Georgia's Major Project Workbook

Communication Design: Principles, Methods, and Practice By Jorge Frascara Frascara, J. (2004). Communication Design: Principles, Methods, and Practice. New York, NY: Allworth Press. "Visual communication design, seen as an activity, is the action of conceiving, programming, projecting, and realising visual communications that are usually produced through industrial means and are aimed at broadcasting specific messages to specific sectors of the public. This is done with a view toward having an impact on the public's knowledge, attitudes, or behaviour in an intended direction." (Page 2) "Creativity in design has nothing to do with self-expression and an indulgent egocentrism. It requires, instead, an objective and flexible intelligence, an ability to analyse any problem from a multiplicity of viewpoints, so as to be able to understand the intentions of a client (the originator of the message), and the possible perceptions that a wide range of sectors ...

Inroads into Equestrian Safety: Rider-Reported Factors Contributing to Horse-Related Accidents and Near Misses on Australian Roads By Kirrilly Thompson & Chelsea Matthews "Riding horses on roads can be dangerous, but little is known about accidents and near misses. To explore road safety issues amongst Australian equestrians, we conducted an online survey. More than half of all riders (52%) reported having experienced at least one accident or near miss in the 12 months prior to the survey, mostly attributed to speed." "When they occur on public roads, the risk profile of equestrian activities is complicated by interactions with other road users. Research has identified speed, proximity, visibility, conspicuity and mutual misunderstanding as factors contributing to accidents and near misses. However, little is known about their significance or incidence in Australia. To explore road safety issues amongst Australian equestrians, we conducted an online survey. More...

Whakatinana Moment: Today we were all involved in our first Whakatinana moment, an exercise to generate discussion with our peers from all of the design disciplines and to provide opportunities to encounter new ideas and perspectives about our major projects. We were told we had to bring three words (mine were 'Empathy, Storytelling, Education') which would help dictate which group we would be in. We also had to bring a 'thing' to show our peers that might represent where we're at, help generate discussion, or show where we would like critique. Karl As our group was getting to know each other after being placed together by Mark, Karl came over and asked us what each of our projects were about. His advice to me was that instead of diving straight into talking about the specifics of my project I should introduce myself as an empathetic designer who is questioning/proposing; "How can design... influence social change?". Our group, from left to...

"Our work is meant to provoke surprise and delight, while driving critical thought and facilitating understanding." – Thorp "Autoethnography is a way to connect evocative personal narrative to cultural criticism." - Ellis & Bochner Over the two week study break I have been: Thinking about an 'Equine Experience Narrative' - approaching the issue from the horse's point of view rather than the riders. I am intrigued by the challenge of showing the world through a different lens and making the viewer empathise with an animal. To help explain my approach in my proposal I have been researching about writing/experiencing the world from an animal/non-human perspective.  Researching more theoretical storytelling and empathy readings to expand my knowledge in those areas.  Discovering the term 'autoethnography', which is a research approach that uses the author's/researcher's personal experience to describe and understand ...

I went to the Salvation Army and purchased a large glossy book with full colour photographs and a small fiction novel. I then chopped out some pages from the novel and tried various ways of attaching them to the glossy pages; such as gluing them fully down, attaching with a strip of double sided tape, stitching etc. I wanted to test whether the idea I had stuck in my head would actually be interesting in real life. I think that the contrast of the texture, size, and look of the pages was successful and did create the desired effect of making it feel like the user is coming across a story within a non-fiction book.

The two following readings are texts that I used to inform one of my Creative Cultures essays last year, I feel like they are also applicable to what I will be talking about in my proposal and will help strengthen my argument. Distributive Justice and Co-Operation in a World of Humans and Non-Humans: A Contractarian Argument for Drawing Non-Humans into the Sphere of Justice By Mark Coeckelbergh "Various arguments have been provided for drawing non-humans such as animals and artificial agents into the sphere of moral consideration: animals have been attributed rights or equal consideration of interests." "Corresponding justifications given for these attributions include the inherent value or capacity to suffer (animals), being alive or being part of a spiritual-ecological whole (plants), or a high degree of system interactivity, autonomy and adaptability (artificial agents)." "First, I argue for a shift from an ontological to a social-philosophica...

Why Your Brain Loves Good Storytelling By Paul J. Zak "The power of storytelling in a practical sense – they have observed how compelling a well-constructed narrative can be." "A decade ago, my lab discovered that a neurochemical called oxytocin is a key “it’s safe to approach others” signal in the brain. Oxytocin is produced when we are trusted or shown a kindness, and it motivates cooperation with others. It does this by enhancing the sense of empathy, our ability to experience others’ emotions. Empathy is important for social creatures because it allows us to understand how others are likely to react to a situation, including those with whom we work." "By taking blood draws before and after the narrative, we found that character-driven stories do consistently cause oxytocin synthesis. Further, the amount of oxytocin released by the brain predicted how much people were willing to help others; for example, donating money to a charity associated with t...

Masked: Writing from the animal point of view By Sandhya Nankani "An author who writes stories about animals might wear an Inside Out Mask. That mask allows the writer to describe the physical behavior of an animal in such a way that a reader can understand its emotions and mental state." "Another mask a writer might wear is the Sensitive Mask. That mask allows him or her to see an animal's world with sensitivity—through nonverbal senses, such as smell, touch, sound, and sight." "Of course, Bunting is not a turtle, but she has to imagine being one to successfully write about a turtle's life and to create an adventure the creature might have." "Four questions to keep in mind: 1. What would it feel like to be a [fill in the blank here with an animal of your choice]? 2. How would I describe myself? 3. What is my life like? 4. What would I say?" Examples: Charlotte's Web, The Jungle Book, Call Of The Wild, Emma's Turtl...

A review of the human–horse relationship  By Martine Hausberger, Helene Roche, Severine Henry & E. Kathalijne Visser "Human–horse relationship has a long and varied history. While meat may have been the first motivation in the very early stages for domestication, horses became progressively important ‘‘tools’’ for transportation and, like other domestic animals, they are currently more and more used as companion animals. Contrarily to many other domestic ungulates, which are mostly kept for breeding, meat production, milk production or wool production, horses ‘‘rapidly’’ acquired a mixed status: source of food for some, for leisure and sport for others, or, less frequently, an agricultural working companion in rural areas." "Hinde (1979) defined a ‘‘relationship’’ as the emerging bond from a series of interactions: partners have, on the basis of the past experiences, expectations on the other individual’s responses." "Positioning, i.e. the relative a...

What is Qualitative Research? By Suzanne Campbell "A researcher that selects a qualitative research method collects open-ended, emerging data that is then used to develop themes. This method allows for a study of an exploratory nature." "Some of the characteristics of qualitative research include taking place in a natural setting, using multiple methods that are interactive and humanistic, emerging data rather than prefigured data, and being fundamentally interpretive." "Five strategies have been identified as qualitative research methods. They include ethnographies, grounded theory, case studies, phenomenological research and narrative research." "Ethnographies allow the researcher to collect data by observation of members of a cultural group in their natural setting over a period of time. In grounded theory, the researcher is able to formulate a theory related to a process, action, or interaction grounded in participants' responses and ...

Autoethnography: An Overview By Carolyn Ellis, Tony E. Adams and Arthur P. Bochner "Autoethnography is an approach to research and writing that seeks to describe and systematically analyze (graphy) personal experience (auto) in order to understand cultural experience (ethno)." "They realized that stories were complex, constitutive, meaningful phenomena that taught morals and ethics, introduced unique ways of thinking and feeling, and helped people make sense of themselves and others." "Gradually, scholars across a wide spectrum of disciplines began to consider what social sciences would become if they were closer to literature than to physics, if they proffered stories rather than theories, and if they were self consciously value-centered rather than pretending to be value free." "In particular, they wanted to concentrate on ways of producing meaningful, accessible, and evocative research grounded in personal experience, research that ...