your title here

Field of Study | Where will your work be situated, and what function will it fulfill? Describe your cho-sen subject area.My field of study is autism and so will be exploring all the forms, affects and varieties of autism. I will be looking at both autistic children and adults. The outcome of this brief will help people understand what autistic people go through on a day to day basis.

Design Problem/Question | Identify a design prob-lem or question. Is the problem significant? Can Graphic Design and New Media design contribute and if so, how? Who is the target audience?The aim of this brief is to represent the world through the eye of an autistic person in the form of Graphic Design: New Media. This will be done by creating a short film or animation fulfilling this task. The target audience will be based on those who have never experienced or dealt with autism.

Context | What is the wider social, cultural, histori-cal, economical context for your project?Autistic people have difficulties dealing with certain tasks that we find so simple in this society. Some struggle with communication, showing or understanding emotion and many other basic things. Things that get done on a day-to-day basis can appear so differently to a person who suffers from autism.

Rationale | Why is the project important to you and to Graphic Design: New Media.I think it’s important that people understand that we are all different and that we all shouldn’t be prejudiced because of who we are or what we are.

The Brief

Your Title Here...Autism

Bibliography |- Haddon, Mark. (2003). The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Red Fox.- Webb, Tim. (1992). A is for Autism.

Plan of Work |Research:-Watch documentaries, films and animations based on au-tism.-Read books on autism.-Types of Autism (symptoms, factors, etc).- Difference between normal kids and autistic ones.-Difference between autistic children and autistic adults.

Experiments:-Short film based on each kind of (or most common) autism-Animation based on each kind of (or most common) au-tism-Collection of images representing autism-Images created from autistic people

When you’ve never had to deal with something so serious it’s hard to understand why some people are not as ‘nor-mal’ as yourself. I want to create something that makes people get so close to first-hand experience when it comes to a serious topic like a sort of illness.

Methods | Describe how you are planning to carry out your project.I will be looking at documentaries and films that keep their focus on autism. Likewise with books as well.I will also look at all the kinds of autism (as there are many different forms of it) there are and check what each kind entailsBy look-ing at the differences, I will create some form of animation or short film for each one (or the most common ones) and somehow corporate them all together so it creates one main animation/film.I will look at the key points that make an autistic child different from a normal child.I will also look at the difference between autistic children and autistic adults.What sort of factors causes autism. Is it a hereditary thing? Psychological? Physical? Etc.

Skills Evidence | Describe the practical and theoreti-cal skills necessary to carry out the project.Picking out important details from a large selection of infor-mation and representing it in form of moving images.Must also be able to use certain software like After Effects.

Predicted Resolutions | Describe what you are working towards producing.A short film that will represent the world through the eye of an autistic person.

MethodsI will be looking at documentaries and films that keep their focus on autism. Likewise with books as well.I will also look at all the kinds of autism (as there are many different forms of it) there are and check what each kind entailsBy looking at the differences, I will create some form of animation or short film for each one (or the most common ones) and somehow corporate them all together so it creates one main anima-tion/film.I will look at the key points that make an autistic child different from a normal child.I will also look at the difference between autistic children and autistic adults.What sort of factors causes autism. Is it a hereditary thing? Psychological? Physical? Etc.

Skills EvidencePicking out important details from a large selection of infor-mation and representing it in form of moving images.Must also be able to use certain software like After Effects.

Predicted ResolutionsA short film that will represent the world through the eye of an autistic person

Research


Field of StudyMy field of study is autism and so will be exploring all the forms, affects and varieties of autism. I will be looking at both autistic children and adults. The outcome of this brief will help people understand what autistic people go through on a day to day basis.

Design Problem/Question The aim of this brief is to represent the world through the eye of an autistic person in the form of Graphic Design: New Media. This will be done by creating a short film or animation fulfilling this task. The target audience will be based on those who have never experienced or dealt with autism.

ContextAutistic people have difficulties dealing with certain tasks that we find so simple in this society. Some struggle with communication, showing or understanding emotion and many other basic things. Things that get done on a day-to-day basis can appear so differently to a person who suffers from autism.

Rationale I think it’s important that people understand that we are all different and that we all shouldn’t be prejudiced because of who we are or what we are. When you’ve never had to deal with something so serious it’s hard to understand why some people are not as ‘normal’ as yourself. I want to create something that makes people get so close to first-hand experience when it comes to a serious topic like a sort of illness.

Research


These two images represent the brain scans of someone who doesn’t have autism (above) and someone who does (below). The red area displays when the brain is active as it’s perceiving people’s faces. The blue on the other hand, shows it being active when it’s perceiving objects instead.

My first task was to do a bit of research on Autism to see what the symptoms consist of so I could later put them to use for my experiments and final outcome.

A list of things that I found are:-They find it hard to tell people what they need, and how they feel.-They find it hard to socialise and make new friends.-They find it hard to understand what other people think.

A list of things of how they behave:-They may not speak.-They may not understand what other people say.-They may copy what other people say.-They may only talk about their favourite subject.-They may not understand how other people feel.-They may not take part in games or activities with other people.-They may like to play the same game or do the same thing every day.-Here is some more information about people with autism.-They may find co-ordination difficult. This means that they may find it hard to do things like use scissors or use knives and forks.

-They may be very good at something. For example, they may be very good at maths, art or music.-They can be good at learning how to do something when they see someone else doing it.-They may be good at concentrating on one activity.-They may have learning disabilities.-They may have other difficulties. For example, they may have dyslexia.

There is also another type of Autism. This is called Asperg-er’s Syndrome.

People with Asperger syndrome do not have learning dis-abilities but they find the same things difficult as people with autism, for example:

-They find it hard to tell people what they need, and how they feel.-They find it hard to meet other people and to make new friends.-They find it hard to understand what other people think.

By looking at these lists of symptoms and behaviours it helped create a list of potential ideas. Each symptom could be represented with the use of New Media.

Research


I decided to do some exploration on the artistic side of au-tism as well instead of just researching the facts.

I found that there were a few artifacts out there that were created by autistic people, where they display how their autistic life feels through art.

A good source I found to discover some of these artifacts was the book, ‘The Girl Who Spoke With Pictures’. This book was based on the author’s daughter (who suffers from autism), where she would display her autism through art, for example, if she was hungry she would draw out pictures of food.

Another autistic person I found that showed his feelings through art was Aron James Glasser. He suffers from As-perger’s Syndrome. On the far right is one of the pictures he drew himself, this is called ‘Confusion Jungle’.

There were also many animations I found based on autism. One of the most popular ones is called ‘A is for Autism’. It’s an animation using stories from autistic people while showing animated versions of drawings done by autistic people.

Development


Experiment 1- Through doing my research I had read how one of the behaviours that results from having autism is loathing certain things. It brings such hatred out of the person that they will adamantly refuse to deal with anything that is associated with this particular hated subject. For example. if one hated the col-our red they will refuse to eat their chips with ketchup, they will refuse to ride in a red car, etc. To start my first experiment I thought that I could take a picture and take it apart to distinguish all its colours and shapes so they can be represented both individually and specifically.

By using these shapes I thought I could create some images of patterns with the use of repitition. Another symptom that occurs a lot with autistic people is echolalia. This is where a person will repeat back what is being said to them. Keeping the theme of repitition in mind, I thought I would incorporate the idea of shapes and col-ours and repitition together.

Development


Experiment 2- For my first animation, as part of my list of experiments, there was one symptom based on autism that stood out the most. This was the fact that autistic people find it hard to interpret other people’s emotions. They also don’t understand much about how to express their own feelings either.

I used this idea to create an animation as part of my exper-iment. My main aim was to focus on five key expressions, these being sadness, happiness, shock, anger and confusion. For each face that would appear on screen would have the words describing a feeling. This feeling would not relate to what is actually being shown, so the viewer understands the confusion that an autistic person has when perceiving an individual’s emotion.

I started off doing this animation by using Photoshop to create the five main expressions. This was just to bring my storyboard more to life. For my second animation based on the same concept I used real life faces to

Development


Experiment 3- One of the other things that make it harder for an autistic person to understand compared to someone who doesn’t have autism are metaphors or jokes. This is because the meanings aren’t so literal therefore they have trouble understanding its figurative meaning. For example ‘laughing my socks off’. The meaning behind this is laugh-ing very hard, but to an autistic person it is understood as literally laughing off your socks.

I thought this was an inspiring way to come up with a few animations where I could show the two meanings of the metaphor (i.e. the figurative meaning and the literal one).

Some examples of metaphors or proverbs:-Every cloud has a silver lining-A skeleton in the closet-A watched pot never boils

I started off using the proverb: ‘she was the apple of his eye’, to create my first animation. The meaning of this is the central aperture of the eye. On the left-hand side is the storyboard for the animation. It starts off with the figurative meaning where the boy is in love with the girl. It then ends up with its literal meaning where the girl turns into an apple and the boy puts it in his eye.

Development


Experiment 4- While watching documentaries on autism, there were certain stories told by the people interviewed that I thought were good ideas for animations and to in-clude in the final piece.

One of the first examples was a man who mentioned how understanding things so simple in an everyday life were still hard for him. Trying to remember what is wrong or right was difficult. This exam-ple shown with traffic lights, he could not remember what the red or the green symbolised. I put this to use by making an animation of a car waiting at a green light but then accelerating when the light turns to red.

Another one was this girl who had a hatred for fleece on her skin. The only way she would wear it was by using her fingers and not letting the material touch her thumbs or fingers.

From what I have researched on this disability is that autis-tic people have a certain pattern or regime in their life. If they don’t follow what they’re used to, or something is out of the ordinary for them it makes them uncomfortable. This is why most of them find it hard to socialise or meet new people. It’s like everyday they learn something new about life and have to put it in a certain category in their head so that if something similar gets brought up again they can go back to that category and see what to do with the situation.

Development


Experiment 5- Reading ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night time’, a book narrated by an autistic fifteen year old boy, helped me get into their minds a bit more. I could see what they could see and understand how their mentality functions. It helped me focus on certain points to use as examples for my experiments.

One of the last things that happened a lot with this kid was that he kept relating certain things to something that had already happened in the past to help or reassure himself in the present day. It’s as if he had to make sure of a certain situ-ation happening by relating it to something similar that had already happened.

In order to represent this in my final animation I decided to make a dream bubble with another animation appearing in it. I figured that as the thought is supposed to be personal I would either hand-draw or digitally draw out the animation to give it that sort of sentiment.

Final


I made a storyboard for my final animation as a rough idea of how I wanted the outcome to turn out like.

The idea I came up with for the final result consists of walking around town with a hand-held camera. With this I will record a normal everyday scenery and take note of cer-tain things that I had explored throughout my past experi-ments. It is important that I capture people’s emotions, any metaphors found in everyday places, stories suited to what is going on and certain scenarios which I can link to a past memory.

To the right is a storyboard in both written and picture form to display how I want the final animation to turn out like.The final outcome will start off with the footage taken of a normal everyday walk, making sure to capture people’s facial expressions, this will then lead onto an animation of the facial expressions. Next the footage will show cars wait-ing at a traffic light, this is when the traffic light animation gets played. Carrying on from this there will be two proverbs displayed in real life with a animation to follow.The last set of footage and animation will be a memory that links together.

Emotions Traffic Light Proverb

ProverbMemory

Final


The fiinal animation for the facial expressions con-sists of five different faces, with five different emotions (distinguished be the different mouths) and five dif-ferent written emotions. The same way the previous animation mixed up all the emotions to showthe ‘autis-tic person’s’ confusion, this animation does the same. This time though the upper part of the face stays the same so that the mouths and words can change. There are five different kinds of faces. The mouths constantly change with each mouth.

The image on the right displays the five different faces and emotions.

Final


For the final outcome I chose the proverbs- “every cloud has a silver lining” and “make hay while the sun shines”.

The first proverb consists of a cloud with a silver lin-ing running through it, then displays the words of the sentence.

The second one consists of a person picking out sun rays off the sun and throwing them on the floor making them look like hay. A horse then appears and eats the ray/hay.

Final


For the ‘memory’ animation, I linked together a scene of Domino’s pizza place and created an animation of a chef making a pizza and throwing it in wooden fired stove as a form of representation of a memory. As the video passes the pizza place the animation pops up in a form of a dream bubble (as shown on the image on the right).

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varieties of autism

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