Abstract:
This research explores the effect on visual communication design of the
differences between what is observed (seen), how that is recorded
(documented) and what is subsequently projected to viewers (designed).
Theorising of these differences form an established body of ethnographic
knowledge (see Ball and Smith 1992; Prosser 1998) yet the implications of
such theory on visual communication practice has to date been inadequately
explored. The problem for visual communication has been the difficulty of
moving from the presentation of banal observations of the world-as-found to
the conception and execution of design proposals. Little work has been
undertaken to identify methods to overcome this problem.
This research asks the question whether a method can be developed to assist
visual communication designers to better communicate information gathered
through observation? And further asks whether this method can overcome the
propensity to classify as banal observations of the world-as-found? This paper
will present preliminary work that begins to test, through visual communication
design, the suitability of methods of observation drawn from
phenomenological aspects of Visual Anthropology and Visual Sociology.
