Gullible
Progress and Achievement
During this course I have realised the importance of research and development of ideas. To be an expert in the subjects you are working with and be fully aware of what you are trying to achieve is fundamental to any project, and enhances the final outcome hugely. I have also been able to pursue my interest in learning about communicating with an audience, and the psychological side of design and advertising.
Context
I have been inspired by Dan Eatock’s work, and can relate to his obsession with themes and collections. I admire his way of looking at the world, and his ability to spot coincidence and contradictions in real life, from his photographs which show coincidentally matching colours in everyday situations, to transforming a pun to a physical form by making a London Underground ‘Tube ticket’ into a tube shape (Dan Eatock, 1998).
Watching and discussing The Century of the Self (Adam Curtis, 2002) in the studio has encouraged my interest in the methods of modern consumerism and attitudes to superficiality. I am interested in how people have let their desires overshadow their needs without hesitance, and how easily lead we really are.
Project Proposal Aims, Methods and Realisation
For the final major project, I focused on the word ‘untrue’. I want to concentrate on how the public are communicated with, and how easily people believe what they are told. I see this project as an opportunity to conduct experiments on how people react to false information, and how easily they trust sources, depending on how official they seem.
I intend to achieve this by experimenting with lies. I will research lies throughout history, how they have been told and how people have reacted to them. I will think about telling my own lies, and see how people react to them.
I will look at propaganda and persuasion from different cultures and times throughout history, and study the effect that it has had, and how it worked.
I have been, and will continue to take inspiration from the programme ‘The Bubble’ currently running on BBC2 “which plays on the fact that some news stories are so hard to believe you'd think they'd been made up.” (BBC, 2010)
Evaluation
Throughout the project, I will record people’s reactions to my work, by presenting it to an audience at various stages. By carrying out experiments, I will be able to see the effect of my work in real situations. I will be writing a blog for the duration of the project, so that I can reflect on my thoughts and progress.
