22.2.11

Mass Culture and Sustainability 11/02/11


A lecture by Hamid Van-Koten about industrialization, mass consumption and sustainability. We are living in a post industrial world which carries a lot of meaning. Everything is industrialised around us and this has many consequences. The most important thing in our society called money, as important as major decisions have been made because of money. We pay money for services so we don’t have to make things any more, we can buy anything. Because of industrialization we have fewer jobs (traditional jobs) since everything made by machines although they still need humans to maintain them. But what’s wrong with it? We can buy anything we need or just want so there isn’t any problem. Yes, there is. But let’s start at the beginning.

“…when commodities are in the relation of exchange, their exchange-value manifests itself as something totally independent of their use-value.”

Marx, Capital (p. 125.)

Use value means that the product we buy has the same value as the product we give instead. It also means that we buy things what satisfy our needs. Nowadays we pay with money for everything, which is basically a piece of paper that means everything for a lot of people and it called exchange-value. But it’s proved that money won’t make people happy. We’ve been brainwashed and this lecture helped me to understand how.

To Fordize:
“to standardize a product and manufacture it by mass means at a price so low that the common man can afford to buy it."

Ford – Fordism

Ford was the man who started the industrialization. He designed a car which was affordable for anyone. It wasn’t made by hand anymore but machines which made the process faster. Than the same thing happened with other industries like textiles, printing, jewellery, and architecture. New techniques and materials appeared as artificial oil based fabrics, early plastics that provided cheap materials for the product industry and digital processes in printing which created the print + image format instead of the art deco style. Buildings became less decorated as well with the appearance of concrete and the new modern style born. 

Modern style is international and functional. I’ve never thought about it but kitchens are the best example for this. Earlier kitchens were a combination of different bits and bobs but today we have designed, highly functional furniture. Based on user studies and measurements of people’s sizes they made for average people. Mass production doesn’t care about individuals and different personalities. But it cares about money and because manufacture became much more effective they had to sell the products. Designers became more important to create sellable items for consumption and everything speeded up.

Commodity Fetishism:
The relationship between consumer and producer is obscured

Marx – Capital

Everything is designed for us but we have no idea where the goods coming from or what they made of. Even our food is a mystery if we have a look at the ingredients. These new products lost their social value, just their exchange values are important. As an example we don’t know what Martini or Coke made of, they could be made from 2 pence but we have to pay much more for them. Adverts created a new social context for goods, they became magical objects.

Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction:

•Removal of ritual context and tradition, resulting in
•Loss of aura of the object
•Mass production delivers to a mass audience

Walter Benjamin

Adverts changing our taste and tell us what to consume. We became a crowd and the need of individuals doesn’t matter anymore. Manmade object are more expensive so a very few people would buy them. But on the other hand if we need only 3-5 jumpers instead of 20 we can easily afford the better quality.

…Advertising creates “false needs” and thus increases consumption…

John Kenneth Galbraith

It hasn’t been proved that advertising increases consumption but definitely changes the values of it and by providing cheap products it allows us to buy whatever we want. The biggest problem is the waste we produce. First of all the packaging which wouldn’t be necessary if we would grow our own food or buy it at the market  (-  by the way those who interested in cheap organic vegetables you can purchase a big net full of them for a fiver at the main entrance of the Union every Tuesday during lunch break. Recipe and free soup included and you can also take the net back so no waste involved). Also such a small thing as carrying a fabric shopping bag with us instead of using plenty of plastic ones can make a huge difference. Can you imagine how much waste we produce by following the new trends of fashion, electronics, interiors, etc? But do we really need to buy new ones or we just obsessed with fitting in to the society. Do we have to use our cars every day (I don’t have a car because I don’t need it) and do we need new mobile phones every year? Dundee is special though because the public transport here is pretty useless, mainly after 6pm but its small enough to walk or cycle to most of the places. We don’t have to do what adverts tell us to do. Have you ever calculated your carbon footprint? You can do here if you haven’t: http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx

A photograph from the lecture:



We have only one planet Earth and we’re just about to make it impossible for human being to live on it. I saw two shocking documentaries recently in association with consumption so I’ll write another post about those, until then a short but impressive animation from the lecture:


20.2.11

Assignment 2 - Semester 2

This assignment is based on an essay: The Rhetoric of the Image by Roland Barthes. The writer discusses the meaning of polysemy which is in nutshell the multiple meaning of pictures. When different people look at the same picture they will understand it in different ways. They will associate the image with something from their own life or experiences and it will open up one route for their ideas while the other routes closing down.  The author analyses advertising images, this one in particular:



He says advertising images are clear, intentional, frank or at least emphatic. Pictures contain symbolic and non-symbolic messages. The last one is very obvious and the consumer doesn’t need any special skills to understand it apart from being able to read in the particular language. The non-symbolic message of this image is the pasta and the sauce. The symbolic message is a little bit more difficult to understand. This image uses Italian-ness to sell these products and this message requires cultural skills to realize (it isn’t an international message). It starts with the appearance of Italian colours red, yellow, and green in the image but the name of the pasta and even the still life composition suggest Italian qualities. There are other symbolic messages in the picture like the net and the vegetables coming out from it. It can hint a ‘back from the market’ feeling which suggests freshness, the essentialness of domestic preparation and also that the tinned sauce is equal with the fresh vegetables beside it.

Because of the polysemy they need something to fix the meaning of the picture. The author mentions the ‘civilization of writing’ which is the importance of linguistic messages in our society. Using a text (or a logo) on the picture fixes the meaning. The text answers the question: What is it? It helps to identify clearly the image by explaining the image but it doesn’t explain the symbolic message. It’s a guide to the reader of the image it makes the viewer to avoid some bits and receive others. Text also communicates the differences between the literal and symbolic message because the literal message can’t be substantial it’s always relational.

The other important element is the usage of the photograph instead of a drawing. Drawings are captured humanly so it’s easy to manipulate them and it communicates the message from one person’s perspective. On the other hand photographs captured mechanically so it proves that ‘this is how it was’. The ‘naturalness’ of the photographs create a ‘real unreality’ which means it’s still easy to manipulate (by lighting, the usage of colours, etc.) but it looks very real. Films are even more powerful because they provides the experience of ‘being there’ which naturalises the symbolic message. 

After we read this article we’ve been asked to do a little experiment about polysemy. We chose three random pictures and went to the streets and asked people to tell us a narrative which links the pictures together. We meant to do it in groups of four but jewellery students were too busy this week so we had to start it on Friday afternoon just the two of us with Jenny from my class. We show people these three pictures and we got so many different answers:




1. Loving parents support child with creative activities to produce artists. (age:19, student, female)

2. Four people got together to draw a new baby that’s been born.  (age:20, student, female)

3. It’s a Benetton advert, people uniting together. (age 28, medical student, male)

4. Son and father colouring in and it connects them as he grow up. (age:20, student, male)

5. Baby is born, LGBT, happy. (age:30, medical student, female)

6. Colouring in book for kids, family games which connect child and parents. (age 20, student)

7. They were all at art school, very close to each other and one of them got pregnant. Their life was colourful but it became dull – black & white picture of the baby (age:44, student, female)

8. When you born and you draw it makes you a better people. (age:21, student, female)

9. Family, kids, colouring in. (age:21, medical student, female)

10. Artist and child, she met with a man, they got engaged, they were happy and got a lot of support from their family. (age:19, student, female) 

11. Parents encourage creative learning and as time passes they learn to connect with others and if you don’t encourage it wouldn’t happen. (age: 30, receptionist, female)

After we’ve done this we found a couple key words what they associated with the pictures: connection, family, creative learning, colouring in, support, development, future, and uniting. It was very hard to pull out a proper answer from young people, they were too tired or to stressed to think but older (over 30) people came up with more complex stories. Than we had to choose a target story, add a fourth picture and see if people would get it right. We choose the first story: Loving parents support their child with creative activities to produce artists; and then we add the fourth picture:




The answers:

1. Family and friends supported the child through school and she came out as an artist. (age:25, electronical engineering student, male)

2. Baby lives with grandparents, granddad is a painter and they are drawing together. (age:20, student, female)

3. Baby helps with colour blindness than became an artist. (age:22, sport president, male)

4. Baby was born, they loved her and because she was interesting they put her into art school and she became an artist. (age:20, student, female)

The first and the last one was pretty close but we realised the fourth picture wasn’t working. Although the four pictures told a very obvious story for us people still came up with different stories so we decided to add text. First we add the word 'creative' onto one of the pictures:





The answers:

1. A proud father supports his child growing up to become creative. (age:21, student, female)
2. Parent helping child to learn the importance of going too far. Holding hands – when the child falling from a cliff they will protect him. (age:22, student, male)

The first one was right but the second one just ignored the text on the image. We decided to add text onto two pictures - creative learning, support :




1. Support a pregnant girlfriend then they have the baby and they provide the baby with support for creative learning. (age:50, selling books at the Union, female)

2. Parents who support their child for creative learning. (age: 40, waiting for a meeting, female)

3. People supporting baby with creative learning skills. (age:20, student, female)

4. Local communities support creative learning for kids. (age:19, student, male)

This last bit was very interesting because although the stories are still different they all used the words from the pictures. Actually they started to think about the words more than about the pictures. No more colouring in, engagement or uniting. We fixed the meaning of the pictures with text and it was working. It was a very difficult experience not just because we had to do it just the two of us and we had a very short time to do it but also because most of the people were too lazy to think and gave us answers that don’t make any sense. But at the end of the day we found out that Barthes was right about texts. 


How can we use this knowledge? Sometimes we want to produce more than just pretty textiles and want to add a message. But we can't be sure the message comes across until we test it. I don't like text on textiles but the colours, the context, the composition all can carry a message. We just have to make sure other people can get it not just us. 

16.2.11

Snooping around

Just a very interesting flat designed by Tóth Gergely Máté. His openness must be much higher than average.

 http://epiteszforum.hu/node/18017

11.2.11

The matter of taste

What good taste really means? There are so many different theories about good taste and fashion so first I will have a quick look at these ideas then I will write about an essay  - From aesthetic principles to collective sentiments: The logic of everyday judgements of taste written by Ian Woodward and Michael Emmison. This Australian article analyses how people judge taste and what their judgement based on.


Classical sociologist had different ideas about taste and fashion which are still interesting today but a lot of things changed since then. The contours between social classes getting blurry as we all have the same rights and we are equal in theory. But it always worth to see where concepts like taste and fashion come from. Kant’s idea about good taste is that it has to be a universal judgement. If something is beautiful there’s nothing to do with its function – like the sunset – it is a “common sense” based on our feelings instead of concepts. I think it should be this way but I’m afraid nowadays there are quite a lot of effects influence our tastes. Not in terms of the sunset but if we are talking about clothes I’m not sure someone who highly interested in fashion would buy a piece if it’s out of fashion no matter how beautiful it is. Trends are essential today in fashion and beauty doesn’t come first all the time.

Veblen and Simmel had a different theory about fashion. Veblen observed that the wealthy and upper class people demonstrate their status through “wasteful expenditures”. Their clothing is different from popular taste and very difficult to wear – like a birdcage in their hair or their massive dresses – which symbolise that they don’t have to work, they are so leisured as they can spend ages waiting to get their hair done. Veblen thought the elite class shaping and sustaining our sense about what beautiful means. According to Simmel’s observation imitation is a fundamental component of fashion. Lower class people copy upper class people so the elite have to come up with new ideas to set themselves apart from other classes.

‘‘Fashion is the imitation of a given example and satisfy the demand for social adaptation” Simmel

Blumer thought people follow fashion because it is the fashion and not because of the separate prestige of the elite group. Back to nowadays approach I think imitation is still very essential in fashion. Although I don’t think so many people would copy the Queen’s style today but superstars, bands and popular people from the media. We also copy each other; we pick up bits from other people’s style in our environment. Today everybody can dictate fashion like we read in The Tipping Point when downtown kids started to wear Hush Puppies and it became a trend. So who decide what is tasteful? In Bourdieu’s opinion taste is “nediated” which means certain people dictate it. He call these certain people “Gatekeepers” and they could be gallery owners or magazine editors but definitely people who has a huge impact on what reach us as consumers. Bourdieu also said that taste is social so the society we belong to influences our taste. So our taste depends on the Gatekeepers but who they are?

We are working on a Fashion Forecasting project just now and it is very interesting who and how decide it what going to be popular in 18 month. New trends can come from websites or periodical journals, both resources are quite pricy but very essential for designers. These companies have a good understanding of the present by looking at the news, current affairs, economics, cultural and creative happenings and socio-economic trends. Then from the gathered information they second guess consumers future choices based on their emotional connection with the present. They also study the past, how did people react to parallel situations previously which also help to find out the future trends (mudpie.co.uk). So it’s all about social changes around us which affect our choices. But what was first, they try to find out what we want or we buy what they tell us to buy? I guess both because I believe we can’t be manipulated enough to buy whatever they want so the two things has to be in harmony.

Now I’d like to write about what I found out from the Australian article about taste. Their survey involved 619 people from different genders, age groups and background. They tried to find out more about the ideas which different people use to classify objects or behaviours when they judge taste. First they introduced the three abstract classificatory schemes of taste judgment: quantity, composition and quality. Quantity means the correct amount of something considered to be tasteful. Two third of the respondents who used quantity when they talked about taste was female. They said good taste means knowing ‘when enough is enough’. Too much colour, too much accessories, too high heels, too much food on the plate or too many/few words in a situation considered to be tasteless, showy or inappropriate. The next scheme composition is basically about harmony, when things go together or organized in a pleasing way. Again two third of the respondents who used this scheme to judge taste was women. The quality factor refers to definitions like elegance, timelessness and classicism. For an action or an object to be in good taste it must have certain non-functional qualities. Money tastefully spent would mean buying a Jaguar car, Italian woollen trousers or a big boat.

In the next part the authors review two definitions for the references what people use when they talk about good or bad taste: ‘domain of taste’ and ‘basis of taste judgement’. Domain means a social, cultural or consumption sphere to which the respondent refers when talking about taste. The ‘basis’ of taste judgement on the other hand means the reference for a personal or aesthetic judgement. It also can refer to social or collective judgement. According to this survey educated people more likely to use abstract definitions (quantity, composition, quality) when less educated people refer to domains when they talk about taste. There’s a difference between genders as well. Men slightly more likely to use abstract definitions than women but when they do use domains to describe taste females refer to clothing and appearance about twice as much than males. The most significant difference appears between different age groups refer to ‘basis’ of judgement. Older people principally employ collective or social concepts to define good taste when young people mainly use personal or aesthetic concepts for the same.

This survey is an ultimate proof how our environment affects our judgement and what is based on. Basically most of the people try to fit in to the society and their preferences based on what they experience around them. As a summery here is a quote from the article about what good taste means:

‘‘things that are in good taste are generally not upsetting or disgusting to the general public, people who act in good taste care about the people around them and do not want to upset them’’.



3.2.11

Semester 2/ Assignment 1

This assignment is based on Sam Gosling’s book: Snoop – What Your Staff Says About You. We swapped pictures of our home with another design student who we don’t really know and we have to analyse this person’s personality based on the photographs. My partner is Grant who sent me pictures of his bedroom and his bathroom.

Gosling mentions a psychologist in his book who has a very interesting and very true idea about: What does it really mean to know someone? Professor Dan McAdams says it means processing through three distinct levels of intimacy. At the first level we usually talk about ourselves or others by using traits. Words like honest, friendly, fun, smart, lazy, dull, etc. These words refer to ‘The Big Five Dimensions’ also mentioned in Gosling’s book. It is basically a system used for grouping personality traits into a framework. According to this system ‘The Big Five traits are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. To make it easier to understand these qualities Gosling emphasised five well-known icons each of them related to one of the traits.

Openness:
Leonardo da Vinci – creative, imaginative, abstract, curious, deep thinkers, inventive, and value arts and aesthetic experiences

Conscientiousness:
Robocop – thorough, dependable, reliable, hardworking, task focused, efficient, good planners.

Extraversion:
Axel Foley (Beverly Hills Cop) – talkative, energetic, enthusiastic, assertive, outgoing, sociable.

Agreeableness:
Fred Rogers – helpful, selfless, sympathetic, kind, forgiving, trusting, considerate, cooperative.

Neuroticism:
Woody Allen – anxious, easily ruffled or upset, worried, moody

But to get to know someone we really have to move to the next level and find out about the person’s ‘personal concerns’. This includes their roles in their social life, their goals and their values (family, harmony, social recognition, etc.)

So based on all these knowledge I will analyze Grant’s personality by looking at the pictures of his home. First of all I want to say he must be an honest person because the photos he sent me weren’t modified at all. He didn’t even tided up his bad to make a better expression. After my first look at his bedroom I immediately realised the amount of books and DVDs he has. And their variety proved me his high openness. He has books in several topics like art, architecture, jewellery, travel, graffiti and many more. He’s reading different magazines but his DVD collection was even more impressive in themes like action, comedy, animation, sport, series and movies that make you think like my favourite French movie Amelie, the Fight Club and the Big Lebowski. His favourites must be the Toy Story – he has a box set – the Mr Man Show – he has a pen case with one of the characters – old cars, especially Volkswagen Transporters – he has quite a few in his bedroom – which tells me he loves travelling and sympathise with hippies so he must love big festivals as well. He has childhood memories in his bedroom like stuffed animals, a big Lego figure and characters from the Muppet Show. He likes cartoons, which tells me he’s fun loving and doesn’t take things too seriously. He doesn’t afraid of bright colours in fact he likes them but I think he’s favourite colour is blue. There’s a pile of shoes on the top of the cupboard so he likes to dress up stylish. He has about 3 pairs of converse and a couple other streets wear shoes so he likes casual clothes, he usually wear jeans and jumpers. There is a pair of (probably) running shoes and a pair of elegant ones but they’re hardly used. I don’t think he’s very sporty but tries to stay fit.  I also found extreme sport magazines about winter sports so if he’s keen on any sport it must be skiing or snowboarding. Probably he goes skiing once or twice a year just for the sake or fun and adrenaline. There’s a helmet and a high visibility vest beside the door so maybe he’s cycling as well but I haven’t seen anything else that could prove this.

The decoration of the room wasn’t too extreme, mostly little objects tell about his personality. A Dundee pillow is in the centre of the view and a Dundee sticker appears on one of his toolboxes. He likes people let know he is from Dundee, he’s proud of it and I think it’s also a reminder of his family and friends. There are quite a lot of family pictures - mainly babies, probably his wee brother - framed on the top of his bookshelf and also on his wall. They also function as social snacks for him to don’t feel too isolated from his family. Because this room is his ‘office’ as well as his bedroom I would judge by the photos that his extroverted especially when I look downer on his bookshelf and realise the amount of alcohol bottles he has. There’s a bottle of good quality whiskey which could be there for relaxation purposes but the rest of them – Jack Daniel’s, Vodka, Strongbow – are more like party drinks. I don’t think he spends a lot of time at home, he likes to go out and be with friends.

He has a huge Lara Croft poster on his wall, opposite of the bed which I wouldn’t thing relates to his favourite movie he just admires her body, which is fair enough. There’s a sunrise picture on the wall, which could mean a little bit of neuroticism, but I think is there because of the beauty of the picture. Above the bed there’s a big yellow poster probably from one of the winter sport magazines, it sais: “In snow we trust”. Because I found him an honest person I think it’s not there to make him look adventurous but he must be really into skiing or snowboarding.

He has a lot of electronics: 3 headphones (one of them very colourful – probably to wear it outside), a computer with many accessories, 2 stylish cameras and an iPod. I think he’s really into music and a little bit into photography as well which also speaks about his openness. He has a computer area and a desk for his art work where I found a little Eiffel Tower object, also relates to travelling. There’s also a note for himself probably to remind him to a deadline so he tries to be more conscientious and he’s maybe a little bit anxious as well after all. The two calendars in the room could mean that he’s conscientious but I think they came for free with magazines. His room is tidy enough for a boy, he tries to organise things – toolboxes, bookshelf –but he’s not the best in it. At the first look his room seemed much messier than it really is which could be the consequence of the size of the room. It was quite dusty as well so I would say he isn’t high on conscientious he’s more self-motivated and do what he does because he likes to do it. Most of the things in his room more functional than nice: cardboard boxes from the supermarket to keep stuff in it, broken chair at the computer table, and table lamp without lampshade. He has a couple of stylish object though like a Coca Cola bin, a Coke bottle with Robert Burns’ face on it, a colourful plastic sward, the Lego figure and the monkey from the Pg tips tea advert.

He’s bathroom was very clean though. He has deos and perfumes in the bedroom; Listerine, hand cream and good quality shampoos in the bathroom.  There’re three toothbrushes beside the sink and two of them are very well used, just left in the glass for no reason so he’s definitely not a tidy person. His self hygiene must be much better than the estate of his bedroom – although the fake flower was a nice try to make it look fresher - so I think he tries to look cleaner and tidier for the outside world than he really is. I think his most important values are family, friends, home, travelling, being stylish and having lots of fun.

The two traits that easier to find out from bedrooms are openness and conscientiousness but this room functions as his office as well so extraversion could be find out as well. I think Grant is very high on openness, lower than normal on conscientiousness and higher than normal on extraversion. I don’t think he’s neurotic and his agreeableness is probably normal. 

I just met with Grant in person and he was surprised how accurate I was about a lot of things about him. I didn’t get anything totally wrong so it worth the time I spent on analyzing him. I was right about his traits, his favourite colour, about his strong connection to Dundee, his family and his friends, about his values, his enthusiasm for music and turned out that the objects I was ignoring didn’t mean too much to him either. I found out some more details though about his stuff. He is very proud to be Dundonian but he didn’t even remember the sticker on his toolbox. The Dundee pillow is the same age as him such as the teddy bear beside his bed. He uses alcohol for leisure purposes and for go to parties as well. He loves going out and doesn’t spend too much time at home. I wouldn’t think he invites people to his flat but he said he does. He also agreed that when he goes out he wears some kind of a mask (like to be clean and tidy, smell good) but his bedroom is his private space so he can keep it messy and dusty. He leaves things for last minute so the message on his desk told the truth.

About the sport stuff he agreed he tries to keep himself fit but not very successfully. He does snowboarding but he hasn’t been for two years because of an injury but when he did go he went abroad and with friends so the fun part was right too. About the helmet and the high visibility vest he said he’s planning to start cycling and live healthier but he hasn’t started yet.

There were a couple of things I wasn’t sure about and they turned out to be meaningless or too personal to get them right. The Lego figure is a torch – practicality again – which was a present from his parents. The plastic sword was from a college and he just kept it. The Coca Cola bin was from his mum and he use it because it’s practical and he kept the Coke bottle because Robert Burns is on it – Scottish link again. Lara Croft came with the flat but he feels the room needs it for some reason. A relative as an inspiration gave the fake flower to him because he’s designing a booklet for her wedding.  So he wasn’t trying to make the room look fresh. The picture of the sunrise is of the Tay Bridge what he really loves – the best thing in Dundee as he said – taken by his ex-girlfriend. One of the three toothbrushes is his friend’s who stays over quite often and he’s using the other two. He finds it hard to bin toothbrushes though, he’s using them a lot and take one with him when he stays at friends’ house.

Grant’s analysis about me was quite right as well. I do love nature, outdoor and plants and I do care about the environment. He realised that we have two sleeping bags and two metal cups so he assumed I have a close relationship with the person I live with. This is very true, we do everything together with my boyfriend and we find it hard to be separated. Which sometimes keeps me back doing things, like go for a student exchange for example. Even when he’s away for a week I feel so bad about it. Although a week is totally manageable but I couldn’t live without him for more than a month. I do try to live and eat healthy and I enjoy cooking as well. The presence of alcohol and tea is quite confusing though. I’m a very calm person and enjoy relaxing with a cup of tea or a little whisky but I also enjoy going out. I think I’m social but I wouldn’t say our flat is a party place, it’s more for relaxing. We do invite friends around but because we live quite far from the city centre they don’t come very often. Mentioning the decoration on the walls made me think because that’s totally true that I love fashion and more the arty part of it but why it’s all about me. There’s only one architectural picture on the wall – my boyfriend’s interest – and I don’t know because I like to control everything or he just doesn’t really care. Well, he usually agrees with my taste and I’m more interested in decoration but I think I’m pretty control freak as well. I try to work on it though. It is true for our relationship that I’m the more neurotic, more hyper person and my boyfriend calms me down. About the books we’ve got Grant thought I’m a knowledgeable person but I definitely wouldn’t say that. I’m interested in so many things, I’m open-minded but my memory doesn’t work quite well so I take books and movies as an experience and than usually forget about them. Of course they are built into my personality but I can’t remember actors, writers, bands or titles I can remember only for visuals. This is one reason why we bought that huge map because I’m really bad at geography but if I can see countries on the map I might be able to remember them. It works so far. But the other reason – that Grant was right about – was because I’m interested in travelling a lot although I haven’t had the chance yet. That’s one of my biggest dreams to visit as many places as possible maybe even live in a couple of them. I just have to reduce the amount of rubbish I collected so I can move easier anywhere I want to. Grant haven’t realised that I collect junk so I hided them successfully – under the bed for example. It is important for me to live in a tidy and clean place but I’m not obsessive about it. It’s just about the good chi of the place what I have to keep up also with candles and innocence sticks otherwise I just go mad. So maybe I’m neurotic after all.

I found this assignment very interesting and I think that’s probably the best way to find out other people’s personality to analyze their stuff. Of course they have to agree with the process. But if you ask someone to provide information about him/herself this person will give me the information what he/she thinks is important. More I get more I can find out so I can be more accurate. I don’t think many people mind providing personal information because their curiosity is stronger then their fears.