Observation in Research, lecture by Alysia Grassi, University of Huddersfield, Wednesday 24th of May.

This will particularly useful lecture aimed at discussing alternative ideas in observation and using 'observation in research' practice.

The objective of all academic research in the creative arts is either qualitative or quantitative. Questions that are asked in this domain are:

• what is the observation?
• What type of observations is being performed?

Observation is concerned with what people do and how they interact. Consider it as systematic viewing, which should be done as an iterative process, and never in isolation.

When considering observation for either qualitative or quantitative research, one must be able to describe 'what it is' that is being carried out. The documentation and recording should be targeted together with the analysis, in relation to the research question, - which equally has to be adaptable.

The general difference between participant observation and that of structured observation is that participant observation is qualitative, whereas structured observation is generally quantitative.
Concerning 'participant observation', it is possible to use the Internet to mediate and record. Whereas with structured observation videography may be employed. These kinds of observational methods can be considered as both primary and secondary research, particularly for example when a video can be post-analysed.

The ethnographic technique has been used in anthropology studies for many years. It takes place with the informants responding and being observed, within their own natural habitats. In sociology, it is not only about watching human behaviour, but also through 'talking' to the informants to discover their own interpretations, through the use of direct one-to-one interviews, social media and other activities.

Key elements of observation in research include:

• living within the context that you are studying, for a long time (and in the case of sociology this can mean an immersion for greater than 18 months)
• as an observer, one needs to have participation in daily routines with the observed
• by using everyday conversation is a technique to record responses from those being observed.
• Recording observations contemporaneously, such as through audio-video recording and field notes.
• Using the tacit and explicit information in the analysis and the writing. (See DeWalt and DeWalt, 2001, and further discussion on tacit and explicit knowledge, see Michael Polyani).

When planning for observation in research, decide the position that you wish to take as an observer. This could be one of four combinations and can be best articulated through a quadrant diagram as follows;

Other things to consider are:
Time:

• observation is time-consuming!
• Manage and plan time carefully therefore
• capture and analysis of data takes patience
• spending lots of time with the subjects is also critical
• vary the times of observations, with variants through the day, through different weekdays, weekends, months and seasons.

Reasons for observational research:

• different types of data can be collected.
• There is less risk of those being observed "acting."
• it should be a two-way process, and consideration should be given continually to responses, as it helps a researcher form questions.
• It provides a wider understanding.
• Sometimes observational research is the only way.

The method of observation can, however, be subjective. The behaviour of the observer may affect what is being observed.

Proper preparation is essential. 

• It is essential to document the purpose, the role of the observer, any ethical questions and their appropriateness.
• Make sure that the recording technology is fully working, with plenty of battery time available and even backup methods to ensure a focused and fruitful period of recording.
• Make sure that any permissions that are required are properly sought and documented from any stakeholders and gatekeepers.

Try a pilot phase of recording first. The final method can then be adapted.
Once in the field, try to think about the big picture/but small detail.
Consider Spradley's nine dimensional of "How to Observe".
The general routine should be;
observe-think and reflect-observe-think and reflect-observe-think and reflect, and so on.
Consider responses concerning goals, feelings, space, actors, activities, objects, acts, events and time.

Furthermore, consider potential errors and biases. Generally speaking, errors occur through:

•  lack of understanding [usually through not enough time being devoted to the observation].
• Overfamiliarity [often occurs through having too much time].
• Drift. [This is a danger when researchers get bored or change points of view].

Biases occur, again quite often, through a lack of time.

• Preconceptions are incorrectly drawn upon. 
• There may be subjective results or even influenced.

All in all, make sure one takes detailed notes about the environment.

• The size and feel of the location, the room or environment in general. 
• What objects already reside within it? 
• What are the potential distractions for both the Observer and the observed? 
• What is the temperature in which the observations are being carried out? 
• Are there any unusual or intermittent smells or noises or other ambient disruptions?

And finally, when writing up your responses, there are some interesting lessons to be learned from 20th-century creative writers such as John Debbion and Hunter Thompson amongst others, and sources of reference can include books such as "the Rum Diaries", "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", "The Hells Angels" et cetera.

Basically, all of these observational texts are written in the first person.

Conclusions;

I found the lecture particularly engaging, but a little bit disappointed that the timing of this talk was rather late on during the schedule of the overall course, as much of its content may have been useful during our own research in previous modules of the MA study. However, I do appreciate that the lecturer may simply have not been available to provide this input at an earlier opportunity, and so I am grateful that we have been able to gain;

•  a very solid insight into some practical and field-tested methodology. 
• Much of Alissia's work and presentation showed me different ways of thinking and conducting physical / "in-vivo" research.
• It is vital to begin to analyse and measure responses, public opinion and hence value. 
•  It is essential for me to carry out such research as part of my major project.

Reflections on a guest lecture by the interactive design studio "Invisible Flock".

The following notes are taken from a really useful lecture held on Wednesday, 16 May, provided by Rich Warburton, of Invisible Flock, an interactive design studio, based in Leeds.

The intention of the studio is to embed digital design technology directly into everything that they do. Digital technology is part of the ethos of this group, and their continual question is "how can you incorporate IOT (the Internet of Things) into creative art?

The group is a cross-disciplinary practice of artists and digital media experts including a highly capable computer programmer.

An example of a current project is one called "beta" which is intended to bring business and art and technology together in artistic practice, which is based at the Leeds East Street Art Studios. Its objectives are indeed to embed technology into art practice, but at a softer level to scale up intimacy, that is, to "broadcast emotion".

The group recognised the need for human centred design, after all, it is acknowledged that all people are "actors"!

This means that digital media interactions and ultimately culture are intimately shaped by constant iteration and feedback through audience participation and reception.

One particular area that is being explored in focus at the moment is in doing work for mobile phones. These devices provide a platform "space" of new images visuality and audio.

Art can have meaning through the interruption of daily reality. It can cause a shift in perception that is unexpected. For example, in Berlin, there is an art piece constructed throughout the whole city and is found as small embedded brass tokens fixed into the pavements, the German phrase roughly translates to "stumble stones". These small but noticeable subtle symbols in a way celebrate and remind walkers about the Holocaust. It is both gentle and subtle but is incredibly poignant once a person has engaged in its exploration.

This example can be likened in many ways with the Internet, which is equally accessible but is also an interruptive exchange and experience.

There is this assumed relationship with mobile phones, in that if there is an application that has been downloaded, one of these small "apps" often used as a kind of marketing Dolly, it is apparently expected to work! However, the complexities of different types of operating systems, platforms, software dependencies, hardware versions and so on make it tough for these app developers to have total confidence in the released and published apps effectiveness.

To try and tackle this problem, Invisible Flock of developed a relationship with an Indian software house called "Quicksand", who are specifically developing ideas for mobile phones that are cross-platform and hardware independent.

An example of one of the projects that are already online which cross this boundary into cultural and creative art is called "Duet". The concept of this idea is a digital interaction between strangers, where the mobile phone short message service (SMS) network is used to conduct a year-long conversation between strangers, based on asking one specific question (anonymously of course) and getting a corresponding one answer, between participants per day for a whole year. The results are of course anonymous but are then aggregated and analysed. The need for an immediate emotional feedback loop has been recognised by the writers to keep interest and motivation of the participants to a high level.

What results is a very complex dialogue, through the prism of a simple question. In a sense, it works through illuminating relationships through disparate timescales and intervals. It's a kind of nostalgia and taps into emotion through articulations that would never exist or be there "officially". Therefore this program "Duet", and its concept of just having one question a day and one answer in total anonymity, can be very revealing about human nature. It forces the participants to engage in a dialogue that is entirely anonymous and therefore without the emotional baggage that may be pre-known. The outputs, therefore, seem to be "clean". That is they are tending to be more honest and less contrived as a reflection of intimate human thoughts in our contemporary culture.

An absorbing and stimulating lecture, I felt the presenter had engaged with a deeply sensitive and smart vehicle for exploration of not just the West or isolated cultural facets, that a thoroughly engaging method to start to view the whole global human condition.

Reflections on a lecture regarding entrepreneurialism and innovation and a recap of the presentation requirements for some attentive fulfilment!

We are now in the final phase of this module. The output of the work over the last term will be to produce three artefacts. The first being a portfolio website, the second a reflective blog and the third critical reflective summary presentation based on the assessment criteria overall. It is necessary to actively edit and generate the content for all of these items now.
With regards to the E-portfolio, this is an online platform to present evidence and ideas of group collaboration, including a devised group identity, research and research methods, generation of innovative ideas, thinking and user experience, research and commercial authorship where appropriate, together with substantial evidence of professional engagement in the chosen project.

In reflection of our own site, (which is a Work in Progress) I'm confident that it covers all the criteria pretty well;

With regards to the website, it is necessary to structure it according to the suggestions based on Dr Bailey's recommended tasks at the beginning of the term. This is what will be presented at the summit of presentation which for our own group, (the Rotor group) will be provided on 22 March 2017.

With regards to both this presentation and our own individual blogs, it is important that one should consider the moments of planning and how my feeling was throughout the progress of the project. I need to further define what I have been experiencing and how this relates to my own experience from working with people generally but also in particular of the specific group dynamics of my team that I have worked with over the last three months. This will include identification of where real collaboration has taken place but will also detail any conflicts and difficulties that I have overcome. In essence, the reflection serves to define obstacles and opportunities regarding growth, or for change.

As I have developed a significant body of work based on my existing blog entries over the past few months, it is worth considering whether I should identify key passages or critical blogs and highlight them to Dr Bailey for her specific reading. I recall the quote "Sometimes 'more' conceals the chaos beneath" that Dr Bailey made.

The use of the Share-Point facility in the University's Microsoft Office 360 domain has proved invaluable in team collaboration activities;

The written / output requirements for this module is based on the total output of approximately 9000 words or equivalent. By breaking this down into segments, this would suggest 3000 words on the presentation. 3000 words on the blog as personal reflections. And 3000 words within an E-portfolio is a collaborative works site.

I need to consider the presentation criteria carefully and how we have investigated and analysed the elements of the project concerning the tasks that we have been asked to perform. In this sense, the initial research questionnaires that we completed as individual contributors to the Rotor group discussions come into play. I also need to consider carefully how I have used primary and secondary research, primary research being through interviews such as those conducted by Grete and Adam which were recorded, our own questionnaires and our own group discussions on the Rotor group exhibition.
With regards to secondary research, the group has been very productive, and we have individually supplemented each other's readings with our own research findings by gaining other artists inputs on affected subjects and themes similar to those being expressed and curated by Dr Liam Devlin, together with other cultural inputs and influences.

I also need to explain and delineate the evidence of understanding, particularly in a commercial view with regards to understanding the clients, and the user's needs. The BBC symposiums and workshops have been very useful for us to create material as evidence which can be reapplied here to demonstrate our proof of research and understanding.

I see the presentation next week as being an opportunity to showcase the development of the project.  I need to keep in mind how I can communicate the relevance of our work to the client (Dr Devlin) and showcase what we have done in, for example, the memorandum of understanding.  I created that document for Dr Devlin to comment upon before our presenting anything to him that our initial presentation at the beginning of the month.

Finally, I must not lose sight that everything must be referenced according to APA six edition.

The final date for submitting the E-portfolio and the blog archive is Friday, 7 April. This will be provided to Dr Bailey through the Turnitin mechanism that the University of Huddersfield users for submission of students papers. The links to any E-portfolio and blog can be defined through a simple Microsoft Word document with all the necessary identification of course and student details placed on them.

And finally it is worth re-visiting some of the previous Master's degree students at the following websites
celmagic.wiksite.com/RSAmove.
Christina saw Bracknell.wiksite.com/makecon
Rebekahutch.wiksite.com/creativethinkers
Together with other online resources. Generally, all of the best presentations for previous Masters degree work contained;

• Research evidence
• knowledge of the audience
• awareness of the client and their needs
• knowledge of the subject, ideation and ideas generation (this is key)
• a series of identified likely outcomes or possible results.
• They all confirmed to the assessment criteria.

Conclusions:

In essence, all of this work is about creating evidence! But it is also about defining working processes too! Working in collaboration means clearly articulating and allocating jobs to individuals with clearly defined timescales. It is worthwhile carrying out some form of strength weakness opportunity threats analysis?

I think I might also insert details for areas for improvements and any observations for further development of my own skills and possibly those of others that I have worked with as a group.

I must avoid descriptive narrative both in my presentation on my blog.

In the reflection of the lecture, it is critical to consider the assessment criteria and use that as a checklist to ensure that the progress of both the project and any presentations or blogs conform to the requirements initially recommended.

References;

(These notes and reflections are based on a lecture/workshop presented by Dr Rowan Bailey on Wednesday 15th March 2017).

Reflections on a lecture and workshop on the Adobe product "in design" by Dr Juliet MacDonald, Friday, 10 February 2017.

The application InDesign holds its key concepts based on the original trade of mechanical printing. Within this practice, various ways of working, nomenclature and phrases have transcended into digital design.

When considering any form of printing in the digital age, it is important to firstly examine whether the output from your work will be a fixed layout or a dynamic design. A fixed layout is suitable for printed matter whereas a dynamic layout is suitable for digital graphics presented on some form of screen. Further considerations of image resolution and/or the need for scalable graphics comes into play too. With regards to printed outputs, consideration of colour reproduction mechanisms reside within the four traditional inks used in modern printing, which are cyan, magenta, yellow and black often abbreviated to CMYK. In the case of electronically or digitally rendered outputs that will be projected (or presented on some form of screens, such as plasma or more modern variants liquid-crystal displays), the colour management is not through negative pigment manipulation such as CMYK. Instead, it is managed through additive manipulation of colours of light itself, namely the primary colours of red, green and blue. The final essential consideration of the outputs is simply a question of dimensional format which traditionally has been called landscape (that is where the horizontal dimensions are wider than the vertical dimensions), or portrait (where the vertical dimension is greater than the horizontal dimension).

As mentioned previously, Adobe InDesign's origins are based on the idea of the printed book. The format of printing, from the original Guttenberg Press and the subsequent Bibles and books printed from those early machines, were combined reproduction with artworks. Originally such artworks were hand painted or hand drawn such as those which can be found in the book of Kells and other early manuscripts. The ways of thinking about these artefacts have pretty much remained unchanged for over 600 years.

It is only since the end of the 20th century that electronic and digital printing (commencing with any form of growth in popularity, initiated in the early 1980s) emerged with the notion of the digital bitmap to mathematically position dots of ink based on a concept of a matrix or grid. Early pioneers of digital drawing and manipulation together with textual reproduction were born in such software applications as QuarkExpress (particularly for page layout design) and CorelDRAW amongst many others. While these early competitors took emerging market share within the industry, it was not until the American company Adobe began to gain dynamic market presence through the 1990s and into the early 21st-century.

In regards to artists portfolios, being substantially different to traditional format books (which tend to be what is known as "single spreads"), these artists portfolio presentations do not translate quite as well to the digital format. However, as portfolios can now be easily displayed through electronic means, portfolio presentations are now becoming much more popular.

Outputs from the digital context of reproduction are in continual change. For example, some of the myriad styles and formats can be found in
-digital magazines
-digital portable document format (PDF's)
-e-books
-interactive online documents
-web design (through the use of other Adobe applications such as its sister product Dreamweaver).

The fundamental difference of web design is that it requires dynamic layouts rather than fixed layouts, whereas an output intended to be printed as a hardcopy or portable document format is of course of a fixed layout.

Other considerations of printing however still remain the same and include image resolution and the need or otherwise, for scalable graphics together with the document format of landscape or portrait; the printing and presentation outputs of subtractive pigment management through CMYK or additive light colour management of RGB.

We then conducted an exercise to familiar ourselves with the InDesign product. This included a short workshop on how to open new documents and through selecting the various intentional outputs such as printed matter, web-based or digital publishing. Also discussed were the early identification of a language that has transcended from the mechanical printing age, including the phrases such as "bleed and slug". Bleed is simply the extra image overlap which will be cut off from the paper to create a clean edge of multiple copies of paper when presented in a book or brochure format. Whereas 'slugs' are the crop marks and edges which are used as reference points in preparation for the practical cutting or guillotine operations to create the clean edge of books.

With regards to page layouts, the concept of InDesign is to use "frames" which is a very different notion than perhaps the more immediately familiar methods used in word processing.

By using the tool palette within InDesign, one is able to draw frames within a master document to create a fixed and standard layout which can be replicated easily throughout the book. Once an arrangement is established with the frames button, it is possible to then import, or 'link' files and images of text and pictures through pasting. This is usually done by the use of "placing an image" by using the selection of the keys 'command' and 'D' (on Apple Mac devices) or 'control'+ 'D' (in Microsoft Windows systems)

When in the selection mode (and a black arrow is displayed on the screen), it is possible, by double-clicking the black arrow on the particular choice to change such selection into what is known as "direct selection".

To visually check the aesthetic representation of formats, it is possible to insert various online text through generators, or random language, or alternatively, use the built-in 'traditional' printer's method of selection of Latin text commencing with the words Lorem ipsum.

In typographic design, consider the grid concepts as setting the definitions for aesthetic presentation. See the book by  Josef Mülller-Brockmann, a German publication entitled "Grid Systems in Graphic Designs; -a Visual Communications Manual for Graphic Designers, Typographers and 3-D Designers.

References;
Lecture and workshop on the Adobe product "in design" by Dr Juliet MacDonald, Friday, 10 February 2017, at the University of Huddersfield.

Josef Müller-Brockman (1999), "Grid Systems in Graphic Designs; -a Visual Communications Manual for Graphic Designers, Typographers and 3-D Designers. This is now in its 9th edition, 2015 by Niggli Verlag (Publishers), Sulgen, printed by Drückerei, Kossell GmbH, of Germany.

Post production lecture #2 by Dr Anna Powell; Friday 3rd March

Continuing from the previous lecture, Dr Powell discussed the work by Mark Amerika and his post-production techniques as "remixes", and for example the website www.remixthebook.com

There is an interesting remix entitled "an artist yapping about some art stuff times for" and also the piece "isarhythm."

Some of the concepts were originally developed before remixing by the artist William Burroughs and his original work around literary cut-ups. This was re-presented at various shows in Paris and San Francisco.
I wondered whether perhaps Burroughs's influence may have come from Henri Matisse perhaps? I know that Matisse spent considerable time towards the end of his life using cutouts to re-assemble the art that he had previously painted. With regards to Burroughs, he used text as a form of bricolage, an experimental way of writing that was especially fashionable in the 1960s.

Breaking down this concept into its core elements of texts, they still remain semiotic signs and provide meaning as words in themselves. This helps us to rethink how language works. By shifting the thinking as words, these become triggers for new ideas. Subjectivity comes into play with inter-textuality.

The re-contextualization of concepts therefore begins. A decision-making process is going on, even though superficially there is a perceived randomness to the outcomes at first sight.

See the video by David Bowie and an interview with Alan Yentob which discusses his own musical lyrics work and Bowie's use of cut-ups, particularly during his Ziggy Stardust phase.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-35281247 

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracked_Actor

These ideas of intertextuality were developed further by Julia Kristeva and later built upon by Lucy Kimbell and Mark Amerika.

We then conducted a practical exercise where we chose 10 to 20 words from three disparate documents and then re-mashed them together as a creative exercise. The outcomes were fascinating as the brain attempts to make sense from the phrases being randomly pushed together and new ideas start to emerge.

Going back to the origins of some of these ideas, it was the advertising critic and writer Marshall MacCluhan who came up with the ideas of form and content in advertising and started the infamous phrase "the medium is the message".

When we talk about art in the contemporary sense, the form itself tends to connect with the style being presented.
 Whereas the content looks at the media or medium in which the art has been created and therefore relates to the context in which the art form situates itself.
 In this sense, it could be argued that "the message is in the media."

The central idea of these notions is that the material from which something is made of, tells us something about the context through content. This sums up a much deeper communication theory, in that the medium gives a much deeper and practical engagement with some artworks.

In Marshall McLuhan's book "the medium is the message", he changed the title of his second book in 1967 to "the medium is the massage". This was a clever play on words as it makes his original book a far more accessible manuscript to engage with as it can be taken forward in a much more intellectual level. This playing on words to reprogram and change perceptions is how McLuhan (who later suggested that he just made a typo!), can be used as a piece of artistic practice.
The variation of the word;

• message into mess-age
• can then be changed to massage, 
• which in turn can be adapted to mass-age.

This helps to understand the idea of post producing texts by re-conceptualising an original thought.
See the work by Shepard Fairey: The Medium is the Message, - exhibition (October 1999). See https://obeygiant.com/

In this piece, which was a simple graphic design sometimes referred to as the "OBEY" sticker which was exhibited in the six space in Chicago, became a ubiquitous sign that has appeared from everywhere from lampposts to sides of buildings to the gallery exhibition space itself. The graphic design was originally taken from an image of a WWA wrestler called 'Andre the Giant'. And has also appeared in films such as "the Devil's Own" and "Batman" and also is a favourite of skateboarders, as a 'cult' image.

The process of letting ideas and their corresponding images snowball is akin to making something out of nothing. The artist argues that his work is famous "because we want it to be!"

Being critical; however, Shepard Fairey theorised that the idea of his own image becomes overwhelming because his sticker was positioned in so many different places such as skateboards, lampposts, hats of gang members, T-shirts et cetera. Because it is depicted as a simple sticker, it has
become a message to make a mess.

I recall commenting in Anna's lecture that it seems that Fairey had been influenced by the novel "1984" by H.G. Wells.  With a little post productive research for myself, it is clear that he had. See the exhibition that Shepard Fairey had in London, at the "Stolen Space" gallery on Osbourn Street; entitled "Nineteeneightyforia"...

https://www.stolenspace.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/Ninteeneightyforia7-1024x682.jpg

The simple face (which can be seen to the right hand side of Fairey's works above) is is not unlike a logo that appeared around the wartime (Second World War) often referred to as the Chad ( found earlier in the 1930s in the UK) or Kilroy (USA version, WWII) logo.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/c2/07/0a/c2070a5f816f357dfdbc08b1cd736173.jpg

Jasper Johns in 1954 also explored this notion of semiotics & through his work entitled "Flag" (1954): A Process Caused in Caustic, as he called it. The context of this work was based on the time of America's involvement in Korea. It asks the question where do you draw the line between a flag becoming an identity and representation?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/6b/
Jasper_Johns_Flag_Encaustic_oil_and_collage_on_fabric_mounted_on_plywood1954-55.jpg/210px-Jasper_Johns-Flag_Encaustic_oil_and_collage_on_fabric_mounted_on_plywood1954-55.jpg

A more contemporary way of thinking about this idea of postproduction is the way that it is used in guerrilla marketing. For example, see 3M's advertisement for their vandal-proof glass where they place what appears to be a huge sum of money between two sheets of their product in a public space and then video various attempts by vandals trying to get access to it!

Taking this idea further, consider "The Exhibition" and try listening to the audiobook of "the medium of the message" by Quentin Fiore and Jerome Agel in 1967. The text was taken and then re-contextualised.  (There is an excellent resource at https://mcluhangalaxy.wordpress.com/2014/07/13/quentin-fiore-the-medium-is-the-massage-1967/)

In the series of programmes that were produced by John Berger, "Ways of Seeing" discussed the ideas of "The work work of art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (by Walter Benjamin) in a more contemporary way. This provides an excellent source for further study. The program opens with the start of the classic film by Russian director Dziga Vertov. (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dziga_Vertov)

Berger identifies that "in the painting, there is no unfolding of time". This in itself is an interesting concept.

An interesting exercise worth pursuing would be to take an existing theory or text and then applying some form of post production to it, for example perhaps the re-manifestations of John Berger's "Ways of Seeing" and Marshall McLuhan's "The Medium is the Message", and then re-contextualise it with current notions.

This could become a task to pursue for the next session?

A guest lecture by James Somerville, Vice President of Global Design, Coca-Cola. Monday 20th February 2017.

James opened the lecture with the explanation that he was a local boy! He was taught at the Batley school of art, in Dewsbury. He is particularly interested in connecting with young and emerging artists and designers and the area of Huddersfield has a rich history in developing creative skills.

My first observations were that the slide set that he used all had subtle Coca-Cola brand images hidden somewhere within them, either the bottle logo, or the Coca-Cola text, or even just the ribbon that is often seen in their advertising devices.

James talked about the "7X". That is, the seven secret ingredients which are the constituents of the Coca-Cola product. I have heard this suggestion that there are just seven ingredients before, and also that there are only two people in the world at any one time who know the precise details of what those ingredients are and their respective quantities. They are therefore rarely together, and even less so, do they ever travel together.

James tailored the presentation to reflect his own influences, and the continuing stream through the presentation was that of the Liverpool band "the Beatles". There was in fact a profound quotation from John Lennon, about happiness.

James started his own career with his business partner Simon Attik, through initiating a freelance agency in one of their bedrooms during the 1980s. Indeed he also mentioned to women that inspired him during his early years in the business. They were his grandmother, and Margaret Thatcher. He also referred to the Conservative advertise meant of the time which helped Margaret Thatcher to win the election, in which there was a large banner with the quotation on it "Labour isn't working". The simplicity of that tagline spurred the two on to create their own agency which was actually called "the attik".

Coming forward now some 30+ years, in his role as global vice president, he stated that Coca-Cola, as a corporation, in all its massive identity, is scared the most of "two dudes" working somewhere in an attic, coming up with ideas. It is almost always from these embryo sites that new killer competition starts to develop.

The underlying message throughout James's presentation was "make yourself different from the competition". In his own case, working with Simon, they did this by going to the United States and attempting to engage the music channel "MTV" with a photo shop design that they had created in response to a promotion that MTV were doing. The MTV folk wanted to know if it was part of a motion graphic. It wasn't. But they said "yes"! As a result of this willingness to take a risk, they won the business and neither of them have looked back since then.

Eventually in 2006 they got a call from Coca-Cola in Atlanta who had been looking at some of their designs. After meeting the Coca-Cola team and working with them for a number of years they eventually sold the agency "Attik" to the Japanese firm Dentsu. Knowing that James had recently sold the agency, Coca-Cola offered him a job!

The key to the Coca-Cola brand is that it has never changed its language, that is its visual language. The brand heritage that makes up all the design work for the company is drawn from 130 years of archives.

Originally a designer called William d'Arcy provided the logos and publicity for the Coca-Cola company through his design and advertising agency. William was the owner, and his brother Archie Lee d'Arcy was the graphic designer who came up with the red disc Coca-Cola brand sign which became a very easily recognisable logo, that was placed over the entrance of various vendor's and sellers of the product. Archie Lee also created a "brand identity" called the Visual Identity System, for the Coca-Cola advertising brand. This "Visual Identity System" remains the backbone and reference manual for all of Coca-Cola's future designs. By treating the product almost like an art form in the gallery, new interactions with the logo, and how it is presented have been able to be created.

When James took over his role, just over 10 years ago, he recognised that by this time, the corporation was a huge, complex and amorphous collection of image posters that were scattered all over the world. There needed to be a significant rationalisation, and yet James recognised that each nation has its own cultural heritage and individual identity, which interplays with how Coca-Cola advertises within that society.

James commissioned the designer Jonathan Mac to start creating new logos, based on the original brand identity and visual language which conformed to Coca-Cola's Visual Identity System. Very cleverly, he selected the ribbon logo, which is actually formed by placing two bottles (that is Coca-Cola bottles) head to tail, and then drawing the negative space between the bottles to create the ribbon. Taking the ribbon logo further, Jonathan created a "handshake" out of the ribbon. So he used the original brand devised by Lippincott so many years before, to create something completely new, and yet instantly recognisable.

Somerville has also used the designer "Mr Brainwash". By taking a 1940s poster of a Cuban woman holding a Coca-Cola bottle, (known as The Lady in Red), he modernised and redesigned the image into a new creation and a series that still held the same language brand. That is he created a cartoon, focused down on the red lips of the woman, and within the lips the glint of light is the shape of a Coca-Cola bottle!

Whilst all these designs are really clever use of the visual identity system, there is one thing for certain, there will always be a need for graphic designers and artists to supply innovative ideas in order for consumers to be sold to!

Somerville's best advice is to make sure that as a graphic designer, you make yourself into a jack of all trades when it comes to the business and industry of the future. "Design Thinking" in Somerville's own words "is the hottest topic in the United States right now". Develop the skills of being "a creative problem solver". Make sure that you have the skills or you know somewhere to to get them, to work in this new digital age. Develop a proprietary language, something that can be recognised as your specific work. But equally turn ideas onto their heads in order to get new ideas.

E.g. see Norma Barr, an Israeli designer who lives in London. He has a uncanny knack of being able to create graphic designs where we are able to recognise the familiar but the artwork delivers a surprise! Another in this genre, is Neville Brody, a font designer. He has looked every letter in the Coca-Cola archives that go back 130 years and has come up with a uniform series of fonts for the new millennia. Another artist, Lance Wyman, is a master of wayfinding. Now in his 70s, James Somerville has paired him with Margaret Calvert OBE, who originally designed the United Kingdom road signage system, which is now replicated virtually throughout the world. Between them they have been tasked to create a new "Way Finder" system with the Coca-Cola brand.

Storytelling through your own work will get you much further than the work itself. At this point the film "Evolution" with the Beatles members John Lennon and Paul McCartney, was briefly shown where they were discussing their own music business and the development of what I think must have been the Abbey Road studios, and their desire to create a music making space for other musicians and creatives. They clearly appeared to have an no idea of what they were doing, but the point was being made, that they were prepared to make risks. Furthermore, the message here also is "just start" you never know where your work will lead you to.

Going back to the history of Coca-Cola, it was a meek and mild-mannered chemist called John Pemberton who initially came up with the tonic that we now know today as Coca-Cola. Allegedly there were some 49 failed attempts to get the ingredients just right, with the 50th being successful.

The original Coca-Cola logo was designed by an accountant, who appeared to be bored whilst doing the chemists bookkeeping, and very skilfully wrote the words Coca-Cola in the margin of the accounts book. So the design arguably, was accidental. It gets better. The original bottle design was based on the outcome of a competition. The brief which was textual, was to design a suitable bottle for the Coca-Cola brand. The winning design was wrongly based on a Cacoa pod, that is the raw and unrefined fruit body that cocoa beans and eventually chocolate is refined from. This unusual fruit I have seen for myself, being approximately 20 to 30 cm long and elliptical. There are longitudinal ribs from the top to the bottom of the fruit, and these ribs, plus the elliptical shape of the fruit were incorporated into the design of the bottle, in the misguided belief that Coca-Cola contained either cocoa or chocolate. Apparently it contains neither, but this bottle logo has remained ever since.

The lesson here is that through evolution, and experimentation with somethings heritage, you can take products past and then reinvent it.

Somerville also uses Stockholm designs Ltd for much of their work together with local agencies and designers for other products in the Coca-Cola product range. For example take a look at the Fanta drink and its designs for Halloween which is aimed at 10, 11 and 12-year-olds as their specific consumer base. Compare this with the new "vintage" musical range which includes themes such as Phantom of the Opera, for consumers of the age group 15 to 16 years of age. This was highlighted by James as it is necessary to create a partnership through people's strengths.

Coca-Cola itself is for simple brands 1) the traditional Coke 2) Coca-Cola-zero 3) Coca-Cola-red 4) and diet Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola recognise that all of these variants need to have an immediate recognition and individual identity they have decided upon a strategy of using the "Rising Red Disc" as their new brand image based on Archie Lee's original disc design. This unwavering colour use of red, together with the original design script of 1886 is still valid. This idea of continued strategic visual images has been taken forward with the idea of using the Coca-Cola brand as part of the World Cup. The response to this massive event is to have kept a systemised and recognisable brand by mashing together both the logos and the World Cup football itself.

It should also not be forgotten that graphic design has been in constant revolution. We now have to think of graphic design in motion, which in turn we have to think of as digital design, which again in turn must now include audio.

Consider also some of the symbols of Coca-Cola that they are regularly attached to. For example the Santa Claus that has been used for so many years by the company has arguably become an old gentleman dressed in a red suit. Allegedly it was Coca-Cola who made Santa red.

Combining the old with the new, consider some of the incredible designs of Norman Rockwell and think of him being collided with technology such as Instagram. This is a direct example of where design meets advertising. [See Norman Rockwell's huge ideas in drawings and paintings, and in particular the way that he asked so many questions through his paintings!]

It was here that James Somerville exposed the reasons why the Beatles had been so fundamental to influencing his development. It transpires that Brian Somerville was James's uncle, the same Brian Somerville who was the Beatles publicity manager and regularly appeared in a number of photographs of the famous four.

Conclusions

The guest lecture by James Somerville was closed with some words of advice;

•  "think like a big company, then when you are as big as Coca-Cola, start thinking like a small company". Like the dog and the cat, they are both enemies but they both complement each other. 
• Be strategic in your decisions. 
• It is not just about the design, it is about why is this design important?
•  And how will my work make a difference?
•  Why will this design make a sale for my customer or client?

 Keep asking yourself these questions and it's unlikely that you will go wrong.

References:

Notes recorded by the author at a Lecture by James Somerville, Vice President of Global Design, Coca-Cola. Monday 20th February 2017 at The University of Hudderfield.

Reflections on the photo project workshop with Sebaastian Hankeroot (of the Hague - The Photobook), 20th February 2017.

The purpose of this photography workshop was to help students bring out the 3-dimensionality of photographs, by bringing out light, establishing the correct focus, and removing distractions. By revising the contrast of photographs and combining the activities above, it can create a new expression in the finished works.

It is perfectly acceptable to change an existing "poor" photograph by changing it and refining it. Do not be afraid to do so, simply because you will always have a backup of the original in any event. Creating a sense of three-dimensional's is essential to good photography.

Ask yourself why you originally made the photographic shot? Keep coming back to that question and critically analyse the work that you do.

Before embarking on photographic adjustments it is essential to calibrate the screen on which you are viewing and adjusting the shots. There are a variety of applications on the open market such as "Spider, Colour monkey, or T-one"

It is also important to consider colour spaces that do not exist on the actual screen, but yet we know that the camera can record. CMYK is a very much smaller file size and range of colour space than what the proprietary Adobe RGB pallet is capable of, or is even more, what our own human eye can see.
S-RGB is an even smaller colour space than either CMYK or Adobe RGB; so the lesson learned from this in itself is to simply forget about sRGB as the colour space is so narrow that it is not worth using.

An important tip when calibrating the screens is to use natural light. Do not allow direct sunlight to hit or reflect onto the screen been calibrated. As a rule of thumb, Gamma can be set to 2.2 and White 26.5. By doing this, this, stops extra warm tones appearing on photographs. With regards to colour adjustment within the camera, try a setting of 200 red 150 green, and 100 blue. Within the camera, the output must be consistent!

By adding other colour filters, such as for example in a photo with a strong magenta cast, this can be corrected with a green filter and so on, choosing the complimentary colours of the actual cast.

The story told by your image changes the way that you edit and feel about it. Create enough density in your image before you do anything else.

Like a painter, build up layers of information when composing a photograph in order to to create an illusion. The photograph can then be manipulated by under exposing and then adding exposure (a recent book by Christopher Edwards shows this technique very well). It turns a clearer three-dimensionality to establish curvature and depth. The light within photographs creates atmosphere.

Organise the process and the work! Take these steps seriously so that you are well-positioned for postproduction. For example, the choice of a book cover, its hardness or its softness, its size et cetera; even the smell, makes a massive difference to your output and the finished artefacts.

A practical explanation of Sebaastian's work was then shown;
the first step using Adobe Lightroom, is to create a picture by reducing the exposure of the original image. Generally this should be no more than about 1.25 to 1.3.

Then by using the Lightroom's feature of "tone curve" it's possible to change the shadows in the image, but these should be adjusted gently. It is also possible to change the quarter and half tones as well. It is at this point that it is possible to change contrasts too, and by doing so, the detail of the image can start to be brought forward, and overexposed areas can be subdued.

We then conducted a practical analysis and adjustment of some of our own work.
We started with a piece that Sam had created which was an image of Hull docks, with two people sat on a bench overlooking the run-down docklands. An interesting feature of the image was Sam's capture of a kind of triad which included the union Jack flag on the left-hand side and then the two individuals people. Within the whole frame, the two people looking at the shipyard (which is now redundant), holds some irony in the union Jack flag also being displayed. The inclusion of the two people makes the viewer ask questions. Is it boredom? Probably not, - is it Britishness? Possibly.

Liam observed that there was a lovely low light to the image, and there is a lot going on within it.

• Do we want to bring attention to the union flag? 
• There is a misty quality and some "dead space" in the layers of the image, for example the bottom left-hand is a little too dark.
• By attempting to pitch a triangle, the light on the side of the ship in the centre right of the photograph helps to create the triangle with the people, which is also shown within a portion of focus.
• There is a tension of banality and unusualness, a little bit like the famous Turner painting of "The Fighting Temeraire".
• The desire to crop the image is towards the left-hand corner, to place the triangle of the people and ship in a position to retain it.

We then analysed a photo that I had created, perhaps some eight months earlier during the summertime. My intention of this photograph was to create three-dimensional layers by the use of a foreground wall and layers within the landscape and hills beyond. The foxglove provides a link from the foreground wall to the scene and then to the sky. We debated whether this was an important feature of the photo.

Some practical observations of adjustment would be to change the light within the sky area by bringing this forward to emphasise the detail. On the right-hand side of the image, the wall needs to be lightened in order to make a richer engagement.

However the foxglove creates a focus which is a suitable subject. Nevertheless in contrast to the dark area on the right hand side, this dark area becomes a distraction.

The wall itself can add expression to the final print and the fronds of each of the branches on the left-hand side can be brought forward through the appropriate adjustment in exposure and contrast to become more detailed. Before and after effect can be clearly seen.

In the analysis of Tim's work (which was a hot sulphur spring that he photographed somewhere in Italy), there is an interesting juxtaposition of focus which is elusive as to being on the water and the face of the person on the left-hand side. This creates a mystery and it takes a while to figure right what the photograph and image is of. The colours are beautiful and so can be brought out to full effect. There is also a sense of chaos in play; the contrast is interesting too. As Tim said, the smell, that foulness of the sulphur and the misty-ness adds to the theatre. There is a sense of the magical, the person emerging on the right on the left-hand side seems to be coming through the gloom.

There is a good sense of three-dimensional reality in the image. It is balanced, but that may be improved by throwing it off balance? The picture itself is a question. There are no distractions, but it could be enhanced.

In analysing Liams photograph (which is actually an image taken by Natasha), of a person sitting in a pub in Hull; this is very interesting as it is clear from the image, that this is a regular customer who has a particular seat that he always occupies. The subjects gaze is accepting and arguably intimate?
The background is interesting too, for example there is a picture of Linda Lusardi who is appearing in a pantomime poster on the back wall. This helps to place the social context of the photograph and where it is. Perhaps some further detail could help?

Overall the composition is balanced. The viewers eye is drawn to the subject eye in the image through good focus. There is a distraction in the glare on the top right-hand, but overall it is non-judgemental which is a good example of good photography.

Perhaps some visual enhancements can be made through postproduction on the gentleman's coat by under exposing it a little bit further.

When we compared all the photographs we asked ourselves if there were any similarities? It was found that the depth and cropping were necessary on the first two photographs, however on the third and fourth photographs the use of shadows is key to these enhancements here.

If it seems that there are dominant colours of an image, it then becomes a question of density, colour balance and tonality. It is critical to reduce the exposure of an image if useful postproduction is going to be used. The workshop was very useful and seemed to imply that exposure reduction was the most important lesson learned from the activity.

Conclusions

• Creating a sense of 3D, 3-dimensionality is essential to good photography.
• S-RGB is a smaller colour space than either CMYK or Adobe RGB; Forget about sRGB as the colour space is so narrow that it is not worth using.
• By adding colour filters, say, in a photo with a strong magenta cast, correct it with a green filter.  Choose the complimentary colours of the actual cast colour.
• Narratives of images changes the way you edit and feel about it. Create density in images before any post-production.

Further thoughts;

• Thinking about layering in my own work, how can I manifest this through the appropriate use of proximity and composition to help form Gesthalt?
• What are the boundaries of perception an recognition that can be transposed to a Peregrine falcon's sensory experiences?
• Thinking about the 'deep fovia' found in almost all raptors, how can I apply these thoughts to the drawings I am making?
• There's much to do, and lots of experiments to take place!

Reflections on a 1:1 Tutorial, Digital Media Processes, (UoH), Friday 17th Feb

I had a really useful tutorial and one-to-one discussions with my tutor, Richard, on Friday, after which I quickly made as many notes as I possibly could because I found the session so valuable!
We opened the discussion by my explaining that I was now "trying to keep it simple," in the sense that (as one of my feedback points that Richard made at the end of the Christmas term), I was perhaps over-complicating things previously.
By referring back to the previous module feedback (which was highly useful), I have been able to create a "single page brief".  This will help me to try and focus my attention, over this next term. I felt that Richard was very supportive of this approach too. I also think that my tutor took on board the fact that I seem to be adapting my practice at the moment towards writing. While this is acceptable regarding the module brief, (where there need to be approximately 4000 words or the equivalent created), I recognised that it is equally critical to address the issue of artistic practice itself, as almost a separate mindset from the act of writing. It seems clear that the physical and visual method is what is of particular importance here.
I recall that I also explained the very successful workshops that Stella Brackley and Sara Nesteruk had carried out in which, in reflection, I found both of their practices to be very stimulating, and their enthusiasm and encouragement has certainly helped me move forward. This is not forgetting another workshop (by Dr Anna Powell) around post-production which I also found of equal importance, but I can separate out as an almost theoretical workshop, whereas the other two engagements were much more practice focused.
The act of writing and then going forward to "making and producing" something in itself seems to be an excellent exercise that I have begun to adopt. While it is early days, I am confident that this approach will give a richer and more fuller account of my creative visual practice.
I also recall that we discussed this approach of the theoretical writing taking place first.  I think I explained to my tutor the reviews that had begun to delineate around the core of my chosen subject matter, which continues to be "how I can use drawing" (as the primary form of expression) through digital media and collide it with the philosophical construct of speculative realism?
I also further explained that I am continuing to use the book by JA Baker entitled "the Peregrine" (1968), as a backbone narrative to help me position my work. By creating a visual reinterpretation of the above, and staying with the initially chosen book "the Peregrine", I used an example of a piece of work that recently came to my attention. A visually stimulating idea from a fantasy / other world views, and explained that by creating something that "isn't the normal thing" for humans to see is what I'm interested in.  I'm committed to re-articulating this through drawing and sketching by taking passages from Baker's book.


I'm also thinking about how biology can provide an understanding; That is, the idea of how falcons can see. The eye itself is like a camera which I particularly like.  The idea of the image being transferred to the back of the retina: the fact that peregrines eyes take up most of the cavity within the skull: their ability of their binocular vision. All these start to act together to provide new concepts and thoughts about how the Peregrine's perception can be very different from the human's.
I was really pleased to feel that my tutor seemed to 'link-up' with me and appeared to join into these ideas. I also picked up a genuine interest from Richard which I found truly encouraging.
I went on to discuss some details about the structure of the Peregrine's eye and how the retina is composed of two different parts of the fovea. - Recalling too, my explanation how the Falcon is entirely reliant upon its eyesight and without it, it is unable to find any kind of "reference". This is the reason why falconers use a 'hood' to put their bird of prey into total darkness; because quite simply, the birds will not attempt to fly without the faculty of sight.
I was able to articulate how Stella was able to describe her research and the concept of "Pixel".  Her paper was really precious for me as I've been able to awaken my knowledge of the retina's construction; namely the rods and cone receptors on the retina itself.
Taking that idea, one step further, (the rods and cones within the retina) and comparing it with the charged coupled device (CCD) that is found in the photographic sensor, completes the circle really well. Therefore, in a digital sense, the eye and its retina together with the rods and cones that make up the organ are very similar in philosophical terms, to the digital camera!

I seem to remember that at this point I also brought in the subject of Egyptian mythology and some of the work that I have been recently studying around the myths of Osiris and Isis and their son Horus, who later became the god of the sky. Horus is depicted as a God in human form, but usually, with a Peregrine's head. I have already blogged elsewhere about this research, so I'm need not delineate it any further here.

I think that in reflection, I was touching on my concepts of the all-seeing eye, and then comparing it to the notions and research around speculative realism?
This is a general concept of looking at the world from an entirely different angle. I seem to recall that I said something like "this idea of looking at the world from a completely different viewpoint is at the heart of speculative realism". Or something similar to that, which I was delighted to see Richard jumped on and made notes to the same effect!
I can't quite remember the precise words I used but it was something along those lines, I also seem to remember that I put an alternative phrase together which included "looking at the world from a different point of view (reference point or perception) is at the heart of speculative realism." But the original phrase was more succinct!
Then, with a further recall, I became a little bit tongue-tied in my explanation of my "artistic problem statement". As by trying to explain the ideas of speculative realism through a verbal/linguistic medium "in itself", might lose some of the magic of translation. It makes it tough to explain the theory; by using words is limiting.
In terms of the work itself; the practice has been chosen as the drawing because drawing is a whole and overarching language in a way. I also seem to recall my tutor agreeing with the concept that drawing is a perfectly acceptable medium.   I think he said " it is the method of the mind and of the eye," which is a really brilliant reference for him to make.
My idea of drawing the world according to this specific Peregrine, the one that JA Baker wrote about some 50 odd years ago, is what lies at the heart of the reason why I want to use his book as a backbone. What was important to that Peregrine, would have likely have been something completely different to what was important to Baker at the time.
 Therefore any image of Baker is likely to be quite insignificant as far as the Peregrine was concerned at the time too!

It is interesting therefore that there are now two viewpoints; one human and one Peregrine. I think that Richard was also keenly interested in some of these thought processes that I was having. I was very encouraged by the feedback that Richard was giving me and it seemed that we had 'connected' with a joint understanding. My previous attempts to articulate my ideas have not been quite as successful as this one-to-one meeting, and I was delighted that we seemed to be of one mind.
Overall, to close, my tutor was extremely helpful in making some additional recommendations for further reading; In particular the work by Liz Wells and the book entitled "Land Matters".  The ideas of landscape photography and cultural identity are what Liz Wells articulates in a particularly elegant fashion. I'm glad that I have the opportunity to read this book through an online resource within the University. The chapter entitled Time, Space, Place & Aesthetic;  and another detailing 'The photography Journey and Memory' are also crucial.
Another book which was recommended (which I have a copy of already is by Rebecca Solnit). A copy of "The Field Guide to Getting Lost" which I need to dig out and read again, as I recall this was one of the books I found very useful during my first year of undergraduate study.
However, the book that my tutor was keen for me to review was a series of writings by Rebecca Solnit (that has been edited by Marcus O'Donnel). Entitled "Walking, Writing and Dreaming. Polyphonic voices".
see http://ro.uow.edu.au/lhapapers/1729/

(The book "Wanderlust" is also particularly useful resource as there are further dissertations and essays by a variety of philosophers practitioners and artists including Roland Barthes).

Conclusions;

• The idea of working with two viewpoints seems to be of particular interest to Richard, which I want to expand upon too. It is through this that I think that I understand the concept that was being put forward, in the idea of "proximity".
• Through this concept of proximity, what I choose to put in the foreground versus what is in the background, in relation to the visual experience is what is important in order to engage the viewer critically in relation to who is seeing what where and when.
•  This becomes a visual language, in the concepts of proximity and composition, the place is also important to consider; the idea that the physical place formerly in Bakers book, was the Essex marshes, much of which is no longer there.
• Whilst this is interesting, as an artist, it is possible to make up the landscape in the absence of any real world scenes. I'm glad that my tutor Richard, explained that the "veracity of location" is something that can be mutable.
• I need to develop the language of how I can draw, and how I can relate this the imagination and the language of my mark, concerning how our Peregrine might perceive things.
• How I represent "things" in how I draw, is the critical challenge set for me to try to define.
• The idea that the work is experimental works well with speculative realism because in direct terms the "speculative" part of Speculative Realism is about the unknowable and, how, we as humans engage within a space?

Further Conclusions (Updated)

• I've been really enthused and inspired by the conversation that I had with my tutor, and I understand the importance of continuing my practice without deviation from the elements of proximity, composition and drawing through digital media.
• The closing remarks that were made have given me a strong challenge to address in how I want an audience to see through my drawings a relationship in space between Baker and the Peregrine.
• To articulate this, my work needs to develop through much more drawing practice and those ideas that are being incubated at the moment will start to flourish.
• Quite simply put I must draw, draw, draw!...

Reflections on a lecture by the BBC, creative innovation and entrepreneurialism, and the art of Pitching.

I've really enjoyed the lectures that the BBC have kindly given to the Master's group over the last few weeks, and these notes provide a review of the final session that we had on Wednesday, 15 February 2017. The lecture was delivered by Mr Dan Ramsden, Director And Head of Creative Experience at the BBC, supported by Tina Connolly, senior UX designer, and Laura Fletcher, a UX designer for "content discovery".

The lecture was entitled "Pitching", or "effective communication and the art of being generous and selfish"!

I liked the style of Dan's delivery of the presentation almost immediately, as I appreciated the first important step of any presentation, which is to get attention!
In his words, the whole experience of a good performance is to "sell the dream, but deliver reality", clearly an example of his vast expertise in the marketing and advertising industry.

The lecture and presentation was split into three sections, which comprised of;
1) understand your audience.
2) have a clear and concise structure.
3) tips of the trade.

In a nutshell and something quite near to my own heart, Dan was saying that before any presentation, "we need to create a plan!" He was saying, "Make all your messages through the presentation, sticky ones", in other words, messages should be easy to remember by the audience, and easy for them to buy into, both logically and emotionally.

Section 1 a) - Consider an approach through Generosity. Focus on the audience.

- As I think McLuhan once said, "the medium is the message" (Marshall McLuhan, 1964, in Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man).

• Whenever delivering a message, be "outcome oriented". In other words, don't bury a message in reams of text, but make it clear and explicit, have clear objectives or actions that are easy to find.
• I also like the phrase "you can win minds with logic, and hearts with emotion".
• Therefore, when considering the delivery of the key message, it is vital to understand the audience to define whether the message is either emotional or logical. Both of these have different methods of delivery. What outcome do you want to achieve?
• If you're winning hearts, use emotional persuasion, tug at heartstrings, or stroke someone's ego.
• If you're winning minds, use logic and especially evidence to convince your audience.

An overview of some audience centred techniques was then provided, which relies on the idea of people falling into personality profile types. Choose the correct type of language that suits a particular personality or profile type. For example;

• Emotive people are usually image orientated. They like change, are usually assertive and sociable.
• People who fall into the directive category, are usually goal driven, dominant, opinionated, perhaps somewhat intense as they have a keen focus.
• Reflective personality types tend to be thoughtful, considered and cooperative, but low in sociability; They tend to love the detail.
• And finally, the supportive personality type tend not to like change; They are loyal, steady, reliable and considerate.

The audience impacts on the message! It's, therefore, vital to work out what personality type they might be, in plenty of time before a presentation commences. How the audience decodes, a presentation, therefore, will affect the outcome.

From my own experience, however, although it is in support of this concept outlined above, in the real world what is important is how we tailored the presentation to each of the audience participants. It is this blend of our interactions, which makes a general approach to satisfy each of the personality types present. Nevertheless, it is just as important, if not more so, to fully understand who the decision-makers are within an audience to ensure that the "pitch" is properly directed to them, and yet also gets the corporate support from the others.

1b) The selfish aim; 

In this section of the lecture, Dan was suggesting that instead of just giving a series of words to make up a full presentation, state your intent early!

• Open the conversation by saying something like "to give you an understanding of…"
• Or perhaps start with "to convince or to persuade you that… XYZ".
• Be explicit in what you want, or alternatively what you want your audience to do, or to believe, or to go away to do, as early as possible in the delivery.

I remembered here, some of the beautiful words of a previous boss of mine, the legendary Scott McNeely, who used also use the phrase "Get all the wood behind the arrow"!

In other words, focus on the vital points you want to get across. Invite the audience to engage by asking "what questions would you like me to address to achieve the aim?"

Which are supported by bullet points, like feathers on the quiver of the arrow, with phrases like "how will you deliver the vital point actually?"

• Establish early in the conversation what your "vital" point are.
• Why are these critical to you?
• What resources do you need to achieve them, or deliver them?
• What will happen if you don't do this or that?
• And finally, how will this make life better (for you, for them et cetera)?
• Give your messages through questions to address each of the quadrants of the personality types.

So, -
In thinking about "my" audience, asking myself three fundamental selfish questions;
1) why am I bothering?
2) whom I talking to anyway (can they make a difference)?
3) what do I want them to do after this meeting/presentation?

An exercise that has been used with some success by Dan is what he calls the squid method. "Sequential questions and input diagram".

We were then divided into our groups to take forward some of the ideas that have begun to emerge in response to this whole module. The outcome of the "squid" session have been documented elsewhere, as it is not important in the flow of this blog. Nevertheless, it was a useful exercise and helped to establish and drill down each of the merits of our ideas.

In brief, the "squid" method helps to drill down, similar to the "five whys" method, and attempts to expose;

• what are the features that a client is looking for?
• How have we responded/done that?
• Why is that right for the client? What are the benefits, not only for the customer but also to ourselves?

Ultimately what we uncover is what are the unique selling points that we need to address as part of our presentation.

Instead of thinking about the client's brief and then coming up with an idea, think about the idea again and check that it fits with the brief.

• How are we going to communicate this to the client through the "pitch" (the what, versus the how)?

Some of the ideas that Dan was using were very similar to a simple method that I have been using throughout my professional career, which is based on AIDA, attention, interest, desire and action. The simple graph was shown as follows;

Start, introduction, the body of the presentation, conclusion.

The objective is to reignite attention at the end of the presentation to get action!

I recognised that this is similar to the classic idea of the narrative arc. A further graph was shown which I particularly liked that had the stages of:

exposition, inciting incident, rising action, crisis, climax, denouement, and ending.

Section 2: Structure;

"Introductions and attention grabbers."
choose one approach to grab attention right from the start of the presentation, which can be either
1) unexpected
2) emotional,
3) simple.

Or alternatively this could be through;
1) a quotation by famous author or celebrity.
2) a declarative statement such as "what's in it for me?"
3) a controversy,
4) humour or drama to induce an emotional mode.

Many of these ideas been taken from an advertising book called "Made to Stick" by Chip and Dan Heath, (2008),"Made to Stick" by Chip and Dan Heath, (Publisher: Arrow (7 Feb. 2008), who also have a web presence and website at http://heathbrothers.com/books/made-to-stick/

The Oxford English Dictionary's new word of the year is "post-truth".

2) again thinking about people, people are great at visualising things. Therefore consider, what is the pain that you are going to come to cure with your solution? And also, who will you fix with your solution?

Tell your audience about a problem, something that they can readily recognise and identify with, and turn your own problem into an issue for them; Capture their emotional hearts by tugging at their metaphorical heartstrings.

Relate your conversation to diverse audiences by selecting real or imaginary people who are different, but who the audience can relate to on a personal level.

3) Building a case
Consider the classical Greek rhetorical devices;

• Bring your facts to life.
• Statistics and evidence win a logical mind.

Compare statistics and if necessary exaggerate, by making big numbers digestible by placing them and juxtaposing them in context with something familiar and reducing problems down further and further, e.g. Reductio ad absurdum.

• Use vivid language to build a mental picture.
• Use visual linking to metaphors through props and images.
• Create these analogies and metaphors by making hooks to get above the topic or issue, by process of abstraction.
• Consider the use of third parties; that provides evidence of success, case histories validation, and credibility.

4) Convince!

• Use rhetorical questions. "Who doesn't love a rhetorical question?"
• Recap - Through the presentation, especially to if it is a long one, to give some space to the audience to allow them to think again.
• Use reiteration. Create a series, as a streamed reiteration, list the issues out.
• Use triples or the rules of three; human beings seem to have an ability to put things together in threes. Exploit this behavioural characteristic.

5) Closing.

• Never forget to ask what is next?
• Build confidence around your product or idea by including at least one of these themes as your final slide; 
• a list of short milestones; 
• some testimonials; 
• or a specific question 
• e.g. "what's next?"

Conclusions;

• Building a good pitch or presentation can often be quite daunting, particularly if it's felt that the outcome may be subjective.
• With a clear structure to a pitch or presentation, the tools that have been provided today will help a great deal in bringing confidence not only to a future audience but also to the presenter.
• Many of the ideas that Dan presented in this lecture can be applied in one-to-one discussions with people, and it should not be forgotten that critical conversations, if structured and planned beforehand can equally result in your own individual desired outcomes.

In my own case, I often fail to think carefully about my desired results before engaging in conversations, and I particularly like the idea of considering your own selfish aims (perhaps this itself is controversial?), before making a pitch.

References;

• Lecture bt Dan Ramsden of the BBC, University of Huddersfield, 15th February 2017.
• Heath, C & D, "Made to Stick" (7 Feb. 2008), Arrow, London. ("Made to Stick" by Chip and Dan Heath, (Publisher: Arrow (7 Feb. 2008),)
• http://heathbrothers.com/books/made-to-stick/
• See also http://heathbrothers.com/ for a great resource on Decision Making, Change Management and "Sticky Ideas".

The idea of "The Pixel" as a subject of enquiry. - Thoughts and notes from a lecture by Stella Baraklianou, Friday 3rd February, 2017.

Following on from the lecture by Stella Baraklianou on Friday, 27 January, a subsequent speech on Friday, 3 February was given, in which Stella described her White Paper published in the Philosophy of Photography, volume 3 number two, 2012. The title of her paper that was subsequently published was "Pixel". In a review of the document, while Stella provides a detailed explanation of the term pixel is an element or cell, it seems that the majority of her work, and being a photographer herself, resides in the field of analogue film technology. In this context, she talks about the relationship between the pixel in digital media and the idea that traditional film is made up of small crystals of silver halide. She goes on to explain how in the classic film capturing techniques, the light-sensitive silver halide changes its properties to create a permanent reaction based on the light falling upon it. Whereas in digital technology, a charged coupled device (CCD) sensor is used which is made up of millions of junctions (the charge couple device itself) connected together in the form of a matrix. When light falls upon one of those junctions the electrical properties of the CCD changes depending upon the intensity of light that is falling upon it. In this sense, the output of the CCD matrix is then mediated by further computing technology to then reassemble the 'array' electronically into an identifiable picture. There is, therefore, a consideration that in digital technology there is a lack of permanence and any image made up from a reflection of the properties of light falling on an electronic sensor are therefore mediated.

In my own view, I think that there has been some confusion by Stella in where the term pixel has evolved from. While she briefly mentions Alfred Dinsdale referring to television in the late 1920s, there appears a very little investigation that could have been documented to show its emergence. Stella's paper focuses purely on analogue photography versus digital photography.
However, in reality, there were three technologies emerging at different times in history, each with their own independent language specifically and to some degree esoteric play within each of the fields of photography, television and later digital image processing. I believe it is essential to look at analogue television and video recording techniques in much more detail and consider those together with the silver oxide-based photography described in the article before digital technology and image processing is given centre stage about the term "pixel".

Nevertheless, the document is an interesting and well-written sojourn into a viewpoint of images being mediated through, and in between an arguably liminal, step. This idea of liminality is of interest to me in my own expression through Speculative Realism, and my drive to remove observation from the anthropocentric relationship.

As a further subject for discourse, Stella explained ideas behind workflows. A good reference point for photographic workflows, which are critical to digital photography, image capture, and manipulation can be found at the open eye Gallery under the exhibitions.

Examples by Fabien Giraud and Rafael Siboni provide abstract film images of sunspots and moreover, pictures of the Sun itself.

Stella went on to explain how as practitioners it is important for us to understand how we chart our process and methodology through workflows and a practical demonstration was given thus;

Fig. 1 - Example of a typical Workflow, modeled on an interview of a Photography / DM Student, by Graham Hadfield.

References:
These notes were made during and following a lecture at the University of Huddersfield (2017), by Stella Baraklianou, on Friday 3rd February 2017 and are recorded here by the blog author.

Reflections on a workshop with Dr Anna Powell, University of Huddersfield, Friday, 3 February.

Anna's background is in the study of the History of Art, and she achieved her Bachelor of Arts degree and then her Master's Degree in that subject before continuing to study at a doctorate level the issues of Art and Design Theory.

The purpose of her lecture was to help us to conceptualise and to contextualise our own artworks in respect to current trends. Ostensibly, this is to get new ideas and also to stimulate discussion for further consideration. Dr Powell has kindly agreed to give three further sessions at the end of this term as tutorials for each of us, during week 30, 31 and 32.

Today's lecture and open discussion were centred around "postproduction".

The learning outcomes from this lecture are;
what do we mean by postproduction?
In what ways can postproduction be manifested?
How can we learn from the application of post production?

Postproduction is an umbrella thematic term. Broadly speaking it is about getting data, cutting it, rearranging it, filtering and selecting it, and then shaping it into new work.

In the case of Digital Media, which is electronically machine readable, the idea of postproduction can be applied particularly well. Digital Media can be created, viewed, modified and distributed through various mechanisms and channels.

According to Nicholas Bourriaud in his book regarding Postproduction: Culture and Screenplay; how art reprograms the world. Bourriaud explains that the idea of Postproduction is very much immersed in the notion of reconfiguration and also is intertwined with the concept of the simulacrum, that is; copy, of a copy, of a copy.
As a reaction to the democratisation of computers, and their availability on a universal scale to society, the idea of capture and reconfiguration becomes both diluted the one hand, and yet on the other even more important for us to attempt to understand.
It is no longer about repurposing Ephemera any more; society is now all about repurposing theories and ideology!

Consider, though, that history is still written by the ones who select what is to be written. This statement holds, right now, just as much as it did 200 years ago, before the advent of photography, or indeed any form of recording device.
In my opinion, the nugget of valuable gold is often lost in a stream of noise when it comes to capturing and archiving information. I liken this metaphor very much to how information is stored on the Internet. Nevertheless for further thought, who is it who says, who dictates, when something becomes, or is valuable?

Moreover, expanding on the idea of searching a broad horizon; this concept of a 'massive field' with which we are confronted with; to find this grain of gold, is not dissimilar to any pursuit of searching or quest.

For example, in the archives of the Victoria and Albert Museum, there are works of art that have never been exposed to the public, indeed never been seen by anyone, other than the original artist and a small select few.

Consider further the ideas of Psychogeography. I had explored some of these issues before, raised initially by the French writer Guy Debord. He wrote the book The Society of the Spectacle, (1968) and while we are now 50 years from that date, much of the contents still have high resonance.

These elements of information, of data, and cultural use go beyond their traditional roles in new digital mediums. Rather than a representation, art has become an activation to challenge passive culture.
"Precariousness" is at the centre of the human universe. Everything is moving, continually changing. In today's society, driven by social networks and digital media, it is an encounter that is now recorded. However, who are the audience? What do they take away? How do they filter and select value?

In the book by Mark Amerika "Remix of the Book" (2011), he provides a critique of Nicholas Bourriaud's ideas. The author also has an Internet site as well which is useful as a reference. Within his writings, he challenges the ideas of what the contemporary artist is, and describes an activity he calls "Culture Jamming". A kind of modern-day graffiti, where there is a concept of "hacking" a traditional or well-recognised brand image and inserting a levelling statement or "hack" as a reminder to capitalism.

A good example might be the Massachusetts Institute of Technology hack of an existing image. This can be conceived as a gorilla style attack that often uses parody as its vehicle of dissent.

So let us consider how our cultural practitioners are hybridising postproduction?
This is usually done through repurposing; and Interdisciplinary Media Arts Practice (I M AP). I find this an unusual abbreviation which has been adopted by the art world...  I wonder if they genuinely realise that these four letters are also an abbreviation of the technology on which much of our social media networks rely upon? That is, the Internet Mail Application Protocol (IMAP)!

Taking ourselves back to historical events in the development of art, consider Michelle Duchamp's Fountain (1917).
In thinking about his work at the time in 1917 to 19, he described the action "to create" as "taking something that already exists and re-contextualising it. To consider it a character in a narrative. Moreover, therefore blurring the original, versus the 'Ready-Made'."

Furthermore in the words of Marcel Duchamp, (cited by Nicholas Bourriaud), "Art is a game of all men, in all eras".

What we do with an Art Piece, what we take from it, how we make sense of it - is key to understanding the concepts of postproduction. Challenging the accepted notions of what art is in other words.
These are then thoughts about ideas, rather than a celebration of manual craftsmanship or skilled application of tools and techniques.

The whole concept therefore of Post-production is taking the idea and re-conceptualising it.
This can even be applied to the work of Duchamp himself. Duchamp commissioned Alfred Stieglitz to photograph the "Fountain", the urinal that Duchamp bought from local ironmongers. As a result of Stieglitz's photograph, the image itself became a "beautiful" object.
This was totally against Duchamp's original intention and illustrates well the idea of postproduction of Duchamp's work.
So its' reconceptualisation, in a way, made a certain level of mockery in backlash to Duchamp's original attempt to mock the salons of the bourgeois French art elite.
[By the way, the signature on Duchamp's urinal "the Fountain" was R.Mutt, where the word MUTT comes from the name "MOTT" as in Mott works; the vitreous enamel factory. Furthermore, the word mutt, derives from a cartoon, Mutt and Jeff, originally conceived during the First World War.
The letter R comes from the German word meaning wealth].

So Duchamp's, in 1917 Fountain, was a game changer on so many levels and has become an incredible talking point making it highly significant in the artistic discussion. For further review of Duchamp's critique, see the essay "The Creative Act".

Turning now to consider postproduction as "dialogue": further information can be read in Tacita Dean' s book "Trying to Find Spiral Jetty (1997)."

This takes the original works by Robert Smithson's "Spiral Jetty" work from the 1960s as a catalyst for postproduction and post reassembly of ideas. The original Spiral Jetty has enticed many curious viewers to attempt to relocate or find this work and search for it, somewhere located in the Great Salt Lake in Utah, USA.
Considering the notion that this piece of work is covered over with water and has, therefore, overtime, disappeared and re-emerged makes Tacita Dean's enquiry almost "farcical". The original 1960's Salt Lake City version Spiral Jetty has long since dissolved. It has become a myth, therefore, not unlike the Loch Ness Monster.
Nevertheless, the satellite images generated by Google suggest the existence of the jetty. The Google version becomes something real and tangible, whereas, in fact, it is not.

Each Google search for the Spiral Jetty suggests that it is real, but this "time and space" liminality becomes playful and farcical.

The artists Barney and Castre went on to parody the idea of the Spiral Jetty by setting up an art piece where they staged the hitting of golf balls into this mythical artistic object, in the Great Salt Lake. So now, by doing such an activity, it has enhanced a new layer of interaction.

Consider further the film by Tacita Dean and her enquiry of JG Ballard (Voices of Time) in which she discusses influences such as the Fibonacci sequence and the spiral galaxy.

A textual analysis of the ideas above, rather than just extracting an actual quote, becomes much more productive for an artist. Inter-textual interventions become grey in themselves. As individuals, we play with, and as, art itself; which therefore leads to new social discourse.

In an interview with Tacita Dean on the subject of JG Ballard, (which can be found through the Guardian newspaper), she describes it as "pushing the boundaries of boredom".

I can almost liken this in my reflection to the ideas from cosmology and physics, that of entropy; that is everything deconstructs to dust eventually. The social relationship between time, space and material are always blurred.

Dr Powell then asked us to consider some work that she was doing about Vannevar Bush and his writing about analogue computers. He describes the idea of the M I M E X machine, in a paper which has gone on to suggest that his writings could well have influenced the emergence of the Internet and HTML and many other social media ideas, which we count on today.

For an artistic interpretation of this idea of a relationship between time, space and material, see the internet work "The Archive of Nothingness" by Paul Hayes and Anna Powell.

Also, finally, in this lecture, we talked about postproduction and the notions of Bricolage. This is a French term, which in description suggests there is no intended outcome, there are several ingredients with which we can make anything out of anything... In digital media studies, this might be likened to the idea of web 2.0.

Consider further the work of Lucy Kimbell, the University of Arts, London and her readings of postproduction. See the website HTTP://www.LucyKimbell.com/Lucy Kimbell/…
On this site, she re-purposes Nicholas Bourriaud's writing as another new Art Form.

And finally going back to the work of Mark Amerika along with curator Rick Silva, they invited over 25 contributing artists together. By bringing those various artists pieces together and then re-mashing the works to make new pieces and outputs enabled him to create further work. See the website www.remixthebook.com/ISARITHM.