GRAP 1102 // Intensive // Day 05

Christopher Bell: Bring on the Female Superheroes

Public Pedagogy as stated by Christopher Bell is "how we learn what we know about other people and about the world we learn through media teaches us that even if she's strong and fast and fights like a ninja, she'll either be ignored like Gamora or replaced like Black Widow" and that being a tom boy is good because it provides male attributes to girls. In contrast, My Little Pony, targeted towards women, is seen in a negative light because its feminine and shouldn't be consumed by boys. This, despite the fact, that it teaches positive concepts.

Pedagogy is "the stud of how knowledge and skills are imparted in an educational context, and it considers the interactions that take place during learning." Public pedagogy looks how this functions in society and through interactions in a public sphere and media pedagogy looks at this through widely consumed media sources.

Marvel films starting to respond to this after the push and call for female superheroes and particularly the #metoo movement. In many ways, it's the public call for representation that there's an all women team up in Avengers: Endgame.

Framing Arguments
Transactional Model of communication requires a discussion in order to exchange and understand ideas. We are subjective beings, and our perceptual filters shift meaning and understanding. Its important to recognise this when talking. Recognise that passive hearing and active listening are not the same. Adjust your message enhance communication. Communication is more than just words. And communication is a two-way street. We make meaning together. And, be aware of your personal perceptual experience. Don't assume that your opinion is the objective truth. Such as anytime I need to talk with Brett or Matt and I need to remind them to stop talking until I've finished speaking.

How to Argue: Induction & Abduction: Crash Course Philosophy #3
Induction is using past experience to make future predictions. But you need to rule out what can't be true to move forward. Inductive arguments work on probabilities but the premise does not necessarily lead to an accurate conclusion.

But the past and future don't always match. We just guess what is most likely.

Abduction is drawing a conclusion based on the explanation that best explains a state of events, rather than from evidence provided by the premises.

Abductive reasoning is useful but can only use information you have at hand. But what happens if you are missing a piece of communication?

Interlocutors are people participating in a dialogue, debate, or conversation. The first person puts forward an argument an the second person can either accept this argument or put forward a counterargument, an argument presented to oppose or refute another argument.

 Arguments are meant to be productive.

Socratic method is learning through a dialectic exchange of ideas, rather than a passive transmission of information. There is no winner or loser, the objective is to find truth and so two interlocutors listen to and consider each response in order to improve understanding.

Arguments should be based on sound logic and reasoning rather than charisma, wit, humour and volume (though we confuse these things in modern day), though we tend to find it easier to listen to and understand these people. "Learning about arguments and strong reasoning will not only make you a better philosopher, it'll also set you up to be a more persuasive person."

Beliefs should always be backed up by reasons which we call premises providing evidence for belief and these should all contribute to your conclusion or belief.

Deductive arguments all reasoning leads to another but each premise must be true to be valid. However, if all premise are true, though they don't contribute to your conclusion, this does not create a valid argument. You may have a valid set of premise leading to a conclusion but if one of the premise is untrue then the argument is still invalid. Validity + all true premises.

A fallacy is a defect in reasoning.

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Representation is to describe (verbally) or depict (visually). A representation is a sign that symbolises, stands in for, or acts as a substitute/surrogate for things (objects, places, people) or concepts (abstract ideas, feelings).

"Were there not some cultural consensus about the meaning of signs and symbols [that make up language] among members of a linguistic community communication would not be possible."

Roland Barthes and how we interpret things and what we bring to it from previous experiences.

'Discourse is a practice not just of representing the world, but of signifying [it], constituting and constructing the world in meaning'. Language is a social construct and discourse is a form of social practice. A mode of representation and action where people influence their environments and each other. Discourse contributes to the construction and evaluation of social structures; knowledge and belief systems.

Neutrality '"pure" information exists for the designer only in arid abstraction. As soon a he begins to give it concrete shape, to bring it within the range of experience, the process of rhetorical infiltration begins'.

"Communication is directed toward a specific audience and that audience comes to teh argument with particular cultural beliefs and understanding. The audience is a dynamic participant in the argument and the designer must discover the argument that will persuade a particular audience."

Audience when designers focus more on their preferences than on the users needs or goals, the resulting design tends to prioritise: style, fashion, self-expression, aesthetic enjoyment rather than the objectives of the design problem, supporting communication and comprehension, achieving a desired (social) outcome.

Designers responsibility includes

1. professional responsibility
• the needs of the audience are a priority over the aesthetics of their design
2. ethical responsibility
• communicate with their audience not to or at their audience
• take the reader seriously and find out about them
• use language that is appropriate to the audience and easily understood
3. social responsibility
• recognise the needs of the social and physical environment and culture we exist in and aim to contribute to improving our environment and how we do things and interact with one another. 
• make things easier to use
• improve durability so objects last longer
• find ways to use less material and more sustainable materials
• improve information accessibility
• improve learning processes and access to education
• promote inclusivity
4. cultural responsibility
• create something that actually says/does something of value for the society in which it exists
• saves lives, makes lives better, makes tasks easier, adds value to life

Meaning is constructed culturally and is reliant on context and on a system of connected units of analysis like narratives and interconnected statements.

Cultures construct social structures, knowledge, beliefs and relationships through a practice of discourse, an act or practice of consensus making.

Every design decision adds meaning: neutrality is impossible.

The audience is an active participant in meaning making. It is the designer's to take care of the audience.

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Notes on The Time For Being Against

GRAP 1102 // Intensive // Day 04

Perceiving is Believing: Crash Course Psychology $7

Perception the top-down way our brains organise and interpret information and place in context. All experience of environment is influenced by our cultural and social upbringing and understanding and perception allows us to understand it. Sight is the minds interpretation of the data our eyes are feeding us.

Perceptual Set is the psychological factors that determine how you perceive your environment.

Seeing is believing and believing is seeing.

Emotions and motivations can affect our perception.

Form Perception

Figure-ground relationship is the organisation of the visual field into objects (the figures) that sand out from their surroundings (the ground). This is particularly important for me as a motorcyclist on the road–drivers are trained to recognise other cars but are much less likely to notice or see motorcycles and cyclists because they're not trained to recognise them. This leads to the common excuse "sorry mate, I didn't see you" or SMIDSY.

Rules of grouping

Proximity says we like to group like objects together.

Continuity preferences smooth continuous patterns and transitions rather than jarring ones.

Closure pushes the mind to fill in perceptual gaps with what we think or assume sholud be there rather tahn what actuallyis.

Ever heard your drawing teach tell you to "draw what is there" rather than go by your own desire for what should be there because then you're favouring your sense of perception rather than what actually exists.

Depth perception allows us to guess distance and size. Binocular cues uses both eyes to compare each to judge distance using retinal disparity. Monocular cues reference relative size and height, linear perspective relies on lines and convergence, texture gradient, and interposition or overlap tells when one object is in front or behind another. Motion perception helps gauge distance but large objects appear to move slower and small objects faster. Perceptual constancy allows us to understand objects across a range of variables, such as colour, size and movement. 

Your brain constructs your perceptions.

Dazzle Paint and Camouflage techniques

Dazzle painting was implemented in World War I and continued throughout World War II as an attempt to confuse enemy ships and submarines as to the speed and heading of ships to prevent successful sinking by torpedo. Loud, lurid patterns and false bowlines and wash were incorporated. Effectiveness is contentious without solid scientific data, though the idea is interesting.

You can also attempt to use people's perception to fool them into perceiving a bunch of balloons as a battalion of tanks, or that straw sculptures were planes along a runway. These attempts at camouflage were called the ghost army.

Lecture 5 – Perception: Dr. Myra Thiessen

The five senses provide information to the brain which must then develop a percept and our psychology helps to identify, organise and interpret this information and the means by a representation is constructed.

Visual Literacy is the ability to accurately interpret visual representations in both form (what is it) and meaning (what does it mean/say). We might ask what am I looking at? What do I see? What meaning does it hold? What do I know about it and what does it mean to me? This is affected by context and environment, cultural knowledge, expectations and media.

Gestalt psychology seek to explain perceptions in terms of gestalts rather than by constituents. Gestalts are an organised whole perceived as more than its parts. Gestalt can translate into configuration. So, we impost perceptual organisation when presented with certain visual stimuli. The mind is predistposed to interpret patterns and relationship. We can use this to develop visual arguments which are unique and convincing.

Gestalt principles include:

• proximity is the relationship created when objects exist within space.
• similarity relates to the shared property of objects grouped together, such as objects of a similar colour, shape, size, etc.
• good continuation we prefer to interpret objects as a smooth continuation rather than two separate pieces, such as two lines crossing in a + being interpreted as two lines crossing rather than two V shaped pieces meeting in the middle.
• closure the interpretation of an image that interprets something closed as opposed to open.
• common fate things that appear to move together will be interpreted as a group, such as a school of fish, birds or peloton.
• relative size more likely to interpret smaller objects as playing the figure on the ground.
• surroundedness 
• orientation can dictate our desire to see depth and relationship between objects.
• symmetry assists in seeing objects as stable.
• pragnanz says that most visual stable or logical form will dictate how the object is interpreted.

Visual Queries are the act of attention that drives eye movements and seeks out visual patterns of information (such as how to navigate a complicated map or environment–how to get where you want to go?). Visual thinking consists of a series of visual queries taken with the intention of solving a cognitive problem. The goal of the reader assists us in how we seek to solve the visual. We seek out what we want, or expect, to see. The goal of the designer is to "support visual queries (so they can be} processed both rapidly and correctly". We want readers to see and interpret information quickly and accurately. We can create meaning through various visual cues and techniques. Example is the London Underground.

Perception is formed through sensory input and is interpreted and understood based on our experience of the physical world. We like order and impose visual order, which is understood through gestalt psychology. Designers draw on these principles to create and enhance meaning and to support visual queries.

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