Earth Artifact Nicole H.D.W. Sinclair
Earth Artifact
Project Plan •Week 1 - Introduction to subject •Week 2 - Primary and Secondary research must be completed and have at least three ideas from such. •Week 3 - Experiments - have at least two successful pieces and bring to the study group three strong developed idea concepts. •Week 4 - Refine my ideas and experiments regarding such, begin and/or continue the final piece. •Week 5 - Finalise the final piece and ensure it answers the brief. •Week 6 - Have the final piece ready for presenting and the presentation written up and ready.
Plan Of Action
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Introduction to the brief and initial research.
Primary and Secondary research to be completed.
Experiments - aim to have at least two successful pieces and three developed and more structured concepts.
Develop the experimental pieces and refine the processes to which I conclude to using. Choose the strongest concept to take forward.
Continue creating the final design and aim to have this finished by the beginning of week six at the latest. Ensure that the final piece answers the brief.
Have the final piece ready for presentation and write up the InDesign PDF for the project to be finished by the end of the week.
Have at least three different concept ideas.
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Earth Artifact
Secondary Research
The Golden Record
The Golden record features an infographic plaque to help guide any possible life outside of Earth to play the record. The graphic is made up of symbols and binary arithmetic.
purpose of the record is to contact any intellectual life which may be out there the chances of such are relatively small and therefore the record becomes a symbol, a symbol of hope and human ambition.
Carl Sagan noted, “The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced space-faring civilizations in interstellar space. But the launching of this bottle into the cosmic ocean says something very hopeful about life on this planet.� This tells us that although the
Dr Ellis Silver claims that Humans may have actually originated from elsewhere in space and this is why we suffer from back pain. From this I speculate at to whether the creators of the Golden Record, such as Carl Sagan, had felt this ache of contacting home and therefore that is what led to the creation of the record. Article I read regarding this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ article-2507377/Humans-NOT-come-Earth-sunburn-bad-backs-pain-labour-proveexpert-claims.html
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Images on this page courtesy of NASA/JPLCaltech
Earth Artifact
Secondary Research
Interpretation and Communication Without prior information, prior scientific info how can aliens read the symbols accurately? Any form of visual language requires knowledge of its signified – therefore how can we successfully produce a “readable” visual sign for this unknown audience when the “codes” are unfamiliar? I suppose this comes down to refinement of symbols and creating simplistic forms with some sort of logically translatable “instruction” manual. By using slight technical differences we may be able to help this audience differentiate between background and foreground. “Laws of perceptual organization – Pragna’nz”. The way a text is set out visually helps the viewer to identify the sort of document they are viewing and the genre and audience the content may be aimed towards. The quoted text below brings out an important factor which previously had gone unnoticed in my mind. “Terry Eagleton comments – Dogs must be carried on the escalator sign. I have to rely in other words, upon certain social codes and contexts to understand the notice properly. But I also need to bring these into interaction with certain codes or conventions of reading.” “Without realizing it, in understanding even the simplest texts we draw on a repertoire of
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textual and social codes.” We need to be aware of social and contextual codes when “reading” images, type or books. Without this information we are likely to mis-interpret the message. Definition: code: – A way in which something is dictated to be read or understood – a “language” of sorts – a convention. A sign is made up of combinations of these codes. Signs: - An image or text informing the viewer with information. Guiraud “refers to two “levels” of signification.” One fo these being discernable or “explicit”, while the other ”Hermeneutics”, is determined by how the viewer reads the message. When Guiraud refers to Hermeneutics he is referring to a cultural, or aesthetic way of looking at things which the viewer is inclined to apply to the text through their learnings. Claude Le’vi Strauss claims that “culture is distinguished from nature” such as etiquette. Sapir suggests that different forms of language dictate different viewpoints as their codes dictate particular meanings which vary within each language type.
The Book of Miracles – Taschen This book is a republished book documenting and preserving the inspiring illustrations enclosed in the 1552 manuscript (“entitled Augsburg Book Of Miraculous Signs” ) The book of miracles provides an insight into the human mind and how we comprehend religion and magical existence as a way to explain the unknown. These illustrations are symbolic heavy and are gorgeous to view. To understand the images tales though it would be required to know the history and preconceptions of the time. In the republished version there is a version created in English, French and German as to deliberate the message.
Earth Artifact
Video: The Voyagers
http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2011/12/22/the-voyagers/
This video depicts a love story, a story of hope and dreams, “The Ulitmate mixtape”. The material used is that of old previously used videos mashed together into a mixtape of its own, all the while set against the soundtrack of her describing the launch of the Voyagers and what relates to these time capsules. She speculates the possibility of Earth possibility being the only planet with intelligent life, this is in response to the lack of evidence of such found through the images sent from the voyagers. Penny compares the small chance of finding and communicating with alien life with that of love lasting through marriage and also how the voyagers surprised their planned lifespan of two years. It is a story about aspiring for the near impossible, the unfathomable, but yet still having the hope and courage to take the chance. She also touches on how when the voyager will still be around in years to come even once the Earth has ceased to exist.
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Secondary Research
Video: Be Still - Chris Martinez
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3_EUBi0fhM
This video has a relaxing tempo a-likened to that of Christmas songs filled with love and hope. The visual imagery is that from NASA’s public domain and shows Earth as seen from space at a relatively close up view, possibly from the satellites, to what we traditionally see of Earth from images taken from rockets and the like. The video makes me think about the interchanges between travel within the world and how it links everyone together.
Video: Murmurs of Earth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mvg9WCPOYM
This video shows the content included on the Golden record and shows how it includes a rich diverse look on our planet, how we are, grow, develop and create. It examines the environment of our planet, what we have changed about our planet, structurally over time. Set to this is the included soundtrack by Bach with each language taking turns to say hello in the foreground. He may have chosen to use Bach across the full video as to create a patriotic presence throughout the video.
Earth Artifact
Video: We are the Universe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UddbD2-3fb4
Stunning imagery paired with the spoken word and background music. This film takes a different look on how we are created, though still from a scientific point of view, examining how we all are literally part of the universe. This is through the matter and gases of which we are all made up of, as these escaped from the exploding stars across the universe.
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Secondary Research
Poem: “The Average Black Girl”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tN4Zulagb8#t=49
This poem is an interesting alternative take on battling racial discrimination and provokes emotional response and discussion. She explains how although there are now much more rights for black people in the USA there still is discrimination in the form of calling people stereotypes still, such as “the average black girl” or “not the average black girl” for example. I find the way she compares the term “average black girl” and recalls the history of how people fought for the rights they now. Throughout the poem she flips the term around to incur not a negative connotation but that of positive empowerment and aspiration to achieve.
Video: #Equality
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM-HJT8_esM
This is a light-hearted take on when laws can go to their extreme in this case in regards to equality laws. It depicts a dystopian future which emulates itself its utopian in regarding everyone as the same but by going to the extremes of such in the end takes away from everything that is human and natural in regards to individuality and free speech.
Earth Artifact
Film: An Inconvenient Truth
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0497116/
The earth is found to “breath” as in summer the earth on our side of the world exhales, it inhales again in august time. Carbon dioxide and how it has gradually been increasing therefore increasing global temperature. People who measure and analysis ice samples can tell exactly were the USA brought into action laws that were set to reduce co2 emissions. Within the next 50 years if society continues as it is, then the global temperature is going to rise drastically which is disastrous for the future production of food and availability of clean drinking water for the 40% of the world that drink from water which has travelled down from glaciers. The film was published in 2006 - if you look at the 10 hottest recorded temperatures recorded from the time this film was produced, these all occurred within the last 15 years of such with the most recent being in 2005. Hurricane Katrina – when it approached it was category one but still not only caused damage worth billions of dollars, but also killed many people at the same time. Global warming causes precipitation from absorbing the world’s moisture, not just from the sea but also that from the soil. This heightens any struggles in countries where they struggle to have access to water as it is. There are many strategies we are aware of which would dramatically reduce our carbon emissions all we need to do is employ these and then eventually our world should slowly regain natural climate. This video uses a mixture of documentary film, photographs depicting the change in the earth’s climate and data visualisation to get across the poignant but important message.
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Secondary Research
Film: Advertising and the End of The World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wJnsaq-_S8
This documentary featuring Sut Jhally, talks about commercialization in the postmodern world and how if we continue on the path of valuing commodities to such an extent that their production continues at the rate it is then the earth will surely be exhausted. It is estimated that by the time 2070 comes the world will no longer have the recourses and/or will have broken down due to global warming and climate change if not before. Jhally explains that in order to save the world from its inevitable destruction we need to act now and as a community and society. This means changing the way the advertising industry works by getting the companies to focus on encouraging working together as a society rather then the short lived selfish individual needs. This would encourage peace and collaboration, whereas currently the world is in a state that is fuelled on power of resources, where wars break out to claim resources to power the economy further.
Video: The Lie We Live
http://www.trueactivist.com/this-video-exposes-the-corrupt-world-were-living-in-but-we-canchange-it/
I found this video very inspiring and especially interesting in regards to our current project, which is based around the world, the human race and how it can be represented. The film uses a mixture of video, spoken word and orchestral background music to purposely create atmospheric tension and emotional relations to the viewer in order to successfully project its core message. The reason why I believe this video is especially effective is due to the technical composition of the film it grabs the viewer in and compels them to watch while the emotional pull from the music paired with the hard hitting facts makes it memorable.
Earth Artifact
Secondary Research
Drastic Changes In Society
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The Cold War
Modernism
The cold war went on from about 1945 until 1980. Its name comes from the cold relations between both sides in regards to communication and disagreement, though they never actively fought each other directly. However they had imposed their views and continued to scaremonger each other through the use of “friendly states”. However, when I say “friendly states” I mean states that were for or against one side and therefore carried out attacks on the other’s behalf. The main reason for the war was that of a conflict and lack of understanding to governing and economic systems. In particular each of the two sides felt threatened by the other, this was due to both wanting dominance and overall power. This war eventually ended in 1987 on completion of the INF Treaty, this was preceded by talks between the two sides, which were held in Iceland the year before.
(Marx) “the wealth of societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails appears as an “immense collection of commodities”. The advertising industry runs on the following cycle: production – distribution – consumption and profit. This cycle required advertising to fuel its attraction and vice versa. The advertising revolution was excelled by the commodity-aided opportunities. They wanted people to have feelings of desire and enhance that feeling of being alive from these objects. The revenue is collected from commodities advertising. The well-known phrase of “diamonds are forever” was invented by the jewellers DeBeers through their strong commercial adverts claiming that “a diamond is forever”.
Earth Artifact
Secondary Research
Ideology and Iconography Herbert Bayer
Babushke Studio
I find the combination of spherical shapes pleasing to the eye as they descend into crescents to depict the setting sun or rising moon perhaps. I feel it links into the project well in regards to it reflecting Earth and its atmospheric relations within space. The poster shown to the bottom left, is representing that of protection from the outside environment. Although I didn’t see this at first and instead interpreted it as representing someone’s inner self or their “spiritual being”. Though this theory does have relations to that of its actual meaning in regards to its defence against injustice. The use of one eye as oppose to two brings this inner self-image across while also reflecting that of “Protection”. I feel that without the text to accompany this piece it would be misinterpreted quite often.
I find the typographic poster shown right of interest due to the movement suggested within the angles of the marks and the fonts width and almost hap hazard looking arrangement. I also find the colour theme pleasing to the eye as the dark grey combined with the beige gives a soft feel to gently contrast with the sharp red. This wasn’t created by Bayer but was inspired by his designs.
George Giusti The poster created by Giusti depicts a group of four people whom are different ethnicities in a group handshake. The use of highly saturated colours although unrealistic in regards to two of the arms, brings the piece to peoples attention through catching their eye. The relation of holding each others arm depicts the relation of peace through friendship and understanding.
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Earth Artifact
Secondary Research
Ideology and Iconography
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Siang Ching
UNHATE Foundation/United Colours Of Benetton
These tactile info-graphics inspire me greatly. I love the way the designer has arranged the information into 3-D descriptions using geometric patterns. This technique looks as though it requires a fair amount of mathematical workings as well as a keen eye for detail. At first glance I had presumed the piece was created from plastic, however after investigating the process used it seems to have been created from carefully measured coloured card. Though saying that the mathematical workings could be much more simple then first thought, as it may have been a case of working out the amount of triangle pieces used to the ratio of each blood group.
The Unhate foundation is a foundation set up by the United Colours of Benetton Company with the aim of encouraging and spreading equality and love throughout the world. Through controversial imagery, such as that depicting opposing religious groups and world country leaders kissing they aim to bring awareness to where there is a lack of equality and to bring about an idea of “Unhate�. You could say this achieved through showing the extreme opposite of these inequalities.
Earth Artifact
Primary Research
Initial Mind Map
Mayan languageperhaps look at the way it is visually Pictorial Languages such as Egyptian Heiroglyphs
Modern day slang and abbreviations
Future Generations
Communication
Unknown Audience Aliens
Enviromental
Language Translation
Medical
Earth Artifact
Hope
The Impossible Dream
Protest/ Uprising
Technology Advances
Communication
Aspirations
Social
Travel
Love
Yin and Yang
Political
Travel Interchange Weather Changes
Conicting relations
Oil and Energy Consumption Global Warming
Social Practises How people in the digital age communicate
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Multi-cultural and travelling population
Nature's Demise
Travel in Space
Animal Extinction
Earth Artifact
Primary Research
Mind Map & Initial Ideas
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Earth Artifact
Primary Research
Mind Map - Ideas In Depth
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Earth Artifact
Primary Research
Mind Map - Aspects of Equality & Design Ideas
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Earth Artifact
Primary Research
Content Decisions & Thumbnails
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Earth Artifact
Primary Research
Initial Ideas Etiquette Evolution - An informational film identifying social mannerisms, slang (such as text speak for instance) and etiquette differences from country to country. The evolution of equality standards – How the human race is slowly but surely becoming more united, though it faces its challenges. Procrastination and How To Beat It – informational leaflet and/or video on how to tackle any studying blocks. Conflicting cultural and social practises, such as diet, body image, religion, law. How these compare and contrast. The Human mind, its psyche and the overall higher understanding of the human condition. – Cognitive psychology/ cognitive functioning. Or perhaps examining the Unconscious mind. Learning Styles – How this affects us as individuals and in large groups, does this determine the sort of job we go into? Could this be through self-initiated learning? YouTube tutorials , digital tutors etc. The Earths Destruction– the human race at its peak are destroying the Earth faster then any other living creature known to man. With the use of pesticides and chemicals not to mention gas and petrol fumes, we are slowly destroying our home. I say our home, but it isn’t, it is shared not just with Humankind but with all living creatures on the planet, from bats to whales. With the way we are treating the planet this has a huge impact on the local and global wildlife, destroying their natural habitats. Social Communication in the digital age – communicating to other towns while ignoring those in front of us. On the flipside of this is the opportunity to rekindle friendships and stay close to loved ones, even if this is by media alone. Exploration and Speed of Man – The increase in speed on public on transport and racing cars alike, also the increasing, though slowly, possibilities of travelling further out into space. Technological advances in healthcare – This can range from new antibiotics to prophetic arms, skin regrown from sample area on the patient. Volunteer Statistics – statistics of the ages, ethnicity and class of those who volunteer. Volunteer Statistics idea 2– statistics comparing the amount of people hired as volunteers and that of crime rates, do they correlate? The lower/middle/high class divide – amount of homeless people in comparison to those claiming excess amounts of expenses. Self-Care Guide to caring for oneself when on your own. From preparing meals, ensuring you receive enough social time and how to pay bills.
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Earth Artifact
Primary Research
What Would You Encapsulate About The World? The Questions After coming up with my inital ideas from what I had thought up with the aid of a mind map I decided it would be useful to go out and ask questions to the public. This would be in terms of setting a heirachy of popular ideas and adding possibly new aspects to the mix. I came up woth the questions seen below. 1) If you were to document a social or global change (for those in the future to learn of) that has happened within the last 40 years, what would it be and why?
Summery Of Feedback From 33 responses (a few were due to it being a pair that I was speaking to)
3) What do you feel isn’t broadcasted or spoken/taught about enough? 1) If you were to document a social or global change (for those in the future to learn of) that has happened within the last 40 years, what would it be and why?
2 What would you say is the Human Race’s biggest achievement (to date)?
•Globalization - People rely on computers and other technology a lot now and this has caused people to process information at a much quicker pace then that of our elders. It also takes over our lives.
3) What do you feel isn’t broadcasted or spoken/taught about enough?
•Disastrous/tragic events such as the twin towers.
4) In regards to climate change, what aspects would you say are not talked about enough?
•Global Warming, environmental change, overpopulation, the ignored warning of how it will affect England’s environment.
5) In what aspect do you think the Human race has either improved and/or unimproved upon?
•Achievements like the man who sky dived from space •Advances in healthcare(vaccination) and education.
6) What are your expectations of the human race in terms of space travel over the next half a century?
•The Olympics
I found that most people I asked to answer the questions found them quite difficult to answer. Although I have tried to create clear questiosn they are still deep and a few were a bit long winded, therefore I created the below simplified versions.
•The new millennium
1) What significant events in the past 40 years would you include within a time capsule? And why?
2) What would you say is the Human Race’s biggest achievement (to date)?
2) What path would you like to see the human race pursue?
•The internet •The moon landing •Equality •Women’s rights •Surviving.
With having less questions to ask I was able to get a lot more responses by approaching more people within a shorter timeframe. However people continued to find it difficult to answer with having a deep meaning. Though that was the case I still managed to recieve some answers both speaking in person and through an online survey I created to achieve more results.
•Technological advances
Simplified 2) What path would you like to see the Human race pursue? •One of a calm peaceful nature where there is little to no war. •Space Travel •Happiness •A more equal playing field in terms of wages, a world were most, if not all people have enough money to live off, not just survive counting every penny, but to live happily. •An Altruistic Society – where people go out of their way to help each
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over rather then fight.
•Poverty and slavery – the prevalence of such hidden in the modern day. •Health – how to take care of yourself •How to adjust to living on your own – when you have your own place. •Positive actions of the human race rather then the saturation of media on wars and crimes. 4)In regards to climate change, what aspects would you say are not talked about enough? •Second world countries efforts of climate change – or lack of in comparison to first world. •What is causing it and how to actively prevent it in your daily lives. – pesticides etc. •What has actively/visibly changed due to global warming? •More serious and less known about aspects of global warming such as Acid rain and the Gulf stream becoming colder. •Nuclear power but in a positive way. •The affects it has on animals and their habitats. 5) In what aspect do you think the Human race has either improved and/ or unimproved upon? •The negative aspects being the hunger for greed and power – not just in a money sense but the greed on recourses – how this affects class divides and slavery. •Increase in pollution. •We have improved on equality a lot for a wide range of people. •Technology – increase in speed of communication and information. •Its got worse – the price of living is too high. 6)What are your expectations of the human race in terms of space travel over the next half a century? •Visit another planet, Mars most probably. •More behavioural changes – possibly good and bad, more so towards the bad. Examples, Greed, Power hunger, social divides.
Earth Artifact
Primary Research
SurveyMonkey Responses
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Earth Artifact
Primary Research
What Would You Encapsulate About The World? Subject Focus From looking at my feedback from the survey I then narrowed down my ideas to the below three before developing upon them. 1) The evolution of equality standards – How the human race is slowly but surely becoming more united, though it faces its challenges. 2) The Earths Destruction– the human race at its peak are destroying the Earth faster then any other living creature known to man. With the use of pesticides and chemicals not to mention gas and petrol fumes, we are slowly destroying our home. I say our home, but it isn’t, it is shared not just with Humankind but with all living creatures on the planet, from bats to whales. With the way we are treating the planet this has a huge impact on the local and global wildlife, destroying their natural habitats. 3) Technological advances in healthcare – This can range from new antibiotics to prophetic arms, skin regrown from sample area on the patient.
Idea Development The evolution of equality standards – How the human race is slowly but surely becoming more united, though it faces its challenges. How we survive through such preconceptions that cause inequality and how we progress to fight such before gaining further rights to become equal. What struggles have been battled to achieve change in equality? Where does inequality still prevail? Keywords: Survival, Struggle, Greed and Power, poverty and slavery. Changes in preconceptions, worldwide understanding. Wars, terrorist attacks and how these affect preconceptions. Education gaps – Availability to free education. Stereotypes and their realities My aim To interpret visually the changes between 1977 and now in regards to Equality. How do I visualise equality issues and achievements in an accurate and sensitive manner that both highlights the good and exposes the bad? Sexuality – The rainbow flag and its symbolism Stereotypes and how they can cause hate crime through lack of understanding or knowledge. Global differences in law. http://www.pewglobal.org/2013/06/04/the-global-divide-on-homosexuality/
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New Idea – a car/switchboard like board of different areas of the world against facts about the area. The Earths Destruction– the human race at its peak are destroying the Earth faster then any other living creature known to man. With the use of pesticides and chemicals not to mention gas and petrol fumes, we are slowly destroying our home. I say our home, but it isn’t, it is shared not just with Humankind but with all living creatures on the planet, from bats to whales. With the way we are treating the planet this has a huge impact on the local and global wildlife, destroying their natural habitats. Keywords: extreme weather, deforestation, global warming, Co2, drought, flooding, animal extinction.
Earth Artifact
Idea Thumbnails
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Earth Artifact
Idea Thumbnails
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Earth Artifact
Experiments
The images shown here are my initial experimentations. The first two(rotating from top left to bottom right) where upon the idea of displaying my primary research outcomes through a typographic image. This image is a very basic example of my idea just to get a simple visualisation on how it would look, I may come back to this idea later. The next one along features the world map within two rings doubled upon each other, this was to represent two sides of the world, good and bad, in regards to marriage equality. However I feel this idea is very weak so I have chosen to leave this idea. The next images follow on from a development of that idea though using a different layout. Here I have tried to create a minimalist graphic which would present the ratio of people for and against an equality measure per country through the use of ticks and crosses. I have tried to symbolise the equality it represents by including an icon of two wedding rings, however this is too vague and can be very misleading as an infographic. This is because I have tried to sum up the views of an entire country, where it varies depending on the state you reside in and therefore can give an inaccurate viewpoint towards such.
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Earth Artifact
Experiments
What inspired me to create this vector image was a quote which was paraphrased to me a week beforehand in regards to climbing a hypothetical mountain. The quote went something along the lines of, instead to looking towards the top of the mountain and feeling bad at how far you have to go before you make it take a break and look towards the bottom of the mountain and just contemplate how far you have come since starting your journey. I thought this may work well with my visualisations of equality and wanting to show how this has improved and unfortunately in some areas unimproved if not become worse. The images shown here a just the initial stages of the image and need a lot more work before they would be effective as influential or informational visuals. Furthermore I feel the mountain idea may not work as well as I had hoped as it may take away from the topic of equality and instead give people the idea that it is about literally climbing a mountain if they gave the graphic a quick glance alone.
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Earth Artifact
Experiments
I decided that for my process and production workshop I would incorporate my work from the Earth Artifact project, as I had done with the previous project. This workshop was based around Kinetic Typography and so I decided to incorporate my primary research in the way of audio recordings within the film and use what was said as the type. I think this is a good way to get a message across as it not only interacts with people through audio but also through visuals in terms of reading and aesthetically pleasing imagery, in the way we manipulate the text. However played on its own it doesn’t have much to contextualise it as to its message, especially at its current playtime of 10 seconds. In which case I may create a developed version of this piece, either with similar text or with some facts to be featured within my infographic and this will enable me to also practise and improve on my Adobe After Effects skills.
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Earth Artifact
Symbol Idea Thumbnails
The image above is a screen-grab from my quick search on money iconography. This was to get inspiration on alternative ideas to display such. To the left, I have begun to look at alternative ways of representing equality in LGBT communities through semiotics. I have also started to look at how I would represent the other symbols and whether any would be on a middle ground in terms of positive/negative connotations. One example of a positive and negative symbol is that of a bank, on one hand you have the connotation of wealth and security whereas on the other you have the richest 1% whom own the majority of the wealth in the world.
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Earth Artifact
Development
Out of my experiments the most successful was that of the minimalist poster and therefore I decided to take this idea forward. However as it stood the iconography was unclear and could mislead the viewer due to its ambiguity, in which case I was required to alter both the symbols and the display of the world as a map. The past example also looked too formal and therefore wouldn’t be targeting the general public with the information. I went back to my idea of involving the world as a literal representation(as seen above) and searched for a image of the earth, as to trace from to achieve my outline. I then brought out the following symbols and attached them to areas of the earth in a pin-point manner.
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I wanted to represent how the world has both a good and a bad “side” so to speak in terms of the difference between equality and inequality. To present this idea to the audience I chose to engulf half of the world in shadow(as if one side were lit up by the sun) and place all the negative symbols o this side. However this could be misread in one of two ways. The first being that the audience could assume the area the symbol is pin-pointed to is that which its representing, which on a 2-D image of a circular planet isn’t viable, unless of course it were to be flattened out. The second misinterpretation could be that all the bad of the world is on the side which is in darkness, which is not the connotation I want to achieve and can be very negative in result. Due to this untrue interpretation I therefore re-thought out my idea and arranged the symbols in correspondence with the area in a more diagrammatic style.
This progression of the design can be seen taking place throughout this page and those to follow. Before altering the look of the earth and its countries, I first looked at re-designing the symbols which would represent the facts. I Initially had intended to use two rings to symbolise LGBT rights as the most recent success towards equality in that area has come about through some countries passing a law to allow gay marriage. However as my tutor advised, the viewer may see the countries I recognised as allowing such to be the only ones viewed as being respectful of Gay rights, in that effect. I could see how this is an issue and therefore undertook the task of redesigning such.
Earth Artifact
Development
On my first two images(far left), I have taken a simplistic take on the icons in the way of creating simple black and white line drawings. However, I feel they look too much like comic book illustrations, which although I want the posters to be engaging to a wide audience I don’t want the piece to look insensitive either.
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I have also started to look at how I would represent the symbols in terms of colour themes. On the image to the far right for example, I have looked at this dull blue as a way to represent the negative symbols whereas for the positive associations I have used a bright yellow. I have also tried to emulate the look for the moon and the sun in this way as to tie in with the half shadowed earth.
Earth Artifact
Development
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Earth Artifact
Development - Simplifying the Symbols
As seen to the top left I have taken the initial symbol which represented LGBT Inequality(to an extreme penalty of death) and developed the icon further. Initially I had used the generic iconography of a noose to denote the death penalty, however I wanted it to be clear that it was in regards to the particular topic of sexual orientation. In which case, as you can see how I have used the Lesbian and Gay relationship symbols within one circle to denote equality, I have then took the elements from the icons and altered their composition as to create a “noose�. The first idea(far left) was that the arrow would be the rope and the x the eye, ie symbolising death. However I felt the look of this reminded me too much of comical cartoons, which is highly inappropriate for the topic. I developed the design and used the symbol as seen in the image above, with the arrow and cross being used to create the knot in the noose. Although a morbid topic, I felt it was important to address this issue within my info-graphic as it is the worst case of inequality. It is also for that reason that I felt it required a unified look to contrast against the equality sign. For the equality sign I experimented with creating a simple rainbow flag which is commonly known to represent the LGBT community. I tried this out in colour and in monochrome, though I felt this would of looked out of place in comparison to the other icons. I say this due to the fact that all the other icons are rested within a circle rather then filling the circle. To the bottom left you can see I looked at perhaps using the infinity symbol as a way to represent marriage, though the equality issue is lost within this.
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Earth Artifact
Development
By this stage I was looking at the juxtaposition of the symbols in relation to the earth and how they would work with type added. I was pleased with the latter image, though the issue of denoting a wide expansive area as unequal is apparent within this design. Due to this issue I reviewed my alternative design options.
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Earth Artifact
Development
From creating the previous examples I had concluded that the most suitable way to represent the areas in which equality stands, would be through a 2D “Mercator projection� style map. Due to the time I had spent on the last developments and the limited time I had remaining, I took the decision to seek out a free to use vector of the countries to kick-start my poster design. I chose the design seen to the left, I ensured this was a free to use vector which would allow me to modify and publish the content. As seen below I proceeded to remove all colour from the map and also renamed each layer by its associated country. I did this as to make the editing process quicker and more organised. I converted the map to one colour as to give it a unified look which I could alter as needed.
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Earth Artifact
Development
At this stage I have identified some facts through my internet searches and incorporated them into the design in a variety of typefaces. As you can see I have looked at how the different symbols work with the map and whether they need adjustment in colour, form or simplicity. You will see the symbols develop throughout the project.
Target Audience For quite a while I felt unclear as to who my target audience were and what capabilities and knowledge they had. The brief stated that we would be aiming to contact extra terrestrial life and/or future generations. I had initially aimed the ideas towards extra terrestrial kind, it was at this point when I began to look at how people with no prior knowledge could possibly understand our own. Due to my confusion regarding such, I contacted my tutor who advised me not to concentrate so much on the extra terrestrial element of the brief but rather the time capsule element. This really helped to get my focus out of how to codify if it were our language. I decided from then on that my intended audience would be more of a future generation,possibly one whom had come
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across old records of Earth encapsulated in this space habiting time capsule. My more plausible idea for such would be that of an awareness campaign, a campaign to bring more equality to the world and therefore create a better place. However I feel this strays away from the brief too much, though I can incorporate the idea within such. I will say these were created to bring such awareness and enlightenment to show that earth isn’t all sun and roses but has had in fact positive and negative happenings. This series of posters would then be included as to promote how although we aren’t completely at peace as a whole, the world is slowly and surely becoming more equal within society and how the majority has taken place over the last 30 years or so.
Earth Artifact
Development - Type Options
Above is a page I laid out with one of the facts as an example sentence, this was to test out the contrast and legibility of a selection of fonts. I looked at how the thickness of the width would interact against the map also and although remaining with the sans-serif typefaces, I considered a range of appearances. I looked at Andale Mono Regular due to its typical reflection of how data is seen within software programming and therefore represents the digital era. However, I felt this style looked outdated and instead considered fonts like Futura PT Book, though due to its geometric shaping it gave an upbeat rhythm to the piece. I therefore looked at Helvetica, though this appeared too thick for the Page 33
design in terms of weight, so I used instead Helvetica Neue Thin. Helvetica Neue Thin has the simplistic styling of Helvetica but with a much wider range of weight and width sizes, I chose the weight as to co-inside with the thin lines denoting each countries borders. Furthermore due to Helvetica’s well known trait of being impartial to connotation this helped keep the tone of the message neutral. To the upper right, you can see I have used Myriad pro Regular to initially test the visual contrast between the background and a few possible font colours.
Earth Artifact
Facts & Sources
This was a mind-map I drew up documenting the different sources I had found and the different years each fact was published.
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Earth Artifact
Secondary Research
Colour Themes
I used the following images as guides to create my “teen”, “Fun and Engaging” and “Equality” colour schemes. I decided to base these colour schemes on pre-existing material, that is typically used colours within certain promotional material. I looked at both above images as guides for the “Teen” colours, though I feel on reflection these were too bright when compared against the bedroom decoration styles shown left. In regards to Equality I found the colours used were varying and typically the rainbow was used to denote such. As I aimed to achieve a scheme from such, I looked at the Equality and Human Rights Commission website and analysed the colours they took to. I noticed in particular a use of greys and Fuchsia. However when representing Equality I didn’t want to stereotype the map to a certain gender and therefore opted for a more muted tone and that of a purple hue.
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Earth Artifact
Colour Themes I created the following colour schemes from looking at those which appear within certain settings and also those which are based on the Triad rules and/or complimentary rules. In regards to “The Golden Record” scheme, this is what it says, I simply selected light and dark contrasting colours from the record itself. This resulted in the shown “gold” creams and browns. I also looked at introducing an earth toned colour scheme to the design, though I felt these colours were too dark and therefore wouldn’t engage much attention.
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Earth Artifact
Colour Themes However, I found in practise, many of these colour schemes were unusable in terms of combining image and text and therefore I chose to stick with “The Golden Record”. I chose this theme as the basis to my design due to its simplicity and contrast between light and dark. Using this colour also proved successful due to it being a more mute tone and therefore not glaring in the eyes of the audience. In regards to a few of the non-working themes I typically tried to retain as much of a natural look to the image as possible. I did this by setting the sea as blue, though evidently the other colours were either clashing or too bright. Furthermore, I looked at using the “Light and Airy” theme as I felt this would attract attention if placed in a busy public place, though the brightness of the blue in contrast to the cream made the text unreadable and therefore I abandoned these ideas. The image to the bottom right clearly shows the challenge in readability between these colours. I have learnt from this exercise that I need to learn and practise more on colour schemes and which hues work with which and the theory behind such.
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Earth Artifact
Refinement
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Earth Artifact
Refinement
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One of the sources I got information from seen above. In this instance its regarding poverty statistics.
Earth Artifact
Refinement
Futura PT Book
Helvetica Bold
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Andale Mono
Futura Heavy
Helvetica Light
Helvetica Neue Bold
Earth Artifact
Refinement In these images you can see how I have used guides to balance the combination of elements. I have also used the guides as to line the text up to key areas, such as where the countries begins to end for example. The idea behind this is that it keeps the viewpoint within the centre image and in this way doesn’t draw attention to the empty space.
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Earth Artifact
Refinement - Kerning
To the right are screen-grabs demonstrating my use of the kerning tools. I decided to ensure the kerning was checked over before saving as a final piece because the look of the text can subtly transform your image. A tool such as kerning can transform the piece in terms of its readability and therefore makes for easier smoother reading. This also creates a more aesthetically pleasing image due to the visually equal spacing.
In the top sentence I have applied kerning techniques to the text, whereas the bottom sentence appears as the text is typed out automatically.
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Earth Artifact
Final Piece - LGBT Equality
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Earth Artifact
Final Piece - Racial Tolerance
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Earth Artifact
Final Piece - Wealth and Poverty
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Earth Artifact
Key Guide As suggested to me, I created a final touch to the series of three posters with this little key guide poster. I have chosen “The Golden Record� colour theme as I feel this suits the overall idea due to it being a response to such. I also feel this colour theme works well, though perhaps being a little dark. As seen in the previous three pages, I have altered the colours to each topic in the way of Hue. I have set the LGBT Rights poster to a mixture of pinks and purples. I had wanted to get away from stereotyping people within these images, though found it would not benefit the message in terms of information. Therefore I carefully with the aid of Adobe Colour picked the colour theme. I wanted to give it an equal representation in terms of gender, especially so given the topic in which case I ensured the background colour would be similar to navy. As seen, I have used the golden record theme for the wealth and poverty topic. I chose to do so as it makes sense that a topic on money would be pictured in a gold colourisation. In regards to the racial equality poster I was apprehensive as to whether to go for a generic theme or one chosen to fit the topic. I chose to carry on the theme of colour by topic and decided to use a mixture of contrasting greys. I chose to use grey as I felt it would represent the variety of racial skin tones. Lastly, I had previously considered using a mixture of white, black and greys. Though I chose against such as I felt this would look negative in connotation and possibly racist. It also has a hidden message there in one sense in that you could say not everything is black and white, i.e. people aren’t defined by their race, sexual orientation etc. but by the many aspects of their being and how a person acts as a member of community throughout their life.
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Earth Artifact
Evaluation How Did You Find It? I found identifying a target audience and their capabilities challenging at first due to the initial aims of the Golden Voyager. I initially took the idea of extra terrestrials “reading� the message as a challenge to create a symbolic system. This would just like the original diagrams upon the voyager, translate our language to them through ideology without need for prior knowledge. However as I looked into this deeper it became clear that without prior knowledge of our related associations, it would be close to impossible to accurately visualise such information. Though on another viewpoint, we ourselves decoded the Egyptian hieroglyphs which goes to prove that with time and patience it can be done. As mentioned previously within this document the notion of extra terrestrial life being the target audience created complications within my idea plans, as mentioned above and so I discussed the brief once more with my tutor. To which I decided to aim on creating a set of posters which would inform of the equality successes and issues happening on Earth. This information graphic series would be aimed at future generations whom would come across the time capsule in outer space. In regards to the idea generation I feel I did well in this respect and came up with multiple solutions a variety of mediums. I chose to create an information graphic as a way to challenge myself. I had seen a few of my peers create info-graphics for the previous brief and I myself had never attempted such. Due to this I felt I should do so as to learn the challenges faced with such and to improve my skills and range of knowledge in different areas of design. In practise it was a lot more challenging than expected, though I persisted with the task until I achieved a result I was happy with and which communicated my message.
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The most difficult aspect of the project I would say is sourcing the information. I found trying to track down information on selective subjects and within close publishing years to one another to be of particular difficulty. This is especially so when the majority of my findings were American based and my info-graphic would be representing the world as a whole. Due to such it has resulted in perhaps one of two symbols not representing accurately the most deprived areas of a topic. However, this cannot be helped as I have only but the information within my access. To ensure all information was as accurately represented as possible, I applied a sources section to the posters, as is typically found with info-graphic designs. Did You Achieve What You Set Out To Accomplish? Yes, I set out to create an info-graphic poster and created a set of three. I also created a mini poster, though admittedly rushed, around the symbols used within the designs. I would have liked to have animated the info-graphic, though using one of the earlier design paths and therefore I would have been able to pan in and around the Earth as to direct each topic to the relevant cities and countries it affects. One of my friends suggested the possibility of touches a symbol in a specific area to access further information and I think this also would have been an interesting route to go down. The route I would have taken this idea would of been a mobile app or website design. The latter seems most fitting due to the amount of text possibly appearing on screen. What Would You Change? If I were to change an aspect of this project, it would have been to create more outcomes, particularly in
relation to an animated video exploring the equality issues and success stories around the world. I would have also liked to have created some minimalistic 3-D sculptures and/or 3-D data visualisations using a similar technique to Siang Ching and with inspiration from Brendan Dawes lecture.
Earth Artifact Nicole H.D.W. Sinclair University Of Huddersfield Š 2015