Meeting and workshop

2 things happening this week with my group one being the workshop that was put on in mono on wednesday and a small meeting with some members of the group today.

The workshop i found very helpful with the structure of my dissertation proposal, i honestly cant wait to get started. I dont have any text to meeting my supervisor with yet will have to search through the remainder of this week. That is the image on the left, the one on the right was today. a small 15min meeting reflecting on yesterday.

DIXD Bear Behaviors

We dont have a name as yet but this bear will be a toy aimed at both boys and girls, but based more at the extremes of these types of toys. For example boys have manly fighting action man and girls have girly bubbly barbie dolls.

So there will be 3 gestures one would be squeezing the belly and the other will be waving the hand, both saying something when it happens. The third is shaking the bear but the shake is the trigger to change the voice on the other two. So for example you squeeze the belly its says "i love you" then you shape it, then squeeze it again it will have a manly "aaahhhh".

These noises are meant to correspond to the type of play these kids will have so to explain the manly "aaahhh" its for when they are playing war and the bear gets hit. So the waving hand will have a "hi" for the girly side and i think some sort of spoken "bang" like its firing a lazer or something like that of the boys side.

Here is may first mind map for my topic, there will be mind maps made for the "WHY" and "COULD I CREATE BETTER INTERACTION?" very soon.

Dissertation Time

I've had a good idea of what i wont to do for a while and i am really interested in this topic being a diabetic and experiencing all this myself . I wont to look into the interactions with diabetics and the technology involved. So this is speaking about older people and more importantly younger people. A lot of young diabetics sometimes go astray, missing injections and not testing there blood. The machines themselves have be design to either be small or be a bit larger with diary software. The interaction with these machines are rubbish and the pouches they come with almost defeat the purpose of the being small, being a reason why these kids are reluctant to use them ( out and about ) and missing the testing when it is now so important. what if the interactions with this technology can be changed?

DIXD MoLI begins

To conclude my research i ended up looking into phonograph as a dead medium, speaking dolls as my dead speaking technology and circuit bending. Got interesting Stuff, the phonograph was sound being recorded on a tin foil cylinder using no electricity and i found that is was used to play music on sowing machines. Using the peddle on these machine to spine the cylinder as well as powering the sowing machine

Now i am in a group with Dave Clement and have decided to create a 1950's - 60's styled speaking teddy bear.

The idea is that you can make it speak by the way you move with it and play with it. Like kids hug bears so it would go "ooooh" and if you shake it it woulb be like "aaaaaaaaah"

Not finished the style for it yet but we are liking the weird toy designs from the 60's and 70's. The stuff like frogman he's like an action man but he swims in the bath. makes me laugh.. why frogman?

A link to good gallery of these toys http://www.timewarptoys.com/gallery.htm

my wiki - Celebrity and design

Celebrity and design

Liam Brand

Digital Interaction Design

This Wiki entry is on celebrity and there rolls in the world of design. These are people that is seen alot in the public eye in the gossip magazine, TV, radio, the internet and other medium's. There are 3 types of design celebrity;

First is the hands on celebrity, those could be involved fashion and clothing, this is celebrities having some hands on with some real design. This clothing will reach and appeal to there target audience, then with there statues endorse these designs. An example of celebrities targeting there target audience would be the pop group the saturdays, they are only seen wearing high street clothing to appeal to the general public and those girls that would look up to them. (Dress like saturdays forum, 2010)

Second is the perfume releasing celebrities those have a limited design input and advertise it as if they were sell a bit of themselves to customers, this would also have a target audience that would be targeted. A great examples would be Britney Sperce fragrances and all those that liked her music.

“It’s a youthful and playful women's fragrance with top notes of exotic guava and golden tangerine, middle notes of honeysuckle and hints of linden blossom and base notes of patchouli wrapped in amber and pink pralines. The triangular bottle adds a personal touch on the top: a lustrous silver plate engraved with Britney’s signature.”

review of the perfume for www.perfume.com/britney-spears/believe/ women-perfume

Third is the Social Stocked celebrities. This celebrities are just using there statues to be noticed doing there day to day things, If there good or bad they will be broadcasted and will follow them anywhere. Weather the celebrities planned to have this much attention or not always ends up being something they regret having. Examples of this is Amy Winehouse with her not so impressive drunken photo’s in the magazines and papers, To Katie Price ( documented in her itv program ) where they are at every location she heads too.

History of celebrity culture

There are several places in time where the celebrity culture could of started. Like the pharaohs of ancient Egypt setting in motion devices to ensure their own fame for centuries to come, to the gladiators fighting and being favored and remembered by the crowd. The coming of mass media has increased the exposure and power of celebrity. A trend has developed that celebrity carries with it increasingly more social capital than in earlier times. This celebrity culture was to make a name for yourself and be remember.

In the new celebrity culture Oscar Wilde may have been the first definitive celebrity, celebrity became a big business in the 20th century. The studio system churned them out, and the Walter Winchells (with an audience of 50 million each week) covered them. Liz Smith was the first journalist to pay for an exclusive, and Tina Brown drove the rates up for celebrity interviewers by taking celebrity coverage to places it had never been before, including The New Yorker. Celebrity coverage has reached an apotheosis of sorts in In Style, which has become the perfect vehicle for celebrities and their publicists.

For british celebrity culture it can go back to the 1950's after the second world war. At this time the papers were trying to cover the social events happening in cities with the young adult's of the cities hosting big fancy dress events, the hosts and key people would start to be noticed. where the readers would start to have an interest in particular people and the costumes they would be wear next.

Celebrity and design

The interactive design would be there sell an experience, like the perfume its not so much the scent but the thought of that celebrity using that perfume sells it. Also with the pop groups how they are selling there image to the youth. In so many words its like there saying “hey we’re are wear these fashionable clothes and they are on the high street. come be like me”. Sexuality is strongly used by celebrities in are culture, being one reason why celebrities are pursued like the Social Stocked category. This applies to both sexes, Example Daniel Crack for the recent james bones movies and Cheryl cole for all the attention with the divorce to her husband. Also Ashley Cole is a good example of why men get the celebrity attention, like Tiger Woods and Wayne Rooney its for unfaithful behavior and cheating. This

The way humans evolved back when we would hunt in groups, being surrounded by danger, survival would only be possible if everyone stays alive. This made us grow the interest in what is happening to those around us. So these celebrity news of “who’s cheating on who” and knowing if they have died is routed from this evolution. That curiosity to know what is happening around the celebrities world. An example would be Big Brother.

Big Brother was the creation of it own type of celebrity and this came about through the design of the program. Big Brother creates a feeling of nostalgia, you can relate to these people. These celebrities are a sub leave of the stocked category, only be stocked like this for the duration of the program and short period after in tabloid’s. The interaction with the program gives you the chance to keep on the character you are connecting too.Add to the connection you feel to these people. Without this interaction Big Brother would not make a big enough connection with the audience and would not be the success it was.

Example was in the seven Big Brother with the pete bennett, the connection the views had with him keep him in, even tho the people in the house were voting agents him.

Referencing

Forum for finding what the saturdays wear, http://thesaturdays.forums.umusic.co.uk/t/4785.aspx

this website for Britney Spears perfume believe, http://www.britneyspearsbelieve.co.uk/

Blog entry about Amy Winehouse, wordpress website, http://jaded4good.wordpress.com/2008/07/29/keep-her-in-there/

what Katie did next, itv website, http://www.itv.com/entertainment/reality/whatkatiedidnext/default.html

the psychology behind gossip news, Shankar Vedantam, Dec ‘09, http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-hidden-brain/200912/tiger-michael-brittany-why-do-we-care-about-cheatingdead-celebrities

Two or Three Things I Know about Celebrity Journalism, Johanna Blakley, September 27, 2002

Pete Bennett, Big Brother seven website, http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/B/bb7/news/newsstory.jsp?id=3012&articleMask=1