Focus Group:
A focus group is a form of qualitative research
in which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions,
beliefs, and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging. Questions are asked in an interactive group setting where participants
are free to talk with other group members. The first focus groups were
created at the Bureau of Applied Social Research in the USA, by associate director, sociologist Robert K. Merton. The term itself was coined by psychologist and marketing expert Ernest Dichter.
In the world of marketing,
focus groups are seen as an important tool for acquiring feedback
regarding new products, as well as various topics. In particular, focus
groups allow companies wishing to develop, package, name, or test market
a new product, to discuss, view, and/or test the new product before it
is made available to the public. This can provide invaluable information
about the potential market acceptance of the product.
Focus Group is an interview, conducted by a trained moderator among a
small group of respondents. The interview is conducted in an
unstructured and natural way where respondents are free to give views
from any aspect.Variants of focus groups include:
- Two-way focus group - one focus group watches another focus group and discusses the observed interactions and conclusion
- Dual moderator focus group - one moderator ensures the session progresses smoothly, while another ensures that all the topics are covered
- Dueling moderator focus group - two moderators deliberately take opposite sides on the issue under discussion
- Respondent moderator focus group - one and only one of the respondents are asked to act as the moderator temporarily
- Client participant focus groups - one or more client representatives participate in the discussion, either covertly or overtly
- Mini focus groups - groups are composed of four or five members rather than 6 to 12
- Teleconference focus groups - telephone network is used
- Online focus groups - computers connected via the internet are used
general info:
1. How old are you?
2. What is your highest level of education?
3. What is your sex?
4. What is your race?
5. What type of job do you have? How many hours do you work per week?
product/service info:
1. What is your immediate reaction to the name of this company?
2. How quickly do you realize the pronunciation of the company name?
3. What types of services/products do you think we offer?
4. What emotional response do you have to the name of this company?
5. Does the name reflect the product/service accurately?
6. Is this a service/product you would purchase/participate in? Why?
7. Do you know someone else that would be interested in this product/service?
8. How familiar are you with this type of product/service? Have you ever purchased a product/service similar to this?
9. Is there something you would change about the name or product/service?
10. Is this a product/service that you would discuss about or refer to others?
Research links for harmonograph construction:
http://www.xyhd.tv/2008/11/how-to/metal-work-and-simple-machines/how-to-make-a-harmonograph-or-spirograph/
http://www.karlsims.com/harmonograph/index.html
Maquettes and sketches towards the realization of final development:
The final construction will be a harmonograph that will feature 2 pendulums that will move in a perpendicular motion. The maquette I constructed could not handle the weight of a pen; therefore, could not be used to to see if the mechanism worked. However, the basic structure will be similar to the maquette. Specific materials and mechanism are do be discussed and established.
International Paper Standards Manual
Apple Standards Manual
Target Standards Manual
Westinghouse Standards Manual
Starbucks Standards Manual
1 Diplomatic
Interpreter
27-3091 Interpreters and
Translators
Interpret oral or sign language or translate
written text from one language into another
Lingua -SOC non-trademark entity in a non-legal search, does not exist.
Lingua -SOC non-trademark entity in a non-legal search, does not exist.
(27-3091 Interpreters and
Translators) provides staff and contractors who can interpret at the most
demanding skill levels for the United States government. Our Interpreters
provide oral communication between two or more different languages, and offer
the most professional and accurate translations of consecutive or simultaneous conversations.
2 Software Applications Architect
15-1132 Software Developers Applications
Develop create and modify general computer applications software or specialized utility programs. Analyze user needs and develop software solutions. Design software or customize software for client use with the aim of optimizing operational efficiency. May analyze and design databases within an application area working individually or coordinating database development as part of a team. May supervise computer programmers.
Architecht -SOC non-trademark entity in a non-legal search, does not exist.
As a premier software developer, (15-1132 Software Developers Applications) offers a wide array of smart phone applications including: utilities, games, and reference materials. Through the development of our software, we offer the highest level of user interface and experience.
3 Aircraft Design Engineer
17-2011 Aerospace Engineers
Perform engineering duties in designing constructing and testing aircraft missiles and spacecraft May conduct basic and applied research to evaluate adaptability of materials and equipment to aircraft design and manufacture May recommend improvements in testing equipment and techniques.
Enginair -SOC non-trademark entity in a non-legal search, does not exist.
(17-2011 Aerospace Engineers) specializes in the fields
of designing, constructing and testing the highest quality of aircraft for the
highest level of customers. (17-2011 Aerospace Engineers) offers premium aviation
products and services to yearning consumers.
4 Production Machinist
51-4041 Machinists
Set up and operate a variety of machine tools to produce precision parts and instruments. Includes precision instrument makers who fabricate, modify, or repair mechanical instruments. May also fabricate and modify parts to make or repair machine tools or maintain industrial machines, applying knowledge of mechanics, mathematics, metal properties, layout, and machining procedures.
Wrench Monkeys -SOC non-trademark entity in a non-legal search, does not exist.
Excellence
is the standard of (51-4041 Machinists). For the past decade (51-4041
Machinists) has provided the highest quality of craft, workmanship and
dedication when it comes to mechanical design, construction and maintenance. We
offer premium mechanical equipment and construction and promise to never
compromise on quality.
5
Applied Exercise Physiologist
29-1128 Exercise Physiologists
Assess, plan, or implement fitness programs that include exercise or physical activities such as those designed to improve cardiorespiratory function, body composition, muscular strength, muscular endurance, or flexibility. Excludes "Physical Therapists" (29-1123), "Athletic Trainers" (29-9091), and "Fitness Trainers and Aerobic Instructors" (39-9031).
RE -SOC non-trademark entity in a non-legal search, does not exist.
29-1128 Exercise Physiologists
The purpose of (29-1128 Exercise Physiologist) is to provide patients with unparalleled orthopedic care. As one of the world’s most prominent treatment centers, we specialize in athletic recovery, rehabilitation, and performance enhancement. The advancement of orthopedic techniques and the physical advancement if the focus of (29-1128 Exercise Physiologist).
Blake and the Artistic Machine: An Essay in Decorum and Technology
Derrick Alston ‘12_Graphic Design
Title
TBD
Ideals of efficiency and
productivity have increased the development and utilization of the machine in
Twenty-first century America. The machine, defined as an apparatus applying
mechanical power to perform a particular task, has been established as a way of
creating solutions at a more rapid rate than can be accomplished by people
alone. This mechanistic process of labor has increased the level at which
humans can create, manufacture and distribute products and information.
However, the proficiency of this apparatus has replaced much of the need for
human production, and has eliminated the creativity and craftsmanship that come
from the humanistic creation process. By utilizing technology to create a more
effective means of production, man has also erased the need for physical human
production. The relationship of these entities has created a society that is
dominated by a reliance on the machine, but also the need for human ingenuity
and innovation. My piece investigates the connection of these two entities and
the forms that can result from their separate creation methodologies.
The machine has found its way
into the field of graphic design and influences every aspect of human creation,
which is an idea that will be communicated to all that observe and utilize my
work. The mechanistic methodology of image creation is represented through the presentation
of a harmonograph, a mechanical apparatus that employs pendulums to create a
geometric image. Upon utilizing the harmonograph the user initiates image
creation through the use of a designed apparatus. The user has no control over
the image that is created by the machine, but the speed, efficiency and ease of
production are represented through production. Through the use of metal, wood
and industrialized materials my work reinforces the cold, lifeless creation
that takes place in the assembly line of mechanized America.
The relationship of
mechanistic and humanistic production is further examined by juxtaposing the
harmonograph apparatus with a more human method of production. The presentation
of a platform that allows the viewer to create an image free from restrictions,
communicates the difference of opposing creation methodologies. When given the
opportunity to produce an image through common, humanistic means, how does the
participant respond? This process allows the viewer to have much more control
over the final image, but may not necessarily have the same amount of speed or
efficient production that would be found in the harmograph methodology. The
relationship of mechanistic and humanistic production is investigated, but this
process also brings to mind the idea of efficiency and how it relates to the creation
of art. The participants experience parallels that are often drawn between the
processes of fine and applied arts. In conclusion, the mechanistic nature of
society and the effectual results on the production methods of mankind are
examined through my representation of creation methodologies of both entities.
Derrick Alston
Derrick
Alston ‘12_Graphic Design
BFA Proposal
Ideals of efficiency and
productivity have increased the development and utilization of the machine in
Twenty-first century America. The machine, defined as an apparatus applying
mechanical power to perform a particular task, has been established as a way of
creating solutions at a more rapid rate than can be accomplished by people.
This mechanistic process of labor has increased the level at which humans can
create, manufacture and distribute products and information. However, the proficiency
of this apparatus can also replace the need for human production, and eliminate
the creativity and craftsmanship that come from the humanistic creation process.
My project will investigate the connection of these two entities and the forms
that can result from the separate creation methodologies.
My project will consist of two
free standing pedestals measuring approximately eighteen [18.0] inches in square
width, and will be focused on interactive viewer participation. The pedestals
will be non-memphis college of art pedestals and will be constructed by the
designer. The pedestals will be located two feet from the wall, and will both
display a sheet of paper that will measure approximately [width preceding
height] eleven [11.0] by seventeen [17.0] in inches. The left pedestal will
represent the mechanistic methodology of image creation and will display a
harmonograph, a mechanical apparatus that employs pendulums to create a
geometric image, above the sheet of paper. The harmonograph will be fastened on
top of the pedestal through the use of clamps. Upon cranking the handle of the
harmonograph the user will initiate mechanical image creation. The user will
have no control over the image that is created by the machine, but will observe
the speed, efficiency and ease of production. The harmonograph will be
constructed through the use of mechanics created by the hand of the designer
and through the use of Ponoko, an online 3D printing and laser cutting
resource. The basis of harmonograph construction will rely on specific weight
distribution which will, when set into motion, allow the attached marked
marking device to create an image that is solely influenced on the
gravitational pull of the established weight. This machine will be the sole
method of creation on the first pedestal and will feature no control of color,
movement or any form of visual construction for the participant. This apparatus
will be no taller than 8 feet tall.
The second pedestal will also
feature a sheet of paper with the previously noted size, but will be
accompanied by a set of visual artist materials. These materials may include
markers, pens, or pencils and will allow the participant to take part in a much
more open process of image creation.
This process will allow the viewer to have much more control over the
final image, but may not necessarily have the same amount of speed or efficient
production that would be found in the harmograph methodology. The participant
will take both created images with them.
The pedestals may also contain
a small protrusion to allow for the inclusion of a small informational pamphlet
as to how to operate the machine and navigate through the project. My project
will utilize the full four [4] feet in width on the wall and four [4] foot
distance from the wall that will be allowed to every student. Electricity and
any other digital equipment will not be necessary.
For more information or visual
aid on the harmonograph please visit:
My version of this machine
will be more simplified and in a smaller scale, but the concept will be the
same.
Machine/Technology + Humanity
ma·chine/məˈSHēn
An apparatus using or applying mechanical power to
perform a particular task.
tech·nol·o·gy/tekˈnäləjē/
1. The application of
scientific knowledge for practical purposes, esp. in industry:
"computer technology"; "recycling technologies"
2. Machinery and equipment
developed from such scientific knowledge.
Man’s relationship to the machine. Man’s reliance on the machine. What control/lack of control does machine have?
Man’s relationship to the machine. Man’s reliance on the machine. What control/lack of control does machine have?
Reliance on technology. How could we live without
technology?
Noun_Hierarchy
Verb_Systematize
Adjective_Intransigent
Noun_Hierarchy
Verb_Systematize
Adjective_Intransigent
Noun_Apparatus
Verb_Facsimiled
Adjective_Mechanistic
Verb_Facsimiled
Adjective_Mechanistic
In late 1927 and early 1928,
Sheeler spent six weeks documenting the Ford Motor Company's automobile plant
in River Rouge, Michigan, as part of the promotional campaign for the release
of the Model A Ford. Sheeler's thirty-two photographs of the Ford plant depict
its acres of gleaming, massive machinery,
rather than the human process of labor. They celebrate the company's—and, by
association, America's—ideals of power and productivity, although there is also
a strangely forbidding atmosphere to the unpopulated scenes. Some of the
photographs would serve as sources for later works in other media, he wrote,
"I had come to feel that a picture could have incorporated in it the
structural design implied in abstraction and be presented in a wholly realistic
manner."
-Murphy, Jessica.
"Charles Sheeler (1883–1965)". In Heilbrunn
Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/shee/hd_shee.htm (November 2009)
"At the dawn of the
twentieth century Henry Adams proclaimed that the machine was as central to our
modern American culture as the Virgin was to medieval culture. Charles Sheeler
(1886-1965) was one of the most noted American artists to embrace the
iconography of the machine. But was he high priest or heretic in the religion
of mass production and technology that dominated his era? In paintings,
drawings, and photographs depicting New York skyscapers, Henry Ford's automobile
factories, and machine-dominated interiors, Sheeler produced images of
extraordinary aesthetic power that confirmed America's technological and
industrial prestige in vivid detail."
Charles Sheeler and the cult of the machine By Karen Lucic
The Architecture Machine
Toward a More Human Environment
Nicholas Negroponte
The use of computers to aid the architectural designer and urban planner is already beyond the experimental stage and part of the workaday routine of many professionals. There are, for example, machines that transform two-dimensional drawings into three-dimensional perspective displays and others that check myriad aspects of a design against specifications and tolerance requirements. The Architecture Machine looks several machine generations ahead of these to a future in which genuine man-machine dialogue is achieved, when man and machine will act together on something closer to equal terms toward a common goal, each contributing his-its own characteristic faculty.
The ideal result would be a final design so seamless and well integrated that it is not possible to tell which partner contributed what, and so creative and innovative, yet contingency-proof, that neither an unaided designer nor the most elaborate computer system could have produced it without the help of the other. Negroponte looks forward to man-machine relationships so personal that each can (politely) interrupt the routine work of the other with a fresh inspiration or a nudging reminder of higher priorities; so personal indeed that the response pattern of a machine to one designer would be significantly different from its dealings with a designer of another temperament or of another culture.
Some of the proposals put forth here have already been realized in a system called URBAN5, developed at M.I.T. and IBM by the author and his colleagues. A full account of this system is given. Beyond this, the more radical and adventuresome of the man-machine interactive attributes envisioned by Negroponte are now being created with the coming of more designers (men) trained in the newer technologies and more sophisticated configurations (machines)—and the exploratory interaction of the two.
The author has consulted the full literature on systems theory philosophy and has probed deeply into the underlying issues of man-machine relationships and artificial intelligence. It is perhaps not so surprising that an architect rather than a computationist should have provided us with one of the most provocative proposals for humanizing this relationship—architects have always been charged with infusing cold and neutral material with true human dimension and meaning. And although the author's illustrative examples are taken from architecture and planning, the book is equally pertinent to those in other areas in which computer-aided design processes are being pressed into active service. The fact that no specialized knowledge of computers is required will also facilitate the spread of the book's message: "The concern is to avoid dehumanizing a process whose aim is definitely humanization."
The Theory of Machine Design in the Second Industrial Age Tim Putnum
Toward a More Human Environment
Nicholas Negroponte
The use of computers to aid the architectural designer and urban planner is already beyond the experimental stage and part of the workaday routine of many professionals. There are, for example, machines that transform two-dimensional drawings into three-dimensional perspective displays and others that check myriad aspects of a design against specifications and tolerance requirements. The Architecture Machine looks several machine generations ahead of these to a future in which genuine man-machine dialogue is achieved, when man and machine will act together on something closer to equal terms toward a common goal, each contributing his-its own characteristic faculty.
The ideal result would be a final design so seamless and well integrated that it is not possible to tell which partner contributed what, and so creative and innovative, yet contingency-proof, that neither an unaided designer nor the most elaborate computer system could have produced it without the help of the other. Negroponte looks forward to man-machine relationships so personal that each can (politely) interrupt the routine work of the other with a fresh inspiration or a nudging reminder of higher priorities; so personal indeed that the response pattern of a machine to one designer would be significantly different from its dealings with a designer of another temperament or of another culture.
Some of the proposals put forth here have already been realized in a system called URBAN5, developed at M.I.T. and IBM by the author and his colleagues. A full account of this system is given. Beyond this, the more radical and adventuresome of the man-machine interactive attributes envisioned by Negroponte are now being created with the coming of more designers (men) trained in the newer technologies and more sophisticated configurations (machines)—and the exploratory interaction of the two.
The author has consulted the full literature on systems theory philosophy and has probed deeply into the underlying issues of man-machine relationships and artificial intelligence. It is perhaps not so surprising that an architect rather than a computationist should have provided us with one of the most provocative proposals for humanizing this relationship—architects have always been charged with infusing cold and neutral material with true human dimension and meaning. And although the author's illustrative examples are taken from architecture and planning, the book is equally pertinent to those in other areas in which computer-aided design processes are being pressed into active service. The fact that no specialized knowledge of computers is required will also facilitate the spread of the book's message: "The concern is to avoid dehumanizing a process whose aim is definitely humanization."
The Theory of Machine Design in the Second Industrial Age Tim Putnum
Welcome to the Machine! The Representation of Technology in "Zeitopern" Frank Mehring
The installation, called "Flight Assembled Architecture", was conceived
and built by teams led by my colleagues Fabio Gramazio & Matthias
Kohler as well as Raffaello D'Andrea at the ETH Zurich. It illustrates a
radically new way of thinking about materializing architecture: Use a
multitude of mobile flying agents working in parallel and acting
together as a scalable production means. As you can see in the video,
the quadrocopters are programmed to interact, lift, transport and
assemble small modules in order to erect a building.
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