Haunted By Faces

When first given this assignment, I was a bit overwhelmed about the idea to find faces everywhere, and I thought it was going to be difficult. Well, it can be difficult, but it is do-able as well; depending on how we see things visually and how fast we catch them.

Face Anatomy Basics

The face layout: two symmetrical eyebrows, eyes and nostrils + mouth; altogether inside a roundish frame 

Over the time, this "smiley face" icon is developed, extracting what the creator thinks are the crucial elements that make a face look like a face.

Simplified face layout: 2 eyes made of dots/ovals/other geometric shapes + rectangular-based mouth (in this case, banana mouth)

The simplified face becomes my sort of cheat sheet in doing this task. In taking these pictures, I tended to look just for a symmetrical pair of shapes and something square-ish /curvy below them.

Eyes are marked with 2 dots in some pictures for better clarity :-)

An artwork exhibited in "Sensorium 360", Singapore Art Museum

Kunefe, a Turkish dessert

A Cambridge- Satchel Bag

Quinoa Salad.
Leaves on top as nose
Watermelon cube as mouth

Almond tart, reminds me of a poodle!

Glass ceilings in Bras Basah MRT Station

Pillar outside a temple.
It looks like some kind of monster creature inside mythologies, with the color red and dwelling lips.

A Plate of Pancakes, berries and vanilla ice cream

Alarm Clock

A hanging artwork found at Level 1 of NAFA Campus 1 Wing B

 ***

Here are some interesting discoveries I took from internet:

 Jesus's Face found on a slice of naan bread

(Read more here)

Skull on a wilted rose

Another face of Jesus; found on tiles

I've actually experienced something similar with the last picture, which is to see a "face" on tiles. My parents bought a unit of apartment when I was in my home country, and we didn't get to choose our own tile pattern for the bathrooms, since it was all taken care by the building management. After the unit was done, we started living there. One day when I was sitting on the toilet, I found myself seeing a female head on the tile. IT WAS SO CLEAR that it scared me off; and it appears on every single bathroom tile in the apartment, sometimes upside down. Too bad I didn't have the picture with me now!

*

The New Arms Design: ARMote® Control

Introducing ARMote®, a new technology in the form of controller which can be installed to human's arms to enable them doing various tasks efficiently.

Experience how far your arms can function with this smart controller. You will, for a moment, think that you do not need anyone else anymore in doing your daily activities!

The Concept Behind ARMote® Control

The concept behind the product lies on the natural abilities of human arms and how can it further be improved. Often times, people are not satisfied by their arm performances due to various reasons and expectations. ARMote® Control is created to enhance the function of human arms.

Not only that, ARMote® also comes with special features, enabling users to experience the abilities of arms which belong to others. Take an option on the Occupation mode, for example. You have your girlfriend's parents visiting your home and you want to impress them? Just press the "Chef" button and go ahead rule your kitchen. Choose "Boxer" arms whenever you see your friends getting bullied at school.
Users can apply their creativity to the fullest and have fun with this device.

Highly impressive, no?

Just press an invisible button on the surface of your lower arm to perform ARMote® Control!

ARMote® panel zoomed in.

The Breakdown of ARMote® Functions

BASIC enhances what ARMote® Control user has got, and perfect it according to different purposes.

ULTRA gives user the experience to use various abilities of arms which belong to others.

Users are able to:

• stick to their real human arm (and change gender, if preferred), and

experience the Occupation mode. The options are tastefully selected by the design team, featuring 15 jobs/talents that use arms extensively in doing activities.

• change their arms into other living creatures'

just because we think it will be super fun to transform your hand palm to palm leaves so you can tickle better, and change your arm into raccoon's when you want to steal your neighbor's food.

- WITH ARMote® Control, POSSIBILITIES ARE UNLIMITED -

The Pursuit of Happiness

When we were given this theme for a brainstorming group weeks ago, the first thing that came to my mind was “wow, this is deep”. And yes indeed, I did have difficulty in writing this post so much that it is postponed for so long! However, I’m trying my best. For happiness has always been related to my questions, my goals and how I basically live my days. Such a simple word is perceived and differently by every living creature on earth, it always varies.

In this group assignment, I worked with Jia Yi and Muna. Realizing how broad the word “happiness” is, we decided to pick 3 different characters and try to figure out how each of them see happiness. We tried to be as random as possible, thus we came up with these 3 characters:

Sloth

A Cancer Patient

Teenage Girls

Working Process

We started off by making a simple, effective lists of ideas of what we thought could be the answer of the characters' happiness. From here, we then asked for lecturer's opinion on how we can further develop this BOI into a good mind map.

We were lightened up by our lecturer's idea, Mickey Ho, to make the work even more interesting by applying some kind of relation of what we had with something concrete we find in our daily lives, may it be found in famous movies/ books, and to conclude a morale on each branches. This may sound complicated by now, but keep following the story to see how we generated this simple scratch paper ^ into something much more interesting:

The finale output!

Working on the Mind Map

Me and Muna. Photo was captured by Jia Yi!

Sloth

Sloth has such a laid back, relaxed personality and it finds joy in the simplest things. It likes to chill down, eat and sleep and whenever a sloth feels bored, he will just get dirty in the mud and be easily pleased! Its adorable-ness comes out when it's being carried by someone just like a baby. And as long as a sloth has a friend and a piece of chocolate (!) with him, he can carry on with his life.

It is odd for me to type this, but I never knew I would learn something about happiness from a sloth's perspective! Sloth has taught me to actually just enjoy the moments and to find bliss in simple things.

Sloth = Slow = Happy. 

Happiness is something that needs process, hard work and steadiness. 

Therefore don't rush and don't believe in happiness overnight!

Teenagers

Teenagers have the freedom, and I think it is what becomes the core of their state of happiness. Being a teenager is when you're put in this transition between a child and adulthood, and a lot of times it gets really messy and complicated. We are mostly healthy, and we can do as much things as we can because we do not want to waste our time. We can eat junk food without worrying, we can run and go to places. We decide things for ourselves and seek who we really are. We are young and free, what can I say!

And this thing called hormones is not less important in playing a role of our feelings controller. We fall in love, we feel and imagine a lot.

For me personally, this stage of life is the most exciting and since I turned into a teenager, I've learned and experienced things that shaped me into a person I am now. 

When we brainstormed, I said to my group mates that one of my biggest constrains as a teenager to be happy is because I think/care/feel a lot. But one of them said, "For me, I'm always happy. You should just care less and do the things that you like. The less you care for shits and just think positive, the happier you'll be."

And I learned a new thing once again. :-)

Patients

Happy sick people are the most inspiring creatures ever.

We know that staying in hospital and having to rest on bed all the time is a burden for almost everyone, but somehow sometimes the patients manage themselves to be okay, and even more, they find happiness that couldn't be found anywhere else. They are truly blissful when surrounded by people they love, and because of that they learned to appreciate more. 

An example being the story "The Fault in Our Stars", a novel by John Green (which later adapted to a movie), a story of two teenagers named Hazel and Gus who met each other at a cancer patients' support group , and throughout the story they found themselves falling in love. Both of them made each other stronger and hopeful for their lives, and it is truly touching how they helped each other out.

I'm going to end the post with a sweet soundtrack of the movie:

At the end we connected the branch "Patients" and "Teenagers", just because they feel so connected. Falling in love is one of the most joyful moments in life, and The Fault in Our Stars captures no matter how deep we suffer, we are still be able to find love and happiness.

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Analogical Thinking

To write this post was challenging for me. Analogical thinking requires a strong sense of observation, as the task is to find similar qualities between objects chosen, and the more different they usually are seen, the more interesting it is.


These are some ideas I have come up with... I tried thinking about the form, function, meaning and emotion that these objects have, and other articles to compare them with. I'm really not sure if I'm doing the right thing!

Visual Form

Doughnut and Lifebuoy

Lollipop and Shell of a Snail

 An experienced yoga practitioner is like a rubber band: super flexible.

Cotton Candy and Clouds

Cheese and The Moon

*quick humor time!*

Pleated Skirt and A Seashell

Watercolor in Tins and Eyeshadow Palette 

Beds for Babies and Prison Bars

Quality & Meaning (Similes)

A kiss is like a firework

Your breathe rushes faster and your body becomes warmer, then your heart explodes into butterflies.

(Holding a) gas balloon is like a fish(ing) in the sea.

Once you lose the hold of it, it's difficult to get back.

A box of chocolate is like a pack of cigarette and a holiday.

You pretty much eat/use/spend them up in ease, thinking that you still have a lot to go, until you realize you almost finish them!

Analogy- Personal

Beautiful, rare, unique, untouched and unseen // The forest reflects what I am like //
Raw, passed through. Such a hidden pretty thing //
What do you want to be?
For you can be polished and renewed if you want to.
You look like you're halfway there.

//