FINAL PROJECT: Solution video + write up!

Finally, it is complete: my final video assignment, simply titled, "Solution"!

The final video:


(watch in 1080p for best results!)

The write up:

Questions and answers. Problems and solutions.

The question you ask will lead you to the answer you seek. Discovering and defining the problem will facilitate the process of designing and delivering the solution. This is basically the context of my whole video. With the help of applications such as Photoshop, Keynote, iMovie and Garageband, this short and simple animation video briefly illustrates how to get from one point to another when faced with an obstacle.

This process of sorts can be simplified with 4 D's: discover, define, design, and deliver. Discover and define fall under the category of the Problem, while designing and delivering are under the Solution.

My immediate reaction is to relate my video to the problems I encounter as a designer, as I have mentioned before. In the context of design, every design stems from a problem. Design in general is all about solving problems.

However, just because my process includes the word "design" in it, doesn't mean that this method pertains to design problems alone. In fact, this methodology can be applied when looking at just about anything, contextually.

In the video, the girl (me) is trying to get to the other side to progress forward, but is blocked by a deep chasm. This "obstacle" is her problem. Once realising that her questions can turn into answers, she slowly figures out the process to overcome it.

Under the "questions" category, the steps involved are discovering and defining. First, you must discover the problem. A solution is useless if there is no problem for it. Then, you have to define the problem. This can be done by asking questions in context. Where do I want to go? What is stopping me? How far do I have to reach? How long will it take me to get there? What can I do with the existing resources I have now? ..and so forth. Questions are an important tool in discovery. Once you have your set of questions, you can further define them by answering them, or asking more questions in detail. This is also why I have many question marks on top of me in the first half of the video. The entire point of asking questions is to clarify ambiguity. If a question represents ambiguity, then the answer represents clarity.

Knowing what you're facing and how to solve it is half the battle already. That is why I've realised that planning is crucial when it comes to any task. One cannot rely on haphazard execution alone. In fact, it can be said that both planning and execution are equally important when solving problems.

Once you've got your planning down, it's time to design, which really is just executing everything you planned. Personally, I find planning more difficult than designing, because when you design, you're merely sitting down and putting all your ideas into action. With planning, however, you have to use your brain power to churn out the answer. Once the planning is done, you already know what to do, so you just do it. In the video, the "designing" part of the process can be represented by the equals sign (which represents the process) dropping down and extending to become a bridge. Without the process, it would not be possible to reach your goal (or in this case, get to the other side).

Last but not least, is deliver. In a design context, this is where a designer would present the finished product to the client. It is the last step before completion. In the video it can be represented where I am crossing over to the other side.

On another level, all this also made me realise how the journey is just as important as the destination. Most of the video shows how I got to the solution, the discovering and defining. The execution, which is the part where I cross over, is short in comparison. This shows how usually the planning takes longer than the execution. Too often have I focused solely on achieving the goal rather than enjoying the process and stopping to smell the roses. In this modern age where we expect to receive instant gratification all the time, it's hard not to be patient. But good things come to those who wait, or rather, good things come to those who plan properly and go through the process.

In conclusion, you will always come across problems that you need to "get over" with. The solution to it? Discover, define, design, and deliver.

Project: Solution (more work in progress!)

I have learnt to appreciate animation as an art form even more now, because DANG is it difficult! I barely have any experience animating. But now I know. Animation is suffering :']

Haha anyways, have a sneak peak gif of what I'm working on:

Stay tuned for the final video!

Project: Solution (progress)

So for my video project, I decided to do a quick mind map of my approach:

And from there, I did another mind map of one of the problems I face: problems as a designer (it's a bit messy, because my thoughts were all over the place at the time):

Which made me arrive to the conclusion of what my video is going to be about: problems as a designer, and finding the solution getting from one point to another.

Assignment 2: Tioman Excursion & Group Archetypes

Based on our individual archetypes (archetype.me and jungian archetypes), we figured out an archetype that most of us shared, which is The Jester, and thus, decided to call ourselves the Jester Freaks!

This is our group mindmap on wordly issues (public transportation in KL).

A picture from the Tioman excursion; the Jester Freaks being freaks.

The front of our shirts from the excursion look like this, the circular symbols at the top represent pictograms of events that happened, and the ones on the bottom represent pictograms of our archetypes. Each of our shirts are similar in design except for our signatures in the middle, and our archetype pictograms.

The back of our shirts, showcasing our logo.

On top of that, here are some rough sketches and mindmaps I did in my sketchbook while we tried to figure out the mystery in the Tioman excursion (which our group won for the second time in a row, by the way!):

                       

Mind maps in black ink courtesy of Zue

Assignment 1: Exploring Achetype Me

I recently signed up to archetype.me, and this is my result after taking the archetype quiz!

And here are my Jungian archetypes I think I can relate the most to:
(taken from http://www.soulcraft.co/essays/the_12_common_archetypes.html)

8. The Creator
Motto: If you can imagine it, it can be done
Core desire: to create things of enduring value
Goal: to realize a vision
Greatest fear: mediocre vision or execution
Strategy: develop artistic control and skill
Task: to create culture, express own vision
Weakness: perfectionism, bad solutions
Talent: creativity and imagination
The Creator is also known as: The artist, inventor, innovator, musician, writer or dreamer.

10. The Sage
Motto: The truth will set you free
Core desire: to find the truth.
Goal: to use intelligence and analysis to understand the world.
Biggest fear: being duped, misled—or ignorance.
Strategy: seeking out information and knowledge; self-reflection and understanding thought processes.
Weakness: can study details forever and never act.
Talent: wisdom, intelligence.
The Sage is also known as: The expert, scholar, detective, advisor, thinker, philosopher, academic, researcher, thinker, planner, professional, mentor, teacher, contemplative.

11. The Magician
Motto: I make things happen.
Core desire: understanding the fundamental laws of the universe
Goal: to make dreams come true
Greatest fear: unintended negative consequences
Strategy: develop a vision and live by it
Weakness: becoming manipulative
Talent: finding win-win solutions
The Magician is also known as:The visionary, catalyst, inventor, charismatic leader, shaman, healer, medicine man.

Interesting how the two different archetype systems are consistent with me:

Creative - The Creator
Intellectual - The Sage
Visionary - The Magician

But I suppose that's because the archetypes on archetype.me are based on the ones made by Carl Jung.

My Archetype.me page can be viewed here! http://www.archetypeme.com/aina-nur-ruhizan

Tutorial 1: Mind Mapping Vigilantes (Assignment 1: Exploration on Archetypes)

Here's our task given for our first tutorial (taken from the main contextual studies blog):

"1st Question

• What are the issues you're trying to tackle in this world? 
• How do you choose to tackle this issue? 
• Ex: rapist, how do you tackle this issue?
• What are your limitations and strengths? 

2nd Question

• Talk about your issues 
• How issues can shape a person?
• What are the solutions to rectify it?

What do you understand by:

• Hero archetype 
• Anti-hero archetype 
• Villain 

Are they all just a global misconception? Write an entry in your E-journal and bring your mind map to class."

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Some quick notescribbles I did during class last week using the UPad app:

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So, to start off I will  list down some issues I am trying to tackle in this world. Most of these relate to personal issues, but these issues that affect many other people too, some of which may lead to depression, the inability to perform, and in more severe cases, even suicide. All heavy topics here, but I feel that it all starts from little issues building up. If we can prevent things from happening on a smaller scale before it gets more out of hand, we wouldn't have to deal with serious issues such as teenage suicide and so on.

Also what I've noticed from listing out these issues are that they mostly pertain to psychological issues. But never underestimate the power of your thoughts. "Mind over matter", as the saying goes; albeit cliche, more often than not proves to be true. Placebos, self-fulfilling prophecies and the Law of Attraction are just some examples of the mind being stronger than the body.

At this point I still am not sure which direction I'm going, or what my "big issue that I'm trying to tackle" is. Perhaps this all pertains to matters of the mind? Negative mental issues, maybe. Alright, let's try going with that.

As to how to tackle these issues, I think the solution is simple, yet difficult to execute: counter negative thoughts with positive ones!

I feel strongly about feelings of inadequacy because it is an issue I tackle with almost every day. I feel like I'm surrounded by smart and pretty and talented people. People better than me. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who struggles with this.

In social psychology we learned about upward and downward social comparison. To explain this, think of a leaderboard. There are rankings from who's the "best" to who's the "worst". Upward social comparison is comparing yourself with those better than you (higher up the leaderboard). This can lead to either two things: you get motivated to push yourself further, or you feel overwhelmed by how much better everyone else is than you. Downward social comparison, on the other hand, is comparing yourself with those "worse" than you. More often than not, you'd feel a little better about yourself after that.

In reality, there is no "leaderboard" of life. There are too many aspects you can compare yourself to, and there are too many variables that determines that someone is "better" than the other person. Everyone is different and goes at their own pace, so trying to compare yourself to other people is sort of pointless. Especially if you don't react positively towards it. Some people like the adrenaline rush of competition, and that's fine. But to feel pressured by it is a really crippling feeling.

Again, it's a solution that seems easy to do, but actually isn't really. There's some sort of logical fallacy in that thinking that I'm still trying to figure out and get out of. There are many ways to rectify psychological issues, in fact. They can be as simple as calming your thoughts or meditating/praying, to elaborate solutions such as seeing a therapist or taking prescribed pills.

The funny thing is, your strength and your limitation in this case is entirely your thoughts, and how you choose to think about things. Once you've changed your thoughts, your environment and actions will change as well, whether for better or worse.

Issues can definitely shape a person. The things they go through with, and how they deal with it make them who they are. As an only child, I find it interesting how two siblings, although raised by the same parenting style and taught the same principles, can still end up having such different personalities. I suppose that's where the old Nature vs. Nurture debate comes in, but I won't go too much into that. I just think that the way you were brought up and the issues you face (nurture) effects how you already are in the first place (nurture).

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There's this one cool site I've been reading from time to time. It's called tvtropes.org, a site where lots of stereotypes and archetypes are listed, complete with examples from tv shows, movies, games, and sometimes even real life.

Not surprisingly, this site already has full articles on the three archetypes: The Hero, The Anti-Hero (plus the varying types of them), and The Villain.

Task 2: Why Do We Need Vigilantes? (Assignment 1: Exploration on Archetypes)

Vigilantes, by definition is "an individual or group who undertakes law enforcement without legal authority". In other words, they punish crime when laws are inadequate, or rather when they feel like they can do what the law cannot.

Another synonym for “vigilante” is also “avenger”, so Marvel’s Avengers can definitely be considered as vigilantes, all of them fighting to avenge a cause. In fact, most superheroes from comic books can be considered as vigilantes.

Comparing the two famous superheroes, Batman and Superman, for example. It’s interesting to see how the two are different, where Batman puts on a mask to hide his “true identity”, donning his bat costume and transforming from regular billionaire Bruce Wayne to dark knight Batman. Clark Kent, on the other hand, takes off his disguise to /show/ his true identity instead, Kal-El from the planet Kryptonite, a.k.a Superman.

The thing that both of these superheroes, and vigilantes in general, have in common is that they represent a symbol of hope to the masses. In this postmodern era where the government and “The Man” is not all trusted by everyone, vigilantes provide a source of hope by protecting their city where the government or other forces of authorities fail to provide. This stems from the concept that people always need something to fall back to, whether it’s a set of rules, a concept, or a form of authority.

Even in real life, vigilantes exist. They can be considered as unsung heroes, since you don't usually hear about them in the news. It's just that fiction takes it to a whole new level with superheroes.

When it comes to the question of whether the law enforcement is doing their job or even doing it right, it depends. However effective the law enforcement may be, I think that vigilantes would still exist as long as there's someone out there who thinks they can do better than the cops.

One movie example of this phenomenon can be seen in the movie, Kick Ass (2010).

I noticed that the whole concept of avenging and revenging is mostly adopted by Western cultures, due to the fact that they do not rely on religion to guide their life. They think that it is up to them to take matters into their own hands instead of allowing Karma, God or some other divine intervention or earthly authority to take care of things. Something to think about!

Task 1: Contextual Metaphors (Assignment 1: Reviewing Literature)

The book I chose to analyse is The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. which was later adapted into the 2012 version of the movie of the same title. Just because it's a children's book doesn't mean it doesn't have contextual metaphors to analyse! The book can actually be viewed online, in this video:



Some contextual metaphors I have found are as follows: