Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Saving boy from drowning

When we were coming out with ideas for how to save the boy from drowning in the metal urn, I suddenly thought of the kind of metal urn it was and how big the dimension of the urn is. It came to me as how we come up with the idea is very dependant on the size of the urn. The factor is what kind of environment and what kind of tools can we find to use to help the boy. Is the boy still drowning or is he underwater at the bottom of the urn. 

Metal last supper

As we did our mind mapping on the image, I realised we were not focusing enough on the what is in the image, and searching for information on each and individual identity of the people inside the image. We should be looking at the elements inside the paintings rather than things that we cannot see.

Bee and flower

As my group was doing this exercise, we had to put our selves in the position of the bar to think why the bee do what it did. Some of the ideas we thought of seem ridculous and nonsensical, but I guess after that we can filter our ideas according to our needs.

W7 photo 32

The trolley bag which the child was pulling along attracted me because of the image that was printed on it. If I remember correctly,  "the very hungry catepillar" is a children`s story book with a very distinctive illustration style. It seems that this story book suddenly became a branding in itself with the logoing of the catepillar on the bag.

W7 photo 31

The fashion industry relies heavily on trend setting and alway needs to create something new to attract the attention of consumers. Although it seems like fashion brands would be creative in doing their designs, there are infact alot of similarities in example luxury bags of different brands. Of course, the motiffs or monograms are the most distinct part of the branding and differs the most from each other.

TED: how to get your ideas to spread

the video talks the importance of an idea that spreads and it would ensure its success if it spreads. people who can spread their ideas win and become successes. tv and mass media spreads ideas easily and companies use this characteristic to sell their products. however in this modern age, there are a lot of choices available for consumers to choose from and most of them which they ignore. ideas need to be remarkable in order to get noticed. ideas need to be different and out of the ordinary to get attention. People will talk to one another about interesting and fresh new ideas and thus allowing ideas to spread by word of mouth. the idea do not have to be good but it has to be unique and special.

personally i feel that these kind of ideas do not stay around for very long. it is a matter of time that such ideas would go out of fashion as everyone starts to follow them. A product should not only sell because it is unique but also because it is good.

Friday, August 26, 2016

W6 photo 30

I was passing by a building when I saw this wall. I assume there used to be words on the wall stating the shop's name. But now all there is left is the white markings that remain. To me the markings left behind by the wall seemed more interesting than if the words were there. I would not have paid attention to that wall if it was just another shop front.

W6 photo 29

This is a curb around nafa campus. I was attracted by the vivid green weed in contrast to the orange construction cone. It Is amazing that this plant is able thrive in spite of not growing in soil. We should learn like the weed to be able to thrive and survive in different conditions.

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

W6 photo 28

This is a photo of the courtesy lion that was sitting infront of a community centre in kallang area. I found it really interesting as the figure had its right hand broken off. The courtesy lion is supposed to be a mascot to encourage people to be more friendly and helpful. But here it has been damaged. It feels more like the mascot needs our help rather than it helping us.

Monday, August 22, 2016

W6 photo 27

It is early in the morning and there is one around yet in the industrial at taiseng. The dark blue sky was slowly lightening up. The dim florescent light was lighting up the cold metal shutters of the small factory. The front space of the factory was surprisingly clean. This store space might belong to a chinese owner as there were chinese lanterns hanging at the front.

W6 photo 26

This is a photo I took of a coffeshop I visited. What made me took this photo was the strong orange yellows and cool blues in the scene. It was around 7am in the morning. There was an elderly man watching a programme on the television. Was he waiting for someone or something in the coffeeshop? Maybe he was waiting to go to work.

Friday, August 19, 2016

W5 photo 25

This is a photo of the outside of a hdb flat. In the past, there were no metal supports outside the exterior of the building. The supports were mainly to help the occupants to better hang their clothes and prevent the clothes pole from becoming killer litter when it gets too windy or the pole breaking under the load of the laundry. The designers designed this with the safety of the user in mind. It is very important to think about user when the designers design their products so that the product would aid the users properly.

W5 photo 24

This is the photo of a neighbourhood multipurpose court. I was attracted by the design on the floor as it uses blue and red which is striking. There were children playing soccer there. It might be a good place for gathering people so that creative thoughts can be produced. The colors might have been used to stimulate the mind, rather than if a plain grey concrete floor was used

Thursday, August 18, 2016

W5 photo 23: dead plant

This is a photo of a dead plant out side bras basah complex. I was attracted by the lines that the branches formed against the plain wall behind it. For something that is dead, there is still beauty in it to be seen. Perhaps we should try to appreciate  the beauty that even things like that possess.

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

W5 photo 22

This is a photo I took of my goldfishes. I was experimenting with the slow shutter effect with my phone. I am quite amazed at how advanced technology has become. Long exposure timing used to be only available to professional cameras and now even camera phones can achieve high image quality. It leads me to think that in the future, there might be lesser and lesser people having a stand alone camera as having a phone with a camera function is much more convenient and accessible.

W5 photo21

This is a photo I took at my local wet market place. Every morning, there will be a lot of old ladies and old men doing their marketing. Very few young people will be around as most of them probably have gone to work. In addition, most young people like to go to supermarkets as it is more convenient for them to go after work. I feel that the wet market culture in singapore might die off as only the elderly would go to the wet market.

Monday, August 15, 2016

TED talk Steven johnson

in the video Steven Johnson mentioned that creative ideas are more like being made up of a few different ideas that are borrowed from various places. creative ideas do not appear out of the thin air but is assembled from parts and pieces from our experiences. in order to stimulate ideas, places that stimulate birth of creative ideas should have people of various backgrounds gathering together to share their experiences and knowledge. we often borrow ideas from people (either knowingly or unknowingly)  and work upon them. i feel there is no shame in admitting being influenced by other peoples ideas as no one can say they have not been influenced by others to produce their ideas. ideas usually needs to be incubated for a period of them before they can stand on their own as a creative idea.  Famous people getting their stories of eureka moments most likely had parts of ideas in their head that took time to take shape. He also mentioned that companies are protecting their intellectual ideas and discovery in fear of them being stolen. i feel that these companies are doing it as they are afraid of losing the profitability of their ideas. in fact, if everyone shares their ideas, the whole world would benefit and more creative ideas and discoveries would have been made. in an alternate world where everyone share their ideas, a lot of problems could have been solved much earlier. by discovering one idea, it could lead to other trajectory for other ideas that work on a similar principle.
however, it is only possible if everyone shares their ideas and not keep it to themselves.

W4 see think wonder

After the exercise, I realise I have difficulty making up stories from photos that do not have too much information in it. Maybe because the photo does not include human element in it, that was why I could not seem to put a narrative to it. i do see the similarities between the scenario in the photo and what is happening in Singapore. Many places in Singapore, we can see the intermixing of the new and old. however it is very often that that old and culturally rich buildings have to make way for the newer skyscrapers which are offices. sometimes it really saddens me that the older buildings have to be torn down. This buildings hold so much history of Singapore and also the memories of Singaporeans. perhaps it is the price of economic development of singapore.

W4 photo 20

I saw this barrier when I was walking along orchard road. It attracted my attention because of the height and color used. The design is very graphic. I would guess that the barrier serves not only to eliminate sound from the construction but also to hide the construction from the sight of passerbys.

Friday, August 12, 2016

W4 photo 19

This is a work by eugene soh, a visual artist from sngapore. I saw this on my face book feed and alot of people were commenting about his creativeness. I have come to wonder how do people percieve the creativity of this photo. The photo is a recreation of grant wood's american gothic. The photo is however of two singaporean actors. In other words this is a copy of the work of wood. I have no problem with people being inspired by other artists' works. However i feel this work does not give any new insight. Is this in singapore? Why is the man in a jacket? Was it because the man in the painting was wearing a jacket and so the maker of image had to make him wear a jacket as well? Why is the man in the photo holding a clothes hanging pole and how is it relevant to the background which the man is standing in?i feel that the image maker have not taken into account of the coherency of the image. 

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

W3 catch a crab

After the brainstorming session, i realised that
We can interpret certain words differently. For example crane can both be a bird or a construction machine. Using this method of coming up with ideas, we discover more interesting options from ideas we first conceive. It is ok to come up with ideas that seem silly as more ideas are better than no ideas at all.

W4 photo 18

Sometimes people censor themselves with out knowing it. The gate in the photo represents this censoring of our own thoughts durimg our creative process. We would think that our ideas are stupid or not very good. We think this way because we are structured in a way to think about how society would think of us if we act in a certain way. We try to conform to what the majority think is the normal. Creativity needs us to not be normal, be different. 

W4 photo 17

I saw this shoe that belong to a child hanging on the branch on a bush near nafa. I felt it was a really interesting image as no one would ever expect the shoe to be in such a place. If there were more shoes hanging on the bush, it would seem like shoes are growing off the branches. I felt it was a creative way to display shoes in the window display.

W4 photo 16

I feel that creativity sometimes require people to be persistent about their idea about their work. What you think might be a great idea might not be seen by people as an acceptable one. Some people might see your creativity as a problem for them as they have been looking at thinks from a certain perspective for a very long time. I believe one needs to be brave to be creative and willing to take risk of being different.

Sunday, August 7, 2016

Creativity and problem solving

I feel that creativity is very important during problem solving or in face of a crisis. During such circumstances, people are required to think of various ways to achieve their goals and solve their problems. Problems often comes with constrains and restrictions. People need to think around such restrictions with creative thinking. Artists might face problems creating an art piece as they might not have the right tools or equipment and they might not have the funds to purchase such equipments. Hence they would have to think of ways of overcoming the problem, either by creating a make shift tool or using another technique to create the same effect. The artist would need to think of a cost effective way and that takes creativity and thinking out of the box.

Thursday, August 4, 2016

W3 photo 15

I saw this wall near the nafa campus. I feel its quite amazing that we could find such a wall filled with creations from different graffiti artists on a old building, especially in singapore. I feel that the government could really promote the creative scene by allowing such use of public spaces for artistic projects.

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

W3 photo 14

I saw a bin that was at the bus stop of a crowded part of bedok central. The bin was so full that it is over flowing with trash. It disturbs me that through our consumption, we produce so much trash. If this is the amount that one bin produce on one day, i cant imagine how much trash we produce on a worldwide basis. What way can we stop such rapid consumption? I feel that waste is usually caused by humans need for convenience, disposable products.

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

W3 photo 13

It is a pity that there is no longer a specialisation in scuplture. This plaster cast was just sitting in the corner of the workshop as if waiting for its end to come. It is no longer needed as the younger generations perhaps do not see the need for classicism and understanding the structure of the human anatomy.

W3 photo 12

The texture of the cracked plaster under the sunlight looked very interesting to me. It seems to signify a cracking open of maybe an egg like structure.

Monday, August 1, 2016

W3 photo 11

Children can bring their toys along with them anywhere and play with them without feeling embarassed. Even though they are in a very different environment, they can imagine themselves as some kind of superhero in another dimension. This kind of behavior allows them to think out of the box.