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Creative Visual Experience & Design Aug - Dec 2014
Syllabus for Creative Visual Experience and Design (CS 8070) taught at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Semester 1 Academic Year 2014 - 2015.
Download: Syllabus CS 8070 Sem 1 AY 2014 - 2015.pdf
Transformative Experience - 8 different personas
Grace Tan, a major of mathematics decided to be adventurous to take up 8 different personas by working at a salad shop, a hair saloon, bakery shop as well as being a clown, florist, kindergarten teacher, tour guide, and one that wowed everyone during her class presentation: a mortuary makeup artist. As someone who was trying to clear 23 Academic Units (AU) during the semester and heavily committed to her extracurricular activities, she decided to experience with 8 jobs in 8 weeks instead of 10.
She sent her resume to relevant companies through emails and explained her project and agenda to them. She wrote that she just wanted to work for a day to record her experience and did "not need to be paid a single cent." She also called up companies to request for meet-ups so that she could elaborate on her project face-to-face. She faced many rejections in the process of finding relevant companies. Some were more flexible while others had really strict company policies which did not allow her very short and temporary employment, as it is against the low. She learned important lessons like time management. Despite the challenges faced, she did not regret working on the topic chosen.
She derived great sense of achievement and satisfaction as it made her step out of her comfort zone and the assignment gave her once in a lifetime experiences. In her report, she recorded three poignant lessons learned: to be more grateful. According to her, upon completing the assignment, her perspective on life has changed. She learned to appreciate what she has more. For instance, the bread that she eats for breakfast every morning seems to taste much better now that she knows how much effort was put in baking it. She now sees the importance of being "on the ball" as in taking the initiative and to stay positive. She would not have completed the 10 weeks assignment if she had waited for some companies to respond or to harp on the rejections received. Through the assignment, she learned to be bold and to pursue what she wanted which she believes is important especially in the 21st century.
Finally, she believed that building good relationships with her colleagues are very important. She made it a point to always thank people who helped her. At the end of each work attachment, she wrote a thank-you note to express her appreciation to those who played a part in making her project a success.
Click here to find out more about her transformative experience.
Transformative Experience - From Nicole to Nur Cole
For 10 weeks, Nicole Yeo became Nur Cole for she had chosen to adorn the hijab and be a Muslim woman for her transformation into someone she is not to face her fears and to allow her to try something she would never have tried. She concluded that the experience was a great eye-opener. From the outset, she didn't know what to expect but it pushed her to the boundaries and she emerged as a more confident person, shredding her inhibitions.
Despite weeks of mental preparations, no amount could truly prepare her for the actual experience when in her 1st week, she could see people staring with some giving her short gazes which sent her bowels to work up a storm and she could not listen to her music because she could not expose her ears. During her 2nd week, she chose to try her transformative experience as a Muslim girl in Chinatown and as anticipated, she attracted much more attention. She wrote that she felt like a caged animal being put on a spectacle for the crowd. When s eh ordered drinks from a hawker, she observed that the hawker was originally taking orders in Chinese but when it came to her turn, the lady paused before speaking in English. Since most people were more interested in staring, she started talking to strangers which helped to boost her confidence. She basked in the Islamic religion by visiting a mosque. What turned out to be people looking at her disapprovingly turned out to be the case of her socks had slipped down which revealed part of her calves. She left the mosque immediately, embarrassed and guilty for offending the Muslims with her impropriety. In embracing the elements, at times, she sweated heavily and her clothes were soaked through. She felt like being trapped in a sauna while at times was like an insulator when she was at a supermarket's refrigerated section.
As a result of the project, she felt more daring and was ready for more challengers. She now sees Muslim women wearing the hijab in a newfound light. Previously, she was ignorant and did not form many thoughts about it and now she looks at them with respect and admiration for their dedication to their religion and self-discipline. Admittedly, it was fun watching her friends' reactions and it was heartwarming to receive compliments even from strangers in school. It was a bittersweet experience that left her with no regrets.
Transformative Experience - Thank you sew much
Sim Ping Ting, a major from Visual Communication at the School of Art, Design and Media, NTU decided to train herself to become someone who is more sensitive to the people around her because she has been taking things for granted by picking up a new skill-embroidery. Titled Project Thank You Sew Much, there are nine hand sewn embroidery pieces customized to individuals who can be family members, friends or acquaintances. She did some research on Pinterest to get inspiration and basic knowledge of the different types of stitches. Being overambitious, she had to reduce the number of portraits stitched but in terms of accomplishments, she reported that she was able to translate her passion in art to bring joy to those around her.
The assignment has given her an opportunity to do what she had always wanted to do as the completion of the project also gave her a sense of accomplishment. She was also appreciative of those in her life as it would have been different without them. After 8 weeks of embroidering, the new found skill sets has also trained her to be sensitive to details. Quoting the different dimensions that contributed to her transformative experience, Ping Ting wrote that in "significance," aspects of emotion such as an overwhelming sense of accomplishment from the happiness of her friends and family members receiving her gifts made her feel incredibly happy. She felt that she does not need material wealth to be happy as she experienced first-hand bringing happiness to others made her feel useful and small and simple thigns in life can bring happiness was an important lesson especially for a pessimist like her. For the dimension of "duration" which was about time, her immersion was like a meditation session for her mind as stitching helped to promote a calm emotion in her which expelled all the stress and angst from her.
To conclude, she reported that the experience of stitching has become a reminder for her to be sensitive to those around her and to regularly show gratitude to them because they play an important role in her life.
Transformative Experience - From eco-unfriendly to eco-friendly
Benny Ou Baohong, a product design major from the School of Art, Design and Media wishes to change from an "eco-unfriendly" into an "echo-friendly" person in fulfilling the assignment. Often during shopping, he would always ask for plastic bags and containers, and during the transformation, he would lead an eco-friendly lifestyle by changing his behaviors in these aptly titled habits:
- Plastic Sucks (by carrying his own plastic bags everywhere he goes)
- Brushing without running (turning off the tap water when he brushes his teeth)
- Ditch disposable bowls
- Recycle
- Making a handphone (cellphone) holder from recycled materials
- Making a coin purse from recycled materials such as plastic bottles
- Making marker holders by reusing the core of toilet rolls
- Making a toothbrush holder from old forks
- Making bottle lamps.
He concluded that during the 10 weeks, that breaking away from his habits proved to be difficult but felt that he had contributed to lessening the damage of non-biodegradable materials to the environment. He chose an unconventional method to present his work by presenting it as a digital format, coupled with a wooden container. By not printing his report on paper, he had chosen a path to be to be environmentally responsible so as to reduce his carbon footprint.
Someone I'm Not! - Ivan Tan Jian Liang
Ivan Tan Jian Liang, a mechanical engineering major methodically embarked on 10 weeks of life-changing experience by researching and creating the best simulations to experience dementia. His report includes simulations that allowed him to put himself into the shoes of dementia sufferers.
In the following 10 weeks, he experimented with the following:
Week 1: Paint a swimming goggle with clear nail polish to simulate macular degeneration commonly faced by elderlies. The simulation hindered him from seeing things clearly because of a blurry and distorted vision-straight lines appear wavy and there was a loss of clear, correct colors.
Week 2: To simulate poor memory retention, he had 5 of his friends and by assigning them with new names. Memorizing their names was arduous because he had a per-conceived idea of their original names. Memorizing their new names was difficult because he had a preconceived idea of their names being their original names but his friends cooperated and refused to respond.
Week 3: He instructed 5 of his friends to change their names in his mobile phone to simulate a case when dementia victims could not find their desired contact party because of forgetfulness. He could not find his friends' contacts and it was frustrating because with the blurred goggles he wore throughout the experiment, he ended up calling the wrong person, which compounded on his rising impatience levels.
Week 4: To simulate the problems encountered by dementia victim who, six in 10, will wander, causing the victim to become disoriented even in familiar places, he chose Superstar hairdressing at 83 Dunlop Street to be his destination and he allowed himself to communicate with foreign Indian nationals who worked in Singapore.
Week 5: To simulate agitation as changes in dementia victims are very common where they can become upset or are frequently pacing or fiddling, Ivan put on a headset with music playing so that he was isolated audibly. His friend was given a piece of paper containing 5 possible answers to 5 questions he was going to ask him. He only answered one correctly, much to his frustration.
Week 6: A dementia victim does not have an awareness of time. In other words, "time" does not make sense to them. To simulate this problem, Ivan instructed his roommate to change the time in his clock, watch and phone after I fell asleep. As a result, he woke up the next morning with no clue as to how much different the time on the phone was as compared to the actual time. When the sense of time became unnecessary for him, he stopped relying on it and felt free to do what he wanted without being bound by his subconscious routines that corresponded to actual time.
Week 7: To simulate communication issues, he assigned one of his Malay-speaking friends to communicate with him only in the Malay language while he posed his 5 questions in English. He was able to comprehend some basic Malay words so when he posed the questions, there were some words he could understand however he could not fully grasp the meaning of entire sentences. He wished he could converse in a way that he could fully grasp the meaning of the entire sentences.
Week 8: To simulate the issues faced while sleeping as dementia may reverse a person's sleep-wake cycle, causing daytime drowsiness and night time restlessness, he had a headset looping with buzzing noises coupled with random voices at intermittent junctures.
Week 9: Dementia victims have poor memory even when it comes to familiar food. To simulate this experience, he asked his friend to order a foreign food that he has never tasted before such as fried escargot which tasted foreign to Ivan. It tasted like fried anchovies and the texture of a dry broccoli. The experience helped him to realize how dementia victims register food to be unfamiliar or foreign even if they are eating a familiar dish.
Week 10: To simulate problems encountered during showering, he donned a t-shirt and pants, both stained with coffee cereal to represent the unwashed body of a dementia patient. The trigger dimension especially in the area of touch, smell and sight were involved in this simulation. While he was showering, he could not tell the degree of dirtiness on my clothes due to poor sight. He felt that it was pointless showering because his definition of cleanliness was not measured based on how clean the clothes were but what lied beneath his clothes.
Having put himself in the shoes of a dementia victim to grasp a rough understanding, he concluded that the experience has taught him to cherish every single moment and relationship he has today.
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YEOH AS EDUCATOR
- MY STUDENTS' CREATIONS
- MY WRITINGS
Select below to view my students' awards as well as their creations from Nanyang Technological University, Texas Tech University, and Southern Arkansas University.
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