Tag: pdp

[PDP] FYP Ideation Part 4

Exploring the ways to showcase family through the use of sewing. Using the gathered stories and interpret it through sewing an abstract image. Each story will be put together to form a big picture which are different. When the audience goes closer or touch the embroidery, the voices of the different people will be heard through a headphone.

Inspired by the abstract sewing by artist, Izziyana Suhaimi where she uses embroidery in her artworks. I felt that in every family there will be some relation towards sewing. In asian tradition, we use threads and embroidery in our clothes or making patterns which signifies different meaning. The incorporation of patterns into the interpretation of what family means to each individual.

Another exploration is the use of large scale objects. Mimicking a living room concept where each furniture or area tells a story about myself. I was inspired by the whimsical interpretation by artist Lee JeeYoung on each room installation. Combining the aspects of whimsical and what a living room is, I was to showcase a different kind of environment where what I imagine a home to be and how I relate with people.

When the audience explore the living room, they can sit or stand and listen to the stories I have where they may relate to me. After which they will receive a puzzle piece which will drop down. They can choose to draw or write, etc to share they stories or bring the piece home to keep it as a memento. 

http://www.opiomgallery.com/en/artistes/oeuvresphotographe/17/jeeyoung-lee

[PDP] FYP Ideation Part 3

Through the exploring of the topic of family and relationships while incorporating the interactive elements, I found that there are different artists that deals with this topic with their own interpretation. I found this topic hard to express in the digital and physical form.

The installation ‘And that’s the way it is’ is fragments of news broadcast which is projected on a building. Since the topic I would be exploring will be my own personal family relationships I was inspired by the use of different fragments of my stories to showcase how fragile relationships are. Many times we overlook on the different parts of our lives that make up the full picture of it. 

http://ear-test.earstudio.com/?p=1007

Social Documentary allows the audience to interact with the installation through manipulating keywords with a cube. Each keyword have different videos so depending on the amount of views the video will display again. It is interesting to see different videos viewed depending on the audience choice of words. The installation gave me an idea on how to create an opportunity for the audience to interact with it. Having a physical form to trigger the video to show something related.

Social Documentary – a media artist installation in Istanbul imagining Linked Television in other ways

 

The works by Krzysztof deals with the stories of people which is very similar to my idea. It is interesting to see that instead of using the person’s actual face, he uses silhouette and voice over from others to tell their stories. There are words at the bottom translate what the people are saying so that those who do not understand the language can read the words. For me I was thinking of incorporating stories of others about what family means and I was thinking of how I can put translation into English so that most people can understand while those telling their stories can speak in their own language. It is important for people to speak their own language which they are comfortable with so that even though we do not understand we can feel them.

[PDP] Reflection on Rose Bond & Matt Adams

Rose Bond, an Canadian artist, was a guest lecture on Friday where she shared her works. I was fascinated how she incorporates narratives together with digital media where she uses projection and sounds. It is interesting where the sounds from the installation is combined together with the city sounds.

Gates of light was the installation that attracted me. It is a interesting combination of sounds with visuals. Without even understanding the concept or background of what was going on, I still could understand that the year reflected together with the visuals. It showed a narrative piece where there was an active audience who were viewing the artwork.

Photo & Video Credits: http://rosebond.com/work/gates-of-light-2004-2007/

She briefly mentioned about the use of projectors to portray the narratives of the 120-year-old Eldridge Street Synagogue and its dynamic immigrant neighbourhood. I hoped that she would have given me more insight about her design process of how she thought of using specific visuals to match the various sounds and the research she had to do to actually get to the final product.

The other works she mentioned also deals a lot with projection and animation where I can see the progression of traditional medium: film strips to the digital medium: after effects in her works.

 

Matt Adams, an UK artist, who deals with interactive arts and games in a creative manner. I was fascinated where he incorporates both interactivity and game play together. I felt that he uses a lot of human interacting with the platform he has provided. The use of space, interactivity and game play all in one piece was amazing.

Kidnap, the first work presented gave me the impression of fear and unable to do anything within my control. It stimulates the process of being kidnapped and later on being helpless in an enclosed space. It’s interesting to see the participation level to experience the process of kidnap and being locked up. I felt that it was a live performance art piece where online audiences could participate in the environment. It seems that the audiences were surveillance cameras watching the ‘captives’ doing things inside the enclosed space.

I was amazed by the elaborate planning done by the team as they were inspired by the notorious Spanner Trial. The amount of research needed to be conducted together with the approval of people consent was a tough process. It reminded me of modern day context where we are being kidnap by social media or the internet where they have all our datas with or without our consent. 

Photo Credit: https://www.blasttheory.co.uk/projects/kidnap/

The other work that I could be a platform for me to further develop my FYP idea was desert rain. The idea of having different people in a closed environment to play a digital game by using projection to showcase the digital environment was fascinating since it was a time where digital had some limitations. After having experience the virtual space, the participants were lead to a physical environment where they learnt more about how these people they were suppose to find were involved the main topic: Gulf War.

I enjoyed this piece the most as it incorporates the element of game play, narratives, performance and interactivity. I felt that the process of ideating the idea and having to execute the installation was so detailed. I thought that I could incorporate the element of a digital side and later bring the audience to a physical space to experience the idea of a living room environment. 

Photo Credit: https://www.blasttheory.co.uk/projects/desert-rain/

Photo Credit: https://www.blasttheory.co.uk/projects/desert-rain/

[PDP] Brainstorming ideas for FYP part 2

Specifics:

I thought of doing an video installation with stories to tell where there will be 4 panels or more of people’s thoughts of what family means to them or what they would like family to be? There will be head phones attached to these panels and after that there will be a puzzle piece that will fall out. These puzzle pieces could be where people could write down what family means to them and bring them home or piece together with the bigger picture.

References/ Inspirations:

‘1999’ by Liu Ding
About the work:
“1999,” is a sound installation by artist Liu Ding. It is an episodic narrative about the cultural life in China in the 1990s. The artist uses telephones in his installation to unfold a series of so-called ‘telephone calls from the past.’ The work consists of recorded quotes and pop music of the 1990s. These texts were written by Liu Ding or excerpts taken from interviews Liu Ding conducted with Chinese artists and critics active in the 1990s.

http://www.shanghaibiennale.org/en/artist/detail/10/11.html
http://www.randian-online.com/np_feature/from-memory-to-archive-remembrance-and-amnesia-in-the-works-of-liu-ding-2/

Personal reflection:
I found this installation interesting where the artist uses the telephone to communicate the life of China in the 1990s using a familiar device, telephone. The installation enables the audience to listen to different stories or music from the past to understand the background of contemporary art. I could incorporate the idea of interviews or my own personal stories through a sound installation and people can hear them.

 

Autel de Lycée Chases by Christian Boltanski

About the work:
Autel de Lycée Chases is a photo and light installation by Christian Boltanski. Autel de Lycée Chases means Altar to the Chases High School. The artist uses black and white enlarged photos of Jewish students from a Viennese high school, 1931. He place the photos which do not give any clue to identify to connect to these individuals. The installation is most likely hinting at the Holocaust as it seems like a monument for the dead. There is light shining on these photos which may suggest hope alongside loss. Boltanski intermingles emotion and history, sentimentality and profundity in his work.

http://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/42505
https://www.guggenheim.org/arts-curriculum/topic/christian-boltanski

Personal reflection:
I found it quite disturbing in terms of the colour used by the artist. It is interesting where he plays with photos and light to create the mood he wanted to convey through the installation. I could think about how to place the panels in a interesting way or make the videos or photos in a specific mood to create thoughts and conversations among people. 

 

Life Needs Internet by Jeroen van Loon

Installation:

Website:

Video:

About the work:
Life Needs Internet is an installation created by Jeroen van Loon. The installation shows 8 handwritten letters from different people about the influence of the internet on daily life. The video portraits and letters are combined together. The artist wants to portray the evolution of the global digitalisation and it’s impact on different cultures through this installation. He also created a website to document how people feel about the internet through handwritten letters.

https://jeroenvanloon.com/life-needs-internet-2012/
https://jeroenvanloon.com/life-needs-internet-online/

Personal Reflection:
I feel that this installation is quite similar with my idea of stories even though it is in different context. The use of handwritten letters is something personal and reflects about a person’s thoughts. I felt that I could incorporate the use of website where I could let more people contribute their own personal stories and create a giant puzzle via a digital platform. The installation could be a video of the myself/ others or an object relating to my/ others stories.

 

Feedback/ food for thought:
1. Look into the process of learning – figure out the puzzle form

  • Digital form – write down on a digital platform and create the whole image through images or words (contribute to the website)
  • Physical form – write down on actual puzzle pieces or have images of puzzles that people can relate to, encourage them to write down their thoughts and piece all together to create a bigger picture.

2. Create an anecdote of 1 part of the story using the puzzle piece

  • For example – the cause of why there is a brokenness between the relationship between my grandmother and myself

3. The framework can start from my family then move on to interview people about their own personal relationships (collect stories)

 

[PDP] Brainstorming ideas for FYP

In class brainstorming (Turning points in my life):

Feedback & areas to focus/ explore:
Different family culture – background of various culture
Explore the topic of family relationships among different generations
Sound narratives
‘Beauty silence’ in families

Family relationships
Personally I have a broken relationship with my grandmothers as they prefer boys more than girls. From that point I wanted to find ways and means to get their approval. It is finding a missing jig-saw puzzle in my life. As I talk to others about their personal relationship, they mentioned about parents being too busy with work which resulted in them having a strain in relationship.

Family is an important factor in our lives whether we want them or not. I want to explore the missing parts of lives and probably create thinking among people about relationships and their own personal background which will result in their interaction with loved ones.

[PDP] Assignment 5 – Project Management for Design Professionals

Reading: Project Management for Design Professionals by William G. Ramroth, Jr.

Project management may not be 100% applicable to me but it helps me to understand the importance it and also the process which I can learn from. The author mentioned 6 management goals and I felt that there are 2 points I could learn from. They are to reach the end of the project and to reach the end on time. It is important to complete a project given but to end it well it is not easy due to the different types of objects required. Each projects have different objectives and they differ depending on the brief given. As a designer, I must understand what the objectives and implications of the project are so that I can carry out accordingly. Time is always a factor which I need to take note of. It is important to have a schedule to follow through so that the project can be properly executed. Each projects have different duration so planning ahead makes it easier to be consistent. Through these 2 points, it made me have a better idea of planning the end while taking into account the time factor.

It is so easy to forgot the process of designing a work. It does not only apply to project managers but also to designers when working on a project. The 5 phases are start, plan, design, production and completing the project.
Personally it is easy to start a project but what comes after seems complicated and messy. I find it easy to plan and not follow my plan through as more ideas come into mind and incorporating them in as I wish. The author emphasises on the importance of this process as it leads to the success of the project. It is interesting that I know it but I do not apply it when I work on my projects. The purpose of design is to get an overall look and feel of the project so that the production process would be consistent. I tend to overlap them and work on them at the same time. Now I realised that it is the wrong method of managing my projects. I am reluctant to end a project as I always feel I could do better. However a project needs to have a deadline if not no work will be seen. The completed work made to reflect on how I could do better for the next project I would be tackling next.

The fish bone diagram expanded my knowledge of how I can plan my projects. When I divide the project or problem into smaller tasks it is easier to identify what needs to be done and what tasks can wait. The scope of the project would not be so frightening and I can monitor my progress of my project as well. The important part is still to plan the project properly. Without proper planning, I can lose track of my design process and could lead to unnecessary mistakes or not able to focus on the important areas of the project. To plan out the project well, the author recommends to ask questions. I felt that the first 3 parts were more applicable to my upcoming projects. They are what is to be done?, when is it to be done? and who is to do it?. Without these questions there is no clear direction in the project I need to do. I learn that through asking questions and answering them makes me understand the objectives of my project.

Through the reading, I learn how to better manage my upcoming projects and the importance of the 5 phases in project management which can be applied to what I am doing. The key to a successful project is to proper planning and I need to follow and apply the procedure of start, plan, design, production and completing the project to my future projects.

[PDP] Assignment 4 – Goal-directed product and service design

Reading: Goal-directed product and service design (chapter 1 of Designing for the Digital Age: Creating Human-Centered Products and Services)

The reading by Kim Goodwin have taught me two main things. They are how to define design and the process of goal-directed design.

Frankly speaking I find it hard to differentiate art and design. There seems to an overlap between them but the author has clearly specify that art is creating an end product and expressing the designer’s point of view while design focuses on the end product and not the designer’s perspective. Since design is not taking into the consideration of the designer’s point of view then who’s point of view are we supposed to consider? That is when Kim Goodwin define the term design as the craft of visualising concrete solutions that serve human needs and goals within certain constraints.

Designers are needed to find solutions when clients or non-designers face problems. It is important to explain to these people in a way that they can understand. I find it hard to convey my ideas to the masses and also taking into consideration of products needing to be functional, pleasure and aesthetic. There are limitations that I need to take note of when I create a product. With the introduction of digital age, the lack of physical medium makes it harder for me to get across what I am visualising but without the digital age it is not possible to get our ideas to different people at the same time. There are always pros and cons but the most important factor is to adapt ourselves so that we can continue to cater to the ever changing needs of humans.

Goal-directed process

The most important part I need to learn is the process of goal-directed design. Personally I only know that we need to plan projects, do research on the work to further understand it, who I am designing for, do up the detail design and then start to implement the design. As a designer I feel that I tend to neglect the importance of process and sometimes skip steps to quicken the speed of my produced work. This results in poor quality works. The step by step explanation by Kim Goodwin makes the process easy to understand. Out of all the processes the part of implementation support is something new to me and needed to be practiced in the industry. Communication between designers and engineers are extremely important. Without proper communication there will be confusion and frustration which result in conflict and delay in the product.

Through the reading, it opened up a new understanding of a human-centered products. It made me reflect in the works I do and I can said that majority of my work is more art than design. Now it is the time for me to change my end vision of the works I create to be more human-centered than self-centered.

 

Questions:
1. If all designers were to follow the 6 steps of the goal-directed process, would it hinder or help them in the process of their work? Why so?
2. Should tertiary education focus more on art education or design education which should focus more towards human-centered products?

[PDP] Assignment 3 – Thoughtful Interaction Design

Reading: Thoughtful Interaction Design by Jonas Lowgren & Erik Stolterman

In the reading, Lowgren and Stolterman mentioned ‘An extremely fast and efficient digital artifact is hardly good design if it is not understood by its users. Outstanding user interface intelligibility is pointless if the basic functions of the artifact fail to satisfy the users’ needs. An intelligent and adaptive artifact with exceptional problem-solving capabilities is worthless if it is too slow.’ In this modern digital age, most products are designed to improve efficiency to meet the demands of the fast pace lifestyle of modern mankind. We develop outstanding user interface to attract users to buy. Products progressively become more intelligent and adaptive to meet the users’ constant demands due to advanced technology. Designers have failed to address the importance of simple functionality and designing for the layman. We tend to assume the product we design would be easily understood by the users and therefore user friendly.

When the authors asked the question “what is a good design?”, I was thinking if they were asking something rhetorical. Isn’t a good design something that is aesthetically pleasing and beneficial for the users? There are so many ways to define ‘good’ in this era, hence it is quite complex to define what is a good design. The sentence that made an impact on me was “Working with design means that you continuously need to define and redefine what you think of as good design.”

It made me ponder about the work I design, is it only for aesthetics or is it designing for the users’ experience and easy functionalities? How do I go about creating a good design? It brings me down to the core concepts of designing: design process, design situation and digital artifact. With limited resources, I need to make use of the digital technology to create products that are functional, aesthetic and ethical. The process in design is the most important factor because it is where I have inspiration and come up with ideas and follow through to complete my final work. It helps me to filter out which design is more feasible and where I could further improve along the way. Design process is an ongoing process that I need to go through. The design situation allows the designer to know what processes are needed to change, evolve and fine-tune to arrive at the final product. Digital artifacts refer to the structure and functionality of the product which has direct impact on users. Every choice, action and decision I make can either make or break my design.

Through the reading, I tried to see if any of those works that I was interested in used the core concepts discussed by Lowgren and Stolterman.

Beacon technology applied to modern art museum in Krakow

Beacon to Phone App

QR Code

Beacon to Information of artwork

The aim of the project was to help visitors navigate around the museum without much difficulties and the assistance of tour guides explaining the art pieces displayed. The process was to integrate a phone app, QR codes and HG Beacon devices on museum artworks. When the user approaches an artwork, the HG Beacon device will notify the phone app and provides the necessary information for the user to learn more about the art pieces. The user will be able to see and hear the explanations of the artworks or other information they wanted. The situation was the art museum in Krakow where the designer had to know how to execute the proposed idea and make it interactive for the user as they move along the artworks. The digital artifacts was how the devices: HG Beacon, QR codes and phone app would help the visitors to move around easily.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0QfpfGOrp8

 

Volkswagen: The Human Crossing

Volkswagen: Human Crossing

Child crossing cross with RFID tag

Large billboard with child

The aim of the project was to prevent children from road accidents when using the zebra crossings by alerting the drivers in UAE. The process was how to alert the drivers and attract their attention when children are using the zebra crossings. Each child gets 1 Radio-frequency identification (RIFD) tag and from there it goes through a large billboard which alerts the driver via their eye level. This will result in decrease of children involved in zebra crossing accidents. The situation was the increase in accidents happened to children which the designer had to think of creative ways to alert drivers and yet allow the children to cross without fear of being knocked down. The digital artifacts were the RIFD tags and large digital billboards which activates when children uses the zebra crossings.

http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/volkswagen-the-human-crossing/