Research Critique – Videofreex

The documentation was shown in a different way just like you are watching a real documentation of the olden days. I was surprise by the amount of video they took. It is very well documented just like showing us everything about them since they started. As compare to present days everything can be video and document easily, I was quite ashamed that with these easily accessible devices I should have created a more detail documentation of my work process.

Videofreex being the first to go out to film was another facts that surprise me! Although there are television channels available during that time, they are only shows and news which did not broadcast what is happening around them. Videofreex did something that out of the norm taking the camera out to shoot for example the Woman Liberation rally. Its one of the event that leave a deep impression in me, some woman were shouting against mans and there was a lot happening during that time. In the documentation, they said that

It is important to go there where history are being made

which I strongly agrees and it speaks about how I feel towards the Woman Liberation rally. It is like in the present days, we only could have a glimpse of the olden days from the limited amount of images or from our grandparents stories. Whereas, while watching the documentation it sort of take me back to the olden days in real time. The video clips provide me information of how they speaks, what their fashion is like and little details that cannot be said by a person. Stories are good too, nevertheless the picture we get was solely by our imagination. However, its a two different experience.

I am sure envious that they can be so brave in chasing what they believe in and being confident about it. Especially when it comes to money they have been through a lot of limitation and difficulty. On the another hand, I feel that they have gain a lot as well. Being able to capture the history personally I am sure its a once in a life time experience. Moreover, they even build the connectivity to broadcast on television. They are so resourceful even at that time when Google are still not their best friend. It reminds me of that day we tried using Facebook live was so much easier as compare to them.

Doing what the mainstream television channel was not doing, they firmly believe something can be done. There was once in the documentation they saw some other people was videoing the situation and they feel excited about it too. I feel it could be also an encouragement to them during that time because there is also someone who are similar like them. I am also sure that what they are doing would inspire lots of people. In later part of the documentation, they reveal that they also tired many experimental ways! Like using mirroring effects, live call in and hosting unconventional topics. In comparison to the shows that air in the present days I feel videofreex had change the way how television programme flow made during their era where their methods were used in the present. Their creativity sure break the old rules and created a new perspective to the media world.

The language of media is everybody’s language. Set up a camera and you can speak to the world!

They ended with quote above which I can relate with. When videos are images that flashing, even if we do not understand their language spoken we would still get some ideas of what it is showing. At least roughly what the topic is about. Nowadays social media are widely use and posting of photos or video are just as normal. What we are posting are also speaking to the world in a subtle way. Just like how one photos/video can be famous in one night by sharing from the viewers where it goes viral!

RESPONSE: Chapter 5 Jan Chipchase, Hidden In Plain Sight: How To Create Extraordinary Products For Tomorrow’s Customers.

Calibrating Your Cultural Compass 

This week readings discuss about the importance of understanding people from their daily life using the technique called rapid cultural calibration that would aid in the design research. The technique range from observing the city to travelling by their public transport to the airports, community hubs and signs in that place. All those would give us clues to the local culture and also being able to experience it ourselves will give us insight of what is beneath the surface.

Recalling my own personal experience a few years back, I was traveling in Melbourne, Australia where the subway broke down during the rush hours early in the morning. During that time, it was the first time I encounter break down in public transport (that time our MRT are still working perfectly fine). The locals act very different from us Singaporean. They look clam and just took alternative path to their destinations. That really surprise me, its so clam that I only realise the train breaks down when I reached the station. There were no chaotic situation or shows of unhappiness. In comparison, maybe we Singaporean are too used to the efficiency we used to have and took it for granted. Or maybe the train have broke down frequently in Melbourne that the commuters have used to travel by alternative route.  It is just like how we Singaporeans are less frustrated now during the break downs. Just my two cents. However, how we reacted to the situation definitely shows a lot about our culture. Like I have mention we live in a very efficient country whereas in Melbourne I feel they are more flexible in this way.

It is very interesting that Jan Chipchase mention that McDonald tailored it’s brand to so many country, from their decor to food menus. I have also seen the packaging indication for vegetarian food. As compare to Singapore, in New Zealand there are a lot more people who has allergies namely, peanuts, gluten and so on or other dietary requirements. The restaurants there are more careful and flexible about these requirements. In Singapore gluten free restaurants are very limited, however, there are more and more restaurants that provides gluten free, vegetarian or special dietary requirement options.

Questions:

  1. Is there more companies either in Singapore or overseas sees the importance of understanding the user would help in designing their products? As this research would be costly for the company and I am thinking its a very new concept that might not be adopt in the markets especially in Singapore where companies are more conventional.
  2. I still not quite understand about Capturing the Platzgeist. From my understanding, it was capturing the environment whether is it sounds, images or colours would help to trigger our sensory memories? If we incorporate that into the product or installation will it helps leave a more impactful impression to the user? Is it because we will remember clearly how we feel or sense then the content itself?

RESPONSE: Chapter 1 of The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norm

 The Psychopathology of Everyday Things

The reading was interesting where Donald touch on the simple things and elaborate on the process of how we interact with it through discoverability and understanding. Taking one example of the ADM glass door that located beside the office on level one, it is one of the Norman doors. I was nodding internally while reading the first few paragraph about why a simple door can be so complicated. Although this is my third year in ADM, at times I still get confuse about the direction of opening that glass door. I came up a way to differentiate the direction through the magnetic system on top, that was the culprit which only allow the door to open from one direction. Whenever I am confused I look up to see which direction I am standing and act accordingly.

There is a part where Donald talks about the engineers think that they understand people however, they neglected the part where humans are complex. Similarly, I feel its comparable when designer/artist created an art piece that display in the museum or a public art. Most of the people don’t really understand it especially for abstract art unless they read the rationale behind it. In later part of the readings mentioned about the signifiers, probably incorporate signifiers into the art piece would makes people able to relate more and understand more. Nonetheless, one can still say that art is an expression from the artist, probably it solely depends on which perspective we view.

I am also amazed that part where simple details such as visible affordance can makes a big difference to the user. It a very subtle detail that I feel I did not realise until I read this reading. We all did it subconsciously just like the handle of cups, it is so natural to hold it by the handle.

Feedback reminds me of the car seats at the front will start beeping annoyingly when it senses that you are sitting on it without fastening the seatbelt. The annoying beeping sound actually works for me as I was really annoyed by the sound so I rather put on the seat belt instead. Perhaps some frustration in some case are exceptions.

Lastly, I also agree that part where each discipline would have their own constrains and importance. When all the teams work together would produce a greater product as compare to a team that did not work with others. It will greatly save the company lot trouble when each team talks about their problem and of course there is gain and losses. Yet compromise from each other will come to a conclusion that satisfy every team!

 

Questions

  1. How do we determine whether this is a good product/design when all of us come from a different culture and upbringing? As in we can’t probably please everyone and there are so many people in the world.
  2. As for system image, will a graphical illustration will communicate better than a written instruction? I was thinking that the system image was sort of an instruction menu for users to find out how to operate the product.

 

 

Artistic alter ego: National Geographic photographer

This is really for my core module ? Artistic alter ego: I bought my first dslr which also the one I am using now in 2011. It started with pure interest in photography until my working holiday trip in New Zealand. I really like to capture moments and places I go which give me the instant satisfaction like "YES! This photo is good." I aspire to be a National Geographic photographer. Its a long term goal that I am still trying to explore and achieve!

Posted by Su Hwee Lim on Wednesday, 23 August 2017

Artistic alter ego:

I bought my first dslr which also the one I am using now in 2011. It started with pure interest in photography until my working holiday trip in New Zealand. I really like to capture moments and places I go which give me the instant satisfaction like “YES! This photo is good.” The sense of satisfaction drive me further wanting to capture more interesting photos that tells a story or even giving a different perspective about life. The images we took also can be powerful, I came across one of the most iconic images that was taken in the Vietnam War by Eddie Adams who captured a officer execute a prisoner on street. He won a prize for capturing this, however the photo was view differently from the actual story as a result the officer life was ruin because of this image.

Since then I aspire to be a National Geographic photographer. Its a long term goal that I am still trying to explore and achieve! I feel there is a lot of things can be shown through photography that helps the viewer to relate more. Moreover, knowing the background story would deepen the viewer’s understanding and sometimes provoke self-reflection and thinking.

 

Behind the scene

 

In the livestream, I wanted to portray that I am in the wild to capturing photograph of the wild animal. Since the steaming is live must as well film it like a National Geographic channel! The small little yellow rectangular was to mimic logo from their youtube videos. I had a hard time thinking how to actually keep it on that corner until I found this wire that I tie it to my selfie stick.

the screenshot of real National Geographic youtube.

The sound of lion was also played on the background add on to mimic wildlife. It was film at Japanese Garden where there is small hill and I was literally running on the slope! I was quite lucky that I did a trial test before the actual filming. The words that I wrote that appear on Facebook livestream recording was a flip image so the actual props I wrote it on a translucent paper and flip. 

Overall, I enjoyed the process even though I was a little lost in the beginning. I face many challenges during the filming like initially the ending of National Geographic logo should be dropping in and I will be within the yellow rectangle taking photos. (ending with a more cool way) However there are many constrain such as the wind was keep blowing and because of that my props are falling apart. Still, I really like the outcome although is not perfect but imperfections makes it more natural. I had some fun too!

Real Time Aggregation

 

Okay so is for one of my core module ??? night time in adm!

Posted by Su Hwee Lim on Thursday, 17 August 2017

 Reflection

This real time aggregation caught me by surprise. No plans or any idea what do I need to say or do in this live video recording on Facebook. Facebook is a social media that include my close friends, family and lastly acquaintance which are those I hope they doesn’t see it. (although is not possible LOL) This is also the first time I try streaming of myself LIVE.

Once the video started, an idea actually pop up in my mind. “At this hour who else is still in school” which I wanted to know if there is anyone staying back and what they are doing. I was quite nervous at first and accidentally knock on to my friend’s head. However I started off introducing this video are for one of my core modules and I feel less tense when I saw my close friends was watching! There is a few conversation in between the 15 min video, they communicate with me by leaving a comment. I get carried away after awhile when I was walking around the school introducing where I am going, where is this place and who are those people I met along the way.

During the live streaming, I constantly remind myself to speak in English just in case there is any viewer who do not understand Chinese. I also feel the whole class got more interactions during this project as compare to before. Just when the camera is on, it somehow weaken the ice and barrier that we had, saying hello to each other live streams. It a kind of bonding when everybody is doing something together.

Like I feel that Interactive media class has the lesser interaction with our classmates as compare to other majors. They would stay in dungeon or carve wood together but we seems a little scattered around. Its also understandable that due to our course nature, our project is very different from each other, we code different things which is not something we can help each other easily. Moreover most of us are new to this course so most of our time spends on coding and solving our project problem.

The effects are also something interesting to play with. Sometimes the face detection feature just look funny to me and some effect also helps to beautify the whole scene. It even can be a tool to help you to hide yourself from the camera for awhile. I just feel a bit more at ease when there is effects because it just looks good! However after awhile I got bored at it and I keep switch back or changes to other effects.

In conclusion, its really interesting when we put all the video together and see what others was doing as it happen simultaneously. The live streams shows a different view point from each of us probably like a multi dimensional streaming. We also get to laugh at some of the videos like the pink lama was appearing everywhere and someone also tries to imitate the lama voice. Although this is my first time doing live stream, many things can be plan or be better but I really like how it is so natural and impromptu. The feeling and experience would not be the same if we all planned out before hand. We also can see different sides of our classmates and subtly learn about them through their video from talkative ones to the just filming ones. Indirectly this project also creates a topic between ourselves. Along the way we also helped each other as probably this is all our first time using the live function on Facebook. The overall experience was very interesting although I was quite panic at first, I felt this project bonded our class a little more and we all had fun!