Growing up in Wellington, I idolised the urban city. The glamour, the art, the formality, the modernity, the inspiration people and the fast paced lifestyle. I then moved away to a rural town where everything was slow, dirty and boring. Moving back to Wellington in 2012, everything became fun and colourful again as I felt alive. Until I grew up that year. I grew up, my eyes opened to the surroundings instead of the picture I had painted with my eyes of what I thought Wellington was. No longer eclectic and filled with art, I began to see the flaws in the society, the cracks in the pavement, potholes in the street.

 After living in the city for three years with my eyes open and ready to see, my view has changed. I can see the cracks, the shit, the faults and blemishes. But I can also see people trying to fix the flaws in our society. Using the idea of flâneurie to 'guide' my search, I want to look at more ways people are trying to fix the flaws in our society. I want to look at the visual society and what is being done to fix the world around us.

The images below where taken around Newtown, Mt Cook and Te Aro. This was my attempt at flâneurie, as I tried to find flaws in society I have never noticed before. It was from this excursion that I defined my critical perspective ti envelop the attempts at fixing these flaws within society - not just the flaws themselves.

Literary Review -

 Lucas, R. (2008). Taking a line for a walk: walking as an aesthetic practice. In T. Ingold & J. L. Vergunst (Eds.), Ways of Walking - Ethnography and Practice on Foot (pp. 168-184). United Kingdom.


 Looking at the reading by Raymond Lucas, the idea of the flâneur talks a lot about aimlessly wandering both with and without a purpose. This reading relates to my project as I attempted flâneurie in order to open my eyes to the city around me. I attempted to see what I had not seen before and how people show subtle interaction with these scenes. "His eyes open, his ear ready, searching for something entirely different from what the crowd gathers to see," (Lucas, 2008).













Haiku - 

I really want to voice a haiku that describes these flaws in society and the small attempt made at fixing them. Even though the remedy to these flaws may be small, the act itself is positive. I want the haiku to show a gradient from the dwelling idea of flaws to a positive feeling of an attempt at remedying these flaws.
  • Urban flaws, cracks, faults; Reparation in disguise; Temporary fix.
  • Societies done; Junk strewn across the street path; To be rained upon.
  • Toss the broken out; Does society bother; Attempt a repair.
Theory Construction In Design Research: Criteria, Approaches and Methods
Ken Friedman

The Design field represents six general domains from the world. Natural sciences, humanities and liberal arts, social and behavioural sciences, human professions and services, creative and applied arts and technology and engineering. Design may use all of these domains, or just specific ones, as well as using varying amounts of each. This is specific to each individual problem, the criteria and how you go about it.

 The rapid development and expansion of available technologies means we are surrounded by technology and influenced by it in our daily lives. "These include the artifacts of information technology, mass media, telecommunication, chemistry, pharmacology, chemical engineering, and mechanical engineering, along with the designed processes of nearly every service industry and public good now available other than public access to nature. Within the next few years, these areas will come to include the artefacts of biotechnology, nanotechnology and other advanced hybrid technologies", (Friedman, 2003).

 Nearly everybody can design with the information and technology available today, but design flaws and mistakes are common. This is often because of inadequate preparation. Designers must undergo proper research and planning in order to tackle design tasks. "The designer is an analyst who discovers problems or who works with a problem in the light of a brief. The designer is a synthesist who helps to solve problems and a generalist who understands the range of talent that must be engaged to realise solutions. The designer is a leader who organises teams when one range of talents is not enough. Moreover, the designer is a critic whose post-solution analysis considers whether the right problem has been solved", (Friedman, 2003).

 Theory requires a mixture of researching, planning, understanding, analysis and evaluation. The practice of design revolves around interdisciplinary researching and understanding in order to solve problems faced by society. By using articulate language to communicate ideas and theories, these concepts should be able to be understood by people from a range of backgrounds. By simplifying the ideas and concepts, these theories can stand strong because people from backgrounds other than design can understand and respect them too.
Theories For Design And For Things
There are many different definitions of what a theory is. This can be specific to the topic or subject it is being used in. "A theoretician therefore, identifies phenomena in the world, studies them and makes assertions about their underlying structure." 

 "The notion of design theory may seem wooly-headed and irrelevant but it has a place: theory can provide a structure for understanding problems and help generate methods for solving them" (Doblin 1988: 6).

 Critical Theory: "a rigorous critical engagement with social and philosophical issues which is aimed at the cross-fertilisation of research methods derived from the social sciences with a Marxist theoretical framework for conceptualising social relations." Critical theory has become more popular in the last few years and can be applied to more situations than before. The theory of theory itself has been look at by Max Horkheimer, the pioneer of critical theory:

  • Theory is "the sum-total of propositions about a subject, the propositions being so linked with each other that a few are basic and the rest derive from these."
  • "The smaller the number of primary principles in comparison with the derivations, the more perfect the theory."
  • "The real validity of the theory depends on the derived propositions being consonant with the actual facts. If experience and theory contradict each other, one of the two must be reexamined.

As critical theory has developed and relates to life outside of literature, it is transforming into the interdisciplinary cultural theory, which covers many different topics such as Marxism, feminism and postmodernism for example. "Cultural theory can be defined as a literature that aims to develop a systematically ordered model of the empirical world to explain the nature of culture and its implications for social life, (Smith, 2001).

 "Meanings of objects are context dependent and they change with changes in patio-temporal location, frame of reference, cultural environment etc. To be effective, theorisation should address all attributes of things that influence their existence and meaning in relation to people, other things and the environment. These attributes may be corporeal, ephemeral, economic, social, technological, cultural or political.
Tangible Bits: Towards Seamless Interfaces Between People, Bits and Atoms
Hiroshi Ishii and Brygg Ullmer

"We began our investigation of "looking to the future of HCI" at this museum by looking for what we have lost with the advent of personal computers. Our intention was to rejoin the richness of the physical world in HCI."

"Tangible User Interfaces will augment the real physical world by coupling digital information to everyday physical objects and environments."

"We see the locus of computation is now shifting from the desktop in two major directions: i) onto our skins/bodies, and ii) into the physical environments we inhabit. The transition to our bodies is represented by recent activities in the new field of 'wearable computers'. We are focusing on the second path: integration of computational augmentations into the physical environment. Our intention is to take advantage of natural physical affordances, to achieve a heightened legibility and seamlessness of interaction between people and information."

"The smooth transition of users' focus of attention between background and foreground using ambient media and graspable objects is a key challenge of Tangible Bits."

This paper focuses on developing the current relationships between GUI's (Graphical User Interfaces) and HCI (Human Computer Interaction). Through including the senses humans have developed through evolution, richer experiences can be created while using technology. "By taking advantage of multiple sense and the multi-modality of human interactions with the real world. We believe the use of graspable objects and ambient media will lead us to a much richer multi-sensory experience of digital information."




I, Sharnia King, hereby swear to abandon all fear; to question everything; to trust in myself; to honour those before me as I excel, and to support those who follow as they ascend. I swear that I will never accept another's standard for success, as I set mine one measure higher. When I am finished, no one will ever fucking look at me the same way again.

http://www.goodfuckingdesignadvice.com

All posts related to CCDN331: Live Theory can be found on the home page or under the CCDN331 label on the right hand side of the page.



Psyche  is an audio-visual experience designed to look at the perception and interpretation of psychedelic vision and sound. Interpretation and perception feature many different layers that are dependent upon individual feelings, experiences and mindsets. Psyche was designed to create an immersive world that looks at the perception and interpretation of sound together in the human mind.

Psyche contains a world of different layers which change throughout the narrative, both audibly and visually. These different layers represent the layers of the human psyche and the changes that occur looking at perception and interpretation. Through the progression of the video, different shapes and actions occur that react to the audio, and become more intense over time. A psychedelic art style was used with a large colour palette to show the variety and totality of the human mind, conscious and unconscious.

The audio component of Psyche was created using Garageband and a range of synthesisers to create an other-worldly effect. A heartbeat sound was used to represent the life and spirit of the mind, and to take the viewer inside the psyche of the video and the personal psyche of the individual. The visual component was created using Illustrator and After effects and was designed to the sounds of the audio, creating a psychedelic visual music experience.


Credits:


Today we are here to talk to you about the work and impact of Jenny Holzer. Jenny Holzer is an American Neo-Conceptualist artist. She was born in 1950 in Gallipolis Ohio.


After gaining her undergraduate degree in fine arts at the University of Ohio. Jenny enrolled in the Rhode Island school of design and graduated with a Master of Fine arts. 


Jenny Holzer originally worked as a painter and printmaker and strived to be an abstract painter. Holzer copied diagrams from textbooks and found herself drawn to the  “neutral, factual and anonymous” captions beneath the images she was copying. This inspired her change from painting to text work, which has been present in all of her works made since this time. She enrolled in the Whitney Museum's independent study program and was inspired to start portraying language as visual art. Thus, she begun her first series of public art texts, otherwise known as truisms. 


What is a Truism?
“A statement that is obviously true and says nothing new or interesting”. “A truism is a claim that is so obvious or self-evident as to be hardly worth mentioning, except as a reminder or as a rhetorical or literary device”. The Truisms began after reading classical work during her time at the Whitney Museum’s study program where she was inspired with words.Holzer presents these truisms to the world in the form of one line statements. These are always written work and the public dimension is integral in the delivery of these truisms.

Holzer works with a variety of mediums to display her work to the public.Some of these mediums include t-shirts, plaques, coffee cups, and went on to use LED signs. She’s even printed some of her truisms onto condom packages. Her truisms feature explicit content and minimalist aesthetics about the world we live in and how advertising and consumerism affect society today.

Holzer’s Truisms series began in 1977 where she printed her Truism statements with black ink on white paper and posted them anonymously around Manhattan. She wheat-pasted the truisms to street posters and later displayed them on t-shirts, electronic signs, stone floors and benches. Her intentions with the truisms series were for people to read them amongst all the advertising and consumerism that is displayed in public places. Some of the truisms she wrote for this piece are: 

“ABUSE OF POWER SHOULD COME AS NO SURPRISE”

“FAITHFULNESS IS A SOCIAL NOT A BIOLOGICAL LAW”

“TECHNOLOGY WILL MAKE OR BREAK US”
In total, the series consisted of over 250 one line statements.

The truisms Holzer presents to the world aims to challenge public and individual opinions and to sharpen the awareness of advertising information. The truisms are depicted in public areas to create a juxtaposition to the commodified world around us. Being surrounded by media, advertising and product marketing, these truisms challenge cultural, economic and political conditions. The focus on language and ideas in such public spaces can create controversy, as topics such as gender relations and sexual identity and feminism are brought forth.

Computer technology and and the use projections changed the way Holzer presented her work to the public. In 1982 Holzer displayed nine of her Truisms on the giant Spectacolour Electronic sign board in Times Square at forty-second intervals. This was her first public display that used electronic sign boards and the basis for her most visible displays. Holzer continued to use LED signs and projections in her work and created large-scale displays for billboard advertisements, projections on buildings and illuminated electronic displays.


GOING INTO LED AND PROJECTION
Some of Jenny’s most progressive and striking work takes on the form of large scale projections.  This large projection of her work allowed her to reach larger audiences and stapled her as one of the main descendants of the both the conceptualist and pop art movements.


These large scale truisms have been largely appreciated and have led Holzer to creating work for some of the world's most prestigious museums, exhibitions and monuments. Here is a video of her projections in action.


These truisms is an in depth reading of the angst of everyday living and encourage the everyday people reading them to think harder about the parts of humanity we don’t feel comfortable talking about publicly. 


Survival states is a series that stands out to me particularly and was both projected and made into benches and things public spaces. Her survival projections project the horror we all face by just living in contemporary society, a piece from survival states that reads CRACK THE PELVIS SO SHE LIES RIGHT, THIS IS A MISTAKE. WHEN SHE DIES YOU CANNOT REPEAT THE ACT clearly sums up her angst towards the plain fact that women feel afraid and controlled by men and her tiredness of the constant stories of females being victims at the hands of men. 


Holzer is no stranger when it comes to tackling controversial topics. In response to the violence against women committed in the Bosnian ethnic cleansing, Jenny Holzer made the Lustmord series, named from a German word meaning murder as a sexual tendency. In the series she shows two tables covered with bones assorted by classification, some with silver bands engraved with details of its victim's rape, torture, and murder. On the walls of the exhibition hang a series of photographs taken of text written on women's bodies with ink containing women's blood. In an interview Holzer said she found it most effective to represent the words of people no longer capable of saying them themselves. The words convey 3 perspectives on the Bosnian rapes, tortures, and murder: those of the survivor, the observer, and the perpetrator. To me, her work is making a comment on the human disconnect from fact and fiction. We are all desensitised to the horrible stuff that is happening on our own planet and she is trying to provoke us and make us form a feeling or an opinion about it. She draws attention the horrible things that are happening around us as well as the thoughts that are happening inside our minds. 


As jenny is progressing forward in her outing of controversial topics she seems to be withdrawing from the technical aspect of her work. Her latest piece, which is often exhibited with her lustmord series, is a response to the secreted involvement america has in the wars in Iraq and the middle east. In this work she displays large silk screen versions of secret documents that were released in the freedom of information act. The images show the handprints of soldiers who were committed of crimes related to the theatre of war, yet the detail of the name of the soldiers and handprints themselves are blacked out, showing the information was not truly communicated to the public. This work is particularly relevant to society as it probes the ever present issue of freedom of information.


Holzer has changed the pre-conceived ideas of where art should be shown, the intentions of it and for whom it is aimed at. She strives to get her audience to feel something or at least provoke a response from the viewer. Holzer has blurred the line between art and poetry and sees language as art. This has influenced people to pursue text-based art which has seen a large amount of growth in the last 30 years.

 Holzer’s truisms and the associated style of writing have become so famous, there is even a twitter account that parodies these truisms combined with parental advice.

 “YOU CAN PLAY WITH THE IDENTITY SOCIETY GAVE YOU AFTER YOU WRITE SOCIETY A THANK YOU NOTE”

 “NO ONE CAN PROTECT YOU FROM YOURSELF - I’M NOT NAGGING, I’M JUST SAYING”

 “ARE YOU GOING TO GO OUT AND DISMANTLE THE MEANS OF OPPRESSION OR ARE YOU GOING TO SIT AROUND THE HOUSE ALL DAY LIKE A LUMP?
If you want to have a look at more, her the twitter name is JennyHolzerMom
Her language art has massively influenced people over the last 40 years and provoked many different responses. To keep you thinking about her work we have posted her truisms around the school. 




Some of you may have already noticed them but we encourage the rest of you to have a read of her truism and take something away from her words.
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About

I am a designer, currently studying Design Innovation at Victoria University of Wellington. My focus areas are website and mobile media development, interaction design, 3D modelling and animation and audio-visual space. My blog shows my journey through each project as well as my learning experience through university. What do I want to be when I grow up? I have no idea. But I love what I'm learning. Although there have been many bumps along the road in this journey and despite the fact that there are going to be many more, I wouldn't have it any other way.

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