MIFF 2017

 The furniture I like the most is Tsumineru which was designed by Yap Xin Yi. It is a combination of Chinese and Japanese style and the concept is dim sum. Although “The Able” which was designed by Pamela Yap Wei was also a good design but I would prefer Tsumineru more than “The Able” as Tsumineru has a unique design. Tsumineru’s uniqueness is the best among all 10 of the finalist but there is a reason why she cannot win. The main problem is that it is not ergonomic for people to use. The table and chair is not that proportionate as the chair is taller than the height of a normal chair. The furniture is also quite heavy, Just the lid of the furniture is already that heavy, if a person was going to move the whole furniture, it will be the test of strength for that person. It has lots of flaws in it, but it can always be improve till it is at its best. The uniqueness is there that is why it caught my eye the moment I lay my eyes upon it.

The furniture I did not like is “NVNA Tea Table” which was designed by Yang Wen Wei. The furniture is based on a boy and a girl and she used colours to represent it. The furniture is also very small, and I’m not sure if that a person will able to sit on it. Maybe it was meant for kids, but the height was not suitable as I do not think a kid will able to sit a chair that high. If it was meant for adult, the sitting area is too small. A normal person will be uncomfortable if they sit on it. It is a good design that she is able to get into the finalist, but I don’t really understand her concept and her design is common compare to Tsumineru, thus this is why I don’t really like this furniture that much,  

Why Mass Production?

Mass production involves producing goods in a large quantity. This strategy is undertaken in big companies under various circumstances. Though it is targeted at an individual long cost, it does not necessarily mean low quality.
The advantages of mass production is that lots of goods can be manufactured in a short amount of time and they are all standardized item. The result in a high accuracy level, though it requires continuous monitoring. Moreover, a lot of things are pre-decided, this results in division of labor, which is also one of the contributing factors for a high accuracy. And so, since each worker focuses on his individual job, a higher degree of a reliability is established. The rate of production was able to increase as the machines was powered by high level of automation. Thus, goods are manufactured efficiently and at an increased pace. A fast rate of production implies that the goods can be marketed faster and will leads to a steady profit in less time.

Whereas for the disadvantages of mass production is that if anything incorrect with the design, the entire production cycle will be affected. It also cannot be accurately verified until several have already been made, and so this results in terrific wastage of resources. As already mentioned, mass consumption is essential to determined the success rate of mass production and the company need to take into account the market demand of the product. However, there is no assurance or guarantee that the product will be hit among the consumers and if not, there will be no profit and all the produced goods will then be wasted. Though the overall expenditure per unit is reduced, the use of automated machine tools requires a lot of investment. There are other raw materials devised during the product design plan, which are very expensive and need to be purchased for a faster rate of production. Similarity is a trait of mass production. It is different if the product is in excess demand, but after a while, consumers may lose interest due to less variety. Even while producing the item, it is a bulk manufacturing strategy, therefore no variety is introduced, all the items are of the same quality, dimensions, etc. This could lead to limited consumption and wastage of capital.

Mass production needs a great deal of thought. It is always characterized by introducing some type of mechanization in order to retain quality and achieve ability and combat the disadvantages using effective means.

Refined Craft

"Decorated Like a Maven"  is a cover story in Calibre (December 2016) which is a lifestyle magazine for mature modern man. It was about how to decorate your living space like a professional.
"There is nothing 'raw and ready' here; instead this is about celebrating skill and time-intensive processes that cannot be mimicked in mass production." Products or furniture that undergo craft production always have its own uniqueness that are difficult to remake, thus higher its price. If you had something that no one or not many people had, that kind of feeling is indescribably. But from a designer's point of view, we can feel more accomplish and proud with the outcome as we made it with our own hands, whereas if we let the machines to do all the work, we will not feel that much accomplishment.    

 

Craft Production VS Mass Production

There will be always some argument about craft and mass production, some might say craft production is better than mass production, some say otherwise.

	Craft Production	Mass Production
Workers	The workers know about the whole process as they will be the one hand crafting most of the product, to do that they must be skill enough to meet the clients or the boss needs. They are also self-reliant.	The workers only know parts of the process as they were in charge on that certain part. They don’t need to have much skills on making the product but they will have to know how to operate the machines. They also have to be dependent.
Product	The product are usually being customize for an individual if someone requested.	The product are usually in a common or standard design as they were produce in a mass amount in a short period of time.
Advantages	The price of the product is flexible depends on how much work must be done.	The products are usually inexpensive and easy to repair of discard.
Disadvantages	The products are usually expensive and long apprenticeship is needed to meet the requirement of skills to make a nice crafting product.	The designs are usually rigid and the workers usually alienating work.

There are still many arguments between this two production. But of course different people will have different point of view about it.

Craft Production

Craft Production is a method of making goods by hand or with just simple tools. Craft production results in items that have their own uniqueness in their own way as it was handmade one by one. Craft produced good vary in quality, though they are often thought to have higher production values than mass produced versions. It is often possible for a craftsman to achieve certain effects or levels of detail using techniques that are not viable in mass production. Depends on the ability of the craftsman, how good will they able to craft a product to make it better than a product produce by mass production.

A table stand

A baby crib which was handmade by the child's father

Everything will have the advantages and disadvantages .The advantages of craft production is that lots of effort will be put into it as the craftsman will want to make it as good as possible, thus the quality always tends to be seen as considerably higher than something that was mass produced. The product can also be customized to fit a person needs. This can often be desirable from the standpoint of a consumer that is interested in unique items, though it can have drawbacks if the product ever needs to be repaired. Much skill is often required for the craftsman, therefore they are able to charge more for the manufacturing of the product.

 The disadvantages of craft production is that although the manufacturing process does not require machines for the producer, it takes a great amount of time and effort, thus the product will be more expensive than usual. Craft production also will be not possible to produce a large amount of products in a short amount of time, it could made the manufacturer to loss their profit, however the higher prices of craft product can sometimes make up for this. Another disadvantages is that the product is not design to disassemble, so if something goes wrong during the making of it, there are no interchangeable parts. Every piece also becomes more valuable so any defects will be more important.  

In cases where the absolute uniformity of a product is not necessary, craft production has some benefits over mass produced goods.  Furniture, cabinetry and other woodworking is often craft produced due to the level of detail and quality that the method allows for. Handicraft is also practiced around the world in areas where industrialization has been limited.

Futuristic Motorcycle- The Bullet Motorcycle with safety

Motorcycle is a familiar transport to people ever since 1885. It was a convenient transport but unlike bicycles which are eco-friendly, motorcycle was powered up by petroleum. But compared to cars or others heavy vehicles, motorcycle produce less exhaust as the petroleum it needed was lesser than the others. The major negative point of motorcycle is the safety features for it. People have come out with an idea of a helmet to protect the rider’s head, but sometimes not only the head just have to be protected. People are just focusing on the speed of the motorcycle. Their concern is always on how to make it go faster? What kind of design that will attract people? To me, what motorcycles need the most is more safety so that motorcyclist able to ride on road with ease. Well maybe in the future, there will be a motorcycle where people can ride it without any worries.

A motorcycle with a rooftop to protect the rider from sunlight and rain, an airbag will also be install, just like a car. If one is concern is about the balancing, there will be a magnetic waves so that it can be stabilise and will not fall easily. And with the magnetic waves, people who love fast able to ride as fast as they want as the motorcycle did not produce any friction against the ground. Petroleum will be drained if we keep using it as our resources continuously as it will not only be one person using it, but all of the people in earth will be using it. If the motorcycle uses electricity as fuel, it might not able to run out but it will be costly. As well as if we use water as fuel, water is important to any living things on earth, and it will be somehow limited in the future, so it might end up costly too or finish its resources. Thus, a solar powered motorcycle is a better choice as sunlight is unlimited resource. If one is worried when it was cloudy or rainy for days? It is not a problem as the power can be store up to weeks depends on how much the rider used.

In the future, if you were going to be late for work and driving a car will be even worse as it will sure have to face the major traffic conjunction, thus riding a motorcycle would be a better option. With just a few command, you can see that your motorcycle coming in a speed of the light, you hope on it, fasten your seatbelt and off you go. After you command your motorcycle to your destination, you have your light breakfast first. Due to the motorcycle uses magnetic waves, it does not touch the ground when it moves, so it will not have any shakiness during the ride. Halfway during your journey, the sky started pouring cats and dogs, but luckily your motorcycle has a rooftop to protect you from getting wet. Later, maybe it was because of the weather condition, a car did not notice you and hit you with your motorcycle straight into it. With the help of the magnetic waves, it did not lose its balance, it just ski through but did not fall of balance, meanwhile inside you did not get hurt as well as the interior was covered by cushion so that you will not get hurt even though it will not even fall. After some minor confrontation, you continue your journey back to work. After it reach your destination, you get off of it, it went to find its own parking spot, and after finding a parking spot, it will be starting to absorb as much sunlight as possible even though when the weather condition is bad. After you finish your work, you want to release all your stress which you accumulate for the day, you command your destination and it appear right before your eyes, and you command it to go to your destination, you just sit back and relax for a moment. In a short period of time, it reaches a remote but spacious space, and with your few command, the rooftop was open and it became manually controlled. You wanted to feel the air when you were speeding so you can put all your stress away.  When you feel satisfy, it will return to automatic mood so you can take your ride home comfortably without worrying about the traffic. 

Review on METROPOLIS (1927 film)

Metropolis is a 1927 silent film which was directed by Fritz Lang. This movie was about how people during 1927 imagine what will the future become, how will it looks like during 2026.

Metropolis (1927)
 by Fritz Lang

 In this movie, they clearly show that the different treatment with the higher-class people at the high-rise tower enjoying life, whereas the lower-class people will be at the underground dealing with the machines for 10 hours a day.

The city in the movie of Metropolis.

Freder, whom was the son of Joh Fredersen, the city's master, met Maria and later witnessed the explosion of the machine which killed and injure several workers, and so he decided to rebel his own father and help the workers. The fake Maria who was a robot that was invented by Rotwang, urged the workers to rise up to destroy the machines. Feder knew that Maria was not the Maria he loved. The Maria he loves wanted peace and not war. But the workers ignore Freder as they found out he was the son of the city's master, they beat him up and follow the fake Maria to the machines room, leaving their children behind to destroy the Heart Machine. As result, the workers' city has started flooding. The real Maria escaped from Rotwang's house and help the children with the help of Freder. The workers burned the fake Maria to death as they blamed her for the death of their children. Freder watches, not understand the deception until the fire reveals her to be a robot. Rotwang fall to death after the fight with Freder at the roof of the cathedral. Freder fulfill his role as mediator by linking hands of Fredersen and Grot to bring them together.

This movie was played in our lecture, and one of the interesting thing is that our lecturer wanted us to make our own dialog when the movie was being played. Well it may sound boring if we follow the plot, but we just keep making different dialog out of it which has no relation at all. We just say out any random thoughts which came out of their mind and what we said had actually match the actions of the character. Some of us had also even make the sound effects too. It was just so fun. But of course we were still on track with the story line so we'll know what this movie is about.

After watching this movie, the major thought in my mind was that: " Their acting were so dramatic." Compare to the movies nowadays, the actors and actress were acting naturally like how we usually do off screen, but for the actors and actress in metropolis, their action and expression was so dramatic. But then, Metropolis IS a silent movie, which of course, silent. The audience could not hear them talk, we could only know their speech when the dialog was shown on screen, and it's not all of it, only the important part. Thus the actors and actress have to act and show the audience through just actions and facial expressions only. Anger, sadness, happiness are only able to show through actions and facial expressions, how difficult is that.

Maria's dramatic reaction 

Freder's dramatic reaction 

Considering this movie was being film in 1927, the effects are actually good. Whether is sound or special effects, they are awesome. But there is a part where the city start flooding, the water movement actually makes no sense...Waterfall flowing down in the middle of the city....yeah...people makes mistakes and learn from it.

The ring effect

"Waterfall" in the city

People always wonder how will the future looks like, and this is one of the movies that assume what will it look in the future. It didn't actually change much from their current time, maybe the advancement of technology, but the humanity in this world would not change that much. What do I think of the future? I am not sure of myself.