User:Pleun/grad/ProposalTWO2

Rewriting my graduation intent.

After our talk on the 25th I realized a few things. Firstly that I hadn't written about my main path & goals and secondly that I wrote about an interest which could turn into a written text and a project intention, but I did not yet write about a project.

The last three years I've been taking steps towards a practice that borrows from my design background but focusses on an experience based output. Before those three years, 2014, I had been developing my information design and main graphic design skills that would result mainly in printed media and web-based works. Both of those would be considered "done" the moment it was made public, without a transformative afterlife or a further interaction with the public. In this process, the maker and the public are very disconnected from each other to the point where they don't really meet at any point. I felt more and more dissatisfied with that method, as I realized Information Design the way I practiced it wasn't functioning the way I was intending it to function. Information design as an information carrier has its flaws, namely: you always have to generalize and abstract the data, with large quantities the graphs get more complicated and there isn't always time to decipher or sufficient explanation, so a lot of information is lost and lastly the earlier comment about the disconnection with your reader. In newspapers or books these problems are solvable and there is a lot of good examples that do that, but I didn't see myself only working for those platforms. So I was searching for other ways to design, or rather: "create and share new narratives about current affairs and interests" as I describe it on my website. First off I expected to find my holy grail online, which is mainly why I came to the Piet Zwart to be honest. I expected to dive into interactive projects online, where I would find my way of creating and sharing content which would create the user-experience that I was aiming for. When I came to Piet Zwart though, I found myself in search for directer contact with an audience. I found myself disliking the screen between me and my public more and more. It's not that I don't see myself doing any web-based work anymore, but rather that the search for a method that combines design and experience isn't finished yet.

One of the first things I did after coming to Rotterdam and realizing the above is: I became a VJ. Why? Because although VJ's are in service to a party, the practice combines graphics and public in a very direct way. It's live performing design. And there is a lot to gain in this field. There are not that many experimental VJ's out there. Could I tell a story within this role and engage with an audience?

(UNDER CONSTRUCTION. WORKKKK is being done here, holla)