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

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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. 

Visible Signs 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.

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INSTRUCTIONS

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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)

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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.

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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.