Mapping the participants/ Image archive

Stakeholders and Relationships

Post 3: Mitchell Soames

When attempting to map out the stakeholders for Obesity and healthy living one starts to comprehend just how many people or tangible/ intangible contributors impact the issue holistically.

Through working in a small group we were able to identify an array of different influences. One key insight was our realisation that challenged our initial thoughts admitting to thinking that social media was the biggest influence of obesity and healthy living, yet it scaled quite low when compared to somewhat uncontrollable circumstances such as economic position, (this may cause you to think we really don’t know what we are talking about) but humour me for a second.

If you were not in the position to get access to a good sources of fresh produce one has no choice but to gravitate towards cheaper options, foods with low nutritional substance or fast food. Also depending on the area you are living in a local supermarket might not be as accessible.

A week later we were asked to produce another map, this time we included any word that could be related or influential to the topic. We received feedback from our tutors and peers and began to break down our 5 key contributor based on our own personal believes, these included (in order) Role models, Support, Expectations, Education, Social.

What  was interesting is that most of these contributors are relative to one another; for example expectations would go hand in hand with support and when you think of role models I think your family specifically your parents, not having these three aspects working together can really create a struggle in your judgement and motivation to prevent or combat obesity and/or live a healthy

10 Research Images

Food Design 2012 ‘You are what you eat’

This image was found on tumblr with little information or research behind it. I was particularly drawn to it because of its clever use of composition to represent a person by combining a selection of fast food sources with heavy carbohydrate foods. It is a common trend to target the ‘human image’ for example this character is clearly over-weight and emotively unhappy portraying a pessimistic view to the effects of unhealthy choices both physical and psychologically.

Lesage, D. 2014 ‘Obesity starts from childhood’ 

This  image was made by a Graphic designer named Karen Hurley and Art director David Lesage for a advertising campaign for French Ministry of Health to promote awareness of childhood obesity. Again this image targets body image using an indulging image of an ice-cream which is easily relatable for both children and adults.

Parker, J. ND ‘Global threat waiting area’

I found that comics illustrations are quite powerful in their ability to use comedy to represent a serious issues such as obesity. For example in this image our understanding of all three issues (Obesity, bird flu and global warming) are heavily impacting factors on humanity. Yet the most concerning problem in this image is obesity cleverly represented by a weight distribution and the emotions shown on each characters face.
This image shows the reality of obesity (far more concerning) than any alarming virus or environmental fear in relation to mortality.

Raeside, 2016 ‘Obesity and health care system’

This comic is by Raeside which do alot of illustrtions targeting Healthcare systems and the Government. I chose this one because it struck me instantly. labelling the scale as our Healthcare system represents the lack of support or attention to a major problem which is Obesity. With the character shown still holding a soft drink and a shirt titled ‘Obesity’ tells me that he himself is completely oblivious to the problem.
This image differs from the rest because it is the first time that the issue is not specific to an individual but targets a support system that is not doing its part in helping people in need.

Personal trainingSF 2012 ‘One of the best ways to lose stomach fat’

Finding this artwork on a 42 ways to lose fat page didn’t give me a lot of insight to this image so I decided to dig deeper. I found that it is actually an advertising campaign for Companhia Athletica, ran by São Paulo whom collaborated with Brazilian advertising agency DM9 DDB on a set of captivating ads to motivate obese people to lose weight. There is a series of the same style silhouette characters with fit and athletic bodies imprisoned inside.
This is the first image that I can see the two (over-weight and fit) subjects used in contrast expressing the intrinsic belief that wants change as a physical element.

Katie Couric 2014 ‘Fed Up’

This image was incredibly educational using a simple comparison to effectivvely communicate the ‘hidden’ sugars in different  products.  The purpose is to open people’s eyes to products which may seem harmless because of its use, yet by contrasting them with a product that one could assume is loaded with sugar/ unhealthy can lead to somone having a changed perspective with their food section

Ahfon, 2008 ‘Anti-obestiy campaign’

I found this image to be the first one that represented an obesity treatment with a negative connotation suggesting that children have no choice but to be shaped into something that is more ‘perfect’ in appearance. Also the language is very in-formal using slang such as ‘fatty’ to single out the children, which are shown in a distressing manner.

DRL: Heart 2010 ‘Don’t treat Diabetes to your heart.’

This advertisement was quite similar to my second image again targeting sweets and associating ice-cream with something that is loaded with sugar. Where it differs is the directed cause/ impact showing the heart as a heavily effected organ.
Unlike my other images this one uses text to resonate with its audience “People with diabetes are 2 to 4 times likely to get heart disease” further reassuring the issue.

Granlund, G. 2012 ‘World wide obesity’

This image is unique as it targets a broad scale, combining the world with a human which seems to be ignoring the obvious weight problem. The text prompts a reaction with an alarming 30% increase of obesity it seems this image is communicating a lack of acknowledgement of a serious issue world wide.

 

Piraro, D. 2014 Then, sometime after the invention of home computers, things began (…)

I feel that this image was the first to suggest technology as a major problem in relation to weight-gain. Relying on humour in both the text and using the  human evolution ending in an obese figure proposes a projection of our future if we as humans let technology take control of our livelihood.

 

REFERENCES

Food Design 2012 ‘You are what you eat’  viewed 25 August 2016 <http://artpixie.tumblr.com/post/26297901007&gt;

Lesage, D. 2014 ‘Obesity starts from childhood’ 2014– knowing your portions’ viewed 25 August 2016 <http://www.davegranlund.com/catoons/2012/07/24/world-obesity/&gt;

Parker, J. ND ‘Global threat waiting area’ viewed 26 August 2016  <https://collaborationnation.wikispaces.com/file/view/parker.gif/33093359/parker.gif&gt;

Raeside, 2016 ‘Obesity and health care system’ viewed 26 August 2016  <http://raesidecartoon.com/vault/obesity-health-care-system/&gt;

Personal trainingSF 2012 ‘One of the best ways to lose stomach fat’– knowing your portions’ viewed 26 August 2016 <http://personaltrainingsf.com/top-42-ways-to-lose-belly-fat-fast&gt;

Katie Couric 2014 ‘Fed Up’viewed 28 August 2016 <http://blogs.babycenter.com/products_and_prizes/the-film-the-food-industry-doesnt-want-you-to-see/&gt;

Ahfon, 2008 ‘Anti-obestiy campaign’ viewed 28 August 2016 <http://blog.omy.sg/ahfon/archives/52&gt;

DRL: Heart 2010 ‘Don’t treat Diabetes to your heart.’viewed 28 August 2016 <http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/drl_heart&gt;

Granlund, G. 2012‘World wide obesity’ viewed 28 August 2016 <http://www.davegranlund.com/catoons/2012/07/24/world-obesity/&gt;

Piraro, D. 2014 Then, sometime after the invention of home computers, things began (…) viewed 28 August 2016 <http://www.thecomicstrips.com/subject/The-Obese+Weight+Loss-Comic-Strips-by-Bizarro.php&gt;

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Blind leading the blind but can edutainment technologies save us?

Is it too late to transform the role of augmented reality in changing it’s ways for our future generations? (eNCA 2014)

Post two by Marie Good

The analysis’ below are of two scholarly articles that take a further scientific and researched based leap into the world of healthy living. I have decided to focus on two areas; healthy living blogs and how healthy they really are for their audiences and the role augmented reality could have in changing our education system to incorporate physical activity as a compulsory standard aspect of education curriculums.

‘A content analysis of Healthy living blogs: evidence on content thematically consistent with dysfunctional eating attitudes and behaviours’, is a journal article published by the International Journal of Eating Disorders in 2014 and written by Leah Boepple and Joel Kevin Thompson (Boeple & Thompson 2014). Boeple at the Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, holds a B.A and Thompson a PhD of the department also. This article is a content analysis and evaluation of various healthy living blogs. A sample of 21 blogs that had either won an award or had a large number of followers, was evaluated. It was discovered that more than half had shown signs of advertising or publishing content pro problematic eating or body image views. Boeple has written about issues such as this before, particularly focusing on body image, eating disorders and educational programs to combat these issues more effectively. Thompson has a very similar background also. I found this article very interesting as it supports the views I have had on this topic for a long time. Coming from a background where healthy living blogs have been an area of interest for myself and people I know closely, I have often realised the blogs are not always consistent with healthy lifestyle thinking.

Kuei-Fang Hsiao and Nian-Shing Chen (Hsiao & Chen 2011) from the Department of Information Management, Taiwan wrote a journal report in 2011 titled, ‘The development of the AR-Fitness System in Education.’ Hsiao has written about augmented reality several times previously, as well as wireless technologies and Chen has focused particularly on ubiquitous learning, technology and education. This article views the recent emergence of technology and healthcare to create interactions with the virtual and real world and expands it into information used to create AR technology for students which they call ‘edutainment technologies,’ based on the five physical indicators of BMI (body mass index), cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance and flexibility. Hsiao and Chen designed a prototyped AR technology that aims to have the children moving and interacting with a screen in order to answer questions and proceed through their learning curriculum. Hsiao and Chen propose this technology might be more beneficial to subjects such as PE and sports as the children realise movement is incorporated into the curriculum, which I agree with. The struggle still seems to be convincing children of this revolutionary change in education that they currently understand as a sedentary activity so they can view it as a physical one instead.

 

Reference list

Boepple, L. & Thompson, J., K. 2014, ‘A content analysis of healthy living blogs: evidence on content thematically consistent with dysfunctional eating attitudes and behaviors’, International Journal of Eating Disorders, pp 362-367.

Hsiao, K. & Chen, N. 2011, ‘The development of the AR-fitness system in education’, Edutainment Technologies. Educational gmes and virtual reality/augumented reality applications, pp. 2–11

eNCA. 2014, unknown, E News Chanel Africa, date viewed 15 August 2016, < https://www.enca.com/10-facts-about-obesity >.