Intercultural Design - Proposal, Data Collection, Final Project
10/01/2023 - 03/03/2023 / Week 1 - Week 8
Glen Owen / 0354952
Intercultural Design / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Taylor's University
INSTRUCTION
PROJECT 1 : Proposal
Cultural Interest
In our first week of our module, we are assigned to make a group of 6 people for our Intercultural Design module based on those who are going to Japan and those who are not. After we got into our group, our task now is to find a culture that we find interesting. Since my group will go to Japan at week 5, we try to find a culture that is already in Japan which can make things easier to find. In this case, my group choices are:
- Japanese Martial Arts
- Japonisme
- Bosozoku
- Youkai
- Performing arts of Japan (Bunraku)
We choose one the 5 theme ideas we suggested by voting. The most voted idea will be our theme for the proposal. After some time of voting session, "Youkai" topic got the most votes in our poll. Since we've decided what our theme is, now our task are to think of 3 ideas for our project.
Fig 1.1 Poll result (Week 1, 15/01/2023)
Research
Now that we know our cultural theme, our group assigned each member to find some information about youkais in Japan. We gather information that we need by reading articles and watching some documentaries about youkais and how they impact the Japanese culture. After we got the information that we need, we compile it in Google Slides and will use it for our proposal later on.
Fig 2.1 Research notes (Week 2, 17/01/2023)
Ideas and Sketches
Idea #1 : Children E-Book Illustration
The title of this children e-book will be called "The Tale of 3 Great Youkai". This e-book aims to teach kids about Japanese cultural beliefs and folklore. It clarifies the idea of youkai, mythic supernatural beings that have long been a part of Japanese folklore. The book teaches kids the value of good versus evil and how bravery and kindness can dispel darkness.
The storybook also functions as a tool for promoting cultural understanding and appreciation. Children will learn more about Japan's traditions and beliefs and will be exposed to its rich and diverse culture. The book helps to stimulate children's interest in learning about various cultures and their customs through imaginative and captivating storytelling
In other words, "The Tale of the 3 Great Yokai" is a children book that is not only enjoyable and entertaining but also enlightening, offering culturally significant understandings and lessons about Japanese history.
Fig 3.1 Book cover sketches made by one of our groupmates, Teo Javin (Week 3, 24/01/2023)
Fig 3.2 Voting poll for the title of the book (Week 3, 29/01/2023)
Fig 3.3 Colorized Book Cover made by one of our groupmate, Teo Javin from the BDCM class (Week 3, 29/01/2023)
Idea #2 : Protective Youkai Omamori
On our second idea, we are planning on making omamori that can be used as a charm. Often times youkais are associated with purely evil and being grudgeful. However, there are good youkais with nothing but good intentions. Some youkai are also commonly used for talismans, charms and so on. Our aim is to associate a good youkais in the design of a omamori with a good youkais that will keep keepers’ of the omamori safe and sound.
Fig 4.1 Moodboard (Week 4, 01/02/2023)
Fig 4.2 Omamori sketch made by one of our groupmates, Nurul Atiqah Binti Abdul Karim from BDFT class (Week 4, 01/02/2023)
Idea #3 Kitsune AR Filter
The third idea of proposal revolves around the precautionary tale of mystical Kitsunes, by creating a Kitsune-inspired filter. As Kitsunes being perceived as possessive and manipulative, the public having a negative mindset about them. Therefore, the characteristics of the Kitsune is emphasized as a form of cultural appreciation. This leads to the idea of designing unique Kitsune filter, emphasizing the consequences trusting blindly.
The filter will start off as a normal beauty filter with beautiful Kitsune ears, representing the fox revealing parts of their true form while taking shape in a beautiful woman’s form. As the intricate designs, colors, and symbolism of the beautiful masks can be appealing to others, sparking their curiosity to try the filter themselves. If the user tries out long enough, they will find themselves gradually looking like a horrifying Kitsune. The end result of the filter is intended to be horrifying as it would act as a jumpscare, as if the victim is repulsed by the true form of Kitsune. The horrifying image will not go away until the user decides to stop using the filter.
Before we use the AR filter idea, our first idea for this subtopic is making a kitsune mask. Since the idea of making kitsune mask is too simple according to Ms. Anis, we changed it into kitsune AR filter.
Fig 5.1 Moodboard (Week 3, 26/01/2023)
Fig 5.2 Scrapped idea (Week 3, 26/01/2023)
Fig 5.3 Filter stages sketch (Week 4, 04/02/2023)
Proposal Slides
Fig 6.1 Final Proposal Slides (Week 4, 04/02/2023)
PROJECT 2 : Data Collection
Our group decided to go with idea #2 which is the protective omamori charm as our final project idea. As for the data collection, our group went to a study trip to Tokyo, Japan. We do the data collection by exploring various of places, take picture of artifacts, and buy some specific artifact that is related to our project theme.
Exploration
Fig 7.1 Sensoji Temple (Week 5, 07/02/2023)
The first place we went when we arrived at Tokyo is a temple called Sensoji Temple. It is located at 2 Chome-3-1 Asakusa, Taito City, Tokyo 111-0032, Japan. From all of the religious place we went, Sensoji Temple is the most crowded one that we have visited. Not only they got souvenirs and food stalls, the temple also sells omamori and other protective charms as well.
Fig 7.2 Omamori stall in Sensoji Temple (Week 5, 07/02/2023)
Fig 7.3 - 7.4 Bought artifacts (Week 5, 07/02/2023)
The next place we go for our data collection is Toyokawa Inari Shrine. It is a shrine that is dedicated to worship Inari, a popular fox deity believed to provide prosperity. Usually, a pair of kitsune statue will appear at Inari shrine gates to protect both the spirit world and the worshippers within. In this place, we witnessed some locals paying their respect to Inari.
Fig 7.5 Toyokawa Inari Shrine (Week 5, 09/02/2023)
The last place we go for our data collection is Kitaro Chaya. It is located at 5-12-8 Jindaiji Motomachi, Chofu City, Tokyo. Kitaro Chaya is a youkai museum that is dedicated to the author named Shigeru Mizuki and his manga Manga GeGeGe no Kitaro. The museum exhibits characters from the manga which were adapted from traditional Japanese folklore.
Fig 7.6 Kitaro Chaya (Week 5, 10/02/2023)
After we're done with our data collection. We compiled every information that we got by putting it in Google Slides.
Fig 7.7 Final Data Collection Slides (Week 6, 19/02/2023)
FINAL PROJECT
Mr. Asrizal said that for this final project, we also need to presentate our project by making an A1 poster than show it in class. Firstly, we divided some tasks to our group members.
- Fadil Puthiya : Writing backstory of the youkai
- Teo Javin : Yokai designing (minor) and implementing the design to a mockup
- Lee Ren : Youkai designing (minor) and poster designing
- Glen Owen : Youkai designing (major) and coloring
- Enya Chok : Youkai designing (minor) and coloring
- Nurul Atiqah : Poster designing and youkai designing (minor)
The reason I added "minor" and "major" at the youkai designing is because the "major" one design the main design of the youkai while the "minor" one will recreate the main design by chibifying it. Anyway, before I design the youkai, I asked to my groupmate and how the youkai should be and what is the omamori charm for so that I could implement it in the youkai design. After some consideration, our team decided to make a youkai based on this description:
- Sleep-helping omamori (based on tapir) = this omamori could help people sleep in a good sleeping schedule (7-9 hours of sleep)
- Creativity boost omamori (based on Taylor's University duck) = this omamori provides motivation and creativity boost to those who are having artblock
- Parking slot finding omamori (based on Malaysian local dog breed, Telomian dog) = this omamori helps people to find parking slot easier
All of this omamori is based on struggles of Taylor's design student and other course student in their daily life. That's why we make this omamori in order to help this poor student to have a good lifestyle. Instead of making youkai based on Japan, we make our own youkai based on the description I received from my groupmates.
Fig 8.1 - 8.2 Youkai main design #1 (Week 8, 27/02/2023)
Fig 8.3 Reference of Taylor's brown duck
Allow me to explain my first creation when I design the youkai. This youkai is design based on Taylor's duck and to be specific it's the brown one. The idea of adding rainbow color to the inner wings is that when this duck flies, it will leaves some rainbow particles behind and when someone got hit by this particles, their motivation and creativity idea will be boosted. As for the tail, I tried to design it like a paintbrush and it uses its tail to paint.
Fig 8.4 Youkai design sketch made by one of my groupmate, Enya Chok (Week 8, 27/02/2023)
Fig 8.5 - 8.6 Youkai main design #2 (Week 8, 27/02/2023)
Fig 8.7 Malaysian Telomian Dog
Enya showed me her design sketch to me and personally I thought that's to plain for a youkai. So to fix that, I design the dog by adding extra head and tail. The idea of adding another head so that when this dog finds a parking slot, it could look at two direction which is left and right to increase the chance to find a parking slot. For the body I make it slim to symbolize that this youkai has a good agility. Since 2 heads means 2 brains, this youkai is also intelligent on analyzing the situation around them.
Fig 8.8 Youkai main design #3 (Week 8, 27/02/2023)
This design of youkai is based on the sketch at Fig 4.2. I tried to refine it by making the body give that ghost vibe. The idea here is that the youkai is carrying an ball-shaped artifact which when a person touches it, they will fall asleep and wake up after 7-9 hours of sleep. In order for the youkai to prevent people making accidental touch, it covers the artifact with its body built like a blanket. The tapir that I used in this design is based on Malayan tapir because they are known to have a consistent schedule of sleeping during the day and active at the night. This youkai will move around at night finding people who are struggling to sleep then help them to get sleep.
Now that I have designed the main youkai on how they'll look late, our group decided to make some splash art for the youkai and here are the results. Personally if I were asked what will the trio name will be, I'll say it either "The Guardian of Taylor's" or "Taylor's Trio"
Fig 8.9 Youkai splash art and descriptions (Week 8, 28/02/2023)
- Ibiki Baku designed by Lee Ren
- Teira Duck designed by Glen Owen
- Teropaka designed by Enya Chok
For the last part, we now need to chibify the youkais and then implement the chibi version of the youkai to the omamori using Photoshop. Then after that finalizing our poster.
Fig 8.10 Poster Presentation (Week 8, 01/03/2023)
Fig 8.11 Presentation poster final submission (Week 8, 03/03/2023)
Fig 8.12 - 8.14 Final omamori submission (Week 8, 03/03/2023)
REFLECTION
Overall from this module, I learnt a lot from how to do research and how to work as a group. My favorite part of this module is when we are doing our data collection at Japan. It was fun but I have to be realistic that some of my groupmate didn't do the data collection and instead minding their own business. Doing project as a group is suck because when one of the member decided to delay their progress, everything got delayed. Which is why I wish that in my next semester there will be no group project again. Still I like this module because it makes me experience on how to do research effectively.
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