Nadia’s blog

At the beginning of the semester, we were asked to envision ourselves before and after sustainable change and design a portrait accordingly (it can be viewed here, along with an explanation). I feel like my portrait has been proven correct.

After our group project, which dealt largely with the truth, I have opened myself up to actively learning (more than I did before). Although I have always read the newspaper and read the news, I find myself paying more attention.

As for a sustainable change in terms of environmental change, I feel my portrait is correct there as well. The changes I have made to the way I live and work are simple and small, as depicted in the image.

Here is my sustainable change:

• No staples unless it’s something that will be kept: I am a newfound paperclip devotee. I read somewhere (I can’t find it anymore) about how much waste steel is caused by staples.
• Paper must be used back and front before being recycled: See below my reusable recycling pile (as opposed to the recycling that goes out for collection). I’ve decided I’m going to make some nice notebooks with recycled paper. I think this semester’s work could be some nice inspiration for next semester’s work.

So, most of the semester’s progressive printouts and readings are in that pile somewhere… destined to be something amazing soon…

That’s really all. Just tiny changes that might make a little difference. But at least I’m thinking about it. Completing the lecture visualisations has definitely made me think about sustainability differently. Previously, I thought the term really only referred to environmental sustainability, but I now fully realise that sustainability is about sustaining all aspects of society for the future.

This will be my final post for the semester, so before I head off, I just wanted to post a few images from my backlog, that I feel relate to this semester’s work.

This is one of my favourite photos that I have taken. I love it aesthetically, but also because I can think of so many things it could mean. The aphids look like a little sustainable community plugging away at a common goal, which I think is nice. This has almost been a visualisation for a few lectures, so I think it deserves an honourable mention.

I just thought this was the most curious thing. My dad showed me this clothing tag on a pair of pants he owns. It has about 4 pages, which you flick through for instructions on how to take care of the pants, they’re fairly detailed.

Speaking of multi-page documents, does anyone else own a Mighty Mouse? The Apple mouse with a scroll-wheel? The Mighty Mouse comes with a 60 page manual on how to use the mouse. Personally, I haven’t read a word of it, and I seriously doubt how many people out there have done so. But the thing that gets me about this manual is how much of a waste of paper it is. Out of the 60 pages, four are in English. It is a fairly similar circumstance for most of the languages. So each person who gets the booklet uses about 7% of it…

Okay, my final statement, I have always loved this piece of graffiti, and see the relevance in it more and more each time I see it. I’m sure any of you who catch the train will be familiar with it.

Although uni has been massively stressful this semester, I am really happy with the outcomes we have created and with the thought-provoking nature of the course. I have also really enjoyed keeping this blog. I never expected the crazy amount of hits I got, so thank you for that.

- Nadia.

As part of our research we are conducting a survey on truth in society. We invite you to fill out this survey on your personal experiences. It will only take 5 minutes, and your input would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/survey-intro.zgi?p=WEB227Q8BWYMSS

By filling out this survey you are allowing us to use the information provided in our research. We do not take any personal details, so your identity will remain anonymous.

Also, please visit our blog.

Thank you,
Alex Turnbull & Nadia Hisheh.

“The sins are mainly of omission. For instance: there is not one delegate from the gaming sector, despite the heavy emphasis made by the Summit about the importance of gaming and other “emerging creative industries”. There are no game designers, game industry producers; in fact, there’s not even a prominent graphic designer or animator, though there is one digital special effects wizard.”

from www.newmatilda.com

Some food for thought and something to ponder!

Where to from here? It’s hard to say… there are so many interesting avenues one could walk down, but it all comes down to this choice here and now. It’s kind of like a ‘Sliding Doors’ moment.

Anyway, Alex and I have established our group blog False Truths. We will be looking at the use and manipulation of language by politicians, the media and other ‘authority figures’ with power and influence over individuals and society.

We aim to show the truth in language by exposing it for what it really is, be that good or bad. People should be able to judge what is true based upon the best information possible (one cannot say ‘based on the truth’, because ‘truth’ is so subjective), not on the surrounding spin – it is only then they will know what they really think. We aim to empower people with the tools to see through this blurry haze created by deceitful language.

Please go and check out our blog - feel free to make comments, and feedback or help would be much appreciated!

I just found this slightly lame drawing I did a few years ago, and thought it was relevant to our topic.

And what I suppose is the complete antithesis - I found this really interesting political website New Matilda. It is an independent news website with a lot of very interesting and intellectually challenging articles. For those who don’t believe in simply maintaining the status quo.

Following the hand-in and presentation of our literature review, Alex and I have chosen our direction. We still have much to settle, but here is where we are going with it:

The central theme of our research will be truth in relation to language. It will encompass the sub-themes of spin, public knowledge and awareness, manipulation, what society and individuals will believe, social values, public trust and censorship of truth. We are beginning to put together ideas for outcomes that will achieve our goals (as outlined in the image above), but we will keep plugging away at the research for the moment (next couple of days) so that we have a fuller understanding of our topic.

I have a backlog of stuff that I’ve been meaning to upload, so here goes:

Firstly, an initiative by NEC called Ecotonoha, on which you leave messages and encourage a virtual tree to grow. For every 100 messages left, a eucalyptus seedling is planted on Kangaroo Island. I think it’s interesting from the perspective of a multinational electronics company growing a social conscience, but also in the way of design. The tree looks pretty amazing.

The above image was downloaded from http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/project.cfm?id=201
The piece shown was created by Yugo Nakamura for NEC.

My Country
by Dorothea McKellar
a poem about Australia

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies -
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of rugged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die –
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land –
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand –
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

I remember learning this poem in primary school. I put it on the blog, because I keep thinking of it when we talk about the Australian environment and ethos. However, I was first reminded of it by Jo Smith, on whom I did one of my portraits for Spot the difference 2, though I don’t think she would agree with McKellar’s sentiments on how much she loves the Australian landscape.

To take a slight tangent, the end of the poem reminds me of ‘Saltwater’ by Julian Lennon (”what will I think of me the day that I die?”). I think that like designers and artists, poets and songwriters are able to encapsulate the feelings of individuals and society. Do you think that designers are visual poets? Or that designs are visual songs?

I was looking up some of the favourite books from the ABC to determine which people I wanted to do portraits of. I came across Kate, who mentioned David Malouf’s ‘A Spirit of Play’ (one of the ABC’s Boyer Lectures). His vision for an “Australian consciousness” interested me (as it did Kate). I thought it might be of some use to the groups looking at the Australian Ethos (possibly my group!).

Click here for a transcript.

I have another research suggestion: try searching the ABC radio national transcript archives (http://www.abc.net.au/rn). There is a lot of useful information and it will give you the names of leading experts in the fields you are looking at.