Design chat – Page 2 – Design. Research. Technology. Experience. Life.

24 February 200926 February 2009

How what it project, shaped what others think?

A PhD investigation on comm. design contribution on Malaysian Identity by Nurul Rahman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.
Based on a work at www.nurulrahman.com.

Now when you read this title what do you think can go under ‘it’? It in this context could be any form of media, but what I want to discuss today about ‘it’ falls under comics. So ‘it’ in this column means comics, yes only comics, because under comics there’s comic books, comic strips and perhaps other ‘unknown’ type of comic.

Next questions is the question that I asked at the top (title). So what do you think? Let’s makes it easier in putting comic in the sentences. So ‘How what comics [it] project, shaped what others think? What I’m asking here is the role of comics. Hmm..but what is comic? Well, if you look at the comic definition in www.dictionary.com then the meaning of comic is this – a comedian, a comic book, comic strips, comedy shows or a behaviors that could induces smiles or laughters. Yes, I did said comics is just comic and nothing more, not comedian and not the act of making others laugh.

Sadly because of this ‘unpopular’ areas or medium, people don’t really understand what comic is. The word comic are broadly use, in different situation, depending on the purpose. It is also because comic is not something that are educational appreciated, it use to be considered as a bad influences. But not anymore. Nowadays comic are much more popular, between children and adults. It has become an exclusive desire artifacts for some and cartoonist has become as popular as an artist.

Back to the question asked – what influence or impact does comic have in our life and how it can influence our thinking process or our lifestyle? First, lets see where can we find comics? Traditionally we could only in find comic in newspapers (classic), in children books, in comic books and in magazine. But nowadays we could see them in advertising, in poster and in many other promotional items. So in conjunction to this, comic is no longer a medium under other media, but it is the medium by itself, therefore as what McLuhan (1954) stated “The medium is the message” – comic is the message. Comic has its own ‘content’ through the message it carries , except the content of the message have extended to certain human understanding of comics. Therefore the meaning of the ‘content’ of comic could change and evolve through time. Now if we see the use of new media on comic, this is happening because comic could give meaning and its own interpretation of comic with out reading what it contained. To include comic in advertising work is to create the feeling of comedy, relax, take it easy kind of meaning. Then the content of the comics comes in.

McCloud in his most influential book ‘Understanding Comic’ (1993) describe his extended meaning of comic and shows examples on how to read and understand comic, breaking it into different parts. Comic is a the most subtle communication medium to communicate. Through comic one can express, tell, suggest and perhaps persuade others for different purpose.

understanding comics

To be able to read comic, one needs to understand the culture background of the comics, a western comic could portray towards Western lifestyle and so on with others cultures around the world. In contrast to this, comic also is a medium of study, one could examine the culture, identity, background of others from different countries through comic. So how does this influences what others think?

Well it is a norm human reaction to imitate others, particularly when is it different from others. Lifestyle, fashion, trends, custom etc, are something everyone of use appreciate, and want to learn or at least curious enough to know. This process could shape our thinking, our views on something and perhaps could even alter our behaviors.

Of course this blog hopes to stimulate some awareness or discussion about design, and guess what, comic is part of communication design. Have a think..Now, what do you say again about comic…is it or is it not influential?

9 February 200916 December 2018

Identity : Constructed

As you can see I haven’t been writing much in this blog, I’ve been super busy trying to finish up writing up my PhD. But this blog is here and still very useful for me to reflect back my work and throw out some ideas. Many ideas from this blog have brought me long way in my research and some are just left behind as I did not have time to make it happen. Hopefully in future this blog will be much better use than now. I wish to continue some of ‘wish’ and hope it will come true one day.

Well, at this point as I mentioned I’m trying to finish up my writing. I’m in the middle of writing up 2 chapters, both are about medium, different medium that are used in communication design. Or it could also be defining the role of communication design in my research. I assumed it’s both but I really need to be able to articulate my thoughts clearly.

Through this blog, I have meet many peoples that have similar interest, and shared different thoughts. Most of all I have received many supports to get this PhD done. It is not really about this PhD, I think it is mostly about the topic that everybody wishes to know what the conclusion would be. Identity..hmmm almost everybody interested in it and Malaysian are not left behind. It’s been 51 years now that Malaysia managed to survive and stand alone. Thanks to all the Malaysian who makes this happen although some of them are not being thank or mentioned in many ways…

I went back to Malaysia to present a paper in a International Postgraduate Conference in Penang. This is not my first time presenting at a conference, but this is my first time presenting a paper in conference in Malaysia. It was an interesting experience. Why do I say that? Well, I found the conference is not really about sharing the knowledge, and value the research that been taken forward but it is more about showing off the research work and hoping to get some recognition from it. Some are more about the conclusion of the project rather than reflecting the whole research process. What a shame I said to myself as I knew some participant comes all this way to listen and share the space to gather knowledge about particular topic like myself. Yes I’m sounding like I’m ranting about it, I guess I’m just disappointed. Even worst when it comes to my paper presentation.

I presented a paper on a topic of my very first project in the beginning of my PhD. I was determined to know what others think about the notion of Malaysian Identity. I used an online forum as a research method to undertake this questions. In my paper presentation I did mentioned before I started discussion about the paper that my research is based on a practice based design research and it’s undertaken under a communication design projects. And I continued my presentation giving a brief explanation on practice based design research.

In my paper I discussed about “What is practice-based design research?” (Rahman:2008). It is a research methodology that utilizes the characteristics of design as a means for knowledge creation. Its involves a process of researching by, in and through design practices. Archer (1981) defines design research as “Design research is systematic inquiry whose goal is knowledge of, or in, the embodiment of configuration, composition, structure, purpose, value, and meaning in man-made things (artefacts) and systems.”

Then I continued the presentation more about my project, the contents, the methodologies, participants etc. Although 20 minutes will never be enough in explaining the whole project. Of course some are of the informations are left behind. But at the end of this presentation I received several interesting questions. Some are about the design research and some about the issues that relates to identity. I received very limited positive inputs of the paper in this conference. Others are more about their concern on identity issues. One just asked me ‘What will be your conclusion on this topic? What do you think is Malaysian Identity?

Hmmm…there I’m standing alone thinking how do I answered this questions. First I said that my research never intended to define what is Malaysian identity, but it is about understanding different methodologies that could be taken forward as a way to understand and hopefully to be able to show how identity have been presented and projected to others.

Second, I think identity is not something that can be defined or to be symbolised to something. There’s not correct representation of it and I don’t think it even could. Identity evolved and it accumulates not only one but many different values through culture, tradition, political, lifestyles, history, economical issues etc. Identity cannot just taken from something and project it to others without any historical, political or any other issues above attached to it. Identity is a constructed and it’s involved political reasons.

In Richard Robbins (1999) book called a book called Global Problems and the culture of Capitalism, he discussed a chapter on the construction of nation-state. He presented few examples on how the nation have been constructed and some convincing methodologies. Few authors such as Eugen Weber, Eric Hobshawn and Linda Coley are widely mentioned throughout one of the chapter.

Although there are many other scholar, many of them are nationalists from various persuasions argues that nation state are constructed based on the expressions of preexisting cultural, linguistic, religion, ethnics, or historical features shared by people who make up or who would make up the state, some general view that are more certain aiming scholars, is that nation-states are constructed through invention and social engineering.

But Eric Hobshwan suggested that tradition must be invented. People must be convinced that they share or must be forced to share certain features, such as language, religion, ethnic group membership, or a common historical heritage, regardless of whether they really do.

Then Linda Coley (1992) discussed and showed illustrated examples through painting how the national identities is constructed through critical understanding of nationalism and ethnicity. Her case studies are based on the Great Britain and she discussed her case through Britons. She showed examples and focussed on the issues of ethnicity and religions as the main ways to construct the nation in Great Britain.

“Thus, one of the most effective ways to construct a nation is to create some Other against whom members of the nation-state can distinguish themselves. That Other needn’t be a country; it may be a category of persons constructed out of largely arbitrary criteria, such as racial characteristics or religion. Thus, a group may insist that only people of a particular skin colour or religion or who speak a particular language can be a members of their nation.” (Robbins:2008:116)

Eugen Weber (1976) discussed on the Frenchmen and the nationalism in France. He discussions focusses based on the language, bureaucracy and education system in France and how this contributes in constructing the nation. He claimed that national unity in France was also the evidenced by the growth of patriotism. Even though it is not a obvious as much as American nation building, French have much more subtle ways of provoking and constructing their nation. This is not to say as Weber pointed out, that the French were unpatriotic, only that they had no uniform conceptions of patriotism. As he said “patriotic feelings on the national level, far from instinctive, had to be learned”.

20 January 20099 February 2009

Is there any vernacular Malaysian Design?

Time have fly fast, year 2008 is now reaching at the end. Moi? I’m still in the progress of writing up…It’s been a hard year for me although I have to admin I have learned a lot. Few weeks ago I presented a paper in ICPE’08 (International Conference of Postgraduate Education) organised by USM in Gurney Hotel, Penang. As I imagined the crowd is not from the design background therefore the critics and comments I received is different, positive at least. It is interesting to see what others who come from non-designed background think about design project. I think designers should present more in the conference and write, it is very important to make others understand what we’re doing, and by doing so we will get a better idea and understanding of what we’re doing or working on. I have learned this process while teaching. I’ve been teaching more than 5 years now, casual, part-time and full-time. I found myself fascinated with the student behaviours and reaction with the subject. I came to understand that teaching requires a never ending learning process. To teach is to learn, by doing so one will never stop learning.

In our day to day life, unwittingly we practice this process. Progressively we learn and teach regardless the small actions, issues or thinking. And we talk about it to our families, friends etc. For example, we learn to have a breakfast everyday, by observing or by learning it from our parent. Breakfast, depending which cluster or ethnic group one belong to have its own way. It can be heavy, light, spicy, sweet, etc. Then we practiced and teach it to our children or friends. It is by nature a way of practicing our life..anyway..I shall not continue this discussion until I can articulate this topic clearer.

In relations to my blog title, I’m still asking the question about the notion of Malaysian Identity, I wonder if I ever would have the answer, or not? But I’m hoping I would be able at least to understand a lot more about Malaysia and its intimate connection to the design practice.

To open the new year event I will be giving a talk about Malaysian Design in particular on a topic or vernacular design in Malaysia, whether it is genuine or merely a copycat act. I’m exited about this topic and hoping to get something out of this discussion with other Malaysian designers.

Meanwhile I’m still continue writing my pieces of collected design exploration through my PhD. Rewrite is the words that I’m now more and more getting comfortable with. It is now my close friend. If you in KL and interested to listen more about design in Malaysia and its relation to identity please do drop by to www.kakireka.com on the 14th of January 2009.

A PhD investigation on comm. design contribution on Malaysian Identity by Nurul Rahman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.
Based on a work at www.nurulrahman.com.

I havent been writing much in this blog lately, not that I dont have anything to write but I been busy writing somewhere else. I have some thought now and then, I wish I could go online and see how it goes but sadly its just not as easy as sketching. Well, I should start by wishing you my friend who regularly spend time reading my 5 cents ideas and thought about design checking whats new in my blog. To you I wish Happy New Year and hope this year will give us more guts in provoking design studies, practices and theory around.

Ive been travelling around for a short break, and presenting paper in a conference. Now I have arrived and settle where I came from in Melbourne as I have a lot more to finish, the unfinished research. While Im travelling, in the country I spend most is France, not all region but some places, enough to realise some interesting fact about French or I could say in this case it is not only on France but many other country. Language is very intriguing. Not all countries speak English although it was claimed as the most important language in the world. Indeed, is one of the languages that will allow us to communicate to other, after all almost everybody at least knows one words in English, thanks to film and music industry.
While laying in front of the television after lunch in Reims, I turn on the remote to see whats on. Yes, I know most of the people know this but for me its shocking. Why everything is in French? We could view this from different angle. I ˜m looking at it from identity issues, mainly national identity. Clearly language is another medium to connect and to be able to communicate to each other. Apart from the language also represent or identify almost which country the person comes from. Lying in front of the tele I was wondering, could it be possible with the standardized the language French thinks other people around the world speak French? Every France citizen or permanent residency speaks French. How does the authority get to this? Definitely tv program and promotional advertisements is one of the way to construct this idea. When nothing else is use except one language, one dont have much choice then start learning or else would be left all alone. This idea has strong relation to choice and freedom.

In country like Malaysia, if the freedom of choice is so far away and theres not much choice left, nothing much one can do apart from taking the risk rather then taking the risk to be left alone. Dont get me wrong nothing going towards issues such as politics, blog can become a sensitive issues in Malaysia, therefore I have to say it out loud, nothing political in here. Now because of this limited choice to be able to choose Malaysian have lack of design understanding. What is design and what does it mean to most Malaysian designers? I was supposed to give a talk in KL on kakireka small talk in KL organised by Wrega (Malaysian Non Profit Graphic Design Association), but then something came out and we have to call it off. But the topic I have in mind came after my visit in Penang in December last year and Im writing a chapter about it to publish in a design journal.

The issue that Ive found quite interesting is about the vernacular of Malaysian design. Is there any? One could argue and said that there are, depending on what it the word design means to oneself. Some would say no because nothing reach the standard. What standard? Again this also will goes to what they mean with the word design.
If we look at the Oxford Concise dictionary (11 ed. 2004 since 1911), the word design means:
a) A plan or drawing produced to show the look and function of something before it is built or made.
b) The art or action of conceiving of and producing of something
c) The arrangement of the features of artefacts.
d) The propose or planning that exists behind an action or object.

Now what that mean here if we look at most of the artefact that are available in Malaysia from massive advertisement to the one that are photocopy, from the logo of the big shopping mall to the logo of the small hawker shop, regardless what is the visual looks like, the aesthetic part of it, these artefacts does fit in under the action of designing. So back to the question is there any design in Malaysia, the answer is yes, definitely. But whether it can be claim as Malaysian design, we will find out later on. Is there any vernacular Malaysian Design?

7 November 20089 February 2009

NewViews Exhibitions

Got my poster accepted for an online exhibitions – Newviews Design Conference
Here’s the link. There’s also an exhibition running in Melbourne Museums, have a look at the Newviews websites for more information. Graphic Design Posters and graphic design discourse is part of the program on the opening days – 15 November 2008. Prof. Teal Triggs from London College of Arts will present a talk about Scissors and Glue in the postgraduate public talk.

9 October 20089 October 2008

Text or Visual in Advertising?

I found this text in the book called Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture by Arthur Asa Berger (2007). Its a really useful book about advertising and in one chapter the author takes the reader step by step to analyzing advertisements (printed and television).

Have a read at this text and let me know what you think about it because Im surprise the way the author describe the visuals (I think it is visuals artifacts).

The things we have to realize about radio and television commercial and print advertisements (and all other forms of advertising as well) is that they are, aside from their commercial functions, works of popular art. Or maybe ˜commercial art is a more fitting term. In this chapter and the next I will focus upon print advertisements and television commercials, the two most interesting “ from my point of view “ kinds of a texts. I will use the term ˜text here for both; it is a term conventionally used in criticism nowadays to cover all form of artworks. Berger, Asa Arthur (2007:137).

The words text conventionally used in criticism nowadays to cover all form of artworks? How about visual? Is this mean that the word ˜visual is not recognized as a language, therefore the word ˜text is use to describe it? May be Im a bit unaware and not familiar with some of academics language but I cant understand why the word ˜Text instead of ˜Visual?

Most of Graphic Designers work with/through visual as a communication medium and not just through text. Does this mean the practice of graphic designer is not recognized instead the copy writer or the author is recognized because of the ‘text’? Im not saying that text is not use in graphic design practices, because it does. Its just that we used the word ˜text for literally the meaning of text and the word ˜visual for anything that have the form of images such as illustration, photograph, painting etc. Visual is another form of language and it is as powerful as text (Barthes, Lupton). Speech is another way of language that sometime can be rhetoric. I was surprise because the author takes the reader step by step analyzing the advertisements, looking at the visuals such as photograph, images, illustration, etc. and call it “text”. Is this because lack of written text, research or information about visual artefacts or graphic design artefacts? Roger and out to you!

8 October 20088 October 2008

Kyoorius Designyatra 2008 – This time it’s in Malaysia

Communication Designer… you might want to check it out.. sadly I’m far away.

Designyatra

DATE	: November 13”14, 2008.
VENUE	: Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall, 1 Jalan Maharajalela, Kuala Lumpur.
TIME	: 9.30am”5.00pm

3 October 20083 October 2008

Malaysian National Identity is a constructed identity?

I found this ads in you tube while browsing around looking for Malaysian Ads. This is an ads from Malaysian Tourism for Promotions of Visit Malaysia 50 years of Independence.

The song that is sang in this ads is called ‘Rasa Sayang Eh! ‘ which means ‘Feeling of loves’. However the meaning is more that the feeling of love, this song has a strong connection with construction of Malaysian National Identity. This song has been taught from kindergarten to University since Malaysian Independence.

It is a popular Malaysian song that most of the Malaysian knows how to sing it. It is very easy, just the ‘Pantun’ part is a bit hard because it needs a knowledge of creating ‘Pantun’ like making rhymes, that can be anything. ‘Pantun’ is an old idioms that is use for teasing people in the olden days. Nowadays ‘Pantun’ is used in mainly Malay festive and wedding, as an introduction before the function starts.
Here are the original lyrics of this song.

Rasa Sayang Eh!
Rasa Sayang Sayang Eh!
Hey! Lihat Nona Jauh,
Rasa Sayang, Sayang Eh!

In between of this paragraph is ‘Pantun’ which is a Malay quatrains with a stanza of four lines.

Now back to the ads. In this ads, 4 main ethnic in Malaysia are used to sing the ‘Rasa Sayang’ song. Together with it, different cultural practices is projected to distinguish the cultural differences in Malaysia such as food, national dresses, nature, modernity, cultural behavior etc.. At the same time, the images of Malaysian living in harmony with happy faces is shown. The part that each ethics is singing the same song but in their own language, with the similar meaning shows that Malaysia is united with multi-ethnics. Notice that the song begins with ‘Bahasa Melayu’ Malay language, then English, followed by Chinese, Indigenous and Indian. It is follow by the percentage of the ethnics in Malaysia. The Malays is the dominant ethnic in Malaysia. Hmmm! Interesting… but why? Is it deliberately or just a coincidently?

Only recently in Malaysian ads images of indigenous people started to appear, event better their language is now been used as one of the strategies to promote Malaysia. This kind of ads is fairly new, projecting the Indigenous where else in 70’s and 80’s it is hardly seen in any Malaysian ads. Why and how does this happen in Malaysia where this images was dissolve in our past life? Why now?

12 September 200812 September 2008

Thoughts on graphic designer’s practices and roles..

I’m presenting a paper at a 17th Biennial Conference of Asian Studies Associations of Australia (ASAA). It at Albert Park Hotel, in St Kilda, Melbourne.

In this paper I will discuss about the earliest project in the beginning of my PhD, the Online Forum and www.malaysianidentity.com is the case study of this paper. As my PhD is a practice-based design research project, it is challenging to explain it to the non-design background what is design research and what is practice-based research. Here’s the abstract of my paper. If you interested to read the whole paper, please do email me.

Can an online discussion be used as a new research practice? A case study www.malaysianidentity.com

Nurul Rahman

With the rise of web 2.0, and collaborative web sites and communication platforms, there is the temptation and the possibility of utilising innovative technology for research methods and practices.

As part of a practice-based design PhD research project, I used an online discussion forum as an environment to enable focus group discussions. The aim was to gather together a selection of research participants (artists and designers) involved in creative fields, to start a conversation, and explore ideas about, Malaysian identity and its representations within cultural artifacts. I facilitated this discussion, exploring particular topics; and through the use of open-ended questions and threads within the forum, encouraged participants to present their ideas and engage with others.

This paper will discuss how an online tool can be used within a research project to experiment and confront ideas, to find new directions for investigation or to have a general discussion about a specific subject with research participants who are located in diverse international locations, asynchronously.

The forum malaysianidentity.com will be used as a case study to explore the advantages and challenges such a solution may present.

Full paper

Can online discussion be used as a new research practices? by Nurul Rahman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Talking to Yoko about my research always helped me in putting my puzzle together. Yoko asked me to visualized my research using a metaphorical methods. Because Im still researching and not so sure weather the words Im using is what Im really mean, Yoko suggested me to either leave it blank or give it a name. Leaving it blank is not very easy for me as ˜blank for me means nothing, and it will confuse me later on. So this is how I decided to do it taking on board what Yoko suggested me to try on. I will use the metaphorical idea of ˜cake. Before I continue this idea of cake, I would like to define some parts in my research that I will relates with using the metaphorical of ˜cake.

What are my key questions in my research?

My research interested in the contributions of design, particularly communication design and it close relations to the constructions of national and cultural identity. Although, both national and cultural identity are two different things but both connected to each other closely. Without one, the other will not mean anything. Thinking what comes first in identity is like thinking what came first in chicken and eggs. Both inform each other constantly. This leads to the question Quest-ce quune nation? What is the nation? Apa itu bangsa? And the next question narrowing it down to subject in my research is about Malaysia which what Im searching for What makes the nation? ˜Apa yang membentuk bangsa?.

Now, I have to admit, these questions is really broad and it is the on going questions that most of the researcher in sociology, anthropologies, media and cultural studies, history etc. have asked in their research until now. My research although it relates very much to the questions that Ive asked before, it is also relates to communication design. In fact my PhD is focusing on the roles of design, particularly communication design in the construction of national and cultural identity. I argued that communication design play a significant roles in the shaping of national and cultural identity. Clearly it is quite obvious but there is not much written about it, the involvement of communication design in the constructions of national and cultural identity, particularly south east asia, such as Malaysia. Which areas in design or what medium in design that Im focusing in is a good questions. And how it contributed, through what medium and what makes it is a strong argument is what Im still investigating.

Back to the attempt of using a metaphorical ways of looking at my research questions ˜What makes the nation? ˜What are the ingredients that shape Malaysian identity, nationally and culturally?. If ˜cake is the Malaysian identity, then what is the ingredient of making that ˜cake? Why is that this cake is claimed uniquely Malaysian? I think what Im doing is questioning the idea of uniqueness in Malaysian identity. Why did Malaysian think that Malaysia is unique? Or not.

If I argued the Malaysian Identity is not unique, because what makes Malaysian Identity is similar to what makes any other countries such as the different in of culture, custom, cuisine, etc. then what is it then? What makes the people (Malaysian) believe that their nation is unique? Theres a lot more in unique than different. Indeed, each nation is different in some ways, lifestyle and culture but is it unique? Is it by using the word unique are strategies to a nation building, or as a way to promote the country? In fact is it part of the country branding to create a belief that the country is special? This is interesting, focusing on the words unique, what are the relation between branding and the nation building?

Unique = being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else, particularly remarkable, special, or unusual.

Is Malaysian unusual? Lets have a look at what different mean?

Different – not the same as another or each other; unlike in nature, form, or quality ; distinct; separate

Therefore it is no longer unique, but it does have ˜________ that somehow makes Malaysian different, that distinguish Malaysia from others, that relates Malaysia to something, could be an object, could be material or immaterial (Dewey pp.? 1938 “ refer to Margolin Experience as a product). What are the relationship between the product and the person, and how it creates the notion of national/cultural identity? What makes a person feel the connection between self and identity? How does the graphic design contribute in the construction of it?
22 August 2008

Memories play a significant part in our day-to-day life. A grand father will past some stories from his past experiences in life to his grand children. Memories could be categorized in different areas, some could be sweet memories, some are sad memories and others could be the unforgettable memories. But some of these memories can be maintained or forgotten depending how important it is, particularly when it relates closely to the development of a country. Stories of the victory and fighting for freedom are mainly the ˜active memories that been used in a country as a way to construct the national identity. Memories can be represented and transformed through writing, photograph, images etc.

Long time ago, writing, printing and speech are the main medium of transmitting the memories. It been used as a way to transform information, history of the past etc. Now a day, where communication mediums are expending borderless with the use of Internet, satellite televisions, images etc, memories now can be share by others around the world. Visual are widely and strongly used as a way to transmit the memories to others.

A story about victory is much more effective if its been view through represented imagery rather than writing. Visual imagery helps to transform the memories to a reality. For example, image of victory scene would be repeated again and again through different medium as a reminder that people have fought for the freedom. It stayed in our memories as part of our cultural memories and soon we will transfer it to our children.

What is called ˜prosthetic memory (Connerton, 2006) when it takes more on the visual forms can sustain the existence of imagined communities as effectively as does, according to Benedit Anderson, the diffusion of printing.

Museums, libraries and national archives are places where the memories particularly national memories are stored. The artifacts that been kept in these place are carefully chosen as it would reflect the national and cultural identity of the people. History of the past have to be told correctly as it is part of the process of shaping the national identity. Collective memories through conversation, visual images and text help in rewriting and re-imagining the past. Repeated images, narrative of visual, symbols and representation through advertisements, popular pop culture magazines, poster etc. are examples of a way to sustained the notion of identity, that could be related to either nationally or culturally.
The relations between images and advertisements and their connection to national and cultural identity.

In the case study of Malaysia and its relation to my research going back to in 1957, through the national Malaya newspaper, most of the advertisements are mainly from the international brand or company such as Shell, Palmolive, Pan American, Bank of America, Qantas etc. They are the one that filled in most of the space for advertisement particularly on the celebration of independences Day. What does this mean? Why in the main national newspaper this kind of advertisement been chosen to be put in? Interestingly, it is seem to me, Malaysia or known as Malaya at that time, is seen as a young nation searching for identity, a way forward, development, growing of economy and social. Therefore, through these advertisements it could inform, educate, or offer the people choices of what they country want to be in future.

Wearne Brothers LTD (1957)

I got this piece of 1957 advertisement from a reprinted New Straits Times newspaper on the 31st August 2008. Its an advertisements for a car company and it is one of the ads that been published in the New Straits Times newspaper for Malaysian Independence Day. Its interesting to see the difference between 50 years from 1906 to 1957 through the ads of a car company. Not only the design and the look of the car that could remind us of the differences in time but also it could also show the growth of economic development in Malaya at that period of time. For me it also indicates that moving forward and better future through car as one of the moving vehicles, the design evolution and the indication of the year as a plat number.

Lets focus on the man standing beside the car. How often did you see a man as a model for a car company? One man standing at the car that dated 1906 as the plate number, wearing a semi-normal clothes with the gesture positioning both of the hands behind the body such as a position that called a ˜resting position such as in the army, point out to me as a position to wait for order. For others, without knowing where this advertisement comes from it is very hard to tell which country origin of both of the standing man.

This advertisement was published in English and it targeted the spectators who are ˜Bumiputra , educated, wealthy and can communicate in English. From my cultural understanding, I recognized this man as a ˜Bumiputra man through his look and the color skin tone. Most Malay have a medium brown tone skin color, compare to Chinese who are very fair close to yellowish cream color, and Indian that have much darker brown from Malay. Although these days it is difficult to recognized each ethnics through their skin colors as there are many intermarriage between each ethnics.
For people who are not familiar with the ˜Bumiputra this man could be from any English spoken country such as Philippine, Pacific island South America, Mexico, etc. He looks like a middle-class man could be a businessman, from a professional background, of perhaps from a government administrative. He is well dressed with his shirt tuck in his pants gave an impression that he could come from a wealthy and educated family background.

The word ˜Yesterday that stated beside him added some extra meaning in this advertisement. Apart from the indication of ˜Yesterday that its from the past, it could be also reminding the spectators of some nostalgic memories or dreams with connection to the car. At that period of time, it is very difficult to own a car because of various reasons mainly financial. Middle class people in the past particularly in 40s to 50s can only afford to have a bicycle or scooter motorbike. Other vehicle such as cars could only be affordable to people who comes from wealthy and high status family background. The date also was stated nicely as a plat number of the car. ˜Yesterday means in 1906 seem to be far away and perhaps its time to move forward.

In the next image that stated the word ˜Today, the same position the man standing beside the car with the plate number dated 1957 which is the year Malaysia gets independence. The layout position look nearly the same except the man in ˜Today was wearing ˜Songkok a Malay men hat. Its also indicates that this man is Muslim. This image is telling me that in 1957, the people in Malaysia are searching for identity by putting the man with his ˜Songkok. Does it telling us that the Malays are the dominant ethnics therefore they are the main authority. Where are the Chinese, Indian and the indigenous? Are they part of Malaysia? Most of the advertisement in Malaysia hardly have an indigenous images, only recently when Malaysia celebrate her 50 years of independence the images of the indigenous starts to appear in most of the advertisements. (Packaging a myth¦refer this to it)
I had a chat with Neal today, which is as always ending up with leaving me hanging with some thoughts.

We spoke about several things mostly about the roles of graphic design in the societies. We discussed about their contributions and practices.

Neal has been practising graphic design around 20 years in Australia. Then he decided to teach graphic design in college and university as well as practising it. From our discussion,
Neal mentioned that the roles of graphic designer have definitely evolved through these years reflecting back at his own experiences. The roles of graphic designers is no longer to make things looks good or touching up to make things looks better, but it has grown more up to the extend it is now been apply and used as research methods.

There are some arguments and doubts about the transparency in the practice of designing in graphic design. Until now, it is vague as there are no definite ways to produce a graphic design artefacts, for examples is there a clear methods on how to design a service or even how to make a poster and a clear rational behind it.

Universities and academics urge for more publications on methods of practice in graphic design. It is the one of the way to inform or educate others on rational behind the process of designing. The moment when graphic designer decided to choose certain font, images, background or even the material of the object can be invisible and some might view it as ˜magical. That is when the ˜talent came in, only the selected ˜one can do it. It could be said that it can be visualise through the Chinese kung fu movies or ˜Harry Pother, how that knowledge of graphic design are transferred to others, theres no one ways but many different ways, and it all depend to the ˜Sifu or ˜Master.

I decided to do my PhD because I have found myself wanting for something more in graphic design, a sense of acknowledgement from societies that graphic designers do plays ˜something in the culture, in fact in the look and representation of a country. Like in the soccer games or rugby where each one of the player do have the position and know what to do. I think graphic designers have that roles in the society and understand what they need to do. It is not that I feel bored of practising graphic design, but at one point in I was thinking how far could this process go?

Neal questions have motivate me to document our discussion here is ˜How what we do as graphic designers reflects on others?. Designers think of how to communicate, with different strategies and methods, but do they think of the step they took and what changes or damage they make on the way? Do graphic designer ever think that we might mislead people with signage directions through our design knowledge, with the choice of font we selected and the bright striking colour just because we think that it looks good and have a sense of attraction to it. What recipes graphic designers follow when they designing? Is it their understanding of culture, education, emotions, and reaction towards materials, people and environment that makes them have the trust to make something in order to communicate? What are the ingredients behind this? How do some designers have certain style like identities that make others distinguish them from others? Do graphic designers think about these questions in their creative process of making?

Laurene gave an interesting example when we had a discussion with the Comm.Design Postgraduate group about this. She was talking about her visit to aboriginals areas in Victoria and how she found her self fascinated by their day-to-day practice particularly their fishing methods. She was left asking herself how could the European have missed this methods, why it is not been taken into their everyday practices as it is an interesting and effective way to catch a fish.

Is it because that it is not as easy as it looks to describe it or to write it. Some methods or skills are much better learn by practice rather by reading, one could understand the theory but might not be able to do it practically. So, coming back to the European visitors in the olden days, hypothetically, perhaps that someone did write it down step by step, the way to do it, but when it is taken away from the actual environment or situation it might not be as easy as how it was written. I could take this example as how graphic designers create their design, practicing is much easier that articulating the thought of how the theory could be, or how it works, the ˜magical part of it. It is much handy to show or demonstrate rather that talking about it. Or for most graphic designers it is much simple to visualise a situation or anything rather than to write or articulating it.

I remembered when I started to work as a Window Display Artist in Park Royal Hotel 10 years ago, all I wanted to do is to practice what Ive learn and make things. It is funny that I think somehow I belief that I have the kind of ˜power to make things look better. I understand that I can ˜communicate to ˜others through my design creations. In fact when I found out that people react or response to it, it makes my day and makes me belief more and more that I have the ˜power. To me even though there is no signature in my design work like a practise of an artist, it doesnt really matter as what is important is, it is successfully communicate to the others. My design will let others know who I am, the style I created and the language I spoken through my design work is enough for others to know who it is from. Ive created my representations through visual. I exist and Im part of the societies and contributing in the construction of identity. That is important for me. As what Descartes said ˜I think therefore I am. Time to think graphic designers¦

23 July 200823 July 2008

Uniquness – to exist or not to exist?

It has been a long while since I logged in and put my thoughts here. I took a long break from putting some entries on this blog to focus on finishing my PhD’s corrections and then took a break from study and related. I used my time to read books (not directly related to my PhD) that I bought and been eager to read since I started my PhD. I have read several so far and lots more waiting to be read on the shelves. I also allocated that time to visits some places around Australia, around Victoria, Sydney, Adelaide and Cairns, a short break holiday, and the first one that I am able to fully enjoy with an empty head without my PhD since I submitted the correction. Apart from that, I enjoy my time cooking different types of cuisine and of course, enjoy eating it with my sweetheart. That was such a relief! I was not able to imaging the sense of liberty that I am feeling now before I submitted the work. Now, I am truly free from it.

Since then, I realised that I have not logged into my blog for couple of months. And for the first time since I have started this blog in 2006, I missed the very first one month entry, last month in February. But let’s take it as my holiday month and a gift for my final correction submission of my PhD.

I feel like I am opening a new book, and have closed the last one that I started in 2006. Thus, I am thinking that this time in my blog writing or ranting, I will write something a bit different, still about design teaching and practices, cultural history, etc., but I hope to be able to be more reflective and critical on what I post here. Oh, yes, there might be new ideas, thoughts and perhaps comments on people’s work, but I hope that this idea will be a shared knowledge and if anyone interested to apply or adopt the ideas that I published in this blog, you will at least ask for my permission and then put the credit to it. Let’s be an ethical human being, and designer shall we.

I am keen and interested in agriculture nowadays, perhaps because both me and my partner enjoy eating tasty food made with love and fresh, healthy ingredients. Slowly I am growing some herbs in my balcony, when more often to the farmers market than a supermarket and from time to time, enjoy eating at a delicious fresh food restaurant. Yes, there’s plenty of them in Melbourne. We were a bit disappointed when we were in Cairns in the beginning of our trip there, but we managed to find some of the lovely delicious place to eat. And for the price, I can tell you that it’s worth to try. Anyway, yes, agriculture, and sustainability in agriculture that interest me.

My last trip in Malaysia, a couple of months ago, again had opened up my eyes. Living here for almost 8 years in Melbourne, I think like many Melbournian, we take things for granted. Yes, we are grateful that we are able to get good farmers markets and organic products here but, it is not until we travels around to other places that we soon will realised that we are such a lucky community.But this is for people who love to cook and prepare their own cuisine. The local ingredient are fresh and cheap compare to it you eating out everyday. With this experience in my mind, I went back to my birth place with open mind and hope that I will be able to find similar experience in Penang.

On my last trip in Malaysia, I spent my time in Penang, an island also known as the Pearl of Orient by the Frnacis Light, a British officer who govern the island before the independent of Malaysia. Apart from enjoying the delicious cuisine that I could get for very cheap price in Penang, such as all day snack of nasi lemak (coconut rice wrapped in banana leave, served with fried anchovies and peanuts, cooked chili paste, half boiled eggs and slices of cucumbers) and nasi kandar, an indian Muslim influence from Northern India style of cuisine (plain or briyani rice served with your own selection of dishes that you can choose from the shelves, such as different type of curry, vegetable and fried fish and chicken). Now the list does not stop that, Penang people are blessed with other dishes such as Laksa Penang, Satay, Mee Kari, Pasembor, Mee Goreng Mamak, Cucur Udang and so on. Penang is a wonderful place if you like to eat, and love eating out. Cheap and tasty food. It is know as the Malaysian Food Heaven because it is full with hawker style, shops and restaurant that served good food. To the extend I actually make my long list of different style of cuisine that I wanted to eat while I was there.

But after a while, I got sick of eating out and wanted to cook again. My search moved from food stalls to markets to look for local ingredients that I can use in my cooking. There are plenty and enough to start with but the freshness and the taste of the fresh products sold in the market or event in supermarket is far compare to Melbourne. Far in this sense is that yes, there are some ingredients that you can get there but the are now as good or tasty as the one I have eaten here in Melbourne. For example, the tomato taste plain, the sweetness and the delicious sour taste of tomato is not there, and I believe it is an industrial way of producing this tomato. That is sad because if you want to cook, from fresh ingredients the ingredients needs to be at their very best state, otherwise it will change the taste of the dish that you cook. And the same goes with other vegetables, fruits, meat, seafood etc. But after a while of searching I found several places that tried to sell the good fresh, organic ingredients, thank God! But seriously, I think we can do better Malaysia, we need good food, healthy food. I remember a friend of my Nora was telling me how she hated tomato and other vegetables when she was in Malaysia. Nora is currently living in Melbourne and she have discovered the delicious taste of tomato, fruits and vegetables. She didn’t realised that the fresh ingredients can be so tasty and delicious. My answer to that is, not many places sells fresh and organic produced vegetable in Malaysia, therefore we (Malaysian) are only expose to the not so good products, but because we didn’t have the option, we just take it as it is. I think this is another design challenge for fellow Malaysian. How can we facilitates the process of sustai
Does this mean that cultural identity did not exist until the globalization arrived? Why is it a product of globalization? John Tomlinson argued that the cultural identity is a product of globalization than a victim. I would like to discuss only on this topic further.f

What makes each one of us want to appear differently in a society and why?

These days, it seems like everyone is searching for singularity, differences, authenticity and uniqueness in any kind of products. It could be fashion, places, language, design and even countries. It used to be a marketing strategies to differentiate each product with other as a way to sell the product, and now days this methodsis been used in any areas.

Why? Because there is an impact.

I had this discussion with Xavier after reading a book chapter from John Tomlinson

It is a regular discussion that I had with Laurene and I cannot see why she seldom disagreed with the idea that each country is unique in their owns different ways. Or perhaps I did not see what she was trying to say. Are we talking on the same thing or we both agree and disagree on different topic? I argued that the uniqueness does exist through the connection between people with object, places, space, weather, etc. Somehow there is some kind of emotional connection happen in between that makes one felt special and unique of the object, places or space. One who visited Paris will said that no other place like Paris because of the cuisine, Eiffel tower, language etc. Paris is unique in some ways comparing to other city. Others might disagree with it and said that Sydney is unique in one eyes because of the Sydney harbour, food, weather and people. Looking at both with experiencing each places, one could not said that its unique. It relates with emotion and the kind of experience that one got through with others, objects and places.

But what Laurene might means when she said that there is no uniqueness in identity in my research, she might be referring to the advertisements and womans magazine cover I had from Malaysia. Indeed looking at the printed artefact doesnt demonstrate the idea of uniqueness. There no such thing as uniqueness if there is no experience connected to it. Is that what Laurene mean? And no, Im not trying to defend my personal feeling here but what I think about it in relation to my research.

In relation to the notion of uniqueness…

Thanks. Hmmm…..Responding to what you wrote “what you think is unique for you, you then find out is unique for others.”

Indeed, that after all it is not more as unique as because as you mentioned that unique usually implies one. But unique also implies being one of its kind and original. But it could go the opposite such as it would be unique for one but not for others. In this case it could be called unique.

In relation to the notion of uniqueness in my research, in the context of Malaysia, like any other country the people will find it unique as most of them have experience and memory that relates to the country/place/object etc. I cannot say that the notion of uniqueness does not exist in identity, because there do exist and I strongly think that the notion of uniqueness do contribute heavily in the creation of identity.

11 June 200811 June 2008

Another GRC…

Another GRC past, and I realised that my time is running fast, hopefully I could catch up with it. GRC went well, apart from the amount of work I need to cope with in 6 month period time.

I need to continue reading, the more the better and keep on writing and make some mark and point in my research. I have to explicitly articulate my argument in my research. I come to realised that this research is not so much about Malaysian Identity, it is more about the image and visual representation of it, and how it create the perceptions?

Clearly design plays significant roles in these process. But what is it and how does it plays the roles is an interesting areas to investigate as what I’m researching now. It is fascinating to discover some things in this research. I’m discovering another Malaysia, its representations of identity and designer’s roles in this. I asked these questions in my GRC and would be nice to hear some thought about it.

Can it be said that part of designer roles is also capturing the history and record it through their creation. Do designer deliberately re-use this elements of history to modify, and provide perception as a way to communicate with the audience? Can it be said the designers are partly responsible perpetuate the myth of national cultural identity?

Here’s an interesting quote that might give you some ideas about what I’m trying to say up there:

Advertising and design have more in common than the postmodern trend for vernacularism (or the anesthetization of timeworn artifacts) reveals. Advertising and graphic design are equally concerned with selling, communication and entertaining. To appreciate one, the other is imperative. But more important, if graphic design history does not expand to include advertising and other related studies, it will ultimately succumb to the dead-end thinking that will be the evitable consequence of being arrested in a state of continual adolescence.
Steven Heller, ˜Advertising the Mother of Graphic Design, from Eye, no.17. vol.5 summer 1995.