Before class, Mark asked us to read a text he gave us about representation. Next to that, he asked us to watch two videos explaining semiotics and mythologies. Here you can find my notes.

For Mark's Class, we got the assignment to make a mask. You could choose what you wanted to represent about yourself.
Mostly when people look at me, they see almost immediately that I play field hockey. I look like your stereotype Dutch hockeyplayer. So for this mask I wanted to focus on a different part of myself. I chose to express my skills on organisation. I always organise everything; the files on my laptop, my room, the apps on my phone, even my closet hangs in the order of the colours I own.
Patterns mostly have some sort of organisation in them. That is why I chose to paint a self-made pattern on my body.

Our next assignment was to collect 50 images of a social group chosen by you and your group.
Isabelle, Giovanni and I chose to research people who devote themselves to the music genre Grunge. Next to a music genre, it is a style.

For Mark's class, we used the knolling technique in order to look for some characteristics in the social group Grunge. The link to our pdf can be found on the page of system of representation.

Week 1

Introduction

Mask

Week 2

Week 3

Social Group: Grunge

Week 4

Social Group: Grunge

Week 5

Social Group: Instruction

For the instruction I want to focus teenagers (13-18 years old). My idea is to make a quiz. By answering this quiz, you can find out how much you can relate to grunge.

My first idea was to make a quiz with questions you could only answer yes or no to. In the end you find out what percentage of you is grunge. I came up with some questions that were all related to grunge.
My feedback from Mark was that it is more interesting if I would go deeper into the meaning of why aspects are grunge. He said that the age group I chose is really interesting, since within this age group you learn a lot about yourself and you are learning a lot of new things. You grow so much in this period.
With this feedback, I chose to make a quiz that is now multiple choice. With multiple choice you can go much deeper into a question than with questions you can only answer yes or no to. In this way, it is also easier to calculate the percentage on how grunge you are.
My next feedback round was from YinYin. I showed her my process, and she gave me the feedback to give the questions a positive spin or nuance the questions. So for example, the question "Do you think life is meaningless?" can be turned into "Do you care about ...?".

My conclusion is that I am going to make a quiz that goes deeper into meaning with multiple choice questions. The questions are going to be nuanced. When you scroll down, you can see my process. At the bottom, you can find my final outcome.

1.1 My personal interest in grunge, is why they are so dark and deep as they are. I am curious what makes them feel like this and why they behave like that. I relate to the group, because I like the same kind of music but other then that I see no similarities. I do not feel attracted to this group, since I am not really dark and deep and nihilistic.
1.2 I think that grunge people are very dark and depressive people. I think that because the music they listen to can also be very nihilistic. Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of Nirvana even committed suicide. But I also know that not everyone who is grunge is like this, since I listen to the same music and I definitely do not feel the music and vibe in that way.

2.1 Stereotypes of grunge can be: 
- Grunge people are anti-society/anti-government: Grunge people are mostly lower class people. These people are not very supported by society/the government. This can be one of the reasons why grunge people are anti-society/ anti-government.
- Grunge people are lazy: Grunge people can be seen as lazy, since they are not working most of the times and just meeting up with friends or being alone not doing anything.
- Grunge people are addicted to drugs: Escapism is a common thing in the grunge lifestyle. By doing drugs, people might feel like they are going away from earth for some time.
2.2 Grunge music, tattoos, piercings, plaid skirts, fishnet panty, flannels, ripped and dirty clothing, long hair, Dr. Martens, Converse, graffiti, hand signs like middle fingers, guitars and skateboards.
2.3 I found these objects mostly via google images, Pinterest and Tumblr.

3.1 I think everyone spreads these stereotypes. Grunge people is only a small group in society. A lot of people cannot relate to their nihilistic approach on the world. Grunge people are misfits to most people. I think that almost everyone who does not get grunge people will spread these stereotypes.
3.2 I have not found any discrimination or ongoing conflicts. I think there must be some, but mostly from around the years the grunge culture started to come up more. Nowadays, grunge is not really a big thing anymore. The style is now emerged with a lot of other styles. For example, it is very trendy nowadays to thrift.
3.3 As I mentioned before, a lot of people listen to grunge music or are in some way connected to their lifestyle. This does not mean that everyone is nihilistic. A type of grunge can also be suicidal, that does not mean that every grunge person is willing to commit suicide.

Process

Inspiration Yes/No quiz

FINAL OUTCOME

Why this is not my final work:
This was my first magazine page I tried out. I think the layout is not very grunge except for the smoke.
For 13 till 18 year old kids, I wanted to give it more colour in the end. It has to look appealing to make the quiz. To me, if I would see these pages in a magazine, I would not feel attracted to make to quiz.

Why this is not my final work:
This was my second magazine page. I do like the structures a lot and I feel like I put more grunge style into it. Still, I think that for the age group I am designing for it needs more colour and fun to it.

Why this is my final work:
I chose these pages as my end result, because I think that it looks appealing and interesting.

Explanation of some layout choices:
- The word grunge and the A, B, C and D are written in a kind of graffiti/stencil looking font. This refers to the skater culture that is also seen in the grunge lifestyle.
- The background is a wall full of graffiti. This is also referring to the skater community. Next to that, it is also a common thing in grunge to write down quotes with graffiti on the walls in the streets. Most of those quotes have a nihilistic undertone.
- The paper with tape refers to the attitude of not caring about how something looks. The papers is not nicely cut, but ripped. The tape is not looking all clean and nicely put over the paper, it is messy.
- Lastly, the smoke of course refers to smoking. It is known for the grunge people to smoke a lot. Some resources say it is because they do not care about being healthy and taking care of your body.