Intercultural Design: Final Compilation and Reflection

Intercultural Design: Final Compilation & Reflection

05.02.2024 - 22.03.2024 / Week 1 - Week 7
Omar bin Shafik / 0371439
Intercultural Design / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Final Compilation & Reflection

Module Information Booklet


Fig 1.01, Intercultural Design Module Information Booklet, (05.02.2024)


Submissions

Continuous Assessment - Project 1 (Proposal)
05.02.2024 - 23.02.2024 / Week 1 - Week 3

For the first week, we were instructed to study a cultural phenomenon or subculture that was depicted as 'sensitive' and to frame it within the theme of "Cultural Sensitivity in Design". This was before we were put into groups and my initial thoughts went straight to otaku culture. The otaku subculture is a central theme of anime, documentaries, and academic research. I initially chose this subculture because there are many people that are very passionate about what they do in this subculture, so much so that they would get into many heated arguments over the internet just about their favourite anime or manga. This part of the subculture was what  I perceived as 'sensitive'.

As I was put into a group though, me and my groupmates decided on going with rock culture and made a few concept sketches for the final design work. This is the finalized proposal. 

Fig 1.02, Finalized Proposal (PDF), (22.02.2024)

Continuous Assessment - Project 2 (Field Study)
26.02.2024 - 08.03.2024 / Week 4 - Week 5

Data Collection

For Data Collection, we settled with two ways to do it, which were through a public survey and interviews with several bands. We initially wanted to visit different live houses or rock cafes too  to get live recordings and interviews with the people there but when we reached out to the rock cafes, we did not get responses and one of the cafes that we did reach out to, Rumah Api, was raided not too long ago so we called it off entirely.

Survey

We conducted an online survey to get the public's views and thoughts on the current state of rock in Malaysia.


Fig 1.03, Survey on Rock Culture in Malaysia, (06.03.2024)

Link to the survey: blue

Interviews

We also managed to reach out and interview 3 different members from 3 different bands to get their views and opinions on the current state of rock in Malaysia, the 3 bands being TingTongKetz, Shh... Diam!, and the Patriots.


Fig 1.04, Interview with Shika of TingTongKetz Part 1 (36 minutes, 52 seconds), (07.03.2024)


Fig 1.05, Interview with Shika of TingTongKetz Part 2 (3 minutes, 39 seconds), (07.03.2024)


Fig 1.06, Interview with Cheryl of Shh... Diam! Part 1 (38 minutes, 17 seconds), (07.03.2024)



Fig 1.07, Interview with Cheryl of Shh... Diam! Part 2 (24 minutes, 12 seconds), (07.03.2024)


Fig 1.08, Interview with Ayeem of the Patriots (28 minutes, 45 seconds), (07.03.2024)

Finalised Data Collection

Fig 1.09, Finalised Data Collection (PDF), (29.03.2024)

Final Assessment - Final Project 
11.03.2024 - 22.03.2024 / Week 6 - Week 7

Finalisation of Designs

We decided to settle on two designs being the poster and t-shirt to further develop for the final submission.


Fig 1.10, Attire Developed Concept, (15.03.2024)


Fig 1.11, Attire Final Design, (24.03.2024)


Fig 1.12, Poster Developed Concept 1, (19.03.2024)


Fig 1.13, Poster Developed Concept 2, (19.03.2024)


Fig 1.14, Poster Final Design, (28.03.2024)

Final Project Slides


Fig 1.15, Final Project (PDF), (29.03.2024)


Reflections
  • Experience
    • This module got me very confused in the beginning as I do not think anyone knew what to do for the first project. A lot of people other than our group did not know whether the 3 ideas meant we needed 3 different final design concepts or to pick between 3 different cultures to study for project 2. We settled for just going with one culture and several design concepts. The whole process went quite smoothly give or take the few times where there was complete radio silence in the group for unknown reasons. I would also say that doing the data collection and research on rock culture has given me a new appreciation for the other genres of rock as I never really listened to it that much other than math rock. I was quite surprised that the rock scene in Malaysia wasn't as big as compared to the rock scene overseas.
  • Observations
    • In these 7 weeks, I noticed that the lecturers took a mostly hands off approach to the teaching which I didn't really mind as it encouraged us to communicate more within our group. We could still go to them for consultation but we were mostly left to our own devices. Other than that, I also saw how deep these cultures can go with the different genres in rock and how different they can be with heavy metal being a super hardcore side to rock music and math rock being a more calming side of rock while still being very exciting to listen to. I was also surprised that despite how well rock was received in Malaysia, there are still quite a lot of people that are very much against it including religious figures and authorities, especially after seeing as to how the rock cafe Rumah Api was raided not too long ago. 
  • Findings
    • Through doing all this research I was able to learn more about the culture and how to appropriately make a design based around it and the theme of "Cultural Sensitivity". By discussing within our group we were able to evaluate each other's work and refine the designs to be the best they can. This has helped us further develop our sense in design and refine our design skills.

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