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For this project, we were tasked to make an art installation that would be situated in a specific area of ADM.  It was stated that it should be about 2m x 2m x 2m, and we would be making a model that would be at a scale of 1:5 or 1:10. There were also many things we had to take note of and include in our design:

  • Aural Memory/Aural Heightening
  • Site-specific
  • Involve seating/reclining
  • Made from paper cups

Since it had been site-specific, we did an investigation and research on our site, along with seating ergonomics. This had been a pair work, and I did this with Yee Teng.

Our slides are here!

After this, it was individual work and we started to do our prototype models.

The aural memory I decided to work with was the sound of being underwater, having an enveloping feeling, one that is calm and peaceful. I thus made a sketch of a couple of designs to portray this.

However, I soon scrapped those ideas as it had been difficult to make those form using the unique form of paper cups. I hence decided to just experiment with paper cups.

I had a huge issue with this, trying out random forms. I didn’t really like most of my initial prototypes and had no interest in them. Soon, I switch to cutting strips and slits, and made many different forms from it. Of which, I became intrigued with one that happened to interlock when I left it alone, and adopted that design. I also created another curved form that worked well as a seat.

Other prototypes:

Plus many more I did not like one bit.

This became my chosen design and I pieced them together to form the installation shown below:

Spray painted it.

Added chairs.

Larger image here!

For my final model, I had tried making a 1:10 sized model, with different materials.

Initially, I had used a single sheet of paper, which failed spectacularly due to the thinness of it. I then attempted doubling the sheet, which then made it too flimsy. Ideas such as using corrugated cardboard and art card were considered but later also rejected due to it being either too thick or unsuitable.

Finally, I decided on making a 1:20 model by connecting two layers of shallow paper bowls first. This was done just to be safe; ensuring I had a model to work with. It was lucky I had done this as I ended up not having enough time for my other model.

The 1:10 model I wanted to try to make was not finished, due to the lack of time I had. It was made using paper mache and there had been a lot of drying time due to its sheer size.

I first started by making measurements of the initial small cup I used to make the prototype. Then, calculated the different measurements should the cup’s size be multiplied by 4. I then drew it out on drawing block, making a template.

After making the template, I made two plastic cups from the template.

Propping it on a bucket, I made a newspaper cutout of similar size to the template, and then stuck it on the plastic mould, before beginning to paper mache it.

The glue had been self-made from starch and hot water.

I also had to spend much time in between layers, waiting for it to dry.

Dried large cups.

This was difficult to do as it was hard to gauge how many layers were enough. It had to be thick enough to hold its shape but soft enough to bend, making there many trial and errors.

Should I have time, I would attempt to make my model with this. But for now, it shall be left as it is. Paper mache-ing was a fun experience but no doubt a painful one. It took long hours and the results were not consistent, I had to retry multiple times.

All in all, this project had been excruciating and tough, but pushed me to think beyond what I normally would. It had been fun, I suppose, despite multiple sleepless nights and 7 am bleariness.

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Link to my slides here!

 

Initially, for this project, I had some ideas on how I had wanted the story to go, however, I soon decided that it was more interesting to leave it open, and the story began!

I was in the mood for a more poetic way of writing during this project and this was reflected greatly in this project, with many metaphors and indirect way of writing. In my mind, my character was more of a cultured, elegant Englishman of sorts, who recorded his daily life in a journal, and so that was what I went with.

This way of writing required more brain cells, making it harder to write but was also a super fun experience for me to try out a new style of writing. (But also very sorry to my teammates who had to deal with this oops)

The story began in a dark world, with mainly world building of what was around, and what the character experienced. As we continued our replies back and forth, the story evolved into one about life and death, a topic I enjoy greatly :DDDD

The story is about a man who has passed on and entered an entirely new world where he sees his past and present, reflecting upon what had happened. This world opens his eyes to things he had not seen, blinded by grief from the death of his mother.

This story somehow led to an interesting end that was related to the title of this project, “The World Ends With You”, where the character realises his blindness to the world but yet accepts his weak self that only had eyes for one person. He meets her again, and his world which began with her, also ended with her.

 

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Group members: Sylvia, Zarinah, Yee Teng, Wei Lin

Final slides are on Sylvia’s post here!

After deciding on a storyline, we set up a timeline to help us properly picture how the story would progress, making changes along the way. This was done using a spreadsheet as shown below.

 

Our story was about domestic and sexual abuse, and we planned to portray the other members of the family finding out this situation, telling viewers how the entire thing unfolded and its ending.

We used a children’s storybook approach, throwing viewers off from the actual horrors of the story. The plan was to make viewers do polls and vote without the knowledge of the truth unless they look further into the details within the different accounts.

 

Not wanting to make things overly confusing we decided to stick to lesser accounts, using only 2 Instagram accounts and one Facebook account.

The two Instagram accounts were the two main character’s accounts: Evelyn and Adam’s. And the Facebook account was their mother’s account, that people can only get to by looking at Adam’s post about his mother following him on facebook.

Evelyn was the one who had the drawing account, made as a way to de-stress and draw out her thoughts from the trauma she was experiencing. Adam, on the other hand, is a diva who posts things from his day to day life.

For Evelyn, since we wanted to avoid direct throwing of information, we used a metaphorical approach, such as describing the sexual assault she faced as a “sleepover”, something people would only realise later on when they think beyond it being a children’s book.

 

Time was an important factor in our story as when the posts were posted pointed to different hints. For example, when the monster hurts Sir Bubblegum, Adam posts about his sister getting hurt (bad scrape on her arm).

 

 

Outcome

It was an interesting project as many people had different views of our project. There were many different speculations as to what the story meant. But as we released mo

re info, more viewers began to understand what had been happening.

Our project differs slightly from the others in that the interactivity is only at its peak when one follows the story as it is released. Since Sir Bubblegum releases the posts in a story format, viewing it after would not have the same effect.

The adorable style of the drawings had been a driving force in viewers’ interest in the story – making them believe that it was just a cute fictional story made by a child. This resulted in different speculations of the story with most believing it to be a fun story.

Most people tried to find a link of Adam and Evelyn’s story, and they often figured things out towards the middle.

 

Our story has 4 events happening, but 3 main segments.

The first segment involved setting the scene and introducing the characters. This is when most people are still very much unaware of the situation. Hence, when we had a poll during this time, some people chose the option that actually was detrimental to Evelyn, due to the lack of information.

 

During the second segment, which was the interaction week, it had been mainly more polls from both ends, and the peak of the story occurring, with more viewers, slowly uncovering the truth. The polls now decided the outcome of the story, and it was amusing to see the reactions from friends who knew of the story watching those who did not choose options that had a bad result.

The last segment also required more interactivity through searching. Where sir bubblegum now has no more posts and people must uncover the truth through the mom’s facebook post.

 

Overall, it had been a unique project and a fun learning experience for us all.

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For the Zine, it had been suggested that I did on religion and architecture, which had also been things I had wanted to focus on. Thus, I began thinking up ways I could portray this, and soon decided to also incorporate the arts into the zine too.

Since it had been about the religion, there were a few things I had to take note, such as avoiding offending any religion, and also if I were to portray any Gods, I had to portray them accurately.

I decided I wanted to make use of the booklet’s format to do a two-way narrative, with the gods of the places of worship making way from the end to the middle, on a journey back to their place of worship, while passing the place of worship of the other gods.

I decided to put the Hindu and Buddhist gods together, and the Jewish and Catholic ones together.

I.e. The Hindu and Buddhist gods, Sri Krishna and Goddess Guan Yin will be travelling past the Jewish Synagogue and Catholic Churches, past to the middle of the Zine with places of the arts, to get to their own place of worship. Likewise, the Catholic and Jewish God/Saint will be travelling past the Buddhist and Hindu temples, past to the middle, to get to their own place of worship.

I initially wanted to do a photo collage, however, after trying it out, I decided and it was also suggested that I switch entirely to illustrations instead. I had drawn my cover pages already, and it had been in line art, with a geometric shape. This hence became the style of my entire zine.

Below is Mother Mary & Jesus, and Sri Krishna and Goddess Guan Yin.

Following this style, I did the line arts for all the places of worship, showing their architectural features.

The above are:

  • Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple
  • Sri Krishnan Temple
  • Church of Saints Peter & Paul
  • Maghain Aboth Synagogue
  • Church of the Good Shepherd

Spread 1

The Buddhist and Hindu temple had mainly rectangular shapes and thus, I decided to use rectangles to add colour in. Since the two temples had been greatly mixed and closely connected, with Buddhists praying to the Hindu temple, I wanted to show this mix through the use of intersecting parts.

The above was my initial design with the two temples joined and divided on a diagonal. The colours used are the colours of the architecture.

I soon received feedback that I should have proper reasoning for the colours of the squares that I had used, as the current design’s rectangles were randomly chosen.

Thus, I changed it such that the blues had been from the Hindu Temple and the reds were from the Buddhist Temple.

I also added white lines between the different rectangles to make it more obvious that the different colours had represented different places.

This was then repeated for the other spread which had the 3 other places of worship – the two churches and synagogue.

Since it was a journey, I decided that I had to add some sign or something to show the journey that the gods were taking. I initially wanted the gods to do something more, like interact with the place or enter the place of worship, but then felt perhaps that would be crossing the line beyond interfaith into syncretism – something some might be less open to.

Thus I experimented and initially tried one with the gods and saints just floating about.

I felt it was quite odd and thus switched to another format, with the Gods/Saints coming out from the page on one end and leaving the other. I ended up really liking this layout and hence used it.

Initially, the layout had been as shown below, with circles for Mother Mary and Jesus being red and blue and that for Sri Krishna and Goddess Guan Yin being grey and peach. However, it had been brought to my attention that the colour of the circles should follow that of the God’s/Saint’s place of worship. I heeded this advice and swapped as it made more sense as well.

Middle Spread (AAAaaaAAaAh)

I had the most difficulty with the middle spread. This was because the other spreads had not had many elements or objects. However, my middle spread that involved the 4 Gods/Saint gathering to visit the many places of the arts proved to be a huge challenge due to its many elements.

It had been asked if I wanted to switch and focus on just religion, but I had been adamant on involving the Arts as I felt it was through the Arts that religion could possibly mix without offence, bringing about more open minds.

I hence started working on it, firstly by doing the line art of the different places.

After doing this, I began trying out different layouts and found myself in an extremely huge bind.

I initially tried placing the different places next to one other, but soon realised that the SAM would not have been able to achieve that effect due to its size and structure. Hence, though it was a nice layout, I scrapped it.

I also tried making it a map and tried different colouring methods. I ended up scrapping it however, as I felt it did not fit the theme of the zine.

Since I wanted to show that it was the Gods/Saint coming together through the arts, I drew them experiencing the different art areas there.

  • Jesus painting Sri Krishna at the Stamford Arts Centre
  • Sri Krishna and Goddess Guan Yin going to SAM
  • Jesus and Mother Mary watching Sri Krishna dance
  • Goddess Guan Yin showing Mother Mary calligraphy
  • Jesus and Mother Mary going into the Middle Road Church
  • All four of them at centre 42 and the theatre

I initially wanted it to be a mix of the 4 colours only, but nevertheless tried to see if I should incorporate more colours. The conclusion was: no.

Sticking to the geometric shapes, I tried seeing if I should arrange them in the way below, and use triangles to frame it.

I tried adding colour to it too.

I felt it had all been different from the style of my zine and hence in the last minute scrapped all of it to do something that had fit it more.

Adding the Gods/Saint at the sides, my zine was complete.

OFC + OBC

Zine Final

All in all, this had been a fun experience, and I learned many new things. Though my middle spread had been unsatisfactory to me, I tried many different layouts and the journey had been interesting. I would definitely redo my middle spread if I had the time, and would also consider and learn more about colours and layouts.

 

 

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For this project, we could choose any location to work and research on. After much consideration, I decided on Waterloo street, an area that I often visit to pray at the Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple. This area was chosen as it had been brought up to me that there had been a Hindu temple right next to the Buddhist temple. After more research, I found out that within a 15mins walk radius, there had been numerous places of worship, namely:

  • Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple
  • Sri Krishan Temple
  • Church of Saints Peter and Paul
  • Maghain Abbot
  • Cathedral of the Good Shepherd

Realizing there were so many places of worship from different religions in the same area, I became interested in the idea of interfaith: a cooperative, constructive, and positive interaction between people of different religious traditions and/or spiritual or humanistic beliefs, at both the individual and institutional levels.

I thus decided to do on Waterloo street and scouted the area, only to find that there were many places regarding the arts that had been situated in there as well. It had been unique that the bras basah area, in general, had many areas of both the arts and faith.

To see what people thought about Bras Basah and Waterloo Street, I made a survey to ask people of their views. I firstly asked people of around my age group, then spread to others, and the results had been highly amusing.

To begin, one question I had asked was if they had been to Bras Basah. To which the first few surveyees had answered “no”. Since they are my friends, I had been quite positive they had been there before and questioned them about it. I then realized that they had indeed been there but had failed to recognise that the place they had been to had been Waterloo street, or that Waterloo Street had been in Bras Basah. It was thus a very interesting discovery and I changed my survey so people better understood the place.

Since I had asked those in the 18-24 age group first, before moving to those in older age groups, I realised that those around 20 years old tend to think of Bras Basah as an old place with many places involving the arts. They did not know much about the different places of religion and if they did, they only knew of the Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple.

The older generation, on the other hand, knew about the place and also were aware of the history of Waterloo street and why it was of importance to Singapore.

Below are the results of my survey.

Link to all surveyees’ answers: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-eeHRn0OU6t4j7SxGoH2Wd3Ze65D6zGMLhikP1j1jjo/edit?usp=sharing

I had also gone there to interview a few people and also ask others some casual questions.

One person I interviewed had been a helper for charity; asking around for donations. He had specially chosen to do this outside of the Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple due to the high traffic flow. He had single-handedly raised up to $2k in a single day because it had been the 15th of the lunar calendar.

This suggested that among all the places of worship, the Buddhist temple had been the most popular. This was also supported by the Hindu temple’s helper saying that the Sri Krishnan Temple’s traffic flow followed that of the Buddhist one. He had mentioned that the 1st and the 15th of the lunar calendar meant that the Buddhist temple would be busy and thus the Hindu Temple would be busy as well.

Apart from all these, I also realised through my personal observation that many people had actually prayed to the Sri Krishnan Temple despite being a Buddhist. I asked around and many had actually mentioned that they felt that paying their respects and praying to the different temples had been normal for them.

Others had mentioned Singapore being multi-religious to the point that they see Buddhists and Hindus in churches just to accompany their friends, and they also pray along with the people in there, just as a form of respect despite not following the religion. One lady also mentioned seeing people of other religions pray the way they do in their own place of worship in the Sri Krishnan Temple, i.e. Buddhists praying the way they do in Buddhist temples in the Hindu Temple. This is not done out of disrespect, but more of just acceptance of the different religions and believing that they are allowed to pray to the different gods, even ones of different religions.

When I asked those in the churches and cathedrals, the answers were generally similar, though I realise they tend to be less open to praying to other places of worship though they do accept and acknowledge the other religions.

One question I asked which received replies from both ends of the spectrum was about the arts. I had asked if they thought there had been a connection of the arts to religion. I received replies such as “The arts and religion have no connection at all” and also the exact opposite: “The arts help to strengthen religion and also open people to the acceptance of different religions”.

Thus, overall, it had been an extremely insightful and fun experience.

Audio clips: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1iBR3Thkmbpzs1Ssx7uFata1r33OXazkI

Photos I took: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IvDIFRZBRljZXkLD08q8K2ESq5VyHcDt?usp=sharing

Presentation

Slides: https://prezi.com/view/CMtvVIVwk4bz8gMX6f2C/

 

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For this project, we were tasked to create typography portraits using our names, be it full name or part of it, to describe our future job. This would be done while also taking into consideration the upper/lower case of the words, style, weight, etc of the letters. We also had to take note the reasoning for the jobs we chose, and portray it in our works.

Immediately, I thought up a few jobs that I wanted to do in the future. The four I had thought up were:

  • Writer
  • Animator
  • Prop Designer
  • Film-maker

They had all been proper jobs, and thus after considering further, I decided to change the jobs into something slightly more fun. I considered the following:

  • Daydreamer
  • Demon Lord
  • Professional Soft Toy Hugger

In the end, I picked and mixed a few to come up with the four final ideas:

  • Writer (which also incorporated daydreamer)
  • Professional Soft Toy Hugger
  • Demon Lord
  • VR Designer

These four would be done with different themes:

  • Writer – Surrealism
  • Professional Soft Toy Hugger – Normal
  • Demon Lord – Dark Fantasy
  • VR Designer – Cyber

I also had to consider which parts of my name I would be using, to which I initially decided on just using my initials, but later decided to try using different portrayals of my name, some of which just using certain letters of my name.

As a person who isn’t good at illustrations or photo-editing, I already knew I would have a hard time with the project, hence, I decided to start by drawing many different layouts for the different jobs so I could consult and get feedback.

I did my sketches on both paper and digital, though I already confirmed I would do digital for my final.

Writer

For writer, I initially wanted just a normal drawing of a person or typing to show the job. I used the body of a person to try and make the letter W. Below is one such example. This was before I changed it to fit the daydreamer idea.

I really love writing and so instantly I decided that one of the jobs I would choose would be “writer”.  As a person who enjoys escaping reality, I daydream frequently and this is when I create stories in my mind, with many various scenarios that most often are fantastical or entire made up scenes, detached from my reality. An entire story is formed and I find myself getting absorbed into this world, which I then make concrete through the means of writing. Thus, I decided to add in the message of a new world opening and me going into it.

After searching around the internet, I also considered using a window frame to fit the person within it, etc. But soon changed the idea after changing my idea.

I initially drew a person on a paper aeroplane and decided to continue working on it, to show how I felt writing made me open and enter an entirely new world. The W from my name was incorporated into the folds of the paper aeroplane.

I then further pushed the idea, into a person on a paper aeroplane opening a portal into a fantasy world, and wanted the entire work to have a surrealistic feel, with the entire scene set in the sky.

Below is the process I took to reach the final.

 

Final for Writer

Letters of name used: W, e, i, n

Where?

  • W
    • folds of aeroplane
    • teeth of dragon
  • E
    • horizontally flipped uppercase E from claws of the dragon
    • lower case e from portal swirl
  • I
    • pencil held by character
  • N
    • formed by negative space of the cliffs

Message: Writing opens up a new world and brings me into it, goes beyond the boundaries of real life.

Professional Soft Toy Hugger

Soft toys are great and I love hugging them. I have many toys and I often find myself only hugging certain ones due to their “huggability”. For me, I find comfort and joy in hugging my soft toys, using them as a way to de-stress. This results in me dreaming of simply hugging my toys all day and daydreaming about nonsensical things. I hence chose this as another job as it would be amazing if I could earn an income doing something as nice and comforting as hugging soft toys. Though, it is definitely but a dream.

I wanted to use a person on a bed with many soft toys, but there were many objects in the drawing and many ways I could position them. Thus, I had many different layouts to see which fit best. I was insistent on the bed as I felt it best showed the comfort of the job and how carefree it was. Being surrounded by soft toys further add to the feeling.

There were many different choices, such as using the legs to form a lower case letter E, or having the body form an uppercase E, etcetc. It was an interesting experience experimenting with the different layouts depending on the letters I had wanted to form.

 

Initially, I had wanted to use a character, paired with a bolster at her feet to form the letter w, however, it ended up looking quite forced, and I thus decided to look further into other layouts (Some in sketchbook as shown above, digital ones below). I had not wanted to force the letter form by bending and shaping items but soon realised the difficulty in doing so. Thus, I caved in and tried some bending of items that would logically be in the shape of the letter.

Sideways E, along with a rotated N from hugging of soft toy, i from soft toys.

(As shown in pic)

Lower case e from legs, N from blanket, W from papers, I from natural shape of soft toys. I really liked this view from above but then wanted to continue trying more ways to portray the letters.

W from the crease of curtain, I from natural shape of the toy, forced N of body (not obvious). It had turned out disappointing to say the least. I did not really enjoy this layout and thus moved back to my original top view. Many of the letters here were not only forced but also hard to see.

E from body, I from toys, W from papers and snake. This was one layout I considered but then felt it had been too rigid and boxy. Thus, I decided against it.

N created from hugging of soft toy, lower case e from legs. I had received feedback from this piece that the e from the legs had not been obvious and the N created from the hugging of the toy had been interesting. I felt the same way and thus worked with the N created.

After deciding that the letters should not be all over the place, I came to a final layout that had my name in order – WEILIN so it would be easily viewed.

 

Final for Professional Soft Toy Hugger

Letters of name used: W, e, i, L, i, n (in order)

Where?

  • W
    • bends of snake toy
  • E
    • natural uppercase E from bear toy flipped on its side
  • I
    • lowercase i from dolphin and round egg toy
  • L
    • Leg bent to from L
  • I
    • uppercase I as carrot
  • N
    • N formed from hugging of soft toy

Message: A comfortable and light job. Hence shown on the bed -> comfort. Usage of pastel colours to show the softness of and happiness from the job.

Demon Lord

The demon lord one was something I had quite a lot of fun with, but also issues. It went through a lot of changes, and thinking back it was quite an interesting journey seeing my different layouts.

Demon lords had always interested me since young, as I watched a lot of anime and the demon lords were always extremely strong and cool. While slightly cynical-sounding, it was not as though I hoped to murder or massacre populations. Instead, it was the power that demon lords had individually that had me captivated. Should they choose to do good or bad, they had little to no repercussion due to their strength.

Thus I wanted to show this point and began sketching some ideas. Firstly beginning with one of a demon lord holding a weapon and castles behind.

This had been one of my first few designs for the project, and I had actually simply tried to plaster the letter w all over the place – in the character’s trition, the clothes design, castles, bats, etc. I then received feedback that this was not what the goal was and thus created more designs, with that in mind.

I also had tried one involving a narration, to show my message of why I had wanted to be a demon lord, but there had been too long a message to how in a single frame, and thus I had to think up more ways of depicting my point or changing the message.

I then made some designs in reference to the apple tree from the story of adam and eve, using the tree branches as w.

And also tried out other methods, incorporating a snake since demonlords are known to be able to control strong beasts.

I actually really enjoyed this layout, but it had not focused on the letterforms that much as it was condensed into the armour only.

I then tried other ways to portray my name, mainly trying to make it more linear and using a battle scene as a way to show my message. The letters would span diagonally across the page

 

Final for Demon Lord

Letters of name used: W, e, i, L, i, n (in order)

Where?

  • W
    • wings of the demon
  • E
    • triton
  • I
    • attack from demon
  • L
    • attack from opponent
  • I
    • attack from opponent
  • N
    • formed in the blues of the opponents

Message: To show that demon lords are strong and powerful, using singlehandedly defeating many enemies and even overpowering them. So dissimilar to heroes who often have to band together to defeat the demon lord -> demon lord having the high ground, being above a bunch of enemies.

VR Designer

VR designer had initially been prop designer. Both choices were due to how different weapons could be made in VR or as props, and they did not to be realistic to work. This interested me and I wanted to make props or weapons for movies or games.

The creation of different types of weapons thus became my main focus, and I worked on it with this in mind.

Below are some sketches for both prop designer and VR designer. This included a scene of one making props, one in a VR room, one within the game, etc.

I went to search for various styles of layouts and then tried a few more designs. I also thought about using the lines of cyber styled arts to form my name.

After consultation, it was advised that I use a game selection interface and I really liked the idea. I thus decided to form my name within the weapons created, tying in with the message of being able to create unique non-realistic weapons.

 

Final for Demon Lord

Letters of name used: W, e, i, L, i, n (in order)

Where?

  • In the various weapons on the side

Message: Being able to create a variety of weapons regardless of realism, and then watching them be used in a game

Overall, this project had been a long ride and I learnt a lot about layouts from here. I felt I managed to push myself regarding illustrations and understood that I had many issues with colours – something I definitely plan to work on in the near future. Using letterforms to form images had been a challenge but most definitely a fun one.

 

For clearer images of all pictures, please click here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1BpexTYIUQsPPJ-GegN75vwbN-8_yc2T1