Concept major decision

After a long while trying to decide on a way to convey my ideas, I have decided to use a series of flash animations using simple cartoon cats & dogs.

I have had to force myself away from a tendency to philosophise  ad-nauseum through written word, as I knew that that this would not make a visually interesting website.

I will still use small amounts of text, similar to the buttons i posted earlier, as a way to tie together the animations, given that my skills in flash are not quite up to scratch for them to stand on their own.

Online Art Post – 2nd research entry

The website i have chosen to write about is the animal logic site. The reason, is that i believe that certain aspects of the site fall into each category of discussion; online art, online gallery & online project.

At its most basic level, this website was probably created as a form of gallery, as a way to display the quality of work that they produce to prospective clients. To this end it serves its purpose well, with an easy to navigate interface and and intuitive layout.

At a secondary level, this site also has qualities that would qualify it as online art. The reason for this is that the layout itself tends to become the art it is displaying in itself.

As can be seen in the image here, the specific artwork being displayed becomes the theme for the current background of the site. As far as the purpose of a standard website goes, i believe these aspects qualify it to stand on its own as an artwork.

The final aspect is regarding online projects. I believe this site can fall into this category based on the fact that the collection of work displayed is a culmination of thousands of hours of work put in by a team of talented artists and designers, that is continually contributed to.

I think that predominant category this site falls into is online gallery, yet it has the potential to be in any category, depending on the perspective of the viewer.

2nd page of site

Ive chosen to use a pyramid in one of the pages within my site, due to the cultural and mythological significance of cats and dog in Ancient Egypt.  Negative connotations to the word dog in modern times reflect the lower class that dogs were seen to be in, in Ancient Egypt. Cats were worshiped by the ancient Egyptians, and  do not share these negative connotations.

Some Ideas for Buttons

 

 

Buttons for the home page, rather than clicking on actual animals faces. This should make it easier for the user.

 

 

Homepage Concept

Idea Refinement

BEHAVIOURAL CHARACTERISTICS   &   CULTURAL/HISTORICAL RELEVANCE

Are you a cat person or a dog person?

Is this influenced by your cultural background/upbringing?

eg. Ancient Egyptians worshiped cats

What does this say about you as a person?

Why do you identify with one or the other?

http://pio.tripod.com/magicpaw/catmyths.html

http://www.subzerosiam.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15999

Concept Feedback

General feedback was that my idea was suited to the theme of identity, though I do need to develop or plan the website layout.

Some new ideas I can incorporate:

• Photos of people that look like animals or vice versa.

• Photos of people combined with animals

• Use of a search tool within the site, that returns specific animals/people for viewing.

• More interesting layout, such as:

– a map of the world that sets out animals by habitat/continent.

– mapping the animals on a 2 dimensional scale along with human counterparts.

• A feature where users choose which animal a famous person is most similar too, then the overall results are shown to see if they agree with the majority.

Website Concept

For my website i have chosen to focus on ideas mentioned in an earlier blog post (about the ‘Universcale’ – ‘In the grand scheme of things’) about the identities of humans and specific people in relation to everything else. More specifically, this focus now rests on how people use or see different animals as representations of their identity.

At the centre of this concept is the age old question of whether one  is a cat or a dog person (I found some inspiration here http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/purebred_dogs/15590). These two animals provide the most easily understandable contrast of personality. Surrounding this comparison are any other type of animal someone might align themselves with.

What I aim to do in my site, is to provide a broad range of information specific to each animal. This includes behavioural/physical characteristics, cultural significance/symbolism, and use in narrative.

Through providing this information i want to  give the audience an understanding of the common characteristics of living things, why people chose to align themselves or represent others with a certain animal, and how these aspects provide a window through which to observe the identity of a person or character.

Relationship Between Image & Textt

I believe that the relationship between image and text is similar to the relationship between dark and light. Neither image or text serve a particular function, but rather they provide contrast. Text may bring order to the chaos of image, or vice-versa. Image can also do the same to text.

In this picture (from ‘idea magazine’ containing 144 page essay on the floating world), both the image and the text have their own qualities of order and chaos. There is a visible structure apparent in both, particularly noticeable in the text. However, closer observation reveals that text is comprised of a mixture of languages and numerals, seemingly nonsensical; possibly as a way to represent the broadness of the scope of the article.

In the grand scheme of things…

http://www.nikon.com/about/feelnikon/universcale/index_f.htm

I thought this site was relevant to personal identity, and the identity of the collective human race. It is fascinating to observe because when personal identity is concerned, people tend to think about this with regard to the rest of the human population.

In terms of identity i think this site both brings people back to a common plane by showing what a narrow level of nature we exist in. However, it also shows just how different each of us can be; we are individual in the universe as a race, and individual as human through our specific genetic code and upbringing.