Design Projects: Music with a Twist

Hello peeps!

It's end of semester 5 now, so I shall update here about what I've done in this four months.

This semester started with new lecturer, new assignment, new challenges, and new experience. Theme of design projects for this semester is "music", "culture", "experimental" and "heritage preservation". Means, we have to design an experimental space of music in a heritage building to promote and preserve value of culture. It's a fresh topic for me, and I found it challenging as I have no music base.

Well... learned some basic knowledge few years ago but I quit...

The first project is to design a propaganda poster (a poster which spread specific idea, rumor, etc.) regarding current issue, which is culture and heritage preserving, via selected music. I've chosen acoustic music - a kind of music that is produced by natural sounds through acoustic means, without any usage of electronic devices to modify the sounds. Nature and science of the music should be appreciated and promoted, as how the local heritage and culture should be preserved.

I've struggled a lot while doing this project. Previously I've been taught how to do infographic, where information are compacted into a poster using a lot of graphics. When I was doing propaganda poster, I had to express only the idea of culture and heritage preservation with simple graphic and a sentence of propaganda. I felt that my poster is too blank! It seemed so weird to me! However at the end I managed to overcome it. Making it into a 3D poster gave more expression and lively emotion.

Echo-fication here means to spread the
 awareness towards current issue like
echoes. "We don't only play music, but we
appreciate and preserve its culture too."

A picture of the final product and I.

Right after the first project ended, we proceeded to second project - research of site and subject. It contains two part, which is to do site analysis and to determine concept and AEIOU factors (Activities, Environment, Interaction, Operation, User) of the design. It was quite rushed while doing this project as project period is clashed with Hari Raya holidays and delay of works due to changing of site from Coliseum Theatre to St. Mary's Cathedral. By the way, we managed to complete this project too.

St. Mary's Cathedral is an Anglican church located in center of hustle and bustle Kuala Lumpur city. Yet the site is rich with local history traces and culture. Dataran merdeka, National History Museum, Masjid Jamek and other significant historical and cultural places are just near the selected site.

A sketch of site location map.

Presentation board with concept of
"Reverberation" and programmes of
my design project.

Concept model based on keywords derived from concept.

And yea, it's finally final project of the semester - Exploration and Experimental Centre. This project was tough for me as I couldn't fully understand the meaning and elements of Research Institution Experimental Design, until the final review was just around one month away.

So basically, this project is about creating an experimental space with selected music as theme and aiming to spread awareness of culture preservation, at the same time providing a research and institutional space for public.

For my design, ECHOLES Acoustic Music Experiment Centre, I have divided the programmes into three parts - Learn, Experiment and Spread. Learn as understanding the nature and science of acoustic music by creative and interactive means; Experiment as development and experiment with acoustic music after learning the basics of acoustic music and how the sounds work; Spread as promotion of awareness and idea of current issue regarding heritage and culture preservation.

The centre is a combination of institution and hospitality. Hostels are provided besides of experimental spaces.

As usual, conceptual space model is
prepared based on concept and activities.
Here's the cute mock up model.

Final conceptual space model, where the red parts represent
LES (Learn, Experiment and Spread) elements.

Presentation board 1, in A0 size.

Presentation board 2, in A0 size.

Presentation board 3, in A0 size.
I drew perspective views manually
again as I fell more comfortable
drawing manually, although there
were many obstacles such as
material matters, time and money
consuming, etc.

My pinned-up works and I.

Materials for my design. Sound absorptive materials
such as carpet and cork are used in private spaces while
reflective materials such as woods and tiles are used in
experiment spaces to create lively atmosphere.

I didn't manage to print this out during review. This is a
 pamphlet about introduction, operation and activities
of the centre.

Model for the centre. Facade of site building is preserved.

Top view of first floor.

Top view of ground floor.

Well, overall final review result for me is neither good or bad. I felt satisfied to my works and I presented them confidently (although I was nervous facing two review panels and spoke unclear), however when panels pointed out weaknesses of my works, I realized that there's many improvement could be done to my works. I should do more, explore more, and be brave enough to design the spaces. My design is still not mature enough as there's still some space planning problems.

I'm so appreciate my review panels' comments and advice, and I would like to use this chance to thank my lecturers, classmates, friends, and even my family who have supported, motivated and helped me in doing these projects.

Next semester would be internship, and then only followed by last semester of this course. I hope I can succeed in improving my design thinking and skills in the future, before I graduate and end my degree student life. Learning is endless, and I will keep moving forward chasing the knowledge.

Here's end of my post. Thank you for viewing my blog post and stay tuned for my next update! Have a good day peeps!

Excursion finale - LONDON to PARIS

Finally, it was the last day we stayed in London.
*emo face*

We checked out from hostel at 10am and leaved our luggage in hostel store room, as we were going to Portobello Market and it would be inconvenient for us to bring along bulky luggage.

I found that the market was very similar to our country's market, in terms of circulations, population and way of display items. The main difference is - it is located in between two rows of shops selling wearable items, foods, antiques, second-hand items and crafts, etc. as if the shop lots are part of the market too.

FOODS. LOOK AT THOSE ALLURING FOODS.

Street performers can be found everywhere. Even in market.

Market views.

Black bottom cupcake yayyyyyy!

Abbey Road - a famous street for the Beatles Crosswalk in their album Abbey Road in 1969.

As the crosswalk was famous, there were many people visited the road with the same purpose with us - take picture with the posture of the Beatles in their album. Some of the cars honked on those visitors who took long time posing on the crosswalk as the traffic there was slightly busy.

Abbey Road Studios.

Was taking the photo of the crosswalk and these two guys
bumped into the scene. Ah, never mind. This is the clearest
photo I have for the crosswalk.

Before we gathered at the hostel in evening, we went to Oxford circus to experience the city lifestyle of London.
(...okay, we were shopping actually *hides*)

The atmosphere is busy and stylish with modern architectures of shops and shopping malls.
(why no picture? busy for last minute shopping for sure *hides again*)

After gathering in the hostel, we carried our luggage and proceeded to Victoria Coach Station. We reached earlier than the departure time, thus we rested in the station as we were tired carrying the heavy baggage and bought our supper in nearby supermarket (indeed the main purpose is to spend all the coins we left).

In Victoria coach station waiting for departure.

My dinner - kebab (it's ugly i know...the scattered fillings...)
My last meal in London is not a  London food.
*okay.jpeg*

10 hours journey back to Paris. With bus.
 Challenge accepted.

We reached Paris around 9am++. From Paris, we took RER to airport and took flight return to our home country.

The last RER ticket I used.

Aww I will miss this place.

Beautiful Dubai city view from plane.
For your information, we went back by Emirates Airline too,
and finally I marathon-ed all Harry Potter movies xDDD

HOME SWEET HOME.

It was an unforgettable journey. I would travel to the same place in future if I have chance again!

Here's the end of Europe trip posts.

Back to heavy assignment loads *cries*

Hot weather......

Excursion part9 - LONDON

19th September - our fourth day in London started with hostel breakfast, which was still the same since first day we stayed there.
*inner groans*

Breakfast time pattern each days.

After that was the most-waited destination for me - King's Cross station! Harry Potter fans should know this place right? It's famous for the Platform 9 3/4!

Me when Ms. Sharmila briefed us that we were going to
King's Cross station.

The reason why I re-watched Harry Potter movies
during the flight -
to get the feelings back! I know I would visit this place!
I knew it!

There is a handcart installation on the wall beside the Harry Potter shop in the King's Cross station, attracting people to queue just to take photo. I didn't queue though, just took the installation photo beside and I can photoshop myself inside anytime.

And yea...SHOP! ERMAHGAWD ALL THE MERCHANDISES! COLLECTIBLES! *screams internally*

Long queue to take photo with the "trolley".

The "trolley"... I saw Hedwig!!

Yeah excited excited EXCITED!!

Items sold in the shop.

Nice but expensive collections. Can look but cannot
buy... *sobs*

Tempted to buy this sweets!

Interior design of the shop.

From wearable souvenirs such as t-shirt, mugs, phone cases,
etc. to collectibles like wands, train tickets, jewellery and
prop replicas, the magical and fantasy shop is selling
various Harry Potter merchandises, but not as many as
Warner Bros Studio, a planned-to-go-but-unsuccessful
 place located outside London city. *hugs merchandises bought in shop sobs silently*

By metro, we were going to Emirates Stadium,
which is the home football stadium for Arsenal football club,
 located in Holloway.

I wondered why it's named Emirates. After I searching for its history, I found that it was named Emirates Stadium because Emirates Airline signed a 15-year contract with Arsenal on 2004 and the group secured naming rights to the stadium.

As the stadium tour was charging, only a few people stayed there and continued exploring the stadium, while the rest proceeded to Tate Modern - a modern building housing exhibitions and galleries of contemporary art. It is a must-visit spot for design students like us!

Facade of Tate Modern.

Donation box could be found in any spaces as the entry is free
 and the organization needs donation to operate the museum.
A museum map costed a pound but it is not compulsory
and forced to pay, instead a donation box is attached to map display rack.

Empty space after the entrance.

Want to know more about Tate Modern? Here's
digital information booth.

Simple and plain. Comfortable and cozy.

The Tate Modern building itself is already an artpiece - the harmony fusion of old and new elements; implementation of minimalism and simplicity into the previously industrial space of brownish face bricks and steel structures impressed me deeply.

It is accessible for disabled folks too with ramps.

Everyone can be an artist!
This is a fun area for visitors to draw anything
and the drawing will be shown on the screen!
I didn't join as I had no mood due to stomach pain...
(I zoomed to this guy because
he was so concentrated on his drawing while others just
simply doodling)

The drawing bar description.

Exhibition of propaganda posters
which would be helpful for our
design project. (but the project has past...)

The exhibitions started from second floor, with access at the center of the rectangular floor and exhibition areas at both sides. One of the exhibitions is permanent with theme Poetry and Dream (surrealism and realism artworks), while the permanent one is an exhibition of Sigma Polke, a German painter and photographer.

The third floor consists of a charged temporary exhibition of Kazimir Malevich, a Russian painter famous with his cubism painting, and a permanent exhibition themed Transformed Vision (the Second World War-based artworks).

The fourth floor has two permanent exhibition areas, which are Structure and Clarity (early 20th century abstract art) and Energy and Process (arte povera, a radical Italian art movement from 1960 to 1970).

The fifth floor is a member room while the sixth floor consists of a restaurant.

Was taking photo in between two columns with
"fashionable" pose and this is what happened that time.

It was interesting to explore the souvenir shop at first floor with many uncommon toys, souvenirs, stationery and books.

Tempted to buy some books...It's so interesting!

Books for design and how-to-draw.

Saw this performer on the way going to
Tower of London and many people was like
"WOW OH MY GOD AMAZING
HE'S FLOATING HOW HE DID IT"
But not me, I know the trick
*evil-smiles*

It should be like this LOL

Street view where we dabao (take away in Mandarin)
fish 'n' chips for lunch. Many visitors were attracted to
the reflective balls.

Even the water fountain is stylish...

Yea it's Tower of London.
I WOWED LOUDLY FOR THIS VIEW. SERIOUSLY.
I came in the correct timing!

Since it was a defensive fortress during First World War,
a major artistic installation project 'Blood Swept Lands and
Seas of Red' was carried out for memorial and
remembrance of sacrificed British military.

Description of the meanings of the installation project.

888,246 red hand-made porcelain poppies are installed
 in the tower and the view is soooooo brilliant and stunning.

After the Tower... Tower Bridge across the River Thames. 

Footsteps.

The Victorian Gothic style bridge is unique
 because it will raise and lift sometimes for
tall ships pass under then.

My luck to see the road lifted up!!

Next, Royal Festival Hall.

There was a food market outside the Southbank centre selling various

 local and foreign foods and beverages such as crepes, sandwiches, beers,

 roti naan, etc. It was somehow similar to our country's night market

 but just all stalls were selling foods and drinks.

*inner voice: FOOD. FOOOOODDDD.*

View inside the Royal Festival Hall. Seems that an event
would be carried out soon.

Before we went back to hostel, some of us went to walk around the city and shop for souvenirs, as it was the last night we stayed in London. Didn't buy anything though.