Creative Journal October 2013

Week 1 – 5

RSA & Self-Directed Study

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assessment 28th october 2013

M. Woodman

Creative journal

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Week 1 – 5

RSA Student Design Awards

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EVERYday well-being

RSA student design award

Week 01

Project Briefing

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Tutorial week one Everyday Well-Being According to the leading mental health charity ‘Mind’: “mental health problems account for almost one quarter of ill health in the UK and their prevalence is rising, with the World Health Organisation predicting that depression will be the second most common health condition worldwide by 2020. Poor mental health affects people of all ages yet with effective promotion, prevention and early intervention its impact can be reduced dramatically”.

Patently the issue of mental well-being is of the utmost importance not only in the United Kingdom but as a global issue.

If the statistics quoted in the brief are to be trusted this could infer that as many as approximately 50 of the people I know on a close basis, in my average sized social group of roughly 200 people, may be affected by mental health problems this year. I find this shocking and saddening to say the least and clearly something must be done about it. However such difficult circumstances for my friends and family also represents an opportunity for me, I have already identified a focus group of people on which I can conduct my research.

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Week 01

Brief Redaction

Anti-Highlighting The process of ‘anti-highlighting’ helped me to distill the brief and identify five words, divorced from the original content of the brief, that I felt summarised exactly what I needed to do to find a creative solution to the brief.

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Assessment Criteria I also worked through the assessment criteria to identify exactly how my solution will be judged. Clearly there is a lot of emphasis on the gathering of research and content to inform ideas, as a reflection of this I will have to research in great depth to make future conclusions.

Finally, aside from design execution, the brief requires an awareness of commerciality and cost.

Clarifying the Brief Upon initial selection of the brief I needed to clarify exactly what my objectives would be over the coming five weeks. Firstly I worked through the content highlighting issues that I felt were of the utmost importance to my goals and designed outcome. Key information included the statistics that; ‘25% of people experience mental health problems’ and half of these are common disorders, especially depression and anxiety. My task of increasing well-being is supposed to be achievable by placing the onus on daily practices, such as; spending time with familiar people, being active, learning something, giving and increased awareness/engagement with surroundings.

Finally and possibly most importantly my solution must have mainstream appeal and not be overtly associated with mental health issues in order to become part of pop-culture.

Rationale for Brief Selection My initial attraction to the brief was fuelled by a number of different personal feelings. Having suffered with minor obsessive-compulsive disorder from a young age and progressing into my adult life I felt that tackling these issues on a national scale was an endeavour to which I felt a level of empathy. However, taking this experience into account, I must not allow it to become a hindrance by putting to much emphasis or placed assumptions based on my own experience and still ground my solutions in a depth of research.

People close to me, particularly into my adult life, have battled mental health disorders and so I felt that I would be able to identify with the challenges and issued raised from this content. Finally, I believe in graphic design for positive behavioural and social impact and this brief, I felt, was the most relevant to this cause.

Week 01

Engage myself Self-reflection

Would I use my

Inform

own solution?

Behaviour Systems

Understanding Perception

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Studio Discussions

Change

Communication

Inspire Inquiry

Consider

Mental Health

Overcome

Why?

What are the under-

situations

lying assumptions of the brief

Prevention

Depressed people Incentive

are never happy?

Research

Response based on Fact

primary documentation

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Rationale

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Week 01

Initial Concept

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Initial Response My initial response to the brief, after some consideration of the subject matter, to think about how I could inspire people to do positive things on a daily basis without them feeling as though they were being coerced into it.

I thought about what my strengths were as a primarily editorial designer and how I could deliver the content required by people to change their behaviour in an appealing, fun and mainstream manner. The inspiration came to me from a gift that I had given my younger brother one year for his birthday, ‘Wreck This Journal’ [see opposite page]. The sketchbook challenges people to perform daily creative tasks in order to ‘wreck’ the book, the final result being that the user has a definitive product of their creativity, a sense of achievement and has learned through the process.

I began to consider how this model could be applied to the current brief. Could I ask individuals to perform daily tasks to increase their everyday well-being? Could there be an element of interaction with the publication, such as scrap-booking of photographs, thoughts and emotions throughout the journey of self discovery?

It seemed that this was a good starting place to build upon, the manner in which this content is delivered fits neatly into the mainstream. It is personal, there is no right or wrong way of performing the actions and documenting them, but it inspires daily activity.

If the content of my daily activities were to be delivered in the form of a publication it now seemed a good idea to look at what other ‘self-help’ books are currently successful and what is positive about the way that they are designed/conveyed.

Finally I began thinking about whether or not the book would explain the motivation for its existence. I didn’t want to alienate a mainstream audience by targeting it specifically at those struggling with mental disorders but simultaneously wanted to give a rationale for the publication and its benefits. I therefore decided that a positive and upbeat prologue about exercise, freedom, giving, learning, volunteering and being with loved ones could be followed by a more rational epilogue explaining the benefits to mental well-being, perhaps drawing comparisons with a more community minded pre-war Britain.

Week 01

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Wreck This Journal

Initial Response Continued I also made some further initial deliberations regarding printing methods for such a publication, considering that a UV orange spot colour would be a bright positive touch, though it may not be cost-effective. The character of typography was also an important consideration, something with a friendly voice would certainly need to be employed. In my mind’s eye I began to conceive a colourful and playful visual vocabulary, experimenting with paint brush strokes and bright block colour.

However, I found these challenges to be wordy, poorly delivered and not particularly engaging. I decided to continue on my path of research bearing in mind that I would need to try and find an alternative, more exciting angle at which to deliver the content.

Continuing with my concept I also conceived that it would be a strong addition to the project to perform each of the tasks that I delivered in the publication and document them throughout the book, as well as in a motion piece, to act as promotion for the project.

Author, illustrator and guerrilla artist Keri Smith is the driving force behind ‘Wreck This Journal’ a journal that challenges its audience page by page to cause creative ‘acts of destruction’ to their project. Each page delivering an original and subversive suggestion.

The book has been hugely successful in inspiring a new generation of young artists to think creatively and outside of the box with tasks that engage and excite.

The base concept is certainly one that I feel could be modified to make it relevant to the current brief.

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Running an initial title that I had imagined for the publication, ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’, through an online search engine I discovered that the tag ‘In Pursuit of Happiness’ was already attributed to a self help-book in the United States. There was no possible way I could have been influenced by this book, it was completely unfamiliar to me. However, on further reflection, I considered that the title could be perhaps be too closely associated to mental health issues and was a bit weak in any case. What perturbed me further was that the site had a blog titled ‘Weekly Challenge’ devoted to self-reflective tasks.

Wreck This Journal

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Week 01

It’s Not How Good You Are …

Arden’s writing is direct, frank and informative, it inspires people to change their behaviour and think about the alternative

Week 01

It’s Not How Good You Are …

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Paul Arden The former and late executive creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi Paul Arden was, at the height of his career,responsible for some of the most memorable campaigns in early British advertising.

Many with whom he worked cited his legendarily unconventional management style and unyielding passion as utterly inspirational. After retirement from the industry his first contribution to the world of literacy [following a stint writing for The Independent], ‘It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be’ was met with critical acclaim selling over half a million copies.

Arden’s witty and original publications broke the conventional mould for self-help literature, permeating into the mainstream and becoming hugely popular nationwide. Though I feel as though the general tone of his work may have been articulated towards, or at least particularly relevant to, the creative industry, his success in writing this publication speaks as a model of what is achievable. In this sense I believe that his publications are relevant to my own initial idea and I can certainly consider the originality of these books as an inspiration point for designing my own ‘self-help’ book. I need to consider how I too can break the conventions of this genre and speak to my audience in direct, succinct, well designed statements.

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Week 01

Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite

The simple aesthetic approach of his publications and honest

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demeanour breaks conventions of self-help literature. A language of sympathy and empathy is instead replaced by ‘YOU’ and ‘I’ inspiring the reader to take charge

Week 01

Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite

genius, unconventional in his approach but inspiring nonetheless, the tone of his literature is simple, accessible and engaging for a vast and varied audience, permeating mainstream culture with ease

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Arden was a creative

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Week 01

Lewis Storey

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The best way that I can describe mental illness is like a spectrum on a crescent moon shaped diagram, people that can cope with daily life are on the outskirts and those that can’t move towards the centre of the crescent

Lewis Storey Lewis is a Mental Health Support Worker at ‘Options for Living’ on the outskirts of Bath. I met him to talk about his experience of working in the mental health sector and to gain some further insights into the brief.

From Lewis’s experience of working in mental health care for the last two years he described that the majority of his patients fell into one of four categories, those with; Aspergers/autism, schizophrenia [positive and negative], depression and borderline personality disorders [those with a skewed perception of self or others]. Though he also told me that these categories were not definitive and more often than not those in his care would be suffering from more than one affliction, the two being inter-weaved. He also described the role of his job as being, ‘to make myself redundant’, ‘to aid people in rehabilitation back into coping with day to day, life to a point where they no longer need support’.

Regarding depression and anxiety in particular I learned that the subjects were incredibly broad and expansive, most people sit on a spectrum rather than being definitively ‘normal’ or a manic depressant. I suppose that this is the crux of the issue, most people experience depression at some point in their life and so these positive daily experiences have to instill behaviour that help everybody deal with those feelings. In Lewis’s experience the majority of people that do suffer with depression regularly will have other mental illnesses as well and mostly always they are rooted in a form of anxiety.

In terms of treatment I learned that traditional health care puts great emphasis on getting people active and having some form of routine, encouraging people to get up from bed, out of the house, exercising and doing activities that they enjoy. Lewis described one particular patient at ‘Options for Living’, who suffers with autism, OCD and depression, and how the patient had to have a strict daily routine that had only changed once in the two years Lewis had been working with him. In attempting to put the onset of severe depression into some kind of context he told me that the patients don’t know what to do with themselves unless prompted or encouraged. In the majority of cases if they had a day off from work they wouldn’t be able to plan what to do without help.

Lewis explained that introducing a routine into a sufferers life usually had an instant positive impact on their mental well-being but that in the worst cases it could be counteractive to expect too much from somebody. The people that he works with that suffer the most are often set a target of up to two years to get their life to a stage where they are self-sufficient and getting somebody out of bed and to the shops can sometimes take months. This presents a real challenge in making my solution completely universal to all.

Week 01

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Lewis Storey

The majority of patients admitted into formal care were either below the age of twenty-seven or into their late forties and beyond. In Lewis’s opinion he felt that people in the gap between the two ages had usually established a healthy routine in life and were less likely to need day to day support.

I also discovered that over the two year Lewis had been working for ‘Options for Living’ he had seen the company expand dramatically and noticeably, he felt as a symptom of an increasing issue in society. He also explained that society was beginning to pick up on issues more quickly, as stigma around mental illness decreases and it becomes less shameful, more and more people are diagnosed. To counteract I asked if there was an element of over-diagnosis to which he agreed in cases that there was. Furthermore he explained that diagnosis was in many cases irrelevant because of the spectrum of illness present in people and the avoidance of labelling them to negative effect.

We spoke about ‘needs-led’ care which focussed on creating or discovering a way to fix people’s problems through new experiences and the performance of necessary daily tasks. In most cases a goal would be set with the patient and then together with a care-worker they would work a plan backwards from the target into manageable daily steps.

Speaking specifically about the brief and the issues that I have found arising from challenges Lewis confirmed to me that “no matter what [my solution is] you will end up excluding someone, the problem is that people are all so different”, an issue that I had suspected from the onset. Though obviously my challenge would be to make my solution as all inclusive as possible. His experience of mental health issues was that to be inclusive of the worst suffering people I would need to include routine tasks that the majority of people would take for granted such as ‘going to the shop’.

Finally we spoke of the limitations of working with a publication, Lewis raised a valid area of critique in that there would have to be a limit to content, and that repeating tasks may not prove satisfactory for development. He also warned of cost factors and being wary of the solution losing appeal, becoming a checklist or compartmentalised.

It’s an ‘invisible illness’ and can be so difficult to identify and combat. The natural response for most care-workers going through personality disorder training is to recognise their self in many of the condition’s

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I asked if a reflective process was ever utilised to help people improve their self-worth, such as using the past as a reference to motivate people [ie. ‘you’ve done this before, so you can it again’] because I had imagined that a documentation of such experiences [such as scrap-booking in my publication] may be of worth. He agreed counteracting with the statement that whatever my decision for a solution “it must be fun, otherwise there’s no point, it has to be the best parts of the day, no-one wants to be challenged to take a bath”. I concluded that in order to make the solution all inclusive it may be better to produce a series of books in varying difficulties, this would help people to progress whilst not forcing the most mentally ill out of their comfort zone and forcing relapse. It will also allow people to develop their ability to complete the challenges at varying speeds, in relation to their ability. This varying level of difficulty would also introduce an element of self reflection through allowing people to document their progress in graphs at the back of the book.

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Week 01

Lewis Storey

I asked about the process of diagnosis and admission and identified a number of flaws. It seems that people’s issues are usually only recognised once they or their families have sought help for them. Meaning that those who do not chose to speak to their GP or friends/family about their condition may slip through the system. It appears that people are required to take assess and take responsibility for the first steps of treatment themselves. Putting the onus on the individual this relates to my solution, whilst I want my solution to be incentivised for mainstream appeal the individual may also need to recognise their own need for use of said service. Ultimately it is more about the approach of care than every single individual.

In treating depression Lewis described a system called ‘Centre Personal’ care, in which the carer works with the individual to identify activities of interest and experience, often this proves difficult because the depressed individual “doesn’t know what they like” and need to be encouraged to try new things. He likened it to a ‘carrot and stick’ method of tempting people out of the house with achievable activities that they are motivated to perform. It also gives the individual the opportunity to feel as though they are leading their own support. Lewis stated that in finding these areas of interest it was in fact common to take people to do things that they ended up hating but that the sense of discovery was all part of the experience. The individuals ability to find something to give them new to give them purpose was integral to the care programme. Lewis stated that he had a form called an ‘Interest Checklist’ that he would be happy to send me for my research.

Overall he expressed an interest in my proposed concept as an expansion of the ‘Interest Checklist’ and stated that if the project were free or government funded it would most likely be something that they would find extremely useful at his place of work, ‘Options for Living’.

Week 01

Lewis Storey

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Lewis had some final words of wisdom for me before we separated, he warned of making sweeping generalisations or stereotyping individuals in my final solution. Additionally mentioning that vocabulary would also be integral to the performance of the service, people don’t want to feel marginalised or labelled with a term expressing their ill health, but there should still be an element of empathy or sympathy involved. The project should have a positive focus and demeanour avoiding negative connotations, because a publication would be all about language through written text I would need to choose my voice and vocabulary carefully to maximise it’s effect. Negative expression would possibly resonate more in written form.

Week 01

Lewis Storey

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Interest Checklist Shown here is an example of the ‘Interest Checklist’ used by leading health care authorities for a ‘Centre Personal’ approach to care. Users can identify a range of interest areas, whether they have explored such activities before, would like to now or in the future and document there opinions on each activity.

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Lewis Storey Week 01

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Week 02

We Are What We Do

Tutorial week two Seeing the name of a community design initiative mentioned on the brief I decided that it would be a good idea to research a little into the design portfolio of ‘We Are What We Do’. As a designer who has an interest in social, economical and cultural impact I felt that I should look at the work that they are producing. The below is an excerpt from their website; We Are What We Do is a not-for-profit behaviour change company with over eight years experience in shifting the everyday behaviours of individuals and tackling a series of major social and environmental issues.

They create mainstream products and services, which are useful or desirable in their own right and facilitate positive behaviours, meaning they can have a major, sustainable impact on the issues we address.

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Change the World for a Fiver This project, in particular, stood out to me as being of interest. Partly I think because it bears similarities to my own proposal. The key aspect of the solution is a publication which page by page informs the reader about steps that they can take to make improvements in their behaviour. I find it heartening to read that this particular solution was an enormous success, especially because in 2005 the publication reached the top ten in the best sellers’ list and since its publication has sold over 1.5 million copies. This shows evidence that by-passing technological product and producing a print based solution is not out of the question.

Progress Still Battles Prejudice When it Comes to Mental Health In addition to looking at their portfolio I also found this blog post which contained some useful and insightful information relevant to the design brief.

In particular I found it interesting that the findings of We Are What We Do’s research was that there was no particular consensus as to what qualified as behaviours that support good mental well-being. But that the relationship between common mental health disorders and daily behaviours was stronger than in any other mental illness and that there are ideas layed out for future research as interest snowballs. There was also an interesting point about avoiding the solution coming across as alternative [or hippy] and allowing it to become trapped in a cultural niche.

In addition to this their research discovered that the neurological pathways can be changed by altering behaviours and thought patterns, which in turn affects habitual thoughts and perceptions. This is scientific proof required to rationalise the use of daily behaviours to change mental well-being.

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We Are What We Do Week 02

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Week 02

We Are What We Do

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This report also outlines so interesting ideas about how the global media may be feeding into issues around depression and mental well-being. Increased sensitivity to common mental disorders could be a result of the media giving increased attention to the topics, addressing them as symptomatic of modern culture, creating a cycle of self-fulfilling prophecy.

This may be further compounded by lower and lower thresholds for the definition of mental health disorders submitted by leading psychological papers on a regular basis. All of which may result in a heightened sensitivity to mental illness.

Though as this report states there are ‘very few examples of proven, scaled solutions’ I will endeavour to focus some of my research towards Innovation Labs and NESTA, who’s research is hailed as being ground-breaking work.

Week 02

Mind – Mental Health Statistics & Research

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Mind The charity ‘Mind’ is one of the larger mental health organisations in Britain. For over 65 years they have been campaigning publicly, influencing key decision makers in governmental power. Their strategy states; “We won’t give up until everyone experiencing a mental health problem gets both support and respect. We provide advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem. We campaign to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding”.

The mental health research and statistics over subsequent pages will be quoted or adapted from Mind.

Factors in Mental Health

Well-being Building Resilient Communities Report

ˌˌ Carers, friends and family ˌˌ Debt ˌˌ Exercise ˌˌ Physical activity. ˌˌ Finances and money management

Resilience is the capacity of people to confront and cope with life’s challenges; to maintain their wellbeing in the face of adversity. Mind and the Mental Health Foundation’s report identifies three key factors:

ˌˌ Food and mood ˌˌ Activities that promote wellbeing

ˌˌ Mindfulness

ˌˌ Building social capital

ˌˌ Online safety and support

ˌˌ Developing psychological coping strategies

ˌˌ Parenting in a crisis ˌˌ Relaxation ˌˌ Sleep ˌˌ Student ˌˌ Wellbeing ˌˌ Work

Shocking Facts No Health Without Mental Health Report At any one time, at least one person in six is experiencing a mental health condition (McManus et al.,2009.

Depression and anxiety affect about half of the adult population at some point in their lives.

Mental health conditions account for 23% of the burden of disease but just 13% of NHS spending. Three-quarters of people affected never receive any treatment for their mental health condition (LSE, 2012).

Mental ill health costs some £105 billion each year in England alone. This includes £21bn in health and social care costs and £29bn in losses to business (Centre for Mental Health, 2010).

Half of all lifetime mental health problems emerge before the age of 14 (Kim-Cohen et al., 2003; Kessler et al, 2005).People with a severe mental illness die up to 20 years younger than their peers in the UK ( Chang et al., 2011; Brown et al., 2010).

Well-being is made up of two key elements; ‘feeling good’ and ‘functioning well’. The New Economics Foundation’s report, Five Ways to Wellbeing, sets out five actions that promote wellbeing. Importantly, these are not just a person’s individual responsibility, but can be influenced by ‘upstream’ interventions; shaping existing services or providing new services in such a way that they encourage behaviours that promote wellbeing.

The five ways to wellbeing are: connect, be active, take notice, keep learning, and give.

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ˌˌ Stress and student life

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Week 02

Mind – Mental Health Statistics & Research

Depression

Possible Triggers/Causes

Feelings ˌˌ I am low-spirited for much of the time, every day ˌˌ I feel restless and agitated ˌˌ I get tearful easily ˌˌ I feel numb, empty and full of despair ˌˌ I feel isolated and unable to relate to other people ˌˌ I am unusually irritable or impatient ˌˌ I find no pleasure in life or things I usually enjoy ˌˌ I feel helpless ˌˌ I have lost interest in sex ˌˌ I am experiencing a sense of unreality

Life Events. An unwelcome or traumatic event; being sacked, divorced or physically/sexually assaulted Loss. The death of someone close, a major life change or moving from one phase of life to another Anger. An experience that leaves the person angry or helpless, perhaps the person was unable to express Childhood Experiences. A traumatic event, emotional and physical abuse or lack of learned coping skills Physical Conditions. Some physical conditions are overlooked as causes of depression because the onus is on the physical ailment Side Effects of Medication. Legal substances, alcohol or illegal street drugs Diet. Poor diet and lack of general fitness Genetics. Some are more prone to depression than other due to genetics or learned behaviour from relatives Chemical Changes in the Brain. Chemical imbalances

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Behaviour ˌˌ I’m not doing activities I usually enjoy ˌˌ I am avoiding social events I usually enjoy ˌˌ I have cut myself off and can’t ask for help ˌˌ I am self-harming ˌˌ I find it difficult to speak Thoughts ˌˌ I am having difficulty remembering things ˌˌ I find it hard to concentrate or make decisions ˌˌ I blame myself a lot and feel guilty about things ˌˌ I have no self-confidence or self-esteem ˌˌ I am having a lot of negative thoughts ˌˌ The future seems bleak ˌˌ What’s the point? ˌˌ I have been thinking about suicide

Self-Help When people are feeling depressed, they may not be feeling energetic or motivated to work. But if they are able to take an active part in treatment, it should help. ˌˌ Breaking the negative cycle ˌˌ Keeping active ˌˌ Connecting with other people ˌˌ Caring for themselves

Physical Symptoms ˌˌ I have difficulty sleeping ˌˌ I am sleeping much more than usual ˌˌ I feel tired and have no energy ˌˌ I have lost my appetite, and am losing weight ˌˌ I am eating a lot more than usual/putting weight on ˌˌ I have physical aches and pains with no obvious physical cause ˌˌ I am moving very slowly ˌˌ I am using tobacco, alcohol or other drugs a lot

Organised Help ˌˌ Active monitoring ˌˌ Cognitive behavioural therapy ˌˌ Mindfulness cognitive therapy ˌˌ Behavioural activation ˌˌ Counselling ˌˌ Psychotherapy ˌˌ Medication

People who are depressed often have anxiety as well – the two problems often occur together, and each can make the other worse. If you are feeling anxious, your mind may be full of busy, repetitive thoughts, which make it hard to concentrate, relax, or sleep. You may have physical symptoms, such as headaches, aching muscles, sweating and dizziness.

ˌˌ Exercise ˌˌ Home visits ˌˌ Volunteering ˌˌ Art therapy ˌˌ Alternative medicine ˌˌ Hospital admission ˌˌ Electroconvulsive therapy ˌˌ Neurosurgery

Week 02

Mind – Mental Health Statistics & Research

Anxiety What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is something we all experience from time to time. Most people can relate to feeling tense, uncertain and, perhaps, fearful at the thought of sitting an exam, going into hospital, attending an interview or starting a new job. People may worry about feeling uncomfortable, appearing foolish or how successful you will be. In turn, these worries can affect their sleep, appetite and ability to concentrate.

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Short Term Effects ˌˌ Increased muscular tension can cause discomfort

and headaches ˌˌ Rapid breathing may make you people light-headed

and shaky ˌˌ Rising blood pressure can make people more aware

of a pounding heart ˌˌ Changes in the blood supply to your digestive system

may cause nausea and sickness ˌˌ An urgent need to visit the toilet, and get ‘butterflies’

Fight or Flight Anxiety and fear are instinctive and can protect people from danger. When a person feels under threat, anxiety and fear trigger the release of hormones, such as adrenalin. These changes make the body able to take action and protect you in a dangerous situation either by running away or fighting. It is known as the ‘fight or flight’ reflex.

in the stomach

Physical Effects ˌˌ Fear combined with tension and lack of sleep can

weaken the immune system ˌˌ Experience of digestive difficulties ˌˌ Depression

Psychological Effects ˌˌ Fear ˌˌ Irritability

Panic Attacks A panic attack is an exaggeration of the body’s normal response to fear, stress or excitement. It is the rapid build-up of overwhelming sensations, such as a pounding heartbeat, feeling faint, sweating, nausea, chest pains, breathing discomfort, feelings of losing control, shaky limbs and legs turning to jelly.

ˌˌ Inability to relax or concentrate ˌˌ Pessimism ˌˌ Substance abuse ˌˌ Difficulty holding down work and relationships

Self-Help ˌˌ Symptom control, breathing and relaxation

Possible Causes/Triggers

ˌˌ Assertiveness training, confidence ˌˌ Complimentary therapies; Yoga, meditation,

Past Experiences. A distressing past event, anxiety or distress regarding facing the event again Everyday Life & Habits. Excess sugar, caffeine, poor diet, drug misuse, exhaustion, side effects of medication Fear of Losing Control. Worries about the future or events outside of one’s control

Types of Anxiety Disorder ˌˌ Phobias ˌˌ Generalised anxiety disorder ˌˌ Obsessive compulsive disorder ˌˌ Post-traumatic stress disorder ˌˌ Panic disorder

aromatherapy, massage, reflexology, herbalism, homeopathy and hypnotherapy ˌˌ Healthy lifestyle choices; sleep and diet, avoidance of stimulants such as coffee or nicotine ˌˌ Talking to others about anxiety

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Severe Anxiety If the anxiety stays at a high level for a long time, it may become difficult to deal with everyday life. Anxiety may become severe; leaving a person feeling powerless, out of control, as if they are about to die or go mad.

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Week 02

Rethink – Mental Health Statistics & Research

Rethink Mental Illness “Over 40 years ago, one man bravely spoke about his family’s experiences of mental illness in a letter to the Times and in the process brought together hundreds to talk about their experiences of mental illness and support each other.”

Rethink now supports almost 60,000 people every year across England to get through crises, to live independently and to realise they are not alone. The raise funds, campaign for awareness and provide information for all.

The mental health research and statistics on this page will be quoted or adapted from Rethink.

Symptoms of Anxiety ˌˌ Feeling constantly irritable or worried ˌˌ Difficulties sleeping ˌˌ Difficulties concentrating

Symptoms of Depression Described by the International Classification of Diseases (ICD 10) which is the criteria that can be used to diagnose mental health problems.

ˌˌ Feelings of dread or impending doom ˌˌ Low mood and feeling sad

Symptoms of Anxiety

ˌˌ Reduction of energy and decrease in activity ˌˌ Loss of interest in pleasurable activities

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ˌˌ Heart palpitations (irregular beat)

ˌˌ Loss of concentration

ˌˌ Sweating

ˌˌ Tiredness after little activity

ˌˌ Tension and pains

ˌˌ Sleeping and eating less [or increased]

ˌˌ Heavy and rapid breathing

ˌˌ Loss of self-esteem and self-confidence

ˌˌ Dizziness

ˌˌ Guilt or worthlessness

ˌˌ Fainting

ˌˌ Loss of sex drive

ˌˌ Indigestion

ˌˌ Suicidal thoughts and acts

ˌˌ Diarrhoea ˌˌ Stomach aches and sickness

16% of adults suffer from some sort of anxiety disorder.

This means that they experience anxiety, worry, fear or panic at a greater level than is normal. Anxiety can be caused by specific situations or it can be present constantly. Anxiety disorders are generally more common in women than in men, but this can vary depending on the type of condition.

Depression affects anyone of any age, including young children. It is one of the most common mental illnesses.

More than 15 out of every 100 people will experience an episode of depression during their life. However, these figures are based on people who actually seek help, and there will be more who remain undiagnosed. Women are diagnosed with depression more than men but this could be due to the fact that statistically women are more likely to seek help.

Common Therapy According to NICE (National Institute of Health and Care Excellence), the most promising and commonly used treatment for depression at the moment is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Week 02

MHF– Mental Health Statistics & Research

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Mental Health Foundation The Mental Health Foundation is committed to reducing suffering caused by ill mental health and helping everyone lead mentally healthier lives. They help people survive, recover and prevent mental health issues through; research, developing practical solutions, campaigning to reduce stigma and discrimination and promoting better mental health.

The mental health research and statistics on this page will be quoted or adapted from MHF.

Shocking Facts Mixed anxiety & depression is the most common mental disorder in Britain, with almost 9% of people meeting criteria for diagnosis. (The Office for National Statistics Psychiatric Morbidity report, 2001).

Between 8-12% of the population experience depression in any year. (The Office for National Statistics Psychiatric Morbidity report, 2001).

World Mental Health Day 2012 Depression: A Global Crisis Mental Health Awareness Week 2013 ‘Let’s Get Physical’ 13 – 19 May Physical activity is often described as something we ‘ought to do’ to avoid developing health problems such as diabetes and heart disease. What’s less often explained is the huge potential it has to enhance our happiness and quality of life and reduce mental illness.

This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week aims to shift our motivation for physical activity to something we choose to do to increase our wellbeing.

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About half of people with common mental health problems are no longer affected after 18 months, but poorer people, the long-term sick and unemployed people are more likely to be still affected than the general population. (Better Or Worse: A Longitudinal Study Of The Mental Health Of Adults In Great Britain, National Statistics, 2003).

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Week 03

Top Common Disorders

EVERYDAY w e l l - b e i n g

MIND – for better mental health

social disorders bipolar disorder Eating disorders Schizophrenia depression Phobias anxiety autism OCd

Week 03

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Mental Health Foundation - Fundamental Facts

Tutorial week three The Fundamental Facts I found a useful report dating back to 2007, from the Mental Health Foundation, that has some quite in-depth statistics. The graph mapping mental neurosis to age groups is particularly useful for defining a target audience.

Women Men All adults

250

200

150

100

0

16 – 19

20 – 24

25 – 29

30 – 34

35 – 39

40 – 44

45 – 49

50 – 54

55 – 59

60 – 64

65 – 69

70 – 74

Neurotic disorders: prevalence by age per 1000

Facts ˌˌ Mixed anxiety and depression is the most common mental disorder in Britain ˌˌ Women are more likely to have been treated for a mental health problem than men ˌˌ About 10% of children have a mental health problem at any one time ˌˌ Depression affects 1 in 5 older people ˌˌ Only 1 in 10 prisoners has no mental disorder ˌˌ

1 in 4 families worldwide is likely to have at least one member with a mental disorder

ˌˌ Overall, common mental health problems peak in middle age. 20-25% of people in the 45-54

years age group have a ‘neurotic disorder’. As people age, neurotic disorders become less common, with the lowest level recorded in the 70-74 years age group ˌˌ Between 8% and 12% of the population experience depression in any year ˌˌ Depression tends to recur in most people. More than half of people who have one episode of depression will have another, while those who have a second episode have a further relapse risk of 70%. After a third episode, the relapse risk is 90%. For about 1 in 5 people,it is chronic ˌˌ People who experience anxiety usually have symptoms that fit into more than one category of anxiety disorder, and are usually diagnosed with at least one other mental disorder, most commonly depression ˌˌ Social phobia, a persistent fear of being seen negatively or humiliated in social or performance

situations, is the third most commonly diagnosed mental disorder in adults worldwide, with a lifetime prevalence of at least 5%

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Week 03

Innovations Labs

Innovation Labs Innovation Labs was one of the ground-breaking initiatives, leading future research into mental well-being, mentioned in the ‘We Are What We Do’ blog post.

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The initiative looks to improve young people’s mental health and well-being using contemporary digital solutions. Since July 2011 they’ve been running workshops with young people, mental health professionals and digital agencies. To incubate innovative ideas to develop to digital products. Much of what is promised is currently hypothetical and in development. However, it seems that their work is based in a wide depth of research, and therefore very relevant to the current RSA brief.

Mind’s Eye

Madly in Love

Mind’s Eye is an app that helps young people understand what contributed to mental health by linking mood to moments in time. It focuses on one simple action: a record of mood at a single point.

Madly in Love in a platform for young people to share stories about how mental health as affected their romantics relationships, get advice and feel supported.

MiniMe MiniMe began as a crisis app, a interactive recovery guide designed as a smart-phone application. It has been conceived for young people to use it to deal with rapid deterioration in their own mental health. As an app it is “reactive and proactive and aims to promote independence and strengthen resilience”. According to Innovation Labs; professional support when approaching crisis or experiencing heightened levels of distress can be difficult for young people, even if they are already engage in support services.

It was originally conceived to the clear specification of supporting young people whose love lives are affected by mental health — whether they’re in a relationship, dating, single or partnered with someone who has mental health problems.

According to Innovation Labs the incentive for this project is the benefit of healthy romantics relationships on the lives of people with mental health are often underestimated.

Week 03

Top Common Behaviours & Symptoms

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MIND – for better mental health

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self-harm suicidal thoughts panic attacks Avoidance isolation LACk of energy agitation irritability loss of appetite low self-esteem insomnia

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Week 03

NESTA – Innovations in Mental Health

NESTA Nesta is an independent charity with a mission to help people and organisations bring great ideas to life. According to their manifesto they do this by “providing investments and grants and mobilising research, networks and skills.” They rely on the strength of partnerships formed with other innovators, community organisations, educators and investors.

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The project series ‘Innovations in Mental Health’ challenged frontline workers, service users and carers to come up with new ways to deliver mental health services. A collection of eleven projects were selected and piloted to find out how it is possible to strengthen, support and spread good ideas so they can become effective interventions.

In my own personal opinion I can see that these projects are creative but smart, based in business acumen and financially aware. They show a clear level of commercial awareness and the ability for the schemes to appeal to a target audience in addition to being viable for scaling to a wider audience.

They are a valid topic of research, however, I feel that they lack an element of mainstream appeal that is required specifically for the RSA brief.

Animations in Therapy

Exposing Subtle Abuse

Power of Voice

‘Animations in Therapy’ is a project conceived to build on the work of an experienced therapist, Helen Mason, who is exploring the therapeutic potential of animation for vulnerable children and families.

The aim of this project is to raise awareness of staff and tenants in a housing association to the various forms of ‘subtle abuse’ targeted at vulnerable mentally ill people. This may include coercion to borrow money by people “befriending” them or scams. It will look at ways to address, report or ideally avoid it.

The brainchild of a GP, this project will take an existing patient feedback service, Patient Opinion, and develop the idea for the mental health sector. The current service allows patients to share the story of their care at acute hospitals, and rate the service they receive.

Hospitals subscribe to the service as a means of sourcing feedback, engaging in dialogue, and driving service improvement.

Helen is interested in how animation can be used to create a unique, non-verbal, creative environment to support children with identified mental health needs.

Human Resources Kit

The project will see a film-maker work with tenants to make an informative DVD, documenting and acting out real-life situations in which this abuse has occurred.

A Scottish-based international research organisation has designed a ‘Human Resource Kit’, which includes materials that individuals can use to support their own mental well-being.

The idea originally came from those who have suffered this subtle form of abuse and wanted to protect others by forewarning and empowering them to recognise and deal with abuse.

It is being trialled with prisoners at a women’s prison in Scotland, where it enhances existing psychological services, giving prisoners the skills to become peer tutors for other prisoners.

Working in partnership with an NHS Trust, the new project will develop innovative web-based approaches to enable those using the mental health service to share their experiences online, and feed that back to providers and commissioners, while protecting user privacy and autonomy.

Week 03

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NESTA – Innovations in Mental Health

Step Forward

Slam & Vauxhal City Farm

Led by a group of mental health clinicians and educators who already specialise in producing materials to teach clinical skills, this project will engage users of the mental health system in the creation of a series of communication skills workshops and an online interactive learning resource for use in medical and nursing curricula throughout the UK.

This project is building on the organisation’s existing work, running creative workshops with mental health patients in community, day centre and hospital settings. The production will be performed inside the unit and at mainstream community and theatre venues.

This project will use a city farm to provide practical therapy for vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers and help them adjust to life in a new country. The setting is designed to help overcome the difficulty of engaging these, often very traumatised, individuals with the mental health system.

The project aims to help some of the most vulnerable mental health patients take a major step forward in their own healing and recovery by building self-esteem and self-confidence, encouraging interaction with others, and lessening the stigma of mental distress.

Those involved will also have the opportunity to train in aspects of theatre or live performance including creative writing, costume and set design or sound and lighting.

The project has three key aims: to increase the clients’ sense of safety; to help them work through their traumatic experiences within the safety of therapy in a non-hospital setting; and to re-connect with everyday life. It will do this by providing emotional and practical support; offering structure through specific, practical activities; building kinship with people who have had similar experiences; building confidence and self-reliance; and establishing links.

Computers for Dementia

Trading Places

Seed Project

The project will be delivered in partnership by Dementia Voice, part of the Housing 21 group and Innovations in Dementia, a community interest company. ‘Innovations in Dementia’ has extensive experience of enabling individuals with dementia to learn or re-learn computer skills. This project will pilot a method of disseminating their experience to day-care staff, who work with older people who suffer from dementia.

This project expands on a volunteer project already running in the North East, with Tyneside Cyrenians. The current project sees service users trade places with paid staff and, with their support, undertake all aspects of running the drop-in centre, which provides practical support and advice to homeless people.

A designer working in the NHS has devised a way of engaging mentally ill people, within inpatient units, in the re-design of their own environment. Her work began as part of the national drive to increase privacy, dignity and security.

Its aim is to identify the barriers to effective communication between service providers and users that result from stereotypes and stigmatising around issues of gender, sexuality, faith and culture.

The learning tools will be designed to help students reflect upon and process their feelings towards particular patients and problems, under guidance from teachers, before being placed in real life situations.

The project will include an evaluation of the benefits of computer-based activities for people with dementia in day-care settings, as well as the effectiveness of the training process for care staff.

Involvement in the programme will also ensure there is a regular point of engagement between those attending the centre and health and social care staff, empowering those using the service to ask for additional support that they may possibly need.

The designer has developed a simple board game, based on monopoly, which gives those in the units a platform to talk about what they want from their environment.

It also helps them to overcome the difficulties they have in voicing their opinions.

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Let’s Talk

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Week 03

The Innovation of Loneliness

We are vulnerable, we are lonely. But we are afraid on intimacy. While the social networks offer us three gratifying fantasies; one we can put our attention wherever we want it to be, e v e ry d ay w e l l- b e i n g

two we will always be heard and three that we will never have to be alone

The Innovation of Loneliness Time and time again throughout the process of my research the notion of loneliness has as been identified as a significant contributing factor to mental ill health. This insightful motion info-piece, produced by Shimi Cohen at Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, addresses the issue of loneliness. Shimi postulates that loneliness is in fact a symptom of Western and modern contemporary society, a society which sanctions individuality, wealth, career, self-image and consumerism above all else. He further states that people become disassociated from one another in favour of a self-actualisation ideal, boldly stating that “loneliness has become the most common ailment of the modern world”.

Shimi the continues to theorise that a common rationale for this may be proliferation of online social networking, he speaks of a fantasy of substitution whereby we are replacing common social dialogue and mistaking it for simple digital interaction — “sacrificing conversation for connection”.

Week 03

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The Innovation of Loneliness

We slip into thinking that always being connected is going to make us feel less alone. The opposite is true.

If we’re not able to be alone, we’re only going to know how to be lonely

I strongly agree with the premise of Shimi’s argument. As a social network user I have often considered that my life may be changed substantially for the better if I were to disassociate myself from social networking. Giving myself the opportunity to benefit from social interactions of a better quality.

Also that, like many of my peers, I may feel less isolated if I lived in a time when social networks were not so prevalent and intertwined into interactions and social order.

I also however think that it would be naive to feel that it would be possible to change people’s behaviour towards social networking completely because the actions have now become so deeply ingrained into our social fabric.

Fundamentally though as a premise, I like the idea of coercing people with common mental health ailments into making more personal and meaningful social interactions outside of the digital ‘second life’.

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Personal Thoughts

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Week 03

Soul Pancake – The Science of Happiness

An Experiment in Gratitude According to ‘The Science of Happiness’; psychologists have concluded that the biggest contributing factor to overall happiness in a person’s life is: how much gratitude they show.

The control experiment asked a focus group of volunteers to act as subjects.

First they gave them a test, asking them to close their eyes and visualise somebody who was influential in their lives. A person who did something amazing or important for them. They asked the subjects to write their feelings down and then call the person and read them the script.

Results showed an increase in happiness between 2 – 4% in those that took the time to write their thoughts but couldn’t call the person for whatever reason. Whilst in those that could make the call there was a happiness increase of 4 – 19%.

The individual who experienced the biggest change in happiness was in fact the person who initially measured their personal happiness at the lowest.

Overall an interesting premise, one of the challenges in my publication could be a repeat of this experiment, asking people to voice their gratitude to a friend or loved one. Interestingly this is the first time that gratitude has been identified in my research as being a factor in mental well-being, it may even be a marginalised or over-looked emotion in this field.

Week 03

Soul Pancake – The Science of Happiness

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Those who expressed gratitude to a friend or loved one saw an instant four to nineteen percent rise in their level of happiness and mood e v e ry d ay w e l l- b e i n g

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Week 03

UWE Computer Science – SAM

UWE SAM [Self-Help Anxiety Management App] According to the UWE website; SAM is a mobile application developed to enable personalised anxiety monitoring and management. Produced in collaboration between CSCT and the Psychology Department in Health and Life Sciences, who are working with MyOxygen, a Bristol-based application developer. With the development being informed by clinical evidence and a user-centred design process. The app allows a user to: ˌˌ Monitor their anxiety levels and visualise their anxiety profile over time ˌˌ Discover and apply self-help techniques including multimedia and mini-games ˌˌ Share anonymous advice and ratings with the user community (the ‘social cloud’)

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Thoughts Whilst I personally think that the design deliverance and interface is a little ropey it seems that this app has a well deliberated structure. Clearly it has been produced on a base and depth of sound clinical research. The core features of the app allow for people suffering with routine anxiety to manage their feelings by recording data and sharing with a community and sufferers.

The notion of peer support and speaking to others with the same issues is not one that thus far has been identified in my research but it seems to me that it would certainly be beneficial. The only piece of real critique that I can see as being evident is that the app may be too centric on the individuals mental health problems causing them to focus their attention further on the issues.

Additionally, purely on the basis of the current brief I wouldn’t this app as having mainstream appeal, it is more niche.

Week 03

All in the Mind – Radio 4

Studies into the mind’s of people suffering from depression and common mental health disorders have found that whilst they may struggle, more than others, to think positively about themselves or their lives they may also have difficulty in recalling positive memories, the brain simply refuses to oblige. This is because depression not only affects the way a person currently looks at the world but also the way that their mind perceives it and their memories. When somebody is feeling negative they may selectively only remember bad memories.

Scientists performing research at Cambridge University adopted a technique called ‘loci’, used by ‘memory champions’, to recall things in the mind. The tool is very powerful and quick to learn. It places emphasis on a associating positive thoughts with a bizarre image, linked in turn with points on a familiar route.

It then becomes easier to recall positive memories but additionally the study found that people’s positive memories began to permeate their daily life as they moved about their chosen familiar route.

This is certainly a creative tool that I could use in my own daily challenges solution.

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Memory and Depression; Global Mental Health; Compassion Training

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Week 03 Concept Refinement

Week 03

Concept Refinement

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Concept Revision Taking into account the wealth and depth of my research and on further contemplation of the concept I have come to the decision to revise my originally proposed solution. I felt that a couple of the key aspects of the original brief were not being addressed correctly by my concept of a publication designed to deliver daily challenges.

Firstly, mainstream appeal. In an increasingly technological age in which print is being more of an artisan or luxury product I decided that the best way to maximise my audience, reaching as many people as possible in the target demographics would be to deliver the content in a digital format. This would, in addition solve problems of making the challenge content regularly update-able and timeless rather than it expiring once the publication has been completed thereby rendering the product useless unless it is then repeated. Furthermore, it would make the content more interactive and more accessible, I will conduct some primary research to ascertain exactly how many people are online and therefore accessible via a digital platform. A digital platform also allows for more interaction and therefore, hopefully, more incentive for involvement.

A Social Media Platform In light of the newly proposed digital platform I have also made some modifications to the communication model of my solution. I now propose that the daily challenges could be delivered via a social media platform. The user may chose a task rated on a scale of the difficulty and involvement needed, according to their needs and mental capabilities [some people may struggle with simple daily tasks] they must then upload content as evidence of their performance of the task, which will be moderated, after which they can be exposed to the next subsequent task on the following day. A user will have the option whether to publish the content, with further opportunity to share to other existing social media sites [such as Facebook and Twitter], or keep it private for their own personal profile [or metaphorical scrap-book].

Their personal file is a place of self-reflection where they can see an overview of their progress, graphs depicting the levels of difficulty of the challenges that they have completed and the media which they have uploaded. This gives incentive for personal progression and allows for an element of reflection [as discussed with Lewis, motivation can be found if a person can see that they were previously capable of achieving something]. The personal profile, documenting completion of tasks is also a place for positive memories which, according to Radio 4’s ‘All in the Mind’ debate, people with depression struggle, more than the average person, to recall.

If the user chooses to publish content for peer review to the social network here they will be able to comment on and like the content of other users and use the social network as a platform to chat to other people in real-time. The feed will potentially be a source of inspiration for others. They will have access to a feed depicting various other individuals, just like themselves, all performing the same task on a daily basis, in an almost communal manner, making them feel part of a wider and positive community.

As far as I can ascertain at this time the concept is a unique one with no other similar competitors, I have therefore identified my own USP [unique selling point]. The platform can be expanded to mobile apps if and when it is successful however right now I believe that a website will be more accessible to a majority audience of various age ranges who mar or may not own smart-phones.

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Secondly, commerciality. An integral aspect of the proposed brief and one that I am asked to account for in the proposal of a designed solution. A publication is not environmentally or financially sound, especially if it is supposed to targetting and audience as large as the whole of the British population for maximum mainstream appeal [a figure estimated to stand at around 53 million, a quarter of which, 13.25 million, are suggested to suffer with mental health issues every year]. The deliverance of digital content would be more cost effective and aware for such a vast demographic. As identified by Lewis Storey, the Mental Health Support Worker, with whom I spoke early in collation of primary research, the concept would be useful and relevant only if it were cost effective. He suggested if it were government funded it would more likely be applicable to a wide audience. The promotion of a digital platform would drastically cut costs needed to deliver the content and therefore make it more accessible by default.

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Week 03

Primary Research – Interview

What mental illness do you suffer from?

Generalised anxiety disorder, depression, existentialist anxiety and panic attacks.

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What do you feel is the root of your illness?

I like to think that it’s kinda of a bit of both in terms of blaming a root environmental factor and a root physiological one, sometimes as humans we can be predisposed to mental health problems meaning they can be inherited and caused by chemical imbalances in the body. However I also feel, combined with this, that the root environmental factors would be my parents breaking up when I was nine years old.

Do you have particularly negative memories around that time? Do you sometimes recall those memories when you are feeling low?

No I don’t but I know that they are aligned to my mental problems, because thats when my mental health problems first arose. In conjunction to this through my counselling I have made a direct link between my depression and these memories.

Did you have to take the first steps in identifying and resolving your mental health problems?

Yes. When I was nine I wasn’t able to understand and identify the links between my feelings and mental illness so my mother identified them and she sought help for me. The school that I was at didn’t have any awareness at all. I’ve had to identify the relapses and persistently seek help myself for more recent episodes. I went to my local GP’s surgery in Bristol and I told them how I was feeling, they referred me to cognitive behavioural therapy. But the problem was that I was to anxious … my mental health was so bad that I wasn’t able to go to the doctors or even leave the house. And I couldn’t sit in the waiting room. I was too anxious and scared that I would have a panic attack. They couldn’t do anything for me for that because obviously GP’s don’t offer extra services for people with mental health problems. I would have sought help sooner if a doctor could have been able to see me at home, but instead I had to wait. Once I finally managed to get there that’s when I got referred. The therapy wasn’t particularly successful and as a result I was put on medication, which made me feel terrible.

The side effects included increased anxiety and during the time that I was weening onto them I had; increased depression, sweatiness, nausea, electrical twitches in my body that I couldn’t control, a taste of metal in my mouth, dizziness and head aches.

Do you feel that you get enough support from health authorities with you mental health problems?

No. How long have you been on the medication now?

I was on that first one for six months. I decided that they weren’t working and I had to seek help from the same doctors and tell them that it wasn’t working despite them telling me that it definitely would. They changed me to another anti-depressant for a year. It was fantastic, up until a certain point. I started getting panic attacks again but hadn’t received any education on how to deal with them. So they worsened. The CBT only covered my phobia and existentialist anxiety, it didn’t cover panic attacks and how to cope with them. I came off the medication again and got really depressed and anxious. The doctor put me back on medication again and I was referred to a group anxiety class. A form of group educating. It was hard because when I was anxious and depressed one of the biggest symptoms was lethargy and lack of motivation. To leave the house and be around other people was very difficult for me. It would have been better to have had one on one therapy either over the phone or through other means of communication.

Was the medication difficult to come off of?

It’s difficult because some people are predisposed to these things and no matter what you do or what strategies you put in place you will always be inclined to feel depressed. Therapy for dealing with day to day situations and routine would be best. And day to day advice that was current and relevant to me.

Speaking of day to day, do you feel that you have a strong daily routine?

No. At the beginning of the day I didn’t have a routine at all. So when I was at my worst I had no routine whatsoever, no fixed sleep pattern. The biggest thing that I felt, the biggest factor, was loneliness and lack of social stimulation. As a general rule I had no fixed time to get out of bed. I ate too much, of the wrong things too.

Eating was an emotional release to me.

How did it interfere with your job?

I was only part time but it affected it very badly, my sickness was extremely high and I was constantly under disciplinary action which further increased the pressure on me. It also affected my degree, I failed my first year because I felt that I would have panic attacks during presentations.

Week 03

Primary Research – Interview

Would you have felt that if somebody had introduced a routine into your life or helped you with daily activities that it would have helped your depression at all?

Small changes can be good. But the best changes are radical changes in your life. The ones that are hard to make. I was in an unhappy relationship, we split up and I decided that I wasn’t going to carry on with my course.

At this time I also moved into a house with strangers and surprisingly that really helped because I wasn’t socially isolated anymore.

Would seeing other people doing and performing the same activities as you be an inspiration?

Imagine a news feed style scenario where your feed is full of people all doing the same activity.

It would but I do think that it may become competitive.

That might be an element that might come to be negative about it. It would however be inspiring to see other people going through the same daily challenges as me.

So these changes in your life and new experiences were valuable, helping you cope with your disorder?

Yes.

This anonymous interview was undertaken with an acquaintance of mine who I know has suffered with common mental health disorders for the whole of their life. The person obliged in helping me collect some primary research on the basis that the questionnaire remained anonymous and I didn’t ask anything too direct or inappropriate.

If a system were introduced whereby you were challenged to do these activities daily, or as often as you could manage, document them and upload them online as a personal journal, do you think that would help?

The problem with me is that I don’t really commit myself to things like that. I don’t stick to things, I have lots of diet food diary account and things like that which I go on a couple of times, with good intentions, but never really keep at it.

If you could publish these activities to a wider social community would that be an incentive?

Yes I’d like to look into it for ideas and to talk to other people who were feeling the same way, emotionally, as me. They would need to be reasonable daily goals though. Some people with depression may not be able to leave the house or have any friends. It would be good because it is like a social forum and having a small goal each day would be beneficial. I can see it being a good start for people who are trying to counteract depression and get their lives back.

Conclusions From Interview

The resulting gathered information is quite insightful, I had perhaps underestimated quite how debilitating extreme cases of depression could be.

The person with whom I spoke highlighted the failures of contemporary medicine in managing depression and spoke of how they felt that rather than learning to manage the disorder it had simply been suppressed only to re-surge at later more traumatic times in their life.

As I had discussed with Lewis, the onus for the individual was on self diagnosis in order that their condition be recognised by a medical professional they first had to be informed well enough to seek their own help.

The individual also highlighted what is becoming a common trope in my research, a lack of a managed daily routine. It was also good to get confirmation of identified preventative measures, in concordance with my secondary research, such as; exercise, meditation, socialising and group activities.

I felt as though my initial fears regarding making the solution accessible to all whilst still maintaining mainstream appeal were also confirmed from this data.

Being able to make a solution relevant to all, including those with such an extreme case of depression and without being overtly mental health orientated is an incredibly challenging task. Finally some fears that I had about the introduction of a competitive nature into my social platform were also identified by my interviewee.

However I feel that it will be hard to introduce incentive to a young tech savvy audience without the existence of such a structure.

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What makes you feel better now, when you are feeling low? What do you do to help yourself?

Exercise more than anything else. Yoga, meditation, breathing exercises. Not alone though always in a group with other people. Social situations. I have to force myself to see people and be involved in social situations but it really genuinely helps. Also trying new things. The biggest thing for me as well is fresh air, getting out of the house and out in the sunlight if there is any.

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Primary Research – Survey

Week 03

Potential Survey Questions ˌˌ Do you have a strong routine? ˌˌ Like to try new experiences?

ˌˌ Age?

ˌˌ Are you compassionate?

ˌˌ How much time spent online?

ˌˌ Enough control over what they

ˌˌ History of mental disorders?

would like to do on daily basis?

ˌˌ Do you do enough exercise?

ˌˌ Are you altruistic?

ˌˌ Own a smart-phone?

ˌˌ Like to make more time for

ˌˌ Do you enjoy meeting and

themselves on a daily basis?

socialising with new people? ˌˌ How often use social networks?

ˌˌ Are you a grateful person? ˌˌ Are you generally happy?

Q1. How old are you?

Q4. How often do you visit social network sites?

28.57%

16 – 21

27 – 35

90.48%

Everyday

42.86%

22 – 26

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Pick ten for SurveyMonkey surveymonkey.com/s/Q2RXCTG 63 respondents

ˌˌ Gender?

3.17%

2 – 3 Week 4 – 5 Week

14.29%

36 – 45

6.35%

2 – 3 Fortnight

46 – 55

Monthly

6.35%

56 – 65

0%

4.76%

66+

25%

50%

75%

100%

75%

100%

3.17% 0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Q5. Do you have a strong daily routine?

Q2. Are you male/female?

35.48%

Male

65.42%

Female 0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Yes

34.92%

No

33.33%

Sometimes

31.75% 0%

Q3. How often do you access the internet?

96.77%

Everyday 2 – 3 Week

1.61%

4 – 5 Week

1.61%

2 – 3 Fortnight Monthly 0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

25%

50%

Week 03

Q9. Does your daily routine allow enough control for what you want to do recreationally?

Q6. Do you like to try new experiences?

71.43%

Yes 3.17%

No Sometimes

25%

50%

100%

Q7. Do you have a history of mental illness?

84.13% 25%

0%

25%

50%

50%

75%

75%

100%

67.74%

Yes

No 0%

14.29%

Q10. Would you like more ‘you’ time on a daily basis?

15.87%

Yes

25.40%

Not Sure 75%

60.32%

Yes No

25.40% 0%

43

Primary Research – Survey

100%

37.26%

No 0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

90.48%

Yes 9.42%

No 0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Result Analysis My survey results showed the most participation from one key demographic identified in my research [coinciding with Lewis’s, the Mental Health Support Worker, experience of 75% of patients being below the age of 27]. Nearly 100% of respondents accessed the internet and social networking sites on a daily basis, this now places great emphasis on a digital solution.

Results show that nine out of ten respondents do have a smart phone however, in order not to marginalise the other 10% I think that a digital solution not specifically restricted to being a mobile phone app would be ideal, though there is future room for expansion in that area, if the solution were a proven success. I also discovered that a resounding majority of people would like more time in their daily routine for personal recreational activities and that they currently are restricted by their daily responsibilities. This is promising in light of the small and manageable daily tasks that i would like my platform to deliver, providing people felt that they were able to perform said tasks.

Finally I found that quite an even number of people responded to different answers regarding having a strong daily routine. Therefore the results for this question can be considered mostly inconclusive, though it could be argued that those who responded that they ‘sometimes’ had a strong daily routine were answering the question with a rather paradoxical response.

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Q8. Do you own a smart-phone?

44

Week 04

Final Concept Proposal

Daily Bread Daily Bread is a unique social media platform seeking to provide a positive community experience for the promotion of well-being and self-reflection through the performance of daily challenges. The concept is devised and grounded by a wealth of research obtained from numerous sources and is a product of creative ‘design thinking’.

e v e ry d ay w e l l- b e i n g

Content will be delivered on a daily basis with an open agenda to all users regardless of age, gender or ability. The user may then choose a difficulty of task suitable to their own personal abilities. Tasks will range in content to maximise user participation and interest. For the most part they will be quite generalised and achievable, partly in order to reach participation goals for all demographics and partly because there is no consensus on exactly what behaviours best support mental well-being, but always with an emphasis on daily routine and practices that promote everyday wellness.

My own research has identified these areas in particular as being integral; gratitude, prevention of loneliness, self-reflection, compassion, routine, socialising,new experiences, getting outdoors, giving, learning, being active, being aware, spending time with loved ones and talking. The ‘daily goal’ will give all users an opportunity for ‘centre personal care’ whereby they can lead their own support. Upon completion of the task they can upload content as evidence to the site, which will be moderated. Here they will be able to access their own personal profile page or ‘journal’ of experiences.

This journal is a digital time-line of their successful completion of challenges, including the content uploaded by the user and a graphical visualisation depicting the trend of task difficulties. This time-line can be used not only for self-reflection but also the documentation and recollection of positive memories.

If this is not incentive enough the participant then has the option to publish their content to the Daily Bread community, and other leading social networks, for peer review. Here a discourse is formed between a group of like-minded individuals who all share a similar directive, the user can review their ‘feed’, and be inspired by a community all striving towards the same the common ‘daily goal’. All participants are encouraged to ‘like’, ‘comment’ and ‘share’ the published material of other users within the community and there is an opportunity to build a conversation of experience around each task. The onus is on the individual incentivising their own well-being via participation in the Daily Bread community.

Daily Bread challenges people, not only to find the time to do the things that they love on a daily basis but also to become involved in new experiences, discovering new passions, invigorating and galvanising their daily routine with fresh original ideas of things to do. The platform is free and available to all.

Other Points In addition to the original website and the potential for development to a mobile phone app I will also create a promotional video showcasing the website and a range if various individuals working towards completing their ‘daily goals’.

In a specific part of my research, The Innovation of Loneliness by Shimi Cohen, I identified the proliferation of social networks as a possible cause for loneliness and therefore depression in contemporary society. I would however like to defend my solution to the brief by stating that the primary directive of Daily Bread will be to galvanise individuals into experiencing real social connections and participation in unfamiliar and new situations. The social network is merely a platform for delivery and an incentive for the completion of tasks. The original brief requires that the solution be integrated into mainstream society. In order for the solution to take this mainstream appeaI I feel that incentive is necessary outside of everyday well-being, the social media aspect provides this incentive. Though it may mean that the completion of tasks cannot be considered completely self-progressive or altruistic.

Finally, special care has been taken so that the proposal does in fact place no emphasis on Daily Bread being a tool specifically for use by those labelled or identified as having mental health issues.

Week 04

Final Concept Proposal

45

Potential Tasks These topics have all been identified by my research as behaviours to promote everyday well-being; Gratitude, prevention of loneliness, self-reflection, compassion, routine, socialising,new experiences, getting outdoors, giving, learning, being active, being aware, spending time with loved ones, remembering positive memories and talking

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46

Week No. Weeks 1–5

Extended Study

s e l f- d i r e c t e d p r e pa r at i o n

WEEKS 1 – 5

preparation for directed study

Week 01

Study Outline

47

Tutorial week one Manifesto Over the following five weeks I plan to identify a clear and defined subject of self-directive study based upon my aims for a future career, post-graduation, in the creative industry. Ideally the subject matter with which I choose to work will have some kind or relevance in contemporary society and will be topical in current media. This will make research simpler and give my work a form of context or dialogue with the ‘outside world’.

01 — Risograph

10 Design Processes/Skills

02 — Digital/web/development 03 — Fontographer/type design 04 — Silk-screen printing 05 — Exhibition/space design 06 — UI/app/interactive design

Tasked with producing a list of ten potential design processes, with which I would like to produce finished design pieces over the next academic year, I quickly drafted a list of thirty techniques that I have utilised in the last two years or would like to experiment with.

07 — Bookmaking/publication 08 — Letterpress 09 — Sound 10 — Motion 11 — Collaboration 12 — Social/workshops/interactive 13 — Infographic/data visuals 14 — Installation 15 — Textile/fashion-wear

Initially I attempted not to think about exactly what kind of outcomes could be produced from each technique but to simply list a range of creative endeavours that I was aware of. Narrowing the list down I found that I was able to group some of my more favoured choices into groups or broader topics. Fontographer, hand rendered typography and calligraphy could all be group under type design or typography. For this reason I think that this quick notation may be useful in the future to help me expand my expectations of what I may produce from each of my core skills.

16 — Lighting 17 — Photography 18 — Illustration 19 — Editorial/content curation 20 — Product design 21 — 3D mapping/printing 22 — Modelling/sculpture 23 — Experience documentation 24 — Narrative 25 — Written 26 — Spoken/performative 27 — Hand-rendered typography 28 — Calligraphy 29 — Film-making/documentary 30 — Animation

I was then able to curate the list of thirty down to a list of ten with consideration to how the skills that I implement this year will affect my opportunities in the editorial industry, to which I wish to pitch my work over the following few months. The final ten are a reflection; half of skills that I believe I am already strong at and another half of things that I have not yet had the opportunity to try. In particular I have a strong interest for type design and would like to attempt something a little more complex than the pixel based Fonstruct that my current experience is based upon.

s e l f- d i r e c t e d p r e pa r at i o n

The subject area must be of interest to me on a personal level so that I am able to sustain an interest in the matter over an extended period of time, therefore producing a body of work to the best of my ability. A level of depth will also be imperative to my experimentation and investigation of the topic. The work that I produce must also be relevant to my intended future career, post-graduation, placing me in the optimum position to achieve success upon completion of the course. I aim to explore initial ideas through a breadth of research and interrogation of information in order to maximise my ability to produce work in the coming year.

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48

Week 01

Concept Generation

01 — Conspiracy

51 — Classification

02 — Craft

52 — Engagement

03 — Technology

53 — Artificial

04 — After death

54 — Human rights

05 — Anarchy

55 — Documentation

Self-Directed Concept Generation In order to map as many currently topical and contextually relevant issues as possible I purchased a national newspaper and began noting single word responses to the articles that I read.

06 — Socialism

56 — Gratification

07 — Phobia/fear

57 — Impulse

08 — Taboo

58 — Communal benefit

09 — Terror

59 — Coincidence

10 — Intimacy

60 — Change

11 — Retrograde

61 — Adaption

12 — Failure

62 — Optimism

13 — Negativity

63 — Nationality

14 — Mistake

64 — Convergence

15 — Chaos

65 — Creation

16 — Order

66 — Inception

17 — Sharing

67 — Spectacle

18 — Regret

68 — Separation

19 — Abandon

69 — Altruism

20 — Belief

70 — Spontaneity

21 — Inspiration

71 — Heritage

22 — Isolation

72 — Attraction

23 — Unique

73 — Subliminal

24 — Learning

74 — Equilibrium

25 — Disaster

75 — Constant

26 — Temporal

76 — Over-indulgence

27 — Curiosity

77 — Self-destruction

28 — Revolution

78 — Repercussion

01 — Memories

29 — Crisis

79 — Intervene

02 — Dreams

30 — Renewable

80 — Paradox

03 — Recycling

31 — Cyclic

81 — Cliché

04 — Collections

32 — Result

82 — Noetics/collective conscious

05 — Pictures of the sky

33 — Data

83 — Malthusian catastrophe

06 — Identity

34 — Second life

84 — Sustainability

07 — Stereotypes

35 — Irony

85 — Concealment

08 — Plastic surgery

36 — Corruption

86 — Consequence

09 — Baking

37 — Diversity

87 — Obsession/OCD

10 — Street art

38 — Deceit

88 — Connectivity

11 — Britishness

39 — Destruction

89 — Contrast/opposites

12 — Emotions

40 — Equality

90 — The human body

13 — Synesthesia

41 — Illusion

91 — Phenomenon

14 — Wishes

42 — Tradition

92 — Psychopaths

15 — Time

43 — Sensation

93 — Consumerism

16 — Fairytales

44 — Expansion

94 — Linguistics/language

17 — Weather

45 — Completion

95 — Communication

18 — Football

46 — Process

96 — Quantum mechanics

19 — Family

47 — Possession

97 — Co-dependency

20 — Luck/charm

48 — Routine

98 — Independence

21 — Beauty

49 — Morality

99 — Astrophysics

22 — Food

50 — Excess

100 — Degradation

23 — Religion

This task was useful in producing a depth of content with which I could work and aided me in beginning to identify common themes or matters of personal interest with which I would be willing to work.

Prohibited Self-Directive Topics The below are a list of banned self-directive topics supplied by course tutors. I would consider it imperative to avoid such topics in order to produce original and thought provoking work which does not suffer from lacking depth or clarity.

Week 01

49

Word Association

Word Association From the short-list of ten subjects I then conducted a quick task during which I listed up to thirty words by association as quickly as possible. Any word that came to mind was noted, no matter how tenuous the link, in the hopes of opening the topic up a little and exploring similar or related themes.

I envisaged that this exercise would also identify any links between similar areas in topics or relate them to contemporary issues/topical news stories.

Quantum Mechanics

Conspiracy

01 — Fleeting

01 — Higg’s Boson

01 — Cover

02 — Temporary

02 — Atom

02 — Hide

03 — Momentary

03 — LHC

03 — Conceal

04 — Immeasurable

04 — Spin

04 — Secret

05 — Gone

05 — Shell

05 — Government

06 — Vanish

06 — Bond

06 — Theory

07 — Fascinating

07 — Covalent

07 — Evidence

08 — How

08 — Particle

08 — Trace

09 — Unexpected

09 — Nuclear

09 — Outlandish

10 — Wonder

10 — Mass

10 — Unethical

11 — Why

11 — Energy

11 — Unlikely

12 — Glimpse

12 — Split

12 — Pop-culture

13 — Spectacle

13 — Quark

13 — Public

14 — Attention

14 — Element

14 — Profile

15 — Study

15 — Matter

15 — Immovable

16 — Unexplained

16 — State

16 — Defining

17 — Limited

17 — Dark-matter

17 — Restricted

18 — Happening

18 — Singularity

18 — Unknown

19 — Interest

19 — Unknown

19 — Mysterious

20 — Island

20 — Ethics

20 — Compelling

21 — Captivate

21 — Molecule

21 — Cryptic

22 — Unnoticed

22 — Bomb

22 — Global

23 — Insignificant

23 — Structure

23 — Captivating

24 — Questionable

24 — Pairing

24 — Unidentified

25 — Proof

25 — Proton

25 — Pattern

26 — Disappear

26 — Electron

26 — Obsessed

27 — Time

27 — Neutron

27 — Doubt

28 — Contention

28 — Charge

28 — Niche

29 — Argue

29 — Inert

29 — Questionable

30 — Prove

30 — Diagram

30 — Answer

s e l f- d i r e c t e d p r e pa r at i o n

Temporal

50

Week No. 01

Word Association

s e l f- d i r e c t e d p r e pa r at i o n

Paradox

Population Crisis

01 — Confusion

16 — Focus

01 — Population

02 — Meaning

17 — Clarity

02 — Resource

03 — Opposing

18 — Interrogate

03 — Catastrophe

04 — Sense

19 — Correct

04 — Civilisation

05 — Riddle

20 — Query

05 — Theory

06 — Dual

21 — Opinion

06 — Famine

07 — Question

22 — Definitive

07 — Plague

08 — Interest

23 — Subjective

08 — Human

09 — Answer

24 — Objective

09 — Extinction

10 — Mind

25 — Explain

10 — Death

11 — Indeterminate

26 — Constant

11 — Consumerism

12 — Contemplate

27 — Philosophical

12 — Crops

13 — Perspective

28 — Intention

13 — Trade

14 — Receptive

29 — Thinking

14 — Western

15 — Cancel

30 — Lateral

15 — Danger 16 — Era

Astrophysics

17 — Growth 18 — Increase

01 — Matter

16 — Macro

19 — Control

02 — Space

17 — Theory

20 — Natural

03 — Singularity

18 — Unify

21 — Earth

04 — Light

19 — Universe

22 — Capitalism

05 — Energy

20 — Expanding

23 — Exponential

06 — Time

21 — Diagram

24 — Rapid

07 — Orbit

22 — Dimension

25 — Crowding

08 — Complex

23 — Law

26 — Climatic

09 — Star

24 — Mass

27 — Masses

10 — Nebula

25 — Gravity

28 — End

11 — Supernova

26 — Scale

29 — Mankind

12 — Constellation

27 — Constant

30 — Apocalypse

13 — Space-race

28 — Unimaginable

14 — Ex. Terrestrial

29 — Vast

15 — Universal

30 — Star

Obsession 01 — Compulsion

16 — Encompassing

02 — Tic

17 — Unhealthy

03 — Repeat

18 — Drive

04 — Collect

19 — Motivation

05 — Must

20 — Dangerous

06 — Unavoidable

21 — Infatuation

07 — Will

22 — Disorder

08 — Order

23 — Reinforce

09 — Temptation

24 — Consuming

10 — Irresistible

25 — Drawn

11 — Ingrained

26 — Satisfaction

12 — Behaviour

27 — Relief

13 — Uncontrollable

28 — Thoughts

14 — Icon

29 — Changing

15 — Normal

30 — Focus

Week 01

51

Word Association

Altruism

The subsequent group tutorial in the first week helped me to identify common themes in the topics of interest that I had chosen.

Utilising comments and feedback from this session I began grouping and condensing my proposed topics and selecting ‘stronger’ subjects on the merit of my ability to articulate or define them.

It quickly became apparent that the notions of population, equilibrium, paradox, astrophysics and quantum mechanics could be grouped together into a larger and broader subject area.

Likewise the two topics of obsession and failure became more and more interesting as began to make the association between my own working methodology and my abject fear of failure. For this reason I began to consider that actually focussing my study on such an area could be a very original and invigorating notion.

16 — Contented

02 — Gain

17 — Defining

03 — Personal

18 — Unselfish

04 — Society

19 — Motion

05 — Benefit

20 — Independent

06 — Gift

21 — Decision

07 — Selfless

22 — Cyclic

08 — Gesture

23 — Better

09 — Help

24 — Affect

10 — Honest

25 — Conscious

11 — Communal

26 — Decision

12 — Anonymity

27 — Care

13 — Belief

28 — Co-operative

14 — Karma

29 — Rare

15 — Optimism

30 — Decent

Failure 01 — Mistake

16 — Fallacy

02 — Err

17 — Learn

03 — Mishap

18 — Stronger

04 — Process

19 — Organic

05 — Result

20 — Integral

06 — Repeat

21 — Positive

07 — Success

22 — Educate

08 — Intensity

23 — Shame

09 — Conviction

24 — Again

10 — Courage

25 — Try

11 — Strengthen

26 — Fear

12 — Human

27 — Discouraged

13 — Downfall

28 — Stigmatised

14 — Attempt

29 — Common

15 — Drive

30 — Adjust

Equilibrium 01 — Stable

16 — Balance

02 — Force

17 — Co-dependent

03 — Static

18 — Social

04 — Everyone

19 — Between

05 — All

20 — Middle

06 — Complete

21 — Equal

07 — Equality

22 — Same

08 — Acceptance

23 — Mutual

09 — Complete

24 — Together

10 — Optimum

25 — Mixed

11 — Standard

26 — Socialism

12 — Integration

27 — Acceptance

13 — Spread

28 — Contented

14 — Even

29 — Chemical

15 — Medium

30 — Immigration

s e l f- d i r e c t e d p r e pa r at i o n

Clarification of Topics

01 — Positive

Week 01

Selection and Further Clarification

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52

My ‘Third Year Manifesto’ a list of design and creative techniques that I wish to apply to my work this year

Week No. 01

Project Research Selection and Further Clarification

subsequently designing a list of ten suggested topics of study startlingly difficult. This was mostly because I could perceive no rationale for the poster to look any specific way.

I think that this bothered me perhaps

‘Subject Matter’ a list of ten potential selfdirected study topics

more than it should of done and meant

that I actually spent far too much time deliberating an outcome for such a simple and trivial exercise

s e l f - d i r eP c Rt OeJd E CpTr e 0p 1 a r at i o n

I found the task of conceiving and

53

s e l f- d i r e c t e d p r e pa r at i o n

54

Week 01

Relevant Topical News

The publication ‘ten’ was conceived because I wanted to trial each of these potential study areas by putting them into the context of a contemporary issue

Week 01

Relevant Topical News

55

The Everyday Narrative I spent some time scouring news articles attempting to find a story for each theme that I felt would succinctly summarise the words meaning.

Producing this small document was an important step for me because it allowed me to visualise and graphically interpret these topics for the first time, testing their validity and my ability to work with available content.

In producing this document I was able to test my ability to extrapolate a sense of play or metaphor from each of my ten key words and visualise exactly how viable my creative conclusions were

s e l f- d i r e c t e d p r e pa r at i o n

Some interpretations, such as ‘The Burka Paradox’, 23:55 or ‘Gender Stable Nation’, were presented with more clarity than others. However, I also took into account, when reflecting upon this work, how difficult it was for me to find a relevant news article that I felt associated to the subject matter. ‘Obamacares’ [conspiracy], ‘The Burka Paradox’ and ‘Scratch an Altruist’ were in fact very difficult to find source material for.

56

Week 02

Further Refinement

Tutorial week two Self-directed Concept Generation Having found a manner in which to condense my ten topics into similar themes, making them broader and giving them greater depth, I was then split into a sub-tutorial group with fellow students Emma Brown and James Gillen.

s e l f- d i r e c t e d p r e pa r at i o n

We were tasked with collaboratively setting each other three briefs, testing the strongest of our potential subjects, to be completed by the next studio session. This would give me the opportunity to further expand upon my ideas for each topic, maximise my ideas and test the content available.

In addition to experimenting with three of the processes on my ‘Third Year Manifesto’ technique list.

Design Trial 02 — Physical Science Silk-Screen Printing

Design Trial 03 — Failure Motion & Film Documentary

Produce a diagrammatic silk-screen print depicting a visual interpretation of a fundamental law of the physical sciences. Attempt to simplify the theory to its most elemental meaning in order to make it more accessible for a wider audience.

Make a short documentary, film or motion piece documenting my involvement in a new and challenging experience. Purposefully choose an activity to you feel will be well outside of your ability in order to fail, not intentionally, but predictably.

Design Trial 01 — Temporal Editorial & Publication Produce a small conceptual publication narrating the sudden appearance of Zalzala Jazeera. A ‘Quake Island’ which rose out of the Arabian Sea in September 2013 and will be eroded by the ocean, and oncoming monsoon season, within the next year.

Conspiracy Temporality Population Crisis Paradox Failure Altruism

Physical Science

Astrophysics Quantum Theory Equilibrium Obsession

Week 02

57

Design Trials – The Temporal Isle

THE TEmporal ISlE

THE TEmporal ISlE

an Unlikely Event?

Despite being a relatively rare spectacle the appearance of this isle is in fact not a totally unique occurrence. According to NASA’s Earth Observatory this land mass is not the first to have surfaced along the 700 kilometre long Jhanda coastline over the past century.

24–09–13

ZalZala JaZEEra roSE oUT oF THE araBIaN oCEaN

rEFErENCES

ABC RT News BBC News NY Times Pakistaniat The Huffington Post Earthquake Report The Indian Express US Geological Survey

TYpE-SET

Prior to this event, in December 1945, an 8.1 magnitude earthquake formed a collection of three small islands in the Arabian Sea, almost exactly in the same position as the most recent seabed movement. One of these islands was named Zalzala Koh, or ‘Earthquake Hill’.

Most interestingly Zalzala Jazeera will only exist for a matter of months before vanishing again into the abyss. The nature of it’s temporality elevates it to a status of wonderment

A recent survey by scientists in Germany has shown that the 1945 quake set off the release of free methane from sediments, releases that continue in the same region to this day.

However, Zalzala Koh only remained above sea level for a matter of weeks before being submerged by oceanic erosion. The near precise proximity of these completely unrelated events triggered speculation is some locals that the same island, Zalzala Koh, had once again returned from the depths of the Arabian Sea. Overall the formation of the most recent isle is the fourth recorded in this region of Pakistan and the third of it’s kind in the last 15 years. In 1999, and again in 2010, islands have appeared within 1km of the coast of Ormara, just below the delta of the Hingol river.

The seismic activity in the coastal seabed has caused gases to make conduits inland, leading to the formation of a range of mud volcanoes that have sat along the Makran coast for centuries. Chandragup, one of the best known mud volcanoes of the region, is located just inland from the Jhandra coast and a little way off the Hingol river. This mud volcano serves as a holy site for Hindus, as the dwelling place of the deity Babhaknath. In April each year Hindu pilgrims make offerings here before proceeding to the nearby cave temple of Hinglaj [the ‘Nani temple’], the shrine of the goddess Devi. It is said that the liquefied mud spewing from these volcanoes carry potent healing powers and many flock to these sites to cure skin diseases.

Pakistan has as many as 80 known and active mud volcanoes, all of which are situated in the Balochistan province. They range in height from between 800 – 1,550 feet, with the largest crater measuring 450 feet in diameter.

It has been reported in that past that high magnitude volcanoes have in this region of Pakistan have been responsible for wreaking havoc and destruction. Some inland volcanoes have been shook so violently that the gases emitted have become ignited and flames have risen several hundred feet above them into the air. Whilst others have been capable of emitting large quantities of scolding hold sediment for hours on end.

Sensaway pro Gestalten Fonts National Klim Type Foundry

07

THE TEmporal ISlE

08

THE TEmporal ISlE

Temporality

Numerous images have been circulating the Internet since the island’s inception. Aerial studies have produced a series of highresolution satellite images allowing scientists to map the island’s dimensions accurately. NASA’s Advanced Land Imager: Earth Observer-1 satellite was reported as being the first to retrieve images of the island.

Unfortunately, despite its most puzzling appearance, the scientific community now commonly agree that the island will not exist one year from its initial conception. Leading geologists explain that a mud-volcano will only remain for as long as the high pressure from sediment exists. Though some have been known to sustain for many years it is thought that the pressure that initially propelled the sea bed to the surface in this event will lose intensity causing the island to subside.

This was quickly followed by the Pleiades Earth-observing system, consisting of two satellites, which can resolve features on the ground as small as 50cm across. The imager, primarily a French national space project, is owned and built by Astrium Europe’s largest space initiative.

latitude

25.18118

However, even if the island’s pressure has not lessened in intensity a year from now it’s fine-grained sedimentary muddy matter will quickly start to erode due to the repeated motion of the Arabian Sea and weathering from the oncoming monsoon season.

longitude

62. 28879

24–09–13 21:29:47 pkt

24–09–14 Approx. ≈

Locals to the Gwadar coastline first spot Zalzala Jazeera within minutes of the quake impact. Natives rush to the isle by boat to set foot on the new land and claim the territory for their home nation.

As soon as 7 or 8 months from its initial creation Zalzala Jazeera will most likely have completely vanished from view beneath the water’s surface. It’s only remaining signature will be an imprint on the ocean seabed.

The island is littered with deceased sea creatures and visitors are baffled by the sound of hissing emanating from the land beneath them.

The island’s limited mortality makes it an interesting temporal phenomenon and an object of great interest to many keen geologists and global observers.

06

05

THE TEmporal ISlE

THE TEmporal ISlE

lost Forever

Me quia eatibusapic tempora island volor audiandam arit rescia voluptae porrora temque pa dolorupta que preste maio. Neque consequia lost sima voluptasped maiorempero inversperspe nobit rempor soluptasped que reprate moluptas et sink beneath abores as aliqui doluptae et alique nobitatet ad qui ande nimposa nditas rest audit, never consed ut quo officit laut iur re nonsequ once again perhaps ocean isolated incident submerged unanswered

Phenomenon

unlikely natural disaster spectacle possible? temporal

wonderment

Arabian Sea object

signature

momentary

imprint forever

mortality

movement fleeting lifetime

rare

isle

vanish

land mass

Zalzala Jazeera

never quake.

catastrophe speculation activity

tectonic

abyss

slowly time momentary.

fragile and subject to change once more erode

event

weathering

sink monsoon

perhaps one year

less

no longer

never seen

again locals

existence. return.

11

The Temporal Isle Temporality My main concern when working on this publication was that successfully communicate the notion of the island erupting out of the ocean and subsequently fading slowly back into the depths.

I used a number of metaphorical and visual devices to attempt to portray this. Throughout the document the colour black is used to represent the island’s temporality, page by page black moves from top to bottom waning in intensity, with subtle gradients applied across all images, until it eventually vanishes from the page replaced by the figurative ocean. Images of the island are always depicted wholly in black until the final two pages of the book.

In addition to this the typeface, Gestalten Sensaway, was based purely on the nature of its fading aesthetics disjointed aesthetic. A wave motif, rising slowly up the pages headers, has been applied sparingly to intensify the concept of the island vanishes beneath the water’s surface and also as a metaphorical time-line on the centre-spread. Overall the colour blue makes a general transition up the page, with pull quote underlines gently rising up their owning copy, as the reader moves from the front to back of the publication.

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Finishing touches have been applied such as the staining of blue book binding thread and the use of multiple paper stocks. Overall the visual narrative of the publication is designed specifically to reference the time-line of the island’s existence.

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Documentation

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Week 02

Design Trials – Time is Relative

Time is Relative Physical Science As somebody who is fairly well versed in a working knowledge of the fundamental theories of physical science I did not struggle at all in redacting the theory of relativity to a simple visual cue. However, the design of this print presented more technical challenges than I had initially anticipated.

The construction of the main web-like motif proved more complex than I had first considered. I eventually managed to solve the problem and in the process improved my working knowledge of Adobe Illustrator.

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Of all the three short projects produced in this week, this poster in particular received good feedback and interest from other, people seemed to respond positively and actively engage with this piece of work in particular.

I really like the visual language that I began to develop when working on this print. The work shows a maturity of composition and reductive use of contrasting typography to emphasise scale Working with 3D mapping and noise effects to produce the main motif presented new challenges to my working skills

Week 02

Design Trials – Time is Relative

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Mastering three dimensional symbol mapping in Adobe Illustrator was a challenging but enriching experience

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Week 02

Design Trials – Designing Failure

I found the ingredients visually invigorating to work with but feel that s e l f- d i r e c t e d p r e pa r at i o n

overall the project lacked some of the clarity of the other two pieces

Week 02

Design Trials – Designing Failure

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Soufflé, Designing Failure Failure Whilst I enjoy working with motion pieces I often find them to be very trying and labour intensive. This project was no exception, I found cooking to a specific timescale difficult when coupled with having to constantly move and change camera shots. Unfortunately it seems that this difficulty had no adverse affect on the final outcome.

I had hoped that I would fail more spectacularly in producing an edible and reasonably presentable soufflé. Additionally I hadn’t properly considered how linear a narrative an exploration of cooking could be, resulting in a motion piece that I feel lacks a little vigour.

Ironically my success should have been measurable in my abject failure of the prescribed task, the biggest problem being that the soufflé turned out okay

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Whilst the final piece is perhaps lacking conceptually in comparison to the other two projects I do feel that visually it is quite attractive and that the kitchen sounds carry a certain charm.

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Week 03

Conversation Transcription

Tutorial week THREE An Open Conversation Making a decision on the basis of the success of the last weeks work, in addition to my own personal interests, I chose to focus this weeks exploratory work on the topic of the physical sciences. Tasked this week with having an open conversation about my newly chosen subject matter with somebody outside of the creative industry I made the judgment to speak to my parents.

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This decision was informed by the fact that my father, a former chemistry and physical sciences undergraduate, worked for thirty-four years in the nuclear power industry and so is better acquainted with the subject matter than the average individual. In vast contrast my mother has very little scientific knowledge and a very limited knowledge of the issues with which it is concerned, and so I hoped that if I established a dialogue between the three of us we may be able to interrogate the subject matter from a number of differently educated perspectives. This would be vital in evaluating the accessibility of such a topic for a range of differently able audiences. Furthermore the opinions and insights from individuals external of the creative industry would give me a new and fresh view of the content, hopefully inspiring new ideas.

I drafted ten questions [shown on the following pages] that I felt would be topical and relatable to a wider population than those specifically interested the in sciences. These questions were conceived to interrogate the material and raise issues around; the ethical responsibilities of theoretical physicists, technology and the future, theories of reality and philosophy, education, divine creation, perception, unified theory, creativity, conscious and the end of the world.

We spoke at length for over an hour, discussing the questions I had planned, it soon became obvious to me that whilst there vast an interest and passion for debate around the subject matter most of the more complex theories were indescribable without examples or demonstrations of their practicalities.

The Authorial Illustrator The resulting job of transcribing the hour long debate was enormous. I spent hours typing up and curating several thousand words worth of content. It seemed to me that the only logical way to deal with such a amount of material would be to make a publication of the conversation. The publication ‘The Authorial Illustrator’, by Julia, was integral in my informing an idea of how to deal with the content. I liked the way that the publication specifically highlighted the different voices of the contributors without breaking the flow of speech, the integral theme of the book.

I decided that I wanted to quote the prose verbatim, in an unbroken and flowing manner, to maintain the level of authentic linear discourse, and to refrain from an editorial influence which may dilute the content. For this same reason I did not include any master markers on the pages, such as headers or part numbers, apart from a page numbering system.

I wanted to keep the colour scheme minimal and classic, especially as I felt that the use of grayscale imagery would be a powerful tool for this subject matter. Therefore I chose to typeset the different voices of the dialogue in varying styles of the same type family.

Furthermore contrast in typographic size was deployed to metaphorically indicate the notion of scale, between the quantum and astrological, referred to in the content. Finally I ran the whole text through an online word frequency counter to identify keywords in the copy that would help me with further research and idea generation. These words are listed on the final pages but more importantly highlighted throughout the text, the original body is knocked back in a light grey, so that the mood of the content is inferred just by reading the keywords as prose. The publication is finished with hand binding and a hot foiled cover in UV varnish effect.

Week 03

Conversation Transcription

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I thought I was being all kind of edgy and different with the idea, because I thought: oh nobody in the creative practice is going to be interested in or have done this before. Then I kind of discovered that actually in the last couple of years it’s suddenly become really popular. What has? The topic which I am doing which is basically the physical sciences. So astrophysics and quantum mechanics. Phew. Exactly yeah, this is why he’s here. Okay, I’ll go back to my laptop. No because you can give me a … Well first of all I have to understand. You can give me the average person’s view. I’ll give you the slightly better than average person’s viewpoint but not a lot. Maybe you should explain to her what it is before we start then, because then I’ve got your explanation of it on record. Explain astrophysics? Yeah. Isn’t that astronomy? Not really. No, not really no, it’s more than that. It’s the physics of the universe. Life the universe and everything? Yeah essentially yes. See I’m not that stupid. And how the universe works. Aha oh, well … I assume that you know I’m very interested in that? You must do. Yes I do know that you’re very interested in that. I’ve never talked with anyone about astrophysics before, I’m assuming you are talking Big Bang theory and all that sort of thing? Yeah. I mean, because I have read Stephen Hawking’s book … You’re ahead of all of us then! And Bill Bryson has a book about … Oh a brief history of everything? Yeah, that one. About what? A brief history of everything. That sounds easier. Oh it’s long, the Stephen Hawking’s book is shorter than his. Yeah but Bill Bryson might be my level. No, the Stephen Hawking’s book is surprisingly … it’s written for idiots. You really are digging yourself a hole. You should read Bill. As you said I’m better educated than you think I am. Bill explains it better.

No you’re better educated than you think you are! So, quantum mechanics is the study of everything small. Everything tiny, tiny, tiny. You mean neutrons and protons? Quarks, smaller than neutrons and protons. Neutrons and protons are A-level stuff. I’m just not very interested in it. Oh but you should be! Because the advances in in quantum mechanics have brought more to everyday life than anything in astrophysics, all of the technology that we have now has been brought about by research into quantum mechanics. But you don’t have to understand it to use it. No but it’s very important. Ok I can accept that. It’s at the cutting edge of technology as it were. Hmmm yeah. All of this came out long after I had left school, you know quarks and … This is that particle accelerator in Sweden that they’ve got going round … Switzerland. Switzerland, which was going to bring about the end of the world as we know it because they didn’t know what was going to happen. Now I thought that was very irresponsible. Well, that was actually … I was tasked with writing ten questions that I need to research myself, next week. So this week I had to write out ten questions and one of them was: ethically, did the people who were doing these experiments have a responsibility … I think they did! To the human population to maybe not switch that thing on in the first place. But then I think if they had known … If they didn’t know what was going to happen they wouldn’t have done it. But they didn’t. Didn’t they? They admitted that they didn’t. Did the media blow it out of proportion? I think that’s very very irresponsible. The precedent had been set though, because when they exploded the first atomic bomb they hadn’t got a clue what was going to happen. Ah, I didn’t know that. And that was worse than they thought it was going to be. Yes. Was it? Oh yeah. Well that’s not true because they had done nuclear tests. But somebody first of all … But they split an atom and they had never done that before. That must have been the first time. But the first atomic bomb … But they had done nuclear tests, which amounts to a classroom experiment of the same thing. Because they knew that if you stood … that you A. couldn’t look at it and B. that if you stood anywhere near it there would be, what do they call it? A nuclear wind. Well but that’s the same for any bomb. I mean if somebody drops a thousand pounds worth of TNT next to you there will be a nuclear wind and a flash so bright you can’t look at it. He’s right there. It is common sense that when you are going to test a bomb you do it in a desert, a long way away from you. But they weren’t sure what was going to happen. But they did test radioactivity from it and people did get sick as a result of that nuclear testing and they knew that. Well yes but they weren’t sure it wasn’t going to bring about the end of the world, they weren’t sure it wasn’t going to set the atmosphere on fire. They weren’t sure, you know …

Does that … well that’s another thing that I’m thinking about, does that worry you? What? That, it’s outside of your control. That people in these institutes … Yes. They’re doing things … Yes it does. That could … anything could happen! They said that it was a possibility that when they switched the Hadron Collider on they would make a black hole.

That’s right yeah. And actually I think … I may be wrong in this but I think it has been proven that they have made black holes, just tiny ones. Just unsustainable ones. That have fizzled out in a micro-second. Yes they did, and I still thought that: knowing that, it was highly irresponsible. And yes it was beyond my control so what could I do except turn my back to it and accept it.

No but I was interested to find out, if people were worried about that. I mean, maybe … I don’t know if the average person does … I don’t know if the average person thinks about that. Well it is kind of out of their control really isn’t it. I think it’s … well it depends on the kind of person that you are. Because there are some people who will worry about things that they have no control over and some that will accept that they have no control over it and so there is no point in worrying about it. I mean it’s like; war. It’s like; the cold war. It’s like; all the countries in the world that had nuclear power and how worrying that was when I was younger. About some idiot starting World War three and nuking everybody. About how various films have been made about that very eventuality. I was looking at the Bulletin for Atomic Scientists, which is a website run by the university of Chicago, I believe, which is where the doomsday clock originates from and the closest that it has ever been to midnight was around that time that you are speaking of now. I think it was the late fifties. It was the Cuban missile crisis and all that sort of thing, so they were very close then to … Two minutes to midnight it was then. I think it frightened them so much that that is why the disarmament came about. Do you know what the time is now, according to that clock? No. It’s five minutes to midnight at the moment, eleven fifty five. Well what does that mean? What does the clock mean? The clock is a metaphor for how close we are to destroying ourselves, essentially. So when the clock says midnight … nuclear fallout and everyone dies. Yeah but everybody is so afraid of it, it won’t happen. We hope. Well we were closer to it back then than we are now. On a large scale, yes. That’s what they’re saying, yes. But they’ve factored into it as of two thousand and ten, I think it is, to take into account … Places like Korea? No, no. To take into account the environmental damage that we’re doing as well. So now it takes into account global warming and things like that as well. What when the world will self-destruct? Well, not self-destruct. But that we will cause the destruction of the world by other means. But that’s a slow process. Well now they’re saying that global warming isn’t quite what it was cracked up to be, aren’t we? The latest report is that things aren’t accelerating as fast as we … I don’t think the scientific community agrees on that actually. I think it is still quite split. Well it’s like when they first found a hole in the ozone layer. The thing was that they had found the hole but they didn’t know how long it had been there. No. The first time you discovered something, you know … And then it’s, oh my god it’s CFCs and carbon dioxide that is causing a hole in the ozone, but the hole may have always been there! Well the hole was there but it has changed in size. But we don’t have any frame of reference for these things because we haven’t been around long enough. We haven’t, but we do know because we can look back with carbon dating and various other scientific method. To see that things are cyclical and we have been cold enough in this country where they have been able to ice-skate on the Thames. Well it’s never been as cold as that … And likewise warm enough to grow grapes in Scotland. Exactly. We’re getting a little bit off topic though. Sorry. Yeah. That’s alright.

Astrophysics. I’ve got a few facts, nothing that I researched particularly for this project but a few things that I know already that I can tell you that are interesting, about astrophysics in particular. Did you know … I don’t know how they proved this but they know that atoms in the universe are paired with each other. You can’t alter one thing without altering something else. Atoms spin in a specific direction and if you change the spin direction of one atom, it’s paired atom changes as well. Even if that atom is on the other side of the universe. Oh right. Don’t you think that is mind boggling? I can’t understand it. My mind can’t boggle because it is meaningless to me, it’s like double-Dutch. What’s his name, the young scientist, Brian Cox, did a programme about it, which explained how it all works. I’ve forgotten what the mechanics of it were but yeah. But how can an atom be on the other … Well there’s the other theory that says merely by observing something you change what it does. That’s light. Light can be either a wave or … No. As an example, light can be either a wave or a particle, depending on the experiment. Merely by a process, whatever that process may be, it affects what that process is doing at the time. Is this like, if you chop a tree down in the woods does it make a noise, if no-one is around to hear it? Yeah kind of. When they do experiments with photons of light, the light can act as either a particle or a wave depending on which experiment it is in and that’s something to do with … there’s an experiment called the Young’s experiment, where they have proved that a photon of light can be in two places at the same time. But only when they observe it. That’s diffraction patterns. They have proved that only when they observe it: a photon exists in two places at the same time. Going back to this atom business did you say on the other side of the universe? Anywhere. But how can something that is one thing be in two different places. They’re not, they’re paired. So they are different atoms, not the same atom. So how are they paired? A pair is of something that is similar, surely? So it has to be similar in order to be part of a pair. Well they both have to be a carbon atom perhaps. Perhaps two of the same element, maybe. So how can it be part of one thing if it is somewhere else? Cunning isn’t it. It’s a separate entity. Well, if you want me to really blow your mind. Einstein’s theory of … not general relativity, special relativity, which was his original theory, before it was updated to the theory of general relativity, which is what everyone knows as E=MC2. His original hypothesis, later proved, was that both time and space are relative, they aren’t fixed. So no single thing is happening in a specific time or a specific place. So even though you feel as though you may be sat here at five past eleven, here isn’t a place and now isn’t a time. This is the stuff of science fiction, because this is the stuff of consciousness. But I don’t want it to be the stuff of science fiction for this project, because I want to make these things understandable for everybody, because I find it so interesting that I want other people to … Yes it is fascinating. But you find yourself going round in circles. Especially when you talk about things like that, very specific things which is something that is not possible to comprehend. Therefore that doesn’t necessarily make it right. Are you with me? It’s because Einstein says it is but who sets him up as being … it is what it is. I can give you an example. I know what reality is, I’m here. That’s in your reality. But it’s yours too, because you’re here too. How do you know? How do you know what my reality is? Because if I ask you: where are you, you will say here. But how do you know what my reality is? Because the whole point is that everything is relative to the individual, even human language. That’s human perception, that’s a different thing. We are now talking physiology and anatomy, not the science of astrophysics. Why is it not all the same thing? Because one is a perception of reality and the other is actual fact. But what is actual fact? You can prove that you are her. How? How? I don’t know. But if I was a scientist … because you can pinch yourself, you can feel reality. You can feel pain, you can feel that you are making … You can feel pain in a dream. Do you? Yeah, you can. Well, pain is in the mind isn’t it. Pain is not a … No it’s not it’s a physiological experience. No pain is in the mind. No it’s a physiological experience, pain is the way of your body keeping you safe from harm if you hold your hand over a flame, physiology takes over to remove your hand from the flame. It’s not in your mind. Why can women train themselves, through hypno-birthing, to not feel pain when giving birth then? Mind over matter is a different thing. Pain is in the mind, that’s what it equates to.

No, it’s about mind control. Well everything is in the mind really. Yeah. No of course it’s not. Because we know that there are synapses … When these things happen to you … Nerve connections. When you stick a pin in your finger, your finger … Painful stimuli. Your finger doesn’t know that it hurts, until the signal goes to your brain. Then explain to me why someone in a coma can react to pain, painful stimuli. That’s how they test, brain dead. Dunno. Well because it’s not in the mind, if the mind was not functioning, the person is in a coma, they would not feel pain. And yet the way to test for brain inactivity is to create pain. I think the point is, if you can train yourself, as you said, mind over matter. Then doesn’t that mean that it isn’t definitive, it is in the mind. No, it means that you can learn to control your bodies experience of pain. You can learn to control your response to it. I personally think that equates to the same thing. Are we getting off topic again? Yeah, we are. What I was going to say to you about space and time not being fixed. A couple of things actually, is that soon after that there was somebody who was doing very high altitude jet flights and they found that time actually moves differently on Earth to the speed that it does higher up in the atmosphere. Yes, I did hear about this. Well that’s the thing about sending people off in rockets and coming back again … well that’s relativity again isn’t it? That’s what I am saying. It’ because massive objects like … objects with a large mass, bend time. So, the universe exists … we know it, we draw it in two dimensions, we know it in three dimensions, but it’s hard to illustrate that, but it exists in four dimensions. So you have up, down, forwards, backwards, left, right and time is the fourth dimension. Time is flat, but then big big objects bend time. That poster that I gave you is the accepted scientific theory that a huge planet will bend flat time. So that time will move at a different speed closer to a large mass. My understanding of that would simply be that it is because you are further away from the source of the calculation of time. I mean on the Earth you have … Who’s calculation of time? The Earth calculation of time. But if you take a clock up with you, it’s your time. But then that’s gravity. Why would that make a difference? I don’t know. That’s why we are trying to find the Higgs boson isn’t it? Because the Higgs boson would be the particle which makes all the other particles make sense. It links gravity and all the other forces together. It’s the … God particle! It was theorised as being the particle that causes mass and they have now proven, I think, not without a shadow of a doubt but pretty close to that, that it is in fact the case. That links relativity with gravity and … So there is no God then? It’s a question of a particle. Is that what that means? Not necessarily true if you don’t want to believe that, because there is a huge portion of the scientific community that do believe in God. Yeah, which is quite amazing. When you think what they are working on. Well maybe not God in the traditional sense of God, but in a divine sense they believe that there is something. I still can’t get my head around this time thing. Okay, what I was going to explain to you is that in terms of space being relative. This is the kind of text-book example for relativity: if you are moving on a train, a glass train, and you bounce a ping-pong ball on a table, and a person stood outside on the tracks does the same thing. From their perspective your ball hits the table here and then lands … There. If it bounces twice sorry. Hits the table there and then hits the table there. To you it just bounces twice in the same place. Yeah. So the space is relative to where you are. Assuming you are travelling at speed? What does that prove? That space is relative. There’s no breeze on the train for a start, try it in an open carriage and it’ll blow away. Yeah. Space is relative to where you are. To what perspective you are looking at it from. And how does that relate to other things then? Well, the theory is that … I can’t remember. I mean, what is — is. What is — is? Yeah, I don’t see … what are we attempting to understand by understanding that space is relative? It’s obvious that space is relative. So what does that tell us about everything and the world we live in. It is — is. It is what it is. No because that is the point, it isn’t what it is, it only is to you what you see it that it happens the way it does, it happens because of this, is what you are saying. We’ve gone beyond the stages of understanding that there is the Sun, the planets go round the Sun, but now we know why the planets go round the Sun. Is that what you are saying? It’s become much more complicated. What physics, in general, as a science is now trying to do is … they’ve found an equation that equates to pretty much everything on a quantum scale, which is on the tiny scale, all the atoms and stuff. They’ve found an equation that pretty much equates to everything on a massive astrological scale and what they want to do is combine the two equations together to make a unified equation of everything. Yeah. A unified theory. Which explains life, the universe and everything. Yeah essentially. Though we all know the answer is forty two. Yeah! But the problem that they have at the moment is that a Newtonian law of gravity doesn’t apply to the quantum? Something like that, it is all about how to work gravity into the whole thing. Gravity is the one thing that they … It’s a problem that they have with gravity.

The one thing that they are struggling to understand, really, properly how it works. Even though from a simple education perspective: gravity always seems to be the thing that we are taught that is fixed. A constant! A constant yeah. Everyone knows what gravity is, but gravity is the one thing they are having trouble with. In what way? Having trouble understanding or fitting into other theories? Fitting into other theories. Fitting it into everything. Because it works on the big scale but it doesn’t work on the little scale. This is when you need someone to have that eureka moment. Well or does it work but it is just so small that you can’t measure it on a small scale? Because the larger an object is the more gravity it exerts. Yeah. So you know, you get something really really tiny it’s gonna produce infinitesimal amounts of gravity, it’s just a question of scale, being able to measure a force that small. Maybe. But you know, I’ve no idea what experiments they do and how small they can get down and still detect that there is gravity present. I don’t understand the concept of small, it’s … it’s … What do you mean? Well, they have done this err … they did something on TV where they went through scale … Oh I’ve got, I’ve got that. And they went through … or did you show it to me on the laptop? No I’ve got it here. Where they went through the scale that went down … Was it a website that slides? It’s the scale of the universe. Yeah. Yes, that’s what it was, the scale … And what is it of the scale that confuses you? You can’t get your head around it? Because there are things that they know about that are too small to be seen. So how do they know that they are there? Well, the Higgs boson, the particle that we were talking about that is responsible for mass was predicted like thirty years ago and they never had the technology to prove it existed until now. Yeah, yeah which I don’t get. A lot of very clever people making some very strong assumptions. Mmmm I suppose so … it’s guess work basically. Or an educated guess. Yeah, probably closer to say an educated guess. I mean … it’s always changing as well isn’t it. I suppose that they … that with the education that they have some reason to believe that something exists even though they can’t pin it down or find it. Yeah. Well that was the whole point of the particle accelerator thing. Was to find out what atoms are made of and to find the Higgs boson. But where do you begin to know how to create an atom in the first place? How to create one? Yeah. You can’t create atoms. Well, alright. How to … where to … how did they know that they needed to magnetise the whole thing? Because atoms are charged? They’re shooting the atoms around a twenty seven mile circuit. So how are they shooting them? With the magnetic charge. So they move the magnetic charge then, the magnetic charge doesn’t stay still? I mean, I don’t know the finer technicalities of it but the point is that it’s shooting round at a very high speed. It’s going round a twenty seven mile circuit in seconds. They must have to draw it round. Yeah. Have you seen this? Err probably. Yeah I’ve seen that. So it goes all the way up to … Well it goes up to big and it goes down to an atomic level. The observable universe and then the universe and it comes down, ten to the twenty seven times what you can see at the moment and come back down. Gigaparsec.

Sloan Great Wall. Eridanus Supervoid. The Great Attractor. A yottametre, ten to twenty four metres. And so on … Something I read somewhere or one interesting way of thinking about the scale of atoms. Is that, every single person in the world, which is seven point five billion people, could each have hundreds of atoms in their body of Shakespeare’s body. Oh that’s Bill Bryson isn’t it. Probably. It’s a magical feat that all the atoms in your body get together, and they’re only carbon, hydrogen and all the rest of it, but they’re you and they co-operate in being you over your entire life span and then as soon as you die they stop being you and vanish away into all their residual parts and becoming something else. Other things. Well that’s the thing about: nothing can be … Destroyed. It can only be changed. Yeah. Which again is another fundamental law of physics isn’t it. The transfer of energy rather than the destruction of it. Well you can destroy it but you then release huge amount of energy from it. Which is what they are trying to do with nuclear fusion isn’t it. Yeah. Instead of getting an atom and splitting it and creating energy they try and ram two atoms together, that don’t wanna go together, and the electromagnetic force blows them apart … But then they fuse to become something else surely, so it’s still kept it true. They smash each other apart don’t they? They fuse, is it helium nuclei? Or something like that. Together and they end up with a sort of helium atom with twice as many bits to it, but something is missing. It’s lost weight in the process and that mass that it has lost is released as energy. Right. I don’t know understand that fully, but they ram them together to get something new which weighs less than the two things put together. But that has still kept it true, hasn’t it? They’ve lost energy. Because it’s still not destroyed it’s it changed. It’s changed. Into something else. You can destroy matter but you can’t remove it completely from the equation, if you destroy it it comes out as energy instead. Which is something else. And because Einstein says that E=MC2 where M is mass and C is the speed of light, the speed of light is an enormous number, the speed of light is absolutely gigantic, one tiny bit of destroyed mass releases a huge amount of energy. One gram of coal, one little spec of coal could probably power a major city for a year. If you could destroy it completely. If you could but you can’t, or it’s very difficult to. Well they’re starting to get the hang of it. Somebody has done some experiments now where they’ve held … something in a tiny little gold capsule that’s held out in an arm … sits on the end … and it’s bombarded with pulse lasers from all sides, all aimed at this one little spot. They pulse it all together and it gets to the point where it vaporises whatever is inside and as it starts to expand they hit it with a huge blaster laser and they make it shrink by so many hundreds of times itself.

It goes right down to an almost nothing and then fuses. That’s almost like a point of singularity isn’t it? Kind of thing yeah but … Which is what a black hole is. It’s on a very small scale but they have done it. But isn’t it unstable? Well it doesn’t matter. Well that’s the energy being released. You’d have to expend a tremendous amount of energy to get it to do that in the first place. But the point is that the energy that is being released is more than the energy that is being put in to do it. Oh. That’s a lot of energy to make it happen but you do get a gain. I read somewhere else that seventy or eighty percent of the observable universe is made up of dark matter but we don’t know what dark matter is! No-one does. No. Stuff you can’t see. But it’s not the same as black holes, or is it? A black hole isn’t stuff. A black hole is an absence of stuff. A black hole is density. A black hole is a singularity, which is what they say that the Big Bang started from, which is basically … Density. Yeah, it’s like mass as dense as possible. Imploding. Not imploding it’s crushed. So it’s like taking the moon and putting it on a pin head, kind of thing. So it is so, so compacted that it has got this huge amount of energy. Which in turn gives it a huge mass. It’s a gravitational thing, because it is so dense, little things like that will weigh millions of tons, it exerts a huge amount of gravity. But that’s the point. It’s a black hole. It sucks things in … Light can’t escape the gravity of it, it’s that strong. It even drags light back in. And they have something called a future light cone I think it is called … That’s weird. Which is the point at which light cannot escape the black hole. I can’t get how light can be dragged into something and not be seen. How light can vanish like that. It’s not an absence of light, it’s an entirely different concept. Absence of light is dark. But this isn’t a darkness that is an absence of light. It’s a light that is sucked in and taken away. Disappears. I can’t get my head around that. It’s extinguished. It’s a light that is removed. Yeah, it’s not turned off. It’s still there but it is gone. Sometimes it hurts to think about it too much. It’s like the enormity of the universe. Yeah. You just cannot comprehend it. Don’t you think that is exciting though? Yeah I do, I do, but it aches. It’s too big to think about. It’s exhausting. Yeah it is exciting and I suppose what is interesting too is that you talk about the concept of being here and perception and I suppose … I don’t know what we are talking about. But I have a perception of what we are talking about. But is my understanding your understanding or am I understanding it in a different way. Yeah you could be. Very likely. Well then that’s … The perception of language is involved in that as well isn’t it. One thing that I say that means something to me may not mean the same thing to you. No. Which is very human which isn’t necessarily scientific. It’s more emotional. But we will always try and explain things won’t we, that’s the nature of being a human. It’s an enquiring mind, yeah. It’s what sets us apart. Well, going back to the God thing it’s lovely to think that if there is an entity it gave us this ability to question and to examine exactly what it is all about and where it all comes from. As we have spoken about before though, I think that everything is so magnificent that it is almost, kind of, a waste to attribute it to … you know … God did it. In a way. I wouldn’t agree. It helps the small human mind to quantify it. Because if you can’t quantify it, you can’t necessarily enjoy it. But that’s my problem. I think if you quantify it then you are putting a limit on it. No. Because anyone’s perception of religion is the limitlessness of it. But then there are good and bad perceptions of religion and that’s a whole different thing. I mean if you quantify something and you say: there are five hundred clocks in a clock shop, then you have limited it instantly to five hundred. If you don’t quantify something then it is limitless and it can keep evolving in being … Yes but to use as an expression of the enormity of something, to say that it is a creation of a being is not a limiting factor. It is that this being has limitless power and does things that are beyond our understanding and comprehension. But it gives us a focus of attention and an element of understanding. Because it gives us that focus. It isn’t about how that thing is limiting. It’s unlimited. That is the only way to get the human mind around it. As we said, scientists … Some of them are very religious. Exactly, yes because the two are not mutually exclusive are they? They don’t have to be no. No. Which is again the beauty of the whole thing. That you can be understanding things at a minute particular level and still glorify in the magnificence and the hugeness of it all. It’s both ends of the same spectrum. If you want it to be. Yeah. It can be anything you want it to be really. If that is what you want it to be. I listened to a really interesting radio show, on radio four the other night. Which was that only recently they have discovered that radiated particles are showering down on the Earth at all times. They’ve called them cosmic rays, but they are more waves or particles of some sort. This is not from the Sun then? They’ve attributed a large portion of it to the Sun. But then there is another … kind of … twenty or thirty percent that they don’t actually know where it comes from and it varies in elemental … I mean, it’s mostly hydrogen or helium, some iron and then I think there is a range of other elements that it is includes as well. All charged, ionised atoms, radiated atoms. Just raining down on Earth. To the point where at any given second there is about a hundred of them passing through your body. And most of them go through without doing ay damage whatsoever. Exactly. But, it equates to … what I thought was interesting … was that it equates to two doses of hospitalised x-ray, every year. Which you don’t really think about. But it it the same for everyone? Yeah. It is a naturally occurring thing which your body has learnt to cope with I suppose. And, obviously the Earth’s atmosphere blocks out any of the harmful stuff. So what is coming through isn’t harmful? Mostly. The majority of it , yes. Yeah it’s not harmful. It’s not harmful. This is not expanding a theory on why some people get certain illnesses because they’re more susceptible to these elements than others. No, because it’s happening … it’s constant … it’s everywhere. It’s happening all the time. Right at this second there will be two hundred particles going through you. And somebody will get … well … by virtue of where they live will get more than the natural … But that’s coming up from the ground. That all adds to it though doesn’t it. If you are getting two medical x-rays worth … Radons. Coming down on your head … no that’s a gas. Radon gas? Which does accumulate in houses naturally and can be quite bad for you. You can have naturally occurring … you know … granite is radioactive. So people that live in Cornwall are constantly being bombarded with it from the ground. Really? That’s how they set the limits for nuclear workers. Because people that live in Cornwall have no greater incidence of cancer than anywhere else in the country, therefore their dosage is deemed to be safe. Okay. So you can’t have any more radiation … if you are working in nuclear power you can’t have a higher dose of radiation than somebody who lives in Cornwall. But if you work in an x-ray department then you do. So it is the people in the hospitals that need to be worried. Well they are dealing with much higher levels of radiation and potentially not protected from them. And the funny thing is that the way they have become accustomed to measuring these particles isn’t the way that you would expect. And it is that they go into caves and do it. Far away from the interference of any other particles. Because the particles are so tiny that any of the mass here on Earth doesn’t make any difference. Oh, they’re incredibly difficult to detect because they are so small and they interact with so … you know … most of matter is emptiness. If you look at an atom, if you draw it to scale. There will be a nucleus in the middle. Tiny nucleus. And the electrons will be out there somewhere. It’s like eighty percent of it is nothing. And the rest yeah. So it’s not how it’s diagrammatically represented at all then? No. An atom is by no means a solid piece of matter. It’s a couple of tiny bits of matter with an awful lot of space around it. Yeah? I kind of have got it like a scotch egg. So these particles can pass through and miss everything. You’ve got the yolk, the white and the breadcrumb. Perfect. Well that’s how it is taught! But how it is taught isn’t how it is accepted as being. Clearly not. That’s what I’ve got revolving around this boson accelerator thing. A scotch egg? They’re smashing scotch eggs together to make black holes. But you are only taught that because … It’s easier. It’s a way of getting your head around it. Terry Pratchett says that it’s lies to children. You tell somebody something that they can understand at the time. Yeah and then break it to them. When they ask where babies come from you don’t go through the whole rigmarole of explaining how you get a baby. I never got further than the scotch egg. I lost interest. So they say: well actually, the whole world is made up of atoms, all these little pieces that go together and then later on you get to find out what an atom is … an atom is really made up of lots of other different particles and so you find that out. As you gain more understanding and more … They’ll break it to you that what you’ve learnt is wrong and more complicated than that. That’s right.

What you’ve learnt before is all rubbish and what it really is, is this. That bypassed me. I lost interest. The way that they measure these cosmic rays is with giant water baths. Hundreds of metres across. Huge water baths. And they might get one event per year or something like that. Yeah. Just a ping. Suddenly there will be a little ping in the water and they will say: ‘oh we’ve got one’. Neutrinos I thought they were called. Oh yeah I’ve heard that. I don’t get it, it’s all too much. It’s just easier to believe in scotch eggs. That’s the same as believing in God. It’s much easier to believe that. Exactly! I think so. Exactly my point. I’m not saying that people who believe in God are simple minded by any stretch of the imagination. Scientists are a case in point.

But I just think that it gives you a focus. That’s what I mean. It aches to think about it because you can’t comprehend it. So it gets too difficult to think about it in the end. I quite like that about it. Yeah but I need a rest. That it is limitless. Yeah. I mean, you can explain it simply but the maths and all that behind it is incredibly complicated. This is the simple conversation about it. What boggles me is where do you start from to get to E=MC2. That’s what boggles me. Well that’s the funny thing is that there are … almost conspiracy theories that are saying that Einstein and Newton … Got it wrong. No. Not got it wrong. But where did they get their information from? Because … Ah. You’re talking aliens here. I know it’s a little bit far-fetched but you have to remember that Einstein was not the character that most people make the assumption of him being on the things that are generally known about his work. His was a bit of a bumbling fool. Who struck gold. He was a patent office worker, in a Swiss bank or something like that. He was always late for work and he was a bit of a mess and he did things the wrong way round, and that’s how he came up with the theory of relativity. He thought the opposite of what everybody else was thinking about science. He was a genius but it wasn’t that he was necessarily an academic. I think he did really badly at school as well. So he stumbled on this … this incredible thing by chance? I don’t know. He can’t have been that much of a bumbling idiot. He must have had a starting point from which to begin to get to where he got to. That’s interesting in itself. Then the same with Newton as well. He actually didn’t catch an apple … an apple didn’t fall on his head. That isn’t what happened at all. No. He was ‘occasioned by an apple falling in an orchard’ I think was his diary extract. And it was sensationalised. Well again it was simplified. Yeah, I suppose. So that the common man could get his head around it. I think the apple falling on his head doesn’t simplify the maths of it. No it’s gives people understanding of ‘what goes up, must come down’ etcetera and all those things that have been said. Why don’t things fall upwards? Because of gravity. And what is gravity? Gravity is what holds us on the planet. Stops us falling off. But what is it? It’s the magnetic pull exerted by the core of the Earth. No. It’s not a magnet. Oh. Well I’m back to scotch eggs again. It’s nothing to do with electrical charges at all. So what is it? Does nobody know? Mass. For some reason large mass objects attract one another. Large objects create a pull. Yeah. But we don’t know what that pull is. Or where it originates from. No, I don’t think they do. Yes. But don’t we know that the Sun has a certain degree of influence on that pull? Of course. The Sun is the biggest thing in our solar system. It’s got the most gravity. If the Sun didn’t have gravity we would … So is there gravity where there is no Sun? There is. Between suns. Because … well, you know the accepted model of the universe is that it’s expanding. They had to come to agreement that if gravity was too strong then the universe would collapse in on itself and if it was too weak it would continue to expand forever. So they had to come to a conclusion that … There is another Sun that is exerting an equal force somewhere else? There is equal force between all the stars attracted to each other, but because the universe is infinite, rather than finite, there is not centre point for it to collapse into. Right. Because it is infinite. But it’s going outwards anyway. Yeah. But if it is going outwards then it has to be going outwards from somewhere. Doesn’t it? No. But that’s the point. Because it is four dimensional it is going outwards from somewhere but there is no centre. But that’s not possible. That’s not unreasonable for it to be going outwards from several different points. But it’s not from several different points. Why not? Why does there have to be a single point? Because there … Because there was one Big Bang from one singularity point. Okay. But that singularity could have resulted in several other singularities. What I mean is, this Big Bang caused an eruption of matter outwards. But there could be other points that are creating a pull. An exertion. That is now greater than the initial point. I still can’t understand the Big Bang, but there you go … Well, what started that? What was before it? Something that collapsed to a … I like to think … one of the theories is that it’s a constant expand and contract … so the universe explodes, gets to the point where it can’t expand any more and then collapses in on itself. And then it happens again. So … we’ve been here before? No. I don’t think it goes as far as that. There has been an Earth before? No. Because all matter would be re-shaped in the singularity. The universe has existed before. But not in the state that it is currently in. Right. But then there is every reason to believe that if the universe has existed before then the conditions have been right for an Earth to exist. Yeah. So we have been here before. I’m not saying ‘we’, I’m saying that the environmental circumstances have been such that there has been an Earth before. I’m not sure that it would qualify as the Earth because it would not be in ‘our’ universe. It wouldn’t be ‘the Earth’ it wouldn’t be ‘our’ sun. It would be a big star and a planet. But it wouldn’t necessarily be Earth. No. But the circumstances to have created a similar existence … It could have happened somewhere else though. Somewhere else? Yeah. Not at this fixed point. Well, this isn’t a fixed point. Wherever ‘this’ is. But that depends on there being a point at which it all starts from. Yeah. Which we don’t know that there is because the theory is that there isn’t. No. The singularity is the starting point, but they believe that it’s now … I don’t know. It’s now infinite and because of that cannot collapse in on itself because there is no centre point. How it can be expanding without a centre point I don’t really understand. Well as I say there may be several. I just couldn’t get my head around it. First there was ‘nothing’. Then there was a singularity and then we had a universe. Well was there nothing? We don’t know that. We don’t know that there was only nothing, do we? That’s the point. We don’t know that there was ever nothing. We don’t know, as you’ve said, that this isn’t cyclical. That this has been happening … Yeah. Or it could be a case of … the universe is an atom in another universe is an atom in another universe. Then why aren’t we all drifting slowly apart? Why aren’t we expanding? Well. If our universe was an atom in another universe it would be so small … The atoms in my coffee table aren’t expanding. The coffee table isn’t growing. Might be. You just might not be around long enough to see it. I don’t know. I like the fact that there are things that we can’t explain. Do you? I think that’s what scares most people. No. I like that. That is what keeps us searching for the answer but we won’t necessarily find it and sometimes we have to accept that we can’t find the answer. So, we can have our theories and that’s what’s interesting. Do you think we ever will find an answer? Ever? In my lifetime? Or ever? Ever. How can I possibly know that. Well you can’t. It would just be an opinion. Do you think it is possible that there is an answer? Well there has to be. Does there? Well there is an answer to everything I’m sure. It’s like … caveman … and his not understanding how fire was created or something like that … But we go on to use it. Then we expand and we find something else that we don’t understand and we learn that. Nothing’s ever permanent is it. I mean everything changes constantly, things disintegrate and fall apart. There must have been a starting point somewhere, it’s just deciding where that starting point was. But we know there was a starting point. For us, yes. But for the universe, it can’t have been here forever. Why not? Well. I guess because by it’s very nature. Infinite isn’t … well … we can’t imagine infinite. No we can’t imagine infinite. What’s interesting is that this search and exploration of other planets then reveals the possibility for life on those other planets, which then means the possibility that if life existed and doesn’t now that planet was different and something happened to make that extinction occur. Well of course it does … Which is a possibility with us and a possibility with another planet … After us. Well it’s a certainty for us. They found … I think it may have even been this year … they found the very first planet they’ve ever discovered that doesn’t have a sun. Quite what defines it as being a planet, without having a sun I don’t really know. But it’s a planet. A giant gas planet. It’s free moving, it’s not tied to anything. A free radical. A wanderer. A nomadic planet. I love this theory that we were visited by aliens, which has given us some of our understanding and knowledge … Well that’s a conspiracy. There are unexplainable things like … I forget where it is now … up on the top of mountains where it’s not possible for man to have ever been. There are carvings and drawings but nobody knows how they got there. There is also an idea of the ancients of human civilisation having a knowledge that we don’t have now. Like an untapped human potential. I like that, it’s really interesting. Yeah. It is. That we knew stuff and we’ve lost it. Yeah. That we have actually become simpler, when we think we have become more advanced. Exactly, but we do know that that is true to a certain extent. In a smaller vein, with understanding of certain medicines, understanding of certain abilities that we have. We do know that we have lost that. We have evidence of that. How is it that civilisations like the Egyptians knew so many things … The Egyptians were so advanced in comparison to modern society but there medicine was exceptional wasn’t it. Yeah. That is incredibly interesting. It’s almost like we went backwards before we came forwards again. The middle ages we ‘devolved’. Yeah, we did. Talking about the concept of life on other planets. We assume that life can’t exist without, the things that life exists with on Earth. So the assumption is that we are looking for planets that have water on, that have a nitrogen and oxygen atmosphere. Because only life that we know can exist in that environment. But if it is only life that we know, how can we determine something as life if it is in a form that we don’t recognise. Good point. Well, there are plenty of places on this planet where there are organisms that exist … Ah. Yes, but we know them as life. That’s life as we understand it. That’s life relying on water as we understand that all life has to. How do you recognise life if it isn’t in a form that you recognise? There’s life deep in the ocean and down in thermal vents and that … there are things that exist in places that they shouldn’t. As we were talking previously about experiments taking place that you have no control over. Does the thought that actually our existence here is … subject to change … does that ever … No that’s perfectly obvious. But subject to change very quickly. Does that ever … do you think people … well, for example: an asteroid … last year, an asteroid passed the closest to Earth that has ever been recorded, since we have been observing. And nobody saw it coming. That’s the point. That is the scary part, is that nobody saw it coming. It was only maybe a couple of days before, at most. That asteroid actually passed underneath some of the satellites that we have orbiting the Earth. There was nothing that we could have done about it at that time because we couldn’t have destroyed it. It was too close to Earth. Yeah. It wasn’t a particularly big one. It was big enough to wipe out a country I think or at least do some damage. Does that worry me? Does that worry me personally? Or do I think that worries a lot of humanity? Both. Because I don’t think people think about the reality of that. I guess you can’t really. I guess I think, that it very much depends on the individual. If you have the intellectual capability you might worry about it. Because you have a theoretical understanding of the possibility of it occurring. But then you can choose, to not let it bother you. The thing is that most scientists will be aware of the possibility of that. I think you have to be of a certain character … there are people who will worry about everything.

There are lots of possibilities … Bigger and smaller than that. That’s a big thing. It’s so big that really, as it’s beyond your control, there is very little to worry about. You shouldn’t worry about it. Well, the thing that I always rationalise … It’s a bit like the Cold War … The thing that I always say to kind of rationalise that is if a asteroid or meteor was to come down on Earth and wipe out humanity … you wouldn’t want to be the only person left anyway. If you are going to go, life as you know it will go as well

The ansc p on o my hou ong conve sa on was vas eas y ng an A2 page n 9p copy

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as being. So everyone has a different perception. So Einstein’s perception isn’t mine. With the knowledge that, what the theory of relativity helped … it helped with a lot of astrological reasoning for why certain things happened in certain ways. So kind of … the movement of planets and things like that became much more reasoned. So it’s beyond the simple fact

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QUESTION 1

Do you think that scientists at leading practical research institutes have an ethical responsibility to the human race and planet Earth to make careful consideration on the experiments that they are performing?

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QUESTION 2

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Are we as a species doomed to our own self-destruction BY advances in technology and the physical sciences?

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QUESTION 3

If time and space are relative as Einstein predicted then does a mutual reality exist between individuals or does everything amount to human perception?

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QUESTION 4

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Is there a way to describe theoretical physics and its predictions in a much more accessible manner?

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QUESTION 5

Can the universe in it’s infinite complexity be summarised in an equation or are we arrogant to suggest that we could describe a unified theory in such a way?

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QUESTION 6

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Is divine creation necessary for a working model of the universe or should it be the quest of science to remove creationism from the picture?

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QUESTION 7

Can theoretical physics be considered a very unique form of creative thinking?

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QUESTION 8

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Can the human conscious grasp the concept of infinite and is such a thing even possible?

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QUESTION 9

When defining a creation point for the universe is absolutely anything that can be imagined in theory possible?

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QUESTION 10

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In light of how close asteroid DA14 passed to Earth in 2013. Do people consider mankind’s very fragile and temporal existence?

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Conversation Transcription

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A Subject of Matter

A Subject of Matter

They had done nuclear tests, which amounts to a classroom experiment of the same thing.

Because they knew that if you stood … that you A. couldn’t look at it and B. that if you stood anywhere near it there would be, what do they call it? A nuclear wind.

Well but that’s the same for any bomb. I mean if somebody drops a thousand pounds worth of TNT next to you there will be a nuclear wind and a flash so bright you can’t look at it. He’s right there.

It is common sense that when you are going to test a bomb you do it in a desert, a long way away from you. But they weren’t sure what was going to happen. But they did test radioactivity from it and people did get sick as a result of that nuclear testing and they knew that. Well yes but they weren’t sure it wasn’t going to bring about the end of the world, they weren’t sure it wasn’t going to set the atmosphere on fire.

charles levy – 9 august 1945 Atomic bombing of Nagasaki taken from B-29 Superfortress

IV

V

A Subject of Matter

A Subject of Matter

maximilien brice – 25 february 2008 CERN Large Hadron Collider

They weren’t sure, you know … Does that … well that’s another thing that I’m thinking about, does that worry you? What? That, it’s outside of your control. That people in these institutes … Yes. They’re doing things … Yes it does. That could … anything could happen!

They said that it was a possibility that when they switched the Hadron Collider on they would make a black hole. That’s right yeah.

And actually I think … I may be wrong in this but I think it has been proven that they have made black holes, just tiny ones. Just unsustainable ones. That have fizzled out in a micro-second. Yes they did, and I still thought that: knowing that, it was highly irresponsible.

And yes it was beyond my control so what could I do except turn my back to it and accept it. No but I was interested to find out, if people were worried about that. I mean, maybe … I don’t know if the average person thinks about that. Well it is kind of out of their control really isn’t it.

I think it’s … well it depends on the kind of person that you are.

Because there are some people who will worry about things that they have no control over and some that will accept that they have no control over it and so there is no point in worrying about it.

VI

I mean it’s like; war. It’s like; the cold war. It’s like; all the countries in the world that had nuclear power and how worrying that was when I was younger. About some idiot starting World War three and nuking everybody.

I was looking at the Bulletin for Atomic Scientists, which is a website run by the university of Chicago, I believe, which is where the doomsday clock originates from and the closest that it has ever been to midnight was around that time that you are speaking of now. I think it was the late fifties.

It was the Cuban missile crisis and all that sort of thing, so they were very close then to … Two minutes to midnight it was then.

I think it frightened them so much that that is why the disarmament came about. Do you know what the time is now, according to that clock?

No. It’s five minutes to midnight at the moment, eleven fifty five. Well what does that mean? What does the clock mean? The clock is a metaphor for how close we are to destroying ourselves, essentially. So when the clock says midnight … nuclear fallout and everyone dies. Yeah but everybody is so afraid of it, it won’t happen. We hope.

Well we were closer to it back then than we are now. On a large scale, yes. That’s what they’re saying, yes. But they’ve factored into it as of two thousand and ten, I think it is, to take into account … Places like Korea?

No, no. To take into account the environmental damage that we’re doing as well. So now it takes into account global warming and things like that as well. What when the world will self-destruct? Well, not self-destruct. But that we will cause the destruction of the world by other means.

But that’s a slow process. Well now they’re saying that global warming isn’t quite what it was cracked up to be, aren’t we? The latest report is that things aren’t accelerating as fast as we … I don’t think the scientific community agrees on that actually. I think it is still quite split. Well it’s like when they first found a hole in the ozone layer. The thing was that they had found the hole but they didn’t know how long it had been there. No. The first time you discovered something, you know … And then it’s, oh my god it’s CFCs and carbon dioxide that is causing a hole in the ozone, but the hole may have always been there! Well the hole was there but it has changed in size. But we don’t have any frame of reference for these things because we haven’t been around long enough.

We haven’t, but we do know because we can look back with carbon dating and various other scientific method. To see that things are cyclical and we have been cold enough in this country where they have been able to ice-skate on the Thames. Well it’s never been as cold as that … And likewise warm enough to grow grapes in Scotland. Exactly.

We’re getting a little bit off topic though. Sorry. Yeah. That’s alright.

Astrophysics. I’ve got a few facts that I can tell you about the subject.

V II

part 02 Are we as a species doomed to our own self-destruction through advances in technology and the physical sciences?

Week 03

75

Conversation Transcription

A Subject of Matter

A Subject of Matter

XXIV

XXV

A Subject of Matter

A Subject of Matter

Something I read somewhere or one interesting way of thinking about the scale of atoms. Is that, every single person in the world, which is seven point five billion people, could each have hundreds of atoms in their body of Shakespeare’s body. Oh that’s Bill Bryson isn’t it. Probably.

It’s a magical feat that all the atoms in your body get together, and they’re only carbon, hydrogen and all the rest of it, but they’re you and they co-operate in being you over your entire life span and then as soon as you die they stop being you and vanish away into all their residual parts and becoming something else. Other things. Well that’s the thing about: nothing can be … Destroyed. It can only be changed. Yeah.

Which again is another fundamental law of physics isn’t it. The transfer of energy rather than the destruction of it. Well you can destroy it but you then release huge amount of energy from it. Which is what they are trying to do with nuclear fusion isn’t it. Yeah.

Instead of getting an atom and splitting it and creating energy they try and ram two atoms together, that don’t wanna go together, and the electromagnetic force blows them apart … But then they fuse to become something else surely, so it’s still kept it true. They smash each other apart don’t they? They fuse, is it helium nuclei? Or something like that. Together and they end up with a sort of helium atom with twice as many bits to it, but something is missing. It’s lost weight in the process and that mass that it has lost is released as energy. Right.

I don’t know understand that fully, but they ram them together to get something new which weighs less than the two things put together. But that has still kept it true, hasn’t it? They’ve lost energy. Because it’s still not destroyed it’s it changed. It’s changed. Into something else.

You can destroy matter but you can’t remove it completely from the equation, if you destroy it it comes out as energy instead. Which is something else. And because Einstein says that E=MC2 where M is mass and C is the speed of light, the speed of light is an enormous number, the speed of light is absolutely gigantic, one tiny bit of destroyed mass releases a huge amount of energy.

One gram of coal, one little spec of coal could probably power a major city for a year. If you could destroy it completely. If you could but you can’t, or it’s very difficult to. Well they’re starting to get the hang of it.

Somebody has done some experiments now where they’ve held … something in a tiny little gold capsule that’s held out in an arm … sits on the end … and it’s bombarded with pulse lasers from all sides, all aimed at this one little spot. They pulse it all together and it gets to the point where it vaporises whatever is inside and as it starts to expand they hit it with a huge blaster laser and they make it shrink by many hundreds of times itself.

XXVI

It goes right down to an almost nothing and then fuses. That’s almost like a point of singularity isn’t it? Kind of thing yeah but … Which is what a black hole is. It’s on a very small scale but they have done it.

But isn’t it unstable? Well it doesn’t matter. Well that’s the energy being released. You’d have to expend a tremendous amount of energy to get it to do that in the first place. But the point is that the energy that is being released is more than the energy that is being put in to do it. Oh. That’s a lot of energy to make it happen but you do get a gain.

j brew, deutsches museum – june 2006 The experimental apparatus used by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman to discover nuclear fission in 1938

XXV II

S e l f- d i r e c t e d p r e pa r at i o n

cern – november 2006 The silicon strip tracker of the Compact Muon Solenoid

76

Week 03

Conversation Transcription

S e l f- d i r e c t e d p r e pa r at i o n

A Subject of Matter

III

part 01

VII

part 02

XII

part 03

XIV

part 04

XXI

part 05

XXIII

part 06

XXX

part 07

XXXVII

part 08

XXXVIII

part 09

XLIII

part 10

index

I

A Subject of Matter

A Subject of Matter

tim boyle, getty images – 10 january 2012 The Doomsday Clock moves to five minutes to midnight

VIII

IX

Week 03

77

Conversation Transcription

A Subject of Matter

A Subject of Matter

XXII

nasa / esa Galaxy M106, whilst physicists understand that gravity works on a large scale, such as at the centre of a galaxy, they are still searching for a theory of subatomic quantum gravity

Because there are things that they know about that are too small to be seen.

So how do they know that they are there? Well, the Higgs boson, the particle that we were talking about that is responsible for mass was predicted like thirty years ago and they never had the technology to prove it existed until now. Yeah, yeah which I don’t get. A lot of very clever people making some very strong assumptions. Mmmm I suppose so … it’s guess work basically.

Or an educated guess. Yeah, probably closer to say an educated guess.

I mean … it’s always changing as well isn’t it. I suppose that they … that with the education that they have some reason to believe that something exists even though they can’t pin it down or find it. Yeah. Well that was the whole point of the particle accelerator thing. Was to find out what atoms are made of and to find the Higgs boson.

But where do you begin to know that they needed to magnetise the whole thing? Because atoms are charged? They’re shooting the atoms around a twenty seven mile circuit. So how are they shooting them? With the magnetic charge. So they move the magnetic charge then, the magnetic charge doesn’t stay still? I mean, I don’t know the finer technicalities of it but the point is that it’s shooting round at a very high speed. It’s going round a twenty seven mile circuit in seconds. They must have to draw it round. Yeah. Still, it takes true genius to even contemplate these things.

part 06 Can theoretical physics be considered a very unique form of creative thinking?

XXIII

A Subject of Matter

A Subject of Matter

nrao / aui – 1984 Radio image of Cygnus A, a galaxy shooting giant radio lobe jets of electrons near the speed of light across 500,000 light years of space, the small bright centre is a black hole

the hubble space telescope – 2004 A ghostly ring of dark matter in galaxy cluster ZwC10024+1652

XXVIII

I read somewhere else that seventy or eighty percent of the observable universe is made up of dark matter but we don’t know what dark matter is! No-one does. No. Stuff you can’t see. But it’s not the same as black holes, or is it? A black hole isn’t stuff. A black hole is an absence of stuff.

A black hole is density. A black hole is a singularity, which is what they say that the Big Bang started from, which is basically … Density. Yeah, it’s like mass as dense as possible. Imploding. Not imploding it’s crushed.

So it’s like taking the moon and putting it on a pin head, kind of thing. So it is so, so compacted that it has got this huge amount of energy.

Which in turn gives it a huge mass. It’s a gravitational thing, because it is so dense, little things like that will weigh millions of tons, it exerts a huge amount of gravity. But that’s the point. It’s a black hole. It sucks things in …

Light can’t escape the gravity of it, it’s that strong. It even drags light back in. And they have something called a future light cone I think it is called … That’s weird. Which is the point at which light cannot escape the black hole.

I can’t get how light can be dragged into something and not be seen.

How light can vanish like that. It’s not an absence of light, it’s an entirely different concept. Absence of light is dark. But this isn’t a darkness that is an absence of light. It’s a light that is sucked in and taken away. Disappears. I can’t get my head around that. It’s extinguished. It’s a light that is removed.

Yeah, it’s not turned off. It’s still there but it is gone.

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S e l f- d i r e c t e d p r e pa r at i o n

In what way? Having trouble understanding or fitting into other theories? Fitting into other theories. Fitting it into everything.

Because it works on the big scale but it doesn’t work on the little scale. This is when you need someone to have that eureka moment.

Well or does it work but it is just so small that you can’t measure it on a small scale?

Because the larger an object is the more gravity it exerts. Yeah. So you know, you get something really really tiny it’s gonna produce infinitesimal amounts of gravity, it’s just a question of scale, being able to measure a force that small. Maybe.

But you know, I’ve no idea what experiments they do and how small they can get down and still detect that there is gravity present. I don’t understand the concept of small, it’s … it’s …

What do you mean? What is it of the scale that confuses you?

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Week 04

Refined Designed Output

Future Light Cone

Allowed For Massive Body

Light Only

4D

Against Relativity Theory

s e l f- d i r e c t e d p r e pa r at i o n

Tutorial week four Refined Output Risograph Print

Event

With the knowledge that I need to attempt to make elements of complex theoretical physics more accessible through demonstration and visualisation, I decided that a valuable task, this week, would be to try to graphically interpret one of these fundamental laws. This also presented another opportunity to experiment with one of the processes on my ‘Third Year Manifesto’.

Having never used a risograph before I was unaware of the potential difficulties that could arise from attempting to get a clear registration. In addition to this I did find that the quality and nature of the printing technique meant that a lot of the finer noise and halftones in my design didn’t look as originally intended.

I tweaked the original files and printed again. This time I wasn’t completely displeased with the finished result.

Feedback that I received for the print was mixed, those with a basic working knowledge of physics recognised exactly what was illustrated. However there were many others who found the print visually pleasing but could not fathom exactly what the meaning of the design was.

This point was another valuable learning experience for me, I now think that perhaps future pieces should be simplified further and instill with a sense of play. I need to do more research in order to clarify these theories and my understanding of them so that I can present them in a much simpler manner in the future. I am, however pleased with the distinct visual graphic style that I am beginning to develop across this body of work.

3D Space

Space -Time Past Light Cone

A graphic diagram illustrating the nature of light as it travels through four dimensional spacetime and the limitations that this imposes on other celestial bodies

79

Proposal Proforma

Week 05

ProPosal Proforma

ProPosal Proforma ProPosal Proforma

why?

The subject matter is fundamental to all, humans have always straddled questions of origin, creation and the unity of the universe

inform and inspire

My chosen area of self-directed study represents a long-standing interest that I have had for many years with cosmology, astrophysics, contemporary scientific debate and questions of existence. I believe that it is a topic which is potentially rich in graphic imagery and conceptual creative solutions. Most importantly it presents a challenge or problem which it is imperative that I must address throughout my exploration of the subject.

Typically the sciences are presented to the general public in a manner that is often very data driven and difficult to understand, comprehend or engage with. I want to make this information accessible to a wider audience, inform, inspire and raise the questions, that theoretical physicists deal with, in an open and engaging discourse with my audience.

Whilst I probably would not categorise this subject matter specifically as an area of anthropological study or social culture, I believe that there is plenty of scope for creativity and graphic interpretation.

The physical sciences are devoted to one unified goal, that of understanding, explaining and being able to describe the universe in which we exist — and so in one sense this question does carry a cultural significance for a mass audience, because it is a theme which has a direct impact on every living individual.

Ultimately I want to inspire people to engage with key themes of contemporary scientific debate and interrogate that which science presents as fact. This is important because I believe that, especially in the community of theoretical physicists, much of the thinking regarding the way that the universe operates is performed subjectively and more often than not with a degree of abstract creativity. These ideas are then often presented to the non-scientific community as being fixed and objective when in fact they are quite fickle, most theories are subject to dynamic changes in our knowledge and the flux of new information or ideas.

Typically a single measured statistical discovery can raise more questions than it has answered and also disprove a number of previously accepted facts. In which case every individual has license and right to a view, opinion or idea about how these premises affect their life.

Furthermore, the development of new technologies, influenced by our advances in the physical sciences, pose a number of ethical questions, and issues of morality regarding the application of theoretical work, affecting the global human population with increasing frequency. Some examples of this include the testing and subsequent use of the atom bomb by the USA and the use of the LHC by CERN in Switzerland.

Depth of research

My initial research has shown that there are numerous articles currently featured in the national and global media, in addition to being discussed in the scientific populace, that are relevant to my self directed proposal matter. These matters of discussion make my study topical and relevant to contemporary culture in addition to raising the subject to a discourse with a much wider community. Patently there is a public interest and preexisting audience for such content.

Proposed output

The initial considerations that I have made regarding what creative output and solutions I would like to produce this year have been selected to help me broaden my skills for

Current topics that I have identified of particular interest include;

print, editorial and digital. I believe that it is necessary for me to develop skills in UI and web design in addition to traditional print/editorial skills, because the digital revolution warrants that any graphic designer now needs to be

– The observable discovery of the Higgs Boson particle, hypothesised as being responsible for mass in all matter, and the declaration of a Nobel Prize in Physics to Peter Higgs – The global threat of nuclear war between the US and North Korea – Advances in new computer technology led by quantum mechanics – NASA’s Kepler space telescope [the ‘planet hunter’] has discovered over 700 new planets in the 15 months since its launch, a minority of which are potentially capable of sustaining life, it now averages 2 new discoveries per day – The discovery of the first planet moving through space without a sun – Asteroid DA14’s near collision with Earth this year, the closest recorded trajectory for an object of its size since records began – The Russian meteor impact – The launch of Virgin Galactic commercial space flights – The use of the Large Hadron Collider by CERN in Switzerland, prophesied as potentially an end to the world, via black hole creation – Conspiracy theories regarding the moon landing – Comet ISON’s close flight to our sun, predicted in late November – The G2 dust cloud encounter with the Milky Way’s black hole

01

capable in these fields in order to be successful.

I plan to broaden and develop some abilities that I have already established over the past two years such as typographical detail, editorial, narrative and depth of research. Whilst also exploring some new areas that I feel are relevant to my proposed study and will be beneficial to me in the future, such as; type design, web development, exhibition, installation, interactivity and user interface.

I will focus my self-directed study specifically towards the editorial industry and I believe that the proposed subject matter and skills which I am preparing to employ are best suited to helping me attain my goals post graduation. Overall I wish to complete the course with a sense that I am prepared to work in my chosen industry and that I have produced a body of work, to the best of my ability, that will showcase my creativity and expertise.

09

02

ProPosal Proforma

ProPosal Proforma

how?

Creative potential

I envisage this self-directed study as being a process of demonstration and

05

06

A Subject of Matter

III

part 01

VII

part 02

XII

part 03

XIV

part 04

XXI

part 05

XXIII

part 06

XXX

part 07

XXXVII

part 08

XXXVIII

part 09

XLIII

part 10

A Subject of Matter

Tutorial week five Formulating a Draft Proposal I spent some time making some serious deliberations about how I could justify my exploration of the topic which I propose to study. This reasoning had to be relevant to my current skill-set, interests and how I could see the body of work I plan to produce in context of a future career post-graduation.

I have addressed a number of these themes in my draft proposal proforma including;

A Subject of Matter

ˌˌ What the topic is about

index cern – november 2006 The silicon strip tracker of the Compact Muon Solenoid

I

XXIV

A Subject of Matter

A Subject of Matter

They had done nuclear tests, which amounts to a classroom experiment of the same thing.

Because they knew that if you stood … that you A. couldn’t look at it and B. that if you stood anywhere near it there would be, what do they call it? A nuclear wind.

Well but that’s the same for any bomb. I mean if somebody drops a thousand pounds worth of TNT next to you there will be a nuclear wind and a flash so bright you can’t look at it. He’s right there.

It is common sense that when you are going to test a bomb you do it in a desert, a long way away from you. But they weren’t sure what was going to happen. But they did test radioactivity from it and people did get sick as a result of that nuclear testing and they knew that. Well yes but they weren’t sure it wasn’t going to bring about the end of the world, they weren’t sure it wasn’t going to set the atmosphere on fire.

charles levy – 9 august 1945 Atomic bombing of Nagasaki taken from B-29 Superfortress

IV

They weren’t sure, you know … Does that … well that’s another thing that I’m thinking about, does that worry you? What? That, it’s outside of your control. That people in these institutes … Yes. They’re doing things … Yes it does. That could … anything could happen!

They said that it was a possibility that when they switched the Hadron Collider on they would make a black hole. That’s right yeah.

And actually I think … I may be wrong in this but I think it has been proven that they have made black holes, just tiny ones. Just unsustainable ones. That have fizzled out in a micro-second. Yes they did, and I still thought that: knowing that, it was highly irresponsible.

And yes it was beyond my control so what could I do except turn my back to it and accept it. No but I was interested to find out, if people were worried about that. I mean, maybe … I don’t know if the average person thinks about that. Well it is kind of out of their control really isn’t it.

I think it’s … well it depends on the kind of person that you are.

Because there are some people who will worry about things that they have no control over and some that will accept that they have no control over it and so there is no point in worrying about it.

VI

I mean it’s like; war. It’s like; the cold war. It’s like; all the countries in the world that had nuclear power and how worrying that was when I was younger. About some idiot starting World War three and nuking everybody.

I was looking at the Bulletin for Atomic Scientists, which is a website run by the university of Chicago, I believe, which is where the doomsday clock originates from and the closest that it has ever been to midnight was around that time that you are speaking of now. I think it was the late fifties.

It was the Cuban missile crisis and all that sort of thing, so they were very close then to … Two minutes to midnight it was then.

I think it frightened them so much that that is why the disarmament came about. Do you know what the time is now, according to that clock?

No. It’s five minutes to midnight at the moment, eleven fifty five. Well what does that mean? What does the clock mean? The clock is a metaphor for how close we are to destroying ourselves, essentially. So when the clock says midnight … nuclear fallout and everyone dies. Yeah but everybody is so afraid of it, it won’t happen. We hope.

Well we were closer to it back then than we are now. On a large scale, yes. That’s what they’re saying, yes. But they’ve factored into it as of two thousand and ten, I think it is, to take into account … Places like Korea?

No, no. To take into account the environmental damage that we’re doing as well. So now it takes into account global warming and things like that as well. What when the world will self-destruct? Well, not self-destruct. But that we will cause the destruction of the world by other means.

But that’s a slow process. Well now they’re saying that global warming isn’t quite what it was cracked up to be, aren’t we? The latest report is that things aren’t accelerating as fast as we … I don’t think the scientific community agrees on that actually. I think it is still quite split. Well it’s like when they first found a hole in the ozone layer. The thing was that they had found the hole but they didn’t know how long it had been there. No. The first time you discovered something, you know … And then it’s, oh my god it’s CFCs and carbon dioxide that is causing a hole in the ozone, but the hole may have always been there! Well the hole was there but it has changed in size. But we don’t have any frame of reference for these things because we haven’t been around long enough.

We haven’t, but we do know because we can look back with carbon dating and various other scientific method. To see that things are cyclical and we have been cold enough in this country where they have been able to ice-skate on the Thames. Well it’s never been as cold as that … And likewise warm enough to grow grapes in Scotland. Exactly.

We’re getting a little bit off topic though. Sorry. Yeah. That’s alright.

Astrophysics. I’ve got a few facts that I can tell you about the subject.

chosen this particular topic [based on a personal interest and the potential for designed outcomes]

nrao / aui – 1984 Radio image of Cygnus A, a galaxy shooting giant radio lobe jets of electrons near the speed of light across 500,000 light years of space, the small bright centre is a black hole

I read somewhere else that seventy or eighty percent of the observable universe is made up of dark matter but we don’t know what dark matter is! No-one does. No. Stuff you can’t see. But it’s not the same as black holes, or is it? A black hole isn’t stuff. A black hole is an absence of stuff.

A black hole is density. A black hole is a singularity, which is what they say that the Big Bang started from, which is basically … Density. Yeah, it’s like mass as dense as possible. Imploding. Not imploding it’s crushed.

So it’s like taking the moon and putting it on a pin head, kind of thing. So it is so, so compacted that it has got this huge amount of energy.

Which in turn gives it a huge mass. It’s a gravitational thing, because it is so dense, little things like that will weigh millions of tons, it exerts a huge amount of gravity. But that’s the point. It’s a black hole. It sucks things in …

Light can’t escape the gravity of it, it’s that strong. It even drags light back in. And they have something called a future light cone I think it is called … That’s weird. Which is the point at which light cannot escape the black hole.

I can’t get how light can be dragged into something and not be seen.

How light can vanish like that. It’s not an absence of light, it’s an entirely different concept. Absence of light is dark. But this isn’t a darkness that is an absence of light. It’s a light that is sucked in and taken away. Disappears. I can’t get my head around that. It’s extinguished. It’s a light that is removed.

Yeah, it’s not turned off. It’s still there but it is gone.

the hubble space telescope – 2004 A ghostly ring of dark matter in galaxy cluster ZwC10024+1652

XXIX

A Subject of Matter

A Subject of Matter

It’s like eighty percent of it is nothing.

And the rest yeah. So it’s not how it’s diagrammatically represented at all then?

No. An atom is by no means a solid piece of matter. It’s a couple of tiny bits of matter with an awful lot of space around it.

part 02 Are we as a species doomed to our own self-destruction through advances in technology and the physical sciences?

VI I

ˌˌ A considered outline of the reasons why I have

A Subject of Matter

X X VI I I

A Subject of Matter

maximilien brice – 25 february 2008 CERN Large Hadron Collider

A Subject of Matter

V

A Subject of Matter

XXV

Visual cues such as scale, colour and composition have begun to develop through my exploration of the content

ˌˌ Explaining my process so far, showing examples

of outcomes already produced that demonstrate I am testing some ideas and developing a design/ aesthetic ‘language’ for the work

institute for [amolf] – may 2013 The first ever image of a hydrogen atom’s orbital structure, captured using a quantum microscope

It is a naturally occurring thing which your body has learnt to cope with I suppose. And, obviously the Earth’s atmosphere blocks out any of the harmful stuff. So what is coming through isn’t harmful? Mostly. The majority of it , yes. Yeah it’s not harmful. It’s not harmful.

This is not expanding a theory on why some people get certain illnesses because they’re more susceptible to these elements than others. No, because it’s happening … it’s constant … it’s everywhere. It’s happening all the time.

Right at this second there will be two hundred particles going through you.

The funny thing is that the way they have become accustomed to measuring these particles isn’t the way that you would expect. And it is that they go into caves and do it. Either that or with giant water baths. Hundreds of metres across. Huge water baths.

And they might get one event per year or something like that. Yeah.

Just a ping. Suddenly there will be a little ping in the water and they will say: ‘oh we’ve got one’. Neutrinos I thought they were called. Oh yeah I’ve heard that. It has to be far away from the interference of any other particles.

Because the particles are so tiny that any of the mass here on Earth doesn’t make any difference. Oh, they’re incredibly difficult to detect because they are so small and they interact with … most of matter is emptiness.

If you look at an atom, if you draw it to scale. There will be a nucleus in the middle. Tiny nucleus. And the electrons will be out there somewhere.

Yeah? I kind of have got it like a scotch egg. So these particles can pass through and miss everything. You’ve got the yolk, the white and the breadcrumb. Perfect. Well that’s how it is taught!

But how it is taught isn’t how it is accepted as being. Clearly not.

That’s what I’ve got revolving around this boson accelerator thing. A scotch egg? They’re smashing scotch eggs together to make black holes. But you are only taught that because … It’s easier. It’s a way of getting your head around it. Terry Pratchett says that it’s lies to children.

You tell somebody something that they can understand at the time.

Yeah and then break it to them. When they ask where babies come from you don’t go through the whole rigmarole of explaining how you get a baby.

I never got further than the scotch egg. I lost interest. So they say: well actually, the whole world is made up of atoms, all these little pieces that go together and then later on you get to find out what an atom is … an atom is really made up of lots of other different particles and so you find that out.

As you gain more understanding and more … They’ll break it to you that what you’ve learnt is wrong and more complicated than that. That’s right. What you’ve learnt before is all rubbish and what it really is, is this.

That bypassed me. I lost interest.

XXXV

XXXIV

ˌˌ ProPosal Proforma

ProPosal Proforma

whAT? Future Light Cone

industry foccused rationale

Ultimately I have to make a decision upon a topic of self-directed study that I feel will best showcase my own specific abilities and skills as a designer. The body of work that I produce in my third year is most likely to be that which I present post-graduation in order to attain a job in industry.

Therefore the product and output of this period of study needs to stand me in good stead for the future and be the best that I am capable of producing.

As I have addressed in my professional practice module file I feel that there are some dangers and limitations in pigeon-holing oneself too prematurely. This is especially relevant when as a student I am only just beginning my career as a creative professional, identifying my skills and therefore where to position myself in industry.

However, I do of course understand the beneficial value in beginning to make preparations or consideration of some future career paths whilst still an under-graduate, in order to focus my study. As long as my decisions are not too restrictive and I remain flexible in my expectations.

My passion remains strong to work in the print and editorial industry. I think it is important that all work produced by a designer is done with a rationale and a heavily research based approach. My proposed topic of study, I believe, will help me further develop these research skills.

In particular I find the communication of a narrative, almost subconsciously, through small and rationalised decisions in print, most inspiring. The manner in which a whole concept can be whittled down to one small motif or element that possesses a huge amount of communicational power really interests me.

Additionally I like to centralise my work around the notion of the designer as author, problem solver and creative thinker. I personally feel that, as a graphic designer, I have a responsibility to use my skills for positive social impact. This in part is why I think that focussing my study around informing and educating others about a particular topic will be beneficial to me in my future career.

07

Fuel Browns Spin Unit Editions Alphabetical TCOLondon Visual Editions Build Human After All This is Real Art Akatre Two Times Elliot Frank Chimero Julia Anagrama A Friend of Mine A. Shaughnessy Hey Studio DesignStudio Esterson Assoc.

Matt Willey David Pearson S. Sagmeister Brave New Alps

List current design agencies that I aspire to work with [what kind of designer do I want to be? Who do I admire/influences me and why?]

Allowed For Massive Body

Light Only

4D

Against Relativity Theory

Event

ˌˌ What my ambitions for the future are and how is my

topic related to the particular areas of work that I am interested in or ambitions beyond graduation

3D Space

Space -Time Past Light Cone

08

ˌˌ Some examples of the context of the topic in the

public domain that can be linked to relevant and focussed research

s e l f- d i r e c t e d p r e pa r at i o n

interrogation of the subject matter. Traditionally scientific principles tend to be presented or stated to an audience rather than explored, demonstrated or visually interpreted via discussion and interaction on a wider scale. Throughout the development of my self-directed study I want to put creative emphasis on something most commonly considered to be completely contrasting in content to graphic design and art.

Personally I feel that I will revel in the challenge of working with these two very opposing, contrasting ideas and in attempting to find solutions to make a complex and difficult to comprehend concept universally accessible. I believe that the notion of working with these two opposing themes and putting my own personal spin on something that may be traditionally quite bland and visually unconsidered will help to sustain my interests and keep my work fresh, original and engaging, not only for myself but others too.

Despite being a very defined topic there will be plenty of room for exploration and abstraction. Complex information and data driven research will lend itself well to the production of infographics and diagrammatic visualisations. A rigor and depth of research will help me to clarify ideas and simplify concepts, expanding them into basic graphic solutions that will always be supported and rationalised by theoretical grounding and understanding. Specific ideas can be communicated and expanded into narrative via publications and editorial work whilst other theories can be demonstrated in working installation, exhibition, models and user interface driven digital interactions.

This rigor of understanding and rationalising or simplifying of eligible theoretical information will play to my strengths and most pronounced design skills. Complimenting my own working creative approach and enabling me to inform whilst producing a coherent body of work.

Initial experiments with this proposed area of study have been extremely successful. I certainly feel as though I have begun to develop a mature visual approach and style in reaction to the content, one which is rational and simple whilst maintaining a level of creative abstraction.

The subject area has proven to be the most visually rich and creatively satisfying of my initial ten proposed topics. Additionally I feel that I am now beginning to develop a depth of ideas for potential projects from my engagement and extensive research of the topic.

I feel that I have already begun to develop a distinct and mature visual approach to the content

Some topics of discussion, highlighted from my initial research, were further explored in conversation with others

I am passionate about working with print because I feel that it gives me a sense of achievement in the tactility of my work

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Proposed Research Question

how can current questions and theories of cosmology, quantum mechanics and modern physical science be demonstrated creatively to inform, increase accessibility and clarify for a wider audience?

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Selected Reading Material

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Selected Reading Material Reference material and selected reading has been integral in expanding my knowledge on my chosen subject matter. I feel that it is necessary for me to be the best informed that I can be on the topic in order for my understanding to be translated into the redacted statements of any work I produce.

All of these publications I owned prior to undertaking this project and I have in fact read most of them from cover to cover before. I have found Stephen Hawking’s ‘A Brief History of Time’ particularly useful in clarifying complex theoretical ideas. The German book ‘Illustriertes Lexikon der Astronomie’ [Illustrated Language of Astronomy’] has been integral in helping me to develop a visual approach to the content I’ve been working with.

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Week 05

Visual Language

The visual content of this encyclopedia has been of strong inspiration to the work that I have produced so far into this project

Week 05

Visual Language

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Illustriertes Lexikon der Astronomie This German encyclopedia of astrological expressions is littered with beautifully crafted diagrammatic prints that look to be printed in wood blocks or possibly lino.

This kind of visual language is what initially inspired me to approach my subject matter and has been an important reference point in the developing of my own unique interpretation of the topic.

Whilst I, with an interest in the subject matter, may find these diagrams visually stimulating it is important to consider that this may not be the case for a wider more subjective audience.

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Whilst I think that these diagrams are strong visual devices I also have decided that they should be used sparingly, as there is a danger that my work may become a little stale and calculated, if I were to only work in this manner. I should aim to try and interpret a little more play and abstraction into the visualisation and conception of my designed outcome.

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Context in the Public Domain

ˌˌ The observable discovery of the Higg’s Boson particle,

hypothesised as being responsible for mass in all matter, and the declaration of a Nobel Prize in Physics to Peter Higgs ˌˌ The global threat of nuclear war between the US and

North Korea, or any other nations for that matter ˌˌ Advances in new computer technology and micro-

chips led by quantum mechanics The most recent related global news story published in ‘i’ newspaper 24/10/13

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Context Spending time researching relevant source material from media and the public domain has been integral, not only in justifying my research topic, but also in placing it in the wider context of a global discourse.

From this research I have compiled a list of the most interesting and potentially viable global discussions which will support and influence my designed work. ˌˌ New Scientist

ˌˌ NASA’s Kepler space telescope [the ‘planet hunter’]

has discovered over 700 new planets in the 15 months since its launch, a minority of which are potentially capable of sustaining life, it now averages 2 new discoveries per day ˌˌ The discovery of the first planet, PSO J815.5-22,

moving through space without a host star ˌˌ Asteroid DA14’s near collision with Earth this year, the

closest recorded trajectory for an object of its size since records began ˌˌ The Russian meteor impact ˌˌ The launch of Virgin Galactic space flights

ˌˌ Science News ˌˌ BBC News – Science & Env. ˌˌ Science Daily ˌˌ BBC Horizon Documentaries

ˌˌ The use of the Large Hadron Collider by CERN in

Switzerland, prophesied as potentially an end to the world, via black hole creation

ˌˌ NASA pic of the day ˌˌ NRAO image gallery

ˌˌ Conspiracy theories regarding the moon landing

ˌˌ National Geographic ˌˌ Space.com ˌˌ NASA Science

ˌˌ Comet ISON’s close flight to our sun, predicted in late

November

ˌˌ Discovery News ˌˌ Time – Science & Space ˌˌ Smithsonian Air & Space

ˌˌ The G2 dust cloud encounter with the our galaxy’s

[Milky Way] black hole ˌˌ The new and most distant galaxy z8_GND_5296 is

first discovered, it is 30 billion light years from Earth ˌˌ India Mars launch stokes Asian space race with China ˌˌ The construction of The Giant Magellan telescope, in

2020, composed of seven 20 ton mirrors inside a 22 story rotating building ˌˌ Results return from the Planck satellite’s ‘All Sky

Survey’, the cosmic microwave background of the observable universe, mapped since 2009

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Philographics

Though the subject matter is not particularly relevant to my own direction of study, what I felt made this series of designed posters interesting was the distillation of a complex theoretical concept into a simple visual paradigm.

Carreras has succeeded in visualising these convoluted systems in a minimal and accessible manner.

In turn making the subject more culturally relevant, contemporary and graphically literate. This basic abstraction of semiotics is certainly something that I should aspire to in my own body of work. I also found a quote from the designer to be relevant to my own study; For me the most important thing is to make people curious about the theories. They might learn something on the way too, but I think people can react to color in an instinctive way, they judge it even without noticing it. I want people to do the same with these concepts— to react to them instinctively.

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Philographics Genis Carreras

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The Kids Should See This

Complex scientific concepts

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and topical features are communicated in an attainable and frank manner using simple devices without being overtly patronising

The Kids Should See This Rion Nakaya ‘The Kids Should See This’ is an educational project masterminded by designer/ story-teller Rion Nakaya and curated in collaboration with her two young children. The site collects various accessible media relating to ‘science, nature, music, art, technology, storytelling and assorted good stuff’ targeted to an adult and young audience in an entertaining and educational manner.

The real emphasis of the project is about supplying content to a wide age range, driven by wonder, enthusiasm and engagement, in a friendly and useful manner. Some of the ideas communicated by this project are extremely relevant to the subject matter with which I am now working.

I think that the visual aesthetic of the enterprise is well thought out and rational. However, whilst I value the work done here I feel that the ideas portrayed are lacking a certain level of maturity or conceptualisation that I would like to employ in my own work.

Week 05

TiRA – SES Astra

According to TiRA’s website: “the integrated campaign for Europe’s largest satellite operator aimed to convey the extraordinary complexity of the scientific achievements behind satellites, in a way that also communicated excitement and wonder”. The studio achieved this using bold information driven motion graphics with a frank and relatable voiceover and putting emphasis on stunning photographic visuals for a small publication.

Obviously this project is a lot more commercially driven than anything that I would hope to produce myself. However, as an exercise in the deployment of simplified visuals and ideas I think that there is a relevance to my study.

The motion graphic piece in particular is able to simplify complicated scientific principles in an engaging and more importantly captivating way.

The notion of working with an element of excitement or wonder is definitely something that I should aim to achieve in my own work in order to galvanise the interest of others in the subject matter.

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SES Astra This is Real Art

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Aperture – This is Mars

Katie Pearson’s work has become a huge inspiration for my own directed study, s e l f- d i r e c t e d p r e pa r at i o n

her grasp of narrative regarding the cosmos is original and stimulating

This is Mars Aperture This publication produced by Aperture is a prime example of the power of imagery relating to space and the cosmos. Something that I certainly should not underestimate when composing my own work.

The photographs become even more unfamiliar and other worldly once colour is drained from them leaving the viewer feeling disassociated from a catalogue of strange and bewildering extra-terrestrial textures.

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Katie Paterson – Selected Works

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Katie Paterson Selected Works I’ve found Paterson’s conceptual interpretations of mankind’s relationship with the universe surrounding us fascinating to behold. Her grasp of narrative and deliverance of the fundamental aspects of the subject area is unparalleled. Notions of the unknown, mortality, creation, existence and reality are all tackled within her work utilising a level of maturity and intelligence.

History of Darkness Katie Paterson

Produced with the lighting company OSRAM in series of ‘lifetimes’, each set contains a sufficient quantity of light bulbs to provide a person with a lifetime supply of moonlight, based on the current average life-span for a human being alive in 2008. (Each bulb burns for 2000 hours, a lifetime contains 289 bulbs).

History of Darkness is a slide archive; a life-long project, it will eventually contain hundreds upon thousands of images of darkness from different times/places in the history of the Universe, spanning billions and billions of years. Each image is handwritten with its distance from earth in light years, and arranged from one to infinity.

Second Moon Katie Paterson

All the Dead Stars Katie Paterson

Second Moon tracks the cyclical journey of a small fragment of the moon as it circles the Earth, via air freight courier, on a man made commercial orbit.

A map documenting the locations of just under 27,000 dead stars - all that have been recorded and observed by humankind.

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Light-bulb to Simulate Moonlight Katie Paterson

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The Where, The Why and The How

The Where, The Why and The How Various Artists The publication ‘The Where, The Why and The How?’ deals with common questions and misconceptions of the world around us in a playful illustrative manner.

Whilst this does not particularly suit my own style of working, due mostly to me being a relatively poor illustrator, I do feel as though there are certain lessons that I might learn from the execution of this project, in particular the sense of humour and engagement with it’s proposed audience.

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Sketchbook Excerpts

Pictured here are extracts from the back of my sketchbook where I have begun to record and formulate ideas about how I might interpret the content of my thesis.

The annotations range from small visual cues and interesting ideas identified in research to paper finished and printing methods that I would like to use.

Initial ideas that I feel carry some weight are; ˌˌ The design of a modular typeface, build from

inter-connected geometric points, called ‘Constellation’ — additionally making the typeface responsive to some kind of Earth movement ˌˌ A publication about points of singularity, focussing

on the nature of scale and space ˌˌ‘The Life and Death of a Star*’ illustrating the

different temperatures of a sun as it develops using various paper stocks and gradients ˌˌ A digital map of the night sky, as some kind of web

application, that changes with the Earth’s spin ˌˌ‘An Absence of Nothing’ a publication about what is

existed before the universe, printed in white ink on black paper stock and playing with negativity

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Sketchbook Excerpts