Intercultural Design - Project 1
4.1.21 - 30.1.21 (Week 1 - Week 4)
Sajiya Mir (0340836)
Intercultural Design
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Project 1: Proposal
Week 1:
Monday, January 4, 2021
Today was the first class and we were introduced to all our lecturers. We went over the MIB and we briefed on the exercises and projects we would be doing this semester. Then Dr. Charles gave a tutorial about Netnography and Ethnography. He explained further how we could create data collecting instruments to aid our research
Lecture
Ethnography is the research of people or culture done face to face. For the presentation, sustainability, or education implication.
- Dialogues, Interviews, and experiences.
Netnography is an extension of ethnography. It is the research done online. This type of research is not geographically constrained.
Research:
1. Find a field of study. Find an issue or problem.
2. Come up with 1-2 research questions concerning your issue and design a data collecting instrument such as google sheet, drive, or word docs.
3. Collect data and analyze it.
4. Evaluate if the research questions have been answered.
Ethical Netnography:
- Identify and explain yourself
- Ask for permission
- Look up credible resources
- Infromed constent
- Give Citation
The disadvantage of Netnography:
- Researchers may not be familiar with the relevant online platform or may choose noncredible sites.
- Data collecting and analyzing may be time-consuming.
- May have invalid data.
Instructions
Proposal
Week 2:
Monday, January 11, 2021
Ms. Natasha M.H and Mr. Tintoy Chuo joined our session today as guest speaker. Mr. Tintoy is the Founder of Fusion Wayang Kulit and showed us some of his work and the creative process in creating a fusion with traditional wayang kulit and modern-day star wars. After a Q&A session, it was Ms. Natasha's turn. Ms. Natasha is an Arts & Crafts practitioner, she showed us her batik work and her store Gahara. She also explained the process of making her batik work. Before class was dismissed we got assigned our supervisors.
For a group project, we decided to choose Revival as our theme. We wanted to work on a subculture that surrounded fashion trends so we came up with:
- Hanbok
- Kimono
- Hanfu
- Kebaya
Hanbok was our first choice but since another group was already hanbok we decided to go with Hanfu. It is a lesser know subculture and it was also very new to us. So we did some research and tried to find a problem with this subculture. Once we had that we tried coming up with our Research questions and Research objectives.
Fig.1.0 Research Notes
Week 3:
Monday, January 18, 2021
This week we had our guest lecturer series 2 with Mr. Munir Yahya and Ms. Emelia Ong. Mr. Munir briefed us about the value of cultural studies and shared some of his experience of studying and interacting with individuals from various cultures. He explained more about the colors and how it has a different meaning in various cultures and how we as designers should always be conscious of the do's and not when designing for a particular culture.
After getting feedback from Mr. Asrizal in week 2 we made a list of thing we needed to research more about:
- Identify the importance of these clothes, what do the symbols represent in the clothing.
- Understand more of the types of hanfu and how they differentiate from each other.
- What do the colors and patterns represent?
- How is hanfu in the past different from the modern hanfu?
- Identify if the meanings have changed.
The work was divided among the group and we tried to answer all the questions. When we were done with that we compiled all the information on a miro board. The miro board was a summary of our research which we presented to Mr. Asrizal.
Fig.1.2 Miro board
Mr. Asrizal suggested we work on our Research questions and Research objectives a bit more and gave us a few examples on how we can narrow it down:
- To study the evolution of the Hanfu clothing
- To identify the changes of the Hanfu over time
- The extent to which Hanfu clothing has changed in modern times.
We compiled all the information we had into presentation slides and prepared for our presentation on week 4.
Fig.1.3 Research presentation
Week 4:
Monday, January 25, 2021
This week was presentation week. All the groups were separated to present on two different days. Our group was scheduled to present on Wednesday.
We also started to brainstorm ideas for our final design a few of the ideas we came up with were:
- Resin Art
- Poster
- Chinese painting
- Fabric / Textile design
- Instagram filter
- 3d Sculpture
We were able to come up with a lot of different ideas but due to the Covid lockdown. and some of the group members being in different countries we had to narrow down our ideas to something we can do online
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
Our group presented our topic and got feedback from all the lecturers.
While the lecturer said our research was good we need to improve more on our Research questions and Research objective as it seemed that they did not relate and were too general.
We struggled a bit with the RO and RQ's, so we had another consultation session with Mr. Asrizal where he explained to us that the first research question should be the most general out of the three. The second one should base more on the evolution of hanfu and the third question should be the design outcome question. With Mr. Asrizal help we were able to come up with the first two questions:
- RQ1: What role does politics possess in the revival of hanfu
- RQ2: How has the symbolism of hanfu and its meaning evolved?
As question 3 was based more on the final design we had to do a bit more discussion with all the group members. We came up with a few ideas for the questions:
- How can hanfu be restored to its original meaning in the modern world?
- How can political opinions be reduced and hanfu restored to their original meaning?
- How can Hanfu be restored to its original symbolism without the emergence of the political agenda?
After a lengthy discussion, we all voted on the research question that reflected on what we wanted our final design outcome. The Final Research questions:
- What role does politics possess in the revival of hanfu
- How has the symbolism of hanfu and its meaning evolved?
- How can Hanfu be restored to its original symbolism without evoking the political agenda?
Then we worked on improving our Research objectives, a few ideas we came up with were:
- RO1: Distinguishing the rise of the political agenda due to the return of Hanfu.
- RO1: Determining if the revival of hanfu is influenced by politics.
- RO1: Identifying the relations of political views on the Hanfu
- RO2: Identifying the evolution of Hanfu's symbolism.
- RO2: Identifying and understanding the evolution of the hanfu symbolism
- RO2: Conserving the originality of the Hanfu symbolism
- RO3: To produce a final outcome that enhances the national esteem on the Hanfu without the emergence of political threats
- RO3: Developing innovative and creative products based on Hanfu without evoking the political agenda
- RO3: Returning the meaning of the hanfu without evoking the political agenda.
The Final Research Objective:
- Distinguishing the rise of the political agenda due to the return of the Hanfu.
- Identifying and understanding the evolution of the Hanfu symbolism.
- To produce a final outcome that revives the Hanfu and to its original meanings without the emergence of political views.
Fig.1.4 Final Proposal Presentation
Feedback
- Identify the importance of these clothes, what do the symbols represent in the clothing.
- Understand more of the types of hanfu and how they differentiate from each other.
- What do the colors and patterns represent?
- How is hanfu in the past different from the modern hanfu?
- Identify if the meanings have changed.
[Week 3]: Mr. Asrizal suggested we narrow down our Research questions and Research objectives to 3. He also told us to ensure that the research questions and objectives are related. And that we can combine a few of our questions.
[Week 4]: they said that some of our ROs and RQs are a bit general. They would want to see something specific.
- Maybe talk about the 'Modern Hanfu', will it diminish the design quality of the Ancient Hanfu?
- Dr. Jin Chi: our political views were good
- Ms. Anis: perhaps we can focus on China's current climate, current situation to incorporate our ideas of the Hanfu. This can create, some sort of discussion setting.
Reflection
Experience: We were given lots of time to do research, and I was happy as this allowed us to learn as much as we can about the culture and makes sure we understood it before progressing to the other step. Our group members were also great, everyone participated, and everyone was always willing to have zoom meetings to discuss, which I was thankful for; it made the project easier.
Observations: With hanfu, I observed that even with the revival, the clothing's authenticity hadn't changed much. Yes, there are a few new styles of hanfu, but those who wish to bring back hanfu continue to follow the traditional styles.
Findings: One new thing I learned was that the cheongsam is Manchurian, and the Hanfu is the Han people's clothing. When we learn about Chinese culture, we see it from a Western perspective in movies and shows, but when you research their cultures, you learn that there is much more. So I am glad we researched this topic and learned something new because I don't think I would have got a chance to learn this otherwise.
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