Are We All Designers?

Several design writers have proposed, or at least implied, that “…we are all designers…” through the way we manipulate the environment around us, select the items we wish to own, plan, build, buy, arrange, and restructure things all in a form of design. During the same time, design as a behavioural phenomenon has increased its capacity and breadth and as a result, design activity extends from the objects we use on a daily basis to cities, landscapes, nations, cultures, bodies, genes, political systems, digital existences, food production, the way we travel and even cloning sheep. This paper reports on an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project that seeks to explore current models of creative practice, examining where disciplinary, conceptual, theoretical, and methodological edges lie in an attempt to define the significant drivers of any movements across disciplinary boundaries. The project’s creative workshop activities have also facilitated comparison of the outputs between single-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary group working and has allowed the research team to explore how non-designers and designers alike transfigure creative space during practical design exercises. The outputs of the first workshop pose fundamental questions for the future of design education models based purely on disciplinary perspectives and furthermore questions whether current understandings of design thinking encompass more generalist human traits. The need to educate designers who can surf across disciplinary boundaries to tackle the 21st century’s emerging complex and wicked social, environmental and economic issues suggests a radical rethink against the individual and disciplinary based perspectives that largely prevail

Centrefold

Over the past decade, female genital cosmetic surgery has increased by a staggering 500%. Centrefold is a unique animated documentary that takes an innovative and balanced approach to this controversial topic. Created by award winning filmmaker Ellie Land and funded by the Wellcome Trust, the film follows three women, aged 24 -41 through their different experiences of labiaplasty (surgery to trim or remove the labia). The research question explored in the making of Centrefold was concerned with how to represent scientific information and create a balanced viewpoint of labiasurgery, using animation and narrative techniques. The discussion points explored are: body anxiety, the manufactured body, normality, physical complaints, and feelings after the surgery. Land has used animation devices through characterization and acting and emotive use of music, to steer a more balanced viewpoint. Secondary, ongoing research around this project focuses on using online distribution, ’How can online methods stimulate and encourage new audiences for animated documentary?’ Is labiaplasty anti-female ‘pornification’, or an empowering personal choice? Centrefold provides the facts. You decide. To find out more and join the debate go to www.thecentrefoldproject.or

Centrefold screening

Invited by the Austrian government, Department of Women’s Health and Tricky Women to screen the film and speak at a panel event, held at the Governments official buildings. The conference and panel event were both attended by Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek, the government minister for Women's Health. The panel event included Professor Beate Wimmer-Puchinger, a renowned academic for women’s studies

The art of science

Supported by the Wellcome Trust, in partnership with Rich Pickings a screening and panel discussion of films made in partnership with science

Die Andere Seite (Otherside)

Die Andere Seite is a response born from Land’s personal recollection of living in divided Berlin in 1986. In 2007, Land interviewed former East and West Germans asking them to recall how they imagined the other side of their city/ country to be, before the fall of the wall. She asked people that had never been to ‘the other side’ Land was particularly interested in using animation and documentary to explore the memories, emotions and historical facts presented. Die Andere Seite is the product of an investigation into the construction of narrative through experimentation with the relationships between sound and image, and the way in which the two mediums interplay to create thematic and dramatic resonance and meaning. The use of 'animatics' was crucial in the development stage, allowing the testing of different methods and modes of marrying and juxtaposing sounds and images. Once the most suitable sequence of sound and image had been found, the images were animated, resulting in a structure that explores and celebrates the interplay between rich and sparse, audio and visual. The aim was to create a film that allows the stories of the German people to be heard on an emotive level. The recollections and feelings providing a valuable record of Germany’s fascinating history. The importance of Die Andere Seite has been confirmed by its extensive showings on the international film festivals and more recently, it was curated for various screenings and exhibitions commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in the year 2009, including a British Council exhibition in Brussels. Interfilm Berlin selected Die Andere Seite to appear on the Kurz in Berlin DVD compilation, a showcase of films about living with the Berlin Wall, available through the Interfilm Berlin shop and Amazon

Giving life to stills

Panel discussion featuring several talented ladies who bring their ideas to life using animation techniques. The speakers will show work and share their career stories

WTF online audiences and animated documentary

"Everything Was Life is an animated documentary exploring the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). It was directed by the first author as a final year degree project and subsequently made available on YouTube. The intended audience for the piece was initially academic but its availability on YouTube has enabled it to reach a wider audience. At the time of writing the video has over 196,000 viewings and 324 comments. YouTube video analytics indicate that it was most popular in the USA, Alaska and mainland Europe. These statistics also suggest that males exclusively viewed it over the age of twenty-four. The paper asks what happens when an animation made for a small academic audience reaches a larger and unforeseen audience. It draws on critical theories such as reader response theory as well as the empirical data on YouYube to contrast the film maker’s original aims with the YouYube response. Comments on YouYube are analysed using a grounded theory approach. Responses include amazement confusion (WTF i.e. what the fuck), cultural distancing and ethical engagement. It is argued that the new media platforms such as YouTube not only offer animators new means of distributing their work but also insights into the ways that audiences other than those intended receive it

The Process of Using Participatory Research Methods with Film-Making to Disseminate Research: Challenges and Potential

This Methods-in-Action case study outlines the process of developing an animated film to disseminate research into the lived experiences of welfare reform. As part of a commitment to including aspects of participatory research within an Economic and Social Research Council–funded study (‘The Lived Experiences of Welfare Reform’), the researcher worked with a film-maker and some of her research participants to develop and produce a short animated film. The film was designed to explore key findings from the research project and was one output from the research. This case study explores the reasoning behind including this participatory element in the broader research project and outlines how the film was made, and how participants were involved in this process. Importantly, the particular challenges and potentials with using film-making techniques in this context are also explored. These potential advantages and disadvantages are closely linked to broader issues around including aspects of participatory research within research studies