Assignment 3 – Love your Natives

Love your Natives

Living in New Zealand only part of my life and being surrounded by foreign people I have come to appreciate beauty and wonder that comes from our native birds. In particular the Tui, I have always loved to see a one fly by or being singing in a tree nearby. To imagine one day I was no longer able to see a Tui flying or hear one singing is horrible. To see how many species of New Zealand birds are considered endangered is almost unbelievable and I decided if I was to act on something it will be this. I believe these small creatures are something I associate so strongly with New Zealand and to see them go would be seeing part of New Zealand die.

My main artist I was inspiring from was Andreas Lie, although his work differs quite considerably from mine, I found his harmony between nature and the digital style was very well executed. This is what I wanted to portray in my work, I tried to depict a poster which had harmony with the bird, which in order created a neutral style. In my research I also found the organisation “Make NZ predator free” which aim was to extinguish the predators that were introduced into New Zealand by humans. This would likely result in the increase in numbers of the endangered species of birds. I based my ideas around this organisation.

My final poster, contains a Chatham Island Tui, which is endangered, I decided to use this in my final due to its fame, familiarity and personal connection I have with the Tui. I want the viewer to be able to relate to the poster so it affects them personally and hopefully gets them to act. I wanted to create a grunge style to my poster to create a natural look, which I believe creates a more passive feeling. I used the green to imply the green country New Zealand is associated with, and continuing the passive theme. When researching I found online a list of all the species of birds in New Zealand that are endangered. I found how long the list was quite startling and thought this would be a good idea to interpret into my work to help the viewer gain the same reaction.

Mirzoeff’s ideas on ‘visual activism’ and ‘visual thinking’ I believe were to be able to contextualise the world around you and determine opinions of them wrong or right. To then take those you believe wrong and try put your foot down and through our forte as designers act upon these problems through visual texts. Ideally what I wanted to achieve from this project is for people of New Zealand to understand how much we will miss our Native birds if they became extinct, and that in order for this to change we need act more effectively now.

Assignment 3 – Final (Draft)

My Final Project

Living in New Zealand only part of my life I and being surrounded by foreign people I have come to appreciate beauty and wonder that comes from our native birds. In particular the Tui, I have always loved to see a one fly by or being singing in a tree nearby. To imagine one day I was no longer able to see a Tui flying or hear one singing is horrible. To see how many species of New Zealand birds are considered endangered is almost unbelievable. This is why I chose this topic, because I believe these small creatures are something I associate so strongly with New Zealand.

My main artist I was inspiring from was Andreas Lie, although his work differs quite considerably from mine, I found his harmony between nature and the digital style was very well executed. This is what I wanted to portray in my work, I tried to depict a poster which had harmony with the bird, which in order created a neutral style. In my research I also found the organisation “Make NZ predator free” which aim was to extinguish the predators that were introduced into New Zealand by humans. This would likely result in the increase in numbers of the endangered species of birds. I based my ideas around this organisation.

My final poster, contains a Chatham Island Tui, which is endangered, I decided to use this in my final due to its fame, familiarity and personal connection I have with the Tui. I want the viewer to be able to relate to the poster so it affects them personally and hopefully gets them to act. I wanted to create a grunge style to my poster to create a natural look, which I believe creates a more passive feeling. I used the green to imply the green country New Zealand is associated with, and continuing the passive theme. I found online a list of all the species of birds in New Zealand that are endangered. I found how long the list was quite startling and thought this would be a good idea to interpret into my work.

Mirzoeff’s ideas on ‘visual activism’ and ‘visual thinking’ I believe were to be able to contextualise the world around you and determine opinions of them wrong or right. To then take those you believe wrong and try put your foot down and through our forte as designers act upon these problems through visual texts.

Assignment 3 – Blog Task 3

For my topic, I have found it hard to find artists who are focusing on the same topic as myself. I have found many artist focusing on animal rights and deforestation, but none that focus on the introduction of predators resulting in the endangerment of species. Therefore I have had to divide my research into to categories; research of the actual project, and design research to what I want my poster to be.

After starting with Andreas Lie as my artist I would try gain ideas off, I went on a bit of tangent in my work. My work itself differs quite considerably from his work in my concepts.

Here are my first concepts:

In this concept I use a Kea as my  main image. Trying to create a simplistic style to it I went for a Sans serif font and made the font very small to lose focus. The four red bars are a symbolic gesture of the introduced mammals which are restricting the destroying the numbers of birds of species like the Kea. I interpreted the very own ‘New Zealand Green’ slogan to create a personal attachment to the poster, as New Zealanders are very proud to be called and ‘green’ country.

In this concept I used the Takahe as my main image another species of endangered native bird in New Zealand which has less than 200 individuals remaining. Having well known birds is I believe important in my project because I want the audience to be able to relate to the poster. The tear drops is depicting the sadness of the loss of our native birds.

This concept was very simplistic, possibly too simplistic and therefore can be improved in my final concepts. I wanted to use the Tui because the fame behind the bird and also the natural beauty that the bird holds. I placed the bird on the right side of the poster so that it is going from right to left, which creates a feeling of wrongness due our minds reading from left to right. Symbolising we are going in the wrong direction in terms of protecting our native birds.

Key Terms Defined:

agency: The means of being in action. (Harcourt, Mifflin. 2009)

citizenship: The character of a member of society viewed by their contribution to their society. (Random House Dictionary. 2016)

social responsibility: Defined by the society itself it is what is deemed important for you as a member of the society your required contribution to your community.

transformative practices: It is the improvement of self set out by yourself and possibly others in order to improve. It is not something done easily, you must break habit first.

 

Works Cited:

American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. 2011. by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Random House Dictionary, Random House, Inc. 2016.

Assignment 3 – Blog Task 2

For this topic I have decided to use the medium of design, I will be creating a poster to create awareness of the endangered species of birds created by predators.

I have researched a designer/artist named Andreas Lie, his design style and interpretation of animals has a resemblance as to what I want to do for my topic. His work doesn’t necessarily focus on the problems I am trying to face therefore he will be exclusively an artist model.

Lie, Andreas The Arctic. 2015. Photography, Design. Andreas Lie. http://www.andreaslie.com

 

URL: http://www.andreaslie.com/The-Arctic

I have also researched an organisation within New Zealand called, ‘Predator free NZ’ which considerably focus on the topic I have chosen; stopping predators (that have been introduced to New Zealand) killing Native animals, and/or out competing them and therefore oppressing them resulting in endangerment of species. I believe this organisation will be where I will be basing most of my ideas from.

URL: http://predatorfreenz.org/

Evidently the result of these native birds going extinct is going to result in a New Zealand in which we cannot call what is was, as the decrease numbers of native birds drops dramatically while the introduced predators increase. For example the Kakapo in which use to range from the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island has now became the rarest parrot in world due to the introduction of Stoats which have been killing the Kakapos’. There were 86 recorded Kakapo’s left in the world. (Morris, R. 2008)

Key Term Definitions:

visual activism:  It is defined under the lines of impeding, promoting of direct public issues, i.e. social, environmental, political etc through visual texts. (Elephant Journal. 2015.) 

change agents: This is the person whom from outside or inside the organisation who organises the effectiveness, improvement and development. (Couros, George. 2006)

cultural critics:  A cultural critic is a reviewer of a specific part of a culture.

protest: This is the disagreement of something in which is taken publicly to criticize and try to change.

resistance: This is where someone or something has friction against what they/it are getting told to be.

 

Works Cited:

Couros, George. “5 Characteristics of a Change Agent.”. Georgecouros.ac. 13-01-2006.

“Inspired Voices: 5 Unconventional forms of Activism.”. Elephant Journal. Retrieved 2015-12-09.

Morris, R., & Ballance, A. (2008). Rare wildlife of New Zealand. Auckland, New Zealand: Random House.

Assignment 3 – Blog Task 1

The Topic I have decided to focus on is the endangerment of the native birds of New Zealand. Created by the introduction of mammals into exclusively bird dominated environment. This sudden introduction created a large amount of pressure on these birds as they were not adapted to survive against and/or in competition with these mammals. This has resulted in the oppression of native birds in New Zealand; national icons like the Kiwi have pushed to the boundaries of extinction. To call ourselves a green country and yet remain to not put a stop to this growing problem is but a lie. In this topic I wish to create awareness for this problem through a designed image.

Mirzoeff writes in his book about the ideas of being aware to the problems of the world, and act on the ones you deem worth fighting for. I believe he is trying to explain the idea of knowledge and to not be naïve to the problems around us.

In the video below Dr Graeme Elliott of the Department of Conservation speaks of effects the pests have had on the native birds and how it is possible to control these pests in order to save the ever so dying populations of native birds.