Wednesday, July 28, 2010

.Poems.

So this week this week's task is poem making.
We are required to write poems based on 2 words.
Here goes my 1st poem:

1. Chili &  Love


Love is like a chili,
Take a bite and you cant extricate from it.
The burning romance keeps the relationship.

Love is like chili,
You desire more but you can’t have it too much,
It’ll get you to crazy and mad.


2. Cat and Duck & Love

A cat meows.
A duck quacks.
No matter what the sound brings,
The feeling of LOVE will always be the samty


3. Ice-cream & Pain



Pain is like an ice-cream
Longer the time it takes,
Melting down like the tears that falls,
No pain no gain,
In the journey of pain,
You taste the cool sweet ice and cream.

Monday, July 26, 2010

week 7 - Exploration on Juxtaposition

Analogy and Metaphor


What is the DIFFERENCES between Analogy and Metaphor?

"A metaphor is more forceful (active) than an analogy, because metaphor asserts two things are the same, whereas anology implies a difference; or other rhethorical comparative figures of speech, such as metonymy, parable, simile, and synecdoche, are species of metaphor distinguished by how the comparison is communicated."

In my opinion, an analogy is usually used when one is trying to explain something complex using something familiar as an example. We call something a metaphor when we speak figuratively to describe something.


Here is an example of strong metaphor used in campaigns:


Following the tragedy of September 11th in US, the visual shows that tobacco kills a lot more people everyday than the terrorist attack did on the day of the tragedy.



image source: http://paprikalab.com/blog/?tag=advertisement



The fun and enjoyable class activities during class:

Exercise 1:
Our lecture asked us to choose two digit numbers and matched two digit numbers with two words from the column below


Step 1 : Choose 3 pairs of numbers from 00 until 99.

My chosen number was ‘04′, ‘34 and ‘79′. So the number represent
04 – Fly Mountain
34 – Ice Mountain
79 – Dog Rain

Step 2: Create a sentence using the two random words.

04 – Many birds are flying toward the mountain.
34 – The ice have covered the top of the two mountains.
79 –  There was a dog stood in the rain.

Step 3: Visualize the sentences.
Here are my sketches:


Step 4 : Visualize the combination of the two words.



Exercise 2: How merges go wrong?

We had to choose two different animals, combine and merge their characteristic together to make an new animal that people didn't see it before. The chosen animals must be the animals that can't live when they stay together. At the end of the exercise, many of us created many weird and funny-looking animals.


Exercise 3 : Writing poems
Later we had an exercise of writing a poem that connects the words 'Chili' and 'Love'. It's hard for me to write a poem that relates chili and love and it has to make sense! Then Mr.Radzi had some students read out their poems. Some were good, some were funny. But there was a student who read out his dirty poem and everyone laughed out loud after hearing it. hahahaha... I think he was brave and smart enough to write such kind of poem.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

.Juxtaposition.

Examples of  Juxtaposition.

Here are more juxtaposition photography that i want to share.

A juxtaposition of a bicycle and a car


The juxtaposition of skyscrapers and a castle-like building.


This picture is taken in Rome. Chinese restaurants can still be pizzerias...






Another juxtaposition... This temple is nestled in the middle of a busy intersection in the heart of Seoul.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

week 6 - Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition is a new word for me. But after I learned about it, I think that it is interesting as
many designers will use it to show the uniqueness of their artworks and attract people's attention. Juxtaposition also can be used to bring out message through comparison.





Juxtaposition is an act of placing 2 variables close together or side by side for comparison. There are 2 types of juxtaposition:
Juxtaposition(literary) and Random Juxtaposition.

Juxtaposition (literary), synonymous with contrast, to objects o texts that oppose one another. Juxtaposition can be used to bring out message through comparison.

The image on the right clearly show the juxtaposition of the houses and the emission of the smoke from factory. The health of residents is seriously affected by the factory nearby with a lot of smoke emission.

image source: http://www.photographyblog.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2261


Random juxtaposition involves two random objects moving in parallel. It is a technique intended to stimulate creativity. 

The picture on the left shows a random juxtaposition. The fully clothed fat lady in black in the foreground, in comparison with the sunny, bright and thin woman in bikini in the background.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

.Mortar and pestle.

Mr. Radzi asked us to do a mind map by linking some keywords from the lecture slides to mortar and pestle. Here is the mind map I did in class:



1. Exercise - We can use mortal and pestle for exercising as they are quite heavy. So we can do exercise at home using mortal and pestle anytime and anywhere.

2. Tools - When you use pestle to knock on different sizes of mortals, it will produce sounds with different tones. Mortal and pestle can be used as music instruments too!

3. Hair - Mortal can be used to put the hair conditioner or cream. Apply some hair cream on straight hair and use pestle to make it smooth and curly.

Monday, July 12, 2010

week 5 - Associated mind map

This week's lecture by Mr. Radzi was really fun and interesting. The lecture is about mind mapping. During class, our lecturer even use mortal and pestle to relate with the 2 types of mind map.

Mind Map
A mind map is a graphical way to represent ideas and concepts. It is a visual thinking tool that helps structuring information, helping you to better analyze, comprehend, synthesize, recall and generate new ideas.


There are 2 types of mind map, which are logical mind map and associated mind map.

Logical mind map
I think most of us are more familiar with logical mind map. We usually just list down the information that we know or find in a mind map. It is because the logical mind map comprises of stereotypes words or information. The keywords or images in a logical mind map are related to the center subject. Hence, every keywords and images have connection with each other.

Associated mind map
Associated mind map is useful for getting creative ideas. Diverging thinking can be applied in doing an associated mind map. We can put any random ideas without limitation because all the keywords in the mind map are not necessary related to each other directly. As long as the keywords are connected to the center subject, we can expand our ideas without hesitation as associated mind map does not really required logical thinking.

Mind map is a a very useful tool when doing idea generation and brainstorming. It helps us in taking notes, researching, generating new ideas, problem solving, studying and memorization and planning. So, when we have problem in thinking concepts or solutions, drawing an associated mind map is one of the good methods to get variety of possible ideas.


Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Mind map of myself

This is a very simple mind map about me myself.

When the lecturer gave us a task to do a mind map of ourselves, it reminded me of the first Design Fundamental assignment i had done during my alpha year in MMU. The topic of the DF assignment was similar with this mind map. It's all about MYSELF. But, we have to illustrate the mind map of myself, not writing it. Express about myself in words is much more easier than illustrate it. The mind map basically is about my personal details. I differentiate the categories with different colours so that people can read it easily and quickly. So, the mind map about me is pretty clear and easy to understand right?

Sunday, July 4, 2010

week 4 - Divergent and Convergent thinking

Lesson 3 is about divergent and convergent thinking.

We always do brainstorming in order to solve a problem. This is where we use divergent thinking to generate different ideas or solutions in a short period of time. Divergent thinking is a process involves exploring as many  possible solutions as possible. With divergent thinking, people start out thinking about a single concept, and develop many solutions in random and different directions. So in the end, instead of getting one idea, there may be a whole host of possibilities. I think divergent thinking is major component of creativity as it is associated with creative pursuits and the humanities, which we tend to think in a free form method.

Following divergent thinking, the ideas and information will be organized using convergent thinking.

Convergent thinking combines or joins different ideas together based on elements these ideas have in common. All the general possibilities are narrowed down to one specific or best solution. Therefore, we use convergent thinking to make decision and find the best solution to solve a problem.

I personally tend to use convergent thinking more as i often think in a logical way. But as a design student, i should practice divergent thinking more as it helps me in thinking creatively. So, it is best for design students to use both divergent and convergent thinking. We should not neglect the type of thinking that is your least favorite or weaker suit as balance helps.