Week 5: An exercise on IDEATION

Take a look at the following YouTube clip, that is a compilation of the Top 5 clips from the series 'Whose Line is it Anyway?' The show primarily consists of a series of skits that involves 3 resident and an invited guest comedian that will come out with various improvised situations based on a given theme.

The series of clips below is taken from the item known as 'Prop', where the comedians are given some weird-looking props, and are given very little time to come out with as many variations and interpretations of their given props as they can. Take a look at this and see what are some learning points that you can derive from this:

Do answer the following questions:

1. What do you think is the main underlying theme of the clip above?
2. What are some skill sets that would be needed by the comedians to make their impromptu presentations successful?
3. How do you think you would be able to hone your skills that you have mentioned in question (2)?
4. How then would the skills that you mentioned be useful and applicable in your other domains and subject areas?

Week 5: Sustainable Design...a wow idea!

The clip below is taken from TED.com, an annual seminar of sorts where great people with great ideas come together and present their ideas and perhaps even solutions for almost every single problem known to Man. Here is a clip that I find suitable in presenting an example that may deepen our understanding on the topic of 'Sustainable Design', one of the relatively newer areas of Design. Enjoy the clip and answer the following questions below:

• Based on the clip, what is your understanding of the term 'Sustainable Design'?
• Can you think of other possible situations where sustainable design can be incorporated? 
• What do you think inspire him to come out with such a solution?
• How would such a contraption benefit Mankind?

Week 5: Drawing in perspectives: 1 and 2-points perspectives

Take a look at the picture below that shows a scene from my personal collection of desktop wallpapers. What do you notice about the pathway and the rows of benches placed alongside it?

In the previous sketching lessons, you have been exposed and practising your sketches in isometric orientation, where lines are usually parallel in nature. But as you see from the photo above, and most other photos, the human eye has a peculiar way of looking at things. For example in the picture above, although we are aware that the path does have a constant width, our eyes choose to see that the path and the rows of benches are CONVERGING to a SINGLE POINT. This is known as a single point perspective!

Similarly, in certain instances, there are occasions whereby things are seen with not a single, but a 2-points perspective. The examples below shows sketches in 2-points perspective:

How about the picture below? Can you see it having a 2-points perspective orientation?

Taken from: http://z.about.com/d/drawsketch/1/0/O/O/street_corner.jpg

HOMEWORK for the weekend:
Here is a YouTube clip that you can view to learn more about how to come out with  1, 2 and even 3-points perspectives:

Perspectives

An interesting message from Foo Ming Yong & his team

At this rate mankind is going, i tell you, we're doomed. We're cutting down trees like mad, wasting water, polluting the air, land and sea. We're doomed to one day destroy our own mother earth and by then, its too late to regret it. This is a short animation i made to explain that, although what happens in the animation is not true, we will still destroy earth in a similar way.

Week 4: Consolidating your Research

Now that the individual team members have done their own individual researches, as a group, do consolidate your research. Take some time (about 20 to 30 mins) during class to consolidate and answer the following questions as a group:

1. State 2 major problems that you have identified on the given topic on 'Environment'
2. State 3 potential areas or problems that you think, as a group, you would like to work on for the next 10 or so weeks. Note that you would NOT need to work on all 3 later on, most probably just 1 or 2 only!
   
3. Think of how you can incorporate these sub-lessons for the problem/s that you are going to solve:
• Photography
• Animation
• Models and/or prototypes . Do give some suggestions for this too if possible and relevant.

Note that the deadline for this exercise is next Fri, 5th Feb 2010 by 1700 hrs

Week 4: Sketching: Isometric and Oblique sketches

There are various specific ways that you can use to show the orientation of your sketches. What the lessons have shown you so far is the standard way of indicating your orientation of your sketches in an ISOMETRIC manner.

The other sketching orientation that is usually used, but not as frequently, is the OBLIQUE orientation.

The difference between the two can be shown by showing the following 2 examples:

Taken from: http://www.tpub.com/content/engineering/14069/css/14069_187.htm

• Could you state ONE advantage of using an Isometric projection/orientation in your sketches?
• Could you state ONE disadvantage of using and Oblique orientation in your sketches?
  

By using the 'Box' or 'Crating' method as demonstrated in class, complete the worksheet given to you during class, in your sketch books. In case you prefer the soft copy, the 12 isometric blocks that you have to complete are as shown below:

Week 4: Making Your Research Clearer

There are many ways to ensure that that your research information is presented in a clear, concise and more targeted manner. Two methods that you can adopt are the '5W+1H' method and the P.I.E.S. method. Do a search on these to know what they are.

Week 3: Doing 'Research' (part 2)

Based on the given 5 different topics on Environment (shown below according to your assigned numbering within your group) that has been given to you in class, do a more in-depth research individually. Ensure that the context of your research is localized, i.e. in Singapore's context. Put up your research work in your ADMT personal blog, and put the URL/link in the comments section below.

FYI, the 5 given topics are:
#1: Sustainable Design
#2: Conserving Water Resources
#3: Alternative Energy Sources
#4: Singapore Environmental Policies/Campaigns
#5: Reducing, Reusing & Recycling@SST

Deadline: Monday, 25th Jan 2010 @ 5pm

Week 3: Understanding 'Research' (part 1)

After your presentations on your initial findings and research on the theme 'Environment', I would like to gauge your understanding on the topic of 'Research'. On your own and during class curriculum time, answer the following questions in your personal ADMT blogs (estimated lesson time: 30 min.).

1. What is RESEARCH? (Please use your own definition/s!)
2. Why do you think research is important?
3. How can we conduct good research?

Post the URL links of your answers to these questions in the Comment section of this post below. Your comment format should look like this:

• Your Name
• Your URL
• Any other comments/remarks that you might want to include

Deadline: By Monday, 25th Jan (6 pm)

Week 3 - Sketching: Basic Primitive Shapes

The 5 basic shapes from the previous lesson's homework will form the foundation of most of your sketches in the future. Take time to practise sketching these 5 basic shapes, and please do combinations of them where necessary. You might just be surprised at what you can come out with!

Here are some sample sketches for your references (sources taken from personal notes):

BASIC SHAPES & FORMS

OBJECTS BASED ON CUBE-LIKE DESIGNS

ELLIPSES

SPHERES

Class work/Home work:

Practise the other 4 basic shapes of Cones, Square-based pyramids, Cylinders and Spheres in your sketch books. Sketchbooks are to be submitted on Week 4 of school.

Week 2 - Lesson 2 (Part 1) - Environment

We live in a world where natural resources like air and water are being threatened by the onslaught of human activities. Pollution and industrialization have caused the depletion of Mother Nature’s reserves at an alarming rate.

• Will Man's selfish acts bring about the Earth’s doom?  
• What can we do to save the Earth?
• What are some of the problems that we can realistically and effectively be engaged in?
  

Submitting your work as a group:

• You are going to submit your thoughts to this ADMT class blog via email.
  
• You may include text, image(s) and/or videoclip(s).
  
• Put your name as the title of the email so that we know who submitted the post. e.g. ADMT Lesson 2 (Part 1) Environment - your name
  
• Send the email to irfandarian.admt2010s106@blogger.com
• Your work will be posted to this ADMT class blog.

Deadline: 18th Jan 2010, 5pm

For the 2nd section part of this part, each group is to brainstorm and do an initial research on either one of the following sub-themes, or create new ones where relevant:

• Conservation
• Pollution (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle)
• Innovative solutions for saving the Earth

One or 2 team members from each group will do a 5 to 7 min presentation on their initial findings and research on the given sub-theme/s above. Presentations will be done on Thur, 21st Jan 2010.

Week 2 - Lesson 2 (Part 2) - Sketching Lesson: Lines and Shapes

For this first exercise in your design journal, each student will be tasked to sketch out any one of the 3 selected items below:

• Pen
  
• Mechanical Pencil
• Stapler

Take about 15 minutes to do this in class and highlight the following in your sketch:

• General details and features of the product being sketched
• Some key specific characteristics of the product that you would like to highlight and may not be seen in your sketch
• Any other details that you might want to include

Homework (To be done in your Design Journal):
Draw the following 5 basic shapes on a single page of your design journal:

• A regular cube
• A cone
• A square-based pyramid
• A cylinder
• A sphere

Deadline: Before the next lesson

Week 2 - Lesson 1: Introduction to Art, Design, Media & Technology

1. What is Art, Design, Media and Technology (ADMT) to you?
2. Why is ADMT important?
3. What are the skills that you would want to learn in ADMT? 
4. Sketch how the world would look like without art, design, media and technology. Describe briefly your sketch. [Take a picture of your sketch and post it on your personal blog]
   

Submitting your work...

1. Create a personal blog for ADMT.
2. Post your response in the blog that you created. Give the title in your post: ADMT Lesson 1: Personal Reflection
3. Copy and paste the hyperlink of this particular post to the Comments section in this post.

Deadline: Monday, 18th Jan 2010