WEEK 06: LATERAL THINKING.

Lateral Thinking

Question 1) There are six eggs in a basket. Six people each take one of the eggs. How can it be that one egg is left in the basket?

My Answer(s) : The person who took the last egg left the egg in the basket. OR The fifth person gave his egg to the sixth person, hence an egg remains in the basket because he returned his egg. OR The owner of the basket is one of the six people and kept an egg. OR There was a hen in the basket and it laid another egg.

Question 2) How could a baby fall out of a twenty-story building onto the ground floor and live?

My Answer(s) : The baby fell out of a ground floor window. OR Someone left their mattress at the exact spot the baby fell, thus reducing the impact of the fall. OR The concrete of the foot path have just been poured. OR There is no footpath and the ground is soft mud. OR The baby was inside a rubber ball that protected it from the fall.

Lateral Thinking 

Question: Imagine this room: The window is open. In front of the window is a table with a vase. The vase holds a rose. A painting of flowers hangs on the opposite wall. A bee flies through the open window, straight to the painting and not the rose, why?

My Answers: The rose was rotten. OR The painting was coated with the sweet smell of honey. OR The bee missed the rose. OR There could have been another bee on the painting. OR There was a beehive in the painting of flowers. OR The bee was attracted to the vibrancy of the painting of flowers. OR Bees do not like red. OR The bee wanted to camouflage among the painted flowers.

DAY 01:

A day at the park.









DAY 02: 

                         

 Noticed that the lights refracted from the other building besides this one created a lightning effect.

















DAY 03: 



For the Yellow Ribbon Society.

















DAY 04:

Love the architecture of the Fullerton Hotel. Thought it would also be cool to add more greenery beside/on it.


















DAY 05:

Night Festival 2016. Thought that the installations were well made. Also love the idea of projecting short art clips on the art museum. Thought it would be cool to try out many new designs on paper too by using the museum building as template.













DAY 06: 

 Night Festival 2016 Day 04. Odyssey at the Art Museum.

Based on the title Odyssey.



















DAY 07:  


  Went on the Singapore flyer today.

WEEK 05: MIND MAPPING.

MIND MAPPING GROUP ACTIVITY

                                                      

Group 05. Our mind map revolve around the picture depleting four punk looking guys. Our main branches are Behaviour, Society, Lifestyles, Beliefs and Style which revolves around the Punk culture and the punks themselves. Punk Behaviour mainly includes being rude, confident and rebellious. Punks are viewed in society as dangerous, cool, out of control and as outcasts. Punk styles are mainly bold, grungy and sometimes glam rock. Punks beliefs are usually anti-authoritarian, anti-establishment and non-conformity. Punk lifestyles involves rock bands, road trips and punk visual arts.

SETH GODIN's TED TALK SUMMARY

We're now in the fashion business, no matter what we do for a living. And people in the fashion business know what it's like to be in the fashion business, while the rest of us have to figure out how to think that way. How to understand it's not about interrupting people with big full-paged ads, or insisting on meetings with people. But it's a totally different sort of process that determines which ideas spread, and which ones don't.

But market to people that are have the " Otaku " personality, because they're the ones that care. These are the people who are obsessed with something. And when you talk to them, they'll listen, because they like listening - it's about them. And if you're lucky, they'll tell their friends on the rest of the curve ( from your average middle class to laggards to businessmen ), and it'll spread, to even the entire curve.

Your idea needs to be remarkable. Design is free when you get to scale. The people who come up with stuff that's remarkable more often than not figure out how to put design to work for them. The riskiest thing you can do now is be safe. And being good is one of the worst thing you could possibly do. Very good is boring. Very good is average. So what you need to do is figure out who actually care. Who is going to raise their hand and say " I want to hear what you're doing next, " and sell something to them.


AMY TAN's TED TALK SUMMARY

How can we create something out of nothing? What is the value of nothing?

One of the principles of creativity is to have a little childhood trauma. When you're faced with something traumatic,  you start to think very much about everything. You become very creative in a survival sense. Always ask yourself, " Why do things happen and how do things happen? ". Think of creativity as the quantum mechanics. There's  lot of unknowns but if you associate some of the things you actually know, it may all start to make sense. All of us in life, when we see a situation, we have a response. And then we have intentions. There's an ambiguity of how we think we should react. We are all concerned of things that we see in the world that we are aware of. We come to this point where we ask " What do i as an individual do? ".

Although we hate moral ambiguity, it is necessary. There's a kind of serendipity when we combine or rethink about something bad and something good. Randomness is not something that can occur by luck or chance. Sometimes things happens for a reason and sometimes our brain thinks a certain way for a reason. To create something out of nothing, you need to combine something and nothing together to create an end result that is and idea. This idea may not work but you can always work from the equation again and again using different unknowns. Always remind yourself that there is uncertainty in everything.


Mind Mapping
How does education fit in our dreams of a happy life?

Group 5.
Sub Branches: Advantages & Disadvantages of education. Happy life and unhappy life.

To evaluate this question and to form a conclusion, we decided that the sub branches in the mind map will be our main points that we'll evaluate.

The advantages of education is that it creates opportunities in our lives. Education also allow us to get better jobs to earn more money. Happy life is when one has stable financial background. Happy life is when one is able to achieve his or her goals in life.

The disadvantages of education is that it creates stress to some, having to compete with others and live up to expectations. Sometimes education also does not give you experience, experience to tackle certain problems you face in your life. Unhappy life is when you feel pressured by society. Unhappy life is when you're not safe. Unhappy life is also when you have not stable roof.

Therefore, education may not actually be a huge factor that fit in our dreams of a happy life. A happy life is when you feel safe and education does not guarantee that. Also, we cannot solely rely on education to fit in our dreams of a happy life. A happy life can be simply just having a family. It can be created by other means than just solely education. Unhappiness can be solved, happiness can be created, with or without education.

DAY 01: Playing with Aesthetics.

DAY 02:

Admirable strength and resilience. Appreciative of their hard work in the progress of making something impactful.

DAY 03:

 Just an ordinary ceiling to you can be an extraordinary ceiling to me. All the things I go do with it. I could create an animation on it and even a few morphings of it.

DAY 04: Flowers at Istana Park.

DAY 05:

 Night Festival 2016. Amazing installation of interactive light artwork at the National Museum.

DAY 06: Chinese fashion in Singapore in the 1940s till 1950s.

DAY 07:

I love these lion statues they always place outside a traditional Chinese temple. They make the whole place look regal.

WEEK 04

TONY FADELL'S TED TALK SUMMARY

As human beings, we get used to everyday things really fast. We have limited brain power. Hence, our brains encode the everyday things we do into habits so that we can free up space to learn new things. It's a process called habituation and it's one of the most basic ways we learn. As we repeat a process, we habituate it and it starts to become second nature. However, sometimes habituation isn't positive. It is negative when it stops us from noticing the problems that are around us and it's really bad when it stops us from noticing and fixing the problem.

We need to learn to look broader, closer and think younger to tackle negative habituation. Whenever a problem occurs, we need to find out how it happen and what will happen after that. Basically we need to think of the past, present and future whenever we are solving a problem. To create an ideal solution for the problem, for instance a design to make someone's life better, we need to think younger and look closer. Once we're able to tackle these steps, we can make something empowering and innovative.

ISSAC MIZRAHI's TED TALK SUMMARY

Design ideas can come from mistakes and the trick of the eyes. Colours in your life can become a source of inspiration. Sometimes we need to notice the faults in our surroundings. We need to behave like children, take risks and be confident to find the answers to the subject we're curius about, be it fashion or cooking. Don't be afraid to ask. Don't be afraid to get judged. Be yourself. Exploration is key in finding ideas and inspirations too. We need to be interested in something new everyday to find new sources of ideas. Exploration can be either primary or secondary. Have fun, think creatively and be confident to take risks is Issac Mizrahi's key to getting ideas.

DAY 01: See.Think.Wonder

          

Daisies are the representations of innocence, purity, new beginnings and true love in the language of flowers. This picture of daisies are taken in the Gardens by the Bay. When we normally see daisies, we see a white flower, consisting of white petals and yellow stigma.

However, when I think of daisies, I think of it as a representation of " Hope ", with its white petals, it makes people hopeful of something fresh in this mundane world. I think that daisies are a perfect source of inspiration for many designs, be it fashion or furniture. I think that daisies sounds like a indie band's name, a restaurant's name and a potential fashion line name.

I wonder if daisies could be made into art pieces? Can we solidify daisies and make them hard enough to become art pieces? What about a daisy monument? What if daisies come in pink, grey or purple? Would that destroy it's meaning? How would daisy coffee taste like? Sweet? Bitter? How can I increase the lifespan of daisies without harming the environment? Can I implement daisies into my designs? Can I create a coat of sweet layers on the daisies to attract bees and butterflies so that I can take a closer picture of them?

What do you think and wonder when you see daisies?

DAY 02: HAPPY 51ST BIRTHDAY TO MY COUNTRY HOME!
                                                             

 

DAY 03:

I find it really amazing how this game ( Pokémon Go ) has managed to get so many Singaporeans to go out to exercise because that's the only way you can catch Pokémon, and how the health promotion board has been trying to promote Singaporeans to go out to exercise for years and all it took was one game.
















DAY 04: 

A stroll in the park. Thought about how important it is to make sure our surrounding is filled with greens.

DAY 05: 

Looked above and saw this. Thought that this will make into a very nice clothing accessory.

















DAY 06: 

 Went for a swim at the Adventure Cove today. Snorkelling was the best.

DAY 07:

Really loved this mirror sculpture. It shows you a new perspective of the Art Science Museum. Thought that it would be really nice to film a time lapse video of this sculpture so that you can see all the clouds moving and how the Art Science Museum changes mode and scenes at different timings. 

WEEK 03: BRAINSTORMING.

BRAINSTORMING GROUP ACTIVITY

See.Think.Wonder

Group 05.

Chopsticks. A part of asian culture, we use chopsticks in our daily lives to eat. Chopsticks are usually made of wood, metal and plastic. What if I have concrete chopsticks? What do I do while using chopsticks? What do I use chopsticks for?

When I am eating using chopsticks, I'm reading a travel magazine. There's a picture of the Statue of Liberty, what if I replace the torch on the Lady's hand with chopsticks for comedic effects? Ever eaten at a place with too many flies surrounding you? Isn't it irritating to keep on using your hands to swat them off? What about a chopstick bug repeller, an odourless one? Ever felt that your surrounding while eating with chopsticks is so mundane? What about a chopstick violin filler so that you can play the violin while you eat or even after that to brighten up the whole place? Use your chopsticks to create smiles, don't just use them to eat.

DAY 01: 

Finding this bookstore that sells so many art books got me so excited.

DAY 02: 

Was wondering if I could replace all this road poles with different patterns from different era. 

Etc. The patterned tiles below are from the Victorian Era.

DAY 03: Hidden among buildings.

DAY 04: 

Project work at CHIJMES.

DAY 05:

They say the sky represents freedom, why do I feel that sometimes its a matter of perspective? After all, the same sky the people being held captive represents longing ... or maybe even mockery. 

DAY 06:

Reflections.

DAY 07:

                              

P.S. My camera simply does not do justice to any of the pieces. 

VAN CLEEF  AND ARPELS at the Art Science Museum, 7th August 2016. The trip to this exhibition was really eye opening and I've learnt so much of how Master Jeweller are passionate about their job and role in making a necklace and how different minerals and rocks can be identified.













STEVEN JOHNSON's TED TALK REVIEW
Where does good ideas come from?

We have this rich vocabulary to describe moments of inspirations: Flash, Stroke, Epiphany, Eureka and Lightbulb. All these concepts share this basic assumption of that an idea is a single thing, something that happens often in an illuminating moment. The argue is that an Idea is a network, not a single thing. To get your brain stimulated to create ideas in a network is to get the ' network pattern of the outside world ' and the ' network pattern of your inside world ' to work together as a web of network that belongs to you. Take note of your surroundings, from people to objects to buildings, view your surrounding in different perspective to actually create ideas that becomes innovation. One way to stimulate this network is to put yourself into an chaotic environment with others from all walks of life such as a coffee house. Share your mistakes, your successes with others to learn from each other and don't compress your stories. Great ideas happens in such stimulations. Don't cage your ideas like caged birds, share them with a network. Chance favours the connected mind.

             

WEEK 02: BREAKING THE RULES.

JULIE BURSTEIN's TED TALK SUMMARY

Everyday parts such as pottery can take days and hours to make. However, the Raku pottery in japan only takes a few hours to make. Raku allows you to play with elements but the results may not be as you wanted. Raku is a wonderful metaphor for the process of creativity. It teaches you to choose between letting go and controlling when needed.

Creativity grows everyday, everywhere. The best way to learn about creativity is through stories. pay attention to the world around you with passion and an open mind. We need to let go to embark on something new, something that may change you. Embrace the challenges intentionally, use language and perspective to stimulate creative thinking. What we see in the world, What we hope for. We must learn to balance between being a realist and futurist to widen our thinking space. Sometimes we may be working with something sad etc. but we must also make beauty in devastation. We must push through failures with passion and feel confident to fail to create something new and wonderful.

Breaking the Rules in Fashion

1. COCO CHANEL

Gabrielle " Coco " Chanel broke the fashion rules of the 1900s by introducing relaxed sportswear styles made of soft jersey fabric, the total opposite of what women in the 1900s were used to - Corsets and Gowns.

This introduces ready to wear fashion and bold fashion statements with a hint of boyish looks to Europe in 1900s.

2. KATHARINE HEPBURN

Katharine Hepburn was an American actress known for her fierce independence and spitfire personality. She broke fashion rules in the 1900s by styling in a uniform tailored blazers and men's trousers that eschewed traditionally feminine skirts and dresses.

3. PAUL POIRET

In Fin de Siécle Paris, Paul Poiret made it his mission to modernise women's fashion and make clothes bright, fun and exotic in the Nineteenth Century. He started from the lower class in Paris to a designer for couture houses in Paris. He shocked many people with his designs - modern clothes with a Japanese twist and he came out with so many different cuttings for women clothes - some wearable, some completely restraints the women from walking. Paul Poiret broke the rules in the nineteenth century by creating clothes that nobody in the word knew at that time could be possible. I think that he is the most inspiring fashion designer to me and it is sad that he is forgotten by many now. 

4. RUDOLF " RUDI " GERNREICH

Rudolf " Rudi " Gernreich is an fashion designer whose avant-garde clothing designs are generally regarded as the most dynamic and innovative fashion of the 1960s. Rudi Gernreich broke the rules of fashion of overlapping both colours and patterns together.

5. ALEXANDER MCQUEEN

Alexander McQueen fearlessly challenged the conventions of fashion. He saw beyond clothing's physical constraints to its conceptual and imaginative possibilities.

EGG DROP PROJECT

Materials used: Straws, Scissors, Tape, Ice-Cream Sticks, Styrofoam Cups and Threads.

Firstly, my group has decided to weave the straws to create a hammock to create a protective layer around the egg.

Secondly, we decided to create a wooden frame on top of the egg so that it will not fly out when dropped.

However, the result was that our egg has cracked. In summary, we learn that although our idea of weaving straws was good, we should have also concentrated on both the top and the bottom of the styrofoam cup as gravitational energy is converted to pressure when the egg drops.

Also, I've learnt that in life, sometimes we may fail but we must not let our failures dictate us. We must always challenge ourselves and do our very best in everything we do. We must push through failures with passion and feel confident to take risks.

DAY 01: 

 Went for a stroll at the beach today. Sometimes you need to just observe your surroundings in a different perspective to find gems like these.

DAY 02:

Stairs at the NAFA Campuses always look so creative and full of life.

DAY 03:

Took this picture because the trees reminds me of the Chinese ink painting and how I'm really bad at it.

DAY 04:

Went to the National Gallery today and found some works that inspired me for ink painting.

DAY 05:

 Beautiful sunset at Resorts World Sentosa.

DAY 06: 

Loving the architecture of the Concourse Building.

DAY 07:

Taj-Mahal Vibes at Sultan Road.