GRAD703 – Week 03
IEDAS – Vr. 2 [Finalist]
Waves, The building blocks of the Chinese characters
Why waves? – working title
Waves can be seen as a state of flow and be used to describe the flow of something. In this case, the waves are seen as timelines and the up and down of the history of language development.
Mindmap – Updated
Information gathering
I began looking at studies in language and the development of the writing system.
The development of the Chinese Characters can be dated back to 1500 – 1100 BC.
But if we view it with symbolic development, the “language” can be dated as far as 6000+ BC.
Childhood picture for positioning
I asked my parents to send over some of my childhood pictures, but because I grew up in a remote village that tech wasn’t a thing. We don’t even have electricity for years, let alone fancy camera equipment. Thus, the youngest picture of mine was taken in 10 or so. That just so happened to be our village grand parade. There are three photos I received from my parents, and I selected the one with me carrying the gong. The other pictures are fine, but with some other people in the background and the composition or focus is not as good. All of the pictures were taken with film and printed on photo paper. Because my parents are not a professional when comes to technology. All they know is using the phone to take pictures of pictures, and in a horrifying way. Therefore, I suggested they take the photograph and find a photoshop to scan it into a digital file then Email it to me.
Lecture thinking
I was sick and wasn’t able to attend the lecture. The following statement was with the help of my fellow designers who went to the lecture. Massive thanks to all of those who helped me understand the lecture and key points.
Summer told me the lecture was mainly about the researchers; who am I? And how our POV (Point Of View) can affect the result of one’s project. This positioning chapter is not only for the audiences but also for the designers themselves. Being able to identify the potential and the influences on a piece of design is key when comes to positioning. For individuals, it is crucial to constantly remind ourselves to seek the assumptions we make during daily activities and be aware that they will affect how we view certain things. Only then can I position myself as objectively as possible when reading others’ works.
Others, such as Sharons, offer a similar POV. From her experiences, she suggested the lecture talk about the importance of self and answered the question: Who are you? And What is the connection between you and the outcome? It is vital to realise this chapter is about ourselves and not others, so don’t try to put other people’s words for writing that’s about identifying oneself.
From the information I gathered by talking to Summer and Sharons, I can piece together the basic story. And I’ll try to answer it with some thoughts I have as of now.
To answer the elephant in the room, Who am I?
I’d try to avoid answering it with some philosophical idea and just mention how my childhood shaped the person who to became me. In the writing, I might mention how growing up in a small and remote village is helping develop my creativity, creating stuff with wood and bamboo etc.
The question of how the project related to me
Learning to write Chinese characters was quite interesting for me as a child. The younger me will make up animals, objects, or even stories from the shape of each character. And I will be bothering my mum the entire day just for her to listing to my genius stories. It was quite silly now when I’m looking back on it. But, each character is indeed a story, and most certainly, the shape is playing a key point in the development of the language.
Our middle school history teacher had himself a saying, and every time he wrote something on the blackboard, he’d say, “Every stroke is a history, and each square is a story.“
At the start of the semester, I already have some vague ideas about how my project will be. But I never thought the project would become so personal. I was thinking of making a book to showcase the development of the Characters and how fun it is that the symbols had become a language. It is still my intention as of now, but I might want to explore more on the characters that are important or significant to me. At this stage, I still need to learn more about the topic; even for me, a native speaker, it was very challenging to digest the topic.
Read of the week
The reading emphasises the experiences of the individual play a crucial role in their design philosophy. The experience came from exercises, family background, education and personality. Mauger mentioned how design practice and education are needed to understand the problem, and it is more important than visual and technology (Mauger, 2004). And it is vital to learn the social background and the problem before design.
The paper mention two designers with different pathway and identity. The two cases demonstrated the differences in experiences with society. They both represent two types of people, the one who explore more area and develop the need to research externally for information, and other who are more passionate on the field that is most relevant to them and hold the knowledge that is capable of getting the job done.
It is hard to say which one is correct. But, for me, both have value in their rights. Design is a sector that is full of creativity it is both literally and figuratively. Designers can come from everywhere, and with the power of the internet, the gap between creators are never closer. Each individual has a unique working style, cultural background, belief, experiences, and POV. Thus, for them to have a matching option toward a piece of work is nearly impossible.
With the reading is done, I am getting more respectful to designers who are able to bring themselves into the design, and I hardly consider seasoning my design with personal experiences and identity. I’ve always thought design is a soulless business, and the right to be creative is determined by the client. For this project, I would begin a different way of design; with this project, I might actually try to design a work that’s me.
References
Mauger, S. (2004). Relating Social Contextual Knowledge to Graphic Designers’ Practice.
