Cyber-Crime Advert

Cybercrime Awarness Advert from Charlie Hamnett on Vimeo.

I have created a video advert to reinforce my Cyber-Crime illusive posters idea. It demonstrates the process of how a criminal tricks an victim and decodes their information to access their account and retrieve valuable data. I have used After Effects, working in 3D space to enter the email and enter the cybernetic path. The video also has a new inclusion of the amount of money that is taken from victims, as the type extrudes towards the screen numbers accumulate the large amounts to express the transfer of money from the victims account to the criminals. in the last type layer I have indicated the amount of money lost to cyber-crime in 2015 at £675 million (BBC, News 2015). This Number keeps rising and I have communicated that with the rising sum illustrated, using sliders to animate, in my video advert. In addition I have improved the impression of the illusive face, using after effects to reveal a different opacity up close to reinforce the idea behind my design.

Financial Cyber Crime / Cybernetic Self

Financial Cyber Crime is an offence committed over the internet, having a major impact on international banking and the financial sectors. Financial Cyber crimes affect individuals, companies, organisations and astonishingly even countries. All of this creates a negative impact upon the entire economic and social systems, because of the considerable loss of money.

Organised Criminal networks are drawn to the crime, due to the huge profits that can be made. The most worrying aspect about all of this is that, there are a number of factors that make it difficult and sometimes even impossible to trace the criminal or the illegal assets. This can be because of differences between countries and their national jurisdictions, how their international conventions are implemented and their general level of expertise in the investigative process and propositional authorities to catch the cyber criminals.

This is a factor in the growth of this crime. Alongside the ease of creating methods to steal valuable data and financially harm victims, the fact there are ways to hide and get away with the crime internationally, criminals seem to be seizing this opportunity. This is why it is a scary place sometimes online and people need to be aware of the dangers out there. Amazingly, 90% of all emails sent in the world are fraudulent. Baring in mind 294 billion emails are sent each day, that is a lot of scam emails. I will create a poster for my project to identify some crimes that are out there online and I will illustrate what you need to look out for and how to avoid the cyber crimes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35201188

https://www.interpol.int/Crime-areas/Financial-crime/Financial-crime

Social Engineering / Cyber Crime Research

Social engineering is a form of psychological manipulation that is becoming increasingly sophisticated. Criminals have developed a unique sense and strategy to fool people, through social learning. Technology is continuously expanding and more and more social connections are creating new platforms for cyber crime to take place. Cyber criminals learn from what the see online and discover methods to manipulate victims through confidence tricks to influence their behaviour.

International police agency Interpol, expresses social engineering as one of the worlds most emerging fraud trends. It is explained why, because of its ease of creation and distribution. You don't need to be a skilled hacker, just someone willing to communicate with people and write emails. Plus, the growth of the internet has played right into the hands of the criminals and it is now very easy to gather information about a target. A key part of social engineering is having information on your victim and criminals can easily get this from buying hacked company data and studying their victim's social profile.

Socialengineering.org have compiled research fro a survey to figure out statistics leading towards cyber crime. They found out,

• 90% of the people we ask will provide not just the spelling of their names but their email addresses without confirming our identity
• 67% of the people we ask will give out social security numbers, birth dates or employee numbers
• We have a 100% success ratio in physical breaches

The data collected is truly shocking, but it is a human error we all can make when not 100% focused. Also, they have compiled more research data into an info-graph that clearly depicts the methods and strategies cyber-criminals use to manipulate their victims, who are the main targets and financial statistics. As well as, security and defensive precautions to help you avoid becoming a victim.

90% of emails are scams, this is astonishing. I have discovered that most common cyber crime attacks mimic banking institutions. This is because, people trust banks and believe they are sincere, professional and dependable. Making it a great platform for criminals to illude victims. They often create a false situation and say, 'you account has been compromised' and informing you to transfer your money into some other accounts they have set up in the victims name for safe keeping. They would reinforce the situation with measurements with emails, letters, phone calls and act very professional in general to create a believable atmosphere.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35201188

http://www.social-engineer.org/social-engineering/social-engineering-infographic/

Illusive Face Demonstration

Illusive face demonstration 1 from Charlie Hamnett on Vimeo.

Illusive face demonstration 2 from Charlie Hamnett on Vimeo.

Illusive face demonstration 3 from Charlie Hamnett on Vimeo.

I have created visual demonstrations to reveal the illusive face expression in my project. This will reinforce the observers understanding of how the illusion works. I created these 5 second demonstrations in After Effects. It visually communicates how our vision detects high and low spatial frequencies and will reinforce the idea behind this in my cybernetic self project. In my project, I have used this technique to express the dangers online and you never really know who you are talking to behind the profile.

Project Typography / Cybernetic self

I have researched what fonts are used for credit/debit cards to apply to my project. This will represent the notion of a criminal sense, alluding a victim into giving away their personal information in a scam. I have found Two fonts that are commonly used within credit cards, Kredit type and a font literally called credit card. I will experiment with the two to see which composes with the design in the most appropriate way.

In addition, I intend to integrate the font used in emails to convey the sense most scams are focused through this channel. The three fonts used in emails I have discovered from research are Helvetica, Arial, and Calibri. I will seek to use one of these and find a way to integrate the email type and the credit/debit card type together to create unique typographic content for my poster.

Development 4 / Cybernetic Self

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/87/3b/2c/873b2c818b62589368782b9c2775e269.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/32/d2/2e/32d22eac885f179e5b550f080e556f53.jpg

Moving on to creating title type for my design. I have researched ideas, as inspiration to help me discover a way to layout type that will illustrate the illusive nature of cyber-crime. I have discovered these two posters above that hide and reveal elements of word and letters, this instantly gave me an idea how to lay out type in my poster. I could trim one word or words and reveal another beneath to sum up the idea of criminals hiding behind an anonymous profile online.

Using Photoshop I created title type experimentation for my poster. Similar, to the hide and seek idea, I have used the font 'Kredit' to communicate the involvement of money and I trimmed away the bottom section of the text cyber-crime after rasterising the layer, this text layer illustrates the face profile the criminals use as an anonymous source. Underneath this layer, I have created different phrases that question and express the tricks that cyber-criminals put in place to fool victims. I have used the font Helvetica, as this font is commonly used in emails and it communicates the primary channel to reach victims. for this text, I rasterised and trimmed the top layer to place to only reveal the bottom half, revealing enough if its body to read.

For the 'what you don't see text', I have added a transparent and faded effect. I have done this to create an illusive meaning to the design. When you squint or are far away to will not see the phrase, but when up close or focus your eyes you will notice the type. This will work alongside the illusive faces in the design, to help justify an overall misleading effect and relate to cyber-crime.

Development 3 / Cybernetic Self

Whilst talking to a friend about my idea and me telling him about my ideology behind criminals stealing information through illusive techniques to decode the information from their victims. I was show a poster about a film ex machina where their is decoded information programming a robots functions. I thought the whole composition and everything about this poster was relatable to my project. So, I started to experiment with this idea and the arrangement of the decoding type to convey the criminal activity to decode information through online technology.

Here is my experimentation with the inspiration. I have wrote in the scattered decoding type words that are scrambled that the criminals put together to decode and manipulate their victims into giving away their information. I have also added credit card numbers, National Insurance numbers and more. To read the type follow the line path it is on and the following letter to the right will spell the decoded words. This isn't instantly visable but the closer you get, you should start to notice a pattern and the closer you get the face will change. This reflects the whole idea of the illusive nature of cyber crime. from far away it looks like a different person and scrambled messages, but as you get closer the type pulls together and you see the real face who is the criminal alluding you into giving away details. All in all, my project feels like it is pulling together, just tweaking now to improve it. I need to improve the illusive nature of the face a little more and make my idea more original for my final outcome.

Seminar 3 / Profile Picture Frames / Cybernetic Self Research / Tracy Lannon

In this seminar I listened to ideas of others contributed some of my own to help the developmental progress in our projects. I explained my idea of incorporating the illusive nature in scamming online, with the implication you never know who is on the other side of the internet. Plus, the idea of how I want to connect this with how our eyes perceive illusion, by creating the high and low spatial frequency vision between two faces to express the illusive side to scamming. It was recommend to me by one of my coworkers that if may be a good idea to frame the illusive faces with contemporary social media frames to illustrate where the danger is situated. I thought this could be a really simple, but effective idea to incorporate into my design to improve the message I intend. I will investigate this notion and experiment with it in my project.

I have gathered profile picture frames, as an idea to combine each frame outline to use as a boarder for my illusive image of faces. I could possibly overlay each frame behind my image to illustrate that anonymous criminal activity scales across all media channels, to my audience of social media users. This will reinforce the idea of false perception, linking the faces to social media profile pictures through the application of the recognisable frames and will communicate alongside my image the illusive side to not knowing who is on the other end of the internet.

I will experiment with this idea as a feel it may be important to get the link of profile picture frames into the mix of the design. Some are different shapes and some stick to the traditional square which I would have to do something about. I will create the traditional squares to be slightly rotated and slightly raised to create the impression of different profile picture frames. Also, I will create possible compositions for my overall poster design, by arranging the title type in different positions. This will serve as a template to reflect on when designing my poster.

Cybercriminal Money Scams 2016 / Cybernetic Self Research

Cyber criminals have affected online businesses and individuals since the internet first came to be. The rise in technology have led internet services and websites to make it easier and easier to pay bills, shop, make online reservations other means of payments. You can do any of these actions from anywhere in the world, removing any physical boundaries and making our lives easier. However, It also makes life easier for crime. Cyber criminals have endless vulnerable targets in the world who they can scam for money and endless platforms to perform the crime. Below are the most common up to date techniques cyber criminals scam people with.

http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/441818/file-3147721398-jpg/blog-files/paypal-phishing-scam300x300.jpg

Phishing Email Scams

Phishing scams are communicated through emails and social networks. Cyber criminals will send messages to try and trick you into giving away any login details or personal information that they can use for their benefit and leave you in the dumps behind. They get their victims to believe that the message sent is from an official source, usually pretending to be bank authorities or other financial institutes. Their messages contain links that take you to web pages that resemble that of a real company, but is actually controlled by the criminals, asking for personal information on a fake login access page.

They are most successful when people arent paying much attention, so they play on this to lure them into a trap. Phishing criminals create a sense of urgency to frighten the target, telling them a story of how their bank account is under threat and that they need to fix this as soon as possible. Often asking for personal information to quickly access and confirm your identity of the account. At this point they now have all the information they need to access the account or sell the account to the dark web or other interested parties.

Money Laundering Scams

This scam is one of the oldest and most popular scamming schemes, most people will have encountered one of these scams in their mail box in their internet life. It starts by opening an anonymous emotional message who claim to be an official government member, a business man or a wealthy family member asking for help to retrieve a large sum of cash from a bank. In exchange for help the offer a you a large sum of money. The scam starts off with the victim paying for small fees and legal costs and then leading you on to pay more for additional services, transaction and transfer costs. They keep sending confirmation letters to make you believe it is legit, but eventually, you end up with no money and no promised money.

https://ilookbothways.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/ecard1.png?w=450

Greeting Scams

Another old scam, this is usually a greeting card message that seems to be from a friend. But, when opened you usually end up with malicious software that is being downloaded and installed on your computer. Causing adds to pop up all over your screen as you use it. In some cases however, your device can be infected with really dangerous malware. In this case your computer will start sending private data and financial information to a fraudulent server controlled by IT criminals.

http://www.scam-detector.com/assets/how%20to%20get%20prequalified%20for%20a%20mortgage.png

Guaranteed bank loan or credit card scam

This scam sends messages to people that guarantee you large amounts of money that have already been pre-approved by the bank. People who are experiencing difficult times at the moment they receive the message they may be vulnerable to fall for this 'too good to be true offer'. However, this in general is an easy scam to spot. Using your common sense you will be able to to tell that it is fake, a huge bank loan or credit card would not be approved without knowing your financial situation.

http://www.ripandscam.com/images/lottery-ghana.jpg

Lottery scam

The lottery scam is a message that you open informing you have won a huge sum of money. But, before you can gain access to that money you have to pay some initial small fees. A lot of people fall for this as it highlights everyone wildest dream of quitting their jobs and living off of their winnings for the rest of their lives. this fantasy sometimes clouds peoples judgement and jump straight into the transactions to receive their so called money.

http://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/resize/frm/storypad-IUkL49scI4FGKgY5dEIBe5BSplA%3D/f1a9f422-80fe-44ca-877d-85ccd36b116d.jpg/w1200_h678_fmax.jpg

Hit-man Scam

Cyber criminals send you threatening messages to scare you into paying money. Most of the messages say they will kidnap a family member or that they have been payed to kill you unless a ransom is paid to them. They reinforce this threat with a message filled with details about the victims life, using personal information they find on social media. This is why it is wiser and safer to not display lots of personal information on social media.

https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/online-dating-scam-300x225.jpg

Romance Scams

This scam plays on the nature of a persons subjective self, when their lust causes them to drop down their guard and think illogically. The scam takes place on social networking sites, where victims are informed about the notion of romance. The male scammers and usually based in west Africa and the female scammers are usually from eastern Europe. Cyber criminals have used this method for years and have improved their method based on their victims reactions. Some strategies take months to gain the trust of the victim and in some cases a meeting is arranged. The way they gain money from these scams are either, an unpredictable event occurs and the scammer needs money to buy a passport or other item of desperation, or they are kidnapped and held for ransom at the arranged meeting.

https://heimdalsecurity.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/fake-antivirus.jpg

Fake Anti-Virus Software

This scam consists of a pop up saying 'your device is infected, install this antivirus software no to protect'. Scammers design the pop up to appear how you would expect windows or a security service provider to illustrate the problem, making you think that it maybe true. In some cases you can end up with a Trojan, Keylogger or CryptoLocker virus. These can lead to scammers to block and encrypt your operating system and request a sum of money for you to gain access to the computer again.

http://www.riskandinsurance.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/CyberFraudImage_700x525-700x525.jpg

Impersonation Scam

Cyber criminals can hack onto your social media accounts and pretend to be you for their own value. They can create a false situation and ask for help through cash transactions from all of your contacts, to hopefully gain money from the concerned individuals who are offering their help. To avoid the situation of a profile hack, you should treat your social media account information as you would with your bank and do not display lots of personal information online that criminals could encode to discover your password.

http://waystoavoidscamsonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/make-money-online-scams-768x300.png

Make Money Fast Scams

One of the most common scams is the scam that promises the fortune of making money fast on the internet. They promise you made up jobs, plans and methods of getting rich fast and promised money from government sources. With the implication to work at home victims feel safer and lured into giving away personal information and financial data with the promise from a make believe source over the internet.

http://www.smartconsumer.ct.gov/smartconsumer/lib/smartconsumer/images/travel_scams_plane_ad.jpg

Travel Scams

The victim receives an email with an irresistible offer to travel to an exotic location for a special holiday, but it expires in a short amount of time. The criminals hide necessary costs until you pay the initial offer and they simply take your money without sending you anywhere. To avoid this, go with the well known and trust worthy travel agencies to be safe.

https://heimdalsecurity.com/blog/top-online-scams/

Recent Money Flipper Scam / Instagram and Facebook / Cybernetic Self Research

A recent social media scam was called the money flipping scam. This was set up by a criminal group who expressed that they could flip your money to make more money, like a magic trick. This of course went viral, as bizarre stuff do on social media, causing some people to fall for it, especially inexperienced users. The anonymous profile reassures people that the money making tricks are real and work, with prearranged photographs and videos of the trick performed with satisfied customers. However these are all set up to create the idea of false perception.

http://www.dalerodgers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/instagram.png

Because, this went viral and looked like a real thing people were thinking maybe this could work and people was falling for it. This is how a lot of scams publicise themselves through social media. Criminals took money off of people by asking them to go out and buy a green dot money pack, which is a prepaid card, to top up with the amount you want to flip. If you want to flip £100 you would flip to and receive £1000. After topping up the card they will ask for the card details, so they can access it and add a 0 to the £100 to create £1000. But, they will tell you in order for them to add the 0 they will have to cut the profits, to basically make the false business sound real.

In the end, they simply take the card details and steal the money. No money has been flipped and what ever money deposited on the card would be seen ever again. This is one small scam of many from social media. I highlighted this one because it is fairly recent and I can relate this to my current project, 'raising awareness of criminality through anonymous profiles online', to gather research and build a final design to highlight the crimes cyber criminals commit online.

Words hurt / Cybernetic Self Research

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/46/b0/a2/46b0a2ccb85331e62fe2a2dc3178d577.jpg

When I saw this design on Pintrest, by Mathew Hayes, I instantly liked the ideology of using type in this manner within my project. This poster design is about cyber-bullying and raising awareness they are not alone and help on the table if needed, for both bully's and the bullied to sort them selves out in the right way. The idea I have in mind, gained from this poster is to have type behind or connected to my illusive image of faces and the type will communicate the documented crimes that anonymous users commit. I would use a really dark shade of grey for the type to almost match the black background and to not distract any attention away from my illusive image. Plus, this would also have a positive impact on the image as you would not see this type from far away or squinting, until up close and focusing.

I will try and make the type appear as digital as possible to reflect the cybernetic theme. I will research typefaces used on social media to further engage with the ideology behind the design and maybe position, rotate and resize the type in different compositions like Mathew to create an interesting effect. This could illustrate the different angles anonymous criminals take to manipulate the victim. Similar, to the poster design above I would make the type fade, as it gets further away from the image. This would be a good technique to draw attention to the image.

In addition, the overall composition of Mathews design draws attention to his image. A path I will definitely follow. The placement of his title type does not distract any attention off of the powerful image and the fact the image is so powerful the title type does not need to be big to capture the audiences attention. The image itself intrigues the audience to want to find out what the design is about. He also uses type in different colours for the title to cleverly express the issue and the solution to the issue. The issue is highlighted in white and the solution is clarified in red. This could also be an idea to take on board.

Freddie Davison / Cybernetic Self Research

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/d7/9d/ec/d79dec8f3d9859b7b3a6c9b91b8b4b5e.jpg

Browsing through Pinterest for inspiration for my project, I stumbled upon this cleaver design. The design illustrates the dangers of the internet and social media, communicating the message 'In the hands of a cybercriminal, a computer is a weapon'. I have chosen this poster to research, because the overall concept relates to my project, raising awareness of false perception and the danger of connecting with anonymous profiles online.

The overall composition of this poster design is minimalistc and creates a focus around the powerful image of the grenade with fragments in the appearance of keys from a keyboard. This communicates the message that a computer can be used as a weapon to hurt anyone, in the wrong hands. This image will have most likely been constructed In Photoshop or illustrator, programmes that I will use to create my image for my poster. In my design I want to draw focus to my illusive image that manipulates high and low spatial frequencies in vision to see two separate faces. Using a similar approach to composition as Freddie Davison, will help me achieve the best results. The smaller type will allow a greater canvas to enlarge my image to engage the interactive element of my design. My design has to be large enough to see the sharp linear image that high spatial frequencies in the eyes pic up.

In addition, the colour of the type against the background Freddie Davison uses has given me an idea for my project. At first, I did not see the phrase 'every click matters'. Maybe this is intentional by Freddie, he may want to capture his audience to notice the darker heading first, before reading the concluding phrase to sum up the design. However, I fin this clever and I could experiment with this idea to create a typographic title with text that can play with the eyes high and low spatial frequencies. This could perhaps be done similar to how I get the images to create the illusion, by having blurred darker text and sharper lighter text. The thin, sharp and light text you would not see from further away or squinting, you would only see the blurred darker text. But when you move closer it should hopefully become the reverse. Or maybe, to have words that appear darker in a sentence, so when you move further away of squint the light words disappear and only the darker words remain and could say something different about the image.

Cybernetic Self / Week 3 / Nick Deakin

Idea generation was the main theme of this lecture. I was shown a large variety of designs that relate to the internet and my topic of cybernetic self. It was interesting to see where designers have gone with this idea to communicate different messages and which media channels they have used to do so. I have selected designs that intrigued me the most and what I could take parts from for my own research and elements for my project.


Rafa Alvarez

I was introduced to a design by Rafa Alvarez that illustrates the false perception that can be seen through the camera of a Skype user. It is a design that celebrates Skype's anniversary and how it positively impacts relationships. You can see in the illustration a girl has tidied up her room to connect with her partner through her tablets camera. The light of the screen illuminates the room in a pink colour to portray the emotion of love and reveals the clean and tidy part of the room. This illustrates, the ability to connect through Skype not only blossoms a relationship, it helps people get their lifes together and improves how people present themselves. This relates to my cybernetic self project and relates to the theme Network Self. If reflects the idea of false perception and what you see through the internet is sometimes not what it actually seems. Sometimes it can be for the worse, with anonymous profiles pretending to be someone else.


Kessels Kramer / Budget Hotel

Hans Brinker Budget Hotel - *Not Included from KesselsKramer on Vimeo.

http://www.kesselskramer.com/system/files/112013/5280fe3ce60d8137ab0000c4/fancybox/ecofriendly_elevator.jpg?1384185432

http://www.kesselskramer.com/system/files/112013/5280fe50e60d8137ab0000c5/fancybox/posters4-1_copy.jpg?1384185433

I was shown the Kessels Kramer's advertising designs of Hans Brinker Budget Hotel and how they used social media as a platform to vastly distribute the ironic ideology behind the design. Hans Brinker Budget Hotel is a really bad hotel and the advertising Kessels Kramer has used is blatantly honest, stripping away all of the luxury items and having only the bare essentials remaining, at a push. For such a bad hotel, it actually does really well and brings in quite a few guests. It is because the designs are unorthodox and intriguing it has gone viral after being photographed and shared through social media. This intrigues a large amount of people who want to see what the hotel is actually like to stay and people all over the world come to visit this ironically iconic place. I chose these posters to represent the advertising of budget hotel. Along with the whole ironic ideology behind these posters, I love the composition of the type and image. The strong white and green type impact powerfully on your eyes, against the grey-scale background. The colour of the environmentally friendly green and white appear all clean and crisp, however the grey-scale background creates the impression of gloom, filth and an unsanitary way of living. The way the type and image are laid out could be an idea of how I could build my final design for Cybernetic Self.


Instaboobs / Joan Cornella

This short animation by Joan Cornella is a demonstration of false perception on Instagram and the tricks people play to get attention. In an unrealistic manner Joan creates cartoons to exaggerate the things people do to get attention. By pretending to have what the majority perceive as attractive when browsing through social media to gain likes on a post. In the cartoon, the result at the other side of the post ended up being a man, pretending to have features of a woman in short snaps of himself. Linking this to my project, the animation is a good way to illustrate the false perception on social media and is a clean and comedic way to illustrate the dangers of how criminals can use anonymous profiles to engage victims to fall for these tricks.


Avant garde design



Basically, this video is about how to generate ideas and make out of the ordinary designs, in an unorthodox way. The idea behind Avant-Garde design divides the design world into two areas, above the couch and below the couch. Above the couch design is made to be co-modified and is primarily and economic vehicle for the designer and the collector, often the overall concluded and refined product. Below the couch resists co-modification through its aesthetic appearance and is often referred to the base and the ugly side to the design. From what I make of this video, the below the couch area encourages a bizarre way of working at the development stage of a design to create intriguing designs that challenge the norm. I believe I have been shown this to express, if there was ever a time to be radically experimental, it would be now.

Cybernetic Self #2 / Nick Deakin

People are social media and it has created a whole new lease of life people. On social media people no longer feel held back by boundaries and freely express themselves by sharing funny vines or liking certain posts and videos. The internet has grown to become a huge opportunity factory. The internet has made everything more accessible, tools for creation, contacts, distribution and the ease to have your own voice out there to be heard. Also, the internet has been redefined as a network of people. It encourages risk, pushed boundaries, create mutual respect, enhances creativity and connects people from different backgrounds.

We Are Internet - Episode 1: WTF is the internet? from Internet Age Media on Vimeo.

Next, I learnt where the word cybernetics originates. It is the Greek meaning for 'the art of steering' and the idea of having a goal and taking action to achieve that goal. Feedback is a word that was brought about because of cybernetics, knowing whether or not you have achieved your goal or are getting closer to it required some feedback. All living intelligence have the property of cybernetics to see a goal and try to move towards that goal, if you get knocked off course towards that goal, you notice and correct yourself to get back on path. This is all cybernetics in your brain to detect stimulus's and feedback is sent to the brain to respond to a certain stimulus. It is also a survival trait. For example, if you hold your hand off of a hot flame, cybernetics send a stimulus to your brain to create a reflex to pull your hand away immediately.



There are many forms of cybernetics, biological, technological, social and many more. Basically, all systems that have goals. From what i have learnt cybernetics is almost everything, in terms of interaction. For example, me writing this blog post is applying cybernetics. I interact, research, learn, write, explain what I have learnt to achieve a goal. Combining both technological and human cybernetics, going back and forth to work and improve my understanding and knowledge around the subject I am studying.

All in all, my understanding of cybernetics has completely changed from when I entered the lecture. Before, I believed it was completely technological and I thought cybernetics was how circuits connect and create computers and other electrical machinery. Which it is, but there is so much more to it. I have learnt it is all systems that achieve a goal. If you think about it, lots of cybernetics took place in the lecture I was just in. The presentation was cybernetics, the videos was cybernetics, learning from these are cybernetics, me taking notes was cybernetics, when I got quite warm in the room and had to take my jacket off was biological cybernetics and so on.

InSync Plus / Project research / Cybernetic Self

http://www.impawards.com/1997/posters/face_off_ver3.jpg

InSync Plus,  a leading creative force in film marketing for over 20 years, have photographed the faces of John Travolta and Nickolas Cage and have merged them together in a creative composition. Expressing an illusive and mysterious image. Most likely, the team of InSync Plus will have used Photoshop to create the combined transparent faces and illustrator to create the type for the design. The overall composition of this poster design relates to my idea and the direction i have in mind for my own poster, illustrating the dangers of social media and the anonymous profiles who try to manipulate you into their devious activities.

The black background and grey-scale faces express the nature of crime within this film. Nicolas Cage acts a terrorist and John Travolta an FBI agent and the transparent blend of the faces create the impression they are both in each others heads playing with emotions and thoughts as the chase to lock Nicolas Cage's character up proceeds throughout the film. This whole aura around the design is a fascinating concept to relate to my cybernetic self project. I will take photographs of people or ask permission to gather faces off of Facebook profile pictures, to create a illusive blend of faces. I will attempt to communicate an illusive impression of merged profile pictures to express the danger of anonymous users on social media, they might not be who they seem on their profile. I love the use of the black background and grey scale faces and will incorporate this into my designs. The use black and shades of grey instantly impact the viewer with a dark nature behind the design and this will help portray the message I an giving to social media users.

In addition, the use of type is effective in this design. It is placed at the bottom of the image and lets the image speak for itself to create a mystery. I will look to apply a similar technique as an idea for my design. I will have to investigate what colour and font to use to  connect with my audience. The white and red type on the Face Off poster stand out strong from the black background an creates a sense of threat and danger within the film. The white, to me represents the good, being John Travolta' character and the FBI and the red to represent the criminal side, being Nicolas cage's terrorist character. I will have to connect with the design in this way, maybe research the Fonts used in social media and the colours associated with social media. From what I know blue is the most common colour used in social media, however the colour blue may not express the severity of the threats on social media platforms.

Cyber Crime Research / Cybernetic Self

With the rapid rise of technology, the number of crimes has dramatically increased. Criminals are finding new ways to utilise social media to commit new and disturbing crimes that are difficult to police and protect you from. For my project I will create a design to illustrate these dangers and create an awareness of the crimes and avoid being a victim. Below, I will go through the most common social media crimes.

Scams
Scamming has been a crime for centuries, but the rise in technology and social media over the last decade has created a whole new market for criminals to scam. They create links to appear innocent at the side of web pages, share scams through social media and appear as pop up pages. Each promising what most people desire and often catch the ones looking for fortune and wealth. The scams appear all clean and safe, asking for credit card details and social security number to grant their false promise. Many people thinks scams are easy to spot, but even the most savvy internet user has to be switched on to avoid falling for the traps. To avoid this, research, call, ask questions of social media or friends to stay safe and raise awareness.

Cyber-bullying
Cyber-bullying is a new crime that has occurred over the last decade. This crime involves hacking or password and identity theft and this can be punishable under state and federal law. Teenagers are the most common victims and cyber-bullying through social media has often caused teenagers to self harm and suicide. serious cases like this can result in serious criminal charges. If adults engage in cyber-bullying it is called cyber-harassment or cyber-stalking and can also result is serious charges depending on the severity of the situation.

Stalking
Cyber-stalking is a common offence on social media sites and can result in serious charges in some cases. It entails harassing a person with messages, written threats and other forms of persistent threatening behaviour that endangers the recipients safety. Although Cyber-stalking is joked about if people are looking at other peoples social media accounts, it is a legitimate cause of concern in some cases. People who cyber stalk often strive towards actually venturing outside to stalk the victim and endangering them in not treated seriously.

Robbery
Social media these days people share all sorts of personal information, unaware of real world threats who might actually use this information to locate and steal. It doesn't take much to find out where someone lives, goes to school, works, shops, hangs out and more if you make that information readily available on social media. especially, if you use Facebook’s check-in or Google Maps feature, you could be in a bit of trouble if a certain robber is paying attention. So, best way to avoid this is to basically give out less personal information on your social media sites and posts.

Identity theft
Similar to the dangers of robbery, the ease of gathering personal information from users social media accounts provides an opportunity for criminals to steal user identities. The criminals hack into users accounts and emails and retrieve information to access personal and bank details, taking everything and leaving you in the dumps. Again, protect yourself by not including personal information that criminals can interpret to hack the account.

Defamation
This is when an individual communicates a false statement to a third party that paints another individual or entity in a negative light. Social media makes Defamatory statements scarily easy. The exposure to social media makes posts and statements well documented and many people see and hear what to have complaint, laughed, misunderstood and more. These posts can be twisted and businesses or individuals will be harmed by the defamatory statement and peruse legal obligations. To stay protected from this, be careful what you say on social media. Word spreads fast.

Harassment
Harassment happens all the time on social media. From annoying people to assault and sexual threats. With the rise of social media harassment has increased dramatically, with sexual predators and sex-offenders targeting young unaware people to indulge in their disturbing activities. These criminals often discuise them selves as teenagers and students, sending inappropriate and harassing messages to lure their victims and endangering their safety.

Seminar 2 / 4th Oct / Tracy Lannon / Idea 4

I came out of this seminar with a new idea and got me thinking about my own and where I could take it, so it was very useful. We all printed out an A4 sheet of paper with images that relate and express our ideas and stuck them on the wall beside our group to observe and discuss.

It was again interesting to see where everyone was at with their work and listen to their thought processes. I was intrigued by someone in my groups take on autopoiesis and how we take everything in from our technological environment. We constantly check social media, watch TV, YouTube and more digital external devices that program us to who we are. While this subject was being talked about ideas flew into my mind about how to portray autopoiesis.

http://cdn.skim.gs/image/upload/v1456337503/msi/preschooler-with-magnifine-glass_ucryuj.jpg

An eye seeking and learning their autopoiesis from an environment of Facebook, YouTube, twitter, etc could be positive and negative. I could communicate this by having a photograph or outline of a person looking through a magnifying glass, or maybe their phone as their phone can represent a magnifying glass to the world of internet. With the icons of the various social media apps and other forms of digital media that can fill the persons mind with both good and bad things. It would be good to find out the positives and negatives of using social media and to discover a way to communicate this through the idea discussed above.

http://logicaloperations.com/media/uploads/fluent/477147807_-_trimmed.jpg

The image has given me a good idea of how I could potentially communicate how social media and other technologies have effected our autopoiesis. linking it with the idea above I could have the outline of a person looking at their phone with their eyes and to communicate a journey of how the technologies flow through the phone, through the eyes and into the person creating their autopoiesis. To illustrate this I could have logos and icons of social media apps and other digital influences that flow into the phone. Potentially, I could communicate how it effects us negatively or positively, or a mix and have the logos and icons sat within the outline of the person to represent learnt autopoiesis.

Cybernetic Self Research / Idea 3

https://ifscarscouldtalk.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/the-story-comes-to-life.jpg?w=500

The ideology behind this image can relate to how human interaction with technology has opened up our world and allows us to do and accomplish all kinds of things. Thus, relating to the Cybernetic Self theme sociomaterial. The open book with the extruding image represents how a book opens up the readers imagination. I can relate this to my project by expressing how a computer screen can connect to the entire world and take you to all kinds of places. It allows you to do anything and be anything. I just have to find a way to communicate this in a poster.

I have the idea to take a picture of a person on their computer or laptop in their room and behind their monitor their rooms walls open with a beam of light entering the dark room and create a gateway to anywhere in the world. Or to have the screen protruding certain things to portray the idea that a world of opportunity has opened, by turning on the computer. Tools I could use to create this idea would be, Photoshop, illustrator and a camera to take the photos.

In addition I would include type to reinforce the poster design and fully communicate the message. A short slogan or catchy phrase would be best, even a single word to engage the viewer. Connect, discover, opportunity are a sample of words that will create a sense of wonder alongside the poster. This could be an opportunity to take forward towards my final outcome and an interesting challenge. I would have to find locations where I could take photographs to represent the connecting world that would be revealed through the wall, as the computer opens up the world.

Cybernetic Self Research / Idea 2

While browsing through my Facebook news feed I stumbled upon an interesting concept of how alcohol effects your vision and how perceptions of people can change. I have picked this out because, when I saw this image I immediately mad connections to my Cybernetic self project. This image can relate to the false identity of fraudsters online and the illusive miss perception of the two faces expresses the criminal behind the false profile picture, or other visual representation of them-self.

Our eyes detect resolutions of both high spatial frequencies and low ones. Basically, high spatial frequencies are sharp lines and low ones are blurred shapes. By blending the high frequencies of one image with the low frequencies of the other image, both in good composition with one another by connecting the eyes at the same level, creates an image that changes over distance and time. We initially see the blurred face within the first 30 milliseconds and the sharper image around 100 milliseconds as our eyes begin to focus on the detail. This also works over distance. our eyes detect less detail when further away from the subject but as we get closer we can detect the sharper lines and detail. I have researched this information from the website below.
https://www.wired.com/2009/04/st-alphageek-5/

https://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/archive/images/article/magazine/1705/st_alphageek_f.jpg

Here is another good example of our double vision creating miss-perception. Move further away or squint and you see Marilyn Monroe or move closer and focus, you will see Einstein.

Hopefully, I could recreate something similar by taking pictures of peoples faces and use them to manipulate in Photoshop. Blur and transparency tools could create the high and low spatial frequency images and to then layer the images in accordance to make the eyes line up, creating the focal point of the image. I would then have to add a digital aspect to the design to make the outcome relate to the Cybernetic Self and Network Self theme. Maybe framed with a computer screen, social networking page, digital code and more computerised aspects to make the appropriate connections.

In addition, using of type would work a treat to effectively communicate the message. Slogans that express the danger and ask the question, do you know who you are talking to, will help the design raise awareness of the criminals who use social network sites to cause harm and hopefully reduce the number of cases this is happening. I am defiantly going to peruse this idea, it looks like it would be a fun challenge to create and a clever way to communicate the message of false identity online. The design would communicate best as a printed poster to advertise, maybe a series of posters with different faces to illustrate the different kinds of frauds who you can be manipulated by online.

Cybernetic self research / Idea 1

http://www.minimalisti.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Best-scary-Halloween-makeup-ideas-zipper-face-blood-makeup.jpg

This horrifying image is a Halloween optical illusion makeup tutorial. I picked out this image from a whole website of scary Halloween optical illusions, as it struck me as a potential idea I could direct towards my Cybernetic Self project. The unzipped face reveal instantly grabbed my attention. I could manipulate this concept to portray a face hiding behind a face, relating to the idea of false identity on social media.

You never know the true identity of a stranger online and this zip illusion is a fantastic way to portray this danger. People can be hiding behind profile pictures of others to seek who they desire and encourage them to indulge in their mislead activities. To express this I could reveal the face of someone else behind the face being zipped away. This would relate to, stripping away the profile picture to reveal the true identity.

Further more, this idea would develop into an advertising poster to illustrate the dangers to social media users who connect with new people online. It would be a warning to everyone, but the most targeted victims are the younger generation who are seeking companionship and are unaware of the real world and the fraudsters with in it. A high proportion of the victims targeted were aged under 30 at 33% and 9% under 20. Acts of fraud included, money investment fraud, paedophiles, physical abuse and other criminal activities. The link to this information is seen below.
https://suffolktradingstandards.wordpress.com/2016/08/22/fraudsters-are-using-social-media-and-apps-to-target-younger-generations/

http://www.minimalisti.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Best-scary-Halloween-makeup-ideas-zipper-face-blood-makeup

Tools I could use to make this design could be illustrator and Photoshop to layer, cut and merge the two faces and the unzipped zip. I would take photographs of people and create a series of posters, each with different face reveals to show the variety of criminals who commit this offence. The inclusion of type to a design like this would be vital to complete the message being communicated. I would create a slogan to illustrate the point at hand such as, who are you talking to, is it really him/her, who is on the other side, etc.