It's All Gone Boat-shaped!

It seems as if the red, blue and white nautical stripes and anchors are very much here to stay for another season. Not that I'm complaining because I do rather like that aesthetic; it's just that the fashion industry (or the high street anyway) gets less and less creative as it also gets lower and lower quality.

Take New Look par example, used to be you could get a really good pair of jeans that would last. Now, I wear jeans until they fall apart at the seams, are full of holes, covered in paint, too big and the bottoms are wrecked; I'm short and hemming jeans often ruins the cut (especially if there's a design on them or they're flared) or you feel like there's no point since they won't last long enough to merit it anyway, or you're just really lazy like moi... Anyway, up until last year I had 2 pairs of New Look jeans I absolutely adored, they lasted 4 and 5 years respectively and, had they not been entirely the wrong size, I might have made a more concerted rescue attempt (as it stands, one pair have gone to patch my brother's jeans and the other is probably going to be reborn as a handbag or something, haven't yet decided). So, having need of new jeans I thought, "hey, why not try the same place again?" No such luck. Like the majority of shops they don't cater for short people like myself (usually "petite" is still a couple of inches too long or in some cases, a couple of inches too short), easily solved but turning up the cuffs. However, one pair, 6 months down the line, the seams went gone and the crotch wore out; the other pair, after 3-4 months they went all grey and baggy (especially at the knees). I still wear the latter as they have yet to fall apart. I know they were only £10 and £6 respectively in the sale, but outwith the sale they were £30 and £25 respectively, more than I paid for the decent jeans 5 years ago. Not impressed at all.

Not all is doom and gloom though. I was recommended Marks & Spencer's by several reliable sources. They do have some nice stuff, but it's generally waaaaaaaaaay too expensive for a student budget and the rest is very conservative, middle-aged and upwards woman, so I hadn't really considered it as the place to buy jeans. Oh, but it is. You do have to hunt for the gems amongst the unfashionable and uncomfortable (I think anyway, just don't like where they sit really) high-waisted, straight-legged, boring ones, but there are nice ones there to find. I now have 2 pairs which, quelle suprise, are the right length for me and 3 months on show no signs of being poor quality. The verdict is still out on whether they last more than a year, but so far I am impressed. The waist is still too large, but, hey, that's a post for another time.

And now for the musical portion of this blog (it has gone rather musical):



Ooh, I do like me a bit of Cole Porter.



Go Sailor! Go!

Expect more music related posts, something a bit more serious and then some unbridled silliness comin' at ya like a wet flannel soon.

Peace out.

It's Good to be Spontaneous

Today when wandering the charity shops to find last minute items for Terry Pratchett's Mort (the student theatre company I'm part of's latest production) I picked up a random CD for £2, which looked quite interesting. Since I'm open to new experiences I figured, hey, why not, especially since the money goes to charity and if it was pants then I'd just pop it back in , no harm done.

Ice Cream by Salad (Island Records, 1997) is rather good though. I'm glad I randomly decided to get it. Unfortunately, none of their work is on Youtube, so you shall just have to track it down by yourselves. The wiki article should give you some background info though.

Also, lead singer Marijne van der Vlugt is in the band Cowboy Racer (also fabulous) whose song Yellow Horse featured in Grey's Anatomy.

Oh and I found Sarah McLaughlin's Icecream whilst looking on Youtube and it's great:



And just becuase nothing is complete without this (may be NSFW, contains sweary words):



Peace out...

Mars Ain't the Kinda of Place to Raise Your Kids...

Crossposted from http://cakepirates.livejournal.com/:

I've been meaning to post this up for quite a while now. This is an essay I wrote for my course at uni last semester and I was incredibly surprised that it got an A3 seeing as I was hoping for a C1 and expecting a C3. Anyway, it's all about interactive teaching/learning and suchlike you should check out some of the videos on Snozelan, etc, they are very intersting and I might pick up further research into this topic when I've got some time. Apologies for the spelling and grammar errors, I do try to catch these things, but spell-check only goes so far...

Also, if you get the chance to read Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point and/or Senses & Sensibilities by Jillyn Smith, do so because they rock so hard! Their writting styles are interseting, lively and reasonably easy to understand.

Mars Ain’t the Kind of Place to Raise Your Kids...[1]

So what is this design thing all about anyway?

Design is often perceived as pandering to a mass consumerist market and churning out pretty things; useless, disposable and ultimately destined to pollute a landfill site near you. Or, even worse perhaps, be shipped to a developing country to contaminate and, possibly, destroy their society and scenery as well. And, yes, in many instances, this is the case, but not all, not by a long shot. Attitudes towards design need to change as much as our attitudes towards how we use our natural resources. According to the Design Council (?:2): “Good design begins with the needs of the user. No design, no matter how beautiful and ingenious, is any good if it doesn't fulfil a user need...” A great example of a group practicing user-centred design is DEMAND, a registered charity working to “design and manufacture bespoke equipment for disabled people, where no off the shelf solutions exist...” (http://www.demand.org.uk/ (10/12/2008)). Design is and should be about finding solutions to problems. The same solution is not necessarily going to suit everyone, so how do you get around that obstacle?

Design is not just stuff...

“If you work with the child’s preferred learning style, as opposed to the more common method of working from what the child is not good at, you are then teaching them from a position of strength rather than weakness...” (Hirstwood ?:2). Sound familiar? Education and learning are just as much designed systems as the school buildings they occur in or the uniform which you may have worn there. Many things can fall under the general umbrella heading of interactive learning. And, yes, there is a lot of stuff associated with it; exploration of new technologies is always going to have strong links with education, who better to test some new innovation than someone who has no expectations or preconceptions of how it should work? One such example is SynergyNet, the “interactive multi-touch desks” (Lipsett 2008:1) created by Durham University’s Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) department and currently being tested in schools. They described their creation as: “...very similar to the type of interface shown as a vision of the future in the TV series Star Trek.” (Lipsett 2008:1). The idea, it seems, is for the class activities to become more student, rather than teacher-led, allowing the student to work at his or her own pace with separate tasks suitable for their level set to each desk; with added networking to allow for group activities. Its creators also claim that it has applications in relation to social inclusion and equality. However, this technology is still a long way off being ready for mainstream use and is far from affordable (£8,000 per desk) at this stage in development.

Relevant examples of technologies used in current interactive teaching are interactive whiteboards, which have been around for several years now. They allow for group activities, but are still teacher focused; they act as a computer screen which you can also draw on digitally with different coloured “pens”. Equally there is an educational video-gaming element to them. Special controllers (similar to those used by the Playstation game Buzz!) can be used to compete in teams or individually in user-created quizzes. It can turn learning into a more engaging experience and some of the information can be more likely to stick in your head than under a more traditional format of revision. More recently there is Nintendo’s Wii, which has a lot of potential to become an interactive teaching device. “Technology behind computer gaming... is developing exponentially. Equipment that five years ago was restricted to university virtual reality labs costing hundreds of thousands of pounds is now mainstream... Wii has suddenly made gaming both kinaesthetic and social...” (Hirstwood 2007:1). It could allow people with mobility issues to participate in sports which they may not otherwise have been able to, admittedly using the Wiimote to flick a digital bowling ball across the screen is an entirely different experience from actually throwing the real thing down the alley, but for people with restricted movement it allows them to experience some of the excitement, physical exercise and skills without too much exertion. The Wii’s smaller, more portable cousin, the DS also has in-built interactive technology and also has educational games currently available. Video gaming in education is not a new concept – it was certainly around in the 1990’s (Zoombeenies, Dread Dragon Droom, etc) – technology has simply moved on enough that they have become more physically interactive and possibly more acceptable in the classroom.

Sometimes a simpler approach is better...

However, high-tech solutions aren’t always the best ones. Interactive learning still existed before the days of personal computers; it just hadn’t been given a fancy title yet. According to Jillyn Smith (1989:198): “The senses need to be stimulated to develop, and many studies indicate that humans... need certain kinds of tactile experiences to develop into healthy individuals...” Something that computers, however good they may be, cannot give is human contact and their ability to provide tactile experiences/environments is currently limited. Snozelan or Multi-sensory/White Rooms, such as the ones at Sheffield Children’s Hospital, Ryehill and Twinkle House in West Lancashire are used to help children and adults with physical or learning difficulties. “Although sophisticated equipment can be used, excellent work can also be done using items such as hand-held torches and cooking foil to break the light beams...” (The CALL Centre ?:1) Something as simple as a bubble tube, aromatherapy oils or fibre-optic sprays can teach important focusing or numeracy skills, etc. Weighted blankets or belts (like the miracle belt) can help to ground a child with Down’s syndrome or ADHD, etc. It is said that “Physical contact is the ultimate signal to infants and... small children that they are safe...” (Smith 1989:199). For many children with Autism or other disabilities, the opposite can be true, but the use of these (designed) objects seems to help many of them in a similar way to how human contact helps others. Many of these tactile techniques can also be used effectively with children without these problems.

And all this without even venturing into the fields of robotics or interactive web-design...

Design is a much more complex, far-reaching subject than it first appears and there are many ways in which it can and should be used to better people’s lives. There is no simple answer to what it really is: “And so I leave you with this thought, dear reader. Use the technology which the engineer has developed, but use it with a humble and questioning spirit...” (Lewycka 2006:303).

---

[1] Title taken from the song Rocket Man By Elton John.

Bibliography

Adams-Spink, G. (2006) Innovative designs tackle disabilities. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4690784.stm [9/12/2008]

Ambron, S. & Hooper, K. (ed.) (1990) Learning with Interactive Multimedia... Redmont, Washington: Microsoft Press.

Anderson, L. & Huang, H-C. (1995) Puppet Motel. New York: Voyager.

Bower, G. H. & Hilgard, E.R. (1981) Theories of Learning. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.

CBS News (2007) http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lOnoLESsWW0 [9/12/2008]

Cogill, J. (2002) How is the interactive whiteboard being used in primary school and how does this affect teachers and teaching? http://www.virtuallearning.org.uk/whiteboards/IFS_Interactive_whiteboards_in_the_primary_school.pdf [16/11/2008]

Design Council (?) What is Design. http://www.hku.hk/bse/interdisciplinary/what_is_design.pdf [9/12/2008]

DEMAND, Design & Manufacture for Disability (?) http://www.demand.org.uk/ [10/12/2008]

Druin, A. & Hendler, J. (ed.) (2000) Robots for Kids: Exploring New Technologies for Learning. San Diego: Morgan Kaufmann/Academic Press.

Elizabeth Fitzroy Support (2005) http://www.sensoryworld.org/ [9/12/2008]

Gladwell, M. (2008) The Tipping Point. London: Little, Brown Book Company.

HealthcareNewsNetwork (2008) http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=U2j7yriau34 [10/12/2008]

Hirstwood, R. (2007) Do You Need a Wii? http://www.multi-sensory-room.co.uk/page49/page50/page50.html [9/12/2008]

Hirstwood, R. (?) Sensory Learning. http://www.multi-sensory-room.co.uk/page49/page52/page52.html [9/12/2008]

John, E. & Taupin, B. (1972) Rocket Man. Honky Château.

Lewycka, M. (2006) A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. London: Penguin Books, Ltd.

Lipsett, A. (2008) School Desks: The Next Generation... http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/sep/17/itforschools.elearning [16/11/2008]

Longhorn, F. (2007) Sensory Gardens and Very Special People. http://www.multi-sensory-room.co.uk/page49/page56/page56.html [9/10/2008]

Original Diamond Designs, Inc. (?) http://www.miraclebelt.com/ [10/12/2008]

Schank, R. C. & Morson, G. S. (1998) Tell Me A Story: Narrative and Intelligence. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press.

Sheffield Children’s Hospital/SCHCharity (2007) http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=87DAGlTlUSQ [9/12/2008]

Smith, J. (1989) Senses & Sensibilities. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

The CALL Centre, the University of Edinburgh (?) Do White Rooms or Multi-sensory Rooms work? http://callcentre.education.ed.ac.uk/SEN/Early_Ed/Sensory_Stim_EEA/Visual_Stim_EEB/White_Room_EEC/white_room_eec.html [9/12/2008]

Stevic Rust, L. (2008) http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VyzFOQTrOJA [9/12/2008]

Twinkle House Multi-Sensory Studio (?) http://www.twinklehouse.co.uk [9/12/2008]

Pakhchyan, S. (2008) Fashioning Technology. Italy: O’Reilly.

Prashnig, B. & Dryden, G. (2004) The Power of Diversity: New Ways of Learning and Teaching Through Learning Styles. Continuum International Publishing Group.

Gee Willikers Batman!

For some reason Blogspot wasn't working on my computer for about a month or so, so I started an lj to keep me busy in the meantime. Crossposted from http://cakepirates.livejournal.com/:

Whilst searching for pop art/artists as reference for a uni project I stumbled across this article:Lichtenstein: creator or copycat?

I was surprised, I , like many others thought that Lichtenstein was just parodying/paying homage to 1940's/50's/60's comics, but didn't realise that many of them are pretty much direct lifts from the original with slightly different colouring (he really liked blondes), if even that. If you go check out this: Deconstructing Roy Lichtenstein you can easily see where he got them from. Arguably, you could see it as "fanart" that he got paid for or found object/image art (but not quite as it's copied not collaged/CAD) and if most of the original copyright holders accept it, I suppose it's alright... or is it? I don't know, it just seems rather dishonest, especially when the artist hasn't been asked for permission (George Tuska didn't even know that his work had been used), but at the time nobody did anything for whatever reason and it's far too late now.

However, sometimes copyright can be bad. Nadia Plesner's Simple Living t-shirt design was targeted by Louis Vuitton (http://massdelirium.wordpress.com/2008/05/05/issues-management-louis-vuitton-and-nadia-plesner/) for using a similar logo (but not the same as) to theirs which is, in a way, understandable brand protection yadda-yadda, but it was for charity, surely they could've been seen to support the cause (maybe even make a donation to Save Darfur), they can easily afford to after all. Thousands of genuine fake designer products are seized every year, why not go after the makers of those rather than an artist trying to raise awareness and funds for a charity.

The world is an odd place indeed.