Metastory: Fashion

I made my way to the general shop today, to get some supplies to clean up my new apartment. I saw around three other men in a span of 8 hours wearing the same outfit as me. They must have chosen the first thing they saw in the getup shop uptown.  I mean, not that there are many other choices to make but it is cool seeing that everyone has the same taste. Last year, the getup store started selling those loose pair of pants and everyone never looked back. It is so easy to put on and easy to run in, no wonder everyone has them.

The women, however, are still dressing the same! they never really surprise me other than the occasional watch some of them wear but I bet it is some page built into the system. It is a scary world but no one wants to admit it, but everyone is aware of it.

Talking about women, I saw a peculiar woman earlier today wearing a scarf. I think she comes from region-5969, further up south where the sand dunes still blow over every spring. It has been awhile since I saw or heard from their inhabitants from that side of the region. The last time I heard about anyone from region-5969, it was a note from my distant uncle, Ren who still possibly has his wife if she had not already gone through the pain of the war. He sent me hand woven scarfs in the mail until i moved to region-9658, I still keep them but my region does not wear it so i shall not. In this time, you do not really want to stand out from the crowds.

Metastory: Authority

I made my way to the local General office to get my lease renewed today. The computers in the place did not give me much problems with the recent update from the city. It concerned me a little because the recent updates took 5 hours longer than the normal 7 hour updating period.

The office clerk looked at me and nodded today, which was pretty nice judging the way everyone has been recently. Sometimes these small gestures really seem to make a difference in your day, but it is not my position to say if it is a good way or a bad way. The authorities never really acknowledged in their annual paper that there is this sort of tension between everyone after the war. They just brush it away thinking that this attitudes would blow over. Everyone’s so nice though but they only show it like the clerk at the general office, a glance or a nod, nothing else.

Metastory: Home

I moved to Region-9658 after my 4-month rental was over in region-9659. My neighbors said there was no use asking the authorities to extend my stay anyway because I did not have anything to do with the government anymore after the Sixth.

The reconstruction in 9658 is comparatively better than that of 9659 because it is closer to the City. I’m not complaining about the livelihood in Region-9658, I just feel like things do not have to be different anymore.

One thing different about the buildings here in 9659 are the bright green buildings that line up the street make my day as the streets are peaceful and wide. They finally took away the trees that sprouted out of nowhere and created this city with huge spaces where I can really breathe and relax from my nights away from the city. Everything has started to follow a certain system and I personally feel that this helps the regions a lot. After everything that went on, and the current depression looming through the streets of each region, It feels good to finally get back some sense of organization and systematicness.

4D Final Sketchup Proj // PROCESS

INSPIRATION FOR MY FINAL WORK.

I wanted to create a setting set in the artist’s Edward hopper’s world where it could reflect on the tension spread throughout the city Region-9658 after the war.

As the time period is a future not too far away from the present, I decided to create a coffee shop that is pretty modern and looks very unassuming at first glance. However, because of this, I would add barricades outside of the shop to act as the only objects outside the shop to create a post-war setting. This is like the red chair seen in the second photo.

Below, is a vintage shot of an alleyway led away from the main streets and there is a restaurant around the curb of the street.

I did not want to create the coffee shop at the curb of the sidewalk as I wanted to elevate the sense of seclusion in the setting made.

This was the closest thing I could find that seems like the setting Hopper has with his paintings. The light naturally streams into the tunnel.

However, I found it difficult to pan through the different buildings with different platforms around them,, therefore, I abandoned this idea. It would have been a great addition to add though.

Inspiration from Edward Hopper’s works

I mainly was inspired by this draft of Edward Hopper’s ‘Night Shadows’ 

From this painting, I was able to appreciate the vastness of the city by this use of intense light and the reluctance to add many or rather ANY details to the setting.

Through this devoid of detail, Hopper was able to create a world where the details did not matter and it streamlined audiences viewpoints to pay their full attention to space and buildings.

I could’ve added extra daunting music in the background… However, there is a certain silence in a typical Hopper image and it does owe largely to an absence of objects or actions that intimate sound. The silence seems charged with some sort of tension. so much so that the tension/tone would relax once any one visible source of sound is added in. Therefore, in order not to be reliant so much on sound and really using the silence to its potential, I chose not to add many objects around the curbs or even in the cafe.To see the light in the painting as intimidating, alienating or

On another hand, To see the light in the painting as intimidating, alienating or dehumanizing, much to popular criticism, is to miss the point: that this light is artificial. It is the light of man’s own devising to overcome the existential darkness, which was Edward Hopper’s New York setting as he was experiencing the time after the great depression.

On one hand, the picture is mundane. On the other, the image powerfully strikes a chord in us – the need for a sanctuary away from the strong light and consuming darkness (from submissions jk).

Working Title/Artist: Night Shadows
Department: Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art
Culture/Period/Location:
HB/TOA Date Code:
Working Date: 1921
photography by mma, Digital File DP221181.tif
retouched by film and media (jnc) 11_24_09

As you can see in the last two photos, the Chiaroscuro used on the paintings really create the setting instead of relying on objects to create the setting. These diagonal offsets of white boxes emphasize on the space and the mood of the seemingly bright colour schemes.

PROJECT: SIMPANG // FINAL

Presenting my final work! MY OWN PERSONAL ZINE:

This is my front page: and I elaborated it in the Process.


As advised by Shirley, the last page’s bird is there as it was one of the closest thing to life other than the plants and my limbs that day.

This runs through to why I chose to caption my pages/spreads as

  1. 1-800-ParkingPipes
  2. 1-800-RailingWindows
  3. 1-800-Piper’sStairs

and finally the title 1-800-PatternZine.

HAHA I find out that I keep wanting to make puns out of everything.

Why 1-800- you may ask? This is to follow the industrial theme of the zine. It is also because my phone was the only thing responding to me at that point in time. It would be fitting to put the titles as hotlines and have the titles suggest the subject matter of the particular spread.

This whole zine was taxing as it required us to think about a lot of aspects of the zine. From the typography to the pictures to the patterns TO THE LAYOUTS! Each component required a lot of attention.

This let me understand that spreads are important from start to finish and to even create a wider spread with a lot more content such as fashion magazines etc. they would require a whole team and a whole long period’s worth to create an amazing spread. However taxing it was, the experience was one I hope to relive in the future! I want to create many more zines and experiment with many more different layouts to find one that I really am comfortable in!

THANK YOU, SHIRLEY FOR SUCH A GREAT YEAR. IT HAS BEEN A PLEASURE LEARNING FROM YOU. BOTH THE MODULE AND LIFE ADVICE. Thou has truly inspired me to go beyond my boundaries and challenge myself (against my will) and I truly appreciate the effort that you have given all the classes throughout this year! MUCH LOVE MUCH MISSES :”’)