GRAPHICFORM | locale artist references

I was greatly inspired by trippy art to create my zine, as I wanted to give people these reactions:

“what just happen”

“my mind got blown”

“so creepy”

thus I went to my trustworthy site – Pinterest to get some inspirations, and here’s what I got!

I realised they usually have very vibrant colours, and sparks at random places. Tons of overlay was used also to create the effect of messy, random.

pinterest : jvnxie ☹ ☻
Image taken from https://i.pinimg.com/564x/d7/e5/d9/d7e5d963de7f4aa413a1939cea1f4bcd.jpg
Image taken from https://i.pinimg.com/564x/b1/05/83/b10583c7f4f5ec3ad88bee638081847a.jpg

From this, I went ahead to experiment my own style of trippy art!

Chineasy is a publication that I saw on Ted Talk! The artist, ShaoLan Hsueh, a Taiwanese based in London, came up with easy pictorial way to teach children Chinese, in a visually engaging manner!

Home

She incorporated the Chinese words into the form itself and it was easier to learn those words, especially for kids and visual learners!

ohmyasian: “2114. Chineasy by Shao Lan Hsueh. Cute drawings to help you remember some easy chinese characters! ”
Image taken from https://i.pinimg.com/564x/a1/23/79/a123797751633f41a3c1f502d149173d.jpg

I was greatly inspired by her work to come up with mine as well, not to teach Chinese, but to inform my zine’s viewers about the punishments in Ten Courts.

I didn’t want to include chunky text as description, and just wanted something sweet, simple, yet have other meanings to it.

Chineasy-14
Image taken from https://i.pinimg.com/564x/3b/af/1e/3baf1ea48bb048e98216e703371f417d.jpg

Some illustrations done by her!

Therefore, I did up illustrations of a few Chinese words, and that really aided me a lot in my zine!

That’s it for my art references!

Till then,
Flazéda!
jamz
x

GRAPHICFORM | locale zine process

Upon the gathering of data, it was time to start on our zine!

Joy gave me a few ideas on how to proceed with my zine, after the presentation of my data.

I decided to focus on the effects of the Ten Courts of Hell, in an abstract manner, to illustrate what a viewer will feel upon visiting the attraction.

There are a total of 8 pages, 1 front cover page, 1 back cover page and 3 spreads (6 pages).

1. Spreads

As I was working on the Ten Courts of Hell, I decided to focus on six out of the ten main punishments.

There six that I sifted out was:
Crushed by Stones/Boulders
Freezing to Death
Heart Ripped Out
Tongue Cut
Boiling/Drowning in oil
Stabbed by knives

I begun my first spread with the intent of creating an artwork with the trippy/hallucinating effect. After playing with photoshop, I felt that the editing I’ve done to the images did give a trippy effect.

After the first consultation with Joy, she told me to continue working on the rest of my spreads, and developing it further. I wanted to add in text to briefly give an information of the punishments, but Joy mentioned that it’s best to have less text.

With the feedback I’ve gotten, I proceeded to further develop my idea, and came up with the thought of incorporating some Chinese text, in the form of its object. I was greatly inspired by Chineasy, whereby the artist used the word’s actual form and incorporated it together.

I came up with a few for mine,

石 – Stone

寒 – Cold

心 – Heart

舌 – Tongue

烹 – Cook

刀 – Knife

Next up, I tried incorporating it in my spreads.

In every spread, it contains a Chinese character, which is the punishment started.

Spread 1.

The first page shows a man getting crushed by boulders, with the 石 design on top of the human, signify that it’s the stone that is crushing them.

Next, 寒 was added into the punishment of people being frozen into ice cubes. The word is incorporated in the manner that they are the ice cubes of people that got frozen.

When doing up the spreads, I used tons of photo layover, reducing their opacity, and added saturations and highlights for different layers or places in the image.

Upon consultation with Joy, she mentioned that there seems to be a lack of focus in my spreads, and there should be a focal point. I decided to focus on the Chinese words illustration and make them more prominent. To make the spreads more consistent, I’ve also changed them to have one colour scheme per page.

For the first spread, I used grey as the overall colour, as grey is the colour for stones and boulders. For the “iced” punishment, I used blue, as blue is often a colour related to coldness.

Spread 2.

I’ve used the same concept in all my spreads, but I wanted this spread to have a little interaction between both pages, as they will be printed on one page together.

The initial design I had didn’t exactly work out, as they can be seen as very separate pages, and don’t seem to blend well.

Joy gave me some suggestions, of incorporating elements from both pages together, such as maybe have the body part/heart of the “heart” page being on the “boiling” page.

I added in interaction between both pages, making it look like one spread instead of 2 pages.

In “heart” page, I used an image of a men getting his heart ripped out, multiplied and overlay it on top of each other – to get the trippy effect. The heart on the image also got replaced by the heart word illustration. I also added in an image of a men’s head & body parts getting chopped off, as it is relevant to the heart and body.

In “boiling” page, I used an image of people drowning in the hot blood pond, as well as the boiling wok of oil. I used the same overlay style, to get the same effect.

Some elements from the “heart” page was added in “boiling” page, with a few elements crossing over both pages. – I felt that this created a link and made the spread more blended and cohesive.

After doing up the spread, I added in the play of colours. However, the saturation and colours I added did not help aid viewers to the focal point, but instead, added more mess and clutter.

With the feedback I’ve gotten, I went ahead to change the colours and saturation. I used red for “heart”, as hearts are red. For “cooking”, I used orange and yellow tones, to show the cooking and fire is orange.

This is the final design of the spread, and I had the “cooking” pot be cooking with the body parts, heads, hearts taking from both spreads!

Spread 3.

Lastly, moving on to my third spread was “Tongue” and “Knives!

For “tongue”, I used as image of a guy’s tongue getting cut out, as well as a statue I found within Ten Courts, that had a really long tongue. The tongue word illustration was also randomly placed in the page, with a centre one, as the focal. I also used liquify to make the image messier and distorted – to have a stronger hallucinating effect.

For “knives”, images of people getting stabbed by knives were used. Images were taken from “tree of knives” – where people was thrown up and get stabbed, or “hill of knives” – where they were thrown upon and laid there to bleed to death. The knife Chinese word illustration was placed all over the page, with the tip of the knife stabbing some people.

Initially I wanted my spreads to have a colour gradient – from not very saturated/colour, to becoming more vibrant and colourful at the end.
However, it did not work out very well, as the colours totally took away the focal point!!! The colours took over the Chinese words, and they seemed to be drowning.

Thus I decided to forgo the many many saturation strips that I used, and focus on the one-colour-per-page, with purple for “tongue”, as when one consumes poison and die, their tongue and lips turns purple. Green is used for “knives”, as the knives in Ten Courts are found on Hills or Trees, which are green!

After this edit, I feel that the focal point is indeed more focused on the words and is more cohesive to the other spreads.

Back Cover Page.

For the Back Cover, I had the idea planned in already!

I wanted it to mark as the end of the journey in Ten Courts of Hell, and used the reincarnation wheel as the overall image. I zoomed in to the the wheel, and separated it into 6 different segments and coloured them accordingly to the past 6 pages. In the middle, 終 was added in, to signify “the end”. This shows after you receive your punishment for the sins you’ve done, your journey in hell is about to come to an end. And just like all good things, bad things come to an end too! I personally felt that this tied in very strongly with my concept, and was a very good way of putting all the pages of content together.

Front Cover Page

I designed my front cover page last, as I had absolutely no idea on what to do!! As I was focusing on a niche part of Haw Par Villa – the Ten Courts of Hell, I had a very tough time contemplating and thinking if I should used both locations or just one.

Originally, I had the idea of illustrating it, and putting an above/under-ground illustration of the place, but felt that the illustrations will not go well with my zine, as my zine was more pictorial.

Next, if I were to put Ten Courts of Hell as the cover page, it will be used as an introduction for viewers that my zine contents is related to Hell, which is not what I was going for. I wanted viewers to get shocked by the contents of the zine, as they did not expect it upon looking at the zine’s cover page – cos don’t judge a book by its cover!!!

However I was stuck on how to link the cover to my zine’s contents, and had a really tough time ideating. Randomly designing, I came up with a cover page, but felt that it didn’t tie in with my zine.

While ideating, I played around with photoshop and came up with the idea! I decided to glitch an image of Haw Par Villa – the bridge which many visitors will take photos there, as its a tourist attraction. The reason for using it is because I wanted to show that despite it being a tourist attraction in Singapore, there is more context and knowledge behind it, and it’s not like any other kind of tourist attraction. (It’s more creepy)

I glitched the image a little, and distorted the ends of the image, showing how it’s gonna go a little haywired, and with this place being abnormal! This gives a little anticipation and insight for the viewers, but they will definitely not expect the contents of the zine!

And that’s its for my process of coming up with the idea of my zine!

Till then,
Flazéda!
jamz
x

GRAPHICFORM | locale infographics

I wanted the style of the information presentation to be more 70, 80s Chinese style magazine, and thus referenced this:

advertising set | Shanghai Memories Real Estate Campaign in China
Image taken from https://i.pinimg.com/564x/1f/47/97/1f47971cf74d0ffb4507b5948d9ad0a9.jpg

I had some background information of Haw Par Villa, which I feel was necessary for the viewers to know, and relevant to my USP (Unique Selling Point).

There are also some images of Haw Par Villa in the past, showing viewers for how Haw Par Villa has come, and the revamps that has been done.

Images taken from Haw Par Villa, by me, was put in, but with the main focus being the Ten Courts of Hell. For the Ten Courts of Hell, I’ve added in descriptions of each court, the punishments and sins involved.

Secondary research was also put in, for viewers to gain an insight of others’ perception of the attraction, alongside quantitative and qualitative data.

As the USP I wanted to portray about Haw Par Villa was the Ten Courts of Hell,  I added in information from my online survey – regarding the surveyors’ personal perception of afterlife, and its relevance with Ten Courts of Hell’s.

Lastly, I added in quotes I’ve taken from the interviews and surveys, and placed it amongst the presentation pages.

Feedback from Classmates:

Feedback from Joy:

Good focus on 10 Courts of Hell
Survey tied in well with the focal point
Ideas to explore/further develop for zine:
1. Motifs pertaining to 10 courts
2. Effects of 10 courts (Visuals that can come out)
3. Scale (realistic & big) – talk about it being life-sized.

Personal Reflection:

Overall, I felt that the presentation did convey to my classmates my perception and journey at Haw Par Villa. However, within a constrained timeframe, I was unable to go into more depth and context, and had to quickly brush through it. Haw Par Villa is indeed a very interesting place to venture on, and it’s unlike most tourist attraction, which is a huge reason why I loveee this place! It was really spectacular walking around the park and looking at those huge statues, and with the aid of descriptions, it taught me more about Chinese Culture. But as I was working on a rather large tourist attraction, it was difficult for me to focus on one specific part as the USP (Unique Selling Point). Ultimately, I chose the Ten Courts of Hell as I personally had a connection with it, as I feel that the concept is very realistic, due to being a believer of the afterlife and retribution. Although, I got to admit, it was pretty scary entering that place, due to its dark, creepy environment – especially when I went in alone to take more photos and videos!! Nonetheless, I enjoyed working on this unique location in Singapore, and I can’t wait to create my zine with perception of what I feel about this place!

And that’s it for the Part I of Assignment II!

Till then,
Flazéda!
jamz
x

GRAPHICFORM | locale research

For the second assignment of Graphic Form, it seems really exciting!

We have to go to a location in Singapore and do primary and secondary research on it.

There was several locations I had in mind: Haw Par Villa, Changi Village, Pasir Ris Farmway and Redhill.

Upon discussion with Joy, I headed to both Haw Par Villa and Pasir Ris Farmway, and decided on Haw Par Villa, as there wasn’t enough collaterals to work on Farmway.

I’ll be talking about Haw Par Villa in a few sections:
1. First impression
2. Secondary Research

3. Primary Research (Photos/Videos/Interviews)
4. Online Survey
5. Survey Results

Primary Research: original, first-hand data collected personally, e.g. photos, videos, interviews, surveys

Secondary Research: data collected for research purposes, e.g. online websites, official reviews, blogs

Qualitative Data: data that cannot be quantified or measured, e.g. five senses, personal feelings and thoughts, descriptions

Quantitative Data: data which can be quantified and measured, e.g. statistics, numbers, charts

1. First Impression

My first visit to Haw Par Villa was with my family, a random day out, when I was aged 11. I remembered the trip very vividly, as all the sculptures were so realistic and etched in my mind. Unlike a normal tourist attraction, it was enriched with tons of Chinese heritage culture and folklore! There was sculptures ranging from Buddhism (Buddha, Goddess of Mercy),  all the way to Chinese myths (Goddess White Snake). However, the best of all, that I remember the most was the Ten Courts of Hell in Haw Par Villa. My parents actually brought me there to teach me on my culture and the existence of hell in my culture, telling me the punishments I’ll get if I’ve sinned.

Therefore, when deciding on a location, Haw Par Villa came to my mind, as it’s a pretty under-rated tourist attractions that even Singaporeans do not/dare not visit!

2. Secondary Research

Before visiting Haw Par Villa, I went online to research on more information.

What is Haw Par Villa?
Haw Par Villa was formerly known as Tiger Balm, spans about 8.5 hectare along Pasir Panjang Road. It was first built in 1937, by Aw Boon Haw, as a gift for his brother, Aw Boon Par.

It’s used as a venue for traditional Chinese values, Singapore largest outdoor art gallery. In 1988, Singapore Tourism board took over and converted it into a theme park. However, high entrance fees was charged and the attraction ran at a loss during its operation. In the early 2000s, the fee was removed, but the public interest declined.

Location: 262 Pasir Panjang Road, Singapore 118628
Nearest Mrt: Haw Par Villa Station CC25 (Circle Line)
Buses: Bus 10, 30, 30e, 51, 143, 175, 176, 188, 200, 589

Opening hours:
9am – 7pm (last entry 6pm)
Ten Courts of Hell:
9am – 6pm (last entry 5.45pm)

Unique factor about Haw Par Villa

Ten Courts of Hell – Chinese depiction of afterlife
Chinese classics’ sculptures – Journey to the West, Eight Immortals, Tigers, leopard, animals, hybrid of animals & humans, and etc.

Tours around Haw Par Villa

1. Finding your Tao in Haw Par Villa; The Tiger Balm Garden Story
Daily Tour, started on 1st April 2018.
The tour starts at 10am daily, and tickets cost $5/$10.

2. Journeys to Hell; Death and the Afterlife in Haw Par Villa
Twilight Tour, Every Friday 6.30-8.30pm
Tickets cost: $9/$15/$18

Resources available:

Brochures
Site Maps
Descriptions of the sculptures
Official Haw Par Villa website

3. Primary Research

I captured some images and videosof Haw Par Villa during my trip there!

Video of Haw Par Villa!

Video of Ten Courts of Hell!

Images taken from Ten Courts of Hell & Haw Par Villa

4. Interviews and Online Survey

I interviewed a few visitors at Haw Par Villa

Interviewee 1 – A guy that came with a bunch of friends, from an International School!

Interviewee 2 – Chinese tourist that visited Haw Par Villa with family

Interviewee 3 – Singaporean, visiting Haw Par Villa with friends

Upon my visit, I wanted to reach out to a larger audience, regarding their perceptions of Haw Par Villa and the Ten Courts of Hell.

I divided my survey into 6 different sections, which will be easier for me to analyse the data.

Section 1 – Generic Questions & If they have/have not been to Haw Par Villa

Section 2 – If they have been to Haw Par Villa 

Section 3 – If they visited 10 courts of hell when they went to Haw Par Villa

Section 4 – More questions regarding the entire location in general 

Section 5 – For respondents that have never been to Haw Par Villa

Section 6 – Perception of afterlife, applies to all respondents.

5. Survey Results

I’ve gathered a total of 50 respondents for my online survey, and will proceed to analyse it quantitatively and qualitatively during my presentation!

Links & References

https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/hphotos-xaf1/t51.2885-15/e15/11328547_1585760318359537_503868936_n.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7240/7333093534_e95905406b_b.jpg

https://theculturetrip.com/asia/singapore/articles/history-of-haw-par-villa-in-1-minute/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haw_Par_Villa

http://www.hawparvilla.sg

http://cargocollective.com/sarahmok/Haw-Par-Villa

https://www.littledayout.com/2017/06/23/haw-par-villa-singapore-tiger-balm-gardens/

https://thelongnwindingroad.wordpress.com/2017/11/16/saving-haw-par-villa-from-certain-death/

https://remembersingapore.org/haw-par-villa/

https://www.remotelands.com/travelogues/closer-eye-hell-history-singapores-haw-par-villa/

https://www.wheresidewalksend.com/court-of-hell/

https://www.singaporememory.sg/contents/SMA-52a6c5a7-8c71-4e92-bb4b-ecf4fe278bde

And that’s about it for my research on Haw Par Villa!

Till then,
Flazéda!
jamz
x

EXP.INT | sousveillance

Surveillance, is a term many people are familiar with. It’s a French term, for “to watch from above”, which describes situations where person(s) of higher authority, such as security guards, department store owners, watch over people. (shoppers/citizens)

Sousveillance is something newly introduced, contradicting surveillance, as it relates to bringing cameras from the heavens, “down to earth”. Sous-veillance is French for “to watch from below”, the complete opposite from surveillance.

There are two aspects of sousveillance, hierarchy reversal & human-centeredness which are often interchangeable.

Sousveillance’s mainly acts as a tool for multimedia artists, for effortless capturing, processing, storing, recalling and transmitting of an activity by a participant in the activity.

Even in Singapore, sousveillance is getting more common, especially seen in STOMP, whereby users upload videos of other people, to raise social issues. Even drivers, they have cameras installed to record the happenings on the road.

In relation to Fine Arts, sousveillance is very much like “living art”. The sousveillance industry has been growing ever since, with workshops held. With the advancement in technology and art, there are more varieties of sousveillance art, one being lightvector painting, mentioned in the article.

Personally, I have a love-hate relationship with sousveillance art, especially when it involves human interaction. I like the concept whereby there are no hierarchical standing between both parties, and have a personal touch. But, there might be people taking advantage of it, resulting in an invasion of privacy. Per say STOMP, many users upload videos of other people with bad behaviour, and shaming them online, and the people in the video might not even know they are getting video-ed.

The intention of sousveillance might be good and useful, but with the addition of the Internet and social media, it might turn things the other way.

This actually caused me to be more aware of my surroundings, and always be on my best behaviour in public, as we won’t know, we might be the next people that get video-ed without consent and leaking it online.

Till then,
Flazéda!
jamz
x