Thursday, 15 December 2011
Week 12
After a mad overnight rush, I think my work is finally ready to be submitted. Just burnt the website to a cd-r, need to print the cover sheet, and then I have just under three hours to add any more key details to this blog. Phew.
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
Production Schedule
After quite a lot of tedious HTML coding, here is my production schedule for this term.
| Week | Plan |
|---|---|
| 1 | Finalise draft of proposal, start background research into data visualisation. |
| 2 | Figure out what questions need to be addressed during the planning stage of project, research review styles. |
| 3 | Decide which methodology to undertake. Focus on creative aspect of writing or more of a content analysis? Further research into style; which genres bear the most fruit creatively? |
| 4 | Decide on final layout structure for website, start designing and creating the basic template. Revise proposal. |
| 5 | Research further into music visualisation. Read more on Tufte's ideas on boundaries in data realisation. |
| 6 | Think about the significance of genre - compare drafts and see which types of reviews evoke the best imagery. Further develop web site for pilot. |
| 7 | Further research all fields - put ideas into theoretical context. How does the project sit within the subject? Continue with website development and experiment with images. |
| 8 | Revisit any further required Flash/Dreamweaver techniques. Start organising web site design for submission; make sure files are rooted correctly, folders sorted. |
| 9 | Continue working on images. Are recent reviews better, or is a certain genre worth visiting in depth for better results? |
| 10 | Clean up all images made to date, start implementing them into the web layout. |
| 11 | Clean up workbook/blog. Look in to how to submit the work, start preparing the website for the final piloted version. |
| 12 | Make sure everything works; double check blog images to make sure they display correctly, burn the pilot to disc for submission, add any more relevant theoretical work to the workbook. SUBMIT THE WORK! |
Proposal
My project is set out to explore and critique the relationship between text and image, focussed specifically on music reviews and the visual image they often try to create. Is text or image even relevant or helpful? To achieve this, I aim to take a mixture of existing music reviews and pieces I have written and had published myself in order to determine whether or not the medium of the music review in its current, arguably limited state really serves the purpose it's set out to do. If this is not the case, how image can possibly develop and improve the output?
I will predominantly collect and modify images from the internet in order to create an image in Photoshop that corresponds with a particular review, in a visual translation not too aesthetically dissimilar to Neurath's Isotype, providing a recognisable corresponding image to accompany key points made within the text. These points will be determined by identifying the most significant visual imagery used in each review.
Does the mental imagery within the text serve its purpose when trying to define music? The project will not rely on skilled artistry, but rather the actual issue of whether or not the images I produce gain the same reaction that the text version sets out to achieve. A key aim in my approach is to highlight the difficulty in visualising a format with no physical entity, and to highlight how the images created largely reflect the style of music they are based on, or even the particular writer's skill in their work itself. Drawing upon theoretical influence from Tufte's idea that data presentation should not be limited by its original format, I aim to focus on the possibilities that Web can provide to break down the barrier that the journalism industry currently adopts.
I will predominantly collect and modify images from the internet in order to create an image in Photoshop that corresponds with a particular review, in a visual translation not too aesthetically dissimilar to Neurath's Isotype, providing a recognisable corresponding image to accompany key points made within the text. These points will be determined by identifying the most significant visual imagery used in each review.
Does the mental imagery within the text serve its purpose when trying to define music? The project will not rely on skilled artistry, but rather the actual issue of whether or not the images I produce gain the same reaction that the text version sets out to achieve. A key aim in my approach is to highlight the difficulty in visualising a format with no physical entity, and to highlight how the images created largely reflect the style of music they are based on, or even the particular writer's skill in their work itself. Drawing upon theoretical influence from Tufte's idea that data presentation should not be limited by its original format, I aim to focus on the possibilities that Web can provide to break down the barrier that the journalism industry currently adopts.
Research Report: Bibliography
Books/analytical writing:
Chandler, D. (2002) Semiotics: The Basics. London: Routledge
Dürsteler, J. C. (2005) Visualising Music [Digital Version] (Retrieved from http://www.infovis.net/printMag.php?num=161&lang=2 23rd November 2011)
Hanna, S. (2008) 'Composers and animators - the creation of interpretative and collaborative vocabularies' - Taken from the Journal of Media Practice, Volume 9 Number 1 2008
Neurath, O. (2010) From hieroglyphics to Isotype: a visual autobiography. London: Hyphen Press.
Tufte, E. (1990) Envisioning Information Connecticut: Graphics Press
Websites:
Information Is Beautiful (http://www.informationisbeautiful.net) [Accessed throughout the duration of the course.]
Kill Pixie (http://www.killpixie.net) [Accessed in early November 2011]
Chandler, D. (2002) Semiotics: The Basics. London: Routledge
Dürsteler, J. C. (2005) Visualising Music [Digital Version] (Retrieved from http://www.infovis.net/printMag.php?num=161&lang=2 23rd November 2011)
Hanna, S. (2008) 'Composers and animators - the creation of interpretative and collaborative vocabularies' - Taken from the Journal of Media Practice, Volume 9 Number 1 2008
Neurath, O. (2010) From hieroglyphics to Isotype: a visual autobiography. London: Hyphen Press.
Tufte, E. (1990) Envisioning Information Connecticut: Graphics Press
Websites:
Information Is Beautiful (http://www.informationisbeautiful.net) [Accessed throughout the duration of the course.]
Kill Pixie (http://www.killpixie.net) [Accessed in early November 2011]
Research Report: Production Planning
Thus far, my project has consisted of making collages sourced from images found on the web, specifically from Google Images searches. Almost everything I have used has required cleaning up, cropping, resizing or cutting in Adobe Photoshop. Obviously with the fact I am dealing with collage, I have arranged each image myself in order to correspond with the texts I have used, again in Photoshop. Throughout the term, I have been brushing up on my Adobe Flash skills, and have revisited motion paths, cursor behaviours and other basic skills learned over the duration of the course in order to perhaps implement them in future approaches to my project.
For the planning stages, I was beginning by sketching out images of how I wanted my website to look, and made data based accounts of my thought processes also. I have sourced the majority of my reviews which have been used for conversion from http://www.nme.com, but I am keen to use reviews I have written myself in the next stage of planning.
When creating the website, I have been using Adobe Dreamweaver, and made use of my competent HTML coding skills, as well as seeking out tutorials from websites such as W3Schools.org. The majority of the web layout was created as image files in Photoshop, and then image mapped in Dreamweaver. Currently, the website is very basic visually, but I thought it was important to get the coding done as a placeholder if I decide to make the layout more interesting.
(249 words)
For the planning stages, I was beginning by sketching out images of how I wanted my website to look, and made data based accounts of my thought processes also. I have sourced the majority of my reviews which have been used for conversion from http://www.nme.com, but I am keen to use reviews I have written myself in the next stage of planning.
When creating the website, I have been using Adobe Dreamweaver, and made use of my competent HTML coding skills, as well as seeking out tutorials from websites such as W3Schools.org. The majority of the web layout was created as image files in Photoshop, and then image mapped in Dreamweaver. Currently, the website is very basic visually, but I thought it was important to get the coding done as a placeholder if I decide to make the layout more interesting.
(249 words)
Research Report: The Pilot
In my attempts to realise my idea for the pilot, I found that the images I have produced really echo the scale of creativity displayed in the original text. When converting M83's 'Hurry Up, We're Dreaming,' I found that just by genre and artistic definition alone, there was a lot more of a visual palette to use. A lot more imagery in the text to work with than there was when I tried experimenting with a Black Keys review. This has made me wonder about the approach in data visualisation. There must be a correlation between stronger data and better imagery in Tufte's work, for example, as there seems to be in my own.
I feel that my pilot deals with my core ideas and theories well, but I think to progress, I need to explore different types of information to display. Now that I have tried to visualise creativity, I think it would be interesting to progress by seeing what happens if I create a wordcloud or something similar, based off a review, and try to visually re-imagine that.
In the process of designing and creating the website and my images, I have learnt that there are so many approaches and processes I can take. The possibilities are near-on endless, which I think serves as evidence in my question of why music reviews seem so limited by the text format. For example, I haven't even considered the possibility of adding motion to my images, I have yet to create any form of data based research stemming from content in the reviews, and there are so many specific little details I could include even from these much broader topics. At the moment, I feel the website could vastly expand in regards to the approaches I take.
(296 words)
I feel that my pilot deals with my core ideas and theories well, but I think to progress, I need to explore different types of information to display. Now that I have tried to visualise creativity, I think it would be interesting to progress by seeing what happens if I create a wordcloud or something similar, based off a review, and try to visually re-imagine that.
In the process of designing and creating the website and my images, I have learnt that there are so many approaches and processes I can take. The possibilities are near-on endless, which I think serves as evidence in my question of why music reviews seem so limited by the text format. For example, I haven't even considered the possibility of adding motion to my images, I have yet to create any form of data based research stemming from content in the reviews, and there are so many specific little details I could include even from these much broader topics. At the moment, I feel the website could vastly expand in regards to the approaches I take.
(296 words)
Research Report: Research
As a base for my project, I thought it was important to revisit my initial understanding of semiotics and intertextualisation. Initially I researched Daniel Chandler's thoughts on the boundaries imposed by audience understanding.
My main source of theoretical inspiration and research, in practice itself in regards to realising my project, was based around Edward Tufte's ideas of data visualisation. I am aware that Tufte is a renown practitioner of 'cognitive art' himself, but it is his reasoning and his theories that stand out to me. Tufte (1990: 9) believed that "To envision information (...) is to work at the intersection of image, word, number, art." Tufte's challenges of the boundaries and disregard for the limits are exactly what my research and the project itself is trying to highlight.
From this, I have tried looking into more music-based approaches and theories, and came across Juan C. Dürsteler's (2005) thoughts on music visualisation, which is a lot more based around literal visualisations of frequency spectrums and so forth. This was an interesting take on how to visualise music, as it takes away the sense of creativity in writing that I would be focussed on, and masks literal, matter of fact data in a visually pleasing way. Aside from this, there really does not seem to be much in the way of relating music and imagery. Hanna (2008) gives a brief insight into animated accompaniments to music over history, but aside from this there is a lot left to be desired.
In my design research, I looked into Otto Neurath's Isotype. I am yet to really develop the idea in the context of my own work, but the way Neurath tried reformatting written language into visuals using a "language-like technique" (2010) is something worth exploring, especially in a web based context. My current obstacle is how to go about illustrating each aspect of the data I retrieve, but I will look to further develop these ideas in the future.
To progress, I need to look more into music visualisation itself, and determine what the closest attempt to echo my idea has been so far, and from that, find out why. Tufte and websites like Information is Beautiful have brought up a lot of key points in my methodology, but relating it to music and researching the discourse around the link between music reviews as a text based format and music as audio is the next key area I need to research.
(408 words)
My main source of theoretical inspiration and research, in practice itself in regards to realising my project, was based around Edward Tufte's ideas of data visualisation. I am aware that Tufte is a renown practitioner of 'cognitive art' himself, but it is his reasoning and his theories that stand out to me. Tufte (1990: 9) believed that "To envision information (...) is to work at the intersection of image, word, number, art." Tufte's challenges of the boundaries and disregard for the limits are exactly what my research and the project itself is trying to highlight.
From this, I have tried looking into more music-based approaches and theories, and came across Juan C. Dürsteler's (2005) thoughts on music visualisation, which is a lot more based around literal visualisations of frequency spectrums and so forth. This was an interesting take on how to visualise music, as it takes away the sense of creativity in writing that I would be focussed on, and masks literal, matter of fact data in a visually pleasing way. Aside from this, there really does not seem to be much in the way of relating music and imagery. Hanna (2008) gives a brief insight into animated accompaniments to music over history, but aside from this there is a lot left to be desired.
In my design research, I looked into Otto Neurath's Isotype. I am yet to really develop the idea in the context of my own work, but the way Neurath tried reformatting written language into visuals using a "language-like technique" (2010) is something worth exploring, especially in a web based context. My current obstacle is how to go about illustrating each aspect of the data I retrieve, but I will look to further develop these ideas in the future.
To progress, I need to look more into music visualisation itself, and determine what the closest attempt to echo my idea has been so far, and from that, find out why. Tufte and websites like Information is Beautiful have brought up a lot of key points in my methodology, but relating it to music and researching the discourse around the link between music reviews as a text based format and music as audio is the next key area I need to research.
(408 words)
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