Marshmallow Challenge (Week 6)

          What’s up everyone, this time we are talking about a challenge that I did last week. The challenge was quite fun, I think, because it needed a good teamwork and the materials used for it were interesting. The challenge was to make tower-like building with a little marshmallow standing at the top with raw spaghetties as the building structure. The winner would be the people who made tallest building. The class was divided into groups, which every group consisted of 4 people. My group were Winny, Beth, Nurul, and Me. There were also other materials to build the structure, that were masking tape, scissor, string, and small bag.

          In the early process, we didn’t make any sketches, knowing that there was a time limit to do the challenge. However, we planned the building structure very well. We decided to make a strong base by placing the bag at the bottom and stick the raw spaghetties on the top with the masking tape. It was really hard to stick the spaghetti onto the bag, because it was really fragile. It was also easy to fall down if it’s not balanced. It took quite a long time to build the base structure, while we saw other groups' were like in almost-done condition. However, we kept going and worked hard to do the base. We helped each other to stick the spaghetties. For example, when I held the spaghetties that need to be sticked, other people tore the masking tape and stick onto it. After we stick the masking tape, we tied it with the string for extra safety. After we made the base, we formed the spaghetties into a triangular pyramid. We knew that this shape would make the structure stable. And lastly, we put a piece of spaghetti and place the marshmallow on the top. Luckily, it was quite balanced and my group was the winner of the challenge. 

          Mostly the other groups didn’t think about the base structure and their building fell down easily. I think the solution to win this challenge is to make a strong base first, so it will not fall down later on and not to do the building hastily.

Graphic Designers Who Broke the Rules (Week 5)

          Hello everyone! This time we are discussing about artists that broke the rules again. However, these artists are profound in a sector from my chosen study, that is graphic design. So they are great graphic designers, and here is my discussion about them.

1. Stefan Sagmeister

          This graphic designer is from Austria, who is famous of his poster design for AIGA in 1999, which displays a naked man with typographies in his body. I think he broke the rules that graphic design doesn’t always created in normal mediums, such as papers or posters. He has so many kind of typography mediums, such as body, trees, water, or even human’s face. We can see these kinds of objects for typography in his book “Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far”.  He also has many good quotes for me, such as “Worrying solves nothing”, or “It’s very important to embrace failure and do a lot of stuff – as much as possible. It’s much, much better to wind up with a lot of crap having tried it than to overthink in the beginning and not do it”.

Poster for AIGA Lecture, Cranbrook, Michigan, 1999

Trying to Look Good Limits My Life, 2004

Things I Have Learned in My Life so Far Book Cover, 2008

Poster for Lou Reed's Set the Twilight Reeling, 1996

2. Milton Glaser

          He is an American graphic designer who is best known for his "I Love NY" logo. He is also a good graphic designer using colors, like the poster for Bob Dylan. I like the way he used many colors to form hair. The way he made "I Love NY" logo was also interesting. I learned that good graphic design doesn’t always come out with a complex drawings and color compositions.

I Love NY Logo, 1977

Bob Dylan Poster, 1967

3. Shepard Fairey

          I think this graphic designer mostly broke the rules. He is an American contemporary designer who can apply graphic design into street art. He is famous of his Obama “Hope” poster which was used in the events of American presidential election in 2008. He also put up his piece in Melrose Avenue Street in Los Angeles. This street painting is very wonderful with many colors and drawings painted on the wall.

Barack Obama "Hope" Poster, 2008

Urban Street Art, Melrose Ave, Los Angeles

Mind Mapping (Week 4)

          Hi everyone, this time I was drawing mind maps with my friends, Winny and Beth on mahjong papers. We were using the color markers to make the mind maps more attractive and colorful. There are 2 mind maps that we’ve done, one is about “Pursuit of Happiness” and the other one is about “Creativity and Innovation”. At first, we made the outline about the mind map. We divided the "Pursuit of Happiness" into "what", "how", “love”, and “obstacles”. After we made the outline, each of them branched and become more detailed and specified. We gave many examples in each division and also decorated the paper with colorful pictures. We found it was exciting, because we could draw and give colors in the paper.

          In the second paper, we also did the same. The topic was about “Creativity and Innovation”. After we made the outline consisting of 4 branches, “what” and “how” for Creativity, “what” and “how” for Innovation, we also did the drawing and coloring on the mind map. Many interesting drawings and colors are made to represent the ideas.

          After we made the mind maps, we found that it was easy to memorize the topics. I also found it was exciting to read the mind maps, knowing that there are a lot of pictures and colors. I think that I should make the outline first when I’m doing a project, just like creating the mind maps, because we will be more interested to read something clear and consisting of colorful pictures. These mind maps also develop our creativity, by drawing and giving colors to make the mind maps.

Artists Who Broke the Rules (Week 3)

Hello everyone, now it's about artists who broke the rules. There are 3 of them who draw my attention and here they are.

Salvador Dali

Surrealism is the style of this man’s artwork. He is a Spanish artist who likes to draw things that just come out from his head. He did the paintings without thinking what the paintings will become that make him different with other artists. Other artists think first about what they are going to paint. His paintings are unique because he paints things not in the proper way, such as drawing elastic clock, distorted creatures, or even make an illusion paintings which give you different perspective when you see the painting from far distance or close distance.

 Salvador Dali, Old Couple or Musician, 1930

Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Time, 1931

Salvador Dali, The Temptation of St. Anthony, 1946

What inspires me from this artist is that we don’t always have to stick in the rules and that will make greater artworks that come out from our imagination.

Damien Hirst

           I think this man really broke the rules in art. He is a contemporary artist from English whose artworks are mostly preserved animal’s dead body placed in a box. This man chooses ‘death’ as his art concept which artworks are very different with other artists’. He also make skull as his artwork. He built a museum of his artworks that we can feel ‘death’ when we enter the museum and see the artworks.

Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991

Damien Hirst, For the Love of God, 2007

This man gives me inspiration that art doesn't always come from proper imagination, knowing that he can put death into an art. I think imagination comes from countless sources.

Andy Warhol

             He is an American artist who is known for the pop art, which is a form of art that depicts objects or scenes from everyday life and employs techniques of commercial art and popular illustration that emerged in the mid-1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. He used contrasting colors to draw paintings of celebrities, such as green and red, yellow and black but it can form a great painting of famous people.  

Andy Warhol, Mao Zedong by Andy Warhol, 1972

Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol, 1967

Andy Warhol, Michael Jackson by Andy Warhol, 1984

The contrasting colors that he used inspires me that color dissonance doesn't always make things look bad. Different things can be mixed to create a great artwork.

Brainstorming Reflection (Week 2)

         This reflection is about what I did in the second week of creative thinking class. This time I brought 3 mahjong papers and markers to write on the papers. The students were separated into groups which each grup consisted of 3 people. Each group had 3 roles that were leader, scribe, and photographer. I'm with Winny and Beth (Kai Ting). I became the leader and they became scribe and photographer. The mahjong papers and markers were brought for a game in the class. The game was to write down 100 ways to do something. Each group had to choose 3 from the topics that were given by the teacher. My team chose ‘how to squeeze a lemon’, ‘how to kill a cockroach’, and ‘how to cause a paperman to die’. I, as a leader encouraged my teammates while they were working and help them to think about the idea. They worked on writing and documentation. 

The first one is to think about 100 ways to squeeze a lemon. In the early times, we gave many ideas that came out from our head. We thought of kitchen stuffs, such as squeezer, knife, or bottle that are able to squeeze a lemon. However, things got harder when we reach about 30 ideas. We began to think critically to find the next idea. Then I looked around things in the class and I realized that stuffs from class are also able to squeeze a lemon, such as chair, table, door, or even eraser. Not only stuffs in class, but also from our house or anywhere. Animals are also able to squeeze a lemon and finally we finished the first paper.

The second is to think about the ways to kill a cockroach. At this time, we did it faster than before as it only took around 25 minutes. We just thought about things around us or everywhere and most of them are able to kill cockroach, if we used it in the proper way and a little sadistic. 

The last one is to think about the ways to cause a paperman to die. Mostly the ideas are almost the same, knowing that there is only a little difference between the ways to kill a cockroach and a paperman. We also finished this one earlier than before.

         After I did this game, I realized that there are a lot of ways to do everything. I also think that we need to think more critically to be creative. Every tool can be used for any purposes if we find out the way to use it properly. We also need to be keen with environment around us and more imaginative.

The Journey (Week 1)

My journey was going to Gillman Barracks museum in Singapore from my hostel at Prinsep Street. I was going with my housemate. However, it was Sunday so we decided to go to the church first. It was a very hot day even if it was evening and the sun shone so brightly that made my skin dry. The atmosphere was also getting hotter because of the cars on the street.

There are many things that caught my eye along the journey, such as grafitti paintings on the wall and a luxurious church in Bras Basah. After we went to the church, we decided to go for dinner, which destination was Vivo City Mall in Harbour Front. We chose that place to eat because it is near from the museum that we wanted to visit. We went to Vivo City Mall by bus.

Before we went to the bus, I smelt something burning and that was the Chinese culture. Because of the very hot weather, we decided to buy some drinks in 7-eleven store before we took the bus. The drink comforted me with the cold sensation to fight away the hot weather. Inside the bus, things got better when we felt cool because of the air conditioner.

         At Vivo City Mall, I heard the sound of many people talking to each other. The mall was very crowded and we ate in Foodrepublic at the 3rd floor. I bought Hokkien Prawn Noodle inside the food court. It was very delicious and spicy, thanks to the chilli sauce. They also added lime to make the food tastier. The noodle smelt so delicious so i couldn’t hold my eating appetite anymore. 

              After we went eating, we went to the Gillman Barracks Museum that was nearby. It was dark and I thought it was too late for us to come at that time. Luckily, there was still an area to visit. There were a lot of paintings that caught my eye inside the area. I also heard a radio which records the Singapore Press Conference in 1999. We talked to an artist inside the area about the things around. After all, it was quite an exciting journey, even if we were too late to go to the museum.