Disney.

Friday's lecture was on the Disneyfication of our culture. We were warned that after the lecture we wouldn’t look at Disney in the same way. Maybe I’ve been brainwashed by Disney because I still love it.  I guess to me Disney is like an old friend, I know at times they do wrong but at the end of the day I forgive and forget. There were three points mentioned that I want to discuss; the quote from Umberto Eco, ‘Celebration’ and the Disney movies themselves.

A lot of people are appalled by Disney when they realise they are all about making millions I think many people feel cheated. But Disney is no Saint, at the end of the day they are a huge organisation like any other whose main aim is to keep shareholders happy and make a large profit. It would be foolish to think other wise.

"The Main Street facades are presented to us as toy houses and invite us to enter them, but their interior is always a disguised supermarket, where you buy obsessively, believing that you are still playing," Umberto Eco, Travels in Hyper-reality.

This quote makes it seem like Disney is being sneaky about what they’re doing, trying to get people to spend with out knowing. I’ve been to Disneyworld and walked up Main Street U.S.A and have been enticed into these shops. I spent money and it did feel like I was playing but not to the extent I thought I was using monopoly money. Also is that not the point of Disney’s design to make everything more fun than it would be in the real world.

Shop fronts.

Inside a candy store.

I just wanted to mention ‘Celebration’ the town created by Disney. We had a brief discussion about it in our seminar on Friday. Who would be happy to live there and who thought it was weird. I think the majority of the class said they wouldn’t live there as they didn’t like the restrictions it posed. People that stay there have to cut the grass to a certain length, keep the neighbourhood clean and tidy, they can’t put campaign posters at their windows or hang anything other than regulation blinds. I guess I wouldn’t mind living there as I think it would be nice to stay in a community where everyone takes pride in keeping the place clean and be part of a friendly environment. However the fact that it is compulsory to abide by the rules would be a little off putting. It would feel a little claustrophobic and odd to be living somewhere that’s taken away a part of you’re freedom.

'Celebration'

Disney gets a hard time from a lot of people about its movies not being ethical. A video clip we watched in class was about gender representation from a programme called ‘The Mickey Mouse Monopoly’. I will post a link below so you can watch it for yourself and make your own mind up about it.

The women speaking in this clip were basically saying that the Disney cartoons watched by little girls will encourage them to grow up using their body to get what they want, be weak and accept abuse from their husbands. I watched these films when I was younger and I certainly don’t do any of these things. I think when adults watch films made for children they can read too much into it as they’re not watching it with the innocence of a child’s eyes.

Disney can not be held fully responsible for the content of films such as ‘Beauty and the Beast’ as these films are adaptations of classic tales. When Walt Disney created his first film the world was viewed a lot differently than it is today, things that are totally unacceptable now were the norm back then. I do agree somewhat with what was said, Disney does need to change with the times and I think with films such as ‘The Princess and the Frog’ you can see it is doing so.

 If you really are worried about your child watching Disney movies change the channel to something else, but beware there’s a lot worse out there. 

'Redjotter' for Design Studies.

Last Friday’s lecture left me feeling positive, motivated and maybe a little scared for the future.

 We had a guest speaker, Lauren Currie, who was previously a product design student at the University of Dundee, she later went on to complete the Master of Design course and has now started her own business called ‘Snook’ which specialises in service design.

The lecture was entitled ‘Studio Unbound- Designing Your Network’. It was about how the internet and its tools can help you connect with people that seem out of reach and getting yourself known to potential employers or people who may be interested in your work. Lauren or ‘Redjotter’ as she is know online spoke from self experience. She believes that blogging, tweeting and skype-ing helped her, along with her determination and hard work, get where she is today.

I really liked some of her tips about how to get noticed online. She suggested signing up for twitter, so I did! I was a little against twitter before but thought I’d give it ago and now I actually think I like it. It’s still early days though and I’ve only tweeted twice so far but I’ll keep it up and see how it goes. I also liked the idea of creating a name and an avatar to use on all my sites which people would then recognise as my symbol. This worked well for ‘Redjotter’ the avatar she uses is a photograph of her writing with her nails painted red. She said that sometimes when she’s out people will recognise her as she is wearing her signature red nail polish. I think this links with what she was saying about turning yourself into a brand just like other brands they all have a symbol that helps them become recognised quickly.

 It was great to have someone speaking to us who has been in our position and has experienced the difficulties of looking for work experience or a job after graduating.  She was very encouraging; she seemed to have a “go get ‘em” approach to life telling us that if you work hard enough and do a little bit extra you will go a long way. I always feel I hold back instead of creating my own opportunities especially when asking for work or help. She made me think maybe next time I should just be bold, take her advice and ask that person I need to connect with out for a hot chocolate, it couldn’t hurt.

Thinking about the future I do want to get that job that makes me happy so I better start now and if there’s anything that can help my chances of that I am more than willing to do it. So I better start blogging more!! Lauren’s lecture was good as it felt like she cared and seemed like an approachable person. If she wasn’t doing service design she should move into motivational speaking! There was one thing I was left wondering though… did she get to speak to Ewan Mcgregor?

Selective Attention Test... Tested!

In Fridays lecture I found the selective attention test (that I blogged about on Saturday) very surprising, mainly due to the fact that I never saw the gorilla.

All weekend I kept quiet about it and tested a few of my friends and family. I was a little disappointed when they all spotted the gorilla. Why did I miss it and they didn't? I began to think that maybe the context it is shown in changes what you see.

I watched the video on a big screen in a lecture hall trying to focus and not let those around distract me from counting the passes. When I showed the video to people I knew, it was played on a laptop with only the viewer and I in a quiet room. Maybe if the viewer is relaxed and feels comfortable it is easier to take everything in, enabling them to see the gorilla.

I think this theory makes sense as when you are relaxed it is easier to have an open mind but when you are stressed or on edge you shut things out. It won't really matter if you're a positive person who tries to keep an open mind, certain situations may cause you to change and become overly focused and miss the bigger picture.

I do still agree with the fact that you should try to keep an open mind and if you feel unlucky you will most likely be unlucky. However I think that sometimes even if you try your best to see everything other factors may get in your way.

Keeping an Open Mind

In yesterdays Design Studies lecture we were told women can’t count! Well, Jonathon Baldwin said they can’t count as well as men. As a woman I was appalled and thought, “what about Carol Vorderman?” I don’t think she would have been happy with that statement. So to put this to the test we were asked to watch a video and count how many times the team in the white t-shirts pass the ball to each other. I was determined to get this right and beat the boys, so I got into the counting zone! Below I’ve posted the link to this video so you can try it, see if you can count. Please don’t read on until you’ve watched the video.





I can count because the count taught me!


So did you get it right? Did you see the gorilla? When Jonathon asked us this I was so confused, what gorilla?! He then played it back to us and I couldn’t believe I had missed something so obvious. He told us women couldn’t count just to get us focused and it worked. I was so focused I missed a dancing gorilla in the middle of the screen. The gorilla was all black the same colour as the other team and as I was only interested in those wearing white I filtered it out.

This is an important lesson not to be too focused on one thing as you will close off other opportunities that may be important. I can relate to this. Sometimes when I am trying to come up with a design idea I find it difficult, I can only thing of a couple of things and can’t get passed them. It’s only when I relax and go back to doing more research that everything becomes clear and my design ideas improve. When you are too focused you don’t help yourself in work and in your everyday life, you need to take the time to lift your head up and look around. This is also why unlucky people are always unlucky. They are too closed off and pessimistic that they don’t recognise or see when a good opportunity comes along.



So the moral of the story is, be positive, be alert and keep an open mind. That way hopefully the amazing opportunities this world has to offer won’t pass you by.