Week 06 - Origination

Class Format

Todays class covered chapter five, 'Differences' from Maeda's book 'The Laws of Simplicity'. The general topic for this week was concerned with balance, a notion/ideal/sense that I have always had an affinity with (for the astrologists reading this, I was born on the 23rd of October). I will speak more about this in Reflection.

 

Group Exercise

Reading Quiz

1. Describe the relationship between complexity and simplicity.
   - They need each other, "Without the counterpoint of complexity, we could not recognize simplicity when we see it"(from the text).
2. What analogy does Maeda use to demonstrate this relationship?
   - The rhythm of sound
3. In what context does Maeda discuss rhythm / beat in relation to the fifth law. Contextualise this relationship and discuss how this can be used in relation to the Student Exhibition - giving specific examples.
   - Siting simplicity and complexity as respectively silence and sound. The two are mutually dependant, but can at times out weigh the other. The Student Exhibition will ideally carry a balanced rhythm, in that 
4. HOMEWORK: Find visual examples - pieces of design & multimedia work that demonstrate the relationship between simplicity and complexity – post the results on your blog, with contextual analysis and reflection.

 

Research Blog Task

• Research Edward de Bono’s “6 Thinking Hats”.
• In your blog write a short description of each of the 6 hats.
• Contextualize each description to your specific exhibition group task.
• Prepare for discussion of this topic in next week’s class.

 

Research

Video

This just had to show up somewhere here. An animation of the design company logo concept I have been playing with recently. Imported into Photoshop as a series of 242 PNG files, a little editing and add the text, then 'Save For Web & Devices' as a GIF. The version here also had a background added as blogger does not seem to like transparent backgrounds as evidenced here. The final version will be transparent and the rotation will be limited to a quarter turn on a mouse over event.

 

Images

This is an image of my outside workspace where I have been sewing the bicycle helmet cover. You can also see here sections of the Myatt Media logo being constructed. I would like to mention a little more about where I live and how I work at this point. Firstly, my wife and I own a small property in Wagait Beach - just outside of Darwin. While our actual dwelling is quite small, we have a very large back deck with a four metre high ceiling. It is in this space that all of our socialising and some of our work (as you can see from this picture) occurs. Occasionally the laptop comes out here to serve as a makeshift office...

That is our dog Asahi (CLAW!) in the background staring down a kangaroo that has come into our yard to have a drink from the water bowl up the back. Whenever possible this is my preferred space to work in. During the wet the heat or sideways rain occasionally dictates that I retire indoors for air conditioning and cover.

 

Reflection

The balance of simplicity and complexity is not only an important relationship to consider as it relates to design, it is a vital consideration for life in general. I grew up in the suburbs and subsequently spent my entire early adult life in the suburbs. I could not imagine living anywhere else as it was all I knew and I was happy for the most part, but something was always 'not quite right'. In retrospect it has become obvious that suburbia is just that few degrees closer to completely unnatural to make it feel eschew or out of kilter for me. Like an itch which would require more effort to scratch than tolerate, the only environment I had known was mildly irritating me and it always had been.
When my wife and I had the chance to enter the property market it was a purchase of opportunity and convenience. Lifestyle was not a consideration when we bought the property in Wagait Beach so actually living in a semi-rural environment was an unknown factor for the both of us (perhaps more so for my wife who is an extremely social creature). Three years later and we both simply love it, we even recently had a conversation about our satisfaction with the lifestyle balance we have living here. Personally my attempt to pinpoint the balance tipping point between living in suburbia and here was simple and surprising as it was sound, when I have always considered myself more a visual person. The absence of the sounds that I had learned to ignore was made all the more apparent when we housesat for a friend who lived in our former stomping ground some time after moving out here. While this is an over simplification of my transition to our new lifestyle, it is representative. The removal of the subtle din had simplified my living environment and returned a qualitative improvement (as opposed to quantitative). Here I am relating to Meada's first and second laws of simplicity, 'Reduce' and 'Organise'. Thinking in terms of only the physical environment; aural, visual and tactile sensations were removed. These were in turn replaced with other sensations, with which it was possible to organise my environment by squinting. For example it is easier to blur birds chirping into background noise than it is the sound of traffic.
Our life here has a balance here not previously seen, although there are distractions. As an illustration, it has been called to my attention by Asahi that there was a peacock roosting in a tree in our backyard as shown by the following photograph (which in all honesty, I have been angling toward having a reason to post throughout my entry in this section)...