DS1 Topic 1, 2 and 3 Notes

11/4/17 - Week 3
DST60103, Yip Jinchi
Design Studies I: Communication Theory
Topic 1, 2 and 3 Notes

Topic 1 Communication

Communication is the sharing of ideas, messages and information through media, allowing individuals and groups to gain, seek or express emotion.

Body language plays a major role in communication, allowing us to send ideas, opinions and express emotion through non-verbal cues and actions. The study of body movements is known as kinesis. Body language in communication consists of 6 features:

1. Posture - slouched or stiff
2. Head position - nods and shakes
3. Facial expression - grimaces and grins
4. Eye Contact - eye-to-eye contact or avoidance
5. Gestures - thumbs up or fists

Different cultures might perceive different body gestures differently. Certain unconscious gestures like scratching, excessive blinking and fidgeting may reveal the mental state of the speaker. Paralanguage in the forms of "ha", "uh-huh" or "hmm" can help maintain an unbroken communication chain, by providing the speaker with some form of constant feedback from the listener. Shrieking and shouting are also forms of Paralanguage. Other factors also affect the chain of communication.

• Voice and tone - sincerity and sarcasm
• Space - too close or too far
• Silence - thought or anger
• Listening - hearing is just obtaining the message, listening is actually absorbing it and offering an appropriate reply.

Topic 2 Visual Communication I

All images, verbal or non-verbal have literal and symbolic meanings. Being frequently exposed to certain images will allow us to learn something new about said images every time, as our brain makes newer connections. There are three steps receiving visual information:

1. Sensing - light enters our eyes and our brain interprets the information. Light or dark places may affect our receiving of visual information.
2. Selecting - choosing what to focus on
3. Perceiving - interpreting the visual information, attempting to discern the meaning behind it.

Mind mapping also helps to brainstorm and generate ideas through interconnected ideas. It starts with a single idea represented by text, color or an image. More subsidiary ideas are attached to that main idea and a hierarchy interconnects all these ideas together.

Mind-mapping can be used to help:

1. Take down notes
2. Brainstorm ideas and find creative solutions
3. Break down complex problems
4. Analyse and process information
5. Present information in a creative and easy to follow format

Juxtaposition means placing two images, with completely different meanings next to each other to invoke a sense of irony and to help highlight clashing ideas. Artists often use juxtaposition to highlight tense social issues. 

Visual puns are reminders that representations of reality are re-representations of reality in different forms. A visual pun is made when someone notices two different things that have a similar appearance, and constructs a picture to make this evident.

Metaphors are comparisons that bring together two dissimilar objects together. They're often used to associate a difficult subject with a familiar one to make the first easier to understand.

• Ideas have wings
• As strong as an ox
• You've got the heart of a lion

Analogies are comparisons between two dissimilar objects used in communication to further display how different these two objects are.

• What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly
• A fish to water as a bird is to air

Topic 3 Visual Communication II
When it comes to sight, there are four main types of visual cues that humans respond most quickly to:

• Color
• Form
• Depth
• Movement

Color is essentially wavelengths of visible light from the electromagnetic spectrum that the brain detects. Light is often religiously equated with life. Light is so greatly treasured because of the importance of seeing. 

British physicist Thomas Young was the first to link color to the human eye. He suggested nerve fibers in the retina responded to red, green and violet. Hermann von Helmholz further refined his idea. The Young-Helmholz theory explains how the eye physically sees color through the three colors; red, green blue. Color can be described objectively (through standard measurements of wavelengths) or comparatively/subjectively (the individual's evaluation and comparison).

Because red has a shorter wavelength, it is recognized faster, remains longer in the viewer's mind and is often used for street lights and signals. The comparative method of describing color is good for rough approximations while the subjective method is often symbolic; mental state, mood and age of a person for example.

Form defines the edges of an object, it consists of dots, lines and shapes. Printing and TV screens are made up of dots. The direction and thickness of lines can all convey messages; be it perspective/breakage or solidarity/fragility. The three basic shapes all have different representations; squares are sturdiness and stability, often used used in various design elements. Circles represent life, organic and global. Triangles represent energy and dynamism. 

Depth is caused by binocular vision, our two eyes have slightly different views of the same thing. The term parallax is the difference between what each eye sees. Movement parallax means objects that are closer move faster when the viewer moves.

There are also 8 or more other cues that give us the perception of depth:

• Space
• Size (comparative)
• Color (lightness)
• Lighting
• Textural gradients
• Interposition
• Time 
• Perspective