Tag: communication design

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some thoughts about my research..

I’ve realized that it is a complex issues about Malaysian Identity and no way in 3 years I could find an answer of what is Malaysian Identity, better get far away of that issues, although it is connected to my PhD. My research is not about searching for Malaysian Identity.

What I’m interested now and hopefully it will be clearer later in my writing, is the role of communication designer in regards to the construction of Malaysian Identity. Do designers conscious of what their creating in their process of designing? Do they reflect on their design process? Or does designer aware of ‘myth’ that the designer’s created through their visuals making? My concern also about design education curriculum in Malaysia – to narrow it down USM can be a case study.

What kind of knowledge are we teaching in Graphic Communication. Imaged, when I first arrived thinking of pursuing Master and PhD. Without knowing these names – Derrida, Barthes, Lupton, Papenek, Schon, Saussure, Foucoult, Hall etc. How many literature reviews we actually did in our design degree course? or even write about it? I have to read and covered them along while working out what my PhD is all about…and yes…apart from trying to get my grammar on the right track. I wonder if Malaysian design students are critical enough toward the graphic/design artefacts around them or merely think its another piece of graphic design artifacts? ‘Take it as it is’.

How can the design educator nurture the design student awareness of ‘myth’ they might create in their process of designing? Structuralism and deconstruction process in design, reflecting on the practices as I came to understand that it is a significant process of graphic design studies/research. Should it be part or it is already part of our design curriculum in the university?

My aim in this PhD is to produce a pedagogical approach [still not sure about the product though, any thought? ]- criticizing Malaysian graphic design artefacts and through this questioning the Malaysian Identity as I think that it is closely related. I argue communication designer contribute in the process of shaping Malaysian National Identity, through the process of branding, promotions, creating an identity etc. Now I need to write about it…

Any thought?

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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?