Creative Multimedia: The driving force behind technology and society (video)

Due to some technical problems, the flash presentation of our work cannot be posted here. However, i've uploaded the file online and you can download it here. No worries, it's just about 100 KB in size.

Final Design Concept

(this is also chosen as the final design)

50 Sketches

Creative Multimedia: The driving force behind technology and society (essay)

In the creative multimedia industry, there are a lot of fields which student can choose to study. Fields like film and animation, interior design, interface design, digital media and VR (Visual Reality) are fields that you can find in creative multimedia. But, do you know the information about these fields when you are going to study? Below is the information about the fields in creative multimedia.

Film and animation is a major field of study in Creative Multimedia, and is also one of the products of traditional multimedia. Without it, creative multimedia study would not have flourished, or even existed to begin with. There are mainly two categories in this field - film and animation. Film is essentially real-life motion pictures, while animation is hand-illustrated drawings that depict motion. But as technology develops, animation has evolved from stop motion to computer animation. There are two components that define film and animation: audio and visual. Audio can be divided to background music, sound effects, and narration while visual comprises videos and animation. Illustration, character design and visual effects make up the designing component. Film was introduced in the 19th century as moving pictures, then silent films and after that, talking pictures. Not long after, color films and television were invented, and now we have high-definition as well as 3D movies. Now that the technology in the animation industry is so advanced, we are witnessing computer and 3D animation surfacing. These improvements in animation mark a big step from the olden days when we had flip book animation and sand animation. The knowledge of each specific branch of this field of education is very important and they are often closely linked together. To be a lead in this industry, we need to be able to keep up with times and technology, together with the basis, both theory and practical.

Interior design is defined as the art of planning, decorating, furnishing and creating interior of buildings like houses, offices, shops and more. Interior designers need their coordinative and creative thinking skills to design a plan that satisfies and fulfills their requests. Interior designers also need to follow the interior designing process - a systematic and coordinated methodology including research and analysis. As the technology now is more advanced, virtual makeovers are invented for the designer’s convenience. Clients are able to see the design of their houses through the computer screen. The programme revolutionizes interior design from a customer’s perspective, making the design process more interactive and exciting in a relatively technological but labor-intensive environment. Design concept is always confused with style, which involves a great understanding of architectural content, the socio-cultural and programmatic requirements of the client.

What is an interface? Simply speaking, interface is what the user sees and touches, how the user is allowed to interact with the system and technologies that facilitate the interaction. Besides, toolkits that allow creating and modifying the interface also defines interface. The interface has to be consistent with the message’s overall theme and objective. The principles that have to be considered carefully while designing an interface are divided into many parts, one of it being its compatibility with the screen estate which is 640x480 for CD and 800x600 for web. Usability and functionality are part of the principles that have to be considered. Usability means how easy it is to understand the interface and the functionality is how reliable are the interactive controls. Besides, the components are also important in interface design. Examples of components include the background and textures; buttons, icons and picons; cursors and pop- up balloons; sound and sound effect; feedback; splash screen; menu screen as known as Graphical User Interface (GUI).  Metaphors refer to an experience which using familiar items. When designing an interface, it should assume the same style and presentation as the theme and objective of the application such as news, games, storytelling, kiosk and menu.

    

Digital media are usually electronic media that work on digital codes. Today, computing is primarily based on the binary numeral system. Basically digital media refers to any type of electronic media out there. Digital media such as digital video and digital audio can be created, referred to and distributed via digital information processing machines. Digital media represents a profound change from previous (analog) media. Today, media can be accessed in many ways, including with hand held devices like mobile phones, laptops, desktops, mp3 players, and more. Digital media must be stored in an electronic way, so there is a lot of digital content on the internet today, including text content, pictures, audio content, as well as video content. Through the history of internet, digital media has been developing in various ways. Digital media emphasises the creation of information driven content in the digital technology realm. The works are designed to provoke reaction, involve video, animation, sound and multimedia displays and allow the user to explore and push the boundaries of media production. The digital game displays take an innovative approach to the game experience. Of particular interest are works that reveal new means of representation and interaction with the potential to influence, delight, educate, and challenge.

Visual Reality (or as we like to call it, VR) environments can be divided into four categories, which are total immersion, partial immersion, augmented reality, and desktop. Total immersion, the most elaborate and expensive form, attempts to put the user completely into a computer-generated world. Many total immersion systems are installed in their own rooms or in special modules so that the user may be surrounded by visual, audio, and any other sensory experiences being simulated. Partial immersion includes some special sensory devices, such as goggles or gloves, but is not as extensive as full immersion. Next, augmented reality creates images and sounds that are merged with real-life images or sounds. Augmented reality is sometimes seen as a hybrid or bridge environment between VR and the physical world. Finally, desktop VR is the most basic form, typically a 3-D interactive application on a desktop computer; in most cases this involves only standard computer equipment and no special viewing or other sensory devices. Desktop VR is generally the least costly VR environment. Some of the key business and commercial fields that have deployed VR technology include aviation, engineering, medicine, law, and general management functions. The legal profession has benefited from the technology's versatility, too. Law students investigating courtroom procedures and argumentation can vicariously interact with "individuals" in a fabricated courtroom. Virtual reality has proven a particularly useful tool in engineering and design. Major automotive, aerospace, and other machinery companies, for examples, have eagerly added VR capabilities to their product development processes. The simplest form of virtual reality is a 3-D image that can be explored interactively at a personal computer, usually by manipulating keys or the mouse so that the content of the image moves in some direction or zooms in or out. Popular products for creating virtual reality effects on personal computers include Bryce, Extreme 3D, Ray Dream Studio, trueSpace, 3D Studio MAX, and Visual Reality.

How does all that fit into the development of our society? Creative multimedia is the driving force which strives to promote the concept of multimedia communications in business, art and design, entertainment and education. Multimedia is not just about the technology and also about creativity. Society is faced with increasing new forms of multimedia communication, both from the technological tools and the messages beamed to us each day via a saturated electronic environment. As the world shifts into the global digisphere, our next generation faces even bolder challenges to become future media creators. Creative multimedia also promote, train and educate the creative local society. The creative and media sector is thus the true heart of the Information Society, as it represents the segment that is the most accessed and most accessible by the masses.

Group Assignment - Creative Multimedia

The objective of this group assignment is to create a design concept as well as a final presentation of it. The title is "Creative Multimedia". We started with a mind map of Creative Multimedia.

Then, we narrowed it down to a specific subject, thus the creation of a statement - Creative Multimedia: The driving force behind technology and society.

6. Random Word Association

Random word/image association is an idea generation method that applies a systematic way with a fixed formula to garner new ideas. It provokes and intrigues our mind to react, resulting unorthodox solutions and concepts.

This technique can be used to stimulate open and divergent thinking and seek creative new ideas. When you are running out of ideas, this is the one of the best ways to acquire your lost sense of creativity. With some practice, even the most conventional people who rely on logic and analytical thinking can produce genius creativity.

For this lesson, our task was to create an image/object that will instill fear amongst people. We are given a random word - cat - to carry out random word association.

Here is a mini mind map of my ideas:

With the word "cat", i am reminded of four main characteristics:

i) claws - Cats have nasty claws which they sharpen by scratching on carpets, wood planks etc. It is one of their important self-defense tools and they can climb steep objects easily.

ii) fish - Cats in cartoons are always portrayed eating fish, but the real reason is unknown. In reality, cats feed on many other types of food. This is a much stereotypical judgement of a cat.

iii) night vision - Felines have very good night vision because they are nocturnal animals. They often hunt in the night (that includes big cats like the tiger) and laze around, taking long naps during the day.

Click to enlarge. Yes, that's a finger in her mouth.

Fish: What's a scary fish? A man-eating fish, that is! Piranhas are one of the omnivorous species of fish in the world that consumes large amount of meat. They have sharp teeth and a big appetite for human flesh. What are the chances you'll survive in the middle of a river with a school of piranhas? Thank goodness most of them only exist in the Amazon basin.

5. Juxtaposition

The "We've Won It" supplement papers comes together with the "Terror Bombs Explode Across London" Evening Standard for free.

A ragged, old man sitting on the pavement while looking upon a nicely dressed young lady.

Old vs New: The Trinity Church in Boston.

Juxtaposition is the act of placing two unrelated objects together to indicate a relationship between them. Stimulation of creative thinking occurs when  two contrasting objects are in close proximity. The analogy of the juxtaposed subjects can be categorized into two - metaphor and simile.

Metaphor is a figure of speech that uses one thing to mean another and makes a comparison between the two. For example, "All the world's a stage" is a metaphor from a play written by Shakespeare. It compares the world to a theatre stage and life to a play (of seven stages).

Simile is pretty much the same as metaphor, but the key to their difference is that simile uses the conjunctions, "like" or "as", while metaphor connects the two subject directly.

Metaphor: "All the world's a stage,"

Simile: "The whole world is like a theatre stage."

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The tasks this week was rather fun, because really random and odd ideas were conjured thanks to entire class juxtaposing almost everything.

Task 1

Firstly, we were given two lists of words, and we had to choose three pairs of numbers (00 to 99).

Click to enlarge

I picked three pairs of numbers and ended up with these combinations:

i) Flower & Root

ii) Ice & Mountain

iii)Duck & Rain

Then, we built sentences using these words, and with those sentences, we illustrate it out using our imagination. The fourth part, we had to draw out the combination of words instead of the sentence.

i) flower root

ii) ice mountain

iii) duck rain

Task 2

We were asked to choose two animals and combine them together, forming a new species of animal. Their characteristics need to be merged, but it has to be impossible for them to survive on Earth (land creature with sea creature).

This is a seahorse. Literally. It is a mutated horse with the body of a real seahorse. Horses are grazing animals while seahorses consume tiny crustaceans and shrimps, invertebrates and small fishes. Although they have similar physical features such as their long, nozzle-like "faces", almost everything about them - their breathing mechanism, reproductive system etc - are different.

Task 3

Candle vs Life

You start out life standing bold and tall,
With a flame so bright you outshine all.
To give so much, you burn from the core,
Time after time, others still ask for more.

Life's glory so brief, you were an untold legend,

Insignificant being, your death was hastened.

A fickle light towards the end,
There is nothing before that you can mend.

Ice cream vs Pain

Sweet and silky, freezing cold,

A scoop or more for young and old.

Chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and mint,

Every flavour with a different tint.

A spoonful or two can be delightful,

But have too much and it'll get frightful.

What's more irresistible to a child with cavities,

Than cold hard cream with flavours of candies?

Chilli vs Love

Your love is hot and dangerous,
A taste of you makes me delirious.
The trace of your lips like fire,
They are all my heart's desire.
Being with you it's always summertime,
Feisty, erotic, yet so sublime.
You are my greatest temptation,
Loving you is a sultry sensation.

4. Mind Maps

I'm sure you are no stranger to this visual thinking tool. A mind map is used for idea generation, visualization  and organization, and is great for a structured planning of writing, classifying notes, problem solving and studying, and has been vastly applied throughout our education process for its efficiency. It usually consists of a network of branched out categories with the main topic/theme in the middle. Here are a couple of examples of mind maps:

Tony Buzan, the inventor of mind mapping, claims that the mind map is a vastly superior note taking method because it does not lead to a "semi-hypnotic trance" state induced by other note forms. There are some guidelines to follow in order to create a good mind map:

a) Start in the center with an image of the topic.

b) Use images, symbols, codes, and dimensions throughout your mind map.

c) Keep the topics label as short as possible.

d) Vary text size, color and alignment.

e) Use multiple colors throughout the mind map, for visual stimulation and also to encode or group.

f) Use emphasis and show associations in your mind map.

Mind maps can be classified into two categories: logical and associated. A logical mind map consists of words directly linked together based on stereotype. It is useful for taking down notes and organizing information. On the other hand, an associated mind map connects words that seems to have no related meanings, but are actually associated by memory. The two mind maps shown above are logical mind maps, as you might've guessed. Here's an example of an associated mind map:

I wasn't complete sure about the random word method at first because it seems to divert too much from logic. The truth is, associating two totally different things together produces more interesting and unexpected outcomes. This is why associated mind maps are perfect for idea generation and unconventional brainstorming.

We've tried out the method in class, first with a logical mind map and illustration of our friend sitting beside us.

Images courtesy of Heng Pei Ling.

Then, our lecturer gave us the task of creating an invention that would become something common in the future based on a mortar and a pestle with the help of this associated mind map:

This was what i came up with:

Click to enlarge

Exercise: A suit designed for running can be made with pestles around the body and a cap and dumbbells using mortars.

Coconut: The mortar and pestle can be used as a coconut crusher.

Brad Pitt: Brad Pitt will set new trends in the future with an Oscar outfit made of a mortar and pestle.

3. Biography: Google Founders, Sergey Brin & Larry Page

Larry Page and Sergey Brin are the founders of Google, currently the Internet's most popular search engine, while they were only graduate students at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

Page was born in East Lansing, Michigan where his parents were computer science professors at Michigan State University. Page attended the Okemos Montessori School in Okemos, Michigan from 1975 to 1979, and graduated from East Lansing High School (1991). He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer engineering from the University of Michigan with honours. Eager to advance in his career, Page decided to study for a Ph.D degree. He was admitted to the prestigious doctoral program in computer science at Stanford University. On an introductory weekend at the Palo Alto campus for new students, he met Sergey Brin.

A native of Moscow, Russia, Brin was also the son of Michael Brin and Eugenia Brin, both graduates of Moscow State University. His father is a mathematics professor at the University of Maryland, and his mother is a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. He came to the United States with his family when he was six. His father taught math at the University of Maryland, and it was from that school's College Park campus that Brin earned an undergraduate degree in computer science and math.

Brin was already enrolled in Stanford's PhD program when Page arrived in 1995. He was working on data mining, the idea of taking large amounts of data, analyzing it for patterns and trying to extract relationships that are useful. One weekend Brin was assigned to a team that showed the new doctoral students around campus, and Page was in his group. According to interviews and reports, the two often disagreed with each other and argued a lot, but soon found themselves working together on a research project. That 1996 paper, "Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine", became the basis for the Google search engine.

Page and Brin invented an algorithm that searches all the hypertext documents in cyberspace, which are the basis for Web pages on the Internet. They wanted to create a search tool that would find the most relevant Web page first. "PageRank", the search engine with Page and Brin's unique algorithm is named after Page.

Page and Brin  named their company "Google," after the mathematical term Googol, which specified the number one followed by a hundred zeros. They took it to Andy Bechtolsheim who offered to write them a check of $100,000 on the spot. They went on to raise more money from friends, family, and then from venture capital firms that funded new businesses. By the end of 1999 they had set up headquarters in an office park in Mountain View, and had officially launched the site.

"Obviously everyone wants to be successful, but I want to be looked back on as being very innovative, very trusted and ethical and ultimately making a big difference in the world." 

- Sergey Brin

References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Brin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Page

http://www.notablebiographies.com/news/Ow-Sh/Page-Larry-and-Brin-Sergey.html

2. Novelty, Creativity, Innovation and Invention

nov·el·ty [nov-uhl-tee]

–noun

state or quality of being novel, new, or unique; newness.

cre·a·tiv·i·ty   [kree-ey-tiv-i-tee, kree-uh-]

–noun

the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination.

in·no·va·tion   [in-uh-vey-shuhn]

–noun

the process that renews something that exists; make changes in anything established.

in·ven·tion   [in-ven-shuhn]

–noun

new composition, device, or process.

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All of the above mentioned words have interrelated meanings, but they are merely branched out definitions of Creativity. On the right of every image i've accompanied my ideas on those concepts.

Novelty is the quality of being new, unique and interesting. There are two categories of novelty:

a) Subjective novelty - a perception of something as being new by an individual or a group of people.

b) Objective novelty - something new for all humanity in its development/evolution through a long period of time.

For example, compare a new, creative design for knife holders to a young kid from the States learning how to use a pair of chopsticks.

Creativity is a big word. It is comprised of novelty, innovation, originality etc, and is very subjective depending on the individual's perception. A simple definition would be the ability to create something new but of value as well.

Compared to the amusing knife holder, this coffee cup that can even hold cookies seems more useful, but that may be just me.

You might not realize this, but everything in this world requires creativity. The computer screen you're looking at, the ceiling fan, that English essay you've just completed...

Innovation is the process of renewing something that already exists. Any invention, design, idea, strategy is open to improvements and recreation. The world is so full of them that went through countless innovation that no one really knows true originality. Again, this depends on the inventor/creator/designer themselves.

This image shows a camera holder for self-portraits. Initially, tripods are used, but this design would be the preferred option for people who can't be bothered setting up a tripod or even carrying it.

Invention is anything that has been created based on an idea the inventor conceived him/herself, or derived from ideas that already existed.

The earliest recorded evidence of the production of soap-like materials dates back to around 2800 B.C. in Ancient Babylon. Michel Eugene Chevreul, a French chemist, was the first person to make soap from fats, glycerin and fatty acids in 1811.

References: http://dictionary.reference.com

http://en.wikipedia.org

http://www.sabkuchchalega.com

http://www.edinformatics.com

1. Thinking & Creativity

Although it was not the official week 1, actual Creative Studies classes started today. Our lecturer, Mr. Radzi Bedu, began the lecture with an introduction to the module. Basically, i found it very interesting - it was something i'd willingly listen to and not doze off - but the prospect of managing yet another individual weblog as the first assignment rather dismayed me. We are to create an online journal focusing on our views and thoughts of the topic in the lecture which should be updated weekly.

The topic of the day is Defining Creativity. To me, "creativity" is the ability to make/design something totally new and different, or to develop ideas and concepts that the world has never come across. After listening to some of Edward De Bono's speeches on "creativity" and "thinking outside the box", i realized something else. There is a thin line between creativity and being different. Sometimes, a new invention could be completely out of this world, never before seen and mind-blowing. But for it to be considered "creative", the idea/invention should be useful and has value and relevance. Otherwise, people are simply creating something different for the sake of being different.

We also learned about some common myths and misconceptions about creativity. Each myth is followed by my comment about it.

1. Only special people are creative.

Perhaps we should take a look at past examples of creative people - each and every inventor, designer or philosopher that were creative enough to be considered great had to go through much hardships. Becoming a creative being involves years of hard work and constant practice to polish their thinking skills and acquire vital knowledge. They had to go trough countless experiments, failed or succeeded, to gain experience and new insights. As the great inventor Thomas Edison once said, "Creativity is an attitude, combined with effort; 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration".

2. Being creative is hard.

That may be somewhat true. As i have mentioned, to become a creative person, you'll have put in a lot of effort and sacrifices. But with the correct methods of thinking, being creative might not be that difficult after all. Many people fail to come up with new ideas because they are often stuck midway, unable to move forward or find an alternative to solve a problem. Some of them give up easily simply because they were too blinded by limitations of the norms. There are so many ways to develop and improve creative thinking skills because the world is open to infinite possibilities.

3. Problems are in our life to make it more difficult.

I'd like to think of problems as stepping stones to a well-developed, advance society. It is when times are difficult that humans try to create and improvise to solve problems and make life better. Why, can you imagine life without problems from the very beginning of humans as babies? It is impossible that we could survive! As we progress, solving problems with creative thinking also allows us to develop and perfect our thinking skills, often discovering new methods and ideation

4. I am not creative.

This is all a matter of perspective. No one is not creative. Or rather, no one does not have the chance to be creative. We were all born the same, only outer factors create obstacles for us. To quote from above, "Becoming a creative being involves years of hard work and constant practice to polish their thinking skills and acquire vital knowledge."

5. Innovation is the domain of geniuses.

It doesn't take a world-class architect to build a house, and the same goes for this statement. Being innovative is similar to being creative in some ways because they both require long term dedication to hard work. It's not only the brains that matter.

6. I have to have brand new ideas in order for me to be considered creative.

Here's one shocking secret i've discovered in class: There are no new ideas! Over the millenniums, it is hard to determine what is truly original and creative. We are subconsciously influenced by the outside world because we cannot help being exposed to it. A new concept could be formed by combining two existing ideas  or improving one idea, also known as innovation.

7. Brainstorming is hard work.

... if you're doing it the wrong way. There are many approaches to brainstorming, and a lot of them could be fun. Whichever technique floats your boat will ease the process of thinking.

8. Only artists need to be creative.

It saddens me how people misunderstand the term "creativity". It is often labelled as something you need to have if you're involved in arts. According to how i defined it from above, "creativity" is all around us. You can never escape from the need to be creative because even the basics in life involve it - building a new book shelf, creating new recipes for dinner, figuring a new way to solve a math problem etc.

9. Writer's block is the greatest obstacle in the creative process.

We are no strangers to writing and writer's block, but i'm sure you wouldn't consider it the greatest obstacle in the creative process. I think it's more about our attitude, really. Often, we are blinded by frustration that we can't figure out a way to cure our writer's block. It is when we have completely given up that we truly fail.

10. Using structured creative techniques will hinder my ability to be creative.

This is a very subjective statement. Everyone either develops their own creative techniques and skills, or they loosely follow methods created by creative thinkers. If it works, it works. If it doesn't, then the problem lies with you. YOU need to find a way that works, be it structured or not.