Design Development ( Week 8 )

In this week, We had combined our ideas to resolve the issue. I came up with the smart table, Josephine came out with a 360 degree projector while Gabriella came up with a 360 degree chair integrated with a table. After discussions and negotiations, we decided to combine all 3 ideas together into one.

A 360 degree rotatable chair with an integrated table inbuilt with a smart tablet which makes it a smart table which can help students with their necessary needs such as web browsing and e-books.
To adapt with the 360 degree projector, we decided to have a triangular classroom design concept with a triangular sitting arrangements. The reason why we made it into a triangular sitting arrangements is because that in this arrangement, students are not hindered by the taller students sitting infront of them. A triangular sitting arrangements would give a better view of the whiteboard.

Site Study ( Week 7 )

 On this week, we investigate the site further and went to various classrooms and also look at online research images. We tried to compare each and every country classroom to it's pros and cons.

The most common issue that can be easily spotted was the regular sitting arrangements of the chairs and the table.

I strongly believe that if the classroom is more creative in terms of sitting arrangements, it can encourage more positive interaction for the students and teachers in-charge.
This would definitely create effectiveness in the productivity of learning.

I went to check out a few modern classroom concept and got motivated by how the design concept is being compose.

As observed, this kind of sitting arrangements along with modernised design would definitely be more appealing and interesting to students.

Sources: 

http://cdn.trendhunterstatic.com/thumbs/futuristic-classroom-desks-synergynet-multi-touch-table.jpeg

Research ( Week 6 )

This week we did or individual research on what our concepts of having a good furniture that can help the learning environment of the class.

As i had mentioned in the previous post, I had already had the idea of having a smart table.
I decided to ask people around, what are the basic application essentials of a smart table with an inbuilt tablet a student need ? I received various answers and suggestions as different level of education study would need to refer and rely on different kind of software and applications.

But that was not the thing that matters for now. What matters was I had to make a better design concept out of the one that i had already made. I tried changing it's form and shape to a much more versatile and modern shape and also added funky colors to the desk. This would give it more attraction and it would be more appealing to students.


This is the design concept that I have created out of sketches .

Design Ideas ( Week 5 )

In the 5th week, I started to sketch out a concept design of a smart table. My idea was to use a table, with a unique design and touch to it's ergonomic shape and adapt technology into it. Having said, My concept idea was to combine design and technology into one. This table would be able to have digital e-book, music streaming, web browsers, wikipedia and other essential application for students.


For the concept visualisation, I tried using photoshop to design a concept of the table.

This is a concept i have made from using Adobe Photoshop. It's basically a table with an inbuilt tablet which is detachable. Students can have the ease of access to web browsers and e-book. This decrease the effort needed to take out and use a laptop. This will increase the productivity of the class effectively as students can have inbuilt apps such as youtube, google and facebook. 

Case Study ( Week 4 )

This week we decided to move on deeper to extend our knowledge on the situations and causes.

We decided to put up survey questions online and expand our knowledge and understanding.

We came up with questions like,  What is the main reason that makes your classroom boring?
How many hours is the duration of your class? Do you think furnitures makes a difference in the environment and your learning abilities?

Many answers were mostly positive on wether the furnitures make a difference. Thus my team and I started to venture and study about the environment and aesthetic qualities of the class.

Roleplay and Reference ( Week 3 )

During this session, We were tasked to do a role-play. For our group, my two group mate acted out as students along with some of our classmates, and I was the teacher. During the act, I was reading up lecture notes for the class with a very dull and boring tone. Students felt sleepy and some got distracted with their mobile devices.

From this scene, we can clearly understand and feel the situation even better as it is physically experienced by us in both aspects, as teachers and students.  This links back to why lessons can be really dull even when the classroom is very vibrant and modern.

The reason why lessons became very dry is because that the interaction between the student and the teacher is very minimal. I come to realise that interaction between both parties are vital in this situation. As increase in interactivity can lead to students having more interest and giving more attention to the particular topic, it can also help in increasing the bond between the teacher and students making them feel more comfortable to clarify any doubts without hesitations. This gives an effective increase in productivity.

Research Methodology ( Week 2 )

 This week, we did more research on classrooms are boring. We tried to relate what is the issue that we have and relate it to the common situation that we have experience personally, thus, this would allow us to understand the need and importance of the situation and how to resolve it.


As a team, the 3 of us had this common idea where the aesthetic quality of the classroom is the most influential to the students and lecturers in giving the right atmosphere to study productively.
As an example, a dull boring classroom would define a boring learning environment. Whereas, if you put a group of student in a very vibrant, clean, and lively themed classroom with a good set of furnitures, it will encourage students to participate proactively as the environment itself can already provide a positive vibe.

From there on, we decided to look for weakness spot.

Design Process ( Week 1 )

In this post, I shall share my thoughts on the issue that was chosen by our group.

Our selected topic was, Classrooms are Boring. 

Well there are many reasons why classrooms are boring. Based on surveys, 2 out of 3 students said that they feel bored in class. One of the possible reason is because that there is not much interaction between the teacher and students

As a student, personally i think that most classrooms are very dull. It's probably because of the standard rectangular shaped are with plain walls..Also, to add on to the dullness of the walls, some even stick notes and formula sheets on them! Going to a classroom like that is like entering a cell in a jail..You would definitely feel trapped and suffocated with all the numbers and formulas.

Imagine yourself entering the class and having to look at this first thing in the morning..

( O.O )

Boring classrooms environment can strongly affects individuals ability and their performance of learning.

Personally i think that if we get a positive feel and aura in the class, many can benefit in acquiring the skills that have been taught in class. 

I also think that learning is not just about boring lectures, it is more about having fun together with your teacher in learning new things, interacting, playing and applying what has been taught.

The possibilities are limitless if you were to give suggestions on how to improvise the atmosphere of a classroom, but one specific development that we can apply is the structure of the class, meaning its shape, lighting, and colours. These are major factors that can affect the ambience of the class.

Here's two example to give you a clearer image before i end this post,

Which classroom would you rather study in ? You decide for yourself . ;)

Peace out







Image sources

Image 1 : http://mikegwaltney.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/2387-math-class.jpg
Image 2 : http://mulloverthings.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Dull-Classroom.jpg
Image 3 : https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/2f/b4/b0/2fb4b0ac1aa997d54c27bd457ec184c5.jpg

Forced Connections Part II

This is the continuation of the previous post. Forced Connections. However now we go deeper into what Forced Connections is all about and discover how we can have more fun and joy doing it while you get em creativity juice flowing.

Here are some images taken off from the internet.

Similarly to juxtaposition it combines two object together. From this image you can see two faces of different angle from just one face. 

In this image however, is how a person play with words. Taken from a horoscope list.

This is an artwork from Justine Smith. It shows how money can be a form of a grenade.

Forced Connections are used for juxtaposition sculptures. Thus it can show important messages to people in a very cynical way. 

In class we were given random words and were asked to make up a sentence and draw it to visualise better. 

and here we have our very own forced connections artwork.

1. Silly pig put candy in YOUR woman ball :P

2.Round butterfly always ride in the child 

3.Little pumpkin lives in the lake

 From the 3 sentence we had 'created', it all links to death. Thus we gave it a title 'Dumb Ways to Die'

You see,that is how forced connections can bring you from one place to another. The secret is to just free your mind and let your wild crazy imaginations to flow. 

We were then assigned to do some practice from an online site. magneticpoetry.com

  

This are the random words that were given to us.

and here, i have created a few sentences

 1. The man dream madly in love to the women

2. Please sing for the girl 

3. Put finger and watch shiny egg sweat 

4. Rain music pounded poly lively 

5. No boy swims daytime like juice

From what we have read, you might think it's practically useless and the sentences doesn't make sense. But, actually this sentences can mean something such as making a movie or story line for a short film. Through force connections, it is very easy to come out with something out of nothing.

I think that play.magneticpoetry.com is a very useful online platform for us to have fun and train our minds or at least,something to temporary distract you to get out of all the stress you have,and i definitely did had fun with my group of crazy artistic people.

Ft,the artistic team for the day

 

                                                                              Peace out,

Sources taken
Image 1 : http://i.imgur.com/ReT6j.jpg
Image 2 : http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/originals/ae/76/6a/ae766a019d9bdcc63dd545e7653cd4a1.jpg
Image 3 : http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ce/19/23/ce192378293effd058fdfd8d835d6920.jpg

Forced connections

Previously on our lesson, we have learnt and discussed about Forced Connections.
Forced Connections allows us to think about a particular subject and force connects it based on the brain's ability to link two unlike things such as words, objects, feelings and ideas.

It's called Forced Connections because it relies on random external triggers that force people to make a connection between the problem at hand and the trigger. These triggers cause people to broaden their perspective. Its definitely one strong method to overcome problem in my personal opinion.

In class we tried practicing forced connections by linking words which are arranged at random from magneticpoetry.com . We came out with random hilarious sentences. Here's the list.

Done by our group of artistic human beings. Shernyne, Janice & Kim ;)

These are examples of using Forced Connections to link words into becoming 'your own language'.

Forced Connections can really help in problem solving, creating a juxtaposition or just maybe, entertaining yourself. Well we definitely had lots of fun and laughter throughout the class doing this. 

Peace out. 

Analogical Thinking Part II

On the previous post, we talked about analogical thinking. This time round we take it into another aspect. Just one topic that can relate to analogical thinking better, architecture.

Architectures takes a tremendous amount of time, making countless drafts until they get a final sketch of their design. But, have you ever wonder where did they get inspirations from ? Well, analogical thinking is definitely one of the ways to get ideas.

If we observe carefully, many buildings are made as a form of facial expressions.
Here are some examples.

The two windows represent the eye, while the etch in the middle forms a nose and a mouth that seems to be showing an expression of shockness below it. 

A house from far which resembles a face with a cute expression due to the small windows that represents eyes and mouth 

What seems to be a monstrous face with a big wide mouth sucking in all the water .

A face giving an expression of 'surprised or shocked' as the round window played an important role as a mouth to show the expression 

Here, we have some personal shots of what caught my attention when i was walking around exploring the school. Some are obvious to your eyes and some have only tiny details that you have to spot to conclude the overall picture.

Take a look ! ;) 

Interior walls of the class with a cool sticker which looks like a lightbulb and also a rocket

Our school balcony 'chilling' area with a missing table. Somehow it resembles a duck face due to the composition of the missing table, a chair cushion in the middle and the two chairs.

Here,the carpet looks like a bowling ball with my shoes as the bowling pin.

A box of rack with a hole cut out to give user a preview of what is inside. It resembles a persons eyes and the top flap makes up the straight brows. 

While architectural designers getting inspirations for buildings, other artist take opportunities like this to make use of what is available and tweak it to give another new look.

Street painting of an eye and the proportion of the building which compliments the artwork.

By using elements such as arrangements of flowers to show more obvious expressions.

There are countless of things to see and imagine if you really visualise and keep an open mind. From there, inspirations can come anytime anywhere. All you gotta do is, think ;) 

Peace out. 

Image ref 1 : http://theverybesttop10.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/the-world_s-top-10-best-buildings-with-faces-8.jpg

Image ref 2 : http://www.extralast.com/pics3/oban-building-face-1.jpg

Image ref 3 : http://www.geekfill.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/371.jpg

Image ref 4 :http://farm1.staticflickr.com/21/94222511_38ba492b92_b.jpg 

Image ref 9 : http://static.squarespace.com/static/52cad8a6e4b0037bd0e48475/52ea7b9be4b03440a7b337a4/52ea7c45e4b03440a7b3409a/1298889837000/28mm_women_Rio_111.jpg?format=original

Analogical Thinking

The definition of analogy is to basically make a comparison to show such similarity between two objects. Many of the modern things around us that are created by designers used analogical thinking to get inspirations for their form. Either form over function or function over form. Which one works best on the certain product depends on the designers.   

In terms of similarity between two subjects, it does not have to be in terms of physical aesthetic qualities only. It can also be in a form of function without the need to look similar to the related subject. One example i have here is the creation of the new Mclaren P1. Seemingly,the Mclaren P1 looks futuristic and aggressive.

 It was actually designed by Frank Stephenson Head of design for Mclaren Automotive,who got the idea of the P1 from a Sailfish. Why Sailfish ?????

From the image above,you probably could not relate a sailfish to this car. However there are some form of relationships to each other. 

The story was that while on holiday in the Caribbean, he noticed a sailfish on a wall in the resort where he was staying. A man working there told Stephenson that he was proud to have caught the fish because it was so fast. Stephenson was intrigued – he began doing some research on the species to find out why it was so quick. After his vacation, he then managed to get hold of a sailfish which he bought from a fisherman who had just caught it. He then took the fish to the lab and did a research on why was it so fast. The analysis revealed that the scales on the sailfish’s skin generate little vortices that result in the fish being enveloped in a bubble of air instead of denser water. This reduced drag allows the fish to move even faster.

McLaren’s designers applied the same texture as the scales of the sailfish to the inside of the ducts that lead into the engine of their P1 hypercar. This increased the volume of air going into the engine by 17%, improving the car’s efficiency. The P1 also borrowed from the sailfish little ‘diplets’ on the torso of the fin where it meets the tail fin that the fish uses to straighten out the flow of pockets of air and water that move past it. This, Stephenson says, made the car more aerodynamic.

 . The Mclaren P1 is a hybrid supercar which can travels up to a speed of more than 350km/h ! Which is extremely fast given the condition that it runs on electric battery cells. 

The second part of this post is about materials and structure. 

Weaving.

 Weaving was known in all the great civilisations, but no clear line of causality has been established. Early looms required two people to create the shed, and one person to pass through the filling. Early looms wove a fixed length of cloth, but later ones allowed warp to be wound out as the fell progressed. The weavers were often children or slaves. Weaving became simpler when the warp was sized. 

 

Weaving moved on to different materials such as silks and looms that created different kinds of apparels. Baskets and nets were then later created by the process of weaving.

In our modern days now, weaving has become an essential part of a technique to increase structure. 

One example is carbon fibre. Carbon fibers are usually combined with other materials to form a composite. When combined with a plastic resin and wound or molded it forms carbon fiber reinforced polymer (often referred to as carbon fiber) which has a very high strength-to-weight ratio, and is extremely rigid although somewhat brittle. However, carbon fibers are also composed with other materials, such as with graphite to form carbon-carbon composites, which have a very high heat tolerance. Many automotive companies used carbon fibers as they are suitable for making the aerodynamics of the car. For example the P1 as mentioned above. Its body is made out of carbon fiber. Sometimes people collects carbon fiber furnitures at home as it is unique apart from maple wood,plastic resin or glass.

Similar to Ebony, Carbon Fiber can give a classy yet simple look to the surroundings. However there is a price to pay. Carbon fibers are not cheap. 
Thus,analogical thinking can help us to get inspirations in various aspects and also give us more chances to be creative. In these modern world, almost every single thing that has been created were being design analogically to another subject. You just have to analyse and learn the structure and materials. From there, analogical thinking will help you in adapting what you need and what you don't for your particular subject. 

Peace out. 

Lateral Thinking

Lateral Thinking, what is lateral thinking ? In my point of view, it is basically thinking out of the box.  Taking an indirect yet creative approach to solve a problem,puzzle or compose something.

" According to de Bono, lateral thinking deliberately distances itself from standard perceptions ofcreativity as either "vertical" logic (the classic method for problem solving: working out the solution step-by-step from the given data) or "horizontal" imagination (having a thousand ideas but being unconcerned with the detailed implementation of them)." -Wikipedia

Lateral thinking is more concerned with the movement value of statements and ideas. A person uses lateral thinking to move from one known idea to creating new ideas. One of the method is by generating random ideas. The focus is to actually broaden the variety of ideas until you come to a decision.

 In the previous class, we've learnt how lateral thinking helps in generating ideas for tricky questions.

For example, "Which side of the cat has the most fur?" The natural human brain will analyse the physical outlook of the cat for a specific part and will probably come out with answers like, tail, ears,head or even the tummy of the cat. But in reality, you just have to think in a simple manner. The outSide of the cat. Simple isn't it? 

 So sometimes, lateral thinking can really help in problem solving without the need to think so hard and stress yourself. Just relax and come out with whatever random answers you can get. List them down and evaluate one by one and see which of it would work best. 

Breaking the rules Part II

Prior to this post, i mentioned about breaking the rules, this time round, i have 3 different artist that  broke the rule, or somewhat change the perspective of how people think things should be.

There are many rules in things we do,and this common rules somehow became part of our daily lives and in time,into something that people would never think of doing.

The first person that i look up to for such people who changed the perception of men's fashion is Kwon Ji-Yong also known as G-Dragon. He is very well known in the K-POP industry for being a fashionista. He's ability to cross dress and yet look ridiculously cool always impress the public. 

"Very loyal to the brands he wears,Balmain head to toe, or Givenchy head to toe, or Dior. He’s like a rock star." 

If you mentioned spike shoes, the first image that would appear in a person's mind would be cleats or maybe track shoes. This spikes acts as a form of traction for the runner on the synthetic polyurethane  track. Having it screwed in the outsole of the cleats,it gives the runner more grip as the spikes would pierce through the synthetic ground and hold firm without losing grip. This would reduce the chances of the runner from slipping while sprinting at high speed.

However, who would have thought that spikes on cleats should not only serve as a single purpose, one designer did. His name was Mr Christian Louboutin. Christian Louboutin is well known for their exclusive designer shoes in red sole. In 2011, Christian Louboutin started his line of men's footwear. That was when he made a shoe with spikes all over it. This particular model is called the Pik Pik

In my point of view, i think that Christian Louboutin made a right decision on putting spikes all over the shoe. The genuine leather and unique studs outshines the shoe among the rest.  This is a brilliant example of breaking the rules in design. 

The last designer that I'm going to talk about is Sir James Dyson.
Sir James Dyson created a 'blade less fan' that blows air from a ring with no external blades. Its blades are actually hidden in its base. This invention shook many and people found it very cool.  Dyson claims that it's blade less fans produce a more constant airflow than traditional fans. 

From the above picture, you can observe that the fan is actually designed to look like a ring. More of the turbine engine of a plane . The air is drawn in by a fan in the base and then directed up into a ring. It comes out of a crack all around the ring and passes over it. It is said that The air is drawn in by a fan in the base and then directed up into a ring. It comes out of a crack all around the ring and passes over

It is said that the Dyson fan produces more constant airflow than the regular fans. Due to its advantage in terms of aesthetics qualities and capabilities, there was an increase in demand. Thus, the Chinese companies created the same fan however selling it at a price way lower than Dyson. Dyson went on to sue the Chinese companies however it failed as the law states that you cannot patent a design that has already been created. It was believed that Toshiba had already created it in 1981. * Given source was from wikipedia . Dyson fan was one of the popular inventions ever created and it is unique as it somehow broke the laws of design and functionality. Who would have thought that a fan could still work 'without a blade' ? 

Photos courtesy of - Google.com

In this post,we shall talk about mind map. Mind map is a very powerful tool. It helps us to brainstorm better and keep our creativity juice flowing simultaneously. In this world,we have different kind of mind map. 

One example is the reference mind maps

In a reference mind map,it contains informations organized so that you can find it again easily. Many types of subject can be broken down and represented this way. You can start by collecting ideas and facts, then reorganizing them into sections and subsections, so that you get a complete overview.

Reference mind map can be very useful when it comes to making up a big project for example, a structure or a layout plan for architectures and designers.

Last week, my classmates and i were given a task to create a big mind map on the topic red. Here is a snapshot of how it looks like .

I was amazed by the vast illimitable amount of ideas an average human being can produce while creating a mind map . However, to achieve a mind map with tons of ideas, creativity with an open mind plays a very important role. In our particular mind map, we divided the topic, red, into 3 different categories. Objects, Expressions and Colours . The reason why we divided the mind map into this 3 categories is that all 3 of them are the major sub-headings where we can later break up into smaller sections as we let our brain juice flow freely. 

Doing a mind map can never be a boring task especially if you are doing it in groups. Because there are no rules or restrictions in creating a mind map. It is your style, your mood and your creativity to think what you want to put in the mind map.  

Here a some examples of mind maps. 

From all these examples, you can see various ideas and compositions. A mind map can be kept simple, clean and categorised while it can also be full of doodles, messy and packed with ideas. Both acts as an important tool in getting ideas and inspirations .

I personally believe that a mind map would likely turn out to be a good one if it is done in groups because different people have different perspective in their own aspects of life. Thus by combining different people from different backgrounds, we can gain experience, learn mistakes, understanding each of their point of views and also teach and guide one another. Thus, a mind map will be a very powerful tool when you combine all the different ideas together to create it. Never underestimate the power of the human brain. And with that i wish all the best to the readers out there.

Peace out.

Breaking the rules

Personally, i think that Art is a form of freedom,creativity and hard work. However,there are rules that applies to art too especially for my major, 3DD Interior and exhibition. For example,the materials we use have to compensate with the structure,the broadness of the base have to compensate with the broadness of the top of a building and so on. All these comes back to the laws of Physics and art .

In fact, since young,we were already being guide to colour in the outlines of an object and not to go out of it's boundary. 

But what can make an artwork special and unique ? Something out of the box and definitely an eye catching one. On this post,I'm going to show you a examples of designer and architects breaking the rules of art and definitely did not regret the decision they made.

 First example is Lasalle College of The Arts Singapore.

As you can see from the picture, Lasalle unique structure is built in a way that it shows you how a structure can be formed in many ways and not having the straight 'rules' and tendency to have just straight up wall perpendicular to the floor. Lasalle structure is built in a way that the some of the walls have concave and some protude out. Something like a liquid flowing in between the two main structure.

LASALLE's campus is an exercise in sheer imagination. Conceptualised and designed by Singapore-based architectural firm, RSP Architects, it represented Singapore in the architectural section of the Venice Biennale in 2004 and won three international architectural awards, PUSH Award 2009, Singapore Institute of Architects; Building of the Year Award 2008, 9th Singapore Institute of Architect’s Design Awards; and President’s Design Award 2008.

Secondly, one of my main inspiration in breaking the laws of design in terms of materials is the recently built car Koenigsegg One:1 .

It is the world's first mega car. With a powerful engine accelerating from 0-400Km/h in just 20 seconds. Yes, 400km/h . 

Behold, the Koenigsegg One:1 

If you realised,what made it so special is that the car is made out of Carbon fibre. Carbon fibre is well recognised in the automotive scene due to its lightweight but high resistance from fire and strong rigid structure capabilities.

A shot of the carbon fibre keys to my friend's exotic car,the Mclaren MP4-12C 

The console of the Mclaren MP4-12C made out of carbon fibre

And the shot of the car itself.

I strongly believe that the elements put in design should not have any restrictions. Being different is a form of art and freedom. I personally do not think that we should limit ourselves with different elements to compromise on strength or structure. If a piece of element is weak,why not add more layers of it to make it more rigid and stronger ? ;) Think about it.

Therefore, i think that breaking the rules of art is a good way to think out of the box and to fully utilise the meaning 'freedom in art' . 

Be it a painting,drawing,structure,objects or even clothing's we should all break the rules of art and be unique. 

Fiqspikes, Signing off .

Peace out

Sources taken: 

Image 1 :http://www.alphatech.sg/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Lasalle-College-of-Art-night.jpg

Image 2: https://www.lasalle.edu.sg/FileStore/UserFiles/Images/About_patron_board.jpg

Quotes:https://www.lasalle.edu.sg/About-Us/Our-Campus