Project 2: Portable casing- Triple Threat

For the second project, we had to design and make a prototype of a portable casing for our artist. This portable casing is designed to be for Haris Rashid only. First, we had to research and find and list the inventories (tools, media) that Haris Rashid would need to have in a portable casing. Haris Rashid uses a range of materials such as acrylic, watercolour, therefore I had to take account of the different media he uses. 

The second task I had to do was research on different existing portable casing and also find the mechanisms that I would like to include in my casing design. Printing and researching existing products really helped me and inspired me on the design and mechanism for the casing I was going to design. 

The third task we had to do is actually designing. These involved a lot of different design ideas and sketches. For our design also, we had to make sure it relates to our keywords. I explored many different mechanisms in my casing to relate to my keyword of experimental. Another keyword I used in the design is vibrant and exotic. Exotic I showed it by the frames of the clear windows on my casing design. Vibrant I used were for bright and a variety of colours in my design. 

Lastly, we had to make a prototype of our portable casing design using any materials we wanted. I enjoyed making the prototype because it involved hands-on cutting work. Also, I had fun trying to figure out how to do the different mechanisms and making sure my prototype actually works and shows these mechanisms. With the prototype, we also had to make an infographic board that shows our portable casing design, the inventories, and the different mechanisms being shown and explained steps by step. The infographic board is where I really explained the mechanisms and also how the casing looks like in colour since my prototype was all white. 

This is my infographic board. I named my portable casing 'Triple Threat' because there were 3 parts in my casing that can be detachable into 3 parts and attach again to be one whole casing. 

This is my prototype I made of my portable casing. I had to use any materials I can find to show my mechanisms and how the portable casing works. 

Project 1: Get to know the artist

The artist that I got to do for this ongoing project is Haris Rashid. The first project we had to do is make an inforgraphic board based on information about our artist. I collected and also asked Haris Rashid himself information about his background, his prominent works, philosophies and vision in art work. 

Artists’s Background:

- Born: 1992 in Kedah, Malaysia

- Diploma in Illustration, The One Academy, Malaysia

art has been in his life since young (mostly high school days)

today: full time aritst

- founder and leader of a young artist collective studio known as Studio Mekar.

Philosophies and visions in art work:

 -similarities between human and animal, asking what qualities do we share, how are we different, and what can we as humans learn from the flora and fauna around us,

-uses animals and nature as metaphors or symbols to show how their traits can reflect our own behaviors, to show what they can teach us about ourselves.

-journey of discovering the connections between us and the rest of the world, I am simply inspired, composing the elements of what I see around me into paintings that are acts of self-expression.

-Beauty in the beast : he hopes to ignite the desire in us to view conservation of nature, particularly wildlife, with more seriousness.

Inspiration: nature, human condition and spirituality 

Prominent work:

characters and style adapted:

wild animals his focus -for for his concern in animals, whose numbers in t`he wind are fast dwindling, as well as his fascinations 

current artworks -animals exhibiting human characteristics, , a notion that has fueled a number of pieces in the last several months -wonder whether there is more humanity to be found in his animal subjects than in mankind itself.

main creative outlet is paintings but likes to experiment on different mediums like pottery street art 

Solo exhibitions:

(2nd) HUMANIMAL : Haris explores the world where human and animal merge, and invites us to reflect on the similarities between humans and nature, forcing us to question which world shows more humanity

Beauty in the beast :  series of wild ferocious species are given new identities, shedding the general preconceived notion of a beast. highlights pure beauty he sees in the wild subjects of his works. Where most people see primarily danger, he sees an innate beauty within the ferocious, which he considers the essence of nature.

Material used:

various media: oil, colour pencils, acrylic, watercolour and pigments

surfaces, wood and pressured textured paper being two surface he works most

Visual language: 

often experiment with various media 

Finds inspiration: through nature and patterns

Through all this research I collected about my artist, I then had to design and make an infographic board that had all the information about him in it. I enjoyed learning about the artist and getting to know the artist in depth. We also had to pull out several keywords that reflected on our artist's work to make us understand more of his work and philosophies. 

I enjoyed making the infographic board because I could design the board how I wanted and to show his work. I also designed the board based on Haris Rashid's work themes. Most of his work evolve around animals, nature, humans, patterns,  therefore for my board, I tried to show this by having tree branches, flowers and leaves to show nature. Also, since he uses geometric patterns while mixing with nature patterns in most of his work, I also tried to show this by having half of my board filled with nature themed patterns and the bottom half of my board with geometric patterns and shapes. 

In my infographic board, I included his inspirations, key words, his prominent works, solo exhibitions, materials and media he uses, background of himself and his philosophies of work. 

Lighting Problems in Building

One of the main problems that I found in the Suriamas Condominium is lighting. Lighting is one of the main features that needs to be considered in a a building as it helps the residents to be comfortable and know their way in the building. With problems in lighting, it could be very difficult for residents to find their way. Most of the artificial lights used are fluorescent lights but some of these lights are broken. There is a lack of general lighting in main areas of the building such as parking lot and corridors.

During the day, there is a lack of natural light in the corridor of going into the clubhouse and also the parking lot. It is too dark and could be dangerous for residents to go through because there is no light. There is also a lack of artificial light in corridors of each floor, in the parking lot, the outside, small restaurant area and in the clubhouse. It is much darker at night and more dangerous for the residents to be walking around in these particular areas. 

In the parking lot, there is not much natural light and at night, when artificial lights are on, some of the lights are broken which still makes it dark. The natural light that comes through to make it more brighter in the parking lot comes from these rectangle openings from the walls. However these openings are too small and when there is no sunlight, there will be no light coming in during the day. 

         


At night, the corridor of each floor has artificial lights but again, some of the lights are broken. When these lights are broken, the only source of light will be coming from each of the apartments itself but when these lights are turned off, the corridors are pitch black. The walkway to the clubhouse during the day is pitch black, no natural light coming in at all neither is there any artificial lights turned on during the day to solve this problem. 

                    

Residents may find it very hard to find their way at night and could be dangerous. It also could attract pests such as spiders, ants, rats, and cockroaches. Some residents could also feel scared going to different parts of the building because there is no light. This is a major problem that needs to be fixed as we need to make residents of the building feel safe and comfortable, not be afraid. 

After walking around the building and seeing how lighting is such a big and main problem, I am going to find ways to fix it. Since I also live in this building, I would not want to feel scared and not feel comfortable living here. There are ways in fixing this problem such as adding more artificial lights, more openings in the walls so more sunlight comes through, redesigning the lights and taking consideration of each luminance for each area such as corridors, changing the types of lights used and making sure no lights are broken.