Introduction to CATS
In the induction week I was introduced to Critical and Theoretical Studies (CATS), this was done with a group task of putting a set of images and events in chronological order, this made me think about what events influenced all areas of design throughout history, a big event was the First World War, this made design simple, rational and efficient. By making shorter skirts for women they would save on fabric and labour.
Throughout history design has and will always coincide with art movements, these denote the latest trends and interest of popular culture.
Thinking about the influence of War
Wars can change paradises into desolate wastelands and transform an entire continent. As history progress human beings keep coming up with new ways of destroying each other, starting with the battle of hastings when wars were fought with swords and shields right up to modern day were a soldier doesn't even need to put his own life at risk. Technologies such as Unmanned or remote control drones have taken the humanity out of the kill almost like playing a video game.
Although war is an atrocity it is used to keep balance around the world. War has also inspired a string of successful video games such as the Battlefield series and the Call of Duty series. These games give the player a first person view of simulated war. These games can be seen as biased because the heroes will 9 times out of 10 be British or American.
30-09-2011 - Researching the internet and the telephone:
In the first structured session of CATS, the purpose of studying CATS was explained to us, after this our first task was to get into groups to produce a brief presentation. We were only given a very short time to research the information needed, I think the reason for doing this was to try and improve our research skills and how efficiently we research.
07-10-2011 - Semiotics:
This session was a little bit more intense as we began to learn about semiotics (hidden meaning). We looked at different media and began to decipher the meaning that the "artist" intended the "viewer" to see.
I have seen many pieces of work with deep meaning which never made sense to me such as H R Gigers art, his works is grotesque and unappealing but still carries powerful messages.
14-10-2011 - Harvard Referencing:
This lecture was simply about learning the Harvard reference system and how it standardised referencing.
I used in text referencing in al presentations I have done since this lecture and found it a really helps make work look more academic and professional.
21.10.11 - Feminism:
At first the subject of feminism was uninteresting to me but as the session went on I realised how hard women have had to fight for the rights we men have always had. Women in the war had to take male responsibilities and by doing this they proved they are just as able to do manual labour as men are.
4.11.11 - Utopia/ Dystopia:
This subject really interested me as it is prevalent in most of the videogames that I play today. Dystopias are often created by tyrants that are trying to create a Utopia. In doing this they force misery upon others and control the society and often take away freedoms and liberties.
11.11.11 - Utopia/Dystopia group presentations:
This session’s main focus was about presenting as a group to the rest of the class, in doing this I learnt to speak clearly when presenting, avoid reading from slides and be well prepared for the task ahead. It was interesting working in a group as we tried not to “step on each other” while presenting. This could have been done better by working out an order in which to speak.
18.11.11 - Propaganda:
I missed this session, but after looking into propaganda and my favourite subject, World War 2 I realised that it can be a useful tool in motivating troops and keeping up morale however this isn’t always a truthful message because the truth is altered to keep the propaganda as a positive message. There would be no point in posting negative messages everywhere as this would defeat the aim and objective of propaganda.
25.11.11 - Communism:
The idea of Communism was to make everybody an equal and it makes people put back into the system what they have taken from it. This meant that everyone was essentially a clone of one and other. Driving the same cars, living in the same types of houses and living more or less a drab life. Another film that shows this is “Equilibrium” they push the clone thing to the next level by medicating every citizen so that they don’t have emotions. Communism can be viewed as a Dystopia created by one person’s Utopian values.
2.12.11 - Critical Perspective:
Psychoanalysis looks into the sub-concious and helps detect how a person makes mental links with everyday objects.
This is useful in the web industry when trying to persuade people to use the website in a certain way.
9.12.11 - Individual Presentations:
This was the week we were mean to present but due to unforseen circumastances we didn’t, this gave me some more time to fine tune my presentation.
16.12.11 - Individual Presentations:
This was the week I did my individual presentation I found that I felt a lot more comfortable doing this presentation because I was better prepared, I still found that I spoke quite fast because of nerves.