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Exploring Practitioners – Ang Xin Yee

Practitioner 1 – Candy making by Sticky

Tools:

  • Spatula
  • Heavy duty scissors
  • Metal bar for shaping
  • Heatproof gloves

Process documentation:
First, the candy is made by boiling sugar and other ingredients in. Then, coloring is added and folded into the candy. Depending on how much of each color is required, different sizes of candy are used. The candy also needs to be stretched. For this order, the background is white with three letters in the center. The candy artists first create the letters by combining long strips of different colored candies then wraps it in a layer of white candy, followed by colors of the surrounding border. It is cooled using a fan and then cut using a metal spatula quickly and with force.

Rolling out the candy block
Stretching the candy
How letters are made
End product

Worksite documentation:

Different colored and flavour dyes
Left side (dark surface) is the heated surface while the right side (metal surface) is the cooling surface

Pain points:
The candy artists have expressed that putting intricate logos are art is the toughest part.

Practitioner 2 – Home beautician by Brows by Rach

Tools:

  • Wheeled cart
  • Wax warmer
  • Wooden applicators: flat ice-cream stick, thin round cylinder
  • Thin cloth strips
  • Thread u
  • Cotton pads and tissue paper
  • Tweezers
  • Various skincare products: powder, baby oil, eyebrow spoolies
  • Hand mirror
  • Standing light

Process documentation:
The to-be-waxed area is first cleaned and powdered to ensure the wax sticks onto the skin. The wax was pre-melted in the wax warmer. Using a flat wooden applicator, she coats with a thin even layer of wax and applies it onto the skin. Then cloth strips are placed on the waxed areas and ripped in a swift motion. After all necessary areas are covered, a tweezer is used to remove hairs that were not waxed off. Residue left is removed using a cotton pad with baby oil.

Worksite documentation:

Pain points:
Since it is a home beauty parlor at an estate neighborhood, the location is inconvenient for customers. It might even deter potential customers from enlisting her services. She also relies mainly on recommendations by friends or social media to market her business.

Practitioner 3 – Leisure Film Photographer

Tools:

  • Film camera
  • Lenses
  • Film roll

Process documentation:
It starts with loading in the film roll. Usually a film roll has around 30 exposures (exposures in this context means number of photos). Depending on the subject shot, different lenses are used. Most portrait film photographers use 35mm prime lenses. By looking at the light sensor in the viewfinder, the exposure can be adjusting using aperture (usually found on the lens) and shutter speed knobs. The film advance lever is then pulled to “load” the film and the shutter is pressed. Due to how tedious the developing process is, my friend sends them to a local photo shop to get them developed and burned into a CD, instead of printing the photos out directly because this method saves money.

Worksite documentation:
Film cameras, as with other cameras, are kept in a dry box. My friend has yet to think about investing in a proper dry box since they are pricey so she uses silica gel bags in a box to improvise for now.

Pain points:
Loading the film roll is the hardest part since it is the most important part about film photography: loading the film roll the wrong way will result in pictures with wrong exposures and weird coloring. Despite having loaded film rolls plenty of times, she still chooses to follow YouTube tutorials step-by-step for the fear of loading it the wrong way.


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Exploring Practitioners 1: Exhibition Curator – Jhnn Ymn

I recently had the chance to meet with the curator of an independent arts space to talk about curation and the technical details of exhibition making. The exhibition being shown when we met dealt with the notion of conservation – about Singapore’s ceaseless march towards upgrading, redevelopment, progress, and its subsequent failure to preserve spaces; how such losses are woven into wider sociocultural discourses on the production/instrumentalisation of heritage, national identity, and nostalgia. The show had a heavy emphasis on new media works, involving 3 video works and a VR installation.

Our interactions took the form of a curatorial workshop – he posed me the question of how I would curate the show myself, with a particular focus on reformulating the existing elements of the show to improve the exhibition experience. The main tools in exhibition making are as follows –

Tools:

  • Wall text
  • Labels
  • Lighting
  • Media equipment (projectors, screens, speakers)
  • Wiring
  • Design

Worksite — Gallery:

First, I went through the exhibition myself, examining the worksite of the gallery space and taking note of these elements.

Visitors would enter the glass doors of the gallery to be confronted by a darkened gallery filled with soil brought over from Bukit Brown cemetery, talismans and gravestones from Bukit Brown peeking out from the dirt. Positioned over these piles of dirt were the video works – an erected screen with projection would greet the visitor on the right, and inscribed on a lit-up section of the wall was an essay – the curator’s notes for the show.

He explained that the essay would frame the entire show from the beginning and reduce the need to light up other sections in the gallery for additional labels, contributing to the atmosphere of the gallery. Text, he said, often served as anchor points for visitors in exhibitions. Having the main text at the beginning encouraged the viewer to circulate the space and revisit works and the text to make full sense of the exhibition.

The next work was a triptych of screens lined against the wall. He pointed out the wiring of the screens, which is an important consideration in exhibitions — how the wiring of components can be tucked away or made as unobtrusive as possible. He also expressed his wish for better installation of sound equipment for this video work, explaining the choice of screens instead of projections (the other two works in the room were already large projections, thus the need to scale down this work).

He also pointed out the horizontality of the work with its tracking camera movements, which encouraged the flow of visitors through the space and gave the exhibition a sense of directional quality.

Objects such as tombstones and talismans were on display with labels. He explained the use of objects being interspersed with artworks as just an interesting point of contrast/interaction, whether materially or conceptually. He talked about the use of spotlights instead of profile-cut, shaped lights, and how distance and position of lights can be played with to light an object well.

The final video work sat above another mound of dirt. Here, a chair was placed for viewers to sit. The curator talked about the chair as a means of allowing the viewer to linger for a longer period of time to appreciate a work, also talking about the silhouette it produces when a visitor sits in front of the large projection. Other considerations, such as painting the wall or fabricating a scrim to the specific aspect ratio of the video work were talked about when installing a projection.

Workshopping

We then sat down to talk about how I would have curated the show instead, given the earlier tools described. After considering everything, I sketched out a new layout within my notes:

The exhibition layout I planned didn’t change so much — I did think of, however, the following changes:

  • Sectioning the wall text better so it spatially corroborated with the works on display
  • Bringing out artefacts towards the centre of the room and scattering them out more so that not all works are wall-based
  • Switching the wall on which the triptych work was presented, such that there was a more immediate visual flow for the audience, bringing the screens down from the wall and placing them with the dirt for a more affective quality. Also, providing chairs such that people could linger with this work more as well.
  • Bringing the dirt more towards the centre of the gallery such that visitors would have a more visceral experience of walking through dirt to sit down and view the final video work.

Overall, some of the challenges one faces are:

  • Poor sound quality/acoustics in galleries
  • Technical limitations — what lights, equipment do you have available?
  • Working with artists produces a different outcome each time, must be able to build relationships and adapt
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Cultural Probe: Design and Findings – Brenda Tan

For this assignment, I wanted to design a convenient and portable tool for pre-school teachers to store their teaching materials. Thus, I used a toolbox my cultural probe kit as it can also double as a toolbox for them to use and carry around in between lessons. The subsequent segments of this post will explain the contents of the cultural probe, tasks for the teachers, as well as my findings and personal evaluation. 

Top view of cultural probe kit 

Contents 

I used a transparent toolbox to hold the contents of the kit so that the teachers can easily locate the materials they need during lessons. Also, during my trip to the pre-school centre previously, I learnt that the teachers used baskets to store their writing materials. It was quite inconvenient for them as there were no handles for them to grip on to when they carried it around. Thus, I decided to use a toolbox with a handle for my cultural probe. My cultural probe kit includes the following items: 

Fig 1: Contents of cultural probe kit (with labels)

Unfortunately, I could not include any cameras or electronic devices in the kit because I was told that the use of electronic devices is strictly prohibited in classrooms because electronic devices can distract the children and divert their attention away from the lesson.  

Explanation of contents and tasks 

My cultural probe kit included an instruction manual as follows:

Cover page
Page 1: Introduction

Instructions

Page 2: Brief instructions 

Page 2 of the instruction manual includes some brief instructions that they should follow:

1. They should use the toolbox for one full day at the pre-school and use it to store their teaching materials.
2. Prompts them to refer to pages 3 and 4 for more instructions on the tasks they need to complete.
3. They can drop me a text message or call should they have any questions. 

Task 1

Page 3: Instructions for task 1

The teachers will find the instructions for task 1 on page 3 of the instruction manual. On the left, there is a box indicating the materials they need from the kit to complete the task. For task 1, the teachers are required to record the following in the (1) diary using the (7) pens and highlighters provided after every lesson (refer to fig 1): 

1. Describe your new experience with the toolbox. 
2. Pen down and pros and cons of the toolbox, if any.
3. Pen down your thoughts and emotions during the lesson.
4. Include the date and lesson at the top of each journal entry. 

Rationale for task 1: To understand their day-to-day schedules better, and how the toolbox improved/ hindered their teaching experience. 

Task 2

Page 4: Instructions for task 2

The teachers will then find the instructions for task 2 on page 4 of the instruction manual. There is a box indicating the materials they need from the kit to complete the task. For task 2, the teachers are required to complete the following at the end of the day:

1. Rate your day out of 5 with the (5) colourful star-shaped stickers provided. Paste the stickers on the (3) post-its provided. 
2. Explain briefly on the same (3) post-it why you rated your day as such.
3. Stick the (3) post-it on the back of the diary entries for that day.

Rationale for task 1: To understand their day-to-day experiences better, and the difficulties they face at school, so that I can improve on the tool design.

Practitioner’s experience with the cultural probe  

I only managed to get one teacher to use my probe for two full days. However, also managed to let two other teachers mingle with the cultural probe kit for a few minutes and collated their comments afterwards. Below are my findings. 

Diary entry 1
Diary entry 2

Although the instructions stated that the teacher had to write diary entries after every lesson, she could not do so due to time constraint. She explained that she needed to bring the children from one classroom to another in between lessons, and she only had time to write the diary entries during the children’s nap time from 2:00pm-3:00pm.  

Post-it with ratings

As for the post-its, the teacher forgot to do it on the first day. Therefore, there was only one post-it, which was done on the second day. 

Findings

Below are the overall pros and cons of the toolbox that I collated based on the findings from the participant as well as the two other teachers:

The teachers are listed down some suggestions for improvements as follows:

1. Can consider adding a longer strap to the toolbox so that the teacher can carry it around instead of holding the handle. 
2. Can divide the toolbox into different sections i.e. top and bottom tiers so that the things will be more organised.
3. The toolbox’s buckle can be more secure.
4. Can perhaps use a translucent toolbox instead of a fully transparent one so that it will be less distracting for the children.

Personal evaluation

  • I should have paid more attention to the teacher’s busy schedules while designing their probes. For example, one diary entry per day would have been more ideal given their erratic schedules. 
  • Initially, I wanted to use a toolbox with dividers i.e. top and bottom tiers. However, I could not find a toolbox with that design and thus settled with one without dividers, and it turned out to be a big problem pointed out by the teachers as well. 
  • This cultural probe really allowed me to understand the day-to-day experiences of the teachers, and their responses gave me great insights on how I can improve on the tool as well.  
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Explore Practitioners 3: Ceramics – Clare Chang

Ceramics and pottery have been around since the Neolithic period. Moving into the 21st century, it has definitely evolved into a much more refined form of art. The techniques, process and tools alike have also evolved to become more sophisticated. Additionally, the uses of ceramics/pottery pieces have also progressed from solely practical uses to artisan pieces.

Process Documentation

The practitioner I followed was giving a lesson that involves making wheel thrown ceramics. 

Steps:

  1. Wheelthrowing – this first step is using clay to create the shape that is desired.
  2. Trimming is the second stage that Alvin (the practitioner) went in depth into explaining. This process is to transform the piece into different shapes and sizes and can also alter the texture. 
  3. When the trimming is complete, the third step would be allowing the piece to dry before it goes forbisque firing. Letting it set would allow the moisture in the clay to evaporate. At this stage, it would be bone dry.
  4. The next step would be bisque firing. Here, the clay piece is put into the the film and the clay is dehydrated to prepare it for glazing.
  5. Glazing (to add colour/texture to the piece)
  6. Following this, it goes into the kiln again for a second fire before completion. 
trimming

Tools Used

At Alvin’s workshop, he went into detail on step 2 which is trimming and here are the tools that are used at this step.

  1. Ribbon Trimming tools
  2. Hook Trimming tools
  3. Scraper 

Worksite Documentation 

A ceramic artists’ workplace is definitely not portable. This is due to the high amount of heavy equipment that is used such as the pottery wheel and also the kiln. Additionally, to carry smaller yet bulky items like the glazes would be a hassle. The worksite also houses a large number of artwork both finished, in process and also the actual clay itself. The worksite also requires a water outlet and many power sockets to power the kiln and potter’s wheel. 

Pain Points

At the worksite, there were other ceramic practitioners. They said that the difficulties of practicing ceramics in Singapore is that it is not a super affordable or accessible practice. Also, the transition from a newbie to a master takes many years and also a lot of patience. 
In the technical aspect, creating “successful” clay works also involves plenty of trial and error – what you expect may not always be what you get. For example, in the process of throwing, you may end up with another shape that you have not anticipated. Or when you glaze, the colour and texture might be different after coming out from the kiln. 
Also, precision and steady hands are needed while doing refinement works like trimming. This is difficult and only comes with hours of practice.

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Exploring Practitioners 3: Wheel Building – Low Jia Yi

Workshop:

  • shelf of rims
  • shelf of spokes

Tools:

  • Set Square
  • Vernier Callipers
  • Spoke Cutter
  • Nipples
  • Oil
  • Screw Driver
  • Truing Stand
  • Spoke Wrench
  • Spoke Tension Meter
  • Dishing Tool

Process:

Step 1. Find desired hub and rim, and count the number of spokes required

Step 2. Measure the rim and hub for the spoke length needed

Step 3. Cut the spokes to the correct length using the spoke cutter

Step 4. Count the number of nipples required and oil them

Step 5. Lace the spokes through the rim and the hub using the screwdriver

Step 6. Put the wheel on the truing stand and further tighten the spokes using the spoke wrench

Step 7. Check the tension of the spokes using the spoke tension meter, and ensure that the spokes have the correct and same tension. Adjust along the way.

Step 8. Use the dishing tool to ensure that the hub is in the center of the rim

Pain Points:

Precision is extremely important in building a wheel, especially when safety is of concern.

The back and forth process of checking then adjusting is also extremely tedious.

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Exploring Practitioners 2: Barista – Low Jia Yi

Workspace:

At a cafe, behind the counter.

Tools:

  • Coffee Bean Grinder
  • Portafilter
  • Distributor
  • Automatic Tamper
  • Espresso Machine
  • Milk Jug
  • Steam Wand

Process:

Step 1. Grind the coffee beans and place them in the portafilter

Step 2. Use the distributor to evenly distribute the coffee grinds

Step 3. Use the automatic tamper machine to densely pack the coffee grinds together

Step 4. Put the portafilter in the espresso machine and make coffee

Step 5. Pour some milk in the milk jug and use the steam wand to froth it

Step 6. Pour frothed milk into cup of coffee and make designs if desired

Latte Art

Pain Point:

Most of the process is automated, like with the espresso machine. However, there was one main difficulty, which was to froth the milk correctly – which will be to ensure that the bubbles formed are small bubbles to ensure better integration with the coffee. Furthermore, the steam wand is extremely hot, so one has to practice caution.

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Exploring Practitioners 1: Leather Making – Low Jia Yi

Workshop:

  • various leather
  • various hardware
  • various types of thread

Tools:

Various tools needed
  • Ruler
  • Penknife
  • Cutting Mat
  • Creaser
  • Scratch Awl
  • Hammar
  • Fork
  • File
  • Thick Board
  • Needle
  • Thread
  • Wax (not pictured)
  • Clamp
  • Heat Debossing Machine and letters

Process:

Step 1. Choose leather

Step 2. Use the scratch awl to lightly indent guide lines for cutting

Step 3. Cut the leather into desired shape and size

Step 4. Use the creaser to indent guide lines for sewing

Step 5. Use the fork to lightly indent where the holes are going to be

Step 6. Using the hammer and fork, punch holes into the leather

Step 7. Choose desired thread and thread it through the needle

Step 8. Clamp the leather pieces together and start sewing

Step 9. If desired, deboss letters into the final product

Debossing my initials using the heat machine – temperature is at 150 degrees celsius!

Pain Points:

Depending on the hardness and thickness of the leather, it can actually be quite delicate. For example, when cutting a thin piece of leather, one has to be very careful not to stretch it out.

Precision is also very important, especially when the product is meant to be sold.

Finally, lots of strength is actually needed, especially during the process of punching holes into the leather.

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Practice Storyworld – Low Jia Yi

Characters:

  • Alex (protagonist) – an ordinary office lady in her mid 20s
  • Warren (antagonist) – Billionaire Tech Mogul with a hidden agenda

Genre: Adventure

Storyworld:

The era of convenience has reached its peak – Everything is disposable. Mankind no longer has to lug around their burdensome things, all they need is the Infinity Draw. The Infinity Draw is a device strapped on every human’s wrist, with gleaming tentacles hidden away, ready for command. Upon receiving information from their digital synapses, the robotic arms grow and draw as desired. Mini parachute drones, almost invisible to the eye, float around like party balloons, ready to connect to the robotic arms and supply them with the materials needed. Huge giant robots, the most advanced yet dumbed down piece of artificial intelligence, roam the Earth, picking up all the discards.

Important Technology:

  • Infinity Draw (based on the Zentangle Robotic Arm Design Prototype) – extremely fast 3D Printing
  • Responsive and Automated Giant Robots
  • Responsive and Automated Mini Parachute Drones

Short Story:

The Infinity Draw does everything for humankind, from drawing food to signing important documents. One day, everything shuts down. The robotic tentacles remain unmoveable no matter how the users will them to move. The huge robots pause halfway in motion, and the parachute drones suspend in the thick air, not tinkling around like they use to. Everything is in a standstill and everybody does not know what to do. Then, they start moving again, but not like they used to. They move in eery harmony, photocopies of each other, not controlled by anybody visible. Alex sets out to find out the cause of this technological malfunction, only to stumble across a much larger conspiracy that involves billionaire tech mogul Warren Wick.

Method:

This story idea will probably translate well to both books or film.

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Cultural Probes: Design & Findings – Jo-Ann Ng

Goal:
To investigate attitudes towards art therapy for the elderly as a creative practice and ageing from the perspectives of an art therapist and general populace

For this cultural probe, I had two participants for the activity workbook.
One, the art therapist we had sat down with to explore her practice – Anna; Two, a university nursing student – Sara.

  1. Visualisation of practice
    1. Through the abstraction of your emotions, experiences, influences, and relationships to wider contexts, represent your practice through colour, line, shape, pattern, or any combination of visual elements – as long as you do not use written words. You may use any number of pages you wish.
    2. On a separate page from your visualisation, write out and document the thought processes behind your visualisation.
  • 1A – Sara
  • 1A – Anna
  • 1B – Sara
  • 1B – Anna

Interestingly, for this prompt, Sara put herself in the shoes of what it was like to be a client receiving art therapy. She wrote out a story of her grandmother and her feelings towards the matter – in doing so, she is expressing that she thinks art therapy is meant to heal the heart through drawing and talking one’s problems through and to the therapist.
Anna drew a sapling that had a reflection of a tree, indicating the nourishment that art therapy provides as well as how how the art her clients make provide a reflection she writes about under 1B.

2. Mental model of ageing and the elderly

  1. You are given a list of 7 words below. Based on your own interpretation and understanding of their meanings, implications and/or relationship(s), create one or more word trees using the words as prompts. You should come up with at least 10 other words to create your word tree(s), excluding the given prompts. You may use any number of pages you wish.
    1. Elderly
    2. Death
    3. Ageing
    4. Health
    5. Mobility
    6. Values
    7. Stereotypes

  • 2A – Sara
  • 2A – Anna

Sara, as a nursing student, approached this question from a relatively objective/external/medical point of view. As compared to Anna who went more in depth with regards to the mental health of elderly. 

3. Imagine that you are an elderly person.

  • Take 2 photographs of objects or elements around you that were integrated to accommodate the various needs of the elderly. (e.g. ramps and railings for the elderly who are unable to navigate up the stairs)
  • Take 3 photographs of everyday things or features around you that you feel might pose a problem to the elderly in any way.

    • 3A+B – Sara
    • 3A+B – Anna

    The images were provided separately but these were a representation of what the two participants thought about for prompt 3.

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    Exploring Practitioners 1: Product Design Engineer – Muhammad Hazzry

    One of my friends is an engineering undergraduate in NUS and has been involved in tons of projects, where he acted as a product design engineer role. He has ongoing projects with companies ongoing, I paid him a visit in school, he brought me around the FabLab in NUS and walked me through the basics of his work.

    Tools Used

    1. Wire stripper
    2. Wire cutter
    3. Crimper
    4. Multimeter
    5. Multi-screwdriver
    6. Digital calipers
    7. Wires
    8. Soldering iron

    Process

    Because he wasn’t working on his project at that point of time and that we agreed to only go through the very basics of his tools are used, he drew up very simple scenarios of when the tools are needed and how it can come in handy. He started off with something very familiar, yet different. The multi-screwdriver: a screwdriver with interchangeable tips. The tip and the driver itself is connected via magnets. I can totally see how this tool can come in handy, and why he said it’s his favourite tool out of all.

    Multi-Screwdriver demoDownload

    Next was the wire stripper, wire cutter, and the crimper. The first two are fairly familiar and simple in its functionality – I mean what it does is literally in its name. But the crimper boggled me at the start. It looked unfamiliar and has a unconventional name. He then showed me how it’s used. The crimper is used to “pinch” and “tighten” specific parts of the wire connectors, such that it will form a snug fit of the wires.

    Wire cutter, wire stripper, crimper

    Digital calipers, basically measures the width of any object that you want to measure down to the nearest 0.1 decimal point.

    Digital calipers demoDownload

    And lastly, the Multimeter, which can measure the voltage, current or resistance of any two points of a circuit. He told me that this is very useful when he wants to check whether there is any drop in current anywhere along the circuit, because that could lead to inefficiency in the device or even the device not working properly.

    Multimeter
    A close up of the multimeter

    Workspace

    His workspace is basically a small table with tools lying around. He tries his best to keep the workspace as tidy as possible, especially when he works with the larger, electronic tools. And when he’s done using the tools, he will return it to where it belongs, in order to keep his workspace as tidy as possible.

    Pain points

    I was told that one of the constant issues that he face is that he tends to misplace the different tips of the multi-screwdriver whenever he uses it. The fact that he uses it most often, and that the tips are really small in comparison to other tools, really doesn’t help his cause. It’d be good if the tips that aren’t in use can be easily kept safe, at somewhere that’s easily accessible.