Reflection in October 6th Lesson

On this day we didn't do much because this day was the last day of creative thinking lesson. But what I was excited about was I got to present my posters in front of the class. The presentation was about the SCAMPER and force connection. From everyone in my class, I was the only one who did the poster using photoshop. Because everything was well prepared, the presentation went pretty well and I actually made the entire class laughed. The posters I presented are on September 31st lesson reflection. After I presented my work, my classmates presented their work. When the class ended, it felt like something that's been going on for a very long time just ended. It didn't feel right. But what's over is over.

Empathy Video Response

In this rather short video, it only explains about people's problems. But, at the end of the video, it says "if you had the knowledge of another person's experiences, what they feel, would it change the way you respond to individuals?". It hits me like a train. That question is so powerful to me. Because in my life, I've had a lot of friends that look normal from the outside but they actually suffer a lot which made them not be able to do well at school. But if you could just position yourself in their position, maybe you can help them because at least you know how it feels. You could give them advice or maybe help them directly because every little help helps.

Analogical Thinking Video Response

This video is rather short unlike some of the other videos but the video contains a lot of stuff and it's very straight to the point. The video mainly focuses on 4 things: first, analogical thinking allows us to experience the interconnectedness of ideas, second is analogical thinking is a great way to learn difficult concepts more effectively, third analogical thinking is a skill that we can practice and be better at fro time to time, last is analogical thinking enhances our creative output. I think by practicing analogical thinking can give us more ways of being creative and solve problems which is a good thing to do.

Reflection on July 21st Lesson

This is the first week of Creative Thinking Lesson. On this week we didn't cover a lot of things because we did some administrative things instead. Although we didn't talk much and deep about creativity, Micky introduced us to a couple of things I found interesting. We talked about linking out senses to our awareness and how we should perceive design more carefully and in a deeper manner by examining it slowly because you can learn a lot more when you examine things and not only see them. But after all, it was not a boring class and we laughed a lot.

Isaac Mizrahi Video Response

Isaac Mizrahi is a fashion designer. In his TEDx talk video, he pointed out many things that very important to me. He said, "the ones that look more interesting are the one that looks mistaken or very surprising". When he said that, it blew my mind because my father once told me that most of his inspiration comes from old photographs and broken prints because normal prints and photographs are very normal and boring. Isaac Mizrahi also said that color motivates him a lot. The most interesting thing that he said was "you have to be slightly bored of everything”. and his personal quote “Style makes you feel great because it takes your mind off the fact that you're going to die”.

Shawn Achor Video Response

This video is about the happy secret to better work. In this video, Shawn explained a lot of things and pointed out some of the things that I found interesting. He said "normal is merely average". This is true because from my personal experience, being normal feels average and very stale. No wonder why people likes to say "I hate being normal". He also said that if we study what is merely average, we will remain merely average. This is very similar to the quote "you are what you eat”. So basically, if we study or learn more about something that’s been very mainstream for a long time, we will turn into a normal person as time goes by. But one of the most interesting things that he said was “I we can change the lens, not only we can change your happiness, we can change every single education and business outcome at the same time”.

Reflection on September 29th Lesson

What I learned on this day was empathy. Empathy is where we position ourselves in someone else's  situation to see how they feel. This is a very good technique to get creative because if we position ourselves in other people's perspective (for example blind people), we can create something that they can actually use despite their ability to do everyday tasks. We also learned about the SCAMPER technique which stands for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to other uses, Eliminate, and Rearrange. We used this technique and combine them with the empathy technique as our exercise.

Reflection on September 22nd Lesson

On this day we learned about force connection. It's like combining two totally different things and create something interesting out of it. We did a lot of class exercise. I gathered with my group and we did 'Manmade and Nature'. This topic is about combining objects from nature and combine it with manmade objects which are pretty self-explanatory. One of the ideas that stood out the most was combining an armadillo with a house to create an emergency shelter. We also did some individual exercises. I couldn't finish my individual work in class but I did 'greedy plug', 'hardworking cup', and 'creative candle'.

Above is a poster I did for the group exercise. I intentionally made the poster very poor in quality to make it look funny and very rough editing to make sure people get that this is a joke.

Reflection on September 15th Lesson

On this lesson, we did some presentation on other student's blog post. Lucky for me, I was the one who gave the post and someone had to explain what I was trying to say in the original blog post. I picked my 'Paint' post from my blog because I thought that would be the most interesting post out of all the posts I have. What I disliked from this week's class was so many people were being very noisy and they just seem to not care about the lecturer at all. I was trying to concentrate but the 'groups' at the back of the class just won't shut up like they had no respect. I just sat there listening to my friend's presentation. I noticed that by doing this kind of presentation can give me a lot more inspirations. We also watched the Bruce Lee video at the start of the class.

Reflection on September 1st

On this lesson, we learned about analogical thinking. We learned that metaphors and similes are both ways to compare things. We also learned about 'analogy'. An analogy is comparing two different things that are very similar. There are four types of analogy: Personal analogy, direct analogy, symbolic analogy, and fantasy analogy. Simile on the other hand, uses likeness to establish a connection. For example; "sleeping like a log" and "design a computer like it's a book". A metaphor is used when you say something is like something is something. Example; The party was lit, her smile was so sweet,  her gaze was icy.
Homework from this week was the 'Photographic Treasure Hunt'

Sliced Elephant

This sculpture is very different if you compare it to any other modern sculptures because it's made out of hundreds of layers of what seems to be thick paper. It's very simple yet very intriguing. I think using the same concept and technique, we can create other similar sculpture using different objects. I wonder if you could replace the material with glass and put some light in it and surround it with mirror walls. That would be interesting because the light will reflect from every directions.

Bookshelf

I found this picture in my 3D lesson and I was wowed by this picture. A simple bookshelf can be made very interesting and artistic without losing its core function. I think this is very cleverly designed and can lead to many possibilities. I wonder if we can make a hole in the wall and add some motorised mechanism to the bookshelf. Next, make the bookshelf opens and closes so when it's not being used, the bookshelf would flush into the wall like there's nothing there.

Metropol Parasol

This is the Metropol Parasol. This building was constructed using interlocking mechanism. The way that this building was built made it look very seamless and very organic/natural. What I see in this picture is a huge piece of art in the middle of a city instead of a normal object. It compliments its surroundings and gives a really nice contrast. I wonder if we could make an entire skyscraper using the same interlocking mechanism while maintaining strength and design.

Aqua Tower

From afar, it looks like a wave. It doesn't look like a building at all. I can imagine seeing this thing from afar and compare it with other buildings around it and it will still look nothing like the other. It looks very natural and organic thanks to its design. I think more buildings should take inspiration from nature. Just like the lesson in class, combining objects from nature with manmade objects could result in a very interesting results.

Glass Sculpture

This is a sculpture made by Tim Bengel. I saw this sculpture on Art Basel's Instagram page. At first, I thought it was a group of bubbles but then I stopped scrolling to see it more thoroughly. I think it would be cool if the artist could fill an entire room with it and put ambient light on the floor to make it look more interesting. I wonder if this could also be an art installation because of its contemporary shape.

Dying Star

This is a picture of a dying star or the 'Last Hurrah' captured by NASA. This picture fascinates me in so many different ways. The more I see it the more interesting it gets. If you look closely, it feels like the gas is bursting out from the centre point. I think this is a very nice picture because it shows that there are so many things going on in the universe. I wonder if we could do the same thing with paint by launching it at a very high speed and make it another can of paint.

Glass Wave

This is a picture I found on Pinterest while I was browsing for 3D construction. I thought this was a picture of a frozen wave but actually, everything is made out of glass. The artist added some light at the back of the sculpture to give us that transparent look of waves. The water foam is made out of small pieces of glass. The bottom part of the wave is made using a special technique to give it that liquid-like look to it. I think this is a very smart idea and very new to me.

Confetti Explosion

This picture was also taken from my Instagram feed. The artist's Instagram page is Aureta. I like the idea of combining two things into something new especially when those two things are very unpredicted. Instead of erupting and spitting out hot lava, the artist tried to replace the lava with confetti. By combining these two objects, the artist has successfully created something I call 'The Ultimate Celebration'. It's like a normal celebration but even the earth is congratulating you.

Cloth Covering the Sun

This is a video I screenshotted while I was scrolling through my Instagram page. In the video, the sun is covered by a fairly transparent cloth and the wind is flowing making the cloth blow. The first time I see it, I thought everything was CGI but then I realised that the artist only added the cloth effect to fool the viewer. I think this is a very cool concept and very new because I have never seen any artists done this type of thing before.

Deepavali Banner

This is a picture I took when I was walking to the supermarket. Because the surroundings are pretty dark, this thing stood out from the rest. Even though the light is static or does not move at all, to me, it looks like it's pulsating with light from inside out. I think this would be a much better piece of art if they could make a whole building like this one because we rarely see a very weird looking light show in the middle of Singapore.