GEOGRAPHICAL SEPARATION Final Year Project Review
SHARLENE LEE U1230058C
FYP 2015/16 | FACE VALUE
INTRO GEOGRAPHICAL SEPARATION In today’s global society, people typically live in places different from where they were born and brought up. Most adult children live a long distance from their parents. Easier air travel and widespread use of cell phones and other technological devices allow families to keep in contact all the time and across long distances. When individuals go away to school, their relationships with family and friends also become long distance. Also, because of new technologies, college students will have greater social ties with their friends than their family members.
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gathering and documenting information and generating data/evidence
CONTENT & CONTEXT Why is this important?
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FYP 2015/16 | FACE VALUE
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LITERATURE REVIEW Routledge Handbook of Families in Asia Quah, Stella R., ed. (2015) Routledge Handbook of Families in Asia. London: Routledge. Forthcoming (Stella Quah is an Adjunct Professor at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, National University of Singapore.)
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What transformation path will Asian family relationships and structure take in the next five decades?
In the global post-industrial framework of interconnected economies in Asia, workersmove across countries for long periods in search of job opportunities leaving their spouses and children behind. Families accommodate to the physical absence of one or both parents by mobilizing the grandparents and extended kin, reorganizing their resources and using communication technology.
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FYP 2015/16 | FACE VALUE
DIASPHORA
(noun) any group migration or flight from a country or region. Synonyms: dispersion, dissemination, migration, displacement, scattering.
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Searching for better economic opportunities in distant lands is by no means a new phenomenon in Asia
Southeast Asia was, and continues to be, a major destination of mass longdistance labor migrations. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries labor migration was a defining feature of Asian globalization.
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MIGRATION PATTERNS A survey conducted by the Singapore Polytechnic revealed that more than 50% of youths aged between 15 and 29 years old want to migrate overseas if given the chance.
Migration patterns now involve both single and married individuals. There are signs that married migrant workers and their spouses left behind are committed to their families’ survival despite their difficult circumstances. We are witnessing the emergence of a new form of family structure and family resilience that deserves further representation.
Alexander Larin: The Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia: gains and losses (PhD in History, Leading Researcher at RAS Institute for Far Eastern Studies)
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FYP 2015/16 | FACE VALUE
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PERSONAL MOTIVATION Living away from where I grew up and from my loved ones and experiencing a disconnection upon returning. Technology was then the main medium in which I stay in touch with my family and friends. Started collecting data on relationships formed in the duration of my movements around the world particularly.Singapore, Malaysia, France and USA. To determine if geographically close = closer bonds
SINGAPORE
17 6 8 5 YEARS MALAYSIA
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YEARS SINGAPORE
MONTHS FRANCE
MONTHS UNITED STATES
FYP 2015/16 | FACE VALUE
Having spent most of my life in Malaysia, I expected a higher number of friends in comparison to Singapore. I only started using facebook in 2008 and actively around 2 years later when I moved to Singapore for school.
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FYP 2015/16 | FACE VALUE
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FYP 2015/16 | FACE VALUE
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all conditioned existence is transitory
memory transparency hues
brief
familiarity science of creating bonds?
Presence
Disappearance Time
ordered from the past through the present into the future
Absence
Transitory
happiness
Emotion
movement
Parallelity
travel
people and their influences
light and shadow spaces
never permanent -feelings always vary
discovery
we are shaped by experiences and people around us
repetition
Impermenance
journey
Separation similarity “Stars last a long time, but eventually they will die.”
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--transience lifts the burden of permanence vice versa”
Emptiness
FYP 2015/16 | FACE VALUE
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APPROACH {
Demonstrating human displacement and geographical separation with ‘absence’. To represent a longingness that transcends physical space
marina noronha: i miss you, 2011 3D printed stainless steel
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case studies which highlight different aspects of long-distance relationships
CASE STUDIES What has been done before?
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FYP 2015/16 | FACE VALUE
PRESENCE IN ABSENCE colm keller, ireland
the project highlights the issue of increasing long-distance relationships and the drawbacks of computer mediated communication.
‘I wanted to include the reflective, relaxing qualities of crafts as way to build an emotional bond between users and the object. it also hopes to open a dialogue about how we will value our digital artifacts in the future – our digital heirlooms.’ ‘upon rejoining the couples can contrast and compare the physical appearance with the contents of each portion. maybe the two will differ drastically, a reflection of the time invested by the users. the sharing of the media in each scrapbook is a ritual that the couples will look forward to while apart and enjoy upon re-joining. By placing the two parts side-by-side it gives a semantic hint that they belong together.’ CONTENT & CONTEXT • CASE STUDIES • APPROACH
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FYP 2015/16 | FACE VALUE
SPLITSCREEN : A LOVE STORY
The use of split screen is nothing new in motion pictures or web video, but the editing sets this one apart. Marianne Kuopanportti meticulously marries each shot to its transatlantic counterpart. Can two people who live on opposite sides of the world have anything in common? This is the story of two parallel lives, one in New York and one in Paris and the journey that will lead them together. Told simultaneously through the eyes of both characters.
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FYP 2015/16 | FACE VALUE
SAYING THINGS THAT CAN'T BE SAID daniel sher and ben hagin - israel present day technology allows us to hear, text, see, and use pictures and icons to express how we feel. however, there are physical and emotional dimensions that exist only when we’re close to loved ones. in response to this problem,
‘how can I use technology to bring people closer in a different yet familiar way? it was important to me not to try to reenact the feelings of touch, pressure and warmth we feel when we hug of caress our loved one. trying to imitate that will always feel fake.’ with this understanding of human interaction, they wanted to create new experiences for those who wish to express their love and affection. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnikEJlZURc
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FYP 2015/16 | FACE VALUE
COUPLE san francisco. Couple is an app that helps long distance couples stay in touch and enables those who live in the same city to organize the time they spend together. The Couple Map highlights how the app helps long distance partners stay in touch with each other. It shows a running number of the total messages sent, trending long distance connections and cities, and individual connections popping up all over the world. https://map.couple.me/
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FYP 2015/16 | FACE VALUE
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ABSTRACT REPRESENTATION The online environment is consist of countless pixels- what we create that now makes our life.
Designer Nissa Kinzhalina‘s Urban Philosophy
David Adey
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FYP 2015/16 | FACE VALUE
LITERAL REPRESENTATION
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Mathilde Roussel-Giraudy
To represents the notion that a person’s absent body becomes the negative space of the things left behind. Martin Hudáčeka, Child that was never born
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PLAN OF WORK & APPROACH The project aims to investigate geographically separated relationships in order to understand the limit of human bonds and connection across different time and space.
CONTENT & CONTEXT • CASE STUDIES • APPROACH
FYP 2015/16 | FACE VALUE
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APPROACH {
Demonstrating human displacement and geographical separation with ‘absence’. To represent a longingness that transcends physical space
marina noronha: i miss you, 2011 3D printed stainless steel
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FYP 2015/16 | FACE VALUE
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PLAN OF WORK Objective : To visually represent the connection and absence endured between people that are separated in order to gain an understanding of the limits of technologically-aided communication. Even with technology, the void is still there -
1 2 3
Demonstrating a new language created by shared spaces
Physical depiction of absence as a space left behind
Visual representation of parallelity : Photos/Video Andrew Newman DMG Award 2009 > Attempt to fill an empty space (Performance Anxiety), 2008, 6 Channel video installation. Detail
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1. SYMBOLS Demonstrating a new language created by shared spaces Motif creation from keywords as a way to represent different aspects of separation Memory
Parallelity
ABSENCE
Emptiness
Time
Communication
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FYP 2015/16 | FACE VALUE
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FYP 2015/16 | FACE VALUE
2. 3D OBJECTS Physical depiction of absence as a space left behind - The role of the ‘BODY’ Extrapolation of movement and directions of separation To represents the notion that a person’s absent body becomes present when there is a longingness. Pick two lines that are together and they would never meet again
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FYP 2015/16 | FACE VALUE
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3. CINEMAGRAPHS Visual representation of parallelity - As a way to demonstrate absence and repetitive daily longingness. The key ingredient is a bit of motion. Repetitive movements work best: they create the illusion of perpetual motion. A static frame is also important for creating that feeling of continuity.
Maybe to put on screens as digital ‘images’ that wil move every once in a while.
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TIMELINE 23 OCTOBER Mock presentation for Review 30 OCTOBER Storyboarding 06 NOVEMBER Filming and mockups 13 NOVEMBER Deciding on materials that used 20 NOVEMBER Final Review DECEMBER Filming and mockups JANUARY Refining outcomes
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FYP 2015/16 | FACE VALUE
SUMMARY Why?
To communicate the concept of ABSENCE is something unquantifiable but may be very psychologically affective. Visually depicting it may help us use it to understand HOW physical absence may affect a person. What we perceive as separation and presence is distorted Shared spaces are created as technology bridges our communicative experiences. How intimately can we actually learn about someone else when the meeting is technology aided? How people in different locations are actually closer to one another than people physically around them.
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FYP 2015/16 | FACE VALUE
REFERENCES These Spooky Cinemagraphs Will Radically Change Online Advertising, Samatha Felix http://www.businessinsider.com/how-cinemagraphs-are-changing-advertising-2012-9?IR=T& HERE AND THERE, Copenhagen Institute of Design http://ciid.dk/education/portfolio/py/final-projects/here-and-there/ The Presence of Absence- Sudarshan Shetty http://www.verveonline.com/31/life/sudarshan/full.shtml presence in absence by colm keller http://www.designboom.com/design/presence-in-absence-by-colm-keller/ Is This the Artful Solution to Long-Distance Relationships? http://iq.intel.com/is-this-the-artful-solution-to-long-distance-relationships/ Couple - The app for two https://couple.me/ Universal Methods of Design 100 Ways to ResearchC omplex Problems, Develop Innovative Ideas, and Design Effective Solutions Bella Martin Bruce Hanington Visualizing Research: A Guide To The Research Process In Art And Design Carole Gray
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