Semester 1 Theory & History (Jacinta's Class)
Week 1
For our first lesson, we were introduced to our lecturer, Jacinta, and we went through a round of introductions. Afterwards we were introduced to what the class was about and Visual Thinking. As designers it is important to have a curious mind that is interested in the things around us. In this class, we will be using the medium of art to developed our confidence and experience through using visual & thinking skills. It is through this that we will be able to decern what we know and what we don't and look further into it. The visual thinking strategy that was introduce is OPINE. It represents:
Observe
What do you see?
What is going on?
Ponder
What is that you are looking?
What could be there?
What makes you say that?
Investigate
What do I feel?
What do I sense?
What more can I find?
Nurture
Ask why?
Which part interest you?
Which are connected with you?
Express
Reflect by writing, drawing, singing, recording.
Express “What ifs”
Afterwards, she gave us a brief rundown on the entire Art & Design Timeline. For the first lessons, we were asked to define what Design is. The definition she gave was "Design is to design a design to produce a design" by John Heskett. Design means constantly creating and creating and it is influenced by the things around us and their experience. Those human experiences are where the study of Design Theory and History comes in.
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For the first lessons, we focused on the Ancient and Classical Art periods. The Ancient Art Period lasted from 3000BCE to 300BCE. This is the period of prehistoric art like cave paintings, the Stonehenge and Moai. That was also when the pyramids of Egypt were built and the establishment of the first writing system. Even though there wasn't much documentation in the past, their many art and structures have still stood the test of time. And even though there is much that we don't know about these structures, it gives us a window into how life was like in the past. It also shifts my own misgivings of what society was like in the past and the fact that they were honestly very advanced. It is also important to note that when civilizations are established, their arts will often be developed faster.
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The Classical Art Period was from 300BCE to the 14th Century. We mainly looked at the European classical ages. But other countries have different periods which they consider their classical ages and they usually coincide with the peak of their region's first great kingdom. An example given includes the Greek and Rome when the concept of democracy was conceived. They had a fascination with the naturalism as the ideal building shown in their art and structures. Other example would be China when the silk road was at its peak power and they were more advance with their paper and silk. Their art could use this new mediums and ideas to develop their art further.
As we look at the later centuries, we can see the church taking a huge role in carrying on art and developing new art. This started in the Medieval period where you see a lot of Christian's and Pagan's symbols get used more. From their books to their architectures. Some movements during this period would be Gothic, Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque, and Rococo. All this different art movement had their distinct style and we had to do a reflection on it. But the conclusion of the lesson was that an art movement is a specific style that was popular in a specific time, and style in each period are layered in history of human civilization and may occur differently in other regions.
REFLECTION
For my reflection I focused on finding out more about Chiaroscuro & Contrapposto. This were my findings:
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Chiaroscuro is an Italian term which literally means 'light-dark'. In paintings the description refers to clear tonal contrasts which are often used to suggest the volume and modelling of the subjects depicted. It is used to emphasize and illuminate important figures in a painting or drawing. It was first introduced during the Renaissance. It was originally used while drawing on colored paper though it is now used in paintings and even cinema. It is very commonly seen in religious art, especially with the light emanating from the holy figure being painted. This process is used because it naturally draws the eye toward the focus point which the artist intends in a very natural way. Artists who are famed for the use of chiaroscuro include Leonardo da Vinci and Caravaggio.
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Contrapposto is an Italian term that means "counterpoise". It is used in the visual arts to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot, so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs in the axial plane. First appearing in Ancient Greece in the early 5th century BCE, contrapposto is considered a crucial development in the history of Ancient Greek art (and, by extension, Western art), as it marks the first time in Western art that the human body is used to express a psychological disposition. The style was further developed and popularized by sculptors in the Hellenistic and Imperial Roman periods, fell out of use in the Middle Ages, and was later revived during the Renaissance. Michelangelo's statue of David, one of the most iconic sculptures in the world, is a famous example of contrapposto.
Week 2
For the second lesson, we look into the Revival period of the art movement in which the artist of that decade looked back to the past for inspiration. At the peak of great empires and civilizations, politics, sciences, architecture, arts, literature, and philosophy flourished. These empires leave behind their artistic and cultural legacy that we can uncover. Some notable examples of great art were from the Ottoman empire which had a distinct artistic style integrating classical Persian style, Arab culture and Byzantium. And the reason for this was because of their geographic expansion and trade across other countries. This can be seen in their ceramics and architecture.
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We were introduce to the difference between Fine Art & Decorative art. Fine Art includes artistic objects including painting, sculpture & photography, while Decorative Art is any of the visual arts applied in order to render something more attractive or ornate. Decorative Art is also reffered to as Applied Arts and includes Ceramic Pottery, Tapestry, Book Illustration.
This lesson we were moving on to the Age of Discovery and the Industrial Revolutions. The Industrial Revolutions was the change from agrarian civilization to using machines. It was a period of advancement for science & technologies, causing an increase in popultion of people living in cities. We were introduced to the following Art Movement that were part of the Age of Discovery & Industial Revolution:
Neoclassicism
It was inspired by the grandeur of the ancient roman civilisation. It adapted the ideals of classical civilisation. It is characterised by Naturalistic, Elegance, & Harmony, as well as
the use of clean lines, minimal use of colours, & symmetry
Romantism
It was a reaction against reason and order, and causing people to be drawn to the idea of freedom and intense emotions. It has elements of escapism - horror, fantasy, supernatural, exoticism. The artists had the desire to escape reality of industrialisation
Realism
It uses scenes of modern life as subject of painting. The art showcases the truthfulness and directness of reality, basically the "unprettiness" of life. The subjects of the paintings include peasants, beggars, prostitutes. And this art tend to use more sombre palette
Impressionism
It was started by a collective of artist against the constraints of academic art. It aims to portrays contemporary life through urban landscapes, scenes of leisure, countryside. The art captures the transient effects of nature.
Post-Impressionism
The art follows the revolutionary techniques of impressionism but looking beyond the natural world. The art is about finding deeper truths of human condition reworking conventions of colours and perspectives.
Symbolism
It is a reaction against materialism and rationalism of the modern world. The art evoked imagination and emotions, using mystical and psychological elements, and aims to make the invisible visible. It often have themes of Sleep, Dreams, Silence, Stillness, and Female Sexuality
Afterwards, we looked into the technological advances of the Industrial Revolution. Since early civilisations, mankind has created tools inspired by the natural world. These tools complemented and extended the use of our hands. One of the first things we designed was the wheel. It was created as a potter's wheel 3500 years ago and it was 300 years later that it was used in chariots. Most of the early innovations adapted techniques for a new purpose and use. One of the oldest techniques that were adapted from pre-existing methods of basket making is the technique of textile weaving. It has been present since Yemen, 9th-10th century. Other older techniques include the painting of the value and white porcelain. All these techniques were influenced by other techniques and discoveries. The technique that help advance the Industrial Revolution was the method of "division of labours" which was started by Josiah Wedgewood in the Etruria Potter Factory in 1769. It allowed him to speed up the process of creating their product. Industrialisation created the need for draughtsmen and drawing skills for product specification. During the 19th century, there was a revival period where the artist of that time looked towards the historic style for inspiration. Some work from that time is the Bodoni font that took cues from Greek and Roman writing. The font uses balance to achieve an elegant feel through using light and dark stoke and emphasising vertical lines. So what defines an ornament from fine art? It is the fact that it renders the object more acceptable by bestowing upon it an amount of beauty that it would not otherwise possess. It can be a craft that represents a tribe or community, an aspiration to lifestyle with growing wealth and education, or manufactured to add value to objects.
HOMEWORK
For our homework for this week, we were put into teams in which we were to find out more about a given art movement from the revival era. My team was given the art movement: Neoclassism. This was our findings:
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Who were the pioneers?
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The Industrial Revolution, which began in England about 1760, led to radical changes at every level of civilization throughout the world.
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In the rapidly growing economy new types of buildings like rail road stations, shopping malls, exhibition, buildings were required. However, most of these buildings had no architectural precedents and so the architects were required to come up with new architectural solutions. At such a stage the architect’s responded with returning to Renaissance, borrowing from the principles of Classical Architecture.
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In short, neoclassicism was a response to the lack of architectural values found during the Industrial Revolution with the revival of the many styles and spirit of classic antiquity inspired directly from the classical period.
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What were the main characteristics of this movement?
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With the lack of architectural values during the Industrial revolution and the new age of scientific discovery known as the Enlightenment, Neoclassicism start to focus more on the natural world and people around them rather than fantasize or decorate their surroundings in order to make them palatable. Rather than decorative and aesthetics elements, it focuses more on practicality with the use of these followings:
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symmetry
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unemotional telling of events
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simplicity of line, form, and colour
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balance of straight lines and geometric shape
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use of science, mathematics, and natural law
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non-fantastical view of the surrounding world and event
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They are all simple and straight to the point, characterizing them as Neoclassicism.
One example would be this artist, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. A talented draftsman known for his line and rendered, illusionistic textures. His cool, meticulously drawn works constituted the stylistic antithesis of the emotionalism and colourism of the contemporary Romantic school. His expressive distortions of form and space made him an important precursor of modern art, influencing Picasso, Matisse and other modernists.
What response to the Industrial Revolution was this movement about?
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Neoclassism began around the middle of the 18th century and takes inspiration from Greek and Roman antiquity and the artists of the Renaissance. This came about due the artist of that era desiring better art. So they took inspiration from Johann Joachim Winckelmann, the founder of modern archeology and art history, who praised the Greek and saw them as close to perfection as possible. Hence many artist started to study ancient Greek's works. With the discovery of the well preserved archaeological sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum being discovered, it fueled these artist and inspired them to move away from the current style of Rococo.
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Artist that were behind this movement includes:
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Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres: He is famous for his painting of Oedipus and the Sphinx (1808)represents a scene from the classical Greek plays of Sophocles.
Josiah Wedgwood: Founded the Wedgewood company and were influential in the English ceramic market. They produced classically inspired jasperware, creamware, and black basalts, formed using simple geometric lines, and decorated with frieze-like scenes reminiscent of ancient Greek and Roman pottery
John Flaxman: A prominent neoclassical sculptor, illustrator, and designer, who worked at Wedgewood company fin 1775. He is known for his illustration, "Odyssey", and has designed monuments for military heroes and nobles.
Week 3
For the first part of the lesson, we had to present our findings from our homework from last week. There was some technical issue at first, but I was genuinely intrigued by the other groups sharing the different art movements during the Industrial Revolution. It was very insightful.
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After all the presentations, we were introduced to the Modern World shown through Arts & Design. We watch a video regarding modern art and the decline of the Christian civilization. We were given time to reflect on the video in the group we were assigned. Based on the questions, we all agree that humans are the main factor behind the creation of modern society. The shift to our current modern society came from the people having a change in their values & ideology. The younger generation played a heavy role in moving society away from the common Christian way of thinking that had a more hopeful outlook on the world. Instead, they started to rely more on themselves and create things on their own. In this way, they started to look internally and their modern art was more of a reflection of their human psyche. Often time when looking at themselves, the art will reflect our own degenerative self. And as we move forward toward the future we need to be aware of how our science and technologies have affected their art and how it will continue to affect our future generation. An ideal "modern" society would be where every human's levels of needs are fulfilled and have the right to autonomy, it would be self-realized rather than alienated.
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Currently, our modern society was from the 18th century to now. Much has changed from our past through our shift to capitalism as our economic system, to having more urban cities from small towns and metropolis. We have so many new technologies from locomotives to photography. We are also a more secular society based on religion & science, and we have become a better world overall. But many different ideologies have started to emerge from our modern society such as Constructivism to Dadaism. An ideology is a system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy.
HOMEWORK
Our homework was to reflect on investigate and discuss on one of the ideologies that was introduced. We were suppose to share some insights from it and pick one Fine Art and one Decorative Arts (or design) that best describe the ideology. The ideology I chosen was Dadaism and here are my findings from it:​
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Dada can be traced back to the early 20th century in Zürich. It was a movement with explicitly political overtones. This was a reaction to the senseless slaughter of the trenches of WWI. European artists, writers, and intellects were forced out of their homes as a result of the war and found solitude in the refuge of northern Switzerland. Hence this artist banded together to essentially declared war against war, countering the absurdity of the establishment's descent into chaos with its own kind of nonsense. They challenge topics such as nationalism, rationalism, materialism, and other threatening “isms” through performances, poetry, manifestoes, and other public displays. The word "Dada" translates to “hobby horse,” and was coined by Hugo Ball, a German author and poet widely considered to be the founder of the movement. Hugo Ball noted in his diary, “For Germans it is a sign of foolish naiveté, joy in procreation, and preoccupation with the baby carriage.”
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Dadaism art was often characterized by its humor through visual puns and creative wit that may seem light at first but has a much deeper upon further inspection that often challenged cultural order. It often seems whimsical and nonsensical, showcasing the artists' freedom of expression. It has a very emotional reaction to the horrid situation shown through the spontaneity and irrationality their art carries.
The work I have chosen is Le Violon d'Ingres (1934) by Man Ray. In French, this translates to Ingres's Violin. Man Ray always has an admiration for the French neoclassical painter, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, and this picture he took is a reflection of that. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres used to play the violin as a pastime when he wasn't painting which is what this picture reflects. The model for the photo was Kiki de Montparnasse who was also Man Ray's lover. The title and painting humorously show Ray's goal of depicting the model's torso as a musical instrument and playing with the fact that she was the artist's model and lover at the same time. Not only does it depict his admiration of the French neoclassical painter, but also depicts his desire to mock tradition. The picture distorts and deforms the model's body to engage the Surrealist concepts of metamorphosis and formlessness, but they also belong to a larger context of fascination for Ingres's manipulations of anatomy during the interwar period, as seen in the writings of critics such as André Lhote.
Week 4
During this lesson, we first went through the different ideologies that we were presented with last week. Below is a summary of the different design movements.
Expressionism
Type of Art in which the image of reality is distorted in order to make it expressive of the artist’s inner feelings or ideas
Futurism
An art movement that celebrates the energy and dynamism of the machine age.
Related to Orphism.
Fauvism
Art in which individual expression is most valued. The artist directly express their experiences and emotions through their work
Cubism
The Art represents different views of the subject pictured simultaneously or successively through perspective. Something normal in life but from a different perspective.
Started by Picasso who wanted to refute the idea of art being replicas of nature/real life.
Orphism
It is an abstract, cubist-influenced painting style. It relaunched the use of color during the monochromatic phase of Cubism
Suprematism
The Artist believe to be superior to all art in the past and that itwould lead to the “supremacy of pure feeling or perception in pictorial arts”
Dadaism
Art with explicitly political overtones as a reaction to the senseless slaughter of the trenches of WWI. It declared war against war, countering the absurdity of the establishment's descent into chaos with its own kind of nonsense.
Surrealism
Art that is dedicated to collapsing the barrier between the dreaming and waking worlds. The artists developed techniques to suppress their rational intellect and tap into unconstrained consciousness.
Difference
Art Nouveau wanted to create an entirely new design vocabulary appropriate to the modern world. It is characterized by whiplash curves and motifs inspired by nature
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Art Decor is characterized by geometric forms, expensive materials (lacquer, ivory, gold), and exotic motifs inspired by Chinese, African, and even Mesoamerican design
Art Nouveau
The Art break down the traditional distinction between art and craft. It is characterized by its use of a long, sinuous, organic line
Art Decor
The Art break down the traditional distinction between art and craft. It is characterized by itsuse of a long, sinuous, organic line
After going through the different art movements, we were introduced to the 12 Precepts of Modernism by Edgar Kaufman Jr. From these precepts, in our own group we had to choose one of the precepts and reflect on it. We had to see how does this applies to design practice and propose an alternative to it. We also had to find a design to illustrate thee alternative precept we had propose.
ACTIVITY
We decided to focus on the point 7 : " Modern design should express the qualities and beauties of the materials used, never making the materials seem to be what they are not. On the most part me and my team looked at this through Modernism Interior design that reflects a fuss-free approach to life through keeping décor minimal while emphasizing industrial materials. In terms of materials, unconventional ones were often picked but were used beautifully and turned to an essential element of the design.
We found this example to explain this precept. This is a German Pavilion, Barcelona by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1929). This designer used unconventional materials of his time, marble, steel, chrome and glass, to build this. As an icon to the Modernism movement, this pavillipn was an astute step towards modern design and planning. Through this , we can see how the statement come into play and how material is explored.
The alternative precept that we have suggested is that "Modern design should also embrace the imperfection of the material to bring out their unique point. We decided to use Wabi-Sabi as our example to support it. Wabi-sabi is a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of appreciating beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete" in nature. Wabi-sabi is about embracing the imperfection of the material which in some sense is also embracing the qualities and beauty of the material as modernism
HOMEWORK
Our homework was to go to the National Design Centre and view the 50 Years of Singapore Design exhibition. Afterwards we had to writ a reflection on it. This was my reflection on my visit there. I was inspired by the various object shown and these are a few examples of it:
Sumajin Smartwrap
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Year: 2002
Designer/Studio: Marcus Ting, Sumajin
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One of the items I found interesting was the Sumajin Smartwear. I think I found it interesting initially because I recognised the name from my old lecturers who mentioned it to me. I did not realise that the person behind the design was a Singaporean. I also found it surprising that even though I had visited this exhibition previously, I didn't manage to link them together. But what I was truly fascinated by was the process of prototyping and testing this seemingly simple product underwent. In total, it was shown to have gone through 8 different variants. It allowed me to reflect and see the amount of effort that has to be taken to ensure that the product is good enough to be sold to consumers. And even something simple requires so many prototypes and testing. It shows the amount of empathy and care we should have as designers toward our users.
"Rabbit and Tortise" Collection
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Year: 2012
Designer/Studio: Studio Juju
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I was also fascinated by these pieces of furniture and the way they interacted with one another. Even though they seem like random shapes, each one has a role that is able to serve different activities done around it. When designing something as common as a table, it doesn't have to fall into the same bland and boring shape we are common use too. It is interesting that they have challenged that notion and created a design that will serve the needs of the user better. It is important to not just see the box that society has placed the design in but see what lies beyond that and challenge those assumptions,
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Week 5
During this lesson, we first went through our reflection from our learning journing to the National Design Centre. As we starting discussing about it, someone brought up how the Singapore government from the start has influenced designs behind being made to establish Singaporean's own identity. Through that it led to the topic of this lesson which was Design in Context. So in Singapore, Design is a tool, a key partner in Singapore’s efforts to become a developed and thriving nation. Thie design in Singapore is a reflection of ourchanging aesthetic,economic and values of the time. As we have gone through the exhibition in the National Design Centre, we were able to see how design has help to shape our identity as a Singaporeans, and how the values of our society has shifted and the effect it has on our design. In Singapore, we are a nation by design as nothing we have is natural to us. That is why design is the core element of our nation-building.
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Other countries also have different design context. In Korea, the context of their design is meant as a cultural export which we saw as the Korean wave/Hallyu. Th Korean government wanted to put themselves on the map so they promoted the cultural renaissance in Seoul. An example would be Jillian Choi, a Korean-American art and design consultant who was inspired by the Korea practise of stacking stone to design her table.
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In India, the context of their design is to change things, improving their public services – sanitation, pollution, women’s security and social issues. For India, design as reflection of a new form of language, an evolving culture. An example shown was the NH1's Don't Hide it campaign on period pads. This was meant to allow women & men to shift their mndset on this "taboo" topic.
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For China, they have become world’s Creative Superpower, causing the demand for design is spreading with the increasing middle-class population. China's size, wealth and velocity of change are creating a market for design.
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Lastly we were introduced to Indonesian's Dayak Longhouse which was designed to creat permeable boundaries to promote
communal living through the design of the spaces and wall.
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REFLECTION
After watching the video, our group was truly intrigued by the movie especially since one of my teammates had watched the movie before. It was truly fascinating to see the character interactions and how different elements were subtly telling us more about the character's motivations and backstories. After watching it, it really made us want to watch the full show. We had to ponder on the relationship of characters with objects around them and see the role of design (selected object) in the larger social context.
We chose to look at the lipstick the helper used. That lipstick had originally belonged to the mother of the household. The helper was simply cleaning up the mother's vanity when she decided to try it on. I think for us we saw how the maid had the desire to be feminine. All the articles of clothing she had worn up to now were ill-fitting hand-me-downs that hide all her features. It is all for the sake of money and convenience in terms of taking care of the house. The reason that she had to come to Singapore to work was that her family didn't have enough money. So the only option she could do was to go and work here. That lipstick isn't just a symbol of being girly and pretty to her. It is also a sense of desire for freedom and empowerment that she craves and does not have. The mother of the household is an office worker and has the ability to earn her own keep and have her own home without relying on others. That is the complete opposite of the situation she is in. To be able to be pretty and feminine is not a privilege that she has. That's why she can only use her fingers to apply the lipstick for sanitary purposes and to further show us that she can't afford this luxary.
Week 6
This lesson, we went through the use of symbol and sign to communicate visually in design. This is called Semiotics which study this signs and symbols. Design communicates meanings to its users which goes beyond the surface level and obvious meaning. It is important to ponder and think what the meaning behind things are as there are often left by the designer to convey a certain message. Semotic in design is to better express desired attributes or characteristics, or to encourage certain user behaviour, and improve usability and likability. The study of semotics was started by Roland Barthes who define it. A "Sign" is define as a visual, auditory,written symbol that conveys a meaning. As things interact with people and society, they will derise meaning to us and nothing is truly "meaningless". Semotic are present in our day to day life, and differ between culture and society. There are 2 part to a sign: Signifier and Signified. The Signifier is perceivable by our sense and has a physical form to us, while Signified is the meaning interpreted from the signifier. A Sign is an object, an entity or event indicating presence or occurrence while a Symbol s a form of sign that may have deeper meaning. A Sign communicates certain information while a Symbol represent something. With different cultures, there are different semotics that are present.
An example given was the Wayang Kulit which are shadow puppets from the Indonesian islands of Java and Bali. It is facinating to see the meaning behind the design and how they convey different characters. Another example that was given was Furnicycle, 2002. This exhibition was done at Shanghai Biennale for Urban Creation and was a seris of funiture that was combined with bicycles. This allowed us to see a formation of different habits by the people as they approach this new furniture.
As a general rule of thumb for visual communication; lines and shapes signifies a functional meaning, colour signifies representational meaning, materials signifies a symbolic meaning, while textures has a culture meaning. When it comes to product design, the form of the products communicates its function and purpose, while also communicate its qualities and
characteristics that may appeal to a certain user group. It basically comunicate the identity of the design. It is also important to disinguish the different between the cause and effect of a sign.
ACTIVITY
We were tasked with creating a pictogram based on a sport as well as a superhero. Our group chose to do Batman ice skating. The reason we chose this was because we thought it was funny. Ths renowned man in a bat form performs his act with such graceful moves with delicate precision on the cold frizzing ice, making the audience stunned and stare in awe of how such fine man can do more than just save the world but also won our hearts with his exquisite award-winning performance
VERNACULAR
Vernacular is the language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region, it is basically our everyday & common language spoken by average citizen. This can come in the form of architecture which relates to the concerns with the domestic, and is defined as a type of local or regional construction, using traditional materials and resources from the area where the building is located. It also vernacular design which is basically folk design. Basically, vernacular is looking at the way of the people or community. Example of vernacular language would be our own Singlish, especially in how we order our coffe and tea. If people don't understand the meaning behind it, chaos will ensues when they actually order their drink.
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An example of Vernacular architecture would be our Singaporean HDB corridors and void decks. Our HDB corridor are filled with enough space for people have plants and for people to meet their neighbours and interect with them. Same with our void decks where everyone in the block can come together. It is a reflection of Singpore's racial rainbow. In order to help ease over th stife between the different racial group, HDB place a bunch of measure to help ensure racial harmony in our racially diverse country. Our void desk aren't accidentally designed and they are shared open spaces in our HDB that encourages interections between the different races, building tolerance and harmony. It creates collective memories, forging closer bonds between everyone.
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Vernacular design are made by individuals whose creative skills convey their community's authentic cultural identity. An example would be this British Coin Pendants from the Chetti Melaka Heritage which showcase its autheticity, multicultural identity and hybridity.
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Lastly, we talked about Vernacularism which is object of local design that evolve over many generations and influenced by the availability of raw materials, customs and environmental condition. An example would be the rather recent normacy of food delivery sercices and how many food places have adjusted to deal with it especially during the covid period.
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Week 7
Reflection
For today's lesson, we had to submit our journals to Jacinta as well as watch this video called "Target “Design for All” Documentary". Afterwards, we had to answer 3 reflective questions below. Overall the video was very informative and insightful and gave me a deeper understanding of what designing for all truly means
1. Great design is to design for and with people. Do you agree or disagree? Why? (80-100words)
I agree that great design can only be achieved by designing for and with the people we are aiming for. Many times, we see a disconnect between the products that exist with the target users because they haven’t truly understood the issues the users face. Only people with that background can identify their challenges and needs. Creating a meaningful and inclusive experience, requires both the designers and users to come together. The video has showcased cases of the line between designers and users blurring, and how much that has led to better designs and insights.
2. Designing for Functionality or Designing for Aesthetics? Which do you consider as good design and why? (80-100words)
I think that we cannot truly put one over the other as both play a part in influencing the other. If we just consider the function in design, there will be a disconnect with the users as they are creatures of emotions. We buy things that attract us and hold meaning towards us.However, if we just design with aesthetics in mind, then the product we have at best mostly a waste of space. With different products, the amount of attention we give to function and aesthetics may differ, but both are needed to have a good design.
3. In the video, Tiffany Denise Brown shared that there is a disconnect between designers and the public. Explain what she meant and why is it important to address this disconnection. (80-100words)
It means that the people designing for the users are often not a part of it. Hence, they do not have the shared experience and knowledge of what the users truly need and want. Often, the ones who care the most about the design aren’t talked to, but it is those who have more influence whose needs get met. But times are changing, and we need to address how some of the past designs have not been ideal. Bad design restricts and brings down people. So let us think about how we can be more inclusive and empowering toward them
Week 9
This week we went through a zoom lesson on how to do Academic Writing and how to do Harvard referencing. This was done in preparation for our 800 essays.
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The first point that was made known to us was how Academic Writing was addressed to scholars, not friends or some random person scrolling through their feed. If we want to score well, we have to write the way a scholar wants. This style of writing is Academic Journal.
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There are a few important points to take note of when doing this writing and these are the key points:
We were introduce to the concept of Abbreviations and Acronym. The both are a shorten version of an organisation name with Abbreviation being one that people have to say each individual letter while Acronym being one that can be read out in a phoenical way. Example would BBC vs UNESCO and MFA vs ASEAN. How do you use it in Academic Writing then? You will have to write out the organisation's full name when you mention them for the first time in the essay. At the end of the full name write the abbreviation in [ ]. In order for us to better understand this, she gave us an exercise in which we had to rephrase the sentence according to a Havard Style. The sentence we had to edit was: NAC Singapore released a press release on Monday announcing the new guidelines for application of NAC scholarships. My response is to the side.
The next tip that she gave us was to Establish objectivity in our writing. When we are writing essays, we are not writing based on our own experiences or our opinion. You are writing the essay based on what you have read and researched about, and about conclusions based on these research findings. In order to do so, avoid using slang words, emotive language, and first & second person. The exercise we had to do to practise this was: The NAC guidelines in 2021 talks about the basic criteria for individual artist who wants to apply for a grant. I think that the guidelines are very confusing and blur. NAC should make things clearer. We had to rephrase the sentence being mindful to write as objectively as possible. My own response is to the side but there are some errors in it as I didn't change the word 'confusing' to a less emotive word.
It is also important for your essay to be simple, clear and concise. Since our essay is only 800 words long, every word is important. So it is important for our sentences to be straightforward and provide clarity to the reader while also being effective. "Clear Writing is Clear Thinking" In order to do this we had to forgo redundant phrases that can be easily boiled down to one or two words. For the third exercise, we were given a paragraph of text that we had to summarise into a 50-word paragraph. This was my attempt at it. When doing this, it is up to us to determine what information is important and what to keep.
An important point to note is that Academic Writing is testing the writer's critical thinking skills. In order to show that it is necessary for us to look out for key ideas and themes, and through comparing/contrasting, you can create your own conclusion. As general pointers, it is important to engage with the reader and not just summarise. Have at least one source per paragraph, mixing paraphrasing and direct quotations. And also have more than one source.
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Lastly, the most important part of the essay is how to do proper referencing in a Havard style. This would include how to cite a source and also create a reference page. An easy way to insert a Havard-style citation is to use a program called Mendeley which can also help to compile your source and organise them for you. Below are some example of Havard style citations and referencing.
Week 10-15
The classes for the next few week were all consultations for our 800 word essays. For Week 10, all of us shared our ideas to Jacinta and then she provided feedback on our essay ideas. For week 11, we group up 2 times and given the time to share with our peers our essay ideas and was provided ideas and feedback on it. On week 12, we had an e-learning week so we just had to submit our research for the essay. Then the following week on week 13, we had a physical consultation with Jacita so that she can share with us how to build our ideas for the project. For week 14, we had a WIP week so we had to just submit our research draft by Sunday that week.