User:Marlon/Graduate Research Seminar/thesis/draft: Difference between revisions

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Thesis template

This is a draft. Reading list here.

Name/title

Liberating the Physical Template of the New Human

Message from Archangel Michael

Channeled by Meredith Murphy

Telepathic Transmission - 1/2 May 2012

Key question

Some possibilities:

Are templates presets that generate not just similar design, but also similar content?
Do they liberate or limit their users?
Do these templates signify a graphic design crisis?

Introduction

Templates. Themes. Trends. Tropes.

65 High Quality Free Tumblr Themes

Tumblr as main example: uses templates, has repetitive (stencil) content, new visual language, community aspect.

Using Tumblr as an entry point or main example to draw out current situation/highlight interest in topic:

Popular micro-blogging service Tumblr, is quick and easy to use. Offers its users (free and pay-to-play) themes for the layout of their blogs. Its use is quite varied: from making friends and maintaining personal blogs and fansites to professional design portfolios. There is a lot of repetitive –symbolised by the never-ending scrolling layout– content, partly due to its 'reblogging' feature. Blogs are often dedicated to one topic, phenomena or filetype (see: "selfies at funerals"). Multiple blogs with the same purpose, name, style ("fuckyeah1990s", "fuckyeahdykes", "fuckyeahmiyazaki", etc).

Template

Templates and themes in a web environment: what are they, why do they exist, how do they work?

Customisable! Templates are restricting because they have to be. This is how they limit designers.
Content and form, the interplay, the boundaries.

Stencil

A template is easy to use, but its limitations guarantee a similarity in content. We enjoy this, because it requires us to think less.

Following (imitating) the norm. Repetition, memes, multiples.
Experience and lifestyle design: promoting yourself, designing your life, painting your existence more beautiful.
Advertisement and promotion, trends, aesthetics.

Graphic design

Not everyone is a (graphic) designer, but everyone can at least have the experience. Thanks to the templates, downloadable designs, mockups and apps, everyone can pretend to be one. Design performing."

Subtopics:

Downloadable and open design and its relation to free software.
User and producer future? Designing not the work, but the tools, the templates, "the user-friendly environment".
Mode of production, ownership.

Visual essay

Pics or it didn't happen.

Conclusion

Ambiguity, there are good and bad templates?

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+<font face=serif>
 == Thesis template ==
 This is a draft. Reading list [[User:Marlon/Graduate_Research_Seminar/thesis/reading | here]].
@@ Line 5: / Line 11: @@
 ====Name/title====
-Abstract goes here.
+Liberating the Physical Template of the New Human
-====Introduction====
+Message from Archangel Michael
+Channeled by Meredith Murphy
-From proposal final:
+Telepathic Transmission - 1/2 May 2012
-And do these templates, while giving users the option to customize and personalise, not just generate a mass of homogeneous content? With my background in Graphic Design, I have often encountered templates and created them. They're a part of the work that cannot be avoided, from style guides to "industry standard" software programs.
+====Key question====
-* Their restrictions and limitations can both liberate and limit the people who use them.
+Some possibilities:
-* Templates make a job easy, but tend to generate similar content.
+* Are templates presets that generate not just similar design, but also similar content?
+* Do they liberate or limit their users?
+* Do these templates signify a graphic design crisis?
-* They are beautiful, but promote imitation.
+====Introduction====
-====Work====
+Templates. Themes. Trends. Tropes.
-Older, newer, newest:
+==65 High Quality Free Tumblr Themes==
-===== Digital culture, repurposed =====
+''Tumblr as main example: uses templates, has repetitive (stencil) content, new visual language, community aspect.''
-=====Making visual connections =====
+Using Tumblr as an entry point or main example to draw out current situation/highlight interest in topic:
-=====Catalogue of templates=====
+Popular micro-blogging service Tumblr, is quick and easy to use. Offers its users (free and pay-to-play) themes for the layout of their blogs. Its use is quite varied: from making friends and maintaining personal blogs and fansites to professional design portfolios. There is a lot of repetitive –symbolised by the never-ending scrolling layout– content, partly due to its 'reblogging' feature. Blogs are often dedicated to one topic, phenomena or filetype (see: "selfies at funerals"). Multiple blogs with the same purpose, name, style ("fuckyeah1990s", "fuckyeahdykes", "fuckyeahmiyazaki", etc).
-====Theory====
+==Template==
-=====Template culture=====
+''Templates and themes in a web environment: what are they, why do they exist, how do they work?''
-This graduation year I am looking into template culture, inspired by a Samsung smartphone commercial that promises its customers a chance to 'design their lives'. Mobile phones, apps and social networking sites are branded as services we can use to express ourselves online or to display our distinct personalities. But in reality, there is something quite depersonalising about it: we are all taking the same type of pictures on the same type of phone and uploading them to the same website.
+* Customisable! Templates are restricting because they have to be. This is how they limit designers.
+* Content and form, the interplay, the boundaries.
-Not only do these devices and websites guarantee some kind of palette to 'paint your life' more beautiful, but extra features will help users manage every aspect of their busy lives. Not manage, compose! A semblance of control is promoted, not just related to lifestyle, but over the use of these applications as well. You decide the content, style and the presentation. But is this promise fulfilled or are they not just templates (or interfaces, filters, themes) with minimal customisation options? And do these templates, while giving users the option to customize and personalise, not just generate a mass of homogeneous content?
+==Stencil==
-''Imitation, the norm, copy, the standard, the original, homogeneity, liberating or limiting?''
+''A template is easy to use, but its limitations guarantee a similarity in content. We enjoy this, because it requires us to think less.''
-===== Template =====
+* Following (imitating) the norm. Repetition, memes, multiples.
+* Experience and lifestyle design: promoting yourself, designing your life, painting your existence more beautiful.
+* Advertisement and promotion, trends, aesthetics.
-The Dutch word for template is 'sjabloon', its original meaning is 'modelvorm': a mold or stencil that, for example, is used to draw the same shape over and over again. In a more abstract sense, the word can be applied to anything that is conventional and often imitated or repeated.
+==Graphic design==
-''Limitations, restrictions, the mould, sjabloon, stencil, content vs form, easy, user-friendly''
+''Not everyone is a (graphic) designer, but everyone can at least have the experience. Thanks to the templates, downloadable designs, mockups and apps, everyone can pretend to be one. Design performing."
-=====Lifestyle/experience design=====
+Subtopics:
-''Advertisement, promotion, trend''
+* Downloadable and open design and its relation to free software.
+* User and producer future? Designing not the work, but the tools, the templates, "the user-friendly environment".
+* Mode of production, ownership.
-=====Downloadable design =====
+==Visual essay==
-''Graphic design, new image making culture, prefab, downloads, user/producer, amateur, tool, app, download''
+Pics or it didn't happen.
-=====Visual essay=====
+==Conclusion==
-====Conclusion====
+''Ambiguity, there are good and bad templates?''
-''Ambiguity, good/bad templates''
+</font>