Critical Perspectives 16/11/2017. Participatory Culture (Jenny Rintoul).

Nowadays I would label the most recent and current phase of participatory culture as a “Change in Value”. There is no doubt that the one of the key features is fact that at one-time media existed for benefit of people, then people wanted to contribute to them and nowadays we live to be part of the media. People care more about what the others think about themselves. Other people must think that “I am the best”. Secondly, at some time people devoted time to themselves, today they spent huge amount of time trying to be part of mass media. They published useless stuffs like photos of what they ate or memes, fail compilation, vlogs about nothing. Those things do not bring anything to life – they do not have any value. Next example – some day when people wanted to go for a run, they just took their running shoes and went. Nowadays everyone must know that acquaintance from Facebook was running, how many miles, how long – it is like saying “Hey people, look how good I am because I was running/I went to the part/I cooked the dinner”. People do not know themselves, but everyone thinks that it is unique. 

O.

Critical Perspectives 09/11/2017. Visual & Cultural Hierarchies (Rachael Miles).

Make your own top ten list of your favourite practitioners in your field and consider what it is about their practice that you value.

Walter Gropius – new way of seeing and understanding buildings, spaces, interiors. Returning to the workshop.

Philippe Starck – charisma, his understanding of people’s needs, focusing on basics

Es Devlin – understanding of her clients and the desire to provide an unforgettable visual experience

David and Sandy Reynolds-Wasco – creating sets which are the perfect reflection of atmosphere

Rockwell Group – ability of working as a team of 250 people on cross-disciplinary architecture and design projects

Jean-Louis Deniot – subtle colour palette and harmony in his projects

Stephen Sills – ability of using history knowledge and today’s needs in projects; timeless interiors

Timothy Whealon – mixing items from different cultures and periods

Herman Miller – creating new pieces of furniture and solutions for wide range of interiors; promoting sustainability

John Comparelli – enthusiasm, ability of sharing architecture knowledge and his experience; encouraging to using hands as a tool

O.

Critical Perspectives 02/11/2017. Making Histories lecture (Clare Johnson)

Lots of people can consider historical fact and events that happened in the past as the same thing. To be honest I have never thought about that as two completely different things. After lecture and my own consideration, I am surprised that there is a huge difference between both. 

When I hear “historical fact” I have in my mind something what was or happened in a time and space. It is also something which is put in a right time and place and has a historical base.  Regarding to “something that happened in the past” I can tell that it may be accurate, but we do not take it to be fact. It might be considered as all things which happened before right new. Everyone can refer to the same thing which had place in the past, but every single person may remember different things which are important to he/she. 

Some facts about the past are recorded and remembered because they have meaningful influence on development of historical occurrence, they had an importance for the history process. Some of them could focus of the history of mankind. Other may not be considered worthy of committing to memory because concern only small groups or individuals.

O.

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.