Against Domestic Violence (Topic: Conflict resolution)

The Design Project was begun with the brainstorming. Because the title of the project is about conflict resolution. Firstly, in my research period, it is important to clarify the meaning of conflict. The definition of conflict from World English Dictionary is that “psychology,  opposition between two simultaneous but incompatible wishes or drives, sometimes leading to a state of emotional tension and thought to be responsible for neuroses”(2011). It is to say, it needs two opposite participants with two opposite opinions. It is easy to find that human being would be the one who easily get into such a conflict situation. Therefor, the brainstorming starts from different relationship of people’s. It takes five groupes of key words to spread the thinking of the confliction in different relations among us as follows: People VS People, Family members and domestic violence,  Husband and Wife, Parents to Children and the Old people. 

After the brainstorming, the project continus to the next step, research. According to the research subject, the searching reached to the United Nations Children's Fund at the beginning. However, it is too big to study deep and it is not easy to contact. Then it found the local institution called Standing Together Against Domestic Violence. Established in 1998, Standing Together Against Domestic Violence (Standing Together) coordinates the ground-breaking multi-agency response to the crime of domestic violence. Because it is a local institution in a clear response area, It is believed that it would be more easier to contact them and get details of information. Since the researcher got in touch with the institution, it is so lucky to have a chance to interview them by emailing. 

During the interview,  a few questions were asked in order to get a whole picture of the reality in  domestic violence subject, and also to know about the specific details in cases. The questions had been asked as followed:

1. In your acknowledge, do you think that the situation of domestic violence is serious now? Could you please describe how serious it is?
2. By the cases study, do you know which types of domestic violence happen most frequently or more general?
3. Is there any specific types of person would more likely under the case of domestic violence? I mean female, children or the older.
4. To the solution, what ways of solution or complain could be chosen for the victims?
5. How do the perpetrators get punished in most case? Do you think most of them had been judged appropriately?
6. How many ways of punishment to the perpetrators? Do the victims always are satisfied by the results?

The officer who responded in the interview gave brief answers to above questions.  At the same time, he send a PDF document of a research study about the statistics in the past few years in domestic violence area. Therefore, after the interview, the project is engrossed in this file and got a lot of ideas from the documents. The report relates to figures collated from the Specialist Domestic Violence Court(SDVC) held at West London Magistrates Court. The two boroughs covered by the SDVC are the London Borough of HAMMERSMITH & Fulham (LBHF) and Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea (RBKC) The time period of the data is from 2003 to 2008.

At the same time, as an personal interest, the research also touch in movies.

There are two mainly relate to Children abusing and one is about resolution of conflicts, respectively named An American Crime, Aurore and the Conflict Resolution Terminal. The research shows the important of against the domestic violence and a facetious example for resolution which inspires a lot to the project. Furthermore, the research searched a number of posters design works for representing ideas. It is found that most of the posters about this topic are using photography realistically as methods to represent the pain brought from domestic violence. They are giving a very strong visual impact to the readers. All these inspired the project a lot about how to develop the similar concept. 

During searching the idea in domestic violence subject, it needs some academic reading for supporting the concepts. There are two books was found. One is named Culture & Conflict Resolution by Kevin Avruch. The other one is named Sexism and the War system by Betty A. Reardon which is slightly more connective to the ideas. The theories that talk about sexism and feminism, enemies and victimes and the peace system are inspired. However, they are too academic to be use practically for developing the more specific concept. So they were not read in details. But they are worth to be mentioned, because they could be really good sources for progressing the academic thinking. 

To conclude, the research results are so helpful for the Design Project A’s development. Especially, it is learnt that the more accurate data being found, the more chance to get a whole picture of the reality of domestic violence subject. Moreover, the data is also the  inspiration for the project, such as the representation form and the images which could show more real violence in the situation. However, it is surprised that the research could not find a good support in academic arean. If it can be done again, it needs to pay special attentions on the reflection and the feeling from the victims who were effected by domestic violence subject. It would be more helpful for the project to develop and show more sensitive meaning in details.   

Bibliography

Avruch, Kevin. Culture & conflict resolution . Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1998. 

Birditt, Kira. "Predicting divorce: U-M study shows how fight styles affect marriage." University of Michigan News Service. http://ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=8006 (accessed January 2, 2011).

Confliction. Dictionary.com. Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/confliction (accessed: January 2, 2011).

Reardon, Betty. Sexism and the war system . New York: Teachers College Press, 1985. 

Sunderland, Ruth. "Of course we must fight for women around the world | Ruth Sunderland | Comment is free | The Observer ." Latest news, comment and reviews from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk . http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/29/ruth-sunderland-afghanistan-women-equality (accessed January 2, 2011). 

Beijing opera mask

Beijing opera is a part of chinese traditional culture.

The performers need to be drawn a mask on their faces for the show.

Every role has one and only mask. The color and pattern shows roles disposition and the feature.

red  

Let’s begin with colors. The first one is red.

Red means loyal and brave. In the opera this color is always drawn on a positive role’s face.

But in some story, it means this role is a Fake good.

black 

Black gives people heaviness and solemn feeling. 

Black face means this role is resolute and steadfast,  powerful and wisdom

In some cases, it also represents ghosts and ugly people.

white

White face is always a sinister and fraudulent guy’s face.

On the other hand, the monk and the old man use this color, too.

purple

In Beijing opera purple is similar as red which is strange to me.

The role who has a purple face is a upright man.

This kind of people do not like to flatter to dignitary.

yellow

Yellow face means this role is brave and irascible, fierce and cruel. But In the opera the man who had a yellow face always has a short life. I think the reason is this kind of disposition is hated by others.

golden and silvery

it is always be drawn on a monster’s or immortal’s face. These metal colors are very striking.

just like this one, he is a bat monster.

green

crude and impetuous role has a green face. Green face is also meaning this man is a forest outlaw.

I think it is because the leaf is green.

blue

firm and rough

The second part of  of Beijing opera mask is pattern. As I just said that pattern shows role’s feature.

red gourd

In the past time, Chinese poor people like to use gourd to take water and wine. 

So we draw a red gourd on the mask to me this man like drinking

third eye

In Chinese myth, a lot of immortals has the third eye. It means magic and supernatural. 

Just like this mask, This role is god’s  nephew .

dragon’s eyebrow

In Beijing opera, only the role who play as a emperor can have s dragon’s eyebrow. because in the past time, chinese people think emperor comes from sky and he is a dragon.

yin and yang 

Yin and yang is a famose pattern in chinese culture. It represents the whole universe. So in beijing opera,  it means the  one’s methods are more than human.

weapon 

Chinese history story is a large part of beijing opera. 

There are a lot of generals and  swordsman in these story. 

so we draw the weapon they are  good at on their masks.

crescent moon

It means honest and upright. 

This pattern is only drawn on a fames government official,s face.

In the opera, he can judge dead man in the night.

money 

It means rich people and the god of wealth. and sometimes it means that people focus on getting money or stingy

many faces

it is a especial pattern in beijing opera. this role is a man  who is supernatural. 

People kill him hardly, because he has a lot of heads.

red trace 

it is always be drawn on a historical people’e mask. it means he was be hurt in a famous war and got the scar.

a chinese word

There are some people in beijing opera dont have feature. so we write a chinese word on the mask.

just like this is a strong general,s mask and there is a chinese word means tiger on his mask.