PDF CCDN 231

Doing Dashers auto-­‐ethnography

my last auto-­ethnography I looked at was doing breakfast dishes 


 Touch/temperature: when doing the dishes I feel that temperature and  touch interrelate as changing from hot water to the cold air, and when the utensils change temperature before and after entering the warm water. I can feel the hard bowl and spoon in one had while I hold the scrubbing brush in the other and occasionally brush my hand with the brussels. I can feel the bubbles up my arms and the water on my hands when they are emerged in the water. I can also feel the bench pressed up against my hips when I lean in to scrub.

Smell: I can smell the sweet soapy smell of the lemon dishwashing liquid and a slight smell of my porridge when scrubbing it off the bowl.

taste: I can still taste the remains of my breakfast, the taste of brown sugar, cinnamon, peaches and porridge  and hoping that I wont get a splash of soapy water as I don't want the taste of soap

Sight: as most of this activity is done under the bubbles it is hard to see what is going on, so most of the cleaning is done by touch. occasionally I lift the bowl or spoon up to check if it is clean if I can see food remains still on the bowl or spoon the I dunk it back into the water for another scrub. I find that when I am cleaning I manage to get water every where on the bench so I can normally see bubbles and water up the side of the tap or along the bench and not all just in the sink. depending on how much dishwashing liquid I use results in the number of bubbles accrue so the more liquid the more bubble and if I have more bubbles the harder it is to see the dishes under the water. Before I start washing my skin on my hands are normal colour but after I put them into the warm water the start changing to pink.  

sound: I can hear a slight splashing sound when I push the bow into the water and when it hid the bottom of the sink it makes a tingeing sound against the metal sink. then scrubbing the dishes i can hear a rattling sound as the brush courses the bowl to rattle sightly from side to side this also results in the water to move making a sloshing sound as the water makes waves as it hits the sides of the sink. 

these are my two photos I picked to show my ethnography the top on shows how the colour of my hands turn pink and how the temperature of my hands changes due to the warm water and shows how the bubbles and show the force on gripping on to the glass as when my hand is pressing against it, it goes white. the second one shows the movement I insert to clean the spoons and how i have to hold tightly onto the spoons as I scrub them clean.

putting on shoes, auto-­‐ethnography

The second auto-­‐ethnography I looked as was putting on my shoes

Touch: when putting on my shoes I can feel the lasses rap around my fingers as I loosen up my shoes, when I am putting up my foot into the shoe it if normally a tight squeeze to get it to fit with out loosening to much of the laces. when tying up the laces I put tight and can feel the whole shoe push against my foot.

smell: The smell of my shoes is not a pleasant smell as it smells of old damp feet from past event when I have walked in the rain and through muddy terrane, the smell is quite strong when tying up the laces but when i move my nose away from it I luckily can't smell it again.

sight: My shoes are old and wearing out, I feel they tell a story with mud on the sides, scuffs on the toes, the laces are no longer white from were the metal has rubbed on them and the inside backs are wearing down. I can also see the normal things like the red shoes with white laces and also can see my feet go into the shoes and tying them up. them I tie up my shoes I can't see parts of the laces as my hands get in the way but I use my tough to navigate my way. 

taste: when I am normally putting on my shoes it is the beginning of the day and is the last thing I do when getting ready for the day so I can still taste my breakfast in my mouth, porridge with brown sugar and cinnamon with peaches.

Sound: when I am loosening and tying up the laces I can hear a slight sound of the laces and also the sound of the rubber as I bend the shoe a kind of squeak when it moves and adjust.

these are the two photo I picked to show my ethnography, the first shows sight with the dirt on the shoes and mud on the fabric, it also shows the tension of pushing my foot into the shoe, the second shows the touch as i pull the tough of the shoe up to loosen the shoe. 

Drinking Ice cold water, Auto-­‐Ethnography.

One of the three ethnography's I chose to look at was drinking cold water.  

Temperature/touch: I feel the that temperature of water plays a big part when drinking it, I feel different when drinking warm, cold and room temperature water. I felt that in this ethnography temperature and touch interrelate as when I drink the water I can feel a cold sensation go down my throat and into my stomach. I can also feel the water move from the glass into my mouth feeling the weight of the glass change. The glass is cold and is wet from condensation and can feel the groves on the glass press against my fingers.

Taste: When I think of the taste of cold water I think of the taste from a jug I have at home, It is a big metal jug that when drinking water from it has a metal taste to it, and now I feel is what proper cold water should taste like and always hope that water not from that jug will taste like that.

Sound: I am unfortunately a loud drinker so when consuming water I hear the sound of myself swallowing, it is a loud sound that I normally get in trouble from my family from when drinking at the dinner table. 

Smell: when drink water I can smell a faint smell of the dishwashing liquid from the last time it was cleaned and the smell of the plastic from the cup containing the water, soapy musty smell. 

Sight: I always like the look of condensation forming on the glass after pouring the water in, I like the indication it gives to show that the water inside is cold. I sometimes find that then I am drinking and I look down at my glass in my hand I go cross eyed and my vision blurs up 

These are the two images I picked to show my ethnography, the top one i feels shows the touch of the water as I drink it as you see the water on my lips and I feel the second one focuses more on my sight as when I look down at my glass when I am drinking my vision is limited so I think represses but from someone else's view. 

kaleidoscope

Another idea I had to show light differently was the idea of a kaleidoscope, a  kaleidoscope is a cylinder with mirrors containing loose, colored objects such as beads or pebbles and bits of glass. As the viewer looks into one end, light entering the other creates a colorful pattern, due to the reflection off of the mirrors. I don't want to make a kaleidoscope as my light but I like the that it is random and for ever changing it pattern, by moving the objects the coloured beads and glass then move creating a different pattern never to be repeated again. 

I came up with two ideas to portray the technique of the kaleidoscope, one was similar to the water lights with in balancing on a rounded bottom and when rocking it the beads/glass move and then would change the lights colour being emitted though. The other is the light on a stand (reusing the bendy one from the lamp I dissembled), in order to make the beads/glass move from inside the lamp is to bend the head of the lamp around, when moving the lamp the bead will change places resulting in the colour of the light changing and changing the pattern.I felt that this one one would resemble the 'redesign' part of the project more as it will be using the stand from the lamp.

Light and water

An Idea that i thought could be affective was the idea of getting light to reflect off water I felt that it give off a simple and organic feel. I like that the way light reflects off water is uncontrollable as light is reelecting off the moving waves, it is soft and fluid it gives a soothing relaxing feel. I think if i made a light that embraces these aspects it could be used as a feature light in someones living room or bed room, a light that gives life to a room in a very simplistic way.

I looked online to see what other people had done with the use of light and water and I stumbled upon this product designed by  Yuki Yamamoto. It a speaker that turns music into sound an light, when music is played thought the speaker it creates movement that results in the water producing waves across the surface  and when light is reflected off the water it creates the detailing shown on the wall. I like this concept in the way that a different source is crating the motion of the water which results in the light being refracted by the moving water. for the light to move it is dependent on the speakers to vibrate the water.

I thought of ways I could manipulate the idea of water and light to make it move so the light could refract off it. I was thinking of different ways to make the water move. I don't want the water to move though the use of a motor I feel that it loses the organic feel that the water refections will produce.
One design I though of was having the water in a bowl shaped object in which you tap the edge of the bowl and it rocks back and forth resulting in the water to move and have the light from above shining down on the moving water.
Another way of portraying it is making the rocking bowl double layered with the light coming from beneath the water and having the top layer transparent to the light can emit though. there is two ways I though to make the water move in this design, either rock it like the first idea or have the top layer detached from the bottom and spin it. The problem I had with the second movement is the fear that water could then get into the lighting circuit and effect the wiring.

First light ideas

I wanted to look at different ways to design my light, I wanted to focus on ways to stop/control light; 

One idea I had was to cut shapes into materials to create a pattern with light, I want to do a pattern that is simple as I feel that if i made the pattern to complex it will take the focus away from the light its self and focus on the pattern the light is making, It will become more of an art feature rather then an interesting light feature. 

Another Idea I had was to to focus the light so it only went on one point or area of a room, as sometimes when light a space you don't want light to be fulling up the whole room but only the part you are using fro example you only want it on you desk or on you bed. An idea I had for designing this was to create away to angle light in to a point by stopping light traveling away from the directed position by having angled groves or walls pointing in the way of the wanted potion. 

The last idea I had was to create moving light/shadows, I felt that this would give a different approach to stop and controlling light. A way I was planing to do this was to have a stationary light fixture and then have the cut out lamp shade spin around it resulting in moving shadows from where the light docent escape, I don't feel that the moving component should move very fast as if it moves to fast it draw away form the focus on the moving shadows and focus more on fast flickering light which I feel will give a cheep and tacky feel to the model.

Disassembled Lamp,

I disassembled a desk lamp to look at all the component that was designed to make it function;

• Base- used to hold up the lamp and also hide all of the wiring, concrete and screws.
• concrete base- used to help the light stand up and stay balanced if there wasn't concrete in the base then the lamp would fall over as it would be top heavy.
• Bendable neck- Is used to have the light stand up higher, carry the cord/electricity to the light bulb and it is also bendable so you can adjust the angle the light shines at.   
• Plug- like any other plug; gets plugged it the wall the the source of were the power comes from.
• switch- stops or completes the electrical circuit that results in tuning the light on and off.
• socket- where the bulb it inserted and hold the bulb in place. it also transfers the current into the light bulb.
• bulb- it where the light comes out of. 
• lamp shade- is used to stop light shining off into unwanted parts of the surrounding, narrows and selects where light is directed. 
• screws- holds everything together. used on the base and on the lamp shade. 

Desk lamp.

The lamp I decided to look at is a regular desk lamp, I felt that this lamp has bigger and more manageable components then some of the smaller lamps out there.

Who designed it for which company? When was it manufactured?   
- As I am using an old lamp I no longer have a packaging so can not find out what the company made this lamp or where/when it was manufactured.

What is the specific purpose of the product? Was it designed accordingly and properly? 
- I feel that the main propose of this lamp is to be used as a desk lamp or bedside table lamp, used to only light up a selected part of a room not the whole room. It wasn't designed to stand out or have any special features  all it has is an on/off switch and takes standard bulbs. it does have a bendable neck so you can adjust the angle that the light hit at so docent have a fixed angle. 

Did you find any unique elements compared to other similar products?
- I feel that there is not much unique to this lamp, I feel that this lamp was design purely for function not to be unique and to stand out from others. If there was one component that could be different i would say the bendable neck could make it different to other desk lamps as some don't have that component.

Does it look good? Does it work well? How do you feel when you use it?
-I dont feel it look that good but at the same time not bad, its an object that if you see it in the iconic setting such as a bedside table you wouldn't take any notice of it and it would blend into the surrounding as it is a known object to have on a bedside table. 
-As it is a know/iconic lamp I feel it works well, it is simple and dose what is needed the propose of this lamp is to light a set area of a room and it dose do that therefore it dose work well.
-  I dont feel special or feel like a am using an amazing lighting device when using it. I don't think I take much notice of the lamp its self when using it but more the light coming out of it. I feel that is because it isn't anything unique so you take the design for grated and don't appreciate it for what it is.

Have you found anything to be improved?
-If i look at the lamp its self I don't think anything needs to be improved as it dose what it is asked. but If i was to improve it I would make it something unique and special, make the use want to use it not just for the light coming out from it but also the joy of tuning it on and using it. make it a lamp to stand out in its surroundings and want to be noticed. Not a lamp to blend it and used for function rather then design. 

Where do you put it while not in use? Why?
-As it is a plug in lamp it docent move from its position. when it is not in use it is only switched off on the switch. It doesn't get moved or change form, only at the press of a switch the light stops.

How would you design it if you were the designer?
- I would wont it to be noticed, design it in such a way that it stands out and is used for not only function.

INDN 212 Redesign research

Redesigning Lighting:

For this task we are required to look in to different different types of lighting and see how they are designed, the environment they are used in and what the the parts that are unique or make them stand out from on another. with this we then have to redesign a type of lighting product. 

There are many different types of lighting products out there and these are a few that I have found: 

Laser light:

It emit light coherently, unlike most lights that are used to fill up a space a laser only moves in a strait line. Used to direct light onto a specific point and to create focus on the point that the user is pointing it at.

Torch:

Is are portable way of creating light in a space with most being battery powered 

Bulb: 

is the main use of lighting, is used in most lighting devices and come it a wide variety of watts and sizes, used to fill up are space most commonly an closed environment. 

Fairy lights/ christmas lights:

is a line of small lights connected with a parallel circuit used primarily for decretive prepossess and uses the concept of repetition.

  

when looking into lights, I looked into how people tried to make them unique or stand out from the other surroundings. some people looked into the use of repetition:

   these three different types of lighting all use repetition to produce its lights, they all have simple ways that light is produced and portrayed but with the use of repetition it makes them stand out and contrast to its surroundings and environments.

I also looked at how shadow and selected ways that light could be released from the source;

All of these lighting products use light to create unique lighting pattens, it used light to contrast with where light isn't being distributed to make a unique environment.

Another concept I looked at was lights that were different within themselves and how they captured a standpoint on how it looks its self;

  They used the concepts of shape and colour to make them stand out and make a difference. The first one plays on the idea on the science of different coloured lights and when you mix red blue and green light together you get while light. the second one looks at different colours pallets, patterns and shapes so that hat light is a statement on its own. the last looks at the icon bulb shape and plays with it making it look soft and melting, I feel it resembles salvador dali's melting clocks

The last idea looked at with unique lighting was different ways that other people had redesigned lighting with reused objects;

I really like this concept of reusing old objects to redesigning an object to make it new and unique, it gives it a scene of personality,  enjoyment and tells a story within its self. the first one is made out of old speakers from old record players, second is a colonder, three is tea cups and saucers and the last one its old light fittings and copper wire.