Exercise: Clock Time

Hey world I’m back for a short exercise. Today in 4D class Lei talked about the different types of time in film, then asked us to make a 30 second film that expressed clock time, which is time that is quantitively measured, usually in defined units, like hours and minutes and seconds. I just decided to go with linear time as it seemed easier and I already had an idea in mind!!

Brainstorming!!

And here’s the video:

Ok back to work!! Bye B-)

  • Niki

The Subverted Object

[[[ F O R K ]]]

Weird title but that was my object for this project! So basically Lei’s assignment was for us to received an object and take photos of the object displaying its physical attributes or practical uses. After that, we had to take the object and subvert its meaning by changing or celebrating or critiquing the object’s meaning, or showing it’s cultural significance. Finally, we had to pick a picture and include text that would anchor or relay the message of the photo. I think everyone was stumped when they got their object and yah that included me too. :’)

The first task was okay, but the second task was killer. Subverting a fork?? At first I kept thinking along the lines of Poseidon’s trident, the Devil’s pitchfork, a fork in the road, blablabla. I even thought about how Ariel used a fork to comb her hair in The Little Mermaid??

But my previous project about me suffered from a lack of a cohesive theme, and I really really wanted to avoid that dissatisfaction in this project.

My initial idea was to have the fork as a murder weapon throughout all three subverted images. The non-subverted images would be the ‘before the murder’ photos whereas the subverted images would be the aftermath of the crime, with a fork sticking out from their heads or backs or whatever. It sounded super ambitious tbh. And I had other clearer ideas that didn’t fit into the murder plan. And the first week I was just so swamped with work that I didn’t manage to take even a single test shot and I just became uber stressed ohmygad.

So the second lesson where we had consultations with Lei, she let us do this exercise thing where we would practice subverting our objects by drawing them in different scenarios which was super fun hehe! I would show my drawings but they’re back in hall and I’m at home. :’) Upload later! Anyway, when I proposed my murder idea to Lei, as well as the other ideas, she proposed that I could just do matching sets of pictures with a theme for each set, like ‘eating’ or ‘killing’. The idea was SOLID MAN so I went ahead and did it.

Continue reading “The Subverted Object”

Gaia’s Ikebana: 3D Project 2

Hello friends! In this new post I will be giving an overview on the 2nd 3D project: Gaia’s Ikebana! Now I wasn’t at the 2nd lesson where most of the guidelines were given but I did know that I had to combine the shapes of a cone, sphere and a cylinder while incorporating the themes of food, a particular season, and ikebana, Japanese traditional flower arrangement. The season I got was spring!

SPRINGTIME RESEARCH

I needed to be able to find food that fit the theme of spring while fulfilling the shapes of a cone, cylinder and a sphere. I thought narrowing down the food to Japanese themed spring food would be more suitable since we were also bringing ikebana into the mix!

Japanese Spring Cabbage

Image taken from The Spruce. Image by Brett Stevens/Getty Images

Japanese Spring Potato

Taken from The Spruce. By Adam Gault/Getty Images

Sakura Mochi

Taken from Japan Info. Source: www. jp.fotolia.com/

Japanese seaweed

Picture taken from Hello Glow.

Japanese seaweed seems to be more of a staple food rather than a spring food, but I thought it would tie in nicely with my idea for a cone, as cone shaped food is really hard to find, so I thought of making a cone out of something flat and flexible instead.

Pandora’s Box: Final Project!

Hello guys! 🙂

So last week I updated y’all on the process about my new sketch models. After that Cheryl gave me more feedback during class and so based on the new feedback, I went on to create my single final model!

Unfortunately, on Friday I came down with a fever during class and couldn’t stay through the whole thing to see the other’s works and the critiques. :'( Plus when I was packing up to drag myself to the school clinic (damn cheap btw) I totally forgot to take pictures of the final model itself. Should’ve probably taken them the day before but I was so tired already and I had other work to do. 🙁 But I will be uploading them on Monday! So I’ll just put the description here first.

Here are the links to the previous posts concerning my process with Pandora’s Box:

3D Sketch Model: ‘Complementary’

Second Draft 3D Sketch Models for Pandora’s Box

[ FINAL MODEL ] COMPLEMENTARY

The final model is made out of 3 boxes! The biggest box was my original orange Nike box, except I trimmed the top cover of the box to make it fit more like a uniform box instead of sticking out like normal shoebox covers. Initially I wanted to make the bottom box entirely out of wood, but I couldn’t find such big slabs of wood, so I improvised and instead bought cork tape to cover up the box to give a ‘woody’ effect. This was so that I could convey a sense of being grounded but not too flashy as well. The next box is a small box wedged into the top of the big box made out of foam, then covered in hard black paper, such that it would be very muted and less noticeable. After that, I stacked up the final box that was also made out foam, but covered in aluminium sheets that I had cut and glued all over the box (very tedious ouch). I wanted to bring out a feeling that the top box was very heavy and significant, to bring about the feeling of ‘levitation’ into the overall structure as well. I was inspired by modern house structures that are very industrial looking and make use of wood, glass and black metal as complementary materials.

I made it such that the relationships between all the boxes was obvious even from different directions, as I’ll show in the 2D Sketch Analyses later. The large ‘wooden’ box is the dominant, the aluminium box is the subdominant, whereas the little black box is the subordinate.

 

2D SKETCH ANALYSES OF FINAL PROJECT

2D Sketch Analysis of Final Pandora’s Box: Front View
2D Sketch Analysis of Final Pandora’s Box: Back View
2D Sketch Analysis of Final Pandora’s Box: SIde View
2D Sketch Analysis of Final Pandora’s Box: Top View
2D Sketch Analysis of Final Pandora’s Box: Bottom View

As you can see from the analyses, I aligned the middles of the dominant and the subdominant for a more balanced look, thus bringing in a complementary sense. However, I decided to position the subordinate more to side to bring in more interest into the composition, but still at the 1/3 marking of both the subdominant and the dominant, thus tying both the ideas of unity and variety into the model without discounting on the design aspect. Furthermore, I used the positioning such that all the boxes would be visible from any angle. If I had made the subordinate shorter, or placed the subdominant further outwards, from the top or bottom views, there would have been boxes that would have been obscured.

 

APPLICATIONS

SMALL-SCALE APPLICATION: STUDY BUDDY

Small-scale application for Final Pandora’s Box
Small-scale application for Final Pandora’s Box

My small-scale application for my model would be a Study Buddy, a machine to assist students or office workers in organising their study life/daily schedules! The first picture shows how the Buddy will be used, whereas the second picture shows the Buddy before it is put to use. The top will be a clock displaying the time and personalised messages. It can even show the weather and other relevant information with a click of a button. The lower half will be used as a message board to hold post-its, reminders, memos, inspirational messages and photos..the list goes on! Apart from that, there is an additional night light attached to the box that can be turned on and off, depending on the time of the day, making sure that the user does not strain their eyes.

 

LARGE-SCALE APPLICATION: RESTAURANT TABLE

Large-scale application for Final Pandora’s Box

My choice for the large-scale application would be a restaurant table! The large surface will serve as a table, whereas the smaller subdominant will serve as a small side table for the customer to place their belongings, or stack their finished dishes on. The subdominant red box is a small drawer to store cutlery and tissues for the customers to use, and could also serve as a beverage dispenser.

 

FINAL REFLECTIONS

While I am fairly happy with my final work, I feel that there were certain aspects I could have improved on. For example, I could have made more use of the crafting techniques like wedging, cradling and piercing, and I could have contrasted the materials better, like making the top of the dominant different from the material of the subordinate. I will definitely take note of these and improve on these aspects for the next Project, Gaia’s Ikebana. Till then, see yall next post! :)))

  • Niki

 

 

My Line Is Emo: Final Work!

Hello people!! Monday was the presentation for the final work for the first 2D project: ‘My Line is Emo’ and so with all the feedback and past experiences in making my lines, I’m reaaaady to conclude the project with a final write up about everything! 😀

[ FINAL WORK ]

My Line is Emo: Final Work by Niki Koh

 

[ THEME  + PROCESS ] Leaving Tokyu Hands

So during the holidays I decided to work at a shop that I frequented a lot called Tokyu Hands (at Suntec), and I really learn’t a lot and made a lot of good memories and friends with my coworkers there. Despite trying to continue on with the job for a month in NTU, I decided that I couldn’t work and study at the same time and decided to quit and left like a week before this presentation. Lotsa tears were shed okay :’) and there was a lot of emotion involved, so I decided to focus on this current event in my life as the theme behind my work.

However, I wasn’t really sure about how to exactly execute this. I had a strong concept behind my ideas but I had no idea how to put these ideas out on paper visually. I made a mindmap to try and consult Joy with the previous experimentations I had done last time:

Mindmap for My Line is Emo, Niki Koh

Joy’s feedback was that since I had such a strong theme behind my lines, why not try to incorporate as much of that theme into the work itself as possible, by using things from the workplace to create marks? Like my name tag (which I had to give back so), my shoes, receipts, coworker’s hands….and I thought the idea was really good (and I also wondered why I hadn’t thought of that HAHAHA). So on Hari Raya Haji I went back to Suntec to try and hunt for materials. However, all I managed to get was sample paper that the customers wrote on to test the pens, and a receipt from MY OWN PURCHASE LOL sigh >$20 flew away from me. So I had to try and make do with those materials and other things that I already had, and actually I managed to pull it off okay!

Also, I thought it was a requirement to have one emotion from each emotional category but apparently that wasn’t the case LOL so I could’ve gone with other emotions but instead I limited myself. :’) But I think that’s okay because it made me think harder about how to portray certain emotions that I wasn’t very sure about.

Picture Story – Curating Self

Hi guys!!

This is my overall post for Foundation 4D’s first project: Picture Story – Curating Self. We were told that this one project required us to fulfill three tasks: the first, 3 photos that introduced yourself creatively, with at least one shot containing yourself. The second had us pick an object that was of significance to us and take a series of shots of it, and the last task was for us to select a location and also create a photo series about it. It was seriously challenging (not tryna be humble like legit it was so tough and time-consuming but also some parts of that are attributed to my own choices HAHAHA) but I managed to pull through like everyone and here’s my final wall!

FINAL ARRANGEMENT FOR CRITIQUE

Project 1: Picture Story – Curating Self by Niki Koh

Pandora’s Box: Second 3D Sketch Models

Hello guys!

So after a few weeks I’ve finally settled on  another look for my Pandora’s Box(es?) with the theme ‘Complementary’! After Cheryl introduced us to the concepts of wedging, cradling and piercing, I found that it was easier to come up with more vivid and interesting ideas and orientations for the boxes.

FIRST 3D SKETCH MODEL (A)

Second 3D Sketch Model A, Pandora’s Box, Side View
Second 3D Sketch Model A, Pandora’s Box, Front View
Second 3D Sketch Model A, Pandora’s Box, Back View
Second 3D Sketch Model A, Pandora’s Box, Top View
Second 3D Sketch Model A, Pandora’s Box, Bottom View

For this sketch model, I decided to go with the new technique that was introduced called wedging, where a section of a block is cut off such that the curve/corners of another box fit nicely into it. As you can see from the first and second pictures, I cut off a section of the blue foam so that it can fit onto the orange Nike shoe box! I went with this arrangement after Cheryl suggested that perhaps I could try to bring in an element of ‘levitation’ into the composition, and so I tried to stray away from the generic idea of ‘symmetry’ to convey complements. The blue strip is supporting the bigger white box to show the idea of harmony, which is further supported by the Nike box, to try to convey the idea of harmony despite differences.

I think the relationships between the 3 boxes are fairly easy to recognise – the orange Nike box is the dominant, the smaller white box on top is the subdominant, whereas the thin blue strip sticking out is the subordinate. Also, to go further with the idea of ‘complementary’, I arranged the boxes according to the Rule of Thirds, as shown here:

Second 3D Sketch Model A, Pandora’s Box, Side View with Guides
Second 3D Sketch Model A, Pandora’s Box, Top View with Guides

I hope I managed to convey a sense of wonder with the added ‘levitation’ that goes together with the harmonious arrangement of the boxes to create a model that is ‘complementary!’

SECOND 3D SKETCH MODEL (B)

Second 3D Sketch Model B, Pandora’s Box, Front View
Second 3D Sketch Model B, Pandora’s Box, Side View
Second 3D Sketch Model B, Pandora’s Box, Top View
Second 3D Sketch Model B, Pandora’s Box, Bottom View

My first model containing the same white box had all the boxes flush against each other on one side, resulting in taking away one axis and reducing the potential for a more dynamic model. So I decided to do away with the initial idea of playing with the colours of the boxes and focused more on creating an interesting arrangement of boxes. To bring about a more common idea of complementary, I decided to bring in an order of large, medium, followed by small into the model, with the biggest box on the bottom and the smallest one on the top. Thus, the relationships between the boxes are fairly easy to see, with the white grid box being the dominant, the smaller plank of foam the subdominant, and the thinnest piece the subordinate. With the varying sixes and dimensions of the boxes, there is a sense of having a cluster of contrasting volumes that makes the model more dynamic to look at!

I also incorporated the Rule of Thirds into the model to bring in a sense of harmony:

Second 3D Sketch Model B, Pandora’s Box, Top View with Guides

Hopefully I’ll be able to get feedback from Cheryl about the models and come up with a good final model!

  • Niki

Exercise 1: Scale and Framing

Good morning world! When I flew out of my room wearing sloppy shorts and slippers because it was raining I 100% did not expect to be doing a photo shoot the SAME VERY DAY HOW WONDERFUL. :^) But my face won’t be ruining my OSS anyway so it’s okay. Here’s my more photogenic classmate, En Cui instead.

En Cui sitting on some steps, Close-up view of her shoulder
En Cui sitting on some steps, Top view
En Cui sitting on some steps, Wide angle shot

I took a total of 18 shots and we had to filter out 3 photographs that we felt best-represented En Cui. But I also picked photos with various framing angles and scales. Fiddling with the DSLR was difficult but I hope I’ll be able to get the hang of it soon for 4D Project One.

  • Niki

My Line is Emo: Beginning My Mark-making Journey!!!

Hello!

So on Monday we had our second Foundation 2D class where we got to make our own mono prints with things that we brought from home/hall/anywhere! Because I was kinda in a rush I just grabbed a bunch of random rubbish from my room like tissue paper, wrapping tissue, string, cotton squares, and some cloth. I was really out of it that day haha I wish I had thought of picking up leaves and grass on the walk to school but it totally slipped my mind. Catch me in the 2D room with armfuls of grass next lesson.

Anyway, we were shown how to make the mono prints using linoleum squares, ink, and paper. Here’s a more detailed process for my future reference (or anyone’s future reference hehe):

  1. First, transfer the ink evenly onto the linoleum square using a brayer.
  2. Place your objects onto the inked surface, arranging them however you like.
  3. Place the sheet of paper onto the surface, making sure to press down when you carry around the linoleum square to prevent stuff from falling out.
  4. The fourth step, the creation of the print, has various methods. The press machine is one, where you place your square onto a board. The square is then squeezed evenly under a rolling metal cylinder, creating an even mono print. The second method is using a small circular plate to manually press across your linoleum square, giving rise to other interesting effects like circles or straight lines, depending on how you move the plate around. The last method is one that I found on my own (if I wasn’t supposed to do this, sorry to Joy in advance WHOOPS). I just took a clean brayer and rolled it over the surface of my mono print and it created lines and grids!
  5. Remove the paper from the square and let it dry.

Here are some examples of the mono prints I made in class:

Mono-print, Made with latex gloves
Mono-print, Made with latex gloves
Side by side comparison of the mono prints made with the latex gloves

These were the first prints I made with a pair of latex gloves that I brought! I thought the idea was cool but frankly I think the first one looks quite silly. Like someone’s hands with super extra fat fingers. The second one was an inverse print where you just remove the objects and re-roll the linoleum square with a fresh sheet of paper to capture the textures of the items itself, and I think the inverse print looks more interesting because it managed to capture the folds of the gloves. However, this print just felt like me just plainly whacking with whatever items I had, without much thought. But the first one was just a tester I guess!

Mono-print, Made with a long piece of cloth

This one was super stupid HAHAHA I thought using the cloth piece would show some cool effects but I forgot that all that happened was that the cloth would block the ink and it just came out to be a rough blob and I was so disappointed. :/ And then I wanted to do an inverse print but I mixed up the steps and ruined my chances of mono printing the cloth’s textures hais. I’ll keep cloth in mind for future mono printing! On the bright side it looks like a screaming stingray? ://

Mono-print, Made with cotton squares
Mono-print, Made with cotton squares
Side by side comparison of the mono prints made with cotton squares

This one I was quite happy with, especially the inverse print! It looks kind of like cells hovering around in space and minding their own business. I’m not even sure what the extra lines around the squares were but they look cool.

Mono-print, Made with torn up wrapping tissue
Mono-print, Made with torn up wrapping tissue

This one is slightly diifferent as it was done using the small circular plate! I moved it around across the paper as well as in circles. These are actually my favourite prints! I love the cloudy effect the inconsistent pressure has on the ink. Also the tiny dots speckled around (from what I don’t even know) remind me of stars, and the shapes of countries. However I can’t find them right now as I think I forgot to take them 🙁 Hopefully Tricia still has them!!

Mono-print, Made with my own bare hands covered in ink whew
Mono-print, Made with my own bare hands covered in ink whew

I think these also looked quite interesting hahaha I was running out of materials to use so I just thought about using my own hands! So I covered the linoleum square in ink, and pressed my hands into the ink. To not waste the ink on my hands I just pressed it all onto a piece of paper. Then I used a clean brayer to press the paper to the square, and out popped this print. Looks quite haunting to me, like some ghost is trying to push their way out of the paper hehe.

Mono-print, Made with a long piece of cloth

This one was made because I thought it was such a waste to throw away the long cloth after one use, so I tried to rearrange it on the square again and went through the whole inverse printing process. I used a brayer and it produces a super interesting effect I feel, with the sudden lines and grids appearing! I did not expect that effect at all, but I really like it.

Mono-print, Made with a string and leaves (credits to Dhanu lol)

This one was made in a RUSH but I think it’s really cool!! I used the brayer again to roll the paper, with a string arranged and a leaf I borrowed from Dhanu. I think it sorta looks like those prehistoric fish fossils from far away!! Or maybe it’s just me being weird at 1 AM whoops. :’)

I didn’t really have the idea of emotion in mind while I was creating the mono prints on Monday. I was more preoccupied with just experimenting with the prints and everything and I hope that was okay. Which I think it was because I think certain prints do express certain emotions! I’ll explore the theme of emotions more thoroughly when I go down to do the mono printing in my free time with new items. It’s super fun yall haha. See yall next post!

  • Niki

Pandora’s Box: 3D Sketch Models on ‘Complementary’

Hi yall! Last week after the 2D sketch model run-through, we had to take the boxes that we had brought to class and create a ‘Pandora’s Box’, a 3D sculpture made out of 3 boxes of varying sizes (to represent the dominant, subdominant and subordinate relationships), each with a theme assigned to it! My theme was ‘Complementary’, and after a lot of fiddling with masking tape and boxes, here are my two 3D Sketch Models.

Here is the first one:

3D Sketch Model: Complementary A, Front view
3D Sketch Model: Complementary A, Side view
3D Sketch Model: Complementary A, Top view
3D Sketch Model: Complementary A, Top left view

Complementary: combining in such a way as to enhance or emphasise the qualities of each other or another.

For this sculpture, I was going for a more organised look with the pattern of the boxes. So I thought of arranging it such that the boxes were all plain colours and patterns such that there wouldn’t be anything clashing, with the solid orange Nike box, grid patterned pen holder and the plain white lipstick box all on top of one another. I also tried to make it such that they were stacked from large to small, to go with the flow of the boxes’ sizes, of the dominant orange box, the subdominant grid box and the subordinate white box. I wanted it to be such that the idea of ‘stacking’ could emphasise on the different sizes of the boxes to bring an idea of support and harmony. Also, apart from the stacking, I selected the boxes to show roughly the ‘Rule of Thirds’ in the sculpture, with the smaller boxes being one-third of the length of the bigger boxes, and situated in the middle. With this, I hoped that the sculpture managed to convey a sense of compatibility within the three boxes!

However, I feel that the sculpture could be improved on if I perhaps wasn’t limited to a white and orange colour palette, and perhaps could work with other warm colours that could complement the orange even better, like yellow or red. Also, while I tried to stick to the ‘Rule of Thirds’, the top box still seems too small, and I feel that the small box on the top could stand to be more eye-catching to compensate for its size. Hopefully I’ll be able to address these issues next lesson!

Okay then, moving on to the next sculpture:

3D Sketch Model: Complementary B, Front view
3D Sketch Model: Complementary B, Side view
3D Sketch Model: Complementary B, Top view
3D Sketch Model: Complementary B, Top left view

For this sculpture I decided to go for a more colour-based idea! To be honest the theme of ‘Complementary’ was sorta hard because we were supposed to isolate the boxes from their colours and work with their shapes alone, and without colour I was completely stumped on how to complement shapes, so I don’t think I executed the idea very well for the second sculpture. But anyhow, I tried to do it such that the yellow and blue scheme of the Woods’ box matched the blue and yellow of the base box’s yellow and blue label, and same goes for the blue tissue packet with the box’s blue label. I also tried to arrange the blue tissue packet such that it helped to counterbalance the Woods’ box more elongated shape by sticking it onto the other side to weigh the Woods’ box down.

I think there are many ways I could be improving on this sculpture, first with the problem that I don’t think it’s very clear which box is the dominant or subdominant, as both the base and the Woods’ boxes stand out. I will probably need to get a bigger base box! Also, I feel that the overall arrangement of the boxes don’t really indicate that there is any harmony going on. It feels really random and misplaced. Hopefully I can find a better way to arrange my boxes or find better boxes for this second sculpture.

Anyway, I hope to be able to expand on the meaning of ‘Complementary’ next week, instead of just using colours and patterns, and to be able to actually use the boxes’ shapes and arrangements as more solid evidence for the theme. See yall next post!!

Edit: Also creds to Fiza for helping me hold my boxes HAHAHA hand model 10/10

  • Niki