styles of blocks distinguish the three visible zones of the building from one another: 

1. The basement being the mechanical and utility area with no decorative elements since it was below ground
2. The next zone was the ground floor zone, namely the public area for shops, entrances and lobbies 
3. The third zone was the office floors done in a practical (Expectedly mundane) design with identical office cells clustered together around the central elevator shafts
4. And the final zone was the terminating zone, consisting of elevator equipment, utilities and a few offices

Carson Pirie Scott store (1904)

• Skyscrapers represent the upwardly mobile city of business opportunity
• Fire cleared buildings in Chicago in 1871 and made way for Louis Sullivan new aspirational buildings

• "Manhatta" (1921) was a short documentary film by Paul Strand and Charles Scheeler while revels in the has rising from city smoke stacks, pieces of texts from Whalt Whitman's poetry were used for part of the title cards, the film being an obvious reference to the city of Manhattan (Hehe…). The objective was to explore the relationship between photography and film, with camera movements being kept a minimum, and the relationship of people with buildings, transport, etc. It was an attempt to show the filmmakers' love for the city of New York.
• Charles Scheeler was an advertising photographer for Ford Moto Company, his works reflecting industrialism and modernism

A production line created for maximum productivity with minimum effort
through repetitive mechanical action

• The term Fordism was coined by Antonio Gramsci in his essay "Americanism and Fordism", it is a notion of a modern economic and social system based on an industrialised and standardised form of mass production
• This subject has been brought up numerous times in classic cartoons, such as Looney Tunes (Acme anyone?), I couldn't find a particular example (I mean there definitely a lot of them around it's just a lot harder to find them than I thought) so have the music that normally goes with those scenes of Fordism and Taylorism instead:

• "the eponymous manufacturing system designed to spew out standardised, low cost goods and afford its workers decent enough wages to buy them" ~ De Grazia: 2005:4

• Charlie Chaplin parodied this in "Modern Times" (1936), portraying an industrial worker employed on an assembly line, who is driven mad after being subjected to several awful mishaps involving machinery, and causes chaos in the factory he works, he gets accused of being a communist, goes to jail, meets a girl, works as a waited, before ending up becoming a performer
• Charlie was investigated into later on because of this film, being placed under suspicion for actually being a communist
• "In handicrafts and manufacture, the workman makes use of a tool, in the factory, the machine makes use of him" ~ Marx cited in "Adamson" 2010, Pg75
• During the stock market crash of 1929, factories closed and unemployment rates went up dramatically, leading to the Great Depression

• "The Man with a Movie Camera" (1929) by Dziga Vertov, was a Russian silent documentary film with no story and no actors, a revolutionary film at the time for using various cinematic techniques that Vertov himself invented, deployed and developed (Such as double exposure, fast and slow motion, freeze frames, jump cuts, split screens, extreme close ups, tracking shots, etc.). Vertov's film strove to awaken the Soviet citizen through truth and ultimately bring about understanding and action. It celebrates industrialisation, mechanisation, transport and communication. It explores locations where bodies come together in masses, much like Manhatta and the celebration of machinery.

Noir

• Weegee (Arthur Fellig) worked in the Lower East Side of New York City as a press photographer during the 30s and 40s, developing his signature style of stark black and white shots of unflinchingly realistic scenes of urban life, crime, injury and death by following the city's emergency services and documenting their activity
• The nickname Weegee is phonetic rendering of Ouija (Spirit board), because of his frequent, seemingly prescient arrivals at scenes only minutes after crimes, fires or other emergencies were repotted to authorities

• "The Naked City" (1984) is a black and white film noir based on a story by Malvin Wald, depicting a police investigation that follows the murder of a young model. A veteran cop is placed in charge of the case and he sets about, with the help of other beat cops and detectives to find the girl's killer. The movie is shot partially in a documentary style
• The film was selected for preservation in the USNFR by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historical, or aesthetically significant"
• "There are eight million stories in the Naked City. This has been one of them." ~ Tag line in the "Naked City"

• Team Bondi's "L.A Noire" (2011) is the first video game to be shown at the Tribecca Film, the game incorporates "MotionScan" where actors are recorded by 32 surrounding cameras to capture facial expressions from every angle
• This technology is central to the game's interrogation mechanics as players must ust the suspects' reaction to questioning to judge whether they are lying or not

• As the title suggests, the game draws heavily from both plot and aesthetic elements of film noir (There are even several cases named after well known noir films, such as "The Naked City"), the game uses a distinctive colouring style in homage to the visual style of film noir, including an option to play the game in black and white (If your eyesight is good enough that is). The post war setting is the backdrop for plot elements that reference the detective films of the 40s (Especially from "L.A Confidential"), such as corruption and drugs, with a jazz soundtrack
• More information can be found in this write up I did in the past

Flaneur

• The term flaneur comes from the French masculine noun flaneur - which as the basic meanings of "stroller", "lounger", "saunterer", "loafer" - which itself comes from the French verb flamer, which means "to stroll"
• Charles Baudelaire propose a version of the flaneur that of "a person who walks the city in order to experience it"
• Art should capture this
• Simultaneously apart from and a part for the crowd

• The flaneur version of a photographer is an armed version of the solitary walker reconnoitring, stalking, cruising the urban inferno, the voyeuristic stroller who discovers the city as a landscape of voluptuous extremes. Adept of the joys of watching, connoisseur of empathy, the flaneur finds the world 'picturesque'
• The female version is the invisible Flaneuse, with the flaneur almost always being male
• Janet Wolff refers to the idea that it wasn't common at the time for women to be outside on the streets at the time (1985)
• Susan Buck-Morss suggests that the only figure a woman on the street can be is either a prostitute or a bag lady
• "The Detective" (1980), a woman named Calle gets her mother to employ a detective to follow her, proceeding to lead the unknowing detective around parts of Paris that were particularly important to her, thereby reversing the expected position of the observed subject
• Such projects, with their suggestions of intimacy, also questioned the role of the spectator, with viewers often feeling a sense of unease as they became unwitting collaborators in these violations of privacy
• The deliberately constructed and artificial nature of the documentary 'evidence' used in Calle's work questioned the nature of all truths
• Calle wanted to proved photographic evidence of her existence, his photos and notes on her are later on displayed next to her photos and notes of him
• Documentation of 9/11 where images from many different people were taken of the incident, these images were then all put together and remained anonymous, a democracy of photographs

• Lorca di Corcia "Heads" (2001), is able to capture these dramatic, thoughtful scenes of his subjects, with accidental poses, unintended movements and insignificant expressions, almost looks staged even
• In 2006, a NY trial court issued a ruling in a case involving one of his photographs, a photo subject of his argued that his privacy and religious rights had been violated by both the taking and publishing of the photograph of him. The judge dismissed this lawsuit, finding the photograph taken on street is art- not commerce- and therefore protected by the First Amendment
• The judge ruled that NY courts have "recognised that art can be sold, at least in limited editions, and still retain its artistic character"
• "First Amendment of art is not limited to only starving artists. A profit motive in itself does not necessarily compel a conclusion that art has been used for trade purposes"