OUGD501 Studio Task 03 - Establishing A Research Question

In todays COP2 session we were briefed on the third study task of which we would have to take part in that would help us with the initial development of out COP2 module. This task was to get us thinking about the question of which we would take forward in to the essay stage to write about and furthermore how we link the practical side of the project.
I believe this will be very beneficial to me as it may help me to combat the problems that I found last year with this module in the way that even though I enjoyed the topic of my essay last year I picked a subject area of which I couldn't find a lot of research about and I believe this held me back as it limited the scope of my essay. Although as I did pick something I am really interested in the practical side to the project worked very well. This year I am aiming to pick a subject area that allows me to find enough research on the topic but also that I really take an interest in so that I will enjoy creating the practical work.

The first stage of the study task was to read a handout that was provided relating to the idea of topic and concept generation and then ayer having read the help sheet start to think about the question that I will take in to the essay part of the module by answering the questions in the box's below…

OUGD501 - Study Task 03 - Establishing A Research Question?

Suggested Research Question. This can be a topic or theme, but please try to be as precise as possible.

Structuralism & Post-structuralism and more specifically what place they as theoretical philosophical movements play in graphic design, inspired by their links to design such as authorship and evaluated through visual aspects such as semiotics.

Which Of The Module Resources Does This Question Relate To? You can find these on eStudio - Try to list at least three.

Philosophy Industry  Authorship

Which Academic Sources Are Available On The Topic? Include a Harvard Referenced bibliography of at least 5 sources.

Chandler, D. (2001). Semiotics:the basics. London: Routledge. Eco, U. (1984). Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Hawkes, T. (2003). Structuralism & semiotics. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge. Ward, G. (2003). Postmodernism. Chicago: Contemporary Books. Sarup, M. (1993). An introductory guide to post-structuralism and postmodernism. 2nd ed. Harlow: Harvester Wheatsheaf.

How Could The Research Question Be Investigated Through Practice? What Graphic Design would you make in response to this, and why?

The research question would be tested through the practice, through the means that it will test the conclusion of the essay even further, by providing a means to test whether the beliefs behind structuralism or poststructuralism are appropriate to graphic design.

Peer Feedback – How could this topic be refined / developed? Show this form to a fellow student. They should record their feedback in the box below

Try and be more specific to what areas and topics will be assessed in the essay part of the module. Think further how the practice aspects can test the conclusion of the essay section. Find a way to link the essay with graphic design more specifically.

OUGD501 Studio Task 02 - Parody & Pastiche

We started the second seminar of the COP module by being given two different pieces of text one written by Frederick Jameson and the other written by Linda Hutcheon. Both of the pieces of text are written around the concept of the comparison of parody and pastiche with both of the authors standing with different beliefs around the subject. This seminar will provide a very important part of my analytical research skills as it will improve my understanding of the comparison of two different pieces of texts that are based on the same topic but stand with different beliefs on the topic and therefore allowing me to piece together a deep understanding of  a subject. In the seminar we then read through the texts and outlined the parts of the texts that were related to our topic of parody and pastiche.

 In her book The Politics of Postmodernism:Parody and History Hutcheon(1989) she states that "What I mean by 'parody' here is not the ridiculing imitation of the standard theories and definitions that are rooted in eighteenth century theories of wit. The collective weight of parodic practice suggests a redefinition of parody as repetition with critical distance that allows ironic singling of difference at the very heart of similarity." In which she describes parody as the act of not just mimicking a certain era of which is being brought to intention in a ridiculing and derogatory way, but rather it consists of bringing said era's to light to elude to its faults and ironically point out its drawbacks, rather than ridiculing the era, attention is brought to the standpoints and ironic tendencies. 

Contrastingly to the last definition In his book Postmodernism Jameson(1991) he states that "Pastiche is, like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique, idiosyncratic style, the wearing of a linguistic mask, speech in a dead language. But it is a neutral practice of such mimicry, without any of parody's ulterior motives, amputated of the satiric impulse, devoid of laughter and of any conviction that alongside alongside the abnormal tongue you have momentarily borrowed, some healthy linguistic normality still exits"in which he eludes to the fact that rather than eluding to a previous era with the end goal of outlining its faults and set backs instead pastiche relates to the practice of mimicking something that came before it, non in a ridiculing sense but actually to draw attention to the era and its attributes in a positive way.

OUGD501 Studio Task 01 - Authorship & Graphic Design

For the first study task of this new COP2 module we were asked to take everything we had learnt from reading and discussing Roland Barthes' essay "The Death Of An Author" in the earlier COP seminar and then using the knowledge we have gained from the essay to write a small 500 word evaluation based around writing a short analysis of the work of one graphic designer, or one aspect of Graphic Design Practice that relates to the central themes from the Roland Barthes essay. In the analysis we would have to include a minimum of three quotes from the Barthes text and then a further quote from one of the additionally provided texts.

In my analysis I will discuss how points raised by Barthes do actually link to the the modern day graphic design practice referring to how it still appropriate to say that the meaning work is all surrounded by how it is perceived by the viewer, never one fixed meaning delivered by the author, but actually dependant on the viewer themselves. This relates further to the modern graphic design practice in the way that depending on the viewer in a piece of graphic design use of aspects like colour, type and layout could be perceived differently.
In Roland Barthes' essay he puts forward a debate in which he challenges the idea of authorship and its links to authority itself. In the texts he delves in to the theory that can be linked to other areas of life whether it be the circumstances he is discussing in the books or to many other areas of society and culture such as music and art, that contrary to popular belief that the author is the most crucial part of any piece of work and that theoretically it should be seen through their eyes to understand the work, actually he shifts the importance over to the viewer saying that the meaning is different depending on the viewer itself. This has been proved many times in the history "recent research has demonstrated the constitutively ambiguous nature of greek tragedy, its texts being woven from words with double meanings that each character understands unilaterally" Barthes, R (1977, p148). He wants us to reject the thought that the meaning of anything is solid and fixed and accept the fact that the meaning of work can be ever changing, dependant on the eye of the reader "In precisely this way literature, by refusing to assign a 'secret' , an ultimate meaning, to the text, liberates what may be called an anti-theological activity, an activity that is truly revolutionary since to refuse to fix meaning is, in the end, to refuse god and his hypostases - reason, science, law" Barthes, R (1977, p147). 

In the second paragraph Roland says "The author is a modern figure, a product of our society insofar as, emerging from the Middle Ages with English empiricism, French rationalism and the personal faith of the Reformation" Barthes, R (1977, p142). In this quote Roland is referring to the fact that although the author is an individual with their own belief at the point of creation, he says that all they are really are is an encompassment of everything that has happened in the past. He is implying that the person no matter how individualistic they might think their beliefs are have all stemmed in some way from the past before their life and the experiences in their own life. Therefore there can be no one individual correct belief but actually a different meaning depending on many different aspects such as the viewers social, cultural and political background. These points were further developed on in an Eye Magazine article related to the topic in which they say "The so-called 'death of the author', proposed most succinctly by Roland Barthes in a 1968 essay of that name, is closely linked to the birth of critical theory, especially theory based in reader response and interpretation rather than intentionality." Rock,M.(1996). This further reinforcing the validity of his more philosophical way to think and the fact that it actually fights against the norm of hierarchal understanding and actually put the subordinates in control of which Is a much more developed understanding of how we comprehend everything relying on our own solo experiences as human beings and not people who read and recite information unconsciously.

Bibliography  

Barthes,R.(1977) Image-Music-Text, London, Harper Collins

Rock, M. (1996). Eye Magazine | Feature | The designer as author. [online] Eyemagazine.com. Available at: http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/the-designer-as-author [Accessed 19 Oct. 2015].

OUGD501 Studio Brief 01 - Briefing

Today we were briefed on the context of practice module for Level 5. As this was the module of which dragged down the averages of my overall grade for level 4 I will have to reflect on my last years attempt and then use the negatives from what I discover to overall improve my module last year. I am looking forward to this as It gives me an opportunity to improve massively on an aspect of which is the worst area of my graphic design practice.

I will be concentrating more in the development of this module when it comes to the research and understanding stage as this lack of understanding and research is what pulled my whole grade down.