Week 6, Session 2

19/8/14
Define

Done. The poster is all finished.

Here it is on a poster wall.

Rationale:

The conceptual idea of this poster is that youth should not vote because they are misrepresented. It uses pastiche through referencing the idea of Lèse-majesté, used by The Sex Pistols in their 1977 album art for ‘God Save the Queen,’ which talks about youth revolting against the system and is visualized through the defacing of symbols of power, John Key in this case.

The poster is an interesting example of ihi wehi as it is specifically targeted to the youth of New Zealand who would understand and be inspired by the poster. Interestingly, the older generations would still understand it as it references the classic Sex Pistols album cover that they would have grown up with and evokes memories of their youth and that rebellious period. Although both sides would understand the poster, it would be received in totally different ways; inspiration and fear.

Progress

6/8/14
Understand / Define / Ideate

Today I made huge progress, I went through many different stages and ideas and ended up right back at the start but now I have a really good understanding of what I am doing and really believe in the idea, which I didn't really before.

I started to think that the original idea was just way too difficult to visualise so I started thinking about other reasons not to vote and ended up at the GCSB spying scandal. I worked through that for a while and then realised it wasn't as strong as the original idea.

I had an idea about trying to integrate bees with the MPs so I did a lot of research into bees hoping there would be some sort of relevant fact involving young bees but there wasn't so I moved on, not wanting to waste anymore time on bees.

I then moved onto ideas for a hippy style poster to try and show how old these MPs are, as I just realised that if the average MP was 51 in 2011 then the average MP birth year must be 1960. I came to the conclusion that I was contradicting myself as the hippy style and imagery was just reinforcing a youthful feel and almost reminding the viewer that the MPs were young once, the complete opposite of what I was going for...

I researched what happened in 1960 in New Zealand and found out that New Zealand first got TVs in 1960. I started playing around with this until I realised that the connection wasn't strong enough and ended up back where I had started but with a lot more faith in the idea.

My Idea

3/8/14
Understand / Define / Ideate

My idea is that the current government system needs to change and at the moment nothing is going to happen, voting won't help as what politician would put himself out of a job? The youth are big enough in numbers to make this happen and I think the only way they will get noticed and taken seriously is if there is an election boycott. The youth are smart enough to know that the current system isn't working for them as is visible in the decrease of youth voting. The youth are the future leaders of the world and I think it is up to them to decide how that world will look.

Good Example

3/8/14
Understand / Define

This example is particularly relevant as it's targeting the same problem that I am.

Jamaican 1983 Election Boycott

10/8/14
Understand / Define

The 1983 Jamaican Election had a 2.7% voter turnout after a nationwide boycott. The boycott was started by the main opposition party after the Jamaican Labour Party refused to update the Electoral Role. The Jamaican Labour Party ended up winning every seat after they were mostly unopposed.

Honduras Election Boycott

Research Sum-up

2/8/14
Understand / Define

From all my research so far I have found that in general the youth are the most unlikely people to vote, followed by the working class and recent immigrants, and I think there are two main reasons for it; they aren't represented properly and the system doesn't work for them.

The average age of a member of parliament is 51, there is no way someone born in the 60's is suitable to represent, let alone understand our generation.

The young people of today have grown up in a new, tech-orientated world where the current government system just doesn't work for them, it may have worked great in the past but times change.

The current system uses a huge range of jargon and frankly there is a lot young people need to learn before they know what is going on on a basic level. Young people are concerned about the big issues but lose all interest when it turns into a political party talk as they don't understand and the system just doesn't fit in with their world. This is only going to get worse as future generations become eligible and the current system becomes older and more irrelevant.

Design & Democracy - Massey University

29/7/14
Understand / Define / Ideate

I discovered a great article by Kieran Stowers and Meg Howie of the Design & Democracy project on the solution to youth voting.

The Design & Democracy Project of Massey University [Site]

Design & Democracy target youth voting and agree that the system is way too outdated for youth to interact and relate to let alone understand. They talked about a key point that I tried to touch on in my last post; the reason youth voting is still decreasing is that they are basically too smart for the advertising. This tech-savvy generation grew up endlessly browsing the internet and can easily spot cheap marketing ploys (such as using celebrities) and see straight to the truth, the same old "voting is good" campaign.

They talked about how youth will vote if politics is fun, even though this sounds like a technique used with small children it makes perfect sense. New Zealand politics to most young people is the exact opposite of fun.

Imagine being told: “You should go to this party I’m having; it’s your duty. Nobody your age will be there and you’re not going to understand what we’re saying.” This invitation does not appeal, even if it’s the Orange Guy himself asking. Last election, nearly half of eligible young people said “not for me thanks”, and we don’t blame them.

A huge reason for youth not voting is their group not being represented at all.

The median age of MPs in the current Parliament is 51 years. Two-thirds are male. These men have been around longer than colour TV in New Zealand. If young people can’t see themselves represented in the system, they won’t engage with it.

Another reason for the lack of youth voting is the language, politics uses so much jargon its might as well be another language to young people.

Design & Democracy used this information to develop two websites to help young people along the process:

Ask Away is a website that lets people ask politicians about things they care about and in their own language.

On The Fence is a website that lets users know which parties align most with their interests through a sort of visual questionnaire.

These websites are brilliant, they bring the ancient world of politics into the familiar world of the youth so they can start to understand and participate in what ultimately affects their future.

Rock The Vote and Forced Voting

29/7/14
Understand / Define

'Rock The Vote' promotional video on youth voting [Full site]

Rock The Vote is an American organisation using a huge range of celebrities such as Madonna and Snoop Dogg to try and appeal to young people and encourage them to register and vote. They explain that by not voting you are not being heard and how you can have a say in everything about the future of America.

They are very convincing and have been at it for almost 25 years with amazing results in regards to registering young people. Although I have to say the whole idea seems outdated, young people are smarter than that these days, they aren't going to properly get involved in voting just because Leonardo Dicaprio told them they should, they might vote but forced votes just skew the nation's true views. 

The forcing of young people to vote is as outdated as the system itself; this generation of new voters grew up in a different fast moving time with their views not properly represented anywhere. I think to truly get young people interested and involved the whole system needs to be evolved to fit in and work with this new world and this generation who will grow up to one day run the country. The stats show that "voting is good" being shoved down our throats every election obviously isn't changing the problem, youth votes are still decreasing.

Picking a Stance

22/7/14
Define

I wasn't sure which side to take in this argument but through talking about it in class and reading more about the subject I think it will be interesting to take the 'against voting' stance.

Week 2, Session 2

22/7/14
Understand / Define / Ideate

Today we talked more about rhetoric and worked on our thumbnails. I decided that my thumbnails need more work but I am going for the against voting side of the argument.

Week 1, Session 2

15/7/14
Understand / Define / Ideate

Today we got into groups and discussed our research to bring up angles we might not have thought of and to try and get a sense of which side we might take on the topic.

At the moment I'm not sure which side I will pick but I am thinking that a call to revolution poster could be very interesting.

Unpacking the Brief - Rhetoric and Persuasion

14/7/14
Understand / Define

I decided to read through and simplify the brief to make it easier to understand.

_AIM

The objective of this assignment is to explore the use of rhetorical approaches to conceptually interpret and communicate a societal issue.

Posters are among the most immediate, creative and memorable forms of graphic design.

_INTRODUCTION - Rhetoric and persuasion.

Rhetoric is the art of persuasion in pursuit of a desirable outcome. It uses three main strategies, each playing with a different part of the mind:

         Pathos - emotion
         Logos - logic
         Ethos - trust

_OBJECTIVE

- To design a persuasive that employs visual rhetoric to communicate a standpoint on a societal issue.
- Must convey key themes of the issue in a conceptually and visually engaging manner.
- Posters operate in a public space so must be designed to grab the audience's attention from a distance, and be engaging to entice the viewer into reading complex information delivered on a number of levels.
- Explore its pros and cons to create a visual debate

_SPECIFICS

Format - A2 portrait or landscape poster

Audience - New Zealanders

Content - A headline
              - A tagline that reinforces and supports your argument and headline
              - All imagery must be self generated
              - Legible type
              - CMYK

Ihi Wehi: Rhetoric and Persuasion

14/7/14
Understand / Define

This project looks at the theme of 'ihi wehi' in a creative process.

Ihi and wehi are complementary terms associated with emotional and psychological behaviour. Ihi can be described as an individual’s essential force, charisma, power or charm - which emanates throughout the creative process. Wehi, on the other hand, highlights the internalised feelings that occur in response to ihi. Sometimes the terms dread or awe are commonly used to describe wehi. In this context, wehi is taken to mean the emotional response on the part of the viewer.

In its simplest form I took ihi and wehi to mean:

         Ihi - The power of the object/piece
         Wehi - Our response

Week 1, Session 1

14/7/14
Understand / Define

In class today we were introduced to the new brief, and asked to pick one of the three topics to research the pros and cons of: social media, voting, superstores.

I am going to do voting because I don't know a lot about politics and I think it'll be interesting creating a persuasive poster when I start off with a relatively unbiased view. I also felt like social media has been done to death and there are too many easy points for each side.