Look at the CTS blog that Garry Barker has been writing to complement the lecture programme this year. Write a short response to one of the posts on the blog. Use the ideas that Garry is discussing to mount a short critical evaluation of one piece of Graphic design that you have produced on Level 5.
Looking at Gary's blog I have decided to choose the most recent project which was a collaborative brief for Green & Blacks.
Monday 28 March 2011
Sustainability and Capitalism
According to the text sustainability is defined as a term that is the human response to the issue of climate change and the natural resource depletion, species extinction, deforestation and many other crisis that effect the planet. Sustainability is often defined as inter and intra equity in the social, environmental, economical, moral and political spheres of society. The most common definition of sustainability is from the Brundtland Commission's Our Common Future: "sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
The main characteristics of capitalism is that it consists of creating new markets, constantly expanding always looking for new things to commodify and often subsuming non capital markets in order to strengthen internal markets. Often capitalism can also appear to be working on a sustainable solution or be ecological but in reality it is the idea that the people are buying into. As capitalism is not just a simplistic linear system in which it subsumes singular items, it rather is constantly expanding and trapping things this can causes crisis which vary in size, expressions and materialization.
A 'crisis of capitalism' is when capitalism reaches the point where it cannot expand itself any further. This is where in order not to die out and the capital to continually grow it needs to seek out new technologies, policies and ideas.
One solution that has been offered has been the introduction of Bio-fuel produced by Biox a company that produces lower emissions for diesel engines and giving the engine a longer life. The bio fuel is considered sustainable because it is reusing materials such as vegetables and animal residue found in the food production industry. The BIOX plant was situated in the residential green zone due to the ease and cheapness of the plot.
Although it is something that produces lower emissions being more 'sustainable' it has come at a price on negatively impacting on the community of Hamilton. First of all the plant was built on a green space, this plant causes constant tremors which damages the houses surrounding the area . "This constant exposure has the potential to impact the health and safety of the entire community."
Sustainability and capitalism do not go hand in hand as capitalism is forever growing and only really uses the idea of sustainability to accumulate more expansions and wealth. Often we aren't able to be sustainable due to the lack of technology available to us or it being to expensive to buy. This shouldn't be the case if was to save our planet then these products would be readily available, but behind all the big schemes is the corporate, multinational capitalist companies looking to expand even further. One of the two must end in order for the other to capitalise and remain successful.
The main characteristics of capitalism is that it consists of creating new markets, constantly expanding always looking for new things to commodify and often subsuming non capital markets in order to strengthen internal markets. Often capitalism can also appear to be working on a sustainable solution or be ecological but in reality it is the idea that the people are buying into. As capitalism is not just a simplistic linear system in which it subsumes singular items, it rather is constantly expanding and trapping things this can causes crisis which vary in size, expressions and materialization.
A 'crisis of capitalism' is when capitalism reaches the point where it cannot expand itself any further. This is where in order not to die out and the capital to continually grow it needs to seek out new technologies, policies and ideas.
One solution that has been offered has been the introduction of Bio-fuel produced by Biox a company that produces lower emissions for diesel engines and giving the engine a longer life. The bio fuel is considered sustainable because it is reusing materials such as vegetables and animal residue found in the food production industry. The BIOX plant was situated in the residential green zone due to the ease and cheapness of the plot.
Although it is something that produces lower emissions being more 'sustainable' it has come at a price on negatively impacting on the community of Hamilton. First of all the plant was built on a green space, this plant causes constant tremors which damages the houses surrounding the area . "This constant exposure has the potential to impact the health and safety of the entire community."
Sustainability and capitalism do not go hand in hand as capitalism is forever growing and only really uses the idea of sustainability to accumulate more expansions and wealth. Often we aren't able to be sustainable due to the lack of technology available to us or it being to expensive to buy. This shouldn't be the case if was to save our planet then these products would be readily available, but behind all the big schemes is the corporate, multinational capitalist companies looking to expand even further. One of the two must end in order for the other to capitalise and remain successful.
Monday 14 March 2011
Thursday 10 March 2011
Communication Theory
Signs and symbols are around in the world and need to accurately relay there message to an audience in the most redundant way possible. A good example of a piece of design that can be related to the Shannon and Weaver's communication model is the male and female pictograms for toilets. Using the Shannon and Weaver model the male and female pictograms are the information source and are transmitted
Due to where the images are situated they are usually placed with a high amount of noise around, such as other signs and symbols. Other possible sources of noise can be the eyesight of people, if the sign or symbol has been defaced or graffitied. If the sign is obscured this can create affect whether or not the information is transmitted to the receiver and is decoded. Looking at image below they are simple images that can be recognised as a person (people) with the female image pictured in a dress and the male image without the dress there is a clear difference between the two, but at the same time they can linked to one another because they are a similar style to each other.
These pictograms are found within the public domain with the need to communicate as much information as possible with as little information being lost between the transmission to the receiver. These images are redundant due to fact that they a highly predictable, with as little information as possible, the images rely on convention. All over the world similar images are used to communicate male and female toilets, they may be different but the audience can relate these images to what know to mean male and or female. This is not a piece of design that includes entropy as entropic design is less predictable, with a higher volume of information for the receiver to decode. Entropic designs are usually unconventional as they are usually aimed at a more specific and smaller target audience as apposed to a sign or symbol that is designed for a large audience.
Due to where the images are situated they are usually placed with a high amount of noise around, such as other signs and symbols. Other possible sources of noise can be the eyesight of people, if the sign or symbol has been defaced or graffitied. If the sign is obscured this can create affect whether or not the information is transmitted to the receiver and is decoded. Looking at image below they are simple images that can be recognised as a person (people) with the female image pictured in a dress and the male image without the dress there is a clear difference between the two, but at the same time they can linked to one another because they are a similar style to each other.
These pictograms are found within the public domain with the need to communicate as much information as possible with as little information being lost between the transmission to the receiver. These images are redundant due to fact that they a highly predictable, with as little information as possible, the images rely on convention. All over the world similar images are used to communicate male and female toilets, they may be different but the audience can relate these images to what know to mean male and or female. This is not a piece of design that includes entropy as entropic design is less predictable, with a higher volume of information for the receiver to decode. Entropic designs are usually unconventional as they are usually aimed at a more specific and smaller target audience as apposed to a sign or symbol that is designed for a large audience.
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