Critical Perspectives 26/10/2017. Reading Group Task: What is Visual Culture?

Over the past 50 years, there is no doubt that there has been a social and cultural shift away from the verbal/textual and towards the visual. My first thought is emoticons which in some way displace completely texts. They became inseparable part of our email or messages. Thanks to them we can convey our feelings and emotions. There is no doubt that it is faster to send them instead of call and talk about the feelings. It does not mean that it is better way.  Another example is the radio which evolved into television. Also, letters lost their important. It is hard to find people who communicate in that way. Instead of the letters we have many social media like Facebook or Twitter which restrain interest of the text. It is common that more often people share with photos than text.

I think that during 10 to 20 years this shift has accelerated. W can notice it when we look at social media. There is enormous amount of website which using visual ways. Instead of blogs, many people decided to do vlogs or visual diary like Snapchat or Instagram. The world is rushing towards new technology and as a result everything is changing. 

Critical Perspectives 12/10/2017

Considering all the readings that I have been engaged with, in my opinion the most interesting idea is coming from the second one. I had never heard about the ‘pattern language’ before. It is a set of the core solutions for problems which occurs in our environment. Using the logical sequences, we can move through the issues. It also shows the process of designate the problem and then represent how to achieve the aim. It is really important for beginner designer that his method applies to any level of design. Nowadays, after forty-four years since he coined this term, people still use it. I would like to read his book and start applying his idea in my future projects. I am sure that if in the future I have any designing problem I will use his outstanding idea. It will help me to save the time of solving the problem. It may also teach me how to deal with the hardest designing problems in a completely different way. When I started to read the explanation, I was impressed that someone had such a brilliant idea. I am sure that it has a wide range of application for designers and architects. It would be also good if someone would be able to create ‘pattern language’ for everyday problems.

O.

Critical Perspectives 5/10/2017 - Introduction An Interior Design. Edwards

Glossary for Interior Design purpose:

Building code – Rules which must be applied by every interior designer. They refer to protect health, safety and welfare of people who inhabit the spaces and building.

Cognitive theory – This is theory describing self-development. It reduces talents and inborn traits to convenient start in life. The true talent and intelligence develops with maturity, hard work and positive environment. It is a rule ‘every day is a day at school’

Colour schemes – Certain colours and combinations of colours have specific influence on our mind. Such traits are visible in modern society, advertisements or even games and films. Such combinations have certain behavioural effect on people.

Critical distance – is a concept describing our perception and ability of critical thinking. Without ability to ‘distance’ yourself from certain situations we are unable to approach them subjectively. It is therefore crucial to ignore our personal opinions and employ logic from the different perspective. ‘opinions are not admissible’ as they are influenced with our feelings. It also has specific meaning in the sound engineering.

Environmental psychology – area of psychology focusing on the interactions and influence of the environment on the individual.

Holistic approach – Approach carried through the tradition or style which try to mimic such approach.

Meta theory – it is theory which regards the other theory as the central idea of contemplation.

Pragmatic – Useful in practice, practical. As an adjective is a way to sensible solve the problem for the existing condition.

Semiotics – branch of science considering meaning behind symbols and creations. Interior designer should stress the importance of it because it allows to understand the relationship between signs as they are and people who would interpret them.

Sustainability – The feature of object to be productive, useful, relevant for a longer period.

Synectics – Methodology of solving the problems – a theory which aims to measure and analyse the creative process while its going on to identify one driving power behind all creative processes. 

O.

Critical Perspectives 28/09/2017 – Teaching – Introduction. Hooks. B

Bell Hooks published her book in 2010. Many things changed, many stay the same. As a young white woman, I can have a completely different point of view. In the introduction, she tries to acquaint us with her route of education. Considering the time of her education I can agree with some of her points but there are few, which make that I have many more questions. In her text she highlighted that Stanford University was predominantly white collage. I am assuming that people (black and white) had a choice (as Bell Hook) about university, so why most of the students were white if everyone had access to it? I do not think that they needed “more autobiographical accounts of the first generation of black student” to enter the university. University should be independent and accept student based on their grades. It is nobody fault that some people learn better than the others.

Bell Hooks also complain about teachers who did not believe that they are “fully human” or hate them. For me her attitude of avoiding lectures because of that is ridiculous. First, she should have needs to show that the lectures were wrong. Her thinking was unproductive.

The next aspect was going to collage to become a teacher when she did not feel the desire. How is it possible to choose the course if you do not want to do it? It is like taking any course from the list and say, “maybe I will like it, maybe not”. It is wasting time and place for people who really want to do it and feel desire. I know that later she loved it but I still think that it is not a good example for people who face the problem of choosing the right course.

Las but not least is the stereotypes as “an angry black woman” about which she wrote. I have never heard about this. Wikipedia tells that “the angry woman myth assumes that black women are aggressive”. To be honest I do not think that it is only stereotype. I have been working in the customer service area and it happened lots of times that black women are rude or aggressive towards me. Of course, there are some white customers who are behave inappropriate but It happens more often when black people, predominantly women are the customers. So now should I tell that they were not aggressive, they just have temperamental character? I do not want to tell that if I have completely different experience and I know that I did not do anything to provoke this kind of behaviour. 

O.

Nibylandia istnieje.

Po trzech miesiącach obcowania z azjatycką kulturą, nareszcie nadszedł nieprzyjemny acz wyczekiwany moment kolejnej przeprowadzki. Nie była ona ani łatwa ani przyjemna, przywodziła na myśl syzyfową pracę. Po godzinach pracy, kartonów nie ubywało a brak samochodu dawał się we znaki. Z małym poślizgiem kilku godzin daliśmy radę. Było warto!

Przechodząc obok budynku czuję się jak w duńskim Grand Hotel. Przy ogromnych drzwiach wejściowych brakuje tylko odźwiernego. Przemierzane korytarze nie rozczarowują, a wręcz pobudzają wyobraźnie. Wystrój nakłania do przywdziania sukni balowej. Jak na prawdziwy hotel przystało, odnaleźć można windę, która w kilka chwil przenosi Nas na ostatnie piętro tego wspaniałego budynku. Do miejsca, gdzie znajduje się nasz upragniony penthouse. Długi hol a na jego końcu po prawej stronie - idealny apartament. Nasze dwadzieścia trzy metry kwadratowe, są zaprojektowane tak, że niczego nam nie brakuje. Mamy tu wszystko, co potrzebne parze studentów. Od własnego aneksu kuchennego, czystego barku śniadaniowego, poprzez dwie pojemne szafy, podwójne biurko oraz dużą tablicę na istotne rzeczy nad nim. Nie zabrakło wygodnego łóżka i ogromnej ilości miejsca na ukochane książki oraz wygodnego fotela, aby w nim czytać. W wolnych chwilach możemy pooglądać "co w angielskiej trawie piszczy" dzięki temu, że na ścianie wisi telewizor. Nie zapominając o dużej i osobistej łazience, która pomieści wszystkie kosmetyki, ale także zapachowe świeczki. Czego więcej chcieć? A tak zapomniałam, idealnego widoku z okna, który również mamy z piątego piętra. To miejsce jest tak wspaniałe, że aż ciężko opisać jego doskonałość.

Mam nadzieję, że Wy, drodzy studenci, którzy zaczynacie swoją nową przygodę, znajdziecie swoją własną Nibylandię.

O.