9 Lives Project

"Nine lives us a project about material experimentaion and its connections to the development architectural space. It takes the installation Frieze by artist Margaret West as its inspiration."

The word art, etymologically speaking, means to make, simply to make. Now what is making? Making something is choosing a tube of blue, a tube of red, outting some of it on the palette, and always choosing the quality of the blue, the quality of the red, and always choosing the place to put in on the canvas, it's always choosing. So, in order to choose, you can use tubes of paint, you can use brushes; you can also use a ready-made thing, made either mechanically or by the hand..., if u want,..since it's you who choose it. Choice is the main thing.

Marcel Duchamp

The making process:

The Materials:

1plaster

2wood

3metal

4wax

5resin

6plastic

7clay

8paper

9cloth

10my life

left-mine,right-jo's

Great works of others:

Building a Brick Wall

One of our most recent activity in constrcution, was to build a brick wall, with no knowledge/ relevent lectures given before hand.

It was last Fri at the Tramshed, in Randwick.

Deepest gratitude to Jien who drove us all the way there.

The biggest lesson to learn out of this:

DO NOt EVER UNDERESTIMATE A BRICK WALL.

Laying bricks is not easy, in fact to lay it right, it is extremely difficult. Brick Laying in itself, is an art, craft that requires high level of expertise which many of us sedentary-sit-in-front-of-your-com ppl can hardly ever do. Who said lawyers, architects and enginners are professionals? brick layers in their own very right are professionals . Ever realise the difference between a Indonesian worker's brick job and a brickie's?

ever wonder why Western countries's masonry brick walls and houses looks way better?

because if you are not a certified brick layer u can't do it. and yes, u can graduate as a brick layer. but anyhow, it's not easy laying bricks and I even have respect for Indo workers.

Here's opur futile attempt at it. the Bricks were supplied by Austral and they had bricklayers coming in to assess our job.

We were given a design of a double skin brick wall with a header at the top. 7 courses high and 5 bricks wide. sounds easy, it looks like a low garden wall, bue man, did we slave oursleves for it. But, it was good fun.

Introducing the groupmates:

Nick, Max, Jo and myself.

Nickola is from Bosnia. and he's tough. Thank god for him, otherwise we 3 girls would have our bones broken.

Max is like the noisiest person i have ever met, and she's from Queensland. she speaks like a machine gun. Go figure.

Overall it was a successful cooperation, with Nick being extremely patient with max at most times, that girl has just too much opinions at time.

We first carried all our bricks, mortar and lime to our site.

mixing mortar was no easy job as we don't really know the right proportion of it.

then u lay bricks. sounds simple, but somehow, doing it was a whole new different dimension.

Most of the photos don't illustrate the whole process of making. that's because our hands was filled with mortar and till today it has this driad layer of skin as a result of the calcium in the mortar and lime.

Plus, no equipments were provided and we had to get most of the stuff on our own. In otherwords, we use hands in whatever tools we lack of.

the wall was finished in about 3 hours. It was assess by the brickies and we got a 8.5/10.

I reckon that's pretty good. It looks good, but ther was an obvious torsion to the wall, which means it was not vertically straight on one side. Don't ever hire us as a bricklayers.

Then, we break the wall down. Actually, they did and I took photos. which is why I'm not in any of it. It was exhausting but quite a fun project. Didn;t really get to take pics of other groups but they did build little chimneys and it was weird seeing your design coursemates getting physical. ha.

Lastly, stop and take a look at a brick wall next time u pass by one. Notice how interesting the brick patterns are, how different one wall is from another, how STRAIGHT it is (painstakingly so), how consistent the mortar beds are. And maybe, it will shed some light to you, on the craftsmanship of masonry. Learn to appreciate materials that help form spaces around you, because very often our feelings speaks to them by responding to the atmosphere it evokes.

Blog resurruction

Right, I DO have good intentions of keeping up with blog entries, but i don't know if it will last, once again. Haven't been blogging for sometime makes it hard to start again, cos' there's juz too much too say/update or rather i juz feel life is kinda a routine that I have not much to say.

However, the other half of the drama-twin, jo has decided a list of stuff she is going to blog about-the dateline she gave was winter break. so hopefully it's kept up.

Actually, it's more of a 3-skank-eteers these days. Jo ann, Myself and the new addition of Dinesh, our 'sun burnt Spanish' friend. A lot of what i said r new vocabs we coined. i think at the end of our lives, a few dictionaries of our own might be publish. and when we speak u might have top refer to them. Even Tom(Jo's hsemate) and Ros(my hsemate) have trouble keeping up with us. but tht's for another day, ei?

The sunburnt one, permanantly.

As I am writing this, there is a serious lack of sleep and so a lot of the post might be very very skecthy. Just like design, u toy around with an idea for some time, draw a few concepts before diving into it, chewing then spitting it out.

To illustrate my tiredness, suffice to say, i fell asleep on the bus without knowing i did, and found myself on a stranger's shoulders when i woke up. Yes, laugh out loud. haha. i'll give u time.

.....

before u ask anythin, i don't remember how he looks or how long i did it. I was dead. and it was not romantic. n I am embarrassed beyond words. the 2 evil skanks said i dethroned their skank titles. oh wait, i haven't explained the word did I? well, i'll leave it to the previous queen of skank, miss Jo to do the explaination. so if u find my post so irritatingly confusing but ur dyin to know bout it, go bug the queen. leave msgs. So I know there r some lone souls out there waiting for us to do somethin about this deserted blog.

Another thing that deters me from writing is a lack of photos. we store them in our memory not cameras. Today was the submission day for Communications project 2, nine lives, which will have a post on its own right because the 10th life is MY life. and it has nothing to do with cats. Here's a sneak peak:

I haven't even photograph my own work. So be patient. but the photor guaranteed to be interesting.

What is so different about this year from the last is also the fact that Jo now stays on a stratgic part in uni whereby she has ppl droppin in n out and we both have been really fortunate to meet ppl from all walks of life, so to speak. Plus, our little socialite, Din have been joining circusSociety proves to further colour our lives. SPeaking bout colours, i hope Jo will be leading us into one of her colour therapies. it's amazing. Gosh, i sound so much like a talk show host, it scares me.

But if u see my point here, i kinda coined everything into this post. Plus, when sleeping Jo finds out about this post she is pressured into writing A LOT of her part, she's the one living in Barker with interesting housemates anyway. I won't even try explaining photos. kills the later on posts.

hopefully, there is more to come. =)

Sydney's Earth Hour

In the movement of increasing awareness on global warming and our environment, environmentalist came up with Earth Hour. The idea is that on the 31st of March 7:30pm till 8:30pm, sydney-siders will switch off their lights for an hour. Even the Harbour Bridge, Sydney Opera House and many major buildings joined in. However, security lights were still left turned on.

As indivuduals that care about environment, though many claim that archi students should be the last to claim so as we pollute the environment heavily with our toxic materials(read above post) and the non-stop cutting n throwing of balsa wood, box boards etc. I think i try my best at preserving our presious world. for starters, although i has to rush for assignment, we did turn our lights off for that hour. i use recycled toilet paper, i made a recycling box in my hse and make my hsemate recycle all containters, cartons, boxes, newspapers and scrap papers. i scold them when excessive lights were turned on. maynot be perfect, but i try my best.

anyway, we climbed up UNSW upper-campus, and dragged another Malaysian friend staying in Barker, Wai King with us. He's loads of fun and very funny. but it stopped being funny at the point where he seem to know every single person on the street. freaky, but u really wonder y this guy is THAT popular.

here's some shots of the city of how we caught it.

it was pretty disappointing that most light were still turned on but newspapers seem to get better clipets of it. Maybe because most parts of the city turned off more of their lights. From our observation, most students just don't give a damn. the uni itself hardly turn off any lights, which is sad.

Anyway, loitering around the uni for an hour was pretty fun.

The Making of 49 Veils

The 49 veils is our most recent communications submission which we killed ourselves over it, literally breathing in toxic resins and hell knows what chemical that i touched on.

As our friends call it, we were "dressed to kill'', armed with gloves and respirator mask working on Jo's barker apartments balcony. we could hardly take pictures cuz we lack limbs and most of the time, we would be screaming at dinesh for extra pairs of hands and legs.

Tom, Jo's lovely new hsemate kindly woke up early to take the beautiful shots for us. Though our tutor was very critical of our work, it was still a painstaking effort to make it. so loads of pics to pay tribute to our work.

Jo's 49 Veils:

Shi Ying's 49 Veils:

Background:

The 49 veils were designed by renowned glass artist Janet Laurence and installed at the four magnificent windows of The Central Synagogue. Taking this idea, the project was to explore colour theory and light using 'veils' that were mostly made of translucent object by either putting in colour or ready made. As an example, creating plastics like resin, perspex, asetate, lantern paper, tracing paper etc are used as veils: colour can be put on using spray paint, glass paint, dye, acryllic etc. techniques vary and the project was highly expeimental and explorative. Composition, Layering, Colour, and Crafting were the few main aspects that governs the success of the whole project. Each box has to address the colour theory of primary, secondary, anolagous and complimentry colours.

International Dance Party 2007

Just a few days ago my design tutor told me about this famous architect, Corbusier, who wakes up early in the morning and starts painting/sculpting till noon. Then, he removes his smock and paint, dons his suit and tie and start work as an architect. In short, he's artist by a.m. and architect by p.m.

on

date: 15th March 2007

me and Jo attempted an corbusier act. we were plastic makers by pm and by 12am we were dancing queens.

venue: my space

we, literally, removed our mask, gloves, stripped out of our yucky clothes, and poof out came the clubbers. but at that point it was really exhaustion, wonder how Corbusier did it all the time. well, he didn't exactly need to wear 3 inch heels did he?

At some point i did wonder whether the whole trip was worth it -_-"

we had a 9 o'clock class the next day, and our face was no pretty picture.

anyway, the pics speaks:

*Awake* from Hibernation

*stretch* *yawn*

yup yup... we have just come out of hibernation..
sorry fans, boys and girls (jo: koko and che che) for not blogging for so long.
since we came back...gulps gulps!! one month ago
this however does not mean that our life is not as exciting as it was last year
in fact..it is so much more fun and cooler.

Sneak Peek into the next few posts...
1. I have officially moved into Barker apartments..and im living with the official apartment jester!! the one the only dinesh!
2. shiying has a new hobby, guess wut it is? jo said it makes ppl fat
3. we've been poisoning ourselves by making plastics, no not surgery.
and a few more.
stay tuned.

Home sweetest home

We are both back in Malaysia!!!!

---since forever, and being busy bees..buzz buzz

weather is perfect, food is perfecto, weight perfect, exercise wonderful, transportation-car check.

but slightly overdosed with culture shock, ie. catcallings and crimes. jeez.

but,

cheapo but yummy food,

family,

old friends,

spoon feeding (jo calls it breastfeeding) classes,

most importantly stress free, torture free, archi deadlines free life.

ahhh..life is bliss..

heaven....

Slight update:

1. we got tattoos!

But its fake =( , should we get real ones? =)

this is a super late update, but the other half of the twin got herself a nosering too. *sniggers*

2. We owe this blog and ourselves:

i) Jo's Egypt trip " 'Sand'- It's Everywhere!"

ii) Ying's Yunnan trip "Colourful minorities stories, and stone is everywhere"

iii) NYE's/sy's 20th bday celebration

iv) Ipoh trip

v) Eeling's Maybelline "The Beauty in me" finals

vi) Cultural shock-which includes apathetic guy in m'sia. sigh.

3. me, Ooi ShiYing is going to Saigon,Vietnam this week for a week.

4. Jo and David, the luvabirds are united. heh

5. Kiara hills is our fav jogging/talking spot

6. Currently, wasting away my last day of autoCAD class, blogging. cuz their internet is uninterrupted, unlike the one at home. which suck big time, due to the earthquake in Taiwan.

7. As archi students, we never rest, coming up plans--autodesk's autoCAD, revit, Adobe photoshop(which i'm having classes on), a KL buildings tour.

8. Shopping is super heaven, but inflation has taken toll in m'sia. so things are so much mroe expensive these days, i think that deserves a blog mention too.

Gosh, this is the most bimboish post i've ever written. I hope this lasts forever. ha!

Amanda was in town!

Dear old friend Amanda Hey stop by in Sydney from her trip down under. It's always fun and interesting to catch up with a friend we have not seen for a year,especially one that has a similiar overseas experience. Furthermore, 1st year archi is officially over.

From left:Chritine(frm california),Jr(from Japan),me and Amanda

we teared,

we screamed,

we celebrated,

but I'm still floating.

Someone pls hold me down.

Brought Amanda and friends to China town, Darling harbour(and acted like a bunch of coockoo birds,all thx to Dinesh Mohan),Pitt Street Mall, and not to forget, Sydney Fish market.

I doubt Amanda would forget the fish market,it was after all, memorable eh? Heard of sea gulls attcking ur food, but never a gull spitting on u. heh.

Here's some Momentoes..

The Spitter

Blogging bout a normal routine feels so...mundane and weird but i'm getting used to it =P