MY dymaxion..!

Here are some random pictures of my DYMAXION. 

I'm pretty bummed now because it has some flattened vertices!

RUS 101 ZXBIT Launch and Conference

Date: 25 October 2010

I will not go into such details about this event. 

Tuan Syed Mohd. Bakar Syed Mohd. Salim who is the curator of the traditional toy museum here at USM was present to officiate/ launch the ZXBIT. 

Considering his age (of 74 years) and his experience, I couldn't help but to absorb some of the wisdom he shared with us during his opening speech though I was busy stressing and panicking over the presentation we were supposed to share with the class later in the day. Here's some of what he said that was really inspiring and I believe will affect each of us students in a profound manner if only we heed his advice:

In some people, the mouths are in full gear, 

sometimes even in overdrive, but the brain is in neutral.

Sad is the student who does not excel the teacher. 

(Leonardo da Vinci).

When you do anything creative, find a little audacity. 

(Winston Churchill). 

Here are some photos from the XZBIT.

I guess it's not too late to mention that Tuan Syed Bakar was (and I believe still is) En. Wan's educator. (:

SOUL SHIFT: AWAKENING AS ONE - poster

Here's our poster! It was one of the few that got selected to be displayed. Thrown together by yours truly. (:

Poster! I am trying to upload our poster and other updates but there seems to be a problem with Blogger. I am annoyed.

SOUL SHIFT: AWAKENING AS ONE

WARNING: READ IF YOU DARE!

Issue: We’re fast asleep in a Box!

Sub-Topic: Time for talk alone is dying; we need to UNITE, SHARE, SERVE and SEE change.

Mankind has destroyed the beautiful, life-sustaining earth that God has blessed us with and placed under our dominion all in the name of greed. That which was once beautiful and pleasing to the body, soul and spirit has become the very thing that kills us off slowly but surely, namely due to the ever-increasing amount of pollution, natural and man-made disasters, disease, war and other forms of destruction. While it is true that our earth still contains much untouched beauty and untapped resources, all those will be lost soon enough if we do not protect them at this point of time. Now that we have seen the consequences of our exploitation, what are we to do? Time and time again we hear speeches and words articulated by leaders, representatives and organizations that intend to address this issue of rebuilding earth, however not much is done. We speak much about changing the earth but never do enough. For change to actually take place, our speech needs to be followed by the works of our hands and feet. Quoting the words of William Shakespeare, “Talking isn’t doing. It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds”. If mankind continues on this habit of talking much but doing little, the earth will very soon die away and take all of us humans along with it. Time for talk alone is dying, we need to unite, share and serve each other in order to see change happen.

            Talking about a dying earth, why is the earth and all that is within it even dying for a start? Going into the details of pollution, economical failure, societal rot and the likes will not be practical as that would fill up the pages of hundreds of thousands of books and not a single paragraph on a paper. We shall look at this from a very basic viewpoint. People are a greedy lot. We need only the basics to live but we want more. We want power, pleasures, riches, and glory. So, in the pursuit of fulfilling our lustful desires, we forget to become human and we forget our responsibilities in stewardship of the planet. Either that or we simply refuse to care. We are appointed by God to protect and use wisely the resources available in planet earth for survival but we use more than we ought to and end up destroying that which sustains us out of our hunger for material possession. Not only we use up all that we can out of our earth, we abuse those who are in it as well. Indirectly through economical and societal means the rich and the knowledgeable, or the elites as they are known as sometimes, oppress and exploit the poor to gain more wealth and power instead of defending them with their strengths. Mankind has become heartless, pounding their very kind for their own interests. Now that this is revealed, shall we continue on in our ignorance and just watch our world die off?

Since the day humankind noticed that their actions in pursuing wealth is causing the earth to deteriorate rapidly, talks of change is sounded by leaders of the world. Following these speeches, it can be said that no real, effective action is taken to solve these problems. If any action is effective at all, an improvement will be seen but it seems like matters are getting worse, or at least stagnant. Why is this so? It is probably due to the fact that we are too busy in running our own lives, in pursuing our own interests and dreams to be bothered by talks of change and the actions that are to follow it. Even if we do decide to change our way of life, to reduce, reuse and to recycle, to love and to defend, we tend to forget our change of heart by the time we arise from our slumber the very next day. This is because it is only human nature to be self-centred and we have always been so since the start of time. It would take a lot of effort on our part to wake up and get out of the box of ignorance, indifference and self-importance that we have been sleeping in. We simply do not care how our simple and seemingly insignificant actions or the lack of it will affect the planet we call home and the human civilizations across the globe. All we care about is us, us and us. This has to change. It is time to awaken ourselves and open our eyes to the needs of the world around us. Change is desperately needed.

Before we can see change happen in planet earth or attempt to change the reality we live in, there is a greater need for us to change first. If we do not transform the people that we are, it is impossible to change the circumstances around us. The first thing we need to do is to unite. In order to unite, we need to resize ourselves because if we regard ourselves as strong, important and powerful, we will never see a need to unite. In reality, an individual, no matter how powerful or influential he is in society, is small and unimportant on his own. It is only when he unites with his fellow inhabitants that he becomes significant and they become an important entity capable of changing the world. Next up, we need to serve the people around us and to do that, it is essential to humble ourselves to a level where we can put the needs of others before our own needs. If there is a need, don’t talk about it. Instead, meet that need. With this newfound humility, we also ought to share our thoughts, resources and love with each other. We live in one earth and one earth only, and all of mankind share the same land. It is man who created boundaries; it was never there in the first place. Beneath our external differences, we are only the same. When this shift happens in us, it is possible for us to change the reality that we are living in. If we unite as one, share and serve each other, change is inevitable.

As Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) School of Housing, Building and Planning students, we hold a significant role in society to influence the people around us to change for the better. As the small number that we are in comparison to the world around us, we certainly cannot change the entire world. However, with the little power that we have, we are without a doubt, capable of changing the world of USM, and eventually of Penang Island. From here, change will travel to the mainland, West Malaysia and progressively take over the whole of Malaysia. Once this happens, we Malaysians may one day have the power to change even the world. Like how ripples caused by a drop of water is ever expanding, our decision to initiate change in unity will slowly spread outwards, influencing more and more people as long as we are stubborn enough to hold true to the change that we begin. Waking people up from their slumber starts with initiation. For example, if our studiomaster, Mr. Wan Burhanuddin did not give us lecture after lecture on this topic and assign us a paper on it to write, we probably would not be exposed to the idea that a shift in our souls is necessary, and that there is a need for us to be awaken from our sleep in order to see change. That aside, initiation requires love, faith, sacrifice and commitment for it to be strong enough to affect others around us in a profound manner. For a ripple to be powerful enough to carry on for a long distance after the initial disturbance at the epicentre, the impact must be especially strong. Therefore we need to be firm in the shift of our souls so that the works we initiate will be influential enough for others to follow.

Change does not happen when we speak, talk or discuss about it. Change can only happen when we do it. The most important requirement for change to happen is for it to start first and foremost in ourselves. All form of propaganda propagated by various bodies is useless if the general public does not make a conscious decision to transform their mind and souls. Genuine decisions cannot be forced onto a person. As sung by the late Michael Jackson, “I’m starting with the man in the mirror. I’m asking him to change his ways. No message could have been any clearer. If you want to make the world a better place, just take a look at yourself and make a change”. Once change has taken place in ourselves, we can then do acts that will awaken others and have them follow suit. Slowly but surely, this change will spread and a visible shift in the reality of the earth we live in will be more than obvious. People always say that change cannot happen, that the world is too messed up to be corrected, and that a small number of people cannot make a difference. All these thoughts are those of the faithless. Change can take place. It is up to us to decide. Do we care enough about the earth and the people in it to sacrifice and commit to making change happen? The future of the world as we know it lies entirely in our hands. We are the very persons we have been waiting for.

Ginormous Dome Construction: Part 1 - 111010

On Monday, 111010, RUS 101 students officially began the construction of our dome.

Here are some of us gathering at the site. After a briefing, we started work on the first tier of the dome.

Here's a random photo I took from the top of the fire escape staircase. :D Love that spot.

We noticed a lot of difficulties in constructing the dome, mainly due to loosely fixed connectors and inaccurate lengths of the struts. Day one of dome construction can be considered a failure. However, no worries (I hope!) as there will be session two this Friday. Hope it all works out well.

True that this dome is a huge project for us but if we unite and do our individual responsibilities well enough, this dome will come to pass. Now it's time to right the wrong struts and hope for the best on 151010!

Update?

Mind Shift

Awakening as One

Bangkit dengan Tauhid

We're fast asleep in a box!

Time for talk alone is dying; we need to unite, share, serve & see change.

All very interesting sentences. I shall share my take on it soon. 

*busy busy busy*

ALL-USM BIG APEX Leap Discussion

On Monday (4th October 2010), En. Wan Burhanuddin, representing the USM Bamboo Interest Group (BIG), gave a talk that was open to all in USM titled ALL-USM BIG APEX Leap Discussion.

Here is the link to the BIG website: http://www.hbp.usm.my/1b/buluh/
Most of what was shared by En. Wan can be found in the given site.

These are some questions thrown forward to En. Wan by lecturers and student (and possibly other attendees) regarding the talk that was given, and answers as well. Please note that they are summarized and rephrased:

Q1: How much bamboo do we have available in Malaysia? How about bamboo plantations?
A1: Bamboo makes up 10% of Malaysian jungle. Bamboo plantations in Malaysia is more to recreation (black bamboo). Harvesting bamboo is not easy because older bamboo is in the middle of the cluster and is difficult to access them.


Q2: How does this project carry APEX vision and how is it going to lead USM to achieve APEX?
A2: In order to advance, don't take a model as we will always fall behind the model. We should instead create something others don't have (for example innovative use of bamboo). We need to do what we have to do to produce a better tomorrow. We also need to be sensitive to nature. Talking about change, we are the ones we have been waiting for. Don't wait for anyone else.

Q3: What about other disasters? How come we are only looking at floods?
A3: This will be developed in the near future. An example is quake-proof shelters from bamboo, pioneered in Indonesia.


Q4: What is the lifespan of bamboo with or without preservatives?
A4: To answer this, we need laboratories and research - BIG does not know yet.

Q5: What is the application of bamboo in the medical field?
A5: One that I've heard is that bamboo can cure epilepsy. This needs more research but there must be some uses of it in medicine.

12 Weeks Later: Musings on Studio and Architecture

Translation:

RANDOM THOUGHT - HOW WOULD YOU SKETCH THE CHANGE OF STATE SEEN IN ICE IN JUST ONE IMAGE?

I think I looked a little crazy @ Anjung Budi today after class. Ended up asking myself some questions aloud and giving random comments out loud like "You've got to be kidding me!" and "Now that's alot!". Caught me by surprise actually. Owh yes, and regarding ice cubes (or rather ice cylinders most of the times in cafes) I held one up with a straw through it and stared at it intently. I hope no one near me got scared or something. And yes, I tend to wander off alone sometimes to think. My mind is never quiet. EVER. Is this what studio does to you? I think it's more of a combo of myself and studio. I can live with it. (: It's fun in a weird way.

Cheers!

* * *

I went to PHS1 today and wandered among the shelves of the Arts and Social Sciences section on Level 2. I was blown away. By scanning the titles, I realise how much dormant knowledge and thought is just waiting to jump up to life. The thoughts of these great people that was penned on paper (that may or may not be alive - either way, they are no where near the readers) is just waiting to be integrated with the thoughts of the reader.

Another thing was, at the end of the 45 minutes of my careless ramble among the shelves, I remembered how much I love art. Art history, art critique, impressionism, and the madness/talent of Van Gogh all came flooding back to memory. Suddenly I was just yearning to study art instead of architecture (no offence). 3 seconds later, this silly girl (yours truly) realised (again - yes you can now see how silly I am) that architecture is art. It encompasses a whole lot of areas in art I believe. Architecture is not just about plonking some concrete onto the earth and saying 'voila, there you go', it involves aesthetics, critique, the social sciences related to architecture, etc.

I hope I got that right. Maybe I have a problem transferring my thoughts to written words.

Anyhow, I'm slightly liberated and hopefully this revelation (or reminder) will bring me far in learning and living.

I borrowed two books today:

'Of Mice and Men' by John Steinbeck and 'Creative Development: Five lectures to Art Students' by Reg Butler. Hope they do me good and I dare say they will!

We have a whole lot of work waiting for us next week!

Referring to the title, I'm starting to freak out a little. I shall try to take it one step at a time and do my best. Very little sleep for me!

Anyhow, we have a 'Dymaxion' to create, a talk to prepare for and report about, and also the huge ginormous bamboo dome project.

I'm excited about the Dymaxion particularly. Here's the outline of what I plan to do. Hope it works out!

We are building a hugh-mongous dome!

Attention world! We, first years of HBP are building an 8 meters high dome! Out of bamboo! Slightly mind boggling and highly exciting! 

We had to prepare struts of different lengths out of bamboo culm with PVC joints for the assembly.

Well, after a lot of hard work, our struts are ready!

(Yes, I know that this is a very mindless screamy-13-year-old-esque blog post).

Assignment: Between the 'Past' and the 'Future'.

WARNING: THIS IS A VERY LONG BLOG POST.

Part A: Looking Back.

I've certainly done a lot and experienced a lot of interesting new things here through Integrated Studio. I took Visual Art in STPM but RUS 101 is something that I have never experienced before. When I found out about the courses that I was to take for this semester, I expected there to be a strong focus on the physical skills of drawing, colouring, etc. However, I was slightly taken aback by the huge focus there is on thoughts and thinking (and slightly excited too!).

Here is the summary of all that has happened since the first day, 11 weeks ago.

Assignments and Events:
1A: What I heard.
http://stephanie-usmhbp.blogspot.com/2010/07/what-i-heard.html

1B: Me, My Thoughts and I.

2A: Natural Structure - Bamboo.

2B: Man-Made Structure - Bamboo Sound Tool.

2C: Masks.

Dots and Lines.

3A: Casket4Me.

Cubes, Grids and Scales.

3B: My Black Box.

3C: 6BBBB.

4: Urbanity and Merdeka Countdown Idea.

5: Theatherette.

Merdeka Countdown Briefing and Rehearsal.

Merdeka Countdown @ Times Square.

6A: Survival Kit.

Lets also not forget some of the lectures especially those like:
APEX Introduction.
Dot, Line, Shape.
Addition-Subtraction.
Knowing the Self.
Layers.
Human Dimension.
From Nothing to Something.
Merdeka-A Rethink.

From all these studio works and lectures as well as all of En. Wan's spontaneous lectures and impartation (they really do challenge you to think), I have grown as a design student and definitely have improved in my design, thinking and artistic skills. I have always been the kind of person that loves to think but I have to admit that it was a bit of a challenge to keep up with and grasp the ideas that En. Wan and the other lecturers threw at us.

Thinking back, true that I have made a lot of mistakes and regretted many of my decisions but I shall learn from the good and the bad of the past. Something that I've learnt is that what you think is enough isn't always enough. Only the best that you can give is enough. I also learnt that comparison isn't always good. It is best to compare yourself to your past self so that you can improve as a person and not be destroyed by the negative thoughts of comparison to others. You should learn from others but not despise yourself because you think others as more superior that yourself become like nothing.


Part B: Looking Forward.

A huge topic of discussion in the media, the science world, politics, classroom, the general public and even in Integrated Studio is of course the whole 'apocalypse' prediction surrounding 21 December 2012.

Most people think that since the end date of the 26,000 year Mayan Long Count calendar falls on that day, there will be great destruction that will completely destroy planet earth. 'The End of the World' they call it. There is so much fear and belief surrounding this prediction that people have already started to prepare for the oncoming of this event. One such example is the building of 2012 Shelters. Here's a link to the site: http://www.hardenedstructures.com/2050727/2012Shelters.aspx

Another group of people however, thinks that day will mark a new beginning instead for humankind. According to them, this will be a chance for humanity to create a new world of peace and harmony together. All this happens when a consciousness shift happens due to a certain cosmic event.

Now that 2012 is approaching (and at a fast rate!) how can I expect to contribute to this upcoming event? Well, I believe unity is key. When unified, mankind has the power to change their destiny, God willing. If disaster happens, it is true that we cannot stop it. However, through unity we can survive better as having people to look out for and assist each other definitely increases chances of survival. So I shall play my part to unite with all Malaysians and ultimately, all mankind so that we can survive all that may happen on that day.

I am very interested to see what happens on 21 December, 2012. Who's theory or 'prophecy' will be proven or disproved? Will something no eye has seen nor ear has heard happen? Or will 24 hours just pass by like normal? Will it be a supernatural, natural, or man-made phenomenon? Whatever it is, it is something that can only be revealed on that date. So far, no form of fear has kicked in on my part. Sometimes I ponder on this question: Why is mankind obsessed with predicting the future?

Till that day, I shall do my best to serve my family, community, state and country.


Part C: What I Can Leave Behind.

We were asked to design a monument to remember all that has past and by doing that, also to help the viewers of the monument to look forward and strive towards the future.

A part of this assignment was to visit the Jewish Cemetery at Jalan Zainal Abidin (formerly Jalan Yahudi) to take a look at the burial sites of Jews in Penang. Tombstones are a form of a monument to the dead.

This is the gate of the cemetery, a heavy wrought iron gate.

A typical grave in the cemetery. Most of the graves resemble caskets, some with triangular lids and others with cylindrical ones.

Weather beaten grave marking.

Most, if not all of the grave markings had Hebrew words on it. Unfortunately, I can't read Hebrew. Some of the older grave markings did not have English words. This one for example, is in both languages. Some of the interesting sounding names I noted from the graves are David Mordecai, Sason Hai Jacob, Ephraim Aboody Nahoum, and Abraham Reuben Ezekiel Abdullah Gubai. Some of these names are very old Jewish names like David, Mordecai, Jacob, Ephraim, Nahoum (or Nahum), Abraham, Reuben, and Ezekiel which dates back to biblical times.

The Star of David or 'Magen David' meaning "shield of David" that is commonly associated with Jewish people and is also found on the flag of Israel.

Small graves without any markings, maybe of children?

A large grave.

So, as we can see, graves as personal monuments signify something or rather someone that has passed away and have gone to a different place for a different time. Death is the end but also a different kind of beginning. With that in mind, I have designed a monument that plays with this idea of the passing of the old leading to the new. This concept may apply to 211212 (December 12, 2012) depending on what actually happens on that day. At the very least, this monument can be representative of the ending of the Mayan Long Count calendar towards a new beginning. 

Here's where my original idea lies. I received some colourful markers (magic markers we used to call it as children) and decided to scribble with it.

Here is my monument design which is to be made out of bamboo culm poles and strips.

As you can see, there is two main structure in my monument, one that is in the middle, simpler, not aesthetically pleasing and another that is more complex and beautiful which is surrounding the internal structure. The external structure looks like it is taking over or engulfing by growing around the internal poles. This basically signifies the new taking over the old which may happen in 2012. Just as the past affects the future, the internal structure is providing a strong structure to ensure that the external formation can hold. The external object is also made up of many intertwined bendable bamboo strips which shows that when we unite we can conquer the past and move on towards a better future.