online

DESIGN RATIONALE
Today many factors impact on visual communications in Australia, a land where independent small businesses formerly flourished. In this huge continent the logic of e-business is not yet accepted by most Australians. The design rationale of this presentation is to convey information that may be useful to the Australian small-business sector.

Connolly, Norman & West say: “in 2011… around 95 per cent of the 2 million actively trading businesses in Australia… were small businesses” (2011, p. 3). Liz Colley says “in ten years time, the workforce and working environment will look nothing like it does today” (cited by SGS Economics & Planning, December 2013, p. 6). The type of change Colley describes is already apparent as only around 40 per cent of small businesses operate online while 95 per cent of large Australian businesses do (digitalbusiness.gov.au, 2 July 2013).

Shaw says: “ the means of communication have been transformed… global communications systems… dominated like most other economic fields by Western corporations with global reach” (cited by Beynon & Dunkerley, 2000, p. 186). However, Cassells Duncan, Abello , D’Souza & Nepal, say “Australians [are] industrious… are a nation of inventors, born in part through our isolation from the rest of the world” (October, 2012, p. 3). So, the specific target audience for the presentation is Australians of any ethnic background, involved in any type of small business.

More than half of small businesses are sole operators (Connolly, Norman & West, 2011, p. 3, and personal family experience, 1954-2014). These are busy people, so the design decision was to use standard business communication in-print format. This is predominantly white space with sparse written text designed for a relaxed tone.

For legibility the font choice is fresh, clean sans serif Helvetica Neue, 35/17/14 point, ‘thin’ weight. To help retain key facts, occasional words or phrases are enlivened with Comic Sans MS, mostly 26 point, weight bold, in bright, quirky, ‘non-business’ colour combinations. For example, on page 3 the colours “red, orange and yellow… called by Kalmus the warm or advancing colours” are featured throughout the page, as they “call forth sensations of excitement, activity” (cited by Dalle Vacche & Price, 2006, p. 26).

Australia, possibly now the country with the greatest ethnic diversity (Our Country Our People, 2014) is today a puzzling place. Paul Maginn (27 January 2013), says Western Australians will soon… [be] increasingly diverse in terms of their cultural background”. Good visuals can slice “through the clutter” (Langton and Campbell, 2011, p. 16) and a big part of the design is in the choice of illustrations, especially the wry initial graphics on page 2, (Fig. 1) and page 3 (Fig. 2),

Langton and Campbell say In this melting-pot society “clever” and credible visual designs can masterfully exhibit many goods and services. Effective visuals can “establish a unique voice and brand” (2011, p. 16). Graphics like the artistic English-language vowel, ‘A’ on page 8 (Fig. 4) and the surreal orange/apple photograph (Fig. 6) on page 9, work in today’s complicated “language context“ Featherstone, 2006), where concreteness no longer exists.

In 2013 the internet was an accepted major communication mode with more than 80 per cent of Australian households (potential customers) connected to the internet (Dane, Mason and O’Brien-MacInally, 2013, p 9). Yet, while the internet is now the main communication channel, only about 37 per cent of Australians “used the internet on a monthly basis or more to… buy goods” (p. 17). Yet, as Derewianka (1946) says, humans “are constantly learning language, learning through language, and learning about language” (p.3).

Today many Australian small businesses have, as Connolly, Norman & West say, “a higher degree of volatility… [than medium and large] businesses with more diversified customer bases” (2011, p. 8). The design rationale is to return to what Trilling (2001) explains are two of the “seven pairs” of the “framework for … visual appreciation”. These, “determinacy versus indeterminacy” and “comprehensibility versus complexity”. These are necessarily dialectic, as they continue to rely on each other (p. 11). Today they provide background for the “unfamiliar style” (p. 11). of current, and dynamic local and global visual communciations. As Shaw says:

Although less easily summarized… [and] intermeshing
with economic and political globalization, people are
coming to see their lives in terms of common expectations,
values and goals. These cultural norms include ideas of
standard of living, lifestyle, entitlements to welfare,
citizenship rights, democracy, ethnic and linguistic rights,
nationhood, gender equality environmental quality, etc.
Many of them have originated in the West, but they are
increasingly , despite huge differences in their meanings in
different social contexts, parts of the ways of life and of
political discourse across the world. In this sense, we can
talk of the emergence of a global culture.
(cited by Beynon and Dunkerley, 2004, p. 186)

Imagery can assist. On page 3, this image is from the cover of a recent best-selling novel for Western readers by an ethnic Chinese writer. The picture shows a gentle, Western-user-friendly ‘bird in a tree’ (Fig. 2) The written text reminds about other invaluable visual tools – like cross-cultural dictionaries. On page 6 (Fig. 3) is chosen to demonstrate how California, USA, like Australia, is now a global, world society, which as ‘the West’ no longer exists needs to develop a “unity of working and learning” (McCullough, 1996, p. 9).

One visual communications tool in this difficult new world is photography. Sturken &
Carwright (2001), explain the subjective and objective combine in photography, whose
“details… can show off textures ” (Langton and Campbell, 2011,p. 8). For example, with
Australia’s extraordinary range of climate and terrain and associated lifestyles, photography can, when “ top-notch… [increase] the perception of a premium product” (p. 21) and elicit heightened audience response.

For small businesses like B&Bs, boutique hotels, farm and home-stays, camping grounds, trekking, restaurants, cafes, bars, etcetera, images like the two ‘Vintage Trailer’ photographs (Figs. 6 & 7), page 8 can, as Lilly Schonwald says, quickly “show how the building looks from daybreak to nightfall.” Schonwald explains as designs are “based on the light and the air…[they relate] back to nature and its surroundings and how it changes during different time periods throughout the day” (cited by Langton and Campbell, 2011, p. 12).

The presentation is designed to assist Australia’s small business sector to understand how visual communications in business in Australia today are affected by current major social changes The design rationale focussed on Australia’s now diverse, ‘world’ local community and engaging small-business operators in a dialogue about the internets’ ability to deliver visual communications locally and globally. Instead it became a personal learning experience. This allowed me to gain some understanding of how to use PowerPoint. While the initial design decision was to link engaging illustrations and small functional blocks of text to present these complicated, and possibly new ideas, I am unsatisfied with my result.
REFERENCES
Beynon J, Dunkerley D. (Eds.) (2000). Globalization. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. From:
http://ecu.summon.serialssolutions.com/2.0.0/link/0/eLvHCXMwY2BQSDMsjQxTO1MSlwTDVOt-
DRNSTQ2tTS2ANYlQJZJLnwhJmjlHK0dxNiYErNE2WQcXMNcfbQTU0ujYeOYcQnAWtZYxNg48JQjlEF2C901-WBQMDQGpr9ko8m0TjZwjNKCU1OcnEONnSMC01GQCYTiFd

Cassells R, Duncan A, Abello A, D’Souza G and Nepal B, (2012) Smart Australians: Education and Innovation in Australia, AMP.NATSEM Income and Wealth Report, Issue 32, October 2012, Melbourne, AMP. From:
http://www.natsem.canberra.edu.au/storage/AMP.NATSEM%2032%20Income%20and%20Wealth %20Report%20-%20Smart%20Australians.pdf
Connolly, E., Norman, D., & West, E. (2011). Small Business: An economic overview. From:
http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/d3310114.nsf/4a256353001af3ed4b2562bb00121564/ d291d673c4c5aab4ca257a330014dda2/$FILE/RBA%20Small%20Business%20An%20economic %20Overview%202012.pdf
Dalle Vacche, A. and Price, B. (Eds,) (2006). Colour: The film reader. New York, NY: Routledge.

Dane, S. K., Mason, C. M., and O’Brien-McInally, B. A. (2013).Household internet use in Australia: A study in regional communities. CSIRO Report: EP1310907. From: http://www.csiro.au/content/ps6d0

Derewianka, B. (1946 & 2000). Exploring how texts work. Newtown, Australia: PETA

Digital Business Online. (2 July 2013). ABS statistics. From: http://www.digitalbusiness.gov.au/2013/07/02/lat est-abs-statistics-many-australian-businesses-still-not-engaging-online/

Featherstone, M. (2006). Genealogies of the Global. Theory Culture Society 2006 23; 387 doi: 10. 1177/0263276406062704

Geoscience Australia. (2014). Australia’s size compared. From:
http://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/geo-graphic-information/dimensions/australias-size-compared

Langton, D., and Campbell, A. (2011). 99 proven ways for small businesses to market with images and
design. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley-Blackwell. From:
http://ecu.summon.serialssolutions.com/2.0.0/link/0/eLvHCXMwY2BQMAZVEsBq2cwkJcXUMi01MR-
WYigxSkkzMUpKN0gxS4QsxQUPmSKW5mxADU2geKlOMm2uls4duanJpPHQMlz4PEDGypmJoZiD-
CzAfnGqBINCkkGacapRkpRmomFCBCes0i1NE9OM00BNpktlQzNjQGH2CCD

Maginn, P. (day/2014) Western Australia must embrace its new diversity. The Conversation. From:
http://theconversation.com/australian-census-booming-wiestern-australia-must-embrace-its-new-
diversity-7832
McCullouch, M. (1996). Abstracting Craft: The practiced digital hand. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

Our Country Our People. (2014). From: http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/our-country/our-people.
SGS Economics & Planning. (December 2013). Valuing Australia’s Creative Industries. From:
http://www.creativeinnovation.net.au/ce_report/webapp/static/pdfs/CIIC-Valuing-Australias-Creative- Industries-2013.pdf
Sturken, M., and Cartwright, L. (2001). Practices of Looking: An introduction to visual culture. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Trilling, J. (2001). The Language of Ornament. London, England: Thames & Hudson Ltd.

Surveillance, Online. 2013

“*The street is watching”…. what is this? Of course the street is always watching, always being watched. Online surveillance is simply one more step – in a long and continuous homo sapiens line – of outright oogling.
Anyway, just what does that phrase “online surveillance”, mean? At this time no formal definition, online or other, can be found by this writer. The closest definitions are the verb “surveil… to observe closely the activities of (a person or organisation)”

or “electronic surveillance”. The Free Online Dictionary (2013), provides two definitions here. Also called “electronic engineering”, this is firstly the “use of such electronic devices as television monitors, video cameras, etc.” Secondly, the definition includes “monitoring events, conversations, etc, at a distance”.

To sidetrack for one moment: frankly, it seems natural that we ALL want to be observed – isn’t that what it Life is about, being watched, and watching? Isn’t watching all bound up with that desire thing – that itchy, twitchy thaang, that we just have to scratch, or watch? (If anyone reading this doesn’t believe, or indulge in that scratch-watching, then they are either senile already, or too young to have yet found their deepest, inner selves.)

Especially when at home, alone, late at night.

Luckily, writers like Hunter S. Thompson, one of our era’s greatest and most tragic poetic heroes, help us all get in touch with our rather horrid, subterranean Selfies. Hunter S. presents our surveillance proclivities, head-on, at http://espn.go.com/page2/s/thompson/011023.html

In this particular Hunter S. truth we are regaled with some of the many, intimate advantages afforded the ordinary person by the now ‘traditional’ forms of electronic surveillance such as TV. Hunter outlines some of the enjoyable predictive elements these more established forms of modern, remote surveillance provide, such as voyeuristic viewing and bonding with a chosen sports team.

Hunter S. demonstrates how, via engagement in these forms ofsurveillance, personal vengeance can extracted. For example, by describing certain teams as “doomed like blind pigs”, or “chicken crap”. Especially those teams he has observed that, in their pathetic performance, have “humiliated” him, personally.

Yes, I know, he’s American – but they often have the best lines. He then quickly moves onto other actual, individual, highly-inventive art-form, modern surveillance. He reveals some of his associated “visions” or insights, which, during the previous week, resulted in his “doing top-secret surveillancework on some of my neighbors (sic) who are obviously up to no good and need to be watched closely.”

Familiar? The good news for us is, contrary to all of the current shouting, surveillance, online, whatever, comes out of something we all really, really want. Provided, like sport – televised or streamed – and Wikileaks online, (or televised) it’s right out there in the open.

The second good news is that, wow, as a two-way form of communication, it is democratic. We can all be involved, one way or another and, give vent to our associated emotions, as shown by Hunter S, and out in the open! What a relief!

Face it; in our multicultural, globalised, online world, privacy is not buried, it is DEAD!

David W. Hill recently wrote, in a book commissioned by the European intergovernmental group COST, about our voluntary “self-disclosure in the social web”. In particular he commented about our agreed contract with consumerism, saying:
“On the one hand, the expression of thoughts and feelings; on the other hand, the shameless hawking of fizzy pop: the willingness of the user to allow the latter to be represented as the former”. Hill goes on to say we have all been conditioned to acquiesce to this system.

That seems far too simplistic an explanation. Really, truly, surely… there is no one left alive today who thinks that we get access to Facebook, Twitter, Google – for free? Provision of these services we, the public are willing to ‘buy’, or rather, barter. And, anyway you package it, those services allow us to, well, look. Or “surveil… watch closely” – pretty well everything, and everyone: surveillance.

So, let’s look at a current definition of the noun “surveillance” itself. The Oxford Dictionary group (2013) and several others, all online, state: “close observation of a person, especially a suspected spy, or criminal”. Anyway you look at it, that sounds like something established long, long ago. Yep, surveillance is an old, old tradition. While you probably think today is a long way from the Old Testament, those guys had some great lines too. Ecclesiastes, (1:9I), for example, apparently first observed there was nothing new under the sun. Think about all the spying that went on in ancient Imperial Rome, or Queen Cleopatra of the Kingdom of Egypt’s court.

The importance of this ancient statement was reinforced recently by Bret Easton Ellis. Now recognised as one of our most important, apocalyptic prophetic writers of today, Easton Ellis is a person who certainly seems somewhat preoccupied with surveillance. Yet, at the front of one of his most successful novels he provides a quote. From Krishna. That runs: apparently while man and Krishna were always around, so too were kings. Thus it seems safe to assume Easton-Ellis believes kings are at the root of much that not only previously occurred, forever, but also that goes down today.

Otherwise, would such an exquisitely, and minutely-focussed writer ever mention such an outmoded, archaic construct? So in case it hasn’t already hit us, it is probably important we work out where these kings fit – in the whole surveillance issue.

On that assumption we consider that The Oxford Dictionary (2013) of British and World English, and several other online dictionaries continue to define “king” as “a male ruler of an independent state, especially one… by right of birth”. So kings are born to rule, still do today. Now, the word “ruler” is interesting: “person exercising government, or dominion” – from Oxford University Press (2013) online. The word “dominion”, from the same source, is even more so: “sovereignty, or control”.

Then we must resort to The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary,online, to define the word “sovreignty… complete power to govern a country”.

So we get to the powerpoint-clear conclusion; this thing, surveillance,online or not, is out of our hands – these king boys still have, one key way or another, the power – and the control. One venerable tradition of power and control is surveillance, and so, as there is nothing new under the sun we, as always – make the most of what’s on offer. Peace

End

I wrote this piece and entered it in a competition advertised by a major, but edgy online magazine. The magazine only acknowledged receipt after many naggings. They then delayed the results of the competition – for more than 2 years! So who knows what happens in that world….. anyway, I enjoyed myself while researching their subject and writing the article. old sus

susanneah

Studies

Small Business Online-nouse

Online Serveillance, 2014 – tanks, H. S. Thompson, from the. old fishwife, Susanne

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