A sneak peak at the dancing competition

The day of interview and inspirations

     It was a tiring but happy day. Around 12.00 pm, we went to Raydio Dance Academy by carpool. We arrived at there at about 1.00pm. When we reached , there was a dancing competition going on . It was locking and popping street dance semifinal competition. Before interviewing, we had watched the awesome dance competition. We were impressed by their dancing skills, as well as their professionalism. The competition finished at 7pm, the champion of the competition is a girl called Suria, whom specialist in locking dance and other two boys in popping dance respectively.
    
     After the competition, the first dancing group that we interviewed was the West Bangers. This group was made up of four boys. They are currently taking part in an Astro Chanel Dance Competition which is the Battleground 舞极限. They had also shown us a little part of their signature dancing style.  The next well-known dancers that we interviewed were the two Singaporean dancers. They are also the dancing teachers for some dance academy and also the judges for several street dance competition. They were both became dancing partners since 6 years ago when they followed their friends learned to dance at dance academy. To them, dancing is not just a passion but has now becoming their careers also which plays a part in their life. They also described how locking and popping formed and becoming one of a design style now.
    
     The last famous dancer that we interviewed was the Japanese dance teacher. He came to Malaysia for becoming as a judge for this academy's competition and international interactions as well.  He explained to us that this is a style created by “The Lockers” in 70s Calfornia. The name is based on the concept of locking movements, which basically means freezing from a fast movement and landing in a certain position, holding that position for a short while and then continuing in the same speed as before. These movements create a strong contrast towards the many fast moves that are otherwise performed quite continuously, combined with mime style performance and acting towards the audience and other dancers. Locking includes quite a lot of acrobatics and physically demanding moves, such as landing on ones knees and the split. He also described about popping dance style in which a style of dancing that incorporates the rhythmic contraction of the dancer's muscles and pantomimed movements, usually to funk or hip-hop music. He showed us some of his signature dance styles. From interviewing with him, we can see that how hard a professional dancer struggling and keep moving on no matter how difficult the challenges in life can be to achieve the dream.

      The locking and popping dancing style is actually associated with design style. The acrobatics movements is designed and produced futuristic art style when listening to the pop music. The rhythm of  dance is somehow similar to the bauhaus design style in which both styles are aimed to bring out about postmodernism design style. This is because postmodernism shattered established ideas about style and brought a radical freedom to art and design. This is a same concept as locking and popping dancing style too because both of these styles are acting as one of an icon of  freedom. We treasured this interview experience as it brings a lot of inspirations to us about the design style come from dancing style. We are not only gaining our knowledges, but also can observe better that everything around us is actually the main inspiration to form a design style and bring it to life as well.

Documentary

On 25 November 2012, We have interviewed the famous dancers which are the West Bangers, currently having competition in the Battleground Competition, the Japan dance coach and also the Singapore Dance Coach.  They are from the Raydio Dance Academy. We have learned many things about how the locking and popping dancing style can be related to design styles.

Belladonna

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=X57XEnDvia0

Here's the mask short film by our groupmates. This video is about how the people conform theirselves into the society, but at the same time they are hiding their true selves , because no one wants to be left out. In this video, there were 11 of us acted the ' normal' one with all dressed in black clothes, one of us, Carmen acted as the 'odd' one who will always be her true self in this hypocritical society. However, those' normal' ones are actually hiding the dark side of their real personalities. This is because people believed that follow the society stream is the only way to be accepted by others. Anyway, I think that we must be confidence to be ourselves towards others, and be kind to others also,not taking the evil side as our  'true' selves to harm or take advantages on others.

The trend of 1930's-60's dark movie- Film Noir

      

        What is noir? Noir is defined as the black film or relating to a genre of crime literature featuring tough, cynical characters and bleak settings. Noir is also a suggestive of danger or violence. Film noir was coined by French film critics when Nino Frank noticed the trend of ' how dark', downbeat and black the looks and themes were of many American crime and detective films released in France to the theatres following the war, such as The Maltese Falcon (1941),Murder, My Sweet (1944), Double Indemnity (1944), The Woman in the Window (1944), and Laura (1944).  These films reflected the resultant tensions and insecurities of the time period, and counter-balanced the optimism of Hollywood's musicals and comedies. The elements for film noir are fear, bleakness, loss of innocence, despair and paranoia. The criminal, violent, misogynistic, hard-boiled, or greedy perspectives of anti-heroes in film noir were a metaphoric symptom of society's evils, with a strong undercurrent of moral conflict and sense of injustice. Hence, there were rarely happy endings in noirs.

The Maltese Falcon(1941)

         

          

Murder

 

The woman in the window

(1944)

 

 

My sweet ( 1944 )

 

 

Double indemnity(1941)

 

 

 

Laura(1944)

 

      The theme of classic noir were melancholy, alienation, bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, ambiguity, moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia. Heroes (or anti-heroes), corrupt characters and villains included down-and-out, conflicted hard-boiled detectives or private eyes, cops, gangsters, government agents, a lone wolf, socio-paths or killers, crooks, war veterans, politicians, petty criminals, murderers, or just plain Joes. These protagonists were often morally-ambiguous low-lifes from the dark and gloomy underworld of violent crime and corruption. Distinctively, they were cynical, tarnished, obsessive (sexual or otherwise), brooding, menacing, sinister, sardonic, disillusioned, frightened and insecure loners (usually men), struggling to survive - and in the end, ultimately losing.

 

        The story-line for classic film noir were often elliptical, non-linear and twisting. Dark and inhumane side of human nature with cynicism and doomed love, and they emphasized the brutal, unhealthy, seamy, shadowy, dark and sadistic sides of the human experience were thematically showed in noir film, which mostly shot in gloomy grays, blacks and whites. The protagonists in film noir were normally driven by their past or by human weakness to repeat former mistakes.

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        

         

         



THE MYSTERIOUS THING YET SO FASCINATING THING IN THE WORLD:THE MASK

        I am sure that everyone knows what is mask. Mask is a covering worn on the face to conceal one's identity.  In some cultures, mask has became a sign for their God , or their art style. In today's meaning, mask is also being used to describe a personality of that person in which they called as 'two-faced people', means that this person acts differently when facing others to hide their real purposes.
       
       The mask above is the chinese magic mask, which is called ' Bian lian' . Bian lian is an ancient Chinese dramatic art that is part of the more general Sichuan opera. Performers wear brightly colored costumes and move to quick, dramatic music. They also wear vividly colored masks, which they change within a fraction of a second.


        

 

 

 

             These two masks are art masks. The colour combinations that playing around within the space and lines that formed shows the creativity and variety of functions of mask ,especially in design field.  Art mask can represents a designer's identity.

                                        

 

 

Party masks

 

 

 

 

Korea traditional masks.

India traditional mask

 

 

 

 

 

 

        To me, mask has a lots of meanings. Mask can be beautiful, a mysterious story behind it,an icon for a culture, a sign of confidence, a unique artwork, or even a scary covering. In fact, all of us are wearing transparent mask everyday, which is unseen. Surprisingly, we actually change masks in every single moment even a second according to different people and different situation. People  keep on complaining that why are there many people nowadays tend to wear fake mask to hide them and cheat others for their own purposes.

        

         Yes, I do agree that this is a fact, but if you can try to think on the other side, they are wearing fake masks  because they have to. Unconciously, We are wearing fake masks too in daily life when we are criticising about others. We do this everyday because we need to protect ourselves , as well as convincing others to think well of us. Actually, wearing fake mask in some situations is required to prevent from conflicts. Fake mask can turn into a way to protect ourselves and also others' feeling, but not for cheating purposes. We should be considerate that every mask has a reason or story behind it. I am not saying that I support hide our real self with fake masks , but we have to be aware of how things changing around us. The main theme I want to bring out is be cooperative with others to create a harmony environment. If reliance between people is build up, they won't have to wear fake masks anymore.







Iconography + 500 words essay

       Ever since ice aged, iconography had been created to represent an icon for each tribal all around the world. As we can see, how important it can be for humans as a symbol to show their unique culture. Well, what is iconography?

      

       Iconography is simply known as the symbolic representation, especially the conventional meanings attached to an image or images.  It is a subject matter in the visual arts, especially with reference to the conventions regarding the treatment of a subject in artistic representation. If  it is a

the study or analysis of subject matter and its meaning in the visual arts, it is called as iconology. Besides, iconography is also meant by a representation or a group of representations of a person, place, or thing, as a portrait or a collection of portraits.

      Every religion has their own icon. For example, Buddha is an icon for Buddhism, Jesus as an icon for Christian, or Allah is for Muslim.In pop song, Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson are icons for not only Americans but also for the whole world, they forever live in people's hearts. Besides, icons are everywhere in everything. People, animations, music, a leader of a country, superstars, plush toys and even sports has their own icons. Icon can becomes a trend , making people follow and admire. Icon can bring the people come to unite across the boundaries of the countries. Instead, an icon is a trend that will  be ever-lasting. It is not just bring out the trend of a certain period for a decade.

 

 

 

 

 

    
      Animation icons is an interesting example. Hello Kitty, Doraemon, Ultraman and Astro Boy at first was just famous in their country, but soon these animations influence other countries, hence it became the trend that will never be eliminated. From pencil box, bottles, handbags, clothes to furnitures and tablewares, you can see these icons in everywhere. Thus, these animations have now became a like for kids and also adults. These items are useful in people's daily life as well.
                                 

Hello Kitty collections

 

 

Doraemon collections

 

MY DESIGN OF ICON



 



          This is my design of  my own icon. I created this character as an animation and give a name to her called Pamyu. She is an inventor whom hate to reveal her secret inventions to the world and deeply longing for freedom from her parents. She is an intelligent and  imaginative girl,
She has an exaggrated expression also when she is being inspired or frightened. She always appear in purple colour dress and a hairband on her hair. This has become her icon to people as well.
Her two round big eyes with love is an symbol for her exaggrated expression. This is actually a design of my icon on a card. It shows that Pamyu is an icon for me which everyone can recognizes me as they see her , even on a card.  Therefore,  I will make Pamyu a special icon that can help me to bring positive messages to others and like by others.    

Here's my icon presentation: