COP Practical Research Element

In order to get my head around what my practical research project might consist of I have thought about some of the main messages within my dissertation. I cover allot of topics and themes within the written element of the project, I have found it really difficult to think of practical aspects I could carry out but I think I have got a basic idea of what I could do.

Messages and Themes

• The press allowed the spread of new ideas across the globe which in turn changed our thought processes and the way we learned and spoke, this sparked the enlightenment.
• The ability to compare ideas and theories allowed results to be finalized or improved on. Collaboration was a huge accelerating factor of the print revolution
• Not all information can be trusted, their is always going to be incorrect information. Its all about finding reliable sources.
• The increased access to books made learning easier and accessible to more of the population than just the rich and royal.

Possible Primary Investigation and Research

• Interviews with Letterpress Studios - I will contact letterpress studios and try to interview a few printers from around the UK. In doing so I hope to learn about the process, and how it has changed over the years. I want to find out what the future for print is and also tips and professional knowledge on the subject. From the information I gather from various printers I hope to create letter pressed design pieces taking aspects of the interviews etc and then disseminating the work online to designers interested in the process and also will allow people to comment and discuss various pieces of work. I would like people to be able to upload their own work in order to get online criticism etc.
• Testing the Letter press - my carrying out letterpress experiments I will be able to get a first hand experience of the amount of work and effort gone into producing printed work. I am looking forward to this element of the project. From my knowledge letterpress can be a quite time consuming process, so I need to make sure I designate a good amount of time to get to grips with the press.
• Interview with a teacher - I want to interview a teacher to see how teaching methods have changed during their career. I want to see if they have noticed a shift from text books to web based lessons to see where the future of education is going. This will also help to show progression in communication and how this new form of digital communication has affected the students.
• Document aspects of printed material around the city to see what uses print has nowadays as apposed to the printed book 500 years ago - there has been a dramatic shift in the use of print over the years. I will also document what digital aspects I come across to see which is more predominant.
• Survey - I could carry out a survey on students to see what their preferred research methods are. Some may favor print and others digital. it will be nice to see what peoples method of choice is and why they learn that way.

What the Practical Element needs to do...

•  Needs to disseminate information in easily accessible way - web is probably the best idea, everyone has access to this pretty much and all they need is a URL. No hassle.
• Spread of letterpressed work in order to relate to the original printing process. A combination of digital and print is a perfect synthesis of the 2 ideas
• Allows people to comment and discuss work possibly - similar to how information was changed and corrected during the printed era, this is just a modern day quick version of how it worked back in the day
• Explore some of the principles which accelerated the revolution.
• Outline the importance of communication and the possibilities it has created and is still influencing today.
• Discuss historical Elements of the revolution.
• Good and Bad aspects of Print & Digital.

Idea

From the points I have made I have a sort of idea of what I could produce, After interviewing printers I will have a better idea of the role of print within today's society and also what changes they have seen during their career. It will also be nice to see what type of information is most commonly being printed nowadays in comparison to its original uses. It will also help my practical element as well. I will hopefully get help and advice on the process.

I also want to interview a teacher to see how print and digital learning has changed over the years and which they think is more beneficial and what factors are affected by these processes. it will also give me an idea of where we are heading in terms of communication

From the information I gather I hope to produce some letter pressed pieces of design which explores the data and opinions I have collected from the interviews. This will be posted and disseminated online on a website I hope to create.

The website will allow people to discuss, comment and crit theories and work. I would like to create a platform where others have the ability to upload work as well so that a community of users can have online discussions.