As everyone knows I am working on Alzheimer’s disease and if communication design might improve the perception of the disease by the general public, raising awareness and supporting patients and carers. I am also interested to approach information design, because I believe in its power to enhance understanding.
Instead of choosing some beautiful piece of information design, I decided to share with you my views on the short-film Ex Memoria, by John Appignanesi.
Based in personal memories of the director, the film tries to look at the world from the patients’ point of view and make us feel their experience. Just in 15 minutes, it manages to cover different aspects and issues of having dementia. Besides that, it comes with additional information and advice for family and carers, what I found really useful.
Eva is a Polish old lady suffering from dementia who is no longer able to distinguish past and present. She constantly recalls deep memories related with the war. The film starts with a scene from the past, when she was young, helping us to understand some of her current attitudes. She doesn’t recognize her family (daughter and grandsons) or the nursing home staff. She keeps on misunderstanding people, asking them “weird” things related with her past memories.
In addition, the film presents the scenario of living in a nursing home, where there are no references and the will to go home or to go out (probably in the pursuit of something they recognize). Also, sharing spaces with others at this age and condition might not be easy. Furthermore, the fact of being far from the family makes it more difficult for Eva to identify them and for them to understand her or know how to talk or stimulate her. It refers as well the difficulty to let other people help them with tasks they cannot perform anymore, like personal hygiene.
Although symptoms vary slightly from person to person, I recognized there the situation of my grandparents. It’s impossible not to compare to what I know and what I feel about this situation.
The film touches important topics that open reflection and discussion about the condition and about the way support is being provided. It also suggests how important is to know the past of the patient in order to understand and help him/her better. That’s why family’s support is also important.
I found this way of presenting the disease really inspiring. It gives a clearer notion of what it really is. In my opinion, for example, showing how the Alzheimer’s brain looks like doesn’t add any knowledge for someone that has to deal with the disease.
This film reminded me why I am doing this project and pointed out some possible approaches to raise awareness in a different way, maybe making them more sensitive. Besides a more “informational” approach that I still want to keep, I would like also to do some experiments exploring visually to communicate how people with dementia might feel, taking this film as an example.
here you can see 2min of the film: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Public-engagement/Funded-projects/Profiles/WTDV030205.htm
Viva presention:
18 Mar 2011 / Professional practice
Sam Winston describes his practice as fine art through design skills, using words, typography or books. Thus he uses design creative practices to do something else, not design.
For him, commercial work is boring. Usually, when working commercially, people arrive to a point where they don’t learn anymore, where they have to comply with the client and that means that they are just working to earn money. For Sam, this is not the main goal of working. He mentioned three main influences for his attitude to work: Alan Fletcher who defended design as authorship, where the designer has a voice; Ken Garland, the author of the manifesto “First things first” and Ron King from Circle Press. The work should have some meaning, should always teach something. Therefore his practice is based on self-initiated projects and handmade experimentation, allowing “mistakes” to take part of it. He sees that as “the poetry of my body”. He mentioned that the more he was asked to work digitally, the more he created handmade briefs for himself. Intuition also plays an important role in his work, as it’s a very interesting way of learning. Everything is part of the learning experience.
Sam is passionate about words. So he decided to make a living out of that, exploring and engaging with language at different levels. “Language isn’t solid”. He plays with the meaning of words or ways of communicating, whether is the concept of dictionary, as the container of everything you can say or write, or the internet where knowledge is superficial and based in links between words.
When at first we look to his extremely beautiful works, there is no apparent logic or reason behind it. But after observing them deeper there are always stories to read, conclusions to take, something to find. Sometimes it's also partly information design.
Finally he pointed out the importance of structure and organization when working alone and always reflect on what and why we’re working on.
“My practice is my end goal because I learn from it.”
11 Mar 2011 / Professional practice
In this lecture about wayfinding, Jonathan Rez pointed out the fact that designing wayfinding systems is more about functional solutions and constraints rather than providing experiences to who is using it. He started with some examples of mistaken, funny signs, showing how careful people designers should be, once it really affects people’s life.
In his opinion, the more correct word for describing wayfinding systems should be wayshowing.
In a wayshowing project the first step is to identify destinations and popular routes in order to find decision points where directions are needed. And then which signs are more suitable to each purpose. It’s essential to compile a destination list. This can be provided by the client or by different stakeholders. Otherwise designer can also do it, based on field/primary research.
It’s important to talk with different people in the area, both residents and visitors and ask them where they want to go, why they want to get somewhere. Like this, we can have a bigger picture and create something that is really focused on the users. Of course, not all the desired destinations will be covered. People have often very specific needs.
Following that, Rez argues that it would be actually important in some cases to reframe wayfinding as thingfinding. And that is where service design can make a difference, once it’s a user-centred approach.
9min
Don’t repeat exactly what is in the screen.
Will you focus on Alzheimer’s or all forms of dementia?
You mention 3 audiences, and two of them with similar outcomes. Don’t you want to focus just in one?
Beginning – don’t put the question, or start with some visual graphics.
PractiseRita:
Try to make it as visual as possible.
Include statistics and figures relating to coping with Alzheimers ie. Costs for the family
Suggestions:
Present the statistics in an interesting visual manner, different to existing websites, which are very dry and impersonal
Be aware of keeping ethical, but don’t be afraid to experimentMupimup is a design studio focused on recycling and reusing materials. They are based in a small village (300 habitants) in the East cost of Iceland, which makes also their lives more sustainable.
Often designers think that they must be in big cities in the middle of the creative people. Well, not just designers. That’s why we assist everyday to the desertification of small villages (at least in Portugal). Young people don’t want to be there anymore. I believe that they don’t see future there. And, in a way, I agree with that. But if we look at Mupimup’s work that don’t have to be necessarily true.
The lecture made me reflect on that. I believe that if we would like to live in a smaller place we just have to be creative enough to do it. It could really improve the quality of our everyday life. Creative people could be really important for the development small villages.
Mupimup is now working in a project of reusing the building of a disabled fish factory in the village. This factory is part of the identity of the village. So they wanted to “keep the spirit of the house” and turn it to something valuable both for locals, tourists and artists looking for getting out of the city for a while. Their proposal is a creative centre based on sustainable principles in order to improve the local economy. The place would comprise fish market and restaurant, market of local products, café and creative spaces/workshops, joining in the same space arts, crafts and design.
To conclude, they believe that this project could save the village from collapse and they stressed how a creative person can have real power to be used in benefit of the community. We just have to be responsible and put our skills and energy in the right place.
David McCandless
The Conference started with David McCandless, author of the book Information is Beautiful. He started talking about his career: how he started as a programmer and journalist and ended as a graphic designer. David McCandless believes in the power of diagrams to facilitate thinking and understanding and he realised that when he was trying to write an article about a complex matter. So he just experimented to visualize it. And it worked – he didn’t need words anymore.
After he had an ideia for a book that would focus the visualization of information. Just in the very end, it would be called Information is Beautiful. All the process, since the idea to the publication, took him about two years. He described its development in six stages: idea, doubt, concept, data collection, design, publication.
I couldn’t help comparing it with our research, project. Same period of time, and we can more or less identify the same stages. So yes, I believe we are in the very middle of the doubt, and we will be, for some more time I imagine. It’s interesting how the doubt phase was almost as big as the design phase.
During the concept phase, he generated lots of ideas (about 300), of information that could be interesting to visualize. Instead of using inspiration, curiosity, passion and wonder, he sees boredom, ignorance, bewilderment and frustation as opportunities to create:
1 How can I make this interesting?
2 How can I find this out?
3 How can I understand this?
4 How can I make this work better?
Throught the design stage, everything starts with a spread sheet and lots of sketching. It’s a good exercise to use both sides of the brain. He stressed the importance of sketching before in paper, it’s possible to understand if it works or not. Just after in Illustrator and then “lots of time” to reduce, make it better, optimize it.
Michael Blastland
This energic lecture was the one that really made a new point for information design: “How can we design uncertainty?”
Here is a good question. Or a good oportunity, as Michael Blastland suggested.
Michael Blastland is journalist that unveils statistical data, questions it. He’s not a designer so he looks to designer’s work in a different perspective, seeing its problems and possibilities.
Data is not concrete, there’s a huge amount of uncertainty and vagueness. Numbers go up and down much more than we think, and mainly in smaller places (smaller amount of people involved – more variation).
He stressed about the importance for the designer of knowing what he is working with: “If we don’t understand data, how do we want to visualize it?”. Because this can cause a problem of misleading. It already caused. Lots of projections and decisions were based in static visualizations that aren’t real.
Professional practice / 26 Jan 2011
Mischa Haller is a Swiss photographer based in London since 1998. He talked about his career, how each work led to a new one and, the most interesting of all in my point of view, how his personal projects led to commissioned ones.
He started in London, showing a personal project of close-ups of human bodies to a magazine editor. The editor liked it so much, that wanted him to explore it and do a cover and story with it.
Following that, Mischa Haller had this idea of publishing a book by himself with small stories that he had been exploring in the year before. He took a model of it to several shops and galleries that might be interested to sell it. He got some positive answers, so he publish it. Mischa talk about this book as the best investment he have ever done, once it was crucial for the development of his career.
Mischa’s work is related with social and cultural reportage. He looks for details that can tell a story without showing everything. He argues that details make life special. These details can cover as well certain moments, unusual angles, contrasts.
He also concentrates his work on people. Because people animate the places. Therefore when Mischa needs to do some reportage, he spends some time in the place, he talks to the people until they are comfortable and let him do some photos.
On the other hand, when he does portraits, he tries to include some context. It tells more about the person.
Pete Brooks / Academic practice / 26 Jan 2011
Contemporary theatre and performance tend to be more about form, while Pete Brooks is more interested in exploring the stories. Once the illusion of the theatre is broken nowadays, in his opinion, this is a way of giving the audience the same involvement that cinema does, but with a narrative on stage.
Furthermore it’s also important for Pete to play with the scenography in order to produce “scenographic methaphors”. As dramaturge, he defines the idea, the content of the piece, that is complemented by the scenography. Playing with different components of scenography (lights, actors,…) changes and creates different stories. Pete Brooks sees digital technology and motion graphics as a tool with great potential to tell stories in a different and engaging way, using visual tricks. So he talks about his later work as a mixture that is part performance, part cinema which tries give the audience an “emotional engaging experience”.
I was quite impressed by his later projects. Mainly by the beautiful composition of plans, photography, colours, interaction between back projections and actors. So I decided to include some pictures of Kellerman, one of his latest projects, with some notes from his comments that I found interesting.
Ben Kenezevic / Technical practice/ 21st Jan 2011
It’s always nice to hear someone that is passionate about its work. Even if I don’t understand how is it possible to be so enthusiastic about Rapid Prototyping, I liked to hear Ben talking about it. There was always a little proud smile when he showed some complex model he have done. I was thinking that I would like to have the same smile when I’m presenting my work.
As far as Rapid Prototyping is concerned, it was important to understand what we can and what we can’t do with rapid prototyping machines, how to do it and when to use it. There are lots of different machines, each one with its function or appropriate for a specific kind of material. I wasn’t aware of its utility for jewelery although lots of complex jewels are made since long time without its help (I’m thinking of filigree). Rapid prototyping machines are mainly worthy for difficult models, to test its efficiency or to show them to clients, so they can have a clear perception of what they will get. In fact Ben showed some impressive models, that I can’t imagine doing it with other technique.
However I’m not sure how harmful for the environment it can be, as there are lots of plastics and resins involved. I should have asked.
It’s good to know that we have a laser cutting machine in the college. Although it’s a bit expensive, it can be quite useful for future projects. The final product turns up really beautiful.
Professional practice / 19th Jan 2011
I really liked the work of Mind Design. But what impressed me most was their attitude. They know that their work is good but they are not arrogant about it. Instead, they confess that the development of their ideas are quite spontaneous and intuitive. Sometimes designers tend to be a bit vain when they are good. I’m sure they also do a lot of research, but the ideas are genuine and without fear of being wrong. Maybe that’s why their work seem so fresh.
We can perceive by the work and by them that they really enjoy and have fun. They do what they want, and they also suggest new things that the client may want, but didn’t asked. They don’t seem worried about how long (money) they worked on a project since it is as they think it should be. One of them said “invest in quality, save in quantity”.
Moreover, I’ve also admired the fact that each project is different. I mean, often some designers find their own “receipts”. Therefore their projects look similar. They can also argue that is their identity and authorship, and I respect that. However, I find more interesting to challenge your work every time there is a new project.
Roger Sabian / Academic practice /
This lecture was a surprise for me. I’m not so into comics, but I really enjoyed this lecture. I’ve never thought of analysing comics and the way that Roger approached the lecture was quite engaging. It was good to have the American comic in our hands and analyse it ourselves.
There’s so much to “see” in comics and what is beyond them: format, content, target group, historical context, economic context. All these aspects are equally important in the creation of comics. For instance, the agenda and the owner of a character, as superman, have a great influence in the design and stories shifting it from comics to cinema, toys, TV and so on.
Following that, the format is also quite crucial economically. Not only because of the amount of paper and ink spent, but mainly the possibility of being suitable for collection. This influences the story, that should have continuity between issues. Therefore there is a intricate relation between all these aspects to consider in comics.
It’s interesting how the differences between cultures – Europe, America, Far East (Japan) – are so easily perceivable the and how it shape the stories, the designs, everything in comics.
Moreover, comics also comprise comix (underground comic from the 60s, with themes like drug experiences, sex…), graphic novels (book format) – that are thought to be the most promising future of comics –, small press comics (homemade, photocopy), e-comics (still a lot to explore in this area), manga (Japan).
Comics are an art form, and that makes them special. They can be flexible in space and time, and the structure in panels and gutters makes it possible.
Also, another interesting curiosity: cinema, in the very beginning, got some influences in comics and not the contrary.
We’ve got lots of new references and I’m looking forward to reading some of them.
Dr Claire McAndrew / Academic Practice / 12th January
It was useful to learn about culture probes once I’ve never heard about it before. In my opinion it’s a curious way of researching because, from what I understood, not only it can get results in order benefit design approaches to some problem but also the research is designed in a way it can give the desired type of answers. Therefore cultural probes can have different characters. They can be open-ended, they can create situations and provide choice. From cultural probes we can get resourceful stories, unexpected and deep responses, that wouldn’t be accessible with other method of research. The case studies were crucial to understand better the importance of the pack, how do cultural probes work and what we can get from them. However, I’m not sure how to engage and get people to participate. Moreover, it seemed difficult to do the data analysis. It’s not a quantitative analysis, but more a qualitative one, once we are dealing with real responses from real people. These are raw materials that should be kept raw, and interpret them every time we look at them. Also the issue of not knowing exactly if cultural probes can be really informative or more inspirational.
Finally, I must say that this lecture was hard to follow for me. Maybe it was the first lecture of the term so my ears were not adapted yet to English again, but also because the presentation had lots of blocks of text and made it difficult to understand the concept of cultural probes. I confess that just got it in the middle or the lecture.
