Portfolio for Umeå Institute of Design

WU, CHIN HSUAN IxD-42ARKDES13

Education Soochow University (SCU) 2008-2011 BA in Sociology GPA 3.4 Graphic Design of Eastern Europe Week in SCU Invited to hold lecture about “How to make a good presentation�

Shih-Chien University (USC) 2005-2008 Industrial Design Major Human Factors and Interface, Computer-aided Design, Product Design Graphic Design of Update Exhibition

Experience Sunfriend Food Corp Sep 2012- Present Graphic Design Creative designer for the BEAR BEER brand Collaborated with marketing on brand strategies

Smirk Design Studio 2008-Present Co-Founder Co-founded the studio focused on graphic design, product design Competed in Vieshow Cinema interior design competition Designed and Developed electronic accessories for the iPad Designed and Developed Basicare products

Mega Knives Feb to Aug 2009 Product Development/Designer Created product and advertising design concepts Worked in a cross-functional team to develop various products from concept to production

Award Digital Portfolio competition in SCU, First Place, 2010 o.b. marketing competition, Second Place, 2008 Invited and exhibited in Taiwan Design+iF, 2007 Invited and exhibited YODEX, 2007 Chinese Essay in Philosophy in USC , Second Place, 2006

Skills Proficient in CorelDraw, Corel Photo-Paint, Mockup making and Prototyping Familiar with Adobe Photoshop, SPSS Novice in Dreamweaver, Autodesk Alias, 3Ds max, Pro-Engineering Native Mandarin Chinese Speaker, fluent in English

吳 謹亘Wu, Chin-Hsuan wuchinhsuan@outlook.com http://issuu.com/evanwu2/docs/portfolio Chung Shiao E.rd, sec.4, no.134, 12F, Taipei, Taiwan

institution

a way of act

system

experience design service design

form/ function a more intuitive way of interaction

medium with the world

design design

objects

human interaction

a means of social practice

interaction design combination of two realities

the use of technology

the permeation of the internet

sci-f i future

star trek

the jetsons

a second reality

new possibilities

doraemon

social innovation

a new social system

inequality

ideology and utopia social status

democracy

a way of social intervention

authority consumptionism

political choice

faoway s n a eto ma laicos interpret c i t c ar p theeworld

capitalism

sociology

society of spectacle

the impact of technology

dramaturgy psychoanalysis

individual ’s identity

STS a second reality

looking glass self

permeation of the internet

object a : something material that may be perceived by the senses b : something mental or physical toward which thought, feeling, or action is directed c : something physical that is perceived by an individual and becomes an agent for psychological identification

FUNCTION FOLLOWS FORM EXPERIMENT#1 BROKEN LAMP

THE GLOW STICK

The whole concept starts with the glow stick.

Back then, I was fascinated about the process of making a glow stick glows, you break the tube in it to starts a chemical reaction by snapping then VoilĂ ! It starts to glow .

At first, I was trying to design something that imitates glow sticks, to represent the "breaking this item" part. I designed a rubber-made lamp that its switch is hidden in the lamp pole, to turn it on, the user have to "break" it, just like using a glow stick.

During my design process, I found that the form of a "breaking lamp" is interesting, thus I turned my focus to design something that focused on the process of "repairing" broken things instead of breaking them.

the process of repairing This was my first attempt of the concept “function follows form”. This series of works tried to explore to possibilities of how people manipulate objects. I wished to create a more intuitive way to interact with objects.

This lamp started with a simple idea: the process of repairing damaged object.

The light's initial form, which looks as if it is broken from the middle of the pole, indicates that this object is broken or dysfunctional. Through the process of repairing it, the user puts the upper part of the lamp back to its “normal” position in case to restore its form to a typical lamp. By restoring its form, it also brings back the function of this lamp.

This lamp has been exhibited in Design Taiwan + iF. Ironically, this lamp really broke during the transportation.

2007, self-project

Balloon Alarm the anxiety

We all have the same experience, hearing the alarm clock going off and chosing to ignore it just to get some more sleep.

My Balloon Clock is a pump-like alarm clock that when started will inflate the balloon. When the alarm goes off, the built-in pump will start blowing the balloon, the user won't be able to know when will the balloon pop. Facing this kind of uncertainty, the user will have no choice but to set the alarm off.

2008, group-project, in charge of concept and design

smoke light

the mass of light Light is invisible but we can see it through the its reflection form an object.

When light beam radiates into a smoky place, because of the smog, we can see the mass of light. The mass of light appears randomly with the smog and is uncontrollable.

When the light is off, smoke light's lamp shade part is transparent and reflects no light. Imagine a wisp of smoke rising up in a space, forming in to lamp shade which filled with light beams.

2010, group-project, in charge of concept and design

bracelet 2008, self-project

ear phone 2009, group-project, in charge of design

INTUITIVE INTERACTION EXPERIMENT ROLL YOUR BREAD

a more intuitive way This is another attempt of a more intuitive way to interact with objects. Roll your toast is a Toast Roaster designed for the user to use it more intuitively. The toaster itself is designed to be a big countdown timer. The user just have to put the toast in it and rotate it to the seconds he wish. As it starts counting down, the user can easily see how long is left until his toast done. As the device counts down to zero, the toast finishes toasting.

2008, group-project, in charge of concept and design

persistence of vision When an illuminating object is defined as "lighting", it could be divided into two parts: a bulb (lighting part) and a lampshade (shade part). Instead of a concrete lampshade, we use the persistence of vision to create a lampshade-like effect by its own light and shade.

The structure of Spinning Light is based on the concept of organic sculpture. After it starts spinning, through acceleration, the illuminating part depicts the form of a traditional lamp constructed by glowing points and lines. In Spinning Light, the function of a lamp is only possible when the form is appeared.

2010, group-project, in charge of concept and design

FUNCTION FOLLOWS FORM EXPERIMENT#2 PERCENTAGE LAMP

PAPER FLOWER, AND PIE CHART Paper flower, a traditional Taiwanese toy t inspired me in the first place. Paper flower is basically layers of paper glued together. The player can rotate it, turn or flip it over to create different shapes. The original concept is to design a lamp which its lamp shade can be transformed freely, not before long that I've encountered some technical problem that forced me to rethink my design.

By the shape of paper flower came in my mind the pie chart. I immediately connect it to the relation between form and function.

What comes out is a paper-made lamp, with a high connection between its function and form.

the wholeness of form and function Continuing my experiments in function following form, my second attempt was to discuss the relationship between the wholeness of form and the wholeness of function. In this project, the lamp itself is a flat, book-like object in its initial form.

This lamp does not reveal any form of a typical lamp when the lamp is turned off.

As the user tries to turn on the lamp, he has to “open it” like opening a book. In process of “opening” the light, the form of the lamp become more and more visible. The function, in this case, lightness, and the form of this lamp are highly connected. The percentage of its form's wholeness also indicate the percentage of its function, which means, for instance, with 75% percent of lamp it shows also means it at 75% of lightness.

2007, self-project

miscellaneous a: consisting of a haphazard assortment of different kinds b: dealing with or interested in diverse subjects

o.b.

TAMPON MARKETING CONTEST In Taiwan, more than 90% of woman use pads when they are menstruating. Tampons have been considered as too intrusive.

We focused on the advantages of the tampon compared to the pad and we pointed out three major advantages: 1. It allows a menstruating woman to go swimming.

2. It is easier to carry around.

3. It's less humid and hot than a pad.

We decided to make these three points in one campaign: o.b. summer. The main demand is not to ruin your summer holiday because of your period. We also come up with new packaging to expand on this theme.

2008, group-project, in charge of concept and design

summer is here, want to swim?

summer is here, want to keep fresh?

summer is here, want to travel?

VIESHOW CINEMA INTERIOR DESIGN COMPETITION This was certainly the most memorable project we had at Smirk design. Most of the cinemas in Taiwan have interior designs that are very much alike, dark colors with a lot of carpet. We thought that a cinema should be a place full of joy and excitement. The concept was to build a more futuristic cinema in Kaohsiung by using bright and bold colors such as magenta and white.

I believe we successfully delivered the idea that we wanted to design a different kind of cinema, a cinema that could be the example of next generation Vieshow cinema through our presentation. And the response from Vieshow cinema was positive in the beginning.

Unfortunately, after few rounds of presentations, Vieshow cinema decided not to use our design because they didn't believe we had the ability to handle such big project, and that the design might be too intense for most of the customers. In the end, we lost this competition.

2009, group-project, in charge of concept and design

EXPOSE YOUR MIND

The internet had fundamentally changed our way of living, the way in which we receive information and interact with people, in the first time of history we can communicate with this amount of people simultaneously.

Living in this internet-permeated reality, social-networks such as facebook plays a crucial role in our social-life. It is interesting to see that a great amount of people tend to share their thoughts and opinions online, offer comments on various subjects from politics to latest movie. We are so eager to let other people know what we think that we don't even have to wish ourselves to have mind reading power anymore, people are literally exposing their mind to the public now.

We tweets and shares our thoughts on social-networks, telling everyone how we feel, what we are doing and where we are going, we just like exposing ourselves as much as we like to peep other people. In a sense, we are kind of forcing other people to know us, forcing them to know what we are thinking, what I am thinking.

With this phenomenon, I came with an idea of build something that simply shows “what you are thinking”, no, it is not a mindreading device, it can be something as simple as a device with a LED screen that shows your twitter/ facebook status, just like wearing a tagline t-shirt but with a lot of more control. I don't have to read your mind, you are going to tell me, tell everyone what you are thinking.

This can be a great opportunity for a breaching experiment. A device that forces other people to know what we are thinking surely can break a lot of social norms. We may be used to receive this kind of message on the internet but we are not used to “know” this much of a people, of a stranger on street, in the reality.

NEW LIFE WINE PACKAGING DESIGN

New life wine is a newly established trading company focused on Spanish wine import. They asked us to do a packaging design for their new year promotion which its targets customers are young adults aged between 20-35. We tried to make something that can m a ke c u s to m e r s fe e l t h e p a s s i o n o n S p a i n , something that is more “fun� than most of the wine on the market. The result is two sets of packaging and bag design, both of them have very bright color and the tone is similar to Spanish flag. The first one has a more carnival feeling, colorful and dynamic, the second one, on the contrast, is trying to be more elegant, more sophisticate.

2012, group-project, in charge of concept and design

NEW LIFE WINE PACKAGING DESIGN

New life wine is a newly established trading company focused on Spanish wine import. They asked us to do a packaging design for their new year promotion which its targets customers are young adults aged between 20-35. We tried to make something that can m a ke c u s to m e r s fe e l t h e p a s s i o n o n S p a i n , something that is more “fun� than most of the wine on the market. The result is two sets of packaging and bag design, both of them have very bright color and the tone is similar to Spanish flag. The first one has a more carnival feeling, colorful and dynamic, the second one, on the contrast, is trying to be more elegant, more sophisticate.

2012, group-project, in charge of concept and design

sociology the science of society, social institutions, and social relationships; specifically : the systematic study of the development, structure, interaction, and collective behavior of organized groups of human beings

GIS-BASED FIELD RESEARCH OF TRADITIONAL KARAOKE

The traditional karaoke business in Taipei, as with many other modern day industries, was primarily dominated by large corporations, leaving smaller operations struggling and ultimately closing down.

In this GIS-based research, we chose one of the oldest districts of Taipei, Twatiutia, which used be the most prosperous area in Taipei as our field of research. By using research methods such as snowball sampling and in-depth interviewing and SocGIS, we were able to gain a better understanding of the distribution of traditional karaoke and the challenges they are facing.

To our surprise, beyond the challenges from large karaoke chains such as Cashbox, there were two surprising reasons causing the downfall of traditional karaoke in Taipei: the attitude of modern Chinese music industry towards them and the banning the public prostitute in 2001.

CONSUMPTION AS POLITICAL PARTICIPATION I believe we are all familiar with the phrase “You are what you eat”. Just as it suggests, you are, what you consume. I'm not here to explain this phrase to you, but I would like to suggest a little twist to it: “You are what you buy” This phrase seems to be a better tagline for our era.

This tagline cannot live without advertisement. Nowadays, advertisements are no longer merely a product's information as they were before. It has become a way for us to understand and interact with the world around us.

It has become a medium between people and the world. Advertisement provides a certain kind of view to every single issue and is trying to persuade us to take its view. By simply buying a specific product, you are accepting political propaganda and agreeing to a certain kind of ideology. Advertisement is always there persuading us to respond to its hailing, and it asks us nothing but one response in return, consumption.

Capitalism makes this simple response possible. Price has now become the most common and justified measurement today, there isn't anything that you can't put a price tag on. This society asks its dweller nothing but consumption. It is advertisement that facilitates the transaction. Capitalism makes this kind of life style possible. It is one of more times monument, we are surrounded by all these messages that wish to persuade us.

Advertisement is the endorser to every issue of our time. No matter how they disguise their purpose, most of them ultimately ask for just one thing, consumption.

Consumption becomes the most direct and convenient way for us to act in this society. We are able to participate in different fields through consumption including political, cultural and other social issues. With the help from TV and internet shopping, we can even do this kind of participation on the couch. What consumption directly affects is the quantity of sales, results in profits and losses, and in the end again money is the final measure. Money is of course the central pillar of capitalism. Since consumption is directly linked to money itself, we are able to show our support for anything through consumption. For example, I am a big fan of Terry Gilliam so I bought every DVD I could possibility get. Although I don't know what portion Terry Gilliam actually receives from my consumption, it's a rather easy way to show my support. Maybe you are someone who opposes exploitation of labor in this globalizing world. Instead of getting on the street and starting a protest, there a easier way for you. Yow can buy some fair trade coffee beans. You can get them at your nearest Starbucks. In that way, you don't have to sacrifice any of the comfort capitalism brings you but still feel like have done something for those exploited laborers.

In an article called “Pasta Cunegonde” written by Umberto Eco, Eco stated that, “What actual strength may

those Italians who do not accept the monopoly of television have? A powerful economic force.” What he recommended is not to buy anything that is advertised on Mediaset, the media company which is owned by Silvio Berlusconi. We have to notice that in this statement, Eco is not asking us not to buy anything, but to substitute consumption and to become a selective consumer: “…to buy the detergent and the wonderful pasta Radegund [not advertised on Mediaset] instead of detergent amazing pasta and Cunegonde.” This kind of social participation is based on the central pillar of capitalism, money. By refusing pasta Cunegonde to make their sales drop, they would have no choice but to respond to this. You can say that this is a new type of attack facing this new type of society and government.

It seems that using consumption as a way of social participation is not such a bad thing. Instead of saying it's a cheap way of social participation; I'd prefer to call it a new way of participation which is only possible in this capitalism society. While advertisements only care where our money goes, our economical force, our money has become the best card in our hands. We still have the final call of how to spend and not to spend our money. We can show what we support by what we buy. We can also show what we oppose by what we don't buy.

Advertisements will keep on trying to persuade us to respond to its hailing and to spend our money on the products they are advertising. Although advertisement has narrowed down our options into a binary decision, this is only the reflection of this capitalism society. No one cares about how we feel or what we think, but every one cares where we spend our money.

THE FUTURE OF IDENTITY A person's identity is a rather complicated issue. In this era of nation states, the primary identity of a person is as a citizen of a certain country. In most cases, it is decided by where we are born or the citizenship of our parents. Both of which, we cannot chose.

Starting from the information revolution in the 90's, no one can deny that the internet has fundamentally changed how we think, see, and even identify ourselves. Using this massive, spontaneous communication network that has never been seen before, it is easier than ever for us to form new identities. These identities are based on voluntary communities that are beyond all the physical barriers such as the place we live or the body we are living in. The most important thing about this new identification is that it is voluntary. You are not born with an internet id and no one can force you to join a certain internet community. On the internet, you chose the community you want to join, you chose the subject you want to pay your loyalty to. Under this circumstance, a person's self-identification will become an ever more complicate issue.

Of course traditional nation state identity will still play an important role in your identity, but all these new identities from the internet will become more and more important and will even conflict with nation state identity. We can see from WikiLeaks how a fully voluntary internet community, the Anonymouse, affected the public. How did the members of this community build their identification beyond physical barriers for one united goal? I believe this kind of community will have even more coherence than a nation state identity. After all, you don't chose the latter one.

Is it possible that we will have more and more identification to all kinds of communities? I think the answer is yes. It is possible for someone to have a better identification to an community than the country in which he was born. Today, we can see people recognize themselves as fans of Lady GAGA, calling themselves “little monsters�. It is very possible that a man in Japan could feel more intimate with his fellow monsters, who live in the states, than his next door neighbor.

There has been no other time in the history when we could create new identities and erase our pasts so easily.

We can become anyone we want behind the monitor. For the first time of history, we are now have full control of our identities. But is that really the liberation of identity, or has the internet just created another shackle of identity? While the internet is permeating our real world, traditional authorities in this physical reality are trying to have more control on this second virtual reality. Policies such as REAL-NAME INTERNET are trying to have a better control of our virtual life. Banks are now investigating your credit record on ebay to see if you're qualified

for a loan. While the internet gives us unseen freedom, traditional authorities are also trying to use it to control us. It is possible that in the future, we might be asked to submit our internet account to a government database for it to track us.

Nevertheless, I believe in the future, a man's identity will be focused on “what they chose� instead of traditional identities such as ethnic group or nationality. The internet allows individuals to chose what they believe in regardless of what they are born to be. This kind of future is only possible because of this internet permeated world. The problem is, how much power can these internet communities have? Will traditional nation states allow the relinquishment of power? Can nation states tolerate that international communities, whether internet based or not, to have the right of speech that is traditionally given by nation states? I'm not trying to imply that the identity as a citizen of nation state will no longer exist, but the fact that it will become less important than it is now. Is it possible that what future has in store for us is a new-middle-age where boundaries of states are vague and people only recognizes what they believe in? No matter what future lies ahead, I believe our identity in the future will be very different from the one we have now.

吳 謹亘Wu, Chin-Hsuan wuchinhsuan@outlook.com http://issuu.com/evanwu2/docs/portfolio Chung Shiao E.rd, sec.4, no.134, 12F, Taipei, Taiwan