Communication

Today
Ambiguity and the
Collective Conscio
us

Daniel Francavilla
OCAD University 23
29381

Project 2: Area of Int

erest Visual Essay
Research Methodolog
ies for Graphic Desig
GRPH 3A02 | Section ners
1
Instructor: Patricio Da
vila
November 30, 2010
 u n ic at io n
Comm Executive Summary
Today h e
ity an d t This proposed thesis concept explores the non-linear way of thinking and

Ambigu on s cious
various communication methods, with a focus on Generation Y. Previous

C
Collective
generations were raised in and around nature and mailed handwritten
letters to others to communicate. However a huge shift has taken place
and many of today’s youth have never mailed a letter or used a rotary
phone - instead they each have their own personal cell phone and
communicate through instant messages.

This shift in communication has a drastic impact on the way individuals

socialize and live their lives. The communication trend is Ambiguous,
Random, and Organic. The Collective Conscious is growing and minds
are being filled with content at an incredible rate.

The Internet is a place where “an infinity of subjects can be followed at

the same time”. People are all over the place. Ambiguity when searching
for scientific or healthcare details is problematic - however ambiguity is a
beautiful and desirable characteristic when it comes to browsing videos
and photos, and using online micro-blog services like Tumblr.

Messages are short, quick and are often as clear as they are unclear or
vague. Think MSN chat, texting, and Twitter messaging. A lot is left up in
the air and conversations are, in many cases, left incomplete. Design of
these systems; software, technology, advertising and beyond; affects and
is affected by this communication style and new forms of communication.

Zeitgeist, the spirit of the times, also refers to the trends and general
thoughts a generation experiences. Design and communication should
have a progressive impact that pushes culture forward. Although
communication has opened up Globalized Consumerism for example, it
also encourages Open-Source development and Crowd-Sourcing which
break away from strict, boring boundaries.

With methods range from Emailing to Tweeting to chatting on BBM

(BlackBerry Messenger) or even randomly posting on one’s personal
Tumblr or Blog, communication has changed from an analog and linear
to non-linear, ambiguous and instant. More | Share | Bookmark | RSS
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4 5
#wheniwaslittle #worldcup
access actually amazing apple art
awesome best better big blog brampto
bus ca canada canadian centre chang
charity check christmas city class com
cool course crazy danielfrancavilla day
design did does doing downtown early
email facebook favorited finally follow
free getting going good google graphic
great haiti home hours interesting
internet ipad iphone know life live logo
lol long look looking looks love mac
make makes making man media millio
mississauga morning need new news
nice night ocad online ontario open
people photo post read really right rt s
says school site sleep social st start st
store student students stuff summer
thanks thats theres things think time
today tonight toronto try trying tumblr
tweet tweets twitpic twitter university u
using video wait want watch watching
way web website week weekend wha
work working world wow www year ye
youre youth youtube
Twitter, a real-time information network that connects users to the latest
information about what they find interesting, has been rapidly gaining
membership and is accessed around the world via the web and mobile
devices. Left: hashtags I’ve used. Above: words I tweeted most, overall.
 Can’t get enough.
Always connected.

Drawn to digital.
6
Paper is so passé. 7
Cafe chalk board
remains on the wall
but customers are
in a digital world
Culture.
Not so diverse anymore.
Being more “global” as a society has its benefits. But there is also the
huge lack of diversity among different cultures. Youth can grow up in
different countries yet be influenced by many of the same brands and
celebrities. There are now global trends in retail and communication,
for example; online stores like Amazon showcase most-sold products
worldwide and networks like Twitter display trending topics by region.

In many cases this information is generic and impersonal. Many friends

may follow similar brands, celebrities and others online without even
knowing them well or at all in-person.

Many students only explore the very tip of the iceberg when it comes
to assignments, and are becoming less thorough in their research and
reports. Some students struggle with essay-writing or even expressing
thoughts in a presentation or paragraph. This is in part because of the
fast-paced culture and the tiny, brief bits of information they are used to
posting and reading on social networks and mobile devices.

“The information we consume is increasingly flat and homogenized.

Designed to reach millions, it often lacks nuance, complexity and
context. Reading the same factoids on Wikipedia and watching the
same viral video on YouTube, we experience a flattening of culture.”
are we running - Kalle Lasn and Micah White

8
out of culture? 9
 One click.
Where can it lead?
Many people start their days communicating or

Multi-tasking. Everywhere.
browsing for news and enterntainment online. Whether
it be opening up an Email Inbox or checking a Twitter
account, wherever it starts, it rarely ends there!

iPhone alarm rings to wake-up.

Text message from the night on-screen.
Read and reply by opening up SMS app.
See unread email total. Open inbox and read.
Link sent in an email. Click on it to open.
Read article, find link to another of interest.
Browsing around the website. Interesting article.
Open Twitter application. Tweet link to the article.
Skimming tweets in timeline. View photo posted.
Distracted by all the tweets. Click a link. Love it.
Found something to share. Compose email. Send.
Email from office comes in. Reminder to get up for work.

With all of this access to information, entertainment and

both personal and work contacts, there is a lack of focus
and plenty of distractions to keep people “always on”,
even they do not choose so consciously or purposely.

Content Consumption
Wonder where all of the content comes from? Where do
people come across these things? What is the source of
their blog posts or tweets? What makes friends continue
one text-message conversation and abandon another?
Why are ads becoming sharable content? Why are some
unable to finish reading a newspaper article? Which blog
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posts to share, email, or bookmark? 11
 ambiguous
random
organic
12 13
Share. Post.
Be Random.
14 15
Communication Expression
Methods Poetry
Blogs, Vlogs
Graffitti, Public Art
Verbal Print (Flyers, Signs)
Phone
Cell Phone
Skype/iChat
In-Person
Music (Vocal)

Online
Emailing
Text Messaging
Instant Messaging (IM)
Social Networking (Facebook, Twitter)
Social Bookmarking + Sharing
(Delicious, Digg, StumbleUpon)

16 17

Annotated Bibliography
Gerritzen, Mieke. Everyone is a Designer in the Age of Social Media.
Amsterdam: BIS Publishers, 2010-. Print.
This book discusses communication of the present and future, and
the role of the designer in such methods. Although a printed book,
recently released in 2010 it covers a variety of relevant technologically,
economically and socially accurate details which are displayed with
effective graphics and diagrams. Sterling explains that we are designing
our social lives, making our own choices, and creating this together online
(relating to the concept of the collective conscious). Claiming to present
the “Choice Generation of 2010”, the book also discusses how the
current generation is about collaboration, which is represented visually by
everyone - which has lead to the democratization of the design world.
Long, Priscilla. “What is Consciousness?.” Adbusters. July 2010: 5. Print.
Featured in Adbusters Magazine’s Whole Brain Catalog, this essay looks
at how the brain’s neurons and cells interact and asks what electrical or
chemical transaction gives us culture. How culture forms and becomes
popular curious is curious, random and ambiguous which is very relevant.
“Anything can happen in the strange cities of the mind.” - C. D. Wright
Siegler, MG. “Gmail Lite: If You Build It Google, We Will Come.”
TechCrunch (2010): n. pag. Web. 27 Nov 2010. <http://techcrunch.
com/2010/11/27/gmail-lite>.
The future of messaging. The article references Facebook’s changing
messaging system that now allows for quick personal messages without
even a subject line, and also assigning users with an @facebook.com
email address as an expanded form of communicating through their
platform. The article also addresses the need for a “Gmail Lite”, which
would essentially be a version of email where replying would be very easy
and less work, where Siegler claims the “response rate in general would
be higher”. Looking at the future and improving, the idea aims to solve the
fundamental issue as inboxes grow: the “lame legacy formalities of the
system” and to eliminate the subject line and send button, what the writer
classifies as outdated ideas. Future communication will be more organic.
Three Sentences. Web. 26 Nov 2010. <http://three.sentenc.es>.
A free online service called three.sentenc.es promotes and allows email
18
users to adopt a personal policy that all email responses (regardless of
recipient or subject) will be three sentences or less. The service provides a
solution to the problem of it taking too long to respond to emails (resulting
in continuous inbox overflow for those who receive a lot). The proposed
solution is to treat all email responses like SMS text messages maintaining
a limited number of letters. This is very relevant to the new patterns of
communication today and also adds to the ambiguity of communication
through shorter, less detailed messages.
“We All Want to Be Young.” Web. 25 Nov 2010. <http://vimeo.
com/16638983>.
Focused on the Millenial generation, this video explores what it means to
be young, and references classic 1960s and 1980s films (as a comparison
to Generation X and Baby Boomers). This film is a result of studies by a
behavioural science and consumer trends research company, BOX1824,
over the past 5 years. Today, due to the internet and information age, the
collective consciousness has grown enormously and many more global and
personal connections have been formed. However, this huge amount of
information and the need to constantly stay connected is leading to anxiety,
blurred definitions of self, shorter personal relationships, and a difficulty
maintaining balance between work and pleasure.
White, Micah and Lasn, Kalle. “Ecology of the Mind: The birth of a
movement.” Adbusters. July 2010. Print.
Humanity has developed and evolved with the nourishment and support of
nature and the Earth’s resources, yet recently the natural world has been
abandoned and is no longer a driving force in people’s mental environment.
Mental illness has increased and the daily visual and audio noise such
as alarms, thousands of TV ads, email spam and more are increasing as
infotoxins and infoviruses. This crowds the collective conscious as well.
People are becoming more apathetic, the commercial media is aggressively
crowding minds and content is suffering from a loss of invodiversity -
making everything more generic and ambiguous. Design plays a huge role
in the expression and organization of this information and to help maintain
culture.
Photo Credits
Images contained in this document are from two sources:
First Light Associated Photographers (Pages 6, 9, 10, 14)
Daniel Francavilla
www.atdesignschool.com 19
daniel@danielfrancavilla.com
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