Inércia: Chapter I & II

2023 • Editorial | ESAD

This was my final bachelor's degree work, while in Communication Design course at ESAD (Escola Superior de Artes e Design), being the "big" final project called KYRT (Keep Your Radar Turning).

Having been developed in a group of 4 elements, it had only two constraints, the theme, having been quite open, and the time of development.

What is the KYRT?

The KYRT (Keep Your Radar Turning) consists, in the case of my course (Communication Design) in a project that aims to test every student in their skills in the graphic design field, in the teamwork and also in the way they communicate the ideas to the public. It's a final test that sums up the three graduation years to verify the strength of each student.

The work consists in developing a work around the topic that was lauched by the professors in the begining of the project and there are no limits in the development of graphic materials, it can be developed books, videos, posters, websites, etc. In the end a presentation and defense of the work must be done in front of a jury of 9 professors and the whole KYRT community.

"Duality" was the theme launched for this final work, where all groups would have to develop a work that was somehow related to this word. The project started in mid-April and ended in mid-June.

I developed this project with my three colleagues, Maria Gonçalves, Miguel Ferreira and Gaetano Puglisi, whom I am very grateful for the beautiful journey, from the decision of our idea to the moment of the final presentation in front of a full auditorium.

Our Work

The work, entitled Inércia: A Força da Automatização nas Decisões Humanas (Inertia: The Power of Automatization in Human Decisions) is composed of 3 different graphic materials – an editorial; a drawing archive; a video – and divided in 3 different chapters:

Chapter I – Behind The Picture (explained) & Chapter II – The Sketching Experience

A book divided into two parts, opposed to each other in terms of reading mode. The first part (white pages) is focused entirely on theory. The second part (black pages) explores and analyzes the results and drawings obtained in the workshop that we developed, with the goal to prove precisely the same theory approached in the first chapter.

Chapter II – The Sketching Experience (Drawings Archive)

Also part of the second chapter, there's the archive of each original drawing produced by the participants in The Skecthing Experience.

Chapter III – Decisions In Motion

A video/movie that sums up our entire work and also documents the whole workshop that we did, called The sketching experience.

You can see this movie here.

Synopsis

O nosso trabalho está debruçado sobre a área da psicologia e sociologia. Tem como foco abordar a dualidade presente na mente humana através da análise de decisões diárias, categorizando-as em decisões conscientes deliberadas e automatizadas. Diariamente agimos através de uma relação entre o lado racional e emocional, variando consoante as ideologias de cada um, bem como a sua cultura, entre outras crenças. Pretendemos mostrar de que controlamos estas variações de estado consoante o contexto que nos rodeia, decidimos de forma automatizada em circunstâncias que conhecemos bem e fazem parte do nosso habitual, e que em situações que fogem à nossa rotina ou em eventos exclusivos, no qual exigem um processamento diferente da informação, tomamos decisões de forma deliberada. Temos o objetivo de evidenciar que nós tomamos decisões de forma automatizada muito mais frequentemente do que pensamos, como por exemplo na nossa rotina, que representa grande parte do nosso tempo, onde desempenhamos tarefas de forma “automática”, “sem pensar”. Com o nosso projeto pretendemos comunicar que perante situações semelhantes todos reagimos de forma distinta, consciencializando de que não há um ideal, não há o branco nem o preto, existe sim, um espectro, fazendo especial apelo a uma reflexão sobre as nossas decisões.

ENG

Our work focuses on the area of psychology and sociology. It focuses on addressing the duality present in the human mind through the analysis of daily decisions, categorizing them into deliberate and automated conscious decisions. Every day we act through a relationship between the rational and emotional sides, varying according to each person's ideologies, as well as their culture, among other beliefs.
We intend to show that we control these state variations depending on the context that surrounds us, we decide automatically in circumstances that we know well and are part of our routine, and that in situations that escape our routine or in exclusive events, in which we require a different processing of information, we make decisions deliberately.
We aim to show that we make decisions in an automated way much more often than we think, such as in our routine, which represents a large part of our time, where we perform tasks “automatically”, “without thinking”.
With our project we intend to communicate that in the face of similar situations we all react differently, becoming aware that there is no ideal, there is no white or black, there is a spectrum, making a special call for reflection on our decisions.