Week 3.1 Interim 1

For our first interim we had to present 4 concepts. The main feedback I got was that my concepts were too broad. I didn't 'dig deep enough' into child poverty. Some of my concepts didn't clearly communicate child poverty, and I it made me realize that I should include more references to children. So far I'm not interested developing any of these concepts because they're lacking a strong use of pathos, logos, and ethos.

Concept: to show that a third of New Zealand children now live below the poverty line. I wanted to show how a child living in poverty misses out on having things that most children have - like a bedroom. From the feedback, this was noted the most successful one because it's simple and clear to understand. 

Concept: children living in poverty are at a social disadvantage and often feel forgotten. People said that it's unclear that it's about child poverty. It could be about anything.

The bite mark shows that child poverty is 'eating away children education' - meaning that poverty stops children from reaching their full potential when it comes to education. If the text 'Child Poverty' wasn't there, I think it would be hard to understand this concept because the imagery doesn't strongly indicate much about child poverty.

Concept: To show the relationship between the lack of income and a child's mindset.
As income decreases, the mental well-being of the child suffers more. The feedback I got from this was that the stairs are in reverse. They should be going down instead of up.

Week 2.2

We continued to work on our concepts and also received some one on one feedback. At the moment, I'm developing concepts based on child poverty as a whole topic such as the effects on their education, mental and physical health and just overall living conditions. I found that coming up with a saying and basing my concepts on that made it easier to come up with ideas. Though I'm having trouble coming up with a lot of good metaphors that I can see myself using in my final posters. A lot of them convey a serious tone - which is typical. I find my ideas with the use of satire more interesting.

I need to narrow my topic down further. The effect poverty has on a child's mentality and future interests me the most, so I'm going to focus on that. After researching more on this, I found that children in the poorest households are three times more likely to have a mental illness than children in wealthy households. It then affects their cognitive skills and education. Also, the relationship between poverty and childhood disorder appears more for boys than for girls. 

In terms of stylistic approach, I'm not focusing on one style at the moment as there are a few styles I want to explore. I'll definitely do some sort of illustration and maybe combine that with photography. 

Week 2.1

For our first exercise, we were shown how drawings have both a denotation and connotation. This was quite eye opening to see how rotating or combining it with other drawings can create an entirely different connotation than the original.

For our 2nd exercise, we drew concepts that were based on using a random word or metaphor in combination with our topic to communicate a meaning. My random for was 'rock' which initially I thought was going to be really hard to create a concept with. My metaphor was 'You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear which basically means being unable to turn something ugly or inferior into something attractive or of value. I can see myself using this technique in the future as it was really helpful for generating new concepts. I never even thought the words 'rock' and 'poverty' would correlate with each other, but somehow it does.

Out of the concepts we drew, we had to pick our most successful one to pin up on the board. I tried to show how living in poverty is like living under a rock by having an image of a house underneath a person living inside a rock. By having the house below, it shows how the person could be living. I could develop this concept more but need to include something about children.

Week 1 Independent Study - Research on Child Poverty

I've researched different views on child poverty so that I have a variety of ideas to choose from before deciding on a final stand point. These articles helped me gather key words and themes, which I've jotted down through a word cloud.

Consequences/ How does poverty affect the child?

• One in four Kiwi kids are growing up in income poverty and one in six are going without the basic essentials like fresh fruit and vegetables and visits to the doctor. 
• When a child grows up in poverty they miss out on things most New Zealanders take for granted. They are living in cold, damp, over-crowded houses, they do not have warm or rain-proof clothing, their shoes are worn, and many days they go hungry. It can mean doing badly at school, not getting a good job, having poor health and falling into a life of crime.
• There is an accepted relationship between poverty experienced in childhood and a greater likelihood of mental health problems through the life span.

Statistics 

• As many as 28 per cent of New Zealand children – about 295,000 – currently live in poverty. 

Causes of Child Poverty/ New Zealanders views on child poverty 

• 80% of people surveyed agreed that child poverty is an important problem in New Zealand. However New Zealanders generally underestimate how bad the problem is. New research shows New Zealanders' views on child poverty. Opinion was evenly divided on the primary cause of child poverty in New Zealand. Forty percent said it was due to economic factors including unemployment, low wages and rising living costs while another forty percent thought child poverty was caused by bad parenting choices; neglect, lack of budgeting, and not prioritising children ahead of spending on alcohol, smokes, drugs etc.
• Twelve percent attributed poverty to systemic failures and lack of government policies and support and nine percent blamed lack of education and uneducated parents.

Why is it such an issue in New Zealand?/ Income inequality

• One of the consequences of inequality is that it creates a large group of disenfranchised people who feel forgotten and alienated. They then become easy targets for peddlers of fear and hate.
• The richest 10 percent of households held half of New Zealand's wealth, while the poorest 40 percent held just 3 percent of total wealth.

Race

• The prevalence of child poverty and mental health issues is likely to be higher for Māori and Pasifika than for other children and young people. 
• Of the quarter of a million Maori children in New Zealand, a third were living in poverty and hardship.

Some Sayings

• Poverty is the worst form of violence.
• Poverty is a very complicated issue, but feeding a child isn't" 
• one in four children are suffering from parental income poverty. 
• Child poverty blights childhoods
• Thousands of Kiwi kids who aren’t getting the start to life they deserve. 

Articles used 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11657642

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/307458/10-percent-richest-kiwis-own-60-percent-of-nz's-wealth

https://www.unicef.org.nz/learn/our-work-in-new-zealand/Child-Poverty-in-New-Zealand 

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE1409/S00031/new-research-shows-new-zealanders-views-on-child-poverty.htm/ 

http://www.cpag.org.nz/assets/170516%20CPAGChildPovertyandMentalHealthreport-CS6_WEB.pdf

Week 1

Monday:

For our first class, we began with an introduction to the concepts of Ihi Wehi. We also explored the meaning of rhetoric and persuasion. As a group, we got given a set of examples (I got Set B) to identify the Ihi and Wehi component. The exercise was useful as it helped me understand how designers used certain elements/characteristics and visual cues to generate a type of emotion or message.

Thursday:

In studio, we created mind maps that addressed the issues around inequality in New Zealand, which really helped me narrow down my topic.

After gathering possible ideas, I’ve decided to base my topic on child poverty.  I've become increasingly interested in how the effects of impoverished environments affect individuals, especially child development. Not only does poverty have an impact on a child during the moment, but their future as well. This is something I'd like to explore in my posters.

At this moment, I’m not sure whether to narrow down my topic even more so that it’s easier for me to generate rhetoric concepts - such as how poverty affects a child's health or education.