Thoughts on the dissertation

I found the session today regarding the dissertation really helpful. Especially thinking about how someone else could approach it, because it helped me re evaluate my own ideas objectively.

I have been trying NOT to generate ideas about the dissertation so far on this course, because I wanted to wait until our first session to gain a better understanding of what is required, what limitations there are ect. I have also been worried about needing to stick exactly to the proposal I handed in at interview, because I don't really want to go down that path now. It was about challenging accessibility issues and identifying where guidelines/ principles are right/wrong and how they will develop into the future.

Thinking afresh, I have taken into account alot of comments made on the course about thinking outside of the box, pushing the limits and experimenting with other areas of design, not just areas one is especially interested in. This current project has been about the future, and has got me to think not only about media, but about other worldly factors that impact on it and shape the way different aspects of it are. Like energy, economy, psychology, science ect

I want to finish this year being able to look back on my work and see that is has led to my development in the areas I'm interested in, but also to show that I have explored new realms of knowledge and explored subjects I might not get the chance to again.

So, my three leading ideas for a dissertation are as follows:

relationships between people and technology

closely studying the way interaction works in this context, from a psychological perspective: how/why do people interact the way they do?
Also looking at anthropomorphism, what is the root of human compulsion to associate emotion to inanimate things.
japan has no fear of new technologies, some countries do though, what causes this difference? is it nature or nurture?

new technologies do not just change the world, they change the way people perceive the world

the above is a quote made in the tv show 'the genius of photography' that in context refered to a realisation prompted by the development of the camera, but I would like to see how it relates to other media, by choosing a few examples from different times in history and analysing how true/false this observation is, looking at what effects have been caused by this idea of a new perspective

wikinomics and a new era of authorship

Last year I wrote an essay on Barthes Death of the Author which I got really interested in. Since I now have a good idea of what that essay was about, I think I could happily discuss his ideas in relatiion to the idea of wikinomics, and consider the questions: who gets credited for authorship? who has the 'rights' ? I could look at the ideas of copyright and copyleft and incorporate these, too.