CCDN 331 Project 4: Manifestation PROMO

Speech Notes:

So for my manifesto I explored the idea of the talents and skills I possess, that I don’t get to use at all during my time here at Vic. So most of you should know that I’m currently a third year Media Design student, but what you wouldn’t know is that I was previously studying Visual communication design and fine arts at Massey before I came here. I only moved to Vic because Media Design is what I’m good at. So what I’ve found here is that I have been so confined to briefs for the last 3 years, I haven’t had the chance to create something for myself, to use my skills as a painter for a project. 

I got the title “Looking & Seeing” after further analysing this topic by comparing my thoughts between a digital painting, and a physical painting. When we witness a digital painting, we don’t really pay that much attention to it or the details within it. It’s just another image that’s on the screen in front of us. I like to portray that process as only “looking” at something. On the other hand, when there’s a physical painting in front of us,  it’s almost like we’re forced to pay attention to it. We start to notice the careful brush strokes for example, or the several paint colours that have been mixed together, or even how many coats of paint that that person has used. Like for me for example, I had to paint the black background quite a few times with several coats of paint just to get it right. But this process I like to portray as “Seeing”. 

One question you’re probably going to ask me is why I painted Marilyn Monroe. Aside from her being an icon for generations and many generations to come, the image of her is what inspired me to start painting again once I had finished college. The only thing is I have never had time to paint her, as I’ve always been busy with assignments day in and day out. So I took this opportunity for this project really to create something that I have been wanting to do for a really long time. 

CCDN 331 Project 4: Manifesto FINAL

“Looking & Seeing”

Design school is hard. Media design school is especially hard because we are so confined to following the brief. There are few, if any cases absolutes as you go through media design. Much of design education is about learning key techniques and skills and then trying to apply them to your work in interesting and innovative ways. However, many of the design skills we have learnt leading up to these university years are somewhat, left behind. One of which for myself, is the importance of craft, more specifically painting.

Now you may ask, why are you doing a Media design major if you’re so into your paintings? Why not do a Fine Arts major instead? Well, Easy. For me, it’s not about what major you are doing; I could be doing any major at university and still enjoy my painting. In my opinion, painting and basic craft is what we should all know and love, regardless of our various skills. It’s something that we have all grown up with, something that we have the ability to do. 

Why is craft and painting is so important to me? It’s important to me because I feel it’s something we have abandoned as designers, especially in Media design. We are confined to briefs and being stuck in front of the computer screens all day that we forget the different interactions we get when we are doing such activities like painting. I have analysed this further and thought about the differences between creating a digital painting and a physical painting, which has lead me to the title of this manifesto which is “Looking & Seeing”. I’ll leave you with this quote that I think is suitable to start my main topic:

“Computer imaging tends to flatten our magnificent, multi-sensory, simultaneous and synchronic capacities of imagination by turning the design process into a passive visual manipulation, a retinal journey. The computer creates a distance between the maker and the object, whereas drawing by hand as well as model-making put the designer into a haptic contact with the object or space.“ (Pallasmaa, pg 12).

Looking vs Seeing. The computer is usually seen as a solely beneficial invention, which facilitates efficient design work. I express my serious concern in this respect, at least considering the current role of the computer in the design process. To me, there is more value in physical paintings than digital paintings. Yes there are the facts that digital paintings allow you to erase and save and print as many copies as you could ever imagine. But when you only have 1 chance to do it right, and 1 copy of something that you’ve put time and effort in creating, wouldn’t you think that is worth more than something you can go back and edit later and that anyone could get their hands on? To me, when you witness something that’s been digitally created especially a digital painting, you’re only looking at it. You most likely look at it once and just skip on to the next one, paying it no further attention. With a physical painting on the other hand, you’re not looking at it when it’s right in front of you. You’re seeing it. You see the little tiny details within the painting because it’s right in front of you in a physical form. The careful brush strokes for example, or the different mixing of several paint colours, are only visible clearly through seeing a physical painting.

Haptic experience is EVERYTHING. One thing that interested me that Pallasmaa said was the haptic contact or experience you get when it comes to the processes of digital creation and physical creation. I think about what I feel when I’m creating something digitally for an assignment. I have to go through the process of learning the program, I need a lot of concentration, it’s very intense and I feel very close-minded when I’m creating something for a brief. On the other hand, when I’m painting, I feel mostly relaxed. I can listen to music at the same time and I’m yet still open-minded. I get a sense of enjoyment and nostalgia, and most importantly I can create for myself. You rarely get any of those experiences when it comes to being on the computer.

Pallasmaa, J. (1996). The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. 

John Wiley & Sons, 2013 

Goldstein, M. (2010). A Design Education Manifesto
Retrieved from http://designcrit.com/mfa/design-education-manifesto

CCDN 331 Project 4: Manifestation FINAL

CCDN 331 Project 4: Manifestation Progress

Current progress for my manifestation

CCDN 331 Project 4: Manifesto DRAFT 2

Design Manifesto

Jay Tapp

“Looking & Seeing”

Design school is hard. Media design school is especially hard because we are so confined to following the brief. There are few, if any cases absolutes as you go through media design. Much of design education is about learning key techniques and skills and then trying to apply them to your work in interesting and innovative ways. However, many of the design skills we have learnt leading up to these university years are somewhat, left behind. One of which for myself, is the importance of craft, more specifically painting.

Now you may ask, why are you doing a Media design major if you’re so into your craft? Why not do a Fine Arts major instead? Well, Easy. For me, it’s not about what major you are doing; I could be doing a psychology major and still enjoy my craft. In my opinion, basic craft is what we should all know and love, regardless of our various skills. It’s something that we have all grown up with, something that we have the ability to do. 

Why is craft is so important to me? It’s important to me because I feel it’s something we have abandoned as designers, especially in Media design. We are confined to briefs and being stuck in front of the computer screens all day that we forget the different interactions we get when we are doing such activities like painting. I have analysed this further and thought about the differences between creating a digital painting and a physical painting, which has lead me to the title of this manifesto which is “Looking & Seeing”. I’ll leave you with this quote that I think is suitable to start my main argument:

“Computer imaging tends to flatten our magnificent, multi-sensory, simultaneous and synchronic capacities of imagination by turning the design process into a passive visual manipulation, a retinal journey. The computer creates a distance between the maker and the object, whereas drawing by hand as well as model-making put the designer into a haptic contact with the object or space.“ (Pallasmaa, pg 12).

Looking vs Seeing. The computer is usually seen as a solely beneficial invention, which facilitates efficient design work. I express my serious concern in this respect, at least considering the current role of the computer in the design process. To me, there is more value in physical paintings than digital paintings. Yes there are the facts that digital paintings allow you to erase and save and print as many copies as you could ever imagine. But when you only have 1 chance to do it right, and 1 copy of something that you’ve put time and effort in creating, wouldn’t you think that is worth more than something you can go back and edit later and that anyone could get their hands on?

Haptic experience is Everything. One thing that interested me that Pallasmaa said was the haptic contact or experience you get when it comes to the processes of digital creation and physical creation. I think about what I feel when I’m creating something digitally for an assignment. I have to go through the process of learning the program, I need a lot of concentration, it’s very intense and I feel very close-minded when I’m creating something for a brief. On the other hand, when I’m painting, I feel mostly relaxed. I can listen to music at the same time and I’m yet still open-minded. I get a sense of enjoyment and nostalgia, and most importantly I can create for myself. You rarely get any of those experiences when it comes to being on the computer.

Pallasmaa, J. (1996). The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. 

John Wiley & Sons, 2013 

Goldstein, M. (2010). A Design Education Manifesto
Retrieved from http://designcrit.com/mfa/design-education-manifesto

CCDN 331 Project 4: Manifesto DRAFT 1

Design Manifesto

Jay Tapp

“Looking & Seeing”

Design school is hard. Media design school is especially hard because we are so confined to following the brief. There are few, if any cases absolutes as you go through media design. Much of design education is about learning key techniques and skills and then trying to apply them to your work in interesting and innovative ways. However, many of the design skills we have learnt leading up to these university years are somewhat, left behind. One of which for myself, is the importance of craft, more specifically painting.

Now you may ask, why are you doing a Media design major if you’re so into your craft? Why not do a Fine Arts major instead? Well, Easy. For me, it’s not about what major you are doing; I could be doing a psychology major and still enjoy my craft. In my opinion, basic craft is what we should all know and love, regardless of our various skills. It’s something that we have all grown up with, something that we have the ability to do. 

So now you’re asking why craft is so important to me? It’s important to me because I feel it’s something we have abandoned as designers, especially in Media design. We are confined to briefs and being stuck in front of the computer screens all day that we forget the different interactions we get when we are doing such activities like painting. I have analysed this further and thought about the differences between creating a digital painting and a physical painting, which has lead me to the title of this manifesto which is “Looking & Seeing”. I’ll leave you with this quote that I think is suitable to start my main argument:

“Computer imaging tends to flatten our magnificent, multi-sensory, simultaneous and synchronic capacities of imagination by turning the design process into a passive visual manipulation, a retinal journey. The computer creates a distance between the maker and the object, whereas drawing by hand as well as model-making put the designer into a haptic contact with the object or space.“ (Pallasmaa, pg 12).

The computer is usually seen as a solely beneficial invention, which facilitates efficient design work. I express my serious concern in this respect, at least considering the current role of the computer in the design process. To me, there is more value in physical paintings than digital paintings. Yes there are the facts that digital paintings allow you to erase and save and print as many copies as you could ever imagine. But when you only have 1 chance to do it right, and 1 copy of something that you’ve put time and effort in creating, wouldn’t you think that is worth more than something you can go back and edit later and that anyone could get their hands on?

One thing that interested me that Pallasmaa said was the haptic contact or experience you get when it comes to the processes of digital creation and physical creation. I think about what I feel when I’m creating something digitally for an assignment. I have to go through the process of learning the program, I need a lot of concentration, it’s very intense and I feel very close-minded when I’m creating something for a brief. On the other hand, when I’m painting, I feel mostly relaxed. I can listen to music at the same time and I’m yet still open-minded. I get a sense of enjoyment and nostalgia, and most importantly I can create for myself. You rarely get any of those experiences when it comes to being on the computer.

Pallasmaa, J. (1996). The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. 

John Wiley & Sons, 2013 

Goldstein, M. (2010). A Design Education Manifesto
Retrieved from http://designcrit.com/mfa/design-education-manifesto

CCDN 331 RAP 9: Writing Manifestos

This week's lecture topic was on writing manifestos. We were given some good pointers and some very useful.. let's say guidelines on constructing a good manifesto. First of all we have to have a good argument. If we can't argue our point through then what's the point right? Personally I think everyone has different points of views, so whether or not everyone else agrees or disagrees on what you're trying to point out and argue, you are still allowed your own thoughts and opinion. Whilst thinking about my idea, I find it very hard to distinquish the difference in my manifesto and whether or not to go for, or against my topic. This needs more refining but having one more tutorial will surely help me with this, and help me complete my manifesto.