A picture a day

Passing clouds

Every time I say “passing clouds”, it cracks me up. It is tough for me to consider it as a phrase. If you listen to the way the words are pronounced, it sounds like noises we hear in our daily life. It’s fun sounding. Just like that, certain people are passing clouds in our life. They are fun to hang out, very entertaining. But that doesn’t mean that they will stay with us for the rest of our time on earth. They will move on. This was something that I took a long time to understand. I assumed that my relationship with everyone would remain the same. A hard blow taught me that it wasn’t true. Not everyone is going hold my hand and say “I am here for you”. The people who do that are our loved ones and friends. You can keep on moving forward and there will be people, walking by your side, in the same direction. But when you fall back, no one is going to stop, turn around and give you a helping hand. They will move on, without you. The people behind you, your loved ones, will help you up. The elders always say, “one day, when you stop and look turn around, your loved ones will always be behind you.” Now I understand. When I fall, I will have the support to get back up. Not everyone is a passing cloud.

Finale;

When I first heard the phrase,’ analogical thinking ‘, it seemed like a big word. Maybe something a lawyer would use. But when my teacher explained to me the meaning of it, I realized that it was something we do in our daily lives, knowing and unknowingly. In this class, we learnt that there was a force connection between two things, learning and allowing me to broaden my mindset on the way I viewed things and brainstorming. Opinions from other people can be of use and I should not be afraid to express myself. This lead me into thinking, “how am I to apply this in my work?” This will allow me to shape my ideas into a more interesting and vibrant art piece. I can actually step into someone else’s shoes before coming to a biased conclusion. After attending this class, I hope that the classes in the near future could be conducted outdoor more often. As mind-mapping was taught in secondary school, knowing the basics of it seemed unnecessary. However, new ways of brainstorming, other than mind-mapping, could be taught. Lastly, not forgetting the main reason for understanding this entire concept, my teacher, Mr. Harezam. It was easy to comprehend, even though the phrase itself seemed bombastic. He reached out to the class through his humor and honesty, which made him more approachable. 

A picture a day

Does religion affect art?

Sunday the 4^th of October was the feast day for church I attend every week, Church of St Francis of Assisi. The feast day in Catholic or Christian church is a big day where we give thanks and praise our patron saint. Even in the convent school, CHIJ Saint Theresa’s convent that I was from, we celebrated patron’s day.

outside the church,
the carnival

The church I go to is air conditioned and it’s usually very cold, but on Sunday there were too much body heat produced. After mass, there was a carnival waiting outside. There were performances, food stalls and games. Well, performance and games were alright but the food was amazing. When we were eating our meals, I was talking to my older sister about school, my younger sister suddenly said I should draw a picture of Jesus. The first thing that crossed my mind was whether religion affects art?

I think religion can affect a person’s point of view in art, I think it depends on how faithful or mature one is. I meant I am a person who like skulls, the color black and other mythological figures like the Greek and Egyptian gods, but that doesn’t affect my view on my religion. The only way I think my religion affects me is that every time I draw something out of my imagination I want it to have a message. For example, how in Hinduism one sculpture can tell thing 3 different amazing story or how Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine chapel; not only to decorate the chapel but to also allow people to reflect on the scenes he had paint. I think when a person has both interest in their religion and art it can make life more interesting. In my point of view, when I found out there was more than one religion I wanted to know more about other religions and experience the colours they have in their beliefs and tales.

When people can get inspired by many different thing the art industries becomes like a universe. Each inspiration, such as religion, race, culture or anything that can classified, becomes a Milky Way Galaxy; and in each Milky Way galaxy, the different plants or stars are like different ideas.

Linking disparate ideas and building musical sculptures

I love how Felix Thorn can use ordinary object and beautiful music. It reminds me of the time when we were in primary school we had to make instruments like the annoying maracas. So instead of that I remember make a castanet like instrument using two spoons and a rubber band. In the video, we can see that he uses everyday object to make music, sounds that people get easily annoyed by. Sounds such as the sound of hammering. Oddly, enough there are is some sounds such as the sound of the drill that others think is annoying but I think it’s sort of soothing.

The one thing that surprised me was that fact that Felix Thorn is an adult who came up with this ideas. I meant it’s the children who are usually knock on objects try to have fun.

Force connection 2

 Easy Mixer

My family and I love to bake so I thought it was easier for me to think about a object that will help us in that way. The invention I thought of is an electric mixer combined with a batter dispenser.  I thought it will make work easier. I mean instead of transferring from the mixer to the dispenser, why not have both the products together. I call it the ‘easy mixer’, I know the name is not so creative but oh well. The product also makes environment cleaner and there will be lesser mess to be cleaned.

 The product will be made out of plastic, and as for the age group or the intended audience, it would be 10 years and above; I think children younger than 10 should have parental guidance. For the size of the product I want it to be small than usually mixers as I always hear my mother whining on how it is so big and heavy. And this leads to my next point, weight. For a person who is small and does stay in one place, I think the product should be light as well.  I have also noticed that usually mixers have a rather short wire and they are not detachable so I would my product to have a long wire and it to be detachable so that if a person wants a longer or a shorter wire they can always purchase a another one.

 In conclusion, I would invent the easy mixer as it would make mine and others’ experience better.

Insight

BBC Documentary - Horizon

The Creative Brain How Insight Works

An insight moment comes when you have a momentary realization that the assumption you had were false and sudden idea or progress appears. Being intelligent and being creative are two different things. Intelligence requires rational thinking whereas creativity requires a rather irrational approach as it will allow the brain to associate with unrelated ideas. When our creative process is at its slowest there is when the creativity breakthrough. For example, when I have a topic to think about it never appears at that second but maybe a few minutes or hours later all of a sudden there will be a lightbulb. Research tells us that if we were to break our usual practices or routines we will have more access to our creativity. By struggling to solve a problem, then leaving it for a while and then attempting it again can help in finding other ways to solve it as repetition can trick the brain. Our brain helps us to adjust our behavior according to the situation, this also called as the self-monitoring activity. This activity can be a bad thing as well. This is because as much as it warns us on how we should behavior it does not help us in creativity, which also prevents us from expressing. For example, in my case, I don’t do anything that will surprise the people around, I practice it many time in my head but always don’t share it. I always blamed it on my timing but now I know what is causing this.

In conclusion, we separate ourselves from creativity as if it is an activity but we fail to understand that it is part of us. It important to practice insight thinking as you will never know when you will need it or when it will appear, its best if you embrace it.

A Picture A Day

Animal cruelty

I just don’t understand why there are some people who want to hurt these beautiful creature. I don’t see them bothering us, well, besides the ones which it to hurt for food. An animal may not be able to speak but that does that give us an opportunity or authority to abuse them in anyways. No. To be honest, I think those who were either abused themselves or grew up round abusive parents. Those who cannot feed their pet due to the fact that they are financially tight, I don't this to come out rude, but if you know you have a bad ‘relationship’ with money, why adopt a pet and put  them danger. Animal are like children no matter how dangerous or violent they are they can be tamed; for example, how Kevin Richardson treats his family, lions, panthers and hyenas.

 

To be honest, I am scared to go near animals, but when I see a healthy dog and his owner, there is a warmth, a sense of relief that fills my heart as know when I switch on my television or go to the internet the first article I see besides politics is animal cruelty. I just wonder in the parallel universe will the animals protect the humans or will they hurt them. 

Force connection: exercise 1

Our eyes are one of the most important organs we have. Our eyes allows us to see and understand the things around. They are also a way the brain collects raw material to understand what we see to what we know, so it is our responsible to keep them in a healthy condition.

Hence, the invention of photochromic lenses. There are lenses that can darken to the intensity of UV radiation we are exposed to. I think it is a great combination of two object; which are sunglasses and normal spectacles. This also because it benefits the human body directly.

Another object is the toilet hand basin. I think this object is a great way to save water. It is important for us to save water not only because it cost a lot but because there are other countries that don’t have access to clean water or in the worst case don’t even have enough water for the country; for example south America has access 27.6 % of the water in the world percentage whereas Asia which consist of many countries has only 30.6 % of the water in the world. Therefore, if we can reduce the amount of water used, why not we do so? I meant we do live of water, one way or another.

Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work

Ever since we were young, we are taught to embrace this concept where we can only achieve happiness when we succeed. But Shawn Achor says otherwise. He tells us that everything we succeed or our brain experiences success, we simply change the goal so that we have something else to achieve. For example, if you a good grade, now you yen for a better grade. He believes that if our brain thinks happiness is on the other side of success, we will never get it.

To be honest, I too thought that I will be happy only when I
reach my ambition, but now that I have seen this video by Shawn Achor I realize every time I succeeded I simply moved on to the next goal in my list.

Achor tells us that the brain works in an opposite fashion, something like reverse phycology. The happier you are, the better you can work. The high level of positivity which is caused by our brain will result in a high level of performance. On the other hand, if have a lot of negativity or even if we are neutral, the level of performance will not be as good as when we a positive. This is one of the reasons why school try to make lessons more fun as they want students to have a better attitude in classes.

There are a few ways in which you can improve positivity. Firstly, you can journal at least one new or positive experience you had every day; and try to relive it on the following day. Secondly, you can think positively, which inform your brain to change the behavior. And lastly, you can meditate. Meditation will allow your brain to focus on one thing at a time, which will allow us to avoid negativity.

A picture a day

My family and I having sushi at Sakae Sushi.
 The picture was taken by my mother.

I recently celebrated my 17^th birthday on the 17^th of September. It was only once in my life time I was going to be 17 years old on the 17^th of September so you would think I did something spectacular; but on the contrary, I did nothing of such. That was mainly because I hate it when people sing the birthday song; it’s the same old song you listen to again and again for at least ten times a year. Frankly, I admire how everyone I know can perfectly reaction to the song but there i am on the other hand, I looking like an awkward clown, I really don’t know how to reaction to it when people sing the song.

Gift my younger sister gave me.

For my birthday, I felt like going to the lakeside park and have sushi during teatime. Firstly, I wanted to go to Lakeside Park because I simply wanted to ride my skate scooter. Secondly, the sushi was because I like seafood and what other way to eat seafood than sushi; and my grandmother had prepared for me a delicious Italian meal for dinner. Unfortunately, we couldn't go to the park as PSI (Pollutant Standards Index) wasn't good on the day. So we decided to only go sushi, well, at least I wasn't fully disappointed.

The one thing that made me really happy was the fact that my younger sister, who is only 11 years old, got me a gift for the first time. So that was really thoughtful of her and heart-warming for me as I don’t show her my affection as much as I show to my older sister due to the age different between us. 

Brutal Illustrations

For lesson this week, we had a group discussion regarding on the artist’s brutal illustrations which shows how Hong Kong is nothing like china.

 Our group actually that the artist was one-sided, bias. This is because the artist was only one point of view. Therefore, we thought it wasn’t right to judge Chinese or support the artist’s view on Chinese and Hong Kongers.Secondly, our group thought the artist was trying to make a point. We thought the artist was trying to tell others that Hong Kongers do not like being associated with Chinese. Thirdly, with reference to with the second point we also think the artist feels the need to prove that Hong Kongers are much civilized as compared to the Chinese.

Personally, I thought the artist created this illustration because he couldn’t take the criticism he was getting, which is controversial to what he had illustrated. 
I also thought some of his images were not relevant, for example, the image about the currency, did not prove anything. I also thought some of the images were simply rude as most of the illustrations were bias and were the artist’s perspective; I thought that the artist did not do much research as every country has different people and it is wrong to judge a country based on a group of people as everyone is not the same.

Analogical Thinking part 2

The video explains to us about the benefits of analogical thinking. Analogical thinking allows us to experience the interconnection of idea; it explains to us how one way or another everything around us is connected. For example, what if you don’t have shoes? Well, you don’t have shoes, you are going to get hurt, and if your legs are badly injured it cause a sprain on your back and may lead to having a weak spine; which eventually can paralyze in the long run. 

Secondly, it is a great way to learn difficult concept more effectively. This actually encourages students or other people to put effort in their educations. For example, I used symbolic analogy to memories my concepts. 

Thirdly, analogical thinking is a skill, so you can get better at it which practice. Lastly, it enhances creative output. This skill open our minds to other solutions instead of the ordinary and logical way of thinking. Some of the ideas that are generated might be applicable be there is no harm thinking about it. But there are some people who really don’t see the point of analogical thinking as they find it pointless to waste their time on illogical ideas; whereas on the other hand, there are some who use too much of analogical thinking and forget about reality.

Therefore, I think it is important for everyone to practice a fair amount of analogical thinking to benefit themselves and have a health brain. 

Analogical thinking- week 7

This week we learned about analogical thinking. An analogical argument is an explicit representation of a form of analogical reasoning that cites accepted similarities between two systems to support the conclusion that some further similarity exists. Analogical thinking consists of three things, which are similes, metaphors and analogies.

Similes is a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid. For example, “cute as a kitten,” comparing the way someone looks to the way a kitten looks, “as busy as a bee” comparing someone’s level of energy to a fast-flying bee.

Metaphor is a figure of speech that identifies something as being the same as some unrelated thing for rhetorical effect, thus highlighting the similarities between the two.  For example, the snow is a white blanket, the hospital was a refrigerator.

Similes and metaphors were thought to us at primary school, analogies on the other hand was something new for me. Analogical thinking is slightly more complex than similes and metaphors. There are four different ways of analogical thinking.

First way of thinking is personal analogy. It is when a person feels like they are different person or object.  It allows a person to transport themselves to another space or object. For example, put yourself in the shoes of a pencil. As a simple pencil, I would proud to be an instrument that helps ‘humans’ write, but I hate it when time goes instead of growing, I shrink.

 The second way of analogical thinking is direct analogy. Direct Analogy allows a person to compare two concepts or objects directly. It allows a person to see ideas and problems from a new perspective. Hence, it helps them develop more creative ideas to solve problems. For example, relating a book with a picture.

The third way of analogical thinking is symbolic analogy. Symbolic analogy is used to compare with an abstract principle, it allows people to see the similarity between two things (using symbolism). For example, how the water system is similar to a tree’s water system; or on the other hand, in literature, In William Blake’s “Ah Sunflower”, the sunflower represents people and the sun represents life.

Lastly there is fantasy analogy. This is where most of a person’s imagination is applied, it breaks boundaries and allows a person to have a board and open mind set. For example, the hoverboard we have today, was once just a fantasy; now the next question or idea is ‘if we can hover trains, why can’t we hover building?’

Analogical thinking is a good skill to practice. It may not be useful all the time, but there is no harm just thinking in that manner. I meant what are not losing anything but on the other hand, we can increase our brain capacity. 

Faces everywhere

 Have you ever notice how you can see face that are not actually there or for example, when we are watching the sky we are able to see shapes and animals? It is scientifically proven that people can make up familiar patterns where none actually exists by involving a stimulus. This psychological phenomenon is called Pareidolia.  Pareidolia is a way of showing a person’s creativity. I feel that children are able to see these faces and shape more often as compared o adult. For example, when my cousin, who is 6, and I are travelling in the car she will point out the window and say shapes of animals or cartoon and I won’t be able to visual it until the car turns to another angle. I think this is because children are just more open-minded and we are just ignoring the little joys around us. 

A Few Buildings that have faces:

   

I think this picture just looks sad
 and has a long face

This building looks like its
 sticking out its tongue.
 the road is the tongue.

This building looks like it has slept for days as
 it has eye bags and the 'eyes,
doors'are closed shut.

This face looks like it has mixed feels,
 it happy and sad at the same time

This building looks like its whistling,
in a jolly mood.

I think this building has a neutral face,
 it somehow reminds me of donald duck

This building depicts a scared face.
It also looks like the
 building is scream for its life.

This building looks confused,
 it also likes like the pacman ghost

I think this building is just very happy,
 that the smile is all over the face

This building look excited, but
 in the same time bored because of the 'eyes'.

This looks like a child smiling.

This looks like someone is blowing
 a whistle and a mosquito. 

This looks like someone got their lips swollen
and is surprised looking at it.

This just looks like its really happy.

This reminds me a baby

This looks like someone
is extremely anger.

This looks like someone
 is saying oh,
 as if they just
 learned the truth

This image looks like someone
 is really shocked.

This look like someone
 is yelling.