Month: April 2019

Final Project – Form and Visualisation

For this final project, we were tasked to design an installation structure that consists of a reclining or seating element in a we chose based on an aural memory or a heightened Aural experience from the site. 

SITE CHOSEN: LOCATION C

We had to do a site analysis and I did it with Sylvia.

Here is the link to our site analysis:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1kA-026fkRgXGMiJuSf-a0oST_dCtxA-e-GZ6zLgwJjA/edit#slide=id.g4d2db81b60_0_45

After analysing the site for measurements, circulation path, gathering point, sun direction, etc, we proceeded to the research and development of our installation.

Research & Development

At this stage, we had to design our ideas using only paper cup and at most, one other element if needed. To me, this was probably the most challenging part as I found it tough to develop ideas based on paper cup forms. I decided to just experiment without any drawings nor ideas in mind and just started creating.

Here are my developments:

After consultation, I settled on a particular idea. My lecturer mentioned that the curvature of my installation should be expressed better and hence, instead of straight lines, I decided to go ahead with the twisting element of the sticks.

I chose my materials to be: Balsa Wood, Skewer Bamboo Sticks, and Art Card

Upon attempting my final model, it became clear that I could not go ahead with Balsa Wood as the nature of the wood is too fragile for an expressive curve as it broke.

Hence, I attempted my model with Basswood. I wet this for about 4 hours and shaped it. I made sure to clamp it down and use concentrated heat to shape it into place.

Here is the process through pictures:

Another thing was that I wanted the grills to the seat to be able to slide so that during the day, one can block out the sun whereas during the night, they may slide it open.

FINAL

Take note that this is a 2-3 seater chair.

SKETCHES/PRESENTATION BOARD

Final Project (Dark Object): Family Portrait

FAMILY PORTRAIT

by Jessie and I

Description:

While designers bank mostly on the capitalisation of mass production, critical thinking is rarely involved in the making of their designs. This disregards the very need for emotional and personal connection to the average consumer. Our dark object aims to provide an immersive, emotional experience for viewers while telling a narrative, in an attempt to portray the multifaceted feeling of loneliness and abandonment.

Our narrative, essentially, depicts a story of an elderly man, suffering the loss of his son, daughter-in-law and his three granddaughters through an unfortunate accident that involved the negligence of his son when he drank and drive. They were on their way to celebrating his birthday. Every year since then, he gets reminded of that feeling of loss and abandonment as he lives by himself and celebrates his remaining birthdays, mourning their loss.

The purpose of this object is not to torment but for one to reflect on the importance of valuing what we have, at this moment in time. In this life, we can be too caught up on the riches of life yet forget the most basic of it all, love and family.

Design Process Documentation 

Documentation Video

Body Storming

Developmental Drawings

Play Test

Video of Actual Installation

Click here for video!

The images Lei shared during her brief regarding ‘Accessories for Lonely Men by Noam Toran from 2001 really stood out to us so we were inspired to create our project based on that. Emotional connection with the user was of the essential focal point when creating the narrative, audio and visuals. We also focused on creating an ambience physically where we played around with the scent associations of an elderly man. We also added an old tartan shirt to add to the connection of the user, playing the role of the elderly man.

As mentioned earlier, the intent of our object is merely to spark and tug on heartstrings of users. It is to allow for an immersive experience for users to remind them of their loved ones. We get too caught up with the happenings in our lives that we forget to treasure the people we have left.  The very people who actually will be there for us regardless the circumstance.

Hence, this is to allow users to be able to connect with the art, though might not be from a first person’s perspective, they would still be able to follow through the narrative and feel affected enough by it to trigger an emotion.

Instructables:

What we needed:

PSEUDO CODE

With regards to the narrative, the sound was designed according to its association with the storyline.

Main character: ‘Ah Kong’

Rest of the characters: 3 Granddaughters, Son, Daughter-in-law

As the user approaches the frame, the ultrasonic sensor will trigger the WhiteLEDs to turn on.

Played through a bluetooth speaker, it starts off with the ambience sound of “Happy Birthday” being sung to ‘Ah Kong’ which also acts as Ah Kong’s reminiscent to his past birthday with his beloved family. This is meant to establish context and add atmospheric noise to the room.

A separate headphone plays the calling of Ah Kong by his granddaughters. It should be loud enough to attract users to pick up the headphones and create urgency for them to do so. This guides the users as to their next step.

As they pick up the headphone, the photocell will trigger the next audio to play. This audio is of the son, talking to his dad, ‘Ah Kong’, establishing that he it was ‘Ah Kong’s’ birthday but his son could not make it for dinner but is still planning to come over with his family to celebrate the remaining evening with his father. He skips the planned dinner to head out for an evening of beers with his friends before driving his family to ‘Ah Kong’ house.

The audio then switches to him driving, in the state of being drunk, and speeding in the car. The end of the audio triggers the servo motor to push the frame down, signifying the first death of the narrative, ‘Ah Kong’s’ son.

With this, the next audio is triggered where the audio of his granddaughters are played, calling out to him. This, like before, acts like an indicator to guide the user to pick up the frame.

Upon picking up, user should realise that one of the WhiteLEDs, the one of the father, that is, has been switched off where the WhiteLEDs on the rest remains. The next audio establishes the context that the rest of the family except ‘Ah Kong’, were in the car during the accident, while they were on the way to celebrate ‘Ah Kong’s birthday’. The end of the audio triggers the servo motor to push the frame down.

Once again, the indicator of the granddaughters calling out to ‘Ah Kong’ will be played to guide the user on the next step. As they pick up the frame, like before, the 3 other WhiteLEDs are switched off, indicating the death of the mother, and 2 of the older kids.

The user will notice the youngest child’s WhiteLED is still lit but will be blinking while her audio crying will be played and faded out. The audio will end with the switching off of her WhiteLED, indicating her death too.

After which, the RedLED’s of all 5 members of the family will be flashed at their hearts, signifying their death while ‘Ah Kong’s’ WhiteLED will still be turned on, conveying the idea that he is still alive.

HOW IT WORKS:

Step 1: Connection to Arduino

Step 2: Coding – Arduino – Servo Motor & Lights

Step 3: Coding – Processing – Sound

Step 4: Building

Step 5: Creating a physical ambience with scents and set-up

Please refer to:  https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/jtiong002/family-portrait/

Reflections:

This project has allowed me to really understand the ins and outs of an interactive project. As a whole Experimental Interaction served as a platform for me to understand the culture of making, open sharing and collaborative art pieces, which are done to provoke and trigger emotions, conversations and debate. What we have learnt over the past few weeks during research critique have equipped us with the basis to create a hopefully, effective installation for users to experience. We realised that we were both very much drawn to the aspect of family and abandonment and most particularly, elderlies and how they are often under-appreciated. We wanted to dive deeper into that. If I am being honest, the coding didn’t come naturally for me and I struggled through the process of coding. I would definitely be brushing up during the holidays as I feel like it could be a hindrance for me to achieve a greater understanding of the subject matter. I am truly interested in the art of interactivity, in particular, if it involves social matters.

As for sound engineering, I felt like I have really understood the craft of creating an ambience and emotion with audio. This project allowed me to evoke emotions for users without visuals and that’s the biggest takeaway for me because it taught me the importance of sound and the ability of how certain elements could work with others for users to make associations and paint a picture in their heads.

All in all, this project was definitely one that was extremely challenging given the huge amount of complicated coding involved, coupled with the multiple elements that went into it such as the building of the object. This was very much important so as to simulate the proper installation and create a reality for users.

 

Project 2 – Locale Zine: Toa Payoh

This is it! The final project for Graphic Form this semester.

For Project 2, we were required to create a zine based on the allocated locations.

Zine is a “self-published, non-commercial, independent publication” where you can pretty much be experimental in your different ways to express your ideas or message such as through type, illustrations, form, colour and more.

I was allocated the location, Toa Payoh. At the beginning, I was not quite keen on this location as I was unfamiliar with it. Furthermore, the nature of the location did not really spark any sudden ideas for the direction I would like to take for my zine. However, I tried to keep an open mind!

We were first required to present Part I: Site analysis, documentation & Research. 

This allowed us to establish the context, history and uncover stories or architecture of the place, that would help generate for our zines.

I did a pre-site-research before visiting so that I would roughly be able to look out for things as I went along. It allowed me to cover important or iconic areas of the location and be more focused during site visits.

I generated 3 ideas, as stated in the link above:

  1. “The firsts of..”
  2. The Old and New
  3. Freaky Tales

I went back and forth between the 3 ideas as I had several areas of exploration for the three options and was not quite sure which one I wanted to pursue. I felt quite lost for the first couple of weeks as I had a tough time deciding on my creative direction. I wanted to attempt illustration as I knew that it was a weaker area of mine, as compared to photo manipulation.

I ended up deciding to go ahead on Option 3: Freaky Tales of Toa Payoh as I felt like that expressed Toa Payoh quite well when I visited the location. In addition to that, I was genuinely more drawn to and fascinated by the murderous and haunting cases that happened in the area.

Originally, photo manipulation came to mind. However, I realised that with photo manipulation for the horror theme is something that was quite predictable. For instance, the glitch images using RGB channels such as these:

I wanted to try a different direction. I’ve always been interested in Gestalt but never really got around to trying it as my illustrative skills weren’t the best. However, when Ms Mimi showed us images by Noma Bar,

my interest was once again piqued. Of course this stylistic approach demands for critical thinking in design where you are challenged a step further to make universally recognisable associative images and link it to another image metaphorically. Personally, as an aspiring designer, I knew that wasn’t where my capabilities lie as of yet.

During my many attempts,

PHOTOS

After a few consultations with Ms Mimi, I started my illustrations and went for a different stylistic approach. For this particular zine, I did not really have an artist reference. Rather, I developed my illustrations based on what I thought suited the narrative and played around with composition and visual cues.

I felt like my graphic style was drawn from Noma Bar but I adapted it to fit my style.

This zine was particularly challenging for me due to the very fact that I had to create visual cues that would identify with the masses while connecting the images to the narrative and establishing the architecture of Toa Payoh. In addition to that, I did not really have reference images in terms of style so I had to develop my own. In a way, it was kind of like discovery of my style!

However, in reference to the choice of bold colours, I was influenced by Tom Haugomat

Also, I was very used to using muted pastel tones when I illustrate but I decided to go for bolder colours this time around to communicate my ideas.

My  main selected colour scheme:

Font: 

10pt

My narrative: 

Basically, I read up on a lot of paranormal happenings and murder cases in Toa Payoh and wanted to cover many stories but I realised that my zine was only 8 pages and establishing context needs to be done. Therefore, having too many stories may overwhelm the audience.

Therefore, I decided on a narrative where I, as a third person, having a third eye, goes to Toa Payoh to explore and met lost souls where I hear their stories and tell them through the zine.

Consistency — The white colour represents the lost souls.

My process: 

Sketches: PHOTOS

 

Illustration Process: PHOTOS

1st page:

This page was meant to communicate the title, The Third Eye and represent the illustration of me, having this ability.

Development:

The Final Page:

I decided to crop the whole face illustration to just the eyes to communicate the third eye reference. The moon indicates the association of these lost souls who only come out in the dark, at night.

 

2nd - 3rd page:

This page was meant to set the tone and narrative to readers where I establish that me, as a third person, is going to the other side to communicate with the lost souls from the underworld.

I experimented with compositions and used a unique place in Toa Payoh that had a nice contrast against the nature of old buildings in Toa Payoh; Toa Payoh Town Park. The motif that stood out to me there were the hexagonal-shaped border of a pathway.

Photo I took and used of Toa Payoh Town Park:

Development:

The message of this particular page was to relay that I was crossing over to the other side to communicate to the unknown. Some of them did not look like I was actually in motion to reach the other side.  Constructing the composition of this page to deliver the right message was particularly challenging here. As I had to have a balance between the reaching out of the unknown figure and me, as a third person is mutual.

The page next to the above is this one below. I tried to play around with the initials of Toa Payoh (TPY) to fit it into the proportion of the face using typography but I disliked how it looked. Hence, I decided to keep it simple as I wanted the text to stand out in this particular page since it establishes the main context that act as an introduction.

Final spread:

Whilst playing around with layout, I realised that I could communicate the idea of the underworld through the illustration. The underworld is represented as the opaque image where I visibly look smaller compared to the real world depicted below the image above that served as a reflection in lower opacity. I played around with opacity that illustrated the opaque one as the current reality of this zine.

 

4th - 5th page:

This particular page is the recreation of a case that happened back in 2015.

Reference to story:

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/guilty-as-charged-adrian-lim-and-his-2-holy-wives-kidnapped-tortured-and

Basically, this guy who assumes the job of a medium, kidnapped two kids and tortured, rape and murdered them.

The landscape in this is a graphic illustration of the actual house where this incident happened. I used the shadow man because ‘shadow monster’ is usually associated to the monsters children are afraid of.

Development:
Final spread:

I decided to add a knife that resembles that the man was actually one who is evil and has killed them. The lost souls are represented by the white colour and this was consistent throughout. It also acts as the highlight of the page in which the text, if any, is related to the white figures and it tells their narrative.

 

6th - 7th page:

For this spread, the reference to this story was inspired by:

http://www.hungzai.com/bidadari-cemetary/

In summary, this is a story of a cross-cultural love story that was not accepted. The lady experienced unrequited love where she was rejected by her lover even after moving out of her house to pursue her relationship with him. They moved into Bidadari Cemetery where she was forced into prostitution to fund her boyfriend’s gambling habits. She got pregnant and the guy refused to accept her and the baby. Hence, she committed suicide.

In this image, I was trying to communicate that due to the rejection by her boyfriend, who happens to be the only loved one she had left since she abandoned her family to be with him, the boyfriend not only led to her suicide but also the murder of the baby.  I used visual metaphor to communicate it where the usage of silhouettes and associative representations were used.

The cemetery illustrated in this imagery is also extracted from the real Bidadari cemetery. The challenges in this particular spread was definitely the composition and where I should introduce a highlight to the page without overwhelming it while still highlighting the cemetery as a location. I also still wanted the attention to also be kept on the stories of the souls.

For this particular spread, it was originally just the image of the lady, baby with noose and man’s hand as a whole spread.

But I added other elements as shows below.

Development:
Final Spread:

I decided to introduce a slight textural element to the image with white dots that resemble a starry night as I felt that it looked too plain and didn’t seem interesting enough.

 

8th page:

For this final page, I wanted it to conclude my zine and relay a location through an iconic image.

Therefore, with Ms Mimi’s suggestion, I decided to illustrate myself, seemingly depicted smaller compared to the compiled lost souls that are behind me. There is a spotlight shining but the remain to stay in the shadows which metaphorically also symbolise their inability to be spotted by the average person. Also, I added a shadow that for the illustration of me to symbolise that I am “alive” while the lost souls aren’t. I am also in colour which helps to amplify the latter.

To me, this was probably the most challenging page as I was really struggling with composition. I wanted to showcase the iconic dragon playground to establish the location but could not find the correct proportions.

I also played with distortion through replication and opacity for the dragon playground.

Development:
Final Page:

I actually decided to go ahead and print the image below as the last page but ended up really disliking it as it did not look cohesive with the rest of the aesthetics of the zine. Also, it looked very distracting and has an unbalanced composition.

Hence, I went to reprint the whole zine after changing it to the below:

I felt like it looks cleaner and conveys the intention of the idea better, in my opinion.

Also, notice the text here, it is a continuation to the text in the cover page.

I did two print tests before printing the final one where I used Maple White (150gsm) and Coated Paper (135gsm).

Maple White: Matte paper – I didn’t like how the texture absorbed the ink too much to the point where my illustrations looked faded.

Coated Paper – I preferred this effect where it allowed most of the ink to remain on the surface of the paper and reflects the colour better. However, the paper wasn’t bright enough which was why I decided to go with Bright White as my final.

I ended up going with Bright White paper (135/150gsm). It added a slight tinge of red to my zine which added the creepy effect to my zine as well!

VIEW FOR FINAL ZINE

All in all, I felt like despite the many challenges (and frustration) I had creating this zine, I felt like I did try my best and am overall satisfied with how it turned out. As with any designs, there are always things you would like and definitely can improve on. I did not manage to communicate the gestalt theory completely, but I am glad I did attempt something out of my comfort zone.

I used the above, which are elements of gestalt to help generate ideas for my illustrations when I can.

Given more time, I would love to develop the architectural part of Toa Payoh and incorporate it more into the zine. However, I guess what I was going with for this zine is more so something that is open for interpretation. Same goes for the dialogues used to communicate storyline. It was supposed to be open for interpretation as well.

Comments during crit!

However, given the feedback during the crit session, I understood and totally agree that I could do better in the representation of toa payoh. Will think about it for Vol 2 of this zine! Hehe

FINAL PROJECT PLAY TEST

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT & PLAY TEST

A group project by Jessie and I

During the body storming session, we managed to get quite a bit of feedback that were relatively helpful. In summary, we gathered that we lacked relatability in our object for it to be impactful to users. In addition to that, we had several technical difficulties. With that, we made improvements in our play test.

Here’s what went on!

VIDEOS

Our set-up:

What we were trying to do:

  1. Having the tester approach the object and have the ultrasonic sensor to trigger the white lights to be switched on and ambience sound to be played.
  2. The range of the of proximity of the tester will trigger next sound
  3.  The servo motor was to topple the frame down
  4. Each time the frame topples down, the tester is expected to pick it up and see that the white light of each member will be turned off one by one as the steps go on.
  5. Repeat 2, 3 and 4 until the red LED is turned on at the same time,  glowing against all the faces of the family members who died in the accident, leaving grandpa’s LED to remain white.

However, as expected, during our playtest, we ran into a couple of problems in terms of technicality and relatability.

PROBLEMS:

Technical :

— RGB Light not being able to turn a true white

— Processing coding

— Servo coding

— Soldering

Comments:

— The narrative was relatively clear in which the depiction of the story interpreted by the testers were accurate

— The testers were unsure of what they were supposed to do.

— The mechanism of interaction isn’t clear in that it needs something to draw the testers to interact with the object

We tried to ask questions to the class to understand what type of commands and associations are needed to allow for a more seamless interaction.

Suggestions: 

— Need something to ask the user to come closer & interact with the frame

  • have audio calling out to user
  • start with the frame down first and the audio calls out to user to help to push user to pick up the frame
  • as this happens, users will see the lights go out

— Establish context

  • have a journal together with the interaction
  • death of date circled
  • have physical ambience (belongings associated to that of an old person such as walking stick and metal tin) ‘
  • have ambience sound play first
  • establish sound of grandpa so users can understand that they are the grandpa then followed by the “Happy Birthday” audio

— Immersive Experience

  • have headphones
  • establish ambient sound, as the user puts headphones on, the interaction starts
  • have a deeper narrative
  • make the experience longer as it seemed rushed

Videos to check out!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Hn3kYPXcbG0nlgf7zvKZ66lRV-HtnE4N

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZLxrvNiQUHb1vnh1ZAlbg2gEfDsymcw3

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wZiYl5-59Pk-DnoP8B45d_EKTh0ctfMF

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1U4mIyoTNsV25uh4WCyIKAAimwzSVf2c0

Therefore, with the considerations of the comments made and the help our lecturer provided us during consultation, we attempted to move on to our final project.

Check it out!

 

 

 

Final Project Development Drawings

DEVELOPMENTAL DRAWINGS

A group project by Jessie and I

Establishing context, Jessie and I chose Option B – Dark Object where we designed and built an object that communicated the emotions of loss, loneliness and self-pity, as mentioned in the brief.

We both came up with a few ideas and realised that we shared one idea in which it had a common denominator, in that they involved the loss of a family member.

Therefore, collectively, we decided to merge this idea and develop it:

BRAINSTORMING IDEAS :

A1: Leaving dirty dishes on the table after a meal that will result in replicating the nagging from mum that has passed on.

A2: Forgetting your towel in the shower and needing your dad to pass it to you. Presented through a disobedient object that'll move in the opposite direction to you as you reach for the towel hanged on it to simulate how dad used to tease you.

A3: Having the mat to trigger a prayer/chant before eating to simulate parents who are always reminding you to say your prayers/grace.

A4: Altar/prayer area activated as you walk pass to keep as a reminder and simulate the presence of a parent/elderly who used to frequent the altar.

A5: Door mat triggering the sound from a child that passed on when someone walks and steps on the doormat in the child's room.

A6: Having an object to simulate a parent waking up the child every morning where the alarm will trigger the motor to roll the blanket out of the bed.

 

A7: Reminder alarm is triggered once the laudnry basket is filled to recreate the nagging from mum when you don't empty the laundry baskets into the washer.

A7

A8: A snack cabinet that triggers the recreating of the nagging of a parent when you reach for a snack.

FINAL CHOSEN IDEA

A9: Family photo frame where when coupled with an associated audio, will trigger it to be knocked down each time a family member passes.

The feedback from this idea was the best from both our classmates and lecturer.

We felt that this idea had the most potential as well.  Jessie and I also felt that we could connect most with this idea.

The next step was to figure out how people would interact with our object and what elements and tools to consider.

Link to our body storming session:  Click here