Research Methodology

As this is a self initiated brief, I’ve already established an interest in this subject of the digital, computers and how they relate to design. It’s something that I’ve gravitated to for a while so I naturally spend time looking through books, films, documentaries and galleries that help inform this area.

I usually start researching by getting a stack of books out from the library which relate to my outlined interests. Some of these I try to read through completely, others which I dip in and out of and look at for pieces of art and design. Following my chat with my personal tutor I have found some of the reading he’s recommended, a book – “Adversarial Design” by Carl Disalvo and papers by jussi parikka which can be found online. I use resources such as creative review and It’s Nice That which occasionally have a piece of design that may directly relate to my theme. These show me how these wider abstract ideas can be realised in a graphic form and help sometimes to ground projects and thinking. I find documentaries and podcasts a very powerful way to communicate a concept and find you can get a lot of depth out of them. I like to complement this research by going to galleries and exhibitions. I’ve already planned a visit to the Barbrican to see the work of Trevor Paglen and his utilisation of ai but I’ve also managed to go to the Nam Juin Pak exhibition at the Tate Modern which relates to media archaeology. I’ve also had a chat with friends, one of which is big into coding and he’s pointed me in some directions to realise the technical understanding of my project and what I’m setting out to do.

After establishing this vocabulary, I can begin to hone research and find more niche digital resources and tighter bits of understanding which run alongside creating experiments.

My personal tutor helped me identify a strength in my design approach which I used in my text project. I had lots of different strands within the subject area of typography such as looking at graphic implications, the technicalities, social context etc, which I then interweave. With this area looking at the digital I can already think of some strands; theory, technicalities of the digital, the digital within graphic design, the wider social implication. These become more fleshed out and realised fully in the project outcome.

I have three areas which have formed the base of my interests within my subject outlined in my position brief:

Media Archaeology –

This includes looking back at old hardware software which is inspiring from a graphic point of view for example, picking up old aesthetics such as pixelation, scan lines, fonts etc. More widely, it’s also the practice of looking back to a time (pre-internet) where the relationship with computers was much simpler and more human. At this smaller scale, you have a relationship with the coder behind the software. It’s interesting to go back to a time when the digital was in its infancy and realise the staggering rate at which technology has advanced. It’s a leap which we can’t possibly fully grasp and at the time realise the future implications of. The computer has transgressed beyond our control, we are totally dependent on it. Events such as Y2k seem silly to us now but these big scale digital threats are more of a tangible now, more so than ever.

Digital Sustainability

We need to question the implications of developing Ai, which I believe is a cause for concern. There’s so many issues with the digital world which we are only just uncovering such as fake news, hacking etc. The digital isn’t a physical entity which means we can be easily manipulated into thinking it’s all okay. We live in a world run by computers, this isn’t going to change, how can we ensure we use the digital sustainably as the power of technology and its influence is only going to increase.

Interpersonal digital relationships:

This a more abstract, artistic thinking point for myself. I find it fascinating looking at our relationship with technology and how it has changed over time. It was Susan Kare’s job to humanise the Macintosh and make the digital seem less cold and soulless, to bring about the computer revolution and make computers part of the household. Now, we have no choice but to live with computers, they rule so many aspects of our lives. Computers have become necessities not luxuries. However, computers are just following a set of human created commands, we have to remember the invisible man-made coding and human intentions that go behind the digital. It’s easy to accept the digital as perfect, but we have to be able to criticise aspects of it and have the technical understanding and vocabulary to be able to do so. In the past, we had more power in the man vs machine relationship, now we have to use computers for everyday life.

Simple Text-based adventure games are one of the earliest forms of playful interaction with the machine. Technological limitation of graphics at the time etc meant you had to use your imagination alongside text based prompts to create worlds within the digital – “It’s a virtual reality that exists in words”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXNLWy7rwH4. There is a unique power to the graphic design utilised for this function. Within these digital contexts, simple text and image combinations communicate something complex, rich and thought provoking. Text based adventure games ask for a lot of sustained interaction and investment from the user which is different to the instant gratification of the digital today. I find case studies like this quite eye opening.