Wednesday 31 March 2010

Assignment 5b Project Brief Proposal

For this proposal I decided to look at the studio brief entitled culture, in which I decided to look at the culture of New York City. I researched this in terms of looking at the architecture, the people and the different cultures within the city. Through exploring the shapes, lines and patterns, within the cityscape and through the contrast within the cultural landscape. In doing this project again using the primary and secondary methods of research that we learnt in design studies it would allow me to look at the project in more depth and apply more knowledge and understanding. Therefore might allow me to explore and experiment with the project in a more interesting and innovative way.
When tacking this brief originally I started by using a mind map to focus and generate my ideas, and to explore the different areas I could research and develop through into textiles. As this project was based on New York City I primarily used secondary sources of research, mainly through looking at literature, internet images and photographs that I had taken on a visit to New York. In doing this project again and after learning the skills from design studies my approach would probably differ, in terms of the ways and methods used to collect research. For this topic one of the most appropriate and useful research methods would be that of carrying out brainstorming with friends or different groups of people, to bounce ideas of each other and get an insight of their views on New York in terms of the architecture, environment, and culture. From previously carrying out this method in semester 1 I found this is an effective method of quickly generating ideas and found that it created interesting, new and exciting ideas and therefore was very time effective. Another method which I could do is to carry out experiments, by taking a selection of photos of the landscape of New York City and different aspects that symbolise New York in terms of objects, colours and architecture. One of the main reasons I would use this method of research is that I found through carrying out this method last semester, that the results largely depended on the person doing the experiment and their personality, which could prove effective and interesting as it could give you a large, variety of different perspectives.
Cross search is a method which would link to the literature research that I previously carried out but would allow me to achieve a much more focused search for literature and offer more accurate information searches based on and related to the topic I am researching. Therefore achieving a much more time effective, useful take on literature research. I could use this in terms of searches on the history of New York and its culture, the different cultures and the areas within New York. It could also prove more effective in terms of looking up more design specified literature for example different building designs and architecture. The only aspect of this method that is limiting is you have to be very specific as to what you are searching for and is very much written based research, therefore this then limit’s the variety of research that can be achieved by this method.
Interviews would allow me to get a wide spectrum of peoples views and perceptions of New York, to create areas of interest to look at and develop. By carrying out interviews I could get the contrast between the views of the people who have been to New York and those that haven’t, those that possibly create a fantasy view as seen in films which could create new angles to look at. This method of research as pointed out in the previous proposal would require a lot of planning and prototype interviews to achieve results that were of interest and allowed you to gain new research information.
The most valuable aspect in carrying out any of these methods of research is that everyone has their own aspect of new York that excites them and their own image that represent New York, therefore through carrying out any of these methods of research could allow me to apply the images and ideas into my own work. This then differs from when I tackled this brief before as I only applied my own ideas.
The method of carrying out observation would prove inappropriate for this brief as although I would work from photographs which are observations, the aspect of carrying out primary observation research would prove unpractical as it would not be possible to carry observations as they would be in New York and therefore not effective in terms of cost and time.
There are a number of research methods that I have not tried and that might offer interesting and insightful ideas therefore I want to continue developing and expanding the possibilities that these have to offer. To enable my design work and for me as a designer to develop I need to continually expand my knowledge and skills in all areas of art and design and in general areas of interest . I think in doing the design studies course it has allowed me to realise this and gain new ideas and interests to then apply to my studio work. I see myself as a designers in the general sense however primarily a textile designer as that is where my passions and interests lie. Although I feel design studies has enabled me to look outside the area of my specialism and allowed me to broaden my views of what you can do and achieve through design.

No comments:

Post a Comment