Chuah Kwai Pin / 0348376
Design Principles / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Project 2: A Sense of Place
LECTURES:
The importance of observation
- Observation means being attentive to your surroundings, taking into consideration of the details and being analytical about them.
- It is one of the effective ways to get ideas.
- Observation starts from artifacts, daily happenings, physical surroundings and more.
- It is an active act of getting information through our senses which are important for us to know, feel, understand, analyse and plan what we want to do.
- Observation is also crucial to designers as it helps them to see "problems" as well as finding solutions to solve them.
INSTRUCTIONS:
A recap of Project 2 brief
- The place becomes the subject of the composition in which the design principles are applied to capture social and environmental aspects.
- Requires students to move beyond the classroom and to the outer world to employ their skills in capturing and communicating a complex relationship.
- Observe your surroundings and record these in sketches and photography.
Your design process:
- visual research
- idea exploration and description
- final outcome in PDF and short rationale
- feedback given by the lecturer
Project 2: A Sense of Place
Visual Research
After watching the pre-recorded lecture, I was very interested in the
types of artworks I will find on Pinterest that expresses a sense of
place. While researching, I found some very interesting artworks that
show a sense of place by an artist, @paco_yao
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| Fig. 1.1 Visual Research of Artworks by @paco_yao |
As I dug deeper, I also found some artworks that have some sense of surrealism in them. It was very intriguing to look at as it felt like a different world compared to the world we live in.
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| Fig.1.2 Visual Research on Surrealistic Concepts |
Idea Exploration and Description
For my idea, I first thought about what the phrase "sense of place"
means to me. The word "sense" reminds me of our 5 senses: vision,
hearing, smell, taste and touch. Whereas the word "place" in this
context can be defined as a space I am familiar with, or somewhere I
long to be. Therefore, with this understanding, I then looked around
the places near me to find inspirations as well as think about place I
really long to go.
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| Fig. 2.1 Photographs of unique flowers |
I like taking photographs of nature, especially flowers and unique leaf patterns. I find it so mesmerizing that such beautiful things exist, but their beauty lasts only for a short while before they wilt away. Capturing these photos and looking back at them always make me feel warm. It feels like I have captured them at their best moments which will forever be preserved in photographs.
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Fig. 2.2 Carousel in iOi Mall, Puchong
https://www.ioimp.com.my/carousel/ |
Another place in my mind that I would like to feature for my sense of place relates back to my childhood memory. This is a carousel in iOi Mall, Puchong and it holds a very significant place in my heart. When I was younger, whenever my family comes to this mall, both my brother and I will pester my parents to let us ride on this carousel. This ride has been around since I was as young as 3 years old, and it is still there in the mall today. One of the reasons why I get excited seeing amusement parks is probably because of this fond memory. The lights, the joy, the laughter and all the happy emotions stay intact in my mind whenever I think of rides and amusement parks.
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| Fig. 2.3 Concepts inspired by my favourite places |
Sketches
I wanted to visualize an amusement park just right outside my
workspace. It's surreal and illogical to have floating horses and
levitating ferris wheel but when I was a child, riding the carousel
gave me the exact same feeling. A magical and happy feeling. I want to
try and incorporate these feelings into my artwork and make it look
almost like a dream.
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| Fig. 3.1 Sketch idea |
Project Execution
To start off, I worked on my workspace which usually consists of my
laptop, some books and papers and a cup of hot drink. I have decided not
to draw a person inside because I want the final artwork to be seen from
a viewer's first point of view.
After I was satisfied with the workspace, I then moved on to the window. I wanted it to reveal a cloudy sky with bright magical colours as if my house has been lifted up to the sky. Most of the time, pink skies appear during sunrise or sunset and I always stare at it in awe because of how beautiful it looks.
After adjusting the colours and arranging the elements, this is the final outcome. I love how colourful the outside world is compared to my own workspace. I think the difference in colour palette helps to convey the message of the artwork even better.
There is a saying that goes, "Sometimes we need fantasy to survive reality" and I think that it well reflects the message that is being conveyed through this artwork. There are times where we find ourselves trapped and buried in piles of work and things to do that we almost have no time to catch a breath. Sometimes, we might even confine ourselves in our rooms just to finish up our work and that is when we start to feel stuffy and suffocated.
FINAL OUTCOME:
REFLECTIONS:
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| Fig. 4.1 My workspace |
After I was satisfied with the workspace, I then moved on to the window. I wanted it to reveal a cloudy sky with bright magical colours as if my house has been lifted up to the sky. Most of the time, pink skies appear during sunrise or sunset and I always stare at it in awe because of how beautiful it looks.
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| Fig. 4.2 Out the window |
I then added in a ferris wheel, hot air balloons and some
floating carousel horses to give off the amusement park vibes. I
also added in some small characters so that it looks more lively
and welcoming.
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| Fig. 4.3 Amusement in the sky |
After adjusting the colours and arranging the elements, this is the final outcome. I love how colourful the outside world is compared to my own workspace. I think the difference in colour palette helps to convey the message of the artwork even better.
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| Fig. 4.4 Final look |
There is a saying that goes, "Sometimes we need fantasy to survive reality" and I think that it well reflects the message that is being conveyed through this artwork. There are times where we find ourselves trapped and buried in piles of work and things to do that we almost have no time to catch a breath. Sometimes, we might even confine ourselves in our rooms just to finish up our work and that is when we start to feel stuffy and suffocated.
When I feel stressed thinking about the things I still have to do, I try to remember some happy and relaxing moments to destress for a little while. I personally find it helpful to do this because it allows me to take a quick breath and find some temporary peace instead of breaking down. One of my favourite memorable moments was when I visited an amusement park and rode on a carousel when I was younger. I remember at that moment, all I felt was excitement, contented and free. Hence, I want to picture that happy moment again to help me break away from overwhelming stress. Having said that, one good way is to picture an amusement park right outside your window.
FEEDBACK:
Week 10
Fig. 2.2: For a surrealistic concept, it would be nice to
feature the amusement park because it can be more dreamy and
exaggerated. It can also be a combination of both ideas, where it
starts out in my current location and expands out to a window that
shows the amusement park.
FINAL OUTCOME:
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| Fig. 5.1 Final Outcome- "An Amusement Out My Window" |
REFLECTIONS:
While working on Project 2, it has allowed me to observe the things around me and reminisce on a childhood memory. At first, I struggled to come up with an idea for a sense of place. Personally, I am not very familiar with drawing a scenery or an interior room design, so I was quite worried about how to represent a sense of place. However, I saw some surrealistic sense of place artworks on Pinterest and thought that I could work towards that concept.
After the feedback given on Week 10, it was clearer to me how I would like my final outcome to look like. Overall, I was quite happy about how my artwork turned out because looking at it definitely made me feel at ease and it reminded me of the joy I had in amusement parks.
After the feedback given on Week 10, it was clearer to me how I would like my final outcome to look like. Overall, I was quite happy about how my artwork turned out because looking at it definitely made me feel at ease and it reminded me of the joy I had in amusement parks.
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