Tactics of Manipulation

Manipulation 1

During our distribution of our hand made soap, we placed a couple of soap on the benches of the bus station without anyone noticing us. 

Two of us sat next to them and started a conversation about how amazed we were to find free soaps in such an unexpected place like the bus station. After we left, we then took a peek around the corner and noticed them holding the soap bars and reading the postcards. The presence of the soap on the bench did not catch their attention until we talked about it. We actually had them pocketing them. 

Manipulation 2

I noticed that every time I yawn next to my fiancé, he follows on and yawns. Try this little tactic: Take a big yawn, cover your mouth out of courtesy, and watch and see how many people yawn.

Research Topic 5- Philosophy-visual convention

1.Scarab beetle.

In ancient Egypt they were referred to as Khepera, the god representing regeneration, resurrection and new life. They roll dung balls into their burrow where the female beetle lays eggs.  When the larvae emerges they feed on the dung and come out of their burrow.

2. Anjali 

If shown by Hindus Anjali is the gesture of two hands brought together near the heart, meaning “honor or celebrate.” Also, two joining as one for the same purpose. 

3. The All-seeing Eye

It is commonly interpret as Gods Eye watching over mankind eternally and symbol of higher knowledge and inner vision. Some even believe that it possesses magical powers to cast spells and curses. Also, it is often believed that anyone who controls it will be able to control finances. The easiest place to look for it is an American one dollar note.

4. The peace sign was originally a symbol of the Cross of Nero. Nero believed that there would be global peace without Christianity. During his reign, thousands of Christians martyred. During the 1960s Hippie movement and the creation of flower power, they adopted the it to use as a symbol of peace and most commonly worn as necklaces.

5. Claddagh rings come from the romantic tale of Irish townsman kidnapped for slavery, trying to get back to his loved one and express his feelings. It is often used as a token of loyalty, friendship and romance. Various traditions describe different meanings to the ways of wearing the ring. If worn on the left hand with the heart pointing inward it symbolizes wedding. As an engagement, people wear it on the right hand with the heart pointing inward. For friendship, it’s worn on the right hand with the heart turned outward. The hands represent friendship, the heart, love and the crown represents loyalty.

Research Topic 4- Revolutionary Symbols

1. Feminist Logo

“Rosie the Riveter” was used to encourage women to work like men during the WW2 in USA. The idea of the poster was then adopted by Feminists to support their cause.

2. Join or die

A snake cut into 8 pieces along with initials of the names of colonies in America to encourage them to be united and stand against the British rule.

3. White Revolution 

The Greek letter Lambda similar to the letter  “V” presented upside down has been frequently used as a symbol of gay pride around the world. Lately, it was adopted by a white supremacist group. Due to its past use by Spartans when they defeated Persian attack.

4. Swastika 

It was used as sacred symbol of eternity by Buddhists which was adopted by Nazis later on.

5. Che 

An Argentinian born medical student turned marxist led a revolution of Cuba and sparked uprises of many and later became a worldwide symbol of revolution.

Cause Collateral

In order to support and distribute our environmental cause, we chose the cause of Oil Pollution. After our discovery of how a 1 liter of cooking oil pollutes 1 million liters of water, we decided to urge people into taking action. 

We showed them how they could make laundry soaps out of used cooking oil by making soaps ourselves. Upon completion of making soaps, our product needed an appropriate name and packaging. 

The name O-Soap came from the significance of the fact that it was made from used cooking oil. The letter O itself felt relevant to our recycling symbol as both of them possessed a circular shape. 

Instead of putting lots of information on our packaging and postcard, we decided to make them look attractive along with a strong oil pollution facts written on them. Once people received our product they were able to gain the info from our Facebook Page and Youtube video.

We have made 150 soaps and 150 postcards.

In class exercise 5-Rebus

This exercise required me to think creatively and make a words or sentence by using pictogram to represent them.

The first word that came up was the “butterfly”, but I didn’t want to keep doing just  a words. So I made a sentence which was “I believe in love”. For completing this task, I created simple vector pictogram by using illustrator.

In class exercise 4- Pixel Portraits

It was by far one of the most interesting exercises so far. As you can notice, I devoted more work and time on the tones and details to try and make them look more appealing yet realistic. 

    1. My father-(A photo taken during his speech on New- Year)

    2. My mother.

   3. My fiance.

   4. Myself.

   5. One of my best friend.

Research Topic 3- Evolutionary Symbols

1. Arrow:

In the early days arrows represented war, power, sunrays, swiftness and male power but today it mainly points in the preferred direction.

2. Iron cross:

During world war 2, Iron crosses had appeared on German fighter planes and tanks which later became known as a fascist symbol.

3. Heartagram:

Heartagrams were originally designed and used as a logo by a band named “Love Metal”. Later on, its meaning was misinterpreted and people started using it as if it symbolized love and hate or life and death.

4. Infinity (also eternity):

Today’s mathematical symbol of Infinity had once before represented perfection, dualism, unity of male and female in ancient India and Tibet. Some occults used it as symbolizing magic and a balance of various forces.

5. Pentagram: 

Pentagrams are believed to have come from 2 different sources, either from the caves of Babylonia or form 6’000 years ago. Ever since the creation of this symbol, certain groups of people believed that the figure itself had magical powers to fend off witches and demons. When combined with a circle around, it is often known to represent eternity, infinity or the cycles of life. Lastly it is the most common used symbol by wiccans to symbolize the five elements.

Environmental Cause Symbol

I was given a task to create 3 draft symbols that represented the recycling. It needed to be easily understandable and serve the purpose of welcoming people to recycle. I chose the most suitable and simple ones out of my 9 hand drawn sketches.

It needed to be easily understandable by all culture as the main idea came from the commonly used basic Recycling symbol with 3 twisted bent arrows pointing after each another in a triangle. I adopted the basics and created a more simple but strong one.

Inspired by existing recycle symbol.

In class exerise 3- Road Sign

I was quite confused at first when I received this task and did not know that all of them had to share a common style. Upon looking at few examples of my classmates’ work, I was then able to start working.

I tried so many times to keep the consistency of the style. Eventually, I chose the stick man as it was well recognized by everyone.

Research Topic 2- Superstitions and Beliefs

1. The four-leaf clover brings good luck to their finders, especially if found accidentally. According to legend, each leaf represents something: hope, faith, love, and luck.

2. Friday the 13th occurs when the thirteenth day of a month happens to be on a Friday, which superstition holds it as a day of bad luck.

3. The fear of number 4.  The pronunciation of that number in Korea, Japan, East-Asian and some Southeast-Asian countries, is similar to “death”. They commonly try to avoid the use of that number in their lifestyles. Buildings, floors, elevator buttons, Etc...

4. Cutting your nails in the night is a not good habit in some Indian cultures, because they believe that evil will follow you.

5. If you can blow out all the candles on your birthday cake in the first breath, you will get whatever you wish for in the future.

Our tribe name is- 3 Hands

Tribe Name: 3 Hands

Tribe Members: Ariuna, Joyce, Joon

We were given an assignment to create a symbol for our group that symbolized our character as a whole. With our group name being “Three hands” we decided to make our symbol specifically relevant to the name. 

The first experiment, I made 3 draft versions of the symbol which felt was too complex and hard to understand.

Therefore, I came to a decision to make the symbol that showed just one hand with 3 fingers up. I am glad that everyone was happy with the symbol that I have created and we agreed to use it as our main symbol.

Research Topic 1- Group Identifiers

1. Harajuku people

They are easy to be identified by their unique style. Harajuku young people dress in variety of styles including gothic lolita, visual kei, and decora, as well as cosplayers. 

2. Bloods (street gang)

They are identified by the red color worn by their members and various hand signs. They were formed to compete against Crips gang.

    Crips (street gang)

Identified by their blue color use and different hand signs. It has a long history of rivalry against the Bloods Gang.

3. Islamic people 

People within the religion of Islam. Hijab identifies them, which both male and female wears and behave modestly.

4. Backpackers 

A traveller whose luggage consists of a backpack and stays at inexpensive places, such as a hostels. In Kings Cross, you would actually find them more often, because there are lots of backpacker’s accommodation.

5. Married people

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is easy to identify married people by their wedding rings.

In class exercise 2- Tangram

The tangram is a dissected puzzle consisting of seven flat shapes, called tans, which are put together to form unique and interesting shapes. 

I have experimented by positioning each shape in different places where none intersected or overlapped each other. After a couple of tries I was able to come up with 6 different shapes of lifelike figures.

In this task, I’ve done:

1. A Face – like a portrait of a person

2. A Vehicle – like a boat

3. An Animal – like a fish

4. A Flower or Tree – like a palm tree

5. A Moving Figure – like a dancer

6. A Household Appliance – like a tea pot

In class exercise 1- Humpty Dumpty

This Humpty Dumpty exercise really helped me understanding how a simple symbol can deliver the preferred message to the audience. By using and implementing a few original elements, I was able to create and tell a good Humpty Dumpty story which was easily understandable.