research – Feligood

Diary of Behaviour: One Gadget-less Day

Day 1 – Sunday, 26 February 2017 (with gadgets)

630am. Woke up with the phone’s alarm.
700am. Showered, checked phone.
730am. Going to church by bus and MRT. Using phone to chat with my mom and friends, to browse random stuffs on google, to check time.
730 to 830am. In the bus & MRT, listening to the music in the phone.
830 to 1100am. During church, I was checking my whatsapp and Instagram for several times so I wouldn’t get bored. I took note of the sermon using my phone too. After church, I uploaded a picture to my Instagram.
1100am to 100pm. Strolling around Star Vista and Jurong Point, and chatting in Whatsapp at some points of time. I checked emails and made an online purchase. While shopping at Watson, I checked the online price of a product before deciding to buy it from Watson.
100 to 200pm. On my way back to the bus: listening to the music and chatting.
200 to 230pm. Lunch at Hall Canteen without using phone.
230 to 450pm. In my room, I was checking Instagram and whatsapp, editting a photograph on my laptop. I was listening to youtube all afternoon, and watching videos sometimes. I uploaded a blog post on Tumblr.
450 to 600pm. Home cardio exercising while turning on the music from youtube and I used my phone’s timer to set time limit.
600 to 630pm. Resting after exercise while chatting with a foreign friend on Instagram. I used Google translate in order to talk to him.
700 to 730pm. I was preparing dinner while checking on my phone some times.
730 to 10pm. I was browsing instagram, watching a live runway show by Dolce Gabanna, while listening to music on youtube with my laptop. I was watching a makeup tutorial video, checking on my email.
1000 to 1100pm. Writing this Day 1 report on my laptop and reading the reading material.
1100pm to midnight. Answering some chats and was ready to sleep.

Continue reading Diary of Behaviour: One Gadget-less Day

Reading Response: Seen and unseen, Ho Chi Minh City’s Sidewalk Life CH 1

Reflection

I never realize how a sidewalk could be an important identity of a city, or a place until I read this passage. As I was imagining HCMC through the eyes of the author, I was reminiscing the sidewalk of the city Bandung in Indonesia. The sidewalk of a road called Cibadak is well-known for the night food vendors. And indeed, their existence has added irreplaceable color to the tourism of the city as well as the life of the people. It was pretty sad when a lot of the vendors have to move in into a special vendor space, near the original street but not at the sidewalk, but under a building. It feels different. It feels just like any other food court. I am thinking, did Singapore has any of this sidewalk scene too? I think Lau Pa Sat could tell a little bit of this story about Singapore sidewalk. At night, Lau Pa Sat ‘expands’ their satay vendor stalls to the street, where people would eat satay at the sidewalk. I think this is a reenactment of the past. I was there once, and it is very nostalgic but out of Singapore. Modernity of a city, if being ‘let loose’ like a wild dog, would kill the essence of what made the city. Modernity indeed often kills identity, because modernity in Asia is actually about following what the western culture perceives as good. it is like copying someone else’s identity.

Question

How to retain the sidewalk vendors without making it messy? Disorganized? When the disorderliness is the authenticity of the place but it opposes the idealism of a good city.
How to keep the ‘mixed use’-ness of a sidewalk without losing the main use of the sidewalk: for people to walk?

Marc Newson

The effortlessness of Naoto Fukasawa is captivating; the futuristic quirk of Ross Lovegrove is mind-blowing; the noble spirit of Yves Behar is inspiring; and the versatility of Karim Rashid is impeccable – but Marc Newson’s timelessness is luring. Marc Newson’s creations are designed once and for all – all times and all generation.

There is balance in Newson’s work. It is not showy nor starking, but enough to grab the minds to remember. It is not futuristic, present nor vintage, hence suitable for a lifetime. It may not be an ‘outer space’ innovation, but a ‘human kind’ creativity which captures the hearts of both public and experts. It pleases our senses and ego, as it brings more than just function but also comforts, beauty and social value. And that what makes Marc Newson one of the most wanted designers in the world throughout his 30 years of career.

The fact that Louis Vuitton hired him means Newson is a designer of LV calibre: classy, timeless, expensive, and coveted. Just take a look of his second latest collaboration with LV to create rolling luggages. He may not be from the high fashion world, where the air of luxury is more important than functionality, but he is able to incorporate functionality, innovation, and great fashion taste into this one luggage. Putting the whole handle outside the storage space allows more space for storage, and this is a genius move. Newson’s work adds an indispensable amount of value to the best luxury fashion brand in the world.

Then, Leica and Pentax are known not just for their great camera works but also their timeless design of the camera bodies; which would not happen without Newson. It may not be the most high-tech camera in the market, but less-photography-savvy people who are enthusiastic about photography could surely master this camera, thanks to its sleek and simple design.

Newson has also been hired by airlines such as Qantas to design their first class seat, which can only tell how trustworthy and fail-proof Newson’s design is – first class seats have to has the highest quality in both comfort and aesthetic, if not, the brand would be at stake.

Is Marc Newson the designer I am best identified with? Honestly, I am not sure, but I am sure Marc Newson is a designer I aspire to be.

Reading Response: Rapid Culture Calibration

RESPONSE

The chapter feeds me with a new knowledge. I can see how useful rapid cultural calibration method is, especially to get data from the local society in general. That data must be useful for business planning, design thinking, marketing strategy and etc. I did not expect that small little details of people’s reaction or activity would be this valuable for design and market research, because usually, such research is not based on behavior but economic background.

This article also makes me believe that designs which are done based on such cultural research can create products that fit the needs of the local people. It can make the design timeless and an all-time favourite locally if it is also geared up with the right business strategy and marketing. Therefore, I think this rapid cultural calibration is very important for designers who want to create genuine product that would add value to the life of the society. Genuine quality and purpose of a design idea is essentially what make designers designers, and not artists.

Research Critique: Sensing Garments & Smart Textiles

Sensing Garments

These garments are made to gather information on posture and movement of the user. The current project discussed in this essay is about upper limb kinesthetic garment (ULKG) which is aimed to aid rehabilitation process for post-stroke patients.

ULKG use electricity conductive silicon rubber and graphite smeared on the fabric, hence allowing the garments to conduct electricity to the sensors on the ULKG and the glove. No external wire or cable connected to external electrical components is needed, hence making the garment to be wearable and comfortable.

Moreover, with sensors accurately located on specific muscles and joints, ULKG is able to calculate the just-right amount of movement, hence movements made by ULKG on the limbs of the user will be natural and smooth. This will allow post-stroke patients to have natural muscle memory. And, as ULKG automatically adjusts the current, pressure and movements on the patient, no physician is needed to monitor the rehabilitation process. Rehabilitation can be carried out more conveniently anytime.

Smart Textiles

Smart textiles are often called electronic textiles or e-textiles. These are textiles with electronic and interconnections woven into them, making them intrinsics to the fabric, hence no external component is needed for them to function.

E-textile is divided into three subgroups:

passive smart textiles: only sense the environ
ment/user using sensors.
active smart textiles: sense and react to external stimuli.
very smart textiles: sense, react and adapt to the c
hanging circumstances.

Hopefully, with the development of e-textiles, our future everyday clothing can serve as intelligent personal assistants that can be brought anywhere anytime.

This essay also explains pretty detailed explanation on how to create e-textile, hence showing the plausibility of commercializing it. For e.g., basic chemistry method such as electroplating is mentioned to be able to create a smart material called treated conducive fibers.

Conclusion

The first essay has a more specific topic than the second one. The first essay talks only about sensing garment and its direct application to ULKG and the glove. In the other hand, the second essay’s focus is about the possible manufacturing process of e-textile without explaining clearly the direct application of different e-textiles.

Both essays complement each other: e-textiles, which comprise sensing garment, are feasible to be made and have potential to be commercialized because they can be applied to make clothes with high functionality in the medical, artistic, sports and any other fields.

Research Critique: Costume and Textile

The performance is called “The Space Between Us”, choreographed by Utam Moses and composed by Eric Lindsay. This performance was held in April 2010 in the United States. This performance shows dance choreography with costumes that can generate and control sound with the help of pressure and flex sensors. Designed by Amy Burell and Jay Garst, this costume allows the dancer to be able to control the strength of the audio according to the strength of his/her movements, hence making the dancer not a slave of the pre-composed music. It is not stated whether this project use open source technology or not but I think it did use OSS because this project would not happen without the networking between talents from different fields (choreographer, musician, costume designer and engineer), which would be much easier to achieve with the help of OSS. Moreover, the complexity of the technical aspects would require a convenient shared storage system, which could be done using OSS.

In my own opinion, this project is jaw-dropping and one-of-a-kind. Most of the time, people would like to create costume technology which something to do with lights (or other visual matters) instead of sound. A lot of sensors would have been used all over the body to make this marvel happen. I think this would need more than just creative minds but also the scientific ones.

The Parang of Camelot (Research and thought process)

The story of The Parang of Camelot is parallel to the story of King Arthur The Sword in The Stone. Arthur was nurtured by Merlyn to be the king of Camelot and he eventually became the only who was able to pull the sword from the stone.

For more detailed story of King Arthur: Hero of Camelot

Below is the story structure/stages of The Parang of Camelot:

Hence, the first main difference between my story and the legend of King Arthur is that my story would focus slightly more on the character who is parallel to King Arthur’s stepbrother, Sir Kay. The Parang of Camelot would also focus more on the relationship between the ‘King Arthur’ and ‘Sir Kay’, and not to focus on the love betrayal of ‘Guinevere’ with ‘Lancelot’, a famous part of King Arthur story.

The parallel between The Parang of Camelot and the legend of King Arthur:

The idea of infusing King Arthur legend elements into a Singapore secret society setting is come from the Singapore’s 1960-1980 setting, where the streets were still unsafe for people to have a walk at night and the crime rate was still high.

The name of the rival gang Sah Lak is not just chosen because of its similarity with ‘Saxon’, but is also because of the existence of the real Singapore secret society called “Salakau“. This gang is still exist until now and it is one of the most formidable and violent gang in Singapore. Some incidents of murders or fights in this 21st century are suspected to be done by this gang. One of the murder that also inspired The Parang of Camelot is Downtown Street Murder in 2010. I was imagining what if a brother lost his brother in such a gangster fight. And this murder left me wondering what was the reason of the murderer gang to do such killing?

Then, the parang is a direct substitute for swords, and eventually the magical parang will be a substitute for Excalibur.

This assignment becomes much more interesting as it helps me to know more about the country i live in, Singapore. I only came to Singapore in 2011. Digging the news from 2010 made me feel that now, I am a little more Singaporean now, as I hardly bother to dig Indonesian past news.

It is very interesting to know that gang and gangsters do exist in Singapore as well, since Singapore is now a first-world country.

For the movie poster, both are inspired by some of real movie posters below:

I didn’t follow 100% any of the poster, but the rough idea of it comes from these posters.

The black background and dark atmosphere is not because the story is a horror or/and thriller, but more of because the story is, hopefully, heartfelt and of tragedy. The red color of the title and the parang is to foretell the bloodshed that will happen because of all the gang fights and the use of parang itself. The power given by the parang leads to the lost of loved ones and instability in the society.