Week 7: Research and Theory

I was asked this week to define what research was.. in my words it would be defined as:

To produce constructed thought or a query prior to a designated topic and/or subject. To be backed up with factual evidence and pondering alike.

To research is to think and to learn the ways of others. And in an industry where niches sometimes are not taught, especially within design (like that of sports design), this learning of others is such a crucial part of the part of my life I'm lucky to even call a resemblance of a career.

The 'Thinker'

In my reflection on this week, I thought about where exactly I would be without research. I'm a self-taught designer by trade. So every little thing learned is through a tutorial, knowledge of fellow artists, and/or literature. It's not like sports design is a degree in any university that I know of at least, so learning the ropes by myself has been a necessity. And to be honest, I'm not sure where I would be without the need for knowledge.

Lecture

This week's lecture is defined by curiousity. I was asked what philosophy was, taught the four pillars of key concerns of philosophy being metaphysics, aesthetics, ethics, and epistemology. Not to mention what the methodology of research was.

The list can go on and on. I truly felt like the thinker this week. Bringing upon questions of qualitative and quantitative approaches.

Realizing what primary and secondary sources we're using. I am a big fan of secondary it seems, but I hope to possibly obtain a primary source too. There are utterly new levels to research I hadn't even fathomed before. Going forward I will surely be using the CRAAP test. So many new tools to use.. feeling like my brain just went to the gym!

Looking forward to using these abilities in the future for my studies.

Research Task

This week's research task was:

Explore the ways in which designers and artists have built personal collections of items that fascinate them.

When looking up which artist to decide.. it took me a decent chunk of time. I feel as artists, we tend to collect things that make us happy. Almost as if it's a sense of dopamine decor. Looking around my place, my house surely fits the bill here. Dopamine is everywhere; I even have a goldfish stand that I use as a bar cart.. I'll have a picture of what I'm talking about one day in a later post.

As for research, who else to land on but the famous Andy Warhol. Needing no introduction, but I will anyways..

Andy was an artist famous for his eccentric and pop art designs. Something that hadn't been seen or done prior. He was most known for his Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup brand art. At the time, a staple to many, Andy popularized it with his unique style and color, as shown below.

Andy Warhol's 'Power of the Mundane'

Needless to say, he had an extremely unique collection, apparently to pair with it. He would create time capsules. According to Wendy MacNaughton, author at Grown Up Tables:

Perhaps the collection that best offers a glimpse into Warhol’s mindset were his time capsules. Every month, he would open a new plain brown cardboard box, filling it with different scraps of ephemera that he encountered every day over the next four weeks. This included everything: takeout menus, letters from other artists, labels, and anything else that crossed his path. At the end of the month, it was taped up, labelled, and put into storage.

References

The thinker. The Thinker | Musée Rodin. (n.d.). https://www.musee-rodin.fr/en/musee/collections/oeuvres/thinker

MacNaughton, W. (2023, October 2). Artist’s collections. DrawTogether with WendyMac. https://club.drawtogether.studio/p/artists-as-collectors

Andy Warhol Art: Decoding the real life of the eccentric pop artist through 8 key prints. Maddox Gallery. (n.d.). https://maddoxgallery.com/blogs/news/andy-warhol-art-decoding-his-life-through-8-key-warhol-prints