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MA Graphic Design
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| Joanna Choukeir was born in Lebanon in 1982 in the middle of the Lebanese Civil War. She lived most of her childhood in Lebanon, and at the end of the Civil War, moved with her family to Washington D.C. where her father was sent on a mission at the Lebanese Embassy.
Back to Lebanon, Joanna completed her Secondary Education in Experimental Sciences at Saint Joseph School and her BA in Graphic Design at Notre Dame University, during the relatively peaceful gap of 1996 to 2004. For three years following graduation, she founded There for Design, a freelance design studio, was employed in the design department of Mediapak, Indevco Group, witnessed the 2005 serial bombings, participated in the 2005 serial demonstrations, backpacked around Europe by train and experienced the Second Lebanon War in 2006. Gradually, Joanna developed an interest in researching about the conflict in Lebanon through two areas that she had acquired most experience in: Design and politics. In 2007, she moved to London and completed her MA in Graphic Design with distinction, at the University of the Arts London. Her MA thesis, Visual Politics, is presented here. Moving on to PhD, Joanna is currently developing communication design methods for integrating youth groups from different social groups in Lebanon. She is also working as lead designer with Uscreates, a social design company in London, and assisting in the Learning Zone at the University of the Arts London. |
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The main procedure of the methodology initially translated qualitative information in the graphics into quantitative figures and then deduced qualitative results from the quantities.This methodology is transferable and does not imply that the specific stages of the case study must be applied strictly. The methodology may be modified and transformed for the purpose of the required research study. ‘Time, effort, skill, and art are required to produce results, interpretations, and explanations that are valid and theoretically interesting'.[61] This is why the main purpose of this methodology was to underline the absolute fundamentals of research design in the field of socio-political graphics, and offer a clear, simple plan of reference that can be applied by any individual researcher. I would like to conclude with a personal reflection on the case study and the methodology as a whole. The complete study was done in a relatively short period of time, and as a result, many compromises were made that might have affected the accuracy of the results analysed in the previous chapter. The survey attempted to collect socio-political graphics from 2005 to 2007, however the ‘achieved' sample was different from the ‘designed' sample in the yearly frequencies. The survey contains very few graphics that were generated in 2005, an average number in 2006, and a large number in 2007. This may be attributed to the fact that the survey was collected in 2007, and as a result, recent graphics were more readily available for submission through the questionnaire method. Another reason could be that socio-political graphics were not very popular before the assassination of Former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. Dr. Adonis Bouhatab suggested that in 2005, the graphics were confused due to the fast changes that were occurring. In 2006, people started to understand and make sense of the situation, and in 2007, most of everyone had taken a stand with solid opinions. I believe that it would be worth considering collecting the graphics one year at a time to guarantee that there are as few uncontrolled variables in the research as possible. Another possible flaw in the research is that it attempts to compare three years when one of them is still not complete. The survey stops in September 2007 and excludes the months of October, November and December due to time restrictions. Edward Tufte warns against such an analysis in timelines because a lot can happen in the missing period that may alter the results completely. I anticipate focusing this research in the future on analytical design methods that question causality with more specified variables at the sites of production and audiencing, and with an ultimate concentration on politics. I believe that the projection of the research can be successful as a periodical (possibly yearly) investigation that may, with time, serve as a historical progression of the altering messages in socio-political graphics in relation to the ever-changing Lebanese structure. I also believe that the self-initiated graphics collected in the survey can progress into a one-of a-kind visual publication. It will aim at documenting the richness of Lebanese protest graphics that are very rarely published in other sources. |
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From: Dr. Adonis Bouhatab My background started in physics and then industrial engineering. I pursued a PhD in ergonomics, human factors that led me to taking postgraduate courses in marketing, psychology, economy and education, all related to the various experimental designs and the statistical analysis packages mostly used in the respective fields of application. I have been very interested in the historical and geo-political adventures around the globe, and have written a wide range of articles on the subject. Joanna's project is comprehensive in the details of her methodology that is basically targeting social, political and communication visual researchers. They will discover a thorough and useful tool at their disposal for designing experiments that involve collecting and analysing visual graphics. The database structure that includes twelve variables with a substantial number of responses to her various survey techniques has the potential for many follow up studies. Joanna's tendency for perfection and generalizability in her work were qualities that generated a flexible and comprehensive questionnaire, which was pre-tested several times and distributed to many independent reviewers in order to satisfy the validity criterion, and codifying the responses and the variables. With a new understanding in the fields of experimental designs and statistical analysis software packages, I believe that Joanna's database can be mined extensively to sort out the main factors in the graphics that convey effectively the social and political messages; thus, saving researchers the burden of rediscovering the wheel and selecting judiciously the variables that have significant effects. Due to Joanna's unfamiliarity with research fields, her scientific mind led her to a step-by-step investigation of experimental design. She self-taught herself in a very short period of time what researchers learn after attending numerous courses. Her choice of data input software might not have been the most efficient for her project; however, her different graphic techniques culminated in very successful and genuine mapping schemes for crossing all the twelve variables with one another. This project, that requires the cooperation of several specialists, was undertaken by one graduate student with the skill and charisma and clarity to galvanize a large number of ready acquaintances. The potential for further analysis of the database is evidence of Joanna's foresight for long-term productivity. Before Joanna started in her vast and encompassing final project her understanding of the social and political structure was incomplete and a coherent model for Lebanon's social structure not up-to-date. Joanna remedied these shortcomings by her assiduity to learn more about Lebanon throughout her project. As far as I am concerned, I hope that this project is pursued beyond the completion of the MA course. I would like to see Joanna's working model applied specifically on Lebanon's social structure. The questionnaire may include a few pertinent questions that identify the respondents according to their respective caste such as their religious sects, whether they have been displaced during the long and brutal civil war, the district for voting, whether any family members have immigrated and settled overseas, and how their parents' business or their own is generating comfortable living standards. It is my contention that involved individuals who take the pain to work a graphics job must have strong personal emotions of rage, pride or hate that are reflected in the context of their graphical work. This methodology can offer a wonderful quantitative validation of graphics according to Lebanon's social caste structure or autonomous closed religious sects with their respective personal status laws.
Sincerely, |
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Books Arrander, P. and Skipwith A. (2001) Apricots Tomorrow, London: Stacey International Theses Barakat-El Asmar, P. (2007) Reactive Political Graffiti, Thesis (MA), Lebanon: Notre Dame University Journals Ad-Dabbour Interviews The Free Patriotic Movement The interviewees preferred to remain anonymous Websites www.adbusters.org Television channels British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Electronic sources Oxford American Dictionaries (2005) Version 1.0.1 |
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Joanna Choukeir
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