Lesson+Video Reflection, And some random thoughts on where would I be if I were not in NAFA.

During the previous lesson,we talked about lateral thinking.

So what is lateral thinking?

From the notes I took in class, lateral thinking is to look at the problem at different point of view, solve problem by using creative method, as we need to look for different answers for the same question.

There are many different solutions to one problem, they may not have exact right or wrong answers. 

Below is a video on lateral thinking by Edward De Bono, he was the one who came up with in method of thinking.

 I would say that to me, lateral thinking is a form of thinking habit that we can pick up, also, like what Mr Edward De Bono said in the video, lateral thinking is a skill that can be learnt.

 We do not assume that some weird ideas that came to mind may be wrong, we have to look at the question at different perspective in order to generate new thoughts, be open-  minded and think through other people’s opinions to see if they may be right.

 Lateral thinking focus on finding a wild range of solutions, which differs from vertical thinking, this other method focus on solving problem using conventional and logical process, requires step by step logical thinking and many calculations. 

 I think that both method is essential in solving problems, but we can’t focus on just one of it. For example, we can’t be creative when we only use vertical thinking skill. 

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Where would I be if I did not got into NAFA?

I would  probably retake O level and go for JC next year.

Here are the ten reasons.

1. Subjects I took in secondary school back then was not my strong suit, this time I would take Chinese Lit（which my previous school does not even have this class）, study geography rather than history, take art instead of pure sciences, hence my score should be much better.

2. I’m very interested in Chinese Lit syllabus， want to study it.

3. I’m fine with extending my holiday, so i do not need to go to school from Sep 2014 to Jan 2016

4. I do not want to do nothing and wait for next year to re-select poly courses.

5. I might want to kill myself 5 years down the road if I did nothing at this point of time.

6. There are more choices and wider range of selections of courses, I have more time to think on what I want to do.

7. My parents would be satisfied.

8. I heard temasek JC have lots of cute girls, I might aim to get in there.

9. The food at home is better than food in NAFA school canteen anyways.

10. I do not want to work in Mcdonald‘s to earn a living as there is a possibility that I would poison the customers that causes a decrease in Singapore’s population, then I might need to get marry at a young age to re-increase the overall population, then my kids may take revenge on the society and causes environmental problems that led to global warming, as a result Singapore might sank in ocean. Hence, I think re-taking O’s and get into JC is a better option.

Night Festival Trip~

On the 21st of augest, the previous friday, I paid a visit to Singapore Night Festival loccated at Bras Basah.

I meet my friends around 6.30pm in bugis and slowly walk to the venue.
We did not actually have a plan at first(or maybe it is just me) due to the lack of info, later did we receive a booklet on Night Festival, we then had a better idea of where we would want to go.

(The booklet I received later at night.)

6.40pm-The seven of us meet up and walk towards the place.

7.00pm-We arrived the venue.

Lots of people already gathered around this area.

How can they make macaroons so cute!!!

And they actually sell random snacks like cookies and ice-cream.

Love it!

7.15pm-We proceed to the stage area.

7.35pm- We realised this is not the performance we are looking for.

7.38pm- We begain our journey in finding Mr Ezzam Rhanman.

7.45pm- After making a very big unnecessary turn, we finally found him.

(Seriously, till this very point, I don't have a full understanding on this.)

7.55pm- Nothing interesting seemed to be happenning, we turned back to the stage area.

(Selfies~)

8.00pm-The stage is having performance.

(I managed to squeeze through the crowd and took a few videos of the performance, this is one of the video I took.)

8.15pm- We went back to see our beloved lecturer.

(Some random girl doing strange things...seriously?)

(I personally like the third pic the most hahaha)

(BTW I can smell the baby powder even outside the glass room, can't imagine how strong the smells inside the room.)

8.30pm-We went back to the place we first arrived at.

(crowded)

(drawing of people.)

(We ate macroon Ice-Cream!!! <3)

(Finished some beer and the ice-cream.)

(Group photo we took with a car that you can draw on.)

9.00pm- We start to proceed to museum.

(Spark! by World Beaters Music.)

(Le Desir Et La Menace, by Cedric Le Borgne.)

(they actually moves around in air, having different arrangments.)

(Nice lights.)

(Another group photo~)

9.15pm- We finally got into the musueum.

(A VVIP Dendrobium Elizabeth Orchid to commemorate HM Queen Elizabeth's visit in 2002.)

(Swings)

(going down another level.)

(This thiny is called- A Little Nonya's Dreams.Sooo cute.)

9.50pm- We decided to go home.

(On our way back, walked pass some places, still lots of ppl here.)

10.05pm- In MRT!!! 

(Hahah finally can go home after a tired long day.)

This is the end of my blog entry on the night at Night festival, had a fun time with friends while visiting different booths and performences,really appreciate the hard work that was put into this event. 

Though I did not have a plan at first, I still managed to visit most of the attractions.

Ps: The beer was really nice.

PsPs:I need more sleep.

How do I feel about grading others? Mind-map on What kind of person am I?(Lesson Reflection)

During the previous CT lesson on Monday,we wrote down each of our blog address in our group and passed the paper to another group to judge our work. 

There are 4 for us in each group, one of my group member Joel was absent so there were only three of us left.

We are supposed to read the four blogs from the other group,  give our comments on five good point and bad point on each blog.

To be honest I was never keen in reading anything in English other than fifty shades of gray(and that book sucks...didn’t finish reading it.). I tried my best to concentrate on the content and start to judge my classmates work.  

It was kind of tortures for me scrolling through chunks of words,  but still, my group came out with the two blogs that is the best and the one that need more improvement. 

In fact, I’m not someone who is keen in giving comments in other people’s work, unless it is at the extreme ends of good or bad. Even in everyday life, I was never a judgemental person, though I do have my own opinion, but in most cases I don’t really ‘grade’ the others out of respect and laziness...alright I admit, mainly laziness.

Anyways, I do think that judging other peoples work can help myself to improve, so that I know where my standard is among the crowd, I can reflect again on my own work and improve accordingly.

I also did a mind-map in lesson on myself, showing my hobbies and what kind of person I am.

Where does creativity hide and how to make people buy sth.(Video reflection)

So, I recently watched these two videos from TED, ‘where does creativity hide’ by amy tan and ‘how to get your ideas to spread’ by Seth Godin, both intriguing and interesting.

To be successful in something, for example, to come up with an idea and produce it, then make people to buy them. Then the question would be, how do we come up with the creative ideas? How do we implement and sell the product? 

There are things we where born good at, things we are interested in, things the others expect you to be excel in, yet they may not necessarily be on the same subject. 

Like what in the first video by Amy Tan mentioned, she was expected to be a doctor and to learn piano at a young age by her family, but she grow up and make a living by writing books, yet she was not good at that when she was young. (Which reminds me of how I was good in Chinese Lit but interested in psychology and math stuff but ended up in art LOL...)

Is it coincident , or a kind of serendipity when something happens or an idea came up?  Did it happened by random chance or luck? Is it fated? Or happened as a result of something else?

Then we start to ask questions like what is the meaning of life and why are we here for and stuff like that. There are no complete answers, uncertainty is everywhere ,we find particles of truth, not the absolute truth, not the whole truth, like what Amy Tan said.

Amy Tan also mentioned that morally ambiguity is uncomfortable for her. What if we did something bad out of good intentions, for example, to save a fish from drowning? Well, this can be a very a big topic to debate on, I would say just to classify things into good or bad, right or wrong is actually too simple due to the complexity of the world we are currently in, though putting things in extreme ends is simpler. It is more predictable with less uncertainty, somewhere in between will be harder. To tolerant uncertainty can be painful for most people.

Lets move on and talk about creativity, Every artist gets asked the question, 'Where do you get your ideas?' The honest artist answers, 'I steal them. Well, the above statement is actually from the book ‘steal like an artist’ by Austin Kelon, Which is kind of true.

So, how do we come up with all the creative ideas? As for me, I suggest that...

1. Bring notebook with you all the time, record them once u thought about them.(Maybe ideas you get when u shower.)

2. Read a lot(to increase knowledge)

3. Gain personal experiences.

4.Keep all the files and notes in place, creativity is usually the connection between random things that came out of nowhere.

This picture I found online is actually pretty clear on how new ideas came about, we need experiences in order to link up with our knowledge to get new ideas.

Well, after we come up with that brilliant idea, manufactured the product, we are supposed to make it appealing, to target the right audiences, which is the advertising part.

The video 'How to get your ideas to spread' by Seth Godin basically covers this part.

He states that the only thing between the two successful selling product have in common is they are different. We do not have to have the best product, which is to be too good, being good is average and boring. We have to be remarkably different to capture attention.

You do not even have to spend millions of dollars on massive advertising, what we really need to do is to figure out who does care, who is interested, what do they want and give it to them.

We interact with these right audiences, they may be interested and spread the product or idea among with their friend if we are lucky. People just start to buy the stuff.

To conclude, there are supply and demand every where, we just have to first notice the demand then fulfill the needs, in order to achieve success.

Last Lesson reflection and Picture of the week.

 What are our roles in the society as an artist, it kept me thinking.

 Why did I even choose art? Because I like it? Yes, it is part of the reason, also, very importantly, I think I can make a living out of it that make me financially stable(depends on situation). I did thought about the further before I made the decision.

 But where do I stand in the society? I know I might make no difference to the society, but it is still my own desire to pursue what I like. To inspire people? No,it is good if this happen in the further, as for me, it is to keep asking myself questions and to solve them myself. It is like asking vague questions like what is the meaning of life and what is the meaning to everything. There will never be an end.

 So what do I benefit, is the feeling of accomplishment and happiness, I believe. As for now, my role is to keep improving and do my best learning new things, never be proud of myself. As I believe that what is scarier than ignorant is to be at the same time thinking we actually knows a lot.

 I mean, I do not really need a clear answer to these questions.I must trust that my belief are unique, even others may think them odd or unpopular. In the end, we only regret the chances we didn't take, relationship we where afraid to have, and the decisions we waited too long to make.

                             ~Picture of the week~

This photo was taken on a event called EOY, cosplay and anime related.

Two of the girls standing at the back where taiwan cosplayers that where there as guests, really cute and nice of them. I was the shortest so they let me stand in front, bent my knees so I look really short in these two photos.

I have known one of the girl in the photo for more than 4 years, we rarely speak to each other, but always have things to talk about when we meet, and will never contact each other if we don’t meet in person. Like some of the other friends I know, we just lost contact at some point of time, no matter how close we where back then, they just come and go.

Reflection on video——Isaac Mizrahi: Fashion and creativity

The link to the video :Click Here

The speaker talks mostly about himself, also a part on how he get his ideas, like being up very late to think of new creations, or to walk around following people he think is interesting.

This actually shows that sometimes doing something that seemed meaningless is actually useful. As we are mentally active at that time, we are under the condition that is suitable for us to think.The best is to be under the condition where we feel the most comfortable at, so we are relax enough to think freely.

How do we come up with creative ideas? This is always the question,we get our inspirations from our surroundings, everyday life, sometimes from other people’s creation. We change the concept, twist the elements and come up with something new, or to totally understand what is art, knowing the beauty in it. like what Picasso said: Good artist copy but great artist steal. 

Reflection on video-Tony Fadell: The first secret of design is ... noticing

 Our everyday routine is filled with actions that was done again and again by us, we are experiencing a lot of things that we are long used to, these are all part of habituation.

The problem is, is everything that we are going through really necessary, I mean, if we are doing some things that can be simplified and made easier to dealt with, do we just get use to the problem, or do we fix it?  

  Just like what the speaker in the video said, ‘Seeing the invisible problem, not the obvious problem.’.

  There are problems that is kind of irritating but actually bearable, so most people would rather get use to it than to think of a solution, or, in some other cases, they do not have the ability to achieve the ideas they came up with, hence, the problem remain unsolved.

  There are so many questions, but no right answer, some of the questions, have more than one right answers. 

  It would be up to us to decide, do we get use to our everyday life, or to keep thinking all the time on how to improve them, be the one who notice the peoblem, have both the idea and ability to achieve our creative aims.

  Of course, I believe that we should make our life easier by removing problems and obstacles so that we feel more comfortable, save up time to do things that is more important in life, rather than making us lazier as a person as our life is just too easy for us.

A review on Monday's lesson+Pic of the week!

Few days ago, on creative thinking lesson, we had this discussion on the topic ‘brainstorm’. 

 What is brainstorm? 

 How does brainstorm helps when it come to group discussion? 

 During the lesson,I recorded that, brainstorm can speed up the productivity in generating ideas by giving different points of view, which conclude problems by gathering a list of ideas spontaneously contributed by its members.

 We should also see the limit of contributing ideas, by not giving too little or too much information, since we are working in groups, we should contribute to the group, also allowing others to share their ideas, so that we can all discuss together.

  In fact, I think that brainstorm is the taking down of key ideas and solutions in a problem so that they can be better organised.

                    

（A picture I took during monday's lesson, brainstorm on how to stop animal abuse.）

（Picture of the week-During national day.）

This picture was taken on national day(SG 50). 9th aug 2015.

According to my friends in JCs, every youth in Singapore will get a lego set for national day. Few days back when my friend brought her's to me, which she got in school, we built the lego together today,then I put my hamster on it.

The lego box have a line that says “a gift to our youths in sigapore”, Since I did not receive anything, I guess I'm not considered as youth anymore as a diploma student...lol 

About life and dreams-VISON-Motivational Video Reflection

                    

Not everyone have great dreams to achieve, but everyone have desires in life.

Some of us want to be the best in what we do, some of us worked hard to achieved this, and some of us are just dreamers who think about it.

To all the people just dreaming about what to become in the future, why not actually start doing something before it is too late?

Not all people who tried their best would be at the peak of excellence, but all of them who achieved their dreams, must have put in a lot of hard work.

The reason why some of us are not putting all of our effort to achieve our goals, might be because we are afraid of failures, or simply, we are lazy, we do not think that our dreams are something that is worth fighting for. 

We are living in a country that is too peaceful, grow up in a environment that we do not have to worry about food and shelter, so we might be lack in the desire to do something great, we are not interested to be that someone whom will change the world for good.

But, there are always some dreams that is worth fighting for, some mistake that’s worth learn from, to have a dream and work on it, is also a form of responsibility that we should have as we grow up, so that we can make a living, find out what is the meaning of our life. in life, it is not about how long we live, but how we live.

You have to believe it, believe that you will reach your goals, you will never reach your dream if you do not start doing it.

‘When you look around you, you don’t see anything that looks anything like success, you gotta embrace the faith and believe that one day it’s gonna be my day, but one day can’t be your day if you give up, if you quit, If you quit!no day will ever be your day!’——VISON-Motivational Video

Singapore Art Musume- Project Dreamcatchers 2015

So, a total of seven of us went to Singapore Art Musume on Friday.
Reached the venue around 6pm, and realised there is buffet!!!

                       

Since the event only start at 7pm, we ate the food and start to tour around the place, and discovered a lot of interesting gallery in the building.

                   

And we look like we are all drunk...

We went back to ground level at 7.05pm, the event is gonna start.

                         

Two of the lecturers that taught me in school is leading the team and presenting their work here.

                    

lots of ppl already sitted.

The two lecturer, graduated from the same university...WOW.

Then, we proceed on to the main topic of the day.

The art gallery of Dreamcatcher.

I really liked the idea of this exhibition, the strong emotion that was shown in every art piece truly touches me. For example,the framed work that says "Find me, Fix me, Heal me." shows great desired to be understand and accept by others. Also, the giant silver bomb that have pills sticked onto it,looks like it will explode any time, but having a little green cactus in the center of the bomb, like it is the hope in the heart that actually hurts.

In all, I did enjoy the exhibition，was moved by the strong emotion of each and every work. Truly appreciate the hard works that the artist presented in the gallery. I look forward to another exhibition just like this. :D