Lecture Notes

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Message deliveries, Message and Medium, Pencil, Pixel, Performance, Packaging

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Weekly Learning Objectives

By the end of this week, you should be able to:

Analyse and reflect upon how a message can be enhanced through the medium in which it is implemented.

Communicate an emotion you perceive your city or location is about.

Imagine and create a material response to how you communicate that emotion in material and form.

Document and communicate your working process in your blog.

Participate in and reflect upon debate on the ideas wall.

Lecture: Form and Function, with Susanna Edwards and Sam Winston.

This week’s Lecture focused on the relationship between form and function, and how that interaction can be explored through the use of tools and materials.

In-keeping with this thought, I was intrigued to learn that the lecture this week lends itself to my personal-goals for the week ahead. My response to the challenges in previous weeks has been primarily, rooted in the production of 2D-work using digital-methods. And so, this week I had set myself the challenge of working solely in my sketchbook and producing a piece that was physical. The objective is to create a physical object that can provide a social-commentary on the mood and identity of the area in which I reside, presenting the viewer with an immersive message that will provoke an emotional response and further reflection on the subject in question.

In conversation with Susanna, Sam Winton conveys his belief in having a physical interaction with the tools and materials that you have available to you, and how doing so can lead to the developing of a greater understanding of how they relate to the subject in question.

“Shift your perceptions, use the resources available to you to tell your story”-Sam Winston

The example used in the discussion looks at how the scenes and objects found on the streets of our cities, act as a physical-record of the social-history and cultural-influences, that had played a role in the defining of the identity of that environment, and in a broader sense, the establishing of a National Identity.

In my opinion, this observation is accurate and presents us with findings that can inform the current discussions taking place in politics, today. The question of National Identity has arguably never been more relevant, and is seemingly at the forefront of many people’s concerns regarding the direction of the country. Therefore, by isolating a single street or town we are able to capture an insight into the roots of this discussion. The nuance of which can be observed in the architecture, residents, businesses, signage, cultural-practices, services, and fashions found in that area. We are then presented we an interesting question: How do these components impact the functioning of that community?

In answering this question, Sam Winston recommends that we deconstruct the the subject using the following criteria:

Processes

Strategy

Language

Materials

Design

Reflecting on this approach, I had begun to consider how I may apply these criteria to my own observations, and what questions I may wish to pose in my own investigation into the identity, history and culture of Herefordshire.

In response to the lecture, I have found myself reflecting on the changes taking place in the landscape of Herefordshire and how the shift in farming-practices has continued to influence the visual-narrative of one of Britains most productive, agricultural centres. I shall proceed to explore the history of the country in my research, and using the insights that I have accrued from the lecture I shall endeavour to deconstruct the identity of the county.