Assignment 1 - The Consumption of Design

The aim of this assignment is to test the theory of consumption of design by analysing photographs of somebody’s childhood. Identifying for example; what they like and why they like these things. How they were brought up and in what environment? What are their ‘tastes’ and what determines this? Is it their friends, family or maybe they believe they are not influenced at all; maybe they themselves decide what they like. So what is the story behind the photograph?

"One picture is worth a thousand words" Fred R. Barnard.

Our task for this assignment was to swap photographs with a ‘stranger’ and to analyse them, in this case we were to choose a fellow student whom we did not know well. My subject for this assignment was Fiona Sichi. After analysing her photographs we met up to discuss our findings and how felt about what we discovered and the situation we were put in, as we were being asked to judge someone’s life through a photograph as it were. In some aspects it did feel uncomfortable, I was anxious about hearing what a stranger had to say about me, being put under the spot light and looked upon as a ‘test subject’. The meeting with Fiona was successful, we both appreciated how difficult a task it was and that there was a chance that we could touch upon a sensitive subject but I think we understood and tackled the situation very well.
As it would take forever to explaining what I took from each photograph, here is an overview of my findings...

One of the main things which I could tell from the photographs I was given to analyse was that Fiona was close with her siblings and she seems to have a really close nit family which is evident in almost every photograph. People whom I presumed to be her family were leaning in towards each other; their body language gave off signals that they were close with one another and looked out for each other which she confirmed was true. I also got the impression that her mum was very caring and really proud of her children as I noticed that quite a few of the pictures were of her children’s' achievements and in the background were drawings and paintings which the children had done at school perhaps. This was something that Fiona hadn’t realised but seemed amused when I had brought it to her attention. What I also took from the photo’s which she agreed with, was that Fiona’s little sister idolised her. She looked up to her and wanted to have what she had, wear what she wore hence they are wearing similar clothes in a few of the photo’s. In one or two of the photographs Fiona seemed to be at, what I presumed, a wedding which was a close guess but she revealed that they were actually family reunions that they hold every two years which she really enjoys, getting together with family and catching up with those she doesn’t get to see often. I find it really interesting to see how other families ‘work’, their traditions and what the norm for them. Analysing the photographs at first I could see that they were mainly of Fiona and her siblings only in one of the photographs was there an older female which I presumed to be her mother and in another an older gentlemen celebrating his birthday, her dad. She confirmed this although I questioned why her mother was not in many of the photographs and she told me that she was actually normally the person who ran around sorting everything out, arranging things and making sure everyone else was happy, I had slightly picked up on this in one of the photo’s. There was something else I picked up on that Fiona hadn’t noticed which she was intrigued by, in almost all of the photographs she has a certain posture in which her hands are clasped together in front of her which seems to be a trait that her mother and sister also have. I don’t know what this reveals about her personally, it may just mean that she was brought up with good mannerisms and knows how to carry herself properly. Whatever it means I really found it interesting looking at Fiona’s photos and finding out more about her, these little things that one person notices could mean something else, something more important to someone else.

As for my photographs and what Fiona discovered about me; overall it was very positive feedback and made me think about things that I hadn’t thought about before. Maybe you just never look hard enough or maybe there are things you just didn’t want to see. Something which was brought up during our chat was the relationship between my brother and me. After pointing out to me in the pictures, its evident I really looked up to my brother, we were close. I trusted him and was keen to impress him, he looked out for me and although he could be really annoying at times, as most big brothers are, he would always look out for me. We are not as close now as we used to be but there is and always will be that special bond between brother and sister and I will always look up to him.
Another thing Fiona discovered through analysing my pictures was the strong relationship with my grandfather. In a lot of the photo’s my grandfather and me would be playing games of some sort, keeping me entertained. In one of the photographs I am sitting on his knee and copying his actions, Fiona saw this as a strong indication that I looked up to my grandfather he was a big part of my upbringing and I enjoyed being around him. Another photograph shows him burying me in sand up to my neck, Fiona took from this that we had a very trusting relationship for me to allow him to do this which I strongly agree with.

Sometimes people think they know themselves and their life so well but evidently this is not always true, only after this experiment had I realised certain things about myself and my relationships with family members. Not only has this taught me how to cope in uncomfortable situation but it has also made me more aware of what others can tell about me without actually getting to know me personally. It really is intriguing and maybe the aim of this task was not specifically to get to know someone but I found it has really helped me do so and allowed people to get closer and learn about each others past.

It really does make you think and put a different perspective on things when a stranger can tell you things maybe you didn’t even know about yourself only from a few photographs!