Evaluation and Reflection

 15/03/23

PechaKucha Feedback

Overall comments:  The presentation of my PechaKucha was really brilliant, and very well detailed in terms of the whole presentation such as the inspirations and their work and also the magazine examples that I included to get ideas of how to create my magazine, It was also a unique topic as people might have not heard about cultural presentations as much, also great research about Palestine and the culture of Palestine, great artwork examples produced by inspirations.

Suggestions:  I need to speak clearer and louder, and also look at the audience.

Self-Reflection

29th March 2023

So far, I am doing very well and I hope to start to finish the original imagery by the end of the holiday. I am currently organizing my research for the magazine. I organized a table that included imagery and research, which will all be added to my magazine. The table will help me with organising and also is very structured as the order shown will be the same in the magazine. After completing the research table, I will move on to the imagery and hopefully use Photoshop to help edit the images. The timetable will help me keep on track with my project.

19th April 2023

So far, I am doing well with research. I finished all my research on the topic of my choice. I did struggle in making my magazine as I forgot to make sure that all the text is in one 'box' rather than having individual boxes. Now I learned how I should make my magazine, creating my magazine will be much smoother as I have all the research and the text that will be included in the magazine. I am a little worried about the original imagery as it will be harder to include original imagery. so I will use imagery on Google by showing my creativity through Photoshop and adding elements to the image. I almost completed the magazine spread, which will take a few more days. after I will go to create my magazine cover.

10th May 2023

I realized that it was much harder to find more content to fill the pages but I used my research that I found out to fill them in once I finished that, I added more pages and did the same thing with the previous pages I included other types of research relating to my chosen identity.

I also thought about changing the layout of the pages many times during the process of creating my magazine and as I was happy with my last layout of the pages I kept it as it is, as for the images I edited the images of my own imagery and I also edited the images of the faces of my inspirational people and I included the images of their face on the first page of the double spread   

15th May 2023

I have completed the second page of the artist Ismail Shammout, made sure that there were images, and made sure to add the captions under the image.   I then started another page on Malak Mattar

16th May

I struggled to find original images on Malak Mattar, so I went on Photoshop and experimented a little on how I could make the image more original

I added all of the research/ content that I had on Malak Mattar but realized that the layout had to be sorted before I could add more images and text

17th May 2023

Completed Malak Mattar pages, with captions, images, and original images. I then started to do research for the contents page and I am currently doing some more research.

19th May 2023 

I have finished doing research for the contents page and I am starting to create my contents page and I will have completed most of the contents page. 

22nd May 2023

I have completely finished my contents page and my magazine overall,  I am doing my evaluation.

Final Product - Magazine

Final Poster

Evaluation

The theme of this project is identity, so we had to think about what things go into such as the culture and history of Palestine, as it relates to me and holds a very close part of my identity. I chose to create a magazine rather than a website as I wanted people to learn and be informed by my topic. As I found that others can access information in a different way, rather than using the internet or media. I also wanted society to access informative information in other ways than using the news which can somehow alter the true story. Having a magazine would help others to gain knowledge about other countries' history, culture, and political stances. While people gain knowledge through the media, most don't realise that art is also a form of telling someone's life experiences. My target audience is people who want to learn about other cultures and who are interested in art and learning history through art as there are different ways of learning about other people's cultures such as through art, food, and more. Creating a magazine in which I have used InDesign, that have made me learn skills that I did not know would be needed such as using other software (Photoshop) to edit an image and being able to redesign them even further when deciding where to place them in the magazine. The topic that I chose to focus on for my magazine is something I can relate to as it is my home country, which has caused me to push myself further and make sure that the information that I provided is accurate. Though when creating the magazine, I did struggle in some areas, however, I pushed myself past those barriers and was able to finish my final product.

When creating my magazine I made sure that the information that I provided was accurate. My research consists of culture, history, and artists. The research I have done was according to what I would add to the magazine. when planning I made sure to research everything first before creating my magazine, as I had to find the images and also do further research into the images such as an artist's artwork, and also find the artist's life experience. The research that caused me to struggle in deciding which information I should add would be researching the historical events that have happened in Palestine as there are many major events that had happened. The majority of my research that I have done would be secondary research as I had to find information about the artist and their artwork that I had included in the magazine. Although the majority was secondary research, there were some images that did not have any information which caused me to use my own research based on the experiences of my past family. I manage my time, by focusing on research and completing my magazine spreads first rather than focusing on the magazine cover. As I would be able to spend more time on the magazine spread as I had a rough idea of what my magazine cover would look like when I first started. However, there were some delays as I had to find what images to use and how they would look in the magazine but also experimented with the images. 

My target audience would be ranging from 16 to 30+, who are interested in art and also history and culture in general but also those who are interested in learning the history of Palestine. I feel that my magazine would be open to all those who are interested in art, as there is no need for race or gender, or age to interfere with learning other cultures through both art and culture within the magazine. I think that the information that I have provided would be interesting for them and that they would look more into Palestine. But also the first couple of pages would interest them more as it slowly introduces the target audience to the history of Palestine without it being biased.

 

In my magazine, I used images that are artistic which attracts and addresses the audience in a bold way for some people images make them remember a certain thing better than text and especially images that include creativity,  I also made some text bold such as phrases and words, I also mentioned major events that have happened in Palestine and that has effected a whole nation.  I used images that the target audience would find creative and inspiring and this would also be very interesting to an artist who is finding and learning new ways to create art,  I also included a lot of research in my magazine within my topic and I also included research about subtopics within my main topic this would be beneficial for a researcher, especially a researcher who researches into culture and history of many countries around the world,  I also included captions to describes the images as the audience might want to go to look for it and see it first hand,  There were also images of the creative practitioners themselves to make sure people know who I am talking about because if I talk about someone I should at least include an image of them as many people such as artists might want to go and find them or research them and know about them and their work in depth so that they can take ideas from and get inspired to make their own ideas.

In my magazine, I have considered what information I would add to ensure that my target audience would be interested. I made sure to include elements such as the historical events of Palestine and the political issues within the country. Not only did I add the historical and political issues such as the refugee camps but also included the social side of the country, through the culture and how their art portrays society. Everything that has happened politically and historically has affected many lives but also the lives of the artists as they are more able to show their life experiences through their artwork better than having people read about Palestine as the target audience would see and feel the emotions in the artwork. 

When creating my magazine, I went against the hypodermic syringe theory as I ensured that the information was not biased. The Western media portrays Palestine in a bad light and does not provide accurate truths about certain events that happened within the country. In the magazine, I conformed to the media conventions and made sure the magazine fits the norm of what a magazine should include. The hypodermic syringe theory affects most people without them realising it as most people in the West take in the Western media that then portrays different countries incorrectly, such as the Palestine and Israel political issues, as the media in the West are very biased, then shed light to the country that they support which causes some inaccuracy in the media that they present.

I learned many things about media technologies, when I first opened InDesign, I found that there was a wide range of choices that I could use to create my magazine. I used a photo camera to take pictures for my original images, but I mainly focused on the artist's artwork which could be found online. However, I did want to change some of the images, so I used software (Photoshop) to then change the images by masking an image or changing the intensity of the colour of the image. I used InDesign to create my magazine as it is something that I was familiar with. I was somewhat familiar with Photoshop however I did forget how to use some of the elements which would help me to use in the magazine. As I struggled in trying to find/ use the masking tool, but once I was able to use the masking tool it was much easier to use throughout the images. When I first used InDesign, it had been a while since I have used it so there were some elements that I struggled with such as remembering to use one text box for a column rather than using individual text boxes for the information that I provided. I also learned new things when using InDesign as I found out to change an image's outline. I also used Microsoft Word to help organised my research as it would be much easier to place in my magazine. When making my product I developed the skills to be able to find research more efficiently and being able to learn how to use the different tools that are in Photoshop and be able to visualize what my final product would look like. During this year I have learned to experiment with images throughout my projects.  

My final product did meet my expectation and my initial ideas in terms of the contents of the magazine as I wanted a product that would show the history and the culture of Palestine and the art within the country. My initial idea was to create a magazine on Palestine as it is something that is part of me and that I am passionate about, I ensured that all my information was related to the contents of the magazine and was focused on the historical events and the culture of Palestine. I included images that would be related to Palestine and the contents that I wanted to include would be interesting for my target audience. I think my magazine was quite successful as I included what I mostly wanted to add however if I had more time, I would include many more artists that relate to Palestine. I received feedback from my target audience as they liked the cover and how I used the Palestinian flag and how easy it is to grasp the content of the magazine through the front cover. They also stated that my spreads are well structured and that they liked the range of images that I have used as it showed their life experiences and the hardship of war and how they were able to control their emotions. Both the artwork and the map of Palestinian camps as it showed the history of Palestine. One of the things that they have also mentioned is that I have done well in remembering to add the page numbers and also changing the heading of the first spread into the colors of the Palestinian flag. I am very happy with my final product and how things turned out.