2024.02.05 - 2024.03.27
Qistina Nuralya Maria Binti Azly / 0354180
Intercultural Design / Bachelors of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Cultural Sensitivity
Table of contents
1. MODULE INFORMATION BOOKLET (MIB)
1. MODULE INFORMATION BOOKLET (MIB)
This is the Module Information Booklet for this module:
2. PROJECT 1: PROPOSAL
Duration: Week 1 - Week 3
Project Summary: Students are expected to create a proposal for a final design centered around the theme of "Cultural Sensitivity" by researching about a certain culture(s) to back up their ideas.
2.1 Proposal Work
Once we all got into our respective groups, my team did a meeting together to discuss our possible ideas for our research. We threw around topics and decided to explore three ideas briefly; those three topics being tattoos, Yami Kawaii aesthetic and architecture.
The contribution of tasks were:
- Introduction - Isabel
- Tattoos - Qistina (me :])
- Yami Kawaii - Joey
- Architecture - Yan Ling
- Conclusion - Isabel
- Presentation - Neela and Vismitha
Additionally, we had different possible methods of gathering data for each idea:
- Tattoos : Interview tattoo parlors or onsens
- Yami Kawaii : Go to a fashion district and observe
- Architecture : Go to famous tourist spots and read up on info (mostly likely on Torii gates)
Other than researching, we also made sketches of possible end products of said ideas. Since I was tasked with "Tattoos", we thought it would be nice to create a Kinchaku design based off of traditional Japanese tattoos.
So, I opened up Procreate and made a quick sketch based off of my references which is in the Final Proposal:
The following is the full content of our proposal which also includes all our group member's names and our researches on each of our ideas เดฆ്เดฆി(˵ •̀ แด - ˵ ) ✧:
Next is the presentation for our proposal made and recorded by both Neela and Vishmitha เดฆ്เดฆി ห͈̀꒳ห͈́ )✧:
The recorded version can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bPu1r0mikJHqFry-QdoDp-_pbXQI6M9N/view?usp=drive_link
2.2 Class Feedback
Week 1
Class Summary: The first class (Tuto & Prac) was online which was basically an introductory class to the module. We were introduced to the module supervisors and were briefed on the three projects in the module and that all three were group projects. We were also told that the students who were going for the Japan trip were only allowed to study cultural sensitivity in Japan whilst the other students were free to study cultural sensitivity in any country.
There was also a short lecture on "Cultural Sensitivity" conducted by Ms. Anis that talked about the importance of researching cultural sensitivity in design as to not accidentally offend a culture. Afterwards we were reminded that Week 1's lecture and Week 2's Tuto & Prac would not be held because of the Lunar New Year Holidays.
Feedback: -
Week 2
Class Summary: Was advised to use the time of Tuto and Prac to create our E-Portfolio. During our lecture, we were given another lecture on "Cultural Sensitivity" by Ms. Anis to check our understanding on the theme. Afterwards we were divided into semester groups by sticking different coloured stickers onto ourselves to identify which semester we were from (Sem 1, Sem 1.5, Sem 2.5 etc.). The Japan trip students were separated from the other students though.
After the lecture, the Japan trip students were brought to another lecture room for further grouping and a quick brief and reminders about the trip. I was grouped together with Joey, Yan Ling, Isabel, Vishmitha and Neela. I was very relieved someone picked me as a groupmate ( ´ ˘ `) ~ Once grouping was done, we went together for a short meeting about our ideas for the proposal.
Feedback: -
Week 3
Class Summary: Tuto and Prac time slot was recommended by Mr. Asrizal for our groups to meet and discuss more on our proposal. Our group held a meeting in campus and discussed more about our proposal and assigned parts of it to each other. I was assigned to research the taboo-ness of tattoos in Japan as well as create sketch of a Kinchaku bag with a tattoo design based on said research. We managed to finish our proposal by Thursday of Week 3.
The morning prior to our lecture, a final trip briefing was held for the Osaka trip students.
During our lecture, we were given a QnA session for any final questions about the project. The deadline was extended for the non-Osaka trip students to the 25th of Feb (Sunday) but it was still 23rd of Feb (Friday) for Osaka trip students as we would be heading to Osaka on the 25th. Afterwards was a group meeting session but since my group had already finished our proposal a day earlier, we decided to just chat through WhatsApp about our plans for next week.
Feedback: "Good research. This is your project title: Beyond Yami Kawaii: Empowering Expression and Mental Health Awareness." - Ms. Anis via Teams.
2.3 Reflection
I found that this first project was a really nice sort of preview to what we'd be doing as a group in the other two projects. It was cool to see that my groupmates were cooperative and managed to bring up a convincing proposal despite our very varying ideas. I also had fun creating the Kinchaku bag design even if we didn't go for the tattoo topic. Overall, this project was noice เดฆ്เดฆി(˵ •̀ แด - ˵ ) ✧
3. PROJECT 2: FIELD STUDY
Duration: Week 4 - Continuous but recommended by Week 5
Project Summary: Students are expected to collect data in relevance to their chosen topic. All artefacts (digital pictures, physical objects etc.) must be documented and accompanied with description.
3.1 Trip Summary
Since Week 4 was wholly a data collection week and we were in Osaka, Japan, I wanted to document short summaries of the days we were there since it was a very fun experience (˶แต แต แต˶). So, there will be some days where there were no group data collection sessions so please try and amuse them (・–・;)ใ You can skip to Day 2 or Day 3 since those were the days where my group got together to collect data.
Day 1 - 25th February
On the 25th of February 1 AM, we boarded a plane to Kansai Airport from KLIA2. We arrived there at around 10 AM local time, 25th February.
This day was a free day where we had freedom to roam around the area where we stayed to familiarise ourselves. I stayed at "The Stay" in Shinsaibashi and managed to find some friends who also wanted to grab some food since we hadn't ate since the flight.
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We also got to walk to Dotonbori for a bit to see the nightlife (and also buy stuff at the 10-storey-high DonDonDonki there ๐ธ) and to familiarise ourselves incase our groups wanted to head here for research.
After that, we decided to call it a day and headed back to our stay ๐ค
Day 2 - 26th February
Day 2's itinerary was to first head to the CupNoodles museum in Ikeda and then afterwards would be a group meeting session.
At the CupNoodles museum, we had the chance to walk around and see the history of CupNoodles. It was a bit hard to understand since all the descriptions were in Japanese with no English translation but it was still a fun and interactive museum. Outside of the museum though, there was an activity where we could customise our own CupNoodles cup :D It was 500 or 1000 yen if I'm not mistaken for one cup so I decided to join in the activity (เน>•̀เน)
After the museum, we all got into our respective groups to go around Osaka to start our data collection. Our group decided to head back to Shinsaibashi so that we could walk around and observe the streets of Dotonbori.
Whilst observing, we found interesting street art:
While walking around we found some shirts in clothing stores that could possibly classify as Yami Kawaii but it wasn't what we were looking for exactly. So, we decided to ask a local shop owner about whether there were stores near Ebisubashi (a street in Dotonbori, where we were at the time) that sold Yami Kawaii-esque clothing. He kindly pointed us towards Amerika-mura and said that the fashion style we're looking for was more present there. Of course, we had to communicate through rough translation but we were still very grateful that he helped us ( ´ ˘ `).
And so, we made our way to Amerika-mura. We first encountered "B-Side Label", a shop that sold things like stickers, purses etc. Here are some of the things we found there:
After walking around Amerika-mura a bit more, we started to think there weren't gonna be any stores that fit what we were looking for but lo-and-behold, we found a shop that perfectly fit the Yami Kawaii aesthetic! (≧∇≦) The shop's name was "Volcan & Aphrodite". These were what we found from the shop:
We went to the shop and decided to hold an impromptu interview with the shop employee. She was really nice and understood immediately that this was for a school project and agreed to do the interview (˶แต แต แต˶) We asked a couple of questions but because of the loud music, speech translation was harder to understand. We decided that it would be easier for us to translate through text. After interviewing her, she wished us luck for our project by saying "ใใใฐใ! ใใใฐใ!" which basically means "Do your best! Do your best!" (╥ ฯ ╥) It was very sweet of her to say that <3
The shop has its own Instagram page, so feel free to check it out! Out of her request, we did not include a picture of the shop employee for her privacy (ใฅ แด _แด)ใฅ♡
After that, we decided to call it a day and headed back to our stay ๐ค
Day 3 - 27th February
The itinerary for Day 3 was to head to Kyoto and gather in our groups for more data collection if need in Kyoto. Our group decided to go to Teramachi street.
I will say that despite having quite a variety of things here, we unfortunately did not find as much Yami-Kawaii things here as we hoped to. There were a lot anime stores though (which we admittedly spent quite a bit of time in to shop ๐ธ). We coincidentally also found another B-Side Label store here but the shop was much smaller than the one in Ebisubashi so there was less variety in the items.
Turns out a big part of Teramachi-suji was its food alley which neighboured the shopping street and stretched almost the same length as it. We ended up eating at a Wendy's though (╥ ฯ ╥)
After eating lunch and walking around for bit more, we decided to call it a day and headed back to our stay ๐ค
Day 4 - 28th February
Day 4 was the busiest of all the days so far as we had plans from the morning till evening. First on the list was Osaka Castle in Chลซล-ku.
The castle itself was turned into a museum that held historical pieces of the castle's history. It was 10 storeys high with the 10th storey being a viewing deck of the area surrounding the castle. Overall the museum was really interesting and the traditional folding screens with art of the construction of the castle fascinated me.
Afterwards we went to Osaka's Museum of Housing and Living in the Kita district. The museum was an indoor one where we were able to experience firsthand the townscapes of the Edo, Meiji, Taisho and Showa periods of Japan. It even had a day and night cycle where lights would turn on in the small recreation of a town when it was "night". It was absolutely fun especially since me and some friends managed to get some exclusive stickers after finishing a pamphlet activity (which admittedly was probably for kids haha). The pamphlet activity was basically like a quiz, and also a "treasure hunt". One of the thing we had to spot was a dog in the museum which you can see in Fig. 3.1.15. Overall, really fun museum!
After the museums, our supervisors said that we were free to go anywhere for lunch as long as we reached the teamLabs in Nagai Park by 6pm. So, since it was around 1 at the time, some friends and I decided to head to the Ghibli store in Dotonbori! We got some Ghibli merch from there (wallet: ๐ธ) and ate lunch back at our stay.
After lunch, we rode the train to the teamLabs experience and on the walk to the place, we caught a glimpse of an early blooming cherry blossom tree! Felt very surreal since this was my first time experiencing cherry blossoms (*´▽`*)
Onto the actual teamLabs experience, it was the most relaxed I've felt the whole trip. There were 4 parts in the whole experience and I enjoyed every bit of it. Most of the experience was interactive too! Like in Fig. 3.1.18, there was an area where there were big glowing eggs where we could push around and it would change colour with each push.
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After sitting down for a bit and taking in the relaxing ambience and surroundings, we decided to call it a day and headed back to our stay ๐ค
Day 5 - 29th February
The last full day of our trip in Osaka was a free one where we had freedom to go anywhere in Osaka, with your groups or not. Since our group was finished with data collecting, I decided to use this free time to go to Universal Studios Japan with some friends! It was absolutely fun 10/10 would go again เดฆ്เดฆി ห͈̀꒳ห͈́ )✧
Day 6 - 1st March
We bid our farewells to Osaka at 10 AM as we boarded our plane for our flight from Kansai Airport to KLIA2. Overall, even if it was counted as a study trip, I still had lots of fun nonetheless ⸜(｡˃ แต ˂ )⸝♡
3.2 Final Data Collection
Throughout our trip, these were the most relevant places to our data collecting for our topic:
๐ Dotonbouri, Osaka
๐ Amerika-mura, Osaka
๐ Teramachi-suji, Kyoto
Whilst travelling via train across Osaka and Kyoto, we found unique pamphlets and brochures that were free to take from the train stations. Here are some of them:
As Joey, Neela and Vishmitha were fashion students, they got to go to the Osaka Institute of Fashion. There they also managed to find more interesting pamphlets and brochures:
The following file contains the full and finished content of our data collection :
3.3 Class Feedback
Week 4
Class Summary: No classes as it was data collection week. Our group went around Osaka and Kyoto to collected data during most of the days during our trip.
Feedback: -
Week 5
Class Summary: Tuto & Prac time slots were for online feedback from our respective supervisors. Our lecture was also a feedback session. After the lecture, our group went to the library to discuss our final project and also dividing the work between all of us.
Feedback: "Great compilation you guys got here. Well done! Quite impressive that you guys managed to speak to the shop owners as well. Now, the next step is, based on your current data collection here, come up with a short summary about what is the conclusion of your proposal's rationale for this one. Then, you guys can start sketching out the final merch designs based on your previous design, combining with your findings. For the conclusion, just continue from the data collection slide, so that your research wraps up nicely." - Ms. Anis.
3.4 Reflection
At first, I found that this project was slightly anxiety-inducing for me since there was a possibility that we had to interview people in Osaka. Interviewing people was already something I dreaded, let alone interviewing people who spoke a different language than me (เน-﹏-เน). Alas, my fears slowly disappeared when my groupmates helped to do most of the interviewing and translating. I am absolutely grateful to have them as groupmates◝(แตแตแต)◜I also found that the people whom we interviewed were actually very kind so my fears were gone after the second interview we managed to do.
Overall, I think this project was a fun one because we got to step out of our comfort zone and explore an unfamiliar place and talk to new people (˶แต แต แต˶)
4. FINAL PROJECT
Duration: Week 6 - Week 8
Project Summary: Students are expected to create a final design(s) related to their understanding of their chosen topic/theme.
After getting back from Osaka, our group got together to start brainstorming what our final design would be. We ended up going with the design idea from our proposal and decided to create a Graphic T-shirt. Additionally after a feedback session with Ms. Anis, we also added a complimentary lookbook to our t-shirt.
The contribution of tasks were:
- Moodboard - Neela
- T-shirt design - Qistina (me :])
- T-shirt printing - Neela
- Outfit Styling & Photoshoot - Joey & Vishmitha
- Lookbook Pamphlet - Yan Ling & Isabel
- Presentation Video - Qistina (me :])
So, for this section, I'll be mainly going through my progress on my assigned parts. For my other group mates' parts, you can check the final presentation or head over to their e-portfolios (links given at the end of the final project deck [File 4.2.1])
4.1 Progression
Designing a t-shirt design was a first for me. When we had our group meeting, I quickly managed to sketch up a rough and general idea for the design. I showed it to my groupmates and they said it looked good!
Concept: We decided to have our design to be two-sided where the “Life Over” logo would be in the front whilst the back would have an illustration of a girl playing an arcade game but loses said game and the screen of the arcade machine displays “LIFE OVER” and the only option the girl has is to “stop” living. The style would try to match our references’artstyle.
After getting their thoughts on the sketch, I went to creating the character and outfit since I ended up having different ideas that differed from the rough sketch. So, I went to sketching. I started by roughly sketching on paper using references from our proposal:
Then, I did a simple colouring of it. You can see from all the sketches that they include bandages and injuries. This helped to increase that Yami Kawaii-ness we were going for. The overall colour theme was pastel pinks, blues and purples with black as a major contrasting colour. After discussing and voting, we narrowed it down to either the pink haired girl on the left or the blonde girl on the right; we went with the blonde girl on the most right as the final design for the girl character.
Next are the composition sketches where I played with the angles and perspective to see what stuck. In the end, I decided to go for the first sketch:
Sticking to the sketch composition, I sketched a more detailed version that includes the girl's outfit and the arcade machine's exterior. She’s holding a knife to imply what would happen next since her life is deemed to be over.
In the final line art, I renamed the arcade machine from "Yami Kawaii" to "ๅณใใ็พๅฎ," meaning "harsh reality," implying she's playing a harsh game of life where losing the game means losing her life, leaving her expression uncertain and lost.
Finally, the finished illustrations, adapted for both black and pink T-shirts. For one of the designs, it's fully coloured (Fig. 4.1.7) to give contrast against the black background of the shirt. And the other one is only shaded using halftones (Fig 4.1.9) to give that manga feel as well as help give a bit of variety on the design that’ll be against the plain pink background of the shirt. ( ˶ห꒳ห˵ ) Additionally, the drips on the coloured design adds to that graffiti vibe I took inspo from the street art of Osaka.
And …Tada! \(≧∀≦)/ Our final printed t-shirts with our designs, front and back! There are a few imperfections with the design like a few white spots on the black t-shirt but it could be easily fixed with black marker. Overall, the designs look really great on the shirts \(^แต^ )/
4.2 Final Presentation
The following is our final presentation of our project with all our parts together เดฆ്เดฆി ห͈̀꒳ห͈́ )✧:
The recorded version can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Sm2TQN90bsr1NB3xW4IVevp2leKqsap9/view?usp=sharing
4.4 Class Feedback
Week 6
Class Summary: Feedback session for groups during both Tuto/Prac and Lecture time slots.
Feedback: Ms. Anis commented that the direction of our t-shirts were going nicely but she also suggested we create a lookbook pamphlet that was complimentary to our t-shirts/outfits. Overall, good progress on our part.
Week 7
Class Summary: No classes but were advised to speak to our respective supervisors via Teams or scheduled face-to-face meetings.
Feedback: Ms. Anis was amused (in a good way) at the "Yami Kawaii-fied" prop gun made by Joey and Vish. She said that our progression was going great and that she couldn't wait to see our end product!
Week 8
Class Summary: No classes as our semester technically ended during Week 7. Submission week.
Feedback: -
4.5 Reflection
Being able to use what we researched and found in Japan to create our own design was really interesting! It was like seeing the fruits of our labour haha (*´▽`*) I had fun drawing up the design, colouring it and all that. Seeing the design I created be printed on a shirt was really cool too! Other than the designing, I liked helping to organise and edit the presentation slides. Overall, this project was very fun!
5. FINAL REFLECTION
5.1 Experience
I'm grateful to have had great groupmates who were cool and understanding to any bumps we faced along the way. We managed to finish this whole project almost worry-free and I'm proud of us for that เดฆ്เดฆി ห͈̀꒳ห͈́ )✧ I loved every bit of being able to go to Japan for this module. Not only was it an eye-opening experience for me as a designer, but it was also an interesting one as a person to see just how a different culture lived their lives.
5.2 Observations
During our research, we met and talked to people who actually wore this aesthetic. We often saw many locals in Osaka sporting Yami-Kawaii inspired outfits, especially in Amerika-Mura Street. It was cool that we managed to see people with different fashion styles than us; including that of Yami Kawaii. Despite the style's association with mental health issues and darker themes, many Japanese people in Osaka seem comfortable wearing it.
5.3 Findings
I found that even though I was in a foreign country, I did not need to be so anxious since most stores in Osaka were very friendly. I also found that I worked better when given instructions rather than be the one giving them so, thank you Joey (￣^￣ )ใ My productivity during this module skyrocketed the moment I had confirmation of having good teammates so also thank you to Isabel, Vishmitha, Yan Ling and Neela -` ♡ ´-
Most importantly, I found that culture sensitivity is an absolute must to research when designing something that has elements of a culture, whether it's your culture or another's. This is to make sure we designers analyse properly before blindly creating designs. แฆ( แ )แค
~~~
Overall, Intercultural Design was an interesting and fun module to go through and I hope future modules would go as smoothly as it did here ( ◡̀_◡́)แค
6. FURTHER READING
Near the end of this project, I remembered a gameplay video I watched a while ago of a game called "Needy Streamer Overload". This game is a denpa-themed* visual novel developed by Xenomo in 2022. The game follows the story of you (the player) acting as a manger to a female livestreamer named "OMGkawaiiAngel" (her online persona) or "Ame" (her actual name), making decisions for her so that she can reach her goal of 1 million subscribers to her stream channel.
*denpa-themed: exploration of dark topics like paranoia, anxiety, delusion, madness, trauma, stress, depression, and suicide.
A content/trigger warning for those who want check out the game, this game explores the themes of drug abuse, depression and suicide.
- For full silent playthrough of the game: Click Here
- For a more short, light and comedic gameplay of the game: Click Here
At first glance from the cover art, a person might think this to be an innocent simulator game because of the style. However, when playing through the game, you find out that the the happier girl is the alternate version of the black-haired girl; basically a livestream persona that is different from her real-life persona. Whilst she's live, she's happy-go-lucky with her audience but offline she's depressed and struggling with addiction.
Below is official art of the game which displays the Yami Kawaii aesthetic further as it's cute on the surface, but you can see how the Ame's livestream persona is tearing her real-life persona apart; metaphorically and physically.
Overall, you can probably see why I was reminded of this game when doing the projects. Not only does it contain that Yami Kawaii aesthetic, but it also portrays it in a creative way via a video game where the player has to put in the effort to discover the dark details.
๐
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