In Class Assignment

If given lightbulb and a room as my material, I would place my lightbulb in one top corner of the room. I would like to relate the lightbulb to that of a surveillance camera, whereby we will feel exposed and insecure under such scrutiny.

Nowadays, we will see long queues for salted egg shops by tourists and it made me realised that if I were asked by someone to introduce hand souvenirs to a foreigner, there’s only salted egg products that I can introduce. Firstly, its entirely made in singapore and no other countries will claim as its their product.

Hence, I would like to create a wall of these salted egg yolks!!!

Analog Project Pitch

H A P P I N E S S

This project aims to ponder over the topic of What is Happiness?

This idea came to me when I couldn’t finish my lunch one day and I had a sudden thought about the kids in Africa (as cliche as it sounds) not being able to have access to food and starving at the same time. They would be so happy now if they were able to meet ends meet but people who had their basic needs satisfied are often chasing after materialistic wants and things they do not have. This often leaves us disgruntled and unhappy.

I was also very much inspired by this British artist, Bruce Munro who used 65000 recycled cds to create this “waterlilies” piece. The installation mirrors the ever-changing hues of the surrounding landscape, hence, this installation is best viewed by day.

The definition of happiness varies among each individual and we often tend to overlook the little things in life that we might be taking granted for. For example, we have food readily available to our convenience but not many people in the world. We are pampered with toys by our parents when we were young, but yet again, there are kids who are less fortunate to have toys to play with. The connectivity to people we have round the clock but not to people in North Korea who would want to contact their long lost families in South Korea but aren’t able to due to their country’s regime.

Project Pitch

Whenever we thought of these colourful plastic balls, the first connotation will be kids playing happily in it. Even for adults, these balls produce happy vibes and many people even adults would naturally smile at the memories with these balls. Therefore, using these balls as a medium, I would like to bring a little happiness to the people in school.

At the same time, I would like to remind people about the subtle things we are taking for granted everyday that there are people in other parts of the world holding these things dear to them and cherish the opportunity to have access to these items.

Hence, I would be creating these items as shown below through the colourful plastic balls and be placing them on the adm sunken plaza. The subtility of the floating objects also shows the intangible yet omnipresent connection and power with have over these objects.

I would also be adding reels for more interactivity and to emphasize my point of our easy access to these items.

Hence, I decided to create a project for people to ponder over the topic of Happiness.

MINIMALISTIC Exhibition: Mega Death

Mega Death

Tatsuo Miyajima

(b.1957, Japan)

A room filled with LED lights, one closer look we will see many gadgets counting down from nine to one and then it blanks out. The cycle repeats with the gadget counting down again from nine. All gadgets have different pace and timing of counting down. We could see the dynamic flow within the art piece at this point of time, however, I was given a shocked when the whole wall went off all of a sudden.

Being confused about the meaning of the installation, I went out of the room and read the installation brief and it was when I felt that everything makes sense and realised how smart the artist is in the conveying of the concept, rebirth in Buddhism. The counting down from nine to one signifies the counting down of one’s life and when the gadget blanks out, it signifies a person’s death.

As each and every “life” is different, “death” is never the same. Therefore, each man’s “life” and “death” sparkle and resonate with others, as if they were performing a majestic and universal symphony. Miyajima considers this the beauty of “ordinary life and death” (Natural Life Time).

Miyajima made a juxtaposition in this installation by forcing the viewers to think of Natural Life Time and the act of Artificial Life Time, which is referred by the installation itself, where deaths are caused by human behaviours like wars and conflict. In my interpretation, I felt the long dark silence somehow represents the massive deaths in a warzone and lives are taken away forcefully as a result. The long dark silence also creates a sense of terror and suspension within the audience, replicating the act of Artifical Life Time.

Miyajima was inspired to create this installation about the Buddhist perspective of rebirth due to his childhood illnesses that left him hospitalised for months. Kids were dying around him in which left an impact on him. He wanted to live. However, when he was discharged from the hospital he saw people were just settling with their mundane life and weren’t appreciating every minute and second of their lives. Miyajima saw these and wanted to establish himself. Hence, this led to the idea of many Miyajima’s works of the idea, rebirth.

It is also bold of Miyajima to promote a Buddhist belief in artworks as often than not, religions do spark debates, especially in the globalised world today, it is uncommon to see many different religions in a cohesive society. Miyajima made a bold statement by relating it to Buddhism while having commentary of the increasingly “Artifical Life Time” society in contemporary world today.

I really like this world as there is such clever use of mediums which allows the installation to really speak for itself and every aspect of the installation is so cleverly thought out and being executed. I am really mindblown with how Miyajima is able to dictate a concept with just simple counters and LEDs.

Reflection on Reading: Thoughtful Interaction Design

In this reading, we learn many keywords surrounding a good Digital Artefact, we were taught to judge on the intentions and expectations in specific situations while having highly developed judgement skills for the design to be “good”.

To create a digital artefact, we have to start with Interaction Design, which is a design process of creating something that has ‘strong relation to the academic field of human interaction’. These include computer science, information systems and software engineering.

Design Process

1. Design Situation

Reason for the design process to be initiated and the context within which the design work is carried out

2. First Sketch

The view of the first sketch leads to a realisation that design includes responsibility between the client, designer and the design work

3. Everyday Practicalities of Design

Factors like ethical issues, aesthetics, functional considerations, social and organizational contexts have to be taken into considerations and changes have to make accordingly

4. Design in relation to Society

Constant participation in the discussion about the development of infotech and its role with the society

5. Design Artefact

Production of the product

APPLE AIRPODS

In relation to what we have discussed, Apple’s Airpods was produced in 2016 in lieu of creating something that is handsfree, unrestrictive to the user(Design Situation). In this case, apple has successfully eliminated the step of creating the first sketch by using the same design for their existing earpiece design. The success of the earpiece design led to the continuation of the design here.

However, Apple has included some practicalities here by introducing Siri to the Airpods and the earpiece is on whenever its removed from its casing, so that there aren’t any confusing buttons and as such, being foolproof to the user. As part of constantly moving forward with the society, it is easy for the user to lose their earpiece with it being small, hence, in one of the updates, they have added the airpods to their Find my iPhone application so that users can easily locate their product when they lose them.

In my opinion, I find that Apple Airpods is a good design created as they minimised the use of hands movement and allows the user to be engaged in other activities with both hands while still being able to control the device through speaking. It makes good use of one’s different senses. Also, the minute intuitive designs also saves the user from many hassle work and hence, maximising the productivity from one small device.

[3] Felting and Applique

Felting

Materials:
Felting Needles, Wool Felt

Directions:

1. Grab a sufficient amount of wool according to desired design.
2. Shape the wool into the shape of choice.
3. Using felting needles, keep poking the felt such that the wool will condense.
4. The more the felt are stuck together, the more compact the object will be.

Nuno Felting

Materials: Wool, Soap and Hot Water

Directions:

1. Place wool in desired design on a plastic surface.

2. Drop a few drops of soap followed by damping the wool with hot water.

3. Shape wool with hands by constantly rubbing the wool together.

4. Let dry and voila!

Applique

Materials: Fabrics and Sewing Machine

1. Cut out interesting design from a fabric.

2. Place the fabric on top of another fabric.

3. Sew along the edge of the cut fabric.

4. Voila!

[2] Plastic Fusing and Fabric of Thread

Fabric of Thread

Materials:

Sewing machine, Water-soluble Stabilizer, Thread, Fabric Strips

Directions:

1. Arrange threads in desired design. Stitch thread designs across the water soluble stabilizer.
2. Put the stabilizer into hot or cold water for it to dissolve. The shorter the duration of washing, the more the thread will hold its shape.
4. Place the threads on the desired surface like cups and mould. Allow the thread to dry, the threads will take the shape of the surface when it dries.

Teacher’s Example

My Finished Product

Plastic Fusing

Materials: Iron, Plastic Bags, Baking Paper

Directions:

1. Cut plastic materials into desired shapes and sizes.
2. Place them together to form a collage and then place a baking paper on the top before ironing.
3. Fuse plastic with iron.
4. Remove the iron and voila!

[1] TRANSFER PRINTING

TRANSFER PRINTING

Transfer printing is the term used to describe textile and related printing processes in which the design is first printed on to a flexible non-textile substrate and later transferred by a separate process to a textile.

Types of transfer printing:

Dry Printing
Indirect Wet Printing
Direct Wet Printing

Dry Printing

Materials:

Crayon, Baking Paper, Iron, Cloth, Paper

Directions:

1. Draw desired designs on a paper using crayons
2. Face the drawn design to a polyester cloth
3. Place a baking paper above the paper before ironing.
4. Iron for around 1 minute
5. Remove fabric and voila!

Indirect Wet Printing

Materials:
Transfer ink, Cloth, Brush, Heat Press, Baking paper

Method:
1. Create own desired design on a paper with the transfer ink. Allow ink to dry.
2. Face design down on the cloth
3. Place a baking paper above the paper before ironing/ heat pressing.
4. Wait for around 1 minute.
5. Remove the fabric and voila!

Using iron

Using heatpress

Indirect Wet Painting

Materials:
Transfer ink, Cloth, Brush, Heat Press, Baking paper, String/ Feather

Method:
1. Create own desired design on a paper with the transfer ink. Allow ink to dry.

2. Place strings/ feather on top of the paper.
3. Face design down on the cloth.
4. Place a baking paper above the paper before ironing/ heat pressing.
5. Wait for around 1 minute.
6. Remove the fabric and voila!