addiction to the internet

the hierachy of argument

languages

Something I really want to do in my second year is use my interest in languages much more. It is a little known fact that I have a drive to learn languages, and am advanced in Spanish, studied French for ten years and am currently learning German. Languages are hard to learn, and usually learnt in boring ways that suit only a small portion of academics.

The language learning experience must be revolutionised. It must be made open to creative people, and made more friendly for acamdeic people. I therefore have many ideas in how this could be developed, which I'm excited to take forward next year.

I think it is vital that people have a grasp of foreign languages in a globally connected world, and it is important for the sake of our cultural understanding too. As a visual communicator, I have a drive to make the world a better place. Cultural ignorance blights the UK, with xenephobic behaviour all too common. A project to reduce this through language learning seems an ideal thing to do in my view.

To introduce this idea, I have found a nifty widget for online translations. Bad Translator demonstrates the inaccuracy of online translators. Have a go yourself, and see how different your result is from the original text:

http://www.conveythis.com/translation.php

leeds by night

An interactive photo guide to Leeds at night. http://www.stephengriffin.co.uk/leedsbynight/

This project has been undertaken by Stephen Griffin to document people's interaction with the city at night.

on the streets of leeds...

Synthetica

Where Does My Money Go?

Information Graphics have long been one of my interests. Statistics don't have to be displayed in boring ways. There are beautiful examples of maps, charts and graphs available. 'Where Does My Money Go' works as an application to display how the budget is spent. I don't think the website is amazing, but it has its merits and certainly gives inspiration for other designers to improve upon it.

http://www.wheredoesmymoneygo.org/dashboard/#/regional-drilldown/spending=per_capita&focus=04&year=2010-11