〰️Brief 01: Loose Associations

A divergent design research strategy to discover a chosen specialism and interests

🎯 Invitation

Present a Pecha Kucha that is researched by following divergent hyperlinked tangents.

🔍Background

‘Hello, I’m Ryan. Erm … all these things are linked somehow, but at times the associations may be a bit loose.’ Ryan Gander

This brief is called Loose Associations, inspired by a lecture series by the artist Ryan Gander. (read it here) You are invited to prepare a Pecha Kucha that is researched by following divergent hyperlinked tangents. This is a distributed approach to research - a rhizomatic (web or root like) way of exploring in order to help you discover interests and insights.

In this brief you will be exploring and expanding your subject field and identifying a line of inquiry that is individual to you delivered as a Pecha Kucha. A Pecha Kucha is a storytelling format, invented by designers Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham in 2003. A presenter shows 20 slides for 20 seconds of commentary each (6 minutes and 40 seconds total).

🔗 Constraints

Research

This is not a PowerPoint presentation! You will construct this talk through links between images and the stories behind them. It is very important that this talk is personal to you and that you find it genuinly interesting - it is not an academic talk. This is creative research.

​The research should be conducted as if you have got lost in Wikipedia; each hyperlink taking you to another interesting thing. The aim of this research is to discover things you do not know about!

Tips

• Your starting image should be something (or someone) you are interested in, know or care about

• Don't worry about the presentation yet, enjoy researching. Online or in the library.

• Keep the jumps in topic small

Slideshow

• Create your slideshow using some film editing software (e.g. imovie or adobe premier) Each image needs to be on screen for 20 seconds while you talk about it.

• For each slide write 30 words telling us what is interesting about this image

• Your first image doesn't need to be the thing you started with

• Follow this tutorial to create the slideshow: https://adobemasters.net/how-to-quickly-make-a-slideshow-in-adobe-premiere-pro-cc-2018/

• And if you want to stretch yourself, follow this one to create an on screen countdown animation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1GCDVikIj0&ab_channel=Orange83

Script

Write and practise a script for when you present it live - this will become a blog post later

In many ways the Chupa Chups lollipop, invented in 1958, is a bona-fide design classic. The logo, eye catchingly placed on top was designed by the surrealist artist Salvidor Dali. If you look really closely at the moth in this Silence of the Lambs poster you can see Dali's skull. These moths are called Deaths Head Moths and have what look like skulls on them. Humans have made these moths change colour. The peppered moth used to be white but pollution has caused the surfaces it lands on to go black. Now it has evolved to blend in with soot rather than lichen...

Video

PECHAKUCHA.mpegGoogle Docs

Example video for presentation

💾 Submission

After the presentation of your Pecha Kucha, save the script and pictures in blog format here on Gitbook as "Brief 01: Your Title"

Give the blog a title that is not "pecha kucha" and introduce the blog with a paragraph outlining the theme.

There is a copy of this tempate in your project area

📐pageTemplate for Brief 01

You can edit offline with this word doc

70KB

Brief_01_Template.docx

(to upload > New page > Import new pages > Word Document

You might want to end the blog with a wordle

👀 Examples

👀pageBrief 01 example: Strings to Storms

👀pageBrief 01 example: The Perception of Brands

👀pageBrief 01 example: Terrariums to cheeseplants

📚References

1. Read this short excerpt below for an example of divergent research:

Ryan Gander, Loose associations and other lectures, 2007 p19-29