The Final Major Project

 http://sarah-durham-tmp.blogspot.co.uk/

Yesterday we began The Final Major Project by going to the location of our show. So I decided to start another blog which documents my process. As towards the end of this blog - when I was researching on the unconcious bias - I really found the blog useful in documenting my researching. In the end I quite enjoyed the experience of blogging.

Feedback

Strength:

'Lovely quality of the work'
'Range in shapes + characters. Good choice of material and colour.'
'Great use of materials and styles. The typography used is appropriate'
'Very good final outcome - looks like you spent your time on it. Its visually appealing'
'The visuals are lovely'

Areas of Development:

'Possibly think about creating something else to go with these like a booklet'
'Perhaps use sewing machine, stitching'
'Perhaps shoot a video on (what) peoples opinion on the topic are'
'Perhaps larger canvas or more of them. Fill the wall'
'Stitching into the images could be quite effective'

Personal Reflection:

I quite enjoyed using material for a change, as I typically use fineliner. I'm really pleased with the feedback and I will definately take on board everyones feedback. Before this response I did consider adding something else to this final piece, which is why I decided to create the worded video in order to give some explaination to the imagery. However, I ran out of time to perfect it for my final piece. But I would like to continue adding to this final piece, so that there is larger imagery and so that it would be able to fill a wall. 

My Final Piece (Close Up's)

This character relates to the idea that men can't be associated with pink because its too feminine. But it also relates to the idea that we can't have colourful hair at work or school because of their proffessional image.
 

With this character I was refering back to the TED Talk I watched about the unconscious bias.

This character is based on the Danish Girl to demonstrate how men can dress in womens clothing.

This quote came from the google video 'Making the Unconscious Conscious' (previously linked on my blog). I felt that this quote sumed up my aim for portraying the unconscious bias.

With this character I was demonstrating how it's okay for women to be hairy and have beards if they want to. 

Here I was demonstrating how women are strong and not weak like the steriotype suggests.

And lastly, with this character I was demonstrating how same sex parents and couples are normal.

Video Experiment

With this I was beginning to think about the typography side of my project in order to help communicate the message. I want to use a video to help explain the imagery within my final piece. However, this video is still a work in progress, as this was just a first draft to practice creating it and seeing how the words look. I feel the writing is to far to the right, therefore in my next attempt i need to make it more central. I also feel the transitions need to be faster. 

'Women Can"

"Men Can"

I decided to separate the men and women sections of the first video because I felt that the transitions weren't moving smoothly. I also decided to change the font from Eras Light ITC to Basic Title. Alongside this I decided to give the gender a coloured background, however, I'm wondering whether I shouldn't have done gender specific colours because its like I'm converting to the gender stereotypes. Alternatively, you could say the words are competing against the gender assumptions.

TAASA - Break The Box

I felt that this video was very powerful in breaking out of the gender stereotypes, whilst portraying an emotive and inspiring message. I think the idea of creating a worded box around the head is effective in communicating the message. This is because it can physically demonstrate how we hear these expectations all the time therefore they are inbuilt in our brains, to the extent that we feel trapped. so its inspiring to see them smash through these expectations towards the end.

Gendered Language Creates Stereotypes For Boys, Too

"If we only look at gender-role stereotypes in the context of little girls, we're just seeing half the picture. Here's a powerful compilation of the unfair labels we project onto boys that inevitably end up hurting us all." by artist Laurie Petrou.

I found it interesting and refreshing to see a boys version of gender-role stereotyping. I feel that with movements like feminism around to remind us of the unfair stereotypes of women, we may sometimes forget that men also have stereotypes they have to follow, such as not crying in public because it will make them look weak, but surely bottling up your feelings isn't good either? I was reading the comments to this video on youtube were someone said: "It's disgusting how gendered language creates stereotypes. Just the other day I started breaking down in tears at work and people tried to make me feel bad about it like I wasn't a man. What does that even mean, "Like a man"? Give me a break. Crying at work is for everybody." why do men have to be and act emotionless, when that the one thing every gender has in common, we all have emotions, we all cry, we all laugh, we all smile. so why does only half of the population get to show it? surely its a natural thing, without tears how do we release the sadness and grief? eventually its all going to build up until one day you burst like a water fountain - uncontrollably crying. how is that any better?

"They limit males to these options, and anyone out of line is made fun of, or is told they are not a man/are not manly/are sissies. They stop boys from becoming who they really are as people. Stereotypes keep people from realizing the negative attitudes and behaviours of people and make them say things like "boys will be boys" and "never hit a girl" (but, you know, it's fine to hit a boy). These stereotypes also negatively affect girls/women, in that if they are like the male stereotypes, they are referred to as tomboys, lesbians, manly, etc. These stereotypes single out people needlessly for being different, or for simply liking something that is considered to be gender exclusive. The thing is, gender stereotypes are only true if you keep on teaching them."

Examples of Unconscious Bias In Adverts

I feel like both these adverts demonstrates an element of the unconscious bias as they lead us to the assumption that they will be the athlete - the male role. Within the pot noodles advert we see him running, pushing weights and practice boxing, thus leading us to presume that he is training to be a boxer, yet we are shocked to find that he is in fact the person who holds the round cards, which is usually the job given to a women, therefore breaking the gender stereotype. I find these people to be brave in becoming vulnerable to do the thing they love, despite the gender stereotype that goes with it. Therefore these adverts could be considered inspiring. However, some people may find it weird and uncomfortable because it goes against their social norm. This is something i would like to incorporate in my final piece, by celebrating the people who dare to go against our social norm.

In this video they looked at how an advert would change if 'Women's Roles In Ads Were Played By Men' it was interesting to see the roles switched however, i found it uncomfortable to watch. 

Making the Unconscious Conscious

"Unconscious biases influence our actions every day, even when—by definition—we don’t notice them. These biases are shaped by our experiences and by cultural norms, and allow us to filter information and make quick decisions. We’ve evolved to trust our guts. But sometimes these mental shortcuts can lead us astray, especially when they cause us to misjudge people."

Unconscious Bias

After some discussions and tutorials i decided that feminism wasn't the right topic for me, as I couldn't see what I could with it or were to start. So I made the decision to look back at my research along with the map mind, which is were I decided to take a look at streams of consciousness. This then lead me to a blog were I was introduced to this TED Talk video by Yassmin Abdel-Magied on the 'unconscious bias' 

"Unconscious bias is not the same as conscious discrimination. I'm not saying that in all of you, there's a secret sexist or racist or ageist lurking within, waiting to get out. That's not what I'm saying. We all have our biases. They're the filters through which we see the world around us. I'm not accusing anyone, bias is not an accusation. Rather, it's something that has to be identified, acknowledged and mitigated against. Bias can be about race, it can be about gender. It can also be about class, education, disability. The fact is, we all have biases against what's different, what's different to our social norms." - (01:51)

I found the idea that we can all have bias towards people without evening knowing quite intriguing. It makes me begin to wonder how this unconscious bias has effected my decisions throughout the years and what would happened if I chose differently. It also makes me think what are my bias? what are my social norms? 

In this video I also found this example of our unconscious bias quite interesting as it has quite a surprising reaction which uncovers our assumptions on gender roles: "Let me give you an example. A son and his father are in a horrible car accident. The father dies on impactand the son, who's severely injured, is rushed to hospital. The surgeon looks at the son when they arrive and is like, "I can't operate." Why? "The boy is my son." How can that be? Ladies and gentlemen, the surgeon is his mother. Now hands up -- and it's okay -- but hands up if you initially assumed the surgeon was a guy?" - (04:02) So could my project be about stories were we mis-interpretate the situation or person.