Rubik's Cube Meets the Pixel

Today I am going to being going on about an upcoming art that caught my eye just a few hours ago, the art I am on about is the art of the Rubik's Cube. This new form of art, is sweeping across the world and is encouraging more and more artists to take time and think about what it is they are doing.

This is a very complex and frustrating and very time consuming process, which I have no idea how long it would take to even think about how someone is even going to be able to manage creating an image with these things, I for one think it is very impressive, and what I like about it is that well it is different and very strange to actually look at. The artist who decides to create a masterpiece in this form is going to have to have a lot of patience as it must take a lot of time trying to all the squares in the right position to from the shape of the art the are making. I take my hat off the whoever does anything like this, well if I were wearing a hat just now.

This art reminds me of Andy Warhol's pop art that became such a big craze in the sixty's, and has a very retro look and feel about it, the exception is that it is more 3d looking because of the cube's and looks a lot like it has been done on the computer because of all the little squares that are being used to form the structure of the design. This is another reason i think this works really well, the fact that it can look computer generated but has been hand made, it is more the way artists used to think and create their art, instead of doing it on a flat screen that can at times look dull and boring, people are again thinking outside the box and having a more hands-on-approach to make the art a little bit more special and more appreciated to those in the world of art and those who do not normally have an interest in this sort of things can now look at these piece's of art and take time to reflect on it.

The art itself does not look at all impressive when you are standing right up close to it, it admittedly does look very block like and a mess, and does look like a child did it, and this is where the appeal of the image comes to take place when you begin to walk away from the piece and slowly it starts to take the form the artist had designed, it is sort of like an illusion of the work, and again also reminds me of the pixels from a computer and how it is all squares and you cannot identify what the image is supposed to be all about until you zoom away from it and it soon becomes clear what you are meant to be looking at.

There are a few images I am using to show you what I am on about, but remember that to see the true form of the image take a few steps back from the screen please.

Jaws: The Return

After reading on the sky news website I read an article about how a great white shark, that itself was a danger to tourists and surfers around the coast of Australia after it was almost bitten in half by a much bigger, more dangerous predator, which is also believed to be a shark but the difference is that it is said to be around 20ft long (roughly about 6 meters), this is scary stuff.

The image of the deformed shark is actually quite shocking to see, and most of been an eye opening scene for the people who lifted it onto the boat to see the amount of damage that had been sustained to the animal. It is not everyday that an attack like this is reported let alone actually seen, it actually shows you the surprises that nature isn't telling us. This must be scary stuff for those living local to the coast, and must be a nightmare to think about for the life and coast guards but to researchers who study these animals it must be a dream come true, as it is also not everyday you hear of a 20ft shark.

It is like the film Jaws, lets just hope that this one doesn't go on a killing spree and eat any young pretty women. Now that would be scary if the film did actually come to life.

As for the shark which after it was hauled on board the boat was surprisingly still alive, and was left with two, very massive chunks ripped from its body. The animal is said to have died not long after, which would have been a miracle if it had actually survived for any longer.

The only thing to say to this is, do not go into the water for at least half an hour after eating and Que the Jaws theme music, da da, da da, da da, da, da da, dadadadada............ or however it is done.

Enigma Graphics

This blog will be about the name I have changed my blog to and what it means and how I came up with it.

I am going back to last year when I studied graphic design at HND level and during our second block for that year did a project on the Creative Industries. For this we looked at business and freelance that goes on, and what sectors were involved in the Industry, there being 13 in total, then from this as part of the project and a requirement to pass I had to Design and create an identity for myself and produce business cards and a brochure of the best of my work from college.

To create my logo I had to think of something that expressed who i was and what my work was about. So Started think of what I wanted to include in it, to start off with I thought of a single image I could use but this I thought was quite difficult as I wanted to keep it mostly typography as this is an area in design that I use a lot and have quite a bit of interest in.

So the name of my identity, Enigma, came from what I thought of as a designer what it was I was doing, and after having been told that we as designers had to come up with a solution to solve a brief, the brief being a problem to solve, came up with the name enigma, meaning a code, to solve the solution.

The next thing I had to do was use a font that went with my style of work, which is more of a grunge and at times a graffiti style that I use. This was also difficult as it was coming so close to the deadline and was in a rush to complete everything. Even though I had completed the layout of my brochure I still needed a logo for my cover, so in the end I came up with a very dull and boring. It was black text in front of a bright yellow background which just did not work at all, but I had no choice but to hand it in, and surprisingly was told it was pretty good. The problem was I was very unhappy about it, but had to send it away for final print to an actual company.

So now I am at university and for one class am designing a website which it to define me, so I took this as a perfect opportunity to re brand myself, so I spent a little bit more time into thinking what best suits me, and now have a font that I think is well suited to me and have an identity I am very happy with, (for the moment). I even used material for a background that makes it look like it has been done on a wall just to give it that little extra feel.

the image I have used is a photo from the table of my end of year exhibition, where you can see the identity on the brochure and cards, but not everything on the table is mine, the tea and jam packaging is from another student but the rest is mine, and at the top of this page is the latest version.

Question Time

Last night I watched as I said, Question Time which had Nick Griffin appearing on it. Well as I said would happen did happen, Nick Griffin was lost for words at a few of the questions given to him and answered in what I would say were verging on riddles, which did not do him any justice. The main problem he had last night was him trying to justify his beliefs and policies but all of these were meet with boos and cheers of hatred and anger by the audience.

What really had me gob smacked was when asked about the Ku Klux Klan and referred to a video of him which included him and one of their leaders basically agreeing with the beliefs of the KKK, which is a disgrace to to Britain and to every other culture that exists on this planet, showing me as well as the rest of the population just how narrow minded and pathetic the BNP are.

What I thought was very funny last night was when he spoke about the KKK he said that the people he spoke with were non violent, that MR GRIFFIN makes no difference what so ever, it is who the are and what they stand for that is the problem. Another problem I had with him was whenever a member of the audience had insulted him he laughed and clapped his hands, this was most likely to say that he wasn't bothered about what was said but really think it was just by the way he did this, you could just tell by the look of his eyes that he was angry someone that was not white was speaking to him like this. I was at this point applauding the audience for their comments and questions, who all seemed to be more intelligent than half the panel that was on the show last night.

A point that I agreed with last night was the statements made by the American journalist (if I remember correctly) especially when she said that we ourselves are immigrants from Europe and that through the ages we have mixed blood and expressed how in some cultures older than ours such as the Romans classified anyone into their empire, anyone could be roman and it wouldn't matter what race or sex they were, to them we were all basically the same.

Next is on Jack Straw who yes I think is a good politician but sadly he was not convincing me of anything last night, all I thought he was doing was answering questions with another question and bringing up old stories of what labour had done decades ago, all I thought about that was, we are living in the now, not the then and this is something that the leaders of our country and everyone in a political party need to understand, we cannot move forward until they realise this and live for the present and future and not dwindle of the past.

More Brainstorming

These are more images from our brainstorming session.

A Hero of Mine

It was ever since I saw the film Valkyrie that I looked at Colonel Claus Von Stauffenberg as a hero and a person who I greatly admire for what he did in the year before the end of World War II. For those who do not know who he was, he was a colonel in the German army during the last great war and what he did took a lot of bravery and courage that it cost him his life. What I am speaking of is a plot to assassinate Hitler.

Stauffenberg was one of many conspirators involved in operation Valkyrie but i was his plan to take it into affect.

He was born of a wealthy German family, one of the oldest and most aristocratic Catholic families of southern Germany, and lived in the family castle of Jittengen between Ulm and Augsburg on the 15th November 1907. He was the third of four sons, two being older and his own twin who died a day after birth due to complications.

This was a very well educated man and inclined to take a career up in literature but instead took up a military career instead and joined the family's traditional regiment and later would become the man Germany knows today. He had many successful military campaigns at the beginning of the war before being sent to Tunisia.

Stauffenberg was a man who had one eye and one hand with three fingers, having lost them when a British bomber had hit his vehicle during an ambush leaving him fatally wounded and left to heal in a hospital in Munich, then being awarded the Wound Badge in Gold in 1943. It was during this period of recovery that Stauffenberg would often feel frustrated that he himself was not in a state to stage a coup and end the war and influence others to his new cause. After meeting with fellow conspirators it was decided that the only way to save not only German Lives but end the war and save so many more lives was to kill and replace Hitler by using operation Valkyrie. Even though there had been many assassination attempts on Hitler this still didn't stop the German people from trying with every means they could, showing that Germany was not a Nazi country that they realized how dangerous and mad this man was who was leading them.

The plan for Valkyrie was to ensure combat readiness of units of scattered elements of the reserve army and use them to stage the coup, meaning that instead of in the case o Hitlers death that the SS would initially take control of the entire Nazi regime that it would instead fall to the conspirators to take charge and hold the SS officers under arrest for trying to take control of the government.

On the day of the assassination, well who knows what must of been going through this mans mind when he was delivering the explosives to the meeting Hitler was holding. He knew that if he did not succeed then he would die and risk the very lives of his wife and children but still he took that one chance that he saw, but sadly nothing went according to plan. The plan was to have two explosives in the bag he was carrying, but due to him being rushed and only with one hand struggled to set up the second charge, leaving only one, but this was not the worst of it, it was when he had placed the bomb close enough for it to do any damage to the hut that it went wrong. Obviously Stauffenberg had to have left pretending there was an important phone call for him, that someone had slightly moved the bag against on of the tables legs, which prevented the blast which was not strong enough but would of at least killed Hitler if close enough did not succeed.

Once back in Berlin the resistance began to take control of the country but when their goal was in sight it was taken away when Hitler had gotten through to the commander of the reserve army and told him that the colonel and his team were to be arrested and taken for questioning. What I admire about all those involved is that they fought to the very end, they all kept their dignity and did their country proud. Once captured the conspirators were to be sentenced to death immediately at the command of a General who wanted to hide any involvement he had in the plot, which later would not of mattered as he was executed. It was here that General Ludwig Beck requested a pistol to commit suicide as he was to be kept alive but could not bare to live in shame that his life was spared when his friends were not, which I believe was a very honourable and brave thing to do.

It was on the 21st July 1944 that Claus Von Staffenberg and his fellow conspirators were executed by firing squad, and with his last breath Stauffenberg shouted the greatest words of his life "Long live our sacred Germany". Not only the colonel but everyone else who was executed that day that they must of all been so scared and what must of been going through their heads just before it is mind boggling. But they did not die in vain, today they are in Germany but should also be considered all around the world, hero's and great men who believed in their country and made their people proud to be Germans.

I admire him a lot as he gave up everything for a cause that he considered greater than his own very existence.

Above is a picture of Stauffenberg and Tom Cruise who you can see just by looking at him as part of why he was cast in this role.

BBC on BNP

I have just been looking on the BBC website and Yahoo news to see what the latest headlines are tonight and am quite frankly shocked at the fact that the BBC have given the go ahead to let the British National Party (BNP) leader Nick Griffin to appear on Question Time tomorrow night. This is an absolute joke that this should happen. The only reason the BBC are allowing this is because of ratings, that is all they care about, the amount of anger and hatred this is going to create will be staggering as this is the most hated party in the country, even more than Labour which is saying a lot at the moment.

The BNP, who they were even allowed to be a political party in the first place, are the biggest disgrace in British history. Even though I am Scottish and love my country we are as a whole still the United Kingdom and to let people like these to have a say in how the country is run is a disgrace to Britain as a whole. These people who say the are patriots to our country are so narrow minded they are to most of the public a sham on every single person who lives in the UK, they are what is giving us all a bad name, making us seem like cold hearted, racist, ignorant people in the world, it also makes us look like snobs.

Deep down I do believe that there are those in the BNP party who have good reasons for the policies the party stands for but have gone about it the wrong way but most of them are just what some people would just call scum. I was very glad to hear the other week that the BNP have been forced to rethink their policies into allowing non whites into their circle but to be honest who would want to, just to be in the company of such people makes me feel sick, as well as anyone who is not white would be out casted by the party.

I will say that I will be watching Nick Griffin on BBC Question Time but only to see how the presenters talk to him and what they will be asking and arguing about. I really do hope that they run that man and his policies to the ground. I think this will be the reason most people will be watching it for. It will be interesting to see if he will be cornered on any questions and if he will be lost for words, but knowing the BBC this will most likely be in favour of him as they are a broadcast channel that are very good to sucking up and being in favour in anyone the are interviewing at the time.

Another thing that will be interesting to see will be the amount of demonstrators that will appear outside the BBC building against him being there and doing what they can to not let him through. I am with these people but do hope they demonstrate with respect, even though I do believe they were right to egg him outside Parliament a few months back.

Another reason I think the BBC are doing this only for the ratings is because of the amount of complaints that have been sent to the BBC to cancel his appearance on the show, as he will be doing all in his power to sway as many people as they can to their vote.

I think that this party is trying to brainwash our country into believing their policies, and they themselves are like terrorists, and how they would sway others for something that they believe is right but is in so many more ways very wrong.

When I read more into Thursday nights show I saw that there will be an increase of security to prevent any harm to the leader, (what for I will never know) which will also cost more time and money, (which will be a lot) for the safety of one of the most hated men in Britain.

This is my personal opinion of what I think of the BNP which I think I have expressed quiet clearly, I will be keeping up to date with any further news in the next few weeks about the situation and how they are to improve the policies. The have compared Generals of Britain to Nazi officers, but I would say is that it is them who are more like the Nazi's above anyone else, as their policies are more like the policies Hitler had back when he was in power and we all know how that ended up. Do we really want anything like that to happen again? I think not.

Politician, Angry, House

During our last lecture just before reading week, we were given a little bit of homework. We were given three different words that we had to connect and make an opinion or story about. So the three words I chose were Politician, Angry and House.

When I looked at these words it made me think of the most obvious thing about politicians, made me think about the current state that our country is in right now and how the entire population has been played by politicians who have taken money from the taxpayer and using it for their own personal benefits caring only for themselves. They have used this money given to them by those who also do not care, to make their lives better, paying to have new kitchens, new gardens, they use it to pay for the cleaning of their homes and other things to improve what they already have.

This is what makes me so angry that it is our money, our parents money and our friends money, and the worse part is that even though we have been given an apology from some politicians there are those who just won't, and what really makes me even more angry is that those who have said sorry but they aren't really sorry for what they have done but are only sorry that they all got caught.

I agree that everyone who took money should have to pay it back and it should all be payed back immediately rather than in small payment.

What is worse that this all goes up even higher than we thought, all the way up to 10 Downing street to the very house our own Prime Minister. If we cannot trust the person who is in charge of running our country then who can we really trust to guide our country to be better than what it should be, and this is the same with most politicians, we have all been conned.

Why should it be our money that has to improve another persons house, it is all a lie, everything we have been told. It is because of things like these that make me doubt Gordon Brown will be in charge after the next election. I personally do no think that he should be, and certainly Alistair Darling should definitely go as I think he is the worst out of the lot of them and is the most untrustworthy person in charge of the expenses of our county especially in its current state.

Brainstorming

For our next assignment for our seminar class we were to brainstorm our chosen chapters of The Tipping Point from our mind maps. To do this instead of working alone our group all got together and discussed three different chapters, all giving our own thoughts, ideas and suggestions of what we thought of the chapter and what was included in it.

I thought this was a good way of working within a group as it aloud us all to see how other people think and how they react to suggestions from the group. The good thing about it was that every idea counted, no idea was bad or dumb as put on the assignment brief. It was think I think that allowed everyone to say whatever they were thinking, as it all had to be written down. I thought all of us had an equal amount to say for our brainstorming session, everyone had an idea, no one was silent, their idea counted just as much as mine, and mine counted as much as theirs.

To do our brainstorming we set a time of about 15 to 20 minutes for a quick brainstorm of each of the three chapters that we all did and come up with as many ideas as we could for them. This was an assignment that was more of quantity than quality so we had to come up with as many ideas as we could.

We also had a few people who wrote down every ones ideas, this not only helped the first person to take a break but allow others in the group to take part just a little bit more by helping write on our brainstorming sheets.

Pixar Animation

After seeing up the new film UP on Saturday, it reminded me of a documentary I once saw of who the company Pixar actually started and where all of its success came from. Most people would say that George Lucas was the mastermind of the company, but I would strongly disagree, for me the true heart of Pixar Animation comes from a man called John Lassetar. Lucas may have helped start the company but this was only to create and sell off software, where it was Lassetar being the first and only animator in the company at the time began the first few steps onto major success.

Originally working for Disney, he was let go due to cut backs by the company was given a job by Pixar to help create small design animations to help promote the software they were selling. It was from this that Lassetar and all the team around him started to explore the actual process of 3D animation. After Lucas sold the company it was up to the employees to either loose their jobs or take over the firm itself.

The first short film that was done was called 'The Adventure of Andre and Wally B.' which back in its day was a revolution in not only the animation world but the computer world as well, which started a chain of new, upgraded programs that were faster, better designed and able to explore new ways of computing that we now know today.

The reason that I think Pixar have become the success they are today is because of the amount of time, effort and heart that has actually gone into their films, even in the short films they did Lassetar and his co workers would spend weeks in the office only leaving to get food, but sleeping in the office too. The committed themselves to their work, just trying to get a little recognition for what they were doing, and what they were doing with the films was all for free, the films weren't made to generate money but to get people to see what it was they were actually doing.

Well, someone noticed and that someone was Steve Knowles, one of the people who started up Apple, who took a chance on their work and helped give them their first break. After a few more shorts they were given the opportunity to make a feature length film, a film we know today as 'Toy Story'. What made them different from other competing company's was that they were all creating software and selling it on without realizing their true potential, whereas Pixar were doing great things with their software.When 'Toy Story' was in the making, all the staff were so scared as this was going to be a make or break in all of their careers, but once the film was released well it had all paid off and following this has come a number of box office films and shorts that have gained so much critical acclaim and money that have given Pixar the credit they so rightly deserve.

What is really good in the progression of Pixar is that in each film the story has gotten more mature as the makers realize that children even at a young age realize more and more the reality of the world, by including real life situations in each feature, which is why we all love their films so much and I really hope the go on for a very long time.

Internet Gaming

Today I am blogging about the annoyance of Internet gaming. What is so good about it? Does it mean anything? Will they get us anywhere on life? These are just one of the things that make me wonder why people are so addicted to them.

There are so many people all over the world who spend every single day on the Internet playing games such as farmville, mafia wars etc, that they are loosing time that they could have spent doing something else which would probably be much more beneficial to them and most likely a lot more interesting.

The other day when my girlfriend was over I was so annoyed with her when I had to do some work on my computer, and letting her on first thinking she was only going to be a few minutes checking her emails, she instead spent half an hour on facebook games, each time saying she would only be another minute. All I could think about was just how much of a waste of time these things are, I could of gotten so much work done in that half hour and had spare time for other thing after it, but no, the games were much more important to do. At least she isn't one of these people who never leave the computer for them.

Those who cannot live a day without playing an Internet game are in my opinion just very sad indeed, why can't they just get a life instead of wasting their life away, and also doing a great amount of damage to their eyes looking at the screen all day. There are now even programs on TV that show young teenagers spending a few days off school so they can play competitions in the studio, and what's worse is that they can even win a cash prize for doing nothing, and yet even in the comfort if their own home take these things so seriously and shout and scream just because they can't complete a certain level on it.

It was here that I really got thinking of how the people who make games like these are cashing in at the expense of peoples welfare and how the government can come away with how socially deprived the country is in right now when we have such things as games on the net actually stopping us from going outside, meeting new people we can have a proper conversation to face to face instead of over web cam.

I know what I would prefer to do, because unlike Internet gamers I thankfully have a life.

Day at Sensation

Right I have written a fair few blogs today but that was because of the stupid router went all blackout on me, but this blog is going to be on a day out a had a few months ago to Sensation science center in Dundee. The reason I went to it was because recently Sensation has held a Wallace and Gromit exhibition, so for this reason and reason alone I had to go, as I have been a W&G fan (that is what hard core fans call it) for as long as I can remember. So anyway I went with my girlfriend, romantic I know, to see what it was all about. The whole exhibition was about the big movie, The Curse of the WereRabbit, and how they made all the models and sets.

The really good thing about it was that they had the actual model sets and characters from the film set up, with a few extras set up on them as part of the exhibition. It was really good to look at just how much detail goes into these things, for instance there is a scene in a church room where the have images of the last supper painting redone in the style of Wallace and Gromit and also at how small it all really is, it is truly amazing to look at.

What actually got me thinking about was just the amount of time and effort that must go into making these films, it must be very frustrating and one of the most angry jobs about, don't think I would be able to cope if I accidentally took an arm off Gromit when you were close to finishing a days work, which would only end up as about fifteen seconds of the film, such I have a lot of respect for everyone who works on these animations. The film being an animation makes it even better as I have already expressed my love for them.

The photo's I have are all by me but if you would like to see anymore off them there are well over 100 of them as we looked all around Sensation, so feel free to ask to see them.

Tattoo's

This blog is inspired by the Guinness entry as after I had written about that it made me think of my tattoo which just happens to be the Guinness Harp, (the Guinness Logo) and it made me think about tattoo's in general. It is easy to see why a lot of people do not like them, the are on your body for life, and I mean for life, there is no turning back once you get one unless you have the money for the laser treatment. So anyway a tattoo is forever, and you need to make the choice of a good one that you will be happy with for the rest of your life, which is where a lot of people make a really big mistake. To me there are three kinds of people who get tattoo's, those who get them to say they have one and too act cool in front of their friends and as an act of rebellion, these are mainly the people who regret getting them. Then there's people like me who actually find tattoo's to be a form of art, the body is a blank canvas waiting to be painted on, and the third kind of person who is into this are just crazy people who love pain.

It has to be said that yes, getting a tattoo is painful but what is an hour or a few for a artistic piece that you can pride for the rest of your life.

So far I only have the one but I hope that over the course of my life I will end up with either four or five of them, and unlike most will think long and hard of what I will have on my body, but to make them more personal I will design the rest of my tattoos myself.

As an explanation of why I chose a Guinness harp, I chose it for a number of reasons, first of all as stated in the previous blog I love drinking Guinness, the second reason is that as a designer and hopeful that I will one day go onto corporate identity, the harp is one of my favourite logo's, and the last reason is because I have Irish blood on my grandfathers side of the family. So these are the reasons and if nobody likes this tattoo well it is up to them but all Iask is if they have one and if they do, why did they get one?

The image on this blog is one of my favourite tattoos.

Guinness

Guinness in my personal opinion is the best ale that there has ever been, but saying that I have never drunk all the ales about, but of the ones I have tried this is by far the best. As you can probably tell I am a very big Guinness drinker, it is the only alcohol I can actually drink without with out feeling ill, and as a plus it is the best tasting too. It is very strange as when I had my first pint of Guinness I truly hated it and thought it was one of the worst things I had tasted, but after a trip to Dublin for a Tenacious D and Metallica concert I became addicted to the stuff, this is because it tastes completely different over in Ireland, it has a more creamy taste and a smooth texture, but when it is exported to another country some of the flavour evaporates and also part of the tin or barrel it is in will mix with the drink giving it another taste, but never the less is still a really good drink. So after Dublin I was hooked and have been drinking it ever since. A good thing about pouring a pint is that it is actually and possibly very sad, quite fun to do, watching the entire drink flow and blend together to give it its dark look with the lid on top, and is quite difficult to pour a perfect pint as I have discovered many a time but have now perfected this technique. For the best effect, hold at 45 degree angle and slightly twist while pouring it into the glass, the straighten it up and let it settle for a few seconds until the head begins to form, once this is done add the rest of the drink to the glass until the head rises above the glass giving it a sort of mushroom head, for the best taste leave it for a further 35 seconds. This is where you can taste the barley and the heaviness of the drink. It has also been proven that Guinness can be good for your heart as scientist discovered antioxidants found in the drink are similar to those found in fruits and vegetables and this can help lower cholesterol. Another interesting fact about it is that it is not actually a black drink in colour but is actually red that is extremely dark, once you hold it up to the light you can tell this. Below is a link to not only the funniest Guinness advert but possibly the best and funniest advert made, is quite rude so do not let children watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrSSSfYE2dQ

Quince

And now back to the very project I had previously blogged about but have waited till it was finished to right about. It was to research a food and nutrient were given to look and study at. So quince, what is it? Well a quince is a cross between an apple and a pear, (the best explanation I could find was that all three are pommes), and it is grown mainly in the Mediterranean such as Greece and Turkey but is originally from countries such as Iran. The quince is believed to have been cultivated since times before the apple, and is believed that the apple in the genesis tale of Adam and Eve was actually a quince. Also in further study I discovered that in the tale of Troy when Prince Paris was chosen to judge a contest of who was the most beautiful goddess he awarded Aphrodite a quince as a reward. It is here that a quince is very important in the ancient world, as did you know that during this time period and possibly further on that in ancient Greece when a man and a women were to be married, the first time they would meet would have been when they were getting married, so to make the first kiss a most enjoyable experience the bride would bite into a quince to perfume her breath. I don't know if the man would do this, but i certainly hope so as back in those days they didn't have toothpaste. Further down the time period and more recently was back in the time of the Tudors, where quince was made into a paste and stamped to reveal the royal seal of the king, and was also quite a popular desert dish as well. Even today quince's are used all over the world, some areas more than others, especially in Germany where it is used as a drink for breakfast as well as many other things.

For my experimentation in this part I used inks for the acidic juice's contained within the fruit and I even cut out letters on rubbers to spell out the word quince so that this idea went with the Tudor seal theme.

Mind Mapping The Tipping Point

For this we had to read a book called 'The Tipping Point' by Malcolm Gladwell, it tell of how ideas, trends and social behaviours can tip and spread in our everyday lives.

The purpose was to then go on and create a mind map of the entire book, picking out the most relevant aspects of the book and how they worked together. The mind map of this had to include the main chapters and their main points and topics, such as syphilis, connectors, mavens, suicide etc, to show we understood what the book was about and also to help us to see just how affective the book was. to create the mind map we read a few of the chapter of 'The Mind Map Book' by Tony and Barry Buzan, and this told us how we should think and plan our mind map and how we should tackle it. For the second part of this we had to then choose a chapter of the book and go into the details and more points that were included within that chapter.

On the whole I did find this difficult as I have never done a mind map like this as the maps I normally do are spider webs. However I did find that this technique was more useful as it allows me to go into a bit more detail.

The Gulistan

Again on Saturday I went for a lads night out, as it has been a while since I have been around my friends. So for this we started off the night by going for a meal at the Gulistan Indian in Broughty Ferry. I was also looking forward to this as it has been a while since I have had a curry as well. Oh was i disappointed, as soon as i got there it felt very awkward, there was no one else in the restaurant at all except from the five of us, and still we were asked to move, (my friend booking the table for eight), and we were all alone the entire time.

What made me really angry about this was that it was a very quite meal as whenever we spoke we felt we were being watched and were getting a few funny looks from the staff.

The meal itself was not great, the Masala was very watery with no flavour at all, but I was really hungry so ate it all. When I was only half way through my food a waiter came up behind me and took my plate saying your finished, to which I took it back saying I wasn't. It was like we were being kicked out because we were the only people there and they didn't want to do anymore work. This was very cheeky. So when we left we all felt very disappointed as we all used to really like going there but in recent years the standards of the restaurant have gone down hill, and do not think I will be going back there for a while which I am really sad about as it was once a really good curry house.

Up

On Saturday I went to see the new Disney/Pixar film UP. All I can say is that I loved this film and is one of the best animations I have seen. What was really good about it was the amount of emotion and love that obviously went into making this film, it is not just a kids movie but a movie for adults too. The most surprising aspect of the film as in the begging when we see the life of the main character is when his wife has a miscarriage and finds out she cannot have children which for a kids film is a total shock in my opinion, and this was also a very mature topic which I think can help in the growth of a child's mind. I also loved the whole animation and style of the film, the colours were extremely beautiful to look at, (but we all now know colour mean nothing, but despite this is still looked great). The plot of the film at times could be a little boring but this didn't take the fun or the excitement out of the rest of it. I also thought that because it had really stupid, silly parts to it, I enjoyed these parts of the film the most, especially with Doug the talking dog. I would heavily recommend this film to all ages as it has something in there for everyone. So go and see it.

Blackouts

Right, have had a blackout at my house on Saturday, which has blown a fuse in my broadband router, so I have lost the Internet in my house so haven't been able to write a blog. So basically, I really hate blackouts, they are happening in my area all the time, the worst thing is that we live in Angus and nothing really gets done when something like this happens. A classic being just after Christmas when we lost electricity and hot water for a week, so had no shower and no lights for seven days. When we phoned up asking about it, the only reply we got was someone will be out in the morning, this was extremely annoying as this was the excuse everyday. It even happened when the pipes for the toilets got blocked in the whole street, is even worse that I live on a hill so when everyone goes to the toilet it all comes shooting down onto our driveway, and even worse was our neighbours entire back garden was destroyed because of the blockage. The person that was sent out for this was a builder who had no knowledge of piping, then a plumber was sent out who said he couldn't do anything and that the council could only touch it, to which they said only Stuart Milne housing estates could only sort it out and they said the same thing about the council, eventually it was fixed. The point I am making is that, whenever we need a problem fixed, and we ourselves cannot do it, there is never anyone around who can and the amount of trouble it causes attempting to do so. So now I am waiting on a new wireless router being sent out, but this is the third one in about a year and a half, (But will be wondering what on earth it is I am doing to these things), and this is what is making me really angry and frustrated, because no matter how much we complain nothing gets done as nobody can be bothered about it.

On a final note, DON'T LIVE IN ANGUS

The Genius of Charles Darwin

Tonight I have been watching the channel 4 episodes about the thoughts and findings of the evolutionist Charles Darwin. It is one of a three part show that goes into where the idea of evolution came from, what it is and what it means.

In the first episode the host of the show Richard Dawkins tries to explain evolution to a small group of secondary school students, some who believe in evolution, and others who were raised to believe in a religion. Not to cause any argument on this topic, but it was during this part that I realized that religion is based on design, a design created by the human race that has been passed on for as long as we know and this has been a way of life we have always known. Religion is saying that the whole planet was designed by God, an all powerful being, and that the human body itself is a design God created. It is in Darwin's findings he discovered the idea of evolution and how evolution, unlike religion, is a lack of design. Evolution is not a choice, not an idea we can do anything about to control it, it is just there. I don't have anything against religion at all, and respect those who have a faith they strongly believe in, but I'm not entirely convinced in an idea that we have been designed by anyone or anything.

Design In the Age of Knowledge Experience and Terror

Today we had a Lecture from the Dean of DOJ, and today was talking about what design can do and what it is made to do, also it was the whole thinking of what design is. I have to agree that design today as we see it is not a big thinking area. A lot of people think so small and create restrictions on who and what they should influence and create. This is a problem with design as we can't really say that there has been anything extremely big in recent year, the most recent being the Apple Ipod products, which have used everything about design on how to use it, the look, how it works, who it appeals to, what it includes etc. This along with a few things have been the biggest design projects in recent years. It has become more of a way that we think we don't need to have big design ideas anymore because it has all been done before but it hasn't, all we need to do as designers is broaden our minds and let our imaginations flow with potential thoughts, only then will we think on a big scale, a scale that could make on impact on modern society as we know it.

Leather

I have recently just finished the first of a three part project which the end product has not been given so we have had no idea what we are researching for. So the first part was to be a sketchbook of research on a material that we picked out of a lucky dip and as luck would have it I picked out leather. Part of this was to research everything we could about the material and so there were no restrictions to research and experimentation.

So where did I go from here well I looked into where exactly leather came from and how it has been used in history, the emotions it gave off and how even today it is used. It is a material that we all crave and the company's who distribute it easily influence us all to but leather materials. A perfect example is in the film and music industry such as The Terminator, that film made so many people want a leather jacket just because it looked cool to have and this was because of one man who wore it.

After my research I started me experiments, and for this I did such things and splattering ink onto paper because of the textures of leather. I then went on to look at the hells angels and how aggressive it can make people feel and how important it makes them, so this took me onto psychology and the ink blots that are used in this to get an image of what a person can see on a piece of paper. So basically I was combining all of the information together and creating a basic layout for what is later to come. I am currently working on the second part of this project which is a sketchbook on food and nutrients. the one I picked out this time was Quince, which I will explain later in another blog. Once this is done we will be given another brief which will make us combine both the sketchbooks into a final design.