Quantitative v Qualitative
Quantitative
- statistical data
- surveys/questionnaires
Qualitative
- ideas / philosophy / theory
Planning the Project
- write down all questions that you want to investigate
- consider each on their merits and focus on two (primary and secondary)
- write an a4 'first thoughts' sheet for each
- what is the purpose of the study? is your question researchable? (why are you interested in it)
- decide on a working title
Project Outline
- consider timing
- 12 weeks
- consider holidays / work / life
- think about working title and different component parts that need researching
- allocate timings to each
- draw up a project outline based on the above
- allow generous time for initial reading and writing up
- factor in tutorials
- consult with supervisor
Literature search
key material on the topic - key arguments
journals - www.jstor.org
table your research - the piece of research, key concepts, comments, applications and questions
Referencing
- start compiling a bibliography
- reference as you go along
- include all details
Questionnaires
- begin to word questions and discuss with supervisor
- avoid ambiguity, imprecision or assumption
- avoid double, leading, presuming or offensive questions
- question type?
- think about format / appearance
- always pilot it
- decide on a sample size
- specify a return deadline
- record responses as soon as completed
Interviews
- word questions and discuss with supervisor
- structured or unstructured?
- how will you analyse questions
- watch for bias
- plan the interview / prepare the room
- introduce yourself
- tape record the interview (permission required)
- agree the accuracy of notes with interviewee
Observation
- decide what you need to know
- participant / non - participant observation
- request to observe
- prepare and plan
- devise a suitable grid, checklist or chart
Critical diaries / reflective log
- be clear about purpose
- be disciplined
Checklist
- don't procrastinate
- plan research methods carefully
- select the appropriate methods
- complete an ethics self assessment
- literature review
- document all stages of process carefully
- produce a detailed project outline, with timings and stick to it
- make most of supervisor
Friday, 25 October 2013
IKEA: Research Presentation
- ikea - stereotype - last slide - little girl cooking
- same products - showed differently
- no one else like ikea
- standard of living - marketing different
- dictating - monoculture
- neutral furniture
- branding - over ikea
- whole day - day trip
- comforting - same in every country/even though different culture shopping - Ikea's the same
- modernism - internationalism for all
- dictate whats stylish
- community - brand comfort / safe in style
Wednesday, 23 October 2013
IKEA: One Room Paradise
The tour
The music video
Inspired by the fact that Britons live in the smallest homes in Europe (properties have been shrinking in size by 11 per cent in the last 10 years), IKEA UK has launched a new campaign entitled ”Make Small Spaces Big” that showcases how space efficiency can improve our everyday lives.
Peter Wright, the marketing manager for IKEA UK and Ireland, explains that IKEA focuses on helping people optimize any space in their home, no matter how big or small: “We hope to inspire people and to show that we are more relevant than ever to help with consumers’ everyday challenges, and ultimately for more consumers to choose IKEA more often for their home furnishing needs.”
http://www.brandingmagazine.com/2013/07/11/one-room-all-you-need-to-find-paradise/
IKEA: One Room Paradise Article
The premise of Ikea's "One Room Paradise" music video seems straightforward: As a little girl plays with her dollhouse (doll apartment complex, to be precise), the dolls come to life and give us a glimpse of their happy existence in a small but perfectly (Ikea-furnished) single-room home. But before you can say "Ektorp," the girl's fantasy world becomes infinitely more complicated.
After initially appearing to be a sort of Barbie Dream Apartment situation—a pretty plastic doll wakes up in the morning, opens her closet full of trendy shoes, gets dressed in a pink tracksuit—the story veers, intentionally or not, into social commentary. Instead of giving us a single gal or typical nuclear family, the main players reveal themselves to be a single mother and her son (and, occasionally, grandmother). While it's refreshing (and commendable) that Ikea's version of a family doesn't necessitate a happily married mom and dad, there's something unquestionably off-putting about the entire narrative—especially considering it's supposedly taking place in a child's imagination.
For one thing, the story is set to a song about creating a "one-room paradise" with "the man I love." In that context, the very close mother-son relationship—he dabs her tears when she cries at a movie, and cooks her breakfast in bed after she comes home drunk from a late night of partying—starts to look a tad unhealthy. (It's probably safe to assume Aretha Franklin wasn't singing about her child in the original version.) And the image of a mother doll stumbling through the door after having a few too many drinks will probably raise a few eyebrows, too. (No judgment when it comes to human mothers, but have you ever seen Barbie under the influence?)
Most unsettling of all is the unavoidable uncanny-valley aspect that comes from having the dolls portrayed not by toys shot in stop-motion, but by actors wearing doll masks. The plastic-faced human bodies, contorted into doll-like positions—fingers stuck permanently together, elbows slightly bent—are more creepy than playful. (For an extra dose of creep, watch the "behind the scenes" tour of the apartment, in which the mother doll is voiced by a gruff-voiced man.)
On the bright side, if you can get over the initial feeling of unease, there are some great organizational tips in there!
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/ad-day-ikea-welcomes-you-dollhouse-151135
CREDITS
Client: Ikea
Agency: Mother, London
Director: Megaforce
Production Company: Riff Raff
Producer: Cathy Hood
Agency Producer: Ellie Gibb
Colour Grading: Paul Harrison
Flame: Judy Roberts
Post Producer: Justine White
VFX: Finish & Mathematic
Editor: Joe Guest @ Final Cut
Client: Ikea
Agency: Mother, London
Director: Megaforce
Production Company: Riff Raff
Producer: Cathy Hood
Agency Producer: Ellie Gibb
Colour Grading: Paul Harrison
Flame: Judy Roberts
Post Producer: Justine White
VFX: Finish & Mathematic
Editor: Joe Guest @ Final Cut
CoP: Wally Olins: The Brand Handbook
'Symbols are immensely powerful. They act as visual triggers which work many times faster and more explosively than words to set ideas in the mind. Many symbols are, as we know from jung and others, an intrinsic part of the human vocabulary of expression and comprehension.'
p.30
'brand experiences'
p.39
- the environment - environmental factors are being called brand experiences
- can walk around, touch stuff
'service brand'
p.42
- every single experience is different
- not the same as product led branding like mars bar, tastes the same every time
- the people who work for the brand are the brand
'This is called 'brand architecture'. The architecture should be clear, easy to comprehend and consistent.'
p.44
'the corporation is the brand'
p.46
- it uses one name and one visual system throughout
- eg. ikea, ikea family etc.
p.30
'brand experiences'
p.39
- the environment - environmental factors are being called brand experiences
- can walk around, touch stuff
'service brand'
p.42
- every single experience is different
- not the same as product led branding like mars bar, tastes the same every time
- the people who work for the brand are the brand
'This is called 'brand architecture'. The architecture should be clear, easy to comprehend and consistent.'
p.44
'the corporation is the brand'
p.46
- it uses one name and one visual system throughout
- eg. ikea, ikea family etc.
Tuesday, 22 October 2013
CoP: The Hyperreality of The Trafford Centre
6 February 2011
The Hyperreality of The Trafford Centre
Political and economic decision making in the contemporary world, even one currently operating within a framework of financial austerity, is "less based on the production of goods [and] more on the production and consumption of culture" (Jayne). These new consumption practices are commonly seen "as a foundation of forms for social relations, sociability and the nature of urban life itself" (Jayne) and has led to a proliferation of visibly spectacular signs of hypperreality - "concealing that the real is no longer real" (Jayne). This situation has created a "global culture of the hyperreal" (Appadurai) best represented in the now ubiquitous shopping mall typology, that has become a key model of economic growth, in both the urban core and the edges of our cities. The shopping mall represents both high and low culture, bringing together the two constructs of consumption and experience into one architectural or urban form. One such construction is The Trafford Centre, in Greater Manchester.
Simulacrum, meaning 'likeness' or 'similarity', is a term used to describe a representation of another thing, for example a sculpture depicting a god or a painting copied from a photograph. The original 16th century word (derived from the Latin for likeness and image) had taken on a second meaning by the 19th century that implied an inferior representation that lacked the quality of the original. Since then the term has developed further, being adopted by fields of artistic appropriation and philosophy, most notably by the postmodern French cultural theorist Jean Baudrillard. In his 1985 piece 'Simularca and Simulation' Baudrillard argues that simulacra becomes truth in there own right as signs become merely representations of other signs. He describes a four stage process of sign-making - faithful reproduction, perversion of reality, a copy with no original, and pure simulation - with three types of simulacra particular to historical periods. Simulacra can be seen through out architectural production in contemporary society for example the relentless simulation of purely gestural motifs in an attempt to 'contextualise' projects. Whilst the reproduction of an architectural language becomes a shadow, not a pure representation of the original, such as 'International Modernisms' appropriation into a 'Coporate Modernism', reproduced so many times that it can no longer be seen to be an accurate representation of the original.
Baudrillard's description of fourth stage simulacra can be understood to be a description of hyperreality. A hypothetical construct, hyperreality, theorised on by Baudrillard and others, including Albert Borgmann, David J. Boorstin and Umberto Eco, is a simulation of something which never really existed but is taken to be authentic. Disney Land or Las Vegas are often held up as examples of hyperreality however other examples proliferate in contemporary consumer societies. The Trafford Centre, the UK's sixth largest shopping centre with 137,347m2 of retail space, can be seen as just another hyperreal "warehouse of cultural scenarios" (Appadaurai).
In 2009 30 million visitors came to the complex that boasts 200 stores, 60 restaurants and cafes, a multi-screen cinema and a range of other leisure activities, with an average spend of £100 per party per visit. The centre draws its customer base from a catchment area of 5.3 million people (defined as living within a 45-minute drive, this makes it the most populous catchment area of any regional shopping centre) but regularly receives visitors from much further afield. Highly stylized the complex's architectural detailing reproduces both the Late-Baroque and Rococo styles, these flamboyant and highly expressive languages are used to create a heightened sensory experience.
The white, pink and gold colours combine with marble floors, statues and gold railings to create an imagined space drawn from the palaces and churches of the 18th century. The spaces evoke memories of grandeur drawn from spaces we have likely only ever 'consumed' or experienced via the two-dimensional television or computer screen. What has become an unextraordinary experience, shopping as a leisure activity, is redressed with extraordinary signs (Urry). Uneasily juxtaposed against this fake 18th century environment are other architectural languages, most notably in 'The Orient' (Europe's largest indoor eatery) where Art Deco 'Cruiseship' meets 'Oriental', 'Aztec' and 'New Orleans' façades. This, combined with the 21st century products being consumed and the standardized nature of the shop fittings themselves, only serves to heighten the hyperreality on show. Space and time are compressed so that the "the past is now not a land to return to" (Appadurai) but a place to inhabit freely, without inhibition, moving effortlessly from one imagined experienced to another. One moment you are eating a cheeseburger on the bow of an ocean-liner, the next visiting the Apple Store in a 18th century promenade; all of it though feels so 'normal'.
In conversation with Hans-Ulrich Obrist Rem Koolhaas commented on this contemporary situation of consumer society and how it is being dressed in architectural styles drawn not from 'real' history but from memory - "We are living in a completely paradoxical moment of modernization where all modernization is driven by nostalgia, on every level ... there are more instruments of memory and less actual remembrance ... nostalgia means living permanently in a form of denial."
If The Trafford Centre is a simulacrum then it's recent extension, Barton Square, is also one. The £86 million development, that extended the original footprint of the covered shopping centre, complete with campanile as enigmatic signifier, can be read a simulacrum of the original simulacra - a reproduction of the reproduction which in turn is a reproduction of nothing. As signs copy signs that have copied signs, and so forth, the architectural experience becomes ever more diluted yet the essence of the hyperreality remains. The experience of opulence no longer has to be sold to consumers, to the same degree, as after over 10 years of existence The Trafford Centre has been established as an anchor of cultural consumerism within Greater Manchester and the North West.
To return again to Koolhass, "the moment is very interesting because we live in a traditional world with its own history, its own laws, its own demands; but superimposed onto that is a whole series of other spatial experiences, particularly provoked by globalization and the virtual".
Notes
Jayne, M. (2006), Cities and Consumption, 1st Edition, New York: Routledge
Appadurai, A. (1996), Modernity at Large, 1st Edition, University of Minnesota Press
Urry, J. (2002), The Tourist Gaze, 2nd Edition, London: Sage Publications
Obrist, Hans-Ulrich (2007), The Conversation Series, Number 4—Rem Koolhaas. Köln: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther Konig
Dictionary.com, 'Simulacrum' [Online] [first accessed 5th February 2011] http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/simulacrum
The Trafford Centre, 'About Us: Corporate' [Online] [first accessed 6th February 2011] http://www.traffordcentre.co.uk/aboutus/corporate
 |
| The Trafford Centre, Greater Manchester (Image by Charles Bowring, from Wikipedia) |
Simulacrum, meaning 'likeness' or 'similarity', is a term used to describe a representation of another thing, for example a sculpture depicting a god or a painting copied from a photograph. The original 16th century word (derived from the Latin for likeness and image) had taken on a second meaning by the 19th century that implied an inferior representation that lacked the quality of the original. Since then the term has developed further, being adopted by fields of artistic appropriation and philosophy, most notably by the postmodern French cultural theorist Jean Baudrillard. In his 1985 piece 'Simularca and Simulation' Baudrillard argues that simulacra becomes truth in there own right as signs become merely representations of other signs. He describes a four stage process of sign-making - faithful reproduction, perversion of reality, a copy with no original, and pure simulation - with three types of simulacra particular to historical periods. Simulacra can be seen through out architectural production in contemporary society for example the relentless simulation of purely gestural motifs in an attempt to 'contextualise' projects. Whilst the reproduction of an architectural language becomes a shadow, not a pure representation of the original, such as 'International Modernisms' appropriation into a 'Coporate Modernism', reproduced so many times that it can no longer be seen to be an accurate representation of the original.
Baudrillard's description of fourth stage simulacra can be understood to be a description of hyperreality. A hypothetical construct, hyperreality, theorised on by Baudrillard and others, including Albert Borgmann, David J. Boorstin and Umberto Eco, is a simulation of something which never really existed but is taken to be authentic. Disney Land or Las Vegas are often held up as examples of hyperreality however other examples proliferate in contemporary consumer societies. The Trafford Centre, the UK's sixth largest shopping centre with 137,347m2 of retail space, can be seen as just another hyperreal "warehouse of cultural scenarios" (Appadaurai).
 |
| Inside The Trafford Centre (Image by Hamed Masoumi, from Wikipedia) |
In 2009 30 million visitors came to the complex that boasts 200 stores, 60 restaurants and cafes, a multi-screen cinema and a range of other leisure activities, with an average spend of £100 per party per visit. The centre draws its customer base from a catchment area of 5.3 million people (defined as living within a 45-minute drive, this makes it the most populous catchment area of any regional shopping centre) but regularly receives visitors from much further afield. Highly stylized the complex's architectural detailing reproduces both the Late-Baroque and Rococo styles, these flamboyant and highly expressive languages are used to create a heightened sensory experience.
The white, pink and gold colours combine with marble floors, statues and gold railings to create an imagined space drawn from the palaces and churches of the 18th century. The spaces evoke memories of grandeur drawn from spaces we have likely only ever 'consumed' or experienced via the two-dimensional television or computer screen. What has become an unextraordinary experience, shopping as a leisure activity, is redressed with extraordinary signs (Urry). Uneasily juxtaposed against this fake 18th century environment are other architectural languages, most notably in 'The Orient' (Europe's largest indoor eatery) where Art Deco 'Cruiseship' meets 'Oriental', 'Aztec' and 'New Orleans' façades. This, combined with the 21st century products being consumed and the standardized nature of the shop fittings themselves, only serves to heighten the hyperreality on show. Space and time are compressed so that the "the past is now not a land to return to" (Appadurai) but a place to inhabit freely, without inhibition, moving effortlessly from one imagined experienced to another. One moment you are eating a cheeseburger on the bow of an ocean-liner, the next visiting the Apple Store in a 18th century promenade; all of it though feels so 'normal'.
In conversation with Hans-Ulrich Obrist Rem Koolhaas commented on this contemporary situation of consumer society and how it is being dressed in architectural styles drawn not from 'real' history but from memory - "We are living in a completely paradoxical moment of modernization where all modernization is driven by nostalgia, on every level ... there are more instruments of memory and less actual remembrance ... nostalgia means living permanently in a form of denial."
 |
| Barton Square, Trafford Centre, Manchester (Image from Wikipedia) |
If The Trafford Centre is a simulacrum then it's recent extension, Barton Square, is also one. The £86 million development, that extended the original footprint of the covered shopping centre, complete with campanile as enigmatic signifier, can be read a simulacrum of the original simulacra - a reproduction of the reproduction which in turn is a reproduction of nothing. As signs copy signs that have copied signs, and so forth, the architectural experience becomes ever more diluted yet the essence of the hyperreality remains. The experience of opulence no longer has to be sold to consumers, to the same degree, as after over 10 years of existence The Trafford Centre has been established as an anchor of cultural consumerism within Greater Manchester and the North West.
To return again to Koolhass, "the moment is very interesting because we live in a traditional world with its own history, its own laws, its own demands; but superimposed onto that is a whole series of other spatial experiences, particularly provoked by globalization and the virtual".
Notes
Jayne, M. (2006), Cities and Consumption, 1st Edition, New York: Routledge
Appadurai, A. (1996), Modernity at Large, 1st Edition, University of Minnesota Press
Urry, J. (2002), The Tourist Gaze, 2nd Edition, London: Sage Publications
Obrist, Hans-Ulrich (2007), The Conversation Series, Number 4—Rem Koolhaas. Köln: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther Konig
Dictionary.com, 'Simulacrum' [Online] [first accessed 5th February 2011] http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/simulacrum
The Trafford Centre, 'About Us: Corporate' [Online] [first accessed 6th February 2011] http://www.traffordcentre.co.uk/aboutus/corporate
COP: Make-Believe Main Streets: Hyperreality and the Lifestyle Center
Make-Believe Main Streets: Hyperreality and the Lifestyle Center, Mark Gillem, p16.
http://iaste.berkeley.edu/pdfs/20.2c-Spr09gillem-sml.pdf
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