ITAP - Research and Inspiration

In this weeks ITAP lecture I learnt about Research, Practice, Visual Vocabulary, Inspiration and Audience. The 2 of these ‘principles’ I am choosing to talk about are Research and Inspiration.

Primary and Secondary Research, Visual Research, Collecting and analyzing information, research is made up of different ways of gathering information. It can range from a very formal method of collating data by use of questionnaires, surveys, recording data patterns, but it also can be done visually, this is what is more important to me as a visual communicator. Visual research ranges from, sketching, photographing, videoing, collecting images anything that helps you get towards your destination, by that I mean things that help you, inspire you, give you knowledge of the subject field you are researching. As mentioned there is primary and secondary research, primary being research that you have collected yourself, sketches, your own photographs or videos, even questionnaires. Things like other peoples videos, photo’s, images, data that has already been collected, that is secondary research. Both are relevant but you cannot go one one or the other. For example I may want to research people in Birmginham, so I decide to sit for a day and sketch the people, but I may only see fat old people all day. This is not a fair representation of people in birmingham so I need to look at other peoples studies of people in Birmingham to get a fair and true representation of  the people here. These things all help you progress forward in your work, they provide you with a head full of knowledge regarding your chosen field of interest which prepares you to engage fully with the project you’re working on in a more dynamic and fresh way. Linked closely with research, you could almost call part of what I would consider looking for inspiration, Secondary Research. Frank Gehry once said, “You can look anywhere and find inspiration.” (Frank Gehry) And I agree I can look at an illustration and be inspired to draw. I can also see something in nature and be inspired to draw. I hear a song and be inspired to make a video to go along with it. In our lecture we were told, that inspiration is based on research, observation and recording and experimentation. I fully agree with this statement, as i have said, i think inspiration and research are very closely linked! So as i go on to research i hope to be inspired and as i am inspired i hope to be thrust into more research.