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I tried to find the keywords from the quotes and find elements to represent them.

Quote 1

“Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” -Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

 

Keywords:

Light, happiness = light bulb, a little girl (represents hope), intricate background

Dark times = dark surroundings

 

At first I wanted to use daffodils to represent happiness, because in the flower language, daffodil means happiness. However my first draft turned out awful; there are just too many things going on, but they are not interacting with each other.

In the end, things are kept simple. The light bulb acts as a source of light or “hope”. Hope is also represented by the face of a little girl. As for the part “happiness can be found”, it implies that happiness is actually there, but we just can’t see it because it’s obscured by the darkness. Hence happiness can be represented by the intricate background that is slowly revealed by the light. In further distance, it looks all black and dark due to the absence of light.

I put the light bulb off the center so it won’t be symmetrical. Also, the face of the girl inside the light bulb is facing to the right side, to lead our eyes into the dark void all around the canvas.

 

Final

 

 

 

Quote 2

“A paper girl for a paper town.” -Paper Towns (2015)

 

Keywords:

Paper = fake, mask, mirror

 

I used a lot of masks to represent a lot of “fake” people, which represent a “paper town”. As for the girl, I used a broken mirror as a face. It represents the idea of fakeness as a broken mirror can’t show exactly what’s reflected there.

At first I wanted to use the mirror as a background and use human figures looming at the girl to show a “paper town” but it didn’t turn out very nicely. Actually I even wanted to use the figure of Cara Delevigne (the main actress in the movie Paper Towns) as the girl but I couldn’t find a perfect picture of her. To save time tracing path, I purposely searched for pictures of girls with straight hair.

The whole canvas actually looked pretty symmetrical if not for the broken mirror. At first I considered adding something else, but I liked the idea of using the broken mirror to “break” the symmetry. I also didn’t want to make the canvas more jam-packed since there were a lot of masks as the background.

The symmetry also represented uniformity, which can be caused by herd mentality. Usually people tend to follow popular beliefs although that go against their own convictions. For me, that is the idea of “fakeness”.

 

Final

 

Quote 3

“Even miracles take a little time.” -Cinderella (1950)

 

Keywords:

Miracle = butterfly

Time = hourglass, clocks

 

I represented miracles with a butterfly, since just like Cinderella who turned from rags to riches, beautiful butterflies were once ugly caterpillars too. The change or the rebirth is representative of the “miracle”.

As for the time, I used two things; hourglass and clocks. Hourglass indicates more about a time that is running out. In a way, it is implying that in the end, if you wait long enough, something (in this case, a miracle) will happen.

The clocks leading to the butterfly were supposed to represent time passing and to lead us to the result of a miracle, which is the butterfly.

I wanted to put magical elements in it at first such as a magical wand or glittery effect, but it looked very childish, so I scrapped it off.

To make the picture looks more dynamic, I tilted the hourglass and put it slightly off the canvas. The clocks were also placed in a curve and were getting smaller to lead our eyes to the butterfly.

 

Final

 

 

Quote 4

“It’s not like there isn’t air inside.” -Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)

 

Keywords:

Inside = a confined space

Air = atmosphere, wind, sky

 

I used a jar to represent “inside”. I made it look transparent to make it the overall look more cohesive. Moreover, the transparency also suggests that there is actually a very thin line between “inside” and “outside” – it’s only the confines of walls. To emphasize the idea of “inside”, which is contrasting with “outside”, I put a scenery as a background.

The jar is slightly open and clouds are coming out from it. For me, the quote is saying that things that usually can be found outside can be found inside as well. Talking about air, I connect it with the sky, and hence the clouds.

Actually I did a pretty positive interpretation of this quote although it was meant to be mocking. Edmund, the character who said that quote, was arguing with his siblings. They told him to go play outside with them to get some air and he countered with that quote sarcastically.

I made the jar disproportionately bigger to make the comparison between the inside and the outside easier. I also put more things at the lower half (the jar and the scenery) to balance out the void at the top. I filled around two-thirds of the top part with clouds, leaving a completely empty void above the jar area, which should be roughly one-ninth of the canvas.

 

Final

 

 

 

 

Reflection

Somehow my gifs are not moving and I don’t know why.

I have no experience using Photoshop before, so it was a challenge (especially the tracing part – I am not patient enough sometimes). Moreover I had troubles interpreting the quotes and turning them into a cohesive picture. My interpretations are bits and pieces that did not speak to each other at all, resulting in a very disconnected picture. I have to admit, I really have a lot of problems with this project.

Even with these finalized pictures, although I am happy with them, I realize they’re far from perfect.

I hope I can use this as a stepping stone and for me to learn so I don’t repeat the same mistakes again.

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After we tackled rectilinear shapes, now we’re moving to curvilinear stuffs like cones, cylinders, and spheres. Cutting foams into those shapes isn’t easy at first (and it still isn’t until now, actually) but it gets better with practice.

Here are some of the models I created. Pardon the masking tapes, since all of them unexpectedly crumbled down after I brought them to class, probably due to me swinging the plastic bag they were in.

[Red – dominant, yellow – subdominant, blue – subordinate, green – correction]

Model 1

This model doesn’t actually have a story, I just tried putting things together. I like the proportion, since the roles are very clearly defined, although I could work with the presentation. I used a lot of masking tape since the tip of the cone came off unexpectedly.

The cylinder looks almost perpendicular to the base, and it couldn’t be seen from some angles due to the sphere as well. So the cylinder probably needs to be moved up and angled more to make the overall look more dynamic.

The apex of the cone also looks hidden by the sphere which is not good, since the apex is supposed to be the cone’s main appeal. The cone may need to be angled more so less of the apex is “hidden” by the sphere. As for now, the balance looks precarious, but maybe independent angle will work better.

Model 2

The idea for this model is “falling”. I wanted to make the whole thing looked like the sphere is going to fall and the cone is trying to catch it, and the cone now is going to fall too, so the cylinder is trying to catch it. The angle of the cylinder is independent, and the cone is just slightly floating.

As for the sizes, the sphere could be smaller. The cone could be longer and bigger to give it more weight. The cylinder could have a slightly smaller diameter, and maybe be thinner.

In order to incorporate more of the “falling” idea, the cone should be put at a more “dangerous” angle.

Model 3

For this one, the most important point is the cradled sphere. It looks somewhat like a child being “protected” and “cradled” (of course) by the “parents”, or the obviously bigger cylinder and cone in this situation. Moreover, the cone and cylinder are dependent while the sphere is nicely cradled in the middle, which emphasizes the idea of the two “parents” working together for the sake of the “child”.

Of course, the sphere needs to be slightly bigger because now it couldn’t be seen properly from some angles. But other than that, I feel that the proportions are quite okay. I just need to make sure that the cone and the cylinder don’t look like they’re perpendicular to each other.

 

Autumn

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/29343835041617544/

As for my final model, I based it off model 3. My word is “autumn” (which is what I wanted!) and I have done some research about that. Autumn is usually associated with maturity, and to me, autumn can also represent transition as it is somehow the transition season between the bright summer to cool winter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rough mindmap

 

At first I was thinking of using model 2 due to the idea of falling (and autumn = falling leaves, right?), but model 3 has a more interesting look and the story can somehow fit as well. Since model 3 has the idea of a “child being cradled“, I think we can relate that to “transition to maturity“. A child that needs to be taken care of at first before it can transition to maturity, to become like the parents.

Autumn can also represent “serenity” and “calmness“, and I think that can add to the story. The fact that the child/sphere is still being cradled despite the idea of wanting to mature shows that the parents/cone and sphere are not in a rush to push the child/sphere to mature.

As for the food, I haven’t thought of any yet. I did gather ideas about autumnal foods (such as persimmon, chestnut, apple, pear, mushroom, and pumpkin) but I still have no idea how I want to incorporate them into my model. I was thinking of using sturdy foods as the “parents” and soft one for the “child”.

In addition, as for the branch, since there is a void behind the sphere, maybe the branch should be behind and piercing through the cylinder, pointing fairly low. It can incorporate the idea of falling and strengthen the hold of the cylinder to the model, symbolizing the sturdiness of the cylinder. (I think the cylinder can be the dad, since it’s the dominant shape and looks sturdier, so the cone can be the mom.)

 

Final Model (Fail)

 

For me, this task is really challenging.

At first I had the idea of using pumpkin as the cylinder. That sounded good to me since pumpkin is sturdy, and it would represent my idea well. Besides, pumpkin has a vibrant orange color and is one of the most popular autumn fruit (because of Halloween).

Pumpkin (before cut). I marked the outline and I still messed up.

However, the pumpkin turned out to be harder than I expected. I cut myself by accident while cutting it. After I did cut it, I kept on making mistakes, so I kept trying to cut a little bit more to save the shape. In the end, it turned out to be really, really small that it might as well be the subdominant. Because of this unpredictability, I didn’t manage to complete my project in time. I was so disappointed.

 

 

 

 

It’s too flabby to be dependent.

Moreover, I planned to use apple crisps as the cone. I wanted to put them into a bowl and microwave them, but again, it didn’t turn out as expected. I guess I should’ve used an oven. The heat from the microwave wasn’t enough, so the apples just turned to be really flabby instead.

Flabby apple and pumpkin (after cut). Sigh.

 

 

I tried it again, but there wasn’t enough ingredients, time, nor patience. Hence I decided to just scrap the whole thing and come up with a new idea.

 

 

 

 

Final Model (Final)

 

 

This time, instead of focusing on the food, I changed my perspective and focused on the other aspects of autumn and on my original story idea (the family thing).

For the dominant (cylinder), I actually cut a cork board. The color and texture of the cork board made it look like a piece of ground, which fits the branch very well since the branch is piercing through the cylinder. Ground can represent the sturdiness of the “father”.

For the subdominant (cone), my idea came from the Latin word “cornucopia” which means “horn of plenty”. It is used to represent abundance in the old times, as it would be overflowed with flowers, fruits, and corn, which are the things usually harvested. The idea of “abundance” linked with “harvest”, and autumn is known as the season of harvest.

The cornucopia idea is implemented by making the cone looked like a basket (dark brown color) and things are spilling out of it (pumpkin seeds and chestnut). Both are autumnal food, and they also act as subordinates.

Cradled between the cone and the cylinder is the subordinate (sphere). I made it by putting together two chewy candies. I think candies are representative of Halloween. The candies are red in color since they are apple-flavored, and apple is one of the popular autumnal fruits. The red color gives highlight to the mainly brown look.

In relation to my “family” idea, I think chewy candy can represent children well since they still can be shaped (i.e. not stiff). Children still have the capacity to grow and change. That contrasted the cylinder/”dad” and the cone/”mom” which have fixed, sturdy shapes and more “mature” colors.

There is a huge void on top of the cylinder to counter the subordinates near the cone. I added a few dried leaves which could act as subdominants in order not to make the void too much. My idea is to combine the branch and dried leaves as one entity, so it looked as if the leaves fell to the ground from the branch.

Since most of my things are on the “plate”, I made the branch point upwards to balance the visual.

I learned a lot from this project, mainly because I have failed on the final model. I learned to be more flexible and not to dwell on mistakes for too long. It was a great learning experience.

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The phrase that I got from the Pandora’s box was “the golden rule”, or probably better known as the golden ratio.

It was hard for me to illustrate that since I had no idea about it before, so I conducted a research and tried to make something based on my interpretation.  In mathematics, two quantities are in the golden ratio if their ratio is the same as the ratio of their sum to the larger of the two quantities. So basically the fraction of the length of object A compared to object B should be similar to the fraction of the length of object B compared to object C – the golden rule is all about fractions.

Taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio

 

Based on that interpretation, I have made a few models. I tried to use all similarly-looking boxes in a model, so I can emphasize the comparison of the fractions more easily.

 

Model 1

[Red – dominant, blue – subdominant, yellow – subordinate, green line – principle axis]

I used all the slender, lean-looking boxes for this model.The sizes of the boxes were quite good in my opinion, since I can tell the different roles clearly.

The application of golden rule here is that the ratio between A to B is roughly the same compared to the ratio between B to C (refer to the picture), which is roughly 0.55.

However, the fraction is too great since now the length of B is more than half of C. Ideally B should be around one-third to half of C. Similar idea needs to be applied to A as well in regards to B.

At first, I feel that the positioning is okay since I can see all three boxes from every different angles. However, the placement is actually a mess; I completely disregard the rule of thirds . Ideally, the subdominant should be shifted a little bit more to the right and up so it is placed at the intersection of the imaginary grids. As for the subordinate, I should either move it to the left more or to the right.

 

 

Model 2

[Red – dominant, blue – subdominant, yellow – subordinate, green line – principle axis]

For this one, I used the slightly bulkier types of boxes. The roles of the boxes are quite clear although the subdominant and subordinate can be made smaller.

I used a slightly different calculation for this one. Instead of comparing the same length (i.e. longest axis for all), I compared the longer side of the dominant box to the shorter side of the subdominant box. Basically, instead of comparing B with D (see the picture above), I compared A with B instead. In this model, A and B roughly have the same length, and C and D also roughly have the same length.

However, due to that calculation, the non-dominant boxes become too big, so that comparison cannot work.

Again, I ignored the rule of thirds in the placement; they are almost there, but not quite. The subdominant box needs to be shifted up a little and the subordinate needs to be shifted left or right – preferably left, so it would be “protruding” out and easier to see from other angles.

 

 

Final Model

For the final model, I based it off the first model since the proportions for the second one don’t work well.

I was excited to make the final model with the actual materials because of the idea I had.

My idea is to make a puzzle box. To put it simply, in order to open the dominant box, the whole entity needs to be disassembled first (the non-dominant boxes have to be taken out first).

Material used: wood (covered with black paper and black marker), semi-transparent paper, wood (covered with bronze paper)

 

From one side, the subordinate box is hidden. The idea is that since the subordinate box acts as the “key” to unlocking the whole thing, I feel like it will give a more mysterious effect if the key isn’t immediately spotted.

The subdominant is semi-transparent to balance the opacity of the wooden boxes.

At first I wasn’t sure I could make an actual, working puzzle box (although technically, this one can’t work too…) so I was thinking of just using plain solid wood box as the dominant, then I would just wedge the other two boxes in. However by chance I found the required materials, so I just needed to do some sawing and covering-up (they still took me hours and they still don’t come out perfect. Sorry for bad crafting skills).

The so-called mechanism is just attaching things to the boxes. For the subdominant box not to be able to come out, I put a piece of wood as stopper. For the subordinate box to act like the key, I attach a hook to lock it with the subdominant box.

This is roughly how it works.

When the dominant box is opened, you can see reflective paper at the bottom of the box. I thought it was a great idea because the exterior of the box is all black (which gives a mysterious feeling), and reflective paper is somehow contrasting the all-black idea.

 

It’s not very obvious, but it’s reflective paper. Ignore the bad crafting skills.

 

It’s like human life! Life is mysterious and full of “puzzles” (pun intended) to solve. When you solve those “puzzles”, you can learn more about yourself… you can do some “self-reflection” (again, pun intended)!

 

Real-Life Application (besides a punny puzzle box): accessory box and fitting room.

 

 

In hindsight, I really enjoyed the process of doing this project (although it stressed me out as well). I learned a lot more about design, about how to keep things visually interesting and eye-catching. Instead of playing around with size and mass, the use of different materials or colors can also shift people’s attention.

I also learned that planning is an important part in designing in order not to waste time and material, although even when you finish designing something, that doesn’t mean you can’t make amendments to it. (Like my idea at first; I just made the basic parts first. I added the holes in the SD and the hook in the SO afterwards.)

I do realize that my crafting skill is very lacking, so I hope in the next assignments I can improve on that. Nevertheless, it had been a fun ride.

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Task 1: Object and Representation of Self

 

I have a lot of significant things in life: my collection of postcards, my Harry Potter book series, letters from my friends, my handmade friendship bracelets… but since most of them are back in my house in Indonesia, it actually saved me the trouble of choosing. (Not implying that this object is any less significant!) So the significant object that I chose is my Snorlax doll. His name is Hashtag.

 

Say hi, Hashtag.

Hashtag was given by my JC friends as a farewell gift. In JC, I had this group of friends, consisting of five people from different countries. However, we knew that after graduation, we are going to continue our studies in different countries. We knew that meeting up again would be difficult, so we prepared gifts for each other as a symbol of our friendship. They chose to buy a Snorlax doll for me since they knew I like Snorlax (I can relate a lot to its unwillingness to move) and dolls. For the name, we decided on a name together based on our inside joke.

 

Hashtag can’t hug back, his arms are too short. But that’s okay! I hug him because I love him, not because I was expecting a hug back.

The picture of Hashtag alone, for me, shows that it is just a normal doll – and it is interesting because it means a lot to me nonetheless. I have a lot of dolls, yet when I came to Singapore, I only brought Hashtag. I felt like Hashtag was enough to “accompany” me.

The picture of me hugging him illustrates my relations

hip with my friends. My friends know I like hugging people, and that’s why I like dolls or soft toys – they are huggable. For me, hugging makes me feel less lonely.

The close-up picture of Hashtag and I looking at each other, for me, symbolizes that relationship is a two-way thing – “It takes two to tango.” I relate to that phrase

“It takes two to tango”

a lot since when facing difficulties in my relationships, I always try to remember that there are two people involved in the relationship, and that I have to try looking from another person’s perspective as well.

Fortunately, I still stay in touch with this group of friends quite regularly. I hope we can meet again someday.

 

Task 2: My World

 

As for a significant place, I have to say I love looking at the sea.

 

The sea at night is incredibly calming. The lights seem to be so far away, distancing me from everything else.

 

The thing I like about the sea is the vastness. When I’m sad or tired, I like to stare at the sea. Listening to the gentle waves and smelling the slightly salty air – those feelings give me a sense of peace and calmness.

In a sense, the sky is also vast, and I love looking at the sky as well – but when I’m staring at the sea, when I look at the horizon, I always feel dwarfed. The sky and the sea, they both make the world seems like a huge place, and make me feel like a grain of sand. When I’m facing a lot of problems, I often go to the beach just to sit down and stare at the sea. The vastness always reminds me that my problems are temporary and insignificant in such a big world.

Not only that, I have a lot of memories about the sea; playing Frisbee inside the water with my friends, splashing water at my sister, playing orientation games, crossing the sea to Batam for my overseas project, and even canoeing during my Outward Bound.

Funny moments, happy moments, and even sad moments – I have experienced them all by the sea. That’s why it is such a significant place for me.

 

The sea is calming, but also mysterious – who knows what’s lurking in its depths? In a sense, the sea intrigues me as well.

This picture illustrates the idea of vastness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know I’m bad at taking photographs and my emotions may not come out as much as I want them, but I do hope they can convey some of my feelings.