Contrary to Fact: Design, Thought Experiments and the Alternate Present.

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

Contrary to Fact: Design, Thought Experiments and the Alternate Present.

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

An Initial Insight

The unrealised, unexecuted or the ‘might have been’ refers to a difference in the path history has taken. My intrigue in this concept originated from an idea I had begun to explore in our visual narrative module. Looking at how an unbuilt architectural plan could sit in the present day acted as the driving force behind a wider message about the tourist industry, and the way society celebrates death. Counterfactuals rely on an understanding of the present as highlighted in Blending and the Study of Narrative: ‘Counterfactuals are constructed on the basis of highly specific input spaces which are dependent on and relative to the ‘real world’ out of which they are constructed.’

SCHNEIDER / HARTNER ( 2012, pg133)

From this I realised that the function of the counterfactual is to help establish why and how present day reality is constructed through exploring an alternative and broadens the potential for a wider debate on social, cultural or political zeitgeist .

The successful nature of my last project, my own design practice and the outcome itself, made me realise that alternate history was an area I could develop further. Reflecting on my previous project, I thought it was important to establish why I have a vested interest in looking sideways in time. One of my weaknesses throughout my Master’s degree has been my struggle to make definitive decisions; previously working in industry a lot of my creative choices were made for me, it became challenging to make my own choices as I did not have the ability to evaluate my own work from an outside perspective. This idea of a decision is inherent in the nature of counterfactuals; a choice has been made in the past, often by an individual, that has shaped the future. Additionally I have an interest in the philosophical nature of counterfactuals; cause and effect and on a personal level how choices can dictate the path life takes.

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

An Initial Insight

How can I make a visual comment on present day society through combining methods of design thinking with the counterfactual?

Initially I wanted to gain further experience into communicating a counterfactual concept for the purpose of advocating social concern for a chosen subject. As the project progressed however I became more involved with the role of illustration, pushing my making skills to produce an outcome which speaks of the language of science, deception and authenticity. Over the past year I have discovered my creative practice is at its strongest when I can work in an interdisciplinary manner, producing work which involves Graphic Design and working with and building on universally known design formats. I’m intrigued by the purpose of illustration and its relationship with text when placed in a factual context. This evokes questions surrounding knowledge archives (encyclopaedias, diagrams, textbooks and taxonomies) and evaluating how an audience can be informed through illustration; using deception as a motive for inciting debate on my topic. Representations and visual languages are critical to the success of this, ensuring the audience is engaged through recognised aesthetic functions. Concerned with this, Speculative Everything reflects on the boundary between informed design decision and creating pastiche: ‘‘To maintain links to the world as we know it, designers try too hard to reference what is already known. It is not a case of mimicking other design languages, but the language of everyday design, whether it be corporate, high tech or high style’ DUNNE / RABY (2014, pg 102)

Consolidation of what I had previously learnt about my design interests and creative practice helped me to keep focused on producing a final outcome which answered my original design question. I think this is largely due to me being aware of my strengths and using these, and allowing myself more time to focus on areas of my methodology I knew I would find challenging.

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

‘Illustrations are traditionally thought of as explanatory, engaged either in describing the narrative or in repeating narrative elements described by the text’ MORGAN (2014, pg 20)

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

Field of Study

It was already apparent from my proposal that my practice would be highly involved with design theories. I noticed there was a link between what I had already researched with the counterfactual and a contemporary branch of critical design; design fictions. A contemporary design practice, methods of design thinking are employed as a device for the creation of conceptual scenarios and designed outcomes. My research into practitioners that work within this field made me realise that illustration could be about initiating speculative discussion. Design Fictions are often concerned with the implementation of an object from another world, or near future, existing in our own. This ideology I found to be of great inspiration as I find interest in subversion of the mundane as a means of communication.

Reading an essay by Julian Bleeker, founder of the Near Future Laboratory whilst I was initially gathering information acquainted me with the notion of a diegetic prototype. This is a designed object from an alternate world or near future with a visionary story, or diegesis: ‘Design fictions help tell stories that provoke and raise questions. Like props that help focus the imagination and speculate about possible near future worlds.’ BLEEKER (2009, pg. 8)

Evaluating my choices at this stage of the project I can see there is a distinct association between diegetic prototypes and production design for film, my previous area of academic study. I think it is interesting how as a designer I am unconsciously drawn to working in an interdisciplinary manner. This has also made me realise that I have an inbuilt interest in the visual language of the everyday, semiotics and.......

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

In This Picture: Design Fiction projects by designer Thomas Twaites Fig.1 Policing-Genes Fig 2. The Future of Money (2008)

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Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

Field of Study

The writings of Dunne and Raby made me begin to consider how the world has developed over time to solve problems, such as disease, overpopulation and climate change. In an alternate present, would solutions have been found for all worldly problems?

Is it morally right to solve problems the world faces such as disease and death? Who would benefit from these issues being resolved? Would they in fact cause more problems such as an economic crisis? Beginning to consider what the world would be like if we solved one of these issues; how would it affect the rest? This method of thinking, flitting between the past, present and future became a reoccurring theme throughout the project.

I intended to ensure a praxis based approach whereby critical design theory and the role of illustration for the purpose of deception would be directly informing my creative practice.

This approach would ensure my outcome would spark debate on both the application of visual factuality as well as my chosen counterfactual. In her thesis, A Taxonomy of Deception, Catrin Morgan implies: ‘studying texts that mimic authenticity allows us to understand the way in which authentic texts communicate and even to know what authentic texts are’ MORGAN (2014, pg. 214)

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

‘Design speculation can act as a catalyst for collectively redefining our relationship to reality’ DUNNE/RABY (2014, pg 2)

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

In This Picture:

Fig.3

Dunne and Raby Work in Progress, 2009 of what design is percived to be (A) and what design can be according to critical design (B)

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

Fig.4

In This Picture: Embryology of the face. Haeckel presents the close similarites between species during the embryonic stages, highlighting an evolutionary connection

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

Fiction into Fact

How are facts established as true through the use of visual communication?

My chosen field of study is closely linked to science fiction due to its fictitious content and utopic/dystopic nature. Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopaedia cites ‘ Fiction is by no means unconcerned with what is but it usually tries to consider what is in a broader context of what might be and what ought to be’ STABLEFORD (2006 ,pg 19)

When discussing science through design I decided I would need to investigate the validity of images. How can an illustration that is fictional be perceived as fact? This relies on authenticity and working within the parameters of commonly known visual languages. ‘Deceptions are linguistic; in that they involve the interpretation (or misinterpretation) of certain kinds of language.’ MORGAN (2014, Pg 29)

Ernest Haeckel’s’ The Evolution of Man can be used as a case study to portray how fiction can be translated into factual. At a time of basic scientific microscopes there was no way Haeckel’s cell-based illustrations could be from a scientific source and were later confirmed as false. The zoologist’s political agenda and involvement with Darwin at the time of the publishing of The Origin of the Species led to him producing scientific illustrations that were based on speculation, in particular as shown in Fig. 4 Haeckel wished to depict the anatomical closeness between species which can be seen specifically at the embryonic stage, so chose to exaggerate their similarities. His simplified diagrams of embryos were taken as the truth and as a result featured in textbooks and were considered for generations to be ‘scientific fact.’

Illustration is as much about concealment as it is depiction. It was important to make my book appear as factual as possible; the use of labelled diagrams, captions, graphs, and photographs presented enough information for the reader to understand visually what the book is was about. By withholding information such as what the numbers on diagrams equate to assisted in concealing the invalid nature of the text.

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

Methodology

I had initially given myself a very clear structure for my methodology. This involved collating secondary information on my field of study and primary research in the form of testing, evaluating and audience feedback. I had accounted a large proportion of my time to testing formats and methods of communicating the alternate world through forms of knowledge distribution. However I found as the project progressed this part of my methodology became forgotten until the later stages; a fault which later caused problems during production. As I wanted to create an outcome which appeared to be ‘real’; the outcome’s physical appearance should on first appearances deceive a viewer into believing in its content, only to realise on further investigation it speaks of an alternate reality. This would mean a large part of my primary research would involve experimentation with authenticity. Undertaking a refined iterative design process revolving around creating prototypes and analysing results would help to ensure production methods are at the highest standard. I think that the repetitive process of producing, evaluating and then re-producing I think is integral to my design practice. I have learnt that this is the time during a project where mistakes are made,

Previous projects have relied on a broad starting point, meaning the initial research stages have often revolved around narrowing down the subject to find a niche. At the time, I presumed the topic of the counterfactual and design fictions was relatively narrow; I did not consider how long it would take me to find an area of interest within my field of study to focus on. As outlined in my proposal, the majority of my research relied on secondary resources.

Reflecting back on my methodology I allowed myself too much time to look at secondary research resources such as books and the internet. Although I thoroughly enjoyed reading about alterative history theories and examples of counterfactual narratives I feel that this was not useful to my project as I looked too in depth into the theoretical side of the counterfactual which did not provide visual inspiration. Losing motivation to move the project on, I ended up sacrificing a couple of weeks to find a subject which I felt was successful. Poor planning and a fear of making a concrete decision at this stage meant I spent a lot of time trawling the internet looking for an answer which inevitably I did not find.

An improvement of this process might involve an additional stage prior to secondary resourcing. It would have been a good idea to analyse what I wanted to learn from looking at existing material; what I wanted to find out, and how in depth I needed to go into the theory of my field of study in order to realise my ideas. Once I had completed this stage of the research I could have always gone back to reading material to back up my design choices.

It has become apparent to me that I felt overwhelmed about the amount of material I had discovered, and ultimately I did not know what to do with it all.

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

Fig.5

In This Picture: My desk space whilst coming up with initial illustrations for my book.

Being surrounded by related imagry helped to ensure my drawings felt like they belonged in a scientific text

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

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Fig.8

In This Picture: Examples of some of my secondary resource research material.

Fig.5 A still from the film GATTACA Fig.6 A Eugenics Propaganda Poster Fig.7 Diagram of the Brain

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

Methodology: Secondary

Design Fiction is not concerned with finding a solution to a problem, instead it relies on speculation and the rhetorical. Similarly there isn’t a solution or an answer to a counterfactual history, which is why I think I found deciding on a focus challenging.

Through extensive reading into theory, world history and examples of counterfactuals, it became evident the scope for possibilities was immeasurable and that I would need to make a choice. At this point I went back to looking at what I wanted to achieve; I felt it was crucial that my project helped to raise questions and start debate. Most of the reading material I found was essay based with no images, which made me realise the importance of visual information; it might be easier, and the project more successful, to work within a topic which has strict visual parameters, or a visual language. By taking reference of what already exists from both the past and present, I would then be able to inform the reasoning behind my aesthetic choices.

I arrived at focussing on human evolution; a counterfactual world where eugenics is not considered taboo and gene manipulation is practiced to improve the evolutionary path of man. ‘To find inspiration for speculating through design we need to look beyond design to the methodological playgrounds of cinema, literature, science, ethics, politics and art; to explore, hybridise, borrow and embrace the many tools available for crafting not only things but ideas.’ DUNNE/ RABY (2014, PG 3)

I chose to store the majority of my informational digitally as this I felt would avoid any of it being lost. However looking back at this now I feel this method did not feel very creative. I think I sometimes I lack organisational skills when managing a lot of information; this eventually makes it difficult to find things. I attempted to improve my organisation of secondary research material through printing out key images I had found and keeping an updatable pin board in my studio space. This allowed me to consolidate my thoughts and be able to keep the project focused toward my research question. Looking back at this stage of the project, it might have been useful to do a similar thing with the extensive amount of written material I found, either creating another pin board or printing off information and keeping it in a file.

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

Methodology - Primary

I thought it was important to know what I was looking for and what I wanted to gain from the research. I decided upon methods which were the most relevant; focus groups, questionnaires or ethnographic research I felt had little purpose to my project at this stage.

Looking back however it might have been a good idea to learn more about how people interact with science and what the general feeling is about how science is visually portrayed.

This might have provided me with more of a personal and emotional insight into the visual language of science rather than going on my own instincts, backed up by theoretical knowledge.

Although focus groups might have proved useful when requiring feedback on the usability and successfulness of my book, I intended to get the majority of my feedback from my peers and tutors. Engaging in reflecting on the work of others I felt was beneficial as I learnt to use the same method of critical reflection when looking at my own work; this helped me to detach myself from the project and make improvements with a critical eye.

My proposal outlines that I would contact several knowledgeable figures working within the design fiction field. I had planned on contacting these individuals at the beginning of my project. However, it became apparent that due to my lack of understanding of my field of study I felt I was not yet confident to contact these people as I was unsure of what I wanted to ask them. As my project progressed, I realised I was more interested in asking the designers their opinions on the subject and their practice as I could then draw a direct comparison to my own experience. Looking back on this it might have been a good idea to additionally send across my outcome whilst it was in progress to see if I could receive any comments for improvements.

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

‘ Particular types of image serve to pin the narrative to particular points in time. photographs do this, but less obviously, indexical images such as coffee spills also introduce time to a narrative, as do particular kinds of document and artefact.’

MORGAN (2014, pg. 151)

I realised early on in the project a large part of my of my primary research was going to involve experimentation with materials and methods of making. This would involve testing illustrative styles to reflect on a particular representation of science fact as well as printing methods, making prototypes and sourcing materials similar to what would have been used to produce an old scientific textbook. I had not initially realised how interesting I was going to find exploring materiality; depending on how and what I printed my book completely changed its historical context.

Reflecting on my making process, I identified that over time it is difficult to keep track of the development of the quality of an outcome. Initially seeking to produce a book ‘designed’ in the late 1960’s this changed as I began to make imagery. I found there was a difference in the relevance of the illustrations I had produced at the beginning of the making stages to the end; images I had produced near the project’s conclusion were a lot more considerate of scientific representation and the suggested era of the text. I did not previously realise that a weakness of my practice is the reflection and refinement of my own work throughout.

Improving my making process when producing a book should involve producing prototypes during the illustration stages to ensure the images work together and that there is a correlation in style if needed. This was backed up in my final critique when it was commented on that there was little visual association between the illustration on the cover, the endpaper and the internal contents. If I had acted upon this sooner, I would have given myself more time to source a better and more authentic production method for the cover of my book. I need to learn more about my own methods of analysis in relation to my production process.

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

Methodology - Primary

Fig.9

In This Picture: I sourced some old mouldy paper and experimented initally printing directly onto it followed by scanning the texture and applying digitally.

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

Fig.10

In This Picture: Testing the quality of an inkjet print on archival paper and comparison to a pre-exsisting science textbook from 1934.

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

Fig.11

In This Picture: In times I found iit difficult to move the project along. Tasks such as writing a list of questions to be answered I felt helped to re-iterate what I was looking at and provided potential directions to take the project in.

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

Audience and Context

I chose to look at knowledge textbooks specifically because I’m interested in the way through design and illustration you can make something fictional look like fact. However, the reality is that controlling our DNA, growing organs and selecting an unborn baby’s genetics is becoming closer to being a science fact than a science fiction. This highlights the wider social and political context of my project; genetic engineering for the human race is becoming more likely to be a near future reality. ‘Eugenics was a biological way of thinking about social, economic, political and cultural change. It gave scientific credibility to prejudices, anxieties and fears that were prevalent primarily among the middle and upper classes.” BASHFORD/LEVINE (2008, pg. 214)

From my research I have found that the main reason my subject is considered taboo is down to morality and ethics. Eugenics, although devised by Francis Galton during the era of Darwinism, was given a bad reputation due to Hitler and the Nazi’s. Although Galton believed that the development of a genetic underclass was inevitable, it was only when Hitler, being inspired by the theory, took eugenics to the extreme that it was realised what damage ‘ethical cleansing’ could do on a human level. This opens discussion for arguments surrounding the moral side of selecting our genes; if this was common practice, how long would it before DNA manipulation was used for worse? My project on another level can be seen to discuss the difference between evolution and creationism theories; should humans be able to ‘play god’?

There is a relevance within my project which on first undertaking I did not consider.

During peer reviews, discussions at critiques and tutorials my project always sparked wide debate on the subject of DNA manipulation and the morality of organ cloning. Through narrowing down my initial field of study on the counterfactual it became apparent to me that the niche I had selected was a small part of a larger….. This to me proves the successfulness of my project. I had initially envisaged in my proposal that because of my praxis based approach revolving around deceptive design, the role of illustration and design fictions that my project would appeal most to other designers in this field. However, as highlighted my conversation with Thomas Thwaite’s, when a project has a clear relationship with current social, cultural or political questioning, articulating these concerns through illustration can promote audience engagement: ‘The best thing (and what ‘critical design’ claims to want to do) is when the project moves beyond an audience of other designers and in to the world, where it can actually contribute to debate on an issue’ TWAITES 2015

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

Due to time constraints I did not have much time to fully evaluate how my final outcome might be seen as controversial to some audience members. Eugenics has a stigma attached to it due to the horrifying events carried out by the Nazis; therefore a project based on ‘ethical cleansing’ through genetic engineering might offend some people. If I had spent more time considering how my work might be viewed, and researched what the general public’s opinion of eugenics is, then this might have helped to develop further my imagery choices. However, it can be seen that all works of design have a political agenda as highlighted in my conversation with Tobias Revell. He made me realise that as a critical designer we often have to reflect on our own opinions as the nature of the work is purely speculative: ‘There’s a prevailing, unspoken myth amongst design academies that the designer is an objective, ethereal being, who can teleport into any place, identify a ‘wicked problem’ and then design the solution before floating off and leaving the townspeople in peace. Everything created is embedded with politics - chairs, posters, and websites. Every choice made by a designer is informed by their prejudices and politics.’ REVELL (2015)

Considering how my outcome is perceived on a visual level, looking back on the project it could be suggested that due to the print-based nature of my work, it could be seen as uninteresting and a little out of date to some audience members. Perhaps I could have explored alternate ways of information distribution which are more appealing to a contemporary society such as advertisements, social media, apps and moving image. I have realised that when I came to developing ideas, the project became self-indulgent as I chose to work with a design format and an illustration style I have an interest in rather than evaluating the expansive potentials for an outcome and then narrowing my choices down dependant on audience appeal.

However from another perspective I think the tangible nature of my project is appealing to audiences; I received a lot of positive feedback about the authenticity of my final outcome from my peers and comments were made about my choice in print stock and quality of illustration. A diegetic prototype is an interesting method of presenting a concept because by exploring the parameters of what is already existing (textbooks from the past) a connection is made between our reality and the speculative one I have created.

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

Evaluation

Towards the conclusion of the making stages of my project I realised that for my outcome to be more successful in deceiving an audience I should have spent more time considering the amount of work I would need to do to produce a full encyclopaedic text.

In reality, the book should be at least double the amount of pages it currently is. If I had properly timetabled my development stages of the project, allowing more time to produce the illustrations and text, then I could have completed a greater amount of work. I feel a book with as little pages as I have produced might be better suited to a younger audience, which as a result should have been reflected in the type of imagery produced and the language used.

This, along with the majority of the problems faced during my project, stem from my poor timetabling and time management. At the time of the proposal I had produced a timetable which outlined deadlines for important points in my project, but reflecting back on this now I should have been more organised with my time and created an extensive timetable to dictate what needed to be done on a day-by-day basis. As I have previously been successful in time management I think I was naive in thinking I had a lot of time to complete my project; when I realised this was not the case I had to discard a lot of my ideas in order to meet my artwork deadline.

In contrast from previous projects where I have found it difficult to make decisions, which has ultimately caused time to be lost throughout the project, my decision making was a real strength this time around. After struggling to make a decision on the direction of my project I had no problems coming up with ideas, and making creative decisions to help the project progress. I think as the project felt a lot more challenging due to the strong theoretical basis, I found relying on my strengths improved my confidence. I have learnt that when I feel confident about my skillset, in return I also feel confident to make design choices. Having an understanding of time constraints also meant that I was forced to make quick decisions and discard ideas if they were not relevant.

However I did experience more of a learning curve than I anticipated during the production stages. My previous module project had proven successful and I found it ‘easy’ to produce a final outcome as I was using skills I have an ability in. This is why I found producing a book by hand daunting. A skill I had never considered before, at the start of the project I had no idea about book bindings or how a book could be made. In turn, what I learnt about book finishes also provided me with a greater insight into informing a viewer of the type of book they are looking at and the time it was made; this helped contribute towards my research in visually illustrating a counterfactual history through a physical outcome.

I originally contacted a few printers after sourcing some old cartridge paper to print my book onto. However, I made the decision at this point I would be able to achieve what I wanted through producing the book myself. This put me under a lot of pressure which in hindsight was unnecessary as I eventually had to rely on a book binder to produce a hard cover and bind the book for me. If I had decided earlier on I wanted to make my own book then I should have allowed more time earlier on to plan and prepare for production, either getting a test done or doing some more mock-ups myself. As a result this made the end of the project quite rushed as I did not have much time to source a book binder who would be able to achieve the exact thing I wanted in the time given. If more time had allowed, I would have liked to have taken a step back and spent a bit more time sourcing old books to look more into their construction, the materials used and how they weather. In addition I could have then gone on to make my own leather bound book and learnt how to do this and hot foil press the title.

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

“We cannot think what we cannot thing - so there is no such thing as pure speculation. Speculation will always result in something real: a real thought, a real sketch, a real model. It will always stay within the borders of reality, of language, of the world.�

Experimental Jetset (2014)

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

Final Reflection ‘It is more convenient for writers to deal with alternative narrative histories in which technological progress slows down than with scenarios in which it is accelerated” CLUTE( 1992 pg. 20)

This statement I feel is pertinent to my project. I had decided on a highly ambitious task to create a piece of design based in a parallel present where genetic based science practice has taken dominance. I felt challenged throughout working on a project based around a futuristic scenario. From selecting a contemporary praxis based approach, to dealing with complex moral questions and producing an outcome which has pushed the limits of my making skills, imagination, and patience, this project has been the toughest during my Master’s.

Through the employment of a design format and illustrative approach which would be commonly associated with factual scientific texts I have successfully demonstrated to that I am able to produce images reflective of a visual style if I spend enough time studying existing material. Illustration in the form of drawing and painting is a skill I have avoided throughout my MA degree purely because I lack confidence in my natural drawing ability. I also think I can feel intimidated looking at the work of others I admire. I learnt I had to take a different approach when looking at existing imagery, taking a more evaluative outlook towards the construction of an image. For me, the project has seen a profound development in my analytical skills. I found from assessing how vintage illustrations would have been produced using traditional means, and then attempting to replicate these digitally, taught me a lot about composition of images, use of colour and shape and how a tactility can contribute towards the finish of an illustration.

Another improved strength of mine which can be seen throughout the project was my ability to make decisions, particularly during the production stages and the evaluating of the relevance of research methods. This as a result meant although I had to discard some ideas, I was able to in confidence and had the ability to make well informed choices about my book, contributing to the smooth running of the project. The flipside of this however is that perhaps in my confidence, I was too decisive and left little room for coming up with a broad range of ideas and narrowing these down.

Coming back round to counterfactual thinking, rationalising the ‘what if’ in relation to my project opens up discussion for what I would do if i could do this project again, and what I will take from what I have learnt. When acknowledging areas for improvement, it is evident that I become fixated early on with what I wanted my outcome to be; my own visual interests led my project too much. Instead of exploring opportunities, I already had in mind an idea of what I wanted to produce as a final outcome. As a designer I believe is integral to have an interest in what you are working on, I think I have learnt that sometimes I take a close-minded approach to both researching and making and shy away from asking the opinion of others or spending time coming up with a few ideas. It was only when I put effort into receiving and responding feedback from my peers and tutors that I became more receptive to investigating alterations and could see potential flaws in my project.

Overall I feel this project followed on well from the previous module in which I began to explore the relationship between the counterfactual and deceptive illustration. Again this project has proved to me this is a field of study that intrigues me and one which I intend to continue working within after the completion of my Masters. Being intentionally tough on myself and my creative abilities has proven to me if I put my mind to something I can achieve what I set out to. The future for my work now relies on my confidence; in the knowledge that my work is successful, I feel more confident in my design choices, and in turn psychologically find it easier and more enjoyable to produce work.

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

In This Picture: Photograph of my final outcome.

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Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

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Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

Fig.1: THWAITES ,T. (n.d) [Image] Policing Genes.

Available at: http://www.thomasthwaites.com/policinggenes/ (Last Accessed: 15/08/2015) Fig.2: THWAITES ,T. (2008) [Image] The Future of Money. Available at:http://www.thomasthwaites.com/ the-future-of-money/ (Last Accessed: 15/05/2015) Fig.3: DUNNE, A. RABY,F. (2009) [Image] A/B. Fig.4: HAECKEL, E (1874) [Image] Embryology of the face. Available at: https://www.pinterest.com/ pin/447123069231524921/(Last Accessed: 15/08/2015) Fig.5: HAINES,L (2015) [Image] Studio Space Fig.6: NICCOL.A (1997) [Video Still] GATTACA Fig.7: (2007) [Image] Pruning the Tree of Life Through Sterilization Available at: http://81028787. weebly.com/modern-eugenics.html(Last Accessed: 18/08/2015).

Fig.8: Fig.9: HAINES,L (2015) [Image] Vintage Paper Scan Fig.10: HAINES,L (2015) [Image] Book Prototype Fig.11: HAINES,L (2015) [Image] List of Questions Fig.12: HAINES,L (2015) [Image]Genetic Revolution Contents Fig.12: HAINES,L (2015) [Image] Genetic Revolution Cover

Laura Haines | K0926104 | DE7302 | The Final Major Project

Bibliography: Books ANDREWS, M. (n.d.). Narrative imagination and everyday life.

BASHFORD, A. / LEVINE, P. (2010). The Oxford handbook of the history of eugenics. New York: Oxford University Press.

BERGER, R. DE SMET, C. MCVARISH, E.(2014) All Possible Futures, London, BedfordPress BREIDBACH, O. (2006). Visions of nature. Munich: Prestel.

BUTLER, C. / O’DONOVAN, H. (n.d.). Reading history in children’s books.

CLUTE, J. AND NICHOLLS, P. (1993). The Encyclopedia of science fiction. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

DARWIN, C. / LEAKEY, R. (1979). The illustrated Origin of species. New York: Hill and Wang.

DICK.P.K (1962) The Man in the High Castle. New York: Putnam DIXON, D. (1981). After man. New York: St Martin’s Press.

DUNNE, A. / RABY, F. (2013). Speculative everything. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

EVANS, D. (2009). Appropriation. London: Whitechapel.

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