NewViews Exhibitions

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A PhD investigation on comm. design contribution on Malaysian Identity by Nurul Rahman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.
Based on a work at www.nurulrahman.com.

Got my poster accepted for an online exhibitions – Newviews Design Conference
Here’s the link. There’s also an exhibition running in Melbourne Museums, have a look at the Newviews websites for more information. Graphic Design Posters and graphic design discourse is part of the program on the opening days – 15 November 2008. Prof. Teal Triggs from London College of Arts will present a talk about Scissors and Glue in the postgraduate public talk.

Text or Visual in Advertising?

I found this text in the book called Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture by Arthur Asa Berger (2007). Its a really useful book about advertising and in one chapter the author takes the reader step by step to analyzing advertisements (printed and television).

Have a read at this text and let me know what you think about it because Im surprise the way the author describe the visuals (I think it is visuals artifacts).

The things we have to realize about radio and television commercial and print advertisements (and all other forms of advertising as well) is that they are, aside from their commercial functions, works of popular art. Or maybe ˜commercial art is a more fitting term. In this chapter and the next I will focus upon print advertisements and television commercials, the two most interesting “ from my point of view “ kinds of a texts. I will use the term ˜text here for both; it is a term conventionally used in criticism nowadays to cover all form of artworks. Berger, Asa Arthur (2007:137).

The words text conventionally used in criticism nowadays to cover all form of artworks? How about visual? Is this mean that the word ˜visual is not recognized as a language, therefore the word ˜text is use to describe it? May be Im a bit unaware and not familiar with some of academics language but I cant understand why the word ˜Text instead of ˜Visual?

Most of Graphic Designers work with/through visual as a communication medium and not just through text. Does this mean the practice of graphic designer is not recognized instead the copy writer or the author is recognized because of the ‘text’? Im not saying that text is not use in graphic design practices, because it does. Its just that we used the word ˜text for literally the meaning of text and the word ˜visual for anything that have the form of images such as illustration, photograph, painting etc. Visual is another form of language and it is as powerful as text (Barthes, Lupton). Speech is another way of language that sometime can be rhetoric. I was surprise because the author takes the reader step by step analyzing the advertisements, looking at the visuals such as photograph, images, illustration, etc. and call it “text”. Is this because lack of written text, research or information about visual artefacts or graphic design artefacts? Roger and out to you!

Malaysian National Identity is a constructed identity?

I found this ads in you tube while browsing around looking for Malaysian Ads. This is an ads from Malaysian Tourism for Promotions of Visit Malaysia 50 years of Independence.

The song that is sang in this ads is called ‘Rasa Sayang Eh! ‘ which means ‘Feeling of loves’. However the meaning is more that the feeling of love, this song has a strong connection with construction of Malaysian National Identity. This song has been taught from kindergarten to University since Malaysian Independence.

It is a popular Malaysian song that most of the Malaysian knows how to sing it. It is very easy, just the ‘Pantun’ part is a bit hard because it needs a knowledge of creating ‘Pantun’ like making rhymes, that can be anything. ‘Pantun’ is an old idioms that is use for teasing people in the olden days. Nowadays ‘Pantun’ is used in mainly Malay festive and wedding, as an introduction before the function starts.
Here are the original lyrics of this song.

Rasa Sayang Eh!
Rasa Sayang Sayang Eh!
Hey! Lihat Nona Jauh,
Rasa Sayang, Sayang Eh!

In between of this paragraph is ‘Pantun’ which is a Malay quatrains with a stanza of four lines.

Now back to the ads. In this ads, 4 main ethnic in Malaysia are used to sing the ‘Rasa Sayang’ song. Together with it, different cultural practices is projected to distinguish the cultural differences in Malaysia such as food, national dresses, nature, modernity, cultural behavior etc.. At the same time, the images of Malaysian living in harmony with happy faces is shown. The part that each ethics is singing the same song but in their own language, with the similar meaning shows that Malaysia is united with multi-ethnics. Notice that the song begins with ‘Bahasa Melayu’ Malay language, then English, followed by Chinese, Indigenous and Indian. It is follow by the percentage of the ethnics in Malaysia. The Malays is the dominant ethnic in Malaysia. Hmmm! Interesting… but why? Is it deliberately or just a coincidently?

Only recently in Malaysian ads images of indigenous people started to appear, event better their language is now been used as one of the strategies to promote Malaysia. This kind of ads is fairly new, projecting the Indigenous where else in 70’s and 80’s it is hardly seen in any Malaysian ads. Why and how does this happen in Malaysia where this images was dissolve in our past life? Why now?

Thoughts on graphic designer’s practices and roles..

I’m presenting a paper at a 17th Biennial Conference of Asian Studies Associations of Australia (ASAA). It at Albert Park Hotel, in St Kilda, Melbourne.

In this paper I will discuss about the earliest project in the beginning of my PhD, the Online Forum and www.malaysianidentity.com is the case study of this paper. As my PhD is a practice-based design research project, it is challenging to explain it to the non-design background what is design research and what is practice-based research. Here’s the abstract of my paper. If you interested to read the whole paper, please do email me.

Can an online discussion be used as a new research practice? A case study www.malaysianidentity.com

Nurul Rahman

With the rise of web 2.0, and collaborative web sites and communication platforms, there is the temptation and the possibility of utilising innovative technology for research methods and practices.

As part of a practice-based design PhD research project, I used an online discussion forum as an environment to enable focus group discussions. The aim was to gather together a selection of research participants (artists and designers) involved in creative fields, to start a conversation, and explore ideas about, Malaysian identity and its representations within cultural artifacts. I facilitated this discussion, exploring particular topics; and through the use of open-ended questions and threads within the forum, encouraged participants to present their ideas and engage with others.

This paper will discuss how an online tool can be used within a research project to experiment and confront ideas, to find new directions for investigation or to have a general discussion about a specific subject with research participants who are located in diverse international locations, asynchronously.

The forum malaysianidentity.com will be used as a case study to explore the advantages and challenges such a solution may present.

Full paper

Creative Commons License
Can online discussion be used as a new research practices? by Nurul Rahman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Talking to Yoko about my research always helped me in putting my puzzle together. Yoko asked me to visualized my research using a metaphorical methods. Because Im still researching and not so sure weather the words Im using is what Im really mean, Yoko suggested me to either leave it blank or give it a name. Leaving it blank is not very easy for me as ˜blank for me means nothing, and it will confuse me later on. So this is how I decided to do it taking on board what Yoko suggested me to try on. I will use the metaphorical idea of ˜cake. Before I continue this idea of cake, I would like to define some parts in my research that I will relates with using the metaphorical of ˜cake.

What are my key questions in my research?

My research interested in the contributions of design, particularly communication design and it close relations to the constructions of national and cultural identity. Although, both national and cultural identity are two different things but both connected to each other closely. Without one, the other will not mean anything. Thinking what comes first in identity is like thinking what came first in chicken and eggs. Both inform each other constantly. This leads to the question Quest-ce quune nation? What is the nation? Apa itu bangsa? And the next question narrowing it down to subject in my research is about Malaysia which what Im searching for What makes the nation? ˜Apa yang membentuk bangsa?.

Now, I have to admit, these questions is really broad and it is the on going questions that most of the researcher in sociology, anthropologies, media and cultural studies, history etc. have asked in their research until now. My research although it relates very much to the questions that Ive asked before, it is also relates to communication design. In fact my PhD is focusing on the roles of design, particularly communication design in the construction of national and cultural identity. I argued that communication design play a significant roles in the shaping of national and cultural identity. Clearly it is quite obvious but there is not much written about it, the involvement of communication design in the constructions of national and cultural identity, particularly south east asia, such as Malaysia. Which areas in design or what medium in design that Im focusing in is a good questions. And how it contributed, through what medium and what makes it is a strong argument is what Im still investigating.

Back to the attempt of using a metaphorical ways of looking at my research questions ˜What makes the nation? ˜What are the ingredients that shape Malaysian identity, nationally and culturally?. If ˜cake is the Malaysian identity, then what is the ingredient of making that ˜cake? Why is that this cake is claimed uniquely Malaysian? I think what Im doing is questioning the idea of uniqueness in Malaysian identity. Why did Malaysian think that Malaysia is unique? Or not.

If I argued the Malaysian Identity is not unique, because what makes Malaysian Identity is similar to what makes any other countries such as the different in of culture, custom, cuisine, etc. then what is it then? What makes the people (Malaysian) believe that their nation is unique? Theres a lot more in unique than different. Indeed, each nation is different in some ways, lifestyle and culture but is it unique? Is it by using the word unique are strategies to a nation building, or as a way to promote the country? In fact is it part of the country branding to create a belief that the country is special? This is interesting, focusing on the words unique, what are the relation between branding and the nation building?

Unique = being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else, particularly remarkable, special, or unusual.

Is Malaysian unusual? Lets have a look at what different mean?

Different – not the same as another or each other; unlike in nature, form, or quality ; distinct; separate

Therefore it is no longer unique, but it does have ˜________ that somehow makes Malaysian different, that distinguish Malaysia from others, that relates Malaysia to something, could be an object, could be material or immaterial (Dewey pp.? 1938 “ refer to Margolin Experience as a product). What are the relationship between the product and the person, and how it creates the notion of national/cultural identity? What makes a person feel the connection between self and identity? How does the graphic design contribute in the construction of it?
22 August 2008

Memories play a significant part in our day-to-day life. A grand father will past some stories from his past experiences in life to his grand children. Memories could be categorized in different areas, some could be sweet memories, some are sad memories and others could be the unforgettable memories. But some of these memories can be maintained or forgotten depending how important it is, particularly when it relates closely to the development of a country. Stories of the victory and fighting for freedom are mainly the ˜active memories that been used in a country as a way to construct the national identity. Memories can be represented and transformed through writing, photograph, images etc.

Long time ago, writing, printing and speech are the main medium of transmitting the memories. It been used as a way to transform information, history of the past etc. Now a day, where communication mediums are expending borderless with the use of Internet, satellite televisions, images etc, memories now can be share by others around the world. Visual are widely and strongly used as a way to transmit the memories to others.

A story about victory is much more effective if its been view through represented imagery rather than writing. Visual imagery helps to transform the memories to a reality. For example, image of victory scene would be repeated again and again through different medium as a reminder that people have fought for the freedom. It stayed in our memories as part of our cultural memories and soon we will transfer it to our children.

What is called ˜prosthetic memory (Connerton, 2006) when it takes more on the visual forms can sustain the existence of imagined communities as effectively as does, according to Benedit Anderson, the diffusion of printing.

Museums, libraries and national archives are places where the memories particularly national memories are stored. The artifacts that been kept in these place are carefully chosen as it would reflect the national and cultural identity of the people. History of the past have to be told correctly as it is part of the process of shaping the national identity. Collective memories through conversation, visual images and text help in rewriting and re-imagining the past. Repeated images, narrative of visual, symbols and representation through advertisements, popular pop culture magazines, poster etc. are examples of a way to sustained the notion of identity, that could be related to either nationally or culturally.
The relations between images and advertisements and their connection to national and cultural identity.

In the case study of Malaysia and its relation to my research going back to in 1957, through the national Malaya newspaper, most of the advertisements are mainly from the international brand or company such as Shell, Palmolive, Pan American, Bank of America, Qantas etc. They are the one that filled in most of the space for advertisement particularly on the celebration of independences Day. What does this mean? Why in the main national newspaper this kind of advertisement been chosen to be put in? Interestingly, it is seem to me, Malaysia or known as Malaya at that time, is seen as a young nation searching for identity, a way forward, development, growing of economy and social. Therefore, through these advertisements it could inform, educate, or offer the people choices of what they country want to be in future.

Wearne Brothers LTD (1957)

I got this piece of 1957 advertisement from a reprinted New Straits Times newspaper on the 31st August 2008. Its an advertisements for a car company and it is one of the ads that been published in the New Straits Times newspaper for Malaysian Independence Day. Its interesting to see the difference between 50 years from 1906 to 1957 through the ads of a car company. Not only the design and the look of the car that could remind us of the differences in time but also it could also show the growth of economic development in Malaya at that period of time. For me it also indicates that moving forward and better future through car as one of the moving vehicles, the design evolution and the indication of the year as a plat number.

Lets focus on the man standing beside the car. How often did you see a man as a model for a car company? One man standing at the car that dated 1906 as the plate number, wearing a semi-normal clothes with the gesture positioning both of the hands behind the body such as a position that called a ˜resting position such as in the army, point out to me as a position to wait for order. For others, without knowing where this advertisement comes from it is very hard to tell which country origin of both of the standing man.

This advertisement was published in English and it targeted the spectators who are ˜Bumiputra , educated, wealthy and can communicate in English. From my cultural understanding, I recognized this man as a ˜Bumiputra man through his look and the color skin tone. Most Malay have a medium brown tone skin color, compare to Chinese who are very fair close to yellowish cream color, and Indian that have much darker brown from Malay. Although these days it is difficult to recognized each ethnics through their skin colors as there are many intermarriage between each ethnics.
For people who are not familiar with the ˜Bumiputra this man could be from any English spoken country such as Philippine, Pacific island South America, Mexico, etc. He looks like a middle-class man could be a businessman, from a professional background, of perhaps from a government administrative. He is well dressed with his shirt tuck in his pants gave an impression that he could come from a wealthy and educated family background.

The word ˜Yesterday that stated beside him added some extra meaning in this advertisement. Apart from the indication of ˜Yesterday that its from the past, it could be also reminding the spectators of some nostalgic memories or dreams with connection to the car. At that period of time, it is very difficult to own a car because of various reasons mainly financial. Middle class people in the past particularly in 40s to 50s can only afford to have a bicycle or scooter motorbike. Other vehicle such as cars could only be affordable to people who comes from wealthy and high status family background. The date also was stated nicely as a plat number of the car. ˜Yesterday means in 1906 seem to be far away and perhaps its time to move forward.

In the next image that stated the word ˜Today, the same position the man standing beside the car with the plate number dated 1957 which is the year Malaysia gets independence. The layout position look nearly the same except the man in ˜Today was wearing ˜Songkok a Malay men hat. Its also indicates that this man is Muslim. This image is telling me that in 1957, the people in Malaysia are searching for identity by putting the man with his ˜Songkok. Does it telling us that the Malays are the dominant ethnics therefore they are the main authority. Where are the Chinese, Indian and the indigenous? Are they part of Malaysia? Most of the advertisement in Malaysia hardly have an indigenous images, only recently when Malaysia celebrate her 50 years of independence the images of the indigenous starts to appear in most of the advertisements. (Packaging a myth¦refer this to it)
I had a chat with Neal today, which is as always ending up with leaving me hanging with some thoughts.

We spoke about several things mostly about the roles of graphic design in the societies. We discussed about their contributions and practices.

Neal has been practising graphic design around 20 years in Australia. Then he decided to teach graphic design in college and university as well as practising it. From our discussion,
Neal mentioned that the roles of graphic designer have definitely evolved through these years reflecting back at his own experiences. The roles of graphic designers is no longer to make things looks good or touching up to make things looks better, but it has grown more up to the extend it is now been apply and used as research methods.

There are some arguments and doubts about the transparency in the practice of designing in graphic design. Until now, it is vague as there are no definite ways to produce a graphic design artefacts, for examples is there a clear methods on how to design a service or even how to make a poster and a clear rational behind it.

Universities and academics urge for more publications on methods of practice in graphic design. It is the one of the way to inform or educate others on rational behind the process of designing. The moment when graphic designer decided to choose certain font, images, background or even the material of the object can be invisible and some might view it as ˜magical. That is when the ˜talent came in, only the selected ˜one can do it. It could be said that it can be visualise through the Chinese kung fu movies or ˜Harry Pother, how that knowledge of graphic design are transferred to others, theres no one ways but many different ways, and it all depend to the ˜Sifu or ˜Master.

I decided to do my PhD because I have found myself wanting for something more in graphic design, a sense of acknowledgement from societies that graphic designers do plays ˜something in the culture, in fact in the look and representation of a country. Like in the soccer games or rugby where each one of the player do have the position and know what to do. I think graphic designers have that roles in the society and understand what they need to do. It is not that I feel bored of practising graphic design, but at one point in I was thinking how far could this process go?

Neal questions have motivate me to document our discussion here is ˜How what we do as graphic designers reflects on others?. Designers think of how to communicate, with different strategies and methods, but do they think of the step they took and what changes or damage they make on the way? Do graphic designer ever think that we might mislead people with signage directions through our design knowledge, with the choice of font we selected and the bright striking colour just because we think that it looks good and have a sense of attraction to it. What recipes graphic designers follow when they designing? Is it their understanding of culture, education, emotions, and reaction towards materials, people and environment that makes them have the trust to make something in order to communicate? What are the ingredients behind this? How do some designers have certain style like identities that make others distinguish them from others? Do graphic designers think about these questions in their creative process of making?

Laurene gave an interesting example when we had a discussion with the Comm.Design Postgraduate group about this. She was talking about her visit to aboriginals areas in Victoria and how she found her self fascinated by their day-to-day practice particularly their fishing methods. She was left asking herself how could the European have missed this methods, why it is not been taken into their everyday practices as it is an interesting and effective way to catch a fish.

Is it because that it is not as easy as it looks to describe it or to write it. Some methods or skills are much better learn by practice rather by reading, one could understand the theory but might not be able to do it practically. So, coming back to the European visitors in the olden days, hypothetically, perhaps that someone did write it down step by step, the way to do it, but when it is taken away from the actual environment or situation it might not be as easy as how it was written. I could take this example as how graphic designers create their design, practicing is much easier that articulating the thought of how the theory could be, or how it works, the ˜magical part of it. It is much handy to show or demonstrate rather that talking about it. Or for most graphic designers it is much simple to visualise a situation or anything rather than to write or articulating it.

I remembered when I started to work as a Window Display Artist in Park Royal Hotel 10 years ago, all I wanted to do is to practice what Ive learn and make things. It is funny that I think somehow I belief that I have the kind of ˜power to make things look better. I understand that I can ˜communicate to ˜others through my design creations. In fact when I found out that people react or response to it, it makes my day and makes me belief more and more that I have the ˜power. To me even though there is no signature in my design work like a practise of an artist, it doesnt really matter as what is important is, it is successfully communicate to the others. My design will let others know who I am, the style I created and the language I spoken through my design work is enough for others to know who it is from. Ive created my representations through visual. I exist and Im part of the societies and contributing in the construction of identity. That is important for me. As what Descartes said ˜I think therefore I am. Time to think graphic designers¦

Uniquness – to exist or not to exist?

It has been a long while since I logged in and put my thoughts here. I took a long break from putting some entries on this blog to focus on finishing my PhD’s corrections and then took a break from study and related. I used my time to read books (not directly related to my PhD) that I bought and been eager to read since I started my PhD. I have read several so far and lots more waiting to be read on the shelves. I also allocated that time to visits some places around Australia, around Victoria, Sydney, Adelaide and Cairns, a short break holiday, and the first one that I am able to fully enjoy with an empty head without my PhD since I submitted the correction. Apart from that, I enjoy my time cooking different types of cuisine and of course, enjoy eating it with my sweetheart. That was such a relief! I was not able to imaging the sense of liberty that I am feeling now before I submitted the work. Now, I am truly free from it.

Since then, I realised that I have not logged into my blog for couple of months. And for the first time since I have started this blog in 2006, I missed the very first one month entry, last month in February. But let’s take it as my holiday month and a gift for my final correction submission of my PhD.

I feel like I am opening a new book, and have closed the last one that I started in 2006. Thus, I am thinking that this time in my blog writing or ranting, I will write something a bit different, still about design teaching and practices, cultural history, etc., but I hope to be able to be more reflective and critical on what I post here. Oh, yes, there might be new ideas, thoughts and perhaps comments on people’s work, but I hope that this idea will be a shared knowledge and if anyone interested to apply or adopt the ideas that I published in this blog, you will at least ask for my permission and then put the credit to it. Let’s be an ethical human being, and designer shall we.

I am keen and interested in agriculture nowadays, perhaps because both me and my partner enjoy eating tasty food made with love and fresh, healthy ingredients. Slowly I am growing some herbs in my balcony, when more often to the farmers market than a supermarket and from time to time, enjoy eating at a delicious fresh food restaurant. Yes, there’s plenty of them in Melbourne. We were a bit disappointed when we were in Cairns in the beginning of our trip there, but we managed to find some of the lovely delicious place to eat. And for the price, I can tell you that it’s worth to try. Anyway, yes, agriculture, and sustainability in agriculture that interest me.

My last trip in Malaysia, a couple of months ago, again had opened up my eyes. Living here for almost 8 years in Melbourne, I think like many Melbournian, we take things for granted. Yes, we are grateful that we are able to get good farmers markets and organic products here but, it is not until we travels around to other places that we soon will realised that we are such a lucky community.But this is for people who love to cook and prepare their own cuisine. The local ingredient are fresh and cheap compare to it you eating out everyday. With this experience in my mind, I went back to my birth place with open mind and hope that I will be able to find similar experience in Penang.

On my last trip in Malaysia, I spent my time in Penang, an island also known as the Pearl of Orient by the Frnacis Light, a British officer who govern the island before the independent of Malaysia. Apart from enjoying the delicious cuisine that I could get for very cheap price in Penang, such as all day snack of nasi lemak (coconut rice wrapped in banana leave, served with fried anchovies and peanuts, cooked chili paste, half boiled eggs and slices of cucumbers) and nasi kandar, an indian Muslim influence from Northern India style of cuisine (plain or briyani rice served with your own selection of dishes that you can choose from the shelves, such as different type of curry, vegetable and fried fish and chicken). Now the list does not stop that, Penang people are blessed with other dishes such as Laksa Penang, Satay, Mee Kari, Pasembor, Mee Goreng Mamak, Cucur Udang and so on. Penang is a wonderful place if you like to eat, and love eating out. Cheap and tasty food. It is know as the Malaysian Food Heaven because it is full with hawker style, shops and restaurant that served good food. To the extend I actually make my long list of different style of cuisine that I wanted to eat while I was there.

But after a while, I got sick of eating out and wanted to cook again. My search moved from food stalls to markets to look for local ingredients that I can use in my cooking. There are plenty and enough to start with but the freshness and the taste of the fresh products sold in the market or event in supermarket is far compare to Melbourne. Far in this sense is that yes, there are some ingredients that you can get there but the are now as good or tasty as the one I have eaten here in Melbourne. For example, the tomato taste plain, the sweetness and the delicious sour taste of tomato is not there, and I believe it is an industrial way of producing this tomato. That is sad because if you want to cook, from fresh ingredients the ingredients needs to be at their very best state, otherwise it will change the taste of the dish that you cook. And the same goes with other vegetables, fruits, meat, seafood etc. But after a while of searching I found several places that tried to sell the good fresh, organic ingredients, thank God! But seriously, I think we can do better Malaysia, we need good food, healthy food. I remember a friend of my Nora was telling me how she hated tomato and other vegetables when she was in Malaysia. Nora is currently living in Melbourne and she have discovered the delicious taste of tomato, fruits and vegetables. She didn’t realised that the fresh ingredients can be so tasty and delicious. My answer to that is, not many places sells fresh and organic produced vegetable in Malaysia, therefore we (Malaysian) are only expose to the not so good products, but because we didn’t have the option, we just take it as it is. I think this is another design challenge for fellow Malaysian. How can we facilitates the process of sustai
Does this mean that cultural identity did not exist until the globalization arrived? Why is it a product of globalization? John Tomlinson argued that the cultural identity is a product of globalization than a victim. I would like to discuss only on this topic further.f

What makes each one of us want to appear differently in a society and why?

These days, it seems like everyone is searching for singularity, differences, authenticity and uniqueness in any kind of products. It could be fashion, places, language, design and even countries. It used to be a marketing strategies to differentiate each product with other as a way to sell the product, and now days this methodsis been used in any areas.

Why? Because there is an impact.

I had this discussion with Xavier after reading a book chapter from John Tomlinson

It is a regular discussion that I had with Laurene and I cannot see why she seldom disagreed with the idea that each country is unique in their owns different ways. Or perhaps I did not see what she was trying to say. Are we talking on the same thing or we both agree and disagree on different topic? I argued that the uniqueness does exist through the connection between people with object, places, space, weather, etc. Somehow there is some kind of emotional connection happen in between that makes one felt special and unique of the object, places or space. One who visited Paris will said that no other place like Paris because of the cuisine, Eiffel tower, language etc. Paris is unique in some ways comparing to other city. Others might disagree with it and said that Sydney is unique in one eyes because of the Sydney harbour, food, weather and people. Looking at both with experiencing each places, one could not said that its unique. It relates with emotion and the kind of experience that one got through with others, objects and places.

But what Laurene might means when she said that there is no uniqueness in identity in my research, she might be referring to the advertisements and womans magazine cover I had from Malaysia. Indeed looking at the printed artefact doesnt demonstrate the idea of uniqueness. There no such thing as uniqueness if there is no experience connected to it. Is that what Laurene mean? And no, Im not trying to defend my personal feeling here but what I think about it in relation to my research.

In relation to the notion of uniqueness…

~


Thanks. Hmmm…..Responding to what you wrote “what you think is unique for you, you then find out is unique for others.”
Indeed, that after all it is not more as unique as because as you mentioned that unique usually implies one. But unique also implies being one of its kind and original. But it could go the opposite such as it would be unique for one but not for others. In this case it could be called unique.
In relation to the notion of uniqueness in my research, in the context of Malaysia, like any other country the people will find it unique as most of them have experience and memory that relates to the country/place/object etc. I cannot say that the notion of uniqueness does not exist in identity, because there do exist and I strongly think that the notion of uniqueness do contribute heavily in the creation of identity.

Presenting at a conference…

I’m presenting a paper at a 17th Biennial Conference of Asian Studies Associations of Australia (ASAA). It at Albert Park Hotel, in St Kilda, Melbourne.

In this paper I will discuss about the earliest project in the beginning of my PhD, the Online Forum and www.malaysianidentity.com is the case study of this paper. As my PhD is a practice-based design research project, it is challenging to explain it to the non-design background what is design research and what is practice-based research. Here’s the abstract of my paper. If you interested to read the whole paper, please do email me.

Can an online discussion be used as a new research practice? A case study www.malaysianidentity.com

Nurul Rahman

With the rise of web 2.0, and collaborative web sites and communication platforms, there is the temptation and the possibility of utilising innovative technology for research methods and practices.

As part of a practice-based design PhD research project, I used an online discussion forum as an environment to enable focus group discussions. The aim was to gather together a selection of research participants (artists and designers) involved in creative fields, to start a conversation, and explore ideas about, Malaysian identity and its representations within cultural artifacts. I facilitated this discussion, exploring particular topics; and through the use of open-ended questions and threads within the forum, encouraged participants to present their ideas and engage with others.

This paper will discuss how an online tool can be used within a research project to experiment and confront ideas, to find new directions for investigation or to have a general discussion about a specific subject with research participants who are located in diverse international locations, asynchronously.

The forum malaysianidentity.com will be used as a case study to explore the advantages and challenges such a solution may present.

Full paper

Creative Commons License
Can online discussion be used as a new research practices? by Nurul Rahman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

The uniqueness of identity – a myth or ?

Creative Commons License
“The uniqueness of identity- a myth or ?” by Nurul Rahman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

By nature, we desire to have connections with ˜something. It is a feeling of acceptance, to be part of someone, group, nation, country, culture, lifestyle, class and etc. People speak about where they come from, the custom they practice, the language they speak, their preferred kind of food, the style they adore, lifestyle and fashion, and sometimes the weather, depending on situation.

Through the discourse or through other communication mediums, people received perceptions and categories one from another. Others would perceive this information and categories one in a group one belongs to and give a name for it. Its what some people would describe as an identity. Gauntlett, David (1998) on Foucaults (1977) ideas on identity, people just wants to have ˜something, a reason to start a conversation. ˜It is a discourse.

However, can it be said that the notion of unique identity is emotionally attached, through elements such as icon, label, object, symbol, behavior, product and etc. This notion of uniqueness is powerful. It is powerfully built around the emotional connection of nostalgic memories, historical relations, personal interest and childhood experiences. It creates a sense of chivalry and injected patriotic spirit to the people that dwell in a country. Some would call it the spirit of nationalism. Others would describe it as singularity belief. Believing in ˜something that has an on going intimate relationship with oneself. Susan Stewart in her book ˜Longing wrote an interesting example in relation to people and their antiquities in england. Through the object, nationalism becomes romantic nationalism. ˜Between the time of Camden and the time of Victorian antiquatirians, nationalism became romantic nationalism in England, a venerations of pastoralism, decentralization, and a collective folk spirit.(Stewart 1993 pp143).

Another examples on people emotional attachment with objects and their connection with country is as Englishman Joseph Hunter explains, in the preface to his Antiquarian Notices of Lupset, the Heath, Sharston, and Ackton, in the Country of York (1851):

There are two sorts of countries that divide the face of the globe, new countries and old¦which of these two sorts of countries would a man reflection, a man of taste, a man whose heart beats with moral perceptions and feelings, a choose to dwell in?… I conceive it to be one of the advantages which the fortune of my birth reserved for me, that I was born in an old country¦I love to dwell in a country where, on whichever side I turn, I find some object connected with a heart-moving tale, or some scene where the deepest interests of a nation for ages to succeed have been strenuously agitated, and emphatically decided [Hunters ellipses].” (Hunter quoted in Stewart pp. 142)

What creates the intimates relations between the ‘object’ and people? How can the ‘object’ connect and become strongly attach to us? Is it the emotional connections between the people and ‘objects’, that creates the notion of uniqueness, describing, that the place where we dwelling is somehow different and unique?

˜Objectthat we collected have becomes part of our life, and live in our memories. Every time we see something similar in shape or color, or even a representation of it, somehow it could trigger the connection again.

These are some of the elements or ˜object that been used in the advertisements and some printed materials for the purpose of selling and communicating. The representation of the ˜object appeared again and it attracts people to relate it with their longed memories. The ˜objectcould be anything. It can be antiquities, behavior, nostalgia, glance of a narrative and etc. It is through the visual representation of these objects, we relates to our past. Perhaps, some object can takes us to a journey towards future. A vision, a dream or a myth!


David Gauntlett is Professor of Media and Communications at the School of Media, Arts and Design, University of Westminster. http://www.theory.org.uk/david/

See Objects of Desire, on Longing by Susan Stewart. Duke University Press 1993.

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“The uniqueness of identity- a myth or ?” by Nurul Rahman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

By nature, we desire to have connections with ˜something. It is a feeling of acceptance, to be part of someone, group, nation, country, culture, lifestyle, class and etc. People speak about where they come from, the custom they practice, the language they speak, their preferred kind of food, the style they adore, lifestyle and fashion, and sometimes the weather, depending on situation.

Through the discourse or through other communication mediums, people received perceptions and categories one from another. Others would perceive this information and categories one in a group one belongs to and give a name for it. Its what some people would describe as an identity. Gauntlett, David (1998) on Foucaults (1977) ideas on identity, people just wants to have ˜something, a reason to start a conversation. ˜It is a discourse.

However, can it be said that the notion of unique identity is emotionally attached, through elements such as icon, label, object, symbol, behavior, product and etc. This notion of uniqueness is powerful. It is powerfully built around the emotional connection of nostalgic memories, historical relations, personal interest and childhood experiences. It creates a sense of chivalry and injected patriotic spirit to the people that dwell in a country. Some would call it the spirit of nationalism. Others would describe it as singularity belief. Believing in ˜something that has an on going intimate relationship with oneself. Susan Stewart in her book ˜Longing wrote an interesting example in relation to people and their antiquities in england. Through the object, nationalism becomes romantic nationalism. ˜Between the time of Camden and the time of Victorian antiquatirians, nationalism became romantic nationalism in England, a venerations of pastoralism, decentralization, and a collective folk spirit.(Stewart 1993 pp143).

Another examples on people emotional attachment with objects and their connection with country is as Englishman Joseph Hunter explains, in the preface to his Antiquarian Notices of Lupset, the Heath, Sharston, and Ackton, in the Country of York (1851):

There are two sorts of countries that divide the face of the globe, new countries and old¦which of these two sorts of countries would a man reflection, a man of taste, a man whose heart beats with moral perceptions and feelings, a choose to dwell in?… I conceive it to be one of the advantages which the fortune of my birth reserved for me, that I was born in an old country¦I love to dwell in a country where, on whichever side I turn, I find some object connected with a heart-moving tale, or some scene where the deepest interests of a nation for ages to succeed have been strenuously agitated, and emphatically decided [Hunters ellipses].” (Hunter quoted in Stewart pp. 142)

What creates the intimates relations between the ‘object’ and people? How can the ‘object’ connect and become strongly attach to us? Is it the emotional connections between the people and ‘objects’, that creates the notion of uniqueness, describing, that the place where we dwelling is somehow different and unique?

˜Objectthat we collected have becomes part of our life, and live in our memories. Every time we see something similar in shape or color, or even a representation of it, somehow it could trigger the connection again.

These are some of the elements or ˜object that been used in the advertisements and some printed materials for the purpose of selling and communicating. The representation of the ˜object appeared again and it attracts people to relate it with their longed memories. The ˜objectcould be anything. It can be antiquities, behavior, nostalgia, glance of a narrative and etc. It is through the visual representation of these objects, we relates to our past. Perhaps, some object can takes us to a journey towards future. A vision, a dream or a myth!


David Gauntlett is Professor of Media and Communications at the School of Media, Arts and Design, University of Westminster. http://www.theory.org.uk/david/

See Objects of Desire, on Longing by Susan Stewart. Duke University Press 1993.

Another GRC…

Another GRC past, and I realised that my time is running fast, hopefully I could catch up with it. GRC went well, apart from the amount of work I need to cope with in 6 month period time.

I need to continue reading, the more the better and keep on writing and make some mark and point in my research. I have to explicitly articulate my argument in my research. I come to realised that this research is not so much about Malaysian Identity, it is more about the image and visual representation of it, and how it create the perceptions?

Clearly design plays significant roles in these process. But what is it and how does it plays the roles is an interesting areas to investigate as what I’m researching now. It is fascinating to discover some things in this research. I’m discovering another Malaysia, its representations of identity and designer’s roles in this. I asked these questions in my GRC and would be nice to hear some thought about it.

Can it be said that part of designer roles is also capturing the history and record it through their creation. Do designer deliberately re-use this elements of history to modify, and provide perception as a way to communicate with the audience? Can it be said the designers are partly responsible perpetuate the myth of national cultural identity?

Here’s an interesting quote that might give you some ideas about what I’m trying to say up there:

Advertising and design have more in common than the postmodern trend for vernacularism (or the anesthetization of timeworn artifacts) reveals. Advertising and graphic design are equally concerned with selling, communication and entertaining. To appreciate one, the other is imperative. But more important, if graphic design history does not expand to include advertising and other related studies, it will ultimately succumb to the dead-end thinking that will be the evitable consequence of being arrested in a state of continual adolescence.
Steven Heller, ˜Advertising the Mother of Graphic Design, from Eye, no.17. vol.5 summer 1995.

Look again and think a head…

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‘Look again and think a head’ by by Nurul Rahman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

I was looking at some of my advertisement collections and try, again and again to analyzed it. I started with a formal lenses, then change the roles to communication designer’s and then to a researcher. It is an interesting process. I had experienced and I have to admit that I’m enjoying every minutes of this process.

It is shocking and frustrating to imagine that everyday we will have to face and sometimes we might consume, images and ton of information each time we walk on the street. Accompany by billboard and posters, nearly every second we turn our head around, we look and unconsciously we gather this information in our memory bank. At home or sometimes in the cafe or bar, adding to this process we have other media such as television, internet and radio surrounding us. Just imagine that! How do we as a consumer cope with this? Our brain must did an excellent job then, recording and remembering these images and recall it again to view, every time we look at other object and managed to recognized it.

Such scene that I just describe is a normal scenario in most of the main city in the world. What actually influences us in consuming material? Do we need them? Is it important to have them or just because be like them, and want to own them? Even if we are aware of if, we cannot say the we can escape from this scenario.

Who are the people that responsible in this process? Advertising, marketing, company, artist and obviously designers. I would say graphic designers, communication designers and interaction designers are not much less responsible that others. Now, in a global world, this scenario cannot be stop. Information is at our fingertip and amazingly easy. We, as a consumer actually play a significant roles in this as we continue consume the product, and therefore there is a market for the product.

I’m not saying that we should not buy anything, but would be good if we take our step in slow motion and think a head before some rhetoric visual and text in the advertisements influences our thought and desire. Just try and explore this process, please be aware that it can be dangerous (dangerous as you might end up using your credit card or use your saving), you might end up buying something at the end.

I’m very interested in this process, investigating the communication designer’s position in this, and how we contribute in shaping the lifestyles. Are we deliberately use the rhetoric of images to communicate? or we didn’t actually think about the impact we created? Well, clearly we managed to see the product or at least we manage to get the information in the market.

Advertising is the mother of graphic design, as how Steven Heller claims in the ‘Eye’ magazine 1994. Clearly that graphic designer contribute most of their work in advertisements, that because at that time, there was not that much job available for graphic designer. Some might be in the printing company as DTP artist, some might be at the hotel as display artist etc. Is graphic designer’s role is minor in the process of creating the visual?

“The history of advertising is more interested in how Marlboro cigarettes tested a variety of trade characters before stumbling on the Marlboro Man as a symbol of manliness. While graphic design appears negligible in the cultural analysis of this campaign, understanding the relationship of this symbol..to the larger mythology provides insight into how the American myth was perpetuated.”Heller, 1994.

So what do this mean, that graphic designer are part of creating these myth? I will take further investigation in my research….it is significant..