OUGD104 - Visual Language (17.11.09)

I am rubbish at English Language... I'm not too good at forming understandable sentances, let alone understanding the structure. Lets hope this helps.

NOUN an object
The class write with the pen quickly

ADJECTIVE a describing word

The class write with the pen quickly


PRONOUN the person or group which can replace any object

They write with the pen quickly

VERB a doing word

The class write with the pen quickly

PERSONAL PRONOUN he/she/it

OBJECTIVE PERSONAL PRONOUN us/we/me

Bring the cat to the park (noun)

Bring the cat to us (objective personal pronoun)

FIRST PERSON SINGULAR

I am going to the zoo

FIRST PERSON PLURAL

We are going to the zoo

SECOND PERSON SINGULAR/PLURAL

You are going to the zoo

THIRD PERSON SINGULAR

It/he/she is going to the zoo

THIRD PERSON PLURAL

We are going to the zoo

THIRD PERSON OBJECTIVE PERSONAL PRONOUN

One does not like the zoo

Phew!

I have also leant about condensing paragraphs into the size of a tweet or text (160 characters) whilst still keeping the most important information.

There are good bands in Leeds with great DIY promoters around the City. Put on your own gigs to see bands for free and get to know the scene! Here are some tips 160

Impress your flatmates with cocktail skills ranging from £16-£25. Reform, Boutique, Mojo, Alea Casino and Revolution Electric Press all offer cocktail classes! 160

A domestic snake of 20 years stopped eating... The vet put the snake down as it was found to be starving and stretching itself to suffocate and eat its owner! 158

Toys x100

Produce a body of workthat investigates 100 by collecting 100 facts, opinions and objects on a specific content. Deliver good quality research demonstrating an appropriate broad range of approaches to visual and conceptual enquiry.

I decided upon toys as I find them interesting, and especially how they have changed over time, both in appearance by new materials and also by interactivity by new technologies.

Facts
For my 100 facts I decided to use the internet as my source of information as there is so much available on the web and also items are updated daily, whereas books are created for longevity and may include out of date facts. I used a variety of websites to collect my facts about toys.

• Play-Doh was originally used as wallpaper cleaner.
• It requires 63 feet of wire to make a Slinky.
• Barbies real name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.
• There are 1,929,770,126,028,800 possible colour combinations on a Rubik's Cube.
• Twister has sold more than 22million.
• The original Mr Potato Head came with eyes, noses, mouths and ears... but no potato.
• Mattel sell around 1.5million Barbie's a week, equating to 2 per second.

Opinions
I created a Questionnaire to collect my opinions with the intention that people would express their views on set questions such as wooden vs plastic. My questionnaire had 6 questions and i received 46 responses. The opinions gathered were useful as they presented toys which I hadn't though about including.

• Plastic toys tend to be more appealing to kids.
• Wooden toys are probably more durable.
• All toys should be fun.
• When I was little I wanted one of those small electronially powered cars you could sit in and control yourself.
• Some toys are educational without realising it, like Lego.
• Wooden toys remind me of Victorian times.

Objects
The objects were quite tricky to collect as I don't know many people who had children or toys from their childhood and also I was not allowed to take pictures in some shops. I raided the loft and found a load of my brothers old toys and asked others to let me borrow if they had any. I intended to take pictures of all my images in he same location, for better comparison and so they look better visually as a collection. However, with some object I was unable to do this.

I got some feedback on my collection which was pretty positive. It was suggested that I could gather more opinions, visit car boot sales and also look in charity shops. It was also suggested that I could look into how toys were advertised compared to now and think that could be quite interesting. I can use a lot of categories for my collection including toys for girls/boys/unisex, plastic/wooden, modern/old, colour, scale and in a timeline.

OUGD104 - Photography (15.12.09)

I have developed upon last weeks work and ...

- Red chemisty

OUGD104 - Photography (08.12.09)

Who knew switches would actually be interesting and look pretty cool... In this weeks Visual Language I was teamed up with Rob and we had to document 100 switches around the College. We took 2 different approaches to collecting our photos. One being a documentary and easily comparable style, and the other showing the switches in their environments. Each work really well I feel and am really happy with these results.

- Switches and their environments

- Documenting switches

Healthcare for the homeless

Is homelessness a problem in Leeds?
Primary research

• 60.7% of people questioned believed homelessness was a problem in their city of residence
• Most people have a negative feeling when they see a homeless person (guilty, sorry, sad).
• Over 80% of people would walk on by a homeless person.
• People are more likely to give money than food to the homeless.
• Common assumptions are then people become homeless due to alcohol/drug abuse and family/relationship breakdowns.

Secondary research

• Life expectancy of homeless people is 42 (half the national average).
• Nearly half the rough sleepers in Leeds are in their 20's or under.
• In March '06 there was only 1 rough sleeper acknowledged in Leeds, however we see many more on the streets and even the Leeds Homless Strategy states "It is recognised that the counts can only provide snapshot information and measure changes over time, and will not capture everyone in the city who may be sleeping rough."
  
• Leeds Homeless Strategy 2006-2010 aim to maximise opportunities to prevent homelessness.

My group of Gemma, Sai, Meryem, Nick and Will discovered that homelessness was a problem in Leeds and initially intended to educate and inform the general public on how they could help without necessarily donating money.

OUGD102 Photography

OUGD102 100 Photographs