Here are links to the posts I have edited..
Assignment 2c
Assisgnment 3c
Friday 4 December 2009
Assignment 4
Binge Drinking - Alcohol & The Young
For Assignment 4 we were asked to select two resources to read and take notes on. We were then to write a piece outlining, analysing then comparing them.
The two texts I choose to read tackle the topic of alcohol and binge drinking in young people. The first book deals with binge drinking in young people, the consequences on family, friends, the community and more importantly the young binge drinker and recommendations to encourage young people to adopt a safe approach to drinking. Binge drinking would normally be associated with the “typical working man” getting his wage on a Friday and as soon as he finishes work it’s straight to the “pub” to get well and truly “sozzled” until he spends all his spare cash. Well, unfortunately this is no longer true, more and more binge drinkers are young children as in a report of a joint working party of the Royal College of Physicians and the British Paediatric Association “Alcohol and the Young”.
The authors are addressing the fact that it is not just the impact of drugs on children and young people that we should be worrying about but the growing menace that alcohol poses on them. There are many different causes for young people to start drinking, parental influences, peer pressure, socio-economic factors and ethnic status. Interestingly in the socio-economic factors children aged 9-15 years of professional and managerial parents drink less, then by 16-19 years it is similar to all socio-economic groups but by 20 years plus in higher socio-economic groups the drinking becomes risky or unsafe levels (Royal College of Physicians and the British Paediatric Association 1995 p35). Another interesting fact is that in ethnic minorities such as Greeks, Jews, Italians and Chinese there is a low rate of alcohol consumption as they encourage their children in moderate drinking patterns within the family (Royal College of Physicians and the British Paediatric Association 1995, p34). This only emphasises the ideas of the authors that “accepted wisdom”, meaning that parents have an important influence on their children’s behaviour towards alcohol and as long as there is a control pattern then children will learn good habits towards drink.
The authors of this report gather their facts from data gathered from national reports such as “A study of adolescent drinking” carried out in 1984 by the “Office of Population Census and Surveys” and surveys carried out by the “Health Education Authority (HEA) and these support the following facts (Royal College of Physicians and the British Paediatric Association 1995, p30), “when do children start to consume alcohol?“. At 13 years of age 80% of boys and 73% of girls have tasted alcohol, by 15 years 91% of boys and 90% of girls and the figures are roughly the same at 17 years. For young people who are completely abstinent at 15 years largely remain so at 17 years. So the conclusion would be to educate children of the dangers of alcohol at a young age. They would be able to make an informed decision therefore protecting themselves from the harmful effects of alcohol. The authors also use their own experiences gather from their daily life as doctors and surgeons and the intoxicated patients that come through the emergency department on a daily basis.
The main issue the author finds most important is the best way to educate the young people effectively and their belief is to target the parents, teachers, doctors, nurses, social workers, alcohol industry and political policy makers in order to make this happen.
My second choice of book in comparison is “Binge Drinking & Youth Culture Alternative Perspectives” edited by Malcolm MacLachlan and Caroline Smyth takes a different approach and looks at constructive and effective strategies in dealing with binge drinking. This book deals mainly with the Irish youth and emphasises the connection with binge drinking to serious social problems such as suicide, especially with regard to the youth culture in Ireland and the UK. This book draws heavily on statistics and facts which often bamboozles the reader with too much evidence such that it takes the emphasis away from the purpose that there is a very clear alcohol problem and no strong strategy to combat the crisis.
Once you have read through the mass of facts and figures, the criticisms between various researchers as to whether the facts are in deed complete (MacLachlan, Smyth 2004, p24) causes much confusion and deflects from the purpose of the book to inform and hopefully enlighten the reader of the dangers of binge drinking. It comes across that the authors have not had first hand experience with binge drinking in young people. I feel that all of their experiences are taken from other researchers and papers on the subject. I believe their facts and figures are correct but does this really help the reader understand what the are actually reading. It is too compacted, too cluttered with statistics as in chapter 6,”Today’s Young Drinkers” (MacLachlan, Smyth 2004, p125) the whole paragraph details more fact and more figures, this becomes boring and the reader then finds it difficult to find the point the authors are making.
I find the whole book a disappointment, totally confusing and unhelpful. There is too much conflicting facts, too many external papers, research papers you would have to read to understand the point being made that you have totally lost track why you were reading the book.
Although the two books that I have chosen to discuss are similar in that they both deal with binge drinking and young people the first, a joint working party of the Royal College of Physicians and the British Paediatric Association “Alcohol and the Young” seems more interested in the base of the problem and dealing with it from the routes. The doctors have first hand experience of the damage alcohol causes such as severe intoxication, injuries, impact on mental health and drug misuse. Focused heavily in this book is the training of professionals, and also suggests a structured programme and what it should include as detailed in chapter 6 (Royal College of Physicians and the British Paediatric Association 1995, p78) where as the second book “Binge Drinking & Youth Culture Alternative Perspectives” edited by Malcolm MacLachlan and Caroline Smyth takes the stances that it is up to the community itself to tackle the problem. This book is to heavily ladened with statistics that it deflects away from the main purpose that binge drinking is a problem in young people and we all need to do something about it.
Here are some hard hitting and factual virals I have found which re-enforces the points made in this piece about youth and binge drinking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96TS9qxnqaM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIQLc1rNgs4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik3eFuvUmNU
-----
Bibliography
Maclachlan, M. & Smyth, C., eds. (2004) Binge Drinking & Youth Culture, Ireland: The Liffey Press
The Royal College of Physicians, (1995) Alcohol and the Young, London: The Lavenham Press Ltd
Youtube, (October 2009) Binge Drinking - Your Night. Your Choice.
Youtube, (June 2008) Binge Drinking - The Consequences C4 News Article.
Youtube, (June 2008) We will stamp out persistent teen binge-drinking.
-----
If i was to do further research I would begin by looking more into the other aspect of my design idea which is electronic ID. I would explore what is already in this area of the market and how effective these designs are, also thinking about how they can be inproved or altered to fit into my proposed design idea.
For Assignment 4 we were asked to select two resources to read and take notes on. We were then to write a piece outlining, analysing then comparing them.
The two texts I choose to read tackle the topic of alcohol and binge drinking in young people. The first book deals with binge drinking in young people, the consequences on family, friends, the community and more importantly the young binge drinker and recommendations to encourage young people to adopt a safe approach to drinking. Binge drinking would normally be associated with the “typical working man” getting his wage on a Friday and as soon as he finishes work it’s straight to the “pub” to get well and truly “sozzled” until he spends all his spare cash. Well, unfortunately this is no longer true, more and more binge drinkers are young children as in a report of a joint working party of the Royal College of Physicians and the British Paediatric Association “Alcohol and the Young”.
The authors are addressing the fact that it is not just the impact of drugs on children and young people that we should be worrying about but the growing menace that alcohol poses on them. There are many different causes for young people to start drinking, parental influences, peer pressure, socio-economic factors and ethnic status. Interestingly in the socio-economic factors children aged 9-15 years of professional and managerial parents drink less, then by 16-19 years it is similar to all socio-economic groups but by 20 years plus in higher socio-economic groups the drinking becomes risky or unsafe levels (Royal College of Physicians and the British Paediatric Association 1995 p35). Another interesting fact is that in ethnic minorities such as Greeks, Jews, Italians and Chinese there is a low rate of alcohol consumption as they encourage their children in moderate drinking patterns within the family (Royal College of Physicians and the British Paediatric Association 1995, p34). This only emphasises the ideas of the authors that “accepted wisdom”, meaning that parents have an important influence on their children’s behaviour towards alcohol and as long as there is a control pattern then children will learn good habits towards drink.
The authors of this report gather their facts from data gathered from national reports such as “A study of adolescent drinking” carried out in 1984 by the “Office of Population Census and Surveys” and surveys carried out by the “Health Education Authority (HEA) and these support the following facts (Royal College of Physicians and the British Paediatric Association 1995, p30), “when do children start to consume alcohol?“. At 13 years of age 80% of boys and 73% of girls have tasted alcohol, by 15 years 91% of boys and 90% of girls and the figures are roughly the same at 17 years. For young people who are completely abstinent at 15 years largely remain so at 17 years. So the conclusion would be to educate children of the dangers of alcohol at a young age. They would be able to make an informed decision therefore protecting themselves from the harmful effects of alcohol. The authors also use their own experiences gather from their daily life as doctors and surgeons and the intoxicated patients that come through the emergency department on a daily basis.
The main issue the author finds most important is the best way to educate the young people effectively and their belief is to target the parents, teachers, doctors, nurses, social workers, alcohol industry and political policy makers in order to make this happen.
My second choice of book in comparison is “Binge Drinking & Youth Culture Alternative Perspectives” edited by Malcolm MacLachlan and Caroline Smyth takes a different approach and looks at constructive and effective strategies in dealing with binge drinking. This book deals mainly with the Irish youth and emphasises the connection with binge drinking to serious social problems such as suicide, especially with regard to the youth culture in Ireland and the UK. This book draws heavily on statistics and facts which often bamboozles the reader with too much evidence such that it takes the emphasis away from the purpose that there is a very clear alcohol problem and no strong strategy to combat the crisis.
Once you have read through the mass of facts and figures, the criticisms between various researchers as to whether the facts are in deed complete (MacLachlan, Smyth 2004, p24) causes much confusion and deflects from the purpose of the book to inform and hopefully enlighten the reader of the dangers of binge drinking. It comes across that the authors have not had first hand experience with binge drinking in young people. I feel that all of their experiences are taken from other researchers and papers on the subject. I believe their facts and figures are correct but does this really help the reader understand what the are actually reading. It is too compacted, too cluttered with statistics as in chapter 6,”Today’s Young Drinkers” (MacLachlan, Smyth 2004, p125) the whole paragraph details more fact and more figures, this becomes boring and the reader then finds it difficult to find the point the authors are making.
I find the whole book a disappointment, totally confusing and unhelpful. There is too much conflicting facts, too many external papers, research papers you would have to read to understand the point being made that you have totally lost track why you were reading the book.
Although the two books that I have chosen to discuss are similar in that they both deal with binge drinking and young people the first, a joint working party of the Royal College of Physicians and the British Paediatric Association “Alcohol and the Young” seems more interested in the base of the problem and dealing with it from the routes. The doctors have first hand experience of the damage alcohol causes such as severe intoxication, injuries, impact on mental health and drug misuse. Focused heavily in this book is the training of professionals, and also suggests a structured programme and what it should include as detailed in chapter 6 (Royal College of Physicians and the British Paediatric Association 1995, p78) where as the second book “Binge Drinking & Youth Culture Alternative Perspectives” edited by Malcolm MacLachlan and Caroline Smyth takes the stances that it is up to the community itself to tackle the problem. This book is to heavily ladened with statistics that it deflects away from the main purpose that binge drinking is a problem in young people and we all need to do something about it.
Here are some hard hitting and factual virals I have found which re-enforces the points made in this piece about youth and binge drinking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96TS9qxnqaM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIQLc1rNgs4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik3eFuvUmNU
-----
Bibliography
Maclachlan, M. & Smyth, C., eds. (2004) Binge Drinking & Youth Culture, Ireland: The Liffey Press
The Royal College of Physicians, (1995) Alcohol and the Young, London: The Lavenham Press Ltd
Youtube, (October 2009) Binge Drinking - Your Night. Your Choice.
Youtube, (June 2008) Binge Drinking - The Consequences C4 News Article.
Youtube, (June 2008) We will stamp out persistent teen binge-drinking.
-----
If i was to do further research I would begin by looking more into the other aspect of my design idea which is electronic ID. I would explore what is already in this area of the market and how effective these designs are, also thinking about how they can be inproved or altered to fit into my proposed design idea.
Wednesday 18 November 2009
Busy Bee!
I'll be posting some samples from each of our workshops shortly, as wells as some of my sketchbook work to give you a taster of my project and how I'm developing my ideas. Really busy with the workshops at the moment so bare with me! :)
Assignment 3c - Websites
5 websites which I use for inspiration, relating to textiles..
www.innovationintextiles.com
Innovation in Textiles is a news and technical website for the global technical textiles and nonwovens industries.
www.vads.ac.uk
This is a collection of over 100000 art and design images, drawn from university and college art collections.
www.edge-textileartists-scotland.com
this is a group of artists from all over Scotland - the website aims to promote excellence in all aspects of contemporary textile art and practice.
www.craftsscotland.org
Home of Scottish contemporary craft, helps promote businesses, allows you to search for makers, retailers, galleries, events, news, features, opportunities, training etc.
www.embroiderersguild.com
The UK's largest craft organization. News, workshops, museum collection, articles.
5 websites which I use regularly to keep me up to date with news and whats going on in the world..
www.timesonline.co.uk
www.wired.co.uk
www.newscientist.com
www.trendhunter.com
www.guardian.co.uk
www.innovationintextiles.com
Innovation in Textiles is a news and technical website for the global technical textiles and nonwovens industries.
www.vads.ac.uk
This is a collection of over 100000 art and design images, drawn from university and college art collections.
www.edge-textileartists-scotland.com
this is a group of artists from all over Scotland - the website aims to promote excellence in all aspects of contemporary textile art and practice.
www.craftsscotland.org
Home of Scottish contemporary craft, helps promote businesses, allows you to search for makers, retailers, galleries, events, news, features, opportunities, training etc.
www.embroiderersguild.com
The UK's largest craft organization. News, workshops, museum collection, articles.
5 websites which I use regularly to keep me up to date with news and whats going on in the world..
www.timesonline.co.uk
www.wired.co.uk
www.newscientist.com
www.trendhunter.com
www.guardian.co.uk
Assignment 3a & b - Cross-search & Bibliography
For this assignment we were asked to do further research on our design idea and gathering books, visual sources and journals. We were to then create a bibliography of these resources using Harvard style referencing and write a few sentences about how each resource was or was not useful to my study and research. I found cross-search very hard to use and I wouldn't say I was successful in understanding it. I never found any useful resources but then again maybe I was just not using it correctly! I think I'll have to take more time to get to grips with cross-search as I feel it has the potential to be very useful in the future. So here's my bibliography..
Bennett, C.J. & Lyon, D., eds. (2008) Playing the Identity Card, USA: Routledge
This book allows you to understand the significance of identity card systems and all its possible uses and benefits which I think would be very useful for my research. The weakness of this book is that it goes too in depth about surveillance, peoples’ rights, laws concerning data protection and how people are so against being watched by ‘big brother’.
Blane, H.T. & Chafetz, M.E., eds. (1979) Youth, Alcohol, and Social Policy, New York: Plenum Press
This source is packed with facts and statistics, its does not give a personal view or opinion on alcoholism at a young age it simply proves that this problem does exist and how serious it actually is. It would be useful as it gives a basis for my study and gives facts/statistics to work from.
Fossey, E. (1994) Growing up with Alcohol, USA: Routeledge
This book goes back to the begin and talks about why there is such a serious problem of underage drinking. Why and where does it begin. It has detailed accounts of studies carried out on children showing that it can in fact start from a very young age and shows that they are not ignorant to alcohol. Although not directly related with my issue it does gives me a better understanding that this problem goes deep and that the problem needs to be addressed. Having said this the book dwells too much on drinking habits of the young, the effectiveness alcohol education and the experiences these children have.
Maclachlan, M. & Smyth, C., eds. (2004) Binge Drinking & Youth Culture, Ireland: The Liffey Press
I think this book is really relevant to design idea as it looks at the actual issue of underage drinking and really focuses and explores the factors that impact on it. Like I said on my poster, its not realistic that we can solve this problem but its about taking it step by step and working to make the situation better which is what this book talks about.
Tether, P. & Robison, D. (1986) Preventing Alcohol Problems, London: Travistock Publications Ltd.
This book looks into an alternative strategy to reducing the risks of alcohol problems. Looks into alcohol safety, advertising, the media, educating people about alcohol. Identify and prevents alcoholism. Tries to tell you that its everyone’s business not just the individual. Its there and it cant be ignored and it’s up to us all to change and be educated as a community.
The Royal College of Physicians, (1995) Alcohol and the Young, London: The Lavenham Press Ltd
Written by a group of doctor and their experiences with alcohol in the young. It goes into a lot of detail on the effects and consequences of drinking on youngsters and drinking patterns. Allows you to understand the extent of the problem, although its weakness. I feel is that it's giving you the after effects of underage drinking not explaining what the problem is.
Bennett, C.J. & Lyon, D., eds. (2008) Playing the Identity Card, USA: Routledge
This book allows you to understand the significance of identity card systems and all its possible uses and benefits which I think would be very useful for my research. The weakness of this book is that it goes too in depth about surveillance, peoples’ rights, laws concerning data protection and how people are so against being watched by ‘big brother’.
Blane, H.T. & Chafetz, M.E., eds. (1979) Youth, Alcohol, and Social Policy, New York: Plenum Press
This source is packed with facts and statistics, its does not give a personal view or opinion on alcoholism at a young age it simply proves that this problem does exist and how serious it actually is. It would be useful as it gives a basis for my study and gives facts/statistics to work from.
Fossey, E. (1994) Growing up with Alcohol, USA: Routeledge
This book goes back to the begin and talks about why there is such a serious problem of underage drinking. Why and where does it begin. It has detailed accounts of studies carried out on children showing that it can in fact start from a very young age and shows that they are not ignorant to alcohol. Although not directly related with my issue it does gives me a better understanding that this problem goes deep and that the problem needs to be addressed. Having said this the book dwells too much on drinking habits of the young, the effectiveness alcohol education and the experiences these children have.
Maclachlan, M. & Smyth, C., eds. (2004) Binge Drinking & Youth Culture, Ireland: The Liffey Press
I think this book is really relevant to design idea as it looks at the actual issue of underage drinking and really focuses and explores the factors that impact on it. Like I said on my poster, its not realistic that we can solve this problem but its about taking it step by step and working to make the situation better which is what this book talks about.
Tether, P. & Robison, D. (1986) Preventing Alcohol Problems, London: Travistock Publications Ltd.
This book looks into an alternative strategy to reducing the risks of alcohol problems. Looks into alcohol safety, advertising, the media, educating people about alcohol. Identify and prevents alcoholism. Tries to tell you that its everyone’s business not just the individual. Its there and it cant be ignored and it’s up to us all to change and be educated as a community.
The Royal College of Physicians, (1995) Alcohol and the Young, London: The Lavenham Press Ltd
Written by a group of doctor and their experiences with alcohol in the young. It goes into a lot of detail on the effects and consequences of drinking on youngsters and drinking patterns. Allows you to understand the extent of the problem, although its weakness. I feel is that it's giving you the after effects of underage drinking not explaining what the problem is.
Assignment 2c - Poster
Finally, it's up! For this assignment we had been asked to choose a subject which we had talked about in our group discussion. We had to look deeper into this issue and basically record our research on a poster and come up with a design idea. At first I really struggled to understand what exactly this poster was to cotain but I took a step back, I asked a few of my peers about how they got on and how they went about this task to get a better understanding and some inspiration. This really helped and sure enough ideas started popping into my head. This is what I came up with..
“The inspiration for my idea stemmed from our group discussion about The Power of Context and crime in New York. I wanted to bring this subject a little closer to home by looking into crime in Britain and decided to focus on underage drinking as it is such a big issue which we don’t seem to be getting any closer to solving.”
Also on the poster there is a little research and facts that I collected.
I think once I get an idea in my head I can run with it, it was just that initial stage of, again, not knowing what specifically was being asked of me. I think it was really important for me to take that step back, it gave me a chance to see what was going on around me and how other people were going about the task, how they interpreted it.
“The inspiration for my idea stemmed from our group discussion about The Power of Context and crime in New York. I wanted to bring this subject a little closer to home by looking into crime in Britain and decided to focus on underage drinking as it is such a big issue which we don’t seem to be getting any closer to solving.”
Also on the poster there is a little research and facts that I collected.
I think once I get an idea in my head I can run with it, it was just that initial stage of, again, not knowing what specifically was being asked of me. I think it was really important for me to take that step back, it gave me a chance to see what was going on around me and how other people were going about the task, how they interpreted it.
Wednesday 4 November 2009
Assessment 2b - Discussion
For the second part of this assignment we were to have a group disscussion about products and services that already exist relating to problems in the world and how design could improve or solve them. These are some notes I took during the disscussion...
Assessment 2a - Brainstorming
After days of confusion I finally got to grips with this next assignment on The Tipping Point. We had been given the task of brainstorming and discussing how design relates to aspects in The Tipping Point and how design could change the world that we live in. After the design lecture on Friday our group headed to the studios to start brainstorming, taking a general look at each chapter then further into the chapters looking at the different subjects the book talks about and how design relates to these subjects.
These are photographs of my group brainstorming and the spider-diagram we produced...
I enjoyed working together as a group as we could bounce ideas off of each other and I like how people give their thoughts or suggestions which spark ideas from others. This gives a much wider range of knowledge and allows for better ideas when everyone puts the heads together and contributes something of their own.
Thursday 15 October 2009
These are images I produced from my DPT week at uni. Using Photoshop, I experimented with drawings and mark makings taken from my sketchbook and played around with different colours, techniques, altering the images and layering. My main project focuses on cave paintings and naïve art so I tried to bring a taste of that into these pieces.
Wednesday 14 October 2009
Assignment 1b - The Stickiness Factor Mind map
So here they are. I had been asked to produce two mindmaps based on a book I have recently read, The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. When I was told I was to read this book, to be honest, I wasn't overly thrilled. It's fair to say I'm not one to sit down and get my head stuck into a book often, although I do actually really enjoy reading and would like to do it lot more, but finding the time in my hectic schedule is easier said than done! However I did manage to finish the book in 3 days, once I get stuck in, well there's no turning back! I feel that I really understood the book which was obviously help by the fact it was an enjoyable read. Once you start asking yourself questions about it, you can dig deeper and deeper into the real meaning of it and understand how it relates to design. So here is my two mindmaps..
Tuesday 13 October 2009
Decay.
A textile piece (cushion) which I produced whilst at college last year. I really enjoyed the project and exploring the subject and feel that the piece caputures the essence of 'decay'.
No longer a blogging virgin!!
Argh! My first little blog :) To be honest it's a bit daunting, another step to get myself out into the the big wide world! I'm sure it wont take long for me to turn into a blogging addict! I've been scoping peoples blogs and websites trying to get a taste for it. I was told about this website from a friend, I thought there was some quite interesting and inspirational things on here.. http://www.trendhunter.com
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