Throughout this summer I felt that I really had to be disciplined with myself as I wouldn't have the normal work schedule to focus on. I would also be in a different environment that involved catching up with friends and family, work and holidays, so my project had to be incorporated successfully around this. My usual approach to things like this would be to leave it quite late as I would be to interested in the things going on around me, although this year I planned to do little bits throughout the weeks so it wouldn't be as daunting. I felt this would be attainable as I had only the one brief to focus on rather than a selection, which meant I had no excuse. I feel I have been successful in this and it has definitely helped with the progress of my work, mainly because I have had the time to try many different avenues that I wouldn't have had chance to before. Stress was reduced dramatically because I wasn't rushed and panicked about fitting in enough in a small, allotted amount of time.
I am really happy with the level of research I have gathered throughout this time. I believe I have covered a lot of areas whilst still going into some depth. I think both factual and design based areas have been covered thoroughly and I am surprised how much I have enjoyed this.
On a design aspect through this project I have definitely improved my illustration skills. As I have covered quite a few research topics it gave me a lot of different areas to create illustrations for which made it interesting and varied. I have tried to move on from just simple shapes and colour to a lot more of a focused approach, paying strong attention to detail when it came to drawing the outlines to ensure a large amount of visual information was included. With colour I experimented with gradients in a subtle way to enhance shapes and also more tonal variations to add dimensions. I feel I have made a big step with this.
One way I think I could have improved this project would have been to create further booklets on other conspiracies, maybe if I had decided on my final outcome sooner this could have been attainable. I also feel my layouts could have been more dynamic and maybe looking back I should have pushed myself on this. This could have been done by drawing designs first like I have done in previous briefs.
Monday, 24 September 2012
Friday, 7 September 2012
Wednesday, 5 September 2012
Further Research - 2012 Conspiracy.
Here are a series of question and answers provided by nasa stating many queries about the apparent end of the world and also the opinions against them:
Q: Are there any threats to the Earth in 2012? Many Internet websites say the world will end in December 2012.
A: Nothing bad will happen to the Earth in 2012. Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012.
Q: What is the origin of the prediction that the world will end in 2012?
A: The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth. This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012. Then these two fables were linked to the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at the winter solstice in 2012 -- hence the predicted doomsday date of December 21, 2012.
Q: Does the Mayan calendar end in December 2012?
A: Just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012. This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period but then -- just as your calendar begins again on January 1 -- another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar.
Q: Could phenomena occur where planets align in a way that impacts Earth?
A: There are no planetary alignments in the next few decades, Earth will not cross the galactic plane in 2012, and even if these alignments were to occur, their effects on the Earth would be negligible. Each December the Earth and sun align with the approximate center of the Milky Way Galaxy but that is an annual event of no consequence.
Q: Is there a planet or brown dwarf called Nibiru or Planet X or Eris that is approaching the Earth and threatening our planet with widespread destruction?
A: Nibiru and other stories about wayward planets are an Internet hoax. There is no factual basis for these claims. If Nibiru or Planet X were real and headed for an encounter with the Earth in 2012, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye. Obviously, it does not exist. Eris is real, but it is a dwarf planet similar to Pluto that will remain in the outer solar system; the closest it can come to Earth is about 4 billion miles.
Q: What is the polar shift theory? Is it true that the earth’s crust does a 180-degree rotation around the core in a matter of days if not hours?
A: A reversal in the rotation of Earth is impossible. There are slow movements of the continents (for example Antarctica was near the equator hundreds of millions of years ago), but that is irrelevant to claims of reversal of the rotational poles. However, many of the disaster websites pull a bait-and-switch to fool people. They claim a relationship between the rotation and the magnetic polarity of Earth, which does change irregularly, with a magnetic reversal taking place every 400,000 years on average. As far as we know, such a magnetic reversal doesn’t cause any harm to life on Earth. A magnetic reversal is very unlikely to happen in the next few millennia, anyway.
Q: Is the Earth in danger of being hit by a meteor in 2012?
A: The Earth has always been subject to impacts by comets and asteroids, although big hits are very rare. The last big impact was 65 million years ago, and that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Today NASA astronomers are carrying out a survey called the Spaceguard Survey to find any large near-Earth asteroids long before they hit. We have already determined that there are no threatening asteroids as large as the one that killed the dinosaurs.
Q: How do NASA scientists feel about claims of pending doomsday?
A: For any claims of disaster or dramatic changes in 2012, where is the science? Where is the evidence? There is none, and for all the fictional assertions, whether they are made in books, movies, documentaries or over the Internet, we cannot change that simple fact. There is no credible evidence for any of the assertions made in support of unusual events taking place in December 2012.
Q: Is there a danger from giant solar storms predicted for 2012?
A: Solar activity has a regular cycle, with peaks approximately every 11 years. Near these activity peaks, solar flares can cause some interruption of satellite communications, although engineers are learning how to build electronics that are protected against most solar storms. But there is no special risk associated with 2012. The next solar maximum will occur in the 2012-2014 time frame and is predicted to be an average solar cycle, no different than previous cycles throughout history.
Q: Are there any threats to the Earth in 2012? Many Internet websites say the world will end in December 2012.
A: Nothing bad will happen to the Earth in 2012. Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012.
Q: What is the origin of the prediction that the world will end in 2012?
A: The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth. This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012. Then these two fables were linked to the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at the winter solstice in 2012 -- hence the predicted doomsday date of December 21, 2012.
Q: Does the Mayan calendar end in December 2012?
A: Just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012. This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period but then -- just as your calendar begins again on January 1 -- another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar.
Q: Could phenomena occur where planets align in a way that impacts Earth?
A: There are no planetary alignments in the next few decades, Earth will not cross the galactic plane in 2012, and even if these alignments were to occur, their effects on the Earth would be negligible. Each December the Earth and sun align with the approximate center of the Milky Way Galaxy but that is an annual event of no consequence.
Thick dust clouds block our night-time view of the Milky Way, creating what is sometimes called the Dark Rift. The fact that -- from the viewpoint of Earth -- the sun aligns with these clouds, or the galactic center, near the winter solstice is no cause for concern.
Q: Is there a planet or brown dwarf called Nibiru or Planet X or Eris that is approaching the Earth and threatening our planet with widespread destruction?
A: Nibiru and other stories about wayward planets are an Internet hoax. There is no factual basis for these claims. If Nibiru or Planet X were real and headed for an encounter with the Earth in 2012, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye. Obviously, it does not exist. Eris is real, but it is a dwarf planet similar to Pluto that will remain in the outer solar system; the closest it can come to Earth is about 4 billion miles.
Q: What is the polar shift theory? Is it true that the earth’s crust does a 180-degree rotation around the core in a matter of days if not hours?
A: A reversal in the rotation of Earth is impossible. There are slow movements of the continents (for example Antarctica was near the equator hundreds of millions of years ago), but that is irrelevant to claims of reversal of the rotational poles. However, many of the disaster websites pull a bait-and-switch to fool people. They claim a relationship between the rotation and the magnetic polarity of Earth, which does change irregularly, with a magnetic reversal taking place every 400,000 years on average. As far as we know, such a magnetic reversal doesn’t cause any harm to life on Earth. A magnetic reversal is very unlikely to happen in the next few millennia, anyway.
A schematic diagram of Earth's interior and the movement of magnetic north from 1900 to 1996. The outer core is the source of the geomagnetic field.
Q: Is the Earth in danger of being hit by a meteor in 2012?
A: The Earth has always been subject to impacts by comets and asteroids, although big hits are very rare. The last big impact was 65 million years ago, and that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Today NASA astronomers are carrying out a survey called the Spaceguard Survey to find any large near-Earth asteroids long before they hit. We have already determined that there are no threatening asteroids as large as the one that killed the dinosaurs.
Q: How do NASA scientists feel about claims of pending doomsday?
A: For any claims of disaster or dramatic changes in 2012, where is the science? Where is the evidence? There is none, and for all the fictional assertions, whether they are made in books, movies, documentaries or over the Internet, we cannot change that simple fact. There is no credible evidence for any of the assertions made in support of unusual events taking place in December 2012.
Q: Is there a danger from giant solar storms predicted for 2012?
A: Solar activity has a regular cycle, with peaks approximately every 11 years. Near these activity peaks, solar flares can cause some interruption of satellite communications, although engineers are learning how to build electronics that are protected against most solar storms. But there is no special risk associated with 2012. The next solar maximum will occur in the 2012-2014 time frame and is predicted to be an average solar cycle, no different than previous cycles throughout history.
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft captured this image of a solar flare as it erupted from the sun early on Tuesday, October 28, 2003. This was the most powerful flare measured with modern methods.
http://www.nasa.gov/
http://www.nasa.gov/
Friday, 31 August 2012
Further Research - Moon Landing Conspiracy.
Here are the main points of conspiracy corresponding to the NASA moon landing and the facts against it:
Cross hairs on photos
Cross hairs on photos
For Conspiracy
- In some photos, crosshairs seem to be behind objects. The cameras were fitted with a reseau plate (a clear glass plate with crosshairs etched on), making it impossible for any photographed object to appear "in front" of the grid. This suggests that objects have been "pasted" over them.
Against Conspiracy
- This only appears in copied and scanned photos, not the originals. It is caused by overexposure: the bright white areas of the emulsion "bleed" over the thin black crosshairs. The crosshairs are only about 0.004 inch thick (0.1 mm) and emulsion would only have to bleed about half that much to fully obscure it. Furthermore, there are many photos where the middle of the crosshair is "washed-out" but the rest is intact. In some photos of the American flag, parts of one crosshair appear on the red stripes, but parts of the same crosshair are faded or invisible on the white stripes. There would have been no reason to "paste" white stripes onto the flag.
Images from left to right: Enlargement of a poor-quality 1998 scan – both the crosshair and part of the red stripe have "bleeded out", Enlargement of a higher quality 2004 scan – crosshair and red stripe visible, Close-up of the flag, showing washed-out crosshairs.
No stars in photos
For Conspiracy
- There are no stars in any of the photos; the Apollo 11 astronauts also claimed in a post-mission press conference to not remember seeing any stars.
Against Conspiracy
- The astronauts were talking about naked-eye sightings of stars during the lunar daytime. They regularly sighted stars through the spacecraft navigation optics while aligning their inertial reference platforms.
- All manned landings happened during the lunar daytime. Thus, the stars were outshone by the sun and by sunlight reflected off the Moon's surface. The astronauts' eyes were adapted to the sunlit landscape around them so that they could not see the relatively faint stars. Likewise, cameras were set for daylight exposure and could not detect the stars. The effect is similar to not being able to see stars from a brightly lit car park at night—the stars only become visible when the lights are turned off. The astronauts could see stars with the naked eye only when they were in the shadow of the Moon.
Images from left to right: Earth and Mir in June 1995 an example of how sunlight can outshine the stars, making them invisible, Long-exposure photo taken from the Moon's surface by Apollo 16astronauts using a special ultraviolet camera. It shows the Earth with the correct background of stars.
Identical backgrounds
For Conspiracy
- There are identical backgrounds in photos which, according to their captions, were taken miles apart. This suggests that a painted background was used.
Against Conspiracy
- Backgrounds were not identical, just similar. What appear as nearby hills in some photos are actually mountains many miles away. On Earth, objects that are further away will appear fainter and less detailed. On the Moon, there is no atmosphere or haze to obscure faraway objects, thus they appear clearer and nearer. Furthermore, there are very few objects (such as trees) to help judge farness.
Studio props
For Conspiracy
- The photos contain artifacts like the two seemingly matching 'C's on a rock and on the ground. These may be labeled studio props.
Against Conspiracy
- The "C"-shaped objects are most likely printing imperfections and do not appear in the original film from the camera. It has been suggested that the "C" is a coiled hair.
Images from left to right: Original AS16-107-17446 photograph, Close-up of later generation prints of 17446.
Fluttering Flag
For Conspiracy
- The flag placed on the surface by the astronauts fluttered despite there being no wind on the Moon. This suggests that it was filmed on Earth and a breeze caused the flag to flutter. Sibrel said that it may have been caused by indoor fans used to cool the astronauts, since their spacesuit cooling systems would have been too heavy on Earth.
Against Conspiracy
- The flag was fastened to a Г-shaped rod so that it did not hang down. The flag only seemed to flutter when the astronauts were moving it into position. Without air drag, these movements caused the free corner of the flag to swing like a pendulum for some time. The flag was rippled because it had been folded during storage—the ripples could be mistaken for movement in a still photo. Videos show that when the astronauts let go of the flagpole it vibrates briefly but then remains still.
Animation of two photos, showing that though Armstrong's camera moved between exposures, the flag is not waving.
Moon dust footprints
For Conspiracy
- Footprints in the Moon dust are unexpectedly well preserved, despite the lack of moisture.
Against Conspiracy
- The Moon dust has not been weathered like Earth sand and has sharp edges. This allows the Moon dust particles to stick together and hold their shape in the vacuum. The astronauts likened it to "talcum powder or wet sand".
Wednesday, 29 August 2012
Artist Research - Conspiracy Theories.
'Took three different books all relating to the financial crisis in the United States, and the conspiracy theories behind how and why the government got into this situation. The idea, what you see isn't necessary what you see.'
Vidar Olufsen
'The book contains graphic explanation and information about three conspiracy theories, linked to three familiar American objects recognized all over the world; The Marlboro Cigarette package, The Coca Cola bottle and the one dollar bill.'
Matthew Skelton
'I chose 3 conspiracy theories to look at. The first one was about why the flag appears to be waving on the Moon?, the second one was about why do photos taken on 'The Moon' do not show the stars that should obviously be shown in the background? and last but not least, the third one is about why, when the module landed it did not leave an impression yet in the iconic photo taken on the moon of a foot print clearly shows that there should be an imprint? This piece of work shows you the myth about the moon landing then busts the myths explaining the reasons why the moon landing was not faked.'
Dominique Byron
On-going personal project on the space race, moon landing, and surrounding conspiracy theories.
Neave Griffin
3rd year Typography assignment. ISTD Fakery Breif 2011. Conspiracies and Theories behind Area 51
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