1 a) Zeitgeist
According to my own understanding a Zeitgeist
is a dominating mindset and trend at a particular point in history.
Internet definition
- The spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the idea and belief of the time.
- The ideas, beliefs and interests that are typical of most people during a particular time in history and are expressed in the culture of that time.
Internet screen shots
www-users.cs.umn.edu/-bhecht/publications_giscience2008_zeitgeist.pdf
dictionary.reference.com/browse/zeitgeist
b) Utopia
To my understanding a utopia is an ultimate
state of mind where everything is perfect and to one’s liking, its one’s Garden
of Eden.
Internet definition
A
theoretical “Perfect” world in which everyone is content, where things get done
by people who are happy to do them.
Internet screen shots
From the above definition one can tell that
both concepts of Utopia and Zeitgeist relate to design, for example; a
zeitgeist is basically a trend at a particular point in time. If one looks at
the design trends between 2015 and 2016, the dominating design style, design
trend rather which almost every designer was and still doing is the LOW POLY
art style and the FLAT DESIGN style because it was a dominating train of
thought among designers, basically these two design styles are design Zeitgeists.
What information did you find?
a) Zeitgeist
- During my research, I came to a better understanding of the Zeitgeist concept as the spirit of the time which led me to dig a bit further only to find out that the Zeitgeist is not just a term to describe a concept but a movement, a trend at a particular time during the course of time and its history.
- I linked my understanding to the recent ongoing movement or trend , the #Pro Black Movement, according to my understanding, linking it back to my research shows that the Pro black movement is a political Zeitgeist where by black people are reclaiming their glory in a revolutionary way. This zeitgeist is driven by the popular and influential.
- Recently a music artist by the name of Beyoncé released a single accompanied by a music video titled Formation which had social media buzzing across the globe and it propelled the #Pro black movement to the roof.
b) Utopia
Research states that Utopia is a state of
perfections in one’s mind, a place that one desires, a perfect world rather. If
one links the concept of utopia to Christianity in religion, the concept can be
described as the Garden of Eden, a place where it all began, a perfect place.
This concept had great impact in terms of art
and design because it allowed people to dig into their inner most desires and
just paints them on canvas; it forced people to abandon the traditional ways of
thinking and let them think in a more abstract way which changed the whole
concept of design.
If one Google searches the term utopia, a lot
of abstract designs from different designers and artist will show up and they
all have the same concept which is the concept of a beautiful surreal place,
their very own utopias, this goes to show that designers might have the same
concept but will never produce the same results.
How did you go about selecting the most reliable and relevant source?
For me to be able to select reliable and
relevant sources I had to come to a good understating of both the zeitgeist and
utopia concept making easy to differentiate between relevant and irrelevant
information.
Secondly I used educational search engines
such as Google Scholar and online journals and papers.
IMAGES RELATING TO THE ZEITGEIST CONCEPT.
IMAGES RELATING TO THE ZEITGEIST CONCEPT.
Which of the sites most interested you personally?
What key words helped you to refine your search?
- Utopia and Zeitgeist “definition”
- The “Concept” of Utopia And Zeitgeist
- Utopia and Zeitgeist through History
