Storytelling Portfolio(Assignment)@Technical Studies 1: Design and Language
Final mark: 71%
Homework 1 Mapping
In the class, I heard the silence and only Julia was speaking. I feel a bit sleepy, tried, scared and confused about what she said. So I picked up a pen then write down the lecture in my notes. When I was taking notes, I saw people in front of
me, mac, screen and a ppt. Even though I jotted down the terms, it was very unfamiliar. I thought I would make sense of them if she speaks in Korean. The words I caught were ontological, structural, orientation, metaphors, storytelling with pictures, and feedback. The concept of storytelling was easier to understand because many people might know it. She said when you want to make a product, you need to understand the whole narrative (process) of it. Moreover, the user interface designer’s purpose is for people to navigate their products well via APP, Games and AD. Thus, design thinking is important to contemporary design and a designer should consider the relationship
between design and people’s thinking. The technique of storytelling can be a kind of system that embraces branding, products and theme parks. In the future, individual humans could tell their own story through 3D printer which
can allow an individual branding. In other words, once individuals make their own product that embeds a personal history and emotional experience using a 3D printer, they can promote their brand. Furthermore, it might be posted
on SNS through the mobile phone, then it would form a network which would make a big story about the online community. Citizens on the Internet will able to travel the neighbor’s standalone stories. In the far away future, the world would share a similar story under a similar culture.
Homework 2 Finding a Meaningful Object
I am going to talk about a book titled as “My sweet orange tree (Meu Pé de Laranja Lima)”. I read it when I was a middle schooler. It gave a special feeling like as a fairy tale. It would lead me to the childhood.
But, I had been being curious about the title which mean ‘나의(my) 라임(lime) 오렌지(orange) 나무(tree)’ in Korean because I have never seen a ‘lime orange’. However, lately, I found that ‘라임’(its pronunciation is [laɪm]) is the same meaning with ‘lima(sweet)’ in Portuguese, so the title should be ‘나의(my) 달콤한(sweet) 오렌지(orange) 나무(tree)’. But the feeling of sound is quite different. In Korean, the former sounds like sensitive and emotional poem while the latter let me have a word literally even if it is sweet. I did no more wonder if there is a ‘lime orange’, it must let me reminisce about innocence of child when I spend the time that would be a long day at work.
The novel consisted with two parts. In the first part, Zezé as the main character was just 5 years old. He had the pure mind, but people could not notice because he was a troublemaker. So, he was criticized from the village people. Even his parents mistreated him (I was a bit shocked as it was harsh to 5-year-old child.), but he had grown in poor surroundings talking with an orange tree called Minguinho and a bird in his mind. In the second part of the story, he met a Portuguese man named Portuga who is a negative inherence, but they became great friends. He felt a warmth of parental love from Portuga and learnt that love is the most precious thing in the world. But Portuga died suddenly in a train accident, then Zezé was broken-hearted and became hopeless although he was a pre-schooler. (I reminded him sometimes because I had not caught a philosophical gist at the period of reading. It just left a pitiful emotion and sense of childlike innocence.). The day the tree came into bloom, he became an adult as well and left it.
When I read it, I realized that it was a fable like ‘The Alchemist’ for the development of the ego rather than a simple fairy tale. In other words, it was a metaphor of growth and humanity. I can’t explain well how I felt, it just remained in my mind for a long time. I can still return to the innocence of childhood when I think of it.
Homework 3 a Meaningful Object in my childhood
When I was a child, I didn’t know what a bicycle was and wasn’t interested it either. One day, me and my friends found a small abandoned bicycle which was two-wheeled, then we intended to ride it while playing the rock-paper-scissors game. No one wanted to get on the bike at first because no one had ridden that before, so we would fall off. We would double up with laughter at our ridiculous appearance. But, before long, someone in the group started to be balanced surprisingly and I was as well. After that, the children would occasionally fight for the bicycle, but the order in which we ride the sacred bicycle was restored. Especially, for me, every day enjoyed riding it. I had never known how much vast my village and I had never realized how many cars there were outside the town. My route became wider gradually. I usually ride more than 2 hours. I could ride it without hands and didn’t fear about riding on the road with the cars. One day, when I was going around with the bicycle, I found one of my peers at elementary school. Calling loudly to him I reached the distance was too far. When I picked up the speed to see him, someone twisted the bicycle handle suddenly and then a train passed at enormous speed dead ahead of me. The man who turned my handle bar was a railway man and there was railroad junction. I was astonished by the momentary incident, but I felt tremendous fear after a few minutes. My legs are even trembling when I went back home. But I used to enjoy biking with my colleagues at the weekend in my hometown even though I couldn’t ride it again until I was grown. For me, the bicycle means a breathtaking and adventurous sightseeing rather than a healthy sport.
Reflective writing
1. Description
At the end of the Design and Language course, I organized a presentation for the final assessment with my story. I will describe a procedure which I composed. At first, I wrote a story concerned with a meaningful object when I was a child according to a construction that Julia had suggested in the class. I wrote a story about riding a bicycle during my childhood. I constructed the story with four stage narrative arcs; namely the introduction, development, turn, and conclusion. After the class where I had introduced my story to Julia; the tutor and peers, I composed nine slides of my story, plot, story pattern, and metaphor. When it comes to the plot, I intended the audience to understand my story as a fable. Thus, I articulated the plot and focused in particular on the background, characters, and the event because it had developed through a time sequence. It can be seen that there is no control and it is a very simple story. In the story pattern, I stated how the event had unfolded in response to each stage. However, I seem to be confused slightly between the narrative arc and the narrative (story) pattern. It is still a bit ambiguous, even though I read again the sheet which Julia had distributed. Therefore, I analysed my story structure in my way. At the end of my presentation, I suggested the graphic symbols to explain what the contents such as the character, events, and main object represented. For visual effects, I used a simple vivid colour to show the innocence of childhood. The symbols I used were made from photographic images and I traced the images via Illustrator CC.
2. Evaluation
Because English is my second language, I feel confused whether my intentions were conveyed to the audiences well or not. In addition, between the different languages, I struggled to understand if the meaning I would like to convey was translated correctly. For example, a few decades ago, there was an issue in S. Korea where a Korean-American father was arrested on suspicion of the murder of his daughter in the USA. Many people from Korea felt that he could not be a murderer of his daughter, but the USA media expression believed him to be the true criminal. The root reason was that he had said “I killed my daughter”. In Korean terminology, many parents tend to be ashamed and blame ones-self if their children were wrong. And they usually said just as “It is my response”, “It is my fault because I did not educate my child well” and “I am a real criminal”. Therefore, in the sentence “I killed my daughter”, he felt a sense of guilt because he did not know when she was murdered by someone. Thus, it might be a difficult aspect in the whole course. When it comes to speaking, especially fluency, I used to speak with an enriched vocabulary in professional presentations in my home country, however, I cannot mimic exactly the native speaker on accent, fluency, intonation, and vocabulary. I felt as if a child when my first time will come to speak in my final presentation.
3. Analysis
I learned about narrative structure and mapping through the class and the sheet which showed the theories which were wrote well. The theory sheet introduced a conventional three stage narrative arc. This was inherited through the traditional Greek drama. However, I organised my story with four stages which I learned from Korean literature in high school. It originated from ancient Chinese poetry and was proliferated all over Far East Asia. It has been used in many novels and plays. I intended to give a change from the three stage narrative structure on my way, even though the theory sheet was very helpful to understand narrative theories in a digest. As far as the presentation is concerned, I learned about the persuasive story pattern in the class. It was really interesting because Steve Jobs used to give many presentations for new products throughout this pattern. It was definitely successful, but I could not compose my presentation with it because my story was too simple to apply this pattern. It was able to be articulated by four stages with plot, character, background, and the event. From my simple experience with a meaningful object, I could draw the meanings that were then mapped on to metaphors. Thus, my story was able to act as a kind of fable. I decided to emphasise the rising action stage so that it was completed as a journey. Each character, object; a bicycle as a method I looked up the world, background, and the event represented an obstacle or a conflict I have to resolve or eliminate from my world.
4. Conclusions
I could improve my knowledge about narrative and my presentation skills through the theory of the persuasive story pattern. In addition, I decided to practice listening and speaking more than I used to. For example, via BBC Radio 4, TED, and movies. In my story structure, I realised that four stages can be applied to the traditional three stage model because the development and turn stage in my story were ambiguous with the rising action stage in traditional Greek drama. Thus, the three stage theory is likely to be clearer than the four-stage method. I thought that in rising action I will be able to highlight the peak in a certain story that was concerned with an advertisement, presentation, exhibition, etc. As I am a designer involved in interior and architecture, I think that storytelling is very useful to the design of any creative something. However, it seems to have a limitation. It is likely that one would exaggerate a real world in an advertisement. For example, in an ad for a shampoo, it overstates the effect with a CG image which paints over the model’s normal hair to be volumized and shine dramatically. However, storytelling usually allows audiences to make sense of something easily. In my case, it is very persuasive when I start with my experience in certain official statements.
5. Personal action plans
The method of storytelling encouraged me to design something with its own narrative. Additionally, it might engage with the public so that people connect to the core context. Thus, I planned to start with a story for a difficult assignment, either in MA study or professional work. In the Methods and Processes course, Mapping & Storytelling, Story Cubes, and Walking might be linked with what Design and Language course one aims to draw. In former classes I could learn deeper theory related with storytelling. Through a Design and Language course, I have been able to improve my academic substructure with reflecting, researching, discussing, and presenting skills. In the future design research, I will revise these theories and apply them to practical works.
