"Examine graphic design outputs relating to social, political and ethical change. Aim to increase your awareness of historical examples plus contemporary practice that is responsive to 21st Century issues. Be sure to note the relationship between medium and message.You should then produce a body of research work that explores the connections between these concepts and their respective design outcomes prior to your own practical and conceptual exploration of possible products, ranges and methods of distribution that may be suggested by your preferred content or, indeed, those that reflect your own ideologies, concerns and/or ambitions."
Examine graphic design outputs relating to:
-Social
-Political
-Ethical Change
Increase my awareness of historical examples and contemporary practices that are responsive to 21st century issues.
Look at relationship between medium and message.
Body of research work, exploring connections between concepts and the respective design outcomes.
"Part 1: Based on the introductory workshops, develop a practical, visual and contextual investigation of a specific subject. You should aim to develop research from a range of primary and secondary sources in order to fully explore the opportunities for informed creative development. Your research and development of this part of the brief should be documented on appropriate blogs and will be presented as part of your interim concept pitch."
Practical, visual and contextual investigation. Develop research from a range of primary/secondary sources to explore the opportunities for development. Blog research.
"Part 2: Devise and develop a body of practical work that both distils your knowledge of an identified issue and demonstrates your ability to tap into the market potential for socially, politically and ethically-driven design. This output should still work within the broader creative and professional contexts of graphic design but could be based around ideas of awareness or protest. Examples of potential deliverables include (but are not limited to):
materials relating to an issue-led campaign (this could be one affiliated to an established organization or a more ‘guerilla’ approach)
a poster series
a booklet/publication/manifesto
a web/digital platform
placards, banners or a set of badges
a range of products or merchandise that communicate your identified core message"
Body of practical work showing both the knowledge of an identified issue and demonstrate ability to design for socially, politically and ethically-driven design. Output should work within the broader creative and professional contexts of graphic design but could be based around ideas of awareness or protest.
Research into list, understand each outcome.
" Your contextual research, critical observations and reflective evaluations should be documented on your Design Practice blog and summarised within reflective content that supports your design submission. Your response should explore the relationship between product range and methods/media of distribution as well as specific audiences, contexts and appropriate tone of voice."
Research
When completing my research I wanted to look into the use of photography within graphic design and the manipulation of the public with images that have been created to lead the consumer and create a false sense of reality with the creation of manipulated imagery.
My research has been broken up into different sections. I will look into the following effects of manipulated imagery and how it has effect the ethics in the digital age. I will look into the following:
-The History of "Phototruth"
-Implications of the New Digital Age
-Ethical Foundations
-Processing Journalistic Photographs
-Cosmetic Retouching
"From the moment Talbot announced his new invention in 1839, the world was entranced with photography. Talbot himself realized that... He could freeze the visual spectacle of the world and create an object that could be savored long after the event had transpired. He could transform life into art." Commentary accompanying William Henry Fox Talbot's 1843 photo: "The Boulevards of Paris"
A discussion about "manipulated" photography has to begin with the understanding that photography is actually an inherent manipulation. Photography is a manipulation of light that has a process with steps. Photography is not absolute "reality". It should not be deemed as the "truth" and it is not purely "objective". The ability to distort and manipulate has been apparent since being invented. The loosely defined "Photojournalism" has acquired a recognition to reflect reality, in a compelling and credible way. In "the origins of photojournalism in america." Michael Carlebach explains that during the times when photographs were made into woodcuts or steel engravings, viewers recognised their basis in photographic processes and regarded them as a reliable depiction of actual events.
Why has photography been seen as inherently realistic for so long? Faith in mass-media imagery comes from the public. Taking pictures of our daily lives, documenting, and viewing the prints as a legitimate document that actually "captures" the scene in a meaningful way. Millions of people collect their photos in albums and pass them through generations for a nice memento of the time, but also a piece of evidence, showing how our appearance has changed and how the world once looked.
"People say if there was a fire, the first thing they would save is their photo albums. We almost fear we'll lose our memories if we lose our albums"
- Dartmouth College professor Marianne Hirsch
This may be true for traditional families, families brought up with printed photo's, a collection of negatives and actual prints, but with todays society everything seems to be backed up and stored online, and send to the social network, to shared to the vast social network.
"Fakery is a loaded word - I prefer alteration or manipulation," he said. "It's not always intended to be malicious."
- Professor Hany Farid, a computer scientist and digital forensics expert who is a professional spotter of faked images
Manipulations that Fooled the World
This nearly iconic portrait (in the form of a lithograph) of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is a composite of Lincoln’s head and the Southern politician John Calhoun’s body.
Manipulating Images as War Propaganda
There are many examples of how newspapers around the world photoshop images of war in order to influence public opinion. All sides in a conflict will do this as propaganda, so it is important to remember this when consuming news on international conflicts and to be alert for phonies. The images above of the conflict in Syria show how easily images are manipulated for the purposes of propaganda:
Fake 9/11
Soon after Sept 11th, 2001, this picture was clogging everyone’s e-mails. It is supposed to be the last picture taken on a roll of film from a camera that somehow managed to survive the decimation of everything in the Twin Towers. It was soon to be found as an altered image. Firstly, the weather on the image did not match the real weather on September 11th, 2001. Secondly, he is standing on the south tower, but the first tower to be hit was the north tower. Thirdly, the observation deck of the WTC was not open when the planes hit. Fourth, the aircraft that struck the WTC were traveling at such a velocity that only an extremely fast shutter speed would have rendered the amount of detail on the aircraft pictured. Finally, the plane on the picture is an American Boeing 757, while the planes that hit the WTC were Boeing 767s.
Cloned Soldiers
The altered image (left) was part of George Bush’s political campaign in 2004. He is digitally taken out by copying and pasting existing soldiers over the podium. Later, campaign managers would admit to the altering of the image. The Bush campaign corrected and re-shipped the campaign to TV stations.
Adding imagery
In 2004, an Anti-Kerry campaign was run to tarnish his name. This picture shows Kerry associating with Jane Fonda a vilified anti-war protester. The picture was mocked up to look like a news clipping from the ‘70s. The composite of two different images were of Kerry taken on June 13, 1971 and of Jane Fonda taken in August, 1972.
Doctored Imagery
In 2006, a reporter from Reuters was covering news about the Isreal-Lebonon conflict. This was the image he used to go with the story. “Hajj claimed he had just been trying to remove dust marks, and that he made mistakes due to the bad lighting conditions he was working under. Critics point out that this is impossible, as Hajj’s doctored image added an entire plume of smoke, duplicated several buildings, and showed a repeating pattern indicating that one plume of smoke was “cloned” several times.”
Fake Ice Team
Advertising Industry ‘Touches Up’ Images of People
The practice of digitally ‘touching up’ actors and models in images and videos is an overt industry standard. Yet most people, whether they’re aware of image manipulation or not, still process television and print images on the sub-conscious level as if they were, primarily because everyone is doing it, and our bias for ‘normal’ has been socially reconstructed to adopt advertising lies as normal.
This process is demonstrated in the following video where an ordinary looking woman is transformed into a lusty beauty queen for the purposes of selling more products to consumers.
This digital composite of Olympic ice skaters Tanya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan appeared on the cover of New York Newsday. The picture showed the rivals practicing together, shortly after an attack on Kerrigan by an associate of Harding’s husband. The picture caption reads: “Tonya Harding, left, and Nancy Kerrigan, appear to skate together in this New York Newsday composite illustration. Tomorrow, they'll really take to the ice together.”
Darkened Mugshot
In the summer of 1994, O.J. Simpson was arrested for the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Smith and her friend. News publications were plastering his mugshot everywhere as it was turning out to be the trial of the Century. Notably, TIME Magazine published an edition featuring an altered mugshot, removing the photograph’s color saturation (which some accused of making Simpson’s skin darker), burning the corners, and reducing the size of the prisoner ID number. This appeared on newsstands right next to an unaltered picture by Newsweek.
Characters Added
Brazil’s Tourism Ministry was forced to remove an alleged photo of Rio de Janeiro’s Gloria Marina on Guanabara Bay after it was pointed out that the fantastical image bore little resemblance to the actual location. The apparent endorsement of the image by the Tourism Ministry resulted from an Instagram project that encouraged users to tag their most appealing images of Brazil. Instagram user Marcos Calil, who submitted the image, had filled his own Instagram feed mostly with heavily composited images of imagined Brazilian landscapes. The reality of Gloria Marina, however, is that it has been the subject of much controversy due to the heavy pollution which the city has pledged to clean up in time for the 2016 Olympics hosted in the city. Unlike the submitted photo, it offers neither waterfalls nor crystal blue waters.
When photography was first invented, its overwhelming power came from the fact that it recorded nature more realistically than any other art form had ever done before. Because of this, people trusted it and believed it portrayed "reality" and "truth".
With the invention of motion pictures, and certainly television, the public came to know that not every picture they saw was necessarily factual in its depiction of reality.
Children are treated as a special audience in the media because they are “especially vulnerable to negative effects from the mass media.” (Potter 59) Their cognitive, emotional, and moral skills which help protect people from media manipulation are at lower levels than adults. Adults are also able to determine the context of a media message because they have more life experience. Children may view the perfection in magazines as a reality, which in result could make them view themselves in a less positive light.
"As digital photo editing tools become more widely available, what effects will we see in society?" Sample comments from High School Students
- See it on TV more often
- More people over 20 will be aware of it
- Become less prevalent as more people know
- Younger people will be onto something different, think of photoshop as old news
- Eventually stop because so many people will be able to detect it
- World will be a big lie / competition, won't ever stop because the media is so competitive
- People pay less attention to the news
- People will do more themselves
- Big company will find a way to prove that a photo was edited and someone else will defeat this system
- Games will sell more as graphics improve
- Lots of people will edit their own images
- We won't trust pictures, magazines, celebrity images
- People will care less about how they look because they will know that not everyone is perfect see it on TV more often
- More people over 20 will be aware of it
- Become less prevalent as more people know
- Younger people will be onto something different, think of photoshop as old news
- Eventually stop because so many people will be able to detect it
- World will be a big lie / competition, won't ever stop because the media is so competitive
- People pay less attention to the news
- People will do more themselves
- Big company will find a way to prove that a photo was edited and someone else will defeat this system
- Games will sell more as graphics improve
- Lots of people will edit their own images
- We won't trust pictures, magazines, celebrity images
- People will care less about how they look because they will know that not everyone is perfect
Whether for marketing or for manufacturing consent, the media industry is guilty of using subtle and not-so-subtle tactics to influence our conscious and subconscious minds to influence our opinions and behavior. There are countless other examples of these practices, and discerning, awake people would be well served to be vigilant of this when consuming modern media in any form.
You don’t have to be paranoid these days to acknowledge that you’re being lied to and that the institutions we should be able to depend on for bringing us an objective view of world are anything but objective.
Types of Manipulation
- Technical retouching
Manipulation for photo restoration or enhancement (adjusting colors / contrast / white balance (i.e. gradational retouching), sharpness, noise, removing elements or visible flaws on skin or materials, ...)
Creative retouching
Used as an art form or for commercial use to create more sleek and interesting images for advertisements.
Creative retouching
Used as an art form or for commercial use to create more sleek and interesting images for advertisements.
I discovered a way to spot manipulated imagery and figure out whether a source is trusted. The Izitru API will apply investigation into JPEG files and return results in seconds. One way of testing the media portrayed to us to make a more accurate decision on whether to trust the imagery.
"Photos are more integral to communication than ever before, but the wide availability of easy image editing tools make them a risky proposition when trust is important. Whether you’re accepting citizen journalism photos for a news site, profile photos for a dating service, merchandise shots for an auction site, or even insurance claim photos, it’s important to know what’s real and what’s manipulated.
Izitru’s cloud-based API applies advanced forensic tests to any JPEG file in seconds. You receive an easy-to understand trust rating for every image, along with detailed test results and a collection of useful data that can inform subsequent analysis and classification. Use the results to drive automatic logic to accept or reject images in your application or content management system. Or simply save the data for later use.
Izitru offers a RESTful API, with all results returned in standard JSON format. Files can be sent securely, and uploaded images are not available through the public-facing izitru website. An experienced developer can get up to speed and begin submitting files in minutes. Cost can be as low as pennies per image, and usage of the API during development and testing is free of charge.
Stop taking risks with your photos, and stop wasting time investigating photos that could be proven authentic in seconds."
VISUAL RESPONSE
I found it difficult to generate Ideas for a visual response for this brief, I have compiled lots of images that have been mass generated, that are both shocking and interesting to a viewer, and needing some way of expressing this shock and allowing the public access to the information that is held away from them. Revealing sources that may not be as trustworthy as first seems.
I intend to produce a publication that will explore and inform the ways imagery are manipulated within media and provide a false sense of reality. The publication will branch off into two sides, one side being the truth, the other side being the lies portrayed by the media.
This publication will give a brief insight into the way media can alter and manipulate imagery to suit their opinion or cause controversy. I would like to shed a light on this information and make the public question whether the news/imagery they are seeing, is true and accurate.
The publication will act almost like a spot the difference, showing both sides of the story. comparing the two images next to each other is a clear way to show the clear manipulation that has occurred.
Aswell as a comparison between the imagery, I intend to put the images into context by putting when the image was printed and by what paper/magazine.
This publication will be used to shock the viewers and act as a message to make people question the media and what it portrays.
Ambigram Type
As I am looking into images that are perceived in one way, but can mean something else, I found it relevant to look into ambigram type. Ambigram type is the combination of two words within one words. It works with the rotation of the letter, so when you turn it one way, it will read one word, and rotating it back, will read the other. Below is an example playing with the words, True and False.
It is interesting the way this works and I may experiment with 2 words to be placed on my front covers, so I can just reverse the two. I intent to apply this concept to a more minimal placement of the letters.
THE PUBLICATION
THE CONCEPT
The publication will be a print response to reveal of the use of image manipulation within society to bring to light the betrayal of trust and not to believe the media and what you're seeing. It varies from a selection of betrails throughout the years and looks into aspects such as photojournalism, Social Media, Beauty, and Real. These sections bring forth different image manipulation that have been perceived as the truth and used as sources when they have actually been generated for a reason.
Using a navigation that explores a broken image frame that are sectioned up into the genres. Allowing a coloured themed relation with the 4 categories. The publication will be used to inform and educate the public on specific fakeries within society, and offers a change in opinion when looking at specific imagery within media.
The publication will come with a set of posters that promote the reading of the publication. The posters will focus on the main aspect of the publication which is the imagery within. focusing and drawing people in to find out further.
DEVELOPMENT
I started my initial sketches onto tracing paper as I find applying a grid system and an initial format is easier as a template can be created and overlaying the tracing paper allows use of the template throughout each initial idea. I sketched up several variations of my publication ranging from front cover designs into contents design then creating a layout for imagery and presenting the content on the page.
After applying a theme and creating a general layout I decided to mock up and test some ideas. I played around with removing sections out of the publication cover to bring the contents page through the design providing an interesting composition. I also tested various tracing paper inserts that can apply another depth to the design layout and allow use of transparent and opacity layers within the design. I decided to use this opacity aspect when producing the front cover as a way to entice people to read further as they can already see through the design.
Upon finishing experimenting and applying my hand drawn designs into indesign, I decided to print a test booklet to see if the layout and readability when printed was still present. The publication will be printed A5 as the images are still big enough to depict the detail, yet the publication is a nice size to hold and read. When printing I reduced the size to 90% of its original size as binding and trimming will reduce the size of the design so I wanted to make sure that none of printed design was removed when trimming down to size.
I removed the section from the front cover and applied the tracing paper layer underneath the cover. It allows a opacity transition from cover to contents, leading people to read further and seeing the name of the publication "Doctored". The contrast in colours entices people to read on and catches peoples attention. Turning the cover provides 2 tracing paper inserts providing an introduction into photomanipulation, and then an introduction into the publication and what to expect. As the publication is focusisng on the contrast of imagery between real and fake, the images are the main focal point and the main point of interest.
I will be binding my publication using a saddle stitch, allowing the publication to open flat and all the page will be viewed. The bind will be strong and as the publication will have 30-40 pages, it allows a good binding and each page is legible and durable to open.
THE CONTENT
FRONT AND CONTENT
The front cover will include a picture that was spread around the internet that was apparently the last picture before the world trade centre was hit. It is quite a strange image which draws people in.
A section of the design will be removed on the front cover to allow the use of the tracing paper information page, informing and telling the reader what to expect in the publication.
The coloured sections of the broken picture provides a colour scheme for each genre. The publication is a simple, minimal design as the main aspect of the publication is the imagery within. Focusing on the scandals and lies that are portrayed. So the design and colour scheme will only be seen at the introduction of the genres and for the "page numbers". As there is no page numbers for navigation, as the publication is short and it is important to read through and access each genres. I applied the specific colour to the top right section of the page to provide understanding as to which genre is being shown.
PHOTOJOURNALISM.
The photojournalism genre various with different imagery that have been released to the public. It is mostly war propaganda with manipulations that have ended up giving the imagery a completely different context.
SOCIAL MEDIA.
The social media genre looks into different image manipulations that fooled the social media sights and ended up being portrayed as real imagery. The problem is the sharing and interaction provides a quick and easy way to get views on imagery without being questioned. I have compiled some imagery that managed to produce speculation and believe this imagery.
BEAUTY.
The beauty section looks into the manipulation and ethics within the model industry. The manipulation and distortion to the body image that is generated and distributed to society to show what being "beautiful" is. This shows the drastic change to the body image and how photomanipulation can change and edit the way we look to provide a fake, generated body that has been produced for a certain product or company.
This section of the publication has very little body copy as the main focus is the imagery, and my design decision was to portray this drastic change by having the before and after images that provide a shocking realisation into the changes and how drastic the changes are.
REAL.
This section of the publication shows a select few images that have been shared and often questioned but are actually genuine images that have received no photomanipulation aspects to them. I wanted to portray the idea of genuine imagery that have been questioned for their accuracy, but are real. I decided to implement this genre to give a realisation into the media imagery and how to question the legitimacy of imagery. Images within society could be manipulated and could be real, it's very difficult to make this judgement so I wanted to give the reader an insight into taking the media imagery with a pinch of salt and not believing and following the mass production of generated imagery for a context.
OUTCOMES
PUBLICATION
I produced a publication with a set of posters to promote the reading of this publication, the posters will be displayed around the location that the publication will be sold/distributed to promote reading.
The publication is a little A5 booklet that various genres and discovers the image manipulation that is apparent in society but covered up to keep hidden from the public.
The posters are image based using the same aspects of the booklets. Using the contents page separation to provide the interesting shape compositions and the header of the page provides clear identification what the poster is relating to.
This shows the contents page separation and how the shapes were used to effectively brand the posters.
PROBLEMS
One problem I encountered when producing my publication was the alignment of my work, I found that the actual alignment was off by a few mm so pages with a full bleed image would provide a slight alignment problem.
One problem I encountered when producing my publication was the alignment of my work, I found that the actual alignment was off by a few mm so pages with a full bleed image would provide a slight alignment problem.
One way to solve this would be to print my publication, trim down the edges and make sure all is aligned before binding, then after the production of the bind, trim down afterwards making the publication both aligned, then trimmed down to the correct size.
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