Joy Brammer Honours Year

So, this year has been pretty tough but it hasn't been without its rewards!

Throughout the year i've enjoyed watching my project grow and change. From starting out as a 'What makes the best ad campaign?' it has developed through the stages from being focused on eating disorders such as Bulimia to a wider expanse of mental health issues in general, for example the stigma attached to issues of mental health.

From my practical research and research of the literature it is definitely clear from my progression of work that my understanding of aesthetics has grown. Especially my understanding of how certain aesthetical elements and how design techniques are applied to produce emotions in an audience. I really appreciate this lesson, as i feel it is a valuable asset to have. The manipulation of emotion is a key factor in the persuasion of mass audiences and the knowledge i've gained from this year has the possibility to be used throughout all aspects of design, not just that of awareness campaigns.

I've also improved massively on my skillset. At the beginning of the year i didn't even own or know how to use a DSLR camera, but now i have my own and am very confident in my ability to get the right "shot" without having to mess around for ages, or coming back after filming and being disappointed. My skills with video editing in general have massively improved aswell. Although i was already pretty confident with After Effects i had to learn a different side of the program when editing my footage. From looking at my very 1st video edit at the start of the honours year, to my very final pieces, i feel its pretty clear that my confidence has grown over the period of time and that my skills have improved.

As a reflection on my final solution videos, i would say i am extremely happy with how they have both turned out. I'm glad i made the decision to create two final pieces showing both areas of approach i have been exploring. The difference in visuals for both of the pieces i feel is quite strong, illustrating how different the approaches of positive and negative emotional persuasion can be.

Using the aesthetics to create a positive hopeful emotion when displaying a subject that can be perceived as sensitive.

The idea was to display how mental health can affect us all in a variety of ways, but that often it isnt glaringly obvious. That we can look perfectly "normal" on the surface.

Techniques used to communicate idea:

1) Aesthetics used - The aesthetics in this piece have been used deliberately to convey feelings of hope and happyness. The colours used were mainly soft, complimentary colours that flowed through the background and over the people. There's not a lot of contracting colours present but when they are they are in small quantities.

2) Glitching Visuals - The visual approach when using Glitch Art can produce some very striking visuals, without them being 'shocking'. These striking visuals could help a campaign gain attention. The underlying meaning of using Glitches is that Glitches are basically a digital system malfunctioning/ not working 100% correctly, which when taken in terms of the brain and mental health there are similarities in defintions. Having the glitches displayed over the peoples upper bodies is to communicate that although these people look perfectly health and "normal" there could be a mental illness present that we might not be aware of.

3) People used - The people selected are of different genders. Visually they are also very common healthy "normal" looking people, who on film all look very happy and comfortable. This was to communicate the fact that although people seem to be fine/healthy physically it is very possible they arnt mentally, because we cant judge just by looking at someone.

4) Looking directly into camera - I decided to have the people looking directly into the camera smiling/ interacting with it to create the illusion that the filmed people were directly looking at/interacting with the viewer. This approach was taken from a previously evaluated campaign that used the same technique successfully, the techniques gets its attention getting power from our nature as humans to look back when we are looked at.

5) Music - The music used in this video is very upbeat and conveys a happy relaxed feel. It compliments the video well.

Using the aesthetics to create a negative disgusted emotion when displaying the subject of mental illness.

The idea was to display the actions of bulimia in a negative way to discourage and make viewers aware that it happens.

Techniques used to communicate idea:

1) Aesthetics used - The aesthetics in this piece used are very intense. The colours are very saturated and contrast heavily. Varies styles of visuals are going on at once in the video, adding to the discomfort feel.

2) Glitching Visuals - Glitching has a really good potential to be really abstract, and hinder the audiences view of what is going on in the video, making it unclear and hard to figure out whats going on directly infront of you. The heavy/fast flickering of the glitches used also adds to the disgust/discomfort of the video making all the contrasting colours and styles pretty hard to look at. These visuals can be pretty garish and unpleasant. Glitching was chosen as the visual approach because of its connected definition with mental health.

3) Extreme close ups - Extreme close ups were used as a way of making the viewer feel uncomfortable so as to create that negative emotion of disgust and unease.

4) Camera movement - The movement of the camera in this case is pretty important because the swaying and unfocused feel if the video helps contribute to the negative feelings, often giving viewers a sore head or feels of uncomfort because there eyes are having a hard time focusing on whats being shown. The movements is also a good display of how one might feel when feeling/being sick, so a connection with the subject matter is made.

5) Music - I decided to use a classical piece for this video, to highlight the negative by trying to create another contrast.

My final solution video using the visual aesthetics to create a 'positive approach' when communicating a message of a sensitive subject.

In this case the sensitive subject being communicated is about knowing the signs of Bulimia, which is a form of mental illness.

This final piece focused on the application of design techniques to create positive emotional aesthetics. The application of the techniques used were taken from both the Literature Research and Pre-Production Research (Media-Tests) conducted throughout the course of the Honours year.

001 - MP4 - Lydia 02 MediaTest from Joy Brammer on Vimeo.

When going through my glitched videos i realised that because some parts glitched so fast you couldnt really see everything (part of the beauty i guess) But i decided to go through some of the videos frame by frame and managed to find some really striking images! The mix of the glitches varying from subtle to very obvious was nice. The images look really striking and aesthetically interesting.

Using a program called "Audacity" i was able to glitch video files. It took me a while to get the hand of and produce something visually nice without corrupting the whole video and making it non-playable. Below are 2 of the examples of what i was able to produce, the 1st video is "pre-databending" so it is clear how much this process actually glitches work.

Pre-DataBending 01 from Joy Brammer on Vimeo.

Databending Glitch 01 from Joy Brammer on Vimeo.

The above images are the result of my 1st attempts at DataBending images using the text editor Notepad++. I think i managed to achieve some really cool results, some turned out more glitched than others. Although there were a few issues:

- when i tried to upload the glitched images Tumblr wouldnt accept them, so i had to take screenshots, which obviously lessened the quality of the images.

- When glitching, all i could see to produce was horizontal position/ colour differences, i didnt get full-on section glitches or even any verticaal ones really, and i would have quite liked a little bit more variation