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[21.2.17] Design Domain // Proposal 2

I have just re-read what I wrote for my Proposal for Term 1. I am now entering term 2 and my idea has slightly changed. Instead of focussing the project as a Dystopian Government creating Brand Guidelines to Social Etiquette, I am moving more on a solo route with the concept of Self Help Apps. These Apps are highly used for various cases such as anxiety and stress. They are not always Apps, they can be seen as Youtube Videos.

I plan to make a short film that is themed as a Self Help Video. The video is talking to Protagonist. It is not the viewer as it answers the App’s question on what feelings it wants to feel. This idea was inspired from Philip K Dick’s book ‘Do androids dream of electric Sheep’ In which there is a device called a Mood Organ. This device is a luxury gadget and is unclear on how it operates, but it’s purpose is to change your mood by typing in channel numbers.

Here is a quote from the book :

'So I left the TV sound off and I sat down at my mood organ and I experimented. And I finally found a setting for despair… So I put it on my schedule for twice a month; I think that's a reasonable amount of time to feel hopeless about everything...' How much time do you set aside each month for specific moods?"

When we are spending a long period of stay in City environments we can experience feelings of depression, stress and anxiety. When We feel like this we rush to the idea of getting away for a few days, to recharge ourselves.  We crave for solitude, peace and quiet with beautiful views. Environments that are natural, bringing us back to our routes when we lived in the wild, long before the days of technology and the Internet.

Water is a natural depressant. The image and sound of waves in the Ocean, River and Lochs reminds us of the sounds we experienced in our Mothers Womb. Rivers have long been seen as sacred places, and in a number of different spiritual contexts, water has symbolised rebirth, spiritual cleansing and salvation. Our affinity for water is even reflected in the near-universal attraction to the colour blue. We’re naturally drawn to aquatic hues — the colour blue is overwhelming chosen as the favourite colour of people around the world, and marketing research has found that people tend to associate it with qualities like calm, openness, depth and wisdom.

We leave our busy City lives for a day, a weekend or how long is needed. This break in life normally involves letting go of homework, emails, laptops or even music. The journey is a disconnection of the White Noise that has burned us out. We do this every day without knowing, taking a shower, going for a walk and getting fresh air are examples. And we do this Digitally too. Sometimes I find myself on Youtube searching for meditation Videos which is funny because The Internet is the least relaxing place to find inner peace. The digital noise, the white background and pop up adverts. The endless library of meditation video option stress me out because I have too many options, and when I finally find a video there is a 6 minute long video telling me to join the army, to start running more, to use Facebook more or start a revolution by wearing Nike. By this point I have given up of searching for the perfect Zen.

This Video is a part of the Moving Image Medium since it’s digital and everything that I am using is recorded footage. What the video is doing is offering a false sense of escapism ; where you are shifted off to a futuristic pillar positioned next to Loch Lomond, a recovery video where gooey shapes are helping you with breathing exercises, Hypnotic waves in a lake and footage of our sky above the clouds.

The audio is extremely important too. Everything has been recorded naturally and there is no electronic sound.

When we reach to these relaxing parts of the Video we are hypnotised by the natural beauty. What draws us back is when we see and hear mobile phones ringing on the screen, face chats pop up, emails appear and pop up advertisements for ‘Healthy eating’ ‘Gym Tips’ , ‘Fashion adverts’ appear all over the screens.

The videos are on a continuous loop and each time a new loop happens the Pop Ups get more intense.The results in the viewer of this to drop out, to step away and leave this world of interference, Pop Ups and white noise. But where are the leaving to go to? What is different between this world that I have made and the one that we live in?

This is a documented Project of the Internet / Smartphone generation and how we are constantly searching for change, or escapism from noisy lifestyle but all it does is creates more problems, more pop ups, more ‘digital commitments’ and more noise.

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[21.2.17] STILLS

Still shots taken from the video idea,,,,so far

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[17.2.17] Design Domain //Experimentals

Experiments with ink and oil paints. Looking at simple shapes that merge into one and another.

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[17.2.17] Design Domain // Making an album

Going through recordings that I did a few days a go around Loch Lomond and some waterfalls. A lot of stuff to get through. The sound of nature is so relaxing.

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[17.2.17] Design Domain - Soft

From looking at the concept of anxiety it has brought me to looking at how people breathe in bags whilst hyperventulating. The bags physically animate whilst being blown into. Some poly bags has the same appearance to PVC or Rubber. They are shiny, smooth and have a flow of crinkles. Another item that has similarities to a bag for breathing in is a balloon.

Now balloons are fun due to their appearance in varied colours, shapes and the sounds they make are amusing. They are very unthreatening because they have no sharp edges and they are lighter than a feather. The animated movement of a balloon inflating and deflating can be exciting and relaxing to do/ watch. The flow of air going through the crinkles and the expanding of the rubber is  a small cheap thrill. Could this movement be recorded in animated form? And could this be used to prevent Panic Attacks?

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http://www.topnews.in/health/new-smartphone-app-checks-signs-skin-cancer-217031

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(14.2.17) design domain/ app Many uses of audio/visual therapy in app culture. Designed and marketed for every day use including soothing sounds for migrains,anxiety, baby screaming due to sicknes. What i find intersting is this whole app culture and how there is something out there for every need. Apps are a fairly original concept, and before the release of the smartphone i cant picture how accessible a free 8 hour long recording of white noise or the sounds of a shamanic chant would be to get to calm down an infant at 3am in the morning. I mean, it is possible.... back in the 'good old days' we would of had these items in the form of vhs, dvds, cassetes or even online. Accessible u guess but only to a crowd who live neaby libraries, shops or have internet access...believe it or not at some point before mobile phones, some peopel did not have the internet.

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[11.2.17] Design Domain// GIF

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdbbtgf05Ek A gif animation of shapes forming in sync with the motion of breathing. Designed to reduce anxiety attacks. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2872309/ An article about how natural sounds help reduce anxiety attacks. Why is the sound of the sea relaxing? Is it because it takes us back to the days we were in our mothers womb and how we were safe from the outside world? Or does it go further? Maybe to the time before evolution train left us at the front door of ‘human beings’ to when we were fish?

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[10.2.17] Design Domain // Eno

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Brian Eno is best known for his ambient, Pop, and experimental music and collaborating with the likes of David Bowie. His music has a hypnotic pulse, and reveals lots of imagery of your journey whilst listening.  Music does not ask much from you, you simply sit, stand (etc) and listen. The vibrations and waves then take you on a trance and reveal doors to different feelings, memories, events, tastes. It can be a Shamanic experience. (research more) “If you want to make someone feel emotion, you have to make them let go. Listening is an act of surrender” - Eno IDEA// A visual/ audio app/ channel in which you have a choice of mood settings : Peace, tenderness, happiness, sadness, serenity, calmness, and each video has relaxing visuals, sounds from natural landscapes such as water flowing. A link to music and emotion theory (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_and_emotion) This App/ Channel is highly known, popular so no matter that it promotes calm, inner change/alteration at the end of the day it is a Product, a company so in theory it is Capitalism. This is slightly hypocritical or even a Binary Opposition as it has a small link with natural Shamanic chants; Both create a trance like state.

Nowadays apps and channels online are easily accessible and promote themselves as ‘Free’ to use. However they tend to have a ‘premium’ version of the free version which offers more features to the app. an example being this, 

most stuff on channels like youtube are free too. But the publisher only makes money through adverts, so when you're looking at a 2 HOUR SHAMANIC MEDITITAION be prepared to have a nippy american, soccer mum pop up and tell you that you can be beautiful, JUST LIKE HER. by taking pics with a new photo filter app. Its the opposition to what you came to find in the first place ; you were searching for inner peace but found stress and anger. Thats what happens in this APP/CHANNEL. You are in a trance like state, being absorbed by sounds of things natural ; water, birds, wind, and ambient music inspired by Brian Eno. The Shamanic trance captivates you and you are no longer anxious from the Service Commutes to work , or the stresses of our Capitalist lives. Then all of a SUDDEN, you experience pop ups, adverts, ‘YOU HAVE WON A NEW PHONE, A NEW CHANCE, A NEW LIFE’ notices pop up and you are thrown straight back to ‘reality’. The reality of noise.

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[10.2.17] Design Domain // Moods

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[10.2.17] Design Domain//App Control

Discovered this on Yale Universities website <  http://ei.yale.edu/mood-meter-app/ >   Mood Controlling apps in fact do exist. This App works more like a diary, in which you record your daily moods or feelings. It tracks your emotions over time and teaches you effective strategies to manage Stress and anxiety. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/11/27/bad-mood-new-app-senses-emotion-suggests-food-lift-spirits/ This is a link to an article about an app that can detect your facial expression, reading your mood and then suggests what sort of food you should have to cheer you up, make you relax, waken you up etc. http://innerpeacemeditation.org/?gclid=Cj0KEQiA5vXEBRChycOl36LPn5EBEiQAJV2-bJ2fSJLRylgJolzQtn4FPF-Gs2ZUQF_sc4i9WAsL07kaAkDw8P8HAQ Mindfullness is very popular for anxiety control. It promotes inner peace so it is more direct to you unlike the las example which is more about your food intake. Minfullness is more about your inner being. The app teaches you about a form of meditation called mantra meditation and works as a tutorial, lecturer or sensei that fits in your pocket.

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[10.2.17] Design Domain// Dream organ

I have recently started to read Philip K Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. In the opening passage, four pages long, in which Rick Deckard and his wife Iran are arguing about the Penfield Mood Organ as they get up in the morning. The Mood Organ is a device with which, by punching in a number, a human user can instantly alter his or her mood. Deckard routinely sets it to have him get up in a cheerful mood, and advises his wife to do the same. Her objection to this is almost exactly the same as my objection above to sentimentality. Emotions need to be earned. She tells her husband that her mood organ schedule for the day includes a “six-hour self-accusatory depression” and when Deckard asks her why on Earth anyone would want to schedule that, she argues that it’s healthy to feel emotions that are congruent with the situation you find yourself in: in their case a poisoned and depopulated world. In fact, she tells him, she has programmed the organ to plunge her into despair twice a month. This idea in where emotions can be controlled by a number of settings is fascinating. What if there was a device or a Mobile Phone App that could do this? Would this help reduce risks of Panic attacks/ anxiety attacks? Or is this just another form of doping up on prescriptive drugs.

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MAPS FRONT COVER/BACK COVER IDEA [8.2.17]

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MAPS// Central journey [8.2.17]

google earth cells of my journey showing the distance between my home and town centre. A journey that I take on a daily basis for University and on weekends with my family. In my map I want to display this and label it as “Another boring day- A sunny day with no driving license but has  money” a journey from home to town where I treat the kids to a toy from harrods

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MAPS//Tramway day [7.2.17]

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MAPS//RUBBISH[7.2.17]

Throwing about glitches

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Maps//Inspiration[7.2.17]

Today was the first time I listened to Kanye West. And in all honesty, It opened up a new found respect for the guy. What I love about him is his honesty but also his mystery and how he plays these two binary oppositions together. He actually thinks he is a god! Or does he?  The artwork for his latest album, ‘the life of pablo’ got mixed reviews but i think it is brilliant. The idea of the bold type scrolling down reminds me of a glitch, or a printing press. Images are thrown in randomly with arrows pointing about. In a weird way it is a map. The type works as a way to direct you up and down and the arrows direct you horizontally up, and down. And the very end of the map is”Which/One” circled in red. This is the end stop of the map, or the beginning, who knows? Its confusing, like Kanye is. This is why I find it brilliant. This glitchy style has got me thinking, do actual maps have glitches? apparently so in Google Earth.