OUGD601 - Synthesis

My project was interlinked from the start, with purpose. I intended from writing the dissertation to identify issues within the design industry in some form, and present a design solution within the practical part of the project. This worked extremely well because my project worked well as both standalone entities and were only improved by being shown together. I began the project with inspiration from niche artists on Soundcloud, which developed into researching what began trends. As I continued my research, the breadth of the topic only increased, and my practical project became harder and harder to achieve as more issues were identified. I decided that I would solve one problem instead of trying to address them all, as that would require countless hours because of the complexities of the issues.

Another big advantage I had with my project was the quality of primary research I had obtained. I was able to talk to both an author of a book that closely followed my line of research, and an employee at Facebook, one of the main companies I wrote about in my essay and one of the largest changes in digital culture in the past decade. These were crucial in trying to create a successful practical project as I was able to apply their advice to the concept of my design, of which both of them suggested education. The main takeaway from both encounters was that the new age of designers will beckon a new design process. The agency model, retromania, both concepts that required society to remain still, something that clearly isn't going to happen with the rapid advancement of technology in contemporary culture. For example, I was able to articulate the fact that the cultural implications of the Internet are yet to be properly researched, and will only make themselves known through time, for better or for worse. 

"There are also downsides to it, erm, I think the positives definitely outweigh the negatives but we still don’t know where it’s going, I think in a hundred years we’ll be like “Crap! We were just, like, taking in so much information on a daily basis; more than our brain can handle” and now we’re so hyper-connected to one another, we’re more anxious, we feel more, when someone dies that we don’t even know, like “damn so and so celebrity died!” A hundred years ago no one cared about that because you never found out about it. Erm, but at the same time, looking at where the world has come in 2016 with all the segregation and politics and arm, stuff that Trump’s doing, the Internet is a great way of changing peoples’ perceptions."

In conclusion, making sure my project synthesised well between the theoretical and practical elements strengthened my submission and forced me to make more calculated design decisions instead of simply doing whatever came to my mind. As opposed to creating a practical project that lightly touched on the subject of contemporary design culture such as mimicking trends, I identified and presented a solution to a problem that I found only from my essay.