Complete Documents Of Every Scholarly Research Article I’ve Found (WIP)

Week 13: November 29

This week for scholarly research, I did a final look into semiotics with by taking look at The Semiotic Perspectives of Peirce and Saussure: A Brief Comparative Study

Citation: Yakin, Halina Sendera, and Andreas Totu. “The Semiotic Perspectives of Peirce and Saussure: A Brief Comparative Study.” Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 155 (November 2014): 4–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.10.247. 

Link: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277572736_The_Semiotic_Perspectives_of_Peirce_and_Saussure_A_Brief_Comparative_Study

Summary: The primary purpose of this paper is to make a comparative analysis between two leading scholars’ perspectives on semiotic theory, namely Charles Sanders Peirce and Ferdinand de Saussure. In addition, it is also aimed at discussing the linkage between communication and semiotic which can be grasped as a signification of symbol or simply as a study of sign in societal life. Apart from the communication field itself, the theory is commonly used as a reference in various fields such as philosophy, linguistic, arts and literature, archeology, architecture, mathematics and so on. The data has been attained by using content analysis technique of various studies on semiotic and related subject. This article is expected to generate positive contribution in underlining the significance of semiotic theory, not only towards the enhancement of the semiotic epistemology but also to other researchers and academicians in related fields or specific areas.

Specific sections of interest are attached below: 

It’s interesting how all of these texts describe Saussure’c concepts in just a slightly different way. Sound pattern I don’t think was mentioned in the previous articles I read. 

Here, Saussure says that signs are not signs unless they are intended to be interpreted as a sign, which I find interesting but I’m not sure I agree with.  

This article focused on Peirce and Saussure’s theories in particular, rather than on semiotics as a whole like the other articles I have read. I focus on Saussure in particular. The signifier is the physical existence of the sign, which can be a word, symbol, or anything that can represent an object or concept. The signified is the object or mental concept that the sign brings about. For example, the symbol of a snowflake brings up the mental concept of a snowflake, as a small icy crystal that falls from the sky. This then may lead to other associations that come with the idea of snowflakes like winter, Christmas, the cold, snowstorms, etc. This makes sense. What I’m not sure about, or maybe am a little unclear about, is how a sign is only a sign if it is delivered with purpose and specific meaning intentionally. If a sign is delivered with purpose, but a very vague meaning, is it no longer a sign? Why can a sign not represent something signified if the person viewing it sees it that way? If it brings about a signified, I argue that it could be considered a sign. 

For creative research and inspiration, I went to the New York Public Library main branch. I was not able to see all of the rooms as some of them were closed or full for tours for the day, but I was able to see a few objects: 

I just thought the typefaces here were really beautiful

Trompe L’oeil with Paper Money, 1796

By Joseph Hunin After Jacques Callot 

Wall card for Trompe L’oeil with Paper Money

Fan made of ivory and printed paper

Wall card for fan

The book at the top I initially saved because I found the typefaces to be really beautiful, and thought it was interesting that so many different ones were combined on one page. Usually this isn’t cohesive, but here I feel like it kind of works. On the topic of certain signs leading to certain signifiers, I thought about how certain typefaces can seem to go with certain words. Could typefaces sound as a semi-symbol that bring about certain mental concepts, making them a sign? I also enjoyed seeing the samples of the short-lived assignat juxtaposed with each other. The fact that there are so many variations yet it is short lived suggests instability, which make sense since this print is supposed to hint at the poverty that can come with putting all of your trust in paper money. A similar message can be found in the beautiful fan below that is also made of currency. 

This week, I got a new perspective on Saussure and Peirce and semiotics. While I may disagree with Saussure on the necessity of intentionality for a sign, overall I have found his theory about making meaning to be key to understanding juxtaposition. For now though, I think I have done enough research on this subject. I also saw some more historical pieces that I generally found beautiful, but do act as examples of how juxtaposition can be used to convey a subtle message that may not be apparently obvious. My main focus now is going to be on finishing my paper, as well as deciding on an exact idea for my final form. 

“Anyone who’s ever put a stamp on an envelope or a note on their refrigerator knows what it’s like to make a collage. There’s no esoteric technique.” -  Elliott Hundley

I feel like I love and hate this quote because it’s true, and it’s one reason why I like collage - because it reflects life. But also I don’t like it for my capstone because I think it starts to get into “anyone could have done that” territory. Will think more about this...

7 Days of Iteration

REMINDER: Official post coming soon 🔥🔥

Thinking through new statements

I am interested in the design convention of juxtaposition and the phenomenon of how our brains naturally create connections between disparate imagery. I hope for my audience to be more aware of when this phenomenon happens and how it can change our viewpoint.

I’m an interested in the phenomenon of juxtaposition and how psychologically connections are created between disparate items. I hope to learn how juxtaposition can be manipulated to create beauty and harm, and to make people more aware of its soft power. 

I am interested in juxtaposition’s importance in design and psychology, and how we tend to make connections between disparate imagery. I hope to demonstrate this phenomenon so that people are more aware of it and can detect when the brain is creating these connections.

Week 10: November 8

This week, I tried again to explore playing with the printer after I saw someone on Tik Tok doing it (I lost the Tik Tok, the video may have been one of the removed ones from my favorites.) 

I put a random phrase that I got from a generator, and placed it in photoshop after choosing a font, the printed it. I them scanned the printed images, and manipulated it as it was scanned, causing the text to come out distorted and wavy. I then also generated a random object to go with the random phrase, and would print an image of that and manipulate it as I scanned it. Finally, I would put the manipulated image and text together back in photoshop to form an interesting composition, and to see what connections were made between the random phrase and objects.

In this scan, the duck may not be a fish, but it does swim in the water like one, and it is out of water. Compositionally, I think that this scan is the most interesting. 

This scan I had the most trouble finding a connection between the phrase and object. I actually more noticed the differences between them, as the fluffiness of the ideas of a cloud and the sharpness of the scissors contrasted in my mind. 

In this scan, shot made me think of basketball, which made me think of a basketball, which is a ball just like a beach ball. 

I also looked a little more into Surrealism since the critique last week. These scans kind of remind me of a combination between The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali and The Treachery of Images by René Magritte. The images and text have the same melting quality of the clocks in The Persistence of Memory, but have the format of a “mismatching” object and label like The Treachery of Images. In a similar way, it brings into questions what is meaning, and how do we even decide if an image goes together or not. 

As mentioned above, my creative research was mostly focused on surrealism this week. I looked at The Historical Dictionary of Surrealism by Keith Aspley. 

Citation: Keith Aspley. 2010. Historical Dictionary of Surrealism. Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the Arts. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=341973&site=ehost-live.

Link: http://ezproxy.stevens.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=341973&site=ehost-live&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_3

Summary: The Historical Dictionary of Surrealism relates the history of this movement through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and over 600 cross-referenced dictionary entries on persons, circles, and groups who participated in the movement; a global entry on some of the journals and reviews they produced; and a sampling of major works of art, cinema, and literature.

Particular sections are highlighted below:

Here, Surrealism “refers to the artistic and literary movement that attempts to express the workings of the subconscious mind and is characterized by incongruous juxtapositions of images, probably needs to be approached from different angles: chronological, thematic, and linguistic, among others”. This definition is important because it emphasizes the importance of juxtaposition in the movement.

This quote talks about some terms that are used in surrealism. 

This book was a great introduction to the Surrealist movement, and does a good job of explaining its history, timeline, terms, and notable figures. I like that it emphasizes juxtaposition as a key part of the movement, as meaning is made through the juxtaposition of images, text, and what the viewer is expecting. 

Overall this week, I learned a lot more about Surrealism, where it came from, and how works from this period function. The article I read related well with the artwork that I made this week, which ended up seeming like a combination between The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali with the melting images, and The Treachery of Images by René Magritte with the image caption format. I further explored how connections are made between unlike images and phrases through this work (going back to how our brains will jump to find the pattern). This actually might be my first exploration that includes both images and text. I really liked the visual effect of the scanner as well, and thought that these pieces came out visually interesting as well as relating to my topic. Next week I plan to further explore meaning, as well as make something digital (maybe video?) 

Week 8: October 25

This week for my creative research I visited the Cooper Hewitt Museum. Here are some of the highlights:

From Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics

Zero-waste Scrub Set, 2020 by Danielle Elsener

This zero-waste scrub resulted from when the logo from the NHS (National Health Service) was printed at the wrong size.

I love the unique pattern that is created from the fabric scraps sewn together - it makes it look more high fashion than a normal scrub, even though it was made from a fabric that would normally have been thrown away because of errors.

Next was an exhibit on AI

Expression Portrait by R. Luke DuBois

This piece scanned your face, and guess the emotion that you were showing. It then asked you to hold that emotion for a minute. However, right after, it reveals that it had collected data from you about your age, ethnicity, current emotion, etc., and that the fun activity was not so fun after all. One thing that we noted was that the results for my roommate were a bit more accurate than mine, maybe because AI tends to be better at detecting white faces...?

The next exhibit we went to was designing for peace. I just really liked the theme of this exhibit and it was definitely my favorite due to the variety of cultures, ideas, issues, and solutions that were involved with it.

I through the opening wall was really cool, and how there was a hidden message depending on which angle you were looking at it.

I loved the typography and symbolism in this Black Lives Matter street art, and the imagery that was in each. They still all look cohesive.

Conflict Kitchen is a takeout kitchen in Philadelphia that serves food from countries in conflict with the United States.

The facade of conflict kitchen. It reminds me of Rich’s piece from last year.

This idea is great because it highlights food from countries that many Americans may normally be hesitant to try, due to lack of accessibility, knowledge, or fear of cultural differences. Restaurants representing these countries also may be more likely to face discrimination due to the bad media that they recieve due to the fact that they are the US’s “enemy”. Serving food though gives people the opportunity to associate these countries with something more positive, and experiencing the culture can help to humanize it's people. Food also acts as a gateway to learn more about these countries’ people and cultures in a more positive light that the media does, telling the other side of the story. Cultural exchange is a great was to confront bias and fear that Americans may have.

Take out wrappers for Conflict Kitchen contain interviews with multiple perspectives of people but currently living in and those who moved away from the focus country.

Universal Declarations of Human Rights Posters

“This is My Home” Poster based on the Declarations’s Article 25: Everyone has a right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being.

By Cindy Chen

“Your Thoughts are Illegal” Poster and Postcard based on the Declaration’s Article 18: Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.

By Christopher Kosek

Everybody poster and postcard based on the Declaration’s Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and right.

By Christopher Kosek

Sweat Shop Labor poster and postcard based on the Declaration’s Article 23: Everyone has the right to work... to equal pay...

I really like these posters because of the irony in the imagery, and how it gets the message across so clearly. Just the imagery alone implies what the topic of the poster is. The designs are really creative and clever.

I also talked to Jack as he also went to the Cooper Hewitt, and he said that the layout of the museum reminded him of my project, as the exhibits were really close to each other and juxtaposed each other.

I really enjoyed going to the museum this week, but I’m still not sure exactly the direction I want to go for my next project, I loved so many of the projects there, but I’m not exactly sure how some of them relate to my topic, as I feel like they maybe touch more on other interests I have that are not necessarily related. I did get some insirpation on how to present my work, and the various forms that it can take. Who knew medical devices could be placed in an “art” museum? 

For scholarly research this week, I found a book by Gail Dexter Lord and Ngaire Blankenber called Cities, Museum, and Soft Power. 

Citation: Lord, Gail Dexter, and Ngaire Blankenberg. 2015. Cities, Museums and Soft Power. Washington: American Association of Museums. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspxdirect=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1341266.

Link to article: http://ezproxy.stevens.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=1341266&site=ehost-live&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_9

Summary: Soft power emerged as a concept in the late twentieth century to describe international relations based not on military or economic strength, but on influence. While the resources of "hard power" are tangible-force and finance-soft power resources include ideas, knowledge, values, and culture, as well as the ability to persuade. This volume discusses soft power from the vantage point of museums and demonstrates how they are quietly changing the world. With contributions by thirteen experts from ten countries, Cities, Museums and Soft Power reveals the world's 80,000 museums to be sleeping giants. Two major characteristics of soft power-the rise of cities and the role of civil society-are pushing museums from the margins toward the center as these institutions serve as education hubs, employers, magnets for creative industries, and engines of economic development. Meanwhile, the growth of technological networks and connectivity has enabled this soft power to spread even farther and deeper across the Internet and groups of people. Whether cozy and local or internationally renowned, museums possess a cultural strength that extends far beyond their walls

It also recaps some information that I learned earlier from a different perspective. 

There was also some discussion about when soft powers collide, how cities and museums can use soft power to better the lives of the people that live there, and how soft power is not always employed positively. 

I am glad this week that I finally found another book talking about soft power in an artistic or more localized scale. I was honestly surprised that a whole book existed. It focuses a little more on cities and museums than I probably will in my paper, but still has some good insight. Particularly, how soft power is not always a power used for good. In a similar way, juxtaposition is a soft power, but it can be used to portray a negative message as well. 

Overall this week I got some really good inspiration from Cooper Hewitt. I particularly like the way that the Human Right posters played with meaning and were so easily able to grab my attention. The format and imagery with the text had great gestalt and already implied the topic at hand even with just the simple imagery. I also feel now after this week that I understand soft power enough in all sense (political, artistic, and the negative sides to it), so will find a different research topic for next week. 

Week 5: October 4

For scholarly research this week, I found an article from NASA’s Color Usage Research Lab (that existed???) about successive and simultaneous contrast. 

Citation: “Simultaneous and Successive Contrast.” Using Color in Information Display Graphics. NASA. Accessed October 4, 2022. https://colorusage.arc.nasa.gov/Simult_and_succ_cont.php. 

Link: https://colorusage.arc.nasa.gov/Simult_and_succ_cont.php

“The terms "simultaneous contrast" and "successive contrast" refer to visual effects in which the appearance of a patch of light (the "test field") is affected by other light patches ("inducing fields") that are nearby in space and time, respectively. The names are somewhat misleading since both simultaneous and successive contrast involve inducing fields that are close in both time and space.” 

Basically, it means that we see colors differently depending on what it’s surrounding colors are. This is a color theory related topic, but I just think it’s interesting that NASA has done research on this, as it’s a bit unexpected. 

For creative research, I made a model of the mockup I created last week out of jewelry wire I had laying around, tissue paper, and other craft materials I had. The clear transparent material that is on the frame is two ziploc bags. 

It was a slight failure, and it came out a bit wonkier than I expected, but it was probably still good to go through the process of making it. I’m still not sure about the exact works/materials that I would put on the windows. I used various textures, and definitely tried to keep with materials that light could shine through. I feel like it looks a bit childish though because of the use of craft materials….

If I actually made this, I’m realizing I would probably need to use several different arches and connect them on sight, so it could be easily transported and disassembled. Maybe I could use a shower curtain in place of a ziplock bag, and that was I could just drape that over the arches, and just make sure all of the squares are lined up.

I was a big fan of the successive and simultaneous contrast article from NASA, as I feel like it was a good bridge between the graphic design and psychology side of my topic. I am a bit disappointed by my creative research this week though, as it didn’t turn out as beautiful as it was in the mock-up. I am concerned by the lack of specificity of what I want to put in the windows and how I feel like it looks nice, but doesn’t completely convey the message of my topic. It would definitely need an explanation. Maybe I’ll get some feedback during crit next week on that.

Week 2: September 13

This week, I started out thinking about collage, but ended by deciding to focus more on juxtaposition.

Day 1: Found material collage on printer paper

Explores collage as something that can be made of putting things together around you.

Day 2: Digital collage

Exploring the digital collage. Based on more “aesthetic” collages that can be found on the internet.

Day 3: Printer scans 

Explores alternate ways of making collage with non-2D objects, and flattening them.

Day 4: Moodboard

Exploring mood boards as a type of collage

Day 5: Ugly moodboard

Exploring mood boards as a type of collage, but purposely making one that is ugly, and seeing how we make connections between the unrelated images and colors. 

Day 6: Autofill poems

Used autofill in the Notes app to generate poems that are a collage of words. On the last one, it ran out of word suggestions.

I thought that it was interesting that in the one below, autocorrect ran out of suggestions.

Day 7: Cake! (Chocolate with vanilla frosting) 

“Anyone who's ever put a stamp on an envelope or a note on their refrigerator knows what it's like to make a collage. There's no esoteric technique.” - Elliot Hundley

This is what I hate and like about collage - anyone can do it.

Going back to the ugly moodboard, I tried really hard to find things that were random, did not go together, or were just not aesthetically pleasing (some of the images were even a little gross. I gave it a nauseating pink background, and the colors were bright and clashing. However, despite my best efforts to try and make an anti-moodboard that seemed completely random and ugly, the more I look at it the more I feel like it works....? I couldn't tell you what mood it is giving, but I feel like I'm putting things together that aren't there. 

This made me think about how humans tend to find patterns all the time in things that aren’t really there. There are actually several psychology articles about the subject.

Mattson, Mark P. “Superior pattern processing is the essence of the evolved human brain.” Frontiers in neuroscience vol. 8 265. 22 Aug. 2014, doi:10.3389/fnins.2014.00265

Chandrashekara, K. “Finding Patterns in Nature’s Maze: An Endless Quest.” Current Science, vol. 69, no. 5, 1995, pp. 406–09. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24097149. Accessed 19 Sep. 2022.

I feel like this week was just exploring juxtaposition as a new aspect of my topic, rather than just focusing on collage. I noticed it in my “ugly” moodboard how people find relations between things that aren’t there, which the articles by Mattson that I mentioned above basically says that our ability to recognize patterns to the extent that we can is part of what makes us human. I should keep this in mind in terms of how people perceive my project I suppose. Can I take advantage of this?

Also not as related, but speaking of two things that I didn't think would work but it does, a Kpop song I like by the group TXT called Eternally sounds like two different songs blended together, to the point that when my friend first showed it to me I thought it was two different songs. It switches from slow to dark and fast. But I really like it. 

https://youtu.be/60RWCfwmfYc

7 Days of Making