Mnemosyne’s Scent

 

 

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This post will be a separate post from my group submission ‘subjective memory’, which will include works that include individual submission such as the mind map, 3D model, plastic model, etc.

 

 

OSS Thread Progression :

1. Composition Of 3D Model & Consultation
2. Selection Of Scent
3. Mindmap
4. Research (Mnemonic Devices, Sculptures/Works Related To This Activity)
5. Composition of Individual Plastic Model & Consultation

 

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Composition of 3D Models & Consultation – 1st Round

 

Elevation and Plan View

 

Red : Dominant
Green : Sub Dominant
Blue : Sub Ordinate

 

Right side – Elevation View : Left side – Plan View

 

1st Consultation

1. Suggested loop, “it’s the same!”. so I have to avoid it
2. My second composition has no breathing space, therefore difficult to tell which one is D, Sd, and SO. Need to balance moment of activity and breathing space, basically, unclutter and make the composition minimal and still aesthetically dynamic and pleasing, such that my audience can still see the D, SD and SO
3. Avoid autonomous composition, every element should interact with each, they shouldn’t stand alone.

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Composition of 3D Models & Consultation – 2nd Round

 

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Elevation and Plan View 2

 

Red : Dominant
Green : Sub Dominant
Blue : Sub Ordinate

 

Right side – Elevation View : Left side – Plan View

 

2nd Consultation

1. The composition is much better now, and the only thing I can improve is to taper off the ends to create an illusion of perspectives.
2. Some other is the minor details such as the width can be explored to make the composition more interesting

 

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Scent Selection

 

Round 1: Selection Of Scent

For lesson 1, we are tasked to bring a pleasant and unpleasant smell that represent a significant part of our lives. For me, I bought a washed pants and a spray mount.

Washed pants: Reminds me a significant moment in life where I smell my wash pants for whatever reason (which I can’t remember why already), I had this rush of a sense of gratitude, and felt that my life is generally so much better than many people. even though there are down moments in life. I can remember clearly that during why I gain such an epiphany because I was having this sense of narrow tunnel vision, seeing only the negative side of life where I am always lacking something.

Spray mount: Give me bad memories where firstly I just generally  hate that smell, and secondly, it reminds me of the never-ending workload I am having in ADM

 

Round 2: Selection Of Scent

After smelling my other classmate scent, I decided to change my choice of scent because there are is a scent that brings about a more significant and stronger memory than my current selection.

In the end, I choose Coffee that Hui En regards as unpleasant smell for my pleasant smell. On the other hand,  there wasn’t any particular choice of smell that evokes any negative memory I had in life.

However on that same day itself, I came across the smell of fried chicken wing at a western cuisine store at my house nearby Kopitiam, a surge of bad memory of my past binge eating disorder I had in life came into light within my own consciousness, and that eventually became my unpleasant smell.

Side Note: This is a really interesting exercise as now I realised how scent can be such a strong trigger of bringing memories back, when I pay close attention to my own thoughts, as compared to previously it had always been a subconscious thought that I never paid attention to.

 

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Finalise Choice Of Scent Selection

 

Coffee

 

Reminds me of all the struggles where I had to keep myself awake at night to complete my submission. It was a battle with myself, and many times I go into an unhealthy space of self-blame for a lack of discipline, or not waking up when the alarm rings, etc. I am also always on the verge of depression, but I always remind myself of my bigger purpose of why I studied design in the first place. At the end of every midnight session or being awake for 48 hours, I can see the result of my own productivity, where I manage to cover a huge chunk of my project effectively, which I couldn’t have done so if I choose to sleep in. Those are the moments that touched my heart and gave me this sense of fulfilment, that I have grown much more as a designer, and learn so much in the midst of all the struggle. What makes it even more memorable is the negative and positive feedback I gain through the critique session, that allows me to see how much I have grown and how much more I need to improve. With that, it truly makes the entire journey in life ever so interesting.

 

Fried Chicken Wing

 

Reminds me of how I suffered from binge eating disorder,  as well as my emotional pain to keep junk food out of my life. Each time when I resisted the temptation to eat junk food, my mind would go into a state of conflict where I try to fight off all the cravings I had. The resistance I had for food was tremendous and, tying in with my low self-esteem, I develop binge eating disorder. Those moments of internal battles in my mind, I can feel the contradicting forces of the desires and resistance I have for unhealthy food. Many moments my desire to eating unhealthily overwhelm me, which will result in me going on a crazy binge. At last, guilt, anxiety and regret filled me. This cycle kept on repeating till last month, as a result, I gain much weight and my body size increased, that most people could have probably noticed by now.

 

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Mindmap – Converting Intangibles To Tangibles

 

Coffee – Key Points Written:

Reminds me of the high of burning midnight oil and drinking coffee to keep myself awake and being productive where I could experience life more every day.  Some keywords takeaway (high, euphoric, smooth), I also see myself being an extremely driven person, so maybe the triangle could be sharp and straight pointing upwards?

 Some keywords takeaway (high, euphoric, smooth).I also see myself being an extremely driven person, so maybe the triangle could be sharp and straight pointing upwards?

I also see myself being an extremely driven person, so maybe the triangle could be sharp and straight pointing upwards?

What about hard work and struggles? How do I show it to the audience? Hmm, maybe I could do a spiral and converges with the sharp triangle, and the texture could be rough? Such that it shows the spiral is like me trying to concentrate and gradually wrap tightly into the composition because this indicates how I concentrate even better as time pass. The rough part indicate the struggles I face when trying to concentrate?

What made me so focus? Why do I keep on going even though it is so painful? What is the joy behind it? Maybe it is the light or hope that keeps me going. How do I show that through my composition?

 

 

Fried Chicken Wing – Key Points Written:

Remind me of the chaotic moment in my own mind, like there are so many contradictive thoughts that spiral around telling me what to do and what I should not do.

Maybe the sculpture could be compressed, suck inwards, spiral down?

It can also be tense, rough, random, unpredictable, conflicted?

 

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Final Outcome

 

 

I wanted to create the sculpture in a minimal manner, but bring out the main essence of my pain and pleasure?

Can I also create the difference using materials and colour? Maybe black and white.

To show the hope or light that keeps me working hard, I decided to use the concept of shadow, without using an actual light, such that it portrays my idea in the composition without the use of light

 

Consultation

The black part of the spiral could be more and show it to be more menacing.

The triangle upward and the spiral wrap of plastic can be burned together.

 

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Some Last Thoughts

On a less serious note: I will be updating better picture for my photoshoot, as I just bought a new prime lens and can’t wait to use it!  Next, I think I can try a different approach towards working my creative brief from now onwards. This time around I tried to focus on creating something different for my brief, which leads to the subjective memory concept. But could be played even more for the next brief. I also manage to cut down my workload and create a more effective design by creating more minimal yet effective concept. I used to work hard but didn’t work smart, that’s why I suffered from overload and extreme stress, but things have changed for the better for this project, which is good!

Back to the serious stuff: I need to pay more attention to the smallest details such as what my lecturer has mentioned about the menacing part of my concept, where I have to pay close attention to the accuracy of what I plan to present in my concept.  This is exceptionally important in product design as well because  every details count, which eventually will make or break a product.

 

 

-THE END-

 

DESIGN DIRECTION : PORTRAYING THE CONCEPT OF SUBJECTIVE MEMORY.

 

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To kick start this project, subjective memory is a topic that greatly interest both Joycelyn and I. After the first meet up where we basically brainstorm on ideas, we felt the urge to relate our group submission back to the original theme of this project, which is Mnemosyne Scent, and it is a cool idea to have Jewellery design & collection based off memories.

As such, we came to an agreement that to work on the theme of Subjective Memory. We both recognise the fact that for the same object, convey different meaning to each individuals, and both Jocelyn and I have very opposite and contrasting preference to the scent I love and hate. That gives us that ‘aha’ moment to work on a project that both of us can relate to, and also a theme that gives us space to explore and experiment around on how we should go about designing our wearable sculpture.

 

PROCESS OF PROJECT:

• Scent Identification Through Our Mindmap
• Finalising  Intangible Memories Into Tangible Forms
• Ideation
• Finalisation & Production

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Group Submission Theme :
SUBJECTIVE MEMORY

To Showcase Subjective Memory

1. We decided on 2 scents: Coffee and Fried Chicken Wing – Both of us have polar opposite memories of the 2 scents.

2.  Now Jocelyn will build the composition based on her love for friend chicken wings, while for me is my love for coffee.

3. Then we would construct a ‘response’ to each other forms as a way to show our differing views. The material we use for the response is aluminium, to establish a sense of ‘third party response’ which should have the mood conveyed in being cold, distant and neutral from us.

4.  We then use the concept of a grandfather’s clock as our aesthetics, to showcase the concept of time and memory. It’s function is to simply hang our jewellery as we wear it by our neck.

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Composition Analysis

 

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1st Design

 

 

Background Story :

Represent the bad memories evoke by the scent of fried chicken wings. Whenever I smelt the scent of fried chicken wing, it immediately reminds me of the period where I was dieting to get into shape. During that point in time, I was exercising daily, performing high intensity workout, swimming and also dancing. I also reduce a tremendous amount of calorie intake, that lead me to  developed binge eating disorder. It was due to my restriction towards all junk food. As time pass, the cravings grew tremendously that it made me find it even more difficult to fend off the thoughts of eating those junk food. Many of those moments are the worst feeling I ever felt in my dieting journey where I was constantly having an internal war to resist myself from breaking my diet.

Rationale Of Composition

As such, this composition is to showcase the chaotic internal battle within my own mind, which eventually would make me feel so mentally tired. In addition, it is not only just taxing, but also painful in my struggle to not break my diet. As such, I folded the composition in many random position, and eventually ends of. with straight line down, to showcase how I manage to calm my mind down. There are also sharp metal wires stick on the composition to showcase the texture of sharp painful feeling, which is the pain of constant struggle in my journey of dieting.

 

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2nd Design

 

Rationale Of Composition

This shows the personal journey of Jocelyn within the sculpture itself. The flat piece of plastic showcase how when she first drink coffee, there is this sense if sweetness that she personally find it neutral. Eventually the bitter taste of the coffee would begin to dominate  her tastebuds. So there are some bubbles within the composition (can’t be seen here on the picture), is to showcase exactly how coffee begins its domination upon her tongue. Eventually, the bitterness kicks in even more, which leads to the twisted part of the composition. The bitterness would taste stronger and stronger, and as such the planes would become more and more twisted.

 

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3rd Design – Nicholas ‘s Replies

 

 

Rationale Of Composition

Jocelyn hated coffee, yet it is one of my favourite beverages of all time. Coffee gives me this ‘zap’ feeling and makes me feel awake to focus and do the task at hand. As such I created composition that represented the ‘zap’ image of focus and feeling fresh in this composition.

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4th Design – Jocelyn ‘s Replies

 

 

 

Rationale Of Composition

This composition is her reply to my bad memory I have towards Fried Chicken Wing, which is represented in a twirly composition that signify the good  of the chicken wing that  fill the environment.

 

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WHEN EVERYTHING MEETS :

SUBJECTIVE MEMORIES COLLECTION

 

JOCELYN GOOD MEMORIES + NICHOLAS BAD MEMORIES

 

JOCELYN BAD MEMORIES + NICHOLAS GOOD MEMORIES

 

 

Presentation Photos

 

 

THE END