4 URBANITY

13 Ogos 2010. It's 18 days more to Merdeka Day!

Specially to commemorate the coming Independence Day, kami telah diberikan satu lagi assignment : in groups of 6, we have to study the space, form, nodes and path of the Penang Times Square and to relate these elements with the execution of Merdeka Day Countdown.

Kemudian kami dikehendaki menyediakan Powerpoint presentation in 2 parts :

A) menerangkan tentang the urban form and space

B) memperjelaskan tentang the group's idea on how the countdown should be executed, plus penjelasan tentang Merdeka itu sendiri.

The assignment : issue yang serious ni...

Kumpulan saya terdiri daripada :

• Safwan
• Haqeem
• Doraemon
• Blur-blur
• Grace; and
• Me, Rahmat

Note : to those team mates I refer to as your nicknames only, no offence intended, I tak ingat nama-nama y'all and I am sorry...

Journey to Penang Time Square...

... and we begin our journey to Penang Time Square, cuba mengenal pasti the elements of forms and spaces, nodes and paths untuk merancang our procession of balloon blace box bearers pada malam Merdeka Countdown. And most importantly, mengaitkan komponen yang ada di tapak dengan erti dan the spirit of Merdeka. They didn't choose the place for nothing...

The fountain @ Penang Times Square, ... in a courtyard setting, an enclave, with a definition of space.

The statues - a portrayal of history : a native in sarong menurut perintah tuan kolonial untuk melombong emas?

What, to me, looks like a couple of ore-mining equipment.

The group, from right Safwan, Haqeem, Doraemon, Blur-blur, Grace and me,
engaged in a discussion on the main stage.

The Presentation

August 16, back at the studio, we were asked to present our group's findings and opinions regarding the assignment given...

Team mate Safwan addressing the audience, giving an introduction of the group...

Haqeem continues our presentation penuh semangat dengan membicarakan assignment kali ini dengan the meaning of Merdeka

Thegentlemen of our group memberi perhatian dan sokongan moral terhadap penerangan yang diberikan oleh my lady team mates mengenai atur cara Countdown yang akan diadakan...

Cik Wan giving an expert's advice...

Merdeka @ Penang Time Square according to me...

In my opinion, they didn't choose to have the Merdeka Countdown at Penang Time Square simply because it is a new icon in town, juga bukan semata-mata kerana ianya gah tersergam indah, dengan komponen landskap yang unik.

Jika diperhatikan, di dataran ini banyak terdapat sculptures and statues dengan aneka ragam dan gaya. Again, they were placed there for a reason. Definitely bukan semata-mata untuk warga kota menikmati keindahan hasil seninya, malah ia lebih merupakan, according to me, sebuah penceritaan tentang the Merdeka story. Kolam sebagai lombong emas di tanah berdaulat ini, dilombong menggunakan teknologi yang diimport justeru kedatangan pihak kolonial, dan kekayaan hasil bumi yang diusahakan anak watan dimanfaatkan untuk kemakmuran mereka.

The Merdeka Countdown mengajak warga tempatan mengingati merdeka story ini dan cuba menghayati dan menggarap pengertian Merdeka itu dengan melihat sekeliling akan apa yang telah kita lalui dan apa pula yang kita kecapi di saat ini - kesejahteraan, kemajuan, kemakmuran, keharmonian... Walau bagaimanapun, Merdeka tidak akan "terisi" sepenuhnya sekiranya minda dan"roh" kita masih terbelenggu, masih dijajah...

And personally, I would like to think that the releasing of the balloons on the eve of Merdeka adalah suatu manifestasi pembebasan roh dan jasad kita dari dibelenggu oleh sifat-sifat mazmumah dan anasir-anasir yang negatif, serta melambangkan kemerdekaan nusa bangsa kita dari dibelenggu penjajahan alaf baru yang datang dalam pelbagai bentuk dan cara...

So long...

Project 3C : 6-Balloon Black Bamboo Box

Monday, August 9, 2010.

Another assignment for us.

Intention :

This project was issued in conjuction with the Merdeka Day Celebration where every member of the RUS101-2010 will be participating in the Merdeka Countdown, ushering Penang to 31st August 2010.

Rule :

1. The black box must be made of bamboo and recycled paper.


2. It must be able to accommodate 6 helium-filled standard sized balloons and no parts of the balloons shall be exposed.


3. Balloons must be released by box owner one at a time.


4. Box must be carryable by 20 balloons. (cancelled?)
   


5. Box must be light and pass through USM bus door.


6. Due by Friday the 13th.
   

Actor :

Who else? Me...


Place :

USM compound.


Act :

Constructing the 6-balloon black box to specifications as shown in the snapshots of me below :

Pre-construction Planning

• Estimate the size of a standard size balloon full blown and multiply by six because the 6 balloons must fit into the black box. No parts shall be exposed.

• Tetapi sekiranya kotak dibuat single compartment dan belon disusun dalam single pile, kotak akan menjadi terlalu panjang.
  


• So, I decided to construct a twin-chamber box. Tiga belon akan diletakkan on top of one another dalam setiap chamber.

The Construction

Now, I must get down to work. Kerja, kerja, kerja... Rain or shine, siang atau malam... First day Puasa or not... By the way, selamat mengerjakan ibadah puasa kepada Cik Wan and the rest of the Muslim studio crew...

Me in the ditch, after a meagre meal during berbuka puasa...
I retrieved some bamboo culms from my RAG132 dome project and cut into required lengths,
and then cut into smaller strips. Ini untuk dijadikan bingkai kotak hitam.


Buluh yang telah dijadikan strips. Kinda blurry though, sebab the night mode kat camera kurang memuaskan...


Bamboo splints dibersih dan dirapikan, prepared according to specific lengths.


It's past midnight, a new day has begun.
Then I begin constructing the frame by fastening and securing bamboo strips with thin wires. And the ditch suddenly becomes very useful...

...Aligning the frames


Align again with another frame. Macam mana nak sambung ni...


Muktamad. Kerja-kerja menyediakan bingkai kotak hitam diteruskan.


Fastening and securing.


Bukan ahli muzik sedang berkarya, but an artist @ work!


My black box frames and me. Yang mana satu?

The finished frames... from afar.


... and the close-up.


Back in my room...
Materials for the cover - brown paper (dulu di sekolah rendah buat sampul buku) and some cellophane tapes. Belon pun dah tersedia...

Product :

Inilah hasil yang telah diusahakan... From dust till dawn... And today is the D-Day for submission, Friday the 13th.

My "black-box", without the cover and contents.

My "black box" ready to rock... Besar sangat ke ni?

News Update

In the studio, Cik Wan told us that the box must be flown too. Fikiran saya pun jadi kacau sekejap, camana ni ek? After a hard day's work...@#%?

Think! Think! Think! Think!

No, I won't give up...

MY BLACK BOX

Friday, 6 August 2010.


Thank God, it's Friday... I love Fridays, especially today. Happy birthday, myself, dah bertambah usia.

Many things happen on Fridays, good things, not-so-good things and evil things. Bagi Muslim, the prophecy is that even the kiamat falls on a Friday. Tapi memang seperti telah tersurat that most disaster yang berlaku happened on Friday. Wallahu a'lam...

Dan pada Friday ini saya dapat satu assignment yang memang ada kaitan dengan disaster iaitu persediaan kita menghadapi disaster tersebut, whatever it may be, iaitu "My Black Box"... The survival kit yang mengandungi semua bahan keperluan untuk menghadapi bencana and must sustain the need for at least a few months.

Frankly, saya kurang arif tentang black box ni... Yang saya tahu black box ada dalam every flight to record apa yang berlaku atas flight, voice recorder and flight plan. Seperti biasanya saya browse through the Internet dan here are a few maklumat yang saya temukan:



What is a Black Box?


"In science and engineering, a black box is a device, system or object which can be viewed solely in terms of its input, output and transfer characteristics without any knowledge of its internal workings, that is, its implementation is "opaque" (black). Almost anything might be referred to as a black box: a transistor, an algorithm, or the human mind." - Wikipedia

"Dr David Warren of the Aeronautical Research Laboratories in Melbourne, Australia invented the "Black Box" flight data recorder. He was the first person to conceive of the idea of recording the flight crew's conversation on an airplane and of protecting that recording in the event of a crash or fire. The purpose of the Black Box was to help identify the reasons for a plane crash, by recording any clues in the flight crew's conversation. The Black Box was invented in 1953 and in production by 1957. The first ones were painted bright red or orange to make them easier to find after a crash. In 1960, Australia became the first country to make flight recorders mandatory in aircraft." -About.com.

The assignment : My Black Box

• Untuk assignment kali ini, kami diminta untuk menyediakan sebuah Black Book.

...and this is mine, custom-made. I like it.

• Kemudian kami dikehendaki melukis seberapa banyak black box on the pages of the Black Book...

• Then, we have got to choose a box...

I chose this one. It looks the most appealing to me...

A close-up of my chosen BB

• After that, I get this sketch photocopied on an A4 size paper. To make it more propotionate untuk diletakkan atas A3 paper, I blew up the image slightly larger...

The original image blown up ...

• The image on the A4 paper was photocopied again, this time on an A3 size paper

... and I get this image.

The image on the A3 paper

• Wash the page using water colour. Saya hanya mewarnakan BB dan membiarkan the rest of the page putih. Walaupun the flight black box dicat dengan warna merah atau oren, saya memilih untuk mewarnakan BB saya dengan warna hitam, anyway it is My Black Box... And this is the colour I choose. Black is beautiful, isn't it?

• Inilah BB saya. How to open it? Oleh kerana tiada dalam arahan yang diberikan, saya pun tidaklah menerangkannya di sini. Walau bagaimanapun, I woud prefer to have an intelligent lock system activated from my cell phone, perhaps...

The end....

Saya yang menurut perintah,

Rahmat ^_^

HUMAN DIMENSION

2August 2010.



Today we learned about human dimension and proportion. Kami diperkenalkan kepada penggunaan scale menggunakan jengkal. Dengan menggunakan pengiraan jengkal, we were asked to draw freehand horizontal and vertical grid lines satu jengkal each. Kemudian, kami diminta melukis human figures in appropriate proportions menggunakan grids tadi.

Kemudian, di atas kertas A3, kami diikehendaki melukis pelbagai jenis cube berdasarkan elemen berikut :

i. Opacity

ii. Translucency

iii. Transparency

iv. Layers

v. Shade

vi. Shadow


So, here's the product I drew :




Later, we had another assignment : to draw a casket for myself and my sarong. Well... I felt a lump in my throat, bukan senang nak lukis keranda ni, lebih-lebih lagi untuk diri sendiri. But this is kinda interesting, the first time ever for me.

Yang paling menyentuh perasaan is to sketch how, for goodness sake, I have to place myself inside the casket with my sarong. Memang menginsafkanlah assignment kali ni. Baru terasa that death is so imminent, terlalu hampir - baru sedar that it is actually mengejar kita setiap saat, atau adakah kita yang mengejarnya?

So, dalam gementar tu, dapatlah juga saya menghasilkan lakaran casket untuk diri saya. Being far from an artist dan sesuai dengan diri saya yang straightforward and simple, saya lakarkan casket yang paling mudah because I want the simplest casket for me, nothing over the top, nothing fancy, just a plain, simple one.

Saya lakarkan 2 casket, the normal one and the the other from bamboo. Hmm... Bamboo? Never thought of that before, maybe this is the solution for wood substitute sebab kan kita tahu kayu kayan dah semakin pupus... Dan, sebagaimana amalan masyarakat Melayu kita, kain sarong tu, saya selimutkanlah atas keranda. Keranda pun diusung 6 orang kawan sejati... Selamat tinggal dunia...

Walaupun exercise ini adalah untuk mendedahkan student kepada the human dimension dan bagaimana kita boleh mengukur menggunakan the simplest method i.e. using our "jengkal", ia mengingatkaan saya tentang "my unfinished business" di dunia ini, and how prepared
I am untuk menghadapinya. Thank you Ar. Najib, for the intention yang tersirat...

Dot, Line, Shape

Dalam assignment ni, kami diminta untuk melukis shape bangunan berdasarkan gambar yang kami rakamkan sekitar HBP, satu menggunakan dots (titik) dan satu lagi menggunakan lines (garisan) lengkap dengan shading.

Ini lukisan yang dibuat menggunakan dots...



... dan ini pula menggunakan lines

The submitted product :

Shape drawn in dots & lines

Project 2C : 101 Mask

26 Julay 2010.
We were given an excercise to produce 2 papier mache masks : Mask 1 : mask of students' own face in skin colour and Mask 2 : mask of face with emotion in black and white.

Here are the materials and the processes involved in this masks production.

The materials used :

1. Old newspaper.
2. Tapioca flour (tepung sagu ubi kayu/tepung kanji)
3. Hot water.
3. Paper glue.
4. A few art brushes.
5. Colouring.
6. Plastic wrappers.

The pr0cess :
1. My friend and I gathered some old newspaper and shred to small pieces.
2. Mix the tapioca flour and hot water in a bowl for home-made glue (macam kita nak kanji baju sekolah dulu-dulu...)

3. Mix paper pieces with sufficient amount of glue.

4. Lay the face with plastic wrappers and smother with even layer of paper glue. (You need a friend to do this on your face). Don't forget to leave the nostrils open... :p
5. Put the mixture of shredded newspaper and glue on the plastic. Put more glue and even out with the brush, following the contour of the face.

5. Put more paper and more glue...
6. "Mm mm mm mm mmm (Lama lagi ke?" Sabar... Another layer, some more glue... My friend helping me get my face "done".

... with another friend

7. Glorious facial mummy...

8. Wait to dry for about 3 hours at room temperature and the ceiling fan.


9. Once dry, remove the mask from the face... Let it dry further... and trim the edges to make it look clean.

10. Colour the mask... This one with original skin colour...

11. The process would be the same for both masks, except that the other one has a facial expression of emotion and painted in black and white only...

12. The products...

skin-coloured mask. Eyes too bold, lips redder than roses. Aww...

black and white mask with emotion... Must have something bothering me...

13. Then, during submission, we were requested to wear all-black attire and parade around HBP with the mask on. Aduiii...