July 31: Week 3, session 1

After choosing 4 of our sketches from last week we spent the weekend refining our ideas and working on coming up with some more poster concepts. Then I chose my 4 strongest concepts to blow up and display on A3 paper for class. We then all laid out our work and went around in pairs writing down critiques for each others work. Through doing this I was able to get back lots of various feedback from some classmates. By understanding how my work is perceived from various individuals I will be able to create a clearer depiction of my vision. I was also able to get see the progress everyone else has made and this allowed me to get some more inspiration for my own work.

July 27: Week 2, session 2

Today we focused on narrowing down our broad topic of inequality to a specific aspect. Through my topic of inequality in the animal kingdom I narrowed it down to focus on the male chicks that are grinded alive in the egg industry. After this we then spent the rest of the time starting to come up with sketches of possible poster ideas. Through the various exercises we worked on the past few classes I was able to come up with a good variety of ideas. As well as working along with some peers we were able to communicate, collaborate, and critique each other. This was very helpful in preparing for the 4 large A3 scale mockups we will be presenting next session.

July 24: Week 2, session 1

Today we worked on exercises that allowed us to use quick bursts of creativity in order to depict various ideas of inequality. I based mine off of gender inequality. Then there were 3 different timed rounds, the first two we were given random words, I got a dog and a snail. Then we were allotted a certain amount of time to come up with at least 10 thumbnail sketches using image and text to depict our category of inequality through relating it to our word. For the last round we were given a metaphor, I received "as mad as a meat axe" and with this we had a similar task of coming up with an image that related to our metaphor in a way that depicted our specific type of inequality. Through this exercise I was able to come up with various abstract ideas of how to depict gender inequality that I wouldn't of thought of previously if I hadn't been forced to relate it to those words or phrase. It also help stir up some creativity for poster concepts and gave me a better understanding how how to relate image and text. This exercise will allow me to think more freely when considering a design for my poster project.

Project Research

I am looking at the inequality male chicks suffer do to the egg industry.

Male chicks are seen as useless to the egg and meat industry due to the fact that they don't reproduce. After a chick sexer (someone who's job is to determine the sex of a chick moments after birth which is incredibly difficult) decides weather it's a male or female, the sexes are separated. The males are then either tossed in trash bags to suffocate, gassed to death, or put on a conveyer belt where they will be grounded alive. These are all common practices by the egg industry.

https://www.peta.org/features/egg-industry-cruelty/

http://freefromharm.org/eggfacts/

https://www.vegansociety.com/go-vegan/egg-industry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-gSoXwFlIE

www.separated.org/us/facts/

http://freefromharm.org/separated/chicken-facts-industry-doesnt-want-know/

Due to genetic manipulation, 90% of broiler chickens (chicken bred specifically for meat production) have trouble walking.
51.4 billion chickens are artificially hatched, fattened up and slaughtered as 42-day-old babies every year globally. A chicken’s normal lifespan is 10–15 years.
Chickens bred for meat are arguably the most genetically manipulated of all animals, forced to grow 65 times faster than their bodies normally would, and the industry continually seeks to increase their growth rate. 
Chickens are housed in giant, overcrowded sheds, where they are packed in by the thousands and forced to stand and sit on filthy, manure-laden flooring, which is typically cleaned out only every 2 to 4 years. “Free range” is a meaningless term in this sense, since almost all chickens raised for meat are uncaged.
At the slaughterhouse, chickens are not stunned, but shackled and dragged upside down, fully conscious, through electrified water that paralyzes their muscles so that their feathers will come off more easily after they are dead.

Key Words

• Grounded Alive
• Gassed to Death
• Suffocated
• Death
• Egg
• Cruel
• New Born
• Male
• Baby

Phrases

• How would you like your eggs?
• Breakfast is served.
• Good morning sunshine!
• I got laid last night!
• You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.
• Green eggs and Ham.

July 20: Week 1, session 2

Today we broke off into groups in order to create mindmaps of various areas of inequality in New Zealand. By doing this we were able to take these broad topics such as race, stereotypes, and beauty and branch them of into multiple categories that were much more refined and specific. For example stereotypes to age to teenagers to untrustworthy. This exercise allowed us to really dig into the broad range of areas that each of these categories pertain to. Through this I now have a better understanding of how to create a poster design relating to such a broad area of inequality by using a more abstract, direct concept that we uncovered through mindmapping.

Later on we worked on another group exercise, playing Pictionary. In pairs of two, one member was given a word and an allotted time to depict the word through a drawing in order to have the other member guess the word. The trick was there was another pair with the same word and we were racing to see who could determine the word first. Through this exercise I was able to understand how simple images are able to quickly depict an idea. This concept getting a point across efficiently and effectively will be very important when thinking about my poster design later on.

July 17: Week 1, session 1

Today we looked at various poster designs in groups inorder to detrmine and discuss the Ihi and Wehi behind the design. By doing this I was able to get a better grasp of the meaning of Ihi and Wehi and relate these terms to bodies of work. Ihi and Wehi are complimentary terms associated with emotional and psychological behaviour. Ihi can be described as an individual’s essential force, charisma, power or charm, which emanates throughout the creative process. Where as Wehi, highlights the internalised feelings that occur in response to Ihi. Through doing this exercise I will now be able to bring these ideas in to my project.