Wednesday 18 February 2015

Crit

Some presentation boards that I presented in the crit. 





The feedback I received was positive overall, with some very useful ideas and input from my peers. I identified that I wanted to direct the focus mainly on the more domesticated animals, even though they are all equal, domestic animal testing will be more shocking.

Ideas:

  • dissection of animal parts (use a more shocking animal)
  • subtle and soft approach
  • people have more feelings towards domesticated animals
  • tear apart perforated images
  • expose companies for lying 
  • stay away from the obvious



Tuesday 17 February 2015

Development

In order to start creating the screen print, we started creating some digital layers for our print, trying and testing several compositions and sizing.

Central design, symmetrical.


Adding some shapes dispersing from the centre, however we both decided that because the centre was very tight and intricate, the outer shapes need to be slightly more dishevelled, allowing us to create something that illustrated the concept (disarray yet with obvious direction.)





Changed the sizing of the silhouette so its slightly larger.



Final negatives




How the layered print will look, each of the separate layers will be a different colour. We will select three of the colours from our chosen colour palette. The decision for the specific colour palette reflect on us as individuals, they are the colours which we feel represents our mood effectively. A combination of darker hues, and pastels create a nice combination. 


Sunday 15 February 2015

Animal testing: Occupy for animals

Occupy for animals are an organisation against animal testing, they strongly disagree (like others) against animal experimentation. 
Why? Because 99% of animals live in unimaginable misery, because they are horrible abused by humans that think animals belong to them. The purpose of their website is to inform the public not only about the cruelty and the suffering that animals have to endure but also about lies that are being fed to us, about facts that are deliberately hidden about animal testing and which affects both our own health and the environment, and consequently our future.

Something I learned from this website was that beagles were locked up and used to test cigarettes, and they were inhaling smoke through masks. I hadn't researched this topic before, therefore I did not realise this had happened ignorantly, I was only aware of the standard cosmetic, and medical testing. Animals are something I feel strongly about therefore this is upsetting, especially that I was totally unaware. 

The smoking beagles
An investigation by Mary Beith who worked in Britain’s animal labs to get these disturbing facts in 1975
THIS is the price of smoking pleasure. Rows of beagle dogs, trussed up and masked, and each compelled to smoke up to 30 cigarettes a day.

Smoking is not their pleasure. More of a misery.

But the chain-smoking beagles have to puff away relentlessly. As the stubs burn out, new cigarettes are promptly inserted by lab assistants in the grotesque “smoking masks” attached to these unhappy animals.

Some of the dogs go on smoking for up to three years. Then they are killed. All, of course, in the name of research. In this case research into the human pastime known as smoking.

It is part of tests being carried out by Britain’s largest company, Imperial Chemical Industries, on their new “safe” cigarette.

I observed this incredible scene while taking part with other Sunday People investigators in the first-ever probe into animal research laboratories.

A sharp increase in experiments has followed the stringent regulation ordered by the Government’s Dunlop Committee on drug safety.

Ten animals every minute are being used in licensed experiments for research.

Because Britain’s animal researchers do not welcome public attention much of our startling information was gathered by investigators obtaining jobs as laboratory assistants without disclosing their identities.

But nothing we saw was more pitiful than the chain-smoking dogs.

I.C.I. and the massive Imperial Tobacco Company have joined in investing £13 million on a new factory where the cellulose-based “New Smoking Material” – N.S.M. for short – will be used in cigarettes to reduce the health risk in human smokers.

At I.C.I.’s “Dog Toxicity Unit” at Alderley Park, Cheshire, where I took a job, there are 48 beagles smoking variations of ordinary tobacco and N.S.M.

One batch of 12, who have been smoking for two years, are expected to smoke 30 a day. Others smoke only 10 a day.

PART of my job was to get the dogs trussed in fabric slings like strait-jackets.

Their heads were restrained by locking two boards in place, like medieval stocks.

The dogs were then lifted on trolleys to the smoking platform, and the masks, valves and tubes were fixed to their faces.

WE HAD to adjust electronic valves which control the amount of amoke and clear air inhaled by the dogs.

WE HAD to watch flashing lights on the control box which indicate the dog’s breathing and tolerance of the smoke.

WE HAD to help re-fit masks where dogs had struggled free. One tried to bite my hand as I put the muzzle on.

WE HAD to hurry along dogs who got behind with their daily “ration” by adjusting the valves so that the beagles were forced to inhale more smoke to speed up the process.

I was constantly reminded to carry out this procedure.

And when they have finished their smoking stint the dogs are killed and sent to pathology laboratories to be cut up and examined for signs of cancer, liver or heart diseases or other possible effects.

Some of the dogs have acquired a smoker’s cough judging from the sounds I heard.

Taken from their website
source:http://www.occupyforanimals.net/the-smoking-beagles.html

Saturday 14 February 2015

Animal experimenting

Experimentation on animals is used to develop medicines and test the safety of other products, such as cosmetics. The experiments are not healthy for the animals, and they can have significant effects on the animals, which is why charities such as PETA strongly disagree with any form of animal testing, and anything relating. Morally, it is wrong to cause animals to suffer for experimentation purposes, the animal experimenters are very aware that this is an ethical problem and they acknowledge that these experiments should be made as humane as possible. Scientists are encouraged to follow a set of principles that reduce the impact of research on animals; reduction, refinement and replacement. 

Reduction reducing the number of animals used in experiments by:
Improving experimental techniques
Improving techniques of data analysis
Sharing information with other researchers

Refinement refining the experiment or the way the animals are cared for so as to reduce their suffering by:
Better medical care
Using less invasive techniques
Better living conditions

Replacement replacing experiments on animals with alternative techniques such as:
Using computer models
Studying human volunteers
Experimenting on cell culture instead of whole animals
Using in epidemiological studies

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/animals/using/experiments_1.shtml

There can be a for and against argument for the experimentation of animals (against being the strongest) however some argue that the benefits of these experiments include; if the suffering is minimised in all experiments and if the human benefits are gained which could not be obtained by using other methods. 

Alongside PETA, there are other charities/organisations such as Animal Aid, and this is the UK's largest animal rights group, and one of the longest established in the world. They campaign against all forms of animal abuse and promote a cruelty-free lifestyle. They expose animal cruelty and they carry out undercover investigations which are used by the media, therefore bringing the issues to the public attention.

"Each year inside British laboratories, nearly 4 million animals are experimented on. Every 8 seconds, one animal dies. Cats, dogs, rats, mice, guinea pigs, rabbits, primates and other animals are used to test new products, to study human disease and in the development of new drugs. They are even used in warfare experiments. Animal Aid opposes animal experiments on both moral and scientific grounds. Animals are not laboratory tools. They are sentient creatures capable of experiencing pain, fear, loneliness, frustration and sadness.
To imprison animals and deny them their freedom to express natural instincts and to deliberately inflict physical pain in the name of science is unacceptable. All the more so because the experiments are bad science in the first place: they do not produce information that can be reliably applied to people. Ending vivisection will benefit people as well as animals"
Source:http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/CAMPAIGNS/experiments/ALL///
Some of Animal Aid's campaigns



Basic facts
Some of the animals used for experimental purposes are;
  • rodents 84%
  • fish, amphibians, reptiles 12%
  • large mammals 2.1%
  • small mammals 1.4%
  • dogs and cats 0.3%
  • primates 0.1%

  1. Over 100 million animals are burned, crippled, poisoned, and abused in US labs every year.
  2. 92% of experimental drugs that are safe and effective in animals fail in human clinical trials because they are too dangerous or don’t work.
  3. Labs that use mice, rats, birds, reptiles and amphibians are exempted from the minimal protections under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA).
  4. Up to 90% of animals used in U.S. labs are not counted in the official statistics of animals tested.
  5. Europe, the world’s largest cosmetic market, Israel and India have already banned animal testing for cosmetics, and the sale or import of newly animal-tested beauty products.
  6. Even animals that are protected under the AWA can be abused and tortured. And the law doesn’t require the use of valid alternatives to animals, even if they are available. 
  7. According to the Humane Society, registration of a single pesticide requires more than 50 experiments and the use of as many as 12,000 animals.
  8. When used in cosmetic tests, mice, rats, rabbits, and guinea pigs are often subjected to skin and eye irritation tests where chemicals are rubbed on shaved skin or dripped into the eyes without any pain relief.
  9. In tests of potential carcinogens, subjects are given a substance every day for 2 years. Others tests involve killing pregnant animals and testing their fetuses.
  10. The real-life applications for some of the tested substances are as trivial as an “improved” laundry detergent, new eye shadow, or copycat drugs to replace a profitable pharmaceutical whose patent expired.
  11. “Alternative” tests achieve one or more of the “3 R’s:” replaces a procedure that uses animals with a procedure that doesn’t, reduces the number of animals used in a procedure, refines a procedure to alleviate or minimize potential animal pain.
Source:https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-animal-testing


United States (2010)(1,2)
  • 1.28 million animals used in experiments (excluding rats, mice, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and agricultural animals used in agricultural experiments), plus an estimated 100 million mice and rats
Canada (2009)(3)
  • 3.38 million animals used in experiments
  • 145,632 animals subjected to “severe pain near, at, or above the pain tolerance threshold of unanesthetized conscious animals”
United Kingdom (2012)(4)
  • 4.11 million experiments on animals
  • 2.95 million without anesthesia

Friday 13 February 2015

PETA 'People for the ethical treatment of animals'

PETA 'People for the ethical treatment of animals'

"Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way."

This is a UK based charity which is dedicated to establishing and protecting the rights of all animals. PETA argues that animals are capable of suffering therefore we are not permitted to use them for food, clothing, experimentation and entertainment purposes. PETA aim to educate 'policymakers' and the public about animal cruelty, they promote an understanding of the right of all animals to be treated with respect. The charity promote their beliefs through the use of celebrity involvement's, protest campaigns and they also hold special events to educate the public on these concerning animal cruelty issues. 

Animal rights

"Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. Many of us bought our beloved "pets" at pet shops, had guinea pigs and kept beautiful birds in cages. We wore wool and silk, ate McDonald's burgers and fished. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. For whatever reason, you are now asking the question: why should animals have rights?"

The author Peter Singer states in his book 'Animal Liberation' that the basic principle of equality does not require equal or identical treatment - it requires equal consideration. This is an important distinction when talking about animal rights. It is questioned whether animals should in fact have their own rights, and PETA strongly believes that they should be able to live freely without suffering and being exploited. 


"Supporters of animal rights believe that animals have an inherent worth – a value completely separate from their usefulness to humans. We believe that every creature with a will to live has a right to live free from pain and suffering. Animal rights is not just a philosophy – it is a social movement that challenges society's traditional view that all non-human animals exist solely for human use. As PETA's managing director, Ingrid E. Newkirk has said, "When it comes to pain, love, joy, loneliness and fear, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. Each one values his or her life and fights the knife".
"The capacity for suffering is not just another characteristic like the capacity for language or higher mathematics. All animals have the ability to suffer in the same way and to the same degree that humans do. They feel pain, pleasure, fear, frustration, loneliness and motherly love. Whenever we consider doing something that would interfere with their needs, we are morally obligated to take them into account."
"Only prejudice allows us to deny others the rights that we expect to have for ourselves. Whether it's based on race, gender, sexual orientation or species, prejudice is morally unacceptable. If you wouldn't eat a dog, why eat a pig? Dogs and pigs have the same capacity to feel pain, but it is prejudice based on species that allows us to think of one animal as a companion and the other as dinner."

PETA strongly disagrees with the use of animals for any form of human pleasure when relating to cruelty, involving using the animals for entertainment purposes and leisure, such as fashion statements. 

Source: http://www.peta.org.uk/issues/why%2Danimal%2Drights/
Issues
"Animals are not ours to eat" meat, dairy fish and eggs all come from animal sources, this is something PETA do not agree with, they refer to the result of us consumers buying and eating produce sourced from animals, as unimaginable suffering of many different animals; the livestock industry treats these animals as machines. 
The animals suffering include; cows, chickens, ducks, geese, pigs and sheep, PETA are totally against animals being used as a source of food and there argument is extremely simple, do not eat them. 

"Animals are not ours to wear" we do not have the rights to wear, and use animals skin for any fashion purposes, the charity is extremely against this, and their campaigns voicing these views can be seen as controversial and some may be offensive. "Animals are not ours to wear, walk on or carry our possessions in. Before animal skins reach store shelves, animals live a life of misery, pain, boredom and fear, and many are skinned alive."On fur farms, the animals that usually rome free such as foxes, minks, and chinchillas are kept in captivity. When being killed, the animals are often gassed, anally or genitally electrocuted or poisoned with strychnine or their necks are snapped, however it is possible that the animals sometimes wake up while the skin is being torn from their bodies because the methods are not effective. Leather is just as cruel as fur, in a year more than 1billion animals are slaughtered in the global leather industry, most commonly cows. Its not just leather and fur, there are also exotic animals that are suffering. The exotic skin industry takes the lives of millions of snakes, alligators, seals and zebras, and their skins are commonly seen on major fashion catwalks. Cat and dog skins are also traded in europe

"Animals our not ours to use for entertainment." Circus', zoo's and bullfighting, angling and horse racing are all forms of entertainment that is not fair on the animals. PETA strongly disagree with any form of animal entertainment, and they encourage us to try and petition against this and get all forms of sports/entertainment banned. 

"Animals are not ours to experiment on.""An animal dies in a European laboratory every three seconds. In scientific experiments animals may legally be poisoned; deprived of food, water or sleep; subjected to skin or eye irritants; subjected to psychological distress; deliberately infected with diseases; subjected to brain damage; paralysed; surgically mutilated; irradiated; burned; gassed; force-fed; electrocuted; and killed. This happens to millions of animals every year."
Animal testing and experiments can cause pain to the animals and can also reduce their quality of life in other ways. Animal testing can be used for the purpose of medical testing and cosmetic. 

"Animals are not ours to abuse in any way." Cruelty to companions, domestic animals also suffer, as they are thousands of animals being born, however there isn't always the sufficient recourses and homes available in order to care for all these animals, it is a privilege for an animal to be fortunate in a loving, caring home. However, it is not always beneficial when an animal is living domestically, the animal could suffer from their guardian as they may be deprived of the basic necessities they need and are entitled to, and also they may be deprived of the veterinary care they need. 

Campaigns
PETA have done multiple celebrity campaigns supporting animal rights, some seen to be controversial and offensive. The majority include female celebrities, supporting the 'Id rather go naked than wear fur' campaign, however some are deemed to be slightly more serious, and not as innocent. PETA has become notorious for some of their offensive and shocking campaigns. 

These two campaigns below show both Jessica-Jane Clement and Olivia Munn posing naked, along with what the audience will see as a 'cute' rabbit, it is designed to get the audience to really consider the animals that are at risk, and tries to make them feel overwhelmed with guilt. 











PETA offensive campaigns
These campaigns have been branded the most offensive that PETA have ever revealed, many were also banned. 

The catholic church was outraged by this poster.

This was banned in Montreal as it was branded sexist.

This wasn't banned, however it was shocking for part of their go vegetarian campaign, it strongly implies that women are classed as meat. 

This was part of PETA's 'Holocaust on your plate' campaign and was banned by the high court of Germany. 

This was for PETA's global campaign against KFC, they use the two dead bikini clad women to represent the chicks that KFC scald to death; this is a very passionate ad and really shows the depth that the charity go to, to express their views and opinions about animal cruelty. 


Tuesday 10 February 2015

Influences

When looking at alternative self portraits, I came across the designer Petra Peterffy. Her illustrative and digital practice began as collage design, and her inspiration comes from anything that crosses her path, her designs tell their own stories or depicts situations from alternative perspectives.

This image depicts the blurred boundary between sleep and wakefulness. This digital art piece I find to be intriguing, the soft floral combines with the prominent shapes creates a nice contrast. The transition from sleep to awake is clear, as it suggests that when in sleep, everything is a blur. 

This is one of my favourite pieces from the artist, as the distorted imagery emerging from the figures.











We looked at some interestic repeat patterns including geometric shapes, and linear designs. The soft pastel tones contrast agaisnt the harsh, angular shapes created by the linear structure.
The visual motifs of a geometric pattern are repeated to form the full design, but with our own print we want to create something that has direction and not just a repetitve design. Symmetrical and linear patterns could work nicely as a layered print, this will make the print slughtly difficult as each intricate layer would need to be lined up correctly, this is something we want to experiment with and see how intricate we can make each layer. 

Initial Ideas 



 The first layer displays an arrangement of geometric, angular shapes dispersing from the left hand side. The idea would be to duplicate this and flip it, creating a symmetrical linear design. The centre is more intricate, then the shapes expand towards the outside dishevelling and appearing less intricate. We would imagine this to be the base layer. The next layer (as shown on the tracing paper overlaying the first layer) would be some of the same shapes already creating, however instead of being a linear line, they would be block colour allowing the shape to print over the exisitng in a separate colour. The third layer shows a side profile silhouette (the important part) as this will show us, as a person. To keep the print consistent and with the concept still present, we want the silhouette to appear rather subtle, so its not just an obvious self portrait. 



Before we started creating the design for print we both decided on a colour palette that reflects us both. With the brief asling for an alternative self portrait of ourselves, the colour palette was informed by our own interests and personal choice of colours. These pastel hues would wokr well together as the shades compliment eachother, they would work together in any context. Knowing we are creating a layered print, we selected a few colours allowing us to have a wide  range to test on paper when it comes to producing the final print.