2D II – Project 2 Part I – Zine Neighborhood Explorer Research + Site Visit

BOON KENG

History and Background

Image result for boon keng historyBoon Keng is named after Lim Boon Keng, a Chinese physician who came to Singapore in 1880s and contributed on promoting social and educational reforms for the local society since 1890s. Thus, Boon Keng Road and Boon Keng Mrt station are named in his honour.

 

Boon Keng is a sub-zone of Kallang, and is a residential estate served by 3 main roads: Boon Keng Road, Upper Boon Keng Road and Lorong 1 Geylang. Boon Keng is a less hyped neighborhood but the beauty of living there is that they get to enjoy lower home purchase and rental prices. Boon Keng is also near to popular area like the CBD and Orchard.

What are some amenities nearby Boon Keng?

Boon Keng Mrt Station

What I research online was a part of the Bendemeer Shopping Mall was demolished to make way for the construction of this station. The remaining portion of the building continues to be used for retail purposes today.

Image result for boon keng mrt
source: http://x3.sdimgs.com/simage/12688974130397.jpg

Kallang CC

Kallang CC is located near Boon Keng MRT station. Designed as an ‘open concept’ Cc to make residents feel more welcome. Kallang CC is knowed for being the only CC collaborate with ArkHub to attract youth through Chinese pop music. They have other facilities like table tennis room and badminton court.

Image result for kallang cc
source: https://pa.gov.sg/PA-Corp/images/centre/09083105343082863.jpg

Address: 45 Boon Keng Road, 339771
Phone: 6298 4582, 6298 9038

Bendemeer Market & Food Centre

It is located along Bendemeer Road, you can find a wide variety of food and snacks there.


source: http://sg2-cdn.pgimgs.com/listing/19482947/UPHO.61882930.V550.jpg

Address: 29 Bendemeer Road, 330029
(8 mins walk from Boon Keng MRT)

Bendemeer Shopping Mall

Two parallel blocks of shop houses which have been modernized into a shopping more by upgrading its infrastructure, such as building a roof in between the two blocks to keep out the sun and rain. The whole estate is generally old and there is no big brands there but just a few small business going on.

Image result for bendemeer shopping mall
source: https://s3-media2.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/FRhcMDUQWb8X5vddZm0hng/ls.jpg

Address: 25 Bendemeer Road, 330025
(3 mins walk from Boon Keng MRT)

Boon Keng Ville

Located in Upper Boon Keng Road. The neighborhood centre consists of 34 shops, in traditional setting, selling a wide range of goods and services. The market and food centre is a centre of attraction as it has a good range of halal food to serve Muslim or Non-Muslim residents.

However, it is not very near to Boon Keng MRT but nearer to  Kallang MRT.

Image result for boon keng ville
source: http://www.where2shop.sg/fi10/fi10297p.nsf/ImageView/KALLANG_BKV1A/$file/ka-bkv1a.jpgRelated image
source: http://www.where2shop.sg/fi10/fi10297p.nsf/ImageView/KALLANG_KB1E/$file/ka-kb1e.jpg

Address: Blk 11 – 18 Upper Boon Keng Road
(10 mins walk from Kallang MRT)

I didn’t manage to visit the site this week but will be heading down soon to check out the place and know more about the culture there.


Visiting the site (1)

When I first reach, I went to get lunch at Bendemeer Market and Food Centre. There wasn’t much store that was open but there was this long queue at the Chicken Rice store, thus I went and try the food there. I can say that the chicken rice is pretty good.

After lunch, I walked to the Bendemeer Mall. It was quite a normal place, nothing much going on around that area. Just like what I search online, its just old shop houses, no big brands and generally old.

I walked to the HDB area just beside the food centre.  The exterior of the building looks new but when I walked under the block, I realize it look quite old and run down inside.

And it started raining ): Thus, I left that area and went back another day.


Visiting the site (2)

Central Sikh Temple is located 4mins walk away from Boon Keng MRT. There is like a contrast from the front and back, where the back of the building is more modernized.

 

I continued walking down towards Serangoon Road, where are the older shop houses are around also. It was a Sunday, thus a lot of shops are  not open. The food around that area is still open.

I did asked a few people who stay there, and what they told me was that they love staying in this area is because of its location. It is easily accessible to other place especially the food within there, like Swee Choon and Hungry Hero Cafe.


What is Ethnography and participant-observation?

The term ethnography has come to be equated with virtually any qualitative research project where the intent is to provide a detailed, in-depth description of everyday life and practice.

Ethnographers generate understanding of culture through representation of what we call an emic perspective or what might be describe as the “insider’s point of view.”

Participant observation is long term engagement in the field setting or place where the ethnography takes place. This is perhaps the primary source of ethnographic data. To develop an understanding of what it is like to live in a setting, the researcher must 1. become a participant in the life of the setting while also 2. maintaining the stance of an observer (someone who can describes the experince with a measure of what we might call detachment).

Check out this website to find out more.

What are some ways collecting data?

Qualitative and Quantitative Data

Qualitative Data: gathers information that is not in numerical form.

Primarily exploratory research. Used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions and motivations. It provides insights into the problem or helps to develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research.

Some methods are group discussion, individual interviews and participation/observation.

Quantitative Data: gathers data in numerical forms.

Which can be put into categories, or in rank order, or measured in units of measurement. Used to quantify the problem by way of generating numerical data or data that can be transformed into usable statistics. It is used to generalize results from a larger sample population.

Some methods are online surveys, paper surveys, mobile surveys and kiosk surveys, face to face interviews, telephone interviews, longitudinal studies, website interceptors, online polls and systematic observations.

Primary and Secondary sources

Primary sources: a document or object that was written by someone who experienced or witnessed the event first hand.

What is a primary source?
– birth certificates
– photographs
– audio/video recordings
– diaries
– letters
– journals
– manuscripts
– interviews
– newspaper or magazine articles

Secondary sources: second hand accounts, and analyses of events created by someone who did not witnessed the event but may hae read or heard about it.

What is a secondary sources?
– books or articles written on a topic
– artworks depicting an event
– letters or diaries recounting a version of events told to the author by another source.

Infographics

Infographics are visual presentations of information that use the elements of design to display content.

Infographics express complex messages to viewers in a way that enhances their comprehension. Images are often an extension of the content of a written article, but infographics convey a self-contained message or principle.

Image result for infographic design

If a road sign has too much information on it, then it is difficult to read. Infographics compress and display this information in a visually pleasing way so that drivers don’t miss the message.

Infographics communicate complex data quickly and clearly, and they are considered to be effective worldwide.

Love the colorscheme here and the light background:

This website helps me understand infographics a lot better, do check it out.

Other ways we can visually represent data

  1. Line Chart
  2. Column Chart
  3. Bar Chart
  4. Pie Chart

Example of line chart

Art-Spire, Source d'inspiration artistique / 32 incroyables exemples de data visualisation:

Example of Pie Chart

Linkage Mind infographic Relajaelcoco con la fiebre de la infografía - nomadismo visual:

Подобається контраст кольорів:

TOM para Kinky & Co:

4D II – Project 1 Final “Gone or Forgotten?”

Artist’s Statement

Gone or forgotten?

We take, we mend, we return.
We provide stools, tools, skills and good services.
We are experienced unfortunately not everyone appreciates us.
We are vanishing or actually we are forgotten…?
We are no longer a common sight today due to multiple factors.
No young people want to work like us.
We face competition everywhere and there is no way we can fight against them.
We will be replaced.
It’s just the matter of time.
We do not give up.
Our cart remained, nothing changes.
We will be here with all our heart till the very end.

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4D II – Project 1 Process & Research

Concept Development 1

My initial idea was to photograph kids from the orphanage. Why did I choose to do this? Last year December, I worked for a Christmas event where elderly from the Old Folks Home were present to celebrate Christmas. I was told that the event was meant for the elderly but also realized more and more kids appearing at the event. I talked to one of the organizer and found out that they initially only invited the elderly but considering that children will bring more laughter around the elderly, they invited children from the orphanage to join in the fun.

During the event, the kids were running around having fun and taking photo with the elderly too. Despite staying in the orphanage, they lived just like any other kids where everywhere is filled with laughter with them around.

In my project, I want to photograph the children in a way where I want my audience to feel the happiness they are experiencing with the children’s realest laughter.

At the end of the day, your feet should be dirty, your hair messy, and your eyes sparkling. – Shanti

I emailed one of the orphanages and hoping to get their approval to photograph the children however, the replied I get was disappointing.

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I have to think of new ideas cry


Research

1. Dorothea Lange

America’s greatest documentary photographer. She is best known for her chronicles of the Great Depression and for her photographs of migratory farm workers.

During the Great Depression, Dorothea Lange photographed the unemployed men who wandered the streets. Her photographs of migrant workers were often presented with captions featuring the words of the workers themselves. Lange’s first exhibition, held in 1934, established her reputation as a skilled documentary photographer. In 1940, she received the Guggenheim Fellowship.

“While there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see” – Dorothea Lange

I love how her work is not pre-arranged or staged. All her photos allows us to have some imagination on what is going on, what is the subject doing in the photos? Her works shows us the authenticity of the surroundings which is something I would love to archive in my series of photos.

2. Henri Cartier-Bresson

A pioneer in photojournalism, Cartier-Bresson wandered around the world with his camera, becoming totally immersed in his current environment. Considered one of the major artist of the 20th century, he covered many of the world biggest events from the Spanish Civil War to the French uprisings in 1968.

cartier-bresson-seville-spain-1944-wall-hole-children-playingRelated imageRelated imageImage result for Henri Cartier-BressonImage result for Henri Cartier-Bresson childrenRelated imageRelated imageImage result for Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a master at taking photos of children in their natural playful state, creating images that convey beautiful nostalgia to his viewers. I feel that it’s not easy to capture children as most of the time they will be fidgeting around. I like how he managed to capture them so perfectly and in it’s realest form.


Concept Development 2

As mentioned earlier, I will have to change my idea from orphanage to something different. I decided to do on Cobblers. I realized cobblers in Singapore are mostly run by old people and hardly we see any young people working as cobbler. This are the more traditional type of cobbler from the older days. This shows that in the near future, cobbler in our neighborhood might not be around anymore. They face competition everywhere like the more modern cobbler in shops and the thought that people have where they can easily get access to new shoes instead of sending it for repair.

Through this project, I want to show that nowadays only old people are doing this business and it might disappear in the near future.

Some background information of cobblers:
Each cobbler usually works from a cart, where the shoe toolkit and repair materials are placed within their reach. Stools are provided for customer who wants to wait for their shoes to be mended on the spot. Some cobble uses trolley for easy transport and setting and packing up becomes easier/more convenient for them.

Image result for cobblers in singaporeRelated imageImage result for cobblers in singapore
*online references


Concept Development 3

I went to research more on cobblers and where can I find them? Recently as I travel around, I tend to keep a lookout on whether there is cobblers around. I knew that there was two at my house area which is Hougang however, I only managed to photo one and I couldn’t find the other one anymore. There was also another one that I saw at Hougang Mall but I didn’t manage to take a photo because I was rushing for time.

When I doing research online, I read an article where they say Chinatown still has many traditional cobblers around. I went down on one of the days and managed to capture a few but it rained after that and I could not proceed anymore.

Here are a few shoots that I took.

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Concept Development 4

Now I have to think of how I want to present my work. I wanted to do everything black and white which gives off a feeling that this jobs soon will not be seen in Singapore. However, I feel that it doesn’t work so well in this series of photo. So I tried only black and white the cobblers and his tools while keeping the background in colors. I feel that it gives off a better message as to showing that those jobs are disappearing without you noticing.

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2D II – “Que Sera, Sera – What Will Be, Will Be” Final

My name is 4-01
and I’m a Elephant.

My name is3-1and I’m a Fox.

My name is1
and I’m a Fish.

My name is 2-1and I’m a Monkey.


Reflection

When I first got the project brief, I was totally lost at what should the next step be. It’s typography, how do I make use of design to create my names/initial? I was stuck at the same concept for almost 2 weeks before I decided to change my entire concept. However, I am glad that I change the idea and come out with what I have now. Along with all the suggestion I received from Joy and my classmates, it really helps me a lot in my design. Exploring how different fonts design and make use of the research to execute it in my final design. The first stage of trying to come out with a design that matches the message was quite challenging for me but thankfully I managed to pull it through with the some helps. The overall process was rocky but I was pleased with the final outcome.

2D II – “Que Sera, Sera – What Will Be, Will Be” Process

Idea 1

What are some of the jobs that I consider and why?
– Teacher
I love to interact with kids and teaches Lego lesson in the past for kindergarten kids.

– Graphic Designer
I guess it has something to do with the course I am in now? This is one of the jobs I could consider in the future.

– Planner (events)
I have been working as event crew from front line to back end and has always been interested in how they plan all the event and would want to experience the planning process.

– Make up artist
I put on make up almost on a daily basis and would love to explore more into make up.

What is the message?
Jobs that are time-consuming can be rewarding.

What are some of the approach?
– String Art
An arrangement of colored thread strung between points to form geometric patterns.

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– Paper Art
It can be folded, cut, glued, molded, stitched or layered. ca8c174fb0b209633b5bd3583fbf8a8d

Challenges
I wanted to use string art to represent that it’s time consuming however I can’t find any item in each jobs that I selected to execute using string art. String art uses simple concept with only one patterns and can’t get too complicated. It’s hard to link the jobs with string art and with the message.

I was stuck at this concept for too long thus I decided to change my whole idea.


Idea 2

What is the message?
Animals affected by Humans action.

Why this message?
To draw audience attention to the consequences of how human action affects animal habitats and how it is harming them.

Which area I can explore on?
– Marine animal
– Land animal
– Animal skin/fur use for fashion
– Animal use for entertainment
– Animal use for experiment


Animal campaign as references


Some background information of the different problem affecting animals

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Marine Animals

Using water pollution as the main reason that kills the marine animal. With the background information of how water pollution came about, at the back of the composition it will be factory that uses large amount of water and through a series of processes, it gets contaminated by chemicals and etc . The water will flow out into the ocean which cause the ocean to be dirty and slowly killing the fishes inside.

JinYee

Land Animals

With higher demand for land, more and more trees are cut down to make space for the country development. Using falling trees in my composition to depict the scene where they are removing the trees. With silhouette on the forest animal in between the trees, some escaping while some stay put shows that we are chasing them away from their home. Also using the tree stump to represent the letter J

Design 1
JinYee

Some of the feedback that I received was the tree stump can have some burnt mark and having some animals sitting on top of it. I could also use the tree trunk to form my names or even using the animal. Adding smoke effects can also helps in this composition where it shows the burning/cutting down of trees.

Animal use for fashion

I decided to use fox as my main animal that was use for fashion. Fox was kept in a cage while waiting for their turn to be kill and skin thus I added cage into the design while they are watching one of their friends killed with blood flowing out and showing my name. I add in a lady wearing a fur coat to represent where the animal skin/fur will go to.

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However, I was advised not to add in the lady because it represent the consumer instead of the jobs that I want to portray. Other suggestion was I should add in some fox fur that was hanging at the background. I did the composition and look forward to it at the final post.

Animal use for entertainment

I decided to use circus animal as the main focus because a lot of news and campaign have shown that some circus animal are being forced to do tricks and entertain viewers. With a circus background, and curtain in front to represent that the animal is standing on the stage. If you take a close look, those animal are tied to these strings that are use for puppets. It shows how human are controlling them to do something that they do not want to.

JinYee