What is the formula for our attention?

Have you noticed how TV shows pause for commercials during intense scenes. Have you paid attention to the effectiveness of laugh track's and background on your moods? Have you noticed the volume on your TV change during shows?

These questions and many more could be asked to address curiosities about how our attention is drawn and kept, and how our moods are manipulated by the flickering lights and sounds generated by that box in a our family rooms. By understanding this we can learn more about who we are, how we communicate, and how others perceive us. Such interests are those of a good designer.

Therefore, I would like you to design a graph which plots the sequencing of TV programming.

1. Select a favorite show, one you are familiar with.

2. Set up a graph which sets time for one axis, and plot changes on the other. Come up with your own value system to chart the intensity, presence, or absence of any particular element.

3. Separately from the graph make note of colour schemes in scenes. For example, when two people are in a scene, what is the colour relationship of their clothing. How about with three or four people? If you see patterns, why do you think such patterns are used

4. Compare notes in teams of 3 to see if there is a common formula for all shows. In these groups aim to:

• Hypothesize as to what the goal is of such organizational method for TV producers.
• Discover.... Are there any common devices used to effect our moods?

5. In your journals, identify any particular observations you made or any thing you learned through this assignment.