Philosophy of Art and Design
When we were asked to choose 4 topics which interests us the most I was not so interested in philosophy of art and design. Once I found out that it’s the study group I was put in it made me really demotivated and I wasn’t so interested in it. I was worried about producing an essay on a topic that I’m not interested in. The first lesson I been to was ‘what is art’ lesson. This lesson really challenged me as the topic is really complex in itself. Every week I started to look at the lesson plan the day before and read through them so I’m prepared for the lesson as I was finding it hard thinking and writing from a philosophical perspective. The most useful part of studying this topic has been applying the design perspective to my course. The theory of design and other philosophers made me question the designers work. The hardest part has been understanding and remembering so many different philosophers and I think we never focused on a person too much. It was briefly mentioned and we’d only see few quotes which are related to the topic. This made me struggle sometimes in lessons to put together everything we’ve spoke about and understand them all. In addition, I think one of the things I need to improve for next study is attendance. Even though I didn’t attend few lectures I still went through Moodle to see what I missed. I think missing few lectures did make it harder for me to understand as it is a very hard topic.
For next term, one of the things I will improve is my attendance and to ask more questions. The challenges that I’m facing are to create a balanced essay which includes many theories and developing each point. I’ve been researching about my question and creating notes which will help me through my essay. I read the readings which our lecturer suggested which made is easier for me to understand my question I started to develop points in my head. I went on moodle and found a folder which our lecturer created to help us with our essay structure. I used his techniques to structure my essay. I found the lessons what is art and what is design the most complicated. As they are the most complicated a questions which everyone has different theories and opinions it makes me so hard to find a definition. I think comparing both lessons I found what is design the most useful and beneficial. The reason for that is it made me question and think about all the designers work which I’ve seen and question do they fit into what philosophers consider as design. I based my essay on design because the lesson was complicated however, it caught my interest and I could link some ideas to my course. The question I based my essay on is found in the brief. For few weeks I tried to create a question which I could write a detailed essay on and it was a big challenge. There was 2 topics which I was interested the most Feminism technology lesson and what is design. One of the lessons I enjoyed the most was linking feminism and technology. I have a passion for sociology and I’ve studied it for 4 years. The 4 study groups I chose beginning of the year were mostly sociological topics which I have the most knowledge and interest i. When I saw the lesson on feminism in the lecture plan I was so excited. That lesson was my favorite out of all because I learnt about so many other perspectives which I never thought about before. I haven’t studied those two topics together before. It allowed to think from a different perspective and I did think about basing my essay on it but then changed my mind. In the lesson I realized that technology is also used as against women. Such as the use of technology. All of the superheroes in film which change shape, become the most powerful are all men. Technology is a tool which can be used to portray a message. When young children watch all those films it creates a message that all men are power, they’re superheroes. An example given my feminists were a posters for dishwashers. Posters which have women being happy about dishwashers. The use of women in those types of posters again show that allocated roles in society for women is always home. We also studied about radical feminists which is always so interesting. I really love building my knowledge on topics which are related to my course as it helps me to have more open minded thought about the topics and enables me to be a more free one minded designer. I did find it hard in the beginning to understand all the different topics which were very deep and philosophical however towards the end I was happy to be put in the group.
I think the reason I started to have much more interest in this study group is because some topics are things I questioned myself in my foundation year and had lectures about. But I never thought about it from a philosophers perspectives and I learnt so many new philosophers which is beneficial to me. Looking back at how I felt at the start of the study groups to now I think learning about the philosophy behind art and design really built my knowledge. I really enjoyed the philosophy of art and design and I’m very excited to go into my next study group which i will be learning more about different topics and explore different concepts.
My next study group I will focus on being more organized and make sure I attend the very lecture.
WEEK 2
This week I did some research about the futurist movement. I started to make notices and create a blog post which has indepth research about what is futurism, who and how was it found by and the features of this movement. I researched about the main founder Marinetti and many other artists who were part of this movement. I used the books in libary as well as internet to resaerch. The book ‘Futurism’ by Richard Humphreys has been beneficial because it gave me an insight of the futurism in depth and has topics which I didn’t know that was related to futurism such as politics. Once the research is over my next step is to develop layouts and grid systems. Also, I had a letterpress workshop which was really good. I made prints using my movement and I don’t think I will use them in my poster because they’re all the same font and same size. Futurism focuses on different weights and sizes of text. However, for future I could use letter press for other posters.
WEEK 1
I’ve studied Graphic design in Alevel and completed a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design. I’ve decided that the is the career path I want to pursue. I find many artists influential and beneficial to my work. Mix media has always been so interesting to me and I enjoy combining different materials together such as prints and photography. The book cover below is my work and I used the etching prints to create the main cover. In addition,I’m interested in history of Graphic Communication and influential graphic designers.
During this week, I experienced a very different environment. I was able to meet so many people and come out of my comfort zone. I went to Freshers Fair which was so exciting as there were few societies which was interesting like International Amnesty. I was always interested in drama since young age so I decided to join the drama society. This week has been very beneficial and I learnt about all the opportunities we have in the university. One of the tutors told us about opportunities outside of the university such as ‘Creative mornings’ this will help us making connections and meeting people from the design industry.
For me, the most important goal is by the end of my course I have challenged my abilities and developed new skills. So for this, the next three years I will be experimenting with variety of materials, researching and coming out of my comfort zone. Once I graduate, my dream job would be to design front covers for big magazines such as Dazed . I want to learn more about layouts and everything needed to design a good cover. Branding is also one of favorite thing to design.In addition, I want to learn more about softwares which will be useful to my creative process.
Busra Yildiz 