Archive for Photography
Emotional Design by Donald Norman
Last topic for this year: Donald Norman’s book Emotional Design.
He discusses the non-practical, non-rational implications of design. What makes people love or hate a particular design. After the rational, usability centered investigations of D.O.E.T, he realized that much of our lives are governed by not by the choices about what works best, but how something affects our emotions.
He breaks this down into three levels of design:
Visceral-’what nature does’; how something affects our senses. Taste, smell, visual appeal, texture. My question for you is: What is a website with Visceral appeal?
Behavioural-’all about use’; how well does something suit its purpose. What we call usability, functionality.
Reflective-’…message…meaning…culture’; what cognitive associations accompany a design. Are you drinking Starbuck’s or ‘Joe’s Fairtrade Local Jobs Supporting Environmentally sensitive Java’? Nobody gets a tattoo for the functionality; it’s all about meaning, expression.
Notice your responses to your everyday tasks, and how these terms relate to your choices. When are your activities governed by these different levels of response, and when are you surprised that what you thought was a purely rational decision is in fact based more on how you think other people will respond to your choice?
Marketing people are all over these concepts, trying to convince you to buy something for some spurious reason. But it isn’t just useless marketing speak. How can the designs you create take into account these different levels of response by your target audience? Can you make your design more successful by looking beyond usability and incorporating your audience’s non-rational responses?
take computers out of classrooms, or, Just teach better
Interesting article on chronicle.com about a dean removing computers from classrooms. Actually, he just wants teachers to stop using boring powerpoint presentations. He says, put the powerpoint online beforehand, quiz students to make them read it, then use actual class time for discussions. Seems pretty fair.
article is at: http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i42/42a00103.htm
video at:http://chronicle.com/media/video/v55/i42/bowen/
With a jazz soundtrack on his personal site at:
www.josebowen.com
Index page up
Hi folks. Progress is happening. I am building the site, and I put up the first page for five.minute.fix.
So, is that a name we can live with? The opening page has nine images that play, and if someone didn’t get their shot in the first batch, for a coffee I might be bribed to drop yours into the mix.
I’ll keep working on the rest of the site, but get your comments and complaints in to me fast because the time for changes is running out fast.
The end of the term is upon us. For this module, you had a number of tasks to complete. Some were done in class, some were files you needed to send me. I checked off your name as each task was completed, but if you have missed tasks your grade will suffer. I can post the chart of everyone, or you can email me if you have questions. I’ll be in Temple Bar tomorrow, normal time, for any questions, but I won’t be running a class.
Your final submission for me are the personal comments that will go in the ‘Stories’ section. So far I only have remarks from five people. Make your comments a few sentences or a couple of paragraphs. Just talk about your response to the year.
Gathering Info
Hi Folks-
You should be frantically working towards those final deadlines.
This week, each group will submit their images for the website, and
examples of written work.
I need you to bring in any written work you have done to class and you
will pick two or three essays that are representative for each group,
for a total of 4 or 6.
Elina started working on a bibliography, so email her with
contributions or bring them in tomorrow.
All the images on flickr will need to be loaded onto a CD with the
proper person’s name, so get yours ready and we will load them up
tomorrow and burn the CD.
Finally, now is the chance for some light writing in the midst of the
deadlines: we need your personal comments about the first year in
photography education. Write them as 1 paragraph treatments- and write
about as many topics as you want. There is space for a lot, but I need
at least two from everyone.
So, gather your images, gather your essays, and be ready to write short
comments about the year…
see you in Temple Bar,
Photoshop Montage class
Okay, this week we try a bit of fairly sophisticated photoshop maneuvering. Head to the nowwhichway homepage, or go directly to sample pageto see the examples and links to the image files.
As I said before, I’m not much into making composites to create imaginary scenes, but here is an example where the orginal photographs all had problems, and we can use photoshop to overcome the limitations of imaging capture technology and create an image that is more in keeping with what we see and remember.
The ‘remember’ part is probably more accurate. How often do people look at a photograph and say “that wasn’t what I saw” when really they mean, “that image isn’t what I remember from what happened. I’m sure the sunset was much more red and that boy/girl I was snogging was much cuter than that…”
There are many reasons for using compositing tools, so practice them.
Flickr Critiques
Okay folks, time to be more cranky. No, not cranky, but not so flipping nice. As you look through other peoples’ images, make your comments more specific than ‘wow-that’s great’. Positive response is fine, but follow it up with comments about contrast, framing, subject, composition and such. As you look at zillions of images, little qualities stick in your head about what works and what doesn’t. You need to be able to articulate those for your own work and for others.
We always want to be friendly and supportive, but believe it or not, everything you do is not fabulous. Wouldn’t it be helpful if someone says, ‘hey, maybe you should have moved in a couple steps and focused on the girl on the left.’ You won’t always agree, but seeing how other people read your images teaches you about what you are saying with your photographs. You have three or four opinions from your lecturers, but those other 25 opinions from your class members matter just as much. It is great when we disagree; then we can discuss what each of us sees in a particular image. These things can vary dramatically.
So, make your comments more specific, and more constructive. We are a community of viewers – make that community work for you.
abstracts
I’ve already received a few abstracts, and a few questions about what they should be. Here is one from Tracy:
Photography as Evidence?
Tracy O’Brien
This essay discusses how photography was in the main perceived as evidence of the real since it’s introduction in 1839. Sontag’s claim that ‘Something we hear about, but doubt, seems proven when we’re shown a photograph of it’ was deemed true, especially pre-digital technology. How culture and psychology influence what evidence actually is, photography as evidence, is investigated and time and place will be proven to be important factors in the investigation. Mizoeff states that ‘with the rise of computer imaging and the creation of digital means to manipulate the photograph, we can … say that photography is dead’, but this new technology is only one factor in how photography is used as evidence.
Due to the postmodern era evolving with the simulacrum and digital imagery and manipulation, photography is not as easily as accepted as evidence, as emphatically as it previously was, by the general public. Photo manipulation was always a tool available to the photographer and printer, but as it was not widely known about or widely exploited. Society in general accepted photography as representing the reality of a person, event or object. However, culture, the ruling classes, psychology, politics and semiotics, among others, all played and still play their role in the evidence that is available and accepted in a photographic image.
I would be a bit more explicit in the title: maybe ‘Postmodernism and Photograpy as Evidence’ or something like that.
And this is excellent from Ciaran:
Photography as Evidence
Ciaran Cooney
This essay examines the role that photography has played as a tool for gathering evidence, as well as the changes it has undertaken to adapt to such uses. The essay gathers together the various evidential practices where photography established itself in as outlined by a number of well known photographers and theorists, most notably John Tagg. The essay details the developments of photography from its earliest uses as evidence in the mid 19th century to digital age of the late 20th century, where its authenticity has been questioned, particularly relating to the manipulation of images and its credibility in the law.
The essay also outlines the importance of the recognition of photographs as evidence to 20th century histories, as explained by Peter Burke, as well as examining its uses in the various social institutions that spawned from the industrial revolution.
The essay concludes with the doubts and possible attitudes towards the authenticity of photography as ‘evidence’. Photography’s basic principals, as a tool that only records a ‘fraction of reality’ is also discussed, as well as the attempts to discredit its image in other commercial medias. There is no doubt however, that photographs have provided an enormous contribution to the purpose of providing evidence, which has occurred since photography’s invention a 160 years ago.
uh, now which way?
yea, I know I use that too much, but getting the tools is just one part. Now we have to really make something good.
