FURTHER AREAS OF RESEARCH

There are some things that I can do to research this project further having already researched into interactivity in order to create the final product that will connect with the viewer:

1. I need to decide who the target audience will be.
2. Produce a questionnaire or hold a focus group in order to find out peoples views on the subject.
3. I will then need to take some primary footage, be this photographs or film to see the subject at first hand, however, I will need to ask permission of those participating in the research if it is to be used for commercial use.
4. If it is possible and not dangerous, hold interviews so I have a strong understanding of the subject myself.

INTERACTIVITY PROJECT IDEAS AND AIMS

Reflecting on my original ideas, I have learned a lot about levels of interaction and how this may be reflected in my project. I have chosen to do an interactive advertising campaign. The main focus of the project is not the immediate thought of interaction like a game or a website, although there will be some interaction to this degree in some aspects of this interactive advertising campaign, but will be the interaction between people and their degrees of learning. As in my research I found that this project will be taking on some of the views of 'Rhodes' and Azbell' and Jonassen.

Rhodes and Azbell (1985) suggest that interactivity can be measured on many different levels, the level of interaction, however, will be the one that makes the product more successful. Some may say that the lower levels of interaction will be that of a book or poster or magazine because you are not physically interacting with it on a high level like a game. Jonassen (1988) has five main views associated with interactivity, but I feel that my project will take on the idea that user involvement should be due to the subsequent effect on learning instead of controlling or navigating. Therefore, my interactive advertising campaign will be interactive on the degree of the user's learning of the subject by the thoughts it provokes and the reaction it creates to encourage the viewer to learn more.

I am thinking that my project will consist of a series of posters that will show consistency in composition throughout so that they can be connected to the same campaign that will either hold factors of shock or irony to provoke thought. I may consider also making some form of e-card which will be a disk that displays all posters as well as have options to view facts on the subject and another option to suggest other sources or campaigns that may bare relevance to the subject at hand. This way I will be aiming to have people interacting with people by what they have learnt from the posters as well as immediate interaction where they are creating their own opinions on what they are seeing and then a more physical interaction by being able to click to reveal more information on the subject on an e-card.

I have researched into existing interactive advertising campaigns. These include campaigns for: quitting smoking, anti drugs, STIs, sex trafficking, child abuse and animal cruelty. Some posters or television advertisements use irony in order to be suggestive in their message whereas others use the shock value to be suggestive. I feel that I will base my final idea on one of these subjects in order to create awareness within the community.

DISSERTATION- FIRST IDEAS

I have chosen to base my dissertation on advertising as it corresponds well with my previous project and also what I have decided to do for my interactive project. Advertising is something that is very big within the media, and now bares as much importance television programmes etc. Although I have not yet decided on a title for my dissertation, I am aiming to look at the influence of advertising on contemporary consumer society which will cover the ideals behind why we buy what we buy and how we are influenced in order to purchase the things we buy. I will be looking at the role advertising plays in consumerism today and what angles it takes in order to direct our interest into certain products, for example, style, composition and meaning. I will also be looking to how advertising worked in the past and argue the point whether there are other factors when looking at the see-want-buy process other than the subconscious pressure of an advert, e.g., is it our own culture or human desire that creates the want for something.

I have already looked at the well known essay, 'Postmodernism is Consumer Society,' by Fredric Jameson on many times with great interest as he refers to how we resort back to postmodern ideals when we look to consume something. This could be one argument but in my essay I want to look at modern influences as well as past. I have also found an article called 'Television and Interpersonal Influences on Adolescent Consumer Learning' by Gilbert A. Churchill, Jr.and George P. Moschis. I have not yet studied this in depth but I feel that it portrays some important points which could be useful within my essay. 'What consumerism means for marketers' by P Kotler is another source which I will endeavour to look at within my research.

MY FIRST INITIAL IDEAS....

After these areas of research, I have decided that I may do an advertising campaign which will create an imotional impact with the audience causing them to interact with it. If it is a campaign say against Sex Trafficking or to stop smoking, people will interact with the image that you produce providing it shocks enough to create thought. The posters/ flyers/ installation will be interactive in the making and its purpose will to make the audience engage with the subject at hand. I have written to various existing charities and campaigns to recieve information packs as research to see what effects they will have on me and others. I am also going to conduct a survey to the target audience to help with my design. That way I will be interacting with the audience on a research level without having even made the piece. The piece will be a result of target audience interaction.

INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING

Advertising is one of my main interests and so, I thought that I could intergrate this idea in with my brief. When you think of interactive advertising, you automatically thing of a website portraying a product or a moving advert that you can click on to view more. Interactive advertising, however, can use both online and offline interactive media in order to communicate with their consumers where they can promote all sorts of products, services and campaigns.

As it is now with design, interaction and multimedia are now intergrated into many different areas. When we look at Interactive Advertising, it's main objectives, although it still keeps the impact and the relevance of the traditional system. It holds new and different outlooks to help tackle the cinsequential losses associated with poorly co-ordinated advertising.

Another objective of Interactive Advertising is that it is 'user genertated' meaning that it would be created with the desieres or needs of the consumer. This means the product/service/ campaign will have to be researched as a subject so that there is a strong background knowledge and then the target audience will have to be researched in order to depict a design that will relate to them, however for complete social involvement and interaction, it has to be a design that will impact those not directly associated with the product/ service/ campaign. In opposition to this are the traditional advertising methods where the sole aim of the advert is aimed directly at a specific target audience.

INTERACTIVE ART

I have touched a little on Interactive Art. In my research for this I found that interactive art can also be found on a computer, allowing its visitors to navigate through a hypertext environment or allowing its viewer to manipulate an art piece to create a different view. Despite the immediate idea of producing an interactive art piece on the computer such as in the way I explained above, I also found that an interactive art piece can be something like an image or an installation. These maybe some pieces that can be touched or smelt as a form of interaction or they may be something that creates such and impact that the viewer is engaged by purely viewing this piece, interacting with it with emotion or thought. For this idea I have researched two artists; Geoff Bunn and Cindy Sherman for their art pieces that I felt a high degree of interaction with. Some of their images are meant to shock, some to confuse and some to provoke thought.

Having researched interactive art in detail I have decided that I may produce a piece or an installment that would require me to interact with the piece as I am making it and then the final being something that an audience can interact with. For this I have decided tht I would much rather create a piece that will impact on a certain audience, that will make people thing and then act and therefore reacting with the cause. For this, I have decided to research Interactive Advertising to see what sort of angle I can take with that.

INTERACTIVITY BRIEF

Haven't updated my blog in a long time!



Having researched into interactivity and what this word and its meaning covers, I found some stuff very interesting and also unexpected. My first initial thoughts on interactivity was that it would be a computer game or a website, something hands on and something that you physically have to touch or engage with in order to be interacting. This then made me think that perhaps creating a website, with different ways of displaying the information, eg, a different navigation system or a different way of bringing up the images within the site, however, having already made a website for my work, I decided to explore interactivity in more depth to see if I could produce something different to a website or a game.