Intercultural Design - Project 1: Proposal
4.1.2022-21.1.2022 (Week 1-3)
Sasilvia Cheong Pei Hoong / 0345031 / Bachelors of Design in Creative Media
Intercultural Design
Project 1 - Proposal
LECTURES
Week 1 - Netnography
Before starting anything we were briefed through the MIB and given a few explanations on our group project as well as what we need to do. Dr. Charles gave us a lecture about netnography.
Ethnography vs Netnography
Ethnography
The key point of ethnography is first-hand experience as we are physically there. Participating in activities where we learn and do things that they are doing. Being able to meet them face to face, getting to know their personalities, their characteristics. Look at the ambience, environment, interior environment or exterior environment, look at the natural build of the civilization. Where all of this requires a lot of observation. Field notes are crucial in ethnography, they collect data, take notes, photography and things. Ethnography takes a long time as we need to immerse with the culture and be present there.
Netnography
Getting responses from the internet. It is something that we do all the time, talk to friends, family, people from other countries. Getting a lot of likes and comments on an Instagram post. Meeting them over video chat, being able to understand their expressions. Netnography is faster as it is thrived from the internet where every information is there.
Data Collection
3 types of data to collect
- Archive - Data without researcher's involvement
- Elicited - Co-created by researchers and members
- Fieldnotes - Observational and reflective notes
Ethical Netnography
- Identify and explain yourself
- Ask for permission
- Consult with experts/ look up credible references
- Informed consent
- Citation, crediting
Week 2 - Culture and Us
What is Culture?
The various ethnicity, this is common because different ethnicity easily stand apart from each other when we see how they dress in traditional costumes or by their physical features. The variety of foods that distinguish one culture from the another. Celebrations, festivals and other art forms that is produced in a culture. We only define a culture by the the visible part of it, there are unseen deeper parts of a culture.
- Symbols- Words, gestures, pictures, or objects, a particular meaning only recognized by those who share a particular culture
- Heroes- Persons-past/present, real/fictitious, possess characteristics that are highly prized in a culture. They also serve as models for behavior.
- Rituals- Collective activities, sometimes superfluous in reaching desired objectives, but are considered as socially essential.
Layers of Culture
National, regional, gender, generation level, social class, corporate level.
INSTRUCTIONS
Task 1: Proposal
For our first project we are required to come up with a proposal to give
concrete ideas which are supported by research, for a final design
revolving a the theme given which is "Purpose" that reflects our
understanding and interpretation of global issues and design
aesthetics.
Things we have to do:
- Select a particular culture in society and brainstorm to identify an area of interest that we wish to highlight on or bring awareness to that culture.
- Come up with research topic, research problem, research questions, research objectives and data collection methods.
- Write a 200 word rationale, include citations
- Produce at least 5 preliminary ideas in sketches, supported by a short rationale.
So the first thing my group did was electing the leader which is Yi Ki.
After that we decide on the date for our first meeting. We all agreed on
coming up with at least two cultures we have in mind and place it into a
our Miro board before we have our first meeting. Our meeting was held in
Microsoft Teams so that it will be more convenient for us to look back at
meeting recordings
1st meeting (3/1/2022)
After many discussions later, we all finally picked our topic which is
"Symbolism and purpose of omen (Japanese mask) existence" which was the
most voted among us all. The specific type of mask we are going to
research on are Oni (Japanese demons/ogres) masks. The research aim for
our topic is to communicate the meaning and purpose of Oni mask to the
general public through design. Before our next meeting we have to research
on the symbolism and purpose of the Oni mask and think of at least one
design idea to achieve our research aim.
2nd meeting (7/1/2021)
We had our feedback from Ms. Anis in the morning and after listening to
her feedback and discussing about it we changed our topic to "Protection".
Where our research aim is to bring awareness to the concept of using evil
to combat evil in different culture through a design. The cultures we
choose to focus on are the Oni mask (Japanese), Medusa (Greek), Garuda
(Thai) and Evil eye (Middle Eastern). All of the cultural objects and
creatures we chose are mythical and have an evil origin but are used to
combat evil.
3rd meeting (8/1/2021)
We confirmed the design ideas for our project which are the poster
series, product design, magazine, tarot cards, brand design and short
comic. We all divided each of the design ideas with each other and I went
with the poster series where I had to sketch out 4 different posters of
each of the characters.
- Poster Series- Sasilvia
- Product Design- Honoka
- Magazine: Hoda
- Tarot Cards: Nitish
- Brand Design- Kai Jun
- Short Comic: Yi Ki
Miro Board
Fig. 1.1 Miro board
4th meeting (13/1/2022)
After a long discussion of deciding whether we should keep Garuda in
our project or not since we could hardly find any great sources or
references on Garuda so we ended up removing Garuda from our project. We
updated our google slides with research objectives, research problem,
research question and added more info on Oni, Evil eye and
Medusa.
Sketches
I was in charge of doing the sketches for the poster
series.
Fig. 1.2 Evil eye poster series sketch (13/1/2022)
Fig. 1.3 Medusa poster series sketch (13/1/2022)
Fig. 1.4 Oni poster series sketch (13/1/2022)
For the Evil eye poster I made the Evil eye as a sun looking
down and shining all it's light onto the misfortune which is
the broken mirror and the golden cracks is the mirror healing
as it gets shine down by the light from the Evil eye sun. As
for the Medusa poster, I made Medusa standing in the
center as a magnificent and powerful looking women she
is. Where her eyes that turns men into stone were glowing and
surrounding her are men who had done bad things and got
punished by her where she turned them into stone. The Oni
poster was intended to have the Oni fighting off the Covid-19
virus so the position placed between the Oni and the virus are
like they are having a battle against each other. The fire
surrounding the Oni is meant to help the Oni burn off the
virus.
5th meeting (14/1/2022)
We updated the rationale, research question and date
question. We looked through each other's sketches of the
design ideas and gave our own opinions on it. For the poster
series that I was in charge of I had to make a little changes
to the evil eye poster where I had to add drippings onto the
gold on the mirror to make it look more like gold rather than
a lighting shape. The product design items to design is face
mask, band aids, umbrella and key caps. The sketches should
look more refined and an alternative option if its easier can
make mock-ups instead. The magazine is changed to company
pamphlet which is combined together with the brand design. Our
company is a fortune telling company that has a combination of
Oni, Medusa and Evil eye. For tarot cards, look into how decks
of tarot cards work, search more on the protection types of
tarot cards and make sure the art style is the same. As for
brand design, the logo can be a more minimalistic style, it
should have a mysterious feeling rather than a intimating
look. Last but not least, for short comic the sketches should
be clean up and come up with a colour palette for the comic
where each comic have their own colour tone. The 4th and 6th
panel in the Oni comic can be made clearer.
Updated Sketches
Fig. 1.5 Updated Evil eye poster series sketch (17/1/2022)
Fig. 1.6 Updated Medusa poster series sketch (17/1/2022)
Fig. 1.7 Updated Oni poster series sketch (17/1/2022)
After getting some feedback from my group members I decided to
colour the posters and I wanted to create a watercolour textured
effect on the poster so I applied many different brushes onto the
posters. I also made some changes to the evil eye poster where I
added golden drippings to fill the crack of the mirror to indicate
the Evil eye is filling up the misfortune cracks in the mirror
with golden drippings which I was inspired by a Japanese art
called "Kintsugi" where they put broken pieces of pottery
back together with gold. Other than that I also add patterned
borders onto the posters where each of the individual has their
own kind of patterns and colour palettes which was inspired by
their culture.
6th meeting (17/1/2022)
Sketches that needs to be updated are Oni temperance tarot card ,pamphlet and product design. We also double
check all the slides before sending it to Ms. Anis for feedback.
Script
We divided the slides evenly and then wrote down our script in the
google docs so that everyone will have a better understanding of what
each other is saying in the slides. We also made sure that our presentation does not go over the time given by practicing our lines and type in our estimated time in the google docs. Since I was in charge of moving the
slides during the presentation, I suggested my group members to
highlight the parts where I have to move the slides so that I know when
to move and not get confused.
Fig. 1.8 Script writing for presentation (18/1/2022)
Final Presentation:
Fig. 1.9 Task 1: Proposal presentation slides (18/1/2022)
Presentation Video:
Fig. 1.10 Task 1: Proposal recorded presentation video
(19/1/2022)
FEEDBACK
Week 1 (7/1/2022)
The design can be a poster series, short film, it does not
necessarily have to be an item. Keep the concept of using evil to
ward off evil in mind. Look more into other culture which has a
similar approach in this which is Persian culture with Evil eye.
Where if you were to have an Evil eye on top of you, all the other
evil forces and beings will be too scared to approach you. The topic
can be change to "Protection". Reflect more on the current situation
like Covid where we can try making a face mask that symbolizes an
evil creature. There is also this product which is hairy leggings
where it helps a woman to avoid being cat called. The representation
of evil can be from a real life situation.
Week 2 (14/1/2022)
For the research questions cut it down to 3 as there is too
much right now and do not ask questions that people already
know. As for rationale, highlight and bold the main points
since there is a wall of words and it is hard to find the main
point. Summarize the Evil eye and Medusa description and add
why they are evil that ward off evil. Add the objective of our
project as some people misinterpret some evil are good.
Preferably target audience and people with experience (real
time responses) for the data collection methods. Try to think
what is the target output for the brand design and it can be
pack together with the tarot cards. The magazine idea can be
repackage with the company branding. Tarot cards can be
redesign to protection cards. The brand design can keep on
sketching and look into different art styles for it. Add more
visuals for the Oni, Evil eye and Medusa like add existing
artefacts that captures it uses. The title should also be
change to something related to evil for example "Protection
beliefs with evil".
Week 3 (27/1/2022)
We got feedbacks for our proposal-
Good proposal. Express the need to study people's perception of beliefs in evil for protection for our project 2. The best ideas is idea 3 can be combined with project 4 or project 5 idea.
REFLECTION
I was never fond of doing research based projects but this peaked my interest as I get to work on something interesting which is learning about culture of other people. I was kind of disappointed that we were not able to travel overseas for this but what can we do, all we can do is adapt to the situation that we are in. I had some ups and down on this project. One of our group member was most of the time missing in action where they are always missing out on discussions and giving the lack of participation in the works was a pain. Due to the lack of hands we needed to make due to the proposal and did our best throughout the whole thing. The meetings we had was incredibly long which normally last up to 4 hours and I feel super drained afterwards but we made sure that we had a clear discussion on what to proceed further on. Also I am not the best with words as my vocabulary is not that wide, I will always try my best to find things that I can help out with. The poster series drawing part was so fun for me since I was able to do some research on that particular culture and mythical figure and create a whole new artwork from there.
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