Task
To design equations that describe about ourselves.

Ideation:

We were given a lot more room for creativity in this project as there was no restriction on type of medium.

These were some ideas I had while brainstorming:

Idea 1: Initally, I went straight into describing myself with random details about my personality. However, I felt there wasnt a strong overarching idea that ties the 4 different equations together as a whole and decided to ditch it. (which I realise was a big mistake and very unnecessary)

Idea 2: I decided to string the 4 equations together by listing them in a consecutive format:

Lazy me + exams = NERVOUS ME

Nervous me + Result Day =SAD ME

Sad me + Watch F.R.E.I.E.N.D.S = HAPPY ME

Happy me + Intellectual me = ACCOMPLISHED ME

|end.|

I wanted to use animals to represent myself solely because I like to illustrate animals. At this point of time, I’ve decided to try watercolour. I wasnt sure if this was a good move. But my intention was to try a different medium from the usual design projects. (usually, I would use illustrator/photoshop for design projects.) Here was a try-out for one of the image:

Instead of limiting myself to a fixed set of colours, I decided to use a range of similar colours in one image. Such as the graphic illustrations by Joey Chou

I decided to push it a little further in terms of my idea and use the animals to represent random stuff about my ADM/University life:

I felt that the use of University life as a shared experience with my experience. This became a problem as I felt that it lacked a personal voice. Bad move!

I ditched my ideas. AGAIN.

This time round, I decided talk to someone to discuss about it as I felt that I was too cooped up with my own ideas and self-restrictions. (I find talking with people is a very good way to generate ideas)

I talked to my mum as she knows me best. She started to recall some interesting episodes about me which describes my personality. One of it was my bad tamtrums I had while attending music class at 4 years old. Back then, my mum was the typical kiasu mum who decided to send me to music class despite me never showing interest in it. I did like drawing but she felt drawing classes were a waste of money. (like I could make money with music???) I on the other hand, would have nasty tantrums before every lessons.

While I’m no longer forced to attend classes I dislike now, I still witness such experiences in my students when I teached art to young kids on Saturdays. I would encounter students who just rebels and dont do the work given. As much as it is frustrating to handle such students, i can empathise with their frustrations.

Hence I decided to tell a story on the reversed roles I had taken up in life.

1. Student – Teacher

2. Local – Tourist

The difference of being a local and being a tourist was something I experience I had pretty recent and think about it from time to time. For 2 days in Melbourne (during recess week), I was alone exploring the city. It was my very first experience of (somewhat) ‘solo travel’ and it really made me see myself and my home country from very different perspective.

Way before when I travelled lesser, I often find Singapore really bleak and skyscrapers everywhere. I was very much caught up in my comfortable world. Hence, i decided to use bleak colour tones to represent Singapore and place myself in a ‘Singapore globe’. I include as much reference about Singapore in my design.

My second image is toying with the fact that Singapore is always known for being a 24/7 summer city to most tourist. I used more cheerful and bright colours for the image and blue to represent the ever sunny sky in Singapore. I didnt want to be bias to any nationality hence, I decided to represent them with aliens entering via UFO.

The outcome of me lacking exposure to the outside world and often leads me to share about my home country from facts I picked up from Social studies class. I decided to insert humour here and portray it as a political poster. I strongly referenced the Chinese revolutionary posters in their use of visual reference. The use of intense red represent the burning passion for one’s country and the radiating lines clearly put across the figure of idolisation. Once again, I included as much reference about Singapore such as me donned in a Kebaya (signature uniform of SIA) and holding up a Singlish book.

Moving on to the next equation, I am portrayed as a tourist. Hence, the sun hat and some architecture in the background. The pale yet bright colours was to represent the sense of ‘fresh and foreign’ when in a foreign country.

Me falling from into the waters where lies a city beneath was a reference to the metaphor ‘fish out of water’. To me, being IN the water is ‘out of water’ as I am slow in adapting to new environments. The blue was to represent the sense of strangeness I feel when I am in a foreign place for the first time.

Lastly, was the outcome of learning more about my country when overseas. When overseas, I often can’t help but start comparing it with Singapore. This was especially so about the public transport in Singapore and Melbourne. Back in Singapore, I would get frustrated when there are train delays or waiting time is more than 5min. But I realised I had taken such convenience for granted when in Melb where buses runs on timetable (which means missing a bus would result in another 30 min wait for the next one) and intervals between train service are about 15 min. Both countries are major cities yet things can still be very different. This made me cherish the convenience of travel back in Singapore a lot more. (Melb is still a beautiful place btw!)

So here is a picture of my overall work:

4 years old who loves drawing + attending music lesson I dislike = me feeling very tied up
19 year old me who do art + teach art to young kids = feel like I’m the one tying them down (esp those who dislike drawing)
comfotable me as a Singaporean + meeting foreigners in our sunny island = sharing about my country in a chauvinistic POV
me as a tourist + going new places = sees my country from a new POV