Urban/InteriorActivism
YUS ALIA EILENA S3120586
This porfolio consist of all of my design ideas and the technologies that comes with it including all of my process ideas and the execution of each and every project in this design studio. Every chapter of this portfolio will inform you the journey of what i have done for this semester that leds to the final execution of my final project.
INTERIOR/URBAN ACTIVISM
1_take responsibility for your project 2_take a risk 3_explore and experiment 4_don’t be afraid to fail 5_don’t be afraid to ask 6_work hard 7_make it happen 8_have fun!
DESIGN STUDIO/ ROCHUS HINKEL
ACTION/ ENCOUNTER
the first project of the semester is an action, asking you to create an encounter, an experience with others. in this project we were asked to walk around Melbourne cbd specifically along the city’s spine, which is swanston street to develop and test different strategies to encounter others and observing public life. in preparation to this project i have to observe how people act and interact in public. when do people actually ever interact/talk to strangers in the city.
while observing the public and how they interact I have discovered that most of the people I talk to were uncomfortable or a little bit reluctant in participating unless if there was an actual reason or a communication tool to relate on a topic. In my case, I had brought a camera and a pair of sunglasses as a medium of communication. They responded really well to these mediums.
this is DEE an Australian who studies Fine Art in 2nd year. she introduced herself to me but our conversation didnt last long as i was very nervouse and ran out of topic. duration: SHORT
this is DUAA who is 2nd year fine art student who is an Australian as well. i find her very interesting because of her piercings on her wrist and has so many of other piercings on the most unlikely place. duration: SHORT
this is Jake who is a 2nd year engineering student from RMIT loves to play video games. duration: SHORT
Jessica is a friend of Jake who also has the same interest as i do which is playing video games on Nintendo DS. She is also a 2nd year engineering student studies in RMIT, duration: SHORT
DEBRA is a major in fine art and we started talking about the recent hailstorm and fiinds it very unusual but loves to observe them.
duration: SHORT
JOE is a Malysian student who ahd studied in Melbourne previously. he graduated in 2009 and came to Melbourne for a holiday and interested in skydiving. jo is a very outgoing and very easily approach. duration: LONG
Martin is an IT student from RMIT. i did not get much out of him as he was reluctant and umcomfortable talking to strangers. duration: VERY SHORT
JESS is a very shy girl who lives in South Gippsland. she travels back and forth to RMIT City campus everyday and is now looking for a place to stay in the city. duration: VERY SHORT
GENE is an American who cam to Australia for a holiday. he has traveled to Sydney prior his visit to Melbourne and is heading to NZ and LA for his next destination. . i find gene very interesting to talk to because he is a funny and outgoing person. duration: LONG
ACTION/ OCCUPATION
the second project of the semester is an action, asking you to occupy and to activate public imagination. as kids you might have played on the streets, in parks or driveways, it seemed quite normal to take advantage of the space we share with others. through play we mark a territory in public space. on one hand we isolate ourselfs from the others, on the other hand we might be open for people to join in. in this project we have to form a group minimum 2, maximum 4 and invent a play, occupying the space with yourself and your play. we undertook this action for at least 3 hours in footscray and indentified 3 different public spaces in footscray which was 1_the most dirtiest place in Footscray 2_the most romantic place in Footscray 3_the best place to eat in Footscray
the rule of the game is to come up with an interesting place in Footscray and ask the public where they might think the place would be and show us the directions by drawing the arrows on the street so the others can join in as well.
we started our journey by asking the public where (if they might know) the dirtiest place in footscray. we also wrote down the instructions on the street so the public can join in.
and after asking them, we asked them to show us by drawing an arrow on the streets to guide us and everyone else as well who decides to join to play as wel
while looking for the most romantic place in Footscray, we approached an old man asking for directions and to tell show in which direction the place would be. he told us that there used to be a ballroom in the market place. when we headed to the market place, we were told it was brought down and was replaced by, well, the market place.
we were walking for hours to find a new location of the romantic place after the ballroom disappointment. someone showes us the direction to a restaurant that has and eiffel tower on top of it. Eiffel tower is known to be the most romantic place in Paris.
the last instruction was to find the best place to eat in Footscray. we were walking for hours under the sun and was also famished so we asked a few people where they think the best place to eat might be. as we wrote our directions down on the street a lot of people recommended an oriental restaurant around the corner. we went in and they were absolutely right.
IN COLLABORATION WITH VCA STUDENTS
ACTION/ CARTE BLANCHE
carte blanche (kärt bläsh, blänch, blnch) Unrestricted power to act at one’s own discretion; unconditional authority: gave the contractor carte blanche to modernize the kitchen. [French : carte, ticket + blanche, blank.] carte blanche is a project that was collaborated with Victorian College Academy Masters students. in this task we were ask to come up with ideas of our own to involve the public community into our activities. we came up with the Pass the Parcel game to be played in public.
Pass the Parcel
map
we created a newspaper parcel that contains instructions on each layers of the newspaper. we also included freddo chocolates for their rewards in taking part of the game
there are 24 layers on each parcel and there were 3 parcels to be played altogether.
the instructions were: “kiss the nearest boy” ‘take off your shoes” “sing a nursery rhyme” “jump 3 times” “shout as loud as you can”
“show your tongue” “hug the nearest person”
ACTION/ PSYCHOGEOGRAPHIQUE
the last set of the project is to undertake a journey through Brunswick. we were asked to discover the mainstreet which is sydney road, little shared places and hidden places to understand it as a journey through the physical and the main terrain of that part in melbourne. i spent some time in brunswick rummaging through the side streets and interesting places discovering people and beautiful places as well as the dirty ones. brunswick is a multicultural town of melbourne and its interesting to discover different races and culture mixed in one suburb.
the marked places is where i found all of my adventure in my journey through brunswick.
had some coffee and met with an interesting cafe owner.
came over with a discarded bottle in empty and lonely laneway.
found this bottle cap placed carefully on a stool in the remote town of brunswick. the blank white page indicates that the small bottle cap is totally insignificant in the surrounding area where it was placed yet one would quickly identify it and find it an interesting collection.
FINAL/ INVADE MY SPACE
the idea is to let the public to invade my space without the risk of being turned away rudely as well as informing the public about the tangible space or boundaries of personal space that surrounds us, physically
PERSONAL SPACE INVADER
the idea began from the very first project that we did which was the encounter project where i have to approach random strangers and start a conversation with them which was very uncomfortable for me to do so because of my shyness of talking to strangers and have long conversations with them. i discovered by overcoming this fear i came up with the idea of creating a personal space in public and develop a relationship with the public. since a personal space cant be seen although tangible, i decided to investigate the personal boundaries of an individual by invading his/her space.
investigation
PERSONAL SPACE INVADER
TRAM
INVADE MY SPACE
Personal boundaries are limits or borders that define where you end and others begin. Your personal boundary is defined by the amount of physical and emotional space you allow between yourself and others. Personal boundaries also help you decide what types of communication, behavior and interaction you accept from others. The type of boundaries you set defines whether you have healthy or unhealthy relationships. there are 2 types of boundaries which is emotional and physical. examples of physical boundary invasions : Standing too close to others and invading their personal space. Inappropriate touching. Not allowing others their personal space. An example. .would be barging into your boss’s office without knocking.
while i was sitting down next to the female, i felt a little awkward for going too close in her space and invading. she too, felt the same and left afterwards whilst giving me the weird look.
while wearing the sign, i stepped on the escalator and began my experiment. i wasn’t sure how they would react towards me but i kept a straight face waiting for them to react whilst feeling uncomfortable and awkward at the same time.
ia friend of mine was helping me with the experiment in a crowded tram. although in trams, it is quite tolerable to be close to someone while it is packed,
this time a nother friend of mine helped me on an empty tram. he stated that it was awkward for him to sit next to a female whiereas there are other empty seats in the tram. the woman gave him a scornful look and sat somewhere else.
i was sitting next to a chinese girl in an almost empty tram. she gave me a look and immediately felt really uneasy. i too was feeling the same but i went on with the experiment. she left soon afterward. a friend helped with the experiment tried to onvade the space of a person making a phone call whilst walking back and forth together. my friend could not stand the awkwardness and left.
Very
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×
How spontaneous I was when interacting How participative I was
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×
How approachable I appeared to be
How aware I was
How comfortable I was
My personal reaction to the public’s actions in terms of…
Moderately
Not very
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Not at all
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How participative were they?
Not at all
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×
How approachable were they?
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Not very
How spontaneous were they when engaging?
×
Moderately
How aware were they?
How comfortable were they?
How the public reacted to the experiment in terms of…
Very
PERSONAL SPACE INVADER
After completing invading the public’s space i found out that by initiating the first move is always uncomfortable and awkwardness always ensues.
INVADE MY SPACE
Human beings crave social interaction, we find contentment of having friends, sharing our daily stories, and finding comfort in our loved ones. Our boundaries is fixated with the level of how much we know that person and how intimate they are able to step into our comfort zone. How do we imagine our comfort zone? Can it be seen as a radius we put around ourselves when we interact with the different social characters we come across in our lives?
dimensions of circles near gpo building
both circles are in different sizes because of 2 different locations. i wanted to see the public reaction when drawn in a bigger space and a small space.
dimensions of circles in the walk laneway
stencils were used to be written down on the floor. the stencils were laser cut by the laser cutting machine on level 11 in RMIT. chalks were also used in the making of the space.
timeline 2.30pm : building the circles using a thread starting from the innermost circle until the last outer circle. 2.45pm: crowd starts gathering to oversee what we were doing in the middle of a crowded street. 3.00pm: a female came to me and asked what we were doing and why. 3.20pm: because of the rain the progress were a little slow and people stopped by and took pictures. 3.45pm: the very last circle was finished and we left the space to be viewed by the public. 4.00pm: the start of the experiment.
with the results above i decided to create something within my comfort zone by having the public to invade my space with my consent compared to me invading their personal space without their consent. in conclusion, different people react differently towards this project. if one to be more extrovert the chance of them to participate would be higher and also the public are more inclined to females than males in participating in this project. the experiment was succesfull in terms of how it is relate and coerellates to my fear of the public.
COMPARISON RESULTS BETWEEN MALE AND FEMALE
HUG ME
TALK TO
SAY
ME
HELLO
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THIS IS YOUR SPACE
MALE |||
(constant)
FEMALE 1 FEMALE 2 CONCLUSION
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(pictures were taken)
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Public are more inclined to react towards females than males.
INVADE MY SPACE Very
Moderately
Not very
Not at all
Not very
Not at all
How the public reacted to the experiment in terms of… How comfortable were they? How aware were they?
× ×
How approachable were they?
×
How spontaneous were they when engaging?
×
How participative were they?
×
Very
Moderately
My personal reaction to the public’s actions in terms of… How comfortable I was
×
How aware I was
×
How approachable I appeared to be
×
How spontaneous I was when interacting How participative I was
× ×
DESIGN CERI
STUDIO/ HANN
ACTION/ OUTDOOR CHAIR ACTIVITIES
outdoor chair is a healthy activity done outside of class. instead of having your usual classes indoors it was a fun idea of bringing it outside on a sunny day with our chairs intact. the rule of the game is to tap one’s shoulder infront of you and move towards the front to form a chain link to each other until we reached to whereever it leads us to.
we ended up near state library where we also played on the grass. many people were interested in our activities, some even took photos and interviewed one of the students to inquire what was goin on. this activity is also a great way to boost your self esteem by doing things that are not done usually in public.
ACTION/ INSTALLATION
the third project of the semester is an installation! we are asking you to install an object/space in public space on or around rmit city campus. in this project we have form a group of 2 and collect material that we can find in the city, like empty boxes, left over newspapers, and so forth. the installation allows you to bring an ‘object’ to a space and leave it behind; an installation lives beyond or without you being present. the installation were done near state library by using discarded items on the street. we built a shelter in front of the state library and waited for the public’s reaction.
INVESTIGATION
EXPERIMENTATION
firstly we went out and investigate how does it feel to be left alone on the streets. as i did this experiment i felt a little insecure and very inadequate of myself not knowing what to do or what to react while waiting for people to pass by and see how they would react towards me.
after the investigation we started on building our shelter near the state library. lots of people look and pointed towards us and some gave some funny comments. the experience was really bizarre because you are sitting in the heart of the city with decent clothes but you chose to build a shelter and rest under it.
that was the reaction of some people who walked by and some even asked us how much was the rent. it is also another perspective of how the homeless people feel without a roof on their heads and had to leave elsewhere in public and in the city without any money. it goes to show how cruel life can be to someone even when you have everything.