alexanewynn

A Reflective Output

On the Assignments

This is the course that allows students to maximise my creativity and encourages them to challenge themselves to become better designers. 

For the first project, we were asked to find different materials to form a question and my question was ‘Does capitalism hinder creativity?’. I like this project because I get to be creative about my choice of materials. I asked my friend to be the letter ‘I’ for the word Capitalism. I used a barbie’s head as the letter ‘V’ for creativity. I used a circle mirror as the letter ‘o’. This project makes me feel like a little creative director for a project because I get to decide on the composition, the bricks background, what I wanted to include in it and I had so much freedom. I also became more familiar with using photoshop to edit images.

I’m proud of my first project because everything worked out like how I expected.

For the second project, I get to explore working on the website platform called Weebly. To be honest, all of the website platforms that I found aren’t the best ones for this project because they are so restrictive on what kind of medium they allow me to upload. It’s so challenging to be creative when a website template has been provided to trap my creativity in those template boxes. It took me a while to be able to play around with different compositions and I’m also thankful for my tutor for telling me to stop thinking too much. I think one of my biggest challenge is that when I become too interested in a project and develop so many ideas for it, I’m trapped in my own mind and end up not creating anything. However, as I tried to be more simple and calm down, I’m able to work out my ideas gradually. 

I’m still not very satisfied about my interview project as I know that I could be more creative with it if I managed my time better. I wanted to create an animated video as an answer for one of my questions but I didn’t have enough time to do so (as it would take me quite a while to figure out how to use an animation program). 

On the lectures

At the start of Semester 1, I love going to face to face lectures as I get to see the lecturer and other designers. I like to watch the lectures on the big screen at the lecture theatre, as for me, it’s more effective to learn.

However, due to the COVID-19, our lectures have been moved online and recorded. I didn’t enjoy them as much because I’m not very used to listening to my lectures on the laptop screen. I still try my best to adapt to these online classes and be positive that I still have the opportunity to be in class and learn.

On the online class and peer discussions

I like to join the online tutorials because I don’t have to turn on my cameras or audio when I don’t need to speak. My classmates are very respectful to the tutor and to each other and are open to receive feedbacks. One of the challenges of online learning is the internet connection, as sometimes I couldn’t hear my tutor speaks or if my wifi has trouble connecting, I cannot attend classes at all. I missed several lessons because of this issue as some of the subjects don’t have online recordings.

On myself

I have learned so much as a young designer after joining this course. Communication Design Studies really teach me how to use Photoshop, how to plan a project as a designer. I remember Andy, our tutor, told us that when showing your work in progress as a designer, always have to present your sketches, images, collages or any visuals in order to receive proper feedback. It is not advised to just present a long text description with what I’m planning to do since it’s very challenging for the person on the other side to imagine what you are trying to visually communicate with only plain texts.

Art movement: Surrealism

urrealism opens the doors of dream to all those for whom night is miserly.

Surrealism is not a new or easier means of expression, nor even a metaphysics of poetry; it is a total means of complete liberation of the mind

World War 1-- Historical context

Surrealism is shortly after WW1.

The roots of surrealism - it is the horror of WW1 which gives birth to the movement. Coming as it did after decades of peace, and inflicting incredible pain and suffering on millions of combatants/ innocent people, the war inevitably caused intellectuals and artists to question received ideas.

Interpretations of Object 1936

In Freudian terms, fur is a symbol for public hair, and any sort of receptacle (such as a cup) can be understood as a stand-in for a woman's genitalia. Anything that is sort of phallic shaped such as spoon, was seen by Freud as being a symbol for male genitalia.

Political context: Surrealism and its relationship with Karl Marx’s social freedom

Despite Surrealism’ reputation for illogic and whimsy, the artistic philosophy derives its motivation from an incredibly marxist analysis of the human condition that prioritizes the pursuit of liberation.

Marx: the imagination is in a state of slavery, perpetually subjugated by the tangible world

Also mirroring Marx’s diagnosis of life under capital rule, Breton understands that man’s ultimate moral and intellectual capacity cannot be reached as long as artistic omnipotence remains with the material world

Here are some of my progresses in creating the animated gif object so that they could float around on the website:

I used photoshop to create different animation frames and move the image around for each of the frame. I learned this skill from the Color and Information Design course and it helped me to be able to create moving images.

I tried to move the objects around to see which composition works best.

Trial 1

Trial 2

Trial 3

After doing researches on the Object itself and answer all 5 questions, I started to explore different ways that I can design my website. I chose to work on website instead of zine because I wanted to add motions/ movements to my creative piece and I thought it would be easier to do this on a website. 

1. Firstly, I would collect inspirations on Pinterest for my potential poster layout. I searched up different typography styles, images and collages that go well together. For instance, the collage below belongs to Jurgen Maelfeyt and it intrigues me because I could sense some kind of movement through the circle elements on the pages, as if the planet in the middle of the page is spinning. The typography component is great as well since they have that ‘chaotically organized’ looks. The black background really helps to bring out other elements on the page.

--->with this image and with my tutor’s help, I come up with the ideas that I should include 5 moving objects on my website - in which these objects represent the 5 questions.

2. Research on the 5 objects that I want to include on my website.

For Question 1, the general context is about the inspiration to create the cup, so I include the fur-covered cup itself.

For Question 2, the context is about World War 1 and Dada art movement, so I include a moth to symbolize the horrors of war and death.

For Question 3, the context is about Feminism and women empowerment, I include a flower object.

For Question 4, the context focuses on Sigmund Freud’s automatism and dreams, so I include a floating head, to represent the human’s unconscious mind.

For Question 5, I include the hand raising up, to represent freedom since I was talking about Karl Marx’s ideology on social freedom and the erasure of classes.

For my final project, I focused on Object by Meret Oppenheim, a Surrealist object that  highlights the specificities of sensual pleasure: fur may delight the touch, but it repels the tongue. And a cup and spoon are made to be put in the mouth.

Oppenheim combines the domesticity of the tea set (part of the traditionally feminine decorative arts) with the eroticism and animality of the fur covering.

My plan for this project is to create 5 questions related to the historical, psychological, social and political contexts behind Object by Meret Oppenheim.

My 5 Questions are:

Question 1.

How did the conversation with Pablo Picasso influence Meret Oppenheim’s choice of materials for ‘Object’?

Question 2.

How was the creation of Object an anti-war response to WW1?

Question 3.

How was the title ‘Object’ changed by Andre Brenton, and how does this reflect on women’s position in society at that time? How did Meret Oppenheim respond to the male-dominated Surrealist movement as a feminist?

Question 4.

How might ‘Object’ resonate with Sigmund Freud’s dreams and desires of the unconscious mind?

Question 5.

Since Meret Oppenheim’s surrealist object portrayed the meaning of ‘liberation of desire’, to what extent does this idea align with Karl Marx’s ideology of social freedom?

In this week tutorial, we were asked to work in groups to create a positve word or phrase. Our group chose the word 'Collaborate' and each member was asked to contribute letter forms that they could find from a printed medium.

This is the C that I cut out from an image of two guys shaking their hands. The act of shaking hands also represent cooperation between the two people and this C goes well with the meaning of the word Collaborate.

The man with the shopping cart represents the letter 'b'

This is the final outcome of the collage and I feel like the image of each letter from really goes well with the other letters. There is a combination of surrealism, human bodies and texture of different objects.

Extraordinary chess piece from the Bauhaus school

In Week 7 lecture, we were introduced to Bauhaus school of Typography and Design in Germany. Walter Gropius was the founder of Bauhaus and he believed that, “Art and the people must form an entity. Art shall no longer be a luxury of the few but should be enjoyed and experienced by the broad masses”.

I don’t have much experience in chess but the packaging which was designed by Joost Schmidt, a Bauhaus’ student, is very neat and compact. When I first look at the packaging, I thought the box was a matchbox due to its size and minimalist design. The chess piece embodied the school’s tenets that an object must be practical, durable, inexpensive and beautiful.

A closer look at the packaging.

After Week 7 lecture, I became interested in different chess set designs so I went on to research more about other artistic approaches to chess designs.

It could be seen through these two images that chess designs are a reflection of  a particularly historical period or a movement. Max Ernst’s chess set demonstrate an abstract concept to match with the Surrealism era where it emphasizes the power of imagination. The China chess set is much more detail crafted, showing the army.

Chess pieces are also designed as an adaptation of a specific event happening in the world.

This design is much more easier to make than the other designs since it was made during WW2. During the war time, I assume that complexity of design is not a dominated element as people focused more on the chess functionality. 

Week 8 Lecture

In this week lecture, we learned about Art and Design of the 20th century. As we were scrolling through varieties of artwork of the earlier century, this propoganda art book was the most intriguing. Although I don't know much historical background about Benito Musollini, these pages convey a facist dictatorship element through the small cut out circle revealing the leader. As we flip through the images of soldiers and combat, we still notice the presence of the dictator on the top corner of the page - this proves the influence and powerful command of Musollini. The image of Musollini through these pages share a common position of looking up, demonstrating his authority.

Below is a short video about Fascism and Mussolini.

To complete Assignment 1 for Communication Design, I propose a question related to design - 

“Does capitalism hinder creativity?” 

This question has always been in my mind because when a designer works on a project, their work needs to meet the demands of the customer, for them to earn a living. But do customers’ expectations limit the designer’s creative expression? Since designers also need to establish a boundary of what they want to create and what the customers allow them to do. In a capitalist society where creative ability is used to monetize, it’s hard to earn a living out out of your design if it doesn’t meet society’s expectations.

There’s an alternative perspective to look at this question,

Capitalism could motivate people to be more creative instead of hindering their ability. In order to earn a living, people force themselves to think originally, to think outside of the box and strive to be better. 

I did these works at different time periods and they are both self-portraits. I did the first image specifically for the Communication Design task while the other one is done on my free time. 

I feel like I’m more of an overthinking lion than a designer because I spend more time to overthink things than to create art (and I do wish to reverse that pattern). The lion is wearing a headphone because I simply like to listen to music and one of my favorite song is Redbone by Childish Gambino. The lion is holding a paint brush because I like to paint and draw things on paper. I choose the lion because I’m pretty stubborn and impatient.