What Does Research Mean?

Research seeks the answer to a question or a solution to a problem; it is rooted in theory, and contributes to the existing body of knowledge on a topic. Researching can be carried out through many methods such as interviews and focus groups, surveys, secondary literature, observation and diaries, visual methods and practice-based research. 

The research cycle consists of starting with a problem/idea which generates a research question, defines the research methodology, finds a research outcome and solves the problem/idea.

1. Initial ideas

• manageable; within the given word count and considers time restrictions
• original; sheds new light or provides new insights and avoids well-trodden routes
• relevant; within the field of graphic design, and furthers study or career

2. Framing a question

• research isn't a vernal exploration of. subject area
• focused inquiry on a particular aspect or angle
• locates a specific question about the topic within your research territory to frame the focus of the research
• considers preliminary reading, takes a fresh angle and keeps the scope narrow

3. Review the literature (books/journal articles)

• what has been written about the topic to date? 
• what are the relevant theoretical frameworks?
• what are the key texts or studies in that field?
• what methods have been used?

4.Choose your method 

• the choice of method must fit the research question
• how well does it measure what its meant to?
• must. be appropriate to the scale of the project

Three Key Methodologies

Visual

• study of media and artefacts
• deconstruction and evaluation of films, comics and graphic novels, games, adverts, or any other visual artefact using theory to frame analysis
• applying theory is a bit like applying a filter (e.g. feminism, semiotics, narratology)
• enables deconstruction of visual artefact

Social science

• approaches used in sociology, cultural studies, psychology etc to understand humans and their interactions
• quantitative (surveys, counts, questionnaires, represents the whole of target population, roots in sciences, good for snapshots/trends, but cant answer how or why)
• qualitative (interviews, focus groups, conversations, diaries, deeper insight, recognises complexity of humans in cultures and wider society, values individual perspectives, good for asking how or why, but difficult to generalise)

Practice-based

• based in the processes of field 
• the research method is creative practice itself (e.g. critical self-reflection)

Below is an example of a research/topic question with my ideas for methods or approaches that could be used to research it:

Researching the history of the various tools would give a good base to work off to begin the essay, introducing the reader to why they were created in the first place and the intended uses. Getting the opinions of various designers would also inform me as to what they believe are the best tools and whether the tools produce different effects. ​I also believe conducting a practices-based experiment would be highly informative as it would give a working example of not only how the tools are used by different designers but also how those choices might be effected by the designers age, background, design style, and maybe even if it is influenced by the way they where taught design in school. In addition it would show the differences between them based on the outcomes of the brief; whether one method produces a better result than the other. 

The Role and Value of Research 

Research is the search for, and systematic advancement of, knowledge and is an integral part of creative and professional practice. Becoming a critical practitioner means being able to design effective research strategies.

Primary Methods

This method involves carrying out research yourself in the studio or out in the field. Practice led research refers to where knowledge emerges through a cycle of activity and reflection and where theories, issues and interest are investigated by the production of creative works. Approaches may include:

• mapping
• experimentation with materials and processes
• sketchbook or blog-based investigation
• formal analysis and/or application of theory
• adapted social-science methods (e.g interviews)

Secondary Methods

This refers to reading and analysing existing published sources, such as:
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• theoretical frameworks or fields of research
• reading list/locating key texts on your subject
• literature review and comparison between sources
• finding useful case studies

Remaking Theory, Rethinking Practice

In Andrew Blauvelts book, 'Remaking Theory, Rethinking Practice', the Japanese-American curator highlights common criticisms against the use of theory. He argues 'overintellectualization' disrupts the artists natural intuition because it's too abstract and vague; theory does not respond to the realities of studio practice, or the commercial world. 
​He also proposes that the 'impasse between theory and design must be bridged' and argues that design is a form of 'social practice', and 'thinking' and 'doing' are two sides of the same coin symbiotically linked. Theory is designed and therefore able to be shaped and used in a creative practice.
He then turns the argument on its head - 'it is important to recognise that design no matter how it is practiced, fashions its own theories about making that help give it meaning, significance, and legitimacy'. He then goes on to argue that theory is designed and is therefore able to be shaped and used in creative practice.
Blauvelts final point refers to rethinking practice within a theoretical framework - 'theory provides the basis with which to ask questions not only about work, but also through work. And if nothing else, what design lacks in terms of interesting work these days is not necessarily more visual variety, but rather more provocative questions and polemical answers'.

Theory is relevant and useful because it is important to place yourself as a creative and your practice within a broader cultural context. It is also useful in developing a visual literacy and understand how your work is read and understood by the audience.
In addition, theory helps inform your creative practice, to create more insightful and impactful work, as well as helps you design effective research strategies to address a variety of creative briefs. It also encourages lateral thinking, which is important in an ever changing and complex cultural landscape.

I found Blauvelts writing to be quite hard to understand but I've highlighted below areas of the text that stood out to me.

Sources:
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• Bestley, R and Noble, I. Visual Research: An Introduction to Research Methods in Graphic Design (pages 7-240)
• Blauvelt, A. Remaking Theory, Rethinking Practice in Heller. S. Education of a Graphic Designer (pages 71-77)

Notes:

*no notes due to being absent at the lecture

Defining Post-Modernism

Modernism dates back roughly 100 years, from mid 19th century Europe to late 1970s America. It refers to a sustained period of innovation in the arts, linked to changes in industrial practices, science and media, and overarching political and power constructs such as socialism, communism, fascism, capitalism etc. Key themes of modernism include rationalism, technological determinism over culture, belief in grand narratives and foregrounding of high culture.
Post-modernism is a contested term that roughly dates back to the 1980s to present day, and describes the time we are currently living through. Seductive, fashionable, but disputed and elusive, there is a lack of consensus on its meaning or application because the term is still in the process of being defined.

After-Modernism

'After modernism' argues that modernism has run its course; a complete knowledge and history has been surpassed by a new age so there's nothing left to be modernised. From the 1980s onwards there is increased globalisation activity and a rise in new media/post internet culture. The story has gone because there is no more grand or meta narrative and there is historical fragmentation and disruption of order. The grand narratives have been replaced by localised or individual 'micro-narratives' and technology allows for experimentation with identity and personal narrative. There are also post-truth perspectives and this culture refers to a distrust in fact/expert opinion. Truth is relative, contested, not absolute; replaced by authenticity.

Anti-Modernism

'Anti-modernism' is a complex reaction to the failures of modernism and is anti-foundational; rejection of rationalism, truths, certainties, doctrines and unstable belief systems. There is no universal truth or philosophy. It questions the 'ideological bias' of all history and knowledge, showing scepticism towards the grand political schemes of modernism. Some anti-modernism examples include contradictory attitudes to modern media (fake news), feminist anti 'patriarchal' perspectives, and no more rules/subversion of modernist ideals.
​
Hyper-Modernism

'Hyper-modernism' refers to modernism as an incomplete project, cyclical, in tandem with post-modernity. In relation to new media technologies it presents technological acceleration, cyber culture and the ideological new, and post-internet acceleration of cultural hybridity.

Visual Culture

Features of post modernity include:

Merging of high and low cultural forms 
Refers to high culture as having depth, high value, is spiritual, elitist, long lasting, serious, unique and politically motivated; low culture is at the surface, has low value, is commercial, popular, transient, gimmicky, mass produced and politically influenced.

Mutations in public space 
​Refers to urban or fantasy architectural spaces; sampling of different period styles, reflecting global/cultural hybridity, hyper-reality and nostalgia culture.

The unstable image
Can refer to the semiotic overload of the hyper-real: proliferation of image signs where we can only read their representations and not their meaning; we can no longer trust images as true representations of reality. The order of the Simulacra refers to the degradation and includes 4 stages representing image-signs:
Stage 1) Reflection of basic reality
Stage 2) Masks and perverts a basic reality
Stage 3) Makes the absence of a basic reality
Stage 4) Bears no relation to any reality whatsoever
Other examples include bricolage, parody and pastiche, intertextuality and double coding, and hybrid genres and use of irony.

Society of the spectacle 
Refers to mediation; life lived on and through a screen and that complexity is the new reality with multi-modal narratives.

What Are You Looking At?

Below I have annotated and highlighted a chapter of the book by former director of London’s Tate Gallery, Will Gompert, looking at 150 years of modern art. 

In summary, the text illustrates some examples of post-modernity. It explains how 'postmodernism can be pretty much anything you want it to be', which is both a blessing and a curse. It can be seen to be a mix of 'bits and pieces of what had gone before, from previous movements and ideas'.
​One graphic designer Gompert references to is the work of Barbara Kruger, who merged her own 'brand identity' of personal pronouns, bold lettering and halftone images with red lettering, an reference to Rodchenkos Constructivist posters, and the Bauhaus font, Futura, always in italic, to acknowledge the Futurists. She mimics the the commercial methods of advertising posters to 'question the commercial practices of the art world', suggesting themes of postmodernity such as 'authorship, authenticity, reproduction and identity'.