Tuesday, 31 January 2012

Business & Innovation - PG03-01 (31 January 2012)

Notes from Linnea's presentation:

Linnea -
Background MFA Fine Art
Historic styles in Sweden
Technical innovations in Sweden
Hunting, Fishing and Farming culture
Planned obscelence - new idea VS Quaker philosophy
Machinisation
Revolution - Long tail - Niche sales - example: sales of top songs
Obscure songs are sold with enough distribution
Niche products can sell well worldwide
crowdsourcing - example: prices to find a solution to clean oil spills
3d printing / additive printing / print on demand / printing locally
- removes need to transport goods + also could be decompostable
example: moo.com - also print on demand service

mix of identities in Sweden
- thai community in North Sweden (Norrland)
- people seeking to be near nature
- sustainable lifestyle
- move to Glasgow, teach in London, consultancy in Stockholm

Look at Richard Florida - Creative Clusters
Opened a fairtrade coffee shop in Sweden
Flauntkit.com
North Kingdom agency (10 people)
Teahost agency
Interester now in Interactive billboards
Proposal to CNC - wooden products
Motivation - not focused on money for itself
Cycle 1: Research and Presentation (wk2)
Feb 28 - Hand in research
Group presentation / Individual presentation
Cycle 2: Formative pitch + Business Plan submission
Cycle 3: Create Marketing Material (around Business Plan)
display/exhibit pitch to a panel of would-be investors - possible seed funding

What is my sector? Interactive Digital Media

Teams:
VISIBILITY
PERFORMANCE
SERENDIPITY
RITUAL
CONTROL
TRANSPARENCY
VOLUME
LUXURY
NUDGE
PLASTICITY

What are the Business opportunities within your discipline/area of practice?

What are my new products/services, business models look like?

IDM - Digital installtion/website/product(mobile)
Communication Design - Packaging/Book/Exhibition
Enabling Creative Innovation - Design management, Design services, marketing, processes
3D Stereoscopic Media - Film content, Documentary, Game/Console, Interior Design walkthrough (VR)

Why IS something considered to be Luxury?
Material, Brand, Timeliness/Classic, History, High Quality, Futuristic, Unique, Going to a place that no one else can go (frontier exploration), Expensive, Designed, Longevity, Durability, High Status, Innovation, Niche Technology, Place of sale effectiveness, Comfortability, Genuine/Authentic.

What IS NOT considered to be Luxury?
Essential, Cheap, Abundant/Commonplace, Low quality, Poor material, Fake, Tacky, Outdated?, Badly made/breaks easily, Not designed, Short-living/Shortevity/Ephemeral, Low status, Copy?, Unoriginal, Uncomfortable, Not genuine, Not authentic.  

See Prezi presentation.





Tuesday, 24 January 2012

Research Process - Pictorial/Logographic languages (24 Jan 2012)

Pictorial/Logographic languages
--------------------------------

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logogram

Chinese
Cuneiform (assuria/persia)
Dongba script
Egyptian hieroglyphs (north africa)
Japanese
Jurchen
Khitan
Korean
Mayan Glyphs (central america)
Sawndip script
Sui (Shuishu) of Guizhou
Tangut script
Vietnamese
Yi script


Year of the Dragon
--------------------

Research Process - PG01-15 (24 Jan 2012)

- Present to group based on research to date
- Reflection - on 15 past weeks

What have I done? - need to evaluate PG02 as well later.

Is it useful? / Reflection on journey so far.

What did I learn in PG01?
- Research methods, context, debates

Look more assured

How will it affect my study going forward?
PG01, PG02, PG03, PG04, PG05

Direction/Focus

What are you doing?

Key thing - what are you doing and why are you doing it?

Collaboration/Personal reflection

Discovering ideas/finding insights - is it learning?

not about - this is the target, identify the target.

Thinking about Thinking

If it is personalised, you will get more out of it.

More measured now - more confident

Critique of own course or pathway - what is it this really is? - Investigation of a creative practice

How to construct an argument - good books?

Adrian's interest - highlights was the formative presentation

Opportunity can be there, but time is not always there.

Funneling, narrowing the scope, broadening as well.

Negotiate with the tutor

Ian Lin, talking about his PG experience
- composing and performing, easy, analysising and evaluating is difficult

Business unit (PG02) - can I turn this into practice?
- can analyse business models

Use the unit as a launch pad

How do you keep your research going?
- confidence
- questioning
- fear as a motivator
- indulge (enjoy)

Concept and Prototyping
- is taken is 2013 -building things to test

Why am I doing this?

Mention research critique in later modules

I own my learning

PT challenges -
- Keeping connected
- Time management
- Long term strategy/long term goals
- Aligning professional goals
- Retain a collaboration to gain confidence
- Being self-disciplined

Aims - To be in a certain place by a certain time - (milestones)

Sometimes - you just have to make money!

How the financial crisis affects creativity (surrounding events)

globalisation

What is happening over the next 12 months?

Creativity can be activated, released

Lots of wildcards, is the technology the driver of change? 3D, Moving image?

Immersion in storytelling. How much do we believe the technology is changing out practice?

How do you survive?

Intense immersion, for short periods

Collaborative research

How do you keep in touch?

Process of travelling - Is it better to travel than arrive? - planning through the course

Adrian - choosing between poetic focus or technology focus

Add dates into PT calendar - double check the dates

Britta - making sure information goes up

Postgraduate exhibition - talk to Britta - starting Jun 25, 26, 27. (PT as well?)

Where / When / What
- quality of thinking / explain why they are doing it?
 starting point for research

Physical examples of CARDs - some in learning zone

Manifestos - send samples to j.durrant@rave.ac.uk

External examiners visiting 26 Feb

Concept and Prototyping - developing ideas
- work out how much you can achieve

Whats going on in the building?

Daero - how are you going to test your ideas

Lots of questioning, testing the idea - needs to know other artist and designers ideas

Being systematic. Jake - The future belongs to those who roll up their sleeces

Is there a danger in forgetting how to make, to just be cerebral. The connection between the mind and the hand.

Keep drawing/problem solving. Keep thinking alive creative and being active

Research Proposal - Tutorials - May 8, May 15, May 26 - check with Britta
* Ideal time to ask further about construction of arguments/leading question

What do you do now?

matt@filmfoundry.co.uk - Send IRT PDF
email search request to studyzone@rave.ac.uk ?

code in Unity - game engine

look at HTML5 / JS

Monday, 23 January 2012

Research Process - Notes from PG01-14 (17 Jan 2012)

PG01-14
----------

Post hand in of Research Text

- Amount of desc/analysis
- Where you are going...
- Follow people

- Collaboration
- The Building, Nothing to hide.

Next week:
Review

How do we share better what we are doing?

- Go viral through medium

- How does info sharing work at Greenwich?
- cafe/canteen collaboration
- hotdesks

and in comparison with Ravensbourne?
heart of design and social
- moodle
- sharing
- cafe
- lectures

- ad agencies - say what you are doing?

meetings/email/forums/social sites

me. rapid meeting idea - 2 mins

peer assessment / constructive criticism

friend wheels / mapping - student interests

only tutors can see PDFs/moodle access

54 students in total

some people are generalists / some are specialists - difference in thinking

all draw maps / show IRT pdf to other students

Needing to collaborate to gather equipment

- The joint resources facilitate a group dynamic

- Clear that people are here to do what they want to do

- Group project - Personal/Professional

- Unusual collaborations / Laura and Karls presentation at the RCA

Sherie Turkel - Alone/Together / Here we come
(Email dependency debate) - For/Against

Ideas for Thursday's TFT - See SmartTags presentation...










Monday, 16 January 2012

Research Process - Chapter headings for Individual Researched Text (16 Jan 2012)

Original Pinyin translations, Chapter Titles and (literal translations).

思想研究 (thought)
Sīxiǎng Yánjiū

1. Thinking about research

----

研究战略 (research strategy)
Yánjiū zhànlüè

2. Research Strategy

----

定向研究 (targeted research)
Dìngxiàng yánjiū

3. Research approaches

----

显著文本 (significant texts)
Xiǎnzhù wénběn

4. Significant Texts

---

理论辩论 (theoretical debates)
Lǐlùn biànlùn

5. Current theoretical debates

----

计划提出 (plan)
Jìhuà tíchū

6. Plan forward

----

附录部分 (appendixes)
Fùlù bùfèn

7. Appendices:

----

Saturday, 14 January 2012

Research Process - Second Survey on Learning Mandarin (14 Jan 2011)


Survey on Learning Mandarin (Jan 2012)

I sent the survey to 3 Mandarin Chinese learning Meetup groups:

London Chinese Writing Meetup
83 members
2 responses to survey
percentage replied:  2.4%

London Mandarin Learners
356 members
23 responses
percentage replied: 8.9%

London Chinese Language Meetup
1652 members
0 responses
percentage replied: 0%


RESULTS: (as of 14 Jan 2012)










Saturday, 7 January 2012

Research Process - Influential Academics, Publishers and Designers of Chinese language learning (07 Jan 2011)

Influential Experts, Academics, Publishers and Designers of Chinese language learning materials
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1200s
-------
1294 - JOHN OF MONTECORVINO (MISSIONARY) First Roman Catholic missionary to reach China proper and first bishop of Khanbaliq (Beijing) - learned the Mongolian language and translate the New Testament and the Psalms.

1500s


1700s - systematic romanisation of Chinese
MATTEO RICCI (JESUIT PRIEST) (1552-1610)

NICOLAS TRIGAULT (1577-1628)
Trigault produced one of the first systems of Chinese Romanisation (based mostly on Ricci's earlier work) in 1626, in his work Xiru Ermu Zi (西儒耳目資 "Aid to the Eyes and Ears of Western Literati")
Image of book:

http://www.thebeijingcenter.org/show/?c=show&height=500&width=700&id=115

1800s
-------
ROBERT MORRISON (MISSIONARY) (1782-1834)
Books/Biographies?
1815 - VOLUMES 1-3: DICTIONARY OF THE CHINESE LANGUAGE IN THREE PARTS
from: http://www.babelstone.co.uk/morrison/morrison/biography.html

Tynes & Wear Archives and Museums
http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/explorers/robert-morrison/

WILLIAM MILNE (MISSIONARY) (1785-1822)
TRACT: THE TWO FRIENDS (1819) - Chinese Christian Tract
from: http://www.bdcconline.net/en/stories/m/milne-william.php

THOMAS F.WADE (SECRETARY BRITISH EMBASSY) ()
1867 - Published a book Yuyan Zi Er Ji (Teach Yourself Chinese) - used a romanisation system adapted from Robert Morrison

H. A. GILES (1845-1935)
1892 - Published a Chinese English Dictionary in which he used Thomas Wade's system with slight modifications.
from: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/233634/HA-Giles
1892 - introduction of WADE-GILES system until 1958 (66 years)


1900s
-------

1913 - CHINESE GOVERNMENT - ZHUYIN ZIMU / later BOPOMOFO
At the Government sponsored Commission on the Unification of Pronounciation, delegates led by Woo Tsin-hang adopted a standard phonetic alphabet called initially zhùyin zìmu (phonetic alphabet), but later was renamed to gúoyin zìmu (national phonetic alphabet). It was renamed yet again in 1930, to its current name, zhùyin fúhào (注音符號, or phonetic symbols), but is commonly refered to simply as the bopomofo today, after the first four letters ㄅㄆㄇㄈ.
from:  http://www.mandarinbook.net/bopomofo/


1958 - CHINESE GOVERNMENT - PINYIN ROMANISATION - HANYU PINYIN
from: http://www.white-clouds.com/iclc/cliej/cl4ao.htm (TO READ MORE)
International Standard Organisation passed a resolutio adopting Hanyu Pinyin as the international standard for Chinese romanisation.

2000s
-------

2000 - PLECO MOBILE SOFTWARE: MICHAEL LOVE - Lived in China for 11 years.

2008 - SKRITTER.COM WEBSITE: NICK WINTER/SCOTT ERICKSON - Inspired by drawing stylus game.








Friday, 6 January 2012

Research Process - Stories about Chinese Characters/Mnemonics (06 January 2012)

Learning Chinese the Easy Way - A story book by Sam Song, 2009
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Chinese-Easy-Way-Understand/dp/1419686119/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1325871037&sr=8-2#reader_1419686119


Tuttle Learning Chinese Characters, Vol 1, 2007
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080483816X/ref=cm_cr_asin_lnk

Chinese Characters: Learn & Remember 2178 Characters and Their meanings, Dr Alan Hoenig, 2009
http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Characters-Learn-Remember-Meanings/dp/0982232403/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1325871037&sr=8-4

Reading and Writing Chinese Simplified Character Edition, William McNaughton
http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Writing-Chinese-Simplified-Character/dp/0804835098/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1325871037&sr=8-5#reader_0804835098
(Though association is not strong enough)


eHow: Good lesson where character and pronounciation is explained. Meaning of character is sometimes described.
http://www.ehow.com/video_4402643_writing-_heads_-chinese-characters.html?pid=1&cp=1&wa_vrid=409fe908-d4db-458a-9704-238e2bc745fc&wa_vlsrc=continuous

Research Process - Chinese Dialects (06 January 2012)


http://chineseculture.about.com/cs/language/a/dialects.htm

7 Language Groups:

1.Putonghua (Mandarin) - based on Beijing dialect

2.Gan (South-Central)

3.Kejia (Hakka) (Southern Mainland and Taiwan)

4.Min (Eastern and Southern regions)

5.Wu (inc Shanghai) - Eastern region

6.Xiang (South Central inland)

7.Yue (Cantonese) (Southern region)

Each groups consists of a number of dialects. These languages are mostly spoken by the Han people of China. There are also non-Chinese languages spoken by minorities in China such as Tibetan, Mongolian and Miao.

Mandarin has been the official national language since 1913.

They all share the same writing system.

Comparison of dialects:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynbRQeeEma4



Chinese pronounciation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U72hN_g9pss&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL0076E6C693D1AC01

23*/21 Initials (Consonents)
24*/37 Finals (Vowels)

Pinyin Tones - Finals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M48ortJRwEE&feature=autoplay&list=PL0076E6C693D1AC01&lf=results_main&playnext=2


Chinese Universal Tones - Mike Campbell - Glossika
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G16RmjibRVQ&feature=related

Tuesday, 3 January 2012

Research Process - Sky Lanterns (04 Jan 2012)

Sky lanterns were originally designed for use by the military in Ancient China for signalling.

Due to increasing popularity Chinese Sky Lanterns are being sold in Europe and advertised on TV.

I wonder if these can be added in as a motif to teach the characters. Certainly the symbolism of the colours of the lanterns is important. Lanterns are sent into the sky during celebrations each New Year in China.

ie.
Red lantern - for celebrations and represents good luck
Orange lantern - sacred colour/strengthens concentration
Blue lantern - immortality and peace / birth of a boy
Yellow lantern - signifies freedom and good luck
Green lantern - growth/prosperity
Pink lantern - love/trust / birth of a girl
White lantern - mourning

http://www.chineselantern.co.uk

http://www.skyorbs.co.uk/contact-form.php

The traditional diamond shape is known as 'Kongming' by China.
The traditional cylindrical shape is known as 'Khoom Fay' by Thailand.

Terms:
Chinese Lantern
Sky Lantern
Khoom Fay Lantern

Famous Lantern festival:
Yuanxiao or Shangyuan festival

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lantern_Festival
Children go out to carry the lanterns and solve riddles on the lanterns. 'cāidēngmí'It officially ends the Chinese New Year celebrations.

The riddles often contain messages of good fortune, family reunion, abundant harvest, prosperity and love.

Dengshikou was a place in Beijing where lanterns were sold, lit and displayed.
Deng means Lantern and shi means market.

The most eye catching lantern is called the Dragon Pole.

http://www.lantern-festival.com/